#might actually redo the walls again

[eff-plays]

And I try ... oh my god do I try ...

[thebiggestmenace]

mmm I love me some organizing :)

[lillaydee]

Uncoupled - November

Roommate! Joel Miller / Reader

Two people leaving their marriages ended up going through the mandatory one year separation together before filing for divorce.

Nothing could possibly happen in a year, right?

WARNINGS: Alternate Universe - No Cordyceps Outbreak (The Last of Us), Ellie & Joel Bonding (The Last of Us), Good Parent Joel (The Last of Us), Soft Joel (The Last of Us), Joel Needs a Hug (The Last of Us), Hurt Joel (The Last of Us), Protective Joel (The Last of Us), No age gap, Roommate Joel, Teacher Joel, Handyman Joel, Insecure Joel, Minor Character Death, Grief/Mourning.

SERIES MASTER LIST

October Part 2

---

‘You went and got yourself a family?’

‘It’s only been four months.’

‘We’re not even divorced yet, Joel’

‘What the fuck were you thinking?’

‘How could you do this to me? To us?’

You saw his laugh-filled face turn. “Everything okay?”

He showed you his phone, annoyance all over his previously happy face. Get your phone, he said.

You went into your bedroom where your phone was charging. It was dangerously low on battery, having taken pictures and videos of Ellie all night long. You unlocked it, seeing the torrent of messages from Max. “Joel,” you called. He immediately came over. You sat on your bed, him next to you, looking at the texts together.

They’re basically the same texts. The two pictures, and one-sentenced questions and insults thrown your way, questioning how you could move on so quickly, and of all the people in this world, why did it have to be Joel? What did Joel have that he didn’t? Why would you play happy family with Joel and not him?

You just felt tired. You dropped onto your back, laying in your bed staring at the ceiling. Joel laid on his belly next to you, fingers nudging your elbow, asking you what you were thinking about.

“Don’t you find it odd? They didn’t want us. I firmly believe Max hated me. No sane person would treat someone they loved the way Max treated me. We made things easy for them. We left. They’re free to be together. I don’t even check on him anymore. I don’t care, I genuinely don’t care what happens to him anymore. And yet, a couple of innocent pictures like that came out, and they flip out, cry victim. Why are we doing this to them? Us? We are the bad people now?”

He sighed, playing with a loose strand of thread on your t-shirt. “I have a feeling she will show up soon. Either at school or somewhere she knows I might be at. I know you don’t want to know what’s going on with Max, but Jen moved in with him. Tommy told me. She called one of the contractors he worked with for a quote. She wanted to redo his house.”

You scoffed. “Good luck with that, Jen. Max hates change. Flowers on the table needed to be of a specific type on specific days. Bathrooms needed to be cleaned a certain way. Everything needed to be just so. You have no idea how liberating it was to just wake up in the morning and leave and not worry about changing the sheets first. Can you imagine what he would have said if I even suggested we knock a fucking wall down?”

Joel didn’t say anything. He just stared at you, his chin in the crook of his elbows.

“Then again,” you sighed, “Maybe he loves her enough to not make her do all that. Maybe he loves her enough to let her knock the whole fucking house down and rebuild from scratch. Maybe he made me do all those things to force himself to love me. Maybe I’m so ugly to him, so unlovable, he needed the house to be fucking perfect to even stand to look at me. Jen’s gorgeous, so maybe he didn’t need her to do all that cause unlike with me, he can stand to look at her, maybe he is actually in love with her.”

You didn’t know where that came from, but your tears came pouring out, and you turned away from Joel to face the pillows, covered your face with one and just sobbed. You felt him hug you from behind.

“You are not unlovable. You are beautiful, inside and out. I can tell you right now, you are so much more beautiful than Jen will ever be, and Max is an idiot for treating you like that.”

You turned in his arms, looking up at him, your face splotchy with snot and tears. “You really think so?” you asked, your chest heaving from your sobs.

“Of course, you are perfect. Any man worth his salt would be lucky to have you. And Max is not worth a grain,” he wiped the snot and tears off your face with his bare hand, kissing the top of your head.

As touched as you were by his coaxing, your face just contorted into an ugly sob again, and you buried your face in his chest, sobbing again. “Thank you Joel, I’m so lucky I have you in my life. You’re a Godsend. The best friend anyone could ever hope for.”

He rubbed your back, telling you everything will be okay. He continued doing so until you calmed down, which was a lot easier, you found, with his arms surrounding you. His body was warm, his voice and touches soothing, his scent calming.

“Jen is an idiot of gigantic proportions for ever treating you the way she did. If I had someone like you for a husband, I would never let you go. You’re so nice, Joel. You will make some very lucky lady very happy one day, and I just know that she would be a hundred times more of a woman than Jen would ever be, cause that’s what you deserve. A good, beautiful woman with the heart of gold. Cause you are a good, beautiful man with a heart of gold yourself, and you deserved someone who will love you for who you are and appreciate everything you have to offer.”

He smiled at you, mouthing thank you, hugging you one more time.

He left your room when you fell asleep, making sure there was a pillow under your head and covering you with a blanket. He laid on his too small princess bed as he always did, thinking about what you said to him.

He’s a good man. He deserved someone good. Someone who appreciated him.

You also called him ‘the best friend anyone could ever hope for’.

He had been telling himself all the fantasies he had of being a family with you and Ellie was a projection of his fantasy, one that happened simply because he was finally living in a place where he was welcomed, liked, and appreciated, unlike his marital home. He didn’t really have any feelings for you, he was in fantasy land.

But now he knew it didn’t matter if the feelings he may or may not have for you was real.

You didn’t feel the same way.

But he’s telling himself he didn’t mind. He’ll keep telling himself that. He wanted you and Ellie in his life, so he will be your best friend forever, because that’s clearly what you needed from him. He’ll give it to you, even if you found someone, even if it hurt.

He’ll take whatever form of you he could get.

**********

You were just leaving the bakery to pick Ellie up from school when the front door jingled. Must be Frank’s 3.00pm appointment, you thought. You quickly tidied up the table a bit, refilled and turned on the diffuser for the clients, and grabbed your coat from the hook. Frank came in, looking a bit hesitant, telling you the clients wanted to see you instead of him.

“Why? You’re the cake master. I just bake them, you decorate them.”

“It’s Jen and Max.”

Fuck. Me.

“There’s something else.”

“What now?”

“The appointment…” he sighed, “It’s for an engagement cake.”

You rolled your eyes. “Send them in in 2 minutes.”

You called Joel. “I need your help,” you told him. “Can you pick up Ellie and bring her here? Straight into my office. And don’t react negatively. You’ll see why.”

The awesome man that he was, he just said okay and hung up. You hung your coat back up and waited in your office.

After your talk that Halloween night you and Joel made the decision to ignore the loving couple’s harassment of the two of you. Tell them nothing, say nothing, give them nothing. Responding would give them satisfaction. Giving them any form of answer would give them satisfaction. A peace of mind. Nope. They cheated on the two of you. They had their peace of mind then. This time, you two get to have the peace of mind. It’s your time. Not theirs. The world doesn’t revolve around what Jen and Max needed. Maybe sometimes, it should revolve around you and Joel.

Frank knocked twice and opened the door to your office. You stood up, a huge smile on your face.

“Hi Max,” you said, giving him a quick peck on his cheek, “Hi, I’m Lily, I think we met like what… five years ago? We were both newlyweds then, weren’t we?” You took Jen’s hand in yours, shaking it gently. You went back to your seat, offering them to take a seat in front of you.

They looked like they were caught off-guard. But they did sit down. You opened your sketch book and pushed the iPad towards them, pictures upon pictures of cakes of various designs and colours on them.

“Now, as I understand it, you’re interested in ordering a cake?”

Max cleared his throat, having been stunned into silence by your friendliness. “Yes, an engagement cake, actually.”

“Oh… for the two of you?”

Jen looked smug, lifting her left hand, a giant diamond adorning her ring finger.

“Oh, wow,” you cooed, “Congratulations! You must be very happy!”

They smiled, albeit a little uncomfortably, Jen offering her hand to Max, who didn’t notice, until you pointed it out. He reluctantly took it, kissing it once and looking back at you, a forced smile on his face.

“So,” you said, scrolling through the iPad, “Generally, engagement cakes are a bit simpler than wedding ones, but you have so many choices to choose from. Prices and prep time would differ according to size and design, obviously. When will you be needing the cake?”

Max looked at Jen, who sat up a bit straight and told you in seven days. You tapped on the iPad, put on your best thinking face and told them you might not have the time to complete an elaborate cake for them by then, but perhaps a simple one?

The two of them were really weirded out, you could tell. You clicked on a simple cake and showed them the picture, telling them you could probably get something like that ready in the time they needed it, or, at best… you swiped a few times and showed them another one, a little bit more elaborate but still a simple one, nonetheless.

