#i'm sure it was something like this scene lol

[feathers-fins-and-fangs]

im just gonna do all of this at once bc im bored rn lol

⏳ - How long have you known about this kin?

Around two months now, I think?

❔ - How did you figure out you kinned this character?

I was learning about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet in my English class, and we had to work in groups and perform three scenes of our choosing.

One of the scenes my group chose is Act 3, Scene 1, and I was originally cast as the Capulet servant that accompanies Tybalt alongside Petruchio (whom we nicknamed 'NPC' - Non Petruchio Character), and one of my friends was cast as Mercutio. Then, I discovered my source (an adaptaion of the play) and all of a sudden I just felt this very strong need to play Mercutio in the scene. Like, REALLY strong. I just HAD to be Mercutio. It was like if I wasn't seen as Mercutio, everything felt deeply wrong.

I asked my friend if she would like to swap roles with me, because she's not much of a fan of theatre and acting and such. She was happy and agreed, and we swapped roles, and the MOMENT that happened it was like the stars aligned and everything in the universe was right. I'm not even exaggerating that is the closest description to how I felt.

I thought what I felt I was just me being a jealous prick, and then I began considering if maybe it's actually because I'm Mercutio in a fictionkin way. Long story sort of not very short, I confirmed it.

❤️ - What's your favorite memory from this kin?

I don't have many clear memories, but I do have a very vague memory of sitting under a tree with Benvolio.

💔 - What's your least favorite memory from this kin?

Definitely my death, for sure.

🤝 - What's your relationship with this kintype (ie spiritual, psychological, etc)?

Some sort of mix between spiritual and psychological.

✔️ - What details about this kin, if any, line up really close with canon?

Pretty much everything except the stuff I meantion in the next question.

✖️ - What details about this kin, if any, are really different from canon?

Mostly things that aren't mentioned in source. For example, the brother I have in the original play is completely nonexistent in my canon. He doesn't show up and is not mentioned in source, and I'm pretty sure most of the fandom headcanons that he exists.

✨ - What did you look like?

I look exactly like me in the 2010 cast, played by John Eyzen.

👕 - What sort of clothing do you associate with this kin?

Pretty much anything purple or with purple on it. I don't really care if it's masculine or feminine or the specific shade of purple.

🎶 - What music / songs do you associate with your kin?

Pretty much just all the songs I sing in source.

🖼️ - What sort of aesthetics do you associate with your kin?

Anything purple, really

🎂 - Are there any foods / flavors you associate with this kin?

Gelato! It reminds me of Verona :)

🫂 - Who were you closest with in your canon?

Benvolio and Romeo, of course :D

😒 - Who did you dislike most / not get along with from your canon?

Tybalt.

🖍️ - What hobbies or activities make you think of your kin?

Karaoke! I don't have the singing skills I used to have, but at least I get to vibe to some songs I like.

💥 - What skills or abilities did this kin have, if any, that you can't do now but wish you could? (ie superpowers, languages you don't speak, skills you don't currently have, etc)

I can't speak French or Italian, I can't dance very well, and I can't whistle 😔

🐦 - Is there anything you miss about this kin's body that you don't currently have? (ie basic appearance traits, tails, wings, etc)

I wish I still had my fabulous hair :(

🌌 - Do you ever experience astral limb sensations with this kin? (IE feeling your wings, tail, something your kintype has that your current body does not)

Sometimes I feel like I have my old hairstyle, but aside from that no.

🔮 - Have you ever predicted something about your source material before it happened based on kin feelings? (For example, having a kin memory that lines up with something that happens in your source before you ever knew about it)

Not really, and I never tried to.

👥 - Do you have any canonmates for this kin, and/or are you interested in finding canonmates?

I don't have any canonmates, and I'm a little scared to try to find them. What if later in life I de-confirm this kintype and disappoint them? What if I remember my memories incorrectly and that prevents me from finding the right canonmates?

