#have I been forcing an idea onto myself so hard I have no choice but to accept it as truth

[potatogratins]

— where the stars shine brightest

꒰ summary ꒱ after a day with friends, yuki ishikawa comes home to you cooking dinner. He's not open to the idea of you taking in the excess of the food he has to eat and believes you're forced to do all that—or so he thinks.

꒰ genre ꒱ fluff ꒰ pairing ꒱ | ishikawa yuki/gender-neutral reader ꒰ w.c. ꒱ 1,354 ꒰ published ꒱ august 18, 2024

꒰ a/n ꒱ wrote a very quick yuki one shot :) in reality, i think i would be extremely weirded out by his meal choices LOL but I love that little (he's literally tall!!) idiot...

“Tadaima,” a voice speaks by the door.

In the volume of his voice, you know that the day was well-spent with friends. Its tone, a pitch higher than it usually is, comes as a sign of cheerfulness. In these mere three syllables, you know that even if the day was partially cherished, there is an implication of excitement; the day for him can only be fully cherished when he has loved and adored you in the flesh.

“My sweet,” you greet Yuki, as he walks behind you and kisses the top of your head.

“Oh, please don’t smell my head—it’s full of sweat and pollution,” you tell him, but he kisses your head again nonetheless. He stands beside you, as he observes you cooking.

“What’s that?” he asks with such naivety.

To which you reply, “Your usual meal, your majesty.”

“You don’t have to cook for me, you know. I’ve been doing it on my own for more than ten years,” he says as he tries to hide his frown. You may be slow in other things, but when it comes to Yuki, you’re quick enough to figure him out.

“Let’s not talk about this. The moon is shining half as bright, and even if the clouds are hiding the stars, I know they’re shining twice as bright. It’s a beautiful night, so let’s cherish it,” you tell him. He playfully nods and puts his hands up in defeat against your poetic, dramatic little ass, and you place each food onto a plate before Yuki brings it to the table.

When the both of you finally get to sit down, he takes in the food he has always taken in in the same way. But when he sees you, eating what he would call scraps—the excess of his meal, mixed with extra condiments and leftovers–he is left sighing at every instance you put a piece of your meal into your mouth.

He has to do something about it… and so he says, “I still don’t feel comfortable about this.”

“About what?”

“The food.”

You look down at your food, and then at him again. To you, there’s nothing wrong with what you’re eating. You begin to understand that tonight is a night that will be filled with sighs—well, not the kind both of you are hoping for.

“Yuki, again. At the very beginning, I said I wanted to be in charge of the meals. You had no objections. You said I could make any meal that I wanted—your words, not mine,” you tell him calmly and slowly, “I have spent a majority of my life making decisions for myself without the help of anyone else. If I loved you any less, I would have walked right out that door.”

He simply nods to your words. He’s taking the information in, just as much as the both of you are eating. When both of you finish eating, you begin to take the plates and utensils–as well as the pans, pots, cutting boards, and whatnot–to the sink to get them washed. Yuki stays still in his seat, watching your every move.

“I didn’t know you love me that much,” Yuki confesses.

You laugh, “Silly. You think too much. I’m wildly devoted to you that I’d clean your rice paddles—and all of these I do because it’s my choice, I hope you understand that.”

“I’m beginning to.”

He approaches you from behind, his fingers constantly moving, never in the same place it once was. He then wraps his arms around you and places his face on your head.

“I thought I told you—”

“I don’t care,” he interrupts.

“My head—”

“Blah blah blah—”

“It stinks—”

“Blah blah—”

“It smells—”

“Like love and hard work.”

For a moment, you place one of the white plates down and turn your head to him—bewildered, amazed, astonished. Your eyes widen and eyebrows raise.

“I didn’t know you love me that much,” you then confess. Oh, how the tables have turned. He looks at you and smiles. When you turn back to washing everything that was left on the sink, he plays with your hair, which looks and smells of love and hard work.

After washing the dishes, you and Yuki form a separate routine. As you shower, he begins brushing up his Italian and does his stretches. An everything shower, as you call it, gives him an opportunity to take as much time as he can to catch up with whatever he has not done for the day.

When you finish your shower and step out the bathroom door, you see Yuki by the living room, going through his phone just to pass the time. He looks up and sees you, pajamas crinkled and hair dried. He smiles and pats your tiny, tiny head and showers next.

You sit on the left side of the bed, turning on the lampshade. In silence, you grab your copy of Ogden Nash’s I Wouldn’t Have Missed It and the pen that sits in between the pages. You begin to go through the poem To My Valentine, annotating a word or a phrase or a line or a stanza. There are intervals in the scratching of the tip of the blue ballpen against the surface of the page. You revel in this kind of silence, where you sit and do what you love while the love of your life is just a few meters away from you. It’s comfortable. It’s a reminder that love persists in every space you both occupy. It’s a routine you will never get tired of.

By the time Yuki finishes his shower, he checks on you by peeking through the bedroom door. You are asleep with a book in one hand and a pen in the other—which he is grateful that you haven’t accidentally written on the bed sheets at some point—snoring the night away. It's surprising for him to find you already asleep, for on the most normal of days, if he finished showering, you would have surely greeted him outside the bathroom door, asking him to get to bed in an instant. He tiptoes to your side and takes away the book and the pen, lightly placing them on the bedside table and turns off the lampshade. He then goes to his side of the bed and lies down.

Not wanting you to sleep in a terrible posture, he nudges you a little. There’s a soft sigh that comes out of your mouth before you see his shadow, as you're half-awake.

“Whatisit?” you ask.

“You fell asleep reading again.”

You fix your posture, fully lying down.

“Youshouldn’thavewokenmeuppp,” you scold him.

“Why?”

“Ialways…needto…getaheadstartbeforeyoustartsnoring.”

He laughs. He combs your soft hair and says, “I’ll stay awake till you get to sleep.”

For the next few minutes, he places his hand on you and feels your chest rise and fall less and less and your breathing turn quiet. Then, there’s a little snore that comes out of you. He smiles. He has no right to complain about you snoring, it’s not as loud as his snores anyway.

He brushes your hair and kisses your temple. Then again. Then again. He lies on his side of the bed, allowing the darkness to seep through his eyes. In his head, he begins his plans to spend a day with you tomorrow. Or maybe two days. Or three. Though your love for each other is infinite, life is not; Yuki will hold you dear for as much as he can, for as long as he can. He'll do anything to express his gratitude besides what has already been expressed in the days since you have been together.

Then at long last, you are both asleep.

By then, the night had fallen halfway. The clouds have finally cleared, where the stars begin to show their shine. Just know that whatever nature throws, the stars are still bound to you and Yuki—at the height of adoration and tenderness between the both of you, there is love in a sky where the stars shine brightest. 

[childrenofcain-if]

Hello, Axel, I'm a big fan of all your works and have been following you since the first blog you had of What Lovely Bones. I'm super excited about this new book and it really looks like you've found your niche and moved along with it so far.

I've always felt that you were a great writer and you've only gotten better over the years, I sometimes feel like a proud sibling because I've been here since you were nineteen and you're now twenty one, if I'm not mistaken 😅

Ok I'm rambling now so let me get to what I wanted to ask: how does your writing process go and do you have a schedule to work with. I really don't want you to feel burnt out over things in the future like you did with your other projects

wow, we have an og here, it seems. glad to have you onboard for what’s been like 3 years now (i think)!

i wouldn’t say that i have a particular ‘niche’ when it comes to genres and whatnot, but it’s not very surprising to see the assumptions either. i’ve been decently motivated to write this story and have been very productive without burning myself out so no writer’s block on the horizon yet, but i won’t jinx myself.

i don’t think i have a specific writing schedule, to answer your questions. my creative juices flow freely sometimes or just remain stagnant the other times. i do write my ideas down when they come to me so i won’t forget about them later. but i’ve also learned that you just can’t force yourself to write when your brain is running low on motivation or ideas.

it’s a five-step process for me when i do decide to write:

review the notes which includes the ideas i previously jotted down sporadically.

adjust them to how it might fit onto the scenes that i’m writing.

connect the ideas and assign characters, choices, and ultimately the consequences of said choices.

talk to myself for the dialogues and note them down as well, laughing to myself like an escapee from a psych ward and patting myself on the back for particularly witty one-liners.

black out while typing and later gain consciousness with a terrible back pain, hands cramping up, and at least 5-10k word count per writing session.

a lot of these ideas will never see the light of the day—e.g.: MC getting hit by a hockey stick so hard that they get a concussion and can’t hear out of their right ear—but they do serve as a runway for other ideas to take off.

if i had any advice to give writers, it’s to just. write. it. down. maybe you think it’s irrelevant/weird when the ideas first come to you, but by that point you already have the foundations ready. all you have to do now is to adjust it and build up on it.

[annabelle--cane]

im listening to mag again and damn do the archival crew HATE jon. listen i get it supposedly your lives would be normal if he hadn't brought you here... but he didn't? (minus og archive crew, jon requesting them and all) if anything he was just kinda there when you made decisions, bro wasn't EVEN THERE when melanie got hired like??? like how r u gonna wish him pain rn, he's ltrly sopping wet and on the verge of dying💀

like another anon I got a month or so ago, this is one of my sleeper agent trigger phrases, so this might be another marina monologue moment.

as I'm also in the middle of a (for my standards) incredibly slow relisten, I've been thinking about this topic, too, but I've been coming at it from a slightly different angle than I normally do. in tim's case, we don't get an actual look at the circumstances under which he transferred to the archives, it is theoretically possible that jon laid it on a bit thick in asking him to come with him to the department and tim wouldn't have even thought of it otherwise, but with melanie we have several scenes of her hiring and onboarding where jon is not present and she continually rebuffs people who tell her she's making a mistake, so the text very clearly sets up that her blaming jon for being trapped there doesn't make sense. and, even with tim having been requested by jon, he still had to make the ultimate decision to switch departments himself, so, yknow, what gives?

most people, I think, and myself in the past, have come at this question from a very jon-centric pov because he's the main character and it's a jon-centric show, but I think putting it down to "they lash out at him because he happens to be there and stops defending himself after a while" misses something, as does "they lash out at him because elias sets everyone up to think they have an adversarial relationship to jon." more than that, I think it's about the rejection of agency.

tma is a show that's very much About agency and choices, so it's important to keep track of where characters suddenly balk and try to offload their choices onto other agents. martin, despite being very proactive and efficient when he sets his mind to it, has a consistent habit of thinking of himself as fundamentally unimportant and unable to affect real change. jon, someone who is usually culpability_acceptor_4000, really tries to convince himself that the web made him pull statements out of strangers. and melanie and tim, on realizing that they've gotten themselves stuck in the archives, have similar reactions of trying to retroactively make those decisions jon's.

they hate being stuck there and they can't bear the idea that it might be their fault, and they don't know how to reconcile the choices they did make with the greater forces outside of their control that shape their lives. tim swings right from seeing jon as fully responsible to seeing everything as the result of cosmically inevitable bad luck, and this hits him so hard that it leads directly to his suicide. post-bullet melanie gets a better handle on it; accepting that she chose to fall further into the slaughter opens her up to accepting that she made other choices, like joining the archives, as well as accepting future choices, like quitting the archives.

and yes, in the moments where tim and melanie are most vulnerable and just starting to realize how deeply screwed they are, jon (at least from their pov) does something to make it worse. when jon tells tim that jane presntiss wasn't his fault, tim says "well you sure made me feel worse afterwards! and then everyone had to pay attention to how you were feeling to get you to stop stalking us!" when melanie goes in for a second assassination attempt on elias, elias makes jon talk her down instead of doing it himself, presumably to try and get the slaughter mark done with. neither of these are the inciting incidents for tim and melanie's situations, but they stand out. and because jon is culpability_acceptor_4000, a man who feels like the weight of the whole world is on his shoulders and is even right some of the time, the accusations stick. tim and melanie don't want anything to be their fault, jon thinks everything is his fault, and it's a bit of a vicious self-fulfilling cycle.

