#if another person is uploading my stuff and it's under a different name it's not me and I never gave permission for it

[halcyone-of-the-sea]

Heyy are you on Wattpad? Because if you aren't then someone reposted a story from you on there. I think it was the biker ghost story I wasn't sure if that's you because the account goes by another name than halycone of the sea

I am on Wattpad (by that I mean I have an account because people have stolen my fics before and I have to report them there. I never use it/post anything on it).

But I'd love if you could tell me who uploaded it! Totally send me another ask or a dm because it was 100% not me and I never gave permission for anybody to do that!

[peggyao3]

Relic - Pt. 8 "Rowing in Eden"

PAIRING: Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen x Unnamed Ambiguous FMC

SUMMARY: ✧ Dreams are messages from the deep ✧

A woman from the unknown comes to Feyd in his dreams and his nights become his days as he flees to the dreamscape to escape the nightmares that haunt his waking hours.

TAGS: 18+, smut, she/her AFAB FMC, vaginal sex, vaginal fingering, oral sex, Porn with Plot, Feyd-Rautha's black cum, Feyd-Rautha's big cock, Praise Kink, Body Worship, angst/hurt and comfort, drama, fluff, Frank Herbert would frown, some politics, implied/referenced (child) abuse ❗, Trauma, mentions of suicidal thoughts ❗, Healing, Strangers to Lovers, falling in love, Vulnerable!Feyd, Emotional!Feyd, Possessive!Feyd, Feyd is a sweet baby who did nothing wrong and I WILL pamper him, nurture not nature, Stockholm Syndrome but in a consensual way, lucid dreaming, implied/referenced cannibalism ❗, implied/referenced murder

WORD COUNT: 4.6k

A/N: Saw myself forced to split this chapter in half becase you won't catch me uploading a 10k chaptie 😭 Hence why the alternative title for this one is "Blue Balls" 💙🥰

Reposted from my Ao3 💕| Masterlist | Relic Masterlist

Dividers by @saradika-graphics

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Giedi Prime, Day 4

Quietly, she stands on the balcony of her room, forearms on the banister as a stormy breeze  ruffles her clothes. The wind brings no refreshment, it only moves the smog around. 

The city below reminds her of Neu-Seoul paired with industrial power plants as far as the eye can see and post-apocalyptic wasteland, a planet groaning and moaning for plant life and to be freed of the human plague that festers on its crust, much like Old Earth. She is quite used to toxic air, but this atmosphere is a little worse even than that of her former home.

A rumbling crack had startled her yesterday while she was trying to inconspicuously scan the Harkunnin language and grammar from the audiovisual filmbook recording that was given to her. Her personal maid, a woman named Lilia, had reassured her that that was just the volcanic activity deep within the bowels of the planet and nothing to worry about.

The engineer from Old Earth has a slightly different opinion on that, but she had thanked Lilia with a smile and rewinded the filmbook to proceed committing the data to her chip.

Looking over her shoulder now, she sees Lilia's pale, bald head moving about, filling the wardrobe with clothes that have just been delivered. The Harkonnen woman doesn't seem as malnourished as the ones she had seen on her first day.

The relic doesn't like the fact that a stranger has access to her chambers where her sarcophagus stands, folded back together so that nothing visually gives away any of the heresy inside.

A notification lights up her virtual interface. The AI tool has finished compiling the Harkunnin vocabulary and sorted it in an appealing, searchable array. Now she only needs to acquire a filmbook about Galach and scan that too, so she can start cross referencing in her virtual, little lexicon. Her eyes focus back on the room and the interface dissolves when she takes notice of Lilia's pale hand waving at her.

"Your new pants, my Lady!" The maid lifts a pile of garments, some of them even colorful. The Lady had (unknowingly) requested colors which are expensive to import, the costliest one being purple. Of course, such expenditures are to be expected for the new Lady of House Harkonnen and Lilia had spared neither trouble nor expenses to ensure her wardrobe is as she desires. Being assigned to the woman from Old Earth, a place which Lilia had assumed to be only the stuff of mysteries, is the best promotion that ever could have happened to the maid.

"I love them already. I can't go another day with my bare thighs touching under these gowns." The woman steps into the suite, pulling the balcony door and the curtains shut so the color stealing sunlight is barred out. Lilia looks at her like she doesn't quite understand the remark about her thighs, though that may be due to the fact that Harkonnens, regardless of gender, appear to be completely and entirely hairless except for their lashes.

"Can I try them on?" The relic asks, pointing at the trousers.

"Of course you can, my Lady. Like I said, you don't need to ask me for permission for anything."

"But it's good manners to ask."

Lilia likes this woman even though she asks curious questions sometimes, such as how high her salary is and if she has health insurance, followed by a lengthy explanation about what health insurance is. She likes her because she talks to her like she's a human, which is typically something that no one above her rank ever does, save for Lilia's own husband.

The new pants fit perfectly and there is no need to try them all on, but she does so anyway because it's fun and it distracts her from the painful waiting for her beloved.

"When will Feyd be here?" She finally inquires after the eighth pair of pants which she keeps on because they're comfortable.

"I'm afraid I don't know, my Lady. The na-Baron has a busy schedule."

That he does, she grimly notes. He never used to be so busy in their dreams, she had him all for herself. After 24,000 years of sleep and 2 years with the Bene Gesserit, she only just got him back. Is it wrong of her to want to spend every minute of every day with him?

Lilia suggests: "If it pleases you, I  could do your makeup before the na-Baron arrives."

"Ah, that's very kind of you, but no thank you."

Lilia seems to be the multi-purpose kind of handmaid, being a skilled seamstress and stylist who even boasts experience with hair, a rare skill set on Giedi Prime. Proudly, Lilia had proclaimed that she has a personal knack for medicine and trauma management without leaving but a scar. The relic still wonders if this is a commonly needed skill around here…

"Then I'll leave you to your own devices." Lilia hasn't failed to notice the oftentimes absent look in the Lady's eyes, as if she's not quite there. Although the maid is impossibly curious and precariously drawn to danger (a trait which she has learned to suppress), she won't urge the foreigner for stories or company. They're not friends.

The relic glances over when her handmaid slips out of the room and the open door briefly reveals the guard who is stationed in front of it. She can only hope he has been placed there to keep unwelcome visitors out, not to keep her inside. So far, she's had no desire to test it.

Neither the idea of leaving her Sarcophagus unattended nor wandering around the palace pyramid on her lonesome seem awfully inviting.

She returns to the balcony, forearms on the banister, and her expression flattens. Melancholy glazes over her eyes and she summons the interface to blank out the depressing concrete jungle that spews smog into the sky from roaring chimneys. The only improvement is that she is now wearing pants.

While she should start studying the Harkunnin language or delve into the Holtzman physics (something about it sparked vague recognition in her), she ends up loading up a serial to watch on her interface, denying herself the luxury to sit down. Because if she gets too comfortable, she fears she will forget where she is and break down as soon as she shuts off the stream.

Feyd watches her stand there, clothes ruffled by the breeze, herself unmoving in the grey light, in the toxic air. Her back is turned to him and for twenty minutes she hasn't stirred.

Carefully, he had deposited the three long-stemmed crowns of thorns on the vanity when he realized she wasn't going to turn around. They're the only native flower on Giedi prime, all thorny, dark-grey stems and white petals.

On quiet soles, he steps out on the balcony, almost breathing down her neck. All day he's been thinking of her. Every second apart is a little death and he had hoped she would fall into his arms the second he came through the door. From an angle, he studies her face, pupils dancing. She looks sad and he can't see why. For a second, he contemplates stealing the chip out of her skull when she sleeps.

But for that, they'd have to start sleeping in each other's beds first.

"What are you doing there, my darling?" A pair of toned arms encircles her from behind and she yelps, shutting down the stream and the interface.

"Feyd!" She attempts to spin around and face him, but Feyd pins her back to his chest, humming as he buries his nose in the crown of her head. She hugs his forearms against her stomach, craning her head to find his pale-blue gaze. Feyd's nose slides across her head and he kisses her forehead.

"You looked sad."

"Yes, because I've missed you." That is very much true, though she conceals the fact that rewatching her old favorite serials had nearly broken her heart. Her answer placates him for a minute and he presses the front of his body against the back of hers, squeezing her like he's seen her squeeze the stuffed animal of hers.

"How are you?" He murmurs.

"Good!" She replies a bit too quickly and inhales like a liar caught in the act.

"You don't like it," Feyd doesn't ask, he states, and  disappointment reverberates in his tone. He knew this, yet his chest hollows itself out with a blunt carving knife.

"The place is just… Different than I thought." She squeezes the forearms that hold her.

"But I'm here," he mumbles and presses his nose against her temple.

"Yes, I feel better when you're here." Finally, he allows her to turn around in his embrace and face him properly. They're so close, he can feel the expansion of her thorax with every breath. Blue eyes lovingly trail over her face.

"Did your maid not offer to do your makeup?"

Her stomach sinks and she blinks quickly. "Don't you like me without makeup anymore?"

"No! That's not what I-" Feyd scrambles for words, cupping her jaws and neck. "I just wondered if she offered. If not, we'll replace her. You're supposed to have only the best maids and servants one can-"

"Stop." She interrupts him firmly, shaking herself as if to free herself from his hands, which can't be what she means, so Feyd keeps holding her. "Lilia is wonderful, I don't want her replaced."

"Hmmph." Feyd gives his agreement and wonders if she had ever called him 'wonderful'. Slowly, he lowers his face, closes his eyes and slots his lips against hers, moving sensually as he presses their bodies flush. Her spine pushes right against the banister and her breasts against his chest. All day, he's been fantasizing about this. Today he'll finally be brave enough and take her to bed, there's nothing to be afraid of.

But he can tell she's thinking, thinking again, always thinking so much instead of giving herself to him unconditionally.

She kisses him with closed lips, like a parting gift before she speaks. "There are… Things that I feel like we should talk about."

Feyd exhales a short, hard breath against her face. "Like what?"

"I can't kiss you without thinking of, well, everything," she sighs and gestures over her shoulder. "This planet is… I don't know what I expected."

"Then let's go inside, so you don't have to see the planet." Feyd tugs on her waist and she allows him to guide her inside, walking backwards and pulling her with him. But when he attempts to kiss her, she clutches his lapels and shakes her head.

"It's not just that. It's the people. You're keeping slaves to work at your palace." 

Not only in the palace, Feyd thinks to himself. If she knew about the slave fields…

"No one is having fun, everyone looks the same and everyone seems to be scared for their lives!" She inhales harshly and Feyd's fingers trail down her waist and spine, proactively grasping at the fabric in case she wants to tear away from him.

A muscle along his jaw flexes lightly before he speaks. "Well you don't survive wars by having fun and being fair to other humans, do you?"

"No, but-" she stumbles. "That was different. We left Earth with a higher purpose, to save our species from extinction. It was logistically impossible to bring every single human to a new home."

"We also serve a higher purpose. To maintain our status and power among the Great Houses, we cannot grant every citizen the luxury of free will."

"But not like this." She clutches his lapels like she wants to strangle him, or at least someone. "This is terrible."

"Well, I live here," Feyd grates out. "I didn't choose to live here. And it just is like that." He had chosen to live here at an age at which one cannot make sensible decisions yet.

"But you could do something. You're the na-Baron, right? You could change something."

"You're right, I'm the na-Baron," he grimly states.

"Lilia said, if she gets hurt, she needs to stitch up herself and she'll be dismissed without recompensation if she finds herself unable to perform her tasks anymore." She looks at Feyd expectantly who stares over her head at the roiling cityscape out the balcony door and shrugs his shoulders. "Do you at least agree that the staff around here are treated unfairly? It is proven that employee satisfaction and work efficiency correlate strongly."

"I don't know," he grumbles and refrains from telling her that the correlation between the threat of a blade between the ribs and work efficiency can hardly be beaten. The relic takes note of how annoyed Feyd looks, like he's been talked into a corner. What he really says is 'I don't care'.

Slowly searing under her expectant stare, Feyd continues: "Sorry. But I don't want to change the world, I have bigger concerns."

"Such as the fact that I'm not kissing you?" She almost scoffs a little, remembering a moment which feels like a lifetime ago, and her heart aches in her chest, knowing exactly that's not what he meant.

"For example…" Feyd brings one hand to her face and caresses her cheek softly, fingertips moving tentatively from temple to jaw. "You didn't ask me about my day."

"Oh, Feyd, I'm so sorry." Her shoulders fall and she feels horrible for jumping him with her concerns, but who else could she talk to, who else could she trust? The grasp on his lapels becomes yearning and clingy, exactly how he likes it.

Softly, she asks: "Is everything okay?" The lingering sub question is: Did he hurt you?

"I'm okay," Feyd hums and a dreamy, little smile slips over his face.

"Are you sure?" She cups his cheeks and looks at him insistently. All of her attention is finally only his and Feyd seizes the moment, delving down to kiss her, cupping the back of her head. This time, he will not be deterred.

Further questions are muffled by Feyd's pillowy lips on hers, kissing her with such determination that her belly is flooded with heat and she whimpers quietly in his mouth when he walks her backwards. Soon the back of her knees hit the mattress and she sinks down, bones melting like jelly when Feyd-Rautha crawls over her like a big cat, his body as hard and heavy as it was the first time they made love.

"No lucid dream this time," he whispers against her wet lips and settles on her chest, relishing the feel of her softness beneath him. His fingers trail downwards with a purpose, stopping occasionally to squeeze her breasts, her waist, her tummy, all the parts that he likes. Calloused fingertips slip beneath her waistband and across her venus mound.

Oh God, to be touched like this in real life! It's been over 24,000 years. She gasps so loudly when he touches her clit that it makes Feyd smile from ear to ear. "That's right, we're finally together," he breathes against her open mouth, drawing small circles on the tender bud, though his wrist is restrained by the waistband of her trousers. "And you're every bit as sweet and wet for me as in the dream."

His eyes are closed. It's easier to talk to her like that. Feyd feels like he's 13 and having his first proper time all over again, except this time he actually wants the girl to like him.

"Feyd," she mewls, fingers curled around the back of his head, nails digging slightly into his nape.

"Hmm?" He hums against her mouth, tongue barely wanting to leave hers.

"Feels so good… Ahhh!" Feyd-Rautha's fingers have slipped further south, two of them sinking tentatively into her cunt and filling her up. With short back and forth of his digits, he makes her thighs fall open wide and her pelvis buck against his damp palm.

Shyness be damned, he needs to see her.  So he  swiftly stands up, sucks his fingers clean and pulls her pants and underwear (It's strange seeing a woman in pants) down her legs. While he's at it, he discards his shoes and suit jacket too, enjoying the range of motion his sleeveless tunic offers him.

Pale arms cage her when he climbs back on her. His woman shuffles backwards so her head lies properly on the pillow. Feyd would have ravaged her on the cold floor tiles too, but she likes it comfortable, and so does he, but only with her and only in secret.

He wants to eat her cunt until she cries his name, but her fingers have formed a manacle around the nape of his neck, pulling their foreheads flush while her knee nudges against his thigh, falling open for him once more. His fingers return obediently to the joy of sinking into her wet, squishy cunt and Feyd breathes wordless adoration against her parted lips, eyes hooded, cock hard, his chest a flurry of quick panting.

How badly, how madly, how deeply he loves her. He should finally tell her. 

"Will you, ahh, eat me out like during our first time?" She whines, lashes fluttering open while her pelvis needily grinds against the steady pace of his hand.

"I'll touch you however you please, my Lady," Feyd purrs, thumb brushing over her tender nub.

"Why, ahhh, why are you calling me that? Lilia called me that too."

"Because you're my Lady Harkonnen."

