#my anatomy is a little wack but i think it turned out good

[cool-frog-hours]

Happy Valentine’s from Castle Ravenloft 🫣💖

[stupid-stew]

i took notes on the art stream dana did tonight in my own way, yes this is also what my school notes look like so my formal apologies

dana didn’t have many friends or anything in college (self defined recluse)

king is the hardest character to draw due to his specific skull shape

dana loves pokemon and the king resemblance is a coincidence, and she drew everyone to be RIPPED

XENA THE WARRIOR PRINCESS WITH THE ABS LMAOOOO

young entrepreneur out here art queen getting that bag WHY WAS SHE MAKING SHIP ART OF HER CLASSMATES FOR MONEY AT THE AGE OF LIKE 11 IM SOBBING

king ruined the sand castle :(

the mcdonald’s coffe, it sucks apparently

insomnia dana supremacy, felt that

DANA WINS ROUND 1 (against her will)

side note i think i need to start watching more anime, that’s just for me the remember tho

“let’s get weird”- dana terrace 2021

“give us the most uncomfortable furby suggestions please”- also dana terrace 2021

FANFICTION JOURNALS CAN WE GET THOSE PUBLISHED

hard time communicating outside of drawings (one of us 👹)

toh is script driven, sicknasty

her test was turned away SPILL THE TEA

dana proposes to furby suggestion giving chat member

8months struggling for job

turned away from power puff girls boooo

“i called up a friend and we had a drink and i cried :(“ -dana

FURBY WITH HUMAN ANATOMY

YES YES YES MITCHELLS YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

the director had to fight to make the furby scene happen and sir we appreciate it

“androgyny is beautiful”- dana, about a furby

yes girl let jesus take the wheel on that anatomically correct furby

WHY WAS SHE TRYIKG TO TEACH HER FURBY DO CURSE THATS SO FUNNY

“fuck you! fuck you!”- not dana’s furby

$80,000 in debt for this

“shit shit fuck shit”

“as good friends, as disney would say”

dana trying not to lose her job

“AH GOD NO THE FEET THE FEET”

straight black coffee you psycho

DANA LOOSES TO THE CURSED FURBY

HAHAHA TINY NOSE IN THE SIGIL

cannot cook, girlboss, win dana with food

CATBOY SHREK

catchphrase? “AAAAAAAHHH”

scared of spiders

do not wake the cat

“is that a pile of garbage or is that ur self esteem after i fucking demolish you”

-dana terrace 2021

the iconic “byeeeee” was difficult

why can’t she draw shrek

“i need validation please jesus christ”

-dana terrace 2021

someone buy this woman the cat gamer headphones alex hurry up

she does not like the booth but she does it for us thank you queen

dana fainted getting a stick n poke rip

AWWW SHE GOT STEVE BLOOM THATS SO CUTE FOR HER

SHE DISLIKES FANTASY???? BOI WHAT THE HELL BOI

at least she’s having a good time making her own gross little fantasy land, improvise adapt overcome

dana unlocks the idea of things being done in different ways and have them all be good for the masses

“limitation breeds invention”

“wow ur really wise dana”

“….thanks dawg”

“well i didn’t have friends… no one laughed.”

i want the little comics of her pets

cat person dana

DANA WINS CATBOY SHREK

awww little stick and poke on her ankle

does not celebrate her birthday

OOOH THE HAMMERHEAD IS HER FIRST ONE I LOVE THAT ONE

#mood bunny

KERMIT ON STEROIDS

“how can we make this weird” GIRL IT IS KERMIT ON S T E R O I D S

HER LITTLE LAUGH IM SOBBING

this is literally psychological warfare

dana has not watched the muppets but she knows him drinking the tea so winning

DANA THE ANGST QUEEN LMAO

she’s proud about her making dipper and mable fight

DANA ANIMATED FOR NEXT WEEK MARK UR FREAKING CALENDARS

hooty is the owl house canon?

i wish the owl house was like a creature that would have been so funny

CAT APPEARS

season 2 is outline heavy when it comes to the writing

dana knows what she wants for season 2 and we love that

execs up the wall on season 1

DANA LOSES MUSCLE KERMIT

dana has not found the character porn! keep it up girl! stay over there!

oooh bike queen

SWING DANCE OH MY GOD

TAP DANCING

THIS WOMAN IS AN ICON I LOVE HERRRR

yes get that energy out girl

ddr stan, loses to matt braly at gravity falls team bowling hang out

cat is sad :( give her a snack :(

AWW GHOST HAS ASTHMA omg kinnie moment

conspiracy theory enthusiast when intoxicated

vaccination queen

does not believe in ghosts, kill me girl i’ll haunt you don’t worry i’ll prove it

DOG WORKING IN A CAFE

“the ow house get ready to get some boo boo”- this other guy because it made me cry

“you’re gonna have to pay me to write shit because i don’t work for free”

not a music person

DO A FLIP

dana do a flip for charity please i’ll donate like an organ or something

she can canonically do a flip and she’s not gonna show us this is homophobic

AH FUCK MY STREAM CUT OUT

her neighbor is parking yes get it

draw left hand

while holding pen wack

do it in online version of ms paint

“MS pain”- dana not finishing her word

and stick and poke

show us the work stuff dana >:(

an ARTIST

“he’s a strong independent dog”

“4 minutes 20 seconds 😏 h e h e h e”

WHY CANT WE SEE HER HEADBANG THIS IS SO RUDE

not the muscle pulling girl not now

“also dog”

CHAMPION DANA

IMAGINE DANA CALLING UR ART CUTE

H E L P THE FURBYS I CSNOT

ghost gets rejected

“he’s not impressed with ur bullshit”

catra shrek fan girl moment

dana has probably done drugs

“i am a fan of waluigi”

AN ITALIAN POLITICIAN SMACK TALKING THE OWL HOUSE LMAOSJB

note to self dana will only marry you if you look like kermit the frog

also dog comes from a land where dogs eat people at starbucks

LOWES AD

“he’s making out with it! he’s using tongue!”

there are bouncers in cafes where also dog comes from

dana has worked the cash register

someone make real witch merchandise

Q AND A YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

hooty is he has a very he has more he has a backstory it exists it’s written out but we might not ever get it because it’s just for her dana please i am on my knees

would play dnd if she could

favorite episodes haven’t even aired but currently is echoes of the past or keeping up a fear ances because they’re personal especially a fear ances

TOO LATE FOR EXTENDED SEASON THREE BOARDING HAS STARTED IM GOING TO CRY

SPIN-OFFS SHORTS AND COMICS STILL ALLOWED IM LITERALLY DEAD ON THE INSIDE

mentally she is thriving with the show and it’s going to end well 🙏

“it’s just my voice :(“

BYEEEEEEE

[rosesvioletshardy]

can we do it? - billy /four - prologue

my billy fic is finally here! it took me a while to figure what i wanted it to be called so i’m sorry it too a long time for this to be posted.

i really hope you all like this fic and i apologize if it’s not as good as my other fic

summary: one team. seven people. two lovers. things are about to get crazy and zero and four don’t know if they can do it with everything that’s going on

masterlist

# of words: 2943

warnings: mentions of blood, death, flirting ??, 

inbox me or message me if you want to be added to the taglist for this series

--

“Took you long enough”

“Well sorry we were being chased throughout italy possibly in the brightest car possible thanks to six” one told her not liking her attitude as he tried to look over to see if anyone was coming

zero quickly got into the car managing to fit into the back squished next to two other women as five was trying conduct surgery on two

“it would’ve gone better if one didn’t act like a fucking dick to the lawyer”

“well he wasn’t cooperating so we had to go to plan b”

“I thought me hacking into the servers was plan b?”

“well that was plan c if plan b didn’t work”

“for fucks sake”

The girl had rolled her eyes already knowing that everything has gone to shit and that something or someone will most likely be hurt in the end, except for two where it wasn’t her fault. 

Zero that was her number. She was the first to be recruited after almost being arrested for hacking into the servers to expose some of the wealthiest people of all time for what they have done that the country was keeping quiet about. She was given the option to do something better for the world and she took it. The only downside was she would have to leave her life behind. That meant faking her death and leaving her twin brother, her parents, and her friends behind. She didn’t like the idea at first but she weighed out all her options and realized that she would do more good in the world if people didn’t know who she was anymore. They ruled her death out as suicide and the hardest part of it all was having to watch her family and friends bury an empty coffin six feet under the ground.

