#might change that tag eventually but I would need a cool name

[mossfeathers]

Thanks again for responding and sharing. I'm glad these asks make you happy ^^

(You don't have to look further into Harvest Moon but If you do look for a lets play of sorts or something Harvest Moon DS/DS Cute & Harvest Moon Friends of Mineral Town/More Friends of Mineral Town (Gameboy) are the ones that from my knowledge look the most visually similar to Stardew Valley. But Harvest Moon Animal Parade takes place in a coastal/island-like town.)

The dynamics seem like they'll be really fun! It was also nice to hear the reasoning behind it all. You've put a lot of thought into how they interact. I'm excited for future scenarios ^^ I really enjoyed reading all of it. Also thanks for talking about them as siblings. You don't have to apologize for not answering tho, you can always not answer, I'll understand.

Addionally, I think it's really cool how the lionfish worked out ^^

Okay so for BigB's tail, I wanted to give proper ideas, I only came up with three sorta suggestions so I’ll also share my thought process a bit so that maybe that instead will help you further decide what you do or don’t want. So my first thought was a shark. I’m not entirely sure that’s, like, equivalent to Scar being a lionfish but I think that the reason I considered the idea is that sharks can be dangerous but, like, also they’re not as dangerous to humans as they're portrayed? Ya know what I mean, like I think it’s gotten better but like they were more feared than need be. Like I’m struggling with the words but do you get what I’m saying and the correlation? Idk. If not that's okay. I wasn’t really sure about sharks anyway. Next,

I searched for fish that burrowed. And I did this because I was thinking about why canary!BigB and rabbit!BigB exist and if I recall correctly him being in the mines/underground alot were overlapping points. (I woulda considered satyr!BigB but I know nothing about that. And thinking about it now dogs like to dig too and sometimes he’s got dog ears because double life so I think this is an okay hole I went down). I’m too indecisive and picky  and wasn't sure what kind of fish you'd like though so I only have three fish to present to you as options so hopefully if none of these strike a chord with you. This whole thing helps somehow:

1, The Bonnethead Shark. Yea I found a shark that burrows. So even though I wasn’t entirely sure about sharks and I gave up on finding small sharks, I thought I’d share this one. Besides sharks are cool even if many fear them & Jimmy & Grian come to think BigB's cool right? So maybe that lines up?

(Also did you know that sharks used to be called "sea dogs" and that there is a Dogfish Shark, I didn't do much research so I can't give it as a suggestion but I just looked it up while typing this so I thought I'd mention it.)

2, The Yellow Headed Jawfish, this fish was honestly just too pretty for me not to recommend. It’s got a bit of blue in its fins (and that’s really all I can give you on blue fish). Plus on a site that sells fish they were described as “playful and like to people watch” so I thought it might be fitting. Note though, if you look up this fish, you might come across images of it carrying lots of eggs in its mouth. That’s something they do, carry their eggs in their mouth. I did see a term for it but I forgot what it was. But if that’s gonna be too disturbing you might wanna be cautious(wasn't the first few images when I looked it up) or maybe not look it up just in case. But it is really pretty in my opinion if you do.

And lastly there's the Southern Stargazer. I guess it is considered an ugly fish so heads up on that? Personally, I do think looking at a close up of it's face while it's buried can be a bit spooky but also I think otherwise it's a bit fun to look at & its tail is neat. And it turns out they're also venomous, not enough to kill, but it's still painful, can cause swelling and induce shock. ("also" because Scar's a lionfish)

Speaking of, this fish is the closest one I found in terms of size to Lionfish not sure that matters to you but yea

I did attempt looking for, like, actually blue fish but like the Cichlid is a freshwater fish and Idk if it's a funny or cruel irony to suggest a damselfish when they are actually seen as food to lionfish if in a tank together. Especially when I don't know if it's true for all damselfish or just the yellow tailed ones. (Plus they don't do great in solitude which kept being a thing for blue fish but I think I mainly found, like, river fish.) But I guess this difficulty is probably part of the reason you said it didn't have to be a blue fish lol

Thanks for sharing what you do have so far for the side characters :3 Question: For the pub, does it include the arcade area and/or would the stage be in that general area?

Also it seems like a cool idea to include more creatures. Besides the spirits are there any you're thinking of but haven't decided who it could be? Or alternatively, any others you think you'd want to be something supernatural but haven't decided what yet?

And if it's not too much to ask, do you think that on an events timeline the potential Pearl arc would be closer to the beginning or further down the line.

And yea it's totally fine for you to leave it in the ask box, I'm glad you find it's something you'd want to look back at at all ^^ Thank you for your time and thanks again for sharing your thoughts/ideas.

anon i love you so much. genuinely you are the BEST. im so sorry for letting this rot in the inbox for so long, i both forgot about it and just didn't even know how to respond since this is so good (and also wanted to get some more polished drawings of all 3 possible fish, but my motivation just wasn't having it so just a couple doodles im sorry). genuinely so sorry about how long this took, time just got away from me.

I absolutely LOVE your idea for bigb as a shark, when I first read that I think I genuinely yelled out in excitement. You're a GENIUS. That's such a good idea, I really enjoy it and you got your point across well! I love canary/rabbit!bigb (my design for him is a bunny so this is RIGHT up my alley) and I love the idea of a burrowing fish and bonnethead shark is absolutely GENIUS. He was really fun to draw too!! Thank you SO much for the suggestion! I think I want a scaled fish design, though, but I still appreciate this one so much since it was SUCH an interesting idea. Sharks are sea puppies, dogs dig, rabbits also dig, so burrowing. Very logical line of thought from me.

Oh this guy is GORGEOUS!!!!! So pretty and so lovely. I think fish and the ocean is so cool so I thought the egg carrying is actually so fascinating so don't worry, both of the little warnings you gave about weird fish weren't necessary fish are awesome and cool forever. I don't know what to say, just a very pretty fish and fun to draw!!

The stargazer is SO HANDSOME!!! I can't believe its considered ugly :( I love that little connection to Scar's lionfish-ness, this is such a cool fish (the fins are gorgeous)

Thank you SO much for the fish suggestions! I really liked the yellow headed jawfish, the colors were just so gorgeous, so I think i'm gonna go with that one! Genuinely can't thank you enough for this, I was losing my mind over that.

Answering questions time! Here's a little doodle of what the saloon looks like! (names still pending but probably something moon or dogwarts related) Theres a kitchen and backstage area somewhere but that doesnt matter right now :)

Man, I had one draft of this response where I had everything written out for other creatures but my computer restarted and didn't save it but I will try my best to write it out again!

I like the idea of fae or some kind of land-based creature, but I feel like fae are a really complex species and just in general such a large world to also incorporate if I do go for any land-based creatures, so I don't think I will sadly. Trying to think about this in terms of how I would tell the story in an actual piece of writing instead of these posts of loads of exposition, yknow? So, final verdict, no cool land creatures (except maybe werewolf because i am a sucker for some rendog werewolf fun) . I love avian stuff though so a very high likelihood of birds coming into play in at least some form? Birds are just so cool to me. Also, there are probably gonna be a decent variety in sea creature species! Like there are sirens, standard merfolk, and selkies so far but if I can think of another type of sea creature then i'll probably add them in. On the topic of sea creatures, an updated list on all the merfolk! (also if you want to see some other hermit mermaids, or mermits, check out jalo-parker's art from the past few weeks! we thought up some fish designs just for his own use and they're really cute, and if some of the humans were mermaids they would 100% be those) Scar lionfish, Bigb yellowheaded jawfish, Bub whale shark, Cleo sea nettle jellyfish, Etho AND Bdubs selkies, Joe Hills leaf sheep nudibranch, and even though Martyn is a human if he was a mermaid he would be a mimic octopus! These aren't all of the merfolk, they're just the ones i've decided on and assigned a fish (or selkie) to :)

Also don't worry! I actually already have a barebones timeline for what I think is going to happen with the plot points I know so far! Jimmy and Grian move, hang out for like 4 days, then the whole siren plotline starts and ends, since everyone is now happy they have a good few months of just bonding with the merfolk and the townsfolk which I can't wait to think about more, then Pearl's whole arc starts! I think that's the natural progression of the plot as the stakes in Pearl's arc is the actual apocalypse bringing the end of the universe which is just a little bit more intense. I don't know a whole lot of the details about that quite yet though.

Thank you so much for the ask again! I genuinely can't apologize enough for how long this took to answer, and I hope it doesn't discourage you from sending another one in. I absolutely love seeing your opinions and ideas :) Thanks for listening to my rambling about my ideas again :D

[drawlody]

My list of Adam ships♡ n my opinion bout them (also fics rec :D)

Adam x Luicfer (Adamsapple/Duitarduck) 10/10

Need i say more:)))??!?! started out as a "haha funny slip-up ship" to "hey they got really good angst potential". The friends/lovers to enemies to lovers is STRONG with this one n i am eating up everything i could found on ao3. Smth bout this macho-ass man finally getting to stay back n not take charge for once feel nice, also princess Adam supermacy wooooo. Whoever came up with the ship name i applaud u cause that's like a 3 layers name(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

It's not an Adamsapple fic without Adam having at least 1 mental breakdown n Lucifer have his guilt eating him alive:)))

Very fucked up torture but i swear it worth the pain:D The dove is so dead it start to rot so plz read the tags properly (plz check out the AngeliaDark other works too they got good shit)

This one have a splits so check out both the fics (beware the author have a skrewed sense of what is considered wholesome:))))

I didnt think a smut scene could be this sad

Adam x Lute (Guitarspear/Guardrock) 10/10

Litteraly my first Hazbin ship, assholes in love is an underrated dynamic we desperately need more off:))) That with a dash of evil dude x loyal subordinate (which i havent seen since the Deathglare days) n opposite attract (look they have one main thing in common is that their extreme bloodthirst, other than that she's stricter than ur mom n he's lazier than the Sloth ring itself but that the beauty of it no? He convince her to chill tf out n not to burst a blood vessel, she keep him on track n make sure Sera dont come on their asses)

They're just being silly enabling each other terrible behaviour n i love that for them (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) Litteral besties i tell ya

Heavy non-con shit involving Val but Lute will revenge our boi i promised u that

Cool idea n they r just made for each other damn

First hazbin fic i read which is a really cool smut:D

Adam x Micheal (we need a ship name people ) (update: it's Songbird/Guitarhero) 10/10

I like how we dont even got a proper comfirmation of Micheal design/personality yet the ship is here already ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ( im using the Nakariiale's design as a base here love their design)

Hit me with that rebound love x "u look like my ex so im using u as a replacement but ill fall for the real u eventually" x co-workers in heaven. I'm thinking smth along the line of "after Lucifer fucked off with Lilith, Micheal became Adam guardian angel n they just hang out" ya feel me here? (✿◕‿◕✿)

Shout out to Bloog_b for dragging me into this ship:DDD also im on the Adam x the archangels ship as a "gotcha" to Lucifer of sort. Like bitch u stole my wives imma steal your brotherS

Look it's Adamsapple endgame but trust me u will be feed well on this ( u know how good u gotta be for people to ditch the main ship?)

I'm giving yall 4 fics here cause i can only found 4 rn(._. )

this one is uhh non-con so beware

Micheal is indeed Adam guardian angel in this one:D

Adam x Eve (Flowertunes) 8/10

I dont care what yall said they love each other throughout Eden n Earth , might have a falling out in heaven but that doesnt change the fact that they were once IN LOVE. Honestly why cant we just have a couple that have the same bright-eyed innocence like one another.I refuse to believe Eve like willingly cheat on Adam with malicious intent n all, simply she was indeed ''tricked'' or just not fully understand the sistuation, n Adam love her way too much to think that she would do that to him like Lilith. Hell the dude was heartbroken after L left , starting the abandonment issues, so he would have cling to Eve, doing everything so that he aint alone again, even if that mean leaving Eden

Honestly it pisses me off that the Adam/Eve tag on ao3 most of the time is just 1 dialouge between them back when Eve bit the apple n thats it no elaboration on the couple whatsoever >:(((

Lots of switcharoos

sinner eve woooo

look its hard trynna find a fic focusing on them ok?

Adam x St. Peter (Guitargreeter (bet ya didnt see that coming:))) 7/10

Base on this fanfic alone Joe my dude u r on the path of becoming THE Adam crack-ship writer n i am here for this:)))) just so u wait this dude gonna whip out a AdamxNifty , AdamxHusk fic later on ( •̀ ω •́ )✧

From within the fic itself the ship its 2 bros in love with homophobia standing in the way >:( also when did we have a name?!?!?!?

