#he's literally my favourite design-wise

[chilling-seavey]

Lessons in Lust and Other Illicit Desires (gr63) —EIGHT

↳ A/N So apparently I really can't keep to a word count goal. But this is one of my favourite chapters thus far!!

↳ Series Summary: Sensible, wise, and a hopeless dreamer, Rosaline was used to men not giving her a second glance. She soon discovered it was merely those mundane college boys who were nothing more than simply intimidated by her intellect. What she needed was a man — someone who could impart knowledge beyond the Classics and guide her in discovering her own confidence as a woman. The thrill of sneaking around with the ever-so-charmingly handsome Professor Russell was certainly a bonus.

↳ Pairings: OxfordProfessor!George Russell x Innocent!Student!OC, Max Verstappen x Charles Leclerc (background)

↳ Chapter Word Count: 7.1k

↳ Chapter Warnings: 18+, nsfw, exhibitionism, fingering, slight dirty talk.

“This project is bullshit.”

Max’s notebook paper looked about ready to tear in half with how aggressively he was erasing yet another incorrect formula. He tossed his mutilated eraser onto the wood table and raked both hands through his already tousled blonde hair, fingers clutching onto the roots as if to figuratively and literally pull his hair out. The warm light of the lamps dotted along the library table reflected in his blue eyes that were narrowed towards his page under furrowed brows and a steadfast expression of distaste. 

Rosaline and Tabitha glanced at him from their spot on the opposite side of the table but before they could say anything, he was off on a tangent, “The other engineering class gets to study and design a part of a Formula 1 car of their choosing which is fucking cool. What does our class get? An assignment to create something that will help farmers be more efficient in their harvesting techniques.” 

Max scoffed and tossed his pencil down as he slouched back in his chair with a huff.

“This idiot professor is so old he probably has never seen a car in his life.” Max continued, his tone full of seething disgust, “Still wouldn’t even have a clue even if the fucking RB19 hit him going full throttle down the Monza straights.”

From his right, Charles snickered from behind his phone screen, his eyes darting over to his agitated boyfriend. Anyone else might have been a little put off by Max’s very aggressive delivery of a borderline threat of life to an elderly professor, but their little group could only smile fondly at his frustration. 

Charles spoke up, “Do you think a person would just…explode if they were hit by the RB19 going full throttle?”

“Yes.” Max answered without hesitation, his gaze still focused on his wrinkled notebook paper and open textbook. 

Charles stared at his profile for a moment as if in thought, debating the validity, and then looked back to his phone with a satisfied and simple “hm”.

On the other side of the table, Rosaline and Tabitha looked at each other and then shared amused chuckles before turning back to their own work. 

Around them, the aged dark wood shelves of the Bodleian Old Library housed a few dozen students spending their Thursday night with their noses in dusty books and reliable laptops. Rosaline and her friends were among them, luckily having snagged a spot at one of the long centralized tables in the heart of the main hall, surrounded by well stocked shelves that stretched up two storeys to the intricately carved wood paneled ceiling.

Voices carried easily in those ancient buildings of Oxford so they spoke in hushed tones while the rustle of students pulling literary texts from the shelves sounded magnified and shiver-worthy. The sounds of knowledge, of a desire to learn, to imagine and to dream. Rosaline felt so at peace in the Oxford libraries. It felt as though the history was only heightened in those spaces; something about the lingering coating of dust on the covers of centuries old books making the past feel more alive. 

As if on cue, Tabitha turned away and sneezed as quietly as she could manage into her elbow. The sound echoed. A few students glanced over. 

Charles sighed dramatically and dropped his phone onto the table with a loud thud, his head lolling back to look up towards the ceiling. Being a music student, there wasn’t much work for Charles to complete in a library but he always came along to keep the rest of their group company. It always panned out the same way - he was quiet and busied himself at first but then quickly got restless.

He sighed again to the ceiling and then lolled his head to the side to look at Max who had since hunched over his books again, announcing, “I’m bored.”

Max barely offered a grunt in response, biting at the end of his pencil as his mind worked a mile a minute to try and solve whatever problem was currently vexing him.

Charles sighed again. Tabitha shushed him from across the table. 

Heaving himself from where he was draped back in his chair, Charles leaned his arms on the table towards Rosaline, asking her in a loud whisper, “So when do we get to know of your secret lover?”

Rosaline met his gaze over her laptop and she broke into a small smirk at his nosy question before replying, “I don’t know.”

“C’mon,” Charles pleaded, “I can keep good secrets.”

“No, you can’t.” Max piped up without tearing his eyes away from his books. 

“Chut.” Charles playfully shot at his boyfriend. 

Despite her hand furiously writing out notes, Tabitha smiled at their bickering. 

Charles continued to press Rosaline, “Is he your boyfriend?”

Rosaline shrugged, “Not really. We’re just…keeping it casual.”

“What is “keeping casual”?” Charles asked with air quotes, “Kissing? Or more?”

Rosaline licked away her smile, folding her hands together under her chin as she humoured him with a little detail, “Well, I made him come in his pants last week.”

Charles let out a surprised squeak so loud it could almost have passed as a scream and he smacked his hand over his mouth as a few nearby students glared at him. Max’s pencil was suddenly dropped at her statement, his attention taken from his work to be entirely focused on her instead.

“You made him what?” he asked as firmly and seriously as he could. 

Rosaline smiled almost proudly, “You heard me.”

“Putain, Rose.” Charles breathed, “I need to know now!”

“No, you don’t.” she chuckled.

“Uh, yes, we do.” Max backed his boyfriend up, pointing a finger at her, “Start talking.”

Tabitha sighed and set her pencil down too, “Will you guys stop gossiping in the library? I’m sure everyone can hear you.”

Charles and Max both held up a hand to her to silence her. She rolled her eyes. 

“Where did you say you met this guy again?” Max asked.

Rosaline shrugged, twisting the truth only slightly, “In one of my lectures.”

Max nodded slowly, staring at her as if trying to catch her out in a lie, “Uh huh…”

“What? You don’t believe I can find myself a man without your futile attempt at wingmaning?” Rosaline countered. 

“Frankly, no.” Max replied, deadpanned. 

Rosaline shot him a pointed glare.

“What’s his name? What’s his birthday? What’s his GPA?” Max asked, trying to catch her out in a lie.

“Not telling, I don’t know, higher than yours.” she answered easily, looking back at her laptop. 

Charles’ eyebrows raised, “You don’t know his birthday?”

Tabitha chuckled from her spot across from him, “That’s what you’re concerned about? Do you even remember my birthday?”

Charles opened his mouth defensively but when he honestly couldn’t think of the answer, he shut it into a firm line. 

“Wow!” Tabitha gaped. 

Max simply narrowed his eyes at Rosaline, his voice calm and serious, “Fine. Keep your secrets. But I hope you will be honest with us - your best friends - eventually.” 

Rosaline shrugged without looking up from her laptop, “Eventually.”

As the hour wore on, the group continued working on their independent assignments. It wasn’t long before Charles’ restlessness was driving Max far more crazy than any impossible engineering task could so they said their goodbyes and left. Charles carried Max’s bag for him over one shoulder, smiling his dimpled grin as they walked hand in hand down the main hall of the library together. 

About thirty minutes after Charles and Max left, Tabitha checked her watch, announcing that she better head back to her dorm too. Rosaline watched her pack up and, upon her friend’s concern, assured her she would be able to make it back to her dorm on her own later once the library closed and she was inevitably kicked out. The two shared their good nights and soon Rosaline was left alone at the table with only the click of her laptop keys as company. 

Most of the students had gone by then, leaving only a straggling few at the far end of the spacious hall. Rosaline wasn’t a stranger to making herself comfortable in the libraries of Oxford until the librarians had to kick her out to close up. So, she felt perfectly at home with the company of the books and the warm light of the lamps on the worn wood table tops, the rest of the campus fading into darkness behind the large paned lancet windows of the library. 

“Rosaline?”

The gentle call of her name had her looking up from her laptop, turning over her shoulder to see George walking in her direction with a modest stack of books in his arm. The sight of him in the warm moody lighting that bathed the dark wood library made him look effortlessly more handsome than normal and one glance at him and her heart skipped a beat. 

“George…” she breathed at her notice of him, a small calm smile coming to her lips, “What are you doing here so late?”

“I could ask you the same thing.” he countered smoothly, coming to a stop at the head of the long table that had once been taken up by students and her group of friends. Now empty, it was only the two of them left. 

Rosaline answered first, gesturing to her laptop, “I’m just finishing up some work for some of my lectures. I have a comparative essay due next week for my Greek and Roman Mythology course.”

“I see,” George glanced down at the various texts she had opened on the table around her, colour coded sticky notes with scribbled ideas dotting the various pages, “The ancient classic literature; not my cup of tea but an important foundation to all that we know and love nevertheless.”

Rosaline leaned back in her chair to look up at him, returning to her initial question she had asked him, “And your excuse?”

George smiled a symmetrical modest smile to the stack of books in his arm, his free hand gently patting the top one, “Ah, just returning some of these. Some for lecture preparation, some for pleasure.”

“Of course, the lush libraries of Oxford could never keep a literature professor away.” Rosaline replied playfully. 

“You caught me there.” he chuckled warmly. 

They were quiet for just a moment. The awareness of how empty the library hall was suddenly settled around them. 

Then, George asked calmly, “Would you like to accompany me in returning these to their shelves? I can tell you a bit about them if you’re interested.”

Rosaline’s hand was shutting her laptop before she could even reply, “Yes.”

The well-stocked shelves of the library guided them through centuries of lives and stories tucked away in worn dust jackets and creased paperbacks. The lingering scent of dust was a familiar presence in the heart of Oxford’s many libraries and it was a generally off-putting smell that Rosaline was very quite fond of. It simply added to the ambiance of the gorgeously hand carved wooden book shelves and the glimmering stained glass lancet windows that were now dimmed with the nightfall. 

Rosaline had left her packed bag behind at the table at which she had sat, wanting to have her hands free for this little journey with George to return the precious books to their rightful homes. She followed behind him closely, her eyes soaking up his broad shoulders and back in his ironed button up shirt and, shamelessly, the curve of his ass in his slacks. It was their first time alone and away from their responsibilities as mentor/mentee since their little agreement and the concept of this had Rosaline’s heart racing. She wondered if he could hear it through the silence of the library. 

George guided her through the organized shelves with practiced ease as if he had been navigating them for his entire life. He knew exactly where every book he held belonged and barely needed to give the stocked shelf a skim before he knew which two he needed to nestle the chosen one between. He spoke to her about each one as they strolled through the library together, hidden amongst the books and ornately carved wood trim and edging. Some were more philosophical, some were more fiction, there were one or two books of poetry.