Now she was in Italy, a mission she thought would probably go great and all until it all went to shit. she had been sitting near the lawyers office waiting for her signal to hack into the lawyers but one had different plans afterwards when told no

“Please tell me she’s stopped bleeding? I’d like to keep this car clean and pristine, and hopefully keep it” six asked looking into his rearview mirror

“That’s impossible five is trying her hardest to get the bullet out but it isn’t working. Have you seen how surgeries go? I’m sure there’s going to be blood everywhere. Also you’re not keeping the car, you’re going to need to get rid of it”

“we’re going to need a hospital” five said

“it’s getting a little intense in here don’t you think?” one asked everyone causing the women to glare at him

“Where did the other guys come from?” two asked loading her gun

“i told you down from the room you and one were in. they haven���t updated their shit in a long time they must’ve added new rooms” 

“i was talking to one”

“i was covering the door. You were shot from a window”

Zero couldn’t focus on whatever else was happening and decided to look for the other members of her team before putting herself back into the conversation

“It’s true. That lawyer has had guards since he graduated and began working. I fucking told you guys this already.” “Well some people don’t listen” two grits through her teeth

“All that matters is that we got this phone, zero here. Do your little penelope garcia hacker thing”

Zero took the phone from him and began doing her thing. When she plugged his phone into her laptop, she began typing away to try and unlock it. It was too encrypted for her though she had managed to get past the first part of the security system that was keeping her locked out. What she didn’t know was that she also need an eye verification and pictures wouldn’t do it justice unless she had a program that can easily make a 3d model of it

“Please tell me one of you have a device that can make a 3D eye because i truly need it to get past the second part of this wack ass security system” zero had asked not tearing her eyes away from her laptop

“No but we do have something better” two told her trying to ignore the pain she was going through 

“Hey six, you wanna you know, drive faster? Because i think they got us” one asked him sarcastically as more guards pulled up next to them

“Yeah hold on to something” six told them pressing on the gas causing them to almost collide with the busy traffic ahead of  almost crashing and causing multiple crashes and explosions

“i feel like i’m going to throw up” zero said holding her head and trying to convince herself she’s fine

“Me too.”

“What the fuck did you guys do in there anyways? Why are you covered in blood?”

“The head, neck, and face are very vascular so it’s a lot of blood.” “We know basic anatomy one”

“Are you telling me you killed a mafia guy? In italy?” zero asked him leaning over the seat ready to kill him

“I didn’t. Two did. Anyways you should know what his client did”

“I do, I'm the one who told you his shit.”

“Everyone just shut up for one second there’s a BMW chasing us” five yelled

“Is now a bad time to tell you that we have a helicopter on our tail but don’t worry i’m trying to intercept their signal with some Italian children’s tv”

Six continued to drive, while one kept looking out the window praying to god that the mission doesn’t end entirely more fucked up than it already is. Two was under intense amount of pain as five kept digging into her to find the bullet that was inside her 

“Can i just take a moment to thank you? There is nothing else I’d rather being doing with my life”

“I don’t care”

“Hey be nice. If it weren’t for you we wouldn’t be in this shit show right now” five said not looking up

Six made a turn that caused him to think fast and steer the wheel and almost hit a truck that drove against them before it hit one of the BMW that was chasing them. They continued their course on trying to get away before six had almost hit a group of nuns who didn’t so easily forgive him and then hitting a pedestrian on accident claiming he had the right of way. Five was getting annoyed with him while she tried to fix two and zero closed her eyes to prevent herself from throwing up. She was good at reading and driving but in this case, a high speed car chase, it wasn’t agreeing with her and felt like everything she had since being in italy was going to come up from her

“Nice call on the Day-Glo green. It blends right into the Italian architecture”

“Is it too flashy? You don’t like the color?”

“SIX WATCH THE FUCK OUT”

“BABY, BABY BABY!”

“PUPPIES” everyone yelled out at once as six swerved around almost hitting a few dogs, a woman and her baby, and other civilians as they all ran away. They continued the chase until this time someone on a motorcycle started to chase them

“Oh no he’s got a gun”

“Move, zero duck” two told the two women with her and she started to shoot

“She okay?” one asked about two current state

“She’s lost a shit ton of blood”

“This isn’t a shit ton”

“I am the judge of what’s shit ton. You see? Blood. Red.” five told her showing the bloody rags from trying to stop the bleeding

“I can hear it pumping out, please staunch it or whatever you call it” one asked as soon as blood squirted onto five’s face and two yelling in pain. As it happened everyone groaned in disgust as zero tried to move her stuff away to prevent anything from getting messed up. She had managed to dig up more information about the generals and what they were planning to do. Zero continued to listen to her team's bickering as six tried to avoid hitting people on Vespa's. 

“I’m starting to feel it” six said swerving and making a turn

“I’m feeling fucking carsick. Now i know how zero feels”

Zero smiled to herself as she got up a map of the city to hide themselves in for a bit so she can continue in peace using the eye two had cut out 

“One for four?”

“Yeah, go for four”

“We need you”

“‘course you need me. I’m here”

“Remind me where the fuck is “here”?” six asked looking around

““Here” here. Like here?”

“Specificity please?” one said annoyed 

Zero had looked out the window and found where he was talking about 

“Here. right fucking here!” he yelled out to the sky 

“He’s at the top of the Duomo” 

“Top of the Duomo, like we talked about. Look up” four and zero had said at the same time. This caused everyone to look at her with a questioning look

“What he said it in the meeting after one said for him to do his thing and plus i saw someone on top of it and he’s the only person insane enough to do that shit”

“Exactly sweetheart” he said smirking as she turned red as one looked through the rearview mirror

Six continued to drive seeing as they were being chased leaving four behind and having to detour. Zero never understood four and how he wasn’t scared doing stuff like that. She never really got to have a proper conversation with him before too.

“So some good news and bad news. I’ve managed to change the channels so instead of watching us being chased and shit, but the helicopters are still onto us”

“Well this will be a day for the history books”

“Hey guys. ‘M coming north. Down on Via de..Via de... There’s so many fucking vias in Italy”

“Should’ve brushed up on your Italian architecture before deciding to climb it” zero told him

“Well maybe you could give me a layout of Italy and i’ll show what i know” 

“Uh guys i know you’re horny and all but now’s not exactly the time” one told them as four and zero turned red not meaning for it to sound that dirty

The group had managed to go the wrong way and miss four again leaving him behind causing them to think of another plan quick

“Round the corner. That’s it, keep coming, keep coming.” he said before cutting the rope and letting the poles let loose

“One i’m going to need that fucking eye now if you want this shit!” zero had yelled

One grabbed the eye out of his pocket and put it in view so everyone could see it. Six groaned in disgust

“Who knew the optic nerve was so long? Surprised his asshole didn’t come with it. This isn’t going to work. Pull over” he said as six hit something causing it to leave one’s fingers before giving it to zero

“He’s right there’s an empty alley up on this next turn” zero yelled

As soon as the eye left one’s fingers it landed under six’s feet causing him to yell 

“Don’t you fucking squish it!”

“Fucking grab it!”

“You squish it, the mission’s over!” zero yelled. It wasn’t entirely true seeing how she could somehow manipulate it but she needed the real thing. Four overheard everything and all the yelling and commented on how everything was stressful

“can you guys just stop arguing, we need to get this shit done”

“tell that to six and his driving that caused the eye to fall”

Six pulled over to the alley and one handed the eye over to zero waiting for her to download everything from the phone into the computer.

“Who’s eye is that?”

“It’s the lawyers”

“Did you scoop it out or-”

“God, no! I didn’t scoop it out, two did” one told him as two hit her head against the door in pain

“Almost there. Don’t worry.”

“All of rovach’s transmissions are going to lead us straight to the four generals in less than 30 seconds now.”

“I’m getting lightheaded”

“You’re not the one holding it” zero had said glaring at him

“guys? cops are looking right at us” five warned looking back

“Don’t you dare move your foot off that brake or i swear to god”

As the information finished downloading and zero had thrown the eye back to one and yelled at six to go while trying to read about the four generals and where they could find them

“Zero, please tell me you can lose that police chopper?” four asked

“On it. While we’re at it, one? Now’s a good time to get three”

At this point four had started to leave again to find three, who was sitting in a truck trying to learn Italian waiting for his cue. six and zero worked together to try to lose the chopper. They both had a plan in mind but they knew one wasn’t going to like it. As six continued to drive, they began shooting at the team again causing one to yell at two to shoot. Two was already frustrated seeing that she was getting operated on and trying to shoot back wasn’t comfortable especially if she had to turn around. How they were all still alive was beyond zero’s thoughts right now.

“I’ve got a plan but i don’t think you’re going to like it.” zero said ducking avoiding bullets that were going through the car at the moment

“anything’s better than this right now” one told her back

“Well it involves the Uffizi”

“Fuck, no”

‘Yeah, the museum next to where we got those mochaccinos” six interrupted knowing what zero thought of

“I remember the mochaccinos! i’m saying fuck, no!” one yelled back at the both of them

They ignored what one had told them and went into the direction of the Uffizi as six turned the radio on to calm down. One didn’t appreciate it though and ripped the radio and threw it out. At this point everyone’s blood pressure had risen and they were all bound to do meditation soon if they didn’t calm down. as they entered the Uffizi entrance they knew that their faces were going to be on the news everywhere if they didn’t work fast so zero could erase everything.

“You said whatever i needed to do, right? so, i’m just gonna do it.” six said backing up before putting it back in drive

“i can’t believe i died for this shit”

“i’m not exactly that religious so if anyone needs me i’m going to be praying” zero said trying keep her vomit down

Six had driven into the museum, trying to avoid all the statues and art while having way too much fun. He managed to destroy a few statues and  Zero was holding onto the door praying that she will get to have an Italian getaway or just any getaway that didn’t involve them ruining anything. when she opened her eyes, she found them in front of the statue of David. they drove off as soon as three called them to tell them about two black suburban's coming their way and four telling them he’s going to them on his skateboard before hitting them with a grenade and six commenting that they’ve got a superhero on the squad. 