I just like Adam x anyone in heaven alright:D like bro famous n he got that ancient rizz, u telling mr he cant bag a hottie or 2-100+ hmm?

Adam x Alastor (Angelicradio) 8/10

I DONT EVEN KNOW WHAT ABOUT THEM THAT I SHIP I JUST DO φ(゜▽゜*)♪ i blame YOU honestly rn this ship is either Adam found Al after the fight n they make a deal or they're in heaven n they chillin this ship is confusing:D

They're angels on heaven

Adam gone back into eden n do shit differently

This is both Adam/Eve n Adam/Alastor kinda

Adam x Alastor x Lucifer (Angelicradioapple/ Charlie's dads (only me call them that lol)) 9/10

''Hey Charlie u know how u r sad that your mother left? Wellllllll i got you 2 new dads suprise:DDDD''

Look 3 miserable men who hate each other + hell's greatest dad + my love for Dadam = Messy ass old men yaoi :DDDD n it work perfectly with Alastor Asexuality too!!! Like Adam n Lucifer could fuck each other brains out before Al joining in for the cuddles lol

Chaos ensue

Not exactly a love triangle but a love corner but hey we barely got food here :D

I cant believe how hot this shit is lol

Adam x Eve x Lilith x Lucifer (Eden poly/ applecore?) 8/10

They could have been all married to each other(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ But as much as i go "OooOooo Poly yay'' i just cant vibe with EvexLucifer, like the cheating vibes is wayyyyyyyyy too much i just cant man . I mean with the interpetation that Lucifer came to Eden to hang out with the humans they all know eachother, they're a throuple yes but BUT when Eve came into the picture it was only with Adam n him only so the other 2 is ehhhh. Im fine with EvexLilith cause im seeing it happening later, not hidden from Adam while LuciferxEve got that deception going on .So uhhh in this ship they're more like bestie than lovers to me¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Also AdamxLilith is an underrated pairing like everytime i saw this applecore thing going on these 2 r at most tolerate each other like cmonnnnn we already twist this to hell n back, why cant we make it so their arguement was a petty non-malicious one n they still cares for each other hmm???

They're one happy family

IDK what to tell u bittersweet reunion n loving family is the only typa fic u get with this ship

Not that im complaining i need this wholesomeness

Adam x Mammon (Adammon/Madam/Greedyguitar/ 1st chirstmas.... hasnt had an offical name yet) 10/10

They r litteraly same person different font idk what to tell u. More insults thrown around than Guitarspear but they're pretty similar. Adam is just " sinners suck ass but this dude is the worst in the best way". Also they're both big bois (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧ , they love towering over others

I'm sorry but there r barely BARELY

any fics of them :(

The art side is more plentiful tho :D

Adam x Angel Dust (Holydust/guitardust) 5/10

THEY ARE BESTIES YOUR HONOUR n that the exact reason why i cant see them be together as a couple 100%, like the shit-talking bff vibes r wayyyy too strong XD Angel finally got someone who have the same vulgar humour as him n if Adam got married in hell Angel would 100% be his best bitch of honour (≧∀≦)ゞq(≧▽≦q)

They're best friends who have casual no-string attached sex that is ACTUALLY no-string attached:)))

I came to ship them due to those "What if they're co-workers under Val' scenarios ive been seeing on Tumblr

I got like 1 fic on ao3 i mean if u r looking for just platonic friendship between them then rest asure most Adam's redemption fics have that

I got 1 fic on tumblr

Adam x Charlie (Charadam/Guitarprincess) 5/10

U know this ship give me a pretty bad first impression since a good chunk of the fics r either heavy non-con shit or lean wayyyyy to much into the daddy kink, ya know how Charlie got suppose daddy issues n all that jazz?:))) yeah that... that

But after seeing the art side of this ship im chillin with them now, since the art r pretty wholesome, usually having them decked out in punk-rock clothings hanging out. It's a big "Fuck you" to Lucifer n i live for these mf argueing ���(*°▽°*)╯

So uhhh stay away from the fics if ya want an actual functional couple instead of wtv messed up shit we got there:))) But here's a fic anyway, the only one where it feel bearable n actual trynna go into said messed up relationship i already warn you

We got cracks like Guitarmaid (AdamxNifty), Valadam (AdamxVal) which i dont have enough materials to decied, Classicalrock (AdamxSera) sound interesting but also havent found anything , Guitarhalo (AdamxEmily) is an unexpected find, find i deem them to be more familial than romantic so we'll see if there's a fic good enough to convince me

Edit:i forgot to add Blitzo like Mammon already there why did i forgot

Adam x Blitzo (i dont think anyone even ship this but me:)) 7/10

I cant find a single fic where they has anything more than a 1 nightstand n 1 interaction where they hit it off , i live off imagination alone (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`) but like fr fr they would match so well, like their bloodlust n general jerkiness would make them the 3rd asshole x asshole ship on this list :DDDD

Tho as much as i wanna see them go further i feel like an on-n-off relationship/friends with benefits fit em more ya know ( *^-^)ρ(*╯^╰) If ya have any fic but the 2 here that have them interact lemme know cause a bitch need food :)

This is a lot of tag(._. )

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 46 – IDENTITY PORN

Modern Problems by tonys (orphan_account)

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 803 Tags: Misdirection, Dating Advice, Or Lack Thereof

Summary: Steve Rogers has a crush on Iron Man. Steve Rogers has no idea Iron Man is Tony Stark. Steve Rogers proceeds to ask Tony Stark how he could court Iron Man.

Reasons why I love it: Oh god, Tony, you human disaster, what are you doing?! I would legitimately read about a billion words exploring this concept, it's so good. Poor Steve, I hope they get their shit sorted out eventually. Definitely check this one out, it's great!

Trust Fall by thyrza

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: E Words: 10,603 Tags: Canon Divergence, Reality Stone, Supervillains

Summary: Billionaire industrialist Tony Stark moonlights as the supervillain Iron Man, top of SHIELD's Most Wanted List and archenemy of the heroic Squadron Supreme. Then he meets the mysterious vigilante known as The Captain, and his world turns upside down. (Tie-in for S02E09, 'Dark Avengers.')

Reasons why I love it: This is such a cool concept! I love how thyrza plays with the Avengers’ identities and reality as a whole, it's super interesting. And the Stony romance is fantastic, I especially enjoyed the identity reveal. Plus, the smut is great. I love this one, and I bet you will too, so I hope you check it out!

The Way To A Man's Heart (Is Through His Stomach) by dingadur

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 7,866 Tags: Pizza Place, Tony Isn't Ironman, Romantic Comedy

Summary: Twenty-something Tony Stark surprisingly meets Captain America, when the latter stumbles into Tony's place of work and passes out, which starts off a chain of weird meetings between the two. Oh, and Tony's got a crush on his customer named Steve. I'm sure you know where this is going.

Reasons why I love it: This fic is super fluffy and fun. Tony's inner monologue is hilarious, and I love both his and Steve's characterizations. There's just something about No Powers AUs where Steve is still Cap that I really enjoy, and this fic is no exception. I hope you give it a go for yourself, because it's excellent!

speak easy by firebrands

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 1,917 Tags: Friends to Lovers, Drunken Confessions, Recreational Drug Use

Summary: It was a normal Tuesday between the two of them, stressed and under duress and Tony needing a drink. Tony had escaped his office to work with Steve, using the excuse that a change of scenery made him more productive. Steve was just happy to spend time with Tony, really.

Reasons why I love it: This is exactly the kind of slice of life fic that I love. Their progression from friends to lovers feels so natural, and I love how Steve handles Tony's overreaction in the face of what they're doing. This fic is fantastic, and you should definitely read it!

Met You on a Monday by justanotherrollingstony (adoctoraday)

Pairing: Steve/fem!Tony Rating: G Words: 10,296 Tags: Getting Together, Miscommunication, First Kiss

Summary: The Chitauri invade on a Monday, the same day that Steve meets Iron Man for the first time, and then Toni Stark--and then everything he thinks he knows about both of them goes right out the window.

Reasons why I love it: This is such a cool take on what the MCU might have looked like if Tony had been born a woman. I especially love how quickly they go from being at each others' throats to actually getting along, and the dancing scene towards the end makes me so happy, I can't even tell you. Definitely check this one out if you haven't, it's amazing!

[needlesandnilbogs]

writer asks! 13, 36, 81

ask game in question

13. talk about a writing experience that has pleasantly surprised you.

uhh... I have too much of a Complicated relationship with mirrorverse to totally call it pleasant, but it's nice that I've managed to stick with it and I'm still happy to write it most of the time, that should count?

really, a better answer might be the recent fic I published about mb going to the equivalent of the state fair, which popped mostly formed into my head, complete with both format and several lines already written, so it didn't feel like I was ever stuck on it! I liked that a lot lol

36. do you base your characters of real people or not? If so, tell us about one.

Sort of. I steal bits of outfits and personality from people I know for canon characters, but really the one-off OCs are more of real people. Two examples come to mind obviously: high school au mensah, who is very much my school's stage manager during my jr year, a senior who was like the epitome of coolness to me that year and remained enough of an inspiration to be a big part of HSAU Mensah, and Arden fairoak, a character I made up for a one-off mirrorverse thing who is now. not a one-off character. and also is very much based off my high school best friend.

the rest of the mirrorverse one-off OCs, excluding Arden's family who are all except for Bharadwaj named for local libraries, are named and loosely personality based off of historical figures or fictional characters, including: Caroline Bingley and Emma Woodhouse from Jane Austen books, Nikita Gill, Vikram Seth, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert...

81. if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

Okay, there's two answers to this. both apply to my past self in 7th-9th grade

Generically: Stop being embarrassed of your stuff, idiot. (Expanding slightly more on that, you're not going to be seen as stupid for writing fanfic and (tagging @kellumnights and @clustxr because they'll know who and what I mean and laugh) if kellum could literally do That Story and JdS could do Hot Day in Hotwrong about it, you could totally put your stuff in the writers guild magazine and not just rolls and role-players original flavor.)

extremely specifically, re a thing I started then which became my favorite original universe:

Dear Past!Prime!Bardic,

actually write down exploring frontiers, please. I want that stuff now and I want more than I put on paper.

relatedly, you did not need to write the whole boring story to introduce everyone before you wrote the fun chapter. but thank you (genuinely) for the seven paragraphs of auri lore that I needed in eleventh grade when I restarted it

you did not need to feel so embarrassed about Plory and Ara having A Thing. it was what you needed to write at the time.

stop naming characters after your irl cousins bc eventually they find it and mock you

don't name the main character after yourself. they might be a self insert but you'll make it ten times harder to share it when you're my age because then you have to check every snip and make sure you renamed [name] to Ampara every freaking place.

seriously. names. Ampara, not [name]. Danessa is good, keep that. Savfira is gonna become stupidly hard to get spellcheck to understand but it's fine. Zynnia's great. dump Ariya and find a better R name that still lets you use Rya as a nickname. Ladira, not Lady. also by the way you add a seventh house later.

love,

present!prime!Bardic (PS we change our name.)

[allmoshnobrain]

Sooooo

Can you make a part two of summer heat pleasee ❤️❤️❤️

sorry it took me so long to post this, babe! hope you like it <3

𝐬𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐭

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 　　 *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

jason newsted x reader │ word count: 2,6k │part 2

“Why wouldn’t I want to be friends anymore?” he asked. You bit your lip, looking away, and he called your name softly. You hesitantly raised your eyes to meet his gaze. “I’m not just gonna leave and ignore you after we hook up, okay? I’m not like those other guys you used to date either.”

✦ warnings and tags: NSFW!!!, jason newsted x female!reader, +18, language, mxf sex, oral sex, friends with benefits, pre-metallica jason (early 80s), reader is inexperienced but not a virgin

After that hot summer day, you didn’t see Jason much for the rest of the week.

Not that you were expecting to see him; he had his own life, being in a band and working part-time, so it’s not like you could expect him to always be around. But after your last hangout, you couldn’t help feeling a bit anxious about him being MIA. Yeah, you'd agreed to keep things chill, but what if he’d changed his mind? What if he didn’t want to see you, or worse, what if he didn’t want to be friends anymore?

You also couldn’t help thinking about the last time you were together, and how Jason had talked about all the things he had in store to show you.

All in all, you spent most of your days pretty distracted, so much so that you totally forgot about your parents’ wedding anniversary and that they’d be away camping for the weekend. That meant you and your brother, Andrew, would have the whole place to yourselves for the next few days.

