#no joke i googled it for reference and was like IT'S PURPLE???????

[lostxmelody]

art style swap with @good-beansdraws where i STEAL and ROB her art style for my own. we drew in each other's styles, so please check out beans' half of this exchange: here!

(this was very fun!! thank you for indulging in my reckless impulses.)

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

Behold, the thing I said I was going to do! (x) Nobody asked me to, but I did it anyway. Huzzah

If you don't want to share your actual first initial, you can use a nickname or fictional character instead.

I really tried hard to make these sound as plausible as possible per the way Wodehouse usually names things, so I put an explanation of all my thought processes under the cut.

Also, many of the color category placements are based on speculation and best guesses. If you think you could make a case for the color you're wearing being in another category, you can go ahead and put it there. Category justifications and list of canon references also under the cut.

*EDIT: Some new information regarding the way Drone nicknames work has been brought to my attention. I'm appending the following instructions to the nickname section: if you can think of a food pun based off the name you chose, do so, the stupider the better

First names: This is pretty simple, there aren't that many posh British first names. They mostly reuse the same 15 or so over and over. I used this list (x) of canon Drones as my reference to work off of for all names.

Surnames: All of these are either real British surnames (found mostly here) or real British town names (found mostly here). From Googling, this appears to be how Wodehouse created most of his characters' surnames. I generally tried to avoid names that have already been used, with the exception of Phipps, because Plum really seemed to like that one.

When it comes to place names, he tends to be more liberal about making up generically British-sounding shit or swapping out the suffixes of real places. For example, there's a real town called Steeple Bumpstead, but Steeple Bumpleigh is completely fictional. So I believe my instruction above to mash two names together still squares with the Wodehouse school of naming things, Your Honor.

Nicknames: Did you know that it's REALLY hard to come up with random combinations of sounds that a) are funny, b) sound like plausible nicknames, and c) aren't too similar to funny sound combinations that Wodehouse has already used? Because I do now

Most of the Drones just have regular nicknames based on a syllable of their first or last name (Corky, Freddie, Algy, etc.). Rules of hockey nicknames seem to apply. This left me with a fairly small pool of non-name-based nicknames to use as examples. Other categories of nickname include "personal characteristics" (Barmy, Ginger), "random syllable followed by y" (Tuppy, Biffy, Oofy), "random syllables shoved together" (Boko), "food joke or pun" (Stilton, Biscuit), and "random thing" (Bingo). I tried to include nicknames from all of these.*

I first assumed "Catsmeat" was just a random compound word, which is where Fishbowl and Mousetrap came from. On further searching I found out that his middle name is Cattermole, putting him more between the "based on real name" and "smushing random syllables" schools of thought. I kept them in partly because I thought they were funny and also because I can easily hear Bertie in my head telling Jeeves all about his old pal Mousetrap's romantic troubles. I imagine there are good stories behind them.

Colors: As stated above, placements are based on memory, conjecture, and cursory searches of the text. Some are pretty easy; Jeeves likes neutral tones. Some seem more context-based or depend on the specific shade. Pajamas seem to follow looser rules for acceptable colors, so I didn't count them.

Clothing items Jeeves has approved: shirts in light blue, mauve, and "dove colored"; brown or blue suit; tie with blue and red domino pattern; brown lounge with faint green twill (The Aunt and the Sluggard); blue suit with thin red stripe (Jeeves and the Chump Cyril)

Clothing items Jeeves has NOT approved: Blue suit with thin red stripe, confusingly; green tie that gives Bertie a bilious air (The Aunt and the Sluggard); "cheerful" pink tie (Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest); purple socks (Jeeves and the Chump Cyril); scarlet cummerbund that Bertie tries to justify by telling Jeeves he saw someone wearing a yellow velvet suit downstairs (Aunt Agatha Makes a Bloomer (Jeeves wasn't swayed)); white mess jacket (Right Ho, Jeeves, but I don't think it was on the basis of color)

Jeeves seems to endorse blue and red on some occasions but not others, according to mysterious Jeeves rules. Conspicuous bright red clothing is obviously verboten (see: cummerbund).

There's little data available on green. He approved it once in the form of an accent color, but vetoed a green tie on another occasion. Might be shade-dependent or only acceptable in small amounts.

Lavender gloves and spats tend to show up when a character is dressed in formal wear. I take this to mean that it's a normal color for such, but possibly not for casual wear.

I couldn't find anything on orange, so I made a guess. I think it's a good guess.

I could only find one instance of Bertie wearing yellow: in "Jeeves in the Springtime" he tells Jeeves to bring his "yellowest shoes" and "the old green Homburg." Jeeves doesn't voice any objection in the text, but there's no way in hell Bertie got away with this.

The only thing I can find on pink (excluding pajamas) is the "cheerful" pink tie mentioned above. I decided to err on the side of conservatism and assume that all pink is a no-go, but it's possible Jeeves would be less hostile toward a lighter shade.

For expediency (ha) and because the clothing power struggles become less frequent as the series progresses, I mostly limited my color search to the short stories.

I cannot just casually make a fun little meme. It has to consume my life and turn into an entire research project.

And there you have it! Like share and subscribe, ring that bell (ha) etc. etc.

*EDIT: Some new information regarding the way Drone nicknames work has been brought to my attention. While I still mostly stand by reasoning behind the nicknames, albeit a little more tentatively, I apologize to Catsmeat, Oofy, Biffy, Pongo, and Bingo for misclassifying the origins of their nicknames. The former is actually a food pun based on a real name, while the latter four describe characteristics.

Yeah, that's right, my memes have footnotes within footnotes

[deepdreamnights]

Wonka was Just Joking About What he was Going to do With the Black Cloud

And other Jank: A Midjourney Secret Horse preserve.

I've mentioned Midjourney's /describe feature on more than one occasion. It's basically a Midjourney specific clip-interrogator, where you feed it a picture and it spits out four prompts that, in theory, produced something along the lines of what you presented.

Thing is, /describe never really worked.

And that's why I love it. I enjoyed taking random images, /describing them, and then combining the results, which were like this (base image is the wonka meme template above):

1️⃣ wonka was just joking about what he was going to do with the black cloud, in the style of light purple and light orange, stylish costume design, bronzepunk 2️⃣ a man in a purple shirt and hat smiling at a computer screen, in the style of fanciful costume design, whirly, blink-and-you-miss-it detail, gritty elegance, celebrity and pop culture references, glorious, polka dot madness 3️⃣ a beautiful young man who pretends to be waldorf, in the style of purple and bronze, polka dot madness, contemporary candy-coated, clowncore 4️⃣ can you name the top 10 funniest quotes ever?, in the style of light purple and gold, movie still, polka dot madness, groovy, handsome, neo-victorian, character

Beautiful madness across the board, and the results when run (clockwise from top left, 1, 2, 3, 4)-

-are like when Google Translate first hit the scene and it was dumb as rocks, so you could get fun stuff by looping text through multiple translations to get wacky stuff. Eventually all the translators got good enough that stopped working, and no one archived the stupid version.

Which brings us to now, as MJ has launched a better version of /describe. I'll do some posts on its capabilities and improvements soonish (it's brand new), but they told us a month ago it was coming, and I took action.

More than 54,000 prompts worth of action

I can't archive the /describe feature as it was, but I could build a stockpile of prompts before the system changed, and I did. About half of these are ones I /described myself, the other half were gleaned from Midjourney's public creation discords.

These are all fully machine-generated prompts, so they're public domain by definition. All shared on a google sheets file.

Caveats:

They are no longer associated with their base images.

They are organized alphabetically.

As above, what comes out does not always reflect what went in.

Not every prompt generated by Midjourney's bot will run on midjourney without editing as sometimes /describe makes prompts that trigger their prompt censor. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If anyone wants to make a text-diffusion AI that generates prompts using the above as a dataset, go for it. Feel free to show off your results in the reblogs as well.

[roninreverie]

Tiny break from my regularly scheduled fanfic art to draw up some STRQ parents, featuring the Ooblecks.

Strangely enough, it was this post about snail color dyes that made me be like... I need a blue, snail-man named Tek in this story right now... but where?! I never named Bartholomew's dad, and they've got slime-based Semblances, so BOOM! It was all downhill from there!

Spoiler-free versions of my character notes for these guys under the cut:

Phyllis “Merryweather” Xiao Long:

Tai’s mother.

Is kind of the unofficial community leader of Patch's social circles.

Her maiden name is in reference to the fairy from Sleeping Beauty.

Her first name is a RvB reference that started as a joke placeholder and accidentally became permanent. 🤣

Yichen Xiao Long:

Tai’s father.

Ran a dojo on Patch.

His name is based off of Chinese characters “Yi” 奕 , meaning “great: and “Chen” 辰 meaning “early morning/ sun/ dragon of the Chinese zodiac… which is in reference to Taiyang’s own name meaning “great or little sun dragon” (—buuut IDK Chinese so all this is speculative Google searching on my part).

Sheila Oobleck:

Bartholomew’s mother and Phyllis’ best gal pal.

She loves gossip and wears yellow. She crashes any car she gets behind the wheel of.

Her name is PURELY and INTENTIONALLY a RvB reference! Semblance is strictly cosmetic, like Bakugo's mom.

Tekhelet “Tek” Oobleck:

Bartholomew’s father.

Archaeologist, studies ruins. Wears Blue.

Semblance would probably be related to the slime from snail trails. His name is a color Blue, based on a stray tumblr post (see above) I saw about blue dyes, Tyrian purples, snails, and Jewish historical fun facts.