Entering what looked like under a bridge, zero knew this would end here as two yelled at one about not having anymore bullets in French

“i don’t speak that” one said scared

“shit’s about to get crazy” six commented

“NOW?!? I’m conducting surgery!” five yelled 

“i’m trying to lose a thousand cars”

“She’s going to die, you know?”

“you can live for days with a gunshot wound in the stomach. She’ll be fine”

Five had started to yell at one in Spanish as soon as he said that asking if he was suddenly the doctor

“I don’t speak that either”

“Two ran out of bullets and five was asking are you suddenly a doctor”

“Yeah thanks for the input Duolingo. Up top!” one yelled at zero and six as he hit another guy with the car

Five went back to being quiet as zero looked over to see that she had gotten the bullet out of two. “Oh that feels so much better”

six continued to drive as one praised his driving before they were getting shot at in the front making it impossible to see. they had pushed the windshield out of the way before six stepped on the brake causing them to swerve and get hit. when they had opened their eyes and tried to calm their breaths, they saw that six had been impaled by a rod. zero felt sick to her stomach and climbed out of the car before the rest got out. Three and four had stopped as well before they saw zero on the ground crying and shaking before seeing what happened. 

“where’s-” four asked before seeing six’s state and going back to help five and two

one picked zero up and tried to carry her body to where the others were. he knew how much six meant to her and made sure he was somewhere he would feel at peace no matter how he was.

“c’mon, do this for him. he wouldn’t want to see you like this” one whispered to her making sure no one heard him

[planetsam]

Malex fic where Alex has a thigh holster. I haven’t been able to get it out of my head since I saw it on roswellnmprompts. Also I need something not depressing after this ep.

Eventually, the grief lessens its chokehold.

Michael almost wants to snatch it back as it does. He wants to crawl into the hole that he’s hidden in, wants to wrap himself back in the barbed love. He doesn’t want to get better. Not really. Not if it means losing another part of himself that says he had a family. A mom. He clutches at it with all of his good fingers but it slips away. The acceptance settles over him and eventually he has to shuffle out. He doesn’t have to but he doesn’t have much of a choice. It’s lonely in the hole. No matter how much wine and science Isobel and Liz bring to him. Baby steps eventually find him on Alex’s couch, tossing the ball for his beagle as he gets ready for some super secret operation Michael isn’t a part of.

“I can’t believe you’re making me stay at home,” he snaps, “your dog is self sufficient.”

“We’ve been over this,” Alex says, “your recovery is more important,” he comes around the corner, “you don’t have to like it.”

“Good,” Michael snaps, “quit glaring at me. Isn’t one of you supposed to be doing puppy eyes?”

He looks over at Alex and nearly gives himself whiplash. It’s dark out so naturally Alex is in black cargos and a black turtleneck. He looks like some kind of 1940s spy. Michael remembers those old black and white movies one of his foster families used to put on. But his hair is spikey and not slicked back and it’s kind of fucking with him. Alex doesn’t notice as he threads his belt and does up, of all things, a thigh holster. Michael feels his mouth go dry. It’s not like sex has been much of a priority and a grief filled quickie—he didn’t want that with Alex. Not anymore. Alex rests his leg on the couch and adjusts the straps that wrap around his thigh. Unfairly high on it if Michael’s being honest.

“Earth to Michael. Are you paying attention?” Alex questions.

“Antar to Alex, reading you loud and clear,” Michael says, a little more sarcastically than he intends. Alex gives him a look, “what?” He says, “alien can’t space out?”

Alex does that thing where he rolls his eyes and makes that scoff Michael hasn’t heard him make in a long ass time. He drops his leg and bends to the dogs level. Michael watches, admittedly a little at his form but also at how smoothly he moves. He missed that somewhere in his grief. Alex barely favors his missing leg side. The beagle whines and rolls and he shifts his weight to get at her stomach. He glances over at him and Michael can’t stop the faint smile that comes on his lips.

“You look good,” he says. Alex glares, “i’m not trying to get to go on your super secret mission!”

“Seriously?”

“Yes, seriously,” Michael says.

Alex straightens with the same ease and it’s super not fair. He walks over and stands in front of Michael who now wishes he hadn’t undone all his work on the spaceship so he could fly himself into the sun. Alex looks at him hard for a moment, then relaxes fractionally. He glances down at his wristwatch and Michael narrowly avoids a beagle jumping on a sensitive part of his anatomy.

“I have to—“

“Yeah yeah,” Michael says.

“I’ll be back in a few hours,” he continues.

“Oh joy,” Michael says.

“There’s a lot of cold water in the showe—hey!” The pillow wacks him seemingly of its own accord, “i’m going. Both of you behave.”

“Only til you get back!” Michael shouts as Alex leaves.

He attempts to distract himself. Alex ran off but like on a regular mission. He’ll be back. He plays with the dog and takes her on an extra long walk which has her loving him even more. He does not take a cold shower but he may poke in the bedroom just to make sure if things happen they’re ready. He’s aimlessly flicking through the channels and cementing his reign as the dog’s favorite human when the lock turns. Alex steps in and Michael gives him a once over for any major injuries. Aside from some dark smudges on his face though, he looks fine. Good. Damn good.

“You save the world?” He asks.

Alex hesitates only a moment, looking at him like he’s trying to decipher something. Concentration has always looked adorable on him and Michael scrubs across his face before pushing himself up and walking over.

“I don’t want to rush this?” Alex says and it comes out as more of a question. Michael grips his arm, like he did in the desert and Alex lets out the same kind of shuddering breath, “Michael—“

Michael kisses him.

It’s like a rocket goes off and they can’t get deep enough. He pushes Alex against the door as Alex hauls him closer by his shirt. Michael braces himself with an arm against the door and Alex gets his hands under his shirt. Michael makes a noise he’s not sure he has since they were touch starved teenagers. Alex grinds down on the leg he gets between his and Michael thinks he might be losing his mind.

“Bed—bedroom,” Alex stutters out as Michael works on his neck, thumbing down his turtleneck, “Michael. The dog—“ Michael swears and glances at the beagle who looks apprehensive.

“Don’t worry. Daddy’s fine,” he says, enjoying the distressed noise Alex makes as he lets his head fall back against the door, “bedroom it is. You stay,” he adds and flicks the remote to animal planet.

He drags Alex or maybe Alex drags him but the second they’re in, Michael grabs his turtleneck and pulls it off, throwing it aside before his own shirt follows it.  They kiss again and for the first time when Michael’s fingers skim the marks on his body, the desire to grab his shirt is only fleeting. He presses into Michael instead. They stand there kissing for a long time. Too long. Eventually Michael pushes him back onto the bed and Alex pulls him down no top of him. Michael pins his hips and presses against him and Alex feels like he’d cut his other leg off for friction. He rocks his head back, panting for air as Michael leans over him, some of the ash on his nose from Alex’s face.

“You’ve got—“ he reaches up and wipes the smudge off, pausing only long enough to realize how fucking badly he needs this, “my stuff’s in the drawer,” he says.

“Got it already,” Michael tells him, a smugness in his tone that makes Alex try to get his hips up even though Michael’s got a hand on his pelvis.

Michael undoes the holster and Alex’s pants and tugs them off his hips. The prosthetic was replaced months ago with one that’s a dark grey and impossibly sleek. Michael imagines he’s not supposed to find it as hot as he does. But he strokes it and Alex full on whines before rocking his head back again. His own hand fumbles down his thigh but Michael grabs it and kisses his knuckles before undoing his leg and pulling it off. Like he’s watched Alex do a million times. When he gets close enough Alex pulls him by his belt loops and opens up his pants, shoving them and his underwear down in one go. There’s something nice about seeing Alex as desperate as he feels. But nothing’s as nice as when Alex wraps his hand around him and Michael lets his head fall against Alex’s shoulder.

“Fuck,” he swears, forgetting how good Alex is, “fuck, okay, okay—“

He grabs the supplies and then it’s all curses and sensations and sounds. Michael’s never been, but the rawness of this must be what flying is like. He’s so used to looking over his shoulder or going as quick as he can with Alex that the fact there’s two doors between them and the rest of the world lets him go as slow as he can. Which isn’t very since it’s been months and while he’s not upset they waited, his body is definitely on board with fucking Alex like this. And in several other ways until they’re both collapsed on the bed half on top of each other, gasping in the silence of the room.

“Wow,” Alex gets out finally and Michael experiences pride for the first time in a very very long time, “what the hell brought that on.”

“Bulitt,” Michael says, “old action movie one of my foster families would watch. Steve McQueen was wearing a black turtleneck.”

Alex looks over at him.

“You figured out you were bi watching a Steve McQueen movie?” Michael nods. Alex is silent for a moment, “I’ve got a shoulder holster.”

[artificialqueens]

nobody knows where we might end up, chapter four (branjie) - holtzmanns

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“Dr. Cain told Dr. Miller who told Dr. Edwards who told me that she saw you two practically ready to bite each other’s heads off in the hallway a few days ago.” Dr. O’Hara ends her statement with a bite of her salad, eyes expectant.

“Jesus, what is this, the hospital from Grey’s Anatomy? Do y’all ever actually work or just gossip here?” So maybe she’s feeling a little grumpy about it. Also because she’s not sure which time it is that Dr. O’Hara is talking about.

