#he’s made entirely out of EVA foam

[holidaybrews]

I’m posting this image to honor the full length fnaf trailer coming out (and our favorite big bad Springtrap being officially revealed as well)

It’s my award winning Springtrap cosplay! I’m very proud of it and I’m hoping to bring him back out for a future convention <3

[astaroth1357]

Flipping the Script: Leviathan Meet-Cute (Human World AU)

So what if you met the demon boys in the human world instead? You’re not magic. You’re not special. You’re an average little human that came crashing into some demons one day. Good luck!

Contents: Pretty new format for me, second person (you), forgive any wonkiness

Part One (You are here), Part Two, Part Three (Coming Soon...)

~♡♡♡~

You’re a hardcore otaku influencer with a niche in creating and sharing cosplay. You’ve befriended a lot of other enthusiasts pursuing your passions, but there was one guy that you met at a recent convention that stood out from all of the rest.

The Seven Lords was just having yet another milestone anniversary, so several friends in your circle all decided to get together and do a group cosplay for the fans, you all were even offered space for a panel and locations for meet-and-greets! Your whole fanbase was ecstatic, and so were you, but there was just one problem…

The friend that agreed to be your Third Lord backed out at the last minute! His baggage was totally lost on the flight there and suddenly your whole group was without a member to complete the set. Though you knew it wasn’t a huge deal, you hated to disappoint your fans who were looking for a full group photo-op…

But then you saw this guy waiting around your hotel lobby-

“I can't believe Wess had to cancel on us…!” You thought to yourself while tapping your foot furiously against the hotel's linoleum floor. You were waiting for check-in last night when your collaborator sent his text to everyone, and your team still hadn’t found a suitable replacement… How could you guys have a TSL photo event without a Lord of Shadows?? Especially when you're the one dressed as Henry! What self-respecting group TSL cosplay doesn’t have those two together?? They're the closest pair in the show! The Sun and Shadow shippers were going to start a riot…

You were all still double-checking your gear and supplies down in the lobby. Months of work had gone into planning and prepping for this event… Your friends were trying to calm you down as best as they could, but your nerves weren’t on your side… You hated letting down your fans, even if it was entirely out of your control. But without a replacement, what exactly could you do? Just as you were about to throw in the towel and get dressed, a bunch of shouting from the hallway entrance caught your attention.

“Why the hell am I stuck carryin’ all your crap, huh Levi?! Ya got two working hands!”

“Because this outfit is heavy, Mam-er-Malcom! I need help, or else I'll get sweaty and gross!”

“You're already gross, so what's it matter?”

“Shut up, scumbag!!”

'Yeesh, what a loud pair...' You turned to look their way with a visible frown to show your annoyance only for your jaw hit the floor. Two men walked out of the hall and into the lobby, one being a dark-skinned male with the whitest hair you'd ever seen, and the other… Sweet kami-sama above, the other guy…!!

He. Was. Perfect!! The dark, shadowy armor, constructed fron what you could only guess was EVA foam and faux furs, combined with his violet hair made him look like the spitting image of the Third Lord! It was almost like the character himself had climbed off the page!! You had to cover your mouth to contain an audible gasp of shock while glancing at the others in your team. Only a few of your friends had noticed the man's arrival, but those who had all shot you back the same kind of look, “Go get that guy. NOW!” Who were you to refuse?

The god-tier Third Lord cosplayer was still arguing with his companion when you first made your approach, allowing you to sneak up pretty close without getting noticed. By the time you were in speaking distance, you were already marveling at the craftsmanship of his cosplay up close. The foam pieces looked flawlessly metallic and there were no patches of hot glue mishaps, frayed stitching, or painting mistakes. It was truly something else!

“Hey, what'cha gawkin’ at??”

The white-haired male caught you red-handed, leading the cosplayer in his company to turn in your direction. Though, amusingly, the moment your eyes met he seemed just as star struck as you were. You wasted no time thrusting your hand out towards him with your most “camera-winning” smile.

“Hi! Uhm, I’m Y/n L/n and I'm-"

“-the most popular cosplay model on Instagram, three-time champion of the WCS competitions, and the host of the ‘TSL Today’ fan podcast-!”

You froze from surprise as the cosplayer slapped his mouth shut with his own hand in a bid to stop rambling. His cheeks instantly tinged pink as he must have realized that he was spitting your own resume at you in excitement. It was hard not to feel a bit flattered at the sudden eruption of joy, so you smiled back more genuinely.

“That’s right! You've heard of me?”

You waited for his response with a patient, maybe even endeared, gaze. Seeing that you weren’t immediately weirded out by his hyped babbling, he uncovered his mouth to respond shyly.

“Y-yeah, of course I do…! I uh… came here to see your meet-and-greet today…”

He winced, face getting hotter, and looked like he wanted to double over from embarrassment, but honestly, you couldn’t have been happier. A creator of THIS caliber was one of YOUR fans?? Talk about a “diamond in the rough” moment!

“Really? That’s awesome!! Because I couldn’t help but notice that cosplay you're wearing… Did you make it yourself?”

How his face recalibrated from flustered to ecstatic in just a few seconds could have made your heart melt. After he confirmed that his cosplay was his own handiwork you began to gush about the design, asking rapid-fire questions about the materials he bought, what patterns he found, and his different sewing techniques. You both were so caught up in each other's passion that you hardly even registered the other guy standing next to him until he finally cleared his throat insistently.

“Yo Levi… This crap’s gettin’ heavy. Are we going or what?”

The cosplayer, who you guessed was Levi, turned to the man reluctantly, which sent a surge of panic through you as you still hadn’t asked him to stay.

“Wait!!”

Both men flinched a bit at your sudden exclamation, making your cheeks flush with color, but you pressed on regardless,

“Um, Levi right? My team and I could use your help… Our Third Lord just dropped out on us today because of baggage troubles and we really need a replacement for the shoot. Your outfit is fantastic! Do you think that you could step into the role for us? I have early access badges to the vendors room, so we can take a look together if that uh… if that…? Um. Levi...?”

The man in front of you looked like he was moments away from breaking down in tears, but somehow holding them back through sheer force of will… and his closed eyelids making a decent dam.

“H-hold on… I think I need to pinch myself because this can’t be happening. Is this actually happening?”

His voice wobbled while the man next to him, Malcolm(?), rolled his eyes behind his gold-tinted glasses.

“Hey, that doesn’t answer their questions, ya know?” He elbowed Levi while looking at you with a serious expression, “Are ya willin’ to take him AND his stuff with ya?”

“Of course! It’s important to have everything while yo-”

“Great. You can have’em.”

You were taken aback just a bit by the speed of his response, but not as much as Levi because he quickly leapt back into the conscious world in a panic!

“Wha-wh-Whaah?? You can’t just answer for me!!”

Malcolm shrugged his shoulders, letting several bags he had on slide to the ground but cushioning the fall a bit with his foot.

“Why not? It’s clear ya wanna go with them. Unless you wanna leave them hangin'…”

“N-No!! I mean, yes! No-er UGH!”

You watched Levi cover his face in frustration feeling a twinge of sympathy. Does he get tongue-tied like this often? After a few seconds to compose himself, he finally straightened up to give his true response.

“Y-yes, I want to go with you…! Being able to help one of your online idols is like a dream come true for any fan! What can I do to help?”

You could feel your smile grow twice as wide from the combination of relief and gratitude. Maybe the shoot would go alright after all…

“Give me your hand.”

Levi stuttered watching you reach your hand out towards his, using your other one to pull out a black marker that you always kept on your person for fans. His skin was soft, but strangely cold, when he rested his knuckles into your upturned palm. The icy jolt even made you jump a bit. Holy crap, was he cold-blooded or something?? When he flashed you a concerned glance, you quickly recovered uncapped the marker between your fingers. With years of built up practice, you ran the black ink over his pale skin, but instead of a signature, you left one of your burner numbers that you used for interacting with collaborators.

“Here. We still need a bit of time to get ready, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the con. Text me your name and I'll send you back where to meet up once we're ready to go.”

Levi was staring at the black marks on his hand like you'd just handed him a key item in a video game when one of your team shouted back from behind you.

“Y/n! Why aren’t you dressed yet?? We gotta go!”

“Shit, I’m coming!” You turned to head back, but you spared just a second to smile at Levi over your shoulder. “Thank you so much, Levi, you're going to be a huge help! Don't forget to text.”

“I won’t!”

Levi's promise made you grin lift even higher. With a wink and a wave, you made your way back to the others with a brand new pep in your step. Mission, saved!!

Meanwhile…

“… Did ya seriously just score a number in that getup?”

“I swear, I’ll never wash this hand again...!!”

“Fuck's sake, Levi, stop being so gross! At least put it in your phone before your sweaty palms wipe it off!”

“Gah, you're right!!”

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 12 (Life As a Landgraab?)

After Eva and Johnny returned to his rent-free luxury suite at the Landgraab-owned apartment complex across the plaza, Heather stayed the night with Malcolm.

She woke in the night to pee and found Malcolm’s father, Geoffrey, up late reading in the kitchen. He straightened his glasses when he noticed her. "Can't sleep? Sometimes these big windows let in too many city lights for me, but reading helps."

"I am a little hungry," she admitted. "Dinner was nice, it was just...I felt like Nancy was watching me eat, and she only ate, like, three bites of her own food."

Geoffrey nodded. "She was counting your calories," he admitted. "She only lets herself have so many a day, and once she's counted all her own she can't help but count everyone else's, too."

"Don't you hate that?"

"I've just learned she sleeps like the dead, and if I eat when she's not around, she can't count a thing." His belly moved as he laughed. "Now that you mention food, I could go for First Breakfast. Malcolm says you're a great cook, and I think we've got enough bread for French toast!"

Heather laughed. Geoffrey was kind and sincere - the total opposite of his wife. "Is that like second breakfast? Are we hobbits?"

"We wouldn't need to be if my wife just let people live. But she's got very specific ideas about success that she learned long before she met me. I know my wife and I know she knows better, but I can't lie and say I don't love her strength of will - when I'm not hungry, of course! You'll get used to her."

Heather shuddered. She couldn't imagine getting used to Nancy Landgraab. "I don't want to sell the clinic," she breathed as egg-dipped brioche fried over the stove. "And I really like Brindleton Bay. All those strays help keep me and the animal shelter in business."

Geoffrey smiled. "You fit in well there. I've read some of the online reviews since you took over, and it's nothing but praise for you and your skills. You should be proud."

"How could I walk away from that? Would you?"

"I walked away from plenty for love, including my own last name," he said. Heather plated his toast, and he took a bite and swallowed before he continued. "It's too soon for anyone to talk about marriage, even though all my wife ever thinks about is lineage, but you make great French toast, you're a great vet, and you'll make a wonderful daughter-in-law to anyone someday. If you want it."

With her plate of food, and Malcolm and his parents asleep upstairs, Heather took in the stunning midnight lights. Floor-to-ceiling windows wrapped around the entire penthouse suite, giving incredible views across San Myshuno Bay in every direction.

A far cry from her childhood in Henford-on-Bagley, she considered a potential life in the big city. Her uncle lived here, and Dylan, and soon Holly and Kris would live here, too. This could be her life. Life as a Landgraab, with Nancy for a mother-in-law.

(She did this brooding stare out the window autonomously. After she made the French toast she decided instead of eating, despite the fact she was starving, she wanted to play the piano. I cancelled that and told her to eat her food. But then she picked up the food and headed back toward the piano and I thought she was going to try to play piano with a fork in her hand, but she did this instead.

She didn't even know I planned to make her do this for the plot/screenshot, anyway, and she served up exactly what I wanted her to do with a bonus side of French toast. I just adore her.)

Heather tidied the kitchen and snuggled back in bed with Malcolm, dozing off until they were ripped awake by sunlight streaming through the massive windows.

"Good morning," she said, cuddling into his shoulder. They'd always parted before sunrise, but his king-sized bed with memory foam - and that view! - was a pretty spectacular way to wake up.

"Mmrrnph," he grumbled, turning away and pulling the covers. "I need coffee."

"Never mind," she muttered under her breath, throwing back the covers as she stood so he could freeze.

With the blanket on the floor, he stumbled groggily out of bed. "Sorry," he said, squinting into the sunlight. "It's so damn bright! Don't be like that. I hate mornings."

"It's fine," she said, fighting her disappointment with a plastered smile as they both got dressed. "I have to get back to Brindleton to open the clinic, anyway."

He leaned in for an awkward embrace, but he pulled back when his phone pinged with an incoming email. "I'll text you later," he said.

Making her way downstairs, Heather tried not to overthink his pre-coffee demeanor, but before she returned to the Simmerloop Superhighway, she detoured to her uncle's penthouse in the Arts Quarter. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

[f1sh-mage]

everyone, meet CHIPS!

chips is a handmade alien clown puppet, my first ever puppet i made entirely on my own! he has a huge mouth plate with a collapsing eye in the center, two controllable arms, and he's just a silly little guy!

more info as to how i made it below if any fellow puppet makers are curious :~)

some specs:

the puppet's shell is entirely 1/2" reticulated foam, pattern drafted by me. the mouthplate is 1/8" plywood covered in 2mm eva foam. all the teeth, tongue, and texture-y detail in the mouth is foam clay! the eye in the mouth's center is a series of five wire arches hinged together with thread, covered in painted muslin! so it folds flat like an accordion when you close the mouth.

the mouth was primed with a mix of black and white plastidip to give it a speckled look, then painted with multiple thin layers of fabric paint. i sealed it all with angelus high gloss leather sealant (because it's what i had).

the puppet's arms contain shoelaces that feed through holes in the body and shirt and tie internally so that they are removable. each "hand" has a leather pocket hidden in the foam seam for the arm rod to be inserted. the arm rod, not pictured, is made of wood dowel and a wire coat hanger bent straight.

as for covering, i used joann's anti pill fleece in solid white and black. to get the stars, i used artesprix black sublimation paint (which is notably NAVY and not black...) on some sublimation paper to paint stars first. then, i cut them out and individually sublimated every single star onto the fleece with a heat press. this took a long time, but it came out super clean!

the fake button eyes and his crown are made of worbla, painted and sealed with a glossy acrylic medium.

[mrbob0822]

Robert Moonbrow, Cleric of Pelor | Sole Survivor & Dogmeat

Photography by David Ngo at C2E2 2024

- - - - - - - - - -

Hello, Tumblr!

It's...certainly been quite a while, hasn't it? OOF. I really apologize for the unintended hiatus.

I was at C2E2 in Chicago a couple of weeks ago with some updated costumes, and figured I'd share!

Friday and Sunday I wore my Sole Survivor costume from Fallout 4, with plenty of extra weathering and proper strapping since I slapped it together prior to Halloween last year. I made the Dogmeat Heavy Dog Armor for my actual German Shepherd(Caboose), but since he's not a service animal(please don't bring your pets to conventions), I wound up purchasing a close-to-life-sized plush version that the costume *mostly* fit on. The number of people who did double-takes and "thought it was a real dog" was staggering, so I guess I did something right. Also, Sunday of C2E2 is always touted as family day, so the number of kids that came up asking to pet my dog was adorable.

