#i've got three different books in progress (only 1 of them with me)

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hi Quil! I am happy to inform you that after many starts, stops, and literary detours, I have finally finished A Natural History of Dragons a few days ago! (I probably would’ve been about to finish it more quickly, but I have a habit of reading several books at the same time so it took me much longer.) I am planning to continue reading and discussing it, and hopefully growing the fandom by recommending it to a bunch of people.

As for thoughts on the book itself: I had a pretty good time reading it! It was really cool to see Isabella’s character development as she made mistakes and learned more about respect and good judgement. I thought the mystery was really good, although I wish we had learned more about the antagonists before they shoes up at the end. Also the dragons saving the day was just awesome. :)

Also, even though I kind of knew Jacob was going to die, I was still really surprised when it happened. I actually audibly reacted when Jacob got stabbed, and I think if a book can get me that invested it’s a pretty good book!

I hope you’re doing well and enjoying your summer, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts on future books with you!

- Amethyst

~

Amethyst! Hello! I am so so pleased to hear that, there are very few people (at least that I’ve found) who’ve read the series, so it’s always delightful to share it with someone else. It is undoubtedly one of my favorites–for several reasons. So I hope you enjoy the subsequent books! I think the series just gets better and better from that first one, though the fifth one is a little odd. Not in a bad way, just in a “huh. wasn’t expecting it to be this kind of story, but alright.” You’ll understand exactly what I mean if you end up reading that far :)

It is so fun to watch her develop! The series spans decades so we get to see her learn and grow so much, which is really neat. And your notes are fair–we don’t learn much about the person himself (I can’t recall his name) until he’s there, instead more about how what he’s doing is impacting the world and specifically the dragons. Which does make sense to an extent, because that’s what Isabella is focusing on. And the dragon saving the day was an excellent choice–and it’s super fascinating to think about with the comment that Isabella makes about how the dragon grabbing the other person and not her was pure luck. Because it was! It really was just lucky, there was nothing else to it, and just how different everything could’ve been if the dragon had arbitrarily decided differently. Her life was in the hands of a wild, dangerous animal.

I did not know Jacob was going to die when I read the books, and when I read that he got stabbed I was like “Oh my god…they’re going to make him survive a stabbing in the middle of nowhere? lmao realistically he’d be dead but I’m not complaining.” and then the author was like “no no, we’re doing this realistically” and killed him. I’d been tricked by Isabella’s mentioning of a husband in the present tense for her future, but alas, I was played for a fool. I love Jacob very very much, if only we’d had him for longer </3

I am doing alright! Little nervous as always, but managing it! currently in california for a week just for fun, but then I’ll be back home and back to my shenanigans :). Ordered some books before leaving and hopefully they’ll be ready for pick-up by the time we get back–one of them is book 4 in this series! I own all the others but that one, which is ironic because it’s my favorite.

Anyway! I hope you’re also doing well, and I look forward to seeing your thoughts on however much of the series you read :)

[elizmanderson]

2024 wrap-up, part 1

part two | part three | part four

[ABBA voice] here we go again, my my—

anyway, now that I've put that song in your head, let's look back at my year

writing

book stuff

as you may know, my second book, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, releases in March 2025! so I spent much of this year editing, then editing some more, then line editing, then copy editing, then going over pass pages, then over more pass pages... the process never ends (until it's too late to make changes)

(artist: Xuan Loc Xuan)

if you find any typos in the final book come March, instead of being annoyed about them, you should recognize their determination and give them an award for MVT (most valuable typo) and a kiss on their lil typewritten forehead. because they made it not only through my own fifty six thousand rereads, but also through my agent, my editor, my copy editor, and my proofreader, and I think almost every single one of those people went through the book at least twice

anyway, The Keeper of Lonely Spirits is a cozy fantasy about an old man cursed with immortality who hunts ghosts rather than making mortal friends who will die one day. when the residents of an Ohio town beset by a vengeful spirit adopt him as their own, he must decide: leave to protect his heart, or stay to save their lives?

link to StoryGraph listing

link to signed preorders through my local indie

link to unsigned preorders through the publisher

I also received my first ever trade reviews, one of which was a starred review from Library Journal! trade reviews can convince booksellers and libraries to purchase the book, especially if positive, especially if starred. they look good on a book's resume

read the reviews here:

link to Library Journal review

link to Publishers Weekly review

short stories

because I was so busy with novel stuff, I only wrote one short story this year. part of one short story. back at the start of January.

you know what happened? I let it sit for a few days for reasons I no longer remember, and when I came back I couldn't remember quite where I was going with it a l a s

anyway it's a queer Cinderella-inspired short, and I'd love to magically figure out a direction for it afresh so I can finish it in 2025

in-progress stuff

...we still won't talk about how revising last year's cozy mystery is going, but in my defense (a) I've been on deadline for other things and (b) just nine chapters in I had already strayed so far from my scene list that I had to rethink the whole book, whoops

mostly, I've been working on the second book that this publisher bought, which has resulted in a very terrible first draft full of so many footnotes and brackets that I would almost call it a zero draft, except I can't bring myself to use that term*

(*for myself. y'all use it as much as you like, if you like it)

literally it was 79,000 words, 6,000 words of which were footnotes-to-self so as not to ruin my fancy WIP aesthetic (Blackadder and Perpetua ftw) with comments

anyway, then there was a marginally less terrible second draft, which is what my editor got (a respectable 98,000 words with zero footnotes and almost zero brackets)

THEN I was supposed to take a break and not think about the book again until my editor read it and got back to me...but instead I immediately wrote a brand new synopsis, sent it to her like "seriously you don't even have to read the version I already sent you bc it's gonna look so different," and then a couple weeks later whoops turned around started rewriting the whole story

which isn't going great bc I really DO need a break, I can TELL I need a break, but unfortunately when it comes to writing my brain is like "NO BREAK. ONLY WRITE >:[" which is Not Good. but I am trying to let myself casually poke at it instead of going hard and getting it done fast enough to send to my editor before she can even read the version she has lolol, so that's something

no-context spoilers for this WIP:

(tried finding the original post but could not, so screenshot from the internet it is)

that's it for part one! part two to follow is here! link to part two

[thricegreatmagusaugustusofcrete]

Working the Grimorium Verum (P1)

A few weeks ago I decided that I was going to start working the Grimorium Verum. I read and reread and rereread the Grimoire and as much supplemental material as I could get my hands on (I'm referring to all of JsK's pdf books by Hadean Press and that one conjure codex entry by Al Cumins).

Goal/Intent

With that said my primary goal right now is to work towards creating a clay skull, created to the specs Jsk outlined in his notes on the Grimoire in his edition of the book. It is essentially reworking the invisibility spell of the second part into a spell that binds a spirit to the skull. Rather, in his words, "I strongly recommend making a crossroads the place of interment in a reconstruction of this rite using seven coins. The intention of this adaptation would be to make a magical head as a central feature of work with these spirits, a natural extension of the underlying symbolism," (The True Grimoire 160). The only change I am doing to what JsK states is that I am adding grave dirt to the clay for the skull.

The Work I've done thus far

Wednesday, 8/16/23, I began working to get the consecrating the materials necessary for the work. I started the second hour of Mercury at my local graveyard in my town. I asked the spirits of the graveyard to lead me to the grave most suited for my work. I was expecting to be led to a town founder or someone who died violently, rather they sent me to the grave of an old lady who died a hundred years ago on my birthday. This was not intentional on my end. I saw the grave from behind and I felt as though I was being pushed towards it and that it was the right choice for the work. I took the dirt left a coin and promised to pray for her for the next three nights.

I then got home as fast as possible so I could have the second half to craft and consecrate the Asperger and Aspergillus. For the Asperger, I used a black ceramic bowl that I painted the appropriate god names on. For the aspergillus, I took the three herbs, rosemary, (pepper)mint, and oregano (technically you are supposed to use Majoram, but I could not find any in my area and I plan to get the proper plant in the future, but for now both are closely related and I don't think it will do much harm to my work). I consecrated them according to the method in the Third part of the grimoire. Reciting the 7 penitential psalms took long than I thought it would.

Thursday, 8/17/23, in the second hour of Jupiter I engraved a spoon and a knife with Heramael's name and seal. The intention is based out of Goetic Pharamakos, by Jsk where they are used to collect plants in nature for me to work with, such as the branches for the wands. In the 1 night hour of Jupiter I consecrated the two items, however, I slightly adapted the consecration from Jsk's book on Eleogap so that it was to be a general consecration instead of an asperger and aspergillus consecration. The difference between it and the Grimoire's consecration is that it is Thelemic and instead of the psalms it uses chapters 3 and 5 from Liber LXV, which I thought would mean it would be shorter, well it was in the sense that for all things that after you waft the tools of the censer, you are supposed to recite the 7 psalms and psalm 71 and 116, so 21 psalms in total. Personally, I think there is a point where the more you recite over a ritual object the less of an effect it has on it. I could be wrong. Anyhow, below are pictures of the spoon and knife before I consecrated them.

If you have read this far. I thank you and apologize for the length and potential boringness of this blog post. My goal is to generate interest in the grimoire that is less about conjuring all the spirits in it and more about creating spirit relationships. As well as to document my progress and create discussion.

[keepingupwitht]

"Counting the Cost" by Jill Duggar Dillard

Last night, I read all of Counting the Cost in one sitting because apparently my fundie fascination is still going strong over a year after we closed down KUWF. I've got a lot of takeaways I want to talk about so I'm going to put a cut and get into it all after the jump.

In the beginning of the book, it struck me how generally correct we were about Jill and growing up as a Duggar. She was a people pleaser and playing the role of “Sweet Jilly Muffin” was so important to her. She loved her childhood and her parents. It’s interesting both from Jinger & Jill that as kids, the Duggar childhood of their memories is an idyllic one. There was a lot of emphasis on their values - no rock music, dancing, movies, etc. but it was a lot of time spent together and fun and games. 

We also saw the shift in the way they grew up - they were always IBLP inspired conservative Christains, but were attending a regular baptist church up until they attended a different church one week that had dancing in the service. Suddenly, they started attending an IBLP only church and getting deeper in. Jill recounts the first time she went to an IBLP conference and realized there were other families like theirs. It was interesting to see their early progression deeper into the cult (which Jill even calls it by the end of the book). 