Just then, the front door jingled, and Ellie’s shrill voice came calling. Her footsteps coming closer and closer, followed by a pair of heavier ones, telling her to slow down. The door to your office burst open, and Ellie came flying in, giving you a hug. Joel followed, carrying her jacket in his hand.

“Lily, sorry, she wouldn’t stop… oh, hi. What are you two doing here?” Joel came inside, walking over to you, bending down and giving you a quick peck on the cheek. “Hello,” he said to you.

You smiled sweetly at him. “They’re here to look at engagement cakes, they’re engaged!”

“Oh, really? Congratulations!” he offered a hand to Max, and went over to kiss Jen on the cheek, cooing at the gigantic rock she had on her finger. He came back round and unwrapped Ellie from you, asking you if it’s okay for him to maybe give her a sweet treat? You told him there are some caramel puddings out front, warning Ellie she could only have one! The little girl bargained for three, but Joel lifted her up by her middle and carried her out like a piece of board, reiterating one! She squealed with laughter as he closed the door behind him, giving you a wink as he did so.

“Sorry about that,” you told them. “So, what do we think? Simple cake enough?”

They just looked very uncomfortable, looking at each other, their faces so tightly wound you thought they might actually just start screaming at you. But Max just stood up and said they’ll have to think about it, telling Jen to get up and putting his coat back on.

“Well, let me know if you change your mind!” you chirped. Jen looked like she wanted to slap you in the face. But you just smiled ever so sweetly at her, congratulating her again. Max barked her name at her, and she turned and followed him out.

You went out with them, Joel helping Ellie open the pudding he had taken out of the fridge and handing her a spoon on one of the tables. The bakery was empty, save for a couple customers buying some pastries, the lunch rush long over, and the next rush won’t be happening until five. You sat down with them, handing Joel a bottle of water and Ellie a juice box, as Max and Jen left. You thanked them for coming, waving them goodbye. Joel tipped an imaginary hat at them, also with a smile on his face. Ellie, though, waited until they left and blew a raspberry at the door.

You could see from your periphery that they were still in front of the door, having a heated discussion with each other. You mumbled this information to Joel, who nodded and said he will keep on smiling, wiping some pudding off Ellie’s face before sticking the straw of the juice box into it.  

Sure enough, within minutes, the door jingled again, the two of them coming back in, this time with an angry look on their faces. You straightaway asked Tess to take Ellie to your office, asking them what you could do for them, have they decided on what cake they wanted?

“Oh stop it, Lily. You can drop the act now.”

“What act, Max?”

“Oh, don’t play dumb,” Jen spat out. “We know you guys are just waiting to come crawling back to us.”

“Were we?” Joel asked you. You shrugged. That’s news to you.

Max took a deep breath, ran his hand through his hair and sat down in front of you and Joel.

“I don’t get it. Why are you two leaving us?”

“Oh God, are we back here again?”

“Seriously. What happened? You were more than happy with our arrangement and then poof, you were gone. No explanation, just… packed up and left.”

“Max,” Joel started, lacing his own fingers together in front of him on the table, “Generally, people don’t like it when their spouses cheated on them, or treated them horribly.”

“But we didn’t cheat!” Jen defended. “We had an open relationship. You knew this. You agreed to it!”

“No… you two had an open relationship. We didn’t.” You were just fed up at this point. “And just so you know, we were never happy with the arrangement. And let’s not pretend that you were just starting a relationship after said arrangement. You’d been cheating on us for years!”

“What we don’t get is,” Joel said, “Why are you two so insistent on us going back to you? You hated us. Treated us like second class citizens in our own homes. Openly bragged about how much you loved each other. Now, you can finally be together, for real, heck, you are engaged now, you finally got someone who’s of your own class, Jen, why would you want a pauper like me back? Or what was it you called me? A cuck, yes, that was it.”

You blood boiled when you heard that. “She called you what?”

Joel raised his eyebrows at you. You snapped your head at Jen, and she took a step back as if you had just slapped her.

“You called him a cuck? Why? Because he was gentle with you? Because he didn’t beat the living shit out of you for treating him like trash?”

She didn’t say anything.

“Are you seriously defending him right now?” Max piped up.

“Maybe if you had defended her, if you had tried to treat her right, build her up instead of push her down, she wouldn’t have left.”

Max stared at Joel, seething, but knew he couldn’t say anything back to him.

“Look, just leave. You’re engaged, you’re happy, let us be happy. In eight months, this will all be over, and we don’t have to see each other anymore. You went through the last few years avoiding us at all costs, going so far as kicking us out of our bedrooms. So why beg us to stay now? Just live your lives, the ones you had always dreamed of. Leave us be.”

“Really, congratulations on your engagement, we are happy for you. But we left for a reason, we are not going back. We are happy now. We respect each other, treat each other right, so go, live your lives. Without us.” Joel really sounded tired right now.

Max stood up, shaking his head.

“No, we have eight months. We’re not giving up. We will get back together Lily. We were together for 15 years. You don’t just throw that away.”

“No, you threw that away, the moment you decided you were too good for me. I was too shabby for you. Too fat, too ugly, too domestic, nothing I ever did was good enough, so maybe I had enough and grew a spine, and now that I stood up for myself you didn’t like that? Well too bad.”

“You two just moved on, in four months you just moved on, got yourselves a family and moved on. Who does that?” Jen shook her head.

“Is that so weird? You two moved on while you were still married,” Joel reminded her.

“Exactly, we are still married, Joel, and you two went ahead and played happy family together. Gigi told me you pick up her child from school? You’re playing Daddy now?”

“So what if I am, Jen? Is the idea of me being so happy so bad for you? Let’s face it. The two of you don’t want us back because you love us, you want us back because there’s no one for you to bully anymore, to let your frustrations out on anymore, to be smug at anymore. You two deserve each other. And we sincerely wish you all the happiness in the world. Now, please leave, I need to get Ellie home.”

You stood up, Joel immediately pulling you to his side.

The two looked at each other, looked at you and Joel, and finally left.

Your hands were shaking. Joel pulled you into a hug, telling you they were gone, don’t worry, he won’t let them bother you anymore. You let him hold you, silently crying into his chest, letting him stroke your hair.

By the time you pulled yourself off him, you saw that his own eyes were red. Despite the emotions the two of you went through just then, you two felt completely calm now. You sat back down, your hands in each other’s, taking deep long breaths, nodding at each other, glad you each had the other for support at times like that.

No words were needed between the two of you. Both of you knew exactly what the other was feeling. Both of you going through the exact same turmoil inside.

Behind the swinging doors leading to the back of the bakery, Tess and Frank quietly watched the two of you calm each other down. They looked at each other, a plan hatching in their heads. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Synchronized nods were shared.

**********

“Hey, so this weekend? The long weekend? I was thinking – Andy and I are going to visit her folks at the ranch. Can we take Ellie with us? She would love it there. It’s so beautiful. Her folks have been dying to meet her. She would love all the horses and animals there.”

You and Joel looked at each other. He had brought up the idea to take Ellie to the zoo that weekend, but the idea of her being at a ranch sounded more interesting, and she would really love that rather than spend three days at home doing nothing else. But you didn’t know if you were ready to be separated from her for three whole days.

“Erm, I don’t know. I wouldn’t want to impose…”

“You’re not,” Andy quickly countered. “My parents have been begging me to bring her. We don’t have kids, my brothers live so far away, and my sister’s kids are all too grown or too uninterested in the ranch, so… they’re really excited to have her over. Please?”

“You need to ask her…”

“Ellie, would you like to come with me and Andy to the ranch this weekend? We can play with horses! There are donkeys too!”

“Really? Please Beans? Please Joel? Can I go?”

Before you knew it, it was Thursday evening, and Ellie was waiting by the door with her small suitcase, excited to go play with horses and donkeys and alpacas at Andy’s parents’ ranch. You and Joel watched helplessly as Tess lugged the suitcase onto the bed of her truck, Andy strapping Ellie in the back seat. The little girl was practically vibrating with excitement, squirming away from the super tight hugs you and Joel gave her. You somehow managed to control your emotions until they drove out of sight before crying your eyes out, Joel soothing you, he himself holding back tears at the prospect of not seeing the little girl for three days.

Dinner was a quiet affair that night, ordering Chinese and eating in front of the TV, both of you just picking at your food, wondering what Ellie was doing at that very moment. Tess had officially banned you from calling anymore that night, telling you she will send pictures and you were allowed one Facetime a day. No more. Even Joel got yelled at when he tried to call instead – she said you were banned, not him. Turned out, that meant him too.

By 9pm, you couldn’t take it anymore. You told Joel you needed a distraction. He needed to entertain you for three days so you don’t spend them weeping over Ellie having fun at the ranch. Joel smiled, okay, what do you want to do?

You gave him a cheeky smile.