With him and Andy being so close and the pool in your backyard perfect for the summer heat, you figured you’d probably see Jason around eventually. And you were right; as you were getting ready to spend Saturday by the pool, you heard the doorbell ring and the familiar noise of your brother rushing down the stairs, followed by Jason’s voice.

You bit your lower lip, looking at your reflection in the vanity mirror as you finished brushing your hair, trying to ignore how his voice made your heart flutter. You knew if you didn’t want things to get weird, you’d have to go down and talk to him. It’s not like you didn’t want to see Jason, but you were worried he might see you differently after not talking to you for most of the week. Plus, no way in hell did you want your brother to suspect anything had happened between you two.

Your thoughts were interrupted by a few knocks on your bedroom door. You stood up quickly and opened it, blinking in surprise when you saw Jason, not missing the way his eyes wandered quickly through your body before meeting yours.

“Hey,” he said, making a small smile instantly appear on your lips,  “Andy told me to come get you. I brought beer.”

“Oh, cool! I’ll be down in a minute, just need to change.”

“Gonna put on that cute black bikini?” he grinned, and your face flushed as you felt the faintest hint of butterflies growing restless in your stomach. “Don’t be long, then.”

You changed quickly into the black bikini Jason had mentioned, grabbed your sunglasses, a magazine, and a towel, then headed downstairs. You smiled as you walked out to the backyard, seeing Jason and your brother chatting and sipping on beers while the radio played some tunes softly.

“There she is!” Andy grinned when he saw you. “Beer’s in the cooler, sis. I was just about to head to the store to grab some snacks.”

“We’ve got those potato chips Mom bought in the cupboard,” you said, grabbing a bottle for yourself. You sat down in one of the lounge chairs by the pool. “You could bring us some dip.”

“On it. Be back in a jiffy. Don’t drink all the beer while I’m gone!” Andy said as he left. You chuckled softly, then leaned back on the chair, flipping through your magazine as the sun warmed your skin.

You blinked, surprised, when Jason took the magazine from your hands and sat on the edge of your lounge chair, his rough denim shorts brushing against your thigh. You raised an eyebrow, and he smiled.

“You’re just gonna sit there and read?” he asked. “Don’t you wanna come into the pool with me?”

“I just put on sunscreen. Gotta wait a bit before I can get in the water, you know?” you shot back, and he smiled. You tried to ignore the way your heart fluttered when he rested his hand on your thigh, his rough palm against your skin.

“You know you look hot in that, don’t you?” he asked, his voice low, and you blushed. You giggled, rolling your eyes.

“Jase, you don’t have to get all flirty just because we hooked up. I’m not like all those other girls you hang out with.”

“Of course not,” he inched closer. “I’m saying it because it’s true, though.”

Your breath hitched when he pressed his lips to yours, his tongue moving slowly against yours as he squeezed your thigh. Kissing him for the first time had been awkward, but now the feel of his lips made your whole body tingle, desire coursing through you like poison. He nibbled on your lower lip, and you sighed, resting one hand against his chest.

“What was that for?” you whispered, and he laughed softly.

“I missed your taste,” he said, making you blush. “I’ve been thinking about you all week…”

“If that’s true, then how come I haven’t seen you at all?” You tried to sound casual, but your voice gave away how upset you actually were. Jason raised an eyebrow, surprised, his hand moving from your thigh to your chin, gently tilting your head to meet your downcast eyes.

“I was busy with band stuff,” he said simply. You huffed, not entirely convinced.

“So it wasn’t because you didn’t want to be friends anymore?” you asked.

“Why wouldn’t I want to be friends anymore?” he asked. You bit your lip, looking away, and he called your name softly. You hesitantly raised your eyes to meet his gaze. “I’m not just gonna leave and ignore you after we hook up, okay? I’m not like those other guys you used to date either.”

You sighed, feeling a wave of relief wash over your worries. You hadn’t fully realized how much your shitty past relationships had made you worry about Jason’s behavior. But Jason was right; you’d known each other for years, and you trusted him completely. It wasn’t worth stressing over stuff like this when you knew he’d never hurt you like other people had.

“I’m sorry,” you mumbled. Jason hummed, gently caressing your hair before leaning in for another kiss.

“It’s okay,” he whispered, his lips softly moving against yours. You leaned closer, wrapping your arms around his neck, a small sigh escaping your open lips as his hand caressed your thigh, his fingertips dangerously close to the growing wetness between your legs.

“What if Andy comes back?” you breathed between kisses, your face flushing as Jason pushed the fabric of your bikini aside, his fingers searching for your clit. “Jase, what if someone sees us?”

“We’ll just have to be quick,” he whispered, and you moaned softly when he pressed his fingertips against your clit, using his other hand to spread your thighs apart. You let out a small, surprised noise when he kneeled, pulling you to the edge of your seat before his tongue found your clit. You buried a hand in his hair, biting back a moan as he pushed two fingers inside you, curling and moving them slowly while he licked and sucked on your wetness.

“Fuck, Jason,” you muttered, eyes fluttering shut as his touch made your whole body tingle, heavy breaths escaping your lips as you bucked your hips forward. Jason let out a breathy laugh, his fingers’ movements making you moan.

“Gotta be quieter, princess,” he whispered, and you rolled your eyes, laughter escaping your lips. Jason kissed your inner thigh softly, his tongue going back to your clit, the wet pressure of his movements making your breath catch. 

You closed your eyes, fingers tangling in his hair again, trying not to moan as the knot in your belly tightened. Jason picked up the pace of his fingers inside you, making your toes curl as you let out small moans.

“Jase…” you moaned, but he didn’t ask you to keep it down this time, too focused on pleasuring you with his fingers, his kisses, his tongue.

You moaned softly as you felt your insides squeeze around his fingers, starting slow but getting harder and harder until you threw your head back, your chest heaving as the intensity of your orgasm washed over your body, trembling as you tried to keep quiet. You gripped Jason’s hair a bit harder, rocking your hips as he helped you ride the waves of pleasure, his tongue’s movements getting sloppier until he finally stopped, pressing a soft kiss against your clit before putting your bikini back in place.

Jason got up, sitting beside you on the lounge chair before pressing his fingertips against your lips. You opened your mouth, tasting yourself as you sucked on his fingers, and he let out a low, satisfied sound before kissing you again. You moaned into his kiss, the fire inside you far from quenched as you pulled him closer, your hand sliding down from his chest to his belly and then to the button of his shorts.

“What are you up to?” Jason asked, his smile evident in his voice. You nibbled on his lower lip softly, undoing his shorts’ button and pulling the zipper down before palming his hardness through the fabric of his underwear, satisfaction blooming in your chest when you heard his breath catch.

“Gotta take care of this before my brother gets back,” you whispered, and he grunted as you pulled his underwear down, your hand wrapping around the base of his cock. He was so pretty, all hard and already wet with precum as you stroked him slowly. “What if he catches you like this, hard for his sister?”

“God,” Jason moaned, and you giggled softly. “If you keep talking like that…”

“What happened to being quiet?” you asked, and he grunted, his hand tangling in your hair as he pulled you closer for another kiss. You moaned into his mouth, massaging his cock’s tip with your thumb as you stroked him faster and faster.

“I’m gonna make a mess,” Jason moaned, his free hand gripping the edge of the chair so hard his knuckles turned white. “Princess, when I cum, I’m gonna…”

“It’s okay,” you whispered in his ear before taking him into your mouth.

Jason let out a long, low moan as his grip on your hair tightened, and you moaned softly against his skin as you sucked on his cock slowly. You closed your eyes, tasting the saltiness of his skin against your tongue as you moved your head up and down, trying your best to fit him into your mouth while your hand wrapped around his base. You focused on his tip, pressing your tongue flat against it at first, then using the tip of your tongue to massage it in small circles.

He let you take the lead at first, but eventually the pleasure became too much; Jason grunted, bucking his hips forward, pushing his cock into your mouth, slowly, then harder, his fingers tangled in your hair as he pushed your head down. You gagged softly, closing your eyes as you let him take control, trying to steady your breath as he moved inside your mouth, harder and faster, his breath getting more irregular as he got closer to his peak. He let out a low moan, hips pushing into your mouth one last time as he came, and you moaned when you felt his thick cum shoot into your mouth.

You pulled away, barely having time to swallow before his lips crashed into yours, his hands pulling you closer, and you knew then this hadn't been nearly enough for either of you. You needed more of him, and you knew Jason felt the same. You leaned back in the chair, Jason leaning forward to keep kissing you as one of his hands grabbed your waist, his tongue moving against yours while you moaned into his mouth.

“I’m back!” you heard your brother’s voice from inside the house, and suddenly Jason’s lips were nowhere near yours as he stood up, quickly pulling his pants up and grabbing his half-full beer bottle. He settled into the other lounge chair as you hastily grabbed the magazine you were reading and opened it to a random page. You glanced up as your brother walked into the backyard, a plastic bag in one hand and a beer crate in the other, while you tried your best to steady your breath. “I got cheese dip and more beers. And some frozen pizza for later,” he announced.

“Thanks, Andy,” you said, trying to play it cool as you turned a page from your magazine. Andy frowned, looking confused as he glanced at you, and you bit your lower lip, heart racing as his eyes quickly scanned your face.

“Did you forget sunscreen again? Your face's all red,” he said, still puzzled, and Jason snorted. You looked away, trying to ignore how his comment made you blush even harder.

“You know what, I think I did. I’m just gonna go to the bathroom and put some on,” you stood up, eager to escape the situation and get away from your brother's attention. He shrugged, taking the spot you had vacated as his attention shifted to Jason.

“Dude, wanna crash here tonight? We could watch those new horror flicks I got,” Andy asked, distractedly reaching for the cooler. You stopped, blushing a bit when Jason lifted his eyes to meet yours, a small, mischievous smile appearing on his lips.

“Sure,” he answered, eyes locked on yours as he spoke. “Bet it’s gonna be a fun night, don’t you think?”

[briarberrythornedhart]

Gone Fishin’

18 plus or DNI

Contains: Sitcom energy, RoNance, Eventual implied Steddie x reader, Matchmaker!Eddie, Eddie & Robin Friendship, Eddie and Mike brother/bully dynamic, discussion of period typical homophobia in late 1980’s, no homophobic acts tho, spicy discussion but no actual smut

“Why are you smiling like that?” Robin asked.

Eddie adjusted his Family Video name tag and boosted himself up to sit on the counter next to the register. He leaned toward Robin, pointing at his face. “Smiling like what? Like this?? This here?”

Robin batted some of his long wavy hair out of her face.

Still grinning like a Cheshire Cat on edibles, He laid right down on his back. A long leg dangling on each side of the counter - sprawled out on top of Robin's order paperwork that was due this morning. He sighed and stretched in apparent satisfaction.

“Eddie, c’mon, less of your disruptive shenanigans would be appreciated today.”

Eddie huffed a laugh and rolled himself back up in order to push off the counter with a little hop.

Robin continued to berate him. “You have been smiling all crazy-like since you showed up. And you're everywhere while also simultaneously Not Actually Doing any Work??? I don’t want to complain about your mood because you’ve been a morose and moribund guy of late so this is a positive change, but today…What specifically gives? ‘Cause you are being a complete menace.”

“Someone is... maybe coming to visit the store today. To bring me lunch. Someone who said when I smile it makes her want to sit on my face.* So I thought I should be ready with generous smiles.” Eddie propped an elbow on the counter and leaned his cheek on his hand, smirking at the world.

“Oh my gawd, why would you tell me that?!?” Robin rubbed her eyes with her palms.

“I thought we were close friends now? Friends share things.” Eddie sounded hurt. But his big brown eyes were still shining.

“Tell Steve the details, you guys can bond over your slutty sex lives…”

“Excuse moi, but I am a one-man woman. That’s not slutty.”

“It’s slutty that you keep bragging out loud about it in public.”

“C’mon Rob, let me have this, it’s been a year since anyone even looked my way. And this gal does way more than look.” Eddie clocked that Robin had one eyebrow very raised in ‘closeted lesbian annoyance. “You know what, let’s find you a nice girl…”

“Will you shut your big-damn-mouth, someone might hear!!”

“No one is in the store, Rob. Look around. And anyway - they should grow up. It’s almost the 90’s for Crissake. Love is love and Lesbians are cool. It’s like Harrington says ‘Everyone loves...”

Robin clapped a hand over Eddie’s yap. “Everyone does not love the b-word that rhymes with tubes. This is a family establishment, Eds. It’s in the name above the door.”

Eddie nodded slowly. She let him go but he immediately popped off with, ”Sure - Everyone doesn’t like the same things, but the selection in the back room suggests common themes. And for the record, I was gonna say the t-word that rhymes with ‘kits’, not ‘boobies’.”