To be his Lady - whatever that exactly means - fills her cheeks with warmth and drives her pelvis upwards, because she likes the way it sounds. "But I already have a last name," she pants. Feyd cocks his head to the side, fingers slowing down, and a foreboding overcomes her. 

"You know they gave you to me as my bride?"

"Gave me to you?!" Her blissful expression dissolves at once and she sharply sits up, forcing Feyd to withdraw his hand unless he'd like to have his wrist snapped. "I'm not your property."

"Well, no, you're my wife." He looks at her pleadingly. "Or, you will be, very soon."

His woman puffs herself up and for a moment he thinks she's going to explode not with the bliss he had meant to bring her, but with rage.

"How come I wasn't made aware of that? Do marriages no longer require consent from both sides?"

"I thought it was self-explanatory." Helplessly, he lifts his arms and shoulders in a gesture of defense. Two fingers of his right hand glitter obscenely with her essence.

"It is not." She stares at him with wide, steely eyes and her fingers reach for his clothed knee, clutching it tightly. "Mankind really has gone back to the middle ages," she snaps. "No computers, and women are treated like cattle."

"I don't know what middle ages means, only that you are my bride," Feyd scowls.

"You don't realize how backwards this is, do you?" She tries to find compassion for his self-assured tone, the pouty lip and the stubborn eyes. "I can't believe you would…" 

She shakes her head firmly, biting back disappointment. They never used to have arguments like this, or arguments at all. It used to be only love and comfort and desire and now she feels like her rose-colored glasses have been yanked off her face and replaced with a filter of monochromatic awfulness.

"I would… What? Want you as my wife? Of course I want you as my wife. You're the only one I'd ever even consider."

"No, you're not listening." Huffing, she slumps back down, knees pressed together. Feyd can still see her slick-glistening cunt peeking out enticingly between her thighs but decides to keep his hands to himself while his betrothed is so angry. She sighs heavily and hates how this last sentence made her feel - belly full of pulsing butterflies. "Fine, let's talk about this some other day and let's pick up where we left off?"

"As you wish, my Lady," Feyd coos, calloused hands slipping over her knees. Pleasant goosebumps break out all across her flesh and her fingers slide down to tangle with his. She's missed him so terribly, she could cry.

"We have protection, yes?"

"Protection?" He frowns and his woman's fingers freeze threateningly on his knuckles. "No one would dare disturb us here. I'll take care of you-"

"Protection from pregnancy, you idiot!" She almost slaps him square across the apple of his stupid cheek and her livid expression stops his crawling advance over her body.

Feyd flinches, eyes blown wide with surprise and he looks five years younger like this. Immediately, she feels awful and doesn't dare to imagine how awful she would have felt had she actually slapped him.

"But didn't you leave Earth to colonize your Solar System?"

"I'm an engineer, not an incubator."

"But we didn't take any precautions when we-"

"We were dreaming! Feyd, please. Don't give me an aneurysm and don't make me strangle you." 

"Okay, okay…" Cautiously, he pulls away, glancing at his scared woman before he bends down to his discarded jacket.

"Thank you," she sighs more softly. She does want him, wants to feel him everywhere, on her and in her. Looking at the shape of his broad back and narrow waist, she wants him so badly that it hurts.

Feyd pulls a small device from the pocket and clips it behind his ear. When he begins to utter guttural words in the language she doesn't yet understand (Her interface helpfully flashes, identifying the words as Harkunnin, along with an error message about incomplete reference data), she identifies the device as a transmitter.

"Getting us a contraceptive," Feyd mutters when he is done and lets the transmitter vanish in his pocket. "Can I kiss you while we wait? We don't need protection for that…"

God, he pouts, he actually pouts and she can't help but open her arms for him. Immediately, Feyd settles on top of her, chest flush against hers. One thigh pushes between her legs and she grows aware of the hard length confined by his trousers, his cock hot and solid as it grinds against her hip with soft, rutting movements.

Their pleasure is short-lived. A knock on the door drives them apart, or rather, his woman urges him away like she's ashamed to be seen making out with her own betrothed.

"Come in!" She calls and Lilia enters, carrying a tray with two ampules. The woman decidedly avoids eye contact with the na-Baron and bows deeply when he takes the delivery from her hands. Without a word, she scurries away.

"These are quick and effective. We also have formulas with a more long lasting effect. These give us about twenty-four hours," Feyd declares and swallows his dose without delay. His cock is leaking into his pants and he might just go insane if he waits any longer. He won't tolerate any further distractions. Technically, she doesn't need to take her dose on top of his, but Feyd already knew she would have freaked out if she didn't have her own.

She accepts the ampule and looks like she's immensely relieved that they have contraceptives at all around here. But of course they do. The na-Baron can't go around and impregnate every pet he's ever fucked.

His woman's eyes are focused and he realizes she's probably scanning the ampule. By the look on her face, she is not satisfied with the result.

"So, the effect is immediate?"

"Give it a minute or so, but yes." Feyd regards her with hooded eyes and reaches for her waist. When she slips away again, he is seriously tempted to take her to a playroom instead and shackle her to the headboard, fuck her until both of their bodies are numb and her chip is fried.

The engineer climbs off the bed and squats in front of the cryo pod, opening up the BioChem compartment. Equipment that she is not the most familiar with unfolds rapidly in front of her, offering her a tiny workstation. Instructions race over her interface, accompanied by a voiceover directly into her head.

"What are you doing?" Feyd growls with a voice as rough as a whetstone when she brings out a petri dish and drips a tiny droplet of the supposed contraceptive on there. She can barely hear Feyd over the voiceover so she sees herself forced to switch it off when stomping footsteps approach her from behind. "What. Are. You. Doing?"

"Just analyzing a sample real quick. I'm no biologist, but the medical module of the Sarcophagus' program should be able to tell me if-"

"Are you serious?" He barks. "I want to sleep with you." His arms wrap around her waist and drag her backwards, face buried in her neck, lips warm and wet against her skin, nibbling and kissing. She just barely manages to push the petri dish in the slot where it belongs.

"Feyd, wait!" She struggles against his hold though her core floods with heat under the assault of his lips. This is how people end up pregnant - because someone's lips and hands felt too good. "Why are you so… So angry?"

"Why are you so scared of me, and fighting me?! It's just me."

"I'm not scared, I'm just-"

"Don't lie! You are scared, I can see it in your eyes. And you think I'd betray you and give you a faux contraceptive."

With great power of will, she tears her neck away from his lips and spins around in his arms, walking him backwards until his thighs hit the edge of the bed and his knees bend. He looks up with big eyes, pleading and angry, pouty lips parted just a sliver, revealing the inkiness of his teeth behind them.

Feyd is convinced that she will slap him, the way she looks down at him like no woman ever has in his life, but she only cups his face firmly with both hands.

"I'm sorry but I will complete this test. I trust you, but I don't trust anyone else. Do we really know whose hands have prepared these ampules?"

He looks like a kicked puppy, or more like an alligator with a currently closed maw full of sharp teeth. But she also sees the acceptance in his gaze and that he deeply admires her wit.

"Fine then." Wistfully, he lets the fabric of her shirt slip from his fingers as she turns away.

This isn't how she had expected her next encounter with the BioChem compartment to go. Squatting bare-assed on the floor while the man she's in love with paces up and down behind her like a tiger in a cage. From her interface, which is permanently linked to the Sarcophagus as long as she's in range, she selects the molecular analysis tool, giving some pointers by adding that the sample at hand is assumed to be a contraceptive.

Estimated time: 47 seconds

"How long will this take?" Feyd rumbles.

"Only a minute."

"Why didn't you say that sooner!" He stops the pacing and watches, finding a modicum of appreciation for the scarily multifunctional metal block that dominates her room. Surely there are other uses for the sarcophagus that no human in his universe has ever even dreamed of.

"Oh, thank God," she sighs.

Analysis complete…

Rowing in Eden – Ah, the Sea! Might I but moor – Tonight – In Thee! - Wild Nights - Wild Nights! by Emily Dickinson, 1861

A/N: In the next chapter they're finally doing it, I swear 😩

TAG LIST:

@nostalgichoya, @forgedfromthestars, @sweetiee-o, @missbingu, @minedofmoria

@sebastianswallows, @charmingballoon, @flower-frog, @welliah, @aoi-targaryen

@esolean, @szapizzapanda, @coastalcowgirl35

[cherryberry-sugarandspice]

Hi! I love your work!

I was wondering if I could request a Miguel O’Hara x chubby female reader. She’s not exactly shy or insecure about her body, and she wears glasses. She meets Miguel in a line for a cafe, she’s reading a classic book while waiting in line and is totally aware of her surroundings(and she’s not even a spider person)

The place is robbed and reader loses her glasses while being held at gunpoint. Spider-Man saves the day, and reader asks where Miguel went.

You don’t have to do this, but if you do and include smut stuff, the reader keep her glasses on please.

Waaait cause why is this so cute😭

Pairing: Miguel O'Hara × Chubby!Reader

Summary: you're standing in a long, slow moving line reading a book and a certain superhero can't keep his eyes off of you

A/N: I tried working on this while I was at work, but my phone is busted and tends to glitch, and it kept uploading while I was in the middle of writing and wouldn't let me put it in drafts. I was so mad LMAO anyways enjoy!

You're standing in line with your nose buried in a novel, finger tips pushing your glasses back up the bridge of your nose. Call you a cliché for reading in line, but come on, you're getting to the juicest part!

A soft hum push past your plump lips, tongue darting out to moisten the pad of your index finger to help flip to another page. Your eyes indulge the flow of the words, heart quickening as the scene grows mortifying and intense. Will the hero be able to save his lover? Or will he have to make the fatal decision of sacrificing her to save himself?

The line shifts and you take a step forward, peering up for a moment to glance at the menu before returning to your novel.

Yet a tremor racks through your body as you feel a pair of eyes on you. Begrudgingly, you remove your gaze from the pages, looking around to find the source.

And oh.

Standing off to the side is a tall man with dark skin, brown hair, shades adorning his handsome face staring at you. His cheeks darken at getting caught and he looks away, shifting uncomfortably on his feet.

A blush rises along your cheeks and you make an attempt to go back to reading your book, moving along with the line, but your head turns slightly to get another peek of the handsome man, pushing your glasses back up.

The man is leaning against the wall, messing around with a gadget on his wrist, and this time, you're the one who gets caught for staring.

But you don't look away.

A small smile appears on your face and you give a little wave with your fingers. The man's eyes widen beneath his shades and he looks away with a small, shy pout, his arm rising a bit to give you a wave back.

You chuckle to yourself, coming up next in line and ordering yourself a iced matcha latte. You now stand off to the side with your book tucked under your arm, a few inches away from the handsome stranger.

"What are you reading?" he said after a long stretch of silence. He rubs the back of his neck, glancing down at you.

The size difference is mind boggling. He stands at 6'9 and you're below 5'5. And he finds it to be cute.

"Oh? This?" you hold the book up, staring at it. Your hand runs over the hard book, smiling. "It's the fourth installment of my favorite series. I'm at the part where the hero is faced with a difficult decision."

The man nods, almost in understanding. "That's a pretty thick book. How many pages is it?"

"Almost one thousand."

"Impressive," he said with a nod, tugging at the collar of his shirt. He's sweating.

"What's your name?" You say with the tilt of your head, finding his shyness to be adorable. You introduce yourself.

"I'm Miguel. Miguel O'Hara," he responds.

"Miguel," you say slowly, testing his name on your tongue. You smile brightly, craning your neck to beam up at him. You hold your hand out. "Nice to meet you, Miguel."

Miguel's large hand engulfs yours to shake, and his entire body heats up from how small and chubby your hand is in yours, and he's nearly reluctant to let go.

He swears he's never met someone so beautiful before. His hands itch to touch your soft, rounded body. His talons threaten to poke out so they can trace along your iridescent stretchmarks that's hidden beneath your clothes. Your kind, happy expression sends butterflies into his stomach and he looks away, taking his hand back and wiping his sweaty palms on his shirt.

"It's nice to meet you, too." It's an honor to have met you, but that would be a weird thing to say to someone he just met.

Miguel's order is placed on the counter and he grabs it, but doesn't leave. "So, um, what are you doing after this?" Please say nothing.

"Probably go back to my apartment and get comfortable in my bed. Got a novel to finish," you laugh, eyes lighting up in delight.

"Ah, I see," Miguel said. He rocks back and forth on his feet, pursing his lips. He doesn't want to intrude on your reading session, but, he wants to see you again. "Do you want to exchange numbers?"

"Huh?" you say, cheeks burning.

His heart jumps in his chest at the sight of your bashful expression. God, how can someone be so cute? He forces himself to ignore the altercation between the cashier and one of the patrons, who's demanding something for free.

"I would like to take you out sometime," he said with a smile, pushing his shades back up the bridge of his nose.

"Oh, I would lo-"

A gunshot rings throughout the coffee shop and everyone screams, ducking down instinctively. As you duck, your bottom accidentally bumps against the wall and you fall onto the ground, glasses and book sliding across the floor.

You try to scramble onto your hands and knees when an arm wraps around your neck and lifts you up onto your feet, and you feel the barrel of gun pressed into the side of your head.

"Dammit! I said give me my free coffee or this bitch gets it!" the man screamed, spit trickling onto your cheek. You groan in utter disgust.

The world is fuzzy and you squint, attempting to find Miguel - he's gone.

"Sir, please! Let her go and we'll make you the coffee!" the cashier said in panic.

"Make it! Make it now!" he screamed.

"All of this over a coffee?" a deep voice called out. Their tongue clicks in disappointment. "Man, you need to get a fucking life."

The man holding you hostage turns to the voice, dragging you along with, and he begins to tremble.

"S-Spiderman?"

In all of his glory, yet fuzzy, stands the protector of Nueva York - Spiderman. He narrows his eyes, cracking his knuckles.

"Let her go, now," he growled.

The man made the mistake of pointing the gun at him, his hand shaking. "G-Go away! I just want some coffee!"

Spiderman thwips a web to the barrel of the gun, clogging it, and takes it from his hand, breaking the gun in half and toss it aside. With the threat neutralized, he takes a step forward. The man eeps and tosses you to the ground, attempting to make a run for it.

As Spiderman deals with the perp, you're on your hands and knees searching around for your lost book and glasses. A whoosh flies over your body and you press yourself down, flinching as you hear the breaking of glass. You army crawl along the floor and eventually find your glasses. You sit back up and place your glasses back on your face, sitting up and blinking.

Spiderman, in your restored vision, is holding the knocked out perp in his arms, and his holding a hand out ot you.

"Are you okay, miss?" he whispers softly, helping you back onto your feet. You stumble a bit and he steadies you with a firm hand on your waist.

"I-I'm fine," you said. You then straighten yourself up, searching around the cafe. "Miguel! My friend, he's tall like you and he's wearing sun glasses. Did you see where he went?"

"I'm sure he's okay," Spiderman spoke with a gentle tone, hand itching to touch your face. He then reaches for a drink and hands it to you. "Don't worry about him. I'm sure a big man like him can take care of himself."

Spiderman walks out with the perp to turn into the police, and you're staring down at the drink in your hand, a number written on the side. Miguel's number. As your heart warms, a smile on your face, you come to a sudden realization.

How did Spiderman know you ordered the iced matcha?

