#maybe it's because I draw and I find images more exciting than words

[idaten-jump]

Are there any decent Idaten Jump fanfics out there?

Unfortunately I'm more of a meme-maker than a fic-reader, so I'm not too sure! ^^;;

But I see a lot more fics out there these days than there were back when I first got into the fandom, so I'll probably check some out and post an update if I do find some good ones!

In the meantime, you're always free to (re)read this accidental multi-authored "thread-fic" we wrote about Koei getting traumatised by kids' masks hahaha 😂👍

[isuckatwritingsobenice]

Thinking about…

Alastor and Bill Cipher after the same s/o (headcannons)

Hazbin Masterlist // Disney Masterlist // Navigation

Warnings: Obsessive behavior! Alastor being sadistic, Bill being a bit weird because duh, wrote this with Human form Bill Cipher in mind, mentions of death

A/N: I really like this dynamic, even though it’s kind of crazy and a lose lose situation for the reader, but it’s still interesting to write about. I hope you all enjoy!!

Alastor

• Alastor isn’t just charming; he’s obsessed with making you see him as the ultimate catch. He meticulously plans every interaction, ensuring that you are always impressed and feel valued. Every compliment and gesture is calculated to win your heart.

“Why there’s that smile I love to see my dear! Ever the beauty!”

Alastor can’t stand the thought of you being attracted to anyone else, especially Bill. He tries to mask his jealousy with his usual grace and horribly timed jokes, but it’s evident in the subtle digs he takes at Bill whenever you mention him.

When Alastor is alone with you he’s not above grand, romantic gestures. Picture him serenading you with an old-fashioned love song or setting up a beautiful, intimate dinner where he pours out his feelings and tries to convince you that he’s the best choice for a partner and way better than bill in all aspects of the word.

Alastor’s affection for you is deeply strategic. He genuinely cares, but he’s also careful in how he shows it. He’ll often try to subtly make you see how a relationship with him would be beneficial, not just for personal pleasure but for gaining power and influence. He’s a very strong man and his image is important, what’s not to want about him?

“Don’t you love this view dear? We could be here all the time, if you wished.”

Alastor envisions a future where you are by his side, helping him dominate Hell. His feelings are not just about the present but about creating a powerful, enduring relationship. He dreams of ruling Hell together, and he’s willing to go to great lengths to make that vision a reality.

But not all things with Alastor are good, you know how much he HATESSSS modern technology and well, it’s how the world runs now. this is something Bill definitely used against him

“Don’t get intimated by a big screen deer man!”

Though he hates how Bills joke makes you laugh, his smile tightens nonetheless

Alastor will often put doubts into your mind about Bill. He is partially right, so it does make you wonder…

“What if he were to suddenly get tired of you? My dear, he’s traveled galaxies and destroyed universes. You wouldn’t want to be subject to that would you?”

or maybe something like,

“That little shape is no better than a toddler. He can’t even take proper care of his toys, breaking them when he gets bored. How pitiful.”

Bill Cipher

Bill is intensely infatuated with you. His feelings might come across as chaotic and erratic, per usual, but underneath, he’s deeply drawn to your spirit and individuality. He finds your uniqueness thrilling and wants to be the one to make your life as unpredictable and exciting as possible.

“ Wanna see this guy dance with his eyes hanging out of his sockets? Gotta tell ya’ you’ll never see anything like it ever!”

Bill’s way of showing affection is through wild and flirtatious chaos. He might sweep you into a whirlwind of bizarre, fantastical experiences, always with an underlying flirtation that makes it clear he’s very interested in you.

Bill knows how to push Alastor’s buttons. He often uses his chaotic antics to draw your attention away from Alastor, playfully teasing him and making a show of his own appeal. For Bill, it’s not just about romance; it’s about proving he’s the more exciting option, you’ll never be bored of him!

Despite his chaotic nature, Bill genuinely wants a deep connection with you, even if he does have a weird way of being about it. He’s drawn to your complexity and wants to show you that his brand of chaos can be both thrilling and deeply meaningful. He might surprise you with moments of surprising sincerity.

Bill is not afraid to take big risks to win you over. He’s willing to gamble with the very fabric of reality just to create memorable moments. His love is unpredictable and intense, and he hopes you will find that thrilling rather than overwhelming.

Bill is the type of guy to take you to a different reality for a date, wanna go watch marshans fight? no problem! upset about something? let’s go to this dimension where you can blow anything up!

He’s definitely got jokes though, and he’s good at them too

“Hey furry, why don’t you cut that loose part of your hair? OH wait, it’s your EARS!”

Bill is no fool though, he sees EVERYTHING, so it’s really difficult to hide things from him, which means being with him also means you losing your privacy.

“He’s a sociopath dove, you can’t really believe that radio freak actually likes you right?”

He isn’t wrong, Alastor has proven multiple times he keeps people around because he needs them for something, and Bill loves this

“What if you don’t satisfy him? What if he decides you’re not worth being with?”

or maybe he’ll say

“ You never know dove, what if he’s just after your soul? Maybe he likes the fact you put up a good fight, eh?”

Both demons have their crazies to them. Picking Alastor means Bill might destroy your dimension and maybe rearrange his molecules. But picking Bill means watching Alastor rip hell to shreds at your expense, hurting anyone and everyone to get you, maybe even threatening whoever you love.

Dating Alastor means you can kind of live a normal-ish life

Dating Bill means you keep your dimension

[mintytealfox]

Hey.... hoi.... do you have any hurt/comfort headcanons for Norton and Alice?

OOOHH yes yes yes yes yes yes yeeesssss ;; I have MANY and they are LONG when covering BOTH sides so I will keep it to categories and just one at a time lol XD Unless yall want an actual NOVEL PFF

SO FOR THIS ROUND:

ARGUMENTS

Arguments have been on my mind recently for some reason and every relationship (friendships, lovers, familial, etc) has them cause feelings can get hurt regardless of intentions and apologies need to be offered. Some things that would normally fly might suddenly be taken wrongly on a bad day ;; which can cause confusion and hurt on both sides which then turns into an argument, that then turns into something that needs to be fixed properly.

SO

I think Norton would be a little more prone to take things the wrong way at times, while Alice has a more 'benefit of the doubt' mindset. But I have a difficult time picturing Alice saying anything that he would perceive as a jab. So I think it would be more along the lines of Alice extending that 'benefit of the doubt' mindset towards someone that Norton thinks has wronged him, (like calling him something or referring him as something that Norton takes as a slight).

Norton: "I can't believe you are taking his side??" Alice: "I am not taking his side, I am just saying that maybe what was said was taken wrongly...they didn't seem like someone who would say something like that" Norton: "??? So you aren't trusting my judgement in this??" Alice: "Its not like that, at all!" Norton: "?? What is it then?? Is my judgement wrong here too?? Have I just been wrong my entire life then??? Does my judgment not count cause I have been poor most of my life??"

And just blowing it up more than it should. Like, him not overly caring about the slight initially but wanted to bring it up to Alice hoping she would be like "that is nonsense, you aren't like that at all" only to hear, "well, what if that wasn't what they meant?" This surprising him and confusing him to the point that it now hurts for some reason he doesn't fully get why.

But his reaction might stun lock Alice and she won't notice right away that he is hurt and her saying 'that probably isn't what they meant' instead of 'oh don't worry, you aren't like that' and not shutting it down, now accidentally making his mind reel with "Am I actually like that?? She didn't deny it"

And this resulting in him needing some air and this alone time giving them a moment to figure out what the frick just happened and Alice able to analyze it in her head and then hurry over to Norton and put to words what his mind can't yet cause she is quicker with the draw in putting stuff to words.

But getting them in a situation where they are both heard and reassured they are on each other's sides would give them an opportunity to hug and apologize for hurt feelings and lashing out.

The image of them holding each other and Norton is resting his head on top of hers as they talk

Alice: "I am sorry, I didn't realize you were looking for validation.." Norton: "that isn't on you...I didn't know that was what I was looking for and put you in a bad spot....I want to protect you not put you in sour positions..." Alice: "you're allowed to get your feelings hurt, even when its me that is accidently doing it.." Norton: "I'm sorry.."

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

Now for Alice getting upset with Norton hmmmmmm

Ooooh her getting furious with him for keeping secrets from her about something that is hurting him or along those lines!

Like she had to leave for a month for a story and Norton couldn't go for some reason he made up but it was because he felt like something was wrong with him health wise and didn't want to slow her down.

So she doesn't find out until almost a month later that Norton has been sick for almost that entire time at home and didn't write a word about it in his letters to her. oooooh the pain she would feel ;;

Like she comes home like a half a week early and excited to show Norton only to find him in bed and his breathing sounds awful. This prompting her to drop everything and run to him feeling his fever and grabbing a cloth to wipe the sweat away from his face.

Alice: "how long have you been like this??" Norton: "not long..." Alice: "How long have you been sick????" Norton: "...what day did you leave...?"

Boi once she gets help and knows Norton is on the mend he is gonna get the tongue lashing of a LIFETIME

Just Alice SOBBING as she lays in bed next to him "how DARE you not tell me about this! You NEED to tell me these things so I can make a decision! You made the choice for me by not telling ME! How could you DO THIS to ME?? WHAT IF YOU DIED AND I WAS GONE??"

And Norton realizing he effed up on this one, just listens as she gets all this out. Once she is out of words, he turns on his side to face her and just pulls her into a tight hug and holds her to him

Norton: "I think it is safe to say....that we both agree that I did poorly this time.....I'm sorry.....I should have told you...and let you choose..." Alice: "promise me this won't happen again" -voice muffled cause her face is buried in his chest- Norton: "yea...I promise."

[psshaw]

You have been one of the most unapologetically yourself artists Ive come across and I dont mean that in the cliche way I mean like... your idiosyncrasies seem particularly unstifled. Your art is purely yourself and the mainstream isnt gonna go for it but the audience you do speak to gets to feel like an alien finding someone else from their homeland. AI image gen feels like a beautiful cake with flowery frosting and when you cut into it its actually frosting all the way down and has nothing of substance. I obviously can speak only in metaphors lol so I just wanted to say I appreciate reading your thoughts on AI and tho I feel strongly abt it I have a hard time putting exacting words to what about it is so worrying to me. As an artist it energizes me when I see artists who are wildly unique and expressing themselves without a care to their skill limitations or personal strangenesses (read: mainstream unmarketability). Manga artist ONE and his charming and funky style is a great example. Anyway I love your thoughts and wanted to say thanks and also throw words at you

FUCKIGN DAMN DUDE, ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE ME CRY? Why is the weather getting misty on my face specifically. Thank you. My most contentious trait is that I keep forgetting to care what people want from me.

It's really interesting following people who are very honest but more mathy than me, because the way they talk about art and AI lately has gotten... increasingly callous. Even bitter. It's partly justified, because artists tend to suck at defending themselves charismatically. ("AI art isn't real art"; the "AI can't do hands" thing was always destined to age badly) But also, I can't stand the sheer selfishness of people who claim to be rational but don't seem know how to investigate what art at its best is for and why they view it the way they do. When I read "AI is great for hobbyists" I'm like. 95% of the time, I'M A HOBBYIST... I would never generate a script, or music... javascript maybe, but I'd feel guilty about it... but the excitement? I think some guys are just looking to suckle on a feeding tube. Cos they were done a disservice by thinking they had to stop visual art after fingerpainting!

I don't think AI NEVER has substance, but the type of person who gets excited about AI doesn't tend to do interesting things with it. And what really bothers me is that I can never tell exactly WHAT they did, versus how much was a coin flip. This is useless for understanding your voice as an artist. I don't care to see more by you.

ONE is a perfect example. His style MAKES that story. The manga and the anime feel so different. That's why I hate when people say that hating AI is discriminating against people who can't draw, cos like... if you can't make something intentional and real without using what's functionally a search engine, why would I believe you're having ideas worth the cliche conceptartdotcom overrendered AI polish at all? Not to be a dick, but like. In terms of rate of return on my attention investment, so far I'd do better by sitting at a craps table.

[jadeee]

The Cat in the Copy Room

Word Count: 750

Warnings: It's mild imo but after typing it out, I'm slapping a MDNI on it just to be safe.

Author's Note: Inspired by this ramble from @daisynik7! I just couldn't stop thinking about what would happen next.

More Coworker!Nanami: @mahirublue @sirens-singing @nanami-s-sunshine @goddessinsweats @slimlydan @imnotsureaboutwhatimdoing

No. He wouldn't do it. He told himself he wouldn't entertain whatever childish games you wanted to play today. As a matter of fact, he thought about giving you the silent treatment. It would make him a hypocrite, since the act was childish, but he had to draw the line somewhere. This game of cat and mouse was getting old. Irritating and stale. So when he walked into the office, he forced himself not to glance in your direction. A hint of a satisfied smirk showed on his face as he saw you look at him. 

