#i don’t normally drawn animals so this was a great challenge!!!! i hope you all enjoy it :D

[nemmet]

the five six animalsketeers are back in town! 🍃🍻

[buckyownsmylife]

Count the Shadows - Bucky Barnes smut

The one where Bucky wants you to sit on his face.

Warnings: smut, a more dominant reader than I’m used to writing, pining!Bucky, all of the good stuff, second hand embarassment

A/N: so... this is a gift to @navegandoaciegas. She gave me the idea for the Graveyard series ending, and that actually inspired me to keep working on that fic that was supposed to only be a oneshot and then became the pride of my eye. I hope you don’t mind that I’m dedicating this to her 😅 It also allowed me to explore some new kinks that might be appearing thanks to her writing and so really, I felt like this had to see the light of day. But really, if it weren’t for @world-of-aus, @sweetkingdomstarlight-blog​ and @awesomerextyphoon​‘s support, I probably never would have had the courage to publish it, so thank you guys so much!

Y/N’s P.O.V.

Friday nights at Stark tower meant that something out of the ordinary was about to happen, and I’d already grown used to it, after being a part of the Avengers for the last two months. However, that didn’t mean that the prospect of a night planned by Tony Stark didn’t bring me a hell of a lot of anxiety, to the point where sometimes I’d catch myself wishing for a simple recon mission to take me away for the weekend. 

Despite all of my fears and discomfort, I’d been lucky so far. Not once had his attentions turned towards me, and he never even so much as called me to dance with him during one of the raves he liked to organize, so I was able to slip by unnoticed, seizing the opportunity to drink the good (expensive) booze and talk to my friends before retiring for the night.

By Wednesday that week, it was clear that the same couldn’t be said about the next event he’d be hosting.

“Say, Y/L/N, have I thrown you a welcome party?” Was my rude awakening on that fateful morning. Until his arrival, I’d been happily whipping up some pancakes for the supersoldiers and Sam, my morning run partners. The moment his question was processed in my brain however, I froze on my spot, looking up at him with wide eyes. “Oh, now, don’t give me that look. When have I ever thrown a bad party?”

Bucky choked on his coffee, and I immediately was by his side, lightly tapping his back to help him. “I guess this answers your question,” I joked, but with a serious face. Unfortunately, Tony simply rolled his eyes, too used to Bucky and I’s “antisocial behavior”, like he usually described, to give us any attention. “Okay, so maybe not bad, but if you’re going to throw a party using me as an excuse, I have at least one request. And it’s a dealbreaker for me.”

Something in my words truly interested Tony, because instead of brushing me off he actually turned to face me, raising his eyebrows in expectation. “So what you mean is that if I don’t give you what you want, you won’t join the party?”

I nodded, standing my ground. “That’s right.” Next to me, Bucky stood straighter in his chair. 

“Neither will I.” That brought a smile to my lips, and I turned to hug him quickly. 

“Thanks Buck,” I whispered in his ear, relishing in the way he always held onto my embrace just a second longer than I expected. It was always like this with us. Ever since I first noticed just how touch-starved the super soldier was, I’d find little excuses to touch him. And if I ever doubted my first assumption, the way he always chased away my warmth for just a second longer was enough to prove to me that I was doing something right.

“Very well,” Tony said after clearing his throat to regain my attention. “What’s your request?”

“Only the people who live in this tower can be invited.” I was expecting a lot of fuss from the billionaire, but surprisingly, all I got was a disappointed sigh.

“Figured as much. Okay, big shot. But here’s the deal: you’ll have to stay the entire night and participate in every game we decide to play.” I shrugged, taking a sip of my coffee. That sounded fair. “It’s a deal then! All you have to do is be here on Friday night, capisce? Don’t be late.”

I should have known something was up back then, but as it were, I was just happy that I was able to stop him from filling the Tower with people I didn’t know. Not only would it help to keep Bucky relaxed (and perhaps even allow him to enjoy himself for once!), it’d also help to keep myself relaxed. 

I’d never been one to enjoy big crowds, and I especially didn’t want to celebrate joining the team with people who weren’t even a part of it. It made sense. So when Friday night rolled around, it found me in a way better mood than I expected. I even accepted Nat’s suggestion and let her pick my clothes. I was feeling so great, in fact, that I felt bolder, brave enough to accept to wear a satin red dress with a deep neckline that seemed to be able to attract every man’s attention upon seeing me. 

Even Bucky seemed drawn to it. And I couldn’t deny that knowing I held that sort of power even to a man of his caliber, a man that attractive, made me feel even braver. But with braveness comes stupidity, and I was brutally reminded of that fact by Tony’s smug face when I heard the dare he had for me.

Listen, I would have never accepted the idea of fucking truth or dare if it wasn’t for this stupidly sexy dress. I mean, the powers that clothing can have… They can make you blind with clout. That’s the only way I could justify what happened next.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I argued, much to Tony’s (and the rest of the team’s) amusement. Each and every single one of them looked at me with barely contained laughter, with the exception of Bucky, apparently.

“Careful, sweetheart… The dare’s already on and that wasn’t very sexy of you.” Narrowing my eyes at him, I very carefully thought out my gameplay here. I could very well retreat to my bedroom and go to sleep. But then again, this whole night had been so fun, and Tony had been really nice to abide by my wishes to only invite people that I knew…

“Fine. I’ll spend the rest of the night being as blunt as possible as I hit on you guys. After all, this is probably the only way you’ll ever get to hear me talking dirty, huh?” And with a wink in Tony’s direction, I resigned myself to face the challenge ahead. “So, let’s get on with this orgy, shall we?”

Bucky’s P.O.V.

It’s not that I was jealous. Of course, I wasn’t jealous. It’s just… hearing her say those things in front of everyone else made my blood boil like nothing else. I knew it wasn’t my place to feel this way. It’s not like she owed me anything, much less attention. As much as I wanted, she wasn’t mine, or even close to that.

Despite being head over heels in love with her, I still hadn’t gathered enough courage to even ask her out for a cup of coffee - or anything else, for that matter. And the worst part was that everyone but her seemed to know about my feelings. Which made this whole night even worse, since I was pretty sure Tony had done all of this on purpose.

So I had to sit through a lot of “Oh, please fuck me”, and “I wouldn’t kick you out of bed,” none of which were addressed to me - and those were the least graphic ones. I couldn’t really blame her, since I hadn’t spoken a single word from the second this whole dare started, but still, I was sulking, and I knew it.

In fact, I was so lost inside my own head, that I didn’t even realize what had happened when she asked “Do you want me to sit on your face or what?” (which I’m pretty sure was directed to Sam) until a heavy silence took the place of the animated chatter that had been going on. Imagine my surprise when I realized everyone was staring at me.

“What?” I asked, my heart already beating out of control, looking from one face to the other in the hopes of grasping what I had lost in the conversation.

“You just said you wanted Y/N to sit on your face,” was the response I got, from no other than Sam himself, and if my heart had been pounding on my chest only seconds before, now it felt as if it had stopped altogether.

“You’re crazy,” I tried to joke, trying with all of my might not to look at the woman who was staring at me. I could feel her gaze on my face. It burned and I ached to look, to see what sort of expression she was wearing, but my anxiety was just too strong - stronger than my curiosity ever could be.

“I wish I was, man. But you literally just answered ‘Please sit on mine’ when she asked if she could sit on my face.” I was going to die. I was sure of it. My face felt so warm, there was no way I wouldn’t just spontaneously combust any second now.

The worst part was, I knew Sam was telling the truth. Because those were the precise words I thought the second that I heard the offer leave her beautiful lips. And now I didn’t know what to do.

“Fine, your room or mine?” She broke me out of my self-deprecating thoughts, surprising me so much that I automatically raised my eyes to meet hers, finding her looking down at me with a mischievous smirk on her lips. Was she joking? Was this part of the dare?

The room erupted on laughs and I forced myself to join them, praying to whoever was available up in the heavens that they would let me be and thankfully, soon enough, the conversation smoothly transitioned away from me and my stupid malfunctioning. Y/N didn’t look in my direction again, which helped with my task of trying to get my breathing pattern into a normal one once more, and in a half hour people were breaking up into small groups and going back into their own rooms for the night.

I figured it was safe to do the same. So I got back to my bedroom’s floor with my hands buried deep in my pocket, trying to figure out what the hell had happened that night, when the door to my room suddenly opened and a tiny hand wrapped around my wrist, hauling me as best as they could into my own living quarters.

Y/N’s P.O.V.

Bucky looked beyond surprised as he stared down at me with his mouth hanging open. I was tempted to tease him about letting flies in if he stayed like that, but I didn’t want to make this any more difficult for him than it clearly already would be. To be honest, I also had no idea how I’d been able to move that mountain of a man.

“What are you doing in my room?” Oh, right. That’s what he was concerned about. Fair enough.

“I wanted to show you something.” By the way he opened and closed his mouth a few times before finally being able to say anything else, it was clear that it wasn’t the answer he was expecting, but then again, he obviously wasn’t expecting me to be in his room. 

“W-What?”

I grinned, immediately curling my fingers on the edge of my dress before promptly pulling it over my head and sending it flying across the room. Bucky’s jaw dropped, and it only made my smile grow bigger as I quickly got rid of my bra before finally doing the same to my underwear.

“What? Did you think I would let you suffer?” The poor thing, he didn’t seem capable of answering at all, eyes the size of plates as he stared at my naked body, practically drooling. I ran my hands over my breasts, cupping them slightly before trailing further down.

“Did you think I’d let Sam learn what my pussy tasted like? Or Steve? No, no, no, James. This is for you and you only.” Burying a finger inside of me, I made sure to let out my loudest, most pornographic moan as I slowly thrusted it once inside of me before raising it to his face.

“See how I’m soaked? I always get like this when I’m near you.” Bucky actually whimpered, knees faltering for a second as he reached out to grab a hold of himself with the wall next to us, and I laughed before raising a challenging eyebrow in his direction. “What are you waiting for? Get on your knees.”

My breath hitched as I watched the mountain of a man before me literally do exactly that, hypnotizingly staring at the space between my legs before slowly meeting my eyes with a look of pure need in his perfect face. Jesus. How the fuck was I supposed to control myself when he was looking at me like that?

I had gathered the sense that Bucky wanted me, that much became clear tonight, but I had no idea the extent of his desire until just then. Until he looked at me with pupils dilated from under his stupidly long eyelashes, breath coming out from his open mouth like he was desperate for me, desperate to taste what I had to offer.

He looked like he would do anything I asked him to in that second, and the feeling of power that thought gave me left me horny as nothing else. So my first order of business was to command, “Eat me.”

The second the words were out, it was clear that was all he was waiting to do what both of us so clearly wanted. Two strong hands grabbed me from behind and with that grasp of my ass, he pulled me to him until I was in fact seated on his face, wholly dependent on his muscular body to keep me up.

“Oh God,” he was the one to whisper, and a shiver ran through my body as he licked my pussy from clit to hole before diving in as if he was determined to rid me of all of my wetness - knowing fully well it was an impossible task.

Bucky Barnes didn’t need any guidance in the art of eating pussy, that quickly became clear to me, but I still felt the need to grab a hold of his hair just to help keep myself grounded into the reality of this moment. The way he moaned against my cunt at the action, the vibrations running through my body and making me tremble on top of him, certainly didn’t make me regret any part of my decision. It was clear he liked that sting of pain.

Bucky’s P.O.V.

I was having a hard time believing this was really happening, even though I had Y/N’s completely naked body on top of me, her cunt spread open by my own tongue, her juices covering every inch of my tongue. I couldn’t even convince myself to close my eyes to fully enjoy her taste, too preoccupied with memorizing every little thing about this moment. 

And the second she opened her eyes to find me already looking up at her, I was particularly glad for my decision, if only because I got to witness the delicious smile that took over her beautiful face before she grinded her pussy against my lips.

“Fuck, you look so good like this. I could get used to this.” A jolt ran through my body at the implications of what she was saying. Before I could even fully process it, I was already responding with the only thing that occupied my mind then, “Please do.”

If I thought I would scare her away with my desperation, a delighted giggle immediately managed to calm my nerves. “Do you always say what you’re thinking?” She asked, still rubbing herself against me, so it took me a while to be able to moan against her wetness an honest, “Yes.” When I did though, the vibrations managed to be exactly what she needed to gush her release onto my waiting mouth, making me growl in excitement. She was so fucking sweet. My cock was so fucking hard it hurt, but all I could think about was how much I wanted to pleasure her, how much I never wanted this night to end.

Unfortunately for my plans, she decided to climb down from me, eyes drinking my kneeling position while she caught her breath for a bit before she threw herself on my bed, feet on the mattress so I’d get a perfect vision of her perfect pussy. Hypnotized, I didn’t even notice I’d gotten up and approached her until her voice broke me out of my reverie.

“Would you like to take a picture?” I knew she was joking, but there was no way I’d miss the slightest possibility of getting at least a permanent reminder of this night, so I answered as truthfully as possible yet again, “Of course. Would you let me take one?”

I was expecting her to laugh it off and move this along, but once more her answer surprised me. “Only if you promise me you won’t use it to jerk off to.” The confusion must have been clear in my expression, because she quickly added, “That’s what I’m here for.”

My heartbeat picked up as I struggled to process her words. “D-Does this mean you’ll want to do this again?” I watched as a small smile grew on her lips and she sat up on the mattress before reaching out to me.

“Every night, if you’ll have me.”

Another moment of silence as I struggled to accept that this was real, that this was really happening. 

Y/N’s P.O.V.

I couldn’t contain my delighted giggles at the lovestruck expression on Bucky’s eyes. But my need for him was growing deeper every second, so while he stared I reached out for his jeans, quickly managing to unzip them and push them down until I could wrap my hands around his member.

“Jesus, you’re so hard.” Even without any actual stimulation, apparently just giving me pleasure was enough to get him ready for me. I could barely wait to feel his cock inside of my pussy.

“I-I can’t believe this is happening,” he whispered while climbing on the bed and settling between my thighs. “I’ve been dreaming about this for the longest time.” Gosh, could he be any more perfect?

“Well, it’s happening now, James. Please, please, fuck me. I need your cock in me.” His lips looked wet from our earlier activities, and my gaze immediately fell on them when he gasped at my words and the feeling of his cock rubbing on my pussy. When I positioned the head and pulled him closer to me, signaling what I wanted, he followed without any resistance, his entire body trembling as he struggled to keep himself up with both hands on either side of my head.

“You’re doing so great, baby. God, it feels so good to be with you like this.” Apparently, Bucky grew tired of fighting against his own body, since he allowed his massive frame to fall just over mine, resting his forehead on mine.

“Fuck.” Hearing the word whispered so close to me, his warm breath dancing over my skin, while he was effectively about to do just that, felt incredibly arousing for something so small. “It’s like I can’t get close enough to you.”

In the search to feel more connected to me, he finally started thrusting, and then it was like I’d forgotten to speak altogether. Only able to hold tight to those shoulders that tempted me for so long, I struggled to keep the moans and whimpers inside so I could continue to hear the little breathless whispers that he was releasing, almost like he was speaking to himself…

“So wet…” It all only made me more desperate for the enchanting man on top of me, so beautiful, and yet so insecure of his own allure. I hoped after tonight he’d start understanding just how attractive he truly was, at least to me.

“Bucky…” I managed to whisper, calling out for his attention and earning it when his eyes snapped open to meet mine. “Bucky, kiss me.” I needed to feel those lips against mine, to have that one sweet gesture of entwinement that we still hadn’t shared. Apparently, he felt the same need, because in a second, he was onto me, mouth slowly prying mine open so his tongue could explore yet another part of my body that now belonged to him.

By then, he couldn’t contain his moans anymore, and I was grateful that I was still able to keep mine low so I wouldn’t miss the symphony of whimpers and whines, especially after he pulled away to catch his breath and his eyes met mine.

“Fuck, darling…” Each sound from his lips made my pulse grow quicker, my body warmer, that incredible high closer and closer to me. And still, because I needed to tease him, I found myself saying, “For someone who was so embarrassed about the team knowing you wanted me, you surely can be loud.”

Bucky hid his head on the crook of my neck, making goosebumps rise all over my body as he rubbed his nose against my skin, breathing me in. If I thought it was a gesture of shyness, his next words assured me that wasn’t the case at all.

“I want them to hear. I want them to know I’m yours.” The confession had the fire of desire burning brighter inside of me, and my hands slipped around his back, certainly leaving nailprints behind.

“Oh, is that it? You’re mine now, James?” The thought thrilled me to no end, but I needed him to say it, not only because I wanted to be sure there was no uncertainty in his feelings for me, but also because it made me even weaker for the soldier and the dominance he had over my body.

“C-Can I be? Please?” There was so much vulnerability in his beautiful blue eyes that the only answer I managed to give at first was the connection between our lips again, pulling him down to me so our bodies were completely glued to one another once more. My fingers buried in his locks, I pulled on them when I needed to gather some air, and finally give him an actual answer.

Bucky’s P.O.V.

“Hell fucking yes. We’ll be the hottest couple on Earth.” A shiver went through my body at the realization that she truly wanted this, that she truly wanted me. A sound escaped my lips before I could realize, and in fact, I only noticed it because she broke me out of my reverie by saying, “You know, everytime you whine, I have the overwhelming urge to just tie you down to this bed and give you a reason to do so.”

Shit. This woman made me weak. And the moment I lost control of my own weight, she took advantage of it, inverting our positions so she was the one on top, while managing to keep my cock nestled deep inside of her.

“Do you want to cum, sweetheart?” Hearing the filthiness that spilled out of her lips only made me hotter and hotter, my hands flying up to hold her waist as she began to ride me. “Tell me just how badly you want it. Say it, or I’ll leave you right here, right on the edge of bliss, and I’ll cum on your thigh instead.”

I heaved loudly, trying to force my own tongue to work, but the sight of her breasts bouncing with her movements was too hypnotizing. I would never regain full control of my body again, I realized, for as long as she wanted to keep me around. But instead of feeling lost, like I did when the Winter Soldier took over, all I could feel was peace.

She wanted me. She wanted my body, my soul, every part of me. Despite every missing piece, every scar. Everything anyone had ever done to me, everything I’d done to so many. And I’d gladly give it all to her, forever.

“Please, please let me cum, ma’am.” The name left my lips before I could realize, but it made her smile. And right then, I knew I’d done the right thing. Her movements picked up, her hand searching mine to guide my thumb to meet her nub, and as soon as I started rubbing it, she gasped in the most melodic of sounds.

“Cum for me, James. I wanna feel you cumming inside of me.” Jesus fucking christ. I didn’t have a choice, my body reacting to her calling like she was a siren and I was helpless. I felt helpless. It wasn’t difficult to see that I liked it, though. I liked being under her control. I liked how she pulled me apart and held me in place all at the same time.

“If you don’t take your thumb away, so help me God.” Her voice broke me out of my thoughts, realizing her chest was heaving with the effort to breathe properly now that she’d reached her climax with me. I smiled sheepishly before adjusting on the bed, right when she climbed down from my body, and a whine escaped my chest despite my better wishes, making her look at me with an amused smile.

“I’m sorry, I just… I kinda miss you already.” Her smile grew bigger, her eyes twinkling under the moonlight as she leaned over me to kiss me, and I couldn’t help it. I just had to hug her closer, have her falling on top of my chest just so I could invert our positions and kiss her some more.

“I want something that’ll show them I’m yours.” I admitted once she pulled away to gather her breath, and her eyebrows rose in surprise, but also interest, I could tell.

“Like a collar?”

“I was thinking more like a love bite, but I don’t mind.” Her giggle was the most adorable sound in the universe, I was sure of it. 

“Baby, I’ll let you fuck me in front of them, if it’ll help your insecurity,” she soothed me, and the thought of having everyone see us together, fully understand that I belonged to her, electrified me. “You’re mine now. You can be damn sure if anyone tries to flirt with you, they’ll have to deal with me. And I’ll make sure they know I’m yours and only yours if they try to chat me up.”

The thought made me smile, and I laid back on the bed and pulled her to rest against my chest, my hand instinctively coming up to play with her hair. “I can get used to that.” We stayed like that for a while, just breathing in each other’s presences, relishing in the comfortable silence between us, until I felt the need to break it.

“Can I kiss you again?” I felt her smile against my skin, before she pushed away to reach for me and connect our lips once more. God, I don’t think I’d ever get used to knowing I could have this anytime I wanted. “One more,” I begged when she pulled away, and she pretended to think for a moment before shooting me a mischievous grin. 

“Only if you come fuck me in the shower.”

The only thing I could think to say in response, as I watched her strut in the direction of the bathroom, was “Fuck, you’re sexy.”

[meruz]

Aforementioned long ask post please excuse me while i try to figure out tumblr's new text editor. I’ll get into the art meme questions first and then the rest at the end.

Ok first of all thank you all for sending in questions! Giving me an excuse to talk hehe. I’ll address these in number order. Here’s a link to the ask meme for reference but also I’ll restate the question for ease of reading.

1. When did you get into art?

Super cliche answer but I don’t remember a time where I WASN’T the weird art kid! I started keeping a dedicated sketchbook when I was about 12? But here’s a page from my kindergarten journal about what I want to be when I grow up.

2. What art-related sites have you ever signed up for? 

LOL this is a weird question. Not sure why so many people want to know. Anyways I definitely had a dA. more than one dA account. I used to browse oekakis when I was a kid but I think I was only signed up to some small ones that internet friends owned. What else...? Mangabullet,Tegakie, Paintberri, iscribble back when that was a thing, instagram if that COUNTs, I used to post art on livejournal and dreamwidth too. Patreon, I guess. Gumroad, inprnt, bigcartel, storenvy all for selling stuff.

In terms of resources.. I have a schoolism account that I’m sharing with friends. Used to take classes on coursera for free. I signed up to textures.com for work recently haha. I can’t remember if I ever had an account on posemaniacs. Did they have accounts...? I definitely used to visit all the time.

3. Show us your oldest piece of art you have on hand.

Alright here’s me actually logging into my old deviantart account. These are from September 2008 So I was 13 years old. I don’t have a deviantart account from before then because 13 was the required age for having an account and I didn’t want to lie about my age because I wanted people to be impressed by how young yet clearly incredible at art I was LOL.