It seemed that with every book he returned to its place, he could recite at least one line, one passage, one poem from its pages. He spoke in a whisper with his voice as enticing as steaming morning coffee, rich and sensual and delicious. She wanted to taste his words; the way he spoke every beautiful constructed line of literature. Wanted to lick her way into his mouth and taste his verses until his sonnets were hers.

When he was down to the final book, he led her down the final row to its destination, “And the descriptions truly had me right in the main character’s shoes, feeling exactly what she was feeling at any moment in time. I find so many students think excess adjectives and lengthy blocks of text is what makes for successful descriptions but in reality, if done well, even a single sentence can take the place of an entire paragraph.”

They fell to a stop and George crouched down to skim one of the lower shelves, his loafers creased slightly across the toes from how he was balanced on the balls of his feet. 

While he looked for where the book belonged, Rosaline continued their conversation, “I once read this novel in which the author compared the light from a police flashlight being shone in a dark room like ‘spilt milk’ and it stuck with me. The simplest simile but it did a shiver-worthy job of putting you in the scene.”

“Bel Canto, wasn’t it?” George asked as he slid the paperback book between two hardcovers, leaving it with a pat to its spine. He glanced up at Rosaline from his spot, a knowing smile on his face, “By Ann Patchett?” 

Rosaline’s face lit up, “Yes, that’s the one.” 

He stood up again, adjusting the wrinkled fabric of his slacks around his thighs, “That’s a good one. Not too well known.”

“I’m surprised you knew it from just my brief mention of that line.” Rosaline agreed with an impressed smile, resting her hip against the bookshelf they stood beside, her arms casually crossing across her chest. 

“It must have stuck with me just as strongly.” he smiled in return. 

“It was that line that made me really want to write that one line that sticks with my readers for the rest of their lives.”

There was a beat of pause between them and then George took a step closer, “Close your eyes for me.”

Rosaline let out a breathy chuckle, “Why?”

“We’re going to practice your descriptions.” 

Rosaline wanted to argue why closing her eyes was going to help them with practicing her descriptions but his handsome, princely face in the warm light of the library lamps had her entirely entrusting him. She let her eyes flutter closed. She felt him step a little closer. 

“Pretend you are your main character and this library is your setting,” George instructed softly, voice low and coaxing, “We often depend too heavily on sight in our writing, merely showing the reader what the character sees. But the most compelling descriptions go beyond the visual—they pull the reader in by engaging every sense. So, with your eyes closed, I want you to immerse yourself fully. What would the main character be feeling right now? Let your other senses guide your words.”

Rosaline thought for a moment, taking a second to take in everything around her in the darkness of her eyelids. She uncrossed her arms and set a cautious hand on the shelf she was leaning against, shifting as she spoke slowly, softly, “Well, I feel the worn wood of the bookshelves…the uneven hardwood floors under my feet.”

Neither of them spoke for a moment. Rosaline, with her eyes closed, and George just watching her, studying her. The library, almost entirely void of other students or faculty rested in near silence. 

Rosaline spoke again in a whisper, “I don��t hear much…it’s quiet. Calm.” 

She thought for a moment, really trying to focus to pull anything out of her setting. If she listened hard enough, she could hear the faint tick, tick, tick of the analog clock over the librarian’s desk near the entrance, the sound echoing through the high ceilings. 

“I hear the clock ticking in the distance.” she whispered. Her attention drew back to the man in front of her, trying not to find herself a little ridiculous standing there with her eyes closed in front of him, all too aware that he was watching her, “I hear you breathing.”

George let out a small encouraging, “Mhm.”

Rosaline took a deep inhale, breathing in the scents of the library she loved so dearly, pouring out her findings in an exhale, “I smell the books, the ink, the parchment. The floor polish. The dust. I smell…your cologne.”

She could hear his soft smile at her last addition. 

Then, he spoke, “What comparisons can you make between these findings-”

Rosaline opened her eyes under a furrowed brow, interrupting him with, “Wait, I didn’t do taste yet.”

George blinked, caught off guard by her sudden reply, “Well, I don’t know how you’d-”

She didn’t know what overcame her; maybe it was the dim, moody lighting of the historic library or the simmering impatience she’d been battling since they formed their agreement. Whatever it was, it sent her hand shooting out, fingers curling around the back of his neck as she pulled him into a kiss.

He tensed under her touch at first, the shock of it surging between them. The feeling of his hesitation sent a rush of pride through her veins—he was reacting to her, thrown off his careful control. But it only lasted a moment; soon, his hands were framing her face, large and warm, as he surrendered to the kiss, meeting her urgency with a sudden shared and undeniable hunger.

George stepped towards her a little more and Rosaline stumbled slightly before her back hit the cool wood of the bookshelf. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders, a soft moan escaping her lips as his mouth moved against hers with a familiarity that felt effortless, as if they’d been doing this for years. He was only a few inches taller than her, barely enough to matter, yet she found herself rising onto her tiptoes, instinctively seeking every inch of closeness between them.

Pinned between his broad body and the sturdy shelves, Rosaline felt utterly consumed by him. Shivers raced down her spine, and warmth pooled low in her belly—a heat that was impossible to ignore. It was almost embarrassing how quickly she found herself growing aroused by only the slightest of his touches, each sensation magnified by her inexperience and the thrilling realization that this was no longer a fantasy. Oh, and it was just as good as people had always told it would be. 

In the back of her mind, she was aware that they were in a very dangerous position by doing this in the open library. They were risking getting caught by any of the handful of students still working across the spacious hall or by the librarian who would be closing up shortly. Despite this, she had no desire to stop. Every atom in her body burned for more. She already had her first taste of him, a hint of the pleasure that he could bring her without even using his hands, and now, like that, she wanted to push the limits just a little bit farther. 

Rosaline’s hands cascaded over his broad shoulders and down his chest, feeling the arches and valleys of his muscle through the thin linen fabric of his button up shirt. He was so real. She offered up another small moan into his mouth. That only urged his hands to move on her face, one of his thumbs dropping from her cheek to slide over her jaw and to her chin, gently guiding her mouth to open a little wider into their kisses so he could brush his tongue against hers. 

Her fingers grasped onto his shirt, her tongue eagerly pushing back against his between hungry kisses, their steamy moment hidden away between the towering shelves of books. She wondered if this had ever happened before in the centuries since this library had been founded; some pair of literaries making out in the shadows of the books that surrounded them. Maybe this was far too salacious for the figures of the past to even dream. Maybe the authors of the Classics that overlooked them from their pages were rolling in their graves at this sight. 

Rosaline’s fingers tugged at the front of his shirt to pull him impossibly closer, their bodies naturally moulding together until his leg was nudged between hers. His closeness was dizzying and she felt the heat of desire throbbing through her body. She tossed one arm around his shoulders with her other still grasping at the fabric at the side of his shirt, keeping his chest against hers. 

George moved with her, taking his hands from her face to slide down her waist and to her hips, gently pushing her fully back against the bookshelf, pinning her entirely there with his body. Her arm tightened around his shoulders, licking her way into his mouth at a rhythmic pace of lips and tongues and the slightest rock of her hips against his thigh. She felt dizzy. So pathetically needy and dizzy and overwhelmed as the world fell away around them. No more library, no more books, no more risk; just them floating in a cloud of promises. 

Every move George made was skilled and hesitant; it was if he was afraid to push her too far or to do something she didn’t like. His hands stayed firmly on her hips but his fingers itched to move and she could feel his hesitation as they twitched against her sides. With another roll of her hips, he followed the movement of her body to trail the shape of her curves until his hands rested on her bum. 

Rosaline shivered at his touch, the way his large hands gently kneaded her flesh over her jeans and slid down the back pockets to grab another handful. His insistence had her body pulled closer to him, the heat pouring through her at the way he rubbed her body in slow tantalizing circles over the shape of her figure. 

She knew they didn’t have long. If she wanted anything more than just kissing, she was going to have to take the jump and ask for it before the librarian came wandering the aisles to close up. 

Rosaline tilted her head back to break their steamy kiss, gasping softly to the high wood ceilings of the historic library. George didn’t hesitate before moving down her neck, his plush lips trailing soft open mouthed kisses over her flushed skin. 

“It aches,” she breathed, barely a whisper, with her hands grasping onto his biceps, “Please touch me.”

George let out a small groan against her neck at her words and then pulled away just enough to look at her, their noses almost touching from how close they stood. His hands gave her hips a squeeze, his voice coming out low and warm and laced with a balance of hesitation and lust, “This is supposed to be going slowly, darling. I don’t…”

She blinked at him, her eyes pleading with him, wearing on his hesitation with her flushed cheeks and kissed-swollen lips.

“I don’t want to do something you’ll regret.” George finished softly, rubbing his hands over her waist. 

“Please, George,” she nearly begged, “I really need you to touch me.”

He looked left down the aisle they were in, and then right, and then over his shoulder as if someone could have been peeking through the shelves at them. When he deemed the coast was clear, he looked back at her and swallowed up her lips in another hungry kiss. 

Rosaline gasped faintly into his mouth, clutching onto his biceps, letting him lead them into another tongue-led kiss. His fingers moved from her hips to the front of her jeans, and he blindly undid the button and tugged at the zipper. The hurried movements had her body jolting against his, every pull and shift sending her rocking back against the bookshelf, unsteady and breathless as she clung to him for balance.

Her heart was racing in her ears, her breath falling in anticipatory pants as his lips parted from hers for a moment in his concentration. They breathed into each other’s mouths in steady time, chests rising and falling as one. Her eyes met his as his hand toyed with the waistband of her panties and the lacy hem that was found there. 

“Tell me to stop if you need.” he reminded her sternly, his voice still barely a whisper. 

Rosaline nodded in agreement. 

Then, George’s slender fingers slipped down the front of her jeans and over the thin fabric of her underwear, his eyes locked on hers as he did so. She tightened her grasp on the sleeves of his shirt, her breath halting in her chest as his warm fingertips ghosted over her clothed swollen clit. 

“Spread your legs a little wider.” he instructed against her cheek. 

She shuffled her feet farther apart ever so slightly, staring into his eyes as she followed his instruction. 

“That’s it.” he praised.

She couldn’t help but let out a little gasp at the faint friction of his touch, watching the way he studied her in their impossibly close proximity. His breath fell against the apple of her cheek as his fingers touched the damp fabric of her underwear hidden down her jeans, his touch testing and exploratory. 

Rosaline’s face turned towards his, ghosting her lips over his as their breaths mingled together, her hand grasping at his shirt around his back to keep him close. His nose bumped hers, melting into her, his fingers starting to move slowly in firm back and forth motions over her clothed clit, giving her just a little bit of friction that had her biting her lip. 

Rosaline clutched onto him, staring into his eyes like she couldn’t look away even if she tried. That hazy dreamlike feeling was clouding her senses again, where the whole world fell away and it was just them in this secluded corner surrounded by nothing but the scent of his cologne and the aged books, bathed in the warmth of the lamplight. 