AN: Thank you so much for the sweet responses to this story! I love it so, so much. In this chapter, we have soft baby gays in the past, and a bit of hospital gossip in the present. Writ is the most wonderful friend and beta ever.

(then)

“Has anyone told you that you’re nuts? ‘Cause you’re nuts.”

Vanessa’s staring at Brooke’s review for the midterm, and holy shit. The colour coordination. The diagrams. It’s as if she’s going to be graded on artistic ability.

Brooke snorts at her dumbstruck face. “Honestly, it helps me to consolidate all the information, making it all pretty and organized. It’s helpful. My notes aren’t as extensive as yours, though.”

Brooke reaches out to grab Vanessa’s midterm review, a haphazard collection of handwritten notes that she’s meticulously copied again and again. Vanessa’s found a strategy that works for her, especially when it comes to information heavy subjects - rewrite, rewrite, rewrite.

Though it does make her notes look a bit chaotic. And unreadable to anyone who isn’t familiar with her handwriting.

But hey, it works for her.

“Organized chaos, is what mine is.” Her wrist aches with a phantom pain as she thumbs through the pages, remembering the strain as she wrote line after line.

Vanessa leans over the table, looks over at the diagram that Brooke is drawing of the renal system. Her coloured pencils are spread out beside her, because of course Brooke has coloured pencils to make her diagrams even more pretty.

Vanessa picks up the yellow coloured pencil, a smile playing on her lips. “Don’t forget this one when you have to colour in the pee.”

Brooke wrinkles her nose. “Ugh, when you say it like that-”

Vanessa snickers. “Nephrology is wack. I’m glad we’re both in agreement about that.”

“It is cool, though.” Vanessa can see the gears in Brooke’s brain start to turn as she traces a finger over the diagrams that she’s drawn on the page. “Like the fact that sodium is so involved? And the amount that our body retains water is totally dependent on balancing concentration levels in a substance, which is something we learned in what, grade ten? I love it.”

“You’re cute when you’re all excited over pee.” Vanessa can’t help but cackle when Brooke groans at her statement.

“I’m not excited over pee- ”

“Yes you are. Pee lover.”

“Hush.” Brooke lifts up her notes to lightly smack Vanessa’s shoulder with them, making her squeal and lean back in her chair. The action nearly makes Vanessa fall off, and when she catches herself on the edge of the table, the two of them are laughing hard enough that Vanessa’s sure that a librarian is going to come to shush them at any second.

They get back to work after Brooke goes to the bathroom (‘don’t get too excited about going pee in there’), finishing up their respective midterm reviews and quizzing each other. Vanessa checks her watch, sighs as the time for her 6 pm lecture ticks closer and closer.

“I gotta go.” Vanessa doesn’t want to. Switching to a different lecture so that she can spend more time with Brooke would be silly, right?

She tells herself that for now.

“Have fun in class. I’ll study nephrology all by my lonesome.” Brooke fake pouts up at her, and Vanessa rolls her eyes good naturedly.

“You say that as if you’re not going to have the time of your life.”

Brooke sticks her tongue out, a gesture that Vanessa returns right back at her. She pauses when she’s packed up all of her things, letting the words rush out before she loses the nerve to say them.

“Hey, if you’re still studying in the evening and don’t have dinner plans, wanna come over later? I was planning on making something in our suite kitchen. We can keep quizzing each other while making food, if you want.”

Because, yep, that’s the only reason she’s asking Brooke to hang out even more today. To study while they cook.

She’s so transparent that she can see through herself sometimes.

Brooke blinks up at her before grinning, and she’s back to her shyness from when they first started talking. “Yeah. Sure, that would be fun. We’ll be even more prepared for the midterm then.

Yep. Prepared for the midterm.

Vanessa will take it, though. Because really, school is the priority, right?

She grins at Brooke. “Perfect. I’ll text you when class is done?”

“Sounds good.” Brooke waves her phone around in her hand. “I’ll be waiting.”

“I bet you will. Now go back to learning about pee so you can quiz me about it later.”

Vanessa skips down the hallway as Brooke groans, smiling to herself. The two hours of lecture she has to get through before their dinner better fly by.

“Silky. Silky. What have I done?”

“You’ve inv-“

“I’ve invited her over to make dinner together, Silky!” Vanessa practically yelps it, vibrating with nervous energy as she dances around their suite’s kitchen, pulling ingredients that she had bought earlier in the day from the communal fridge and cupboards.

“Do you think she even likes stir fry? I just bought the stuff in the morning ‘cause it’s easy. I didn’t think I was gonna invite her for dinner. ” Vanessa punctuates the last four words with raps on the counter.

Silky munches away on her own dinner at the table, watching her as if she’s a nature documentary. “Who doesn’t like stir fry? It’s easy as shit and always tastes good.”

“What if she has some sort of weird stir fry trauma? Had food poisoning with it and now hates it more than anything in the world?“

There’s a rap on their door, then, and Vanessa looks at Silky in panic.

“Well, now you get to find out. I’m taking my dinner to our room.” With that, Silky takes her plate, shutting the door behind her.

She can do this. It’s only another studying session, this time with food involved. She opens the door to the suite, finds a wide eyed Brooke behind it.

“Hey, I brought two bite brownies for dessert? I wasn’t sure if you liked chocolate or not, but two bite brownies are always good, and they were in the campus store, and-”

Vanessa can’t help but melt as Brooke cuts herself off, drawing in a breath. Did she really have anything to worry about?

“Sorry.” Brooke looks at her sheepishly, taking a step into the suite when Vanessa holds the door open more to let her in.

“For what?” Vanessa grins at her. “You like stir fry?”

They work together as a team, chopping the vegetables and making the noodles like a well oiled machine while tossing questions from the nephrology unit back and forth at one another.

“True or false,” Brooke starts as she drains the noodles, “Renin secretion is influenced by potassium.”

“False.” Vanessa points the spatula at Brooke. “Sodium influences it. Low sodium means that more is released. ”

“Perfect.” Brooke grins at her, bringing the noodles over so that Vanessa can pour the stir fry mix on top. “You’ve been killing all these questions.”

“So have you. I feel pretty good about this unit.” Vanessa sticks her hand out for a high five, one that Brooke returns. “What do you say we take a studying break and eat?”

They curl up on the couch, and Vanessa barely has a chance to bring a bite to her lips before Brooke exclaims loud enough to be heard by the rest of the floor. “Vanessa, this is so good!”

“Yeah?” Her answer is muffled by her bite but she’s thrilled nonetheless, feeling like she wants to get up and dance around. It’s a feeling that only increases when Brooke nods.

“Yeah. I’m definitely gonna need seconds. Maybe thirds? Kind of want to sneak all this back to my room with me. Who knows?”

Vanessa grins. “No need for that, B. You can always come back and we can make it again.”

Brooke points her fork at her. “I’m going to take you up on it.”

“Why else do you think I offered?” She knows that her grin in Brooke’s direction is stupidly happy, solely for the fact that Brooke is reflecting the same facial expression back at her.

Vanessa likes her. A lot. More than just in class, more than when they just study together.

Not that it’s a big deal.

Brooke nudges her side with her elbow. “We spend so much time talking about school and class-”

“-and currently pee, thanks to the nephrology unit-”

Brooke snorts. “-and currently pee. As I was saying, we barely have the chance to talk about anything else, it’s so rare. So, I want to know you more. Tell me something.”

“Like what? That’s an open ended question.” What does Brooke even want to know?

Brooke shrugs. “I don’t know. Tell me more about your family, maybe?”

Vanessa leans forward in her spot, taking a sip of her drink before she speaks. “Okay. Well, it’s me and my mom and my older brother. And my abuela. We make a nice little unit.” She loves her family, really does. Misses them like crazy while she’s at school, especially her mom's cooking, which she appreciates now more than ever after having being made to cook for herself.

“That sounds nice. Are you all close?” Brooke leans her cheek on her hand, listening intently, and her focus makes Vanessa flush under her gaze a bit.

“Yeah. Real close. My mom’s always been supportive, y’know? Through everything. Gotten a couple of ass whoopings along the way, but they’ve always been deserved. I was a demon child.” Vanessa thinks back to herself as a kid, giving her mom more stress than she deserved at the time, acting out.

“But we’re closer now. Which is nice.” Vanessa shrugs, smiling a little. She needs to call her mom soon, catch up with her. “Being away at school makes us appreciate each other more.”

Brooke smiles back. “She sounds like a lovely mom.”

“She is.” Vanessa nudges her. “What about you, what’s your family like?”

Brooke shrugs. “They’re okay. I like being away at school, if that tells you anything.”

Vanessa raises an eyebrow. “That bad, huh?”

Brooke shifts in her chair, trying to explain. “No, not bad, per se. Just…stressful? Wound up?”

“That’s not easy, though.” Vanessa’s glad that her mom isn’t like that. She wants to do the best she can, make her happy, but her mom never acts as if she’s anything but proud of her.

“No. It isn’t.” Brooke fiddles with the couch cushion beside her. “They’re just always expecting perfection on my end, y’know? And I’m trying to give it to them. I want to. I should be able to.”

Now that makes a lot of sense. It explains Brooke’s need to do the absolute best, her panic that sets in when she feels like she hasn’t studied enough. The way Brooke calms down during their study sessions when she starts to understand things better.

