#i added a cut so as not to clog up anyone's dash

[seokjinsonlyone]

Idk if you’ve been asked this before but what is your favorite song from each members solo projects so far? Lol the astronaut is the exception 😂

omg!!! we must have some sort of connection bc i was just thinking about this earlier and i'm gonna assume this is in our hiatus era bc the rapline just has so much history it'd be impossible to pick just one LOL so imma go in chronological order of when it was released!!

for hobi it's safety zone like that song just really hold a special place in my heart like the sound of it is soooooo i can't even describe arson is a close second tho

for joonie it's closer hands down when i first heard that track i literally started vibrating on the frequency of bees

for mini it's it's actually hard to pick but his lil ep hit so freaking hard and was so unexpected for me and listen i am not really a lyric girly like i will listen to a song in english mind you could know all the words and sing it but not really pay attention to what it's saying at all like there's this one song i love and i swore by that song listened to it on repeat for hours wanted it played at my wedding that's never gonna happen and everything and like a year later i realized it was a breakup song all this to say that the english version of like crazy makes me soooo insane specifically the line "emotions on ice" like that one line right there changed the trajectory of my life BUT THEN there's alone and like i said NOT really a lyric girly so the way that this song sounds and just the composition is SOOO clever like in the chorus part where he's like "day and night fall" and when he says fall there's that voice effect that literally drops and the overlapping "mayday, get me out of here" that's literally a cry for help like that is so freaking genius and caught me from the beginning and it's just so it's a song i really like to listen to even tho it's really sad LOL BUT THEN there's set me free pt 2 which i realize now i could've just led with bc it really does have both those elements like it has that sound that makes me vibrate and the lyrics that alter my brain chemistry (especially when he's like raise your hands for the past me i'm just head in hands about that line AMONGST MANY OTHER PARTS) AND THE PERFORMANCE MY GOD i don't even know where to start talking about that one so i won't so let's just say set me free pt 2 is king for me

for yoongi i literally decided on my way into the house after getting off from work that dday was my favorite from the album like i was going back and forth between dday and sdl and decided that what takes sdl to the top for me is adora's adlibs like she really snapped but if i was picking my fav from yoongi bc of yoongi it's dday like y'all don't understand the way i be blasting that song everyday on my way to work it be like 5am and i'm in the car volume turned all the way up talm bout time for some paycheck and i'm riding downtown 😭 it's become my ultimate hype song me thinks

and i know my seokjinnie only has the astronaut but it's SO good like "when i'm with you there is no one else and i get heaven to myself" is such a wonderful and lovely line and when he starts belting about how much he loves me god my heart is so full i am at peak military wife whenever it comes on

and the babies haven't released anything yet but i will use this opportunity to say that i am forever changed by taehyung's jazz covers like that festa video that dropped had me listening to jazz for the rest of the week and like you can tell how much he has improved as a singer his voice is just like honey and i gulped it down with a cup of tea fr like i've probably watched it five times by now i love it so much and for jk can i just say that i miss when he was in his silk sonic phase like i was literally screen recording that one live when he covered leave the door open for the first time honestly i have most of that concert screen recorded LOL like baepsae hip thrusts and all but i think of all the songs jk has covered and my god there has been plenty his cover of leave the door open is my favorite and i'd like to hear more of him with that sound there's also this one other song he covered once it was during one of his morning lives it was a korean song and he was imitating the singer but i have no idea of the artist or the song but just know that there's a section in my brain that holds that one specific cover dearly

i have no idea how this got to be so long i didn't expect to have this much to say on this topic BUT THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ASKING

[the-painted-siren]

The monster stays poised on its feet—bright violet eyes boring into you with a bitter cold—before steadily rising to its full height. There’s something about the movement that’s too graceful to be unpracticed. Too deliberate to be mindless. Then you feel your breath freeze in your throat, a wave of familiarity deluging from your memories. You hear the voice of the person who occasionally guides you—who gave you these robes and the warnings to never drink elemental potions. “A lot can turn you into a power-addicted monster, and too much will be fatal.” It is unmistakable. This monster—it, she, they—had been human once.

Finished piece(s) for @general-yasur ‘s 1K DTYIS! The second you mentioned that tidbit about never drinking elemental potions, I knew it was over for both me and Lyra. I had an excellent time making this! It gave me the chance to get really creative. (And also, listening to Kekkai by Hiroyuki Sawano while finishing this up? Best decision ever.)

All the extra information for her is beneath the cut, so that way I'm not clogging everyone's dashes.

Lyra's original color pallet isn't super bright or bold, so I ended up adding a lot of pink and purple to her clothes. Both colors (especially the latter) feature very heavily around her when she's casting magic.) Though it's not very noticeable, she prefers a hooded cloak to a hat, since she feels like it would better hide her from prying eyes.

Her robes take on aspects of her og design, such as having dark colors and slits in her dress up to her thighs and protective gear underneath. The original spellbound robes might have had armor but I ended up changing it to a sparkly shawl (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist.)

Lyra's weapon of choice is her usual chiming bo staff—she uses it to cast cloaking spells and ward off predators or evil spirits with the jingling crystals. Also to use for self-defense should something attack her while she's traveling.

Unfortunately, she's not an elemental master so she gets no use out of elemental potions. She merely carries them in hopes she might find someone else to accompany her on her journey. Or perhaps someone else who was fortunate enough to keep their memories like her.

The Overlord is not so keen on her, however. He would have to get creative with stopping her and does so by targeting her dear ones.

She's very protective of the people she loves. If it comes down to it, she would do the unthinkable to keep them safe. In her mind, she might have reasoned that she's an Oni—she's highly resistant to the elements. So that must mean she can hold out longer against the potions' toxic effects than a normal person, right?

No such luck. For Lyra, love is painful—painful but worth it. Even if there are dire consequences, even if she gets stuck in her Empress Oni form with no way out, she's willing to take the risk.

Perhaps Calem has the answer? Though, there's no telling if it would be an answer that anyone likes.

(Might do a very quick sketch detailing where Calem fits into Lyra's story. Tho I don't know if it could be its own separate entry.)

[yellow-faerie]

Houses on Berk

OK so I've been wanting to do a series of posts, of sorts, that outlines what we canonically know about each house of Berk, and then go into my own headcanons for how houses and families work.

This is basically going to be an overview post, going over various rites of passage within Berk and what houses there canonically are. This is really for anyone who wants to use it as I'll be adding links to all these posts to the fanwiki.

I'll be putting everything under the cut to make sure it doesn't clog up anyone's dash :)

What known houses are there?

Stated as houses we have:

House Haddock - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Hofferson - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Ingerman - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Jorgenson - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Thorston - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Larson - Wiki Link - Post Link

To my understanding, house names are surnames and you would might move houses if you got married when you changed your name. The only other mentioned surname I can find for a character placed on Berk is Hardacre which is in reference to a character who appears once in the comics. Because of this, I like to include House Hardacre as another house when I want to and sometimes put some other named characters in it [Wiki Link - Post Link].

I do have a few other houses that are entirely headcanon:

House Witchwood - Gothi's House - Post Link

House Broksen - Gobber's House - Post Link

House Eretson - Eret's House - Post Link

House Hartwell - Valka's House Pre-Marriage - Post Link

And then some honorary, non-Berk houses, as I am a firm believer in the house system being widely used throughout the archipelago:

House Grimborn - Wiki Link - Post Link

House Beserk - Dagur and Heather's House - Post Link

Why do some people use their house as a surname and some people don't?

There are going to be Doylist explanations for why, I'm sure, but here's my Watsonian one (with a healthy dose of headcanon):

So in the case of a lot of minor characters, they do have surnames, we just don't ever hear about them because the characters are so minor it doesn't matter.

I'd say the most likely explanation is that epithets are considered more important than surnames. Surnames (or house names) are sort of a placeholder for a future epithet [think Phlegma the Fierce] or title [think Silent Sven]. I imagine that if someone overlapped with names and epithets/titles, you would stick of House X on the end.

I don't necessarily think that this House system is a Berk only system, mostly because my idea of the History of Berk (and my film variants of Hiccup I and II).

What is the purpose of a House?

Politics, mostly. The heads of each of the houses will have a say at Berk's meetings - such as the one we saw in the Great Hall in the first film, discussing the search for the nest - and would have priority to speak over the rest of the people at the meeting.

If your house is better beloved and more powerful (have control over resources, land, etc.) then you are going to be able to speak more freely at these sorts of things as no-one wants to be the person who spoke over you.

It's also a way for the chief to maintain order. It's far easier for them to have about thirty/forty people (I haven't yet decided what number of houses is reasonable) to keep order within their own house and the different branches.

Inter-house marriages would probably not be entirely weird either as houses are like very widely spread. After four hundred years, you're going to end up with a house that has a lot of branches that are really not so genetically similar anymore (the exception to this is probably the Thorston's which I'll get into in that post).

I don't like to think about it too much because it is a little bit weird but there doesn't seem to be much immigration and emmigration on Berk, so I'm just imagining that this is just a thing that happened and felt it was probably worth mentioning.

Houses also tend to have traditional roles within them beyond being a warrior (you would have the warriors of the house and also those going for a more traditional role) - for example, the Hoffersons are traditionally tailors and work with fabric; the Jorgensons are hunters; the Ingermans are historians and bookkeepers; the Thorstons are devotees (devote themselves to the gods, although it tends to be different for each Thorston); etc, etc.

Rites of Passage

This is just a general section on Rites of Passage that may change between houses or may be consistent. I can think of four that have been mentioned in canon:

Naming

Coming of Age

Marriage

Funeral

My headcanons for this is that all rites of passage (apart from coming of age) can be done by the Chief, the Village Wise Woman and the Head of the house (or a proxy) of whoever is doing the rite of passage. There also appears to be a need for witnesses, since Gobber accompanied Agnut when she went to do the twins' coming of age.

Naming

Naming in the films and shows is shown to have been done by the chief (as in A Viking For Hire) and chosen by the parents (I believe it's mentioned throughout the show that parents had chosen names). A Viking For Hire also shows that the name the parents chose is more like a consideration for the person doing the Naming as Gobber decides to use a different name - not sure how appreciated that was.

This is so that there are options - if you are Stoick, you can't ask either the Chief or the Head of your house to do the naming as you are both, so you can then either have a proxy or have Gothi do it (my headcanon here is that Gothi named Hiccup using Prophecy because Stoick and Valka were struggling with a name).

It also means that you can have the ceremony as big or as small as you want - if the chief does the naming, it's probably going to happen in the Great Hall so there would be large crowds, but if the Village Wise Woman did it, it would be in her poky little hut up on the mountain so barely any people at all.

Coming of Age

I think there are two mentions of coming of age ceremonies in the shows - there's the Thorston Induction and there's Snotlout's own coming of age.