His arm pulled back a little, lifting his hand from her pants, and she let out a small whimper in protest. George simply hushed her softly against her cheek as he lifted his fingers to his mouth to suck on two for just a second before he was guiding them back down her jeans and, this time, slipping inside her panties too. 

Her eyes widened in realization, watching the way his lips pricked up in an almost cocky smirk at her expression. George rubbed his fingers between her legs, gliding the length of two of them between her slick folds, letting her arousal mix filthily with his spit before he was lazily rubbing his fingertips over her clit. 

Rosaline’s eyelashes fluttered and her whole body twitched for a second at the unfamiliar sensations. It never felt like this with her own hand; her own touch was so boring and expected. Now, under the control of someone else, his every action was unpredictable and electric and the anticipation which coursed through her veins was pure heat. 

No one had touched her like this before, never before had she thought herself to be brave enough to so easily let someone in to touch the most sacred parts of her. In all twenty-two years of her life, after years of failed attempts at love, the voice in the back of her mind that nagged at her innermost self-consciousness had her wondering if her pussy was even attractive. Now, hidden in the shadows of her favourite room on campus, with the first man to ever give her a second glance, she was so easily offering herself up to him and he was so glady taking it. 

George spoke in a hushed whisper, his lips dusting over hers with the formation of his syllables, “This okay?”

Rosaline nodded almost eagerly, creasing the fabric of his shirt in her white-knuckled grip. She raised up on her tiptoes a little more as she pushed her hips towards his hand, not quite sure what she wanted but knowing she just wanted more. Her little whimper fell against his cheek, her arm tossing around his shoulders before they so easily fell into another passionate kiss. She let out a small hum into his mouth, her eyebrows furrowed as she succumbed to the feeling of his hand moving a little stronger down the front of her pants. 

They shared a few sloppy kisses in the secrecy of the library aisles, hidden in the shadows of the shelves and walls of stocked books. Her soft moan was muffled by his lips as his fingers moved a little harder against her swollen clit, his tongue easily tasting the pleasure of her sounds. He fell into her a little, taking a half step forward, pressing her back against the shelves by his body. 

George’s fingers drifted lower, caressing strongly over her warm cunt and gathering more of that wetness that pooled almost uncontrollably from her. He groaned softly into her mouth before pulling away from their kiss long enough to praise her with a purr, “You’re soaking my fingers.”

“Can’t help it.” she mumbled in reply, her words dizzy and slurred with lust. 

“Mm, yeah? Does it feel good?” he whispered against her cheek. 

Rosaline nodded again with a small, “Yeah.”

Her mind was short circuiting to the point where she didn’t have the capacity to worry about if he liked what he was feeling—if he thought it was weird that she wasn’t entirely waxed and bare down there. But the moment she caught a glimpse of George’s handsome face close to hers, saw the way his eyes were blown wide with lust as he looked at her, all those insecurities evaporated, dissolving into nothingness in the heat of his gaze. His breath was hot against hers, swallowing her lips up in another steamy kiss that had her eyes fluttering shut and her body surrendering to him with ease. 

His whole hand was nestled between her legs to the point where every caress of his fingers over her cunt had the heel of his palm rubbing against her clit. A little faster, a little faster, she broke away from his kiss with a choked cry.

“Shhh,” George hushed her against her cheek, his lips peppering slow open mouthed kisses along her jaw. His other hand rested on the edge of one of the shelves beside her head, keeping his focus on her body and the way he moved down the front of her jeans. 

Rosaline bit her lip hard, trying to keep herself quiet in the midst of their salacious rendezvous. When his hand started to move just a little bit faster, she clutched harder at his shirt, tugging him closer so she could bury her face in his neck, her body arching up against his. 

George’s large hand moved from the shelf to cradle the back of her neck, holding her, hushing her sweetly against her ear as she whimpered against his collar, and he breathed out a reassuring, “Okay?”

“Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah-” she stumbled out in a trembling exhale. 

“Yeah, you’re such a good girl.” he praised against the shell of her ear, keeping his pace down the front of her pants. 

Rosaline’s hips jumped against his hand at the way his fingertips caressed her clit in fluid motions, exploring her in gentle strokes. Little by little, she found herself loosening, unraveling from the tight grip she’d kept on him, surrendering to the unfamiliar pleasure that was slowly consuming her.

Soon, her eyes were finding his again as she leaned back against the shelf but with a possessive arm still around his shoulders. Her breaths were falling laboured as he moved his fingers a little faster, burning tingling pleasure up her spine that had her toes curling in her sneakers. 

“Fuck-” she squeaked softly, struggling to keep her eyes open and on his. 

“That’s a good girl.” George praised lowly as his hand let go of the back of her head to rest on the shelf again, steadying himself while his other hand worked strongly down her jeans. 

She was lost in the rhythm of his fingers, surprised how much she could feel from his touch when her fingers herself never offered her much sustenance of anything. There was something about George that was entrancing and spellbinding, like he knew just how to touch her to get her exactly what she craved. 

Rosaline was so out of her mind that she could barely hear her own voice as she breathed out a pleading and pathetic, “Put your hand around my throat.”

George’s eyes flickered with a moment of hesitation, a play of lust hazing the momentary uncertainty, although his hand down her jeans didn’t stop even as he asked, “You sure you’d like that?”

She nodded almost eagerly. 

He took his hand from the shelf beside her head and gently wrapped his fingers around her throat, his thumb and fingers nestled under her jaw. When he squeezed ever so slightly, her eyes fluttered and her swollen lips let out an angelic breathy, “Yeah. Yeah, I like that.”

Rosaline had written far more salacious scenes before, but experiencing it for the first time herself was a revelation that left her mind spinning. George’s grip was light, almost tentative, as if he was afraid of pushing too far or crossing a boundary. Yet even that gentle pressure around her throat was enough to amplify every other sensation in her body, making her nerve endings tingle with an intensity she had never imagined.

“Naughty little contradiction, aren’t you?” George tutted with a prideful smirk to his tone, his voice hushed and his breath falling against her cheek as he pinned her against the shelves, hand still moving down the front of her jeans, “Just full of surprises.”

Rosaline parted her lips as if to respond, but all that escaped was a soft, quivering moan. A blush crept across her cheeks, warmth flooding her face as her self-control crumbled. She could feel her steady composure slipping away, unraveling under the mounting pleasure that drowned out any coherent thought.

“Cover your mouth if you need to.” George reminded her quietly, his velvet voice echoing in her ears, “Stay so quiet for me.”

Rosaline needed no convincing as if she were moving robotically by instructions, taking her hand from her white-knuckled grip on the side of his shirt to press her palm over her mouth. She couldn’t stop staring at him despite how her cheeks burned, her attention captivated by him and the way he looked at her, the way he clenched his jaw in concentration, his handsome face slightly shadowed as he towered in front of her and hid her away from the warm lamps of the historic library. 

A few more whimpers and moans fell uncontrollably from her lips, smothered by her hand over her mouth and the gentle squeeze of his around her throat. Her body writhed against his ever so slightly, rising up a little more onto her toes as the pleasure built up stronger and stronger through her veins, coiling that unmissable warmth in the pit of her stomach, everything suddenly feeling like too much. Oh, but she wanted it so badly, she needed him to rid that ache from her body, to give her what she craved. The bookshelves pressed into her back. 

“That’s it,” George purred, undoubtedly feeling the way her pussy started to throb against his slick fingertips, keeping his pace going, right at that angle that got the best reaction out of her, “Feel all of that pleasure and let it all out for me. Nice and quiet now, like a good girl, come all over my hand. That’s it, darling. Come on.”

Rosaline’s thighs were trembling, barely keeping her upright if not for the sturdiness of George’s body keeping her pinned snugly against the bookshelf. Her breaths were coming out in strong uneven pants through her nose with her mouth still clamped shut, her heart racing with desperate need to cum. She was so close, right there, the heat pouring through her and burning her skin under the faint pressure of his fingertips against her throat. 

His encouraging whispered words faded into a murmur as she reached that precipice, feeling her entire body tense right up, her arm around his shoulders digging her nails into his back through the fabric of his linen shirt. George grunted faintly against her cheek as she toppled into her orgasm, her clit throbbing against his fingers as he kept her going through it. Her head fell back against the bookshelf with a dull thud, her hand still clamped tightly over her mouth to smother the whimper of pleasure that threatened to spill over and give them away.

The moment the peak of her orgasm tapered off and her body buzzed with sensitivity, she dropped her hand from her mouth to grab his wrist between them instead, halting his hand down her jeans. She was panting, her swollen lips glistening and red, her wonderfilled eyes staring at him, sparkling behind the thin lenses of her glasses in the dim library lighting. 

“Jesus Christ.” George breathed, his forehead resting against hers as he slowed his hand to a stop down the front of her pants and slowly retreated. His hands rested on her waist and rubbed the curve of her lean body for a moment, disconcerted by the glistening wetness on his middle finger that smeared faintly against the fabric of her shirt and left a damp, telling trace, “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Rosaline exhaled, reaching between them to button up her pants again.

“That wasn’t too much?” he asked, staring into her eyes as if trying to pull the truth out of her with only a glance. 

“Promise.” she assured him, resting her hands on his chest, “I would have told you otherwise.”

“Okay,” George exhaled as if in relief, a tame smile tugging at the corners of his lips as his large hands gave her hips a squeeze, “good.”

Rosaline slid her hands up to the sides of his neck and timidly pulled him in to meet him halfway for a breathless kiss. Her heart was racing, mind whirling, in disbelief that they had just done that. It was no mind-numbing, earth-shattering orgasm as often expressed in books or movies; instead it had fallen over her in warm waves of pleasure, calm and satisfying, and filled her with a buzz of euphoric relief. She hadn’t expected to be able to come so easily from just his fingers—hell, using her own fingers did next to nothing—but there was something about the way George touched her, knew just where the most sensitive spots were, that had her entirely satisfied. 

Seconds later, when Rosaline broke away from his lips for a breath, she rested her forehead against his with a sighing, “That was…so incredible.” 

“Mm,” George let a faint smile dust across his lips in his agreement, “Can’t say I mind helping you with your research anytime.”

Just then, approaching footsteps had them breaking apart, George taking two steps away to stand casually at the opposite shelves. The librarian appeared at the end of their row.

“The library is closed now,” she told them kindly, “If you can make your way out, that’d be great.”

George offered her a polite smile, “Of course. Thank you.”

She disappeared again. 

Rosaline looked back at George, the two of them facing each other across the narrow aisle of shelves. Their expressions broke into small amused smiles and Rosaline pushed herself away from the bookshelf with a bashful bow of her head as they got ready to leave. They walked side by side back towards the table at which Rosaline and her friends had once sat and studied. The library was completely empty apart from them by then, all students disappeared back to their dorm rooms and homes. She picked up her bag from the chair where she had left it and tucked it over her shoulder. 

