#i see em fairly often where i work

[ddejavvu]

mv Monday!!!!

Do you think you could write a mall!au where reader works at like a women’s store (think Victoria’s Secret or aerie type) but mall employee!sirius/remus come in all the time to flirt with her? I don’t have a pref for either boy, whatever you feel like!!! 🫶🫶🫶

today is multiverse monday, send me any au you can think of! :)

this post is 18+, minors dni.

It's 1 PM on a Thursday, so you're not surprised that the only people in your store are Lupin and Black. They come more often than you do, you're fairly certain, and they don't work with you.

"Boys," You drawl, watching their pathetic attempt to seem casual wandering amongst, "If you're not here to buy something, you know I have to ask you to leave."

Both men turn, once more feigning coy. Remus reaches for a pair of panties beside him without looking, and Sirius brings up the rear as he approaches your counter.

"Just these," Sirius grins, and Remus sets the lacy underwear in front of you, price tag facing up and ready to be scanned.

You chew the inside of your cheek; you should challenge them. You should stop them in their tracks, refuse to sell them the underwear, because you know they're only buying it to stay in the store. They're relentless, and although their persistence pleases you, you're determined to get them to crack. They won't admit that they're pursuing you, but you're tired of the game they're playing; you want to win.

Unfortunately, you can't just deny them the sale. You don't have good reason, not reason enough for corporate, and their rules are that you're allowed to refuse service only on pre-approved grounds.

Horniness is not one of them, so you scan the panties with a tinny beep.

"$18.39." You wait for them to blanch, to back down because they hadn't expected to get this far, and $20 is more than they're willing to pay to flirt.

Instead, "Can we have that gift-wrapped, dove?"

You try to tamp down the burning of your cheeks at Remus's words, watching as he swipes his card when prompted. The payment goes through, and you snag tissue paper from under the counter, carefully folding the panties in on themselves until you can package them in a neat square. You set them gently into a pink striped bag, one that holds its stiff shape as you tug at the black strings, and pass it over the counter, letting Lupin take it from your outstretched fingers.

"Thanks." Sirius grins, and Remus pawns the bag off onto him. You wait for them to leave, to take their daily dose of teasing and head back to their record store, but instead Sirius reaches out, setting the bag back onto the counter.

"Gotta present for you, angel." Sirius grins, "Wanna try 'em on? Just to make sure they fit, and all."

Your stomach tries migrating to your feet. You're surprised by their bold moves, they're usually more lazily flirtatious. Now they're outright brazen, and you're at a loss for words.

Remus sees your brain malfunctioning, and he considers that it might be for the wrong reasons. He grabs hold of Sirius's elbow, "If you're uncomfortable-"

But you don't let him finish, quickly shaking off your momentary shock.

"Come on, you two," You hop the counter, landing tantalizingly close to them before they have the chance to stumble backwards. You take a hold of each of their hands, motioning for Sirius to grab the gift bag with a tilt of your chin towards the pink plastic.

"Dressing rooms are vacant. I can manage a fifteen minute break," You start towards the stalls on the opposite wall of the store, "That's seven minutes for each of you, and one for cleanup. Don't be loud." You round on them just before you reach the dressing rooms, narrowing your eyes at their pleasantly surprised expressions, "If you get me fired we can't ever do this again."

[star-dot-net]

i may have already posted this but this is a fic i started writing in december of 2023 and may start working on again

When he steps into the classroom, Mobius is immediately comforted. The room is cozy, there’s plenty of space for the kids, and there’s several bins labeled ‘fidget toys’. That’s the part that catches his eye the most— all of Sean’s previous teachers made him bring in his own, and even then, they often told him to put them away. He always feels bad about passing his autistic gene to his son, even though Sean usually gets along perfectly fine. 

As he surveys the room, a man emerges from a small door Mobius hadn’t noticed. As soon as he sees him, Mobius’s breath catches in his throat, eyes widening. 

The man is, presumably, Sean’s teacher. He has shoulder-length black hair, curled and pushed back stylishly. He’s wearing simple black dress pants with a white button-up tucked into them, and Mobius’s eyes are immediately drawn to a bit of exposed chest, the first few buttons apparently undone. He’s tall and fairly lean, face sharp and green eyes sharper, glinting with something that makes Mobius suppress a slight shiver. 

The man smiles and Mobius is stunned again, just as he was regaining his bearings.

“Hello, you’re here for Sean, correct?” the man says, extending a hand in greeting.

Startled by the accent that is decidedly out-of-place for Ohio, as well as every other aspect of this person, Mobius definitely takes a moment too long to respond, and he clears his throat awkwardly before responding.

“Ah— yeah, hi. I’m Mobius, Sean’s dad,” he says, taking a step forward to properly shake the man’s hand, and wow he was tall, an entire head taller than Mobius at least.

“It’s good to meet you, Mobius. You can call me Loki,” Loki says, tilting his head in invitation. He makes his way over to his own desk and sits, a tie and jacket draped over the back of the chair.

“Nice to meet you too…” Mobius replies faintly, dazed. Christ, Mobius, get your shit together.

“Sean’s a fantastic student. He participates in class regularly and…” 

Mobius is barely present, but he manages. He nods and pays enough attention to make comments about Sean here and ask a question there. He is 90% sure his gaze has not left Loki’s neck since they started talking, and is 100% sure the other man notices. He knows it’s highly inappropriate, but he can’t help it, and Loki does not mention anything. That means he doesn’t mind, or doesn’t realize, and Mobius takes either as a win.

There’s a moment where Loki opens up his laptop to look up Sean’s IEP accommodations, and there’s several stickers on the front, a few that Mobius recognizes. A band sticker, a few cats, and pride flags. He identifies one as the bisexual flag, but the other— pink, white, purple, black, then blue —doesn’t ring any bells for him. He makes a mental note to look it up later. 

By the end of the meeting, Mobius is thoroughly flustered, Loki’s charm rendering his people-skills practically impossible to utilize. Ah well, he thinks distractedly, you can’t win ‘em all.

Loki walks with him to the door of the classroom as Mobius heads out, and Mobius is hyper-aware of their close proximity.

“It was lovely to talk to you,” Loki says, eyes practically sparkling. There’s something in his voice, a lilt that Mobius can’t decipher. “I was looking forward to meeting the amazing people who raised Sean, and you don’t disappoint. I can see why he’s such a pleasure to have.”

Mobius fills with pride; he knows his sons are incredible, but it never hurts to hear. Then, the second part of the sentence catches up to him, and he winces slightly, producing a small smile that was most likely unconvincing.

“Yeah, well— it’s just little ol’ me raising two rascals, so…” he coughs then, averting his gaze. He’s not embarrassed about being a single father, but he can never predict how people will react to the information, and the thought of being in a situation he’s unprepared for always makes his skin prickle.

“Ah yes! Your younger’s name is Kevin, right? Sean brings him up sometimes. Mostly telling stories of him setting things aflame.” 

Loki’s genuine interest in his family warms Mobius to the core, offsetting the slight shock of Loki’s nonchalance about his single-parenthood. Although, I guess it’s probably more common in non-small town Ohio.

“Kids will be kids,” Mobius says, shaking his head amusedly and shrugging, as if to say ‘what-can-you-do‘.

Laughing lightly, Loki nods in agreement. A slightly awkward silence befalls them, and Mobius scuffs his shoe, realizing belatedly that it makes him seem like a schoolchild with a crush. He notices Loki’s eyes roaming his body, and cringes internally, wondering just how he must look to someone of Loki’s caliber; he hadn’t had time to change out of his work clothes before the meeting, so he’s wearing the tacky blue vest from his job. Keeping up appearances as a tired dad, he supposes.

Loki clears his throat, and Mobius looks up from his feet, not having realized he even looked down in the first place. When he slides his gaze up, Loki is holding out a small piece of paper. Mobius takes it, skimming the contents with his eyes only to find a phone number.

“My number,” Loki says, nodding to the paper.

“Oh- to contact you about Sean’s accommodations?” Mobius furrows his brows, a bit confused. None of Sean’s other teachers had given him their numbers, although Loki was different. Mobius’s confusion only grows when Loki grins, shaking his head.

“No.”

Mobius blinks at him, unsure how to respond. He knows he misreads situations often, so he decides to bite the bullet and ask for clarity; might as well get it out of the way now.

“Sorry, I’m not the best at the subtlety game, so correct me if I’m wrong, but… is this— are you flirting with me?”

(It is, by all accounts, completely socially unacceptable to ask; Mobius learned from his parents at a young age that his upfront nature was not proper. But he’s an adult now, and he’s a bit too tired to mask his social ineptitude.) Loki doesn’t seem bothered, though; his grin just widens, and he winks at Mobius. Definitely flirting, then.

“Text me sometime, will you?” Loki says, and just as Mobius is about to respond, his phone rings loudly, and he sighs. 

“It’s their sitter. I’ve gotta take this, but um… I’ll— I’ll reach out?” he says it like a question, like he’s not sure if he’s actually allowed to. Loki replies that he’s looking forward to it. Swallowing, Mobius nods in departure, answers the phone, and steps out of the classroom, head reeling.

—

[malacandrax]

Artist ask game 18

18. something you feel like you need to work on?

Everything

hahahahaha. For real though I feel like I get better at one thing and then I see that I'm now behind in other things. I don't know that I have a super healthy attitude to art, I have fairly low self confidence about my work overall, and I know I should and could do much more with my skill than I do*. BUT it does drive me to keep working at it. I do really love learning, and I love seeing progress even though it's slower when you reach a certain point.

I feel like there's a distinction between things I want to get better at, and things I feel I need to get better at. I always always want to learn more about expression and bodies, but I feel I need to actually get better at environments XD. I'm not bad at them, but I'm not really confident, especially when it comes to colouring a background and characters at the same time. It's funny, I used to consider myself fairly good at that, but I neglected it for too long and now its fallen behind! I'd love to get to a point where my backgrounds and objects feel like they have character, too. To me they're often an afterthought, which isn't ideal!

*putting myself out there etc. I know I'm up to industry standard for the most part, but I'm not up to my OWN standards haha.

Here's some recent studies!

Here's an older study dump, too

I suppose I should also plug my patreon, thats where my sketchbooks/studies go- I also sell 'em on itchio once I finish a sketchbook.

[duckhoodiesblog]

DUCK TIMELINE ACCORDING TO ME

(au? idk all of its "canon" but I'm picking and choosing and altering a lil)

•Abner is born first, then Donald and Della, Gladstones a little younger than them (like a year?) then Fethry. I think it makes sense for Abner to be the oldest since he doesn't really hang out with everyone else, maybe thats because of the age gap ya know.

•They all meet up and spend every summer at Grandmas farm. I think Abner preteen/teen stage kinda stops going, he has other things he'd rather do.

•As for everyone's relationships at this stage, Donald and Della get along fairly well, they're usually by each other sides. They have different interests tho, Donald wanting to be a sailor and Della a pilot. Gladstone and Donald are always fighting (obviously), I think Della and Gladstone have a pretty neutral relationship. Fethrys the baby and Abner doesn't want to play with the younger kids (they're lame) but probably has a soft spot for Fethry.

•I like to think Gyro and Donald knew each other as kids too. This is largely based on that one Don Rosa comic that introduces little helper (?).

•As a kid Donalds grandpa Humpsadink(?) dies. I'm not 100% on everyone's names in english, but I think thats his name.

•Donald and Della meet their uncle Scrooge once (1) and Donald kicks him for being mean to his parents. Scrooge enters rich old man isolation.

•As preteens Della and Donalds parents die and they move in with Grandma Duck permanently. In the comics I usually see Donald raised by Grandma Duck and that raises so many questions for me. Are Hortense and Quackmore dead? extremely busy? And wheres Della?? I wanted to include Donald living at Grandma Ducks farm because its canon in a lot of comics, so this is my solution.

•Some time later Gladstones parents die and Matilda & Ludwig adopt him. Not entirely sure ab this, but I'll go with it. This is based on Don Rosas plans for the family tree, he decided against it but there's nothing really contradicting it so. Here it is. I also just really want Ludwig on the tree (cause I like him), so him being married to Matilda works out.

•Donald and Della grow up and move out. Donald becomes a sailor and Della a pilot. Donald travels the world and meets José and Panchito, and his spanish(?) ex-girlfriend Donna (I don't know if everyone knows who this is but shes in a short and some comics). Basically he's living his best 20s life abroad. When hes not traveling for work, Donald lives in a little houseboat.

•At this point Donald and Della have grown apart, they've got their own lives now and don't see each other much. Still love each other obviously.

•Della gets pregnant and the father walks out on her. Donald is of course furious at this guy but Della says he's not worth it. Donald makes sure to visit more often.