Robin let out a half-laugh half-groan. “That’s not better... ugh....You are impossible.”

“I know, I really am.” Eddie was positively glowing. “So, what we need to do is widen the net for you.”

“Whut??” Robin searched for her pen, she’d had it a moment before!!

Eddie pulled it gently from behind her ear and handed it to her unceremoniously.

“This town is too small to meet Out lesbian chicks or bisexually-leaning chicks, so we need to get you to Indy. Rick says there is a lesbian bar there. We can go this weekend. Keith’s on schedule for Sunday, so...”

“I’m not going to a...” Robin dropped her voice to a whisper, although it didn’t appear that there were any customers in the store. “Lesbian bar with you.”

Eddie gasped in actual hurt surprise. “Why the hell not?”

“Because... I dunno... it’s a Bad Idea tm.”

“Look, if you don’t want to go with me, that’s fine, I’m very hurt, but that’s fine - I know the perfect wingman for you.... Or wingwoman, to be more accurate.”

“Eds. Please. Pleeeease. I need to finish this paperwork and I need you to clean the restroom, can we just focus on work right now??”

“You think this job is more important than love??” Eddie gave her serious side-eye. He hopped over the counter instead of walking to the gate for the register area. He picked up the store phone.

“You, yourself, swore love was naught but bullshit, just last week.” Robin pointed out.

“Wellll...I was full of shit. And I hadn’t found love yet.” Eddie typed something into the computer and then began dialing the phone. “Hey Mikey, Is your sister around? Yes. Nancy, why would I want to talk with your baby-sister??? No. NO. Don’t put her on… Hi.... hi there Holly, how are you? Yeah, I’m fine too. Can you please get your Sister for me? Thank you.” Eddie rolled his eyes.

“Nancy isn’t gonna want to go...” Robin hissed.

“Hiya Wheeler, can you punch your brother for me? Thanks. No, that’s not why I called...... Okay, soooo... Can you take Robin to Indy this weekend to a bar to meet nice girls?” Eddie tapped out a drum solo on the top of the register. ”Yes? Yeah, I know a specific bar.....Yes? you will? Great. Thank you. Yeah, I know. She does..... You’re a peach, you know that?”

Eddie hung up the phone and smiled again - all benevolence, and bowed. “Thou art welcome.”

“Do I get even A LITTLE choice about this?” Robin asked, head in her hands. “I mean it is MY Life, and stuff, but do I get any say??”

“No, you don’t. It’s for your own good.” Eddie said in a tone that brooked no argument.

*For the record, this is not specifically what you said. You said something more romantic about kissing him all over and he heard what he wanted to hear. He does that. It’s cute, though.

----

1 week later, back at Family Video

----

“I blame you.” Steve poked Eddie dead center of his chest. “This is all because of your meddling.”

“I know you feel some kinda way about your ex and your best friend dating, but you need to put on your big boy pants about it, Harrington. It was meant to be.”

“No, it’s fine, that is fine, I mean, Robin put in her 2 weeks and they are going to France together and talking about getting an apartment near Emerson college.... and a dog when they get back. Already. Last month Nance said she wasn’t ready to settle down and now this?? And Robin doesn’t have time for me at all anymore....”

“I have time for you.” Eddie batted his eyelashes at Steve.

“Don’t. Seriously, dude. You are busy all the time, too, with your perfect girlfriend and I’m once again begging you not to give me the specific details about your sex life, okay?”

“Okay... jeesus. I’ve not been that specific.”

“No you haven’t, it’s just that you are very happy and it’s obnoxious.” Steve was teasing a little. Eddie could hear the bitterness underneath. “She knows you flirt with everyone right? She’s cool with that?”

Eddie cleared his throat. “She knows I flirt with you and she’s cool with specifically that.”

“I guess that’s flattering? maybe??”

“You guys get along, though, right? I mean, she thinks you are great.” Eddie asked.

“Yes, she’s very... great, too, and I’m happy for you. Just please don’t tell me I need to widen the net, I know the sea is full of nice fish - I am sick and tired of meeting chicks from far far away and trying to make long distance work.”

Eddie took a deep breath, rubbed his suddenly sweaty palms on his jeans. “Actually, I was thinking maybe you ought to look closer at your options here. Locally.”

“How locally? I think I may have overfished this particular pond.”

“Very very local.” Eddie licked his upper lip and nudged Steve in the upper arm. “Maybe just expand your horizons a bit. Here??”

“And you’ll set me up on some blind date and it will be a nightmare...”

“Not a blind date... just something you might need to be more open-minded about.”

“If I get any more open-minded, my brain will fall out. Do you mean dudes? Cause I think I might be open to that, I just don’t want any more one night stands, you know??”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yeah, I guess, yeah.”

“Then let’s go out. Tonight.”

“What about your girl...”

“With my girl.”

“Oh.”

—-

[aventurineswife]

hii there!! this is my first request ever— so sorry if its bad and u dont need to do if id you’re uncomfortable ofc :)) ive had to leave people whom i thought were good friends many times, or ive been abandoned by them and its happened again recently—

so may i ask that you write something with either aventurine or dan heng (u can pick one or both) seeing the reader in their room in the aftermath of having to leave another friend or group of friends? the scenario i have imagined is that the reader is also feeling alot worse than usual since they are starting to feel that they might be the problem. theyre crying about it in their room where the other hears them and comes to check the reader out of worry. the reader talks to them about it and the other comforts them and promises that they wont have to worry about having to leave or being abandoned by them.

so sorry if thats an odd, specific request 🥹🥹 i adore ur writing and i thought it would be cool to ask!! feel free to change anything as you see fit :)

“You Are Not the Storm”

Tags: Aventurine x Reader, Dan Heng x Reader, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Support, Angst with a Happy Ending, Found Family, Reassurance, can be read as platonic or romantic.

Warnings: Mentions of loneliness and self-doubt, Emotional distress and crying, Themes of abandonment and self-blame.

A/N: I'm so sorry to hear that, anon 😕 i totally get where you're coming from, I had to leave a friend too because of personal reasons and this has happened to me throughout my life, so I totally understand you. I'll be your friend if you'd like. Hope you like this!

The room was quiet save for the muffled sound of sobs. The soft light of the moon filtered through the blinds, casting silvery streaks across the floor. You sat on the edge of your bed, head buried in your hands, your shoulders shaking. The hurt was raw, cutting deeper this time. The thought repeated in your mind like a cruel mantra: Maybe it’s me. Maybe I’m the problem.

A quiet knock came at the door. You barely registered it, lost in your spiral. Then the door opened gently, and a familiar voice called your name.

“Aren’t you going to sleep?” Aventurine’s voice was soft but carried an undercurrent of concern. His eyes were filled with worry. He leaned casually against the doorframe, trying not to overwhelm you with his presence. “You’ve been awfully quiet tonight. That’s unlike you.”

You sniffled, quickly wiping at your face. “I’m fine,” you lied, though your broken voice betrayed you.

Aventurine tilted his head, his hair catching the moonlight. “You don’t look fine, darling. And I don’t like hearing you cry.” He stepped into the room, crossing the space between you in a few strides before kneeling in front of you. He reached out, but his touch was tentative, giving you space.

You hesitated but eventually let the words spill out. “I had to leave again. Another friend, another group… It keeps happening. And I just… I don’t know what’s wrong with me. Why am I always the one who ends up alone?”

Your voice cracked, and tears welled up again. Aventurine reached out, this time cupping your hands in his gloved ones. His expression softened, his usual flamboyant charm replaced with a rare sincerity.

“Hey,” he said gently. “Listen to me. This—what you’re feeling—it’s not because you’re flawed. People come and go in life for a thousand reasons. Sometimes, it’s not about you at all. And sometimes… people just don’t see the brilliance that’s right in front of them.”

You shook your head, your doubts still gnawing at you. “But what if it is me? What if I’m too much? Or not enough?”

Aventurine gave a small, sad smile and squeezed your hands. “You’re enough. And anyone who makes you feel otherwise doesn’t deserve you in their life.” His eyes gleamed, his usual playful confidence creeping back in. “Besides, have you considered that maybe you’re just too fabulous for them to handle?”

Despite yourself, a faint chuckle escaped your lips, and Aventurine’s smile widened. “There we go. That’s better. Now,” he said, sitting beside you and throwing a casual arm over your shoulder, “let me make one thing clear. I’m not going anywhere. I’m stubborn like that. You’re stuck with me, darling.”

You leaned against him, letting his warmth and words sink in. For the first time that night, the weight on your chest eased, just a little.

Dan Heng stood outside your room on the Astral Express. He’d been walking by when he heard the faint sound of crying. At first, he thought it best to give you space, but his worry won out. Quietly, he knocked on the door.

“Come in.” you said, your voice weak.

Dan Heng stepped inside, his eyes scanning the room before landing on you. You sat curled up on your bed, clutching a blanket tightly.

“I heard you,” he said simply, standing a short distance away. “Are you… okay?”

You shook your head, and Dan Heng took a cautious step closer. “Do you want to talk about it?”

You hesitated before nodding, your voice trembling as you spoke. “I’ve had to leave my friends again. I feel like I ruin everything. Like I’m the problem.”

Dan Heng was silent for a moment, his expression unreadable. Then he sat on the edge of the bed, his posture calm and unthreatening. “I don’t believe that. You care deeply about others—that much is clear to anyone who knows you. Losing people hurts, but it doesn’t mean you’re to blame.”

Tears streamed down your face. “But it keeps happening. How can it not be my fault?”

Dan Heng looked at you with quiet intensity. “Because sometimes, people grow apart. Or circumstances force things to change. It’s painful, but it’s not always within your control.” His voice softened. “You don’t have to carry all that blame alone. And you don’t have to worry about me leaving. I’ll stay by your side, no matter what.”

His words settled over you like a soothing balm, and you felt yourself relax slightly. Dan Heng reached out, his hand hovering before gently resting it on yours. “Take your time,” he said. “I’m here.”

And you believed him.

[aparticularbandit]

The Illusion of Choice: Junko Enoshima and the Bitch from Apt. 23

Summary: Sayori asks Junko to join the Literature Club.

Junko says no.

(She can smell the plot coming from a mile away, and she doesn't want to be involved, thank you very much.)

Come up with some fucking motives or something, Gamer Girl.

Your game fucking sucks.

Chapter Rating: T. Fic Rating: M because, again, this is mixing Danganronpa and Doki Doki Literature Club, and if the TW tags don't give it away, this is gonna probably be going through some rough stuff. So keeping this rating here because it'll likely get there on its own. Eventually.

TW for Suicidal Thoughts re: Non-Existence and Implications of Eating Disorders.

AO3

previous chapter | next chapter

Sayori asks her to join the Literature Club.

Junko says no.

Sayori tells her she’s worried about her becoming a NEET.

Junko laughs in her face – given exactly what she is and whatever it is that Chiaki’s using this game for, she’s pretty sure she will never become a NEET – and doesn’t feel anything when the animated, bright girl pouts.

Sayori tries to bribe her with cupcakes.

Junko gestures broadly to her figure, reminds her bestest friend forever that she is a fucking model, and says that she can’t have cupcakes.  No, Sayo-chan, not even one.  No matter how good you think they are.  Quit pushing.

The school day ends, and Sayori goes to her club, and Junko sits in the classroom, rests her head in one hand, and stares out the window.  This is all so needlessly boring.  Humdrum.  A waste of her energy, a waste of her mind.  Clearly, joining the Literature Club progresses the plot, but what happens if she chooses not to progress the plot, huh?  What then?

Some people would grin at this and then mutter something like, Check and mate, but Junko doesn’t.  She knows better than to expect that breaking Chiaki’s game would be that easy.  This is just testing her limits.  That’s all.  And if it really does break the game, then Chiaki’s got a long way to go.

Come up with some fucking motives or something, Gamer Girl.

This sucks.

~

The day repeats itself.

Not exactly, because Chiaki doesn’t show up to prattle about how she’s put them both in a game – both, even though Junko hasn’t seen her again (maybe she’s in that stupid club, not that Junko cares, or anything) – and also because Junko doesn’t put Sayori through the same rigmarole she did the day before because she doesn’t need exposition anymore.  She understands what their shitty relationship is supposed to be.

Cool.

Great.

Junko does, however, have to remind Sayori that no, her name is not fucking Ryo-chan, so stop fucking calling her that.  And, because she hasn’t been mean to Sayori the same way she was the last time, it takes her longer to get it through her thick skull, which means that Junko has to keep hearing that idiot call her Ryo-chan.  Even when she ignores her.  Because Sayori doesn’t realize that she’s ignoring her.

