#i scheduled all the posts in advance so i have no idea if anyone actually cared lol

[danderria]

And that's it for my Dungeons and Daddies in The Sims 4 project! This was a blast. I hope you had fun, I know I did

You can find all the families on the Sims 4 gallery with my Gallery ID danderria or #dndadssims4!

If anyone's wondering about the Season 3 characters... They also exist, just not in The Sims 4... Stay tuned for the next six days! I think Matt would enjoy them 👀

Thank you again to the DNDADS fan creators out there. I truly would not have been able to complete this project without your works for inspiration

Check out all characters in this project here

[crossbackpoke-check]

about to be sooo nosy so. my apologies. but. morgan frost? girlfriend? do share (or don’t! again this is so nosy i’m sorry)

for legal purposes i can neither confirm nor deny anything about morgan and his girlfriend but afaik i think he’s single right now? at one point (within the past four years 😭) he did for sure have a girlfriend and that is the extent of my wag knowledge

[putschki1969]

Hi Sarah! Hope you are well! I will be in Japan on January 15th, so i can't lose the incredibile opportunity to go to the concert. I waited for the general lottery hoping that it would be aviable on the international e+ stite, but unfortunatley it seems it is not the case.

I tryed with sos japan but they are not answering me, and with bridge but they told me they are full or requests and so can't help me.

I would appreciate it very much if you can suggest me something to get these tickets. Thank you!

Hello there!

I am so sorry for the late reply. You sent this while I was travelling last week so I didn't notice the new message in my inbox. I am happy to hear that you will be in Japan next January. Of course you'd want to use that opportunity to attend the Kalafina, I totally understand.

However, I am afraid we are already at a point where it's pretty tricky to get tickets.

Ticket sales are scheduled for the following dates: ■Wakana/KEIKO Fan Club Advanced Lottery October 10, 2024, 11:00 - October 20, 23:59 ■Hikaru X (formerly Twitter) Advanced Lottery October 25, 11:00 - November 4, 23:59 ■General Ticket Lottery November 9, 11:00 - November 11, 23:59 ■General Sale November 16, 10:00 -

We have gone through all the ticketing stages and it appears like there are no more tickets left on the e+ general sale. This is actually quite surprising since I didn't expect the concert to be sold out so quickly. The venue is huge and judging from everyone's dismissive reactions on Twitter, I had assumed that not many people were actually planning to attend. Guess the mood on Twitter didn't reflect the high demand of the general public.

From what I could tell, almost everyone who applied for the Wakana/KEIKO fan club ticket lotteries won a ticket so they must have had a lot of tickets available for those. A majority of all fan club members seems to have made use of that preliminary lottery because for the subsequent Hikaru lottery, there were quite a few people who didn't manage to win a ticket. The same applies to the general lottery. I saw several tweets of people being sad that they didn't win anything during that. Unfortunately, the general lottery period was very short so it would have been necessary to contact SOSJapan or a similar service very early in advance to figure out what you needed.

The general sale was over super quickly too so there are currently no official options available.

They might have plans to offer some left-over tickets on the overseas e+ site but they haven't announced anything yet in that regard. Knowing Space Craft, they will totally ignore Kalafina's overseas fanbase so I wouldn't count on that....

I know that a lot of tickets were bought by shady resellers who are now offering them for crazy prices on some random sites but for one, that's illegal so I wouldn't recommend going down that route and two, it would be a real hassle for a foreigner to even get their hands on one of those resold tickets so meh, not the best idea.

Your best bet right now is to ask around in fandom spaces and see if anyone got spare tickets. The good news is that many people applied for more than one ticket (myself included). The bad news is that most of those people will already have found someone to give their extra tickets to (myself included).

I will ask here on this blog and see if anyone can offer a spare ticket to you. If there's no one, you will have to ask around on other sites. You should probably check out the cantaperme forum or a number of different Kalafina Facebook communities and a post on Twitter can't hurt either (although you'll have to tag everything properly so the post reaches a good amount of people).

【Request】 Kalafina Anniversary Ticket

Does anyone still have a spare ticket for the upcoming Kalafina Anniversary Live? If you do, please contact me or @red------moon directly. Thank you!

【Update】 Spare Ticket Found

Great news! @hadi-sama has some spare tickets and is offering them to fellow loyal fans who are still in need of one. Thank you so much for your swift reply! @red------moon, please be sure to contact either me or him ASAP to figure out all the details. Thank you!

[novella-november]

So uh, how are you planning to enforce the "no AI" rule? What do you plan to do if a participant is accused of using unacceptable software?

There's no submissions and no enforcement.

If someone is posting the in #Novella November & #NovellaNovember tags:

clearly-AI generated content (such as AI-generated book covers)

bragging about using AI

Talking about how they used x AI program to make X part of the book

etc

Then I can guarantee you they're going to simply be blocked by a few thousand writers en masse.

Probably they will get at least a few people trying to talk to them about the harm that AI does, and better alternatives that don't mass-steal from a few million unconsenting people--

alternatives like:

finding someone to partner with to discuss your ideas for brainstorming instead of asking an AI chatbot

.

Joining a "secret gift" group where everyone digitally "pulls a name out of a hat" or is randomly selected to make a cover for someone else's book idea

.

commissioning an actual artist for a cover

.

youtube tutorials on how to use GIMP as a free Photoshop alternative to make your own cover, with links to sites such as Pexels that have free stockphotos for anyone to use

.

Choosing a lower, more manageable daily word count goal if 1k or 500 is too out of line with your work schedule/ability to write on your own instead of resorting to AI generation to try to make up the difference out of anxiety

.

finding alternative medias to 'write' with, such as using an app on your phone or the in-built accessibility features on Windows that let you use your voice to type, so if you can't physically type or write with your hands or other limbs, you can instead dictate your novel outloud, which would also work if you are often away from home or can't actively use your phone but *can* record your voice passively as you work with your hands on another task :)

so...... yeah.

Literally the only things that would happen if someone tries to use AI in the #Novella November and #NovellaNovember tags would be the writing community collectively:

attempting some outreach; education is key to realizing the harm being done, after all! Maybe the person just doesn't know any better, and felt like that was their only option to reach their goal.

blocking the person, and if they're actively malicious in their AI use (such as fully knowing how much it harms writers/artists, how much of it is based on plagarism, or actively going out of their way to steal other people's work) people will probably start warning others about them as well so they can be blocked in advance, the same as other people who are harmful to communities.

This is a community initiative, spearheaded by this blog purely because I came up with the idea first and want to make sure that, at least to start out and as long as I can manage it, the community is the key part of being supporting and caring of each other, because billion dollar tech companies and those who are swayed by their money sure as heck aren't going to stand with us.

If someone is ""accused of using unacceptable software"" ..... they're just gonna get blocked if they're posting AI generated content, like everyone else who posts AI generated content get blocked by the community at large as they're encountered.

I'll repeat again: this is a community initiative, not an organization. There's no submissions people are sending anywhere to "confirm" word counts; --

Only:

people posting their celebrations and woes in the tag,

posting their frustrations and questions,

receiving answers and advice from the community,

sharing art and snippets, making covers, making decorative goal cards,

No AI is allowed in Novella November -- if people are posting or bragging about using AI generated content, they're simply going to be announcing themselves to thousands of writers (plus everyone who follows those writers) that they're a good person to block and never interact with 🤷

[steddieunderdogfics]

This week’s writer spotlight feature is:  TEDewitt! @tedewitt has 43 works posted to AO3 in the Stranger Things fandom and 42 of them are in the Steddie tag!

Our anonymous nominator recommends the following works by @tedewitt:

Let's Search The Skies (For A While)

Orange Cat Wanted

I'd Miss You Even If I'd Never Met You

Ready Or Knot

Wet Ret Rock God

"They are a f**king amazing writer and I need them to know that or else" -- anonymous

They also had this to say about TEDewitt:

"Choosing only five fics was a special kind of torture. TEDewitt is a fantastic writer, perfectly executes incredible ideas, and they deserve the spotlight so much."

Below the cut, TEDewitt answered some questions about their writing process and some of their recommended work!

Why do you write Steddie?

Honestly it was kind of by accident. I am an old fanfiction reader who started with Nsync fanfiction back in the early 2000s (told you I was old). I haven’t written anything in like 20 years and Steddie was so captivating that I was bitten by the bug and can’t stop.

What’s your favorite trope to READ?

I love Modern AUs. Take the Upside Down out of it, take the powers, hell take the 80s out and I’m there. Beyond that, I love fake dating, especially when they make so much sense that everyone’s like, “Oh yeah, this totally works.”

What’s your favorite trope to WRITE?

Omegaverse. I’d never heard of it before this fandom and I’m a little obsessed. I love how you can do whatever you want and it still makes sense. Other than Omegaverse, I’d say Famous AUs. The least we as a fandom can do is let Eddie live his rockstar dream in fandom.

What’s your favorite Steddie fic?

Tuesday’s Gone With The Wind by thisapplepielife I will never forget how I felt the moment I read the last chapter. I have never sobbed like that over a fic. The Gareth themed sequel series got me through the grief of losing my son’s father in a car accident the day after Tuesday’s last chapter was posted. I could never repay thisapplepielife for what their writing has done for me.

Is there a trope you’re excited to explore in a future work but haven’t yet?

Hanahaki is such an intriguing trope, I have an idea for it and just haven’t gotten it written down yet. That and I have a cult themed outsider POV DD fic coming eventually. My problem with writing is that I try to write as many different tropes as I can because I just love them all.

What is your writing process like?

My writing process is a hot mess. I’m so sorry friends, I do not have any tips, tricks or secrets. I’ve had 15k fics that just appear because of a single scene. The closest thing I have to a process is when I’m writing a Movie Or Book AU. With those I will write out the entire plot in bullet points so I can make sure to keep track of the things I want to keep. Then, I start moving things around, deleting, and even flip the plot around entirely. Once I have “the plot” I start building the world and actually write it all out. God help Jordan who has to decipher my notes.

Do you have any writing quirks?

I sneak in pop culture references in every single fic. It could be a line, a street name, a lyric, something. I used to make and sell indie nail polish in my spare time and they were all pop culture themed so now I sneak it in everywhere I can. I honestly need to make a list of all of the references just to see if anyone’s found them all.

Do you prefer posting when you’ve finished writing or on a schedule?

Lately I’ve been doing a lot of fics with deadlines which is honestly so helpful. Having a schedule or a plan that someone else is making me stick to is perfection. If I have to make the plan? Well, I get lost in world building so it’ll be late. Don’t look at my WIPs, I know they aren’t finished and I’m sorry in advance.

Which fic are you most proud of?

This is such a hard question, it’s like picking one of my children. If I have to pick then it’ll have to be Orange Cat Wanted. It started off as a goofy little thing and ended up being a fic all about loss and grief. I have 5.5 chapters written so far and Steve has yet to show up and likely won’t for another chapter or so. Oops.

How did you get the idea for Let's Search The Skies (For A While)?

I heard Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine were making a movie for The Idea of You. I love both of them so I checked out the book and hated the ending. The same day I made a list of things I wanted to change about the book and thus the fic was brought to life. Jordan was an incredible help during this writing process. If you ever need a cheerleader they are the only choice.

When writing Let's Search The Skies (For A While), what was something you didn’t expect?

I never expected this fic to take over my life. I spent 7 months writing it and now I have art and a physical copy of it in my home. It’s my baby.

What inspired Orange Cat Wanted?

Literally a Facebook post about a woman who wanted to hire an orange cat for her daughter’s birthday party. I still have the link to the article saved which you can read here. It’s wild that one little thing turned into the unfinished fic that it is now.

What was your favorite part to write from I'd Miss You Even If I'd Never Met You?

This fic is an AU of The Wedding Date and I was able to play around in that movie’s world while also writing a Fake Dating trope. The whole thing was so much fun to write. While the movie itself is not very popular, people seem to really resonate with this fic which took me completely by surprise. Honestly, the reaction to the fic was the best part for me. I never saw it coming.

How do/did you feel writing Wet Rat Rock God?

My siblings are notoriously hilarious and because of it, I’ve always been labeled as the not funny one. This fic was my chance to stretch my comedic skills and really try to make people laugh. I had so much fun trying to figure out names and backstories for everyone. It was so hard to keep it to myself as I was writing, because I wanted everyone to enjoy it as much as I did.

What was the most difficult part of writing Ready Or Knot?

You mean besides trying to figure out how to spin the TV show Love is Blind into omegaverse? Honestly keeping everything straight. There were so many moving parts to that fic with the couples swapping back and forth, the multiple dates, and even their scents. I had a little cheat sheet that I used like my bible to keep it all together.

Do you have a favorite scene and/or line from any of your fics?

Hands down it’s a scene in He Drives Me Crazy & I Can’t Help Myself Claudia agrees with him while Wayne comes in with the voice of reason. “Why does the owner of a business need a doctor’s note for a sprained ankle?” “Thank you! I told him that he was being ridiculous. I promise guys I’m fine.” Steve goes to get up and Claudia and Eddie protest. “Guys I’ve gotta pee. Unless you wanna help with that, I think I’ve got it.” “Eddie please don’t.” Dustin calls out as if he’s wounded. “I didn’t do anything!” “You were thinking about it. I know you.” “You’re in luck Dustybun, I’m not a fan of watersports.” “I thought you loved surfing when you were in California.” Claudia chimes in helpfully as Dustin screams and Eddie laughs.

Do you have any upcoming projects or fics you’d like to share/promote?

My Eddie Munson Big Bang fic is coming out in a month and a half called I Wanna Grow Old With You. I’m super pumped for that one. I have the Steve Harrington Big Bang coming up soon too, but mums the words on that one. I’ve got about a million ideas set for this year so keep your eyes out for all the fun stuff. Honestly I’m an open book so if you ask me what’s on the horizon I’ll tell you unless I can’t for BB secrecy reasons.

Outside of these questions, Is there anything YOU would like to add?

Finding the Steddie fandom has completely changed my life. When I first got back into Stranger Things I was fresh out of an abusive relationship and horrifically depressed. Eventually I made my way to the Steddie fandom (after a quick detour in Hellcheer) and met my favorite people in the entire world. I’m lucky enough to have met Jordan in real life and can call them my IRL bestie and not just my online bestie. I talk to Jordan and Erin every single day and I don’t even talk to my own family that much. If you’re someone who’s lurking around in the fandom, take the plunge, get to know your fellow fanatics. It’s the best decision I’ve made.

Thank you to our author,  TEDewitt, and our nominator! See more of TEDewitt's works featured on our page throughout the day!

Writer’s Spotlight is every Wednesday! Want to nominate an author? You can nominate them here!

[ofmdrecaps]

07/03/2024 Daily OFMD Recap

TLDR; Rhys Darby; Taika Waititi; Leslie Jones; Ruibo Qian; Dominic Burgess; Samba Schutte; Logie Awards; AdoptOurCrew; Auxillery Wardrobe Zine; Teal Oranges & Garlic Soup Week Spotlight Cont'd; Fan Spotlight; Love Notes; Daily Darby/Today's Taika

New month, new blog! Thanks everyone, as you probably can tell there's a new blog for the recaps! I'm doing this to allow for some more silly shenanigans to happen on my main, but also keep the recaps available and more easily accessible to those who want them! For the first few weeks I'll be reblogging them from main, but then will eventually move to just here so as not to overwhelm anyone following. Thanks so much for reading! I love doing these and I was actually surprised how many people followed! I didn't realize so many people were reading, so tysm that warms my heart and made my day!