[omegalomania]

some kind soul uploaded the full q&a that fall out boy did the other night! here is a highlights reel of things that grabbed me while i was watching for those who don't have time to watch:

they have a rapport with the interviewer and have hung out with him a bunch. patrick says they spent like 30 minutes making fun of couches last they hung out lmao

pete describes working with neal avron as being held like an enchanted forest creature with him standing inches from pete's face and saying "what. are. the songs. about." and pete going "oh my god he's looking into my fucking soul rn"

when asked what their favorite meal is, andy says "mom's spaghetti" and doesn't elaborate, patrick says "sushi" and doesn't elaborate. pete says that he's like the joker and he's a simple man and today he had a full english breakfast and he didn't know what to do with half the stuff that showed up.

pete talks about discussing the name of "the beatles" with elliot ingham (their photographer) and says he finally understood that their name was a pun. he says about this "i'm not the sharpest tool in the shed" and doesn't realize he's referencing a meme. the crowd immediately fills him in that it's a lyric by smash mouth. andy clowns on him for this right after: "he's NOT the sharpest tool in the shed"

the host says that pete seems very intellectual. pete says "i PROMISE you that's not true."

when asked about formative musical influences andy and patrick both cite familiar names (andy namedrops drummers for bands like slayer and metallica, patrick says his dad being a folk singer was a huge influence and the 1989 danny elfman batman score). pete says joy division but says he's a visual person and most of his influences are movies.

there's a moment where patrick and pete banter and pete points at the host and says "he just told me i'm smart, i'm trying to live up to it!!" and patrick says in this very small high pitched voice "please be nice to pete!"

anyway pete says his biggest influences are "all the twilight movies except for the one where they introduce [i have no idea what he says here because the crowd promptly goes apeshit]" and also lego batman.

for newer artists patrick says he really likes the new zulu record and the new incendiary song. he says he also likes MSPAINT, alvvays, and another band i couldn't catch the name of

pete says he likes all of patrick's recommendations and says he also likes games we play. andy doesn't give any artists but says patrick gave a "great list" because he's VERY jet-lagged. he's keeping it together as best as he can tho lmao

when asked about if they would ever do a fashion runway show like they did in 2013, patrick says he was embarrassingly short for the whole thing. "i'm at like, bellybutton level." so he says he doubts they would ever be invited back to do something similar "unless they want a bunch of hobbits"

someone asks about producing and patrick gets really in depth with what producing is like and uses "from under the cork tree" as an example - "nobody puts baby in the corner" was barely adjusted from demo form but "sugar we're goin down" had totally different verses at first until they got better direction from the producer.

when asked about what their favorite video to film was, pete says youngblood chronicles WASN'T a lot of fun to make because it was like 9 months with fake blood in your hair and clothes that haven't been washed oNCE. he also didn't love doing the prosthetics for "love from the other side"

the host asks if they've seen the last of us and pete says yes but points at andy and says "he hasn't seen the last episode though so no spoilers!!!" which i thought was very sweet. he then follows that up with "just watch the fuckin episode so we can talk about it!"

patrick and andy said they shot a music video recently that was a "blast" but it's not out yet. pete calls it "very fun, very funny." the crowd starts cheering and patrick hastily says "YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT! you're under NO obligation to like it! but if you do then that's good :)"

patrick says one of the best parts of being in a band is that they all have imposter syndrome but in different ways so they can build up each other's ideas even if they don't believe in their own.....

pete's very nervous about the lyrics to this album cause he's not sure they'll be relatable since he has a lot of "insane fears day to day about not existing." he went to a lot of places that were terrifying to him and he was like "should i talk about this to my therapist" but his therapist said "put this in your lyrics"

"heaven, iowa" was the song that took the longest to come together on this record. this is followed by a rly long anecdote from patrick that im putting in another post cause it honestly made me howl.

when asked about who they'd most like to collaborate with, andy without hesitation says "ourselves" and nothing else. pete says he wanted a kid cudi feature on the album but it didn't work out since he was either busy or ghosted them fldjflkdf

when asked what song are they tired of playing that they can't cut from the setlist and they DON'T want to answer. patrick says some songs have really high notes that are demanding physically for him but that's as specific as he gets lol

pete's like "well we've got this punk song we end all our shows with from one of our earlier albums and it gets very chaotic and sometimes it's a bit of a fancy crowd of people who are like 'i like centuries, i like some of their other songs....i write sins...' and before we start the song i'm like. oh god this is gonna be bad."

when asked about the songwriting process, patrick says: "pete sends me lyrics, i mine them for stuff i like, and....i hate starting answers like this i feel like i've been saying this all MONTH. so i have ADHD - " [crowd fucking goes wild]

when asked about which projects they're proudest of outside of fall out boy, patrick turns to andy and says "andy is very quiet about being in like thirty bands" but andy says he's proud of "all of it"

patrick remarks that he's heard some love for soul punk but is also super grateful he gets to do film and tv scoring now too! he says he likes that when he's talking to people and they ask what he does and if they don't know bands or anything he can say he likes scoring for film and tv and their eyes glaze over and there are no follow-up questions LMAO??

pete is proudest of the bands on his record label!

for favorite songs on the new record, patrick says he likes "what a time to be alive" and says the lyrics are "so tremendously pete"

pete likes "baby annihilation"

when asked about the most difficult song to play live, patrick said headfirst slide wasn't really that difficult even though he expected it to be. he says a lot of songs on mania were very challenging to play live, like young and menace. pete says "what a catch, donnie" was very hard for his "little brain" to play

at the end pete shouts out the host for being fantastic since they've hung out like 3 times now and he thinks he's a great dude to hang out with. andy inexplicably follows this up with "you look like a DAMN fine cup of coffee" and doesn't elaborate but patrick thinks that's his way of saying thank you too

[windtooth-plane]

{Hey there!}

{I'll just get right into the rules and notes. Below said rules and notes will be lore, extra stuff and reference sheets.}

{1. Uploading may vary from time to time as my motivation is rather silly if you want to put it that way. Please do not expect updates in small periods of time, and please do not pressure me to upload anything.}

{2. This blog is run by @nixii-sabre , however, multiple other characters belong to @chaoticgoober and chickenboi on discord- and non-frequently a few other folk. If you have any technical questions or other questions feel free to ask me.}

{3. Suggestiveness is occasionally allowed, however please do not overdo it. No complete NSFW. Most heavier suggestive asks will be deleted or answered if the ask belongs to one of my closer friends who actually know the lore as well as various other inside jokes.}

{4. If your question specifically takes place at a different time of the story, please say if it does. If you don't say, I will immediately assume where it is in the timeline.}

{5. Please do not antagonize me or other askers. Anonymous is always allowed however please do not send any negative stuff or hate.}

{6. Some asks will be answered with simple text, some drawings or doodles here and there, or sometimes full illustrations and/or comics. Please do not expect absolute top-notch with every ask.}

{7. Fanart and giftart is completely always allowed. If you can. @ me (the moderator) whenever you make it! I'd love to see it. However please do not claim any of the characters here as yours, do not copy designs or trace any artwork shone. Just simple art rules n' stuff.}

{And finally, for lore and reference sheets, read under the cut!}

Endless Moving Nights He/They 3rd Gen Endless Moving Nights is usually referred to as "Nights" or more commonly "Endless" as for short. He majors in Biological mechanics and his facility status is currently collapsed after Hidden Niche of Pearls sent a large squad of scavengers and used highly reactive explosives. Before the collapse, Endless had severe insomnia and tended to stay up late into the cycle to work on finding the solution to The Great Problem. He (somewhat) found the solution to, but it was far too dangerous without testing. He had contacted his friend, Witch of Twin Stars to test it out for him- as it was technically a way to save her from the immense rot in her superstructure. She was dying, and what Endless was offering was a body switch into a slugcat subspecies. The subspecies being the only bipedal smart enough in Endless' facility that could be rewired to comprehend the ability to bodyswitch- Bottomfeeders. He sent one of his Bottomfeeders to Witch's can- in which Witch enacted on the instructions Endless had given to her. It was a success, however due to the 'solution' being far too close to being against the self-destruct taboo itself- they both kept it a secret. One of Endless' personal logs stored in a data pearl was 'accidentally' delivered to Hidden Niche of pearls- the iterator being extremely lawful. After the collapse, Endless' half-dead puppet was brought to Pines' can where he was hooked up to an emergency port for an umbilical.

Clock of the North She/Her 3rd Gen Clock of the North- formally known as Clock that Forever Points to the Northern Sky or a simpler short name just being Clock. She used to frequently learn more and more about botany and alchemy- however one time, her potion created The Rot in her superstructure. It spread, and she eventually soon collapsed. The rot had gotten partially cleaned up by a squad of slugcats sent by Green Pines, however, when Clock was kidnapped it simply invited itself back in. A large prehistoric slugcat named Memory had taken Clock to an iterator's facility from another local group, which has since been resolved. She was taken to Pines' can for a short amount of time before deciding to leave to beeline from there, to Chime's can, to her own can to finally get back to. She's close friends with Emerald Leaves of the Pines and Endless Moving Nights.

One Last Chime He/They 2nd Gen One Last Chime, commonly known as Chime or Chimes. One Last Chime is best friends with Endless Moving Nights, WAS friends with Howling Winds over Bronze Seas, and is either neutral to everybody else or hates everybody else. Ever since Clock of the North was created, it was rather obvious Chime had a big fat crush on her. He talked to her almost every cycle trying to engage her in conversation, frequently showing that he cared about her and just liked talking to her in general. That was until he accused Pines of simply wanting to use clock and claiming he was untrustworthy- and also accidentally slipped out that he loved her. Clock cut off all communication with him for many cycles. They only started talking again- just as friends- when Clock was transported to Pines' can. Chime still has often arguments with Pines, however, he is beginning to become good friends nowadays. Chime is now beginning to realize he has a crush on Endless now which is gonna end fine and dandy! (it's not)

Hidden Niche of Pearls She/They 2nd Gen Hidden Niche of Pearls- normally known as Pearls or more commonly as Niche. Niche is an extremely lawful neutral iterator with a high sense of regal and betterness. She understands her place in situations, however enjoys being formal- especially with other iterators. Niche likes to indulge in cultural study from the ancients to her own scavenger colony. Her colony of scavengers respect her and see her as their caretaker and leader, however, there's one particular scavenger- Cookie- she has a direct bond with. Cookie is a young scavenger working to become an elite with her siblings Sylvester and Natalie, and she occasionally pays Niche a visit. They'll talk a lot and Niche lets her guard down whenever with the little scavenger. She feels like a mother figure to Cookie, and Cookie feels like a child figure to Niche. Pearls is slightly antisocial as she would rather spend her time studying or talking to Cookie- and she also has mild paranoia due to a certain fallacy from another iterator which had lead to her breaking her morals.

Emerald Leaves of the Pines He/Him 2nd Gen Emerald Leaves of the Pines- almost always referred to as Pines. Pines is an authoritive yet layed back iterator with a set of his own code and morals. He frequently got into heavy arguments with the iterator Howling Winds over Bronze Seas- one day Winds sent him a file that was supposed to help him find the solution. Pines was grateful but suspicious of the hospitality- and rightfully so. The file contracted rot that quickly spread through Pines' superstructure. He was silent for a long time, however in that time had been readying a slugcat colony. The slugcats had cleared out almost all of his rot, and 40-50 of them had been sent to take out Winds for what he had done. Only one of them came back alive, however the mission was successful. After word was out that Pines had murdered Winds, most iterators banned him from chats and/or simply resented him. However Clock of the North believed his intentions were good. She didn't have a good relationship with Winds either, as he tended to be rather hostile. Later on in time, Pines began to rebuild his reputation back up and became friends with most iterators in his local group. He cares dearly for his colony of slugcats and hopes for them to continue advancing without the constant threat of rain above the clouds on his superstructure.

Witch of Twin Stars He/Her 2nd Gen Witch of Twin Stars- the slugcat now encompanying her puppet is referred to as Kasume, however the iterator who body switched with the slugcat is simply reffered to as The Witch or just Witch. After being body switched, Witch set off to head to the Void Sea where she would then attempt to ascend and see if the solution was truly plausible. Along the way, she met a fluffy yellow slugcat named Sunny- and the pup they took care of, Junior. While travelling, Witch had not told Sunny about her intentions, nor was she sure if the slugcat friend could comprehend it. She began growing a close bond with Sunny, and when it came time to dip into the void sea, she came back up. She couldn't do it. She couldn't leave what she had behind. She headed to Endless' can without telling Sunny or Junior where she was going only to find he had since collapsed. Witch found a pup of her own that she treats as her son- Smoky. They have since been living in Pines' colony.

Karmic Obnoxious Inaccuracy She/It 1st Gen Karmic Obnoxious Inaccuracy, almost always referred to as Koi. She isn't technically a part of Windtooth Plane as she's a bit farther away with no local group of her own, though was originally created to be a part of it. She has no communications with the local group, however she does have communications (occasionally) with her brother Endless. Her facility is submerged underwater, so her arrays and different parts of the superstructure constantly get flooded- making communications somewhat unreliable a lot of the time. She's a bit of an aggressively caring iterator with a strong protectiveness over her brother. She doesn't talk to many other people, however, she has had a word or two with One Last Chime.

Howling Winds over Bronze Seas He/Him 2nd Gen Howling Winds over Bronze Seas, sometimes referred to as just Winds. Winds is a highly 'lawful' iterator who frequently antagonizes most others. Despite having administrator privileges before he was murdered, he worked in illegal arsenal manufacturing- weaponry, essentially. Most iterators were neutral toward him, however he had a personal vendetta against Emerald Leaves of the Pines. The only two people he conversed with as friends were Endless Moving Nights and One Last Chime, however Chime moreso tolerated him than not.

(FYI, the second and third image are NOT alternate outfits. The second one is what's underneath the cloak.)

Angel of Dominance She/Her 3rd Gen An iterator who was kidnapped by an iterator of her own local group. She had many experiments done on her and eventually was found dead by Pines' slugcats. She was brought to the facility and temporarily revived but due to a large surgical cut from her hips to her chest, she was in constant pain. The temporary revival was taken away as they did not have the resources to keep her puppet maintained. Eventually, her puppet was rehooked up to the structure when Endless effectively left. She hopes to one day go back to her can in Loveless Meije, however with it being left unattended for some time there's a chance it'll collapse soon.

OTHER ITERATORS

Eight Islands Under Storm Clouds He/Him 2nd Gen An iterator in Windtooth Plane who's extremely antisocial. They haven't said a word to the local group other than Niche. He was created for the purpose of making explosives.

Two Rocks Eroding He/Him 2nd Gen Another iterator who's not necessarily in Windtooth plane, but is in the area. They haven't spoken to anybody.

Pristine Snow, Twisted Mountains She/They 2nd Gen An iterator who was previously conceived as dead from a power surge. Their facility was built on top of a snowy mountain that has heavy snowfalls. They have spoken to the local group a few times here or there but has mostly talked to Emerald Leaves of the Pines. Their 'death' was soon discovered as faked. She has broken many taboos- almost all of them, to be exact.

Misguided Information Any/All 3rd Gen INFORMATION CLASSIFIED

{ Clock of the North and One Last Chime both belong to @chaoticgoober . Emerald Leaves of the Pines, Howling Winds over Bronze Seas and Pristine Snow, Twisted Mountains all belong to chickenboi on discord. Two Rocks Eroding belongs to King STAZE on all platforms (mostly). Eight Islands Under Storm Clouds belongs to my brother, SomethingUnusual (on all platforms). Everyone else belongs to me. }

[squarebracketsmileyface]

if we're talking about fob songs and sorry it's locked, may I suggest "American beauty/American Psycho"

specifically the lines

"I think I fell in love again, maybe I just took too much cough medicine"

"us we were pity sex, nothing more and nothing less"

and "all those dirty thoughts of me, they were never yours to keep"

ooooooooooooo so trueeee, it works for so much of S,IL honestly, like there are some lines that work for Jay and Tim, some for Jay and Alex in uni, some for Jay and Alex during MH, like. Perfect

little lyric analysis thingy under the thingy bobber

"I think I fell in love again, Maybe I just took too much cough medicine" Like, this one feels like Jay and Tim, specifically how I first planned to write them getting together which was gonna take a lot longer, because Jay was basically gonna go the Alex route and refuse to believe he liked Tim (tho not because he didn't wanna be gay, just because he still felt really fucking hurt by everything that happened with Alex) like, he was gonna make all sorts of ridiculous excuses for ages about why he couldn't possibly like Tim in that way. And I did kinda keep that in a little bit in chapter 3 of S,IL i think, just not to the same extent as i had it in the original plan.

