#i would post pictures but i’m on mobile and can’t put a read more

[druggeddraccus]

today i went to my cousins graduation and then they wanted burger king after so we got lunch with their boyfriend. it was nice to spend a bit of time with them

and then i went to goodwill and i found a super cute rocker for my sister so i bought it for her but she’ll have to go and pick it up saturday cause it would not fit in my car. and i also found a peter pan snow globe—i’m such good condition especially for being found at goodwill lol usually the water is yellowed or it’s broken but it’s perfect. and i’ll give that to my sister too for the nursery

and then i went to another thrift shop and found a super cute and soft sweater and a big winter coat which is something i don’t own living in florida lol—and it’s so so nice it’s a dark forest green it’s just missing a button for the hood—easy fix

oh!! and i found a side table to go by my rocker for when i read there and now i have a spot to put my lamp

also i read the first spiderwick book today lol and i found out mark hamill does the audiobook?? crazy. i had my dad guess at it and he guessed right lol

[ladytauria]

okay to balance it out

fluff 27) “why the hell is there glitter everywhere?”

picturing JayTim maybe Tim tried to be sexy and spice/romantic and tried to decorate himself or the bedroom? and messed up

i love this sm <3

it took me a couple days to get the writing juices flowing, but once they did i managed to get this out in an afternoon xD

ofc, my internet went out right as i was finishing it up. luckily i wrote it on mobile. signal may not be the best here but i can still get it posted :D

read it on AO3

“Why the hell is there glitter everywhere?”

Shit. Tim was hoping to have it all cleaned up by now.

“Long story, don’t ask,” Tim calls, smoothing a comforter over the freshly made bed. He thinks he’s gotten most of it out of the bedroom—that and the en suite were the worst areas, but the living room took a pretty big hit as well.

“Okay, but you know I gotta ask, baby bird,” Jason says, appearing in their doorway. He’s lost his boots and gloves, but he’s still wearing his jacket and his hair is still mussed from his helmet.

Tim pouts at him, but it’s hard to feign irritation when there’s a smile tugging at Jason’s lips; eyes crinkling in the corners. He’s unfairly cute.

“Don’t give me that,” Jason says with a laugh, crossing the room to pull Tim against his chest. “Bed looks nice. Hurricane sparkles hit here too, huh?”

Tim can hardly help melting against him. He’s always so unfairly warm. (Jason says the same thing about him. ‘Then again, princess, if you’d eat more, maybe you’d have something to hold it in—‘) “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m still traumatized.”

Jason snickers. “Traumatized, huh?”

“Mhm.” Tim twists in his arms, pressing their chests together and winding his arms around Jason’s neck. He plays with the strands there. “Be a good boyfriend and comfort me.”

That gets him another laugh—each one makes a little more warmth pool in Tim’s chest. Jason kisses him softly, sweetly; turning that pool into an ocean. Tim sighs into it, a little weak in the knees despite how brief it ends up being. Jason just has that effect on him.

He brushes their noses together. “C’mon, pretty bird,” Jason murmurs. “I’m gonna die of curiosity.”

Tim heaves a sigh far more put-upon than he actually feels, and kisses the corner of his mouth. “Well, we can’t have that. I just got used to you.”

Jason’s brows raise; a grin on his face. “Only just? It’s been over a year, babe.”

Tim shrugs. “I’m very resistant to change,” he says. “But you wanted to know about the glitter.”

“Please.”

“Alright. It’s Steph’s fault.”

Jason snorts.

“No, really!” Tim says, doing his best not to grin himself. “You remember when she and I went clubbing, right?”

“Three nights ago, yeah.”

“Right. Well. At one of them, there was a lot of body glitter. Like—a lot. And—I dunno. It was kinda hot? Which was unfair. I mean, I don’t look that good when I wear it. Which I told Steph, and she said she doubted you’d agree with that. And I kept thinking about it. I mean. It sounded kind of fun, to dress up like that. Different, definitely.

“Except, uh. Things did not go as planned, and I made a big mess instead. Oops?”

Jason doesn’t laugh like Tim thought he would. Instead his head tilts, almost thoughtfully. “You know,” he says. “I’ve got pretty steady hands.”

Tim takes a second to process. “I— Are you offering to apply it for me?” His mouth is suddenly dry, imagining himself under those strong, talented, and yes, steady, hands as they paint patterns of glitter on his skin.

Jason’s hands curl around his hips, thumbs stroking the sharp points of them. “We’re going to be finding glitter for months anyway,” he says, voice dropping, the deep baritone rumbling through his bones. “Might as well get some fun out of it.”

Tim shivers. “Have I ever told you you’re brilliant?” he asks, tightening his grip on Jason’s shoulders and feeling him tense in preparation. He jumps; legs locking around his waist while Jason’s hands grip his ass.

“Mm—not recently.”

“I’ll make it up to you,” Tim promises, and kisses the place where his jaw meets his ear, relishing the soft noise that gets him. “Glitter’s in the bathroom.”

He’d buy Steph a thank-you card later. A very sparkly one.

[emomanswhore]

Hey, i just raed yiur story Daddy’s Home and was flabbergasted 🥵

I have a question if you don’t mind me asking. How do you make the WC and the A/N, change to colour from bluish to gold/yellow?

Thank u and your writing is amazing 🤩🙌🏻🥵

⸜(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ ♡!! hihi angel, please don’t mind how atrociously late this reply is. but THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE LOVE ON DADDYS HOME 🫶🏽🤍 your energy is unmatched, and i can’t wait to try bringing it back onto my blog !! i love you times a million <333

i absolutely do NOT mind you asking abt the gradience, or any questions you may have for me ! the work itself is a bit tedious and hard,, but trust me. that gradient effect on any post is sooooo worth it. i’m gonna take you through what my process is, and in general how i play with the gradient text on my blog !!

.:☆*:･) FIRST (!!)— go to this site in the link.

this is my go to site for gradient text, and it’s pretty easy to maneuver. a lot of it is self explanatory, but i’ll go over it step by step !

put in any text you’d like— BUT, don’t put any font text. because the code for the gradient can’t read it, so that kinda sucks.

where the blue text is highlighted, you can select whichever effect you want. usually i pick three colored, or middle bc i like how those look the best.

i cannot for the life of me remember which colors i chose for daddy’s home— BUT, if it was that blue-silvery w/ the gold,, im gonna assume it was these hex codes. usually when i pick my three colors, i go from lightest to darkest and kinda play around with it till i think it looks how my mind pictured it to be.

the cool thing abt this too is that as you work with your colors, you also get a preview of what your hex codes would look like. so you can always look back and forth between the preview and the color wheel !

THEN, make sure you copy this ENTIRE thing. if you’re doing it on mobile i suggest you tap wherever and just hit ‘select all’ if it prompts you to do so.

.:☆*:･) SECOND (!!)— go to this site in the link.

then you’re gonna paste that whole big code you copied, and paste it into what should be an empty blue box. once it’s pasted, where it says ‘replace this’ put a semicolon(;) in there. and where it says ‘with this’, leave it blank. after you do that, hit replace text and then you’re good ! make sure you copy what’s left in that blue box, bc you’re gonna need it.

.:☆*:･) THIRD (!!)— this part is where you have to either be on your computer, OR if you’re using the mobile site,, set it to the desktop view. you’ll have to refresh your page after you change it, that way your post will be compatible with the coding.

whatever your post is gonna be, click the cog wheel at the top right corner aka your post settings. once you get there, you should see this. and once you see it, go to text editor and change it to html.

so then you just paste the coding into your post.

then voila !! you’ll see a preview of your text, and it should look like that exactly. thennn, you tweak it to your liking. and that’s how i made the gradient text for daddy’s home (^⩌^) !!

i wanna preface that this tut isn’t MINE. i learned a lot of this from the og, who i’m linking here just incase you need a more in-depth tut or i missed anything. like i said, it’s suppopeerrr tedious and long especially if you’re like me and you’re a perfectionist :’) ,, but it’s worth it !! it’ll make your posts look soooo much prettier and attractive !

[cf56]

This is going to be rude and blunt, but I’m afraid I don’t know how else to say it. If you miss the point this time, it won’t be on me. You keep getting hung up thinking that people just don’t like what you’re saying. That the problem for others is your opinions on Season 3. That’s not it. You are overly invested in the show as a whole, and that has taken center stage. I’m not saying this to make you change that part, but how you use that information in the context of these discussions. Being mentally ill, neurodivergent, or anything of the sort does not mean that you or your takes are exempt from criticism. Also you’re not the only one who falls under that umbrella in the fandom. And I’m sorry, but the responses I’ve seen to your posts recently do not qualify as you being marginalized. That’s not even close. It frankly makes it look like your trying to play the victim. Bottom line is, your opinions are fine, though they could stand to be under ‘Read More’s so they don’t clutter the tag. The reasoning behind them, is what keeps throwing me for a loop. I don’t mean this maliciously, but please seek therapy. From one invested fan to another, that kind of attachment is not healthy.

Well, you were right about it being rude.

I have never made the claim that my takes are exempt from criticism. In fact, I’ve clearly said the opposite many times. My replies and askbox are always open. I’ve debated with someone, maybe even you, on this topic through my asks, and I never got angry at them for speaking up against me. I don’t care about people disagreeing with me. I care about people getting upset about me expressing my thoughts at all. I have a right to do so. Everyone does. You’re not obligated to read what I say or put any value in it at all. I’m just some random schmuck on the internet. In your other ask, you asked why I was so invested in Animaniacs. I answered. Why did you assume that I meant that to be a shield from criticism? It was just the truth.

When I browse the tag, on desktop, all the long posts are partially hidden anyway under “expand” banners. If you don’t want to see my opinions on this, all relevant posts are tagged “#animaniacs episode 8”. Block that tag. Block me for all I care. For the record, there is no way to “read more” when you make a post on mobile, which is usually how I respond to asks that don’t need pictures.

It doesn’t sound to me like you think my opinions are fine. You say the reasoning behind them throws you for a loop. Okay, that’s fine. However, I have thoroughly explained the reasoning behind all my opinions. It’s not as if I’m screeching into the void with no explanation behind it. Again, I make maybe two or three posts a day. I’ve made six total self-posts that are negative about season three. If you can’t handle that, it’s on you. Only you. You claim that I’m the one who’s too invested in this show. I would say, if reading opinions you don’t agree with on Animaniacs gets you this worked up, maybe you should take a look in the mirror first.

Bottom line, I’ll be invested in this show as I damn well please. No one had a single problem with it before I started to share opinions they didn’t like.

[tarosin]

The great adventures of y/n, Tommy, Jack and Tubbo

Requested:yes/no

Pairing: Platonic jack/tommy/tubbo/reader

Summary: another day another adventure

Content warning: cursing / I didn't proof read

An: reader has bright unnatural hair I wrote a lot, I can't figure out how to add read more on mobile I'm sorry

The music you were currently listening to was interrupted by the discord group notifying you that you have a new message.

Tommy: Y/N HOW BUSY ARE YOU TUBBO HAS COME TO VISIT AND JACK IS HERE

y/n: I mean I've currently got hair dye on but it’s being washed off and dried in around 20 minutes, why?

y/n: WAIT TUBBO?!?!

tubbo: oh yeah I forgot to tell you

y/n: how did you forget you know what nevermind, I’m glad you’re here :]

jack: we should be here in an hour so you have plenty of time to get ready

tubbo: what colour dye y/n

y/n: you’ll see soon enough as apparently, you’re all showing up at my house

Tommy: I suggest you wear comfortable shoes

y/n: I am terrified

Tommy: you have nothing to fear... for now

•••

luckily it had only taken you just over 40 minutes to get ready giving you roughly 20 minutes to prepare for the adventure ahead. or so you thought, as soon as you sat down ready to check your phone the sound of Tommy and tubbo laughing could be heard from your room, jack sent a message “hey we got here extremely early I’m sorry there’s no rush the others have been distracted by dreams music :)”

grabbing a backpack from next to your bed you had quickly chucked your phone and purse into the bag unsure as to what you’re going to need today.

•••

as soon as you opened the door you were met with an ecstatic tubbo who instantly pulled you into a hug unable to contain their excitement of seeing their friend

“I HAVEN'T SEEN YOU IN AGES YOUVE CHANGED SO MUCH LOOK AT YOUR HAIR”

“I look exactly the same”

“Now I’m no genius y/n but last time we spoke you didn’t have unnatural hair”

you paused for a moment as tubbo had a point the last time you and tubbo were on face time your hair was classed as a natural colour however today as a fuck you to your school which didn’t allow unnatural hair you decided to dye it your favourite colour.

“you raise a fair point now if you don’t mind releasing me from your grasp I have to lock the door so no one gets in”

•••

“Tommy unlock the door let tubbo and y/n in”

“Y/N YOU'RE HERE- HOLY SHIT YOUR HAIR! JACK ARE YOU SEEING THIS”

“Hello to you too Tommy”

“well if we weren’t going to get noticed at the shopping centre earlier y/ns bright fucking hair will definitely cause people to notice us”

“oh I’m sorry I didn’t expect to be going shopping with a bunch of Minecraft streamers today”

“don’t you stream Minecraft?”

“This isn’t about me jack”

the trip to the shops was surprisingly relaxing y/n sat at the front listening to jack sing along to songs playing on the radio, however, it was clear the boys had something they weren’t telling y/n which became evident through Tommy and tubbo bickering in the back of the car about who was going to tell them. it was a relatively short journey due to the fact you lived close to the city centre

•••

“let’s go shopping boys” Tommy practically yelled to everyone, tubbo held his phone in your direction then looked towards you, nodding at him you grabbed his phone and began recording

“I'm vlogging”

Tommy walked over “YEAHHHHH”

walking past cex you had to put up with Tommy making sex jokes until you made it to game, you stood holding back your laugh as you filmed Tommy and tubbo fighting about who’s paying whilst jack went off to buy a Minecraft squishy and mug despite everyone’s arguments against it. soon enough fans came over asking for photos with you all once the group of fans left jack took over recording for tubbo whilst you went off to quickly buy some games that you could play on stream.

•••

“want a wig bro? jack!”

the four of you walked into the shop, you couldn’t help but stand in awe looking at all the bright colours already questioning what colour to dye your hair next the sound of Tommy and jack being amazed pulled you out of your thoughts

“Gogy goggles, I’m actually buying them”

“i wan’t a pair”

“no, you’re getting a wig jack”

“I don’t want a wig I want George”

“y/n has bright hair and they’re not complaining”

“what do you have against people with colourful hair jack hmm?”

•••

“I'm not happy”

“you look lovely jack”

“we’re getting so many looks”

tubbo stopped everyone to ‘fix’ jacks wig which resulted in everyone laughing once you had finally stopped laughing you noticed tubbo had walked off and you were convinced jack had randomly decided to record strangers until you saw tubbo going up and down escalators

“oh there he goes again”

“pov you’re thinking about bees”

“where to next boys?”