The Coming of Age is the one that is really house dependent and so my headcanon is that it can only be done by the head of the house or a proxy (but needs to be witnessed by the chief or the wise woman or another member assigned by them, hence Gobber coming with Agnut for the twins' initiation test).

I think it needs not be said that killing a bear at nine months is nigh on impossible for even the greatest of the Jorgensons, although their initiation is something similar (due to their whole hunting thing going on) but it's more like hunting a bear at thirteen which is a much more reasonable age to go bear hunting.

Each coming of age ceremony/rite of initiation really depends upon the historical context of their trade, and some houses are more about doing tasks to prove yourself and some are more symbolical welcoming you into the house once you turn into an adult in their eyes.

Weddings/Union Ceremonies

Weddings!! We all love them.

There are only two that we really see/hear about in any detail (that I can remember anyway) - the Hofferson/Jorgenson marriage that fell through, and the Hiccstrid marriage in the third film. Here is what I can gather from those:

There are ceremonial items for each house that are somehow used (think, the Jorgenson Axe) - I imagine that these are probably used in coming of age ceremonies as well as they're symbols of the house

Weddings can be political as there are things exchanged (think the hundreds of boars (???) Spitelout had) - possibly just a bride price but I like to believe that the Vikings exchange resources both ways and often the gifts are more from each house to the newly weds as they set up their new life

There are three parts to the actual ceremony - the Feast, the Vows/Union Words and the Dance. The Feast appears to be before the vows (or, at least, Fishlegs did it before the vow for shits and giggles) but I'm putting it after because it's Vikings, they probably feast well into the night. The Union words probably change between couples, the ones Fishlegs chose being very very old and traditional and newer ones involving a bit more participation from people in the Union. And the dance is just kinda some fun, I don't have much for that other than that Vikings are always up for a good party.

The Bride and Groom traditionally wear white or creams (at least pale colours, possibly using undyed fabric - I like the idea of undyed fabric as if it's to signify the start of something new)

There is a Berk Officiator - this one I take with a pinch of salt. I much prefer the idea of it being the chief, the wise woman or the head of the house that the married couple is joining that does the ceremony just because of stuff I've previously established, but I did create a Berk Officiator for the sole purpose of the Hiccstrid Accidental Marriage AU

Other marriage traditions change depending on what I'm writing but I usually take historical or quasi-historical influences for marriage headcanons here.

Funerals

And then, Funerals. We have a few examples of funerals - Stoick's being a big example, but also a few others. This is the only rite that I could find a wiki page for (as seen here).

Between each, the eulogies slightly differ which I imagine is due to each house having their own slightly different words. I also can't work out if the vikings of the HTTYD world only believe in Valhalla (and maybe Hel), or if we only see the funerals of people they consider fallen warriors.

Again, under normal circumstances, it's probably done by head of the house, chief, wise woman, etc - it's probably done by Gobber for Stoick because it's such a small funeral and Hiccup has literally just lost him.

Final Thoughts

So, this is the first post in what I'm hoping is going to be a series, we shall see if I manage to keep the momentum up. I have all the thoughts but getting them onto paper takes Time.

I'll be adding the links to posts when I make the posts and hopefully because this is under the readmore it should update even with reblogs.

And yeah! That's pretty much it - I might also make some history posts at some time in the future about Hiccup I and Hiccup II, and the Wilderwest and the Dragon Eye (and the tribe before the dragon hunters). If I do that I'll probably add some links for them down here.

[hidingoutbackstage]

Uhh I’m in a creative block so I can’t give you a specific prompt per se, but something Chamberfield 👀 for love and yuri?

Hell yeah peace love and yuri (putting beneath a cut so as not to clog anyone’s dash but yuri should NEVER be hidden <3 so pls read)

Claire was a special kind of homesick. The kind where she was sitting here, in her two bedroom apartment, at the table eating cereal she’d gotten from the grocery store down the street, while wearing cozy pajamas. In all perspectives, she couldn’t be more home. And yet here she was, missing home desperately, because home wasn’t the two wooden chairs where one slightly rocks and the other creaks when sat on, home wasn’t the couch from a a garage sale with a few cigarette burns and various stains, home wasn’t the nightlight in her bedroom that she’d had since she was a child to keep her from waking up terrified and screaming in the dark.

Home was a person, a person who was currently halfway around the world, a person who Claire could feel as she wore said person’s cozy sweatshirt, as she gazed happily at a framed photo of the two of them on the windowsill, as her sloppy handwritten grocery list hung from the fridge with a heart shaped magnet. Despite the lingering feeling of her presence, Rebecca, Claire’s home, was not here, and Claire was getting sick with yearning.

Claire sighed, finally picking up her phone. She told herself she wouldn’t do this today, but to hell with it. She was missing her girlfriend more and more by the day, and she was growing sick of wanting. She flipped open her phone and went into her contacts. To hell with international cell phone charges too.

Of course Becky picked up, because it was Claire who was calling her. Claire half-expected her significant other to lecture her first about being unable to go a day without talking to her, but that never came. She simply answered the phone with a smile apparent in her voice. She called Claire “darling” as she always did, in that sing-song way she was so fond of that made Claire’s heart melt a little bit.

Bashfully, as if they were teenagers, Claire admitted to Becky why she had called. It was probably a given to both women, but Becky “awww”ed like it was the first time she’d heard Claire say the words “I miss you.”

They made idle chit chat. How was Philosophy University? It was good. How was work at home? It was boring. Have you heard from Chris lately? No, have you? No. Watch anything good recently? Not really, you? Not really. Tried out a new recipe for eggs. Oh how was it? I think I added too much oregano. Oh well, maybe next time. Maybe I’ll make it for you. Sounds perfect.

“I really miss you,” Claire blurted out. She dropped her spoon in her mostly-empty bowl of cereal, making a satisfying clang as it fell.

“I really miss you too,” Rebecca said automatically. “I wish I didn’t have to be out here so long, but-”

“Becky, you don’t have to explain anything. It’s work, I get it,” Claire said with a huff. “I just wish work didn’t separate you from me for so long.”

“Well, that’s what these phone calls are for, isn’t it?” She was trying to be gentle, Claire could tell.

“I know, I know,” Claire groaned. “Gd, I’m so clingy. I don’t know how you aren’t sick of me.”

Rebecca just laughed. “Darling, you know I could never get sick of you.” She made a little kiss noise through the phone. “I love you too much.”

They’d been saying those words for years, but sometimes they’d catch Claire off guard and fill her with youthful giddiness. “Yeah, I know.”

“You should distract yourself more when I’m not there.” Ah, Becky. Always a problem-solver. “Go out and do stuff with your other friends.”

Claire snorted. “What other friends? The ones that are as busy as we are?”

“Work friends, then.”

“Is this your polite way of telling me to fuck off and stop calling you, my dear?” Claire teased. Rebecca scoffed.

“I’m trying to help my lovely wife come up with some things to do in her spare time,” Rebecca said monotonously, clearly not even realizing her verbal blunder. Claire did, though, and straightened up to attention.

“Wife?” she blurted out. Rebecca was silent for a minute. “Hun?”

“…Listen,” Rebecca started, and Claire just burst out laughing.

“Oh, hun, you can’t just call me that and expect me to stop missing you!”

“I think of you like that sometimes, okay? We live together, we’ve been dating for a while, I…some of my students have asked if I have a boyfriend, and…”

“Becky, you are so cute,” Claire teased. “It’s fine. That was adorable.”

Rebecca sighed. “Can I hang up now or will you hate me forever? I’m supposed to be meeting with the university director in a few.”

Claire snickered. “Go on, my wife, go do your school things. I’ll just be here thinking about it for the rest of the day.”

Rebecca sputtered, and Claire could picture the woman’s cute blushing face. “I love you. Bye.”

“Bye, my wife!” Claire called giddily as she hung up.

The sharp pang of homesickness in Claire’s heart had faded, replaced by the soft, warm embrace of love.

[indycar-series]

SURVEY RESULTS: THE OFFICIAL LESBIAN ICON OF INDYCAR

First of all I'd like to thank everyone who took the time to rate the Indycar grid. This year's voter turnout was much higher than the last time this survey was conducted, so I will consider that a W for the sport. More surveys along this nature are in the works so if you would like to participate in other fun Indycar surveys keep an eye out. This will be a lengthy report, so results are going under the cut to avoid clogging anyone's dash.

I will begin this report by explaining the methodology behind the Lesbian Icon Survey. Each driver was rated based on the vibes felt by each voter on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being homophobic and 10 being lesbian icon. Ratings were entirely subjective and participants were instructed to leave personal opinions on drivers at the door and focus solely on the vibes. Ratings were added up and averaged to generate the driver's Lesbian Approval Rating (LAR). LAR is measured between 1 and 10 where the closer the LAR is to 10 the more of a lesbian icon they are. Conversely, if LAR is closer to 1 the more assigned homophobic they are. The photos used are the official Indycar driver headshots, and this was done to implement a control variable and take away bias of the survey creator. (Though I did get complaints that the headshots did a lot of them dirty)

Survey participants were also asked two demographic questions to gauge viewership of lesbians and wlw indycar watchers. The results to those questions are as follows:

Now for the meat of the survey: the ratings. This year we had 29 participants who rated 33 drivers on a 1-10 scale as described above. Based on the received ratings, the calculated LAR of each driver is as follows:

1. Tatiana Calderon (9.41 LAR)

2. Colton Herta (7.93 LAR)

3. Takuma Sato (7.76 LAR)

4. Callum Ilott (7.69 LAR)

5. Romain Grosjean (7.41 LAR)

6. Josef Newgarden (7.34 LAR)

7. Pato O'Ward (7.24 LAR)

8. Alex Palou (7.10 LAR)

9. Jimmie Johnson (7.07 LAR)

9. Rinus VeeKay (7.07 LAR)

11. JR Hildebrand (7.00 LAR)

12. Helio Castroneves (6.72 LAR)

13. Kyle Kirkwood (6.66 LAR)

14. Scott McLaughlin (6.00 LAR)

15. Felix Rosenqvist (5.93 LAR)

16. Marcus Ericsson (5.72 LAR)

17. Tony Kanaan (5.34 LAR)

18. Jack Harvey (5.31 LAR)

18. Simon Pagenaud (5.31 LAR)

20. Scott Dixon (5.21 LAR)

21. David Malukas (5.17 LAR)

21. Graham Rahal (5.17 LAR)

23. Juan Pablo Montoya (5.07 LAR)

24. Marco Andretti (4.93 LAR)

25. Ed Carpenter (4.86 LAR)

25. Sage Karam (4.86 LAR)

27. Will Power (4.79 LAR)

28. Devlin DeFrancesco (4.55 LAR)

29. Dalton Kellett (4.51 LAR)

30. Alexander Rossi (4.13 LAR)

31. Conor Daly (4.10 LAR)

32. Christian Lundgaard (4.00 LAR)

33. Santino Ferrucci (2.55 LAR)

Overall, we have an LAR range between the highest rating and the lowest rating of 6.86 LAR. The category with the highest number of drivers was 7.00 - 7.99 LAR with 10, followed by 6.00 - 6.99 with 9 and 4.00 - 4.99 with 9.

