#i tend to mash things I love together and shit like this happens

[written-in-flowers]

Another heart breaking one:

Them ending like Obiwan and Anakin.

Two people who grew so close together, spending all their time together, bonding and growing together. They drink together, play together, and spend all their time together. Then, all of a sudden, Aegon is seduced by attention, and unlimited power (see what I did there??) and begins doing despicable things. Then Y/N having to be the one to stop him because it's for the good of the relam, and originally confronted him to try persuading him back to the good side because they love him and want him back, knowing they can help him. But he doesn't want that. He is King now, and if you're not with him, then you're his enemy. Y/N is then forced to fight him until he is grieviously injured and disfigured.

The sadness and guilt they'd feel, a guilt they carry for a very long time. Soon enough, Aegon and Aegon II are two different people in her mind. She mourns the "death" of her best friend and lover and rebels against the monster who has taken his place until the very end.

Star Wars is really just an angsty story when you see it from Obiwan's pov. I love Padme and Anakin, but it's the friends to enemies that did it for me.

but I can actually see Aegon ii & y/n having a romance & ending like Anakin and Padme… I am not okay 🥲🥲🥲🥲

[starryeyeddreamer21]

Hazbin Hotel cooking head canons

Alastor: I think we can all agree he's the best cook in the hotel. He would've learned from his mom and enjoys cooking for people because of it. The first few times he cooked for them everyone was a little weary because cannibalism but he made it "vegetarian" so don't worry. Also he hates cooking with other people that spot is reserved for his mother only and everyone learns really fast to not go into the kitchen while he's cooking.

Sir Pentious: An amazing baker but not a great cook, like he can cook and it comes out fine but he always feels like something isn't right. Loves baking with Angel and Nifty. He even tries to teach Charlie how to bake. She makes no progress but he continues to teach her until he ends up in heaven.

Charlie: An absolute disaster like holy shit. Not only will she set the kitchen on fire she will also create the most disgusting food combinations and act like they're completely normal. She's doing her best I swear. She would probably try to take cooking classes but that would just end horribly.

Vaggie: Cannot cook. Everything will come out burnt and underdone at the same time. She's convinced she's cursed.

Angel: Second best cook at the hotel. Learned from his Nona. He used to cook with Molly all the time but hasn't for a while. He just didn't have the energy to cook and it always made him miss his sister too much. Eventually he got more comfortable at the hotel and started cooking again. Now he tries to cook dinner for everyone at least once a week. Loves cooking with other people he just doesn't have the patience to teach them.

Nifty: Is actually a good cook is just terrible at plating. Her food won't look good but the taste would be worth it. There might be a crunch in something that probably shouldn't be crunchy but just try not to think about it too much.

Husk: Would live off microwavable dinners if they let him. He can't cook but he'll eat anything anyone makes him. He's even eaten Charlie's disgusting food combinations like it was nothing. Can probably figure out how to make anything in the microwave if you give him the time.

Cherri: Do NOT let this woman in the kitchen. She will blow the entire place up and then do it again the next day for fun. Has probably figured out how to make bombs out of food idk how but she would.

Lucifer: He's not a bad cook he just doesn't usually have the energy or patience to do it. He prefers to make sweet foods so he'd specialize in breakfast and dessert. He can make other food too he just doesn't as much. It's probably better for him to have supervision while he cooks though. He gets distracted or just bored really easily. He'll space out or leave the room entirely to do something else and completely forget he's cooking. Like he'd be boiling potatoes to make mashed potatoes and then leave the room to do something and get distracted until suddenly he smells burning and runs into the kitchen to find that all the waters evaporated and the potatoes are burning to the bottom of the pot and he has to start over (no this has never happened to me why would you say that). Because of this Lucifer and Angel tend to cook together because Angel prefers cooking with company and they both have a sweet tooth.

Vox: Mostly lives on cup ramen and take out. He cooked once but it was dry unseasoned chicken and was never allowed to cook again. I want to say he'd have expensive taste but he's a workaholic so leftover Chinese food for the third time this week it is. I'm serious though this man hasn't slept in four days, is on the brink of hallucinating, and is surviving off caffeine, three day old leftovers that should definitely not be eaten, and pure unfiltered spite.

Valentino: He's actually a really good cook. The thing is he can't decide if he wants people to be in the kitchen with him or not because he'll be standing at the stove and ask Vox to hand him something and then five minutes later he's yelling because Vox is in his way. It's a very stressful experience for everyone except Valentino who finds it calming.

Velvette: She's pretty average honestly. Like she can cook fine but it's nothing exciting. She loves trying new recipes she sees online but always gets pissed when it doesn't go as planned so then she orders takeout. She's really good at decorating though like she can't bake a cake but she'd decorate it beautifully so that actually works well with Valentino who can't use a piping bag for shit.

[quinngefail]

Ms. quinnge, is it weird I've never been inside a Walmart? what is it like in there? I've only ever seen it in videos or mentioned in passing looks very sad and also kinda smelly

LMAO. Well it is indeed very sad and smelly.

Now everything I talk about could be met with BUT THAT'S JUST EVERY GROCERY STORE of course. But these are just consistent things that I've noticed in the Walmart I work at lmao

-Understaffed areas. But also I do not blame anyone for never seeking employment here

-It's frequently busy as hell :)

-Meandering people. Oh my god. This shit drives me up the wall

-We love the bitches who just leave their carts in the middle of the fucking aisles so no one can get past them 🫶

-Aisles and shelves in general just tend to be a fucking mess. Some areas are consistently worse than others though lmao

-The produce aisle...... 🗿🗿🗿

Gamers I am on my hands and knees begging. BEGGING people to not buy their produce from Walmart orz orz orz

The amount of rotten, moldy shit I've encountered is just. UGGHGHHHH

-Soooo many epic and awesome shirts and hats and tattoos and such, especially with election season happening..... I've seen at least two people with the fucking 2nd amendment tattooed on their bodies and so many cool shirts with very cool things on them 👌

-Walmart..... RADIO!!!! (The HOME OF THE CHRIS SHOW, KIRBY GWEN AND FRIENDS!! AAAND THE BO SHOW 🤪)

-I've bitched about the music remixes + mashups already. And now they don't play them every day it seems, but when they do. Ohhhhghhh my god

Just to copy + paste my thoughts from a very recent post because it's relevant:

Would actually like to know whoever the hell it is that puts those fuck ass song mashups together. Gamers I cannot adequately put into words how fucking bad they sound, especially when I'm on hour six of a shift and just want to go home

What if we took this chorus from this ABBA song...... But put the guitar to Sweet Child O' Mine behind it, and with the grace of trying to mash the square shape into the triangle hole 🤔🤔🤔 Ermmm would that go freaking epic awesomesauce or what!!!

Hint: no it fucking wouldn't

-A lot of shit will just be broken and/or unusable lmao. It's cool

-Screaming, wailing children :) And y’know it seems to consistently happen where if I'm already getting overwhelmed and stressed and shit, a crying child will spawn on the map which is so awesome 😩

...Those are some of the biggest things that come to mind HRKGGKGK.,, It's truly a spectacle that is just So Very American. And I promise you don't ever need to actually experience it for yourself lmao

In short. Sad and stinky indeed

[orange-peony]

For the trope mash-up: I used a random number generator and got

8: Hospital AU

And

63: Everybody Knows/Mistaken for Couple

And I think those would make a great lil snowbaz AU!!

Thank you sooo much for your ask and sorry it took absolute ages!

“Baz, you’re needed in room three,” Niall says, looking like he hasn’t slept in two days (he probably hasn’t). “Your boyfriend managed to get another injury for the sole purpose of coming to snog you.”

“Snow is not my boyfriend!” I reply for the umpteenth time, but my legs are already moving faster than I thought my tiredness would allow.

What the fuck has he done this time?