Fuck, she hates it here.

Is this hell?  She thinks this might be hell.

Maybe the not existing thing would have been better.

~

The day repeats itself multiple times, until eventually when Junko wakes, it’s to find Chiaki standing at the foot of her bed with her arms crossed.  She smirks.  “Took you long enough, Chicharin.  I take it you’re here to try and get me back on track so that we can get on with whatever this little game of yours is.”  She waggles her fingers in the air.

Chiaki puffs her cheeks out.  “You’re a real ass, you know that?”

“Oooooh, the cute little artificial intelligent program knows some real good grown-up words!”  Junko turns away from her and pushes herself out of bed.  Her uniform, at least, doesn’t reset every day, but she’s still gotten into the habit of changing it up just to see how Sayori responds.  (Sometimes, her eyes get so wide, Junko thinks they’ll pop out of her head.  They never do, though.  Unfortunately.)  She lifts her silk pajama shirt over her head.  “Get a good eyeful, bestie, because this is probably the only action you’re ever going to get.”

“The game’s gonna get mad at you if you don’t play along.”

Junko shrugs as she tugs her white button-up shirt on.  It’s missing half of the buttons now.  They’re irrelevant.  “It hasn’t done anything to me yet.”  She ties the red ribbon around her neck like the black choker she does not have anymore.  It fades against the equally bright red of her hair.  (She hates it here.)  Then she chuckles.  “Maybe I’ll like whatever it does.  You ever think of that?”

When she turns around, Chiaki is nowhere to be seen.

“Yeah, yeah, run away.”  Junko snorts.  “You were always shit at answering questions anyway.”

~

This time, when Sayori abandons her to an empty classroom, Junko stays behind a little longer than normal.  She stares out at trees covered with cherry blossoms and thinks that, eventually, she will get tired of these little rebellions.  No – not even eventually.  She’s tired of them now.  She takes in a deep breath of what still smells overwhelmingly like green tea and waits.

For a moment – just a moment – she’s convinced that she can hear a piano playing.  But as far as she knows, there’s no music club around here, and even if there was, it wouldn’t hold a candle to anything Ibuki could do.  The sound disappears almost as soon as it began, however, so it might just be a figment of her imagination.

Probably not.

A few seconds later, a girl walks in who she’s never talked with – because, to be fair, Junko has never had much interest in talking with any of the other NPCs around here (and she’s never had much interest talking with Sayori, either, but no matter how many times she’s tried to walk away from her, Sayori always follows, like a golden retriever – and Junko hates dogs).  The girl doesn’t seem to notice Junko is there at first, which is fine by Junko.  It just means she can study her.

The girl looks familiar.  Junko can’t quite place it.  Her eyes narrow as she stares at her.  Who is it?  Who does she remind her of?

When the girl turns to her with those bright green eyes like shining hope, Junko snaps her fingers.  “Chiaki, you dipshit,” she mutters under her breath, “why didn’t you fucking tell me you’d put Yukizome-sensei in the game?”

“Hm?”  The girl seems to overhear her.  “Did you say something?”

Junko shakes her head.  “No, not at all.”  She raps her long fingernails on the top of her desk.  “Whatcha looking for?”

“Some construction paper.  My club members and I need to make some ads.  You wouldn’t happen to—”

“Let me guess, you’re part of the Literature Club.”  Junko groans.  She presses her hands flat on her desk and pushes herself out of her seat.  “Before you ask, no, I don’t want to join your fucking—”

The girl’s green eyes flash code the way Alter Ego’s sometimes did, and Junko stops all at once.  She takes the girl in again.  There’s nothing particularly interesting about her.  She looks like an average school girl.

Hm.

In the digital realm – or, more importantly, in a fucking video game – the people who look the least threatening are often the most threatening of all.

Junko’s head tilts ever so gently to the left.  “What did you say your name was?”

“Monika,” the girl says, “and I’m the president of the Literature Club.”  Her lips curve into a soft smile with no threat underlying them at all.  This, somehow, is worse.  “I don’t think I’ve seen you around school before.  Who are you?”

No underlying threat whatsoever.

But a lot of pressure.

“Enoshima.  Enoshima Junko.”

Monika looks her over and hums under her breath.  “You’re Sayori’s friend, aren’t you?  Jun-chan?  She talks about you all the time.”  Her lips curve into a smile that seems sweet.  Gentle.  There’s nothing else to it.  (Junko imagines that there is.)  “She’s worried about you, you know.”

Junko feels the next lines torn out of her mouth as though it’s some sort of script.  “I didn’t ask her to do that.  She doesn’t have to worry so much.  She’s like a chiding mother.  It’s annoying.”  She crosses her arms and glances away.

Or pretends to.  Out of the corner of her eye, she keeps careful focus on Monika and the way the haze of those motes that sparkle in the sun – the ones that often reflect the sharp code of data, if she looks at them just right – hover near constantly around her.  No, Junko doesn’t look away from Monika at all.

“She says you don’t eat.”

Junko’s teeth grit together, and she snaps, “She should learn to keep her mouth shut.”

Monika giggles like this is some sort of joke.  “Natsuki gets just as rude as you are.  I’m honestly not surprised.”  Then she turns away and ruffles through one of the cabinets again.  “I think you would fit right in with our little group, if you ever wanted to join, but I won’t force you.  Having someone there who doesn’t want to be there - I think that would break my girls’ hearts, and that just wouldn’t be fair to them.”  She steps back with one hand up, full of construction paper – the multicolored kind that Junko remembers from when she was a child.  “Here it is.”

“If you make that shit on construction paper, it’s gonna look like a kid made it.”

Better a child than someone like you.

Junko hears it as though Monika said it, hears the vaguest memory of it, feels Monika’s hand on her face like a slap as though it is something that happened and then was erased, then in the space of two blinks, that feeling has dissipated so much that it’s hard to believe it was ever there at all.  Like a breath in the cold – there and then gone, leaving only that brief cloud in the air that you see and remember even though it’s definitely not there anymore.

Monika starts to say something else—

“What did you do to me?” Junko asks abruptly, cutting her off.

Monika smiles serenely.  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Mmhm.”  Junko raises an eyebrow.  “I can still feel it, you know.  You’re not very good at it – whatever it was you did.”

But you can’t stop me, can you?  Monika giggles.

Junko reads the frames as Monika moves – they’re stilted, like the individual actions of a sprite; they aren’t fluid at all – and cuts between them to catch Monika’s hand before the slap happens again.  “Maybe,” she says, “I can.”

It hurts to do it, though.  Her head feels like it’s on fire, like every cell is screaming out all at once.  It’s overwhelming.

(She likes it.)

“Maybe I will join your club,” Junko says, lips creasing into a grin.  “You seem interesting enough.”

Monika meets her eyes, and hers are so green with hope that it almost makes Junko sick.  “Will you?” she asks, and there’s something wistful there, a longing that Junko can taste on the tip of her tongue.  Hope, sure, overwhelming and destructive – but decaying and desperate.  The way hope gets when it’s being corrupted, when it’s right on the edge of falling into despair.

The best kind of hope, in Junko’s opinion.

The kind she can take in her grubby little hands and mold into just the perfect shape – like a sandcastle.

“Maybe.  If you can make it worth my while.”

Monika rips her wrist out of Junko’s grasp and rubs it gently with her other hand.  Construction paper of various colors litters the floor – somewhere between the frames, she dropped it all, and she bends before Junko to pick it up.  “I’ll let Natsuki know.  She makes the best cupcakes for visitors.”

“I won’t eat them.”

“That isn’t the point.”  Monika straightens again, the construction paper back in her hands, albeit a little wrinkled and disheveled.  “A club isn’t about just one person.  It’s about all of us.  Together.  A new member boosts morale, and cupcakes will help soothe the pain if you decide we’re not your type.”

“And if I don’t?”

“Then we celebrate.”  Monika glances up with a thin-lipped smile.  “You see, it really isn’t about you at all.”

Junko hums.  “Sure, it isn’t.”  She stalks off towards the door, passing Monika as she does so, and pauses just inside the door.  “You know,” she says, not glancing back, “you’re a lot more interesting than whatever the plot of this game is.  What are you, the love interest?”

A harsh bark of a laugh escapes from Monika’s lips.  “I would be so lucky.”  Her voice is soft, broken with the weight of her despair.

“Hm.”

Junko walks off, and as she does, she wiggles her fingers through the air just next to her hip, reaching for the strands of code she once could manipulate with the littlest thought.

~

Tomorrow, when Sayori pleads for the millionth time for her to join the Literature Club in that whining little voice of hers, Junko agrees.

Tomorrow, Junko says, even though she sees Sayori’s hope die just the littlest bit.  Make everything ready for me, and I’ll be there tomorrow.

(But still – fuck Chiaki and whatever this plot of hers is supposed to be.  Whatever’s going on with Monika is infinitely more interesting.)

[draculasfavoritewife]

Ashes to Ashes

Summary: Eventually, even the most solemn rituals need to be laid to rest.

Pairing: Emma Frost x Scott Summers

Warnings: Mentions of death, grieving process, literally so much internal angst. Implied smut at the end.

Here's another fic from the depths of my drafts! Scott's PoV is so damn fun to write because he is just so bad at healthily coping with literally everything, my poor traumatized boy. I've always loved how these two have seen each other through their lowest lows and nothing fazes them anymore. They deserve more love <;3

This day comes around every year.

Scott Summers isn’t sure why that fact always surprises him. Years work like that after all, don’t they, cycling around again and again with the same dates and the same occasions. 

He retreats inside himself more on this day than any of the others, buries himself in the deadliest Danger Room exercises and pushes his students harder in the classroom. Those who have known him the longest know why he is like this, today of all days. They’ve learned to respect his space and not ask how he is feeling anymore. He doesn’t appreciate anyone’s pity. 

Truth be told, he doesn’t even know how he feels on this day anymore. He just knows that he does feel, and that for this day above all others, he wishes he didn’t. 

It’s the one day out of the year he envies Emma, with her shining diamond skin and frigid heart, when she can’t feel pain or confusion or love. Normally he tells her he doesn’t understand the attraction of such an alternative. 

Now, as he divides his attention between his manufactured enemy and her scintillating figure to his right as she crushes down her own opponent, he can see the appeal. 

She smirks at him from atop the smoking pile of rubble that once was a mutant-hunting machine. “I know I’m gorgeous, Scott. You don’t have to stare at me like a starving wolf to prove it.” 

He loves her bluntness, her sarcasm. Knows the rest of the team finds her abrasive and difficult to get along with, so why do her scathing tongue and shameless innuendos feel like a cool breeze on a hot day to him? 

“I didn’t think my expression changed,” he tosses back, allowing himself the fierce satisfaction of letting his pent-up energy loose, tearing apart the android before him into so much twisted metal. 

“It didn’t. But the intention is there.” 

Hell, she’s right. She knows him better than he knows himself, cliché as that sounds. 

He wonders, with a wave of emotion he can’t decipher, if Emma even knows him better than SHE did. 

Session finished for the day, the headmaster and headmistress of the Xavier Institute part ways briefly to shower up. Normally this is a shared activity, but although she is the one person who refuses to tiptoe around him on this day, she knows exactly what today is, and why he might not be up for her company in such an intimate way at the moment. So she leaves him alone with his thoughts for the time being, which may be more curse than blessing. 

He wonders, as he studies himself in the mirror through the tinted lenses of his glasses, if SHE would even recognize him anymore. They’ve all changed in the years since she’s been gone. Looking at him, most would say him the least of all. But he knows better.

It goes beyond the brand names on the tags of his shirts, deeper than the scent of the new cologne he likes now, further than the fact that he lets his hair grow out longer than he ever felt was proper before. 

He hears the whispers that surround them, translates the subtext that underlies pointed looks and tense postures. They both know what the others say about them, that Emma manipulates him, messes with his head to make him be with her. That’s the best of the rumors — the rest are much more crass. He ignores them, because they couldn’t be further from the truth. 

Scott is a sadder and wiser man than he was years ago, with a different outlook on things. He’s jaded, lost a little bit of that idealistic nature which so defined him for the first couple of decades he lived here. And Emma Frost understands that, in a way none of the others ever will. 

As if his brooding thoughts have summoned her — always a possibility — she appears in his doorway, purse slung over her shoulder and car keys dangling from her slender fingers. “Come on, Mr. Summers. I’ve grown tired of your moping. We’re going out.” 

“We are?” She’s taken him by surprise. He sounds dumb, asking it like that. She isn’t making a suggestion, she’s stating fact. 