In conclusion, based on survey results there is a definitive Lesbian Icon in Tatiana Calderon in the Indycar series. On the opposite side of the scale, Santino Ferrucci was voted Most Assigned Homophobic driver. Runners up in the Lesbian Icon category are Colton Herta in second and Takuma Sato in third. Runners up in the Assigned Homophobic category are Christian Lundgaard and Conor Daly.

If I were to conduct this survey again in the future, there are several things I would change. First, I would make defining categories for the mid-points on the scale. Suggestions I received were 'supportive dad', and 'won't call you a slur but definitely in a frat'. Second, I would like to have results from a larger sample size however I recognize the overlap between lesbians/wlw and people who watch Indycar is not high. While responses are up from previous, the sample size is still too small to have an effective survey.

Pinglist for those who requested to be notified when the results are posted:

@stickerreds @penske-slut @whitewolfcraft @crowded-desk @lescedes @lights-out-in-monaco @teenageracedirector @hhawksy @martiniracing @i-lovealottbh

[ashen-crest]

OC Development: Hobbies!

This is just something I’ve been thinking about as I’m working on RPS, so I thought I’d jot it down in case it’s helpful for anyone else.

I’ve started using this minimalist character sheet from @dearwriters, and I absolutely love it. That said- for my own personal sheets, I’m also adding the Hobbies category.

Why hobbies? It’s not like anyone’s crocheting as they kill dragons, or painting while they save the world. (I mean, okay, maybe they could). Point is, hobbies don’t always factor into the main narrative, so why think about them?

Because I love them your honor

Because I almost always discover something about my character, the world, and the plot as I consider them.

I’ll give you an example from Rival Potion Shops below. (Was going to give you two examples, but...this is getting too long-winded as it is. Apologies.)

I hate clogging people’s dashes with long posts, so I’ll hide the rest under the cut:

Example: Ambrose Beake, Rival Potion Shops

My buddy Ames. He’s the POV character of RPS, and at first glance, he’s very straightforward. He’s precise and prickly. Standoffish, tidy, quiet, a deep thinker.

But running a potions shop can’t take up all of his time. Neither can errands, nor spending time with his only friend Dawn. So, what does Ambrose Beake do in his spare time?  

Now, this line of thinking presented me with a big question: how deep down do Ames’ surface-level traits go? 

Option 1: his hobbies could be just as orderly and precise as he is. Cleaning, puzzles, organizing. In this option, how he presents himself is the same as how he acts when he’s alone.

Option 2: his hobbies show another side of himself. For example, does he enjoy listening to gossip? Gardening? Reading adventure novels? Watching sports? Attending plays? Playing an instrument?

For me, option 2 opens up so many other doors that directly impact the narrative. For example:

I’ve already established in my head that Eli, his rival, has TONS of plants in his apartment above his shop. What if they both love plants & gardening? What if Ames discovers that? How does that impact their relationship?

If Ames reads adventure novels, how does that color his view of the adventurers that enter his shop? Is he jealous of them? Does he work harder on the adventurer-specific potions, knowing how much danger they’re in? Do these books spark the eventual plot-relevant idea that Eli could be an adventuring healer?

Even deciding against certain hobbies on the list helps me out. For example:

I don’t want Ames to like sports because Eli and Dawn love sports. They’re total jocks, and I want that contrast between him and them when they drag him to a sporting event. (this also leads to: what are the sports in this world like? what doesn’t he like about them? etc etc)

I don’t want Ames to enjoy attending plays because he’s very much not in touch with his emotional side, even privately. It’s a huge part of his personal arc in the book.

If we’re thinking beyond RPS, hobbies can genuinely tie into main narratives. For example- who in your squad cooks? Sings? Embroiders? If your characters need food, entertainment, or help patching up a ripped shirt after a fight, who’s there to help? Or- who’s not willing to share that part of themselves? Shy about singing? Can only cook one thing?

And world-building!! If you have a character who cooks, and they travel to a new land, are they snobbish about new foods and spices? Are they eager to learn about new cooking techniques? That naturally leads to: what are the new foods and spices in this land? What are the new cooking techniques? Is there cultural importance surrounding any part of it that your characters need to learn? Let’s say your characters are ambassadors on a delicate mission. Do they know the food-related customs? Do they mess them up? Suddenly you’ve wound back around through world-building and back to the plot, all out of thinking about your character cooking!

Anyway, I think you get the idea. Hobbies are fun, even for your characters.

[awkward-and-indecisive]

OMG I love all the WIPS you have planned, like.. can you just post them all right now? 🥲

But please tell me more about the dog one because... Dean!Dog ?!?(if it's even a thing 😂) Omg can't wait! 😍😍😍😍

Ahah you’re making me blush!! I’d love to post them all right now if only I had the technology to transfer my thoughts directly to a doc without having to write😭😭

Adding a cut to not clog people’s dashes!!

Yessss I love this idea a lot too and it’ll be full of crack!!! I got this idea while I was on Pinterest and saw a post. I immediately knew it would be so fun to write. I haven’t written a lot of it. Only Y/n’s POV in the first chapter💀 (I know I’m so behind. I’m sorry😭)

I’ll put a little bit of it below!!! The non italicised parts are thoughts!!

You were a veterinarian living with the sassiest cat, Midnight, on this earth. How you knew that she was the sassiest because you yourself weren’t so ordinary. Ever since you were a kid you could listen to the thoughts of any animal around you. You still remember the day it first happened to you. Five year old little Y/n was playing with a ball in the park, your mom sitting on a bench a little away from you, reading a book and enjoying the sun. your ball slipped from your hands and rolled away from you and before you could reach it, a dog playing in the park grabbed it in it’s mouth. You helplessly looked back at your mom, who was still busy reading. so you looked back at the dog in front of you, your ball in his mouth, and stretched both your arms out, making grabby hands and that’s when you first heard it.

“I’ll give you your ball back only if you play with me too.” the voice had said. It was a little rough and deeper than the voice of any man you’d ever met. Your confused self had looked around, trying to place where the voice came from when it said again,

“Please. Steve is such a lazy ass. He brings me here and sits on the bench all the time, letting me roam. But you must know that it’s not the same as playing with someone! He's also very stingy because he doesn’t let a dog walker walk me. Please!” the voice now pleaded.

You had looked around again and then back at the dog, pointing your finger at it in question when it nodded clearing all your doubts about the voice’s owner. You had immediately ran to your mom, tears already streaming down your cheeks and had spilled everything to her. She had dismissed you, thinking it was probably your overactive imagination.

When the second time it happened, you were at summer camp. Your group was on the night trek which meant sleeping a little away from your cabins in tents. Your peaceful slumber had been disturbed by the dryness of your mouth. You grabbed your bottle from beside your sleeping bag and shook it, concluding that it was empty when no sound came from it. You went outside your tent to fill your bottle from the water jar when you heard some shuffling noises behind you. You turned and saw a big grizzly bear towering over you and that’s when another gruff voice said,

“I’m not gonna hurt you. I just want you to tell your incharge to change your camping ground for the night trek as this is where I sleep. You all are kinda in my bedroom.”- it had scratched its ear, -“Another thing, please don’t sing your camp songs so loud because my kids can’t sleep.”

You had let out the loudest scream you had ever screamed, the bear quickly running away and hiding and the two Campers In Training pouring out of their tents to come to you. You had started crying hysterically and they had to call your mom to pick you up when no one could calm you down. You had explained everything to your mom, again, and she had scolded you, threatening to send you away to a mental institute, thinking it was another one of your pranks.

After that night, you never told anyone about it. You met that dog again in the park and talked to him. Both of you were shocked at your power. You wouldn’t call them powers, it was more like a special ability. That was the day you had decided to become a vet. That was the only job you could think of where you could put your ability to good use and that’s what you became. A very good one at that, since you could ask your patients what they felt and always diagnosed the right problem at your first guess.

I have it all planned and let me tell you, the relationship between Dean and Midnight is going to be awesome and so so freaking funny!!! Filled with teasing and sassy remarks!!

Thank you so much for sending an ask!! I had forgotten about this series and now I want to write it!!!! After I complete all the challenge fics😭

Love you 😘😘😘

Wip ask game

[jensonsbuttons]

hi katie! hope you're well!! if you have time i'd love to know what your favourite moments from jb's autobiography are, i've haven't had the opportunity to read it and i love the snipets you sprinkle into our conversations :D

xoxo, your biggest fan

hello hello kajs thank you for this wonderful ask 😌

it took me ten years to answer but only cause i was rounding everything up. by that i literally mean i reread (skimmed) the book for my favorite parts and boy oh boy there sure is a lot of good parts to his book. (and this doesn't even include the 'how to be an f1 driver' which is a whole other list of favorites.)

This got...incredibly long so it's under the cut so i don't clog anyone's dash.

Welcome one and all to a poorly written book report!!! Jenson is an author truly meant for the people. That's a genuine comment because there are favorite parts for me in his book that not only make it interesting to read but easy to read (which is very important to me because i'm incredibly bad at reading.)

Just a general warning for Jenson's book there are some big trigger warnings. I'm not going to talk about anything like this in my reviews but just in case someone is like 'huh i wanna read his book' just be aware. I will list them specifically with page numbers in this next paragraph.

Tw: death and tw: food/weight/diet mentions as well as tw: crash. Death mentions of various drivers (including a child) and his father are on pages 78-81/289/309-15/320. Food/diet/weight mentions page 75 and possibly elsewhere scattered throughout but thats the biggest mention of it I could find. Crash mention on pages 170-173. There are other various ones from his karting days but I apologize cause I did not mark those down as diligently.

That being said! Here are a few things I just love about his book:

1. his stylization!!! - idk if it was him, the editor, the ghost writer, whatever. whoever decided to write this as if it was verbatim of what jenson was saying is *chef's kiss* perfect. 10/10 for stylization. by that i mean you read it and can clearly hear his voice while you're reading. no stuffy words, no added fancy phrases. just pure dumbassery and common speak, which is so refreshing. in my opinion, it reads like a conversation and it was easy for me to follow. Here's some examples!

