#my ideas have been lacking recently

[xxlady-lunaxx]

Obanai had a maddening habit of waking up at 2 a.m. every night. There seemed no explanation for this—not even insomnia, given that he could sleep fine… until 2 a.m. Though Obanai appeared to be getting enough sleep every day anyway, it was still a cause of annoyance on Giyuu’s side. Mostly because he was a light sleeper and almost always awoke when Obanai made his nightly departure of the bed and tiptoed out the room. Typically, Giyuu managed to fall back asleep sometime later. But tonight was different. Tonight, he got up, too.

Obanai had left a couple minutes ago and Giyuu searched blindly around for him. He found him in the kitchen a moment later, and waited a beat. Obanai hadn’t realized he was awake, simply watching the microwave as it warmed up a mug with who knows what inside. Instead of trying to scare him, Giyuu padded inside without trying to be quiet. Once he noticed him, Obanai stood up (he’d been leaning against the counter) and looked at him curiously.

“Giyuu…? Did I wake you?” he asked. He moved to stand in front of him, gazing up.

Giyuu shrugged, brushing away the question in favor of patting Obanai’s hair down. “Can’t sleep again?”

“Oh.” Obanai seemed mildly embarrassed. “You’ve noticed?”

“It’s not that hard to tell. You’re usually right up against me when we sleep, so when you leave the absence is noticeable,” Giyuu explained. He planted a reassuring kiss to Obanai’s forehead as the microwave beeped. “What’s that?”

“Nothing. Hot chocolate,” Obanai hummed, retrieving the quite hot cup of chocolate milk, and holding it with both hands. He took a tentative sip, and then another when it was deemed at an alright temperature. “Want some?”

Giyuu shook his head. “It’ll keep me awake.”

“It doesn’t have caffeine, Giyuu.”

“Still.”

Obanai huffed but continued drinking it. “Your loss.”

Not really caring for it, Giyuu just watched him. They stood in silence for a long moment, words not needed just yet. It was dark, given the hour, and Giyuu was tired. He yawned once—and then again—rubbing his eyes.

“How are you not tired?” he asked, peering suspiciously at Obanai. “Are you sure that’s not caffeinated?”

“I’m sure,” Obanai insisted. “If you’re tired, go back to bed.”

“I wanna stay with you.”

But even Giyuu’s wish to remain with Obanai wasn’t enough for his fatigue, and after several attempts to stay upright, he admitted, grudgingly, that he should go to bed. He stayed one more minute, clinging to Obanai’s side and resting his chin on his head until Obanai insisted he went to sleep.

He trudged to the bedroom, sinking into the mattress. His body was quick to melt, his eyes drooping closed. He had barely any time to process anything before he promptly fell asleep.

The bed was mildly cold after both their absences, but, somewhere in Giyuu’s dreamland, he registered a sudden warmth.

Obanai crawled into the bed, slipping into Giyuu’s arms which closed instinctively around him, holding him. He struggled to bring the blankets up, bundling them up under the warmth. Giyuu seemed to relax further into the bed at that, and Obanai gazed at him with a smile playing on his lips. He should stop getting up at night if Giyuu was gonna start following him.

Gently, trying not to create too much disturbance, Obanai’s arms snaked around Giyuu’s torso. He buried himself into the embrace, deliberately steadying his breathing and closing his eyes.

“Goodnight, Giyuu,” he murmured, allowing the light pulls of sleep to tug him under.

[welcometogrouchland]

(ID in alt) I literally said I was gonna post this month's ago and then never had the wherewithal to describe it and so I didn't Lmao (said with pain). But since I'm thinking of opening my commissions I figured I should remind ppl that I. Yknow. Can draw.

Lots of Steph here (I had major art block making all of these and my brain worms for her kept me going) + some sprinkles of stephcass for Cass nation to enjoy!

[doctorwhommm]

we’re so back

[miniscule-meow]

Charlie and Felix: The Way I Am

Masterpost Wordcount: ~2.1k Warnings: Violence, Blood, Injury, Swears First Part | Last Part | Next Part

“My brothers go to Rosehill. Would they know you?”

