#i will. probably answer those last three asks after this meme. probably.

[lefaystrent]

Friendly Neighborhood Criminals Part 2

Fandom: Sanders Sides

Pairings: platonic Patton/Dark Sides

Summary: Patton spent most of his life praying. This is the first time anyone's answered.

In other words, the friendly neighborhood criminals are there to save the day once again.

Ao3 Link: click here

Part 1

A/N Notes: This part is entirely inspired by a comment left by DnDeceit (Hazgarn) from Ao3. Thank you for the awesome idea and hope you enjoy! If anyone else has ideas for this AU, hit me up and I may write them!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Patton sits at the bus stop waiting for a bus that is over forty minutes late.

Miraculously, he has not run into this scenario since he moved to the city. The busses have been fairly reliable until now. They're his main mode of transportation to get to and from work. It would take a couple hours to walk otherwise. While manageable, the problem is that...

It's pitch black outside.

Patton hugs himself on the rickety bench and tries not to peer too closely into any shadowed corners. He typically doesn't take the late shift for this reason; he hates the dark. Whenever his mom got mad at him or just didn't want to look at his face, she would lock him in a closet without light. She'd tell him to pray about what he had done, to ask for forgiveness. Patton never knew what he had done in those instances, but he prayed hard and apologized for hours and told God he would be better so he didn't bother his parents so much.

The night reminds him too much of that tight space, and buying a night light for the apartment is one of the few luxuries he afforded himself.

Thankfully, a streetlight buzzed above him. Things could be much worse! His manager even apologized to him for asking him to come in on his off day! If Patton hadn't, he would have left Joan to close the store all by themself, and that would have been rough. Besides, Patton can use the extra hours! And working with Joan is always fun. They made Patton laugh and sometimes bought him snacks! And when they had locked up and walked into the parking lot earlier, they had offered to give him a ride.

Patton refused, of course! That had been far too generous, and Patton didn't want to make Joan drive him around when they were clearly tired. Patton could catch the last bus and things would be okay.

But things are not so okay, and there are no more busses scheduled until morning. If Patton left now, he would have to make the trek home. In the dark.

Just thinking about it has his throat seizing up.

Patton wishes he could be like normal people and call his family up in this situation. That his dad could give him a ride, or that he had a sibling who would speed over in a heartbeat. Or even friends.

He does have friends though! Well, one friend mostly. Her name is Valerie and they went to high school together. She moved out of Florida after graduation, so they never really see each other in person anymore. But she's always a text away and she's been so supportive of Patton moving out and cutting off his folks and–

And Patton wishes she could be here, but she's not.

Patton sits on the bench as if waiting for something to magically happen. He groans to himself and pulls out his phone. It's refurbished and a way older model, but it gets the job done just fine. Maybe he can distract himself for a bit and text her. She's probably asleep by now, but he can send her a joke or a meme–

There are new contacts in his phone that were not there before.

Patton rechecks his phone several times because surely this is an error. But no, there are three new contacts where before there had only been his best friend, store manager, and landlord.

Janus

Thing 1

Thing 2

Beyond baffled, Patton racks his brain for when the contacts could have possibly been added. It wasn't him of course, so one of his new...acquaintances must have done it. Ever since they brought him furniture and groceries, they have visited Patton again a total of twice. Each time, they brought him things from shampoo to a microwave. And then they would shove take out into his arms and order him to eat it.

It's...the most aggressive kindness Patton has ever been subjected to. And quite frankly, he doesn't know how to respond to it other than submit. Remus told him it's easier that way anyway.

Patton doesn't know what to make of the well-to-do criminals. And they are criminals, there's no doubt about it. They don't try to censor themselves around Patton. Last time, Patton listened reservedly while Remus recounted a story of lighting a dumpster on fire in order to distract some cops on their tail.

And they laughed and it wasn't at Patton. Virgil would tell Remus off when he overwhelmed Patton with gross details, and Janus– good grief could he write a novel about that man. Well, about all three of then really, but Janus had been the most aggressively kind. Patton can hardly say two words to the man because he can't figure out if he's mad at Patton, the world, or just in general. And he'd do it all while calling Patton pet names, and Virgil would grin and say, "I'm so glad someone else is getting the Janus treatment."

They aren't bad people, not really.

But can Patton call them like this? What would he say? Worse, how on earth could he ask for more of them?

Then maybe just to talk? Not Janus, the man intimidates him too much. But which one is Thing 1 and 2? Was it Janus who snuck the contacts into his phone? Surely it incriminates him if he is the only one with a proper name.

Just then, the light above him flickers and goes out, bathing him in blindness.

Patton does not panic.

He skyrockets straight to losing his mind.

The phone light is not enough to stop his hyperventilating. He stands up, ready to flee, but to where? Into the same darkness enveloping him now? There are distant lights further up the street, more store outlets, but they are fuzzy and far away and Patton's legs quake where he stands. Tears sting his eyes, and his chest squeezes tight enough to make his shoulders hunch inward.

He can't do it, he's weak.

Fumbling, he pulls up the phone and presses one of the Thing contacts. He doesn't know which one, doesn't care. What he cares about is someone saving him right now. Please open the door, he wants out, please–

"City morgue, you kill 'em, we chill 'em," a nasally voice chatters in his ear. Patton doesn't even remember hearing the phone ring or pressing the dial button.

"Remus?!" Patton says, stricken.

Remus catches onto his tone immediately. From the handful of times he has been around the man, he had only ever presented himself with a dramatic, unhinged flair. He grinned without abandon, and he honestly made Patton giggle a time or two.

Now, the gravelly tone of a dangerous man takes over. "Pat?"

"Remus," Patton pleads. He doesn't know exactly what he's begging for. He just wants to be okay now. He wants it to stop.

"Where are you, Pat?"

"B-bus stop, corner of Cherry Ridge Avenue and– and– by, I don't know, I'm by the– the State Farm office? I think. I think–"

"That's okay, Pattycake, you stay right there. I'll find you, I'm coming."

Patton keens and nods his head, though Remus can't see him. He stays on the phone with Patton too, cursing occasionally at something on the other side and rushing to ease Patton with gentle assurances whenever he whimpers into the phone too loudly.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Remus tells him, and Patton believes him.

By the time a revving motor breaks the night, Patton has curled up against the side of the bus stop awning in a poor attempt to make himself as small as possible. He flinches when a singular headlamp spills over him, and he momentarily freaks out upon recognizing that someone is driving a motorcycle straight at him. But Remus's voice is in his ear, yelling over the roaring that it's him, that he sees him.

He's here.

Remus drives the bike right onto the sidewalk and doesn't bother pushing down the kickstand. He lets the bike list sideways to the ground as he scrambles off, one hand barely hanging onto his phone in his rush.

Seeing him is the biggest relief Patton's ever experienced. More than the day he signed the apartment lease. Because someone finally answered his prayers to save him.

Patton finds the strength to stand and barrels into Remus's chest. He meets him halfway, using the momentum to spin them and he clutches Patton against the front of his leather jacket.

"Are you hurt? Did someone hurt you? I'll fucking kill them!" Remus snarls.

Patton answers the only way he can, by breaking down into sobs. Remus can't get any details after that. He runs his hands up and down Patton's back and arms looking for injuries. When he doesn't find any, he just keeps on rubbing his back to soothe him.

"I got you, I got you. I'm not going anywhere, Pattycake."

It's rough. It's exhausting. It's tears and snot and frightened little hiccups.

It's everything to Patton that Remus holds him throughout.

When Patton is calm enough that he's only sniffling now, Remus pulls back and takes his face in his hands. Remus's hands are calloused and blisteringly warm. They contrast with the cool metal of the rings he wears.

"Want me to take you home?"

Patton can't speak, but he gives a tiny whine and nods his head, bleary-eyed and spent.

The ride back to his apartment is a blur. Remus pushes his only helmet over Patton's head and warns him multiple times not to let go of him. The leather of his jacket is a security blanket, and Patton does his best to snuggle into it. He's never rode on a motorcycle before, and he's doesn't know if it's a good or bad thing that he's not aware enough to process it. It's fast and loud, and the wind whips around them constantly. He barely keeps his eyes open and trusts Remus will get them home safe.

They pull up to his apartment quicker than he thinks possible. Remus slides off first, keeping hold of Patton's hands as he turns around in his arms. He tugs the helmet off, careful not to jostle him too badly.

"Gotta say, Pattycake, helmet hair's a good look on you." Remus is trying to make him laugh. Patton doesn't have the energy to make his facial muscles move or thank him for his kindness. The most he can do is make grabby hands at Remus.

"Oh, puffball..." Remus's expression softens. He bends down and sweeps Patton into his arms and full-on carries him to the door bridal-style. Patton knows that Remus is tall and strong, but distantly he's impressed with how easily he's lifted.

Remus nudges him and patiently waits for him to dig out his key and unlock the front door. Once inside, Remus doesn't stop in the living room. He strides to the bedroom and deposits his cargo on the mattress.

"Okay, Pat-tay. It's beddy-bye time." Remus crouches below him and tugs Patton's shoes off his feet one by one. Patton watches him silently in the glow of his nightlight plugged into the wall. After the shoes are off, he reaches up to pull Patton's glasses off. Strangely, he notes that Remus's hands are shaking. Just a little bit.

Remus covers it up with a smile and waggle of brows. "Clothes on or off?"

In response, Patton flops back on the bed. Remus chuckles and situates him more appropriately, manhandling him until he's under the sheets.

"You're gonna be okay, I swear," Remus tells him, fingers brushing the hair from his forehead. Patton sinks into the mattress, closes his eyes and drifts.

A ringing pulls him to the surface. Remus answers his phone and Patton is too content to open his eyes.

"Yeah?....Because I'm with Patton.... Because he called me.... No I will not tell you all the juicy details of our midnight tryst, what kind of gossip do you think I am?"

Patton wonders who he's talking to. Someone who knows Patton, one of the others?

"He's had a bad night," Remus says and Patton tunes back in. He missed some exchanges and Remus's tone has taken on a somber edge. "I've got him home. I'm gonna hang out with him for a while... Janny can suck it, he'd be worse than I am.... I don't know, but it was bad enough he called me. Not that I'm not an absolute gift, right?.... well you didn't have to answer that. Okay, Emotional Baggage, I'm hanging up now. Don't wait up for me."

The return to quiet pushes Patton farther under. His muscles grow lax, and Remus is doing that thing with his fingers in his hair again. Patton reaches out and pulls himself a little closer. He thinks he's holding onto a jacket sleeve. He tries to wrap himself around it.

He thinks he feels the tickle of breath at his ear, a hushed voice, "I have a feeling you're going to be the death of me. And I'm gonna like it."

Patton falls asleep.

The next morning, there's a box of donuts sitting in the middle of his bedroom floor. A notification on his phone shows he has a text.

Call me anytime ;)

–R

[writethrough]

Hi ;) I don't know if you're currently accepting requests, but if you do, may I request a Malcolm Bright x Reader fic please ? TW : Self-h*rm, anxiety, depression, ED, mental illness.

Reader and Malcolm are very close friends so they both lovingly care about each other. Reader hasn't been answering any of his calls and messages for a few days, which is unlike her 'cause she always picks up the phone when he calls her. He starts to grow more and more worried, especially because he knows about her mental health struggles. So naturally he decides to go check on her. When he arrives he finds her in a very bad state : depression, anxiety, ED and Self h*rm have been hitting her harder that usual. He stays in at her house for a few days to take care of her, which includes reassuring her when she gets panic attacks, telling her that he strongly cares about her and that nothing will make him leave her, laying beside her to help her sleep, hugging her etc. Eventually she starts to feel a bit better.