“You can’t, though. No one can. No one’s perfect.” Vanessa has to resist an urge to grab Brooke’s hand, rub her thumb in little circles over her palm. “You can only do the best you can.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Brooke doesn’t look too convinced.

“If everyone was perfect, we’d all be boring as shit. Nothing fun to make us all different. We wouldn’t have anything to still work towards, either.” Vanessa pulls her feet up on the couch, scooching closer to Brooke. “You work your ass off and it already shows. I’m sure they can see that.”

Brooke bites her lip. “I hope so.”

“If not, I see it. Everyone else here sees it. You’re amazing.” The words tumble from Vanessa’s mouth before she can stop them, making her want to clap a hand over her mouth.

Way to make her feelings known. She’s probably gonna scare Brooke off.

She wants to take the words back, apologize for overstepping, but Brooke’s smile is soft on her face. “You’re the amazing one, helping me study and feeding me and being more than amazing company.”

“I’m glad I sat beside you during our first class. Not that I had a choice.” Vanessa thinks back to their first lecture, where she had come in late and it had been plenty embarrassing.

“All I remember from that class is how much your leg was shaking for most of it.” Brooke looks at her with a grin. “Thank goodness you don’t do that all the time.”

“I was nervous! It was the first class! Plus, I was sitting beside you and you looked really intimidating.” It’s true. Brooke looked mean at first glance.

Brooke looks at her in surprise. “Really?”

Vanessa scoffs. “Please. As if you didn’t know that already. You were glaring at me the whole time.”

“Oh god. I’m so sorry.” Brooke’s cheeks are pink. “In my defense…I was nervous too?”

Vanessa snorts. “Sure, whatever. It’s all good. Your tune changed real fast as soon as I opened my mouth to talk to you, anyway.”

“How so?”

“You got all shy on me.”

Now Brooke is the one to look indignant, eyebrows raised to contradict her statement. “I did not.”

Vanessa snickers. “Yes you did. All stuttering on your words and shit.” As if Brooke doesn’t make her stumble on her own words, too.

“That is completely false and you know it.”

Vanessa is about to retort, words on her tongue about how she’s nothing but truthful, but then Brooke is tickling her sides, making her squirm on the couch.

“Playing dirty!” Vanessa sticks her hands out to tickle Brooke back, give her a taste of her own medicine, but Brooke doesn’t even flinch under her touch.

“Wait.” Vanessa pauses, narrowing her eyes. “You’re not ticklish?”

“Nope.” Brooke pops the ‘p’ at the end of the word, with a grin at Vanessa that is way too smug.

“Unfair!”

Brooke giggles at her dramatics and it spurs Vanessa on further, flopping herself lower onto the couch.

“Unbelievable. Not even ticklish.”

“But you are. And it’s a fact that I will absolutely use to my advantage.” Brooke looks too happy, too thrilled about the turn of events.

Vanessa fixes her with a look. She wouldn’t. “Don’t you dare.”

“Don’t I dare what?”

“You know exactly what-” Vanessa shrieks because Brooke tickles her again, climbing on top of her as they’re both giggling.

“Mercy, mercy.” Vanessa holds a hand up and Brooke acquiesces, stopping. It’s then that Vanessa notices that Brooke is still on top of her, close enough that she can smell her shampoo, feel her hair that’s falling in front of her face and brushing against her arms.

Woah.

Brooke evidently notices at the same time, her eyes widening. She’s about to say something, maneuvering her arm so that she doesn’t fall off of Vanessa when-

“Sup, bitches?”

Vanessa groans, dropping her head against the back of the couch. Typical.

“Hi?” Brooke climbs off of Vanessa at lightning speed, straightening herself out in the couch beside her.

Silky fixes them both with a knowing grin. “Don’t mind me, grabbing a snack.”

Vanessa sighs as Brooke is back on her side of the couch, introducing herself to Silky as she fixes herself a sandwich.

Moment gone.

(now)

Vanessa pulls off her gloves, gown, and mask, tossing them into the waste disposal before washing her hands. She grins as Dr. Michaels comes up behind her, smile of approval clear on the woman’s face.

“Nice job, Dr. Mateo. Off to a great start.”

Her first surgery at her new job? Successfully completed. Sure, it had been a simple ablation procedure, but Vanessa feels great.

She’s been hired here as the cardiothoracic head for a reason. She’s gonna show everyone that the chief made the right decision.

“Thanks. You were great to work with in there. That ablation was smooth.”

“You’re damn right about that.” Dr. Michaels holds out a fist, and Vanessa bumps it right back.

Dr. Michaels pulls off her scrub cap, holding the door open for Vanessa to go through. “Lunch?”

“Absolutely.”

They grab a table in the cafeteria, joined by Dr. O’Hara and another doctor that she’s never met who looks like she should still be doing her undergrad degree. Vanessa sticks out a hand to introduce herself.

The woman shakes it. “Dr. St. Clair. Cardiothoracic resident.”

Vanessa’s eyebrows raise in surprise. “You’re a resident? I swear I thought you were-”

“An intern?” Dr. St. Clair laughs, shaking her head. “Yeah. I get that a lot. Looking young as a doctor isn’t the most helpful in getting patients to respect you.”

“So,” Dr. O’Hara’s voice is conspiratorial as she takes out her lunch, “what’s the gossip on you and Dr. Hytes?”

Vanessa nearly chokes on her sandwich. “What do you mean?” It’s interspersed with coughs, prompting Dr. Michaels to pat her on the back.

“Dr. Cain told Dr. Miller who told Dr. Edwards who told me that she saw you two practically ready to bite each other’s heads off in the hallway a few days ago.” Dr. O’Hara ends her statement with a bite of her salad, eyes expectant.

“Jesus, what is this, the hospital from Grey’s Anatomy? Do y’all ever actually work or just gossip here?” So maybe she’s feeling a little grumpy about it. Also because she’s not sure which time it is that Dr. O’Hara is talking about.

She and Dr. Hytes have fallen into a routine of sorts for their joint consult on the upcoming surgery. Vanessa feels like she’s defending her fucking thesis from the way that Dr. Hytes continues to question her abilities concerning the procedure. It’s absolutely infuriating, and lead to many shouting matches in the conference rooms.

The Brooke she remembers from undergrad would never have been like this. Disrespecting her at every turn, acting like a fucking bitch. Acting like she’s better than everyone else. But Vanessa knows her, and Dr. Hytes is not. Vanessa has never wanted to put her in her place more.

But she’s also just started. She doesn’t want to look unprofessional and get fired before she can make any leeway as an attending surgeon.

Besides, if she gets fired, it means that Dr. Hytes wins.

“You didn’t answer the question.” Dr. Michaels and Dr. O’Hara look like a buddy cop duo, resting their elbows on the table, while Dr. St. Clair watches attentively.

“She just rubs me the wrong way, that’s all.” No way is Vanessa going to bring their history - ancient history, at that - up to her coworkers. No one else’s business.

Dr. Michaels shoots a conspiratorial look at Dr. O’Hara. “Seems like a lot of emotion for just rubbing someone the wrong way.”

Vanessa shrugs. “Maybe I’m just an emotional person.” It’s not a lie, not really.

“Not only from you,” Dr. O’Hara lowers her voice, “From her, too.”

“Yeah?” Vanessa raises an eyebrow.

“Mhm.” Dr. O’Hara nods at her. “I’ve seen that woman have maybe five emotions max while working here. She’s usually unflappable. Since you’ve gotten here, though? The woman is pissed.”

Vanessa can’t help the satisfied smile that settles on her face. “Good.”

Let Dr. Hytes be pissed. Especially since she’s been causing Vanessa so much grief. It’s what she deserves to feel.

“See!” Dr. O’Hara points at her. “There’s something you’re not telling us, and I know it. We’re gonna find out.”

Vanessa snorts, taking another bite of her sandwich. “Good luck with that.”

“Dr. West, you wanted to see me?”

“Come in.” Dr. West’s voice is warm when Vanessa knocks on her office door, though it does little to assuage the way her heart feels like it’s sinking in her chest.

She doesn’t know why the chief of surgery has called her in for a meeting, though has a sneaking suspicion it’s about a certain neurosurgeon attending. Maybe Dr. West has had it and wants to get rid of her - Vanessa wouldn’t be surprised if Dr. Hytes has complained about her. The bitch.

“I wanted to touch base with you about your first few weeks here, see that everything is going away.” Dr. West is smiling at her, and doesn’t look too mad - perhaps a good sign?

“It’s been great so far. Everyone is incredibly welcoming.” Not a lie, for the most part - not that she’s going to bring up Dr. Hytes, not when her and Dr. West seem like they’re friendly with each other.

“That’s good to hear.” Dr. West is looking at Vanessa with an expression she can’t quite decipher, and it makes her want to squirm in her seat. She can’t tell how much the chief actually knows.

Vanessa’s pretty sure that Dr. West hadn’t been in the attending locker room in the morning. when Dr. Hytes had interrupted her conversation with Dr. Miller about ICU stay lengths at her previous hospital, muttering that it seemed to be counterproductive for patient health. So maybe Vanessa had to give Dr. Hytes a piece of her mind - so what if such arguments are becoming a daily occurrence? As long as they’re not disrupting patient care, Vanessa’s going to fight back every time.