Jim Bob getting into politics was interesting - Josh’s early interest in it, while Jill preferred to get treats from the other legislators, made a lot of sense. When Josh is sent away, Jill glosses over some of the details (fair enough) but it’s interesting to me to see how she lays out the three things happening around the same time: (1) going deeper into IBLP, (2) her dad getting involved in politics and (3) Josh getting sent away. It lays the groundwork for what TLC is about to walk into and change everything. 

Jim Bob also saying he knew God wanted him to run for Senate, then losing and immediately being noticed by the press and ultimately Discovery - and opening the “window of opportunity” for their family to be on TV was a little wild. The fact that all this happened ultimately because this man flipped a coin three times and got heads all three times - something that has a ⅛ probability of happening - is sorta wild. 

Jill not enjoying filming was something I did not expect - honestly I always thought that she was one of the kids who enjoyed it more. But it makes sense now that she was one of the few who refused to have her honeymoon filmed and refused TLC cameras at her birth, which Jana and Michelle filmed. Those were one of the things that I noticed at the time but didn’t realize what it meant. Good for Jill for standing her ground on both those things - although she wanted to refuse to have her birth filmed at all. 

It was interesting to me that the Duggars were not an IBLP model family UNTIL the show. The show put them in that position - Jill didn’t think they’d be one without it. And the line about Jana being invited to visit headquarters as the only blond to be one of “Gothard’s Girls” just hurts to think about in hindsight. 

It’s interesting how long they propped Josh up as the golden boy while he was in trouble behind the scenes. 

In hindsight, the fact that Jim Bob really set up Jill and Derick is really something, since they would ultimately be the first to really break away. 

Everytime Jill advocates for herself, I am so proud. She pushed for two weeks in Nepal to meet Derick even when they only wanted to film part of the trip, and got the time. They filmed a fake goodbye and then spent another week getting to know each other. 

 I didn’t expect to have my lawyer hat on, but the fact that Jim Bob had Jill sign a contract the day of her rehearsal dinner with everything going on with her MILs health without letting her read it, and her not even realizing what was happening was just atrocious. Just pure and straight abuse. 

The fact that Jill was not paid for any filming and thought she was volunteering at her family ministry for the majority of the time she was filming is just awful. I know she did get perks - her Nepal trip, various other trips, her wedding, groceries, etc. But the fact that she and Derick only had a five day honeymoon because that’s all they could afford when Jim Bob almost certainly made more than $100,000 for their wedding is gross. 

This also doesn’t make TLC look very good, since this kind of abuse was allowed to occur basically under their watch. I get that they likely had a great deal on the Duggars because they were only negotiating with questionable businessman Jim Bob but it does suck to see how little they care about the human cost of their show. 

[athena-xox]

Hi! I've been wanting to send asks for a while but couldn't think of a good question until recently.

I have three questions (or perhaps I should say headers).

One: How's your rewrite progressing? At what stages is cannon altered? Are there going to be concepts/characters ignored entirely?

Two: I've seen your (humorous) plea for long/multi chapter eah fics what are some of the favorite's you've read already? Any chance you have an idea of your own outside the rewrite? long or short (chances are yes, for literally anyone in this fandom but it bears asking).

Three: What fairytale(s) would you

A: Like to repeat

B: Could functionally thwart if you had to live through it.

C: Die in, or flee the land to avoid at all cost's.

Omg love the questions. I will admit I’m a bit to brain dead to fully comprehend all the questions so if I answer I different question that what you intended feel free to correct me.

With that being said, the first chapter of my rewrite is done and basically fully edited I believe it’s around 6000/7000 words. Chapter two hadn’t been edited but it’s kinda a weird one so it doesn’t really need to be edited and it’s only around 2000 words.

Chapter 3 I’ve written a bit of it and it’s also a short and I have a layout for it. And chapter 4 is going to be on the longer side probably 6000-10000 words. But after those are done and edited hopefully I’ll publish the fic!!

So that’s the progress, for what parts of canon are being altered, I think a lot of characterization. Bunny, Alistair, Crystal, Milton Grimm, Snow White & EQ are all characters who were either portrayed as good or morally grey that I’m going to make evil (whoops spoilers) and then also kitty isn’t really going to have a redemption arc like she did in spring unsprung, she’s just going to continue to chaotically be herself.

And then just every plotline / character will just be slightly more mature and in depth. And it depends on how you see canon because the rewrite is going to be a mix the tv series + the books which vary a bit on canon. And then obviously a lot more queer representation.

I wouldn’t necessarily say that the epic winter arc is being disgraced but it’s going througu many changes. I’ll probably get ride of the whole through the woods concept because it doesn’t really add anything to the plot (although I am adding a musical that doesn’t really do anything for the plot except allow be to geek (theatre kid) out and give us some cute dizzie moments).

I really want to include her but I don’t think there’s going to be any room for Bella sister. Other things from canon that I’m not including is darise, Meeshell being a horrible singer, DARABELLA, Maddie having visions, the snow king, cupids crush on dexter, the revealer rays, probably lots more but I can’t think of them.

Onto the next question I definitely have some fic recs. I’ll probably make a separate post for it but my top 2 are rewrite ignite restart and a legacy of brambles and thorns.

I think the reason why I’m actually commuting to the rewrite is because it’s really the only eah fic I want to write since I plan to hopefully cover all the characters and ships I like. In my past fandoms I’ve had like 20 different fics I wanted to write but I never got a around to all or them.

Oh wait actually I guess I have one idea but I doubt I’ll ever write it since I want to focus on the rewrite. But during my transition stage from the mlb fandom to the eah I was thinking about an au. Either the eah characters with miraculous’s in the real world or mlb characters at ever after. 

Okay and for the last questions im assuming you’re asking which fairytales I’d like to 1. Be a part of 2. Don’t want to be a part of and I could stop it 3. Would have to run away from ?

1. When I was little I had the yearbook thing that had you create your own eah character and I always wanted to be a princess so I made myself goose girl

2. Definitely wouldn’t want to be like Jack in the beanstalk so I just wouldn’t take the beans

3. Sleeping beauty was my fav when I was younger so I definitely wouldn’t want to have Faybelles destiny. Or be an ugly sister, that would kill my self esteem (no wonder Bella and Brutta ran away)

For the last 3 questions I wasn’t sure if you were asking all abt me or if any were for my rewrite.

Anyways tysm for the ask !!

[avasghost]

foreign birds: update #2

wake up new foreign birds update just dropped

so yeah. 13k in and nothing has gone extremely wrong yet which is good! it's all going pretty good. so here's excerpts for chapter 7-10.

if you missed it, you can find the wip intro here and the first update here. and also the playlist here because i have good music taste.

so ! the story is progressing nicely and the four timelines are working out really well. i finally introduced gabriel (in the college timeline) and he's becoming one of my favourite characters ever (based on the 1 singular scene with him i've written so far, in a chapter i'm going to include in the next update bc i don't want this update to be that long). this book is probably going to be relatively short with the projected word count being 50-60k words, so at this rate i might finish it for camp in april next year? but idk. i'll probably be sad if i finish this book any time soon so i won't be rushing it.

excerpts & taglist below the cut!

CHAPTER 7

in chapter 7, we jump back to the third timeline, which follows martin going to college and the development of his relationship with gabriel, who's already dead in the fictive present.

in this chapter martin leaves his hometown finally and drives for a while and then has dinner in a little diner where he aspires to not be like the people in his hometown.

When I left my hometown for college, I didn’t check its fleeting image in the rear-view, didn’t even feel it slink away around me and disappear into fields and hills. All I felt was the relief of separation, the green unfurling like a new country.

and here's the end of the chapter:

I ate the burger and paid and left. The sky had deepened, and the stars glittered in small clusters above my head. It didn’t feel too different from back home, where Jasmine and I would lie on our trampoline and count them, scanning the sky carefully for all the tiny lights. I kept driving. The roads grew smoother and buildings grew taller and more industrial. Cars crawled like ants, headlights a searing yellow. The traffic lights tossed green and red beams across the highway. The stars disappeared.

CHAPTER 8

in the main timeline (martin back in his hometown after death of gabriel) martin goes to a laundromat and meets rainey for the first time in three years! oh the tension

here he is the night before being sad bc thats just what he does:

I spent two nights in the motel room alone. The telephone on the wall didn’t ring and no ones’ knuckles thrummed on the door. If they did, I probably wouldn’t have answered anyway,sprawled on the paisley duvet cover in a silvery sheen of smoke. I kept my pack of cigarettes under the edge of my pillow, and smoked into the empty hours of the night as the silence outside the window festered and the room grew shadows and slowly faded from sight. I kept the side-lamp on, and sometimes I leaned into the rind of yellow light that ringed the bedside table. As smoke flumed between my teeth I’d shut my eyes and it would become a halo, the circle of light, the only thing that made me visible.

martin sees rainey in the laundromat after not seeing her for like three years, and she leaves and he follows her outside. they talk awkwardly and then rainey asks why he came back. he avoids the question. (she's the "you" pov)

“So are you back for good?” I approached slowly, then leaned against the wall a few feet from you, warmed by the sun baking on the stucco. “Doubt it. I always hated this place.” “Same.” A cloud of smoke. A cough. “This town is a shithole. I never left, though. Got a pretty good gig writing magazine columns. Pretty decent pay. What were you majoring in again?” I didn’t mention her thieving, decided it wasn’t important. “Photography. Not much of a career to come out of that, though.” “Did you drop out?” “It’s complicated.” Gabriel’s face, swimming. Gabriel’s body crumpled on the ground, blocked out. I blocked it out. “Why did you come back here, then?” “That’s also complicated.” “There’s really nothing left here. Most people our age moved away ages ago and now the only people left are people like Greta and a few little kids.”

later, martin is sitting in his motel room watching the news and gabriel shows up as a missing person.