4. What defines your artistic style?

You guys are probably more equipped to answer this than me but uh... I wanna say... Focus on colors. And... a slightly heavy hand? Like confident... not always well-considered mark making HAH...

Also I think I have a pretty healthy mix of american comics/manga influences. I feel like people who are into american comics always think my art is too manga and people who are into anime/manga always think my art is too american. And I’m taking that as a good sign.

5. Do you practice other styles/have you tried other styles in the past?

I like to think I switch it up a bunch! I mean, these are pretty different, right?

I think I’ve mentioned this before but one thing I really took away from art school is that, for an illustrator at least, art style shouldn’t be consistent. Your greatest weapon is changing the aspects of your style based on the task, the emotions and message you want to illustrate etc. So depending on the project I’m working on, the fandom I’m drawing for, whether I want something to be funny or serious or dramatic, I’ll change things about my style all the time.

One thing I don’t rly post on here is really tight polished work and that’s because I do that for my day job haha. If you’re not paying me... I’m probably not gonna color in the lines.

6. What levels of artistic education have you had?

I have a whole ass diploma LOL. Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration. from the Rhode Island School of Design. And I had a great college experience tbh. Besides the student loans. If any of you guys are thinking about art school feel free to e-mail or message me questions or concerns, I’ll be happy to help. Be as honest as I can be.

7. Show us at least one picture you drew or sketched recently that you did not put on a public site.

heres the wandavision kids. Uhh what else do I have...I feel like I’m rummaging for loose change here...

assorted valentines prep doodles

8. What is your favourite piece that you have done?

Well, obviously this is gonna change all the time and generally it’s gonna be my most recent piece LOL. So yeah, why the hell not. I’ll say it’s this one. I have a pretty short memory which I count as a blessing for an artist. I don’t dwell that long on older work and it keeps me moving forward.

10. What do you like most about your art?

I like that it’s something that only I would make! I had this thought fairly recently and I wrote it down in my sketchbook, it’s pretty cheesy and rambling but it felt revolutionary at the time:

So yeah. I like my art best when it’s the most me and for me. And I like it least when it feels like I’m just making something for social media or for other people’s expectations or whatever.

14. What do you like drawing the most?

Kids in baggy clothing are like my go-to LOL idk if that’s obvious. but also I like being challenged so lately I’ve really loved drawing multi-character compositions, environments, weird angles, etc.

oh i LOVE drawing the underside of shoes lol. And bandages. People that are kinda beat up.. I think it comes from getting a bunch of cuts all the time. I’m always patching myself up and I want to patch characters up too.

15. What do you like drawing the least?

mmm I try to find something to like in every drawing but lets see... I don’t like doing commissions of people’s dogs. Just because it’s normally like... a family friend and my mom volunteered me without my consent and I don’t even really know what they’re expecting me to draw and I don’t even get to meet the dog. Also I’m not that great at dog anatomy. Trying to learn though.

18. What is your purpose for drawing?

This could have a million answers! Uhhh to GIT GOOD??? But also to express myself... and also to make money... I mean it depends on what the drawing IS. I draw fanart mostly to connect to people in the fandom so if you ever see me drawing fanart please take it as like an open invitation to talk to me about the character haha. 

20. How would you rank your art? (poor, mediocre, good, etc.)

Good!!! I have a lot of self-confidence primarily born out of ignorance and a short attention span. If I don’t think too hard about how many other artists are mindblowingly unfathombly good... its easy to think I’m good too! LOL

In all seriousness though, I think the opinion a person has of their art is like a crazy balancing act, right? Like you have to think you suck enough to want to get better but also you have to think you’re good enough to not want to give up. I think we’re all walking that line, I know I am! But also I’m a glass half-full type of person so. Most of the time I feel good about it.

22. List at least one of your “artspirations.”

This is a good question because I’ve been trying and failing to put together one of those “influence map” memes for like a full month now. What’s giving me a hard time is I feel like none of these are actually really obvious “““influences”““ in my art? Like it’s hard to see a lot of them in the work I make...? But idk maybe you guys’ll see what I can’t.

And these are just a couple! God there’s so many more. I could talk about other artists for ages, from all different genres of art. Daumier, Rockwell like every illustrator out there, Dana Gibson, Alex Toth, Hiroshi Yoshida, a lot of the Brandywine School. Lots of current working artists too, Karl Kerschl, frikkin Masashi Kishimoto lol, Jake Wyatt, Richie Pope, Edouard Caplain, Matt Cook, Sachin Teng, - lots of big internet artists, Sophie Li, Freddy Carrasco, Milliofish, Angela Sung... like all my friends from art school too. I could just keep going but I’ll stop for now lol.

24. Do you have a shameful art past? (recolour sprite comics, tracing art, etc.)

I mean if that’s how we’re defining shameful?? sure LOL. It’s not sprite comics but I used to do pokemon sprite recolors all the time. And I used to trace manga panels and color them... Granted this was all when I was like under 12 yrs old so it’s not even embarrassing. Can you really call it shameful when a 7 year old wets the bed or whatever? Not really. In fact some of these are cool as fuck. Look

25. Draw a picture!

Man I’m so tired now but here.

I used to get a lot of compliments for drawing people smiling lol but I don’t think I’ve drawn a lot of smiling lately.. here’s proof I’ve still got it.

OK MEME DONE. onto the rest.

I read this ask first thing when i opened my computer in the morning and it made me really emotional.. I’m so glad my sketches could help you!!

I think a lot of artists on social media talk about the struggle of making art but imo not enough people talk about the joy! Like I know it’s corny but. I really meant what I said at the beginning of that sketchbook about re-contextualizing art around process and progress > product and perfection. I think its super important..! The strength of messy, unfinished, and energetic art! For the feeling of it, for the love it!

That's crazy!!! I hope you like 'em. The whole line of x-books is really good rn imo.

Hi! I totally have the answer for digital stuff on my faq lol. But in terms of drawing on paper.. it varies! I tend to use sketchbooking and any on-paper doodling I do as a way to loosen up/warm-up or experiment. But right now my go-to aresenal is:

from top > bottom

- kuretake no.55 doublesided brush pen

- tombow fudenosuke

- muji 0.38 ballpoint

- medium size poscas

- grey tombow double brush pens

- good ol bic mechanical pencil

not EXACTly sure which inking you referring to from my sketchbook but if I had to take a guess it'd probably be the kuretake no55. That's been my main inker, lately. Great for sketching with the thin end too.

You can print out and eat my art if you like. Just please don't mass produce or re-sell. <3

Thanks! I've come to accept that my art is always gonna be sort of gestural and painty naturally. It's getting it to tighten up enough to be legible that's hard lol...

uh yeah lol I agree actually. I think yolei is great.

I assume these asks are related? LOL

1) Yeah totally true. I love David.

2) I don’t take requests, sorry! But if you want to commission me to draw Legion i would be MORE than happy to. Just e-mail me at isellhotdogs@gmail.com.

<33333333333333333333333333

[cheri-translates]

Interviews with the Chinese VAs

English translations of the interviews from the MLQC Weibo page! Little hints of what we can look forward to in the anime 🥰

1. Wu Lei (voice of Victor / Li Ze Yan)

Q: How did you feel when you found out MLQC was getting an anime adaptation?

A: Pleasantly surprised. After hoping for such a long time, the MLQC game has finally turned into an animation. I’m incredibly happy. A lot of notable scenes will appear in the anime. 

Q: How was your experience voicing the animation? 

A: We know how Victor has the nickname "Normal Citizen Victor”. In the animation, a lot of little moments in his life and his interactions will be fleshed out. Look forward to discovering them. 

As an animation, there will be differences from the game. In the game, the plot reveals itself gradually over several chapters. In the animation, the pace is more close-knit. So it will help you quickly understand what’s happening in MLQC.

Whether you like the anime or the game, you will discover new moments in the animation which will help you enjoy MLQC even more. 

Apart from that, I think Victor has a very amazing power. I’ve mentioned this on various occasions. Time-control. It can be used for saving the world, and also for dating. Such an amazing ability... oh god, can I have it too?

More perspectives can be presented through animation. Whether it’s in the past, present or future, just as Victor says, he is destined to be drawn to you.

Q: Will Victor be as critical in the animation?

A: Don’t you all like being criticised by Victor? Do you like it? Really?

Victor is an extremely sweet person. I did record a lot of “dummy”s for the animation. But we know that every “dummy” from him is not meant to scold you, but... I’ll leave the rest of the sentence for all the Mrs Li’s to leave in the comment section.

Q: Do you have any final words to say to all the producers?

A: I hope all of you can continue walking alongside Victor. No matter what you see Victor doing in the animation, don’t worry too much. Just relax and be his dummy. 

~

2. Xia Lei (voices Lucien / Xu Mo)

Q: How did you feel when you found out MLQC was getting an anime adaptation?

A: Extremely happy. MLQC has had a big influence on my work and life. Being able to let a larger audience know about it makes me happy. With this anime adaptation, the audience will no longer be confined to just players of the game, but also to people who like 2D animation.

It’s almost the fourth year that I’ve been involved in MLQC. This production has had a major influence on my life. I hope, with my hard work, that MLQC will continue to expand in the future, and that I can continue this journey.

Q: How was your experience voicing the animation?

A: There’s quite a big difference between voicing the game and the animation. 

The game tends to present specific words, specific scenes, and specific locations. It can’t present things as meticulously as in animation.

A simple example would be how we know Lucien is an amazing researcher who has profound knowledge. We can show this ability very clearly in the animation when he talks about science. But we can’t put all these words into the game.

There is very large script for the animation, so it’s a little more difficult. There are more words. So you will get to interact with Lucien and know him better. Perhaps you will have a deeper understanding of Lucien too. 

In the game, there are a lot of nice angles and actions. But when it comes to things like his gait, they are more thoroughly presented in the animation. Animation fills in a lot of gaps of how we imagine these actions to look like. How does he walk? How does he take up his cup to drink? How does he prop up his spectacles? You can find the answers in the animation.

There are other differences in terms of artistic presentation. The music in the animation follows the plot closely, and is more meticulous. 

You’ll be able to better experience a living Professor Lucien.

Q: Will we get to see Ares?

A: This... I personally feel that even if you want to be spoiled, you should find the answer in the anime. I believe the anime will present a thorough story to you.

The people closer to Lucien, like his students, will definitely appear.

Being able to see these characters animated is something I’ve always anticipated. When I first started voicing Lucien, I felt the plot was very good, that the characters were done very meticulously, and that it would be nice if they could be presented in another form.

Back then, I didn’t say anything because I knew that animation was expensive [laughs]. So being able to have this dream come true, and see a more complete, more emotional, and more living MLQC makes me happy. 

I hope through everyone’s efforts, we can present a complete and beautiful story to all producers. 

Q: Do you have any final words to say to all the producers?

A: If you don’t want him to always make wrong decisions, watch the animation. Now, it’s too late to escape. 

~

3. Ah Jie (voices Gavin / Bai Qi)

Q: How did you feel when you found out MLQC was getting an anime adaptation?

A: I can finally see a living Officer Bai! Previously, we could only have simple motions in the game. More complicated movements like riding a motorbike or firing a gun have to be described using words. In the animation, we can see these cool images. It feels great!

The animation is really able to bring out the cool and dashing side of Gavin. It looks great, and everyone can look forward to it. 

Q: How was your experience voicing the animation?

A: When doing the voice-over, I realised he has many more expressions than in the game. So when I was recording, I’d try to grasp his emotions and match it with the voice so it fits his expressions. For example, when he feels embarrassed, when he blushes, these things. I find it very interesting. 

A lot of people may be wondering if the plot would be different in the animation. I can reveal a little bit - the changes are very natural. It wouldn’t feel odd. The overall pace is still great. So you can all rest assured.

As for the overall voicing experience, I feel it’s more difficult than voicing the game. In the game, I’m basically given the script and a bit of illustrations of the scene. So we base it off our imagination. 

But in the animation, we see the final product when we voice it, including the movement of the mouth. We have to follow the mouth movements strictly to fit the voice. So this is more difficult. We also have to follow the expressions and movements in the anime. So we’re not given as much freedom as in the game, but it’s a nice challenge. 

In the animation, what is most impactful is that a moving Gavin is very very very cool.

For example, in the 2nd chapter of the game, which is where he first shows his Evol, we can only imagine it through the words. But in the animation, we can actually see him flying. The moment he does it goes beyond my expectations. Everyone can look forward to it. It’s really cool.

Q: Will the animation address things from Gavin’s time in high school?

A: Do you want me to reveal anything? I will definitely not. But I can guarantee that the memories most important to you will not be missing in the anime. 

Q: Do you have any final words to say to all the producers?

A: As long as you watch the MLQC animation, he can sense you in the wind.

~

4. Bian Jiang (voices Kiro / Zhou Qi Luo)

Q: How did you feel when you found out MLQC was getting an anime adaptation?

A: I did think MLQC would eventually be made into an animation, and was anticipating when it would happen. And now it’s about to start. 

In the PV, people commented that they wanted to see Kiro’s superstar side. When voicing the animation, I did see things like him being on stage, dancing, and interesting tidbits from his filming and photoshoots. I think you’ll definitely see a different Kiro, and have even more surprises.

Q: How was your experience voicing the animation?

A: When doing the voice-over, I realised there are a lot of notable scenes in the game that appear in the animation. I find myself thinking back to how I began voicing Kiro, and the tranquility that comes with it. Kiro is always really easy to like. 

Something you might want to know - will we get both Kiro and Helios? Hmm... 

During the voice-over, we saw a lot of NPCs. Savin has many scenes, so I wouldn’t mention more. We will get to see Hollow, who brings us a lot of joy. A lot of NPCs have scenes. It’s worth anticipating.

Q: Will we get to see Kiro singing?

A: I have a big surprise for you - Kiro will be having a new single in the anime. Can I reveal it? I’ll hum it for you. [hums the character song] Does it sound good? 

Q: Do you have any final words to say to all the producers?

A: Miss Chips, Kiro commands you that whether or not he can see you, you have to watch the MLQC anime. Or else, he will feel very disappointed. 

-

Random input: This is the scene I was talking about in the tags-

[kikiwhataboutthatbrendon]

Nothing Could Be Possible Without Potential

https://archiveofourown.org/works/29339106/chapters/72915165#workskin

An unlikely bond between Nothing and Justice.

This was not written by me, it was written by my sister @threesorrows .

She thinks the universe made-it must have made her, the universe makes everything- but she doesn't know. It's hard to tell. If the universe did make her, she is half finished, perhaps a project abandoned half way through or forgotten about. She prefers thinking of it that way, as opposed to the universe being too disgusted or angry with how she turned out to finish her.

She knows she is unfinished because she has no name.

Life must have brought her into existence though- and this she thinks was an accident. Perhaps a leak of power in the wrong area, a flight of fancy on some inanimate statue that she had been before. She knows it was not on purpose because Life was not there when she woke.

No one was there when she woke. When she pulled herself into awareness, a muddle of limbs and shapes and knowledge that she did not so much learn as know.

She knows of the gods, knows of the universe, knows Life should have been there for her beginning, knows that Death should be there for her end, but she doubts. She knows there are many gods, knows they may find each other, but she has never seen one. Her kin are not vastly social creatures, they stick to small packs like wolves but more tightly knit. She is not surprised they don’t actively seek her out, but in her wanderings, she is surprised none idly come to investigate.

There are no words for what she was when she first woke up. Too many eyes and limbs and veins holding it all together, she didn’t like that form so she changed it.

She started with grass, with dirt, started as the first things she saw, but grass was pulled by the wind and dirt was drowned under rain and she wished to move. She was a thing not meant to exist, so she existed in others’ forms.

A ladybug, first, because one crawled over her-as-grass and it could fly above the ground that bound the ants and caterpillars. Birds next, big and small, and then butterflies who were beautiful but boring. Flying was nice, but she didn’t love it, so she moved on.

Wolves and chickens and dolphins and cows and tropical fish and pigs and llamas and horses and humans. She tried them all. All had their charms, all had their downsides, she flipped between them like pages of a well-loved book. Like one found in a library that had been passed between a hundred hands and waited for a hundred more, but she was all those hands just in different forms.

Humans were nice, because she could walk into cities and temples and talk to the priests and the artisans and she could learn. One artist pressed a pencil into her unused hand and she taught herself to draw. She liked drawing, and maybe that’s a bit why she liked being a human.

But humans could get tiring, could get so caught up in themselves, so busy, and if her long collection of forms really were a book the most well worn-well loved- page would be cats.

She loved cats, loved the way they stretched and flowed and how she could jump from any height and to any height. How she could laze in any sunbeam and be left alone.

She is a cat when Justice found her. It had been too many human years, countless shifts between forms, since she had started her existence, she did not think any god would come to her, but there Justice is.

Her form is of a black cat with little white socks and a small patch right above her nose. He crouches down before her, long, red cloak splaying out behind him and dark hair matching her fur.

“Hello, would you spare a minute for my company?”

She yawns, showing off long, white teeth and twists herself into a jewelled hummingbird to reach level with his face.

“Sure, why have you come?” She zips slightly to the right in her curiosity.

“To greet you.”

“Hello, then.”

“Hello,” he says with a gentle smile.

“Why now?”

He sighs, a low, drawn out thing, and suddenly he seems old. Not in his face, or in his eyes which show nothing at all, but in his very presence, like weariness and age had found him again after a long game of chase.

“Because I could come no sooner.”

Other gods come. Not Life, not Death, but others, they pass by like they did not before, give nods and share stories and gifts, but they come and they go in infrequent bursts. Luck enjoys flitting by, dropping fortune and happenstance as he goes but he does not linger. Justice is an almost-constant.

Gods do not stay. They are not stagnant creatures, especially not human ones, which are called and pulled and drawn to their worshippers and domains. Justice is a human god, so he goes where he is bid, but when those ties do not inexorably tug at him, he finds her.

It is nice, comfortable, even. He does not press, he sits and he listens and he will look at her art or compliment whatever form she takes up. She starts pressing her lines harder into the paper, makes ridges and gouges that he can run his fingers over.

She shows him all the small, overlooked places, where children and animals hide and watch and play. She takes him through familiar and unfamiliar markets and they trade favourite foods. He shows her his many courthouses, made out of quartz and clay and wood and obsidian. They are large and they are small and everything in between. Sometimes they venture through at night, pacing empty halls in peace, sometimes they linger on the edges of the daily crush of people and business.

Sometimes they talk, sometimes they do not. Often, they merely enjoy each other’s company.

“How do you always find me?” She asks one time, curling up in a stray sunbeam that glints off her orange fur.

Justice relaxes back, it’s a peaceful day, a beautiful day, a day for happiness, but he frowns. “Because the universe demanded you be let to find your own way, held even Life away from you so you grew and learned in solitude, and it was necessary, but it was not right.”

“What would be my recompense, then?” She stares up at him with big, luminous eyes; daring eyes. “Would you fight the universe if I asked that as my payment?”

“Yes,” he says with a chuckle. “But that’s not what you demand.”

“I suppose not,” she says, and springs up, racing away into the trees.

He does not follow for a long while.

She is nothing. She is nameless. She is a mistake, a chance, a thing that does not really belong. And yet- she can’t help but wonder.

This time, she seeks him out. She goes through courthouses, grand and small and hopes he is there because she cannot find him in the many cases that don’t reach his doors, that he must go out and find. Perhaps Luck had guided her to his friend-passed by in a breeze and whisper and gone before she could see- because he is not in one of his searchings.

Justice is in a small courthouse, barely two rooms, built from haphazard bricks and not called a courthouse really, but it is one all the same. He sits against the back wall, unseen by all as he sees all and nothing at the same time. When the proceedings are done, she unspools herself from her perch shifting from a lizard to a cat in a blurred moment, landing neatly on his shoulder.

“Hello,” he says.

“I am Nameless, am I not?” She asks instead of her usual greeting. It is an answer she knows, but her heart hopes otherwise.

“No,” he says, and the world stops in its eternal motion, “you are not Nameless.”

“Then what am I?” She challenges.

“You are Potential,” Justice says, the corner of his eyes crinkling, obscuring some of the milky white. “You can be anything you wish to become.”

The name sends ripples through her fur, it burrows between her pelt, through bone and blood to the thing that she was born as, the thing that stays with her through all her many changes, and the name sinks into the heart of it and stays. It is right. It is hers.

She does not settle, because that is against her nature. Her nature is one of constant change, of shedding the old and becoming anew and always moving. Not necessarily forwards, but moving all the same. She does not settle, but she is soothed.

Potential, she thinks, and that is a great power to have, a dangerous one, though few may think it, but she does not want to be dangerous.

Potential pulls herself up and stretches herself out and stands beside Justice with hands and feet and a perfectly normal face with features that eluded all who looked upon it. “Would you like to build a farm with me?”

“I would like nothing more.”

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Keep Trying: Nat

CW: Blood (like a lot of blood), implications of gore but no actual real gore, infected wound, referenced/implied past noncon/dubcon, referenced past abuse, referenced abusive relationship, very sick whumpee. Pet whump and dehumanization (referenced).

TIMELINE: Comes just after The Freedom to Run in Kauri’s story, right after Jenna kicks him out of the first safehouse he tries. References events in The Surgery . Blink-and-you’ll miss it character details for a side character.

The Jack referenced belongs to @spiffythespook and the Tara referenced belongs to @fairybean101

Tagging the Kauri crew: @im-not-rare-im-rarr, @maybeawhumpblog, @pepperonyscience, @haro-whumps, @18-toe-beans, @burtlederp, @finder-of-rings, @giggly-evil-puppy, @whimpers-and-whumpers, @moose-teeth, @whump-it, @lumpofwhump, @pumpkinthefangirl​

Nat found him under a bush. 

Most people might have been a bit more surprised to discover a young man curled into a tiny ball underneath the line of heavy landscaping that went around her property, but Nat had been at this a long, long time - eighteen years, give or take - and this wasn’t the first time she’d found a runaway curled up asleep in the shade of the leaves.

Sometimes they weren’t even runaway pets, just kids who needed to escape the rain, on their own or on the run from bad home lives. Kids the shelters turned away or who had maxed out their time, needed somewhere to crash for a day or two before they made the rounds again.