On Saturday, I wore my D&D costume: a half-elven cleric of Pelor of my own design. I adore Dungeons & Dragons, and as an homage to nearly playing with the same group(multiple campaigns) since 2002, I made my first character Robert Moonbrow. I debuted this back in 2022, which revealed some issues with my design, so those fixes were made(mostly reinforcing the straps to prevent stretching and to reinforce the area around the rivets since all of the armor is EVA foam) as well as a heater shield I never got around to finishing, which turned out great, with the exception of being able to see the wrist straps through the foam on the front. On a whim, I decided to enter the Crown Championships of Cosplay this year, ReedPop's costume contest. I had zero expectations of anything, since people have no attachment to original characters other than the person making it, but I worked insanely hard on this thing, dumping probably close to 1,000 hours into the costume overall, and pushed the boundaries of my skillset to make something I was truly proud of out of a love for the fun my friends and I had with our time together. I didn't win anything, but it was genuinely great just to be in the same competition as the others who entered with their insane craftsmanship and attention to detail, and I do mean that, sincerely. We had a great time talking shop backstage during the competition and admiring one another's costumes.

Will I ever compete again? Probably not. It kind of eats up the entire day, and it takes me forever to make a costume in general, much less one to compete with. If I ever did, I might consider revamping my Grey Warden Alistair costume or something, but it's an extremely low priority. At the end of the day, cosplay is just a fun hobby for me, and adding extra stress with competition prep and anxiety kinda sucks some of the fun out of it, even though it was a fun and new(at least at this level) experience this time.

This is the only convention I'll be attending this year, much as I absolutely miss all of my friends at Dragon Con and would love to attend. I haven't been there since...2018? Oof. My friend Darryn said he'll be there in 2025, so I made the promise to him that I'll be there, which means I'll be bringing Alistair, since we became friends by cosplaying the character. I would also love to bring my D&D costume, but it's not exactly a cool and comfortable costume, so I'm going to try to test out its comfortability in the heat by wearing it to the Bristol Renaissance Faire on the Wisconsin/Illinois border at the end of July this summer(Saturday, July 27th is the plan). If you're in the area and want to see it in person or say goodbye to me as I potentially die of heatstroke(kidding!(hopefully...)), feel free! Fingers crossed the weather holds out that day for a solid test.

Anyway, time for me to shut up! Enjoy some additional shots from C2E2 2024:

[malicious-leporine]

WOOOOOOOO SHES FINALLY TO A POINT WHERE I CAN SHOW HER OFF!!! meet my latest project, Mangle!

Mangle is going to be like. my biggest project to date? I say that with every project. but like. hes going to be MASSIVE. I'm holding it out in the photo, but its still going to be huge. Instead of going for a more traditional costume, like what I did with my Vanny costume last year, Mangle is going to be a hand puppet. The rest of her body will wrap around my shoulders. I'm hoping to get her as accurate to the games as I can!

Some features she'll (hopefully) have by the time she's done:

Moving Jaw! perfect for snapping at little kids who get too close

Blinking eyes, for more expressiveness

Moving ears for. more expressiveness.

Detachable limbs, that can reattach to different parts of her body! Perfect for your take-a-part and put-back-together attraction :]

A speaker for static (the type he plays in game), to make it all come together.

Now, I can't leave myself out, either! Wheres the fun in that? With the FNAF trailers out, i've gotten a lot of inspiration. I'll have my own uniform like what Kim wears in the first trailer, complete with pins/buttons and all! And, for some additional flair, I'll make myself some Freddy earrings and charm bracelets with the main band members. Even Mangle will get in on the fun, with her own appropriately sized friendship bracelet!

Now i just gotta make sure its done before the movie :[ I've gotten a lot of work done within the past week alone, so i'm pretty hopeful!

In case you're curious, here are my materials and process (so far, at least!)

Im using almost entirely EVA foam and cross stitch plastic mesh. The whole thing is based on the jaw of the endoskeleton underneath- with a glove hot glued inside for my hand. That's like, pretty much it right now? Things like the actual surface will still be made out of foam, just painted to have the same look she has in the games. The only things that aren't foam or mesh are the magnets holding the endoskeleton head together and the acrylic spheres im using for the eyes! Whenever I go in and add more functions like the ear movement those will use thick craft wire, but for now thats all. I. uh. really thought there was more?

ADDING THIS ON APPARENTLY TODAY IS FNAFS BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY FNAF 1 <3333

[primordyalsoul]

What made you pick up this character?

How did you get into this franchise/fandom?

Which song do you feel describes your character the most and why?

@solarisgod || canon questionnaire !

What made you pick up this character?

The Rei brainrot simply took root the moment I saw her on screen. I'm not entirely joking bc when I first started watching eva I was quite quickly drawn to Rei because of the big air of mystery that surrounds her; visually she's very distinct from other characters bc of her hair and eye colours, and compared to the others she has less screen time and far less dialogue. Ofc this is intentional to some extent as we're not supposed to know about Rei's origins till much later, but I was just fascinated by how Rei was so central to lore and mystery of E.vangelion but often not explored as often as others, or put in the peripheral of scenes. BUT the scenes we do have when we get explicit insight into her thoughts and feelings are so so fascinating and lonely and heartbreaking that they stuck in mind often, long after I finished watching the series + the movie. I just couldn't stop thinking about how Rei never had a chance at living; as someone literally created from the hubris and grief of others, someone who was never supposed to be, she's trapped in a cycle of being used, constantly struggling to reconcile any semblance of identity because she's only ever a vessel for people's projections. And most of the time she's very resigned to this, but the brief glimpses of her suppressed feelings, particularly her anger at the whole situation really broke my heart, and I really really just wanted to try my hand at exploring this character who so rarely got to voice herself.

How did you get into this franchise/fandom?

My friend convinced me to watch it lmao. I very vaguely remember watching something from the eva franchise when I was around 13/14, but I can't remember what it was, all I remember was being confused JKGFFKL But yeah I'd been aware of eva because it is so popular and referenced a lot in other things, but my friends recommendation pushed me to finally check it out, so I'd watch episodes and message him my reactions as I watched. I find it funny bc I would ask so many questions and he couldn't tell me shit without watching, he'd just send :) smiley faces as I came up with my own theories, and now I do the exact same to my other friends I rope into watching it HJKKL

Which song do you feel describes your character the most and why?

GOD there are SO MANY songs that I associate with Rei or make me think of her ( shameless plug of my playlist for her ) , but one that makes me lose my mind in particular is Autoclave by the m.ountain goats. The metaphor of the heart as an autoclave, a self-locking pressure chamber, struck me as so reicore because for all the introspection she does, a lot of the time she struggles to understand her own feelings, her own heart, and deep down she's frightened of of doing so because she's scared to confront the 'ugly' parts of her - all the anger and anguish and resentment she buries deep down which, if realised with her ability to literally wipe out humanity, could be dangerous. That sort of destructive, apocalyptic imagery is pretty ripe in this song: "Hand me your hand, let me look in your eyes/ As my last chance to feel human begins to vaporize", "I am this great, unstable mass of blood and foam", "And I reach deep down within, but the pathways twist and turn/ And there's no light anywhere, and nothing left to burn" It very much makes me think of Rei leading up to instrumentality, coming to terms with her inevitable 'death'.

[spaceplush]

Making a Crowley Plush Part 4

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s shoe time! 🪄

This is my least favorite part. It’s so time consuming. Actually, this entire plush has been very time consuming. Worth it though.

This is what the shoes look like when sewn, before attaching them to the inner sole. The main material is reptile print upholstery vinyl. It’s stiff and not easy to sew at this size, but the end product looks great. I had to customize the zipper a bit. It was originally a 4 inch zipper. I cut it down to size, which is less than 2 inches, and used a pair of tweezers to remove the stop and reattach it to where it needed to be. The second pic is how the plushy foot fits inside. Note that they don’t reach the front of the shoe.

Here are the shoes when they’re attached to the inner sole. This pair belongs to the 1941 Crowley I made. I made a few minor modifications to the new pair. I also forgot to take pictures of the inner sole and the pillow inserts.

Remember how the plushy foot doesn’t reach the front of the shoes? I made two little crescent shaped pillows out of scrap fabric and stuffed them into the shoe toes.

The inner sole is made out of corkboard with hard chipboard glued on top. After it dried, I fit it in the shoe in, stretched the edges around the bottom of the corkboard, and hot glued the edges down. It’s hard to explain without pictures as a guide, but if you look up shoemaking videos on YouTube you’ll see what I mean.

If you’re not confident the glue will hold you can use a stapler to secure it. Note: The staples may go through the chipboard and you might be able to feel them if you stick your finger in the shoe. If this happens don’t worry. You can cut a piece of felt or non fraying fabric of your choice to stick in the shoe. I used alova suede cloth.

This is the part I hate. Well, hate is a strong word. Making the soles is very difficult for me because it aggravates my carpal tunnel and I have neuralgia in my arms. This causes me to have grip and movement issues in my hand, especially my thumbs.

Anyway, I carved the soles from 10mm black EVA foam with a hot knife. Then I used a Dremel to shape the bottoms into a cute heel. The shoe must be inset into the foam a bit. I shaved out an area in the top for this.

This gets very messy. Make sure you wear a mask if you do this. Preferably gloves and safety goggles too. But as you can see, the shoe fits nicely in the inset.

After I carved the soles, I sanded them down with a 220/320 sandpaper. Then I blasted them with my heat gun to set them.

The above pic is after I glued the shoes in with black e6000 glue. They have to be clamped down until the glue cures which takes around 24 hours. There is a piece of thick styrene under each sole to prevent the clamps from making indentations in the EVA foam.

Check out those shoes! They look so good! After the glue is set I taped up the shoes with painters tape, only leaving the soles exposed. Then I spray painted the soles with black Plastidip to give them that rubbery look and feel.

What a stylish looking demon! 😈 When Crowley’s shoes are on he stands great on his own!

It looks like I’ll be making a part 5! I didn’t expect this to become so long! If you’re still reading, thank you for sticking around!

Making a Crowley Plush from Good Omens Part 1

I’ve been working on a Crowley plush for a few weeks now. He’s a redesign of my old Crowley from four years ago. He’s not finished yet, but I thought it might be nice to show my progress and talk about my process a bit. More below!

The first step was redesigning the embroidery. Thankfully I didn’t have to do too much. I gave the snake tattoo a red belly, elongated the eye pupils, and thickened the mouth. Crowley’s eyes are actually a triple color gradient, which is a pain to make in the software I use.

Next, I sewed the plush together. Before I started these, I decided I wanted them to be scented. (Macintosh Apple for Crowley & Brandied Pear for Aziraphale). I added a zipper pouch to the back and it only took three attempts because I don’t make these very often and I definitely didn’t forget how. Yes, the plushies have fruit embroidery on their butts.

Here are both Aziraphale & Crowley unstuffed. Crowley is rocking that Troll hair.

✨Star Nipples✨

Post hair cut. I used a long pile faux fur for Crowley’s hair, shaved it down, then styled it with product made specifically for synthetic fibers. It took a few hours. And…Yes, he do got a booty.

So why the star nips and butt? The truth is…I just think it’s funny and I recently got into kpop plush dolls, which have very silly and interesting embroidery. This was a little experimentation with that particular style.

The butt is thread sculpted the same way paws are sculpted on stuffed animals and Crowley’s blushing cheeks are made with real blush. It’s washable and fades over time, which is perfect if you don’t want to permanently stain the plush with paint for example. If it starts to fade just add more blush!

So that’s it for the actual plush. I oversimplified things, but the process is very complex. It took a few months to design the base pattern, vectors, and embroidery. All of that requires testing and if something doesn’t come out quite right, then it’s back to the drawing board with the pattern. All in all, I wasted a lot of fabric.

I’ll talk about making the clothes in part 2.

[cosplayinamerica]

Medieval Sub-Zero :  west_coast_ccprops93

The character I cosplay is an original concept Sub Zero from the video   game series Mortal Kombat. I reimagined him as a medieval character   complete with armor head to toe, sword, shield and of course a knight’s helmet that resembled the menpo mask depicted in the video games.

There  are elements of samurai, Roman, Viking and medieval European influences.  The character I created spawns from a love of all my favorite fandoms  such as Lord of the rings, Fantasy RPGs like Skyrim and the Witcher  series. Mortal Kombat on the other hand has a deeper place in my heart  since it was major part of my childhood and a video game that my brother  and I bonded over. We both equally know all the lore to each character  and together have played and beaten almost every game in series over the  years.

Sub Zero was always a character I gravitated towards growing up. His   combos in the game were brutal and worth taking the time to learn, and   of course his ice powers (who wouldn’t love that?). His story line is   incredibly interesting being the grandmaster of a mystical Ninja clan   called the lin Kuei.

Sub Zero to me is a stoic, formidable character and  his presence always reminded me of someone of nobility such as a  knight. Of course that is not the main reason why I chose to go  medieval. all my cosplays including work I’ve done for others to an extent have been original designs. This has allow me to be more creative  and free with my builds instead of stressing to replicate for accuracy.

I had my first fan reaction from a couple of people that recognized me  from the previous year.  As soon as I took off my helmet they shouted  “omg it’s the Kenobi guy from last year!, we can’t believe you out did  yourself this year”. This was at a small event located in Temple, Texas  that I attended with a local comic con.  Other than that to my surprise  I’ve received lots of love and admiration from the online cosplay  community and my peers.  

Normally it’s tricky to change up a character  online then to receive negative reactions from people. Luckily the  people I communicate and engage with are for the most part other  cosplayers and makers who accept originality.  I absolutely cannot wait  to attend a convention this year and get dehydrated while looking  awesome!

THE OUTFIT

The entire costume revolves around a basic male armor template Purchased from Evilted.com and a basic knight helmet template from my friend   Ashen Warrior props. The rest is completely free hand using Eva Foam.  

Over the course of 2020 I started off first by building the chest armor.  I loved the aesthetic of Sub zero’s shoulder armor from Mortal Kombat  11.  By complete accident from a incorrectly measure forearm piece fit   perfectly atop the shoulders. Continued from there and added the   noticeable arch that swoops up towards the neck. I didn’t know at the   time but eventually it would cause issues for mobility when wearing my   helmet. I loved the look and  continued to keep the shoulders the same   despite movement complications.

 From there I Made my own MK dragon  symbol stencil, slapped that on the chest using Eva foam and called it  good.  The lower torso was missing something so I added interlocking  armor that also covered my waist. I did this after browsing concept art  and paying homage to the classic ninja Tabards depicted in the video  games.  I continued to add layer after layer through the year.

As I  stated before there was no clear vision for what this costume would look  like in the end.  Eventually I would complete the armor just by doing  free hand foamsmithing.

Late 2020 and the beginning of this year I  decided to retire my original sub zero costume and recycle the  materials. That was my first costume but it felt right to use the  materials for this evolutionary step in my cosplay journey. The original  costume was made using parts from a cheap sub zero costume from Spirit  Halloween, cotton fabric, a leather bomber jacket from a yard sale and  whatever I could find.

These were the missing pieces to Medieval sub  zero and added layers of details that sold the character and satisfied  my creative hunger.  The shield and weapons were also done free hand and  referencing random pictures from google. I learned a lot from doing  costume and prop weapons commissions through the year.

Keeping the costume comfortable, form fitting but also provide full   range of motion for posing and traversing crowds.  This forced me to   slow down and think before I made, making sure that each  piece   interlocks correctly. I don’t use any software on computers at the   moment (it’s something I should definitely be doing and would save me a lot of time). Now it’s my most detailed and comfortable costume to date.  

My wife and I recently did a photoshoot at a local state park. We hiked  a mile or two up and down hills and across creeks. Other than being hot  under the armor which is expected I was absolutely comfortable. The  hardest part was really taking the time to build something durable that  should last many conventions and hikes through the woods.

DISCOVERING COSPLAY

My awareness of “cosplay” and prop making didn’t start until late 2019.  Before then for years my brother and i would dress up together for  Halloween. We both have always customized our costumes since we were  young. We were very close growing up and what kept us tougher through  our parents divorce and other hardships in our childhood was video games. We grew up very poor but our imagination was rich. We spent our  childhood acting out our favorite characters. Then using sticks as lightsabers so on and so forth.