Tommy pointed towards the lift

“Is this a lift for us”

Tommy noticed the safety sign and automatically made comments about it

“keeping us all safe is what I would say if I wasn’t carrying a knife”

“oh same Tommy”

“look you can see me”

taking that as an invitation to join the vlog you stood behind tubbo and pointed at the sign again and looked at Tommy and jack

“keeping us all safe is what I would say if we weren’t about to do this-“

the three of you went to jump up and down

“NO”

the four of you quietly left the lift however you were convinced that the public heard Tommy comment on having a knife and you threatening to jump as once the lift opened everyone was staring at you but it could also be due to the fact you had brightly coloured hair and somehow convinced jack to keep the wig on, you all spent a long time trying to convince Tommy to get a new outfit, eventually you went into another shop a certain keyboard caught your eye

“I’ve found my home, ill stay here at the gamer bunker”

you decided now was the perfect time to sneak off to buy the keyboard that had caught your eye, once tubbo noticed it was too late you stood holding the bag with your purchase leaving you stood in the middle of the shop defending your purchase to him claiming that it was a business expense and not just because you thought it looked cool.

“you told me you wanted to save your money”

“it lights up tubbo and it fits the vibe of my room”

Tommy placed his arm on your head treating you as an armrest as you were shorter than him and he knew it annoyed you

“they have a point tubbo it lights up”

once the recording ended you made your way back to the car

“say y/n you wouldn’t mind if me Tommy and jack stayed the night as tomorrow we were thinking-“

“sure thing”

“YESSSSSS”

•••

the next day you were woken up at 9 am by Tommy stood at the foot of your bed

“hi y/n”

“WHAT THE FUCK- oh hi Tommy Jesus christ do you know how horrifying that was to wake up to”

“Sorry bout that but if I didn’t wake you up now you’d only wake up in the afternoon and we need to go soon I’ll leave you to get ready”

you noticed a note was next to a jumper on the floor ‘hi, thanks for letting us stay the night I really liked your hoodie so I decided to wear it today here’s mine in exchange- Tubbo :D’

normally you’d be concerned that someone stole your hoodie as you live with your parents however today was an exception once you were all ready you set off jack pulled into a McDonald's drive-through so you could all get breakfast

“nice hoodie y/n”

“Thanks, someone took mine and decided to make a trade”

“you’re welcome”

the journey was quiet again you sat next to tubbo in the back Tommy sat at the front screaming at jack and trying to distract him and people around you decided to took a picture with tubbo who now had his arm wrapped around you as it was rather cold in the car and posted it to Twitter ‘@ ranboosaysstuff wish you were here :D’ less than a minute later you received 2 notifications ‘ranboosaysstuff replied to your tweet: same’ ‘ ranboosaysstuff has tweeted: *the spongebob gif*’

•••

soon enough you all arrived at mint golf to say you we’re excited would be an understatement

“can I get the shortest club you have”

you stood hiding your face in the jumper tubbo left you whilst you laughed a few minutes later you received a call from ranboo the others said they’d sort everything for you whilst you answered

“what’s up tall one”

“stay safe okay”

“ranboo it’s mini-golf I’m not fighting criminals”

“yes but I know how clumsy you are”

“first of all rude second of all fuck you third of all jealousy isn’t a good look on you” you managed to say through laughter

“jokes aside please come to the UK boo”

“oh sure I’ll go book a plane ticket now” *ranboo ended the call*

ranboo made jokes like that before however this time sounded a lot more serious and you had no idea why he called you so you made a mental note to call him again later. once with friends again you were met with Tommy telling the worker all about you all

“yeah we’re big on the influencing”

“What on earth did I walk in on”

“no time to explain let’s go golf”

you were handed a club and a ball and were dragged away by jack

•••

tubbo joked about getting a hole on one as soon as it was his go, you bet £10 with jack he wouldn't

“hand over the money y/n”

you looked at Tommy who was now recording you handing jack the money “so today we have learnt to not underestimate your friends and that gambling is bad. you lose your money to a tall bald guy”

to put it politely you and Tommy found out that mini golf is not your calling in life

“ill stick to streaming“

“you’re both losing by the way”

“yeah well- why and how does tubbo have soup”

tubbo stood cradling the soup as though it was a child

“Some things I can’t explain to you”

you stood tilting your head to the side questioning where the hell he got soup from

“eh”

“soups like a small child I take care of it as if it was my own”

you couldn’t contain your laughter at this point the confused faces of your friends alongside tubbos happiness of soup sent you over the edge so you decided to just sit down before you fall as your knees were already weak from laughing too much

“where did you get the soup from”

“I manifested it”

•••

after a few solid minutes of arguing over soup you and Tommy dropping the phone you all continued with bowling.

“tubbo get out of the way of my dream ball”

you stood recording jack cheering him on tubbo had different plans and kicked the ball away resulting in jack giving up and copying what you had been doing most of the rounds, after missing the hole 3 times each go, picking up the ball and placing it in the hole however again he missed

“you can’t be serious”

“golf isn’t for everyone big man”

Tommy took the phone from you to record “pov you’re me golfing”

•••

“how do we get across there”

“probably the bridge”

Tommy pulled to rope moving the bridge across the gap

“Why thank you, Tommy, wouldn’t have been able to do it without you”

you laughed

“you're extremely welcome y/n it was extremely easy because I’m a big muscly man”

golf was finally going well till you hit the ball a bit too hard causing it to go over the fence tubbo was able to get the ball back

“I’ve been watching a lot of doctor shows” you stood amazed at how far you made the ball go

“see the issue is its mini golf. if this was regular golf I'd have got a hole in one I'm telling you”

•••

“I'm never being in your vlog again”

jack looked at you and tubbo who was now laughing at you pretending to worship the can of soup in the hole

“Tommy please come back”

the rest of the game was chaos, you kept missing the hole then claiming to rage quit golf tubbo and Tommy kept making jokes jack left his drink somewhere then had to go back and find it, no one had been paying attention to you which allowed you to take the score sheet and make it so you had won the game eventually he game was over you had declared yourself the champion of golf despite the fact everyone was better than you including Tommy

•••

the journey back was chaos you called ranboo who claimed he only called you to plan a video/stream with you however it was clear that wasn’t the reason tubbo whispered to you so no one could hear

“I think he wants to be here with us I think he’s jealous”

you laughed and nodded

“of course”

eventually, you all made it back to yours, ranboo said goodbye to everyone then ended the call now it was time for you to say your goodbyes. since your love language was physical touch you hugged everyone. As you walked into your house Tommy yelled “Y/N HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT PLANES”

[simlicious]

Are you up for a challenge?

Hey everyone,

I’m looking for people who are interested in making an inviting, festive holiday scenery/picture in a sims game of your choice that conveys a Christmas Cheer/Winter Wonderland atmosphere for my Advent calendar. I am going to make one with Sims 3 contents; pretty much cold-turkey, like last time. I feel like I need a challenge again and it has been hard, but so rewarding! The contents of the calendar are my priority right now, and you can help me by make it look pretty from the outside! In short, I am looking for "simlish” Advent calendar image submissions from you! If that sounds fun to you, read on!

I know it’s a lot of text, but please read everything before you agree to  participate so you know what requirements are needed!

Benefits that await you:

You would receive credit, of course, and have total creative freedom. The image should convey Christmas Cheer and/or Winter Wonderland atmosphere. A quiet winter scene, a bustling Christmas market, a cozy interior shot, something entirely different? You decide! And you can use as much or as little CC you want. The image has to be based on a Sims-game screenshot, but you can edit it if you want. If there is more than one person interested/writing to me at the same time, I will swap out the image throughout the calendar’s runtime, so all participants get equal “screen time”. This would make the calendar even more special, so do not feel discouraged if you see that someone else already wants to make an image.

Technical things to keep in mind:

The calendar doors will be transparent so you can see behind it. Once a door is opened, it is opaque. That means that the more doors are opened, the lesser the background image will be visible. The doors will appear on the center of the calendar, so there is room left and right for some always-visible details though (at least on a desktop, not sure about mobile devices), so you might want to put special details on the sides of the image.

This cluttered mess was last year’s calendar image, I’m sure you can do better though! The image should be at least 1920x1080 pixels in size, but can also be larger. I may make slight adjustments to your image in Photoshop (nothing major, just lighting/contrast/color adjustments) to elevate it even further, but feel free to make some edits yourself, or hand in the image straight from the game, however you like it. If you took screenshots in multiple angles and can’t decide which of them to use, you can send them all to me and let me choose.

How to participate

If you are interested, please comment on this post or write a dm and tell me you want to participate. After informing me, you can start on the image right away, no need to wait for my confirmation.

How to submit

You can hand in the images via e-mail (simlicious[at]gmx.de) or upload them somewhere and send me the link via dm or an ask. In case you choose the e-mail option, please notify me via a direct message too, in case the mail goes into my spam folder.

Is there a deadline?

I would like to receive the image ideally before December 1st, the day the calendar starts. However, if you cannot quite make it until then, I will still accept the image. I want this to be an inclusive challenge, so if you need more time, you’ll get it.

[katya-learns-language]

I’ve been working on my penmanship in Russian, as well as learning words and letters. It’s been hard, having certain letter look similar to ones in English but sounding different really does throw me off.

Right now, I’ve been almost exclusively using Duolingo for education and then occasionally looking things up along the way as they pop up in my course.

I’ve been watching a handful of videos on YouTube for help- mostly to show me how to write the letters instead of guessing- as well as looking up pictures of the alphabet and people’s writing.

Russian writing is honestly so whack. Sometimes you can make out the letters and other times it looks like someone just made loops and lines over and over again. I’m a little confused on how it’s supposed to work, but I wanted to share a few things that have helped me.

[Image 1- Russian Alphabet, offers print and the cursive equivalent in navy blue, then the English transliteration phonetic equivalent in red]

So this image (image 1) is from https://russiainanutshell.com/russian-cursive-alphabet/ . I’ll be honest, I didn’t read this whole page just yet. But it looks really good. I actually just downloaded the photo off the internet a few days ago for personal use and then went back to get the link for credit and decided I should skim through the page. So what’s exactly what I did. But I like that it seems like a very personal and relatable webpage/blog and it appears to discuss just how crazy Russian cursive is.

[Image 2- neat Russian cursive written in dark blue ink against a grid in red. This is handwritten]

For image 2, I won’t lie. I don’t know where I got this from. I don’t even know what it all says. I believe these are all just very basic phrases and I can recognize a few of them. For example, the first line is “privet-poka” (hello-bye) and the last line is “kak dela - khorosho” (How are you-Ok!). I can’t read the word exactly but I recognize it as “OK/fine), which would be an appropriate response to the question. I do believe this is from a video, however. I could take the time to sit down and write it out, but I am not going to at this very moment. Right now, I just wanted to look at and see an example of really neat penmanship. Handwriting where you can clearly distinguish each letter from one another.

Trying to find where this came from, I think it is a screenshot from a video… however, this specific image is from amazingrussian.com . I’m trying to put a link in to the exact page, but tumblr mobile isn’t letting me. Like the blog the at the first image comes from, this page is also dedicated to Russian learning. The specific page that image 2 comes from also discusses cursive and penmanship. It’s very long, I had just used the image as a reference for how to write the word “privet” initially and went back to find the source. Once again, I just skimmed the page. I do plan on going back and reading all of these the next time I decide to sit down and practice my Russian. Which will be sometime later today.

EDIT: A lovely user had helped me out and translated and transliterated the writing from Image 2 for me and I wanted to include them here. I also did not want to edit out my own ignorance. I did, however, correct any errors I had. Here is the translations and transliterations:

1.) “Privet-Poka” is “Hello-bye”

2.) “Zdravstvuyte - do svidanya” is “Hello-goodbye” but in a more formal and official manner

3.)”Spasibo - pozhaluista” is “Thank you - You’re Welcome)

4.) “Kak dela - khorosho” is “How are you? -Good/OK/Fine”

Since tumblr mobile is still not letting me add more links to this post, I’ll either reblog this post with more link OR if that doesn’t work, I’ll just make a brand new post with more links. I’m going to tag these all under the same tag to make it easier to find, which will be “Russian Cursive Part 1”.

[corinnesamuels]

I Drove All Night

A little one-shot to switch up all the angst i’ve been writing, and a sequel to The One About the Cupholder, though you don’t technically need to read that one first. I do love that one though =)

Read on ao3

I drove all night to get to you. Is that alright?

I drove all night, crept in your room, woke you from your sleep

To make love to you

She’s almost embarrassed about how desperately she wants him to pick up the phone.

Her heart races as the mobile rings once, twice, and a third time. Lily find herself sighing in relief when she hears a voice on the line.

“Hello?” The voice is garbled with sleep. She’d clearly woken him up.

“I need the address to the house in Exeter.” Lily says as she flips her indicator to change lanes. She can hear bed sheets rustling in the background of the call as he moves around, probably to better see the clock on his bedside table.

“The house in…why do you need that at this hour?”

“Because I’m driving to Exeter.”

Sirius sighs in exasperation and grumbles before responding. “You realize it’ll be nearly 4 in the morning before you get there? James will have my head if I let you get on the road this late.”

“I’m already pulling onto the M4 now, love.”

Sirius makes another sound of displeasure, and Lily can picture him dragging a hand roughly across his face. “You and James are the same brand of impossible. Let the record show that I didn’t sign off on this.”

It’s only been a few days since James left to watch his parents’ house while they’re away on holiday, and she thought she’d been prepared for the time away, but God, does she miss him. And after the week from hell, she more than misses him.

She needs him.

James had tried very hard to get her to come with him. He’d been particularly convincing in the wee hours of several different mornings, so much so that Sirius had scowled at them when they appeared at breakfast. Remus had given her that smirk of his—the one he gives when he knows something you think is a secret—and she could barely look him in the eyes as she slurped down the coffee James had poured her. To be fair, she had been quite loud. They would have been too if they’d been in her shoes…in James’ bed…

Anyways.

As much as she had wanted to say yes, part of the visit fell on her monthly dinner with her parents and Petunia—the one she hated going to but promised her parents she would attend in order to make an effort in mending her relationship with Petunia.

When she stormed out of the restaurant at the end of the evening, however, she felt it would have been better if she had just gone with James in the first place. Petunia had been insufferable, making snide comments toward Lily and fawning over Vernon all night. Vernon had been the terror he always was—openly hateful and chauvinistic, rude to the wait staff, and made condescending comments about James, whom he had never met. It had been a fiasco. When she got back to her flat that night, she screamed into her pillow to relieve some of the tension in her body, but it was no use. A tough week had ended with a horrendous evening, and Lily felt like she couldn’t breathe. It was as if the world were closing in around her.