“This was risky,” George whispered to her, his voice quiet and gentle yet firm, “we cannot do this again. Not in a place like this.”

Rosaline replied softly as she turned back to him, “Well it’s not like I can take you back to my dorm.”

There was a moment of hesitation on his face before he finally spoke a gentle offer, “Come to my house. Tomorrow night.”

Rosaline’s heart did a little somersault in her chest and her momentary shock at the invitation and the weight it might have carried must have spread itself across her face. 

Almost right away, George was assuring her, “Just for drinks. Nothing more. Just to be away from prying eyes.” 

Rosaline couldn’t deny that the concept of going over to his house held a sense of excitement and curiosity. She pulled a timid smile and nodded in agreement, reaching into her bag to pass him her notebook and a pencil so he could scribble down his address for her. 

She stared at his profile in the dim light of the library, the shadows across his face and the crisp line of his jaw, the way his fingers cradled her pencil as he dragged the graphite across the lined page. Those same fingers that had been down her jeans only moments ago. How was this real? How was he real?

George handed her notebook back to her with a handsome smile, “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Yeah,” Rosaline exhaled, taking her notebook back from him, “See you.”

She watched him walk off towards the exit of the library and, before she too made her way out, she looked down at the page of her notebook again. In his precise curling cursive, he had written; 

30 Richmond Road — 4pm x

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[aspenscore]

Artist: Aspenscore

Title: Don't Be That Guy

Don't Be That Guy © 2025 by Aspenscore is licensed under CC BY 4.0. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Size: 512 x 384

Skizz gets in trouble with the law for leaving floating trees… he really shouldn't have Been That Guy

Process TL;DR:

Skizz has played two different law-adjacent roles this season and I thought it'd be funny for them to come after early season Skizz for making all those early game mistakes

The hardest part of this process was the composition, as it was hard to balance storytelling with visual appeal

I switched from Sketchbook to Medibang Paint for this one and the timelapse recording went so much more smoothly (video imminent!)

One of my favourite things about Skizz's HC10 season is how much he commits to his various character roles on the server. They are all unique and entertaining in their own ways, and I thought it'd be funny to put those strong personalities all together in one scene. Since his two main roles have some sort of involvement with the law, it only made sense for them to come after his early season self (Don't Be That Guy Skizz) for breaking some basic server etiquette. My initial plan was to have POE Skizz writing up Don't Be That Guy (DBTG) for leaving floating trees and Lawyer Skizz coming in to defend DBTG, but it was hard to make it clear who Lawyer Skizz is actually coming after, so he could also have teamed up with POE Skizz to bring down the (literal) hammer on DBTG. It's entirely up to your interpretation. I just like his general threatening aura.

The main thing that made Lawyer Skizz's intentions difficult to portray was the fact that I needed to balance storytelling with visual appeal. I needed to make it clear what was going on and why, while making sure all the characters' faces were visible, and ensuring the overall positioning of everything looked good and visually flowed well. I probably sketched at least ten different options for this piece at work (to save time), narrowed them down to about five strong ideas, and then got many people's input on the composition and posing (shoutout to my partner, various friends with degrees in media design, and the spoonies discord server). I finally landed on this one, as it was one of my favourites composition-wise. It was the most interesting to look at, everyone's face is visible, and it communicates enough of the main story elements to at least give a general sense of what's going on. The only issue I had with this one was figuring out how to make the floating tree obvious without upsetting the visual balance of the rest of the piece. I'm not sure I really fixed it, but there wasn't much I could do without starting all over, and I figured the story is still clear enough even if it's not immediately apparent what DBTG's crime was.

Tech-wise, I have way less to say about this one than the Joel piece I did a few weeks ago, and that's a good thing. The main issue I had with the other piece was recording the timelapse, because my main drawing program (Skechbook Pro) doesn't have a timelapse feature. After all the problems I had last time, I decided I was willing to switch to an entirely new drawing program if it meant I was able to avoid all that mess, and luckily for me, the drawing program I used to use before Sketchbook (Medibang Paint) has a timelapse feature! This was a huge relief, because I already know how to use it and I know my tablet can handle it. Everything went smoothly and I am so relieved to have a solution (I even fixed that problem my monitor started having back when I was troubleshooting the Joel piece recording setup!). You might notice, however, that this piece is still rather low-res. Unlike last time, that was not an unfortunate accident; I just didn't scale up the dimensions. Don't know why. Sorry about that lol

Since the tech side of things went so well this time, I'll have a timelapse video coming out shortly and I'm very excited to share it with you all! I am also considering doing timelapse videos of some of my other art (most likely my video thumbnails) now that I've got a reliable recording setup for that. (Is that something y'all'd be interested in? Please let me know!)

Overall, I wanted to say a big thank you to Skizz for making such wonderfully entertaining videos. I look forward to the rest of the season, and I can't wait to see people going through the finished pyramid!

I also want to thank all of you reading this for your time and support! I know this isn't usually the sort of thing I post, so it makes me happy that people seem to enjoy it just as much as my regular content. I hope you all have a wonderful day!

[mark-erre]

My opinion on A Squares (mostly design-wise idk..)

This post looks kinda long bcuz of the photos so srry abt that...

1. Ladd Ehlinger version

I like his design its super unique, and i find his lack of physical emotion funny

2. The short film version

Admittedly, he's my favourite one!♥️ I think he's so cute, he's facial expression are funny and I also like his voice

3. The 1965 version

What he lacks in physical appearance, his adaptation makes up for, i think him being able to be shaped around like clay is very funny and I also like his voice (i think mark likes their voices...)

4. The ted ed one

Ehh I don't like him alot 😔 but i think his eye is nice

5. The rudyrucker version (thats the only name i call it)

HE so funny, i cannot take him seriously look at that face 👆 (also i didnt read the full thing yet, but im kinda planning to...)

6. The version with that ugly grey sphere

Look at his face 🥺 soooo cute ♥️🐇 grown man

7. I forgot where I found this

Idk abt u guys but I like him alot, there's something about ugly characters that are very nice to me

8. M. Square

I know he looks at a womens butr and he's kinda rude but I like how he looks, his big eyebrows are nice

9. Literally some random image i found

Again, i think ugly things are cute, hehehe hiii (this one isn't evn "A Square" but I still wanted to include him..)

Honorable mention:

MY A. SGWÂR 🔲

Who let this guy in here... So ugly 👎 but srsly I like my own design alot (self glaze) the only massive flaw being his BODY UGHHHH 😡

i wanna add more but im afraid this post will be soo long so that's it for now tq 😁♥️🔮🔲

[lextheartguy]

My review of The New Gods (2024) #1.

Spoiler free: I know we’re one issue in but I cannot recommend The New Gods enough, it’s already become my favourite comic currently running and I loved literally everything about the first issue, 10/10. It’s so epic and grounded at the same time and characterisation of everyone involved is spot on. It’s also I think a really good jumping on point if you’re not a New Gods fan, Ram V has said that you don’t need any prior knowledge before reading this comic and that really rings true for the first issue. And THE ART!!! Omg Evan Cagle and Jorge Fornés really cooked with the pencils and inks and the colour by Francesco Segala are AMAZING.

Spoiler inclusive/my favourite moments:

Warning I’ve only read it once so far so my thoughts are little more than AAAAH!!!

Metron is such a little shit stirrer as always. And I love this vague ass prophecy. Everything about the beginning showing the grand scale of the New Gods and then contrasting it with the Frees on earth is chefs kiss. It’s also such a good way to kick start the run.

LIGHTRAY!!! This art is stunning in literally every panel but omg he’s so cute. And he’s such a ray of sunshine (literally). All he wants to do is help. Also the choice to make him literally glowing is fantastic.

This whole section with Orion is probably my favourite part art wise (which is really saying something cause again the comic is gorgeous). But Cagles art is so dynamic and full of life I just love it. Also Orion’s design is amazing.

OLIVIA!!!! Cutest baby ever!!!!!!! I will protect her with my life!

Like I said before the way Ram V and Evan Cagle contrast the vast expanse of the universe and the mythic levels of the new gods with the domestic life of the Frees is amazing and so impactful. And Orion being in the background and giving them their time was adorable. (Also this Scott design!!!! AHHHH)

I absolutely adore the way Ram writes them as actual brothers. Their voices and the way they speak with each other has so much more calm and closeness than most of their other appearances ever do. And the way Scott really couldn’t care less about the prophecy until Orion tells him what he has to do, it’s such a perfect characterisation of him!

AHHHH! Again, cannot stress enough what an amazing characterisation of Scott this is. He’s finally found himself at a point where he doesn’t want to escape and he’s forced to leave anyway. I have to also give props for the large print introductions for Scott and Orion, both of which are visually stunning and represent them perfectly. Also the “and you” AHHHHHHH!!!

I know I’m repeating myself but it cannot be stressed enough how lovingly, amazingly, and accurately Ram V is writing these characters. Their voices are PERFECT. Orion not wanting to go through with killing a child so he makes Scott stop him and Scott not wanting to go but not being able to stop himself. “The one thing you can never escape, Mister Miracle, is who you are.” Just kill me now.

MAX??????? What the hell are you doing here???? No but not only am I always happy to see my favourite piece of shit but also I love this. When Max was first introduced he was chasing power and ignoring all empathy because he was being manipulated by a computer created by Metron to gain the knowledge of earth. So I think having him (at least I’m 90% sure it’s him) act out the wills of the gods (whoever it is that’s telling him about the child) is absolutely perfect.

And I could not be more excited. Like I said this is already my favourite comic book running and one of my favourites of all time and we’re one (1) issue in. I’ve already got both the main cover and the Cagle acetate cover ordered through February (wanted to get more but couldn’t financially justify it). The fact that I have to wait another 4 weeks for the next one is criminal. But I urge everyone to go read this!

[snellyfish]

Why is Angie your favourite character?

This is really funny I just got off call with Glownary and was talking about how much I don't miss Danganronpa discourse. Anyway I hope someone finds a way to get mad at me in this post!

((Admittedly I'd probably actually place Korekiyo above her because he ACTUALLY has a relevant and specified canon story,,, but, y'kno))

Plain and simple, she just has a handful of design and character tropes I super adore in characters! As a base, I'm usually not super into,,, well-adjusted, well-liked , reasonable, and rational characters. LMAO. They're fine but I live for exaggeration. I LOVE when they're little freaks and not watered down at all for the viewers sake/comfort, I love when they (both the writers and the written) just keep twisting the knife for no good reason other than the bit despite how unconventional it may be.

One could argue that her not being watered down and being as shitty to the other players as she is is a trauma response, or just a mentally ill person being mentally ill. It can be neat to think of her that way sometimes! It's of my opinion that almost all Danganronpa characters are super open-ended lore/personality-wise and we as fans are just making up canon as we go because it's FUCKING FUN, and, as such, all the ways that Angie can be interpreted is very interesting to me-- EVEN if that's seen as "the irredeemable annoying religion-force-feeding zealot antagonist." Which is, of course, an objectively awful way to view anyone REGARDLESS of media illiteracy, but, you know! I like weird freaks so this "flaw" they see is simply more food for me. Yippee!!