I know it's very emotionally charged, both with dark stuff and comfort/care stuff, so if you feel like you can't do it, it's totally okay, I understand. Do whatever makes you feel the most comfortable.

Please take care 🤍 Sending you hugs.

To Make It Through

(Malcolm Bright x Gender-Neutral Reader)

Warnings: Insinuations of self-harm, ED, depression, anxiety, and mental illness.

Word Count: 1203

A/N: I wasn’t sure how to begin writing this. The most important goal for me was writing this with respect to those who suffer from self-harm, depression, mental illness, ED, and anxiety. I have never experienced the first four, but I’ve dealt with mild to moderate anxiety, I believe since I was young (I’d like to add, I’ve never been diagnosed by a doctor for anxiety). I have no idea what someone who lives with these struggles goes through. I wanted this to be a comforting story, one that hopefully brings a little light to everyone who reads it.

I didn't want to include too many details that could be triggering or potentially disrespectful to those who deal with the topics above.

And to anyone who is suffering and in need of help, below are different hotlines and resources.

National Eating Disorders Association

988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

The Trevor Project

National Institute of Mental Health

Malcolm unlocked your front door with the extra key you gave him.

It’d been three days since he last heard from you—no responses to his texts. No calls or video chats, not even a dumbass meme. And he was worried.

You were religious in your response time to him. Honestly, he had no idea how you could send a text off so quickly.

First, he noticed the dishes on your counter. A few days' worth. Then, the blanket was on the floor instead of folded neatly over the couch. Your curtains were drawn tight, and the couple of plants you had were a little less lively than when he was here last week.

He slowly pushed your bedroom door open so as not to startle you.

It was difficult to see through the darkness, but from what he could tell, clothes were thrown around the room. And he could make out a thin layer of dust on your bookshelf.

He took in your curled state under your comforter. Only the top of your head peeked out.

He didn’t need to ask you what was wrong. You’d known each other long enough for him to recognize the signs.

After slipping his shoes and coat off, he gently lowered himself beside you. He didn’t move the covers or speak, only placed a hand close enough to your back so you could feel him while not being touched. 

He didn’t know if you were awake, but that didn’t matter. He’d wait however long it took until you were ready to acknowledge him.

He wondered when you last ate—those dishes were probably older than he thought. He tried to recall if there were any warning signs he should’ve picked up on when he was here last time. But you seemed fine.

You were also very good at hiding it.

About an hour later, you shifted to face him, still beneath the blankets.

It wasn’t much, but it was enough.

He whispered your name. You didn’t move.

He tried again. “Can I do anything for you?”

You sniffled, and his heart nearly broke.

“Can I move the blanket, honey?” he asked.

The top of your head moved slowly in a nod.

He hooked a finger and pulled down carefully, revealing water-lined eyes with bags under them.

He thought as much. When things worsened, you never slept well.

“What do you need?” he whispered as gently as he could.

You didn’t look at him as your hand emerged to clutch your pillowcase.

“I don’t know,” you mumbled.

He nodded. He couldn’t let you stay like this.

“Then, could you do something for me? I know you won’t want to, but you can come right back. I promise.”

You glanced at him, then looked away. As much of an acknowledgment as he would get.

“Go take a shower. Take as long as you need,” he said.

You didn’t fight him, didn’t argue, and he took that as more of a bad sign than anything.

Once your bathroom door closed, he stripped the bed and threw everything in the washer. After replacing the sheets, he put the discarded clothes in your hamper and tossed any trash he spotted. He kept the blinds closed. Baby steps.

He was finishing putting the dishes away when you walked out in a towel and back into your room to change.

You didn’t ask what he was doing or tell him he didn’t have to do it. You almost ignored him.

You had already returned to bed when he entered. This time, you were against the headboard, staring off into space.

He sat beside you.

Your hands rested above the covers, wrists on display, and his shoulders relaxed.

It hadn’t gotten that bad.

He let you have your silence. Sometimes it was what you needed.

“Why are you friends with me?”

Sometimes it wasn’t.

“Because I need you,” he said.

It was all he thought to say. Superficial compliments wouldn’t stop your mind from spiraling. Hopefully, you’d believe him.

You shook your head. “You deserve better.”

He wanted to shield you from your own words. 

“(Y/N), I need you to look at me,” he said. And when you didn’t, he repeated himself. “Please?”

You glanced at him, rubbing the hem of your shirt between your fingers.

“Have I ever lied to you?” he asked gently.

You shook your head slowly, hunching your shoulders.

“I will always always tell you the truth,” he said. “You’re my best friend. That’s never going to change, okay?” He carefully pulled your hand between his. “I care about you so much, (Y/N). You’re never going to get rid of me.”

You sniffled, glancing at him through your lashes.

Tears lined his own eyes, threatening to spill forth.

You were his best friend. He’d be lost without you, and he needed you to know that he’d never go anywhere, that he belonged by your side. You made him feel seen. You made him feel sane.

Whatever you needed from him, he would give.

“Can you…Can you hold me?” you whispered, trying to keep your voice from breaking.

He answered by laying on his back, waiting for you to settle on his chest, hands still connected.

“Get some rest,” he whispered. “I’ll be right here when you wake up.”

—

Malcolm stayed with you for the next few days. He even called Gil and said he had to take a personal day, much to Gil’s surprise and pleasure. Thankfully, Gil didn’t ask any questions. Malcolm never would’ve broken your trust like that.

Today was the first day you had gotten dressed. Malcolm considered that a massive sign you were starting to feel more like yourself.

“How’re you feeling?” He took in every feature of your face, searching for the most minute twitch.

“I’m…I’m better.” You nodded slowly. “I’m not okay. I know that, but I’m better than I was. Not everything’s as…dark.”

The corner of his mouth tilted up in a sympathetic smile. His fingers found yours, holding them lightly.

“All healing takes time. And I’ll be right here whenever you need me.” His eyes stayed locked with yours, nothing but sincerity in them.

You swallowed. “Thank you.”

He shook his head slightly. “You never need to thank me for doing something I want to do.”

It brought tears to your eyes—how kind he was. Malcolm was the only person you could trust with everything. He knew what it was like to be trapped in your own mind, to hate so many parts of yourself that you want to rip out.

And each time you were on the verge of relapsing, he’d pull you away from the edge. As you’d done for him.

“Why don’t we take a walk? See how many squirrels we can feed,” he said, offering you his arm.

Your face lifted, not a smile, but not so melancholy as it had been.

“Okay.”

Grasping the crook of his elbow, you interlocked your fingers there and let him lead you outside.

The sun's warmth sunk into your skin as Malcolm launched into what his mother was trying to rope him into. And when the first chuckle in a week passed your lips, the darkness didn’t feel so encompassing anymore.

Taglist: @phenomenal-bird

If anyone would like to be added to my taglist, please comment or message me and tell me which character you'd like to receive updates on.

[borathae]

chapter 1

“Thank you good sir” i havent seen this in a serious manner in a long time, and laughed cuz it sounded like 1890s memes 😭 im sorry

pulls the door open with ease. NO WAY I PUSHED AN PULL DOOR BYE U DIDNT HAVE TO ATTACK SOME OF US LIKE THAT 😭 violence i will be meditating

ALSO IS IT TAE OR JIN AAH HOLD ON JOON IS TALL TOO maybe kook??

“I’ve been a student here for quite some time actually” this sits at the same table as "how long have you been 17? a while"

oh it was jooniebug WHY IS OUR PRESIDENT A DICK 😭😭

“At least I don’t look like a stoner from the seventies” JIN STOP, HOBI U LOOK AMAZING

funky what is funky why is funky when is funky where is funky how is funky who is funky

what is she studying to have history and human anatomy together?/srs. ooh literature with different stuff for minor

boi i havent heard the word coolio in a decade, the last time probably while reading ff in 2014

oh my god its the bad boy. is it yoongi? YES I WAS RIGHT

4 HOUR LECTURE ON ONE TOPIC?? BOI I WOULD HAVE DIED AND RESURRECTED IN THAT TIME. i have 2 hour lectures with 5 minute after an hour and its amazing

"No reason really”, *plays why u always lying meme

Hoseok agrees with a quirk of his perfectly styled eyebrow. YES HIS EYEBORWS ARE HOT AS FUCK

ofc kook is a sports major

rest of the Alpha dirt”, damn hoseok really got beef with them

status from royal blood? eww hoseok is slay for that *me acting like i wasnt being a thot while reading yoongi, tae, kook drabbles/oneshots

FUCK SOCIETY

“Dear lord, give me strength”, jin and joon with bangtan

JIMIN WTF U WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LIL FLUFF BEAN *bitch stop u knew how they were in the beninging(yes i misspelled for the meme) YES KICKING IN THE SHIN SUPREMACY

what is a hacky sack? i found out its a game? but what is he exactly studying lol?

also its the way she is making friends and talking to people LIKE SHE SPOKE WORDS YALL could never be me, sure i would have asked someone to help me to my classes but i wouldnt be talking after that, would have said im busy even though im not

if you would excuse me, but you’re quite weird, BYE IM LEAVING THE EARTH THIS IS THE 2ND TIME IM EMBARRASSED you can find me in 134340 business days, where i will be rotting under my blankie bye

“Perfect, now that everyone is welcomed accordingly. an example of when theater theaters in the most theater form

It leaves you wondering what he meant with that. u know what he meant by that, this is where you do the whole twilight thing

“I feel I just witnessed a man high on three different drugs theatre kids in a nutshell (apparently people on tumblr are either gay, english major or a theatre kid, and i sent the meme to my friends, guess what they said................... "looks like you fit all three category" our schools dont have it, but im apparently a theatre kid to them 😭)

WHY DOES THIS MAN WANT TO KILL ME SHUT UP I HATE YOU GO AWAY *gets closer again

How is he walking that quietly you walk with your entire feet, part by part, like in those "special" shoes ads, that helps in reducing sound. slow yet quick

“well, that is indeed a predicament.” oof so elegant, classy, AND RUDE (there 2seok, happy?)

your voice actually comes out squeaky. girl mine would have came quiet yet squeaky way before 😭

BABY CONNECT THE DOTS HOW DID THEY GET THAT FAST QUIETLY??

let’s get the 1860 one.” IS SHE THAT SPECIAL?? WHATS GOING ON AAAH

Seokjin actually answers him with a quiet “yeah!” OFC HE WOULD DO THAT

THEY GOT DEAD BODIES IN THE FREEZER

If you died here tonight EXACTLY U GONNA DIE BYE GIRL, YOU WILL (NOT) BE MISSED jk jk lol

ig kook is scared of girls *eww that was cringe bye Maybe he just needed to take a really urgent shit OH MY GOD PLS😭😭 this is going to stay in my mind forever, everytime i see him running im gonna think of this no doubt

“exactly, that is the reason. He is really shy.” aww such a shy lil bean OK BUT IK THATS NOT THE REASON *inserts suspicious hobi eyes

you must have the crispiest oxygen sounds like an indian water ad, that said "more of oxygen " Arrey yaar h2o water has not turned into h2o2 toxic hydrogen peroxide 😭

i love ur descriptions, they are very picturable and i love the vibes. it is soo good, i could smell the place? the seats, library, just the university smell, restaurant. it was great. i dont think my words do any justice lol

NO WAY I PUSHED AN PULL DOOR BYE U DIDNT HAVE TO ATTACK SOME OF US LIKE THAT 😭 violence i will be meditating

I think this is like a universal human experience to push a few pull doors lmaooa

ALSO IS IT TAE OR JIN AAH HOLD ON JOON IS TALL TOO maybe kook??

