#i meant to post this earlier lol but i got distracted posting art onto my pkmn tumblr--

[twisting-in-wonderland]

THE TWST GODS WERE MERCIFUL!!!!!!

[cuddleslutloki]

2018 fics, a year in review

i’m a madman, but even my crazy ass probably won’t finish and post another fic in the last 6 hours of 2018, so here are all the fics i posted on ao3 this year, plus some thoughts on each!

Hemlock Honey and Silver

this was my last ever supernatural fandom fic. literally the end of an era for me since i was in the spn fandom for so damn long and wrote so much fic, about two-thirds of which has been orphaned on the archive at this point because i didn’t like the stories anymore lol. 

i do like that one, though, and i’m actually alright with it being my last ever spn/destiel fic

Fire In Your Veins

this was my first time posting thorki fic! i was so, so nervous about it, but everyone in this fandom is so chill and lovely. i still like this one, and i don’t think i write enough 69ing lmao. also this fic was obvs the start of something bigger bc. i mean. i’ve written so much damn fic now lol since i only started posting in june. i was worried that i wasn’t going to be writing anymore, or that i’d never be posting on ao3 again because it had been literally 2 full years between hemlock honey and silver and the fic that preceded it. then i fell into thorki and i started writing fic and it’s just been such a huge, huge thing. bc i’m also writing original stuff again for the first time in forever.

Underdressed and All Out of Time

a direct sequel to fire in your veins, i really like it. i felt like i was able to characterize loki fairly well in this one bc i was very insecure about the way i wrote loki when i started out

A Thousand Teeth, Yours Among Them

who doesn’t love a fic title from a hozier song? i remember writing this fic and wondering if it was any good and if my characterization was okay and still being nervous and insecure in my writing, but it’s been very well received so i kinda got my inner critic to stfu which is nice lol. i also really enjoyed doing this vignette style story

To Always Face the Sun

what if :) loki was happy :) and thor had his brother back :) lol i really liked writing this and having loki being such a little shit tbh. can we tell that i like a happy ending in fic?

Blue On Gold

so i wrote an arranged marriage fic where they never actually get married and it’s still 15.8k lmfao. also the return of the vignette style, which was fun bc i got to do short, impactful scenes and build the narrative with them. i remember sitting at my desk at work, on my phone, writing this fic, then coming home and editing on a damn tablet bc my laptop bricked earlier this year

the warmth of your doorway

i meant to capitalize the title but at this point i’ve decided to leave it lol. i really loved writing this bc i felt very confident in the way i was building the scenes and the detail i was able to incorporate. i feel like this is where i really kinda go my voice back and i start to come into my own, if that makes sense? one of my fave fics i’ve ever written tbh. there’s a longer ‘verse for this, but after i finished this fic i got too distracted by new projects to try and continue it lol

Tell Me

this was my first trans!loki fic and he’s a trans man, and god i love it. i’ve got another ftm loki story as a WIP in my gdocs bc this story showed me how much i fucking love writing trans characters, and i really enjoyed the dynamic i put into this fic. there’s a sequel planned lol it’s gonna be dirty

Interwoven

i still haven’t managed to ever find the post that inspired this damn fic and if you wonder whether that drives me up the wall the answer is yes (: and fun fact! i intentionally never describe loki’s genitals in this fic, bc i was picturing him as a trans guy since i’d just written tell me and now i have a massive obsession with writing trans romance and erotica

Tie Breaker

in this house we love and appreciate bottom thor!!! also i loved writing the sparring at the beginning. it makes me wanna write more fics w/ brutal fight scenes lol. thor’s slutty drunk cape outfit is iconic and i’m gonna read that comic just for that outfit honestly

Pretense of Subjugation

i became drunkenly obsessed with loki manspreading on the throne of asgard and this was the result. this was the first thorki fic of mine that i’d had beta’d and it was vastly, vastly improved by it. the tips @ktspree13 gave me when she helped with this fic have affected literally every single fic i’ve written since