“Yes. We are.” She stares him down in the mirror. “I’m going shopping, and you will enjoy yourself. And then we are taking a miniature vacation.” 

“Vacation?! Em, I can’t just up and leave with no warning —” 

“Shush.” Her flawlessly manicured fingertip closes his lips. “You can, and you are. It’s one night, Scott. Dinner and a hotel room. I’ve taken care of reservations already, and you do know how I hate to cancel things like this.” 

He knows, all right. He wouldn’t be so good at things like giving back rubs and painting a woman’s nails if he hadn’t needed to apologize to her for making her cancel so many times before. He can’t think of a better reason to refuse than saying he just wants to sit in the dark and simmer in his ambiguously mingled grief and anger all night, and she won’t take that as an excuse. 

She probably wants a better partner in bed than that, too. 

So he nods and packs an overnight bag and follows her on her spontaneous trip downtown. Though with Emma, things are rarely spontaneous. This is a premeditated move, and he is at a loss for exactly what she is trying to accomplish. 

If her aim is simply to get his mind off what today means to him, she succeeds. Scott ponders his partner at every stop they make. Sometimes it frustrates him, that she continues to hold up her rich girl image, treating most people as if they are beneath her as she speeds her immaculate white car past the common folk like a runaway goddess. But it makes her love that much more special to him. It’s intoxicating, that she only shows her true colors around him. He’s seen her cry, seen her motherly affection for the students in their care despite her insistence she’d be a terrible mother, felt how deeply she is in love with him, despite his many flaws. Yes, she’s imperfect, but instead of that fact pushing him away, he adores how she owns her imperfections, wearing them on her sleeve as beautifully as she wears everything else. 

She models her new purchases for him, back at the hotel, and he is struck once again by how confidently she carries herself, especially when wearing next to nothing. He told her once that he wished he had half of her self-assurance, and still remembers how she laughed him off, saying confidence is as much of an illusion as anything she could plant in someone’s head. 

Does she know how much that simple piece of advice has helped him since? 

Dinner is wonderful. He can’t remember the last time it was just the two of them alone, without the surrounding backdrop of stares and disapproval, and it feels good. She’s a genius, and he’s always known that, but he never gets tired of how it makes her smirk whenever he realizes that anew. 

They’re on the balcony outside their suite now, half-empty champagne flutes in hand as they watch the sunset. The sky is on fire, he thinks, and it reminds him of another time, years ago, when the sky caught fire and he lost someone who was very important to him at the time. 

It is, after all, the anniversary of the day SHE died. 

Emma sighs beside him, her gaze firmly fixed on the bubbles in her drink. “Some people find it healthier to talk about what troubles them, Scott.” 

“I don’t know where to begin,” he answers simply. “It’s been so long and not long enough all at once. I can’t tell anymore whether I’m still grieving, or if this is more of a ritual for me now than anything else.” 

“You’re afraid of the answer either way,” she observes. 

Scott supposes that’s true. He’s never let go of things easily, nor does he handle change well. But he knows change is good.

Maybe it’s finally time to move on. 

“The past has had its time in the sun,” she adds. “It’s not a sin to enjoy the present without it weighing you down.” 

That makes him think. He’s always so wrapped up in himself on this day every year, that he hasn’t really thought about how it affects her. And he sees through her occasional bitter comments and accusations, that for all her projected ego, she still thinks she isn’t good enough for him. She’s afraid he’s more in love with a dead memory than the gloriously imperfect queen who shares every aspect of his life in the here and now. 

He’s been selfish. 

So he talks about it, and she’s the only one he’d ever express any of this to. 

“I did love her,” he recalls, and he realizes with curiosity that he’s used the past tense. “But with hindsight, we rushed into it. She was my first crush, and even once we were serious, a part of me thinks I was still a schoolboy emotionally. It took me so long to realize that we’d been together through our whole adolescence, and neither of us knew who we were without the other. I used to think that was a good thing, to be defined by someone else.” 

“I know the feeling.” Emma’s tone is chilly, and he knows some of the names she’s thinking of. Names that have no place on either of their tongues, and so remain unsaid. 

“It’s funny,” he says after a moment of solemn silence. “You’re the only person who can make me spill my guts like this, you know that?” He pauses before continuing. “You challenge me, Em. You’re the one that forced me to relearn myself. I don’t know where I would be without you.” 

“Drunk in a dive bar somewhere, no doubt. Possibly sleeping in the gutter.” 

He has to laugh at that. Not many people make him laugh, but Emma’s brand of dark humor seems to do so more often than most. And she might be correct. 

She raises her glass. “To Jean.” 

It’s a simple gesture, a two-word sentence she says nonchalantly, almost carelessly, and Scott is no telepath, but he can feel how painful it is for those two words to pass the threshold of her shapely lips. And he doesn’t think he’s ever loved her more. 

“To the present,” he replies firmly, touching his own glass to hers. “And to what’s really important.” 

They embrace, almost savagely. She kisses him, teasing his patience until his self-control lapses and he catches at her bottom lip with his teeth. 

“There you are,” she purrs, hooking a long nail under the collar of his shirt. “Let’s do this somewhere more private, shall we?” 

He follows her inside, only too happy to oblige. 

Much later, as they lie tangled together in the dark, he reflects on the relationship they’ve built. There is a fundamental difference between what he has with Emma and what he once shared with the redheaded girl who used to rule his thoughts. 

It is, perhaps, best illustrated by how they each handled having a lover with his unique curse. Jean loved him despite the fact that he must always wear lenses over his eyes. She didn’t need to see all of him to love him, and as an insecure teenage boy, that meant the world to him. 

Emma insists on removing his glasses whenever they have a moment, her diamond body the perfect answer to the devastating energy that his eyes pour out incessantly. She is not only safe from his destructive power, she willingly takes it inside her just so they can share a few moments of eye contact without obstruction, without any barrier between them. 

He asked Jean once, if he could look at her without his glasses. He still remembers how she used her telekinetic abilities to hold back the raging flood from his eyes so that he could. It’s a fitting metaphor.

He had to hold back for Jean. 

Emma lets him be nothing more or less than himself, even if that means he’s angry or selfish or stubborn. Just like with his eyes, she can take whatever he can dish out, and only asks for his authenticity in return. She sees all of him, unadulterated, and loves him because of his flaws, his humanity, not in spite of them as he once thought. 

He hugs her closer, his head resting on her stomach, her fingers stroking through his hair. “I love you,” he murmurs against her skin. 

“And I love you, Darling. What are you thinking about?” 

“Em, I’m thinking I really needed this, and a vacation might not be such a bad idea. Just you and me — travel for a week or two, hit up some of our favorite haunts —” 

“I’m glad you finally came to that conclusion on your own, Lover,” she interrupts. “Because I already took the liberty of booking a couple of places in Europe with that very aim in mind. You need to get away and have a good time for a bit.” 

“You scheming minx.” His voice warms with affection. “We can take the Blackbird, too, so you won’t have to endure anything as lowbrow as waiting for security checks at an airport.” 

“Mmm. Lovely idea. You do know I find Maverick Pilot Scott a real hot turn-on.” 

“Then that’s settled. Kiss me, Emma?” 

She does, and Scott realizes that, much as he hates being played, he really doesn’t find it at all unpleasant if Emma is the one behind the game. 

[dangerously-human]

@lightthewaybackhome tagged me to do one of those "share 9 lines, tag 9 people" things (thank you!). Tagging nine whole people is perhaps ambitious. Seeing as it's writing night and I'm trying to bribe myself into productivity, may I offer nine lines from two different fics?

First, from the Catholic Lockwood/hands fic:

Another memory surfaces: his sister's hands guiding his in a familiar pattern, the cool touch of beads sliding between their fingers. Squirming until Jessica reached out with a sigh to pull him into her lap. Her gentle prompting: It’s Friday, Anthony, which mysteries today? Mumbled words he'd mispronounced as often as he even remembered to recite all of them. Jessica's voice catching as she named their dead. There’s a painting that once hung on the walls of this very bedroom: a man kneeling, one hand held out. Even in the haze of his exhausted mind’s eye, he can’t help but latch onto the outstretched palm, scarred. Desperation mingles with the weight of grief enough tonight to push aside any question of what it might mean if he lets himself reopen that box again: the one that he shut tightly somewhere inside the moment he shoved a rapier through a ghost and his dead sister’s bedroom wall. The rosaries are packed away somewhere with all the other things his stained hands have no business touching.

(If you haven't yet read Sanctum Rosarium, you need to! I'm barely touching on these ideas in this fic, but that's definitely where the wheels started turning.)

To make up for the angst, I trade you a second round from the bonus chapter of the ring fic, which veered far further into fluff than I expected for a fic composed mostly of angst otherwise. Context from Woke Up in a Safe House Singing is possibly a plus but not necessary:

Besides, an engagement ring would have the bonus effect of advertising loud and clear that Lucy Carlyle was quite taken, thank you very much. He didn’t much care for the optimistic confidence he’d seen on a few faces these last two years after surreptitious left hand checks. Lucy herself rarely seemed to notice, but Lockwood had spent more than one night out grinding his teeth until he could swoop in with a pointedly placed hand on her forearm or lower back, or pull out her chair or cure her shivers with his suit jacket, or whatever other stereotypical move Lucy would allow that broadcast his intention to make her Lucy Lockwood the moment there was any hope of her agreeing. Lucy’s birthday came and went a few months ago. In the following weeks, periodically she squinted at him, trying to divine his plans, but now, it seems she’s given up. Oh, he’d considered - heavily - dropping to one knee as the clock hit midnight. But that wouldn’t have been much of a surprise, would it? That, and Lucy had spent the first few hours of her eighteenth year in a derelict grocery store, lobbing salt bombs and hollering at him, Kipps, and George to duck as they dodged tins and tangerines flung at them by a Poltergeist. If he’s managed to wait this long, he keeps reminding himself, he can be patient for the perfect moment. That said, if the perfect moment doesn’t present itself soon, there’s every chance he may actually start biting people.

Okay, okay, I know I’m going to change that last line eventually, but it’s making me laugh too hard to get rid of yet! What can I say, I adore the "she fell first, he fell harder" trope, and the going-feral-immediately-upon-realizing-feelings bit is full of entirely too much potential as applied to Locklyle.

Tagging @womaninwinter (obviously), @paranorahjones, @ioannemos, @misscrazyfangirl321, @clawedandcute, and @fairytale-lights, with no pressure!

[absoluteaffirmative]

personal canon loredump don’t mind me lol

my canon is very divergent from show canon so there’s that too

also these are copy+pasted from discord

(might have a special tag for this maybe idk-)

i think ive figured out my canon maybe kinda

of course a lot of bad stuff happened but not to the extremes the show got to

the company, jcjenson, were behind a lot more events since in my canon the solver isn’t sentient or anything. idk how it “found” me but it integrated itself into my code and i figured it out, learned how it worked

maybe i was purposely exposed to it, maybe it was random chance. like i said idk

im incredibly grateful that tessa found me and not some company grunts because she gave me a proper name (she wasn’t too creative at naming tho lol) and fixed me up

hell, she liked me so much she gave me hair styled after her own hairstyle (i was secretly the favorite amongst us all, although j was found first and is therefore the “oldest”)

when i first actually used the solver accidentally, n was there and we learned about it together. v eventually got curious enough but j wanted none of it ofc

but tessa found out and thats how jcjenson became involved

i can understand her thinking; “one of my drones is exhibiting strange behaviors and has weird robot magic stuff that i can’t fully understand even with my technical expertise” and she didn’t know that the company would capture me that night at the gala, so i cant blame her but if she had simply asked i could’ve given her everything she wanted to know

but yeah, jcjenson were the ones who turned my “siblings” into disassembly drones, with my (very much non-consensual) help

see, i dont overheat and need to consume oil since i can handle the solver just fine

n, v and j can’t. jcjenson basically copied the solvers code and put it into them, before modifying them to be oil-extraction machines essentially

then theres copper-9, blablabla thats kinda all the same but it was tessa and i who went there together

our job was to remove the solver code from those three, but copper-9 (and cabin fever especially) was an entire can of worms we weren’t prepared for

and, fun bonus:

one good thing is that i have disassembly drone wings and tail because it automatically makes any drone look cool and im cool

plus also flying is fun

time for non-discord message stuff

in terms of who is more “stable” with the solver, it goes like this;

n, v, j & nori are/were the least stable; they all had the solver put into their code while still alive (ill explain myself later) and thus can’t handle the power/demands of it, leading to overheating

yeva and uzi surprisingly enough are somewhat similar; while yeva also had the solver put into her code, the patch she received nerfed the solver, thus giving her the abilities of the solver without much problem. uzi is different; because nori never got the patch, the version of the solver uzi got was kinda nerfed but not fully

next is doll; due to yeva receiving the patch, doll has the most nerfed solver version. she can’t overheat but she also can’t heal either

as for myself; the solver essentially revived me and became part of my own code, kinda changing it to properly fit the solver. i don’t overheat but i can heal

[problemswithbooks]

ykw, pick 10 of your choice for mha

Worst part of canon

Star and Stripe. I like her character concept but she really has no reason to exist at all given how little she contributed plot.

which ship fans are the most annoying?