I definitely do want to find SOURCEmates, though. It's just finding canonmates that feels a bit daunting.

Fictionkin Ask Game

[FACTKIN/FACTIONKIN DNI]

Heya! This is a little ask game I'm designing for fictionkin folks, feel free to rb! If you have multiple kins, you can choose one to answer questions for, or have the asker state which kin they're asking abt when they send the emoji. Have fun!

⏳ - How long have you known about this kin?

❔ - How did you figure out you kinned this character?

❤️ - What's your favorite memory from this kin?

💔 - What's your least favorite memory from this kin?

🤝 - What's your relationship with this kintype (ie spiritual, psychological, etc)?

✔️ - What details about this kin, if any, line up really close with canon?

✖️ - What details about this kin, if any, are really different from canon?

✨ - What did you look like?

👕 - What sort of clothing do you associate with this kin?

🎶 - What music / songs do you associate with your kin?

🖼️ - What sort of aesthetics do you associate with your kin?

🎂 - Are there any foods / flavors you associate with this kin?

🫂 - Who were you closest with in your canon?

😒 - Who did you dislike most / not get along with from your canon?

🖍️ - What hobbies or activities make you think of your kin?

💥 - What skills or abilities did this kin have, if any, that you can't do now but wish you could? (ie superpowers, languages you don't speak, skills you don't currently have, etc)

🐦 - Is there anything you miss about this kin's body that you don't currently have? (ie basic appearance traits, tails, wings, etc)

🌌 - Do you ever experience astral limb sensations with this kin? (IE feeling your wings, tail, something your kintype has that your current body does not)

🔮 - Have you ever predicted something about your source material before it happened based on kin feelings? (For example, having a kin memory that lines up with something that happens in your source before you ever knew about it)

👥 - Do you have any canonmates for this kin, and/or are you interested in finding canonmates?

[shepherds-of-haven]

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! I hope you all are having a wonderful end to 2024. I just wanted to take a moment to reflect on all the progress that's been made on the game this year!

I added 182,000 words to the game this year; that's about a 25% increase from last year (even though I was juggling even more stuff lol) and is about the equivalent of writing The Fellowship of the Ring, Jane Eyre, or Great Expectations over the course of one year! This included the completion of Chapter 9 as well as 14 character interludes!

However, that wasn't all; I also wrote about 55,000 words for the Shepherd short stories on Patreon (bringing the total wordcount of our short story library to somewhere around 440,000 words), and I also started work on my second novel manuscript in earnest sometime in July. Somehow—miraculously—I added 81,000 words to that, working mostly night or "double" shifts, all in the last few months! All told, I wrote something like 318,000 words this year, and of course that doesn't include coding, programming, design, art or music, marketing, answering asks and making posts, and all of the other little tasks and behind-the-scenes stuff I do either for the game, Patreon, or for my job on the author side of things!

We accomplished a lot of other things this year, including completing the second volume of Ivan Duch's original soundtrack for the game, the creation of more art assets, and cranking out more goodies, merch, and codex entries than ever! As ever, much of the stuff I've done has to continue to cook in the background before I want to officially make it all public, but I'm quite pleased with where everything is going and happy that we're slowly inching closer and closer to the game's initial completion!

I also thought it would be fun to take a look back at how you guys have been playing Shepherds of Haven so far! Through our polls, we've learned a lot about your guys' decisions so far, and I hope to resume this series in 2025. You can click the polls link to see the results and data breakdowns in more detail, though of course, this will always be my favorite series of polls! 😉

Finally, I thought it might be useful to post a (possibly needlessly confusing) roadmap of where I hope to go with the game as we head into 2025. Up first, of course, are the remaining character interludes I need to write until everyone's caught up to the Ascendancy Festival, which I'm sure you've all inferred is an important event in the game. After the Ascendancy Festival is complete, we may either continue in a linear sequence, completing the character interludes that occur after the festival, then Lovelace Day, then the interludes after that, and then proceed with Chapter 10 with all characters truly "caught up"... or we may take a shortcut and start Chapter 10 after the Ascendancy Festival is (at least starting to feel) complete. I don't really know how I'll feel yet—I could be sick to death of the interludes by then and may need a break—so I'm leaving room for flexibility for myself while giving you guys a loose picture, in broad strokes, of what the current plan looks like!