The minutes went by; it was nearly noon but it wasn't over yet. 

Even though his back was turned, he knew you were walking toward him because of your scent. God, he hated how lovesick he was for you.

"What?" he didn't turn around for two reasons:

1. You still hadn't learned your lesson.

2. He couldn't look you in the eye.

Although he didn't greet you that morning, he caught a glimpse when you weren't looking and you were prettier than usual. Maybe it was his mind playing tricks on him because he thought of you over the weekend...

"I need your help in the copy room,"

He faced you only so he could see the look on your face as you lied.

"I can't reach the top shelf."

"So use the step ladder." the skin between his brows creased.

"I can't find it."

There was a brief pause before he finally said "Fine." 

He led the way without saying another word and once you two were alone, you locked the door. Nanami was too busy scanning the top shelves to grab whatever it was that you so urgently needed. With each step you took toward him, your heart beat faster.

"Y'know if you wanted m-"

Your fingertips pulled at his tie. The sudden movement caught him by surprise but not as much as the feel of your lips against his. In a few seconds, he grew familiar to it all. His lovesick heart melted in his chest as he cradled your head in his hands. When you tried to pull back to catch your breath, he drew you in deeper and pushed his tongue into your mouth. The sound of your moan ... oh, his heart. He lifted you onto the printer as it whirred on.

"You just couldn't wait, could you?" he teased in between kisses.

The feel of his hand kneading at your hips and thighs made you hot in so many ways. He wished you hadn't worn slacks just so he could feel how worked up you were. But you did him a favor when you wrapped your legs around him and closed the gap between you. How many layers were between you then? When your hand brushed against the bulge in his pants, it felt like there weren't any layers or barriers. 

The doorknob jiggled and you swore softly against his lips. What you two were doing, it was somewhat sordid, but it was sweet in that moment. He pulled back when you swore again then he noticed images being printed from the copier of his hands on your butt. 

You frantically clutched them to your chest then looked at him with wide eyes when the doorknob jiggled again.

"Are you gonna help me?!" you asked in a hushed tone.

Nanami peered down at you as he locked you between his arms, "Are you still playing with me?" he savored this moment and how you looked at him with a mix of adoration, fear, and excitement. "I asked you a question."

Your breath hitched. The doorknob jiggled again, this time accompanied by impatient shouts.

Nanami opened the door "The printer was jammed but it's fixed now."

You gave your coworker a fake smile as you pressed the papers to your chest, "It's all thanks to Nanami."

Before anyone could say anything else, you started to walk down the hall with Nanami catching up behind you.

"Let me take care of those," he reached for the risqué images you held tightly in your hands "don't worry, I'll shred them."

You handed him the stack of papers, "Just let me know when they're gone, please."

He nodded then tucked them under his arm "I'll pick you up tomorrow at 8."

Epilogue:

Nanami shredded the copies like he said he would but he did keep one for himself. You've been together for a while now and he still hasn't told you about it.

Author's Note: "I asked you a question" → I would've shut down, started stammering, looking at the floor, and everything. Imagine that scene without the interruption though 👀 ...ugh... I absolutely love everything about this.

p.s.: i'd like to think that he teases you relentlessly on that first date. some light flirting at first but then his hands travel too low, he makes a habit of leaning in close enough for you to smell his aftershave and he mentions craving dessert before kissing you hungrily. please, come inside. he does bite but he'll be gentle about it, darling. don't you worry. he'll leave marks where they won't see. it'll be your little secret... don't be shy! this is what you wanted.. right?

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Magic: Return of the Asspull

So the word on Twitter is that there have been leaked reports of a new anime called "Dragon Ball Magic". I'm pretty sure it's all made-up bullshit, but I remember thinking Dragon Ball Super was a pipe dream too, and here we are. So I may as well discuss the topic here.

The whole thing comes across like a modern day Dragon Ball AF, where there seems to be a lot more emphasis on hype and speculation than tangible evidence. For example, there's a twitter account dedicated to gathering all the information available about the new series, but all it really does is amplify rumors and fanworks. When I search for the title on Twitter I mostly get skeptics making fun of the idea, or true believers talking about the show as if it were objective fact. Like AF, there's a lot of excitement but no clear picture of what the the thing actually is. The only real consensus I can find is the following:

Dragon Ball Magic will feature the Supreme Kai

Goku will be turned into a child, just like in Dragon Ball GT

Geekdom101 talked about this once, so that means it must be real.

And that's why I led off with the screenshot of the tail-yanking scene from GT, because I was trying to find an appropriate image of GT Goku and the Supreme Kai, and... yeah, that's it.

The more I think about it, the more this feels like something an internet troll would come up with. Like, someone started with the stupidest moment in the worst Dragon Ball series ever, and built a rumor around it. Oh, and also the rumor namedrops Geekdom101, just to make it extra absurd. It's the sort of thing gullible people would flock to while everyone in on the joke would have a laugh over it.

I don't know enough about Geekdom101 to insult him properly, but I'm like 90% sure he's an asshole. Back when Twitter actually worked properly, I'd see his name trending and there'd be a bunch of people in the fandom going "Dammit, what's he done this time?" Does he have inside sources in the anime industry? I dunno, maybe he does, but I think he's got a credibility problem. I mean, he calls himself "Geekdom101", and his avatar is Golden Frieza with a pair of glasses and holding a lightsaber. His YouTube videos look like a clickbait parody, with things like "Kai-o-ken EXPLAINED" and "WHAT WE KNOW SO FAR". Also plenty of what-if and who-would-win videos.

I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest that maybe this is a guy who makes a decent living off his fandom channel, and when there's not much going on, he'll cobble together a story just to keep the conversation going and draw more attention to his videos. Which... I mean, if that's profitable, so be it, but if Geekdom told me water was wet I'd want to double-check for myself.

As to the rest, even if Toei was really planning something like DB Magic, there's no guarantee they'd actually follow through with it. Plans change, and even if this were 100% legit, it means nothing without an official confirmation and a release date. That "Superman Lives!" movie with Nic Cage was a real thing... right until it wasn't.

But I find the concept too vague and too specific all at once. Like, okay, it's Supreme Kai and a de-aged Goku. Why them in particular? What are they going to do? It just feels like something someone made up to get a reaction from the fans. GT likers are supposed to get all excited or defensive about a potential GT reboot, and other fans are supposed to get upset that the Supreme Kai got the lead instead of their favorite C-lister.

Compare this to the early reveals for DBS: Superhero. Toei teased a few details, and gradually it became clear that the Red Ribbon Army was back somehow, and maybe there were some new androids, and there was a lot about Piccolo and Gohan, so it seemed like they'd be a big part of the story. It wasn't a complete picture, but it made sense from a promotional standpoint. People were more concerned with the CG animation than any of the characters or plot.

I mean, anyone can come up with this stuff. I mean, my uncle works for Nintendo, and he told me that the next anime is going to be called Dragon Ball Snazzy, and it'll be about Vegeta and 18 starting up a private detective agency. Or... I don't know, Dragon Ball Jazz, which is a prequel series featuring a young Dr. Brief and Gine as secret agents. Wait, how about Dragon Ball Spatula, starring Elder Guru and Launch as they explore the multiverse!

And you know, I'd probably watch any of these shows. Hell, I sat through GT, and it was awful! The bar's pretty low when it comes to making a Dragon Ball project that I'm willing to try out. But people have been clamoring for Dragon Ball Super II ever since the first series went off the air in 2018, and that was years ago. This Dragon Ball Magic business just sounds like the same old empty hype with a fresh coat of paint.

Or maybe the whole thing is real, but my advice is: Don't get your hopes up. Life's too short to get worked up over things that might never happen. If it actually comes to pass, then it'll still be just as much fun whether you believed it ahead of time or not.

[froggyphycosis]

Sleepless nights and something handcrafted

Fic based on a headcannon by @turtleblogatlast which is here (might contain spoilers so I'll link it at the end aswell if you want to read it after)

Summary

Pretty much all of Leo's comics are destroyed from the Kraang and Shredder so he has to read them all digitally. Mikey finds out and does somthing about it.

5899 words

Uhhhhh tw's and cw's real qiuck

Swearing

panic attacks

Nightmares

Implied/refferences to death (in a dream though nothing serious or majorly descriptive)

And characters being in pain

Eughhhh that sounds bad but I swear this fic is hurt/COMFORT so

(if there's anything in forgetting to tag let me know please!!)

______________________________

It's quiet, and calm.

Its reached that rare lull in the lair where everyone is off to do there own thing peacfully without another brother to cause chaos or niose along with them.

And suddenly, (and not at all surprisingly) Mikey finds himself bored, lying in his hammock and to tired to do anything and lonely without the immediate proximity to one of his older brothers.

It's an achievement if anything, it's the first time since the invasion that there hasn't been anything to do, no medical checkups to take care of, no panic attacks to be had... Just peace.

No one is actively dying, the chores are done, hes already cooked dinner (dad had even joined them aswell! He'd been doing that more often since the invasion, it warmed Mikey up a little on the inside he liked it when dad ate dinner with them and secretly hopes he keeps doing it).

So what does Mikey do then? he already knows he's gonna seek out one of his brothers, but who....

Well Donnie is busy in his lab right now using really loud machinery, and as much as Mikey *loves* sitting and drawing in the lab with him, it would be to loud to concentrate on anything.

He could go and hangout with Raph.... but he's training, trying incredibly hard to acclimate to the lack of sight in his right eye, and Mikey doesn't want to interrupt that.

So that means.... he can hang out with Leo!

Great! The portal duo for the win! He thinks triumphantly. Mikey can't think of anything that Leo could be doing right now. He knows that Leo isn't out with Usagi, since he went out with him before dinner, and he probably wouldn't have gone to April's without texting the group chat first...

So he's definitely free!

Mikey hops up from his hammock with more excitement than is probably necessary, and skips his way to Leo's room.

"LEO!" he shouts, slamming the door open with his foot, and happily watching as Leo jumps out of his shell.

"FU-JESUS Mike what in the all living HELL do you want??"

"Company!"

"The fuck do you mean company??"

"I'm like, reaaaaaaaaal bored right now, so I need a sibling to fill that void! And I'm obviously picking you!" he doesn't move from where he's standing, because if Leo is actually doing something he doesn't want to be interrupted from, Mikey will leave.

But just as he thought, (and maybe kind of planned) Leo rolls his eyes affectionately, switches his tablet to one hand and holds out his arm, Mikey doesn't need anymore encouragement than that, he dives into the bed and cuddles himself right up into Leos side.

"Sooooooo what'cha doin?"

"Reading comics," he snorts.

Mikey pauses, looking around the bed,"What where? thought you were doing somthing with your tablet?"

"Yeah I was I'm reading them on digital." Leo lifts up the screen, and holds it out in front of him, Mikey can see the grainy image of one of Leo's favourite JJ comics. "they all got destroyed remember? And I couldn't buy them so I just read them on here."

Mikey's stomach drops.

Oh crap, he had completely forgotten most of Leos comics were *destroyed*. He glances over at the corner of the room, where sure enough, a heap of his old comics were laying in a pile, destroyed beyond repair.

"Oh Leo.... I am so sorry, I had completely forgotten about your comics that must be awful," Mikey sinks a little feeling bad for even having come into the room now "sorry for bringing it up."

"W-what Mike's it's fine it doesn't even matter! I'm not upset really!" Leo looks midly shocked and a little guilty, which is stupid because Mikey brought it up.

He chucks the tablet to the side nonchalantly, rolling his eyes "Its fine! I don't even really read comics that much anymore ya know??" he smiles nervously.

Yeah, because you don't have any, is what Mikey wants to say, but he very patiently keeps his mouth shut.

Mikey knows he's lying, he can see it, he's far more perceptive than his brothers are. He can see the way Leo's eyes get a little bit shinier,the way his brow creases and he avoids Mikey's eye contact like it's the plague.

And the box turtle's heart sinks.

It's not okay, *it's not*, all of his old comics that are still intact enough to keep, but not enough to read, are piled up in the corner, a constant reminder of lost childhood.

It makes *Mikey* want to cry looking at it, he can't imagine what it must feel like for Leo to look at it every night.

Mikey doesn't push Leo on the subject, they end up going to play animal crossing with Dee instead but it doesn't leave Mikey's head for an instant, bugging him like and itch at the back of his skill that he can't itch.

He's going to find a way to fix this, even if he has to walk across a mile of broken glass to do so.