Flash forward 20 years. What motivated me was a Sub Zero mask my brother mailed to me as gift. I had just moved to Texas from Oregon  with my  wife and daughter. During that time, i slowly sunk into a deep  depression and a bad place mentally. I felt isolated, alone and lost. I  was away from my childhood town, friends, family and all that i knew.  I  contemplated suicide which was something I struggled with for years.  This was something I’ve dealt with all my life. I have PTSD and  depression from events in my childhood and teenage years. Each day is different, I’m either really happy or fearful , anxious and angry. I am  always in fight or flight mode.    

Well, my little brother sent in the mail a cheap Sub Zero  costume and a really expensive mask out of nowhere as a gift.  The  costume was too small and there were aspects of it that I did not like.  

Sure I was appreciative that he gave me a costume but I knew I could  remake it. So with no costume making, sewing or cosplay knowledge at  all. I set out to make a Sub Zero costume and was determined to make my  brother proud. I borrowed my wife’s grandmothers sewing machine and went  for it.

Taking apart the original armor pieces, a leather bomber  jacket and whatever I could find I made something out of shear will.   After that I felt confident enough to make my brother a costume as well  but this time using Eva Foam.  I spent weeks researching and overspending  on materials from Amazon.

Eventually we both had our dream costumes and I  was so proud ( mind you they were terrible) but we thought we looked so  badass and worth taking out.  That same year he flew out to Texas and  we attended our first convention together and first time  portraying our  favorite characters. It was a dream come true. Having people  complimenting and taking pictures with us was mind blowing, we felt like celebrities for a day. Two bothers from a small town now in a large convention amongst thousands of people, a community that embraces dressing up and expressing your fandom.

Prop making has changed my life in ways I never  thought it would. Personally it unlocked this creative and artistic  passion I never knew I had. I’ve always been creative but not focused.   It’s a hobby that keeps me sane and happy. It’s a beautiful and  wonderful way to express one’s self.  Keep making, painting, sewing or  doing what you love.  Hardships in life are unavoidable but your own  personal happiness is always in your control. I still struggle to this  day but now have an outlet creatively and a community of  friends /colleagues.

https://linktr.ee/West_Coast_CCPROPS

[their-destinys-writer]

Lukanette September

I couldn’t follow the prompts, but that doesn’t stop me from celebrating this month somehow! Huge thanks to @corgi-likes-chat for reading, screaming and drawing <3 and @edendaphne for the awesome beta <3. You two made me feel proud of this one.

Patreon | Ko-fi | Twitter | Instagram

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It didn’t come suddenly. It wasn’t a bolt of lightning. It wasn’t love at first sight. It had been something far more subtle. Like a small candle that consumed an entire room when she least expected.

What was worse, it took her a long time to realize what had happened. Too long. Long enough for him to move on. To create a life of his own, while she could only support him from the sidelines. All the while he thought she was content with what she had.

But she wasn’t. Waiting for someone who didn’t really see her, no matter how much he looked, was not enough. She wanted someone who made her smile, who gave her peace, who was there in her lowest moments and never judged her. Yet, like before, the timing was wrong.

So there Marinette was, standing just out of view from the crowds, silently cheering on Kitty Section. It was the best she could do, while she figured out how to move on once again. As the band finished their presentation, the members congregated backstage for refreshments.

“That was so cool!” Rose squealed, embracing Juleka. “Did you see that crowd? They were so many!”

“Yeah,” Juleka grinned, stroking her girlfriend’s hair. “It was awesome.”

“You guys did amazing,” Marinette piped up, as she started taking the large costume pieces from each one of them. “I think that next concert is guaranteed at this point.”

“Totally!” Mylène said, as she gave Ivan a bottle of water. “Penny was talking to the owner of the theater, and he said they hadn’t sold that many tickets in years.”

“That’s great news.”

Marinette resisted the urge to turn her head upon hearing that voice. Instead, she quietly placed the costume pieces in their respective boxes. The group continued their excited chatter, until a door opened, and in came…her.

“What are you doing here?” Luka was asking, as he hugged the girl that had just walked in. “I thought you had that thing—”

“It got cancelled,” the girl Marinette knew as Tina answered. “So, I decided to come support my favorite band.”

Marinette looked just in time to see the girl boop Luka’s nose. She quickly looked away to take a deep breath. Steady, heart, she thought as she exhaled. You’re fine. I’m fine. She’s been around for a month. There’s no surprise here.

Feeling calmer, she continued what she was doing, until she realized there was only one costume left. With a breath of determination, she turned on her heels and headed towards Luka and Tina.

“Hey, I’m putting away the costumes,” Marinette said loudly.

“Oh,” he responded, quickly taking off the pieces made of EVA foam. “Sorry, I got distracted.”

“It’s fine,” Marinette shrugged, forcing a smile. “I know how it is.”

As Luka gave her the costume pieces, Tina elbowed him. Marinette ignored it. If there was anything she’d learned from her time obsessing over Adrien, was that not every little detail had meaning. She turned and headed to the boxes away from the group, proud to have remained polite and coherent.

“Marinette?” Luka said quietly near her, as she closed the last box. The girl took a deep breath, wondering when he had gotten close to her.

“What’s up?” She turned to face him, keeping her face as neutral as possible.

“Um…Are you okay?”

Marinette blinked. “W-What?” she stammered, letting out a nervous giggle. “Why would I not be okay? T-that’s weird. You’re weird. I mean, you’re not weird like that, just—” She mentally slapped herself. “I’m fine. Why do you ask?”

“I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” Luka responded, averting his eyes. “I asked because for a while now, you haven’t sounded like yourself. And just over there, I could hear a sad song come from you. Which I hear almost every time I see you these days.”

The girl paused, cursing Luka’s perception. She had hoped he would never find out. It had worked with Adrien, so why wouldn’t it work for Luka, too? What she had forgotten was how observant Luka could be, unlike her previous crush. Even so, she refused to place him in an uncomfortable position.

“It’s nothing.” She waved a hand dismissively. “Just stressed. Why don’t you go back to Tina? She keeps looking this way.”

“Don’t mind her.” Luka took a step forward and took her wrist, sending a chill up her arm. “You know I would never judge you, right? Please, talk to me. I know I’m not good with words, but I’m a great listener.”

“You’re great with words,” Marinette sighed. “I just didn’t listen when I should’ve.”

Luka frowned. “Did I do something?”

“No!” Her eyes widened. “No, no, you’ve done nothing! You’re great! You always have been, even when you didn’t have to.”

“Then why are you sad? I don’t want to keep making you sad.”

“Why do you think you’re making me sad?”

“I see it.”

“Luka—”

“Please!” Luka then slid his hand into hers, squeezing and raising it up to his chest. “You don’t have to hide anything from me.”

“STOP!”

Marinette yanked her hand away, letting out ragged breaths. She could instantly feel several pairs of eyes fall on her. One of them were those of Tina, who was staring with puzzlement. She could feel her face heat up. It was the first time in a while she had acted in such an embarrassing way.

“I-I…” Marinette’s mind was drawing a blank. Would it be so wrong to run? No. “I’m sorry.”

With her heart giving thunderous beats in her chest, Marinette ran off towards the door. When she opened it, a crowd of fans and photographers were blocking the way. She pushed through the crowd, desperate to get as far as possible from the calls behind her, .

While squeezing through, she heard new screams, indicating that someone had just followed her. Probably one of the band members hoping to bring her back. Marinette pushed harder, bumping into shoulders and biceps, until she reached the back of the crowd.

Once freed, she ran. She ran past coffee shops, past restaurants. Past bookstores, cheese shops, and music stores. She ran until she reached a small park with a fountain in the middle. Her legs felt like jelly, and her resolve to keep running died. With hard pants, she sat on the edge of the fountain, covering her face.

“Why did I do that?!” she scolded herself. “I must’ve looked weirder than usual. Tina must’ve thought the worst of me. Ugh, I’m such an idiot.”

“Marinette,” Tikki whispered from her purse. “Don’t say those things about yourself.”

“I just don’t get why he was so persistent,” Marinette continued. “Luka is never pushy. So, what was that all about?! Whatever happened to waiting for me to speak up?”

“Uuum…” Tikki started hiding back in the purse.

“What am I supposed to say now?” She upped her tone an octave. “Oh, I’m sorry for acting like a total weirdo this month. I just got totally jealous when you started bringing Tina for practices because, it turns out, I’ve been in love with you this whole time, but didn’t notice because I was too distracted with Adrien. But now that it’s too late, I find it hard to be near you, because it hurts. UGH!” She raised her head. “WHY IS LOVE SO—hard.”

Marinette’s face burned. Standing in front of her was the young man she couldn’t get out of her thoughts. The one guy she didn’t want listening to her ramblings.

Luka stared at her, breathing heavily, but his expression was hard to read. He didn’t seem angry. However, he didn’t seem happy either. Marinette gulped, tempted to run again. Before she could decide, though, Luka moved to sit next to her.

They shared an awkward silence. Marinette still wanted to leave, but now it felt rude after making him run all the way there. Perhaps this was her punishment for handling the situation so badly.

“Tina started coming to practice because she was frustrated with me,” Luka said quietly, no longer looking at her. “She said that she had to see the girl I talked about for herself. And she was annoyed that I hadn’t made my move yet.”

Marinette turned her gaze to him, lips parted.

“I told her my brilliant plan to leave the girl be, so she could be happy with the boy she actually loved.” He chuckled. “Tina kept saying that I was an idiot, and that I should just ask you out. She pushed me time and time again to be more assertive. But I think her plan kinda backfired, since you think she and I are a thing.”

Luka turned to her at last.

“Marinette, I have never stopped loving you,” he said, a smile adorning his soft features. “But I have never wanted to push you into something you don’t want. Or, at least, I thought you didn’t want.”

Marinette did her best to suppress a smile of her own. “I did my best to hide what I wanted because I thought you moved on. And I didn’t want to make you feel like you were responsible for my happiness.”

“It would be an honor to be responsible for your happiness.” Luka placed a hand on her cheek, lightly stroking it with his thumb.

“So, you’re telling me we haven’t gotten together because of a dumb misunderstanding?”

Luka chuckled. “It seems like it.”

“I really am an idiot,” Marinette giggled.

“By your standards, so am I.”

The two of them laughed airily. They looked at each other, their cheeks rosy, hearts beating rhythmically with each other.

“Luka, um…” Marinette bit her lip.

The young man smiled knowingly. Using the hand cupped on her cheek, he softly pulled her in, lightly brushing his lips against hers. It was that small touch all Marinette needed to get the confidence to place her hand on his chest and press harder.

Luka took a breath right before deepening the kiss, using his other arm to bring her closer to him, hand on the small of her back. Marinette tried to follow suit. Unfortunately, the arm she tried to use was the one holding them steady. With two yelps, the couple fell backwards.

SPLASH

Marinette squeaked the second her head emerged from the freezing water. Luka’s hands were instantly on her shoulders.

“Marinette! Are you okay?!” he desperately asked, sitting on his knees.

The girl couldn’t help but snort. The snort immediately turned into giggles. And very soon, she was full on laughing. It didn’t take long for Luka to follow.

“Of course I would ruin our first kiss with my clumsiness,” she laughed.

“I wouldn’t have it any other way, with an angel like you,” Luka chuckled.

Despite the cold water, Marinette’s face managed to turn warm. She sighed wistfully.

“Me neither.”

Luka’s smile widened. Wider than Marinette had ever seen. This time there was no asking for permission. They both leaned towards each other at the same time, their lips meeting halfway. Marinette placed her hand on his jaw, while he embraced her with both of his arms.

No, it wasn’t perfect. But the fact that Luka loved it that way was what made it perfect for Marinette.

[lilacmoon83]

Finding You Always

Also on Fanfiction.net and A03

Chapter 214: Worlds Collide, Pt 3

Summer was growing exhausted, as she kept nullifying Mephisto's fireballs by putting them in her bubbles and extinguishing them, while her siblings fought off his heavily armed gang.

"We have to make sure they don't destroy the museum. We can't let all this history be destroyed," Eva feared.

"Yeah...we need to draw them out of here for sure," Emma agreed, as she blasted more of them back.

"He's definitely given these guys an upgrade in fighting skills and power," Leo said, as he breathed heavily, following a fist fight with one of the thugs.

"All right kid, you're our resident powerhouse. What do you suggest?" Emma asked her baby brother.

"An earthquake is the last thing we want in the museum, Emmy," he argued, but then smirked.

"But I think I have a new trick up my sleeve that I've been working on with Mr. Gold," he said. Rumple nodded.

"Now would be the time, lad," Rumple said, as three more of the thugs dropped dead, thanks to the Dark One snapping their necks.

"So much for not killing," Eva said uncomfortably.

"They're thugs...he just saved a ton of lives by killing them. They would have gone on to kill innocent people," Leo reasoned.

"He's right," Regina agreed, as several more dropped, thanks to her. It was drastic, but the stakes were too high. They were already going to be blamed for all the property damage and being the cause of it. But if they had civilian casualties, it would be far worse.

"I won't be surprised if the Major loses the battle with her government and we have them threatening to have the National Guard invade the United Realms," Regina said.

"Mom and Dad will wall us off before they let that happen," Leo assured. She sighed, hoping he was right. Snow and Charming were notoriously forgiving, but after the experience with their darker halves, she hoped they had learned that there were times that the tough decisions had to be made.

"You really think you can take me on, brat?" Mephisto questioned, as the fire in his palms gave the entire room a glow and yet Bobby didn't back away from the intimidating display.

"Considering I can do that too...yeah I think I do," Bobby retorted, as fire came alive in his hands. By now, most of the innocent bystanders had been evacuated, but there were still a few reporters and camera people that were braving the spectacle in order to get in on video.

"And I can do way more than that...like this," Bobby said, as he grabbed Mephisto's wrists.

"I may be able to wield all the elements, but I still specialize in earth powers," he said, as they disappeared with a jade green puff of smoke.

"Look!" Leo called, as they saw something burrowing beneath them through the ground and followed it outside the museum. There was another puff of jade green smoke, as the two emerged from the ground and Bobby tossed Mephisto onto a parked car.

"Ooohhh…I hope they have insurance," Emma commented. Mephisto was seething, as he pulled himself off the wrecked car.

"If you think for a second that this is over, brat...you have another thing coming," Mephisto growled, as disappeared in a fiery display of flames. His four older siblings descended upon him at that point, patting him on the back and ruffling his hair.

"That was awesome!" Leo exclaimed.

"Yeah...he was pissed. Good work, kid," Emma congratulated him. Bobby looked down a bit shyly.

"Thanks," he said.

"Come on...we need to find Mom, Dad, and Grandpa Xander," Eva said. They all agreed and with the rest of their family, they ventured back inside the museum to try and discern where they could have gone.

~*~

Snow and David chased them through the Museum, but when they followed them into the Ancient Egypt exhibit, they found the room empty.

"We lost them," Xander hissed.

"No...there's no way out of this room other than the way we came in," Snow realized.

"She's right," he said, as they willed the chalice forth in its joined form and used it to scan the room for any residual magic or portals. There was an ethereal glow on the replica of the Giza pyramid and they exchanged a glance.

"That's why no one can ever find them. They're using this exhibit to portal somewhere else," David said.

"But this land has no magic without the two of you in the vicinity," Xander said.

"No...but would creating a portal with some of Clayton's technology be impossible?" Snow asked and he sighed.

