#i wrote this for two reasons

[jq37]

Aelwyn is sixteen and preparing for midterms at Hudol. Uniform pressed and starched, head full of incantations and spell components. She doesn't mean to bump into Adaine and get orange juice all over her shirt but today isn't the day she's going to start showing weakness.

"You know, you really should watch we're you're going," she says archly, playing off the clumsy mistake as a purposeful jab.

Playing it off a bit too well because, the next thing she knows, Adaine is flipping her off and a bolt of queasy looking, green energy is coming towards her. Ray of Sickness. And she can't spare the spell slot for Counterspell because she needs it for her exams.

"You little bitch!" Aelwyn says once she's emptied the contents of her stomach down the front of her shirt.

"Good luck with your exams," Adaine says sweetly.

Aelwyn is eighteen and the oldest, mangiest cat she's ever seen in her life has just vomited on her shoes.

"My," she says, casting a shield spell around her ankles to stop the cat from clawing at them. "You weren't kidding. He is a little bastard, isn't he?"

The shelter volunteer looks mortified. "Oh, gods! I am so sorry. I tried to warn you--I mean, not that I'm blaming you but--"

"No, it's alright. I did ask you to show me stragglers."

The shelter worker gestures to another pen on the other side of the room. "I can show you the kittens we just got in or there are some very well behaved older cats as well if you'd--"

But Aelwyn cuts her off, scooping up the old cat--though she holds him at arm's length for now, just to be safe. "No need. I haven't changed my mind. I'll take this one." She looks at the tag on his collar. "Hector."

Aelwyn is three and, as of a month ago, no longer the youngest Abernant.

She's had baby dolls in the past but never a baby sister and this is exciting new territory. She's full of questions. When is she going to be able to walk? When is she going to be able to talk? When will she be old enough to have lembas bread instead of formula?

Her parents seem less fascinated by the new addition to the family than she is but her mother is amused when she slaps away the hand of a colleague of her father's who tried to touch Adaine before sanitizing his hands, standing between the much larger man and her sister.

"So defensive. Perhaps she'll be an abjurer."

When Aelwyn asks what that is, her mother says that it's a kind of magical protector and she likes that a lot. That sounds like a good thing to be.

At night, Adaine cries. Except, she doesn't hear it because the mobile above her crib is etched with runes that cast the Silence spell.

"But what if she gets hurt?" Aelwyn asks.

Her father brushes her off. That's what the Unseen Servants are for. But she thinks that's what an abjurer might be for too and even though she isn't one yet, that doesn't mean she can't start practicing.

So, every night, Aelwyn waits until her parents have put Adaine down for bed and then tiptoes into her room. She checks to see if Adaine is silently wailing and if she is (and even sometimes if she isn't) she presses her face between the bars of the crib and sticks her little hand over Adaine's face.

"Don't cry," she says, even though the Silence spell mutes her words as completely as the tears. "Mum said I'm an abjurer. Nothing will get you. Don't cry, baby."

Adaine grabs her hand with impressive grip strength for something so small and, within a few minutes, she's trancing peacefully.

Aelwyn is seventeen and her sister is off to save the world again. This time from a Night Yorb--whatever that is.

It feels cruel that Adaine should have to go risk her life again so soon after she just almost died--not almost died, she did die before being raised by her cleric.

She wants to come with, to help in some way. Surely she could be helpful--last quest they brought Gilear for Helio's sake!

But Adaine doesn't ask her and she can't bring herself to say the words she needs to have the conversation she wants. So, instead, she lightly whaps Adaine on the shoulder with her spellbook as she's packing for the quest.

"I know you haven't done much studying lately what with your grades being based on how many hobgoblins you kill or whatever ridiculous system Aguefort has cooked up," Adaine rolls her eyes at that, "But if you don't mind a little cram session before you leave tomorrow, I can show you how to cast Teleport like I said. Might help you stay a touch less dead on your quest."