The idea of Jay blaming medicine for his feelings towards Tim could be so interesting though, especially with the whole thing about Tim sharing his meds with Jay after they ran into the Operator in entry 72 and Jay had his seizure. Like, idk it feels like the kinda straws Jay would grasp at (especially since he seems to resistant to getting professional help for anything) as another excuse he'd use to avoid going to the doctors to get medication of his own.

"I'm the best worst thing that hasn't happened to you yet, The best worst thing" This line is definitely Jay and Alex in uni, it just is. They are both the best worst things that have happened to each other. Nearly all their problems stem from each other and their relationships over the years, whether that's platonic or sexual or whatever. And like, yeah Alex would probably have ended up getting tangled up with the Operator no matter what, but I do feel like everything would have been different (in S,IL as well as the canon) if he and Jay hadn't been as close as they were/known each other. because without Jay rediscovering the tapes Alex gave him, the MH youtube channel wouldn't have happened and Jay would most likely have just gone on with his life none the wiser, same with Tim. Brian would probably have been the only one still in at least a similar situation.

Also "best worst thing" is a weirdly nice descriptor, it scratches my brain a lot. And "best worst thing that hasn't happened to you yet" is perfect for main series Jaylex because like, the best worst thing that will ever happen to Jay? Dying in Alex's arms (cos that's what i wanna happen in S,IL. I want Jay to die in Alex's arms with Alex crying and telling him he loves him)

"You take the full, full truth, then you pour some out" is just chapter 3 of If It Ain't Broken lol. Like, literally this is what happens in that Chapter (which i should be uploading tomorrow? Maybe tonight but most likely tomorrow). Jay talks to his friends and only really tells them half of the truth and keeps the rest for himself so that he doesn't look like a bad person. its great. he's such a little bastard man and I love him. "And as we're drifting off to sleep, All those dirty thoughts of me, They were never yours to keep" Just like Alex in general wasn't Jay's to keep, especially not after what I have planned for chapter 6 :DDDD but like, to me this feels like it just kinda ties in with all of the stuff Jay and Alex avoided. Like, they never fucked in a bed, Jay never slept over after they hooked up, Alex never used sweet pet names with Jay unless it's during aftercare where he can pass it off as 'just being a good dom' and not have to own his words etc. Like, idk why that lyric just feels like the same kinda thing as all those.

"Us, we were pity sex, nothing more and nothing less" is Alex downplaying everything that happened in chapter 1 of S,IL. Like, you now in chapter 2 where he tells Jay he only called him baby and stuff like that because he was pretending he was Amy? That. It's Alex pretending that them sleeping together again, in a bed this time, and Jay staying there overnight didn't mean anything when really they did. They meant a whole lot to him, but then he realised it had been a bad idea because it'd make Jay get attached to him again and make Jay even more dead set on finding out what's going on, so he had to scramble for something to drive Jay away all over again.

[thesafecafe]

This is totally not a submission but I kinda want your take on this.

So I have this book on tumblr so I decided to place it on Wattpad in case someone wants an offline version. There was this one person that seems to enjoy it so far but as of recently uploads they commented something. (Image down below)

I don't know what to reply back. I know I'm not the strongest writer but l've seen people write and get tons of compliments n stuff, so I'm like, "I'm sure they won't mind my skills." And after this comment it made me more insecure and anxious every time I want to post in the next chapter or another book.

To some people it's nice to have feedback n criticism is 100% fine.

I know you reblogged something similar to how people are commenting, or putting their own opinion about other fanfics and how people are not commenting and it just got me wondering about this comment again.

Wasn’t even about the grammar because that’s what I’m most worried about. It was about how the chapter was formed. And for the past year, that’s what I’ve been working. So idk how to feel. 

I’ve been writing for quite some time and this is the first time I’ve built the confidence to post something like this.

I know I shouldn’t be overreacting, but I’ve edited this chapter/arc on and off for the past year and even posted it on Tumblr before I took it down to re-edit it. I just want your opinion on this thing or am I just jumping too high? I just don’t know how to respond back to this. I don’t want to spoil anything, and I don’t really know what point of the chapter was so different than the previous one because it was a cliffhanger and the next one, it continued right after so…🤷🏾‍♀️

 (I crossed out her name because I don’t know if you would reply back and I don’t want people harassing her) Don’t get me wrong, they’re an extremely nice person and sweet, she literally be the only person commenting under the story lol. And I love her for that.

(Sorry if there’s any spelling mistakes, it’s late 🤡)

Hi honey, first of all, I'm glad you asked! And I in fact would not send hate a person's way, don't worry ednfjb. As for what I think, I feel like as a reader, if you're confused, you should maybe ask questions like "hmm, I don't understand why character A did this or character B did that, when" or something along those lines you know? And it's nice to have feedback/constructive criticism, so I get them being a sweet commenter.

However 😌 I do believe that suggesting an author has not taken the time to edit their work is undermining all the hard work, blood, sweat, and tears that you've put into your stories, and it seems quite rude. You don't have to be the strongest writer or the best, but you worked hard and you continue to practice and get better with every story you create and edit. I don't think you're overreacting, because every time you write, you grow and change as an author, and if a chapter felt different or confusing, they should've politely said "hey, this part confuses me." Not just up and decided to say "you don't edit your work, let me know if you need me to do it." It might not have been intended to sound that way, but it comes off that way regardless. I don't know what to say to that either to be honest.

How you form your chapters is how you form your chapters! Don't let one odd comment stop you or make you doubt yourself, because your stories deserve to be written and seen, exactly the way that you write them! I promise you'll be the author you want someday, and you'll still have room for growth. (I'm still very taken aback that this person would even suggest that btw like, please don't think it reflects on the work you put into it, and no shade to her but that just seems so rude imo. If it was a cliffhanger and then continued...did she skip something?).

[bballlvr8]

It would be different if it was only the video because Azzi wasn't working out with them and i dont think you could even see her like that in the background or anything but there's no reason they should be posting that picture and naming everyone except for her like she's not also an athlete. You got 4 athletes in that pic 1 of whom is teammates with another one and signed under another one and no mention of her at all we just supposed to ignore that there's a 4th person in the pic I'm ngl it didn't bother me with the other stuff because Paige is simply more well known at this point and it's standard to only mention the big name like no one was seriously upset when the team didn't get individual attention at the a boogie concert but directly excluding Azzi in basketball circles that don't make no sense hyping up Paige like her whole storyline for the season isn't finally getting to play with the girl 1 foot away from her for one last shot at the natty like apart from being disrespectful as fuck niggas just not doing they job write the script

The ending made me laugh, but exactly that’s my whole thing in the basketball world. They are not extensions of each other. They’re their own individual players and people need to respect that.

like how hard is it to just delete the post and re-upload it i’m just so mad and it’s like honestly knowing azzi she probably doesn’t care but to me that’s just like the ultimate sign of disrespect 

[doubleddenden]

Time to talk about things I'm excited about again

New Fate/Samurai Remnant trailer! it's only in Japanese for now, and it was quickly privated from the original uploader

HOWEVER, there's still a lot of cool things to look at here.

First of all, i'll be honest, I saw this originally thanks to a twitter user that archived it and looked at the various stuff you can get with it, so a lot of my "official" info that isn't visually made clear in the trailer will be regurgitated from what they've said. here's the thread and another video (just in case this one gets taken down)

Okay, so time for a deep dive under the cut:

first off

Musashi (which that IS Musashi and this is not a Scathatch=Skadi or similar situation) is apparently a Berserker

The MC is most likely Iori- there's a few reasons why this is significant, both in terms of actual history (which plays a role for Fate, obviously) and Fate lore in general

A. Historical relevancy: Iori is one of the children that IRL Miyamoto Musashi bought/adopted from his original parents, and taught them his signature sword style.

B. Lore relevancy: The Musashi we're familiar with in Fate is from another world where she's female- at least in terms of Fate/Grand Order lore. Musashi sort of gets rejected by reality/gets tossed in and out of alternate dimensions here and there, and other than official story canon, she does play a fun and significant role in Summer 4. Here she appears in the Summer Singularity of Las Vegas as a Berserker and also keeps trying (and failing) to convince the group she is actually Iori. It's a fun story but hard to argue as canon due to the nature of event singularities and especially summer ones

3. I'm very sure you can tell if you look closely, but the black haired servant with the white shirt is definitely a Saber face- I think this one actually has Artoria's VA. I posted previously after the last trailer, but they have Artoria's hairstyle and the little ahoge that's pretty much signature to Saber Faces (sans Alters). To me they seem of Chinese origin judging by dress and swords, and it also seems like they have some water ability? Which is strange but cool. If anyone's smart enough to try and figure that one out, go for it. I'd personally look through old Chinese folktales or rulers that have some association to water, or maybe was a man suspected of being a woman/vice versa (which is why Artoria is a woman instead of a man). Maybe a swordsman that traveled or migrated to Japan, too.

4. This is DEFINITELY a Holy Grail War, it's the only way someone like Jalter could show up like this- However the fact that she's even here to begin with must mean there's something wonky going on, since her existence in FGO is pretty much only because of Chaldea's interference. It could also just be a separate instance of fuckery going on, especially considering we have ANOTHER Avenger class here- Angry Mango himself (i can't remember how to spell the name). Maybe another tainted grail?

5. Speaking of Angra, he looks different- like he's not using Shiro as a base body anymore. He has face stubble- Kiritsugu, maybe? It wouldn't be the first time Kiritsugu and Shiro have had similar Servant counterparts. It could also be another of Musashi's kids imo.

6. Speaking of Shiro, or more specifically Fate/Stay Night

This place looks familiar, almost like the shrine where Saber and Assassin fought each other in FSN, aka the shrine Caster was holding out in. Now this might be a stretch, but what if this is Fuyuki from the past? If this is Iori's time, this would be around the 1600s, roughly 400 years prior to Stay Night. The fact that the new Saber Face is also here seems rather significant imo

7. The extra Servants look cool- I'm betting the big guy with the green is maybe another Hercules form or possibly Samson, which would be a first for Fate I think. He does have long hair, anyway.

8. The music used is similar to the Shimousa fighting music from FGO's Shimousa arc

Anyway, the early September release date for Japan is pretty awesome. I doubt it'll release that early for us, and in fact that may be why they retracted the video? unclear. Personally i hope it comes out later so i can actually save and buy it instead of passing it up for a wedding lol

I can't wait for it, it looks fun

[grumpysims]

hey @tomiochan99 are you just delusional or what.. bc i don't have another account LOL. im not sure who tf cryptycat is, i do this on my own on one account... also. so i have to remind you again that you're the one who is breaking TOS? you're posting content locked behind a paywall permanently. do i need to link you to the TOS or are you just ignoring it to make some quick money? instead of trying to strike down my accounts, maybe actually follow the TOS set by EA? also, i never claimed your content LOL. i gave you credit, never claimed it as my own so please get that right in your head. i simply upload the content that is locked behind your patreon because again, it's not allowed. pull yourself together, put your big boy pants on and realize you're in the wrong. and even if i stop uploading your content, which i am since i already unsubbed to you because of all of this harassment and strikes- someone else is just going to continue to upload your stuff. so even if i stop, someone else is going to come in and do the same.

also?? idk how you thought i had multiple accounts?? just because someone else is uploading the content doesn't mean it's me? 💀 maybe if the person went under my name, i'd understand but i've only ever gone under kichi so... anyways...

i've said this before but i'll say it again. i don't upload early access custom content, i only upload the content that is locked with no date of public release. i would have been willing to discuss this with you, but you immediately claimed everything on my pinterest instead of messaging me LOL. i've gotten two creators who have reached out to me first and changed their content to early access to avoid this happening and apologized for breaking TOS. so, do you have a good excuse as to why you're breaking TOS, or are you just different and just choose to ignore TOS because you doubt EA will do anything. again, maybe if you messaged me personally instead of striking down the posts and telling tumblr to take my account down, this could've been sorted privately but 💀 nah. you won't have to worry about your content being uploaded anymore since i've been unsubbed for like? a week? LOL

TLDR: you're still breaking TOS, im not going to stop until you release your stuff to the public or do early access, and i have only one account! 😁

[jencva]

𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀𝐍 𝐈𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐄𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘 / 𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐁𝐋𝐎𝐆 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐉𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐕𝐀 𝐎𝐅 𝐅𝐅𝐕𝐈𝐈 ( 𝐅𝐅𝐕𝐈𝐈 𝐑𝐄𝐌𝐀𝐊𝐄 ) 𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐃𝐈𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐍𝐓 & 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐘. Please take the time to read below the cut. Thank you!

▶ Hello! My name is VEXA™. I'm 30 YOA returning with the one and only JENOVA of FFVII. Below are my rules, which can also be read on my blog. Take the time to read them, but no pressure. ▶ A WARNING FOR TRIGGERS: [NSFW] related content - this blog will contain mature content. in threads/ plots / aesthetics / ect. categories apply: ▶ blood ▶ violence ▶ t1 roleplay (sparring/fighting level) ▶ sex / nudity ▶ experimentation / body dysmorphia ▶ needles ▶ horror All things will be tagged accordingly for the safe dash and non-fans. ▶ THIS BLOG IS SEMI PRIVATE | SELECTIVE:  I will not follow everyone back. please do not take offense to this, of thing that i am disinterested in your blog/multi I believe everyone is a wonderful writer and everyone portrays their character differently with a different passion. That being said, I am just one person doing what I love to do most but also have lots of things to do, such is life. Of course I can't get to everyone, but I am grateful your following and interest in my character. ▶ FOLLOWING: I am not one of those people who expect a follow back even if I follow them/ follow you. i do read through the dash and other's threads for the story, the moments. It is the simple fact that I may like their content. so if I follow you, or take interest but it is not the same way, I will not take offense. I am not here for the follow count. ▶ NSFW PLOTTING: Mutuals' only. Person has to be of age. Chemistry is a must. I am not here to be a shipping dump, as it can be hard/ difficult to do so with Jenova. If you are interested in a ship, I would rather it be plotted out in DM's. Thanks. ▶ LIKES | ACCEPTING: ◭ final fantasy characters ◭ mcu characters (movie series) ◭ star wars characters(movie series) ◭ league of legend characters ( arcane included ) ◭ starters - i am willing to write out / give shoutout starter posts for those who are wanting one. starters are always welcome from others as well. shoutout posts, tagged, ect.

♚ DISLIKES | NOT ACCEPTING

◭ plagiarism - Plagiarism; is the representation of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work. plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty and a breach of journalistic ethics. This is explanatory. Don't steal my stuff and make it your own/edit it. it's illegal. it's rude. it's scummy. don't do it.

◭ godmodding - I control my character’s actions, i control my character’s plot-line, relations, ect. do not take the reins and control my character for me. It’s rude. ◭ forced - Forced shipping is not tolerated, forced plotting is not tolerated, forced m!a are not tolerated. ◭ anon hate - Not tolerated. ◭ icons - Do not steal any icons from me. All of the icons are made by me, and there will be consequences if I see them being used without consent.

▶ If you have any questions, or would like to write/ plot outside of Tumblr. My discord is: 🌟𝙑𝙀𝙓𝘼 𝙋𝙃𝙊𝙀𝙉𝙄𝙓™#3229. Please don't hesitate to say hello & post your url so I know who you are!

▶ My work schedule varies but I have every Monday & Wednesday off. Those days I will try my best to be here, but around 6pm MST I do 3 hour streams on twitch for fun.