•Della has Huey, Dewey and Louie. Donald sees 'em a couple of times when hes not on a ship.

•Della Amelia Earharts when HDL are like, 5. Donald races home when he hears the news and is absolutely devastated. He decides he needs to pull himself together and gets custody of HDL. He quits being a sailor and starts taking up odd jobs. Sells his houseboat and gets a real house (probably with some help from the family, excluding Scrooge cause he's still in rich old man isolation).

•HDL begin acting up, because they miss their mother, and, sure, they know unca Donald, but he's also not someone they're used to seeing. I imagine having your mom go missing and then having to live with your uncle you barely know at 5 would traumatize you a little. And Donalds trying his best, but up until now he's been a sailor traveling the world and is not equipped to deal with children. Especially when he's dealing with his own grief. (His twin is missing, presumed dead. His twin who'd always been with him. Someone he thought couldn't leave.)

•HDL join the junior woodchucks and that helps them settle a little. Donalds learning to be a parent and things are looking up. I think he starts seeing Daisy somewhere around here.

•Scrooge exits rich old man isolation by inviting Donald and the boys to christmas. (that one Carl Barks comic) (you know with the bears)

And with that I think we're up to date? I might have forgotten somethings but I'll have to add them later. Feel free to comment with your own thoughts and headcanons, and do tell me if I missed something.

[canmom]

Where do you read and find web comics?

that's a great question!

these days the scene is kinda dominated by platforms like webtoon and tapas, which heavily favour vertical-scrolling infinite canvas formats. these environments are aggressively competitive, and getting to the top of the popularity pile requires a pace of work that makes even the manga industry look downright reasonable. I wrote a little about one such comic back in 2022. the 'portal' format applies similar pressures as webnovel sites - somehow that's come down to favouring high-concept premises which can be spelled out in a title, and a fairly homogeneous art style. in general you'll see a lot of romance and isekai.

that said, traditional page-formatted webcomics are absolutely still around. usually I read them on their websites - you can use an RSS reader to keep up with updates for most comics, but I fell out of the habit of that years ago.

as far as finding them, there's not really any centralised place to find them, but often webcomics will promote other authors, and there's organisations like hiveworks which serve to cross-promote members of their network. most webcomics have a 'links' page. it's rhizomatic or some shit.

if you are coming back to webcomics, 'I used to read this comic, is it still going' can also lead to a lot of pleasant surprises - you wouldn't believe the number of webcomic authors who turn out to have transed their gender when you come back a few years later (or maybe you would). 'spend years writing a comic instead of transitioning' is a strangely common pitfall [edit: though I'm not sure 'spend years transitioning instead of making a big creative project' is like. a better strategy lmao. they're both big expressions of agency, it doesn't really matter what order you do em.]

some authors tend to stay on a single perpetual epic that will likely last until they die, but others like to write multiple projects, and usually if you enjoy one thing by a person you'll enjoy the others. for example, @bigbigtruck wrote the excellent The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal back in the day, and is presently writing a story about stormchasers with a very similar vibe. Evan Dahm of Rice Boy went on to write some rather cool comics like Vattu.

webcomics review blogs can also be a good place to pick up recs. yes homo, now defunct, put a few things on my radar (I disagree with many of their opinions but that's part of the fun of it lol), as has thewebcomicsreview.

along similar lines, forums can be a good place to look - back in the old old days, I used to be a big fan of a D&D comic called The Order of the Stick and hang out on its forums a lot, and they had a pretty active board for talking about other webcomics (a large part of which was devoted to literally hundreds of threads for the club of posters making fun of a really mid comic called Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire - don't ask me to explain that...) these days I bet there are webcomics discords that function similarly, though I couldn't tell you which ones off the top of my head.

if you're willing to part with a little bit of money, events like the Shortbox Comics Fair are a good way to gather a huge stack of one-shots. I picked up a bunch in the last one of those, I should really write about them.

honestly I should really just draw up a list of comics I've liked, catch up on the ones that I fell off the update schedule on, and put that list on my website somewhere. writing full reviews is fun but time-consuming and I don't want to make promises with how incredibly ADHD I am (the 'comics comints' series lasted a mighty three posts, and of all the writing-about-stuff projects, the main ones I'm trying to get going again are the tftbn and umineko liveblogs), but it is happy-making to spread the word about good shit I've read. I used to liveblog webcomics quite a bit, you can see some of them over here. (I never got around to migrating the Homestuck sideblog.)

ultimately, word of mouth is queen here. all these suggestions are just different flavours of "find people who like the sorts of things you like and read the stuff they like" in the end!

[curiousquirks]

For the nsfw alphabet, I'm really curious about Dabi and Mr. Compress tbh...

A/N: Got 'em both here for ya <3

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

He’s not a very affectionate person so don’t expect anything special. He’s the type to smoke a cigarette, scrolling aimlessly on his phone. Or get up to piss and maybe grab a snack. If his partner asked for something, he’d make a snide comment but he’d probably get it for them.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On himself: He’s pretty self conscious but I can see him liking his hands a lot, considering it’s one of the few places on his body that isn’t as affected by his quirk.

On his partner: Tits AND ass man, no doubt about it. He doesn’t need to pick, it just depends on where his hands are at the time. He’s very grabby. 

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

Dabi is 100% a disgusting man, he will cover his partner in his own cum and he will happily sit there with his partner’s cum covering him. Spilling out of any hole possible makes no difference to him and he’ll keep going no matter how ruined how any clothes, furniture, or sheets get. 

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

He’d share his partner with other men in a heartbeat, but only for a one time thing. He can be possessive sometimes but he knows that they’ll come running back to him anyways. It’s more of showing off how hot they are and how slutty they are for him. It’s a point of pride.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

I feel like Dabi doesn’t really have much experience outside of porn and don’t expect him to have any good sex education either. He’ll get frustrated and pissy when they try to teach him anything or tell him he’s doing it wrong; it’s a hit to his ego. 

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying.)

Cowgirl, without a doubt. Him laying down, just admiring the view while they do all the work.

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

He’s pretty selfish and focused on getting himself off so he’s very serious. He won’t appreciate any humor either, and if he’s pushed too far by his partner trying to make it humorous, he’ll just leave and get himself off.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

Oh, his pubic hair is still white without a doubt. Has the cutest little happy trail leading up to his stomach too.

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

He’s not much of a romantic at all, usually just focusing on the high tension and erotic mood more than anything. If his partner gets him in a submissive position, they’re more likely to make him more vulnerable but he usually keeps that hidden fairly well.

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Does it quite often, not wanting to deal with the drama that can come with fucking someone. Usually accompanied by some random front page porn video.

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Temperature Play

Choking

Exhibitionism

Marking

Corruption

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

He doesn’t have preference, anywhere is viable. Against a wall? Bent over a table? On a bed? On someone else’s bed? Shady alleyway? As long as he gets to come, he doesn’t care.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

He’s a simple man, it doesn’t take much. Wiggle some boobs in front of him, grope his cock through his pants, or whisper how badly you want him in his ear, make a motion with their hands and he is willing to fuck them where he’s standing.    

                                                     

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Anything with feet, he’s not a fan.

 

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

If he could have someone on their knees whenever he wanted to suck him off, he’d be in heaven. He’s pretty good at giving but he is definitely more skilled with his fingers. He enjoys giving it more than he lets on though.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Dabi doesn’t know how to take his time when he’s really worked up, and if he does it’s because he’s trying to let himself actually enjoy it. Like he’s afraid it’ll get taken away if he actually tries letting himself live in the moment. He usually goes hard and rough, chasing after the high.

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Quickies are really fun for him, and definitely has a preference for them. He’s pretty selfish, not really caring too much if his partner finishes every time so he works for him to just pull them aside and do some shit quickly before he continues on with his day.

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

What’s the fun if you don’t live on the edge? He’ll purposefully try to initiate sex in locations that can get them caught, or somewhere where they’ll be heard. Going a little hard into kinks, without playing carefully. He’s willing to try new things but he’d have to be told about it or randomly come across it. Unless the partner brings it up he probably will just spring it on them in the moment without asking.

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

He doesn’t actually have a lot of stamina so he wouldn’t be able to go for multiple rounds. It would take him a decent amount of time to finish though, as he does have to focus more mentally to come. 

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

Dabi doesn’t mind them every once in a while but don’t expect him to know the complicated shit. He also feels like if his partner uses sex toys a lot that means he’s in competition with it and that’s just not going to work.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He’ll tease the fuck out of his partner and make them beg especially if they’ve pissed him off recently. He’ll also tease them if he’s trying to initiate sex because it’s easier for him than just asking because well it’s their idea now.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Quiet grunts are all he would really do. Even if he’s more submissive, he’s pretty quiet. The only reason he’ll be loud is with dirty talk, and only for the intention of being heard.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

He’s not that sensitive, especially not his cock, so it takes more work than he’d like to get him off. It’s why he has to focus more mentally when he’s having sex or trying to get himself off.

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

More thick than long and I can see him getting a jacob’s ladder piercing.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Pretty high, but has a decent control over it. 

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

If it’s not a quickie and he’s near a bed, he’ll clock out pretty fast. Hope his partner wasn’t expecting much from him.

A = Aftercare (What they’re like after sex)

If it’s with a stranger then he’s slipping out as soon as he’s able too. If it’s with a partner then he’s pretty good with aftercare and making sure that they’ve been taken care of. He’s quick with reassurance and soft touches if it’s something that they need.

B = Body part (Their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s)

On himself: It’d be vain to say his face, but otherwise he is quite fond of his hands. The stealthy movements and tricks he pulls with them always draw people’s attention there after all.

On his partner: Their neck. Something about watching someone sweep hair out of the way from their neck or ask for someone to clasp a necklace around it. It’s horribly intimate and delicate.

C = Cum (Anything to do with cum basically… I’m a disgusting person)

He much prefers his partner’s cum dripping off of his face and god does he love it. The taste is something that he craves in a primal way.

D = Dirty Secret (Pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Has definitely stolen underwear from his partner before, taking it out only when he can’t be near them.

E = Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?)

Atsuhiro has a lot of experience. His partner never has to worry about him not knowing how to please them. 

F = Favourite Position (This goes without saying.)

Face Sitting (or any position where he can give them oral) and the Dancer (because of how intimate it is).

G = Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Atsuhiro is a firm believer in “If you can’t laugh during sex you’re doing it wrong” but he’ll try to keep the mood serious and romantic. His partner isn’t shy or unfamiliar with his showmanship showing up in the bedroom though.

H = Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc.)

He keeps up with personal maintenance, so he’s well groomed. If he didn’t, and the hair got long enough it's definitely start getting curly. 

I = Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Full romance, and if it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision Atsuhiro would go out of his way to put up candles and play music to set the mood. He’s making love, it’s what you do when you love your partner. That doesn’t mean you can’t make them whimper and scream though. 

J = Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

He’s not unfamiliar with it at all but he prefers his orgasms with a partner. If he can’t, for whatever reason, then he sees no issue with getting himself off. Vivid imagination, but has used pictures and videos as needed. 

K = Kink (One or more of their kinks)

Roleplay

Blindfolds

Collars

Dom/Sub Dynamics

Cunnilingus

Rimming

L = Location (Favourite places to do the do)

Anywhere as long as it’s behind closed doors. The bed, the floor, against the wall, bent over something? He’s open to whatever the moment leads too.

M = Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

Flirty banter! It’s a game and he lives for it. Suggestive comments and subtle touches get him wound up rather quickly.

N = NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn offs)

Mutual Masturbation, because he just can’t keep his hands to himself. If his partner is in front of him, laying themselves bare for his viewing pleasure and he’s just expected to get himself off? Blasphemy. 

O = Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

Too damn good at giving it. It’s a talent really and a heavy preference. Not that he minds the favor being returned, especially if he can watch them struggle to swallow it all down, because they must not waste a drop.

P = Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

Atsuhiro’s pretty flexible on his pacing with it depending on how events flow during the moment. He doesn’t have a big preference, wanting things to flow naturally. 

Q = Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

If he sees an opportunity for one, he’ll gladly take it but he doesn’t prefer them at all. He wants to take his time and enjoy it with his partner. 

R = Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

Atsuhiro is all about taking risks, wanting to experiment with various new ideas or toys. He likes risky set ups for foreplay, living for the thrill. 

S = Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

Can easily go for multiple rounds, easily. His speed when it comes to finishing is quicker than he wants to admit. He uses it as a compliment to his partner. He’ll be ready to go again soon, they don’t need to worry.

T = Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

They’re a great addition to spice things up but he doesn’t need them. He doesn’t mind some toys being used on him at all, letting his partner take the reins when they want too. He loves the attention being on him, there’s no denying that.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease)

He has his moments of teasing, watching his partner squirm. And he definitely does it to get his partner to try and put him in his place. Brat tamers are just brats in control after all.

V = Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Sighs, moans, and soft grunts. Fairly average volume, as he has no problem showing his partner that he’s enjoying it.

W = Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

Has definitely had at least one rich/famous person as a source of income with the offer of sex. Has definitely stolen from them countless times too. 

X = X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants, picture or words)

Smaller than average but fully aware of how to use it.

Y = Yearning (How high is their sex drive?)

Slightly above average, full control over it despite dialogue that would say otherwise.

Z = ZZZ (… how quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

Being familiar with constantly running away from his problems, he doesn’t fall asleep easily afterwards at all. The thrill and rush he gets from sex does the opposite for him.

[rainofthetwilight]

-20 asks for Fic Writers-

hey!! I was tagged by @basicallyjaywalker to do this tag game, so ty for the tag rook!! :D

for tags, hmm... @taddymason @lightning-chicken @toastingpencils37 @lavful @weekend-whip and any fic writer that wants to do this!!

-

1.How many works do you have on AO3?

4 of them!

2. What's your total AO3 wordcount?

23,088 as of now :D

3. What fandom(s) do you write for?

so far, only ninjago, but I might write for another fandom at some point? not sure but it's pretty much only ninjago that I write for

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

I only have four of em on AO3 (and one on here), but here we go:

The one I've known since I was I was only just a kid at 85 kudos

I'm not sick, I swear at 61 kudos

As the years pass by (the old version) at 23 kudos

Thank you for being a friend at 18 kudos

5. Do you respond to comments?

YES. I always get a bit too excited when I see them and I literally cherish every single one, so even if it's just a keysmash I always respond <33

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angiest ending?

with almost all of my fics ending on a fairly happy note so far, The one I've known since I was only just a kid easily sticks out like a sore thumb with it's ending lmao

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I think it'd def be I'm not sick, I swear! it's basically the only actual fluff fic w/o angst I've published so far lmao

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I hope I never will, but I mean- there was that one comment on my old version of atypb where this person complained about the wait and how they've been waiting 'a year' so 💀I don't know if that counts as hate but it's annoying af

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

nope, nope, nope 🤺

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

I don't! I'm not sure if I'm open to it, tho

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

thankfully no I haven't, and I really do hope not

12. What's the longest time you've spent working on a fic? And what's the shortest?

the longest one would definitely be the old version of atypb (the new ver which I hope to release soon will beat that tho I think), and the shortest would be I'm not sick, I swear! I literally wrote that fic in like almost 2 hrs or smth while I was struck with the cold myself lmao

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

nope! I do feel up to it tho tbh

14. What's your all time favourite ship? From all the fandoms?

...do I really have to choose? like rook said, this is an awful question for a multishipper lmao

since I can't decide, I think they'd be raincloud, lost and jaya!

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

that one lostshipping fic I wrote back in november or smth and never got back to it, I so badly wanna finish it but I can't :')) (although now that finals are done, I could try getting back to it)

16. What are your writing strengths?

shoot, uhhh Idk?? I think it's when it comes to describing smth I guess (so description basically)

17. What are your writing weaknessess?

honestly, I think it'd be dialogue, I don't know why I struggle with it often :') I am trying to get better tho!

edit: and while I haven't written any so far, I think fight scenes is also a weakness for me :') (well technically I did in the old version of atypb, but lets- lets just ignore that)

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

*smacks google translate* this bad boy can fit so much translation in it (unless it's arabic w/ it being my language n all..arabic fus7a, however-)

19. First fandom you wrote for?

ninjago, obviously 😎

20. Favourite fic you've ever written?

I think it'd be definitely The one I've known since I was only just a kid!

-

[drealovesxenomorphs]

Robot and Monster Appreciation Post because I said so...

For an upcoming project that I'm working on, I *had* to rewatch Robot and Monster, and I have too many feelings in my heart and too many thoughts in my head to function, so this is a bigass love letter to one of the most underrated Nicktoons shows.

[TL;DR: the show is funny, give it a chance.] Before I get into the meat of it all, I want to say that the show features a lot of physical humor (characters being crushed and blown up etc etc) as well as dry humor and japes. I like both nuance and point-and-laugh humor so this was made for me (or I was made for it), though I do want to warn you, the first 5/7 episodes are very corny, just like any other beginning to a cartoon. I do ask that you give the show a chance despite those moments, the lore doesn't get too deep until later in the series so it's all pretty straightforward if you don't pay close attention to the beginning episodes.

Anyway, I wanna talk about the characters now 'cause I love 'em to death.

💜MONSTER:

-Monster is my favorite because. The best.

-Whether explicitly stated or not, Monster is a himbo. Sweet towards others-literally everybody loves this big lug,-buddy gets hugs by complete strangers and so much love and and more hugs; though not too much, Monster is shown to be fairly strong and physically inclined; and we know Monster ain't that smart.... but that does lead me to my next part, and a personal headcannon that I feel very strongly about.

-OH MY GOODNES OKAY so we know that Monster's character is meant to be the dumb sweet dude that completely contrasts Robot and provided character balance and all that, but I swear man, the guy is just leading everyone on with that idea. So, when Robot messes up on an invention (which happens often,) Monster will try to say something supportive that ends up being a blunder that insults Robot, and we just chalk that up to it being nothing more than a blunder. I BELIEVE WITH MY WHOLE HEART that Monster is actually very cunning and witty and will get occasionally angry at Robot that this dude will actually use the misconception of his intelligence to strike Robot right in the heart. Monster is just too good at bullishitting that nobody can tell the insult was meant to happen. Good lord ❤‍🔥

-Gardener. Understands that love helps grow plants. Too good for this world.

-Has a security blanket from childhood. You're telling me this grown-ass adult STILL has the heart and understanding of sentimental value to hold onto a comfort item regardless of societal pressure to suck it up and forgo childlike tendencies? A whole character.

🧡Robot

-Robot strives to be a great inventor, wants the fame and all that, but I'll be honest with you, only Monster sees the best in Robot's abilities, and there is nothing more relatable than a character who has the entire universe against them.

-If there was ever one thing that bothered me about the inventing, it was the fact that this dude was making MACHINES. Would this classify as regular handcrafting that we humans do, or is Robot actually creating children? If Monster could bring the organic bacon tree to life, you cannot tell me that Robot Default was not creating fetuses of the mechanical variety. And this is where I burden you with a headcannon: I think that this is based on Robot's own upbringing: Robot wants to put all of the attention and love into the little machines and projects because this guy won't let his ruined and near-loveless childhood get in the way of a healthy and happy future generation. Wants to heal the inner child while making sure the newest generation gets all the love and support they need. Anyways great character 🙏

-Sorry, the inventing this has me hooked to an unreasonable degree... does this mean Robot has a huge understanding in mechanical biology, or does Robot just understand how things are made? Look, this show was built on the bases of wanting to incorporate all the fun ideas that come to mind without giving any rhyme and reason, and I truly think that this is beneficial to the imaginations and mental stimulation of young'uns. But regardless, if that's the case, Robot would probably be regarded as a medicinal herbalist in our society (or maybe a chiropractor.)

-Arch-rivals with another scientist named Lucy, and this dude cannot catch a break on civilians that hate him. However, these meetings show us the depths of Robot's morality, and in the end (though pushed to do the right thing by Monster,) the well-being of another person is always chosen. Lawful-evil critter :D

-Already established that the Defaults are horrible to the baby of the family, but guess who Robot works for? That's right, Robot and Monster work for the Default Family Business, and I am near POSITIVE that they only receive minimum wage.

-Robot takes a lot of damage, and I assume if the heart is still beating in his chest, then everything is A-okay. Love a character that can take fall damage like a bug 💕

-Oh yeah, and despite the ego and sarcasm, Robot could have ended up being a snob and stuck-up just like the rest of the fam, but tries not to be. Robot keeps it real 99%, and I can respect that.

-One last thing that probably goes against all the good things I just talked about, I'm pretty sure that when Robot couldn't seem to make Monster feel happy again, he was literally going to kill a dude. Robot was going to make Perry disappear so Monster could be happy again. I shouldn't be this happy about the situation, but Robot's a true homie omg.

🤍Ogo

-Mentioning this Mofo at all will either be the catalyst to get you to watch the show, or deter you from it. Regardless, I am giving you the straight up facts, and if you think you won't like this kind of character, then I promise you won't. However, if you appreciate a little spice in a cartoon, then Ogo's got PLENTY to offer.

-Mega ultra horrible creep. Neighbor that knows everything about Robot and Monster. Slimy. You could consider him a yandere. Had the show been more popular, probably would be the fan favorite. Has that creeplord rizz.

-The first ever gaslight gatekeep girlboss. This SOB is manipulative. Will keep the darkest of secrets. But radiates the purest of girlboss energy. I can't explain it. It's just Ogo.

-Apparently accidentally leaves stains on their stuff, you know, when Ogo is breaking and entering into their home. What kind of stains is never mentioned, but even Ogo thinks it's gross.

-Has a dream journal filled with trips and delusions. I actually ache to be able to read what this dementoid's head can create.

-Speaking of delusions, this girlboss also invented the word delulu. Again, can't explain how.

-Knows how many bumps are on Robot and Monster's tongues. This show molded me into what I am today, send help and watch the show.

🩷❤JD + Spitfire

-Look, this show made 2 great, badass female characters. That's all. But, I was debating on whether to make their own separate lines, but you can't separate these two... I mean they tried to in an episode so you understand why I can't do it now. They are a team.

-Biker girlies. They beat up gangs and keep the streets safe at night. Fight dudes bigger than them and win. Wonderful.

-I love that they were able to make JD have everything going for her, but also have flaws as well. I mean, she's extremely strong, she's very pretty, she's got a sweet personality, and she's academically gifted. However, she's also a slob and doesn't really read people's emotions all that well. I don't know, I just feel like that's a great character.

-Spitfire is the complete foil to JD (and vice-versa, of course.) Spitfire is grounded and down-to-earth, cynical towards life and people, organized and calculating, and uncaring about the norm and societal standards. Seriously, sarcastic and badass. That's a great character.

-Despite their differences, they still have the same level of calmness. They work together so well from a fundamental standpoint. Dynamics similar to Robot and Monster, just... different vibe.

-JD has a very feminine air about her, and Spitfire has a very butch air about her. They very much level each other out.

🤖👾Final note💕🌚

-I would not be surprised if they have explored each other's bodies/hj. Very nonchalant as well.

-No lie, I don't know how to describe Robot and Monster's dynamic. "-And they were roommates." If you watch the Christmas episode, it seems like they were trying to make a nicktoon-friendly family splitting up a non-hetero situationship [which, hey, they find happiness with each other, wouldn't be surprised.]

-The show is weird, funny, sweet, comforting, the best. It is what it is, and for better or for worse, it will always hold a special place in the core of my soul.

[evelinessa]

I'm gonna send you another one after I've slept with a proper thought-out choice that is really about your fics, but I saw ✎ in the list and I couldn't resist :P

Trying to gain some insider info to use against me in the next exchange, I see. 😄😂

If someone were to guess an anonymous fic was mine, the easiest way would most likely be by looking at the tags themselves. I structure my tags very specifically, using the same types of tags on each fic (when on the timeline, POV, tone/genre, character & relationship modifiers, tropes & themes, minor things that happen, triggers, ending, format/structure tags, purpose/event tags, etc.), and in the same general order.

But as far as the actual writing goes, that is something a lot trickier to answer lol. As you know, I tend to write angsty topics (grief, tragedy, MCD, etc.), so the content itself could aid in exposing me. Also, I almost always write from either Phoenix's or Miles' POV, and almost everything I write has some Narumitsu element in it.

Another content thing is that I create and reference little memories (as well as items that represent those memories) for the characters in almost every fic I write. It's one of my favorite ways to flesh out a character's relationship with others and also to pull at emotions (especially if it's the case of a character remembering moments they had with a lost loved one).

For more mechanical stuff that could help give me away:

So far, I've only written in past tense.

Other than in rare occasions where there is no other way to say it effectively, I don't italicize a character's direct thoughts or write them in first person. Instead, I blend the character's thoughts in the internal monologue and narration and keep it in third person.

Along those lines, I put questions in the internal monologue fairly often.

While I don't use certain epithets (hair/eye color, profession, age, height, etc.) other than in select situations, I love using ones that show a relationship between characters (friend, partner, husband, father, sister, daughter, etc.)

I may use em dashes, colons, and semicolons more than the average person.

I use one-word sentences and one-sentence paragraphs quite often.

Not usually added until the editing stage, but when I search for synonyms, I'll usually pick words that will create alliteration (usually capping it to two or three words close together), but I won't pick an alliterative word over a synonym that works better (either more accurate or has the connotations I'm going for/gives a double meaning).