Her tone is light but her eyes betray her: Please, please, please don't die again.

Adaine's expression softens but then she scoffs, playing her half of their game. "I don't know what a Hudol dropout who's been in jail for the past year is gonna teach me but do your best."

Aelwyn is seven and her father is cross with her.

"Really Aelwyn," he says and even though they're talking via crystal she can feel the frost of his glare. "You thought it was appropriate to call me at work for no good reason? How many times have I told you and your sister to not bother me while I'm working."

She hates the word bother. She doesn't want to be a bother. She tries very hard not to be. Maybe she just didn't explain herself well enough.

"I know, father. But Addy got really scared and panicky on the playground. She was breathing really hard and--"

Her father makes a noise of disgust. "I don't have time for this. She is in primary school now. Stop coddling her. And her name is Adaine, not Addy. Please speak properly. I'm raising you better than that."

He hangs up before she can say anything else.

Aelwyn is eighteen and most of the claw marks on her arms have healed, which is nice. On her lap asleep is Hector who has apparently decided he likes her enough to use her as a radiator but not enough to submit to medical treatment without using her arms as a scratching post.

"You little heat vampire," she says as she slides her thumb across the screen of her crystal, searching for a video that will help her out. Eventually she finds one that looks promising and she calls it up.

On the screen, a halfling is standing next to a cat who is actively shredding her sweater with its claws. "You're going to be tempted to use some kind of a shield spell when applying the ointment," says the halfling. "But cats can smell abjuration magic and they don't love it. You won't get close enough to do the job. Isn't that right my darling?"

In response, her cat hacks up a hairball.

"Darling indeed," she says under her breath.

But even laced with sarcasm, the word is sweeter against her tongue than she anticipated.

She sinks her hand into Hector's fur and scratches his back for a few moments before tentatively speaking aloud. "Sleeping well, my darling?"

Hector says nothing--he's asleep and a cat. But warmth blooms in Aelwyn's chest--more than enough to make up for what Hector is leeching from her.

Aelwyn is seventeen and her father has just given her the most horrible command she's ever received in her life--and she's counting being made to sink a ship full of people in that calculation.

She knows her father doesn't expect her to delicately extricate the knowledge he needs from Adaine's mind. He expects her to get it at all costs. To ransack and pillage the memories if necessary with no heed of the consequences on her psyche. He'd probably prefer it that way--the more broken Adaine is, the easier it will be to mold her into a version of herself that is more useful to him.

Aelwyn is usually a smooth talker and a convincing liar but now, she stumbles all over her words, babbling out a stream of deflections and pleas as her heart squeezes tighter and tighter in her chest until she can't hold back the truth that she's been suppressing for years anymore.

"Adaine's just…she's a baby."

Aelwyn is eighteen and her apartment is full of cats.

She's always thought that the phrase, "One thing led to another" was a bit of a cop out--clearly there were key steps between point A and point B being glossed over--but in this case, there is truly no better way for her to articulate how she went from zero cats to ten cats in such a short amount of time.

She's sure that if she was still living with Jawbone, he'd have something to say about it but that's exactly why she isn't currently living with Jawbone.

She portions out food for all of the cats, saving Hector for last because he likes to eat curled up next to her.

"My darling baby boy," she says, lifting him onto the couch with her because the jump up is a bit much for him and his old bones. She kisses him on the top of the head and then pulls out her crystal. She scrolls mindlessly for a bit before checking her messages despite the fact that there's conspicuously no notifications.

Not that she has many people to expect texts from but she hasn't heard from Adaine in a few weeks and it's unsettling. When they weren't getting along, they were still living under the same roof. She was able to keep tabs on her, more or less. Now, they're closer than they've been in ages but barely talking.

I'm the older sister, I suppose, Aelwyn thinks. I should take the initiative.

She pets Hector with one hand and drafts a message with another: Are you alive, bitch?