== Rhys Darby ==

Rhys will be join Baron Vaughn and Rory Scovel on AfterMidnight with Taylor Tomlinson on July 8th, 3 PM PST in Los Angelos, CA! Are you in the area? You can request tickets on their website!

Source: 1iota's Instagram

Next up-- Peacock has posted an exclusive clip of the upcoming The Hungry Games: Alaska's Big Bear Challenge-- starring the voice of our very own Rhys Darby!

== Taika Waititi ==

Awesome new promo for Time Bandits! I'm gonna keep reminding you because I'm actually super psyched for this. July 24th on Apple TV!

Source: Matt_Grace_Photography

== Leslie Jones ==

Leslie out with the LA Sparks! <3 Also, did you know Leslie will be voicing a character in the New Hulu series Hit Monkey? I didn't know! New seasons starts July 15th!

Source: LA Sparks IG / JoshuaGordon

== Ruibo Qian ==

Our Pirate Queen is going to be taking on the role of Ms. Sherlock Holmes in Ms.Holmes & Ms.Watson in APT 2B at the Old Globe Theatre in San Deigo CA! You can buy tickets for July 27th, opening day -- or any of the showings here!

Source: OldGlobeTheatre Instagram

== Dominic Burgess ==

Dominic is gracing us once again with cat pics. I love it <3

Source: Dominic Burgess' Twitter

== Samba Schutte ==

More pictures with Samba at Dancing with Fire LA with the cast / crew of Advanced Chemistry!

Source: alecmoore219's Instagram

== Logie Award Nominations ==

REMINDER! Our beloved Mads, aka Eddie Redcliffe in Deadloch, aka The Baddest MF in Tasmania, has been nominated for a 2024 Logie for Best Lead Actress! So was Kate Box, her costar, and Deadloch was nominated for Best Scripted Comedy Program!

-- and guess what? It's done by vote! If you feel so inclined, please take a moment to go and vote for our dear Archie/Deadloch (or Dulcie whomever you'd like)! https://vote.tvweeklogies.com.au/ Note: You do need to use your email to submit, just FYI!

== Adopt Our Crew ==

Looks like something exciting will be coming soon from @adoptourcrew! I think I might have an idea what it may be related to...

Source: Adopt Our Crew Twitter

== Auxiliary Wardrobe Zine ==

There's a new non-profit charity zine starting up-- in honor of our beloved Captain Stede and OFMD!

"From his flamboyant coats to his sword-slashed shirts, we want to celebrate EVERY way that Stede and fashion come together! Whether this be a canon look you're fond of, his job as a luxury fashion designer in an AU, or Stede in a style of clothing you personally love (or lack of clothing… pinups anyone?!) we encourage contributors to make this prompt their own. This zine will be a digital-only PDF and will consist of a SFW edition and a NSFW edition featuring fanart and fanfic. All proceeds for the zine will go to Care for Gaza."

Want to learn more? You can visit their carrd.co below for scheduling and FAQ's!

Info & FAQ: https://auxiliarywardrobezine.carrd.co

Artist & Writer Signups will start July 6, 2024!

Follow them on Instagram and Twitter!

Source: The Auxiliary Wardrobe: A Stede Bonnet Zine

== Teal Oranges & Garlic Soup Week Spotlights ==

Teal Oranges & Garlic Soup Week may be over, but that doesn't mean the spotlights have to end! Tonight we have the fantastic @hameko1019! I absolutely adore her style and use of color! You can check her work out on Hameko1019's Twitter! Thank you again to @garlicsoupweek for the wonderful prompts!

Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 5 / Day 6 / Day 7 / Bonus

Source: Hameko1019's Twitter

== Fan Spotlight ==

= Cast Cards =

Tonight's cast card by our fantastic @melvisik is Jordan Feldman who "was listed as 'Heavily Made-Up Man' in The Best Revenge is Dressing Well."

Source: @melvisik's Twitter

== Love Notes ==

Well lovelies, you've made it half way through another week. Only half more to go-- for those of you in the UK, good luck at the elections! For those in the US, tomorrow is July 4th, and while I know there are mixed feelings this year in the US, please remember to take some time to relax and enjoy a day off if you have it.

You're doing so very well friends. There is SO much going on in the world, so much going on in the fandom, so much going on in your lives. But you are still kicking, and I'm so very proud of you for that. If you need to take a break-- do it. Give yourself some grace and get some rest, the world will still be there in a few days. If you've already done that and you're taking some time to yourself-- great job-- you deserve it. Remember that we will still be here, and we will still love you when you get back. Ed and Stede? Still in love when you get back. They're off terrorising some poor patron of their Inn with stories of being gut stabbed, or forcing them to watch a puppet show they came up with.

You're kicking ass at whatever struggles you are dealing with right now-- give yourself time to celebrate the fact you're surviving them. Rest well lovelies, see you soon <3

== Daily Darby / Today's Taika ==

Tonight's theme is these two goof balls singing. Someone help me find Taika singing Queen, cause then we'll have some gif smushes <3 Tonight's gifs courtesy of @celluloidbroomcloset and @eddie-redcliffe!!

[somefinn-g]

Hiii everyone, just now an idea for a Hermitcraft + Friends train based AU popped into my mind, I wrote down my first thoughts

now I'd like to know if anyone would be interested or not (I'm currently obsessing a bit over trains :'3)

have fun reading

Mumbo

train broken from redstone explosion

lives "temporarily" in one of his passenger wagon that survived

Grian

plagues everyone by being a blind passenger, clawing himself to the roof

never had an own train

"pesky civilian"

kinda lives with mumbo (guy doesn't care too much about the "annoying" nature of Grian, he got other problems)

Scar

Zoo train

often visited by Grian

jokes about Grian living in his train because of his avian features

Bdubs

Doesn't really have an actual train but rather a horse carriage

get yelled at a lot by Joel because of the horses

almost all other hermits find them the cutest

4 person max if you prefer comfort

"smelly" - Joel

Docm77

kinda DB (is the most punctual person, but can never arrive anywhere on time)

somehow the most advanced train but there always something breaking (only when ppl look, when he's alone everything works of course)

gets asked to build a tunnel system a lot - he always refuses

gets asked if his tunnel can be used for the train tracks - he refuses

gets asked if he can help with the tra-

lives very far away from everyone

amphibia train because the tracks to his place aren't in the best shape

has a rail leading to nowhere !?

Postal service (Pearl + Etho)

The post system

Tango helped them out a lot

Etho does the more technical stuff

Pearl does the delivery and take in of the packages

Etho is never really seen around (he works on a secret project ?)

Pearl doesn't own her own transportation vehicle, but loves to use the postal van for her own deeds (nobody minds, take it as a work benefit)

Z. I. T. S. train company (Zedaph, Impulse, Tango, Skizz, Joel, Jimmy, Cub, Cleo)

they got a thing going on

Tango and Impulse want to create the most technical advanced train the world has ever seen

Joel is a train conductor in their main line passenger Train

Jimmy is the engine driver tho he finds his job boring

Lizzie tho not officially hired loves to drive the train (she kicks Jimmy out which he happily obiges) while Joel is working (he sneaks to her into the driver's cabin on his "brakes")

Jimmy is the only one, except for Joel, who knows about Lizzie driving the train (or maybe not)

Jimmy and Joel tolerate somewhat of Grian visiting them at work, Joel says "it's less boring with this idiot here" Jimmy thinks alike (maybe not the idiot part, sometimes he thinks he's more of an idiot, at least his clumsiness makes him feel that way)

Grian definitely didn't blackmail Joel and Jim (no Tim) because he saw Lizzie in the driver's seat (but nobody would probably believe him anyway if he one day decides to tell on Lizzie, his reputation of being an annoying prankster has exceeded him by far)

Joel always yells at bdubs because he's scared of getting the train delayed and he hates horses

Zedaph works as an engine driver too (Lizzie always needs to be careful not to accidentally walk in on him, because he sometimes replaces Jimmy last minute)

Gem, tho not alway very enthusiastically, helps out when someone falls ill (the pay isn't shabby so "why not" she thinks)

Gem owns a small boat on which she sometimes sleeps, she can't live on it completely because it would be to isolating

Gem loves to poke fun of Joel at work because she knows he's been scolded for ruckus behaviour before and now he needs to swallow his pride to the amusement of Gem (Lizzie, tho not in front of others at work, loves to join in on these shenanigans)

Cub is responsible for the train schedule and signals

False

she has the most beautiful steam train on the whole server

for the nostalgic feels she offers tours of the server

false has a wagon refurnished to be her now called home

some other hermits have wagons they live in and false does transport them to other places from time to time

Stress and Iskall

they both own together 3 refurnished wagons

Stress is a true cat lady (we don't know how many cats live with her, the number seems rising every minute)

Iskall isn't very amused by all the fluffy creatures, he implemented the rule that no cat shall enter the shared wagon

Iskalls wagon is a chaos of unfinished projects

Stesses quarters are something every proud mother of 4 legged furr balls could only dream off (Lizzie would definitely want to move in if she ever visited, surely)

False does transport their home to other places when they want a change of scenery (Iskalls excuse for this is always "A new start brings new creative thoughts and a tone of energy" Stress already knows by now that this enthusiasm isn't very long lasting)

i probably rather draw than write if I'll continue with this

[itsjuststardust]

Heaven in Hiding - Chapter 15: Seas of Green

Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Chapter Summary: Din Djarin does not do things by halves.

Word Count: 10,912

Author's Note/Chapter warnings: Be warned—This chapter has some teeth-rotting fluff, a sprinkle of a PTSD flashback for Alaina, and some more fluff. Oh, also, I would like to post about a missing smut monster. I went to feed it this morning, and it was gone. So, if anyone happens to stumble across him, let me know 😈

🎵Chapter soundtrack🎵 ‘Through Me (The Flood) - Hozier.

MINORS - DO NOT INTERACT - 18+ ONLY

Chapter 15: Seas of Green

“Is that all you’ve got?” Mando taunted her.

Alaina growled at the Mandalorian, spinning her staff before charging at him again. Like she was an annoying fly hovering around his helmet, he batted her away, easily blocking her staff with his forearm. The wood vibrated under her hands after striking his beskar vambrace, and she wondered how much longer the wooden staff she’d been gifted on Sorgan would hold up when being wielded against someone with beskar armor.

His silver beskar helmet shook in disappointment after he blocked her latest attack. “You’re leading again,” he reprimanded her. “I’m not your dance partner. Stop putting your plans on display.”

She rolled her eyes but relented with a tired nod at his critique. 

Alaina lost track of time or the days after they arrived on the moon. They kept their schedule the same, more or less, every day. 

The early morning was set aside for sparing, sometimes hand to hand, sometimes with weapons. After they completed those lessons, Alaina would complete whatever barbaric exercises or physical activity Mando seemed to have dreamed up before she had earned a break. A couple of hours in the afternoon were for her working with Grogu on meditation and focusing his powers. However, her favorite part of the day was the evenings when the three of them ended every night talking and eating dinner together in front of the fire.

Alaina was surprisingly nervous as she sat cross-legged across from the green child during their first session. She felt wildly unqualified to teach someone such skills, but after one look at Grogu’s huge dark eyes staring up at her, she began with a nod. She started with meditation. Maker, she hated meditating as a child. At least Grogu didn’t throw temper tantrums like she did when she began each lesson with meditation. He did, however, fall asleep almost every time. She would be a liar if she didn’t admit that she had also fallen asleep during their first session.

It was difficult to gauge either of their progress. For starters, Grogu couldn’t exactly talk, so she wasn’t sure how much of her nervous ramblings he understood. Part of her thought that Grogu was merely placating her, but she didn’t have any proof to back her up that thought. She knew from the previous visions he’d shared with her that the green womp rat had had training with actual Jedi before, so Alaina’s lessons with him were likely underwhelming for the child. 

As for her own progress… or, perhaps, lack of progress was a better description. She’d made no advancements toward unlocking her previous abilities. After a week of hitting the proverbial brick wall, Alaina was coming around to the idea that her former powers had been lost forever. The recurring headache that came with each session was only another indicator that she should probably throw in the towel.

As for her and Mando…

Things between them, as usual, were confusing and difficult to define.

Something shifted between them after that first night in front of the fire. For the first time, Alaina felt that things were finally open between the two of them. Both of them had their darkest secrets in the open now. There was an ease in their day-to-day activities that came with the familiarity of having known someone for years. Well, she supposed that technically, she had known him for years… However, in a different way, Alaina felt as if she had not truly learned who he was until he dropped that bomb in that mechanic’s hangar and said that he had a plan to keep her out of the hands of the Empire. That he had intended to save her… Alaina hadn’t forgiven herself for that.

She didn’t think she ever would.

Mando had yet to bring it up. Instead, the Mandalorian was focused solely on her training. She expected nothing less from her beskar sentinel. The former ballerina found herself thankful to learn that Mando was a great instructor as long as she wasn’t behind the controls of his precious Razor Crest.

On their second full day on their little slice of heaven, Alaina woke up sore and dreading to see whatever Mando had in store for her. She’d been thrilled when he didn’t make her do another lap around the lake after they completed the second day of her training. Her enthusiasm was short-lived when he forced her to work on her upper body strength by doing push-ups, pull-ups, and boxing. Every day, he found some new way to torture her after their sparring match. When the day came that he made her do another lap around the lake, Alaina finally figured out the pattern and realized that they must have been here for a week already.

“You’ve really put some thought into this, haven’t you?” she had asked him before heading out on her hike. 

After her comment, she noticed his first tell—his hand coming up to rub the back of his neck. He was embarrassed. She thought it was adorable. He could still be so expressive even when he was covered from head to toe, and she was surprised she hadn’t noticed it before.

Touched by his thoughtfulness, she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a quick peck on his beskar cheek before turning to head to the lake without another word. Her grin only grew when she heard Mando sigh behind her before grumbling, “Come on, kid.”

Alaina smirked at him when he caught up with her, but before she could open her mouth to tease him, he said, “It’s good for me to stretch my legs too.”

Alaina quirked an eyebrow at his words, and he silently bumped his shoulder into hers as they walked together. Mando had told her she'd done it in six hours the first time she hiked around the lake. This time around, she made it a point to stop to pick some yellow berries with Grogu, and the two of them forced Mando to eat some with them. No one was in a rush to finish between their frequent stops. Mando didn't seem disappointed it took the three of them eight the second time.

Thus began their dance.

Despite Mando’s argument that he wasn’t her dance partner, Alaina had to disagree. Training and living with him was a bit like learning how to dance with a new partner—learning their tricks, strengths, and weaknesses, and how to trust one another.

She paused at the word trust. She trusted him—she did. 

However, Alaina was struggling to tell him that she had forgiven him. 

She’d attempted to tell the Mandalorian a handful of times over the last week that he was forgiven, but the moment she opened her mouth to speak, she could never find the words. Alaina couldn’t figure out why. The man had proved himself. Repeatedly. Her mind had been wounded deeply over the last five years, and every time she opened her mouth to forgive the Mandalorian in his silver armor, something stopped her. A single thought stopped her from following through—

Why didn’t Mando say anything? Why didn’t he even try to clue her into his plan?

Those kinds of thoughts made her uneasy.

How different would things be now if he had told her of his plans? Would she have believed him? Would Penn and the Empire have still found her anyway? Would she and Mando be friends? Would they have shared the same moments five years ago that they had over the last few months? Or would she be living her own life without sparing a thought about the Mandalorian?

Too many thoughts plagued her mind. Too many what-ifs prevented her from voicing her forgiveness to the Mandalorian to whom she owed her life.

