#my initial draft had no mention of the name and was smalled but then I decided to elaborate

[10underoot2]

I have a headcanon of BaekHong being this power couple even as they raise their daughter.

They're very hands on. The nanny, Mrs.Jang, is always available but she feels like it's the easiest gig she ever got. She's seen other rich families just birthing the child and giving it to the nanny to look after. They only feed or play with it when convenient but not Mr. Baek and Mrs.Baek. Soobin is the light of their existance. They both wouldn't be at peace until they saw her once back from work. Mrs.Baek would only go for a few hours, most of the time taking Soobin and the nanny with her. She never would have believed someone like Ms.Hong would find a way to conduct her meetings but still cradle her inconsolable child in her office. She had never imagined Mr. Baek would play with her in his office plain for all to see. She also hadn't imagined either of the parents' amusement when the 6 month old puked on designer bags and clothes. She had seen children resented and glared at for that. But not this rich couple. They loved their child like their life depended on it. Even when tired, overworked, frustrated they made time for their daughter always. Mrs.Jang often felt like the last resort. Moments when even she could see that the strain of work and life could no longer render them available to care for their child she took over for them. But even then these moments were scarce. She had heard months into her employment that the couple was actually against hiring her but had only agreed due to incessant requests of the child's maternal grandmother.

So when she was informed that the couple was throwing a big networking party for the Queens department store, she was sure this was her moment to shine. Because what rich couple feeds, changes, plays or cares about their child in the presence of 400+ highly influential people. Even if they both wanted to they wouldn't find the time.

But come day of the event, Haein was all dolled up looking magnificent beside Mr. Baek as they both laughed and dressed up their 6 month old baby. During the party, Soobin went from welcoming guests in her Armani clad suit father's arms. To discussing complex legal matters and networking with him still viewing the world from the high vantage point her father's height afforded her. Smiles representative of only pure joy, adored Hyunwoo and Hae-in's face each time they talked, interacted or received a smile from Baby Soobin.

At long last Soobin urged her father to put her to sleep in his arms where he kept her for half an hour before parting with her achingly in Mrs.Jang's care. When she woke up hours later fussing, he was there before the nanny could try to appease her. She had seen him excuse himself as soon as politely possible as Soobin continued to cry. He stood there, fully dressed trying to appease her a while before he went to his wife who was deep in conversation trying to recruit brands for her store. Mrs. Jang knew it was an important event for Mrs. Baek, so she expects not to see her all night near Soobin. From what she had heard (but never seen) about the couple's rocky relationship she thought this would be it. She would now see them fight as he dared approach her during such important talks.

But for Haein, seeing her husband walk towards her with their adorable daughter in his hands was a sight in and of itself. Her eyes were already on them. Hyunwoo politely greets everyone and leans in close to her to say: 'I've tried everything I could. I think she needs you.' She pauses her conversation on the spot. Says her apologies and moves inside to care for her daughter. Hyunwoo takes up the conversation and sells the store for her until she comes back with a happy Soobin in her arms for the crowd to coo at. Among the many photos the photographer had taken of the night their favourite remains of Soobin absolutely overjoyed to see her father as her mother mirrors both of their joy at being able to witness the moment.

Little do the happy family know there's gossip - and a lot of it at that. There's gossip on the mighty lawyer Hyunwoo being a wuss who's not in control of the house. On Hyunwoo not doing his part as a father 'So what if he has a pretty face, he should be slaving away taking care of his daughter why give her to the mother when things get difficult?' On Haein for being duped by his charms. On Haein for holding the baby wrong. For growing soft, for being dumb enough to ignore big shot CEOs because a human with a brain not even fully developed was crying.

No one sees the couple take respite in caring for their adorable daughter. Even when Soobin cries the shrillest, it makes Hyun woo just pick up another toy and Haein make the funniest face she can think of to appease her. They know the pain of the loss of a child. They cannot fathom not doing everything in their power to love this gift of theirs. No matter what she does she has both of them wrapped around her fingers. Because they're the luckiest to have her and call themselves her parents. It feels like a miracle each day and they'd be damned if they let a stupid department store take that away from them. So what if they lost a contract or two, the extra wons wouldn't fill up their candy jar. After all, all the money they had couldn't bring back their baby either.

[i2sunric]

HAPPY VALENTINE’S, BABY (l.hs)

PAIRING: heeseung x reader (f)

SUMMARY: you decide to get your nails done for valentine’s day, fully expecting they’d be wrapped around heeseung by the time you got home.

WARNING: smut, blow job, established relationship, mentions of creampie and sex, hand job, dirty talking, pet names (baby), meandom!heeseung, lmk if more. NOT PROOFREAD.

WC: 1.1k

PUBLISHED: February 4th 2025

TAGLIST: @stolasisyourparent @jaeyunsbimbo @jwnghyuns @bangtancultsposts @shawnyle @jooniesbears-blog @skzenhalove @ro-diaries @onlyhyunjin @xcosmi @strawberrhypen @heeheeswifey @jakeflvrz @astratlantis @tunafishyfishylike @branchrkive @insommni4 @kirinaa08 @leiclerc @nxzz-skz @laurradoesloveu @beomluvrr @heeshlove @17ericas @riribelle @cloud-lyy @who-tf-soddhi @enhamonsterghoul

a/n: well, sorry for disappearing, but i’m into writing again nowadays and might publish small drafts i was able to finish! let me know if you liked it, and please REBLOG & SHARE!

You'd spent the afternoon in the nail salon, finding just the right shade of red-deep, sultry, the color of wine and desire. The little black "H" painted onto the ring finger of your left hand was inconspicuous, but meant the world. A little mark of him, a reminder that no matter what, you were his.

Heeseung was already home when you arrived, sprawled across the couch and scrolling through his phone. At first, he barely looked up, greeting you with a soft, lazy, "Hey, baby."

But then you moved closer, holding out your hands for him to see, “Got my nails done for Valentine's," you said matter-of-factly, watching as his expression changes.

His eyes landed on your fingers, his brow arched a little as he took in the color, the ribbons you had attached, then— his initial.

The phone fell onto his lap as he reached out and tugged you closer into him. The pad of his thumb brushed over the small "H," and his jaw slightly clenched.

"You did this for me?" His voice was lower now, the playful tone replaced with something darker, something more possessive that never failed to make heat pool at your stomach.

You smiled, all fake oblivious "Of course. Who else would it be for?"

Heeseung’s lips curled into a smirk, but his grip on your wrist tightened. His eyes flicked up to yours, dark and full of intent. "You know what I’m thinking, right?"

You did. Oh, you did.

He pulled you onto his lap, guiding your newly manicured fingers to brush against the bulge in his sweats. Even through the fabric, you could feel how hard he was getting just from the thought alone.

"Fuck," he muttered, his head tipping back for a moment before snapping back to you. "You knew what you were doing getting these, didn't you?"

You tipped your head, innocently . "What do you mean?"

Heeseung let out a low, amused chuckle, but there was nothing light in the way he reached out, grasping at your chin and making you face him.

"You wanted me to see these and think about them wrapped around my cock, mh?" His thumb traced your lower lip, pressing in just enough to make your breath hitch. "Wanted me to lose my mind over you?" He then pressed in between your lips, making you suck on it.

Your stomach had contracted at his words, the heat pooling between your legs. You loved how he was like this— when teasing turned to something more, more intense and overwhelming.

"You're staring really hard, Hee," you whispered, letting your fingers trace up his chest, your touch light and teasing. "You wanna test them out?"

He exhaled sharply through his nostrils, the hold on your waist tightening as he shifted beneath you. "Get on your knees, baby."

The order ran a shiver down your spine, but you listened, falling off his lap and onto the floor between his legs.

He leaned back, hips rising enough to tug his sweats down and free his cock. Already hard, the tip glistened with precum, and the sight alone had your mouth watering.

"Show me what those pretty nails can do," he murmured, voice thick with desire. You wrapped your fingers around him, moving slow at first, letting him feel the cool polish against his hot skin. His breath hitched and his jaw clenched as he watched your every move.

"Fuck, that's so hot," he groaned, his hand tangling in your hair. "You have no idea how much I love this, baby."

You smirked, leaning in to press a teasing kiss to his tip before flicking your tongue against it, savoring the way his grip tightened, his thighs tensing beneath you.

"Happy Valentine's, Heeseung," you whispered before taking him into your mouth, giving him exactly what he wanted.

The groan that tore from Heeseung's throat was guttural, deep, like he'd been waiting for it all day. His hand in your hair fisted tighter, but he didn't push, didn't hurry you. He wanted to enjoy it.

"Fuck, baby," he muttered, voice already breathless as you took more of him in, your freshly manicured fingers stroking what your mouth couldn't reach. The cool gloss of the polish against his heated skin had him twitching in your grasp, his thighs tensing beneath you. "I’m gonna ruin you.”

You hummed around him, making him curse under his breath. His head tipped back against the couch as his chest rose and fell unsteadily with your movements in slow, measured tempo, allowing your tongue to swirl around the tip before sinking back down.

His free hand was clutched on the edge of the couch, his knuckles white. "God, you're so good at this," he groaned, looking down at you with dark, hooded eyes. "Look at you— fuck, you love this, don't you?

You met his gaze, your eyes wide and innocent as you hollowed your cheeks, taking him deeper. His grip on your hair tightened; his hips jerked up just slightly, just enough to make you gag. But you didn't pull away.

The wet sounds filling the room were sinful, your hands moving in sync with your mouth, twisting around his length with practiced ease. Heeseung was falling apart beneath you, his breathing ragged, his jaw clenched so tightly you could see the muscle ticking.

“Shit, baby,” he panted, his head tipping back for a second before he forced his gaze to go back to you, dark with something almost feral. “You’re gonna make me come so fucking fast.”

You smirked around him, moving faster, your nails gliding against his sensitive skin in just the right way. His hips stuttered, his body going tense as he let out a strangled groan.

Then, he pulled you off him as his hand tugged at your chin, making you look up.

"Not yet," he huffed out huskily; his thumb made a swipe of your swollen lips. "I wanna come inside you.

You barely had time to react before he pulled you up onto his lap, his hands grasping your waist, his lips crashing against yours in a bruising, hungry kiss.

“Ah, you're in for it now, baby,” he whispered against your lips, hands sliding under your dress. “Gonna fuck you so good you'll be needing a whole new set of nails by tomorrow..”

And from the way he manhandled you onto the couch, you knew he meant every word.