________________________________

Mikey doesn't sleep that night, even if his body is exhausted, (even months later his body still feels drained from opening that portal).

He probably shouldn't be awake, they did all agree on set sleeping times, or at least lying-down-and-trying-to sleep-times the name was a work in progress.

And he might be a little hypocritical for not following that since it was his idea-But! In his defense, he was on an important mission! So it was like totally 100% fine.

He was trying to find copies of jupiter Jim comics for Leo, because he was obviously sad about it, even though he wouldn't admit it. And Mikey was *officially*, the worst little brother in the entire whole wide universe, if he'd didn't *try* and do somthing about it.

So that's what he was doing obviously.

Leo was the bravest person he knew. He had been through hell and back for his family, and even the world, for people he didn't know.

He was an incredible big brother, and leader, and Mikey decided this was his way to give back just a fraction of that kindness in return.

Then again.... the universe seemed pretty against him right now, blessing him with the lack of any physical copies, of any kind of jj comics, on the entire internet.

Mikey spent the whole night, scouring the internet, and using every website he could think of to find them, but alas, not a trace. Dammit, why couldn't dad have found really well known dvds and comics thrown away in the sewers for Leo's and Donnie's birthday? This situation would have been so much easier.

Maybe like Harry Potter, or something, he wonders how much different their life would be if that ever happened, maybe Dee would've believed in magic sooner. (he makes himself snort with that one).

It takes him 5 hours before he finally stops and decides to throw in the towel, he's going to have to quit, there isn't anything anywhere. Which just sucks, because Mikey hates losing, and hates giving up on anything even more, but he closes the laptop down anyway with a sigh, and shuffles down into a more comfortable position.

He glances at the clock across the room, and eughh boyyy.... Well it's 7 o'clock, so he's going to have to get up in 10 minutes to make breakfast.

He stayed awake all night.

Whoops.

Stupid vintage comics he thinks darkly.

He'll have to go up topside to try and find some in a comic book shop tommorow he thinks as he finally let's his exhaustion give in and closes his eyes.

_____________________________

"UGHHHHHHHH," Mikey groaned loudly, dropping the comics in his now 5 fingered hands. His loud outburst garnering several odd looks from the staff and other shoppers in the store.

"April they have to be somwhere right??"

Casey and April both glanced at eachother, and then over at him sympathetically.

"Look Mikey..." April starts, before CJ pipes up next to her, having resumed flicking through the comics.

"Mikey, we have been to almost every comic shop in new York, big and small i mean this as politghtly as possible, I don't think we can get Leo's comics back." he looks at Mikey softly, "I'm sure he would appreciate the effort though."

He couldn't help but diflate at that, he's failed *again*, he's failed Leo....

April walked around the box, and pulled him into a hug that he happily buried himself into, and Casey, in a rare show of public affection, joins aswell.

But when he finally pulls apart and swipes an orange sleeve over his eyes, he suddenly gets a plan so cool, so ultimately awsome and incredibly smart that even *Leo* would be jealous.

"Okay, guys, I think i know what i need to do," he looked up at April and gave her the most mischievous grin he could offer "I think we're gonna need to take a trip to the art store."

"ohhohohohono what does that look mean?? What are you up to?" she squinted at him hands planted on hips

"hush now april," Casey places a hand on her shoulder, and the other on his heart "that look can only mean great things," he grinned "so Mikes where we heading?"

______________________________

Leo hopped across the platform over to Mike's train cart, his leg was acting up today much to his own dismay, not so bad to tell anyone though.... Just bad enough that walking was a little inconvenient, he probably didn't need any meds to be honest, he should be fine.

He gets to the door of the train cart and slams it to the side as hard as he can, (payback for the other day) it bangs when it hits the frame.

"Ohhhhhh Miguelllll!!!"

He gets sight of Mikey staring at his tablet, (it's almost a mirror of April without her glasses Leo thinks with a smile) before he slams his sketchbook closed, and shoves everything within arms reach off his desk, Leo has already been there a few seconds watching this unfold.

Okayyyy....That was....Odd...

"ohhhhhh hey Leoooo...," Mikey smiled nervously, hands tapping against his plastron. It's a stim he's had since was a tot, "so ummmm what are you doing in my room?"

"nothinnnnng.... So what were you drawing?" he glanced down at the sketchbook that had been shoved on the floor, still open, he could only make out the faint sketches of boxes and nothing else, before Mikey slammed it shut and held it to his chest.

"N-nothing," his little brothers face doesn't look caught anymore, it looks worried now, and that face twists somthing in Leo's stomach.

"wait, shit, Mikey have your hands been acting up again??" oh fuck oh no "Mikes we talked about this, if they start hurting you have to tell somone even if you don't think it feels that bad."

He feels a switch go off on his brain the second he thinks Mikey is hurt and everything else goes out the back window.

His little brother has a tendency to fix things, not in the way that Donnie does, with his intellect and his smarts, with nuts and bolts and tech and limitless knowledge.

Mikey fixes sadness, and hurt, he comforts and loves with a single minded focus that leaves anyone in its wake absolutely astonished at how plentiful and sincere it is.

No matter who it is, where it is, or when it is, if it's broken he'll fix it.

But he will *always* leave himself behind.

Its not intentional, he doesn't mean to, he'd take care of himself if he realized. But once Mikey has his mind made up? Its done. He'll get it done no matter what, leaving him to forget about himself.

He's lucky enough to have a family that recognises it, and help before it gets to bad.

"What no my hands are fine Leo seriously!"

"yeah Mikey, maybe so, but I'm still gonna take a look now put 'em out ."

Mikey doesn't retaliate, just takes his wraps off exasperatedly and lays his hands out for Leo to see.

He doesn't react when Leo softly presses down on the scars, and bends his finger and elbow joints gently so they probably weren't hurting.... And the shakes are small and unnoticeable unless you look hard.

So Mikey is fine.

Then why was he so jumpy before???

"hows your leg doing Leo?"

Leo's head snaps up to meet Mikey's gaze, feeling to shocked by sudden line of questioning to actually answer immediately.

"o-oh uhm my leg is fine Mikey, thanks for asking."

He feels the tension drain out of him now that he's sure Mikey isn't hurt, he looks fine, if a bit panicky, and Leo is starting to wonder what kind of secret he's hiding in his sketchbook. The blackmail opportunities could be unreal....

He's *definitely* trying to cover something up, now Leo *can* just outright say that he knows that, but watching Mikey try, and fail, to lie about it, would be waaaaay funnier.

"OH really.....?" Leo stares him dead in the face even though its not being returned at all "so if your hands aren't hurting, why won't you show me your art? what kind of things were you drawing exactly..?"

Mikey squeaks, and his face dips into his shell a little before popping out again fully, to yell "U-UH ITS TUPER SOP SECRET!!!"

Damn, Dontron probably heard that from his maximum security sound proofed lab, *and* with full volume music blasting through his headphones.

"awww come on, please tell me, please please please please!!" he clasps his hands together and makes what he hopes are decent puppy dog eyes.

His little brother doesn't answer him, instead he sinks down further in his shell.

"Mmmmmnnno, and you still haven't told me why you were in here either?"

Its probably the most awful attempt Leo has ever seen at changing the subject, but he takes pity on his brother and decides to go along with it anyway.

"Nothing really I was just bored and wanted to see if you wanted to come and play Mario kart with me?" he grins "you do owe me for the entertainment I provided you with the other day."

The box turtle visibly perks up at this face now fully visible.

"omigosh!! yes! absolutely! I would love to!!" he threw hi sketchbook behind him, and hopped off his chair "lead the way Leon!!"

Leo couldnt help the laugh that sputtered out of him. How Mikey could go from dying of fear, to sunshine and smiles in such a short time was beyond him.

"yeah yeah alright, would you mind giving me a hand though? my leg is kinda sore today."

Mikey swings round and looks at him accusingly "I thought you said it was fine??"

Oh shit yeah.

"Y-yeah it is!! its just a little sore, promise, now come on give me a hand you goof."

Mikey rolls his eyes, but can't help the grin that over takes his face and agreeably lends Leo his shoulder.

He won't bother Mike about whatever he's hiding, Leo may be crazy curious, but he knows that if Mikey does anything to dumb or to stupid, he's got him to rely on and go to when he's in need of help, so Leo feels comfortable in letting him hide whatever it is he's hiding, plus he thinks he'd know if it was somthing bad.

____________________________

It was roughly around 3am, and the little sleep Leo got these days was unfortunately interrupted yet again with another nightmare, another dream about the Kraang again, but this time it was concentrated on *Mikey*.

His mind kept playing a loop of the exact moment when Mikey left-when he was gone, gone gone gone gone gone, went cold in Leos arms and, and-Leo woke up. Drenched in his own sweat, hot and frozen at the same time, still stuck in the position he fell asleep in. Unable to move, it took him an eternity before his *useless* muscles finally dragged themselves upright and out of his bed.

He was sprinting towards Mikey's dimly lit glittery train cart before he even realized he was doing it. Chest heaving, and the ache in his leg only second hand awareness at best.

Warm orange light was pouring out of the cart, and the smell of that citrus diffuser his baby brother always insisted on using was so subtle, but so overwhelmingly comforting, that it sort of makes Leo want to cry.

The lights being on must me he's awake then, and Leo thanks pizza supreme in the sky, because waking up his brothers from the little sleep they got nowadays felt awful. And doing it to Mikey always felt the worst, because that was his little brother he was waking up, and for his own stupid needs too.

Stupid. stupid. stupid. Stupid.

He slides open the door as quietly as he can,his eyes taking a minute to adjust.

Mikey is passed out on the floor, pens pencils, headphones and other art supplies scattered around him and it makes his heart momentarily jump into his throat seeing he's not awake-not alive *not moving*. He snaps out of the spiral quickly though and realizes he needs to calm down right now or he's gonna pass out.

Having a panic attack in his little brothers room is not the most optimal place to do so, so the slider takes a minute to compose his frenzied nerves realizing how worse it's gotten since he woke up. So sitting next to his *sleeping* brother, he breathes in and out in slow even breathes, in the way they all learnt to, it was almost muscle memory by now.

Ha, if only it was that easy to actually calm down.

Leo stands up joints creaking and leg whining in the protest, oh right, he ran here, that's gonna hurt like a bitch tommorow he just knows it.

Picking Mikey up is usually no problem, hes small and lightweight compared to his brothers, but with his shaking arms and tired body, (that's currently down a leg) the task is almost monumental, and he feels out of breathe by the time he's dumped the box turtle into his hammock.

He can still hear soft music playing from Mikey's headphones and he picks them up and listens to it. His mind is still groggy from all the running and panicking, so it takes a second to realize whats playing.

Oh! It's Mr sunshine! Ha, he's so good.

Oh, wait. it's Mr sunshine. maybe they should talk about that later...

He turns the headphones off and puts it on his desk along with his pens, pencils, rubbers, rulers-who needs four rulers?? Where did he even get this all from?who needs this many art supplies and aren't half of these markers dried out anyway??

He can't even be bothered to ask right now, he unceremoniously dumps all of it back on the desk without further question, he picks up Mikey's phone, hoping that he was just listening to music and not staring at that it, would be awful for his eyes. But when he picks it up however he's not greeted with music, but a comic book. And not just any comic book, he notices belatedly,but his favourite.

Jupiter Jim and the eight giant dragons of evil why would he be reading that?

Leo blinks a few times, a bit confused to say the least, before he finally glances down at the sketchbook in his hands.

And sees and exact replica of the page but in pencil.

And then it clicks. everything clicks.

holy shit, Mikey is trying to recreate his favourite comic book. But there's no way??

Now Leo doesn't know much about art, he half listens to info dumps about trashy a.i art, and the hatred that Mikey has for wearing gas masks (against solid protests from himself, Raph and Donnie to do so otherwise

But Leo knows that making a comic book is *hard*, harder and more time consuming that it has any right to be, even for a good artist like Mikey-and he would know! He tried making his own when he was like 12 only to get frustrated an angry 2 minutes in, and quit (he hasn't tried since).

And secondly, how did he even realize he had wanted the real version of a comic anyway? He hadn't *asked* for one, hadn't hinted at wanting it. He swore Mikey was actually a fucking mind reader sometimes, maybe this was just another "mystic warrior thing" he doesn't get.

And then, the sudden, very violent urge to cry swamps him. Even if Mikey never finishes this project never gives it to him, he still *wanted* to.

The fact is, that Mikey, with injured arms, and a hundred other more intersting and wonderful projects more worth his time, is going to attempt to make a comic for *him* and it sort of makes Leo want to cry. It *does* make him cry.