I use intentional repetition fairly often, especially in a character's inner monologue, to really draw attention/give more weight to something they are thinking/feeling.

If you see me start listing things, most of the time I will use the rule of threes.

That was what I was able to think of for now. But I'm sure there are things I do that I missed, or things that people have picked up on that I'm not aware of. It was fun to think about what I tend to do when writing that could give me away.

Thank you for the ask! 🥰

[bitchdafuqyousay]

an old friend (maybe older than I thought, but I halfway refuse to believe it)

When I was really little mama would take sissy and I to visit our great grandmother (her dads mom) fairly often at the end of her life. She was bedridden and had in-home care. Everytime we were there she was in one of those hospital beds in the living room. Grandmama wasn't able to make it to her room alone at that point so it was easier for her. More often than not, my papa's sister would be there too while we were.

She lived in an apartment; it was a pretty old one and used to be company housing for the people who worked at the old mill and their families way back a whiles (the mill was built in the 1820s, the apartments cropped up in the 1860s). It was set up like a line; you walked in right into the kitchen which went directly to the living room. You could see straight to the back of it, all the way through to the end of the hallway where the rooms were. As I remember it that hall had five doors: two on the left which were the bathroom and then the master bedroom, then three on the right which were a linen closet, the two bedrooms. The third door on the right was the only one little me cared about. That's the room my friend came out of while we were visiting.

The first fifteen minutes were spent having as many pieces of candy corn mama would allow sissy and I (grandmama always had a full bowl of 'em on the coffee table for some reason) and then sneaking more tiny fistfulls when we thought she wasn't looking and I'd drag out the megablock containers from between the couch and the wall while the adults talked and sissy played on her DS. I'd empty out the containers and start building lil things; towers and cubes and whatnot. I liked mixing up all the colors- didn't care for patterns or monochrome all too much at that age. Then sometime during that, I'd hear that third door creek open then click shut. Followed by fast paced steps. Little clicking heels down the hallway. He was always wearing shoes. I always judged him for that, you ain't supposed to wear shoes in the house, after all. But if grandmama and papa's sister (who I assumed was his mom, she's younger than papa is) didn't say anything then I wasn't gonna say anything, either. Wasn't my house wasn't my house's rules so even though we all took our shoes off I couldn't dictate what my friend did.

Anyways, he'd walk out the hall and make the itty bitty turn to sit next to me and the laid out megablocks. He always looked like he'd just come from church, real fussy, even to me who considered herself something of a princess. Still do, but I digress. It's been a long while since I was at that apartment, since grandmama died and I last saw that boy; but I still remember exactly what he looked like. Skinny, more so than me, with a circle shaped face. Big eyes that were so brown they were almost black and his eyebrows were hidden by thick blunt bangs. His hair was sorta like a bowl cut, but the back didn't hang flat but sorta fluffy. He wore a white button up shirt, light brown shorts that stopped a bit before his knees that were held up by suspenders, knee high white socks, and these brown leather shoes that always let me know when he was coming down the hall even if I'd missed the sound the heavy door made when opening cause of the way they clacked.

He'd scoot closer to look at what I was making, and usually grimace at the lack of organization and start building his own tiny towers- carefully selected blocks and well considered patterns. But no matter what, he always had to have one tower that was completely red. Every block in that six stack tower had to be red; no ifs ands or buts. Sometimes he'd even take blocks from me (brat) if there weren't any free red ones so he could make his tower. Never asked, or spoke at all really, closest he'd get to vocalizing anything were these real small, breathy giggles he'd let out when I'd playfully nudge one of his building, pretending I was gonna knock it over, or when I'd poke him in the side as retribution for taking a red block from me. I didn't care though, that he never spoke, I mean. I didn't either. We never even introduced ourselves, he just sorta started creeping out his (?) room, down the hall, to then come play with me in the living room. I'd just accepted it, I mean hey why not? To little me, the visits were boring. I wasn't quite old enough to really understand what was up. I knew grandmama was sick, I knew that's why we visited her. But beyond that I didn't quite get it. I also knew I was bored, and I felt awkward and shy with my great aunt, my papa's sister, and watching sissy play on her DS was only entertaining for so long. So my new found, small fellow was a very welcome addition to the visits.

So, we sat together, took blocks from the other, and I'd sneak candy corn that he never took when I offered. Guess he didn't like it. Lotta people don't. I ate it mostly cause it was there and also mama didn't let us have sugar super often so it felt exciting to have it.

Couple minutes before we left, before mama even announced we were gonna be heading out, he'd push all the blocks back to me, smiling with pink cheeks. Then he'd get up and walk back down the hallway where'd he'd open that third door and shut it behind him. Mama would tell sissy and I to tell everyone bye and put our shoes on so we could go home. Visit done, see you all later.

Grandmama died, we never went back to the old mill apartments. No reason to, and I haven't seen my great aunt since, obviously haven't seen that boy either. Bit ago mama and I were talking about those visits for some reason or another, don't remember why, and I remembered my playmate again. So I asked her about him. She didn't know who I was talking about. I described him and got a confused stare in return. Explained he'd always hang out in that third room, the last one at the end of hall. The one on the right. A guest bedroom probably, I didn't know. Never went in there. The one with the creaky wooden door.

"There wasn't a third room on that side." She described the apartment layout to me; small, skinny, you could straightshot it. See all the way through it soon as you stepped in. The hall had four rooms off it. Bathroom and master bedroom on the left, linen closet and second bedroom on the right.

And the third, I insist.

"No third. There was four, not five."

My great aunts kid, I stress.

"She didn't have any kids. And the only kids that were there when we visited were you and your sister."

No third room on the right. She didn't have a kid, much less a son my age. Mama says there were never any other kids there while we were there. There weren't even any kids that young on her side of the family at that time. At least none that lived near, none she'd met. None that were at the old mill workers' accommodations while we were. But I played with him, he took stuff right out my hand, he giggled wheezily when I poked him and his shoes went clack clack clack when he walked.

"It was only ever us." Sissy agrees with mama, papa had no idea who I'm talking about. He says there were never any lil boys about when he visited his mother, his sister didn't have kids. He didn't remember me playing with one, only playing by myself.

But he physically took stuff from me. I touched him. I felt him. He'd sit right next to me and scoot real close to lean over and look at what I was making to judge my lack of color coordination. He would breathe on my shoulder. And sometimes we'd hold hands- hands linked between us while our free ones would make little structures. He'd make six stack red towers.

No other kid, everyone still tells me, certainly no boy they all say. No third door on the right. No little shoes clack clack clacking up the hall to play and then back down when it was almost time for me to leave, everyone else who was there insists.

[quicktimeeventfull]

zooms in here. fic prompt: matsulight with light being pissed that hes attracted to matsuda because he's pretentious about being a self-identified sapiosexual

thank you!!! i was so excited to see this, i adore matsulight so much but can never think of anything to write about them haha. reading this over again i may have gotten slightly off-track fdfjlsd but i hope you enjoy this anyway!

Light had always prided himself on his excellent taste. Appearances had never mattered much to him — what he liked were people smart enough to keep up with him. People with minds like like complicated locks which only he would be clever enough to pick.

He’d never been interested in anyone, particularly. This was because he was — if he should be allowed to set down his considerable modesty, for a moment — smarter than nearly everyone he’d met in his life.

And so it was very deeply irritating that he found himself flustered every single time Matsuda was in the room.

Matsuda. Of all fucking people.

Matsuda had many good qualities. He really did. Light had never quite understood why everyone else on the task force batted him around as much as he did — he was pleasant, and he was humble, and he worked hard. He was the sort of person Light often pretended to be. But he wasn’t smart, not really, not the way Light was, and not the way the sort of person he was determined to want needed to be. He thought with his heart and not his mind. If it came right down to it, Matsuda would always flinch in the final moments and that was why Light could never lower himself to love him. 

It was past dawn, but barely. Light had arrived at the hotel early, hoping to get as much as he could finished before the rest of the task force arrived, but Matsuda was the only one there. He was sitting cross-legged on the floor, pages of documents spread out in a circle around him. 

Matsuda, he noted, was always the one who wanted to stay latest, and apparently he was the one who came earliest, too.

“Oh!” he said, as Light walked in. “Up and at ‘em, right?” 

Light stared at him. This was one of the stupidest things he’d ever heard in his life and so it was deeply aggravating that he could feel his face growing hot. He hoped it didn’t show. “Where’s L? Doesn’t he live here?” 

Matsuda pointed to a closed door by the back of the hotel. “Asleep. I guess even he has to do that sometimes?” He sprung up. “Why don’t I make you a coffee?” 

“No, I should — we should get to work.” 

“No one else is here,” Matsuda said. “Come on.” He beamed at Light, then walked over to the hotel’s little kitchenette. Light, seeing no sensible path of resistance, followed.

Light didn’t like to think about how much this hotel must cost every night. Presumably, it was a lot. It had its own sitting area, and its own glass table, and a somewhat tacky chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Still, it was just a hotel, and the kitchenette was just a counter with a tiny sink, a kettle and four mugs on it, sitting face-down on a white hand-towel. The mugs were very clearly not provided by the hotel. Two of them said I <3 JAPAN on them, in English, and another said GANBATTE!! in huge pink katakana, with an off-brand Hatsune Miku cheering behind the words. 

“We bought them from the gift shop,” Matsuda said apologetically, as he flicked on the kettle. “No one could figure out where L — sorry, Ryuuzaki — keeps all those teacups. But it’s, you know. Encouraging. The cups.” 

“Right,” said Light. They were in L’s bedroom. Light felt this was fairly obvious — there weren’t actually any alternatives. The one time they’d picked a hotel that didn’t have a separate room in which L could sleep, they’d been sitting out on the table even when they weren’t being used. If Matsuda were a partner fit for Light, Light reminded himself, he would already have known this. 

“Anyway,” Matsuda said. He pulled out one of the drawers and fished out a little plastic bag of stick coffee. “Do you want … hm. We have regular black, milk, melted milk … oh, there’s an ume in here. Do you like ume?” 

“I —“ He did. “Not really.” It seemed childish, somehow. He didn’t want to draw too much attention to the fact that he was still, technically speaking, a university student. 

Matsuda looked up at him, his expression strangely curious, then shrugged. “Why don’t you try it? Maybe you’ll be surprised.”

“I — fine. Okay.” 

Matsuda smiled at him, then spun around as the kettle began to hiss. He took one of the I <3 JAPAN mugs and the copyright-friendly Miku one off the towel, then poured hot water onto them. He shook an ume stick into the Ganbatte mug and a melted milk stick into the other, then, bewilderingly, stuck the empty plastic into his pocket instead of literally anywhere else. Light guessed he didn’t know where the garbage was — Watari usually cleaned up for them. Light didn’t either, actually, but that didn’t mean he’d go around stashing trash in his pockets. He was very annoyed to find that he was endeared by this.

Matsuda took a stir stick from the ziploc bag, then stirred the coffee — Light’s first, and then his own — then handed Light the Ganbatte mug. 

Light took a sip. It was very sweet, and very warm. He took another. 

“You know,” Matsuda said. His voice was strangely contemplative. Light looked up. Matsuda was looking carefully away from him, staring towards the corner of the room. “You don’t, actually, have to pick the more difficult option all of the time. Or the coolest one. You could, also, pick the one you want.” 

Light could feel his face flaring, suddenly, hot. He was really extremely sure that this showed. He took another long drink from his mug. He was sure that Matsuda was looking away on purpose, but he hoped this nonetheless meant that Matsuda couldn’t see. “Yeah,” he said. “I know.” 

Matsuda turned, and smiled at him. “Okay. Well. Just something to think about.” He clapped Light on the shoulder. “Right. Well. Let’s get to work?” 

Light nodded, mutely, and followed him out to the documents, the mug warm in his hands. 

[angelmichelangelo]

without a parachute

verse: tmnt 2012 rated: g word count: 4k pairing: woodyangelo series: part two of the pizza bros

ao3 link!

x

There’s the unmistakable sound of chain going swinging through the air, pulling taut before it reaches its intended target, his chucks come into heavy contact with the Purple Dragon’s face, knocking him off his feet with a splutter that comes out pink against his chin from the blood and spittle spat there as soon as he’d hit the floor. Mikey runs circles around these guys because he’s fought aliens and monsters and big bad guys with real, fierce intent to kill and all Woody can do as he remains hidden out of sight behind the smell old dumpster is watch in awe as his friend takes out the goons one by one without so much as breaking a sweat. Eventually, the small handful of gang members are spilled across the darkened alleyway, either groaning through their newfound headaches or straight up K’O’d, once Mikey is sure his work here is finished, he’s looking for Woody with a big, breathless grin. “Dude!” Woody exclaims as he unsticks himself from the back wall, toeing off a receipt that’d stuck itself to the bottom of his sneaker. “That was awesome! ” The turtle shrugs, effortlessly tucking away his weaponry into his belt, he’s looking back at the Dragons that aren’t getting up just yet. “Piece of cake, really,” he’s telling him, lifting his gaze to meet his again. Something flutters about in Woody’s chest, so he sinks it down with a shallow gulp . “Wish our hangouts didn’t have to be so rudely interrupted, though,” the turtle adds, a crease forming in his mask between his eyes. “You’d think they’d get sick and tired of having their butts kicked, huh?” He’s grinning, all teeth like he often does, and that airy, fluttery feeling comes back in full force like the most pleasant type of vomit on earth when Woody smiles back, all wobbly, he responds, “Yeah. Right.”