[speirslore]

band of brothers officers: dating hcs

a/n: hello! this is my first post but ive been lurking in the bob fandom for a while & i'm soooo excited to finally join... i have a bunch of other ideas and drafts i want to post soon :) this includes the officers: winters, nixon, speirs, lipton, + buck, please lmk if anyone would be interested in more of the boys! i made it vague but the reader is implied to be a part of easy company in some capacity

[dick winters]

he is a very private person and shy... like his ears go bright red at the mere mention of your name which easy company takes full advantage of

you think it's incredibly sweet

it takes a while for him to have confidence when interacting with you in the beginning... he feels inexperienced and that you couldn’t possibly be interested in him

it's a slow burn for sureee

like men getting out of the hospital that come back to the company are immediately like "so are they finally together??"

there are bets on when and where it will finally happen

luz's theory is one of you has to confess when you all jump into berlin at the end of the war... the perfect hollywood ending

it ofc doesn't happen like that; it's a slow process of building trust, it's a mix of quality time and acts of service

the quality time can be hard to come by during the war but dick is determined to check in with you: small, reassuring smiles and touches, finding each other in crowded rooms

it's very private, he doesn't want to jeopardize either of your careers or reputations, but ofc lew knows the details (but the entire company basically knows?)

and lew is good at keeping secrets.. he's the intelligence officer ofc (as he constantly reminds the two of you)

a lot of wrapping his arms around you pulling your back to his chest, resting his chin on your head or shoulder

maybe even a quick smooch

kisses as rewards for him finishing all the action reports he has to do

omg then in austria... things definitely change... and it's easier to label what you have.. dick can finally relax (to some extent), and it starts to feel like more of a normal relationship

all the men are so happy for you like he's had 20+ wingmen this entire time <3

[lewis nixon]

another one that i think is definitely slow burn... but once he finds out he's getting divorced...

even before that, lew's humor always made you feel more comfortable and at ease

he has always gravitated towards you

definitely gets clingy

lovessss sleeping with you like insists that sleep is extremely important for a solider and he sleeps sooo well with you

it's literally impossible to escape his arms when you're sleeping... leg thrown over you, arms wrapped around you

the most comfortable you've ever been fr

the ungodly amount of sexual tension before you get together... oh god.. one time the officers are all playing poker; welsh and lipton just look at each other when lew's leg kicks yours under the table or you lean against his shoulder

like oh god... not again... they're telepathically planning their escape

all the tension, stares, touches, long talks you've had reach a boiling point as lew becomes more jaded by the war and he finds out abt the divorce

you instinctively want to take care of him and you're definitely worried about him... you have a lot of convos with dick trying to figure out the best way to approach and help lew

words of affirmation are very important to him... i think his initial instinct is gift giving but that's difficult with the war.. and he doesn't feel connected to that, it's just what he's always known

if he gets too drunk, you stay up monitoring him and you really don't mind and just knowing you're there for him makes him v emotional:

like you make him feel like there's hope and a future after the war... and he's been thinking that for a long time but finally says it laying on your chest with your hand running through his hair

you help him shave which eventually ends in making out (a lot of things you guys do devolve into that)

he's your poor little meow meow but in the best possible way

[ron speirs]

ngl the attraction was strong from the start and it didn't take long for you to fall for him... by england before your first drop you both already fell hard

everyone is in disbelief that the rumor is it's YOU that he's seeing

everyone thinks you're a total angel and then... speirs.. it's just tht absolutely none of the men can imagine him being soft or romantic

wants you all to himself... is very good about making free time to be with you

unintentionally hovers

and very subconsciously touchy

has to fight himself from grabbing your hand instinctively

like he can know where your platoon is, where you're dug in but still will make rounds just to have peace of mind and know you're okay

just like all the other rumors, ron doesn't really care about clarifying his relationship with you

oh but if he ever heard a man talking disparagingly about you... just one silent stare and the soldier wouldn't even look at you again

omg def the type to carry around a collection pictures.... those are his prized possessions fr

like a pocket in his uniform just full of very pretty (and private) pictures <3

there's a few wholesome ones too.. like when the two of you had a 48 hour pass to scotland... but others (most of them) not so much

and ofc if you ever need anything... like you need a new watch? he has one for you in a few hours

he truly does love gift giving...

i also think physical touch is a huge love language for him

+ i think like pillow talk, just late night talking with you letting him rant and get everything off of his mind is so cathartic for him

and he really appreciates feeling like you understand him and you want and are willing to listen

[carwood lipton]

definitely the wholesome mom and dad couple

usually, most definitely, attached at the hip

always has a hand on the small of your back, or shoulder, arm, etc, he likes the reassurance of small touches and knowing definitively that you're next to him

i have a very self indulgent headcanon that he likes whenever you kiss and thumb over the scar on his cheek <3 makes him feel less self conscious

okay so lip takes care of everyone else but who's taking care of him?!

guys will come to you bc they know carwood will listen to you if you're the one who tells him he has to rest and take it easy

omg.. and if you're married... he's always twisting and playing with his ring just to remind him of you

has multiple letters from you stuffed in one of his uniform's pocket

he has all of the words memorized by now but just physically holding them is so comforting

quality time and acts of service are HUGE for him

and alone time can be so hard to come by... but anything he can do to make your job and tasks easier... he will do

and vice versa ofc

everyone else watching like wow .. relationship goals fr

anytime he leaves and you're split up for a few days... you always have a dramatic reunion jumping into his arms

a lot of fantasizing about your future together... because it feels so close.. but also so far away

[buck compton]

fraternization rules?? what rules?

has absolutely no shame to be at the bar playing darts, hands all over your waist

and showing you off, dancinggg

just feeling a little silly and goofy... making out at the bar

and everyone is hyping you up

i think at the beginning of the war, your relationship is newer and fun... neither of you are really thinking about something serious

i think physical touch and words of affirmation are huge for him

as the war progresses, the thought and fear of losing you grows, especially after he saw so many of his men suffer/die

and he realizes how much he cares about you...

you comfort him after bastogne... a lot and even though it can be extremely melancholy, hearing you talking about your life pre war, and your life together in the future keeps him going

insisting to him that he'll have to show you california and ucla

writing to him constantly after he's taken off the line.. giving him updates on all the men

in austria, when he returns, watching him play baseball with the boys feels absolutely perfect

[effiecalvin]

Hi everyone, I just wanted to give an update on where I'm at on the reprint and everything. This is gonna cover a couple different things.

So, my original plan last year was to release book 7 on patreon in the same way that I released book 6, but taking my rights back from NSP threw all my plans into complete chaos. While I still don't regret it (I feel better than I have in a long time, honestly), my plan to republish the entire series in 2025 turned out to be a little too ambitious. I really wanted them back online so quickly that most people wouldn't even have time to notice they were gone. But when I sat down with TQOI for the first time in years, I realized just how many problems my publisher had missed and how much better it could be if I had an editor who actually cared about the story.

At first I was sort of resistant to this because

It would slow down my release schedule significantly

Professional editors are expensive

I didn't believe I would be able to find a professional editor who cared about my work

Luckily, I managed to find an editor who not only is already familiar with the books, but has agreed on a payment plan that will take a huge burden off me. I had talked a little bit about crowdfunding to cover costs, but I felt so guilty doing that when people have already been supporting me on patreon.

I think the reason why I initially thought I'd be able to rerelease the series all in the same year was because I was thinking about them as a series. Like, releasing ONE series instead of SIX books. Yeah. I don't know. That sounds dumb. I don't know why my brain did that.

So, where I'm at right now is we're looking at Winter 2025 for a release of TQOI. I know that's way later than any of us wanted, but TQOI was the weakest book in the series by a long shot and it needs significantly more edits than the later books. I'm hoping the release pace for the rest of the series will be much faster once we're past it. At the same time, I'm really excited about all the changes I'm making. It's going to have more chapters, more scenes, and more character development, and I hope it will just be a superior story overall. No major worldbuilding elements are going to change, it's just a lot of small details that I think will add up in the end. I did joke about giving everyone normal names, but I think it wouldn't quite feel like Inthya anymore if I did that.

I've also contacted Brenda Scott Wlazlo, who read the audiobooks, and she's agreed to read the revised versions! I know so many people love Brenda's voice, and so I was thrilled when I was able to bring her back in. I'm really hoping we can get the book and audiobook out at the same time, but there might be a slight delay simply because she can't start on the audio until the final draft of the book is finished.

As far as Patreon goes, I want to get back into giving it the attention it deserves. Like I mentioned above, I was originally planning to release book 7 on there, but I'm not sure that's a good idea while the series is out of print and Princess of Domeysil is unedited and certain elements of the continuity are in flux. So, what I'm thinking is once I've got a little more breathing room (I'm drowning in TQOI right now), I'm going to start on a novella about either Lexandrie and Svana or Lisette and The Courier Who Definitely Has A Name I Promise and release those on Patreon instead. I'm leaning towards Lisette because 1. I want to show more stuff about Courier Culture and 2. that seems to be what people want most, but I'd like to write both and maybe release them as a combo book or something.

I'm also thinking about trying to run a Discord server for Patreon supporters again. I did try one a long time ago in the past but it didn't quite work out for a couple reasons. I think I'm in a better place mentally now and, most importantly, I know how to stand up for myself against people who push my boundaries and make me feel afraid. I'm not going to promise that a sever will definitely 100% happen, but it's something I find myself thinking about a lot.

Okay, I think that's everything for now. Thank you so much for sticking with me when I've been so quiet.

EDIT: Another thing to add is I'm not sure if I want to release book 7 on Patreon. Book 6 as it is now is basically an unedited rough draft, and that's a little embarrassing for me, especially since I'm afraid of it leaking to piracy sites and people thinking it's the final version. I think it might be better to write book 7 in private while releasing novella chapters on Patreon instead.