"No...that's very possible," he agreed, as the chalice glowed and the magic opened up the portal from the residual trail left by whatever technology they had used to slip away.

"We have no idea what we're walking into," Xander warned.

"No...we don't. But we don't have a choice. We have to stop them and it looks like we're the only ones that can," David said, as he looked at Snow.

"The kids will find us too…" she assured them. They nodded and walked through the portal.

~*~

"Wow...this is a really old book," Tink mentioned.

"It is and it was really hard to find. That's why I think it might be important," Rose replied.

"But I thought you were able to catalog everything in the library?" Neal asked.

"I was...that's why this one is so unique. This book is not in my catalog," she replied.

"The plot thickens," Tink said, as she flipped through it.

"Because new books literally appear all the time, that's happened from time to time, but I just have a feeling that this one had help appearing," Rose replied.

"You think it was being hidden, my angel?" Fandral asked.

"It's possible. I don't know who is suddenly helping us or maybe it's because Blue has committed the ultimate crime," Tink replied.

"The murder of another fairy," she said.

"Not to mention a human, even a deplorable one," Fandral added.

"Who did Blue answer to as Head Fairy?" Neal asked.

"Zeus himself," Tink replied, as he took the book.

"And who do you answer to now that you're Head Fairy and Zeus is dead?" he asked.

"Well…I've had no formal meeting with any other Gods, except Aphrodite. I suppose it would be Athena, but she has yet to formally meet with me," Tink replied.

"And if Zeus, for some reason, forbade Athena from interfering, she might use other means to get the information to us," Rose deduced.

"It's entirely possible," Tink agreed.

"Did Blue ever answer to Hera?" Neal asked.

"No…Hera would have never had any authority over the fairies. She may have been Zeus' wife, but they hated each other. He didn't trust her," Tink replied.

"That was probably wise...look at this," he said, as he showed them an image on the page.

"That's Blue...and Hera," Tink said.

"Standing over the unconscious body of Aphrodite," Rose added in alarm.

"Can you translate this?" Fandral asked. Tink nodded and used her wand to translate the book from Greek to English.

"We best start at the beginning," Rose said, as she took the book and began to read.

~*~

Flashback

The young blonde girl cried, as she looked out over the ocean, tears glistening in her eyes, as the sea foam bubbled to the surface of the crystal blue water.

"It's time, my precious one," Zeus called, as he stood behind her.

"Why Daddy?" she asked.

"Mother has been gone but a few weeks and you are getting married again!" Aphrodite shouted.

"You know it's not my choice, young one," he admonished.

"I am the God of the skies. I must have a Queen...it is one rule I cannot break," he said, as she stood up.

"And it is time for you to learn of your duties. You are the Goddess of love and beauty, daughter of Dione and you will fulfill her vision of championing true love," he announced, as an item appeared in his hand.

"Mother's chalice," she said in awe.

"Your chalice now...its magnificence and power is now yours," he corrected.

"What do I know about true love?" she asked bitterly. He smirked.

"You will, my sweet girl," he assured, as he kissed her forehead.

"Hera will not like that she does not get mother's chalice," Aphrodite said wearily.

"She has no claim to it. You are our pride and joy and she wouldn't want anyone but you to have it," he replied.

"It's a big responsibility…" she said with trepidation.

"One that your mother knew you would excel at. After all, who better than to choose the truest loves each millennium among the mortals than a product of true love herself," he said. Aphrodite smiled and hugged him.

"I miss her, Daddy," she said.

"Me too, sweet girl," he replied. They were both unaware of Hera's blistering gaze upon them from the shadows.

~*~

"Are you sure they're okay?" George questioned, as he looked at the pair. The moment James had given Aphrodite true love's kiss, the curse on them shattered, but as a side effect of the complete unlocking on Aphrodite's memories, they collapsed into unconsciousness. Neither Zeus or Dione seemed alarmed though and Nyx had magicked a bed to lay them upon.

"They are fine...this is part of it. They will only awaken when they have relieved their entire past," Zeus assured.

"What kind of curse is this? And who cursed them?" George asked.

"You will know that soon...but not before them," Dione replied and they went back to waiting for them to awaken.

~*~

"These are exquisite," the man said, as he examined the artifacts.

"These are genuine Olmec Terracotta's...they're priceless," the woman next to him added, as she looked them over as well.

"Everything has a price...getting these wasn't easy," Natalie commented.

"Yes...they are nearly untouched, despite their age. How did you find these?" the woman asked.

"I'm not an archeologist that plays by the rules, so to speak. But I know what I'm doing and able to excavate certain sites that have forbidden said excavation," Natalie replied.

"Clayton always did hire the best. It seems you have surrounded yourself with the same skillful people that your father did," she commented, looking to Johnny. He smirked.

"I was groomed from birth to step into his shoes," he agreed.

"And I do manage to find the best, however, our previous translator passed and we need a new one for this," Johnny mentioned.

"Oh a quipu...is this the one you've been hoping for?" she asked.

"We'll see," Natalie replied vaguely.

"Well…I may know of someone that can translate this for you. But I expect you to give me a deal on these beauties," she said.

"Then I assume you and Dr. La Guerra are interested in the jade as well?" Johnny asked.

"Normally, I would pass on the jade, but the condition this is in is rare," the doctor replied.

"Then you had better be prepared to pay a pretty penny," a new voice said, as Natalie turned.

"Mother…" she said in a warning tone.

"You'll let these real treasures slip through your fingers on the off chance that another silly quipu will lead you to a grander one that might not even exist," Thalia argued.

"I can't believe you discount the existence of Cibola or El Dorado when I was born in freaking Atlantis," Natalie argued back.

"Clayton was hundreds of years old and knew some of the best explorers. He even knew her ancestor, one of the greatest and most ruthless conquistadors in history," Thalia argued, gesturing to the woman.

"And he still never found it," she finished.

"It's real mother...and I'm going to find it," Natalie snapped back. Thalia sighed.

"You and finding things," she muttered under her breath.

"What?" Natalie asked, but her question was interrupted when Snow, David, and Xander appeared in the secret meeting place.

"Well, well...you found your way here, after all," Johnny said, as he tapped his glass.

"Ladies and Gentlemen...the illustrious Snow White and Prince Charming themselves, in the flesh, along with the chalice of Aphrodite!" he announced, instantly drawing the entire room's attention to them.

"My father's murderers!" he continued, with a hiss.

"We didn't murder him. His own arrogance destroyed him," David snapped back.

"Your chalice...it was all I ever heard about growing up, you know. Father was always a bit miffed that he knew about such an object, but it was the one thing he couldn't collect. Thus why he decided to collect the pair of you," Johnny retorted, as he looked to Xander.

"You remember the stories. I still remember those nights here and there where father was too busy to deal with me and the nannies were at their wits end. But you would get me calmed down and put to bed," he recalled, with a bit of fondness.

"All while you knew you abandoned your own son and your granddaughter that was out there in some group home," he added with a vicious smile.

"Shut up, you little prick," Xander hissed, which only amused the sadistic son of the Collector.

"And you," he said, with reverence, as he looked at Snow.

"Father always was enamored with you the most, because of your resemblance to the Goddess. She was his original obsession," he revealed, surprising them both.

"Oh, didn't know that, did you?" he said.

"I suppose you wouldn't, since the Goddess has had her memories scrambled more times than even you two," he retorted.

"Yes...he almost had it all. He made you crush his heart to cast a curse and he would have had the chalice. And you...but then you know that part. It still haunts you," he leered.

"Shut the hell up," David growled, as he pulled Snow even closer to him.

"And you...the hero Prince Charming. He wanted to be you, in a way, just without all the selfless heroics. The people's Prince...the husband of the fairest of them all. The truest loves. I came to loathe your story," he said bitterly.

"It's not our problem that your narcissistic father didn't hug you enough. Trust us...we never wanted his kind of attention," David retorted.

"Oh, but you got it...every bit of it," Johnny replied.

"We're here to retrieve the stolen items that you took," Snow said, as she looked at Natalie.

"Including the quipu. It's not yours," she added.

"Oh and I suppose you're going to take it from me, Princess?" Natalie challenged.

"Don't tempt her. That's not a fight you'll win," David challenged, as blue eyes met blue eyes.

"I think I can handle more than you know," she challenged back.

"Thinking you have any advantage here would be unwise," the older blonde woman next to Natalie said.

"Who the hell are you?" David asked. She smirked and looked at Xander.

"He is definitely yours," she replied.

"Long time no see...Xander," she purred.

"Thalia," he said stiffly.

"You know her?" David asked.

"Oh he knows me...quite well, in fact," she replied. Snow's eyes narrowed and she looked at her father-in-law.

"How well?" she asked, watching him swallow nervously.

"It only happened a couple of times," he assured.

"Oh my God…" David exclaimed in outrage.

"David...your mother had been gone a long time and I was struggling," he tried to explain.

"Yes...he was. The alcohol...the guilt with you laying in a hospital bed and his granddaughter in an unhappy group home," Thalia revealed.

"Stop it," Xander growled.

"Yes...to be fair, you wanted to reunite your family then, but Clayton convinced you that it would be a mistake," Thalia said.

"I've made a lot of mistakes and I wasn't always a good man. My son knows my shortcomings," Xander insisted.

"Apparently not with the way he's looking at you right now," Thalia said.

"Oh and I suppose your daughter knows everything about you?" he challenged. She frowned.

"Not everything…" Snow interjected and the older blonde glared at her.

"Stay out of this, princess. It's none of your business," she retorted.

"David is my business and I have a feeling there's something that she doesn't know about you," Snow challenged.

"Snow?" David asked, as he watched her look at his father. He sighed. He had known Snow long enough to know that she wouldn't let this go until she had answers for her husband.

"Is she mine?" he asked and Natalie looked alarmed by that question.

"What? Mother?" she asked.

"We're not doing this…" Thalia hissed, as the three of them cried out and a shield appeared around them.

"Ray shields...I think you'll find them quite impervious to your magical chalice," Thalia said, as they tried to use it to nullify the shield, but it didn't work.

"The auction is over for tonight!" she called, as they could only watch, as most of the people dispersed through portals that seemed to be catacombed within the strange chamber.

"Where is this place?" Snow wondered.

"We're hundreds of feet underground. Trust me, no one is going to find you," Natalie refuted.

"Underground?" David asked, as he and Snow shared an amused glance.

"You're going to eat those words," Snow said.

"What about our deal?" doctor La Guerra interjected, as there was suddenly a rumble beneath them and a huge plume of jade green smoke, as Bobby burrowed to the surface with his siblings and Regina, while the others waited on standby on the surface.

"That was the weirdest thing ever, but really cool," Leo said.

"There is a ton of dirt in my hair," Regina complained, as she started trying to brush it out.

"At least your hair is dark enough not to show it," Emma grumbled.

"Mom! Dad!" Eva called, as she ran to them.

"Careful honey...we don't know what this shield is, but the chalice couldn't break through," Snow warned. Regina waved her hand over it.

"It's not any magic I know," she said.

"Maybe it's not magic at all," Leo said, as Eva spotted a control panel on the wall.

"Not one step, princess," Thalia warned, but was shocked when Leo used a lightning bolt to fry the control panel, destroying the shield.

"Let's go…" Johnny growled, as he grabbed Natalie's hand. She spared another glance at them, as Johnny escaped with her and Thalia. The doctor and his companion weren't so lucky.

"Freeze!" David warned, as he pulled his gun on the mysterious pair and they were forced to put their hands up. Emma waved her hand and cuffs appeared on their wrists. David holstered his gun and they used the chalice to create a portal back to the surface.

"No idea who you two are...but you're gonna tell us," he said, as they gathered the stolen artifacts, except the quipu, and filed through the portal.

~*~

Flashback

Hera stormed into her Temple and huffed, as she sat down in her Throne.

"For someone that just got married to the All Mighty Zeus...you don't seem very happy," Blue mentioned, as she emerged from the shadows.

Zeus had created the fairies to be messengers between the Gods and mortals. For some reason, the mortals saw fairies as a symbol of good and did not fear them like they did the Gods. Mortals had their reasons to fear the Gods though, since the past was filled with bloodshed between the monarchs of Mount Olympus and humans.

Reul Ghorm had been chosen by him as head of the fairies, but as it often did, power slowly began to corrupt Blue and just as bitterness had set in for Hera, it had for Blue as well.

Blue wanted more power and control over mortals, but Zeus had long forbade it. She had even tried to endear herself to Dione in hopes of having a hand in choosing the truest loves. It was a vision that Dione had and never realized. She planned to select two mortals, who represented the epitome of true love, to bestow the power of her magical chalice to.

The chalice was forged by Dione's mother, Gaia herself, from the essence of the earth she loved so much and all its elements. She gifted it to Dione and she wanted to do good for mortals with it. But the recent Titanomachy had given Hera the perfect opportunity to eliminate the woman that had the Throne she wanted. Dione had been mortally wounded, but it was not what it appeared to be. Hera had colluded with the Titans to topple Zeus and Dione, promising them positions of power if she was crowned Queen if they killed Dione and her precious daughter. Naturally, she betrayed them all and they were cast into Tartarus with her secret remaining unknown. The end result was that Dione was dead and she was Queen now. However, their offspring lived and the coveted chalice now belonged to Aphrodite.

"He gave the chalice to his daughter!" she hissed.

"Then perhaps we need to arrange an accident for the little blonde bimbo," Blue suggested.

"You know that's impossible. The war with the Titans distracted Athena enough that she could not see our deception, but now it will not be so easy," Hera reminded her.

"True and if Zeus loses the apple of his eye...well, there will be no Earth to rule. He would smite us all and the mortals just in sheer blind rage," Blue agreed.

"Yes...and even as Queen, I am still overshadowed by Dione's precious little flower," Hera complained. Blue smirked.

"If we can't kill her...then we can certainly manipulate her," she suggested. Hera's interest perked at that.

"What do you have in mind?" Hera asked.

"I will befriend the empty headed beauty and help her choose her champions," Blue replied. Hera smirked.

"Champions that we select...champions that ultimately could lead to our control of the chalice," she deduced. Blue nodded.

"Precisely," she said and Hera tilted her head.

"You already have a pair of mortals in mind, don't you?" she asked. Blue smirked.

"Yes...and they will serve us well. The man I have in mind will do anything for power. Faking true love with some woman will fool the little twit and when she gifts them her chalice...it's as good as ours," Blue replied.

"Then this is our plan. Proceed...and do not fail me, Blue," Hera said.

"Never, my Goddess. Zeus may think my loyalty is to him, but we know that you are my Queen," Blue said, as she became small in her fairy form with a Blue glow and descended back to earth.

~*~

"Wow…" Tink said, as Rose finished reading the beginning passages.

"So Blue has really been loyal to Hera all along and was working for her," Fandal said.

"That's heavy...but something tells me more happened later between them. I mean, this explains why Hera hates Aphrodite, but this implies that Blue was only doing Hera's bidding at first," Neal said.

"He's right...somewhere it became personal for Blue too," Rose said, as she closed the book.

"I'll read more when we get home and then we can discuss more tomorrow," she said. Tink smiled and used her magic on the book, duplicating it.

"Now we can both read...because I have to know more. Then I think we can finally bring her down," Tink said. Rose nodded and smiled at her.

"Guess we're doing more reading when we get home instead of other stuff," Neal muttered. The blonde smirked.

"Behave and you might get more than reading," she teased, as they joined hands and left the diner.

"I'll round up the children," Fandral said, as he kissed her cheek and went to get them from the table where they were playing a game.

"Mom...what if the Blue Fairy realizes you're reading her story and she tries to stop you?" Carina asked worriedly.