▶My face claim for JENOVA is: 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘿𝙍𝙄𝙁𝙏𝙀𝙍 - 𝙵𝚄𝙻𝙻𝚈 𝙲𝚄𝚂𝚃𝙾𝙼𝙸𝚉𝙴𝙳

▶ The following data log was uploaded by 【𝙴𝚁𝚁𝙾𝚁: 𝚄𝙽𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝚄𝚂𝙴𝚁】 and are marked confidential under the current database. to override permissions, please select option YES to continue to the program. select option NO to go back.

𝙽𝙾 ▶【𝙔𝙀𝙎】

𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙵𝙸𝙳𝙴𝙽𝚃𝙸𝙰𝙻 𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴𝚂: [ C L I C K H E R E ]

[thegongoozlerreacts]

Welcome Home: Homewarming Update

ok so. yes i KNOW its been like several weeks already since this has been first updated and im very much late to the party (thankfully not late enough to have missed everything) but i was soooo freaking busy since the update dropped, and now i finally have the time to check it out!!!! lets GOOO!!!

spoilers under the cut

so number one thing i noticed: new link and in fact, new site domain (is that what its called?? well my point is that it's no longer being hosted by wix which yeah, that makes sense)

another thing i noticed is there are no more bug videos and doodle audio (aww)

i havent checked if the askew letter links still work but i will check now

ok just checked and nope! does not work, which means most of the secret links prior to this website change are no longer working (unsure if they'll be added back later on, but i hope they will) it's not too bothersome that they're gone, since im sure they've all been uploaded somewhere on YouTube, but it's more fun going to the actual links myself hehe

anyways! moving on to the actual update

Christmas!! or, as they call it, Homewarming

the little doodles are cute, however I am a bit suspicious of the star with its red eye (but the ham is most suspicious, what's it doing there in a tree?!?!?)

interesting placement for this tree, since it is boxing in a letter

i wonder if that means there's some new secret links? i'll take note of it

now, let's head over to the News page

he is presenting jello to me

so the post regarding the actual update is dated as December 25 2023, followed by a correction where the person says they're unsure how they made that mistake

lolol nice we got Christmas in spring

anyways, it says that there are toys, more cookbook pages, AND more vinyl records!! excited to check these out!!

let's head on over to the Merchandise page

??? CIGARETTES????

bro 😭😭 who thought it was a good idea to sell child-friendly tobacco pipes,,, thats crazy,,, also another brand mention: Hooplah cigarettes

ok so among the website changes, there's also some changes to old stuff, such as the telephone (the layout for the audio is different, and it seems Wally's audio is no longer there (not even hidden, like before)

new cookbook pages!

the first ten pages are of various hotdogs with one-sentence puns about them,, incredible

this one is my favorite LMFAOOO

DD: OH NO !!!

the crispy sweets pancakes look like they'll give me diabetes

the single pea in gelatin recipe is singlehandedly the funniest recipe i've ever seen because like,,, you made a whole gelatin, and you put just a single pea in the center of it,, just one.. LMFAOOOO

Julie's gelatin just. makes you put in a whole MUG in the gelatin?!??!?!? a mug full of hot cocoa??!? at least Frank's gelatin is edible all throughout?!?!?!

bye i saw 'Poppy Partridge' and the picture of a turkey and i was like '?? yOU COOKED HER???' but then i read the full title and it says it's a bird-free birdseed turkey LMFAO

perfect. the best recipe in this whole cookbook, im sure

there's a cigarette here?? even tho this isnt the smoking merch?? its a book??

so the book is a catalogue for toys and merch they were selling during the holidays, very cool

hELP THEY LOOK SO SILLY

what did they do to my boys 😭😭 his forehead is MASSIVE

lowkey tho i want that Julie Build-Your-Own-Game Kit cuz like wow, that is a bunch of toys in that one kit n its really cheap????

oh my god i just realized. the Marlo logo looks like a swirly eye inside a house what the hell

anywyas now its time for the radio advertisement ft. Santa himself

hmm interesting how the ad ends in glitchy noises upon saying Eddie's name, the only one who was not mentioned with a specific set unlike the others (tho that may not be that important of a detail)

next up is another storybook record! featuring Wally singing a song??!? awesoem

sorry im laughing at the absolute difference in tone and energy between the Narrator and Wally

Narrator's got a boisterous loud voice and then cut to Wally in his little low-energy voice LMFAO

Barnaby and Wally are so cute together <333

FRANK: How I would say what? JULIE: What who would the huh?

LMFAO the way Julie said her line was way too funny

FRANK: (Frank greets Wally Warmly, but is cold with Barnaby.) Hello, Wally. Barnaby. BARNABY: (Said in a similar tone mockingly.) Hiya Jewels! Frank.

Frank and Barnaby fighting is honestly one of the funniest dynamics in the whole Neighborhood to me

Julie goes into hibernation?? legit ??? nice

HELP ME WALLY JUST DEADPAN SAYING 'Shush.' TO BARNABY'S LOUD ASS VOICE LMFAOOAOA

i dont think the 'Caninus Coccinellidae' is a real bug that exists, since i tried searching it up and only got coccinellidae in general i wonder what exactly this insect is, since the word 'caninus' means it relates to canines or dogs a dog ladybug sounds like a very interesting creature

help did Howdy somehow sneak an advertisement for his store in the narrator's script 😭😭 incredible

i really like Howdy's voice, its really fitting for him

SALLY IS CLIMBING THE TREE?????

she's climbing it to stay the biggest star in town LMFAO

is she just gonna be there the whole season or something??? at least her outfit slays???

i love how dramatic Sally is but like girlie dont fall off the tree??!??!?!

oh Santa Claus mention

this talk about food is making me hungry LOL

wait did the narrator just say that all the neighborhood's been accounted for?? but what about Eddie??? he hasnt shown up??

what the hell?? what's that weird noise in the back of Wally saying 'How can that be?' is it a voice? it kinda sounds like its saying something

well this was a very cute story (still wondering where Eddie is)

after this is audio of Wally singing!! more Wally singing!! very cool

and now we've got an album of (almost) everyone else singing too!

interestingly, there's a drawing of an envelope on the audio tab thing i wonder if thats important

Sally's really good at singing actually all their singing voices are really good

SALLY: Juliette, I fell from the sky, you fell from a house... LMFAO they're so silly

next up is a track featuring Howdy's family? oooh

i cant believe his mom and dad are named 'Hiya' and 'Biya' respectively,,, amazing,, is the rest of the family gonna be named with words used for greetings and farewells??

his brother is named Latter tho oh,, Latter like 'later' like 'see ya later' because his sister and brother are named Seeya and Latter and wow,,,, amazing

also Howdy's clear favorites LMFAO

ok i kinda feel bad for Latter that Howdy likes his brother-in-law more than his own brother 😭

also?? Seeya and Beeya's kids being named Howdo and Youdo??? amazing lmao

also its interesting how on the album cover you can see how Howdy's parents and his sister have wings but theyre still caterpillars???

i think its really funny that there's just some random person there named 'Sue' who isnt even part of the family LMFAOO

also the grandma being named Sally Tations is really clever i think

Barnaby showing up at the end only adds fuel to the fire of my Barnaby x Howdy ship

and now its the tobacco pipe merch that absolutely baffles me

the ad audio features Barnaby and Howdy advertising it to Howdy's nephews,,,,, at least theyre not letting them smoke for real?????

now we got a Frank solo album where he sings a song about hibernation, cute

Even if I might not be able to see you, I know it’s for the best, I can’t keep you,

OUCH? this song is kinda sad what the fuck 😭😭 aww Frank :(((

more merchandise after this is some greeting cards for homewarming that are very cute, but not much to see other than a hibernating Julie and Barnaby and Wally being besties

after that is a crispy sweets frosted cereal, that apparently has a holiday-themed decoder ring?? with Eddie?? hmmm interesting

OH MY GOD. THE LITTLE DRAWINGS ALL OVER THE SITE ARE FOR THIS DECODER RING???

but whats the key?? is it just this as it is on the box? is there another clue on the site?

ok i think first i will finish checking all the pages before going around and looking for the symbols

checking the guestbook, and while you still cant submit anything new, it seems there also is just... no more guestbook?? thats too bad

theres new Homewarming stickers!! i love them theyre so cute!! everyone in a snowglobe doing things that we've heard them doing in the storybook audios! nice nice

nothing new in media, the 'whats welcome home' page, and the about us page (besides the Homewarming symbols)

oh actually something notable about the About Us page is that there is no longer any of the glitchy overlayed text, which makes sense since they mention in the News page that the website is free of bugs and glitches

aww everyone's homes in The Neighborhood page are all Homewarming-themed now! hmm except for Home and Eddie's post office

well, you can see a decorated Home when you enter the page but the Post Office being the only not decorated even a bit is interesting,,, Eddie also wasnt in the Homewarming Storybook Record,,, hmmmm

i dont know if it means anything but it is interesting

the staff only version of The Playfellow Exhibition is no longer on the site (or if it is i cant find it)

well it seems like i've gone through every new thing besides the secret code, which i think might be a link, since on the guestbook page there were 3 symbols that looked like a genie's lamp, which translates to 'w' so its probably a link

actually, now that im looking at it closer its probably like. a cup like the one that pours out gravy in the dinner scene in Coraline

ok im pretty sure i've got all the symbols scattered over the site, but i have NO idea what order they should be in

i, o, m, a, a, r, e, t, y, g, y, e, r, f, s, n, e, w, n, w, w, w, y

maybe instead of a link its a scrambled message?

ok i honestly have no idea where to go from here so,,, searching the internet it is !!

OK!!! since i am so incredibly late to the party, i've found the secret code on the internet kakakka

it is this https://www.awayfrompryingeyes.net

oh that makes sense,,, its a phrase that was similar to one used in the news update about Homewarming "Don’t you feel at peace exploring these pages? Free from worry? From prying eyes?"

very very interesting! lets check it out

very very interesting indeed,, ok so basically this site is gonna be an archive for the secrets from before, and all entries are signed 'W' which is very interesting too

the person writing these seem to be the creator of the site? or at least someone who manages the site

lets check out the evidence thats been archived here so far

ok so i think these evidences are actually NEW things which is cool! presumably past secrets (such as the bug videos, doodle audios, askew letters and others) will be added onto here at some point in time

now lets listen to this phone call that 'W' has gotten from Wally himself

so Wally is singing Toyland again

i wonder if there will ever come a time where we can be able to respond or communicate with Wally

he mentions that Barnaby will be here soon hmm tbh when the site first launched i had read some theories that maybe Wally was literally physically isolated from the rest of the neighborhood (something to do with the so below stuff i think?) but if Wally is being a reliable narrator (as in, he's telling the truth that Barnaby really is gonna visit him soon), then that disproves that

he seems to be left alone most of the time tho i think?? well at least now during Homewarming season since he said everyone's busy

he might not be physically isolated from the rest of the neighborhood, but he probably still feels pretty lonely :((

anyways, the next evidence is under 'commercials' i wonder what this will be

omg??? animated stuff??? thats so cool :000 an animated commercial for crispy sweets, incredible

oh! a commercial for the cookbook why is there just. a ham?? under the tree ?? i think the one single pea on a plate is the funniest gag ever

Wally's ball and cup,,,, what does it say about me that even tho its not real i still want it??? its said to be made by the 'you-wont-believe-it' company, which is interesting since im pretty sure so far the only companies noted to be involved with Welcome Home is Playfellow, Marlo, and the crispy sweet cereal so now we've got another affiliation (oh and the cigarette brand, Hooplah)

commercial for the "Homewarming Harmonies for Hearth and Home" Album, featuring a duet with Frank and Poppy!! Poppy's voice sounds really good also the Homewarming tree is made of food???

A COMMERCIAL FEATURING EDDIE ?? Eddie who has been suspiciously absent from the Homewarming festivities??

ah i see... Eddie's been working during Homewarming huh? maybe thats why the Post Office isnt decorated and he wasnt in the storybook record? cuz he was working??? no but thats weird,, Wally and Barnaby were walking around so surely they wouldve at least bumped into him delivering stuff?? maybe he was in his post office then?

an ad-break card with Frank and Sally, cute cute i remember there was a similar holiday-themed 'we'll be right back' card with Frank and Julie decorating a cake, i wonder if that will appear here?

OH?? a commercial featuring Barnaby's mom?? aww ok their dynamic is cute (even if its just a commercial for eggnog)

OMG ANOTHER ANIMATED COMMERCIAL WITH HOWDY AND BARNABY its for the cigarettes LOL

EDDIE AGAIN oH NO I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM IS HE ALONE ON THE HOLIDAYS??? SO HE'S JUST BEEN IN THE POST OFFICE THIS WHOLE TIME BY HIMSELF???? PLEASE,,,, EDDIE GO OUTSIDE or someone like. go inside or call this man i cant take the idea of Eddie being alone wtf?!??!?!?

and now an ad-break card with Poppy and Julie

and now what i think is a continuation of the commercial for the Homewarming album

NOOOOOOOO EDDIE....... GO OUTSIDE JUST DONT WORK...... PLEASE..... someone give this man something to deliver GAH he's mad ?!??! Eddie Dear please go outside (SOMEONE TALK TO THIS MAN) he's played several games of tic-tac-toe by himself,,,, my guy,,,, go on that walk thank you

the fact that Eddie isnt in ANY of these commercials,, oh my god,,,,,,,

another continuation for the Homewarming album

Sally, Julie, and Poppy singing together,,, thats so cute,,

i cant. everyone hanging out together in these commercials with no Eddie in sight i feel so bad

FRANK AND SALLY FIGHTING?!??!

is this a commercial for sleeping pills????? im ??? this show is so so crazy like ?? the in-universe show i mean,, cuz what?? they got so many merchandise and records and a bunch of brand deals and its all just been wiped?!??!?! like ?? what happened???

oh no time to dwell on that we got Sally and Eddie lets go he's getting some social interaction

lets go he has a happy ending he's at the party !!!

ok i read ahead in the transcript and oh no im afraid now ?? Eddie?? hello?? Eddie are you ok?? i dont think this man is ok he needs help oh my god what is this

im scared LOL this was not a good idea to do at 3 am im really unnerved right now but mostly i think this guy needs help someone please help him

something about reality is shattering for him i think??? maybe ?? its the way the video is going back and forth between live-action scenes and a drawing of Eddie's face (and Home's eyes)

jesus that was a jumpscare with Frank's voice coming in out of the silence

ah its still all glitchy and distorted i dont know what's the correct term for what Eddie is experiencing but he is NOT having a good time

FRANK SWITCHING FROM CALLING HIM 'MR. DEAR' TO 'EDDIE' HAS ME ILL being in Eddie's perspective with static in the ears while he's looking down is so. i dont know how to explain it but its uncomfortable and unnerving (which is probably what he's feeling)

the fact that he only looks up after Frank probably shook his shoulders or something to get his attention ughdjskdhfkjdssjkjkew (cuz his arms are outstretched when the camera pans up to look at his face/when Eddie looks up at Frank)

bro that was a jumpscare with the narrator after like,, that whole segment i guess

so rewatching that last bit when Eddie seems to be like. present enough to respond/say something or be aware of whats going on i guess, the screen gets less glitchy and distorted and thats like a nice detail

so thats why Eddie’s been kinda just,, missing from the Homewarming on the actual site

i hope Eddie turns out ok :(((( PLEASE THIS STORY NEEDS TO HAVE A HAPPY ENDING OR I WILL CRY SO HARD THAT I WILL TRANSFORM INTO AN OYSTER

interestingly W’s note after the compiled commercials says that “the show never appeared beyond clips of Eddie Dear”

so all those segments with Eddie were, i guess, the ‘holiday special’ that the commercials were interrupting and all

thats so so crazy,, im so late to the party but i honestly dont even know where to begin with all of that but like. im rooting for you Eddie !!!!!

well thats it for now, until the next update! make sure to wave up high, neighbors

[anyasportfolio]

I found Weird Stuff in the Woods (creative writing assignment)

Anya Altieri

POSTED TO R/LEGALADVICE ON APRIL 24TH, 2015

TITLED: I FOUND SOMETHING IN THE WOODS, CAN I POST IT ON THE INTERNET?