Double and More

so this is not the first thorki fic i ever posted, of course, however it is the first i ever started writing. i got to the point where loki’s in thor’s lap and then i kinda blanked out and let the fic sit for like... 2 or 3 months? then i opened it back up and i was like “oh i like this i should finish this” which is why i don’t delete anything anymore bc there’s always a chance i’ll come back to it

Ringback Tone

y’all owe @thotki for the wondrous idea they presented in discord that ended up creating this fic. i think i wrote this fic in like 3 days bc of how much fun i was having with it. the dirty talk was my favorite thing to write in this and i remember distinctly having this [:< moment when i was daydreaming about it

Seldom All They Seem

there was an impromptu bottom thor day back on 20 oct and this fic was my contribution. we can never have enough time travel, can we? i remember i think i took like a four day weekend from work and part of my motivation was literally wanting to finish this fic in time to post it lmfao

Fluffy Thorki Sunday Ficlets

i started doing fluffy thorki sunday back when i was on bourbonbucky and i continued it here, and i’m proud that i’ve written at least 1 piece for fluffy thorki sunday every sunday since i started. i love doing fluff and smut, and honestly even when my mood has been shit, i’ve always felt motivated to try and improve it at least enough to write some nice fluff. i put all of these on ao3 once i moved blogs

Let Love Disrupt

this is another fic we owe to discord lmao. i remember posting this when i was either very drunk or very tired and having to keep going onto ao3 on my damn phone browser to correct minor shit, and some not so minor shit like a typo in the title bc at first it said “distrupt” and that’s why i only post when i’m awake and sober now lmfao

Without Fear

i love werewolves (: a whole bunch (: and this fic is something dirty and wonderful that i’m proud of and THERE’S ART bc @nekokat42 is a blessing and takes commissions. kot i love u :3

On the Other Side Like Always

i have a lot of feelings about this fic. there’s an entire future in this ‘verse that i would so love to write, but i’m stuck on where to go with it. as it stands i am satisfied with this as a story of thor and loki coming together, and a story about how loki does something out of desperation but is finally given something genuine and comforting in his life like he’s always deserved. THERE’S ART from the wondrous @boltplumart / @mrhiddles bc allie is perfect :]

Runaway

when i tell y’all i’m a trash gremlin king. i do have a thing for writing underage characters with adults (probs due to messy personal history lmfao ain’t gonna look at that too closely) and so writing this one was a fun little bit of self indulgence. also it’s dirty and really plays into codependency, which i always like writing bc it’s a fun thing to explore in fiction

Sunset Rhapsody

this fic. was supposed to be. two thousand words. at most. then thor smiled at me, as the writer, and was like “i want to own him” and we ended up with 11k of thor’s obsessive bs and loki being brutal. joking aside, i love this fic, i love what i did with it, i have an original story i wanna write for my size kink anthology that will follow a similar thread to this one. also that torture scene. i don’t recall if i ever properly wrote torture before, but this did kinda make me squirm a bit when i was writing it and if you’ve read it you know precisely which scene i’m talking about lmfao

Right to Guard

this fic was honestly very emotionally satisfying for me in a pretty visceral way. writing thor just surrendering to love and spoiling the fuck out of loki was pretty damn cathartic. 

A Bite of Lamb

me making sure i never lose my title as a trash gremlin king. honestly writing thor’s POV in this fic was like >.> at myself a couple times bc it felt distinctly dark in a way i’d never written another character. a very, very unhealthy kind of obsession and this twisted logic where he’s trying to make it all okay. i really fucking love this damn fic tho and i’m happy with how it came out. 

Seamless

i was so, so frustrated and pissed off at work that i needed to let that shit out, so that was channeled into this very guilt-ridden turned tender fic, and i really enjoyed writing it. loved writing thor taking care of his baby sister. also! KOT IS FUCKING AMAZING and drew this bc they’re such a good fucking person ;A; like they sent me a message and just said “really liked this scene” and i was D Y I N G and i still am. thank you again, kot!

