#i actually thought id posted the post this is referencing on my main and got quite confused when i started getting questions about it lmao

[okthatsgreat]

Hello Lee.... I come bearing QUESTIONS about your MLP versions of your OCs. Such as: was there a process for coming up with their names? And: how did you figure out their colours? Who was the hardest to name? And, similarly, whose colours did you struggle with the most? :0

YAHOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OUGUHGRU YOURE SO COOL

THIS IS THE POST WE'RE TALKING ABOUT BTW

OK SO as for the names there was a forum online that i specifically referenced with a guide to naming mlp ocs and it was hella funny, the gist was this:

i mostly ignored that first rule just bc a few of these ocs would not have a super """"girly"""" name so most of them are puns or figures of speech!!!!! theyre all based off of their ultimate talents or their personalities, which means what i do is i think of an adjective or noun that could be associated with them (for example, free runner -> light on her feet -> light) and then either think of a pun or go to google and type in "phrases with [word] in it" and choose one that makes sense (light + speedy = lightspeed)!! some of them were straight up references WITHOUT me mashing two words together ("turing" is from alan turing father of modern computer science, "chatterbait" is a specific type of lure for fishing while also being a reference on how sae tends to go on tangents lmao).

rie's was a bit of a struggle at first just because i was going back and forth between MULTIPLE names, like i was kinda set on her having a one word name like rarity but i needed it to be more specific to her?? she was royal charm for a bit, then royal, then PEARL (bc i looked at her actual outfit), and THEN the pearl jam pun struck me like the hand of god

I STRUGGLED THE MOST WITH ERINS NAME LMFAOOO!!!! which is why that name was not even my idea it was @makowo 's fhdjhgfkdgjkd. i was so ready just to call her pippy because:

BUT thankfully i got a much better name. also the idea of her cutie mark basically condemning her to a life of childrens entertainment is both horrifying and kinda funny. girl you are NOT getting a break even in the my little pony universe.

COLOURS WERE VERY FUN!!! just for the sake of them Being Recognizable as My Ocs i kept their hair colour the same lmfao, if i were to go back id probably get a little more funky (pearl gem could absolutely use some purple highlights). for their haircoat i typically would use a primary colour on their outfit and would sometimes adjust!!! for example, i knew i wanted naomi's haircoat to be associated with red as that is the main colour i typically associate with her, so the coat was the colour from her jacket. because her hair was already very dark, having the coat colour also be dark wasnt as clashing so i didnt need to adjust a lot!! i DID however adjust erins to be a bit lighter just because it looked nicer than having an extremely saturated yellow lol. hooves were usually decided by me choosing a colour on them (very typically hair colour) and either adjusting it to be darker or leaving it white in two cases!! OTHER COLOURS were decided based on how important the colour is to the character's outfit. like filly shapes/erin HAD to be yellow in my eyes just because she is soooooo bright + it sits nicely with the red hair, but because she is a very colourful character i added a whole lot of ribbons with the other colours of her costume :)) naomi got a few spots on her just because of her moles, sae got her birthmark, and a few other characters got their stomachs coloured in just because i thought it looked cool lmfaooooo

hardest to colour hmmmmmmmmmmmmm for RIE i initially had her coat as light purple, as she is a very purple character to me lmfao, but thought it would both compliment the hair colour and also accent the purple more if she was primarily white (the colour of her undershirt, ALSO i was looking up white show horses as reference for her specifically lol). so i went back and forth for a bit....... chatterbait also tbh. originally she was a lighter green colour for her jacket but then i was like nahhh the green on her overalls is better and went back. other than that they were pretty straight forward!!!! mouse trap and turing were the most obvious to me i feel like i had colouring in mind for those two from the second i placed my pen on my tablet

GOD i really am talking a whole lot about ponies THEYRE HONESTLY JUST SO MUCH FUN LOL. IVE KINDA BEEN GOING CRAZY JUST DESIGNING A WHOLE BUNCH FOR SOME FRIENDS LIKE IM HAVING A BLAST OVER HERE. I LOVED COMING UP WITH EVERYTHING AND IM SUPER HAPPY YOU ASKED ME ABOUT IT :]]]]] SO THANK YOU!!!

[dykepulpfriction]

Thoughts on aftg/star trek?

oh god. so many!

vulcan andrew. he fits the mold pretty well, except for the violence. I could see him similar to spock in that case, a half vulcan, which would add to the way hes kind of seen as an unpredictable character by the upperclassmen -- working with the idea that people who are both terran and vulcan dont fit perfectly into easy behavior stereotypes. im thinking a lot about the pocket book "mindshadow" where spock's "inconsistencies" get expored. in an aftg to tos recast, id put him as spock.

that brings me to neil, who i think in said recast is a really solid kirk. There's this one tumblr post by @/na-nanu talking about kirk's alienation, and one line that has stuck with me ever since i read it: "Kirk, while personable, is a fairly Vulcan human." this strikes me as so so neil. until they really get to know him better, the upperclassmen tend to read neil in opposition to andrew. neil, to those outside, is the more personable of the two, the one who feels. as we all know, neil and andrew are incredibly similar -- which is why i referenced that quote just now. like kirk, neil takes andrew as he is, and never asks for more than he can give.

more kirk qualities: neil is ride or die (literally) for his team, self-sacrificing and quick-witted. he's not afraid to lie or trick his way into getting what he wants. lets be honest, both of these men love a good ruse.

going back to andrew for a moment, the way andrew is talked about as unfeeling and monstrous rings a very similar bell to the way terrans talk about vulcans and their lack of emotional display. kirk can read spock better than anyone, sound familiar?

this gets its own bullet point because i dont know where to put it. not all of my thoughts on aftg/st are so matchy-matchy (like, trying to make things line up), but i think the episode "The Enemy Within" and Neil-Nathaniel-Only-One-Of-Them-Can-Survive-Both-Of-Them-Want-To-Live have got some interesting similarities. Nathaniel dying in that basement too, and such.

I feel like people might want to cast Kevin as McCoy, because of McSpirk, and how they're the main trio. but because of Spock and Bones' frequent disagreements, similarities, and general vibes i really see him as Aaron, who's more explosive then Kevin when it comes to Andrews apathy. Bones and his wife and kid back home are also kind of Katelyn-esque.

renee and uhura... i think that this parallel works if spock/andrew, vulcan andrew what have you, is at the core of this thing. theres a lot of similarities for everyone, but god. he's the reason i'm even thinking about tos and aftg together. the "unlikely" friendship, everyone thinking they have a thing, bonding over a shared activity (but its music instead of beating the shit out of each other)

i can really imagine andrew getting into star trek. its a really good "what if?" show that i think he'd enjoy, given his feelings on the zombie apocalypse. renee could definitely get into the morality aspect as well. i can see them talking about the questions in the epsodes, like "so what would you do if your evil clone tried to take over the ship?" and the like. Andrew seeing himself in Spock, seeing someone who also can only deal with his emotions on the lowest volume, and him being loved nonetheless. Maybe seeing a little bit of his not-boyfriend-nothing Neil in Kirk.

another thing about spock/andrew. they are both surprisingly open! I'd have to go back and look to find the exact post, but someone made a great post about how kirk is actually not that forthcoming about his past/life, while spock, if you literally just ask him, will tell you a lot! this i think is hilariously similar to neil being seen as the more open one, when he is actually so cagey and full of false pasts, while andrew will answer most questions. people just never seem to ask (until neil, ofc).

There's definitely more where this came from, so ill add on to this later, but im battling a bit of a headache right now and need to end it here. Thank you so so much for the ask, im excited to hear what you think!!!!!!!!

[ironedsleeper]

Stupid personal shit but I think I need to vent some

In 2008 I started my freshman year of high school, I was a “gifted” kid so I didn’t go to the local public high school, I got invited to go to a college prep high school called University High. I was starting my battles with metal health and there I was in a brand new extremely high pressure school. Sometime that first month in my apartment biology class we were learning about dominant and recessive genes. Everyone got paired up with someone of the opposite sex so they could work together to figure out what a child would look like if it had the dominant traits from both partners. The entire class is paired up male/female except for me and one other guy. Obviously we get paired together and theres some jokes as we put together the pundit square. Then the teacher (who would later go on to be a vice principal at the other high school I went to) drops the bomb, we have to draw our would be children. I cant draw at all so the other guy, Andrew, decides he will draw our spawn who I preemptively named Fred Bob. The resulting drawing was so hilariously ugly that the teacher (after asking our permission) hung it up on the whiteboard for the rest of the school year. Andrew and I have been best friends ever since.

Fast forward a few years and after a major depressive episode, a handful of near attempts, and a lot of late night texting, I got to switch schools before I finally killed myself. Since we weren’t hanging out at school anymore Andrew and I started a few projects. One that took off was a fan voice acting thing (Karkat and Sollux Read My Immortal) and it was fun so we wanted to do more voice acting stuff. One of the ideas we had was for basically a radio play anime, we didnt ever call it that but that’s kinda what it was. We called it Fighting Academy and even recorded a teaser for it. After the teaser though we dropped the idea for other projects. I never forgot about Fighting Academy though. I spent the summer after I graduated high school with my mom and stepdad in Alabama and because there wasn’t much else to do, I expanded on ideas. I took the original idea, a kind of jokey not so serious thing that referenced some other stuff, and just turned into a much more serious thing.

Fast forward again another few years, Im in college now and we have access to a recording booth. Fighting Academy comes to mind and since I had taken a screenwriting class, I write up a few pages of a script, basically everything up to when the title card would appear in the episode. I tell Andrew I need his help with a school project and get him in to record some dialogue. The script I gave him was rewritten, he had no idea it was Fighting Academy at the time because I was talking to a few different animation students and I was hoping to get what I had for a script actually animated. I thought that would have been cool, a little 2-3 minute animated version of the idea we had in high school and with him (unknowingly) vocing the main character. It didnt pan out though and for another few years that was it.

Then fast forward further along and I get this idea that it would be cool to actually script out the first season of Fighting Academy. We worked together on ideas and I actually wrote out five full episodes, even started on the sixth one before I ran into a wall. I kinda screwed up by including a focus on actual martial arts and was constantly being held back by the fact that I dont know shit about martial arts. The project became daunting and less and less fun so I just stopped.

Somewhat recently, like a year or two after I stopped working on episode six, I decided that if I just removed the martial arts focus and changed a few story beats, I could probably get back to work on Fighting Academy. I have part of the first episode revised, did that a few months ago, and Im dragging my feet again.

So what started this post you might wonder? Well I talked to Andrew today about ideas Id been having for Fighting Academy revisions and he just didn’t respond.

I know he doesnt care about Fighting Academy like I do, this man has so many WIPs that Id be genuinely surprised if he still cared about one thats over ten years old. And hell Ive changed the idea behind it to something completely different from what it was all the way back then. I get that, I really do understand that he doesnt care and its not at all malicious on his part.

This isnt the first time Ive sent him a wall of text about Fighting Academy and been met with nothing. I think the actual biggest issue I have with working on it is that I really want it to be a collaboration with my best friend so bad but he just doesnt care about it the way I do.

When I sent him those ideas it was like 8 in the morning and still nothing. Im 100% certain the next message is going to be him sending me something funny or cool and we’ll just never discuss the ideas.

Im not mad at him or anything, really the point of all this is not to blame him in the least.

My issue is that when I realize he isnt going to respond I just

It ruined my day I think?

And its stupid because we were talking about five other things and I bug him with this shit all the time but still

I get that silence and it just crushes me

I think at some point I need to not tell him and just work on the revisions. Get to the end of the first season and show him everything, maybe with actual scripts and ideas put to paper so to speak itll help it seem more relevant to him.

I don’t think Fighting Academy will ever get made, its trope heavy and my writing style is more what my screenwriting teacher calls “functional” than it is exciting or good.

Its just a dumb idea that we had and I wish it didnt hurt that he’s not interested anymore

I need to have a very stern conversation with my heart about how just because something means a lot to me doesn’t mean it means a lot to someone else. And maybe even if it did mean something to someone else it might not matter to them anymore

[what-are-even-humans]

I don't intend to sound rude, but related to the tags about opening the door... What is considered polite vs. rude? I have been (sometimes loudly) informed that opening/holding the door for someone is rude and belittling, but also that not opening/holding the door is rude and passive aggressive... Is there some guideline to when it is or is not appropriate?

Okay so this is a good question but first of all I have to say I'm not a regular wheelchair user. My disability is invisible, for the main part anyways, but im currently fresh from yet another surgery. I'm not an expert in the way someone who uses a wheelchair all the time is.

But to answer your question, the distinction for me is whether or not its natural to open the door or not. Opening the door for someone when you're both going through it in close succession is natural and polite. I can't imagine anyone being offended by that unless you make a huge deal out of it or act like a dick. Alternatively the other person might have a really bad day idk.

In the situation yesterday, however, the only reason he opened the door for me was because I'm in a wheelchair. I was alone in a room with a glass door. The man in question was sitting about 5 metres away on the other side of the door, eating some soup. I had just turned around, and sat directly in front of the door, with a bag on my lap rearranging the straps. He happened to glance over at me, and then got up so quickly I thought he'd spill his soup. He rushed over to the door and opened it. And let's be clear, I was sitting alone in a semi private room, focused on my bag.

I'm sure his intentions were good! Im sure he was pleased with himself for being nice afterwards. But the message he sent was still "I don't think you could be capable of opening a door, I'm here to save you" which isn't really nice at all. I had given no indications of struggling, and in fact him opening the door just created a bigger obstacle for me. Firstly I felt rushed, and second, instead of me moving my arm a bit to open the door fully, and then going out in my own pace at the angle i wanted, he was in the way. Because he insisted on holding the door (which btw wasn't going to close on its own) I had to maneuver around him and the door, which involved turning an additional 90°, get one wheel over a threshold that I'd otherwise steer clear of, and then backing up a bit before I could go. Not the biggest problem in the world, I admit, but still annoying and unnecessary. Add to that that my chair pulled to the left, the casters had a tendency to get stuck, and the maneuverability of the chair was awful, in part because it didn't fit me well, it became more of an issue. Because there were other people eating around, I also had to make sure I didn't bump into anyone or anything.

So him "helping" actually created a bigger issue, and he had no idea. And now imagine all of this happening to you, only it's the umpteenth time this day. Because everyone wants to "be nice" and "help".

If you've never been in a wheelchair it is incredibly difficult to understand what may or may not be an issue. Even if you have, wheelchairs vary, and wheelchair users vary. What's simple to me might be incredibly difficult for someone else. What's simple to someone else might be difficult or impossible for me with my limited experience and shitty chair. And you have no way of knowing where the person falls on that spectrum without asking.

Dont ask willy nilly though. Imagine you're going about your day doing something you've done countless times with no issues and someone asks if you need help. First time it might be sort of nice, if a bit strange, by the third time it's getting annoying fast, and by the 20th time you've lost all your patience. At that point, its been less than an hour since the first person asked. If that happened every time you went out, wouldn't you get a bit snappy at some of the random people?

Which brings us neatly to the closest thing to a rule of thumb I can come up with: ask yourself: Would you do it if they weren't using an assistive device?

If we copy paste the scenario above but remove the wheelchair, that'd seem buck wild to most people. An adult guy is fiddling with his backpack when a random stranger rushes to hold the door open for him? No. Bad. Don't.

Someone is clearly struggling to open a door or hold it open? Ask if they need help, regardless of their assistive devices or lack thereof. If they say yes: open the door for them. If they say no: Don't.

You're passing through a door but let it smack into the person behind you? Bad regardless

So TL;DR

If you wouldn't do it for someone without assistive devices, don't do it to someone with. If you would do it for someone without assistive devices, ask before doing it, and respect the answer.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

He Could Scream: Kauri

CW: Electric shock treatment, lab whump dehumanization, pet whump, referenced past dubcon/noncon, referenced drugging, abusive relationship (from abused person’s POV)

Immediately follows The Surgery

Tagging: @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @burtlederp, @18-toe-beans, @finder-of-rings, @whump-chains, @giggly-evil-puppy, @whimpers-and-whumpers @whump-it, @lumpofwhump, @pumpkinthefangirl​

“Okay, little man,” Tyler says, a bright, pleased smile on his face. He isn’t wearing his long white coat, today, just a simple button-up shirt with a starched collar and nice dress pants. There’s a little ID card hanging on a metal clip off his shirt pocket, a tiny little rectangular photo of Tyler smiling bright and cheerful against a plain blue background.

The smile is always the same.