He holds the sketchbook close to his plastron and let's the tears slip down his face. He doenst know what he'd do without his family, without Mikey, he doesn't know what he's Done to deserve the endless patience and comfort that his brothers provide.

He leaves after a minute or two, when the tears on his face stop flowing, leaving sticky trails down his face, and his breathing is no longer raggid from the crying. He leaves the sketchbook and phone where they are, closed and turned off.

Hopefully Mikey will think it was another brother that came in and fixed this all up for him. Or maybe he'll simply belive he cleaned up and put himself to bed and just doesn't remember.

"goodnight little brother, get a good rest."

_____~roughly 2 weeks later~________

Mikey took a deep breathe in, and a deep breathe out. His head was starting to ache from lying it down on his desk for so long, he had decided to take a short break from drawing Leo's comic a while ago, much to his disdain. Although he can't say specifically, since everything in his head feels like molasses, and he's to busy concentrating on the never ending pain in his hands to think about it for to long.

It feels almost nauseating. His body thrumming uncomfortable, the itchy, fiery energy getting stronger, hands shaking more fiercely until it reaches its peak, and his while body seizes up and let's go.

(Its his own fault, this doesn't happen unless he pushes himself to hard. Apparently 6 hours straight of art is not good for you.

Noted.)

He *wants* to pick his head up, he *wants* to carry on drawing, he *wants* to be able to do this for Leo, but he just *can't*. He's useless, his own body is betraying itself, consuming itself in and endless mystic well of power that it itself created, and Mikey can't do anything but sit here and whimper in the dark.

He feels pathetic, he doesn't even know how long it will last. The longest period was 6 hours, which is the closest to living hell he's ever been, beside watching Leo throw himself into the prison dimention, followed closely in second by opening the actual portal itself.

He can't even move enough to grab his phone and call his brothers, he can't scream or talk. So he sits there, and cries and sobs and hiccups openly, and loudly, praying that *someone* will hear him. Thankfully but no sooner than he had started crying, had the small sliver of light coming through his door begun to get bigger, and his train cart door began to open.

".... Angelo?."

It was donnie.

*Thank god.*

His voice was still failing him, unable to speak but overwhelmed with the desire to say *something*, he just cried harder.

"woah woah woah! Okay okay Angelo I'm right here okay? Your safe, your fine." he crouched down by the desk so he was closer to Mikey's face "I'm... I'm gonna pick you up now okay Angleo? If I end up hurting you in any way just uh chirp okay?"

Donnie put an arm underneath his legs and shell, and lifted him up into a bridal carry, pausing slightly to listen for the sound of Mikey's distressed chirp, before continuing forward towards his door. Mikey slumps and closes his eyes, pressing his warm face into Donnie's cool arm. He let's out a sigh of content, no longer cramped from being stuck in a stiff and awkward position, for who knows how long.

Donnie sighs,in that long suffering kind of way he always does when his family has done something stupid, but Mikey doesn't bother to open his eyes to see what face he makes.

Mikey thinks he must have fallen asleep at some point, because when he's next aware, he's being handed off to a very worried looking Raph.

"hey big man sorry to wake you up, you can carry on cuddling with Dee in a minute he just needs to do somthing okay?" Raph is smiling down at him and holds him just a little tighter.

Mikey nods, and rubs his eyes turning his head so he can look at the scene in front of him, (his hands barely even hurt anymore, maybe they rubbed that special cream that Draxum made on them) they're in the TV room now, illuminated by the projection screen paused hlaf way through on one of Leo's favourite movies, him and Donnie are placing various pillows and blankets on the floor.

Leo is whispering something to his twin in a frantic, worried, hushed tone that Mikey is to tired to parse right now.

But Donnie looks at Mikey for a fraction of a second, before rolling his eyes affectionately and placing down the last of the pillows, (they were probably talking about him, he hopes he isn't barred from making breakfast tommorow though, he wanted to make omelettes) huffing, when Raph unceremoniously flops down on top of them shell first, Mikey still being held against his plastron. Raph opens up his arms and Leo snuggles right up beside him, whilst Donnie snuggles into Raph's other side.

Mikey can feel himself start to drift off into comfortable sleep again, when he feels a familiar finger rudely poke him in the face. He opens his eyes just barely to see a familiar blue mask and worried brown eyes peering back at him.

"sorry mi hermano this'll be quick, I promise, what were you doing that caused your arms to flare up so badly?"

Mikey feels annoyed that he's being kept up for this but sighs and concedes "mmmmm I was drawing for a really long time.... and i didn't take any breaks..." he mumbles, shutting his eyes again, falling faster into darkness this time.

"oh....." Leo sighs softly "your to nice for you own good little brother..." Mikey barely even registers his brother's voice anymore, to busy falling asleep to even notice it.

_________________________________

Mikey grins and closes the comic book, he holds it out in front of him looking at all his hard work.

Its done. It's finally done. It took him a month of non stop drawing almost every day to do it.

But he did it.

He puts the Comic down, just to spin around his room and kick his legs, orange flecks of mystic trailing behind his flapping arms.

__________________________

"Oh Leoooooooo~," he sang, sliding into the living room hiding the comic behind his back, and directly away from the view of his older brother "guess what."

"What?"

"I said guess."

"....Mikey are you being serious right now?"

"Yuppers!"

Leo threw his head back and sighed "you know I may sound like Donnie right now, but there are an infinite amount of things to guess from so you may have to give me a hint."

"okay! So I got you gift, buuuuuut you have to guess what it is."

Leo's back straightens and he stares at Mikey with much more exitement "wait are you being serious? You got me a gift?"

"Yeah haha I did, would you like me to just give it to you?" he feels nervous now, he's not really sure he's ready for this, but is going to do it anyway against his own better judgement.

"Uhm yes obviously?? Now gimme" Leo puts out his hands and makes a grabbing motion like an impatient child awaiting to be given something, it's clearly to lighten up the situations which Mikey is making weird with his nervousness.

"Pftttt okay okay here take it."

He walks over to Leo and passes him the comic praying that he likes it, Mikey does, he's so proud, but that means nothing if Leo doesnt like it.

Leo takes the comic and looks closer, his eyes widen when he realizes what it is he's holding, "oh my god Mikey did you *make* this?".

"mhm! I noticed you didn't have any physical copies of your comics and they can't be bought like anywhere, online or off, so I decided to make you one!"

Leo's hands tremble as he deftly turns each page oddly quiet.

Mikey watches as his face morphs into something warm and touched, his smile big and eyes watery-

Wait what?!?

A big fat tear slips down Leo's face without a hand coming to wipe it away and Mikey stands there stunned.

He's watched Leo cry many MANY MANY times, whether it be due to a scraped knee, or a broken scateboard when they were little or due to nightmares over the Kraang, Mikey's seen it all. Him and Leo have always cried the most. But he's never seen Leo cry over something as simple and as meaningless as a comic book before.

"Mikes, did you *make* this for me?" his voice wobbles as he speaks, a disbelieving smile still stretched across his face, still holding the book and flipping through its pages slowly and carefully, scanning each page like he hadn't read them all a million times before, like they were something new, something precious.

Mikey feels slightly vulnerable and embarrassed when Leo looks up at him, remembering that there are definitley some really awfully drawn pages in there, nights where his hands wouldn't stop shaking, or the pose was just to difficult and seeing him cry over it is a bit worrying.

Mikey looks at the corner of the room, man he should really do some dusting, "um, yeah, sorry by the way, some of them are really badly drawn, a-and i know you've already read it a million times so it's really not that goo-"

Leo cuts him off by grabbing the strap around his shell and pulling him down onto the been bag into a 10/10, ultimate crushing big brother hug.

Mikey doesn't fight it these hugs are the *best* hugs.

"mikey- i cant-*holy fuck*, this is like, the nicest and most thoughtful gift i have *ever* been given the fact you even noticed I missed my comics makes me want to hide in my shell and cry so hard my tear ducts will explode, don't you *ever* apologise ok?"

Mikey felt HIMSELF tear up.

Your artwork is incredible and so so beautiful, Leo sniffs and Mikey feels so happy, (he's pretty sure his arms are glowing, not that he can see from where his snout is buried in Leo's shoulder) "i can't believe you put in the effort even with your hands to make a whole comic book just to make me feel better, that must have taken forever."

"I'm-im-yeah, I'm so glad you it Leo."

They stay like that for far to long, sitting on a bean bag that is way to small to fit them both, laughing and chatting and crying whilst look through the comic.

______________________________________

It's not his old comic book, with ink smudged and faded colours, with nights spent rereading and loving. cherished, on its spot on the shelf, with worn edges and a broken spine. It's not the gift he was given when he was 9, a start of a long love for the franchise, and hours in the further of areas of the sewers to find more of them.

It's not any of that but it's something *more*.

Becasue it's *Mickey*.

It's his little brothers drawing, its long nights spent caring about him, and hope to make him just a tiny bit happier.

It's work, and shaking arms and passion. It's family and love and warmth, it's sleepless nights and something handcrafted, and Leo can see it etched into every line of the page. It's not old like it used to be, it's something wonderful, and something new, it's a gift, and every single line is different now because the adoration Mikey has for all of his brothers is radiating out of them.

Each mistake on the page is another mark of Mikey, another mark of his gift and it's meaning.

He can't ever get back what he's lost, he'll never be the same as he was, but he thinks now, whilst looking at the pages softly, this is maybe just a little bit better, just a little but more exciting and new.

Mikey will never know what this means to Leo, because to him, this is just another "small" act of kindness the same as he'd do for anyone.

And although Leo would never admit it, it makes everything he's been through just a little more smaller, and a little less scary, because if something this good can happen out of somthing so miserable? then maybe the future won't be so awful after all, and maybe it never was, his brothers will always be there for him, and he can't believe he ever doubted them in the first place.

_________________________________________

Please remember the idea for this fic was written by turtleblogatlast

And here's the the original little script they wrote!!! Read original script

Goooooood hahaha so uhm I hope you like it!! (Also sorry this became a little more Mikey centric than it was supposed to be I am a Mikey kinnie and tend to make everything about him😭)

I absolutely love your writing and the things you do so just think of this as a thankyou gift for being so cool!

I wanted to sprinkle more of your headcannon in haha but I didn't know where to start or when I could mention them sorry:(

Also apologies for all my head cannons I could help myself

"I will make this fic purely for someone else and won't add my own headcannons!......... F*ck."

[connisk]

(Fanfic that I really like by @kitsunefyuu )(strongly recommend)

Something about this mental image of AFO dressing izuku in fancy clothes, like very dear doll, just stuck with me. And I felt like drawing a few of the more feminine outfits since every one of them has some kind of meaning to the story.

The first more feminine outfit was the one izuku chose specifically when he tried to convince his father to let him go to UA.

"Dad, I want to go back to a real school and make actual friends," Izuku spoke bluntly. Trying his damn hardest to keep himself calm as he asks, and had even prepared himself with his dads favorite outfit. It was a traditional green Hanfu dress with flowers. More than aware it is for women, but it isn't as if it matters in a home where the only company he's allowed is his father.

Absolutely creepy, but in sweet way. As he doesn't care about what he supposed to be wearing and enjoys everything, but at the same time trying to persuade his father to what he wants with it.

The second outfit I drew was the black dress he wore when he accidentally met his childhood friend. And it escalated quickly to the worst

Maybe Izuku was desperate for some kind of recognition. To gather a fraction of the past that his father took him away from after all these years. That he dug far back to that nickname he hated even if didn’t want to say that name as Kacchan was about to leave, “How about Deku?”

Now that seemed to trigger something and a curiously amused expression showed on Bakugou’s face. The recognition sparked in his eyes as a loud hum escaped him.

“Oh yeah! Deku must explain why you look like a weird doll,” Katsuki said with amusement.

Izuku felt a stab in his chest at the other words.

This happened right after izuku ran away from his dinner with his father. Naturally he was wearing a dress. I can't find the exact quote but I remember it being described as dress with a ribbon. Maybe it was just my imagination, but izuku wearing a dress and looks like a doll, Plus kachan recognizing him by his old nickname just felt very symbolic. Like Deku will never be more than just a doll for others.

The last image, and the one I liked the most was izuku wearing his school uniform.

"Dad! Can you grab me my uniform!?"

(...)

Izuku doesn't even check what the man brought feeling pretty good right now. Though clearly, he was going to end up late so he just throws it on.

(...)

"Sorry he's just- Well he's excited I have a friend," Izuku noted only to realize Shoto was looking at him up and down. "What? Is something wrong?" Ugh, did he not put on enough makeup? Did he put the uniform on and mess up his hair? Izuku felt nervous at his friend's suddenly very critical gaze wondering if he needs to run back home to fix up-

"You look nice,"

(...)