"I won't lie to you, sweetie...she very well may try. But your Papa will never let anything happen to me," Rose promised.

"Your mother is right," Fandral agreed, as he took her hand and pulled her to her feet.

"The Blue Fairy may have magic, but this Asgardian warrior will not let her silence more people," he promised, as they left the diner to head home for the evening.

~*~

"Dammit...you two were careless! And now we lost a fortune worth of jade and rare terracotta's!" Thalia roared.

"Relax...the quipu is what we really wanted, especially if it is the one my father sought. The key to Cibola or El Dorado. They have enough treasure to command power over the entire world," Johnny replied.

"Or it's just another ancient series of knots and strings full of riddles! Taunting the truest loves was a horrible misstep!" she cried.

"They already knew exactly who we were!" Johnny snapped.

"That woman...the Major has them chasing us like her own personal team of fairy tale agents," he added irritably.

"Pack up...we're leaving. Back to the Athens base," Thalia ordered.

"Oh no...we're not doing that. It's time for offensive measures," Johnny refuted.

"Johnny...that's not a good idea," Thalia argued.

"I'm in charge of this operation!" Johnny snapped.

"I am my father's heir!" he added.

"Besides...the cowardly doctor will talk. I have no illusions that Prince Charming and his brats will interrogate the truth right out of him," he said. Thalia sighed.

"Then you better work on getting that thing translated and hope that it's what we need," she said.

"Not until you tell me what you're hiding," Natalie interjected.

"Natalie…" she started to deflect, but her daughter cut her off.

"Were you and Xander...involved?" she asked.

"Of course they were," Johnny answered for her.

"Stay out of this, Junior," Thalia snapped.

"Mother…" Natalie pressed and she sighed.

"It only happened a couple of times," Thalia insisted, stunning her to silence. She was almost afraid to ask her next question, because somehow she knew the answer.

"Is…is Xander my father?" she asked. Thalia turned away in frustration.

"Mother...is he my father!?" she shouted and her silence spoke volumes.

"Wow...that I didn't know, but I guess it makes sense," he said.

"You knew they were together at one time?" Natalie asked in an accusatory tone, but he shrugged.

"We were never together…" Thalia refuted.

"I remember seeing them together here and there as a child. When my father wasn't pulling him out of the bottle...your mum was. Honestly, I never really put it together, but it makes sense," Johnny said, as he started to laugh then.

"Father must certainly be laughing now...you're a Charming!" he exclaimed to her.

"Well...half Charming," he teased.

"Shut up!" Natalie hissed.

"Mother…" she growled.

"It's true...Xander is your father," Thalia revealed.

"You said that my father died…" Natalie hissed.

"I lied...and it was for the best! Xander was gone most of the time, on missions for Clayton and when he was around, he was drinking and wallowing about the children he had already abandoned. He would have abandoned you too," Thalia said.

"That wasn't your choice!" Natalie hissed.

"Xander is a traitor...and our plan remains unchanged," Johnny said, as he loaded his gun with a clip.

"We cannot count on Malina's source to translate the quipu...but I've located a back up. Let's go…" he said, as Natalie glared at her mother and had a moment of pause.

"Natalie...are you coming?" he asked. She looked at him and then nodded.

"Yes," she replied. The revelation that Xander was her father and she had this huge family out there was jarring. But she didn't know them and they certainly wouldn't want someone like her. No...this didn't change anything.

~*~

After returning to the surface, they escorted the two mysterious captives back to the Boston FBI headquarters for interrogation. Agent Green and Agent Brooks insisted on taking the first crack at their interrogation. Some of the other agents began processing the recovered artifacts, while David observed the interrogation from the glass, along with the Major. It was late, so he insisted that everyone go back to the hotel to get some sleep, but he wasn't surprised when Snow came in and put her arms around him. She could see the questions in his mind and knew his father was probably waiting in the conference room for him. But he didn't want to think about any of it right now, because he knew he knew lashing out in anger wouldn't get them anywhere. He wanted answers, but knew he wouldn't like hearing any of them. So for now, he was focused on the two potential investors in the next room. Snow managed to get a bit of his frustration to ebb away, but it was growing since the two agents weren't getting anywhere.

"How much more time are we going to let these two waste?" he asked impatiently.

"The lab is running their prints. If we get a hit, then I'll let you go at them both. But I'd rather you go in there with something, because they're not giving an inch," the Major replied.

"It's going to be okay," Snow whispered to him, as she kissed him gently. He sighed and pressed his forehead against hers.

"You figured it out before me…" he said.

"The bitterness rolled off that woman in waves and when I saw that it was directed at your father...it wasn't much of a leap after that," she replied, as the Major came back into the room with a file and Xander followed her in.

"We got two hits…" Patricia said, as she put the file down on the table in front of them.

"Did we even need to?" David asked, as he looked at his father.

"Do you know them too?" he demanded to know.

"Yes...I know of them. I only met them a handful of times," Xander said. David gripped the metal table, his knuckles turning white and probably the only thing that kept him from raging at that moment was Snow's hand on his arm.

"The man is Dr. Hector La Guerra. He technically had his medical license revoked in 1945 and he fled his homeland of France for the United States," Patricia said.

"Funny...he doesn't look that old," David commented.

"None of these people are what they seem. He was born in 1918 and worked for the Nazis during World War II," she continued.

"Oh wonderful...a real life Nazi," Snow said.

"He lost his license for human experimentation and specializes in working with disease and poisons," Patricia continued.

"Clayton recruited him after the war and brought him to Atlantis. He introduced the doctor to all the magical plants, herbs and substances he had in his collection. It was Dr. La Guerra that created the youth potions. He was able to synthesize the water from the fountain of youth with his own mixture of magical herbs and created a way to utilize the water without tying the user to Atlantis," Xander explained.

"Boy, the good news just keeps coming," David deadpanned.

"We never saw him in Atlantis...but I spent a lot of time in the infirmary with Eva during that time. There were many rooms sealed off to us and I can still remember the screaming of people coming from some of those rooms," Snow recalled, as she got a haunted look on her face. Xander nodded.

"That would be him. There is other things I could tell you about what he does to people, but it's too horrific and I'm not going to do that," he added, as they looked at him.

"I'll tell you everything you need to know, but I will not tell you the specifics of what he does to people, even children, inside those rooms. You won't be able to handle it," Xander said firmly. Snow shuddered and David let that lay, as he turned his head back to the window.

"Enough about the sick bastard...what about her?" he asked.

"She is Malina Pizarro, born in Spain and if you know anything about the history of the Conquistadors, yes, she is of that Pizarro bloodline. The conqueror of the Incas was her ancestor and she has continued her quest to pillage and destroy indigenous cultures all over the globe," Patricia replied.

"Born in 1936 to her powerful and wealthy parents in Barcelona, she followed in her family's footsteps and led many expeditions that resulted in the destruction of ancient sites, their history, and complete pillaging of their cultures," Patricia added.

"How are evil pieces of crap like this not in prison already?" David hissed in frustration.

"You know why, David...that's the reason you and your family are here," Patricia reminded him. He turned back to the window in frustration and then stood up straight.

"They're not getting anywhere...I'm going in," he said, as he walked out of the room. He drew his sword and barged into the interrogation room.

"Excuse me...we're in the middle of an interrogation," Agent Green argued.

"And for normal perps, your methods might work...but not for this evil scum. Get out," he ordered. Agent Green huffed, but when Patricia entered the room and motioned them out, they reluctantly obeyed her order.

"Uh oh Malina...Prince Charming is here to intimidate us," the doctor goaded and she smirked back at him. David responded by kicking his chair out from beneath him. The man cried out, as he fell to the floor, but not before he hit his chin on the table on the way down, causing him excruciating pain. Blood leaked from his mouth from busted teeth and he glared up at the Prince.

"You ignorant brute…" the doctor hissed.

"You're going to tell me where Junior is off to or you're not going to live to see another day," David warned. The doctor chuckled.

"Right to the death threats…" he laughed.

"Believe it or not, your Highness, you don't scare me. I've done things that would make you double over and retch where you stand," he warned.

"So I've heard," David retorted.

"Oh no...you haven't heard the details, because you're still standing," as he turned his attention to the window. It was one way glass, but somehow he must have known she was there.

"I remember seeing your lovely, fair wife in Atlantis...your children too. None of you ever saw me, as Clayton forbade me contact with you, for he knew I wouldn't be able to help myself," he goaded.

"Specimens like them...now that would have been a glorious experiment. Magical blood...I begged him to let me at her, but alas, it didn't happen. I imagined her tortured screams though and watching her red blood slide down her white, delicate skin…" he said, as he licked his lips. David lost it at that moment and picked him up, before slamming him against the wall.

"Last chance to keep breathing. One more word about my wife or children and it's over for you," he warned.

"If you want information...then we want a deal," Malina said calmly.

"Not happening...the only deal you're getting is life in prison and not a needle in your arm. Your list of crimes is extensive," Patricia replied. She smirked.

"Then do your worst, Major Donovan. My family is powerful...I won't spend one day in your jail," she said confidently. But it was Patricia's turn to smirk.

"Oh, it won't be an American prison if you don't cooperate," she revealed.

"Your crimes in other countries have them clamoring to prosecute you. I just put out the word that I have you in custody, thanks to my newest and very special agent," she said, referring to David. She frowned.

"The American prison is at least humane. You'll get meals and a bed and even a few privileges. But the other countries prisons won't be so nice, but not even those are the ones you have to worry about, because if I turn you over to the people that your family has destroyed for centuries...your life is done and your death will not be swift," she threatened.

"You can't do that...your court system does not work that way," she countered.

"It does in this case...do you really want to test me or him?" Patricia said.

"Fine...those in the states that can still translate a quipu are all at Universities, which would be too risky now. So Junior is likely going to Peru. That's about the only place where you're going to anyone that can still read them and even then that's going to be difficult. It's a dead language, as are the Inca people. But I know of one family near Cusco...and so does he. That's where he'll go," Malina revealed.

"And this family? Will they tell him willingly?" David asked. She smirked.

"Definitely not...his father helped the Conquistadors destroy their ancestors, as well as countless other cultures. But like his father...Johnny will get what he wants, one way or another," she replied smugly.

"It's too bad...I'd love to participate in the coming torture," the doctor said.

"Reminding me that you're still breathing isn't wise," David snapped at him, as he walked out.

"We're leaving aboard the Jolly Roger in the morning and those two are going to lead us to them," he said to Patricia. She nodded.

"I'll have them put down in a holding cell until then. Agent Green and Agent Brooks, you and your team will be responsible for transporting these two to the Harbor and joining us. We're going to Peru, O six hundred," she ordered, as she saw David pull Snow into his arms and kiss her. Some of his stress melted away at her kiss and her touch, at least in those quiet seconds.

"David…" Xander interrupted.

"You tucked Clayton's son in at night while your granddaughter was alone in a group home!" he roared.

"It wasn't like that," Xander insisted.

"He was a neglected child that grew into the shadow his father left behind," he added.

"You worked with these people!" David shouted.

"You ate with them! Talked to them! Hell...you even slept with some of them!" he ranted.

"And I hated all of them! And mostly myself most of the time, but Clayton was very convincing! You have to believe me! I wanted nothing more than to get Emma from that group home and bring her to you! But he told me it would be a disaster!" Xander insisted.

"He lied," David growled.

"Yes...and I realized it far too late. I helped him destroy people, because he promised me that in the end, it would lead me back to you and my family," Xander replied. David snorted.

"Well...he was right. Too bad it took you almost thirty years to get to us when you knew exactly where we were," he said, as he took Snow's hand and started to walk away.

"David please...you have to forgive me," Xander pleaded. He stopped and turned to him partially.

"No…I don't and I'm not sure I can," he said.

"David…" he begged, with tears in his eyes.

"How many times?" David asked.

"What?" Xander asked.

"How many times did you stand over my comatose body in that hospital!?" he roared. Xander swallowed thickly.

"Too many," he answered and David shook his head.

"You could have brought Emma to me...hell, you could have brought Snow to me too and you didn't! You were too busy working for that psychopath and sleeping with his operatives," David hissed, as he turned away again and Snow cast a glance behind her, as they walked away from him. She was torn, for the last thing she wanted was for her husband's relationship with his father to implode. But her loyalty was to David first and he had every right to be angry.

~*~

Flashback

The village burned with roaring fire, making it certain that it would be wiped off the map when the flames died. A tall man of Greek descent emerged from the fire and approached his team.

"Did you get it?" he asked, as one of his excavators unwrapped the cloth and presented the jeweled necklace to him. He examined it, but his hope faded and he tossed it back at the worker.

"This is fake!" he cried.

"I'm...I'm sorry sir...the chief finally revealed its location after hours of interrogation. This is said to be the necklace of Harmonia," he replied.

"It's a fake replica! Costume jewelry!" he ranted, as he tossed it into the fire.

"I need that necklace! It can give me eternal youth and find the treasure I seek," he growled.

"The necklace of Harmonia is with Zeus...you'll never obtain it," a voice said, as there was a blue flash and a woman appeared before him.

"A fairy…" he said with intrigue.

"Yes...and you are the man known as the Collector," she replied.

"Sirius Clayton…" he introduced himself.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I must continue my quest for another source of eternal youth if I am to make sure I live long enough to find Atlantis," he said.

"I can help you do that...and more. I can make your entire bloodline for centuries to come...legendary," she offered. He stopped and turned back to her.

"I am not a good man and you are a fairy. Why would you do that?" he questioned.

"Because I want power...just like you and I need a mortal to get that power," she revealed.

"But don't worry...you'll have the ultimate power too," she said.

"Tell me more…" he inquired.

"There is a chalice, created by Gaia herself and gifted to her favorite daughter, Dione. In turn, Dione has gifted to her precious one, Aphrodite," Blue explained.

"Goddess of love, beauty, and desire," he recalled.

"That's the one...the apple of Zeus' eye and instead of giving the chalice to his new wife, Hera, he has given it to his naive, virginal daughter that still thinks that true love is real," Blue said.

"Fascinating...and where do I come in?" he asked.

"Before Dione died, she intended to gift the chalice to a true love pair that she deemed worthy of it to champions of love and heroes to mortals. But she never discovered a pair that she deemed worthy enough," Blue explained.

"Her daughter is determined to keep those standards, but she is wildly more naive than her wise mother," she continued. He smirked.

"You want me to find some woman and convince your naive Goddess that we are the pair she should gift her chalice too," he deduced.

"You are sharp...but it can't be just any woman. It has to be someone convincing and able to pull off the act," she replied. He smirked.

"I think I know of someone," he said.

"But what kind of power are we talking about?" he questioned.

"Unlimited power and eternal youth," she promised. He smirked.

"Where do we start?" he asked.

~*~

Xander sat at the hotel bar and hadn't even bothered to go to his room that night. It was almost two in the morning and they would be kicking him out soon. A glass of scotch sat before him and his stare burrowed into the amber glass of liquid, as a blonde climbed onto the seat next to him.

"Please tell me you haven't touched that, Gramps," Emma said.

"Don't worry...I'm just looking at the thing that kept me from my family for so long," Xander replied.

"You know, I don't blame you, right?" Emma asked. He snorted.

"Your father does...maybe you should. I could have spared you years of unhappiness, Emma. When the Swans sent you back...I should have told Clayton to go to hell and took you straight to your father," he replied.

"You know Clayton would have stopped you or tried to. He might have killed you," Emma surmised.

"And you know Dad...he'll come around. He's almost as forgiving as Mom," she reminded him.

"I don't know, Em...I've never seen him this angry," Xander replied.