Felix sits on his couch, staring up at his lofted ceiling mulling over Charlie’s comment. He huffs a sigh and reaches for his computer. The easiest way to figure out who she is would just be to see her last name on the paper they did together. He didn’t care to pay attention before. Honestly, he didn’t think it would be relevant, he just threw his portion of the work into the document and let her figure out the rest. But if her brothers went to school with him… They almost certainly know who he is. The question just becomes who are her brothers?

He opens the project now and finds her name at the top of the page, next to his own. He’s attempting to convince himself that whoever her family is, it couldn’t possibly be that bad.

Charlotte Beauregard.

Well, shit.

…almost two years ago…

Rosehill University is the ultimate training ground for the next generation of Supers, and Felix, against all odds, has found himself amidst the students here. He sits in the cafeteria, hunched over the table in a fruitless attempt to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible. His ranking here is, frankly, quite pathetic. He can only really use his size-changing ability to shift up to ten or fifteen feet tall, this makes his ability one of the worst in the entire school. He knows he can get bigger than that, he’s done it once before, he’s just struggling to get consistent results. For almost a full year now, that's what it's been, "struggling to get consistent results." That’s all.

“Hey Short-stack, I heard the mundanes are really looking forward to utilizing your ability. They need people that can reach those top shelves in grocery stores,” Beckett huffs a cruel laugh as he swipes an apple from Felix’s plate.

“Just ignore him, man,” the super sitting next to him, Jeremey Beauregard, mutters under his breath.

“I’ve been getting better,” Felix grumbles loudly.

This happens far too often, someone, usually Beckett, picking on him for his ability. He shouldn't have to hide in the bathroom to eat. He shouldn't have to cower through the halls, it's bullshit. He thought this kind of drama stopped after high school, he was wrong.

Thankfully, Jeremey has stuck with him the past several months. His ability comes in handy when you're just trying to avoid a fight. The upper level supers love to spar and fight, always challenging one another to secure their place in the hierarchy at the school. Challenges like that are common, healthy, and even encouraged for developing supers. The faculty usually just prefers for challenges to happen in the sanctioned zones, but it doesn't always shake out like that. Honestly, for as many times as Felix has been sent to the infirmary, it seems like the faculty really don't care about most of the finer details.

Supers fight to prove their worth, and according to his current track record, Felix is not worth much. Now, why someone as strong as Beckett feels the need to pester him of all people...? He doesn't really have an answer for that.

“It isn’t worth it,” Jeremey says again with a small shake of his head.

“Improvement is the whole point of coming to—” Felix begins.

“You really think you belong here?” Beckett cuts in. “Really? Even Jeremey has a more exciting ability than you do,” at the mention of his name, Jeremey raises an eyebrow but sticks to his own advice and ignores the insult for the both of them. “You’ve got nothing. You’re nothing. All you’re doing is hurting the reputation of the school by being here.”

Felix stands quickly, his chair scraping back against the floor, “That’s not true.” He raises his chin to look Beckett in the eyes, pretending not to hear Jeremey’s disappointed sigh.

“Do you want to prove it?” Beckett asks in a low taunt, standing a full head taller than Felix, for now. He’s one of the strongest supers in the school. Fighting him would almost certainly mean a trip to the infirmary… again. But Felix can’t help it, this desire to prove himself is too strong. He needs this. He knows his ability can be really cool. He knows it. He just needs it to work for once. He squares his shoulders, staring Beckett down, refusing to back down from his challenge.

The air around them grows still and quiet as the others in the cafeteria can sense the growing tension, heads start turning their way.

“What are you gonna do then? Stand on your tip toes?” Beckett jeers loudly, ready to give a good show, some of the onlookers chuckle. Felix, pushed past his boiling point, throws the first punch. Beckett doges easily, and returns the blow, landing a solid hit right to Felix’s gut. Felix stumbles backwards, Beckett wastes no time advancing, activating his ability as he strides forward. His face set in a smug grin, knowing there’s no way he’ll lose. He flicks his hand, using his ability to send a spray of molten sparks to Felix’s feet. Felix jumps back and is met with more laughter.  “You should really invest in some dance lessons, you’re not very good at this,” He says, tossing more fire to the ground in front of him, just toying with him.