And with that, that's all I have for you today! 2024 was its own year of emotional twists and turns. A lot of exciting things happened: I got engaged! I started work on my new book and I don't hate it! We creep ever close to Chase ruining his lovers' lives a lot of revelations and epiphanies for our stalwart Shepherds! But it was also, of course, a year fraught with its own difficulties and challenges as well. Looking back, I want to emphasize how much navigating this journey has been impacted and influenced by this wonderful, positive community. As ever, I can only thank you all for your kindness, encouragement, patience, empathy, patronage, and support as I've continued to learn, grow, and challenge myself as a game maker and creator. So much of this couldn't be possible without you! And with a swell of relief and hope, I can now note that we are slowly chugging along here, and perhaps the haziest impression of a finish line is finally beginning to appear as a smudge on the horizon...

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this session of Shepherds of Haven Wrapped! Happy New Year, and see you on the other side of 2025—may it be a year filled with continued growth, excitement, and creation! 🎊

[campbyler]

i'm wondering if your miscommunication in this fic is based upon a theory for byler's miscommunication in the show itself? i.e. mike understood will in the van and was therefore gutted when will told him 'youre the heart' in the pizzeria etc (seemingly telling mike to say i love you to el).

i'm trying to piece together things but i've forgotten if will has ever mentioned why their relationship went tits up before. they both are not on the same page at all regarding what happened in the past, but as of this chap... mike now knows how he feels AND will! its really interesting that the hesitance is based around them both thinking that they put themselves out there once and got shot down (or so i gather so far). which means something had to have happened in the past where a third party was involved and made things unclear? because their actions currently strongly suggest mutual attraction like mike said in 10.2

so im wondering if you were inspired by the show in this way, if indeed you DO believe that mike understood will's confession of feelings fully in the van? :)

i would say that it’s not necessarily inspired by that particular interpretation of the van scene, but the miscommunication trope in general is absolutely inspired by the show! mike and will are canonically incredibly passionate characters — that passion often leads to emotional outbursts, and they’re passionate about each other and their friendship, hence why they fight a lot lol. because they have trouble pausing and giving each other the space they need to communicate. when they do manage that, they’re besties for the resties 🤎 which is what we are trying to capture in acswy!

though i will say that acswy is the result of what would happen if they didn’t give each other the time to explain themselves and talk their feelings through 😗 plus obviously with it being a modern au, they’re in different circumstances than they are in the show, so their experiences have shaped them differently. i understand the ooc allegations about acswy, but i’m not really bothered by them because i do think we have done a good job of staying true to how mike and will would react if they grew up Now and had the influences they had. for example, will is for sure sassy on the show — he’s kind to his core, and never genuinely mean on purpose, but the sass is There. i think if he grew up with max as his closest friend versus mike, lucas, and dustin, she’d bring that side out of him more than it is present in the show. max is kind and never genuinely mean either, but she hides it as a defense mechanism, and will would probably be influenced the same way. it’s the same concept where, given the circumstances mike and will are in leading up to and during acswy, the miscommunication of it all has been exacerbated by those elements. and miscommunication is Theeee byler bread and butter.

neither will or mike have mentioned why their relationship is the way that it is — that will be revealed at some point in these final few chapters, but i won’t say when for spoiler reasons of course 😇 i will reiterate what we have been saying since ch01 though: mike and will are Both unreliable narrators. neither of them have all of the info and are just going off of what they perceive to be true. that doesn’t make either one of them right or wrong — they can Both be right based on their interpretations of their situation — but it does mean they lack perspective that is necessary for them to move forward. tee and also hee.

all of that rambling done, i personally do not think that mike understood will’s confession in the van, but support anyone who does interpret it that way!! i’d have to ask suni what her thoughts are on it so we might edit later with her thoughts!!