“Baz, Simon has come to see you! What a lovely surprise,” Ebb proclaims with a smile as I walk past her. She also probably hasn’t slept (or showered) in ages, but she somehow never loses her lovely manners and sweetness. “You know, he always says he was a terrible boyfriend to Agatha, but it’s so nice to see how much he’s changed.”

“Oh, I can confirm he was a shit boyfriend,” Agatha comments drily while she makes a poor man wail in pain as she changes his dressing. 

“Still not my boyfriend,” I declare, deciding to ignore them.

Room three is just at the end of the corridor. I calm down when I hear him chatting cheerfully with the nurse on duty—it’d better not be Smith-Richards, that fucking flirt. 

“Oh, hello Baz!” Snow greets me with a grin, his cheek smudged with something that I hope is just dirt. My eyes go automatically for his arm, which is carefully being tended by Pippa (thank god it’s her). 

The cut looks pretty deep, but nothing life-threatening. I sigh in relief and tell Pippa she can go. 

“When are you going to stop being such a reckless idiot?” I ask as a greeting, and he produces his usual apologetic smile, not even batting an eyelid when I start cleaning the wound, trying to be as delicate as I can.

“Baz! Your boyfriend’s come to visit you!” Dev exclaims after popping his head in with a shit-eating grin. “Don’t forget—no hanky-panky at work.”

“I’m not a horny incubus like you and Niall,” I reply, my eyes fixed on Snow’s wound. I don’t want him to have a scar. Not another one. Those butchers who treated him before I met him made such a shit job at patching him up. But I’m going to make sure that no one else gets their hands on him. “And we’re not together.”

“No need to lie,” Dev says dismissively before he leaves us alone.  

“I was hoping you were going to be in,” he murmurs before I warn him that the anaesthetic is going to sting. He grimaces but makes no sound, a loud intake of breath is all I get for an injection in a spot that would make even the burliest men swear out loud. 

“How did it happen this time?” I ask, my tone probably harsher than I meant for it to come out. My eyes leave his wound to meet his gaze, and he smiles at me, licking his lips.

“It was actually Gareth’s fault,” he comments easily. “But I’ve got to admit I was a bit distracted. Someone was telling me about this concert. It’s the symphonic orchestra, and they’re doing this thing at Watford theatre on Saturday evening. I was thinking…would—shall I take you to see them? Hear them? I’ve never been to a concert before…”

My hands still, our eyes locking as I stare at him with my mouth open like a fish out of water.

This sounds like a date.

Is this meant to be a date?

“Baz, I’m going to lunch,” Niall calls from the corridor. “How long are you going to be with your boyfriend?”

“Very long!” I reply, and Snow’s uncertain expression slowly melts into a grin.

Is he actually my boyfriend?

“I mean, when we went to IKEA together,” he starts tentatively, “you said you play the violin. That you like classical music.”

“I did,” I confirm, still unsure if he’s asking me out.

“And the last time we went to the cinema, I picked the film,” he adds, “so it’s only fair that this time we do something you like. I mean, t-t-that is if you want to come—”

“Of course, I want,” I reply, so fast that I almost give myself whiplash. “Pick me up at seven. We can go to dinner first, if you want…”

His smile makes my heart melt like an icicle in the sun.

“It’s a date,” he says.   

Fuck, Snow is my boyfriend.

[jakowskis]

Day 13 - Favorite ship(s)? Any Torchwood OTPs? Go ahead, gush about them!

dude i multiship so hard in this fandom i dont think there’s a single combination i havent thought of + found a way to enjoy, and that extends to trios. AND i like tw poly. i am mashing them together like barbie dolls. i am having sm fun here in my room

even the ones i don’t exactly “like��� still make me Feel Things (more on that later), and even the ones i tend to prefer as friends (more on that later, too), i can still see it if i want to yknow. that’s what’s fun about the slutty bisexy show! woo! they all compel me. 

nonetheless, here are the pairings i like the most, ranked by how often i think of them + how insane they make me. im not gonna gush a ton, actually, bc i get annoyed w how much i talk, so ill keep every explanation under 15 words

owen x ianto: I Want Them Covered in Blood Together (Gnashing My Teeth) (by fall out boy)

owen x andy: golden retriever boyfriend for owen bc sometimes it’s nice to not be angsty (gooseberry who?)

owen x jack: i dont know how they make me feel but they make me feel Something :/

ianto x tosh: THEY’D BE SO CUTE they’d be precious that’s all

tosh x andy: see above. tosh deserves a sweet bf (there are no girls to ship her with 😔)

owen x suzie: they’re mirrors, they’re the same… they intrigue me. also Hawt xD (im bi)

owen x gwen: better as besties imho but im still a bi moron who’s not immune

jack x ianto: overrated imho BUT i do still like them. sigh. dead line speech wahhh

gwen x rhys: i love their relationship troubles n the way it grounds the show. theyre cute

jack x the doctor: sending jack off to harass the doctor so the team can Rest (+ Im Compelled)

jack x gwen: they compel me a little. a teeny bit. not too much but a little

(can u tell i like owen ships. he just has such fascinating relationships w everyone)

ok i lied ill say a couple things. firstly my otp being owento… i’ve talked a bit about it but in brief it started out because i can't resist having at least one enemies/rivals to lovers ship per fandom and ep12 blew my mind a little - and then something just Clicked and they somehow achieved top ten ships of all time status in my brain?? idk what happened there. i usually go for canon-based ships, so having one that kind of lacks substance in the source media (allegedly; i think they’re fruity in canon. but u know what i mean like theyre not ‘canon’ in a show where there is in fact gay TEXT rather than just the subtextual shit theyre doing yanno) and is largely a beast of my own creation (+ the influence of the wonderful handful of fic writers we’ve had over the years) has been rlly fun. 

im largely preoccupied with those two, but i’ve found jack + his relationship with ianto kind of inherently haunts owen x ianto… if you’ve read my fic you know what i mean by that. i can’t see owento existing on its own, like janto fundamentally co-exists next to it so i have to take it into account, and then jack and owen also have a fascinating relationship so i’ve kind of just ended up spending a lot of time thinking about and figuring out owen x ianto x jack in all combinations, because there’s a lot of fascinating stuff going on there from every end. introducing owen to the equation also kind of… ig redeems janto for me, bc i found them offensively underwhelming in s1 and s2. they should be dark and fucked up, and they’re not. owen kind of… brings smth dark and fucked up to the table, and a lot of why i like shipping him with ianto is bc they bring shit out of each other - and owen, for his part, is capable of bringing out ianto’s repressed rage and forcing him to deal with things he’d rather try to compartmentalize and ignore… i find that super compelling, and i also find it useful for breaking down my issues with how jack & ianto’s relationship is initially presented. like, he’s a handy narrative tool for that hfsdjkf. point is, whether i like it or not, jack and his relationships with my girlies (owen n ianto are the girlies <3) is kind of also an intrinsic part of what most of my fixation-oriented brain power goes into thinking about. i’ve been developing this huge fic ‘verse fdhfjk.... Im Very Tired

sometimes i like fun, though, which is what’s behind a lot of those other ships. i’m generally into very dark + angsty + psychological themes, but sometimes fluff and domesticity and occasional silliness is nice, and that’s what’s behind owandy (i have an au where they meet before owen dies) and iantosh (+ gwen x rhys) as my sort of… alternative endgame. my comfort ‘au’. not an au, exactly, but an alternative fluffier world to the darker owento-based one i’ve crafted and spend most of my time thinking about fdshkfj. i also like sending jack off to go bother the doctor, in this ‘au’, because unfortunately i don’t think he’s conductive to the team’s happiness. i think he needs to find his own way to heal and that should probs include the doctor, considering how obsessed jack is with them + how much he needs to unpack All That Shit he has going on before he can be any sort of truly positive force in the lives of the tw team. so for now he’s banned from the polycule for jack crimes. listen, i love that torchwood’s inherently sad and dark and lonely, it’s what compels me, and i’m ultimately glad that’s the core of the show - but it doesn’t have to be. sometimes i enjoy a nicer alternative. i think they could fix it. and that’s what fandom + fanfic is for. 

i also have several ot3s i enjoy, mostly owen ones. i think he deserves a bf + a gf, i think it’d fix him. put that bitch in a bisexual sandwich and maybe he'd behave. in particular, i love owen x tosh x ianto, it’s the only place i ship owen/tosh bc i think ianto would keep owen in check and they’d all better each other. i love owen x tosh x andy for similar reasons. can you tell the four characters im biased towards fhdskj. (i love gwen just as much but she’s kind of doing her own thing with just rhys and jack imo fdkfjsd. perhaps torchwood is composed of two polycules and jack is the link between both of them)

[svturn-exe]

some snipes info bc i love that guy <3 long post under the cut !