The Way A Rose Blooms

this was written for the thorki secret santa exchange! i drew @chickcheney and honestly the list of prompts was so, so good. bottom thor, arranged marriage, semi-public sex and trying not to be caught, body worship. i was like “damn did i draw myself wtf” bc that is all up my alley. 

Sugar Cookie

i honestly could not think of a better fic to finish off 2018 for me than sugar cookie. porn and emotions that’s all this is, but it features loki as a trans woman being loved and appreciated as she is with nothing extra expected of her and it was so satisfying to write. it makes me want to write original romance with trans women, which i’ll definitely do bc i loved writing this hungry and tender story and i’m very happy with how i ended it. 

so that was 2018 for me! 

[home-halone]

Long Post on Screenshots

Coincidentally, I had glimpsed the twitter thread in question (or something similar) before I saw a post about it and had some thoughts™ as well

I was going to straight up reply but it got out of hand and I ended up blabbing a lot about taking screenshots, mods and ReShade.

Mods. Literally just an aesthetic client-side change. I can't believe people are up in arms about this. Let people have their fun and ignore it if it's not to your taste. There's absolutely no need to shit on someone else's definition of fun. Your values for what comprises a good screenshot made with effort should not be imposed as the standard. (Unless you're holding a screenshot contest, it literally doesn't matter.)

I don't use mods personally, out of laziness and I cannot be bothered messing with my files. Partly because I don't have characters that have a particular appearance that I really want. But that's my reason, and if other people are happy with their mods, so be it. I'm happy with my own thing. Even a walk home next to a world-famous monument just gets dull when you see it so often. It's not a crime to appreciate it through a different lens.

I'm going to preface this by saying no one has to defend what they want to do for fun. And even if your reasons for using mods/ReShade etc doesn't fall in line with any of the ones offered below, it literally doesn't matter and you should have your fun.

Contrary to what some negative folks think, people are still fully capable of doing some really good glamour without mods. Although it makes sense when you play around with FFXIV's glams/character creator enough, you'll quickly realize that there are particular limitations (certain gloves don't show up with certain tops, some bottoms lose the pants/skirt when you wear certain things over them, etc) and some people simply want to portray the details of their characters accurately to their vision. I have seen a lot of really good designs that don't exactly match their in-game sprites. Some people might want to do an easy cosplay. Some people might just want to look pretty and sometimes it doesn't get deeper than that. 

Nevermind that there are ordinary people behind modding, creating these for use. They didn’t spawn out of nowhere. They’re a product of someone’s hard work and skill too. Shout out to @keeperofthelilacs​ for the posts & a glimpse into the grueling, painstaking process just to make a deceptively simple mod and apply changes to each model. I cannot fathom people creating things that are not even in-game.

But obviously, with modding being the new shiny thing, there would be an influx of pretty pictures with people using them. The majority out there still does some creative things without the use of these programs. But their use isn’t indicative of a lack of creativity in taking screenshots.

Yes, the game is intrinsically beautiful and the sights are breathtaking, and there's no shortage of unmodded, unretouched, unReShaded screenshots littered about. I know there are more than a handful of reddit threads with such screenshots up. But, even with the built-in /gpose, the options can be limited and the vivid colors don't always show up the way people intend them to. This is why ‘different’ draws attention. Since we all have the same washed out color palette (suitable for actually playing the game. try raiding with an Aesthetic ReShade setting with Depth of Field on, it is agony.) it’s easier to pick out brighter looking, unusual colored screenshots. Moreso if they’re beautifully composed.

The improvement of colors from ReShade are only one aspect of it, as a lot of people who use them could tell you.

This screenshot has ReShade on and some /gpose settings, and it’s whatever. It’s meh.

It’s poorly lit, tilted to one side for some reason, the background lantern is grabbing all the attention, but the scenery is somehow cut off, my character is awkwardly posed, the colors, while MORE vivid, aren’t really inspiring the ‘hey this outfit is awesome and unique’ feeling. You have no idea what you’re meant to pay attention to.

Now, before you say I took a bad one on purpose, this was actually from the time I first got the diamond coat so I was ACTUALLY trying to show it off. This was one of many screenshots I’d taken, trying to nail down what I wanted to do.