[broidobe]

𝔟𝔩𝔬𝔴𝔫 𝔬𝔣𝔣

requested! i'm like 99% sure you meant smut so I wrote that lol.

☾in 1987 backstage at the whisky a go go, you find yourself caught in a charged encounter with axl, his dominance and intensity leaving you overwhelmed, as the rest of the band silently watches the raw and provocative scene unfold.☽

☾warnings: smut, voyeurism, brat taming, swearing☽

⁎⁺˳✧༚guns and roses masterlist

it's 1987 and you're backstage at the whisky a go go, surrounded by the decadence and excess of the sunset strip. axl, resplendent in his leather pants and bandana, is staring at you with a mixture of hunger and annoyance.

"you've been teasing me all night," he growls, his voice low and menacing. "you think you can just flirt with me and then blow me off? well, i've got news for you, baby. i don’t get blown off."

he reaches out and grabs your arm, pulling you into the dressing room. the rest of the band is scattered around the room, watching with interest as axl pulls you close.

"you're going to pay for teasing me," he whispers, his breath hot against your ear. "you're going to get down on your knees and suck my cock, and then you're going to take it like a good girl."

he spins you around and pushes you to your knees, his hands tangled in your hair. you feel a surge of excitement mixed with fear as he unzips his pants and pulls out his cock.

it's huge and hard, and you can't help but feel a twinge of intimidation. but axl just laughs and says, "don't worry, baby. i'll be gentle. at first."

he pushes his cock into your mouth, and you feel a rush of pleasure mixed with pain. you start to suck, trying to take him deep into your throat. axl groans and starts to fuck your mouth, his hips pumping back and forth.

the rest of the band looks on, their faces expressionless. slash is leaning against the wall, his eyes fixed on you with a mixture of curiosity and boredom. duff and steven are sitting on a couch, watching the scene unfold with a detached interest. and izzy…well he’s nowhere to be seen

as axl comes close to orgasm, he pulls out of your mouth and spins you around. he pushes you against the wall, his hands ripping at your clothes. you feel a surge of excitement as he exposes your breasts, his mouth closing over your nipple like a vice.

he sucks and bites, his teeth grazing your skin. you cry out, the pain and pleasure mixing together in a swirl of sensation. axl's hands are everywhere, touching and teasing and probing.

finally, he pushes you to the floor, his cock slamming into your pussy like a piston. you feel a rush of pleasure, the sensation overwhelming as he fucks you hard and fast.

the room is silent, the only sound is the heavy breathing and the creaking of the old wooden floor. axl's face is twisted in a snarl, his eyes blazing with intensity as he pounds into you.

as he comes, his cock pulsating inside you, you feel a surge of pleasure and satisfaction. you've been used and abused, but you've also been a part of something raw and wild and unforgettable.

as axl pulls out of you and stands up, his chest heaving with exertion, you look up at him and see a glimmer of satisfaction in his eyes. and the others…well they were shocked.

[bedlamsbard]

1300 words written today AND I made my monthly wordcount goal for the first time since July. is that what happens when you get enough sleep and also have time to think, I'd forgotten. also this year I learned my lesson and didn't watch What If. (I will probably catch up with it when I'm back in SD, largely only because I know there's an ep with Howard in it. lol. though if it makes me chew on the walls too much I won't force myself to watch the whole thing.) I'd like to get a chapter up for New Year's Day, but I don't know that that will happen; I have a scene I need to rewrite.

Snippet from Of Home Near chapter 19.