But the farther away she drove from London, the more that pressure began to feel like anticipation coursing through her veins. Sirius had been right. James will be furious to discover that she decided to drive so far this late, but she’ll cross that bridge when she gets there. Right now, all she can think of falling into his bed and drowning in him.

Ever since she’d fallen, quite literally, into his lap at Remus’ post-dissertation party, he’d managed to brighten up her world in ways she hadn’t imagined possible. He was caring and attentive, clever and daring. She’s laughed more with James than she thinks she ever has with anyone else. The hearty kind that builds from deep within the stomach and brings tears to her eyes. The kind that’s sometimes too loud and causes people to give them strange looks when they’re in public. But James never cares, and more and more, Lily finds that neither does she. She’s always felt safe around him. Not just physically but emotionally. She’s able to share her secrets, her insecurities, and her worries. He never judges her or makes her feel small for them, as other men had. He doesn’t try to stifle her dreams or put her into a box or push her to be someone she isn’t, like Petunia had.

Before she knew it, Lily had fallen for him hard and fast and had been so nervous to admit it, to him or to herself. Then one morning he declared it over breakfast and told her that he would show her every chance he got if she let him. He’d done just that. Every day is like a new adventure with James.

Flashbacks of memories with him push her on as she drives, pulling her closer to him as if she were an object caught in his gravitational pull.

Fitting, when she thinks about how he’s turned her world on its axis.

When Lily pulls up to the house, it’s just shy of 4 in the morning, as Sirius had predicted it would be. She wonders somewhat belatedly if he’ll wake when she gets to the door. Lily kicks herself at the thought. He isn’t typically a heavy sleeper, but the idea of driving all this way to have to sleep in her car causes panic to build inside her. But not long after she rings the bell, she hears heavy footsteps and her shoulders relax as he opens the door.

“Lily?” Confusion is etched all over his face, and the graveled sound of heavy sleep laces his voice. His hair stands at even more angles than usual, and then more still as he runs a hand through his hair in bewilderment. He looks a bit like he can’t tell if he’s dreaming or not.

Lily can’t help it. She drops her bag and launches herself toward him, wrapping her legs around his waist as he catches her reflexively. She takes a moment to drink him in, his eyes still laden with sleep, his hair wild as ever, and his lips—soft and full and beginning to form words and phrases and questions that Lily thought could wait until another day, maybe even another lifetime.

She leans in and kisses him furiously, and after a mild moment of shock, he returns it, kicking the door shut behind them before pushing her up against one of the walls in the hallway. As she thinks about how pleased she is at the reception to her showing up in the middle of the night, somewhat unannounced, he pulls back. Lily lets out a disappointed groan. She rather likes the way this was going and doesn’t want to stop.

“Wait.” James says as he shakes his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from his brain. “What are you doing here? It’s…what time is it?” He rambles as his sleep-addled brain attempts to make sense of things.

“I needed you.” She whispers it, but it’s as if every fiber of her being—every cell and atom—came together to make this one point. The tone of it stops him in his tracks.

“Everything about this week has been shit. Work, Petunia, I just—I needed you. The only thing that would make any of this better is you. And if that means that I had to drive all night to get to you, then so be it.” They lock eyes as she runs her thumbs along his cheekbones absently. “I hope that’s alright?”

James’ pupils dilate, and he kisses her again, picking up the same energy as before as he presses her further into the wall with his hips, his hands steadying her from underneath her thighs. “Evans, the only thing better than seeing you right now is hearing that I’m the only person who can make things better for you.” He smirks as he leans his forehead against hers to catch his breath. “I do enjoy it when you stroke my ego, you know.”

Lily laughs, tilting her head back slightly. “I’ll be sure to bring you back down to earth tomorrow, but I’d rather stroke something else at the moment.” She says, nipping at his lips lightly.

James lets out a soft laugh before smiling at her tenderly. “Being with you feels like flying, Lily.” He said. “I haven’t felt like I’ve been down to earth in months.”

If he hadn’t been holding her, she might have melted right there in the hallway. Her heartbeat pounds away in her chest, and Lily wonders if he can hear it. But when she drops a hand to his chest, she notices that their hearts seem to be beating at the same rapid pace. The symmetry of the moment makes her smile as relief floods through her body, and she thinks—not for the first time—that there must be some kind of feeling beyond love. Because whatever this is makes the word seem inadequate. Whatever this is between them is beyond love or lust. It’s euphoria and catharsis, passion and stillness and all the feelings in between. Whatever this is could light up the darkest skies. God, whatever this is? This seems like it could save the world. Love couldn’t possibly be enough to convey these things she feels for and in him.

This must be what sanctuary feels like.

[genevievemd]

It's that time again, Miss Sara! Newlyweds questions: photos edition!

Notes: Answer the following with pictures (dialogue from your characters is optional!). Collages are highly encouraged if you want to answer a question with multiple pictures because tumblr mobile only allows 10 total pics (there are 10 questions). Otherwise, tumblr on a desktop lets you add multiple pictures!

Also, don’t worry about picking pictures of your face claim (if any) to answer these! Any picture of the outfit/place, no matter who is wearing it, makes absolute sense! Have fun!

For MC

Favorite picture of Ethan at your wedding?

Favorite picture on your honeymoon (of him or otherwise)?

Favorite outfit(s) on him?

What does your home look like?

Picture of your spouse's last purchase.

For Ethan

Favorite picture of your wife at your wedding?

Favorite picture on your honeymoon (of her or otherwise)?

Favorite outfit(s) on him/her?

Picture of a dream getaway or date you would surprise her with?

Last picture she sent you.

P.S. Thank you so much for sending me some newlywed Qs for Ethan x Lilac. I am working on them and hope to post them soon!

MY FAVORITE TIME OF WEEK. You're an icon for doing these, a legend, a queen.

Also, I couldn't resist putting dialogue.

For MC:

1. Favorite picture of Ethan at your wedding?

Gen: Aside from the one of our first dance, it's the photo Henry posted of Ethan, when he was getting ready for the ceremony. I sent him this super long text about how excited I was to marry him and how much I love him, and Henry took a picture of Ethan reading it. Ethan: Because I sat there for a good ten minutes reading it over a handful of times. I had one of the many moments where I find it hard to believe that you agreed to marry me.

2. Favorite picture on your honeymoon (of him or otherwise)?

Gen: *snickers* Ethan: It's one of the million -- Gen: Yes. It is. If you don't want me to take a million photos of you, stop being so freaking hot.

Gen: Look at him, he's a freakin greek god. Unreal.

3. Favorite outfit(s) on him?

Ethan: I know the answer to this one. Gen: As you should. His all black suit, I don't know what it is about that freakin outfit but it makes him hotter, which seems impossible, but it does.

4. What does your home look like?

Gen: Less like a unwelcoming dungeon of solitude since I moved in. Ethan: Did you just insult my taste? Gen: Yes. *leans over and kisses his cheek*

(Oh Hey, it's me I'm breaking character to show you the floor plan that I envision for their/Ethan's apartment - because I'm extra)

5. Picture of your spouse's last purchase.

Gen: He bought a boujee new office chair. Ethan: It was necessary. Gen: It was expensive. Ethan: But necessary. I spend more time in my office as chief than I do seeing patients, I needed a new chair. Gen: *whispers* also because we may have broken the last one... Ethan: *clears throat* that too.

For Ethan

1. Favorite picture of your wife at your wedding? 

Ethan: It’s technically a photo of the two of us, but I only see her.  Gen: Such a smooth talker Ethan: I’m being honest, G. The only thing I see is your smile, how happy you are.

2. Favorite picture on your honeymoon (of her or otherwise?)

Ethan: I don’t think I can show that one. Gen: Ethan! Ethan: It’s my favorite picture from our honeymoon! That was the question. Gen: Pick a different one. You can’t show that one. 

Gen: Where’s that from?  Ethan: The boat tour.  Gen: Oh yeah, one of the few times we left the resort... and our room. Ethan: And you wonder why the other is my favorite. 

3. Favorite outfit(s) on him/her?

Gen: Why? Ethan: It’s distracting.  Gen: I’m not showing anything... Ethan: Oh, trust me, that skirt is showing enough.

4. Picture of a dream getaway or date you would surprise her with?

Ethan: St. Lucia. We almost chose it for our honeymoon, but decided to go to The Maldives instead. So her dream getaway, is St. Lucia.  Gen: Its so pretty. And tropical. 

5. Last picture she sent you.

Ethan: Can I... am I allowed? Gen: Why not. 

Gen: During a meeting to. I got yelled at. Ethan: I was with Leland and the board! Gen: I was trying to entice you to come home sooner.  Ethan: And it worked. 

(I love this new game so much, please keep sending me things. Also I totally forgot that I sent you questions 😂)

[sineala]

The gay Invaders

Hi, internet! Today I'd like to talk about one of the chronologically-first canonically-gay couples in Marvel Comics history: Brian Falsworth (the second Union Jack) and Roger Aubrey (The Destroyer). (I mean "chronological" in terms of in-universe timeline rather than RL publication date; I'm pretty sure Northstar is still the first to publication as far as unambiguously-gay Marvel heroes go.)

If you are a fan of reading or writing about Captain America being queer, you should care about Brian and Roger, because they were two of Steve's fellow Invaders in the 1940s, meaning that they are two of the people on the list of Steve's Old Gay Friends And Teammates, because, yeah, Steve sure had a lot of canonically gay friends during the war. Probably more than you'd think he would have had in the forties! (The other two are Percival Pinkerton, who's part of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos, and of course Steve's childhood friend Arnie Roth. Pinky is gay by word of Stan Lee, IIRC; Arnie was as canonically gay as DeMatteis could make him in the early 1980s, so they didn't say the word "gay" but it's really, really not subtle. Steve compares what Arnie feels for his "roommate" Michael to what Steve feels for his girlfriend Bernie. Yeah.)

I previously made a Tumblr post about Brian and Roger, rounding up some of the canonical evidence of their relationship, but that post is six years old now, and in the intervening years, Marvel has thoughtfully put the rest of the 70s Invaders run on Unlimited as well as the two Citizen V miniseries that star Roger and retcon his relationship with Brian as romantic. So I've read them now, and I've got panels.

Okay. I should probably begin by saying that Brian and Roger are not canonically gay in their first significant appearance together, which is in Invaders vol 1 #19 and #20, published in 1977. Roy Thomas does not seem to have intended them to be a couple, and they aren't canonically one in any of the original Invaders run. However, if you enjoy gay subtext, it's very nice.

This whole arc is the one that introduces Roger in modern canon. He's been brainwashed by the Nazis and the Invaders rescue him and get him back to his normal self. But in #19 we get his backstory in flashback, as related by Montgomery, Lord Falsworth (Brian's father; yes, MCU fans, the name should look familiar) and it turns out that Roger and Brian were basically best friends since childhood:

They were the dearest of friends!

Anyway, they both ended up captured by Nazis, they presumably changed their minds about appeasement as a policy, Brian got out and joined the Invaders, then they had to rescue the brainwashed Roger, and it's a fair amount of fun in a two-issue arc.

The subtext is even more prominent in Invaders #34, in which they find out that someone going by the Destroyer (which is Roger's codename) has been doing villainous deeds, and the Invaders worry that Roger's gotten himself brainwashed again. Brian immediately insists that it can't really be Roger because he knows Roger and Roger Would Never:

Unsurprisingly, Brian is right. It's not really Roger; Master Man is impersonating the Destroyer, and the villains have taken Roger captive, and the Invaders break him out and there is an extremely significant moment where it just so happens that Roger has to catch Brian, saving his life for a change, and they stare deeply into each other's eyes and Brian seems to be having difficulty finishing his sentences:

Some people who read this therefore concluded that Brian and Roger were extremely gay for each other. While ordinarily this sort of shipping is mostly confined to fandom, in this particular instance, one of the people who started shipping Brian/Roger was Fabian Nicieza, and Fabian Nicieza, as you probably know, writes comics for Marvel. I think you see where this is going.

However, first I must inform you that, sadly, Brian has been canonically dead for years. Captain America vol 1 #253-254 -- the two-parter about Baron Blood in the Stern/Byrne Cap run in the 80s -- establishes that Brian died in a car accident in 1953. (This is also the run where Joseph Chapman -- a friend of Jacqueline Falsworth's son Kenneth -- becomes the third (and current) Union Jack.)

(Roger then appears in a bunch of T-Bolts issues; I assume there's nothing interesting there on the gay front because I feel like someone would have told me. I should probably read more than three T-Bolts issues someday.)

So, anyway, in 2001, Fabian Nicieza wrote a miniseries called Citizen V and the V-Battalion. Roger, who is still superheroing as the Destroyer despite being pretty old by this point, is part of the titular V-Battalion, and he has a very prominent role in this miniseries. And in #1, we have the usual splash page of character backstory, and there's a very, um, interesting line there:

Regarding Brian and Roger's relationship, the narration informs us: "It sounds much gayer than it probably was."

This is interesting, obviously for a couple of reasons. One is that, up to this point in canon, as far as I can tell, literally nobody thought any of this sounded the slightest bit gay at all. (Other than, I guess, Fabian Nicieza.) The other reason is that, as we soon find out, it actually was as gay as it sounds. Thanks, Fabian!

In 2002, Nicieza wrote a second miniseries, Citizen V and the V-Battalion: The Everlasting. Issue #1 opens with a flashback set in 1953; specifically, we see Brian's funeral:

Roger is extremely sad, and when Lord Falsworth expresses his sympathy about the death of Roger's "friend" and saying that he knows how much this hurts him, Roger mutters under his breath that he doesn't have the slightest clue:

All is revealed on the next page, when one of the other characters tries to ask Roger about superhero business and Roger snaps at him because, as he says, "I just watched my friend die in my arms."

Except "friend" isn't the word he starts to say:

Yep. That would be "lover." So Roger nearly outs himself. So, yes, now it's absolutely canon. Hooray.

Later on in the issue, which is set in the present day, we have a couple pages of Roger staring at pictures of the two of them and continuing to be sad:

Yeah. They were a couple.

So the question you -- being a Captain America fan -- might ask yourself is, okay, did/does Steve know about any of this? (The reason I started looking all this up was because I wanted to know if Steve knew.) I don't know if we have a panel of Roger specifically admitting any of this to Steve (and if we do, I would like to know about it), but I would be comfortable saying that Steve probably knew back then -- because, well, he seems like the kind of guy who would actually have been fine with it in the 40s, what with all his gay friends -- and also that I can't think of a reason why he wouldn't know now. Because he's definitely worked with Roger again in fairly recent comics, and also Roger is very much out, these days.

In fact, New Invaders #4 (2004) opens with Roger attending Pride:

So, yeah, he's out.