Vanessa’s not one to take things lying down. She doesn’t care if the other doctors in this hospital are. Dr. Hytes doesn’t scare her. Sure, the way her eyes narrow in her direction and the way she stares down at her make her heart feel like it’s  beating a little faster sometimes - but it’s just adrenaline.

“So.” Dr. West leans forward in her seat, opening up her clipboard. “A change I implemented here a few years back when I became chief was more opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration. More work with doctors outside our immediate disciplines - to build more connections between everyone despite all of our differences and interests.”

“Okay.” Vanessa nods, not sure where Dr. West is going.

“I understand that you already have a joint surgery coming up with Dr. Hytes soon.” Dr. West looks up from her clipboard, holding Vanessa’s gaze for a little too long.

She tries her best to keep her face neutral. “That’s right.”

“How has the preparation for the case been going so far?”

Vanessa channels her best poker face. “It’s been alright, thank you. Dr. Hytes is incredibly smart.” Not a lie.

“I’m glad you think so.” Dr. West goes back to her notes, pushing her glasses up on her nose with her index finger. “One initiative I’ve started with new surgery hires is having them shadow surgeries in a few other disciplines. Have the opportunity to see how others do things, ask questions about unfamiliar procedures, participate in interdisciplinary information sharing.”

“I see.”

“I know you’ve been here for a few weeks and seem to be settling in well. Would this still be something that you’d be interested in?”

From the way that Dr. West is looking at her, she’s not sure if she has a choice in her answer. “It would be pretty educational to shadow in some other disciplines. Haven’t done that since I was a resident.”

Vanessa isn’t lying, per se. It would be pretty cool. It’s just that she already as an idea of who Dr. West wants her to shadow for neuro already-

“I think it would be a great idea for you to shadow Dr. Hytes for one of her procedures, especially before your joint one in a few weeks. You can get to know her a bit more. We can start with that.”

Fuck.

“The surgery is to remove an arteriovenous malformation. Do you happen to know what that is, or do you need a refresher?” Dr. Hytes sneers it at her as she braids her hair back (still as blonde, still as long as it used to be) and Vanessa wants to smack the smug look off of her face.

“I’ve taken neuro, Dr. Hytes, my memory isn’t that shit.” Vanessa scoffs. Of course Dr. Hytes is on her high horse already.

Vanessa is not looking forward to shadowing her in the least. She doesn’t care how she operates, she doesn’t give a shit over how people fawn over her. Hell, if it weren’t for their joint surgery coming up, she probably would have found a way to decline Dr. West.

But at the same time…she needs intel. Needs to know what to expect before they have to step into an operating room as colleagues, so that it doesn’t blow up in their faces.

Doesn’t mean she has to be happy about it.

“If you say so. Keep out of my way in there. This is my surgery, and I’d like to keep it running as smooth as the rest of the ones I do.” Vanessa rolls her eyes at Dr. Hytes’ words. So damn cocky.

“I want to be here as little as you do. As if I’d want to be up in your face during this. Chill.” She pulls on her scrub cap, one with little dogs all over it that she couldn’t resist buying as a resident. It remains her favourite.

“Whatever. Just don’t get in my way.” The words are cold as Dr. Hytes pulls on her own scrub cap, and Vanessa has to suppress a groan because of course .

Dr. Hytes’ scrub cap has little cats all over it. Typical.

“Fine.” So what if Vanessa’s a bit haughty when she says it? “As long as you don’t get in mine.”

The growl that emanates from Dr. Hytes in response is enough to make her smirk more than she should.

[earth-ambassador-jim]

Changeling Loyalties: Chapter 6

A Small Problem

Toby is quite happy with his life, but then the Amulet of Daylight just had to choose his human friend. What’s a changeling to do? Good thing Toby never really liked Gunmar anyway. 

I forgot to post this here...

AO3 - Fanfiction

~~~~

~~~~

Toby was practically drooling as he stared at the strange and colorful crystals the vender was selling.

“Close your mouth, Tobes,” He heard Jim say with a snicker.

Okay. Maybe he actually was drooling, but could he really be blamed? They didn’t sell these kind of things on the surface.

“Sooo, how much are these?” He asked the shopkeeper, a stout, light grey troll about a head taller than Blinky. He leaned against the table and tried not to look too interested.

“What’ve ya got?” The shopkeeper asked in a gruff bored tone.

Toby blinked. Did the trolls here have a currency? They ate the metals humans prized for their own currency. He looked around him at the different stalls trying to see if he could spot a transaction, unfortunately most of the trolls were just talking.

In the Darklands, while it was generally every troll for themself, they did do some bartering. Toby himself had been rather skilled in finding and extracting valuable gems and minerals. It had not gotten him very far in a society based on violence, especially when the other changelings kept stealing from him. Eventually he had put a stop to that by crushing some stinger crystal and putting it in an offending troll’s food; the results were not pretty but it did the job…

“Toby we need to get going,” Jim said, tapping his shoulder.

“Right!” Toby shook himself back to the present. “Let me just try something first.”

He turned back toward the shopkeeper, who was now polishing what looked like a glowing amethyst on a stone wheel.

“Sir? Sir!” The troll pulled the crystal back and turned toward him with a grunt.

“What kind of things are you looking for?”

“What’ve ya got?” The troll repeated, making Toby feel a bit like he was talking to an NPC in a video game.

“Nothing at the moment…” The troll started turning away. “But! I happen to have unlimited access to the surface.” Toby’s gaze darted around quickly cataloguing the wares at the other stands. “Socks… blankets, tin cans… lightbulbs, you name it I can get it for you!”

Now he had the troll’s interest. The troll’s eyes, grey-brown and translucent (smoky quartz maybe?), sized Toby up. The changeling carefully kept his pose casual.

“Hmmm… Come later and A’ll give ya a list. Bring that stuff and w’ll talk.”

“You got it,” Toby said shooting him finger-guns and winking for good measure.

Jim let out a groan, before grabbing his arm and dragging him off.

 ~~~~

“Trollhunter!”

Toby jumped as a portly troll lady barged in on their history lesson.

He shot her a look of annoyance as Blinky turned toward her. He had actually been enjoying himself. Aaarrrgghh was quite comfortable to lean against, he had Jim beside him and out of danger, and Blinky was a very good reader. Also, while he knew the basics of what happened at Killahead, he had never really learned the details.

“What is it Bagdwella? Is it the heartstone?” Blinky asked closing the book with a concerned expression.

“Stalkling?” Aaarrrgghh rose to all fours.

“Is Bular in Trollmarket?” Jim asked nervously.

Toby doubted that was the case; there’d have been a lot more screaming.

“No. No. No!!!” Bagdwella yelled waving her arms around. “Rogue gnome!!!!”

~~~~

The glue traps were kind of creepy, Toby reflected with a shudder. He wasn’t familiar with gnomes, but their skeletons looked eerily human. Not to mention he’d always been of the opinion if one was going to kill something they should do it quickly. He figured it fell into the whole “treat others how you wanted to be treated” thing. Slowly dying from starvation and dehydration was not a nice way to go.

Bagdwella was explaining her problem to Jim who seemed to be just as baffled about why he was being called on to help with this as Toby was.

“See you need a gnome catcher,” He said with an awkward smile when she had finished. “And I’m, well, the Trollhunter. So…”

“Oh no, Master Jim,” Blinky interrupted. “The Trollhunter cannot refuse a call and what better a call for you to train with than a pint sized quarry.”

Toby supposed he could see Blinky’s reasoning there. Still…

If Toby had come to one of his superiors over something this trivial he would have gotten a harsh reprimand for wasting their time at a bare minimum. Did they really treat all the Trollhunters like this or was it because Jim was new and hadn’t earned their respect yet? Or, more likely, because he was human?

A sound that was something like a guitar drew their attention to a rack of socks. The gnome emerged strumming a makeshift instrument made out of a small rake and singing incomprehensible words. It was actually a pretty good musician. Toby found himself warming up to the creature… at least until it stole his belt and nugget nummies.

What ensued after that was something like a cross between slapstick and the world’s worst game of wack-a-mole. The gnome eluded them at every turn, slipping out of their hands and through crevices, stealing things all the while, until it ultimately got Jim’s amulet and escaped into its hole.

“Oh come on,” Jim muttered as he foolishly reached his arms into the hole.

“So what now?” He asked, finally giving up and turning to Blinky.

Blinky sighed.

“Well if you had lost or rejected the amulet would have returned to you, but unfortunately as it has been thieved it will not do so.”

Toby choked on his saliva.

“That… seems like a really bad system,” Jim said slowly echoing Toby’s thoughts.

Blinky shrugged.

“It talks about it in A Brief Recapitulation. Not much is known as Merlin was notoriously close-lipped. Fortunately that is not the problem at hand.” He folded his upper arms behind his back and started tapping the lower ones together. “No, our current problem is how to retrieve the Amulet.”

“Well what am I supposed to do?” Jim complained, “I can’t fit in that hole.”

A slight, but concerning, smile formed on Blinky’s face as he tapped his chin.

“Currently.”

Toby wasn’t sure what he was talking about but Aaarrrgghh apparently knew.

“Bad idea,” The Krubera rumbled shaking his head with an apprehensive look.