Kauri spent four days in the recovery room - he could track days in there, the nurse named Bobbie checked on him five times every day every few hours, and Kauri had grasped onto that much control and information and held tight - and then it was back to the same place, white walls and 162 white tiles. Irregular feedings, 

Except in moments like this one, when they bring him out to test the product.

“Hey.” Fingers snap just under his nose and Kauri jumps, blinking rapidly, pulled from his thoughts. “Hey, bud, you need to pay attention.”

Kauri stares at him with red-rimmed eyes, feeling emptied out, like a cup full of water that they had poured and poured - and still they searched for one more drop. After a second, he slowly nods. “I’m, I’m paying attention, sir,” He says softly, sitting on the examination table feeling the little paper crackle underneath him as he shifts around.

“Hey, I’m not a handler, man. You can just call me Tyler.” 

“Um…” 

Tyler smiles at him expectantly, and Kauri still fights the urge to smile back automatically. Tyler is always smiling - sometimes bright and cheerful and proud like now, sometimes nervous and like he’s hiding fear, sometimes a smile that is blank and empty when the Director comes to see how the tests are going.

When the Director comes, she puts on those blue gloves and touches the red, irritated healing skin around the new things they’ve put into him. Sometimes she pushes hard into the stitches and nearly breaks them, and he sees Del wincing just behind her, but no one says a word to the Director.

When he cries out, she presses harder. If Kauri takes all her pressing and prodding without a flinch, she pulls back and praises him. 

He is starting to hate the words good boy. 

“Try it for me,” Tyler encourages him, soothingly. He puts a hand on either side of Kauri’s face and shakes his head a little, back and forth. “Come on, kiddo.”

“... Okay,” Kauri says, finally, wanting to cringe back and away but he can’t. “Um. Tyler.” 

“Good, great. I know this part’s not much fun, ‘898, I get it, but you’ve done so well up until now.” Tyler ruffles his hair and Kauri’s eyes flutter closed involuntarily - it feels good, he can’t help it. He doesn’t want the touch to feel good, but it does.

Because of them. It’s because of people like Tyler - because people like Tyler used other people like me, a long time ago, to find out how to make us different people than we used to be. They took all those things they learned and put them into me, to make me like this.

Tyler’s wide bright smile, flashing teeth, his long hair pulled back in its usual bun against the nape of his neck, the way he’s rubbing his hands together - it’s all a blur of things Kauri can’t quite focus on. His shoulders keep jumping, jerking him forwards without his consent. Fingers twitch and when they try to have him hold a pen it just drops, again and again and again.

When he was trained the first time, they trained him to be scared of holding pens - his hands shook when he tried, he couldn’t get a good grip.

It’s worse now. 

Kauri wonders if the shaking will ever fully stop.

 “We’re going to take things nice and slow today. This is all going on record for the Director, so you really need to work hard for me. Got it?” Tyler tilts his chin up and Kauri blinks at him, nodding slowly, his eyes skimming to the camera fixed in the corner near the ceiling, the big black circle that hangs down from the ceiling tiles. Staring, staring, staring.

They will tape his screaming. People like Tyler will study it. And then they’ll do it to someone else, too - some other Box Boy - over and over and over again-

Stop thinking. Get through this and go home. Once they’re done with tests, Owen will take you home, you’ll go home. 

Thinking of Owen brings new pain, different pain - a twist inside him because going home isn’t any better, is it? If he goes home, Owen will have the little button they push to hurt him. Owen, who put his hands on his neck and pushed him onto his stomach on the floor next to the couch… he’ll have a new way to hurt him when he’s angry, and he had promised to never, ever hurt him like this.

Kauri swallows back the noise he wants to make, low and broken. 

“Okay.” Tyler turns back to look up at the camera, holding up one hand to count down from five. Kauri watches, feeling dull and far away from himself. 

Five… four… three… two… one…

“Disciplinary implant with electrical output,” Tyler says to the camera, his voice dropping from its usual good cheer to serious, and Kauri stares at the neatly twisted bun of hair on the back of his neck. “This is subject eight to receive the implants and the first to show success afterward. Subject is number Six-Four-Five-Eight-Nine-Eight, known by owner as Kauri, spelled K-A-U-R-I.” Tyler glances back at him. “Remind me to tell your owner sometime that ‘kauri’ is actually a whole word with a pronunciation, and what he calls you ain’t it.”

Kauri doesn’t say anything - just drops his eyes down to the ground - and after a beat, Tyler shrugs and turns back to the camera. 

“Guess the owner’s never spent time ‘Down Undah’,” Tyler says with a cheerful, absolutely awful accent that Kauri doesn’t recognize and can’t place. Then he pauses. “Wait. Is New Zealand still Down Under? Shit. Aren’t those two places close to each other? I feel like… Australia’s probably pretty close… oh shit, I have no fucking clue what distance is like over there. Huh. I probably should have paid more attention in, like, geography or whatever. I’m guessing watching that show with the hot mermaids doesn’t count as studying New Zealand…” His voice trails off. Then snaps back up at the camera. “Well, shit, that’s a bad take. Okay. One more time.” Tyler sighs, holds up five fingers to the camera, starts counting again.

Kauri wonders exactly how Tyler became a scientist - or if he’s really something else entirely, and they put a white coat on him and called him a scientist to hide what he really is, what he really does, in his work on Kauri and the others like him.

Five… four… three… two… one…

“Disciplinary implant with electrical output,” Tyler repeats, in the same serious, professional voice, and Kauri doesn’t move - doesn’t even swing his legs - he just stares down at the floor and waits for his little speech to finish, for the pain to start again. 

“We’ve been working with this subject during post-op and currently to set the parameters of the implant as per the owner’s instructions,” Tyler says, moving back to stand right next to where Kauri sits on the examination table even as he pitches his voice for the camera in the ceiling, giving it the occasional glance with his head slightly tilted. Angled, Kauri thinks - he wants to look good on the camera.

“Main parameter is successfully set. Example #1 is prepared. 645898, please give your attention to the board on the wall.”

Kauri tenses, blue eyes flaring just a little.

He hates this test.

“Come on, little man,” Tyler says softly, encouragingly, and puts a hand on Kauri’s back, rubbing soothing circles that make his skin crawl and wish for more all at once. “You can do this for us, okay? Just be really good for me. I really need this promotion.”

I really need you to have not torn my skin open and made me watch you do it, but here we are.

The wall is crumbling inside Kauri’s mind, and he doesn’t even try to put the pieces back in any longer. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if he remembers things, if he gets angry inside, if Owen notices. He’s controlled, now. Owen will make sure he can’t read, or send a message, ever… ever again. 

They don’t even care enough to erase it all any longer, because they don’t have to. He can be angry all he wants - he’ll still be helpless.

Tyler’s hand slides up to the back of his neck, lays heavy there and clammy. His thumb presses into the side of Kauri’s neck and Kauri shudders and raises his eyes.

“Good boy, ‘898,” Tyler murmurs, and Kauri bites down on his lower lip until it hurts.

There’s a large white dry-erase board with black letters written on it hung on the wall opposite from the exam table Kauri is sitting on. When they’d brought him in here, Tyler and Delevigne had talked about how the computer had chosen randomized words based on Kauri’s life before. 

What was my life before? Why does a computer get to know and I don’t?

Kauri’s eyes land on the whiteboard, try briefly to focus on METAPHOR in Tyler’s thick scrawl. As soon as the black marks coalesced into a word, the fire lit his nerves again.

Kauri jerked forwards, crying out helplessly - it never mattered how many times they practiced, he always cried out - and Tyler’s hand tightened on the back of his neck, pulling him back.

Kauri went rigid, tears in his eyes. “Pl-please,” He breathes, in the stammer, the shock-speech the handlers call it and laugh at him. “Please, m-make it, make it st-stop, Tyler, please-”

“Look away from the word, buddy,” Tyler says, unperturbed, watching Kauri’s face. “That’s all you have to do, is drop your eyes.”

Kauri tries but he can’t, every muscle is locked against the electricity. His whimpers become choked-off sobs as tears flood his eyes, until finally the words blur enough to be unrecognizable.

The pain stops, and Kauri can finally lower his eyes. He tries to breathe through the aftershocks, curling his hands into fists to keep them from twitching and shaking too much. Tyler’s hand never leaves his neck, presses against it like a weight.

“Subject is exposed to shock as soon as focus on words is registered,” Tyler says to the camera, and the smile is hinting at the corners of his mouth again. “Subject shows marked reluctance to engage with text even when given a direct order, as the subject is aware of the consequences if he does so. We’ll do one more, 645898.”

Kauri jerks in a breath and nods quickly, feeling his curls starting to stick to the cold sweat that’s broken out across his body, the way his thin white trainee T-shirt sticks to the sweat on his back. The recirculated air washes across his arms, his bare legs and feet, and he starts to shiver. He can hardly tell the difference between the shivers from cold and the muscle shakes from the electric shock.

The little circles - the shock implants - feel hot, like when he would sit on Owen’s balcony in the sunlight too long and the warmth of the sun turned to an uncomfortable, prickling burn. When he looks down, he can just see them, glowing slightly at the bottom of his vision. Can see the stitches, the skin around them red and irritated, that travel in a perfect line from his right shoulder to the center of his chest.

Tyler steps away from him and walks across the room. Kauri keeps his head down and watches from under his dark eyelashes as the word Tyler had written is erased with the little black eraser. Tyler checks a card he pulls from his pocket and writes something new. Kauri drops his eyes so he won’t look at the word a single second longer than he has to - aware, with a twist of disgusted fear inside of him, that that’s the response he’s supposed to have.

The headaches come and go, as memories break free or sink back under the fog in his head, but they don’t care about the memories anymore. 

They don’t care what he knows.

Because they know that Kauri is controlled.

“Shit, she’s gonna be so happy,” Tyler murmurs as he goes back to Kauri’s side. “She wanted us to make sure her poor sad sack kid can do this without a memory wipe, and we’re gonna give her a fucking work of art, little man. Okay. Look up.”

They put the implants under his skin.

They record the pain he feels.

They record when he screams.

They will use it to hurt someone after him.

And Tyler will be rewarded for it.

Kauri swallows hard. Tyler slides an arm around his shoulder, leans in close, and takes him by the chin. His sweaty fingers tilt Kauri’s chin up and up and up.

“I said look up, bud,” Tyler says, more forcefully this time.

Kauri’s eyes land on HERO’S JOURNEY but don’t take in that the individual letters even form words before the burn lights him up again and he starts to shake. 

His eyes locked with the pain like every other part of him, and when he sees the words all Kauri can do is wail, half-choked as his muscles are forced into rigidity, a pressure that seems like it might snap bones. He can’t stop looking, he can’t stop, and it won’t stop hurting until he stops looking.

Finally Tyler grabs him by the hair and pushes down, forces his gaze back down to the floor to break his eye contact with the letters. Kauri sobs, tears sliding down his cheeks as he shakes and shakes in Tyler’s arms. His hands won’t close, the fingers keep moving, twitching, jerking little nonsense movements he can’t control. 

“Success,” Tyler says loudly, happily, for the camera. Then he pets through Kauri’s hair, holding him close. Kauri leans against him automatically, eyes blank and unfocused, sobbing hoarsely through a throat that aches from screaming. “End recording. There we go, buddy, there we go. All done for now. All done, little man, all done… there we go, just let it out, there you go… God, I am so grateful for you. You're so lucky, man, we're going to be written into those fucking brochures now, you and me… you’ve done so well and the Director is gonna give me one fuck of a bonus for this, you’ve been so, so good for me, little man, so good…”

Tyler’s fingers card through black curls, scratch just a little into his scalp, run down his neck and then back up again, and Kauri shudders against something new - not the simple I-want-this he has to every touch, but the old disgust he used to feel, used to be able to access. He doesn’t want Tyler to touch him, he doesn’t want to be his very good boy and help him design something terrible to do to someone else, he doesn’t want he doesn’t want he doesn’t want.

He keeps crying, but the tears begin to change. He can feel the sick lurch in his stomach, the way his mouth wanted to pull his lips back into a snarl. He can feel the fight he’d had, a long time ago, before it was all gone. The version of him that had said you can’t take my name from me - but they did… they took his name and they took the fight, too.

They didn’t care if he remembered, any longer. Owen didn’t care what he felt - that he might feel hurt Owen broke his promise, that he might be angry about it. Owen didn’t care.

All Owen cared about was that Kauri could be controlled. 

Punished. Disciplined, for thinking for himself. For having a thought Owen wasn’t in charge of. For doing one single thing just for himself.

Why didn’t you just tie me to the bed? 

Kauri sniffled, and Tyler misunderstood the reason, tightening his arms around him, shushing him in a low soft sincere voice. He thought Kauri was sad - and he was - but the tears weren’t from sadness.

The tears were from anger.

“Take your time,” Tyler whispers into his ear, petting him gently. “Take your time, ‘898. Just breathe, little guy, you’re doing great. We’re going to bring in the computer next, okay?”

Kauri shivers, clenching his eyes shut, feeling a ghost of electricity just thinking about looking at the keyboard again. And they’ll make him - make him look, make him try to type, try to read, and they’ll hurt him every time he does. 

Because he can’t be allowed to read or write, or think for himself, or think at all. Because he has to be locked up, closed up in Owen’s condo, kept like the cat the neighbors owned next door. Because he has to be empty, and pretty. 

Because Owen is jealous of every thought Kauri has that isn’t about him.

“I know it sucks, little dude, I totally get it,” Tyler says, and Kauri wants to spit no you don’t, you don’t understand anything about me, but all he does is miserably nod, allow himself to be held, try to ignore the way his body wants to react even now, even to this, the way it was trained to. “I know. But look - once the Director is happy with the recordings, we’ll get you back home, and your owner will be so happy to see you, right? Because you’ll be totally perfect for him, exactly how he wants you now.”

Why don’t I get to choose how I want me to be? What did I do to deserve having that choice taken away? Why won’t you let me be a person anymore? 

Why can’t Owen just love me back?

Kauri cries in the arms of a scientist who will not stop hurting him and he’s so hurt, and scared, and sad, and mostly he’s so angry he could scream.

[savnofilter]

okay so im just gonna my tingz and whatever since people can believe what theyd like.

whoop its more drama. 😅

so if you hadnt already seen it, great if you havent great. ahh im literally shaking oops but this is serious so i'll only what i have to say, and she blocked and deleted all my apologies and explanations.

i wasnt going to post anything because i replied and had said my words and left it at, if you dont want to like me thats fine, i'll live.

i one, would like to say that she even removed it so like rip me. uhhh i would make a video really to talk it because im bad at words and me typing it makes it worse ahahah.

essentially it was just a bunch of screenshots of me being mean so yeah that was it. er um wooph this is too much for me, the only account i can properly say was that i can say i was harsh was that christmas thing with someone who i havent spoken with in months and its that i said i hate people who celebrate it mad early. and yeah i can harsh because ive already explained that sometimes im blunt about it and when im in a bad mood i dont care.

on the other accounts let me say which i dont remember cause she had all the screenshots and i deleted all the chats because it was turning my already sour mood, even more sour.

so she said i didnt greet her properly which i even talked to you once before so idek what she was trying to get at there. 😅 ahh i asked who she was because i had been having on and off issues with a writer and that was already in the server. she suddenly added her to the discord after it being open for many months so naturally that added suspicion and i also have a great deal of knowing when something was up so yuh... call my instincts right cause it was in the messages that were sent to me. 😅

ahhh (ignore my many ah's when i get anxious it just happens ahahah) but those were taken out of context and like were set up to make me look bad. and even just in the whole post, the whole reason why they talked to me was to venge for something to bring me down LMAO.

just like before ive cooled down tremendously so im done from my mental breakdown to properly say this:

1) i didnt know it was even a slur. i just thought it meant dumb and it was only yesterday i had found out that it was bad.

now i'll say this again because people like being on this sav hate train to even read my words LMAO, im sorry for the words i said.

literally the person that i used it on doesnt even fucking like me so the fact thatd they were rude to me and then get shocked that im rude. i even said that day i had not been fine, i was not well. and if you got your secret santa friend you could also get screenshots saying that i said at the point in time i did not care what i said to people because i was planning on killing myself so i didnt care what i was going to say because you know id be dead.

2) may i say again, i had suspicions of other party friend talking about me because she even messaged me on many times and even brought up one situation that i took piss poor shit in handling. 😂

and may i mention she (christmas person) left because she didnt speak up about other issues that couldve been talked out with and decided to leave.

not only that i thought we were talking about our opinions on celebrating christmas so stop trying to feed word into me mouth m8.

