#hopefully this makes navigating a lot easier for all of us

[ghouljams]

Welcome to the Show

Hello, hello! I'm Ghoul(they/them) and I write fic, like a lot of fic. This is my Directory

I write in second person(you) so all of my fic can be read as x reader, and you can think of any callsigns/nicknames as your own. However, my fic is technically x oc, if that's not for you no problem! I don't include descriptions or names in any of my fics.

I am an adult writing stories about adults for adults, and so Minor Do Not Interact

I do not give consent for my work to be used in ai, be that ai chats or ai writing. This is a hard boundary I will not budge on.

Buy me a Ko-fi!

COD AUs

Cowboys Fae Demons Ballet Historic Aus Sin Summer Ghost!Ghost Regency Au Cyberpunk Au The Ghost Distribution System Professor Au I want the Darlings Sugar Daddy!Hesh SCP-141 Shining Au The Price of Fire

FAQ:

Can I write Fic with your OCs?

Yep! Just tag me in it if you post it.

Can I tell you about an OC I have for [insert au]?

Of course! OC talk is always open, but posting is contained to the morning.

Can I draw you OCs?

Yes. BUT I try to keep their descriptions vague so people can use them as Reader inserts, so I might not post/reblog it if you submit/post the art.

Do you take requests?

Sort of. If you have thoughts I'd love to hear them and if they inspire me I'll write something, but it might not be exactly what you requested. I tend to use asks as jumping off points rather than direct requests.

Do you cross post to anywhere else?

Not currently! If you see my fic elsewhere that isn't me. I don't give my consent to have my work reposted anywhere else.

Could you make a character AI for [insert character or au]?

No. I absolutely abhor ai and hope it crashes and burns before it does any more damage to art and creativity. Role-Play in a discord server like an adult.

Do you have a list of your OCs anywhere?

Yup. Here you go!

Ghoul's Hozier Bullshit

Pillow Princess Ghost

Dividers by @/cafekitsune

[kinnbig]

✨ Simple Gif Colouring for Beginners ✨

I wrote up my basic gif colouring process for a friend recently, but a couple of people here mentioned they'd also find it helpful! so, as requested, this is a beginner-friendly walkthrough of the way I colour my gifs :) it's aimed at brand new gif makers with no prior experience with photoshop or photo editing.

when I first started gif making I found colouring and photoshop in general suuuper daunting, so I've tried to simplify everything here as much as possible. hopefully this will be relatively easy to follow and not too intimidating!

a couple of things to begin with:

I'm only talking about colouring here - this is not a full gif making tutorial. I've linked to some of my favourites of those here!

I personally like to make bright, 'clean' looking gifs with vibrant but natural colours, so that is the style of colouring this tutorial is geared towards. most of gif colouring is subjective and about personal taste - the only thing that I'd say is possible to get wrong is skin tones, which I talk about a lot in this guide.

as I mostly gif Thai dramas, most of the advice is geared towards colouring for East Asian/South East Asian skin tones - but the techniques should be fairly universally applicable (and here are some tutorials that talk about gif colouring for other skin tones).

I'm not an expert! I'm not claiming this is the best or the only way to colour gifs - it's just how I do it.

this post is very image-heavy. if the images aren't loading (or the gifs are running slowly or cutting/looping weirdly), then try viewing the post in its own tab (rather than on the your dash or someone's blog) and refreshing the page.

okay, full walkthrough beneath the cut!

contents:

1. intro a. natural gif colouring goals b. very very basic colour theory 2. super simple colouring (the essentials) a. curves b. selective colour (and skin tone correction) c. hue/saturation d. saving and reusing colouring e. another simple colouring example 3. other adjustment layers a. brightness/contrast b. levels c. vibrance d. colour balance e. channel mixer 4. troubleshooting a. curves b. saturation 5. fin!

1. intro

the colouring part of gif making can be super overwhelming, especially if (like me when I first started!) you're completely new to photoshop and/or have no experience with colour theory or photo/video editing.

if you're opening photoshop and making gifs for the first time, I highly recommend getting used to making a few basic, uncoloured gifs to begin with. just to practice, rather than post anywhere (though you can always come back and colour them later if you want) - but it'll make the rest of the process much easier if you're already beginning to get used to working in timeline mode of photoshop. give yourself a bit of time to practice and get a feel for things like how many frames you tend to like in a gif, where you like to crop them for the best loop, what kind of aspect ratio you like etc* - so that you're not trying to navigate all of that for the first time on top of everything else!

* frames: for me between 60-90 frames is ideal, but 40-120 frames is the absolute min-max I'd personally use in a normal gifset loops: for the smoothest loops, try to avoid cutting someone off mid-movement or mid-word if possible. aspect ratio: for full-size (540px) gifs, I tend to go for either 8:5 (slightly 'skinnier' gifs), 7:5, or 5:4 (particularly big, thick gifs lmao)

✨ natural gif colouring goals

part of what can be so daunting about starting gif making is not knowing where to start or what you want to achieve. this is definitely something that gets easier with practice - the more gifs you make, the more you'll get a feel for what kind of look you like and the more instinctively you'll know how to get there. it also helps to see if any gif makers you like have made "before and after colouring" posts - these can help with getting a sense of the kinds of changes made through gif colouring. here's one I made!

in general, I like to make my gifs bright and 'clean' looking, with vibrant but natural colours. these are the things I'm usually hoping to achieve with colouring:

brighten dark scenes

remove muddy, yellowish lighting or filters

saturate colours

correct any skin lightening filters or overexposure

make lighting and colours as consistent as possible between gifs within a single gifset, especially gifsets featuring gifs from multiple scenes/episodes/videos

this guide is focusing on natural colouring, but of course there are many cool ways to make stylised/unnaturally coloured gifs. imo you'll need to master these basics first, but if you want to learn how to do things like change the background colour of gifs or use gradients or other cool effects, then @usergif's resource directory has loads of super helpful tutorials!

✨ very very basic colour theory

[disclaimer! I don't know shit about fuck. I do not study light or art. this is just an explanation that makes sense to me exclusively for the purposes of gif making.]

the primary colours for light/digital screens are red, blue, and green. having all three colours in equal measures neutralises them (represented by the white section in the middle of the diagram).

so to neutralise a colour within a gif, you need to add more of the colour(s) that are lacking.

in practice this usually means: the scene you want to gif is very yellow! yellow is made of red and green light, so to neutralise it you need to add more blue into your gif.

it can also mean the reverse: if you desaturate the yellow tones in a gif, it will look much more blue.

looking at the colour balance sliders on photoshop can make it easier to visualise:

so making a gif more red also means making it less cyan.

removing green from a gif means adding magenta.

taking yellow out of a gif will make it more blue.

tl;dr:

neutralise yellows by adding blue (and vice versa)

neutralise reds by adding cyan (and vice versa)

neutralise green by adding magenta (and vice versa)

2. super simple colouring (the essentials)

starting with a nice sharpened gif in photoshop in timeline mode. (these are the sharpening settings I use!)

some scenes are much harder to colour than others - it helps to start out practising with scenes that are bright/well-lit and that don't have harsh unnaturally coloured lights/filters on. scenes with a lot of brown/orange also tend to be harder.

I usually save a base copy of my gif before I start colouring just in case I end up hating it, or find out later that it doesn't quite fit right into a set and need to redo it etc.

so here is my base gif!

it's an okay gif, but it has a bit of a yellow tint to it that I want to reduce.

colouring is easiest to do in adjustment layers, which can be found under layer -> new adjustment layer - or for me they are here:

there are lots of different types of adjustment layers that do lots of different things - but for me the absolute essentials for colouring are curves, selective colour, and hue/saturation.

I also use brightness/contrast, levels, exposure, vibrance, colour balance, and channel mixer sometimes, depending on the gif - but I use curves, selective colour, and hue/saturation on every single gif.

✨ curves layer

the first thing I always do is a curves layer. when you first open one it will look like this:

first I usually click the ‘auto’ button, just to see what happens. sometimes it makes a big difference (it usually brightens the gif a lot) - but on this gif it didn’t do much.

if it had made the gif look nicer then I would have kept it and added a second curves layer on top to do the rest of these steps.

the next step is selecting the white and black points with the little eyedropper tools.

the bottom eyedropper lets you pick a white point for the gif. click somewhere super light on the gif to see what happens - for this gif, I clicked on the lampshade on the left. if it looks weird, I just undo it and try somewhere else - it usually takes a few goes to find something that looks good.

here's what that did to the gif:

then I pick the top eyedropper and use it to pick a black point by clicking somewhere really dark, again playing around until I find a black point that looks good.

here's what the gif looks like after picking the white and black points:

this can take some experimenting, but you can make super easy drastic changes to your gif just with this. in this case, the curves layer took out a lot of that yellowy tint.

and this is what the curves graph looks like now:

you can click and drag those lines to make further changes if you want - I usually leave them alone though. the colours of the lines indicate which colours have been changed in the gif - for example, you can see from that steep blue line on the graph that blue has been added to neutralise those yellows.

next I usually do another curves layer and just press the ‘auto’ button again to see what happens. usually it brightens the gif a bit more, which I like.

‼️if nothing is working: usually with a bit of fucking about a curves layer works well - but sometimes you can’t find a good white and black point anywhere, and instead your gif turns wacky colours and nothing looks good. this happens more often with very heavily colour tinted scenes :( the troubleshooting section at the end goes over some options, including starting with a levels layer instead.

✨ selective colour (and skin tone correction)

skin tones are made up of a mixture of yellow and red.

removing yellow (or adding blue or red) to a gif will make the skin-tones too red - and removing red (or adding cyan or yellow) to a gif will make the skin-tones too yellow.

adding blue to this gif with the curves layer took out the yellowy tint, which I wanted - but it also took the yellows out of Kim's skin tone, which I don’t want. so I need to put yellow back into the skin tones specifically - without putting it back into the rest of the gif.

selective colour layers let you select an individual colour and adjust the levels of other colours within that colour. you can change how yellow the green shades are, or how much cyan is in the blues, for example.

I need to add yellow back into the red tones to correct the skin tones on this gif. this is the case for most gifs in my experience - the vast majority of the time, unless a scene is very heavily tinted in another colour, a curves layer will add blue/remove yellow.

in the 'colors' dropdown, select the 'reds' section and drag the 'yellow' slider higher - this will add more yellow into just the red shades within the gif.

the amount of yellow you need to add back into the reds depends on how much yellow was taken out of the gif initially - I just play around with the slider until it looks right. if you're not sure, it helps to have some neutrally-coloured (not white-washed!) reference photos of the people in your gif to compare to.

here's the result. Kim's skin is a lot less pink toned and much more natural looking:

✨ hue/saturation

this adjustment layer lets you adjust the hue and saturation of the gif as a whole, and also of each colour individually.

I don't use the hue or lightness sliders unless I'm trying to do something more complicated with the colouring.

clicking the dropdown menu that says 'master' lets you edit the saturation of each colour individually. this is useful if your gif is still super tinted in one colour.

I thought the yellows on this gif were still slightly too bright, so I switched to the yellow channel and desaturated them slightly. (remember if you do this then you need to go back to selective colour and add more yellow into the red skin tones to balance out the desaturation!)

then I increased the 'master' saturation of all the colours to +5:

I usually find the right amount of saturation is somewhere between +5 and +12, but it depends on the gif.

‼️if the gif feels undersaturated, but the saturation slider isn't helping/is making the colours worse, try a vibrance layer instead.

done!

✨ saving and reusing colouring

you can copy and paste adjustment layers between gifs to make your colouring even across each of your gifs for one scene - so if you're making a set of multiple gifs of the same scene, or you think you might want to gif the same scene again in the future, you can save it as a psd so you can reuse the colouring again later.

each gif's colouring will then still need tweaking - different cameras/angles/shots of the same scene can still start out with slightly different colouring.