If Mando noticed the slight change in her, he didn’t acknowledge it. He continued to train her, spar with her, hunt and provide for them, play with the kid, and encourage her to regain her lost powers. Between Alaina’s struggle to come to terms with the past and Mando’s continued determination to help her learn how to defend herself, things had never been more tense between the two of them. 

Alaina expected that tension would be a deterrent, hindering their newfound progress. However, that was not the case at all. The tension wasn’t heavy; it wasn’t angry.

It was electric.

They were more aware of each other. When they walked, Alaina felt drawn to Mando like he was a magnet, and when she would drift a little too close, each lingering glance or brush of their fingers would make her cheeks blush, but she never pulled away. Neither did he.

Which only made things more confusing.

Was he as confused about them as she was?

She wanted to ask him about the invisible string that he admitted to feeling connecting them. Had he felt it fray and snap when she broke on Tatooine? Could he still feel it between them? Alaina wondered why she had felt drawn to the Mandalorian more recently. Was it because the damaged and tattered end of her string was trying to rebuild, and it felt drawn to its twin hiding somewhere under layers of beskar and flesh?

“Hey,” Mando’s demanding voice pulled her back to their current sparring match. Alaina blinked and frowned when she realized his hand was wrapped around her staff. “What was lesson one?” he asked with a tilt of his helmet.

Before she had a chance to respond, Mando spun the staff out of her grip, and in the blink of an eye, he had her back pinned to his chest and caged her in with her staff.

“What do you do now?” he asked. The cold metal of his helmet grazed her cheek, and she could feel the rumble against her back. His voice's husky, deep timbre sent a shiver down her spine.

Alaina blushed at their close proximity, finding it difficult to focus on anything other than how close Mando was to her. Things had definitely changed, indeed.

She smirked as an idea came to her mind…

She leaned back against Mando’s chest and wrapped her arms backward, linking them loosely behind his neck. When she felt Mando stiffen behind her, she had to school her features so she wouldn’t give herself away.

“I could always try and flip you over me,” she whispered breathlessly, tugging on his neck so his helmet had a direct line of sight of her chest.

Mando hummed, “You could try.” He pulled the staff tighter against her chest. “Don’t think you’ll get far with that, Tranyc.” Alaina couldn't help but shudder at the sound of his voice dropping as he rumbled his pet name for her.

The sunlight. 

He thought she was the sunlight.

Between Mando’s sweet words, the alcohol, and her sore legs, Alaina had turned into literal goo after their first night.

Despite everything the two of them had been through, she looked forward to ending every night in front of the fire, talking with Mando, just like she enjoyed starting every morning training with him—the physical closeness, the teasing, the borderline flirting between them... For the first time in five years, Alaina finally began to feel like her old self.

“Looks like you lost this round, Tranyc.”

Alaina dropped her arms around his neck and slowly spun in his arms to face him. Mando’s helmet settled on her face, and Alaina gave him a soft smile. She let her hands rub up and down his biceps.

“I don’t know,” she shrugged, giving him a little pout. “I still might be able to get out.” Mando cocked his helmet, and she bit down on her bottom lip to keep from giggling. “Mando?”

A beat of silence passed between them before Mando finally gave her a low hum.

“What if I want you to be my dance partner?” She gripped his biceps and blinked up at him before she whispered, “Kiss me.”

She could feel the muscles of his biceps tensing briefly after her question before they relaxed as he loosened his grip around her. While the rest of his body seemed to have relaxed, his helmet stayed frozen on her face.

What she would give to see his face right now. To see what his eyes looked like when he was surprised. Would they be warm? Playful maybe? She could still remember how his lips felt against her skin. Even his brief kiss on her cheek left a residual imprint that she could still feel a week later.

“I—” he began, and Alaina felt his arms loosen a little more—

She acted quickly, taking the Mandalorian by surprise. Alaina shot backward, shoving from Mando’s chest, and grabbed her staff that he was barely hanging on to as she ran. She gave her staff a triumphant twirl once she was free from his hold.

“I’m sorry, Mando, who lost that round?” she smirked.

Mando’s helmet moved from where she had been right in front of him before looking at her with what she could only assume was a bewildered expression.

Her smirk blew into a full-blown smile when she watched him cock his helmet. “Clever,” he complimented her, and Alaina could hear the proud grin in his voice.

Alaina gave him a mock bow, “I think besting you means I get to skip the physical torture after this.”

“Is that so?” he asked, stepping closer to her.

Alaina’s eyes flicked down to his boots before looking back at him. She analyzed the stiff set of his shoulders and the slight hunch to his back and realized their sparing session wasn’t over yet. 

The Mandalorian was now hunting her.

With another spin of her staff, Alaina went on the defensive, trying to predict what Mando would do next.

What would Mando have her do in this scenario? Run? Go on the offensive? 

Her eyes flicked around their surroundings. There were no good hiding places. Even in the lavender fields, Mando would just cheat with the settings in his helmet. The forest was a possibility, but she’d have to run past him to make it there, and he would catch her easily. No, running wasn’t an option. 

Fighting it was.

She charged at him, aiming for his legs with her staff. If he was surprised that she went on the attack, Mando didn’t show it. He jumped, avoiding the strike to his legs. She swung again, aiming for his helmet, but he ducked just in time to miss the blow. It also didn’t slow down his advances. 

With a quick pivot, he charged at her. Alaina tried to spin away from him and frowned when she realized he wasn’t aiming for her. After his gloved hand gripped her weapon, she realized he was going for her staff. When the leather glove wrapped around her wooden staff, it was too late for her.

“Shit—” she began but was cut off when Mando yanked the staff from her. She jumped, narrowly avoiding getting knocked on her ass, but the moment her feet touched the ground, Mando spun the staff back at her, taking her to the ground anyway.

The next time Alaina opened her eyes, their moon's soft ground and beautiful sky were gone, and in its place was the cold durasteel floor of the Razor Crest. The cool desert night air of Tatooine drifted into the hold, and standing above her…

Was him.

Calican—she eventually learned was her attacker’s name.

Calican dropped to his knees and grabbed her by her wrists, pinning her to the floor. She froze in fear as she stared up at the vile grin looking down at her. She could feel her heart pounding against her ribs, and her lungs burned from lack of oxygen because she couldn’t force herself to take a breath.

Not again.

A strangled sob left her lips. This couldn’t be happening again. 

She wouldn’t let it happen again. 

In a panic, Alaina began thrashing. She struggled and screamed and clawed at the man, pinning her to the cold durasteel floor of the Razor Crest. Calican only smiled and dug his hips into her when she began fighting back. “This why he keeps you around, huh? A little something soft and sweet to come back home to?”

She ground her teeth at his question.

Not. Again.

Alaina dug deep into her mind, pleading for her former powers to return and help her. To her surprise, the faint sound of a snake hissing came from the depths of her mind, responding to her call, and she didn’t dare stop to question it. Instead, she gathered all of her strength and, with an angry scream, launched herself at her attacker, flipping them until she now straddled his chest.

The man’s evil smile didn’t budge as he struggled under her, but Alaina held firm. In an attempt to incapacitate him, she wound her arm back and launched a punch at the man’s temple. The moment her fist struck the side of his head, Alaina clenched her eyes shut as intense pain exploded in her hand and radiated up her arm. 

During their boxing lessons, Mando had warned her that punching someone would hurt, but she hadn’t expected it to hurt like that.

Once her breathing was somewhat controlled, Alaina opened her eyes to assess the situation with her attacker, hoping that the man was at least unconscious since her right hand felt broken. Her breath caught in her chest at the sight of silver grass and the swaying lavender grass of the moon. 

She wasn’t on Tatooine… There was no attacker…

But there was a Mandalorian lying under her, frozen with his hands up in surrender.

There had never been an attacker. There had never been an attacker… which meant that when she punched the imaginary Calican, she had actually punched Mando in his beskar helmet instead.

“Ow,” Alaina cried, clutching her wrist to her chest.

“Alaina? Alaina, are you with me?” Mando asked, staying deadly still as if he were afraid she would attempt to punch him in his helmet again.

Alaina could only nod. She was in too much pain from striking her fist against a wall of steel. Tears welled in her eyes. “I’m sorry,” she cried, her breath coming out as a whoosh, and she now found herself unable to catch her breath.

“It’s okay,” he tried to placate her, making her cry harder. “I wasn’t thinking—”

Alaina shook her head. More tears leaked from her eyes when she felt Mando place a comforting hand on her thigh. “You were doing your job. I just—I blinked, and you weren’t you—I’m sorry. Fuck,” she hissed, gripping her right hand in her left, pulling the throbbing hand tightly against her chest.

“Can I?” Mando asked from his prone position, nodding to her hand.

Alaina's cheeks flushed when she realized she was still straddling the Mandalorian, and she nodded. She started to climb off of him, but Mando stopped her before she could get too far, pulling her back to rest against his chest and allowing her to sit on the ground in the open ‘V’ of his legs. Alaina felt a bit like a child, sitting perpendicular to Mando with her legs resting over his left while her left shoulder rested against his chest.

“I think it’s broken,” Alaina whimpered as more tears came.

“That’s what punching beskar will do to you,” he grumbled as he continued to inspect her hand.

“It seemed to be the right thing to do in the moment,” she grimaced as he tried to extend her fingers.

Mando shook his head, “You’ve broken all the fingers in your hand and your wrist,” he informed her, moving his helmet to look up at her face. “But at least your form is getting better.”

Alaina blinked at his words before she felt her eyes widen in shock. “You’re not mad at me?” she asked him, trying to keep the hurt and pain out of her voice.

“Alaina—” he began and then stopped himself with a shake of his head. “I wasn’t thinking when I took you down. You have nothing to be sorry for. You have every right to be angry with me. This was only a matter of time,” he whispered. “If you don’t think I’m not just as upset with myself as you are with me, then you are sorely mistaken.” He stopped to push some of the sweat-soaked hair back from her face with his glove. “I’m just glad to see that you decided to fight instead of running.”

She hated how her lip trembled as she said, “But I punched you.”

Mando shrugged, “I’d let you do it again if it would help.”

Alaina collapsed against his chest and let the Mandalorian wrap his arms around her while she cried over her broken wrist. She hadn’t expected the flashback to come on so suddenly or seem so real. Her lungs burned while she gasped for air through her cries. She’d been doing so well the last two weeks. She hadn’t even thought about her attacker once in the last week. Everything had been going smoothly; she hadn’t even cried once since that first night in front of the fire when she told Mando about her other ability.

Mando pulled her hand under his helmet, and his lips briefly kissed her broken fingers.

She took a deep, shuddering breath to try and get her emotions back in check, but Mando wasn’t making that easy with his sweet actions.

Maker, why didn’t the idiot just say something to her all those years ago?

The question came tumbling out of her mouth before she could stop herself. “Why didn’t you say anything to me?” she asked, turning her upper body so she could look him in his helmet. There was a silent beat where he seemed to freeze and slowly pulled her hand out from under his helmet. “Five years ago? You said you weren’t going to turn me in… Why didn’t you say anything?” she asked, ignoring the pain radiating from her hand.

Silver beskar stared silently back at her.

“Why?” she asked again, wanting an answer.

“I—” Mando began but cut himself off, and Alaina watched the man deflate. “I don’t know,” he finally admitted. “Honestly, it was a last-minute decision. There were too many variables, and I… I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”

Alaina turned from the man and saw Grogu had come to stand next to her between Mando’s legs, staring up at the adults with a cautious look. She tried to give him a reassuring smile through her tears, but when she tried to move her hand from Mando’s, pain exploded through her again, and she clutched her hand to her chest, hissing through her pain.

“We need to get your hand fixed,” Mando said, bringing one of his gloved hands to rub reassuring circles on her back. “My bone knitter broke a few years ago. We need to find a place to get you healed.”

Alaina looked up at the beautiful sky, not ready to leave their little moon just yet.

“Patu.”

She looked down at the green toddler and gave him a watery smile. “Sorry to ruin our vacation, little one,” she apologized, giving Grogu a sad smile.

Mando’s fingers scratched her upper back as he said, “We can always come back.”

Alaina shrugged. She hadn’t been ready to leave the little bubble that they had created here. Leaving would mean rejoining the rest of the galaxy in reality… and… she wasn’t ready for that yet. Something told her that once they returned to the real world, their perfect little bubble would pop, and they would just go back to how everything was before they landed here.

Grogu grunted and stretched his tiny hand toward her broken hand. She shook her head and moved her hand to show the kid so he could understand. Her hand looked terrible already. Dark red and already showing signs of bruising where her fist struck Mando’s helmet.

“See,” Alaina whispered. “I’m sorry, Grogu. I’ll find a way to make it up to you.”

Grogu blinked at her gnarled hand and turned his enormous bug eyes to look at her. The kid reached for her broken hand with his three-fingered, clawed one. Alaina cringed in preparation for the pain when he would no doubt try to grab onto her hand, but the pain never came. Her eyes cracked open to peek at the kid, and she curiously watched as his hand hovered over her broken one, and his eyes were closed in concentration.

“What is he—” Alaina started to ask but had to stop when she felt warmth begin to radiate around her.

The feeling started with her fingertips and slowly moved over her fingers, knuckles, and wrist. The strange feeling continued, blanketing her in a strange warmth and peace. It was not something she’d ever experienced before. She couldn’t even come up with the words to describe it other than it felt like Grogu had just taken all of her pain away.

When Grogu’s eyes opened next, Alaina’s mouth dropped open in shock as she stared at her hand. The pain, the bruises, the gnarled fingers, and her broken wrist were just… gone. She flexed her fingers a few times to verify that her hand was no longer broken and still couldn’t believe what she saw.

“Did he?” Mando asked, looking between Grogu and her hand.

Alaina stared in awe at her hand, flexed the digits again for good measure, and turned her wrist. “I think he did,” she murmured.

Both adults turned their heads to stare at the strange, green alien toddler just in time to watch Grogu collapse beside her.

“Grogu!” she exclaimed in a panic and gathered the child in her arms to examine him further. She held him out in her hands so that Mando could also see him. “Is he okay?” Alaina asked, unable to keep the panic from her voice.

She watched the slight rise and fall of the child’s chest, feeling somewhat relieved to find him breathing, but she was still concerned that he was unconscious.

Mando reached to take Grogu from her, and she passed him off, placing a hand over the child’s chest to feel the even beat of his heart under her fingers.

“I think so,” Mando answered, cradling the unconscious child to his chest. “He must have depleted all of his energy healing your hand. He did something similar when he stopped a Mudhorn from killing me.”

Alaina frowned at his assessment, “I didn’t even know you could do that.”

That was not something Penn had ever tried to push on her. She could vaguely remember him giving her a dead plant to revive in the beginning, but nothing had ever come of it. It was almost inconceivable to think that the gift of healing was possible. There was so much unknown about this strange Force—Strange how it could vary between users.

“Mando?” Mando’s helmet looked up from the kid to her. “I’m sorry.” Sorry for what? She wasn’t sure, but she was just sorry for all of it.

Mando’s helmet closed the short distance between them, and he gently nudged her forehead as he whispered, “Me too.”

Din Djarin did not do things by halves.

Case in point: When he finally accepted the Creed and became a Mandalorian, he went all in and joined the Fighting Corps, becoming a Mandalorian Warrior.

He didn't do things by halves. Whatever he put his mind to, he went all in. That's just who he was...

Mando silently stalked through the obsidian forest as he attempted to hunt their next meal. There seemed to be an overpopulation of the silver rabbits that lived here, but he had found some larger tracks that he made note of to track down if they stayed here longer.