She didn’t care - Nat took care of anyone who came to her for help. Only the pets ever came into the house, though.

“I thought he was… I don’t know, an animal or something at first,” one of the rescues whispered, wringing her hands together. 

She stood hunched over with narrow shoulders curved forward, drowning in a T-shirt at least three sizes too large, but it was all the poor thing ever wanted to wear. That and sweatpants that covered every inch. It was all the rescues ever wore, until they started to feel like their bodies belonged to them again. “I came to check to see if the bushes had flowers yet and I found him and I thought he was dead? I thought, I thought I should come g-g-get you, but then when I, um, I was going to get you the shovel because if it, if it was dead… but then he made a sound and he wasn’t an animal, and-”

“I understand, Krista,” Nat soothed, rubbing a hand in a slow circle on the young woman’s back. Krista relaxed at the touch and leaned back into it - the rescues usually came either horrified by touch or desperate for it, with no in-between. “I’ll take care of him from here. You did the right thing coming to get me. Now, maybe you should head inside.”

Krista nodded quickly, one hand to her mouth, chewing at her fingernails nervously. She hadn’t done that when she first showed up, too thin and nearly mute. She’d been dumped by her owner and found by a good Samaritan who took the time to find a storefront and drop her off.

The storefront had called Nat and Krista had been here ever since, going on three months now. She was a pretty thing, if faded and harried-looking, and she was fairly sure she was from somewhere near Tennessee - nearly across the country.

And she’d started biting her nails.

While biting fingernails wasn’t a habit Nat would normally encourage, she had a feeling it was parts of who Krista had been starting to show themselves, so she didn’t stop her.

Once Krista had gone back into the house, Nat stood with her hands on her hips, looking. It was still early morning, and the sun had only just barely begun to paint the deep blue-black sky with hints of pink and orange and, she thought with a hint of irritation, a bright and bloody red.

Red sky in the morning, farmer’s warning, her dad’s voice said in her head. Man had been gone for twenty years, and Nat never stopped hearing him. Never stopped feeling, in her mind, like maybe she still needed an adult to help her figure out what she’d done with her life and to give her some advice on the trajectory her life had taken since she was a twenty-two year old freshly graduated psych major shown a salary, a benefits package, and challenging work she couldn’t refuse… until she had.

She’d sort of lost her way - or found a better one - and become the den mother for a neverending rotation of frightened dehumanized amnesiacs who were, legally speaking, not even full people, but property.

Sometimes it occurred to her, with a bitter humor, that she had funneled, over the course of nearly twenty years, millions of dollars of stolen property through her old five-bedroom, three-story house in a town that had grown into a suburb with time and urban sprawl.

She was a goddamn criminal, but she couldn’t say her father wouldn’t have been fucking proud of her for picking the right side to fight for.

The boy curled up under the bushes shifted a little, the rustle of sticks and decaying leaves and dirt underneath him, and Nat dropped into an easy crouch, resting her elbows on her thighs and tilting her head.

Her braid slipped down towards her right shoulder, and more than a few strands of graying brown hair hung over her eyes.

“C’mon, kiddo,” She said, not bothering to keep her voice to a whisper. The boy shifted a little, rustling in the leaves. “Time to get up and moving.”

No one else in this neighborhood was up - and it wasn’t a great neighborhood, so even if anyone did get up they were fairly safe here. Everyone kept to themselves, and most of them understood why Nat did what she did.

The pets were unobtrusive - they came and went and kept to themselves - and so the neighbors pretended they didn’t see a thing. In return, Nat pretended she didn’t know what most of them were up to, the ways they made money in a city where the wealthy nearly never had to even look at the poor. It was a good enough system to get by.

“Hnnnnh, can’t,” the boy whispered. “S-sorry, not… I don’t… feel s’ well.”

She could see him a little better now. Black sweatpants and an oversized sweatshirt - the rescue uniform, she thought with warmly affectionate dry humor, they all came out of captivity craving comfortable loose things that didn’t show any skin. Black curly hair - or maybe dark brown, he was shadowed under the leaves so it wasn’t clear. Eyes closed, long dark eyelashes, clammy pale skin with a sheen of sweat across his forehead…

And a lot of blood staining the front of his sweatshirt. A lot of blood.

Nat’s eyebrows raised. Rescues turned up in all sorts of shape, but they rarely showed up still bleeding. Usually by the time they made it to her, someone had bandaged them, someone had cleaned them up.

The boy was curled up around some kind of dark green bag, clutching onto it, and when he shifted hearing her voice, Nat watched his fingers close even more tightly around the rough canvas fabric.

“’m sorry,” the boy whispered, in a voice surprisingly deep for his delicately wrought looks. Clearly a Romantic, she thought, but this one looked like he’d been stabbed. “Think I'm… s-sick… please, just st-stay with me, Mr. Owen, please…”

Nat swallowed, reached out to lay a hand across his forehead. Mr. Owen.

Must be the owner’s name. Hope this isn’t an owner’s work - this poor thing has lost quite a bit of blood…

She didn’t crinkle her nose or pull back at the sticky sweat, only took in the heat that seemed to be boiling just under the surface. Some of that curly hair was plastered to his forehead, bits of leaves and sticks stuck in it from where he’d been lying, apparently for some time. 

“Sick…” He rasped, leaning into her touch, pushing his forehead against the palm of her hand, shivering a little and managing a faint, tremulous smile at the touch. She didn’t react to that, either, although it seemed like confirmation that he was definitely a pet on the run.

“I think you’re more than sick, sweetheart,” she said, low and soft. Not threatening, not cajoling, just a calm, even tone. “We need to get you into the house, take a look at…” Her eyes dropped down to the bloody mess that made up the chest of his sweatshirt. “…that.”

If he was the kind of sick that had him throwing up blood, that definitely wasn’t a good sign.

“Jack…” He managed the word, drawn out too long, taking one syllable and turning it into two, to three. “I can’t go back f’r him yet… Jack, Jack might b’hurt…”

“Don’t worry about him just yet, honey,” She said softly, trying to think. Maybe another pet from the same home? Bonded pairs that got split up never did well… it had been years and Nine still acted like a shadow grieving the one he’d lost…

Stop it, Nat chided herself. ‘Bonded pair’ is company language. You mean the ones that are friends, that care for each other. He left someone behind, that’s all.

She glanced over her shoulder back towards the house. Krista stood on the front steps, biting her thumbnail, watching them with wide eyes.

“Krista, love,” Nat called. “Can you go grab Jake and Trev? We’ll have to carry this one.” Krista nodded quickly - the rescues mostly obeyed any order thoughtlessly until they were further along in recovery - and ducked back inside.

Nat turned back to the boy, only to jump when she realized his eyes were open. Wide blue eyes, a little glassy, barely seeing her. Even with his chalky pale skin, even with the sweat that seemed to coat him like dew, even with the blood…

“Jesus Christ, you’re gorgeous,” she said softly. “I could swear I’ve seen you somewhere before… where did you come from?”

“Please,” the boy whispered, reaching out to grab onto her wrist. There was dried blood on his hands and Nat swallowed, hard., at the heat and odd strength of his grip, even as his hand shook. “Please. Jack n-needs help. S’my… my fault… him and, and… both of them, s’my fault…”

He started to cry, tears leaking out, making tracks in the layer of dirt and grime and dried blood on his face.

"Hoo boy,” Nat said softly. “You’re a mess, aren’t you? The guys will help me get you inside and we can talk a little more about what happened to you once you feel better. Can you help me understand why you’re bleeding?”

The boy nodded slowly, dazed, and pulled down the neckline of his sweatshirt.

Nat, who had seen a lot in her time helping the rescues and who had grown up working alongside her dad in the fields and with the cattle, recoiled in disgust from the sight - and the smell. 

He hadn’t thrown up the blood - it had come from the open fucking wound that stretched from the ball of his right shoulder all the way across his collarbone, where it ended just over his breastbone. She could see the remains of some kind of bandage, but it had long since fallen apart and it wasn’t exactly doing him any good right now. “What the f-”

Behind her, the screen door slammed open and she heard the guys talking to each other as they thumped down the steps and headed her direction. The boy heard them - he flinched and looked in that direction, hazy eyes unable to focus.

Trev made it first - Nat heard his quick intake of breath as he saw, too. “Nat?” His voice shook, just a little - Trev had plenty of scars and this couldn’t be easy for him to see, either. “Is, um-… Krista said you needed help?”

Jake was on his heels - Jake who looked like a linebacker but was more of a lamb, a lib volunteer that Nat had always been able to rely on.

While Trev nervously backed up, Jake simply dropped into a crouch next to her, meaty forearms resting on his legs in an unconscious echo of Nat’s posture. “New rescue?” He asked, mildly, as though he didn’t see the blood, the shredded and destroyed skin across the boy’s chest, bandages so soaked in blood that you could barely tell them apart from the wound itself, and his bleary, unblinking eyes.

“New rescue,” Nat confirmed. “And he’s been fucked up all to hell. Sounds like he left some other pets behind when he ran - I’m guessing he ran because of that mess.”

“Nooooo…” The boy’s voice trailed off until the word was more of a whimper. “No, didn’… I didn’ want to, had to… I had to…”

“Sssshhhhh.” Nat ran a hand back through the sweaty, dirty hair, and the boy shuddered and made a noise low in his throat, the pathetic little gratitude-sound so many rescues came out of captivity with, the desperate thankfulness for any touch that didn’t hurt. “Ssssshhhh, sweetheart, just calm down. We need to deal with the bleeding before we can deal with anything else.”

“Got that right,” Jake muttered, considering. He was unfazed by the blood, absolutely calm in the face of the deepest violence, and that was one reason Nat kept him close at hand. “Trev-”

Trev, standing just behind and to the left, flinched and shook his head. “No, Jake, I’m… I’m sorry b-but, but you know I don’t l-like blood, that much… so much blood… is, is he okay?”

“He’s rocking one hell of an infection, from the sight and smell of things,” Nat said heavily. “He’ll be all right, though, I’ve got some strong antibiotics in the spare room and I’ll call our doctor to come over and check him out-”

“No!” The boy grabbed her again, eyes wide and white-rimmed. “N-No, no, no doctors, no clinics, no no no, please, please-”

Nat swallowed, hard, glancing at Jake, gently freeing herself from the boy’s grip. “Well, that tells us something, doesn’t it?”

Jake nodded, short and firm. Something like fury entered his usually placid, kind face, took the blocky jaw and turned it to solid stone.

Trev spoke, a little tremulous. “Wh-what does it tell us, Nat? I don’t un, understand.”

“He’s Whumpees-R-Us, that’s what it tells us - and whoever owned him used their onsite clinic, which means he’s local, so…” Nat’s voice trailed off as it sunk in exactly why the boy looked so familiar to her.

She’d seen his picture on TV a couple of days ago, some press conference his owner gave with Karen fucking Renford standing next to him - and if Nat never saw that bitch again, it would be too soon. She’d seen a face just like his, only a few years older, at nearly every multiple-lib-group meetup she’d ever been to.

Vincent Shield the goddamn movie star slinking in with sunglasses and hats and big scarves to keep anyone from knowing who he was and giving their locations away.

This was Vincent Shield’s perfect fucking clone - this was Owen Grant’s runaway Romantic, that’s who this was.

This was fifty thousand dollars in reward money for anyone who gave a tip that led to him being recovered - recaptured - and returned to - dragged back to - his owner - the piece of shit treating him like property. This was a runaway Romantic pet - a traumatized rape victim fighting for freedom - and if anyone knew he was here, Nat’s whole operation was in danger, just like that.

“Shit,” Nat whispered. “Shit shit shit.”

Her heart began to pound inside her chest, and she looked up sharply, taking in the mostly-empty street, everyone still inside their houses as the sun began to fully rise. This kid was on every news channel, the company spending tons of money to get plenty of airtime proving that people like Nat were the villains, stealing sweet happy pets away from their loving owners - and here was one big risk half-conscious and giving off a sick smell and impossible body heat under the bushes in her front yard.

If she was smart, she’d do nothing. Leave him here, give him maybe some antibiotics and stuff for the road and tell him to move along, he was too recognizable. He looked exactly like Vincent Shield, just like all the rumors said, now that she was close to him and could really get a look at his face.

Some of the others had seen him in some video or something, but Nat wasn’t much for technology and she hadn’t seen any of it herself. She didn’t like watching videos of pets in captivity - made her sick to her stomach. She preferred nursing them back to remembering they were human.

But this one could get her raided, could bring the thing she’d spent eighteen years building crashing down on all their heads. She could go to prison once they figured out how many fugitives she’d harbored, how much of the company’s hard fucking work she’d undone.

It was the least she could do - she’d been one of the ones to build the fucking company in the first place.

“Nat?” Jake asked, his voice uncertain. “Nat, I don’t like that expression you’ve got going right now.”

“Yeah, well, it’s not a good one. This is, uh, this is… this boy’s trouble on two legs, Jake.” At his confused expression, she shook her head. “This… is Owen Grant’s boy.”

A moment for realization to sink in.

Then Jake’s face went white.

“Holy fuck,” He breathed. “Yeah, I got a call from another shelter about him. Jenna said he’s a fucking mess and he’ll fuck us all over, that he’s in fucking love with his owner. Fuck fuck fuck, shit, he’s going to fuck us over, Jenna said he wants to go back. That he really is still in love with the sick fuck that owned him.”

“That’s not new. Krista was, too, when she first came.”

“Yeah, but… shit, Nat. What do you think? What do you want to do?”

“Wh-what do you want to do?” Trev echoed. “What do we do?” The poor love did a lot of echoing when he got scared - his owner had apparently done a lot of forcing him to repeat things when he was bad- had the good sense to question his situation. Nat tried to calm her expression back down to its usual patient warmth.

“Don’t worry, Trev - I’m sorry, when I called for you I didn’t realize what we were dealing with. You take Krista and get back inside, I’ll take care of this with Jake. Thanks for coming out, you’re a huge help, you’re always so reliable for us. I really appreciate you. Can you please stay in the back rooms until we’ve helped this poor boy?”

Trev nodded quickly, tight little jerks of the head with a smile of sheer relief, and then backed away from them and all but ran back into the house, Krista right on his heels with only a quick worried glance over her shoulder.

“Think they’ll be holed up in their rooms before we ever get this kid back inside?” Jake said - not a question, really, just a statement of fact.

“Yep,” Nat replied. Her mouth tasted bitter, suddenly. The boy was still watching them, his eyes shifting from one to the other and failing to focus.

“She’s out of charge,” The boy said in a voice like a hoarse rasp. He didn’t seem to have heard anything they had said to each other, or didn’t hold onto it long enough. “I can’t wake her up. Need t’ charge her. Listen, listen, I don’… I don’ want to stay, I’m sorry… jus’, um, some medicine and I’ll… go… ‘m sorry, I can’t, I’m dangerous… I’m, I’m dangerous, I’m sorry, Jack, I’m so sorry-”

Nat and Trev glanced sidelong at each other, and Nat finally just gave a firm, short nod, and reached out her hands. “We can talk about that inside, sweetheart. Let’s get you into my house, I can clean you up, okay?“

Fuck it all, she’d never turned a rescue away before, and she’d be damned if she’d start now.

Fuck you, Renford, and all you fucking soulless pieces of shit, for what you’ve turned these poor kids into. I made a mistake, twenty years ago, when I helped you lie to them. I won’t make another.

“Then I… I gotta go back t’Jack,” The boy said, in a voice that suggested he was arguing with her - or someone, anyway - inside his head, an argument Nat hadn’t actually been privy to. “He, he, he helped me… he helped… I got them both hurt, I got them both-… fucking, feels like my veins are on fire… h-hurts… I got him hurt. I got Jack hurt.”

“Do you know where Jack is?” Nat asked, keeping her voice low and gentle, monotone, but her eyes moved back and forth, constantly checking the street for signs someone was watching them. She saw nothing, and Jake was looking, too. No one was paying attention to them, at least not right now.

“I don’ know… hope, hope he’s okay, hope he’s… I j-just, I shouldn’t have… he was just, he was nice… he helped me… Shit, h-hurts-”

“I understand. I’m sure it does hurt,” Nat said, brushing at his hair again, watching the boy shift around under her touch, trying to press into it even though she was a total stranger and he had no way to know she wasn’t exactly as dangerous as whatever he had left behind. The shit they’ve done to them to make them this way… “Listen. We can’t fix the hurt until you come out from under my plants, sweetheart. Can you move by yourself?”

“Th… think so.” The boy nodded and shifted slowly, pushing himself out on his stomach until he was out from under the bushes. Jake had to pick him up from there - he couldn’t seem to stand on his own, let alone walk. He tried and fell, tried and fell, and finally Jake simply scooped him up, sweeping an arm under his knees and behind his back. 

He hung limp in Jake’s arms like a ragdoll, blue eyes focused on the backpack right up until Nat slung it over one shoulder - “Fuck, what’s in here, kiddo, this feels heavy” - and then he finally drooped, tucking his head under Jake’s chin, his forehead pressed against the side of Jake’s neck.

“Jesus fuck, this kid is burning up, Nat,” Jake said, a little worriedly, as they walked back towards the house.

“Yeah, well, a giant gaping infected chest wound will do that to you,” Nat said calmly enough. “I need to make some phone calls. Can you take over the medical stuff until Dr. Masood gets here to look him over? I don’t think our in-house shit’s going to help him do anything more than hold it off. I’ll call him first, and then make some more calls, so you’re den dad until I’m done.”

“Who are you calling?”

“Everyone. As of the second I step foot back inside my house, we are on full lockdown - no contact, less risk that way if this kid is what Jenna says he is - and I want them all to know why. Nobody but the ones who’ve already met him gets to know his name or details, Jake… just that we’ve taken in a risky one and we need a couple weeks to figure out where we stand.”

“Got it. House on lockdown until you tell me otherwise.” Jake shifted the boy in his arms, who whimpered in pain and clung to him more tightly, fingers twisting into the fabric of his shirt. “You think he’s really going to turn us in?”

“No,” Nat said flatly. “I think he would have gone back already or turned himself in by now, hurting like this. You don’t just walk around with something like that under your shirt unless you’re really fucking determined. But I don’t need the others on the phone lecturing me about taking him in, either. This boy needs help? We’ll give him help. That’s what we goddamn do.”

Jake nodded, firmly, a hint of a smile on his broad face. “That’s why I choose to stick with your house, Nat. I like that you don’t turn ‘em away.”

“Yeah, well. Tell me how much you appreciate that when this kid gets us up to our necks in trouble.”

Jake glanced down at the boy’s face - eyes clenched shut tightly, breathing in harsh, shallow little gasps so that his chest moved as little as possible. “I don’t think he will.”

“Hmph. Jenna clearly thought differently.”

Jake hesitated, then said softly, “I feel for her, but you know it wasn’t really him Jenna was kicking, right?”

“Yeah. I know. What do you think Nine was up to while they were throwing this kid out just for being what WRU trained him to be?”

“I imagine he was sitting in the fucking attic, Nat, that’s the only thing he ever does.”

“Fair. Nine definitely keeps to himself…” Nat stopped on the small front porch, wood creaking beneath her feet, turning to look at the boy who still stared at her, blue eyes unblinking. “You know what… I’m gonna call Vince myself. He should know what happened, he’s been a wreck ever since they announced the kid was missing after that whole… mess with the-… you know. He’s been absolutely sure Grant killed him and is using the whole runaway thing as a coverup for the murder.”

“You sure about that?” Jake blinked at her. “Maybe call Tara instead, Vince can be kind of… emotional-”

“No.” Nat shook her head. “I’ll call Vince. Honestly - Tara might already know he’s popped up and been turned away, if Jenna called you she definitely made a whole damn round of calls to everybody. Maybe this won’t be a surprise.”

Jake cracked a grin at that. “Oh, man. I bet Tara had her half-deaf from yelling at her for it, too. I can hear her voice. ‘Hey, you want a great way to get a pissed-off pet to get your safehouse raided, how about kicking it out for no reason, Fucknuts McGee? Get your shit together, Jenna, or you won’t have a fucking safe house to go home to’. Tara hates when people are shit to the Romantics.”

Nat couldn’t help herself - she laughed, and the boy in Jake’s arms startled and then settled back down, whimpering again. “That sounds like her. God, we’d be half of what we are without her fire. But… still. Jenna’s just scared. We’re all a little scared, if we’re smart. Helping rescues that might not want the help is… it’s a risk we take.” She sighed, and reached out, brushing hair from the boy’s forehead. His eyes fluttered slowly open, hazy and unfocused, drifting over her face and then snuggling himself harder into Jake’s arms.

Poor thing. A total stranger who could just be the next one to hurt him, and he still clings hard to any sign of kindness, even if it’s false. I’m partially responsible for this - for all of them - right from that first poor boy I helped sign their fucking contract.

She could still remember the first one she had lied to, remember the name he’d signed on his contract. Isaac Thompson. Sweet guy, worried, thought he was signing up for a self-help program for his anxiety…

Nat swallowed back the bitterness of the memories.

She knew, after all, what had happened to Isaac Thompson. She’d seen him since, what was left of him. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do for him, not now. Her first great crime couldn’t be forgiven… but she could work to the bone to find atonement through all the others that had come after him.

“Have to help Jack,” The boy whispered. “Will you help me go back to him?”

“In a little while. Honey, before we get started helping you… what happened to you?”

He blinked at her, then looked down, as if becoming aware of his absolutely blood-soaked shirt for the first time, then wrinkled his nose - maybe he hadn’t known how he smelled from the infection until just then.

Then he smiled. 

It was a soft, dreamy smile, and it made Nat’s blood run cold - underneath the shivering, frightened, soft hurting boy they’d found in the bushes she saw the first sign of something made of furious anger underneath.

“I happened,” The boy said softly.

“You did this to yourself?”

“He promised,” The boy said, his voice cracking and broken. “He promised me and he lied, and he said I could see him again and it would be okay, but it, it wasn’t, and… he lied about everything. I… I couldn’t… I couldn’t be lied to anymore. There wasn’t anything left to believe him.”

Nat slowly nodded. “What did he do, honey?”

The boy shook his head. “He lied.” His lip began to tremble, and when he spoke his voice was airy, breathless, but thick with tears. “S-So I cut his fuh-fucking lies out.“

Then he began to cry, hoarse cracking sobs that made fresh blood well up, tears rolling down his face, leaving tracks that dried too quickly against the feverish heat of his skin.