- "I'd met him (Alain Prost) before, but it was during the whirlwind whistle-stop schmoozefest of the Spanish GP in 1998,..." (Button, 107)

- "'Oh, wicked,' I snapped, not really taking it out on Richard but yeah, taking it out on Richard." (Button, 206)

- "In China, Flavio Briatore, my great friend from Benetton (sarcasm alert), ..." (Button, 222)

- (in reference to parking in the wrong place at the Monaco GP 2009) "...feeling a bit of a Charlie having parked up in the wrong place, but not that much of a Charlie, to be honest, because I'd just won Monaco so eat that, suckers,..." (Button, 227)

- (in reference to the 2009 season and wanting to win the Driver's Championship) "Valencia was a disappointing race for me, although Rubens won, which was great obviously (gnashes teeth),..." (Button, 231)

- "At one point we visited a restaurant and a bunch of turkeys from a TV company set up a stepladder outside the door so that i'd have to walk underneath it in order to reach the street. We pushed it over. Don't look at me like that." (Button, 233)

- "The double diffuser was an advantage, of course. But it makes me laugh (translation: it pisses me right off) when people say that we only won the World Championship because of it." (Button, 241)

- (in reference to some of lewis' tweets) "Personally I wasn't gasping in horror and clutching at my pearl necklace concerning his use of 'WTF'." (Button, 297)

2. how incredibly relatable it is - he really brings himself out of the spotlight. i know a lot of people that get carried away with athletes and other "famous" people and put them on a pedestal but jenson doesn't even let you do that. throughout the book he reminds you that he is human along with his other fellow drivers. good things (and bad things) happen to them and to us. he doesn't allow any room to thing it's all glitz and glam. he starts off the book explaining simple childhood memories and quickly goes to talk about his family life (the good, the bad and certainly the ugly of it all), girlfriends that he's had over the years, how he was almost a father at 19, how he knew he wasn't in love anymore, his focus on race days and getting short with anyone who interrupts him (haha i do that), his passion for racing (how he got it and how he lost it and then regained it) just...real things. i know that's the point of an autobiography but he really doesn't make anything out to more than it is. again, refreshing.

3. his short chapters - there are no examples for this but i'll just let you know, this helped out with reading it so much! the man has a lot to say and switches topics often so usually chapters are only a few pages. sometimes he'll talk about braking techniques or tires and those chapters will be a little longer but otherwise the chapters are 3-4 pages. good for him, i say, because again, it makes it easy to read, interesting to read and allows you to read chapter to chapter so you have a place to easily stop if you want. (usually though, you hate to put the book down.)

4. the pictures - now, i could probably googles some of these or they are in my jbseries (shameless promo for that series go check it out here) but there are some from his early ages that obviously weren't taken by the pros of f1. i can potentially upload some of them if someone hasn't but again, putting pictures in was super helpful to a) visualize just what he was talking about and b) see the young lad mucking around at home or on the track.

5. accent usage - this ties back in with stylization but i want to make it its own point. anytime an accent comes up, he murders it in cold blood and i mean it. it's terrible. i'll let the examples speak for themselves:

- (post-Monaco GP when he parks in the wrong place) "I parked the car, all excited, only to have an official piss on my chips. 'Excusez-moi, monsieur, you haff parked in ze wrong place.'" (Button, 226)

- "...but at least I got to join the two Red Bulls on the podium, where Sebastian turned to me, fixed me with that look of his, a cross between quizzical and bemused, and said, 'It is nice enjoying ziss podium viz you. It iz good.' He was right. It bloody well was." (Button, 244)

- "The tifosi used to say to me, 'Hey, Buttoni, when-a you gonna come drive for us,'..." (Button, 303)

6. his praise towards fellow drivers!! - so the man really loves some of the other drivers. and he makes a point to mention it!

- mentions of Daniel and how he is "podium gold" (Button, 282) because of the shoey and how he wouldn't "drink champagne out of my girlfriend's sweaty trainer, let alone Daniel Ricciardo's." (Button, 283)

- Practically every mention of Seb. It's either an 'oh btw seb was there' or 'wow seb and i were best friends. he's such a good job. i admire him a lot' or "Slightly contradicting what I said earlier about never winning in a Toro Rosso, Sebastian had done exactly that the previous season." (Button, 223) and "As for Sebastian, he's probably the hardest-working driver on the grid in terms of his time with the team. He reminds me of Michael Schumacher like that,..." (Button, 223)

- he said a lot about lewis (honestly a lot which hi they were teammates so it makes sense) and a lot of it was praise. not all but also nothing malicious of course. but, i've rambled for long enough. just know lewis is one of the best in jenson's eyes and he mentions it in this book and in his 'how to be an f1 driver' book.

7. his entire chapter on winning the championship - again, short chapters but pages 234-239 are about the Brazilian GP and for sure I cried.

8. some other random stories I enjoy from his book:

- when he was five he wanted to test physics (my words, not his) and took a tire from the garage and tossed it down the slanted drive, making it bounce all the way down and across the street. when confronted by his sister as to why he said "I just wanted to see what would happen." (Button, 20)

- he got into his dad's car (on that inclined drive still) and after pretending to race with it, he "decided to have a fiddle with the handbrake as well, and somehow managed to let it off." (Button, 21) which, ha ha, the car started to roll backwards, his sister came running outside, tried to stop it but didn't work so the Jaguar was sent backwards across the road and into the neighbors' wall.

- kids at school couldn't get his name right. "'Jenson' was impossibly exotic for Somerset so they settled on either JB, which has stuck, or 'Jason', which was probably just mishearing now I come to think about it. Not forgetting, of course, the inevitable nicknames that I had to pretend I thought were funny: 'Zipper', 'Jennifer' (bit late with that one), and my personal favorite, 'Genitals'." (Button, 27) He calls this back in multiple parts of the book. One where he's at school and is at an assembly "And then the curtain went back and hey presto, it's whatshisname Jason Button,..." (Button, 56) and "...and they're going to write 'Here Lies Jesper Button' on my gravestone.'" (Button, 92)

- when honda found out that they weren't continuing, one of the options was for jenson to drive for toro rosso in 2009. (think about that alternate universe for a second and tell me you don't want to walk into the ocean) he mentioned "[Toro Rosso] wanted me to bring money in the form of sponsorship to help fund the team, which was singularly unappealing." (Button, 207) So, essentially, he avoided being a RB driver (thank god) all because he didn't want to get sponsors

- someone thought he was sebastian so he got a free meal out of it (Button, 265)

- he got incredibly drunk with some other drivers and he broke his hand (305-306)

i'll be real honest: there is a whole other half of the book essentially that i could put in this section but i've taken too long to answer this and i have to get ready for work. just know that he's got *tons* of stories and is not afraid to share them. like i've said: it's the good, the bad and the ugly of his life. he doesn't hold back, whether that's self deprecating jokes or jaunts towards others or explaining in detail just exactly how to brake at a corner. absolutely i recommend the book to anyone and everyone who wants to read it and get to know a new side of Jenson "JB" "Genitals" Button.

[tmabigbang]

Masterpost of TMA Big Bang 2020 Fics

To prevent clogging up anyone’s dash, we have put all of these fics under a read more since there are 28 wonderful fics created for this bang, which makes for a bit of a long post! Below the cut are links and summaries to all the fics created for this bang! 

In addition to this post, you can also check out our fic page (which you can find here)! The fic page includes links to all the fics, art, and the team members that helped create them! You can also use some basic filters for rating and oneshot/multichapter to find fics.

Thank you again to all our participants, and we will see you next year!

Your Job’s A Joke (You’re Broke) by @bisexualoftheblade and @desert-lily

Ao3: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27590578

Summary: Working at the Magnus Institute was stressful by default. With monsters, mayhem, and potential primordial entities, it has very little expectations for being a comfortable job. However, everyone is allowed to have a little fun sometimes - even an archivist, their assistants, and their really creepy boss. Fueled by spite and a rampant lack of heterosexuality, they all try to balance their work life with a bit of fun and a healthy dose of bullying twelve-times divorced Elias Bouchard.

I Know The End by @williammatagot

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27947966

Summary: Except, for all that beautiful poetry, Eliot was wrong, because the world doesn’t end with a bang, sure, but it doesn’t end with a whimper, either. It ends with the distant-yet-deafening voice of the man Martin loves shouting through a ragged, wild throat--I open the door. (The world ends, Jon shatters, and Martin tries to fix it. The house tries, too, in its own way.)

From the Depth of the Spiral by @trickstergod14

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27842941

Summary: Michael had no idea what was going on. He suddenly woke up in the tunnels under the Magnus Institute with no memories of the past seven years after that fateful trip to Sannikov Land. Watch as he slowly spirals into madness, regaining his memories while strengthening his bond with the Distortion along the way. Can he hide all this from the other Archival Assistants? What will happen when Jon wakes up from his coma? And what does the newly crowned Distortion Avatar, Helen, have to do with all this?

Every Word I Say is Kindling (But The Smoke Clears When You’re Around) by @ohnoimdeathing

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27956897

Summary: The unknowing left Jon stirring in the nightmares of others, watching their torment and suffering and making everything worse. He wanted to wake up, to go back to Martin, Tim, Basira, even Daisy. But he didn’t know how to. Until a voice told him to choose Though, to be honest, he doesn’t remember actually making the choice to stay a monster and live rather than be human and die. The only injury the doctors will talk about is his missing eyes, and why are all the doctors Scottish? At least Martin is here.

Spinning ‘Round (like two sides of a coin) by @awayofunderstandingit

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27835756

Summary: Time is a construct. What we know as past, present, and future all exist at the same time, ad infinitum. • Guided not by time but a spoken word poem, follow along the lives of two intertwined souls, Timothy Stoker and Sasha James. The story of their friendship from the time they meet, through growing apart, to when they fall back together, and through their time working at the Magnus Institute. Witness slices of their lives—not memories, memories would suggest the past—as they exist, ad infinitum, even at The End.

retrouvailles by @jet-siquliak

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27818092

Summary: The Magnus Institute burns. The archivist, for all intents and purposes, burned with it. In a dingy hospital room lies what remains - Jonathan sims. weak, powerless, and insignificant. On Jon’s last day in the hospital, Martin awakes from a coma, unscathed. Melanie King kicks the dirt that once housed the institute. Tim stoker wakes up in the middle of nowhere. Elias Bouchard is dead. No one knows where to go from there. Or: the destruction of one home and the making of another.

Still, I’ll Always Keep the Memory by @revolutionnaire-e

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27932125

Summary: [MARTIN turns, stepping out of the shadows towards him. It is blood, not tears. His left eye is not his own. His eyes never shone that blinding green, never shone with such malice or self-satisfied pride.] MARTIN BLACKWOOD Pleasure to see you again, Archivist.

Making Home by @cuddlytogas

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27664805

Summary: After the events in the Panopticon, Jon and Martin rush to leave London. But making their home in an idyllic safe house isn't that easy: between the layer of dust, and Forsaken still clinging to Martin's heels, it could be some time before they reach an understanding.

called your name ‘til the fever broke by @corpsesoldier

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27845161

Summary: Basira made a promise to her partner. At the end of the world, a monster comes and demands she keep it.

assorted family photos by @lesbianbirds

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27903979

Summary: When setting off on a research trip, it is advised that you prepare yourself for certain oddities that may greet you. or; key moments in a world where the entities are weaker and everyone got a bit more therapy

Timothy Stoker’s Guide to Dating by @pezilla

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27841267

Summary: Timothy Stoker has a lot of advice when it comes to matters of the heart, online agony aunt, gossip monger and general love guru. He has a list and he sticks to it. Or he did. That was before he took a job at the Magnus Institute and before he met three of the most fascinating and frustrating people to ever come into his life. Rule #7 under no circumstances fall for a co-worker. Yeah, that rule was starting to become a problem.