He said he was attempting to hunt because he was finding it increasingly difficult to take his thoughts off Alaina as he wandered through the black trees.

It felt as if something had changed between them since they arrived on the moon.

He rarely consumed alcohol, and when he did drink on that first night next to the fire, he’d let the warmth of the whiskey loosen his tongue, and he’d told Alaina that she was the sunlight. The slip of his tongue reminded him why he didn’t drink on a regular basis.

Neither said another word the rest of the night. He carried her all the way to the sleeping alcove on the Crest, and they laid there staring at one another while they silently processed the evening’s events while Grogu snored softly above them. She stared at him in that karking purple dress and, in the darkened alcove, reached across the short distance between them and rested a hand on his helmet where his cheek was, making his breath catch. 

Mando had told her she was the sunlight, but that wasn’t entirely truthful.

She wasn’t the sunlight. She was his sunlight.

But the words lodged in his throat, and then the moment passed them as Alaina’s eyes drooped in exhaustion. He didn’t know what to say, so he covered her hand until they both fell asleep.

Din Djarin was in trouble.

He was in trouble because this… whatever you wanted to call it—was happening between him and Alaina; it felt like they were rapidly approaching relationship territory. 

He’d never had a relationship before. In fact, he’d made it a point to avoid them. He’d had a handful of one-night stands and one rather unfortunate, short-lived fling with Xi’an when he had hit rock bottom, but he’d never had anything more than just sex.

What he had with Alaina felt suspiciously like a relationship, which terrified him to his core. He tried to tell himself he was imagining things. Still, the facts were staring him in the face—How he couldn’t help but smile every time he caught Alaina and Grogu meditating—How Alaina couldn’t stop talking about how beautiful the moon was, and all he could think was that she was the most beautiful part of it—How they had slept every night in the alcove together. He had to stop himself from gathering her up in his arms to hold her as close to her as he could to protect her—How it was becoming increasingly difficult to remember what his life was like before they entered it and even more difficult to imagine them not in it.

The morning after explaining what Tranyc meant was full of awkward shuffling, blushing, and avoiding each other’s glances. The change in their usual synergy made him uncomfortable. It only made it more evident that whatever was happening between them was shifting and changing, making him more anxious. So, eager to return to their usual banter, Mando grabbed the staff the villagers on Sorgan gifted Alaina and used it to knock her feet out from under her. Alaina’s green eyes shifted from soft to embarrassed to angry.

Toward the end of their first week here, his emotions came to a climax.

Literally.

He had set up targets in the forest trees that surrounded one side of them so that Alaina could work on target practice with his former mentor’s blaster that he’d given her. He’d let her warm up with a few shots while he took a moment to analyze her form. When he approached Alaina, lecturing her about proper form before touching her to make some mild corrections to her form, he couldn’t help but grow warm at their proximity, making him feel like a karking teenager seeing a pretty girl for the first time.

There he was, with Alaina’s chest to his back, as he stretched his arms around to hold her hands. He attempted to correct her hand position and alignment. It was then that he felt the first sign of trouble when he felt his cock twitch in his trousers when he felt Alaina relax further into him.

Mando struggled to control himself for the rest of their lesson. He was very aware of where his hips were in correlation to Alaina’s, and he found himself constantly repositioning and swiveling away from the blonde so he wouldn't make her uncomfortable with his body that was attempting to betray him. He’d done well for the most part, but when Alaina fired off a round that hit dead center in the middle of her target, his carefully constructed walls came tumbling down, and his hard-on grew to the point of no return.

Alaina was beautiful. There was no denying that he found her attractive. But, Maker, there was something about watching her in her tight clothes, firing his gun, and making the perfect shot that was just fucking sexy.

It was all downhill from there for Mando.

He left Alaina, telling her to spend thirty minutes working on her core strength while he returned to the Crest. Once safely locked away in the ship’s small fresher, away from the wandering eyes of his companions, he stripped himself of his armor and clothes and stepped into the shower, turning the water as hot as he could tolerate it. It was there, under the guise of cleaning up, that Mando allowed himself to cave to his baser instincts.

He tightly gripped himself in his hand as green eyes and blonde hair flooded his mind.

“Fuck,” he muttered, leaning his left forearm on the shower wall while his right hand began vigorously pumping his cock.

“I’ve never… been… intimate with someone else before… you.”

Mando bit down on his bottom lip at the memory. How the firelight flickered in her green eyes, the pink blush on her cheeks, a glimmer of her pillowy soft cleavage peeked over that karking purple dress. His hand tightened painfully over his cock, and he grunted at the memory.

She’d chosen him. She picked him to be her first, and he’d treated her like a fucking animal.

His breaths turned shallow as he thought back to that night on Sorgan. He could remember that night crystal clear. Alaina teased him with her flexibility. He remembered how she looked on her hands and knees while he wildly bucked into her soft, tight heat. He lost himself in that moment. He lost himself inside of that tight perfect fucking cunt, and he knew he needed to mark her. He needed to paint her soft, creamy skin with his seed as if that would send some kind of message to anyone else who would see her like that in the future.

“Alaina,” he groaned softly in the shower, and his hips started eagerly rocking into his hand as he felt the familiar coil in his abdomen begin to make itself known. Mando grunted as he fucked his hand, wishing he was fucking the tight heat of someone else.

Oh, if he were to have her again, he would do it all differently. If he could have her again, knowing that their one night together on Sorgan had been her first time… He’d treat her like a fucking queen. He’d show her how a man was supposed to treat her.

He’d taste every millimeter of her creamy skin. He groaned through a particularly delicious image of him on his knees between her legs. She would be wearing that fucking purple dress that would hide his head under the fabric of her dress as he worshipped her sweet cunt with his tongue.

“Fuuuucccckkkkk,” he growled lowly, panting as his hips stilled and his hand worked over his cock tirelessly at just the thought of the taste of her. “Yes.” Yes, he’d worship her with his tongue until she’d scream and wrap her legs around his head while she came into his mouth.

That was the last bit of imagery his body needed, and his left fist pounded the wall as his right pounded his cock as it exploded with thick ropes of his cum, painting the shower wall in front of him. He slowed his strokes as he came down, biting his bottom lip as the last of his spend left him. Mando fell into the shower wall, leaning against the cold tile while he tried to catch his breath.

Din Djarin was most definitely in trouble.

Mando let out an irritated growl as he tracked a set of rabbit prints when he felt his cock stir again at just the thought of having her again.

It was like a dam had broken after that, and for the next week, the only way he could get himself under control was by jerking himself off in the shower after every single one of their lessons.

Well, he paused, every lesson except for yesterday’s.

The afternoon had not gone to plan. At all. 

Things had been going so well between them that it didn't even cross his mind that pinning her without warning would trigger a PTSD response. He wasn’t thinking. They had worked on holds a couple of times, but after Alaina had shamelessly flirted with him—asking him to kiss her… His plan was to pin her and return her flirting, just so he could see her blush.

He hadn’t expected what had come next. He hadn’t expected to see Alaina’s emerald eyes shift and go somewhere else entirely. Then, when she started screaming, he realized too late that she must be having a flashback about that worthless carcass. Mando had tried to calm her down, but his touch seemed only to make her screams worse, so he lay there with his hands held up in surrender and repeated her name over and over, hoping she would fight her way out of her nightmare, which she eventually did.

Unfortunately for Alaina, she didn’t snap out of it until after she’d punched him.

In his helmet.

The petite woman packed a wallop that made his head ring. However, her punch held no match for his beskar helmet, and Alaina’s hand and wrist shattered on impact.

The rest of the day was a blur. Both of them were shocked that the womp rat healed her hand, and then that shock turned to fear once the kid collapsed. The two of them spent the rest of the afternoon taking turns watching over the kid. Alaina fussed over the child, and her sole focus was dedicated to the sleeping toddler. Neither of them said much unless it was about the kid. Mando wasn’t surprised that the kid started coming around when he started cooking dinner over the fire. Apparently, the bottomless pit that was the kid’s stomach was enough to rouse him from unconsciousness.

Alaina remained quiet and lost in herself for the rest of the day and into this morning. He tried to give her space, but he grew concerned when she passed him the kid and excused herself back to the Crest without dinner. When he tried to stop her, she mumbled something about a headache and walked back to the Crest without looking back, leaving him alone with the kid in front of the crackling fire.

He tried not to follow her straight back to make sure she was okay. Instead, he and the kid ate their dinner in silence. After the third time Mando looked behind them to see if Alaina would return, the kid took pity on him and lifted his hands for Mando to pick him up. Relieved by an excuse to go to the ship, he carried the child to his hammock in the alcove, where they slept, and peeked his helmet inside to check on Alaina.

She was curled in on herself with her face pressed into the wall, and despite her partially obstructed face, he could still see tears leaking out of her eyes.

After Mando dismantled his armor and toed his boots off, he joined her and crumbled to his instincts. He gathered Alaina up in his arms and held her against his chest. At some point in the night, Grogu jumped out of his hammock and crawled over the two of them to settle between them, and it was then that a new thought came to him while he drifted to sleep.

Was this what it was like to have a family? He couldn't remember what it was like to have one before he became a Mandalorian. He could vaguely remember crawling into his parents' bed when he was a young child after having a nightmare... And with Alaina and Grogu wrapped protectively in his arms, Mando realized that was the closest he'd come to having that feeling again.

Mando shook his head as he picked up the two silver-furred rabbits to carry back to the Crest. He was in trouble. Deep trouble.

The three of them were quiet this morning when they woke up. Alaina was distant and begged off training for today. The kid just looked between the two of them with his wide eyes. Mando took the kid up top to check for messages in the cockpit to give Alaina some time to herself. After a few minutes, he caught the kid’s big, sad eyes, watching for Alaina to come and join them. When it was clear that Alaina wouldn't be joining them, Mando told him that none of this was his fault. The Crest’s sensors chirped shortly after that, and he frowned at the readout when he saw a line of storms would likely arrive in the late afternoon or early evening. He decided to get the hunting out of the way early. When he returned to the hold, Alaina was scrubbing the hold’s floor where she’d been assaulted. Where she managed to find the cleaning supplies, he had no idea, but she assured him that she was fine and that she and Grogu could work on tidying up the hold while he was out.

Mando continued to drown in his confusing thoughts while he trekked back through the forest with black trees to the Crest. He was so lost in his thoughts that when he cleared the treeline, he almost missed it. He paused at the unfamiliar sound, trying to place what it was to determine what trouble they were in now, but he relaxed when he realized what he was hearing.

Music.

He continued to walk back to the ship, but his pace slowed when he saw that most of their belongings, including several crates that had been in the hold, had been pushed outside. He kept walking toward the ship to see what his companions had done while he was out but kept his presence silent to catch them in the action. 

The sound of the music gradually increased the closer he got to the Crest. It was soft and instrumental, with stringed instruments playing an unfamiliar song. 

He paused when he reached the crates and instantly smiled at the sight before him. 

The kid was sitting on the floor at the top of the ramp, staring intently at Alaina, who was dancing. She’d found her old slippers and was wearing the purple dress again. The dress's light fabric floated around her as she danced on her toes.

Not wanting to interrupt, Mando watched her performance in silence. There wasn’t much room for her to move, but that didn’t seem to deter Alaina. She was natural. Graceful. Here he was, trying to mold her into a weapon when Alaina was the opposite of that. She was ethereal and bright, like the sunlight.

At the end of her performance, Grogu cheered and attempted to clap his tiny hands excitedly. Alaina smiled at the kid and gave him a little bow. Mando joined the kid’s applause, giving her a little whistle while he was at it, which gave away his spot where he’d been lurking behind the crates. Alaina’s head shot up, and her eyes widened in embarrassment, obviously surprised to be caught in the act.

“You have a radio!” Alaina told him once she recovered from her initial shock at seeing him. She moved to show him the small box that was playing music before she turned it off. “Grogu and I got a little carried away cleaning the hold while you were out hunting, and we found it behind one of the crates.”

“How were you planning on pushing the crates back up the ramp?” he asked, looking at the two of the heaviest crates, wondering how long it took her to push them out of the ship in the first place.

“Did you miss the part where I said you had a radio?” Alaina frowned, waving the little black radio in her hand. “We can listen to music!”

Mando looked at her, then to the crates, and then back to her.

Alaina rolled her eyes. “Oh, I was just going to have you push them back in,” she brushed him off. “Radio!”

He shook his head at her excitement over the tiny radio but couldn’t shake the smile off his face. He’d honestly forgotten he even had one, and if listening to music would make her happy, it would be a small price. Mando made his way around the crates to head inside but was stopped when Alaina frowned at him and jogged to the ramp, where she threw her hands up to his chest to stop him from entering his ship.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Mando cocked his helmet at her question. “Inside,” he stated, holding up the game he had caught earlier.

“Dead things belong outside of the ship,” Alaina pointed to the rabbits, “and you’re not coming in here and dirtying up the floor I spent all morning scrubbing,” she finished, pointing to his muddy boots.

“I’m not?”

Alaina crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. He looked down at the woman, who was an entire foot shorter than him, staring him down with a severe look in her eyes. He dropped his helmet to the kid, who was looking between the two of them with a smile on his face.

“You think you’re going to stop me from entering my ship?” he asked lowly, taking an intimidating step closer to her. The slightest flicker of uncertainty flashed in her eyes before she tried to hide it, but it was too late; he’d already seen the falter. "You know I would never intentionally hurt you, right?"

Alaina shrugged, "I know," she nodded, giving him a soft smile. "But that doesn't mean you get to traipse inside with dead things and ruin all my hard work," she teased, giving him a taste of the easy teasing he'd become familiar with.

"And just what do you suggest I do?” he asked lowly.

Alaina recovered with a smirk and shrugged, “You could just take your boots off to walk the ten steps it takes to get the fresher.” Her words had a hint of a tease in them, making Mando smile. “Or just go jump in the lake and clean yourself off like an animal. I don’t care, but you’re not tracking mud all over the clean floors.”

An idea began to form in his mind—a way for him to continue to make her smile like this… He looked down at the kid, and if Mando didn’t know any better, the toothy grin the little womp rat was giving him would have made him think the kid knew exactly what Mando was about to do. 

“Fine,” Mando acquiesced, placing the rabbits he’d got on one of the crates Alaina had pushed outside the ship. When he turned back around, Alaina gave him a smug smile from the ramp of the Crest.

“See, it’s not hard to just take your boots off,” she told him smugly.

Mando stalked toward her, taking purposely large, slow steps. Alaina’s smug smile disappeared when her forehead scrunched as she studied his measured steps.

“What are you doing?” she asked, giving him a cautious look.

“Taking your advice,” he replied.

Alaina took a tentative step back, sensing he wasn’t being truthful with her. That’s when he pounced for her. He lunged, snatching Alaina by the waist and hoisting her light frame over one of his shoulders.

“Mando!” she shrieked, trying to thrash herself loose from his hold, but he held tight. “What are you doing?!”

“Going to jump into the lake to clean myself like an animal,” he told her simply. Alaina’s body stilled in realization, and his smile broadened. The kid's laughter shrieked around them, and Mando looked down to see him clapping again. “What do you think, kid? Don’t you think Alaina deserves a refreshing swim after all that work scrubbing the floors?”

“Don’t you dare, Mandalorian! Put me down!” Alaina shrieked again, renewing her attempts to squirm out of his hold.

Mando laughed and took off running for the lake.

