#from now on the updates to all of my stories will be irregular

[guiltyasdave]

i can see the end as it begins

chapter 1 • series masterlist

pairing: Dave York x f!reader

summary: You meet your father’s new friend for the first time, but he’s a lot different than you expected.

word count: ~5k

tags/warnings: explicit smut -> 18+ mdni, dbf!Dave, unhealthy relationship dynamics, dom/sub dynamics, angst, daddy issues (reader’s dad isn’t a nice person), able-bodied reader, reader has hair, no use of y/n, divorced Dave, unprotected p in v, semi-public sex, fingering, dirty talk, praise kink, degradation kink, spanking, pet names, let me know if i missed anything 🫶🏻

a/n: my favorite person on this app @joelscurls planted the idea of dbf!dave in both our heads and after many many feral dms, porn gifs, plotting and just generally freaking out, we have finally managed to put the first chapter together :) we’re currently planning with 4 chapters in total that we’re gonna take turns posting, so go follow jess if you don’t already (criminal behavior tbh)! i’m beyond excited to be able to do this with someone whose writing i adore sooo much, we’re both beyond excited about this story, and we hope that you enjoy it 🫶🏻

follow @joelscurlsupdates and @guiltyasdavenotifs for updates and find jess’s masterlist here and my masterlist here :)

dividers by the lovely @saradika-graphics!

“I want a divorce.”

It’s been almost a year since Carol spoke those words into the tense silence of their dining room and they still echo in Dave’s mind as if it happened yesterday.

He doesn’t mourn the marriage, doesn’t miss Carol, not in the way he probably should. But he mourns the life that he had, the perfect suburban family, the stability. A little boring maybe, but safe, calming. Predictable.

And he misses his girls. He misses the sound of small feet on the hardwood-floor greeting him as soon as he opened the front door, giggly exclamations of “Daddy’s home!” and tiny hands grabbing at him, begging to be picked up. Now he opens the door to an empty, silent apartment. He has them every second weekend, which he rationally knows makes the most sense with his often irregular working hours, but it’s simply not enough. It’s like time is constantly running through his fingers and he just can’t make it stop, can’t bring his life back under control.

He’s doing what he can to keep himself busy, anything to keep his mind occupied and his thoughts from spiraling into that pit of loneliness that he’s found himself in. He started reconnecting with friends, going out with his colleagues and contacting people from his army days that he hasn’t spoken to in years, trying to build a social life outside of his family and the neighbors that he no longer lives next to.

It’s tedious, making him realize that he really doesn’t like people all that much, but it’s better than spending his evenings by himself and wondering where things went so awfully wrong.

He spends a lot of time with Jim, one of the guys that trained with him and that he always got along with rather well. Jim was delighted when Dave called, promptly inviting him to join him at golf the next day, which somehow turned into a weekly event on Dave’s schedule. It’s nice enough, giving him some sense of routine and he finds that he’s rather good at it. Jim runs his own company by now, the thing that he invests all of his time in, which got him a lot of money, but also a divorce.

It’s all he talks about, too, but it’s fine with Dave, not being forced to contribute that much to the conversation – because really, there’s not much worth mentioning happening in his life anyway – and he’s content to just nod along and hum in agreement most of the time.

Jim has a daughter too, a lot older than Dave’s though, already out of the house, attending law school. He can tell that Jim is proud when he talks about her, but it always seems to be connected to achievements, an underlying pressure to their relationship that leaves Dave a little uneasy and he silently vows to himself to never apply any sort of conditions to his love for his daughters.

But he's never met the young woman and he probably never will, so he doesn’t dwell on it, because what does it matter to him, really?

You huff a sigh as the familiar sight of the country club that your father loves to frequent comes into view and hand the Uber driver a tip before sliding out of the car.

You had thought you’d be getting a night out with your Dad, just the two of you, a rare occurrence. Not that you had been particularly looking forward to being grilled about law school, your grades, networking and internship opportunities, but at least he would be listening to you, paying attention. Joking that he was making sure that the money he put into your education was well invested, a joke that felt less funny every time you were reminded just how financially dependent you were on your father.

If the topic of conversation wasn’t school, it was what kind of acquaintances you’ve made, if maybe you’d met a guy with good connections, someone who could introduce you to the right people. Cautionary warnings not to get involved with the wrong sort, not to get on the wrong track.

Just once, you would like to talk about if you were enjoying school, what living on your own was like, how you got along with your roommate, the fun times you had with your girlfriends, anything about your life that wasn’t somehow connected to success or keeping up appearances. But your relationship wasn’t like that. He didn’t care about these sorts of things, he never had.

You continuously swallowed down the heavy feeling of envy in your stomach when your friends talked about their parents, painting a picture of unconditional love and support that was foreign to you, telling yourself that everything was fine the way it was.

“I invited Dave to join us tomorrow,” he then told you yesterday morning, offhandedly, sipping his coffee and his eyes already glued to his phone. You nodded silently, forcing your lips into something that resembled a smile. He had mentioned someone named Dave before, an old friend from his army days that he had recently reconnected with, if you remembered correctly. It didn’t matter, really, your father’s countless acquaintances blurred into a mix of vaguely familiar faces in your head anyway. If you had mixed feelings about the evening plans before, this new development made it clear that you wouldn’t partake in the conversation much, just smile politely, sit pretty and let the grown ups talk.

Steeling yourself, you walk in, your heels clicking against the floor. After spotting your dad almost immediately and waving in his direction, you make a beeline for the bar. He was sitting alone, you think, furrowing your brow in thought. You’re running a little late yourself, maybe that Dave guy couldn’t make it? You don’t hate the idea of that.

Dave had been reluctant to come out tonight, couldn’t help the feeling that he was intruding on his friend’s father-daughter time, something that he was desperate to have more of, but Jim had insisted.

“Lots of women you could meet there!”

He had scoffed under his breath, not able to picture himself meeting someone new, going through the motions of getting to know them, opening up, adjusting his routine to someone else’s again. He could much less picture himself meeting a woman he’d be interested in at a fucking country club of all places. Eventually, the thought of another evening in his silent and empty apartment with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company made him accept anyway.

He’s drumming his fingers against the polished wooden bar, waiting to pick up the second round of beers for Jim and himself, when someone slides up to the counter beside him. He glances over, eyes focusing in on the woman who is studying the drinks menu.

He feels an inexplicable pull towards her, couldn’t look away again even if he tried. She’s beautiful, he thinks as he takes in her features in the soft warm light, lingering on the shape of her lips, before his gaze trails down her body, over the short black dress that’s clinging to her in the most enticing way. She’s also younger than him; too young, the responsible part of his mind argues. Not the kind of woman that he should be interested in meeting. He still can’t look away.

“Evening.” The greeting comes out before he can stop himself. She looks up, a hint of annoyance on her pretty face, but her gaze softens as her eyes meet his. A smirk plays on her lips.

“Hi.” Her eyes flicker down his own body and up again, something akin to excitement taking over her expression. He’s rusty, hasn’t done this in ages, but her interest is palpable, and it shoots a thrill of pleasure through him.

“I’m David,” he introduces himself. No one has called him David in… god knows how long, but it feels better than Dave in this moment, right somehow. Like he can be a different person, just for a little while.

“Pleasure,” she grins, tells him her name and shakes his hand, her eyes glinting in the warm lights of the bar. Her touch on his skin, even just his hand, is like electricity is flowing through the air between them. She feels so soft and his life has been so devoid of softness lately that he has to force himself to let go of her hand again.

Something tugs at the back of his mind, like this name should ring a bell, but he shoves the thought aside. He’s too busy picturing himself taking her home this evening, imagining how soft her skin would feel in other places, how she would look splayed out underneath him on his sheets, how her breath would sound when he–

“I’ve never seen you around here before, are you new?” her melodic voice interrupts the vivid daydream playing in his mind. She has taken a step towards him and hints of the sweet notes of her perfume are beginning to surround the air around him. It’s getting a little hard to think straight.

“I– yes. First time actually,” he laughs and delights in the way her face lights up at the sound. “You come here a lot, then?” The cliché line makes him want to cringe, but she doesn’t falter, only shrugs and lets her eyes slowly trail down his body once more, obviously wanting him to notice.

“Depends. I might be here more often if it means I get to see you.”

She reaches out until her fingers softly graze his wrist and it demands a great amount of willpower not to take her home right this instant.

The heartbeat in your chest is thrumming along to the butterflies that are erupting in your stomach. You’ve never been this bold, too shy to flirt at all most of the time, but the stranger in front of you is clouding your sense of judgment and has your insecurities flying right out of the window. His interest is written over his face clear as day and you feel an immediate pull towards him that you can’t explain.

He’s so handsome that your hands are itching to touch him more, to find out if he’s as broad and solid as is large frame suggests, if that jawline would feel as strong under your fingertips as it looks, and if his deep brown eyes would soften before you press your lips against his. No wedding ring either, you note in the back of your mind, sending another surge of excitement through you.

The fact that he seems old enough to be your father, something that your therapist would probably have a few words to say about, is only adding to the arousal that’s coursing through your veins. You want him.