[reneeluv154]

My Baby pt2

Hope you enjoy!!

⚠️Tw this imagine contains: Mentions of rape and child loss (abortion).⚠️

It had been three days since I woke up in the patient room and I still sat here in bed. Jack did as he promised and moved my bed to the window which made me happy and cured some of my boredom but I was sick of this, sick of the pills and the breakfast in bed, especially sick of not knowing what was wrong with me.

Jack would always avoid the question when I asked.

“Sorry Y/n, I have a surgery I need to get to.”

“Hetty needs me.”

“You need some rest.”

“I don’t have a whole lot of time.”

These were just some of the many excuses he used.

I heard a very faint knock and the door opened, Jack peeking inside. “Brought you a snack.” He held up a bowl of fruit. “I’m not hungry for anything other than answers Jack and I expect to know the full story before you leave this room.” He was shocked nonetheless but sighed and sat at the end of the bed.

“Y/n, It’s a hard thing to explain I-“

“Well, then you best use your brain.” He stood and paced the room running his fingers through his hair. “Y/n, I really can't, it's best you don’t know.” I was frustrated, “Jack Dawkins, I deserve to know what you have done to me!” I had never raised my voice at him but I couldn’t take it anymore. He nodded, coming to sit on the bed and holding my hand in his. “Y/n, You were pregnant…and the baby was going to kill you, we had to cut open your stomach.” I was horrified, “Where is my baby?” Jack let go of my hand avoiding eye contact. Tears welled in my eyes, I grabbed his face resting my forehead on his own, our noses just barely touching. I took a breath.

“What have you done with my baby?” I whispered, my eyes sealed shut, praying it was all a bad dream. “Y/n, I’m sorry.”

“No!” I screamed and I sobbed falling into his arms, my adrenaline numbing any physical pain.

He held me close for what felt like hours gently playing with my hair and rubbing my back. My sobs were now soft whimpers and my breathing was more controlled. “Y/n?” He questioned, I didn't respond, “Were you aware you were pregnant?” I shook my head. I never knew I was pregnant. I had just assumed I was rapidly gaining weight for whatever reason.

“Do you know who the father was?” I had an idea of who it may have been. I never wanted to have any sexual relation with this man but it wasn’t exactly my choice. “I was raped,” I whispered, I myself couldn’t believe what I was saying. “I’m sorry Y/n, I knew after you woke up from the surgery you wouldn’t remember what happened for a few days, I never wanted to take your baby from you but I had to, I was forced to.” His voice was hushed and calm. I turned to face him, my head still on his lap, he was still playing with my hair. “Who forced you to?”

“Darius.”

My rapist, Darius, was my rapist, I remembered. “Y/n, I know it might seem selfish, he was going to have me hung but more importantly you would have died.” The tears in his eyes told how much guilt he had. “Why would I die?”

He choked, “He was going to poison you and the baby, Neither of you would have made it. I chose the way in which I could save the most lives.”

A tear fell from his cheek and onto my gown. I wasn’t mad at him, I couldn’t be, he hadn’t asked to be put in such a situation. “I’m so sorry, love. You would have been such a beautiful mother.” He ran a thumb over the top of my cheek wiping a few more tears. I couldn’t stand seeing him like this. I never saw Jack cry and now he was sobbing.

Before I could even think I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him. The kiss was deep with meaning and passion but I pulled away. “Jack, you should have never been put in this situation, I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at Darius, not just for what he has done to me but for what he’s done to you, and my baby.” I would have hated knowing what I went through for my baby but would have loved to see them grow even if not by my motherly love.

“I love you.” Jack breathed, I nodded “I love you too.”

Me and Jack had been close from the day he arrived here. Now we lay on the bed, Jack holding me close, My head on his chest, while we looked at the stars, trying to ease ourselves. “Jack.”

“Hm.”

“Boy or girl?”

“A Girl sweetheart.”

I pointed out to the brightest star in the sky. “That’s my baby girl.”

[adozentothedawn]

Six-song soundtrack

Rules: If you're tagged, make a new post with links to music and/or lyrics describing the following:

An event that defines your character's past

How your character sees themselves

How others view them

Their closest relationship (platonic or romantic)

A major fight scene

End credits song

Tagged by @solas-backpack-mug (and others but I never got around to it and now I forgot, sorry :( ), thanks!

Favaen (with Emblyn making a guest appearance)

So this was hard, on the one hand because I didn't really have anything on hand and on the other because when I went looking I suddenly had a bunch for the same point.

The Shore - Basia Bulat

Dakara Hitori Ja Nai - Christina Vee (Little Glee Monster)

Rise and Fall - Black Water County

We'll Meet Again - Laura Brehm and TheFatRat

Burn It Down - Vixy and Tony

Like The Dawn - The Oh Hellos

Throwing a tag towards @adraveins and @stylishanachronism for some good music recs. 👀

An event that defines their past

(This was so hard to limit, holy shit)

The Shore - Basia Bulat

There is no one who will take me by that shore Close to the smoke, far from the fires of your harbour But if I am awake this time I'll know All over your eyes, a storm is rolling over, rolling over

Emblyn, dearly regretting her decisions.

Oh you can take away the divine my dear And comb your hair And I won't mind at all Even when the thought's behind I came just to remind you I love you so

And while she does regret a lot, this one thing she clings onto.

How they see themselves

Dakara Hitori Ja Nai - Christina Vee

(an english cover translation)

Once I hated everything Sadness seemed my destiny Couldn't see the beauty all around me (If only) my future spans in front of me A crossroad branching endlessly The road is paved, the course is set I'll grab my dreams, the time is now

Favaen used to have severe emotional management problems and had no idea what to do with herself, a problem she eventually worked out with the help of her mentor and mother figure.

But those empty words are not a plan Lucky stars don't care So don't rely on counting them I'm thinking way too hard about my past I gotta push myself, I'm facing my worst fear, oh Don't care if I'm crying (I'm crying) I'm flying (I'm flying), I made my mind up Trust me, I will keep trying I'm stronger than I know (I'm stronger now) Don't care if I'm lonely (I'm lonely) It's only (It's only) the end of the old me It's time to let her go Say goodbye! (Say goodbye, say goodbye!) Love never lies

She is inherently optimistic because she made the decision and effort to be. Despite her past (both personal and Emblyn's) still on weigh on her, she does her best to move and make the future a better one.

How others view them

Rise and Fall - Black Water County

Listen here, tell me dear What have you now got to fear? Took you long to realise Take it one day at a time verse You've been wasting the minutes In the hours of your days Look around and you'll find That it's just another way

But there's something on my mind That I need to leave behind So tear the page, hit erase 'Til the day you hear me call Make a promise that you'll be The best to rise and fall

Favaen makes herself a turning point for the people around her. An opportunity to do better, to move on, to be someone you's rather be. Be that for Edér who ties himself to her in turn with such a force he literally sails across the ocean on the vague hope it might save her, or for some random bandit who gets to make the choice to leave, live another day, and never see her again.

Their closest relationship

We'll Meet Again - Laura Brehm and TheFatRat

This one had a lot of options, both in relationship and song (Edér being a good contender for example) but I realised I already had this one saved and it's too good not to take so Eothas it is. This is probably pretty self explanatory.

Suddenly you're nowhere to be found I turn around and everything has changed Looking for a way to work it out I'm trying to find some peace to navigate Everything we wanted turned to gold (Turned to gold) The path we chose, the future on our side Never thought I'd do this on my own (On my own) But now I wield the sword you left behind Dark for the sunrise Clouds for a blue sky Space for the travelling star Strong from the inside You're still my life-line I feel you wherever you are The oak tree where I met you And the writing on the statue I still remember every word you said I'm not a soldier, but I'm fighting Can you hear me through the silence? I won't give up 'cause there will be a day We'll meet again

Fight Scene

Burn It Down - Vixy and Tony

This was kinda hard for different reasons. I eventually landed on this one because it fits her as a character and is energetic and inspirational. Some expamples:

The legend of the firebird Is one of transformation If you dare to take the journey And you give the wolf his due Let the flame inspire For you are your own creation Throw your fear upon the pyre And let it rise as something new

So you think you don't burn bright enough? I tell you it's not true Burn it down, burn it down, burn it down Throw your fear upon the fire and burn it down Throw your voice out to the wind Feel the heat upon your skin As you hunger, so begin Burn it down

End Credits

Like The Dawn - The Oh Hellos

(The Oh Hellos are such a treasure trove for this)

I was sleeping in the garden when I saw you first He'd put me deep, deep under so that he could work And like the dawn you broke the dark and my whole earth shook I was sleeping in the garden when I saw you At last, at last Bones of my bones and flesh of my flesh, at last

Imagry of how Eothas kept Emblyn's soul with him repaired it over time and how she was eventually reborn as Favaen with pieces of him holding her together, making them essential soul twins.

You were the brightest shade of sun I had ever seen Your skin was gilded with the gold of the richest kings And like the dawn you woke the world inside of me You were the brightest shade of sun when I saw you

Being a form of soul twins it made Favaen absolutely miserable to be apart from him (something he didn't consider at all as a possibility cause he is in fact, not very smart) and eventually officially joining the clergy was an incredible relief for her.

[clarafae]

Writing Fanfic Tag Game

Thanks for tagging me @crazy-ache

Describe your writing process from idea to posting/publishing

I usually have an idea knocking around in my head for a while before I even touch a keyboard. For weeks my brain will just pick at this idea, turning it over and over until the only way to get it out of my head is to just sit down and write it.

Sometimes I'll start writing and the idea that seemed so spectacular in my head is actually quite mediocre on page and I'll shelve it. Sometimes I'll come back to them. Other times I'll dissect it for other fics.

If I'm on to a good thing then the words come really easy and I'll ride that wave for as long as I can.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Both. Most writers are a mix, I think. I like to plot my plot, and pants my relationships, if that makes sense.