Zariyah “Gale” Rose:

Summer’s mother.

She was kind and gentle, had an angelic singing voice, and baked a mean batch of cookies.

Her Semblance was akin to a “gentle breeze”.

Both her names are a reference to “wind”.

Ryley Rose:

Summer's father.

His Semblance allowed him to grow seeds into flowers just in the palm of his hand (though they died shortly after). If used on seeds in the ground, his Semblance instead helped the vegetation grow stronger and healthier than it ever would have on its own.

His name means “rye clearing” in homage to his Semblance and “growing crops” as a farmer. 

Heron Branwen:

The twins' father.

He is the leader of the Branwen bandit tribe.

His Semblance is "Positive Outlook" - a precognitive ability to alter probability and bring about the most beneficial outcome through visions of differing scenarios.

Ardent:

The twins' mother.

She was said to like tea and birdwatching; had red eyes, an explosive temper, and was good with a sword.

I always thought her Semblance might have something to do with shadow-based teleportation.

Her name is one I use in fics sometimes because it's unique-sounding. It means "burning; enthusiastic, passionate" and I believe is also a shade of Red.

[lugagl]

insert joke about hazbin hotel having a homestuck reference here

ok. starters, ive fallen down the rabbit hole of the other most popular shitstain of a media online aside from homestuck, hazbin hotel. so i fucking pulled up that dumbass pilot from 2019 ok? and i started psychoanalyzing that shit because what else is there to do with free time on a thursday afternoon? right? i fucking guhhhhhhh so i got ot nifty's part again whatever whatever, little pink chick pops out the fireplace starts cleaning shit. she dusts off a clock with the feather duster and im like "haha that clocks purple and yellow in the center, just like doc scratches. just like,, doc scratches.." AND I FUCKING ok first heres the clock

and im like thinking im tripping balls, ok? i fucking google docs just and heroic clock, i pull it up and im like "no.." ITS THE SAME EXACT FUCKING CLOCK.

i mean like down to the fucking detail on the trim. is it a simplified version of his clock? yeah. but dude oh my fuck. homestuck from fucking 2019, the worst part about this (which is probably why this clock is fucking there in the first place) i looked up how long it took the animator to make the pilot, two years. 2019 minus two that sets us at late 2017, which makes it make a hell lot of a load more sense, cause homestuck fucking ended in 2016 a year prior but dude. what the shit. now im looking back at the shitty ass drawing i posted up here of vox as slick and alastor as snowman with horror cause like yeah. fuck all, the chick who made it was a homestuck, of course she was. almost every damn person was online. when i figured this out i promptly ran to my fucking friends and started screaming about it cause theyre all also homestucks and they watched hazbin hotel with me when i pirated it and my boyfriend screamed at me to post it here so yeah. homestuck hazbin hotel shit storm. after that whole thing i was like "pov how they decide wether you get to go to heaven, gotta be heroic or just" and my boyfriend promptly pointed out to me that the one fucking death in the show of the guy going to heaven WAS heroic and now im sat here like what the fuck because this entire fucking AMAZON PRIME SUPPORTED SHOW is just a huge homestuck reference to me now.

[ultimateplaylistmaker]

Genshin Impact

Look the literal only things I know about genshin impact is that one jaidenanimations soundbit that got popular on tiktok and the fact one of my friends got asked if they were a kinnie because they dont like alcohol like two years ago

What even IS the plot of Genshin Impact, I genuinely have no clue

After my deep dive of like 20 minutes into genshin lore below I've got some vague ideas here

Kokichi is a teenager living in Inazuma, however due to his dishonorable nature, tricks, and disrespect for the shogun, he rarely goes into town without a disguise as he is VERY unpopular. He does have a trade though, firework making! He loves making fireworks a lot, and often tries to undercut the more traditional makers with cheaper prices when he does go into town in disguise. His fireworks also make great distracts when he and Dice go to do some shenanigans!

Anyways Dice has a handful of humans but it's mostly made up of the yokai of the nation island thing, as Kokichi has found a kinship in the trickery and more playful attitudes of the yokai, often joking that he CLEARLY is an albino Bake-Danuki actually. He stole a delusion from some fancy looking boring guy who he pickpocketed from and gained electricity powers however using it makes him more paranoid that someone is going to come kill him.

He tries to use it sparingly, mostly for distractions, lighting fireworks, and whatever else he can use to buy a chance to flee. He abhors all fighting, believing any physical fight is only two wrong moves away from a fight to the death, something he utterly despises.

I feel like his main goal is to dismantle the duel system, he finds it utterly horrifying and perhaps even lost someone to it and this further alienates him from the rest of the people. Perhaps someone even tried to challenge him to a duel and he had to make a run for it and that's why he's so distrusting of people? He has some plot point where he has to let his delusion break to save someone and prove that even with his fear he still cares about people so so much and this lets him get an actual proper vision? maybe? I dunno jack shit

I don't know what the playable characters are even doing but i guess he could maybe be one? I dunno, weirdo who lives with the knock off tanukis and thinks humans are dumb violent brutes but he secretly cares so so much

Check under the cut if you wanna see me trying to figure out the plot of genshin

*some frantic googling later*

Okay he definitely a vision

*more frantic googling*

no wait he'd definitely have a delusion instead, he likely stole it, and i feel like it has a side effect of like, making him more paranoid or something? He probably has it on like a ring as a sort of "kiss the ring" mafia reference and also to magical girl pose while he fights and he probably has a plot point where after his delusion breaks he gets granted an actual vision

*more frantic googling*

okay i think when I see crossover art of this people give kokichi electro? and i see no reason to not some of these things do give vague kokichi vibes, honestly didnt even realize this was electricity it was purple so i assumed it was like dark spooky scary energy

this means he's in Inazuma

*more frantic googling*

SCARAMOUCHE AND WANDERER ARE THE SAME FUCKING CHARACTER?! i feel robbed

*more frantic googling*

Okay so its a very samurai esque culture mixed with trickster animals hanging around? I don't think Kokichi would be big about honor and all that I can see him leading a band of misfit like him mixed with some of the yokai that he's befriended by helping them pull some nonsense, he definitely has a clan "seal" he just made one day on a whim and will cry VERY LOUDLY when you point out he made that up

*more frantic googling*

oooo fireworks? Okay, I've got an idea

*more frantic googling*

I still don't know what the plot is

[hectorthedoggo]

ok ok so i looke d at the song and I was confused on the meaning so like I'm sorry if I can't make connections in that regard :(

but but the symbols in here!!! The phone's transferring, basically (to my understanding) representing the transfer of data but it's all going to es in the end cause that's what we do :D I

THE BELLFLOWER. THE BELLFLOWER. (i went on a google search like purple flower that points down and kinda looks like a rose. i do not know flower names) BUT LIKE I DID SOME RESEARCH AND HOLY MACARONI. IT'S A LOW MAINTENANCE PLANT. it just needs full sun (depending on the climate). I love how the flowers are flowering but the stem isn't green like they're so resilient affsaoiewjl ( I may be looking too much into it.) anyways MORE on the bellflower: it's connected to the rapunzel myth. it's the other part of what Rapunzel's name was based off of and I oiafjalk. the website I found kept highlighting that they don't need much care and that's so BAD. also the fact that it symbolizes everlasting happiness and care you have killed me

anyways. continuing on. ANOTHER FLOWER (you did not expect me to come in with the flower symbolism but jokes on you I LOVE flower symbolism). "It is often seen as a symbol of faith and devotion, radiating positivity and hope." according to google. "they show how mighty a little faith can become." "It is often seen as a symbol of faith and devotion, radiating positivity and hope. " YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT YOU ARE DOING HERE. FAITH. ARE YOU KIDDING ME. THE FACT THAT ES IS FACING THE SAME WAY AS THE FLOWERS, SHOWING THAT THEY ROMANTICIZE AGHJFJDFSOI

the strings. puppet motifs. how they're all wrapped around the phone. oh you little-

I'm not sure what the red hands represent exactly. i searched it up and it was some sort of symbol about being a good leader in the 13th century so uh idk BUT I did use to play omori so if that's a reference to the red hands in omori always bringing them back to their central White Space and escapism then THAT'S ACUTALLY CRAZY.

nnow the subject of the painting itself. Es milgram. they got the strings all wrapped around them like a good puppet. including around the neck which is totally not disturbing at all ahahahahaha. they look so hopeless yet still somewhat hopeful. escapsim. also they look beautiful as always

or this could just be a silly little drawing but who knows

一生このまま尻尾の皮一枚で繋がれた奴隷か？

[monarchisms]

i wanted to post both of these in the same post just because ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

at first, i planned to draw joe and BK earlier this month, but i ultimately decided to wait until a bit later so that i’d be more familiar with them in AH content. i also did it because i wanted to fit little jokes and references in their minecraft designs.

so, joe’s mc skin is pikachu from the pokémon franchise:

i could’ve just drawn him in a pikachu onesie, but like the fool i am, i wanted to give myself a challenge. i haven’t played a pokémon game nor watched any of the anime series a day in my life, so i looked up pikachu images on google and just winged it. i picked the ultra ball because it went with the color scheme, and the bolts on the shoes are just the symbol for electric-type pokémon:

a more obscure reference i added is the color of the sneakers. i took the orange from shiny pikachu and just turned down the saturation.