AND ALSO, YOU KEEP SAYING THAT I HAVE A PROBLEM WITH CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS LIKE THAT WASNT EVEN THE THING. 😂

and also the conversation had lack of communication so everything was jumbled up, and i didnt even know she was actually leaving the server i thought she was going "tata" for a bit and i was going to talk to her, i eventually did but we do not speak anymore.

3) the main reason why she spoke to me was to basically catch me red handed LMAO. and she got what she wanted. 👏🏽i literally had people message me, asking why she was even asking for peoples ages.

one how do you even know i was referencing you?! i... but anyways... again you want to make me out to be a bad person lmao. i have bad moments just like everybody else. but because i like to be nice and uplift people i cant make mistakes? like what flawed logic is that?

how am i supposed to grow if i dont make mistakes and learn from them. it woudve been a whole different story if i used it multiple times and didnt give a fuck. and no, its not every day that im a "dumb fucking cunt" to people.

4) you legit deleted my responses and apologies. 😂 and people are just jumping on this and dont even

know me.

ever talked to me.

not even in the server.

so now the "brought to tumblr" again i was just sharing my damn sadness dude. your call-out post makes no sense. trying to make it sound like im out here trying to ruin peoples days is not even close to the truth... i myself hate making people feel bad about themselves.

im not some sociopath, and youre mad because i was bummed i realized that someone that i thought was amazing doesnt like me??? like youre telling me that you snapping at me everytime we talked im just supposed to take it? i just...

and ive said it on my blog, im not in the best place. youre gonna get me off on my off days. i even said that me even interacting is not even a good idea but i choose to make the conscious decision to even talk to people just makes me feel even worse because someone was mean to me first.

you cant take me being my worst and saying its my fucking whole. you dont care about me wanting to "fIx My WaYs" you just want to fucking embarrass me and have people hate me.

if youre trying to show character, youre doing a terrible job at it.

i tried adding you as a friend to even talk to you but you had even BLOCKED ME on discord. you dont care. at all. stop pretending youre some knight, if all i was even trying to talk it out to you and youre response is "youre mean you suck" like what the fuck...

you and your friends and your followers my "followers" who havent asked for my side just show how much you guys really want to pUrIfY this erotica for anime community,,

and also you were a massive prick to my friend because she was sharing her own thoughts so i dont even know why youre trying to act like youre an angel. unless you can tell me that you have never been wrong, i will just crucify myself on the cross and apologize to jesus for being such a sinner.

the more i type, the more i get spiteful so i will stop myself here. have a wonderful night/day/whenever you see it dude or never see it cause you blocked me lol.

EDIT: also i never even hinted that it was you so it just confirms this was only for malicious purposes... and i now just feel like you made it because you feel like i shouldnt have feelings either.

~

apologies if its all over the place, i wrote this in a state of panic to a slow burn of being mellowing out.

[asksciencesquad]

WELP guess I should finally post this damn thing. I’ve picked at it wayyyy more than I need to and I just have to accept that it’s never going to be perfect.

I referenced this event like 500 years ago in a previous ask if anyone even remembers but decided it was too ambitious for a whole comic, then realized it would be a good excuse to write again. Sorry if you guys were expecting something visual, but it just be like that sometimes. I haven’t done any creative writing in a while (let alone post it on the internet) so it’s probably not my best  the plot structure is weird, the narrative distance is wildly inconsistent, there’s probably way too much dialogue but it’s something and it’s actually done, so here we are.

(s/o to those of my friends who were able to read this and give me feedback, you’re amazing and I love u)

Summary: The squad visits the Barrier to do some research for an ongoing study. Things quickly go off the rails.

New Home was easily the busiest place in the entire Underground. Monsters of all shapes and sizes lived in the capital, bustling about its streets almost every hour of the day. Most of the inhabitants paid little mind to the others around them, too focused on their own business to pay attention to anyone else.

The three monsters hurrying through the crowds drew a few stares, however.

“G, could you slow down a little bit??” Sans called to the colleague rushing ahead of him. A few feet behind him, Alphys struggled to keep up. She adjusted the backpack slung over her shoulders, muttering something about a laptop.

Gaster stopped and waited for the other two to catch up. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you were falling behind.” He set down the case he was carrying. He hoped the delicate scientific instruments inside hadn’t been jostled too much from his running. Normally he would’ve been a lot more careful with them, but he and his friends were behind schedule.

Sans set his case down as well, flexing his fingers a few times to unstiffen them. “The streets are so packed. They really couldn’t have sent us at a less busy time of the day?”

Gaster shrugged a little. “I’m sure they just wanted to make things harder for us. At least we’re almost there.” He turned to look at the imposing structure of the castle, visible even from several blocks away. The stone walls rose higher than most of the other buildings, making it discernible from far outside the city. It was the same monotonous gray as the other buildings around it and in the rest of New Home. The only significant difference was that the tops of the castle’s tallest towers had been painted blue – a bright spot of color in a sea of gray.

Neither he nor his friends had ever been inside. While the King could often be found wandering the streets and making small talk with his subjects, the castle was largely closed off to ordinary citizens. Gaster, at least, was excited to see it. The three of them were being sent to go to the Barrier, collecting measurements for an ongoing study. Gaster was interested to see it in person; maybe it was twisted to look forward to seeing the very thing that trapped him and his fellow monsters underground, but his curiosity got the better of him.

The tall skeleton looked back at his companions. “Should we keep going?”

Sans picked up his case again; the lizard monster next to him squinted at Gaster. “Just remember not to leave us behind again. Not everyone has a three-foot stride like you do,” she said.

“Oh, my strides are not three feet long,” Gaster responded. He smirked. “Maybe if you two weren’t so short, you could keep up.”

“H-hey!” Alphys protested. “We’re both slightly below average. You’re the one who’s ridiculously tall!”

“… Yeah, I guess that’s true.” At six and a half feet, he certainly towered over a good portion of the monster population.

By now they were only a few blocks from the castle. A flight of stairs led up to the entrance where several Royal Guards were stationed, watching closely for any signs of trouble. The sight was a little intimidating, even to the most innocent civilians.

“So…” Sans scanned the line of guards. “How does this work, exactly? Do you go up to them and say, ‘Hey, we’re the guys here to look at the Barrier, please let us in’? Or is the King himself maybe gonna bring us there?” Sans gave Alphys a playful nudge. Her normally yellow scales reddened.

Gaster rolled his eyes. “What we need to do is show them the official letter that was sent to the lab asking for someone to help collect the data. The guards and the King should know we’re coming.”

“Letter, huh? Didja get that when you volunteered all three of us to do this without asking me and Alphys first?”

“Are you still upset about that?” Gaster replied. “Okay, I know I probably should have asked, but if I hadn’t spoken up someone else would have volunteered. I figured all three of us could use a few more brownie points after the last… incident.”

There was an awkward pause between all three of them. A couple weeks ago, a power transformer they had been working on sparked violently, starting a small fire in their lab. No one got hurt, and the damage was minor, but nobody at the facility had been very happy with them. Gaster continued. “This won’t even take that long – a couple hours, at most. Besides, have either of you ever seen the Barrier?” He glanced back at his colleagues. They both shook their heads. “Neither have I. It’ll be interesting.”

They were almost at the stairs leading up to the castle’s main entrance. If the guards noticed them, they didn’t show any sign of it, remaining as stoic as ever. The scientists paused at the bottom of the steps, and Gaster fished the printed document from his pocket. He unfolded it and looked it over, his confidence wavering. He could usually keep his head in these kinds of situations, but the fact that this task involved royal affairs made him apprehensive. The stares of the ever-watching guards weren’t helping, either.

“Uh… do either of you want to ask them about this?” he asked hopefully, looking back at his friends.

“Nah, I’m good,” Sans answered.

Alphys shook her head. “You got us into this, you should do it.”

“What are you muttering about down there?” a gruff voice said behind them.

Gaster turned quickly to see who had addressed them. A large dragon-monster guard stood in front of the rest of the castle’s lineup, giving them a hard look.

“Oh, uh, nothing!” Gaster answered hastily. “We’re just, uh…” He climbed the steps up to the guard, Sans and Alphys following behind. He showed the letter to the dragon. “Actually, we’re here to look at the Barrier. I’m sure King Asgore told you we’d be coming, right?”

The guard grabbed the paper and looked it over. “Oh yeah, I remember hearing about this.” He stuffed the letter in his own pocket. “Don’t suppose you three have some kinda ID, do you?”

Gaster and Alphys produced their ID cards from the lab, at which the guard gave a nod of approval. Sans had to dig around in his pocket, but finally found his card and held it up for the guard to see. It was far more beat up than the other two, and had a strange stain on one corner. After a couple seconds, the guard nodded, albeit hesitantly.

He turned to the lineup of other guards. “Artan, take these guys up to the Barrier,” he said, pointing at a lion monster.

“Yes, sir. Follow me,” the guard said with a look at the scientists. They gathered up their gear and followed him to the doors. The guard let them enter before stepping into the castle himself. The entrance was large, as expected. The walls were made of gray stone, much smoother and polished than the exterior. A large and ornate rug covered most of the floor. The weak light of the Underground trickled through several small windows placed high above them, and a chandelier hung from the ceiling. Besides a couple chairs pushed up against the walls, the area was otherwise rather empty – almost uncomfortably so.

Artan led them down a side hallway. The scientists followed closely behind in silence. After a moment, he peered back at them. “So… all three of you are scientists?” he asked.

“Yup,” Sans said, nodding. “We’re all huge nerds.”

“Really? You guys don’t look like it.”

“Like scientists?” Gaster raised a brow. “What are we supposed to look like?”

The guard thought. “I dunno. Lab coats, older, kinda stuffy…” He looked directly at Gaster. “I kinda thought you were a bodyguard or something at first.”

“What? Why?”

Artan looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “Uh… mostly ‘cause of the cracks, honestly.”

Of course. Gaster reached up to touch the small crack running over his right brow. It certainly wasn’t the first time someone had made an assumption like that, but it never failed to bother him. “Yeah, uh… those are just from an old accident,” he said. “Trust me, I’m definitely not cut out for the Royal Guard or anything.”

“No kidding,” Sans said, snorting. “Can you even imagine? You’d probably get slaughtered on your first day.”

“Heh, yeah, probably.” He actually found the idea pretty unsettling, but he wouldn’t say anything with an actual guard around.

Artan shrugged. “Well, I guess you’d know better than me.”

***

The rest of the trip was quiet. When words were exchanged, they were usually just one or two-word sentences. Evidently the awkward conversation earlier had set the mood for everyone.

Artan led them onto a couple elevators and through several winding, gray hallways. Soon, the group entered a new hallway that was vastly different from the others. Polished tiles covered the floor, and one wall was covered in detailed murals outlining the history of monsterkind. On the opposite wall were several stained-glass windows. Yellow light filtered through them, casting the hall in a warm glow.

Sans whistled. “Impressive. This must be an important hall.”

“We’re close to the throne room,” Artan explained. “And just beyond that is the Barrier.” He didn’t seem as awed by the corridor as the three visitors. Gaster figured he’d seen it dozens of times before.

Another gray passageway greeted them when they exited the hall, which then led to the throne room. It was even brighter than the golden hallway. King Asgore’s throne sat in the center, surrounded by small yellow flowers. Gaster looked at the flowers at his feet, getting a sinking feeling in his soul. He knew they had come from the surface. That fact might have been exciting in any other context, but every monster in the Underground knew why they were growing here.

The guard led them down a passageway that led to where the Barrier was. At first it steadily got darker, but at some point their surroundings grew lighter again. Gaster’s eyes widened as they entered the Barrier room. It took up a large portion of the back wall, pulsing with white light. The whole area was filled with a strong and alien energy that could only be human magic.

“Feels weird, right?” the guard asked. He stayed near the doorway as the other three walked closer to the Barrier. “There aren’t many things I’m afraid of, but this place kinda gives me the creeps.”

Reading about the Barrier’s effects was one thing, but actually feeling it was entirely different; being this close to such a powerful magical force was indeed a little unsettling. Gaster felt it permeate through his bones, stronger than he could ever hope his own magic could be. It was unlike anything he’d experienced before.

He pushed his discomfort to the back of his mind. Pleasant or not, they had work to do. “Well, we might as well get started,” he said. Kneeling down, he opened his case and looked over the various science instruments, trying to decide which one to set up first.

“And I’ll boot up the laptop,” Alphys offered, taking off her backpack and unzipping it. In almost a whisper she added, “The sooner we start, the sooner we can leave.” Gaster was a little surprised that Alphys wasn’t more enthusiastic - she was usually excited about anything related to humans. She must’ve found the Barrier’s magic particularly uncomfortable.

As they all busied themselves with their setup, Artan stood by the door in silence. After a moment, he took a few more steps into the room. “Do the three of you need anything else? Cuz if you don’t, then I’ll just… leave…” He jerked his thumb at the door awkwardly.

Gaster looked up from the device he was holding. “I think we’re fine. After we take our measurements, we’re heading back to the lab right away.”

“Alright, well, if you do need something there’s, you know… plenty of guards in this place to ask.”

Gaster nodded in acknowledgement. The guard turned back to the entrance and left them to work. Once his footsteps faded away, Alphys looked up from her keyboard. “Huh, he sounded uncomfortable,” she observed.

“No kidding,” Gaster said. “Can’t blame him – the Barrier can do weird things to monsters.”

Alphys snapped her head up in alarm. “What?? L-like what?? Why didn’t you say anything to us??”

Gaster took his eyes off his hands to look over at her. “Did you not read the documents I gave you? Both of you?” During his informal research on the Barrier, he’d been giving anything particularly important to Sans and Alphys. He'd hoped that it would help them all be well-prepared for the excursion, but apparently all of that effort might have gone to waste. He glanced at Sans as well, giving him a questioning look.

“Eh, I read a couple of ‘em,” Sans said, unconcerned. “Don’t remember any warnings about the Barrier.”

“I skimmed most of them, but… i-it’s not anything bad, is it?” Alphys stammered.

“No, no, we’ll be fine,” Gaster reassured her. “It’s just that there’s a lot of powerful and concentrated magic here, and not everyone can handle it. A lot of monsters have reported feeling… uneasy around the Barrier.” He set down the instrument he’d been holding and started looking over another. “The other effects include things like headaches, anxiety, nausea… nothing serious or long-lasting.”

“Well, that’s good to know,” Sans said with mild interest. He’d conjured up a bone and was moving it around aimlessly with his magic.

“Hey, cut that out!” Gaster snatched it out of the air. “The Barrier is really sensitive to any contact with other magic – which you’d know if you’d read anything.” He dropped the bone to the ground, where it disintegrated on impact. “If we hit it with our magic, it’ll react and affect all our work. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not have to go back to the lab without any usable data.”

“Alright, alright, I gotcha,” Sans said. “Geez, you’re such a hardass sometimes.”

“Only when it really matters. What we’re doing today is important.”

Sans still seemed as aloof as ever. “Okay, so… what exactly is all this for? I know the data goes to the Royal Scientist and their team, but what do they do with it?”

Gaster thought back to all the material he’d read about the Barrier study. “I’m… not sure what exactly they look for. I just know the observations started decades ago with one of the previous Royal Scientists. Obviously, the hope is that we can use the information to somehow bring down the Barrier.”

“Why even bother? The easiest thing to do would be to just wait ‘til one more unlucky kid falls down here. Doesn’t take a bunch of engineers to realize that.”

Gaster wished the other skeleton would take this a little more seriously. “Because,” he began, “For one thing, the study began a long time ago when we had fewer human souls. For another, there’s no way to be sure when another human will even come down here. It’s already been… what, 40 or 50 years since the last one?” Gaster looked at the Barrier. “If the human kids living near Mt. Ebott have finally learned and started avoiding it, who knows how long we have to wait. We might as well be proactive about it.”

“Yeah, I guess. Still, there’s always gonna be kids who ignore warnings and do stupid things. Like climb up a cursed mountain.”

Sans wasn’t entirely wrong. Still, it sounded better to try and do something in the meantime rather than sit around waiting – hoping - for the next human to fall down. If scrutinizing the Barrier could lead to their freedom sooner, that’s what Gaster would do.

“Well, either way we still have to do what we were, ahem, ‘assigned,’” Alphys said, with a glance at Gaster. “Where should we start?”

“Probably should start with overall magic levels,” Sans suggested. “We can work on the more complex stuff later.”

Gaster nodded. “Sounds fine to me.” He looked over the open carrying cases, grabbing the correct instrument for reading magic levels. He turned it on and fiddled with some of the settings.