[quibbs126]

if you havent yet, could you do an almond x latte fankid? i love that ship a lot :)

Here we are, this is Almond Milk Cookie

Funny enough, I was actually trying to go back and find this post after editing something, only to realize I never actually posted it and left it in drafts. Only for one day, but still

Anyways, so on to him

So Almond Milk here is a healer, using almost exclusively milk magic. He started out in Parfaedia, and spent a good portion of time there, until he switched over to the Vanilla Kingdom to learn healing magic, where he now works as a doctor

He’s a very friendly and kind sort, and he’s very dependable. Also, despite what some may think from his profession, he’s quite physically strong as well

However he is self conscious about not being made of “real milk”, instead being made from almonds, and he wonders if his false ingredient hinders his healing abilities. His mother has told him that whether or not his ingredient really counts as “real milk” doesn’t matter, but it’s never been something he’s able to let go. He doesn’t really make it that known anymore though, preferring to keep it to himself

Now on to design things

So I’ve had the name Almond Milk as an almondlatte kid idea for a good while now. Lattes are made of coffee and milk, and there exists a form of milk made of almonds, so it’s the obvious choice

Almond milk:

I made the initial rough sketch some months ago, so I don’t entirely remember the thought process behind it. But it looks nice, and like Latte’s but with one of Almond’s hair colors

I’m not sure why I gave him a thicker body type, but whatever, he has one. It’s not like I’m that good at drawing super skinny Cookies anyways

His outfit was originally going to be more hospital like, and probably somewhat closer to Butter Roll’s, until I decided that maybe I should make it more fantasy looking. Especially with all of my Almond kids generally having more modern looks to them, or at least in the way that Almond is “modern”, I don’t know the right word

The small cloak thing was a bit of a struggle, especially with his smile, but I eventually got something

In the sketch I gave his almond brooch something around it that looked nice, but I wasn’t really sure what it was going into the lineart, so I made it leaves. They probably shouldn’t have lines and should instead be solid green, but whatever

I gave him that spoon last minute in the sketch, since I remembered that as I said prior, I tend to not give my fankids accessories or tools anymore, and I wanted to rectify that. Unfortunately his pose didn’t really lend me well to putting it in his hands, so it’s just slapped on to the back. I’m also noticing now that the spoon itself it too small, at least on the bowl thing. But it’d be a big hassle to try and fix it, so I guess I’m stuck with it annoying the crap out of it

Oh yeah, so as mentioned earlier, I came to edit something in his design, that being his colors. Originally he looked like this

I liked the blue, and it does give him a color scheme unique from his parents, but my big problem was that the colors reminded me of Marcille from Dungeon Meshi. I don’t know if the outfit is exactly like hers, but it was bugging me, so I changed it. I think overall I like the new color scheme better, but I just wanted to mention the old one

I’m actually quite satisfied with how he turned out. Though granted I did have ideas going in about what to do with him, so that probably helped

Anyways, so that’s Almond Milk. I hope you like him

[nostalgink]

Due to some past trauma from previous fandoms, I'm not particularly one to engage in fandom related discourse anymore, but when you not only name-drop me, but continue to perpetuate lies about not only me, but also my friends.... that's when I'd rather "clear my name" than allow for a nasty rumor to circulate when I know it's out there.

I want to go through everything that went down in order as best as possible. Even though I’ve spent so much time on this receipt post, truly this issue was something very small, the root of the issue lies with CookieRuby herself, given she decided to continue to create and perpetuate lies and rumors about myself and others. I know she will most likely continue to make up whatever she wants to have happened to obtain pity from those who do not know the context, but I thought that if she was going to do so regardless, I might as well let everyone know mine and my friends’ side of things. Because sadly I got some very worried and confused messages wondering if the statements were truthful. Hopefully this reassures most that they are in fact not.

I also would like to say while I am deeply upset that someone would lie about me like this and continue to emotionally manipulate, then double down on it all… I still do want to say that if you know people who act as such to please help them get the help they need. The timeline of this basically showcases us interacting at 3 points ever, but its obvious in her own obsessive world she has created, it has been brewing with her much longer. Which all of this is genuinely concerning and I hope she gets help. Despite my anger.

In the beginning

I believe I knew about them prior to them joining the old Darkwing Duck RP server I used to be active in back in 2022. If you know me, I follow practically every artist in the fandom. Especially as the fandom loses traction and there are less and less of us actively creating works. So naturally I followed. I even found her oc interesting. I mean why wouldn’t I? Magentus, while more of an oc now than he was in the past, at the end of the day still is my sona so to speak. I love seeing others put themselves into their own work in their own ways. Unfortunately once I got to know them, their attitude towards others when it came to their oc soured my interest.

In a lot of her posts, she makes claims towards my friends and I (as well as I suppose vague unknown other “harrassers” prior to us. I only put it in air quotes because the amount of lying she does, ironic I know, makes me question the validity of anything she says.) that we actively hated and made fun of her for disliking Drakepad. As you can see in the screenshots provided, that is exactly the oppposite.

I also want to mention the screenshots here are an anonymous friend’s server that I used to be active in. In the screenshots provided by Soy, it refers to their old server. Though I believe there is a point in our screenshots where one is referenced in another. (I am currently not looking at them, so I can recall which is referenced in which.) I wanted to make sure there was no confusion with that. These were provided to me by Drake. I could not find them on my own. This was her asking about playing her oc initally. and some stuff I didn't screenshot previously I think?

On Soy’s Side of things

Initially I had another draft of this whole rant, but because of these screenshots I got so peeved that I spiraled into a mad disorganized rage due to the ridiculousness of all of this. So I thought it would be best to rework my words into a more composed response. Personally I had read the first set of messages after they had happened, but when it comes to the discord screenshots, these were new to me. We were all suspicious of her potentially using an alt account on tumblr to ask as a “friend”. Because while I cannot say the same for my friends, I had online friends when I was young who pulled very similar stunts to continue to emotionally manipulate me into remaining their friend and under their thumb. I do not fuck with that sort of behavior anymore. And to note from Soy they said that they had joined their old dead DWD server and immediately dmed them. The obsessive manner of her continuing whatever game she thinks this is is a genuine concern and big alarm sounding that she needs to talk to someone. She is older than me, but I have already dealt with extremely similar people in my preteens, so it’s sad to see someone being so immature like this. (I hit the 30 post limit so the screenshots will be in the reblogs for anything missing)

responses to tumblr posts

Starting with the post that finally prompted this response, I want to cover my personal opinion of each thing mentioned. Unfortunately as you will see, I do not have proof for my own ponytown run in personally, but if you read all of the messages provided, you can probably tell who’s more truthful considering it’s a 1-0 with me having evidence and her none. You’ll notice she remains vague when she can, which is most of the time.

First we need to all heavily note that this was a supposed dream. She is her character Hannah in her dream, alongside Drake. Soy, an anon, and myself appear as “hooded people” in her dream and do an incantation on her in order to curse her to not be with Drake. I suppose this causes a curse that forces Drakepad to be real in her dream? Then we say quotes she is claiming we said. I will get to that in a moment. This is a summary so that if she deletes the post linked, you still have me explaining it. (I wrote this last night, unfortunately as of right now while I was acquiring links she did in fact delete the post. Likely because of my warning post from the other day. So she is stalking my account still.) Then her own oddly crafted happy ending where the spell is broken and she gets her ending of support.

Now I’ll cover the “quotes”

“Drakepad is the only true ship”

You will here her claim people saying this to her often. In reference to my friends, such claims have been proven false. We supported her opinion despite our own. Even comforting her and letting her know its awful for anyone to try and pressure her over such a simple difference in taste. Also adding the fact we supported her oc x canon even though she could not RP it in the old server.

“Darkwing DENIED YOU” with her claiming it is something I said to her in Ponytown.

I will go more in depth in exactly what I said in ponytown further down, but I never once said this. She insisted that my opinion was that her oc x canon was not valid. I was Negaduck in game, then I specifically swapped to my Magentus pony and stated how hypocritical it would be for me to say such a thing. Then proceeded to let her know, though I was annoyed, that it’s alright for her to not ship something she does not like, but continuing to bring up that you hate a ship to people you know don’t mind it or even ship it themselves is rude. Then she proceeded to do something I can only describe as something I am seasoned to as the son of an emotionally inmature mother. Again I will elaborate in the ponytown section.

“She gaved me PTSD by her DrakePad hate. And with her tumblr post who HURTED my friends saying we “FORCED” Drakepad on our server she lied.” Which was aparently what Soy said.

I cannot speak to how soy feels completely on this, but I know they did not develop post traumatic stress disorder from this. Nor have they said this quote if you could not guess. I believe the friend was the one in the screenshots between them and soy on discord I shared above. Again, I do not trust that these are her actual friends. This is not to say she couldn’t potentially have friends who agree with her, I just don’t trust her truthfulness especially with said discord dms. But you as the reader can make your own opinion on that. From what I was told by Soy, they joined (I believe after they realized they couldn’t do oc x canon with our Darkwing in the old server, which was his choice to make.) and asked if they could do darkwing x hannah. Soy and others kindly let her know that they were working on a drakepad relationship, but saw no problem in doing dw x lp x hannah. She accepted I think? But regardless then returned to our server to both brag about how someone finally let her, but soon ranted about how uncomfortable poly stuff made them. Some of this is word of mouth, but you can see other parts referenced back above.

“You deserve no friends.” by an anon

Again, I question the validity of this claim, but assuming someone actually said this to her this is horrible to say to someone. Back in 2020 I dealt with prosh*ppers in a problematic fandom harrasing me because I outwardly was against their adult x minor ship. Unfortunately if you know what fandom I mean. (keep guesses to yourself, I don’t want to bring it up in public.) You know it’s very popular unfortunately. I was sent death threats and people telling me how unworthy of friends, love, or anything they could throw at me. I would never say this to another nor condone saying this to another. Even if CookieRuby is in the wrong here. Everyone deserves the chance to have friends and flourish as a person. I’m angry but I’d never wish such a thing. And while I’m at it I would like to suggest to you as the reader that if you are considering doing such a thing don’t. Block her, move on. It’s not worth it. I’m only here right now to give context, then I’m done. I do not want anyone going after her. I’m just here to show my receipts, not to harrass her. I’d just prove her point if I did that. I’m not that sort of person.

And I was shown her speaking about her inferiority complex. I do not have one, so I cannot speak to how true this is, but considering this was March 2023...it seems despite her admitting this, she has obviously continued to lie about people. So I don’t know if she has that complex, but she is a chronic liar at the very least so there’s that I guess.

Ponytown run ins

The provided screenshots below are from before what I’ll be describing to you. I had to re-listen to a voice note I sent after this. It’s all I have besides the discord message of me realizing it was her. I do not want to attach it just because I keep my voice to myself most times. I’m shy gang.

Starting off I was just finishing my Magentus pony. For a while they had a color palette I had just chose myself without reference and I was finally giving them their reference colors. I was returning to the darkwing rock circle I was hoping to start a darkwing pony hangout at, when I saw a Darkwing pony approach. Now, I don’t know if this was coincidence of perhaps she knows about the hangout from my story. Considering she has alts, she probably was checking my story, but that is speculation. I immediately am eager to friend them because of their pony. But of course the first words from her are “why do you have me blocked?” my mood immediately changes as it hit me that someone had told me prior she had an account. Likely due to the incident in the other ponytown screenshots. I ask to confirm if it’s her and she says yes.

So I simply put that she cause discomfort to my friends and I and that I use the block liberally. During this I am scrambling to try and block her on ponytown too, but unfortunately my block list is too full because I have been blocking Dream SMP ponies left and right. So I decide maybe here is where I can put my foot down on things. I also mentioned a side thing about how the old server I was in had a policy about posting over people, but she seemed to focus on this more. (I do not recall if this was enforced at the time, but still it was focused on way more than the main issue I was bringing up.) I mentioned how she’d post over others. I told her that it wasn’t my main point and to forget that and move onto the main issue. I explain to her as adult as I can back to her Drakepad issue that “You were being rude to people because you could get your ship. We tried to be nice and I just blocked you because I didn’t want to deal with that [anymore].” and the only thing she got from that was me saying “rude” I suppose so she responded saying “oh so I’m the toxic one?” and boy have I heard this one get pulled on me before. It’s giving emotional manipulation. I calmly reply “That is not what I said.” I said something else that I couldn’t recall, though likely just me restating what happened, then she said “well I guess I’m sorry-” I was on a call at this time with my boyfriend while he was on break as this went down, so I began speaking to him irl. I guess I did not respond to her in time because she continued with the classic backhanded comment of “Since everyone wants me to apologize anyway” or something to that effect. It was in that way that someone who does this wants you to just accept the apology even though it was not a meaningful one. She does not have to apologize, no one is making her, but that was her attitude about it. I thought I’d just end it off there with a joke to myself so I didn’t lose it. I went “I have a mother, I can be emotionally manipulated at home, I don’t need this game from you. Bye.” and logged off. Honestly there is when it actually got personal. Somewhere in the middle she insisted what I had mentioned earlier with us hating oc x canon and drakepad and all that and that statement from earlier still follows.