questions over question mhmhmmhm

oh it was jooniebug WHY IS OUR PRESIDENT A DICK 😭😭

QUESTIONS OVER QUESTIONS INDEED

what is she studying to have history and human anatomy together?/srs. ooh literature with different stuff for minor

honestly? i gotta be honest with you, don't think too deeply about the logistics of her studies. i chose her courses for the sake of plot and nothing else LMAOAO

boi i havent heard the word coolio in a decade, the last time probably while reading ff in 2014

coolio still slaps like 10/10 word (also you see how I made them using "outdated" words wink wink almost as if they were from a different time wink wink)

oh my god its the bad boy. is it yoongi? YES I WAS RIGHT

BADBOY YOONGI AWOO

Hoseok agrees with a quirk of his perfectly styled eyebrow. YES HIS EYEBORWS ARE HOT AS FUCK

THEY ARE THANK YOU FOR SAYING THAT

ofc kook is a sports major

djjfja thinking back, it makes no sense for him to also study JFJDAFJ (you'll understand it later fasdjfj)

JIMIN WTF U WERE SUPPOSED TO BE LIL FLUFF BEAN *bitch stop u knew how they were in the beninging(yes i misspelled for the meme) YES KICKING IN THE SHIN SUPREMACY

HAHHHAHAH he may have tricked you fadjfjas

what is a hacky sack? i found out its a game? but what is he exactly studying lol?

yes it's a game fakdsfka in theory he studies dance PLEASE don't think too much about the logistic I literally just went with vibes

also its the way she is making friends and talking to people LIKE SHE SPOKE WORDS YALL could never be me, sure i would have asked someone to help me to my classes but i wouldnt be talking after that, would have said im busy even though im not

i get both sides like i would want to make friends but would be too scared that they would hate me FADJFJ if people like 2seok talked to me though? helloooooo :)

if you would excuse me, but you’re quite weird, BYE IM LEAVING THE EARTH THIS IS THE 2ND TIME IM EMBARRASSED you can find me in 134340 business days, where i will be rotting under my blankie bye

hahahahhaha this part is actually so embarassing bHAHAHHAHAHAH

“I feel I just witnessed a man high on three different drugs theatre kids in a nutshell (apparently people on tumblr are either gay, english major or a theatre kid, and i sent the meme to my friends, guess what they said................... "looks like you fit all three category" our schools dont have it, but im apparently a theatre kid to them 😭)

i don't get the hate on theater kids, all I see is people who don't fit into the "societal norm" and are therefore labelled as weird losers. we don't have stuff like "theater kid" or "sports kid" in Austria either becuse school is solely there to study not to offer clubs but I still never understood the weird hatered some clubs get in America jfdjfa

THEY GOT DEAD BODIES IN THE FREEZER

👀👀👀👀

ig kook is scared of girls *eww that was cringe bye Maybe he just needed to take a really urgent shit OH MY GOD PLS😭😭 this is going to stay in my mind forever, everytime i see him running im gonna think of this no doubt

as for now it seems like he is ooooh 👀

“exactly, that is the reason. He is really shy.” aww such a shy lil bean OK BUT IK THATS NOT THE REASON *inserts suspicious hobi eyes

SUSPICIOUS INDEED MHHHHM

i love ur descriptions, they are very picturable and i love the vibes. it is soo good, i could smell the place? the seats, library, just the university smell, restaurant. it was great. i dont think my words do any justice lol

OMGG THANK YOU!! gosh this is actually such a big compliment :( I'm so happy to know that I managed to really make you exprience the place gaaah thank you for this review heheh 💜💜

[fallintosanity]

Curious to hear about this promare fic you are definitely not writing :3

Oh god this is one of those fics where I wish we had brain-to-page technology, because it appeared almost fully-formed in my head after like the second or third time I watched Promare. XD

I haven't actually written anything for it (true to the doc title I suppose XD ) but I can give you the synopsis / book-cover blurb! (Under a readmore for length, whoops)

WIP ask meme!

The fic starts the day after the movie ends, with Lio, Meis, and Guiera working through the immediate aftermath of the Parnassus incident. While some of the (now ex-)Burnish survivors were able to return to their old homes and families, thousands more have nowhere to go - and are collectively turning to Lio to lead them. At least for now, they're being allowed to stay in the Parnassus's passenger rooms, but Lio and his lieutenants know that can't last.

Galo, meanwhile, is dealing with the aftermath on the government side, where he's being hailed as a hero - and therefore expected to be In Charge Of Things along with the Burning Rescue team and their few allies in what remains of the government. He tries to use his new influence to help the Burnish, but it's clear that no matter how many times they remind people that the Burnish were Kray's victims, public sentiment still blames and shuns the Burnish for the destruction wrought by the Parnassus.

Tensions are escalating fast, and within days the Burnish survivors-turned-refugees are all but locked up on the Parnassus under heavy armed guard. Galo promises Lio that the guards are only there to protect the Burnish from angry mobs - but to the Burnish, the ship is just another prison.

Then, little more than a week after the Parnassus incident, Galo wakes up to shocking news: every single one of the Burnish refugees on the ship has vanished. And it's clear they intend neither to return nor to be found; they took all the supplies and equipment Kray's crew had stocked for settling a new planet. But to Galo, the worst part is that almost everyone in the city is happy about it - happy to let "those freaks" go to die in the empty wilderness and leave the "real humans" in peace.

Galo can't just let Lio disappear like that, and spends the next few months tracking the Burnish refugees to their new home. But to his frustration, Meis and Guiera refuse to let him see Lio, claiming he's away from the Burnish city and won't be back any time soon. Finally Galo manages to sneak past them into Lio's bedroom - where he finds Lio unconscious and horribly ill. Galo leaves without waking him and goes to demand answers from Meis and Guiera.

Guiera reluctantly admits that Lio is dying, and all three Mad Burnish knew it since the day after the Parnassus crashed. Meis explains that Lio is "Burnish-born": both his parents were Burnish when he was conceived, and he's been Burnish since birth. It's why he's so much more powerful than the other Burnish, but it also means his body is adapted to the Promare so thoroughly that he can't survive without them. Since his Promare returned to the alternate dimension with all the others, Lio probably only has a few months to live, if that.

Galo is horrified - but as Meis and Guiera point out, the Promare are gone. There's nothing Galo can do for Lio, except to let him spend his last days in peace and safety, surrounded by the Burnish he sacrificed everything for. But Galo has never cared whether something is impossible. No matter what he has to do, no matter how far he has to go...

He won't let Lio die.

[izzysarchivedblogs]

The Dusty Toolbox -> Accepting All Meme // oh gosh @biitchcakes you just want to hurt us -> you haven’t called me that in years . (clint)

TWENTY THREE DAYS IN COURT. Several additional days before those days in court being in a holding cell. He wasn't allowed visitors, or he does not know if it was the other around. If no one was allowed to come in and see him. There was no phone call offered to him, and the fact that his hands haven't stop shaking.

Partly from minor withdrawal, and majorly because HE DID IT. Bruce Banner came to him and begged, pushed that arrowhead in his hand and told him what to do. VISION OF THE BIG GREEN. Clint followed him, waited in the trees and watched. He doesn't know if it was the right thing to do.

BRUCE ASKED. BEGGED. HE JUST WANTED THE HELP. NEEDED.

Clint knew what he would be doing; how he had to fight to explain why he broke the moral code of avengers don't kill. ULTIMATELY? He was someone who respected his friends wishes, who saw the desparation and did what they said would help.

It weighs too heavy on him, those twenty three days in court and he was looking for her because a conversation runs through his head over and over again.

CAN I TELL ANYONE?

No.

NOT EVEN JESS?

Especially not her.

YOU KNOW THIS'LL MAKE TWO YEARS. I WAS LUCKY SHE TOOK ME BACK AFTER WHAT I DID FOUR YEARS AGO.

I'm sorry.

He didn't see her, and when he was released? He knew that he had to get out of New York as soon as possible. Partly because he couldn't be here, he couldn't stand this.

The government ⸺ politicians with an agenda and fearmongering ⸺ taking Ulysses' visions as their spearhead to a greater future; whatever they had on Carol to make her the face of this? HE'S ALMOST GLAD HE'S IN THE ASSIST ONE OF MY OLDEST FRIENDS KILL HIMSELF SEAT THAN HERS.

Those same types of people were the kind that tried to rig his trial, ensure that he got the death sentence. It still sends a chill down his spine thinking of his conversations with Murdock, but he's glad he made his trial fair.

He became the most popular avenger to the general public, with the fearmongering around the Hulk, and the least favorite avenger among all the people he was friends with. Clint wanted to blackout, forget all of this, but there's one hurt that weights almost as much as the Bruce Banner one.

HIS GIRLFRIEND. Clint's got one hundred percent accuracy that she's EX again. He really had been falling for her too.

Bruce Banner is dead now. It's a long shot, but he never said he couldn't tell anyone afterwards. So he calls her, at the very least, to explain himself or apologize, or simply to hear her one last time. TELL HER GOODBYE.

She picks up, probably because it's not a known number he is calling. ❝ WAIT, CUPCAKE! ❞ He says when she's about to hang up on the phone.

You haven't called me that in years.

OH SHIT! She's right. Not even this second try at their relationship, he's used that nickname in a while. She's been BABE and sweetheart. Not Cupcake. It got her attention.

❝ I know nothing I could say or do would make it better or change; I could tell you what he told me, give you the answers. They won't help. ❞ None of that was helping him out.

❝ I'm sorry, Cupcake, I should have told you but it went against his wishes. AND I KNOW YOU'RE MY GIRLFRIEND, and I loved- LOVE you. He really felt like this was what would help him.... ❞ Perhaps she should have came first over what Bruce Banner asked, but both Jess and Clint were people who stuck to their guns, stuck to morals. Regardless of people, respecting Bruce's wishes came in front of his girlfriends.

❝ I'm sorry, I wish I- I just wanted to tell you goodbye, I'm leaving. I asked him to write you a note, I stuck it under our table at our favorite burger joint. ❞ Clint begged Bruce to at least give her that, this had nothing to do with Jess and Clint's relationship. He begged him to at least write her a note, just for her, because she deserved that. She would be losing a lot already, he'd promise to deliver it after the arrow had been used.

❝ So, uh, that's it. Thanks for staying on the phone. ❞

[tessenwarrior]

TESSENWARRIOR: an independent roleplay blog for suki of avatar: the last airbender. this blog is 18+ and mutuals only. please read through the rules before following. loved by renee, writing suki as a study of girlhood, the femininity of being a warrior, the importance of friendship, and discovering one's true purpose. / VERSES

rules and biography below the cut.

RULES:

ONE.  triggering content will be present on this blog, including but not limited to: death, genocide, warfare, and abuse. please follow at your own discretion.

TWO.  when it comes to following or unfollowing, there are a few things i do not tolerate: bigotry or hatred of any kind.  untagged drama or vaguing.  sidelining of minority characters or storylines.  guilting others into writing with you / the use of the term ‘elitist’ to refer to friends in the rp community.

THREE. suki is primarily animated series based, with mild inspiration from the live action and books. my default canon for suki will take place after the end of book 3, during her time as the leader of the kyoshi warriors and bodyguards to the fire lord. i haven't read the books / comics though, so i'll probably be ignoring most of what happens in them.

FOUR. shipping is always welcome and encouraged.  i personally enjoy suki/sokka or suki/sokka/zuko, but i will never assume that’s the default.  i am open to discussing other ships, too.  platonic / familial ships are also a huge favourite of mine, so let’s talk about those!

FIVE.  other fandoms are welcome here.  i am open to exploring new verses and coming up with au’s to write with you.  throw your oc’s at me, as well!

SIX.  my formatting is minimal - no icons, small text.  my only request of my partners is to avoid using more than 2x spacing, as i find it very difficult to read.  other formatting / lack of formatting is fine!

SEVEN.  you are always welcome to send any kind of meme at any time - shipping memes, angst memes, or anything in between, and you can always continue an ask after i’ve answered it.  let me know if there is an ask you have answered you would like me to continue.