Alphys looked back to her laptop, while Gaster and Sans went over to their other equipment. Gaster immersed himself in his work, calibrating the instruments and discussing the setup with the other two monsters. It actually wasn’t very complicated, but he figured it was best to be extra meticulous considering who the data would be going to.

“HEY!” an unfamiliar voice suddenly shouted, catching him completely off-guard. Looking up, he saw a blue fish-monster standing in the doorway. She held a spear of cyan magic and gave them a piercing look. “What’re you three doing here??” she demanded, glowering at each of the three monsters.

None of them spoke.

She jabbed her spear in their direction threateningly. “Well? Is anyone gonna say something? Or do I have to force you to talk?”

“Wow, okay, take it easy!” Gaster held up his hands . “Why do you need to know? Who even are you?”

“I’m Undyne, and I’m part of the king’s Royal Guard.” Her eyes narrowed. “Now who the hell are you punks?”

“We’re scientists, we’re just here to research the Barrier,” Gaster explained. “All we’re doing is taking some measurements. The head guard even has an official letter that says what we’re doing, go ask him about it.”

“And leave you three all alone again? Yeah, right.” Undyne looked the three monsters up and down. “Why should I even believe you guys are scientists? You don’t have lab coats or anything.”

Sans cocked a brow. “We, uh, don’t really wear lab coats outside the lab. This is fieldwork.”

“Why should we believe you’re a guard? You definitely don’t look like one,” Gaster argued, pointing at her tank top and pants.

“Well, technically I’m off-duty today. But justice never rests! And I’m not gonna just stand by when something looks funny to me!” Undyne tightened the grip on her spear, making sparks of energy fly off. “I’m one of King Asgore’s students, so if you were supposed to be here, he would have told me about it.”

“M-maybe he just forgot to tell you?” Alphys offered. “I mean, he m-must be pretty busy-“

“Asgore wouldn’t forget to tell me anything!” Undyne snapped. “Now, you all need to come with me or else you’ll be in big trouble.”

Gaster frowned. He had a hard time believing this monster was a guard, let alone a student of Asgore’s. "Alright, this is ridiculous,” he said. “I’m going to go find a real guard to deal with you.” He was only able to take a few steps before several blue spears erupted in front of him. He stumbled backwards, nearly falling to the floor.

“I didn’t say you could move!” Undyne barked. “You aren’t going anywhere!”

Gaster’s soul pounded as he looked up from the spears that had almost impaled him. “Can you stop with the arrows already??” he asked indignantly.

“Not until you start listening to me!”

Gaster’s patience was wearing thin. “You aren’t listening to us! I’m trying to tell you what we’re doing here! We’re not up to anything!”

“I’m not taking that chance!” Undyne hurled her spear at the other three monsters. They ducked, letting the attack sail right over their heads. Instead, it collided with the Barrier at the back of the cavern. Waves of cyan magic rippled through it as it absorbed the spear’s energy.

Gaster, Alphys and Sans could only stare helplessly. They hadn’t even gotten a single measurement, and now anything they did take would be unusable. The fish-monster had ruined their entire trip.

“Consider that a warning shot,” she said. “I don’t usually give those, so be thankful for that.”

Gaster turned back to the fish-monster, pointing at the Barrier. “Thankful? Do you have any idea what you just did?! Your magic affected the whole Barrier! Now we can’t even do what we came here for!”

“Then I’ve done my job. Now, if you still don’t come with me, I’ll-“

There was a loud ‘PING!’. Undyne’s soul lit up with blue light, and she was jerked a few feet in the air. She flailed her limbs as her remaining arrows dissipated. Below her, Sans kept firm control over her soul through her struggling.

“HEY! WHAT THE HELL??” she snarled down at him.

“Hey, don’t take it personally. I think your desire to protect the kingdom is uplifting, but you’re being kind of a problem right now.” He turned to Alphys. “I can hold her while you and G go find an actual guard to help us with this.” The fish-monster kept thrashing and twisting her body, trying in vain to break free of the blue magic. “… Just, uh, try to be quick about it.”

Alphys scurried to Gaster's side and they began hurrying towards the exit. She looked up at him once they were out of earshot. “A-are you okay??” she fretted. “You could’ve been killed!”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he told her. He was still rattled, but at least he was in one piece. “We really need to find someone before-“

They heard a loud bellow behind them. Gaster looked back right as Undyne threw a spear down at Sans. Startled, he jumped sideways out of its direct path, but it still managed to graze his arm. He yelled out in pain, and Undyne fell to the ground as he lost his hold on her soul.

“SANS!” Gaster and Alphys both exclaimed, running back over to his side. Undyne took the opportunity to scramble back to her feet as they tended to their friend.

“Maybe now you’ll follow my orders,” she growled, conjuring up another spear. “I’m not in the mood for games.”

Gaster bristled, whipping around to face her. “What the fuck is your problem?!” he shouted, gesturing at the other skeleton. “Sans wasn’t even attacking you! You had no reason to do that!”

Undyne clutched her spear with both hands, adopting a battle stance. “Threatening a guard is a serious offense!” she retorted. “And using soul magic counts! You’re all gonna be in deep shit when I’m done with you!”

As they both glared at each other, something inside Gaster finally snapped. He’d had more than enough of this monster, and he wasn’t going to keep waiting around for someone else to come and help. “Alright, that is it.” He stepped towards her. “You threatened us, you ruined our work, and now you’re attacking us! I am done with you!”

Before Undyne could make another move, he gathered up his own magic and started summoning an attack. Two large, beastly skulls quickly materialized on either side of him. They didn’t look like the skull of any existing creature - their bottom jaws were split down the middle and filled with long teeth, and they were adorned with small spikes. White rings of light glowed from their orbits, eyeing their target. Undyne gaped in disbelief.

Gaster stared her down, eye sockets completely black. “Now,” he said icily. “Are you going to cut it out, or do you want to try attacking us again? Because if you do…”

The skulls opened their jaws, magic gathering in their mouths.

“…You are REALLY not going to like what happens next.”

Undyne didn't say anything. She obviously had fighting experience, but by the look on her face, she’d never encountered magic like this. Gaster hoped it would be intimidating enough to make her stop assailing them.

After a moment, she snapped out of her stupor, her face hardening with resolve. “I am not backing down,” she said, looking Gaster in the eye. “I’m staying right here.”

He hadn’t been expecting that response. He’d been certain she would give up or run - everyone else did when they first saw his Blasters. It hadn’t even crossed his mind to make a Plan B.

Shit. Shit shit shit, this was a stupid idea! What had he been thinking? What was he supposed to do now?? He felt his control on the Blasters slipping, riling them up even more. He refocused, reining them back in before they could fire at the fish-monster. Somehow, he managed to keep his outward expression from reflecting his inner state. The best he could do was stall until he either thought of something else or someone finally showed up. “…Well, I’m not backing down either,” he finally said. “Not until you agree to quit it.”

“Well, there’s no way in hell I’m doing that!”

“Then I guess we’ve reached a stalemate.”

There was a pause. Gaster wondered if she was reconsidering what she was doing. Suddenly, Undyne jumped aside in an attempt to surprise him. Just as quickly, one of the magical skulls fired off a small blast of magic that hit a couple feet in front of her. Not close or powerful enough to hurt her, but enough to stop her in her tracks.

She glared again at the skeleton, and he returned the look. “Consider that a warning shot,” he said. She growled in frustration.

Gaster wasn’t entirely sure how much of that last shot was him and how much was the Blaster’s doing. His panic grew. What was he supposed to do if she did that again? He didn’t actually want to hurt her. He didn’t want any of this. He prayed that things wouldn’t escalate further.

They continued their staredown. Nobody moved or said a word. Gaster occasionally heard shuffling noises from the two monsters behind him, but it was otherwise quiet. After a few long minutes, Gaster broke the silence. “Alphys, how’s Sans doing?” he asked, without turning back to look at her. He didn’t dare take his eyes off of Undyne.

“Uh, he’s… alright, I think. I-it’s not too bad,” the lizard monster replied.

“’M okay,” Sans groaned unconvincingly.

“See? Your friend is fine,” Undyne said. “So how about you put your freaky skull things away and-“

“Yeah, I don’t think so.” The blasters opened their jaws a bit more. His desire to protect his friends outweighed his reluctance to use his attack. He wasn’t going to give her any leeway.

She scowled, tightening the grip on her spear. “You can’t keep this up forever. You’ll exhaust your magic sooner or later.”

“I don’t need to last forever - I just need to outlast you. Unless you just want to give up right now?”  Gaster knew there was no way he had more stamina than her, but she didn’t know that. As long as he acted confident, she might actually believe him.

She didn’t seem to be fazed. “No way am I going to submit to some punk bag of bones like you. I’m not afraid of you or your weird attack!” One of the Blasters snapped at her; Undyne instinctively took half a step back.

“If you say so,” Gaster replied, shrugging. He couldn’t help but smirk a little.

Undyne glared harder at him. “God, you are such an asshole.”

He scoffed. “I’m an asshole? You attacked us first! You’re the one who’s playing vigilante here!”

“I’m not a vigilante! I told you I’m a Royal Guard!”

“A real Royal Guard would be protecting citizens, not terrorizing them!”

“Terrorizing??” Undyne snarled. “You have a LOT of nerve accusing me-“

“What on Earth is going on over here?” a low voice interrupted from the hallway. Gaster watched as King Asgore himself stepped into the room, ducking his head to avoid hitting the top of the door. His eyes widened when he saw the scene before him. “Oh, my.”

“Y-your majesty!” Gaster stammered, his concentration breaking. The Blasters grumbled a little before dissipating in a cloud of purple magic. The skeleton had never felt more relieved. “Thank god you’re here!” He pointed at Undyne. “I don’t know who this thug thinks she is, but-“

“These three punks are here without permission!” Undyne interjected. “The short guy used magic on me, and then beanpole here threatened me with his crazy skull creatures-“

“You attacked us! You hit Sans with your spear!”

“You guys weren’t LISTENING to me-“

“Alright, alright, everyone settle down!” Asgore held up a large hand to silence both of them. He walked over to Undyne. “Is this why I didn’t find you in the garden for your training session?”

Gaster froze. Training session?

“Well, yeah!” she replied. “I had to keep an eye on them! I didn’t know whether they were supposed to be here or not!”

Gaster’s relief at the king’s arrival quickly turned to dread. Undyne really was one of Asgore's students. If that was the case, there was no way he’d be getting out of this situation unscathed.

Asgore looked over at the three scientists. “And what are you doing here, exactly?”

Gaster started as the king addressed them. “Oh, uh, we were just… collecting data on the Barrier - I mean, at least we were going to. But then this fish-monster came in and interrupted us.”

“Oh, yes. You must be the ones from the Barrier study.”

“Wait, what??” Undyne asked incredulously. “You knew they were coming? Why didn’t I hear about this??”

“I must have forgotten to mention it,” Asgore said. “…Even so, you are not on duty today. All you came here for was to meet with me, not take care of suspected criminals. You should have brought it up to another guard, at the very least.” He glanced back at the doorway. “And I would have expected you to stay within the throne room while these three were working.”

Undyne opened her mouth to protest, but closed it again without a word. Asgore turned back to the scientists. “Now, what happened that led to the, ah… confrontation that I saw?” he asked, looking at Gaster again.

“Uh…” He grew cold. How could he ever explain pulling his attack out on one of the king’s students? “I… uh, I-I mean, we - we were just… Undyne was going to - I mean, I-I would never actually-“

“Gaster only used his attack after she hit me,” Sans interjected.

Both monsters looked over at the skeleton. “We were just setting up when she kinda… barged in here and demanded we come with her. We all tried to explain ourselves but she wouldn’t listen, and she started throwin’ spears at us.” He glanced over at Undyne, who only glared back. “I tried to restrain her with my magic first, but then she got me with one of her spears. G used his magic before she could attack us again.” Alphys stayed quiet, but backed Sans up with a lot of nodding, avoiding looking directly at Asgore.

“Hey, you left out the part where your friend fired at me,” Undyne contended.

Gaster faltered. “W-well, yeah - but I missed you by like, two feet!” he countered. “You gave us a warning shot first, so I figured I’d return the favor.”

Asgore gave him a questioning look. “You fired your attack at her?”

“I… did… but that was after she tried to attack us first, and after she hurt Sans. I didn’t actually want to hurt her, but I – I didn’t know how else to get her to stop,” he answered. It was a terrible explanation, he realized. He was doomed.

“I see,” Asgore said. “You are aware that attacking a Royal Guard is punishable by law, aren’t you?”

“Of course, but…”

Once again, Sans jumped in. “With all due respect, Your Majesty, Gaster – all of us – were just trying to defend ourselves. We had no idea if she was actually a guard or just some random monster that was trying to kill us.”

Asgore’s expression became thoughtful. “Hmm… that is a fair point.” He turned to Undyne. “Did you show these three any proof you were a Royal Guard? Your badge, perhaps?”

Undyne looked away. “Well, no. I don’t have it with me.”

“Did you ask anyone else about them before you came in here?”

“Uhhhhh… no. I thought I could deal with them by myself.” Her ear-fins drooped slightly.

Asgore sighed. “Undyne, please wait for me out in the gold hall. We’ll talk more when I’m done here.”

“Yes, Asgore.” She shuffled out of the room.

Asgore watched until she was gone before turning back to the three monsters before him. He’d barely opened his mouth before Gaster decided to speak first.

“King Asgore, before you decide anything, I just want to remind you that these two didn’t do anything,” he sputtered, gesturing at his companions. “I was the one who escalated things!”

“What? No, you weren’t,” Sans interrupted. “She attacked us first, G, don’t take the fall for this.”

“I fired at her! A Royal Guard!”

“Okay, that’s enough,” Asgore said. “Let’s all calm back down.”

Gaster couldn’t relax very much, but fell quiet. He noticed Sans grimace a bit, adjusting his grip on his arm. Alphys took a step towards him. “Sans? A-are you okay?”

Sans hesitated. “Yeah, I’m alright. Just hurts a little.” Gaster couldn’t help but roll his eyes; Sans could be bleeding out on the floor and he would still insist he was fine.

Asgore looked at Sans with concern. “I suppose we should do something about your arm. I can heal it, if you’d like me to.”

“… Really?”

“Of course,” he said. “You did get injured by one of my students, after all. I think I should take partial responsibility.”

Sans looked down at his arm uncertainly. “Well, sure, if you really wanna.” He walked up to the king, carefully taking his hand off the wound. The boss monster held a large paw over it, glowing softly with green magic. After a few seconds, Sans was fully healed.

Asgore took a step back. “Is that better?”

Sans relaxed. “Yeah, a lot better. Thanks.” He rubbed the place where the injury used to be. “You, uh, really didn’t have to do that, you know.”

“Oh, it’s hardly any trouble.” Asgore was quiet for a moment, scratching his beard thoughtfully. “You know, I should’ve remembered to tell Undyne about you all coming. She may be a guard, and has lots of potential, but she’s still fairly new. She also tends to be … rash in situations like this. I can’t blame you too much for trying to defend yourselves. How about we just put this all behind us and move on?”

Gaster stared at the boss monster. “But…Undyne is a guard. And one of your students! I almost hurt her! Aren’t you mad about that?”

Asgore chuckled a little. “I certainly could be. But believe me, it would take more than one attack to take Undyne down. You didn’t even want to hurt her in the first place, right?”

Gaster could hardly process what was happening. The king was completely serious. “In any case,” the boss monster continued. “I hope she didn’t derail your work too much.”

“Well…” Gaster rubbed the back of his neck. “Actually, Undyne kind of wrecked everything. We were supposed to observe the Barrier under normal circumstances, but one of her spears ended up hitting it. It’s really sensitive to contact with magic, so… now it’s not normal. We’d have to wait until it goes back to its regular state.”

“Oh.” Asgore furrowed his brow. “And how long will that take?”

Gaster could only shrug. “A few days, at least – probably longer. It depends on how powerful her magic was.” More potent magic was known to affect the Barrier for weeks. Undyne’s spears didn’t look like a particularly strong attack individually, but there was no way of knowing exactly how powerful it was. An uncontrolled variable like that would make things much more complicated if they tried to take any measurements now.

The king sighed. “Undyne…” He rubbed the bridge of his nose. The fish-monster was definitely giving him a run for his money. “There isn’t anything you’d be able to do here?”

“’Fraid not,” Sans said. “Everything we were going to do involved the Barrier.”