I even have a later note worrying there would be a post on her tumblr, but I checked once and there was nothing so I thought maybe she had gotten over herself…..we are here now so nope. Also this was 2/2/2024 for timeline’s sake.

I was transcribing from a voice note, so if it seems like there are any holes in that ask me, I’ll try to fill in what I missed.

Misc

Lastly here are things I did not know how to organize into the rant. As well as some people making mention to their experiences with her in reply to my Instagram story. I swore I would get all I could and I meant it.

And anyways thank you to those who actually took the time to read all of this mess. I don’t know how I did drama back in the day this has truly been so exhausting to write, but it was important that I did. Honestly despite my anger this is really dumb to have to make, but I do not like being lied about. I especially don’t like my friends also being lied about. And again just block her and do not engage. I do not condone harassment of any kind. I am going to go sleep as I finish writing this. This was a tiring experience. She’ll probably continue but now I am satisfied knowing we’re all on the same page.

[gogandmagog]

C’mon, I know you have a niche LMM post in your drafts to post, the tags are so empty 🤣

Lmaooo, I wish I had something good for this.

I don't know if it's really niche in a satisfying way, but it is certainly niche in a would-anyone-else-bother-themselves-thinking-about-this sort of way? 🥸 Here’s my most recent draft (that isn’t just a note to myself):

All just because a couple of weeks ago, I was reading this book of letters/correspondence between two Cambridge Apostles from around 1910 to 1915. Of course, the Apostles weren’t exactly a frat, so much as a secretive intellectual society, but as with most things, even the tiniest incidentals mentioned in (nearly any) text (or letters, in this case) will immediately return me to splitting Montgomery hairs, so basically I was (am, really) just over here fixating on the possible origins of the (quite fictional lol) Lamba Theta of Redmond.

To begin with, I’m 99% certain that it ought to actually be Lambda Theta* (lambda [λ] is the eleventh letter in the Greek alphabet), since Lamba doesn’t appear anywhere in the Greek dictionary, never mind the alphabet. That kind of small error was enough to launch me properly down a rabbit hole of Victorian (and then Edwardian) frats at Dalhousie University (Redmond’s basis), to see if there were any similarly named that might’ve presented itself as serving for Maud’s basis for the Lambs. As it turned out, there’s nothing. 🙃 The very first frat established at Dalhousie was Phi Kappa Pi, and that wasn’t until 1923... when LMM had attended some three decades earlier, back in 1895. Anne of the Island even predates frats meeting at DU, since it was first published in 1915.

For some scale, the first Canadian frat ever was est. in 1879 (Zeta Psi) at the University of Toronto, and then again in 1883, the same frat opened another chapter over at McGill.

Anyway, I guess was/is just interesting to me that when Maud was inventing up a whole fraternity for her alma mater’s fictional stand-in, she really wouldn’t have had any first-hand experience with one. 🤨 And yet… she understood enough of them to’ve had Gilbert rush/be initiated (with sun-bonnets and calico aprons), in order to become a fully pledged member. Google says that fraternities as we know them now didn’t become notable or popular in the States (which Canada was rather behind) until the mid-late 19th century. Sooo, I suppose Lamba Theta is attributable to just that (a thing of cute pop-culture), or else Zeta Psi at UT was infamous enough for word to get around, to even the more rural areas (there’s 1,801.7 km between UT and Dalhousie btw), about their proceedings.

*the first real Lambda Theta frat/sorority was founded in 1973, at Kean University, and it is a Latino/Latina fraternity; their colours are burgundy and grey - actually quite alike the colours of Redmond University

[nachocheezos21]

[THE DOCUMENT BELOW CONTAINS THE FOLLOWING:]

[Cannibalism], [Mentions of Death], [Minor Gore Mentions] // [IF THE AUTHOR HAD MISSED ANYTHING, PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE TO CONTACT FOR CORRECTION!]

[Z-257-2 — “Guilt-filled Appetite.”]

Description: Previously EXR-P #██████████, real name “Elizah H. Jekyll”, is a current and active member of the aforementioned ‘Yore Expendable’ team alongside others. She is ██ of age, standing 152cm (approximately 5 feet) with medium-length black hair and tan skin, with her most notable facial feature being her unnatural eyes; dark blue eyes surrounded by a neon yellow sclera — often switching depending on the subject’s emotional intensity. While it was easy for staff to recognise her from the rest of the team, many suspected (including Z-257-2 herself) that her unnatural eyes do not have any correlation from the regenerating properties of the team.

During the expedition observed by HQ, Z-257-2 is usually seen and/or heard by the site CCTV to lead the way for the rest of the team to follow. The only instances of Z-257-2 trailing behind are whenever the subject is in search of a hiding place or rummaging through for any files or data left by the staff. Similar to the rest of Z-257, Z-257-2 shares regenerative properties upon death by emitting yellow particles of light to scatter all over the corpse, clumping together to inhabit the heart (and missing limbs, if any). Despite this, the subject’s eyes are still not affected nor changed afterwards.

Prior to her arrest, Z-257-2 had previously worked as a junior researcher in the University of ██████████, Sweden, before being referred to the company by her late-father and one of Mr. Shade’s business partners, Dr. H████ Jekyll. By then, she was hired as one of Urbanshade’s junior researchers within the Botanical Division located in ████, ████████ and had worked for the company for about an approximate of 2 to 3 years — being later promoted as Assistant Senior Researcher.

In mid-2024 to early 2025, Z-257-2 was soon arrested for the murder of Junior Researcher, Dr. Verena Calyx, as the subject was found in her office with blood on the floor, surrounding the victim. The guards had also stated that the subject was also found kneeling next to the deceased victim’s body with chunks of flesh and blood on her hands and lips, signifying that the subject was in the middle of eating the victim due to guilt. A small trial was held and Z-257-2 was soon promptly jailed. It wasn’t until months later that the Hadal Blacksite had initiated lockdown due to the events caused by Z-13, resulting in the “Expendable” protocol taking place. The subject was then offered a second chance by retrieving Z-1, promising cash and a pardon on their criminal sentence, which was enough for her to sign up for the program.

Upon reaching the surface with Z-1 in the team’s possession, Urbanshade guards directly confiscated and detained the team of Z-257 before presenting the Crystal to Mr. Shade himself. But after recognising the members of the team from the numerous comments from one of the Headquarters’ Team Overseer, Mr. Shade had immediately requested for all members to be sent to a nearby Site for further testing.

[Notes from the author//artist]: OH MY GOD PRESSURE SONA REVEAL does it even count if it’s you LMAO. uh anyways YEAH !!! BRAINROT !!!!!! you guys would probably see me make more of these with some of my moots and pookies. if it’s not obvious, this is only an additional document detailing a member of z-257 >.:} – my end, at least (no i’m not actually jekyll irl i wish i was/j). also, the reason why this post and the previous were sent back to back for a day was bc this has been sitting on my drafts for so long LMAO i’ve been itching to post this but i wanted a proper introduction to our au/z-entity (in a sense, it is a z-entity; think of smth like the imaginary friend or the mindscape)

credits to @windthescorpionfanatic for the yore expendable concept once again – if they ever decide to share the file, i’ll be reblogging it for further context teehee

[focacciasasha]

The Escapades of Toman [Snippet]

MINORS DNI! 18+ READERS ONLY!

A/n: Sorry for disappearing for 2 months. I'm going to make up for lost time, starting with a project that I am working on. This is just a snippet of the Toman Sex Story fanfic that I have teased a few times before my disappearance. Also, keep in mind that this is just a draft.

Warnings: Mentions of vomit

So many interesting and eventful stories have been shared tonight, leaving many of the Toman executives baffled by each other’s sexual escapades. Draken is still giving his leader a piercing side eye due to the unexpected revelation of Mikey’s story while Takemitchi finds himself bewildered at Angry who was so proud of sharing his story about the threesome he had behind the restraunt.

“You guys are so fucking weird.” Draken remarks while heaving out an exasperated sigh.

Amused, Baji just chuckles before stating in a matter-of-fact tone:

“Says the man who fucked Hanma’s wife while he watched! Did you fuck him too?!”

“No!”

The vice commander immediately denies it, but judging from the red dusting his cheeks and the guilty expression on his face, there is more to the story than what he initially shared with the rest of the gang. Everyone around the table notices; however, they silently agreed not to question him further once they realize who is next to share their craziest sex story.

An anxious Hakkai just takes a big gulp from his wine glass. His swallow echoed throughout the room as the gang wait for him to tell his story.

“It’s not really crazy, honestly.” The youngest Shiba admits.

“It can’t be as boring as Smiley’s.”

Mitsuya drunkenly points out while letting out a series of laughs. The older twin just chuckles at the comment as he leans back in his chair. He crosses his arms and while never dropping the grin on his face he states:

“If you consider my story boring, then I can’t imagine the disgusting shit you’ve been into.”

“If only you knew, Nahoya Kawata.”

Mitsuya slurs out before subtly leaning closer to Baji. The only person who managed to notice the small gesture was Chifuyu who just brushes it off as Mitsuya’s drunken antics.

“I don’t know. The part about Smiley making the girl vomit was a bit unnerving - not to mention disgusting.” Peh-yan interjects.

“Yeah, it’s honestly disturbing that you got so aroused by that.” Chifuyu shares his agreement.

Put off by the most recent remark, Kazutora shoots a smirk straight at the 5th division’s vice-captain. With him being almost as drunk as Mitsuya, Kazutora just burst out laughing once he thinks back to just weeks ago.

“Are you still upset about getting caught with your girlfriend?!”

Now, it is Baji’s turn to laugh only to end up coughing due to still being in the middle of taking a sip of his drink. The rest of the gang immediately starts chuckling while Chifuyu’s face is dusted with red. Although embarrassed, he speaks up to defend himself:

“Dumbass, you left your phone unmuted while you fucked your girlfriend! We all had to sit there and listen to your gross pet names!”

The 5th division captain laughs even louder as the alcohol in his system slowly takes control of his actions. With the little sobriety he has left, he uses the pink hair tie on his wrist to pull his long dark hair into a ponytail. As he does that, he states:

“Both of you find the worst times to fuck your girlfriends!”