**********

When Sunday evening came, the two of you waited at the door as Tess drove up, arms around each other, telling Ellie you had some good news for her. Tess and Andy looked elated. “It worked!” Andy told Tess.

“Come on, we’ll tell you out back,” you said, as Joel lifted Ellie up and brought her inside. Tess and Andy quickly followed, Andy Facetiming Frank for the big reveal. “I think it worked! They said they had some good news to tell Ellie!” she told him. Frank squealed into the phone, calling for Bill to come join the Facetime. Tess already had Maria and Tommy on Facetime too, telling them to be quiet.

They went out back, phones out to record this historic moment for Maria, Tommy, Frank and a very grumpy Bill to see.

The backyard looked different. There were planter boxes along the fence, a firepit freshly dug and put in, and the old furniture had been spruced up and painted. And the big reveal, there was a swing set for Ellie, who screamed with joy, immediately squirming to get down from Joel’s arms, climbing on to the set to take her first ride, you pushing her gently from behind. Higher Beans, higher!

Tess walked up to Joel. This was what the two of you did for three days?

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Joel said, his phone out, recording the moment.

Tess went back to Andy and Facetime Frank, Maria and Tommy, all five of them looking like Christmas was cancelled. Only Bill seemed unphased.

“The fuck?” Tommy said, “Three days alone, don’t go out on a date or anything, go build a fucking backyard!”

“I know right? Who does that?”

“I told you,” Bill said. “Leave them be. It’ll happen.”

“Were we wrong? Do they not like each other like that?”

But looking at Joel’s face as he recorded you and Ellie, the six of them knew they were on the right track. And seeing the way you looked at Joel as you pushed Ellie on the swing, they knew they were definitely not wrong.

They just needed to try again, harder this time.

---

December Part 1

[jam-showtoonz]

Ruin Eclipse!! (My au)

[before someone yells at me, when I make mistakes I can’t undo them if they are in pen]

[with this said- I hate how Sun looks and will probably redo this at some point]

Have some lore too-

Ruin still has his Sun & Moon in his head, they can’t take full control but they can see through his eyes and sometimes even talk through him. The only person they ever talked to was Solar.

Sun has a plushie addiction that Ruin fully indulges in, Moon doesn’t mind too much. He just wishes sun wouldn’t make a big seen.

Moon talks the least outwardly and often has Ruin tell what he is saying.

Both Sun & Moon have their own rooms within the mindscape. Suns room has a hammock as well as a load of plushies and pillows and pictures on the walls, whilst Moon has a kind of nest bed with a ton of blankets and pillows, he also has a crap ton of video games that he and Sun play on occasion.

Ruin was actually hesitant when it came to his plan as he knew Solar would die, he tried everything he could to try and make it so Solar wouldn’t but he couldn’t find anything. Up until the day he executed his plan, he drove himself insane trying to think of something, sometimes even thinking about not doing it.

Unfortunately, he was hit with the awful truth that if he didn’t go on with his plan then this Dimension would collapse due to something the creators were doing. So he committed to save them and many more.

After all, what is one life to trillions?

He could save one and let trillions of Dimensions die, including this one, so some mad men could experiment with Wither Storms.

Or

He could save trillions and kill five thousand dimensions, including the person he cares about. The only true friend they have.

He never said anything about this world dieing. Even though it might have given him something- he doesn’t deserve anything, he just killed his only friend.

Sun stopped talking for about a week, leaving Moon as his only company as Sun hid in their room.

Ruin isn’t sure how much longer he can keep his emotionless mask from breaking. He could handle the aftermath of the collapsing dimensions, he couldn’t handle Solar’s death. It doesn’t help that when Sun started talking again they kept asking if what they did was the right thing.

When Solar comes back is when Ruin has a complete mental breakdown, as well as Sun. Moon mostly just stares in utter shock and it’s one of the first times he talks on his own.

((Obviously Solars gonna get home eventually. It just takes awhile.))

[king-bastion]

15 and 9 are incredibly similar

i very rarely post but i haven't seen anyone else talking about it so im gonna do it.

the 9th and 15th doctor are super similar and im kinda down for it. with this new series labeled season one its interesting to see Russell T Davies basically redo series one.

i dont mean to say hes reusing concepts or being unoriginal but a lot of the episodes from series one have a loose equivalent in season one to give a few examples space babies = the worlds end(new companions very first trip is to a far off future to a space station) the devils chord = the unquiet dead(new companions second trip is to the past, there is a famous historical figure there that saves the day instead of the doctor)

basically all the episodes besides the two parter aliens of London and world war three have a episode that thematically rhymes with it. again not to say any of the episodes recycle anything, just that if you boil it down to just the story beats a lot of them follow the same journey.

like i said just loose connections like that where a lot of 9 and 15 stories line up and thats not even bringing the doctor himself into the equation.

but bringing how the doctor acts into the view brings even more similarities they are both obviously gay(rogue and jack(dont tell me 9 and jack were not clearly into each other, i wont hear it)) where as most other doctors tend to fall in the attracted to woman area.

but beyond that 9 and 15 are the only ones who tend to physically express anger. 10-14 all yell and stomp around, sometimes they use weapons and threats and sometimes they follow through with them. but only 9 and 15 have punched a wall out of anger, not hitting the wall to accomplish anything or scare anyone but just because they are mad and they need an outlet for that anger.

this post is already getting long so quick wrap up of small similarities i noticed without sourcing it are, both 9 and 15 are actually good at dancing. both will bring up big threats but actually be unable to follow through with them where i feel other doctors will reluctantly give into violence. 9 and 15 have kind of a similar look when it comes to outfits while 9 only had his signature look 15 changes frequently but the majority of those outfits are leather jackets, not overcoats or tweed or hoodies but leather jackets.

then their the matter of the companion being a 18 year old blond girl whos mom is shown a lot and has a want to go back in time to see a parental figure.

and lastly the single story thread connecting all the episodes with badwolf and susan twist, both those threads lead back to a godlike entity.

anyway to wrap this up i think its interesting that season 1 and series 1 are the same enough to directly compare the two doctors as they go through basically the same story beats and that comparison to show that 15, the "healthiest" doctor, the one who claims to have been through therapy and is more open and vulnerable then any other doctor. is the most like 9, the most unhealthy of the doctors straight out the time war packed with trauma.

ether 9 was really good at masking or 15 might not be as healthy as he claims

[kogameh]

"Angelic Lullaby", aka the supposedly recurring song in AGKokoro

Uh, I figured making a Twitter thread on this would be annoying (word limit/format-wise) so let's talk about it here instead.

You see this page from the first prologue? Yeah. Notice them singing and the music notes around them?

The speech bubbles were supposed to have proper lyrics, written by me. But long story short, I was REALLY under a time crunch and couldn't write one by the time I started the lettering process so I ended up resorting to the "gibberish" text as seen above.

You might also notice some music notes on these two pages---they're intended to play the same music as the page shown earlier.

But obviously, it's difficult to know that by mere texts and images (of course lol), so I'm mentioning it here.

The point is; yes there IS intended to be a recurring song in AGKokoro. You can't hear it. But I HAD plans on making you hear it.

How?

And now the long story:

The initial plan was not only to have the music and lyrics but to release a completely vocalized song with a Vocaloid and even a lyrical MV/PV to go with it, lol. (Yeah I do fuck around with Vocaloids [the software] too if you don't know)

I DID commission the music (since no way I can learn composing within that short of a deadline lol) but the lack of lyrics is the entire reason why I couldn't proceed with the rest of my initial plans.

Unfortunately as my deadline approached fast, all of these ideas had to be canceled and I didn't want to half-ass on any of these so o)-(

So yeah, I ended up laser-focusing on the comic and scrapped the rest haha.

I really meant it when I said my intention in doing the first prologue chapter was showing an amalgamation of EVERYTHING my "useless piece of shit" self could do. out of spite :')

So... yeah! That's how we end up here!

In the end, I still haven't written the intended lyrics for the song. I DO want to get back to it someday and WILL update the pages with the intended lyrics at the very least, haha.

The song is meant to be plot-relevant so I really don't want to half-ass it and prefer the lyrics to sound, well, good, y'know? The only problem is just finding the time for it orz

***

BONUS:

While drafting the pages, I imagined the songs to be something along the lines of Tsubasa wo Daite, Meru's song or Ashita Kuru Hi lol. The commissioned music piece ended up pretty different compared to all of these but it still sounds AMAZING!!

Here's a preview of it if you want to idk, listen with the pages or something.

(It's composed by Enokido-san, thank you for doing my comm!!)

Here's the original artwork intended for the MV/PV. I don't like this art anymore (the anatomy sucks and why is the hair drawn like that) so I really need to draw something new if I end up redoing the PV :3c

"What makes me mention this?"

Apparently Webtoon can put music in their comics and I'm jealous of that but its Webtoon Creators program only so like hell I'm giving the rights of my OCs to them :////

"WHY all of this matters, if at all?"