She's about to press send but then she frowns and deletes the draft. After a few moments of thought, she taps out a new message: Can't believe I'm gonna say this. Miss my little sister. Everything all right?

Aelwyn is seventeen--though she doesn't feel like it.

Her mind is telling her that she's sixteen and that she was just been broken out of a jail cell in Solace but Adaine is telling her that she's just been broken out of an entirely different prison after being tortured for months even though she doesn't remember any of that.

But her body feels frail and Adaine says she's been in her mind which means she must have used the hard reset.

She's suddenly feeling very vulnerable--not because of the disorientation or the of the levels of exhaustion she can feel weighing on her like leaden chains. No, it's because of the fact that Adaine using the reset means that she must have read the treacle-y note that she left there for her to find.

It was just an insurance policy, she tells herself. There was wisdom to buttering up your savior to make sure she'd do what you needed her to do.

She manages to mostly believe it. But the small, truthful part of herself that knows how deeply she meant the words is so uncomfortable that she antagonizes Adaine until she's annoyed enough to hit her with a spell, sending her into blissful unconsciousness.

Aelwyn is nineteen and she's going to kill her mother.

Well, not alone of course. Adaine deserves the kill at least as much as she does if not more. It'll be a group effort.

It's a strange mix--the cold fury at her mother mixed with the warmth she feels for her sister, sitting across the table from her. She summons a flame to her palm, a preview of what their mother has waiting for her. She watches Adaine's eyes harden with resolve and she sees the face of her baby sister, left to wail alone silently for hours, soothed by her presence. "Let's get her."

"Yes, my dear," she says, the endearment coming freely as if this has always been their dynamic. "We'll get her."

But there will be time for that later. Right now, it's time for ice cream and seeing Adaine so content in such a simple pleasure causes the warmth in her to surge so suddenly that it would be startling if it wasn't so pleasant. The urge to voice it is so powerful that she doesn't know that would have been able to stop it at any point in life, let alone now.

"I hope we get to eat ice cream and cast magic forever," she says, words that would have been impossible for her to say one short year ago and impossible not to say now.

And, to her delight, Adaine agrees.

[artilite]

fuck you *lethal companies your in stars and time*

(long) exposition under cut (spoilers for ISAT + lethal company logs)

This au takes place around the time of sigurd's logs/before them (i haven't decided if Sigurd's crew exists here or not yet)!

Siffrin was someone who used to live on the Golden Planet before it got eaten. They may not remember anything beyond being found in an escape pod, but they're still paralyzed by fear when getting close to the selling window. He's always first in the facilities, making jumps, braving traps, and heading as deep as he can for scrap.

Mirabelle and Isabeau are the medic and fighter respectively, who both came from the same moon colony. They were both pressured into taking jobs by a work-based society, and applied for the company under the impression that it was a short, high-paying internship with nebulous risks.

Odile is their resident ship manager. She keeps a watchful eye over everyone and relays information about monsters, scrap, etc. In absolutely dire situations, she may come help with scrap. Despite claiming to be a first-timer, her badge says Leader??

Nille and Bonnie ended up with the crew after taking a chance to run away from their parents. Seeing a high-paying job that provided everything and would take them far away sounded too good to pass up. Nille lied about Bonnie's age to take them with her. After seeing the reality of this job, though, she regrets not finding another way out. Bonnie is permanently on ship-duty; they mainly type in whatever numbers Odile tells them. Nille is also a fighter, though she prefers the weighty stop sign as opposed to Isabeau's shovel.

Loop, after hundreds upon thousands of quotas, dying every possible death, learning everything they could- even the real identity of The Company- realizes there was one thing they've never done before. They've never died to The Company. Desperate for a way out, and haunted by the whispers and screams beyond the wall, they give themselves up. Maybe that would finally satisfy the monster- to have devoured every last piece of the Golden Planet. Maybe their crew could finally rest easy that way. Well, they didn't loop back. But through the dark and damp, there's static on the walkie talkie. Loop picks up, and hears their own voice just beyond the wall.