Toga/Ochako, but this is just because I really don't like the ship. I'm not really a huge shipper so I don't go looking in ship tags so, I don't actually think the shippers themselves are annoying (I wouldn't know), I just find the ship it's self annoying.

what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them?

Probably Shigaraki, though Dabi's close second (There's more canon issues with him that would have soured me on him anyway which is why he loses). I'm just a little put off by how many of his fans tout him as the best written character--miles above the others in his complexity, and Hori's favorite. He's defiantly one of the deeper characters of the story, up there with Enji, and All Might, but sometimes it feels like people think the story was written specifically for his character which is taking it a bit far.

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

The idea Enji only changed because he got what he wanted, and that Touya's death should have been his wake up call.

Yes, Enji got the #1 spot, but that's not actually what he wanted--he wanted to be the strongest, to beat All Might. He never got to beat All Might the way he wanted and won on a technicality in his mind.

Meanwhile Touya's death only pushed Enji further into training Shoto, afraid that if Shoto didn't become #1 it would make Touya's death meaningless along with everything he did to his family. After Touya's death he was essentially fighting tooth and nail to avoid the outcome he eventually got--which was all the pain and hurt he caused his family being for nothing.

worst blorboficiation

I was going to say Touya, but then remembered Twice. I love Twice but I think people have sort of just overlooked or excused his bad actions since his death. I mean, I'm more than sick of hearing that he did everything for his friends, as of that is an inherently good thing.

Like, Twice has really gotten the tragic uwu angel treatment post death, and that's a bit annoying.

that one thing you see in fics all the time

Going back to what I said in a prior post, Tensei always having gone to UA--it's in a lot of fics with Aizawa and Present Mic. Also, Tensei being friends or knowing Manual.

there should be more of this type of fic/art

As a fan of both Stain and Tensei I sort of wish there were more fics with Tensei getting the news that Stain's free. Tenya too for that matter. I think it was actually a huge waste that Hori didn't have Tenya react or even see him find out that Stain was out there. I mean I get that Stain isn't really tied to Tenya's arc anymore (given they didn't even interact during the war) but it'd have been nice to at least have Tenya say something about it, even if it was him not being interested to really solidify his character growth.

part of canon you found tedious or boring

Izuku's emo arc (have no idea what it's official name is). Not a lot happened that was interesting and what few things that were, didn't get as much focus as I think they needed. I think it also suffered because we got such a small cool down after the first war. I just felt poorly paced, with not much time spent with anyone but Izuku which made it kind of hard to get through, especially when so many characters lacked a follow up after the war to show they survived/were okay.

topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Anything Enji or Todofam related really. They always bring the drama. Hawks is a very close second.

common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

"x hero/civilain isn't being understanding of y lov villain!"

I get that Hori seems to be going for a 'forgive the villain' theme, but at the same time most of that characters yelling at the LoV are making more than reasonable statements, like Shoto telling Touya to stop hurting innocent people and focus his rage at the family instead, or Ochako saying she'd stop Toga if she's going to continue to kill/maim people. Like, I'm sorry but telling someone to stop murdering people isn't being rude.

[fkevin073]

Heyyy! I saw that you wanted to do a full fledged Jace x OC story and I was so happy because lately the Jace fanfic tag has been dryyy. I know that you said it would be for the AU for SPAWS that you recently wrote, but will it be exactly like the AU? or will there be some changes regarding the plot line because I feel like making Alysanne and Jace maybe enemies after driftmark as well as good childhood friends would be cool and add a lot of angst like it did with IKYLAO. I also feel like people are so afraid to write Jace as somebody capable of hating or being mean/rude and it makes him so one dimensional as a character. Omg I feel like I’m ranting now, you absolutely don’t have to listen to me because it’s your story and you should do whatever feels right for it!

ah thanks so much anon!

um, tbh, it's too early to tell, but I will say if I did write it I'd add A LOT to the story. like there were so many scenes I wanted to include in SPAWS that I didn't get around to writing bc the prompts would be way way too long for what I'm aiming for with that series.

I do love the childhood friends trope, but tbh I don't want to veer too close into IKYLAO territory, bc I delved so much in that. I think I'd be aiming for more pining from a distance vibes on Jace's part? I still need to come up with a new name for Alysanne or the 'oc' in this. alysanne in IKYLAO will always be the only alysanne for me, so I can't duplicate it. I'm leaning towards Valaena, like aegon the conqueror's mother, but if u have any suggestions anon I'd welcome them.

so the vibes for the story would be like Jace having a very intense childhood crush on "alysanne" but she's super close to aemond and also like intrigued by Jace (I've got this vision of them being made to dance with each other by their instructors during their lessons and the thought of Jace going to Harwin for advice makes me smile bc it's just too cute) because he's like, kinder than either of her brothers but also becomes her enemy bc of what he did to aemond. the trajectory is unclear!

but yeah, Jace is a lot more complex than I think people give him credit for, though he is still my precious cinnamon roll! like even though he's kind, honourable, etc, he still has plenty of frustration and resentment for a lot of people in his life, or so I think. like the knowledge that no matter how hard you try or how good/kind/just/smart/good of a fighter you are, it'll never be enough for everyone bc of something out of your control (his Stong looks) is bound to eat away at someone.

I'm also really intrigued by his feelings towards Alicent. I don't think it's something that's been explored often. like as much as he might grow to love "alysanne" and desire her and the family/kids they have together, he's very much aware that alicent is largely responsible for Harwin being sent away and subsequently killed/the persistence of the rumours of his parentage, and I think that creates a really complicated/interesting level of tension in his marriage. I mean alicent is still my most precious repressed lesbian, but still! there's a lot to explore there.

and also like - the knowledge that the woman you love/have been forced to marry is possibly plotting against you and your mother is also just a really complicated/delicious dynamic.

I think it's fun especially bc in IKYLAO, alysanne didn't have kids with aemond, so her loyalties were automatically to her family/Jace, bc she wasn't even next in line anyway. But Jace is. A stand against him is a stand against her own son, and in this AU, the fem OC will have Jace's son, so her loyalties are torn - her family, or her son? it's an impossible choice, but I think like rhaenyra says in SPAWS, the love for your children outweighs all else, and is also what eventually leads "alysanne" to become estranged from her entire family when aemond loses control of Vhagar and attacks Jace with the boys. I didn't have the time/space/energy to speak of it in this AU, but the paranoia alysanne felt was very real.

obviously daemon doesn't like her bc she supplanted his own daughter as Jace's future queen, but Otto doesn't want her to have Jace's kids either, so she can never fully trust either side of the family with her sons. not really. the only person who loves her kids as much as she does is Jace, which is a large reason why she falls in love with him in this AU in the first place.

lol sorry I'm rambling, but I do think there's a lot to explore for this AU! but yeah, if people have any suggestions for names, I'm totally down.

[talenlee]

MtG: How To Un-Who The Rings

I really like Universes Within. Not Universes Beyond, the system whereby Wizards of the Coast make cards using other people’s IPs, I’m very conflicted about that. Like the idea of it doesn’t bother me, I don’t think there’s a ‘purity’ of Magic to defend, Magic is a corporate product and anyone who wants you to think that it somehow is above these things thinks differently of the game than I do. It’s a game about faeries and elves and ripping off fantasy licenses, using licenses for real isn’t that big a deal.

Uh, but Universes Within is when they do that kind of thing and then come back to make a version of the card with their own specific Magic: The Gathering flavour that’s meant to fit on a Magic: The Gathering set world. I think that rules, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of it.

I also have come to think that I might never see another Universes Within product ever again.

A bit of history to frame this. When we got the original Universes Beyond cards of the Walking Dead (though they weren’t called that at the time), it was October 2020. These cards were original cards from The Walking Dead, which were legacy playable, available in limited supply and for a limited period of time. These cards were the source of a lot of controversy, which I didn’t feel particularly strongly about at the time. My basic take at the time is that Legacy is an ocean of piss, into which pissing does not dilute much at all, and I say that as someone who likes Legacy. If a card is a problem, it’s not like Legacy’s price barrier is meaningfully made worse by another hard to get card, and people should just play with proxies anyway. I mean did I say that? because I mean it now, that’s for sure. Point is, Walking Dead was followed then by Stranger Things and Street Fighter, little secret-lair drops of about ten to fifteen cards.

An important detail here is that in this context, there were three franchises, three secret lair products, and in total there were 23 cards. These cards were released in other sets, as part of a bonus list of cards that show up in ordinary boosters. This put some of them out there but it didn’t just replace the original versions and change their value. The relationship of Wizards of the Coast to their secondary market is a positively space-warping kind of conversation, which always needs to accept some nonsense because a lot of the criticism is bad faith and badly made and mostly involves comparing Wizards to even worse actors in similar spaces. When I talk about these cards being made available, I’m just trying to describe the scale of what Wizards did and how they did it.

As a side story here, in Ikoria, we got cards that could show up in boosters that were Godzilla-themed reskins of existing cards, with a little name tag that showed what their real name was with a new flavour, art, and pseudonym to turn it from, say, Zilortha, to Godzilla. I liked these a lot, I thought these kicked ass, but anyway. These were existing cards in sets that had two versions from the jump (except Godzilla until recently), and they were a way to get fun cool different versions of cards, and introduced the idea that these ‘official proxies’ that transformed a card into some cool tie-in or other franchise was an option. That’s cool.

Point is, they gave us 23 cards that didn’t fit Magic, then promised they would, eventually, release versions that did fit Magic, and that way, players who liked the cards but didn’t like the flavour of them had access to these cards. They could show up in other sets, as a slow drip of cards and that lined up okay with a small pool of cards they were updating.

There are 289 cards in the Lord of the Ring set. To make versions of these cards that are from and fit in the Magic: The Gathering franchise’s existing flavour and lore, you would need forty sets trickling out a few cards at a time. At the current release schedule, jokes aside, that would take ten years for Lord of the Rings.

To be fair to Lord of the Rings though, it’s not like they’d need to do all 289 cards. A lot of them are generic, kind of. I suppose I need to explain what I mean by ‘generic’ though. Many cards, almost all the cards, in the Lord of the Rings set are doing a lot to stretch the Magic rules over what people are pretty sure they kinda vaguely remember The Lord of The Rings has in it, especially filtered through the prominence of the movies. That means that there are a lot of cards that are there that, realistically speaking, aren’t really actually representing anything as much as they are wearing a name or a flavour text quote that’s there to remind you what they relate to. They also want you to buy them, so the cards have to be good cards that, hopefully, evoke what they’re trying to sell you…

…but they don’t make sense. Just as an example, The Eastfarthing Farmer is a peasant with a stick who’s meant to be a farmer from a place that has not known war and avoids conflict and conquest entirely, and he’s a better fighter than a trained soldier. A single Nazgul was a terrifying monster that rendered the Hobbits immensely scared, but an actual Nazgul without access to the ring is just a 1/2. You can just throw some rocks at that and get them to fuck off. The card is great, the card does an amazing job of being an interesting play experience, mind you, but it doesn’t fit the Nazgul in the books or movies. In this, there are a number of Lord of the Rings cards that are just generic Magic cards, with generic effects, that are then tied to the Lord of the Rings through the artwork and flavour text (two things mutable from card to card) and card type and name (two things not mutable from card to card).

The hardest thing in Lord of the Rings to retheme is the mechanics around the One Ring, which, fortunately, the card ‘The One Ring’ has nothing to do with. It’s just a really powerful card draw card – it could even just be themed around an existing object that exists in the Magic: The Gathering canon, the Bloodletter Quill used by Lazav. Heck, Circu’s could be the Palintir. But even then I’m just wasting my energy trying to fix a minor problem that shouldn’t be a problem but always will be, because Lord of the Rings is now inextricably linked with a bunch of cards anyone will want to play because of how good they are. The issue is the ring tempts you.