Running the Institute by @drowsy-salamander

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27878306

Summary: Caroline Ferguson, the entirety of the Magnus Institute's legal department, is furiously ignoring any weirdness that could be going on in her workplace, from the tech issues to the vanishing colleagues to the everything about Artefact Storage, Caroline will turn a very deliberate blind eye. They're are not her problem. Now if only those murders could also stop.

kindred spirits (not so scarce as I used to think) by @pollylittlehigher-littlelower

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27914821

Summary: An Anne of Green Gables inspired AU, set in modern day England. Jon and Georgie are childhood best friends, but the two stop talking after a falling out. Even doing their best to avoid each other, Georgie struggles to escape him, even while dealing with her own mental health issues and a blossoming romance with her housemate, Melanie. Is Jon truly the kindred spirit she once considered him? Or will the two eventually part ways for good?

Friends of Empty Graves by @artswaps

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27974807

Summary: After the coffin, she cuts her hair. Who is Alice Tonner? People are searching for her in the space she left behind, in the person she was. Daisy looks elsewhere, and tries not to choke.

just let the feeling grow by @ajkal2

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27838447

Summary: Jon is a musician. He plays songs for a living. Except love songs. He doesn't do love songs, and he makes this quite clear with anyone interested in working with him. Except his manager has booked him for a wedding. Without asking. With days before the festivities start, Jon needs help. Desperately. He won't get it from his hosts, the Lukas family. He certainly won't get it from his manager. However, there's a certain amateur poet on the Lukas' staff who has a talent for making love sound genuine.

World Cold and Hard, Moth Boy Warm and Soft by @lcjenkinswriting

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27827491

Summary: Jon, a young moth fairy, leaves the nest in search of a place that feels like home

tapes winding forward by @ghostbustermelanieking

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27858721

Summary: Martin ignores him, stops him mid-sentence to say, "Jon, what have you heard about time travel?" --- Martin and Jon wake up two years in the future. It goes about as well as can be expected.

MAG 26.5: Beach Episode by @ebenrosetaylor

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27882746

Summary: Sasha is aware of the rising tensions in the archives after Martin was stalked by Prentiss and after she had her own encounter with Michael. In an attempt to boost morale and bring them closer together, Tim suggests that they all visit the beach to unwind and get their minds off of all things paranormal. Sasha takes it upon herself to make sure that everyone has fun and relaxes, but she forgets to give herself that luxury.

Rewrite The Rulebook by @radiosandrecordings

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27823774

Summary: "Panic! Bloody panic! I've been out since I was fifteen and never once actually brought someone home. I think I just wanted to seem like I had my life together, y’know? Mainly I just... I think I just wanted someone to be there with me, so I wasn't just alone with her the entire time. A bit of comfort.” There was pause as Martin let out a dramatic sigh, seemingly relieved to ramble out his thoughts. "... I could go with you. If you want."

A Test In Patience by @talking4the1

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27917749

Summary: Elias is going about his day as the new head of the Magnus Institute in 1995. Some spreadsheets to do, meetings to attend mundane and supernatural. Nothing seems out of place until The Eye calls him to Bournemouth.

Of Mothers and Memory by @loverdontleave

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27856585

Summary:  There is a story to be told, of two people, a mother and a son. Of their history together, and the sacrifices they made for each other. Perhaps they loved each other once, but that thread of connection has weakened on one end, fraying away. And it is so, so cold.

Would That I Were Golden Dust by @that-one-girl-behind-you

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27734197

Summary: The world is a lot more dangerous with your soul walking by your side, and Entities aren’t shy about feeding on golden Dust.

Till Death, Parted by @bigowlenergy

Ao3 Link:https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27749680

Summary: Jon gets caught after ripping out Gerry’s page by Trevor & Julia, and through a comedy of errors ends up engaged as an excuse. Somehow, Jon gets out alive, Gerry is freed, and they have the two hunters accompanying them as bodyguards - and as best man and best woman - without a fight. Living alone in Gerry’s London safe house afterwards will be totally fine. Jon is fine. He knows what coping is and everything! Totally fine.

The Spoken Word by @drumkonwords

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27802708/chapters/68066326

Summary: Jon wants. Their pinky twitches — stretching and curling to the tune of something musical. The song of wanting, with its motifs of long, low notes. Starting quiet and mumbling up into Jon’s chest until the strings of their heart vibrate like the strings of a double bass and all they can do is wonder who’s tune they’re matching. But they know.

First Aid by @platypik

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27948284

Summary: Jon is certain Martin has been acting strangely all morning. When Martin offhandedly mentions he took a bad tumble off the tube to work, Jon suddenly Knows that the fall had given Martin a nasty fracture. Despite his desperate pleading, Martin stubbornly refuses to let Jon drive him to the hospital. In fact, it seems he would much rather take care of it himself than have Jon worry and fuss over him. Jon would disagree.

Burning Bright, In the Forests of the Night by @triffidsandcuckoos

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27915400

Summary: The safehouse bursts into flames at their backs. You can choose to change the path. Just be ready for what else you might change.

i’ve been static for too long by @furryjefferson

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27887878

Summary: Jonathan Sims ends up with a stranger’s phone on the way home from work. All signs point to the Magnus Institute, and all roads lead to its mysterious archivist: Martin Blackwood.

through the clouds like a moonbeam by @digital-waterfall 

Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/tmabb20/works/27877402

Summary: After passing through the Vast’s domain, Jon is left with an unexpected surprise-- a pair of wings. Unsurprisingly, Martin finds them beautiful. Also unsurprisingly, Jon does not.

[senkou-lights]

A Harsh Realization (Closed RP)

Okay, so far... I still like Ponyville wa~ay more.

Traveling across Equestria had given Senkou many new experiences, with most of them seeming rather mundane and unimpressive to other ponies. These new experiences ranged from being as simple as sleeping in a building on the ground rather than in a cloud-home, to meeting exotic new creatures such as opinici and griffons. Heck, Senkou had even seen a dragon once! Granted, it was a baby dragon and he’d only seen it from afar, but it was still an impressive sight to see. Regardless of what others might think of the excitement of these simple experiences, everything had brought joy to the pegasus. New sights to see, new things to experience... He truly was young and naive to the outside world, but that just made everything much more fascinating!

Besides, he’s working on dashing the naivety that stuck with him all through foalhood. Traveling was one way of allowing himself to grow up.

Having been in Ponyville, and in Manehatten (holy fluff that city was huge!), Senkou had taken time from his relatively-new job to visit yet another city. A city that was considered a capitol of Equestria itself; Canterlot.

@ofinlustris

Smiling brightly and trotting energetically through the large, luxurious city, Senkou could come up with one strikingly important difference between Canterlot and Ponyville; It was must less... friendly. Ponies made less of an effort to smile, or stop to chat, and this might’ve unnerved Senkou... if he hadn’t already lived in Manehatten for quite some time. In times of doubt, the colt would simply reassure himself. It’s okay... Everypony is just busy. It doesn’t mean a thing. And, fortunately, this frame of mind helped the pegasus to contain his cheerful mood.

Having spent the majority of the day trotting around Canterlot, Senkou made an effort to visit several places... Usually just to discover how expensive everything was. A little bit like Manehatten, much of the attractions Canterlot could provide was a bit pricey. Restaurants charged a hefty amount for a ridiculously small portion of food, plays and performances were often twice the price (and many times were even booked up for a week or two...), and even local shopping districts seemed to be entirely focused on high-quality products which resulted in steeper prices. One thing that Senkou knew, however, was that the library was free. It had to be. Being a natural bookworm, visiting the Canterlot library would be as exciting as visiting a theme park.

After quite a bit of searching (He’d only gotten lost twice! Good start.), and some not-so-helpful directions provided reluctantly by a pair of unicorns, Senkou had located the library. Greeting the building with a large, relieved smile, the pegasus honestly felt like the library had smiled back at him, equally relieved to see that he’d found it.

Climbing up the pristine white steps leading to the library, Senkou would push the front doors open and be greeted by a huge room, stuffed with shelves of books upon books upon... more books. He’d pause only for a moment to breathe it all in, then trot right inside to peer around the shelves. Alright, where to begin first? The fiction section would certainly be calling him... though he did pause to take a gander at the other ponies inside. It was nice and quiet, perfect for reading, as several other ponies (mostly unicorns) were doing. Each sitting at their own tables with a book wide open, silently reading away.

[lilikags]

Promise | a Haikyuu oneshot series

Premise

Each of these oneshots below, which will be linked when I complete them, are based off of a line from Raon Lee’s “Promise”. These lines will be the prompt for each of these oneshots. As it is a song and it has a chorus, there will be repeat prompts for different characters. 

I will be adding a cut here, as there are quite a few lines and I would not like to clog up anyone’s dash. There is also additional info below.

Line Distribution

Sinking, falling into despair, a hand reached out and broke through my fears [Kita Shinsuke]

when I was lost, you found me, showed me kindness, set me free and still I remember- [Yaku Morisuke]

Now I can hear you When I close my eyes, I can feel your hand in mine [Akaashi Keiji]

Now I can hear you, I can find you [Semi Eita]

Finally I realize, For you I promise, I promise I'll never forget Every moment that we spent together [Shirabu Kenjirou]

Promise, I promise I'll hold my head high, Here together standing under the seventh sky [Oikawa Tooru]

When the end feels so far out of reach and the path is long and you want to retreat just know that I'm there with you together we will make it through the dark and we will rise up [Shirabu Kenjirou]

Now I can hear you When I close my eyes, I can feel your hand in mine [Iwaizumi Hajime]

Now I can hear you, I can find you, Finally I realize [Miya Atsumu]

For you I promise, I promise I'll never forget Every moment that we spent together [Kageyama Tobio]

Promise, I promise I'll hold my head high, Here together standing under the seventh sky [Yamaguchi Tadashi]

When we're sent back to the start and fear is rising in my heart I feel the strength you give me and I begin to shine [Shirabu Kenjirou]

Even in the dead of night just look toward that warm blue light. Follow your heart and I'll be waiting there, take my hand let's start again [Shirabu Kenjirou]

For you I promise, I promise I'll never forget Every moment that we spent together [Hinata Shoyo]

Promise, I promise I'll hold my head high [Nishinoya Yuu]

I'll be there I swear [Kozume Kenma]

(Promise, promise) That we spent together [Miya Osamu]

(promise, I promise) I'll hold my head high, Here together standing under the seventh sky [Kuroo Tetsurou]

Lyrics found on Reddit

Other Information

I will be opening up a taglist for this series, so please fill out this google form here! 