Though when he arrived at the school Izuku felt like he was getting a LOT more looks than normal. To the point if he was honest he kind of felt almost anxious about it as while attention can be nice it felt more like they were weirded out. Wondering why that is the case, he worked hard on his appearance! Even Shoto said he looked nice, did he miss something? "Hey do I look weird?" Izuku questioned wondering why people were staring knowing his friend would be honest. Shoto glanced around a bit then back at him in confusion before a light bulb seemed to register. Those eyes light up as he finally decides to answer the question.

"Probably because you're wearing the girl uniform?" Shoto questioned. As if he hadn't just revealed the most horrifying thing Izuku could have done. The innocent way his best friend didn't even think to point out the uniform was for a girl.

The betrayal izuku felt. For his father it was simply a joke. For izuku it was world shattering. How he took izuku's trust and played with it.

Shoto, with his pure heart didn't question it.

I reason chose to give izuku white hair even when he supposed to still have his green is because he's under his father's manipulation. From the moment his mother died his father was everything to him and he was everything for hisashi.

And still, he plays with izuku's life like he's some kind of doll. Just because he doesn't see a problem with it. But for izuku it affects everything.

[sombersummerskies]

A Champion's Love: Chapter 16

Chapter 16: Dreamlike Word Count: 4404 CW: None

Want all the chapters? -> Masterlist

~~~ <> ~~~

A barely audible groan passes your lips as you wake up. The room is dimly lit, with only luminescent stones casting soft blue light. Your hands feel around and you find that you’re in what appears to be some sort of bed, and as you flex your fingers you realize how soft it is.

Confused, you attempt to move and get up, only to be stopped by something wrapped around your waist. No, not something- someone.

Cautiously, you place your hand on this random arm. Smooth skin with subtle indents which resemble scales, toned and seemingly quite muscular. You trail your fingers down the forearm, finding bands of silver jewelry and a big hand clasped over your stomach.

Their scales are… red.

Red?

Red.

“Sidon?” you croak, his name coming out more like a question than you had intended.

The bed shifts and you hear an all too familiar chuckle in your ear, “glad to see you’re awake, little one.”

He’s directly behind you, holding you close as you spoon on the bed. You can feel his warm breath on the back of your neck and it sends tingles down your spine. You feel dwarfed by the Zora, being held like this makes you feel even smaller compared to him than normal. You’re pressed flush against his firm chest, making you wonder if he’s aware of how hard your heart has begun to pound as a result.

“Wh… what. Wait, what happened? How’d we get here, I-” you stumble over your words, confused, and your misspoken sentence makes the blush on your face even darker than before.

The prince shushes you gently, speaking in a soothing tone, “hush now, there’s no need to worry. Everything’s been handled, and you’re safe here with me.”

You feel his other hand pass over your neck, brushing your hair aside to expose your skin. You shiver inadvertently, not used to this much physical attention and affection, and it certainly doesn’t help that it’s coming from him.

When you feel his mouth just barely graze over the crook of your neck you’re unable to hold back the sharp gasp that spills out of your own mouth. His lips were just barely open, but you were able to feel the subtle press of his sharp teeth against your skin. 

You knew that if someone like him were to bite you it’d no doubt draw blood, but you had a small thought that maybe you wouldn’t mind if that were to happen. You quickly stifled that lewd image in your mind.

“S-Sidon?” you stammer, tensing up. Your nails dug into the bedding as you waited with baited breath, wondering what he’d do next.

The prince pulled back, and you cursed yourself for feeling disappointed because of this. Instead, he moved to lean over instead, and gently guided you so that you were lying down on your back so he could hover above you.

In this dim lighting, his yellow eyes weren’t as bright and energetic as normal. They still had an air of mischief to them, but now there was something… off. His gaze was almost predatory in a way, and this excited you as much as you’d hate to admit it.

“Little one, I…” he trailed off, and you were unable to look away from his eyes as he leaned in closer.

You could feel the goosebumps on your arms, your nerves were tingling and you couldn’t stop them. “Y-yes?” you reply, your voice coming out no louder than a whisper.

As he leaned in closer, however, your view seemed to fade away. The feeling of the bed beneath you vanished, and everything in your line of sight blurred until nothing could be made out.

You tried to reach out, attempting to grasp onto anything you could. You reached for Sidon’s hand but it was no longer there, he wasn’t there. You cried out but no sound came from your mouth; everything went black-

...

You wake up with a start, gasping for air as you attempt to take in your surroundings. Your mouth is dry, and you cringe as you open your eyes to bright light. It takes you a few seconds, but you’re eventually able to fully open them and take in your surroundings.

Your hands grasp for what’s around you in a panic, squeezing the bed sheets beneath you and then grabbing your own arms and pinching yourself. ‘This is real. I’m real this time,’ you reassure yourself, heart still pounding in your chest.

Sunlight is streaming into the room- you somehow managed to get back to your bedchambers in the palace. You’ve been tucked into bed and once you throw the covers off you figure out why.

You’re wearing nothing except a pair of pants with bandages wrapped around your torso and chest. Your memories flood back and you recount the events previous to you passing out- the Lizalfos aiming for Zelda and how you took the hit for her, resulting in a spear in your side.

You also remember the dream you’d had just before you woke up. Your cheeks burn red as you think back to it, and you mentally reprimand yourself for having fantasies like that.

Ignoring those thoughts for now, you push yourself up into a sitting position, wincing as what appears to be a bruise beneath the bandages flares up in pain. ‘Dammit… fuck, that was a bad hit. I need to get some energy in me so I can try and use Mipha’s Grace again,’ you think to yourself, sliding out of bed.

Your bare feet make contact with the cool stone flooring and you practically hiss, before forcing yourself to stand up despite the cold. There’s a small basin besides the pool in the room, and you’re relieved to find a tap that allows you to pump fresh water.

You pull down the handle and watch as a stream of water gushes out of the tap and lean down in a desperate attempt to lap it up. You drink as much as you can, relishing in the feeling of refreshing liquid running down your parched throat.

Once the water stops trickling, you stand up straight and go to examine yourself in the mirror. Whoever had bandaged you (you assumed it must’ve been the palace nurses) had seemingly cleaned you of any dirt and grime, and though your hair was somewhat unkempt you weren’t all that unsatisfied with your appearance. 

In the reflection you could also see, just below the bandages, splotches of blue and yellow bruising across the skin of your right side where you’d been injured. Gingerly, you pressed your finger against the area and bit the inside of your cheek as you felt that pain flare up once more.

Then, the door of the chamber is pushed open slowly.

A familiar voice speaks. “Little one? Have you woken up?”

You can’t stop yourself from smiling and you quickly turn to look back at him as he steps into the room.

Seeing the way his eyes light up makes you happy beyond belief, and you move to go hug him before realizing something important-

Your bandages are the only thing covering your chest. And if the sudden blue blush which covers the prince’s face is anything to indicate, he’s realized the exact same thing.

“Let me uh… put a tunic on,” you mumble, laughing nervously as you step towards the drawers. The prince chuckles and does you the courtesy of shutting the door and turning away from you as to give you privacy. 

You fumble through the drawers, and your movements are noticeably clumsier than usual and you suspect that it may have something to do with the sudden flashbacks to your dream now that he’s in the same room as you. Finally you’re able to find a sky-blue fabric and tug it on over your head. It’s somewhat baggy but it’ll do for now.

You spin on your heel to see the prince still politely facing away, his hands clasped behind his back. “You can turn around now,” you giggle, cheeks still a bit hot, “I’m decent.”

Sidon turns back to you and offers you a kind smile, “how are you feeling?”

“Well I’m not dead, so I’d say I’m rather well,” you laugh nervously. The Zora isn’t as amused by your joke however, and you quickly clear your throat to elaborate, “I’m sure the nurse already let you know but I’ve got a big scar and some bruising. I should be able to heal myself once I’ve eaten something and have a little more energy. 

“I think when I first got stabbed I’d lost far too much blood. It was a really bad wound, though you were there so you saw it first hand,” you continued to explain, “once you and Zelda left I was able to heal my internal wounds and close the gash, but I’d passed out before I could do any more healing. I’m sure Bazz already told you that… though… um, Sidon? Are you alright?”

The prince looked distraught, his gaze was cast to the floor and there was a frown deeply etched into his face.

Concerned, you walk across the room towards him. When you stand in front of him, he attempts to turn away from you but you stop him.

Leaning up, you place your palms on either side of his face and guide him to look back at you. When you’re finally able to look into his eyes, they’re full of emotion. Sadness wells up in him as he looks down at you, and he gently lifts one of his hands to place it atop your own.

He lets out a shaky sigh before finally speaking, “little one, I… to be honest I was quite terrified.”

Your brow furrows but you don’t interrupt.

“You’ve… you’ve regaled me with so many of your tales. I’m more than aware of your skills in battle, I also know the dangers and risks you take. I’ve seen the consequences of this before when you reclaimed Ruta, you had to be put in the medical ward for three days after passing out,” he explains, his voice wavering as he speaks, “but… seeing you with a wound like that. I didn’t know what to do. I was so… scared, _____. I have been scared waiting for you to wake up, I wasn’t sure if you even would.”

Tears had begun to well up in his eyes, and one by one they spilled down his cheeks and wetted your palms.

You felt your heart break. You’d never seen him like this, so emotional, so broken down. You decide to ease him, swiping your thumbs to wipe away his tears. “Come here,” you murmur, walking him towards your bed.

You sit back against the headboard and let Sidon put his head in your lap as he lays down. You’re careful to mind his fin and tail, not wanting to bend them or hurt him in any way. Gently, you pat his head, running your palm side to side from the front of his crest to the ends of his hammerhead features.

He relaxes into your touch and you can already see his nerves calming down. “Hey,” you whisper, and his eyes flick up to you. “I’m right here. I’m here next to you, speaking to you, and you can feel me. You can feel me breathing, you can feel my hand, you can probably even feel my heartbeat. I’m more alive than I’ve ever been.”

A weak smile graces his features and he reaches one of his hands up, grasping your free one. You watch as he puts your palms together before lacing your fingers and holding your hand tightly.

A comfortable silence falls over you as you ease into one another, looking into each other’s eyes as you smile-

Only to be interrupted by a loud growl emitting from your stomach.

The prince laughs, loudly, and a furious blush covers your face as embarrassment settles over you. “I suppose that is fair, it has been a few days since you’ve eaten,” he chuckles, sitting up to look down at you.

“This is just like when you visited me in the medical ward,” you groan, burying your face in your hands as the prince continues to laugh.

“I’ll alert the chefs and have them prepare you a meal right away,” he says once his giggle-fit is done, “I’ll be back in a few minutes, little one.”

And right before he leaves he does something which takes the breath right out of you. He places a simple, chaste kiss on your forehead, and you shiver with sudden warmth as he walks out of the bedchambers, leaving you to mull over your thoughts.

‘He… he kissed me,’ you wonder, your fingers grazing over the spot where his lips had touched you, ‘I mean, it was just on my forehead… but still.’

You were giddy- no, that’s an understatement, you were absolutely smitten. A cheeky little grin played on your lips and you felt as though you could dance around the room- if it weren’t for your injury of course.

The prince had kissed you. You couldn’t be happier.

…

It took some time, but eventually the prince returned with a tray of food in hand. The second he opened the door and you caught the scent that followed, you were drooling. Stacked on the plates were an assortment of fish-related pastries, crab cakes, risotto, and a bowl of fried rice.

He set the tray down at the end of the bed and you couldn’t stop yourself stuffing your face, and as you ate Sidon took the time to explain what had been going on while you were recovering.

“Princess Zelda and I were able to successfully complete the shrine, though I do have to give her most of the credit. Unlike the shrine we completed, this one involved a giant puzzle of water and ice on the wall. We heavily depended on the Sheikah Slate’s ice rune. It didn’t take us all too long, and once we were done I received a second emblem of Vah Ruta.

“Upon exiting the shrine I escorted the princess back to the palace. Bazz and the guards had already delivered you to the medical ward where the nurses cleaned your wound and applied a healing salve and bandages. As the wounds weren’t as life-threatening as the previous time, we were permitted to allow you to rest here in your room. The nurses would come three times a day to re-apply your bandages, but aside from that you’ve been healing in your sleep.

“We’ve all been… uneasy, for lack of a better word. Zelda had thrown herself into her work for two days straight, pouring over all her notes time and time again, reading about monster weaponry in an attempt to learn about any added ailments which the spear may have doled to you. She feels immense guilt over what occurred, despite my reassuring her. Bazz has been working himself to exhaustion every night, assigning himself more training hours than I’d ever even suggest to him as captain. I’ve had to attend two meetings since the incident and these diplomatic talks have been keeping my mind occupied, but when I’m not filling out stacks of paperwork and not speaking to the council I’ve simply been thinking of… you. Praying to the goddesses that you’d wake up.”

As he explained all of this, your smile dropped. Hearing about the pain your friends felt after your injury hurt your heart, but Sidon was quick to notice your change in mood.

“Do not feel guilt, little one,” he assures you, placing a hand on your shoulder, “I’ve been trying to tell Zelda the same thing. You did something commendable, as scary as it was in the moment. How we reacted just shows how much we care about you little one. We missed you… I… I missed you, especially.”

You blush and nod, eating the last few scraps of your meal and downing a glass of fresh water. Once done, you get up from the bed and playfully pat your stomach before moving your hand to your side to touch your bruises.

“I’m uh… I’m gonna have to have direct contact to heal this,” you say with a nervous laugh.

The prince looks confused, but quickly figures out what you mean and nods his head. He turns away politely, but you can still see the blue color tinting his cheeks.

Turning away from him for good measure, you slip the tunic off over your head before reaching for your bandages. However, you struggle. The clasp keeping the medical fabric secure is in the center of your lower back, meaning it’s far too difficult for you to release it yourself.

You blanch. You know what you have to do but you’re gonna hate doing it.

“Um… Sidon? May I ask you for a favor?” you ask shyly, face already red at the implications.

You hear him reply behind you, “of course, _____, anything.”

“Can you… can you help me undo these bandages?” you sigh, “I can’t quite reach the clasp.”

You hear a shuffling behind you and assume it’s the prince turning to look at you. “O-oh, yes, of course. Allow me to h-help,” he stammers.

You wait anxiously, and can’t stop the near yelp that escapes your lips when you feel his hands touching your back.

“Apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you,” he murmurs, and you quickly realize how close he is to you as he practically speaks directly into your ear.

‘Don’t think about the dream, don’t think about the dream, don’t think about the dream,’ you repeat over and over in your mind, trying to ignore how burning hot your face is.

You feel his hands trail down the center of your back, and it takes all your willpower to not visibly shake beneath his touch. He fiddles with the clasp of the bandages, and you hear a quiet clink as the metal piece that secures the fabric is loosened.

He helps you unravel the bandages, and soon enough the fabric is sitting in a pile on the floor. It’s hard to ignore the fact that you’re currently topless in front of the prince, and even though you’re facing away from him that doesn’t make it any less embarrassing by any means.

Even turned away from him you can feel his gaze on you, and shyly you slowly lift a hand to your side. You brush your finger over the bruises, frowning at the black and blue splotches all across your skin. In the center of all the bruises is your scar, though when it’s cleaned up it looks far less ghastly than when you’d first tried to heal yourself.

You splay your palm over the scar, and take in a deep breath before activating Mipha’s power. Your palm glows a bright blue and you keep it pressed against your torso. You feel the scar closing entirely and watch as the bruises fade away and your skin returns to its natural tone.

The glow fades away and you test the waters by pressing down on your side. When you feel no pain, a smile graces your features. Suddenly though, it’s not only your hand that’s on your side. You feel Sidon’s hand ghost over where the scar used to be and you can’t stop yourself from shuddering.

He quickly pulls his hand away to apologize, “little one, I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

You let out a shaky breath before making a decision that you might just regret for the rest of your life.

Your hand which is closest to his reaches out and grasps it before bringing it back to your side and allowing his palm to be pressed against you. “It’s- it’s okay. I don’t mind,” you mumble, willing your voice not to waver, “you can touch me… I’m not fragile.”

He laughs softly as he trails his fingers down your side, “it’s not you being fragile that I’m afraid of, _____. I’m afraid that I won’t be able to control myself.”

You gulp nervously. You’re one of the strongest warriors in the entire kingdom, the trained night of the princess, the Hylian Champion, you were handpicked by the goddess Hylia to wield the sword that seals the darkness.

Yet being touched affectionately, perhaps even intimately by the Zora prince is what might break you.

“W-well, whatever it is you might end up doing… I assure you that I will allow it,” you reply, “and if I get uncomfortable I will let you know.”

He says nothing, instead you get a response by feeling his other hand find a place on the other side of your torso. His fingers trace invisible lines as they dance across your skin, moving from your sides to your back, his thumbs finding the center.

You’re reminded of your dream.

There’s a second of silence before he moves again, and this time his lips are pressed to the skin between your shoulder blades. You bite down on your own lips hard enough to bruise them, not allowing yourself to make even a squeak of noise.

But this isn’t your dream.

As his hands trail around towards the front of your body, his mouth is open just slightly as he lets his teeth ghost just barely against you. His fingers have settled over your abdomen, pressing against the muscle you’d built up over years of fighting, but despite your strength you tremble before him as his teeth faintly nick you.

This is real life.

He keeps his hands where they are but leans up, pulling away just enough to move his face from your back into the crook of your neck, but keeping close enough to where you can still feel his breath and his warmth emanating from him. His mouth is pressed to your neck and you shut your eyes tight, afraid that if you open them it’ll all be over.

His mouth is parted very slightly, and he finally manages to get a noise out of you as he begins to suck on your skin gently. You whimper- whimper, a noise you’ve never made before, and the prince certainly notices because his grip on you tenses and-

There’s a knock on the door. 

Then a voice. “Prince Sidon! The princess has returned from her survey of the land, she’s speaking with the king and requests your presence!”

You practically shoot apart from one another, and you nearly forget to keep turned away from him as you’d conveniently forgotten that through all of that you were topless.

“I’ll, um- I’ll get dressed and meet you up there, y-yeah?” you say, glancing over your shoulder nervously.

“O-of course,” he replies, adjusting his cravat as he stands from the bed. He walks swiftly across the room to the door. Just before he walks out he speaks up, “I’ll see you soon, little one. And I’m sure the princess will be ecstatic to see you.”

You don’t watch as he walks out, you only hear the click of the door and strain your ears to pick up on the sound of him walking down the corridor.

You let out a breath, one you hadn’t even realized you’d been holding. Scampering over to the mirror, your eyes go wide when you spy the visible mark on your neck- he hadn’t bit you, but there were small indents indicating that you had in fact had someone’s mouth on you.

‘I could just heal this… it’d disappear in seconds,’ you muse, trailing your fingers over the curved line and reddened skin, ‘but… why do I want to keep it.’

After mulling it over for a few more moments, you push those thoughts aside and decide to get dressed. You briefly wash your face with cold water, attempting to get rid of the blush that felt like it would be permanent at this point. Then you dig through the drawers and find some proper undergarments, plus a dark blue tunic with a conveniently higher collar to cover up your neck.

You grab the Master Sword, which someone had nicely displayed near the window of the room, strapping it’s sheath around you before tugging on some boots and, as always, fitting the band Sidon had given you around your arm.

Once you’ve taken one final moment to compose yourself, you leave the bedchambers, wandering up towards the throne room. On the way up there’s the occasional whisper amongst palace staff, in your peripherals you can see the curious looks and stares you get.

‘Either they were worried for my health, or the rumors around Sidon and I have continued… hmm, probably both.’

As you climb the steps to the throne room, you can hear the princess’ voice ringing out. 

“We’ve surveyed the land around the location of the final trial, and I can successfully assess that it is indeed safe. The only possible factor of danger is the red Lynel who’s staked a claim to the land atop Ploymus Mountain, but the distance between the trial location and the top of the mountain is a far enough distance to where I have no real concerns,” she explained to the king and Muzu, “in theory, we are ready to begin the third trial, but we can only hope that the Hylian Champion will soon awake-”

“Lucky for you I’m right here,” you announce as you walk into the room.

Zelda quickly turns on her heels, her eyes going wide with excitement once she sees you. “_____!” she exclaims, dashing over to you and throwing her arms around you in a hug. “You have no idea how worried we all were! I felt so horrible, I hadn’t been paying attention and that monster had gotten the best of us at the last second. The nurses kept assuring us that you’d be okay and you’d heal safely, but nothing could be done to ease my worries-”

You rub circles into her back and she rambles on, and you can only grin knowing that she has to worry about you no longer.

As you hug the princess, however, you lock eyes with Sidon who stands on the other side of the throne room.

You both blush and avert your gazes.

Things are going to be different now.