I recommend uploading the gifs as a draft post on tumblr so you can see what they all look like next to each other and catch any inconsistencies.

✨ another one! (speedrun!)

HI KEN!

the white point for the curves layer was in the window behind them.

the curves layer removes the muddy yellow tint, but again it makes their skin tones (especially Ken's) very red toned, which is adjusted by the selective colour layer.

3. other adjustment layers

imo many many gifs can be coloured really nicely with just those three adjustment layers, but some need different adjustments.

✨ brightness/contrast

pretty self explanatory!

I personally usually avoid using the 'brightness' slider because I rarely like the effect - I only tend to use the 'contrast' one. 

the 'auto' button is sometimes useful though, especially if you’re struggling with the curves layer.

✨ levels

levels alters the white and black points of the gif, like curves - but unlike curves it doesn't also alter other colours.

use the sliders beneath the graph to alter how dark/light the gif is. you can slide the black slider further to the right to make the blacks darker, and the white slider to the left to make the whites lighter.

levels is a good place to start if your curves layer isn't working.

(I'm going to hit the image limit for this post lol so here are some screenshots of a table I made to demonstrate this rather than actual gifs. sorry!)

on both sides, I dragged the sliders up to where the big jumps are on the graph - this is usually a good place to start!

✨ vibrance

vibrance... makes the colours more vibrant. it's more subtle than saturation.

it's really helpful for gifs that feel grey. sometimes adjusting saturation just makes the greys kind of weirdly tinted, but a vibrance layer can fix that.

vibrance is much more subtle!

✨ colour balance

colour balance affects the overall balance of colours within a gif.

it's good for scenes with heavy tints.

I tend to stick to the 'midtones' dropdown, but you can also alter the colour balance within the shadows and highlights if you want.

✨ channel mixer

I avoided channel mixer for such a long time because it scared me. but it's great for scenes that are very heavily tinted in one colour.

basically, it works with the levels of red, green, and blue within a gif. you select an output colour and then play around with the levels of the colour you selected within each other colour.

kind of the reverse of selective colour?

so in the 'blue' channel, the levels of blue are at 100%, and the levels of red and green are at 0% - but you can impact how much blue is in the reds and greens and blues.

this tutorial explains it well - but imo the best way to get to grips with channel mixer is just to play around with it a bit (sorry)

(when I made this guide for my friend, I also made a slightly more complicated gif colouring walk-through that included using channel mixer. there isn't space to include it within this post, but if anyone is interested I could always upload it as an 'intermediate' gif colouring tutorial - lmk!)

4. troubleshooting

‼️curves

usually with a bit of fucking about a curves layer works well - but sometimes you can’t find a good white and black point anywhere, and instead your gif turns wacky colours and nothing looks good. this happens more often with very heavily colour tinted scenes :(

for example, with this base gif:

using many of the brightest points as a white point turn it wacky colours, like this:

yikes :(

some options for these cases:

try brightening the gif first with the 'auto' button on the curves layer or with a levels layer. having a brighter gif to start with can give you better options for picking a white point.

try finding an alternate, whiter/brighter white point. look for places the light reflects - on this gif, using the light on Porsche's cheekbone works well as the white point. it also helps to find places that would be white if the scene wasn't tinted - the lightest part of a white shirt is often a good place to start, for example.

skip the curves layer, and instead use a levels layer to alter your white/black points, and colour balance or channel mixer to balance the colours.

‼️over/undersaturation

if your gif (especially the skintones) is looking a little washed out or lifeless, it might be undersaturated. boost that saturation - or if that's not working, try a vibrance layer.

oversaturation is often easiest to spot in the mouths and ears of any people in a gif. if the mouths are looking unnaturally, vibrantly red, then you've gone too far with the saturation.

5. fin!

and done! I hope this was coherent helpful to somebody.

if there's anything that I've missed or that doesn't make sense pls feel free to shoot me an ask or a message and I'll do my best to help! I've also collated a bunch of additional reading/resources below.

happy gifmaking 🥰

✨ some links!

photoshop basics by @selenapastel

gifmaking for beginners by @hayaosmiyazaki

gifmaking guide for beginners by @saw-x

dreamy's gif tutorial by @scoupsy-remade (includes instructions on how to blur out burned-on subtitles or annoying video graphics)

beginner's guide to channel mixer by @aubrey-plaza

how to fix orange-washed characters by aubrey-plaza

colour correcting and fixing dark scenes by @kylos

does resampling matter? by usergif

how to put multiple gifs on one canvas by @fictionalheroine

watermarking using actions by @wonwooridul

resource directory by @usergif

[gilmore-angel]

everything has changed | aaron hotchner x reader

swiftmas ♱ heyyy.... so this is super late😬. I am now on break so hopefully the future ones will be on time💋

summary ♱ working at a daycare has its perks, a big one being a certain single dad.

warnings ♱ awkward flirting, my lack of understanding how daycares are run, ooc aaron probably cause I haven't watched this show in forever

swiftmas ♱ navigation ♱ follow my library account @baysfics to see when I post!

loud. if you had to use one word to describe your job it would be loud. you of course loved your work, but being completely overwhelmed has become a normal thing.

the end of the day was always the hardest. trying to gather all of the kids items, putting shoes on, getting through checkout, and cleaning up afterwards.

one little boy in particular however made your job a bit easier. Jack Hotchner, an adorable three year old, was polite, well behaved, and sweet. his father, aaron hotchner, was serious but seemed nice.

all you new about him was he worked a lot, and rarely was the one to pick jack up. 90% of the time it was his aunt to come pick him up.

but today was different. when your coworker said jacks parent was here for pickup you help his little winter coat on and backpack and walked with him to the front desk for checkout.

there stood arron, dressed in his usual black suit. his jet black hair was shiny and put together like always. his blank almost cold expression shifted to a much happier one when he saw jack running towards him.

the little boy hugged his father's legs in greeting, receiving a hug in return. you smile as you walk up to aaron and pass him the drawing jack made in class today.

"jack wanted to make sure u gave this to you," aaron smiles softly and takes it, looking over the two little stick figures playing in the snow, representing them.

he glances back up at you, nodding once at you, "thank you. youre jacks main teacher, correct?"

his voice sounding so clear is surprising to you. the most you heard from him was a quiet goodmorning or bye. you would see him mutter words to jack, but they were only for jack to here. the fact he talked to you at all was completely out of the norm.

you feel your cheeks heat up, suddenly realizing now that you have to speak directly to him how handsome he really is.

you smile softly and nod, "yes, I am." you realize too late how awkward you sound.

he nods, reaching out his hand to shake yours, "jack talks about you a lot. you seem to be his favorite here."

your heart swells at that, knowing jack was your favorite too. your heart also skips a beat at the feeling of shaking his hand. his skin is rough, yet his touch is gentle.

"thats so sweet. he brings you up a ton too." your hand drops back to your side and you fiddle with your jeans, suddenly feeling very flustered, a butterfly party happening in your tummy.

he smiles, a bit brighter now. he picks up his son, who is growing more and more tired by the second. he glances away before meeting your eyes again. "I uh, I appreciate all you do for my son. I work a lot out of state so, knowing my son has a good place to go is uh, comforting."

your smile widens, and you chuckle softly, "it my pleasure. he's a great kid."

you both continue to hold eye contact, your breathing calming a bit. he has kind eyes. tired ones, yes, but kind. he finally breaks the little bit of silence by clearing his throat, glancing down.

"well uh, we should be heading out. thank you again." before you can speak again he walks out, son in his arms.

even after he has disappeared from your eye site, you continue to stand and tare at where he was. you almost feel giddy, like a teenager who just met their new crush. you snap out of your daze when you realize you still need to help with checkout. you quickly get back to it, but can't help but thinking that everything has changed.

[bookmark-beast]

how to make gif stamps

you ever wanted to make your own stamps with gifs like this and have no idea how the fuck to do that?

it's really easy and all you need is a gif of your choice and the stamp base. all stamps are 99 x 56px as a tip for normal stamps.

during these steps i am pressing the buttons below every edited image so its easier to navigate.

step 1.

head over to the website ezgif.com. i use it for a lot of gif related things too and its really damn useful.

step 2.

head over to the resize tab and toss in your gif.

make sure the width is 93 pixels and the height is 49 pixels, dont worry about it being stretched since it resizes it down and some a little bit of cropping.

and if you want it to cover a specific area just go to the crop tab and make a selection around the area that's about the shape of the stamp, doesn't need to be perfect. and then head back to resize and do the resizing.

step 3.

head over to overlay in the effects

make sure to press the blue button under the gi that says "extend canvas size" its really important you do this so the actual stamp part doesn't get cut off. and add your overlay image aka the stamp base

and heres the base:

step 4:

adjust the overlay by putting 43 to the left and 22 to the top so it lines up like its shown here.

step 5.

and finally go to crop and scroll down and enable the checkbox that says "trim transparent pixels around the image" and hit crop image.

and there you go, you just made an animated stamp. and heres the finish product on the one i made.

hopefully this helps out in someway and that the steps were easy to understand, let me know if you have any issues or questions.

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Sorry if this is a weird question - a friend of mine just found out she has a spider ball python (he was sold to her as another morph, but when she showed me a picture, I pointed out he looked like a spider and she ended up going 'oh crap you're right'), but he doesn't appear to have any wobble or other common spider traits. I know it can show up less in some snakes than others, but is this something he might deal with more as he ages? Is there a way she can prep for that to give him the best possible care if issues do arise?

Was he sold to her as a pinstripe, by any chance? Pinstripes look a lot like spiders but they're a completely ethical, unrelated morph. To ID a snake as a pinstripe, look for an even, non-splotchy headstamp, long lines down the body, and a gentle taper into lighter belly coloration.

Compare that to a similar morph, spinner, that actually does have spider in it. The spider has a splotchy headstamp, short lines of patterning, and splotchy light belly coloration up the sides:

If he actually is a spider, there is indeed every chance that a wobble can wax and wane throughout his life. It may not be a big issue for him, but it could pop up at any time, and it could progressively worsen or periodically get better and come back again. Here's hoping that he's one of the lucky ones who almost never suffer because of it!

A lot of the spiders I've owned (all rescues, of course) had severe wobbles, so her snake hopefully will not need this level of accomodation, but here's what I recommend to prepare for, just in case:

Teach him to eat his food by taking it off the ground instead of tongs. Feeding time is often the most frustrating time for spiders, as the wobble worsens when they're excited, causing them to miss their food. Gradually keep lowering his food closer to the ground until he expects it to be on the ground - it's easier for them to aim and find food that's sitting still on the ground in front of them.

Think about how to modify the enclosure to help him stay comfortable and navigate with confidence. Shorter, thicker climbing branches are easier for spiders to hold onto.

Have a plan to make the substrate softer to avoid any bumps and scrapes if he becomes clumsy. Mixing sphagnum moss into the substrate is my go-to.

Think about shallow water dishes that he can easily get out of.

With some spidrers, I've had issues with them scraping their faces along parts of enclosures, especially screen lids and vent slats. Gluing cardboard over the trouble spots seemed to help - just don't use tape inside a snake enclosure because it can get stuck to and damage scales.

Hopefully, he will have a long, healthy, happy life with as minimal a wobble as possible! With any snake in the spider complex, though, it's important to keep track of symptoms if and when they pop up. If he does start presenting with a wobble later in life, I recommend keeping a journal of his quality of life so you can identify specific areas of frustration for him.