Because uh, it WILL be mentioned again and it WILL be an important thing to Kureha's character and his....uh. what was his "misfortunes" in the plot again? idk

"WHERE did the music come from anyway?"

Oh you've seen these pocket watches? They're actually music box-inside-pocket-watch kinda thing! Pretty cool, right?

Wow idk if you've read through that but, congrats if you do! Because this WON'T be my last long rambling post about OCs (idk why I haven't done more of it aside from the fact I'll be talking to a wall 99.9% of the time lol)

ANYWAYS YOU CAN READ THE FIRST TWO PROLOGUES OF AGKOKORO HERE IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY

[changelingsandothernonsense]

Wips on Wedsdays

He kiddos, it's actually my Wednesday so imma post a few wips. tagging @thequeenofthewinter @archangelsunited @kookaburra1701 @rhiannon1199 @viss-and-pinegar @saltymaplesyrup @rainpebble3 @throughtrialbyfire @rosette-dragonborn @mareenavee @snippetsrus @snowy-weather No pressure, this is all just for funs <3

We got art and a smidgen of writing:

Starting with a close-up of the tat details in the render I'm working on. This redo that isn't purely a redo is coming along well. Just gotta add three more tattoos and alllllllll of his scars. Full art and a writing snippet under the cut.

IDK I think it's going well so far ;) and a snippet from Sleepers Awake chapter 7

Teldryn hated tombs. He hated tombs, the undead, the fucking bleached ash that covered the floor after centuries of recycling the same old fucking urns! He hated the way the tombs would wind like a maze. These halls had turned him around to the point of utter confusion! Teldryn hated having to enter the halls of the Dunmeri dead. It creeped him out, to put it bluntly. He had complained about this assignment, of course. It was the last thing he expected when Cosades sent him to go meet with a Blades informant who studied over at the Balmora Mages Guild. The old sugar-tooth had been vague about what this might entail. Just telling him that the notes he got from his last mission weren’t fucking enough and he had to go bother some mage about a fucking myth! The Nerevarine, how fucking ridiculous! The expectation with these missions seemed to be something along the lines of ‘a favour for a favour’ and the mage he’d been sent to, an orc named Sham gra-Muzgob was asking one hell of a fucking favour! She was after the skull of some poor sod named Llevule Andrano. That meant he had to break into the Andrano Ancestral Tomb out on the Bitter Coast. Shit was pretty much a one-way ticket to an execution if he was caught. When he’d mentioned that, the woman merely replied- “Then don’t upset the natives when you do it.” Cosades had said this would be a ‘silly little errand’. How the fuck is desecrating the remains of a member of a fucking hugely influential family in House Redoran a silly little errand? Then there was the justification gra-Muzgob gave him for all of this shit. Something about his people’s death practices being primitive, superstitious nonsense. Teldryn had held his tongue as best as he could. The last thing he wanted was to be thrown in fucking Fort Moonmoth again. The shit they did there…he was glad they’d only pulled out his toenails. Teldryn sucked in a deep breath, trying his best to calm his nerves as he stepped into what he hoped was the chamber that this skull was being kept in. “Look for the one with the ritual markings,” he murmured under his breath as he pulled down the old, silk scarf he’d taken from Suran. A keepsake he allowed himself amongst the things of his that his mother managed to save after his grandfather had thrown most of his belongings into the fire. Llaro had really tried to erase his existence entirely. He wanted to shake the hand of the guy who killed the miserable old cunt! Teldryn tapped his fingers on the rough chitin of his pauldron as her scanned the small, sand-coloured room. Carved into the earth thousands of years ago, the clay walls were smooth and rounded around the edges. His eyes fell on what looked like a small altar at the lip of a pool of ashes. An enchanted chitin dagger and a skull with something carved into its forehead, Daedric runes by the looks of it. Red pigment coloured the thin grooves in the bone. It made him shudder as he knelt down by the altar and stared into Llevule Andrano’s hollow eye sockets. He wondered if he should say something before he went and just took the thing. He knew that there was some sermon that one would recite when they visited the dead. Something that eased the ancestor’s spirit of some shit like that. He had never actually listened to what was said in those sermons. Never listened to the shit spoken by the temple priests either. Honestly, he found it boring, preferring instead to disappear into his own head whenever they started to rattle on. Shit was way more entertaining…until his mind became the enemy of course. He longed for that simplicity. Shit was folly. Teldryn wracked his brain for something appropriate to say. Sure, he might not have cared much for the Tribunal’s teachings as a kid but fuck if he wasn’t bitterly fucking aware of how wrong this all seemed. Teldryn sighed as he took the skull into his shaking hands, opting to mutter a simple “Sorry,” to the spirit before he pulled his scarf from around his neck and wrapped the skull in it before he carefully placed it into his pack.

[foxfirexo]

my minecraft base on a server with a couple ppl; i am very proud of how it is turning out, the vibes are cozy and it has very organically expanded over time :3

tiny bit of story feel free to ignore and just scroll past but i feel like oversharing so fuck u (kindly <3)

ive always been pretty creative even if i spent the last decade or so telling myself i wasnt. when i was little it was lego, when i got older it was minecraft (among other things)

but being an audhd transgirl growing up in a very conservative southern baptist household (and as a PK and MK at that ;-;) and whose very existence was just fundamentally at odds with the teachings i was raised, i felt a lot of lot of pressure to suppress any self expression or identity i might have and with that went a lot of my creativity

after all, how am i supposed to be creative without expressing myself? and if ive numbed all the thoughts that i want to share bc they get me in trouble w my parents, what am i supposed to put into my art?

also being told your whole childhood that you're a guy and receiving all that lovely generational societal trauma of male gender roles and expectations really crushed the pointless wonderful meanderings of my mind. god i cringe a bit now(w compassion<3) but i used to brag about how obsessed i was with productivity, efficiency, logic, order but in hindsight i think it was 98% just feeling like i had to be a high achieving eventually bread winning "guy"

anyway as such ive had a very on again off again relationship w minecraft. it was a coping mechanism when i was young so ive put probably a good 5k+ hours into it but it became increasingly difficult to enjoy as i got older and ive gone years at a time never touching the damn game

its funny bc you could probably chart my whole healing journey and my ups and downs of my mental health by just measuring # of hrs spent in mc per month

but very recently ive been finally reaching a point (thank u therapist) that i am allowing myself the joy of self expression, that i am accepting and loving myself without the judgement of my youth holding me back, that i no longer feel like i have to hide myself away for fear of being crushed again because i have the self love to stand on my own two feet no matter what anybody else thinks

as silly as this probably sounds, joining tumblr just over a week ago has actually played a part in this too. ill probably ramble more ab that some other time whenever i feel like oversharing again but suffice it to say that this environment is incredible and everyone on this platform has made me feel so so so comfortable in my own skin being myself sharing my thoughts and feelings and just existing :3

and ya its a bit goofy but im actually seeing this milestone in how im playing minecraft. not only am i playing again (pretty regularly, too!) but im... just fucking around. no plan, no goal, if i have an idea pop into my head i just go out and do it but im equally content to just strip mine, chop trees, tend to my farms, whatever sounds good in the moment.....

and im building again too!!! no worrying about doing it "right", no stressing about wasting time bc i didnt count something right and now i have to move that wall or i changed my mind and now i have to redo all my flooring... just chipping away at it, trying out new blocks or decor ideas, enjoying it more for the process than the finished product and never needing anything to truly be finished

so ya :3 i havent felt this amazing playing minecraft since probably 2014/15 and im super proud of myself for getting to this point, its been a long journey and im by no means done but silly little things like this give me so so so sooo much hope and encouragement ^^

k thats all if u actually read all that im sorry or ur welcome lol

[woof359]

Doing a relisten and I’m fascinated to hear that Doug’s crate was Bolted to the Floor TM and yet he thinks it got ejected into space. Like of all the crates that’s the only one that should be still there.

I have a theory that they had to seal off the storage room permanently because it couldn’t be repressurized with a canon hole in the wall. So they watched A LOT of cargo get dumped into space, Santa letters included, but they can’t redo an inventory of what didn’t fly out into space in a room without oxygen. They’d do a space walk about it and Renee being the only one who’d really care to do that, is so inebriated during this fiasco that they probably don’t actually go in to see what’s left.

His box is bolted down. It’s still there.

And what is in it: The sound of a beating heart? Freezing cold? Emphasis on Reserved? Hmm.

As I remember we never come back to box 953, (I’m also right now years old and realizing that number is 359 backwards…) but it gives a little foreshadowing I feel, knowing about Eiffel’s refreeze adventure down the line. And that could be all it is, just another instance of the station being weird…

But with the existence of Hilbert’s room, I feel that what Goddard Futuristics left for Eiffel might be more significant. It’s something that like the chair, might be intended for Eiffel being alone. Then again, it’s not meant to be opened.