~~~ <> ~~~

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

[balshumetsbaragouin]

Chapter 22 is out! I am so excited to finally get this chapter out! Thanks once again to @emotigonecreative for the amazing art! You can see it in this chapter. It's sometimes wild to think all 160,000 words came from this single image. They say a picture is worth 1,000 words, but I can honestly say Emotigone's are worth at least 160x as many.

Everyone should take a look at the original art on her blog, because it is awesome and needs more love!

Want a taste of the chapter before you head inside? You'll find it below.:

The perilous flight back to FentonWorks drove them away from Main and over the peripheral commercial district. Underneath their frantic retreat, buildings of glass and concrete blurred into a menagerie of white and gray. They usually loved their coloration, all ink and blood, but it made them easy to pick out for the suit firing lasers at them from above. Maybe they should consider a winter stealth mode after they defeated it. Their board mate was not making the process of dodging missile blasts and laser fire any easier, though.

The weight on the back of the board threw off her calculations every time they turned. His hands burned against their outer skin, the pressure and temperature felt through metal and carbonite. Every turn, she pulled him closer, drawing him as tightly as she could so they moved as one over the balance point. Every turn, he shifted himself farther away and made the next one that much harder. “Stop wiggling away, you’re making it hard to steer.” She tugged him farther forward again, and was met with creaking protest from their swollen knees.

“I don’t weigh that much, do I?”

“Mr. Fenton, this thing has focal points, and we each have a center of gravity. The farther away you are,” this turn slid him forward into her back, “the more things there are to balance. It’s easier to juggle one blob of weight instead of two.” He tried to move away again, and she wrapped a hand around his wrist and kept him there. “Stop making this difficult if you don’t wanna become road pizza.” Sometime in the last few minutes, her headache started clearing. With them so low on power, she was surprised, but grateful. One less thing to worry about. Everything still fuzzed at the edges, they kept falling out of sync, but it was easier. Everything else still burned like an inferno, though, even with the suit minimizing their pain levels. Something nagged about the topic of their pain, her nerves, but she put a pin in it.

“I’m—this is closer than I’ve danced with anyone at prom.”

“Get over it. You’d think you’d enjoy having an excuse to cuddle a girl.��� They rounded the next corner smoothly, turning on the board as a single unit. Much better.

[the-fandom-is-now-my-life]

After another day full of people you lay down on various carpets and cushions in the lounge room while eating some dates, it is still too soon to eat lunch yet you find yourself bored enough that you got mouth hunger

" Even if the dates are great i can't shake the craving for lemon pie with meringue" you bring the dried date to your mouth, it isn't the sweet and sour filling for the pie but it was good enough

Trying to evade spoiling your appetite you decide to explore around

"So… what else can I do with this" your fingers fly seemingly in the air until a light blue box pops up there is a white rectangle next to a magnifying glass "I guess I have to search for what I want?"

After thinking for a second You look up 'encyclopedia'

ERROR …

" What?" You tap on the three red dots and an explanation appears

VAGE SEARCH. PLEASE SPECIFY

Now thinking more deeply about that you try to swift the search finer "hope this work just fine"

'Edible herbs encyclopedia'

SEARCH CONCLUDED SHOWING NUMBER OF RESULTS: 786

RESULTS HAVE BEEN COMPACTED AND SHARED INTRO REGIONAL BOOKS FOR CONVENIENCE. TO UNDO FOLLOW THE STEPS IN THE 'HELP' PAGE

The next second seven books appear, one for each nation all being color coded for their respective element. Touching the light green one you are suddenly greeted by a index dividing the herbs inside by part used (seed, bark, leaf, root or fruit) or function they have (medicinal, culinary, aromatic)

" This seems like it could come in handy. Especially if I can get recipes to make medicines or ointments, maybe I could even get a pretty penny for it too…"

Well most of the ointment or culinary recipes you could think of need hand mixers or similar things to puree the herbs but you haven't seen anything like that since you arrived…

" Wait… can I download blueprints for hand mixers and ask the technology school to make them?"

Without missing a beat you missing a beat you look it up, soon enough you see various models, from old timey ones to modern looking ones

" I feel in heaven" you catch yourself from crying, you can almost feel the sweet taste of meringue without the ache on your arms

Now viewing a decent model you start to wonder " how am I supposed to have someone make something only I can see the blueprint for?" Immediately you see another button with the words 'project' written.