(Loop's design is the most different by far, since instead of consuming a star, they themselves are slowly getting digested. They're inspired by the visual of red crying faces from the logs :D)

[aristoteliancomplacency]

If you’re not a knitter then you probably won’t understand exactly how batshit doing this was. That’s fine, but I’ll explain under the cut for anyone who’s interested. The pattern is Guðrún Herdís Arnarsdóttir's modification of Lyle Stafford’s one ring scarf (both are free).

The eye at each end I wrote the pattern for myself based on a design on the cover of the editions of the Lord of the Ring I grew up with (i.e., my dad’s, for whom the scarf was a present).

The scarf is done using a technique called double knitting, which means you’re working both sides of the scarf literally at the same time, carrying two yarns forward and back to alternately knit and purl and alternating which colour you’re using (work the knits with colour A, purl with colour B, swap for the other side). This gives you something which has two sides that are stockinette, but different colours.

The technique allows you to make an identical pattern on both sides by switching which colour you’re using for the knit and purl stitches. The advantage of this is that you end up with the two sides woven together rather than a tube and don’t have to carry the yarn as with stranded colour work.

The problem with this is when you’re working a non-symmetrical pattern where it matters which way around the writing is. The writing will be the correct way around on one side, but backwards on the other side.

Guðrún’s modification fixes this, but the trade-off is that because you’re no longer working the pattern the same on both sides you now have four potential stitch combinations instead of two (AB, BA, AA, and BB).

Just to make it even more complicated for my project the pattern colour-coded the stitch combos and uses black and red for two of the combos, but not for what for my scarf would be black-black and red-red. This caused more than one error. I have undone and redone a lot of rows.

[annasofthe11thdimension]

Alright, so this is basically...an art dump for all the pics i drew when i was trying to draft the ending i wanted my Odile looping Au 'Like a Wheel Ever Turning' which...is not even SLIGHTLY how this fic is going to end now, but while figuring that out i still like draw all this and had to do SOMETHING with it.

So figured I'd post it and be like 'hey! fun Odile looping act 5 boss fight vibes not connected to anything else!' since like...that basic IS what they are at this point lol.

The one cool idea i loved that i think is now FIRMLY ditched is the act 5 boss fight starts when Odile uses wish craft to splinter herself into two halves.

The 'old/current' her that is meant to be her coldly logical side, and a younger 'copy' version, which is meant to be the childish irrational side...that is what's stopping her just shutting down the time loop because she can't figure out how to be happy with her friends leaving.

I mean, if you murder the part of you that WANTS the wish to come true, that's basically a 'get out of time loop free card' right? Right! Totally sound logic!

Yes the 'young' version of her firmly believes that she's real, and also also got memories going up to about age 21, and also that she ought to be in Ka Bue not HERE among these french weirdos.

Also yes again, a 'young' Odile is EXACTLY as unhinged about this as you'd expect a 21 year old to be upon finding out that apparently the 'real' her think murdering her is the correct solution to this problem!

The shift of the fight was meant to have the inverse 'colors' shift from one version to the other by the end, wrapping up with the point where the 'original' Odile is forced to have a heart to heart with the personification of her perceived 'worst' qualities.

Pretty sure the vibes for this ending was a lot more focused on the resolution of having deeply complex feeling about EXPRESSING emotion directly to other people. That along with a side helping of how isolating it is to be perceived as a 'real' adult such that you can't be weak enough to ask anyone for help. Because really if you can't even be that then why are you any different then when you were irritating mess of a youth?

Not saying any of that isn't still present in the story, but like...there is a LOT of other stuff going on, and those themes are now linked into many other ones too, and that's not even TOUCHING on how Loop's been...somewhat complicating my redrafting lol.

...Also I might have drawn/plotted this version before i knew about two-hats lol. THAT also is a factor.