Whether I think she's canonically A) genuinely malicious and sadistic, B) traumatized from an abusive religious sect, C) honestly caring about the other players, and/or D) none/all of the above? I'll never tell! Oops all bangers!

Tropes I enjoy, whether or not I found myself enjoying them BECAUSE of Angie herself;;

Religion, especially if it's horrifying and...bad! (Most of my own characters deal heavily with religion and religious trauma, I think it's cool to play with, whether or not it's a fantasy religion like I think Angie's is)

CULTS! Cult behavior! Let's live in a commune!! (GUYS I LOVE MIDSOMMAR)

Dark skin / light hair contrast color combo goes hard!!!

+ The pansexual flag palette is literally my favorite color combo ever!!!!

Manipulative little shits!!!!!

Small scary women!!!!!!

Islander stuff, it's very nostalgic to me and I just have a deep love and appreciation for the beach and ocean!!!!!!!

Piercings!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cutesy sunshine character who could and would stab you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BLOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IDK HOW THIS WASN'T MY FIRST POINT!!!!!!!!!!

AND SHE'S JUST FUCKING SILLY!!!!!!!! SHE'S GENUINELY SO FUNNY AND CUTE ESPECIALLY IN HER INTERACTIONS WITH SHUICHI!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO BAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She was an IMMEDIATE favorite when I played V3 and when I found out that, like, everyone fucking HATED her and she's probably the least liked character in the entire class by the fans, my brain immediately went the contrarian route to find reasons to like her even MORE. I tend to do this a lot, but when it's a character I already enjoy, it's even worse, dude.

ummmmm obligatory Shinnaga mention sorry but I frequently tend to appreciate a character a lot more based on potential dynamics alone. Ships, romantic or not, have legitimately gotten me to enjoy characters I hated before, based on interesting interactions unique to them alone. So while Kiyo and Angie's (they're making out btw) ingame dynamic and dialogues aren't REALLY what my sick and twisted mind views them as, it's worth noting that my honest belief and interpretation of the two of them could even give me a sliver of that dynamic being possible .......... means she's fuckin slay ............ it means love wins..... It means Vote For Yonaga 2024

[myarmsaretoolong]

if you could have anyone play the sixteenth doctor, who would you pick? why? how did their regeneration occur? and what would their doctor outfit be?

okay so ive been ruminating on this for a while, thinking over options y’know

for the doctor:

michael sheen would be the funny answer, and no question he’d be great at it. but on a more realistic note i’d love to see himesh patel do it! a slightly drier wit—bit like 12–but still with the frantic energy (basically tamwar was always my favourite on eastenders XD)

i also kinda love the idea of an old non-timelord face becoming a doctor (either through funky magic means or just regenerating into that face) jo martin would be a great return—though i expect she will at some point anyway. as for companions, clara!!! she’d be brill as the doctor. and of course my beloved martha <3 that said, i do think we need a regular regeneration or two after a couple wild ones in a row

outfit wise:

the! doctor! needs! a! long! coat! it’s a staple, a must have, an iconic style. i’m imagining himesh patel here… dark red coat—some sort of woolen thing idk—and as ncutis doc is more colourful let’s go with more muted tones. the sort of thing that’s called moss or goblin on pinterest, but with a uniquely doctory flair of course, gotta be a zany thing to wear

(im no fashion designer you’ll have to fill in the gaps sorry XD)

and the juicy part, the regeneration!

so, like i said, i think it should be a straight forward one. no frills or surprises, just death -> regen. but! i want it to be ANGSTY!

i want tears, i want fighting, i want denial—not necessarily 12 literally refusing, but a denial of the plain facts at hand. cos 15 is meant to be the healed one right? he said so himself a couple of times. and he’s got that huge smile that covers over all the sadness that still lives below. he’s meant to be better, rested, finally over the timewar

but he’s not, it all still hurts and he keeps losing again and again and again. his planets gone, his companions are probably gone, he’s no better than all the regenerations before him and he’s pissed off about it. livid! furious! cheated out of the life he was entitled!

so he’s facing whatever this huge threat is, and he fights it with everything he’s got, does questionable things, makes mistakes and makes things worse no matter what he tries. eventually, of course, he fixes it. yay! whoopie! but…

don’t ask me the details, but there’s a stranger, someone neither us nor the doctor know (or maybe we do just a little) and they’re about to die. and the doctor, fresh off the high of surviving sees them, and immediately knows. he saves them and dies in the process, limps off wounded to the tardis, and regenerates alone

can you tell i love the ten and wilf ending? XD

[probablybadrpgideas]

Didn't know y'all did anything with DCC so I kinda wanna see what your opinion is on this campaign I'm in.

There's a guy we'll call him L, he and I were the only two players for the first two times we met up, and this week we finally got a third player. L has been very aggressively bullrushing every confrontation, completely ignoring everything in his path... And it got our entire party WIPED OUT (I was running 7 characters at once, him 4) session 1 and ushered in an age of chaos. Session 2 was building first levels, and he was constantly trying to dictate what I was going to build and play. The party wipe was devastating to me bc I had started to grow an attachment to one of my lawfuls, and unnecessary and L made no move to stop anything at any point. I assumed initially he was just frozen up on the spot.

Then session 3 happened (first one with the 1st levels we built) and I'm not so sure that's the case anymore. We were sent by the Chaos Gods to the realm of Law to steal the Yokeless egg and he was very much avoidant of any of the plot, including avoiding our DM in the storefront when they were supposed to be having their one on one for The Plot.

We get to the Ox defending the Yokeless Egg and he was running the ONLY lawful character, and he'd had some good meta this session for how he would react to things. This time he literally did nothing while me and the third player (both chaotic alignments) were attempting to figure shit out against the Ox to avoid combat. I went as far as to have my second character (neutral aligned) was elbowing his in the ribs and eventually even pushed L's character to the front to force him to interact with the Ox.

For nearly two whole minutes he sat in complete and utter silence as the Ox began to sniff out the chaos weapons we'd been issued, and didn't act again until combat began. It was PAINFUL bc our DM literally told us ahead of time that most monsters we'd face in the Law realm would kill us easily, so I'd tried to impart that we'd avoid conflict as much as possible.

My question for y'all is like, is this normal etiquette with players in a party? I had played 5e before this and have never experienced someone that acted like that, and if they acted similarly it was usually due to social dynamics or autistic stuff. I had given benefit of the doubt first session, but after this session I'm no longer believing he didn't act this way on purpose. Just wondering if you (or anyone else) has any takes on this situation, is this normal, how the FUCK do you play when someone in your party seems hellbent on combat and ONLY combat.

Also wondering if you have any advice for like, how to actually get this guy to stop Leroy Jenkinsing his way through each and every single dungeon. He has not stopped to examine anything even once and it was the reason our first party got wiped (we needed 500gp worth of items to toss to the Leviathan or a still-beating heart and he chose to start chopping at it instead).

I apologize for the length and density of this ask and appreciate any advice anyone has to give me. I'm at the point where if this party wipes out again I will be quitting.

(sidenote: I've been in this campaign and it's one of my favourites)

This players sounds like a dick. DCC is high-stakes and you need to be able to work as a party to survive, but it sounds like he basically got you killed due to main character syndrome and learned no lessons.

Advice-wise I'd have a talk and make sure he actually understands how TTRPGs and specifically DCC work, which will presumably either lead to "sorry, didn't realise this wasn't fun for everyone else, I'll do better", or deciding he shouldn't be in the group. I'd also have a chat with your GM before that, because there's every chance they enjoy it even if you don't (and it's very much not the recommended approach).

But yeah this is not the kind of gameplay DCC is designed for at all, and your characters are clearly suffering for it - Paper

[mad-serotonin]

Who's your favourite black clover character and why?

My favorite Black Clover character

💚 Is absolutely Finral 💚

More than that he is actually my favorite anime character in general.

He’s been close to my heart ever since starting the series in 2019 and he’s not once been dethroned from his spot as my favorite. There’s a lot about him that makes him so special for me.

This is going to be a bit of an essay but I got a lot to say about him HAHA

First off he is my fav archetype done right, and done the best:

I have a personal preference for the characters that are hopelessly flirty guys with confidence issues and emotional baggage. it’s just a trend for me. Most of my favs are this character archetype but done in different ways. I absolutely love Tabata’s approach to how he wrote Finral. He has such a wonderful way of bringing him in as a very simplistic character and building upon his personality and how he became who he was at the start, and continuously finding ways to beautifully motivate his development in such a very real way. The arcs where you see him slowly build himself up while fighting alongside Asta and Vanessa specifically are SO good for creating a new depth and feeling behind his tropes that make him so fresh and unique.

Simping AND Kinning:

Straight up required to say I’m just simply in love with him?????? He’s literally perfection for me. I think he has the most genuine kindness and pure personality I’ve seen written. I love how his fear and weakness transform through the series into a strength and determination to prove himself and protect the people around him.

And he’s so relatable for me. I genuinely sympathize with a lot of his story. His issues with feeling like he belongs and becoming someone he himself can be proud of hits home. Watching him grow throughout the series was a experience that I hold very close to my heart and it makes me SO HAPPY to see how far he’s come and knowing there’s more to come just keeps me going.

Sweetest Angel ever (Angel symbolism AWOOGA):

He’s just so nice, literally cares so much about his team and his friends. And don’t get me STARTED on his unending love and support for Langris despite all that’s happened. He just sees the best in his brother and doesn’t despise him for things out of their control and truly puts in the time and effort to build a healthier relationship with him. He is a simple man who wants to love and be loved. And this applies to his squad, his family, and his pursuits for love and I think he deserves to find that love and be happy in all areas.

Designs and magic wise the angelic symbolism alone and in contrast to Langris was such a beautiful and amazing choice. Tabata was COOKING with that. He truly does see himself as a “fallen angel” his story literally having him fall from “grace” if you look at it as grace being nobility. I just think there is so much symbolism and potential in expanding his magic using this connection and I personally love thinking about it myself.

He Pretty:

Overall I think he just has a pleasing design. I adore his hair over everything else. I love how it changes through the series both in style and color. As someone who changes their hair a lot I completely vibe with his reasonings for changing it too. Like yeah please add that color to give yourself a reinvigorated spirit and confidence for success. His hair looks so fluffy and I wanna feel it. (Personally love myself most when I dye my hair with green tips I love matching him it’s so nice hehe)

Outfit design wise I LOVEEEEEE IT the full color scheming is nice but the overall very Elven vibe with leaf motifs and the pointed boots is just MWAH 💋👌🏻. He just has a solid iconic look and it suits his vibes perfectly.