All Nat could do was nod one more time and open the door so Jake could carry him in. Jake held him close, whispered soothing, soft, comforting nonsense words to him.

Jake didn’t flinch away from the smell of the infection, or the fever. He didn’t mind, it seemed, the blood that smeared along his own shirt, the sweat from the boy’s skin that was left as a film on his. Nat loved Jake - and her rescues did, too. 

He was the strong pillar of comfort that the Romantics needed, without expecting or wanting anything out of them in return. He was the perfect introduction to a world where you deserved to ask for comfort without having to worry that comfort meant giving away your body one more time, in a life where you didn’t remember a time when someone wasn’t taking it anyway.

By the time they’d laid some plastic out on the couch and put the boy down on top of it, he had slipped back into semi-consciousness, babbling to Jake, seeming to think he was someone else entirely, some name that rang as familiar in Nat’s mind but wasn’t anyone she knew, she didn’t think. He seemed to think Jake was another pet, but that was common - there hadn’t been another in Owen’s household, but that didn’t mean the boy had never met any.

She stepped into the kitchen, taking a deep breath, putting her hands briefly up over her face. She was alone - for once, Nat was perfectly and totally alone - and she let the guilt knock her over like a wave, let it run up and down her body, filling in all the empty places with a chorus of this is your fault, you helped them make this happen, you were one of the first employees, you you you you you.

She allowed herself only a few seconds - maybe a full minute - of the guilt. Self-pity, in her life, was a kind of luxury. Then she shook herself all over, set it to the side, and walked over to the cell phone lying on the kitchen counter, picking it up, looking at her contacts list. A series of numbers without names or labels, the burner phones they all bought and passed around to make sure no one number was associated with an address anyone might actually use it at.

You can’t be absolved for the things you’ve done, Natalie. You were the Pied Piper, once, and you can’t ever wipe away that it’s your fault, in part, that all these poor kids have lost their minds in the deepest, most complete sense of the word.

No… you can’t make the past any different. You can only make the choice to try and rebuild the foundations you helped that bitch learn to tear down.

She had a lot of phone calls to make now. First, though…

“Hey,” Nat said into the phone when the first number she called picked up. “Yeah, it’s me. Look, uh… Vince, is Tara with you? No? No, that’s okay, this is really a call for you anyway. You might want to, uh, to get ahold of her after you hear-”

A pause.

“Yeah, okay. Look. I have… some weird fucking news.”

Nat glanced over her shoulder, to see the boy in the couch holding tightly to Jake’s hands, and Jake leaning over to listen to him with an expression of reassuring total focus on his face.

“Weirder than that. Vince…”

The boy pushed himself up on his elbows, saying something slurred and urgent to Jake that Nat couldn’t quite hear. Jake slowly leaned forwards and rested his forehead against the boy’s, whispering back.

Nat smiled, just a little. God, she loved Jake. Couldn’t do the work she did without people like him.

Jake, who knew when a rescue needed to be left alone, or just talked to, or knew how to balance affection just right when the Romantics filtered in, touch-starved and terrified. Jake, who had a perfect instinct for when someone needed to be shown that you could even be touched in ways that weren’t designed to break you all over again.

“… Vince. Owen Grant’s boy is alive, and he’s in my living room.” There was a pause, and in the pause Jake smiled into the boy’s face and gently laid his hands back down. Nat felt tears prick her eyes. Even after eighteen years of trying to save them, sometimes it hit her with real force that while she couldn’t undo all the damage that had been done, she could keep trying.

Then Vince’s voice caught her off-guard - or not his voice, but what he said - and Nat froze.

“How long until you can see him? Have you lost your fucking mind? Are you drunk? It’s seven-thirty in the-…. You are drunk. Jesus. Vince. Sober up and call me back if you still think… no. Sober up first. If you still want to see him, tell me after… I don’t think it’s a good idea, but-… Fine. Okay. Goodbye.”

She hung up the phone, trying to think as she punched in Dr. Masood’s number next.

The wrong kind of attention and this boy could get her put in prison, her rescues hauled back to hell to be repaired or retrained or God forbid, refurbished. People like Jake would get put in jail for aiding and abetting if they were lucky, but Jake had a kind of fresh handsomeness to him and Nat was fairly sure he’d never see the inside of a jail cell… no, if this went south Jake would wake up in a white room, wearing a white shirt and black shorts, and since he knew all the tricks it might take a while, but soon enough he’d be a number and not a name.

Especially now that they had proof that it was happening already…

No.

She couldn’t live her life in fear of what could happen if she did the right thing. She could only keep trying.

They had to keep trying.

She couldn’t make up for Isaac Thompson and all the others, but she could keep trying to make up for it until the bitter end. Maybe, one day, it would feel like she had done even close to enough.

“Dr. Masood? I need you to come make a house call.”

[necrowriter]

monday thing: may eighteenth (on hidden obstacles)

lately I've been thinking about video games.

I've played quite a bit of Animal Crossing since New Horizons came out. so, as you just might have noticed, have a lot of other people. by pure coincidence it happened to come out at a time when a great many people needed exactly the kind of escapism Animal Crossing offers. it's peaceful and soothing and soft, an imaginary getaway to a distant island where the neighbors are all friendly, the waves lap gently against clean bright sand, and there is never anything much to worry about it.

but New Horizons was eagerly anticipated long before anyone had any inkling what the circumstances around its release were going to be. it's the fifth game in a very successful series. Animal Crossing has had something appealing to offer for a long time. in the wake of the success of New Horizons I've seen a number of people wondering--many jokingly, some not--about why, exactly, the series is so appealing. is it really that much fun to pay off a home loan? to pull weeds and water flowers? are people really so invested in the thought of buying furniture or catching bugs to sell?

the usual sort of answer--again, often a joking one, sometimes not--is that the appeal is that you can pay off your home loan, without stress or fear, without interest accumulating, without any consequences if you don't. you can earn all the money you need by doing simple, easy tasks, and in the meantime your tanuki landlord will happily wait on you for years if he has to. well ain't that an impossible dream, amirite? we might as well enjoy doing it in a video game because we have no hope of doing it in real life.

and that answer is true, I think, but it only scratches the surface of something that extends well beyond Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing is perhaps the most extreme example, but many--maybe even most--video games offer the chance to pursue relatively normal, everyday sort of tasks even when the main focus of the game is something very grand and exciting. massive, open-world adventures and RPGs with epic, sweeping stories very often also allow you the opportunity to customize the living space or wardrobe of your main character, play minigames to earn money and prizes, or pursue smaller sidequests to build relationships with friends or lovers or just to help someone out. start a business! care for pets! grow flowers! hell, just take a nice walk if you want.

and if you listen to people talk about playing these games, you will often hear that they spent a great deal of time and energy on such tasks, sometimes much more than they ever spent on the main story or the bigger quests. given the choice, it seems, people are just as often drawn to the smaller things, even in games that also offer the sort of thing that seems like much more conventional wish-fulfillment. certainly I can attest to this. in Minecraft, a game where you can build enormous castles or terraform entire continents, I have spent many enjoyable hours instead building a small farm or a lakeside cottage. Breath of the Wild is a game where you play as a legendary hero reawoken to battle an ancient and terrible foe that has devastated your entire kingdom and sure, I took on that quest, but I did it in-between spending a lot more time gathering ingredients for cooking, feeding apples to my beloved horse, or taking pictures of birds. as soon as Pokemon offered the chance to take a break from becoming a master trainer of cool, powerful creatures to give those creatures head scritches and feed them cupcakes, you can bet I grabbed that opportunity with both hands.

why do we so often choose to do smaller, even ordinary, things, in these situations where it is just as easy, if not easier, to do great, big, awe-inspiring, impressive ones? when given the chance to be a hero of great renown wielding a sword of legends to save the entire world, why do I so often put doing that off to instead enjoy riding my horse through a sunny meadow? would you not expect the thing that I could never do in real life to hold more appeal and draw than something entirely possible, even ordinary?

well, that's obviously a hell of a deep psychological rabbit hole to go down, but I think part of it is this: games have a way of removing hidden obstacles. alright, and not-so-hidden obstacles, sure. if we look back at the Animal Crossing example, some of the obstacles the game removes are very. obvious. your loans have no interest or deadline, no consequence for failure. making money requires no resume, no qualifications, no applications, no stress, no fuss, nothing more than a butterfly net or fishing rod and some time to spare, at most. there are no taxes, no global warming, no troubling political news.

but there are smaller obstacles shaved off here and there as well. in the world of Animal Crossing it is not just big things that become more accessible, but also day to day things which in real life are often rendered accessible to achieve, but not to enjoy, because of the difficulties attached to them.

let's take gardening. a few posts back I talked about my own personal troubles with gardening: that it was something I did find enjoyment in, but also struggled with a great deal because ADHD presented so many challenges to doing it that I came to believe it was something I was simply inherently and permanently bad at. in Animal Crossing, on the other hand, most of those challenges don't exist. when you go to buy a plant, you always know exactly what it is. its needs are simple and straight-forward, and if the game doesn't tell you them then you can surely find them laid out clearly and easily with a quick visit to any of dozens of wikis and game info sites. there are clear signals included to help you carry out what you need to do. you can tell if you've watered a flower because it will sparkle. you can tell if a tree won't grow where you're trying to plant it, because the game will tell you so.

the gardening in Animal Crossing specifically is very simplistic. but it offers to you, and keeps, a promise which even games with more complicated requirements keep: here are the steps, here is the list of what you need to do, and if you do it right, something will grow, and grow well.

of course this also takes away some of the things that make the whole pastime worthwhile in real life. there is no sensation of digging your fingers into rich dirt, no fresh crop to pick and eat right off the stem. and seeing a pixel plant sprout and grow in stages will never quite compare to watching something very real and alive grow from a seed that you planted yourself. yet still I find distinct enjoyment in walking between the plots of my virtual garden in Animal Crossing, in raising virtual flowers and watching them bloom.

with some video games, I find the wish fulfillment to be as straight-forward as that: the emulation of an activity I want to do in real life, but find to be more difficult than enjoyable because of the obstacles associated with it. sometimes it's less direct. I have always enjoyed simulation and management games, games about building, cultivating, growing, raising, developing. but I've found myself particularly drawn to them over the past few years. building cities or kingdoms, running a large farm, managing a theme park or a zoo--there's great appeal there for me, even though I've never longed to pursue city planning or business management in the real world. but when things have felt at their most stagnant and hopeless, when I have felt unable to find any sign of progression or improvement in my own life, I have found comfort in being able to watch something grow, to put work in and see the results clear and apparent before me, however ephemeral those results are.

for me, I find that most often, the obstacles removed by doing something in a game mostly relate to the same thing: the struggle of planning, organizing and carrying out tasks, which is so often made so much easier when laid out for me as it is in a video game. it's a common criticism about some video games--sometimes, about the entire concept of video gaming--that playing them is essentially a matter of watching numbers go up. and, well, you've got me. it's true. I do like seeing numbers go up. I like seeing progress bars fill and skills unlock and quest objectives with check marks next to them. I like it because it's not something I get to experience much in real life: that sense of concrete progression, of knowing what I need to do and in what order I need to do it, of some acknowledgment and achievement for completing a task--yes, even if it is only a number going up! even if it is only a small cosmetic change, a new coat for my character, a section of map filling out, a pixel flower blooming on a pixel stem. better that than no sense of progress. better that than never really feeling sure if I've accomplished anything at all.

this is not something I always knew about myself. I've always liked video games, certainly, but thinking about the enjoyment I get out of them has gone hand in hand with learning more about how my own brain works. it's not only that video games can remove obstacles; by doing so, they can reveal to you that there were obstacles in places you never before realized. and there's value in that, I think. because sometimes it can show you that a problem you thought was in one place was actually in another place altogether. if something you think of as being boring, mundane, dull and exhausting becomes something you are willing and able to spend a lot of time and energy on, and get enjoyment out of, when it is framed in a different way--it may follow that the problem was not, as you thought, with the thing itself. the problem was in the obstacles around it.

of course, that's not always the case. the act of doing something in a game is often so thoroughly divorced from any semblance of doing it in real life that enjoying one has no bearing on enjoying the other. we play lots of games centered around doing things that most of us would never have any desire to do in real life. but sometimes it can lead you to discover that you enjoy things you didn't think you enjoyed, or are capable of doing things you didn't think you could do.

if nothing else, I think every single Animal Crossing island currently being developed, being visited, being joyfully and proudly shared online is evidence in the case against the idea that people fundamentally don't want to work and won't work if they don't have to. as is every painstakingly constructed Minecraft world, every Stardew Valley farm, every virtual city intricately planned, every virtual business budget carefully managed, every kingdom saved and map fully explored and character fully leveled and kitted out. because you don't do those things without putting time and concentration and effort into it. you just can't. it's not possible.

I think video games have a lot to tell us: about obstacles, and about effort, and about ourselves. some obstacles are incontrovertible, certainly. there are things built into the world which we can circumvent in video games but cannot, with all the best will in the world, change in our real lives. some things are always going to be more appealing virtually. my difficulties with gardening, for example, are always going to exist in some fashion because I cannot change the nature of how plants work. but knowing that something is an obstacle for you, and identifying why it is, can go a long way toward helping you figure out how to navigate around that obstacle, even if you can't remove it.

and sometimes when you realize that something is an obstacle, you realize that it doesn't need to be. that doesn't always translate to being able to do anything about it, of course. I doubt anyone needed Animal Crossing to tell them that home loans would be easier to repay without interest, and yet here we are. but I think there are a lot of things which we just sort of assume have to be difficult and boring and tiring and just thoroughly unenjoyable, because it is simply the nature of that thing, or the nature of us as people. nothing to do about it, just the way the world works.

sometimes that may be true. but surely not always.

I don't know.

but I will tell you this: by god, be proud of your virtual gardens.

they have worth.

[team-free-will-oneshots]

No Through Road

Title: No Through Road (part eight of the ‘Buried Secrets’ series) Summary: When a new hunt crops up, you and the boys decide to put your feelings aside and prioritise the case. If only it were that simple... Pairing: Dean x Reader, Sam x Reader Warnings: pining, angst, light swearing, canon-typical violence Word Count: 6,000ish (whoops)

note; merry christmas/happy holidays!!! i’m so sorry!! for the lack of updates !!!!! it’s been killing me too i swear!!!

while writing this i got rly deep into threads debating whether the impala is an automatic or a manual (it’s an automatic btw), just a fun fact. enjoy!

Buried Secrets Masterlist | Main Masterlist

“Y/N - I wasn’t aware that you were home.”

Castiel’s voice dragged your attention away from the book in your lap, and you glanced up in surprise to see the angel in the doorway, throwing you a surprised smile that you hadn’t realised you’d missed during your time away.

“Hey, Cas. Yeah, I’m back,” you replied, offering a weak smile in return.

“I take it Dean has apologised?” Cas said sternly, his boots thudding on the timber floor as he stepped into your room. Sighing, you closed the book, tossing it to the side as you nodded glumly.

“Yeah, he has,” you informed him. “Things are… hopefully on their way back to normal.”

Cas beamed. “That’s wonderful,” he said sincerely, but his smile faltered as he recognised the despair etched into your features. He glanced to your bed, eyes darting to yours questioningly, and you nodded. He took a seat next to you. “You don’t seem pleased,” he observed, and you offered a weak smile.

“Things are complicated,” you mumbled, and Castiel’s wide eyes found yours, imploring you to continue. You leaned back against the bedrest, eyes dancing around the room as though, if you looked hard enough, you’d find the answers you so desperately sought hiding under the desk, or in the closet. But alas, the words you needed were nowhere to be found, and so you let your lips spill what they may.

“Before I left… Dean and I had a thing,” you began. “Like… romantically.” Cas nodded.

“Yes, he mentioned that while you were gone,” he affirmed, and you raised an eyebrow in interest. 

“He talked to you about me?”

“Yes, of course,” Cas said, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. “On several occasions, in fact. He was very upset - mostly about hurting you, I believe.”

It took a few moments for this new information to settle, but once it did, you put it aside to dwell on later. “Oh,” you said. “Well, when I left, Sam and I kind of… developed a thing as well,” you said slowly. “But I hadn’t sorted things out with Dean yet, and now… now I honestly don’t know what the hell I’m meant to do. I feel like I’ve hit a dead end - like I’m trapped. I could never be with Sam if I don’t get closure with Dean, but if I get closure with Dean, I don’t know where that would leave Sam and I. I just- I’ve hit a wall,” you grumbled. Cas frowned, observing you thoughtfully as he mulled over your words.

“Who do you want to be with?” he asked, and you sighed loudly.

“I don’t know, Cas, that’s the thing. A part of me thinks I should choose Sam, because he was there for me, y’know? He was so sweet, and- and I felt safe with him,” you said. “He’s practically the perfect guy.”

“Then there’s your answer,” Cas said, and you sighed, shaking your head.

“But Dean… Look, he has some shit to make up for, that’s for sure, but… I feel so drawn to him. Being with Dean, it just feels… right. Like… almost like we’re two sides of the same coin, y’know?”

Cas frowned.

“Oh. Well, that is a bit more complex,” he allowed. “But it seems to me, you already know what you want,” he added, and you bolted upright.

“And what’s that?” you asked. Cas hesitated, and you cast him a pleading expression. “C’mon, man, I’ll take any advice I can get.”

“Well-”

But before he could finish his sentence, Dean was at your door, laptop in hand as he rapped his knuckles against the doorframe. Castiel fell silent, whatever answers he might have bestowed fading out of your reach - at least for the moment.

“Hey, Y/N, we’ve got a case- oh, hi, Cas,” he greeted in surprise. You sighed.

“Raincheck?” you murmured to Cas, who nodded warmly. You walked to Dean, peering over his shoulder and frowning at the computer screen. “What are we looking at?” you asked. You were stood close enough to him that your chin was all but resting on his shoulder, and the warmth of his body next to yours sent a pleasant tingle of electricity down your spine that you forced yourself to ignore. Dean tensed at the slight brush of your body over his, taking half a step forward as he cleared his throat.

“Uh, three victims in the past month - corpses looked like they’d been ‘ravaged by an animal’, all missing hearts,” he said. You mulled over the information.

“Okay, what, we’re thinking a werewolf?” you checked, and Dean nodded.

“Seems like.”

“How far?”

“‘Bout three hours.”

“Great, I’ll be ready in ten minutes,” you said decisively. Dean’s eyes met yours and held your gaze a moment longer than necessary before he nodded, ducking his head and leaving the room. When you turned back to start packing, Cas shot you a pointed look that you couldn’t quite deconstruct with the scent of Dean still in your nostrils, the phantom warmth of his body still grazing over your own - you couldn’t get your own thoughts straight, let alone try to decipher someone else’s.

“What?” you challenged, and he shook his head, a small smile on his face.

“Nothing,” he said softly. “Be safe,” he told you, resting his hand on your shoulder for a moment as you nodded.

“Thanks,” you replied, and you finally managed to untangle your thoughts enough to recall the conversation the two of you had shared.

“Hey, wait, what were you gonna say befo-” you began, but when you span around, the angel was already gone. 

---

“So the next victim will either be Sara Aplin or Barry Smith, if we’re right about the co-workers thing,” you mused, exchanging glances with Sam and Dean. The motel room was cramped with the three of you, each bed littered with papers and research whilst the walls were adorned with a myriad of pins and criss-crossing red string. Your gut had been right about the werewolf - you’d narrowed it down to a twenty-seven year old male, Marshall Cooper, who’d had several public disagreements with his co-workers who all turned up dead only a few days later, minus their hearts. He’d had two such rows in the past few days - one with a girl, Sara, who was barely pushing twenty-five, and another with twenty-nine year old Barry.

“Looks like it,” Sam remarked, licking his finger as he leafed through a pile of pages in his hand. 

“Great, well at least it’s fifty-fifty,” you muttered, pinning both locations on the map you had stuck to the wall - they were on opposite ends of town. “It’d be handy if they were neighbours - three of us could stake ‘em out together. Why are things never easy?” you moaned, and Sam chuckled.

“Tell me about it,” he replied. You stared at the map a moment longer, smirking as you trailed your finger over the glossy paper.

“Hey, I might’ve found a shortcut between the houses,” you mused, and Dean raised an eyebrow as Sam snorted.

“No offense, Y/N, I’m not taking your directional advice. Remember what happened last time you thought you found a ‘shortcut’?” Sam teased, and you giggled at the memory.

“Yeah, pretty sure a branch hit you in the face - you shoulda seen yourself, you looked so shocked,” you laughed, exchanging knowing grins with the youngest Winchester as you elbowed him fondly. He shook his head, smile lingering on his lips as your skin brushed over his. He pressed closer to you, holding contact a moment longer than he should have.

“Yeah, I’ll bet,” he chuckled, shaking his head to himself as he watched you fondly, a sweet smile tilting the corners of his lips.

Dean stood, unable to tear his eyes from you as Sam brushed up against you, both of you so casually comfortable in one another’s presence as you rattled off inside jokes he could never hope to be a part of. Just how much had you and his brother shared during your time away? How could he ever compete with the easy conversation and affectionate gestures the two of you so readily exchanged? Maybe he should just give up - maybe he’d forced any hope of a relationship between you towards a dead end the moment he’d sent you packing. Maybe there was no coming back from this one.

Dean grimaced, forcing the thoughts away as his green eyes wandered over the faded newspaper clippings pinned to the walls.

“And if we’ve got the pattern right, he’ll strike tonight,” he interrupted. You and Sam mellowed, stepping apart and falling back into business mode as Dean took on the authoritative role. “Alright, Y/N and I will stake out Sara’s house, you handle Barry’s. We good?” Dean checked. Sam glanced to you, eyes questioning, and you cast him a reassuring smile.

“Yeah. Sounds good,” you replied firmly, and you saw Dean throw you a tentative half smile as his eyes met yours. He held your gaze for a moment before it quickly flickered away. The moment, however brief, held a level of intimacy that half-frightened you, but simultaneously sent a warm kaleidoscope of butterflies dancing in your stomach. Though intense, the feeling was familiar - and for a moment, things were almost back to normal.