I sat in my motel room that evening and waiting for the News to clip through the frenzy of static that rang in the back of my head even after the static stopped and a woman with a pearl necklace and too-white teeth began speaking, her voice hollowed by the grain of the audio recording. I pressed the back of my head against the wooden headboard and tugged at the button on the sleeve of my shirt. Her words slipped together, words about the forecast, how it was supposed to be partly sunny tomorrow and rain all night. But then, my stomach dropped. Gabriel’s face flashed on screen, Gabriel with his curly black hair and amber skin, Gabriel with his dimples and subtle smile, Gabriel with his gold earring and colourful silk shirt, mostly unbuttoned so you could see his crystal necklace crooked to his chest. I sleeved a grease of sweat from my forehead as the news reporter’s voice rang in my ears, words still hazy but some sticking out like the sting of metal—student's body found off campus, likely an accident, still searching for answers, will be missed, prayers for his family, so sorry for their loss. And then his face was gone. As suddenly as it had appeared, I could no longer picture his features in my head. He was so close and yet already so far gone.

CHAPTER 9

i skipped this chapter for now but it's in the childhood timeline. moving on.

CHAPTER 10

martin goes to the only nightclub nearby where he doesn't expect to recognize anyone.

i wrote basically this entire chapter in my math class in a notebook which is cool. it's been kind of the best time to get writing done lately (but don't worry its only when i'm done my work i'm not failing i swear)

he's a little disorientated because last time he went to a nightclub it was with gabriel. then he sees someone in the crowd, who he recognizes as rita, a girl he went to school with. i've seriously got to stop describing halos all the time but i can't

The woman, Rita Ellis, was a year younger than I was but graduated a year before me. Skittish and friendly, she’d usually nooked herself behind the pages of the mass-market fantasy novels they sold in grocery store lineups and only spoke when spoken to. Tartan skirts and hair in two braids, she usually sat with her parents in front of my family in mass and I used to watch the light scintillating through the stained-glass windows amber through her hair, give her a soft halo that turned her blond head bright yellow. Today she was haloed by the red and blue lights that scattered above her head, and her hair ran long and wavy across her shoulders.

and then, shortly after

Her voice rang above the noise and I stared at the space behind her ear, where a man with black curls and a gold earring laughed at some unheard joke. Gabriel’s face almost replaced his as he turned towards me, then vanished into bright fractures again.

she asks the usual questions about why he's back and he says he missed it. she says she stayed because her mom had cancer and is still here because of her dad.

then she asks him to dance, and they talk for a while and she tells him she missed him a lot. she asks him to come over to her place but he doesn't bc he wishes he was here with gabriel instead but he's dead so. making due ig. then he gets sad about gabriel not being there and leaves suddenly.

“Sorry. I have to go.” “Her smile slunk back into itself and she slid her hands down my arms before pulling them away. “Of course. It was nice seeing you again, Martin.” “And you. I’ll see you around.” I lost sight of her in the crowd as I made my way toward the exit, with its neon sign stamping red letters in my eyes, a lure. Bodies shuffled against me and sour breath ghosted my face and sweat braised my forehead when finally I shouldered open the door and stepped into the husky chill of night.

soon after

Images swirled in my head, images and faces blending together—Rita’s breath, Gabriel’s eyes, your red hair. The lights and the colours that continued to splotch inside my eyelids and quiver across the pavement in front of me, the yellow moon, all the dark-windowed houses and dead shop signs.

he gets back to his motel and decides to look through a stack of photos he has in his suitcase that he took, most of which are of gabriel.

the end:

I shuffled through the deck of polaroids until the clock above the bed read 2:44 and the stack began to repeat itself, Gabriel Gabriel Gabriel, his face reappearing so many times throughout the stack that it began etching itself in my head again, the familiar curls, his bright eyes, his floral scent and long fingers. The lump pitted in my throat began to grow and I decided not to turn on the news, not to scour every headline for his face, like I so wanted to. It wouldn’t do me any good. It wouldn’t bring him back. I shoved the polaroids into the drawer of the side-table next to the Gideon bible with shiny golden letters, and shut the drawer.

and those are all the excerpts i have today! until the next update,

-- ava

taglist (i just have one for everything, ask to be added/removed): @flip-phones @chewingthescenery @ghostsofmemories @dallonwrites @wildswrites @annlillyjose @letsgetsquiggly @strangerays @mel-writes-with-her-dragons @teaandtypewriters @kahaaniyaa @coffeeandcalligraphy @47crayons @writing-is-a-martial-art @pepperdee @oceancold @unorganisedbookshelf @musingsbycaitlin @sunstone-iolite @femmeniism @raywritesstories @rodentwrites @cheerfulmelancholies @these-starrynights

[fastwiemagie]

The sock show must go on!

Knitting currently keeps me very focused! I feel out of whack otherwise but knitting calms me down. So it's no wonder I've already started (and almost finished!) on another sock journey.

The blue socks go well. I don't have enough single colour blue to mix with the changing blue, so I'm using two different kinds I had at home. The socks still look similar enough that you can recognise them as a pair though!

I haven't remembered yet how to do the heel part so I always have to look that one up. I think I did it kind of different even for the first blue sock, though I did read up on the instructions first. So weird. I hope they'll be similar enough to work!!

[id]Picture 1: A multi-coloured ball of yarn and an uni-coloured ball of yarn used together to cast on a fresh sock, being knitted in a round on pretty wooden needles.

Picture 2: Shows the beginning of the sock cuff. It's laying on the table, with some shorter wooden needles laying next to it. I bought the shorter needles for one day trying to knit gloves, and I was pondering whether I should try knitting this sock on the short needles.

Picture 3: Shows three different kinds of wooden needle that I own. They go from 20cm to 10cm in length and are useful for knitting different projects on the round. The blue cuff of the sock is of course also in the picture!

Picture 4: The cuff of the sock is making good progress! It's sticking out quite far out of the grey needle cosy with a black machine embroidered raven and "Nevermore" saying on it. You can see the different hues of blue quite well in the picture. There's s deep dark blue, a more turquoise one and a one that makes you think of a blue sky.

Picture 5: The sock is no longer only a cuff, a hell is being added! The wooden needles look quite fetching and daring in this picture in my opinion. The sock-to-be is laying on top of an instruction book on how to knit socks (this page details how to do the heel part).

Picture 6: Wow! One multi coloured blue sock is already finished and it's second pair is being cast on! The uni-coloured blue yarn I've used for the first sock has run out though, so for the second one I use another uni-coloured blue. The new blue is much brighter and reads almost turquoise blue (the other uni-coloured blue was a dusty middle blue).

Picture 7: Shows the finished first blue sock with it's sibling's cuff progressing quite well. Once again the project is stored in the grey needle cosy in between working on it. The needle cosy helps keep the needles safe and organised while and so you don't loose any stitches, especially when transporting the needles.

Picture 8: The heel wall has been started! The heel consists of this wall and then stitch decreasing to form the round part of the heel.

Picture 9: Pretty stitch markers help me with the stitch decreases on the heel part. Here I'm using a red flower stitch marker I got from a swap event and a dark gold celtic knot stitch marker I've made myself with some wire and the celtic knot charm. Also, once again the instruction book has come out because I don't know how to do the heel by heart yet.

Picture 10: The round part of the heel has formed! After this part there are too many stitches on the needles and I'll have to do some rounds of decreases again to reduce the number of stitches to the original count again and continue with the sole of the sock.[/id]

[semperintrepida]

For that writer meme...

2, 5, 6, 8, 13, 18 aaaaaand 20!

Please and thank you :D

Howdy, Anon!

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

I'm excited to resume working on a book I have in progress called Irredeemable, which is going to be my apology to deimos!Kassandra for what I did to her in Breaking. 🤣 It's a redemption story with a side of slowburn and I am very excited to be writing from deimos!Kassandra's head after writing about her from an oblique angle for the past three years.

5. What character that you’re writing do you most identify with?

I can't say I identify with the fictional characters I write about, but there's definitely a part of me in every POV character I've ever written. Perhaps I latch on to characters who can provide some aspirational wish fulfillment. Kassandra has the physicality and unshakeable confidence. Kyra has the exceptional memory and ability to adapt to the moment. These are not qualities that I have in great amounts, but I sure as heck would like to!

6. What character do you have the most fun writing?

Right now? Kyra. She's so fucking complicated, and writing her dialogue has brought me joy—as well as a fierce challenge. Everything she says holds at least two layers of meaning.

deimos!Kassandra in Irredeemable is a close second. She's Kassandra coming back from the dark side and channeling her lets me play with some emotions that aren't so nice. 😈

8. Is what you like to write the same as what you like to read?

Yes. I write the stories I want to read, and all too often those don't exist so I have to conjure them myself.

13. Do you share your writing online? (Drop a link!) Do you have projects you’ve kept just for yourself?

This page is the gateway to the writing I've posted online, both fanfic and original work. I'm mostly writing fanfic these days so that gets posted for public enjoyment. (That said, I originally wrote "The Breaking" just for myself, and was only later persuaded to share it in public.)

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

"The Breaking" got an amusing AU just a few weeks ago: What if Kyra had managed to kill Deimos early in the story, what then? That story probably had the most faffing about in its earliest stages, when I was writing my way into the plot. There's a version of that story that doesn't skip the five months between chapter 1 and 2. 😬 There's also a version with an Isu component that became a darling that I absolutely had to kill.

I think Breaking is an outlier due to its complexity. Prior to that book, my stories have tended to align with a strong central vision, appearing a bit like Athena, fully formed from my forehead.

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Gonna stick this answer under a cut to save your dashboards...

Let's talk about the snake imagery in "The Breaking." If you've played the game, you know that the Cult of Kosmos's sigil is one of twined vipers, and though I've written a story where Deimos has broken free of the Cult's control, she's kept the viper sigil as her own.

Snakes are strongly associated with Deimos, so it's telling when such imagery begins to be used around Kyra:

An eagle would batter its wings against the bars until they broke. But flying's not for me anymore. I'm closer to the ground, slithering, shedding my skin, trying to make myself small enough to squeeze between the bars and escape.

And:

My arm moves, the blade slides and hisses for a long while, but then a quiet sigh from the bed pulls me out of rhythm. Your head turns, slowly, in time to watch me test the blade's edge against my thumbnail. Sharp enough to cut to the bone if I need it to.