You almost jump when your drinks arrive in front of you; you had all but forgotten where you are, and that you’re very much in eyesight of your actual father. Suddenly, you feel silly, reality catching up to you. Surely he was just being nice and you read way too much into it, making a fool of yourself.

“Well, I–I’ll see you around then.” You hastily grab your glass and are ready to make a run for it, when his large hand wraps around your elbow.

“Looking forward to it,” he purrs, before he takes the two beers off the counter in front of him.

Awkwardness slowly sets in when you start walking in the same direction, but it doesn’t fully hit you until you both stop at the same table, your father beaming up at you.

“Sweetheart, you already met Dave I see, that’s great. Come, sit!”

You’re frozen, stupidly blinking between your father and the man beside you a few times. The man who introduced himself as David.

David. Dave. Oh. Oh.

“Y–yeah,” you stutter out eventually and plaster a smile on your face as you take a seat beside your dad. David looks just as dumbstruck as you feel when he slides into the chair opposite from you, quietly handing one of the beers over to your dad. His friend.

Your father launches into a story about their army days together and you’re nodding along, but not one word actively registers in your brain. The conversation eventually moves on to your dad’s recent work projects, the majority of the talking done by him, with the occasional question from David, while you’re silently sipping on your drink.

The initial embarrassment of the whole situation makes you want to sink down into the ground, but still you can’t keep your eyes from flicking to David again and again. They linger on his lips, constantly in a pout that you would give anything to feel against yours, the slight shadow of stubble on his cheeks at the end of the day that you know would scratch against your skin so deliciously, the way his hand dwarfs his beer on the table, thick fingers that could stretch– No. No, you’re not going there.

Your cheeks are burning and you stare down at the tabletop in front of you.

When your gaze lifts back up, David’s eyes are already trained on you, glinting like he knows exactly what you’ve been thinking about. You reluctantly look back at your father, who’s still rambling on about some big client that he’s currently dealing with, completely oblivious to the charged energy between his friend and you.

David shifts in his seat and his leg bumps against yours under the table. You grasp your drink tighter, forcing yourself not to react in any way, but you don’t move away either. Neither does he. You shoot him a look and the hint of a smirk plays around his mouth. He looks too damn good like this, so excitingly wrong in a way that makes your pulse flutter.

It feels like you’re burning up from inside and as little attention as your dad is paying to you, you’re certain that he’s gonna notice that something is off with you eventually. You hastily scramble to your feet and excuse yourself to the bathroom. You feel David’s eyes on you as you walk away until you’re out of sight.

The cool water that you run over your wrists and splash onto your cheeks does a poor job of calming you down. Stupid, stupid, stupid, you admonish yourself. It’s certainly not more than a tiny bit of flirting to him, if at all, just some harmless fun to amuse himself probably, and you’re getting this worked up about it.

No. You need to get out of this situation. You’re gonna walk back out there, make something up about a headache and catch a cab home. It will probably earn you a lecture about politeness later in the evening, but you’ll gladly take that.

When you approach the table again, your dad is just getting off his phone, his expression already far away. You know that look all too well, being subjected to it almost daily.

“Work emergency?” you ask, without a real question behind your words.

“Yeah,” he grumbles, getting up, barely looking at you, already all business. “Sorry, I gotta get to the office, Dave will drive you home. Right, Dave?”

Your eyes fly to David and you catch him swallowing hard, but he nods regardless, lips quirking up in a forced smile. “Of course.”

You both silently watch your father’s retreating back, already speaking into his phone again. The fabric of Dave’s pants ghosts against your bare leg below the table once more. You wish it were his fingers instead.

You hadn’t anticipated to be alone with him and all the reasonable thoughts that you’ve come up with in the privacy of the bathroom are wiped from your mind. It feels like you’re buzzing, a rush of excitement thrumming through your veins, like your body knows that you’re on the brink of doing something really stupid and really fucking tempting.

“I’m sorry, about earlier,” you murmur, looking up at him through your lashes. He smirks, a knowing glint in his eyes as he takes in your expression. He still hasn’t moved his leg.

“I don’t think you are.”

Your stomach swoops at his words. You bite your lip. He wouldn’t be acting like this if he didn’t want you, would he? His eyes dart to your lips at the movement and darken. Fuck it.

“No, I’m not.” You pray that he doesn’t catch the slight tremble in your voice. He’s fucking intimidating and this is wrong on so many levels and you want him so badly to want you.

The tension between you is a palpable thing, almost making it hard to breathe when he leads you out of the club, his hand at the small of your back and causing you to shiver. Will he really just drive you home? Will he say something, do something, touch you more? You don’t know how to ask for any of it and desperately wish that he’ll take the reins, that somehow he already knows what you want. You have a feeling that he does.

He opens his car door for you, another thing that really shouldn’t affect you this much, before he walks around the vehicle and gets in beside you. You catch a hint of his cologne in the confined space and press your thighs together before you can stop yourself. Your heart is racing and you just know that he knows exactly what he’s doing to you.

He clears his throat. “We gotta stop at my place, I have some paperwork that I’d like your–” He interrupts himself, his grip on the steering wheel tightening until his knuckles are white, “that I’d like Jim to look over for me.”

You nod, a small hum leaving your throat. The implication of going to his place has you reeling. He nods back, stealing a glance at you before he starts the car. You can’t help watching him as he drives, the subtle control that he exudes, the way the muscles on his thighs are flexing underneath the fabric of his pants. He looks over at you a few times, and you don’t have it in yourself to pretend that your eyes aren’t glued to him.

“See something you like?” he asks eventually, the corners of his mouth twitching.

“Yeah,” you answer, so breathless it’s embarrassing and you shift a little in your seat. Your dress rides up at the movement, revealing more skin, and his eyes fly down instantly.

“Me too,” he rasps.

When he stops the car in front of his building, you decide that it’s time to be brave.

“Do you want me to come up with you?”

“No,” his answer comes instantly. His tone isn’t cold, but determined, not to be argued with.

“Oh.” Your cheeks are heating up again. You hate how small your voice sounds. “I thought–”

He sighs, rubbing a hand over his face, avoiding your gaze.

“I can’t. You’re– You know why. You know I can’t.”

“I don’t care. I’m an adult, I can do what I want.”

He shakes his head, still not looking at you.

“Sweetheart, stop. Trust me, I want to, but–”

“Please?” You’re begging, no dignity left in you, only want want want. “Just one time. Please, David?”

His eyes fly up to your face at that. You can see the shift, the way his expression hardens, turning into something feral that has heat growing between your legs.

“Just one time,” he repeats, his voice dark with desire, no longer trying to conceal it.

His hands find your thighs, grabbing at you roughly, moving you until you’re in his lap, legs spread wide, his breath fanning against your lips. One hand is in your hair, the other gliding under the hem of your dress, his touch turning you into a trembling mess.

“This is what you want?” he growls, the grip in your hair tightening. You don’t think that you’ve ever wanted anything as much as this.

“Please,” you whine again, and he presses forward, lips clashing against yours, the kiss all tongue and teeth and desperate need and you’re melting into him.

“Fuck,” he breathes, his hands all over you now, grabbing at your dress, your skin, any place he can reach.

Your mouth travels over his cheek and down to his neck, sucking kisses and bites into his skin. The stubble scratches against your face just like you thought it would and you start working on the buttons of his shirt with trembling fingers, rolling your hips, desperate for friction. His grip steadies you, pulling down the neckline of your dress, kissing along the lace of your bra before he pulls the cups down too. A groan rises up in his throat as he cups your tits, thumbs circling over your already hardened nipples before he leans forward and sucks one into his mouth.

“Fucking perfect,” he rasps, breath hot against your damp skin. You arch into his touch and he chuckles, sucking on the bud again before he bites down, eliciting a loud moan from you. His touch travels up your thighs, leaving a burning trail behind, until his fingertips rub over the soaked fabric of your panties and you gasp at the barely-there touch.

“Oh, sweetheart,” he coos, pressing down harder. “Already dripping for me, huh? You want it that bad?”

You nod eagerly, pushing down onto his fingers.

“Alright.” He sounds just as wrecked as you feel. He starts undoing his belt buckle and his pants and you lift up just enough to allow him to shove them down his hips.

At the first glance at his cock, your mouth falls open, a silent breath escaping you. He’s big, certainly the biggest you’ve ever had, and maybe you should think about how you’ll take all of him inside of you, but you find yourself craving him, craving the stinging stretch, craving the feeling of being as close as possible to him.

“Don’t worry.” He seems mildly amused, catching your lips in another kiss. “We’ll make it fit.”

Another shudder runs through your body at this. “I’m not worried,” you admit in a whisper.

He laughs at that, a breathless sound that you instantly want to hear again.

“Good.”

He pulls your underwear to the side and thrusts one thick finger up into your slick heat without warning. His thumb rubs around your clit and you already feel an orgasm creeping up on you. He adds a second finger, his rhythm relentless, and you cry out, grabbing his shoulders, trying to steady yourself, but it’s pointless. You’re already clenching, so close to the edge, when he pulls out of you and fixes you with a hard glare.