My plot gets outlined at the beginning and it very much is a case of writing: This [thing] happens, and then that triggers [this event], and then this character responds [like this], etc. until I reach a point that I think would make a satisfying ending.

I like to build the relationships in the story blindly. The characters tell me how fast they want to progress, and how they talk to each other in one chapter will build the foundations for the next. I find that if I plan for the characters to kiss in a particular chapter, that it feels weirdly forced.

Sometimes the plot will progress too fast for my characters and I have to throw in a few filler chapters to bring their relationship to where I need it.

What do you listen to when you are writing?

Nothing. I have a rambunctious three-year-old and I need peace and quiet once she goes to bed.

What’s your drink of choice(while writing)?

I draft with wine and edit with coffee.

Promote yourself! What’s your favorite thing you’ve written?

Currently, Hand of Fate, but probably because it's my shiny new toy.

Share a fic of yours that you think is underrated/deserves more love.

I've actually been pleasantly surprised by how well my fanfics have been received. Springtide was the first time I've written fanfiction since my teen years writing Harry Potter fics on fanfiction.net

Do you have any advice for new writers?

I think storytelling is hard, but it can be made easy. Sometimes it's as simple as asking myself 'What's the most interesting thing that could happen next?' and then just writing that. Then, at the end of that scene, I ask myself that again, and I just follow that until I have an outline for a story.

Don't compare your first draft to someone else's final draft. And on that note, even the most well-written authors will have a first draft that looks like yours, they just go on to polish their writing far beyond what most people would.

Don't worry about writing blocks, just write [something interesting happens here] and move on. I often write [Lucien says something sassy] and then by the time I come to edit it I have to hope I have an idea of what he would say!

What is a writing style/technique that others do really well that you'd like to get better at?

Something I've been trying to do with Hand of Fate is slowing down my writing and letting my scenes breathe before moving onto the next scene. I've always been in a bit of a rush to move from one exciting event to the next and sometimes my fics move far too fast. Sooo much happened in Springtide it that it easily could have been twice the length. With HoF I've really tried to wring as much from each scene as I think I could without it dragging before moving on.

Is there a character you were surprised you enjoyed writing as much as you did?

Ianthe! I really leaned into her being as bitchy as possible and I had a wicked time with it. She initially was only supposed to create a bit of tension between Elain and Lucien, but I guess I accidentally created a full-on villain.

I would tag people but I don't really know anyone. So if you decide you want to write one, go ahead!

[munasnook]

Upcoming Projects:

There’s so many stories I’ve been wanting to write and projects I want to work on but I have a huge creative block that’s been stopping me for almost 5 years now. I need to stop thinking about only the end result and stop being such a perfectionist, but it’s so hard. I’m making a list to motivate me, and give any tips, advice, or suggestions for creative block if you feel inclined! Thanks so much!

These aren’t ranked in any particular order, but I’m only adding projects that I’m less intimated by onto this list so I can actually start working on them, have a finished product, and not be miserable if it doesn’t turn out the exact way I imagined it.

Fun, Dark Magic D&D Campaign:

Building a stronger D&D 5E campaign for my players. This is my first time playing as well as being a DM, and this is all of their first times playing too. The campaign started in a city full of dark magic, and the characters are currently being pursued by dark wizards for a special item and following one of the characters. I’m working on my improvisation and I’m pretty awkward when it comes to RP/voicing characters, and I want to keep this in mind as I build but also improve on it. (Just don’t want to stall the players or take us out of the game because I can’t think fast/clearly enough!)

What I want to accomplish:

- Making a name for the campaign, first of all. It’s just been going by the group chat name…

- Having a driving goal for the party, as well as a stronger sense of the world they’re in and why.

- Writing sessions more loosely with more options for players, and also finding ways to create concrete events without forcing players into too much exposition/lack of choice

- Tailoring the campaign to the rest of the party’s skills

- Creating more areas and events for the party to explore without being overbearing/overwhelming

- Finding a balance of everything above to make a loose outline of a campaign so I don’t get so lost as a first time DM

Cthulu Session:

I just started reading some Lovecraft for the first time (overdue!) and it was pretty inspiring to me, as I’ve been trying to come up with some ideas for a fun Halloween type campaign for my players.

What I want to accomplish:

- A session that’s memorable and feels very Halloween like.

- A chance to improve on my descriptions of the environment to my players, as well as the effect they have on the environment.

- Give the players a chance to jump more into character and feel like they can RP more comfortably.

- Fun, creepy vibes session that still ties into the story.

Fantasy Novel:

There’s been this idea (only a mood, so far) of a fantasy story I’d like to write. I still don’t know anything about the characters, but I’m starting to notice things about the environment. I’m hoping that by building the environment first (which I’ve never done before) will give me a new challenge, perspective, and process to writing a story. I’m hoping eventually characters will come along the way, and if it doesn’t work out, I’m happy to turn it into a video game or somehow tie it into my D&D campaign.

What I want to accomplish:

- Have a full script of something I’m proud of.

- Learn how to create a strong environment, work on showing/not telling, and successfully immerse the reader in a new land though writing.

- Start and finish a writing project all the way through, even if I don’t feel my soul in it like I do with my bigger projects. (Something to get me going!)

Romance Webcomic

It’s been a small dream of mine lately to make a cute WLW webcomic to get myself used to scripting, drawing, and sharing my content. It’s very different from anything else I’d be writing, but it would really challenge me to rely on dialogue (which I’m horrible at writing) and learn how to do pacing before I start on my longer, more complicated comics.

What I want to accomplish:

- Create something (start to finish) that warms me up on how to write dialogue.

- Learn how to pace comics and chapters.

- Post my work online.

- Draw/translate written script into image, and get faster at drawing comics instead of obsessing over smaller details.

- Learn how to write, draw, and publish with a schedule.

- Build up something to get me going, something I can be proud of, even if it isn’t my ultimate ambition.

- Find the fun in writing and drawing again!

Well, hopefully I have more pressure to start working on this stuff now. I’ll be posting some of it just so I remember I’m staying true to my word, it’s so easy for me to look over and choose to do something else, but if I make tumblr a space to write and learn/encourage other writers, I’ll feel much more excited to write than when I’m sitting at home alone with BG3 and Elden Ring calling my name…

Hoping to make this page a journal and documentation of some kind as I reignite my creating journey. It’s been almost 5 years of avoiding creating work, and it’s starting to really ache. Better to start now than later!

[curiousitycollective]

I've been questioning on and off since i think, 2020? 2021? if im plural or not. At first i decided that no im not, because i dont have did/osdd/etc and I wasnt open to the idea of any other form of plurality bc it was always looked down upon. I stopped thinking about it for a while but more recently I've been having trains of thoughts that dont really feel like they belong to me: im not sure how to explain it, its not a voice, feels more like a thought that was placed into my mind but doesn't belong to *me*; but then i was thinking maybe im just personifying my intrusive thoughts etc + i have a history of experiencing paranoia/delusions too so, yk

We dont really switch either. I space out a lot (i do dissociate, im just quite confident i dont have any form of disordered plurality) and it occasionally it *feels* like im not in control but I know I still am. The most "out of control" i've felt was doing something and feeling that it was *influenced* by someone else, but not actually done by them. A lot of the things I thought were alters (back in 2021) were also more fragments of myself, I would say (minus one guy who's more distinct, but idk if im just making all of that up.)

I'm not asking you to tell me "yes, you are definitely plural" or "no definitely not" of course, I'm just wondering if there's any input or anything you could direct me with or anything ? ^^;

first sorry if you have been waiting on a reply, tumblr apparently isn't showing us notifications for asks anymore. Also our answer will be above the read more, and we'll stick some resources, blogs, ect under that we think might be helpful.

So a few things, starting with some general stuff for when you're questioning things plural and otherwise.

On the "am I making this up or not?" we encourage anyone whose questioning to distinguish between "making something up/faking it" and misinterpreting things when looking at their experiences.

If you aren't purposely forcing things or consciously creating them then you aren't making something up, you can misinterpret one thing as another but if you aren't trying to do something then you aren't making it up, making something up/faking it is a conscious choice.

We also encourage anyone questioning anything to worry less about "am I right about this lable?" and focus more on "does this label help me/make my life easier/explain things to me?" It takes the pressure off about being wrong and focusses on what the thing means to you specifically.

If you decide to identify as plural and find that no, this doesn't actually fit there's nothing wrong with going "nope not actually me" and continuing on with your journey.

We've gone through many different sets of identities and pronouns before we found what fits, because often the only way to know is to see if it works. The importance thing is to make sure that whatever you choose fits you, instead of you forcing yourself to fit it.

We definitely recommend journaling or doing some sort of tracking to see how you feel about different things over time. Honestly a small notebook you keep in your pocket and jot down any stray thoughts or influences would probably be a great start.

Its actually something we did when trying to sort out the influence of ocd from schizospec from plural. It can help you see patterns over time that would otherwise be really hard to spot and also having an external record helps avoid a lot of the pitfalls of human memory

Onto the more plural related stuff. So one thing to note is that its not at all uncommon to not directly hear anything or feel others beyond stray thoughts and feeling influences especially with plurals who aren't fully aware of being plural yet.

Internal communication often takes time and practice in order to become reliable. Its not something that you'll regularly see in plural communities online because by their nature most have some degree of awareness and internal communication, otherwise they wouldn't have sought out the community but it is completely normal.

Feeling like others in brain are versions of you, or fragments also is not uncommon. Its another experience that doesn't get spoken of on here but its one many have, smile/Wren/Ghost are some of our oldest members and started as alternate versions of each other before becoming more individual. Some find that as members become more aware and communicate improves members become more differentiated some stay the same, either way its not an unknown or weird experience.

One thing we highly recommend for you is looking into the median community and their experiences. Median falls under the plural umbrella but covers those who feel their system is less differentiated/closer to singlet.

Okay this is already huge and I think we hit on most points but please feel free to ask follow ups about anything we've said

- Everyone

Blogs

@median-culture-is

@multiplicity-positivity

@inclusiveplurality

@pluralpolls <— good for getting an idea of different experiences in the community

We'll also add our #accounts and narratives tag to this post, not everything is plural but its our tag for collecting different experiences so there's probably some stuff there that's useful

[jsab-crisis]

It’s been mentioned in several posts that Square had a girlfriend at one point, but he doesn’t seem to have one during the time of the comic. What happened to her?

"I have a hard time convincing myself if she was actually my girlfriend or not. I mean, she said she liked me and I liked her back, thought that was the automatic stamp for a relationship but I was young and naive back then and I'm pretty sure she was too."

"We talked about life and what we wanna do when we grow up... she said she had no idea what she wants to do in life and I said the same thing, pretty sure we bonded on how much we're expected to do so much while we're still trying to figure things out."

"She didn't have any ill intentions like the guys who'd force me to do petty crimes or they'll gut me. No, she was just like me- in a way. Clueless of what to do and honestly... it was comforting, knowing I wasn't the only one who had zero thought in life."