Let's just say I'm hinting some things about Kyra's character progression. 😅

[Fun meta asks for writers]

[endless-sketching]

I've only played "one night, hot springs" and I'm at the start of the second one, but I got all of the endings for it. So I wanna share my thoughts on this really lovely game.

Quick heads up: my impressions with visual novels are rather limited. Seeing how I only know about visual novels on a surface level and I've only played a small amount of them in the past. (I rambled a bit so feel free to skip this section and read what I thought about a year of springs)

The only ones I've that I've properly finished was Va11halla, Synergia, Slay the Princess, missed messages, You Left Me, Doki Doki Literature Club (original and DDLC+), Coffee Talk (only Episode 1), and If Found.

Technically Alter Ego, Alter Ego Complex, and Aznana count as visual novels but they're more idle games that progresses the visual novel story than proper visual novels. (would Smile for Me count as a visual novel? wait does Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney count??? oh god does that also means Helltaker counts????)

I listed all of them cuz I didn't think my list would be this long.

Aside from that, my impression of VNs are more gamified in a sense. That you'll have to fill up a bar with a certain character to progress or romance that character. To get the girl and all that. Actually, yeah now that I'm thinking about it, my only impressions of vns were romance vns.

Those felt more for people that wanna experience a more self insert type romance story. And with how they're usually done in a really fan service centric way. From just the jokes I've seen that were made of this type of game was enough for me to just not play vns all together.

Even with yuri vns like Kindred Spirits on the Roof, the presentation felt weirdly mediocre. It's not bad but I would've liked it a bit more if the artstyle was a bit more interesting or it had those fun limited animations that ace attorney has. Though I'm being rather unfair to this game since I haven't finished it yet. That and its plot would've been better suited as an anime or manga as far as I can remember it as. I dunno honestly, take all of what I've said about this game with a massive bucket of salt. Especially when I haven't fully played it beyond just the beginning.

The vns that I did stuck around to finish either had a fun visual or gimmick to them like Va11halla's diegetic manual music player, or stories that hook me like any of the other vns I mentioned.

I will admit that the way vns show their story is super hard for people to get into since it's basically a different way of reading a book to put it bluntly.

Ok I'm actually getting into the game that I wanted to talk about now.

I first heard of "One night, hot springs" through a random Twitter post of someone making fan art of the game. I wish I can find which one it is since I didn't even knew that Haru was a transwoman, the only thing I knew about it was "three women? Ah so it must be a cute yuri. It is cheap so I might as well buy it" and then it blindsided me with a genuinely sweet and super well written story with queer characters with zero compromises or any dumb wishy washy "erm acktually" and actually presents the reality of the situation for characters like Haru.

I love this game to bits because of how well done the routes are too. The game gives you the option to turn on a hint system where it'll give you 3 hearts on the top left to keep track of what dialogue option you should or shouldn't pick. I had it on to see how the game deals with this kind of system and see how certain routes are triggered. And I'm super suprised that you can get all of the game's endings (minus the bad ending) without losing any hearts. Which is a really big deal because it means you get to get these endings in more than one way. And it also shows that you don't compromise yourself with the world to get these endings.

See, you lose a heart when you choose to seclude yourself from the world. Like the choice you get after Haru finishes filling out the paperwork, be upfront and asks if there's any problems to the lady at the front desk and you don't lose any hearts. You actively see that when you pick options where Haru doesn't get to live as herself, she loses a heart.

But the fun part is how this doesn't entirely affects how you get the Manani or Erika endings.

The hint system cleverly points out how certain choices are just straight up bad or wrong. Like when you're talking to Erika about trans stuff and she unintentionally says a transphobic thing like "oh so a nickname for when you were a boy?" If you don't call this out, you lose a heart. But it doesn't lock you into a route. The only time you get any of the endings is if you lose all hearts before a certain point of the game or lose all hearts during one of the character specific routes OR chose specific dialogue options without losing any hearts.

It's an amazing message to tell to your players that living as yourself shouldn't be a compromise. You only hurt yourself if you're lying to yourself.

Words really can't fathom how much this story means to me by just doing this simple act alone.

I really can't wait to see what the other chapters are and where they're gonna take the story.

[helenarlett-rex]

Gorge World: Part 2

This post is a continuation from Part 1.

So starting out with my test play of Gorge World, I have decided on the modern setting out of the three available settings in the book.

Welcome to Ahmurica, brought to you by the Coalition of Corporations (CoC). It’s 1997 and there’s a War. A fast food cold war of sorts, as leading restaurant chains fight for dominance. A boost in integrated circuitry during the corporate conflict has caused a variety of growing pains. Neon has yet to be discontinued but LED shines bright in car dashboards. Cassettes still hold on while CDs and cartridges now hold enough data for 3D graphics, with new influence from ‘the Net’. Plastic shelled robots follow their owners commands to some degree of accuracy. To the point where even medical diagnostics and treatment is somewhat automated. And with all of this new progress, all corporations have used it for its advertisement and indoctrination. And it worked somewhat, as sects of brand loyalists dedicate their lives to the consumption of the brand and even fight for it. While others try their best to keep to themselves and live lives the way they want.

I will also be playing the game solo though use of the Mythic Game Master Emulator. It's not like I have anyone else who's going to play this particular game with me. I was lucky to get my regular gaming group to play Hc Svnt Dracones. If I tried pitching this to them... well... it's not going to happen. Besides, I want to actually play this... not just run it for someone else...

So I've got my little Helen mini ready for adventure, but she needs something to actually be doing. Let's start with a pretty standard setup. How about she goes out to grab something to eat? This is Burgerberg after all. Their society seems pretty centered around fast food. And if I look on Helen's sheet, we can see I listed her favorite food as "chicken," so if I look at the setting document in the book I don't see a place to get actual chicken, but I do see here that we have a place called Cheekin Chapel.

Cheekins (not to be confused with chickens) are delicious fat raptor-like creatures known for their white meat. Thus they are great for frying, amongst the other protein sources. No restaurant is known more for its fried cheekin than “Cheekin Chapel”, with its plus sized hen nun mascot holding a collection platter full of fried cheekin. As the pioneer of serving food in cardboard buckets, Cheekin Chapel is one of the few restaurant chains not suffering from growing pains due to the increased demand for larger portions. Even going so far as to up the size of its biscuits to that of burger buns. The current CEO, a very rotund shortstack eagle known as Gazette Gilded, daughter of the previous CEO Garter Gilded, is shrewd in her business practices and runs a tight ship. Also known for her loud angry yelling that can be heard three floors in either direction. Rumor has it she lives a double life hanging around malls and bars under the nickname “Glitter”.

This will do, I think. It may not be actual chicken, but it's close enough.

Forgive my medieval tavern full of human patrons, but I don't exactly have a KFC setup. Helen has poor eyesight anyways so I'm sure she can't tell the difference.

Helen goes up to the front counter to place an order, but I'm thinking she really wanted some actual chicken. So she's going to ask the bartender- I mean, fast food attendant... if he had any "specials" he can offer her. *Wink wink*

Does he? We'll have to consult the Fate Chart in the Mythic GM Emulator.

We are only just starting out so the Chaos Rank starts out at the default of 5, and I think the chances of them having any actual chicken they are just going to hand over to whatever random customer comes in and asks is Very Unlikely.

And we rolled 39. So that's a no. It's not an exceptional no, however. It's just a basic no. What that's telling me is that while he's telling her no, he's not being completely straightforward with her. He may actually have some chicken, or at least know where to get it. But now the question is, does Helen realize he's not being totally honest with her? She'll need quickness of mind here, so that's going to require an Agility roll. Helen's only got one pip in Agility, so she rolls 1 die, and we are going to say this an Average difficulty roll.

And that is a failure... So Helen does not pick up on the fact that he isn't being completely straight with her.

So then... with nothing else to do, I guess Helen will order a meal and go sit down to eat. She will order Fire Flakes. The book doesn't tell me what Fire Flakes actually are, so let's just assume it's like, spicy chicken strips or something... That will cost her 1 Trinket of currency and the book says it "Fills 1 point of Fullness."

Now my next question is, does anything happen while she's eating? We are going to go back to the GE Emulator to find out by rolling on the Event Focus Table.

And we rolled a 38, which is Move Towards a Thread. Hmm... We haven't actually pulled out the Mythic adventure sheet and added any threads yet, but I guess we do sort of have one now... "Find Real Chicken." So I'm going to go ahead and add that to the sheet.

So now that we have an actual thread to move towards, we need to figure out how we are doing that, or what is moving us towards it. For that we will roll on Mythic's Event Meaning chart. And by rolling two d100s I got Abuse The Physical...

Hmm... Okay, yeah... So I think what happens is, while Helen is eating she notices the bartender getting rough with one of the waitresses.

Let's say that she drops a serving tray and spills someone's food all over the floor and the bartender comes out and starts yelling at her. It says Abuse The Physical so let's say he actually slaps her. And being a woman herself, Helen won't stand for that.

She jumps to the waitress's defense and is going to try to make the bartender back down. We're going to use a Force roll to try to make the bartender back off as she bares her teeth and roars at him. And Helen has 2 pips in Force so she'll be rolling 2 dice for this.

Oh my god. And it's worse than a fail. It's a Flub. In Gorge World a Flub is basically like rolling a Critical Failure and the character is punished in some way. Now the rules say a GM may cause something bad to happen or evoke one of a character’s various features in a negative way. Since my GM is an emulator I'm going to have to roll to find out which of the two it wants to do. This will just be a simple 50/50 roll so we'll just roll a d4. Evens something bad happens, odds we evoke one of character’s features.

And I rolled a 4, so that's even. Something bad happens. And to find out what, we will again ask the Event Meaning Chart.

Lie Advice... Ah, okay. I know what this is. The bartender, completely unshaken by having this angry T-Rex roaring in his face, is going to "advise" Helen to back down and make up some kind of lie as to why she should. I'm going to roll one more time to find out what that lie is.