It just goes to show even if you have the tools, you can still produce some pretty underwhelming stuff. And you could easily take a better one if you know what you’re doing.

It may be beyond the provisions of the game, but it’s not an easy task taking good screens with ReShade. Like said, it takes time and skill. 

You have to know when to use angles and tilts and how to frame photos. Composition does SO much. The word gets used a lot but there’s a lot involved, whether you do it consciously or not. Do I zoom in up close or far out? How far?  Do I want to put my subject in the center or a little to the right? How much of the background should I show? Do I blur? Do I use dutch angles? Do I take a high angle shot? Daytime? Nighttime? /gpose which filter? How much can I crop? Do I need the feet in the frame? Do I add special effects? Lighting setting 3 2 or 1? More green or more red? Those are basic questions people think about, but these are settings you use to tell a story. Then there’s questions like, how do I frame the photo to draw more attention to the feeling of being trapped? How do I use lighting to create a feeling of dread? How do I use the environment to help me tell the story and not just take a dull photo of my character?

And that’s just taking the photo. It’s easy to be tempted by all the shiny stuff you can pile onto a photo, but if it doesn’t serve a purpose other than “ooh”, then the intense sparkles floating around a photo can distract more than contribute.

So you have everything set. You switch ReShade on. You picked out a good preset. But when it comes to stuff like this one size does not fit all, in order to make it work beyond what a preset provides (as night can be pitch black, and daytime is a complete bloom-filled eyesore) you have to get your hands dirty. Presets can be pretty for sightseeing, and for most it’s enough and they work well enough to use consistently in screenshots. And that’s perfectly fine. The settings are very technical and have numerical values. I don’t understand all the values and effects myself, and finding the sweet spot to produce is an arduous process.

The same goes for Photoshop. There’s no magic button to make your art look good. You need a good eye for adjusting saturation, color balance, lighting, cropping, framing etc. to improve ANY photo. More than that, you need to be good at making believable visual effects for fancier edits. If you drag a brush randomly, no one’s going to be immersed in the way those hair extensions were made. Nope, people study the native look of a photo to make changes. Otherwise you just end up with spaghetti hair.

[it’s the same ugly photo but with spaghetti hair]

I literally used the color dropper. It’s not enough to do that!! Like GIRL I’m a fuckin digital painter and I don’t know how all those people paint/edit hair, it’s a SKILL they learned and not one I have LOL. You have to care about lighting and getting the right width and all that. It’s not that simple.

Photoshop’s got a magic wand but it’s not that easy!

People who edit photos are familiar with these... and each one has its own settings and values :,^) that can change the mood of a photo by making only certain colors be more muted or even making everything look a little lighter and brighter.

It’s not that easyyyy look at one of these windows if I didn’t do this for a living I’d be so confused

So going back to showing off my coat. After I saw the lineup of photos I’d taken, I was pretty dissatisfied, especially because I knew I could take better photos. 

I identified the problems I saw:

1.Even though I wanted to showcase my outfit, I didn’t have to take a photo straight on. The photo earlier had her facing completely straight into the camera. And it felt very flat.   

2. It’s zoomed too far out, you can’t really see the details on the coat.

3. I tweaked my ReShade settings. I worked on the lighting. When I realized my settings and the lighting in game (and on gpose) were not cooperating, I decided to wait for daytime. Kugane at night was distracting as hell with all the lanterns in the background. My clothes were the star.

Here’s another screenshot I took wearing the Far Eastern stuff.