Anyway! Still liked all of these enough to want to do SOMETHING with them, and figured this worked, so i could like map out my thoughts on them, even if i never got to write this.

[dennisboobs]

:) i certainly have no issue dressing in drag :)

^guy who has no issue dressing in drag btw

glenn said that dennis' drag name is victoria von hemen btw

(Source)

[johnnyshrine]

★ 100 // “The Holy Bible”

[calmbigdipper]

What you mean to me

[royalarchivist]

Pac: You know Ramon, maybe one day you can start doing farms here? I would appreciate it! And I can pay you in chocolates and diamonds, you know?

Ramon: pay me by marrying my dad

Fit: No, hey– [Stammers] Ramon! Ramon!

Bagi: YES!!! Yes, Ramon, yes!

Pac: [Laughs] Nooo, Ramon! You got me- you got me right on the spot!. Dammit! Ok... I will consider! I will consider. [...] Let's make a deal: I will do that when you become a dragon. 😉

Ramon: 😑

Fit: [Laughs] Yeah, when you become a dragon, Ramon! That sounds good to me!

[ Full Transcript ↓ ]

—

Pac: Yeah, Ramon knows about Create. You know Ramon, maybe one day you can start doing farms here? I would appreciate it! And I can pay you in chocolates and diamonds, you know?

[Fit and Bagi laugh]

Fit: That's a good reward, yeah!

Bagi: Chocolate and diamonds!

Pac: Yeah [Laughs]

Ramon: pay me by marrying my dad

Fit: No, hey– [Stammers] Ramon! Ramon!

Pac: "Pay me by marrying my dad"? Oh– [Stammers] Ramon! Ramon! Ramon!

Bagi: YES!!! Yes, Ramon, yes!

Fit: [Fit uses his chainsaw to break the sign and accidentally hits Ramon] Oh, sorry– I was trying to break the sign, I'm sorry, Ramon.

Pac: Ramon! [He does the "falls to pieces" emote]

Fit: Baby steps, Ramon! Baby steps!

Pac: Baby st– Ramon, remember–

Bagi: Yes, Ramon, yes!

Pac: [Laughs] Nooo, Ramon! You got me- you got me right on the spot!

Fit: [Laughs]

Pac: I'm gon– props- props on you, you know? It was a good– yeah. Dammit! Ok... I will consider! I will consider.

Ramon: [Nods repeatedly]

Fit: Yeah, you can't rush these things Ramon, you know? Like, it's- it's– You know? I mean– plus, you know, w– we got our own things we're working through!

Pac: [Leaning into the mic] You can't rush on love.

Fit: Yeah, exactly! Like– yeah. You know? We're working on ourselves. Yeah.

Pac: Yeah.

Fit: [Weakly] Yeah...

Ramon: [Spins in a circle wildly]

Pac: Baby steps!

Fit: Baby steps, baby steps.

Pac: One day– ok, let's make a deal: I will do that when you become a dragon.

Ramon: [Stares at the ground, resigned]

[Pac and Fit both laugh]

Fit: Oh yeah– Yeah, when you become a dragon, Ramon! That sounds good to me!

Ramon: [Tosses a potion of swiftness on them]

Pac: Woooo! Baby steps no more– I'm just kidding.

Fit: [Laughs]

[yrsonpurpose]

@rwrbmovie & @rwrbsource’s rwrbweek day 7 | favourite location / set ❣ in each other's arms

[tactlessrobots]

Who wants to read a piece of a crackfic that only lives in my head about tf animated megop?

Optimus wasn’t exactly paying attention to what Megatron was saying during their fight but that didn’t mean he wasn’t annoyed. It slipped out of his intake without any thought really.

“Ugh, nobody cares” Bumblebee giggled somewhere behind him and Megatron scowled.

“Be silent, keep your forked tongue behind its teeth, I have not passed through fire and death to exchange words with a witless worm”

“Blow me” was his equally eloquent response.