“I see.” Asgore looked over at the magical construct that trapped his people underground. “I’m really sorry about this whole mess; I should have remembered to tell Undyne.” He turned back to the scientists. “So, what are you going to do now?”

Gaster shrugged again. “Well, I guess we go back to the lab and tell them that the Barrier got disrupted before we could do anything. Someone else will have to come back here later to get measurements.”

“In that case, I can have a message sent to your lab explaining what happened, if that would help. I wouldn’t want you to get in trouble for something that wasn’t your fault.”

The skeleton blinked. He looked at Sans and Alphys, who looked as surprised as he was. He hadn’t expected Asgore to let any of them off the hook, let alone get involved with their employers. “Uh, yeah, s-sure… if you really want to.”

“Well, of course. It’s the least I can do to make up for all this. Is there anything else I can help you with?”

Gaster felt guilty about how much the king was doing for them already. “No, I don’t think so,” he said. “You’ve helped a lot already.”

“Then I suppose I shouldn’t keep you any longer. I’ll leave you to pack up all your things. You all take care, now. And you two…” He looked at the skeletons. “Just be careful with your magic.”

Sans shrugged. “Personally, I don’t think you have much to worry about. But yeah, we can do that.”

Satisfied, Asgore finally left the room. After a moment of shocked silence, Alphys laughed nervously. “Well, that was… something.”

“It really was,” Gaster agreed distantly, not taking his eyes off the exit.

Sans looked at him suspiciously. “You don’t feel guilty about any of this, do you? ‘Cause you really don’t need to.”

“I… I don’t know. Maybe?” Gaster started walking back over to their equipment. “I don’t get why Asgore would do anything for us after all this.”

“I think he’s just l-like that,” Alphys said. “He likes helping where he can.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” Gaster agreed. “I guess I also feel… embarrassed, or something?” He sighed. “I should’ve controlled my emotions better. I really don’t like anyone to see that side of me.”

“Well, that side of you saved our butts today, so I’m not complainin’,” Sans said as he followed the other skeleton.

“Hey, you argued us out of getting in trouble.I would’ve been done for if you hadn’t come along.”

“Well, you also tried to take the blame for everything,” Alphys chimed in. “Which was really dumb, by the way.”

“I didn’t want anything to happen to you guys! We’re only here today because of me.”

“G.” Sans adopted a more serious tone. “Literally no one could have guessed this would happen. None of this was your fault.”

“Don’t forget that Sans used his magic, too,” Alphys pointed out. “And, uh, maybe the two of us could have done more to de-escalate things… or something.”

Sans nodded. “Either way, Undyne was the one who started it all. As far as I’m concerned, she can take most of the blame.” He put the last item into his case and closed it. “Look, let’s just get back to the lab, deal with not having any data, and forget about this whole day.”

“I’m good with that,” Alphys said.

“Fine with me.” Gaster was more than happy to leave and never have to deal with the Barrier – or Undyne – ever again.

***

None of them spoke as they left the Barrier room. Whether they got in trouble over it or not, they weren’t excited to have to go back to work with nothing, and the impending disappointment hung over them like a storm cloud. They proceeded down the hallway to the throne room, the light gradually getting stronger. The throne room greeted them with its full brightness and garden, but they didn’t stay around to appreciate their surroundings.

At this point the silence had become unbearable. “What do you think will happen to Undyne?” Alphys finally asked, stopping before they entered the next hall.

“Who knows,” Gaster said. “Asgore said she still had things to work on. If that’s true, then maybe she shouldn’t even be a guard.”

“I-I don’t know… maybe she should get a second chance. Like Asgore said, she just n-needs to work on a few things,” Alphys said.

Both Gaster and Sans stopped and looked back at her. She looked away quickly. “I-I mean, what happened wasn’t okay, but, uh, she… she has all the good qualities of a guard, too!”

Sans cocked a brow. “Alphys, she hit me. That’s kind of a big deal.”

“N-no, that wasn’t good, b-but I just…” She trailed off, blushing.

For a moment, the skeletons stared at her. Then Sans began to snicker. “Alphys, do you like her or something?” he asked.

“W-w-what?? No! Don’t be ridiculous! That’s- you don’t-“ Alphys stumbled over her words again, stepping back. “W-we don’t even know her!”

“Dang, Alphys, falling for Asgore and his apprentice. What, does she remind you of an anime warrior princess?”

“Shut up!” Alphys hissed, face reddening even more.

Gaster rolled his eyes. “Knock it off, Sans. I don’t think we’re really in the mood for this.”

The other skeleton chuckled. “Sorry, Al. It’s just… she doesn’t seem like the type you’d be into. But hey, I won’t judge.”

Alphys grumbled. “Can we just forget about it? I doubt they’d ever send us back here, s-so… it’s not like I’ll ever see her again.”

“And I, for one, am grateful for that,” Gaster muttered. The mere thought of ever having to deal with Undyne again aggravated him. They left the throne room and garden behind, stepping into the so-called Golden Hallway. Several smaller hallways branched off of it on one side. Gaster scanned the wall opposite the windows, trying to remember which passage they’d come from. His eyes drifted up to the mural painted on the wall above the pillars. He hadn’t gotten a good look on the way to the Barrier, but now he noticed some of the more grisly scenes. Among the depictions of the monsters’ achievements and portraits of notable individuals, there were many images of the war with the humans long ago – some of which were surprisingly graphic. It was a jarring contrast to the serenity of the rest of the hall.

“Um… I think we c-came from the fourth one down,” Alphys said, averting her gaze. “The one under the part of the mural with… a bunch of humans stabbing a monster.”

“Pretty gross, huh?” another voice said.

Gaster snapped his head in the direction the voice had come from. Undyne emerged from behind one of the pillars of the hall, flashing a toothy grin at the small group.

Apparently the universe just hated the skeleton today. “Shouldn’t you be with Asgore by now?” he asked her flatly.

Undyne leaned against the pillar, crossing her arms. “Normally, yeah. He said he had to send something to your bosses or whatever first and told me to keep waiting here.” She looked at the three of them in turn. “So, you guys are leaving?”

“Well, yeah,” Sans replied. “We can’t really do anything with the Barrier right now.”

Undyne grumbled in annoyance. “Look, I’m sorry, I know I fucked up. But can you really blame me for assuming you were up to something when no one ever told me about you guys?” She looked directly at Gaster. “And it’s not like you’re entirely blameless, either.”

Any lingering guilt he had been feeling instantly evaporated. “Hey, you started it!” he contended. “We tried to reason with you, and you started throwing magic attacks at us. Did you expect us to just take it?” Undyne didn’t respond, so he went on. “Clearly, you don’t have the right temperament for a Royal Guard. I’d be surprised if Asgore didn’t fire you over this.”

The fish monster snorted. “Fire me? As if. I’ve known Asgore since I was a kid. It’ll take more than one little misunderstanding to get me kicked out of the Guard.”

“Little?” Gaster echoed. “You hit Sans, you ruined our observations, everyone at work will be pissed at us because we have no data… ‘little’ is an understatement!”

“Okay, fine, it wasn’t just a little misunderstanding. I said I was sorry, what more do you want from me?”

“You could leave us alone, for starters. The king can take care of the rest.”

Gaster felt a nudge and noticed Sans was now standing next to him. “G, come on, let’s just go. It’s not worth dealing with her.”

Gaster gave Undyne one last look before taking a deep breath. “Yeah, you’re right.” He turned back to the passage that they’d been heading to. “Well, if you’re done with your half-assed apology, we’ll be going on our way.”

“Woah, hey, not so fast!” Undyne rushed forward, stopping right in front of him. “Okay, look, we got off on the wrong foot there. I was actually thinking maybe we could… talk a little?”

Gaster glared down at her. “Forget it. I think you’ve interacted with us enough for-“

“I don’t wanna talk with all you punks,” Undyne interrupted. “Just you, tall guy.”

He raised a brow. “You can’t be serious.”

“Look, just hear me out,” said the fish-monster. “If you don’t like what I say, then you and your pals can leave and I’ll never bother you again, I swear.”

Gaster peered back at the other two monsters. Sans shrugged hesitantly and Alphys looked away, but neither objected to letting him and Undyne talk. The skeleton turned back to her. “Fine. Tell me what you want to – but make it quick.” He set down his case of equipment and folded his arms.

Undyne grinned in satisfaction. Gaster was unsettled; less than an hour ago she'd been ready to kill them all, but now she was eager to make small talk with him. He was starting to question her sanity.

“Okay, so… you’ve got a pretty powerful special attack, huh?”

Gaster blinked. Of all the topics she might have wanted to discuss, he hadn’t expected her to ask about his magic. “I... suppose?” he answered.

“How powerful are those skull things, exactly?”

Gaster already didn’t like where this conversation was going. “I don’t really know, honestly. I’ve never tested them or anything. All I know is that whatever I’ve used them on has gotten really damaged or destroyed.”

Undyne nodded. “Interesting. And what kind of things have you used them on?”

The skeleton tried to remember everything he’d fired his Blasters at. “Things at the dump, boulders, tree stumps… textbooks that your college won’t buy back… that kind of stuff. Nothing important.”

“But have you like, used them on another monster? I know you gave me a warning shot back there, but-”

“What? No, of course not! I wouldn’t want to actually hurt someone with them! Did you not hear me say that to the king?”

“Hey, chill, it was just a question.”

Gaster narrowed his eyes. Was she really interested in his magic, or was she just trying to get a rise out of him? “What exactly are you getting at? I told you to make this quick, so cut to the chase already.”

Undyne grumbled. “Alright, fine.” She paused to think about what to say next. “Uh, okay, I bet this’ll sound crazy, but… have you ever thought about joining the Royal Guard?”

He stiffened. “Joining the Royal Guard?"

“Well, yeah, why not?” Undyne gave him another toothy smile. “You’ve got a hell of an attack, and I’m sure you’re a little tougher than you look. Plus, it looks like you’ve seen your fair share of scuffles, right?”

Gaster looked away sheepishly. Everyone seemed to be interested in the fractures today. “Uh, not exactly. The cracks are just from a stupid accident.”

“Oh,” Undyne said, slightly less enthusiastic. “Well still, you haven’t ever thought about becoming a Royal Guard?”

“Not really, no.”

“Come on, I’m sure you’d be fine! You might even be really good at it.”

“No.” Gaster tried stepping around her, but she blocked him.

“Can’t you at least think it over for a bit?”

He scowled. “What part of ‘no’ don’t you understand? I’m not joining the Royal Guard.”

“Why the hell not?” Undyne demanded. “You want to waste all that potential just to do a bunch of nerd stuff? You’d be a huge asset against a human! Don’t you care about the rest of monsterkind??”

“Of course I do! But I don’t want to do this!” Gaster shot back, gesturing at the violent art above them. “Didn’t you say you would leave me alone if I didn’t like what you said? Because I really don’t.”

“Well, I didn’t actually expect you to refuse an invitation to the Royal Guard,” Undyne spat. “It’s not just about you, this involves every monster that’s trapped down here. Think about everyone else!”

“What I do with my life is none of your business! I worked hard to get where I am, and I’m not throwing it all away to work with some brute like you.” He tried to step around the fish monster a second time, but she blocked his path again.

“If you would just listen-“

“No, I’m done listening to you! So back off!” The skeleton finally managed to outmaneuver Undyne, storming off in the direction he and his companions had been headed. Sans and Alphys followed after him, leaving Undyne behind in the hall.

***

In the castle’s gray passages, Gaster stewed in his own thoughts. He should’ve known better than to let Undyne talk to him after seeing his attack. Of course the only thing she cared about was how strong his magic was. Of course she didn’t care what he’d already chosen to do with his life. Of course she would try to get him to join the Royal Guard. And of course she’d say he was selfish when he refused.

He’d heard it all before. Several times.

“G, wait up!” Sans called from behind him, pulling him out of his thoughts. Gaster slowed down. Part of him wanted to stay far ahead of them to process his emotions alone, but leaving Sans and Alphys behind would make it harder for any of them to find their way back. He decided to stop, but barely acknowledged his friends once they reached him.

Alphys looked up at the skeleton. “Gaster, um… a-are you okay?” she asked.

Gaster huffed. “No, not really.” He started walking again.

“Geez, she sure pissed you off back there,” Sans remarked.

“It isn’t just her. It’s…” Gaster hesitated. “Never mind. It’s nothing.”

“Sure doesn’t seem like it.”

“It’s lame, old family drama. I’m sure you don’t want to hear about it.” Usually he’d tell his friends at least a little about something that was bothering him, but talking about his family was particularly uncomfortable. As far as he remembered, he’d never talked to Sans or Alphys about them.

“Family drama?” Sans repeated. “Like, your mom and sister?”

“Oh, god, no. It’s on my dad’s side of the family.”

Alphys’s eyes widened. “Your dad’s side? I’ve never heard you mention anyone else in your family.”

“Yeah. It’s not exactly my favorite subject,” Gaster admitted. “I probably shouldn’t be letting it get to me this much.” He hadn’t even seen his relatives in a long time. Surely nothing they’d ever said should still bother him at this point in his life.

Alphys looked up at him with concern. “Would, um, talking more about it help?”

He slowed down a little. “I’m not sure. I’ve never told you guys anything about this, so...”

“I-I mean, you don’t have to,” Alphys added. “But we’d both listen. Right, Sans?”

“Sure,” he replied. “Listening is pretty easy.”

Gaster mulled it over. “… Alright, I could tell you a little bit. Just don’t judge me or anything, okay?”

“What, didja murder someone?” Sans quipped. “Cuz I might have some problems with that.”

Gaster laughed a little, despite himself. “No, it’s not quite that bad.” He walked over to a nearby wall and leaned back against it. “Well, to make a long story short, when I was growing up I had a lot of family members telling me to join the Royal Guard because of my special attack. No matter how many times I said no, someone would always bring it back up. It was a big deal for most of them.”

“Why’s that?” Sans set his case down on its edge and sat on it, careful not to tip it over.

“That would be the long version,” Gaster replied. “There’s a lot to it.”

“Like…?” Alphys prompted.

Did they really want to know more? Gaster worried about what they might think if he gave them all the details. Then again, these two were far different from anyone in his family. It wasn't likely that his friends would have the same mindset as they did.

He took a deep breath before starting. “For starters, having Blasters is something that runs in my dad’s side of the family. They’ve always been a source of family pride. It’s pretty rare, but once in a while someone ends up with them.”

“When I was little I would hear stories from my relatives about monsters who had the Gaster Blasters. Almost everyone who got them ended up in the Royal Guard or something similar. Back then, I loved hearing about them, and before my magic developed I wanted so badly to end up with the Blasters, too.  When I passed the age most monster kids started using magic and still wasn’t able to do anything, I wanted them even more.”

“And then finally-“- Gaster threw his hands in the air - “The day came when I could use magic, and the first thing I conjure up is a pair of Blasters. Both my dad and I were pretty excited about it, but right after I told him, he sat me down and gave me a serious talk about how dangerous they could be. He told me that I had to be careful with them so I wouldn’t accidentally hurt someone. They have a mind of their own sometimes, so if you don’t know how to control them…”

He decided not to finish that thought. “And that’s when I realized what having the Blasters really meant. They weren’t just a cool magic attack anymore. They were weapons.” Gaster shifted uncomfortably. “The thought of actually having to hurt or even kill someone made me feel sick. If I went into anything like law enforcement or the Royal Guard, I knew I’d probably have to do that at some point, and that really upset me. One day I finally asked my dad if I would have to be in the Guard someday just because of my magic, and he said it was up to me. I could do whatever I wanted to, whether it involved the Blasters or not. And I was pretty happy with that.”

“But the rest of the family wasn’t too thrilled that I didn’t want to be a guard. They tried to bring it up all the time, but Dad would just shoot them down. I didn’t have to hear much about it for a long time.” Gaster sighed. “But after he died, pretty much all courtesy on the subject got thrown out the window. My mom and sister were still supportive of me, of course, but my relatives weren’t afraid to share their thoughts.”

His voice grew bitter. “Every time we had a gathering with them, at least one person would mention it. ‘Hey W.D., have you thought any more about enlisting into the King’s forces?’ ‘Come on, you’d do great in the Royal Guard!’ ‘How could you just waste a gift like that? Stop being selfish and think about the rest of monsterkind!’” He shook his head. “When I decided I wanted to go into the sciences, they became even more determined to change my mind. But I managed to hold my ground. After my dad first talked to me about the Blasters, I promised myself that I’d never use my attack on anybody – and I wanted to keep it that way.”

“But… what about today?” Alphys asked cautiously.