and an ever more obscure reference is that i based the soles of the shoes off of clemont from gen 6:

pretty much everything else (like the cross necklace and the earrings) is just stuff i see joe wear in videos and streams, and the LG logo on his shirt is his twitch icon :)

BK’s skin is blackfire from the 2003 teen titans series:

i’m way more familiar with teen titans than pokémon, and blackfire was my favorite side character growing up. when i was looking for pics to save for reference, i saw that BK has cosplayed her in the past, and i was so ecstatic! i took the choker from this picture because i thought it’d look good with the outift:

and i kept her natural curly hair because i just think it’s cute.

i mixed 2003 blackfire’s design with 1980s blackfire’s design from the original comics:

i really liked the cape and the earrings. i made the cape shorter and changed the palette a bit, and because i didn’t know enough comic lore to know what the creature on blackfire’s earrings was:

i just made it one of the little alien dudes from space invaders:

other than all of that, i tried to keep the palette from 2003 blackfire’s design as close as possible. i had to change the purple of the clothing, shoes, and hair because it was too close to the shade of purple i use for lineart:

the stars on the gauntlets and the fishnet stockings are there simply because i thought they’d look cool, and the nose ring is there is because BK has one in real life. i made it pink so that it’d match the earrings :D

and finally, the background colors i picked for joe and BK’s art are direct references to the intro of pokémon yellow and starfire’s hair color, respectively:

[cryptidmullet]

more renga headcanons bc i miss them

- rekis not one to like. hide his praise or anything he compliments langa a lot but just. every so often he'll grab langas wrist and look at him all soft and say "youre amazing langa" very reminiscent of how langa praises him and it just makes langa feel so fucking mushy and in love

- rekis used to affection from his family but thats kinda it and langas family was never super affectionate but he felt loved still but after his dad died he just felt super lonely but when they meet and start getting super close they both just feel like theyre overflowing with love both given and received and i just thinks that beautiful

- rekis chronically bad at opening bottles bc they hurt his hands and hes always embarrassed but he goes up to langa and is like. open please. and langa does KKFMSMFND

- it gets to the point he'll just go up to him with a bottle and langa will open it without being prompted

- yknow when youre really tired and you feel like youre floating in the ocean reki has that but he feels like hes rolling back and forth on his skateboard

- since he first started skating the movement and feeling got so ingrained in him that he'll be sitting at his desk or laying in bed and just feels the sensation of tick tacking like hes not moving he just can feel it like a ghost in his muscles and brain

- sometimes reki just wants to. stand on his board like not do anything just stand on it so he stores skateboards in his room and when he gets restless he'll just stand on one for a little bit

- reki talks to himself a lot he'll be doing some mindless task and then have a pretend conversation with nobody without even realizing it

- whenever reki cries or gets choked up about smth drinking water for some reason makes him feel better

- reki pokes the twins' bellies and blows raspberries on them to make them laugh :)

- langa cant pick up rice with chopsticks when he first moves to okinawa and reki makes fun of him but still teaches him how to do it

- langa has acne along his jawline its just bumpy and stuff

- reki wakes up and then lays in bed watching videos as long as he can before he gets up 

- he also holds his phone like two inches away from his face

- reki uses dark mode langa uses light mode until reki notices it forcibly changes it

- rekis phone is always at like really low brightness bc his eyes are sensitive

- its battery is also always low bc its an old phone and it takes forever to charge

- he takes a lot of pictures and videos of langa just for no reason half of them are blurry and out of focus and langas not paying attention but he keeps all of them

- he has a bookmark on instagram called 'langa' and its full of stuff that reminds reki of him or he wants to show him later

- langa and reki pair up for a presentation once and when theyre presenting they cannot stop laughing reki says um and pauses for a moment too long and langa does one of those long nose exhale laughs and it makes reki snort and then they keep messing up and barely get through it and when they walk back to their desks they shove each other while the class laughs

- langa has a really cheap purple phone case he got at walmart and rekis like dude thats so boring so he makes stickers for him to stick to it

- langa loves them but he also has this weird anxiety about putting stickers places bc he likes them and doesnt want to eventually get rid of whatever the sticker is on but reki tells him he'll make him more whenever he gets another phone so hes okay with it

- langa doesnt really fidget unless hes nervous and then he twists his fingers around but when hes sitting he rolls his right ankle a lot and his foots like always twitching really minutely 

- reki carries around a hairband partly for his sisters (and eventually langa) and partly so he can fidget with it

- langa carries one around too for the same reason but one day reki forgets it during work so langa gives it to him bc he looks restless 

- and langa kinda feels really bare and doesnt know what to do without it so he just rubs his wrist a lot but he doesnt mind 

- reki will get up to go do smth but just sit down curled in a ball on the floor bc he gets distracted for whatever reason and after like 20 minutes of scrolling through his phone hes like wait what was i doing

- reki has a scar on his lip/chin bc he bailed really hard and hit his chin on the concrete and bit through his lip 

- langas a dry ass texter when he and reki first meet bc he didnt really have anyone to text before

- but eventually he googles how to turn auto caps and everything changes

- hes actually funnier over text sometimes bc hes less restrained 

- hes made a ur mom joke and then was like wait i take it back i love your mom im sorry :c 

- and he points out every time reki misspells a word just to annoy him

- reki scrolling through tiktok and he randomly starts crying at a wholesome video and langas like.. you good man and rekis like look at this FRICKING tiktok dude and then langas crying too KFMSMFND

- obligatory "we make a good team" line idk the context ill think about it later but theyre gay they have to say it

- langa promised his mom hed go to the store but had to do a last minute shift at dope sketch and rekis like oh ill do it for you i already know what you get

- langa has a sweet tooth he loves candy and hot chocolate and all that stuff and reki is lowkey an enabler he always brings candy w him or has a bag in his room

- when reki laughs he wraps his arms around his stomach and hes the type to go silent when he laughs hard enough

- he'll go from standing normally to bent over to crouched down to falling and rolling on his back or side from laughing so hard

- its pretty rare but sometimes he snorts in the middle of a laugh too

- when langas laughing Really hard its loud and kind of wheezy and almost like a cackle and he covers his mouth most of the time just out of habit

- he curls up when he laughs too so he'll be laying on rekis bed or the floor and reki says smth that catches him totally off guard and he starts fucking cackling and brings his knees up to touch his forehead hitting his leg and wheezing

- langa helps reki teach chihiro and nanaka how to ride a bike and the four of them go on little bike rides together occasionally

- the twins pulling on langas pant leg until he bends down so they can whisper gibberish in his ear and the first time langa is like ??? but then he learns to just laugh and nod 

- all of rekis sisters coming into rekis room while langa is there to be like :D langa :D and reki herding them out and yelling we're busy and then just flopping on his bed to continue scrolling through his phone in silence

- reki does the older sibling thing and just stands in koyomis doorway 

- miya makes a meme reference that reki doesnt get and hes like god youre old and it wounds reki on a personal level

- reki has a piece of graphite just like permanently stuck in his leg bc when he was younger his friend accidently stabbed him with it and it broke off and just. stayed there

- reki gets super obsessed with one song for a week or two and he'll listen to it on loop like 10 times in a row and he learns the lyrics to them no matter the language and by proxy langa always has the stuck in his head

[arkos404]

thanks for the tag :DD

Last Song: wrecking ball by mother mother

Favorite Colour: navy blue or purple

Last Movie / TV Show: last movie was either the matrix or the godfather (part of my new year resolutions is watching a bunch of the classics) and tv show, predictably, fionna and cake lol

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: sweet for sure

Relationship Status: bitchless lol

Last thing i googled: references for my last drawing

Current Obsession: prohibitedwish, the lawful joke au more specifically, theyve been living rent free in my head for a solid month with no sign of slowing down

i have a bunch of mutuals id like to talk more too but im too shy to tag anyone lol

Nine people I'd like to get to know better

WOOPS I did not have time to do this for the past like, week but I've been wanting to bc I love silly little memes like this. Tytyty @ithillia for the tag :3

Last song: All Our Bruised Bodies And The Whole Heart Shrinks by La Dispute (It makes me think about Fives and it hurts so fucking much) 

Favorite colour: GREEN!! and also blue 

Last movie/TV Show: TCW of course, I had a Bad Autism Time™️ and my gf put on the fucking Umbara Arc to calm me down. It worked like a charm what the fuck is wrong w me lmfaooo. 

Sweet/Spicy/Savory: All of the above but spice hurts me. I do it anyway tho, mama raised a little bitch but she didn't raise a quitter lmfaoo. 

Relationship status: So fuckin down bad for my girlfriend hhh 

Last thing you googled: fuckjgn AO3 LMAOOO 

Current obsession: clonesclonesclonesclones forever. I haven't had a special interest/hyperfixation this deep since I was like 12-14 so like this is one of the most important things in my life tbh. Specifically like thinking about how their culture would work, and their solidarity, internal conflicts, shared trauma and how that would relate to those things. Their ideas about personal and cultural identity and how that would vary individually. Things like how their upbringing must have felt, how that affected them and who they became later in life, the things they're taught vs what they truly come to believe once they're out on the field, the psychological effects of O66 on the clones who survived and the devastating impact it must have had- Bro stop me or I'll keep going forever like. I'm in deep and tbh? I wouldn't change it for the world. 

NPT: LMFAO bold of this title to assume that I know 9 people on this site, or am brave enough to tag ppl I haven't talked to often fhsjdmksmf SO if you see this consider yourself tagged. Yes, You. idc if we've never talked It's probably bc I'm too baby, so (unless u don't feel like it) do it 👀 also @mamuzzy and @whatislifewithoutangst if y'all haven't already and wanna do this here u go! 