Angel corners Woody a week later, partly because she enjoys intimidating anyone she can just about cross paths with and partly because when her roommate had come home those few months ago with a swollen face and a rather sketchy story to explain it all, she’d been hot on Woody’s tail about where it was he snuck off to of an evening. “It’s no big deal,” he’s telling her around a laugh as he fairly dishes out both their share of Chinese takeout. His mouth goes wet as he forks over a heaping of shrimp fried rice across his plate. “I’m a big boy, Ange. I can take care of myself.” The girl comes up around him, sweeping a cracker out of the little styrofoam box, crunching down on it deliberately hard, he just deadpans her with a somewhat unimpressed look. “Uh huh. Not suspicious at all, you going out all hours of the night. You come back all beaten and bruised…” She narrows her sharp eyes towards him as he sets the fork down to face her entirely. “Angel,” he levels with her. “I told you. I got mugged. It’s New York – is that so unbelievable?” She smacks her lips together, still not looking entirely convinced. “And this… friend of yours?” She presses. She could keep pressing, but there wasn’t a force in the world that was going to have him willingly give up Mikey’s secret. Even if Angel was stronger than he was. 

“Just a friend,” he says, offering up a gentle smile and a single pork ball as a resolve to their small interrogation session. She plucks it up off the fork and walks back to the couch, dropping onto it heavily, she calls out, “Yeah, any trouble, you send ‘em my way, Woods.” Woody continues to fix up their dinner and grins wickedly. He’d love to see her try. *** “Dude, no that’s—” Mikey’s laughter rings out around the dojo, resounding in Woody’s face suddenly going very hot. He undoes the stance he’d been posed in, feeling pretty lame as Mikey rushes towards him to grab at his hands and rework it. “Sorry,” the turtle says, biting his lip to badly hide the smile that was currently creeping across his face. “I’m not laughing at you.” Despite the way his ears were currently on fire, Woody finds himself smiling back, only barely able to try and fight it off. “Yeah you are. You’re laughing at me because you started all this stuff since before you could walk and I have all the ninjutsu talent of… of a chicken.” That has Mikey snort laughing – a rarity that apparently only he himself could coax out of him, his face all screwed up, it wasn’t even that funny of a joke but Michelangelo seems to disagree before he’s catching his breath once more to try and teach his friend the very early learner defense stance.

“Here,” Mikey tells him, gently grabbing his wrists and raising his arms high. “You want your shoulders to be equal with your hips, that way you have center gravity.” Woody raises a brow at him. “And your dad taught you this?” He asks, only a touch incredulous. “With those… big ol’ clunky shells of yours?” Mikey blinks then blows him a raspberry. “Shut up,” he’s telling him, entirely non serious. “Do you want me to teach you how to not get your ass beaten or not?” Woody hums; Mike still has his wrists wrapped up in his big, oversized hands and neither of them make an attempt to pull away from the touch. “If you do, does that mean you won’t be saving said ass when we come across danger on our hang outs?” Mikey deadpans him, something playful flashing across his face when he lifts his arms just a tiny inch higher. “Only when I’m not there,” he says. “Duh.” And it feels like it should be a joke. But there’s a slight edge of truth to his words that Woody doesn’t comment on again. He just lets Mikey try and teach him, only for him to fall flat on his face five minutes later, drawing out that crazed snort laugh once more. ***

His keys are still in midair, thrown from where he’d walked in through the door when Angel calls out from the living room, “How was your date?” The keys skitter harshly across the kitchen countertop, coming to a stop as he does. His roommate rounds the corner, her hair wrapped up in a towel, dressed down in her loungewear and a knowing smirk, Woody tries to stop his face from flushing. “I–I didn’t. I didn’t go on a date.” He tells her, gently pushing past her to seek retreat in the fridge. Angel hums, twiddling the drawstring of her pants around a finger, watching him as he pulls a soda can from the back of the shelf. “Hmm, sure.” He closes the fridge with a bump of his hip and draws the tab back. Frothy, fizzy sweetness dances to the top of the can and he brings it quickly to his lip to still it. That, and any other choice words he may have for his friend before him. “Dude, I don’t know what the big deal is,” she laughs airly. “If you want me out the apartment, just say the word! I’d rather you be… hookin’ up someplace safe, at least.” Woody splutters on his drink as it slides down his throat and into his lungs. Foam froths up behind his eyes and nose making him cough weakly. Angel finds it all very amusing. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand and sets the now sticky can down on the counter. “I’m not… hooking up,” he says, cringing a little. “I told you. I just hang out with some friends and we just–” “Hook up?” Angel says with a shit eating grin. God, her and Raphael would for sure get along like a house on fire, he thinks almost bitterly. “No,” he tells her plainly, something close to seriousness webbed around his tone that gets her to back off (for now). “It’s just… complicated.” Angel sighs, unraveling the drawstring from around her finger, she’s looking at Woody a little gentler now, something that in itself was rare and uncommon but very much welcomed. “Okay,” she tells him. “But you have to promise me–” she adds, voice climbing steadily before Woody can butt in, stepping forward he lands a hand on her shoulder to still her. “--he didn’t give me that black eye or the split lip.” Angel chews the inside of her cheek before she lets go to smile at him. “So it’s a he?” Woody groans, swiping up his soda and heading for the refuge of his bedroom, leaving behind her laughter. *** Woody is only caught in the downpour of the century for a minute after rushing out of work to his nearest sewer tunnel, shaking off the droplets of rain that clung to his hair as he descends the ladder into the underbelly of the city. When he reaches the lair, pushing through the turnstiles, the pizza boxes that he’d crammed into his delivery bag were still warm, sniffed out by three wanting turtles who greet him with grabby hands for the zipper. “Mikey’s not here,” Raph explains to him quickly as he fishes out one of the boxes. Woody frowns and only Donatello looks up to offer him explanation. “He’s out with Leatherhead,” he tells him. “But you're welcome to stay for dinner.” Woody hums, handing off the last box to them, he fiddles somewhat nervously around his bag strap. Whatever vibe he was giving off, Leo is fast to pick up on it. “He won’t be long,” the turtle tells him. “Eat with us. Save you going back up there in that storm.” Woody goes, sitting with the brothers, he picks at his singular slice listening to the sound of the pipes up ahead creak and groan. 

He makes light of conversation between them, asking about patrols and training and somehow divulges into a lengthy discussion with Donnie about the structure of the tunnel system against such fierce storms when there’s the unmistakable click of the turnstiles that has Woody rising to his feet. All three pairs of eyes are on him and so he awkwardly lowers himself back down again, waiting for Mikey to emerge. “Aw dudes, tell me you left some for me!” He skips into the room, swamped in an oversized raincoat with the hood still pulled over his head so only his snout can be seen as it sniffs out his dinner. Woody slides him his box, sharpie scrawled across it with the words: jellybean..?

“Course, amigo.” He tells him with a grin, expecting Mike to pull up a chair and drop into it and inhale his pizza. But he doesn’t, instead swiping the box up off the table with one hand, the other comes to pull Woody to his feet. “Cool. Wanna watch that crappy chick flick we started on the other day on the Hallmark channel?” Woody chortles a laugh, allowing himself to be lead without so much of an actual state on the matter, they’re only ever stopped when Leo is standing up from his seat, wiping greasy fingertips over his belt, looking at them ever so seriously, “Door open, kay Mike?” Woody has never felt hotter in the face before, like he could just melt and he’s expecting maybe Mikey to un-liquify him with a snappy, sharp remark but he just laughs and rolls his eyes like he’s the one starring in a bad C-Lister rom-com and says, “Sure Leo.” Before pulling his friend along to his room. He’s flopping onto the bed, throwing Woody a glance over his shoulder looking so amused and unbothered by it all, “Weirdos,” he throws Woody the remote to search for their movie; he only just about catches it, fumbling it slightly before clutching it tightly. “If they wanted to come watch with us, they only had to ask.”

And as Woody drops into his beanbag chair, so does his heart, all the way to his gut, because…

Because oh. This was not good.

***

He unpicks the bathroom lock and barges in, knowing it’s safe to do so because Angel only ever locks it when she’s hanging halfway out the window to have a smoke — which is exactly what she was doing now.

He flips the toilet seat closed and sits on it so heavily it draws her back in, stubbing out the last of her cigarette against the now ashy frame. 

“Oh, what happened?” She asks, drawing back all her hair in her palm to sweep it off her face as she perched herself against the lip of the bathtub.

“I think,” Woody says with a gulp, his heart swimming up in his throat. “I think… I like my friend.”

There’s a beat of silence that allows Woody to believe that maybe his friend won’t be so hard on him and actually impede some wisdom, but that doesn’t happen.

What does happen is she tips her head back, whole body following after that she nearly falls into the tub and laughs loudly.

“Yeah,” she says once she’s stopped. “No shit.”

Woody whines, dropping his head into his hands to fist at his curls tightly, just to stop his head from spinning clean off.

First Angel believed there to be something, then Leo… it was onto a matter of time before that weighty realization caught up and slammed into him with full force.

Which is exactly what this was right now.

“Okay,” Angel is leveling with him, patting him generously on his knee to get him to stop folding himself in half. “First things first, is he gay?”

Woody’s gut swims about in a whole river of uncertainty. He'd never really picked up on any… hints, per se but Mike wasn’t like most guys Woody got close to.

Being a mutant turtle kind of blocked out that particular radar for obvious reasons.

“I don’t know,” he says with a sigh. “I don’t know, Angel. This friendship, it’s… it’s super important to me and him.”

His throat goes right as he’s reminded of the follow up conversations to that whole shebang with the Foot Soldiers, about how much it meant to Mikey to having a friend outside his usual circle of insanity that followed his normal day to day life.

Angel presses his lips together, weighing up what kind of helpful response she could share.

“Woods,” is what she does say eventually. Their bathroom smells like smoke, there’s no way they’re getting their deposit back on this place. “Sometimes you gotta just go for it, man.”

He lifts his gaze to meet hers. Something soft glimmering in her eyes.

Trust Mikey to somehow bring out the kinder side in Angel without even meeting her first. 

“But what if I ruin it?” Woody says, dragging a hand down his face tiredly. He’s sure he’d rather go another round with Mike’s chucks that endure this any longer. “Then what?”

Angel pats his knee again and smiles again.

“Yeah,” she says, head tipping to the side. “But what if you don’t?”

Woody remains silent, afraid that if he opens his mouth more of this word vomit might come up with the rest of his courage.

“Never gonna know if the chutes workin’ unless you jump, dude.”

And damn, if she didn’t have a point.

***

Woody doesn’t really have a plan in his head when he very inconspicuously comes out to Mikey.

He figures that Mike was the type of guy that was pretty made up of pure unconditional love; he’d seen it with all of his other friends and his family. If there was one thing Woody could count on with his mutant friend, it was that he was the love first, ask questions third type because the second thing he was doing was wrapping you up in a very tight hug. 

They’re hanging out on one of their favorite rooftops because the storm from a few days ago had finally settled and washed away the humidity in the air and it was nice not to be stuffed away underground all the time. Woody slides a particularly greasy slice about in the box, watching it before he rests the box on his lap and clears his throat.

“Hey, Mike?” He cranes his head upwards, looking out towards the starless sky. “Did I, uh. Did I ever tell you ‘bout the time I came out to my Ma?”

Mikey dances the straw of his milkshake about on his tongue. There’s nothing written across his face to indicate any strongly held emotions.

“No,” he says, genuinely curious, it helps ease some of the worry that’d settled heavily in his chest.

“Well,” he says, picking up a tiny little meatball of one of the slices and rolling it between his fingers, greasing them up. “It was in middle school, and I liked this kid in my class.” He swallows, wishing now he’d caved and got himself a shake too. “He was in the school play so of course, I joined the school play.”

Mikey spits his straw out, eyes going wide.

“Oh cool! I always wanted to be in a school play!” He clutches excitedly at his foam cup. “I mean, I did a few performances as a kid for my dad but it was kinda hard to direct your three brothers that were like, totally not interested at all.”