EIGHT. my name is renee! i’m 26 and canadian.  if i’m not here, i can be found at nectaric, my greek myth multimuse. come chat!

DOSSIER:

Basics:

Name: suki dai. Age: 16 - 25. Species: human. Gender: cis woman, uses she/they pronouns. Orientation: bisexual, polyamorous. Birthplace: kyoshi island. Occupation: suki became the leader of the kyoshi warriors at a young age, responsible for training the next generation of warriors and leading them in battle. she later became a member of team avatar and helped him end the tyrannical rule of the fire nation. she continues to lead the kyoshi warriors in their many endeavours.

Physical:

Faceclaim: maria zhang. Appearance: suki is a lithe and muscular young woman, with strong shoulders and thighs, a thin frame, and beautiful brown eyes.  her hair is a dark brown, kept shoulder length for ease of styling. Height: 5'7. Clothing: suki can often be found in the armour of a kyoshi warrior, with green robes and black leather armour, a golden headdress, and makeup. when she is not dressed as a warrior, suki prefers comfortable clothing in muted colours, easy to move around in. Abilities: suki is a skilled warrior in the art of tessenjutsu. Notable Markings: white face makeup with red marking around the eyes in the style of kyoshi. scars around her wrist from her months of incarceration. Items: suki carries two golden fans and a katana for combat.

Relationships: 

Mother: unknown. Father: unknown. Siblings: none. Birth Order: only child. Partner: sokka [ boyfriend ]. Children: none. Friends: aang, katara, toph, zuko, mingxia. Pets: by extension, appa and momo.

Personality:

Strengths: suki is a strong-willed and determined woman, capable of doing what it takes to get what she wants.  she is protective and kindhearted, protecting the innocent wherever she goes. she is assertive and dutiful, willing to speak her mind and advocate for her needs.  she is sweet and playful, cracking jokes with her friends. Flaws: suki is fiercely stubborn, incapable of backing down when she feels like she’s right. she can be abrasive, coming on too strong when she feels passionately about something.  she can be sarcastic and unserious when she shouldn’t be.  she is loyal to her friends and her duty, sometimes to a fault. Interests: tessenjutsu & hand-to-hand combat.  music & dancing.  travelling.  adventures, surfing, flying, swimming. Goals: to lead the kyoshi warriors to greatness. Fears: tyranny & warfare.

Background:

suki is an orphan of war. 

her parents perished in a fire nation raid, leaving behind their infant daughter.  a passing traveller heard suki’s cries of hungry, and rescued her from her cradle.  the only survivor of a fire nation massacre.  this traveller was on his way to kyoshi island, a pilgrim wishing to worship the former avatar kyoshi.

he carried suki to the island, where the locals took her in and gave her a name: suki dai, a miracle child of war.

suki grew up with four girls who became like sisters to her.  her entire life, she longed to be a warrior, to wield a fan and take up the name of kyoshi, the woman who saved her.  she quickly rose through the ranks of the kyoshi warriors, becoming their leader at the young age of fifteen.

her life changed when she met the avatar.  no longer would the warriors of kyoshi remain in isolation.  they would join the war, and put an end to the tyranny of the fire nation.  suki led her warriors to greatness, and helped team avatar defeat the fire nation, restoring balance to the world.

[brokeitwiththepowerofmathamatics]

Fanfic - Marks Upon the World

Marks Upon the World  (Ao3)

When Danny, Tucker, and Sam decided to make a stupid meme song, the last thing they expected to do was to get popular.

They were fully aware it might lead to a ghost attack, but that's just the norm.

That wasn't what they got though.

"So, what are you all planning on doing with all the money?" Tucker asked over the comms. His voice was staticky due to all the interference in the Ghost Zone. The giant rocks of ectoplasm making an asteroid field they were in wasn’t helping things, either. It took Danny a moment for him to parse the question and before he could ask what money, Tucker had continued, "I'm thinking personal VR arcade. Right in my basement."

"Tucker," Sam interrupted, "you don't have a basement." As if that were the problem with his idea, not the money.

"I'm going to add one." Tucker chuckled.

"One, do you have any idea how expensive that is?" Sam responded. "Two, I don't think your parents are gonna let you do that."

"It'll be fine," Tucker dismissed. "My parents were planning on selling the house after high school anyways. They wanted to move somewhere warmer and retire now that I'm almost done with high school. I'll buy the house, bum off your couch for a few months while we rebuild it, and then bam," his point was punctuated by him hitting something, probably the dash of the Specter Speeder, "personal VR arcade."

Danny scoffed into the silence that followed. "Dude, I can't imagine we're making that much money off one meme song."

There was a pause on the other end of the comms, which Danny took as a sign that Tucker had come down to Earth, but then Sam shouted, "Oh my God! That can't be right!"

"Nope, completely. And this is in four weeks! It's been gaining speed! Not only that, but I took a bit of a gamble and started selling merch. The Danny plushies have been selling like hotcakes!"

Danny paused in his flight and looked back across the Ghost Zone at the Specter Speeder, "The Danny what?"

"Danny plushies! They're like your ghost form but tiny. There are a couple of variations, but they all have big eyes and posable arms. And! We have a back order of them. Our supplier is currently trying to find another company to subcontract to, but the stipulations on the contract are slowing that down."

That was not the answer Danny wanted to hear.

"Tucker…" Sam began, "how long have you been selling these? Cause now I remember a few of the comments being something like, 'I can't believe someone made a song for those dolls'..."

Danny took a deep (though as a ghost, it wasn't real) breath and pinched his nose. That was also something he didn't want to hear.

"A while… like, a year? But yeah, people love 'em," Tucker continued. Danny was pretty sure he was taking psychic damage from this conversation. "So yeah, the video has made us about 400k each, and the merch sales is close to a 25k split each." There was a pause, and Danny assumed it was because Tucker was shrugging. "Should be enough for the down payment at minimum, and with you two helping footing the mortgage, we should be able to make the changes we want when you two move in."

"Excuse me?" Sam sneered. "Why would I move in with you?"

"Because Danny is going to, and the second you no longer have to live in your parents’ house, you're going to dip. And with the three of us living together, you and I can pay for Danny, and we can pretend Danny is making money off his parents' inventions. Easy excuse as to why Danny won't have a job."

Danny took that moment to chime back into the conversation. "Why wouldn't I have a job?"

"Because you're a superhero? Dude, it's already a problem at school, but you think even the Nasty Burger is gonna let you get away when you dip ‘cause a ghost showed up?"

Danny paused and thought about it. "Oh…" That was going to kill a lot of his job prospects.

Sam sighed. "For the record, I'm only mad 'cause you were assuming I was going to move in with you." She sighed again. "But… you're absolutely right. When you put it like that, it's absolutely what we're gonna do."

"Alright, well with that out of the way, what are you guys gonna spend the money on?"

Danny opened his mouth to make a quip about lawyers and trademarking his likeness, but before he could, he felt his breath get forced out of his body. The icy cold wisp that came out of his lungs and throat fogged the air in front of him, and he sighed. "Probably more weapons… I got incoming."

Sam or Tucker started responding, but he couldn't hear them over the scream of "Phantom!"

Danny looked up just in time to see Ember flying at him at full speed. By the time he had processed that ‘no, of course she’s not friendly’, it was too late to react. Ember collided with him in a full-body tackle that if he were human probably would have bisected him completely.

"I hate you!" she screamed right into his ear as she took the two of them flying across the zone. The crackle of her flaming hair drowned out anything else. The impact of stone only served to knock what little breath he thought he should have out of his lungs as Ember continued to drag him through several floating rocks. One, a second, and then a third, then she finally let go. Leaving him flying before he crashed into a fourth.

Danny blinked as he regained his bearings, half-buried in the ectoplasmic rock. He wasn't a stranger to people screaming about how they hated him — though that was usually reserved by his parents — but he wasn't normally accustomed to them crying while doing so.

With a heave, he pulled himself out of the asteroid. Ember wiped her tears and started growling as her hair flared up. There was a moment of stillness as he took in her appearance; she lacked a lot of the haughtiness that she usually carried, tall and proud of who she was. That wasn’t her right now; she was hunched over, angry and sad…. Mostly angry.

Danny wasn’t sure what was going on, but his gut (which he had learned to trust over years of heroing) told him it wasn’t a good idea to get the calvary to come charging in yet. Danny quickly reached up and activated the com link. "Guys, hang back-"

He didn't get a chance to explain himself as Ember charged him again. Without the advantage of flying at him at somewhere around 115 mph at his unsuspecting back, he was able to defend himself much better.

Much better than he really should have…

She wasn't throwing ectoblasts or using her guitar to fire off shockwaves. Instead, she was throwing punches and kicks. Ember was not a physical combatant, compared to Danny, who had to be one (with Skulker swinging that giant skinning knife around).

Compared to that, this was easy.

Though not easy enough to be distracted, he thought as she reached up and tried to claw at him. He continued to dodge wild grasping swings and saw Sam and Tucker flying up to the two of them. He looked Ember in the eyes, still filled with tears, and bit his lip. This is either gonna make her kill me harder, or it's gonna stop the fight…

The next time one of her telegraphed punches came flying, he ducked under her arm and got behind her. "What the!" gasped out of her mouth before he wrapped her in a hug. "What the- what the hell are you doing, dipstick!"

Ember continued to whirl around and try to hit Danny, but he kept himself pinned to her back. As a ghost, she probably could have contorted her body in some ungodly way, but like most ghosts, they avoided doing that.

“Let go of me!” Ember screamed. “Or I’m gonna kill you deader!”

“On account of you trying to rip my head off, I’m going to say no.”

Which of course served to just piss her off more. She continued to swing the two of them around, desperate to try and get out of his grip. It took an entire minute before Ember finally calmed down and stopped trying to hit Danny, but he still refused to let go. Especially when the fight left Ember and she started sobbing.

Having heard the fighting stop, Sam and Tucker pulled the Specter Speeder up next to the two of them. Their weapons were primed to save Danny if the fight had gone south, but seeing Danny holding Ember in his arms as she sobbed made them put them away.

Danny understood Tucker priming the weapons of the Specter Speeder, but seeing Sam putting her pistol away made him wonder if she was gonna hang out the door and shoot as Tucker flew by.

Sam made her way to the door of the Specter Speeder and opened it. “What’s going on?” she asked tentatively and thankfully clearly (they really needed to update the Fenton Phones to work better this deep in the zone).

Ember sniffed and rubbed her eyes. “Your stupid theme song...”

“My… what?” Of all the things for Ember to declare her hatred of him for, that hadn’t been it.

“You know… that stupid song you guys put out?” Ember growled. “It’s… it’s popular!”

Danny let go of Ember (probably stupidly) and floated a few feet away from her. “Why does that matter?”

“Why does it matter?” Ember screeched. She whirled on Danny, and he saw Sam reach for her gun, but then Ember calmed down. She paused and looked up for a while, unnaturally still, before she sighed. “I don’t want to explain this. It’ll be easier to show you. Come on.” With that, she started flying off into the ether of the Ghost Zone.

Danny blinked and looked at Sam. The two of them shrugged, and Danny flew after Ember as Sam closed the door to the Specter Speeder.

Ember flew through the Ghost Zone at full speed. Danny was barely gaining on her, and the Specter Speeder was slowly losing ground. They blazed through the Ghost Zone, flying through uncharted (to him at least) space. The further they flew, the more nervous Danny should have gotten.

Should have.

Instead of the fear and excitement they usually got when going through unexplored territory, Danny felt something else. It felt like when you were getting ready for bed after a long productive day, but you knew you had more to do tomorrow. Restful and content, yet stressed.