“Mando!” Alaina yelled, beating the beskar armor covering his back with her fists. “Mando, I swear to the Maker, if you don’t put me down, I—I’ll—”

He slowed to a stop as he neared the lake. The path to the left led to the black pebbled beach, while the one to the right led to one of the large black slate rocks standing a solid three meters over the green waters.

“You’ll what?” he asked, tugging on her to pull her off his shoulder. Instead of placing her on the ground, though, he just shifted her body so that he was cradling her against his chest so that he could look at her face.

Alaina huffed when she was prevented from being placed on the ground and shook her head angrily. “Put me down, you stubborn man!”

“Or what?” Mando cocked his head and took off for the lake again. Alaina’s head swiveled to look at the lake again, and when he turned down the path to the right instead of the one to the left that would have taken them to the pebbled shore, her head snapped back to look at him with wide eyes.

“Mando, don’t you dare! I’m sorry! It’s your ship! You can walk through it with muddy boots to your heart's content!” Mando laughed at her pleas, and Alaina smacked his chest. “This isn’t funny! I just washed my hair! The water is going to be cold!” her excuses continued to tumble out of her mouth as his feet carried them up the steps to the top of the large platform rock.

Once he reached the top, he paused to take a moment. The sun was high in the sky, illuminating the lake's calm waters in various shades of green. He looked down just as Alaina looked back at him after looking at the lake under them. The sun bounced off her bright hair, and her green eyes, full of irritation, were a bright green that looked like the waters of the lake at the shallow end by the shore. She reminded him of the sun. Bright and illuminating.

“Don’t you dare, Mando,” she threatened again. “Besides, you’ll rust if you jump in with all your armor on.”

Mando smirked and cocked his helmet at her, and shook his head. He pulled her up higher on his chest to allow his hands access to untuck his cloak from his armor and pull it until it fell in a heap behind him.

“Sorry, Tranyc. It will take more than a dip in the lake to make me rust.”

Alaina’s eyes went wide, and he took off before she could open her mouth to argue again. 

She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. “Mando!” she screamed and buried her face into his neck just as he shoved off the edge of the rock.

He tightened his grip on her as his boots hit the water, refusing to let her go as the lake came rushing around them. Mando started kicking once the green waters finally slowed to take them back to the surface.

Alaina sputtered once they broke the surface, pulling one of her hands away from his neck to wipe her soaking wet hair away from her face.

“I can’t believe that you did that!” she yelled and slapped his armor, but the smile threatening to overtake her face belayed some of the vitriol she was going for.

Mando held her, doing his best to tread water with his boots on, and dunked her back under the water.

“You ass!” she laughed when he brought her back up. Mando laughed along with her, his cheeks starting to ache a bit from smiling so much. “You’re an ass!” Alaina yelled again and used both of her hands to shove his shoulders, pushing him down under the water.

Mando let her go but waved his hands to push him deeper into the water, leaving Alaina to float alone.

“Mando?” he could barely make out Alaina’s muffled words from his position in the water, lurking under her. “Mando, this isn’t funny!”

He stretched an arm up, wrapping one of his gloved hands around her ankle.

“Mando!” Alaina screamed just before he tugged her under the water.

He didn’t pull her too far under and let her ankle go after, and the two of them swam back to the surface.

“I can’t believe you did that! What has gotten into you?” Alaina asked once their heads were above the surface. She was laughing, though. She was laughing with the biggest smile he’d seen from her since… well, ever. Her bright green eyes matched the waters she was treading and were filled with amusement. “You’re insane,” she laughed at him, futilely trying to wipe her hair off her face.

The light fabric of her dress floated around her, slowing her movement as she tried to swim back to the shore.

Mando let himself slip back under the surface of the water.

“Mando… Not again—” She tried to get out, but she was cut off by him dragging her back under the surface of the water, pulling her in the opposite direction of the shore.

He laughed as he swam back up, but Alaina didn’t follow him back up. Mando looked around to see if she had surfaced somewhere else, but she was nowhere to be found. 

“Not funny, Alaina!” he called across the lake, but there was no response.

Another moment later, Alaina’s dress floated back up to the surface, but dread filled him when he realized that was all that had floated back up.

“Alaina!” he yelled, ready to dive back under when something snuck behind him and forced him under the water.

“That’s what you get!” Alaina said, poking her tongue out at him when he scrambled back up and relaxed when he saw her treading water. “Ass.”

Mando turned to look at the dress floating behind him and then back at Alaina, who had just finished removing her dancing slippers and threw them one at a time to one of the lower rocks nearby. Alaina shrugged, “It was only going to slow me down.”

“Slow you down?”

Alaina nodded to the pebbled shore a short distance away. Grogu had just managed to breach the tall lavender fields, and his happy squeals echoed over the waters to them.

“Yeah, the last one to the shore has to cook dinner tonight,” Alaina informed him. Then, in a surprisingly quick move, Alaina shoved him back under the water before taking off toward the shore.

Oh, it was going to be like that? Mando smiled as he took off after her.

Mando was surprised to find that Alaina was a very adept swimmer. Without her dress and slippers, she wore only her skivvies and was pretty quick in the water. He picked up his pace, ignoring the added weight of his armor that tried to drag him back. Alaina probably would have beaten him had she not paused to look behind her, but Mando pushed himself faster, starting to close the gap between them.

Alaina slowed again as she kept trying to find footing in the shallow water, hoping to scrape her feet on the ground to try and run. Each stop cost her precious seconds. Her third attempt at finding her footing succeeded, and she started wading to the shore. However, walking was slow, whereas swimming the rest of the way in would have been faster. Mando swam until his hands brushed against the shallow bottom of the lake and pulled himself up to sprint after her.

“No!” Alaina squealed when she realized he was on her heels. “I beat you! I made it to the shore!” she laughed. Her laughter only intensified when he caught up to her and grabbed her around the waist again, hoisting her out of the water. “Mando!”

“Nice try, but it doesn't count as the shore when you’re still waist-deep in water.” He brought an arm under her legs and spun three hundred and sixty degrees until he weakly launched Alaina a few meager meters away from him.

“Cheater!” Alaina yelled back at him when she breached the surface.

Squeals of delight made him turn back to look at the kid standing just out of the reach of the lake waters threatening to lap at his feet. The kid seemed to be taking a particular delight in the adults’ antics. “What are you laughing at, womp rat?” he teased, stalking out of the lake to head toward Grogu.

“Run, Grogu!” Alaina mock yelled from her spot, still floating in the lake behind him. “Save yourself!”

The kid’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open when he realized Mando was heading toward him. Grogu’s legs were short, and it took no effort for Mando to nab him from the ground. Grogu sputtered and squirmed, trying to get out of Mando’s grasp, but he refused to let him go.

Once Mando waded until he was waist-deep in the lake again, he placed his hands under the kid’s armpits and slowly lowered him until his feet scrapped across the water's surface. Grogu cried, unhappy at the feeling of the water touching his toes.

“Oh, little one, it’s okay,” Alaina soothed, gracefully floating over to them. She raised her hands toward Grogu and tickled his belly until the kid let out a sniffled laugh. “Swimming is fun,” she told him, giving him a little splash. “Mando and I can teach you how.”

They spent the next two hours getting Grogu used to the water, teaching him to blow bubbles and float on his back. Once the kid’s initial fears were gone, he was having a blast.

Mando saw the clouds start to gather and swam to the shore. He grabbed Alaina’s dress, which had washed ashore, and her shoes, which she had tossed at the rock. Alaina had Grogu in her arms in the shallow end, bobbing the kid under the water; his laughter rang across the lake each time he breached the surface. Mando climbed to the top of the rock to grab the cloak he had left behind. He was soaking wet, and his armor would need a polishing tonight, but the afternoon had been worth it. To see that haunted look finally leave Alaina’s eyes. He carried the garments back to the shore, spread her wet dress over the warm pebbles to dry, and left her shoes next to it.

“We should head back soon,” he called out from the shore. Alaina was floating on her back in the water, and the kid was lying on his back on her bare stomach. Both of their heads turned to stare at him. “I don’t think you want to be stuck in the lake when the storm hits.” The two shared a look before turning back to look at him and blow him raspberries. “Very mature,” he grumbled.

Alaina grabbed Grogu with one arm and used her other to swim back to shore. He smirked at the kid who was smacking the top of the water as they swam.

The kid cried as Alaina carried him out of the water. “It’s okay, Grogu. The lake will still be here tomorrow.” The kid cried and pointed back at the rock Mando had jumped off with Alaina. “Oh no, little one,” Alaina shook her. “Maybe you can talk Mando into that, but I’m not doing that again.”

The kid turned and gave Mando the sad eyes. The Mandalorian looked back at the dark clouds gathering in the distance and then at the large puppy dog eyes blinking at him.

“One time,” Mando told him, heavily emphasizing the word one. Grogu smiled, and Alaina offered the kid for him to take, but Mando cocked his helmet at her.

“Oh no,” Alaina shook her head. “I paid my dues. The kid wants to go.”

Instead of taking the kid, he held out his hand for her to take. This time, the kid turned his pout to Alaina.

“Fine,” she sighed, taking the Mandalorian’s hand as he walked them toward rock.

The three stood at the precipice of the rock and looked down at the water below them. 

“You sure about this?” Alaina asked the kid, still in her arms.

Grogu answered her with a wide, toothy grin that made Alaina sigh in defeat and pass the kid to him. She then tucked herself under one of Mando's arms and wrapped one arm around his back, clutching his waist tightly. Mando wrapped one arm around her and tucked the kid into his chest with the other. Alaina glared at him before wrapping her free arm around his chest, holding Grogu in place. 

"Here we go, kid," he said as his only warning before he jumped off the platform. The kid's squeals of delight were the last thing he heard as they hit the water.

His helmet did a decent job of keeping the water out, allowing him to see underwater. Alaina’s blonde hair reflected green under the water, and she and Grogu had huge smiles on their faces. Huge smiles that mirrored his own. 

He is happy. He can’t remember a time when he was this happy.

The thought comes to him once the three of them are back on the shore, trying to air dry on the warmed pebble shore. Alaina grabbed his cloak and wrapped it around her and the kid, covering her body. 

He’s drowning in seas of green.

He looked to the lake and then back to Alaina. She seemed to catch him and stared at him curiously. “What?”

She'd said those words to him when their paths crossed again on Nevarro. The Client had asked her to read him, and he watched her eyes go vacant and shift as she spoke, "He's drowning in seas of green." He hadn’t understood what she had said at first. And then, when she had explained that she could see the future in a very confusing way, he had decided her words were an omen of some kind. Now though…

Now he was staring at Alaina with her emerald green eyes and Grogu with his green skin while the three sat next to the most gorgeous green lake he’d ever seen. A day spent swimming in… seas of green. 

“Nothing,” he whispered back, shaking his head. Alaina gave him a skeptical look like she didn’t quite believe him. “Come on,” he whispered, pulling her up as he stood. Alaina walked barefoot back to the ship, with Grogu tucked to her chest under the cloak and Mando behind her carrying her things.

Alaina had been right… Mando was most definitely drowning in seas of green.

They walked side by side back to the Crest, and once they entered the lavender plains, he felt Alaina's hand brush his. In the next blink, he felt Alaina hesitantly wind her fingers in his.

He was drowning in seas of green. And he shouldn’t. He knew he shouldn’t, but he was okay with it.

Thunder rumbled in the distance, and he abruptly stopped in the middle of the lavender grass as his mind took him back to their last afternoon on Sorgan.

“You can’t save the sunshine,” Alaina told him, laughing at him while she continued her vision. He could still picture how Alaina's perverse smile dropped, and the blank, vacant look returned as her omen continued. “Vermilion will.”

"What's wrong?" Alaina questioned him, squeezing his hand.

If Alaina had, in fact, seen him swimming or drowning in the waters of the green lake… Then what did that mean for her other prophecy?

Mando looked down at his two companions, staring back at him with nervous faces, and he returned Alaina's grip with his hand, clutching hers tightly in his. With a start, he realized that if Alaina had somehow seen something untoward happen to her, he would have time to plan to avoid whatever she saw happen. He wouldn't take any more of her manic ramblings for granted in the future if it could help him piece together a way to save her. To save the sunshine.

His sunlight.

"Nothing," he finally murmured, tugging on her hand to pull her back to the Crest just as dark clouds encroached over the treeline.

He gently squeezed Alaina's hand, rubbing his thumb along her knuckles, earning him a blush and a soft smile from the woman.

Din Djarin did not do anything by halves.

He would do whatever it took to protect his family.

To protect his clan.

Author's Note #2: Eeek! When I tell you I would come back and read some of these chapters over again—This is the chapter I would read when I needed a pick me up. When I began writing this story, it was written in a hodgepodge of ideas that spanned various points throughout the timeline of ‘Heaven in Hiding.’ The end of this chapter with them at the lake was one of the first things I wrote, and I’m so happy we finally made it here! I hope y’all enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it. As always, your comments and kudos make my day. PS: False alarm about the smut monster. After a couple of hours of looking for him, I found him locked safely away back in his kennel. That was a close call. Hopefully, the little rascal hasn’t figured out how to get past the locks…

Tag List: @racheldon @zenrobbins0021 @locked-ness

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Heaven in Hiding Masterlist

Next chapter in series - Chapter 16: The Cord That Binds

[the-owl-house-takes]

So I think the worst take of the fandom is that all of the problems of the show would have been fixed had it gotten a full S3. That literally any problem the show had merely came from the shortening. This is... Well, just blatantly shows that the fandom not only doesn't understand how the animation industry works AND doesn't want to actually look at the narrative they did choose to focus on post the shortening call that were just... baffling.

So first let's establish how much of the show was affected by the Shortening. As a fandom, we found out about it during the hiatus between S1 and 2. This was at earliest, August 2020 since the S1 finale came out late August 2020. Dana has claimed two things that are important to this timeline. 1: The shortening was decided on shortly before the finale came out and 2: That the first episode affected by Covid, which would have been back in March/April, was Looking Glass Ruins. So we EXPLICTLY know that the shortening didn't affect the show until after S2 Ep 5.

BUT then we get into production schedules. Before S2 even BEGAN airing, we were told to stop campaigning for a full S3 because they had to get started on storyboards for the season and that was effectively the firm deadline. This means ALL of S2 was effectively done in script and storyboards by the time S2 aired. This makes sense to keep a weekly schedule and the like and most animation professionals will tell you they work MONTHS in advance of release, bare minimum.

This means, AT BEST, S2B was when the shortening really kicked in. And yes, S2B has pacing issues. It has issues in general and is when most people think the quality of the show dropped. The problem is that... The signs were always there. There's a reason why there's been a backlash because as people become disillusioned with the show, you have to ask what was driving so much before.

And a lot of that was potential. S1 is so good when you first watch it because it keeps teasing the idea that it's going to tackle things in a complex way. That it will explore concepts like Amity's abusive family, magic, fantasy vs reality, etc. like that. It's why the fandom was at its strongest during S1.

Unfortunately, the problem with presenting good ideas and then not executing on them, or completely gutting them is that those old parts are a lot harder to enjoy. As Willow was effectively not a character for half a season and then just suddenly was a jock, people began to realize the fact that she in the show is much more a plot device than anything else. They claimed "We're not doing the one kind act into friendship and forgiveness thing with Amity and Willow" and then literally did NOTHING with it until S2B and eventually DID just do the same trope anyways but now with less resonance than it would have had in Understanding Willow.