Woody chuckles softly, trying to picture a smaller Mikey picks up a slice, folding it lengthways and sliding it over his tongue.

“Sorry. ADHD Brain. Carry on.”

Woody presses the meatball into his mouth, chewing on it only once before swallowing it down. 

“I got cast, only a minor role, but it meant I got to spend most lunch periods with him or going over lines or just hanging out between classes,” he tells him, dragging the toe of his sneaker across the gravel, his laces becoming loose.

Somewhere in the distance, a car horn blares loudly followed by a string of curses strewn from either side of the road before the commotion moves on again.

“I was so wrapped up in crushing on this guy I forgot two pretty big important things,” he tells him. “One, I forgot to act on it, and two, I forgot that I had to actually, like, perform in the play.”

Mikey grins. “Was it cool?”

Woody scoffs, with all the good intentions in the world and watches the way Mikey’s smile creeps off his face, shoulders sagging. “Ah. Sorry.” Woody has to resist every little bit of force that is making him want to reach over the very small gap between them and grab his hand and maybe not ever let go. “It’s alright,” he tells him. “But it was not cool because I totally chickened out.” Mikey’s face falls. “Oh,” he says softly. “Oh no.” Woody huffs a laugh, then, just to give his wanting hands something to actually do, he sweeps his hair across over his forehead. “I had like, a bit of a meltdown backstage because here I was, this idiot kid that liked a much cooler kid, about to make an absolute ass out of myself.” Thinking back on the memory, he can still feel the blinding heat of the spotlights against his blushing face – like he was there now, standing under the lamp about to puke up all his guts and feelings in one giant dry heave. “My ma had to come around and get me,” Woody explains. “And she sat with me, trying to calm me down, tellin’ me of all the ways to get over stage fright.” His voice wobbles and that is all it takes for Mikey to be the brave one and reach over and grab his hands. Woody stares at them for a moment; those big, green three fingered hands that just one of which seems to swallow up both of his, and how normal it all feels. How never out of place this turtle has ever made him feel in the months of knowing him. “It’s then,” he says with a long, drawn out sigh, “that I told her that the tears weren’t just because I was scared of getting up on stage.” He looks down. “I told her then, about the kid, about how I felt.” He finds Mikey’s gaze boring into his – baby blues so unwavering. “What happened then?” He’s asking quietly. 

Woody smiles. Blinks back some of the burning behind his eyes. “She, uh, She took me for ice cream.” He remembers how she’d only asked him once do you want to stay and he’d simply shaken his head and they’d packed up in her beaten up minivan and left the play and the boy behind in search of cherry garcia. Woody only pulls his hands away to scrub at his face. “So, uh. Yeah.” He says after a moment. 

Mikey fidgets with his hands for a moment, in a way that Woody had come to learn that was an outlet for him juggling his thoughts and words that tended to swirl up in his brain, too blizzardy to say straight the first time. His voice is small and unsure when he speaks. “I… I never came out to my dad.” Woody’s heart stills in his chest, a breeze dances across the roof, brushing his curls over his eyes. “I planned on it,” he adds leaning back ever so casually, but the slight tremble in his voice gave him away. Woody wouldn’t dare comment on it either way. “It was after he… he died,” he says, forcing the word past his lips. “I told Leo about it. I thought for the longest time that– that maybe I’d missed an opportunity to do so. Cos, y’know. I was never gonna know how that conversation played out, cos I told myself I was too chicken to do it when he was here–” Woody finds his courage, snatching up his hands with his. “You’re not chicken,” he says, so solidly the words might as well form like rock where they sit between them on the cool rooftop. “You’re not.” Mikey sniffs, eyes sparkling. “Yeah,” he laughs wetly. “I know that now.”

Woody searches his face – the face that ever rarely gets to look so hurt like it did right now, even when he was smiling at him like he was now, it was like he got another little bit of Michelangelo to discover each day, starting on that day he’d popped up from the manhole, he was always finding more and more to… to… Well. To fall in love with. “I’m sorry you didn’t get to come out to your dad, Mikester,” Woody tells him, squeezing his hands best he can. Mike squeezes them back. “It’s alright,” he tells him, and the way he says it, it sounds like it might just be. “I might not ever be super sure what would have happened but I know that he loved me. Like Leo and Raph and Dee love me.” He sniffs again. “Kinda like–” “Like I do.” Woody says suddenly. If the city could be still for even a second, now was that second; long and drawn out and perhaps the longest second ever before Mikey is laughing – snort laughing! He tips his head back and squeezes his eyes shut and doesn’t let Woody go.

“Yeah,” he says. “Me too. With you.” Woody exhales, all shaky and wobbly and a teeny bit scared still because there’s still the middle school version of him deep down in his soul feeling the heat from the stage lights and the sound of a crowd too big for him to bear. But here on the rooftop, it’s just them. It’s just him and this wild ninja turtle he never wants to let go of. So when Mikey rushes forward and plants a chaste, nervous kiss on his lips, eyes still tightly closed when he pulls away, Woody just laughs. “Don’t laugh at me,” Mikey says with a pout, refusing to open his eyes still. And Woody only untangles their fingers to cup at his face, thumb slipping beneath his mask to pull them together again, their center of gravity becoming one as he kisses him back, longer, sweeter – a little braver this time. “That better?” Woody says as they pull away. Mikey has finally found the courage to open his eyes. He’s beaming like he’s going to split his whole face in half, and he hums. “Uh huh,” Mike tells him. “Least we can skip the awkward conversation with my bros. They already think we’re dating.” Woody laughs loudly, and so does Mikey, both their joy traveling across the rooftops of the city around them. And later when Woody returns home with the taste of Mikey’s lips on his still (jellybeans and milkshakes) he calls out to Angel who’s dozing off on the couch, “Chute’s working, by the way.” She gives him a wordless thumbs up. Later when he goes to bed, not before sending off a text to Mike, he wonders if perhaps Angel’s metaphor was just another one of her well hidden crude euphemisms, but he quickly realizes he doesn’t quite care. He fell. And Mikey had fallen with him. 

[gutsfics]

pls tell me all about devi before the events of ilitw!! what kind of activities did he do? who were some of his friends? did he still talk to any of the people from his childhood friend group? if so, who? etc. etc. anything else you want to share!!

ok this is gonna kinda jump around a bit bc thats how my thoughts are rn :3 i love this ask though thank u for letting me talk about my special guy

so after Jane's death, he did try his best to hang onto the friend group for a while (especially Noah) but due to not having a very good therapist, his kid logic made him think "thinking about Jane makes me sad, and not thinking about her i can be happy, but i'd rather think about her and be sad forever than evetually move on and forget" so he kinda shut himself off from everyone so he could hold his memory of her forever

his parents tried their best to help him but the therapists they took him too didnt believe him when he told them about Mr Red (or when they did believe him, they only believed him if they were reading lines that weren't there and assuming that Mr Red was a real living guy in the woods and jumping to conclusions about it) so maybe like a month or two after Jane died he just... stopped talking, bc what was the point of speaking if no one was going to listen? and then he stopped talking to anyone ever until half way through his freshman year of highschool when he told Cody to "gargle my cock and balls"

because of Devi being mute for all that time, he didn't really have any friends (which he was fine with for reasons stated earlier) & a lot of people found him kinda weird and offputting for the most part, especially when he got really into expressing himself through art, specifically photography. a lot of "ew that weird quiet kid is taking pictures of things again what a creep" but for the most part he just shrugged it off

Cody used to think he was kinda cool bc he was quiet and goth and in 6th grade asked him to the fall formal but Devi turned him down and that's when he started bullying him. he tried to turn it into a "HAH WELL OBVIOUSLY NO ONE WOULD WANT TO GO OUT WITH YOU YOU CREEP WEIRDO YOURE STUPID TO THINKING I WANTED TO GO WITH YOU" which somehow worked on everyone around them despite the fact Devi turned him down

after he started talking again, he joined the yearbook club & got really good at the composition of pictures of people & formatting them on the pages, but bc he was still a bit of a loner at this point no one else in the club realized just how much he did? especially after the older kids in the club graduated, bc they were the ones encouraging him and teaching him how to do the formatting and stuff. ive actually been rotating a fic in my head where post ilitw Lucas goes to the yearbook club to see how theyre doing bc its almost time to get em printed and its like. not even half done and also theres a memorial page for Cody but not for Devi????

in Sophmore year he took a Japanese class for an easy foreign language credit, which Tom was also in for the same reasons and they became friends :3 not as close as Tom and Andy at this point, but they'd hang out at lunch when Andy was busy and sometimes go to eachother's houses after school. but after that year the teacher for the class made sure to put them in different periods bc they would kinda. make fun of him a little bit in japanese bc he was a white guy who thought he was way better at the language than he actually was and that made him big mad

of the original group, he was probably closest with Lily when he started talking again. and then not as close w Ava and Andy but he talked w them fairly often. Lucas, Stacy, and Dan he really only saw when he was doing yearbook stuff, w that conversation he had w Dan junior year being the longest conversation he'd had w any of those three in a while (all three 100% knew he was the backbone of yearbook btw. & when people were being like "ew that weirdo goth kid w the camera is here again" they were the ones to be like "ITS FOR YEARBOOK, ASSHOLES.")

he and Noah avoided each other as much as possible. sitting next to Noah during that assembly the first day of senior year was the first time in years that one of them didn't immedeatly turn around and walk out of the room upon seeing the other in it (they lowkey had each other's scheduals memorized to better avoid each other) (for the most part Any picture of Noah that might show up in the yearbooks were not taken by Devi) (although. ngl. Devi did take a few candid photos of Noah occasionally. which he promptly would delete bc he felt bad about it. a little bc he and Noah hadnt talked in forever but mostly bc he felt like "creep weirdo with a camera" was an accurate description of him when he did that)

[pickalilywrites]

Can you write a sequel to your Heart Skips a Beat fic you wrote a few years ago? I really love that fic and wanna know more about their story. Since it was a Halloween fic and December is coming up, why not write a Christmas party sequel. Since Levi is an Premed student, maybe Zeke could be his rival who is aiming to be a doctor like his father. And is annoyed he keeps making moves on his pre-law girlfriend.

thanks for allowing me to return to one of my most beloved aus 💕

selective amnesia

rivetra. college/university au. 1859 words. read on ao3.

Levi navigates through the crowd of drunk college students, trying hard not to breathe in the scent of alcohol, hot chocolate, and peppermint. It’s not often that he comes to these parties wearing something other than scrubs, but for once he’s not here to answer an EMS call. He’s here to pick up his girlfriend, who he can spot laughing on the couch with a drink in her hand. He suspects it’s the sickeningly sweet (and most likely spiked) hot chocolate that someone had tried to hand him as soon as he walked in. Levi had abandoned his own cup on a shelf on his way to the living room, but he can see that Petra’s cheeks have a familiar flush that typically appears once she’s had her fair share of alcohol.  

Like many others at the party, Petra is wearing a costume. She’s in a ballet outfit — or what looks like what could be a ballet outfit based off the tutu and ballet shoes although Levi believes she’s taken a few liberties with her ballerina costume from the corset she wears. Apparently, she’s supposed to be the sugar plum fairy from the Nutcracker ballet. Her costume is lacking wings, but Levi doesn’t know anything about the play to say if this is accurate or not.  

Most people are dressed as elves or reindeer. A few guys are wearing Santa costumes. Others are dressed as other popular winter holiday figures: Jack Frost, the Grinch, and someone is even dressed as Jack Skellington for some reason. There a few peculiar costumes here and there: a Christmas tree, an ornament, a candy cane, among others. It’s mostly a spattering of red, green, and white across the room. Levi sticks out like a sore thumb in his gray winter coat and dark jeans. 

He observes the man beside Petra that has been lucky enough to be in her company this evening. It’s the all too familiar face of Zeke Jaeger, another pre-med student in Levi’s year. Despite sharing nearly all their classes since freshman year, Levi isn’t very fond of Zeke and he’s fairly certain the feeling is mutual. Admittedly, Levi hadn’t been the friendliest when Zeke had attempted to befriend him, but Levi has never seen the point of allying himself with people just because they shared the same career path. Aside from major, he and Zeke have nothing in common. Where Zeke likes to attend every frat party and networking event he can to make connections, Levi prefers to only do the absolute minimum when it comes to networking and spent the rest of his time studying or working at EMS. Because of their differences in social circles and extracurriculars, the two hardly run into each other and rarely butt heads until they found that they had a mutual interest: Petra.  