[jolalibrary]

I’m embarrassed to ask but so many fav’s are going there so how do you use ao3?

hello hello!

do not be embarrassed at all! and hopefully, i can try and help.

now, i wish to preface this by saying there's likely guides already on tumblr and i don't mean to be rehashings what they might already say/have shared, but I'm going to try and give a run down of things that might help. now, I've done this as if you're a reader, but if you're a writer and want help, pop back in!

I asked my good friend @toomanytookas for help with this one so I knew we was covering off a lot and she lovingly helped me with finding some additional resources to support my bits!

searching for your people

there are a few different search options available on AO3 to find the things you want. if you know the name of the user, you can use the search bar (as seen below).

or if you're after a certain pairing, you can use the search option.

you can then search from: works, bookmarks, tags or people.

i tend to use "works" but, others may have their own preferences. but i find this is the easiest way for me to find the things i'm after.

i don't tend to fill in every bit of info, but the ones i do are in 'work tags':

fandoms

relationships

additional tags

i might check 'single chapter' (in work info) if i just want to read a one shot, but most of the time i just see what spits up. for me, additional tags is what makes navigating AO3 so much easier because I can filter by a trope (friends to lovers, colleagues, second chances) or i can filter by a "mood" (smut, fluff etc.). when you've filled in your desired bits you can click search and then your results will show.

ANOTHER great way to search is if you already know the pairing you're after. so say you're reading a Francisco morales x reader and you want MORE of that, click that tag on a piece of work and a new search will show up of all the works with that pairing.

you then have a new filter choice on the right where you can 'exclude' tags or characters too.

there's also this guide i found from 2020!

there’s also this way of searching too! with an addition from @burntheedges

another cool resource on excluding too

-

2. supporting your people

so, you've found yourself a writer you adore, and you've read a piece of their work. if this is a one shot, you can:

drop a kudos (like a like, but you can only ever give it once)

leave a comment (even writing "love it" or an emoji makes a day)

bookmark (this is more for you if you loved it, you can bookmark things and they save to YOUR bookmarks and you can read again without searching for it - like a lil library)

now, say that piece is a multi-chap/collection, and you want to subscribe and be notified, you can 'subscribe' at the top of the fic

bookmarks do not notify you of a new chapter, but a subscribe will.

if you love the writer and want to know as soon as they drop anything, you can click their name, go to their profile and click 'subscribe' just under their name in the top right.

here’s a resource too!!

here’s a resource on why bookmarks/comments are cool

-

3. going back in time... the AO3 way

okay, we've all been there when you're engrossed in something and then life happens and you close a tab or your phone crashes (tumblr app, grr) and then the work is lost. on AO3, if you're logged in, you have a thing called 'my history' and in this is every work you've clicked on. wahay! this has saved me so often because i flick between phone and laptop a lot.

-

4. a final thing to be aware of...

warnings - a writer can choose to give a warning to the piece. many will use 'creator chose not to use archive warnings' or 'no archive warnings apply', but there are a few to keep an eye out for, such as:

graphics depiction of violence

major character death

rape/non-con

underage

'choose not to use warnings' is a read at your own risk, and i always recommend checking out the additional tags for the piece just so you know if there's any trigger warnings.

a resource on excluding (mentioned above too)

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this is just a top level thought process of what i thought might help, but if there's any specific questions i will deffo try to help. this resource has a ton of helpful things too. there's also AO3 FAQs which might be able to help if i didn't actually help. and this absolutely brilliant guide created too!

thank you for the ask, and happy AO3'ing 🧡

[campbyler]

my friend and i are going to write a long fanfic together, neither of us really have any experience with anything more then a one shot, any advice?

hellooooo that’s so exciting we are wishing you and your friend the best of luck!! i would sayyyyy the number one thing that helped us streamline the process of writing a long fic together was probably outlining like fiends!! it’s not the first time we have mentioned this, but we have always had a very thorough outline even though we had to make multiple versions of it over time to make it easier to read and use once it started getting cluttered and busy. i’d recommend breaking down each of your chapters into the main goals you’d like to accomplish in each one — for example, for ch04 it was the tension of isolation culminating in a kiss and for ch05 it was them navigating and full sending their casual thing for the summer and ch06 was the entirety of camp games and ch07 was wilderness week (will’s worst enemy) and will learning to enjoy it with mike there and so on and so forth. definitely recommend breaking each chapter down further into scenes for each one and what you’d like to happen in each scene. for acswy, we also like to balance some more fun and low-stakes filler scenes (think scenes with a lot of the party present or a shamelessly fun kiss scene or interactions with co-counselors/campers/etc) vs ones where it is very clearly about mike and will having a moment and moving their relationship and story forward. so having an outline that both of us can access and update in real time has definitely been super helpful for organizing not only writing, but the overarching story of the acswy universe as a whole :-)

i think my other biggest piece of advice (coming from someone who also mostly writes oneshots. granted very long oneshots at times but still oneshots) is to be mindful of pacing! i don’t write a lot of chaptered stories, so when i do, i find myself really impatient at times to get to the juicy parts of the story or wanting to skip ahead. i think for a longer fic especially, a solid exposition and thorough foundation for your universe is super important for worldbuilding and making things stay clear and well-defined down the line, so i’d say definitely spend the time and energy to flesh that out for sure!

hope this helped! i know both pieces of advice were kind of vague but they are probably the biggest things we have kept in mind while writing, so hopefully you and your friend get some use out of them. we are also happy to help if you guys need advice on more specific parts of writing or planning once you get there! i will say it also helps to be insane about the universe you created and to be thinking about it all the time and therefore be worldbuilding and adding lore off screen constantly. good luck!! 🫡

[tabletopgayventures]

What I look for in a tabletop role-playing game

Just my thoughts on what makes a game interesting.  Not necessarily good or bad, just what I would like to see in a game.  

First off, I want my games to be all in one book.  All you need to get started playing is just a single rulebook.  I prefer physical books but I’ll take both physical and digital.  I want the book to include a brief intro about the game, have the next section go over the game rules, then go over the setting, and the final part of the book will go over character creation.  Referee options, like challenges or bestiaries, can either be with the game rules or in a section after character creation.  I have yet to find a book that puts things in this order, but hopefully with my large collection of books I’ll finally find the order.  

The reason I want the book organized like this is that you need to understand the game mechanics in order to know how you want to build your character.  You also need to know the game setting to come up with a story for your character.  Finally, in most systems, character building takes up the majority of the book.  Especially in more complicated games with lots of character options.  Having the book organized this way will also increase the likelihood of players actually READING THE DAMN RULES.

Last thing about the game book.  Hardcover, paperback, pdf I don’t care.  But make your books easy to read and navigate!  Have a key on the fore-edge of the book in different colors so if you know the colors you can jump to that section.  Also an index!  Have an index please so you can find which pages talk about your special game mechanics.  Use colors and font size to define both hierarchy and sections in your layout, please don’t just have a white page with black text.  Finally, please use sans-serif fonts!  They’re so much easier to read than Times New Roman or Baskerville.

I also like looking for safety tools in my game books.  People who regularly play ttrpgs tend to know about lines, veils, surveys, and x-cards.  But not everyone does!  If a new player picks up your game and you don’t have a safety section you as a designer are depriving them of an important resource.  Also sometimes game designers think up new ones or have an interesting take so I like to learn.  

I don’t care how complex or simple the game system is, I just want it to be interesting and work.  I started with 3.5 and Pathfinder 1st edition so I do have a preference for more complicated games with lots of character options but only if they’re interesting or established.  I also like my systems to be loose enough that you can easily homebrew additional mechanics, change mechanics, or make new in game material.  I like to homebrew, it’s fun.  

[mugunghwc]

"Actually I wanted to invite you to a fancy dinner at a restaurant," Futaba admitted, while welcoming him to her place, which was still rather cramped, considering the many boxes, as if they still had not fully managed to finish the move from their last place. "But I wanted to cook for you, which hopefully makes up for the lil' bit mess," she chuckled awkwardly. Honestly the bigger issue was the lack of space, so keeping some things in the boxes still was simply easier to store. Meanwhile Apollo had welcomed Han even more heartly, considering he had jumped him at first, before following him around till he was seated at the dinner table, where Apollo would sit right below the table with his head on Han's thigh, demanding some of the attention and food. The table was neatly decorated and just offered enough space for two, the candle was already lit and the food soon served, as she had tried her best to be done with it right before he comes. Hamburger and fries, with some extra salad. "I made it double," she smiled, as there were two slices of meat and to keep everything in place, it was pierced with a long wood stick, clearly meant to be cut and not be eaten with hands. "I also considered pancakes, but maybe another time," she offered, while appearing a bit red, before recalling that she still had to fill the glasses with red wine. More nervous than she thought after all, but more due to her own circumstances. "I really wanted to thank you again, I still cannot believe it , but please know, you helped us a lot with it."

When she first invited him to dinner, Han assumed it would be a simple outing—meeting at a restaurant to share a meal as a gesture of gratitude towards him. It wasn’t until he left his apartment and checked the address she had texted him that he realized it was in a residential area. “Oh, well,” he thought, realizing too late that he was overdressed for the occasion.

His eyes scanned the surroundings, noting the modest appearance of the apartment complex, a stark contrast to the luxury he was accustomed to. The units were smaller, and he could see signs of family life—children's clothes and bicycles scattered outside. It was a scene that felt strangely familiar, reminding him of a past he had long since left behind. Although, even this appeared glamorous by comparison.

Despite his current status, there was still a part of him that felt like an impostor, living a life that didn't quite fit. Could he ever settle for this? Han pondered to himself before finally ringing the bell, meeting Futaba with an awkward smile. "Too much?" He asked, in reference to his suit.

Han left his blazer and shoes by the door as he stepped inside, his eyes casually scanning the apartment. There was so much to take in, yet so little at the same time—most of her belongings were packed away in boxes, giving the place a transient feel. He didn't comment on it, sensing that this was something she would address if she wanted to. Instead, he simply navigated through the space, taking in the details without prying.

Only Futaba would think of serving wine along with a burger, smiling at the sight. "I'm touched," He confessed before giving his plate a good look. Despite it being a meal that he wouldn't particularly pick for himself, even Han could not deny it appeared appetizing. "No need to mention it." Han waved a hand, dismissing any concerns that she may have. "I didn't want you to stress over money. I've known what that's like." His confession wasn't planned, but the words rolled off his tongue so effortlessly, making it sound rather casual. "Apart from that, it must not be comfortable to owe money to someone your friend is now married to. Even if not directly him."

[thedinanshiral]

How have the dragons aged.

I have to address the identity crisis many are having around Dragon Age. Namely, what is Dragon Age? What makes Dragon Age be Dragon Age?

Dragon Age is everchanging, it always tries new things, introduces new protagonists, new companions, new conflicts and cultures to navigate through. Maybe it'd be easier to define what Dragon Age isn't. Dragon Age isn't unchanging, it isn't stagnant, it isn't a single uniform thing, and tryingto reduce it to such will always result in failure.

The simpler, more obvious answer when searching what defines a Dragon Age game is worldbuilding, storytelling, characters. Dragon Age isn't about a specific, limited game genre, a set-in-stone gameplay style, or a single character that must always return for it all to make sense, and it isn't a determined art style either.

Dragon Age is Thedas, with all it contains. It's the lore, and i assure you it has not been retconed and the games haven't been rebooted, because everything's been a conscious choice that makes sense in-world. And because at this point Thedas is its own, none of it has to adjust to what we expect of it.

From a technical standpoint it's simply not feasible to include every decision from past games, there's just too many, and frankly many don't change anything on the grand scale of things. I saw this happen with the Keep, many of the choices available for DAO and DA2 i couldn't even remember. Maybe they mattered then and there, and served their purpose with exposition, but clearly whatever my Warden decided to do with the werewolves in the Brecilian forest was never going to define the fate of the world. So devs have to decide which choices matter in the big picture, the biggest picture they can think of, and work from there.