Negligence The innocent...? Oh, maybe he tells her that if they get into a fight there in the restaurant more innocent people are going to get hurt. Yeah, he puts on a show of being tougher than he actually is to make her think that he'll throw her all over the restaurant and create a full barroom brawl kind of situation if she tries to take him on. And because this is the punishment for her Flub Helen doesn't get to roll anything to try and call his bluff. So instead she just backs down and slowly slinks out of the restaurant with her head lowered in defeat.

But that's okay! Because remember, the whole point of this encounter was Move Towards a Thread.

So I think what happens is, after Helen leaves, the waitress chases after her, following her outside, to thank her for trying to stand up for her. And she's going to give Helen some advice on where she can find some actual chicken. And with one more roll that advice is...

Excitement Reality...

Oh... Okay... Yeah, I know what this means. And I will save it for the next post.

To Be Continued

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

So after playing my first little session, as short as it was, I do already feel like I am starting to get a handle on the game. I only ended up doing two rolls in the actual game and the rest were all rolling on the Mythic emulator, but they were very simple and straight forward. I'll try making them a bit crunchier as the game progresses by adding in higher difficulties and experimenting with advantages and disadvantages, but so far I like the dice system. I didn't get a chance to try out combat yet either. I was kind of hoping things might go that way with the bartender, but that Flub kind of killed that. We'll see how combat goes when it happens.

As for the setting... This game is made to be played in any setting you want so I could easily homebrew something if I wanted to, but I figured since it's the first time I've ever played I should just use one of the stock settings provided. I didn't even realize it at first, but it's a very Burgerpunk setting. I've heard people joke about Burgerpunk before but I've never seen it actually implemented until now. I mean... I'm playing a TTRPG about trying to find a fucking chicken sandwich... but I'm having fun so I guess that's all that matters.

[egophiliac]

This may seem a bit dumb question for someone who's main in en server. But I need to prepare myself before chap 6 is coming. Anyway, is chap/book Ignihyde gonna be THAT hard?? I've seen a lot people kept saying they're not ready for chap 6 or good luck for 'that' battle. Is it that difficult?

some preparation would be a good idea, actually! if you just want advice with absolutely no potential spoilers (even vague ones), then I'll say this:

the best thing you can do for yourself is -- for the later part of episode 6 -- try to have at least one SR or SSR card no lower than level 40 for as many characters as possible (specific ones at the bottom 👇👇👇). I've seen 40 as the minimum recommended level but honestly, go as high as you reasonably can, especially with your SSRs.

I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, hopefully it'll still make sense :')

SO! most of the frustration revolves around chapters 6-66 and 6-67, which are both split into subroutes with multiple subchapters/battles that follow three different groups of characters. you have to finish all three routes to get to the next chapter, and they force certain requirements that can make it a lot more difficult if you aren't careful:

you build your teams at the start of the chapter, and can't change them without resetting your progress. (if I remember right, you do get a chance to rebuild for 6-67.)

teams are built by character, instead of by card like they normally are, and each one has 2-3 required characters locked into that team. you can use any cards of that character, but you can't use multiple of the same character, or use them in a different team. also, no guest/friend cards.

they tell you what the element of the bosses are, but the other battles are just...whatever. if you can manage more than one 40+ card for a character, having good type coverage will help out a lot (why yes, I did get stuck for an embarrassing amount of time on a low-level rando because I got unlucky with type matchups, what about it).

there's a couple of points where you have to wait several real-time hours before continuing. this doesn't have anything to do with the team building, it was just annoying. c'mon. >:(

to be fair, I think some of the general frustration comes from how out of nowhere it was, so it's sure to be much easier if you go in with some idea of what it'll be like. (on my first attempt I tried to be cute and put everybody with their friends. it...did not go well.) I also had a particularly hard time of it because 1) F2P = less SSRs to carry me, and 2) I hadn't really focused on any cards outside of my special little garden of favorites, so not being able to use multiples of the same character for everything kinda left me boned. I'd be lying if I said it didn't feel great when I finally got through it though!

more specific info:

in 6-66, the bosses are a 5-turn survival battle; in 6-67, they're infinite battles (reduce their HP to 0 to win) and, subsequently, much harder to get past. personally speaking, the Wood one was the hardest for me because it heals itself between turns (and also I had literally no good Rook cards at the time). your mileage may vary!

Team 1 - required characters are Vil, Epel and Rook, boss element is Wood

Team 2 - required characters are Leona and Jamil, boss element is Water

Team 3 - required characters are Riddle and Azul, boss element is Fire

teams are 5 characters as per the usual, so make sure you have good cards of the required boys and at least six to complement them, plus a few more if you want to be careful. this is ONLY for those two chapters, which are pretty late in the episode (for JP it came out as part of the final episode 6 update) so you've got time to prep!

there's the obligatory overblot battle later on that is technically harder (stronger + more HP and all that), but it felt SO much easier in comparison just because it was back to normal Twst rules. really hoping that episode 7 doesn't pull its own shenanigans 💀

[oumaheroes]

I love the recent Brit-Brothers fic you just wrote, you captured their mannerisms and personalities so well. Like, yes! *yes!* LMAO poor Wales though, antiques are hard to replace...Ireland and Scotland's banter...England doing fuck-all, but chiming in everytime they call him forgetful (which makes me wonder, what makes him the *most* forgetful or the *worst* forgetful out of the brothers?) Also I just wanted to ask how long it usually takes you to write things. Because I've been still writing the Longbow fic. I'm only on chapter 1. I'm a big perfectionist unfortunately, but I'm thinking of publishing it one chapter at a time, but eh. Progress is being made - Longbow Anon.

Ahhh, thank you Longbow Anon, glad you liked it! I very much enjoyed writing them quibbling

England is forgetful because he's usually focused on something else and zones out and away from anything he deems as unimportant. Off the cuff work meeting or quickly made plan to meet someone for dinner? Locked and loaded, he's there five minutes early. But his phone? His keys? Eating three meals a day?? No chance, and anything not physically attached to him has a high chance of being entirely lost somewhere unfindable

Wales is forgetful because he's more of a dreamer and puts things and thoughts down and neglects to pick them up again because isn't his neighbours bush flowering so nicely this year? He'll have to ask him how he does it- oh! The postman... he needs to post that letter, better go to the study for a pen and write it out, it needs to go out today. Oh look, he left his tea here and now it's cold. Better make a new one... what was he doing again?

Scotland is forgetful because he functions very happily on autopilot and long held habits and so will subconsciously follow these habits without paying too much attention. Hence windows being left open (he likes to leave his open at home), or lights being left on (his lights are a different switch in a different place) or cars being left unlocked.

Ireland actually quite on it with this sort of thing but terrible with keeping times and booked events

By and large, England's more of a noticeable mess and so is deemed the worst of them all

As for how long it takes me to write things, it depends! If it's a short story I really want to write and currently have buzzing in my brain I can get one out in about an hour or two, depending on how detailed. Longer ones take about a week or two of short writing bursts if I'm in a determined, focused headspace, but sometimes the time between updates can be anything from weeks to years (Reset took two years to update, almost 8 years to complete from beginning to end lol). Long multichapter works always take me ages because some chapters are easier than others

I personally like going one chapter at a time for long boiz because it suits my wayward procrastinating, but I know other authors who write the whole thing out entirely before they post (and I am in awe of them). Both ways are good so don't be hard on yourself for how long it takes you to write, multichapter works or any work at all is very difficult!

You've got this Longbow Anon, I can't wait to see what you've got!

[octoxen]

LETS FUCKING GOOOOOO 99 FOLLOWERS BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY

GHTRYEUSTAJAYJAHWJW THANK YOU EVERYONE!!

^^^^^^^^^^^^

as for that-

•°=

Im making a lil book manga project with @octomelodytunes and @not-baconn 's OCs!

(eh the progress of the chapters will be slow because i. am the expert at procastinating and school is burning me down)

I've planned this with Mel many months ago on wattpad and i should do the manga but i figured out that i should go practice drawing some more and build my own manga artstyle before finally making the chapters and everything.

Mel's OC:

Aiko/Mel Soyatama (The pink dressed girl with choker)

Bacon:

The Main Character, the one in the middle, Tsuki

•

So like just a little description about the story if some of you are curious what its about-

•

Triluna:

When a Shooting star-looking space Capsule from the Moon/Space falls into the world with a huge Shockwave, Two siblings, Aiko and Rin Soyatama who lost their parents from the impact meet a young man named Tsuki who was inside of the Capsule, then knowing that the three of them had Three Legendary Wolf Beast Spirits inside their bodies granting them the ability to use different Elemental abilities, and to protect themselves from getting the beasts extracted by an Evil Organization, who hunts powerful Spirit Animal beasts for their evil schemes, the trio protects themselves with also the help of an Organization called "SPIRIT", who consists of having Different Elemental users with Spirit Animal Beasts too.

•

SPIRIT ANIMAL BEASTS:

these are Guardians who ascended and took form of Animals, they possess or choose a mortal who they relate to or find worthy to use their own elements for good.

•

The 7 Legendary beast spirits and their holders:

•

1st: Tentai Ryujin/Celestial Dragon, a Dragon who controls every element, and the one who has absorbed the celestial principles, making it a Godlike Spirit Beast. (which it already is since its believed to have created the World)

•

Holder: Antagonist

•

2:

Zetsubou Ōkami (Core Vanquisher, Corrupted Wolf) [The one who ravaged the village where Tsuki and his father lived, Forcing Kazuki (Tsuki's father) to transfer Mekakushi onto his son and got him to leave the Moon for safety.]

Holder: Antagonist

•

3:

Mekakushi Tsuki Ōkami (Blinding Moon, Blood Moon wolf) [The guardian who protected the moon village, currently protecting Tsuki, his former holder's son.]

•

Holder: Protagonist

•

4:

Bara Amaterasu (Protector of Nature, maintain love on people who have relationships.)

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Holder: Deuteragonist [Aiko]

•

5:

Mō Fubuki Ōkami (The Wolfbeast who controls blizzards, snowstorms or cold temperatures, it has a conjoined Twin [on the tail] who is called "Nariko Ōkami" and it is the one who controls lightning and raging seas.)