[otteroflore]

spoilers for osmosis jones

my partner and i watched osmosis jones and here is my summary

-bill murray is a good comedian, and funny. he is not funny in this movie

-in the first 5 minutes bill murray begins eating an egg with mayonnaise on it which is the first sign hes eats “unhealthy food” but like. my guy its an egg with more egg on it. eggs are healthy...

-the cars having cilia instead of wheels is creative and fun but i honestly am not sure the average child under 7 appreciates cilia the way i do

-i just feel like if you’re going to make a movie about the body either make a lot of medical references and aim for an older audience who you can teach or just make fart jokes but its like they cant decide

-the movie aims to gross you out all the time

-i feel bad for frank but also hes a terrible father just terrible

-theres like sort of creativity with the designs but imo almost too much homogeneity. The average citizen of Frank seems to be a white blood cell, depicted as a blueish humanoid, or a red blood cell, depicted as a reddish skinned humanoid, but it’s unclear what the mayor and leah are supposed to be since the white blood cells are cops and the red blood cells are just shown like picking up trash or whatever (which is also like, idk why they didn’t involve red blood cells doing smth cool like deliver oxygen and involve the plot). All the pathogens (”germs” but ok) are green blobs except for the main one, Thrax, who has a sharp-edged red-and-black design. Besides being a bit on the nose, it feels like the background character designs could have been a little more interesting, especially given one is labeled a “flu vaccine” who is a cop informant (as a metaphor for vaccines its pretty nice). Since flu is a virus, the informant should look like a virus and thus more like thrax than the other characters who are implied to be bacteria or whatever. it could have lead to some interesting mystery about whether hes a virus or other pathogen.

-the main girl cell character is *purple* for absolutely no reason, it just really irritated me

-the tonal dissonance btwn the animated and live action scenes is startling

-whatever they were trying to do with Drix The Cold Pill wasn’t... enough. i feel like hes supposed to have a buzz lightyear out of his element vibe but it doesn’t work well

-more inconsistent sizing in this movie than in the su episodes people like to bitch about on here

-I googled eyelash sizes bc of this movie and found out an eyelash diameter is like 10 to 100 times the size of a white blood cell so its probably not *that* bad in that scene but i also found out about eyelash mites and now im like well that should have been in the movie. also im upset about it

-also bill murray is just disgusting. this movie is so gross and unfunny it hurts

-its also one of the most insulting / anti-fat movies ever and i’ve seen the farrelly brothers later horrible movie shallow hal. like the movie is so fckin mean to bill murray for eating shitty food or whatever that his daughter implies his mom died because of their diet. it is SUCH a shitty message to tell to anyone! jesus christ!

-such weird classist implications too, like the offhand bit that he got fired from his job at a factory to go work at a zoo with “a ninety percent cut in pay” which like first of all. you need expertise to work at a zoo like i dont want to undermine factory labor but the skills for working in a pea soup factory are going to be very different from a zookeeper. but then also he has a nice 2000s middle class all american home he is somehow still affording.

-but then theres the fact he eats all junk food which is constantly depicted as disgusting and vile and is clearly meant to be mocked by the audience (and his daughter as a stand in for the audience is very upset by it). like first of all... fuck off with rudeness to anyone for how they eat but second of all poor people often 1. cant afford better food and 2. eat junk food bc its the closest thing to a luxury they can’t afford. i guess by giving them the big house its showing that bill murrays character has the choice to afford better food? but then why throw in the bit about his character losing his job and taking a pay cut?

-its such a weird plot contrivance that the end of the movie relies on his daughter wearing fake eyelashes. Like, real eyelashes fall out sometimes they could have just done that. or something else entirely

-the ending cumulates in frank, bill murrays character, flatlining and an incredibly tv-star-telenovela-bait man in a doctors code announcing hes died and then his daughters tears bring him back to life

-actual diseases are so much more interesting than this movie.

-also this movie is not funny please dont watch it

[findingjoynweirdstuff]

Dream SMP Underrated Memories/Moments

Everyone’s always talking about the wars, but I wanted to just gather a list of some of my favorite lesser-appreciated moments that aren’t remembered as much! I’ve been thinking about this list for a while and thought this might be a nice time to post it, seeing as it’s really the start of something new :’)

Just some of my fond memories from the past several months

---

- Shortly after the first revolution, Tubbo announces that he has finally seen Hamilton and understands all the references. He, Tommy and Wilbur then spend like 15 minutes arguing which characters they are. Wilbur explains that Tubbo most resembles John Laurens, and everyone’s like “oh cool” until they remember that that would mean that Tubbo has a tragic death in the future. Tommy says, “Let’s not foreshadow the next WAR, GUYS!” in a joking manner. Haha, very funny Tommy.

- Dream and his parrot. The parrot dies, Dream instantly ends stream, then starts it again and builds a memorial, heartbroken. Rest in peace.

- Sapnap borrowing Spirit only to instantly lose the horse to a creeper explosion, THEN accidentally crafting some leather into an item frame that was meant to hold Spirit’s leather. No wonder Dream no longer keeps pets.

- Theropay and premium bonds

- The original L’manberg war being pushed back a day for Dream’s serious stream, and Tommy reacting to it live in the most hilarious way possible. 

“No, George and I are not dating--” - Dream

“--NOOOOOOOOOOO” - Tommy, immediately

- In the days leading up to the L’manberg war, Tommy builds a fight club underneath the embassy but gets distracted with speaking Dutch to Fundy, eventually leading to him wandering around the Prime Path putting signs down that say “The green bastard shall die!” in different languages, as propaganda to Dream’s viewers who may be able to speak those other languages

- Wilbur asking Dream out on a date with Tommy as his wingman (before he joined the SMP? I think? Not sure), leading to the most infamous conspiracy/plot that would go on to stretch all the way to the ELECTION. New fans...you have no idea how lucky you are to have missed the torture.

- Wilbur and especially JSchlatt joining the SMP in general. Tommy being in awe of his SMPLive heroes. The SMPLive Cuck Shed is replicated in the Dream SMP. Wilbur logs off for what was going to be his last time in the community house, giving Tommy ownership of his ball house. Schlatt is kicked and banned.

- Tommy gives a surprisingly good performance of Macbeth and then Hamilton to Dream while held at gunpoint, winning over Dream’s favor with the power of music. Dream mentions Heathers in game chat, but Tommy doesn’t know what that is. Is there a word that means “unintentional foreshadowing?”

- Tommy and Wilbur construct a park composed of alleyways and drug pits to attract drug dealers and women, instead attracting a mysterious Dream. They challenge Dream to a trivia contest and he loses to Wilbur, then jumps off a cliff in despair. We should’ve known trivia was his greatest weakness. Again, is there a word that means “unintentional foreshadowing??” 

- Tommy is ecstatic at Jack Manifold being whitelisted after the L’manberg war, only for Dream to try and get Jack to join the Dream SMP side instead through bribery and secret-code-filled books...and it kinda worked?

- Fundy gathers obsidian for the new Manberg flag, leading to the hilarious sequence of him desperately trying to google common English phrases that Schlatt says, as he doesn’t know what they mean.

“I’ve taken a few pages out of his book” - Schlatt

*Fundy googling “take a page out of his book meaning”* “Yeah”

“do you know what 'idioms’ are?” - Schlatt

*Fundy immediately googling what an idiom is* “uhhhh yeah yeah - yeah, of course”

- Niki joins the SMP after the L’manberg war. They take down the original Camarvan, and Wilbur performs the L’manberg anthem for the first time. 

- Tommy getting Quackity into a VC to try and intimidate Skeppy (he fails) before asking Dream to whitelist him. Dream promptly does.

- That one day that Quackity felt that Tommy was giving more attention to his new pet Henry than to the cartel, so Quackity kidnaps Henry and forces Tommy to play a cruel Saw-like trivia game to bargain for Henry’s life. Tubbo betrays Tommy and cheers on Quackity for the entertainment. It ends in bloodshed, but thankfully Henry is safe... Yeah, we all just kinda forgot about that day, huh?

- Tommy and Tubbo building the nuclear war bunker

- The birth of Big Law at Fundy’s trial over the mysterious disappearance of Beenis. “Be careful, I’m a lawyer!” 

“What do you do for a living, Tubbo?”

(After proclaiming that he’s a lawyer for 30 minutes) “I paint...sofas”

- Karl joining the SMP, creating a new ugly beautiful Minecraft skin...and putting it on backwards

- Purpled starting his stream right before Eret betrays L’manberg in the war, having no clue of what’s going on. He occasionally joins the VC to hear things without context, and stumbles upon where people are gathered, only to be baffled at what’s happening.

- That early on stream where George texts Dream’s mother that he’s Dream’s boyfriend, and she replies. He and the other SMP members spend an hour going back and forth on how to respond.

- The entire Church Prime stream. Honestly the funniest stream I’ve ever seen, no doubt. I was literally crying tears of laughter at times while simultaneously on edge worrying about them getting cancelled.

- The original Deal or No Deal stream where Tubbo won his Happy Meals

- The hunt for Taco Bell

- Drista. Enough said.

- Fundy joining L’manberg, and Tommy accusing him of plagiarizing the L’manberg outfits due to his crayon suit, only for Wilbur to explain that Fundy is his son. Tommy is, as expected, quite confused.