“Come on, do something about it,” Beckett calls, sounding bored. “If you’re going to act like a mundane, maybe you should just transfer to a mundane school.” Beckett says before lunging forward. Felix is barely able to doge his flaming fist. Felix hears the laughter from the crowd. He grits his teeth and shifts, growing taller than Beckett. “Okay, now, have you considered trying out for our basketball team?” With a wave of his hand, he sends another spray of fire out towards Felix. It connects with his arm, brushing up against the bottom of his chin. He winces at the burn and he quickly slaps the flame out as it begins to catch on his sleeve. The growing crowd is getting louder now, laughing at him, mocking him alongside Beckett.

“Shut up!” He shouts, and something breaks inside of him. His blood roars in his ears, his face red from embarrassment, part of his sleeve still smoldering from Beckett’s last attack. Without thinking about it, without trying to force it, he grows. He grows fast, and he grows huge. In an instant, he’s bigger than he’s ever been before. Part of him aches from the rapid growth, but most of him doesn’t care. He doesn’t even think. “Is this what you wanted?” He shouts, dropping to his knees and reaching forward, he slaps Beckett down against the floor with his hand.

The crowd isn’t laughing anymore, they cover their ears to brace against the sound of his voice. He looks down at the super pinned beneath his palm. He looks like a little doll now, but there’s no fear in his eyes.

“Alright,” he grunts, straining under the weight of Felix’s hand, “Now you might be worth fighting.” Beckett’s lip curls into a predatory smile. He activates his full ability, both of his arms igniting to a vibrant inferno from fingertip to shoulder. Felix jolts, jerking his hand away quickly. He knows he just needs to act fast. He gasps against the sharp bite of flame in his hands as he reaches down and swipes Beckett up into the air, he slams him down with enough force to stun him. Then he balls his blistering hand into a fist and strikes down, pounding him into the ground again, and again and again.

Until his fist is blocked. It hits the air above Beckett with a hollow ‘thunk.’ He pauses long enough to see the iridescent glint of a barrier.

Jeremey. His head snaps away from Beckett, searching for his friend.

“He’s had enough, dude,” Jeremey says warily, having backed away from their table.

“You’re defending him?” He asks incredulously.

“You’ve already won! You don’t need to kill him,” Jeremey returns, holding his hands out like he’s trying to calm some kind of wild animal.

“Who’s fucking side are you on? You didn’t use a barrier when he was trying to set me on fire.”

“It’s not about sides, I just—”

“Drop your barrier,” Felix says. Done listening, he's ready to settle this. He turns his gaze back to Beckett, scowling down at him as he starts to push himself up on unsteady limbs.

“No.” Jeremey asserts firmly.

Felix scoffs, He thought they were friends, but it turns out he’s just like the rest of them. Beckett was right, he probably only liked hanging out with Felix so that he could feel better about his own ability. Now that Felix is actually strong, he doesn’t want to help him out anymore? It has to be jealousy.

Felix balls his hand into a fist, and smashes down against Jeremey’s pathetic little barrier. After three hits, he sees Jeremey stumble under the strain of bracing against his attacks, and the barrier begins to splinter. One more punch and the barrier shatters completely, Jeremey drops to a knee, breathing heavily. He tries to throw up another shield, but it flickers weakly.

“Hey. Is there a problem?” A new voice breaks through, giving Felix pause. Marshall Beauregard pushes through the crowd, looking from Beckett and Felix, over to his brother, Jeremey. The commotion building up between the gathered students is stopped instantly. Marshall is considered to be THE top dog at their school right now. Unlike Beckett, he isn’t antagonistic. In fact, he rarely uses his abilities at all. Felix looks him over, a new challenge sparking in his eyes.

“How about we all power down, and maybe just try to talk this one out?” Marshall says calmly.

If he can beat Beckett and Marshall, both in one go, he’d rocket up the ranks at the school. No one would ever say he doesn’t belong here. He’d run this school.   

He knows he can take him.

Felix reaches out to grab him up in a fist, But Marshall is faster. Vines burst from the floor. Wrapping over Felix’s hand, they thread between his fingers and tether him down to the ground. Before he can pull away, the vines layer thicker and thicker over his hand, and up over his wrist. The mass of plants constricts, growing tighter around his hand, solidifying with a thick bark over the top. Felix attempts to pull away, and thorns pierce into his skin. The poison barbs make his veins feel like they’re on fire.