"I think I tried to love her or act like a good boyfriend, we only hang out whenever we see each other at school cause she had strict parents. So our dates are usually at lunch or after classes."

"She... liked me too, I think, she tried to be there for me but it felt like we were just clinging onto each other for our problems. I don't think I've gotten to know her to a personal level involving her passions or dreams, just listening to her problems while she bonds with mine."

"I think we stopped seeing each other once graduation was near and... she got me flowers. I should have been the one to do that but she got me flowers first. It made me realize I rarely gave her any gifts like chocolates or teddy bears, either cause I'm always robbed or maybe it never occurred to me what boyfriends usually do in relationships."

"She said something along the lines of 'I would have liked running away with you'. She hated where she was going and I knew she hated what was happening, she was... she had no choice but to let everything happen."

"...I think that's why I find myself tearing up for her. She was like me in a sense, I could relate to her pain in a way that I felt like I was still by myself with my own thoughts- just a different pretty face. Maybe I didn't love her and maybe she didn't love me... maybe we were just two lonely people trying to find comfort in the worst people."

"We were just two young kids in the worst of things and trying to cope by bouncing our problems off of each other because we don't know how to comfort one another. And when she left, it felt like nothing changed. I was still me, the worst kind of me, and even after all of that; It's still me."

"Maybe if I did love her- just try to love her more, maybe she would have been happy. She would have felt what it was like to be loved and maybe she wouldn't have gone away like that. Maybe she would have smiled or laughed or anything."

"But I couldn't... I didn't know how to do that at the time."

"I think it's too late already. I'm not sure how she's doing but I hope she found happiness somewhere."

[moshintheteagaiwan]

T. Kettle Part 10: Display Staging & The Wedding

I was none too happy with someone new coming to my store to do display staging. For months now this has been my responsibility and my layouts had been given excellent reviews from upper management. I had turned this store into one of the top rated stores in the company. Besides the gigantic malls, we had the highest sales of all store locations. What could I do though? I had no choice and so I waited for dreadful hour when the new staging rep would arrive. From the moment she walked and I introduced myself I wasn’t impressed. She was a bit stand offish and immediately gave that impression of “what I say goes”.

She began tearing down shelf displays and dropping merchandise everywhere she could. It was covering the counters, the floor, the back counters, and everywhere in between. And all this while customers were coming in trying to browse, but were met with an unruly mess. You see she was not there just to adjust our displays but to create all new displays for which all store would be modelled off of. Issue was that not only had she never been to any of the other stores, she was also not aware that not all stores has differing product, display bays and shelving set ups. I tried to explain to her how certain things might work here but not for other stores but she had no interest in hearing it.

She spent over five hours tearing apart displays, reconstructing them, and then tearing them down again. And she also had me assisting here to do this while I also tried to deal with customers. It was clear she had no real idea of what she was getting into or what was available. I remember she has me drag out this massive old DavidsTea floor display stand to set up all the new Christmas tins on. I dragged the stand out onto the floor and she asked me leave it to her. We had around seven new tins to display and of the seven tins, three where red in colour.

She set up the tins on this round display so that one shelf had tins broken up by different colours but then decided that all red tins should be displayed side by side on one shelf. It goes without saying that this cause the three different tins to blend in which each other and hard to tell apart. She asked me what I thought of her display and I explained the issue with the colour layout. Unsurprisingly she didn’t understand what I meant. I had move things around on my own in order for her to understand the issue and even then it wasn’t sinking in. But finally after several hours of this back and forth nonsense she was done and my shift was over!

Admittedly and rearranged some things the next day.

Christmas shopping was starting of slowly this year due to Covid which was understandable. It was so nice to have the hours available to not only have a proper team, but to also have someone to work with and lunch break relief. Prior to the Christmas season, with only three teams member including myself, and only enough hours to staff equal to the number of hours the mall was open, I often worked full day alone. Because of how I was forced to schedule, at least four days a week I would work alone from open till close, and would have to close the store in order to take any kind of break.

I hated these times, especially through the week as it got quite lonely at times. It worked out so that I didn’t work weekend because I worked most of the week alone, and my other team members had more availability in weekends due to school. The company wanted managers to work all weekend, but due to the circumstances surrounding scheduling I said no. And because our store non the less was a high sales store, upper management usually left me alone about it. Now I could work a full shift with a partner to keep me company and keep the store running for lunch breaks.

I was glad I had such a knowledgeable and strong team behind me because I needed to leave the store for a week during busy season to get married. My original team members were amazing at picking up the ball and keeping operations running smooth while I was away. However, if you could believe it I got a call on the day of my wedding from an operations rep wanting to discuss an issue at the store. Apparently the day after I had left for my wedding, upper management had asked the manager on duty to make up eight $100 gift cards, and that someone would be coming to get them. The manager on duty did this as instructed. When the person arrived at the store, the manager had them pay for the gift cards and handed them over. However, this person was not told nor instructed not to charge this mystery person for these cards and upper management wasn’t happy.

I explained the this rep that not only was I unaware of this incident, but that I was about to get married, and has informed the company of this months ago, and asked why I was being contacted. I could tell the rep was red in the face and she quickly apologized and hung up. Thankfully I never heard from the again during the rest of the time I was away. I later learned they contacted the manager on duty and had them do a full $800 refund and that our store numbers would be affected by it even though this was a company error.

Beyond this and the occasional scheduling issue with the seasonal staff, the Christmas season went great. We sold out of promotional gift offers, our Christmas teas were big sellers, and our sales were in the top two almost weekly. It was wonderful being back in that Christmas shopping environment. Sadly though it would be my last...

[possessionisamyth]

Will you be buying a hypothetical Bayonetta 4 or have you given up on the series entirely?

I am so happy you asked me this because I was gearing up to write a Bayonetta post this morning to try and say what people haven't said already, so like.

Bayonetta 4 is only feasible as an upcoming sequel with Viola as the protagonist if they add a bunch of new and unique mechanics to how she fights.

The main thing about Bayonetta that made her a fun hack and slash game was her unique fighting style. She shoots guns from her hands, guns from her feet, swings swords from her hands, swords from her feet, torture attacks, umbran climax, demon summonings that were wrapped in hair so she could get more naked and was also a cool way to narratively function a demon leash. Viola has one demon summon of cheshire, a furry fairy form, and a sword. This is a downgrade.

Viola's fighting style feels like something I can easily find in any fighting game on any character, whereas Bayonetta's isn't. So, unless they add a bunch of cool shit for Viola to do, I don't think many fans will be running to Bayonetta 4 like they did Bayonetta 3 even with all the voice actor controversy.

It's also very obvious that Viola, though her design rocks hehe, was a forced hand move from Nintendo. Nintendo has built their image around being family friendly no matter how many non family friendly games they port to the Switch. However, acting as Bayonetta's publisher when Bayonetta herself is not family friendly, well, I feel like someone said they have to change things up. Whether or not this was more influenced by Devil May Cry 5's baton pass onto Nero I cannot say because I'm not into that series, and I've only enjoyed the 5th game. But going from sexy sexy Bayonetta (thank you women) who built popularity and mixed conversation with her image to hard rock punk style Viola with added scarf and nerdy glasses? Screams Nintendo forcing their hand.

I would've sooner placed Bayonetta in the hands of Capcom to try and avoid this, and I have a love/hate relationship with Capcom.

Now for my thoughts on Bayonetta 3 below the cut.

First, the game mechanics.

Everyone is saying the game mechanics were improved significantly, and I'm not arguing with this across the board. However, there were decisions I just didn't like after spending two games learning how to catch them. I don't like how the main boss health bars look. I liked the color bar going down to reveal a different color. It constantly refilling had me confused until I noticed the tiny as fuck diamonds at the bottom.

I didn't like the climax summons being a part of the boss fight. If I wanted to play a Godzilla game with slow hunkering movements, I'd pick up Godzilla. I would not pick up Bayonetta which is supposed to be very snappy fast in movement. I hate that they took away the hair leashes for the demons. This was just a personal design choice I didn't like. The introduction of new fighting styles via the other Bayonettas felt ham-fisted. I liked going to Rodin, buying a new weapon, and fucking around with it myself in the little practice area. I do not like having to watch someone else use it first. Why are you giving me tutorials for each weapon? Let me suffer the consequences of my stupidity. Put me in the mines, father. I'm strong.

Jeanne's segments should've been like the rest of the game where instead I get to do Metal Gear Solid levels of sneaking around. Period. The 2D platforming callback wasn't all that good.

Now for the story itself.

Look. The Bayonetta series has built their stories on spectacle. The bigger the better as they say, but Bayonetta 3 really proves that size doesn't matter, it's how you use it.

What made Bayonetta 1 and 2 so fun with their bad writing, and yes as someone who studies writing It Was Bad, was the spectacle of it. The fact that you as a player were also piecing together the real story at the same time as Bayonetta was good. Little Cereza in Bayonetta 1? No idea what the fuck was going on with that during the game until the end considering I was constantly fighting for my fucking life. Loki in Bayonetta 2? Oh hey, maybe he is evil and just lost all his memories-nope. Switcheroo. It's twins! Yes, they were color coded, but they do not show the forehead symbols on the prophet really. Bayonetta 3? You immediately know Viola is Bayonetta's daughter, and they dance around it the entire time like they didn't put a big stamp on her in the first cut scene.

Bayonetta 3 writing tries to distract you with new game mechanics as the spectacle like shaking baby keys in front of you instead of enamoring you with the wack job story leading into the biggest boss fights you can handle. In Bayonetta 1 and 2, I got to have a conversation with the main bosses. I got to interrupt their yammering with a gunshot. I got to be just as confused alongside Bayonetta when they repeated themselves. I got the banter. I got the smug responses and playful annoyance, and I got to hear angels evil laughter as they were dragged into hell. It felt poetic in a stupid way which made it camp.

In Bayonetta 3, I have to talk to only Singularity, and he's boring as shit. Bayonetta is also getting way too serious during these interactions as the game progresses, which is also boring as shit. They try to circumvent that by having Viola be so comedic to further show the baton is being passed, but I didn't like Viola. I liked Loki. I liked Cereza even though she literally couldn't do anything and escort missions are usually a bane in any video game. I understand why Viola is the way she is because of who her father is, but I just didn't like her as a character. This could be a result of her given little room to be fleshed out due to all the other Bayonettas in the story, but even her fighting segments weren't fun to me.

Now before I address the elephant in this tiny writing room when it comes to the ending of Bayonetta 3, I'm going to address Bayonetta 1 and 2.

When I started Bayonetta 1 and I saw Luka, I thought I knew exactly where the game would go. I saw the director was a man. I saw that Luka was the standard pervert comedic relief character you get in anime with the sexy woman as the lead. I saw what year the game dropped. I am used to disappointment. I was 100% sure in the first game they'd slap Luka and Bayonetta together, because shitty japanese writers love that dynamic for some ungodly reason. And I won't even say this bad writing trait strictly falls on the men. Looking at you Rumiko Takahashi for Inuyasha! Yeah, I never forgave Miroku/Sango, and I never will! So, I was absolutely blown away by Jeanne's role in Bayonetta 1.