Many were very upset certain decisions from previous games weren't affecting Veilguard like they imagined, and it wasn't just choices but lore as well. But lore in DA can be tricky for some; it's not presented by an omniscient narrator, quite the contrary, the lore in DA has always been presented by UNRELIABLE narrators, questionable and extremely biased sources like Orlesian scholars and Chantry sisters, or sources who are just as clueless about it all as the players, as random farmers, adventurers, common folk just leaving notes and letters behind, even gossiping. The lore in Thedas is presented in a similar way as our own history is: records are missing and maybe later rediscovered, some authors have an agenda, victors write history and the defeated and conquered are silenced and their version of events lost to oblivion, things go terribly misunderstood for ages and upon new findings hopefully they get corrected. There has even been quests exemplifying this, so the game itself is telling us repeatedly to question everything. We don't know Thedas as well as we like to think we do, and we've only participated in a couple of decades of its ninth age.

Disclaimer tho, this post is not an invitation to argue with me, to tell me how wrong i am and how much you disagree with me. I know these are controversial points a lot of people are very upset/annoyed/disappointed with, it's why i'm addressing them, i have read enough of that side and i'm simply providing an alternative and nope, i will not budge on any of this (: If you disagree just go on with your life, best of fortunes to you and have a nice day!

[SPOILERS AHEAD]

Who the Warden was and what choices they made as an individual don't matter much going forward, only that they stopped the Fifth Blight; that and that alone is their real contribution to thedosian history, when you really think about it, if you can put nostalgia on break for a bit. I love Hawke, i do, but they were just a lil' guy doing the best they could with the cards life dealt to them. Interesting things happened to them, not the other way around. And we can all agree the defining moment in DA2 was the fireworks, and that wasn't even Hawke, it was Anders. The Inquisitor is a bit more relevant, if only because of an extra unfortunate case of wrong time, wrong place. Again, fate just messes with people in Thedas in unforeseeable ways. What do you mean you found a blighted Magister Sidereal sacrificing Divine Justinia during the Conclave, and accidentally touched an acient elvhen artifact that marked you as the new key to the Fade itself and granted you power to close holes in the Veil from where demons come out??? Oh, y'know, just another Tuesday in Thedas. But that's where it gets more interesting, Inquisition is where certain players showed up, and with them came revelations. The Golden City is not so golden, the Maker is not sitting in a throne, at least one ancient Tevinter Magister is walking around blighted, the Evanuris weren't particuarly nice, some ancient elves still live, Flemeth is Mythal, and Solas is not just an apostate hobo mage who knows stuff because he "saw it in the Fade", but because he is the Dread Wolf, the one responsible for the Veil and how it reshaped the world.

That was a lot to take in, and it changed everything.

The Inquisition choice most people are upset about that didn't carry into Veilguard is who drank from the Well of Sorrows, because of the implications of whoever did being bound to the will of Mythal. The reason why that is inconsequential now is simple: Mythal is dead. There's no longer any will to be bound to! And you could counter saying Mythal has been dead for a long time, yes, but the fragment that survived through Flemeth was possibly her strongest, and she's gone too. Morrigan in Veilguard explains what she has of Mythal now is just her memories and knowledge; there's no will left, only a fragment here or there with no real power to exhert over anyone. We can see the consequences of drinking from the Well already in Inquisition, when we meet Flemeth through the Eluvian, and she either controls Morrigan or controls the Inquisitor to stop Morrigan. But once Flemeth is gone, that power is gone too. Therefore, as much as you might hate me for saying it, who drank from the Well of Sorrows doesn't matter anymore.

Another thing people are mad about is they don't get to see racism, slavery and oppression, which is...odd, that you'd want to see that so much not having it ruins the whole game for you. Personally i'm no fan of torture porn, and i can infer a lot from blood magic ritual sites littered with charred corpses and blood splatter decorating the walls. That's what we got and i don't need much more. Yes, we got see to Tevinter. Ok, not the whole of Tevinter, just Minrathous. Ok, not Minrathous per-se, but Dock Town. We can visit the poor area of Minrathous. Who's gonna have slaves when they're poor themselves? Oh yeah, Halos the guy that fries fish by the docks is gonna have an elven slave to mistreat in front of Rook just to remain truthful to the lore we got so far, sure. That sounds ridiculous to you? Good, it should. Seeing Dock Town is not retconing the awful bits of lore about Tevinter, it's adding to it. Minrathous is not the jewel of an empire, it's a big city and like all big cities it has its ugly side, it has slums too, it has areas where the poor live poor lives barely making it day by day, under the thumb of an elite that doesn't even know they exist nor would they care at all if they did. We may not get to see slaves being abused or people being racist towards elves but we can hear how common people keep disappearing, and later find out some Tevinter mage needed bodies for their rituals. We find so many bodies, such gruesome scenes...

Another complaint i've seen around is how who was chosen as Divine in Inquisition doesn't matter because apparently there's no Chantry in Veilguard and that goes against the lore, etc. In short, that's like complaining there's no Protestantism in the Vatican. The North is not under the Orlesian Chantry influence, Tevinter has its own version of the Chantry, their own Divine, their own expressions within the faith. Who was chosen as Divine south of the Waking Sea probably, most likely, doesn't even faze them. If there's a chantry to have any influence in the areas we visit in Veilguard, that would be the Tevinter one, but even so the North is a very particular region. We learned in previous games that magic is to be feared and therefore controlled, that dealing with spirits is unwise at best, and that the risk of possession leads inequivocably to abominations and must therefore be avoided at all costs, spirits are to be avoided, they can turn into demons, everything is demons! Bodies are cremated to prevent possession and anyone claiming to be talking with spirits is identified as an abomination. Yet in Rivain, which is not under the Chantry and has a history of cultural and religious diversity, seers can commune with spirits in a harmless way, and work together just fine. Meanwhile in Nevarra, there's a whole institution dedicated to the preservation of the dead, the communication with the decesased, spirits and demons, a whole branch of magical studies and applications revolving around diving into what Andrastianism warns against, and it's done in a very solemn manner and benevolent attitude. Tevinter's main difference with the South comes from a different interpretation of the Chant of Light, where if magic is to serve man, then those in power who are to serve the people should be mages, so they're ruled by a mage supremacy and their entire society is defined by it. It makes, in game, within the lore, perfect sense that we don't get overly religious andrastians crying for the Maker to deliver them from demons and possession and the evil of magic in a region where all that is everyday's bread and butter and people are generally cool with it or at the very least used to it. Harding talks a a bit about the Maker, Neve admits she can't keep up with the andrastian festivities, and i guess the only case for the Andrastianism we know would be Antiva, but let's face it, a kingdom ruled from behind the curtains by an order of assassins for hire isn't gonna be very adept to following religious tenets. (As a small note of colour, there is a Chantry building in Antiva, unaccessible as far as i know, and right across it through the canals there's a nug statue, one could say a golden nug statue but on its four legs, not like the one we had in DAI. I like to think that's Schmooples, and a hint that by default the Divine is Leliana but that's just me ok she's my Divine).

I also want to talk about "those across the sea". For people who got or learned of the secret hidden post-credits scene, it may have felt like that reveal automatically invalidated everything we ever did in every game so far so nothing really matters anymore, but that's not the case. The choice of words they use was deliberate by the devs, Epler said that much on Bluesky. These mysterious figures "balanced, guided, whispered". They did not "control" or "forced". They did basically no different than what Flemeth/Mythal had been doing, giving history a nudge when needed. They manipulated different actors throughout history, but didn't exactly force their hand. The Magisters decided to follow the whispers of their gods and try to break into the Fade because of their own greed for power. Loghain betrayed Cailan and the Wardens because of his own feelings, Bartrand fell to the power of the red lyrum and refused to listen to his own family. These beings, whatever they are, have influenced the stage setting it all up for their arrival, but ultimately it was people's choice, by their free will, what had the final say. Loghain could have respected his own King whom he had a duty to serve, Bartrand could have listened to Varric, everyone under their influence could have broken out of it if they wanted to do differently.. but they didn't.

Lastly, I've seen comments about how Veilguard is a "soft reboot" because of how it handles the events in the South, virtually erasing it so nothing from previous games mattered and now there's a "clean slate" to take the series to new places instead of ever returning to Ferelden. First off, nothing says we had to return to Ferelden at all. Guys we had THREE games in Ferelden already, let it rest. Secondly, the events from previous games do matter, they have all led to the events in Veilguard: Varric wouldn't have been at the right time and place to join the Inquisition if Hawke hadn't become the Champion of Kirkwall making himself a POI for Cassandra, nobody would have been at the Conclave if Anders hadn't set the fuse, and Anders wouldn't have had Justice and later Vengeance if Awakening hadn't happened. So Varric and Harding wouldn't have been chasing after Solas at all, nobody would even know he existed, without a long chain of previous events from all games and pieces of media in this series. It has all led to this moment, and for that it has all mattered. Ferelden and the South being destroyed is consistent with them experiencing two blights at once, with enhanced new darkspawn, with two blighted Evanuris on the loose. It's the end of the world! And this time there's no magic hand to save the day, the people in the south are just that, people. Trust the Inquisitor and their allies to do their absolute best to face the threat, that's all we can do. Life and history moves on. And just as the North, where most Blights took place, with the first one lasting a hundred years, survived and eventually thrived so can the South, they can eventually recover, heal, and real world limitations aside, it'd even be possible to be part of that effort. I can easily imagine a new protagonist taking the action back to the South, contributing to the efforts to recover after the double Blight, helping Ferelden and Orlais stand again. Not to mention, with how deep and rich Thedas is in its worldbuilding, if BW wanted to "reboot" they could just pick any place, any point in history, any faction, create new ones, and just go wild with it. What happens in the South in Veilguard is not necessary at all for a reboot, so it's there at the very least to show how desperate the situation is, how high the stakes are. I think the updates we get from the Inquisitor are there to really make us feel it, and as Rook try our best to solve things on our end because the sooner we kill the archdemons, the sooner we end Elgar'nan and Ghilan'nain, the better the chances of the South to survive this calamity.

I could keep writing but this is long enough. I'm not done playing The Veilguard (on my 2nd and 3rd run!), and i keep taking oh so many notes, but i wanted to lay down my thoughts on these few points first. If you read this far thank you and i'm so sorry, it's annoying how i can pull a counter for everything, i know.

[once-in-a-blood-moon]

Jo Explains with Tarot : Solomon's Unforgettable Past

Incoming long winded explanation/analyzation about the Festival of Flowers from Solomon's "Unforgettable Past" Devilgram, but doing it with tarot cards. So, spoilers ahead and lots of nonsense beyond this point if this isn't your thing :) I broke this into sections so it'd be easier to read...hopefully.

Please note: these are my interpretations of the cards. Your interpretations may be different, and that's okay! That's great even. That just means there's more to learn from the cards than just one perspective. So neither of us are wrong, we just see things in different ways. Don't be afraid to expand with your own thoughts if you want!

So, I realized something recently. One of the days on the Obey Me calendar was the Devildom Flower Festival, held annually on June 20th. And I think it's safe to say it's the same festival you visit with Solomon in his card "Unforgettable Past."

In that, he explains the war the Devildom commemorates every year and the legend behind it. The timespan of the war was 7 days. So...from June 20th (not counting it) we'd see that the war started on June 13th.

Why does any of this matter? Well, it probably doesn't to anyone but me, but here I'm going to explain the significance of those dates with...tarot cards!