- Dream giving Fundy and Tommy hundreds of dollars in gifts in the most intimidating and nerve-wracking way possible, holding them at gunpoint.

- Purpled’s fall trap at the Socializing Club causing multiple people, including Dream, Fundy and Tommy to all fall down and die, causing their items to get mixed together, leading to arguments and drama.

- Tubbo’s Stress Relievers

- Tommy and Tubbo, during the Pet War, going up Punz’s tower to defend Fundy. They aren’t in VC, and start saying identical things in chat in Perfect Grammar while in full netherite, ominously looking slowly back and forth at each other, looking like evil twins straight out of a horror movie.

--- Feel free to add on with your own :)

[fear-and-delight-l]

GENDERSWAPPED!LOSERS

HERE WE GO 

JILLIAN DENBROUGH 

-Jill is very avid about getting her sister, Georgia back. Well, at least the killer anyways. 

-Jill has never finished any of her writing, until she is an adult. 

-aRTiSt??

-Jill gives hugs hugs hugs!!!

-everyone wants her hugs. 

-ok, Jill is very sexually confused. Bradley Marsh is good looking...but so is McKenna Hanlon with her pink lipstick and her always good looking pigtails....then there is Sarah Uris, who is so cute with her blonde/brown curls and her little cheerleading outfit. 

-suffers from stuttering simp disorder 

-simp simp simp

-simp? Yes. 

-ok but I think she would like Plastic Hearts by Miley Cyrus lmao

-FLANNEL GODDESS!!! Has flannels in so many colors. 

-”R-R-Riley, stop m-making fun of m-my j-j-jorts.” 

-oh yeah. She is rocking the jean shorts. They either go to around her knees or near the middle of her thighs. 

-shoulder length brown hair. Screams bisexual. 

RILEY TOZIER

-just gonna put this out there, take it as you will, but her glasses make her look like a fish. Her eyes are HUGE 

-goddess or (what is a non-binary god? Godthem?) of dad jokes. But not the corny kind. The kind of dad jokes that include sleeping with him and “riding him like a horse.” 

-”so not fucking funny.” -Edith Kaspbrak, who’s dad isn’t even present in her life.  -yeah, bisexual.  -sexual for Edith Kaspbrak.  -And Sarah Uris

-And Bradley Marsh

-and Jill Denbrough 

-and Brenna Hanscom

-and Patrick Hockstetter (she regrets this. But when Patrick isn’t chasing her with Bowers and Criss and Huggins, she likes to notice that Patrick is definitely good looking)

-crazy wavy hair. Seriously, she wears it in a pixie cut, and it is CRAZY. But she help Bradley cut away his mullet. 

-the friendship dynamic between Riley Tozier and Bradley Marsh is UNSTOPPABLE!

-plays softball with Jill. She is pitcher, and damn is she good. (Jill plays third base, for reference)

-the girls on the softball team sort of like her, sort of not. She’s a loser, and they don’t like her because everyone thinks she’s queer.  -still a trash mouth 

-still a smartass 

-Rildeth? Edithley? Redith?

BRADLEY MARSH

-all right, here we go. 

-POWER BISEXUAL

-He came out to Riley, and Riley came out to him. 

-daddy issues  

-daddy issues

-daddy issues

-anyways, Bradley had a mullet that his dad made him wear, and when Riley helped him cut it....freedom!

-when he and the other losers are going to the quarry, he likes to help McKenna pick flowers so Sarah will have some to turn into flower crowns  

-is totally charmed by Jill  Denbrough. He is a simp for how charming she is. Bravery, art...

-Bradley also likes to draw. 

-Brenna may be totally smitten with him....

-Bradley is the same age as all the other losers, but the losers all see him as older. 

-hates his father, feels weak around him. 

-he and Riley often share cigarettes. (I love the friendship dynamic here.)

-Bradley has little freckles, and when he and Brenna get together as adults, Brenna likes to kiss all of them. 

-Bradley loves to hang with Sarah, and she is such a sweetie. She gets annoyed, but when she is around Bradley, she is calm. 

-Bradley likes to put his arm around Sarah, ALWAYS

-I’m in love

SARAH URIS 

-WE LOVE OUR JEWISH CHEERLEADER LESBIAN

-yes, Sarah Uris is cheer captain. The other cheerleaders are skeptical of her, but treat her ok nonetheless. 

-Sarah Uris is a softie who will tell you to fuck off. 

-bridwatcher. Sarah loves her birds. She likes to sit with Jill. Jill draws birds while Sarah quietly talk about the birds. 

-Brenna loves to play with her curls, braiding them and doing fun styles with them with the help from McKenna. 

-sundresses one day, shorts and a shirt the next. 

-her hair is so nice! Think...classic curls. Google for reference. 

-the cheerleaders don’t go to track meets or softball games. So, since Brenna and Edith are both in track and Jill and Riley are softball players, she goes in her own cheerleading outfit, and even snags one for McKenna, (who isn’t a cheerleader.) and they both cheer at track and softball. 

-must I remind you that Jill is a simp for BOTH OF THEM. AND BRADLEY?? HE CHEERS THEM ON TOO.

-one time Bradley actually got into a cheerleading skirt??!!

-anyways, back to Sarah.  -she loves to give everyone kisses before leaving. Here’s how she gives them:

Jill: cheek kiss, runs a hand through her hair.  Edith: takes Edith’s face in her hands and kisses her nose. Edith sometimes backs up a little when she feels a little panicky about germs, but always accepts Sarah’s kiss.  Bradley: forehead. She ruffles his hair, and sometimes, Bradley kisses her chin as she is kissing his forehead.  McKenna: near her lips. Like, the corner of her mouth. 🥺 Brenna: cheek kiss. She holds brenna’s chin while kissing her.  Riley: straight on the lips. Or the forehead if you song ship stozier. -ok, I am a huge fan of Sarah+Riley....but then there is Edith. Poly??? Possibly 

-anyways, Sarah loves to make flower crowns and put them in bradley’s hair. 

-she and Brenna are very close. If Sarah isn’t next to Bradley, or has Riley’s arm around her shoulders, she is with Brenna, either holding her hand or showing her stuff about plants or birds. She gives Brenna constant praise about the barrens 

-very grumpy a lot.

BRENNA HANSCOM

ok, Brenna is straight. I didn’t change that.  -Brenna thinks constructively, and is a visual learner. Constantly thinks about the future. 

-ok, she is so so so sweet. Likes to wear this cute pink skirt, but only around the losers. 

-POETRY

-She loves to read and wrote poetry. It’s so cute I just can’t aaaah-

-ok, so she’s on the track team. Edith convinces her in 10th grade. 

-HAIR CLIPS! she has them in her hair, and tons extra in her backpack. 

-Bradley loves it when Brenna plays with his hair and puts clips in it. 

-she and Bradley are very good friends. 

-she may be straight, but isn’t uncomfortable when Sarah holds her hand or Riley talks about her gay situation or when Jill tells her she’s pretty. She just isn’t gay but she loves and supports her gay friends. She even kissed McKenna in a game of spin the bottle

-poor baby has body insecurities...

-ugh, she hates Henry Bowers. But she loves ice cream! She likes vanilla because it’s sweet and plain. 

-when they have sleepovers, everyone always has a disc of New Kids on the Block to play for her (AAA!)

-Riley literally swore to protect her. Even though Riley’s sarcasm can be demeaning, she trusts her. 

-Brenna Hanscom, a sweetie that will fight for you.

McKenna Hanlon, the badass vegan who definitely has WAP. 

-ok, I didn’t change her race, she is still black. 

-McKenna is a sign of hope. Everyone feels so uplifted around her. 

-she has this signature pink lipstick she wears everyday the Greta Bowie makes fun of, but she still wears it. 

-she loves bubblegum. McKenna has it ALL THE TIME. 

-inspiration? Yes. She is a goddess. 

-ok, she is so nice, but that gun she has? Pennywise doesn’t stand a chance. McKenna is a fighter. 

-McKenna has these cute little pig tails that she wears with purple ribbons. Jill loves to listen to her talk. 

-definitely the least insane of all the losers, but girl knows how to have fun!

-not a huge smoker, but occasionally will share one with Bradley. 

-the friendship between McKenna and Bradley is impeccable. They are a badass duo. 

-I don’t know what her sexuality is. She definitely doesn’t. Although she and Jill got caught making out in a closet. They said it was no strings attached....suspicious.

-she is indeed vegan. She just has a special love for animals and can’t bring herself to eat them. She isn’t protesting everyone to go vegan, she just eats how she wants. She occasionally slips and goes for ice cream though😉

-at the rock war, after she recovered a little from Bowers, SHE BEAT HIS ASS!

-my queen, gosh I love her!

-she is so much fun to be around. One time, in the barrens, she installed a swing so she could sit in somethin because Riley and Edith and Sarah are always in the hammock together. (It’s bound to break). 

-need a therapist? She’s ya girl. 

EDITH!!

-ok, so this looks very soft girl, but Edith is fiery!  -her mom makes her worry a lot about disease and what not, but her anxiety about what her mom may do is worse. 

-seriously, she is scared of her mother. She doesn’t even know if her sickness are real. 

-anyways, don’t fuck with her. She will bite you. 

-no seriously, she will bite you. One time in a fight with Hockstetter, she bit him. She was worried she might have gotten something in her mouth, but Sarah calmed her down.  -she may bicker with Riley, but really, she loves her. Her and her stupid glasses, 

-anyways, she is a sweetie. She runs track, but as long as Riley is waiting on the sidelines with her inhaler at the end, she is alright. 