Jeanne and Bayonetta have the dynamic in Bayonetta 1 that many fanfiction writers dream of getting published. Friends to enemies to friends to possible lovers? Check. Amnesia dynamic? Check. Brainwashing dynamic? Check. Time travel? Check. Sexually charged banter in every interaction? Check. Like for homo-eroticism, these two are hitting every button on the board, and I don't give this kind of credit freely. So, I absolutely understand why so many gay people resonated with that and latched onto Bayonetta.

They double this up in Bayonetta 2. I didn't like that they put Jeanne in the fridge, but having Bayonetta need her so badly that she is going to brave traveling through hell to get her back? Not metaphorically either! She's literally going into hell to get Jeanne's soul back? This is unprecedented levels of gay I could only hope to achieve getting published myself, and the only way to have made this better was to give the player segments where they get to play as Jeanne fighting demons in hell. They even cut Luka's pervert appearances back severely in exchange to focus on Loki and Balder. An improvement in my opinion.

So finally we get Bayonetta 3 where they show multiple universes of Bayonetta and Jeanne together, and fighting and dying for each other, over and over again. They then shaft Luka in with the Arch-Eve and Arch-Adam titles. They don't show how different Bayonetta's interact with different Lukas to build up to that pay-off. They could've done this with Chinese Bayonetta and French Bayonetta. They don't show Lukaon and his version of Bayonetta together to slightly suggest that payoff. They don't show Luka and Bayonetta (Arch-Eve Origin) even having any chemistry in the beginning of the game.

They could've easily had Luka driving around Bayonetta in that opening cut scene instead of Enzo. It would've been a good switch after Bayonetta 2 where Luka is seen driving around Rodin at the end! It would've shown they've gotten close. It also would've been the perfect lead off, with Viola falling into the arms of her alternate universe father, and Luka having no idea who she is before he runs off to investigate. This would've left Cereza to wonder where he ran off to. If they really wanted to pass the baton onto Viola from Bayonetta, then Viola and Bayonetta should've switched jobs after the Luka werewolf discovery. It would've been a callback role reversal from Bayonetta 1 to show this time its different with having Cereza chase after Luka.

The baton would've been passed with having Viola clean up this mess while working with different versions of her mom including fighting grandma Rosa. The finale lead up with them getting stuck in the alpha verse then could've had us switch back to focusing on Bayonetta for the final extremely long boss fight as a solid but unwanted goodbye in a narrative fashion. I still would've hated Luka/Bayonetta end game, but with those changes there'd be a lot less room to fight it like people have been. It also would've made Viola's fights more interesting by giving her alternate Bayonetta abilities and letting those demon summons be hers going forward while having Cereza stick with her original demon crew to show she's being replaced.

I already understand that Luka's changes are the result of each destroyed universe's Luka merging with the original. That's why his head is so messed up, and based on Bayonetta logic we've seen, that's why he turns into a huge furry. So as for their relationship, I knew from Bayonetta 1 they'd pull some shit like this when I saw the director was a man even when they changed directors, especially since the creator was still running the show. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, and boy did it drop. Right through my house actually.

It was a sink hole of an affair. It's insulting how they put so much into making the gameplay interesting that they expect the player to just swallow this pill of a story like it was always meant to be. And in a fucked up way it was always meant to be, because bad japanese writers love love love writing this dynamic. Start from 2000s anime and go backwards, and you will keep catching the garbage pervert character maturing just enough to get the hot lady into a romantic relationship. It's not new or unusual. It's just disappointing every time it happens.

Sidenote: There's nothing wrong with the idea of Bayonetta being bisexual. Bisexual Bayonetta is great, but if we're going to pair her with a man, Rodin is right there. Their dynamic is spunky and fun. He's a demon. She's destined for hell after she dies. He legit told her if she died, he'd be on her soul like white on rice. They have the bartender and patron "tell me your woes" dynamic. He lovingly makes beautiful weapons for her to use. He comes in to save her sometimes like Luka does. They find each other entertaining. She's dressed like a sexy nun at his funeral, which is both a mockery of the church and a testament to his resurrection! COME ON PEOPLE.

In summation, I don't know how they would or could recover from this story going into Bayonetta 4. Hideki says it will be following Bayonetta 3, which means Viola will be the protagonist unless some higher ups force his hand to not do that. The other way they'd bring Cereza back is if Bayonetta 4 bombs so severely that they have to retcon anyway and focus on another Cereza in another universe for Bayonetta 5. And that's if they don't settle for putting the franchise in forever limbo in the chance Bayonetta 4 bombs.

I can absolutely see them teasing a different Cereza appearance in order to drag those sales in, but I'm not sure how far trust extends after the ending of Bayonetta 3. The gays are mad and probably won't buy. The gross dude-bros want to see sexy, and Viola is too masculine for them. Long-term fans, who can also fall in any category but actually liked Viola, are going to wait for plot synopsis and for other people to play first before dipping their toes in. I also could be horribly wrong due to streamer culture of needing to buy the latest game with the most attention around it in order to garner views.

I will say I'm not a long term fan. This franchise is new to me. I've digested all I can of Bayonetta for the first time in the past two weeks. However, like any series that's been running for a while, I am curious. I'm also going to wait for reception after other people play it to see if it's something I'd be interested in. And that's if we get it at all.

[mlplovelight]

Ch. 14 - Run Away With Me

Rise and grind, APPLEJACK! Time to attack the day!

You groan and put a pillow over your head. You don’t really feel like rising or grinding today, if you’re being honest, but then again you don’t exactly got much choice, do you? Another day, another… day.

You slide out of your comfortable bed like a puddle of sludge and hit the hard wooden floor. With a groan, you force yourself up onto your hooves and let out a weary sigh.

Okay, NOW it’s time to attack the day.

“HEY APPLEJACK!” Pinkie Pie calls out and causes you to jump; you totally forgot she spent the night here in the shop.

You head out to the entry room thingy, the ‘foy-er’ or whatever, and Pinkie greets you with a big smile and a wave as she comes in the door.

“I got breakfast!” she says, brandishing two bags from Ribbon Heart’s bakery. “I asked the lady behind the counter what you’d want, so hopefully it’s good!”

“You went out by yerself?” you ask, grabbing the bag that Pinkie tosses to you. “I’m supposed to keep an eye on you.”

“I’m not a child, Applejack,” Pinkie scoffs. “I get that I have to keep my wings hidden, but I’m an adult and I can look out for myself. Don’t worry your pretty little head over it, lmao.”

“Yeah, alright,” you sigh and sit behind the counter. The food is good, but you barely taste it, and once you’re done with it you cradle your face in your hooves as your mountain of responsibilities start pilin’ up on you.

“You okay?” Pinkie asks, putting her hooves up on the other side of the counter. “You don’t look too good.”

“Got a lot on my mind, that’s all,” you force a smile. “No worries.”

“Okay, I won’t pry or anything, buuuut,” Pinkie hums, “sometimes it’s easier to deal with stuff if you’re not dealing alone, y’know?”

“Nah, it’s just,” your groan and rub your temples as you think about all the things, “I gotta get you back to Daisy Dreams, I gotta help out Cherry Spices with her expedition, and I like Cherry a lot but she kinda worries me sometimes cuz she doesn’t have the care for Old Equestria and its history and its fragility and its denizens, and she hired me on BECAUSE I have that care, but that makes me think I’m gonna be havin’ to babysit for her and her crew, not to mention I’ve got an expedition to prep with Twilight, and I’ve never been that far away from home before and…

“It’s just a lot.”

“Sounds like it,” Pinkie says, and she puts her hoof over yours. “And hey, I know I said I wanted the Ponyville tour, but you don’t gotta do that for me if you’re overwhelmed, okay?”

“I WANT to do that though,” you grumble, puffing up yer cheeks. “I love givin’ ponies the tour.”

“Then let’s do it!” Pinkie chirps, a big smile on her face. “But don’t worry about Daisy Dreams. Like I told you, I’m an adult and I can take care of myself. I’ll get back to Daisy on my own, I’ll say really nice things about you and about our time together, and you can just focus on Cherry Spices or whatever.”

“I…” you fold your forelegs on the counter and rest your head down on ‘em. “Yeah, I guess that’s a good idea. I appreciate it.”

“OR! Consider this!” Pinkie leans over the counter, forcing you to lean back as she pushes her nose right up against yours. “Run away with me!”

“Eh?” you scoff at what an obviously absurd thing that is to say, but Pinkie just stares you down and it slowly dawns on you that she’s being serious. And while that SHOULD make it even more absurd, instead you find yourself asking; “Run away where?”

“I dunno yet,” Pinkie Pie shrugs, but her doubt doesn’t diminish her enthusiasm at all. “That’s part of the fun! I’m headed into the ruins in your backyard, right? I’m gonna meet up with my pal Rainbow Dash, and we’re—”

“Yeah, that’s what yer doin’ with Daisy Dreams, right?” you mutter, feeling the weight of responsibility pressing up against the back of yer skull again.

“Hm, sorta,” Pinkie mutters. “Like that’s what we hired her to do yeah, me and Rainbow hired her to get me from one place to where I was gonna meet with Rainbow. But Daisy has her own agenda she thinks I don’t know about, but I’m smarter than she gives me credit for lmao.”

“Wait, what?” you ask, lurching your head up in alarm and feeling your heart sink into your stomach. “What agenda are you talkin’ about?”

“Eh, I dunno the exact details,” Pinkie shrugs. “And to be honest, I don’t really care. But Daisy is SUPPOSED to get me to Rainbow Dash, but I know that she’s planning on giving me up to Cupcake on our way to the meeting place. I dunno what Cupcake offered her, and again I don’t really care, but I’m not going back to Cupcake.”

“Wow, I really played right into your hooves, huh?” you sigh dismally, resting your cheeks on your hooves.

You wanna be upset about Daisy, either defend her from what Pinkie is accusing her of, or else feel disappointed in Daisy for betraying a pony’s trust like that, but Daisy is a businesswoman and this is just kinda what they do.

You just like to pretend like yer all on the same side, but people like Daisy, and Cherry for that matter, who are all about makin’ their own way and getting ahead, they’re on their OWN side. And you can try and attach yerself to ‘em like a remora, but that don’t make you a shark.

“Ehhhh, kinda?” Pinkie hums, tapping her chin ponderously. “Me and Daisy were always gonna have to part ways before we reached Old Equestria, and I hadn’t figured out my escape plan until you came along and offered me the opportunity of a life time.”

Pinkie turns back to you and smiles brightly.

“Which is why I wanna return the favor, baby,” she says with a cunning grin. “You helped me escape, let me help you escape. From all these responsibilities, all this stuff that’s making you so clearly unhappy. Run away with me!”