“No Trollhunter has ever lost his amulet,” Blinky said irritably. “We'll need time to procure the Furgolator.”

“Uh, the Furgolator?” Jim, understandably, sounded concerned.

“Don't you worry about anything, Master Jim! Tend to your studies. We'll watch over the hole.” Blinky said resting a hand on his shoulder. “Tomorrow, you'll return refreshed to deal with this, um… little problem.”

Toby, however, was not about to let it go that easily. Especially not when Aaarrrgghh seemed to dislike the idea.

“What, exactly, is a Fergolator?” He asked, narrowing his eyes slightly.

“It’s a machine we use to compress minerals,” Blinky said. “If the gnome won’t come out, the Trollhunter shall go in.”

“You’re going to shrink me?” Jim yelped.

“Precisely!”

Toby did not like the sound of that.

“Have you tested it on humans before? Or at least animals?” He asked. “Because from what I know, humans do not compress well.”

“Well…” Blinky had the nerve to give them a guilty smile. “No… but I’m not concerned…”

Toby crossed his arms.

Blinky frowned.

“It’s our best option,” He said throwing up his arms. “Do you have any other suggestions?”

Toby glared at him, something unpleasant simmering in his chest. His fingers twitched.

“Not yet, but anything’s better that squashing Jim in a machine that’s never been tested on humans.”

This was his best friend they were talking about.

Jim glanced from Toby to Blinky then quickly stepped between them.

“Woah there!” He held out his hands placatingly. “How about instead of arguing we take a break and do some brainstorming.”

“That sounds like a stellar idea,” Blinky relented with a smile.

Toby huffed and stepped back. He needed to get Blinky some books on human anatomy before the troll went and did irreversible damage to one of them.

~~~~

After quite a bit of discussion it was decided that Jim and Toby would acquire a high powered vacuum cleaner and see if they could suck the gnome and his stolen goods out of the hole. However, as it was going to be dark soon, they would be coming back to do it the next day.

“Well that was… something,” Jim said pulling off his werewolf mask.

For some reason Toby had insisted on them wearing their disguises until they got into the bushes.

“Yeah…”

Jim glanced over to see Toby frowning. His eyes darted around their surroundings as if he was looking for something.

“Toby?”

Toby blinked and refocused on Jim.

“Yeah it was! I can’t believe Blinky was just going try shrinking you like that!” He grinned. “Though if it worked I guess we could have had you go to school in my Sally-Go-Back clothes. You would have looked so cute.”

Jim groaned but felt a smile creeping across his face anyway.

“Maybe we could have shrunk you instead. I could have gotten you a chocolate fondue fountain to swim around in.”

“Tempting but no.” Toby said with a shudder. “I’m already way too short.”

“I like to think you’re fun-sized.”

He shot Jim a mock-glare.

“Hey! That’s my line. Anyway, I’ll hit my growth spurt soon.”

“Uh-huh…”

Toby attempted to punch his shoulder and almost tipped his bike over when he dodged. Jim smirked at his friend and sped up.

“Hey! Get back here!”

The race home left them both winded but Jim didn’t mind. It was nice to have a bit of normalcy for once. It was also nice messing around with Toby, he’d been a bit worried that…

“Oh look, Mom… I mean Dr. L’s home!”

She was. Her blue car had just pulled into the driveway ahead of them. Jim couldn’t help but to pedal a little faster.

“Hey Mom!”

She was just getting out of the car and turned at his call.

“Oh! Hi Jim!”

Jim coasted into the driveway and hopped off his bike to go give her a hug. With everything that had happened over the course of the week it felt like it had been forever since he’d last seen her.

“Good to see you kiddo,” She said returning it.

“Hey Dr.L!”

“Hi Toby,” She said with a smile as they pulled apart. “Are you boys going to be home for dinner tonight?”

“Oh course,” Jim said.

“You sure have been out late,” She continued, retrieving her bags from the car. “Do you have some big school project or something due?”

“Or something…”  Toby muttered.

Jim winced, he felt a bit guilty about not telling his Mom about Trollhunting but she had enough on her plate right now. She’d be worried (Terrified if he was being honest with himself). It wasn’t like she could do anything about it.

He frowned, feeling the happiness leak out of him as his hand drifted to his empty pocket.

Blinky had said that if he refused or lost the amulet it would come back to him (unfortunately that didn’t work if he was trying to get it to come back on purpose. Seriously what was Merlin thinking?). It was… It was a little disconcerting to hear just how permanent the position he now held was. No take backs… and yet… he’d never had the chance to accept or refuse it in the first place.

“You okay, Jimbo?”

He glanced to his right to see Toby staring at him, eyes bright with concern. It looked like his Mom had already gone in the house.

“Yeah… I just… I guess I’m a little bothered by what Blinky said about the amulet returning if I reject it.”

Something in Toby’s expression shifted, his gaze becoming a little sharper.

“Do you want to reject it?” He asked tone completely serious.

Jim blinked, a little taken aback.

“I… I don’t know… I mean I don’t really care for the fact that I have a killer troll out to… well… kill me, but Trollmarket’s cool and I like Blinky and Aaarrrgghh… Draal not so much…”

Jim trailed off, frowning, then shrugged.

“Well it doesn’t really matter since I can’t get rid of it.”

He turned back toward the house.

“Come on, I’m going to get started on dinner. With any luck I’ll get it done before the hospital calls Mom again.”

There was a pause and then he heard Toby make a noise of agreement and follow.

~~~~

Toby was in good spirits when he retired to bed for the night

Dinner had been delicious: salmon, wild rice and a nice side salad, curtesy of Chief Jim. They’d called Nana over and the four of them had eaten together for the first time in about a month. Afterward they played a round of Rummikub before Toby and Nana retired to their house for the night.

He’d gotten his homework done and even gotten a round of video games in before going to bed. Unfortunately he should have known his lucky streak would not last long.

It was about three in the morning when Toby’s phone went off. He groaned and groped around in the dark until he found it. Toby hissed at the bright light before squinting at the screen. He groaned again. Maybe he could just pretend he’d slept through his phone going off…

He sighed and sat up dislodging Kracka from his chest. The goblin shot him an annoyed look.

“Sorry,” He said in English before switching to Goblin. *Gather pack. Called for clean-up.*

Kracka immediately perked up and darted off, rousing Bob who was sleeping at the foot of the bed on the way by.

Toby snorted, padding over to the closet to grab his hoody. At least one of them was happy about this.

[a-naf]

Naf, how you maintain the discipline to draw every day? I burnout so easily.

Honestly, I don’t draw that much in a day, 2-3 hours on average, maybe 4-5 hours on a good day. Still, burnout is a serious problem that I try my best to avoid. Mental and physical exhaustion, frustration, apathy, etc, not good.

We draw because we enjoy drawing. And because we enjoy it, we want to get better at it. But to improve, we have to put in the time. From here, in the back of our mind, there’s a doubt beginning to form. What if we’re not doing the right thing? What if all these hours are wasted? Couple that with little progress and somewhere along the line, the enjoyment of drawing has turned into frustration. This was the mindset I was in.

I get out of this slump by treating every drawing as a stepping stone to improve. To take a step forward, we have to step on a stone, but once we’re pass that stone, we don’t care about it anymore. I changed my goal from making a good drawing to trying to learn with each drawing. Everyday, I try to learn a little bit, just a little bit and I’m happy. Then, I don’t need the drawing to be good, it has done its job. This is not the fastest way to improve I’m sure but it’s how I keep my enjoyment alive.

I don’t know your situations so I can’t offer anything concrete. If burnout is a serious issue, please visit a doctor, don’t just take advice from some mook on the internet. With that said, here are some general tips:

Set aside some specific time for drawing, this makes it easier to turn drawing into a routine.

Exercise, sleep, eat as best as you can manage.

Balance between drawing for yourself and drawing to improve.

Know your limit, don’t start out by drawing 8 hours a day. Work toward it.

Take breaks, 5 minutes every hour, 15 mins every 2 hours, etc, you decide.

Set realistic, achievable goal. I can’t read through an entire anatomy book in a day but I can understand a couple of pages. I can’t guarantee a good drawing but I can fill out a page of sketchbook with no problem. Little victories count.

When your work is not going the way you wanted to. Try not to get frustrated at your own capabilities. Rather, treat it as an opportunity to improve. Ask yourself why it’s wack. Break down your question into smaller ones, repeat until you can answer them.

I think there’s a whole lot of decisions making and problem solving that go on when we draw and paint. Something like this might help https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging .

 When I didn’t want to draw at all. I just do something easy like filling a page with cubes or copying some art I like. We are much more likely to start if we know it’s something we can do. Then we can use the momentum we gain from drawing these easy things to drawing more difficult one. If not, then a page of boxes is still better than no page at all.

I hope you find something useful here. Take care.

[puppyluver256]

Some art tips from a big ol’ nerd

I saw that “art tips that aren’t really appropriate tips” post going around so I thought I’d make a list of art tips that generally help me and I would like to pass on to you. Keep in mind that a lot of these are going to be subjective and conditional, so if they don’t work for you then that’s a-okay.