As soon as you touch it you see the same image that was in a static window now displayed on the wooden table in front of you " i guess this means i could trace the blueprint then" running to your office you grab both a pencil an a sheet of paper to draw on. Slowly but sure you follow along the lines to the best of your abilities yet the straight ones showed how excited for this idea you were and the curved ones having bigger or smaller angles than expected

Now with your masterpiece done you sigh in relief, soon you will be eating your beloved lemon pie and the deviously delicious meringue

Folding the drawing and putting it in an envelope you issue it to kaveh, partially because of his great craftsmanship and partially to piss off al-haitham. along you send a letter that could be boiled down to ' i heard you are soooo great i dare you make this' plus a flirty undertone because, knowing kaveh, he would keep shut about it and bother al-haitham more, bringing delight to your soul

What you didn't expect was the first thing to greet you the next morning wasn't al-haitham but kaveh next to the headmaster of Kshahrewar asking about the idea of a mechanical hand mixers to which you could only answer

"I like my eggs fluffy"

[fireflyhwufanficwriter]

My thoughts on the Dr. Stone special (“Dr. Stone: Ryusui”)

My thoughts after watching Dr. Stone: Ryusui:

01. A drama club! XD And it looks like the familiar school building with the clock HAS to show up in every anime series, even Dr. Stone! :D

02. Kohaku looks like a serious narrator :O And it's nice to hear her talk this much! :)

03. Taiju and Yuzuriha as themselves, Chrome as Senku, Kinro and Ginro as one single tree... Suika with multiple parts, and they even got a swallow to join! :) Maybe it's the same one Senku first revived, and the one that flew above their expedition caravan in Season Two! :D

04. Kinro and Ginro's shocked acting! XD But they're still better than Chrome during the tournament arc! ...Actually, Chrome's acting has improved a LOT from the tournament arc! :D

05. Yo has really not learned his lesson about laughing at the stone world era folks...

06. What I don't understand about Magma's boat entry is... why are the human figures in the water instead of on the boat?

07. Yo's raft was more impressive in his imagination than in reality...

08. The way Senku's eyes shown as he looked at the first drawing... :) (I don't think he acknowledged the second drawing, haha!)

09. Yeah... with THAT drawing, Senku DEFINITELY wins! Everybody was really impressed! :D

10. Don't worry, Chrome and Kaseki... you have a ton of people who can help you build the ship! :)

11. Looks like Senku still plans on using sextants on the ship!

12. Yay, Kohaku's on the digging expedition! :) But, as she had to remind Senku, she is NOT a gorilla :D

13. I always like it when Senku and Kohaku are in scenes together :) They've both gotten curious about that Ryusui dude...

14. "We won't find anyone who's a more skilled sailor than Ryusui-kun..." Minami's case against Ryusui was hopeless as soon as she uttered those words XD

15. Ryusui's back! :D

16. And Burnout Syndomes is back with Good Morning [New] World! :) It's slightly different from the original opening song - slower, lower, more distorted in parts - but the song still sounds exhilarating! :O A lot of the character images are from the previous two seasons, and about the running scene, I love that Kohaku is in the lead, Chrome gets a burst of energy because of his excitement, and everybody, even Gen (and Ryusui, who's in the middle), eventually leaves Senku and his poor stamina behind... so accurate! XD

17. When I first heard Ryusui's deep voice in the initial trailer, I, like many people, was perplexed and weirded out and thought it didn't suit him at all :D But now, I think his voice makes a lot of sense to be that way - he's older than the MAIN main cast (except for Kaseki), and is going to be a leader in his own right - it wouldn't feel right for him to a have thin, youthful, teenager-y voice :)

18. Ryusui, stop traumatizing poor, innocent Kohaku and put some clothes on! :O

19. Poor Ryusui has no Francois just yet :) Also, how do his fingers end up in that formation after snapping? My fingers don’t look like that after I snap them... :O

20. Yeah, seriously, how does his middle finger also end up in the air?

21. Ryusui’s kind of like Tsukasa - very quick on the uptake! While Tsukasa’s intelligence took form in not surrendering the protection of the stone until he knew the situation AND using that stone to his advantage, Ryusui’s intelligence was shown in his immediate grasp of the facts after thousands of years of being pertrified :)

22. Thank you, Minami, for giving Ryusui clothing so that he can finally cover himself up! XD

23. Ooh, so Magma considers Kohaku (and Minami) and attractive... interesting information... :D Aww, poor Nikki... and also, with being kicked there, maybe poor Magma, too... :O

24. Wow, Ryusui doesn’t have sailing skills, he has storm prediction skills, too! Which, I suppose, are also included in sailing skills... but still, quite impressive! Way to show his knowledge this early on! :D

25. This is really interesting; four of the five wise generals are out there covering the lumber for the ship! :) Really smart of Senku to test him like that, and I like the detail that Senku’s coat is a darker color because it’s soaked from the rain! :)

26. Ah, a new title for Chrome - resource king! :D Wow... Chrome as the lead explorer, Kohaku and her amazing eyesight, and Ukyo with his incredible hearing... that is an all-star resource expedition team! I think Suika would have made the team even better, but that might have just been overkill in terms of awesomeness XD

27. Ryusui gets an oil field, and the kingdom of science gets currency XD And he has a gold-plated house, hahaha! Ramen, cotton candy, and manga all for sale... just like in the old (current) days... And why does Senku look so evil?! :D

28. Making the link between trust in Senku and trust in his new currency... Ryusui’s a wily one! :)

29. Ukyo’s ears and Kohaku’s eyes... wow, what a combination! :D

30. That’s a GIGANTIC WATERFALL!! :O

31. And poor Ukyo... he’s the only one in their group of three who truly knows what it means to now have a gigantic waterfall near Mt. Fuji... :(

32. Aww, Suika’s wistful bird idea gave Senku an awesome scientific idea! :D And even Ryusui is shocked by Senku and Gen’s tactics! XD

33. It’s really funny that Magma was really aware of what Yo’s reaction might be! :D And this one time, Yo was totally casual and admitted his own ignorance! :)

34. Kaseki was so excited and so pumped up, so read for a long, painstaking roadmap to human flight... but the roadmap only had three stages! XD

35. I LOVE that Senku also depends on Yuzuriha and really respects her skills and is asking for her help! :) I mean, he’s actually bowing to her! I don’t think I’ve EVER seen him to that to ANYBODY! Wow! :O I love their faith in each other and their friendship! :D And they did a high five too; awesome!! :D

36. Kinro’s so diligent, but even he wants the thread spinning to end! XD

37. Magma asked a very logical question... but honestly, Yuzuriha’s response made a lot of sense, too! It IS easy work, just... incredibly tedious... :O She’s so adorable, daydreaming about her little, handheld loom! :)

38. Wow, that’s an incredible loom! I think it even has a seat cushion! And there’s a place for drinks, and a lamp! Not to mention the, you know, actual LOOM part... :D

39. Kaseki isn’t sure if this was what Yuzuriha wanted, and Senku is ADORABLE, wondering if Yuzuriha wanted an electric loom! :)

40. I don’t know how looms work, but I’m glad Yuzuriha does! :D Nikki’s going to dye cloth, and Ginro is so sick of spinning thread... XD I love Suika enjoying how soft the cloth is! :D

41. Oh, poor Kinro is so tired from spinning all that thread! :O Actually, everybody is exhausted! XD

42. It’s really interesting how Senku chooses his scruples XD But it’s nice to think that he’s usually a very ethical person (not being cool with Gen using blank paper to motivate everybody) and saves his evil side for when he’s trying to win a bloodless war (the fake Lilian plan) :)

43. I really like that he went to Yuzuriha again for the department store! :D Ah, so Yuzuriha and Kinro and Ginro are friendly enough to be familiar with each other; that’s great! :) And of course, Taiju would be totally used to this side of Yuzuriha! :D

44. Ruri, Kinro, Suika... they were either embarrassed or awkward, but Kaseki walked like a pro! I’m guessing that they asked the villagers to be their models because the modern era folks would be the main target audience for that modern clothing :)

45. Oh, Ryusui... Oh, Senku and Gen... I suppose it all worked out in the end...? XD

46. Whoa, Chrome just up and RAN as soon as he heard about the flying machine! Wait, why didn’t Senku tell him sooner?! XD

47. Senku with his hot-air balloon mathematics... :O Suika and Ginro are acting like sewing is so normal for them; Ginro doesn’t even look like he’s paying full attention but he’s still really fast and productive! After sewing hard leather all the time, it must be really easy for Suika and Ginro and the others to sew soft cloth! :)

48. Gen’s playing cards for the hot air balloon theory have “Theory of Evolution” and “Natural Selection” written on them; haha! XD

49. “You’ll never get a platinum ticket like that again” - intriguing word choice... :D

50. Taiju, that’s a very, very good question... XD

51. Chrome RAN all the way from Ishigami Village to the kingdom of science’s new headquarters... AND he drew the right card through willpower alone! (Cough, cough; Gen totally didn’t influence that at all...) He’s so happy! :D

52. They’re flying; they’re flying! :O Kasek’s so happy that he cried, and he made ME cry, too! :’) And Chrome so, so, happy... this is an amazing moment for him; for all of them... :)

53. Chrome’s so happy about being amongst the birds! :) But Senku... not so much... wow, that was like a Matrix-style dodge from Senku! His reflexes ain’t bad! :O

54. Ah, so Ishigami Village is a two-day walk away if you’re REALLY in a rush, like Chrome was... and two hours away by hot-air balloon! :)

55. Ooh, Ryusui just called Chrome an AMATEUR adventurer! Those are fightin’ words! :O I really like that Chrome dropped some knowledge about the wind and rivers to back up his status as an EXPERIENCED land adventurer! :D

56. The big antagonist for this special is... a dragon-shaped cumulonimbus cloud XD And, wow, they’re really lucky to be able to keep their balance inside that wildly flying hot-air balloon! :O

57. Oh, Chrome has faced - and run away from - a black/grey bear, with Mister Bear running at 50 kilometers per hour and Mister Chrome running at 30 kilometers per hour... :O And he sort of used his land experience to help him in the air! :)

58. Wow, the revival fluid is helping them even now... and SENKU was blasted out of the hot-air balloon! Scary! :O

59. They did it! They defeated Mister Cumulonimbus! :D And... Senku, with his poor stamina, is still hanging outside the hot-air balloon! XD

60. Aww, Kohaku’s there with the flag! :) And she’s amazed that they’re flying! :O She said Chrome and Ryusui’s names quietly, but she shouted happily and waved when it came to Senku’s name! :D

61. Maybe they were all just taking a break or something, but it’s really nice that everybody was gathered there near Gen and the cell phone, as if they were all waiting for news for the hot-air balloon crew’s safe arrival! :)

62. Nice jump from Kohaku! :O Very twirly! Oh, so it was Ukyo who called Gen! And I’m glad the explanation for the cards and the nature of choice was show here, just at the end :)

63. Chrome was acknowledged by Ryusui as a fellow PROFESSIONAL adventurer! :D And a high- uh, middle-five AND a fist bump between them? Nice! :D And... Senku’s STILL hanging from outside the hot-air balloon, hahaha! XD

64. Senku and Chrome are excited to learn more about the world, Ryusui will take them where they need to go, and Kohaku and Ukyo are eager for them to descend to Ishigami Village! :D Our next goal is to make a map... and after that, to find oil! Congratulations to Ryusui on his (unpetrified) television debut! :O This was a marvelous TV special! ^_^ (And I can FINALLY watch Season Three, yay! :D)

https   ://   fireflyhwufanficwriter   .   tumblr   .   com   /   MyDrStoneEpisodeMangaThoughts

[longhands-the-second]

Thoughts on volume 1 (disorganized and very sparse, I don’t have the brain capacity for meta this week)

Greetings everybody! I probably won’t be super insightful or anything but I’d really like to have conversations with people (can’t convert my irl friends no matter how hard I try). I’ve really enjoyed reading about people’s thoughts in the tags this week.

Thank god for the people at trigun overhaul they are saving my ass so much time and money right now. It’s really accessible and I appreciate it very much, that shit could NOT have been easy or quick.

I was really iffy on Nightow’s style for a long time, but it’s growing on me pretty quickly. There’s something about that 90s style of manga I was never quite sure about, but Vash’s babygirl eyes are winning me over.

Manga Vash just kind of feels different already? He’s still Vash obv but he feels more blue as opposed to maybe a warmer color. There’s a palpable melancholy about him and it’s making me feel weird. Kind of like I’m seeing the reality of his character and situation? (*I should mention that I’m basing my picture of him on all animated material + a decent amount of manga spoilers.) Maybe part of that is the kind of baby face he has here. He looks younger but seems older? His eyes feel different. It’s the lashes, probably. He looks like a wet cat in a lot of these drawings because of those eyes.