Reblogs > likes! <3

[punkcherries]

ok wait i have thoughts on wat the tracks of the train to nowhere album drawing i did would be like lemme ramble hold on under da cut i ont wanna clog no ones dashes or watever lmfao

all aboard  would probably be a short intro track that samples real old timey trains, bout a minute and a half long, before fading into the next track wormhole judgement line  would be like a very futuristic dated-yet-timeless synth track introducing the concept of the album which is an alien train where whole worlds are held in the cars and anything can happen, again using real train samples ring for service  would be a bit of a swerve as it introduces piano and is reminiscent of hotel lobby music, but with a somewhat cold and unnerving synth edge, to reflect the anxiety and confusion ryan and min felt waking up on an iceberg with a talking floating magic call bell lmfao outlaw  would be even MORE of a swerve cus it would just BUST in, no real fade from the last track in, just BOOM cowboy music, which fits the whiplash between going from weird alien iceberg eon car to COWBOYS BABY. lyrically its about being a wanted outlaw in a place uve never been before man’s best friend (the cat)  would transition from the last track into a jaunty piano tune like ud hear in a saloon, but with an odd french twist, probably with some accordion samples here and there. the music would also reflect the lyrics in giving off an air of mystique and poise and a tinge of potential danger execution  could very easily be seen as just outlaw (reprise) but its musically much darker and more frantic, and also shorter, somewhere around a cool 2 minutes, and itd feature a light humming buzz in the background that develops into crackling and finally loud shocking noises accompanied by a pained scream before..,,, silence little piggy  would be the strangest track by far, following the intensity of the last track with music box samples. itd start slow and melodic, but pick up speed and more instruments layered on top as it goes, and lyrically would have kind of a nursery rhyme vibe to it, very very unnerving and very very unlike anything else on the album saturnalia  would be more like the typical synth rock ud expect from a duo like ryan and min, very musically up beat and great dance music with a KILLER bass line and fuzz guitar, but lyrically would be..... kinda depressing, about being alone at a party and ykno basically what happened in the astro party car, ur friend ditched u lol. the song would have a fade out to prep for the next track bathroom interlude  would literally just be the song min and ryan played in the bathroom but like a minute long. no instruments other than guitar and mini synth crooked paintings  would bring back the piano and maybe accordion from earlier, eerie and cold and dark, juxtaposing the relatively warm vibe of the interlude before it. lyrically, itd be about the art gallery car of course but mostly focusing on themes of being alone but feeling like ur not. spooky!!! phantom hands  picks up the pace from the last song as the feeling of not being alone becomes fact, while crooked paintings toned back the guitar in favor of a dark brooding bass track, phantom hands would have more rough fuzzy guitar, almost drowning out other instruments, as kind of a highlight to the intensity and fear of what happened there is this your stop?  almost halts phantom hands in its tracks, bringing back the future-y synths to the forefront as the lyrics contemplate escaping the panic, although the music of phantom hands starts building up again in the background, and ultimately melds with the synths before the track fades out, being a swift minute and a half or so long locked out  while being a reference to ryan literally being locked out of the art gallery car would be more metaphorical lyrically, about the things both of them kept at arms distance from eachother, and have more acoustic instruments to it, which would transition quite smoothly into the next track mega maze  also a literal reference, but lyrically metaphorical about their relationship and how confusing navigating emotions can be. more synth is added in at this point but really only serves to make the song feel even more cold and dazed manhunt  picks the album’s plot back up and were back to literals here, as the electric guitar kicks in for a life-or-death chase track, its a race to the castle doors as suddenly musical themes from outlaw, little piggy, and ring for service come back into play, and by the end of this ~4 minute track comes in, organ samples are introduced adding a gothic tone which bleeds over into the next track 202  is where a lot of tension bubbles over, dark instrumentation and sharp lyrics about hope and despair and fear of being alone, very pre-emo emo if i do say so myself, using mostly electric guitar organ and bass. as the tension cools down, the synth starts to kick in, possibly sampling im gonna dress my dog in a toque, like a ray of sunshine coming in to warm up the track and fade into the next stuck with you  would be a sort of synth ballad, about reassurance and dedication and building something together and Its Totally Not Gay What No Way Were Best Friends Haha I Promise Mom. the guitar really starts to kick in in the second half before the end which does not transition into the next song but does end on the same note the next song starts on train to nowhere  would just be the song from the show but extended lol

overall the album would be a really kitschy concept album to the lay listener and a wild autobiography about being on the train to anyone In The Know and also very fucking gay i can imagine lgbt ppl in universe writing whole essays on the subtext and how Actually The Album Is An Allegory For Being Gay And Closeted And In Love In The 80s sjfhkdjg

[fuckyoupostplus]

IN SUMMARY,

The reasons that Tumblr should never, ever let post+ past the beta stage and rather should abandon it immediately:

It will get copyright owners like Disney to start sueing the hell out of Tumblr, if not, you. This is because Fanworks are only allowed as long as they are not being used for profit, and the moment you start trying to profit, companies are going to come down HARD. This may lead to potentiallyTumblr changing irreversibly into a different kind of website, as they’ll have to implement measured to search and prevent the posting of copyrighted materials, and you all know how faulty Tumblr is already, there’s no way that system would work well. Since Tumblr is basically built on fandom, this would def have a huge impact, esp on the gif community. This is why sites like AO3 have a big emphasis on not linking patterns or ko-fi, because the only thing protecting us is the fact that we’re not doing these things for profit.

It’s high-key highway robbery. Tumblr demands a 30% cut of your sub money on mobile... With the prices, from what I've seen, being as low as $3.99 a month, that’s a HUGE cut from an already low price. I can’t find the post with the exact numbers for the cut% anymore, if anyone has it, please do send me it.

can’t block blogs that subscribe to you Dude. There’d be no way to block people is they were harassing you. Why is that a thing

Tumblr is not secure, don’t give it your credit card info  as @tenya​ put it so very well, “don’t give this website your card credentials. it’s not secure. it’s proved time and time again that your information isn’t as safe as it claims to be, and if the neverending sunglasses plague is anything to go by, then it’s only a matter of time before more than just your blog gets taken from you.” 

High-key is against the spirit of Tumblr, and other websites do this better already, Tumblr trying to twist itself to fit that mould is a terrible idea. reblogging as the only means of spreading without the interference of an algorithm has always been what makes Tumblr special. But with these paywalled posts, If I were to reblog a post from a blog I'd susbscribed to, none of my followers would be able to see it and it would just clog up their dash with a big ‘LMAO SORRY GOTTA PAY TO SEE THIS’ sign. There’s websites that do this better, like patron, so why the hell is Tumblr trying to conform?

This change is moving Tumblr in a more corporate, profit-driven direction.  If Tumblr does this, it’s making the path to actual normal ads, algorithms and ‘verification systems’ and other staples of many social media sites that much easier to walk down. I’ve always seen Tumblr as unique and special in it’s approach, and was glad it never jumped on the trends all the other popular social media platforms are following, but yet here we are. I just think there’s a very high risk that this would be the first step on a path no user on this site wants: a shift from hellsite (positive) to hellsite (derogatory)

If you have any other points/would like to expand on these, feel free! I’m not ver eloquent myself and your input would be much appreciated.

[eredins-a-king-aint-he]

Hey, out of curiosity. What ships do you ship in The Witcher? I know about Gauntee/Geralt, Regis/Geralt and Eskel/Letho. (Also I was really excited when I saw you ship Gaunralt because I thought I was the only one shipping them 🙈)

You’ve nailed my main ones!! Most of my content has been for those three ships, though I’ve occasionally done some art or fics for others too

Tbh I’m a bit of a multi-shipping bastard with a love for rarepairs, so more often than not I’m excited to consider the dynamics of pairings that are so rare that they border on crack bc no one else is even remotely interested in them😂 I also just love to mash my favorite characters together in my head and see what happens

Putting my response under the cut so it doesn’t clog up my poor followers’ dashes lmao

So for rarepairs the top two are definitely Eskel/Letho and Gaunter/Geralt (both pairs that different friends got me into originally), but I also am curious about or interested in (in no particular order):

Letho/Lambert, they would be either a fantastically and oddly steady pair or the worst, most explosive chemistry experiment ever (I’ve read/found one fic for them and it was v interesting)

Geralt/Dijkstra, as Geralt seems to just be irresistibly drawn to people who could snap him over their knee in one way or another

Gaunter/Dijkstra, because I find the thought hilarious and their dynamic would lowkey be the meme “you should be addicted to shutting the fuck up” “you wanna fuck me so bad it makes you look stupid” which is one of my favorite ship dynamics, and you can throw Geralt in there between them for an added bonus (p sure I’m the only one who’s done anything for these two/three and it was just a few silly doodles)

Emhyr/Dijkstra, cause artwinsdraws (I don’t wanna @ them for this but that’s their tumblr) have been drawing them together and it seems like they could have the same meme dynamic which I adore

Eskel/Gaunter/Geralt, mostly bc I like crack aus and I think they would have a fun dynamic to explore

And at the moment Gaunter/anyone because I am just a wee bit ✨obsessed✨

For slightly more mainstream pairs aside from Geralt/Regis, I do also enjoy:

Eskel/Geralt, they’re very sweet and lovely together and I appreciate them a lot

Eskel/Lambert, they’ve got like a “one is calm and the other is fucking crazy and they balance each other out” vibe

Geralt/book!Dandelion, for the ride or die friendship/love they absolutely have in the books

Lambert/Aidan, I’ve never made content for them but I like the stuff I’ve seen

Ciri/Cerys, cause they’re awesome

Geralt/Emhyr, I’m a little less into this pairing but a mutual of mine really likes them and their fics have actually been getting me more and more interested👀

In general, I’m pretty curious about and open to most rarepairs (and honestly I’m usually down to hear about new ones, feel free to drop me thoughts in my inbox). My main criteria for ships is that they have good and interesting chemistry, and aren’t like extra sus bc of various reasons (don’t get me started Geralt/Triss, I don’t like them together one bit)

(And yeah obligatory comment: I absolutely do not ship Geralt/Netflix!Jaskier at all, or really anything with Netflix!Jaskier even if it could be considered a rarepair, but that’s a whole other kettle of fish that I don’t need to dump on you lmao)

Thanks for the ask!! There’s definitely certain characters that I’m less interested in generally so I might be less invested in pairings that include them but it’s still fun to talk about!! I could ramble about this all night tbh but I gotta go to bed now😂

[scribbleboxfox]

Some thoughts about the use of Unreal assets in the new season of Red vs. Blue.