(Then he has to fight, as far as I can tell, homophobic Nazi vampires. They're yelling slurs in German. Great.)

In All-New Invaders #10, which is from 2014 (and which is not the same series as New Invaders), Roger shows up to help out the Invaders, and in passing, he just happens to mention to another character (Joseph Chapman, the current Union Jack), that he is in fact gay:

He and Joseph don't really like each other much; as far as I can tell, their acquaintance in New Invaders consists of Joseph being vaguely homophobic and Roger being bitter about him being Union Jack because he actually wanted to be Union Jack himself to honor Brian's memory -- you know, that thing superheroes sometimes like to do to honor their dead superhero significant others, viz. Hank when Jan was dead after Secret Invasion -- and now Union Jack is this annoying kid and not, y'know, the love of his life. This exchange from New Invaders #4 seems pretty representative of their relationship:

Anyway, yeah, he's pretty obviously out.

Steve isn't actually present for this conversation in All-New Invaders, but he mentions in a later issue of this run that he knows what Roger and his pals have been up to, plot-wise, so I feel comfortable assuming that he's talked to Roger at some point in the previous ten years or so, and therefore, since Roger is completely out at this point in canon, there's no reason Steve shouldn't know now.

On an unrelated note, it's also a fun issue if you're a Steve/Tony fan because this is clearly running in parallel with Hickman's Avengers run, which means that he spends half a page telling Namor that he's mad at him and the rest of the Illuminati (but mostly mad at Tony because... he's just obsessed with Tony in this run, I guess?) about the mindwipe:

This is the sum total of my knowledge about Brian and Roger. No, wait, I know one more thing, which is that Brian was a character in the late, lamented mobile game Avengers Academy, in which he was also actually gay; Roger does not seem to have been there. There's a CBR article that you can read about the whole thing, which mentions some of these details from the comics in passing. (I have no idea why it says that their relationship was alluded to in the Stern/Byrne run; unless I missed something big, the only thing those issues do is establish Brian's death. As far as I can tell, no one is gay in them.)

So, yeah, that's Brian Falsworth and Roger Aubrey, the two gay Invaders. Steve sure has a lot of gay friends.

[doll-collecting-aerialist]

Make Addy’s House With Me!!

So.. I made Addy a house. More like a room, but same difference. While this house isn’t completely modeled on Addy’s main house in her books (the house owned and managed by the Golden’s), as I wanted to use this as a photography set some of my other dolls (Kirsten, Kit), it still models after what a house could of looked like.

And because I like to talk, I will give you a not so concise tutorial on how I made this set. This project took about ten days. Sorry for no “keep reading,” I’m on mobile.

You’ll Need:

Thick Cardboard (I used three big boxes that were used to ship dolls)

A cereal box (or a similar weight of card board)

Card stock. I used an entire stack in the printing of all the different wood pieces. Printer paper tends to wrinkle and tear, it’s not ideal for making a photo set that you’ll eventually be putting doll furniture on.

Acrylic paint. I used two dark browns and a reddish brown.

Modge Podge. I used a matte all purpose modge podge and then a glossy paper modge podge. I definitely recommend using matte all purpose, it was much easier to work with and well.. not annoyingly shiny. I ended up using two full bottles, so you will need a lot.

Tacky glue. Make sure it dries CLEAR.

Two clear sheet protectors.

Duck tape. Or weird, off brand washi tape that your weird slavic grandma gave you.

Yarn.

A good pair of scissors. Or a craft knife if you’re fancy.

A sharp pencil to poke holes in things.

A color printer (or you can go to the store and buy paper that looks like wood, but that can get expensive)

Free stock photos and/or digital download scrap book papers. I got the floor of my set from as a digital download from an Etsy seller, and everything else was a free stock photo.

Paint brushes. You’ll need a large one for modge podge, and a couple smaller ones for the paint. Make sure you don’t like the large paint brush because it will get ruined. Even if you wash it.

A ruler.

A dark permanent marker

Something sharp to poke a hole into the tacky glue lid. And keep poking a hole in it because it WILL glue itself shut.

First off, you need the walls and floor, or else you will have no house. Unless you have really large boxes and are able to cut an entire wall from one card board piece, you will need to duck tape a couple pieces of cardboard together in order to make a wall. You’ll need two side walls, a floor and a back wall. I didn’t take measurements of my walls and floor because I was generally just trying to work with what cardboard I had.

Double check and make sure your walls are tall enough for your AG, preferably a couple inches higher. If you’re planning to put specific furniture into your set, make sure it fits in comfortably!! I checked the floor space with an AG bed I had on hand.

Make sure the walls are sturdy. I promise that you’re wasting less ducktape by wrapping it around a couple times, then you would be if you needed to fix your set everytime you wanted to use it. Make sure you can move it, and walk past it without it coming undone and dying.

One of my favorite things about my set is that I made it so it can fold in on itself. I do not have a lot of space for sets, so the fact that I can fold it up when I’m done is great (not to mention means that I can have more than one set). Now that you have your walls, it’s time to poke some holes with your sharp pencil.

This is me attaching the floor and the back wall. I marked out how many inches across the two pieces of cardboard were, and then from that I decided where to poke my holes. You can eyeball this, but that makes me anxious. Don’t poke your holes to close to the edge, or else the cardboard might rip (not fun). You’ll want to do the same with your two side walls, although you will be attaching the side walls to the back wall, not the floor.

After you poke all your holes, you’ll want to string the walls together with yarn or twine. Make sure it’s tight enough that the walls stand on their own without flopping, but loose enough so that it doesn’t tear the cardboard, and you can fold it up with ease. I left a generous amount of string left with each “hinge” in case I ever need to tinker with it, and I just tied each “hinge” with a double knotted bow.

Thus began my long relationship with modge podge. You’ll need to modge podge the wallpaper and flooring to the card board, which is very time consuming and boring, so make sure you have something to watch. Be sure what you’re using is of a heavier weight than printer paper, or it will wrinkle. And tear. And then you will cry. Don’t be overly concerned with white spots, or small places where the cardboard shows, because you can go over those later with paint.

**BE SURE YOUR PATTERNS LINE UP OR YOU WILL CRY**

Wow!! The modge podge is done!! That only took a week!! As you can see, I added some texture and touched things up with paint. (The popsicle sticks are not supposed to be there, long story)

Now for my other favorite part, the windows.

I wanted to be able to change the scene in my windows, so I used clear sheet protectors!! I cut it to be roughly 9in x 9in. Make sure you don’t accidentally glue the sheet protectors shut. That wouldn’t be fun. I made the window frame out of singular wood planks from the photo I used for the floor, and I glued each one to thick cardboard.

You’ll want to tacky glue the window frame together, and then to the wall. BE SURE NOT TO GLUE THE WINDOW SHUT WHILE DOING THIS!!!

For the background, I just found a scene on Google and glued to to a cereal box weight cardboard, before sliding it into the sheet protector.

That should lead you to having a really cool house for your dolls!! I can’t wait to fill this one with furniture. For reading (or scrolling past this long post) have a picture of my cat interfering:

[milkybonya]

hello smiling anon here :) can i request nct 127 as boyfriends? ur astro as boyfriends post was so cute :)

Anonnie im sorry i made you wait so long TT this is the busiest week of the year so far and i had to stay focused to prepare for it, but i hope you enjoy~

NCT 127 as boyfriends ♡

link to Astro version

Warnings: food mentions

what i listened to while writing: To My Youth by BOL4

Taeil

sweet to the MAX

always singing around the house and serenading you

multiple movie nights with you in one week where you eat a whole bunch of junk food together and cuddle the entire time ;3;

becomes flustered very easily when you reach for his hand or hug him because he doesn't like skinship

but strangely with you, his heart skips a beat??

helps you when you're stressed by enveloping you in a hug and not letting go until you feel better

not overly clingy but not distant either - he's the perfect bf !!

knows when to give you space and when he needs to invade your space and give you lots of kisses >:)

not big on fancy dates, just wants to bask in your presence

wherever he is, as long as you're there, he's happy

i don't know why but i imagine his hand getting clammy when you hold it because he's so nervous,, then he gets all shy and embarrassed about it :")

Johnny

always taking photos of you

literally has a folder in his phone named '[y/n]'

so whipped for you omg he literally giggles any time you lock eyes

so EMBARRASSING cause of all the bad jokes he cracks and how tough he tries to act

"[y/n] do you wanna feel my arm muscles?"

waking up next to him each morning would involve you thinking he’s asleep and staring at him until he pulls you closer into his chest and presses his lips to your forehead ;3;

takes you on really creative dates like going to markets, going for drives, walks through unknown paths

if y’all are not seeing each other in person, he’ll constantly be texting or calling you

always sends you photos of things that remind him of you

the type to pretend he’ll give you your coat, then he doesn’t, but then he does because he loves you :”)

quite clingy in the sense that he always wants to be near you, holding your hand, hugging you, kissing you, whatever it may be

Taeyong

such a sweet and loving bf :”)

the type to buy you flowers and be that classy, romantic boyfriend

he’ll leave handwritten notes around the house and will send you good morning texts if you guys are apart from one another

the two of you are definitely the cool couple

but you’re also the couple who laughs hard about the most random things

like Taeil, knows when to give you space and when he should be there for you

will respect your sense of independence and root for you to succeed in your own things!

but also gets clingy sometimes and just wants a few hugs and kisses :”)

acts cute and pouts in front of you a lot 

but only in front of you, never in public or in front of anyone else

listens carefully whenever you’re sad and lets you rest your head on his shoulder, cry all over him - he lets you do whatever you need to do to be happy again, and he’ll try his best to cheer you up too :D

Yuta

loves reading with you, it’s one of his favourite things to do :”)

sometimes just ends up staring at you which leads to him pulling you towards him which leads to cuddling while reading and for him to kiss the top of your head an infinite amount of times

omg he will let you braid his hair or play with it or do all kinds of things to it

painting each other’s nails !! and searching for unique accessories in stores!

he’ll just buy an accessory and give it to you like “i just know this will look good on you, please try it on!”

i feel like he’ll be very honest with you about everything

so you both have nights when you talk for hours about your thoughts

and in the morning forget all about it by watching something while in bed hehe

will like exercising with you from time to time so you both stay healthy!

always thinking about you and your health, both mental and physical

you might be able to convince him to get a couple outfit :o

Doyoung

Like Johnny, likes taking photos of you but does it a bit more shyly

puts on a cool front all the time but he’s quite shy ;-;

loves to bake with you and actually takes it quite seriously

he’ll chase you around if you smudge batter on his face >:)

makes home dates fancy by lighting so many scented candles that the smell actually becomes unbearable

when you go on walks together, he’ll hide behind you every time he sees a dog, and you always have to apologize to the dog owners on his behalf because he’s scared :”D

likes to lie on top of you when you cuddle, with his weight on his legs which are on either side of you so he’s not crushing you, just so he can trace the shape of your face with his fingertips

if you cry, he cries and if you laugh, he’ll laugh - i feel like that’s how he’ll comfort you, by empathizing :”)

likes to go on car rides with you where the two of you are just singing songs 

always makes sure you’re eating your meals and staying hydrated - brings you food if you’re busy or forget

gets you really thoughtful gifts for special days but also throws a few meme gifts in there

Jaehyun

that bf who invites you to watch him play basketball just so he can take off his shirt in the middle of the game and watch as your face turns red

i feel like he’ll tease you in that ^ way a lot - he’s always trying to fluster you

he likes peaches so imagine going peach picking with him !! you’ll take such cute photos together and if he’s taller than you, he’ll pick all the peaches that you can’t ;3;

always trying to cheer you up whenever you’re sad - why can i picture him doing aegyo TT

this one time it rained when you were on a late night walk with him and he took off his jean jacket, held it above your heads as you ran home, but you ended up wet anyway :”)

super comforting whenever you’re sick or don’t feel good

constantly complimenting you and shows you lots of physical affection

always hugs you when he sleeps because if you’re not there, he’d just be hugging the blanket instead

not incredibly sentimental but always tries his best to show his love for you

tried to make breakfast in bed for you and dropped a whole bunch of cutlery on the floor :D

went through your phone and saved his name as ‘peach’ in it

Winwin

(this is from WayV as boyfriends, that’s why it looks a little different <3)

SOFT ANGEL

SOFT SOFT SOFT

did i mention he’s soft?

always worried about you 

genuinely cares about your feelings

a lot of “are you okay?” and “you’re not mad at me, right?”

if you’re ever in a bad mood, he’ll run to the store real quick and grab your favourite food for you

A LOT OF CUDDLES AND LAZY MORNINGS

he doesn’t like skinship but loves to hold you :’)

too shy to show affection in public tho

will hold your hand at the most

even if he does that, he’ll hold your hand in your pocket because he’s so shy

pls protecc him at all costs

is willing to do anything for you

sometimes you have to ask him how he genuinely feels about something

because he can’t say no :(

please make sure you tell him you love him regularly, or he’ll be sad :(

a lot of stay-at-home dates like watching movies

watchiNG ANIME (if you like it, of course)

“let’s just do whatever you want”

wiLL CRUSH YOU IN MOBILE GAMES

“i beat you! now give me a kiss >:)”

Jungwoo

if you also like to eat, y’all will have the most epic food dates omg

literally travelling to countries just to try the food there - that’s what it will be like

most of your dates involve food, but also a lot of walking dates so you can burn it off :”)

yet also many movie nights on the days where you don’t want to walk

he’ll learn your speaking habits and will imitate you whenever you get annoyed or angry 

likes to play soccer with you, even if you’re bad at it (so he can tease you), but if you’re good then he’ll enjoy trying to beat you

he’s the one who roasts you the most yet also cares for you the most

likes to kiss your neck because he can smell your natural scent, but if you hate it then he’ll do it to tease you or he’ll stop if you seriously tell him to

imitates kdrama male actors and actually makes your heart flutter by doing those things

and when you see the actors kissing in a drama,,,, you already know what he’s about to do

when you’re upset, he’ll hug you tightly and stay with you until you feel better

Mark

y’all have a shared playlist that you always add songs to so you can listen to it during car rides or when cuddling 

he keeps everything and anything you give him, whether it be a candy wrapper, flowers, a belt, shoes, anything

prepares really sweet gifts for you - a lot of songs or meaningful things

claims that you’re his muse and sometimes just stares at you for 5 minutes whenever you drop by his studio

“you’re my sun, i’m photosynthesizing so just stay right there”

he’s shy and gets flustered easily when you kiss or hug him, even when you just hold his hand

you have a tradition with him each fall where you go to a park, gather all the leaves to make a pile so you can dive into it

usually ends with you falling on top of him and the two of you just laying there for a long time

voice calls that last for more than 8 hours will become a thing when you date him :”)

always jokes about things related to marriage like ‘wow imagine if we had our wedding here’ and laughs awkwardly but he’d actually love to marry you 

takes you on trips that he claims are for him to get inspiration for music writing but he really just wants to spend time with you

Haechan

you already know what you’ve signed up for, right? chaos, absolute chaos - but in the best way

super clingy, always holding onto your arm or hand

whines when you don’t give him hugs or attention

bought a big plushie that reminded him of you so he can hug it when you’re not there and he misses you

he’s such a baby omg he’ll love being babied by you

makes hand crafted, diy gifts that clearly have his entire heart and soul in them

likes singing karaoke songs with you because if too you’re shy to sing alone, at least when he sings with you, he can hear a bit of your voice

cannot live if you’re sad or upset - he’ll do anything to help you feel better

cuddling is his favourite thing on this planet and he’ll wrap his legs around you so the two of you become an entangled mess, yet somehow are still comfortable

texts you random things like ‘i just saw a dog’ but also says stuff like that out loud to you

acts strong and cool sometimes like when you’re watching horror movies but fails miserably :(

ah, have you made it to the bottom? thank you for reading <3 were you by any chance looking for a sign? because this is it, this is your sign. i wish you luck with whatever it is that you must or must not do ;3;

[wisp-exe]

Okay fine ill post the story i wrote abt my found family. @vanillawaiver @killza-minecraft @ari-is-lonely @jackstanifold @157-bees @remy-roth

im sorry i used the wrong pronouns 4 u karmen but i submitted this for an english assignment and my teacher probably wouldnt accept the right pronouns

The microwave burst into flames as the light bulb exploded. CJ flinched back hard, staring at the flames. She was pulled out of her stupar by a hand on her shoulder.