How this works is how you would calculate your personal birth cards. It's really simple. Just add up all the numbers in the date, but not before making each digit a single digit, to get your results. Usually you get two cards, though there are special instances where some might get three, but's not as common. (I'll use a random date as an example: 8/10/1983 - 8+1+0+1+9+8+3 = 30. There's only 21 major arcana cards that are applicable, so you'd break the 30 down as well to get 3 - the Empress. To get the second card from 3, you use what adds to make 3 which would be 1+2, put those together and you get 12 - the Hanged Man. It's kind of like the reversal of what we did to get the first card. I hope I explained that well enough.

---

June 13th

With that out of the way, let's start with June 13, 6/13. This would give us 10. The tenth card in the major arcana is the Wheel of Fortune. Break down 10, and we get 1. The first card of the major arcana (ignoring the Fool since it's the zeroth card) is, ironically, the Magician.

The Magician card focuses on what you already have and expanding on those skills. Pictured in the card, there is one of each suit from the minor arcana laying on a table (one wand, cup, sword, and pentacle). Those represent the ace cards of those suits, which usually indicate beginnings or starting points. Essentially, the Magician already has novice level skills to help him navigate through his journeys, and as he experiences more his knowledge will grow and he'll "collect" more of each suit. He's an innovator, a go-getter, and as long as he keeps his head on his shoulders and doesn't get ahead of himself, he'll progress just fine. Also pictured is the Magician holding a candle in the air while pointing downwards with his free hand. To me, this could represent a guiding light, a symbol of the fifth element: spirit (as above, so below), a eureka! moment (the lightbulb over someone's head), or that he's declaring his own start - like charging into something with vigor. He's also got an infinity sign above his head, but that'll come in later...

The Wheel of Fortune focuses on chance and opportunity. Sometimes it's an indication of reigning in a new future or era, whether it's within our personal lives or seeing it unfold through society. A few things to note in the illustration is the little red guy??, the sphinx, and the snake surrounding the wheel. To me, I see the red guy kind of fox-like, or even devilish. Regardless, he's sneaky, cunning, willing to take risks to see himself come out at the top in the end. The sphinx is holding a sword, reminding me of the Justice card, or the suit of swords. The sphinx is logical, wielding rationale as a weapon should taking the risk turn to be less than ideal or difficult. A sharp intellect, if you will. And the snake, to me, represents the temptation of wanting to go along with something for the sake of knowledge or curiosity. There's also the three animals and one angel in the corners of the card, but I won't go into detail on them for the sake of brevity. But to me, they represent higher wisdom, or that the fate of the wheel is divinely guided.

-

According to his Devilgram story, he'd spoken to a demon in the human realm, which sparked the brazen idea that he could convince the Demon King and his citizens to work under him. It was an opportunity, a risk he was willing to take if it meant a more favorable fate/outcome for the human realm. Obviously, Solomon thought that he had what it took to get the king to see reason, whether it be through charm and wit alone, or through more brutal means. By that point, he was already able to subjugate demons to his will, so why not go father when the opportunity presents itself? Perhaps even doing so to test his own strength and power.

So, he had the skill, he had the charisma, but he also had the arrogance of the Magician in reverse. All he had to do was take matters into his own hands for the sake of "furthering human kind's development," find an opening, show just how powerful humans could be, and strike. And he struck hard. Solomon took his risk and fought with everything he had in him. Alone. That day, he held the destiny of the human realm in his hands.

---

June 20th

Onto the eighth day, June 20, 6/20. Adding this gives us 8, which is the eighth card - Strength. And then 1+7 = 8, so put those together to get the number 17 - the Star.

The Strength card is just about that: strength. Strength doesn't have to be physical. More often than not, our inner courage defines our true strength. In this card, we see a woman who looks to be petting a lion. Whether she's attempting to befriend him or trying to soothe him, she's showing great bravery by approaching the situation with calmness and gentility. In the face of what could be a problematic situation, if not dealt with swiftly/correctly, this card reminds us that we have the option to fight with fearlessness, approach with a silent confidence, or we can choose to walk away altogether. Then that leads us to either being the bigger person or being cowardly, depending on the issue at hand. So, remember I mentioned the infinity symbol above the Magician's head? The lady in this card has one above her head as well. This, to me, is a call back that we have the skills to handle any problem that arises. We are equipped with strength and courage and any learned tricks we may have up our sleeve to give us the upper hand.

The Star is one of the more positive cards in the tarot deck (aside from the Sun of course). Maybe uplifting is a better way to describe it. This card holds hope for a brighter future, a better tomorrow. The Star reminds us that it's okay to heal, breathe, and wish upon hope that things can get better. The sky is the limit. In this illustration, there's a woman pouring water back into what looks to be a river with her foot hovering over it. It's almost like she'd lost hope to the cruelty of life, but she's ready try again and slowly dip her toes back in. She's allowing herself time to do so, reflecting on why she wants to and why she's ready, like affirmations. The ripples in the water remind me of both the ripple effect and of manifestations. By taking the initiative, good things may come her way or she may make change within the world around her. Also, in her other hand she's got another pitcher that's pouring out water onto the ground. We can take this either that she's unknowingly nurturing something in the midst of her finding herself, or that by enveloping herself in this new hope, she's actively pouring out the old.

-

On the eighth day, Solomon vanishes, ultimately putting a stop to the fighting. What led up to this decision, we don't know. Although, you can ask Solomon if "the sorcerer" just threw in the towel, to which he stills for a moment, almost as if he were offended or caught of guard by our question. He doesn't elaborate on that further, only responding with- "maybe. We'll never know for sure." It's telling that to him it obviously wasn't a matter of giving up. There was more at stake than just his pride or lust for power. And he made the decision to walk away when he probably could've went on for much longer.

And why would he leave a field of flowers as a "parting gift" if it meant nothing? He's a pretty cryptic guy, after all. But again, we don't know why exactly he did so. It could've been a promise that humanity would further on its own and they'd one day see he was right. Maybe it was the hope that the realms could coincide someday and that he recognized the Devildom's power. Or simply, it was his version of a "white flag." No matter what he originally meant by them, the flowers would go on to be the focus of the festival to commemorate the Devildom's victory. In Solomon's words, "it's a day to hope for peace and prosperity throughout the land."

[sacred-coffin]

Thinking about ghoul concepts and wanted to start with Sodo!! In my mind it's rare to see the ghouls not in their "stage" costumes, but I'm sure there are times when they aren't, right? Also, since I'm reposting this I had some more thoughts- I'm going to call the "less casual" form the Element form :)

Hopefully I can make some more designs soon :) until then, I'm gonna ramble some below

EDIT: YAYYYY it posted right this time !!!!!!!!!

I don't feel like you'd see much of the casual / less casual ghoul forms, but who knows! I'm gonna keep thinking on them. I wanna design a true form for the ghouls too, but that's a bit... more out of my artistic wheelhouse. For now!

But, for the human design! I like to think he keeps his clothes as simple as possible. Being a water ghoul turned fire, I imagine he was already used to not wearing a lot (easier to swim) and then being a fire ghoul gets pretty hot, hence the tank top & baggy pants.

He presents himself as kinda stoic and grumpy, but it's totally an act, but mostly for anyone who isn't a ghoul (or his current Papa, and still Copia when he is Frater Imperator). Because of that he wears lots of cute little keepsakes for his friends :) he hasn't gotten one from Phantom yet, but that's only because phantom hasn't found the perfect one yet. He has things from the other ghouls he's worked with, but he's stopped wearing them after he got closer with the current ghouls. He keeps them somewhere he can see them, though. He still wears the necklace from Aether though, because they were very very close.

I also think that, despite being a huge trouble maker with a short fuse, he's also really quick to take charge if the situation arises, even more-so after Aether left. It's because he's one of the ghouls who's been summoned longer than some others, but being in charge doesn't actually come naturally to him. He's very happy when someone else can handle the responsibilities, but he keeps a close eye just in case.

Also, while thinking about his temper, he actually wasn't always so quick to anger! But it's not because he's an angry person, he just has a lot of passion and strong emotions (which is also why he tries to put on a stoic front), but most people tend to just see that come out as anger, because that one is harder to keep in. This is all because of his change from water ghoul to fire ghoul- he didn't grow up having to navigate and handle all the intense emotions of being a fire ghoul, so he's still adjusting. Really he doesn't have a short fuse, he's just holding in a lot of things so it seems kind of random when he bursts. He's working on it though!

That's all the thoughts I have for now, but! I hope to have more to contribute another time :3

[fountainpenguin]

New and Improved!

FOP followers who like reading my works on AO3, rejoice!

- New Rainbow Train series - Contains all my FOP works unrelated to the 130 Prompts, meaning you can subscribe to both that series and 130 Station for all my FOP works (and exclude my other fandoms)

- New footers - Something I've been wanting to add for ages to maintain consistency with works I've posted in other fandoms; the footer explains the above information to AO3 readers and includes a link to my Tumblr

- New headers with links - Navigate storylines more easily, both in recommended reading order and chronological order

- Changed AO3 series order - Up until now, 130 Station was arranged in chronological order, providing that info to interested readers; the FFN version was arranged in posting order. Now that I've added chronological order links to individual works, I've changed 130 Station to posting order.

I think that's much more important than chronological order. All pieces contain links informing you what comes previous or next, so you can easily read them chronologically if you ever want to (and I still have the much more in-depth Chronofics page for anyone interested).

This new order should make things easier for future readers getting into the series and for me when I post new content

- Updated tags - Minor clean-up. I added tags like Dimmsdale and Fairy World to some pieces, plus any tags I felt I'd missed on the first go-around (Ex: "Original Non-Human Characters")

- Removed extra space characters - Copying my work into AO3 causes blank spaces (special characters) to appear in HTML. These cause italicized words to split lines awkwardly at the edge of the screen. While adding headers and footers, I took the time to remove them from all the 130 Prompts I could before I got burned out. But, a lot of them are gone, especially from the shorter pieces.

Story recap link - Linked the originsums & knotssums pages in the headers of all Origin and Knots chapters (respectively) to provide brief recaps of story beats.

Character Spreadsheet - Linked the existing Gen 2 Pixie age spreadsheet + Anti-Fairy name list from the sideblog in the headers for Origin and Knots (respectively) to remind readers who they are. Useful for a longfic about a pixie with 500 offspring and Anti-Fairy World's culture of multiple names.

Reading should be a cleaner experience now! The story recaps and spreadsheet links are totally optional, but hopefully helpful in these longfics. Enjoy!

[the-conversation-pod]

The VIIB Awards 2024: Ship Ahoy!

Continuing with Part 2 of 5 of the Very Important Internet BL Awards, we are handing out our awards for shipping today!

We will be awarding our Best Ghost Ship, Best Friendship, Best Side Ship, and Best Main Ship.

Join us today and for the rest of the week as we continue tomorrow with Immortal Technique. Tell us your winners in the notes!

Timestamps

The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.

00:00 - Welcome 01:23 - Introduction 02:19 - Interlude: Mr. Darcy proposes - Pride and Prejudice (1995) 03:19 - Best Ghost Ship 07:11 - Best Friendship 12:10 - Best Side Ship 21:10 - Best Main Ship 27:49 - Outro

The Conversation Transcripts!

Thanks to the continued efforts of @ginnymoonbeam as transcriber, and @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.

We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.

Please send our volunteers your thanks!

00:00 - Welcome

NiNi

Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.

Ben

And there it is. I’m Ben.

NiNi

I’m NiNi.

Ben

And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.

NiNi

Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.

Ben

We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.

NiNi

And I review from a romance and drama lens.

Ben

So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…

NiNi

If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…

Ben

And if you generally just love simping…

NiNi

There is a lot of simping on this podcast…

Ben

We are the show for you!

[fanfare sound]

01:23 - Introduction

Ben

And we're back. 