“We’re going to get this guy, Steve,” Sam told him, his voice serious. “And then what?” Steve asked him. “It’s not going to be over.  This isn’t like Loki and the Chitauri; we’re not going to pack him up and come back to sweep up the rubble.  It’ll be like Ultron if it’s like anything, only worse” “Not everything’s like something else,” Sam pointed out.  “Some of it’s just…itself.  Pretty sure this is one of those things.” “Yeah,” Steve said. “Yeah, you’re right.”  He drank the rest of his coffee, then started to rummage through the cupboards.  Sam took away the cereal box he pulled out. “Why are you eating like a ten-year-old when we gotta go fight an insane alien warlord in a couple of hours?” “I just got back from three weeks of rationing and three days of being drugged and chained up on a bombed-out warehouse floor,” Steve protested. “Dude,” Sam said, and then, “Chained up?” “Yeah, by a bunch of Soviet spetsnaz guys who were under strict orders to bring me back to Moscow in one piece.” “I thought you got shot.” “They didn’t shoot the arm off, so it still counts as one piece.” “I thought drugs didn’t work on you?” “They had some stuff they stole from Howard, but it wasn’t working well.”

[ducavalentinos]

Yeesssssssssss, thank you show, thank you!

[iguessitsjustme]

Something I find fascinating about Wandee Goodday is that no one has kissed yet (I know Ye and Cher have kissed but...) Like not a full on make out session despite having an established couple in the show that they could be using to show us kisses. But we get no kiss sex scenes from Yak and Dee and soft, somewhat chaste scenes from Ye and Cher. We all know both couples are fucking. But the lack of kisses where normally the show would have one couple more active in that department tells me how important kissing is to this story.

Dee has stated that it's silly but he doesn't want to kiss unless he loves that person and is serious with them. But the entire show is respecting the no kiss rule which tells me that it's not silly. The entire show is respecting Dee's boundary here. And yes, Yak and Dee have come so close to kissing so many times, but they haven't. Dee has always pushed him away and Yak has always respected it when he does.

It makes me wonder what's going to happen once the main couple does eventually lock lips. Will that open the floodgates? Will the audience get to see both couples kissing then? Or will it continue to withhold that specific moment of intimacy. There's something the show is saying about the expected parts of intimacy being taken for granted and also deserving of privacy and that's up to the people in the relationship.

Kissing can be an act of love and desire, but what the show is saying is that it is not a requirement for those things. I can be completely talking out of my ass here, but something about this is really sitting with me. Not only do we get Plakao as ace representation, someone who wants a partner to cherish and be cherished without sexual expectations, but we also get the show reinforcing the ideas that love comes in all forms with so many different acts and different people are comfortable with different things. And all of that is okay. And all of those boundaries are worthy of being respected. Regardless of societies expectations for what it means to be in a relationship and be physical, whatever is right for you is right and isn't that just beautiful?

[murdockhawkeye]

yk i kinda wish miss chatham was in the later seasons still. like imagine if we got an episode of them visiting the retirement home

i can see it now. they lose miss chatham somehow while in there, and then end up on their own side adventures

lewis is acting like he's found his people and he's invited to the next bingo meet by a gladys. or multiple gladys's. while on the opposite end of the spectrum, rikki gets into a fight/rivalry with some old lady

and cleo and emma end up being wrangled into helping one of the seniors, only for emma to end up transforming into a mermaid and for the senior that they were helping, to see it

and then because for whatever reason this came to mind, it turns out said senior is julia's ex karl, who apparently lives at the same retirement home as miss chatham

he almost gets his camera out for old times sake, because he hasn't changed much since they were teenagers, but then miss chatham gets her tennis racket out

suffice to say. they end up walking out with pocketful of old people candy and also a bunch more lore/info from miss chatham. idk

[icewindandboringhorror]

I was just thinking what a cool job this might be.. what if you were just the person who makes little still images of cute animal figurines doing various activities to post on social media...? like.. show up to work and just spend the whole day like "hmm... this table should be placed to the left a little.. let me set this miniature bagel down in this way... this tiny rabbit should be wearing a scarf", setting the backgrounds, the lighting, etc. ... dream job perhaps lol...