You were jolted back to reality when Sam cleared his throat, the magic of the moment dissipating as the gravity of your situation crashed back down on you, an anvil weighing heavily on your shoulders. When you looked at the tall Winchester, his eyes betrayed a hint of jealousy that he quickly hid behind a smile. 

“Alright. You’re sure you wanna go with Dean, Y/N?” he checked. “I mean, we’ll probably be waiting awhile.” You nodded.

“Yeah - Dean and I probably have some catching up to do, anyways,” you conceded, casting Dean a half smile that brought a grin to his face.

“Besides, we’re practically the hunting dream team - no offense, Sammy,” he said with a chuckle, and you shook your head in amused exasperation.

“It’s Sam,” the younger Winchester corrected with a roll of his eyes. You ignored their bickering, glancing out the cramped motel window to see dusk rapidly descending over the small farming town.

“We should get going,” you interjected, snatching Baby’s keys from where they sat on the bed. You jingled them tauntingly. “I’m driving,” you added with a wink. Dean’s cocky grin dropped quicker than a bag of stones into water.

“Oh, hell no,” he objected, but you shot him a smirk, tucking your gun into your waistband as you left the motel, tossing an amused Sam a wave over your shoulder. Dean hastily followed, lunging for the keys that you quickly protected in your closed fist.

“Sorry, Dean!” you teased in a sing-song tone, and the eldest Winchester pouted.

“C’mon, Y/N! You always ride the curb!” he all but whined, and you grinned.

“Shoulda thought of that earlier, slowpoke,” you shot back, and though he rolled his eyes, there was no malice in his act.

“I’m so sorry, Baby,” he whispered, patting the roof once before slipping into the passenger seat. You cranked the engine the moment the door clicked shut, pulling out from the motel parking lot and merging onto the main road as the passing scenery faded into a vague green blur. 

“Hunting dream team, huh?” you remarked, and Dean shrugged, smiling wolfishly.

“Yeah, you know we work well together. Remember that wendigo case a couple years back?” he prompted, and you laughed.

“The one in Minnesota? When Sam had the flu, and we went in totally unprepared?”

“Yeah,” he said, face falling a little at the mention of Sam’s name. He brightened as he continued. “We mighta been unprepared, but we found that damn thing’s hideout in record time. Ganked that son of a bitch before it knew what hit it,” he reminded you, and you raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

“Really? I seem to remember you ‘finding the hideout’ by literally falling over into the cave, being attacked, and then I had to come save your ass,” you responded, and Dean shrugged.

“Potato, potahto… got it done, didn’t we?”

You smiled. “Yeah, we did. I guess you’re right… we are pretty awesome,” you said, winking at him and feeling a knot of butterflies rise in your stomach at his resounding chuckle.

“Yeah, we are,” he said, his eyes lingering on the smile curving your lips when you glanced back to the road. A comfortable silence settled over the car, and you felt your neck prickled as his gaze didn’t leave you. When you glanced over at him, of course, he jostled himself away from you, eyes glued a little too intently on his phone.

“Whatcha doing?” you asked, and his eyes darted over to you in surprise.

“Uh- looking at directions,” he stammered. You glanced at his phone screen - blank. 

“Right. Well, google maps is for losers who can’t read street signs,” you said firmly, and Dean rolled his eyes good naturedly.

“Ha, ha,” he said dryly, tucking his phone into the pocket of his jeans. The Winchester settled back into the passenger seat, folding his arms behind his head. “Fine then, I won’t tell you the street,” he said stubbornly. “I’ll bet ya five bucks that you’ll miss it.”

You snickered. “You’re on,” you replied. A few minutes later a smug grin was etched over Dean’s face, and you shot him a hard look.

“What?” you demanded, and he chuckled, holding up his hands in mock surrender.

“Nothing, nothing…”

“This is the right way!” you insisted, nodding to the road before you. Sure, it looked a little unfamiliar, but that was just because it wasn’t broad daylight, unlike your last visit to the house… right? Dean forced a straight face.

“Sure, this is the right way…” he allowed, before sniggering. “If you’re looking for a dead end,” he tacked on, nodding to the ‘No Through Road’ sign glinting in the fading light. You released a guttural noise of irritation - yet another dead end. You seemed to be hitting a lot of those lately. Dean released the laugh he’d been biting back.

“Good try, sweetheart. Street was two blocks back,” he said, and you scrunched your nose up at him.

“Thanks, Alexa,” you snapped back, though you couldn’t restrain the grin that split your face when you threw the car into a three-point-turn, “accidentally” reversing straight into the gutter. Dean’s mouth fell open in horror, and you feigned innocence.

“Oops!” you cried dramatically, tone ringing with exaggeration. “Sorry, Baby… this never would’ve happened if someone had told me when the turnoff was…” you continued, stroking the steering wheel and shooting Dean a sweet smile.

“Very funny,” he replied, his annoyed expression quickly melting into one of bemusement as his lips spread into a nostalgic smile. “Hey, remember that case with-”

“-the haunted maserati?” you finished easily, and he nodded, whistling.

“We really totalled it, didn’t we? Damn shame, too, did you hear her engine? Never heard a thing run smoother,” he remarked wistfully, and you bit back a laugh.

“Careful, Dean, Baby will hear you,” you taunted, swinging into the side street that Dean pointed out. “Shame that Sam missed that one, too. Where was he again?” you asked, brow furrowing as you thought back to the long-forgotten hunt. You saw Dean swallow at the mention of his name, and his wistful smile collapsed into a solemn expression as he tensed his jaw.

“Still dealing with that fractured ankle, wasn’t he?” he asked gruffly, and you nodded as the penny dropped.

“Oh, yeah, poor guy,” you tutted, and Dean grunted in agreement, busying himself with scanning the houses dotted evenly along the street.

“This one, right here,” he said suddenly, pointing to a nondescript white house with a garden that needed a little more love than it was receiving. Large bushes obscured much of the lawn, the shrubbery casting shadows that swiftly lengthened as the sun continued to dip below the horizon. You pulled in close to the curb, throwing the car into park and flipping off the engine.

“Well, now we wait, huh?” you remarked, glancing over at Dean. He sighed, nodding as his eyes fell to meet yours. He held your gaze for a moment longer than he ought to, and you couldn’t help but notice the flecks of amber embedded amongst the green of his irises, smouldering like tiny embers in the fading light. The orange sunset glowed on his skin, though dappled shadows danced over his face as the leafy trees overhanging the house swayed in the light breeze. Dean tried a small, crooked smile - just a curve of his full lips, there one moment and gone the next. You released a shaky breath as you flashed a smile in return. Dean tore away his stare, turning stiffly to observe the house once more. He cleared his throat.

“Yeah. Now we wait.”

---

Dean was bored.

The moment the Impala’s engine had cut out, the two of you fell into a semi-comfortable silence broken only by the rustle of leaves in the wind and the steady beat of rain on the roof. The occasional stutter of a motor and the splashing of wheels across puddles pierced the quiet as cars rolled down the street, headlights beaming over the slick black tarmac. He’d busied himself at first by studying the leafy garden plants, before turning his gaze to the peeling white paint of the crumbling fence, counting each stripe of brown wood flickering between streaks of yellowing pigment. But as darkness descended the scenery fell into an indistinguishable grey blur, and Dean could no longer pick a distraction from the outside world.

He shifted in his seat, wincing at the stiffness of his legs. You glanced over at the sound of movement, raising an eyebrow at his evident discomfort. He flashed a sheepish smile, swallowing the lump in his throat spurred on by the glint of your eyes in the dim lighting, the warmth of your body so close to his in the cramped confines of his car.

“You got the time?” he asked weakly. You glanced at your phone.

“Nearly midnight,” you informed him, and he nodded slowly.

“Right. Great. Maybe this thing’ll end up on Sam’s end,” he mused, and you shrugged.

“Yeah, maybe - he hasn’t had anything on his end yet, either, though,” you replied offhandedly, turning back to your phone.

“Oh? You’ve- you’ve been talking to him, then?”

“Just a text here and there,” you said, smiling tightly as you nodded to the phone in your hand. Dean nodded slowly.

“Right. Of course. Good,” he said. Silence once again fell over the vehicle, and having come to a dead end as to alleviating his boredom, Dean spared another glance your way. His breath fell into an uneven patter as he admired the slanting of the low light over your cheek, illuminating the gentle flush of your skin, the gentle parting of your lips as you read something on the screen before you. When a small smile stretched over your lips as you read something amusing, Dean couldn’t help but mirror it as he found himself imagining being bestowed the honour of putting that smile on your face himsel-

You looked over at him, and Dean hastily flicked his eyes back to the house, shaking away the languishing thoughts that tormented his mind and ignoring the pit of yearning that burned in his stomach. You deserved far more than what he could give you. Although he would always be the first to admit such, it didn’t stop the pang of pain that hit his chest at the thought. He busied his mind with other ponderings.

“Hey, I… I don’t think I ever thanked you,” he said eventually, voice stammering and breathy with nerves. He pulled apart his twiddling thumbs, moving to grip the steering wheel with white knuckles. That seemed to surprise you - your eyebrows darted upwards as you shot him a questioning expression.

“For what?”

Dean shifted uncomfortably. “For- for trying to help me. With the hex bag, I mean. It… you didn’t have to do that.”

“Yeah, you made that pretty clear,” you chuckled dryly, and Dean swallowed thickly as his yearning was overridden by guilt.

“I just mean… I appreciate the thought, is all,” he mumbled. “I shouldn’t have blown up at you about it, I just… I’m used to dealing with that stuff on my own. It’s… easier that way.” He refused to meet your eyes, his jaw tight as he fixed his gaze on the empty road before him. You half smiled.

“I’ve noticed. Y’know, it’s okay to reach out when you need to. You’d be amazed how much easier it is to deal with things when you have someone to vent to,” you prodded, giving him a playful nudge with your elbow. He chuckled.

“I’ll keep that in mind for next time,” he replied. You lifted an inquiring eyebrow, and his smile melted into a somber line. He swallowed, biting back a smirk, a joke, anything to deflect his inner turmoil, and instead allowed his eyes to find your own. “I will. Promise.”

You nodded, seemingly satisfied with his answer as you patted his knee once. The thoughtful action stoked the slow burning longing in his chest, but the comfort and safety your touch brought was gone as quickly as it came as you folded your arms into your chest and adjusted in your seat. Dean felt the cold air creep over the empty space you had occupied, the chill sinking into the hollowness in his heart, squeezing it in an icy grasp. He took a shaky breath, his clenched fist falling over the place your hand had occupied. Neither of you spoke.

“Hey, what day is it?” you asked suddenly, and Dean shot you a perplexed look.

“Uh, Monday, I think,” he said. “What, you got an appointment or something?”

You smirked. “No, just thought it’s fitting that we’re hunting a werewolf today.”

Dean furrowed his brow. “Why?”

You shot him a wolfish grin. “It’s Moon-day, Dean.”

The eldest Winchester closed his eyes, tongue in cheek as he fought back a laugh. “Y/N, that was pathetic.”

“Don’t you mean pack-hetic?” you challenged cheekily, and Dean snorted.

“C’mon, though, really? Moon-day? You could’ve at least somehow slipped Howl-a-ween in there, instead,” he shot back, and you smirked.

“Oh, I know, I just wanted to see you in pain at my terrible puns,” you said. Dean rolled his eyes fondly.

“At least you’re a-were that they’re bad,” he replied offhandedly, and you groaned, though you seemed unable to keep the grin off your face.

“Okay, truce,” you said. “I’m out of puns.”

“That’s okay, sweetheart, we can just hit paws on it for now.” He threw you a wink, and you chortled. Dean grinned at your laughter - carefree and genuine, woven with snorts that you futilely tried to disguise with a cough. The so-called ‘ugly’ laughter was music to his ears, a score perfectly composed by the delightful ringing of your voice. He couldn’t name a single melody he favoured over that which was your joy, a noise so pure it had him giddy on the idea that he was the lucky man who had invoked it.

Dean’s own laughter died as he recalled your similar exchange with Sam only hours prior, and he was crushed with the reminder that he wasn’t the only one with whom you had shared such buoyant moments. The cold heaviness crushed him again, and it was all he could do to force a tight half-smile in response to your wide grin. You didn’t seem to notice his dejection, however, as your eyes focussed on something over his shoulder.

“Well, I think our werewolf just turned into a there-wolf,” you remarked softly, cocking your gun and nodding towards the subtle movement in the darkness outside, followed by the rustling of the bushes. Dean snapped into solemnity, twisting around to squint into the darkness. Sure enough, you were right.

“Alright, follow my lead,” he whispered, loading his pistol with a round of silver bullets as he slowly creaked open the door of the Impala and let his boots crunch onto the footpath. You slipped out behind him, letting the door hang silently open as you readied your gun and crept into the overgrown garden. Ankle height grass brushed over Dean’s jeans, leaving tiny seeds clinging to the stiff fabric. He paid them no heed, every last drop of his attention focussed solely on the hunt as he kept downwind of the crouched wolf. He watched as you took position by it’s flank, exchanging nods as he carefully aimed - if all went well, one shot would end this hunt.

But then, when did things ever go well for Dean Winchester?

He cursed as he stepped on a twig, of all things, the thin brown stick hidden in the grass that couldn’t muffle the snap as it splintered under his heavy boot. The wolf shot around, snarling, it’s yellow eyes reflecting thin shards of light as it leapt towards him.

Dean shot - once, twice, three times, before the heavy body landed atop him, screeching and howling, it’s writhing claws digging into his arms before it finally slackened, weighing heavily on his chest. The gun flew from his hand, settling in the grass a few feet away, and he groaned as he shoved the body away. 

“Shit, are you okay?” you demanded, eyes branded with concern as you rushed over to help him to his feet. Dean nodded, wincing at his wounds but forcing a steely mask over his face - he’d had worse.

“Yeah, fine,” he grunted, hissing as you slipped off your jacket and held it against his wounded shoulder. He had half a mind to push you away, insist that he was fine, but something about the tenderness of your touch and the gentleness in your eyes had him putty in your hands. For once, Dean let himself relax into your warmth, the tension seeping from his muscles as you rested a hand on his chest and began to guide him back from the car. Your phone buzzed in your pocket, but neither of you had mind to mention it - you let it ring out.

The two of you had almost made it through the gate when the other werewolf attacked.

It sprung up from behind, it’s body concealed amongst the large bushes so conveniently dotted around the yard. You felt it’s hot, reeking breath on the back of your neck as it slammed into you, dislodging Dean from your grip and sending him stumbling, dooming him only to watch with wide, helpless eyes as its claws dug into your side.

Dean’s hand shot for his gun only to grasp at empty air, and he felt his chest constrict in panic as you struggled against the wolf, unable to free your arms to defend yourself as it’s snapping jaws inched closer to your face. There was only one thing he could do.

“Hey, Fido!” he bellowed. The wolf hesitated, glancing up with a growl as it’s eyes locked on Dean. “Yeah, you fugly bitch! Come on - want a piece of this?” he roared, throwing open his arms despite the screaming in his shoulder. The wolf leapt at him, and Dean barked a curse as he threw himself to the side, a bush breaking his fall, the sharp twigs digging through his clothes as he rolled to the ground. He scrambled through the grass, catching sight of the glint of his gun a few feet away. The wolf was hot on his tail - he wasn’t going to make it, he realised. Shit - this was it…

That was when he heard a heavy thud and whimper as the wolf was slammed against a tree. Dean risked a glance, pausing with wide eyes and mouth half open as he saw you kneeling with your arms outstretched, pinning the wolf against the trunk with your magic. Your face was glistening with blood and sweat, hair matted and strewn with leaves after your tussle, but he’d be damned if it wasn’t the beautiful sight he’d ever had the pleasure of witnessing.

“Get the gun, idiot!” you snapped, visibly straining as you struggled to keep the wolf contained. Dean nodded, snapping back to the task at hand and quickly retrieving the gun, emptying the round of silver bullets into the wolf’s chest. It yowled and twitched, but finally stilled. You released a sharp breath as you let your arms fall, the wolf mirroring them as it thumped to the floor.

Dean sprinted to you, collapsing to his knees beside you as he frantically scanned your weary body for wounds. “Dammit, Y/N, are you okay?” he demanded, and you chuckled dryly as you nodded.

“Yeah, just some scrapes and bruises, same as you,” you muttered, wincing and pressing your hand against your blood-slickened side. Dean didn’t relax until he had examined your injuries firsthand, but once he realised you really were fine, he found himself frozen with his hands on your hips and your heaving chest only centimetres from his own. Your eyes met his, wide and sparkling and breathless from the fight, and maybe it was the adrenaline or the fact that you had both almost died, but Dean couldn’t stop himself from crushing his mouth to yours.

He could taste the salt of your sweat tinged with the metal of your blood as your lips met in a bruising kiss, his hands instinctively pulling you closer as you melted against him. Your hands were in his hair, scraping delectably against the nape of his neck as he poured every drop of passionate relief into the rough motion of his chapped lips over your own. His tongue found yours, hot and desperate as his arms caged around you, clutching you to his chest as though you’d never be safe anyplace else…

...and then he was pulling away with a start, detangling his limbs from your own as he guiltily ducked his head and cleared his throat. He didn’t meet your eyes, only allowed himself a sharp exhale as he pushed to his feet, eyes scanning his surroundings for any other threat as he silently berated himself for losing control in the way that he had.

You didn’t speak either, only huffed as the sound of your ringtone pierced the air once more. His gaze finally found yours as you tugged out your phone, and you offered him a tight smile as you held it to your ear. 

“Sam?”

The single syllable sent Dean’s stomach plummeting. What was he thinking, kissing you like that? What the hell was he doing? He’d seen the way you’d looked at Sam - the jokes, the coy smiles and flirty banter. He didn’t stand a chance - and yet there he’d gone, kissing you like there was no tomorrow, like none of the past week had ever happened.

God, what kind of a hole had he dug himself into now?

---

Your mind was still reeling from Dean’s kiss - it had been all too easy to lean into it, to lose yourself in the pressure of his lips, the heat of his skin as he held you like he’d never again have the honour. Your skin still burned from his touch, your lips still buzzed from the taste of him - he’d consumed all your senses, his presence wrapping itself around you even though the only thing against your skin now was the cold night air.

Your phone rang, and you snapped from your trance as you pulled it out with shaking hands and accepted the call, eyes skimming blindly over the ID as your thoughts were drenched with the press of Dean’s body over yours, so passionate and warm, but so right.

Dean’s eyes finally met yours, and the guilt so deeply set into his expression had your brow creasing in confusion as you sent him a tentative smile that he didn’t return. Did he… regret it?

“Y/N!” a breathless exclamation sounded on the other line. You blinked, flipping back to reality as you registered the owner of the voice.

“Sam?” you gasped.

“Yeah! Listen, I think there are two wolves - I can’t believe I didn’t see it before! I’ve been reading over the case, and Marshall had a roommate who seemed a little too closely involved in-”

“Yeah, we know,” you replied dryly, shaking your head once to clear yourself from the lingering traces of Dean’s affection. “We-uh- we got it. Them. Both of the- look, both werewolves are dead,” you stammered eventually, and you heard a sigh of relief on Sam’s end.

“Great - are you okay?” he asked, voice heavy with worry. 

“Fine,” you managed. “We’re both fine. Bit worse for wear, but fine.”

“Okay - okay, well, good. Let’s meet back at the motel, then.”

“Yeah - get the first aid kit ready if you beat us there,” you replied tiredly.

“Yeah, of course. See you soon,” Sam bid, and you sighed, tucking away your phone as he hung up. You glanced up at Dean, who was stubbornly avoiding your stare.

“It was Sam,” you told him, trying to coax his eyes back to you. They flashed to yours for a brief moment but left just as quickly. Dean grunted.

“Yeah? What’d he say?” 

“Just that there were two wolves.”

Dean snorted. “Better late than never, I guess,” he muttered, and you allowed a short laugh as you both limped back to the Impala, sliding into the seats and nursing your tender wounds as the adrenaline faded from your systems.

“Yep. Turns out Marshall had a roommate. Two man pack. Guess you could say he was a werewolf in sheep’s clothing,” you said cheekily. That pried a smile from the eldest Winchester, finally brought a hint of a gleam back to his green eyes.

“Good one,” he chuckled, cranking the engine and pulling away from the curb. You half-opened your mouth, ready to approach the subject of the adrenaline induced act you had shared, but the look in Dean’s eyes had you second-guessing yourself. His jaw was tense, his fists tenser as he gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. 

He regrets it, you realised, feeling your heart sink as you released a sharp breath.

“Right,” you said eventually. “Let’s get patched up and get the hell outta this town, huh? I bet the cops’ll be here any second, after those gunshots,” you mused. Dean squeezed the wheel tighter.

“Right,” he said tersely, relaxing slightly as you leaned back into the seat and rested your head against the glass of the window. The car was stiff with tension that slowly dissolved as the scenery shifted and blurred outside, and you winced at the throbbing headache that had flared up behind your eyes. Of course your short reprieve from it had been too good to last - how fitting that it should spring up alongside the aching in your chest as you recalled the heat of Dean’s mouth on yours, and the downcast guilt etched into his expression afterwards.

You couldn’t erase the kiss from your mind - couldn’t forget his touch, his scent, his… everything. And it was then that you realised;

You hadn’t reached a dead end, not at all - just the opposite. You’d found a fork in the road, a crossroads, and now you were faced with a glaring choice.

Two paths, each just as tempting as the other - and now you had to do the impossible. For their sakes, for your own sake…

You had to decide.

__________

Part 9 coming soon !!!!!

Buried Secrets tags: @clarinette07 @demonsofhunting @carryon-doctor-lock @coupleofgoons @colie87 @non-exclusive-trash @txnii-hxrdyy @spaghettiwoes @supersouthy @bee-happy-buzz-on @lolmkaythen @defenderrosetyler @sammykb1994 @cocklesbelli @the-fictionwriters-hairdo @witch-of-letters @lilasundari @aquaastrid @deathofmissjackson @officialmarvelwhore​ @imdoingathingmom​ @thebookisbtr​ @sideblogsmutting @keepcalm-and-beyou​ @stormnightsong​ @spopovich​

Forever tags: @babygirloreo​ @calaofnoldor​ @lmpala97​ @sebastianshoe​ @81mysteriouslyme​ @castieliswatchingoverme​ @kina666​ @liviaolivia​ @simplyxparker​ @helpmeluci​ @demonsofhunting​ @lilulo-12​

Dean tags: @polina-93​ @justagirlinafandomworld​ @justanotherwinchester​ @shadowkat-83​ @teenwaywardasgardian​

Sam tags: @sammys-dimpless​

Let me know if you wanna be added to any tag lists !!