Not only that but even S1 didn't give a single shit about its worldbuilding. The First Day has Dana Terrace as a lead writer on it. If anyone knows the worldbuilding best, it should be her... So why is it that no one talks about multi-coven things being illegal? It's literally just used as meta commentary and so they entirely ignore the worldbuilding they have. Reaching Out is exactly the same, with Dana as the SOLE writer of that where Amity and everyone else treats joining a coven like going to college and not literally the word of the law.

But S1 couldn't even keep Wild Witches consistent. Half the time Eda can chill and not worry. She can go to a place funded by the EC like Hexide and not flinch for a second that Bump might call the guards on her despite that being kind of the ONE real rule to their society that makes it not just our world but with teeth. Then again, the show gives NO FUCKS about its own stuff, willing excising portions of itself that it finds cumbersome. Escaping Expulsion is BEFORE Looking Glass Ruins and yet it murders Luz's magical potential in its sleep and also discards Amity's family as easily disposable, despite how much the show claims her mother's influence is the reason why Amity behaved the way she did for all of... Three appearances? Because Amity's arc isn't actually good.

It shouldn't be surprising S2 would do this though when the writers already struggled to do anything with Luz's magic. If she's supposed to be learning and growing... Even S1 is shit at this and is repetitive. Not just with the at least three times we do "King has a minion!" B plot that isn't funny and doesn't do anything but also with its lessons. Luz theoretically learns to listen to Eda in the third episode and arguably the second as well. Then she gets her first glyph with the lesson, in theory. of not trying to take shortcuts to do magic and to not steal. And then in Adventure in the Elements, not even to impress Amity but because of her impatience, she steals something to take a shortcut to stronger magic. That is THREE episodes of the first TWELVE of the series. It usually takes most kids shows at least a LITTLE longer to be that bad at retreading its own lessons.

And the final part of this is that... S2 actually had to be effectively the exact same as it was for s3 to happen. You need the foreshadowing of the Collector for the Day of Unity. You need to FINALLY do something with Belos for the revelations of the Human Realm to happen and to do Luz's angst arc. You need Hunter to be at least 90% redeemed so he's there on their side during The Day of Unity, etc. like that. Then you get half a season in the human realm before coming back to the Isles for half a season, just like Amphibia did because returning home is the best mid-season finale you can have there. So any argument that a full S3 would have actually fixed issues with S2B is just... Wrong. The problems with S2B come with the fact that S2A wastes a FUCKTON of time on elements that don't matter.

Oh, and lest we forget that The Collector could have been cut. He had one appearance in a dream, that also doesn't make sense with his characterization, before S2B. In the fact, the crew has admitted as much. He was added AFTER the news of the Shortening because they always wanted to include a character like him so now that they didn't have the time for him... Cram him in anyways.

Could a show have EVER been saved when that's how they treat one of their two final antagonists? It's the sort of statement that just solidifies the idea that TOH didn't want three seasons. It wanted five... If not just to go on forever. To be the next monolithic show, even as it repeats character arcs, lessons and shrinks characters rather than expands them.

So no, the show isn't bad because of the shortening. The show is bad because the writing is bad.

-

[needlesandnilbogs]

⭐ for the ask game! Gimme some director's commentary on your favorite of your fics!

You get mini-rant about superhero au because it's on my mind again and I'm taking a metaphorical axe to the long term plans for it right now (and lowkey wishing I'd thought about it more before I posted it last year) (read more bc I'm ramble-y tonight lol)

I should have cut the entire first bit of this and rewritten the second bit. third arc in that story is great and the prologue is great but the first and second arcs need to be better

For once, I'm not thinking about this in terms of lore changes --- I've had. Uh. A lot of the thoughts pretty clearly in mind since near the beginning (the backstory of hero mensah and her villain partners, the secret identity of actually-evil-villain Corporate, all the other backstories, exact power ideas and limitations) and don't need to edit that much for consistency --- but about the actual execution, especially the way they all handle balancing superheroics and secret identities.

I like the prologue, except for I think that Mensah probably would have had slightly more charitable words for Tano from the start (if not for Amena). Prologue can stay.

However. If I hadn't published it already (and I'm honestly just going to leave it rn bc I don't mind it, but I can still feel annoyed about it not being what I actually want), I would cut the first proper arc entirely, not because I'm not proud of it, but because it kind of duplicates the second arc, and not in a good way; it's a disconnected bunch of them interacting as secret identities and being Weird about it, and it leads into the next arc pretty much exactly. If I were rewriting this I'd probably keep it as the aftermath of a Corporate attack, but cut most of it down to a short description of the heroes working together, then the after-battle bits (adding a moment with the heroes deciding they're at the point they really need to get Corporate's identity for an arrest warrant, maybe making it actually clear that Gurathin is Pin-Lee's cousin and not some random person hanging around, and for sure clarifying something about what's going on with ratthi and Bharadwaj), then put the parts where they're investigating each other as part of the next arc.

The second arc also needs a bunch of things changed, but it's actually half-decent as a single storyline, if you actually start halfway through the previous arc. However:

I like thinking about how Mensah's council staff would respond to her being kidnapped approximately every other week and I should have said more about that (she plans about two days a month with nothing serious scheduled, so she can reschedule meetings she misses onto those days if needed; the council staff has a standing script for if someone needs her while she's busy being kidnapped; there's an actual emergency line that one of the most trusted staffers has that can get to her comm so she can respond if she's busy being kidnapped but they seriously need her)

I should have made it clearer that Mensah was absolutely complicit in the kidnapping bit and that she wasn't actually mad at Tano or Farai, just annoyed not to be told in advance (consensual kidnapping), but Ratthi was not consensually kidnapped, he was treated well but he was, also, actually literally kidnapped by supervillains and would probably have been freaking out more.

Also, a thing I'd do over would be to start with Mensah and her partners idly chatting about this plan over dinner a few days earlier, as part of the bit where everyone's investigating everyone else, so Mensah knows what's going on and why, just not when, exactly, her partners plan on pulling this one off.

Also also, Mensah probably needs to actually have a talk with her partners on screen about identities after everything, but other than that I don't actually mind the part where they reveal themselves to each other, and honestly I think it's okay that she doesn't tell anyone about her partners until later (might put it such that that reveal happens directly after that arc, but I like the moment where mensah tells pin-lee later and I'd move that to fit, and I don't mind mensah telling overse bc Overse notices the distress and wants to offer comfort). I think they'd need to talk and she'd need their permission to tell anyone (outside the team psychic lol) but they all should find out sooner than they actually do (in what I've actually written they will know by the next fic in the series for sure tho)

Anyways the third arc in there is great and I like it a lot. actual mystery with actual clues in there and arada doing mad science. 10/10 no notes.

[wrienne]

State of the writing 2023!

Hi, everyone!

This is my post on the status of my writing, scheduling of posts and writing, which projects I've got ongoing, and what I intend to do in the nearest future and beyond. This can all be sorted into the following topics:

Posting Schedule

Current Projects and Workflow

My Future Plans (Writing Tips? Patreon? The Essence Thief Series?)

This will be a long-ass post, so I'll keep the most important thing, which is about the Posting Schedule, just up top.

1. Posting Schedule

Three Fridays in a row, I'll upload a chapter of my work, be it AHPH, DL, or my personal work. Then there will be a week without posting so that I can catch up on other stuff or take a break. This will be on a rotation.

AHPH: will be posted by the first Friday of the rotation until I finish DL, which is when I will dedicate both update slots for AHPH. AHPH has a very long story which I do not plan on finishing any soon. Who is your favorite hybrid so far?

DL: will be posted by the second Friday of the rotation. DL is actually reaching its end relatively soon, meaning a majority of the story has been posted already. Who is your favorite suspect?

Original work: will be posted by the third Friday of the rotation. I am either going to post here or on Wattpad. I've got so many projects I want to write about that I simply don't have time, or worse, procrastinate on all. I want to publish a book before the end of this year, however.

You can read more in detail about each project (and others in the works) in the next section.

To visualize the schedule: Week 1: AHPH Week 2: DL (until i finish it, then it will be AHPH) Week 3: Original work Week 4: Buffer

Now, this is not to say that there may be exceptions. Life happens, and I may miss a deadline. Or life also happens, and I post more than once. But I wanted to have some structure to it all so I don't leave anybody wondering if I am gone again or why I am not posting on the specific story.

For more clarity, I will configure some sort of progress bar/status on my page so that you can peek in at any time to see the progress of my work. I will also add dates for the expected updates!

2. Current Projects and Workflow

Currently, I can divide my work into two sections. Ao3 and my original work. As such, I will discuss them separately.

On Ao3, I have no plans currently of adding another story other than DL and AHPH. While I have considered and planned out a sequel for DL, I don't know if I can handle it currently. My research for DL, while extremely interesting, is also very morbid. And that sort of thing tears at your mind. Though, this is not to say never. I know a lot of you really enjoy AHPH, but surprisingly, most people say they love DL the most. So it might be subject to change.

AHPH has a different sort of setup than any of my other writing pieces. I'd consider it more like a TV series, with plenty of episodes you can look forward to and with no end quite in sight as of yet. I do have an idea for a larger, overarching story plot, but that won't be relevant for quite a while, and won't be essential to anyone just reading it for the easy fun.

Regarding my personal work, I have an insane amount of stuff I want to write. But to keep things relatively brief, I can disclose three series I plan for the future. I could give more of an in-depth explanation of these in another post if anybody's interested.

A Beauty and the Beast fantasy retelling with the roles reversed. It will be a trilogy, and it is currently the story I've gotten the farthest on. There will be fae, demons, and gods and spirits, but also geopolitical conflicts and court intrigue.

A historical/fantasy series set in the 14th century. I call this a "continental fantasy", because it has to do with discovering a new wild continent away from the known world. Will contain witches, telekinetic mages, and an ancient advanced civilization of godlike beings that disappeared mysteriously in the past. This is also something I started a year ago, and will be a many-part series.

A high fantasy series with an urban fantasy concept (?) is how I'd explain it. It's set in a multiverse where all the worlds are connected through ley lines, with all of them centering in this one city. It is possibly my most ambitious work, containing anything from the Seelie and Unseelie Court, the Wild Hunt, to vampires, elves and monsters. But it's also been my most giving as I've gone through worldbuilding and storyboarding with ease. It will also be a multi-part series, and I've already got a sequel series in the works.

I am currently in the process of trying my best not to write on all three and just stick to one story. Let me know if any of these stand out to you!

3. My Future Plans (Writing Tips? Patreon? The Essence Thief Series?)

So, what are my future plans?

I want to keep on posting on Ao3 and writing my own thing. I will obviously not be able to publish my Ao3 work, but since I dream of becoming an author, I will be spending the majority of my time and energy on that (and obviously my studies and mental and physical health), which I hope is understandable.

In order to branch out more as an author, I have also been considering getting out there on other media platforms! But this is something I have to get back to you with.

I wonder if there's anyone interested in learning more tips and tricks on how to write. I used to do a segment called Writing (Writer's?) Wednesdays, where I'd make a post on a storytelling aspect and describe how to plot a chapter, make characters, figure out ideas, how to world-build, etc. If that's something that you'd be interested in, let me know!

Another topic I have been considering is Patreon or Ko-fi. For a small fee, I'd offer the following:

The Essence Thief in eBook format

Exclusive posts of the AHPH crew (such as camping trips, birthdays, requests, and gratuitous NSFW) These would be canon but otherwise hard to include in the current flow I've got for AHPH.

Take writing requests of X amount of words for people

Early access view of all my writing (personal, Ao3)

Any other book I publish will also be available here weeks before the official release

Personal help and assistance with your writing

And more!

Obviously, times are incredibly rough for all of us, so this is just a suggestion! The main goal of the Patreon would be so I could write more.

Regarding The Essence Thief series, I am currently putting it on hiatus. It was not until a few days ago that I finally managed to free myself from the last of the negative influences that have been haunting me for many years. I can honestly say, that it's not until now, after 25 years of living, that I've felt somewhat liberated. Somewhat free. And right now, TEP reminds me too much of all the horror that's still lingering there at the periphery of my mind. I won't cancel TEP entirely, as I still feel like there will be a time when I can return to it, but as of now and in the nearest future, it is not part of my writing plan.

As always, thank you for reading!

[rainswhenyourehere]

⋆ dying is easy, living is harder ⋆

characters ☆ alexander hamilton, elizabeth schuyler, angelica hamilton, alexander hamilton jr. pairings ☆ none

tws ☆ minor character death, suicidal thoughts

christmas gift 4 y'all !! a month after philip's death, alexander tries to have a normal christmas. nothing goes according to plan. scheduled post; i'm on a trip so i'll add + post the ao3 work once i get back

fic under cut

✦•······················•✦•······················•✦

Hushed noises. Alexander lifted his head, his gaze shifting from his documents to the door of his office, his ears perking up.

“Lexi, go call the others. It’s time for dinner,” Eliza’s tone was gentle. Alexander missed it. She barely spoke to him anymore, and even if she did, it was with a sharp edge. Alexander didn’t blame her.

Footsteps, most likely Lexi sprinting upstairs. Alexander sighed and stood up, setting his quill aside.

Eliza’s head turned as Alexander exited his office. The look in her eyes was cold, similar to her voice. “You are not having dinner with us.”

“What?” Alexander was taken aback by the words, confusion and surprise settling on his face as he stared at the other.

“I said, you are not staying for dinner. You can go dine somewhere else, but I’d like to spend Christmas with family, people I actually trust,” Eliza hissed, glaring at him. Slowly, Alexander nodded, swallowing as he felt a pang in his chest.

“Of course,” mumbling, he headed towards the front door, grabbing his coat on the way out. He could feel Eliza’s burning gaze fixed on him, but he didn’t turn.

After all, it wouldn’t change anything.

Alexander inhaled sharply as the cold winter air hit his face. At least the snowing had stopped, he remarked as he walked down the street, unsure about where to go.

Laughter echoed in the air, church bells ringing as he passed houses, light and warmth radiating from each window. Alexander sighed. It was at times like these that he wondered whether publishing the Pamphlet had really been a good idea — maybe he should’ve just let others assume what they wanted to, even if it would cost him his career and his reputation.

No. Alexander waved the thoughts off with a shake of his head. What was done was done — no matter how badly he wished, there was no erasing the past.

Alexander lifted his head and halted. His eyes darted around, his lips slightly parted as he studied the familiar building.

Fraunces Tavern.

Alexander stood there, frozen in place as multiple memories came flooding back. That night with Burr, Laf, Herc and John. Alexander still remembered the joy and confidence he had felt upon finding others with similar ideals as his. For the first time after stepping foot on this unfamiliar land he had felt as if he belonged here.

He also remembered the way his heart had ached for John as Washington had congratulated them in the same spot nearly seven years after. The way he had turned to his side, started a sentence before realizing that the other wasn’t there.

That he would never be there again.

His mind lingered on John, his lover’s face flashing in Alexander’s mind. That soft, fluffy hair, those freckles spilled across his body like stars that his eyes couldn’t hold. That calm, gentle voice, those kissable lips—

Alexander blinked, forcing himself to snap out of it. He stared at the Tavern, considering entering. He could just walk in, order some food and a drink, maybe a few more of the latter until the alcohol drowned out all of his thoughts.

However, his steps led him away, his breathing forming a cloud of mist in the air as he resumed his walk. He wasn’t hungry, and deep inside, he knew that this wasn’t a night he’d like to spend drunk.

✮ 

After half an hour of wandering, Alexander stopped again, shocked. How- why had his legs led him here? It wasn’t like anyone he knew was buried here—

Alexander sucked in a sharp breath which got caught in his throat. His chest felt incredibly tight as he advanced, the snow crunching under his feet. He passed grave after grave until—

“Heartless.”