I wasn’t showing off the details of the glamour here. Kugane at night has a lot of personality, lights and colors. When I looked at this old screenshot, I realized that it wasn’t a good setting for a simple photo that said “hey check my glam”. This photo told a story. My clothes weren’t the focus, it was the fact that Proxi was in Far Eastern clothes in Kugane. All of those facts were of equal importance, so she was a figure immersed in her surroundings.I didn’t need to capture the details of her dress, just show enough for it to be recognized. That’s why this photo worked. And only one of the many reasons why the badly lit one didn’t work. Contrary to the urge to do so, I didn’t need to tilt the camera angle to make it look interesting. I used her body language, paused an emote at the right second to get something more relaxed, her over-the-shoulder look gives an inviting feeling. I let the color contrast separate her from the background as a figure, but I kept her a part of that warm Kugane vibe with bits of red lighting. There’s a lot of thought that goes into this. How color and mood tie together. Knowing what is essential and what isn’t helps a lot, and sometimes it’s trial and error and you don’t really actually know what you want.

Here’s the final image of the Coat screenshot that I posted  a couple months ago

The problem with the Diamond Coat is that I dyed it a dark blue color and I wanted to keep that sense of dark blue without shining a bright light on it, or lightening the color. I used stronger contrasts to bring out the blues, fiddled with settings I didn’t understand but it made details shaper lol. I used angles and some blur to add a little more dynamicity (being a more static photo) and focus on Proxi. While she is still mostly facing forward, I played with her pose more, to get more of a ~random well-dressed elezen on a stroll~ feel. And!! look at all the details on her coat, you can see them!! 

But wait, you ask, aren’t you just proving that ReShade is a crutch wELL IT’S NOT. It’s a TOOL. You use. If it makes your life easier and more efficient and it makes you happier, like, honestly it doesn’t matter.

But here’s a non g-pose, non-ReShade screenshot I took during a Zurvan EX run early last year. My PC froze for a second lol. I was going to have a heart attack doing this but as a SMN I’m obligated to RELISH Teraflare. This is ONE lucky screenshot I got and you know what, even if the colors aren’t super vivid, this screenshot feels SO right. The explosions aren’t overwhelmingly bright, the arena is surprisingly a fitting background, and she’s got her leggy up but she didn’t give me a panty flash and I am fortunate this turned out to be a great photo I could put in a church mural.

Another non-gpose one. See! framing, contrast and all that. This was from my old blog circa 2016 and it got one note! LOL gpose didn’t even exist yet as we know it, and I don’t think ReShade was widespread or even a thing yet and I was super proud of this one. The trees gave her a soft background without making it too blindingly bright so she stands out and I love it.

So there’s’ your normal screenshot look, without excessive flash and eyesore while still being pretty.

But yeah anyway

TL;DR 

1. Don’t be bitter about other people using tools and adding steps to enhance their aesthetic experiences or to create screenshots that are more faithful to their vision. If it’s not harming you, live and let live. 

2. There’s more thought that goes into pretty screenshots than you think. Just because they don’t pick up a brush and draw, does not disqualify these screenshot posters as skilled artists in their own right.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ'✿ That’s all!

[letshavepunsoffun]

Not sure if the askbox is open right now but if it is: relating to the rude hot person ask what would ut us and uf bros do if they started talking to a hot person like that with really low self esteem? Say they find something attractive that humans don't typically find attractive or something