“Not yet. You’re only gonna come on my cock tonight, understood?”

You want to scream, want his fingers back, but you realize that you also want this authority, want him to take control, to take whatever he wants from you. It’s a heady feeling, one that you’ve never experienced before, but you’re already desperate for more.

“Okay,” you agree, and his responding smirk is enough for another wave of wetness to gather between your legs.

With one steadying hand securely on your hip, he leans over to the glovebox, mumbling about protection, but you stop him, fingers looping around his wrist.

“I’m on the pill, and I’m clean, I promise. You don’t need–”

He leans back, the grip on your hip tightening again.

“Fuck sweetheart, are you sure?”

You nod quickly, another “please” falling from your lips.

The grin on his face is downright feral as he hikes your dress up higher, eyes raking over your body. You’re sure that you look a mess, all intimate parts of you on display, your skin damp with sweat, your hair a wild nest. You curl in on yourself a little, but David won’t have any of that.

“Hey,” he growls, fingers digging into your thighs. “If I’m gonna do this, you’re gonna look at me and beg for it, are we clear?”

You lift your head, wide eyes searching his. Desperate to do what he asks, desperate for his approval. He’s gorgeous in the low lights, his cheeks flushed, a thin sheen of sweat covering his face and chest.

“Please,” you whine. “Please David, I need you.”

His movements turn frantic at your words, moving you around until you’re positioned just above him, your panties pulled to the side, the head of his cock nudging at your entrance, already soaking him.

“Just one time?” he rasps once more.

“Just one time,” you agree. You’d agree to anything right now.

He pulls you down slowly, beginning to part your walls. You whine loudly at the stretch. It burns, but you relish in the feeling of getting filled by him, and his responding groan has your lips pulling up in a smile.

You keep sinking down, moving until he’s completely sheathed inside you and your eyes fall shut at the overwhelming sensation. His fingers are on your chin in an instant, giving your head a light shake.

“Nuh-uh, eyes right here, sweetheart,” he reminds you, gritting the words out. He twitches inside you and you force your eyelids to open again.

“Feels so good,” you whine, your voice reduced to a broken, breathless thing, but then he starts moving and you’re not able to form words any longer.

He rolls his hips up into you and you meet his thrusts with your own movements, clinging to his shoulders for dear life. His hands are everywhere, digging into your hips, pinching your nipples, gripping your chin whenever your eyes are starting to slip closed again.

So you keep your gaze obediently on him, your eyes locked, delighting in the way his face scrunches up in pleasure, in the sounds that are falling from his lips, matching your own.

“Good girl, taking me so fucking well,” he groans, his hand connecting with your ass in a light slap. An obscenely loud moan escapes you in response and you clench around him, more wetness covering his length and your thighs.

He stills and leans back to take in your heated face and blown pupils, an amused smirk forming on his face. “You liked that, huh?”

You nod, once again unable to meet his eye.

“Hey,” he demands, his fingers grabbing your face again. “Eyes on me, remember?”

Your gaze reluctantly trails up and his smirk grows.

“So…” he drawls, slowly picking up his thrusts again, “what exactly did you like, huh? When I called you a good girl… or when I did this?”

He smacks your ass again and you grind down onto him almost instinctively. You’re burning up in shame, but you obediently hold his gaze.

“B–both,” you whisper, in disbelief that you’re admitting this to him, but you feel too good to hold back now.

“Fuck,” he growls, his movements speeding up and his grip on your hips bordering on painful, “knew you were a dirty little thing.”

Another slap lands on your skin, harder than before, at the same time that he thrusts deep into you. The combined sensations are enough to throw you over the edge that you had been teetering on since he first touched you and you scream out his name as you fall apart.

He holds your shaking body close, cock grinding into you as you pulse around him and he groans, burying his face in your neck, spilling his own release deep inside of you.

“Fucking perfect,” he whispers, mouth pressing against your skin. “Can’t believe that you let me–”

You barely make out the words, ecstasy still coursing through your veins, but you lean into him, holding onto his broad shoulders, feeling like his body is the only real thing in your world right now.

You stay like this, entangled in each other’s embrace until your breaths even out and he carefully lifts your face, pressing one more kiss against your lips. It hits you suddenly, that this might be the last kiss that you share with him. Just one time, right?

He helps you to properly put your clothes back on, supporting your weight as you slink back into the passenger seat, before he pulls his pants back on and jogs up to his apartment to gather the paperwork for your father.

Your father. His friend. Fuck. Now that the lust-induced haze has lifted a bit and you’re able to think more clearly again, the weight of tonight’s events starts crashing down on you. He would kill you. He can’t know, no one can.

Dave returns within minutes, his brow furrowed as he takes you in. You think that he clocks the growing panic that is probably written all over your face. He reaches for your hand, slowly enough that you could retract it if you wanted to, but you long for his touch, for the reassurance of it.

“You alright?” he asks softly.

“Yeah.” You nod, trying to convince yourself as much as him.

He nods back, not prying, which you are grateful for, and starts the car, making his way over to your house. Your hand still clasped in his. Both your release and his pooling in your panties.

You only let go of him when he pulls into the driveway and kills the engine. You don’t think that your dad checks the footage from the security cameras regularly, but it’s a risk that you’re not willing to take.

“Thank you,” you mumble, once again unable to meet his eyes. “I– I had a great night.”

He smiles, appearing more relaxed than he’d been all evening.

“Me too, sweetheart. Good night.” You feel his eyes on you as you walk up to the door.

You shower, reluctantly washing away all traces of the evening and crawl into bed. You still feel his hands on your skin, the sensation following you into your dreams.

When the morning comes, hushed promises of just one time echo in your head, but the desire to do it again, for more, is burning through your body, consuming your thoughts.

“Hey Dad,” you ask, stepping into his office where he’s brooding over documents, “I think I left my jacket in Dave’s car, could you give me his number? Maybe I can go pick it up.”

if you liked this, please consider reblogging, leaving a comment or sending in an ask – it’s really the thing that keeps writers going :)

[elbdot]

I love your Pokemon comics so much! I've reread them a ton of times, EAA has become such a comfort read. I just adore how you make Alola feel so alive, and the characters all feel so much more complex and interesting. Out of curiosity, were there other comics (Pokemon or otherwise) that inspired you? And are there other Pokemon fan comics you like or would recommend?

AWWWW Thank you so much!! 🥹🥰 Actually, I wasn't really inspired by any other Pokemon comics at the time I began making my first short comics. Despite Pokemon having one of THE most MASSIVE fandoms on the internet, it's honestly surprising how little ongoing fancomics there are. I've seen many artists starting Nuzlocke comics but I only know of ONE artist who ever finished drawing one (And I'm ebarrassed to say I didn't fully read it yet and don't know the name of it anymore, it's been so long 😂)

I think if there was any comic inspiration at the time in 2016, it must have been the webcomic Avas Demon. Not in terms of STORY or genre, but in terms of how the story was told in a 16:9 format like a storyboard or color test for an animated movie. I took a lot of inspiration from that in the way I boarded the comic and wanted to make it feel like a movie sequence, making more individual panels with varying expressions. But that ALSO ABSOLUTELY blew my work-load on each comic out of proportion, thus resulting in VERY irregular updates due to how detailed my backgrounds and shading became plus A LOT of additional poses like here for example:

I'm proud of what I created back then, but after the most recent Arc I have decided to step BACK from this approach and have now heavily simplified my shading and am experimenting with reusing backgrounds and using new panel sizes and formats 😂 You'll see what I mean in the upcoming update this week. Surprisingly enough, I don't think the quality of art has dropped because of these changes! Also my love for adding additional expressions between panels has remained, they're just my favorite thing to do to bring life to the comic!

[ladykailitha]

Posting Schedule and Story Update

I know, I know I don't have a posting schedule, not really. At least in terms of what gets published when, only the days of the week stuff gets posted.

Well for the next four weeks there will be one:

Never Hold Back Your Step...- Sundays

Well Met By Moonlight- Tuesdays

Icarus- Thursdays

Special- Saturdays*

But I'm also getting worryingly low on my backlog (like I'm about dip into single digit range) and I hate having it that low.

So what I usually do is take a week or so off posting and build it back up. And I would normally take the week of my birthday off (Aug 14) to play catch up, but...

Yeah, I'm planning on posting the final chapter of Well Met By Moonlight (werewolf Steve) on the 13th. One year after it's release and since I'm releasing on that day, it doesn't make sense to only post that day and none of the rest of the week.

Also depending on what I am doing on the 14th (as whether or not my husband works) will decide whether or not I'm doing WIP Wednesday that day because if I'm not really doing anything, than I would prefer hanging out with you guys and writing. But I'll keep you posted the closer that gets.

But if he does have it off, I'll take it off and have two days the next week to make up for it. It would also be that week that I would take off posting and probably the next week as well. It depends on how much I get done.

But here's the exciting part, during this time between now and Aug 18th I will continue to work on the exotic club one and will have a ton of fun chapters to share when I get back from my break.

I will still be doing WIP Wednesdays and posting ideas and meta and headcanons and all that fun stuff. And maybe some fun polls too.