Danny was in the middle of trying to process that when he noticed that Ember had stopped, apparently reaching their destination.

When Danny got close, he stopped immediately. “Ember…” his voice came out as a whisper, “What the fuck is that?”

Ember tilted her head and looked at him, a sad smile on her face. “I think you know… don’t you?” She turned back and ran her hand over the metal of what was in front of them.

It was a metal hexagon. From inside edge to inside edge, it was about 15 feet across, which would be plenty of room for the Specter Speeder to fly through. The metal edges were about 4 feet wide, and though the inside of the circle was pitch black, Danny was sure that if he could see what was inside it, there would be a slowly closing corridor about 12 feet deep.

He died in it, after all. You didn’t just forget what that looked like.

Ember took his silence to be confirmation. “It’s your lair Baby-Pop…” she said, running her hands along the metal. “We’re lucky. Most ghosts… never find their lairs, or if they do, it’s long after they’ve forgotten anything about themselves. These are called the infinite realms, after all.”

Ember walked across thin air to stand in front of the portal. The pure inky blackness made her stand out as she folded her arms. “There’s nothing saying we don’t wake up near our lairs.”

Danny swallowed. That nervousness he felt approaching only grew stronger this close to his lair. “You mean… ghosts don’t wake up in their lair?”

“No…” Ember said, a melancholy tainting her voice. “We don’t.” She looked up as Sam and Tucker approached in the speeder. She sighed and turned. “Come on…” She glanced at Danny once before stepping into the black.

As she passed through, the edges of the black void in the center of this fake portal lit up, giving off a corona of fire and light for the brief second she passed through. Danny reached up and stuck his hand in, feeling no resistance as his hand pierced the veil. The moment his hand passed through, the edges lit up again, staying alight as he kept his arm in.

He took a deep breath and pushed through.

And immediately, his breath was stolen from him as the pure blackness gave way to a star-studded sky. Not just that, but what was quite clearly the International Space Station sat in front of him, where Ember sat on one of its solar arrays. Danny flew over to her. “Okay, this is officially one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, but why are we here?”

Ember stood up. “Almost there, just follow me,” she said. “Tell your friends to stay put when they enter. They’d probably be fine, but Imma go ahead and guess you don’t want them crashing and breaking your ship.”

And with that cryptic statement, Ember started flying off again. Danny scrambled to repeat what Ember said to Sam and Tucker as the Specter Speeder made its way into his lair.

He’d deal with the fact that he was dead enough to have a lair later.

He and Ember flew through the night sky of his lair, but this time it was a much shorter trip. Only fifteen seconds or so at their top speeds. When Ember stopped, Danny slowed till he was next to her, and he realized something.

The stars in his night sky weren’t stars. They were names.

The names were inscribed on a solid black wall, and when he touched it, he could feel the curve of the wall, giving him the idea that his lair wasn’t an endless void but actually a sphere with the ISS in the center of it.

“This is what every artist wants, Phantom,” Ember whispered, running her finger along one of the names. Danny didn’t recognize the name at all; it was no one he knew. He quickly activated the comlink in his ear and switched the input to local mode, letting Sam and Tucker listen in as well. “When we create, the thing we create connects us, across time, across space, across lives…”

Ember’s hand dropped to her side. “When people sing our songs or tribute our work… when we touch them with our arts… their name gets inscribed into our lairs. A reminder that we are still affecting the world, that we had lived.” Her voice dropped. “It can’t just be a passing thing, something that you really connect with.”

Danny looked at each of the names inscribed in his lair, thousands, maybe even millions, of all various hues and brightnesses, and uttered in awe, “This many people cared about my stupid song?”

“Yes!” Ember hissed, and Danny jumped to move away from her, though she didn’t attack. “Your stupid song that you don’t even care about is something so many people love! I hate you so much right now!”

Danny frowned and folded his arms. “Why do you care so much? You’ve got to have like… billions of names in your lair, right?”

“How many fucking people remembered I even had a goddamn concert after your friend ruined it? Have you seen anyone with my merch afterward?” Danny blinked. Thinking about it, he couldn’t remember anyone walking around with Ember merch after the concert. At the time, he chalked that up to people losing interest after Tucker ruined her concert. But… no one mentioned Ember again, even though logically, there should have been something, even if it had been something like, ‘Did you see what happened during the concert?’

It was like they had completely forgotten she existed.

Ember pounded her fist against the wall, though it made barely any noise, sounding more like someone smacking a cornstarch and water mixture than a solid wall. “The only goddamn name I have in my lair is Tucker Foley, and it’s carved into the goddamn toilet!”

The bark of laughter from Sam came through before it was quickly cut off, and Danny was reminded that the default setting for “local” mode meant the output was also broadcast to the nearby area. Ember snapped her head toward the Specter Speeder and snarled.

Sam had the right idea and didn’t antagonize the ghost that had almost conquered the world at one point, she stopped laughing and got quiet. Tucker on the other hand…

“So, wait, I’m the only one who’s name is in your lair? Does that make us like, ghostly soulmates?”

"Not on your fucking afterlife!" Ember screeched, drawing more power than Danny had ever seen from her without her guitar. Her hand lit up with ectoplasm, outshining all the nearby stars.

Danny knew the look in Ember’s eyes. “Please don’t…” he begged, knowing that it would literally do nothing.

Ember responded by throwing an ectoblast at the Specter Speeder. Tucker let out a rather inglorious scream as the beam flew past Danny right at the vehicle. Danny turned, ready to do something when the beam destroyed their transport.

But he didn’t need to.

The beam curved at the last second, bending out of its path like it was circling a black hole. Danny’s brow furrowed as he wondered why Ember had pulled back, but she clicked her teeth. “Figures, you’re such a goody two shoes…”

“What do you mean?” Danny asked despite himself.

Ember huffed and waved her arms about. “There’s a reason why every ghost in Amity Park knows where your lair is, your lair prevents anyone from being harmed in it. It’s the perfect neutral ground.” She hummed and gave Danny an appraising look. “Your lair fufills your need to keep people safe… but there’s no one in it for you to keep safe.”

A chill ran down Danny’s spine. The way Ember phrased that… did he have an obsession? One that was driving him to protect people? On the surface, that sounded like a good thing… If Sam and Tucker were in danger and in the area, they could make their way to the safety of his lair.

But what if they got there, and his lair didn’t think it was safe for them to go out?

Would it trap them here?

Ember shifted, snapping Danny out of his thoughts. He watched her reach up and gently stroke the names along the wall of his lair. The motion was so soft and gentle that for a moment, Danny forgot that it was one of his enemies here.

It seemed she forgot that he was there too, because she turned and when their eyes met, she jumped. The look on her face made Danny’s breathing hitch. Her face had been filled with so much longing before it was replaced with a sneer. She scoffed and brushed her hair away from her face. “Whatever,” she snapped, “enjoy your fucking fame.”

Danny felt power rise in Ember, and he only had a second to react when he realized what she was doing. “Hey, wait!” he shouted, only to get pushed back as fire sprouted around Ember and burned away immediately, taking her with it as she teleported.

And for a few heartbeats, all Danny could do was sit there and stare at the names written in his lair.

The moment was broken by an alarm going off. “Ah, jeez!” Tucker shouted. “Danny! We got to book it! Your parents are gonna be home in thirty minutes, and we’re WAY farther from the portal than we’ve ever been!”

Danny gasped as Tucker turned the Specter Speeder around, dove inside the vehicle, and hoped the auto-mapping software in there could plot a way back home without going through any asteroid fields this time.

***

After a very tense 3 minutes of scrambling to get the ghost-hunting gear back into place, Danny had completely forgotten about what had happened with Ember. It was hard to worry about what had happened when he was worrying about what he was going to be doing the next minute.

But at 12:01 at night, Danny sat on his bed, finally able to actually decompress and think about what had happened.

He knew ghosts got a lair in the Ghost Zone when they died – he had read enough of his parents’ papers on the subject to know that much at least. He also knew that they were supposed to help a ghost sustain their obsession.

And he was dead enough to get a lair himself, and it actively protected people in it.

He had worried for a long time if he had an obsession. If he was only alive because some drive to do something was sustaining him.

Danny took a deep breath and put his fingers on the pulse point of his neck, and he counted the slow (too slow) beats and tried to think of better thoughts.

It wasn’t long until the image of his lair flooded his brain again, filled with a million stars.

Stars that Ember wanted.

Slowly he sat up and made his way over to his closet. It was an absolute mess. Too many instances of throwing stuff in there when his parents got on his case about the state of his room and never took any actual care to clean it. He never really needed to. He could just reach in and rummage around with his intangibility to find what he needed.

Though he wasn’t looking for something in his closet right now.

On the other side of the wall was Jazz’s closet.

He reached through and rummaged around in her closet, trying to find something that should have been there, assuming she hadn’t remembered to throw it out.

It was still there.

Pulling his arm back, he came back holding a guitar. The body had a flame pattern on it and was colored in Ember’s colors. Danny ran his fingers along the neck and came back with a literal pile of dust on them. He shook off the dust before clumsily plucking at the strings.

He wasn’t exactly a musician, but he knew enough to tell when something was out of tune.

This guitar had been sitting there, completely forgotten, at the back of Jazz’s closet for over two years, gathering nothing but dust.

His phone buzzed, and he jumped. It buzzed a second time, and he realized it wasn’t a text but a phone call. He reached over and grabbed it. A glance at the name had him answering. “Hey, Sam,” he whispered, careful not to accidentally wake anyone.

“Hey,” she whispered back. Her hushed tones made this feel like something illicit and made his heart race. “I didn’t wake you, did I?”

“No.” He chuckled and sat down on his bed. “I want to speak with whoever said, ‘I can sleep when I’m dead,’ 'cause they lied to me.”

Sam chuckled back at his stupid joke. “Good, I’m glad… I wanted someone to talk to.”

“And you called me at midnight?”

“Why would I call anyone else?” Sam laughed, though it quickly died. “I just… I dunno. I feel bad.”

“Ember?” Danny asked, needlessly clarifying.

“Mhmm…” Sam murmured into the phone. There was a rustle on the other side of the phone, probably her rolling over. “It’s… I’ve thought about it, you know? What kind of mark I’m gonna leave on the world.” She chuckled dryly. “It’s hard not to when we’re facing death all the time, right?”

Danny nodded instinctively. “Right,” he agreed. Though he had his own thoughts on the matter. “I personally try to avoid thinking about my mortality." He chuckled despite himself as he made his hand light up with ectoplasm. "I’ve been getting a lot of answers I don’t want lately.”

“Sorry,” Sam responded quickly. The word was terse, but her tone was somber.

“Don’t be. Not your fault.”

“It is, and you know it,” Sam responded immediately. Danny opened his mouth to disagree, but she sighed. “I don’t want to have that argument again. I…” She trailed off. “I don’t know what. I’m sitting here, feeling bad about Ember, and I don’t like sitting.

“I get that, I do…” Danny paused and looked down at his sister’s guitar. “I really do. But… what can we do?”

“Maybe…” Sam began but then trailed off. “I dunno. We could… we could do it ourselves… You know, sing Ember’s song… Remember? I think that’s what it was called. I dunno, I never got one of her CD’s.”

Danny thought for a second. “Tucker might still have it… he doesn’t like deleting anything. Gives him an excuse to buy another hard drive.”

“Think he’s up right now?”

“Nah,” Danny said, shaking his head. “He probably crashed the moment he went home.”

“Ugh, fine, we can call him tomorrow,” Sam said, actually sounding annoyed. She huffed, and there was a rustle again as she rolled around in her bed. “I guess I should let you sleep, too, huh?”

“Let’s not be too hasty.” He paused and looked down at the guitar in his lap. "Hey, Sam? Can you teach me how to play guitar?"