“How could he be so cruel?”

“He didn’t even bat an eye — god.”

The whispers had circled him for the following week. No one had said it aloud, but they were all referring to one thing: “Alexander Hamilton didn’t shed a single tear at his son’s funeral.”

Alexander ran a hand across the top of the engraved stone. It was cold to the touch. A chuckle left him as he raked his hand through his hair, slumping down against the stone with a a sigh.

Oh, those idiots, he thought, closing his eyes. Don’t they realize I did my best to keep my composure only for them?

He had stood up straight, had greeted everyone, had kept his voice stable. You had to be quite close to him to have realized the way he had swayed, Eliza being the only thing keeping him upright as they had approached Philip’s grave. Alexander hadn’t cried. Everyone else had.

He sighed again, pulling his knees up to his chest. The cold numbed his fingers. Maybe his lack of tears was the reason Eliza didn’t even try to tolerate him anymore.

Alexander opened his eyes, gazing at the dark sky. It had stormed, the day of the funeral. For the first time since the hurricane, he hadn’t felt scared, even when thunder had boomed, reminding him of the British cannons that he used to steal.

A shiver tore through his body. Regret and sorrow carved a hole into his chest, his breathing shallow as he remembered how he had advised Philip to throw away his shot. That had turned out well, hadn’t it?

Alexander closed his eyes again as his mind grew foggy. For a moment, he considered just staying there for the night, fading away with the cold. After all, everyone who loved him had died — why not join the chain?

A gust of wind blew by. Alexander felt snowflakes land on his raised face. It had started snowing again, the slow falling holding the potentials of turning into a snowstorm.

He sighed. Not tonight.

With a groan, Alexander arose, releasing a breath he had been holding. Eliza and the children must’ve finished dinner by now, perhaps even had the time to enjoy some music. Ange’s piano skills had improved quite a lot.

However, Alexander’s train of thoughts paused as he remembered the state Ange had fallen into after her older brother had passed. The two were always close, and she had been affected the most out of the children, spending the days talking to herself in her room. Not unlike him, he remarked as he walked away.

Alexander looked back one last time, his eyes lingering on Philip’s name before he headed out, pulling the door of the graveyard closed behind him.

Wind ruffled his hair as he trudged along the street. A couple passed him, their conversation pausing as they glared at him.

“Honestly, he should just leave the neighbourhood,” he heard one of them mumble. Alexander hummed.

It would be quiet uptown.

[echojulietfoxtrot]

Dear Artists - Notes & Tips from a Would-Be Commissioner.

It feels like there has been a mini revival of Art Tumblr after Twitter burned itself down, which is amazing, but I've been skulking around looking for folks to commission lately, and I see some of the same gripes recurring a lot. I've posted this before as a reply to something before, but I think it might be worth its own post.

Here are some tips to help you as an artist help your clients to meet you half way!



So you want to take Commissions on Tumblr!

- Awesome! ... does your profile actually indicate that though? Does it clearly tell me at first glance that a) you're an artist and b) you're open to commissions right now? That might seem like a goofy question, but you would be absolutely amazed how many artists on here do not have any trace of that. (Several artists I've seen just today don't!)

- Is your askbox open for quick "Would you do..." enquiries? Have you checked it lately? Is there some way I can make a quick enquiry with you - and this is important- without leaving Tumblr? That extra layer of clicks makes a big difference.

- If your slate's full for now, do you have a wait list? Can I tell? How does somebody get on it? Can I find that info easily?

- Is there a standard package of info requirements and material you want from a client to consider/work with them? Even a template? Your client may be in a different timezone or work schedule to you, so teasing this stuff out one message at a time can take foreeevvverr - try to make it clear in advance what you need to know so everything is said/asked in as few chess moves as possible.

- This will be a theme.

- Please, please don't take it for granted that people will just 💫DM you for info💫 about anything you already know they'll have to ask - that info should be just about impossible for them to miss. By the time they're DM'ing you, they should pretty much just be clarifying something they've read or pitching the particulars of this specific transaction. Everything they have to ask is one more little obstacle to contacting you at all.

- Do you have lots of diverse and easily found examples of your work? Have you tagged your work consistently and properly? Have you told me what what that tag is? Have you distinguished between Commissions and Personal/commercial stuff? Your style is probably great, but I need to know if it's my vibe! Again, several artists I've seen today have not done this. I have no idea what kind of work you've done, and I can't find it even if I look!

- Have you made it clear what you're capable or interested in working in, subject wise? For example, I tend to look for artists I know can pull off f/f tv/movie fandom ship stuff, and female bodies and musculature, in relatively realistic proportions. Maybe you can do that! But if I can't see any indications of it, and all the stuff I find is m/m or OCs or D&D, I won't assume it, and I probably won't cold call to find out.

- If you do LGBTQ+, furry, fetish, mecha etc art - anything at all that anyone else might not do, for any reason - make sure to say so. Again, folks won't take it for granted, so try not to make it so they have to ask. Mostly, they won't.

- Also, make it clear if you work in zestier flavors or not, and indeed what specific kinds of zesty you will and won't do. (And on a personal level, if you do, try not to draw those boobs so high, Tumblr)

- Speaking of, if somebody approaches you with stuff you can't or won't do just out of preference, is there someone else you can steer them to? The favor might just come right back around.

- Let's talk money, baby. Where can I find your ballpark prices? Is it obvious? I don't need to know to the penny, but I do need to know if my budget and your pricing are at least in the same orbit. At least tell me how many digits to expect. Just saying "It depends!" is a psychological brick wall for a would-be client; I promise you that "contact me to discuss pricing" without any indications of floor or ceiling will cost you work.

- Also I strongly suggest a two-chunk payment structure, with some upfront and some on completion. I personally prefer to pay the whole lot upfront where possible, but at least for your first commission with someone, getting part upfront is safest for you, and "the rest on completion" is reassuring for them.

- Consider different tiers if you haven't already. A 60 buck quickie sketch is 60 bucks you didn't have yesterday, and they're not a huge commitment. You can potentially do a bunch of them in the time you're waiting for The Big One to come along, and if you agree to post it publicly, it's essentially an ad for you. And maybe I'll like it so much I'll ask you to go further with it, and stump up for a more developed version? (Though if that's an option, it should be clear to me too.)

- I strongly recommend having a look around at the all-in-one commission info sheets some folks put together, with pricing, payment, wills and won'ts, and FAQs and making one of your own, and then - and this is important - pinning it, or linking to it in your profile. It should smack folks in the face, they won't seek it out, and it should be like a used car ad - every fact or figure you can anticipate them wanting to know should be plain to see.

- And keep it, and your Tumblr, active and up to date. If your commission info sheet and your Tumblr hasn't been touched since 2012, I'll assume you're in space or dead. I will not check your Twitter or Patreon for signs of life.

- Reblog other artists, and actively engage and tag in fandoms/tags you have worked in and want to work in. Branch out into new subjects/fandoms/tags now and then just to experiment and broaden your footprint. Tumblr is a bunch of circles glued together, that's how you get out there. (Speaking for myself, I tend to find new artists through previous artists more often than via tags or Recommended feeds.)

- There is absolutely nothing wrong with reaching out to a high profile blog in a given fandom or genre sphere and asking for a shout out. They'll likely be more than happy to do it.

- Reblog yourself plenty, for the day and night crowd, weekends and weekdays etc. Gas yourself up a little, nobody minds. Add a few new comments about your process or something now and then, it's interesting. Try not to talk shit about your art, even just in jest - it's not good for you, and it's kind of a bummer to onlookers. If something wasn't perfect, think and talk about what you learned from it.

- And don't go doxxing yourself or anything, but maybe give some idea of when and how you work on your art - it's probably not a great idea to commit to an ironclad timescale, but if your posts give a sense of how and when you fit the work into your life, people can have some sense of what to expect and be a little more understanding than they might be otherwise.

- Blaze it. If you're sure you can tune out the whiney clowns, Blaze it. Yes, you'll absolutely get whinging edgelord nitwits in the comments, but you will also get seen by potentially interested folks who would never have stumbled over you otherwise, and they'll stick around when the other dummies are gone.



So you've been Commissioned!

- Keep in touch! Generally speaking, just staying in touch to say "Hey, this is still in the pipeline" now and then is plenty. Don't weird yourself out about it, don't psyche yourself out of getting in contact if it's been a while. Just message. It's cool! I don't mind waiting for the art itself, at all, but long periods of ghostly radio silence are disheartening. If you're art-blocked up the wazoo, it's nbd to say so. If you're taking a break to work on some personal stuff or casual no-pressure sketches, say so! Literally any contact at all is better than no contact. If nothing else, all you have to say is "Hey, just checking in. I have been making progress on your piece/I plan to get some work done on your piece today/this week/this month. Hope all is well!". Bam, done.

- Some would-be commissioner types like to have their shiny completed art piece revealed all in one go and kept all to themselves. Some (me) love to see WIP updates that they can reblog from you, so they have an extra chance to roll around in their fandoms and tags a little. On the other hand, some artists don't like showing their WIP stuff publically though. All of that's fine - but regardless, make sure you're both on the same page about it, and what format and what channel they'll get their piece in, from Day 1.

- Let the client know if you'd be up for working with them again afterwards, or if you'd like x and y conditions if they want to work with you again, or if you're all done and you never want to see these damn characters or this bloody setting again. As a client, you can feel a bit weird about hitting the same talented creative up five times in a row for the same two blorbos in a situation, so it's a good idea to intercept that if it's not an issue for you.



Remember - commissioning something has the potential to feel a little like a weird awkward Tinder convo for money. As an artist... well, you're already an artist, but it’s in your interest as somebody who eats and uses electricity to make it obvious that working with you will be easy and hassle free for all involved. What can you do to ensure that, and signal it? Make yourself approachable and easy to deal with, and do yourself justice.

All the love to Art Tumblr. I'll come knocking on some of your doors again next time I have spare cash and a hankering for some more angsty Dani and Grace McTerminatorDarkFate stuff.

[echojulietfoxtrot]

Artists, I'm totally down with all of this, but speaking as somebody who actively seeks out people to commission semi regularly, help us out to meet you half way!

Notes and Tips from a Client.

- Does your profile actually indicate you're an artist and that you're open to commissions? That might seem like a goofy question, but you would be absolutely amazed how many artists on here do not have any trace of that. (Several artists in these very notes don't!)

- If your slate's full rn, do you have a wait list? Can I tell? How does somebody get on it?

- Is your askbox open for enquiries? Have you checked it lately? Is there some way I can make a quick enquiry with you - and this is important- *without leaving Tumblr*? That extra layer of clicks makes a big difference.

- Is there a standard package of info requirements and material you want from a client to consider/work with them? Even a template? Your client may be in a different timezone or work schedule to you, so teasing this stuff out one message at a time can take foreeevvverr - try to make it clear in advance what you need to know so everything is said/asked in as few chess moves as possible.

- This will be a theme.

- Please, please don't expect people to just 💫DM you for info💫 about anything you already know they'll have to ask - that info should be just about impossible for them to miss. By the time they're DM'ing you, they should pretty much just be clarifying something they've read or pitching the particulars of this specific transaction. Everything they have to ask is one more little obstacle to contacting you at all.

- Do you have lots of diverse and easily found examples of your work? Have you tagged your work consistently and properly? Have you told me what what that tag is? Have you distinguished between Commissions and Personal/commercial stuff? Your style is probably great, but I need to know if it's my vibe! Again, several artists in these tags have not done this. I have no idea what kind of work you've done!

- Have you made it clear what you're capable or interested in working in, subject wise? For example, I look for artists I know can pull off f/f tv/movie fandom ship stuff, and female bodies and musculature, in relatively realistic proportions. Maybe you can do that! But if I can't see any indications of it, and all the stuff I find is m/m or OCs or D&D, I won't assume it and I probably won't cold call to find out.

- If you do LGBTQ+, furry, fetish, mecha etc - anything anyone else might not do, for any reason - make sure to say so. Again, try not to make people have to ask.

- Also, make it clear if you work in Spicy flavor or not, or what kinds of Spicy you will and won't. (And on a personal level, if you do, try not to draw those boobs so high, Tumblr)

- If somebody approaches you with stuff you can't or won't do just out of preference, is there someone else you can steer them to? The favor might just come right back around.

- Is there somewhere I can find your ballpark prices? I don't need to know to the penny, but I do need to know if my budget and your pricing are at least in the same orbit. At least tell me how many digits to expect. Just saying "It depends!" is a psychological brick wall for a would-be client; I promise you that "contact me to discuss pricing" without any indications of floor or ceiling will cost you work.

- Also I strongly suggest a two-chunk payment structure, with some upfront and some on completion. I personally prefer to pay the whole lot upfront where possible, but at least for your first commission with someone, getting part upfront is safest for you, and "the rest on completion" is reassuring for them.

- Consider different tiers if you haven't already. A 60 buck quickie sketch is 60 bucks you didn't have yesterday, and if you agree to post it, it's essentially an ad for you. But maybe I'll like it so much I'll ask you to go further with it, and stump up for a more developed version? If that's an option, it should be clear to me too.

- I strongly recommend having a look around at the all-in-one commission info sheets some folks put together, with pricing, payment, wills and won'ts, and FAQs and making one of your own, and then - and this is important - *pinning* it, or linking to it in your profile. It should smack folks in the face, they won't seek it out, and it should be like a used car ad, every fact or figure you can anticipate them wanting to know should be plain to see.

- And keep it, and your Tumblr, active and up to date. If your commission info sheet and your Tumblr hasn't been touched since 2012, I'll assume you're in space or dead. I will not check your Twitter or Patreon for signs of life.

- Reblog other artists, and actively engage and tag in fandoms/tags you have worked in and want to work in. Branch out into new subjects/fandoms/tags now and then just to experiment and broaden your footprint. Tumblr is a bunch of circles glued together, that's how you get out there. (And personally, I tend to find new artists through previous artists more often than via tags or Recommended feeds.)

- There is absolutely nothing wrong with reaching out to a high profile blog in a given sphere and asking for a shout out. They'll likely be more than happy to.

- Reblog yourself plenty, for the day and night crowd, weekends and weekdays etc. Gas yourself up a little, nobody minds. Add a few new comments about your process or something now and then, it's interesting. Try not to talk shit about your art, even just in jest - it's not good for you and it's kind of a bummer to onlookers. If something wasn't perfect, think and talk about what you learned from it.

- And don't go doxxing yourself or anything, but maybe give some idea of when and how you work on your art - it's probably not a great idea to commit to an ironclad timescale, but if your posts give a sense of how and when you fit the work into your life, people can have some sense of what to expect and be a little more understanding than they might be otherwise.

- Blaze it. If you're sure you can tune out the whiney clowns, Blaze it. Yes you'll get whinging edgelord nitwits in the comments, but you will also get seen by potentially interested folks who would never have stumbled over you otherwise, and they'll stick around when the other dummies are gone.

So you've been Commissioned.

- Keep in touch! Generally speaking, just staying in touch to say "Hey, this is still in the pipeline" now and then is plenty. Don't weird yourself out about it, don't psyche yourself out of getting in contact if it's been a while. Just message. It's cool! I don't mind waiting for the art itself, at all, but long periods of ghostly radio silence are disheartening. If you're art-blocked up the wazoo, it's nbd to say so. If you're taking a break to work on some personal stuff or casual no-pressure sketches, say so! Literally any contact at all is better than no contact. If nothing else, all you have to say is "Hey, just checking in. I have been making progress on your piece/I plan to get some work done on your piece today/this week/this month. Hope all is well!". Bam, done.