[weirfq1]

with all these gaston crackships/rarepairs that are coming out lately it would be so fucking funny if he had a flig with all the main characters (ambar, nina, simon... hell luna too if you want) and they all know it except matteo

[unproduciblesmackdown]

has happened plenty around iconis goings on but what an all-timer

[sysig]

What your fave says about you: Sona/Undertale edition (Patreon)

[justalittlebluetiefling]

I do think the hardest part about actually writing a whole novel for the first time is having to constantly remind myself that first drafts are allowed to suck. They are not meant to be perfect. They're allowed to be filled with half thoughts where you need to go back later because you can't figure out what you need to fix until there are words on a page. Like, allowing myself to feel like I am bad at something and still continuing to push might be the biggest way I've grown in my entire life.

[violetsareblue-selfships]

good morning!! <333

[thekidsare-not-alright]

it's funny when people are trying to put pete down by insulting his bass skills or whatever and they're like "he didn't even write fob's most iconic bassline!!!" (which I'm assuming is dance dance ig idk) and it's like. buddy, pal, friendofmine. sibling dearest. I'll do you one better: I can't name a bassline he has written.

great news! it doesn't matter. I'm not suggesting he's a good bassist either, because I've never really seen anything that really supports that idea. but he's not in the band to be the world's best bass player. it's a means to an end. he's a fantastic lyricist, he's a good frontman, and the three other members of fob wouldn't want to be in the band without him. I think that's all you could ever truly ask of him. nice try though

[randomnameless]

Here's a thing, even if Supreme Leader was trying to dismantle some corrupted system, she should do it in her own country, not conquer two sovereign countries over the pretense of "well they used to be part of Adrestia so they belong to me". I swear this game brainwashed people into thinking imperialism is okay after years of basically saying "no, it's not".

Given how Ionius was yeeted away from Nopes, I don't even know if we're supposed to look at Adrestia's own corruption - even if Adrestian NPCs are Supremely Aware and we have instances of Adrestia's finest Double Standard and we have the hilarious Ferdie line about the Kingdom having much more crested soldiers and generals than the Empire, when just checking the data of the game through all routes reveals it's much more nuanced than that!

(but how much of theDouble Standard is just Adrestia being Adrestia or those randoms being educated thanks to the propa- I mean the "information campaign" machine, idk).

At the end of the day it's not the premise of having a revanchist invasion by an Empire that, imo, really bothers in Nopes, but it's how this "campaign" is played completely straight, and everyone, even on the opposite sides, just passively accepts it, pushing everything under the rug because "IdEaLs" and "ReFoRmS" - and that's what some people said about the game wanting to sound "smart", we read and hear about those complex notions - reforms, nobility, systems, etc etc - but they are never developped.

Heck, Ferdie is the one who pushes the idea of "Imperial Schools" were randoms, regardless of their backgrounds, would be able to sit for imperial exams and become imperial civil servants, but without even making RL parallels and how the RL system was (or still is in some countries!) completely corrupt, there's no dissident voice, or anyone going all "yes sure, but what good would it be to be able to go to school if you are starving because no one is left make sure basic needs are provided and satisfied?".

That's what some people meant by the tech tree and the reasoning, I suppose, watsonian wise, behind the "ban" of the printing press - what would be its use if a majority of your people are illiterate because they cannot "waste" time going to school and have to work on the fields instead to make ends meet or just to have something to eat?

It's not something you can ignore when you talk about societal changes, but the game hammers "ReFoRmS" and "IdEaLs" while the rest of the cast holds the idiot ball to make the story believable, because no amount of "no u" could save it otherwise.

And I'd say it's the same for the imperialism depicted in Nopes and FE16, even during that sorry excuse of a parley, there's no real answer to "why the eff are you forcing my people to follow your reforms, can't you just reform your country?", we derail instead to "wow ur strong" "no i was weak" "okay we won't see eye to eye let's fight then" "okay".