So I recently found these old journals in the middle of the Appalachian mountains. They were in a box, half-buried under a bush and seem to belong to some dude who killed himself back in the 70’s. I really want to post them here  because they’re honestly weird as fuck, but I also don’t want to get thrown in jail for whatever reason.

EDIT: the overwhelming majority of people said that “while posting it is a shitty thing to do, if the case is ruled a suicide it probably won’t come with any legal repercussions” which is good enough for me. I’ll be posting it on r/interesting if any of you want to check it out.

POSTED TO R/INTERESTING ON 4/26/2015

TITLED: I FOUND THESE WEIRD JOURNALS IN THE WOODS AND THEY’RE CREEPY  AS SHIT

Okay, so I found these old journals in the middle of nowhere in the Appalachian Mountains. I’m not going to reveal anything about my identity because I’ve been told this is a morally shitty and possibly legally dubious thing to do and y’all know how the internet gets. Anyways, these journals belong to some guy who killed himself back in the 70’s. From what I gather, he was a professor at Syracuse University and specialized in woodland biology (specifically bats, specifically Eastern Pipistrelles).

I’m going to post these in chunks, because there’s kind of a lot to read here, and I don’t have the time, patience, or bandwidth to upload everything all at once. I’m also going to be cutting a lot of stuff out either because it’s boring or irrelevant, or it’s just scientific shit I can’t understand. I’ll do my best to make sure you get the gist of what’s going on

CHUNK ONE (4/27/2015)

SEPTEMBER 7th, 1974          

            Tim and I woke up early this morning and had breakfast at Denny’s. Lovely little joint, Denny’s. I had the most wonderful omelet! It had just the right amount of cheese (I was able to identify at least three different types, mozzarella, american, and cheddar). The ham was also cooked perfectly, crisp enough to provide a variance in texture, but not so crunchy it took away from the entire meal. [RN: I cut some of this part out because the guy spends way too long talking about his fucking omelet] I had such a pleasant breakfast experience, I had to get up and thank the chef directly, a young man who quite honestly looked like he’d rather jump in the fryer himself than spend another minute in that kitchen. I hope my compliment made his day a little more bearable! Tim seemed rather exasperated once we finally left, but I suppose he simply isn’t as enthusiastic about food as I am.

            We arrived at [RN: the name of the cave was scribbled over so much it ripped the page. Fucking creepy] just as the sun was peaking out. Though, we were in a valley, so the warmth was not shared with us, much to my disappointment. Tim didn’t seem to mind though, a true caver at heart. We chatted intermittently whilst getting ready to make our perilous descent into darkness. In all honesty I hate caves, I personally find the darkness suffocating, or, maybe that’s just the dankness. Oh the things I do for my research. Funny, how out of all the bat species that exist in the United States, I have to pick the ones that live in the darkest, most mildew-prevalent hellholes Mother Earth has to offer.

            Note: we decided to switch up the plan a bit, so while this is technicallyEX I, we’ll be using the EX II route, then go back for EX I tomorrow.

It took about an hour and a half to get down the first “dead drop” (DDI., or as I like to call it, “DD-Prime”) as Tim calls it. It’s an absolute behemoth of a completely vertical hole about 10ft wide, an easy fit. It took a bit to actually get to it, given the fact we had to cross some rather wide holes (apparently the entrance to DDII.). The rappel down was pretty standard at first, but about halfway down, the hole opened up into an absolutely massive cavern (Tim calls it “the stomach,” a rather fitting name in my opinion). Reaching the ground required an utterly terrifying amount of time suspended in mid-air. In the offshoot, we looked for bats and found none (drat). The climb back up was a little tricky, but we made it. It became trickier when I was instructed to swing myself in order to miss the small lake residing in the belly of…well…the stomach! I asked Tim if it was safe, and he said not to worry if I fall in, as the water is actually quite warm. Apparently the cave sits on some sort of geothermal heat source. I was dubious, but swung with all I had, landing on the VERY precarious ledge that separates the water from DDI.II. I overshot quite a bit and if it weren’t for the wooden platform Tim and his friends must have built, I surely would have fallen to my death! These dead drops are very adequately named! Tim then made his own way down, landing next to me with ease. We scanned the walls of The Stomach on the way down as well as from the ground, and despite the fact this area of the cave was very warm and humid, there were no bats to be found. Strange, as this would be another perfect roost! Alas, this is a big cave, and according to Tim, there are a few more places the little buggers could be hiding. Hopefully we’ll have better luck tomorrow. We’re going to eat and rest for a bit then head back up. I have no idea how that’s going to work, given the gold-medal-worthy gymnastics routine we had to perform to get down here in the first place! But Tim’s an expert, so I’ll reserve the escape route planning to him!

It took us a lot longer to get back out of The Stomach than it did getting in; though, I imagine it would have been a lot harder if we didn’t have the scaffolding-like construction Tim has down there. We monkeyed our way up before attacking the slippery stone wall. My heart was racing throughout the ascension. Even though Tim was leading the way, clipping our shared rope to the metal he had forced into the rock face, said rock face was inconceivably slippery. I noticed these deep, cup-like grooves carved into the wall. They somewhat resembled those handholds at a rock-climbing gym; though, they were carved in, instead of attached to the wall, and too far spaced apart for them to be deliberate. Besides, Tim says it’s a virgin cave, and hasn’t found much of any life at all aside from maybe your typical cave molds and fungi. Not much else happened, Tim’s wife made a wonderful beef stroganoff! [RN: cut this out because no one needs to know that much about his beef fucking stroganoff]

**UPDATE (4/30/2015)**

Hey everyone, sorry for the wait for part 2. I have a life, and that’s all I’ll say. He drew a map with plans for different days, but he scribbled all over it. I’m gonna have a friend try and restore it through photoshop, I’ll let you know how that goes. If anyone here is good at photoshop, let me know and I’ll send you a higher res picture.

Also, I feel like I should specify everything I’m posting is in journal 2 (it starts around page 10, everything before that is just boring shit about bats, planning for this “expedition” and stuff like that. Anyways, here’s part 2

CHUNK 2

SEPTEMBER 8TH, 1974

            The morning kicked off uneventfully. Today we’re going to explore the route for EXI. which will take us down through DD II and into the wetter parts of the cave system. Hopefully we’ll find some bats!

            We forwent Denny’s this morning. A shame, I was looking forward to trying their pancakes! They should be nothing short of divine if the eggs/bacon/potatoes are anything to go by. Oh well, perhaps I’ll have to make a trip on my own after dinner! My sister’s comparing me to a hobbit is becoming more and more evident each day. 

            DDII Is far more perilous than DDI! Though the drop itself isn’t nearly as vertical, there are so many little nooks and crannies one can mistakenly squeeze themselves into. Thank God for Tim, without him I’d surely be stuck in a hole somewhere down here! It took forever, but we finally reached as far as we can go, everything past here is completely submerged. No bats so far, but we have found something! Tim says it most likely comes from the flood-prone pond caves*. Now, I’m no botanist, but I do know what typical cave-florae look like. This plant is unlike anything I’ve ever seen. It’s black and somewhat flakey? Like shredded seaweed. It smells horrid, worse than bat guano! The smell doesn’t travel, one has to put the specimen quite close to the face and deliberately sniff it for the scent to be noticeable, but once you smell it, WOOOF. It’s odd though, usually, something so putrid can be noticed long before actually seeing it. Regardless, I have decided to take a sample and pray my equipment doesn’t end up smelling like death. Hopefully Grevin can analyze it for me upon my return to Syracuse.

                        *Tim says the whole cave system is prone to flooding should it rain enough, however, this would mean the water in The Stomach should be similar to that of the rest of the caverns. It isn’t. The water in The Stomach is very blue, and much clearer. In DDII the water is murky. I’ve taken a sample of the murky water and will take another sample of the clear water to compare in the lab. Also, according to Tim’s map, there are no fish in the pond. None. Perhaps minerals from the cave have made the water inhabitable? Yet another question for Grevin.

            Nothing else found today. It’s strange, there isn’t a trace of any Pipistrelle activity (or any activity of life in general besides some molds, fungus, and that strange plant). We found something though, so at least there’s that. I’ll see what Grevin has to say about the samples. It’s going to be hard waiting for the 21st. I feel like I’m leaving a puzzle only partially completed .

**UPDATE (5/2/2015)**

Hey everyone. I have good news, my buddy really came through on that map. Creepy shit. Here’s the link.

This is where things get crazy, so I’ll add some notes along the way.

CHUNK 3

SEPTEMBER 21ST, 1974

            The day is finally here! I left Syracuse yesterday and drove as fast as I could! I think the police noticed my enthusiasm because I got speeding ticket. Oh well. Tim’s wife made an excellent breakfast! She made the most wonderful pancakes (better than Denny’s) [RN: cut out the section of him yapping about pancakes] Today we’re going all the way down to ground zero (well, sub-ground zero). EXIII is going to be the most intense caving expedition I’ve ever been on. According to Tim, he has a little campsite down near DDIII’s midway point. We won’t have to bring anything down with us, because he said his buddy (who went down last Friday) left some stuff down there. The search for bats continues!

            It took less time than last to get to the pit of The Stomach. I made sure to grab a sample of the water as well. Right now, we’re taking a break and eating some beef jerky (made by Tim’s amazing wife). I never noticed just how deep the Stomach Pool is. There are stalagmites all throughout, but I can’t actually see the very bottom. Perhaps there’s another tunnel? There’s no gap in the stalagmites that would indicate such a thing, and Tim says it’s unlikely, but no one has actually checked. Apparently, it’s quite dangerous to try, so I suppose I can’t blame them.

            We finally made it to the campsite. On the final edge’s lip (the one right before the last slope before the campsite), our rope became ensnared on a particularly stubborn piece of rock. Both Tim and I were utterly exhausted, so it took far longer than it should have to free ourselves. I’ve never camped in a cave before. In fact, I actively avoid it. I love my bats, but caves are…creepy, to put it plainly. Regardless, we all but collapsed upon the sleeping mats. Both of us were covered in sweat and dirt. I was thankful for the breeze, until I realized we were in a cave where there had been no breeze moments prior. I asked Tim about it and he said it’s probably from “The Squeeze,” a small hole he and his friends had recently opened. Having never heard of this, I inquired further, but Tim said he would tell me more in the “morning.” I can’t blame him; I can barely hold the pencil I’m so wiped!

SEPTEMBER 22ND, 1974

            It turns out it is, in fact, morning. 5:45am to be exact. I’m surprisingly well-rested considering there was only a thin layer of foam between me and the cave floor. The uneven cave floor. Exhaustion will do that to you I suppose! Tim says this is the trickiest part of the route, as it’s very steep. Vertical, according to the map. The breeze hasn’t changed in intensity. Hopefully that will make our descent easier.

            DDIII.II was a lot easier than I anticipated. It turns out the breeze does help! We made it down the shaft in about two hours. At the bottom Tim went to inspect “The Squeeze,” and I went to inspect for bats. I found none, but I did find something even more interesting. On a slight slope, I saw some oddly colored rock peaking out from underneath the face. I took out my knife, and tried to pry away the outer layer. To my surprise, after a rather lackluster push, the whole thing crumbled. Thank God I was wearing a helmet, as more than a few pieces landed (and then crumbled) off my head. Tim was, understandably, just as shocked as I was. Though, the real surprise came when we saw what caught my eye in the first place. It was a painting, circular in design with what appeared to be a sun in the middle, and figures holding various weapons standing around it. Between the figures there were figures I assume to be birds of some kind, each with a varying number of feathers? It was the figure at the top of the circle that really had me intrigued. It stood a whole head taller than the others, but also sported a very large rack of antlers with three of those feather-like shapes between them. It was also holding something (a flare?) in each hand. The figure at the very bottom of the circle was also interesting, as it too had three feathers (no antlers) only they were blue, instead of black. It’s arms were also positioned above its head unlike the others. Each figure depicted had some sort of “aura” all red save the horned figure (who had a blue aura), and the bottom figure (who’s aura was outlined by a thin blue line). I immediately began to take pictures, but because of the questionable light sources, I decided to draw it as well just incase the photos didn’t turn out.

Tim was, for lack of a better term, in a frenzy. To be quite honest, so was I. It’s not every day one just happens upon potentially ancient cave art. I cannot wait to show this to Aveline, she’ll most likely die of excitement!

[RN: There was no camera in the box I found this stuff in so don’t ask for pictures.]

We debated whether or not we should take what we have and come back later or push through The Squeeze in search of an alternative exit. Tim argued that due to the proximity of the painting and The Squeeze, the two were probably connected. While this makes sense, it only makes sense if one doesn’t think about it with too much depth. The rational side of me wanted to leave the way we came, but the scientist in me couldn’t help but get riled up at the thought of discovering something new. Needless to say, the scientist won.

We tied our packs together and slid them single file through the opening. Once they were through, I tried my hand at “making the squeeze” as Tim puts it. It took me a lot longer than Tim and the equipment, but I made it (well, minus a fair bit of skin). The smell hit me before anything else. It was earthy, kind of like dead leaves. The breeze was also stronger here. The cavern wasn’t wide, but it was long. In the middle was yet another fantastically off-putting exhibit. Statues, man-sized statues. They were standing in a circle around a stone. A perfectly square stone, and I don’t use the word “perfectly” lightly. It truly was immaculate. There were eight “man statues” also of unimaginably flawless. Each man was so incredibly detailed, yet somehow generic at the same time. No two were the same, but they were all similar in the exact same way, almost akin to varying styles of mannequins in a clothing store. They were more like templates than actual people. I took pictures and made only a quick drawing, as only a camera could capture just what I was seeing.  

It just occurred to me that Tim and I haven’t spoken since The Squeeze. I’m not sure if it’s wonder, or unease causing the silence. Though, putting rationality aside, I think both of us are a little concerned of someone hearing us. Ever since we saw the statues, it’s like something has suddenly become aware of our trespassing. Despite the obvious tension, we pushed forward. It was like reading a really good book, you keep turning the page despite knowing you should probably stop and get on with your day. Your mind keeps saying “put it down” but your body just keeps turning the pages. We’ve made it beyond the chamber with the statues and are now sitting in another squeeze-like passage (though this one isn’t quite as tight as the original Squeeze).

Those seaweed-like plants. We resumed our trek through the passage but were stopped by the discovery of the plants. They smell just as bad as I remember.

            I thought the statues were amazing, but THIS takes the cake. We emerged from the second squeeze, into yet another chamber. Unlike the last, this one was very big and very well-lit. The room itself was perfectly square and made of what seems to be obsidian. It was warm. The stone itself was warm with a slight vibration to it? A hum? In the center of the room was an altar, carved out of the same substance. Half of the alter looked like a naturally formed stone, merged perfectly with the rest of the structure. It looked almost like a roman column with a sphere in the middle. There were no curves on the carved part of the alter. Every inch of the surface was made of completely straight edges, like a cut diamond. Directly above the alter was a perfectly square skylight? I don’t know where the light was coming from because it certainly wasn’t the sky. According to Tim’s map, we were underneath the always-flooded portions of the cave system. “Pondland” as Tim calls it. He also says Dave, the man responsible for charting the underwater portion of the map, has mentioned the water gets warmer the further down you go. Perhaps this strange rock this chamber is made of is responsible. On the wall behind the alter was another painting. It was far bigger than the last (floor to ceiling). I followed the same procedure. Photograph, draw, move forward. The smell was stronger, as was the breeze, alongside both Tim and my desire to leave.