"Mom will bring him around...she always does. Just give him time," Emma assured him.

"I hope you're right…" Xander replied.

"Go up to your room and get a little sleep. We're leaving early," she suggested.

"I'm not sure David wants me there," Xander said.

"Yes he does...and you know Clayton's operation better than anyone. Not to mention that you now have a daughter out there that's on the wrong side. You can either stay here and wallow in self pity," Emma said, as he looked at her.

"Or you can fight for your relationship with my Dad and maybe even one with your daughter," she said.

"Her mother has poisoned her against us," Xander replied.

"And we thought George and later Clayton did the same thing to James and now I call him Uncle James," Emma reminded him, as she pushed the glass toward the bartender.

"He won't be needing this," she said, as she threw some money down for it. Xander sighed and followed her to the elevator.

"We always tell you how much like your father you are, but you are every bit your mother's daughter too," he mentioned fondly. Emma smiled.

"I know...I've seen the hope thing work for her time and again, so I took a page from her book on this one. Dad will come around," she assured, as they got in the elevator.

~*~

Snow awoke in the middle of the night, noticing that the warmth of David's body was gone. She got up and padded out to the outside balcony of their hotel suite in her long, white silk nightgown. She found him there, staring off into space and slipped her arms around his waist, before resting her head against his naked back.

"Oh baby…" she murmured, as her heart ached for him.

"I just got used to having a brother...and now a sister…" he muttered.

"A sister that was raised in Clayton's world," he said.

"Not all the people in his network are killers," she offered, as he took her in his arms and kissed her hair.

"I hope...I mean, the stealing I can get passed," he said, looking at her fondly and she smiled back.

"You do have a thing for bandits," she teased.

"Except you were stealing to survive. She steals...for treasure," he said bitterly.

"Then it's your father that's mostly bothering you," she surmised.

"I knew he had killed people...I mean, I've killed people too. We're not so different...at least that's what I told myself," he said.

"But if I knew my grandchild was out there, somewhere alone, being abused...I would have moved heaven and earth to get to them!" he said fiercely.

"I know...I know, my love…" she soothed.

"What if Merlin hadn't nurtured her belief by giving her the book? It would have been ten times worse for her, Snow," he fretted.

"At least the book showed her how much we truly loved her and how we didn't choose to be separated from her. It gave her hope…" he continued.

"But my father could have walked into that adoption agency, submitted to a DNA test, and proved he was Emma's blood. But instead, he was sailing around other realms that weren't frozen by the curse, collection things for Clayton! Treasure and gold and inanimate objects over our daughter!" he stressed.

"Over you...you can say it, my love. He chose those things over you and it was wrong," she said.

"You are a much stronger, braver man than he is. You are your mother's son," she said fondly. He sighed.

"The killing...I can get past as surprising as that sounds. I got past it with James. He was raised by a tyrant. It would have been a miracle if he didn't become a killer," he said.

"But what else has he lied about? There could be so many things we don't know about him. I knew that...and I ignored it. I can't do that anymore. I need to know everything," he added.

"And you will," she assured him, as she led him back inside.

"Until then...we should go back to bed," she said, as he sighed.

"You know I can't sleep now…" he replied. She smirked and gently let the thin straps on her nightgown fall away and it became a puddle at her feet.

"Then let's do some...not sleeping," she replied. His eyes glazed, as he drank her in. His beautiful wife was a master at distracting him and though he knew they would have to deal with all of this in just a few short hours, he welcomed this distraction. He walked to her with purpose and kissed her passionately, while cupping her face in his hands. She mewled into his kiss and then yelped in excitement, as he lifted her up and she hooked her legs around his waist. He carried her to bed and for those few hours, they became lost in each other...

[irrevocably-delicious]

Cultivating an enjoyable video games experience with non gamers aka How do I get my non-gamer significant other to play games with me?

Video games.

Once a niche hobby of adult programmers in the 70s, before targeting 10 year old boys in the 80s and 90s, video games are now a mainstream hobby and entertainment product that has shown tremendous growth in the past 30 years. While films and serialized shows have shown some developments, with new technologies and the invent of streaming, the gaming industry has undergone a complete transformation in only a few short decades. Entire genres have been created, along with improved graphics, mechanics, and storytelling.

But with more people getting into video games now more than ever, the age-old question continuously resurfaces:

“How do I get my significant other to play video games with me?”

And it’s an understandable question! Games are an important hobby to some, and it’s nice to be able to share in that passion and joy with the person you love most. I completely understand this. I’m a cosplayer and I’ve definitely conned my boyfriend into pressing seams for me or sitting in hour long panels about EVA foam. It’s not exactly his number 1 priority, but we have fun together doing it, and he’s able to appreciate my craft a little more because of it.

Similarly, he’s not an artist, but he always helps me table in Artist Alley, gives advice on new prints to make (“If you’re going to make a niche DnD print, at least display it near the DnD stuff to be a conversation starter”) and stays up til 2am cutting stickers with me. It’s exhausting, but we have a lot of good memories from doing it together.

It’s nice to include your significant others in activities that bring you joy.

So how the hell do you convince your partner to engage with video games… if they never have before? And what kinds of games are going to give you the best experience?

Hi. Welcome. This is where I come in.

I’m not a gamer. At all. I’m awful at video games. Whilst my boyfriend was growing up and devouring every console he could convince his parents to buy, I was being a horse girl. No Halo for me today, sir, I have a showjumping class to attend. The only video game I would willingly participate in was Singstar during sleep overs, and that was because I was a musical theatre kid and knew this would be the only video game that I could completely decimate my peers with. Street fighter? No thank you. But I will wreck your shit with Stacy’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne.

But somehow, even though this is my upbringing, I have to acknowledge the fact that over the past 10 years I’ve actually played… a lot of video games. I think I’ve figured out the key. I think I’ve distilled the answer. Now obviously this is purely based on my experience, and everyone will have slightly different results, but I will now present you with my scientific anthropological findings of how you may be able to repeat this process.  

“How do I get my significant other to play video games with me?”

Now I think there are two ways to go about this.

1.       Play a video game together where both of you are holding a controller and in charge of some aspect of the game. Ie. Character, assistant, the right foot, etc.

Now I realize this seems obvious.

“You mean I can play a video game with my significant other by actually playing a game with my significant other??? Uhhhh yeah…. I WOULD THINK SO”

But hear me out. Out of the two ways you can go about this, I actually think this is the hardest way (I’ll explain why soon). My partner and I do not often play games together like this. What we usually do, and what I would be more likely to recommend is:

2.       Play a game where you (the gamer) have the controller, and your SO participates or watches from the couch.

This is what my boyfriend and I usually do, and it’s the less likely of the two options to cause arguments, fights, and tears.

But let’s first look at option 1.

Playing a game together

Do you remember when you were in high school and you had to do a film study for a semester? And your teacher would explain all the different camera shots and angles and what they meant? A low angle shot where a character towers above makes them seem intimidating. A character cloaked in shadow indicates that the character is sneaky.

Your teacher told you all this, but in reality, all of these meanings were probably pretty obvious to you. You intuitively knew what they meant because you had been raised on watching movies. You were already familiar with this language of film because it had always been present in your life.

Well guess what? Video games have a language too.

And just like film, if you have played video games your whole life, you might be surprised at just how much of this language you have absorbed, and how much of this literacy is REQUIRED to play a modern video game.

The fact that triangle is always jump, x to interact, L2 to aim, R2 to shoot, circle to crouch, square to reload… all of that is assumed knowledge that you would probably have ingested over time, so it comes completely natural to you now.

Your SO doesn’t know any of this. They probably don’t even know that the L and R buttons exist. I didn’t. I still forget.

This is why choosing a game to play together is so difficult. When you finally do choose one? You have to be patient. You cannot get annoyed when your SO has to ask every five minutes what jump is again. They may have difficulty navigating around menus and UI. They may have difficulty moving around in game. Side scrollers are pretty intuitive, but games that require you to position a camera? Ie. Most third person or first person anything? Oof. That’s hard. They might fall off a lot of bridges or stare at the ground a lot. This is a skill you have to build up. You have it already. They don’t. It’s important to remember that saying anything like “You can do it, it’s easy!” or “Why are you having so much trouble with this?” is NOT HELPFUL. It’s only going to make your SO feel stupid/bad. Remember, they don’t give a shit about video games. Their life has been just fine without them until now, and it will continue to be just fine without games. They are only doing this FOR YOU. So why would you want to make someone feel stupid for just trying to make you happy?

Treat them like a baby deer. Gently. Tentatively. You are slowly drawing them into the clearing. Any harsh comment will send them running.

Based on all this, here are some recommendations on games that work well to play with your SO.

1.    Games you are SUPPOSED to be bad at.

You know how I just talked about how there are general conventions over controls? And that it can be frustrating for your SO to learn these whilst they come intuitively for you?

Well what if you eliminated that disparity by playing games where the controls intentionally make no goddamn sense? By playing a game with whacky controls, it evens the playing field. Your SO is learning and struggling with controls, but so are you! This way your stupidity is not humiliating, it creates a sense of comradery. There’s no shame, just silliness and fun. The game I played with my partner that made me first realise the genius of this was… Octodad.

Octodad is collaborative. It’s an absolute nightmare to control, but for once my boyfriend’s muscle memory was actually a detriment. He would instinctively go to move like he would in other games, but that’s not how Octodad works. So he was rewiring his muscle memory whilst I was just a blank slate.

“Trigger to grab things? Yeah sure. Why not? I don’t know any better.”

It also hits that sweet spot of being short enough that the silliness doesn’t grow stale, and has a sincere enough story that you do become invested in the fate of the octopus in your hands.

10/10 Octodad. Highly recommend.

Other games in this genre that I feel would be worth a look:

-          Man Fall Flat

-          QWOP

-          Surgeon Simulator

-          Super Bunny Man

 2.    Hey! It’s Nintendo!

Ah Nintendo. It’s where most children start, so it seems like a logical place for a burgeoning gamer to begin. But specifically, what I want to recommend are the range of excellent Nintendo party games that are simple to navigate, fun, and often cooperative. I can’t play an FPS, but Mario Kart comes very easy to me…. Or as easy as it does to anyone. Similarly, Mario Party requires almost no video game literacy, and you can introduce it to your SO as “It’s just a board game that happens to be a video game”.

Although we do joke about Mario Kart and Mario Party being “friendship killers” because of their competitive nature and how easy it is to sabotage other players. If you are worried about these games maybe causing to much distress, I would also recommend the tried and true Wii Sports or the more modern 1-2-Switch. It has a cow milking game! It’s fun! And you can laugh at one another as you make terrible dick jokes.

I DO NOT RECOMMEND SUPER SMASH BROS. THAT IS NOT AN INTRODUCTORY GAME.

If you really want, play it on co-op team mode.

 In summary, when picking a game to play with your SO my general recommendations are:

- make sure the game has very simple controls and linear movement (if any at all)

- or have a game with bonkers controls so you can learn them together

- avoid competitive games to start. Or play competitive games that require no video game literacy. The best FPS or Tekken player is NOT going to win Mario Party. It’s just luck.

Playing games this way with my partner is fun, but not how we usually play games. This is because if I want to play a AAA title, or maybe a great JRPG I’ve heard about, I have to move on to the second method.

 Playing games where the gamer has the control and the non-gamer watches/participates via other means.

This is how my partner and I generally play games. Because my partner is the one holding the controller, navigating the game, combat and menus, I am not required to have any of that assumed knowledge I mentioned earlier.

But how can you make watching a video game compelling?

It’s actually not as difficult as you might imagine, but you’re right in that it does rule out a chunk of games. If you have grand dreams of your non-gamer girlfriend fawning over your sweet League of Legends skills… then I think you need a bit of a wake-up call. Competitive online games, FPS and sports games (such as FIFA) are generally not fun to watch. This isn’t a blanket statement! Some non-gamers could find these fun. But generally, if you don’t know the skill it requires to perform certain moves or strategies, or are unfamiliar with even the basic rules… these games just look like a mess.

Me watching someone play Overwatch: “Wow… I suddenly have motion sickness”

I find the most compelling games to watch are: Narrative driven

Think of all the games that are basically movies with some gameplay thrown in. Uncharted and the Tomb Raider reboot are just long form Indiana Jones movies. The Last of Us is a survival, drama, horror movie that makes you question your morals and how far you are willing to go to help humanity. The Witcher captures a rich narrative and lore comparable only to the Lord of the Rings films. The Yakuza series might be the best mob movie I’ve ever seen. All of these games are great and as engrossing to watch as they are to play. Lovable characters, compelling obstacles, and a good dose of spectacle keep them entertaining. Narrative driven games are my favorite to just sit and watch whilst my partner plays.

However, “narrative driven games” encapsulates thousands of titles, with some being more suited to watching than others. To help narrow down games that are enjoyable without a controller, I’ve narrowed it down into 3.5 sub categories.

1.       Games with a looser/more predictable narrative, but the visuals are just so damn appealing

2.       Choice based games – with the sub category of puzzle games

3.       Mediocre games, but they’re fun

 Each of these categories creates a uniquely different gaming experience, ranging from a cinematic “sit and watch” style, to a higher participation, more co-operative team based style. Let’s start with the first as it’s the easiest to define.

 1.    Games with a looser narrative, but engrossing visuals

Sometimes games will have a good story, but you’re just not sure if it’s good enough to sustain someone’s attention for 20+ hours. Maybe it’s a little predictable. Maybe you know the hero is destined to save the day. Will this be enough to hold my SOs attention?

And I think you are really the only one to answer that.

But let me first tell you about one of my favorite games, and probably only the second game I ever played with my partner.

DMC.

I fucking adore this game.

Eat my ass. It’s great.

But is the story that great? I mean it’s cool. Half angel, half demon boys. Long lost twin brothers. An evil demon who killed your father and has now essentially become a mob boss and corrupted your city. It’s cool. It’s interesting enough, but at the end of the day, you know Vergil is going to betray you. You know your cardboard cut out girlfriend(?) is going to be a liability. You know you’re going to defeat that demon boss with your big sword.

But god damn, if it isn’t a riot to watch. Devil May Cry has some of the most stylish and slick combat, that it’s really entertaining to just witness. You can cheer on your SO on as they climb up to a SSS ranking and maintain their combo over 5 whole minutes. The soundtrack is blasting. The level design and art direction are stunning. Watching Dante get dragged into Limbo is always an experience, and you’re never quite sure what you’re going to walk into this time. DMC still has one of the most inventive boss fights I’ve ever seen and I’m honestly waiting for another game to top it.

So, I think if your visuals are captivating enough… that can definitely save a game with maybe just a good to average story. It’s just a treat for the senses.

Other games I would put in this category would be:

- The Arkham games, particularly Arkham City and Arkham Knight. God the combat is just great to watch, with each punch really feeling brutal and heavy. The spookiness of Gotham is eerily beautiful, and finding all the easter eggs in the world is a real treat.

- The latest Spider-man game from Insomniac games

- Breath of the Wild – I just like… being in this game

-Nier Automata – this one is a bit weird. I wasn’t sure which category to put it in, but felt because of the interesting mechanics and gimmick of playing over and over again to reveal more of the world and story, I decided to put it here.

 2.    Choice based games

This is definitely my favorite type of game to play, and the one that I think is the easiest to engage with, despite the lack of controller in my hand.

The whole reason I started playing games with my partner is because he was playing a game and after a while I just… sat down… and started watching.

The game was Mass Effect 3, and I just became really involved in the story and the choices my partner was making. We have since gone back and played the entire Mass Effect series multiple times, and I feel it really exemplifies what is so fantastic about playing a choice-based game with a non-gamer.