“Pfft, threatening someone with the Blasters is different than actually using them. I’ve summoned them a few times when going through the sketchy parts of the city and such. Just seeing them is enough to scare any troublemakers off.” For a second, he actually did feel proud to have them. “I was sure Undyne would do the same. Then when she didn’t, I kind of… panicked. It had never even crossed my mind to make a backup plan.” He looked away, embarrassed. He should have known better than to assume that someone who’d had fighting experience would turn tail and run.

“Look, the Blasters are a strong attack even without training. I don’t know how much damage mine could do to someone in one blast, but I know they have the potential to dust all kinds of monsters in one shot.” He looked at the floor. “If I wanted to, I could kill almost any monster in the Underground. Maybe even a human, if I really dedicated myself. It’s… kind of horrifying, honestly. I don’t like to think about it.”

An uncomfortable silence fell over the three of them. Gaster wondered if he’d given them too much information at once - or worse, that they felt the same way his relatives did.

Sans finally spoke up. “Geez, that’s some heavy stuff. I can see why Undyne aggravated you so much.”

Gaster released some of the tension he hadn’t even realized he was holding. “Yeah, everything she said was what everyone else told me about a hundred times. It brought up a lot of bad memories.”

“I bet,” Alphys said. “They all sound like a bunch of… well, jerks.”

“Well, some of them weren’t that bad about it.” Gaster shrugged. “But I hardly see them anymore, so if anyone still has a problem with it, at least I don’t have to hear their whining.”

He realized he did feel a little better now that he’d talked about his thoughts. It was even more reassuring knowing his friends were on his side. With a stretch, he stepped away from the wall. “Welp, I hope you guys enjoyed my tragic backstory.”

Alphys snorted. “Oh yeah, I loved it. Now we all know about each other’s tortured pasts, right?”

“Hey, we’re all still young. There’s still plenty of time for tragedy,” Sans said as he got up from his makeshift seat.

Gaster chuckled. “Wow, okay. That’s pretty dark.”

“What, I’m not allowed to do dark humor?”

“No, it’s just… weird, coming from you.”

“Hey, I’m more than just puns, you know.”

“Ah, of course. I just forgot in the deluge of wordplay you flood me and Alphys with every day.”

Somewhere in the city, a clock started chiming the hour. Alphys looked at her phone to confirm the time. “Oh geez, have we been standing here long? We need to get going again!”

“Alph, it’s only been like, 5 minutes.” Sans patted her shoulder. “We’re fine.”

“We should get moving again, though,” Gaster said. “If we take too long, someone might suspect we’re avoiding work altogether.” He grabbed the case sitting beside him.

They finally resumed walking, managing to remember the way they came in among the numerous passages of the castle. As they traveled, Sans slid over next to Alphys. “So,” he began. “About that fish-girl we just met – I bet you think she’d be a reel catch, huh?”

Alphys blushed. “Sans, I swear to god-“

“Hey, no need to be bassful about your new crush. Or are you still more interested in Asgore?”

Alphys got even redder, but the skeleton didn’t relent. “I think you have a chance with him, too. But first you goat to get his attention, be-fur someone else does.”

“Ugghhh!” Alphys shoved him away, making him snicker. “Gaster, can you get him to stop??”

Gaster smirked. “No, you kids need to settle this by yourselves.”

“Not you, too!”

He looked back at her quizzically. “What do you mean? I didn’t- ...oh, god.” He smacked his forehead. Kids. “Sans, stop corrupting me.”

“Whale, if you don’t like goat puns, I can go back to fish.” Sans caught up to Gaster. “My goat puns are kind of crappie anyways. So hey, any ideas on how Alphys can fin over Asgore or fish-girl? It’s fine if you need to mullet over for a bit. Personally, I think she should be honest about her eelings, but I trout she’d want to be that up front about it-“

“Sans,” Gaster said.

“Yeah?”

“Will you please shut up?”

[frogdogloghogfog]

Behind the Scenes - Part 4: Graphic Design and Lettering

“Graphic design is my passion.” Memes aside, as pointed out in my post about visual influences, the original Frog Dog Log short was aiming for a very specific aesthetic, and being the type to commit to the bit, I wanted the title cards of the film to reflect this as well. And for timeline’s sake, most of this takes place in January 2016. 

Instead of aping the actual title cards of the shorts I was influenced by, I instead turned to old 50s/60s magazine advertisements. Thanks in part to archiving Tumblrs I’ve followed over the years, I came across some ads for Sealtest Ice Cream and Budweiser that really captured the look that I thought would work, but unfortunately neither of these had the letters I would need recreate “Frog Dog Log” correctly in my mind. From my limited knowledge, I thought Bodoni might be it, but it wasn’t quite there when I retyped the ads. Frustrated, I went so far as to ask Font ID what the Budweiser ad’s typeface might be, and they suggested some similar options, but concluded that it was probably hand-lettered. I made the mock-up seen at the top of this post from that, but was not very pleased with it...

Unaccepting of defeat, I (actually) hiked up to Glendale’s Brand Library, who deserve I highest of shoutouts for their collection of art related materials. There, I found numerous books collecting fonts and typefaces from the last century or so. And instead of checking them out and carrying them all back home, I sat in the library for a few hours and scoured through each one, going through and redrawing the letters I needed from types I liked into my notepad, also jotting the book titles and typeface info. My hope at least, was that with this info I could go back home and find digital versions of these typefaces... but luck was not on my side. By this point, work was starting to come in and I put this pad, and this project, aside for awhile.

In that year long break from Frog Dog Log, I made two Brazey shorts for which I insisted on hand-lettering all of my credits without reference. So when I finally got around to making and finishing Hog & Fog a year later, I thought I’d do the same, but then I came back to this notepad for the main titles. Amusingly, I ended up going with the first font I referenced... and while I didn’t have an H to reference, it’s a simple enough letter that I could make it up from what I had. To digitally recreate the letters, I actually just put the page on my Cintiq screen and traced over with the stylus. I would repeat this process again on the final Frog Dog Log short, though all the lettering in Frog’s meta-short was done with my non-dominant left hand, marking my first recorded left-handed animation.

I can semi-safely say, this is the most researched aspect of Frog Dog Log as a whole, and probably the least noticed. But that’s what I do...

[imadethisatage11]

Live-blogging my reaction to Spiral: from the book of saw

Spoilers under the cut

TL;DR: my overall review is that it was good but I’m going to go watch DPS to cleanse me

- ok so that woman got robbed and for what

- I had to pause to find out who this detective’s actor was Bc it was driving me nuts and it’s MCMURRAY FROM LETTERKENNY???

- love that they’re gonna fuck up this train conductors day lmao

- LOVE genuinely that we’re back to looking gritty and having an old tv play the video and having some rapid cut camera work early 2000’s vibes I embrace you

- why does the voice sound like that,, I wasn’t expecting John but why is it so non threatening now it’s literally just Some Guy™️

- I am glad I paid $15 to listen to Chris Rock talk about Forrest Gump. Worth my money and I mean it genuinely I love Chris Rock he’s great. Stream Everybody Hates Chris on Hulu

- “Z?” Zeke who just had his cover blown: this MF

- “do I look like a fucking Jamaican nanny?!” I- 😀🤚🏽

- ayo Max Minghella

- Chris Rock falling just short of being convincingly aggressively cynical Bc he is Chris Rock with the voice of Chris Rock

- it sounds like he’s setting up jokes that don’t have punchlines and instead they’re just like,, mediocre cynic cop dialogue

- while looking at some pretty fucking intact teeth: this bum is gonna be pretty hard to ID

- I mean I guess the homeless don’t have dental records but were you not even gonna try?

- I’m very pleased Chris Rock put on gloves before handling the strange package I love actually smart character choices that would make sense for them to make

- I.e. the cop knows how to properly handle unexpected unmarked packages delivered to the precinct

- “I thought the jigsaw killer was dead” “well if it’s another copy cat…” another wait is that referring to Logan (which Logan pinned on the other coincidentally crooked cop whose name I’ve forgotten) does that imply Logan only did like? The one trap? And hasn’t been active? Just waited ten years after John died recreates the one trap he was in and then stops?? I mean don’t get me wrong if movie wants to ignore Jigsaw (2017)’s existence I’m game but like what

- also why do the packages look like they’re wrapped in Tiffany boxes lmao

- oh yay they did run dental

- Chris Rock is an asshole but they should go with protocol if that’s what they’re doing

- ordering a man mid piss out of the men’s room to yell at Zeke

- does conflict of interest matter when the whole precinct knows the victim?

- uncomfortable stand-offs with your ex while at the home of a grieving friend

- Samuel L Jackson!

- “I could’ve killed you!” “What are you talking about, I have the gun!” *SLJ pulls a gun out* “I could’ve killed you”

- daddy issues

- “you think this is linked to John Kramer?” Bruh you think it’s NOT??

- ik this is SO far fetched but I rlly hope this movie tells us wtf happened to Dr Gordon. I’m sure it won’t but a girl can dream

- “should we tell Zeke?” “Fuck him” I get you guys don’t like to work w him Bc he’s an ass but like. You’re just not doing your jobs now you’re just proving he’s right that you’re untrustworthy

- splitting up and not telling ppl where you’re going is the number one way to get kidnapped or murdered but way to go cop instincts

- what is this Chinese finger trap ass shit

- love the blue tones tho very Saw

- all it needs is to become uncomfortably green

- fun fact I actually watched the first saw w my friend who is red green color blind and he said it looked AWFUL and I was like oh yeah everything is blue tinted like twilight blue tint and later it’s green just FYI (he thought that made significantly more sense than whatever shit ass color palette he was perceiving)

- being mad at your son for turning in a dirty cop Bc now you’ll have to mess with internal affairs

- and then assaulting someone??? SLJ is an even worse asshole lmao

- another Tiffany box bound in twine maybe it’ll be one of those cheesy diamond heart necklaces

- HELLO what is that ugly ass pig puppet

- also the voice is so stilted did the killer use fuckin text to speech so they couldn’t unscramble the voice like they did to Hoffman?

- cops finding dead pigs, a little on the nose

- oh so this dude has a history of “fuck it” ok well screw that guy then

- SLJ deserves to be pissed at that cop for letting Zeke get shot but like what an unhinged man he threatened to kill him and then actually assaulted him HOW did he EVER get in charge to begin with

- ok wait is Zeke actually the only decent cop (inc his dad but maybe excluding the newbie)

- that is a truly gruesome way to lose fingers tho I must say but he deserves that shit

- wait did the trap not go fast enough or was there a way for him to do that faster and I missed it

- like should he not have hesitated Bc there was a time limit or was it just rigged

- cuz the machine had to pull them off he couldn’t just cut them quickly

- so are they just gonna leave broken leg Dude there or

- also just now I tried to talk abt this movie (so far) vs Jigsaw (2017) to my mom and I got too excited and referenced some character names she didn’t know and she shut me down and said she didn’t care 😀

- live-blogging to my, like, five followers that compromise one one (1) person that knows me IRL, one (1) Sawtual, and a handful of ppl only here for my main DPS content to fill the void of emotional parental neglect. What a great website

- oh no did the rookie die :( he was actually sweet

- I feel like he was too important to kill offscreen tho

- like they’re TELLING us he .. was skinned.. but was he REALLY

- Chris Rock having a revelation: AH FUCK

- everyone else at the crime scene: ….

- favorite thing abt movies that were already gonna be rated R is when they’re like “well if we’re already at R we might as well say fuck”

- she has to SEVER HER SPINAL CORD? Why was she deemed the biggest asshole

- also how on earth was this trap portable it IS in their basement right

- transporting the hot wax is just what gets me

- Chris Rock rn: are you tired of being nice? Don’t you just wanna go apeshit?

- was this abt his dad the whole time???

- does it count as live blogging when I do one big post instead of several small ones lol I just want it to be avoidable for ppl who are just here for Dead Poets Society

- man’s fully abt to cut his arm off like barely even hesitated long enough to notice the bobby pin he could pick the lock with

- there’s a body here suspended

- not hanging mind you

- but covered and suspended

- and I bet it’s the newbie

- ah damn it’s Pete that’s disappointing

- it’s possible the trailers just made him seem more important than he was

- why are they punishing Zeke for reporting a dirty cop and having his career accordingly ruined like he did the right thing and already suffered for it? This killer doesn’t like crooked cops?? Why does Zeke have to be tortured by hearing this dude die like that’s what they want isn’t it?

- I think it’s too late pal

- the glass trap was pretty fucking cool though

- I KNEW HE WAS ALIVE

- I didn’t think he was a MURDERER but I KNEW he was alive

- OH SHIT THE DIRTY COP ZEKE TURNED IN KILLED NEWBIE’S DAD??

- I’m terrible at guessing endings but it makes viewing more fun

- honestly,, do it Chris Rock ACAB

- “you want me to kill cops?” “No, fuck no, just the bad ones”

- what a fun villain though

- I have no idea what the Ultimate Game Plan™️ is here though is he gonna make him kill his dad? I mean his dad does suck but making a dude KILL his DAD? That is a tall order Max Minghella

- ok but literally why wouldn’t you listen to him here shoot the target??

- ANGIE! It WaS aNgIe

- killing this man is not correct justice anyway Zeke

- shot the target! Good man

- groovy of them to play the Hello Zepp soundtrack rn

- oh shit what’s going on SLJ knows what it is

- oh.. w o w. Brutal way to go. Very heavy handed imagery

- and that’s all I guess who the fuck knows what’s up w Doctor Gordon

- and I guess Max Minghella is just gonna get away now but tbh Chris Rock only seemed truly mad at him for involving his dad

- nice rap remix to the OG Hello Zepp score very cool credits music

[scummy-writes]

Believer’s Package!

Now I’m not going to show in-depth photos of the books, especially since it might have spoilers for the new route, but I’m gonna go over a few other things.

So first off, this box is gorgeous! I really love how it looks, and it’s so smoooooth!

When you open it up, it have a message from Rika, and a very short one from Ray.

Rika’s message is some speel about Mint Eye, which adds to the box but won’t be adding onto this post.

I’m not going to showcase everything in the box, I feel like Cheritz might be upset if I did that, but it does come with some Cg’s that have been printed off. I think they’re all eventual CG’s? I’m unsure, but for some reason one is printed on actual photo paper instead of how the others are printed.

This is a really shitty picture because the lighting sucks in my room, but do yall see what I mean? The rest don’t have this on the back like normal actual printed out photos do. The image it’s with is glossy, and concerning what the picture is exactly, it really adds on to a sort of realistic vibe to it, honestly, and I really think it’s cool!

So, it comes with a lot of neat things, and the next two photos I’m not sure if any of these are exclusive to pre-ordering or not. I think the posters aren’t, but the other….yeah hold on.

Please look at the first poster. Please to fucking god look at this first poster, I am sobbing. ‘Graphic design is my passion’. I’m 99% sure it’s supposed to be funny on purpose, and i’m loving it.

These two things (not the notecard) are magnets! I’m excited to put these up because they’re really funny and a nice touch! Elly finally made it onto her bad of cat food…The energy drink one actually really looks like a real product magnet!

Anyway, more serious contents!

I’m super excited to have recieved the Talk Party and I can’t wait to listen to it!

(Sorry about my light). Both of the books are the same texture as the previous books that you get in the RFA package. I haven’t looked through many contents but in Rika’s there was a “What’s in your bag!” section, and I very quickly looked at those since i couldn’t foresee any spoilers, but I did notice something that I’ll talk about at the end of this post!

Both of the books have this on the back! And theeeen:

Tadah! I blocked out the pictures and some extras that got sent, but here’s the rest of the contents! The id’s are so nice. They’re really flimsy, and the red Mint Eye one is apparently a keycard, which is referenced in the story. While they’re flimsy, I really love the details put into them! Like Yoosung’s really is written like a student ID, and it even has his signature and school ID rules on the back! And…Kinda looks like a credit card honestly haha. I’m only going to showcase the back of one of them, and that issssss Seven’s!

So his card is neat, I like it because we get to see his Agent ranking, and what else he’s good at. Which I guess is kinda obvious? But it’s neat to me. But my main focus is the back of the card!