“What are you doing, CJ?!” Karmen asked, grabbing the fire extinguisher.

“Ah, nothing. Sorry, I zoned out.” She responded, calmly.

The storm let out a loud BANG. Karmen had started to clean up the mess. CJ decided to go find her brother. She entered the living room, it looked old. All the furniture was victorian style. Marv sat on the dark green couch, right by the fireplace. He was reading a book she couldn't quite read the title of. The fireplace was big, and beautiful. It was engraved with stories told in pictures. The main one was the story of Theseus.

The story of Theseus is about a man who slays a beast, and then gets banished. A king, Lycomedes, takes him in. This is where the story has different endings. Theseus either falls off a cliff, or is pushed by Lycomedes.

CJ had been pulled out of her thoughts by another BANG from the storm.

The storm was louder than before, some might find it scary. That ‘some’ just happened to be Phil. He jumped at least a foot into the air at the next sound of thunder, before calming down and going back to the book he was reading, it was about Greek Mythology.

CJ distantly wondered where her brother Tommy was.

Meanwhile, on the second floor, Wilbur was wandering the halls. He couldn't find it in himself to settle down in one place. He glanced out the window, the storm looked like it would just be getting worse. Guess he was stuck inside. He should go find Ari and Bee. That would entertain him.

Bee was alone in their room. They were scrolling through their phone, when they decided to go find someone else in the house. Bee got off their bed and walked out the door. The hallway was dingy, and clearly water damaged. The carpet was a dark red with some gold details. They started down the hall. After just a few steps they could feel someone watching them. they suddenly felt a hand on their shoulder. They felt the cold metal of a knife at their throat. They let out one last scream before everything went dark.

There was a scream from the second floor. Everyone rushed to find the noise. What they saw terrified them. It was the dead body of Bee. They had been stabbed in the throat. Marv screamed. Everyone was crying. The death was clearly not an accident.

“Oh my god, someone here is a murderer!” Phil exclaimed.

Everyone looked at each other suspiciously

“Well it can't be CJ. She's so nice” Tommy spoke

“What if it was Wilbur? He was alone!” Marv shouted

“So were you!”

What if another person gets killed? The storm was raging, and people were blaming Wilbur. He was upset. Bee was his best friend. Everyone agreed to return to their rooms for the night and hope for the best. The phones aren't working anyways, the internet had gone out and there was no service in the area their airbnb was in. Wilbur decided to entertain himself with the bad mobile game he downloaded that was full of ads unless there was no internet.

Wilbur’s room was one of the smaller ones, consisting of just a bed, desk, and wardrobe. The bedsheets were a medium blue, and were queen size even though the bed was only a twin. He had set his bag on the dark spruce desk. The floor was a lighter oak wood color.

Wilbur heard a knock at his door. He didn't know who it could be, everyone was scared of him because they think he killed Bee.

“Who is it?”

Another knock, this time in a melodic pattern.

“Alright, fine i'm coming.”

Wilbur opened the door and froze. In Front of him was the killer, holding a bloody knife. He felt like he was going to puke at the sight of his friend’s blood. The murderer gave him a wicked grin. They covered his mouth as they stabbed him, making sure no one could hear the scream. Wilbur’s room was a bit aways from the closet inhabited room.

Wilbur’s body was found the next morning. No one felt safe around the others. It was only Karmen, CJ, Tommy, Marv, and Ari left, so it was easy to avoid each other in this big house.

Karmen was currently making themself toast. The toaster went off with a ding. Karmen put their toast on a plate, and spread butter on it. They then entered the living room to eat in front of the fire.

They heard footsteps from behind them. They turned just in time to get a glance at the killer, before being shoved into the fire. They screamed as they were burned. Soon the house was filled with the smell of burning flesh, the killer was nowhere to be seen.

Later around 11pm, the remaining people decided to stay together. They were in one of the bigger bedrooms, it had two beds, its own bathroom, and lots of floor space. The room’s color theme was green and yellow. Then the power went out. Tommy had taken out a flashlight and turned it on.

“I always keep it on me in old places, just in case.”

Marv felt like something was off. CJ was nowhere to be seen.

He had gotten stabbed, so had Ari. CJ had a sick grin on her face, Tommy had a neutral look on his. That was the last thing he saw.

CJ and Tommy proceeded to walk to the main staircase, not speaking a word. CJ started to walk towards her room.

“CJ, wait. I have something to tell you.”

CJ approached him, “What is it Tommy?”

She was going to say more when she felt herself get shoved over the railings, falling straight from the third floor to the first. There she laid, bleeding out in the middle of the beautiful entry way. Tommy then left the airbnb.

Thomas closed the book, “And that was the last they saw of Tommy, some say he still might be killing, without his sister. Others think he settled down with a family. I guess we will never know.”

[harrysgloves]

Fine Line (Chapter 9)

>>>Catch up with the Fine Line Masterlist!

word count: 

story summary: Since you were kids you and Harry had always walked that fine line of friends or something more. Now, pregnant by someone else, you find yourself staying with your long time best friend after things go sour with your boyfriend of 3 years.

Singlemom!Reader x Harry Styles

chapter summary: You and Harry revisit an old childhood game.

warnings: Language // cuddling // mutual pining but they're both dumb af // no editing

a/n: Apparently, I do still write... amazing right?? Anyway, posting this from mobile so it might be a bit weird formatting and I couldn't post the word count tonight. Sorry about that guys. Hope you enjoy anyways!

As always, likes and reblogs make my little heart sing and comments make me almost faint. So, gimme that love.

>>><<<

You settled into Harry's couch for yet another night alone. The light from Judd Nelson's match he had managed to ignite with the back of his teeth lit up the television. The 

luminescent bulbs dimly casted tints of blue and white lights across Harry's living room. Your eyes glued to the movie you'd seen a million times before as you curled in tighter into the soft blankets. 

Harry had been busy the last few days and while you tried your best to not bitch about it, you were lonely. Gemma and Abby had their own lives thousands of miles away from you. Jesse had still not answered you back. Your mother couldn't carry on a conversation with you for more than 10 minutes without forgetting who you were. Besides work, you really had no one to hangout with and even your coworkers didn't see you outside the office. 

The only glimmer of a social life you had was your unborn child that you talked to constantly and Mr. Stranger-who-hits-on-people-at-the-doctor's-office. Since your child couldn't talk back to you yet, Matt was quickly becoming your life line to a somewhat normal life. 

Your phone dinged for the millionth time that night. Matt's name flashing across the top of the screen had a smile curling on your lips. Your fingers quickly slid to open your message app.

>Can't wait for nights like these, right?

The message read, a picture of Roman passed out asleep on top of Matt's chest glared from your phone screen.

<<He looks comfortable.

You shot back, your lips rolling into your mouth as you waited for the response. There was nothing wrong with some innocent flirting, right?

>He says he highly recommends you trying it.

You could feel your cheeks heat when your eyes scanned his message. You bit the inside of your cheek as you typed back, quickly deleting your first response to write a different one. 

You were so out of practice when it came to flirting. You had no idea how to even do it. Even when you started dating Jesse he was the one who initiated everything. You didn't know he was hitting on you until your dorm mate at the time told you.

<<Sure he does.

>Swear. Cheeky little thing even said he'd share me being his pillow with you if you come to the park with us on Friday.

You let out a chuckle as you read his response, ready to shoot back a more feisty text when the door to Harry's house was thrown open. A very drunk Harry stumbled through the door. His eyes widened when he saw you sitting on the couch. That lopsided smile on his face as he used his dining room table to balance himself.

"Have a good night?" You asked, your phone and conversation with Matt long forgotten as Harry clammed up. His hand ran through his soft waves of brown curls as he let out a long breath.

"Weren’t supposed to drink but Mitch brought out the bottle and-" 

"Hazza, it's fine. I'm glad you had a good night. You've been busy lately. You probably needed it." You quickly cut him off, not wanting him to feel bad for having a life outside of you.

After all, you were his guest. He didn't need to run his itinerary through you everyday. He had his own things and you had yours.

"Missed yeh so much this week. Sorry 've been busy." He sighed as he tried to take a step down the stairs. His hand quickly pressed to the wall to balance himself.

"You need to go to bed." You mumbled as you stood up from your warm spot on the couch. Your arm instantly under his to help further balance him.

"But I miss yeh and wanna hang out." He whined. His head laid on your shoulder as he pouted.

"We can hangout all day tomorrow, promise." You said when you pushed him lightly back up the stairs. His body clung to yours. His arm around your shoulders.

"But, I wanna hang out now." He huffed like a petulant toddler. His arms stiffened at his side almost made you lose your balance.

"Fine, well hang out now as long as you help me get to your room." You rolled your eyes at him, letting out a huff when he stopped completely in his tracks.

"Promise?"

"Fuck, Haz, yes. Just get walking before I fall." You grumbled as you pulled at his waist. His feet reluctantly slid against the hardwood floors.

"Yeh can't fall right now yeh pregnant."

"I know." You sighed as you pulled him a bit more. Your doctor would have your ass if she knew you were putting this much strain on yourself. His weight was every bit of 5 times the amount you were supposed to lift or carry but it wasn't like he could make it to bed by himself. "Which is why I need you to help me here."

His feet left the ground in much better steps than he had taken before. The words you had spoken seemed to sober him up a bit as you finally pushed the door to his room open. His tall lanky body hit the bed in a second. You sighed as the pressure from your shoulders finally let up.

"Night Haz." You said with your hand on the doorknob, foot halfway out the door when he perked back up enough to turn on his bed to look at you.

"Yeh promised, so get back 'ere." He patted the bed a few times. A signal for you to join him.

"Uh, maybe tomorrow. We shouldn't-" your words were quickly cut off by his hand around your wrist as he brought you closer to the bed.

"Yeh promised, bunny." He smiled up to you that adorable dimple popped out as you nodded your head. 

Well, you did promise.

Your knees hit the plush pillow top. Your body sunk in slightly as you moved across the bed to the top. Your arms around the pillow that smelled of Harry's shampoo and cologne.

That adorable grin never left Harry's face as he watched you crawl into his bed. A shiver ran down his spine but he quickly shook that thought away. You were just his friend. Only his friend. 

He reminded himself of that many times as he mimicked your position on the bed. His head on the pillow, face towards you, both your knees touched each other.

"'Member when it'd storm durin' your sleep overs with Gem and yeh always end up curled up in my bed 'cause y'hate storms and Gem sleeps like a log?" He asked as his hands tightened around the pillow. Your head nodded as a smile crept up on your face. 

"Remember you stealing all the covers." You teased as he rolled his eyes at you.

"Won't steal 'em tonight. Promise." His pinky finger shot in the air, yours immediately wrapped around it, without even a second thought.

The street lights outside his window cast soft white lights into his room. Just enough that you could see the outline of his face, the tip of his nose, the long eyelashes against his cheek every time he blinked. You licked your lips as the silence swallowed you both. 

How much longer could you two keep up the act of being friends? You didn't know the answer to that question. Every time you were close like this to him you could feel your resolve washing away. Especially when his lips parted slightly, his steady breathing sounded like a soft lullaby. You swallowed, your eyes darted down to his chest. 

"Wanna do the thing?" He asked, his voice broke your intense stare on his lips and back to his eyes. Your cheeks burned in embarrassment at the sight of his smirk.

"Seems a bit stupid now." You mumbled as your eyes darted away from him.

How long had you been staring? How long did he notice you staring?

"Well too bad. I wanna do it."

"You're bloody drunk of course you wanna do it." You huffed as you tried to protest against this stupid game you two always played as children. 

"My bed, my rules." He said as the blanket encased both of you. The little amount of light that was being let in from the street lights was completely snuffed out from his duvet. The heavy duty quilt almost made it hard to breath. The air hot and sticky, smelling of whatever alcohol Harry had been drinking that night and his cashmere cologne. Suddenly, you were cursing your 12 year old self for ever coming up with this shit.

"This is dumb, Haz." You sighed.

"'S not dumb. 'S tradition!" His voice raised to a level you hadn't heard before. You could imagine the shocked look on his face, feel it forming on his features through the thick air.

His hand came to rest on the side of your face and yours reluctantly did the same. Your cool fingers touched against his warm skin. The stubble on his jaw tickled the inside of your palm. A sharp breath sucked through his teeth as your fingers traced the curves of his cheek bones. His own hand mimicking the movement, both of you studying each other's face with nothing but touch.

"Ready?" He asked, his voice playful and full of mischief. It almost made you smile, until you remembered how fucking stupid this was.His eyes closed when his hand ran over your lips. Your eyes trained on him for a second to make sure he wouldn’t cheat like he used to when you were kids. Once satisfied with the knowledge he wasn’t going to peek your own eyes slipped close, a long breath exited your lungs as you thought of all the times you did this with him.

It had merely started out as a way for you to touch him without him knowing you wanted to be close to him. Even though he quickly caught on to the fact of why you liked this so much when you were younger, he never protested when you suggested doing it. Of course, now you knew why he didn’t argue with you.

He wanted to be close to you too. 