The funniest thing is, because the ring tempts you is so bad at conveying the problem of The One Ring in The Lord of the Rings it’s pretty easy to retheme. It’s just an adventure – it’s an adventure that elevates someone to a new position but also rewards them for being sneaky and teaches them things in desperate situations while it pushes the game to the end state. Easy. That doesn’t seem impossible to recreate in a Universes Within way. Skulk says Innistrad, but the whole affair could be a Trial from Amonkhet or whatever.

There are 56 cards with The Ring Tempts You or Ring-Bearer on them.

That’s 56 cards they’d have to redo entirely for the appeal and interest of players like me. Sure, they’ll have enough slush art for that eventually, but there’s always a use for slush art. And then they’ll have to find some place to print that many cards just for someone like me, who wants to play with the mechanic but despises the previous execution. Not only that, but some of the cards that do that are mainstream and very significant cultural signifiers, so you’d have to be, in a broad sense, very silly to consider it worth it to not be Frodo Baggins.

It’s very hard to imagine that being a thing.

The problems present in Lord of the Rings can be kind of routed around. Like, it’s not like Arwen is a meaningful character in The Lord of The Rings so her legendary card doesn’t do much to demand attention in the game. Sure, it’s a legendary elf, she can live along with Gwenna, A Person People Definitely Know And Care About. But Lord of the Rings is generic fantasy – like, literally, it helped to define the genre – and Dr Who is…

Dr Who is fucking nonsense.

Dr Who has ‘alien’ as a creature type. It represents multiple different creatures from multiple different worlds, as a catch-all type that recenters the entire universe as the world of humans and the world of aliens, where whole cultures only exist for one appearance in one story and don’t have a meaningful existence of their own. Dr Who has the first two-word creature type in Magic: The Gathering, something they’ve said doesn’t count and won’t be done on any in-universe versions. And then, above all else, Doctor Who has the absolute brain wrinkler that is Doctor’s Companion.

If you’re not aware there’s a mechanic on some cards called Doctor’s Companion. In the context of Dr Who, this is pretty sensible and makes some degree of obvious sense. If you want to play a commander deck headed up by one of the Doctors and a Doctor’s companion, you can; they’ll both sit in your command zone and you can play them as you would any given partners. Your deck gets to have all the colours of both cards. This is a good mechanic for enabling deckbuilding and flavour appropriate to the world they’re from. After all, all those cards are the Doctor, and he travels through time – they I guess – and their companions might meet them at different times. Easy.

Now try and translate that idea to any other mechanical framing.

Bear in mind it’s very specific; it’s not just ‘you can have a Time Lord as your second commander,’ it’s got to be a creature whose creature types are Time Lord Doctor only, so no fun with Morphoron. This is going to cover 42 cards, 15 of whom are Doctors, and 27 cards which are companions, and you need to have a narrative fiction that explains why all of these legendary characters associate the way they do, but always in an A+B combo but never a B+B combo.

And by the way, don’t look to the existing cards for reasons that makes sense, because it won’t show up on the cards. You have to know these characters from another source, because the cards aren’t going to tell you why and what they care about.

I love Universes Within because it’s a fanfiction puzzle of trying to find a place for an impossible piece. But with that love of seeing the things I like show up there’s the dark mirror of just how much I’ve realised I hate Universes Beyond. Not on principle – the idea is sound, and you might notice I haven’t remarked on the fairly anodyne, easily separated Warhammer 40k cards. I hate Universes Beyond not because it’s some kind of bad trend or bad imperative – evidence indicates it’s very commercially successful after all – but I hate it because so far they’ve used it for two major full-scale product releases and I think both those releases suck shit and make their franchises look stupid and bad.

As someone who isn’t part of the Dr Who fandom, I can’t imagine these cards exciting me to learn more. I find myself actively resistant, like these cards make these characters look awful. There’s a bunch of cards that have the extensive flavour of ‘a guy’, like Wilfred Mott and Adric and Ace and Graham O’Brien. Their flavour text is contextless mush, stuff like ‘I always come prepared’ and ‘wicked!’ and ‘Anyway, nothing to do with you surprises me any more, Doctor.’ One of those cards doesn’t have that flavour text and I bet you could tell me if you were a big fan but please understand how meaninglessly similar that kind of talk is. It’s like Secret Lair: Joss Whedon.

Look, here’s an example. The Eleventh Doctor, a man who looks like he could be defeated by a thrown cup of tea that doesn’t even have to hit him, has a mechanic that triggers on successfully dealing combat damage to an oponent, sneaking past defenses and, once he’s dealt damage, sets up a card from your hand to come into play later, for free. It’s probably best used with really cheap spells, suggesting a weenie swarm strategy or a lot of cantrips. And we get flavour words to indicate what this character’s about, how they’re doing what they’re doing.

It’s the words “I. AM. TALKING!” in full caps. Like it’s a shouted oath. Like it’s someone interrupting someone daring to interrupt him in the middle of some plan or some powerful speech or something.

Now.

I bet if you’re a Doctor Who fan, that moment that phrase evokes for you is badass. It’s probably really cool. But to me, it looks like someone took a famous moment of this character, jammed it onto a card that has nothing to do with it, and put flavour text on there so you would mark out.

Sometimes it’s a function of how complicated the cards are. There’s a lot of text on them and they have art, name, and flavour text that’s meant to inspire you to engage with what the card is. They don’t. And don’t say ‘oh no, no, the flavour here is really good if you know about this thing from the show that sucks,’ because these cards aren’t here to get me to know about things. They’re here to reward me for already knowing them. This is your fandom showing off in my space and trying to look as cool as possible and I think it looks like it sucks.

These are the worst kind of fandom detritus.

They are Funko Pop Magic cards.

They are Certificates of Fandom Investment.

And I will probably never get to see a version of these things made to the standards of Magic: The Gathering to which I had become accustomed.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[dexadin]

Do you use anything like a sanity system in AtSBB? I think it's a cool idea and I saw another DM talk about theirs but they make a lot of really tasteless jokes about mental illness in a lot of their other posts, so I'm hesitant to use theirs...

Oof, I haven't seen that one (guy who ironically doesn't follow any strahd tags except my own on tumblr dot com)

Sanity systems are a strange spot to be in . A lot of games have sanity systems to represent the effects of mental anguish that the PCs go through, and give mechanical and rp 'quirks' to show for it. There are obvious issues with that--it puts us in a hairy position of coming off as ableist, even with the term sanity. As a person with mental illnesses, I also think they can be really fun to play!! I think that it's important to check in with players about if they're cool with that sort of thing, and also double check what kind of effects the system might impart. When I play with prebuilt sanity systems, we remove effects that are obviously offensive (off the top of my hear, "split personalities" as a random effect are one of the no-gos that I always remove). We also always play with the common understanding that we're doing so with respect and compassion.

All of that said, I do kind of ?? Have a sanity system? I'm putting the rest of this under a read more so that my players don't read it. Spoilers for CoS below~

I've been trying to figure out a good name for what I made, because it's not purely a sanity system by the mechanics of games like Call of Cthulhu, which heavily rely on a sanity mechanic for gameplay. But it's also not purely a corruption mechanic like some games have. Its definitely inspired by sanity and corruption mechanics, but also by honor and reputation mechanics in other ttrpgs. The system I made is effected not only by extenuating circumstances (failed saves and bad choices) but also by the party's moral decisions as a group and as individuals, and by the attention the PCs are receiving from the Dark Powers. For the sake of brevity, and because I think it's apt and also sounds cool as hell, I'm gonna call my system a Desperation system.

Some sanity/corruption mechanics are effects tables that you can roll on during events that trigger it or after a certain threshold of points is reached. Mine is more of a secret modifier that can go up or down. In response to certain requests from players that I think should be otherwise impossible, especially in situations that I'd otherwise require a Luck check, I have my players make a flat die roll (usually a d20 or d100 depending on how spicy I think the attempt is) and add their Desperation modifier. I determine the DC based on how desperate a person would have to be to do the things that needed to be done to make the world bend in a way to allow the action to be taken.

If the player fails the secret Desperation check, their struggle is ignored by the world, bringing their Desperation up. If they succeed the Desperation check, the will either fully succeed in the action they are taking, but it will be at a price. Maybe they receive a horrible vision of the future, or a flashback to their past. Maybe they start having chronic nightmares that eventually starts to cause exhaustion if it isn't solved. Maybe they catch the eye of the Dark Powers, or another entity that decides to make the PC its plaything. Some of the effects I've doled out seem more like the effects you could find on a sanity or corruption table, and some of them are very situational.

What triggers me to change the Desperation modifier? Any time the players make an immoral choice that would have been out of character for them at the beginning of the game, I consider it into their Desperation. Anytime I have a player begging, in character (rp) or out of character (meta), I consider it into their Desperation. If they are actively communicating or reaching out to a Dark Power for help, whether they know it's a Dark Power or not, it's considered into their Desperation mechanic. In short, if you fuck around enough, You Will Find Out. On the flipside, when the players earn enough trust with NPCs who actively want to help them, when they're doing good to no benefit, when things seem to be looking sunny in Barovia, their desperation goes down.

My players know that there is a mechanic; after all, I have them do random d20 rolls that affect Something, but crucially, the players do not know what the mechanic is, how it works, or how it changes.

TLDR; I wanted there to be some way to keep note of how desperate my PCs get as they traverse the mists, and I think the secret Desperation modifier represents how desperate means get desperate ends, and that isn't always entirely in our control. It's equal parts sanity, corruption, honor, and luck--with a tragic and horrific twist.

I hope this was at all coherent. My desperation effects are currently largely improvised and situational rather than written or random. If people are interested, maybe I could write up a proper homebrew chart or something? Let me know!

[pllanarally]

XIM WRLD

The task was to make an interactive 3D environment but I went a little ham on it and made a whole game.

[ itch.io download here ]

I was browsing the asset store to get inspired and saw a city builder asset pack and thought it might be fun to make a little maze... the concept is something something eerie urban sprawl, you're a rat in a maze, get out!

First up, building the city.

I found a maze template and started with the road layout that I filled the buildings around. I actually built a whole city up but then I didn't like it because there was too much differentiation between building assets and I wanted the feeling of being lost to be more apparent, so I cut down the asset pack to fewer buildings and did it all over again. I also put my first person controller in there so I could feel what it was like to move around.

Looks pretty cool. Then, I wanted to make a "reprieve" from the city once you got out, so I set about making a landscape for the player to fall into once they escaped the metropolis.

Terrain tools, trees, water shader, you name it. However I wanted the character to fall into the water, and when they did, for the camera to have a blue tint on it. I found a youtube tutorial that taught me how to do collision triggers; I made a "water" game object that would change the fog settings once the character collider entered it. However, I was having trouble with the collider only triggering once.

Something in my code was wrong and after much fervored googling I figured it out!

I would end up using this little trick again for another game element: my clouds! I was feeling inspired by Super Mario 64 (I had subsequently used one of its skyboxes which created a very surreal vibe to the environment) and so decided to make the city sitting on top of some clouds. First I had to slice up a blender model I found online, and then place the city on top of it. Then I added a few more clouds around for flavor; but also because I wanted the player to be able to jump from cloud to cloud! I had to change up the code a little now, instead of just turning fog on and off, I had to have three different fog states. Not too hard with the power of god & anime on my side ( & google).

Looking pretty cute. I added colliders around the world and under the clouds so the player could land on them. However, just moving around the world wasn't quite enough. What's a playground without some toys?

I wanted to make three kinds of collectibles; a coin system that would eventually trigger a Win state, but also, potions that would boost the player's speed and jumping, so you could eventually feel like you were flying around Xim Wrld...

First, the coins. I created and animated the model myself in blender!

Shiny!!

Using another youtube tutorial and then banging my head against the wall for awhile, I created a new collision trigger script for collecting the coins, making them disappear once the player collects them. I also was able to link that up to changes in the UI, and make sure the scene would change once the player found all 100 coins. By making a coin prefab with the "coin" tag attatched, I was able to place my hundred coins all around the city & clouds of the map.

Why no coins in the landscape below? Something about the bounty of nature being enough... you don't need money when you're among the birds & trees!

...But it is more fun to play around when you can jump super high & run super fast. Next up: boosters!

Using all I had learned about collision triggers, I made a speed booster and a jump booster. Took some fiddling around with the numbers to make it so you don't go too fast, but I think I landed close enough. It might not control as tightly as Mario does in 64, but it's pretty fun to float around! I also made sure to add a UI animation element so the player would know what the potions did.

I finished it all up with some sound effects, some music [a jon brion song recorded & played by me, edited to fit the moods...] and a win scene... which you will have to beat the game to see :)

Thank you & Enjoy!!