⚡ sniper's trenchcoat is missing the left arm. this has a practical purpose (not getting in the way of his weapon arm) but is also a reference to his sexuality, being a gay man. literal cut-sleeve

⚡ his grasp on things like morality and social convention is tenuous at best. sniper was created somewhere in the ballpark of a week before the apocalypse, so he didn't have much time to spend around people in a "normal" environment then of course everything goes to shit and the chaos brings out the worst in most people. sniper spends somewhere around 50 years around the gradually dwindling human population, during which he really gets to see some of the worst of what humanity has to offer. he eventually had enough of this (read: "if it sucks, hit da bricks") and went on his own way, mostly ignoring and avoiding other people (human, machine, & synthetic alike) for another ~100 to 150 years

⚡ snipes got the grand majority of his scars during those 50 chaotic years immediately following the end of the world, including the injury that stripped a lot of the skin and muscle from his jaw & lower cheek area

⚡ he has difficulty emoting because a lot of the muscles that would control facial movement (the bottom half of it, anyway) are either damaged or completely gone. he can move his upper lip, but not much. most of sniper's emoting is done via eyes & brows

⚡ sniper clacks/snaps his teeth when he's angry. it IS a threat, and will often be the last warning you get to back off before you get the electric chair treatment (thank u to michael for the idea :3)

⚡ it's also difficult for sniper to clearly pronounce some sounds, and he just straight up can't produce 'm' or 'p' sounds because he doesn't have a bottom lip to use

⚡ i mentioned in the tags of another post that sniper gardens when he isn't electrocuting people. basically, while exploring the ruins of a city, he happens upon a lab/bunker, and inside he finds these rows of pods. inside these pods are human children in suspended animation, locked away by their parents who were hoping to spare them the worst of the calamity in the hopes that things would get better one day. sniper decides they can wait a little longer. it'll be hard enough for them, waking up 200 years in the future with their families all gone, but there's no reason they should then also have to live in a destroyed scarred wasteland. so he makes it his mission to green up this city and make it a nicer place to live :] i'm sure his methods for doing so will be very normal and not at all kind of fucked up! ⚡ sniper kills his fellow organic machines & synthetics to harvest their "hearts" to use to power drones he pieces together to assist in the task of tending to the city garden. this is what i meant when i said he electrocutes peopl e

⚡ eventually, kitbash (another oc i have to draw eventually .) shows up at the city garden and while she's marveling at the patches of greenery in an otherwise barren waste, sniper tries to kill her. they're pretty much at a stalemate because girlie is an engineer/mechanic. she's Strong ok. eventually she says the magic words that prompt snipes to stop trying to kill her and start trying to give her a tour and showing her how everything works :) the whiplash doesn't kill her but it comes close. they get to the part where sniper tells her the garden is powered by peoples' hearts and she says that's fucking stupid you're stupid there are better ways to do this shit I'm Taking Over. and sniper goes uh . ok??

⚡ one day sniper finds an artificial (human) heart in an old world hospital and decides he can do something with this! people are apparently not typically ok with being killed (oops) and while the majority of the bodies of the organics & synthetics he wrecked to harvest their cores are in Very bad shape, there has to be enough usable material between them to mash them together and make a New one. this is a great idea i'm sure

⚡ sniper pieces a bunch of salvaged parts together into a new body, puts the artificial heart in there, and as he's getting ready to dr frankenstein that bitch kit walks in and is like . why the Fuck are you making. weird corpse effigies in here and sniper goes oh that's a wonderful name for them actually ^_^ and eletrocutes the body until it wakes up and that's how effigy is born

⚡ snipes' weapon arm can grow back if it is cut off, but it'd hurt like hell and he would prefer not to have to go that

⚡ sniper's body produces an immense amount of bio-electricity that he must discharge periodically or else risk causing damage to himself or his surroundings in the event of violent accidental discharges. the nerves in sniper's arms are mutated & highly specialized

⚡ he can project electricity from his hands over distances of up to 50 yards, but it's definitely a lot less precise. it's definitely at its most effective when he can physically get his hands on whatever - or whoever - and just really pump it full of volts

⚡ his body is adapted to be able to handle a ton of volts, but he's only resistant, NOT immune. if sniper goes overboard he can seriously fuck himself up

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

IF writers write one single book/game that's good first before you plan a series of barely coherent fanfic tropes mashed together instead of an overarching plot challenge <3

I like series personally. I mean not wayhaven length long series but I like duologies and trilogies. I feel like it gives the romance more depth and time to be fleshed out whereas in some stand alone IFs I've read the romance was barely developed before it actually happened, but at the same time the story I tend to like more in the standalone because sometimes in multiple book series it can be dragged out. But Wayhaven is on another level of dragging out, I think it would have done well with being 3 or 4 books long. Idk what other plot will be able to make it seven. I think it would have also made for a solid duology if the story was better paced and the characters and story beats were better written though. One of my main issues with some IF finished or unfinished is the way the romance is written, idk how to explain but a lot of them and how they develop I'm not the biggest fan of or either that or some of the romance options feel 1 dimensional and the mc has no sense of agency whatsoever. On the other hand there are some ifs I've also really enjoyed so I guess it depends. I would love to know more about your opinions on this topic. I think it's a really interesting point and I enjoy reading your thoughts on different topics.

Thank you, that's very sweet of you to say! ^^ And enables me to do more self-important rambling. Although I would love to hear more about why some romances work for you and others don't, since I'm maybe gonna try my hand at writing an IF eventually.

Ok, back to the thing.

Honestly my main issue isn't that there's series, it's that it's often pretty blatant that they're a series solely for the sake of being a series? And not because the author actually has enough material to justify having multiple releases. You feel me?

So like, yeah! If you're using the extra time to develop characters and plot and flesh out the world, if there's a clear progression of events and things are evolving and happening, then obviously write a series! But if you just go "Oh I have all these fun ideas but there's NO way they'll fit into one or two books, it simply MUST be a trilogy/quadrilogy/pentalogy etc etc" without even planning shit out? It's like ... Ok you have a lot of ideas but did you ... do anything with them? Do you have a plan of where you're going? A lot of the time I see announcements of "This will be a trilogy/series!" before the first book is even finished so like ... How do you know. And then you get to the second book and you realize, oh, you didn't know. You just made that up.

And you can say that "Omg Eff, you don't KNOW how these authors operate, maybe they did plan and figure stuff out and your standards are just different and snobby and rude!" and maybe you'd be correct. But I've now read several multiple-book series where you could remove entire chapters, subplots, and yes, one entire BOOK, without changing the status quo or disrupting any character development at all, by just tightening up the writing and shuffling events into previous or next books. I've also read books that were firsts in a series and came away thinking "Okay? Um? Where is this going, exactly? What's the overarching plot? Why should I keep playing this?"

When it gets to that point, I just feel like ... What are you doing, ya know? How are you outlining this shit that things are just randomly happening for no reason. Subplots dropped entirely without a word. Character development stagnating because you've planned all their progression for a different book so in this one they can't do anything to evolve at all. Why is this a series if you're wasting so much time faffing about in one spot until you've stamped the earth into a flat circle.