Your lips formed into a smile as your mouth opened and closed a few times. His fingers lingering over them as they formed words silently. His eyes popped open as he glared at you. The darkness didn’t let you see his expression but your hands could feel his eyebrows pull together. Your lips rolled in your mouth to stop your obnoxious laugh.

“Yeh a brat, know that, love?” He asked a bit irritated but you could feel his facial features softening when you let out another giggle. 

“Couldn’t help it.” You said through your laughs, his cheeks pushed back against your hand that was still pressed there, a smile on his face so big you could feel the dimple there. 

“‘M not a tosser.” He pressed his finger booping the tip of your nose before it dragged down to your cupid’s bow. The tip of his finger lightly traced the outline of your lips. 

“Your turn.” You snapped him out of his silence when your digits went to his plush lips again. The softness of them never failed to surprise you. How did he manage to have such soft lips? 

You could feel your mind slowly slip from how they felt against your fingers to how they’d feel against your own. Imagining what it’d be like to have them on you again after all this time. Wondering if they’d still send that electric shock down your body. Wondering if he still tasted the same, like home. 

You were rudely pulled out of your daydreams when you felt his lips curl and twist. Your mind searched through your vocabulary of his top phrases he always said to you. Your lips pouted, eyebrows furrowed as he silently mouthed the phrase again. The skin of your fingers took in all the information down your arm directly to your mind. A smile you knew he could feel came across your lips. 

“Love you too, Haz.” Your eyes fluttered open right as his hand left your face and went around your waist. Clearly done with visiting your old time game when he threw the blanket from over the top of your heads. The sweet crisp air being sucked into your lungs in deep breaths. 

“Wasn’t so bad.” He said as you nodded your head in agreement, a shrug from your shoulders had him rolling his eyes as he pulled you into his chest. Your head against his pillow when his hand ran small circles over your lower back, the bottom of your shirt bunched up by his hands so he could touch your skin. A sigh of relief left you at the touch you didn’t know you needed, your face buried deep into him. Your own free hand wandered under his shirt. Your skin touching against the smooth planes of his stomach up to his chest. Contentment washed over you as your body relaxed into him. Eyes closing from how good it felt to be close again. 

The soft call of sleep beckoned you to its depth. Your breath slowed as your legs entangled with his. Gently slipping into a deep sleep. Arguably, the best sleep you’d had in years. 

>>>

Harry woke up the next morning with a pounding in his head. A groan left his lips as the sunlight that danced in through his windows blinded him momentarily. His sleep filled eyes blinked at the intrusion. Hand against his face, swearing to himself he’d never ever let Mitch talk him into another night of drinking. The echoes of his friend's voice rang through his head. Promises of a light night was total bullshit. His body ached as he tried to get into a different, more comfortable, position. His arm refused to move as something heavy laid on top of it. His eyes fully snapped open to see you laid out beside him. 

A smile creeping across his mouth as he looked at you. Your soft pouty lips pushed out as you took in deep calming breaths. The sunlight touched the peaks of your hips and breast. Glowing light radiating off your silky bare thighs. He chuckled lowly, knowing your sleep pants had been abandoned some time during the middle of the night. He guessed some things never change.

His fingers ran down your arm, up the shoulder of your sleeve. He just wanted to touch you, feel your skin under his own. He couldn’t help it. He felt like a man being possessed. His own body moving to its own accord. Inching its way in to hold you like he did almost 8 years ago. 

His arm was around you, face inches away from your own. He could see your eyes fluttering back and forth behind your eyelids. Small whimpers came from you as you dreamed. 

Were you dreaming about him?

He sighed, head pressed harder into the pillow. He could have laid here watching you all day. The way your breathing made your chest rise, the way you unknowingly wiggled closer to him when his arm rested over top of you, the way the golden sunlight made you look like a fucking angel in his arms. 

Golden, golden, golden

As I open my eyes

Words formed in his mind as he memorized every inch of your skin. Every valley of your body, every high rise of your curves. His sight eventually landed on your stomach. A small bump was there, not a huge one, definitely one he wouldn't have noticed if he didn't have every part of your body mastered like the back of his hand. He supposed it made sense you'd start showing by now. All the research he'd done late at night said 12 weeks was usually the normal time frame. 

His hand slowly moved above your bump. Hovering there for what felt like hours. He would never admit it to you but he was scared, petrified, this child would somehow drive a wedge between you two. 

Chase you farther away from him when it felt like he'd just gotten you back.

It wasn't that you two weren't close when you didn't live with him, you two definitely were, but with Jesse and others around he never had you to himself. That was all he wanted, your attention. He suddenly felt like a 7 year old begging you for a moment of your time while you mindlessly played barbies for hours with his sister. 

How fucking pathetic, he thought. Was he really going to be jealous of your child having your time? Or was he just jealous that it wasn't also his child?

He knew the answer as soon as his hand hit your stomach. He inhaled a sharp breath in through his teeth. His heart melted as he thought of that little baby that jumped around on the ultrasound machine. A sense of protectiveness he'd never felt before flooded his brain.

He slid gently down the bed. He held his breath as he lifted your shirt. His eyes darted up to make sure he didn't disturb you from your sleep. 

"Good mornin' baby." He mumbled to your stomach, his large hands completely encased the bump.

"Yeh don't know it yet but yeh momma is my best friend so I guess that makes us best friends too." He said lowly, his callused hands moving softly against your skin made you hum in your sleep. Your body shifted slightly to get more comfortable on your back. 

Harry raised to rest on his elbows. His hands still on your stomach muttering soft sweet words to your baby. 

"Gonna teach yeh all kinds 'f things." 

"Gonna 'ave to let yeh listen to my music 'cause yeh mom has some bad taste."

"Gonna 'ave to teach y'football too, 'cause yeh mom's got two left feet."

"Definitely gonna 'ave to teach yeh maths she's really bad at that one. Pretty sure I did all her work fo' her. Got no idea how she passed when I left."

"You know I can hear you, right?" You asked after being insulted for what seemed like an eternity. Your head popping off the pillow to glare at your friend trash talking you to your baby.

"Oi, this is a private conversation." He said with a smirk on his face as his head shot up to you. His eyes sparkling with a glint of humor as you shook your head at him. He let out a sigh as he fell back to the bed. His chin rested on the covers as your hand ran through his hair. 

He'd stay like this with you for as long as you let him. He'd be happily content to let your fingers run through his hair all day if you wanted to. The soft scratching of your nails on his scalp soothing him as his eyes slipped closed.

Yes, he could stay like this forever.

"Wanna get breakfast?" You asked a bit later, his eyes lazily flicked open only to shut again. His arm flung around your waist, pulling you close to him. His nose nuzzled into your side making you giggle that soft sweet sound he loved more than anything else in this world.

"Wanna cuddle." He mumbled into the exposed part of your skin. Your shirt still lifted over your stomach from him talking to the baby.

"Harry…" You said gently. Your hands in his hair paused their movements.

You cherished these types of mornings with him. Locked them in a special place in your heart but you knew deep down you shouldn't be in situations like this with him. It would only make things more confusing for the both of you. You could already feel yourself inching closer and closer to the edge of recklessness with your heart.

At the end of the day you were still you and he was still the great Harry Styles. 

How could you ever live up to the type of person he'd need in his life?

"Jus' a little while longer, yeah?" He said from below you. Not wanting to admit he knew being wrapped up in bed with you was wrong.

He liked Camille. Loved her, maybe, but she'd never compare to you. The love he had for you burned deep, like a forest fire wild out of control. He tried his best to tame it. Remind it that you had no interest in him anymore but it had a life of it's own at this point. Even through countless rejections and long years of yearning for you without reciprocation.

"Yeah, okay." You said, your hands going back to work running through his hair.

Both of you, unknowingly to the other, wondering the same thought as you laid in each other's embrace.

What would happen if you crossed that line?

[rallamajoop]

The Witcher: The Games vs the Books part 2 – Characters and Accents

So, I've already talked at length about the relationship between the Witcher books and games, but how well they captured individual characters is its whole own subject – and you’d better believe I have enough thoughts on it for a whole extra post.

Andrej Sapkowski's skill for creating vivid and engaging characters really is so much of what brings the books to life, and no matter how much work an adaptation might put into worldbuilding and plot, it's the characters you've really got to nail to get the long-time fans on board. Especially when you’ve done what the games have, framing themselves as a direct continuation of Sapkowski's story. Nothing invites comparison to your source material like basically forcing fans to read the original novels to understand even half the backstory alluded to in-game. 

So how did they do? I can only offer my opinion – characterisation is necessarily going to be a lot more subjective than just telling you what plot points the games contradicted outright – but like any fan, I have opinions in plenty.

Of the main cast, I feel Yennefer is the character they've captured the best. They've done just as well with some supporting players – I have no real complaints about Dijkstra or Phillipa, for example, who are favourites of mine in both games and books. For the main players though, Geralt and Regis seem to be the ones who's differences I'm most inclined to forgive, whereas I don't feel like they've done Ciri justice at all. Book!Geralt is much less of a smartarse, for one thing, whereas Book!Ciri is much more of one. But if we're talking about the differences, I’m afraid we really need to start with Dandelion.

Dandelion

For all the genuinely good work the games do with characters, old and new, I don't think I can overstate what a disservice the they've done Dandelion, who I could not stand in TW3, but is now one of my favourite book!verse characters. Alas, Dandelion is a prime example of something the Witcher games really don't do well: camp. Being the archtypical bard, Dandelion is about as flamboyant as any enthusiastically-heterosexual man can be: you should be able to spot this guy by body language alone, he should be flouncing around and he should talk like a spoiled noble auditioning for Shakespeare. Book!Dandelion is over-the-top and ridiculous and just so much fun, and I loved him well before I'd even really gotten into the rest of the books around him.

Here's just a bit of dialogue from one of his first appearances, to give you a sense of how he and Geralt play off each other.

The  bard  seized  the  fingerboard  of  his  lute  and  plucked  the strings vigorously. ‘How would you prefer it, in verse or in normal speech?’ ‘Normal speech.’ ‘As you please,’ Dandelion said, not putting his lute down. ‘Listen then, noble  gentlemen,  to  what occurred  a  week  ago  near  the  free  town  of Barefield. ‘Twas thus, that at the crack of dawn, when the rising sun had barely tinged pink the shrouds of mist hanging pendent above the meadows—’ ‘It was supposed to be normal speech,’ Geralt reminded him. ‘Isn’t it? Very well, very well. I understand. Concise, without metaphors. A dragon alighted on the pastures outside Barefield.’

Though TW3's Dandelion certainly looks the part, you have to go hunting through art from the Gwent cards to find much that comes close to really capturing his personality (see left pic below – though even there, a Dandelion who'd voluntarily break his treasured lute is a very hard sell). Though a lot of fanart does better (right-below – credit goes to Tatiana Ortaliz).

But as poorly as the games capture his flamboyance, they're not that much better when it comes to taking him seriously. TW3 left me thinking he was all talk and no substance; the books make abundantly clear that he really is renowned enough to be welcome in courts across the continent. Though he often overestimates what he can talk himself out of, he isn’t stupid either: he's lectured at Oxenfurt, spied for Dijkstra, and then there are the moments where the frivolous playboy mask slips and you realise he's sometimes much better at understanding people and relationships than Geralt will ever be (which is honestly kind of funny considering how many of Dandelion’s relationships end with plates being thrown at him from an upper story). He's not at all above mocking Geralt when he deserves it either (and especially his personal and relationship issues) – Geralt will happily mock him right back.

We never do learn how they became friends (I'm pretty sure the incident listed in the wiki is just the date of their first expedition together, not their first meeting), but Geralt just doesn't form lasting friendships or romances with anyone he can't have an intelligent conversation with. And Dandelion is a damn good friend to Geralt – one who, despite being a helpless, squishy little bard, will keep Geralt's secrets under torture, or will follow him into Nilfgaard in the middle of a war simply because you don't let a friend make a trip like that alone. (Seriously, I don’t ship it nearly as much as some, but hot damn there is some material in here if you do.) In short, it's basically inconceivable that he'd leave an amnesic Geralt wandering around Vizima alone, as he does in the first Witcher game – which is the kind of thing I can mostly forgive as a gameplay conceit, only it doesn’t really get better from there.

He’s also supposed to be blond, something I don’t think is technically specified until fairly late in the novels, but 100% what I’d been picturing since his first description as a man in a colourful bonnet with cornflower-blue eyes (let’s face it: Dandelion’s hair isn’t the only thing about him that screams ‘blond’). It’s a shame no-one from the games to the show to the novels’ cover artists seem to have noticed – but at least there are some fanartists out there who were paying attention (credit for these goes to Asphaloth, Ghostcupdraws, Hvit-ravn (tumblr deleted), 94355 and itsmespicaa).

As for the games? Well, I cannot speak to how Dandelion came across in the original Polish, but I think it speaks worlds about the priorities of the English version that they didn’t even bother to cast someone with a halfway-decent singing voice as their master bard. There are isolated moments of dialogue that come close to sounding like book!Dandelion– mostly in Witcher 2, which comes closer to capturing the spirit of the books than either 1 or 3, or his attempts to convince his captor he's a disguised noble when you rescue him TW3 – but his voice actor is just painfully ill-suited to the role.

Geralt

Geralt fares much better than Dandelion, though he’s still a little hard to square with the Geralt of the books. Book!Geralt spends a lot more time sulking, just to begin with: he sulks because his job is complicated and gets him no respect, and because the world is unjust and unfair – and, most of all, he sulks because Yennefer has dumped him again. He also gets mocked for sulking, and usually deserves it. Book!Geralt is generally a lot more taciturn and a less prone to making smart comments just to have something to say – arguably because in book!Geralt's world, making smart comments often ends at the gallows, or at least with some corrupt official making your life much harder. Book!Geralt's world kind of sucks, and he's just got to put up with it.

As much as he often plays into the expectations of being an uneducated monster hunter, he's also got a more of an intellectual streak than you’d guess. He may prefer to stay out of politics (because damnit, his job is to save people from monsters, not people who are monsters), but he attended school at Nenneke's temple and has even taken classes at Oxenfurt academy, and there's a lot of thoughtful nuance to his opinions – his speech to Ciri about why he can't in good conscience take a stronger stance against the Scoiata'el contains a wealth of historical perspective, just for one example. Even his smart comments tend to be, well, somewhat smarter in the books.

Book!Geralt’s explicitly a lot younger than Yennefer – around 50 is the usual estimate, falling far short of the 100-ish the games suggest (the scandal of having a man fall for – gasp! – an older woman clearly didn’t bother Sapkowski one bit). You don’t see nearly as much "I'm getting too old for this" from book!Geralt, who's really not that old by witcher standards, and is apparently still hunting monsters long into his future. I'm also a little annoyed by the way they play off his hatred of portals like he's a grumpy old man who doesn't like mobile phones, when his distrust originally came from having seen the gruesome deaths that result when portals go wrong. This is not to say Book!Geralt lacks other ordinary human flaws, however – twice in the last two books of the main saga, he gets severely sidetracked after his ego gets the better of him (in the adulation he receives after being knighted, then after arriving in Toussaint), and it's quite some time before he properly gets back on track for that whole rescuing-Ciri thing again. He’s also pretty hopeless when it comes to romance and relationships – breaking things off gracefully is really not in his skillset.