Yesterday, hopefully, you heard the Acting episode. Today we're talking about shipping. BL is powered purely by people's desire to ship these people with each other, so we're gonna acknowledge it and hand out some awards.

NiNi

Our Ship Awards are character awards, because we are simps, but we are not creeps. They are given out to the pairs that worked really, really well. They have got real power to drive enjoyment in the story. 

We've got four categories here: Best Ghost Ship, Best Friendship, Best Side Ship—which is becoming a little bit of a tradition that Ben and I battle this one out on the show—and of course, Best Main Ship.

02:19 - Interlude: Mr. Darcy proposes - Pride and Prejudice (1995)

“In vain I have struggled. It will not do! My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you. In declaring myself thus I'm fully aware that I will be going expressly against the wishes of my family, my friends, and, I hardly need add, my own better judgment.

“The relative situation of our families is such that any alliance between us must be regarded as a highly reprehensible connection. Indeed as a rational man I cannot but regard it as such myself, but it cannot be helped. Almost from the earliest moments of our acquaintance I have come to feel for you a passionate admiration and regard, which despite all my struggles has overcome every rational objection. And I beg you, most fervently, to relieve my suffering and consent to be my wife.”

03:19 - Best Ghost Ship

NiNi

Let's start with Best Ghost Ship and in my notes, in terms of describing the best ghost ship, I just have in all caps: SHOW US THE FOOTAGE YOU COWARDS. [laughs] Best Ghost Ship is awarding a ship that's not a canon ship—it's not really a ship, but it should have been. 

I'm gonna kick us off with my runner up here, and that's gonna go to Sam and Jim from GAP the series. 

[applause sound]

We all love Sam and Mon—yes, it was very great. It was a great time. Fantastic. But Jim, married and pregnant, and ready to risk it all if Sam just says, “Yeah, okay, we're doing this.” She'll be like, “What husband? What baby?” [laughs]

Jim, played by Looknam Orntara, and Sam, played by Freen Sarocha. I just thoroughly enjoyed that little runner of Jim just giving slight indications that, yeah, she would absolutely risk it all for Sam, up to and including after Sam not-so-accidentally slaps her at her birthday party. And she goes to Jim's house to make up with her, and she just starts kissing on her! Like, she kisses her cheek, and then she kisses her shoulder, and Jim's gettin’ a little thrill over there. And I'm just like, I would like to see it. 

So the runner up for Best Ghost Ship is going to be Sam and Jim from GAP the series. So who is our winner for the Best Ghost Ship, Ben?

Ben

They're maybe not even a ghost ship. They're probably just in the background. Our winner for this year goes to Bow and Kung from La Pluie. 

[fanfare sound]

Bow came on that trip with Saengtai on a mission, and she had a side objective. She was like, “I'm gonna get my boy off his ass and into bed with Patts properly. And also, I'm gonna fuck somebody on this trip.” 

Now, she had her sights set on one of the other vets when they started this out, and she was beefing with Kung at first thinking that girl was too extra, and she was pissing about with her. But by the end of that trip they’re hugging each other, crying together, holding hands, dancing together. As far as I'm concerned, it happened.

NiNi

It absolutely happened as far as I'm concerned. And, like, the funniest part of that is that when they get there, Kung is speaking in this really annoying voice and this really annoying style of talking. Bow just wants to strangle her the entire time she's doing that. She's doing this kind of—not a baby voice—but, like, this fake calm, very serene type of aura that she's giving off. 

And literally she shares a room with Bow, and the very next day she talkin’ different. [laughs] She and Bow holdin’ hands in the background. Listen, these two fucked nasty and you can't convince me otherwise.

Ben

They definitely did. We don't need to debate it.

NiNi

Congratulations, Bow and Kung, the winners of the Best Ghost Ship award.

07:11 - Best Friendship

NiNi

So we're going to move on to my favorite ship: Friendship. 

For me, friendship is where it's at when it comes to these stories. Yes, we all love the romantic relationships. They're all lovely and “ooh” we coo about it. But friendship and community, and especially queer friendship and community, are super, super important. I feel all rosy inside when I think about people building community and being friends and found family with each other. 

The runner up for best friendship: The Band Chinzhilla from My School President. 

[applause sound]

I call these boys a lovely bunch of coconuts, and I stand by it. These boys are super dumb. They're such losers, but they 1000% have each other's backs. Even when they fight, they can't maintain it for long. They fight, and then they cry it out, and they hug each other, and they go on. 

It reminded me, watching these boys, of what it was like to be young and have a group of friends, you just shooting the shit and just being nonsensical at all times. Getting in trouble together, looking out for each other. It made me feel warm and glowy inside, and that is why Chinzhilla is my runner up for Best Friendship. 

Ben, what does the Best Friendship category mean to you, and who are our winners for Best Friendship?

Ben

One of the most important things about a good romance is that the people who are going to be together, I think, have the kind of support network that you believe that they can make it. If you're gonna have a really effective long-term relationship to root for, people have got to have people who are in their corner who have their backs. And for me, I'm always going to be drawn to queer friendship in this award. I think last year we gave it to the Secret Crush on You quartet.

NiNi

Yes, we did.

Ben

This year we are giving it to Sailom and Yiwa from Wedding Plan. 

[fanfare sound]

And if you bitches thought I was done talking about this fucking show [laughs and then begins singsong] you got another thing comin’. 

[NiNi laughs]

I will continue to state plainly and clearly that Wedding Plan the series does not function without the relationship between these two. That is so rare to say in any sort of romantic drama. Sailom’s entire motivation is grounded in his loyalty to Yiwa, and freeing her from the confines of heteronormativity in her family. The reason he's lying, the reason he's playing all these games, the reason why he doesn't tell Nuea what maybe needs to be said is because he is loyal to his friend, and her safety is more important to him than his own happiness. 

These two have each other's back; they are the most ride-or-die. Sailom was prepared to sacrifice his own needs and desires to make sure that Yiwa and Marine were safe and sheltered. And when it was made abundantly clear that faking it with Lom was not going to suffice, Yiwa was like, “Fine, I'll be your villain.” She turns around and gives to Lom what he was trying to give her by becoming the villain in the story, by being the girl who left him at the altar to run off with some woman and go to England of all places. These two understand each other and they love each other in a way that defines the entire show. I don't know a better friendship.

NiNi

I have to concur. I get incredibly emotional thinking about that, because that's love. That's love in its purest form. 

So our winner of the 2023 VIIB Award for Best Friendship is Sailom and Yiwa from Wedding Plan. Plate in the mail.

12:10 - Best Side Ship

NiNi 

And now [rubs hands together] for the main event. Best Side Ship, our annual Battle Royale, even though this is only the 2nd Annual VIIB Awards, it's still annual. 

So last year, Ben and I could not come to an accord on side ship because we had two very different conceptions of what the purpose of a side ship is and how a side ship should operate in a show. 

Ben 

NiNi’s position was the best side ship for her is the pair that is so compelling that she would kind of like to see what the show looks like if we focus on them instead and make the mains sides for them. I work from the perspective of if we're gonna have a side ship, I like for them to have thematic resonance with the main ship. 

NiNi 

In the end, Ben convinced me and I bowed to his argument about side ships. 

Ben 

So our contenders this evening are: presented from NiNi, Tien and Lomfon from La Pluie. And presented by me, Marine and Yiwa from Wedding Plan. 

NiNi 

Ben you go first, tell us why Marine and Yiwa? 

Ben 

Wedding Plan is about the choice to present straight and do your own thing on the side. The difficulties that Lom and Nuea may face are made real by observing Marine and Yiwa. The two of them love each other, they’re having a great time, but they're under constant surveillance. People take pictures of them in public and send it to Yiwa’s mom and say “What's going on with her and her friend?” Yiwa's mom goes to Marine’s house and lays hands on her. We can see that Marine is suffering for being in the closet with Yiwa. She loves Yiwa. She's made her choice. She understands what she gave up and weighed it against what she's gained, and she chooses that. She allows us to consider what Namnuea may be giving up because he is a loved, self actualized gay man who has the total support of his entire network. What is he stepping into if he chooses to be with Lom? Marine and the relationship that she has with Yiwa helps us understand the relationship challenges Nuea is going to face if he chooses to be with a rich, closeted man. 

NiNi 

I'm going to make my argument for Tien and Lomfon. I've described La Pluie as being about an atheist, an apostate, an agnostic, and a true believer. Tien and Lomfon are the atheist and the true believer who have to come to an accord about what beliefs they're going to share. The thematic resonance of Tien and Lomfon working that out alongside Patts and Tai working out what they're gonna believe or not believe. I just liked watching the interplay of those two couples and how they contend with the soulmate connection tied to the rain deafness as an article of faith. Even though they don't drive narrative to the extent that Marine and Yiwa do, I think that they are critical to understanding where La Pluie wants you to land on this theme of soulmates, and they are the best side ship for that reason. 

Ben 

The argument I could make for them is that they give us an opportunity to look at a relationship forming in the conceits of this world without the pressures and expectations of rain deafness on their dynamic. The struggle I have with Lomfon and Tien is Lomfon turns to Tien’s feelings really late, and so it's difficult for me to connect with where Lomfon decided to start caring about Tien properly and looking at him. For Tien, I kind of get his attraction to Lomfon because he and Lomfon fight a bunch, and Tien clearly seems to get off on some of that, but I'm less certain when it comes to Lomfon because he's just so fucking dense for most of the show, and he's so fucking rude!

NiNi 

He is rude, but I don't think he's as dense as you'd say. He is picking up what's happening between him and Tien. He's just scrupulously ignoring it in favor of his headcanon, basically, that he is meant to be with Saengtai. I don't feel like Lomfon is confused so much as stubborn. 

Ben 

I don't think I was invested in the stakes of whether or not the two of them would make it. Like, I was totally okay with Tien not being with Lomfon. 

NiNi 

I was not! [laughs]

Okay, shallow reasons. 

Ben 

Okay. All right. 

NiNi 

Tien and Lomfon’s kiss is way better than Yiwa [laughs] and Marine’s.

Ben 

And now the truth comes out, besties. [both laugh] And here it is. 

NiNi 

We’re trying to find a point of separation so we can pick a winner. 

Ben 

The better kissers are clearly Suar and Copter. 

NiNi 

Suar put whole pussy in to that kiss. This is gonna be a rough one ‘cause I feel like neither of us is ready to capitulate. 

Ben 

I do think that both of these pairs have important thematic resonance with the core themes of both shows. I think we have to decide if we're gonna award the Wedding Plan pair for queer reasons or if we're gonna award the La Pluie pair for really strong romantic deconstruction themes. Because a big part of La Pluie was unpacking the expectation of romance itself. 

NiNi 

In that regard, then. Tien and Lomfon are not as deeply integrated into the mission of La Pluie as Marine and Yiwa are integrated into the mission of Wedding Plan. What Tien and Lomfon say about romance is not as much as what Marine and Yiwa say about performance of heteronormativity and the importance of queer family. 

Ben 

[sigh] Ah, man, difficult. 

NiNi 

It is difficult, but since this is a BL podcast, queer reasons do win out over romance reasons every time. So Tien and Lomfon are our runners up. I'm going to send them a koozie and a saucer because they deserve.

Ben 

[laughs] We gotta do a better job with the paraphernalia for these awards. 

NiNi 

The koozie just seems disrespectful, we gotta come up with something else. 

Ben 

It really does. 

NiNi 

There's, like, nothing distinguished about a koozie. 

Ben 

We're just gonna give them their own plate, there’ll just be different materials. 

NiNi 

Okay, that's fine. We can work with that. 

And the winner of the Best Side Ship plate is gonna be Yiwa and Marine from Wedding Plan. Congratulations, girls. 