Also, if you'll allow me to get pretentious for a moment, as a Gamer who's studying Gaming for my Gaming Degree, I feel that the medium of IFs isn't as close to books as people believe just because it's primarily a written medium. You can have plenty of books where people faff about doing fuck-all. Those are generally not good books, but it's excused because of the medium. The author has complete authority over the progression, and the reader is along for the ride, their only choice is whether they engage or not.

However, with IFs, because you've added player interaction into the mix, the things that you put in front of the player need to be justified, need to be worth interacting with. You've already sacrificed a portion of your authority for the sake of player empowerment, so you need to give the player something to DO with the authority you've given them. If you have entire sections of a game where the player becomes too aware of how little their actions matter, how little thought you've put into what you're presenting, how the only thing they're able to change is the replies to a character's words, it becomes less of someone enjoying reading a story and more of a chore to click through the pointless options and watching your character do fuck-all to change any outcomes.

When you write a book where characters faff about, that's your choice as the author. You have absolute authority and can decide when the faffing stops.

But when you write a game, you need to engage the player, you can't faff about forever. The story does not exist without them. The things you put in need to be there for a reason, because someone, by definition, by design, will be on the other end poking and prodding at it, and if you put in shit that doesn't need to be there, then you're wasting your own effort and also the player's time.

Idk. Does that make sense?

I also disagree that single-book romances tend to be worse, IMO they usually work better for me because they're actually planned and structured as stories, as the rest of the books. If you need to rely on word counts in the millions to tell a romance, that's not great, methinks. IFs also give you plenty of time and word count for romances, as well. Like, a 100k fantasy romance is on the longer end for a book, but an IF with a 100k word count would be considered on the shorter end, so readers are plenty ready for much longer word counts and it's even a selling point, usually.

So there's really no reason to justify having multiple books to write a good romance. An IF has no material reason to fit standard tradpub guidelines, so if you need bigger word counts, it's like, go wild. One counterargument would be that IFs romance routes are generally shorter than romance books, because all that WC doesn't actually go to the individual romances but is split up between regular plot, variations and other routes, but again, there's nothing really stopping you from writing as much as you want.

There's also the problem of most IFs having a lot of romance options, but they all tend to be different people with different romance timelines, so stretching out every romance to a slow-burn in different ways just for the sake of giving every route something to hook the player in each book becomes kinda tedious and transparent eventually. So I think multiple-book romances aren't a guarantee to be better than single-book romances (not that you were claiming this, I'm just out on a mind journey rn, apologies).

Anyway, that last bit got a bit off-topic and I'm already seeing some holes in my argument that I don't wanna think about lest this post becomes infinite, but, uh ... There ya go! :')

In the end, I think it's not about what's better, but about structuring, and having a vision, and not wasting my gotdam time and attention and money just because someone couldn't write a proper outline or self-edit. Single-book IFs have just been better at showing restraint and artistic vision in my experience, hence why I generally side-eye any upcoming IF or demo that advertises itself as the first in a series.

Cuz I just don't trust like that anymore.

[donnyclaws]

ok a bit of a curveball here but you're into speculative biology if i remember correctly, right? which is why your creatures are so grounded and cool, etc

for someone like me , who is super not into biology, how would i uhhh go about . designing creatures with a similar grounded feel

and from a more philisophical standpoint: are some people just kept from creating certain kinds of art by what they happen to be into; i.e. someone who dreads engineering wouldn't be able to write hard-sci fi or something like that

INTERESTING, I've actually thought about the second part a tonne in regards to myself. Like I love speculative biology, I've always liked biology, but I also think there's a thousand things on a brain and nerve level that make it hard for me to get as in deep into biology and hard science stuff as I'd like to. Fundamentally a lot of it confuses me, esp space stuff, technical shit, even drawing buildings, but I keep at it because ultimately I love creature design and I love biology. I think it's about finding your own strengths within it because these are still genres with a lot of range of how people approach them.

I'd love to be one of those people who can design an alien respiratory system or go from molecules to early life to modern life in their own setting with all the detail you'd ever want. I think I'm a bit too slow for that frankly but I could do it if I kept at it. I can also say that my brain makes other aspects of this really perfect and easy for me! Fixation on biology and biology facts and a knack for connecting threads between what I'm making. Thinking about every single facet of a species and their relationship to other things is very easy for me bc of that! Which slays for worldbuilding and creating fleshed out things and cultures.

So like yes and no. I think people can do whatever they want, it might be difficult but if it's a passion then they're going to chase it and find a way to do it. An engineer would be incredible at writing a hard sci fi rooted in engineering ect. I think I'm very skilled in fleshing out dynamics which means the social and cultural aspects of a spec bio setting will be easier for me. And while the bits of biology I add in probably won't hold up under scrutiny, it doesn't really need to? It just needs to make sense for the creature and for the setting ect. Having that extra thought is all it needs to ground it.

Also to answer the first part! Basically just thinking about every angle again. I tend to do it after the fact instead of designing from the environment Up. Taking from creatures in a similar biome / niche and mashing them together until every gear compliments the whole is basically all that spec bio is. Yknow at varying levels, some people are way more intense about it being Hard vs soft ect ect!

[not-outloud]

So I was basically mashing my insides for a while and when I was done I went on tumblr with glazed eyes ready for a light and fun time just scrolling

Tell me why not five minutes after I get started a guy decides to message me relevant information about how JD Vance is being groomed for the presidency down the line and I should look at all of this in formation

Walls of text wall links to Wikipedia im still half zonked and this man is ruining my orgasm high with school and homework and excellent points bu most importantly with reality. Not what I was in the mood for.

So subtle but not really I try to tell him that my brain is not functioning at 100 and maybe we can talk about something else or maybe this at another time

He doesn’t take the hint so more links and paragraphs. This guy I’ve been following him for some months and we have similar tastes on somethings politically and pornography wise

And this is the first conversation I’ve ever had with him so i don’t need him to think I’m completely uninformed. So I do share so stuff that I enjoy watching to help me parse the current situation and he goes oh yeah I already know about all of that

Sir the fact that you think that i don’t know is my problem I’m again trying to subtly show you that I do in fact know much of this information and that I don’t wanna write a paper about it

But he’s typing and typing and jumping and moving on before I can finish my thought

Literally I have brain fog I just spent a long time trying to get here and now I’m fighting for my life trying to pretend I can string a sentence together in this state

I’m so mad honestly because he ruined my high then spent hours misunderstanding me ( this conversation went on for hours) then at the end

I tell him next time just ask for nudes and he acts like that’s the most disgusting thing he’s ever heard of who asks for nudes he says

As if he’s never been on the internet before. I’m so tired. I apologize but for all I know he ignored the other messages so he could get some sort of sleep

Did I mention that I was talking to him for hours about politics of all things I hate politics I hate talking about politics but I especially hate talking about politics with someone who thinks that they understand 🇺🇸 politics without actually living here

I’m trying to explain that all the little categories don’t matter because they will always gang up and side with each other against me socially I am a queer black woman none of these niggas like me period I don’t need to know the difference between conservative and evangelical they are both the same in that they hate my ass and want me and the people i love to die that’s it that’s politics

I can’t remember how but we got on the subject of protesting and riots

I said sometimes riots are the only way to be heard

I said that sometimes riots are necessary

And I said riots happen when problems of society go unaddressed for too long

And this man wanted me to be wrong so bad he spent the whole night arguing with me

Peaceful protests are the only way for real change he said and that is frankly bullshit I really do wish I was smarter because I know that in an authoritarian government that will use force to silence any opposition or peaceful protest that decries the government and when that happens for long enough people fight back to protect themselves and then that opposition is labeled a threat and then violence happens escalates and then you’ve got a whole lot of people burning down shops throwing rocks stealing shit

When you kill enough people after a while the people will get angry enough to destroy some shit and after that happened this tend to change

Now I know causation or whatever ain’t correlation or how ever that goes but traditionally that’s what happens traditionally ain’t nothing change till things get broke and I’m sorry that that’s what happens but it is what it is

Anyway I’m tired I’m mad and I don’t feel like explaining myself no mo

Maybe I’m too extremist but I’ve been in this country since I was born and so far it’s not proven me wrong

I wish he was right

I wish peaceful protests really did work and they were all that was needed for change

In my heart I hope he’s right and I also hope he actually still wants to talk to me after all this and I haven’t traumatized him

[thelaithlyworm]

Laithly's Book Club...