•

Holder: Tritagonist [Rin/Xin]

•

6: Tsuru (A white Crane who controls the flow of life, gravity and is connected to the Spirit realm.)

•

Holder: Side Character [Hanako Kagura, President of SPIRIT organization]

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7: Kitsune Shi (A black and white Fox who guides the lost spirits of deceased people to the Spirit Realm, Can control the athmosphere and also works with Tsuru.)

•

Holder: Side Character, mostly only seen on the background [Hisako Kagura, Hanako's sister and the Undercover assasin of SPIRIT Organization.]

•

basically- thats all-

Ill maybe upload the Chapter 1 panels over here once i finish making them.

•

•

-Xen out! have a great dayyyy

[petrifact]

Writing My First Adventure: The Cult of the Shard

So, I got an email from Chaosium that mentioned a "Write Your First Adventure" workshop by an organization called the Storytelling Collective, and I decided to sign up. I've been wanting for years to write my own RPG adventures and supplements, and in fact I have many, many different projects started, and at various levels of completion. I just didn't have anything finished. I hoped maybe the structure and deadline of this workshop would help me to finally finish something.

The workshop had three different "paths" to choose from: the Chaosium Path, writing an adventure for Call of Cthulhu or RuneQuest; the D&D 5e path, writing an adventure for, of course, Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition; or the General Path, for any community content program. (There are lots to choose from!) I went ahead and signed up for the Chaosium Path, and in particular planned on writing a RuneQuest adventure. I didn't really know that much about RuneQuest—I had most of the 7th Edition books, and even a few books I'd bought years ago from older editions (let's see... the 3E core book, Wyrm's Footprints, the HeroQuest Hero's Book by Steve Jackson Games, the HeroQuest core book by Moon Design, Anaxiel's Roster (a monster book for HeroQuest), and a couple of boxed sets (Elder Secrets of Glorantha and Monster Coliseum). But I hadn't gotten around to reading them. Oh, I'd flipped through those old books, especially Anaxiel's Roster (I've always been a sucker for monster books), but I didn't really know the rules, or the world, or... much about the game at all, really. But I knew enough to know I was interested in it, and it was something I wanted to familiarize myself with, and this could be an opportunity to do it.

In retrospect, while I'm trying on a deadline to create my first complete adventure is probably not the best time to learn a new system and gameworld. This was one of three major mistakes that put me way behind schedule. I'm only about half as far along as I should be at this point. Still, I think I may still be able to finish on time; I just have to really get on it for the next week and a half.

Anyway, I decided to start this blog to document my progress on the adventure. That's not to say I'm going to end the blog when the adventure is finished, of course; I plan to keep making other projects if when I get this one done, and I'll keep writing about them here. (Though after this adventure is done I'm going to unpin this post, of course—I'll keep it pinned while the adventure is in progress.) To avoid dumping a whole lot of posts on the same day, I'm going to backdate my posts to the day the corresponding part was supposed to be done, according to the Write Your First Adventure schedule. I know that may make it less likely for people to run across these posts at first, but I think it will be better for archival purposes. That includes this post, which I'm going to backdate to November 1 so it'll come before the posts about the workshop (once it's unpinned) but which was actually written on November 22.

I said I made three mistakes that are going to make it more of a challenge to finish my adventure on time. What were the mistakes? Well...

As I already mentioned, making a RuneQuest adventure was... maybe not the best choice. Certainly not the easiest choice. I have tons of experience making things for D&D 5E (even if I haven't published anything yet); I could stat up a D&D 5E monster or NPC in a matter of a few minutes (maybe a bit longer for a spellcaster). Heck, even Call of Cthulhu I may not be as comfortable with as D&D but I knew the basics of the system and knew what the setting was. For RuneQuest I had to not only learn the system (which is similar to the Call of Cthulhu system, but with some significant differences and additions, and it's not like I was all that knowledgeable about the Call of Cthulhu system anyway), but also the gameworld. So a lot of my time this month that I could have been working on the adventure if I'd chosen a system I was more familiar with I've instead spent working my way through the rulebooks. I've now read cover to cover the RuneQuest Quickstart, everything in the Starter Set, the RuneQuest Roleplaying in Glorantha core rulebook, the RuneQuest Glorantha Bestiary, all the contents of the Gamemaster Screen Pack, and The Glorantha Sourcebook, and I'm currently working my way through the Red Book of Magic; after that I'm going to tackle the Guide to Glorantha, though I'm unlikely to get through that before the end of the month (it's 754 pages, not counting the index!) I think I've got a decent handle on at least the Dragon Pass area and the basic outline of its history and mythology, which is most of what I need for my adventure. But obviously it would have saved me a lot of time if I'd chosen a system I already knew and didn't have to spend so much time reading up on. (It could be worse—initially my plan was to simultaneously write a RuneQuest adventure and a Call of Cthulhu adventure set in ancient Rome, using Cthulhu Invictus! Ha ha ha no obviously that wasn't going to happen what was I thinking I am an idiot. I may still try to write a Cthulhu Invictus adventure after I'm done with the RuneQuest adventure, but expecting to do them both at once within the one-month time span was... not really realistic.)

The workshop started at November 1, so I signed up on November 1. Little did I suspect that there was actually a "Countdown to WYFA: Onboarding Series" with preparatory activities that were supposed to be completed before the workshop officially started on November 1. Since I didn't go through the onboarding activities ahead of time, I had to read through them and complete them before I started the actual workshop, so I was behind from the get-go.

The suggestion in the workshop was to shoot for a simple one-shot adventure of no more than 3500 words. It was a very strong suggestion. "Learning how to set a reasonable project scope is a foundational skill that will serve you in all of your creative endeavors." "It’s important to set a SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely) goal for the month to keep you accountable and to start planning for the days ahead." "Here's some tough love: if you have a habit of starting things but not finishing them, it's because you're setting unreasonable project scopes for yourself." All good advice—which of course I completely ignored. I didn't really set myself a goal of a specific word count for my adventure, and yeah, it kind of ballooned. As of the time I'm posting this, I've written over nine thousand words of the adventure, and it's nowhere near done. I am stupid.

Plus, in addition to these mistakes, circumstances outside my control made things difficult as well. I have a very irregular and unpredictable work schedule, and turned out to be particularly busy at the beginning of this month. So, yeah, I started out behind, and haven't caught up.

So does that mean I'm not going to finish my adventure by the end of the month? No, not necessarily. I've missed all the deadlines so far, and it's going to be difficult to make the final deadline, but I'm still going to try. So follow me on my journey here. Or read these posts after I'm done. Or... don't read any of this, but then you won't be reading this sentence anyway, so never mind.

Anyway, let me get on with it...

(Oh, yeah, I should mention that these posts are going to include a lot of spoilers for the adventure, so if you're reading this after the adventure is published and there's any chance you might be a player in the adventure, uh, maybe don't read these posts? At least not till the adventure is over.)

[cryptic-flash]

Kyary Interview | Candy Racer | Real Sound

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's 10th Anniversary Musical Update: New Charm Brought Out by 80's and 90's Sound

Page 1

This year marks the 10th anniversary of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu's debut, and her first album in three years, "Candy Racer," is an ambitious work full of danceable techno from the very beginning. It was produced by Yasutaka Nakata, a well-known producer. As the album progresses, Kyary's mature lyrics show her growth, and the emotional appeal of the words unfolds. She is sentimental, cute, and cute, and while she avoids her "origin," she refines her "originality" on a spiral staircase, creating a "Kyary Pamyu Pamyu" full of originality. The "Kyary Pamyu Pamyu" world has been updated with a lot of originality. Yes, this is a piece that will give you a unique experience as if you went to a theme park. (Fukuryu)

At the time, I wondered if it would be okay to do something so bizarre.

The sound of "Candy Racer" has a 90's techno feel to it, and a sense of genre. It's been called "hyper-pop" a couple of times now overseas, but it has an upper-crust sound sense that's interesting globally.

Kyary: Yes, that's right. When Mr. Nakata and I were talking about "What do you want to do for your first album in a while? I told him that I wanted to change the atmosphere completely. That's what I did with the dance tunes in the second and third songs. Also, I think the opinions of music creators and the thoughts of listeners have changed since the Corona disaster. Mr. Nakata himself feels this. In the past, I used to feel that I had to get the audience excited at the start of a live performance, and I used to get worried if they weren't excited. But now, fans can't shout at live concerts, and they can't get as excited as before, can they?　That's why there are songs like "Natsuiro Flower" (the tenth song) that make you listen carefully.

I heard that the sessions for the jacket photos, artist photos, artwork, etc. were done by the staff from your debut.　

Kyary: I think the foundation of the creative side of Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was created thanks to the staff from my debut. When I graduated from high school at the age of 18, I entered the studio for the first time and had my makeup done as Kyarypamyupamyu, the artist. At that time, the hair and makeup artist, Shinji Konishi, gave me a makeup that made my mouth look like it had been ripped open (laughs).

 (laughs)

Kyary: At the time, I wondered if I would be able to do something so bizarre, but when my appearance became a billboard in Harajuku, it became a big hit. I did other things like putting a shark on my head and wearing an octopus hairstyle, but Konishi-san was a big part of my life. I also really like the ideas of cameraman Ken Hanzawa, STEVE NAKAMURA, and stylist Tomoko Iijima. The last time we got together was for the album "Japamyu" three years ago.

And the first limited edition is floating in the air, isn't it?

Kyary: Yes, I'm floating. When we were talking about what we wanted to do this time, we decided that we wanted to make it look like a flip book. Actually, there are about 8 different outfits, and the trick is to switch between them. The first limited edition comes with a 64-page booklet, and it's like a parapara manga with not only the costumes but also the makeup and nails changing little by little.

That sounds like a lot of fun.

Kyary: The jacket photo is one of them. What I thought about the cover of the standard edition is that in the past, I've always used a very defined face in my artwork. But this time, the atmosphere is a bit more ennui. The way her eyes are open is very calm, which is unexpected. It's just a random shot, but I didn't expect that this photo would be used (laughs).  But it's just like me now, and I like the fact that I'm relaxed, because it's a link to my true self.