What thing with a beating heart should he never open?

[gemwing1988]

Rugrats: Ghost Story Review 👻📖

Yet again, another spooky review of another well-liked episode I had enjoyed and a very rare crossover episode to feature in the franchise aside from the Rugrats Go Wild movie. Even though it’s not a Halloween episode, it might still be considered one with its kid friendly spookiness and the vibes to it.

It begins a dark and stormy night at the Pickles family household as Tommy, his little brother, Baby Dil, best friend Chuckie, the twins Phil and Lil, and of course, Dil and Tommy’s mean and bossy 3-year-old cousin, Angelica, were “camping out” in Tommy’s bedroom, “roasting” marshmallows in front of a battery powered campfire.

Dismissing Tommy’s suggestion to sing campfire songs, Angelica decided to tell ghost stories, much to Chuckie’s dismay. Of course, Angelica was surprisingly generous enough to allow the babies to each take a turn to tell the story.

Angelica ominously kickstarts the story about a haunted house where a mysterious light is always shown lit up in the old attic of the house and one scared little boy dared to venture into the house to uncover the mystery. And, being the spiteful bully as she is, Angelica deliberately inserted Chuckie as the unwilling main character.

Seriously, why does Angelica always pick on him so much? I know Chuckie’s afraid of some of the silliest of things like the guy on the oatmeal box but that doesn’t excuse her to be so mean about it.

Anyway, when Tommy reminded that each of the kids have a turn to tell, an annoyed Angelica agreed to let Chuckie to do his turn, on the condition he should make it scary, which is the whole point of ghost stories.

Of course, knowing Chuckie Finster, things are easier said than done.

Desperate to dodge around the scary parts and avoiding getting nightmares afterwards, Chuckie sugarcoated the part where he enters the house where the interior was cutely decorated, complete with soft pillows on the couch and a full bowl of tasty sweets, promptly claiming it to be the end.

Angelica, unamused, objected to the hastily shortened story and demanded Chuckie to redo his turn again, which poor Chuckie reluctantly did, even adding in the pillows are as hard as solid rock and the candy tasted terrible. As insult to injury, Angelica added in cobwebs and some of those spooky paintings of creepy people on the walls with eyes that seem to move and watch you whenever you’re not looking like in one of those old Scooby-Doo cartoons.

Angelica: (voiceover) And don’t forget about that loud “thump, tump!”

*Cue the ominously loud thumping behind a door.*

Angelica: (voiceover) Comin’ behind the close door!

I’m also familiar with that one, Angelica. ��

As Chuckie hesitated on the part where the character opens the closet door, a frustratedly annoyed Angelica impatiently hijacked his segment and reveals that hiding in the closet where a pair of “creepy people”, who are Phil and Lil in the role of a butler and maid.

Excited that the story was getting good so far, the twins took their turn to tell the story where their characters decided to escort Chuckie up the stairs towards the attic.

The twins decided to make the stair climbing much more interesting by conjuring a giant and friendly (yet slimy) worm to give them a ride, much to Chuckie’s disgust and dismay yet to the twins’ characters’ delight as they were enjoying the lift.

Of course, Angelica wasn’t impressed with the little plot twist herself, disgustedly adding in that not only was it not scary but also gross. I can totally agree that the worm could be a little less slimy but you gotta admit it’s kinda cute in the standards of a Rugrats episode.

Meanwhile, Chuckie (in the story), not wanting to continue, decided to literally sit out as he rested on what was supposed to be a chair covered in a sheet. Unfortunately, much to Chuckie’s horror, Angelica added in a part where the “sheet covered chair” was actually a great, big, ugly and spooky old ghost who proceeded to chase Chuckie around.

Luckily, it was Tommy’s turn to tell the story as he improvised with the ghost scene, transforming the scary ghost into a cute and friendly little ghost played by none other than Tommy himself.

Angelica: (annoyed) A cute ghost?! That’s NOT scary! 😠

As Tommy the friendly ghost was about to happily lead Chuckie and the twins to the attic, Angelica hijacks the story yet again, inserting herself as a wicked witch, who tells the scaredy boy and his companions that the door to the attic won’t open without a key, which is hidden away behind one of the doors in the hallway.

So, the babies decided to split up and search through each door to find the attic key.

And, I was in for a real surprise when we get some very special surprise guests in this episode where the main characters from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, Ickis, Krumm and Oblina, are featured in the episode as the monsters in the story. As well as a few unnamed monster characters from the franchise.

Talk about a huge plot twist! 🤯

As Angelica sics the monsters on the babies, Tommy tries to convince them not to eat them because there is some chocolate pudding downstairs in the kitchen, which the monsters happily chose over eating the babies.

In all honesty, that came off confusing for any fans of this classic franchise. I’m kinda rusty on the show but it’s said that the monsters can’t eat human food because it’s bad for their health. On the other hand, it is just a story made up by a group of young toddlers since some things don’t have to be accurate.

While Angelica angrily flies down after the monsters to force them back up the stairs to terrorise the babies, Chuckie’s group find the attic key was hidden underneath the rug near the attic door the whole time. Wow, that’s surprisingly convenient.

Once they opened the door, Chuckie was surprised that the attic didn’t seem as scary as he thought it would be. But just as Tommy and the twins went up ahead and as Chuckie was following behind, Angelica grabs him back, only for the worm the twins added in to slink behind and give her a kiss on the cheek.

While the disgusted Angelica was distracted with frantically wiping off the worm kisses, Chuckie started to have a change of heart about telling stories, realising they don’t always have to be scary if you use your imagination to make them much more entertaining with fun stuff and funny plot twists, ensuring a happy ending.

Chuckie: (giggled and turns to us, the viewers) Tellin’ scary stories is fun! 🙂

Once the group reached the attic, they were in awe to see it was a rather cute and cosy little bedroom, complete with a comfortable looking bed. And the light in the attic was coming from a cute giant teddy bear nightlight.

Mystery solved.

Contented with the happy ending and tired from the adventure, the babies happily climbed into the comfortable for well-deserved nap.

Then, we cue an angry and dissatisfied Angelica barging into the attic, declaring it to be the “dumbest story she had ever heard”. In a fit of frustration and an attempt to scare the sleeping babies out of spite, Angelica tries to retell the story of being up in a creepy old attic inside a haunted house filled with kinds of scary monsters.

But as she was saying this, Angelica started to grow very nervous just as Ickis, Krumm and Oblina walk, deciding to stir up some harmless mischief by scaring her.

*Krumm playfully roars while Oblina happily yells.*

Ickis: (cheekily) Ha ha ha ha ha. 😁

Angelica: (as Krumm was offering her a glass of water)😱😱😱😱😱!!!

Then, cue a clap of thunder and a lightening flash, we cut back to reality as Angelica had ended up scaring herself, prompting her to frantically run out of the bedroom, calling out for her parents while the babies are sleeping peacefully under a blanket, ending the episode.

I have to consider this one of my most favourite crossovers and I really enjoyed it. I especially loved it that they used some of the music pieces from the old Rugrats PS1 game, “The Search for Reptar” in certain segments. Pure nostalgia.

It was a pity it was shown first after the theme intro because I thought it would make a great Karma Houdini Warranty for Angelica when she callously “written” down a mean spirited complain letter from Chuckie to Reptar when Chuckie wasn’t happy with Reptar eating some kid’s cereal (bowl and all) on a Reptar Cereal commercial, all the while getting off Scot-free.

Hey, The Cuphead Show TV Tropes website’s recap of “The Devil’s Pitchfork” added in a Karma Houdini Warranty for Cuphead after how he had been done dirty in “Lost in the Woods”. Yeah, not a huge fan of the ending when he deliberately launched Mugman on a rocket for the LOLs just as Mugsy was making a heartfelt apology. 🙄

Despite that, it was still a fun episode and it most certainly has some Halloween vibes to it and quite the spooky charm that would make a great choice to sit back, relax on your couch with a bowl of popcorn and a nice cold bottle of soda and enjoy watching with the lights off to get into the spirit (pun not intended 😅).

I most especially love Tommy’s ghostly persona being a huge reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost. Very cute.

Well, that wraps up yet another spooky review and I do hope you all enjoy it as much as I had fun writing it.

Hope you all have a Happy Halloween next week and may your dreams shine. ✨🎃

[another-whump-sideblog]

Jane's Pets Chapter 94: Responsibility

TWs in the tags

Previous

Masterlist

Next

You're ready to cast again. Your wounds from the last punishment are healed enough. It's time.

You've decided to try making her intangible. The examples for uses of that spell were always stuff like being able to go through walls, but you think it could also work as a way to prevent harm. If she can't touch you, or any weapons…

Well, she'd still be able to hurt you. But without anything tangible, her words are just words. If she can't touch you, if she can't touch anyone, the worst she can do is say things about how Diya, Barron, and Ray's deaths were your fault. You can deal with that. You can deal with any emotional issues that might come up for Puppy and Kitty, too.