Zeke had the misfortune of meeting Petra much later than Levi. Pre-meds and pre-law students don’t usually run in the same circles and Zeke had only met Petra after she had showed up to one of Levi’s EMS meetings. It was a chance encounter and one Zeke undoubtedly believed was fate — he didn’t typically attended EMS meetings, choosing to skip them as much as possible without getting kicked out, and law students weren’t usually interested in EMS club meetings. The look of devastation and horror on Zeke’s face when he found out that Petra was there for Levi did fill Levi was satisfaction, but he didn’t know that satisfaction would be fleeting and that Zeke would then proceed to find every possible chance he could to spend time with Petra despite Petra’s relationship status. Because of Levi’s relationship with Petra, it meant that he also had to spend time more time than he wanted with Zeke, who never got the hint that Petra is fully committed and has no intention of leaving Levi. It’s more of a nuisance than anything else, although Levi is slightly amused because despite all of Zeke’s meddling, Petra cannot for the life of her remember who Zeke is. 

Levi can see that Petra has once again forgotten who Zeke is by the way she interacts with him on the couch. Despite the arm Zeke has thrown over the back of the couch where Petra is sitting, she’s sitting at the edge of her seat, playing with her empty cup and laughing at whatever Zeke is saying but not engaging with him otherwise. She smiles politely at him, the smile never quite reaching her eyes, and covers her face partially with her hand whenever she giggles to take a quick look around. As soon as she spots Levi, her already half-hearted attention leaves Zeke entirely and is wholly directed towards Levi. Petra’s face breaks into a smile and she immediately leaves her seat to bound into Levi’s arms.  

“Levi!” she cries delightedly, her breath smelling of hot chocolate and peppermint schnapps. She nuzzles her head affectionately against Levi’s neck. “You took too long.”  

“Looks like you had company, though,” Levi replies.  

He’s acutely aware of Petra and all things related to Petra. He’s aware of how attractive she is and how attractive other guys find her. He’s aware of how short her tulle skirt is and how Zeke’s eyes are gazing at Petra wolfishly even as she’s wrapped tightly around her boyfriend. It’s a lie to say that Levi isn’t the jealous, possessive type, and when he drapes his coat around Petra’s shoulders the reason is not solely because he’s noticed the goosebumps that have risen on her bare arms.  

“Oh, thank you,” Petra says, not even so much as casting a backwards glance at Zeke. She’s forgotten him completely despite him undoubtedly keeping her company most of the evening. She wraps herself in Levi’s coat, a slightly larger fit than her own coats although the shoulders are much broader than hers, before wrapping her arms around Levi once more and inhaling his scent deeply. “You smell so nice.”  

“Are you ready to leave already?” he asks as he pats her ginger hair affectionately, careful not to jostle the sparkling tiara that is perched perfectly on her head. She’s sprayed something in her hair and the palm of his hand comes away with sparkles.  

“You should stay, Petra,” Zeke says loudly, but Petra’s either too intoxicated or infatuated to let her attention be stolen by anyone other than Levi. When he notices that Petra hasn’t even turned her head, Zeke raises his voice to be better heard over the party. “Why did you come so late if you were just going to leave, Levi?”  

“I had to take over someone’s EMS shift. They were a no-show,” Levi replies easily, fixing an icy stare at Zeke who doesn’t even have the shame to look embarrassed even though it’s clear that Levi is alluding to him. Then again, this is far from the first time that Levi has covered Zeke’s shift, although it was more to bolster his own CV for medical school rather than doing Zeke a favor.  

“God, what a fucking jerk,” Petra mumbles against Levi’s skin, but her voice is still loud enough for Zeke to hear and it’s only when Petra has an opinion that Zeke’s cheeks begin to burn an ugly, angry red.  

“I’m going to get a drink,” Zeke mutters, getting up from the couch and pushing past Levi and Petra to get to the kitchen where the crock pot half filled with spiked hot chocolate sits.  

“You’re not going to say goodbye to your friend?” Levi asks as he turns his head to watch Zeke retreat.  

“Who’s that?” Petra sniffs, wrinkling her nose at Levi. She yawns, covering her mouth half-heartedly before resting her head yet again on Levi’s shoulder. “I thought he was your friend. He said you guys were classmates.”  

Levi tries to navigate them towards the door. It’s difficult to move when his girlfriend insists on attaching herself to his side, but he doesn’t have the heart to unwind her arms around his neck so he does an awkward shuffle while trying not to bump into anyone. “I don’t know why he says that. You get along with him much better than I ever have.”  

Petra lifts her head and gives Levi a confused look. “What are you talking about? I’ve never seen that guy before in my life.”  

Levi snorts. He would suspect that she was lying just to appease him, but she’s never remembered Zeke no matter how drunk or sober she was. If Zeke were to ever find out, he’d surely be heartbroken although Levi wonders how it’s not painfully obvious by now. Petra never approaches Zeke first, she avoids addressing Zeke as much as possible, and she doesn’t have the faintest air of recognition when she sees him. Levi wonders if Zeke is just in denial. 

“You spent most of the party talking to a total stranger instead of having fun with everyone else?” Levi asks. 

“He didn’t seem to want to talk to anyone else, and I didn’t want to hurt his feelings,” Petra pouts. 

“You’re too nice.”  

“I am not. I’ll have you know that I completely obliterated the defense attorney and his client at the mock trial in my introduction to criminal law class the other day,” Petra huffs. “He was crying, the defendant was crying, and so were some people sitting in the jury.”  

“That’s my girl,” Levi says. He reaches up to untangle Petra’s arms from around his neck when he notices her lifting her face towards his, her eyes closed. “What are you doing?”  

Petra cracks open an eye. “I thought we were kissing,” she replies, her lips still pursed. 

“After you spent the night talking to another man?” Levi asks with a raised brow. He’s not actually bothered by it in the least, but it is amusing to see Petra get flustered anyway. 

“You didn’t come until so much later,” Petra says. She tugs at the hem at the bottom of Levi’s sweater. “I missed you the entire night. You abandoned me, Levi, to save other people’s lives!”  

“You’re absolutely right. I should have let everyone die,” Levi deadpans before planting a kiss on Petra, one that she eagerly reciprocates. The taste of chocolate peppermint would probably taste overpowering on its own, but it tastes just right on Petra’s lips and his lips part easily to take in more of her. He probably kisses her a little harder, a little more passionately than he normally would in public, but the possibility of Zeke watching only makes this kiss more delicious. When they finally part, Levi casts a backwards glance and sees Zeke’s shocked face. To Petra, Levi asks, “Ready to go? Better leave before we get snowed in here.”  

“As long as I’m snowed in with you,” Petra chirps happily. She also glances back and notices Zeke staring at them. She leans over towards Levi and whispers, “Is that a friend of yours?” Once again, she’s forgotten Zeke.  

“Not at all,” Levi says with a smirk and wraps his arm around Petra before leading her through the hallway and out the door, leaving everything else behind.  

[davidmariottecomics]

Not So Evergreen: A Perennial Problem

Hi there, 

Wouldja believe it, this week I was thinking about comics? 

I know, it's hard to imagine I've had time around Valentine's Day and preparing for our impending nuptuals (which you can contribute to if you're so inclined!).

Or around the continued bullshit that is KOSA, which you might've noticed is NOT actually fixed--and still needs to be stopped. Or, as long as we're talking about regulation and the internet and what can/should be regulated to try to make it a better safer place, all the latest "Generative AI" nonsense (not linking anything in particular here, but there're new stupid developments every day). 

Or while keeping track of what's happening in Gaza and, specifically, in Rafah, where Palestinians were told to evacuate to and that is now under bombing, or as they continue to attack hospitals and kill civilians. Sharing up top some recent resources I've seen, including a nice list of places where you can donate (you may also notice the PCRF on our registry and thanks to the folks who've already given there) and a nice collection of Palestinian cultural reading and listening and cooking you can do. There continue to be demonstrations and actions--with a lot in the past week being organized to keep hands off Rafah. Call.Fax. Email.Contact the White House. Keep an eye out for actions from organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, American Muslims for Palestine, BDS, and the Democratic Socialists of America, or whatever local organization is making efforts near you. If spending money brings you any comfort and you feel a need to put something into good practice, the Cartoonist Cooperative's page still lists a ton of resources for E-Sim cards. 

But despite the many other things that should and do reasonably take up my time and brainspace--the good and the bad--it is my job to make comics and I do have to spend some time thinking about 'em and something I've been thinking about this week is the strange state of "evergreen titles." 

A Perennial Should Standalone

In particular, I was inspired by seeing some random young person somewhere online say a fairly common refrain, something along the lines of "I tried Western superhero comics, couldn't see myself in them, other than one (now) 35-year-old Vertigo series, and found a lot more in manga for me."

This is one of those things I've talked around every part of in the past, I think. I've talked, fairly recently, about how it is strange to me when people cut themselves off from or don't give themselves the opportunity to continue to explore a format or genre of comics entirely as if they're homogenous and how I think that can make you lose out on some of the contextual history of the medium and how storytelling can work within it. I've talked about how manga is just another word for comics and how I think some of the separation of manga and "Western" comics is more artificial than people realize. I've talked about continuity and how it can be a real turn-off for people, but also how even when it does matter, it maybe kinda doesn't matter, and even earlier than that, I talked about how they say every comic is somebody's first comic and the strange balance of serialized storytelling and accessibility. And just last week, I was mentioning how I think N.K. Jemisen's Far Sector is a really great example of a modern "here's how cool superhero comics can be" book. Now I want to pull it all together and talk about how we've maybe canonized a lot of comics that require a higher bar of context than they're often given. 

Now, last bit of business before we dive in, just in case, what do I mean when I say perennial or evergreen title? They are a little different, though I'm largely using them interchangably here. There are certain comics that have been canonized (not meaning made canon to a in-universe continuity, but the older definition of added to the historical register as a work of significance) that you can pretty much always find, and that has grown even more with the increased importance of the book market to comics sales. To use a very important example, you can walk into *most* any comic shop or bookstore that carries comics and is not specifically a specialty shop (like not Silver Sprocket probably, but also, shout out to them for joining the PACBI) and find a copy of Watchmen. Doesn't matter that the book is nearly 40 years old, it has been kept in print constantly (which... if you aren't familiar, is a story unto itself) and y'know, still sells. New people discover/buy/upgrade their copies of Watchmen every year and DC always points to it as an Essential title in their annual catalogs. 

DC in particular is actually pretty good about promoting their evergreens. They release an annual catalog to comic shops (and some book stores) that's like a free 80-ish page thing about like "if you want to read DC comics, here are titles we recommend." And if you're even halfway immersed in American Superhero Comics, you could probably name a good half-dozen of them off the top of your head. Watchmen! The Killing Joke! Sandman! All-Star Superman! Batman: The Long Halloween! Batman: Hush! Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth! Kingdom Come! Dark Knight Returns! Other titles written 30-40 years ago by a White British person! Any title from the past 7 years written by a guy named Tom! Etc! I'm being a little flip, and generally, like a lot of those books, but it's true, those tend to be what gets platformed in that way. And, credit where it's due, I know the last catalog also included things like Far Sector and Wonder Woman Historia and Nubia: Real One and the Kami Garcia/Gabriel Picolo Teen Titans OGNs.

But what I find complicated about a lot of those decisions is that a lot of those books may be self-contained in that you can read a single volume or single series and get a pretty complete story without a lot of continuity fluff or cross-reading or whatever, but I think a lot of those books benefit from having existing grounding in reading superhero comics that can get lost when they're being presented not only outside the context of what they were originally in conversation with, but as books of high accessibility or jumping on points. 

I could probably go on about most of these, but I'm going to use Killing Joke as an example because it's a really clear one. It's famously a "read this book" kinda book. I think it's still in the DC 25 Essential titles list. It's also a book that is STEEPED in important context that it usually isn't presented with and that I think does really change the reading experience.

Like, when Killing Joke was originally released, it was part of a big push of the Joker at DC. In early 1988, Killing Joke comes out, followed a few months later by A Death in the Family (the one where he killed Jason Todd Robin) and the year capped off with a Greatest Joker Stories Ever Told collection that didn't include either of those stories because, y'know, they were both too new. And modern collections (the 75th and 80th, respectively) both include, interestingly, 1 issue each of A Death in the Family (and different ones at that) and only an excerpt of Killing Joke because they usually don't like to collect it because it can take up a lot of pages for a book that most people own as an individual volume (though... interestingly, the 80th does include Mad Love). Sorry, getting a little distracted. But you know what the Greatest Joker Stories does include? A comic from 1966 that came in a box of PopTarts. Pre-'88, he had gone through cycles of being serious, silly (not even connected to Batman '66, the Joker's many boners story was from the early '50s!), and serious again when he returned in the '70s, but it was never to the extent that Killing Joke went to and that was solidified by the next year of publishing. And, even then, the next year brought some very different Jokers: Jack Nicholson's live-action version who is very much not the Killing Joke Joker and the Joker of Arkham Asylum, who again, is also violent, but in a very different way. 