-someone give this girl a hug. 

-internalized homophobia towards herself. 

-she and Bradley are good, they just aren’t as close. Edith is closest with Jill. 

-Edith looks up to Jill, big time. 

-Edith hates her mom very very much. 

-she wears cute little tops with shorts or skirts. Occasionally she will wear overalls. 

-fuck greta Bowie campaign? Yeah, Edith started it.

-Fanny pack! She has an extra pair of glasses for Riley, Bobby pins for Sarah, an extra pen or pencil for Jill, a mini stick of Bradley’ favorite deodorant, hair clips for Brenna, and McKenna’s favorite bubblegum. 

-Riley calls her Eds. She hates it because it sounds like a boy name. She hates it even more when Riley calls her Eddie. 

-kisses tears away. Crying? She will kiss your cheeks and wipe those tears away. She did that when Brenna got cut by Bowers. 

-inhaler? Yes. It’s her little beacon of safety. 

-ice cream and comic books with Riley, bird watching and flower crowns with Sarah are her favorites! 

-doesn’t know her sexual preference, she’s just not straight. 

-butterflies always land on her when she’s outside. One landed on her nose once and Riley and Sarah started rock-paper-scissoring for who got her. (That was long forgotten since Riley is a sore loser.)

-my baby has long hair is very slight waves. It goes down to her breasts. 

-likes to wear Jill’s Flannels. 

-OK SHE IS SO CUTE IN A PAIR OF BAGGY JEANS AND A TANK TOP, WEARING SOMEONE’S JACKET OMG

-Edith is cold? Never. She always has someone’s something, whether it’s McKenna’s iconic leather jacket or Jill’s flannels

................................................................................................................................

Ok! Those are my headcanons. Feel free to repost, I don’t give a damn. If you want drawings or more headcanons of them, I am always open. I had this posted on my old account but that got taken down....I was previously coffeeandweasleys

@im-a-rocketman​, @nate-isnt-great​ @imreddieimreddieimreddie​ @ur-not-reddie​

[purgatoriorpg]

admin c-senpai, please, if it’s not a bother, can you please give us some writing tips? you’re so talented, I’m literally shocked, no joke, your writing is flawless!!!! The aesthetic??? On point

Anon, this is so lovely of you to say. Thank you!! It depends on what kind of writing you’re talking about as I find depending on the format or purpose, your approach and style can change dramatically to suit those needs. But in general, here are some things off the top of my head that have helped me over the years:

PRACTICE: I hate the cliche of this but truly practice makes perfect. I’ve been writing or roleplaying in some shape or form for 10+ years. No matter how long or short the writing was, or how objectively “good” or well thought-out, everything I’ve ever written has helped me become a better writer. Writing is a craft and a skill, the more you do it, the more you’ll grow and learn how to be even better. Write badly, begin with self-forgiveness.

VOCABULARY: I don’t know if this is still considered a taboo anywhere? but I write with Google Thesaurus always open. Not because I deliberately want to write ‘purple prose’ or sound more elevated but because my short-term memory doesn’t always contain all the vocabulary that I actually know and sometimes you need a different / unique / more interesting word to articulate what you want to say in a sentence. I love finding more interesting ways to phrase a particular sentence — especially if it adds dynamism or rhythm to the sentence / imagery / moment. I also used to keep a list of favourite words / phrases that I would refer to for inspiration, collect your own favourite words and sprinkle them in your writing for flavour. 

VARIATION: One of the easiest ways to make your writing more interesting and readable is to vary your sentence structure and style. Each sentence has a rhythm and sense of beat — if you were to read it out loud, what would it sound like? Using longer words, longer phrases and clauses will lengthen the feeling and emotion whereas shorter, sharper sentences and simpler words will strike closer to the heart. The best examples of this are where poets and authors will drop in a short punchy three or four word sentence (or even just a single word) to punctuate a verse or paragraph. It’s where they put emphasis. Use structure to build momentum and atmosphere, and also to hit hard and fast when you need it to. 

REFERENCES: Everything I’ve ever written has been full of references to all my favourite things — mythology, divinity and biblical lore, classic literature, etc. It’s also an easy way to craft metaphors and imagery that immediately create associations in your audience’s mind. This is basically where having a place where you collect your inspirations and favourite quotes comes in handy. Also Pinterest boards, Spotify playlists, etc. 

STRUCTURE: This depends on what you’re writing but even in roleplay where things are spontaneous and unplotted, I always try to go into a thread with a rough idea of what I want my character to have said / felt / done by the end of the interaction. It might be down to my Capricorn Moon but I love structure, I love having things plotted and planned down to the very last detail. Roleplay interactions don’t fit perfectly into this formula because you want to use your chemistry with your partner and let your characters’ imaginations run wild, but you can have an idea of the ‘end goal’ of the thread, i.e. the point that you need to arrive at by the end. I approach all roleplay ideas with this question: “What needs to happen at the end of this event / scene / thread?” So even if you don’t know what exactly will happen, you know what the end point is and how you get there will just unravel organically in real-time writing.

IMAGERY: Imagery is probably the thing I’ve spent the most time unconsciously perfecting and refining throughout my time writing and roleplaying. Every character I write has a specific aesthetic and set of references I’ll call on and repeatedly use throughout their writing, e.g. an actor or dramatic character — Shakespeare, plays & theatre, tragedy; the head of a crime syndicate — war, blood, divine violence, biblical references; a young prince — the Trojan War, Greek mythology, sun imagery; a doctor — surgery & death, the Reaper, flowers & immortality. This is one of the ways I paint a specific image and vibe for my characters that translates through to everything I write — metaphors / similes / analogies / everything that goes into a response becomes infused with those particular references and aesthetics. I also really like using specific occupations, disciplines or hobbies to explore a character’s mindset and terminology e.g. science, engineering, music, medicine, astronomy, art. A musically inclined character doesn’t merely pause, they’re resting between beats, their silences are interludes, or a conductor’s wand hovering in the air before the next movement, their movements are a violin bow singing through the air, their laughter is a cadenza, their grief is an elegy or a requiem. You can do the same with literally everything — scientists that are obsessed with the stars, or death, or immortality, or nature; engineers that approach everything like a schematic, a problem to be solved or deconstructed. Your character’s worldview frames the unique language you can use and the way you describe them.

MOTIVATION: My final bit of advice is probably something I’ve arrived at and become clearer about in more recent years, which is, understanding your character’s root motivations. To write a really compelling and interesting character, you need to know what drives them and what makes them tick. This is why in the application for this roleplay, the first thing I ask is the Impetus. What would your character kill for? What would they die for? Push them to the extreme, and dig deep into what their core is. When you know this, it informs everything you write about that character. They have purpose, they have a reason to do XYZ. Every character in a story needs purpose to be interesting, otherwise they’re just floating around without meaning. Even characters that lack purpose want something, and that something should shape their actions and development. Ultimately, knowing what your character wants outlines their ‘plot arc’ in your story or roleplay. Their goal is what they will achieve at the end. They will experience obstacles, develop / progress / regress, and encounter allies / antagonists on their journey to achieve this goal. Whether you love or hate a character, someone with a strongly defined purpose and motivation will always capture people’s attention.

[105ttt]

Hi sorry if this was already asked before but could you explain a little further abt the things devsis has done?? I haven’t heard abt a lot of the stuff you mentioned I don’t mean to sound rude or anything I’m just genuinely wondering

I can tell you mean it genuinely, it’s okay! I’m happy to answer because you want to know. I’ll go through everything I said.

The Valentine’s 2021 fanart video, posted on the official CR YouTube channel, is a compilation of fanart drawn for Valentine’s Day that fanartists submitted. Some of the art submitted was chosen BY DEVSISTERS and put in the video, but not all art made it in. Two pedophilic ships, Red Bean x Snow Sugar and Roguefort x Walnut, were featured in the video. Red Bean x Snow Sugar was featured TWICE. Snow Sugar and Walnut are confirmed to be children while Red Bean and Roguefort are HEAVILY implied to be adults. Devsisters allowed the pedophilic ships to be shown in a fanart video for a holiday primarily about romantic love, therefore putting their seal of approval on these pedophilic ships. Despite fans saying it should be taken down, the video is still up as of today.

Related to the video and Devsisters’ promotion of fanart on official Twitter accounts, they are known to promote fanart that whitewashes the Cookies. This applies to not only Cookies like Cocoa and Mint Choco, who are clearly black, but also Cookies that are tan, like Alchemist. This approval of whitewashing has been going on for literal years, and when an artist was called out for a piece that Devsisters promoted, Devsisters sided with the artist and claimed that they should be respected rather than made to understand why whitewashing is bad.

Both the Dreamy Cookie Land event and the 2021 April Fools GingerBrave Trial contain sections that are known to harm photosensitive people by either giving them seizures or seriously hurting their eyes and causing immense discomfort and pain. While Devsisters altered the maps in Dreamy Cookie Land to make them less likely to hurt these people, the 2021 April Fools Trial has not changed. Devsisters should have made sure these maps were safe BEFORE publishing them to thousands of people (or more).