It's not ideal. Her still being around taunting the three of you will make healing hard. But it'll be better, and that's all you need. Besides, this way you don't need to figure out how to kill someone immortal, or come up with something Jane's never thought of before. She wouldn't have tried this, because it wouldn't benefit her at all. You still want to kill her eventually, but this'll work just fine for now.

…assuming it works. It might not. You still have to contend with Jane having been alive for tens of thousands of years. Surely some mage at some point has tried this already…

You're choosing to believe that they did, and it worked, it just wore off. So you'll do it, and you'll redo it over and over again until you find a way to kill her. A perfect, flawless plan. Except…

I'm surprised that worked at all. Most spells don't work on me. I guess that was more a spell on the air around me than me?

That's what she said the last time you cast a spell on her. But… she was probably lying. Yeah, she wouldn't want you to try something like this, so she'd never let on that any spell could be effective against her. And if it doesn't work… you'll still have learned something. But you really, really hope it works.

Usually it's only a spell that lasts a few seconds, so you have to make a few adjustments. Thinking out how to change the runes and materials and motions and words is rough on your head, but you figure it out eventually. Probably. You really wish Barron was here…

You push the thought away. That's not important right now. What's important is making sure Jane never hurts someone again. You just have to wait for the right moment.

–

You and Kitty play card games in the living room while Puppy dusts. Kitty's already been to the basement today, so you only have to worry about comforting and distracting them. You'd love to appreciate this moment of relative peace, but you know that Jane will be drugging Kitty again soon. You think that while she's focused on that you'll be able to cast without her teleporting away.

Sure enough, Jane appears as you finish up one of the games. 

"Time for your medicine, Kitty~" She sing-songs. "Open your mouth."

Kitty obeys. While Jane drops the pill in their mouth, you pull your supplies out of your pocket and recite the spell words as fast as you can while doing the motions.

Nothing happens.

She doesn't even look at you. Just finishes forcing Kitty to swallow the pill and sighs. "Puppy? I'm putting you in charge of this. If he casts again, I'm going to cut off his hands, feet, and tongue. You're responsible for making sure this doesn't happen again. Understand?"

Puppy nods and sets down her dusting rag.

Jane… doesn't seem to be affected. You throw a pillow at her, and it bounces off.

It didn't work. She's still tangible, she can still hurt people. Fuck! You let yourself get too excited about that one. You really, really thought it would work, even if only temporarily. And what's worse is that you made so many adjustments to the intangibilty spell from Barron's books that you're not sure if it didn't work because of your changes or because Jane's actually resistant to magic. Fuck! You're so stupid, stupid bunny-

Puppy grabs your wrist and pulls you towards the basement.

~~

It seems to take Bunny a minute to fully process what's going on. He doesn't start begging until Puppy's brought him well into the basement and starts sorting through the few tools Master keeps in the basement instead of her void.

"W-wait, I won't do it again- she didn't say you have to hurt me, right? Just to make sure it won't happen again, and it won't! So you don't have to hurt me, and I don't have to get hurt, and we're both okay. Right?"

Puppy shakes her head. She knows he's lying, and she knows what Master wants even if she didn't directly say it. She has to hurt Bunny.

Master hates mages. She's not just putting Puppy in charge of his punishment for fun (though that is a part of it), she's putting Puppy in charge because Master doesn't know if she has the self-control to avoid killing Bunny if she punishes him.

…Or maybe Puppy's projecting her own anxieties onto Master. It's hard to tell, sometimes. 

Puppy picks out a hammer. Bunny is going to try to cast again unless he's physically unable to, she's sure of that. She'll just… have to make sure he can't.

She's not sure exactly how Bunny's magic stuff works, but every time she's seen it done it's involved the use of hands, so… that's a good start. She feels bad about the idea of protecting Bunny from having his hands cut off by making his hands as unusable as if they'd been cut off, but at least he'll still be able to walk and talk. And he'll be alive, which is the most important thing.

"Puppy? She didn't- she didn't say you have to hurt me-"

She didn't, but it's either pain now or worse pain later. Either she hurts him now or Master hurts (and maybe even kills) him when he inevitably tries to cast a spell again. She doesn't have a choice. She doesn't. It's the same as if Master told her to hurt him.

She pulls him to the wall, and he doesn't resist. 

"Are you- Did I upset you somehow? Are you mad at me?" It sounds like he's holding back tears.

Puppy shakes her head fervently. She wishes Bunny would give up on his whole mission to kill Master, but she's not mad. And she would never hurt him out of anger.

(But didn't she hurt Kitty out of anger, at least a little bit? …No, it was to protect them. She would never hurt them unless it made them safer in the long run. Not that it matters anyway. She knows she's not a good person.)

Puppy grabs Bunny's arm and pushes his hand against the wall. He sobs, but doesn't fight, and presses his palm to the wall when he realizes that's what she wants.

"It's okay. I know- I know you don't have a choice. It's okay."

Bunny is so kind. Much more than she deserves. Puppy holds tightly to his wrist and brings the hammer down on the back of his hand.

He screams and thrashes in her grip, forcing her to stumble back. He wrenches his arm out of her grasp. Right, he does his little exercise thing every day, and he's not malnourished like she is. Of course he's stronger than her. Pain tolerance can only take Puppy so far. She can push her body to its limits, but… that limit isn't strong enough to overpower Bunny anymore.

Bunny scrambles away from her and curls up in the corner, protectively hunching around his hands. Will one hand be enough? Jared managed to cast just by throwing some powder, which only took one hand…

She has to do both. Then Bunny will be safe, and won't get himself killed or chopped to pieces. She just has to break his other hand, and then they'll be done.

She slowly approaches, hammer still gripped tightly in her hand. Bunny curls up tighter.

"I won't- I won't do it again, please-"

Puppy yanks his arm harshly. To her surprise, he seems to be trying not to struggle.

"You'll have to- you'll have to restrain me, I can't- I can't hold still with this much pain I'm sorry-"

He doesn't need to hold still. He just needs to let Puppy hold his hand, which he does. She strikes it with the hammer quickly, not giving him a chance to pull away until after it's done.

He screams and yanks away again, but that's fine. It's over now. Puppy puts the hammer away (there's no blood on it, so she won't have to clean it later), gets some bandages, and comes back to Bunny's side.

She really shouldn't bandage his hands. She doesn't want to have to do this again any time soon… but she can't bear to do nothing. She gives him space for a few minutes, then starts to try and adjust his hands so she can bandage them with the bones in the right positions.

"W-w-wait! Don't, please, please-"

She stops.

"I know- I know you have to if I want them to heal faster, but it hurts and I don't want you to tie me down-" Bunny cries and cries.

Puppy sets down the bandages and reaches out to him. He flinches away at first, but then falls into her arms.

"Fuck, it hurts, and my head hurts, and I don't know when I'll be able to cast again and I just want to protect you guys! I just want us to be safe and I hate Jane so much and- and-" He sobs while she combs fingers through his hair for a while. Puppy will have to rush through her chores when this is over, to make up for lost time.

She wishes he didn't feel so responsible for keeping them safe. It just means he'll be crushed over and over every time he fails. He shouldn't have to go through that.

Finally, his crying slows. "Can- can Kitty do it? And you can hold me still. I'd rather that than anything else."

Puppy nods and helps him to his feet without touching his hands. It clearly still hurts him, but he leans on Puppy regardless.

They both have the same thought, at the same time: "This is all my fault."

A/N: Let me know if I should tag anything else, or if you want to be added to or removed from the tag list! Three more chapters before the start of season 4 :)

Tag list: @eatyourdamnpears @whump-in-the-closet @scp-1296 @thecosmicmap @quins-whump-stuff

@fuckcapitalismasshole

[captain-danwilds]

some nagab neil please!

- @you-know-i-get-itt

Oh my goodness thank you so much!!!

Some NAGAB Neil coming right up. (Actually, 2 little snippets since I'm super excited that you sent an ask.)

1 carrying on directly from yesterday's snippet left off

When they were safely in their room, Nathaniel guided Jean until he was sitting on the bed before maneuvering one of the desk chairs in front of the doorknob.  It wouldn't hold long, and they'd likely be punished if anyone discovered they hadn't had free access to their room, but for now, they couldn't have any surprises. 

Nathaniel looked back at Jean who still didn't move, but he didn't know how to reach him.  Typically he'd recited little details about his childhood home, the eleven steps it took to get upstairs, the outrageous drawings that Elodie had drawn for him and he'd proudly taped to his bedroom wall complete with a written description of what the scribbles were supposed to be in case either one of them forgot as they grew up.  Nathaniel might describe the glint of the sunlight off the Mediterranean even though he'd never seen it or what it felt like to bury Elodie partially in the sand so she had a mermaid tail even if he had to redo it several times since she couldn't stay still. 