“That’s rich coming the guy who always gets caught fucking in parking lots!”

Immediately came Chifuyu’s rebuttal, causing the laughter in the room to become louder.

A few minutes of laughter has gone by and Mikey is the first to speak though his chuckles are still heard.

“It is still Hakkai’s turn to share.”

He states, and then the rest of the men quickly bring their attention back to Hakkai whose face is blushing red. He leans forward, putting his elbows on the table while resting his head in his hand. After taking a deep breath, he reluctantly shares his crazy story.

~~~

A/n: What do y'all think of this so far? Let me know if you wanna be tagged in the full story too.

[crescencestudio]

Devlog #34 | 08.27.23

Hi everyone!

Another month has flown by, and we are already entering the month of September soon! It's crazy it's already Fall......... Hope you all have been doing well <3

Since we're getting into the latter half of the year, I wanted to sit down and talk to you about the usual monthly progress as well as do a check in on where Alaris is sitting. This is a longer one, so without further ado, let's dive in, shall we?

Writing

We continue to move forward with writing. But it's extremely refreshing this month since I've Finally moved into Etza's route! Already, the route is feeling relatively different from the past three routes I've been writing---not necessarily because the past three routes are repetitive, but moreso because Etza's route (and the Fae ones moving forward) is very different regarding plot content. I can't say much more than that because then we start getting into spoiler territory. But it's been exciting since Etza, Kuna'a, and Aisa have always been the "final stage" of writing for Alaris to me.

I'm aiming to have Etza's first draft done by the end of next month. We'll check in next month to see my progress, but that's my goal at least! I also wrapped up the finishing touches for Druk's route this past month and moved his onto developmental editing, so we are just moving into New Stages all across the board yay!

Art

Most of my attention was actually on art this month though! Specifically, on finalizing Kickstarter merchandise so I can ship it out. I finished the updated Mermay prints as well as the character postcards.

they r beauty they r grace

I will have some extra prints that I'm happy to send off. Obviously, you will have to pay for them LOL. But if you're interested in any, I'll have an extremely limited stock. Patrons will get first dibs, so if you are interested but aren't subscribed to my Patreon, I'd recommend getting on that for this upcoming month since I will not be restocking the Mermay prints ever again!

We also continued to get backgrounds from Vui. These are spoiler territory, so I will not be showing them this month teehee. But they're beautiful per usual Vui fashion!

Check-In

Now that we're in the latter half of the year, I wanted to talk to you all about overall Alaris progress and some more specific parts of development.

As of right now, we have about 210k written for Alaris (including the demo). And the end estimate is about 350k. For art assets, we have 20 CGs out of an estimated 48 CGs finished and/or sketched out. For BGs, we are on background 18 out of 25. The GUI is for the most part finished, save for some small finishing touches. And we have 6 out of 8 original tracks completely done.

If it's not clear, Alaris will definitely be a 2024 release rather than an end of 2023 release, which may be disappointing news for those of you eager for Alaris. But realistically, even if I make absolutely cracked progress on the assets from now until the end of the year, I would still need time to polish the full game, especially considering how long it took me to polish intertwine for Otojam, which was significantly smaller. And that's excluding my team members, who I don't want to force into a crunching position. All that being said, I hope to get some playable content to you all before the end of the year, namely the updated demo and maybe Kayn's beta build!

I wanted to take a moment to mention one thing concerning the updated demo. As you all may know from past devlogs, I've updated many of the assets for the enhanced demo. Initially, I had wanted to release the updated demo quite a while back, but there was one set of assets that ended up getting held up in production. For full transparency, since I've talked about the updated demo for a while but haven't been able to show much more progress beyond that, I wanted to touch on (generally) why it's been held up, mainly because I don't want you all to think I'm just Not Delivering on it!

My GUI artist is the same person who made the Alaris logo (re.Alice). She's wonderfully talented, which is why I wanted to work with her for the Alaris GUI as well! As many may know, sometimes life happens and so without getting into any specifics, this is what has been holding up the enhanced demo since I haven't been able to update and code in the new GUI.

Based on recent updates from Alice, I'm hopeful that I'll be receiving the new GUI this upcoming month, and I'd love to release the updated demo (T e n t a t i v e l y) in October! Of course, when the September devlog comes around I'll be able to update you all more concretely. But I wanted to communicate where things currently (and have been) standing since I've been wanting you all to experience the updated demo so badly but didn't want you all to feel like I've been forgetting about it/dropping the ball on it/etc. etc. etc.

Thank you, as always for being so patient and supportive of me! As we head into this final half of the year (jesus), I hope the progress I've been making behind the scenes for Alaris will start to come to fruition through the enhanced demo and some playable beta builds of the individual routes <3

Market Research

I did ~some~ market research this month, but it's honestly been pretty sparse, mainly because my usual market research time was actually replaced by Jam Time this month.

Specifically, if you didn't get the chance to check them out, I helped with two games this month for a 10 day jam. I think they're both pretty top-notch if I'm allowed to humbly brag since the teams behind them were very talented!

The first is Oblivisci Memorias

After receiving a mysterious request, you create a potion meant to erase memories. But the process is a grueling one, and as you add ingredients to your potion, you may find yourself reminiscing on memories you thought you had long since suppressed.

And the second is Titan Arum

Alone, you find yourself catsitting in your family's new house as they traipse through Europe. But incidents slowly signal to you that something's... off about this house. What story exists behind its walls? And more importantly, are you brave enough to uncover it?

[gintrinsic-writing]

can we get the BTS for DoR? favorite scene from the latest chapter or the fic overall - your pick!

Lol so what IMMEDIATELY came to mind isn't my favorite scene from the fic overall, but it is a scene that had a running inside joke behind its conception, so I'll talk about that as well as my favorite from the latest chapter so I'm still following the prompt request haha. I'm not even sure what my favorite scene overall is, tbh!

In chapter 10, Overture, Wild is making some elixirs when the topic of "weirdest thing you've ever eaten" is discussed by the group. Wild announces that he's eaten hylian, and the heroes react in vastly different ways. The snippet started out as a goof, and I fully intended for it to end with it being clear that Wild WAS joking, but then the topic came up in a small LU server... We laughed about it, then I was informed that cannibalism was a banned topic in Main, and someone else (I'm keeping this vague in case people don't want to be name-dropped lol) said they wondered "who is out here talking about cannibalism in relation to LU?!" for it to be banned at all? Then of course we realized WE were, and like all mature adults, this led to us making wayyyy more jokes about it. Cannibalism eventually became the server running gag for a long, long time. We had a counter and everything i.e. "14 days since cannibalism was last mentioned." And after that, I made sure that the end of this scene was MUCH more vague/ominous, and I've loved hoarding the truth of Wild's statement hahaha. (Because yes, he has.)

Regarding the latest chapter, the very end is my favorite part! I've had that bit with Twilight planned for a while. I wanted it to be a reflection of Wild's first time meeting the chain---all the tension, violence, confusion, except THIS time the source of strife was compounded by different influences and agencies, and his emotional ties to the heroes now also contained the beginning of genuine love and trust (even if it was all completely fucked up by everything else going on). I wanted that sad loser BROKEN DOWN by the end, so when he turns that arrow on Twilight readers wouldn't know how it was going to turn out. Wild/Karusa was absolutely desperate for help, but even his desperation was soured by physical and mental trauma. I personally loved the line about his arrow coveting Twilight's heart. His decision to take that painful step toward more vulnerability in the aftermath of being attacked was huge for his future, for good or bad.

Also, in the initial draft, he was going to be mentally attacked one last time by Big Grouch, and he was actually going to release the arrow---but through sheer will power, he was going to jerk his aim to the side, and end up striking Twilight in the shoulder just inches above where the first arrow landed. But I figured this would derail things too much, and require too much explanation for the heroes as to his motivations by that point, and it wasn't the direction I wanted things to go.

[joseefinwrites]

How to stop quitting (from a quitter) - writing advice

Do you love writing, yet always find yourself losing motivation, inspiration, or even energy to write and create? Your wonderful ideas, characters, and worlds become forgotten when you lose interest in your work. But don’t worry, as a (former, and occasional) quitter myself, I found ways to overcome my annoying habit of abandoning stories, in which I had so much passion. And I would love to share them with you!

(Basically, these are things that helped me, when nothing else did - maybe you'll find these tips useful as well!)

Hello & Welcome! You have officially stumbled upon a fresh blog post by yours truly! I sincerely hope you enjoy your stay and tune in for future posts and events! You can check the original post on my website here, because tiny little blooger pluggin hehe.

Now, let’s get on with the tips for never quitting again! Strap in.

1) Don’t take it too seriously (at first)

When I started working on my current ongoing novel, it took me days before I actually began writing the book. Oh yes - I was working on it, the characters, worldbuilding, all the important stuff. But was it THAT important, when I was working on my first draft? When working on the first draft, you are supposed to have fun - even if you have the story plotted out. 

During the first draft, you actually get the vibe of your story, and understand the essence of each character. You will discover significant parts of the story while you are writing it. If you plan out everything before you even start writing your first draft, you might lose a lot of that spontaneity. Things won’t make sense, and you won’t allow yourself to change anything, since you’ve worked for so long on all the details.

Now - when I started working on something that is not my “main” novel, my brain probably processed not to take it too seriously (initially). I simply wanted to write a (for example) post-apocalyptic story, without it being too big of a responsibility - too big of a commitment. 

So I started writing. And of course, I had to come up with a name for the character and where they are from, but that honestly took five minutes. And I wrote and wrote and wrote, without even expecting to edit it afterwards or make more drafts of this thing. And it was so easy and, to my surprise, it wasn’t bad. I liked it. We’re so harsh on ourselves and tend to overdo our work, overwork ourselves, thinking that what’s easy isn’t good. But that is not true. After one chapter, I had the character’s motive, a simple idea of their backstory, and a basic understanding of the world they are in. Basically - everything the story needs - for now.

You see - as I mentioned already - this is normal for us humans, but we tend to make things much harder than they have to be. If you love writing, don’t make it just a responsibility. Enjoy it. Do it because you love it. Don’t overcomplicate it, or else you’ll make it an assignment - homework, which you just HAVE to postpone. Start easy and small. Don’t spend hours worrying about your story not being good; just write it. AFTER you finish your first draft, that’s when your idea of your story is actually clear. And even when working on the other drafts after that you may discover things that you didn’t even know were in there!

You feel like you can’t write because you’re stuck on a scene or a part of the plot makes no sense and you just feel like your characters don’t have enough of a reason to do what they’re doing? Just keep writing! Chances are - it will sort itself out as you go, as you create and give yourself more chances to explore the world you are writing about!

Remember, the first draft is for you (and maybe some trustworthy friends); you can always edit it later. Now just have fun and write!