Page 2

Why does Nakata-san understand the feelings of a teenage girl?

Your recent changes in lifestyle are well expressed in this album, aren't they? Now I'd like to talk about the album, and the first song is "DE.BA.YA.SHI. 2021.

Kyary: Yes, i feel that's how it came out. I usually record the opening song last. My voice is layered in a number of patterns, and it's the kind of song that people get excited about when they arrive at festivals.

It feels like they are heading for a tour or a live performance, doesn't it? And keeping the momentum going, the second song, "Candy Racer", is a powerful number with a cool techno sound and cute voice effects that goes about two laps.

Kyary: I thought it was a challenging song to come up with. It looks like it's easy to sing, but it was quite difficult to respond to the detailed nuances that Mr. Nakata wanted. For example, he asked me to add a small "tsu" and to extend the words.

The lyrics also have a multinational feel.

Kyary: I thought it was a challenging song to come up with. It looks like it's easy to sing, but it was quite difficult to respond to the detailed nuances that Mr. Nakata wanted. For example, he asked me to add a small "tsu" and to extend the words.

Then came the shocking song "DODONPA". It has a tribal beat, a 90's club sound, and an upper lyric..

Kyary: I usually get a lyric card to memorize the lyrics when we record, but for "Dodonpa" finally I didn't get it (laughs). Normally, there is a cover song that Mr. Nakata sings with a voice change, and I would listen to it and think, "He's probably singing 'Tsukuchi', isn't he? I wrote it down on my phone and sang it in a groove.

"Lyrics: Kyary Pamyu Pamyu" is fine (laughs)..

Kyary: That's right (laughs). I'm sure people overseas will especially like it, so I can't wait to perform it live!

The song "Kamaitachi" is a middle-aged pop tune with a sad crying melody from the intro. The Chinese style melody and the pop sense that accelerates in the chorus are very pleasant.

Kyary: The lyrics are pretty, but I was surprised at how packed the words are. Like "Gentenkaihi" I've never heard lyrics that tell a story like this before, and the piano, guitar, and bass sounds in this song make it sound like a musician. What they all have in common is a sense of the 80s, like the TK sound, parapara, and techno-pop.

I guess 90's techno also comes into it, doesn't it?

Kyary: Mr. Nakata told me, "When I listen to the songs that were played at Juliana Tokyo, it's really cool to listen now. We were talking about how we like the balance between "dorky" and "cool"

Eurobeat also has some cool sounding sounds, isn't it. It's a genre that branched off from "Alpha Records," which gave birth to the YMO culture in Japan. The next song is "Kimi ga iine kure tara".

Kyary: I think "Kimi ga Iinaegukete" expresses the feelings of today's teenagers, especially girls in love who are troubled. As digitalization progresses and everyone is using Instagram, TikTok, etc., the desire to know the other person becomes too strong, and you wonder what kind of people the person you like is following.　I thought that I would be curious about that. The song is a tie-in to a TV drama, so I guess it reflects the story, but I wonder why Mr. Nakata understands the feelings of a teenage girl.

It shows the sense of the times, doesn't it? How do you feel about "Gum Gum Girl," the song with the shocking fight scene in the music video??

Kyary: I feel that this song represents the image of Japan as seen by people overseas. It was next to "Kamai-tachi", so I think the oriental continued.

I was impressed by how Kyary got beaten up in the fight scene of the music video.

Kyary: (laughs). That's probably because I like movies. The director and I had a lot of fun talking about common topics. The action was a lot of work, but the cameramen and other people had amazing skills, so I knew that once I got the hang of it, I could make it work.

That seems to be an important part of the experience. And "Perfect Oneisan" has a strong title!　It's a light but slightly sad number with a singer-songwriter style, 80's city pop feel.

Kyary:  Actually, this song was the first song we recorded for the album. The first album also had a song called "Pinponganannai," and I think that's what I like about Mr. Nakata, the way he comes up with mysterious songs like that. It's been a while since Mr. Nakata recorded anything, so I guess he was just trying to get used to the idea.  Mr. Nakata said that "Perfect Oneisan" is a perfect image that everyone admires & longs for, but the truth is that she is the hardest one to deal with (laughs). Also, the interlude in the latter half of the song is surprisingly long. So I was wondering what to do for the live performance. I imagined that if Corona were still alive, I'd like to parade around the audience (laughs).

It gives me an image of the live performance. And "Jampin Nappu" is also a great song. The nostalgic candy pop synth sound is refreshing. The lyrics are very unique, and Kyary handles it very well.

Kyary: It was important to have a sense of freedom without being too cool. There were lyrics like "Dancing in your room" and "Concert in the bath" that are unique to Corona disaster. It could be perceived as a way to enhance one's lifestyle under such circumstances.

True. The "Living Concert" is also good.

Kyary:  "Living Concert" makes me cry a little. But when I hear the phrase, "The scenery where you have returned until you forget the time" I feel like the scenery before Corona is coming back. I can predict the future images. It's one of the most intense songs on the album, but it's actually the one that hit me the hardest. The state of emergency continued and I ended up only being able to attend one festival. ...... This song was the closest to my state of mind.

It's emo to think about being able to sing this in front of an audience on a live tour. And "Natsuiro Flower" is a number that changes the scenery at once. The song is reminiscent of the mature sound of the 80's, and is a new level of pop music.

Kyary:  When this song suddenly came out, I was mystified. I didn't know that Kyary Pamyu Pamyu was someone who sings such sweet and sour songs (laughs). (laughs) Mr. Nakata said that he had an image of the ending of trendy dramas in the 80s and 90s. He said it was the image of the ending of a trendy TV drama in the 80s or 90s.　If you're from that generation, I'm sure you'll feel nostalgic. It was also very difficult to sing. There are high-pitched parts, and it was difficult to keep the pitch right. Also, Mr. Nakata sometimes makes a joke out of the title of the song, but I was surprised by the refreshing title and beautiful lyrics. Mr. Nakata, I wonder if he's in love (laughs). If you are a child of this generation, the image of a love reality show may be close.

If you're in your 40s or older, Seiko Matsuda comes to mind.

Kyary:  Oh, I also thought of Seiko-chan's cut when I first heard it.

The last song was a cover of CAPSULE's "world fabrication" from their album "NEXUS-2060" in 2005. The jazzy big band arrangement is impressive, and the lyrics are very sad but also sparkling.

Kyary:  It's a sad song, but Mr. Nakata said, "It's more convincing because Kyary is singing it now. It's been 10 years since my debut, so I know both the happy and sad parts of the lyrics. I wondered if Mr. Nakata had those two thoughts in mind when he wrote this song.

Originally, Kyary was a CAPSULE fan, wasn't she?

Kyary:  That's right. When I heard this song, I wondered how I should sing it against the beautiful and gentle feminine atmosphere of Koshijima (Toshiko), but I decided to sing it cheerfully and brightly as usual.

It's a great song by Kyary, and it's a great number to end the album. It's a great song to end the album.

Kyary:  Thank you very much. Next year I'm going to be touring "Kyarypamyupamyu 10th ANNIVERSARY JAPAN TOUR 2022" and I'm currently preparing for that. I've got about three themes in mind that I'd like to do, and I hope you'll wait and see what happens!

src : https://realsound.jp/2021/11/post-897937.html

[dannyisdone]

Patton's First Encounter With Little Logan (Scrap)

This one is kind of difficult to scrap bc I've been trying to make it work for weeks, and I really loved the premise when I first wrote the idea down, but everytime I've tried to write for it I've just disliked it more and a more 😔😔 It just wasn't feeling genuine, and I don't even think a rewrite could make it work. I might keep the idea and just write a one-shot with it in the future, but for now, I'm completely scrapping this.

It never really got to anything Agere related, but I'm still posting it anyways bc 1. It will make me feel better about essentially scrapping 2000+ words of work just bc the vibes are off, and 2. In case I ever want to come back and steal some ideas from it in the future lol

---

“Oooh, this is going to be so fun!” Patton proclaimed, adding the finishing touches to his decked out living room. He had invited over Roman and Logan for a sleepover at his place, and he wanted everything to look perfect for his friends! It had been a long time since they had had a sleepover with all three of them, probably since the two of them had decided to make their own houses to stay in the Mindscape, rather than them all living in the default Thomas one his brain seemed to supply them. Patton had been saddened, of course, but now it meant he got to do a whole bunch of fun dad stuff, like throw barbecues, host holiday parties at his house, and, of course, sleepovers with your friends! 

Plus, now that they had all revealed themselves to Thomas, their workloads had gotten much heavier. They recorded youtube videos, Roman and Thomas talked lots about ideas he wanted to try and avenues of film and theatre he wanted them to pursue, and Logan was busy usually trying to ground those ideas in something a bit more logical and manageable, and of course throwing his own ideas about career avenues Thomas ought to be persuing. And Patton was perhaps doing the most important job of all, making sure everyone was happy! And he felt like he was doing a pretty good job at that! Even if there was occasional fighting, and of course the pop ins from a certain He-who-did-not-have-a-name, he was still thrilled by all the progress he and his friends had been making!

Which is why they deserved a sleepover! 

It had taken quite a bit of convincing to get Logan on board, who was mostly rebutting with ‘We’ve only been moved out for a few months, and you see us all the time for work,’, but Patton didn’t care! He wanted to spend time with his friends in a not so serious setting! (Not that work got all that serious anyways, unless scaredy-bats decided to show up, then sometimes things got serious, seriously batty!!) What eventually convinced him was that Patton promised to make thumbprint cookies with Crofters, that jam being about the only bargaining tool anyone had with Logan. 

Said cookies were set out already, having been given plenty of time to cool and would be ready for consumption as soon as the others arrived. Everything was perfect. There were fairy lights around the living room, way more snacks than were necessary for three people, blankets that he’d just pulled out of the dryer so they were extra warm, an array of different movies for them to watch, and a backlog of puns to go with whatever movie they picked. The only thing that could have made the scene more perfect would have been--

“Patton! We’re here!” 

His friends!! 