Those were happy memories. Memories that you savor so that everything else can seem manageable.  It was the hope that one day, might not be anytime soon, but one day Jean would see his sister again.  That if he was famous enough, wealthy enough, he'd be able to steal moments on international travel to find the one person who owned his heart so completely and likely didn't even remember him. 

Now, there wasn't any hope left.

2.

Once Nathaniel’s settled next to him on the bed, holding one of the pillows to his chest, he muttered darkly, “He’s an idiot.”  

Jean hums thoughtfully.  “As one would expect since he has one for a brother.”  

“I’m being serious.” Nathaniel shoves the pillow into Jean’s chest. 

“So am I. Suicidal plans to save everyone apparently run in the family.”  

This time it’s Nathaniel’s turn to laugh.  “You’re ridiculous. It’s not everyone.”

Jean groaned and gestured to himself. 

“That’s proactive self-defense.  You’re my partner.  You’re basically me.  That doesn’t count.”  

[rottenbrainstuff]

BG3 playthrough: opening thoughts on Astarion (I would be interested to know your thoughts?)

(Mild spoilers that the whole internet knows already)

I’m making my way through the crypt right now. Humorously, my tav is a bard and has fair bonuses for lockpicking and trap disabling, so I always just used him out of habit. Bards are versatile so I tend to forget sometimes to switch to other people in the party, outside of battle.

This runthrough though, I let Astarion take a crack at the crypt and then I felt super foolish, his bonuses are amazing and I don’t know why I wasn’t using him before. Oops.

Now let’s talk about biting, and I’m curious what you guys think:

The writing in this game is absolutely fucking insane. I’m gobsmacked the detail they put into all the dialogue branches. Once again you’ll have to understand where I’m coming from, I never played Skyrim, I never played Dragon Age, maybe this kind of stuff is par for the course, I’m just an old lady marvelling at the crazy things you kids have these days.

So I see absolutely everyone making jokes about constantly being bloodless cause they always let their vampire boyfriend bite them. Just about every single fic I read has Tav and Astarion with the ongoing bite arrangement.

So imagine my surprise to learn that… giving Astarion the option going forward to bite you whenever you want…. Doesn’t actually get high approval from him. Did you guys know that? I didn’t.

Uh without going into too much boring detail about the way the dialogue branches, essentially in the end, Astarion says he promises to only bite enemies going forward. You have the option to simply say “I’m glad we came to an agreement” which ends the conversation right there, OR, you have the option to tell him it’s ok to bite you again, as long as you talk about it first.

Ending the conversation with the agreement gets you five approval. Offering to let him bite you again gets you none.

Five approval is a significant amount. You might think that’s strange. He’s still allowed to bite enemies as well if you do the other dialogue option. Why would he not approve EVEN MORE if he’s allowed to bite enemies AND ALSO YOU? Why does that make sense at all?

I think that is some extremely fucking clever meta writing, assuming it’s on purpose, which I do. Astarion’s arc is all about him gaining back his bodily autonomy, and the writers have shown in other cases they are absolutely thinking about fourth wall breakage and player implications.

I said “the ongoing option to bite you whenever YOU want” very specifically. You, the player, will decide when you want that to happen, and let’s be very honest. The fact that Astarion can get the happy buff from biting an enemy WITHOUT the significant disadvantage of making Tav bloodless every day… who is going to choose to do that, except because they think it’s hawt to have a vampire biting them? And Astarion has no mechanism to refuse or to ask for it when HE wants it. The player is ordering him around. Tonight you’re going to bite me. He can only say yes.

(and I know you guys aren’t being horrible when you do the bite option! I know from the fics you write you see it as role playing flavour where it’s imagined as an offer that Astarion can freely consider: I just think it’s fascinating when placed instead in the context of a game where you are the one controlling the choices and the devs have obviously added a statement)

So dang!! I dunno!! I feel kind of bad about going on that dialogue path now. I think I’m actually going to backtrack slightly and redo the bite to go the other route. Not just because “I am mathing this game and I want the max approval”, no no, I’m not playing like that. But I feel like the approval is there to indicate something important about how Astarion feels about the options, and as a comment about the player’s intentions, and I am absolutely fascinated that this was programmed in. It is DEFINITELY making me pause and really consider why I’m making the choices that I’m making. I want the bite option. Why do I want it so bad? If the character likes the other option so much better, why is it such a debate for me? I have to really confront the fact that I want to boss around the sexy vampire and make him do what I want. That confrontation is the whole point of his character. What a crazy detail. I am FLOORED.

What do you guys think? Which do you choose and why?

[on-setprodlolae]

Stills from yesterdays shoot!

DoPing for the first time for this film. It was a lot of fun but considering the difficulty of a late night shoot, we did run into a few problems.

No charging source. No communication before the shoot in terms of who is charging batteries, so it didn't happen. Towards the end of the shoot we had one battery for the light, another for the ursa and both were very low on charge so we had to rush, and didn't have time to redo some shots even though it would've been preferred.

Problems with wireless follow focus. My first AC Holly was amazing, and even she could not figure out the follow focus. We got it on, the remote was working but it just wouldn't work or let us calibrate. This was the initial thing started the delay in running behind on our shooting schedule. We ended up giving up trying it for time and did the focus manually.

Problems with lights. Our gaffer did a great job but the location we were at had automatic lights that turned on with movement and so it was very difficult to keep continuity or lights would go off/on mid take.

A personal issue of mine was keeping to the 180 degree rule. This is something basic i know, but I did have to keep myself right and although i think it will be okay, there might be one shot that it is off. This was mainly due to the fact that we could only film 2/4 of the walls in the location, due to obstructing objects. I had to get creative with camera placements in order to achieve what I wanted to.

Apart from that and a few other minor things, the shoot went well I think! We got some pretty nice shots. I think without these restrictions above I could've perhaps made something i am 100% proud of, but either way I am definitely happy. We had a lovely 3rd year photography student offer to do on-set stills for us and so we have photos coming from her, as well as stills on our next shoot this Thursday too.

Most of the people in this group I have never worked with before and I really enjoyed working with them all. We had laughs on set and everyone was very well organised and had a very clear vision. We were open to talking to each other about ideas that we had, while still respecting our 1st AD when time got strict. The only problem in this area I had, and I know others had too, was one of the actors. The acting was great, but one of them was so rude to us as crew it left me speechless. We were all walking on eggshells around them, and there was times where they snapped at us as crew, and the general public as well as having a very negative attitude towards things. This personally really killed the mood and did not allow people to enjoy themselves as much as they should've, and they are not someone I would ever want to work with again.

P.S. I actually hit a V-lock off my eyebrow and it started bleeding. It is now swollen - thats how dedicated to the craft I am LOL

[maverick-jones-writer]

Tea Time for AetherNet pt.1

A/N: Hello! I hope everyone is having a great weekend :) I'm starting this series where I gossip about my WIP's plotlines. These are rough drafts of ideas, so they might change when I go to do a final draft. I hope you enjoy reading through!

This tea session will be for AetherNet (obviously), and since this is part one, we are going to start at the beginning!

*

So, we start with this gorgeous panoramic view of this city that, at a glance, reminds you of Disney Land. At the center is Cinderella's castle, which is surrounded by beautiful gardens in full bloom. Outside the castle gates, there are well-crafted, detailed buildings of architecture, with similar-styled houses in between. Think Victorian era for the most part. While there are a lot of buildings, it doesn't feel too crowded and it has so much greenery and nature that it feels like a wonderland.

The group of tourists who are about to enter into this castle also agree - this is the most artistic place on Earth! The two tour guides who are leading them are also overly-enthusiastic about Heobelle, the capital city of Brucreya. They talk about the rich history that has been here for thousands of years, with buildings dating back to the Ole Days; and they show how interactive the entire grounds are with any type of energy. The group is grossly buying the act, rapid for the next spectacle and the promise of meeting certain celebrities.

One of the tour guides nudges the other, and jerks his head toward the city gate. They both scowl at the lanky boy in all black clothes leaning against the doors, smoking a cigarette. They quickly do rock paper scissors to see who has to go over there. The younger guide loses, so he trudges up to the boy with this fake ass smile and is like hey you look too young to be smoking cigs, where are your parents?

The boy's name is Jaedyn, and he's like I'm 23, and my parents are dead, so fuck off.

The tour guide immediately drops the act and is like look buddy, you know you can't be here unless you pay.

Jaedyn is like I'm outside the city gates, so you can't charge me shit. He like settles more against the wall, and makes a show of not moving.

Tour guide is getting anxious now. He looks back and sees that the group is getting closer. He's like please man, can you at least like move to the side or something? Jaedyn doesn't say anything, instead just blows cigarette smoke in his face. The tour guide is eventually like look man, I'll pay you.

This gets Jaedyn's attention. He's like how much bro?