Megatron could tell it was an insult and Optimus knew he knew but he also knew megatron didn’t know exactly what it meant. It was a human insult, not a cybertronian one. 

None of the decepticons really got it. But all the autobots did.

Bumblebee was in hysterics, clutching his middle as he laughed ‘like a hyena’ Optimus believed the human saying went. He was laughing so hard Optimus would be worried about his need for air if they needed air. 

Bulkhead laughed too but Ratchets glare was enough to silence him and Prowl simply sighed. Face in his hand as he looked to the sky, as if asking Primus for patience. 

‘Fair’ Optimus thought.

Megatron was still glaring, likely trying to figure out what the insult meant while Blitzwing decided to go for a more direct approach.

“Vhat does that mean?” His icy personality asked. 

Bumblebee, still laughing, rose to his pedes to answer (he’d fallen during his laughing fit and hadn’t bothered to get up).

“Oh! C’mere, c’mere, it-hehe, it means” he whisper/laughed it to Blitzwing’s audial when he leaned down. Blitzwings face spun rapidly before settling on random.

“Ahahahaha!!”

“Ha! Hahahah!!” Bumblebee started laughing again and soon the both of them were on the ground, vents staring to kick in from their laughing fits.

Megatron looked at the two, fight fully forgotten for the moment. Blitzwing was hitting the ground repeatedly as he laughed and Bumblebee was practically rolling and kicking his feet. Essentially they were in hysterics.

Megatron wasn’t the only one, everyone had now stopped to stare.

“Blitzwing “ Megatron growled out “what does that mean?”

Oh he really didn’t want to know.

“He just told you to suck his spike!” Random yelled and then got back to laughing.

Megatron startled, staring at Optimus, optics simultaneously wide and glaring.

For his part Optimus merely shrugged.

Somewhere behind Megatron, Starscream started cackling and Lugnut gave an offended gasp.

Megatron looked very angry now and, well, Optimus was so annoyed that this fight was happening right now. At the same time as the premier of the first live tour of the world’s largest archival library. So what he said next also just slipped out.

“If it helps I wouldn’t actually let you”

“What” 

Okay, 1) why does he look offended? And 2 )how can he make it worse?

“Well, you’re old” 

Starscream trips over his pedes laughing, falling on his aft and ‘gasping for breath’ so to speak.

“I-! I am not old you insolent brat. I am experienced”

“Because you’re old?”

(important commentary in tags)

[glitteredbubbles]

Here’s a poem I wrote on a train ride in Scotland! That’s not related at all, just a fun fact for this experiment with free verse. Still new to sharing on here, so please no harsh criticism :)

“Street Glass, Cracked Pearls”

Your eyes shine

Like the ocean glimmer of shattered glass on late night asphalt

The same glass that I encouraged you to swallow

Calling you chicken and laughing at your hesitation

Your hovering hand debating my shaky one

Threatening to clutch down on the shards if you didn’t do something first

Because of course I’m destructive

It’s second nature for me to bleed

But for you

It’s a bursted pearl necklace tied back together

Threatening to burst again

Yours is already missing a few gems

Proof of the accident — of course there’s always proof

But otherwise, the necklace is seamless

It makes me angry

So full of rage that I want to rip it right off your thin neck

Take your dainty hand in mine with my cuts and callouses and street glass

Because my necklace isn’t even one anymore

Just tied to my ankle now, only three or four pearls left to say

Look at me

I used to be pure, innocent, cared for, loved, clean, admired, worthy

I really used to be

So eat this glass

I’ve spent too long clutching down on it

Hoping that if I got accustomed to the pain, then it’d be less

It hurts all the same

[buddiesmutslut]

Rules: give us the links to your fics with the most hits, second most kudos, third most comments, fourth most bookmarks, fifth most words, and fic with the least words (feel free to interpret however you would like).

tagged by @kyoteugly, thank you sm, yapping about fics is my fav thing to do on here, I'll take any excuse to do so 😍

Most hits - Is happiness on the highway, or is it parked in a driveway? Post lawsuit angst, Buck's planning on leaving after the fight in the grocery store, but then Chris gets sick at school & some things change. I didn't realize this one had gotten so much attention, I really thought my BuckAbby baby fic was still the fic w the most hits, whoops lol.