Also it is looking like "Never Hold Back Your Step..." (boy w/a bat) will be only 17 chapters long (maybe only 16 depending on how much of the Mind Flayer fight I put in it). I'm hoping it'll be only 16 really so that it can end the same week as Well Met.

I think a lot of people are hoping for their favorite parts of season 3, but this story was never meant to re-write canon. It was just meant to look into the idea that Eddie picked Steve up as a lost sheepie between season 2 and 3. Something that at the time there wasn't a lot of.

We'll see.

But expect to see me start posting again on Sept 1st for sure or on Aug 25th, if I have a really good week. And I'll be kicking it off the exotic dancer one, which I'm really excited for.

*Sir Steve, Knight Protectorate will be finished this Saturday. Leaving the Caged Bird Still Sings (sugar baby!Steve/sugar daddy!Eddie) to take its posting slot on Saturdays.

Tagging my permanent list to make sure everyone who needs to see this can.

1-@mira-jadeamethyst @rozzieroos @itsall-taken @redfreckledwolf @zerokrox-blog

2- @gregre369 ​@a-little-unsteddie @chaosgremlinmunson @messrs-weasley @cryptid-system

3- @maya-custodios-dionach @goodolefashionedloverboi @val-from-lawrence @carlyv @wonderland-girl143-blog

4- @justforthedead89 @irregular-child @bookbinderbitch @bookworm0690 @forgottenkanji

5- @anne-bennett-cosplayer @yikes-a-bee @awkwardgravity1 @littlewildflowerkitten @genderless-spoon

6- @dragonmama76 @ellietheasexylibrarian @thedragonsaunt @useless-nb-bisexual @disrespectedgoatman

7- @counting-dollars-counting-stars @tinyplanet95 @ravenfrog @swimmingbirdrunningrock @lingeringmirth

8- @gutterflower77 @a-lovely-craziness @just-a-tiny-void @w1ll0wtr33 @beelze-the-bubkiss

[melancholic-choleric]

notes: novelist!Dazai au, angst, major character death, random quotes and references from different works

1. sometimes happiness arrives one night too late.

June fades, falling into the lap of July. I’m once again reminded of the fleeting nature of summer, how it’s ardent and melancholic, hot and unbearable, cruel but sweet.

I didn’t usually like to talk about death. The monosyllabic word with four characters is like an acid, leaving a bitter aftertaste on my palate whenever it leaves my mouth. The mere thought of it can make one’s stomach churn in discomfort.

I came across a page of snippets from a novel in a weekly magazine, penned by an author who harbored a deep fascination with the theme of suicide. I read it word for word on the tram home everyday. I mentioned it to my mother at dinner, but she brushed me off and said the author sounds like a second-rate Camus, spouting pseudo-intellectual nonsense. I didn’t say anything afterward.

Whether it was sheer curiosity or an impulsive whim, I wrote to him that night. Osamu Dazai as my recipient. Folded the letter in half and tucked it in an envelope, before sticking a Nippon stamp at the top right corner.

One letter, two letters, three letters that quickly turned into four, I found myself waiting for his reply. His stories however bleak and esoteric, steeped in despair and sadness, brought me a strange sense of comfort. They made me laugh, cry, and utterly miserable sometimes, all written by a man whose morals were as tangled as his mind.

2. him.

July passed by, came August.

My letters languished in silence, unanswered and forlorn.

I liked the serials of a certain writer, but it has been weeks since an update. Looking at last month's familiar cover and the bright red issue number, I frowned. I wasn't sure if it was merely a hiatus or if he had fallen victim to the merciless torment inflicted by his own psyche.

Whatever it was, I found myself standing at his doorstep anyway. A 1DK rented apartment, frayed and threadbare. He opened the door for me. The novelist is about 1.8 meters tall, and around thirty years old, give or take, though I'm not sure of the exact figure. I explained I was the reader who mentioned wanting to visit him in my letter. I then said my name, avoiding his gaze, feeling quite ashamed. I didn't dare to look too much, but my peripheral vision caught glimpses of the crab meat cans piled in the corner on a countertop. Scattered about were crumpled balls of paper, unfurling along their creases like petals of some reluctant bloom. The reason I didn't dare to look too much wasn't because I thought I shouldn't, but because I was afraid. I was afraid of seeing green grid lines reminiscent of the paper I used, lurking within those discarded spheres, and I feared even more the discovery of my letters to him, confessions thrown into the mailbox in despair now serving as scrap. The nice stamps I've saved for special occasions, and the neat handwriting all ended up in vain.

Whether due to my uniform or merely a stroke of serendipity, he seemed to know who I was, as if he had figured me out before I even introduced myself. Unhappy people are sensitive to the unhappiness of others. He smiled. A mere smile can determine a woman's fate. It is frightening. Fascinatingly so. I have to be careful.

"Are you here to commit suicide with me?"

"Look how scared you are." The writer chuckled.

"I'm kidding."

3. mi casa, su casa

From that day onwards, he acquiesced in my frequent but irregular visits. I had told my mother that I started seeing a tutor, to keep her suspicions at bay. I wonder what came over me that made me lie to her. Guilt soon dissipated when the familiar smell of lead ink and tobacco flushed my senses as I stepped foot onto creaking floorboards.

It turned out, he did receive my letters. He even found them hilarious, and said it’d be no fun if he simply replied with a ‘thank you’ letter. But he said he didn't remember where he had discarded them. A sweet sentiment, although I was a delusional fool. I stopped doing my homework and looked up at him like a petulant child. He explained his absence from publication was due to his lack of motivation, which had ultimately left me to wonder if something terrible had happened to him.

"But alas, there were no great tragedies to report. Only my own laziness and indifference, the same old story. How tiresome... At least now I have a muse. Albeit a sappy and clumsy one."

Muse? I don't see one thing inspiring about myself.

It's not exactly common for fans to simply show up at their favorite author's doorstep. Most content themselves with adoration from afar.

But I waltzed into his life. Unannounced and artlessly.

I didn't know who Dazai Osamu was before. And I still don't know who he is up until now. But I knew he was a terribly lonely man. He didn't like to open up about his past, and I wasn't one to pry either. The less one knows, the better, I thought. He's not meant to be understood in the first place.

“In my case such an expression as 'to be fallen for' or even 'to be loved' is not in the least appropriate; perhaps it describes the situation more accurately to say that I was 'looked after.”

4. the moon is beautiful, isn't it?

I jokingly told him that he reminded me of Sylvia Plath once.

“Sylvia Plath? That poor soul. If she had been as lucky as me to be saved by death and kicked back to this miserable existence, perhaps she wouldn't have taken such drastic measures.”

He insisted he was not nearly as talented as she was, nor did he have the courage to follow in her footsteps. He preferred to die painlessly than stick his head into an oven, I assumed. Fair enough.

He would wince whenever I mentioned deadlines or something along those lines. I wonder if he thinks I'm here solely to torture him with reminders of his responsibilities. 

"Between you and my editor, I'm more harassed than a politician during election season." He mumbled, putting out a cigarette against a scrapped manuscript.

"It's long overdue anyway. I'll write whenever I feel like writing. Fin de la discussion."

It seemed like I was doing a terrible job as a muse.

On a cool and crisp October night, he led me to the shore. He stood in the water, as silent as the statue of Ushiku Daibutsu. Dazai asked me if he could hold my hand, and I accepted in confusion. I felt like if I didn’t, he’d slip away from my grasp and sink into the sea at any moment. I didn’t dare to let him go. Fingers intertwined, souls merged, all witnessed by the heavenly body herself.

5. rust and stardust

Unfortunately, there was nothing between us, nothing we did, only an unfinished novel. To be more specific, we hugged once, then I cried on his shoulders. I rarely see him write. I never knew what he was writing, although I supposed it added to the suspense when I got my hands on the final results, before scurrying off to the post office to hand it in for him.

Sometimes, he would pick me up from school, buy me a vanilla soft serve, and watch it melt away with the setting sun. If people knew about our rendezvouses, they might hastily conclude we had engaged in compensated dating, but what they don't know was that the person I was dating was extremely poor. I see myself as more of an errand girl. Enjo-kōsai was fairly popular among my peers, but the thought of becoming a mere source of amusement in exchange for money deeply unsettled me. Perhaps the only thing I sought in that man was companionship. Another soul to cling to.

I asked if I could die with him.

My novelist didn't say anything. He knew it wasn’t a joke. The silence depressed me. It wasn't the silence of silence. It was my own silence.

6. farewell, amireux

My novelist died due to suicide. His body was found lifeless in a rain-swollen canal near his rented apartment.

Oh, then what am I? A friend? A lover? A passerby? A parasite? Do I even have the right to be upset, even if I knew this day would come? What is he? He is just a novelist, a washed-up hack with no ambitions and a dubious sense of morality. I didn't read his unpublished works, I burned them all. Yet, as I sifted through the contents of his desk, I stumbled upon a meticulously arranged pile of letters, each bearing my name as the sender, adorned with a stamp I considered to be quite intricate, resting upon the surface. One tear, two tears, three tears that quickly turned into four, I found myself sobbing, uncontrollably and ferociously. What was left behind were only fragments of memories, slipping through the cracks of my hands while I gnawed away at my own misery and dwelled on his demise.