Looks normal, kind of bland, but I saw the barcode on the back. I don’t really know why, but since this barcode had numbers, and Ray’s card’s barcode didn’t have any, I was wondering if there was a reason they put the numbers down on Seven’s. So, I went to google and searched for a barcode lookup site and plugged in the numbers and

isweartofuckinggodseven

I don’t know why I honestly expected anything different, but I thought it was hilarious so I hope you guys don’t mind me plugging this in here as well, haha! That’s really cool for Cheritz to do, honestly

On a side note, something I saw in the “What’s in my bag!” thing. Like for some reason this package comes with Yoosung’s ID, which you can see in a couple of pictures up. I couldn’t understand why, but probably after the game I’ll see it in the books or maybe a reason why in the story, but in the bag section with Yoosung, he’s carrying his new Id! The one we see in the normal RFA pack, blonde haired Ys, blah blah. But he says that’s not actually his first id, but his second since he managed to lose his somehow.

But we have his other id in here…So does that mean Rika took his first id before she left? Is that why it’s in the package?

But this id in the package is a High School one, so maybe not lolol. I can’t wait until I finish the route and can look into these books some more orz. 

I hope you like this post! Sorry for not like showing all the photos or scanning up the pages. I think people did that with the RFA package and Cheritz got upset, so I don’t want to risk making them sad!

[bharatiyamedia-blog]

MCU Timeline: Watch each Marvel film and present within the excellent order

http://tinyurl.com/y36ej9gm You’ve got in all probability seen most of Marvel’s films, however what in regards to the TV exhibits? Timelines in the world of comics and movies might be greater than just a little complicated. And now, as we method the fruits of greater than a decade of flicks and Part Three of the newly named Infinity Saga, issues could very nicely change into much more complicated. Will Marvel Studios ever decelerate? (Ought to it?) Marvel After greater than a decade of flicks, TV exhibits, shorts, and post-credits scenes, there’s quite a bit to work by means of within the MCU. Editors’ word, 2019: We’re within the Endgame now. Try our review, sister web site GameSpot’s and more, and preserve scrolling for extra on the state of the MCU. Beforehand, March 2019: It is lastly occurred, we have redesigned the *whole timeline.* Please proceed to pontificate within the feedback about how nice or horrible it’s! And in case you’re trying to stream some MCU movies, we can help. Suppose you have discovered a mistake? Tell us within the feedback.  So to both assist you fill within the gaps earlier than Endgame, to only watch all of the exhibits for enjoyable, and even merely attempt to impress your folks, we have created a timeline of what Marvel President Kevin Feige has now dubbed The Infinity Saga within the excellent viewing order. Or perhaps you simply care about the place Captain Marvel matches in (trace: it is not the place you assume!). The Marvel Cinematic Universe, as the complete franchise is known as, additionally generally contains linked properties reminiscent of film tie-in comics or shorts. For the graphic, we have disregarded smaller properties and caught to the large two of movies and exhibits, however there are extra goodies under. Sean Enzwiler/CNET OK, now earlier than you lash out in anger about a number of the, ahem, more moderen movies’ placement, please preserve two tremendous, mega, main issues in thoughts. MCU postcredits scenes don’t matter Severely, the mid- and postcredits scenes are nothing greater than enjoyable throwaways, or in-canon nods for fervent followers. Even Marvel itself has fairly actually rewritten older scenes with new motion pictures. Assuming Feige and different heads of Marvel Studios thought in regards to the subsequent 10, 20 and even 30 years of MCU movies proper from the beginning is a bit presumptuous and fully ignores the enjoyable some directors have said they’d with these scenes. It is insanity to assume that these movies ought to solely be watched or skilled in a single manner. Do I consider that is the easiest way to observe the franchise, sure. Will I sometime introduce family and friends utilizing this CNET Methodology? OF COURSE. However that does not imply it is best for you. My colleague Sean Keane has graciously ranked all of the MCU postcredits scenes for you (but when it might be useful, perhaps we are able to additionally develop a timeline of which to observe and when). I am unable to say it sufficient instances for first-time viewers: Ignore all of the postcredits scenes (simply watch the enjoyable ones your folks inform you to). Particularly when watching on this order, don’t watch the Ant-Man and the Wasp credit scenes or you’ll be very confused. And as to your subsequent large query… Marvel Studios, composite by Chelsea Shi/CNET Captain Marvel doesn’t belong in chronological order No actually, hear me out! Captain Marvel is the primary true origin story (as in, she wasn’t seen in a Marvel film beforehand) since 2016’s Doctor Strange, however the movie additionally provides followers a brand new take a look at Brokers Nick Fury and Phil Coulson, in addition to the Tesseract. Should you had been following a chronological watch order to your first viewing ever of those MCU movies, you’d have So Many Questions watching the film proper after Captain America’s first outing. Within the movie, Vers takes years to find her true id, and by ready to observe her story with the context and nuance of 18 prior movies you give your self a deal with. It is extra enjoyable to bask within the enjoyable of quite a few in-jokes, “A-ha!” moments and Fury backstory you probably would not have cared about 17 motion pictures in the past. On this order, Captain Marvel is the deal with you get earlier than the Infinity Warfare-prequel that’s Thor: Ragnarok. Regardless of what order you find yourself experiencing these motion pictures in, it’s best to save your self a couple of hours and undoubtedly nonetheless word that The Incredible Hulk is certainly nonetheless skippable and even William Hurt (“Thunderbolt” Ross himself) admitted it. Speaking to IGN in 2015, Hurt said that “[Ross in Civil War] is completely different as a result of it is a completely different fashion… And what they’ve carried out is that they’ve taken a personality who was the Ross from the older movie and made a brand new model. This can be a a lot newer Ross. A a lot completely different Ross.” After watching each, we are able to affirm that is certainly the case. You will additionally discover that shorts and the Marvel One-Shots are lacking from the graphic. These temporary movies had been initially created as standalone tales to offer backstory for characters or issues seen within the motion pictures, with two of them later changing into full-fledged exhibits. Marvel One-Photographs Title, launch date Takes place… The Guide (Sept. 2011) On the finish of Iron Man 2 A Humorous Factor Occurred on the Approach to Thor’s Hammer (Oct. 2011) Instantly earlier than Thor Merchandise 47 (Sept. 2012) Instantly following the Battle of New York in Avengers Agent Carter (Aug. 2013) One yr after Captain America: The First Avenger; earlier than Agent Carter All Hail the King (Feb. 2014) Roughly two years after Iron Man 3; earlier than Brokers of S.H.I.E.L.D. Marvel Webisodes Extra continuity within the MCU There’s undoubtedly some continuity strangeness when you’ve each motion pictures and tv present properties, and people listed on the graphic aren’t any exception. Season 1 of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. noticed the discharge of two Marvel motion pictures and needed to deal with incorporating these plots. Airing after the discharge of Thor: The Dark World, episode eight of S.H.I.E.L.D. undoubtedly takes place straight after these occasions. Physician Unusual undoubtedly doesn’t happen earlier than Winter Soldier, completely not. Marvel Later in that season, episode 16 aired the identical weekend as the discharge of Captain America: Winter Soldier and, in a neat little bit of continuity, the occasions portrayed on S.H.I.E.L.D. happen at virtually the identical time because the movie. (Some folks say episode 16 comes earlier than Winter Soldier, and you’ll definitely deal with it as such. The *absolute* finest strategy to watch them can be concurrently, however I’ve but to see anybody make that fan edit.) Netflix’s Daredevil and Jessica Jones even have wibbly-wobbly timelines. Early within the sequence, the Battle of New York is referenced to as The Incident, and it is mentioned that it occurred about two years prior. However due to the present’s lack of interplay with any big-screen Marvel characters, it might happen virtually anyplace on the timeline between Thor: A Darkish World and Avengers: Age of Ultron. In our timeline, we positioned it concurrent with the second season of S.H.I.E.L.D. in order to remain nearer to the time it was really launched. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is increased up than you could have anticipated — that is due to the variety of years the movie says have handed, that means it takes place only a few months after the primary movie. Some say that Physician Unusual ought to come earlier than Winter Soldier, due to a sure rooftop scene. A rabbit gap one IGN editor has already gone done and debunked. So Unusual stays the place it’s. (However with time manipulation up for grabs now, who actually is aware of??) A frequent query in regards to the timeline is why Captain America: TFA is first. That is all simply my opinion, however I believe watching Steve Rogers develop up first, adopted by seeing Agent Carter’s story, is an effective way to start an MCU foray. There is a case to be made that he’s a very powerful Avenger, and whether or not you agree with that or not, it is value it to leap in with him first. As for the second most-asked query: No, Iron Man 2 should not come earlier than Unimaginable Hulk due to the brief, The Guide. That brief was launched a lot in a while the Thor DVD in an attempt to simply backfill the storyline. I am 100 p.c going to say that if something ought to transfer, it is the timing of if you watch that brief — perhaps put it after Iron Man 2 as a substitute and that may assist. Yeah, I will make that change on the one-shot checklist, that ought to assist. Past the Infinity Saga Years in the past, Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told me range is essential to Marvel: “You take a look at any of our movies and so they’ve been very various,” he mentioned. “We really feel like we’re simply doing justice to the books by representing that totally.” After Black Panther and Captain Marvel‘s performances on the field workplace, all bets are off for the way forward for the MCU. Their record-breaking, record-setting origin tales broke all of the superhero story guidelines — and this is hoping Marvel continues to take action. Trying forward previous Endgame, the one movie we all know is for certain coming is that this summer time’s Spider-Man: Far From Home. We do, nonetheless, have a complete mess of “confirmed” films, in line with Deadline, THR and extra. In-production and rumored upcoming movies for the subsequent Part/Saga of MCU embody:  Marvel on Netflix, and the Disney Plus future  Netflix’s Marvel exhibits nonetheless rule outdoors the theaters. ABC tried to leap again into the sport with Inhumans however poor rankings imply any whisper of a second season is fortunately absent. S.H.I.E.L.D. has a brand new season set to premiere after Endgame, however no teaser or phrase but on the way it’ll cope with… a number of deaths (spoilers). New Marvel exhibits at the moment are fairly constantly popping up, however just some are inside the MCU canon. Cloak and Dagger’s second season begins in Could on Freeform, whereas Marvel’s New Warriors is theoretically nonetheless floating round someplace? In Nov. 2017, THR revealed the present was being shopped to networks, however no phrase but on the place it’s going to find yourself (perhaps Disney Plus?). We not too long ago discovered Marvel’s Runaways on Hulu will return for a 3rd season, however the identical can’t be mentioned for the Marvel-Netflix properties. Regardless of vital popularity of a number of the exhibits, the entire Netflix originals have been canceled.  Will they ever return? By no means say by no means, however possibilities appear slim. As an alternative, hope for a brand new reincarnation of the characters on the upcoming Disney Plus streaming service. The expansion of the Marvel universe is extraordinary (har-har) and because the comics large introduces new followers to new characters (some folks had no thought who Physician Unusual was a few years in the past) and companions with cable tv and Netflix to broaden even additional, we might see some fairly epic pairings, groups and characters come out of the woodwork. Which characters would you wish to see in Marvel’s not-yet-announced-but-certainly-inevitable subsequent phases on each the small and large display? Tell us within the feedback. This piece first revealed in 2015, and is now on its 47th revision (roughly). Source link

[carriejonesbooks]

When I was a kid at Bates College, I spent a lot of my time feeling like less. My family had been kind of poor after my step-father died. My nana would stand in line to get us big orange blocks of commodity cheese for the week to supplement our $30 grocery budget Every  week my mom would yell at her that we didn’t need that. She always took it.

My mom didn’t answer the phone because she was so afraid of credit card companies calling.  She’d make me do it and lie that she wasn’t there.

I still hate answering the phone, even the cell phone, even when it has caller ID.

Anyway, when I went to college I wanted to forget all that. I wanted to be an intellectual like everyone else. I wanted to have gone to private school in Manhattan or Conneticut, have a summer home in the Hamptons and clothes that weren’t from K-Mart, which was sort of the WalMart equivalent back then, but worse.

I got over all that because I knew it was pretty shallow. What I had a harder time getting over was class issues that had less to do with materialism and more to do with hatred and intellectual history.

In one of my directing classes, one of the sexier straight guys actually announced about Beckett, “People who are not wealthy don’t care about this. A truck driver doesn’t watch public television or listen to NPR. They don’t care, they’re too busy humping and eating and drinking.”

My dad was a truck driver. He watched public television. He listened to NPR. I didn’t want to think about him humping. He ate food. He didn’t drink. His parents had been prohibitionists.

In one of my playwrighting classes the professor announced, “The working people of this country don’t give a shit about nuclear power. They don’t give a shit about a man of color.”

When I was in elementary school my dad would bring him with him to protest the same nuclear power plant that my step dad was helping to build. He helped me try to get New Hampshire to recognize Martin Luther King Day and do a hundred other civil rights things. He cared.

And one of my college friends would love to say, “Carrie is too poor to be pro intellectual.”

He’s a minister now. That still doesn’t make what he said right.

And one of my female poetry teachers told me over and over again, her voice trilling up with her patrician accent, “Carrie, you have the potential to be a poet, but your voice is too raw, not refined, not artistic enough.”

My voice was poor. My cadence was public school. I was not from rich. Every sentence I spoke showed that.

They still do.

Those are just four of the incidents that made me both angry and intimidated and focused, but in the back of my head it just inflamed my self doubt. I could never be a poet because I wasn’t wealthy, private-school educated, my parents weren’t intellectuals. I could never move people with words because my words were too stark and my sentences too short. I would never fit in because I didn’t have the background that most of the other students had.

And then two things happened. I read Sherman Alexie, a not-wealthy Spokane and Coeur d’Alene who despite his issues with women, impacted me positively. Maybe because I never met him.

And I met Seamus Heaney in real life.

Seamus Heaney came to our college at the invitation of Robert Farnsworth, who was an awesome poet and professor. He met with students, he gave a reading and we all got to hang out with him at a reception.

“I can’t go,” I told my boyfriend at the time.

He bit into his pizza. He was always eating pizza. “Why not?”

“Because it’s Seamus Heaney,” I answered staring at the little bits of sausage on the pizza before I plucked them off.

“So?”

“Seamus Heaney!”

“So?”

I didn’t know how to explain. Seamus Heaney was THE poet, the Nobel Prize winner. He was Irish for God’s sake. Those people were gifted with words. They had so many amazing poets… Heaney, Yeats, Wilde, Clarke, Moore. I was from New Hampshire. We had Robert Frost but pretty much every New England state tried to claim him.

Heaney wrote things like:

“A hunger-striker’s father

stands in the graveyard dumb.

The police widow in veils

faints at the funeral home.

History says, Don’t hope

on this side of the grave.

But then, once in a lifetime

the longed for tidal wave

of justice can rise up,

and hope and history rhyme.”

You will regret it if you don’t go,” my boyfriend said. “I’m going to just be playing Leisure Suit Larry anyway.”

So, I went, as anxious as if I was going on stage myself. Heaney transfixed me with his amazing baritone and bear-like presence. And his words… Of course his words… And when I met him afterwards, I was terrified until he grabbed my hand in his and said, “So you are a poet?”

And I said, “No.”

And all he did was nod and say, “Oh, yes you are.”

But in his eyes was this knowing, this connection, and maybe it wasn’t really there. Maybe I just saw it because I wanted him to understand me, because I wanted someone to get who I was and who I wanted to be. Or maybe not?

I don’t know, but one second later my professor said, “Oh, yes she is. I told you about her. She is like you.”

And then one of them said something about growing up not wealthy and I can’t remember the exact words, but what I do remember is that I finally felt understood. Later, I looked up Seamus Heaney’s past, about how his dad was a farmer and neither of his parents were big on words really, not in the intellectual way that everyone in college seemed to be. I found out that he was like me a little bit not because he was a poet and I was trying so desperately hard to write just one decent poem, but because we were both human, that we both came from humble places, that we both looked in people’s eyes when we said hello.

And that was enough for me. That was enough for me to believe in myself.

Seamus Heaney performed a miracle when I met him. He made me believe that I could be whatever the hell I wanted to be and that it didn’t matter how hard I had to fight or work or not fit in. What mattered was that I wanted the miracle of being a writer, of metamorphosis from Carrie the poor neurotic kid from Bedford, New Hampshire into Carrie Jones, the neurotic best-selling author who lives on the coast of Maine.

He gave hope and miracles in his poems and in his person and I am so thankful for his existence and so sorry for the world’s loss.

“The main thing is to write

for the joy of it. Cultivate a work-lust

that imagines its haven like your hands at night

dreaming the sun in the sunspot of a breast.

You are fasted now, light-headed, dangerous.

Take off from here. And don’t be so earnest.”

  I wrote this post back in 2013 when Seamus Heaney died, but in one of my student packet’s this week, I referenced Heaney and then yesterday I saw this Liam Neeson video (randomly) where he was talking about Heaney, so… there you go. I’ve reposted it.