2) Minimise research while working on your first draft

This might be a bit similar to the first tip, so I’ll keep it a bit shorter. Again - you WILL change a lot of things after the first draft - if you want to, that is. Research is an essential part of writing, of course, BUT, it takes too much of your time. 

One moment you have proudly written three sentences in your brand-new novel, the next moment you want to look up how much blood a person can lose without dying, and suddenly it’s hours later, and you’ve been looking up the best names for a small Elven village. Now - I am sure that information is important for you, but is it important in the first draft?

What you can do is leave out the parts where you are unsure of something. Maybe put it in brackets, make it bold, write it in all caps. And then move on. Now it’ll be easy for you to see it later when you have maybe reached your daily word goal (which is also great to keep if you want to have a specific goal to go after) and you can finally move to the research part. Unless it is 5 am and you are getting up for school or work in an hour.

3) Keep your initial goals low and simple

This one was always a bit hard for me. But it helps, even if it seems a bit “too simple” at first. If you feel like you can’t just ignore all the details before writing and all that extreme research, set yourself a goal that you have to write, for example, 200 words a day or in the upcoming hour.

“Two hundred words? Easy.” Keep this mindset. Sit down and start writing. You hit two hundred words, and now you feel like that is not enough. After two hundred words, you might also be a bit more in the mood, I mean, you’ve been at this for a bit and you just got the gist of it again, right? And so you double it. 

But the fun thing is that if you don’t feel like it, you don’t have to double it because you hit the goal that you set. You can make the word count goal higher every day or every week, as long as you keep consistent with hitting that goal AND keep writing, you’ll get deeper into your story and you get much more comfortable with writing it. And remember - when working on the first draft, the writing part is the most important! I will never shut up about that!

4) What do YOU love in stories? Put it in!

Again, my own experience as an example - I had a story that I really liked, but only because I was so proud of myself for coming up with something that I’ve never read or watched anywhere. But, to be honest, the story didn’t actually have anything for me. It wasn’t even my favourite genre. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you are in a similar situation like I was, that you have to abandon your idea. Just think of what YOU yourself enjoy when watching and reading? Mash it up! Don’t be afraid to experiment a little (ESPECIALLY WITH THE FIRST DRAFT, FRIENDS!)

Don’t worry about losing originality; your story will be unique because you’re the one creating it. If you’re writing romance and you have a favourite trope of the love triangle, but you are too afraid that it has been overdone, it hasn’t. You put that love triangle in and you write what you want!

Don’t write it because you think you should; write it because you would love to read it.

5) Don’t listen to “Clichés and what wE HATE SEEING IN BOOKS AAA!”

I’m sure most of you have had your ideas, hopes and dreams crushed by those fun websites with articles or videos like “Tropes that are overdone,” “Books we are tired of reading,” “Writing Clichés,” and such. And it can be so demotivating, especially if you're a person that tends to stay away from your writing. (I know how that feels, no worries.) The simple advice here is to just ignore those. No, there is no trope or genre in writing that has been forever overdone or overused and shall never see the light again..

Everyone is special and unique, and everyone has different views on certain motives. Yes, there are billions of various books, stories, movies, shows, and even if they have similar themes or tropes, they are all different in their own way. Don’t let your idea die with someone else’s opinion. Again - write it because you love it!

6) Daydreaming, Playlists? Daydreaming Playlists!

I love this one! Do you ever daydream about your favourite shows, characters, and books? Put your own character in scenarios from other works? Get comfortable with your characters by daydreaming about them. One of my favourites is making a playlist full of trailer music, since it usually is just so epic and I imagine little trailers for my story in my head. I don’t even care for my books becoming movies one day, but “watching” them like that in your head is pretty cool. You can even “borrow” your favourite scenes or scenarios from other works and just install your characters in there. 

It’s super easy and super fun and makes you much more interested AND invested in your story. By thinking about it daily and imagining things happening in your own special world, you get much more accustomed and used to the setting of your creation and getting into writing will become much easier.

7) Be careful with this one - Pinterest, ArtStation, InspiRation

Now, this one can get tricky. As much as I love finding inspiration in concept art on sites such as Pinterest or ArtStation, I also must admit that it’s so easy to get lost there.

 There's image after image, and they are all just so damn cool. I simply couldn’t possibly take all that inspiration from you! So set up a timer. 

You know that you’ve set a simple goal of 500 words for the day and you also planned some researching/character planning/worldbuilding (whatever you wish) for maybe an hour or so later, and so you might know that you have some free time to spend doing whatever you want. So why not spend that time on - for example - Pinterest? Just be sure to watch your time.

On the other hand - maybe you’re currently just not in the mood for writing. Maybe you feel like quitting again. Well then you can spend the whole day on Pinterest, especially if it helps you get more in the mood of your story. When I can’t get a single word of myself, while writing my fantasy/science fiction novel, a day of searching through art of fantasy and science fiction concepts will definitely get me back in the mood. 

It’s simple and if you learn how to manage your time and get inspired when you need to get inspired, not when you should be writing, it is most likely one of the many essentials in the process of creating a story. Humans are often also visual learners, so if it’s not in the words, you’ll find it in the pictures.

8) Breaks are essential, but the longer they last, the harder it is to get back

Don’t ignore your health. Whether it’s your physical health or mental health, it’s all just as important. Yeah, you need to stay consistent with your writing, but don’t overwork yourself. That will just make you disconnect from what you once loved. Don’t make writing your responsibility, take breaks. 

If the breaks are too long, it might be harder to get back, but you know yourself the best, so if you feel exhausted, or like it’s just not “it” - take a break. (This doesn’t apply to just writing, but to life in general. Don’t forget to rest up.) Take writing as a form of relaxation.

ESPECIALLY if you’re working on your first draft.

Take the first draft as the “natural soup” you used to make as a kid in a puddle. No, you couldn’t eat the rainwater with rocks, leaves, and sticks, but it was the fun of the imagination that mattered. Your first draft might not be exactly publishable, but it’s your time to just get your thoughts and ideas out. Don’t stress it too much. If you have a full-time job or school, or anything else taking your time and you worry over not having time to write and rest, write as your form of a rest (only if it helps!)

9) Watch and read whatever inspires you and don’t shy away from - yes - getting inspired 

I’ll try to keep this one a bit shorter as well, as it is similar to some of the points above. Basically - don’t be afraid to get inspired in your actual work from other actual works. Sometimes you get inspired from more works and putting them together with your original characters and places makes it something completely new. 

You can get inspired in many ways. For example, the name of one of my fictional works (not currently published), that I initially didn’t plan on taking overly seriously, came from watching an 8-BitRyan gameplay of Dying Light 2. I was just writing down some names, while having the video in the background and there was a quick scene of a wall for the remembrance of people who have died, probably protecting someone. And the way Ryan read the sign on the wall which said “Thank you, our heroes.” just somehow stuck with me. I wrote it down and because I didn’t want to spend too much time with the details of the fiction (I just wanted to write) I just went with it. Now I love it, it stands out to me.

Read books, watch movies and shows, play games, get inspired and don't be afraid of it. It is only natural to be influenced by our favourite (or not) works. As long as you are not directly copying someone else’s work, you’re fine, trust me!

10) Simple outlines, swarms of notes? Whatever suits YOU the best

This one depends entirely on you. Are you more organised or are you at peace with your mess? For me, it’s a bit of both. But something that could help with not losing track of your story is quite obviously planning. You can just quickly write down things you want to happen in a chapter or things you want to happen in the story in general, don’t let it take you more than five minutes, take it as a fun exercise, especially if you are usually not a planner.

If you don’t really like the idea of “just writing” as listed above, you can write down simple things, so that you always know where to go, what to do.

For example, you’re writing a short detective story. You might already know that you’d like for the main character to die in the end. So your simple outline could literally look like this:

Introduction, the main character is a detective who was called to a strange small town to solve a case

The detective is thrown right into the middle of the town’s mysterious ritual celebrations

Murders happening, they are happening a lot

A first lead which ends up being a fake lead by the actual killer

The detective believes the whole town is behind the murders as it might be a part of the celebrations

The stakes are high, someone important to the detective is in danger

Confrontations, it looks like the detective could win, the town is innocent, and the real killer is found

Detective tragically dies, he’s forgotten and the killer moves to a different town

Don’t dwell on the details, but if you need to have an idea of where you are going, put it down. Put down all the ideas you get, keep a notebook close to never forget anything. Sometimes just brainstorming ideas, even if you have no idea “how” to plan (even though there is no correct way to do it) will bring you the best ideas. Be spontaneous!

11) Reward yourself (EVEN if it’s hard)

Whatever goal you’ve set and accomplished deserves a reward. Even if it’s 200 words a day from the start. You are consistent. You should be proud of yourself. Find little ways to reward yourself. This could be a bit hard, it is hard for me for some reason, but it all is about developing a habit.

This might sound like puppy training, but that’s alright - if you develop a habit of making yourself happy after being just as equally happy for hitting a goal, your brain will be so much more excited to do those things, knowing that you get to write, which makes you happy, and you get to reward yourself. Simple, (once you get past that confusing explanation), yet powerful. Be the writer puppy.

12) Share your stories (EVEN if it’s hard)

If you’re not the biggest fan of sharing your works on the internet on websites such as Wattpad, AO3, etc - you don’t have to take this advice. But if you don’t, posting your works online can help you with staying consistent. And if you post chapter after chapter and see people already interested in your works it can also motivate you to write more. 

Remember that there is a story after story out there, so if your work isn’t noticed at first, don’t lose motivation. Keep writing and keep updating, and you will see progress. Trust me! There are so many people in the world who would love to read what you’re working on right now!

13) You are not alone, find writer friends, keep yourself accountable

The last advice I can give you is one that I myself am still working on. Find writer communities and friends. There is no one who will relate more to you than another author. Sharing the love for writing as well as the struggles of it can help you in so many ways!

Knowing that you are not alone and that you have someone who can support you, listen to you, while you do the same for them can really hold you above the water. A writer as a friend can inspire you, check in with you and you guys can simply make sure the other one is staying on track!

Well, we finally got to the end of this almost 3000-word article, which might be a bit too much for an article, but if I managed to inspire and help you in any way, it was definitely worth it.

Thank you for reading all the way to this point and make sure to check all the new posts coming soon. The official posting schedule is still a work in progress, unfortunately, but I hope to work on the best of posts for you and as fast and often as I can! Time management of a writer…) Share your struggles, views and personal advices as well, I alwas love to see how differently our little human brains work!