[sayain-princess-vegenta]

Love Amongst The Dragons

A/N: This is my very first fanfic. I hope you enjoy it. I might add more later. As I lay on the cold unforgiving floor, alone and forgotten in this cell with nothing but the annoying sound of water dripping, and the occasional laugh from my guards I look at the ceiling and think about my life, think about what went wrong. How I became a shell of the man I used to be, a monster some would call me. But in the darkest part of the night when I don’t feel the sun’s warmth and when the tiny window to my cell shows nothing but the darkness of the sky the stars shine and they remind me of a life of long ago, one that started with her.

I remember the first time I saw her. Radiant, beautiful, perfect. Too perfect, her smile was a little too tight, her steps a little too soft, her posture a little too straight, but if you looked into her eyes, her eyes spoke of a thousand words. She was bored, obviously, the conversation she was having with the Nobel women around her was so dull that even she couldn’t keep the picture perfect facade she was trying to keep. 

I felt drawn to her, my eyes couldn’t look away from her, I was always vaguely aware of where she was, I'd like to think that she knew I was looking. The smiles I saw were different than the ones she gave others. It felt like a game, a game only we knew and one that wouldn’t have a clear winner. She would look past me and smile, I’d get distracted by my brother or father or some Nobel who’s name wasn’t important and then she would disappear. I would search through the crowds for her and when I found her she would bite her lip to keep from smiling and the game would start again. Sometimes she would move closer and others far away. At one point she was so close I could smell her perfume. She was toying with me, we both knew it. I being the prince of the fire nation could have at any time ended the game and called her out but I never did it was too much fun. It kept me interested and entertained during this gathering. It was a celebration, all of the gold and red shining throughout the fire nation palace, all of the thousands of people in good spirits, all of it for my nephew Lu Ten, at barely the age of 6 he was able to firebend and my father was proud. The Look he gave my brother and his son was never directed at me even with all my achievements. It was always for his first born the “heir” to the throne The self proclaimed “Dragon of the west” I hated my brother, that much I never hid even now. But looking at my father's smile with such pride in his eyes fueled me with such a rage that it took all of my self control to not light this whole place on fire. 

The game however would make me forget if only for a moment. Forget that I was second place always to Iroh. It would make me forget that my nephew was technically my replacement and that there was no real need for my existence anymore. But the game could only do so much before I was forced back to reality. 

“Ozai!” 

If not for the large crowd Her distractions would have cost me much pain. Azulon The Firelord and my father had been calling me, my Blatant disrespect accidental or not was not to be seen as a light offense. But he was in a good mood today and so my only punishment for ignoring him was the pricing glare of his eyes, if he knew how to fire bend from them he would have roasted me on the spot. 

“Yes father?” 

“We are waiting for you to make a toast to your brother and nephew, this is a celebration after all.” 

“Yes father” I hated it. I didn’t care for my brother or his brat, I didn’t care for the woman he called his wife. That entire family could burn by Sozin's comet for all I cared. 

I don’t remember the speech I gave. I looked around the room for her, hoping for a glimpse of her hair or smile but everywhere I looked she wasn’t there. I gave a wonderful speech, powerful some said even my father seemed like he approved of it. He said that was one of my greatest qualities I could talk my way in, out, and around anything. I could have made a wonderful general. I believe that I could have pushed the fire nation so far into the technological age that it would forcefully show the true nature of other nations; barbaric and nothing more than a headious stain on the earth. But no matter how much I tried to convince my father I failed in comparison to General Iroh. The killer of the last dragons, the leader of the Rough Rhinos, under his order they stalked the earth kingdom pushing forward and providing the fire nation with more land to show our strength.

I never had a chance. With the wretched speech done all eyes turned to him always on him. It wasn’t hard to sneak away. Her perfume lingered in the air. Teasing me, calling to me as if our game had never ended. I followed her smell out to the gardens, the guests were forbidden here, strictly assigned to certain parts of the palace. But as I stepped out into the hot and muggy night air I saw her by the empty pond.

I remember the first time she fully looked at me her face glowed as she smiled at me and in her eyes she won this game. I’ve never been a man who liked to lose but in that instant it didn’t truly feel like a loss. I walked over to her taking in her form, from the way her hair Intricately woven golden and diamonds into it, to her red lips down to her golden dress with a red outline, she was beautiful. 

She bowed of course, but the smile on her face never faulted. I was bold and determined. I kissed her hands and it would seem as her eyes got even bigger.

“You are playing a risky game my dear. Teasing me in such a way, did you not think i would take it as a challenge?” I ran my fingers through a large lock of her hair, it was soft, a pretty brown and it smelled of fire lilies. 

“I assume that you would my prince” 

She played with my beard. On normal occasions it would not even be permitted for her to even think about touching me, but she was bold. It became one of her favorite things about me, and I too will admit that it brought great comfort to me at my most stressful times.

“What is your name?”

“Ursa”

“Ursa”

Her name was normal, nothing grand and outlandish as I've heard from other women of nobility. She kept glancing at the water, it was empty and clear, a boring pond that I myself never paid much attention to.

“And why does the pond capture you in such a way Ursa?”

“It feels like something is missing. Its too quiet and still”

“What do you think is missing? A Badgerfrog? ”

She laughed at my joke and smiled at me

“I was thinking more of a turtleduck”

“Really? If I order turtleducks to be moved here, would it increase the chances of me seeing you again?”

“I think you’d have a high possibility” I remember the feeling of her hand caressing my face. She was so warm, she managed to put all my worries away for a moment... “My favorite animal is a turtledu--”

“Ozai.”

…But it never lasted 

My brother was walking out of the palace towards us, barely acknowledging the bow that she gave. 

“Iroh”

“Father wanted to have a word with you before the military meeting tonight. Now come on.”

He walked away without another word. It was unlike him, especially in front of a woman as lovely as Ursa. It was one of the few times I remember seeing my brother conflicted. He always seems so sure of what he was going to do, a trait that I admired but one I would take to my grave.

I didn’t want to leave her, but her smile gave me hope that I would see her again. I of course could always order her presence to the palace, but I feel that it was part of this game we played. She waved as I followed after Iroh. 

The next day 8 new turtleducks swam in the pond.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/25771999/chapters/62611303

[tanza-the-trickster]

Starfire Valstrax

Sooooo, firstly, a quick little note. I normally HATE fanmade monsters, so, I imagine it's rather surprising that I came up with one myself. So, this is actually an idea that's been cooking for, about one and a half years. I poured that year and a half's worth of creativity into this post, along with some more ideas just from brainstorming as I made this post. I've finally developed this idea to the point where I am perfectly comfortable with sharing it. So, I sincerely hope you enjoy, and I will gladly accept CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. Hell, I'm so confident in this, that I'll even allow other people to make OCs of it, so long as they credit me or this post. That's all!

Physiology

A Starefire Valstrax’s wings have visible scarring, and the individual jets that make up each wings are able to move independently, to some degree, due to the destruction of the membrane that connected the jets. This causes a superficial resemblance to the wings of a shara ishvalda. There's generally scarring on the chest as well, namely around the vents, and, typically, their back is missing some fins, and the tail fins are tattered as well.

A Starfire Valstrax’s physical appearance has been heavily changed due to an excess of dragon energy. Scales are darker in color, similar to that of an enraged ordinary valstrax. Wings have a gradient transition to bright red tips, and the eyes are black with red pupils. The blood glows bright red, and makes blood vessels visible through the flesh, containing concentrated amounts of dragon energy.

Monster Sizes

Average Size

3,253.65 cm

Small Crown 2856.87 cm

Silver Crown 3555.2 cm

Gold Crown 3745.66 cm

Behavior

Like mundane valstrax, Starfire Valstrax are highly aggressive to most other creatures. However, these deviants are NOT immediately hostile towards humans. They often hold a curiosity for humans, typically stalking and observing some of the more experienced hunters out in the field. They attack MOST large monsters on sight, with brutal ferocity until they flee, or die.  A majority of them also have an odd habit for collecting things. Why this is, exactly, it unknown, although they seem to possess a preference to man-made objects.

Human Interactions

Negative Human Interactions

Despite being severely wounded by hunters in the past, this deviant is not immediately hostile to them. As a result of their near-death experiences with humans, most actually hold great respect for the smaller species, and are wise enough to know not to attack them on sight. However, they immediately go on the offensive if they feel “challenged’ in any way, especially by hunters.

Examples of being challenged would be a hunter calmly approaching with their weapon drawn, or drawing their weapon while facing them, but this usually only applies to those who are fully armored, and not wearing some goofy mask. It will simply ignore an attempted “challenge” if it deems the human improperly equipped for a serious fight. In addition, they turn hostile to ANY gunner that takes aim, or anyone with a barrel bomb. They usually allow a challenger at least a few seconds to back down before the fight actually ensues.

In combat with a human, they are RELENTLESS, but, they can show mercy, should a challenger concede, typically by dropping one’s weapon and assuming any position that conveys surrender. However, surrendering will leave you at the valstrax’s whim, resulting in anything from being left alone, to enslavement, to death, and even “confiscation” of weapons and/or armor! In the latter cases, the individual usually has a treasure hoard, of sorts, in their nest. They don’t actually seem to have any real use for stolen items, oddly enough, although they have been known to lob them at aggressors who encroach upon their nest.

Positive Human Interactions Despite their aggression in combat, under normal circumstances, most are completely docile, and rare few are even friendly towards humans! Of course, this doesn’t mean people should come up to one and try to hug it. It probably wouldn’t kill you, but it definitely wouldn’t appreciate it. They have been known to snap at especially persistent individuals, sometimes in very fatal ways. Some may even aid lost or injured humans, especially children, with shelter, or transportation to the nearest base-camp! Just, don’t expect them to let you ride on their back… They see such an act as demeaning, especially if done without permission. The usually carry strangers in their talons, or, more frequently for children, by grabbing the collar of one’s shirt, hood of their jacket, or other similar garments, in their teeth.

A select few Starfire Valstrax actually choose to live near human settlements, should their curiosity be piqued, or a human friend lives there. All of the individuals observed doing this typically lurk around the edges of a city or village, simply watching. Even fewer of this group may even willingly enter a settlement, and leave if a weapon is raised at them, as opposed to fighting. These ones exhibit the most tame behavior seen in a valstrax, seemingly even willing to tolerate the antics of human children! It’s still not recommended to let your child near one such individual. It’s still a wild animal, no matter how friendly it may act.

Befriending

It IS possible to befriend a Starfire Valstrax, and it’s surprisingly easy, so long as one remains respectful of the dragon and its wishes. Aiding one in fighting another monster is a surefire way to get considerable respect rather easily, but such an opportunity is rare, and usually dangerous. The best way to get one’s attention is to approach from the front, hands raised, and fully visible, or, better yet, some kind of offering. Food usually suffices. Make sure to observe its face carefully as you approach. You know you’re too close if its stare goes from disinterest, or curiosity, to caution, or discomfort. Always pay attention to its face, and DO NOT be the one to break eye contact. Once close enough, hold out an empty hand, or your offering, and wait for it to inspect your hand and/or accept whatever you have offered. It may allow you to pet it, or it may simply leave. Do not be disheartened if the latter occurs! Consistency is key! Return to the same spot daily, or weekly, a pattern that the dragon can follow, if it happens to enjoy your company.

Of course, Starfire Valstrax generally treat friends differently than they do most humans. This may simply involve being invited or carried to their nest, to spend time with them, or it may involve being treated like their child, to some extent. One of the more thoroughly studied individuals, a gold crown sized female, who has been nicknamed “Peril” by a human who befriended her, typically falls into the latter category. She seems to enjoy carrying her friend around by the collar, and pinning the human in her front talons to “groom” him. Said friend wishes to remain anonymous, as to retain his dignity. If you wish to learn more about Peril specifically, keep an eye out for the behavioral study on her, that will be coming soon, hopefully.

Abilities

The lack of wing membrane actually makes a Starfire Valstrax’s wings even more flexible than an ordinary valstrax, with each “finger” capable of semi-independent movement. They can hold themselves up on their hindlegs for up to a minute, but can go for hours if they use their wings to brace themselves up. Front talons are highly dexterous, capable of grabbing objects in a manner similar to humans. They can reverse the airflow of their wings, so that the air goes into the wings, and dragon energy comes out of the chest instead. They have proven to be capable of learning some basic knowledge of the English language, although their throat’s anatomy prevents them from speaking it. When enraged, any attacks that normally inflict dragonblight, will inflict extreme dragonblight instead.

Changed Attacks

Obviously, it shares many of the same attacks as valstrax, but starfire valstrax attacks far more aggressively, and gives less time between attacks. Many attacks that it shares with ordinary valstrax are improved in some way, which is detailed below.

Around the World This attack can be executed as normally, but, if the target moves too much, it will briefly pause during its descent, adjusting its angle, and then finishing the attack.

Wing Jab After jabbing twice with its wings, it can perform an additional spin, following the initial one. When enraged, it will perform yet another spin.

Wing Pound When one of the wings is driven into the ground, a second pound may be immediately executed, with either wing.

Wing Slam When the wing is slammed flat to the ground, it may follow up with a second slam. When enraged, this attack will be finished with a final slam, using both wings, similar to shagaru magala’s attack.

Wing Swipe The wing is swung in a wide arc, as usual, but rarely, the wing won’t be emitting dragon energy. If a hunter is hit by the wing when it isn’t emitting dragon energy, they will be pinned. In this pin, the wings are driven into the ground around the hunter, and the jets begin to fire off dragon energy at point blank as they charge up. The pin inflicts dragon blight, and lasts for roughly ten seconds, finishing with a blast of dragon energy, and the hunter being thrown behind the valstrax in a backflip.

New Attacks

In addition to the modifications to pre existing attacks, Starfire Valstrax has a whole new arsenal of attacks. These attacks, just like the modifications to the old attacks, are listed below.

Reverse Blast This attack is used when there are hunters near its chest, belly, and front legs. The air flow reverses so the wings take in air, and after a second, a burst of dragon energy comes out of the chest vents, launching any hunters within the blast radius, and inflicting dragonblight.

Wing Vacuum Similarly to the previous attack, this attack involves a reversal of the air flow. This attack is used when hunters are too far away, and pulls them towards the monster. This can be followed up with unique paw swipe, that will pin and hunter too close. The hunter is grabbed in one of its front talons, and then simply thrown at another hunter. If there are no other hunters, they are thrown in a random direction.

Wing Scrape This is another attack used when a hunter is below the monster. One of the wings is turned around to scrape the ground below it, much like one of shara’s attacks.

Focused Blast Another attack borrowed from shara, the wings are curved around to face in front of the monster, and shoot out a concentrated beam of dragon energy. This attack lasts for about three seconds after the initial blast. There is also a sweeping version of this attack, indicated by the wings meeting off center from the body.

Chew Toy This is an exceedingly rare attack, occurring about as frequently as zinogre’s pin attack, and executed in a similar manner. It is only used when the valstrax’s recharging has been interrupted at least once, and it is not enraged. The valstrax “barks” a few times, before shooting itself at the target with its wings, talons outstretched. If this attack lands, the hunter will be pinned, and picked up in its talons. The valstrax seemingly inspects the hunter for a second, before opening its mouth wide, and biting down around the hunter’s waist, inflicting MASSIVE damage. After this, the hunter is simply held in the monster’s mouth, taking continuous damage while it resumes attacking other hunters. This attack will continue until the hunter escapes, or faints. In the latter scenario, the valstrax actually swallows the hunter, and then immediately becomes enraged. The hunter is still returned to base camp by the felyne cart, although HOW they are returned to base camp is unknown. (This attack was inspired by Monster Hunter Frontier, and suggested by a friend.)

Habitat

Much like a mundane valstrax, Starfire Valstrax can live just about anywhere. However, unlike valstrax, these deviants are generally not nomadic, establishing a nest in any location that they are particularly fond of. Their territories stretch out over dozens of miles, on account of their high flight speed.

Trivia

- The back, chest, head, wings, and front paws can be broken, and the tail severed. - This is not a real monster. I created this from scratch over the course of a year. - The ordinary valstrax theme plays while fighting them, as opposed to the (awful) deviant theme. - ANYONE IS FREE TO USE THIS MONSTER FOR THEIR OC, AS LONG AS THEY CREDIT ME! - This monster is capable of inflicting the Frontier-Exclusive ailment known as Extreme Dragonblight, making a hunter unable to heal, and causing potions to cause damage equal to what they would normally heal.

[shari-berri]

The Time Has Come

BRVR x reader

Your POV

THIS IS NEVER GOING TO WORK!!!

-earlier-

"Hello Mom, what are you calling for?"

"Hello honey, I was talking to May and she said that you have a boyfriend! How could you not tell us?!"

"I never thought that you would care so I didn't say anything."

"Your father and I would like to meet this boy and see if he's right for our little cupcake!"

Uh oh

"Uhhh hehe see about that mom, we uhhh have uhhhh a vet appointment!"

"Honey, you don't have a pet..."

"Yes! But ummm chimchar is sick so we have to stay with him."

"We can just come over to your house then, I always loved your chimchar and would love to take care of him."

Crap, there's no getting out of this now!

"That's great mom, when are you guys coming?"

"We are coming in an hour and that's final!"

"Ok see you there Mom I can't wait!"

Oh god!

-present-

After screaming into my pillow, I decided to do the responsible thing, tell said boyfriend.

"BRVR get down here!"

And like magic, my psychotic boyfriend appeared.

"Babe, my parents are coming to meet you and I don't know what to do!"

He looked at me like I was crazy

"Uhhh just let them meet me..."

My jaw locked and my eyes hardened

"You are a Pikachu who murders people! How am I going to explain that to them?!"

"Oh..."

Sighing, I grab his hand and drag him into our bedroom.

Sorting through this closet, I find that all of his clothes are bloody.

"Hold on one sec, lemme make a phone call since all of your clothes are bloody and you haven't washed them!"

Pulling out my phone, I scroll through numbers before selecting someone who I pray to Zalgo will come through.

"Hello? Yeah. I need some clothes for BRVR. Any color will work. Drop it off at our house or have him give it through the phone. Thanks."

Setting the phone on the floor, I waited until my home was entered by a green tight clad hylian.

My phone started shaking and then a figure emerged holding a pair of clothes in his dripping hands.

"Thanks BEN, I'm guessing Jeff was too lazy to come over?"

"YeaH, YoU wOUld bE CoRRecT." BEN replied.

"iT wAS nICE SeEinG yoU bUT I muST gO, JEFf cHALlenGeD mE tO MaRiO KaRT." BEN stated, his dripping form going back into my phone, as well as any water.

Hearing the familiar sound of our doorbell, I shoved BRVR into the bathroom to change and rushed downstairs to greet my parents.

"Hello! Come on in, it's so good to see you again!" I say after hugging them, leading them to the living room sofa.

"Please sit down while I go get the man of the hour."

Racing up the stairs hoping that BRVR was done changing, I slam the door open and drag him down to where hell awaits him.

Sitting on the couch across my parents while they judge my secret killer boyfriend is terrifying!

"So, "BRVR" how long have you and my daughter been dating?" My dad said, breaking the silence.

"We've been dating for 5 months." BRVR said with a straight face, no emotion visible.

"I see. What do you do for a living?" My mom asks, looking directly into his eyes.

"I'm a Pokémon trainer like y/n." BRVR replies, looking confident.

"Show us your pokemon." My dad says, reaching for his belt with pokeballs.

"I kind of share with y/n, sir."

Appalled, my parents look at each other.

"What if she is kidnapped or in danger, what will you protect her with?!" My dad screeches.

"I am more than capable of protecting your daughter sir." BRVR smirks.

"Prove it." My dad challenges, not backing down.

Putting my hand on BRVR's shoulder, I nod and he nods back.

Where my boyfriend once stood was a Pikachu looking directly at my dad, sparks flying from his cheeks.

My parents looked bewildered at the fact that my boyfriend was a pokehuman. Imagine what they would look like if they found out he was a serial killer.

Sighing in defeat, my dad sank down into the couch.

Little BRVR smirked and turned back into a human.

My parents asked some more basic questions a parent would ask a child's boyfriend and all was going well until I got a text.

'Set your phone on the floor and back up'

Fearing for the worst, I followed the instructions, gaining looks from my parents and my boyfriend.

The phone shook and the whole family came out.

Out popped Sally, LJ, EJ, and Toby. BEN, Silver, Red and Jason. Puppeteer, Dark Link, Bloody Painter, and Liu. Soon my house was filled with male Creepypastas.

"What are you guys doing here?!" I yelled, intrigued and worried what my parents would think about terrifying monsters in my living room and me conversing with them.

"Slender kicked us out and we don't have anywhere else to go so we came here." EJ said, speaking for all of them.

Taking a glance at my parents, they had drawn their pokemon out for protection and were waiting for me to get attacked before commanding all of their pokemon to save me.

"Guys! BRVR is meeting my parents! Normally I would help you, but get out! Come back when they are gone!" I shout, pushing all of them back into my phone before spinning on my heel.

"Put your pokemon away, we're fine." I speak slowly, as if talking to a wild animal.

In a daze, my parents return their pokemon before falling onto the couch and demanding an explanation.

Pushing BRVR in front of me, I tell him to explain.

"That was my family who you just saw. They are very sweet once you get to know them, they just look different. Please let me be with y/n, they love her and would never hurt her, instead they would protect her. Please don't rip me apart from my happiness!" My boyfriend pleads, holding my hand.

"Son, your family is horrifying. I will allow you to be with my daughter as long as you never hurt her and keep your family away from me." Dad speaks, staring into BRVR's soul before grabbing my mother's hand, helping her off the couch, and out the door into their car before getting as far away from us as possible.

"That went well!" BRVR smiled.

"Yeah..." I mutter.

"I'm going to bed."