As you start looking at the long-tail, you see the Killing Joke interpretation more in the Batman: The Animated Series version of the character (though, obviously, toned down somewhat for the audience) and that continues to resonate through each version of Joker that happens after across media (except maybe Batman: The Brave and the Bold, because that series is so Silver Age-y). You get Oracle going from a somewhat unexpected character in Suicide Squad to being a major part of the Bat-family and really evolving as a character as Birds of Prey took flight in the late '90s (pin in that for a sec). There are stories that directly reference it, like that Booster Gold issue where he keeps trying (and failing) to change the past because Rip Hunter (almost wrote Rip Torn, who would've made for a very different Booster Gold book) lied to him. There are whole projects that are inspired by it, like the One Bad Day books from 2022/23. There are real world effects, like the things I mentioned earlier with it becoming an evergreen title and one of the first big DC tentpoles to have as a constant at comic shops and in bookstores (especially as the book market has become increasingly important). 

Looking at the sort of joint in continuity and publishing history leading up to Killing Joke, it's important to know that Joker and Barbara Gordon had been sort of in-and-out of the comics. Joker hadn't had a major break in a while--also an influential factor on Killing Joke, another darker '80s Joker was in Dark Knight Returns just a couple years prior. But he had been a character who kinda disappeared out of the comics in the past--I think before his return in Batman #251 in '71, he had not been in a comic in like 4 years. And, speaking of not being in comics in 4 years, Barbara Gordon had largely retired as Batgirl before Crisis on Infinite Earths in '85 and was basically a non-character in DC comics post Crisis until Killing Joke. It's part of why the story got approved with her in it and part of why she got taken over to Suicide Squad afterwards... there weren't any plans for Batgirl otherwise. 

And all of that is before we're even talking about stuff like the fact that it was recolored and the recoloring really changes the reading experience (TBH, I am not a fan) or that it's a book that if you are recommending it to someone, you should tell them that it's a book with a heavy trigger warning for sexual assault. It's not talking about it as an Alan Moore project and his publicly bad relationship with DC/Warner (see, among other things, that earlier Watchmen article). 

So many of these books have that sort of important contextual elements that change the way they're read. I think it's important to know that Sandman is a DC universe book and at least something about some of the DC characters who get featured (like Prez, Element Woman, and Dr. Destiny). All-Star Superman is in conversation with Superman comics of the Golden and Silver age and I think in particular dialogue with Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow (and, hey, again, probably helpful to know that Grant and Alan have their issues). 

How to Contextualize, Or Find New Evergreens

Okay, brief note: Becca and I went and saw Madame Web and this was left unfinished when we did. Madame Web was great. It was genuinely bad. It was the Cats (2019) of superhero movies. I've never seen a movie where literally all the content was in the trailer and the rest of the movie was deleted scenes. Anyway, after it was over, we went to the Barnes & Noble next to the theater and listened to this couple talking in the comics section and literally every book they gravitated to was one of these sorts of evergreen titles--Sandman was mentioned, Watchmen and Before Watchmen, V for Vendetta, etc. It was clear they weren't really readers, they seemed to be shopping for someone else, but that their primary frame of reference was TV shows and movies, which also goes to the whole "what makes it evergreen" argument and is really interesting because through adaptation, some of the importance of how these things work in the comics medium is lost. And by the end of it... I think they just didn't pick up a comic. Anyway, was just kinda funny to have a real world example of this exact phenomenon I'm talking about happen mid-blog. 

Only other thing I want to say before getting any further. Obviously, I've focused a lot on DC titles. The reason is DC makes it easy. Like I said, they literally put out a catalog with their "here's what we think is most essential from our library" every year. DC's also got a long track record of these types of titles to examine and particularly because the initial comment led me to think it was more about American Superhero Comics, it was a clear focus. Every comic company does have their evergreen titles and I think evergreens are a good thing! When positioned properly, they are supposed to be new reader friendly and a great way to get into the medium. I'll talk a bit about Marvel in this section, but I'd also like to acknowledge that one really smart move that Image made (not entirely sure if they're still doing this, but props where it's due) is they made the first volume of multi-volume series--particularly the ones that seemed ripe for perennial status like Saga--$10. I think making these titles at an accessible price point is a good way to help prop up the things that can help secure a love of the medium and drive further visits to comic shops and bookstores. 

More generally, I think there are two things that would both be rad if they were to happen because I think they'd be really helpful for onboarding new readers. The first is I wish there were more international approaches that were like the partworks collections. If you're unfamiliar, there've been a few of them from the UK, including Marvel, DC (who started with Eaglemoss and actually got picked up by Hachette later on), Transformers, Star Trek, and Judge Dredd, wherein significant arcs were released periodically with connecting spine art so they looked really nice together on a shelf that featured additional material like introductions and contextual writings on the reason the arc is significant and the featured character(s) and the creators and really provided at least a starting point of context. The other kinda interesting thing is for the Hachette ones at least, they were released with two numbering systems: one by release of the partworks collection, one by (relative) release order of the original story relative to the other partworks releases. It's almost like when you used to buy an encyclopedia set and every however often the new volume would be ready and you'd have to buy that. I think that's a really cool approach to bringing comics backlist to new and lapsed readers and particularly with the contextualization element, gives you reason to understand why these stories are evergreen. It's exciting to look at partworks as almost a curated greatest hits collection. 

The other thing, and again, I think this is already in progress with both what DC is doing generally with their Essentials catalog and specifically with a lot of the stuff in their middle grade and young adult OGN space (and to a lesser extent with Black Label) and with the more recent additions to the Hachette Partworks--is I think that the "canonical" books need to be updated. And, of course, I have a lot of thoughts on what should be on those lists. I've said it before, but Far Sector would certainly be on my list. As would Superman Smashes the Klan. Just to throw out a couple of others: Hawkeye: My Life as a Weapon, Batman: No Man's Land, Young Justice: Sins of Youth, New Frontier, GL/GA: Hard Travelin' Heroes, (when it's collected, the first arc of the current Birds of Prey series), no longer a big two series, but Astro City (honestly... any volume), Spider-Man: Kraven's Last Hunt, X-Men: Dark Phoenix Saga, Marvels, Shadow of the Batgirl, Wednesday Comics, Gen13: Meanwhile (hey, that collection slaps), Mr. Majestic (the '99 run), Starman: Hell and Back, uhh... can we just collect all the pages where the Legion of Superheroes wore outfits designed by kids and fans, and probably a lot of other dumb stuff. But besides being the books that I really like and feel like are deserving of a place in more readers minds, I think the important thing is that we expand from books that may've had a splash outside the medium's traditional haunts (be that in films & TV or literary circles) or that we as comics people recognize for their artistic merit or internal cultural significance to books that celebrate and capture how fun comics can be! Also... and I realize what my own list looks like as I say this, but... fewer comics by white guys, please. 

And now, our regular features. 

New Releases this week (2/14/24): None

New Releases next week (2/21/24): Godzilla Rivals: Mothra vs. MOGUERA (Editor - IDW, post-leaving)

Announcements: Happy Black History Month! This week, I want to spotlight writer/editor Joseph Illidge! He's one of those guys who has been everywhere--Milestone/DC, Valiant, Heavy Metal, Lion Forge, etc. He's got irons in a few fires right now, from Noir is the New Black to teasing a new Image project coming to doing more editorial work to doing some pretty good articles of his own on the current and historical state of the comics biz. Among his many editorial credits is one of the books I mentioned feeling like should be treated more as an evergreen title (though... given it's complexity and just how many titles it ran through, I do understand that it's a bit harder): Batman: No Man's Land. But he's on all the socials and always has something cool brewing, so throw him a follow! 

Sorry that Patreon is still behind! I've sent in a help request and once it's all sorted, blogs will be going back up regularly! As mentioned above, we're getting ready for wedding and travel and expenses around all that, so please also check out my webstore, my Kofi, my eBay, and Becca's site for additional ways to support us and get a little something for yourself!

What I enjoyed this week: Nancy (Comic), Yu-Gi-Oh: Duel Links (Video Game), Baldur's Gate III (Video Game), Blank Check (Podcast), Solve This Murder (Podcast), The City We Became (Book), Blade Runner 2049 (Movie), Madame Web (Movie), Witch Watch (Manga), One Piece (Manga), Dandadan (Manga), Lore Olympus (Webcomic), Death to Smoochy (Movie), Dungeons & Daddies (Podcast), and big thanks to everyone who has already given us a little something for the wedding! 

Pic of the Week: Nadja made a new friend (?) and his name is Optimus Prime. But she HATES that Sonic. 

[turtlemagnum]

here's some of the lore adjustments i'm going to make when i buy the star wars franchise:

recanonize hutts being able to biologically trans their gender for purposes of having kids. jabba can be trans if she wants to, ok

i think it's fucking stupid that twi'lek women are god damn gorgeous and the twi'lek men look like fucking freaks. therefore, i'm gonna be making the men look as pretty as the women. it's only fair

give the devaronian women horns. you make a species of devil lookin guys and you TAKE AWAY their HORN's??"? shame!! shame upon your houses. also i'd make the facial variation a bit more diverse so we still get the freaky lookin guys but also we should be able to make hot guys too with them i think.

in general i'd get away from that weird sexual dimorphism thing common to a lot of fantasy stuff where the males of a species are all monstrous but the women are all sexy and curvy and such. as such, either all of the people of a species are gonna be sexy and curvy like the women, or they're all gonna be monstrous like the men. them's the rules

revan would be made canonically transmasculine, though i'd wanna do it in a very low key way. it just makes sense!!!

droids can use the force, and everyone has a little bit of force in them so if you train hard enough anyone can become proficient. also, since the cool thing about the force is that it's a very soft kind of magic and is generally just whatever the story needs, i'd go Ever So Slightly Anime about it. like not full on but i'd definitely wanna stretch the physical elements of it slightly more than the movies tended to

yoda's lightsaber should be longer than average, actually. dude's little, he's gonna need the extra reach

the society of star wars is like, fairly straightforwardly a human supremacist one, right? how would that impact the beauty standards and gender identities of the other sapient guys? like what if a rodian got surgery to have a body more appealing to the human gaze? what if one of those secretary droids intentionally designed to look like a shapely woman turned out to be transmasc and got robo-top surgery? conversely, what if a transfem B1 battle droid got robo-breast implants to feel more like a woman?

anyways, speaking of rodians. i want you to imagine the face of a rodian (for those unaware, the guy we see han solo shoot at the beginning of a new hope (greedo) is a rodian). imagine what that mouth do. like, vacuum type shit. literally inhuman degrees of head game. think about it

slugthrowers!!! i'd wanna completely overhaul them, there's this one bit of lore That I Hate that is like "heh... slugthrowers are so much more reliable than blasters, which are actually unreliable as hell if you really think about it..." and it's like. No. That's Not How That Works. if blasters were less reliable than more conventional weaponry, they'd never be widely adopted. that's how weapons work. if it ain't reliable, nobody's gonna fucking use it!!! you need (and i mean NEED) the thing to go bang (or pew, in this case) every time you pull the trigger!! if it doesn't, then no military is gonna adopt it, and since civilians will very frequently go for stuff that has some degree of military pedigree, that's kind of fucking important. so, here's how i'd make blasters better than slugthrowers: more accurate, more reliable, easier to mass produce cheaply and effectively, higher ammunition capacity, and not impacted by varying gravity (at least not as much as Real Bullets, y'know). i'd also make the advantages of slugthrowers that they hard counter jedi (can't reflect metal with a lazer sword, you'd just melt it and now you have molten lead hitting your body at somewhere between mach 1 and 4!!!), and have more potentiality for stealth since you can suppress em silent if you know what you're doing. it is canon that jedi are often killed by assassins with explosives, and since slugthrowers are essentially a form of explosive, this is just an extension of that. so, that's why blasters would be more popular, because How Often Is A Normal Person Gonna Fight A Guy With A Lightsaber, so blasters are just Better in almost all situations but slugthrowers have Just Enough Of A Situational Benefit to still be around for like, at the very least people who are like, bounty hunters that specifically go after jedi or sith, y'know. And No, Jedi Cannot Just Catch The Bullets With The Force, That's Stupid.

anyways, i'd either make padme as young as anakin was when they meet (about 9) or i'd make anakin about the same age as padme when they meet (about 14). that way it's Not Quite As Weird, y'know. i'd probably spring for the latter since that'd be easier to cast good actors for

i'd decanonize the sequels since i have my own ideas for them, but i'd keep certain elements (like bb8 droids and porgs and the live slug reaction guy)

luke is ace but has romantic attraction. again, relatively low key but yeah. also mara jade is canon

i'd make jar jar hot. i'm not gonna elaborate because i wanna keep some things a suprise