Not like this.

Felix grits his teeth and focuses. Moving quickly, he grows smaller, just enough to give himself some room. He rips his hand free and explodes larger, even larger than before. The vines burst under the strain, sending out a shower of bark. He mauls his hand in the process, but he’s free now. He’s never been able to pull off any sort of dexterous size shifting before now, but he doesn’t have time to be impressed with himself.

Despite his hands burning from both Beckett’s fire and the poisonous thorns, he slaps his palm down on Marshall’s standing form. Once again, Marshall moves with a surprising amount of speed. He encases himself in a sharp cocoon. As Felix slams his hand down, Marshall’s defense pierces fully through the palm of his hand. He cries out as the bud opens into a massive flower, and out steps Marshall, entirely unscathed.

Felix rips the bloom from his hand, unimpaling his hand from the thick stalk. His hand oozes from its gaping wound. If he took the time to observe it, he could peer straight through his hand. He notes that both Marshall and Beckett had really good close range defense, it’s important that he touches them as little as possible when he’s attacking. He can’t take many more injuries if Marshall is going to spear entirely through him like that.

His stomach twists at the sight of the viscera, but the pain only makes his rage burn hotter.

“Do you yield?” Marshall asks simply.

Felix, breathing heavily, squints down at Marshall. He maintains his composure alright, but that was a lot of power he just exerted. He’s used to growing vines, sure. But against Felix, at this size, his plants rival the size of trees. His vines are more like branches. He has to be tired. It's a gamble, but Felix needs this victory. He can't give up.

He allows his shoulders to slump, as if resigning, but as Marshall’s guard drops at his sign of submission, he lashes out again. Feinting in one direction, tossing a cafeteria table his way. Then, acting quickly he reaches out with his other hand, this time he successfully snags him by the leg. Before he has a chance to retaliate, Felix flips his opponent up into the air and flings him down to the ground. The arc of his descent is swift and entirely unforgiving as he crashes into the ground. Marshall's attempt to conjure more vines to break his fall was rendered mostly unsuccessful, he hit the ground hard, certainly much harder than he would have liked. Without allowing him any more time to get his bearings, Felix’s fist comes smashing down after him. Felix watches as he tries to shamble back onto his feet, his vines forming a thorny barricade around him. But his plants are growing much slower than they were at the start. He was right, Marshall is running out of stamina. A wicked grin spreads across Felix’s face. This fight just turned in his favor.

Using his bloodied hand, he rips the vines from the ground, as simple as uprooting some weeds. Tossing them aside, he comes crashing down into Marshall again, grounding him into the floor and shattering the tile beneath him. Again, and again, and again. Until the rage coursing through him burns out, Until Marshall's mangled form is left twitching in a shallow crater.

Until he feels a sharp sting hits the side of his neck, followed by several more near his shoulder.

Felix turns his head sharply, searching for his next opponent. Instead, he sees a group of security officers lowering their weapons. They tranquilized him, he realizes with a start. He feels his limbs rapidly growing heavy. He sits back on his heels, noticing for the first time how silent the cafeteria is. His breathing grows deeper, and his vision becomes hazy. As his eyes sweep across the crowd, no one dares to meet his gaze. His head is swimming now, he wavers, his ability shutting down, taking his whole body with it.

As he shrinks back to normal, feeling his consciousness slip into darkness, his last thought is spent marveling at how he just managed to take down two of the school’s strongest supers, back-to-back.

No one will dare to mess with him, not now, not ever again.

…

Felix closes his laptop, numbly blinking away the memory of what he had previously considered to be one of his most impressive achievements.

She’s definitely never talking to me again.

[sweattyspaghetti]

And I am reminiscing you again. But don’t think I want you back. Not yet anyways. Just let me miss you for a bit before you come back, please.

[deoidesign]

.