And I do, but not before throwing BRVR's stuff onto the couch first, telling him he sleeps on the couch.

[nighttimepixels]

Heyhey Night! I have a buncha questions after seeing all your animations and they're just so cool so! I hope this is ok!! Can u animate normally too, or only pixel? Not that that's bad, just wondering! What's ur preferred kinda animation? Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs? What's the hardest part of the animation process?? What's ur favorite?? Any part u don't like? What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into? Do u have a fave animation u've done? Thank u btw for all ur art!!

Oh stars, okay, yeah- I’m happy to answer all these!! I’ll break them up so it’s easier to read X) And awww geez thank you so much for your support, sweet anon! It really makes my day when people say they like anything I’ve made, and stars knows it’s all the more true with the sweet sweet time sink that is animation   (´•̥̥̥\\ヮ\\•̥̥̥` )

I’ll also put this under a cut since it gets a bit long :)

Can u animate normally too, or only pixel?

This one cracks me up a little, don’t worry about it XD I totally can! In fact I enjoy it a lot - and... gods, animation software is a nightmare and a half, to be honest. That’s the biggest hurdle.

I do just straight up love pixel art and the aesthetic I can achieve with it, but I do at times miss ‘normal’ (non pixel?) animation, heh. Especially sound-syncing! I do all my pixel art in Asesprite which imo is the best pixel art program, not to mention made by an actual pixel artist - buuuut it doesn’t have a sound file option. Which makes sense! Er, frankly, most pixel artists wouldn’t... use it to animate like I do? More for games, or for looping gifs? So I can’t complain much, it makes a lot of sense that it’s a low dev priority.

Now, when it comes to other animation programs... I’ve tried a lot. Unfortunately, the ones that are preferable for the feel I like are either way out of budget (stares at TVPaint in the distance) or... well, have too high a learning curve for my single-person workflow, really. (OpenToonz, sigh...) And a lot of the free programs are good for getting a start in animation, but once you get to a certain point you really feel the limitations (whether it’s workflow, sound import, exports, trying to make something more finished than a rough...).

Then... there’s animation programs I just don’t like, and a lot of those are angled towards bone-style animations (nothing wrong with those, they just don’t fit my style? and are too much time investment for a single artist to output more quickly...), or are, well, freakin’ Adobe Animate.

I... gods, I do not like Animate (formerly Flash). And I made a whole 2 minute+ animation in it a couple years ago! (It’s very rough and bad and doesn’t make sense, pfff, not gonna link it XD) It’s... clunky, and vector oriented, and freaking lines don’t go where I want them too, and it tries to predict too much?? It’s hard to put to words, gah. For me, my animation style would be much more... raster oriented. Flow, hand drawn inbetweens, yaddayadda. Animate’s great for... plenty of things, but not for that kind of animation. There are far better animators than I who make it work with freakin’ aplomb though! So really, it’s just my taste, haha.

.... Er, that got long! I’ll cut off more rambling about animation software and tl;dr boil it down to “I love animating period, but turnaround is something I have to keep in mind as a freelancer, as well as budget, and my current focus is pixel animations for a number of reasons.” X)

What's ur preferred kinda animation?

I’m not exactly sure what this one means! Between pixel and non-pixel? Er, they both have their pros and cons, so I couldn’t say! But if I have to break down my current animations into categories, I’d say I have cutscenes, loop environments, and the broad game-like animations...

The first would be something like this animation feat. teasing Edge, the second would be something like this one with skesgo’s Starlan and Cinnamon, and the third is... everything else! From headsprite loops to ‘small’ characters running and so on.

Honestly, they’re all a lot of fun for different reasons! Cutscenes are generally the most challenging, but they give me the chance to push my limits and try and pull off something cool, whether I’m having to conserve frames (to keep the cost of a commission down) or whether I’m going more all out (which is a pricey commission, or a fun personal project, lol).

Loop environments are their own challenge - it may not look like it, but I put a lot of thought into how to make them look as natural as possible! From timing of talking characters, to where to place a blink, to exactly how many frames it’ll take to ‘soften’ a motion (so people aren’t just snapping between major poses) and so on - it takes... a lot of time to animate even simple scenes well, so I do a lot of mental math on how I can keep things affordable when someone approaches me for a commission. And frankly, I totally undercharge;; but I do my best!

Game-like animations are just fun. They range, they’re silly, to intense (I’ve animated fight animations before for game concepts), to indulgent, and beyond! Headsprites are always a delight, especially if I get to push the expression X) and I love tiny things (I mean... I am a pixel artist...) so getting to make lil tiny babs even just walking can be fun - and also, a lot more time consuming than you might thing, esp if you wanna make it smooth, like this lil Frisk I did last month or so:

Do u prefer lipflaps or lipsyncs?

oTL

B... both??

Okay, lipsyncing basically is very time consuming. AND, I freakin’ love it. I love puzzles, and when it boils down to it, that’s what super fun & expressive lip syncing is (some Ghibli animations are the heckin’ best for this)...

and, I’m a pixel artist, without sound-syncing capabilities in her main art program oTL Yeah, I can export frames and line them up and check but... gods, it’s so time consuming. I’ve tried it out of desperation - but for even five seconds of sound (sayyyyy a lil Vine...) that’s hours upon hours of transferring back and forth just to check.

So even though I love lipsyncs, they’re too time-consuming (and ergo, if I’m being commissioned, often too expensive) to do often! Someday I’d like to get back to doing them more often, but for now, practically I stick to/’prefer’, in the loosest terms, to do lipflaps. For the layman, this is that ‘two frame’ (maybe three) open-closed style of animating mouths- however, I’m working on ways to keep that style, but make it more expressive! It depends on the project - and in commissions, I’ll pretty much always prioritize giving the client a little more body animation than mouth animation, unless it’d really fit what they’ve requested.

What's the hardest part of the animation process??

.... damn, this is a tough one! Sometimes I’d say it’s the initial concept work - but it depends on what I have to work with. Sometimes that parts a breeze - and honestly freeing, bc I can take the time to try and push what I’ll do with it!

Roughing is one of my favorite parts, tbh. It can be tricky, sure, but getting to go from keyframes to in-betweens & smears to adding the flairs of secondary motion (think hair swishing, or coats flaring, etc) is so exciting and satisfying.

From there it’s all refining, and tweaking...

Hm. Honestly, the hardest is probably the initial cleanup and lining. It’s cool to see it come together, but it feels so much slower, and it can drag - and then you find bits that actually don’t translate well from the rough stage, so you have to go back and rework, and oof it can just drag in this phase, heh. Plus, I’m always tempted to add more frames, but it’s not always realistic - I’m a perfectionist, to say the least, so I’m constantly having to leash myself back so I don’t turn a project into a half-a-year undertaking, pff.

What's ur favorite??

Probably gave myself away talking about the roughing stage X) It’s just loose and fun and free! But seeing it all come together is also damn satisfying too, so that’s not to say I don’t like the refining portions either...

Outside of that, I also really like the beginning of the color stage! .... Before having to translate shadows/highlights to each and every frame *shudders*. That gets tedious, but it’s so critical! Anyways, though, I heckin’ love colors. I always have a rough palette in mind at the start of the process, but I go ham and play with it as a little break and a true test when I get to actual slap together a full frame with full color, highlights/shadows included! It’s exciting, like a preview of the finished product, basically :D

Any part u don't like?

Heh, by the time I get to shadows/highlights, I tend to be getting impatient, I suppose. It’s not that I don’t like it - I definitely highly value it, and if it was the only thing I was working on in an animation that’d be different, but as a one-woman team I’m just raring to be done at that point; it’s very nearly the last thing I do, after all, so it’s a struggle to focus. X)

I suppose one that always gets me is more complicated backgrounds. It’s a work in progress, as I’m getting better and finding the fun in them for sure! But I’m still not where I want to be in translating ‘background concept’ to ‘finished background’ - it feels more stiff than my animations, I guess. So it’s a frustrating part... but hey, it’s part of it! And learning to embrace the challenge is a big help.

... I just always have to make sure I have a big cup of coffee and a good jam playlist going when I sit down to do ‘em, in the meantime.(=▿= ||||)

What's a thing people don't see that u put a lotta time into?

Definitely the coloring. This goes for both backgrounds and the animated characters themselves. It’s... never as simple as it looks? It’s time consuming, and while some parts of frames can be copy-pasted, I also put subtle work into the animations that mean that some pixels are off so it ends up being marginally faster to just recolor, but then there’s shadows, and working in pixels means that if I miss one then there’s a flickering pixel mid-animation, and sometimes there’s an unconnected line and then you bucket fill the whole damn thing, and gods know I’ve got colored lines so I have to be exacting with keeping the same ratios highlighted vs darker in shifting frames...

*deep breath*

... Yeah, basically the coloring is super time consuming. And balancing bg coloring with animated elements in the image itself is a whole extra challenge on top of that. For 99% of my animations, I can damn near guarantee I’ve spent at least twice as much time coloring it as I have animating it.

Do u have a fave animation u've done?

*looks at my goblin hoard of animations in horror like I’ve been asked to choose a favorite child*

... Stars above, I can’t choose! I love them all, and at this point a good portion of them are commissions- it wouldn’t feel right to choose!

*...carefully covers the hoard’s metaphorical ears*

... also, that said, I can admit a soft spot for any of them that involve humor. I tend to get to do extremely expressive faces and action there, even if I have to ration the frames, so it turns out really fun X)

And though rough and I’ve definitely done stuff I’m more proud of, I still crack up at this one I did a while back of the nonsense ‘ass’ joke between Red & Stretch... their faces were too much fun XD I’ve gotten waybetter since then though, Big Oof, I see so many things I can fix; might go back and redo it someday.

Honestly, though, I just freakin’ love animating! They all have their ups and downs andI always put a lot of love into them and find a way to have fun with it and try to push any emotion/theme (when applicable). I like to think it shows, but idk, that’s something I have to leave up to you guys X)

[gabrielsstrangecorner]

Slenderverse #5 - more Proxies

Hi! Today we’re gonna take a look at more Slenderman’s Proxies OC’s (Original Characters)

-Domino-

not much that I know about him. Here’s his story: https://www.wattpad.com/296506937-creepypasta-origins-stories-domino

although I’m not sure if this is his official story 

here’s a ref by GhostfaceNikol.

 Again I don’t know if she’s the creator of this character but I think so. 

-Loup Noir-

Now, it’s time to tell you that sadly, not every Proxy OC has a story. Most of them are just characters with short backstories. But I like them nontheless.

Loup Noir is a Proxy created by AK-47x ( https://www.deviantart.com/ak-47x ).

Loup Noir’s real name is Ray Lilian and she was born in British Columbia. She speaks both English and French Canadian. She was once a proxy of another Slender being called Lady Melody, but now is a proxy of Slenderman. She lives in a forest and thinks of herself as an animal. As a weapon she uses: double bladed staff, hunting knife and daggers. 

How she bacame a Slenderman’s Proxy: 

Ray who came from a mission that her former master Lady Melody had assigned her to accomplish, was captured by the police and was brought to the police car, until they had a very devastating car accident. The driver died on the spot, while a handful of people had saved her from her very close death and was brought to the hospital. She had a comma for a long period of time. Lady who cannot feel her presence as a Slenderbeing thought she had died and never gave a thought on returning to her, being of course the self-centered, callous and evil creature she is. She disposes her proxies when she thinks their dead. After the comma, she wakes up fully after a month and had forgotten some memories about her relationships with her former fellow proxies; however she never had forgotten her master still. Disliking the hospital and medical equipment there (since she isn't used to “human related stuff”), she barely grasped her deer staff weapon and a few of her remaining things left and tried to escape as she can. Being skilled in stealth she successfully but barely escaped. She had also noticed that her proxy mark on her neck had faded, thus proves that she lost her connection with her former master. While walking through the woods pondering what to do next on her next chapter of life, she met a clown figure who happens to be one of Slenderman's proxies and also had recently had a deep connection with (while she was Lady's proxy). It was Hoaxton, who even nearly mistaken her for someone almost killing her. She was brought to the quarters of his fellow proxies for a rest/stay and was told that she is already free from her job of being Lady's Proxy and she can finally roam around and do what she likes to do. However, being gotten used to being a loyal proxy she is and who doesn’t know how to live a normal human life). Ray articulated how she feels more “free” in the forest with living her life accomplishing tasks for a Slenderbeing than living free like a full normal human, because she doesn’t know how to. After her health state barely and slowly got back to normal, Slender Man who had observed and noticed her that she was a former proxy of his relative, tested her worth if she was a valuable proxy. Before he took her in, she was given a great number of challenges to accomplish and one of them had lead her to killing a wolf (she’s a good huntress after all ever since) which she had made and preserved as a mask. This is a prize for her, symbolizing her accomplishments of being proved worthy as a proxy to the tall faceless man.

                                              Ref by AK-47x       

here you can read her full bio: https://www.deviantart.com/ak-47x/art/Proxy-OC-Loup-Noir-new-update-595937364

-Hoaxton-

Hoaxton is a Slenderman’s Proxy created by Dav-Ink ( https://www.deviantart.com/dav-ink ) 

His real name is  Kiefer Louise Raymundo and he’s 26 years old. He was born in Bagulo, Philippines. For a weapon he uses saw, mace, spiked glove and stryk pistol. 

Backstory: 

Childhood/Elementary: Kiefer Raymundo is the son of a civil engineer (Juan Raymundo) and a skilled shooter yet an ex-convict, (Casey Wilson). He was born in the Philippines' summer capital, Baguio City. One of the places in the country with the coldest (however snow doesn't really happen since Philippines is a tropical country) temperatures and yet an eco zone full of large clusters of pine tree forests, where originally people tend to make stories about the unwanted spirits, urban legends and creatures mostly. Kiefer was born a stubborn, mischievous and yet a naughty child. Although he is smart and creative. His entire childhood was mostly him being a bully to his classmates and even his friends. He enjoys pranking and embarassing people a lot. And yet he uses his intelligence and talents for the bad. His studies downgraded because of this. Until the first event that will change him came, as he was going home down the street. He "met" a tall suited faceless being. The boy just practically stared at him and didn't even got "hurt". The being amazed of his ability of not being "sick" (supposedly) from him, and had observed him fully and found out all about himself with his unknown abilities, oddly spared his life. Instead he began planning something for him. He spoke through his mind that his school will be engulfed by a large devastation of fire. Overwhelmed, the boy ran his way home. The next day, he began feeling unconscious of himself and started setting off the fire alarms running in the school. He yelled fire is going to go off. He was actually serious but a little unconcious at the same time as if someone is controlling him. This made the entire school panic and evacuated the buildings. Long moments after, nothing actually happened. There was no fire nor something that will start a tiny bit of flame. This resulted into a fire hoax. Kiefer was brought to the principal's office together with his dad. He began telling them about the creature and what he said about the fire that will ablazed the school. This made himself worse and unbelievable for his hoax. The principal laughed and nicknamed him "hoax-boy". Of course he has been known for his reported pranks around the school and would never ever believe him of course. Especially now, this fire prank. This resulted him to reflecting his own life and what he has been doing wrong. Adolescence/High School: Kiefer thought the unknown being he met was just an odd hallucination which lead to changing his life, that his tricks, pranking and bullying should stop. With this, he used his talents, intelligence and improved for he better. He stopped his negative behavior and attitudes and started developing them for the good. Until he became a certified school paper cartoonist and a varsity football player, making him actually multi-talented. Until his mother being proud even secretly taught him about her skilled shooting in a safe house. She even secretly gave her favorite pystol to her son as a gift. Kiefer in this stage had a lot of interests, like gaming, doodling, etc. College/Adulthood: He finally went to a prestigious college in Baguio and moved by himself to an apartment without his parents leaving him for his independence. He took his favorite course, Mechanical Engineering. Overtime, he developed himself really good with his studies, friends, skills, other talents, school paper work and even the football team. Until finally, one night while he was working overtime in the school paper office, his laptop began to static and make ear-bleeding sounds. He turned to the window in a cluster of pine trees and was startled to see the being back again after all these years since his childhood. The tall faceless figure watching him from afar. He shrug this off hoping it was just a hallucination. But it wasn't, he was still there.  After seeing the being once again, the next days, were unusual hardships for him as he developed a sense of unusual behavior of going back to his bullying and negative self. Until the final proof came for his awaited football game. He became unconscious of himself and started violently fighting and punching his teammates. He even nearly killed one of his teammates when he tried smashing their head on a hard metal post, shoving it. He was indeed acting oddly histerical, until he was kicked out of the team as a punishment, and this lead him to a big disappointment for himself. Until all he had left was his job as a school paper cartoonist. The adviser had assigned him to draw the editorial cartoon for his school paper. Later, he finished it and placed the finished paper onto the adviser's desk. The adviser soon saw it and was surprised to see an eerie drawn sketch of the tall faceless figure on it instead of the drawing she assigned him to draw. Kiefer explained that this sinister being exists and needs to be seen in the school paper. The adviser was angered and of course didn't believe his "hoax" about the "silly" creature, she crumpled the paper and told him to redo it by tomorrow. But for a long week, unusually, he never came back to school. Until another paper arrived on the adviser's desk. She saw it and she was greatly disappointed about it seeing the same sketch, it was more eerie and dark with Kiefer's signature on it. Because of this, she finally went to his apartment with a taxi and knocked by the door looking for him. With no one answering, she tried opening the door seeing it was unlocked. Going inside, she was shocked to see dead bodies on the floor. She tried exiting going to ask for help, but the door had suddenly locked. Until an eerie and clowny figure emerged from the shadows, wearing a similar football varsity jacket and with a weapon on hand. He laughed histerically and this frightened her. Then the tall faceless man appeared in front of her, she stared at him paralyzed. "You think this is just a hoax huh? Now you see him with your own eyes!" This was the last words she had ever heard. News spread later that Kiefer, the adviser and a few people from the apartment were nowhere to be found. Until today no one knew what really happened on why they disappeared.

                                               Ref by Dav-Ink 

His full bio: https://www.deviantart.com/dav-ink/art/-Slenderverse-Horror-FINAL-REF-Hoaxton-599408799

This is all for this post. Bye!

[makeste]

these are not kings, but princes

Or, “In this post, makeste essays about KHR, and the ephemeral nature of youth.”

So as previously mentioned, I have been rereading Katekyo Hitman Reborn, a series which came out fourteen years ago (a.k.a. long enough that there are people who are now Tsuna’s age that weren’t even born yet when the manga first debuted). This series ended in November 2012 (a.k.a. the last time the U.S. elected a President that wasn’t evil). Five and a half years later, I still haven’t gotten over it.

And here is the thing—KHR, while certainly a successful series and one that I love, was never anything particularly special. By which I mean it wasn’t one of the all-time greats. It had a lot of flaws, and even the things it was good at had by and large been done before in other series, and in many cases, done better. It’s not one of the series I mention when people ask me for anime and manga recs. I would not put it on a top ten list of must-sees or must-reads. (The one exception is the Varia Arc; this absolutely is in my top ten shounen battle arcs, and eleven years later it still kicks ass.) 

The humor (although I love it! so much!) is not everyone’s cup of tea. The art style starts out kinda rough, then gets really good for a while, but then starts to deteriorate toward the end of the Future Arc (although the characters are still as pretty as a Marvel Chris at sunrise). The plot has brief moments of brilliance, but tends to fall flat on its face at critical moments. It’s got issues with its representation of female characters. And so on and so on. The point is, it’s far from perfect.

The question that I periodically ask myself, then, is: Why is this series my favorite ever? What the hell is it about KHR that captures my mind’s attention so insistently? What is it about this series that I just haven’t seemed to be able to find anywhere else?

The characters? That’s one potentially obvious answer. I definitely love these characters. I’ve essayed before about how unusual Tsuna is as a shounen protagonist in that he does not want to be the GREATEST! SOMETHING! OF ALL TIME!, but instead just wants to be plain and ordinary and normal. In a genre filled with Type A leads, having a Type B hero is a pretty bold move. Rather than a Naruto or a Luffy, Tsuna is a Frodo; someone who’s reluctant to take part in this adventure and would rather be anywhere else, but chooses to stick it out anyway for the sake of protecting his friends.

I’ve also fangirled at length about Yamamoto, who somehow walks a perfect balance between being cheerfully oblivious and extraordinarily perceptive, and is pretty much the definition of TVTropes’s Beware the Nice Ones. And then, of course, we have Gokudera, my forever favorite, who is a flawless bundle of angst and idiocy and tsundere and badassness, and whom we must always keep safe and protected because he is precious.

The characters are definitely a big part of it. But not all of it. For me, at least, I realized that there is something else that draws me to this series time and again. And what it is, is this:

To me, this series is about potential.

What I mean is this. Tsuna and the other main characters are all children, not yet even out of middle school.

They screw up. They make mistakes.

They learn from them.

They grow; they improve. They get better. And better, and better.

They’re young, all of them. They face challenges they aren’t and shouldn’t be prepared for yet, and somehow they manage to overcome them, at times almost purely on accident. They’re constantly in over their heads, because they’ve been tossed into this chaotic world with little to no experience, dealing with things like mafia succession politics, rival families, and the end of the fucking world. They struggle, and they flounder.

And in the end, part of the reason they succeed is because of that same youth and inexperience. They do things they shouldn’t be able to, because they don’t understand that they shouldn’t be able to do them.

They’re hopeful, because they can’t comprehend the full weight of the odds that are stacked against them. They’re young and invincible. They’re naive. They insist on seeing the best in others. They’re ignorant of the harsher realities of the world, and in that ignorance they help make it a better one. They can’t conceive of failure, because they haven’t lived long enough to come face to face with an obstacle they couldn’t defeat.

And the series ends with them still like this. In the end, Reborn never successfully makes Tsuna into a mafia boss. He’s changed, yes—night and day from the way his character was at the very start of the series—but he hasn’t fully matured yet. None of them have. They are frozen in time at age fourteen, smack dab in the middle of their adolescence. Forever caught on the bridge between childhood and adulthood. And for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been drawn to and captivated by that particular idea.

I’m not sure why that is, exactly. It’s like nostalgia, I guess, except more powerful somehow? Something about the transience of it. If childhood is spring, then adolescence would be the summer; bright, restless, and filled with long days that make you thirst for adventure. And sometimes, also, just so damned fucking hot that you wish it would just end already. And eventually it does, and you become an adult, and by and large things are usually a lot more comfortable and settled down. 