Here’s Seamus Heaney reading his own poem, “Blackberry Picking.”

  Do Good Wednesday

Scary, right?

People are fixing it.

You can help with poetry and kids. These images are from Get Lit’s website and Get Lit is making a difference.

“Get Lit was founded in 2006 after Diane Luby Lane created a one-woman show about the power of words and toured colleges with iconic Chicano poet Jimmy Santiago Baca. After the show closed, she couldn’t bear the thought of cutting off the work completely. She started teaching classic and spoken word poetry in two high schools, Fairfax and Walt Whitman. When the semester ended… the students wouldn’t leave. They insisted on meeting after school. The rest is history. Today, the curriculum has expanded to almost 100 schools, and the Get Lit Players are the most watched poets on the internet. Curriculum requests flow in from Mexico to New Zealand.”

Get Lit “uses poetry to increase literacy, empower youth, and inspire communities.”

Get Lit works – 98% of Get Lit Players go to college, and 70% get scholarships!

Here are Get Lit’s specific needs and how you can get involved.

  Writing News

Carrie’s  super excited about the upcoming TIME STOPPERS book coming out this August.

This middle grade fantasy series happens in Acadia National Park in Bar Harbor, Maine and it’s all about friendship and magic and kids saving their magical town.

An imaginative blend of fantasy, whimsy, and suspense, with a charming cast of underdog characters . . . This new fantasy series will entice younger fans of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson.” –  School Library Journal

  “Sticks the landing . . . The world building is engaging . . . between the decidedly wonderful residents and the terrifying monsters who plague them.” –  BCCB

  “Amid the magic, spells, adventure, and weirdness of this fantasy are embedded not-so-subtle life lessons about kindness, friendship, and cooperation.” –  Booklist

  “A wild and fresh take on fantasy with an intriguing cast of characters. Dangerous and scary and fun all rolled into one. In the words of Eva the dwarf, I freaking loved it!” –  Lisa McMann, New York Times bestselling author of The Unwanteds series

  “Effervescent, funny, and genuine.” –  Kirkus Reviews

It’s quirky. It’s awesome. It’s full of heart. You should go by the first two books now. 🙂

  Time Stoppers

Time Stopper Series

Time Stoppers Front and Back Covers – US versions

CARRIE’S BOOKS

For a complete round-up of Carrie’s 16-or-so books, check out her website. And if you like us, or our podcast, or just want to support a writer, please buy one of those books, or leave a review on a site like Amazon. Those reviews help. It’s all some weird marketing algorhthym from hell, basically.

OUR PODCAST

Thanks to all of you who keep listening to our weirdness as we talk about random thoughts, writing advice and life tips.

We’re sorry we laugh so much… sort of. Please share it and subscribe if you can.

Please rate and like us if you are feeling kind, because it matters somehow.

Love

The Poet Who Saw Me – Wednesday Writing Wisdom When I was a kid at Bates College, I spent a lot of my time feeling like less.

[yesterdaysdreams]

#75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year

As much as we love the holidays, all the “stuff” that goes along with it (gifts, decor, things piling up on every surface) can get overwhelming. So we’re sharing how we’re approaching things differently in an effort to maintain the joy of the season. And one of the most common questions we get is “help me pinpoint my style – I’m all over the place!” so we’re spelling out exactly how we do that when we’re feeling pulled in more than one decorating direction, which actually happens more than you might think. Plus, Sherry revisits a controversial opinion that she passionately shared last week and John declares war on screen time.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player. 

What’s New

We’ve got more photos of our holiday decorations coming at you in a big ol’ blog post later this week, but above is a good example of how we’ve aimed to simplify things this year. That’s Sherry’s faux magnolia garland that she scored earlier in the year, some stockings she got last year at Target, and an elephant chain from World Market that she purchased a few years ago and cut into little stocking tassels (now they have this bird one which would work too).

And here’s the Moment app that I’ve been using to keep my phone-usage time in check. You can see some screenshots of my recent tracking below (the gray timeline dots on the far right represent short “pickups”)

The “Bored & Brilliant” course I followed via the app also has a book and podcast series, if you’d rather check it out that way.

Updates

You can hear our original conversation about “lamping” in Episode #71, including its technical definition, along with the Urban Dictionary and Online Slang ones.

Episode #64 is the one all about paying off our mortgage that we referenced in today’s episode for anyone who wants to go back and listen.

And it was just last week’s Episode #74 where Sherry made her passionate plea to save the old houses (apparently not so clearly – ha!) and attempted to de-villainize foundation issues when you’re on the real estate hunt.

Finding Your Style

Sources, clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3

Above are some of the beach house inspiration photos we assembled for a post last year about our style direction. It’s really interesting to see how similar our actual beach house rooms are to those initial images! Here’s how the beach house’s back bedroom is looking these days, which isn’t an exact replica of any of the inspiration photos above, but certainly carries the same vibe.

striped duvet / blue pillow / night stand / gold frame / headboard / art over bed / sconce / similar basket

And here are some of the bathrooms we had pinned. Colorful tub? Check. Wood vanity? Check. Hex patterned floor? Check. All of those things came to fruition at the beach house.

And as promised, here are some of the shots that Sherry originally pinned, but that didn’t make it into her ever-elusive “top three.” They’re generally more colorful and eclectic than the rooms we ended up favoring (although there is gray trim in that large picture, which did come to be in all of the downstairs rooms!).

Sources: stairs / living room / reading nook

We’re Digging

You can see our new Amazon Echo in the photo above. I bought this one on Black Friday with my birthday gift cards from the fam, and scored this $40 smart plug as a $5 add-on with my order. We used the plug on our Christmas tree, so you can see it in action in this Instagram video.  

I forgot to mention in the episode that we chose the Echo over the Google Home because music was one of the main things we thought we’d use it for (we were right!) and the Echo is reported to have a better speaker. It has also been around longer than the Google Home so it apparently has more “skills” than Google has so far.

If you want to score some throwback books for your kids, here’s a bunch of Goosebumps sets that are really cheap. They’ve also got similar sets for like Boxcar Children and The Babysitter’s Club if you’re looking for something less spooky.

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Don’t forget to use the code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year appeared first on Young House Love.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265713 http://ift.tt/2AyrQxa via IFTTT

[jennarocca]

#75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year

As much as we love the holidays, all the “stuff” that goes along with it (gifts, decor, things piling up on every surface) can get overwhelming. So we’re sharing how we’re approaching things differently in an effort to maintain the joy of the season. And one of the most common questions we get is “help me pinpoint my style – I’m all over the place!” so we’re spelling out exactly how we do that when we’re feeling pulled in more than one decorating direction, which actually happens more than you might think. Plus, Sherry revisits a controversial opinion that she passionately shared last week and John declares war on screen time.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player. 

What’s New

We’ve got more photos of our holiday decorations coming at you in a big ol’ blog post later this week, but above is a good example of how we’ve aimed to simplify things this year. That’s Sherry’s faux magnolia garland that she scored earlier in the year, some stockings she got last year at Target, and an elephant chain from World Market that she purchased a few years ago and cut into little stocking tassels (now they have this bird one which would work too).

And here’s the Moment app that I’ve been using to keep my phone-usage time in check. You can see some screenshots of my recent tracking below (the gray timeline dots on the far right represent short “pickups”)

The “Bored & Brilliant” course I followed via the app also has a book and podcast series, if you’d rather check it out that way.

Updates

You can hear our original conversation about “lamping” in Episode #71, including its technical definition, along with the Urban Dictionary and Online Slang ones.

Episode #64 is the one all about paying off our mortgage that we referenced in today’s episode for anyone who wants to go back and listen.

And it was just last week’s Episode #74 where Sherry made her passionate plea to save the old houses (apparently not so clearly – ha!) and attempted to de-villainize foundation issues when you’re on the real estate hunt.

Finding Your Style

Sources, clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3

Above are some of the beach house inspiration photos we assembled for a post last year about our style direction. It’s really interesting to see how similar our actual beach house rooms are to those initial images! Here’s how the beach house’s back bedroom is looking these days, which isn’t an exact replica of any of the inspiration photos above, but certainly carries the same vibe.

striped duvet / blue pillow / night stand / gold frame / headboard / art over bed / sconce / similar basket

And here are some of the bathrooms we had pinned. Colorful tub? Check. Wood vanity? Check. Hex patterned floor? Check. All of those things came to fruition at the beach house.

And as promised, here are some of the shots that Sherry originally pinned, but that didn’t make it into her ever-elusive “top three.” They’re generally more colorful and eclectic than the rooms we ended up favoring (although there is gray trim in that large picture, which did come to be in all of the downstairs rooms!).

Sources: stairs / living room / reading nook

We’re Digging

You can see our new Amazon Echo in the photo above. I bought this one on Black Friday with my birthday gift cards from the fam, and scored this $40 smart plug as a $5 add-on with my order. We used the plug on our Christmas tree, so you can see it in action in this Instagram video.  

I forgot to mention in the episode that we chose the Echo over the Google Home because music was one of the main things we thought we’d use it for (we were right!) and the Echo is reported to have a better speaker. It has also been around longer than the Google Home so it apparently has more “skills” than Google has so far.

If you want to score some throwback books for your kids, here’s a bunch of Goosebumps sets that are really cheap. They’ve also got similar sets for like Boxcar Children and The Babysitter’s Club if you’re looking for something less spooky.

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Don’t forget to use the code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year appeared first on Young House Love.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265713 http://ift.tt/2AyrQxa via IFTTT

[asifihaditallfiguredout]

#75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year

As much as we love the holidays, all the “stuff” that goes along with it (gifts, decor, things piling up on every surface) can get overwhelming. So we’re sharing how we’re approaching things differently in an effort to maintain the joy of the season. And one of the most common questions we get is “help me pinpoint my style – I’m all over the place!” so we’re spelling out exactly how we do that when we’re feeling pulled in more than one decorating direction, which actually happens more than you might think. Plus, Sherry revisits a controversial opinion that she passionately shared last week and John declares war on screen time.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player. 

What’s New

We’ve got more photos of our holiday decorations coming at you in a big ol’ blog post later this week, but above is a good example of how we’ve aimed to simplify things this year. That’s Sherry’s faux magnolia garland that she scored earlier in the year, some stockings she got last year at Target, and an elephant chain from World Market that she purchased a few years ago and cut into little stocking tassels (now they have this bird one which would work too).

And here’s the Moment app that I’ve been using to keep my phone-usage time in check. You can see some screenshots of my recent tracking below (the gray timeline dots on the far right represent short “pickups”)

The “Bored & Brilliant” course I followed via the app also has a book and podcast series, if you’d rather check it out that way.

Updates

You can hear our original conversation about “lamping” in Episode #71, including its technical definition, along with the Urban Dictionary and Online Slang ones.

Episode #64 is the one all about paying off our mortgage that we referenced in today’s episode for anyone who wants to go back and listen.

And it was just last week’s Episode #74 where Sherry made her passionate plea to save the old houses (apparently not so clearly – ha!) and attempted to de-villainize foundation issues when you’re on the real estate hunt.

Finding Your Style

Sources, clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3

Above are some of the beach house inspiration photos we assembled for a post last year about our style direction. It’s really interesting to see how similar our actual beach house rooms are to those initial images! Here’s how the beach house’s back bedroom is looking these days, which isn’t an exact replica of any of the inspiration photos above, but certainly carries the same vibe.

striped duvet / blue pillow / night stand / gold frame / headboard / art over bed / sconce / similar basket

And here are some of the bathrooms we had pinned. Colorful tub? Check. Wood vanity? Check. Hex patterned floor? Check. All of those things came to fruition at the beach house.

And as promised, here are some of the shots that Sherry originally pinned, but that didn’t make it into her ever-elusive “top three.” They’re generally more colorful and eclectic than the rooms we ended up favoring (although there is gray trim in that large picture, which did come to be in all of the downstairs rooms!).

Sources: stairs / living room / reading nook

We’re Digging

You can see our new Amazon Echo in the photo above. I bought this one on Black Friday with my birthday gift cards from the fam, and scored this $40 smart plug as a $5 add-on with my order. We used the plug on our Christmas tree, so you can see it in action in this Instagram video.  

I forgot to mention in the episode that we chose the Echo over the Google Home because music was one of the main things we thought we’d use it for (we were right!) and the Echo is reported to have a better speaker. It has also been around longer than the Google Home so it apparently has more “skills” than Google has so far.

If you want to score some throwback books for your kids, here’s a bunch of Goosebumps sets that are really cheap. They’ve also got similar sets for like Boxcar Children and The Babysitter’s Club if you’re looking for something less spooky.

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Don’t forget to use the code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year appeared first on Young House Love.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265713 http://ift.tt/2AyrQxa via IFTTT

[jayyd0ll]

#75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year

As much as we love the holidays, all the “stuff” that goes along with it (gifts, decor, things piling up on every surface) can get overwhelming. So we’re sharing how we’re approaching things differently in an effort to maintain the joy of the season. And one of the most common questions we get is “help me pinpoint my style – I’m all over the place!” so we’re spelling out exactly how we do that when we’re feeling pulled in more than one decorating direction, which actually happens more than you might think. Plus, Sherry revisits a controversial opinion that she passionately shared last week and John declares war on screen time.

You can download this episode from Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, and TuneIn Radio – or listen to it below! Then use this page to check out any links, notes, or photos we referenced. Note: If you’re reading in a feed reader, you might have to click through to the post to see the player. 

What’s New

We’ve got more photos of our holiday decorations coming at you in a big ol’ blog post later this week, but above is a good example of how we’ve aimed to simplify things this year. That’s Sherry’s faux magnolia garland that she scored earlier in the year, some stockings she got last year at Target, and an elephant chain from World Market that she purchased a few years ago and cut into little stocking tassels (now they have this bird one which would work too).

And here’s the Moment app that I’ve been using to keep my phone-usage time in check. You can see some screenshots of my recent tracking below (the gray timeline dots on the far right represent short “pickups”)

The “Bored & Brilliant” course I followed via the app also has a book and podcast series, if you’d rather check it out that way.

Updates

You can hear our original conversation about “lamping” in Episode #71, including its technical definition, along with the Urban Dictionary and Online Slang ones.

Episode #64 is the one all about paying off our mortgage that we referenced in today’s episode for anyone who wants to go back and listen.

And it was just last week’s Episode #74 where Sherry made her passionate plea to save the old houses (apparently not so clearly – ha!) and attempted to de-villainize foundation issues when you’re on the real estate hunt.

Finding Your Style

Sources, clockwise from top left: 1 / 2 / 3

Above are some of the beach house inspiration photos we assembled for a post last year about our style direction. It’s really interesting to see how similar our actual beach house rooms are to those initial images! Here’s how the beach house’s back bedroom is looking these days, which isn’t an exact replica of any of the inspiration photos above, but certainly carries the same vibe.

striped duvet / blue pillow / night stand / gold frame / headboard / art over bed / sconce / similar basket

And here are some of the bathrooms we had pinned. Colorful tub? Check. Wood vanity? Check. Hex patterned floor? Check. All of those things came to fruition at the beach house.

And as promised, here are some of the shots that Sherry originally pinned, but that didn’t make it into her ever-elusive “top three.” They’re generally more colorful and eclectic than the rooms we ended up favoring (although there is gray trim in that large picture, which did come to be in all of the downstairs rooms!).

Sources: stairs / living room / reading nook

We’re Digging

You can see our new Amazon Echo in the photo above. I bought this one on Black Friday with my birthday gift cards from the fam, and scored this $40 smart plug as a $5 add-on with my order. We used the plug on our Christmas tree, so you can see it in action in this Instagram video.  

I forgot to mention in the episode that we chose the Echo over the Google Home because music was one of the main things we thought we’d use it for (we were right!) and the Echo is reported to have a better speaker. It has also been around longer than the Google Home so it apparently has more “skills” than Google has so far.

If you want to score some throwback books for your kids, here’s a bunch of Goosebumps sets that are really cheap. They’ve also got similar sets for like Boxcar Children and The Babysitter’s Club if you’re looking for something less spooky.

If you’re looking for something we’ve dug in a past episode, but don’t remember which show notes to click into, here’s a master list of everything we’ve been digging from all of our past episodes.

And lastly, a big thank you to The Annie Selke Companies for sponsoring this episode. Don’t forget to use the code YHL15 to get 15% off any order at AnnieSelke.com/YHL, including bedding, furniture, rugs, and more!

Thanks for listening, guys!

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post #75: It’s The Most Clutterful Time Of The Year appeared first on Young House Love.

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