- Some would-be commissioner types like to have their shiny completed art piece revealed all in one go and kept all to themselves. Some (me) love to see WIP updates that they can reblog from you, so they have an extra chance to roll around in their fandoms and tags a little. Some artists don't like showing their WIP stuff publically though. All of that's fine - regardless though, make sure you're both on the same page about all of that, and what format and what channel they'll get their piece in, from Day 1.

- Let the client know if you'd be up for working with them again, or if you'd like x and y conditions if they want to work with you again, or if you're all done and you never want to see these damn characters or this bloody setting again. As a client, you can feel a bit weird about hitting the same talented creative up five times in a row for the same two blorbos in a situation, so it's a good idea to intercept that if it's not an issue for you.

Remember - commissioning something has the potential to feel a little like a weird awkward Tinder convo for money. As an artist... well, you're already an artist, but it’s in your interest as somebody who eats and uses electricity to make it obvious that working with you will be easy and hassle free for all involved. What can you do to ensure that, and signal it?

All the love to Art Tumblr. I'll come knocking on some of your doors again next time I have spare cash and a hankering for some more angsty Dani and Grace McTerminatorDarkFate stuff.

The only thing I need tumblr to do is to get like... cool with the idea you can hire people here to do commissions for you and to like.. consider monetary support for artists cuz one of the reasons and the biggest reason I moved to twitter in the first place is because people there buy my art. I make a living there doing art. And the vibe here is **we don't do that here** If you want artists to be here and do art you gotta be okay with the concept of artists trying to make money. I hate capitalism as much as the next person but I'm also 30 years old living with my fucking parents because I can't pay for a 1 bedroom apartment. Artists are not 'big business'. We're not Disney. We're just people trying to make a living or some money for groceries and shit.

[daisygreenartisans]

March Happenings

Hello! I blinked and here we are, March 7th; it was the 1st when I made the first draft of this post.

Anyway, there's a lot of stuff I want to get done this month! I've been able to gauge what I can do, and I would like to share with you my plan.

Graphic Novel Progress

So far, I have published 4 children's books, and this time around I am going to try something a bit more vigorous and challenging. I've inked that this month I am outlining the sketches and fully rendering the prologue (it will be ~20 pages.) The more I get done, the more information I will share: in fact, in a few days I will make a post about it. If I decide to be more ambitious, I will let you know, but that's it so far.

2. Furniture Painting

I'll be painting 2 pieces of furniture---they're twins. :) Similar to my novel, I'll post the process + finished product. Since the designs are big, I don't think it will take too long... maybe a 2 days at least or a week at most. We'll find out together, haha.

Sorry the pics aren't great, I'll post better ones for the side-by-side later on.

3. YouTube Video

I would love to post a video this month, since it's been a hot minute. How would you guys feel if I talked about novel inspiration and the current process? I may or may not actually speak during this video. As much as I want to give the viewer the option, my soundscape is not up to par.

Also, if there's something you want to see me post to YouTube, let me know! I have a few ideas, but it's a time-and-place sort of thing.

Small Talk

While I have you here, I figure I might as well have a nice little chat with you. :) These aren't pertinent to anything, so if you want to move along, go ahead. From the bottom of my heart, to anyone reading this, I hope you are doing well, and I hope you continue to do so.

Radio Silence in my Socials

I'm not chatty. That's pretty much just it. I do my best to follow a routine, so my days are fairly monotonous, especially when I'm working on my projects. The balance between my personal/work life is pretty good. In the end, life's all about maintaining and upkeep, or advancing and innovating. I'm content with my output in both those categories, such as learning, menial tasks, cleaning, creating, etc., satisfies in both ways. Which specific outputs take precedence over the others depend on the day, and that's where my major schedule change takes place. All that to say, nothing too interesting or noteworthy goes on, so I just wait until something new happens. That being said, if you have a question or have an idea about something I can post, please do let me know! I am online, though.

2. Standalone Art Pieces

Goodness, I'd love to post some standalone art pieces. I'd love to make them. However, if I think about it too much, I get too many ideas and they become something bigger than I originally intended. To combat this, I've got a digital zine in the WIP list to get me out of my head. Keep an eye out for it, but I will tell you to keep a better eye out for it waaaaay later this year.

3. Personal Happenings

I love spring! I'm very happy we're in this season, and I've been spending as much time as possible in the sun. Coffee in the morning while note-taking and writing is probably my favorite part of the day. A cool breeze hitting me when the sun is warm is where my world stops. I am so much more appreciative of everything. I love grocery shopping, folding laundry, moving furniture, learning, exercising, taking care of my family. All that is awesome. Life is truly beautiful. Once summer rolls around, however...

Nothing super interesting. I like chores and planning. It's not interesting to discuss, though. If I do, I'll share.

Take care!

[starpaths-writing]

Author’s Note for “known, unknown”

Summary: Seokmin and Mingyu used to date. Which apparently means they can't go back to how they were before, to Mingyu’s frustration.

Link to fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/63117052

Wanted to write a longer author’s note/end note re: my brainstorming/concepts for this fic… Usually I would just put it in the fic end notes but then it would be 2 fics in 1 because I don’t know how to stop talking… In order, I’m gonna cover [1] stuff that was actually IN the fic and then [2] my earlier ideas for this fic that never made it into the final piece :)

[1]

College Setting

I don’t have personal experience with schooling in Korea (if it wasn’t incredibly obvious already) so I heavily relied on Reddit posts talking about the college experience/language in SK and, honestly, just modeled the setting after SNU specifically. Why SNU specifically, sorry I don’t have a reason why, I could have just used any of the other big 3 tbh.

The departments and classes mentioned in the fic are ones on SNU’s undergrad website… the “Comm Eff” class DK and Hoshi run off to is “Studies in Communication Effect” in the Dept of Communication, which I shortened because nobody is referring to classes by their full title if it's that long

If you search “SNU korea sweater” on a search engine, you can probably find the uni sweater I was thinking of for this fic :)

The SNU departments I had in mind for each member mentioned in-fic:

Mg – Architectural Engineering. Could also be double-majoring in International Relations?

DK – Education

Hs – double-majoring in Political Science + Business Administration

Sk – Communication

Dn – undeclared, but leaning towards Social Welfare

The enlistment schedule in this fic was one I made specifically to get certain members to be attending uni at the same time for another skgy/gyky story (which is likely never going to be finished tbh) while also matching what I felt the members might do if they enlisted at the usual age, so I just pulled it again for this fic… If anyone’s curious,

Enlist before starting college: Sc, Ww, Wz, Dn

Enlist after 1 yr: Jh, Hs, DK, Sk, Vn

Enlist after 2 yrs: Mg

Js, Jn, & Mh are not included obviously (either does college not in SK or does the 4 years straight through if they study in SK)

With the above schedule, if I did it correctly, then I am able to get everyone from Hoshi and younger (except for Mh) attending uni the same year. 

Perfumes

I am not a perfume/fragrance person, so I truly felt like this ProZD video researching it. No hate at all, but I just never thought about smells like that before and I am interested in reading/smelling more now !! 

Anyway … shout out to the following references for DK’s perfumes !!!!

https://x.com/kyeomties/status/1672667438343757825?s=20 (ref of DK’s perfumes given along with prompt)

https://x.com/kyeomties/status/1796880782276825323 

https://x.com/KEYMRICH/status/1825517143045312999

https://x.com/dokyeom_closet/status/1825449780509872287

https://x.com/mistbornx/status/1826002195453718742

Using the above refs, I genuinely spent days trying to figure out what perfumes I wanted to have DK use in this fic… thank you to Fragrancia and the r/fragrances subreddit for saving my ASS because I cannot describe scents/smells to save my life esp since I have also never actually smelled any of these IRL or was not aware of it if I have……. 

Anyway, below were the options I hopped between. Also I will note in advance I do vaguely discuss my usage of gender conformity/stereotypes, which I feel play a role in AUs where these men may not have as much room to explore gender expression or thoughts.

Le Labo Another 13 – I’ve seen this one around prior to this fic, I think it’s a perfume DK recently revealed he uses? Basically supposedly it’s a “skin perfume” so it draws out one’s personal scent (??)... so either a pre-breakup familiar scent or a post-breakup unique scent. However, the descriptions of this on Reddit did not sound appealing to me (even though most said it smells good IRL albeit needing to get used to at first) and ultimately I do not think college AU DK would be willing to try this one based on the descriptions… I can see idol DK being into this one but I think college AU DK would want to go for a “safer”, universally-liked scent

Byredo Bal d’Afrique – A Reddit comment described this one as “nice on days you want to feel really clean. Like a vibrant, productive person… who has their shit together” which would be good for post-breakup DK’s fronting. I actually don’t remember why I didn’t choose this one, likely because I wanted more of a “sexier” scent to “seduce” Mg

Kilian Playing with the Devil – I really wanted to use this one because of the name and how it would fit into the fic plot (exes getting back together), but 2 reasons why I decided against it: (1) the Fragrancia website labelled it as a women’s perfume. I think the Kilian website did list it as a unisex perfume but I feel like college AU DK would prefer a perfume advertised for men as a man; (2) It feels like this perfume would be worn for date night or something, not an everyday perfume (for someone identifying with conventional masc traits) or casual drinking

Kilian Moonlight in Heaven – the signature skgy/gyky perfume since both of them explicitly stated using it…… I think I didn’t choose this one because DK himself described it as “light, sweet, and romantic” which is not the vibe I wanted. Also if I'm using it for pre-breakup, it's p expensive for a college student who doesn't have much experience with fragrances before LOL, but most high-quality/brand perfumes are expensive I feel (never have actually bought one myself, I wasn't joking when I said I'm not a perfume person)

Ralph Lauren Ralph’s Club Parfum – masculine and sexy based on the positive descriptions. However, based on comments and DK himself, I didn’t feel like this was an everyday/casual-drinking kind of perfume.

Demeter Fragrance Baby Powder (example for DK’s supposed baby powder fragrance) – the pre-breakup perfume DK used. I chose this as the pre perfume because I feel like it’s generally an inoffensive scent and fits the refreshing image I tend to associate DK with. Also I believe it’s like the cheapest perfume in this list?

Dior Sauvage – THE post-breakup perfume that DK is wearing in the fic. I chose this one because (1) universal appeal which would appeal to college AU DK imo, (2) most comments said people (especially average people without strong fragrance knowledge) found it an attractive scent, (3) feels like a scent one can wear everyday and at casual social events, and (4) needed to be distinctly different from his pre-breakup perfume.

Non-Svt Idol Appearances

I don’t usually include non-Svt people based on the fact I actually don’t really follow any other Kpop group like I do Svt, but I had to pull some others in this time because with the enlistment schedule, there was no way I could get Svt members filling in for all roles… I did watch some edits and interviews of the folks below so hopefully I managed to capture their characters somewhat… if not, then uh they’re just OCs who coincidentally share the same names as idols……

Tbf, the choir club members could’ve just been OCs, but I have a weird personal thing where I don’t like putting OCs in fanfics… I was running up against the fic submission deadline by this point so honestly I did not do a lot of research for those two, I’m sorry…… I didn’t want to name-drop because of that but it just felt awkward to never refer to them by name plus it would make Mg seem like a jerk for not bothering to learn their names

Jungkook (BTS) – it’s funny to write his name as “Jeongkook” in this fic because I do use the common stylization normally, but I have to get all my Korean romanizations to match up…

Doyoung (NCT) – for the club member sitting next to DK, I wanted an upperclassman, so I was searching for Kpop idols known for singing… and this was the first guy I managed to find who was not born in the early 1990s or 1997 LOL

Park Jihoon (Wanna One) – I wanted the club member sitting across from Mg to be an underclassman, and when I found out his YOB was 1999 I was like “alright, in you go”. I personally have a soft spot of sorts for this guy because right before I got into Svt, I was into the TV show adaptation of Weak Hero Class 1, and I was SHOCKED to find out the guy playing the main actually used to be an idol who had a cutesy persona… I honestly don’t know if he would join the choir in a college setting but I mean would Sk (could have joined a sports team) or DK (could have joined the archery club, and yes while I'm here I’m gonna plug the renowned college AU fic of weightlifter Mg x archer DK in the off chance you have not read it)? It’s all fiction

If you’re still reading, thank you very much for your interest !!! I really appreciate you reading my fic AND another essay of notes, and please feel free to provide any constructive criticism or thoughts on ao3 or here on tumblr if you want! The rest of this post will cover the brainstorming/initial ideas for this fic so if you’re not interested in that, feel free to exit :)

//

[2]

So I did consider this prompt during round 1 of dkfest, but I ultimately chose another prompt because I didn’t have enough of a plot idea for this at the time :( (yes I am going to self-advertise, if you want to read my round 1 fic it’s here ;) It is 16k words though so if you have time to spare…)

The initial ideas I had for this prompt were more in line with what I think the prompter wanted – a canon compliant fic where DK suddenly decides to rob Mg’s closet and Mg is horny-grip-meme over it. Snippet from that idea below from July 2024 since I likely won’t ever finish this idea:

"You always look good in my clothes, Dokyeom-ah."

Seungkwan's head snapped to him so fast Mingyu was vaguely concerned he had given himself whiplash. Seokmin grinned at Mingyu, either not noticing or ignoring Seungkwan's reaction.

"Then give me all your clothes!" Seokmin declared. With sleeves hanging past his palms, he put his hands on his cheeks, framing his face in a cutesy way. "That way, I can have a bigger closet without having to buy new clothes! Shua-hyung has really been on my case recently."

Mingyu was a weak man. So weak, he really contemplated allowing Seokmin free access to his closet whenever he wanted, free range to take and never give back. But Seungkwan's bugging eyes reminded him that he did have some strength left in him.

"Don't you want your clothes to fit, though?" Mingyu asked. "Most of my clothes look too big for you." 

Ultimately, I never continued with this because I couldn’t figure out an actual overarching plot. So when I returned to this prompt in December and was reviewing the proposed themes… I decided I was going to do… an omegaverse fic………….. Basically it was beta DK stealing alpha Mg’s clothes, Mg taking his clothes back, Mg smelling DK’s pheromones for the 1st time from his clothes (DK wears scent blockers like 24/7) and being really intrigued by it, and the ending is them hooking up post-flirting at a house party or class outing. Basically the thing I wanted to focus on was DK hiding his scent but Mg finds it out and is like seduced by it in a sense? To be honest, not a very engaging fic (to me) in retrospect, AND I felt I was taking the easy way out re: the scents because I KNOW I'm weak in writing that. I also decided not to do it because I have published 2 omegaverse fics already and I do not really want to become an omegaverse fic writer slash publish another one relatively soon after that 2nd one… 

So I went back to the drawing board AFTER I had already claimed the prompt (I still did want to write a fic about the clothes-stealing & Mg liking DK’s scent/fragrances)... and landed on the idea of a non-omegaverse college AU where they are currently exes but not really over each other. I don't prefer to do stories where the main pair are exes (I'm very vanilla), so I don't have much writing experience with this trope :)

(I will also give a shout out to this chanboo exes fic because I did read it around the time I was course-correcting; I genuinely did not have this fic in mind when I was redoing my plot but I was likely unconsciously inspired by it. Anyway, it’s an excellent fic and boochan/chanboo fans should read it)

OKAY, and I’m done now! Thank you again for reading my fic, and for being interested enough to read through this entire post :) Hopefully you found something in here interesting!!