As an artist I love the experience of drawing him too. He’s so fun to draw and he’s got so much potential for expanding on his design outside of canon. (Drawing scars from the Langris fight is my fav thing to do) and at this point I’m so sure I’ve drawn him more than any other character EVER and I will not be stopping any time soon.

All in all I LOVE HIM. and he means the world to me. That’s my man and I will always be in his corner as the series progresses. I hope he continues to get moments to shine and I hope others will continue to enjoy him like I do.

Thank you for sending in this ask! I’m happy to have gotten to rant about him a lil bit. : D

Bonus hehe:

[jounosparticles]

maybe i’m biased but honestly the kenji vs tetchou fight may be my favourite in all of bsd (which is a hard choice since there are so many good ones)

first off, the animation of it was easily the best i’ve seen in the anime. it looked really intense and i absolutely adore it. the sound design was also great as well as the line delivery.

story wise, i think the fact that they both made sure nobody was around before fighting to keep people safe was very in-character for them both. you could also tell neither of them initially wanted to fight but tetchou attacked because the book makes the agency appear guilty no matter what. yet he was still kind when talking to to kenji and kenji was kind back prior to and after the fight.

tetchou was also clearly distracted by jouno being gone to the point where he pushed justice (the thing he pretty much always prioritizes) aside in favour of helping jouno. that shows how much he cares and how worried he was. that puts a heavy emotional impact on the fight, the fact that tetchou was clearly desperate to save jouno quickly with literal justice on the line.

in contrast, kenji went up against the man who had already stabbed him numerous times before and was still kind and listened to him talk first. kenji is probably the nicest character in the entire series, he offered to help the man who tried to kill him and his friends. the fact that he could calm his anger after and still be completely willing to help tetchou shows a lot about kenji as a person. for a 14 year old, kenji is extremely mature and gentle for being willing to help after all of that.

they both could have easily fought until one was dead, but tetchou admitted his mistakes and offered his life to kenji because he realized he had failed. yet kenji seen the sincerity of that and offered to help him despite the fact that they were on the verge of killing each other.

they ended up bonding at the end. it genuinely made me so happy to see this animated, both admitting they had made mistakes and agreed to help each other. which means tetchou has likely broken the writing of the book by thinking clearly, much like how ranpo said the police could do in the first episode of season five.

i really hope we get to see them searching together soon, the two have very close morals and i could see a good friendship form between them. i feel like they’d make an insanely powerful duo in the future as well, i would love to see tetchou mentoring kenji.

"kenji. to have learned that name…was my greatest accomplishment of the day."

[capn-twitchery]

7 and 19 for your characters!

7. What is an aspect of their appearance that you like the most?

twitch's way too big coat is my fav part of their design but it is also one of my least favourite parts to draw when i can't get it to look right

my fav part to draw on twitch is their expressions though!! the :3 mouth....the pointy eyebrows...i love it

my fav on grace on both counts is his sideburns i Love drawing them they are so silly (his frostbite scars are a close second. they're so small detail-wise but they are everything to me)

19. What is your general favourite thing about the character? What is your least favourite?

for twitch, i love that they manage to surprise me, if that makes sense?? building & writing them has been so fun, it's felt like a morbid puzzle trying to fit all of the red honey stuff together & how it works. i am Always uncovering new stuff!! i can never predict how they'll react to certain situations til i have to dissect the reaction afterwards

the flipping between cartoonish bugs bunny-esque content and abject honey horror is just a fun side effect of this. it's great to work with i Really like doing it!! they're very fun to me

my least favourite is that they are fucking annoying. and they won't admit they have a single problem ok more seriously, they are difficult to write sometimes, especially if i want to write them Quickly (ingame letters. looking at you)

my favourite for grace is. i don't know he just makes me want to chew through a wall. i can't explain it. honestly i am just super proud of how his story has come together!! the arctic expedition tying with the nemesis stuff, the nemesis mission for a guy he never met, his 1 million guilt layers, whatever the hell he did with the sequence, going from lawful to. that. he is So Much. it was all an accident & i'm so happy with how it fit together

his worst trait is that it is so goddamn difficult to get him interacting with other characters!! he has no easy hook to meet anyone. he is quiet & a little boring (affectionate) so he's kinda difficult to meet & talk to. he is literally just a guy. i love that about him but oh my god grace

character asks

[go-go-devil]

Soulsborne asks, 3 and 16 👁️

Since you didn't specify which game, I'll go ahead and answer these for all three of the games I've played!!!

3) What is your favourite boss lore-wise?

DeS: That's honestly a good question, since the bosses of Demon's Souls are my favorite part of the game and all of them have such fascinating lore implications...

My serious answer would be Maiden Astraea just like everyone else because she's just THAT great of the character, but my personal, funnier answer to this will be the Tower Knight, Alfred.

The whole deal with Allant's knights is that their demonic transformations are meant to be mocking perversions of their combat styles, but with him it was literally just "He was a really tall knight who held a really big greatshield and spear, and now he's become so fucking tall he can't escape the room he's stuck in and falls over like a dumbass when someone bites his ankles too hard." Such an elegant way of making a boss so simultaneously imposing and humiliating lmao.

DS1: Fuck that's an even harder choice than for DeS! There are SOOOOOO many interesting bosses in DS1! Hmmmmmmm, mmmmmmmm....

For now I'll say the Bed of Chaos, since her lore is still so fuzzy compared to the other Lords that I've spent many nights tossing and turning in bed trying to figure out what must've happened with Izalith and her attempt to create a new Flame. Honestly I don't buy the whole deal of "she just tried to save the world so Gywn wouldn't have to sacrifice himself uwu" theory I see sometimes, I think this was done for her own sake. I mean she was trying to resurrect the incomplete bodies of Everlasting Dragons! Why else would there be an army of dragon butts guarding the ruins of her kingdom?

But what kind of psychological 5D chess game was she trying to play though? The world will never know, because Miyazaki and the Gang ran out of time finishing Lost Izalith and told us to write the lore for him.

DS2: Definitely Sinh the Slumbering Dragon!

First off I find it fascinating that it's named after a ring from DS1. It gives the impression that either Sinh itself is that ancient of a dragon that it was known of by the original Vinheim sorcerers, or that the ring itself is so old it possibly predates even the land of Vinheim. I also love how it poisoning the Sunken City wasn't even intentional; that damn Yorgh and his damn spear that unleashed the miasma cloud!

Not to mention the use of the term "miasma" is very interesting in that it makes me think of Nito and how he helped kill the everlasting dragons. Perhaps Sinh was struck by the disease but managed to survive and hide out in a cave until it fell into a deep sleep.

16) Who is the most underrated NPC in your opinion?

DeS: Scirvir the Wanderer!

He's so fucking adorable. I love his uncontrollable stutter and sad eyes (the remake fucked his design and voice up so bad I don't wanna talk about it T_T). I also love how his only goal in this land is for someone to show him the Dragon Bone Smasher sword. He doesn't even wanna own it, all he craves is one look at the thing!

But what makes him more interesting to me is how even someone as nice as him seems to lie to us. Scirvir tells us he can't go find the sword himself because he'll "fair poorly against the demons," but if you find his black phantom in Pure Black World Tendency he's not only one of the toughest phantoms in the game, but also holds the Tailsman of Beasts; the only item in the game that lets you cast sorceries and miracles at the same time.

It makes me wonder... maybe he really wasn't lying about his power and simply didn't try to kill us in Pure White World Tendency because he's a genuinely nice person who honestly believes he's weak. Only for the harsher black world we create to end up helping him discover how good his combat prowess truly is and ends up twisting his morality in the process. Food for thought, since no one else is thinking about him anymore T_T

DS1: If Undead Female Merchant has 1,000,000 fans I'm one of them. If Undead Female Merchant has 1 fan then that's me...

Hands down my favorite merchant in the game! Mostly because of her "Withered Hag ASMR" voice acting and that she's in a very convenient spot + sells materials I'm often in need of (homeward bones, rotten/charcoal pine resins, and arrows most especially), but she also has one of my favorite minor pieces of environmental storytelling in the game with the single humanity she sells.

I always hc'd that it was metaphoric for her willing to give away the last piece of her own "humanity" since she no longer values it; willing to join the madness around her since it ended up being so much more fulfilling than her mortal life ever was. Ironically, it's what helps her remain sane despite being so close to hollowing, even if she becomes suspicious that we don't trust her anymore after she sells it to us.

DS2: STRAID OF OLAPHIS!!!!

At least I THINK he's underrated? I haven't found many people on tumblr drawing art of him nor have I found any lore theories involving him.

Well whatever, he's one of my favorite characters in the game. I love soulsborne NPC's who don't have complex subplots but are still memorable due to their charm alone (i.e. why I loved Oswald so much despite him never changing during the game), and I knew Straid was gonna be great when his reaction to learning that he's been petrified for hundreds of years is to simply laugh it off and go back to business as usual. He also may be one of the few who has the right mindset to keep his memories and sanity intact by choosing to accept the passage of time and move forward with it instead of longing for a nostalgic past, which I respect wholeheartedly!

(And his voice acting is fucking great of course <3)

[quannaix]

What is your experience with Animal Crossing?

Okay it has been literally over three months since you sent this so I apologise I just have a lot to say and wanted to enjoy going on about Animal Crossing.

My first was Animal Crossing Wild World, which I saved up for and bought, even pre-owned it was expensive for primary school me. I did not know much about the game and it was years before I realised that the copy hadn't been wiped so I'd walked into someone else's town. I'm guessing someone called George, since my town was named Egroeg. But by that point I'd been playing for so long I didn't want to wipe my progress. Also by then I had realised that he had upgraded Nook's to the highest version, which would have been hard for me to replicate because it involved playing multiplayer and I only had one other friend with the game. I really loved ACWW, and I spent lots of time playing it even though I definitely didn't understand a lot of elements of the game. My friend and I spend loads of time imagining things we'd love to add to the game, like if you could get a job (paying that loan off in shells is hard!) and I thought it would be cute if you could drive around in a little car that had a boot for extra inventory space (backpacks fill up a lot when things don't stack). I became best friends with Kiki in this game and when she moved I was so sad that I planted a tree where her house had been thinking that would stop another house taking her place (I was wrong, but it's the thought that counts).

I did get AC Let's Go to the City for the Wii, but never racked up many hours on that because being console based I'd have to find time when the family wasn't using the TV. I definitely prefer it as a handheld game.