So why does game!Geralt not bother me more? Well, he's the main player character of a game franchise, and one who has to carry the experience largely solo. Some adjustments for genre are pretty much inevitable in that position. He's certainly fared better than Meve, for example, who's been softened far more from her book characterisation for her PC role in Thronebreaker. Then there's the whole amnesia thing – it's easy to believe that sort of experience would change a man – and if he doesn't sulk so much as he used to, maybe he's grown up a bit. Geralt's also in many ways the straight-man of Sapkowski's Witcher universe – there largely as the reliable centre for other, louder personalities to play off. But I expect the real bottom line here is that I do still like game!Geralt enough to forgive him a lot of what he lacks.

The books never do describe Geralt as being very attractive – something book-based fanart often tries to reflect. The point has been made before that the rather-alien-looking Geralt of the first game (left pic above) is probably a lot closer to his book-description. However, the main distinguishing factor you’ll see in book-based fanart is probably the ubiquitous headband, which genuinely is what book!Geralt wears to make his hair behave (the example on the right above comes from Diana Novich).

All that said, if Sapkowski really wants me to believe that nearly so many women are eager to jump into bed with him, I’m going to have to shallowly assume our witnesses are unreliable on this front, and Geralt is at least as attractive as Witcher 3′s take on him. Nothing else makes sense. *g*

Regis

Regis varies mostly in that book!Regis is a lot more smug, sometimes verging on obnoxious – and a lot keener to make fun of Geralt (who generally deserves it). But then, Regis is old and wise and superpowered enough to dance rings around most everyone else – can you blame him? By Blood and Wine, Regis' overconfidence has been recently smacked down hard after his near-death-experience at the hands of Vilgefortz, and that kind of thing could knock some chips off anyone's shoulder. Throw in the fact that with Dettlaff, we have a situation not even Regis could make light of, and the changes to game!Regis make a certain amount of sense.

I do feel it's a bit of a shame that the vocal direction didn't work just a little bit harder to capture some of Regis' smugger side, or emphasise that his long-winded philosophising on human behaviour is supposed to sound a bit pretentious. This is actually something I suspect they were going for a few times in the script, but which didn't come through in the dialogue quite the way it was meant to. Still, again, I'm sure I'm biased by the fact that I like game!Regis far too much to find much fault in what they've done with him. They've done a lovely job capturing his friendship with Geralt too.

Looks-wise, there's a tendency in book-based art to portray Regis with long hair (even some pre-Blood-and-Wine Gwent art did so – see the two pics on the left above, from Gwent and early B&W concepts. The right-most pic is cover art from the books). I couldn't rightly tell you where long-haired-Regis comes from, though – perhaps it's described more explicitly in the original Polish, or perhaps it comes up in passing in some passage I've forgotten, though it may just as well just be a fannish meme.

The books do describe him as looking rather like a tax collector, slim, middle-aged, with an aquiline nose, prone to wearing black, and his hair as 'greying' or 'grey streaked', so presumably somewhat younger-looking than the game would have it. The hammer-horror-esque sideburns are likewise a game-verse addition, though I do like the look they went with – it's distinct from Geralt in a way that making him another long-grey-haired man wouldn't have been, and that's probably the point.

Being the hopeless Regis fan I am, I have quite the folder full of different fanart takes on book!Regis, so have a selection – art here is by gellihana-art, justanor, greysmartwolf, Nastyaskaya, NatalyLanier, beidak, natalliel, ellaine and afternoon63. For what it’s worth, I feel beidak’s (bottom pic, second from the left) comes the closest to what I’d have pictured personally, based on how he’s first described.

Ciri

I find it much harder to rationalise the changes to game!Ciri, who I didn't exactly dislike, but found stuck too close to the role of generic-macguffin-girl-who-just-wants-to-be-normal to be very interesting. Having read the books, not only do I much prefer book!Ciri, I'm not sure I can emphasize enough how much the game did NOT prepare me for utter gauntlet of whump and misery that girl survives in the last four titles. Book!Ciri is a character who works for me mostly because of the same flaws the game mostly strips her free of – TW3 makes some token noise about how you can't tell her what to do, but she’s an utter little royal brat when we first meet book!Ciri, and it’s so much of what brings her to life. She throws herself into her witcher training with the enthusiasm of a kid going completely native, but still revels in getting to be girly for a change when Triss first arrives at Kaer Morhen. She hates Yennefer at first, but soon bonds with her just as strongly as she ever did with Geralt, picking up some of Yennfer’s haughty mannerisms along the way. And then she gets thrown through a portal and lost in the distant wilderness, and the whole world comes down on her head.

The build up to the first time Ciri actually has to kill someone is intense... and things only get worse from there. Steadily. For another couple of novels at a stretch. Seriously, a major caveat that pretty much has to go into any rec for these books (and I will absolutely rec these books) is that Ciri's story gets heavy. So heavy one finds oneself using phrases like, "that time that one guy died of his wounds on top of her while semi-consensually feeling her up was honestly one of the less traumatic incidents in the period."

By the end of the novels, Ciri has nearly died of thirst, been beaten, tied up, dragged around the country as a prisoner, run with bandits and killed innocent people for the fun of it, done fantasy-cocaine and got a tattoo, fought off more than one attempted rape, been drugged, lain for multiple nights next to an impotent elf who completely fails to impregnate her, watched the bodies of her friends and girlfriend being mutilated in front of her, and did I mention where she got that scar? She has survived hell, and it is absolutely a testament to her own strength that she somehow comes through it and puts herself back together at the end. When Geralt finally arrives to rescue her, what matters most isn't that her ordeal is over, but that she finally knows she hasn’t been abandoned by everyone who’d ever loved her after all.

The Ciri of the books is fierce and wild and arrogant, but she's learned her morals from the best, and she holds onto them until she can't, then picks them back up again when she can, and above all she survives. For all that her story turns arguably too much of the last two books into a slog of misery, oh boy does it pay off at the end. And that's probably about as much as I can say about her Big Moment in the last book without spoiling too much, so suffice to say that by the end of the saga, Geralt has pretty much become a supporting character in Ciri's story, not the other way around. (Seriously, you’d be surprised how few chapters of the last two books he’s actually in.)

Finding art which captures the aspects of Ciri’s character and history which are missing from the game has turned out to be pretty hard, though the fanart above from her bandit phase takes a decent crack at it (credit to Loles Romero and NastyaSkaya). I do rather like that one shot of her on horseback beside her girlfriend too, which comes from Denis Gordeev’s illustrations for the novels (below).

How much of this does TW3 get across with her portrayal in the game? Well, she's still pretty headstrong, I guess. And they let you give a 'sorry, I like girls' answer in one bit of dialogue, so they remembered her girlfriend existed. That's nice. But game!Ciri still has a kind of wide-eyed innocence that book!Ciri lost years ago, while book!Ciri is a little force of nature in ways the games hardly even hint at, and that's a really shameful loss.

You'd think, with a character so young, it ought to be easier to imagine she's simply grown up since we saw her last, but so much of what's changed about Ciri feels like a step back rather than forwards. I can shrug off Geralt and Regis' differences and still enjoy their game-verse-selves, but Ciri leaves me genuinely disappointed.

I’d say the official art that comes closest to capturing book!Ciri is that one portrait of her as a very grumpy young child (right above). Some of the early concept art (left above) feels a little more like it has her attitude, though she’s rather too yellow-blonde – not to mention too pretty. I think it also bears pointing out that Ciri isn’t really supposed to be the kind of beauty she is in the game – even before she gets what’s meant to be a seriously ugly and disfiguring scar. (Fanart below by justanor and bobolip)

But of course, the male gamer fanbase can’t be expected to give a fuck about a girl they wouldn’t want to fuck, so game!Ciri must be generically gorgeous. Le sigh.

Triss

I suppose I should at least touch on Triss, too, though she's a very odd case. She's so out of character in the first Witcher game that I am wryly amused that the biggest thing they arguably do get right is that taking advantage of Geralt the moment he showed up with amnesia is... pretty well in-character for her (look, I gotta be honest here, I'm not much of a fan of Triss in any of her incarnations).

The second game does a much better job with her – she actually feels like book!Triss, she has some good dialogue, we're finally dealing with some of her conflicted loyalties to the Lodge and to Geralt – though by the third, her characterisation has been so softened into “the nice one” that none of that potentially meaty conflict is ever resolved, or even really mentioned. Perhaps there's more buried in the Triss-romance path, which I've never bothered with, but the writers seem to have just given up on dealing with anything that might make her look less than wholly sympathetic. Heck, we hardly even get a clear statement about why she and Geralt broke up between Witchers 2 and 3.

Even speaking as such a not-a-fan of Triss, I promise there is more they could've done with the character the books give us. There's her ongoing trauma in from the Battle of Sodden, where she was injured so badly she was memorialised as one the dead: the 14th of the hill. There's her furious impatience with the neutrality of both the witchers and the Lodge: Triss has fought and died for a cause, and is ready to do so again. The second game sort of gets into this, but by and large, the games really aren't up to tackling the moral complexity of having such a theoretically-sympathetic character as Triss, who was still broadly willing to go along with the Lodge's plans to pair Ciri off and get her pregnant as soon as possible – her own wishes be damned. No, instead, Triss has conveniently left the Lodge before the rest of them go spiraling into abject villainy in the second game, clearing all that messy grey stuff out of the conflict.

Of course, the really big unresolved plot point still hanging over book!Triss is how badly she needs to terms with the fact Geralt's just Not That Into Her, and never has been – but since the games want Triss to be a serious romantic option, that's definitely not getting the resolution it could've used.

Book!Triss also pointedly avoids any outfit with a plunging neckline because her chest is covered with the ugly scars she received in the Battle of Sodden, something the games did not have the guts to reproduce. In a more confusing note, the books do consistently describe her hair as 'chestnut', which we'd usually think of as meaning 'brown' – though it turns out the games actually may not have been wrong to make her a redhead, since in Poland 'chestnut hair' apparently mean dark red hair (google some pictures of actual chestnuts, and you'll see why). Still, the firy-red-haired Triss of TW3 who wears nothing but plunging necklines remains a bit of a stretch, however you slice it. Once again, TW2 gets her best (and I must say, gave her the nicest outfit) – though even here she's conspicuously unscarred in all her sex scenes.

(Leftmost pic above is official Witcher 2 art, whereas Triss-with-scars fanart comes to us – once again – from nastyaskaya)

Shani

Shani sort of falls into a similar category as Triss as someone who isn't terribly well-served by any of her appearances, given that both exist in the first game largely to compete for Geralt's attentions. But I can't honestly say I find Shani’s portrayal in the Hearts of Stone expansion to be much better – the degree to which either version exists solely to fall all over Geralt is a bit painful, especially given that their relationship in the books is limited to a single, undramatic hook-up. Book!Shani really only appears in a couple of chapters: we meet her as a medical student friend of Dandelion's, who's been surreptitiously selling pilfered university supplies to fund her degree, then later see her again in the final book, where she proves herself as a battlefield medic during the climactic Battle of Brenna. She's pragmatic to a fault, and I really can't see her as the type who needs Geralt to point out to her that her patient is dead, for example, or who'd subject a guy with Geralt's problems to such an extended feelings-dump as you'll get out of her during the wedding.

Shani is a reasonably logical book-character to bring back, if only because she’s one of those who explicitly survives the ending, but for my money, "serious contender for Geralt's affections" is just not a role she works in.

Anna Henrietta

The duchess of Toussaint, Anna Henrietta, is another case who differs more from her book counterpart than you might think. In the books, the duchess is by far the least competent of the (pleasantly many and) various female leaders and rulers we meet – she comes across as rather young and naive, and every bit as absurd as everyone else in the ridiculous fairy-tale duchy she rules. She is, for example, most displeased to learn that Nilfgaard's war against the north is ongoing (something her courtiers have carefully avoided mentioning in her presence), because she'd long since sent the Emperor a stern note demanding he brought it to an end. She promptly has one of her ministers sent to the tower for misinforming her, and demands the others prepare an even sterner note for the emperor, which will surely do the job.

After Dandelion (inevitably) cheats on her, she has him repeatedly sent to the gallows, only to change her mind and send him a reprieve at the very last minute each time. Picture yourself a much younger and prettier version of the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland, and you've about got her general vibe.

Blood and Wine sort of waves at this part of her character when she first speaks about Dandelion, and again in suggesting there's a widespread feeling she lacks compassion, and once more as she proves utterly immovable on the subject of her sister. But the generally sensible and insightful woman you deal with for most of the main story is a far cry from her book-verse characterisation. That’s a bit of a shame, because I feel like there's a lot more they could have done to blend the two versions of her. Still, it’s hard to argue the duchess we get suits the story being told around her.

Other characters

Much as I love Yennefer, Dijkstra and Phillipa, I don't really have much more to say about them because I feel the games have done such a good job. The Yennefer of the books gets to show a lot more depth and complexity simply because she has more scenes and more space in which to do so, but when ‘there isn’t more of her’ is your biggest complaint, the game is officially doing pretty well. I could certainly gripe her about how “dresses in black and white” seems to have been taken as “dresses in black with maybe a trace of white trim”, or how Yennefer and Triss seem to be the only sorceresses in the world capable of wearing pants, when Phillipa (just for one) is in sensible men’s clothing the very first time we meet her, but that’s getting into serious nitpicking territory.

(Not that Yen can’t look amazing in outfits with more white – art by Emily Caroll, theclashofqueens, BarbaraRosiak, and cosplay by greatqueenlina)

Vesimir, Lambert and Eskel, Geralt's fellow witchers from the School of the Wolf, fall into a similar category for me – though we spend far less time with them in the books, everything we see of them in the games feels like a fairly logical extension of their book-roles. Vesimir is somewhat over-played as the old fogey, and his death is painfully cliched, but the impact on the characters and Kaer Morhen still hits home – and the games do some especially great work expanding Lambert into a much more complex character. To my mind, the only shame is that more of the book-original characters didn't get the same treatment.

Who have I missed? There's Avallac'h, of course, but I think I've got him pretty well covered by that last post. Zoltan, perhaps inevitably, has had his personality largely flattened into 'generic dwarf', with nothing better to do than hang around Geralt and Dandelion. You wouldn't know Book!Zoltan was apparently incapable of turning away women and children in need, for example – even human women and children with the chronic inability to say thankyou for his help. Or that he eventually admits to Geralt that the luggage he and his friends are carrying comes from a decidedly unsavoury source for such a supposedly charitable, upstanding guy. Yes, even Zoltan gets to be a morally complicated character in the books – who knew?