That which is destined to vanish shall inevitably fade away, and he too shall ultimately depart. I glided past him, as he glided past existence itself, one fleeting moment after another.

Goodbye.

[cheerfullycatholic]

Hello, I'm a Catholic who recently signed up for Tumblr and I unfortunately feel like I really did not understand what I was getting into with this website. For the last several weeks, I've been subjected to a campaign of internet stalking by a large gang of insidious thugs on this site. And I would brush it off as normal internet trolling, except that they seem to really know a lot about our faith!

The problem started a few weeks ago, when a "Tumblr famous" user known as "r4cs0" messaged me. He claims to be the closest living relative of Pope John Paul I, who died after only 33 days on the throne. When a Pope dies, the death must be verified by striking him three times in the head with a silver hammer. According to r4cs0, a church historian has recently examined the hammer used on John Paul I and learned it was only 87% silver. Per the canon laws of 1919, the hammer must be at least 90% silver to be considered true silver. Because of this and other "irregularities" regarding the death, r4cs0 insists that Pope John Paul I is still LEGALLY alive and still the Pope! And as his closest living heir, this makes r4cs0 the highest living authority in the Catholic Church until the corpse is exhumed and struck with the correct hammer!

Now if this isn't crazy enough, it gets worse. r4cs0 has written a Papal bull called In Tergo Intrantes. Of course it's in Latin so I can't read it, but r4cs0 says that it authorized certain Vatican authorities located in the Tower of Nicholas V to grant special dispensations to bi-sexual women who are seeking to enter into plural marriages, but only if they submit DNA samples to the Vatican Bank which prove they are free of any Asian heritage (this part has something to do with the Vatican agreement with the CCP). And I'm not even going to try to explain it, but after he told me this part of the story he suddenly went off on a tangent about how the Missing 411 series can be explained by extra-dimensional abductors hunting German people. I still can't figure out the connection, but it may have something to do with the Synod on Synodality.

But the point of all this is that "r4cs0," his allegedly bi-sexual girlfriend "tooiconic," and a large host of their followers have been tormenting me non-stop for the last several weeks. They say that when In Tergo Intrantes and Fiducia Supplicans are considered together, it obligates me to officiate a plural marriage they are planning to enter into with another Tumblr user named "takashi0" (who is a BRONY, just to make this whole thing even creepier). If I refuse, they claim they will call my bishop and have my actual marriage annulled by the church! I don't believe they can really do it, but they can certainly keep sending their followers to harass me! One of them called my boss at work today and started asking a bunch of questions about where he was when Catherine Cesnik was killed.

What do I do???

I am, wow, I don't have words. Wow. Just keep blocking them and try to remove any personal information from your blog

Important update: it's all fake apparently

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy Rulebook June 6th 2024 Update and Changelog

It’s the first Thursday of the first month of us doing a regular patreon rulebook update on the first Thursday of every month, and that means a major update!

It has been so nice to be able to finally work on the rulebook again instead of doing nothing but Kickstarter prep and promotion, and man have I been hard at work. Last week, if you count my A.N.I.M. job and my “normal” job, the shortest workday I had was 9 hours and several of them were 14 hours. At least I enjoy both jobs!

We have started getting more art into the rulebook, and getting those stretch goals taken care of. One stretch goal (the forgery rules) has already been added in full, with another stretch goal about 75% done, plus a complete overhaul of how Chase Scenes work and a whole new mechanic for determining how the police react to the actions of the PCs. Now, as the PCs are investigating crimes, if they’re not careful, the police could be investigating their crimes in the background too!

In addition to all the changes from the changelog below, we now have new and improved character sheets, and the Eureka adventure module “FORIVA: The Angel Game” is now fully finished, not counting the artwork, but that is going to get its own post.

Here is the full changelog! Remember, you can get a copy of this beta version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, along with three adventure modules, two short stories, and a novella, all for just $5 on our patreon page. And there’s no better time to do so, because of the Gorgon Initiative! Long story short, the playable gorgon monster type is a Kickstarter stretch goal we didn’t hit, but if we can reach 50 total patreon subscribers before the end of June, we’re going to be adding it to the book anyway! At the time of writing this, we’re at 41/50! You could make the difference, and get all this new Eureka content to boot!

CHAPTER 1

Have started working on replacing the examples of play with updated ones that actually fit the current and slightly more stable version of the rules. These will be found in various chapters. You can see them in the table of contents.

Added a Foreword, a section on other media to offer you inspiration when playing eureka, and a section on some of the subtler themes of eureka

Copy-edited Foreword

A few minor clarifications in the Making Rolls section

Added a chart explaining the percentage chances of failures, partial successes, and full successes for modifiers from -7 to +7. 

Added Heat optional rule. A whole new set of mechanics for tracking how much police attention the investigators may be drawing, as well as how law enforcement will respond. Currently a work-in-progress, but mostly functional already.

CHAPTER 2

Added the Forgery skill to write-in skills

Many new snoops have been added. 

Removed the “Seating” stat for vehicles, you know how many people can safely fit in a car

Removed the placeholder boat entries from the item list because we did not hit that kickstarter stretch goal

Added Skateboard to item list. 

Added four-wheeler to item list. 

Added Acceleration values to all vehicles in the vehicle list. Acceleration is a new stat used with the new way that Speed is calculated for Chases.

Adjusted the Driving bonus of motorcycles and dirtbikes.

Changed Large Mansion cost to 25 Wealth Points in character creation.

Started copy-editing this chapter.

CHAPTER 3

Added vehicle crashes to irregular forms of damage section

Tiny tweak to Drowning/Suffocation rules.

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

Completely revamped the way that Speed is calculated. 

Added a mechanic to determine how many nodes ahead a fleeing character starts.

Added an optional rule for bringing an end to chases 

Added vehicle attack rules for use during car chases

Added more guidelines for how to make your own obstacles

Added recommended numbers of nodes for chases and recommended distance between obstacles 

Added the work-in-progress random obstacle tables

On-Foot Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

Vehicle Urban Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited

On-Foot Wilderness Chase Obstacles table is finished but not edited. 

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

Increased capacity of an unfurled thing from beyond’s ‘stomach’ from three to fourteen.

Thing from beyond can now more easily attempt to engulf more victims after already containing one or more. This now prompts an escape attempt by victims inside rather than automatic escape.

Thing from beyond can now get a bonus to mimicry attempts by consuming a sample of the intended mimicry target’s DNA. 

Thing from beyond can now attempt to mimic a person they have never seen or heard by consuming a sample of their DNA, but narrator makes a hidden roll about it, so accuracy of mimicry will be unknown.

Gave acceleration value to witch’s brooms and other flying transportation

Gave Acceleration of +6 to Superhuman Speed trait

Gave vampire small bat manifestation +2 Acceleration

Gave vampire wolf manifestation +4 Acceleration 

Gave vampire massive bat beast manifestation +4 Acceleration

Gave wolfman wolf form +4 Acceleration

Gave lycanthrope wolf form +4 Acceleration

Added ability to resist curses to fairy and witch

Added ability for fairy to transfer curses to different names as a means of protecting themselves from curses. This gives them more of an incentive to collect names. 

Added a tiny bit about the fairy world

Added Monsters Eating Monsters section to provide rulings for some edge cases where monsters might eat other monsters and what would happen if they did

Stay tuned for a post about "FORIVA: The Angel Game", a terrifying Eureka adventure module, soon!

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but our Kickstarter page is still the best place to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, and where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more than just status updates, going forward you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy and it’s adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[brightoakgame]

Bright Oak Long-Range Planning Update!

Hello, dear friends!

First off, I apologize for the prolonged radio silence! I've been repeatedly sidelined by (thankfully minor) health issues since last fall, and it's made forward progress frustratingly staccato. With that being the case, posting more granular updates feels out of place, so I wanted to put together a more macro view of where Bright Oak currently stands in development. ✨

I'll start with the important stuff: Bright Oak is not on hiatus, and a full release is still on the near-ish horizon--but exactly when is a more nebulous matter. This is a passion project I've invested blood, sweat, years, and tears into, and no one wants it finished and out in the world more than I do.

As for where the game as a whole stands: it is now almost completely rough-coded (I'd say 85-90%?), with only a handful of backgrounds remaining to sketch, paint, and implement. There are some other little details that remain to be ironed out, but overall, the remaining work largely hinges on coding in expressions, backgrounds, sound design, and music.

With so much of the heavy-lifting already done (all very much thanks to my wonderful team of commissioned artists!), the delay I anticipate hinges on myself: the lion's share of the remaining work is the sort of detailed scene sculpting I revel in, but which requires time and focus. Unfortunately, both those resources are in short supply due to some shifts in my life (quite apart from health issues, I'm also preparing for a major move!). Rushing through to reach a self-imposed finish line has never felt like a viable option, either from a practical standpoint or a personal one. The notion of placing Bright Oak on hiatus also holds little appeal for me, though I did give it long consideration. For now, it feels like the best way of proceeding is to continue on when I can, as I can, and accept that the pace of progress is going to be irregular for a time.