            After making our way through another narrow passage, we entered the third chamber. It was bigger and natural in shape, also sporting a “skylight” and made of the same black stone. There was another pedestal towards the back, fashioned in the same way as the last. Behind the pedestal was another passage. As Tim turned to face the altar, and I was about to investigate what seemed to be another painting, that smell came back and in full. I hadn’t even realized it was gone, but now that I think about it, the breeze had also completely stopped while we were in the last passage. Only the smell returned, and it no longer smelled like fallen leaves, it smelled like decay. It was almost tangible, it invaded my nose, my eyes, making them water, I could taste it. It became hard to breathe. I was about to vomit, but Tim grabbed my arm. His hand was cold as ice, I looked towards him and his face was pale, lips tight, eyes locked on whatever he was facing.  I slowly turned to face what Tim was transfixed by, and to my horror, as I squinted through the faint light, I saw hands. Impossibly large hands with horrifically long, spindly fingers gripping the sides of the hole we had come from, arms disappearing behind the curtain-like darkness. We stood unmoving for only a moment longer before bolting for the passage behind the pedestal. The passage was narrow to begin with, but it became even more so the further along we stumbled. Whatever pursued us never made a sound, but every time I chanced a look back, I could see its hands, its arms, the smell never lessening in intensity. Our only saving grace was the fact this passage was relatively straight, with no sudden dips or inclines, but it was such a tight squeeze. My shirt was in tatters, my skin was ripped to shreds, and yet we kept running. Eventually we saw a sliver of daylight. Tim dropped his pack, before throwing himself towards the opening, his broad frame quickly becoming stuck, but that didn’t slow him down. He writhed between the rock, eventually forcing himself the rest of the way through, leaving a trail of skin and blood behind him. I didn’t even hesitate before following his lead. I had a far easier time wedging myself through, and thank God, because no sooner had I stumbled free, a spindly, disfigured hand landed where I had just been. Before I could even think about screaming, Tim grabbed my arm and yanked it hard, jarring me to action. He took off running once again and I followed.

[RN: This is pretty much the end of it. The rest of the journal is just kind of depressing if I’m being honest so I’m gonna leave it here. I have a buddy of mine looking into what happened so maybe there will be more to this but idk.]

[silveredcircuitry]

This is long but there's a tl;dr at the end.

So I messed with this in Krita (The setting there is under Settings > Configure Krita > Color Management, same name). I didn't find any desaturation in my less-than-scientific tests, but I'm on Windows and some others have said it's less pronounced there.

The Krita ICC Profiles Documentation has some information on what each of these options actually do. I'll summarize and add some notes here:

Perceptual squishes the color space of the work file into that of the format you're exporting to. This preserves differences between colours but will distort and desaturate colours if you're exporting into a more restricted space. I'm guessing that's what's happening here, and that different (sometimes really bad) handlings of colour space + exporting are the reason for this issue.

Absolute Colorimetric "will attempt to retain all the correct colors at whatever cost, which may result in awful looking colors." It sounds like it could work a bit better for converting back into the original space, but I think handling inbound images is a separate setting.

Relative Colorimetric is in between the two above, trying to match colours as much as possible without messing up the relative appearances as much. Sounds good but execution is likely to vary.

Saturation retains the saturation values as much as possible, but this can come at the expense of hue changing, meaning it's not optimal for refs either if your personal colour space export fuckery also affects hue.

My point here is, the Perceptual setting isn't necessarily the problem on its own. I'm far from an expert but I'd say it's more of an issue with exporting into a more restricted space and the program not being able to put the colours back to their original state when you import the image again. You're squishing it and the program doesn't stretch it out again because it probably doesn't know if the file was squished or how.

I'm not sure why you're getting such a restricted space when you export it. That's weird and not covered by this setting. The "Expression Color" setting you mentioned might be what's fixing this or it might be a deeper issue with the mix of settings only acting as a bandaid fix. It could be a matter of your device's display settings and the program factoring them into decisions when you don't want them to do that.

Discord and Toyhouse are another matter entirely. If you're getting desaturated images there it's probably due to how they're handling images on their servers and there's less you can do. I'm surprised Toyhouse would be doing it to a noticeable extent, given its purpose, so I suspect it loops back around to whatever's going on with your device. Especially if it's the exact same effect as with perceptual on.

If it's only happening on those sites and not some others, you might have a workaround. I don't know whether Toyhouse allows external links as the source of your images, but if it does you could upload the images elsewhere and include them through links and see if that helps. Otherwise you might be able to just export them even more saturated until it looks right on your target. With some tweaking you may be able to find a constant amount and add a layer that oversaturates it that much. This will be an issue if you hit the ceiling for colours.

If there aren't any sites that aren't fucking with the colours again it's probably stuff your computer is doing to it before uploading.

ALSO! I don't know your workflow but you probably shouldn't be recursively saving/exporting your reference images in general. That's piling on the colour space conversions and every other form of degradation you get from conversions. I'd recommend using a work file as a colour reference (as in, the type of file you do the drawing in, with layers and such) and sticking to one rather than picking from recent drawings. I HOPE the work file isn't being affected by all this because if it is you need an exorcist.

TL;DR:

Perceptual Setting isn't the only issue

Saturation isn't a perfect fix

THAT level of colour change is really weird

It's probably related to stuff on your device/display settings

Perceptual crushes the colours and your program isn't turning it back to its old state

Uploading to a host site that doesn't fuck with the image as much and linking to it might work, if there are any sites that aren't fucking with it.

If nothing else works, oversaturating it to get it about where you want it with the reductions might work.

Don't recursively convert/save/export refs. Use a work file for that or use a png but don't overwrite the png from anywhere other than the work file to prevent excessive degradation.

Hope something here helps you out. This is a really bad situation and I hope one way or another you find a workaround.

Just to make a point, every time I finished a panel of this I would export it as a PNG on the perceptual setting and use it as a color reference for the next panel

IT'S BAD

PLEASE CHECK YOUR COLOR SETTINGS

EDIT: If you're still having problems, it might help to switch from "Save/Save as" to "Export (as a) Single Layer". Just. Make SURE the box labeled "Expression Color" is set to RGB. I've been messing with this all day, and it looks like this combination of settings will allow exported PNGs to maintain their colors perfectly. To you. So far both Discord and Toyhouse still only display desaturated images and I cannot for the life of me figure out why

[pyroclastic727]

Owl House said fuck capitalism

So this episode was interesting. Lilith pretty much killed her sister. Why the fuck would she do that?

Even more interesting: why is Belos like that? How did Hooty put his head through one of those guards? Who the fuck is the Titan, and why does everyone like him? And how are these all tied together?

This episode was a metaphor for capitalism

...and another delicious step towards radicalizing the youth into dismantling this fucked-up neo-feudal system.

We’ll start with Belos. 

Emperor Belos is a weird name, don’t you think? We all thought it was spelled “Bellows,” but it wasn’t. In fact, it’s five letters, starts with Be, ends with os, and describes a megalomaniac emperor that restricts people’s freedom in order to accumulate wealth for himself.

Sound familiar?

Emperor Bezos Belos created capitalism. He saw the beauty of magic and decided to make himself the most powerful.

Belos created a system that destroys the masses and boosts his power.

 I’m dipping into fan theory a little, because the fan theory fits. We know that people get branded with coven magic that makes it so they can only specialize in one area. We know that Belos is the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles. We know that the excess magic, magic created by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

It’s the same system that many viewers see all the time. A job takes up all your day and tires you for the night, so you can only do one skill for the rest of your life. Jeff Bezos is the most powerful man in the United States. Excess money, money taken by restrictions, has to go somewhere.

The magic goes to Belos, like how the money goes to Bezos. Belos created capitalism, and he won it.

The guards aren’t real. 

Look, we’ve never seen their faces. They’re all the same. Why would you work so hard to get to the top, just to become a nameless, faceless killing machine?

Oh, also Hooty stuck his face through one. There is nothing under the armor.

Why? Well, it’s the same reason you see all those celebrities going around flaunting their wealth and bragging about how hard they worked. Like all those songs about how they grind every day and work harder than everyone else while you’re out clubbing, and that makes them dope. And then you take a closer look at them and see that they had a small loan of a million dollars fueling them, or an entire talent agency behind them, or their dad was a famous country star in the 80′s. 

They’re fake. They’re hollow. They’re a ploy created by the capitalist emperor to try to delude you into working harder. 

Let me put this into perspective. I guarantee that every single one of you has heard stuff like this: “Hard work makes you successful.” “I put in the work, and that’s why I’m successful.” “If you work hard enough, then you can be as successful as Mark Zuckerberg.” 

And unless you’re a robot or really lucky, I’m sure all of you have failed at this. Maybe they told you that hard work would make you good at math, so you spent 22 hours a week working on calculus, only to pass it by 3 percentage points and have it destroy your perfect 4.0 GPA. Maybe they told you that if you talked to people enough, then you would make friends, so you spent a lot of time talking to people, only to end up lonely and friendless. Maybe they told you that if you did well in school, you would get a good job, so you spent all your time working hard to be a good student, and then ended up in a soulless, dead-end job.

The guards are there to delude you. Look, who really gains from you being productive? The answer is the ruling class, the CEOs, the government, the bourgeoisie. It has always been that. All you get from working is a paycheck that lets you survive. They get a paycheck that lets them get rich. Just like Belos gets the magic and productivity of the specialized coven witches.

The guards are there to trick you. The truth is that nobody can join the Emperor’s Coven. It’s just there to make you think that hard work will make you successful. Then you spend your entire life working hard, trying to prove to the person in charge that you’re worthwhile. You give your whole life to the Coven, and they give you nothing. 

Magic is supposed to be something you pursue for fun. Being skilled at things, being good at something beautiful...that’s supposed to be something you do because you want to. But they took that and made it into a source of productivity. It doesn’t matter if you make good content. All people fucking care about is if you upload the day of premiere, if you make a lot of content quickly, if you maintain a million different conversations with strangers who expect you to be the most interesting person in the room. They don’t care how it hurts you. They don’t care how you crack from the stress. How you cry when you think no one can see you, and then you check your phone and someone can see you, someone did see you, and you have to put on your face and be the charming, magnetic person they want you to be. (oh by the way that’s why I wasn’t online much last week)

And it ruins it. Suddenly you can’t watch The Owl House without being stressed. You can’t make any content. You can’t make spells as powerfully as you want to. Your passion is replaced by perfectionism and insecurity, a voice telling you to keep being the best at what you do, or else they’ll forget you and let you die.

There’s also the Titan. 

So nobody has mentioned him before, because in addition to the Boiling Isles being a hellscape full of witchcraft and queerness, it’s also full of atheists. 

But suddenly we have people saying all this shit about him? Shit like, he gave witches the gift of magic, and then they learned to use it in a civilized manner, since being uncivilized was disrespectful?

I mean, first off, that’s fucking wrong. The island gives people magic. The island, which just so happened to be shaped like a titan-sized human. But the island/titan gives everyone all types of magic. Hell, even Luz gets to use magic, and she’s human. 

It sounds really fucking familiar. (tw for discussion of homophobia and colonialism and misogyny). It sounds like when the news is on and they show some Tr*mp supporter talking about how fetuses have more rights than people and it is their holy duty to take away a woman’s control over her body and force her through unbearable pain and into an 18-year commitment she didn’t want to make. It sounds like all the times people tried to say homosexuality should be illegal, citing a single line in a book written two thousand years ago and heavily edited by a European king. It sounds like all the times people said God wanted them to conquer, to own the entire earth, to force the other races into pain to support them.

This is that bullshit thing people do where they commit awful sins and justify it by citing the will of God. 

Or, it’s the Coven using religion as an excuse for evil.

Look, the Emperor’s Coven is clearly colonizer-coded. Saying that people’s original form of magic was wild (and showing a picture with the same joyous, rowdy energy of an 18th or 19th -century Black or indigenous party), and that it was God’s will for them to be “civilized?” Sounds like that thing that powerful white people did where they went and murdered people and forced them into their twisted capitalist system. God, gold, and glory, is what they said, because history books just love to omit the gore.

Lilith is passing the abuse cycle along. 

You know, like a good little colonizer. God I fucking hate her. She’s a MILF, in the sense that she’s a Mother I’d Like to Fling off a cliff. 

Ah, enough screaming about how much I want to drown Lilith in a tub of Hooty’s mucus. Let’s go into why I want to do that, and how she took the evils of capitalism and just...adopted those.

So, Lilith is sick and twisted for what she did to her sister. But, uhh, that’s the point. You see, there are so many other people out there like Lilith who would do the exact same thing, if given the chance. These are the people who do mean things when the teacher isn’t looking, and then act nice and try to frame you. These are the people who will hate you if you’re better than them. These are people who would do anything to bring you down, if you dare outperform them.

It’s greed, my friends. The mental illness that capitalism blesses us all with.

Lilith herself said it: she dedicated her entire life to the Coven. What she wanted was to be the best. And she almost was...except for her own sister. Someone who lived with her, annoyed her at home, bested her at school. Someone she could never beat, no matter how hard she worked. And her sister was younger than her, too! How insulting was that? Lilith wanted to be the best, and someone in her exact situation did better than her.

Lilith was insecure. And it consumed her.

But why? Why does insecurity consume her? I mean, no one can be motivated by insecurity forever. Well, not unless someone conditions it into you.

The lovely thing about the capitalist system is the morals it teaches you. Things like: “You’re only useful if you’re the best.” “Being school smart makes you smart, while being social smart or sports smart or creative smart or fandom smart is worthless.” “Your worth can be quantified by numbers and is based off arbitrary measures like your income or your grades.” Things that can and will drive us crazy if we let ourselves believe them.

And it did drive Lilith crazy. She got so twisted by a society that said being good at magic is her only worth. Look, Lilith used to be good at things, probably. She was good at sports. At times, she slips up and does an okay job of being Eda’s sister. She has a powerful presence when she’s in a room. And she’s wicked good at manipulating people. 

But that didn’t matter. Lilith bought into the lies. She let herself believe that magical skill was the only way to measure her worth. And since she needed to be the best, she hurt Eda for it.

The beautiful thing is, Eda didn’t buy that. "It’s my power, kid. And before you showed up, I spent my whole life wasting it.” Is what Eda said, as she used up the last of her power, the last of her life, to save Luz. In her final moments, she proved that she’s not like them. She’s stronger than them.

None of this matters. Not magical prowess. Not the hierarchy. Not the promise of joining the Coven and having more power than anyone else.

The only thing that matters to Eda is her family. Her real family. Her Luz, King, and Hooty. And by extension, Willow, Gus, and Amity. Those are Eda’s real reason for fighting, for dying: to protect them. Look, there’s no way she would’ve come out of that fight alive. She has a family, and her love for them is stronger than greed or jealousy or capitalism. 

Lilith never understood that. She thought the water of the womb was thicker than the blood of the covenant. Or, that the water of the womb and the blood of the covenant are stronger than the bonds of found family. She thought it didn’t matter if Eda loved, her, only if the Emperor loved her. Fucking bitch.

And now, a little something to worry about, before we go. Amity Blight. The girl who wanted to join the Emperor’s Coven more than anything, who dedicated her whole life to doing well in school, to being the best, to being perfect.

And then she met Luz. She fell for Luz. Now she’s in a tricky place, where habit and conditioning want her to join the Emperor’s Coven, but her heart wants her to do the impossible and destroy capitalism.

She wasn’t in this episode. Funny that being injured and unable to work ended up saving her from watching her future mother-in-law die. So she bought some time.