Blade of the Immortal is currently on hold while the next volume arrives in the mail. (Yes, there are on-line versions but I dunno, I tend to rush when it isn't a paper book and this is something to savour.)

Also been pecking at Musashi as an audio book. I've read it before and it's good, but also it started life as one of those big-ass newspaper serials and the recording is 50 hours long -- so I'm taking breaks between volumes. Currently, that no-good Matahachi has fallen into impersonating Kojiro, who famously dueled Miyamoto Musashi in real life, so that must have been hilarious to the readers when that chapter first dropped. I'm really enjoying the picaresque flavour. Most characters aren't all good or all bad*, there are quite a few screw-ups dragging misfortune onto themselves, but they sure are colourful. And they're alive and they care about things so so much. (Except Otsu*, who might be Kwanyin descended to walk the earth in human form. You're doing great, sweetie!)

Another revisit through audio was The Broken Sword (Poul Andersen) which I first picked up when I was around eight or so and reread several times with great enjoyment.

... Huh. So I can absolutely see why I liked it as a tiny -- it's colourful and paced well, a good chunk of story in a fairly low wordcount, manages a Massive Mythological Mash-Up without getting twee, and all the Norse-style poetry kenning is just lovely. And, while the story is clear when bad shit is happening, it doesn't dwell overmuch on the grisly details. (Except Ilfric hanging by his thumbs, and face it, never has an elf-lad deserved that more.)

But also, re-reading as an adult: Whoah, there is some fucked-up stuff going on in there. It opens with a viking burning down a homestead with almost everyone in it, who goes on to almost-steal a wife and they live very happily together for the next twenty-odd years. I get a third of a way through vaguely remembering that the protagonist Scafloc has a romance with some girl he rescues but right now the only girls in need of rescue are his longlost sisters and... Oh. Right. It's all very... yes there are some good people, and there are some kinda dubious people but they're living well by their own lights, and also absolutely everything, in the manner of a Norse saga, is going to end in tragedy.

Final thoughts: Yes, I would recommend it, but also it's not a happy story where good people are rewarded with happiness. Fairly non-graphic but frequent violence and sexual assault, two incestuous relationships if that's going to bother you.

Final, final thoughts: Also, it has some pretty cool girls in it. Frida (sp?) is neat, and Leah, you absolute skank, I want you to live and prosper and make it to the Jazz Age, you're doing so great, sweetie.

Also just picked up a copy of The Iron Princess by Barbara Hambly, a writer I'm pretty fond of. Strong opening with the hawks, but then I got hit with a frankly excessive bit of exposition, which I hope isn't going to be the norm in this. So far, a teen princess with a good set of lockpicks has rescued a rogue wizard from his imprisonment in the manner of Prometheus, because she needs some magical clout. Something something cities mining more cities... argh. Hopefully next chapter will be better.

[spacecapart]

Continuing with the OC design stuff, meet Willa! I tend to do a lot of these little design sketches while sitting around behind my stall at various conventions, and Willa here spun out of my usual ‘mash together two characters that I like and see what happens’ approach. In this case, General Armstrong from FMA and General Ironwood from RWBY, but she’s since evolved into very much her own person and I’ve even started building a whole science fantasy setting around her.

So, General Willa Stonehold lives in a fictional country with mostly Scotland but also Scandinavia vibes, in the far north of her world, connected by land to the northern polar ice cap. There’s an energy field of mysterious origins settled over the north pole of the planet, and within that field there’s a lot of spare energy floating around that her society mines to power their technology. But it also spawns aggressive monsters, animated shambling things made of rock and ice or abandoned vehicles, or even corpses, that attack settlements. Willa is the commanding officer of a wall fort on her country’s northern border, tasked with keeping those monsters at bay. But the attacks have just been getting worse, there are more monsters every year, and no one wants to believe her when she tells them this, so she’s slowly losing more and more of her shit under the weight of it all.

I love her, she’s a cranky, middle-aged butch aroace who cares too much and is slowly breaking because of it, and I’ve also been having a lot of fun coming up with characters to bounce off of her. This is the world that I’ve dropped an instance of my DnD character Sam into - he’s a doctor at Willa’s fort who’s ended up rather more connected to the energy field than anyone thought was possible. He and Willa have a fun odd couple friendship, with him being the cheerful optimist to her sarcastic pessimist.

As usual, I don’t have a name for this setting yet because names are hard, but I’ve got a bunch of other characters and when I actually draw them (and inevitably draw a lot more of Willa), you’ll be able to find them under the tag ‘willa’s world tag’.

[attex]

hi!! i really like your art, especially how you paint!! can i ask your process for coloring if that's okay?? i just think it's a really neat style!! have a good day!!! :D

lord i wish i knew how i painted . i litearlly slap colors and shit happens ?

reuse colors often everywhere else on the same drawing . put whatever colors somewhere if it looks nice . i fucking love purple btw its my favorite color ever .

i always put desaturated greyed out colors with more saturated ones that tend to mix by being low contrasted idk i like the vibes of it

also i mix and match every brush ever i just use anything and everything . if i do "lineart" i draw and paint over it i do painted lineart i do whatever the fuck and its inconsistent with every other drawing by nature

i cant not use purple i swear . i love purple so much . excuse me not explaining properly and just putting images i myself learn better thru staring at images and pictures for hours on end being mesmerized . idk if you do the same or not .

btw sometimes i get random images from generators and nonsense sources like i just screenshot things and mash them up together and fuck up the colors by editing them and then i paint over it . its entartaining

[gogglor]

Cap-Ironman RecWeek: What-If Wednesday

Time for another installment of @cap-ironman rec week! Today’s theme: AU’s.

I know AU’s in different settings are half the reason most people read fanfics, but they’re not really my thing on the whole. AU’s where different choices are made, or different events transpire? Absolutely. Coffee shops? Not my cup of... you know.

So, here’s my AU recommendations for mostly “turn left” scenarios. This time with an under-the-cut break so I don’t take over everyone’s timelines (sorry about that last post). Also with some summaries truncated for length.

Alone Like This

Author: GotTheSilver

Word Count: 7,452

Summary: Steve, post waking up, runs away from SHIELD, and Tony's the one who tracks him down.

Why You Should Read It:

First off, GotTheSilver’s been consistently and regularly putting out solid Stony since 2012 and not only are they not stopping, they’re only getting better. This writer doesn’t get nearly the fanfare I’d expect in Stony circles for someone who puts out this much good stuff, and here’s hoping this post can be a part of changing that.

While I am always a sucker for enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, there’s something to be said for stories where Steve and Tony hit it off right away. And watching these two very different people look at each other and see the same sense of being lost, then finding each other again is... excuse me, there’s something in my eye, ignore me.

Second Chance Lives

Author: raeldaza

Word Count: 43,872

Summary: Tony's gonna die of palladium poisoning anyway, why not join a pointless expedition to recover Captain America’s body? And after, well, why not dedicate his last few months to making sure an American hero settles into his new life? What else is he going to do, get drunk at parties?

Why You Should Read It:

This writer doesn’t write a lot for the MCU but when they do, dang.