I hope to see you around again, unless you get lost in a world of your own, that is!

josEefin View this blog post on my website! <3 New posts coming soon, so while the website itself is still kinda a WIP, I hope to keep the blog frequent! https://joseefine.wixsite.com/joseefin/post/simple-writing-advice-for-quitters-from-a-quitter-tips-and-tricks

[hell-much]

Cutting Room Floor - Insidious Intent - VIII

Stages of Falling In Love

A first draft of Sansa's musings about her relationship with Margaery, based on the ten stages of falling in love.

.

Stage 1: Realization

First time she realised she found her attractive was when catching a glimpse of her in the snippet video that accompanied her podcast. She had fallen for her writing and for her voice before she even knew her, and had instantly be fascinated with the pretty face that accompanied it. That wasn’t anything she actively indulged, but she would enjoy that queasy feeling in her stomach when she spotted her name over an article, and her mom mentioning something about her would have her happily engage.

The second time she realised that she found her attractive was in their very first meeting. Sitting across that woman who had the looks of a fashion magazine journalist, not that of an investigative reporter. Thinking about the back and forth had her smiling in bed that night.

The true and real realisation that it went deeper than just an attraction was lying awake at night and pondering about asking Margaery to come back. She had called her back with the conscious knowledge that she was crushing on her, and that made everything that happened afterwards as much of her responsibility as Margaery’s.

The third time around that realisation came somewhere in the afternoon of the Saturday they’d been working with Oberyn and Ellaria. She’d gone in the conviction that she was done with her. That she did this because her lawyers considered it beneficial. X random moment.

Stage 2: Preoccupation

In Kingswood, Margaery had been on her mind constantly. What Margaery had said, waking up with you as my first thought and thinking about you falling asleep… that wasn’t an exaggeration. She’d been on her mind constantly. There had been a vaccum in her life. Abuse, being afraid of abuse took over a significant part of your life and Margaery had filled it like a flowers growing in a crack in the wall. She had not left space in her mind for anything else.

The second time around she’d been determined to not let it take over her every waking thought in the same way. But that was a futile endeavour to begin with. Sansa had told herself it was the sex that kept her so preoccupied. Sex that was fantastic, that of course had the capability to distract you from your day. But more often than not, those moments between fucking came to her mind. Margaery smiling as she rushed off to the bathroom. The way one stoic curl stood off her head in the morning. Even just her way of greeting her one evening, the softness of her fingers wrapping around her hand.

Stage 3: Idolization

Getting to know Margaery the first time around was hard to come by. She’d offered glimpses, but nothing personal ever. Sansa had to piece a version of her together in her mind based on small things she said and small reactions. She said some things just to see her reaction to i. It was like peeling back layers of an onion and unsurprisingly she found every layer most endearing. Margaery mentioned x. Oh how sweet. She frowned at x. Clearly not a fan, rightfully so.

The second time around that idolisation had taken place in the real world. Mostly consisting out of glimpses into her character she found in her apartment. The true jungle-worth of pants everywhere. The books she’d have occasionally on her nightstand. The large ottoman in her bedroom, that Sansa pieced together she used for writing, not reading. The way she used a drying rack and not a dryer.

Stage 4: Awkwardness And Insecurity

There’s an initial awkwardness that comes with not being sure if your feelings are requited.

During their meetings in Kingswood Sansa had kept her cool around Margaery for the bigger part. One hour per week, made that manageable. The rest of the week she’d been a mess. Going into the meetings with Margaery she stumbled over her feet and had to force the most random thoughts into her head not to enter the room beet red and smiling like an idiot.

In retrospect she had been so incredibly blind. They both had been. Margaery’s smile whenever she spotted her. The way she listened attentively to her every word. How she was so very attentive. And yet, not at last due to her circumstances, Sansa had fought the realisation down. Indulging in a crush on her side was a fun distraction, would be hard enough to wean herself off. If Margaery were to return her feelings that would take things from fun, to a whole new mess of things.

The second time around the clues to just enamoured Margaery was with her had not been much different. Margaery had been nothing but perfect, putting everything else second to her. This time around Sansa had been able to deal with her unsorted feelings with physical intimacy. Not allowing any of that to push forward. That was a tempting pattern to fall into even now still when she had every intention not to run from her feelings from Margaery any longer.

Stage 5: Increased Intimacy

Letting Margaery in, opening up to her had been somethings he probed her way to. The first real feeling of intimacy, of sensing that maybe it was okay to let her came in Kingswood when Margaery had willing gone of the record for the first time. That had brought about a shift, the knowledge this was more than just an interview, that Margaery wanted to get to know her for the sake of her.

Physical intimacy snuck in ever so slowly, while the emotional intimacy was all embracing. That had twisted around to 180 degrees the second time around.

Opening up the second time around, she didn’t have the same kind of trust, she’d given a stranger months ago. Margaery had been more reluctant to push at her boundaries than she had been during her interviews either. She’d given her space and that had brought out a laziness to put in emotional work. And had brought Margaery close to the breaking point a few times with that.

Stage 6: Exhilaration

There’s a stage of exhilaration that comes with falling for someone. The first time around that stage had lasted way too shortly. A week. A week where nothing but remembering their kiss, had been all that occupied Sansa’s mind. Where she’d smiled so much her fellow inmates suspected her on a new anti-depressant. Where even her mom noted a shift in their daily calls, telling her she sounded upbeat.

The crash after that, had been hard. Margaery pushing, Sansa pushing back in the most horrendous way.

The exhilaration is at its height this time around. Ever since dinner with her family Sansa has been on cloud nine. Sansa knows it has an expiration date, a firm date set, and she feels that sense of apprehension every now and then the closer that dates comes, but she’s refusing to let go of it just yet. Margaery makes it easy too. She is the perfect girlfriend. Even in situations when Sansa knows she doesn’t deserve it, even when it impacts herself negatively. She has an extraordinary talent for making her feel at ease, for making it all seem self-evident. That kind of love, the one that feels self-evident and unconditional no matter what, Sansa never had that. That’s scary at times to ease into, and wonderful each time she dares.

Stage 7: The Freak Out

There are still moments when it all becomes way too intense. When she allows the allows the thought of how reliant she is on Margaery, how much she needs to be close to her. It’s born out of the fear, the conviction that it cannot last. The fear that in just a few weeks from now she’ll be sitting in a prison cell once again and this here, all of it, will be nothing more than a fever dream.

She knows that’s the very reason to enjoy every second now, but it’s hard not to let that dampen her enjoyment occasionally. Luckily suppression is a well established trait of Sansa, and using it in this case for once feels like using it for a good deed.

Before her moments of freak out had been bigger, angstier. She had an hour each week with Margaery and that gave more time for negative musings. Margaery’s presence offers a distraction from that. Catches her and wraps her up. 

Stage 8: Jealousy And Possessiveness

The first time Sansa had been jealous over Margaery dates back months. She’d come in and seen her chatting with the Lady at the next table at the coffee machine. The pretty, young one that always played solitaire with her mother. That had left her reeling and sulky for the first fifteen minutes.

It’s a good thing Margaery had never told her about going on these dates last fall. That might have very well ended her. In her musings about Margaery, the fear that she might come to conclude coming by, that she might meet someone in the real world, someone who could offer her real dates, a real life and future.

These days Sansa finds herself less jealous and more possessive. She wants to be with her all the time. She wants to be the centre of her attention every waking minute. That’s unrealistic in a world with other engagements and plenty of them, but Margaery excels at validation. There isn’t a morning where she leaves the house without bestowing her with a toe curling kiss, or without texting her that she misses her at the latest two hours into their separation. She is the centre of her attention, and she has been for a while. And ever since she made Margaery hers, ever since she’s stopped running away, Margaery is most wonderful in demonstrating that to her constantly.

Stage 9: Do, Or Do Not

There comes a point where you need to decide whether to do this right or not. The first time around this came for Sansa when Margaery asked her to challenge the verdict. And she had tried for all the wrong reasons. Her feelings for Margaery had been strong, but not stronger than the all embracing fear of having someone find out the truth. She had tried and she had failed.

This time around it came with seeing Margaery break down, put her cards on the table standing in her hallway, admit for the toll this all had taken on her.

She could have shut her down. Could have come up with more excuses and reasons why she wasn’t ready. Maybe Margaery would have even understood. Maybe she would have forgiven her another time. But Sansa did not want to be the reason for causing her pain anymore. She wanted her to be happy. She wasn’t so preposterous to assume that she could offer her that, but just perhaps in some way she could.

Stage 10: Union

And now she’s here. At thirty one she is in the first real partnership of her life, with someone she cares about. Deeply. With someone who’s wonderful, who loves her, and it’s the most beautiful and fulfilling thing she can imagine.

She knows that they have a ton of shit ahead of them still. Even if the trial goes good. Even if she gets acquitted. They are barely scratching the surface now. 

[wayward-travelers]

WoL verse

The more I think about it, the more I think this blog will be strictly for my WoL verse.

The main reason for that being that my main RP verse is a canon-divergent AU with my friends and we advance the story rather slowly, and the other rp threads I have are in yet another verse. And, tbh, as far as rp goes, I don't care too much in the end if everything links nicely together or not.

But admittedly, my WoL verse has changed a lot between what I had in mind primarily with Aïcha and what I have in mind now and I'm thinking about putting it in fic form. Or—knowing myself because I have too few spoons and not enough hours in a day anyway between life, work and school—some sort of detailed plan for a fic that'd work as a first draft and... nothing following after that.

So why not just share what I have for now?

I'll start with the prelude in this post because this is important foundation for what's to come, and I'm not sure what people know (or don't) about how Inge and Aïcha started. Plus there are certain things I've never discussed in detail before.

Fair warning: while the plan is to follow the MSQ closely, there will be changes. But aside from one character mentioned below, I have no intention to bring back to life dead characters. And among those who do come back in the official story, two will remain dead no matter what the MSQ says.

Prior to ARR

Under the cut 'cause it's a bit long.

The prelude (Inge)

In the equivalent of 1.0 to the Calamity, Inge was one of the adventurers that ended up being dubbed as the "Warriors of Light" at Carteneau. Whether or not I'll follow strictly what I know of that part for the story, I'm not sure, but the point is that she's a forgotten hero that got teleported into the future by Louisoix and, upon arrival in the middle of the Shroud, realized that 1/ nobody knew her anymore, 2/ she had no fucking idea where the rest of her team was or even if they were still alive.

After some time looking for them, she opted for helping rebuilding since the world didn't seem to need any more heroes (and the trauma of losing everyone was, well, quite heavy). She ingrained herself in Gridania's life pretty fast and was tasked, two to three years before ARR, to accompany a small group of scientists to explore the Western Shroud and give upon return a detailed account of the state it was in.

Among those were:

Griveroix, a cartographer that hailed from La Noscea with his young and far more enthusiastic apprentice, A'idan;