This wound up being longer than I meant for it to be, so I’m putting it under a cut for courtesy bc I don’t wanna clog up anyone’s dash :’D

It’s just genuinely so funny to me that ppl are upset that they used Unreal assets for RvB:Zero. Like you’re going to call them lazy for using free stock assets in the middle of a pandemic? Okay. So I guess that means I’m lazy for licensing a photo from Adobe Stock for my company to use instead of filling out a request form for a professional camera, waiting for the next budget meeting to make my case about why I need it, learn how to use it, gather props, hire models, book a location for the shoot, gather costumes, learn how to use Lightroom, spend 4-6 hours shooting photos and directing the models, and edit the photos.

I’ve seen the argument that RvB has always stuck close to Halo as a reason for why the Unreal assets are bad. But this isn’t true. The closest RvB’s ever gotten to real Halo lore was with Project Freelancer*, and it barely scratched the surface. Yes they have references to it scattered throughout the show on occasion, but their whole arrangement with Microsoft makes it so that they can’t overlap too much.

Also, we’re really going to get mad about that, and not the really shitty snowmen in Season 12?

Those don’t look like Halo assets to me.

I just think it’s so silly. The argument that they should have only used assets from Halo is ridiculous because there’s plenty of times where they straight up haven’t done that. Like the knights in Season 16. Which were also free assets that they grabbed from somewhere.

3D models take time to make. You have to come up with an idea, make concept art for that idea, review the concept art and pick a direction to go in, sit down and make the 3D model (which can take hours and hours depending on what you’re making,) take down the poly count after creating a normal map so you don’t have a million faces that will slow down your render time, make sure the UV’s are all laid out properly so the model can be textured, pass it off to the people who texture the UV’s or do it yourself, test the textures to make sure the seams aren’t too visible on the model, do render tests to make sure the textures and normals and bump maps all look the way you want them to, and THEN you have to rig it yourself or pass it off to the coworker in charge of that sort of thing, apply constraints and controls, skinweight it, and apply physics (depending on the model.) And once you’re done with all of that, then you can give it to an animator to add it to a scene and animate it. And bear in mind that people have to do this while also keeping up with their meeting schedules, breaks, mealtimes, childcare, pet care, grocery runs, doctor’s appointments, etc.

I’m definitely missing a few steps/mis-naming a few things, but it’s been literally 3 years since I’ve created a full 3D asset from start to finish so...take it with a grain of salt.

The point is that creating one model is a lot of work. Top it off with the fact that we’re in a pandemic, and it gets even more strenuous. Things like ad-hoc design reviews may be harder to do because people might have their notifications for Slack/Teams/Discord/etc. off so they can get work done. And that can mean the difference between getting an asset finished in the middle of the day today, or waiting until early morning tomorrow when the rest of your team is online.

It’s much more cost-efficient to just buy/download pre-made assets. And frankly, in the middle of a pandemic, it’s a lot more ethical too.

I just wish that ppl would step back and ask themselves why they might be using Unreal assets for this season. Companies use stock assets all the time. Rooster Teeth is a company. I worry that people forget that sometimes.

Anyways, that’s just my two cents on it. As someone whose done the whole 3D animation process multiple times (albeit mostly for college,) it’s frustrating that people are making arguments against the use of stock assets without having an understanding of the amount of work that goes into making them yourself.

---

*The use of AI’s and the Huragok in Project Freelancer were two very direct references to canon Halo lore.

** Also worth noting that they DO use canon Halo guns in the first episode. I can’t speak for the other episodes because I haven’t seen them yet as of today (11/9/20) but I personally doubt they’re getting rid of them entirely.

Edit://

I mixed up Unity with Unreal. They’re Unreal Marketplace assets. Thanks @banditsheath​ for pointing that out.

[wolf-zer0]

whisper and thorn

cross-posted to ao3: whisper and thorn

He doesn’t have a name.  At least, not one he could remember.  He tried, sometimes, to shift through memories.  Tried to grasp something, anything, that wasn’t static.  That wasn’t painful.  Nothing sticks.  Nothing stays.

Nothing but the forest.

He doesn’t have a name, but he does have the forest.  It is always moving, always changing, always living.  He feels the forest under his skin, thrumming through his veins.  He feels every fallen tree, every shift in the earth, every thing that enters and exists.  

He doesn’t have a home, not like he sees others have.  Instead of four walls of stone and wood, he has towering mountains and trees.  Instead of a roof, he has the vast canopy of green leaves.  He likes green.  The torn and tattered remains of fabric stretched across thin shoulders are green.  Green is home.  

He doesn’t have a family.  He may have.  Once.  But not anymore.  The first thing he can remember is the shell of a house, empty and smoldering.  There wasn’t anyone else there.  He was alone.  He is alone.  But he’s not.  He has the forest.

The forest sings to him.  He hears crescendo of berries and fruits as they ripen to sweet perfection.  He hears the bubbling rush of fresh water tumbling from high atop the mountain.  He hears the dim percussion, the heart of the earth itself beneath his bare feet, matching the rhythm of the beat in his chest.  

He hears the dissonant pounding of footsteps. Crouched on a log, fingertips fiddling with the decaying bark, his head tilts in the direction he hears it from.

There’s a child running through the trees, laughter ringing through the clear summer air.  

He’s seen children before.  He thinks he is a child.  But don’t children have families?  Homes?  He doesn’t, so he’s not sure.  He stares at the newcomer, confused.  Where did he come from?

The newcomer stops, back towards him.  He turns.

And looks right at him.

For a moment, the forest is silent.  There’s no music, no movement, nothing.  Just a single note, high and unwavering, like the dark brown eyes of this new boy.  

There’s something scratching at the back of his head, trying to tell him something, but he doesn’t listen.  

The note breaks.  He runs.  He thinks the boy shouts at him, but he doesn’t care to listen.  He doesn’t want to listen.  He just wants the forest.  

He doesn’t mean to see the boy again.  In fact, he makes it his goal not to see him again.  His ears are strained at all times, listening for any change, any shift in the life of the forest.  A sudden call of birds.  The rustling of grass.  Anything.  It works.  Until it doesn’t.

He should have remembered the traps.  The angry metallic hum pierces the chaotic calm of the forest.  But he’s so focused on listening for the boy, he misses the sound of the wire and metal as it tightens around his foot.  

He falls with a yelp, chin pressing into the earth painfully as his leg is wrenched upward unnaturally.  He scrambles to free himself, fingers digging at his ankle, to no avail.  

The forest falls away as he is dragged upward.  His skin feels too big, empty space left in his bones where movement once was.  He can’t feel it.  He can’t feel it.  Hecan’tfeelithecan’tfeelithecan’tfeelit-

He doesn’t hear the boy this time, though the boy still makes no effort to mask his movements.  Panic clouds his vision, clogs his hearing.  He catches a faint buzzing just beyond his awareness as a featherlight touch brushes the wire.  He jerks once.  His breath catches and tears build as the metal tightens.  The buzzing remains, oddly comforting in its consistency.  

The hold on his ankle releases, and he tumbles to the dirt in a heap.  His chest is heaving, barely able to breathe, and tears cover his face.  His eyes blur and all he can see is color.  Green, green, green, green —

Brown.  He only sees brown.  Brown that morphs into dark hair, leaves and twigs caught in the mess.  Brown that shifts into dark eyes, warm with concern and care.  Brown that solidifies into the boy.  The boy who he was afraid of— was saved by.  

The boy’s mouth moves, noises spilling from his mouth like the waterfall’s he used to sleep near.  It makes no sense to him, and yet it does.  He knows it the same way he knows the forest.  The humming beneath his skin grows where the boy is touching him, where the boy is wrapping a clean white cloth around his bloody ankle.  The boy pulls him up quickly, ducking under his shoulder to support him when he nearly collapses.  He lets the boy.  He doesn’t know why.  

The boy leads him to a house, a cozy looking stack of stones and woods that only feels empty and lifeless to him.  The stone is dead.  The wood is dead.  The lack of life scares him.  He refuses to enter, refuses to be cut off from the forest, not again.  The boy says something again, tries to pull him closer.  He resists.  He can’t lose it, he can’t.  Something shifts in the boy’s eyes and he huffs, chest vibrating against his side, and pulls him higher up on his shoulder.  

The boy leads him to a cluster of trees, grown together in a way that makes a small, dry hollow.   He curls up after the boy lowers him down gently.  His ankle throbs painfully and he tries to fight back the flinch.  He fails.  The boy says something quickly before dashing away.  

He feels cold.  He feels empty.  But the forest is still there.  The thrumming is still there.  Why is he empty?

Why?

The boy comes back, a strange looking bundle stuffed in his arms.  The cold ebbs.  The emptiness fades.  His head feels light.  It feels right.  Safe.

Whole.

He floats in the space between sleeping and waking, hyperaware yet distant from the boy.  There’s chatter that drifts in front of his face that he doesn’t quite understand and doesn’t try to grasp at.  His ankle stings, then doesn’t.  The boy speaks, then doesn’t.  

He’s awake, then isn’t.  

The boy doesn’t leave him alone.  He’s always somewhere behind him, talking and laughing and not making any sense.  He doesn’t acknowledge his presence, even as he stomps through the underbrush and crushes the flowers below his heels.  He thinks he glares, once, after the boy snaps a branch of a nearby tree and he feels the pain deep and sharp in his chest.  The boy walks more carefully after that.  

They boy keeps visiting and visiting and visiting.  He’s always moving, always talking, always living.  After a while, he wants to understand.  He forces the boy to stop and teach him.  The boy does.  

He doesn’t know why, but he starts to trust the boy - Sapnap, the boy squawks one day when he finally starts to learn his language.  There’s something in him that won’t let him walk away.  He doesn’t know if he even wants to in the first place.  

Sapnap doesn’t care about his lack of shoes. (For often than not, he’s barefoot next to him, splashing away in a mud puddle).  Sapnap doesn’t mind the way he pulls his ratty hood up, the way he tugs his collar to hide his face.  He knows he’s not… normal looking.  He remembers way people sneer if he forgets to hide.  He knows Sapnap should be the same.  But he never is.  (He doesn’t even comment).  He feels comfortable around him, safe, in almost every way.

Except one.  

Sapnap is Sapnap.  He is…

He doesn’t know who he is.  He’s never had to care before.  The forest doesn’t care about names, about self.  It lives and grows and dies as a unit.  He didn’t care before, when the forest was all he had.  But now…

Now he wants to be something.  Something more than a child in green, living in green.  He wants to be someone.

He doesn’t tell Sapnap.  He doesn’t know how to tell him.  They continue to meet.  (Never near Sapnap’s house, not after his mother screamed and nearly skewered him when he tried to follow Sapnap inside).  They meet by the river, by the lightning-split oak, by the rock shaped like a wolf.  They meet and he listens and he wants to tell him so badly but he can’t.  So he doesn’t.

Until Sapnap asks him.  It should be so easy.  Three words.  I am … something.  But he’s not.  He has nothing.  He tells him as much, throat raw.  The thrumming under his skin becomes painful.  

Sapnap’s hand on his arm isn’t.  It’s warm.  

He offers him options, laying them out on the soft, dew-covered grass.  He sorts through them, testing them on his tongue, looking to his … friend for guidance.  