Speaking of dwarves, pleased as I am that Yarpen Zigren gets remembered in TW2, he's an odd one to talk about, since even in the books, he appears to have had a substantial personality transplant between his two main appearances. Yarpen’s a largely comedic figure in The Bounds of Reason short story, where he cheerfully admits to having considered letting his men knock down a particularly pompous aristocrat and piss all over him to teach him a lesson, but he’s evolved into a studious voice of reason against the scoiata'el by Blood of Elves. TW2 doesn't do a particularly good job of capturing either version, which I suspect probably bothered me more than most people – I liked the later book-incarnation of Yarpen immensely (and not even just because he's one of few ever to really call Triss out on just how much she needs to stop misreading Geralt's friendship as anything more than it is). His chapter in Blood of Elves packs a hell of a punch.

On the subject of accents

I do have to wonder if I'd have warmed up to characters like Triss, Shani and Dandelion (or even Letho) more if they'd only had halfway decent voice actors. It's not just that none are exactly leading the talent at the acting part of the job, it's that their American accents stick out in TW3 like a sore thumb.

Geralt mostly gets away his own US accent by dint of being the very first character we meet, so we've gotten used to the way he talks long before we notice how he stands out – hell, maybe that's just how they talk down in Rivia (hilariously, book!Geralt eventually reveals he's not even from Rivia, but simply picked the place and taught himself the accent so he could feel a bit less like the abandoned foundling he is, which only gives us yet more excuse for why his accent might sound a bit weird). More importantly, Geralt is meant to stand out, to be the outsider wherever he goes, so having him sound like no-one else fits the character.

But neither Triss or Dandelion are "of Rivia", and by the time they show up we've had dozens of hours in a game where literally everyone else sounds British, or Scottish, or Irish, or vaguely-eastern-European in the case of the Nilfgaardians. So why do these weirdos sound like no-one else on the continent?

The short answer seems to be that every character with an American accent in TW3 is someone who had an American accent in at least one of the previous games, which were way looser with their casting and had enough incidental American accents around that they didn't stand out. Clearly, by TW3, consistency with prior games has been prioritised over consistency with literally anything else we’re hearing.

Gaetan is an exception to the rule as the only new character (at least that I caught) with an American accent – presumably because between Geralt, Eskel, Lambert, Berengar, and Letho (and cohorts), some sort of 'witchers have American accents' rule has been pretty well established (another random American-accented witcher shows up in Thronebreaker, just to underline the point). We're going to mostly ignore Jad Karadin here, since his British accent is presumably a recent affectation to go with his new identity, and so makes sense.

This still doesn't really work though, since Letho’s school is all the way down in Nilfgaard (land of the Eastern European accents), while the oldest witcher from Kaer Morhen (Vesimir) is the one guy with a British accent. He sounds nothing like any of his students, despite the fact he's logically the guy they ought to have learned their accents from. So the logic falls in a heap however you slice it, and I'm thrown right out of the game.

With TW3 as your intro to the series, it feels almost as if characters like Triss and Dandelion have been assigned American accents because they're just too important to be saddled with the same pedestrian British accents as everyone else, which did nothing to endear them to me. The only one I eventually warmed up to was Lambert, and then only because he's just such a bitter asshole that he eventually goes full circle and comes out the other side (somewhere around when you've heard his miserable backstory, then gotten drunk together and told him how much you love him, man). Gaetan similarly snuck in under the same clause – American accents clearly work better for me in this series when attached to characters you're supposed to find pretty insufferable on first impressions.

Some final notes

To conclude, it seems only fair to throw in a quick nod to some of the more memorable book-characters who don't appear in the games. Neither Mother Nenneke (Geralt's sort-of-surrogate mother) or Vissena (Geralt's biological mother) ever appear either, alas – Vissena doesn't even merit so much as a Gwent card, which seems quite the wasted opportunity.

Milva, Cahir and Angouleme – the three remaining companions of Geralt’s who died alongside Regis but who were not so easily resurrected – naturally don’t appear. But nor are even really mentioned in all the games, which seems rather less than they deserve after giving their lives to Geralt's cause.

Cahir and Angouleme do at least have pretty badass Gwent cards to their names, though I am properly offended that Milva (who has the dubious honour of being my very favourite book character who doesn't ever appear in the games) is stuck with a card of her freaking death scene – which not only gets the scene wrong (believe me, there was no grimacing and gripping the arrow buried shallowly in her chest for poor Milva), but doesn't even bother to get her hair the right colour, for fuck’s sake. Basically, Milva was a stone cold badass and absolutely deserves better. #justice4milva

One can only guess how I'd have felt about some of these characters had I read the books before playing the games – I am obviously biased towards forgiving changes to characters whom I liked in their game incarnations, regardless of how they compare. Still, I think it does speak wonders that there still all these characters who suddenly made sense only after I'd met them in the books.

Even if only for Dandelion and Ciri, I can only dream of seeing a bit more of the book-original characterisations make it into the collective fannish consciousness. There's nothing wrong with getting into the canon purely based on the show or the games, but having read Sapkowski's novels, it's no longer any mystery how they spawned this massive franchise. That the saga wasn’t even fully available in English until well after Witcher 3 was released – a solid couple of decades late, and long after it had already been translated into Russian, French, German, Spanish and more – is a real shame. For once, it’s us in the anglophone world who’ve been missing out: these books deserve so much more than to be thought of as a footnote to the games or the show.

[r0zyp0zy0zy]

✿D.K.- trying, and succeeding?✶☼⚠︎

Master list 

Words: 1760

Warnings/kinks: fluffy smut, POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING {mentions of puking, mentions of being disgusted about yourself etc. Nothing super intense}

Pairing: Kaminari Denki x FEM!reader

Summary: Denki finally figures out you have an eating disorder

(I wasn't sure to write this as if y/n was underweight or not, so I opted for a neutral, average, build)

Just to preface, I do not have an eating disorder, so some details might be skewed. Please, please, please make sure you're in the right mindset to read this fic, I would hate it if someone got triggered by this :(

**posted on mobile, sorry for the format**

=== NSFW AND POTENTIAL TRIGGER WARNING UNDER CUT ===

It had only taken Denki what, four months, to become suspicious of your eating/puking habit. He wasn't the smartest fella, nor a very self-conscious one either, but after he found your 'calories diary', a book where you wrote down what not to eat, his brain finally slotted the pieces together. His immediate thought was 'why? You’re so beautiful?' and 'why would you do that to your body?'. But after some research, he had a loose understanding of what you had. He was now hyper aware of when you were refusing to eat, and how you were doing it.

"Oh, I ate an hour ago, I'm fine."

"I just have a stomach ache is all."

"I'm feeling sick. I have to go use the bathroom."

Denki was determined to 'make your sickness go away', but he really struggled trying to help you. He tried locking the bathrooms to prevent you from going in, (he failed to realize that you could puke outside, or in a bowl), he tried making you something himself (thinking that you couldn't refuse to eat something that he made. Turns out he was the one that puked that day). He even set alarms on your phone for every few hours telling you 'don't forget to have a snack :)'. Truly, he really was trying to help. Keyword; trying. He was probably better off just calling a doctor or something for you, (which you would've hated).

Denki finally decided to confront you, pulling out your diary as proof. You yelled at him about your privacy, but you softened your stance when he told you that he was concerned about your health, which was a lot coming from Denki.

"I just want you to be happy in your own skin," Denki pouted, a hand on your knee as he sat with you. His eyes glittered with concern, trying his best to not just shake you and yell 'BEGONETH, POISONOUS THINKING! THOU DOTH BAD!'

"I want to be, too," your lip quivered, holding back tears.

"Can I hug you?" Denki pleaded, pouting his lip. You gave him a stout nod, and he wrapped his arms around you. You turned and sat on Denki's lap, hugging him back.

"I can't describe to you how beautiful you are, y/n," Denki murmured. "I'll admit that I'm not the greatest at comforting, but I'll try my best for you."

The two of you sat there for awhile, tangled in an embrace, tears wetting his shoulder. He soothed his hand over your shaking back, trying to calm you. He didn't know what to do, currently. You had never sat on his lap and cried.

"Thank you for trying, Denki," you sniffled, curling your fingers through his hair. "I just feel so disgusted whenever I see myself in the mirror, or in pictures. I hate how I look, and I constantly feel like you're only dating me because you're desperate."

"Fist of all, you aren't disgusting, I love how you look," Denki began, "Second of all, hey, I wasn't that desperate. I actually had a crush on you all throughout middle school, and I was scared shittless asking you out. You're so beautiful."

"Thank you, Buzzy," you sobbed, hugging him harder. "It's just so hard to believe when I have this body."

"Y'know you're not just a body, right?" Denki pulled back, looking you in the eye. "I would never date someone just for their body, despite what everyone thinks. But I have to admit-- Damn, you are one smokin' woman, baby."

A shy smile fitted your face, and you wiped away your tears, "I just want to be happy with myself and how I look."

You sat and cuddled for a bit longer on the bed, Denki whispering praise into your ear. He felt so content with you in his arms, feeling comforted from him.

"...Denki," you said firmly, turning to face him. "Way to ruin the mood."

He looked down to where you were staring, and blushed deeply. Oops, "I'm sorry! I couldn't help it!"

"It's alright, Denki," You giggled, "I get it, I'm just so smokin'"

You attempted to flip your hair while laying down, and winked at the golden haired boy next to you.

"You are," Denki protested, trying to hide his face in a pillow.

"I'll try," you sighed, turning to stroke Denki's hair. "I'll try and be healthy to my body. But god, is it hard."

"D'y'know what else is hard?" Denki said smugly, grinning dumbly.

"Denki! I swear, we can never cuddle without you getting horny," you giggled.

"I'm sorry," Denki replied, hiding his shame in a pillow. "Just making you feel better makes me feel good."

"Oh? Then feel free to make me feel much, much better," you purred, rolling on top of him.

"F-fuck," he whispered, hands catching your waist, "this- this was supposed to be a wholesome m-moment."

"Says you," you snorted, rolling your hips to grind on his erection.

"I-I know but," Denki bit his lip, "I- uhg. I dunno."

"C'mon, Denki-Chan~ please~~?" You hummed, batting your eyelashes at him.

His eyes wandered down to where you were seated, and he felt his dick twitch, "ok. But, I wanna make this about you. So, uh, make sure you tell me if I'm being too selfish, kay?"

You nodded, smiling brightly before leaning in to place a fat kiss on Denki's lips. He whimpered under your touch, fisting your shirt tighter. He excitedly bobbed his tongue against your lower lip, initiating his favourite way to kiss you. Denki gently turned the two of you over, laying you on your back.

"I'm gonna make you feel so good, Beautiful," Denki mumbled, hurrying to remove your shirt. "Oh fuck, you're hot."

You were blushing underneath him and trying not to protest his praise, loosely holding onto his thighs. Denki continued to remove your bra, only taking a few tries, and threw it somewhere on the floor. His Cheshire grin made you wriggle in embarrassment, and you managed to grind up into his crotch.

"Babe, your tits are amazing," Denki drooled, leaning down and trying to grab as much flesh as possible. He attached his mouth around one nipple, sucking and nibbling slightly before moving on to the next one.

"D-denki," you gasped, knitting your fingers through his hair. "Just fuck me, please."

His whole scheme to have a nice, soft, all-about-you night, went out the window when he heard you say that. How could he say no to you? He leaned up again and gave you a sloppy kiss, "ok, baby. Remember, tell me if I'm being too selfish."

You nodded excitedly, readjusting your position. Denki pulled down your pants with ease, groaning at the sight of you in just your panties. You were amazing, and he couldn't believe that he was on top of you, about to make you feel good. He peeled off your panties and threw them beside him. He licked his hand and reached down to your pussy, giving your clit a quick rub before he put a condom on.

Denki sighed with delight as he rubbed his cock between your folds, lubing himself up with your juices, "can't wait to fuck you, y/n."

"Just do it, Denki~" you chided, rolling your hips impatiently.

"Fffuck, you're so hot," Denki hissed as he inched himself into you. "M' so lucky."

You bit your lip through a moan, and guided your hands to your boyfriend's shoulders. You could feel your face heating up, a red hue igniting your cheeks. You were too focused on Denki dipping into you to realize that, oh god, the lights were fully on.

"—wait. The lights..." you mumbled, tempted to push Denki off of you so you could flick them off.

"Nuh-uh, babe," Denki tisked, leaning closer to you. "I hardly ever see you like this with so much lighting. Makes me so much more turned-on for you."

You let out a small moan at his embarrassing words, Denki quickening his pace. You could only groan and tighten your grip on his shoulders, pulling him closer to you. Denki's breath was ragged from the way you clenched against him whenever he went deep enough, trying to trap him inside of you.

"D-denki~~ feels so good," your eyebrows furrowed, bucking with his rhythm.

"Y-you deserve—," Denki struggled, sweat dripping from his forehead, "you deserve to f-feel good, baby. You deserve to feel amazing."

Through your stupor you could tell that he was on the edge of his orgasm, his jaw clenching, and his words coming out jumbled. Denki started rutting into you harder, with more intensity, and tried to swallow his groans.

"Thought you weren't gonna be greedy and cum before me, hm?" You ribbed as he fucked into you wildly.

"It's—," Denki huffed, "—hard when I haven't had sex with you for awhile."

Your pleasure came back to you as Denki struggled to rub your clit, lurching his hips faster. You brought your hand down to do it yourself, saving Denki from a very sore left arm. The mix of the penetration and touches to your clit made you moan out pleas, encouraging Denki to fuck you harder.

"Oh god, oh fuck. Oh fuck your so attractive. Shiiit, you're so sexy, babe," Denki blabbered as he grabbed one of your tits. "Shitshitshitshitshit I'm close—."

"I-I'm gonna cum," you whimpered, failing to give yourself slow, sensual rubs. It was almost vicious how you were touching yourself, desperate for release.

"God, cum for me, y/n," Denki choked as he drooled.

"Yes, yes... yes!" You chanted, throwing your head back and yelling out Denki's name.

"Oh my god—," Denki groaned, eyes rolling back as he filled the condom with his semen. "You are... the bestest thing."

"Thank you, Denki," you smiled, sitting up weakly as he dropped the used condom in the trash. "Thank you."

"Of course!" He yelled, skipping back to you and giving you a hug.

"Denki Kaminari, don't you ever skip towards me naked ever again," you scolded, shoving a finger to his chest.

"What?!" He grinned. "What's wrong with a little flippy-floppy?"

"Kaminari!!"