Wolfe, who needs a name change, an agronomist from Sharlayan working on his Archon mark;

after some shenanigans, an actually alive Foulques because in this verse the lancer story happens before ARR and involves another character of mine. He's not a scientist but he'll serve as an adventurer for protection;

Inge herself, of course, healer and alchemist here to make sure everyone comes back in one piece.

There'll probably be a few more people, whether named or not, we'll see as the inspiration strikes.

The Foulques situation

While on their way to the Western part of the Shroud, they'll be attacked by a group of Duskwights who initially wants to bargain either their life or their (very expensive) instruments against Foulques' life, which they told them had been arrested by Gridanians.

Inge'll manage to convince them to let her go and bring him back peacefully, and she'll arrive just in time during his fight against Alakja (the OC mentioned above) to cast a levitation spell and save the Duskwight from a certain death. (Much to Alakja's and his wife's relief, as neither of them wanted him dead.)

Keeping her promise, she'll bring back Foulques to his family and manage to get the expedition back on track... only for him to join them, while refusing to state exactly why. Cue some drama because Griveroix is a coward, A'idan an enthusiastic puppy and Wolfe paranoid, but eventually they'll settle on letting him join the expedition unofficially.

And that's how it goes for Inge until she's back in Gridania at the beginning of ARR, and soon after learns by Mother Miounne that a promising adventurer needs help exploring the Tam-tara Deepcroft.

An adventurer that you might have recognized as Aïcha.

The Prelude (Aïcha)

Aïcha's mother was not cut to be a mother, and to her credit she realized it soon enough to not make Aïcha's life hell. Instead, she just... left. So Aïcha's early life is simply her father and her in Radz-at-Han, living in relative poverty despite her father securing an extremely sought after and expensive dancing tutelage for his talented daughter.

While she didn't grow up wondering where the money for this came—her father had always been a proud and hard-working man after all—she got the answer nonetheless as she reached her eighteen birthday, when the debts her father had contracted had become so big that he couldn't pay them back and loan sharks came to their house to make it clear that he didn't exactly have a choice.

Worried for his life more than for herself, Aïcha decided to sacrifice her bright artistic future to save the life of the only family she had, and thus joined The Guild. Think of it a bit like John Wick's Continental, except they pretended to be an adventurers guild.

As we know, dancing in FFXIV isn't just about artistry: it's also about kicking asses. And Aïcha, perhaps tragically, was both excellent and willing at this. Over the months, she only got deeper and deeper to take the most lucrative contracts, switching dancing for a gun to avoid sullying her art further, until she got in so far that she couldn't see any other path for herself than crime.

Eventually she killed a kid that had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time and saw too much, but that broke her. She sent her father to hide in Tural, turned against her old employer and faked her death before fucking off to Eorzea, where she attempted to start a new life as a gladiator.

She did always love the attention after all, and surely no one would look for her there.

It became apparent rather quickly how corrupt the whole system was, however, and while she could ill-afford to make a mess in her new home, she opted for becoming an actual adventurer this time. Which is how she finally joined the Adventurers Guild in Ul'dah and started this new chapter in her story: for money and redemption.

(In this order.)

[wooahaes]

ok lets talk wips!!!

from the ask that i answered a couple days ago:

soulmate aus that i was almost done with [completed!!!! a win for me!!!!]

like a box of chocolates [both svt and skz] - working title, not set in stone. similar to the flower fics i wrote for svt + trsr back in the day where they all have some kind of trope associated with each kind of chocolate.

bodyswap aus for skz + svt. [woozi for svt, lee know for skz]. - admittedly my plans are on pause because i never came up with group names for the fake idol groups i made up for each. basically soulmate au where they end up swapping bodies until they fall in love with the added complicated layer of both being in a small idol group.

i won't run away [lee know] - fem!reader follow-up to i can't run away [vernon fic] where reader moves on.

keep it simple, stupid! [paboracha] - paboracha are all mutually pining with their respective readers and the rest of skz makes a bet on who will realize its mutual the soonest and confess (or get confessed to). minho's in love with his roommate, hyunjin's in love with his best friend, jisung is in love with his study partner for class.

childhood friends -> lovers [seungmin] - a much more recent idea for seungmin in the same vein as when i grow up where it's snapshots of the two growing up together and falling in love. very much 'one falls first, the other falls harder.'

shadow [UtS poly ending] - the poly au that has some more story to it, imo? more emotional topics and some angst. everyone is in love with everyone.

vague summer svt fic? [full group] - not to be released rn if i go for it, but i'm open to tossing ideas around for some summer-themed fics. might include skz (and if anyone's interested/i feel up to writing them, trsr) as well? it'd most likely be a july release just to give myself time to write all the fics and i'd probably give myself some sort of hard limit on how many words they can be.

ok these next few are chubby!fem!reader so if i do write them, i think they'll most likely get posted alongside something else since ik its not a widespread audience!!

untitled chubby!fem!reader fic [felix] - originally a smau i'll have to reconfigure in the same way as lhc, basically lhc but for felix. set after the best friends -> lovers jisung fic that i wanna rewrite! felix deals with the aftermath of a broken heart and ends up befriending reader who he falls for quickly bc she's cute n sunshine-y. very much lonely hearts club but i'll be removing the social media aspect from it.

chubby!fem!reader fake dating au [seokmin] - college au. reader has never dated before and asks seokmin if he'll go on a date or two with her just to help her get over the scary 'first time going on a date' feelings. he turns her down because fucking up is kind of part of the experience, but ends up agreeing to it after he lies and says he's dating reader to get someone who won't take no for an answer off his back. they agree to fake date until after reader's cousin's wedding... and u kno the drill w fake dating!! these bitches start falling for each other!!!

chubby!fem!reader sculptor/muse [woozi] - jihoon is a grad school art student who needs to diversify his portfolio a Lot (man just keeps sculpting his best friend bc he offered to model for him). soonyoung goes 'i know someone' and gets reader in to be jihoon's new model and oops they start catching feelings for each other over time. also has mentions of past mingyu/reader.

i am like 90% sure theres more because i KNOW i had fics planned around on//ew's (censored to keep out of search results, hopefully) album circle (some of which have initial drafts that i wanna rewrite) and an au built veeeeery loosely around the case 143 mv but i wanna workshop both of those more before i mention em any further.

[wesleytyler]

Research

ARABIC HOROSCOPE AND PRAYER BOOK, OCCULT SCIENCE, DREAM INTERPRETATIONS, FORTUNE TELLING. Text in Turki Farsi. circa 18th century (not dated). Purchased in Uzbekistan.

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Description

Autograph letter to S.B. Richardson. N.p., 4 September 1861. 2 pages, folio, 7 1/2 x 12 1/8 in.

A remarkable letter written in response to a spiritualist or medium named S.B. Robinson, who claimed to have communicated with the author's dead brother. 

The letter, possibly a draft copy, begins with a description of the brother's death: "My brother Albion T. died on the eleventh of July of disease of the heart after a short illness caused by rheumatism. There was nothing unusual or remarkable in the circumstances attending his death. He passed away like a child sinking in slumber. He was a very powerful, healthy man until within a few months of his death and as he was not wasted by disease was the cause of the beautiful expression...He appears like a sculptured marble...possessing none of the repulsiveness associated with the thought of the grave."

The author then begins to attempt to verify the medium's claims: "My Father's name is Frederick my brothers Edgar, Eugene, and Milton. So far to corroborate the communication your circle received. My intention was to refuse the name until you had tested your supernatural agent further, but the gentleman you attended having obtained the name from father, there is no reason why I should refuse any longer. But I will carry out my design and request you to apply the test, to satisfy yourself as well as our Family that the information you have from the spirit and did not come from the Daily paper, that contains the announcement of the Death of my brother."

The author goes on at length to test the spiritualist by means of middle names and more: "Each of us except Father + Mother, have a middle name and Albion was so familiar with the initial that in mentioning our names in conversation he would most likely use the full name - the middle letters were omitted in the advertisement, on account of it not suiting some of us who are very particular in small things, in one paper mother's name was printed, omitted in the other, now judging from Albion expressed regard for his Mother so often, repeated were are sure that in names the members of the family he would never omit mothers name, or the names of my sisters one of whom any member of the family dead or living who dares to forget or pass over in silence may his pernicious soul not have a grain a day. If my brother disappears before you, he would have named all nor left the best + dearest unmentioned. Now if you can call "spirits from the vast deep" learned from your circle whatever its controlling power may be, the names of Mother, my sisters, and our full names. You may be the deceiver party, your mind played some motive or other. This may open your eyes and show you that natural causes perverted from their true course by trickery with design to deceive maybe made to appear supernatural and having mental blinded you [to] keep you groping on in the dark until the end." 

Spiritualism and interest in contacting the dead were at the height of popularity in the 1860s. This letter provides a fascinating look at the skepticism of a family member when confronted with the possibility of communication from their dead brother. 

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La Chine, illustrée de plusieurs monuments tant sacrés que profanes et de quantités de recherches de la nature et de l'art. Amsterdam, Jansson van Waesberge et héritiers Weyerstraet, 1670. In-folio, vélin ivoire à recouvrements (Reliure hollandaise de l'époque). Première édition française de cette remarquable synthèse de l'érudition européenne du xviie siècle sur la Chine. La traduction de François-Savinien Dalquié est augmentée des réponses du père Johann Grüber et d'un dictionnaire chinois-français. L'ouvrage avait d'abord paru en latin en 1667, chez le même libraire hollandais, qui a dédié cette édition française à François-Michel Le Tellier, alors surintendant général des postes et relais de France. Superbe illustration gravée en taille-douce, comprenant un titre-frontispice, un portrait de l'auteur, deux cartes et un grand tableau épigraphique dépliants, 22 planches hors texte et 55 figures dans le texte, couvrant l'ensemble du champ étudié par Kircher : idéogrammes et écriture, costumes, histoire naturelle, religion, monuments, etc. Le jésuite Athanase Kircher (1602-1680), esprit d'une curiosité universelle qui s'est intéressé notamment aux langues orientales, à la cryptographie, à l’occultisme et à la Cabale, traite dans cette somme très importante de la géographie, de l'histoire naturelle, des coutumes, des pratiques religieuses, de l'écriture, de l'architecture de l'Empire du Milieu. Attaché à mettre en lumière le rôle des missionnaires chrétiens en Orient, le polygraphe jésuite entreprend de démontrer la présence, assez surprenante, de la foi chrétienne en Chine dès le VIIe siècle en interprétant une inscription nestorienne trouvée en Chine en 1625. Agréable exemplaire relié en vélin hollandais. Des bibliothèques E. Colas de La Noue et du château de Fumerault, avec ex-libris. Rousseurs assez prononcées. Sommervogel, IV, 1064 – Cordier, Bib. Sinica, 26.

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with some additions of "Occulta naturae miracula" printed by Plantin in 1567, itself an enlarged edition of "De occultis naturae miraculis libri II", first issued by Guilielmus Simon in Antwerp in 1559. The Zealand physician Levinus Lemnius (1505-1568) studied at Ghent and Leuven before becoming active in his native city Zierikzee. This book is a compilation of medical and dietetic problems for a wider public. With on pp. 3-5 a letter to Ortelius from Plantin. - Ref. Voet 1514. - Cockx-Indestege & De Nave nr. 61. - Adams L-418. - Pettegree (NB) 18869.

Artist or Maker

LEMNIUS, Levinus

Date

1574