Tour guide is like ummm idk like one silver coin?

Jaedyn is immediately like make it two and you've got yourself a deal. The tour guide scowls, pulls out his pouch and fishes out two silver coins. He tosses them at Jaedyn and says some shitty line like get lost you filthy slob or something like that.

Jaedyn could literally care less. He was expecting like 5 bronze coins, so two silver is a huge score. He saunters off towards the woods that surround the city. He's walked this path like thousands of times - so have many others who live in the underbelly city of Heobelle.

There's a marker of some kind to show the entrance. They keep having to make/redo it because of the strict laws of Heobelle. This is the main entrance into the undercity, but Jaedyn actually walks a little ways past this and goes to the smallest tree in sight. It is here that we get a close up view of someone using their abilities!

Jaedyn has an earth core, so his core and eyes light up green while in use. Using his powers, he opens a hole in the ground and jumps through. He lands on the ceiling of Heobelle's undercity, which is made of aluminum. Carefully, he creates a short, sharp cord out of his aether to slowly cut through the metal. Beads of sweat form quickly, and he has to stop after making a two foot slice. He turns off his core and takes several deep breaths before turning it on again to push the metal back.

He shimmies through the makeshift hole and steps onto the ceiling of the concrete buidling. He reaches up and reseals the metal ceiling, which now looks as though Jaedyn had simply evaporated through it rather than cutting a hole.

The panoramic view of this city is gross and unnatural. Since it's completely underground, they need a TON of artificial light. It's kinda smoggy since so many people live here, so in the corners of the city are large ventilators that are pumping in artificial air. The buildings are packed together, and they all look the same. Most are either concrete or a gray metal. The only plants around are the ones people desperately keep alive in their apartment, for those who can afford such a luxury.

He walks toward the ladder attached outside of the building, having to duck his head slightly underneath the ceiling. He climbs down the building into an empty alleyway that no one can live in because it's filled to the brim with trash (except for a small walking path that Jaedyn had created).

Standing at the alleyway entrance, he watches the morning rush take place. This is the rush of people who are walking to work, and there's a whole ass system here you gotta navigate. Lucky for Jaedyn, he has lived on these streets his whole life, so once he jumps into the rush, he is able to maneuver his way around people and doesn't get stuck.

It's clear he knows where he's going, which is to this small deli shop. The woman at the counter is calling out the deals of the day. She stops when she sees Jaedyn and smiles a toothy grin at him; she's missing one of her front teeth. Without saying a word, she pulls out a bag and hands it over to him. He doesn't even check the contents, instead he simply opens his pouch and hands over one of the silver pieces he earned today. She exchanges the change, giving him three bronze coins.

Just as he is about to go, he spots the small cake she has the counter. It's lumpy, and missing three slices already. He asks how much for a slice, and she replies one silver piece. Jaedyn sighs and in his head is like welp that ain't happening. The lady stops him from leaving though and is like I still have a lot of yesterday's cake - it's strawberry, so no one ever buys it. I'll sell it to you for 3 bronze pieces. He smiles genuinely is like thank you so much! She comes back with two slices being like the second slice is on the house, thank you for being a loyal regular, blah blah blah you get it.

So Jaedyn leaves pretty happy. He walks through the crowd again and reaches the alleyway that he lives at, and has for a long time. However, for the past three years it's gotten harder and harder to spot. He goes to the building with the large number 451 stamped on it and knocks rhythmically on the wall.

A 12 foot opening materializes suddenly. Jaedyn walks through to see the alleyway that Morgan had hidden from everyone else.

Morgan is a six year old girl. Jaedyn found her when she was three. She has a shadow nether core, and a very large one, so he has been doing his best to train her. Lately, she's been practicing her illusions, which is what was hiding the alleyway from sight.

She is excited to see him home, especially with food. Jaedyn also tells her he has a surprise for her birthday dinner tonight (the cake, of course). He starts unpacking the food he got at the deli and begins to ration it for the day when he begins to hear a commotion out on the streets.

Jaedyn and Morgan have a series of commands that they use for potentially dangerous situations, since Morgan is the more powerful neuman between the two. He gives her a command to stay alert while he goes and peaks out onto the street. He's not worried right now since Morgan still has her illusions hiding the alley, and this city is full of aether users unable to see nether energy.

Out on the streets, there is a man running wildly against the flow of traffic, which is pissing everyone off. He's frantic, whipping his head around looking for something. Jaedyn realizes too late that he's look for a place to hide, and he has spotted their alleyway.

Jaedyn only has time to call out the command to have shadow cords ready to attack when the man jumps through her illusion and shoves Jaedyn against the wall, pressing hand to his mouth.

The man's gaze is intense. He holds a finger to his lips, basically conveying don't fuck with me right now and don't say anything.

Once the man realizes neither one is going to scream or shout, he steps back from Jaedyn and goes to stand next to him. He presses himself so hard against the concrete it looks like he's trying to melt into it.

Jaedyn furrows his eyebrows and is hella confused. While it's not uncommon for people to stumble their way into this alley, this whole encounter has gone off script. Not only did this man see through the illusion, he's also not really interested in hurting them, or asking them for money or drugs. Not even cigarettes.

It's not long after that a group of soldiers walk past they alley, doing a general sweep of the population. This too, isn't uncommon, so most regulars of the undercity know to stay out of the way. However, this then clicks for Jaedyn that this man is a fugitive of some sorts.

This is confirmed when the sirens call for a level four sweep of the city, the highest level there is. Basically: this fugitive is fucked.

Jaedyn doesn't wanna be involved, so he starts employing one of the various strategies he and Morgan came up with to throw off any intruders. He starts asking like what's your plan here dude? Hardly anyone can go undetected in these sweeps? You might as well go out there and surrender.

The fugitive's face is completely blank, as if he didn't even register that Jaedyn had spoken. He then stares point blank at him and is like okay, then can you do me a favor?

I need you to kill me.

*

E/N: Aaaaaaaand that's where I'll stop for here! This is right around where I'm thinking of ending chapter one, so let me know your thoughts! I hope you have a yummy breakfast tomorrow morning, and I'll write again tomorrow! Love you <3

[medicus-felini]

;from meowgiciann

He’s laying sideways over a broken wall, tail swinging side to side as his head is supported by a paw. Observing their captain discussing their new alliance in a now open ceiling room—Yellow eyes scan the surroundings, stopping by the only other mink in the vicinity.

“ Oi. Wanna see a meowgic trick?" Sitting up, clapping both hands in a fist. He "detaches" his thumb from another. Openly making no efforts to hide how that trick is done.

"Ooppsy! My bad." He closes his paws together again, redoing the same action; this time; velvety blood sips from his paw as the finger jokingly detaching resembles a human's one. A loud painful scream is heard as one of his crew members falls onto the floor. Faust holds the severed finger and throws it in their direction. Strangely, the cult member doesn't complain and actually bows to the cat in gratitude before running away.

"Shazam!~" Paws wriggle in the air to announce the end of the magic trick.

@meowgiciann `♡´ Unprompted

There was this other feline waiting around until their captains finished discussing and arguing about which plan was the best. They had been busy for possibly hours already. Trying to kill a yonko is something that needs to be planned out precisely, after all. Linn sat there like a stiff board, back straight, eyes on her captain, who sits tables away, his booming voice clearly audible around the whole Kid Pirate's base. The mink could not afford to attract negative attention. She was in trial, fresh meat in the crew, but her back started to hurt, and she catches her eyelids becoming heavy.

At that moment, her ears twitch and turn to the ebony-furred magician, his attire betraying which crew he is a part of. Pale blue eyes soon follow the voice, gazing up to where the other mink has made himself comfortable—on a wall. Secretly, Linn was relieved that he made an attempt to start a conversation. The doctor might be patient, but everything has its limits. ❝ G-Garchu? ❞ Head tilts in confusion—an interested kind of confusion—all eyes and ears.

Linn was close to clapping after this first attempt at pulling what must be the easiest illusion known to mankind. A child could do that. However, her amusement gets interrupted as cardinal liquid oozes out of his raven paws. Her eyes dilate, the scream that followed from the person with now one less finger reaches her hearing. What a cruel little game.

Should she applaud now? Should she be worried? Her senses tell her to look after the poor guy, who strangely bows down in an act of gratitude. ❝ F-Fascinating...? ❞ The mink's lips leave out a whisper, intimidated by this cat's weird way of starting a conversation or displaying a trick. Hawkins' crew was mysterious in more than one way.

Asking Kid if she is allowed to fix this poor fellow's finger would count as a disturbance, the pearly-furred feline will stay here. For now. ❝ Quite a dangerous trick. I must say, you would have amazed me with a little less blood, too. ❞ That girl was worried—maybe a bit scared by these circumstances. ❝ I did not expect Hawkins to have a mink in his crew too. What a... pleasant surprise. ❞