He picks one, and it feels right as it tumbles from his mouth.  Sapnap smiles brightly when he says it to him.

My name is Dream.  I’m Dream.

Dream grows, and so does Sapnap.  He learns, and so does Sapnap.  They learn of the world beyond the forest border.  They learn of the great oceans, the vast deserts, the sprawling cities, the sheer number of people.  They learn of magic, great and small.  No matter what they do, they do it together.  

When Sapnap sheepishly hands him a white mask with a crudely drawn smile, he feels the forest around them sing in tune with his heart.  He offers a thin strip of white cloth in return, so similar to the one used so long ago, yet so much more valuable than anything he can say with words.  And he swears he feels the forest’s voice change, a new, deeper note of gratitude adding to the chorus, when his friend accepts.  He thinks something has slotted into place, and he doesn’t want to let it go.  

He doesn’t know exactly how everything happened, only that it did.

He’s waiting for Sapnap to show, dozing in a clearing with his back to the earth and face to the sky.  He hasn’t seen his friend in days, but he’s fine with waiting.  Everything is quiet.  Calm.  Peaceful.  The forest is humming around him.  

Then it shrieks.  

He bolts upright, calm melting away and replaced by panic and pain.  

So much pain.  

It tugs at his very core, screaming pain pain danger hurt fire hurry HURRY PAIN.  

He doesn’t think.  He runs.

The forest opens up in response to his panic.  The earth shifts beneath his feet.  Roots curl back to avoid catching his ankles.  Trees move to open new paths.  Birds call in the distance as he nears the spot.  He knows this spot.  He knows that house.  

The house is on fire.  

Tall, red and orange flames lick at the leaves above it, and the trees shudder.  Patches of once green grass are burned black and brittle.  An outline of something he doesn’t want to recognize but does lays in the scorched grass.  There’s a crowd of people he doesn’t know, dressed in black and gray, gathered around the burning building.  There are weapons in their hands.  A small figure stands at the center of the mass, covered in soot and hands lit aflame.  

Sapnap’s eyes are smoldering embers, glowing in the afternoon light.  He wears a snarl, the beginnings of fangs glinting as he growls lowly.  Dream doesn’t breech the tree line, frozen in fear and rage.  There’s a dissonant note ringing in the air, familiar and not.  A figure swings a blade down, slicing through the dirty band tied around Sapnap’s forehead.  

The note continues.  

Dream shatters.  

He doesn’t remember the earth twisting to cover Sapnap.  He doesn’t remember the ring of stone that rises, forming a barricade.  He doesn’t remember the thorns that twist between, razor sharp thorns multiplying.

He does remember the feeling of blood puddling turning the dirt beneath his feet to mud.  He does remember skulls crushed beneath his fingers.  He does remember the snap of bone, the scream of pain, the rush of heat.  The thrill of the hunt. Of the kill.  

He stands alone, surrounded by what remains of the crowd.  The earth releases Sapnap, carefully depositing him next to Dream.  They don’t look at each other.  Sapnap reaches and clutches at Dream’s hand.  Dream doesn’t let go.  It starts to rain, droplets hissing on the fire.

They stand, blood-soaked and soot-stained, in the rain.  They hold each other tightly.  They don’t let go.

Brothers walk into the forest.  They never look back.

He doesn’t know how long they spent alone in the forest, but the years pass anyway.  Both change, growing into lanky limbs and boundless magic.  Dream learns to tighten his reach, to pull the scope of his awareness down to a pinpoint, to lessen the input of noise.  The forest still sings, but he is the conductor.  Sapnap learns how his flames wax and wane through the seasons, to conserve his heat through the winter and to restrain the inferno in the summer.  They spar and clash, chasing one another through the forest with the same childlike glee but sharpened with age and reckless with confidence.  

The whispers start late in the autumn.  The Year of Challenge had arrived.  They heard of the festival held every century to test the might and the will of the king.  Whoever emerged victorious could claim crown and throne for themselves.  

Dream feels the forest’s song change, once careful and chaotic, to a frenzied and wild drumbeat of war.  The thrumming nearly tears skin from bone.  It urges him to claim what was rightfully his.  

He knows Sapnap feels it too, already familiar with the way their power has entangled and formed an unbreaking web.  

They make a promise, curled up in the darkness of the canopy, that no matter which of them succeeds, they would never leave.  They were a pair.  Inseparable.  

The city is alive much like the forest that surrounds it, but in a very, very different way.  Dream feels the way the thrumming becomes almost non-existent.  He tries not to let the cloud of panic overtake him, not when they’re so close to what they want.  What they need.  

He doesn’t remember much of the tournament.  It rushes around him in a haze of action.  He wields his blade like an extension of his arm.  He feels each movement of his enemy before it happens.  He cuts them down without remorse.  He feels entirely at ease.  Natural.

And a scream changes everything.

There’s no freezing of time.  No moment of recognition.  No note hangs in the air.  He knows the scream as soon as it sounds.

He charges.

The challenger stands over the broken form of his brother, curved sword dripping with blood.  He does not hesitate to cut their head from their shoulders, reveling in the slick slide-thud as it hits the ground.  No one else is standing.

The crowd cheers for their new king.  He does not care for them.  He cares only for one person.  

He doesn’t care for tradition, for the pride of the Fair Folk, for the strength of their image.  He doesn’t care about the Lords and Ladies of the Courts, the politics of the outside world, the gold and jewels and luxuries that are his by right.  

He waits by his brother’s bed, by the only person who he chose and who chose him in return, and does not leave.  

Courtiers and chancellors and counselors all try to pry him away.  He is king, he is meant to rule.  He refuses.  He will not rule without him at his side.  

It takes weeks of hoping for miracles and praying to gods he’s not sure exist until Sapnap opens his eyes.  Dream buries his face into his shoulder and cries.  They do not separate for what feels like years.

Life changes, and yet it doesn’t.  Dream embraces his role as King, and he doesn’t.  Sapnap becomes Lord of the Summer Court, and he doesn’t.  They grow, and they stay the same.

Dream continues to search for the thrill of the hunt, of the chase.  When he no longer finds it with Sapnap alone, he searches for something new.  Something more.  

He finds it hidden in the Royal Library.  A Night Court Fae, brought to be the Royal Historian, grins at him without reservation, without the fear and awe most gave without a second thought, and offers his name.  He likes Karl, before he can even learn what he can do.

(Karl asks him if he wants this, wants to feel powerless.  He does.  The forest goes quiet, quieter than he’s ever heard it before, and something in him breaks.  His head is clear.  He feels like his skin isn’t filled to bursting.  He folds Karl into his circle without thought.)

He finds it tucked away in a secret clearing near the Eastern border of the forest.  A tiny cabin, surrounded by trees and flowers.  A Changeling with glittering, diamond-hard scales and his demon companion are startled by his appearance, but not frightened.  The demon merely scolds him for not calling ahead as the changeling laughs.

(Skeppy doesn’t want anything to do with the Kingdom.  They abandoned him to the outside, and Dream understands.  He visits when the Courts grow too stuffy, too closed off, to much and joins on his friend on adventures.  He is not loyal to Dream because he is King.  He is loyal because he is Dream.)

(Bad is kind and sharp and knows more than he lets anyone know.  He is tight-lipped about his past before Skeppy and Dream does not blame him.  They whisper late at night about magic and madness and the truth about power.  Bad does not see Dream as the Master of the Forest, for there is no way to master a force as dangerous as his nature.  He helps him hold tight to the edges of himself when it threatens to tear him apart.)

He runs from them, laughter weaving through the trees.  He feels the way Sapnap pounds his feet on the dirt, hears the way Skeppy jumps from tree to tree, knows the way Bad switches his rhythm to try to hide his location.  Karl is nearby, pressing down on his power to keep things interesting.  His blood sings for the hunt.  

He pushes through brush, leaps over rivers, running in circles just to hear the cries of outrage and disbelief.  He taunts them because he can, because this is his domain and he knows everything that happens.  

He doesn’t know who this man is.  

He stands panting, barefoot, mask covered in mud and hands riddled with scrapes, at the man kneeling in the grass.  The man is humming to himself as he looks at the flowers, not even acknowledging Dream’s presence.  

He doesn’t understand.  He feels every movement, every shift, every change in the ebb and flow of magic in the entire forest.  And yet, he senses nothing from this man.  He feels nothing but an empty space.

It’s fascinating.

He doesn’t hesitate in introduce himself to the man, to George.  George doesn’t seem alarmed in the slightest at Dream’s appearance or his invitation to join him for a walk.  They talk, and as they talk Dream feels the thrumming rise despite Karl’s intervention.  When they meet back with the group, all frustrated and annoyed at being ignored, he offers George a place to stay.  He feels Sapnap’s interest, Karl’s confusion, Skeppy’s curiosity, and Bad’s amusement.  He ignores the way the thrumming intensifies when George accepts.

George blends in seamlessly and flourishes in his new home.  Dream sees his wonder at the variety of fauna and preens.  (Sapnap digs an elbow into his side and snickers).

But as time passes, Dream notices changes.  The way George finds a single gray hair.  The way  he gathers a few smile lines around his eyes.  The way he wears his humanity so blatantly, and yet Dream missed every sign.  And now he’s running out of time.

He runs to Sapnap.  They cannot lose a piece of themselves.  Not now, not when they finally know what it’s like to feel complete.

They dig through old manuscripts, pages stained and torn with time and age.  They consult every Court, every living Historian, every herbalist they can get their hands on.  They beg Bad to help.  After hours of begging, bribery, and tears, he gives in.  They don’t tell him why they’re so desperate.  They don’t have the time.  

(Bad doesn’t tell them he knows.  He doesn’t tell them he’s been through this before.  He doesn’t tell them the average life expectancy for Higher Demons, or the average life expectancy for Changelings, or the reason he came across such forbidden knowledge.  Some things are better left unsaid.)

They find the right components, the right time frame, the right moment.  They complete the ritual in silence, staring at the vials in hand.  The liquid is silvery in the moonlight.  It worked.  They breathe.  It worked.  

Dream invites George to the castle for lunch, slipping the liquid into his drink before he arrives.  The conversation flows, jokes and stories bouncing off one another easily.  He watches carefully as George drains his drink, commenting on the sweet flavor.  Both sip their own and feel the tension drain from their bodies when know it works, power settling deep in their cores.  

One will not go without the others.  All three will survive.  He will make sure of it.  

He didn’t have a name before.  

He didn’t have a home before.  

He didn’t have a family before.

He has all three now.  

And he doesn’t plan on ever letting go.

(George doesn’t tell them he knows.  They aren’t the most subtle.  He doesn’t approve of how they went behind his back, of how they did not think to give him a choice.  He doesn’t approve, but he understands.  He knows fear when he sees it.  And while he doesn’t approve, he does appreciate having a family that cares.  In their own unusual way.)