While slow and unsteady might not win me any races, I do look forward to seeing you all when Bright Oak does reach the finish line sometime within the next year. ❤️ Thank you all so very, very much for your kindness, support, and patience through this process, and I look forward to sharing the rest of the story when I can!

[formulaorange]

2024 Spring Anime

Kaiju No. 8 This series started the same time as SpyxFamily and I've been waiting years for it to be animated. It's a series I was instantly hooked on. The animations in the teasers were incredibly sus but I'm glad to see it's pulled together. This is a must watch for this season. Noteworthy On-going Shows: Delicious in Dungeon - Episodes 13-24 A Character based comedic fantasy that honestly has me hooked. New Seasons:

Demon Slayer - Hashira Training Arc I can't believe we're already here. I think this will be one of the last 2 or 3 seasons of the show. This is one I'm not sure what to expect in terms of story but I'm looking forward to it regardless.

That Time I Got Reincarnated As a Slime - Season 3 One of the Og's is back baby. This is one of my all time favourite shows, one of the original fantasy/isekai series. This series gets better and better and I'm so hooked to each character. 100% biased opinion but if you haven't seen this, go check it out.

My Hero Academia - Season 7 This is one that I haven't caught up on the anime for so I'm not 100% where we are but I'm pretty sure it's about to get real dark. I think lots of people have put this show on the backburner or have dropped it entirely. But I really have to say we're starting to head into some of the peak of the series. It gets much darker and more serious and starts to shift from the original shonen high school style.

Additional New Seasons: Mushoku Tensei - Season 2 Cour 2 I won't lie, this arc honestly doesn't look very appealing to me. That said, I have faith in the writers and will be watching and updating if it picks up. Both of these shows from 2008 coming back were not on my bucket list but here we are: Spice and Wolf - Looks to be a re-make of the original series Black Butler - Public School Arc - New continuation of the og series Also: The Misfit of Demon King Academy II - Part 2 The Irregular at Magic High School - Season 3 Laid-Back Camp - Season 3 New Noteworthy Shows:

Wind Breaker A new series about a delinquent who moves to a school where it's all about being the strongest and beating each other up. Honestly it reminds me a little of Food wars but if it was actually about fighting instead of food lol. The animations look stellar, I'm actually pretty excited to check this one out. ( I'd also say it looks completely different to Tokyo Revengers so I wouldn't compare the two.)

Mission:Yozakura Family A newer shonen jump series about a kid who tries to integrate with a mismatched family of spies. Looks like a lot of fun and has a similar vibe to some old school SJ series.

Go! Go! Loser Ranger Why does this look so good. This series genuinely looks so cool, the animation look out of this world and the story looks killer. From what I can gather it's a guy who always plays the villain and is sick of his role. The story shows the heroes as villains and gives me a bit of Invincible vibes. (This is a Disney+ exclusive) The Fable I've heard that this is one of the most legendary comedies. I know there's a few live actions for it on Netflix but I haven't had a chance to check it out. I feel like the trailers don't seem to get anything across so this'll be one I'll follow up on.

Going through the extra shows is now the bane of my existence. I want to go back to before all the isekai light novels were being animated. After doing this I feel defeated that some of these look half-decent. Whisper Me a Love Song Wholesome girl's love series about figuring out what kind of love they feel for each other: 3 Episodes The Many Sides of Voice Actor Radio 2 girls who's offline personalities are total opposites, their rivalry in a brutal industry. Looks like it could be a fun slice of life series: 3 Episodes Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night Looks like a really well done series about a group of girls forming an anonymous idol group: 3 Episodes

I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability The animations actually look amazing from the trailer and this series could be cute: 1 Episode An Archdemon's Dilemma: How to Love Your Elf Bride I think this might be a guilty pleasure show. I like the idea of the awkward romance between these two. Likely wouldn't reccommend this for a normal watcher: 1 Episode Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again Animations and concept look fun: 1 Episode Notable OVA's: Code Geass: Roze of the Recapture A prequel to the original series. The animation looks just like the OG and I'm so stoked that this is coming out.

[amypihcs]

Hello humans! Let's see this letter, what do you say? Let's see if it will lift my heart (no it won't but... FOR ROLEPLAY!)

For starters, Watson is getting a scolding by Holmes

Well, Holmes you COULD be a bit more tactful. Post hiatus Holmes wouldn't behave like this. At least he has something to offer apart from criticism. Let's see

HEY BUT THAT'S THE CHAP WHO- Watson, my dear doctor, YOU are the one who approached him THAT way. He's no t innocent, but let's recognize our mistakes, uh? Holmes introducing his husband is always the best, btw. Let's see, man tells his story, we set for him to go back to London and leave the stuff to HOLMES

And Holmes tries to make up a bit for the scolding he gave to his Watson promising some (mrs hudson's) good dinner once back home. Well, they get there and YES! A telegram

Urgh! Torn? Also Holmes pouting because Watson didn't answer the telegram. And Watson. DO be honest, you also took it for a bad taste joke. Well, what do we make of it, anyhow?

Bitten. In. a saloon fight. I'm gonna puke for a bit. Anyway, at least we identified the man and we know that the lady Frances is in DAMN BAD DANGER. crap. What do we do? Holmes?

I LOVE when he calls Lestrade friend Lestrade. It's so cute, he values his friends very much! And Lestrade, of course, BUT THE IRREGULARS! They are also on employed to solve this!

---

and nothing moves.....

---

FOR A WEEK! BUT THEN!

FOUND A TRAIL OF BREADCRUMBS! Ah! I can SYMPATIZE with that feeling Mr Green... Well, Holmes CAN help with that!

And so YOU now should...

AND FOR GOD'S SAKE NO VIOLENCE, THINK BEFORE YOU ACT. For a couple of days nothing happens, on the third...

FOUND HIM! FOUNDHIMFOUNDHIMHOUNDFIM!!

Shut up, sit down, calm down, drink a sip of water an TELL US THE FACTS. (Holmes is quite good in saying these things)

Buying a COFFIN. Suspicious AS FUCK.

SEE! Holmes can even COMPLIMENT people in a NON SARCASTIC WAY! Now, you out of my hair, bring this to friend Lestrade

Our Victorian husbands HAVE GOT THIS. What do we have now?

Now Watson... would you please go ask? People LIKE you -puppy eyes-

Tbh Watson's theory of a false certificate wasn't a bad one at all. But now we shall see...

Damn! All appears legal! Well, there's only a thing to do now!

Fucking around. So they'll find out... SOMETHING BECAUSE WATSON LEAVES US HERE!

Holmes would've loved to kiss his Watson after the last sentence. And Watson not having a gun? UUUH... pre hiatus, definitely!

We'll se what they'll find out in the next update!

[skyevergreen]

Solitudinarian (A horror short story Im writing)

(Little pre-thing this is my first time really posting anything of this kind on Tumblr and So im gonna post this story in chunks and as I write more do little updates also very rough draft) “We interrupt your current broadcast to bring an emergency broadcast, this broadcast is being brought to you by the United States Public safety department and is a message to all residents of the United states. There have been a total of 500 thousand people coming into hospital with symptoms never seen before in any known virus. Symptoms observed have been red eyes, nose bleeds, ringing ears, irregular behavior, sleep walking, violent and sporadic movements, twitching, and overall brain failure. All cases of this virus have been fatal, and those who haven't died are now missing. Those infected have reported seeing shadows in the corner of their eyes, or feel like they are being watched. Along with infected individuals, sightings of tall and disfigured silhouettes have been spotted around neighborhoods. If you make contact with any of these creatures, make distance between you and the entity. If you or a family member are suffering from sickness, do your community a favor and keep yourself indoors and locked inside. For those uninfected lock all doors and windows, stock up on supplies, and do not leave your home. Have trust in your government, May god be with us all”.

The TV broadcast rips through the air once more. It's the same old message that has been repeated for the last 2 months. I tune in just for the chance of there being an update, a chance that maybe this whole thing will all be over. As the same words play again I hit the power button to the box Tv leaving me alone in the darkness of my living room. My stomach growls and I feel my body ache at me telling me it's time to eat, all these days that have strung together hunger is the one of the things that's at least stayed the same. I stand up feeling my body ache and looking around at the can littered floor I make my way to the kitchen. Flicking on a light switch, blinding myself for a few brief moments. As my eyes adjust I lay sight to the dirty counter space that matches the off white walls. A cockroach crawled from under the fridge and almost as fast as it crawled out it scurried right under another counter. Taking a deep breath I open the cupboard to be met with stacks of canned food. Sighing deep I grab one of the cans of food and pry it open, my eyes are met with the can of meat that I'm only half sure what's in it. But it's better than starving so I sink a spoon that I had found on the nearby table into the meat. It gushed liquids and made a disgusting noise as I dug into it. Getting a spoonful I take a bite and chew, it's the same stuff I've been eating for days now. The disgusting taste is now almost welcome. As I finish the can of food I lay it on the counter with the rest of the empties. My eyes are heavy, I've been awake for far too long, it's probably best I get some rest. I leave my kitchen and make my way down my hallway, that seems to extend for miles due to the beckoning darkness. I stumble down the hall passing the bathroom door, I arrive at my bedroom, it's lit by a dim lamp revealing the piles of clothes and several empty bottles of water. I fall onto my bed reaching to grab my medicine from my bedside table. I take 2 pills and lay my head on my pillow and let the mattress grab ahold of my body. As I close my eyes I feel myself drift off into the void of sleep, Maybe tomorrow will be different.