[employee052]

me in the day thinking abt tsp: hehe funny british man get mad n pissy, buckets and average man

me at 2am: narry do you ever wonder if my worries of designing you in an original way are, in a sense, dramatic irony when considering the fact that its very much related to the topics of ultra deluxe, where both of us got stuck in the cycle of feeling anxious over changing ourselves for the sake of pleasing others and of fear of driving them away, only to realise that in giving external reviews of our art power and desperately trying to appeal to all of them do we end up losing the original joy of the art? do you think its fucked up how through this experience, ive ended up with a skip button ending of my own where ive been forcing myself to make the content i think others would love instead of the ones i love personally. would a redesign even feel fitting? should i forgo the whole originality aspect and just let you be yourself, like how i should let myself make the art i want to make, and let you speak and be heard rather than skipped over?

the narrator, tired: For fucks sake, go tO BED-

[opens-up-4-nobody]

...

[notthestarwar]

i hope that you guys know that when i talk about love i'm not talking about romance. i'm talking about a thing that goes beyond the boundaries of 'romantic' or 'familial' or 'platonic'. it's the thing that lives inside of all of us, thats inate in all human beings. its not about your relationship to that person. its about finding a thing, or a animal or a person, and feeling something ancient for them, in spite of your relationship. when people talk about romantic love they often arent actually talking about love. its a copy of a copy.

theres something inside all of us, that in the right circumstances will have you do the impossible to try and save someone, or even just to show them a bit of kindness when you know they cant be saved. you dont need to share blood for that to come in to being, you dont need to be attracted to them, you dont even need to like them. sometimes, something happens to bring it out in you and then its just there. you want the best for them (even if you might not know what that is) and you are suddenly willing to go beyond the limits of what it means to be human to make that happen.

most of the time the circumstances of the moment dont require any supernatural feat. but if they did, you might just try. its not a conscious thing. you just would. because the moment you love someone, be they a stranger on a bus, family, your partner, your friend, or just an acquaintance of circumstance; you're unconciously reminded that to love is to BE human. we live in order to love. you'd do the impossible, because you'd do anything to keep that love alive, because if not, why are you living? why have you survived up until that point and what is the point of continuing to do so.

[musical-chick-13]

Fuck it, weird-yet-galaxy-brain take is that Love Is War is rom-com Death Note, but not in regard to the ship that everyone thinks, and what I mean by this is that Kaguya and Miyuki are NOT the lighthearted lower-stakes rom-com version of Light and L, they're the lighthearted lower-stakes rom-com version of Near and Mello.

[fruitsyrups]

im contractually obligated every few months to say "I want to make a comic". and then not make a comic. the contract is with my brain and with suffering and unfulfilled hopes and dreams and goals and expectations

[spearxwind]

im probably gonna add a bunch of different factions to CD honestly. maybe even an empire or something?

more thots:

initially i wanted it to be a very nature/wilderness oriented world and i STILL want it to be that way so i can focus on exploration and such but at the end of the day any world with a society will make groups and will have ideals and i think itd be neat to have different factions with conflicting ideas pull at the strings of the story

currently the biggest (and pretty much only) faction is the hunters guild, which I took from monster hunter as inspo, where one organization is tasked with learning about and helping the ecosystem. I do rly like this idea and i wanna keep the whole 'respecting the environment' angle as opposed to having everything be a stripmine for resources like in other media, but after considering it for a while i think its naive to think something like that would be as global as i originally thought it would be

and it brought up a logistics problem with the message I wanted to convey, which is that if you dont respect the ocean you will Get Got. But the hunters (admittedly most of the ones getting killed in my lore) are probably THE most respectful ones so its kinda weird to have them be on the receiving end of violence always

Idk exactly how i want to move this idea, but there will def be like. different hunter guilds at least. the more respectful ones, and the for profit ones. and everyone shady who surrounds them

and the reason why i was considering an empire as well was because while im not interested in writing overarching plots about conquest and how territories evolve over time i do think its an interesting foil to have in an otherwise really nature oriented setting that also serves as the big bad guy everyone hates

and i think theyre narratively fun as well (where are they getting all the people and resources? wouldnt you like to know weatherboy)

[deus-ex-mona]

after over 2 years… i can finally see him…

[trlvsn]

coming out as an eastern european who only knows the very weird way of writing direct speech in their mother tongue and is struggling so so hard right now

[nymphialamode]

Wouldn't it be messed up if there was a universe where we hated each other?

I think you're getting too invested in these hypothetical scenarios.

Well, yeah, but like, think about it!

No, I will not.

[sammypog]

i am THIS CLOSE to deleting all my social media apps at least temporarily it’s shit for my mental health and i know it