1 - Try new things often

Nothing gets the art mind working like drawing things you’re not used to. I’m not saying you have to always be drawing something that makes you uncomfortable, just on occasion draw something you’re not used to. For instance, say you’re really big into Super Mario, and more often than not will draw the plumbers (specifically Mario and Luigi) and princesses over other characters. Try to change it up on occasion by drawing Wario and Waluigi, who make for interesting subjects with their exaggerated anatomy. How about Bowser or one of the Koopalings? Even Toads with their simplicity are a nice departure from the same-old-same-old.

Of course there are those times when you just wanna doodle out something that you know practically by heart, and that’s fine. Just keep in mind that changing it up every so often will help to keep your skills sharp.

2 - The right tool for the right time

Any medium of visual art (at least, any that doesn’t involve bodily waste or blood imo) is viable for use in the expression of your vision. You can use any tool you want for your art, regardless of what a lot of people seem to think. This applies to both traditional and digital media. “Don’t use crayons, it’ll make your art look like a child drew it!” Bullcrap, I’ve seen some lovely pieces by professionals drawn with crayon. “You shouldn’t use the bucket fill tool, it’s lazy.” Bullcrap, that’s how I get things done so quick. “If I see any of you m-f-ers airbrushing in your work, I’ll kick your ass.” Well, it’s a good thing my ass has so much damn padding, your foot better be warmed up to make good on your threat ‘cuz that’s how I do most of my shading. Regardless, the point is that it’s not about WHAT tools you use in your art, but rather HOW you use them to create what you want people to see.

The only “must” I would throw at you in regards to tools is in regards to traditional painting, and that is in the maintenance and care of your brushes. Always wash your brushes when you’re done, ALWAYS, regardless of what type of paint you’re working with. Acrylic paints turn to plastic once dry, rendering your unwashed brushes completely useless. Oils are a little more forgiving in the “rendering your unwashed brushes completely useless” regard, but will permanently stain your brushes unless washed properly (which I recommend doing with dish soap, it really helps get the paint out of the bristles). Also, for digital artists, learn your keyboard shortcuts. It saves SO much time.

3 - When to use reference

Reference is often crucial to draw something accurately. “No ref” isn’t really the bragging right that most people seem to think it is. I mean, I still use reference with drawing my own characters! You should almost always be using reference, especially when drawing something you don’t draw very often. For example, if your horse drawings always come out looking like they have macaroni for legs, you’ll want to look up reference images of proper horse leg anatomy.

However, sometimes you want your subject to look a bit off. If you’ve ever seen the Adventure Time episode where Finn and Jake are watched overnight by a horse that has some “wacked-out poo brain”, you’ll know that that horse does not look like a normal horse, or even horses and equine animals as normally portrayed in other Adventure Time episodes. There’s a good reason for this, and the fact that this horse looks so strange plays well into its role in that episode. The point being, reference is almost always a good tool to have on hand, though sometimes you want to go off-model for a specific experience.

4 - “I can’t yet”

This is more of a psychological tip than anything to do with actually aiding in art improvement, but I find it works rather well in encouraging one to improve. When people say they “can’t draw” something because it doesn’t look right to them when they do even with reference (as opposed to, say, not being able to draw something because it makes you uncomfortable or there are too many prying eyes over your shoulder all the time), I personally feel that they might be preemptively limiting themselves.

For example, similar to what I mentioned in the reference part, I have confidence issues when it comes to even semi-realistic equine anatomy. However, I never (at least not anymore) say anything along the lines of “I can’t draw horses very well.” I instead say “I can’t draw horses very well yet.” The “yet” is important, it implies to both me and anyone listening that I am working on improving this area of drawing and will someday be able to properly draw horses. Same with any drawing weakness: hands and feet, babies, cars, buildings, trees, what have you. You’re not bad at drawing these things, you’re just not practiced in drawing them. Just because you can’t draw them yet doesn’t mean you will never be able to.

5 - Have confidence.

No art tip can be more handy than believing in yourself. Everyone’s going to have bad art days, where nothing looks like it’s coming out right. Everyone’s going to try to draw pieces that they end up feeling were more than they could handle. This will happen to every artist, guaranteed. But you can’t just give up because you’re having a bad string of art, or because you were a bit overambitious. I forget who said it, but to paraphrase the quote I can only remember the core message of, everyone has 100 bad drawings inside them and you’ve just got to get them out.

Don’t like how that portrait you were working on all day/week/month came out? Reminisce on that kick-ass swirling galaxy, mystical forest, superhero dog, or whatever you did a while back and remember you can do it. A little bit disappointed with your latest piece but see some really good points about it that you like regardless of how you feel about it overall? Good, focus on those bits and think to yourself “hey, that part of the piece is good, it makes the rest of it worthwhile.” You can do it. You have hard work and practice, and those together make talent. That’s all talent is, the results of practicing and working hard.

That’s been some art tips from your local nerd, keep these in mind and happy arting to all. :D

[writetoremainsilent]

8/6/19 my dreams are definitely out to get me

The day starts with me waking up at 6 a.m. because my fan turned off. I had gotten 4.5 hours of sleep. 

I stood up for a while, and realized that I felt incredibly well rested. I could’ve gone to the gym in the morning, if I’d wanted to. But I wanted some more sleep because I figured 4.5 hours would affect me later in the day.

So I went back to sleep, and woke up at 9:30, incredibly late for my class. 

But before I woke up, I had this wacky dream.

I’ll summarize it very loosely so that it doesn’t take up a bunch of time, but basically:

**Piotr had this boat/car hybrid which was dope and he wanted to drive me along with some friends (I can name Wally, Tye, Hana, Hugh, and another friend who had come up to visit us at college named Morgan) to the nearby beach city, but for some reason the beach city was a several hour drive away. Anyway, we were all having a good time, and for whatever reason, Piotr kept picking up hitchhikers and they would all turn out weird and I’d force them out of our boatmobile. It was weird.

Anyway, I realize later that I need to go to the restroom, and everyone aboard is annoyed, but I tell them not to worry about stopping the car, I will just get into my own car and drive back, and then catch up. Even in the dream, this logic made no sense, but I did it anyway. 

I drove back to this bar in a nearby town and run into my anatomy classmate there, who is completely drunk while studying for our class. Kind of weird. I also run into an old friend from high school, whom we’ll name Eon. Eon has a very motherly attitude when she wants to, and she offers to drive me back (even though I had a car). 

Anyway, she drives me all the way to beach town, because it was physically impossible to drive to Piotr’s car at this point (OH MY GOD this is exactly like a story Hugh told Hana, Tye and I last night, it’s all adding up). I reconvene with my friends, who are all salty with me. I protest and claim that me leaving and not making them stop was considerate of me and they shouldn’t be salty at me.

Then (here’s the really bad part) Wally comes in and tells me why I was in the wrong, and with no logical retort, I opt instead to punch him really hard in the stomach. He staggers back and is upset, and I start crying and wake up.**

So that was wack. I’m also late for class. 

I head to class (last official lecture and lab today!!!) and study with my classmates. 

I get home and laze about for a while, but give myself a hard deadline of going to the gym by 4 p.m. (I got home at 2). I laze, and laze, and laze, and...

...wake up at 7 p.m. My day’s gone down the drain. And I had another bad dream.

**This time, I was in the airport with my family and dog for whatever reason. The airport is held hostage by some gunmen, and we all take cover behind baggage and whatnot. Except my dog. Poor thing, she’s scared and barking. The police arrive and the gunmen make a break for it, and run past my dog, who’s still barking. 

This happens in slow motion. I know exactly what’s going to happen, and can’t do anything about it. One of the gunmen stops and takes several shots at my dog, missing most of them, thankfully, but as I’m reaching over to pick her up and protect her, the gunman shoots her in the leg. 

I flip out. Everyone’s happy that the situation is resolved, but I’m cradling my dog in my arms, unsure if she’s going to bleed out or not. 

I spend the rest of the dream walking idly around with her in my arms, praying to whatever I can pray to that she isn’t dead, but also terrified to take her to a doctor. 

My dream was nice to me in that I had telltale signs of life from her throughout the rest of the dream, but some part of my subconscious knew that life wouldn’t actually be that kind to me.** 

That dream sucked too. I woke up home, alone, save for my dog. Obviously she didn’t understand, but I picked her up and hugged her anyway. 

Real life does this thing where it makes you feel guilty and stupid for having bad dreams, and I immediately felt goofy hugging my dog. 

Anyway. Winnie asked if I wanted to play tennis today, but I had somehow pulled my butt yesterday (though I worked out my back) and had to decline. 

I tried to get myself to go to Starbucks to study and failed. I just goofed around further at home, and studied a little bit.

I didn’t even go to the gym today. My eating is out of wack. My dad brought an entire pizza home. Unfair. 

I ate in moderation (for once) and went back up to my room to study.

I didn’t even study all that much, but I feel more or less ready for this test. 

Hana recommended this channel called Achievement Hunter to me, and I find Trevor to be a very charming character. 

I watched a bit of that Comic Tropes channel’s livestream, and he talked about his past struggles with depression and suicidal thoughts. It really bummed me out. 

Now I’m sitting here in my chair, thinking about the weird, depressing things that I’ve gone through today. I feel fine, but wow. Talk about a bummer day. 

I should’ve just started my day at 6. Especially if I was going to take a nap regardless. 

The less time I’m asleep, the less my dreams can come out to bother me. Seems pretty worth it to me.