***

Weeks later, Ember awoke in her lair with a start. The crowds in it, that she could never find or play for, cheered wildly. Their screams shook the couch she was using as a bed.

But over all that, she could hear the sound of wood being carved.

Ember scrambled, throwing off the blanket as she snapped out of that in-between state of awareness and non-existence. Her eyes flitted across the walls, trying to find the change in her lair.

There.

Right above where she laid her head, in bright gold lettering.

Danny "Phantom" Fenton.

Samantha "Sam" Manson.

She ran her fingers over the names, echos of the two of them singing her song. Really singing it. Putting their heart and soul into it. She closed her eyes and let the feeling take her, letting her see when and where this was sung.

She smiled as she saw them singing and filming a music video. They used Phantom's lair as the backdrop.

Tucker had been there too, filming them and helping edit the video before posting it.

Where others would hear her song too.

Maybe it'd touch them too.

Ember took a step back and looked over the writing another time, and smiled.

She'd have to do something nice for them sometime soon.

[huntunderironskies]

moooooooom @gristlegrinder is trying to get me to explain the edgy battle idol boy microgenre to unsuspecting innocent people againnnnn

Anyway. Ask meme time! I always feel bad tagging people in these because I can never tell if someone finds it annoying or if someone would do them but doesn't get tagged most of the time and therefore feels left out, so if you're reading this consider it an invitation to participate. That is an @ everyone I guess. All that said, I'm going to pick randomly from both old friends (@braintapes @elderdragonapologist @darkprincecait) and some people who I see interacting with my posts a lot but who I've never really held conversations with (@brieflyinfatuated @parasitic--saint @6-piece-chicken-mcnobody) just to kick things off. Again, if I didn't tag you but this looks like fun, you can do it! But I like giving people notifications and I also like multiples of three so that's why I only actively tagged six people by name.

I went way off the rails talking about stuff so I made it harder than it should be to find the categories. For the record the categories we are talking about are: Last Song Listened To, Currently Watching, Currently Reading, and Current Obsessions should you decide to do this meme. Without further ado....

Last Song Listened To: If we're talking "listened to because I was actively seeking out music," it was apparently No Matter What by The Cat's Whiskers according to Spotify. If we're talking incidental background music, it's whatever that one BGM is in the Grammaphone Cafe in Cassette Beasts.

Currently Watching: Kingohger. Kind of. I'm way behind at the moment, I am really sorry, Cait. If drama tracks/radioplays count I've been picking through Magatsunote and just wrapped up the first season. It's slow going because I have to translate it from Japanese which I absolutely do not speak fluently, I'm trying to finish it before Executioner starts putting out theirs in earnest. I am probably not going to make it in time.

Currently Reading: I finished An Unauthorised Fan Treatise in like. A single sitting which is rare for me, my attention span and memory retention has shrunken to nothing over the past few weeks for various reasons. A mystery novella was apparently just what the doctor ordered. What I'm actively reading now is The Backwater Sermons by Jay Hulme since poems are so much easier for me to get through when I'm having those kinds of moments.

Currently Obssessed With:

So. I'll start with the answer you're fishing for...

...but it's under a cut because I got very wordy given that I'm kind of intense about the things I like.

I don't know how to describe this other than the fact that hit music project Hypnosis Mic, in which the matriarchal government that takes over Japan after World War III legally mandates psychic damage-based bloodsports as a form of conflict resolution, absolutely printed money.

To the best of my reckoning the reason why is that a lot of the women (and a not insubstantial amount of transmascs from what I've observed, me included) who'd grown up on male idol projects like Uta no Prince-Sama and fluffy otomuke were older now and were no longer able to relate to lighthearted high school antics. But being stuck in a miserable adulthood with a world that feels like it's getting worse and worse around you and you have to struggle against the crushing pressure of a system you never asked to be born into, sometimes pitting you against people and things you love? That's relatable. Meanwhile, you still get the fun of identifying and fighting for a musical group? And there are anime boys who are in their mid-twenties to early thirties and are therefore age-appropriate for you to be thirsting after? And and the music is really good? Total goldmine.

And so a bunch of other corporations with an interest in the joseimuke market decided to make their own music projects that (mostly) take place in the dystopian near future and feature a lot of suffering and bloodshed and homoeroticism and some kind of plot they can shoehorn idol units into.

I have nicknamed this microgenre the Edgy Idol Boy Battle Anime and appointed myself the foremost expert on this esteemed field. @missmadril (...who I guess I have now tagged so she can do this tag game also now, have at it bestie) will probably back me up on having claim to it since I have no standards and will immediately watch/listen to anything that falls under that genre, also I have very little competition for that role because I'm pretty sure the EN-side fandom for Magatsunote and Executioner is literally just me.

I got onboard very early with Hypnosis Mic pre-first season and immediately knew the second that I saw Jakurai that he was going to rewrite my brain chemistry. He's a white haired (....well, grey, close enough) angel-themed character who has committed terrible crimes in the past and is wracked with guilt over it, doing everything he can to make up for his misdeeds to the point of needless self-sacrifice. What was I supposed to do, not fall madly in love with him? Now, I am still very occupied with hpmi but we're currently between plot arcs waiting for the third round of...whatever is going on after all those plot twists so in lieu of content I have been fixated on different franchises. More specifically, certain characters. I accidentally wrote essays about them. Sorry.

The shitty pictures are because, once again, the EN-side fanbase of these is me and me alone. As such there are like, zero resources out there including art assets. I tried very hard to make these screenshots of the official webpages. Please clap.

Momiji Beniyashiki

Remember how I knew sight unseen that Jakurai was going to rewrite my brain chemistry? If you forgot, just scroll up, it's like just two paragraphs above. Then you will remember.

Alright, well, here's the second character who's going to do that. Executioner only has its story/character teasers and a single out right now but so did hpmi when I first got into it and I could just instinctively feel it in my otomuke/joseimuke old guard bones. It feels like a bad arthritis day, for the record.

Now, those of you who have been in my presence for some time may be thinking "Hey, he's not Raz's type at all, since when have they been into pink haired alt fashion anime boys?" Well, you have judged me wrongly. I am somewhat less superficial than that. You see, it's all in the personality and backstory.

Momiji is an orphan who was adopted by a phantom thief who stole from the rich to give to the poor, and after finding out his dad's secret decided he was going to become a phantom thief too, owing to his own strong sense of justice. He's a pacifist with a reckless streak who sells his soul to a demon to save the world and that's why he's part of a demon-possessed visual-kei tokusatsu unit, and the other members are his adoptive brothers who are also phantom thieves. I would say this makes sense in context, but it doesn't.

I am entranced by his tboy swag and dedication to doing the right thing in defiance of conventional moral codes. For approximately one second in the latest single teaser (the full single is happening on Friday) (sorry in advance to anyone who talks to me on Friday), he was animated parkouring about the screen and I was so excited I began to vibrate quickly enough that I started clipping through the furniture like a character in a badly programmed video game. If the Asta drama track doesn't get dropped soon I will simply chew my own arm off from frustrated anticipation. I barely speak any Japanese and I've been trying to translate every single line of dialogue and lyrics he's had in my spare time just so I can keep thinking about him during this content gap. I've bookmarked a kanji dictionary because I'm functionally illiterate and I can get through maybe one sentence a day. Why must it not be Friday. I need it to be Friday.

At any rate, stan Asta because one of your alternatives is stanning for the unit that consists mostly of cops, and I think it is a moral good to join the war on crime on the side of the criminals. There's like, a bunch of medical professionals or whatever as the other alternative I guess. But come on. Heroic phantom thief siblings. There's a clear correct choice here.

Now that we have established the objectively best character in any of these edgy idol projects ever, let's move onto the next person who has infested my brain like a culture of cordyceps.

Masamune

"Oh, there's the white-haired anime boy!" you may be saying. To which I respond, "Shut up, a gentleman is allowed to indulge in certain vices."

Now, I know he did conduct a semi-judicial summary execution of a man who had resorted to crime in order to feed his family due in part to the inherently horrific socially stratified dystopia everyone lives in, and that was within the first five minutes of his appearance. So, not a great first impression. Like, the guy was threatening to shoot a hostage, but it was kind of overkill to take his head off without a second of hesitation. At least his corpse got used for like, fertilizer or Soylent Green or something, it's not totally clear other than ominous implications as to what happens to dead people in this setting. Truly a win for all the utilitarians out there!

He has a sense of justice in the worst possible way where he's completely unforgiving, uncompromising, fanatically dedicated to the group that he thinks is helping save humanity, and is incapable of seeing nuance. However, when compared to all of the unrepentant war criminals and the habitual arson-murderer and the omnicidal cult leader and the guy heavily implied to be conducting immoral medical trials on his patients, he starts looking like the least bad option. He is in the unique position of being capable of feeling remorse and he was brainwashed (as in, the cyberpunk corporation running everything rewired his neurons and memories in addition to the mundane definition of the word) so that kind of accounts for some of the "being a terrible person" thing.

He, uh, gets better about the whole fanatical devotion issue? Character growth. Like I said, least awful person in Magatsunote is a low bar to clear but he did it. Good job buddy, I am feeling an emotion roughly adjacent to pride for you.

I very, very rarely get the "I want to treat this character as my personal chew toy" response that other people seem to have. Then l I started watching Magatsunote and suddenly my list of characters I would put into a blender if given half the chance has increased tenfold. You can set a clock by the fact that whenever you think someone is redeemable, they will immediately do something that lets you down a scene after at the latest, but they're at least doing it in an interesting way. I have the most affection for Masamune in the sense I would like to gently pick him up, pat him on the head, and then fling him off a cliff instead of immediately succumbing to my own homicidal impulses. I probably don't need to though because every single person in the series is trying to kill each other, up to and including inter-unit violence and backstabbing. Why get involved when other people are going to do my work for me?

Don't take this as a knock against the series, it has some of the best writing chops out of what's otherwise a guilty pleasure genre for me, but it is very hard to recommend to people due to the absolutely bizarre premise even by the microgenre's standards (I honestly don't know how to start explaining it) and all of the characters being kind of. Like that. You need a specific mindset, part of which is an extremely high tolerance for weird anime bullshit and thinking horrible people ruining each others' lives is good wholesome fun, to genuinely enjoy it.

Wait, I'm supposed to be trying to convince people to listen to music. Uh. Stan ARK Kansakyoku, the least of many evils. Also Libra is a good song so, you know, there's that. That's the best pitch I can give his unit.

On a more normal person note, I've been having a lot of fun with Octopath Traveler 2 and I refuse to say which character has been occupying most of my brainspace because some of you will never let me live it down even though I think it is very cruel of the writers to genetically engineer a man designed to appeal to me and me alone, specifically, and I have already said way too much about my taste in men within just this post alone. Don't worry, though! I'm bi! And my taste in women is even worse. It starts with Rodya from Limbus Company and then it's all downhill from there. Listen, she was at least a tiny bit justified in that murder, don't judge me.

Actually, now that I'm thinking on it, Temenos needs to grow his hair out a few inches longer to be truly perfect for my awful tastes. So maybe this isn't a conspiracy against me. Nevertheless, further research into this concerning trend of white-haired anime boys seemingly tailored to my very specific desires is needed.

The last real obsession I have as of late is monster collecting games. I've mostly been doing a SwSh speedrun (to get Rapid Strikes Urshifu, Regileki and Spectrier) (yes, this is for competitive reasons) (at literally every turn where I had a choice I made the wrong meta one my first go around) and playing through Cassette Beasts as a more casual option. Cassette Beasts is super fun! I think it's really more of a Persona-alike than a monster catching game despite how it's been advertised but it 100% nails the late eighties/early nineties nostalgia in the best possible way. I'm so happy I got it on sale but TBH I'd say it would have still been worth it at full price with the amount of fun I've had playing it. It's also really well-designed from a mechanical standpoint IMO and I like its unique take on how type matchups should work, the fact that it uses status effects instead of just a damage multiplier gives so much more tactical weight to combat.