Ben 

We can finally move past the side ship struggle we have every year. I really hope this is not a thing next year. I need everyone making BL to look into the camera right now. Don't put us through this again in 2024. [laughs] I want a clear winner going into this year. Get it together, everyone. 

NiNi 

I don't know. I kind of enjoy it [laughs].

21:10 - Best Main Ship

NiNi 

Moving on to our final award of this segment and that is the Best Main Ship. The criteria for awarding the best main ship: listen, the show is about them, do I buy their love story?

So the runner up for best main ship is Kawi and Pisaeng from Be My Favorite. [applause sound] I think I shocked myself, maybe, a little bit with this one. 

Ben 

You shocked yourself. You did not shock me. [laughs] I'm like, looking at this list—those two? Of course, okay. 

NiNi 

I feel like when it comes to a love story that really resonated with me, Be My Favorite was one of the high points. The way that it utilized its time travel conceit to build the love story, the way that it built the love story between Kawi and Pisaeng. Who Kawi is, who Pisaeng is, all the things that have happened to them and bring them together. And in terms of a ship, two characters whose love story I 100% buy just as it has been presented on screen, to me that was Kawi and Pisaeng. 

Ben 

With all the things you watched this year and the intense swooning you had for other couples this year, I'm curious that this was the couple you went to bat for when we had to hash this out. 

NiNi 

I surprised myself a little, too. 

Ben 

I was expecting like Yai and Jom as the ones you really wanted to go for. 

NiNi 

With everybody else, there's something. There's something that I felt was missing or there's something that I had to sort of reconstruct in my head as we went along. There's something that I probably wasn't 100% sold on. But when it came to these two, I really genuinely, in terms of how their story was portrayed, really, genuinely had no notes. If I had to point to, like, a specific thing, I would point to the back end of the show, and particularly that sequence of Pisaeng time traveling and how it flips their dynamic a little bit. The way that that was handled felt so honest to the characters as presented, showing how Kawi had grown, showing how Pisaeng had come to terms with himself, showing that they had settled into each other in a particular kind of way, like I believed that for the two of them this is it, no matter what. 

So who is the winner of our best main ship for 2023, Ben? 

Ben 

Our winner of Best Main Ship this year goes to Han Baram and Im Hantae from Sing My Crush. 

[fanfare sound]

What stands out for me with Im Hantae is he has to contend with, first, having to accept that the devotion that he's been pouring onto Han Baram for years was potentially mildly harmful to Han Baram because Han Baram had a crush on him the whole time. He has to recognize Han  Baram’s feelings and find a way to match that in himself. He has to also support Han Baram through a very difficult professional challenge that Han Baram keeps abandoning him during. And he gets mad at Han Baram in a way that is 100% justified. 

The boxing scene between the two of them is one of my favorite scenes of the year, and I think there's really something special about a couple who give each other permission to be angry sometimes. Particularly in a genre about men being with men, I think it is really important that we accept and understand that the fact that men get angry is not a character flaw or failing. I love the way the show made that simultaneously really physical, but also seemingly gentle. 

You can feel the whole time how important these two characters are to each other, and it is really rare in BL that friends to lovers is done at all, let alone well. As the moody gay of our duo, I'm gonna give it to friends to lovers almost any year when it's handled this well, because that, for me, in a lot of ways is the primary gay angst. Even if you grew up in ideal circumstances where people weren't being homophobic to you, statistically you're gonna like a lot of straight boys. And it's hard if you didn't know about queerness in yourself to suddenly have to respond to that and recognize that and accept that that's going to alter, maybe, the way you thought your life was gonna go. That's handled well in this show. I really like that for Im Hantae, what mattered most to him was his devotion to Han Baram, and I like that their relationship is constructed by the show as something mutually beneficial for both of them. 

NiNi 

And yes, that virtuous circle, that upward spiral that we talk about, that I think is part of the best couples. 

The winner of the Best Main Ship for 2023 is Han Baram and Im Hantae from Sing My Crush. Congratulations, boys! Plates are in the mail.

27:49 - Outro

Ben 

Look at Krist, getting a plate in 2023!

NiNi 

Good for him. Nobody saw that coming. Like, nobody. 

That is going to wrap us up on the Ships Ahoy! segment of the 2023 VIIB Awards. Next up tomorrow, again, if the editing has happened the way that it's supposed to—

Ben 

Stop qualifying, just say it. be brave, be bold about it: Tomorrow! 

NiNi 

Tomorrow. Okay, tomorrow we will be moving into our technical awards. Our Immortal Technique episode. So we're going to be awarding, as Ben said, all the people that you never get to see, but who make the shows what they are. 

We always love these awards. We get to get super nerdy and deep in the weeds. That's probably the episode that we looked forward to all of this year and we're going to read out a bunch of names of people that you've never heard of, so look forward to that. 

Until then, we out. Say bye to the people, Ben.

Ben

Peace!

[lizard-shifter-noms]

Still Subject to Change Chapter 25 (NEW)

——————————————————————————-

Hello everyone! i decided to repost arc 1 of SSTC

(the chapters were way too long and had a bunch of typos but hopefully this will make reading easier)

this Story contains Vore, Dont like dont read.

if there are still any grammatical errors i’m sorry.

——————————————————————————

Barsen Effortlessly Hoisted the ceramic vessel onto his shoulder he turned a bit to go into another hallway.

“It’s right this way, I assume you got lost for a bit?”

Walking after him Robin immediately started chattering his ear off.

“Yeah! And then we thought we could ask someone for help but they-”

Tuning his retellings of what happened out for a moment I looked to Arthur instead who was still holding his sore jaw.

“You okay? I’m so sorry that happened”

He Hmm’d and made a dismissive hand motion.

“Im fine, s’just a bruise, also i broke the guys nose so i won”

So the cracking noise i heard was indeed caused by a breaking bone, well cartilage actually if i remembered correctly.

Still, getting punched in the jaw wasn’t fun as I knew from experience.

“If you’re sure, but just as a tip don’t use the hurting side to chew, that just puts pressure on the sore parts”

He looked bewildered for a moment.

“Did you get punched in the face before? Or how do you know that?”

I nodded at his inquiry.

“Multiple times, beating the face of a Bastard is apparently fun for a lot of people, i’m lucky i never had it broken”

He looked a bit shocked at the admission, and had likely drawn the correct conclusion that all the Fae hating people in the town had used me as a punching bag in the past.

Thinking about it, I was incredibly lucky to survive that long.

“Fucking hell, well im pretty sure that kinda stuff is stopping now with Rikaad as king”

“Yeah, i mean he’s already going over the paperwork, so i’m sure it will get better from now on”

He nodded and smiled as best as he could with his slowly swelling jaw, Then winced a little and went back to holding the bottom half of his face with his hands.

I looked forward again to Robin who was still chattering on to Barsen, Now about plants.

Well he was the Gardener so talking about plants was the best topic to make small talk.

Listening for a few seconds I realized Robin was talking about the plants I had told him about after he asked what was edible and what wasn’t.

I felt strangely touched that he actually remembered all of it, and that he went to talk about it with an actual Gardener who was much more a plant expert than I was.

Walking around a bend i could see a door with a familiar sign on it, the infirmary.

We would really need to find a way to navigate this idiotic layout of the castle, Why would anyone build it like this in the first place anyway?

At least we were back at a point we knew and Arthur could get his jaw looked at by a medic.

“Here we are, if you boys ever need help again feel free to ask, i’m sure we’ll see each other around, I have to bring this to its new place now”

He gently patted the ceramic pot on his shoulder and turned to leave.

“Thank you for bringing us here, Barsen!”

I waved after him and Robin excitedly jumped up and down next to me.

“Bye Barsen! Thanks for helping!”

Arthur just waved as his jaw had swelled some more and talking would probably hurt now.

Since one of us was injured I felt like it wasn’t an unjust disturbance to knock on the infirmary door.

It took barely ten seconds for the nurse who had opened last time to open once again.

She took one look at us and especially Arthur before winking us inside.

“How did that happen? You were here not too long ago and i’m very sure you didn’t have that bruise back then, it looks pretty new”

Since Arthut had trouble talking with a swollen jaw I substituted the answer.

“He got punched by some card playing Guards for telling them off”

The Nurse let out an annoyed huff.

“Oh i know who you mean, they regularly come in here with a hangover and at this point i don’t let them in anymore, i hope the new king does something about it”

Oh, he for sure would, he had a strong sense of justice after all, he’d probably just fire them seeing as it appeared that they did not contribute anything at all.

Aside from that we could just tell Nea and she’d kick their asses.

Speaking of, I looked around the room to see if I could spot her.

While Arthur was led to a cabinet that smelled strongly of some kind of disinfectant and alcohol I saw a corner that was separated by white curtains.

Robin awkwardly stood next to me and it was clear he didn’t know what to do.

Neither did i if i was honest, Arthur was getting the medical attention he needed and i didn’t see Nea anywhere at all.

“Donovan? Do you see Nea anywhere? Do you think she’s okay?”

I looked around once more just to confirm I hadn’t missed her.

“No idea where she is but i’m sure-”

“Focking Hell! That stings! What are ya even doin?”

I was interrupted by a very familiar voice hurling mild obscenities at whoever was near her.

Nea had been behind the white curtain the entire time!

No wonder we didn’t see her.

Robin looked at me with big eyes.

“Nevermind, i found her”

“Shall we go and say hello? I have no idea how long Arthur takes with that bruise after all”

After a nod from him we went over to the curtain where I could still hear Nea cussing out whoever was with her.

“Hold still already! Or I’m going to sedate you again!”

Wait, I knew that voice.

“Oakley? Since when are you back? And what do you mean by sedating her again?”

A two pronged tail shoved the curtain aside and revealed the winged man standing over Nea and bandaging her foot with a weird smelling cloth.

“Hello Donovan! I had to drug her cuz she wouldn’t stop trying to punch me”

“And I’ll do it again! That stung! Ya coulda have warned me at least!”

Glad to know that Nea was already getting better, at least judging by her angry disposition.

“I did warn you! But you were busy cursing at the dead ice mage!

You could at least show some consideration to the people that help you!”

Nea just huffed angrily.

“Ya didn’t have ta focking drug me ovar that!”

Her weird accent was shining through a bit more than before I noted.

Was it because she was angry right now?

Whatever the case she glared at Oakley while he finished wrapping up her foot.

“Well anyway, remember what i told you about taking care of it, and for fucks sake don’t make it worse or im going to set it on fire to combat the ice magic! Be glad it didn’t freeze your foot off!”

“Yeah yeah, I'm not dumb im not going to do anything that could make me lose it after I got so close to having it amputated by that quack!”

Wait what!? Close to amputated?

Did the doc she was brought to attempt that?

Robin who stood next to me also had a shocked expression.

“Oh no! Are you okay? Why would they try to do that?”

Oakley looked at him.

“Well they have no experience in dealing with magic, so I guess they thought it best to remove it before it could spread the coldness even more? She’s lucky i got here in time”

Nea just crossed her arms and huffed unhappily.

“Imma kick their shins as soon as i’m fit again”

Yeah, she seemed to be well on her way to recovery if she was already threatening violence again.

“Well I guess my work here is done, Anything I can help you two with?”

Before I could come up with a way to ask for help about my aching Pouch without admitting anything, I didn’t want anyone to know about it. 

Robin had already started to tell Oakley that Arthur got socked in the jaw.

“Arthur got punched in the jaw, can you help him too?

It looks like it hurts a lot, he’s with a Nurse right now”

Well, since Nea was right here it probably was for the better that i didn’t ask him right now, Besides, Arthur would probably appreciate the help.

“What did he do ta get his face punched? Also yeah better help him lest one of tha doc’s decides ta amputate that too!”