Choice based games still allow your SO to be heavily involved. If you are letting your SO make choices, then they are still playing the game. Just because I wasn’t the one actively shooting Collectors does not mean I had no impact on our game experience. It was my choice to cure the genophage. My choice to spare the Rachni queen, and you can be damn sure that it was my choice to romance Garrus across the series. Choice based games are fantastic for keeping your SO engaged and the two of you can cultivate your own story and endure consequences together.

Obviously I love Mass Effect, but some similar games in this style would be:

-          Until Dawn

-          The Witcher

-          The Persona series – but be careful! These games are long so may not be great as an introductory game

 Visual Novels! – Visual novels are excellent for this! They’re purely choice based, and it doesn’t matter who is clicking the next button. For an added amount of goofiness, take on roles and do stupid voices. Do it. It’s great. Nothing makes me laugh harder than romancing an anime schoolgirl with an old man voice.

 They’re short, but can be replayed for a different ending if you wish. My partner and I played Dream Daddy together multiple times and were avid about who our favorite dads were. I liked Robert and Craig. My partner liked Damian and Brian. 

 My partner and I have actually just started playing a new visual novel, but along with it being choice based, I would also classify it as a puzzle/problem solving game.

 2.5  Puzzle/problem solving games

Puzzle games are great for a similar reason as choice-based games, as they keep your SO involved. Only this time they are helping to problem solve. Many times I’ve been able to figure something out before my boyfriend, so I can go “ohhhh take that, drop it here, then move that here” and it’ll work!

Currently we’re making our way through the Danganronpa series, which is a bit of a hybrid between a visual novel and puzzle game. It’s not a difficult game to control or navigate at all, so I could play it on my own, but I like playing it with my partner as we bounce theories off of one another and work together to solve a crime. I’ll remember certain pieces of evidence he doesn’t, or he’ll remember one throw away line from the opening 3 minutes of the game that is now an alibi. During free time, we’ll each pick a character to talk to, so we both get to learn more about our favorite characters.

“I wanna talk to Sakura because she seems sweet and I want her to have friends”

“Ok, then I’ll talk to Mondo because he seems funky.”

And so on. The process is collaborative.

Some games of a similar genre that might be fun:

-          Catherine from Atlus

-          Portal 1 and 2

-          The Phoenix Wright series

-          Resident evil 2 – this one is a bit odd, but resident evil 2 is almost a memory game as you work to remember all the things you’ve picked up, the pieces you need to unlock doors, and prioritize the weapons you’ll take with you. “No take the grenade rounds. If we’re going in the offices, we left that face hugger there, remember?”

Finally this brings us to our third category, and also the most difficult to explain. So I’ve just called it:

3.    Average Games, but there’s just something enjoyable about them

Sometimes games are just… fun. Sometimes the story is alright, the gameplay is repetitive, but the characters and writing are just so inherently likeable or interesting that you can keep watching. For me, this whole category was created as a way for me to justify my fondness for the Saints Row series.

Saints Row is, on paper, pretty unremarkable. It’s a ridiculous series of games about a street gang coming into fame and eventually political power, and the outlandish things they have to do to climb that ladder. Often cited as a “GTA clone” the gameplay is repetitive and almost boring at times, with most of the missions falling into the “Go here, kill people” category. The world isn’t particularly pretty or interesting. It’s just a city. One that you’ve seen a million times if you’ve played any city-based open world game.

So why do I love this unremarkable series? Why am I oddly attached to these characters?

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the characters being written with a certain amount of honesty, and the interactions between them feel genuine and oddly heartfelt. I don’t really care about rival gangs or accumulating money, but if it lets me ride in the car and have another sing along with Pierce, then I’m going to do it.

I like the weird sexual tension between the Boss and Shaundi, which only seems to become more prominent if you play as the female Boss. I love Matt Miller and him ranting about his Nyte blayde fan fiction. I like finding out the Boss has read Jane Austen.

It’s just silly and fun, with a good amount of ridiculous spectacle. It’s definitely not a series that I could recommend. It just kind of appealed to something in me. I think there are lots of games that could fit this category. Most people will say that the Borderlands series is “Alright” but it has a lot of fun dialogue and characters who keep it entertaining. Similarly, despite lack luster reviews, I know a lot of people really enjoyed the 2013 Deadpool game because Deadpool was written just like he is in the comics.

This category is the hardest to nail, and you may go through several games that you think are “hilarious” or “crazy fun” that just don’t gel with your SO. That’s ok. As you play more, you’ll eventually be able to develop a sense of each other’s tastes and what will appeal to you.

 General Advice in closing

TL;DR, here are some good parameters to stick to until you reach a consensus of what games your SO might enjoy.

-  Games with a good story and compelling characters will always be entertaining

- If the combat is long and takes up a good proportion of the game, it should be visually interesting to look at. If the combat is repetitive or boring to watch, it should clip along at a good pace and only come in short bursts. Bonus points if there’s party banter!

- Start with shorter games, then build up. It’s a big demand on someone to sit through a 60+ hour game for your first few attempts. Maybe put that Tales game on the shelf for now.

I’ve tried to keep this advice general, but obviously you and your SO will have different interests, and you should appeal to those. I love anime. I love hot boys. Due to these factors, I am more than willing to sit through a long form JRPG about two rival noble boys, as it appeals to my weeb sensibilities. This is not something I would expect others to be able to do.

I generally don’t like films about heists or organized crime. It’s just not a genre that appeals to me, so asking me to sit through Grand Theft Auto is probably not the wisest choice. I have played GTA5 for those that are curious, and it’s not my favorite. It’s definitely not bad, and I do expect other non-gamers would be entertained playing through the story of it. There’s definitely a good story there! It’s just not one that satisfies all of my needs. Just like how I don’t expect every person to love sitting through God of War or Jak and Daxter.

Getting to learn each other’s likes and dislikes takes time. Favorite movies can be a bit of an indicator, but transferring to a different medium complicates things. The most important thing is to listen to each other and be respectful. If your SO doesn’t like your favorite game of all time, that’s not a personal insult. You are likely just experiencing the game in a different way than they are, and they can’t relate to that.

Along with being respectful, obviously don’t pressure your SO into anything. Sometimes you’ll find that your SO might not want to play games with you because they had such an awful experience trying to play with their exes or other friends previously. I know I was really hesitant to ever pick up a controller again after an incident where I couldn’t navigate my character over a log, because I was not used to controlling a camera, and was made to feel really stupid and useless. I threw up my hands and said “Fuck this shit” for a long time. Your SO might be hesitant to play games with you because they worry that you’ll just get frustrated with how bad they are. You can reassure them that this won’t happen, but it’s still their choice to say no.

At the end of the day, it’s ok to have different hobbies. You don’t have to share everything. If you are lucky enough that your non-gamer SO might want to try playing games with you, then be kind, and be patient. When picking games to play together, try to pick something you can both enjoy. Go on a journey together. Have fun!

It’s a game after all.  

[ministarfruit]

MMO AU info post (+answering questions!)

ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ hey guys I’m just gonna answer questions about this au in this post bc I got a bunch and I wasn’t expecting it at all so here’s an infodump, I hope it all makes sense!!

ask-zetto-and-kizuna said: does everyone in the mmo AU only know each other online? or do some know each other irl?

They all met online, but some of them eventually meet irl! (´∇ﾉ｀*)ノ The Big Meetup in the end happens at a con, but other than that, most of their interactions are online! (Also, some of them know each other irl but don’t know that they know each other, because I just think that’s funny.)

Anonymous said: I love hoshi’s expression in ur mmo au. He looks like a devious five-yr-old who will fuck your shit up

That’s what he wants you to think.

Anonymous said: For the mmo au are they all part of a guild or?? And whos the leader of the guild if they have any??

They’re separated by the groups in the original post: 

Kirumi/Tsumugi/Gonta/Ryoma 

Tsumugi is guild leader.

Korekiyo/Kokichi/Miu/Angie

Miu is guild leader.

Himiko/Tenko/Rantaro/Kiibo

Tenko is guild leader.

Kaito/Shuichi/Kaede/Maki

Kaito is guild leader.

But they have definitely been in-and-out of a few guilds/combinations! This is what they’re settled with at this current point in time, and are not limited to just playing with their guildmates! For example, Miu never sleeps so she will play with anyone that’s online, and on the flipside, Himiko sometimes takes a nap even when she promised to play, so someone will fill in for her!

Also, there’s more than four people in their guilds (winks at other games), but drawing them all will take me out for a week so maybe I’ll expand another time. The top guild is headed by Hajime (SDR2), I’ll tell you that much!

miikachi said: Just wondering…how did they choose their usernames? Just randomly or they have significations? ^w^ (love their designs btw <3)

(wipes brow) I had … some thoughts behind them, but you can totally take them as random names, and you can bet they all had other weirder names before settling on these ones! Also, thank you so much…!!

Kirumi - Lotus: the short story “The Spider’s Thread” (蜘蛛の糸 Kumo no Ito) features a lotus-filled pond.

Tsumugi - EVA: she likes EVA foam (for cosplay), and also Evangelion.

Gonta - Golem: partially Tsumugi’s idea, partially because he once mistook an enemy golem for himself and then his character died. His friends just started calling him “Golem” because they thought it was hilarious.

Ryoma - Suteneko: literally means stray cat. He does have a whole bunch of cats irl and in-game because who are we to deny him that? (Ryoma on voice chat: just a bunch of mewing in the distance)

Korekiyo - Suzume: means sparrow, named after the Japanese folktale Shita-kiri Suzume (舌切り雀 shita-kiri suzume), translated literally into “Tongue-Cut Sparrow”.

Kokichi - Keikaku: all according to keikaku (keikaku means plan).

Miu - Tensai: literally means genius/natural prodigy. She’s almost always doing something else while she plays, because she’s a multi-tasking extraordinaire.

Angie - Atlas: named in accordance with “The World” tarot card. As a bonus, she sometimes pronounces it Atuas.

Himiko - Tigera: she thought it sounded cool. Also she has a tiger mount. I don’t know the entire logistics of this game, but that’s a thing now?

Tenko - Sencha: Sencha (煎茶) is a type of Japanese ryokucha (緑茶, green tea). She took the Cha (茶, tea) from Chabashira, and picked her favorite tea. She is also always drinking tea when she plays, and has spilled it on her keyboard multiple times. She is not accepting drink suggestions, but Miu always tries for coffee and Kokichi always tries for soda.

Rantaro - North: it was a Santa Claus joke originally, because he kept gifting people stuff for no reason other than his insane luck at getting rare drops, but also Rantaro consistently got lost on the map, despite being very certain he was going the right way.

Kiibo - Volt: partially because they thought it was cool, partially because they’re a major science nerd and felt like it fit.  

Kaito - Kamina: “Go beyond the impossible and kick reason to the curb!” - Kamina from Tengan Toppa Gurren Lagann, and also Kaito’s all-time hero. His character’s tagline was “Kamina said it, so it must be true!”

Shuichi - Lune: derived from Debussy’s Clair de Lune, he was renamed by Kaede after he started a new character. Also partially influenced by a conversation he had with Kaito and Maki that somehow ended up with them deciding he was the moon?

Kaede - Maple: the english meaning of Kaede (楓, maple). She also just thought it was cute! She had seasonal outfits in-game inspired by maple leaves, so she’d taken it as a motif, of sorts!

Maki - Haru: the Haru (春, spring) from Harukawa. She chose it on a whim, and it stuck, though she regretted it because she detested being called “Haru-chan” online. Still, she often got complimented for having a cute character and a cute name, and it secretly made her happy.

[ryouverua]

Finally, the alone time with Tsumugi that I’ve been desperately missing! minus the love hotel. we don’t talk about the love hotel

Excuse me, what? Another new room??? .... In Kaito’s.... lab?

is this the beginning of building a ‘what if Kaito was the mastermind’ AU because I am strangely intrigued -

Anyway more RUNNING AROUND THE SCHOOL oh dear lord I just realized we have to go all the way down to the first floor and then up again???? KAITO WHY IS YOUR LAB SO EXTRA

you know what made everything worth it though

BYE MONOKID S U C K   I T

Man that shouldn’t have been as satisfying as it was.

(also up and down 6 floors later, you know Shuichi is grateful for the training he was doing with Kaito)

U U U U U U M

We are suddenly leaning hard into those VLR vibes again??? Hello, pod room/treatment center. We aren’t going to find out thre are only 15 pods or something are we???

Looks like there are 16... wait, isn’t that strange too? Why does K1-b0 need one?

WE LITERALLY JUST GOT HERE

Oh, and interestingly enough, Tsumugi’s sprite changed to her scared/upset one. I guess Shuichi isn’t the only one so adversely affected by the flashback light after all!

STILL NOT SICK OF THE FLASHBACK ANIMATION

AAAAH NO EVERYONE IS HERE ALREADY MY HEART’S NOT READY

Wait... this is - this feels weird. Isn’t this the first time we’ve actually seen everyone together in a memory?

Ahoge-K1-b0 is back!

AAAH TENKO

oh god my heart really isn’t ready for this

Lmao my question was answered, and as usual it relates to robophobia.

RYOMA!!!! I MISSED YOU!!!

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sdfkljsdfkjl

good.... bye........... heart........ it’s literally just been a chapter but I missed that laugh so much

REMEMBER... WHEN THE CLASS WAS JUST TOGETHER.... SO CASUALLY.... LIKE THIS..............

!!!!!! KAEDE!!!!!!

LMAO “FRIENDS YOU SAY -”

pour one out for the potential that could have been a Kaede vs Kokichi rival relationship

Hell, maybe they would have a trust vs distrust along with lies vs truth -

anyway that’s what fanfics are for

FRIENDSHIP SPEECH! FRIENDSHIP SPEECH!!!

oooughgugh quiet broken sobbing

Oooh, it’s weird to see her properly poised after how things ended in Chapter 2.

WOW IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME, MR ULTIMATE SURVIVOR

IS IT BAD THAT I REALLY MISSED HER ‘NYAHAHAHA’

And eventually everyone agrees until...

I don’t know if it’s a minority opinion but I miss hat!Shuichi. He’s so cute, ffff - and he really does have a different vibe about him. Character design can be pretty powerful in that sense!

Also, it’s kind of amazing how quickly Kaede took charge the moment she stepped back in the spotlight. She’s very powerful like that, huh?

aaah yes, a little hint of that crush Kaito had on Kaede is back

...........

This back and forth along with their colour schemes matching really make me wish we got to see them together more? What’s the scoop on the fandom’s interpretation of a Rantaro / Tenko friendship, lads???

sssshshshhhhhut up K1-b0 don’t bring that ‘h’ word crap in a full class flashback

THERE IS..... SOMETHING.... IN CREDIBLY PAINFUL... ABOUT KAITO BEING THE LAST PERSON YOU SEE AT THE END OF THE MEMORY... AND HIM TELLING EVERYONE HE’LL SEE US LATER.... . GGGH

And just like that....

“GOD THESE MEMORIES ARE ALL DESIGNED TO MAKE ME MISS KAITO AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE CAN YOU NOT -”

So there didn’t seem to be an instructor or anyone to help them set up - was that maybe Kaito’s role? Why he was the last one we saw, and the one that directed everyone to go to sleep? other than just hitting home those saimota feels I mean -

So do they all have identical memories? I guess it can’t be that way with the friendship ones - also, was this one specifically triggered by entering this room?

................ I have thoughts on that.

Okay, that does explain why they’ve never been together in a memory before -

but. but. They had the funeral memory together, didn’t they? They all had that same funeral memory. So haven’t they met before?