[chromorbid]

If you get this, answer with 3 random facts about yourself and send it to the last 7 blogs in your notifications, anonymously or not!

i just got so emotional over old ask chains bc of this, god you remember those days????? in 2012-2016 when this was a thing all the time and people had so much fun learning about one another and making friends??? i just happened to be looking at tags on my ollllllld second blog right before seeing this too. that feels a bit serendipitous, dont you think? :')

instead of just "3 random facts" i think i'll use this ask as a springboard prompt for a brief history of my time here on this website, since a lot of folks are returning and it might be nice to come out and see what some of my old lost chums might be up to now.

In mid-2011 i joined tumblr because i realized all my favorite dA artists were posting on dA less and on here more. I didn't do much here until i encountered a piece of fanart of a character from a certain webcomic, got curious about that comic, enjoyed it, and discovered that there was a big community on tumblr who liked it! my first ever URL was.... man i don't really remember! Maybe something reflecting my dA name at the time? But i don't remember what that was then either, having deleted that account ages ago. but i think my second one was "gamzeecryingalonewithpie" or something to that effect because the "laughing alone with salad" stock photo meme was big. It was so silly.

Eventually i trended into making all my urls/handles some sort of pun having to do with death, and some years ago i settled on my current url for a twitter handle because it really hit me in a place. My best friend and currently roommate @mossspores came up with it!

Anyhow, i basically spent all my time on tumblr being comparatively insufferable from 2011 to about 2017 before i migrated the majority of it to twitter. At the moment, I actually keep looking at all my archived posts from my old blog trying to find some old OC stuff and being ridiculously embarrassed at how silly (ignorant? abrasive? entitled?) my young self was. I'm not certain about sharing my olllllld URLs besides the one from before, but probably my most famous one was "ammodramus"--I was bestowed the nickname "Ammo" for the longest time and probably gained the most followers during the run of that one. I think the most followers i ever got up to was somewhere around 700 on my first blog and close to 1,800 on my second one. (funny now, i've had this particular blog probably the longest out of the three and barely have over 100. i like this better, though.)

Now for the BIGGEST thing i was part of....i was really into the whole once-ler fandom craze. yeah. i was there on the ground floor, and basically became one of the biggest enablers of the ask-blog phenomenon. i even tried really hard to make my own of the "personification" blogs eventually, but it fell down flat because i was in a dark place mentally on the side while also dealing with the gradual degradation of my physical ability to draw (aka painful arthritis). But i had the most fun i had ever had online before in the thick of it. i made toooons of friends and i even still keep in touch with a few of them. There were a lot of mistakes and upsetting blunders made by myself and a lot of people i knew, but these days i think i'm generally okay outing myself as having been a part of it. i mean, it's been ten goddamn years since that kicked off after all. lmfao. i was also an ignorant teenager.

Now you'll just see me skulking about on here vaguely while reblogging posts in short bursts because i still never took to figuring out how queuing posts works best. For a long-ass time i had a tagging system i took VERY seriously and trigger-tagged religiously. when i remade to my third and current blog, i gave that up and BOY did my mental health suddenly improve or WHAT. i realized i'd been absolutely running myself ragged with caring about appearances and making sure as often as possible to upset NO ONE with my posts. Basically, the way that simply analyzing every single post i shared and making sure to cover ALL my bases to make sure no one felt irked by my sharing of a post, was, uh. To put it mildly, fucking exhausting. And i posted A LOT. I can guarantee i had to have cumulatively reblogged nearly half a million posts between those two accounts. Last i checked on just my second blog, the pages went back into the 10,000s.

so yeah! hi to anyone who read through this whole thing who i knew way back when! I'm doing much better than i used to be, thanks to a lot of therapy and medication. i made it out of the house i grew up in, even the State i grew up in, and feel a lot less like i'm gonna die before 30! :') i've been chilling, playing final fantasy xiv, and eating lots of rice and vegetables. o/

thanks for the ask! <3

[bugdotpng]

4, 9, 19, 20, 25 for the end of the year meme?

4. Movie of the year?

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, hands down. i'm not a big movie person honestly but i'm so glad i went and saw this w/ some friends. left a blubbering mess. i can definitely tell it's one of those movies i'll be watching over and over again ;w; also watched the fear street trilogy on netflix w/ my friend and really enjoyed those!!

9. Best month for you this year?

probably february! i had a pretty sturdy head on my shoulders and was feeling generally inspired (artistically, mentally, etc.) and stable having experienced the fleeting confidence that came with a diagnosis that i (at the time) thought was really fitting. it didn't last long but it was nice to feel confident for a while that i knew how to approach stuff moving forward. this year generally sucked but i wasn't so horribly burnt out for the beginning of it, so that was nice :'^)

19. What’re you excited about for next year?

having a game plan! i got diagnosed with ADHD in the later part of this year AND i addressed some of my career-related burnout issues with my boss (due to being severely overworked and underpaid, etc.) and visible changes are ACTUALLY being made. i feel like even though this year was objectively fucking awful, i spent a lot of time performing the very arduous task of laying a good foundation for not only next year, but the rest of my life lmao i was able to prioritize stuff and draw some hard boundaries with myself toward the end of the year and i hope to stick to them next year

20. What’s something you learned this year?

i think my answer for 19 suffices here, but in a more literal sense, i learned a lot of neat coding stuff for work! i'm MUCH better than where i was at the beginning of the year and i'm picking up stuff really quick ;w;

25. Did you create any characters (in games, art, or writing) this year? Describe one

MANY lmao, i got to make a little rock gremlin kid named ferris for our alolan pkmn ttrpg campaign (which we haven't played much of but i love ferris a BUNCH)

i also sat down and made like three new characters for my lesbian space catgirls story :^) ideally in a perfect world i would actually make this a little dating sim but for now it's just a word doc lmao. but in my head?? basically a dating sim with cute little tasks and dialogue options to win the favor of the romance-able characters.

i'm particularly fond of merrit, who is an anti-social basement-wizard merchant very passionate about her wares. her role is to just sell shit but you can also romance her by asking her to info-dump about her favorite featured items. she initially comes off as a kinda cold and aloof mysterious cool kid, but after you earn her trust you can see she's a huge fuckin dweeb. i cherish her deeply ghdlfjsk no snart that i wanna share yet tho i'm currently just rotating her in my head :^) she wears a cape with a hood and has SO many pockets

[garmgeyr]

Solstice Plotting Call

// Keeping this one shorter than Wriothesley's 🤞 Gallagher is just Here. With the mystery surrounding these islands, and their otherworldly nature, we're not going to question the how or why. Your muse can ask him, of course. You'll get a different answer from the man depending on the hour.

I've signed him up for Requiem, but I'd like a couple more interactions. I won't be reblogging the ask meme, but I'll send asks to those who do as ideas strike.

All threads will hopefully be kept under 250 words for the duration of the event. I'm in the Discord server for this event, so ideally DM me there, but I'll answer IMs and replies on this post as well.

Bloom Commission Board (from last month, still looking)

Penacony driving school: Gallagher isn't a student, and he doesn't seem like an instructor either. You don't really know why he's here, and good luck getting a straight answer. Nevertheless, he's your company for this driving obstacle course... and probably a good thing, too, after the car goes careening off its designated course and toward the more dangerous dream wilderness. This thread will be less about driving and more about getting back to civilization before the nightmares show up.

Solstice Commission Board

Ghost Stories: I'm imagining one of two scenarios: 1) Gallagher's hanging out by a bonfire. Your muse decides to come take a break, not even necessarily with the intent to talk to him, but they get to talking anyway. Rather than a spoken ghost story, it's the shadows that start to twitch and convulse unnaturally. Are your muse's eyes playing tricks on them? Maybe they think they've accidentally fallen asleep and are witnessing nightmares blending with reality? It doesn't last long, and nevertheless, now your muse has a ghost story of their very own. Or 2) a three-way thread. Two muses begin by sharing their own spooky stories, and Gallagher listens in. He'll contribute every now and then, but he likes hearing other people's stories more than offering his own. The thread can follow a similar trajectory to the above, where the shadows bring the story to life right before their eyes.

Unrelated idea: Not a pre-written commission prompt, but the mods have said that any interactions within the setting can count for shiny flotsam. One thing Gallagher can be counted on is being there when things get dangerous. Your muse could be exploring the forest, or the mountains, or maybe the water's edge, when aggressive animals/monsters/sealife - agitated for one reason or another - attack. Enter Gallagher, and the two of them can fend these creatures off as they try to make their escape.

About Gallagher at the beach

General attire is not too different from what he ordinarily wears, just without all the accessories (tie, gloves, vest, shirt is NOT tucked in even slightly). Kind of just looks like he just got off from work.

He has a reputation for being lazy. This is not changing. In fact, it will probably only be worse. Potential interactions can be centered around dragging him into something he doesn't really want to be a part of. Try to catch him before he contrives a lie to slip out again.

With that said though, making drinks? Cooking? He's got you. Some of it might be a little experimental, but it will taste good at least. He'll be most at home hanging around a fire, a grill, or the bar.

Otherwise, he'll be lounging beachside with a drink. Or several. Old dog keeping one eye on the youngsters kind of vibe.

[clarislam]

🪩✍️👾

So...there are three of these questions in the associated ask meme that have just blocks, so I'm assuming here that you want me to answer all three of them. Here we go!

🥸 Does anyone in IRL know you write fanfic or original fiction? If not, do you plan on telling anyone this year?

Oh, yes. My family knows. They don't read the fanfics but have been more supportive of my original writing in recent years, which I'm grateful for (having a couple publications in the past two years also helps a lot). A couple of my friends know that I write fanfics and/or original fiction as well.

🫘 Spill the beans. What's a new project you're doing this year?

For original fiction: Does writing my King's Quest-inspired novel count as "new" even though I technically started it last year? After all, I'm still writing the first draft as of this answering this question. XD

If not, knowing me I'll probably come up with "new projects" somehow along this year. I think last year I came up with a whole bunch of novel ideas, and knowing me I'll probably get inspired to write down a bunch of novel ideas. And from those new ideas, I'll probably start outlining or writing first drafts of them. Even if I don't have something immediate, it's only a matter of time before I do.

On the fanfic-related end, I am also posting chapters for a new Super Smash Bros./The Last Story fanfic starting next Monday, January 9th, as I mentioned in this post.

And, of course, I'm always writing and submitting poetry to lit mags on and off. I've been fortunate to have my poems published twice last year and three times the year before, so we'll see how this year goes!

🪩 Do you have any "good" writing habits you want to cultivate?

One "good" writing habit for me to cultivate is recognizing when I need to drop things and move onto something new. I mentioned the post I linked to above in the previous question that I want to take 2023 as a year of consistent writing, but in a way that I won't burn out.

In previous years, I noticed that I tend to try to "power through" certain things like reading a bunch of books I disliked for the sake of having enough for writing book reviews, or going through NaNoWriMo in a ways that led to burnout and a lack of consistency later on. (I'm still kind-of proud that I finished NaNoWriMo in 8 days once, but it did lead to serious burnout for the rest of the month.) If I can prevent that burnout from happening to begin with this year, it would be very awesome.