[lowstakesvampires]

The Sketchbooks

Just some info for you all, so my tagging system makes a little more sense.

This is a comic that has been almost entirely drawn in whichever sketchbook that I had on hand at the time, sort of unintentionally at first, so of course it'll be a little bit more unorthodox in its... pretty much everything, sure. It's not even drawn in any linear fashion. It's an accidental sketchbook webcomic, going with the flow.

Without further ado,

01: small beginnings April 2017 - June 2017 This sure was where everything started!! Weirdly accurate, too. I swear it wasn't intentional.

This wasn't even a proper sketchbook, it was more of a notepad, and as of last time I went through it, it was falling apart due to the glue literally not holding it together anymore. But yeah - Morten shows up for the first time in this. Bat followed soon after.

02: the pink one June 2017 - April 2018 A lot of firsts in this one - the beginnings of Einarr, Helena and Rune, for example.

And yeah, it came with printed flower and butterfly graphics inside. I just grabbed whatever sketchbook I had, man. And once I had started using one, I was not going to let go until it was finished. No exceptions.

03: teddy bear April 2018- June 2018 Just three months!! Probably because it only had 50 (100) pages in it. but yeah. Speedy bear.

Einarr started becoming a character in this one, going from just being Bat's mysterious sire who died, to this strange old beardless viking who constantly chopped his hair off for some reason. I mean, he definitely still had a way to go before he became... himself?

04: linnanmäki July 2018 - October 2018 Another somewhat speedy one! Bought in Finland, incidentally.

This is also where something resembling longform comics started to form. Some rather significant early characterization happening in this one.

05: moomin October 2018 - April 2019 So just about half a year. A lot of shorter comics in this one. I really love the cover of it.

Not sure what else to say. This one feels like kind of the transitional phase of my books.

06: duct taped spine April 2019 - September 2021 OHOHOH THIS IS A THICK ONE..... This one lasted two and a half years. TWO AND A HALF YEARS. IT WAS LITERALLY FALLING APART BY THE END.

This sketchbook had way too many pages for its quality - it split apart by the time I got to the middle, the spine fell off, it has been absolutely wrecked to bits from my frequent usage and I love it.

So yeah, this one was pretty good. A lot of the longer main stories start in this one. It's also causing me issues when it's the only book here with square pages.

07: the green one September 2021 - November 2023 Two years also, though the speed was a little halted by my bad phone habits and also the way I've gotten increasingly more thorough with my art!

For sure one of my favorites, especially art-wise ♡

By the end, the spine had fallen off, but unlike the previous one, it still wasn't completely falling apart. So that's nice. Around the time it was about to finish, I also drew on its cover - it represents the one story arc that just kinda slowly ran through nearly the whole book.

08: navy blue November 2023 - now

The current one! Same brand and thickness as the previous green one. Will be interesting to see if it ends up being any faster or slower. It has had some good comics so far!

Miscellaneous sketchbooks

Random small sketchbooks, and maybe even loose paper that has been used alongside the main ones. Ironically, one of my very first comic doodles was actually not drawn in any of the aforementioned sketchbooks, it was actually in one of my irregular ones!

------

This post may get updated as time goes on.

[midnight-in-town]

can i just say i'm afraid black butler will never end... i don't know how to bet invested back in it...

Hey Anon!

Awww, well, as long as the story makes sense and the author is happy working on it, personally I really don't see a problem with long serialization. :))

Of course, that's always up to each reader's personal taste (some people like short stories with a quick-to-solve plot) but take One Piece, or take Berserk that ran for 20 to 30 years (or even Gintama, or several other series) : I'm of the opinion that it's absolutely possible to write a long series, as long as it has a solid plot, good character developments and a good amount of detailed worldbuilding.

Sure the pace for Kuroshitsuji is slow (has been for a few years now), but I've made my peace that it's all we're going to get every month and I'd rather have a slow but steady pace, rather than irregular updates (because I've had those, for Berserk namely, and as much as I can totally respect the time an author needs to be happy with their work, it can be really difficult for fans to keep up with the story).

Additionally, please don't hesitate to take a break from reading every now and then, in case you really don't enjoy the content you currently get or that it stresses you out and depresses you. A hobby is meant to provide relief and enjoyment and you don't have to feel guilty about needing to take a break or about not enjoying a series anymore.

You can also follow different series that are released weekly or monthly on different dates during the month, so that you don't feel like all you do is waiting every month for barely anything! Again, it's personal but it works wonder on me when it comes to waiting. :)) Typically, the 18th is a few days away and I didn't notice the past month going by, because I enjoyed reading about other series (One Piece, Ao no Exorcist, Purple Hyacinth, Vinland Saga, Chainsawman, Akatsuki no Yona etc). :))

Finally, I'm also of the opinion that, even though it's going slow, Yana-sensei knows where she's going, considering the few hints she throws here and there every now and then and the lack of definite plot holes (at least as far as we can tell for now), so I decided to trust her, even if it takes some years to get to the answers I'm seeking.

So please don't worry too much Anon (be it about the way Kuro is headed or about feeling guilty in case you decide to take a break) and always remember that a hobby is a plus and that it's supposed to be enjoyable! That's all you have to care about!

Have a good day!! ^3^

[snarkythewoecrow]

okay, so writing update, i have been doing it! headway is being made on the hob/dream fic, you know, the one with all the tropes and hurt/comfort and shit

words are definitely flowing and shit is tightening up, coming together, the mess i puked into these various docs is now congealing into something pretty fucking great if i say so myself

working through older sections atm and trimming and shaping things to tell the story, now that the word vomit phase is mostly over

(i tend to make the absolutely most disgusting mess in my docs, all the ideas, before coming back later and trimming the overgrown shit into something pretty)

And speaking of pretty things, take a look at the a bit of the second draft of the Dream meeting with Calliope again scene, seeking her advice regarding how to help Hob.

@thefangirloutof-time @kydrogendragon @buckybeardreams @psychiccatpanda

No warnings for this snippet

Her presence in the Dreaming once again ached—their love had left a bruise that would likely linger until the last dreamer stepped into the sunless lands.

Fiddler’s Green seemed uniquely suited for this reunion, as a place they’d forgotten themselves, and occasionally, neglected to remember, sentient and prone to modest notions—his creation had once even lengthened the soft grass just to better conceal their bodies.

Calliope stood beneath a lone tree, an oddly placed bald cypress standing tall on a knoll amongst the wildflowers, entirely out of place in the scenery. The enormous base more a cluster of roots than simple trunk, each tendril pressing against the next before diving into the earth. Above, Spanish moss swayed from its branches in great heaping clumps, while its feathery, frond-like foliage stretched to the sun on irregular limbs.

His eyes followed her delicate fingers as they skimmed over the hills and valleys of the base that nearly dwarfed her.

And no, the symbolism hadn’t been lost on him—that of all things that could have appeared beside her here, it would be an ancient cypress that had taken root--a species that carried many meanings—most markedly, a symbol of death and the grief that followed it.

It was no secret why she stood within its graces now, as it reached for the skies of the Dreaming, weeping for them both.

The sight had an old--yet never forgotten--not even for a moment--pain lodging in his lungs, making his breath hitch, forcing his jaw to clamp tight before he cleared his throat, choosing not to face those particular memories right then.

Seeming to have heard him, Calliope turned. Some of the tension easing in his chest at seeing the light had returned to her eyes.

Then with a soft, indulgent shake of the head, she smiled. Just as stunning as always.

[kismetmoon]

HI BRAIN NEURONS ARE ACTIVATING AND i’ve never really talked about my oc lore™️ in proper detail before, so i’ve just been babbling almost completely incoherently about them all. consider this a sort of masterpost where i’ll store and update their summarised story thus far, for context on them all.

also here’s some links to posts with extra important info (for my sake and yours, but mostly mine) - some of which are only briefly mentioned here :

01 Isosceles attack : https://www.tumblr.com/kismetmoon/725482560116899840/im-atlas-and-i-aim-to-keep-you-alive-id-a

Ruth’s irregularity : https://www.tumblr.com/kismetmoon/724857688569397248/i-just-realised-i-never-talked-about-it-before

Liz’s goal : https://www.tumblr.com/kismetmoon/732625660962652160/the-false-shepard-here-to-lead-our-lambs

Chief Sr assassination attempt (visual) : https://www.tumblr.com/kismetmoon/724375857742970880/what-was-the-first-colour-you-ever

essentially everything starts when Atlas takes part in trials to become a personal guard. he gets through and has to leave his family to go and live with the family he’s been chosen for (which is Chief’s family). Liz and Atlas were both very close to one another as kids, but now that Atlas is leaving Liz is left with just her parents. Atlas leaves the day after his 13th birthday, and Liz is 15 (there’s a 2.5 year gap between them).

after Atlas has left, Liz looks for odd jobs to busy herself with and to earn a bit of money. she does simple jobs for those willing to hire her, before she’s fired from every local job due to scrutiny. she ends up working in her da’s underground bar as a bartender to help out. she gets a tip from a patron about “a posh geezer’s house that has a broken window lock”. she sees this as an easy gain, and so heads to the address to intrude. Liz is 17 at this stage.

the address, low and behold, is Chief’s house and Liz is quickly caught by Atlas. cue soppy sibling reunion and a little angry Chief looking at his messed up bedroom that Liz has just tried to ransack. Chief doesn’t report Liz and she continues to visit, begrudgingly becoming Chief’s only friend (other than Atlas). she comes and goes from the Manor as much as she pleases and overhears many conversations between Chief and his Father - none of which she likes as they always manage to leave Chief in tears.