I got given Animal Crossing New Leaf for my birthday when it released and I maintain this is best AC game. I still love it so much. I love that they introduced the mechanics of town design, most notably that Roost was a stand alone cafe and you got to choose where to place it!!!!! I think this might be around the time I first started following you (saxyplaya hehe) I assume because I found you from looking for QR codes for designs. I am still obsessed with so many of the QR code dresses people came up with. I think ACNL had the best balance of effort to output. Like it had these town design features but still took ages to do things. You had to grow trees from scratch and grow them again if you placed em wrong. This made everything feel more satisfying though, imo. You really put in the hours, and days and weeks, so the results would make me feel proud. I love that there are so many fruit tree varieties, I love visiting the island, I love that you CAN work at the Roost and that Brewster would give you coffee rewards. The updates they made with Happy Home Designer and the campsite, including adding the 'god mode' furniture design thing did make things a lot easier. But I like actually that to see anything you have to actually put it on/put it in the room, in your cupboards everything is just the generic category icon. I still have not caught all the bugs and fish in this game. I THINK I have all the fossils, but I think it makes it more fun for longer if it's not so easy to catch everything. I love the shopping street, and slowly unlocking the buildings. I love that little bench at the end of the street looking out. I think the music in this game is so lovely too, and one of my most favourite things is walking around on a rainy day in my town. I also actually loved that it was always the opposite weather hemisphere-wise, often I'd log in in irl winter so I could feel warm and vice-versa.

I also just love the graphics and look and feel of the game. The characters are still sassy and have a lot of personality. I always think fondly of my neighbour O'Hare, because his birthday is two days after mine. Now I could wax rhapsodic about ACNL al day but I should move on!

I freely admit I did obsessively play AC Pocket Camp for like a year or two when it came out (maybe longer??) to fill the void while I waited to see if there would be a Switch game. My partner also got me the original GameCube Animal Crossing for Christmas, which I played a little, but we don't usually have the GameCube set up and see above my preference of handheld play for AC. Still, a very cute present that I love having.

The second they Switch was announced, I said that I would be holding off on buying one until I saw if they put out a new AC game with a console to match. And I am SO glad I did because I was able to get the console and the game when they came out and I think the console is sooooo pretty. ACNH is really fun as well, I do like the addition of terraforming, being able to place furniture outside, and that they went really ham on the graphics. While I think I still have more of a soft spot for the older graphic style, I love things like the raindrops on the windows and the furniture blowing as the fan goes over it, etc etc those little tiny additions really melt my heart. I do feel like they smoothed out the characters too much, they don't have as much personality as they used to. And as much as so many things are easier (changing clothes, furniture, moving trees and plants, catching all fish/bugs and fossils) I think I preferred it when it was a bit more challenging. I wish the Roost was separate still </3. I loved the addition of Island Designer, I find that so fun, and I love the glowing moss furniture, and being able to design villager's houses (given that sometimes they start to look really dogshit after I've been gifting them my garbage furniture sorry guys). I don't send letters as much in this game as I used to, idk why exactly it just never seemed as fun or important in ACNH. I like the addition of cooking, more just because it tickles me personally. I'm back and forth on the crafting mechanism. I think overall I like it, and in many ways it's a return to the challenging aspects I just went on about loving in the previous game in terms of it being an involved process (esp if you want to change the colours), but I think that tools breaking SO fast annoys me and that even gold tools break annoys me heaps. Overall I do still enjoy ACNH, and I'm actually glad that it introduced the game to a whole lot of new people because it's widened the audience of people I can ramble about AC to. I do wish I had gone with the other hemisphere weather, I went back and forth on that and I discovered I actually prefer it NOT aligning with my real life weather so it can serve as an escape.

Thank you for asking me this question, in case you can't tell I love talking about Animal Crossing it is definitely one of my favourite game series of all time <3

[emeraldhypothesis]

ok i do legally have to request Aporia and Z-one for that ask meme too ♥ 👴

Being for cereal Dana, I'm only surprised you resisted the urge to ask about them first!

Aporia:

Why I like them/why I don’t

I took a while to warm on Aporia and admittedly a lot of that warming was because of a rewatch in light of Dana's S-tier propaganda re-contextualizing him. With the benefit of getting the full experience, I can very confidently call Aporia a very good villain, one who's given some great duels and some interesting character dynamics- especially with Leo and Z-One before the end of his journey.

I also just have to bring up Aporia's name and the symbolism tied to it, given it's referencing either the personification of perplexity, powerlessness, and want of means, or the theorem related to confusion caused by multiple pieces of evidence supporting different answers, tying back into his origin point as three different takes on the same person and their despair.

What I like about their appearance

He's this big massive motherfucker who looks like an architect's worst nightmare for door design with them massive shoulderpads lol. I do love the shoulderpads ngl, especially with how they make him resemble Astro Mekanikle!

But for real I do love how Aporia genuinely does look like a patchwork of the three Emperors while still having a distinct style and identity of his own. His new design also leans into a divine angel much more heavily, and while I don't quite have the words or ability to explain it very well, I can still point at the wings he creates and go "Hey look he's a fallen angel here to represent his one true God."

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

Same in both, fortunately.

Performance wise it's a close toss up. Masakazu Nemoto's turn in the Japanese is a great performance, and he's obviously allowed to show much more range than the dub actor due to the circumstances of the dub's ending, meaning he gets much more time to strut his stuff like in the duel against Jack and the Twins.

Jamal Najum Khan gets less time in the sun but I've always been fond of his odd little enunciation habits that meant I clocked him in seconds as the voice of Christopher in Zexal as a result. I find I play Aporia more in DL when I have the English voices installed, if that's any indicator? Largely because I adore how Khan says some of the lines like "Meklord Army of SKIEL!" I also like that they gave Khan a chance through the taunts and win/loss lines to say a lot of the major lines he missed a chance to.

OTP

You know it's that horrible, no good, fucked up old man yaoi in Zoneporia baby. Aporia's absolute trust in Z-One when they work together to rebuild him, the intimacy that it must have taken to trust Z-One with the knowledge of his three greatest despairs, and then trying to use that trust to win Z-One over in their duel only for Z-One to coldly shoot him down (and then warmly shoot him down by burning him alive :) :) ). I have a soft spot for relationships where elements of worship and divinity creep in so this is very much an up my alley ship.

NOTP

I'm sure it exists but like Aporia to me gets shipped with so few characters I wouldn't even know where to start with like, NOTPing him.

OT3

Old Man Iliaster polycule yaoi... save me Old Man Iliaster polycule yaoi...

Favourite card they use

Torn between Fortissimo just because of how awesome it is that we get a spin on the "Marik merging with Ra" thing that every series homages eventually by having Aporia merge with a Field Spell, and my big asshole friend Astro Dragon Triskelion with whom I have cheesed several wins with on Duel Links.

Favourite moment they were in

It's either his matches against Jack and the Twins or his last stand against Z-One, but honestly these flow into the other as one big collected moment. I think his role as the villain for Jack and the Twins takes it though, with him being this literal wall that tears Jack and Luna to shreds (while he has a needle being stabbed into their hearts no less!) and leads to Leo stepping up and locking in enough to generate an entirely new Signer Mark, causing Life Stream Dragon's creation! What a good duel.

Least favourite moment

Sure is funny how in the dub continuity Aporia just rolls up, talks some mad shit about the future, Yusei goes "OK," kills him so hard he explodes, and then the world is saved. Almost like Z-One saw that happen and went "OK we're not fucking with Yusei, prevent the apocalypse and run, leave him Bruno as a peace offering."

And when I say funny I mean kinda lame. :/

Would I fuck, marry or kill them

I feel that either option would leave me with nothing but despair so n/a.

Z-One:

Why I like them/why I don’t

I didn't give much thought to Z-One for a few years, largely because a lot of the discussion around him for a while was just dominated by the whole "Was Z-One meant to be an evil future Yusei" argument that I've... never really had a horse in the race for.

With time though, I've become a convert and I'd now comfortably put Z-One in my top 3 final boss list alongside Yubel and Ai. I love what he represents as a threat, his backstory is super fucked up and tragic, and his duel with Yusei is just a pinnacle of spectacle with them flying in and around Neo Domino as the Cradle comes closer and closer. I love that he was born from a need to just try and save everyone, even sacrificing his very identity and sense of self to try and save the world, only to be let down and fail in an ugly, horrific manner that leaves him a broken old man.

It's also great that mechanically, Zone's deck feels appropriately alien by the standards of that era of Yugioh. He casually summons out Level 10 monsters, he's playing literal hand-traps, and the Timelords mechanically fit their theme well. "Damaged me? No you didn't, I'm back at 4K. Summon a bunch of monsters? I'm resetting the board state and sending them to hand." His deck denies his opponent the chance to even exist against the Timelords, and that's sick.

It also must be stressed that his themes are so good. His anime theme has a wide range to represent the full duel but it's a non-stop banger throughout, and his Duel Links theme re-contextualizes him into a tragic figure with a much more lonely and ethereal theme that also, because Duel Links music is GOATed like that, calls back to Yusei's theme to both show that Z-One views his actions as heroic and to show the influence Yusei has had on him.

Would Evil Yusei have been neat? Maybe, but I'm perfectly happy with what we got for Z-One.

He's the source of the world's most ugly kin drama, who can hate that?

What I like about their appearance

That weird flying conch shell that makes him look like a magatama... his massive grabby claws for his cards, the shattered mask showing Yusei's old, weathered face, it's all so good.

I also love that if you look at Z-One's cosplay look as Yusei in the future clips, he gets stuff wrong! Yusei's orange circles are made squares, the shirt has a different design, the bike has different stripes, it's a bunch of small touches that add up to create a very good Uncanny Valley effect!

Do I prefer their dub names or original names?

Same in both!

Vocally this is such a hard pick, because I legit thing both performances in dub and sub are perfect 10/10s... with the caveat of the dub getting Duel Links. Hideo Ishikawa really does capture how old and desolate Z-One is, barely expressing emotion for the majority of his screentime- and what little he does express is usually buried underneath a vocal filter that strips away his humanity. It's only when Yusei cracks his face-plate and shows the man under the mask that Ishikawa begins to get more expressive (and shows in his own way that even a God can bleed), it's a good touch for the performance.

Marc Thompson though, is a legend. And his turn as Z-One is one of his best performances in my opinion alongside Astral in Zexal and his audiobooks as Thrawn in Star Wars. He's a bit more expressive than Ishikawa, a little bit more sadistic and enjoying himself. I don't know why Marc decided to purr and chuckle for half of his lines but I'm not complaining, I assure you dear viewer I was Very Normal about the voicelines.

I may just give it to Marc though purely for how in Duel Links, Z-One has summoning chants for Yusei's ace dragons so I got to hear this old man shout LET'S REV IT UP and that made my day. Both are so good though.

OTP

See the above for Zoneporia, but I'll add that I love imagining Z-One and Yusei in a room together with Z-One engaging in some friendly psychological mind warfare. :)

NOTP

N/A

OT3

See above, but again, future old man polycule is very cute.

Favourite card they use

I love all the Timelords, but I'm especially fond of Michion and Sephylon! They're such freaky little creatures.