You take a deep breath and close your eyes as you prepare to turn Pinkie Pie down. It’s awfully nice what she’s offerin’, at least in theory, but the real world don’t work like that. You can’t just run away from the stuff that you’re meant to do, you can’t just burn all the bridges behind you and move onto the next thing like it’s no big deal.

You open your eyes and open your mouth to speak, but before you can say anything you notice the Friendship Bracelet on your foreleg. You forgot to take it off last night before you slept, but the thing didn’t scrape or scuff ya during the night at all. In fact, it felt kinda natural to have it on.

Twilight… you promised her that you would help her and her friend find the body they’re lookin’ for, and you were gonna find the Apple ponies and their history, figure out yer place in this world finally.

But that was so silly. You can’t just up and leave Ponyville. This is your whole world, it’s all you know. You were never really gonna leave it, even if you tried, you’d just get pushed back into your comfortable little box where nothing ever changes, and the box is always gettin’ smaller.

You look up at Pinkie, who’s fidgeting and jittering with excitement. Her heavy cloak hides the shape of her wings, but you know they’re underneath there; a clear visual sign that the world is bigger than the box you know.

You close your eyes and take a deep breath, before letting it out slow in a long sigh. You open your eyes, open your mouth to speak, looking down at the Friendship Bracelet and then at Pinkie Pie.

“Pinkie,” you give her a nervous smile, “let’s do it.”

“YYYYYYESSSSS!” Pinkie Pie cheers, pumping her hooves. “I was hoping you’d say that, Applejack! Let’s freaking go! POGGERS!”

You can’t help but chuckle at Pinkie’s antics, even though deep in your stomach you feel like you’re gonna throw up. You look down at the Friendship Bracelet and give it a curious glance.

A faint pink light glows from underneath its shell.

[jerkfacepink]

Periodically this posts nukes my notifs and I wonder if giving additional info would even be worth it, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to add, I’m not forcing anyone to read it. Maybe archivists will like it. The way things for the web were built are done differently due to the changes in technical limitations— details nobody would realize unless you were from that time. But, maybe fan motivations could be similar? Hah, idk. It was normal for anime fandom online to go to a lot of trouble for our content— as my best friend puts it, “We all fucking walked 15 miles uphill in the snow for anime fandom, that was standard!” and a lot of people who have been online as anime fans since the 90s know each other or at least know each others’ work. (Hey everyone— I’m PIMoSDL from the Ranma ML. Anyone still alive? Hahaha.)

This gif was inspired by an even older dancing Lum gif (transparent background, Lum facing forward, the dance from the Lum’s Love Song ending from Urusei Yatsura, I can’t seem to find that gif anywhere and have no idea who made it), which was on a buddy’s Ranma site that’s long gone. As a new webmaster I wanted an animated gif on my anime site too, because animated gifs were cutting edge, but it HAD to be one I made myself! From OUR fandom! It HAD to have a transparent background because that was more immersive, and I wanted everything on my anime site to be content I produced (it was the first English Ranma and Akane shipper shrine ever; even back then my first foray was into fandom because of ship wars, hahaha. I had a whole fucking career as a web designer because I shipped Ranma and Akane.)

I had to jam the card onto the motherboard with my foot (don’t do this) because it was too hard for me to push in. My boyfriend (who bought me the card after I asked how to get screencaps onto a computer “like those college kids do”) bought it at a computer show; we were still mostly limited to local options for many specialty purchases. Also, I married that guy and we have two kids now 🤍

The first adapter (A/V adapter) didn’t work, so he brought me a coax adapter (hence— static on the screen caps)

You could not just hit “print screen” to get screenshots of video back then. I had to export screen caps from the capture software and use the pause on my VCR if I wanted specific frames. I was lucky enough to have a frame-by-frame feature on my VCR but it left even more lines and static on the frames compared to just playing video and hitting the “capture” button in my software. There was no choice but to redraw everything.

The version of Photoshop that I had was 4.0. It didn’t even have a tool to make rounded corners or rounded corner vector paths, so it sure as hell didn’t have an animation panel/animated gif export 😆

The frames were made in Paint Shop Pro. It was saved to .gif in a separate program (forgot which) where I had to manually enter the hex values for the color palette because I didn’t understand why t f it was messing around with my colors and adding “dots.” I freaked out a bit and had to manually fix all the “dots” that were added from dithering

This was my first gif. I tried my best to make it as small as I knew how to (which was already a relevant professional skill back then, since most people downloaded graphics over a 14.4 modem; 14kb a second. A web page that took up 1mb was about the most you wanted to make— I was working as a fledgling web dev after school for a local company and was learning all this stuff at the time, using my Ranma site as a test grounds for any new tech I was learning. The site’s still up and the last time I edited it was when frames were still in vogue, it’s been a minute lol)

This gif helped make, and outlived, my entire career as a web designer. Companies always change their web presence, so it’s survived past anything I ever made professionally, and it’s loved more than any stupid corporate junk I made, hahaha

THANK YOU BING IMAGE SEARCH. Thought I lost this!  8D

I made this in 1996.  To make it back then was a million times harder than it would have been today:  screen capped each frame in the loop by hooking up my VCR to my TV capture card (it was this external monstrosity with a separate power cord XD).  The screen caps had bad color, were blurry, and full of static so I redrew each frame pixel by pixel with a mouse (wasn’t so good at image editing programs back then). XD;;

Of course, it got lost over time because I made that thing like 203498203489 computers ago, so I’m glad people jacked it from my site back in the day. XD

[witchoftrinity]

1 from basics, 2 from OCs !

Munday Questions

Do you tell your friends / family that you write?

Half my friends are also writers writers/rp people too so its a boon to my sanity when I don't need to explain how out of pocket my muse choices are. As for my family well...yeah I haven't lmao.

They do know I do DND stuff so realistically it shouldn't be too hard to explain this as well. It'd be more trying to tell them the muses I do and not sound like a lunatic.

Who was your first OC?

its been so long I wouldn't even know. Beyond DND characters there's definitely around 2 dozen characters just lost to time that I wrote down concepts for and never really expanded upon.

I think the first real one I developed significantly was a Fate Master that I still use relatively often to this day. She wasn't anything special, really most of it was just other character traits that I cut off and slapped onto her but that's what we all did way back when. Nowadays I actually have a coherent idea of who they are and not some hobbled mess but goddamn their FC changed a few hundred times and really shows how my tastes went.

I'm talking like Deadman Wonderland to Tokyo ESP to Otherside Picnic to whatever is on my mind today. If you ask how it got to that point I LITERALLY would not be able to tell you it just happened. But she's someone I sat down and wrote out a backstory and all that jazz. Nowadays there's stuff like XIV where I can shove most of my energy and call it a day. But past Allul was crazy don't screw with them.

How do you create an OC? What are your steps for developing an OC?

I'm very sorry that this part is long but really its just me rambling with my bad opinions especially as someone who does canons a lot more nowadays. Anyway...

"Just do it. Within reason." - Allul 2k24

This is like 30% a shitpost but also like 70% serious. I feel too many people get hung up on handling everything at once rather then taking it one step at a time. Your mind (especially someone like myself who goes full ADHD constantly) just can't work that way delegating everything to where it needs to go. Then you lose motivation, do nothing, all the above and nothing ever gets done. At least that's how I've noticed my mind goes.

Basically my mindset goes

1. Jot down the idea for a character or group of them. 2. Ruminate over how/what they might do in said setting. Main goal smack dab in the middle. 3. What forces/motivations are helping them reach that goal? Friends? Foes forcing their hand? Outside forces beyond our comprehension? Those are the circles around that middle goal. 4. Other ideas, potentially characters that are intertwined with them, etc.

So Teacher Allul is in session and four an example like this I'll do a certain someone that reared their head here for awhile. Ofc I feel DND works off different rules because you are (usually) at the DM's mercy but that doesn't mean you can't have a compelling OC.

For Asuna "Step 2" I really wanted to try and push the whole "sheltered royalty wants to find out about the real world" vibe but not make it basically her defining character purpose. "Step 3's" forces that influenced her was...well her actually dying and coming back as a ghost on top of the world ending threat that the campaign had. The people she met along the way and getting closure with those intertwined with her own past helped motivate her IC to keep pushing to finally get some that ending she wanted and still open the book for more adventures down the road.

For your own characters just existing in their own universes or other canonverses you definitely have more breathing room since you can fill them into the blanks or have something in the story influence them. It helps ease your mind and connects the goals much easier then your own mind. But ofc YMMV and most importantly, you should have fun! If something isn't seeming right look at it later and find out what you aren't enjoying. it's your character and you can do whatever the hell you want.

[sweetmusingss]

Renee was feeling pretty down the past two days, already missing you like crazy. You both had work commitments though so it was not like she could just follow you around all day. The two of you also had to be low-key too so it probably was not a good idea for you to be publicly seen together so much. She missed you so much though and she just wished the two of you were together again, in your own little bubble. She felt like you were pretty busy and she barely had time to talk to you. She was afraid that you were growing bored of her and she just wanted to lay in bed tonight and mope. She felt her heart race when you FaceTimed her and she answered pretty quickly, it being obvious that she was curled up in bed. “Hi, baby,” she said, seeing how gorgeous you looked. “Wow, you look beautiful… That dress looks so good on you,” she said, clearly checking you out through the screen. “What are you up to tonight?,” she asked you curiously. “I am okay though, just tired,” she said, not wanting to admit how much she misses you and seem pathetic or like she could not handle the distance.

Some of my worry washes away when she immediately hits on me, knowing that nothing was too wrong. The day Renee stopped immediately flirting with me as soon as she saw me or answered the phone would be the day I knew something was very very wrong. “Thank you, babe. I’m going to some dumb Disney event and I have to wear youthful colors... so pink it is.” I smile at her through the phone, it quickly fading when she says she’s just tired, able to tell it was more than that but I wasn’t going to push her. “Aw, my baby. You look very cozy though. I wish I was there instead of here, believe me.” I missed her so much, these past 7 days being absolute hell but I was throwing myself into my work and figuring out my next tour and just trying to keep my mind occupied during the day so I didn’t wallow in my misery. “I just wanted to call and say hi since I’m not sure when this event will end and I know you’ll be asleep by the time I get back home, sleeping beauty.” I smile at her, knowing she was always super tired but today she seemed extra so. I had watched an interview she had done earlier in the week and she had been up all night talking to me, it having been one of the first nights we spent apart, and she was clearly exhausted during the interview and ever since then I had forced her to hang up the phone with me at appropriate times and to go to bed at a decent hour if she had work the next day.  

__

I run my thumb slowly over the back of your hand, smiling fondly back at you. I knew that there was a high chance of me coming to the bar later tonight too as long as you didn’t have enough of me by the end of our day. “How could I resist? The vibes in there are great and the drinks are good but for me, I like watching the hot owner making drinks. There’s so much to enjoy. I have trouble figuring out if I want to stare at your hands, your arms, or those beautiful eyes,” I smirk at you, squeezing your hand gently. I still held onto your hand as the waitress came over and I ordered with you, ordering the iced coffee of course along with some french toast. “What is your favorite food in the world?,” I asked you. I was like a kid, always asking you random questions out of nowhere as I tried to get to know you better.