She was definitely still sour that one of the medics here tried that.

Also maybe putting it out there that she could kick some delinquents as soon as she was better might lift her mood a bit.

So while Robin brought Oakley to Arthur I told her in simple terms what had happened.

“Some card playing Guards got angry when we asked for directions”

Since apparently a lot of people immediately knew who we were talking about when we said card playing guards she would probably know too.

“Those guys again? I ought to break their fingers! Every single one-”

She stopped to stare at me and I suddenly recalled that she had only known me in the Ardua form and I got nervous.

Well Barsen had known somehow that the Ardua and I were the same thing so maybe I would get lucky again.

“That’s what yer human form looks like? At least ye still have the same eyes, and Yer smaller than i thought, and tha hell is with yer ears?”

To exaggerate her point she bent forward and pinched the ear closest to her and lighty tugged down a bit.

That sent off a weird feeling to my brain and my fight or flight thing activated making me freeze on the spot.

Since Robin had dragged Oakley to Arthur already there was no one that could help me.

“Oww, Nea! Let go!”

She immediately let go and I carefully rubbed my ear where she had pinched it.

A sword lady for sure with strong fingers like that, I would have to remind myself to never arm wrestle against her.

“Sorry! Didn’t know yer ears where so sensitive”

“Im fine, you didn’t know, Just don’t do that ever again”

I grumbled out at her apology, still holding my sore ear.

“I do gotta ask though, which one are you?

Beast turned human or human turned Beast?”

What, well as unexpected as this question was, it was still easy to answer.

“I’m shifting into the Beast, which is called an Ardua by the way, and the form you see now is the one i was born with”

“Ha! you’re just a little gremlin!

If i coulda done that who knew what insane stuff i had come up with!”

Suddenly I was very glad nobody else could use the bracelet seeing as just the prospect of shifting made her admit that she would have done some rather idiotic stuff.

“I uh, I guess? To be honest i kinda expected to be stabbed as soon as the people here saw my ears but till now only those card players tried to”

Her gaze shifted into something I couldn’t pinpoint, but it sure wasn’t happy.

“They What? Oh imma break something for sure! Let me guess, Arthur got punched cuz he was in the way?”

I nodded at her correct assumption.

“Well he kinda put himself in the way, and he pulled me aside as one of them aimed for my face with a dagger and then blocked the doorway”

“So he saved ya, imma have to congratulate him for quick thinking i guess, eh later”

Right, Arthur saved me, and Robin too as I was pretty sure he’d have gotten caught in the crossfire.

“Oi don’t look so down! Yer all safe and that winged fucker is doing whatever to help the blondie, it’ll be fine!”

Ah, my apprehensiveness showed on my face, that or she was just good at reading emotions.

Considering she was surrounded by helmeted people a lot of the time it might be the latter, might.

“How’d ya get away after that anyway?”

I looked back up to her.

“The gardener, Barsen is his name if I remember correctly, calmly told them off then brought us here.”

“Ah yes Barsen, the guy is a godsend sometimes, and he’s always so nice, No idea how he manages that i would have been ticked off long ago!”

So the gardener was rather well known in the castle halls, and for being a good guy no less.

I’d have to really talk to him at some point just to see for myself.

“Well what about you? How are you?

Your foots been fixed and now you just have to rest for a while”

She sat up straight, with her legs still stretched out in front of her and I had to note that she was rather flexible.

“I’m out of commission for at least six weeks, That sucks so much! I can’t even kick tha slackers anymore!”

A fair sentiment, seeing as she was a rather energetic person that had to be especially annoying.

“Nea i have no doubt that as soon as you get crutches you are going to hit people with those”

“Damn roight ya are, I am gunna do that! Just cuz I’m out for a bit dun’t mean thay can just sleep on tha job!”

She had devolved into an accent i couldn’t place for the life of me, but it did sound angry.

“Oh calm down, I’m sure it’s not so bad! You could pick up a hobby or something!”

She just stared daggers at me.

“I’m going ta make it my hobby ta bite anyone that says shit about me being off duty just out of spite!”

I had to snort out a laugh at that.

“What? Did the vampire bite you that you want to bite people all of a sudden?”

The sentiment was funny because I knew she did not get Bitten.

“Nah, but what do ya think the fucker woulda done with our corpses had we died?”

Well seeing as it was a vampire that only left one option really.

“Probably eaten them, or at least sucked all the blood out, i guess you could call him a sucker cuz he sucked at his objective”

She actually laughed at my really bad joke before slapping me across the back making me lurch forward and my pouch started to hurt worse again from the impact.

Still i didn’t let anything of that show on my face, and what little did show could easily be mistaken as her hitting me in a sore spot.

“Ya know yer green form is big enough to do that i think”

I froze in place at her words, not sure what to do now.

She didn’t know that much was clear but she had correctly guessed what i was capable of and i could absolutely not let anymore people know about this.

“What? That thought never occurred ta ya?

Well i guess since ya are part plant ya can live off sunlight like plants do, So ya probably don’t think about such stuff”

Luckily she mistook my freezing up in panic as me just being uncomfortable with such a topic.

“Uh-”

“Eh sorry if that made ya uncomfy, i sometimes have a rather wild imagination, just ignore what i said”

Well at least she had correctly guessed the plant thing, but she was not dumb, at all, so i would have to be extra careful around her to not let anything slip.

And now I was nervous, great, just great, but it had probably been long enough that I could excuse myself and got back to Arthur and Robin.

“Well i should probably go back to the other two and let you rest, I wish you a fast recovery”

She gave me a thumbs up and I stood up, turning to face the rest of the room only to have a pillow fly by my ear and hit Oakley from behind.

He let out an extremely birdlike squawk and whipped his head around with an irritated expression.

I looked back to Nea who was just flipping him, ironically, the bird.

“Next time warn a gal before ya use drugs ya cunt”

“Well, next time i’ll just leave the drugs out and you can feel all of the pain then”

Oh, it looked like Nea was still very sour about the sedative, at least it was just a pillow as everything else that could be thrown was well out of reach.

Good thinking on part of the medics, well they were probably used to such antics by now.

I decided it best to get out of the line of fire and moved slowly away from Neas corner.

Though slinking away turned out to be unnecessary when Oakley grabbed a bag and just left out the door.

Fuck, now i had to search for him again, At this point I'd never get help.

Well at least Arthur seemed okay now, He was still holding his jaw but the swelling was gone and all that was left was some discoloration from the bruise itself.

Avoiding being hit by something in case Nea decided to throw something else I went over to both Arthur and Robin.

Arthur greeted me with a little wave and gestured weirdly to his jaw.

He was silent the entire time but luckily Robin filled me in on why.

“Hey Donovan! Oakley fixed Arthur’s jaw as best as he could but he said it would be numb for a bit!”

That made sense, if the thing that got the swelling down was also numbing it he wouldn’t be able to coherently talk.

“How long is a bit? A few minutes or like an hour?”

Robin looked to Arthur once before answering.

“Uuhh, we don’t know, we forgot to ask”

So Arthur was stuck with a numb jaw for ‘a bit’

which could be actual hours and not just a few minutes.

“Well we could ask him, I think he’s outside? I’m not sure but the tower he wanted seems the most likely place so we should check there”

“Oh right! And you wanted to ask more about Ardua! I bet he’s got some really old books!”

While I hadn’t seen Oakleys shed on the inside, with all the knowledge he had it was very likely that he owned some rather rare tomes.

Like the one about Ardua for example, Maybe I’d ask him if I could read it.

I was not a fast reader by any means but at least I could read unlike some other street dwellers.

“Yeah he seems the type to have that, and he did say he had one about Ardua so i’m just going to ask if i can read it myself”

Arthur looked at me strangely as I said this, what?

Did he think just because I grew up on the street for a majority of my life meant I couldn’t read?

Arthur’s confused staring was interrupted by Robin.

“Are you good at reading? I’m not, the letters start to shift when i look at them too long and it hurts my head”

Both me and Arthur looked at him concerned.

“I don’t think letters are supposed to do that, Maybe you need glasses for reading?”

The ginger shook his head.

“Already tried that, didn’t work and the glass warped everything weirdly, I don’t want that again, it looked like nausea feels”

That was one of the weirdest descriptions I had heard in my life but strangely enough I could actually picture what he meant.

“That’s weird, well i’m no expert to such stuff so i can’t say why its like that for you”

He didn’t seem overly bothered by it and just shrugged, Then his usual curiosity returned.

“Who taught you to read? I thought you couldn’t go to school with your pointy ears?”

Oh, right, that was true but I did hide on the roof of one occasionally and learn by just listening.

“My Mother showed me how to read, well before she died at least so i’m not very good at it”

Arthur tried to say something to that but only managed to mumble something completely incomprehensible due to his numb jaw.

“What? Oh wait yeah we should go to Oakley and ask him how long that stuff is going to numb your jaw”

Judging by his face that was not what he had meant to say but since he couldn’t talk right now we could only guess.

Despite having tried to say something else than what we assumed he walked towards the door of the infirmary.

“Oh, we can ask him what types of magic he knows!

Ooh maybe he can teach me a spell!”

We weren’t even out of the room and Robin was already excitedly jumping up and down.

“Haha maybe, i don’t know if all humans can use magic though, Well if someone knows that it’s Oakley”

His enthusiasm was adorable, and it gave me something better to focus on that my hurting organ.

Arthur also gave a thumbs up to Robin since he couldn’t exactly say anything about this.

“Ooohh wait, Elemental magic is a thing! What element do you think fits me best? What Element do you think fits you? I think Fire would be cool!

But that’s probably dangerous, uhh maybe air! Then I could use wind to grab stuff from the top shelves! What do you think?”

Right, elemental magic, well considering the Nature of the Ardua form the magic in the bracelet was probably Earthen.

As for what Element fit Robin best-

“Well with red hair like that Fire would be a fitting match i guess, but air could fit too, not that i know anything about that sort of stuff but i think you could find and twist stuff so every element fits you somehow”

Arthur made an agreeing Hmm and nodded while Robin just stared at the air before facing us again.

“Well what do you think you are? With the shifting i mean and-”

He gestured to the bracelet.

“-that? I mean it’s definitely NOT fire i don’t think at least”

I looked down again at the bracelet with the embedded green gems, Yep definitely Earthen considering everything.

“I’m pretty sure it’s Earthen, i mean come on i’m a big plant lion thing what else would it be?”

A goofy smile appeared on his face and even Arthur tried to to grin which failed as half his lips were still numb.

“You’re right! Big plant cat is for sure an Earth element!

And the gems on your bracelet are green too!

Hey, what do you think Oakley is element wise?”

Oakleys Element? Hmm that was trickier, he said he did not have an affinity for ice magic so it probably wasn’t water.

I Doubted that it was fire as I just couldn’t see the tailed man using flames for anything, and he had wings so it was very likely that it was air.

“Well he’s got wings, so I guess it’s Air?

He said he’s not good at ice magic so it definitely isn’t water”

While we went around the corner that led to the hallway with the exit door my mind went back to when Oakley had used the ice staff to melt all of the snow.

For someone who said they weren’t good at ice magic he had been very adept at removing the snow.

If that was what he considered bad then I was curious as to what he defined as good at magic.

“Not water huh, well I guess Air is the opposite? Or would that be earth?

I think Fire and Water are opposite but i don’t know about the other two”

Robin seemed very intrigued by the concept of magic, and to me fair being able to use magic did sound like it would be great.

“I don’t know about opposites, if that even counts in element magic, but im sure if you could use magic you’d do something cool with it”

Robin smiled brightly and now that we were at the same scale I could make out his chipped tooth perfectly, it looked like a tiny little fang.

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