Favourite moment they were in

His entire duel with Yusei is just a fantastic final boss battle all around (Quasar summon lives rent-free in my mind alongside Z-One whipping out the literal Tree of Life to summon Sephylon), but I think my favorite singular moment is when he lets Aporia stake everything on hope only to casually show how much he was holding back when he summons Lazion to ruin Aporia's plan and dares him to draw Afterglow again, using his crushing victory against Aporia to try and demoralize Team 5D's. Absolutely fantastic scene-setter for Z-One.

Least favourite moment

I don't think I have one for Z-One? Beyond that his stuff just wasn't dubbed, I guess.

Would I fuck, marry or kill them

I can fix him. :)

(cannot find a Z-One gif to save my life so here's Shooting Quasar Dragon)

[cyberdragoninfinity]

Vector for the character ask?

OH BOY 🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕🥕

Why I like them/why I don’t: HE'S JUST THAT GOOD A CHARACTER he's SO expressive and full of personality i cant help but be endeared by him. he's just the right blend of Oof Ow Ouchie Ow and I Want to Strangle This Little Asshole. he's just such a perfect over the top yugioh villain. not to mention all the insane Hell From the Bible symbolism

What I like about their appearance: i give him shit for the hair but like. the orange spikes + his leather jacket is such a sick look. also HIS BARIAN FORM IS SO FUCKING GOOOODDDDD some of the barians im not as into design-wise but vector's color palette and his big freaky rock wings and his insaneo expressiveness are just fantastic. absolute freak ever. he looks like dana from another dimension drew him.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names? sorry but 'ray shadows' is fucking hysterical. raid shadow legends.

OTP: SIGHS. THE FOILSHIP GOT ME REAL BAD. the yumavector aro maneuvers in my brain continue to deep fry me. 'the world needs more of you, and less of me' FUCKING ALRIGHT!!!!!!!!! YAOI BEAR TRAP

NOTP: i feel like i see vector/rio a lot and mostly im just like.....why would you subject rio to that....................................

OT3: mentioned when i talked about trey but yuma/vector/trey could be something i think. if we open our eyes.

Favourite card they use: man vector's deck kind of sucks ass. umbral horror support any day now. anyway i do love Rank Up Magic Barian's Force forever and ever <3 I ALSO REALLY LIKE THIS WEIRDASS RABBIT HE USED WHEN HE WAS RAY SHADOWS MODE?!?? invader zim lookin ass

Favourite moment they were in: god. so many. The Reveal at Sargasso. His Wings Crumbling Off Into the Ocean. His Great Bamboozlment during his duel with Nasch that I Fucking Fell For. like. Any Time He's On Screen TBH. ok no of course. i think my favorite moment is his exchange with yuma before dying <3 bear trap <33 BEAR TRAP <333

Least favourite moment: i honest to god can't think of one. literally every time he's on screen was such a treat for me with those damn expressions of his.

Something I associate with them: 🥕

[celestie0]

Hii! This is my first time messaging any fanfic author (I'm an extremely anxious person and tend to be more of a lurker LOL) I'm so sorry but this might be a long one lmfao

First of all, the way you write in general? Absolutely phenomenal!! The way you characterise and describe scenes is honestly so incredibly immersing. I've always had a relatively easy time imagining scenes in my head when reading, even with relatively little detail, but the way you word everything puts the scene straight into my head and it's such a wonderful experience!

Your characterisation of Gojo (in all your works!!) is probably my absolute favourite out of any fanfics I've read of him (trust me I've read an embarrassing amount :sob:). The way you actually capture what he feels like in canon, without making him feel super mean or cold, but still retaining that side of being emotionally repressed is absolutely chefs kiss!!

I also really love y/n in both kickoff and ihm so much. I relate to both of them in different ways, but probably more so ihm reader personality wise (might also be because I'm around the same age as her lmao). As someone who is very emotionally repressed due to trauma (especially of loved ones leaving you), the way you've portrayed those sides of reader in ihm is VERY spot on!! And I would like to add that I, for one, LOVE slow burn, so I don't mind the pace ihm is going at right now personally!

Chapter 12 of Kickoff?!?!? Holy shit I was literally sat there blushing, kicking my feet and giggling. It was absolutely hilarious and super cliché in the absolutely best way possible (I absolutely love clichés if they're well used!)

I could honestly wait years for anything you write. Never feel any pressure to churn out your writing and take it at your own pace!! My genuine first thought after finishing the latest chapter of Kickoff was that it was sooo worth the wait haha.

Personally I have an extremely hard time writing anything but angst, because I like making myself sad I guess who knows LOL But I'm sooo excited about your next work!! I absolutely love the song you're basing it off of <3

AND did I also see some talk about a potential Spider-man Gojo fic in the future??? Cos I would honestly probably scream (in a good way lol) if you ever did that, he's my alltime favourite superhero!!

Okok this is getting really long, but I found this photo of four football players a bit ago and thought I absolutely HAD to draw them as Gojo, Geto, Choso and Nanami from Kickoff (adding the art at the bottom)! But I haven't gotten around to colouring it yet (or cleaning it up considering it's just a sketch lmaoo) cos I'm stuck on how to do the jerseys. So I have two questions! I know you've explained the colours of their jerseys, but do you have any particular idea in mind of what the design on the jersey itself looks like? As in where the colours are placed specifically etc? And we know Gojo's signature jersey number, but do you have numbers for the rest of them too? (I may or may not also have a wip of a drawing of just Gojo from Kickoff too!)

I'm sorry there's A LOT of different plot points in my message??? The most important part was just to convey, hey, I love the way you write and you should definitely give yourself some more credit cos you are genuinely a really good writer!! <3 (Though I know us artists tend to be our own worst critics LOL)

hi love i’m so sorry this took me a sec to respond to!! first off thanks you so much for sending me such a sweet ask :’’’) i literally gaspeddd when i saw it

aaa i’m so happy the scenes feel immersive!! and that you enjoy my characterization of gojo aaa i’m so happy to hear that. and yes i totally relate to ihm reader’s suppression of her emotions due to trauma and lack of trust so it’s been very…cathartic yet challenging to write for her, but i wouldn’t have it any other way hahah

i’m so glad you enjoyed kickoff ch12!! i totally agree that chapter was so cliche, honestly it made me cringe while i was writing it because i typically hate cliches esp when they’re corny rather than on-the-nose, but i posted it anyways bc i figured maybe i just hate it bc i’m the author xd but it seems my readers enjoyed it so :’’0 perhaps i made the right choice

oh you are too kind. i really appreciate you looking out for me <3 tbh i’ve been feeling really overwhelmed lately, and it’s been really hard to deal with the emotions, but coming on here and seeing sweet works n ppl interacting w my stories brings me lots of happiness n i can’t thank you enough :’’) yes i will definitely take my time bahahha that i can assure you LOL and i’m so happy to know you’re looking forward to more of my works!! you’re so right about artists/authors being our own worst critics. i swear no one has been as mean to my writing as i have LMFAOOO but alas i think i’ve gotten better in trusting my direction n kinda choosing what i think is best soooo. progress i suppose? hahah

ok. now. i can talk about. THE ART?!?!?!?!? HELLO!!!!!!! OH MY GODD?!?!!?!?! ok i KNOWWW that’s it’s just a sketch so far but tell me whERE MY PANTIES HAVE GONE?!?!?!? WHERE MY CLOTHES ARE AT?!?!??!

the expression on kickoff gojo’s face has me reeling he looks so focused n sexy and THE HEADBAND PUSHING HIS HAIR UP OUT OF HIS FACE YES YES YES 100% THAT’S HOW I PICTURE IT WHEN I WRITE AAA and kickoff geto’s expression too pls i could cum (sorry i hope this isn’t weird to say lmfaooo i am also very respectfully looking at your artwork as well aaa) nanami’s hair looks so nice too

as for the uniforms hmm i know i said like gold and blue colors, i believe actual real-life UTOKYO has more of a yellowish color but i actually like gold better hence why i chose gold. but…i can imagine the whole jersey being blue and then with gold accents then white numbering?

here are some options!! like w the first one, probs sky blue fabric with the white stripes as gold instead, and then the numbers/brand sponsors or whatever are in white? they would probs have like “UTOKYO” in large print somewhere too, maybe underneath their numbers or sumn. tbh i think the middle one is the nicest, i can picture the stripes of blue and gold, and then accents in white. but the third one also works too!!

as for numbers hmm. ok yes gojo is #10, geto is #7, choso is #4 and nanami is #24 :0 that sounds…about right! LOL i hope i don’t have it somewhere in the other chapters that they are different numbers although i don’t think i’ve assigned the other boys numbers before

BUT I HOPE THIS HELPS AND THANKS SOSOSOSOSOSO MUCH FOR DRAWING FANART INSPIRED BY MY FIC!!!! I AM SO HUMBLED BY YOU AND I’M SOOOO EXCITED TO SEE THE FINAL DRAWING BUT ALSO NO PRESSURE AAAAAAAA

so much loveee <333

[bibluebutterfly]

Y'know I honestly like Stella, first of all I love her character design, she's so pretty

But I wouldn't say she has a great personality

Still though I kinda wish she has better characterisation, it's not that I think her characterisation right now is bad writing,but I feel like she's wasted potential

I mean Stolas possibly went from a main antagonist into a fan favourite,hence he became another protag lead. Technically him being a villain is literally in the pilot,it was also my first impression of him

I feel like Stella being an evil wife is good, it's fitting lore wise,but there could've been something more to it,sure Stella doesn't have to be so complex and she can be a simple bitch,but that just feels too easy as if she's just a cannon fodder,a sacrifice just so Stolas and Blitz can be together

Maybe my brain is trying to over analyse stuff. I mean I saw a vid of someone talking about Stella and if her character is ruined or if the story is going well and it just kinda hit a nerve in me. That video also pointed out how Octavia and Stella are only relevant if it involves Stolas, it's worth thinking about

Actually, I must say I agree, however, I do believe that the characterization for Stella is masterful and is worth exploring.

Like from what we know, Stolas was forced to marry her at oldest, 19. BUT that means that Stella was likely around that same age (I would even argue that she may even be a year or so younger than Stolas). She too was a teenager forced into marriage but whereas Stolas coped by just antidepressants and trying to make the best of the bad situation, Stella coped by the only way she knew how: anger and abuse. She's been like this since she was a child and was obviously never taught better.

In Western Energy we've even seen how emotionally immature she is, and that can all be traced back to her childhood.

I also find it interesting on how much the show focuses on her looks, with everybody basically saying her best trait is that she's attractive. This seems to imply that her whole life, she's been taught that appearances (both physical and status wise) were the most valuable thing she could have. Which... yikes.

So in the end, I believe that her being an abusive wife isn't the problem, but if we go more in depth of why she is the way she is instead of letting people just assume she's a two dimensional villian, we can fix the Stella Problem.

But that's just me. What do you think?