Seb couldn’t help but flush from your blunt and direct words, never meeting a girl who was so open and honest like that. It was definitely such a turn on, not liking when women played hard to get since he couldn’t read them properly and he didn’t know if he was making the right choice or not in pursuing them, but with you, he knew exactly where he stood and it was honestly such a reprieve. Seb orders himself a latte and steak and eggs before looking back at you, giving you a sweet and amused smile, you being so adorable and you had no idea. “My favorite food? Hm... probably anything my mom makes, to be honest. She makes amazing authentic Romanian food for me whenever I visit her and it’s honestly better than anything ever. I also really love pizza. I know those two are very different but hey, I’m eclectic. How about you? Don’t say iced coffee.”

[echantedtoon]

A Bloom In Time Ch25 Poppy's Day Out P2

"WHAT?!" The loud shout from the red head staring at Mr. Grooves didn't even make the penguin flinch as he only smiled calmly at her still. Poppy gestured to herself with wide panicked eyes. "I-I CAN'T BE IN A PICTURE!! I'VE BARELY EVEN SEEN A TELEVISION BACK IN MY DAY!!"

Again DJ Grooves held his flippers up in an attempt to calm the frazzled woman down. "Now, Darling. I DID get you out of a pickle now. Conductor would've most likely made you do some hard chores in the hot sun, but no!" He held out a flipper to her and coralled her a few steps away from the mess of broken glass and metal soaking in foam. "I may have only known you for a mere twenty minutes, Darling, but any diva who can say it how it is to Conductor and have a good taste in movies might I add, is a diva I can get behind! Darling, I could really use your help!"

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP!? I CAN'T ACT?!" She insisted back looking a bit more panicked. "L-Look! I'll work it off. I PROMISE that, but I can NOT act in front of thousands of people!!"

The penguin looked sad for a moment then sighed. "Alright. Alright. Maybe I was a bit too forceful to jump on the chance for the princess?"

".......Princess?," Poppy asked raising a brow and Grooves nodded.

"Yes. Do you by chance know the Starella Children's Book?" ...Poppy slowly nodded to answer his question. The three children and her watched as he reached a flipper into his coat and pulled out a colorful piece of paper, and held it out to Poppy who after a moment, took it with her other hand that wasn't holding a bill. "You see this story right now is insanely popular right now with the masses especially the young ones." He patted Bow on the head as she smiled and Poppy looked back to the paper in her hand. It was a poster. It was EXACTLY like the Starella book cover with the Orange-red silhouette of Starella and the dark blue Prince. Except it had a few words and advertisment like things on it as well. Like the words 'Coming To The Big Screen Near You: Starella LIVE!! Real people. Real action. And all based on the beloved New Bird TImes' Bestselling Hit Children's Book! Come see us live Feburary 11th! Limited supply Book now for reservations!' Poppy rose a brow and looked back to him. "You see? I wanted to try something ....FRESH!! Lately I've been on a terrible, terrible losing streak! So I asked myself DJ Grooves, you are the most well known penguin director? You need something that can wow the masses and topple Conductor! Something he'd never expect! So I thought up with grand idea for this new live action play! People love the drama and suspense seeing it in person! But there was a problem setting me back. Poppy, Darling, I'm limited on actors here."

''But...wouldn't there be actors here already to fill these r-roles?"

He chuckled. "Well yes you would think that, but you see I'm staying true to the source material. Which means I need human actors, and frankly you're the perfect match for the main role!" Her panicked face went back to him but again he tried to be reassuring. "Now I don't mean to force the role onto you. That's not what Im saying at all. But I promise if you help make this a success, the profits from it will be MORE than enough to cover that. If you don't want to, I'm sure we can find you a job in storage or dress design or...Something?"

Poppy only looked at him with a wide eyed look before staring back down at the two papers in her hands. It felt like she was making a choice. A choice between one hundred thirteen thousand seven hundred fifty pons, and being the center of attention for thousands of people in some famous director's play. HOW WAS THIS FAIR?! STUPID FATE!! DID YOU JUST LIKE MESSING WITH HER FOR NO REASON?! Well there was good n bad with both. On one hand she didn't even have HALF of what these birds were saying she owed, and she wasn't sure she wanted to mess with any law makers. But working off this high of a debt could take YEARS!! She was already forced to work as a babysitter for some ghost's help(she wasn't even sure how long that contract stated she'd be staying) and she still had NO idea what he was up to, staying her paying off ANOTHER problem she caused was really not ideal. Poppy wanted to save what pons she had left, and she still had plans on leading out her own life again. Somewhere far from her cursed home and start over. The only good thing about that option was that she wouldn't be in the public eye. Blue eyes shifted over from the bill to the shiny poster. On the other hand, one play doesn't sound like a big deal when you say it outload, but there's still going to be hundreds of people watching and she'd NEVER forgive herself if she messed up in front of all those people and it might even ruin her new reputation before she even made it. WHO'D WANT TO BUY FLOWERS FROM HER THEN?!....But. A few months sounded WAY better than a few years, and she wouldn't have to spend any pons really, which would both save time and money literally but....GAH!! She couldn't decide!

Sucking in a breath through her teeth, Poppy looked down at the ever calm penguin who still politely smiled at him. "What exactly would I have to do in this ...play of yours?"

He seemed to brighten up as he explained. "Well, exactly as it sounds. We're staying clear and true to the source book material, which means I need human actors like yourself to fill in some roles I or my penguins unfortunately cannot. And you're just the spitting image of that Starella beauty! That beautiful red hair, that fiery passion. Darling you are the PERFECT fit for it!"

"POPPY'S GONNA BE STARELLA!! NO WAY!!," Hattie's eyes were suddenly wide with wonder as the other's gawks around at her.

"YOU! No way!" "THAT'S SO COOL!!"

"Now hold on!," Poppy held up her hands to stop the tirade of excitement from the girls as they all smiled up at her. "I never said I was gonna do this crazy thing."

"But you'd be a great princess,Poppy!," Bow beamed brightly up at her with wonder.

"Yeah! I know, but-"

"So you'll do it?," Mu asked crossing her arms, "If you know you'll do a good job, why not?"

She stuttered over her words. "W-Well, I didn't mean-...I-it's not like that-...I-.....*sigh*" Looking back down to the two papers in her hand and all the choices slapping her in the face made her grip the papers tighter...before loosening it with a sigh closing her eyes. ".....Fine. I'll be the princess."

What followed was a chorus of 'YAY!' from the three girls, and Mr. Grooves smiling like he won a million pons. "OH! Thank you, Darling! Thank you! You won't regret it I SWEAR!! Here. Let me just take care of my end of the agreement right now." From her hand he grabbed the large bill and in a swift moment the paper was torn completely in half. "There! Nothing to worry about now!" Well....Seeing she no longer had a large bill on her shoulders made her sigh in half relief but there was still butterflies in her stomach from the dread that was to come as she watched the paper fall to the floor and sighed. Looking back to the glamorous poster she got even more nervous feelings in her stomach. 

"Great. W-When do we start?"

"Not until I have the other four remaining roles filled. To be perfectly honest, the hardest part of making a film is finding good people for the job. Not to put down the staff, but my penguins are quite frankly terrible actors."

She found herself breathing a sigh of relief at that, her feelings going somewhat back to normal. "I'm....I-I'm really sorry for all the trouble I caused all ya, Mr. Grooves. I promise to work hard for it."

He waved a hand. "Darling! You don't have to apologize for anything. It was a simple mistake no one saw coming. If fact, I should be thanking you! Thanks to you I have one less thing to worry about!"

She chuckled nervously but inside she was still nervous as if she was already standing on stage. "Well....I guess I should start practicin'."

"The best way you can practice is by memorizing that story, Darlin'. I'll send notice once the other roles are filled."

She was about to ask something else when the door behind them opened and they all turned to FINALLY a relieving sight for sore eyes. The metal door creaked open and at last Cookie returned, a small white purse thrown over one of her shoulders as she smiled and the door closed behind her with another loud creaking noise as she walked in. Smiling as her eyes landed on the kids and two adults. Stepping closer the cat paused seeing the now sweeping owls who at some point in Mr. Grooves's and Poppy's conversation had gotten out brooms to clean up the giant mess she had caused. Blinking Cookie looked back up to them with a raised brow.

"...Did I miss somethin'?," she asked pointing to the mess behind her.

"Only the most hilarious talk back the old geezer's gotten! HAHA!!" Mu looked up to Poppy with a smile. "You know what? I like her now! The old wind bag needed to hear something like that for a long time!"

"Muriel!" Mu froze at the scowl Cookie was giving her, giving the famous 'Mom' pose of one hand on her hip and tapping her foot staring her down. "I HOPE you're not referrin' to Conductor now. I'd hate to be the one who grounds ya."

"He was acting rude...But I guess it's a little bit of my fault too." Poppy turned her gaze over to the mess behind them and Cookie looked at her as she nudged away a piece of metal by her foot. "I accidentally knocked over and destroyed this.....camera did ya'll call it? I'd be pretty angry too if someone ruined somethin' like this of mine....But he was still being quite rude."

Cookie stared at her a bit, then at the mess, seeming to quickly put two and two together in figuring out what must've happened while she was gone and groaned. Reaching a paw up to facepalm herself. ''I leave for JUST a few minutes and ya'll are in trouble. What am I going to do with all of ya?" ....A low rumble from Poppy's stomach answered that as she looked suddenly embarrased. Cookie gave a small chuckle and shook her head. "Well I guess there's mah answer. I still owe you all that lunch I promised huh? Well, now that I have this we can grab a bite from my resturaunt across the studio here." Another chorus of Yay! came from the children at the promise of free food from Cookie and Poppy gave a sigh of relief. At least one thing was looking up for her situation. Cookie turned her gaze to Mr. Grooves. "Would ya care to join us, Mr. Grooves? Of course it'll be on the house."

DJ Grooves held up his flipper. "I would LOVE nothing more than to accompany all you darlings, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to decline you're little offer. I still have too much to do and so little time with the costumes, and interviews, and over seeing the scenes being built by the production team. Lately there was an accident on set and we have to rebuild two and a half of the scenes and props."

"Oh my. That does sound really busy. Tell ya what, stop by on your break and order ya some fish on the house. Just tell 'em I sent ya."

"Thank you, Darling. Truely you are an angel in the fur!"