“Tony is the one helping Steve acclimate to the new century before Avengers 2012″ is a whole genre of Stony fanfics that scratch an itch I didn’t even know I had before I started reading fanfiction, and this is one of the best ones out there. It’s got it all - Steve poorly coping with his PTSD, Tony poorly coping with his immanent mortality, some breathtakingly poor communication between the two most emotionally stunted men in the MCU, and a cat named Roomba. What’s not to love?

Should You Choose to Accept It

Author: elwenyere (look, you’re gonna be seeing a lot of them this week, sorry-not-sorry)

Word Count: 27,106

Summary: After a terrorist attack and a field operation gone wrong, the Avengers realize that Nick Fury's secrets are just the start of a much bigger mystery. Steve and Tony try to keep some things from each other as well, but that can't possibly affect the mission — right? Mission Fic + Getting Together (or Mission: Getting Together) that mashes up elements from Iron Man 3, CA: Winter Soldier, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season one, and Mission Impossible 3.

Why You Should Read It:

You can see my post yesterday for singing El’s praises, but what I really liked about this fic was how how damn creative it is. The CAWS/IM3/AOS mashup is everything I wished the actual MCU gave us and more, with well-developed characters and an exciting story to put them in. And because it’s El, you know the banter’s gonna be on point, the way the characters care for each other is gonna be emotionally constipated but touching, and the pacing’s gonna be exciting enough to draw you in and keep you there. Also, this fic doesn’t have nearly enough kudos so please go read it and fix that or I’m gonna have to try to hack AO3 and that’ll just be embarrassing for all parties involved.

What Happens In Vegas

Author: sabremc

Word Count: 161,951

Summary: “What the hell, Tony?” Rhodey demanded brusquely.  Tony winced and drew the phone away from his ear.  “You’ve got cops and Feds all over the hotel.  I’m watching you perp walk out of the police station on repeat on CNN.  They’re saying you tried to bribe Stern?  Fox News has you selling weapons on the black market, and God that picture they’re using is the one from Bali in ’09.   You look like shit.  They wheeled Stern out and put him in an ambulance, by the way.  Got some paparazzi swearing you decked the guy.  Now they’ve got ‘copters following it like he’s OJ.”

“Yeah, don’t worry, Sourpatch, I’ve got it covered.   Uh, though, I should probably tell you that, purely in the interests of national security and the greater good, I kind of had to fake marry that stripper-gram  you sent.  Thanks for that, by the way,” Tony added quickly.

Why You Should Read It:

If you’re deep enough into Stony to see posts like this on Tumblr, you probably know sabre’s what we in the business call a “big name author.” They’re prolific, they’re popular, and most importantly, they write words good (technical term). Seriously, sabre just keeps cranking out high quality stuff over and over again, raising the bar for the rest of us like a jerk (not really. I’m not bitter they write stuff so good I wish I’d thought of it first. Not at all.)

I never read stripper!Steve or stripper!Tony as a rule, but this came so widely recommended that I broke that rule and boy am I glad that I did. This is also the only fic on this list that’s a true-AU, with Steve being a non-powered vet from Afghanistan who left his army career to help Bucky and is stripping in Vegas to raise money for a prosthetic arm. He’s booked to do a private show for Tony, shenanigans ensue, and now they’re fake-married. This fic’s got some top-of-the-line banter and character development, but I particularly love it for its rich setting. Sabre paints a Vegas not just with strip clubs and blackjack tables, but KISS-themed minigolf, romantic dinners on the Eiffel tower, gaudy hotel lobbies, and making out on giant ferris wheels. It’s such a richly developed playground for the characters to play on, and through it, Steve manages to find a life for himself he’d given up on, and Tony finds multiple ways to show his kindness and depth of feeling for Steve. I know the word count’s long for this one but trust me, you’ve gotta read this fic.

Wait & Sea

Author: Lenalena

Word Count: 53,244

Summary: In which Tony and Steve get sent on an undercover mission aboard a cruise ship to make contact with Hydra. In this AU the military has kept the discovery and defrosting of Captain America a secret, so Steve and Tony have never met before. Yet they are to pose as newlyweds....

Why You Should Read It:

This one’s old and popular enough to be considered one of the “classic” Stony fics, and for good reason. Lenalena doesn’t write too often and not as much as they used to, but the fics they have up there are an absolute delight.

This is another fic that I skipped a bunch of times for being outside my comfort zone, but when I finally read it I saw why everyone’s so wild about it. In this story, Steve’s defrosted a bit earlier and not revealed as Captain America. He and Tony are sent undercover to sniff out Hydra shenanigans on a cruise and, because it’s fanfiction, they’ve got to pretend to be a married couple while onboard. There’s tons to love about this fic, but the things that bring me back to reading it over and over is first, Tony’s kindness and the way he’s attuned to Steve’s feelings, which... God, just inject “kind, observant Tony” straight into my veins, please and thank you. This is also another really rich setting for a story, and Lena knows how to fold the the hokeyness of the cruise into the seriousness of the mission and the depth of feelings Steve and Tony are finding for each other in a really beautiful, layered way. It’s funny, it’s heartfelt, it’s steamy, it’s gripping... why are you still reading this here? Go check it out for yourself!

Ashes to Ashes

Author: dirigibleplumbing

Word Count: 51,582

Summary: After regrouping following some surprise time travel, the world's heroes and sorcerers come up with a plan to protect the Mind and Time Stones by taking them into space in opposite directions. The result involves a lot more time loops than Steve would like, but at least they're getting a second chance to stop Thanos. (As well as a third, and a fourth...) And if Steve takes the opportunity to try to reconcile with Tony, too—well, they have the time, and Steve's going to make the most of it.

Why You Should Read It:

Dirigibleplumbing’s another name in Stony fanfics that does not get nearly as much fanfare as they deserve. They’re consistently a really creative voice in Stony fanfics and I always look forward to their stories showing me something new. Go read all their fics, I need more people to geek out with me over them.

I tend to limit myself on Steve-and-Tony-mend-things-after-Civil-War fics not because they’re not good, but because they’re so heavy, and also the Sokovia Accords have five hundred layers of crap in them that no good fic could possibly hash out well. This one, though? When you add in the Infinity War/End Game fixit? Poetry. Art. Music to my ears. DP wrote a really engaging, twisty story where it’s hard to predict what’s coming next, in spite of it literally being a pseudo-Groundhog day scenario. The characterizations are great, the story is engaging, and the feelings are big and sad and eventually happy. Go read it, you’ll love it.

I have tons of other recs for this category but this seems like a good place to stop for today. Tomorrow’s Alternative Media Thursday, and I’ve got some real gems I’ve been saving for that day (aaaaand possibly a self-rec or two ;)

[harrish6]

This here is a ref I’ve done for Maria~! She’s from Bloodverse, a Multiverse I am working on with my girlfriend, Doloshroom.

It’s not really a Undertale based Multiverse. More of a supernatural/horror/gore based one. That doesn’t mean we don’t take characters from our Undertale Multiverses and make them into new versions of themselves lol.

Maria here is based off of Mania, one of my Female!Horror!Sans that I created. Not to say that she’s just like Mania, just that she is based off of her. Just like she is just based off of the supernature creatures used to make her. I combined some creatures to make a fitting one for her pretty much.

She's a mix of a Siguanaba and a Mara.

Siguanaba (there's other names for it) is a woman with long hair who lures men (the version I'm using is the one who lures cheaters and men having affairs and those who betray love - as there are different versions of a Siguanaba), and once lured away (most likely seduced by her good looks although Maria can do some good ol' seduction too; for the shits and giggles mostly) she shows her true face, which is a skull (sometimes it's a horse skull, but I'll use a human's skull) - able to shapeshift in some versions, others it's just hiding the face from sight, but for this option I'll use shapeshifting. 

Some versions has the men going insane from looking at her face, and/or with a touch. They're also known to eat people and have been known to drive even others insane and lure them to death, like women and children.