Liz also hears stories about Chief Sr from her da (who used to be in a small revolutionary army). these stories and the conversations she’s eavesdropped on anger her immensely, to the point that she acts out her assassination attempt on Chief Sr, but it’s clumsy and under-calculated; she walked up to him through a crowd while he was giving a speech and hoisted her top, sharp point up at his eye. she wasn’t nearly close enough and only managed to leave a deep gnash under his brow, before fleeing back into the crowd unidentified.

a month after this was the 01 Isosceles attack. Liz loses her arm here and Atlas gets his scars, chipped corners and star cataract. Liz runs again and patches herself up, while Atlas is taken to an actual hospital. Chief is given a substitute guard while Atlas heals, as well as time to think about his position in their world and his relationship with Atlas - realising how much he misses and worries about him. Liz is 19, Atlas and Chief are both 17 here.

Liz flees her family home, not knowing if she’s been identified for either of her big crimes. she travels to a remote village on the edge of nowhere, gets a job with a desperate equilateral in his clothing store, but needs a place to stay. she finds a vacancy advert hidden at the back of the community bulletin board - it’s for Ruth’s cottage. Ruth isn’t overly happy with her new roommate, but desperately needs Liz’s rent money to keep her cottage (which actually belongs to her father). Ruth is 18 and Liz is 19 at this point.

Ruth and Liz live together for the next 7 years and Ruth is quick to warm up to Liz’s company. Liz eventually loses her job after about two years, but chooses to stay with Ruth regardless as they’re dating at that point (Ruth asks Liz out about 1.5 years after living together).

as for Atlas and Chief, Atlas starts dating a line after he heals up who was ‘swooned’ by his ‘heroic actions’ against 01. and Chief gets jealous because of course he does. but Atlas and his girlfriend soon break up bc they can’t see each other enough due to Atlas’s job, so Chief immediately and horribly starts flirting with Atlas just 2 weeks afterwards. Atlas eventually realises what’s happening and they start their little awkward, secretive relationship.

they start dating when they’re 17, and Stella is born as a surprise when they’re only about 21. she’s kept in Chief’s mother’s (who’s deceased) abandoned room, which is next to Chief’s room. Atlas makes a crawl space under Chief’s desk to this room, seals the door shut and diy soundproofs it, so if she starts making loud noises no one will find her and take her away. Atlas dotes over her constantly, but Chief has mixed feelings about her, becoming aloof during her first few months of life but eventually comes around. slowly.

Stella gets harder and harder to contain as she grows because she gets bored in her room and, as a mostly unsupervised toddler, wants to explore. so that’s where the ‘child ghost in Circle Manor’ rumour start to pop up. Atlas eventually gives her over to his parents for safe keeping when she’s about 2, and his parents are elated to be grandparents. Atlas brings Chief to see her on the occasion. Irene and Elijah like Chief, Jasper is neutral on him, but Vance does not like him at all. Chief meets Ruth too somewhere along the line and she just fucking despises him more than Vance does so that’s funny.

and that’s about it up until ‘present day’ with them, where Liz is 26, Ruth is 25, Atlas and Chief are 24 and Stella is 3. there’s obviously more to their story but that’s what i have for them that’s pretty concrete so far.

[anderwhohn]

Things I'm doing in the background:

Moving my notes and such to a new scrivener project (roster changes make it a nightmare to navigate otherwise, and this blog in particular saw a major change in the roster, though the pages don't necessarily reflect that still)

Update the page structures to reflect forementioned roster changes - several muses have been reclassified as Irregulars and are now available only upon request on a highly selective basis (ie most are restricted to mains and those on my Best Friends Calls only)

Restructure the templates for the dossier pages and redo them for all the muses that are remaining as full muses

Restructure the templates for the verse pages and redo them for all the muses that are remaining as full muses

Update all the listed verse tags for all muses across all four blogs on their respective verse pages - this is to help make it easier to match which verse goes with which detail, especially for the ship verses

Using the same templates, create dossier and verse pages for the Irregulars - all such muses will utilise the same respective page for now, though it may be broken down further by overall fandom category in the future (mostly if I decide to add the details for fringe Irregulars that have largely gone as unlisted to the pages as well)

Move all the Connections details to a fully locally coded page instead of one utilising GDocs because that seems to bork and cause the pages not to load more often than not

Update the mod lists for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, especially noting the mods that have an effect on those universes' roleplay canon within my blogs (namely the story mods, but also a few of the appearance ones as well that play a large role for some muses)

There's probably more, but I've been awake since 5:30am, it's currently almost 7:30am, I haven't had any coffee, I can't remember if I took any ibuprofen or not, and I only have another 2.5 hours to myself before I have to leave to deal with getting mom in and out of the car for her PT appointment today.

In the meantime, if you haven't already, I redid the forms back in June to reflect the roster changes (plus the service I use for them updated to make it where I hopefully won't have to redo the entire form from scratch in the future with further changes, so yay?!), so if you could fill those out asap because it's been over a year since I was really active and verses have changed in addition to muses, so it'd help to know where current interest is.

People who have never written with me at all before and are not mutuals should fill out the New Follower Interest Check - and only that form initially. The rest of the forms are intended for mutuals only.

If we're not mutuals, and you'd like to write together:

New Follower Interest Check - simplified questionnaire to cover which muse(s) you're interested in writing with + a few other important details

If we are mutuals, and you'd like to write together:

Interest Tracker - required for in-character interaction

Ships & Dynamics - required for shipping & other dynamics

Best Friends Call - closest thing I have to a permanent starter call with bonus features; mutuals with established threads only

[blazingstaro]

Hey gang! DotS:MMM update!

I will preface: the comic is still live and shall continue at an irregular schedule until I can pull myself together and get back into the flow

Frankly I have not felt up to drawing and forcing myself into a grind. I need to pace myself and not feel like this is an obligation. I started feeling like I had to make pages to keep up the pace and not disappoint, but that started to really ebb at my enjoyment of making this comic

This is my hobby, and not my job. Nobody pays me to make these. I make this because I like it and want to tell a story. Something I have to constantly remind myself, despite the pressure of disappointing my readers with my inconsistency. These days I draw in bursts and end up losing my stamina because I become emotionally overwhelmed

My energy is still fickle. I'm bombarded with overwhelming negativity at home from various sources, including personal stress and depression caused by my current life situation. What I make to decompress shouldn't be a stresser either

I'll continue to chip away at finishing these pages for DotS:MMM Part One, but it will be at my own pace. I'll post again once I feel ready and satisfied enough with how many pages I have in hand. Deadlines stress me out and kill my motivation to draw. Again it makes me feel obligated to do this stuff, to make it instead of just being something I enjoy and have fun with

Also Orpheus decided to worm his way in, so now I have to rewrite some scripts to as well fix a tremendous continuity error that Orpheus has come in to correct. This man makes me rewrite everything, I swear omg

You'll see what I mean in later parts of DotS:MMM

Thank you guys as always for your patience! 💖

Additionally for you all, my Tumblr lovelies, I'll continue to answer asks! Might be able to squeeze in a sketch or two as I go, but goodness I have to constantly train myself to draw for fun and not treat it like work. Tumblr has been helping with that a lot

My previous following several years ago on dA used to pressure me into keeping up with my own content and would punish me with hateful comments if I didn't post art of their fave OC of mine often enough (yes my OWN oc, not a fan character), and UGHGHGH MAN. HEAVEN FORBID I posted a new design without some sort of specific ritual first, just up and dropped a new character like "hi hello this is bleebo blorbie my new baby blorbo kthx bye". They'd throw a fit over that too. Not everyone of course, but it was a lot of people

I was bullied by fans of my own original content 😭 you see why I do fan stuff these days

It wasn't even remotely done, didn't even have a comic or story; people lusted over my own designs. I felt like I had to finish a story that never wanted to be told just to make ends meet, to appease the unappeasable, and burnt myself out entirely on the series to where I had to scrap the whole thing.

Thankfully that's not the case anymore, with my current following being great and sweet, but on rare occasions a rare impatient reader will show themselves on dA specifically

I appreciate you guys being so chill and kind to me throughout this year 😭 Tumblr gang I've always loved y'all. I haven't felt at home on a site in so long