..........

THEY ARE PROJECTED THEIR IMAGES OF THEMSELVES ONTO THE ACTUAL STUDENTS’ PORTRAITS IN THAT FUNERAL MEMORY THEY ARE MISREMEMBERING SOMETHING THEY ARE NOT WHO THEY THINK THEY ARE THEY ARE NOT WHO THEY THINK THEY ARE -

Aaaaw. 8′)

..................... I feel bad saying this after you said those heartwarming things but those feelings of suspicion towards you are growing Tsumugi I’M SORRY GIRL I STILL LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU ARE EVIL I CAN’T HATE A GIRL WHO KNOWS AND APPRECIATES THE WONDERS OF EVA FOAM -

Okay just to explain this more now because big things happen below and I don’t want to wall-of-text too much, I.... just don’t think it’s a coincidence that this room just was discovered so conveniently. I mean, yeah, it’s in Kaito’s lab, but it just. You know. Appeared right now. And Tsumugi ‘found’ it. Tsumugi found it conveniently because holes were blown into it. Here’s my question.

Why was she in the position to find this room?

No, seriously. Kaito’s lab is so far out of the way of everything. It’s in an isolated area at the top of the building with a long spiraling staircase that spans what, six floors? And the holes blown into it came from above and through the lab.... and nowhere else. It’s not connected to any part of the building - there are no convenient K1-b0-created holes connecting it to the rest of the floor it’s on. Tsumugi had to have come here, specifically to Kaito’s lab, for the sake of investigation, when there are so many other areas of the school to look and there is no reason to find anything in Kaito’s lab, or Kaito, suspicious, especially in the face of him actively going against the mastermind. Why? Why other than the stuff that’s about to come up below, and for the sake of triggering that flashback?

Because here’s the thing - the moment we stepped in this room we got the flashback! The moment we got in here! All the other flashbacks happened randomly while we were investigating things, right? There didn’t seem to be any specific trigger words or anything - but this one happened with this room. I can’t... think of that as a coincidence. I just can’t. I’ll feel bad if it turns out it was though lmao

OKAY I GOT THAT OUT OF MY SYSTEM I FEEL BETTER NOW

Uuuuh that is way more than 16 people so I’m guessing it’s not literally just a list of names??? or???

whY WERE YOU IN HERE EARLIER TSUMUGI I KNOW YOU CAN’T HEAR ME BUT ADDRESS MY QUESTIONS DAMN IT

.........................

don’t you do this DRV3

Finally! No more Mukuro erasure - I MEAN WAIT THAT’S NOT THE ISSUE -

You’re not seriously trying to tell me at this late stage of the game (figuratively and literally) about this potential 17th party with no clues or foreshadowing, right. Right?

I wonder how familiar Shuichi is with Knox’s 10 commandments... I mean, it’s literally addressed here:

10. Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

N-Not that anyone is obligated to stick to them, and it’s more of a guideline than a rule and good stories can break them or skirt around them (I do enjoy how Chapter 1 played with the “The detective himself must not commit the crime.” rule because while Kaede was technically acting as the reader stand-in/’detective’, we in fact had an actual detective... damn, maybe that should have been our first hint), but there’s a reason these are held in somewhat high regard. 8′D

I mean, even Shuichi is saying it - this is the first time he’s heard of Kaede having a twin. And yeah, we didn’t know about Junko and Mukuro being twins, but we did get hints of something being off (not looking like the magazines, Mukuro deflecting by saying it was just photoshopped, the 16th empty chair) early on.... and I can’t think of anything like that here. Like, at all. I’m going to continue these thoughts at the end, I think ~

“He has no understanding about structural integrity. His general interests include stand-up comedy and being a pop star, or in the care-giving field. I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have the slightest clue about architecture and the importance of load-bearing walls and beams.”

“.....”

“.... Look, I’ve spent a decent amount of my free time with him okay???”

oh right that too

I’M SO EXCITED WE’RE FINALLY GOING THERE!!!

“I’ve got tons of evidence to hide!”

“Wait, what was that?”

“I can’t wait to see the inside!”

because she hates herself

Again I want to reiterate how happy I am that Maki chose to be the one to look through Kokichi’s things. It’s both a sign of distrust and trust - she believes Kokichi hid a lot from everyone, and also that he may have left more clues to help them. He would be proud. 8′) It’s small, but I’d like to think of it as a way to pay penance; I’m sure she hates doing it.

DOG TAG! DOG TAG! DOG TAG! or something else maybe

WHY ARE YOU SO FAR AWAY FROM EVERYONE ELSE TSUMUGI WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A STRANGE LOCATION WHAT THOUGHT PROCESSES BROUGHT YOU HERE

I’d be more worried about Himiko than Maki.

.... So...... I said I’d continue that thought from earlier. Here it is.

To recap what we learned:

Kaito had a hidden room in his lab that he presumably didn’t know about

Tsumugi found it by ‘accident’

Entering the room triggered the flashback light, which showed everyone met here for the first time

In the room is the participant list that says Kaede has a twin which just so happens to line up with Junko’s situation

Anyway, tl;dr: I don’t believe Kaede has a twin.

The last room we went to ended with Shuichi thinking, “what is the truth and what are lies?” so I’m building off of that and my previous theory about Tsumugi not finding this place by accident and purposefully bringing Shuichi here to trigger that flashback. I’m not 100% sure why - maybe to bring Kaede back into focus, only to gut-punch him with the ‘twin sister’ bomb? Maybe this will be the start of her creating a ‘new truth’? Possibly? It would very much match the theme of the game. But anyway, the point is I just don’t believe Tsumugi ~stumbled~ across the room and just so happened to find this participant list/profiles that immediately makes Kaede look suspicious when we hadn’t had a single hint of that the entire game.

I.... wonder. If Tsumugi... is the mastermind.... is she trying to set up Kaede as the mastermind? Or this (probably fictional) ‘twin sister’ of hers? I guess there are ways to swing that too to relate to why Kaede killed Rantaro in Chapter 1 - “she was trying to protect her twin sister, the real mastermind, so she killed Rantaro who was drawing too close to the truth” or something.

[lazywriter7]

on your left

This one’s dedicated to @suitofhumour , who often inflicts angst on people with a cheerful gusto I’ve always admired. I get the feeling that you’ve also often bemoaned the lack of SamSteve brotp content in the world, and so I have delivered... angstily.

warnings: canon death and grieving

The sunrise peeked through the darkened blinds, casting light-slivers high up on the wall opposite the window.

Lying in his bed, Steve watched the slivers grow – lengthen across the plaster as the minutes ticked by and the sun got higher and stronger in the sky outside. There was no other movement in the room: the temperature-controlled air perfectly still, the blinds hanging straight and undisturbed, even his own chest barely rising and falling with his breaths. His eyes burned from the watching, but he didn’t blink; the spots in his vision and the white-bright patches on the wall mingling together indelibly.

(Click to keep reading)

He didn’t remember the last time he’d been indoors when the sun came up. Dawn after dawn, his feet had pounded down along sidewalks, and gravel lanes, and dirt-packed running tracks. Sprinting up and down the Watergate Steps, the Potomac’s waters tinted pink by the lightening sky; weaving through the golden streets of Birnin Zana, trains whizzing overhead even at four am. It was familiar and addictive. The bunch and release of the muscles in his legs, lungs expanding and contracting in his chest, oxygen rushing in and the world brightening minute by minute. Running at the horizon, full tilt, as the streets stripped by and one day tipped into the next.

The slivers of light, unchecked by the blinds, had reached the middle of the wall now – about halfway up from the floor. Steve curled his toes in. Something itched at the balls of his feet, tension coiled in the forced stillness of his limbs.

He didn’t remember the last time he’d been indoors when the sun came up. Except today. And the day before that, and the day before that. And all the days since that one day – one morning when the world woke up different.

Halved.

 “Your bed, it's too soft. When I was over there I'd sleep on the ground and use rock for pillows, like a caveman. Now I'm home, lying in my bed, and it's like...”

“Lying on a marshmallow. Feel like I'm gonna sink right to the floor.”

 Steve turned on his side, and closed his eyes.

 ~

 The next day was worse.

He did not sleep, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. He stayed still in bed, watching cracks in the ceiling, arms and legs perfectly parallel to the sides of the bed. Like being locked in a coffin of his making.

He jerked out of bed at three thirty, and went down to the gym in his sleeping pants. He punched out bags till his bare feet were caked and crackling with spilled sand, the split seams and torn remains of the bags heaped on the floor where they fell, or were absently kicked out of the way. No one was there to raise a judging eyebrow – the place was absolutely desolate. He hadn’t exercised alone, in a gym facility empty of Dora Milaje or SHIELD agents or Avengers since… since the first time he’d been out of the ice.

The bag still strung up was swinging around noisily – Steve stilled it with his hands, split knuckles stinging with the motion. He rested his forehead on the cool canvas.

Maybe this is how it would’ve been, if he’d never driven the Valkyrie into the ice. All this time, his fantasies of post-war peace had fixated on Peggy, on dance halls filled to the brim with celebrating people, on growing old with friends. But war didn’t only live in the fighting of it – it lived on in bombed out streets, in neighbourhoods that weren’t half as populated, in closed businesses and families that would always have empty spots at the table. It lived on in fear: of more enemies, of the next war, in crueller weapons and larger stockpiles, until entire cities were wiped off the face of the planet in the name of peace.

Maybe the ice had done him a favour. Maybe he’d been the lucky one who got to skip over the aftermath.

 “What unit you with?”

“58, Pararescue. But now I'm working down at the VA.”

 When he came up to his room, after a brief, scouring shower – his closet door was cracked open by an inch, the sleeve of a shirt caught in the hinge. He extricated it roughly, a too-firm tug causing a button to go flying off. It pinged and landed somewhere in the darkness of the closet floor, obscured by the line of running shoes set neatly along the back.

The first two or three were forty-dollar pairs, black or white with a plasticky gloss. It got better as one moved down to the right – flex grooves and EVA cushioning, a couple foam soles here and there. The furthest one, shoved right into the corner, was a brand new pair still in the box. Nike Zoom Pegasus Turbo, in a peat-grey colour scheme. Steve remembered researching it carefully, and ordering a pair under a false ID.

He’d never gotten around to wrapping it. Christmas had been so far away, and at the time with everything else going on, it’d seemed like the least of his priorities.

He’d probably have included a card, along with the gift. A little something to make up for all the pairs you left behind in your flat stateside. Then, in a postscript – thanks for always having my back.

Steve closed the closet door, the tiny click resounding in the silence.

 ~

The day after that, he went to the common area to sit with Nat.

Nat sat with folded knees and elbows on the couch, dulled and pallid strands of hair swinging to the fore of her face. She had a laptop open on her thighs, fingers tapping across the keys too fast to sometimes follow. Her lips flickered minutely, chapped and dry, mouthing along to whatever she was bringing up on the screen – a tell there was no longer any point hiding.

The cushions dipped as he lowered himself down next to her. Her eyes didn’t lift from the screen. Steve squeezed her gently by the shoulder; she pressed back into the touch.

You’re still here.

He didn’t ask for any updates – Nat would’ve told him if there had been any developments. She’d been working on this for weeks. Ever since it’d been reported that Cooper and Lila Barton were among the many registered as ‘long-term absent’ in their school’s attendance records. Laura had stopped turning up for local garage sales. The farmhouse was deserted, the upstairs crib empty. It all pointed to the obvious, but it wasn’t…wasn’t confirmed yet, with eyewitnesses. Not like Nick, and Maria, and Wanda, and Vision and T’Challa and Shuri and–  

Steve exhaled, letting the air scrape out of his throat inch by burning inch. It wasn’t confirmed, so he sat by Nat while she ransacked every corner of the intelligence community, shadowy underbellies and seedy hiding-holes, rooting through scores of copycat archers and blonde white men, looking. Just looking, while her fingers clasped and unclasped, unendingly, at the arrow necklace still strung around her neck.

After thirty minutes of this, Nat’s fingers grew slack again. She lowered the lid of the laptop by a fraction, baggy eyes staring above the rim.

“Didn’t know I still had it in me, to become complacent.”

“I know.” Steve said, quietly sufficient. He probably wouldn’t have phrased it that way, but the point stood. After the life he’d had, he wouldn’t have thought himself to be the kind of person who took things for granted. He could be affected by loss, but not surprised by it – or so he’d thought.

It was in the nature of such things, wasn’t it? To worm themselves into your safe, secure places, to irrefutably become a part of them. To be so…solid, so wholly dependable, that you could be the most jaded person on the planet, and still find a best friend in a smiling stranger on the street.

Steve had taken his gut punches. The ones that robbed him of breath, that made the world white out at the edges. Till the end of the line, pal. I will miss you Tony.

And he’d staggered, and he’d fallen – only to find nothing to put his back against. No wall to lean on, no easy smile waiting in the wings to support his strength.

“It’s fight or flight,” Sam said, without sounding like he was explaining. More than anything, he sounded slightly amused. “We always knew you liked punching out your problems. Turns out, you also like running through the streets if there’s nothing to be done, till it feels like you’ve gotten somewhere. Coping mechanisms – everyone’s got them.”

“I,” Steve said. It stuck strangely in his throat, though he’d swallowed so much worse. Lived through so much worse. This one stuck. “I can’t go running anymore.”

[hot--sneakers]

Kanye keeps it weird with the gold ‘Ochre’ Yeezy Foam runner shoe

Yeezy has kept its fans satiated with plenty of recent drops, and it seems more releases are headed our way this summer. According to Yeezy Mafia, a muted golden iteration of the peculiar Foam Runner clog is set to drop in July, alongside the previously previewed “Mineral Blue” and “Red October” pairs. The newest model is dubbed “Ochre” as its color draws inspiration from the natural clay pigment it’s named for.

While many were quick to judge the bizarre-looking Yeezy Foam Runner — made of a sustainable algae-based foam — the silhouette has quickly garnered a following, with each release not only instantly selling out, but also reselling for up to five times its $80 retail price. And Ye’s upcoming “Red October” pair, which is actually dubbed “Vermillion” because he couldn’t file the rights to the name, will most likely be the most coveted Foam Runner of all. Its all-red makeup pays tribute to the “Red October” color scheme of West’s 2014 Air Yeezy 2, a result of his short-lived stint with Nike. Better pray to Yeezus you can cop a pair.

MELLOW YELLOW — The “Ochre” Foam Runner won’t be any easier to obtain, but you can certainly try. Given the “Vermillion” pair isn’t set to drop until October, and the “Mineral Blue” version is slated for a May release, the golden pair gives consumers a chance to cop right in the middle — Yeezy Mafia has the shoes scheduled for a July launch.

Taking on the same design as its predecessors, the muted yellow shoe opts for a monochromatic look. Featuring the silhouette’s signature oval perforations on the heel and midfoot, with smaller holes near the tip of the shoe, the clog offers itself as the perfect breathable summer sandal.

To keep up with Adidas’ sustainability efforts, the forthcoming Foam Runner — as well as all iterations of the silhouette — is made entirely of EVA foam, some of which is derived from algae. Out of all of Yeezy’s shoe offerings, the Foam Runner is among the most sustainable — and affordable — models.

SLIDING INTO SUMMER — Yeezy Mafia says the “Ochre” Foam Runner should hit the Yeezy site sometime in July, but lookout for an official confirmation from Adidas. You don’t want to miss the drop, or risk being late — most Yeezy pairs, especially the Foam Runner, sell out in mere seconds. And between people looking to flex after quarantine or those who want to stay inside in style, Ye’s upcoming $80 slide offers a simple solution.