And don’t get me wrong—I wouldn’t want to trade that, and I definitely don’t ever want to actually go back to my own awkward teenage years. But there’s still some part of me that loves to romanticize that period of discovering so many things for the first time. Of being free from true responsibilities, and of having the potential to become absolutely anything at all.

To me, this is the most seductive part of KHR. Yes, ostensibly it’s a shounen battle manga about mafiosos with superpowers. But it’s also a slice of life series about middle schoolers who just happen to go to a really weird middle school filled with really weird other middle schoolers. And who themselves are also really weird. And have superpowers. And sometimes they have the aforementioned mafioso battles.

But also they watch fireworks.

And do homework, and play baseball, and invent secret languages. They are children, and we’re watching them grow up. But because of the magic of fiction, they never quite will. They are permanently caught in this impermanent stage between who they were and who they one day could be. And because of this, their potential is unlimited.

And this, ladies and gentlemen: this is my motherfucking emotions trigger.

I will now proceed to quote “Future Looks Good” by OneRepublic.

You see, I had this crazy dream last night

This man, he talked to me

He told me everything that’s good and bad

About my history

And he said that you are, you are the future

You are, you are the future

And the future looks good

Does that make sense? I hope it makes sense. 

To me, it could not be more perfect. They’re young enough to still be vulnerable, but old enough to stand their ground. There are so many what-ifs about who they’ll grow up to become, but the series only ever teases at it. We’ll never actually see it happen. But we get to partake in the journey, and because that journey never reaches its end, the ending can be whatever we want it to be.

But personally, I think it’s best if it always remains a mystery. Because this, here, this snapshot of this all-too-brief, transitional period of their lives: this is what I live for and breathe for and crave in fiction. These are not kings, but princes.

And one day, they’ll inherit the earth.

But not yet.

[comicteaparty]

April 3rd-April 9th, 2019 Reader Favorites Archive

The archive for the Reader Favorites chat that occurred from April 3rd, 2019 to April 9th, 2019.  The chat focused on the following question:

What webcomic inspired you to get into webcomics?  Please tell us about your journey. 

lonelytuatara

there were several for me but I think Sakana was one of the biggest inspirations for me! http://www.sakana-comic.com/ since Mad talks a lot about her process with the comic it really helped make it feel less like some kinda magic that I didn’t know how to do and more like something I could try myself

RebelVampire

honestly i find this to be a difficult question. im old enough to remember when internet wasnt a thing. so when it became a thing, there were basically always webcomics. and it was just kind of like...a normal thing to be read on the internet just as much as anything else. i never saw it as a lesser medium as some ppl have experienced. it was just always there along with the internet so it always felt natural to me to read them if they seemed interesting. that being said, if i had to pick the first webcomic that ever made me stick around for a long time, it was Bleedman's Powerpuff Girls D fancomic. Besides the fact it was super popular at the time, i just thought it was really different. like the art popped a lot more than other comics at the time (that i knew of at least), the story was way less comedy more actually serious material, and just in general i enjoyed the story telling. https://www.snafu-comics.com/swmseries/powerpuffgirls/

Iris

homestuck was the biggest one for me, but others like Witchy, Lady of the Shard, and Tuppence for Stardust are also big inspirations

€heshire777

I kind of networked out from online newspaper comics into actual webcomics and beyond, it's kind of hard to tell but I think Skin Horse (http://skin-horse.com/) was pretty much the first webcomic I got into.(edited)

RebelVampire

cause a true hyperlink comes with the http part. http://skin-horse.com/

also please wrap the hyperlink in < and > so the embed is prevented. it keeps the chat cleaner @€heshire777(edited)

yes sorry XD

im multi tasking and didnt notice the wrong tag

€heshire777

S'fine

I know that guy from a different server too

RebelVampire

@Iris please make sure to link the comics next time https://www.homestuck.com/ http://witchycomic.com/ https://gigidigi.itch.io/lady https://tapas.io/series/tuppenceforstardust

Iris

oh crud, sorry. I'm tired and absent-minded this morning

Respheal

I'm a keenspace child apparently, 'cuz my first introductions to webcomics were Saturnalia (https://web.archive.org/web/20070705042710/http://www.spacecoyote.com/comics/sat/) and RPG World (http://rpgworld.keenspace.com/). Both are dead now, although RPG World has a sorta-creator-blessed fan revival (http://rpgworld.the-comic.org/) And then I sorta fell away from them for a bit, mostly, until a friend threw Mokepon (http://mokepon.smackjeeves.com/) and The Property of Hate (http://tpoh.smackjeeves.com/) at me and now I'm back xD

kayotics

I started reading webcomics back in the early 2000’s so I was consuming everything that was available, but I think the first one that actually made me think “I want my art to be like that” was The Meek https://www.meekcomic.com/ Up until that point I read mostly video game comics and they were funny but not inspiring me to make a comic. The Meek was gorgeous and interesting in a way that I hadn’t seen before.

varethane

A friend of mine made a webcomic in the early 2000s and I will not link it because it baaad, but that was my introduction to webcomics-- though when I started reading Terinu ( http://www.terinu.com/ ) and Lackadaisy Cats ( https://www.lackadaisycats.com/ ) was when I started wanting to make one of my own

The Meek and Gunnerkrigg Court were also early influences for me

oh, and hero! I loved this comic back in the day http://invisiblecities.comicgenesis.com/story.html

there were a handful of others that are no longer around, like Vampirates and Goodbye Chains and Astray3, all of which have vanished forever

Delphina

Acid Reflux (http://acidreflux.ficwad.com/) was the first webcomic I really got into back in 2000. The humor was a great blend of anime and light fantasy, which is definitely my happy place. The forum/IRC communities were big for the time too (and of course there was no social media back then outside of what people hosted themselves). When I started my own comic, one of my goals was to have a community like that.

varethane

yeah I totally used to hang out on the terinu forums and shared fanart and stuff XD

(and on my friends' forum which shall not be named)

Delphina

Yeah, standards were different back then XDDD

varethane

ohhhh yeahhh.

Nutty (Court of Roses)

The first webcomic I got into was Looking for Group https://www.lfg.co/. I'm a huge sucker for medieval settings, so my influences revolve around core fantasy, like Legend of Zelda and Lord of the Rings, but I also LOVE for my fantasy to not be taken as seriously with a good sense of humor, like LFG, Discworld, Dungeons and Dragons, and even The Adventure Zone. Seeing them create a graphic novel was sort of a catalyst for me deciding to make my own. I hope I do well for myself to contribute to the unique fantasy/comedy genre!(edited)

Brodnork

I actually started making webcomics before I knew they were a thing

When I was super young I made comic strips inspired by Calvin and Hobbes all the time

And when I got a deviantart account I started posting them

I think Calvin and Hobbes was a huge inspiration for my early work

Although I really started taking comics seriously when I started reading Cucumber Quest

https://cucumber.gigidigi.com/(edited)

Cucumber Quest

gigi

Calvin and Hobbes really inspired me to make comedy comics, and I loved the variety of backgrounds that were drawn in it

Cucumber Quest has lovely colours and a well written story, so I looked at pages from it a lot when I started teaching myself how to make colour palettes

magusferox

Anybody here read Kill Six Billion Demons? Epic stuff imo https://killsixbilliondemons.com/

€heshire777

Now I am

mika

i should make a tumblr page with all my favs

rae

for my old comic I put a bunch of my favs in the links section because I wanted more people to read them. XD

varethane

That's what I did too XD

though it's gotten a little bit out of date and I haven;t made a new one yet for my new comic

ErinPtah (Leif & Thorn | BICP)

I keep my active reading list on ComicRocket these days (https://www.comic-rocket.com/users/SailorPtah/), and when they finish...or stop updating...I move them to the on-site reclist (http://www.bicatperson.com/links/references/finished-comics/).

Some of the oldest ones I remember reading are Venus Envy, Catball & Clown Girl, Boy Meets Boy, 1/0, Alternate Delusions, and girly. (So, also a Keenspace child, lol.) http://www.venusenvycomic.com/index.php http://catball.comicgenesis.com/ http://boymeetsboy.keenspot.com/ http://oneoverzero.comicgenesis.com/ http://altdelusions.comicgen.com/ http://girlyyy.com/

ShaRose49

The first webcomic I ever read was Michelle Phan’s Helios Femina, Just cause I was a fan of her makeup tutorials. I started reading it but stopped and then when I started making my own webcomics last year I got into it again, but the story turned out to be not my thing, but freaking gorgeous art. Then I got into Planet Ace, Shiori, and webtoons like UnOrdinary and Spaceboy, and The Villain. Just sooooo good brings back some great summer memories. http://planet-ace.smackjeeves.com/ https://m.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/helios-femina/list?title_no=638&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://m.webtoons.com/en/challenge/the-villain/list?title_no=188266&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://www.smackjeeves.com/comicprofile.php?id=143025 https://m.webtoons.com/en/fantasy/unordinary/list?title_no=679&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true https://m.webtoons.com/en/drama/space-boy/list?title_no=400&page=1&webtoon-platform-redirect=true(edited)

RebelVampire

@ShaRose49 please wrap the links in < and > to prevent the embed

ShaRose49

Oh sorry!

Do you just stick the link in between <>?

€heshire777

yep

Make sure there's no space though

ShaRose49

Okeydokey!

I’ll definitely do that next time

ShaRose49

Oh can I edit?

I really don’t know discord that well

€heshire777

Hold click/press the message for options(edited)

RebelVampire

i think thats mobile only

on desktop you hit the three dots on the right

€heshire777

ah

ShaRose49

Fixed!

RebelVampire

thank you~!

ShaRose49

No prob thanks for helping me

€heshire777

sure

[missimofficial]

TS4 Galaxy Legacy Challenge

Hello everyone, as promised, I present to you the new challenge I created. It’s based on ten of the galaxies within the universe with plenty of opportunity to mould it to something you will enjoy. I particularly like the tenth generation. I hope you enjoy it! I also have a PDF version of the rules. The hashtag is #galaxylegacychallenge Please tag me @missim-you-official-cc-finds or @missim-you-official so I can see.

PDF Download

The Idea

We all live in this beautiful world and it’s the same for the Sims, too. But what is beyond that beautiful night sky? Beyond the alien planet that many have claimed to have visited? Do you have a fascination with space and time? Inspired by the zodiac? This is the perfect challenge then!

The galaxies around the one within which we live are vast and glorious, but I haven’t got much knowledge about them. This is as much to learn about space as it is to have insanely fun Sims challenges. There will be ten heirs in total. There are numerous galaxies beyond those mentioned in this challenge, so you can expand your challenge if you wish.

CAS

Use the colours of the galaxies to set a colour scheme for each heir in CAS or use it more as a metaphorical approach for their traits, romantic interests or décor within their homes. It’s up to your own interpretation of how you see the galaxies.

Rules

For the sake of this challenge, I will be creating my own colour schemes, trait lists and ideal career paths, but you can edit them to your own hearts’ content.

Start your game with only a starter budget for your Sims.

No money cheats are allowed.

You may use MC Command Centre.

You can use custom content.

Spouses can be anyone, within reason or otherwise noted.

Play on a normal lifespan.

Elements like traits, colour schemes, ideal careers etc. are only a guide. You may edit them if you wish.

Name your characters whatever you wish.

Works best if your characters remain either alien or human rather than vampires. Optional.

If you undertake the challenge I would love to see it. Share your gameplay on tumblr under #galaxylegacychallenge so I can check it out. I will include my gameplay at @missim-you-official.

Inspired By

This challenge is one that has been stuck in my head for a while, but I never really got around to it because of study getting in the way. These are just some fun challenges I like that helped inspire me to work on my own challenge.

Star Signs Legacy (Zodiac) by Lifesimmerfan22.

Not So Berry Legacy by Lilsimsie.

Planet Legacy by Oxkenstead, Grnitefalls & Simbee.

Generations:

Generation One: Milky Way

Interesting Facts

We live here.

It contains more than 200 billion stars and capable of billions more.

It is a barred spiral type of galaxy.

It is 13.6 billion years old.

There is at least one supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A (which contains mass equivalent to 4.3 million suns) in the galactic centre, at a distance of 26,000 light years from Earth.

It grows by merging other galaxies, currently the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal and material from the Magellanic Clouds.

The diameter is 100,000 ly.

The distance is 0 ly (because we’re here).

Colours

Blue.

Violet.

White.

Silver.

Description

You grew up nurturing plants and learning how to garden with your grandmother, so you have a very familial-oriented perspective in life. You were a clingy toddler and now that you’ve grown up, you have a strong commitment to a work-life balance. You always wanted children and would love to have a set of twins someday. You’ve worked hard, and you can finally afford that starter home you’ve dreamed of.

Traits

Family oriented.

Ambitious.

Clumsy.

Aspiration

Super parent.

Career

Doctor.

Additional

Master parenting, cooking, handiness and gardening skills.

Have a successful marriage. (This doesn’t mean you have to stay with the first person you meet, either. Have 8 failed marriages before you meet “the one” if you want).

Develop a great relationship with your loved ones.

Master the doctor career.

Generation Two: LMC (Large Magellanic Cloud)

Interesting Facts

It is known as the Satellite Galaxy.

When the clouds of gas collapse and create new stars, they light up the gasses and result in beautiful displays of vibrant colour.

The diameter is 14,000 ly.

The distance is 158,000 ly.

It is the third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way.

Colours

Orange.

Purple.

Pink.

Description

Your mother/father/other taught you everything you know, and you grew up nurtured in the best way that your parents could. Now people are simply drawn to you, your fun-loving nature and love for all. You don’t want the same 9-5 work that your parents had, so you aspire to follow your creative nature. Your passion can be misconstrued as arrogance; however, people want to be around you regardless.

Traits

Self-assured.

Dance machine.

Flirty.

Aspiration

Soulmate.

Career

Painter/Entertainer. Optional.

Additional

Master painting, singing & musical instrument skills.

Find “the one” later in life.

Run a karaoke club.

Collect all the MySims trophies.

Complete the painter or entertainer careers.

Generation Three: Andromeda

Interesting Facts

The diameter is 220,000 ly.

The distance is 2,500,000 ly.

Andromeda and Milky Way will eventually clash in 5 billion years.

It is a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way.

Contains a bulge of matter in the middle with a disk of gas, dust and stars with an immense halo.

It contains approximately a trillion stars as opposed to the half a billion in the Milky Way, though contains less dark matter, which makes it less massive.

Colours

Orange.

Red.

Gold.

Description

Taking after your parents, you grow up being a natural magnet for people around you, but you don’t like the level of commitment that comes with it. You’re a free spirit with a love for space and science, and you live a minimalist lifestyle, only having things you need. You’re close with your grandparents and collect elements to study at your home laboratory.

Traits

Flirty.

Non-committal.

Genius.

Aspiration

Serial Romantic.

Career

Scientist.

Additional

Complete the crystals, metals and elements collections.

Discover the alien planet Sixam.

Complete the scientist career path.

Complete the serial romantic aspiration.

Have a child with your second partner.

Generation Four: M82

Interesting Facts

It is 37,000 ly in diameter.

It is 11,500,000 ly in distance.

Also known as the Cigar Galaxy.

It is forming stars 10 times faster than normal galaxies.

It was originally believed to be an irregular galaxy but is a spiral galaxy side-on.

Eventually the gasses will no longer be plentiful and in tens of millions of years into the future, it will dwindle to a halt.

There is a mystery body of material within the centre that goes unknown as to what it actually is to this day.

Colours

Orange.

Aqua.

Red.

Magenta.

Description

You’re the life of the party, creative and bright. You love decorating in bright colours and dying your hair to whatever, depending on how you feel. Tattoos are a huge part of your life, with a fun experience or important meaning to you behind each one. You enjoy visiting festivals and live a life jumping from house to house, town to town.

Traits

Creative.

Active.

Self-assured.

Aspiration

Party animal.

Career

Painter.

Additional

Master painting and athletic skills.

Own a successful art store.

Decorate your child’s room with your artworks.

Complete the party animal aspiration.

Move house at least four times.

Generation Five: M101

Interesting Facts

It is 170,000 ly in diameter.

It is 20,870,000 ly in distance.

It is otherwise known as the Pinwheel Galaxy.

You can find it in the constellation Ursa Major in the Northern Hemisphere.

It is 70% larger than the Milky Way.

The light you see of it through a telescope has travelled for 21 million years, longer than human kind has existed.

There are at least 1 trillion stars within it.

Its total mass equates to 100 billion solar masses.

Colours

Cream.

White.

Silver.

Tan.

Description

You were born into a household of bright colours and patterns that your parents loved. Your consistent moving from town to town meant it was difficult to find friends, and you enjoy solitude above all else. You find it difficult to form romantic relationships especially, and now that you’ve moved out of home you want to settle into a stable home, career and be rid of the noisy colour palette. You still enjoy some pops of colour and love computer games.

Traits

Unflirty.

Loner.

Geek.

Aspiration

Computer whiz.

Career

Tech guru.

Additional

Master video gaming, programming, logic and handiness skills.

Adopt two pets.

Master tech guru career.

Reach best friend status with one other non-related sim (do not count pets).

Generation Six: M104

Interesting Facts

It is otherwise known as the Sombrero Galaxy.

It has a white, bulbous core surrounded by thick dust lanes.

It is considered to have a black hole at the centre of the galaxy.

It has 10x more than the number of globular clusters than the Milky Way.

It is 50,000 ly in diameter.

It is 29,350,000 ly in distance.

Colours

White.

Black.

Navy.

Silver.

Tan.

Description

Like your parents, you enjoy muted colours and can’t quite shake the gloomy feeling around you from the solitude of your childhood. However, you enjoy the more expensive things in life and this leads you down a bumpy path. You think that parenthood is overrated and would rather hire people to do those menial tasks for you.

Traits

Gloomy.

Kleptomaniac.

Materialistic.

Aspiration

Fabulously Wealthy.

Career

Business/Criminal Optional.

Additional

Master the business or criminal career paths.

Master the fabulously wealthy aspiration.

If in the business career path, master logic and charisma skills.

If in the criminal career path, master mischief, programming and handiness skills.

Hire a nanny and/or butler full time when you reach a high enough income.

Generation Seven: M51

Interesting Facts

It is otherwise known as the Whirlpool Galaxy.

It is 60,000 ly in diameter.

It is 30,000,000 ly in distance.

It contains infrared light, hydrogen and a number of young and old stars.

Colours

Red.

Gold.

Blue.

Description

You were never very close with your parents but never lacked the finer things in life. You’re fascinated by smaller spaces and always wanted to live in a tiny house or apartment surrounded by books. You want to become a famous author and enjoy going to book club with your friends. Your childhood involved spending long hours with your imaginary friends, and now you want to share your stories with the world. Your nanny used to read you to sleep as a child, and you look forward to the day that you get signed by a major publishing house. You also enjoy writing to your friends and decorating your walls with photographs and postcards.

Traits

Creative.

Ambitious.

Perfectionist.

Aspiration

Bestselling author.

Career

Writer.

Additional

Master charisma, photography, wellness and writing skills.

Complete the postcard collection.

Complete the bestselling author aspiration.

Complete the writer career.

Move into a tiny house or apartment.

Generation Eight: NGC 1300

Interesting Facts

It is known as a barred spiral galaxy, where the arms do no spiral all the way into the centre but connect to two ends of a straight bar that contains a nucleus within the centre.

It is 110,000 ly in diameter.

It is 61,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Crimson.

Blue.

Silver.

Description

You were very close with your parents growing up and adopted the importance of caring for your wellbeing from them at a very young age. Like them, you have a raging imagination that they nurtured as you grew. They encouraged you to try many pursuits, your favourite being music. You want to embark on a journey as a musician, and you’re encouraged by the voices in your head. You often frequent karaoke nights and want to have an at-home music studio.

Traits

Creative.

Dance machine.

Insane.

Aspiration

Musical genius.

Career

Entertainer.

Additional

Master the wellness, singing, guitar, piano and DJ skills.

Master the musical genius aspiration.

Master the entertainer career.

Build an at-home music studio as you progress.

Start a karaoke club.

Marry a musician.

Generation Nine: Tadpole Galaxy

Interesting Facts

It is a disrupted barred spiral galaxy.

It is located within the constellation Draco.

It was disrupted by another galaxy 100 million years ago which created the tadpole-like shape.

The stars in Arp 188 are at least a million times bright and 10x hotter than our sun.

It is 280,000 ly in diameter including the tail.

It is 420,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Orange.

Gold.

Brown.

Description

You were close with both your parents and your grandparents as you grew up and you took inspiration from their dedication to their wellness. As a result, you dappled in gardening and creating beautiful spaces, but you have a quick to emotion response in life that often results in you being worked up. You combat part of this through caring for animals which led to the perfect career for you as a vet.

Traits

Hot-headed.

Cat-lover.

Dog-lover.

Aspiration

Freelance botanist.

Career

Vet.

Additional

Master the vet, pet training, gardening and wellness skills.

Care for your parents until they pass away.

Have 3 pets (doesn’t have to be all at once).

Run a successful vet clinic.

Collect all fish & frog types.

Have a garden.

Generation Ten: Hoag’s Object

Interesting Facts

It is a ring galaxy named after Arthur Hoag.

It is located within the constellation Serpens Caput.

It is unique and was mistaken for matter from dying, old stars.

It is 100,000 ly in diameter.

It is 600,000,000 ly in distance.

Colours

Blue.

Gold.

Description

You couldn’t imagine caring for others like how your parents do. You’re completely self-absorbed and you don’t care. You enjoy the meaner things in life and thrive off the considerable wealth you were handed from your deceased ancestors simply for existing. You’re a city slicker, with emphasis on the slick.

However, an issue with the botched paperwork from your deceased great-great-great-great grandparents in collaboration with the Landgrabs has come into the limelight and stripped you of all your wealth. Now it is your time to either make or break your way in life.

Traits

Snob.

Materialistic.

Mean.

Aspiration

Mansion baron.

Career

Any.

Additional

Lose all your wealth.

Start from homelessness.

Move to the city once you earn enough.

Aim to live in the most expensive apartment.

Master at least 4 skills and a career path.