Second most kudos - You help me find my fire OmegaVerse Buddie, written before Omega Eddie was canon, unfortunately lol, but still fun!

Third most comments - Golden Morning Sunbeams I LOVE THIS FIC SM. Not that I don't like the first two, but they were when I first started writing fics, so I feel like my style & the way I think about stuff from canon has changed, and this one is more indicative of where I'm at now as a writer, I feel? Anyway, Chris gets sick while in El Paso and calls Eddie bc as upset as he was, sometimes you just need your dad, and Eddie drops everything to get to his boy. Featuring guard dog Buck & meddlesome Diaz parents.

Fourth most bookmarks - Lonely Girl Buck discovering he has a teenage daughter fic oh, I love you so so much 😭 Takes place right after Chris Ubers to Buck's house, a teenage girl shows up at the loft, claiming to be his daughter, leading to some fun Buddie interactions, Buck pining while Eddie dates Ana (no Ana bashing in this fic). Idk, this fic is so so special to me, all of my buddie kid fics are. I love making those bitches dads again & again 😂

Fifth most words - It's gonna' take a lot to drag me away from you BUDDIE BLENDED AU. Buck & Eddie are two single dads w 2 kids a piece that end up taking a joint vacation in Africa after getting tickets from Bobby & Athena after a Bathena misunderstanding. Blended is one of my fav movies, it's so so so incredibly silly and sweet, and giving buddie four kids & putting them in Situations was so much fun, this is probably my funniest fic; I can't exactly take credit for that because I used stuff from the movie, but I still love it so much. I was writing this in the middle of the night for Summer of Buddie bc I was obsessed with getting it finished after not thinking I was going to have a fic for the romcom prompt lol.

Fic w the least words - Joy I also jumped on the post-Confessions Buddie getting together ep coda train too, I am only a woman lol. Eddie has the search for joy ringing in his ears & Buck is stuck on somebody other than Tommy being his last, and they figure it all out in only 798 words lol.

Tagging @sofa-king-lame (bc I love yapping about YOUR fics as well lmao) & anybody else who wants an excuse to share their fics & their rambling thoughts bc I always want to hear them 🫶

[litmot-archived]

There was this idea I had about an Isaac Novella, and considering I am never going to write it, I thought I would share the very basic outline and half-baked thoughts I had for it:

For some reason I wanted to call it A Separate Peace

It would start with Isaac and Pickle -- post-canon -- taking on a case about two bothers who were looking for their parents. They had been separated from their parents since early childhood, and now that they were influential men or whatnot they had the means and connections to investigate what had happened back then.

I had some sort of conflict in mind for Isaac and Pickle. I wanted their relationship to be strained, them growing further apart during their research until Pickle would leave (for a while) and continue following up on one of their leads on their own while Isaac stayed in his mansion and spiralled into overwork and his unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Asirel would keep close watch on the case for his own reasons. The parents of the two brothers would turn out to be scientists who ran experiments on mythics, being the ones who had developed the serum that could knock out pet. Some rivalling organisation (the Trimedian perhaps) had found out about this and wanted their research for themselves, forcing them into hiding and leaving them to abandon their children for their own protection.

Asirel would constantly sabotage the investigation, trying to keep Isaac and Pickle away from finding the parents by giving them other cases, giving them false leads and so on. Eventually they would figure out that the parents were scientists, experimenting on mythics etc. and one of the leads would guide them out of the country, but before they could leave Asirel would call Isaac and straight out tell him to drop the case, that it was out of his range, that he was touching some top-secret thing that was above his pay grade.