Hmm…. Not really sure how to go about this. So if I start rambling, please excuse me, lol. However, if you want me to refine my answer, or reattempt it, please send an ask in, explaining what more you want me to do. Also, I’ll be doing the skeleton groups in different posts. It just feels less stressful to me that way. Not that answering asks is stressful. I just start getting anxious when one of my responses gets too long.-ModMaudyUndertaleSans: He and his brother are just walking down the street. They’re running some daily errands. Papyrus had a couple of bags resting in his arms, and Sans had a carrier bag draped around him– not because he put it there. That was Papyrus’s doing. He had just kinda lazily stood in the store as Papyrus piled some their bought goods into it, at the cash register.So now he was tottering down the sidewalk, a little weighed down too much on one side. It resulted in him walking slower in order to not fall down. Papyrus didn’t complain about it though, instead choosing to thank Sans for carrying the bag. Papyrus had planned having guests over tonight. They needed plenty of ingredients for dinner! Sans was only slightly off put by this.Finally, the weight had become too much. It’s not that it was heavy. He’s just… small. And really lazy. So his solution was to sit down. Right on the sidewalk. Good job, mate.Papyrus, obviously, wasn’t going to have any of this. He turned around to yell at his brother to stand back up so they could get home, but he stopped in the middle of his sentence, mouth hung open, eyes staring past his brother.Sans blinked then turned his head to see what caught the taller skeleton’s attention. Upon seeing it… His own jaw dropped.Oh my god… Who was that?!They were approaching. He found himself scrambling to get to his feet. He dusted his legs off. He’s not sure why. Sans knew he didn’t stand a chance. Besides. He glanced at his brother. Papyrus saw them first.He took a step to the side… Or.. At least he tried to. He stumbled a bit, then threw his hoodie up, over his face, as a deep blue hue spread across his cheekbones. He tried not to make eye contact with this person, fearing their reaction to his little trip. But he couldn’t help it. He looked up at them. His blush slowly faded as he realized they didn’t seem interested in him at all. Or.. really anything in general.His eyes followed theirs to the ground. They seemed really shy. That, or they were having a rough day. They didn’t look too focused on their surroundings.Sans was half tempted to call out to them. He wanted to get their attention, and possibly try to make them feel better. Stranger or not, he was a very compassionate person. He hated to see anyone upset. Him and Papyrus were a lot more alike in that aspect than most people gave him credit for.But before he would utter a word, Papyrus was already on the job. “HELLO THERE, HUMAN! IT’S A VERY NICE DAY OUT, ISN’T IT?” Sans stiffened his shoulders when he saw the human flinch. Were they alright? He knew his brother probably startled them, but he didn’t really expect that much of a reaction.His confusion only grew when he saw them not even respond to Papyrus. Like, they sort of just glanced at him, and then to the other side of them. Wait… Did they think he was talking to someone else?Papyrus seemed to catch onto this as well, for he gently placed his hand on the human’s shoulder. “OH, I SEE. YOU’RE VERY DISTRACTED, AREN’T YOU? I CAN UNDERSTAND. I CAN GET LOST IN MY OWN THOUGHTS AS WELL, ON SUCH BEAUTIFUL DAYS. THEY OFTEN REMIND ME OF HOW BEAUTIFUL I AM!”The human just stared at him with wide eyes. They looked like they’d just witnessed a murder. Sans could see the tension build up on his brother’s shoulders. Why was the human actin like this? It was reminding him of Alphys– oh. OH.Sans didn’t say anything, but he hoped Papyrus would figure it out soon.This person was incredibly self conscious. He just wasn’t sure why. They were gorgeous. He was confused.After a while of talking, and finally drawing them out of their shell, Sans learns that they don’t find themself to be attractive at all. In fact, they say that most humans don’t. He’s surprised, and a little more confused than he was before. Okay… so… Not only are you gorgeous, but you’re saying that no one thinks you are, including yourself? I mean… he understands. But at the same time he doesn’t. He doesn’t find himself to be even remotely attractive (yet he’s got fangirls galore, popping out his ears and probably his blue, glowing eye socket). Sometimes he even questions how he has friends, simply because of how repulsive he thinks he is. Yet, people still like him. So he understand the insecurities of it… The only difference is, they’re actually attractive. So what gives?Papyrus points out that they’re beautiful. He even lists off the reasons why, including personality. The human tells them that other humans don’t find that stuff appealing. Sans is, once again, shocked. He wonders if this is what culture shock is.Sans gives them his and Papyrus’s home number and tells them to call them up every so often. He grins as Papyrus sets