[chaosworthy]

HOW I RUN MY BLOG/S.

speed. typically I’m pretty fast but these days it takes a day or two for me to do a reply, which then means it won’t post for a bit since I’m extremely queue heavy. Seriously just about everything I do is in a queue because it’s just easier that way for me and it makes sure that I don’t spam the dash.

replies. I usually do them in the order I get them, even if they don’t post that way. I like separating threads with the same person in the queue so they don’t get overwhelmed and I do tend to milk them for what their worth when it comes to filling the queue. As far as writing them goes, and call me weird if you want, but I always write the dialogue first because that’s just how my muse works for me. I can get a little carried away with lengths but I try to keep things on point for the most part. I just like world-building and letting others do the same so I tend to lean in that direction. 

starters. I really don’t do a lot of them unless someone asks me to or I’m in a mood honestly. At this point I figure anyone who wants to interact with me just will since the inbox is always open and I do reblog memes pretty often. 

inbox. when it comes to memes and such, you best believe I can usually crank those out and, yes, queue them up. I try to answer most things that I get but I’m only human, and a very stressed one at that atm, so I may just delete some that aren’t relevant to me in the moment. Or the ones that are just literal nonsense or trying to get a rise from me or my muses. Sometimes they’re fun, most of the time they’re not. 

honest note. I don’t know, man. I’m pretty open to doing things with just about everyone provided my rules are followed. I do prefer mid to longer threads just because I don’t like having to carry a thread and that gives others ample space to work with. If you don’t help with a thread, you’ll probably find that I don’t reply to it as fast or at all. I’ve been here a long time so I know what works for me and what doesn’t and I did change how I do things in a lot of ways socially and RP-wise over the last two years for my own sake of mind and it’s worked wonders.

I will say that I do try to reach out to people I want to interact with but after two or three failed attempts, I just leave it alone and stop wasting the effort. 

tagging: you

[sing-you-fools]

that last bit - that's how i use my character sheets. my overly detailed honestly probably 10 pages without anything even filled out character sheet that anyone would look at and think, the person who fills this out is insane. yeah. it's not for filling out, and you're right - it's for organizing information as i put it in the story, not filling out the whole thing. i don't need to describe everyone's ears or relationships with their parents, but if i do in my book, i want to know where to find that info again so i don't contradict myself.

sometimes i answer one of the more philosophical ones just for fun, a writing exercise, but most of them aren't really relevant or interesting for most of the characters, and answering questions about your character when you've only got a scrap of an idea isn't helpful.

i find the best way to make my characters is to just start writing.

i don't know what your ideas are generally like, but mine are like the one you mentioned - kind of a vibe. half an idea of a character. and it's frustrating because i want to write but how do i turn half a character into a book? where does the character live? i have to make up a place now, too? how? what happens? a PLOT? i need a PLOT? you've got to be KIDDING me! AND a bad guy? really? can't it just be ronald reagan? so what if the book takes place on another world?

so when i looked at my ideas and said, my ideas are not full ingredients but scraps, here is what i did. i did what i always do when i have a bunch of scraps. i made broth with them. i took every scrap of an idea i ever had and threw them all together and after it simmered in my brain for a while it turned out to be pretty delicious. maybe it won't work with every idea, but if you've got a few, you can play around with them. do these three work together? no, hmm... these two? wait what if i add these two, too? ooh!

then i just started writing. you don’t have to have it all figured out at first. that's what drafts are for. i get a lot of good character work done when i'm writing dialogue, just letting them get to know each other. if I get stuck on a scene, i try another one. if i'm not getting anywhere with that one either, maybe it's time to make a map and see what that tells you.

let yourself ask questions and explore routes you feel like you're not supposed to. personally, i always have this anxiety about basing a character too much on some other character, like it has to be Entirely My Own Creation Or Else It's Plagiarism, but it's not plagiarism to say, okay now that i'm getting to know this guy better what other characters does he remind me of? why? what does that tell me about him? what other traits does that character have, and are they connected to the one that reminds me of my character? does my guy share those traits? what if i take this character's charisma and that character's sense of justice and throw them into this guy? what happens? what conflict does that create? what flaws go with those traits? how does it all play together? it helps me so much, because i'm a huge nerd and i just think of the world in terms of stories and characters i'm interested in. everything reminds me of something. i've got unintentional venn diagrams of characters in my brain because i just think like that. i'm that guy who's always like, oh this is just like in that book! i make memes because every text post i see just connects to a character in my brain! can't just not do it with my own stuff, and it was holding me back. maybe it's not the same thing for you, but maybe there's some avenue you're not letting yourself explore. you're allowed to explore it.*

there are no rules, and advice that doesn’t work for you isn't advice anymore. i've wanted to be a writer my whole life. i feel like i became a writer when i stopped trying to do it the way other people told me to.

*some exceptions may apply

Not sure how to put this in words but I feel like a lot of tutorials on how to make characters ultimately fail because they tell what things you have to do, without telling you how to do them.

Like, "you need to give your character flaws" is good advice, flaws make your characters feel more human and all.

But how do I do it? how do I choose a flaw that fits my character? how many flaws should I give them? how how do I make it so that I don't accidentally turn my character into a jerk?

Also character sheets don't work. Yeah they give you questions that are important to know about your character, but they don't give any guidance on how to actually answer those questions. Plus, a lot of them are super long with overly specific questions that just can't be answered when you're on the early stage of creating a character.

Like, dude i only know i wanna make a character based on lemon pies how the frick am i supposed to know how their relationship with their second cousin's best friend's ex works?

Honestly I feel like they mostly work to pack and organize the info of your character once you've already figured them out.

[fistsoflightning]

light housekeeping: i am Back, Baby (but like i still have homework i have to scramble over and finish aaaa end of quarter....) and i will be refreshing my queue soon. probably. once i finish sorting through all my drafts. new ask meme! i might do a revamp of pages/theme soon? definitely one in the works for the writing page tho; i need to add all the ffxivwrite2020 posts

also of note:

i am an idiot and crave azim steppe content again, i may make a whole separate tag for it on this blog. 

i have three asks sitting in my inbox from three months ago i forgot to answer and i think there’s two more somewhere near the bottom of my drafts half-finished (brain really went Die sometime in august huh)

i’ll hopefully get the time to make screenshots soon!!! i’m shaking my fist at all the calc homework i have to do.... 

OH WAIT I WILL (HOPEFULLY) HAVE ART SOON! it is, technically, my ap art project, but shhh if college board can’t tell it’s fanart it can 100% count as a portfolio piece

i will inevitably be disappearing on november 20th to go on a loz: age of calamity adventure with my brother and it will eat our souls because i’m an idiot and set my save to ‘very hard’ for funsies. i’ve gotten us killed three times because i can’t fight wizrobes send help- 

IM LIKE. SIX CLASSES AWAY FROM ALL 80. THE MOMENT WARRIOR HITS 70 I LIVE IN BOZJA UNTIL I CAN GET AMARO

[tonesplash]

twilight boys encountering a 'pick me'

a/n: just felt like writing something fun w these three today. edwards is the longest because i like him. reqs are open :))

warnings: both edward and emmetts get a lil dark, seth has the only sane response, cursing and fem!reader

edward cullen

he has no choice but to know everyone in a 5-mile radius, so as soon as he lays eyes on them in his head, he's already like 'this fucking guy😒'

genuinely perplexed how they thought this was going to go

Edward is a curious man. Humans are weird creatures. So the first time they approach he is going to at least give them the benefit of the doubt.

As soon as they even spoke ill of you—

*Heavy sigh*

"Come on." And then throws his arm over your shoulders and walks away like a fucking diva, as many times as it takes.

if they are a little harder to get rid of

his first instinct is to protect, if he senses you can't take it or remove you from the situation if you are the type to throw hands lol

doesn't really matter who they are

"Edward, that was my lab partner, you dick."

"Yeah? They were about to tell me all about how you used to eat dirt and then ask out for coffee later. Do you want to turn around?"

if they don't take the hint, then boo hoo, they can face the consequences of messing with the guy willing to die for his s/o

Edward gets mildly psychological. he never touches a hair on their head, but his methods are a little... long-lasting

he won't tell you either, you'll just be curious and ask after your usually persistent annoyance

you asked how they were doing one night over the phone, and they'd shakily confessed to you that lately, just when they start to think they're alone, in tight rooms and smaller spaces, the lights will cut off, doors slamming shut and locking tight for sometimes hours until someone finds them. They ask if they can speak to Edward. He hits the end call button.

they don't answer your texts anymore :/

that, and the hostile stares across the lot, usually gets the job done

but if it's someone you absolutely have to be around, or you explicitly make it clear you want this person in your life for whatever reason,

he can muster the niceties, but that doesn't stop him from pressuring you to get rid of them, even if you think you aren't personally affected, hearing negative things flung around about you is mentally taxing to anyone going on for long enough, and he doesn't think forcing a fake friendship for any reason is healthy

if the reason you give him is something materialistic—say you are using them for their pool

he will pave it in your backyard like those guys on youtube using bamboo and mud if it means you listen to him

if they cross the line again he is absolutely that guy to stop the conversation with "and what do you mean by that?" "What is that supposed to mean."

until they respond, completely killing the vibe 🙄

emmett cullen

you already know what it is

anything this man thinks is coming out of his mouth right away

they try to be subtle, making little digs at you here and there, and smoothing it over with some personal anecdote no one asked for or acknowledges. Give him a second. Emmett is a little slow to catch things like this.

Maybe they take it too far, or if you complain about it at all–

*80+ years of American public school activated*

"The hell did you just say?"

and if they try to apologize, backtrack with some well-meaning bs to get on his good side?

absolutely DISGUSTING, begone thot

"People wouldn't hate you so much if you weren't so weird all the time" 🥴

Emmett isn't out to blow anyone cover or anything, but what are the Volturi going to care about a couple of American highschool write-ups

unrelated, but now I'm imagining one of the Cullens(probably still Emmett) having a prison arc because they keep beating high school children's asses until they are sentenced and then breaking out years later. it becomes a local legend and his mugshot is memed for years

he gets mean, but if they wanted him to stop, they wouldn't shit talk his girlfriend right in front of his face

Emmett is a car guy. I'm sure he identifies strongly w transformers. his first thought is always gonna be the car.

he isn't above dinging doors and bumpers, keying something mildly threatening, perhaps rigging it up to his jeep and hauling it to the far side of the parking lot and ruining their transmission for the entire school to see, if he's feeling wild

If they don't have a car? He at least has the self-control for some mild intimidation.

walking a crowd is always a risk. You never know who is going where at what time, who could step on a lace, stick a leg out, snatch their collar like scruff and yank sharply until they fall on their ass

It's petty, girl.

seth clearwater

He picks up on their dislike of you pretty quickly and is kind of worried for you cause–

Are you not aware? That this one person really seems to dislike you? Why is no one else talking about this?

he wants to be nice to your friends, so he waits for your cue, desperately side-eyeing you for the entire conversation, waiting for you to shut their jealously down

they say something rude about the way girls like you take care of yourself and he is just beyond over it and blurts "Okay—What?!"

really pitchy and confused, and also blinking incredulously because what the hell is their problem

Seth is a pretty persistent guy, and he not going to just let someone slip an awkward insult at you and continue to talk to him like normal

he'll be nice at first when they immediately apologize to you and him profusely and everything is cool again

until five minutes later, when you mention being a little tired and they cut in to ask him how you can even keep up with him, greedily eyeing the smooth brown skin of his arms, exposed by his sleeveless shirt, not subtle at all in their admiration of the lean musculature

"What are yOU EVEN TALKING ABOUT⁉️" he explodes, controlled in his anger but soo frustrated at having to listen to this crap, and then the unwanted advances.

he figured it was part of it with the redirection of every subject back to them, but he can't even think about that because that came completely out of left field and he can't just gloss over it again to keep the pace, mamas 😩 yes he says mamas, his sister is a lesbian i think its funny

completely bitches them out, but it's just an itemized list of every horrible thing this person has shown about themselves in the short time he has been around them — and after he has said his peace, calmly leaves

you follow him,ofc