Mara is pretty much a dark spirit taking the form of a beautiful woman that tortures men in their sleep with their desires, taking their life force.

So, pretty much, she shapeshifts into other women to lure others into her trap (typically cheaters, vow breakers, those who dirty love - in Maria's opinion that is), and she can drive them insane either in the waking world or the dreaming world - slowly or real fast, just by being near them, touching them, or by them seeing her face - and she eventually kills them, either by driving them insane, a trap, eating them and/or taking their life force. Maybe all of the above.

No matter what she eats people though lol. Like, that's her meals right there. Can eat normal food, but just not that filling you know?

Keep in mind I took two creatures, mashed them together, to make what Maria is. She’s not actually them, so it’s not going to be authentic to what those two things are. She’s something different to them in the end. I was inspired by the two, as I thought that both fit in with her nicely.

Let’s end this long post with some fun facts about Maria~! 

Maria talks in third person! She also has a....unique way of talking, slang pretty much, due to what she is and what she does. Although she can and will hide it when after a target/prey.

“Ooooh~! It’s just so heart stopping for Maria~! Gives her heart attack~ Won’t ghoul spooky person join her in her grave for the night~?”

Maria has a cooing-like voice. Her voice tends to come out in a coo. However, when she screams/shrieks, your ears might bleed.

She’s very proud of her hair - the one thing she loves about herself no matter what. It’s very long, floor-length, and if something happens to it (even though she could use her shapeshifting abilities to fix whatever was done easily) she’s going to snap big time.

A final fun fact to share.... Hmm....

There is no escaping her.

Not in reality. Not in dreams.

No escape.

[strywoven-moved]

@loyalbones​ asked : 👫 // for all the ships we have!!!

PROMPTED.

Iarla + Kaen :

Iarla is one of the few people Kaen has felt SAFE with ; I mean , genuinely , safe.  The type of safe where you know nothing bad can come after you , where you know the other person won’t think any worse of you no matter how bad things get.  Kaen has been able to show Iarla the absolute WORST of themself ( the real low-lows ) , but the fae still sticks by them.  That sort of trust – that sort of love – is irreplaceable.

I don’t think anyone said ‘I love you’ first.  I think they both blurted it out and said it at once so it came out as a mash-up of babbling and fumbled apologies alongside the whole ‘no- no- you can go first- wait , oh shit , do you mean it ?’  You know.  Like real idiots.  I wager there was lots of crying involved , too.

The heart-flower Iarla gave them has a place of reverence ( as reverent as it can get at least ) settled in the kitchen window ; the place they pass by everyday without fail and can see all the time when they cook or clean or try to get crunch-time studying done at the table.  Kaen didn’t have to , but they transmuted an ornate vase to put it in ; a delicate glass-like creation of sprawling rainbow splinters and fractals that contrasts with the bright hue of the bloom ( something to represent the both of them together ) .

Iarla , noticing Kaen always tends to linger with his scarf , has given them one of their own!  It’s very similar , if not for a different color palette in the threads.  However , he made sure it smells just like him for peak comfort-value.  They wear it ALL THE TIME , even in the middle of June.

Cassidy + Kaen :

Cassidy is more than aware the faun sings for a living ( knows well of their ambitions for true stardom ) .  But it was purely Kaen’s idea to give him private songs. . . To give him private DANCES .

Sometimes when Kaen is lonely back in their apartment , they’ll call Cassidy.  Just to hear him.  Even if it’s just sleepy little mumbles on his part , it’s still enough to help them relax again.

Likewise , over time as Cass realized he was more attached to the faun than he bargained for , Kaen became a little dose of sun and wilderness ; it reminded him of a simpler , better place , maybe.  If he gets stressed , and they’re around , he’ll ask them to come to him and keep nearby.  No feeding necessary , it’s just for company ( or to sit on his lap while he works for the sake of being near ) .

Cassidy has a VERY FAINT burn mark towards the right side of his chest , a rather dull imprint in the shape of a searing hand dragging slightly downwards over chilled skin.  A reminder of times when things got a little too HOT for comfort.  Kaen , every time they see it , continues to apologize for it even though they’ve already been forgiven.

Dahlia + Kaen :

Has Kaen slept with Dahlia ?  You’d be hard-pressed to figure it out , neither of them seem inclined to confess to it.  Shared glances , absconding away to other unoccupied rooms , SEVERAL LOUD NOISES— No , I don’t think it happened.  I think Dahlia was just hungry ( and they often seem hungry when the faun comes around ) .

Kaen doesn’t need the venom to feel pleasure from Dahlia’s bites , the pain naturally gives them a sense of it.  They’ve learned that the vampire l i k e s hearing them moan and hum when a feeding happens , and they’re more than happy to oblige , uncaring who happens to overhear.  The venom , however , does indeed make it WORSE ( you know what this means ) .

Kaen wanted to bite Dahlia back to “assert dominance”. . . It didn’t go as planned considering Dahlia very much retaliated ( that didn’t stop Kaen from doing it several consecutive times ) .

Kaen REALLY enjoys playing up the “hunting” game with Dahlia , most especially when they seem eager to feed.  They made the mistake o n c e of keeping too loose a hold on the faun and now they consider it their go-ahead to do this all the time.  Although typically outmatched , Kaen is invested ( as well as Dahlia ) , always tending to be riled up by the time they’re found , boldly playing the ‘please , don’t hurt me!’ card when Dahlia SMELLS the opposite of fear on their skin.

Mu + Kaen :

It took some patience and a little encouragement , but Kaen eventually came around to Mu and their guardianship ( after all , where else were they gonna go ? ) .  I reckon they opened up more at first to his familiar which no doubt made him smile as he observed quietly from afar.

Once Kaen was comfortable enough with Mu , they accompanied him EVERYWHERE , even asking if they could do more for him ( not that it seemed he needed much help , but they wanted to repay his kindness somehow ) .  When he said they didn’t have to do anything of the sort , they STILL went ahead and ransacked the kitchen in the wee hours of the morning , making him breakfast.  That , then , became their routine.  Early wake-up.  Homemade breakfast from your doting ward.

Kaen has definitely climbed into Mu’s bed whenever they had a bad night.  Which has increasingly become less frequent the longer they stay with him , so that’s PROGRESS !

Kaen has also referred to Mu as their father and I’m not going to stand here and let you tell me he’s tried to correct them after learning what an awful dad Cernunnos turned out to be.

[prettyinlimegreenboots]

It’s been a long time since I’ve put fingers to keys. I’ve had some amazing cheerleaders here on Tumblr who have helped me get out of my writer’s block and actually put pen to paper. As always, feedback is most appreciated!

Warnings: cursing

Prompt: my neighbor’s at my door asking if everything is alright because it smells like something is burning and I was only trying to cook for once and this is embarrassing but they decided to help me fix this mess.

The fire alarm blared as he opened the open to check on the chicken. Smoke billowed out as a cuss word escaped his mouth. Between the blare of the alarm and the choking smoke, his heart beating loudly in his ears as the panic started to creep up his back.

Grabbing the pot holders, he reached into the oven, grabbed the glass pan, dropping it on the stovetop with a groan. “Great.” He muttered, shaking his head as he made his way over to the blaring smoke alarm.

Waving the pot holder in front of the blaring alarm, he sighed as silence enveloped the apartment.

The silence was interrupted by a hurried knock on his front door. Another groan escaped his mouth as he tried to figure out who could be on the other side. Mrs. Wilson was a crotchety old woman who lived two doors down from him and always tried to bring him stale cookies and always told him he could stand to “eat a bit more”. Or it could be the cute boy who moved in the month before. Albert didn’t want to get his hopes up but he was praying that it was the latter rather than Mrs. Wilson.

Walking over to the door, he hurriedly yanked it open as the cute stranger quickly lowered his arm. Albert pushed a sheepish grin onto his face as he leaned against the door jam. “Hi!”