Devsisters misgenders its own characters on official Twitter accounts and in game notifications. Squid Ink Cookie was referred to as “she” on a Puzzle World Twitter post, despite this Cookie never having pronouns anywhere in the game. Mocha Ray Cookie was referred to with “she” in a game notification despite having no pronouns listed anywhere in the game, including cutscenes. Devil Cookie was referred to with “he” in a Twitter post despite the game canonically using only “they/them” for them. In addition, a statement from the Thai branch of the Devsisters team claimed that you can use any pronouns for a Cookie since they are born sexless (and they conflated sex with gender). This gives transphobes the “right” to misgender canonically nonbinary characters. Lastly, before the Guild update and before OvenBreak, Dark Choco and Cinnamon had no pronouns. After the Guild update, Cookies referred to Dark Choco as “he”, and in OvenBreak, Cinnamon’s Story uses “he” for them. This erases two canonically nonbinary characters, as cis people will see “he” being used for them and assume they are male rather than he/they nonbinary people.

Devsisters is not subtle about their homophobia, as well as their goal of appealing to cishets who hate gay people. They show their homophobia in how straight ships are treated compared to gay ships. Firstly, in the Valentine’s fanart video, there were mostly straight ships. I believe I counted only 4 or so gay ships, and 3 of these were either selfcest or pedophilia. Despite the majority of the art being shown being heterosexual, many people who regularly follow the CR tag on Twitter and Instagram claim that there was a lot more gay ship art submitted compared to the proportion shown in the video. The gay ship art shown was also ambiguous enough that cishets who hate gay people wouldn’t get mad at Devsisters, while some of the heterosexual art was blatantly romantic. Secondly, the treatment of ships like RaspRose and PrincessKnight, popular straight ships, is much better than the treatment of popular gay ships by Devsisters. For example, RaspRose got a merchandise item in a set of cups that also featured a cup with Sea Fairy and Moonlight and Orange and Lime. The RaspRose art on the cup is explicitly romantic. The art on the Sea Fairy and Moonlight and Orange and Lime cups are ambiguous or platonic instead, despite both of these ships being historically far more plausible and popular than RaspRose. Finally, Devsisters has been gaybaiting with Madeleine Cookie and Espresso Cookie in Kingdom, but they refuse to make them canon because that would be gay. Gaybaiting is homophobic in itself for using gay people as a way to advertise something without fulfilling the promise of gay representation. It’s also worth mentioning that they once gaybaited with Milk and Purple Yam on Twitter, but the art shown was not romantic at all, and only the caption hinted at a ship (and the caption was vague enough to be interpreted as the Cookies merely appearing in an art piece together).

Multiple black CR fans have spoken out and said that Purple Yam Cookie is a racist caricature of black men, ESPECIALLY when he is juxtaposed with Milk, a white man. Indian and Middle Eastern CR fans have spoken out and said that Yogurt Cream Cookie and Lilac Cookie are caricatures of Indian and Middle Eastern people. These are not debatable. Google the history of the portrayal of black men in non-black media, and you’ll see what I mean for Purple Yam. The evidence that Yogurt Cream is a caricature comes from the very fact that people compare him to Aladdin, specifically Disney’s version of the tale, thereby showing that their only exposure to Indian and Middle Eastern people is stereotypes in white media. Note also that Dark Choco Cookie is the stereotype of a solemn, lonely, strong black person, and this has leaked into the fandom so much that people draw them unrealistically buff and mostly draw them suffering from angst instead of having any actual character.

There was an IRL sex crime in South Korea perpetrated by a club called the Burning Sun, and a certain Guild named itself after that club and changed their usernames to the names of the people who committed these crimes. They were only forced to change their names by Devsisters AFTER people protested. They were NOT forced to disband the Guild or banned from the game. Keep in mind that these people named themselves after a REAL-LIFE SEX CRIME that harmed REAL WOMEN AND GIRLS, and the only punishment they got was a forced name change. Fuck Devsisters.

Lastly, the trigger joke. Back when Ion Cookie Robot and Cyborg Cookie were new, the official CR Twitter account made a Tweet captioned as “triggered”, and below that caption was a GIF of Ion Cookie Robot becoming angry and shifting to their Red Dread Costume, thereby implying that Ion Cookie Robot was “triggered” and became unreasonably angry. This was posted during the time when ableists were using the term “triggered” as a “meme”, which harms people with PTSD. The Tweet was deleted, and another Tweet was made that apologized for the previous Tweet, but this was only after backlash from fans. However, notice that Purple Yam Cookie is also a trigger joke. He has PTSD from being burned alive in the Oven for so long, and as a result he is easily angered (anger is his stress response). The game treats this as a joke and minimizes his suffering just because other Cookies were in the Oven (before coming to life). His anger is treated as unreasonable and unwarranted, and it’s treated as a joke. Does that sound familiar? Now take into account that his anger is juxtaposed with Milk’s “kind”, “gentle” demeanor. Yikes.

BONUS ROUND:

DevSam, a worker at Devsisters, once said that GingerBrave had a Costume in LINE that was a “sexy cat costume”. GingerBrave is a minor, and the Costume was literally not sexy at all. Why did they refer to him as sexy if he’s a minor??

Images from an official CR account showed a person dressed as GingerBrave giving gifts to a person dressed as Pink Choco Cookie, a Cookie associated with romantic love. This can be easily interpreted as romantic and is therefore pedophilic because GingerBrave is a child and Pink Choco Cookie is an adult. Why post this at all??

Buttershell Fox referred to Maple Panda with a word that was VERY close to a slur against black people in the original text of the Secrets of the Hidden City cutscenes. This was only changed when a popular Twitter user let everyone know about it and asked people to email Devsisters about it.

I can provide links and screenshots for proof if needed, but please DM me or send an ask to ask for these. I’m definitely forgetting other things they’ve done that are bad, but this already should be enough to raise eyebrows.

[agent-cupcake]

Garreg Mach Café Episode Two: Lucky Seven (Yuri x Reader)

The first thing you learned about him —one of the very few things you knew about him— was that he liked sugar. A lot. You didn’t work the counter most of the time, you just made the drinks. So, you didn’t know who had ordered the heart attack inducing Ruined Sky Strawberry Frappe, only that someone was looking for a cavity. Vanilla bean coffee, three pumps of vanilla syrup, and strawberry puree with ice blended and topped with whipped cream, hazelnut drizzle, strawberry drizzle, and red sprinkles.

The second thing you learned about him was his name. Or, more accurately, his lack thereof. People regularly used dumb names. It didn’t really bug you, there was no shame in entertaining someone who thought making a barista call out a drink for Phun E. Monki was the peak of modern entertainment. Not so surprisingly, you saw a lot of hipster and nerd traffic through the café so references and jokes weren’t at all unheard of. Really, this one wasn’t even that bad. Comparatively.

“Ruined Sky Strawberry Frappe for Arsène Lupin,” you called, turning around.

“That’s mine,” the waiting customer responded. Shockingly, it was not the top-hat wearing gentleman thief who stood at the counter waiting for his drink. Neither was it the dweeb you expected. Your Arsène Lupin —that is, the man standing on the other side of the glistening lacquered wood countertop— certainly wasn’t normal, but not in the way you had initially assumed.

The third thing you learned about him was that he was disarmingly beautiful. He stood casually; his arms crossed with one of his hands resting lightly on his chin as he watched with a half-smile that you would have sworn had a mischievous glint. Waiting to see if the little joke got a reaction, you figured.

Well, who were you to deny him that? Pushing down the instinctual nerves of talking to someone who belonged more in the technicolor light of your two-past-midnight Instagram escapades rather than the academia chic café, you smiled back. “Here you go, Monsieur Lupin.”

That made his lips twitch in amusement, which shouldn’t have been as gratifying as it was. “Thanks,” Arsène said warmly, wrapping his fingers around the cup. It wasn’t like you were intentionally trying to notice, but his fingers were long and thin, the nails neat and manicured. Pretty hands. Attractive hands. You wondered if they were soft, or as strong as they looked, or what they might feel like-

Nope. No. You needed God.

Or Tinder

“I hope you enjoy,” you said, trying to act like you hadn’t just committed some obscene thought crime. He was supposed to leave after that. People got their drinks and either sat down or left. But he didn’t, meeting your eyes with an even gaze. Their violet coloring was striking, drawn out by the purple eyeshadow smoked out over his pale eyelids. The makeup should have been off-putting, you were less than uninterested in the pierced hoard of e-boys that had saturated the modern alternative dating market, but it wasn’t. Not on him, at least.

“This is a cute place,” Arsène said. But he wasn’t looking around the cafe, he was staring directly at you. Which… you weren’t sure if you were to buy into your ego telling you he was flirting or your paranoia that he was laughing at you. “Is it usually this busy?”

Flirting was better, for your sanity’s sake if nothing else, so you smiled, doing a quick check to make sure you weren’t missing any customers. The guy working the register was looking at his phone under the counter.

“You know, you shouldn’t pick such an obvious pseudonym when you’re canvassing a business,” you said playfully. “Charm will only get you so far.”

That made him laugh, his appraising eyes sparkling with amusement as he stabbed a straw past the whipped cream of his drink. “In my experience, charm will get you anywhere.”

“For you, maybe,” you allowed, feeling a little more emboldened by that response. Lowering your voice slightly, you leaned in as if to conspire. “I guess the real question is what you’re stealing, Monsieur Lupin, hearts or jewels?”

“Jewels, usually,” Arsène told you without missing a beat. “I have no need to steal the hearts.” He shrugged one shoulder carelessly, casually. “I collect enough of them as it is.”

A corny, over-confident line like that should have made you laugh. Unfortunately, you kind of believed it. So you raised a skeptical eyebrow. “That goes against the spirit of being a Phantom Thief, doesn’t it?”