Odds are decent that I’m just weird emotionally right now lol. Probably good this is scheduled to be read slowly instead of all at once. Maybe this is just putting into perspective that his Antics are for his own sanity as much as his image. I, too, make jokes to ignore the Existential Dread. He is more often visibly upset without the theatrics.

WAHOO! (<- obligatory Dante comparison)

Gonna flat color some pages. I have to get it out of my system. It’s killing me they’re like coloring pages I MUST.

The Plants are good and proper fucked up here, aren’t they. I see why Trimax people make Vash an eldritch monstrosity. Very excited to see how much of that is based in canon. Also, wings! (I am going to be normal about this (<- lying)).

Not to homestuck post on the trigun blog but Vash and Knives are so hope/rage coded. Could make an argument for like 4 different classpects for both of them but I’m not that dedicated. This isn’t related to the specific thing we’re reading, it's just on the brain right now. It’s a fun way to think about how character philosophies/personalities interact with each other.

Volume 1 complete! I like Meryl a lot more here. 98 gave me the wrong impression, I think, so seeing this stuff in its original context makes more sense. More often I find myself thinking “oh, that’s more reasonable than I thought.”

Overall I'm enjoying the manga more than I enjoyed my 98 rewatch so far. Once we get into the Meat I’ll probably like it more than Stampede (idk we’ll find out). It’s generally pretty rare for me to like manga more on account of whatever flavor of neurodivergent I am making it fucking impossible to focus on reading long enough for it to not be word soup. Knowing as much as I do about the adaptations is definitely helping with the reading comprehension.

Anyway, I've started coloring a few pages and I might start doing at least one or two per volume if time permits. Got carried away with these ones though. I’ll post them to the tag later.

[abarbaricyalp]

Hey! I absolutely adore your fanfics and I've started to come up with ideas for my own fics but somehow I'm stuck at actually writing them down in a fully formed version, I just have vague plot ideas and moments I want to happen in the fic but actually transforming it into a fanfic feels impossible to me -- I have a few lines here and there written out, but those are just tiny scenes. Maybe I just lack the creative drive and I'm simply not a writer. Still, I wanted to ask, do you have any advice for anyone who wants to get into fanfic writing? Where do you draw inspiration from?

Thank you so much for such kind words! I'm so glad my stories resonate with you! ❤️ And it's so exciting to hear that you're venturing into your own story making 🎉🎉🎉🎉

I've been thinking about this question since I saw it and I think my answer boils down to "you have to train your brain to be open and be thinking constantly." (Of course, by constantly, I don't mean you have to be taxing and straining yourself every single moment) Being a writer feels like a full time job (or hobby!) sometimes because my brain is always going. Does that streetlight inspire something? Is that weird tree a candidate for a new character? Was that joke funny enough to use in a fic? Do I wanna set something in an antique store just to include this weird timelessness vertigo I have? I'm gonna take a picture of that "cow crossing" road sign to use later.

I have been writing for as long as I can remember. I have distinct memories of being five years old and squirreling away stories in drawers all over the house. I've always been a voracious reader. My inner voice never stops. And my imagination has always been stronger than my attention span 😄 All of this to say, it feels like stories come pretty naturally to me, but that's because I've been making them up my whole life. I'm very sorry if this is not so helpful.

One starting point I've often come back to (even as a long time writer) is to WRITE stories the way you TELL stories. How do you talk to your family or friends when you're recounting an event? That's telling stories. How would you explain something you saw to someone taking a statement? That's telling stories. How do you recap an episode of TV or a book you read? That's telling stories. Sure, it's not as flashy and verbose as some written fiction, but it's still telling stories. And you may find that that is a voice you relate to as you're writing. Plenty of authors have a straight forward style. The more you stretch that story telling muscle, the more likely you are to find the rhythm of the story and your voice. If you're finding it difficult or daunting to write down a whole idea at once or you can't find the link between A and D, write down how you would describe it to someone. Nothing ever has to be a final draft, certainly not a first draft.

Similarly, start small. I can't tell you how many of my stories began as single lines of dialog or a quick scene image. It's totally fine to write 50, 100, 200, 300 words because that small aspect interested you. (It's fine to post that! If that's all you want to say or share about it!) I have a whole file of small moments like that, which I go through every now and then to see if the rest of the story has found me yet. Quite often, I think you may find that as you sit with a line or an image for a while, something else is going to slot into place. Maybe not the exact next line, maybe just a plot idea, maybe a character dynamic or new relationship. Let these things come to you. Or write down your idea and then just keep typing, even if it makes no sense. Writing is kind of like fishing sometimes. I just keep casting my hook out and waving the pole around until it catches on something. (You know, how normal people fish) Inspiration is important, but it's not the be-all and end-all of writing. Unfortunately, it's usually just the bait on the line. Writing can be a bit of work. You have to put in the effort after an idea grabs you and you have to keep writing on your own. There is, unfortunately, no divine delivery most of the time.

Inspiration is one of those things that you have to train your brain for. (Seems counterintuitive, I know) But hear me out: in any given day, an author will experience the same sights, sounds, news, movies, songs, and phenomena that every else around them does. Any of those things can trigger you into saying, "wait, this could be a story." I have plenty of posts on here where I talk about AUs based on movies or songs or video games because at the moment it struck me that this situation could be repurposed for a fic or a story. Interacting with other art in the world and learning to recognize tropes, emotional triggers, arcs, plots, conflicts etc etc and then how to play with and break them is definitely one way to train yourself to be open to Inspiration and new ideas.

Once you do have an idea, write it down. I promise you will not remember it, no matter how cool it was. Keep some paper or a designated notes app for these things. Be as thorough or vague as you like. I have so many random lines, character names, AUs, plots, and images saved. Ponder these things, especially if you're really grabbed by one. Think about what you would like to see with it. Who else is filling out the space? What is the end goal? Writing is full of big questions that may be answered easily, may need to be forced through, or may need to sit back and rest for a moment. I wish I had better advice here, but it really is just that sitting with your inspiration for a while can help your ideas so much, especially if you're stuck. Ideas want to talk to you. They (you) just need to find the words.

So inspiration doth strike. Now what? Like I said, now is the work. A whole fic will likely never come to you all at once. Take what you know of the fic-- your lines, your images, your trope etc-- and write them out. Then begin making the connective webs inbetween. This where the verbal story telling comes in. Quick lines often blossom into full scenes. Even if they don't, no biggie. You're learning the story here. You're getting to know it. You wouldn't expect to understand a person fully upon just meeting them. I've even created outlines before with my big ideas, then just kept getting more specific in the subheadings until much of the full plot was there and waiting.

This takes practice. Finding (and trusting) your creative voice is a skill that can be worked out the same as any muscle, but you do have to put in some hard work with slow results. Don't be afraid to backspace or go in a different direction. I can't tell you how many of my stories were supposed to be one thing but ended up going in a completely different direction to great results. Tell It To The Bees was supposed to be a quick, goofy Three (or five) And One story about Bucky getting caught talking to the bees, very silly and light, but once I started writing it, it became such a different story and I think it's so much better for it. Inspiration, imagination, interest, and desire are all working in tandem (or fighting) as you write. Along with learning to be open to inspiration, you must also learn to listen to these instincts as you write. Which really just takes practice and trust. I'm sure you are already in tune with these things inside of you. Let them roam as you write too.

It sounds like your creative voice is awake and kicking! Now it's just about putting in work-- pay attention to the world and art around you, write often and badly and slowly and smally, and figure out what connective webbing looks like for you. Stories really are living things. You have to give them the space, attention, resources, and love to grow, and you have to help them along. Don't be discouraged that you're just beginning this journey but can't sprint to the finish line right now. Writers are also living things, who need space, attention, resources, and love to grow 😊 Just keep writing and taking risks and you'll see a pay off.

Oh! And READ! READ EVERYTHING. Creativity rarely grows in a vacuum. You have to see good art to make good art. You won't know what possibilities are unless you're out seeing what other people are doing. A certain turn of phrase, a camera movement, character interactions, descriptions, these all can inspire you or just give you the knowledge and confidence to grow as a writer. Read everything you want, watch everything you like, listen to music and pay attention to the lyrics or the instrumentals, devour podcasts and news stories, go to art museums and make up stories to go along with the pictures. The whole world is there to teach you and help you grow.

[machine-saint]

art is about communication

i'm sure people have come up with this take before, and i'm sure there's some kind of counterexample someone can come up with, but.

if i open up ms paint, pick a color at random, draw a single pixel, and close it, it's conceivable that i could construct an image that's similar, or even identical to, Sample (which is a single red pixel). but it wouldn't be the same art, because the entire point of Sample is that i computed that color in a very specific way, and it's one single pixel for a very specific reason.

similarly, if i go to midjourney and type in "anime girl" and just go with the first result, i'm not really communicating much other than "i like looking at anime girls". but consider this image:

when i made tired weapon, i was going for a very specific aesthetic: someone (or something) that was made to kill, is very good at killing, is very tired of killing, but will keep doing it anyway. and i had to do a lot of iteration to get to that point (maybe 60-80-ish iterations over an hour), including stuff like tweaking the facial expression because other variations were more "excited" than i wanted, and adjusting the CFG scale to give it that 'sketchy' look. so this is communicating more than some generic "anime girl" picture would. i had something in mind, and i wanted it to come out a very specific way.

i think this is at the root of why the "is AI art art" question arises: historically, most people that were able to generate images at the level of technical skill most generators can exhibit did it because they, or the people paying them, want to communicate something. and developing that technical skill lets you communicate more effectively.

it's like photography (yeah, yeah, i know the comparison is stale). a lot of people take photos only to help remember a moment or to show someone else that moment (they're the same thing; 'you in the future' is basically someone else), without paying much attention to what the photo communicates: the framing, the composition, and so on. but some people take photographs in much more detailed ways, posing and adjusting settings and so on. there's more of a communicative intent here.

we can see something similar with the everyword twitter bot, which tweeted, as the name implies, every word in the English language. none of the tweets really communicate much, per se. but when someone RTs the bot, the develops its own meaning, and that meaning is influenced by the fact that it's an RT from a bot. consider the semantic difference between someone tweeting "women" and someone RTing the everyword tweet containing the word "women". i find myself unable to elaborate on what it is, but it's there.

so i guess what i'm trying to say is: yeah, a lot of ai-generated art is boring "generic attractive woman" stuff that doesn't have a lot to say. but all ai art still has a human typing in the prompt, and it's the human that's being boring.

[hospitalterrorizer]

diary332

8/17/24

saturday

almost 11 pm and sleepayyy.

i did not watch nosferatu today... and i needed to prepare chicken but i did not...

but i did work on music, i sorted out a plugin issue hopefully... hopefully.... makes me feel crazy that stuff... and i read a little tiny bit so hopefully i can carry that into tomorrow. my cousin reached out, we talked for a bit, and i'm gonna call my mom tomorrow!! that's exciting.

tomorrow i'll do nosferatu and a short, and get some drums down in songs... yeah ... that sounds like a good idea. today i got a guitar sound a little better, less, i dunno... lame sounding maybe,

listening to this now:

fun ep, it'd be cool to get a guitar sound like this... i guess i could probably try to make some stuff a little gnarlier, post-amplifier stage and stuff... some more... grodyness. hard to figure out how to do that,

oh and i learned a new word today, i should have learned two but the other's eluding me now so i need to put it here tomorrow... oh and my selfies... that's tomorrow too. i'm too sleepy now. the new word from today is asterism(s), which is not a synonym for constellation but a word for things like the big dipper, a broader idea about groupings of stars. there's something super poetic about how close it is to "spasms," to me.

the story i read in dennis cooper's book today made me think about things losing connection to all else, here is one tiny quotation:

"they were no more his cast-offs than a stripper's fallen thong and tassels are mementos of the single mother forced to peel to pay her bills, and even to identify them would be like trying to assign rain puddles to their rightful cloud."

things bloated with thought and history and then that all turning to bile and digesting it almost, connection to others, it's all just distance, you're distant to yourself. of course, here in the story, it's about a group of men who murder boys because they find it sexy, and they eat them, and it's narrated by someone who speaks with such distance and cleverness about everything so as to be beyond it almost, or to draw the body into that region of elaboration and articulation, the delicate tendons of speech and fingers.

another quotation before bed:

"i could have sworn they weren't the same eyes he had always used on me, or, since they had to share the same orbs, that the relationship between them and his ego was entirely technical, as in the case of people who are blind but stubbornly refuse to wear dark glasses."

interesting how he finds ways to travel through these themes and particular framings of these themes, images, and so on.

i'm so tired though, so it's hard to get into all of that...

so

byebye!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!