It would end with Isaac and Pickle actually listening to Asirel, fabricating some story and fitting evidence to deceive the brothers and keep the secrets they had uncovered, like Asirel told them to.

[malacandrax]

Hello hello!! Just wanted to say that I really love seeing your traditional drawings, they're so charming 🥺 It's pretty rare to see trad. art on here compared to digital, which is a little sad.. there's just something about the personality it has!

Do you find that the post engagement they receive is less than your digital works? Personally I've had this experience but I'm not sure if it's different for other artists 😯 It's discouraged me a lot from posting since I don't regularly have enough time to sit down and make a digital piece vs drawing in my sketchbook 😓

On a related note, is there a pen you'd recommend for sketching/doodling? All the pen drawings in your sketchbook posts are so pretty 🫶

Thank you so much! That means a lot honestly. Seeing other peoples sketches is one of my favourite things, you're right, it's generally less perfect but I think it has more charm because of that. I feel like *personally* I actually often favour traditional stuff over digital when I see it online- I have a big collection of digital sketchbooks and fav'd youtube flipthroughs.

HOWEVER yeah I think we are in the minority. To be completely honest on itch.io I've actually only made 4 sketchbook sales*, I assume there's a market out there but I ain't hitting it haha! I do have a good chunk of patrons that comment and like my sketches, which is wonderful, and I often get sweet tags on the doodles I share here- but you're right that engagement is lower. I'd encourage you do just do it for yourself, though! There's nothing like having a big stack of art in real life. Maybe that's a privileged position for me to have, at the moment I don't need to worry about engagement on my sfw art, but also it's a shame to not do something you enjoy because of numbers. (I would recommend using a scanner if you want to catch more peoples eyes. Mines crap but it's way better than photos were.)

Pen wise I am a picky bitch, I like things that don't require pressure, make a uniformish line, and ink that flows easy- so I prefer gel pen styles or fountain pens. My most recent fav were some lyreco retract gel 0.7's my partner randomly brought home from work lol, but I lost the black one and replaced it with a uniball signo 0.7 [UM-120*], honestly they're just regular gel pens though, I generally try them out in a shop and pick ones that don't blob or scratch.

My fountain pen is a pilot kakuno, which atm has that blue grey ink in (sailor 224) and I really love it. (also I put it into a water brush pen) I've also used carbon platinum for a good waterproof ink.

Good luck with your sketchbook endeavours, and thank you again!

*there are...at least two types of uniball signo, and the other one with a soft grip is bad imo.

**thank you to those sweethearts who bought the sketchbook!

[that-was-anticlimactic]

see a world so beautiful and strange (spinning off somewhere)

“Why? Why are you suppressing?”

“Because I can't tic,” Alya whispered, fingernails digging into the skin on her arm. “I know Tourette’s isn’t exactly uncommon, but it’s part of my identity as Alya Césaire. It can’t be a part of Rena Rouge, too. Someone could figure out who I am and then…”

And then she’d have to give up the coolest thing that’s ever happened to her, give up living her dreams.

[or, alya is suppresses as rena rogue in order to protect her identity, but neither ladybug nor trixx will let her hurt herself like that]

🦊2,345 words | alya-centric, alya & ladybug friendship🦊

happy tourette's awareness month!!!

[hsslilly-blog]

rehashing an old post but i think a lot about how in trying to absolve hunt instead of seriously addressing the power imbalance/impropriety of the relationship between him and the mc, pixelberry chose to make it so it’s the mc “pursuing” hunt and being really forceful about it. in this case, it’d be okay because it’s not him being weird and, well, the mc really, really wants this! this was not an well thought out decision because 1. it doesn’t remove the need to address a professor dating his student, and whatever that means for both parts + the story they’re in, and 2. in the process they make mc a person with no respect for boundaries who quite literally stalks this man and assaults him under false pretences. not to mention how the writing in these quests is confusing and contradictory (the mc is written in two different ways at different times, whatever the plot is in need). just… really bad on all fronts