But Luz’s true mom is dead. This is the second mom she has lost, and she’s only fourteen. As powerful as King and Hooty are, Luz needs Amity. Luz needs Amity to support her and help her get back her mom.

So Amity has to make a choice. Fear and insecurity, or love and a high chance of death? 

She’ll probably choose death. Because that’s the message that this family-friendly show is giving us kids. Fuck capitalism. All you need in life is to do what makes you happy and be with the ones you love.

[whaleofatjme1920]

Seeing Him Smile and Kiss Someone Else (Hoodie X F!Reader)

[Hoodie/Brian Thomas X F!Reader]

[Warnings: none]

[AN: Howdy! I cross post these on quotev under ‘Elsie I Guess’ and on AO3 under ‘Whaletales1920′ under the title ‘The Places You Shouldn’t Be’. Just thought I’d start uploading them here too.]

Part 2

Proxies aren’t supposed to do a lot of things: speak back to their master, challenge hierarchical roles, have relationships with each other of that caliber, and never, never ever absolutely never have romantic relationships with humans. 

Why? It’s a losing game. Everyone knows that. Should proxies seek any kind of attachment, platonic, romantic, even sexual, their best bet is to stay within their own kind: other proxies. It’s the polite thing to do. It’s the right thing to do. 

When you first came in, you bonded almost immediately to your group of four other individuals. There’s Masky, your group leader. He’s really sweet when he wants to be and seems to care the most about you - it’s probably because you’re new. Toby is akin to the middle child. He’s always buzzing around you a lot like a bumblebee. While he has his jerk moments, he’s got an eye out for you. So too does Kate, once the group’s newbie/runt. She’s the one you replaced. She’s relatively quiet and sticks to herself, but she’s never a stranger to helping you out and immersing you in the culture and world you’ve found yourself entangled in. 

And then there’s Masky’s right hand, a proxy named Hoodie, but you know him as Brian. Out of all your group members, Brian was the hardest to warm up to. He hardly acknowledged you when you were first placed in his group and was amongst the hardest in the hazing process (you’re still technically going through). But, after some time and getting to know each other, the two of you became the closest of friends, even going so far as to rival Masky’s friendship with him. It’s safe to say you got a bit of a crush on him, in simplest terms. 

Three times. Three times you felt you liked him.

The first time was when you were about to head out of your safe house on a grocery run. Proxies don’t have any leads, so cards are absolutely off the table. You walked out of the safe house, yawning slightly, and barely made it down the driveway when Brian had popped back out of the house. 

“Reader,” he called out, slowly moving to lean in the doorway of the empty house the five of you were squatting in. 

“Yeah?” You asked sleepily. 

“Forgetting something?” He holds up his hand - it’s the wallet. 

You feel heat rush to your cheeks as you speed walked back to the front door to retrieve it. “Guess I’m still kinda tired,” you admittedly awkwardly with a small chuckle. 

Brian shrugged slightly and threw you a smirk as he met you halfway, “Think I’ll accompany you this morning,” he said with a wink. 

The two of you began to walk as you mentally mulled over the man walking beside you - his hands in his pockets. You’d never really thought of him like that before, but the way he smiled and that wink… It planted a seed. You weren’t quite sure you were going to acknowledge it or if it was just a fluke, but the thought stayed, and then it remained. 

As the two of you traversed the grocery store for various things your comrades had asked for, you and Brian traded conversation about everything that popped into mind. 

“Oh, like you knew any better in high school,” you wheezed before tossing in a box of brownies. You’d just been discussing how terrible and how gods awful high school relationships can be and how at one low point, you got into one. Brian had said he knew better than to mess around in high school, but you had retorted that ‘we’re all young and dumb once.’ 

Brian raised a brow at the box but allowed it anyway. “I most certainly did and I knew how things were gonna play out before they even happened.” 

“On what basis? It’s not like you have future vision,” You snorted. You watched as he pushed the cart forward as you plucked items you needed from the shelves. 

He shot you a look. “I’m a guy, it’s practically flowing through our veins,,” he said as his eyes raked over the list. “I’d most likely be the reason those things are happening to begin with and knowing that is like it’s own future vision..” He flashed his smile at you. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever grew out of the dumb part,” he chuckled. 

Your heart skipped. 

The second time you thought you liked him was when you were in the car with him, heading back to your safe house (in an entirely different part of the country). The two of you were more than exhausted after clearing a house whose occupants the Operator wanted dead for one reason or another and Brian decided to steal a car. So, there you sat in the passenger seat. 

“Something on your mind?” He hummed, arm resting on the console. His hazel colored eyes flicked over to you with interest. 

You shrugged, “just thinking.”

“Dangerous for people like us,” Brian chuckled. “Care to get specific?” 

You sighed slightly and turned your eyes to the passing street lights overhead as the car pulled onto the late night expressway. “Thinking about all the things I’ll miss,” you admit. 

Brian nodded from the corner of your eye. “I think about that stuff too,” he said, a small frown pulling onto his face. “You were finishing up college?” 

“Yeah,” you said. “I mean, I guess I’m getting out of the college loan debt but… Y’know,” you trailed off slightly, your posture changing slightly. “Maybe I would’ve been normal. Get a cool job, live a non murderous life, have a family and a loving partner. I don’t know, like, whatever the American dream says we should have. Anything but this.” 

Brian laughed slightly, “sorry. It’s not - it’s not you,” he explained. “It’s just awfully similar to what I wanted.” 

You turned your attention from the passing lights over to Brian. “White picket fence is your thing?” 

“More or less,” he hummed. “Wanted to live the rest of my life like a normal person.

Certainly died like one, more or less,” he finished. 

You mentally hummed, already knowing what he was referring to. Died and got resurrected. “Don’t think falling from a floor up counts as normal.” 

“Hey, it worked out for…. Something nice,” he quickly chirped. “Fell and met an angel.” 

He briefly turned his head to look at you and flashed a grin. 

“Oh that’s so bad.” 

“You love it.” 

You really do.  

The third time was when the two of you were on the rooftop of some house you’d been spending a lot of time at. It was kind of nice to be able to settle down in one place for more than a month - it’d been going on close to a  year. It was your roof, the one you shared with Brian. Late in the night, when the crickets sang and the stars danced, the two of you snuck up against Masky’s best wishes to talk about the world and life before. 

When summer was giving way to autumn and sending cool breezes throughout the night, you and Brian had been up there once again. 

“You think EJ will be around?” You asked, looking up at the stars you barely knew the names to. “BEN did say he was in the area.” 

“Gonna say yes,” Brian hummed back, momentarily pausing to point out Altair. “He’s always had a soft spot for our group,” he noted. “Why? You looking forward to seeing him?” He chuckled, hand reaching out to ruffle your hair. 

You laugh as quietly as you can and shake your head, “we’ve hardly ever spoken!” You giggled. “I just think he’s cool.”

Brian snorted in response and nodded, “yeah, I think so too. Though, where’d you get the opportunity to talk with BEN?” 

“There’s a little computer cafe in town,” you said, eyes flicking towards the direction of said cafe. “I’ve been spending a lot of time there. Mostly to use the internet,” you admitted, a slight heat coming to your cheeks. Proxies really aren’t supposed to use the internet. “Toby also sometimes tags along.” 

“So that’s where he’s been getting those weird references from,” Brian said with a tone of understanding. “Next time you go, let me know. I’d love to see what you children are up to online,” he teased. 

You laughed again and nodded, “sure thing.” 

The two of you continued to talk before a particularly hard gust of wind came in. On instinct, you shivered - though you weren’t really cold. 

Upon seeing you shiver, Brian took no hesitation in taking off his hoodie, much to your chagrin. 

“Oh, you don’t have to-” you began as you attempted to push it towards him. 

“I insist,” he had said, already popping the thing over you. 

You relented and allowed the giant hoodie to envelop your form like a warm hug. It smelled just like him - something woodsy, smoke, and the faintest of graphite. When you looked back at Brian, he was staring up at the stars, a small smile on his face. His eyes did not leave the inky blueish-black, not even when your hand came within millimeters of holding his. 

All it took was three times. Three times to know you liked him, and once to know you’d lost him. 

As stated before, it is absolutely a losing game to get involved with humans. Humans are frail and prone to panic. They can’t understand the world the way you do, nor are they suited for life the way you are in their current form. In your society, humans are the lowest of the low, akin to cattle - albeit, sentient cattle. Only when they are lifted from their human status are they finally given the time of day. 

He never would have known about her if you never brought up that computer cafe. Truly, it was a mistake on your part. You didn’t mean to, but it had happened anyway. 

“Cute place, right?” You smiled, eyes traveling up and down the rows of tables. 

“The cutest,” Brian agreed with a small chuckle. “Do we go up to a counter and order or..?” He trailed off slightly as he inspected the place and took in all the minor details. 

“Just take a seat, a waiter will be around shortly,” you said, immediately pulling him to your preferred spot by the windows and tucked away into the corner. 

Brian followed your lead and took a seat next to you where he immediately powered on the computer. “It’s kinda weird that they let us have food this close to the electronics, no?” 

“Oh no, it’s super weird,” you nodded as you began flicking open tabs to get to the things you wanted - maybe say hi to BEN. “But, it works. So like, c’est la vie?” You giggled, fingers moving quickly across the keyboard. 

A few moments later, a waitress stopped by. You had already managed to pull up a chat with BEN and were so engrossed in catching up with him that you failed to notice her. You hadn’t even recognized she was there until you heard her giggling at something Brian had said. 

“Never thought I’d be that star struck,” Brian had finished the small anecdote with eyes that practically sparkled. 

Her smile only widened. “You? The star struck kind?” She teased lightly. “Have to see it to believe it.” 

Brian looked up at her, his lips now pulled up into a smile. “You’re looking at it right now.” 

It pulled you so hard out of your conversation with BEN that you’d accidentally sent him a half-baked thought. “Wait what?” 

Your sound of confusion had snapped the two back into reality. “Oh! I’m sorry, sugar,” the waitress apologized with a slight blush rising to her cheeks. “Was there something I could get you?” 

You blinked a few times, your eyes darting between the two before finally managing to stammer out your drink and pastry of choice. You watched as Brian’s eyes followed her out and when she came back in. 

Long after the two of you had finished, the two of you decided to head back. 

“That was fun,” you said. 

“It was,” Brian replied, thoughts drifting elsewhere. 

Ever since that moment, he’d been going to the café with and without you. Sometimes you’d find yourself heading there only to see him entranced in conversation with the waitress, and when that happened, you turned right back around. At first it was to give them space, and then it was to give yourself space. 

You wished you could allow yourself to weather through this one with grace and that it didn’t bother you, that it didn’t get on your nerves, but it did. Slowly but surely, it had chipped away at some odd part of you that you didn’t even know existed prior to. 

Masky was the first to bring it up. 

“Reader,” he began. “Can you wrangle Hood from that café? Operator wants us to do something - I just need him,” he said, barely looking up from his newspaper. 

“I can go if you want,” you suggested before poking your head back out from the refrigerator. 

“Hm?” That got Masky’s attention. “Are you sure?” He raised his eyebrow, giving you an inquisitorial look. 

“It’s no big deal,” you said with a small smile as you plucked your drink out from the fridge. “Besides, I think Hoodie’s busy.” You had to fight the unpleasant feeling that bubbled up in your chest after you said that. 

“Oh,” Masky gave a hum of recognition. “Toby did mention he was getting a little close to someone there,” he said in passing. 

You shot Masky a look. 

He shot one back. 

Internally, you both know that’s not the best thing - but Masky’s not going to stop his best friend. And you know you won’t either. 

Kate mentioned it next, though she seemed to be telling you that you’d get  over it. It came relatively out of the blue. See, the two of you were standing in the living room of a house painted in blood just chatting, waiting for the Operator to give you direction on what he wanted for the man he wanted alive when Kate got weirdly serious. She sat down on the sofa and invited you to sit down next to her. 

“You can’t keep avoiding him like that,” she hummed, her shoe digging into the man’s chest as he wriggled beneath her step. “I know it’s awkward, but he’s your comrade first.” 

You rolled your eyes and lightly pushed at her. “Come on, it’s not that serious,” you said, attempting to play off your feelings that were so gods damn obvious throughout the time you’ve been spending in this area. 

“Are you kidding me?” Kate chuckled. “Look,” her hand is on your shoulder as she digs her heel into the man’s chest, cracking his ribs slightly. “It’s uncomfortable. I get that. It’s why we don’t… Do that kind of thing.” She rubbed her thumb in little circles on your shoulder as she grounded you. “It’s probably for the best, even though you can’t see it right now.” 

You sighed and gave her a look of slight pain. “You’re probably right.” 

“I know I’m right.”

It’s not that Toby is bad at reading a room, but it’s that he’s really bad at reading a room. When the two of you went to the computer café for your outing, he was excited to see the girl Brian was ‘seeing,’ as he somehow managed to miss her from every other precious visit. It was so obvious that they had been - her perfume was practically embedded into his skin now - and his smile was brighter than the sun after seeing her. 

And here you were, not even wanting to know her name. 

It’s Fiona. 

“Toby!” She greeted as she bounded up to your table. “Reader! What a nice surprise!” There was no malice in her tone. She was genuinely happy to see you. “What can I get you two today?” 

“C-Chocolate croissant and some h-h-hot chocolate please,” Toby said. He then turned to you, and as if he read your mind, gave her your order as well. “H-How have t-things been?” He asked. 

“Really good,” Fiona replied. “He’s such a sweetie, got me this necklace.” 

Your eyes immediately left the screen and travelled to her neck. There it was. Beautiful necklace. Silver chain with a hunk of rose quartz at the bottom in the shape of a bullet.You remembered seeing that pendant. It hung on his mirror for such a long time. You once overheard him saying to Kate how it was your possible birthday gift. 

“It’s so pretty,” you smiled, eyes not quite following. 

You were damn certain if you were suffering from hanahaki you would’ve choked on flowers by now and died. The last nail in the coffin? 

Now. Right now. You came back to the safe house just wanting to relax, maybe star gaze for a bit and fall asleep outside - anything and everything sounded better than just being alone in your thoughts after the Operator had some harsh words to say to you on account of your performance slipping ever so slightly from his golden standards. You fix yourself a warm mug of tea and start making yourway to the rooftop. It’s the same path you’ve always taken: head up the stairs to the upper floor, last room on the left side of the hall, go in and open the study windows there and hang out on the roof. 

You make sure to take careful steps as you ascend, not wanting to spill any of your carefully made tea as you seek to unwind. With a deep breath, you start making it through the hallway, thankful no one else is here. Masky is away on business, Kate is doing something with Jeff and Toby left a few hours ago to meet with someone he deems important. Come to think of it, you haven’t had the house free in a while. 

But, as you step closer and closer to the last room on the left, you hear it. Giggling, whispers, conversation that’s so innocent and intimate at the same time. You notice the study door is closed. It’s never closer. You step closer. 

“You’re so sweet,” That’s Fiona’s voice. “You don’t have to get me all these things - I don’t even know where I’m gonna wear all of them.” She giggles. 

“Wear a different one every time I come to see you.” That’s Brian. “Gonna be burning through those things like crazy.” You hear the sound of a kiss. 

“You got a deal,” Fiona chuckled. Another kiss. 

You hear the roof shingles move slightly as they move closer together. Against your better judgment, you push open the study door slightly. Must you be so nosy?

There, sitting on the roof outside the window is Fiona and Brian. She’s wearing his sweater (it’s just polyester) and giggling as he peppers her face in kisses. When she’s decided he’s covered her in enough kisses for an entire year, she presses her lips to his. 

He smiles before kissing her back just as fervently. 

Without a sound, you begin to head back to your room. 

Perhaps tea in your room would be better.