Roman walked into the living room, since the formality of doors were a foreign concept in Patton’s home, just as he preferred it! He was closely followed by Logan, who was wearing his standard outfit unlike Roman and Patton, both who had elected to wear more casual clothes. He also carried with him a small drawstring bag. Roman had his large book bag on his back, and he was carrying two sleeping bags in his arms, one red and one blue. 

“Mr. ‘Always prepared’ didn’t have a sleeping bag, can you believe it?” Roman asked in fake exasperation, fondly shaking his head as he dropped both sleeping bags onto the ground, right next to Patton’s. Logan rolled his eyes. 

“I didn’t think it necessary to have, considering my old room is right up the stairs.” He explained, gesturing towards the stairs. Patton chuckled, that made logical sense, he supposed. But this was a sleepover! Half the fun was sleeping on the floor right next to your friends! Unless Logan really didn’t want to, of course. But Patton couldn’t lie, he would be mighty disappointed if Logan didn’t at least sleep in the same room as them.

“Well, sleeping isn’t part of the plan tonight anyways!” Roman exclaimed as he took his book bag off as well, setting it on the couch. Patton presumed it had all of Roman’s sleepover essentials, including his clothes, and anything else he would have felt necessary to bring. “This is a sleepover! Who sleeps at a sleepover?” He added with an eye roll, before flopping down onto the couch in his normal spot. 

“It’s implied in the name.” Logan responded, before sitting down on the far end of the couch as well. Patton couldn’t help but notice how stiffly Logan seemed to hold himself. Well…Logan always looked a little stiff in Patton’s opinion, but for some reason he looked uncomfortable, even though he’d said it himself, he had lived here before! And even if he hadn’t, this was Patton’s home! Logan was always welcomed to anything he wanted here! So seeing Logan looking so uncomfortable, Patton knew he needed to do something to ease his friend's nerves. And he knew just how to get that started!

“Roman, you’ll be the first to fall asleep, you always are.” Patton teased, and earned himself an offended scoff from Roman, who immediately began his rant about how he needs beauty sleep, and that you can’t hurry perfection. Patton had heard the speech time and time again, and it never failed to humor him when it came up in a totally contradictory manner to Roman’s original point. While Roman continued his speech, getting into the part where humans needed anywhere between 6 to 10 hours of sleep, an anecdote which Logan was quick to corroborate, Patton stepped over to the coffee table, which he had moved out of the middle of the room and over to the walk in order to make room for sleeping. He picked up the tray that held all of the thumbprint cookies, before walking over to Logan. 

“Cookie?” Patton asked, offering them out to Logan. The offer managed to grab Roman’s attention as well, and he very hastily wrapped up his argument that no one was disagreeing on, in favor of looking over the cookies. 

“You made these?” Logan asked, and Patton smiled brightly. 

“Yup!” Just for you, the jam is Crofters, of course.” Patton explained. Roman scooted over on the couch so that he was within arms reach and grabbed one of the cookies off the tray, taking a crumbly bite. 

“Delicious as always, Padre!” Roman declared, mouth full. Patton couldn’t help but chuckle, though Logan didn’t seem to find Roman’s antics as amusing. He did take one of the cookies off the tray though, and munched into it. 

“Do you like it?” Patton asked, eager to please his friend. Logan, polite as ever, waited until he was finished chewing and swallowing, before responding. 

“Your cooking has always been very satisfactory, Patton.” Logan said, a small smile pulling at his face as he took another bite. Patton beamed at the tidbit of praise, which was always rather coveted by Patton and Roman, even if Roman was hard pressed to admit it. 

“Thank you!” Patton cheered, before setting the tray down within reach of everyone. Good cooking was always a quick and easy way to get an excellent get together started, and now that Logan had even just the tiniest of smiles on his face, Patton felt more and more confident about how this sleepover was going to go! Now, all they had to do was decide what other staple of sleep overs they should do next. 

“Should we play a game? Watch a movie? Gossip until we’re a giggly mess?” Patton suggested, slightly teasing, at least for the last suggestion. It wasn’t like there was all that much to gossip about, except maybe the newest greyfriendo (Though there wasn’t much to say about him, since no one really seemed to know much about him). 

“I don’t giggle.” Logan quickly defended, but it wasn’t like he needed to prove that statement to anyone.. Patton was pretty sure he hadn’t seen Logan giggle since childhood, and even then it had been a rather rare occurrence, he was pretty stoic as a kiddo too. The closest Patton had ever seen to Logan giggling was when he got a bit silly while wine drunk, but Patton wasn’t a fan of drinking, so he was never really around long to see that side of Logan. 

“And you guys cheat everytime we play games.” Roman said with a pout, crossing his arms. Now that he had a handful of cookies, Roman had made himself comfortable on the couch, stealing Patton’s quilt and having thrown it around himself. Patton’s house always did run on the cold side, but that’s just how he liked it! 

“I do not!” Patton argued back. He didn’t cheat, he was just down right rotten at most of the games he played, so he tended to just forget the rules. 

“And it’s not cheating if I am using the exact rules of the games to my advantage.” Logan added. Patton chuckled, recalling the last time they had all played Monopoly together. It had been so much fun in Patton’s opinion, but it was now explicitly banned from being played by them. 

“Well, I don’t want to play anyways, so movie it is!” Roman said, and Patton couldn’t be more inclined to agree. A movie sounded great! It would be a good way to get them all relaxed and into the sleepover spirit! 

“Let me get it set up, anyone have any movie preferences?” Patton asked, giving Logan a pointed look. Anytime they did movies together, Roman tended to dominate the decisions. Patton didn’t mind for his own sake too much, since he always liked just about anything they watched. But if Logan had a suggestion, even though he normally didn’t, then Patton wanted to prioritize that! 

“Ooooh! Patton! We should watch WALL-E!” Roman suggested, not having paid attention to the fact that Patton had clearly been gearing the question towards Logan. Patton chuckled, then looked back at Logan, who merely shrugged. 

“A perfectly fine suggestion.” Logan said, and Patton was inclined to believe him. Plus, it was kind of like a space movie! And Patton was pretty sure Logan liked space! He definitely liked Star Trek, so space movies seemed like a safe bet to him! 

“WALL-E it is!” Patton said, trying to do his best impression of WALL-E itself. Roman laughed and proceeded to try his hand at his own impressions from the movie while Patton searched through the cabinet to find the dvd. He knew he could just summon it into his hands, or directly onto the tv, but he always liked to enjoy the more mundane human way of doing things. 

“Got it!” Patton proclaimed when he found the dvd. As he pushed the movie into the dvd player, the lights in the room suddenly dimmed, casting it into a cool darkness. 

“Can’t have a movie marathon in the light.” Roman said when Patton turned around to question it. It wasn’t late enough for the sun to have gone down, but Patton’s curtains did a fine job at blocking out the light. 

“After the movie, I’ll make us a pizza. Unless you guys just want to snack?” Patton asked, hurrying over to the couch and plopping down right next to Roman. It still bothered him a bit how separated Logan was from them, but he didn’t want to crowd him. If Logan was content with being on the far end of the couch, then Patton would just have to accept that. 

“Sounds grand!” Roman said, scooting closer to Patton and wrapping him up in his blanket. Patton giggled and accepted the cuddle. 

The beginning of the movie began to play, and the room felt quiet save for the tv. Roman’s attention was instantly captivated by the movie. It was usually a 50/50 chance on whether or not Roman was going to be quiet during a movie, or if he was going to talk through it, pointing out flaws in the plot or inaccuracies in the costume designs. Patton didn’t mind the commentary, but he would just have to wait and see which way he ended up falling. 

Patton tried to get invested in the beginning.The first half of WALL-E was truly a masterpiece, and it was merely a coincidence that Roman had suggested one of Patton’s all time favorite Pixar films, but Patton was thoroughly distracted by Logan. Every few seconds he would peer over at his friend, and see just how lonely he looked. In fairness, Logan didn’t look bothered by his unintentional exclusion. Patton knew he wasn’t a big cuddler, and he liked his space. But Patton couldn’t brush aside his own feelings. He knew if it was him, he’d feel so lonely. And it was that sympathy that had him suddenly summoning one of his stuff animals from his room, a big, soft Walrus plush that Patton liked, but usually ended up sitting in the closest in favor of all his other stuffed animals. 

When it appeared in his hand, Roman must have caught the action out of the corner of his eyes, because he was suddenly staring at Patton in confusion. Patton ignored him though, scooting a little bit out of the warm blanket in order to be closer to Logan. 

“Psssst, Logan!” Patton whispered loudly, as if he was trying to avoid attention rather than the reality, which was that everyone was looking at him. Logan had grabbed another cookie, and looked almost embarrassed at having been caught eating another one, which Patton thought was silly. He loved that Logan loved his treats! Logan didn’t respond verbally, but was staring at Patton expectantly, encouraging him to keep going. 

“Here.” Patton continued to whisper, handing the walrus plush over to Logan. Logan stared at it in confusion. 

“You need a cuddle buddy too.” Patton said with a smile. Logan rolled his eyes, and Patton could hear Roman snickering behind him. 

“Patton, while I appreciate that you enjoy hugging stuffed animals, it isn’t something I engage in.” Logan pointed out. Patton nodded in understanding, but shook the toy anyways. 

“Humor me? Please? It would make me feel a lot better, knowing you had something to snuggle.” He gave Logan the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster, though those only had about a 50 percent chance of working on him. Logan stared for a few more seconds, before sighing and holding out his hand for the toy. Patton had to suppress his happy squeal as he handed him the plushie. 

“Enjoy!” Patton cheered as Logan sat the toy on his lap, though he made no effort to hug it or anything, which Patton found a bit disappointing, but baby steps were made! He scooted back over to Roman, who was smirking. 

“What was that about?” He whispered, bending down so only Patton could hear him. He merely shrugged though as he wrapped the blanket back around him and laid his head against Roman’s shoulder. 

“I thought he looked lonely,” Patton admitted, his own face heating up a bit. Roman snorted quietly, before shaking his head. 

“You’re absolutely the kindest and sweetest dork this side of the Mindscape.” Roman teased, and Patton smiled brightly. Roman turned his attention back to the tv, and Patton followed suit, though would occasionally spare glances over at Logan, just to see what he might do with his new friend.