“Everything okay?” The cute boy asked, raising an eyebrow in question. “It smells like something is burning and those fire alarms do tend to blare pretty loudly.”

“Just trying to attempt to cook dinner.” Albert scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Sorry about the disturbance.”

The cute boy smirked. “I’ve seen food being delivered at all hours of the day. Why mess up the system you so clearly have down pat?”

“Do you have a name? I can’t keep calling you cute boy in my head. And for your info, I was told by a very important person to quit wasting my money on takeout and learn how to cook.” Albert shrugged. “Clearly it didn’t go well.”

The cute boy chuckled, shaking his head. “Cute boy, huh? It’s Thomas but all of my friends call me Finch. And for the love of everything holy, don’t quit your day job. Also, if you need help, I could help you - that’s kind of my job.” Finch rambled on as a smirk crossed Albert’s face. Finch grinned, shifting his weight to hold out his hand. “And cute neighbor boy, what’s your name?”

“Name is Albert, but a lot of my friends call me Red.” Reaching over, he put his hands in Finch’s, shaking it. “If you’re offering, I’d love some assistance.”

Pushing open the door wider, Albert waved his hand as Finch slipped past him. “So what were you attempting to cook that ended in this disaster?”

“Chicken - thought a nice meal of chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli. I wanted something that reminded me of home. Didn’t know this whole cooking thing would be so hard.” Albert groaned. “Why do you enjoy it so much?”

Finch chuckled, leaning against the cupboard. “It’s relaxing and you can create a good meal and afterwards appreciate your hard work.”

“Whatever you say.” Albert rolled his eyes as Finch rolled up his sleeves and quickly washed his hands before raising an eyebrow in Albert’s direction. “What are you in the mood for? I’d say your chicken isn’t salvageable.”

Hopping up to sit on the countertop, Albert smirked, giving him a challenging look. “What’s your favorite meal to make?”

Reaching to open the cupboard next to him, Finch chuckled. “Well, now I know why you like to order food in so frequently.”

“Grocery stores scare me. They’re overwhelming.” Albert shrugged. “And most of the time I don’t know where half the items I’m searching for are located within the store.”

Finch nodded, continuing his search for whatever was going on in his mind. “Make sense. That’s why I use a grocery app to get food delivered - problem solved. But you don’t have much here. Let me go grab some supplies from my place and I’ll be right back.”

Albert watched him walk out of his apartment with a shake of his head. He tried to figure out what the hell had just happened and if his life had just changed for the better. Before he could move, Finch was back with some items in his arms, dropping them on the counter to Albert’s right.

“Now where are your pots and a strainer?” Finch asked, looking over at Albert.

A wicked grin crossed Albert’s face. “Why do you assume I have pots and a strainer?”

“Well in my search, I found a zester so if you have that fancy piece of equipment, I’m assuming you have pots and a strainer, smartass.” Finch raised an eyebrow. “Now where do you keep them hidden?”

Pointing to the cupboard below his hip, Albert smirked watching Albert crouch down, ruffling through the cupboard for the requested items. “So . . . uhhh do you have a significant other?”

Filling the pot with water, Finch snorted. “That’s the best conversation starter you could come up with?”

“I mean, I hate awkward silence so yes.” Albert defended. “My brain is all mushy since you’ve taken over my kitchen. So . . .”

Finch put the pot on the stove with a nod of understanding. “Painfully single for the last three months. I had a bad breakup which left me searching for a place. You?”

“No, I haven't had one for a while. Constantly looking though.” Albert grinned, eyebrows raised. “So, what are you making me for dinner?”

Finch rummaged through the cupboard again, coming out victoriously with a grater. “Figured you can’t go wrong with mac and cheese . . . unless you’re allergic to cheese or wheat?”

“Nope and nope. You’re good there. But I am allergic to shellfish.” Albert grinned, as a phone dinged with an incoming text. They both moved to look at their phones. Albert groaned, letting his head hit the cupboard behind him.

“Duly noted. You okay over there?” Finch said adding some salt to the pot watching lazy bubbles bubbled in the water.

Albert threw his phone down on the counter with a sigh. “Big family to do this weekend that I’m slightly not looking forward to.”

“Big family?” Finch asked, opening the box of noodles before pouring them into the boiling water.

He nodded, flipping through the photos on his phone before stopping at a family photo, showing it to Finch. “Adopted family. Jack and Race are my older brothers. Romeo is my younger brother and Smalls is the only girl and my younger sister. Jack and Race’s significant others will be there as well. It’s pure mayhem and craziness.”

“Wow big family. Any nieces or nephews?” Finch asked, quickly stirring the noodles before turning the heat down slightly. “Also, make yourself useful and grate the cheese.”

Albert grabbed a plate from the drying rack before starting to do what he was told. “Jack and his wife Katherine have a little girl named Emmie and they’re pregnant with their second; they’re not finding out the gender because they want to be surprised.” Albert rolled his eyes. “Race and his husband Spot are in the process of adopting a little girl named Noelle. They’re hoping to finalize the adoption in the upcoming weeks. So it’s even more mayhem with littles around.”

“That’s gotta be fun. It’s just me and my younger sister so there’s not much mayhem when we all get together.” Finch shrugged, watching Albert for a second. “I don’t even want to ask but you do have butter in the fridge, right?”

Smirking, a chuckle escaped Albert’s mouth. “Yes, I have butter and milk as well for your info.”

“So when you referenced that a very important person told you to stop wasting your money on take out, who were you referring to?” Finch asked as he drained the noodles in the strainer before dumping them back into the pot. He quickly grabbed the milk and butter from the fridge before adding a bit of both to the pot as Albert dumped the cheese in.

“That would be my sister-in-law, Katherine.” Albert said with a roll of his eyes. “She stopped by last week and couldn’t believe all of the takeout containers in the trash and fridge. One hastily worded text message was sent to my momma and I got a strongly worded lecture on how I’m 25 and should be able to cook and fend for myself.”

Finch threw his head back laughing loudly, taking a brief pause from stirring the mac and cheese together. “Well, I’m 26 and I get the lecture all the time about dusting and vacuuming.”

“So you feel my pain.” Albert exclaimed with a grin. “But I’m thankful for all that momma has done and will happily take her strongly worded lectures on any given day, even if they’re a lil intense and leave me a little bit frightened for my life.”

Finch nodded, and with a final stir, he clapped his hand together. “Alright, I think this is ready. Bowls?”

Albert grabbed two from the drying rack. “Alright, here’s the truest test - fork or spoon?”

“Spoon, why kind of heathen do you think I am?” Finch exclaimed as Albert shook his head.

“The kind that uses a spoon in mac and cheese rather than a fork.” Albert deadpanned, giving him a look as he drew out both a spoon and a fork from the drawer. “You’re an absolute heathen and I’m almost ashamed to know you.”

Finch dished some up in each bowl with a smirk, handing one to him as he grabbed the spoon from Albert’s hand. “Almost ashamed? You mean our beautiful friendship might live to see another day?”

“I mean, we’ll see how you did with the mac and cheese but I’d say this could live to see many days, weeks, and possibly years.” Albert said, stabbing several noodles with his fork before putting them in his mouth. He wasn’t ashamed that the most ungodly moan escaped his mouth. “Holy shit, this is amazing.”

Finch laughed, spooning some into his own mouth. “Want to amend your words about keeping me around?”

“How about you go on a date with me first and we’ll see where things go from there?” Albert raised an eyebrow in a challenge.

Finch nodded. “That can be arranged. What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Apparently not getting take out and going out with you somewhere?” Albert bit back, before stabbing additional noodles and continuing to eat.

Finch grinned. “It’s a date.”

Thank you for reading! Many thanks to @cutesiewooren for being the ultimate cheerleader! So what did you think? If I was to continue this, what would you like to see? Any feedback would be lovely and would make my day!