up a “play date” with their new human friend. The both of them desperately want to stay in contact with them.As the days go by, Sans makes sure to provide their friend with many details about how beautiful they are. He is a compliment wizard. He mastered the art of making people feel wonderful through the use of many forms of compliments, a long time ago. He uses this to his advantage in an attempt to raise their self esteem.Papyrus: Frisk and Toriel were supposed to come over for dinner tonight! It was going to be a grand time, had by all! He was sure of it! But in order for that to happen, he had to be prepared! He needed supplies! Spaghetti supplies, more specifically.And that’s what lead him and Sans on this journey to the super market. He had placed a carrier bag over his brother, hoping that it would assist them on their conquest. He knew he was going to buy a LOT of ingredients. He just wasn’t sure how much. So better safe than sorry!After having bought the ingredients, he piled, what he couldn’t carry, into the carrier bag that Sans wore. He watched as his brother slowly started tipping over to the side the bag was on. Papyrus couldn’t help but giggle at the sight. Perhaps this would make his brother get some exercise.As they were walking, Papyrus glanced down to Sans, who was kind of wobbling as he walked. Papyrus was tempted to take the bag from him, but his arms were full, and… well…. It was pretty funny to watch. He did his best to hide his grin by thanking his brother for carrying the bag.The grin that lasted all but 5 seconds. Because Sans sat down almost immediately after exiting the store. Papyrus huffed and turned to him. “SANS! GET UP, YOU LAZY BONES! THE SIDE WALK IS VERY OBVIOUSLY MEANT FOR WALKING! NOT SITTING! BESIDES! IT’S FILTHY! YOU WILL GET DUSTY AND DIRTY, AND I’M NOT DOING LAUNDRY AGAIN TODAY! SO I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT YOU GET UP THIS INSTA—…..” Papyrus felt his eyes wander upwards. His sentence trailed off as his sight fixated on a human that was exiting the store.They were beautiful. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his brother quickly stand up. He didn’t think much of it, but in retrospect, he realized that the sight of the human had caught Sans off guard as well. Papyrus was just standing still, stunned by the scene of this human walking towards them. Well not towards them. But close by.He noticed that their eyes were glued to their feet. Why were they doing this? They couldn’t see where they were going, surely! Maybe they needed a good friend to encourage them to look upwards when they walked. It would save them from running into poles, and other head level objects! This was his chance to make a new friend! “HELLO THERE, HUMAN! IT’S A VERY NICE DAY OUT, ISN’T IT?”The human flinched. Papyrus felt his heart stop for a second. He felt awful. He didn’t mean to scare them! They glanced at him with wide eyes, and then looked to the other side of themself. ….Were they looking for someone?It dawned on him that they may have thought he was talking to someone else. After all! The Great Papyrus has many friends! It’s only natural to assume that he would run into them anywhere he goes! He must specify who he is talking to!He stepped forward and places a gentle hand on the human’s shoulder. “OH, I SEE. YOU’RE VERY DISTRACTED, AREN’T YOU? I CAN UNDERSTAND. I CAN GET LOST IN MY OWN THOUGHTS AS WELL, ON SUCH BEAUTIFUL DAYS. THEY OFTEN REMIND ME OF HOW BEAUTIFUL I AM!” Papyrus smiled, reassuringly to them.His smile almost faltered when he saw the absolute fear embedded on the human’s face. His body began to tighten and tense with worry…. Why–….. Why did they look so scared? Was it of him? Was it because he was a monster? They just looked so scared to interact with him. It was saddening.Papyrus frowned. Then it hit him. OH! They’re shy! Worried about their self image! Don’t worry, human friend! The great Papyrus will have you feeling better in no time!A little later, the human, Sans, and Papyrus are all sitting at a cafe. They’re having tea, and talking and laughing. Then the topic of the earlier encounter is brought back up. Papyrus is unsurprised to find that they view themselves as unattractive. Sad. But it wasn’t exactly a shocker based on how they were acting. What does shock him, is to find out that humans don’t typically find beauty in the things tat Papyrus had found gorgeous about this human. Not a single thing he’s listed off as beautiful, did the human agree with.Now he was more than just a little sad. No wonder the human’s self esteem was so low.Papyrus watched as Sans gave their number to their new friend. He gets a great idea. “WE’LL HAVE A PLAY DATE, HUMAN!” He sets up a date and time, and begins to plan out all of the fun stuff they would do together. Of course, puzzles were included! And some home made spaghetti.He makes a continuous effort to stay in touch with the human. And each time he sees them, he praises them on how well they were doing each day, and how nice they looked. He wanted them to be happy. He wanted them to love themself. Please love yourself…