Poppy was glad to grab all her heavy tools and bags again off the floor and follow Cookie out, but not before apologizing again to Mr. Grooves for the embarrassing incident and back out into the hot afternoon sun they went. It was farther along in the sky now meaning it must've been later in the afternoon than she thought. Probably 4:00 or 5:00 p.m.. But she didn't care right now. She had worries in her brain, butterflies inside her empty stomach, and not enough water in her whole body. She was hungry, and thirsty. So take care of one easily problem first before thinking thing's over on the other problem she had gotten herself into for now. Most of the owls they originally saw on their way there were probably already home considering how long it had been since they had arrived but it was until 10:00 until they could go back home on the train, and she was NOT really ready for those transporting umbrellas. The building Cookie lead them too was really just across the studios, and from the outside looked like any of the other plain buildings but only bigger as if two of the regular buildings were smooshed together. Cookie explained this was her long time dream resturaunt and she modeled it after her old home so she could visit it without any of the danger that came with Nyakuza City. Bow seemed REALLY excited at it and Poppy soon found out why. The inside of the resturant looked EXACTLY like the metro room except for the flying tvs, pile of money, and weird moving thing. But the city part yes. But honestly she could care less, Poppy's amazement was overtaken by her hunger and thirst, plus the cool air washing over her again was a great relief again from the hot outside. It looked like a typical resturaunt with tables, chairs, (besides the metro theme) decor, and two double doors that lead to the kitchen she assumed since that's where all the mouth watering smells were coming from. Her stomach grumbled again and Cookie chuckled at it making her more embarrassed at it. there was another counter with a register and yet another owl who lit up at the sight of her boss. 

"Good afternoon, Ma'am. Wasn't expecting you today! Eating with friends today I see. We'll have a waiter right out to you."

Well she was very polite. And they were the only ones there apparently as the children were free to run in and choose a random large table in the middle. Cookie gave her the alright to leave her things on the bench by the door and THIS time Poppy made sure to lay them in a position that didn't pose any threat unless some numbskull sat on it without looking. The two adults joined the three children at the table and sat down at the round table. Odd they would be literally the only ones there in this part of the day. When voicing this to the cat, Cookie explained since this was modeled after her old home all she sold here was the food from the city, and not a lot of penguins or owls liked the dishes other than the teas, coffes, and fish appitizer. Which in Poppy's eyes was valid since everyone had different tastes, it was totally acceptable different species would too. Not long after they were greeted like a waiter who said 'Hi!' and passed out these things called Menu's which Cookie explained listed the dishes and the catagories they were under. Assuming 'swamp people' didn't get out much since she hadn't seen a TV before coming into Hattie's ship. Poppy took a look at it and it read:

Deserts: 

Cake: A sweet baked desert, usually reserved for special occasions like birthdays, weddings, or 2 A.M. Ice Cream Sandwhich: ice cream served between two biscuits or wafers. Sandwich only by name, this desert has mastered the art if disguise. Triple Scoop: Vanilla cream frozen at the right temperature then shaped into a ball, then put in a cone. Many scoops in your cone will impress your scoopless peers and get you that promotion.  Meals

Hamburger: Meat, lettace, and buns grilled and served with condaments. While some may prefer meat alternatives and some skip the lettece, all greatly prefer the prescence of the buns.

Katsu Curry: A tasty pork cutlet cut into stripes served with the rich flavorful curry and usually rice. While the pun is irristdable given you're in a cat metro it will not be appreciated.

Shoyu Ramen: A warm chicken and vegistable broth, served with toppings of your choice. The perfect comfort food of the cold night after you miss the last train of the day.

The Metro Special: A big bowl of rice with fried fish, egg, and chips. A meal of everything, proving that little care can have delicious results.

Rice: Rice is one of the most consumed foods on the planet. It's easy to prepare and cheap, and the savior of wet cellphones.

Side Dishes

Meatballs: Grounded meat rolled into a small ball. To reach true enlightenment you must understand as meatballs go in hair balls go out.

French Fries: sliced and deep fried potatoes. An important reminder that when are alone we are all small fry but together we're delicious.

Fish: Battered and fried fish, usually cod or poloc. Most cats love being able to buy it fried since there's no fish tanks in the metro to steal from.

Soup Dumplings: Steamed dough buns filled with meat and soup. You won't know exactly what taste hides beneath the dough until you build up the courage to bite into the unknown.

Spring Roll: A wide variety of rolled appetizers often filled with meat or veggistables. A tasty snack whatever the season.

Drinks

Hot Chocolate: A sweet, hot drink made from shaved or melted chocolate powder. Enjoy with a sprinkling of mini marshmallows and a swirl of cream if you wanted to visit your dentist soon.

Tea: A hot drink made from boiling water and leaves of plants. Great for getting warmed up on a cold day, either when you drink it or when someone bumps into you

Large Soda: A carbonated drink in a large container. The large soda remains the unsung hero of moderation. An acceptable pick in the eyes of your peers, just one size short of gluttony.

Coffee: A warm brewed drink prepared from coffee beans. Consuming this drink on a regular basis transforms a kitten into a cat and a cat to a nervous wreck. 

Kitten Meals

Drinks The Juice Box: Pressed from fruit and put into a box. Premium juice often shows chunky pulp showing the hypocracy in mankind's unwillingness to drink spoiled milk.

Mini Soda: Small enough parents can't complain to us about a sugar rush.

Meals Pizza Slice: A round dough base topped with tomato, cheese, and other toppings. Most chefs are reduced to tears by witnessing such triangular beauty.  Mini Hamburger an Fries: Like the adult meals but much smaller.

Deserts:

Cookies: Small baked biscuits usually filled with chocolate chips, raisins, or something else. Great for a quick snack or dropping crumbs everywhere.

Wow. So much detail. It was pretty impressive, this must be what it was like to eat rich. She jumped when the waiter owl came back with a smile.

"Are you ladies ready to order?," he asked with a smile and paper 'n pencil in wing. 

"PIZZA!," the three children yelled in unison throwing their hands up in a rather cute way.

"And this extra large soda!," Hattie added much to the other two's agreement.

"Soda?....As in Soda pop?" Hattie nodded in agreement and Poppy shook her head. "Oh no ya don't! I don't need another long night of trying to wrestle you two to sleep!....This fruit juice sounds nice."

The girls awed but Cookie agreed with her. "Absolutely. I don't need Mu hyped up either but if you're all good you all can have some cookies and hot coco." The kids quickly agreed and she purred happily with herself before looking back at the waiter. "Well you heard them."

The waiter nodded and wrote something on the notepad. "Alright. Pizza and juices for the chicklings. And you lovely ladies?"

"Some Shoyu would be nice. Haven't had it in a month, and bring me a plate of that fish will you." She glanced at Mu for a moment and sighed. "And some coffee...I'm going to need it."

The waiter nodded again and looked directly at Poppy. ''And you Miss?"

"Oh.....Uh.." Her eyes glazed over the strange items for sale on the paper and went silent for a few seconds. "I- Uh-....D-Don't really know what a lot of this is actually."

"That's alright. Do you want me to order for you?"

She sighed. "That'd actually be great thanks."

So Cookie just told the owl waiter to bring Poppy some Katsu Curry and some tea, what ever the heck Katsu Curry was. The menu did saw it was supposed to have pork and rice with sounded delicious. The waiter nodded and soon disappeared through those double doors on the far side of the room and it would be a couple moments. Until then Cookie asked Poppy to fill her in on what exactly happened while she was gone inside the studios. And quite embarrassed the children jumped in to excitedly tell Cookie all about how Poppy's leaned her tools against the giant camera and Conductor coming in, and how the camera fell and Poppy took the blame like a hero and put Conductor in his place. Cookie actually looked quite surprised at the mention of the exchange between Poppy and Conductor, and Poppy sunk into her seat a bit from the embarrassment she was feeling especially then Hattie excitedly announced that Poppy agreed to play the princess in her favorite book for Mr. Grooves. 

"Well......It certainly looks like someone has quite the stubborn attitude."

THANK PECK!! The food came out just as she was starting to get nervous again and her stomach rumbled again at the smell of food as it came over to them. The large tray the waiter was carrying was placed in the middle of the table and the first person to receive their food was Cookie. Placed in front of her was a bowl of long noodles with two pieces of chicken, a sliced egg, and a few spices making the seasoned chicken smell all the more better, and next to it came a small plate of white paper and on it was five pieces of bread covered fish. Which also smelt good. The kids cheered as they were handed their pizza and juice boxes. Poppy never even heard of pizza but by the looks of it it looked like some kind of baked bread with seasoning and toppings. How peculiar. The pink juiceboxes were adorable though, with the cat print holding a fake strawberry. Her's looked and smelt just as delicious! What was placed in front of her was a bowl of rice, chopped fried pork, beans, and what looked like lettace! But either way it smelt delicious! Next to it was a small wrapped burrito like thing that she looked at curiously.

"It's an spring roll," Cookie explained noticing her confused expression, "It's usually served with that dish. Sorta like an eggroll but made slightly differently."

And then there was her tea which was served in the cutest coffee cup she'd ever seen! It was shaped just like a cat with a painted face. While the children dug into their well deserved lunch followed by Cookie, Poppy took a moment to admire the well put together dish and the smell it radiated before slowly grabbing her fork and digging it. Shoving a piece of that pork into her mouth........H O L Y P E C K!!!! IT WAS DELICIOUS!!! It was even better that that cheese omlet thing Cookie had given to her hours ago for breakfast. The seasoning, the juicy pork. The fluffy rice!! It was so GOOD!! In a moment she was eating as eagerly as the kids and Cookie watched with a patient smile as the hungry girls ate. She didn't seem fazed a bit or anything as they did so. Probably used to seeing people with healthy appitites. Fair enough the kids finished before  her and understandably begged for more. That's how it went. All for about an  hour it was pretty peaceful. The food was good. She had never had such pork or rice before and the tea was quite refreshing from the hot sun and to her dry throat. And Cookie true to her name, decided to let the still hungry children have more food like they begged and out came some cute cat shapes cookies and coco like she promised. Which amazed her because back in her day chocolate was a delicacy that only the rich and wealthy could afford and yet here they were eating it like it was an everyday item. When offered by Cookie if she'd want anything like that too of course she accepted! When was she gonna get a second chance at eating chocolate! The cake she ate was the BEST THING SHE HAD EVER TASTED!! Even better than the wild honey she'd sometimes stumble across in the forest. Her only real slip up was jolting and dropping her fork when something red flashed across the corner of her eyes but relaxed when it was only a red bird sitting outside the window. It tilted it's head looking inside for a moment before flying off again. Something was definately off about her. She could feel it. Poppy just didn't know what. But for the rest of the time she spent out she tried to bury her worries for her own sake. She just felt really drained right now for now real reason. 

But all good things must come to an end. Hours passed and soon enough it was time for all of them to go home. Poppy could barely remember the long ride back up to the moon city and then again back to Hattie's ship. All she really did was smile and politely agree and tried to not make anymore embarrasing mistakes. Even as Cookie and Mu bid them all a good night and Poppy thanked her for the wonderful day out and the take out she had let them take back with them before they disappeared back presumably to take the night train back before they missed it. It was still a blur when she just flopped onto the cold floor completely physically and mentally exhausted and falling into the world of dreams and red eyes.