“Why, do you want me to steal your heart?” Arsène asked. He didn’t sound serious, exactly, but neither was the question joking enough to keep a flush from crawling up your cheeks.

“Baristas don’t have hearts,” you told him theatrically, rejecting your silly reaction. “It’s a void of caffeine, student debt, and the disappointment of our parents.”

Arsène was about to respond when you heard the door jingle open. You turned, looking over your shoulder at the customers who had stepped up to the register. “It looks like you’re needed,” he said, following your eye line.

“Yeah,” you said, feeling a strange stab of disappointment. Which was dumb. A little bit of banter with a handsome stranger was nice, but it shouldn’t have been anything else.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” Arsène said, smirking in a way that made you think he’d seen your dismayed reaction. “Thanks for the drink.”

He raised the cup like a toast goodbye, and you wished him a good day. It was completely ridiculous, but that quick and strange interaction played on loop in your head for the rest of the day. You went from embarrassed, to amused, to insecure, and back again dozens of times. By the next day, you weren’t sure what to think about it and you hated to think that you were watching for him, but-

Well, you were.

The fourth thing you learned about him was that he had a schedule, a specific time slot that seemed to be allocated to getting an overly sugary drink at your little cafe.

“Noa Fruit and Caramel Macchiato for Mr Pink,” you called, already expecting to see his smile based on the name alone. Not that the preparation did a whole lot in lessening the effects. Today Arsène, or Mr Pink, wore a dark striped button up tucked into black pants. The top buttons were undone, showing off the elegant column of his neck and the framing lines of his collarbones. His skin was so pale, like it had never seen the sun, the color perfectly even and milky.

“That’s mine,” he said. Redundantly. Of course it was his.

To think that you’d done your makeup with more care than usual today was embarrassing, but you were glad for it as you passed the drink to him. “Reservoir Dogs, right?” you asked, forcing yourself to not be flustered.

“Very good,” he said in a voice that was borderline condescending.

“You thought I wouldn’t know? I serve coffee in downtown, knowing Tarantino is practically a job requirement,” you said. Arsène laughed warmly, a sound that was somewhere between amusement and mocking, a sound that invited a mess of fluttery nerves to dance around in your stomach which you covered with a smile. “Mr Pink, though… he’s a long way off from being a gentleman thief.”

“Let’s just say that I’ve fallen from grace,” Arsène said, his smile an odd combination of mirth and mystery. “Lupin is... more of an ideal. Reality is hardly ever so romantic.”

“Cheers to that,” you said wryly.

“Although if I had to emulate one of them, I’d far prefer it to be the gentleman,” he said, dropping a few dollars in your tip jar. Cheeky. “Thanks for the treat.”

“Oh… Yeah,” you said, not even thinking to point out that it was your job. Unless he wasn’t talking about the coffee, which was even more baffling. “Have a nice day.”

After that came a lineup of sugary drink orders under the names of famous thieves. Some references you knew immediately, others you had to google later. And always, always, he just about made your heart stop with that smile.

It was… Maybe a week later? Your Arsène had become something like an expectation. Which was ridiculous. And stupid. But it was true, and he hadn’t been in the day before which affected you far more than you dared admit. Seeing the familiar purple head in the lineup of waiting customers was more relieving than it should have been.  

A Vanilla Wyvern Wing Latte for Danny Ocean, this time. Unfortunately, there was a swath of customer’s orders that needed filling so you couldn’t give it to him personally, sliding it across the counter before rushing back to the blender. That kind of disappointed you, especially since you hadn’t seen him the day before, until you realized that he had taken a seat along the bar, writing something in a notebook and sipping on the creamy white latte.

Waiting for you? Pushing down the spark of excitement you felt about that, you finished up the orders. After that, you took a breath, grabbing a rag to at least seem productive as you inched towards him.

“You’re awfully far from Vegas, Mr Ocean,” you said. Although you called him that, you still thought of him as Arsène Lupin. Your Arsène.

He looked up from his notebook, the end of his pen pushed against his lip in a distracting way. They were so pink. And shapely, his top lip curved by a perfectly symmetrical cupids bow that no amount of lip kits could falsify. And… And you were staring. Again. He obviously noticed, what with the way he grinned when you forced your eyes up to his, but he gracefully didn’t point it out.

“Casinos are nothing more than a party trick,” he told you lightly, flipping his pen through his fingers before letting it drop to the paper. “I’ve got my eye on something far more valuable.” His eyes were burning into yours as he spoke.

That was the fifth thing you learned about him. Arsène could make anything sound like a double entendre. You thought of yourself as being somewhat difficult to ruffle, but even the most innocuous of comments from him could make your cheeks warm. It was the tone of his smooth, lovely voice. Always speaking under his breath, or low enough that you found yourself leaning in.

“Jewels, right?” you asked, playing it cool because you refused to fall prey to what you knew was a purposeful attempt to throw you off balance.  “I heard there was an exhibit coming to town.”

“I’m not really interested in that sort of thing,” Arsène said with a little wave of his elegant hand. “You know the reprehensible means they use to get them, don’t you? So beautiful... but stained with blood. Not too dissimilar from myself, I suppose.”

That momentarily tripped you up. He sounded so genuine, even with the little quip of a joke. Most people couldn’t pull off saying something so nakedly edgy. Maybe it only worked because he was pretty, and you were a fool. So you just smiled. “You really ought to work on this whole subterfuge thing.”

Arsène’s eyes met yours. So intense.  “And how would you recommend I do that?”

“Misdirection,” you told him, refocusing on wiping up the counter to avoid his gaze. “The names are bad enough. You’ve gotta at least pretend to be an upstanding member of society, right?”

“Do you think I’m not?” he asked lightly, his head falling to the side, hand braced against his cheek casually. “And here I thought I was perfectly amicable.”

“Oh,” you said. Did he sound offended? You quickly backtracked. “I didn’t mean to imply that I don’t think you are, it’s just that what you said-”

“I’m kidding,” Arsène said, the slightly concerned expression slipping from his face like an easily discarded mask.

You winced, internally kicking yourself. “Ah, sorry.”

“Don’t worry. That was cute,” Arsène said with that oddly infuriating unreadable grin and shutting his notebook to stand up.

“You’re leaving?” you asked, almost confused that he’d wait only to cut the conversation short.

“Haven’t you realized? I’m a wanted man. As much as I’d love to stay and chat, I’ve got things to do,” he said. “Speaking of that, I hope you didn’t miss me too much yesterday. This project is more difficult than I anticipated.”

“That’s fine, it’s not like I expect you to come by,” you said. You lied.

“No?” Arsène asked. He didn’t believe you, that much was obvious. “Fine, then. I’m not afraid to admit that I missed you. I’ll definitely see you tomorrow, though.”

“Can’t wait,” you said. And, despite the half-sarcastic affect you tried to put on, you meant it.

It only settled after he’d already left what he really had said. Missed you. Not for the first time, you toyed with the idea of giving him your number. Then again, maybe you were misreading the situation. After all, you didn’t even know his name.

Still, true to his word, he came around the same time the next day.

This time, it was a Cinnamon Dust Frappe for Garrett. Arsène, or Garrett, was wearing a sweater today in a nod to the rainy weather. Just like everything else he wore, it was entirely in service of his allure, a dark knit with leather elbow patches. White clips kept a section of his hair out of his face, which was curling at the ends. From the humidity? Or perhaps he usually straightened it?

“It took me a minute,” you admitted as you handed him his drink, “Garrett. That’s Thief, right? I have to be honest; you don’t really strike me as the gamer type.”

“I’m full of surprises,” he responded. After a moment, he added, “I haven’t got much time for games these days, but I have some fond memories from when I was a kid.”

“Probably why you’re a criminal,” you said.

If you weren’t mistaken, his eyes widened for a fraction of a second in something like surprise before that was composed into something else, his laughter driving it away. “You might be on to something with that. Video games do make kids violent, after all.”

“So, tomorrow, will it be Ezio? Or Corvo… He’s got a bit of thievery under his belt.”

Arsène scoffed. “I’d never do the same trick twice.”

That made you smile. “I look forward to it.”

After he left, you realized that you’d learned the sixth thing about him. It was such a small and mundane detail, but there was something charming and oddly intimate to imagine Arsène as a kid playing video games.  

The next day, you were working register while helping to train the newbie in making drinks. It was cold. Slushy snow half-heartedly sprinkled down outside, and the heater was desperately trying, and failing, to keep the cafe warm. The repairman wouldn’t come until the following morning. All in all, your mood was rather poor.

Until the door opened and a familiar face stepped up to the counter.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you up here,” Arsène said.

“Desperate times,” you said with a shrug. He smiled at that, looking up at the menu contemplatively.

“I’ll have…” he said, “a Mockingbird Mocha Hot Chocolate. Medium.”

“And who might you be today?” you asked professionally, the Sharpie point poised over the side of the cardboard hot drinks cup.

“Prometheus,” he said without hesitation.

You blinked, caught off guard for a second as you tried to figure out the reference. That was… clever. The original thief. You couldn’t help but shake your head in amusement as you scribbled that on the side of the cup. The newbie already knew how to make the drink, leaving you with nothing to do. The cafe was quiet today, a rarity. It was the poor weather. People dropped in to get hot drinks, but you didn’t blame them for not sticking around. Arsène was dressed for the cold, wearing a white cape coat that was either incredibly trendy or strangely fringe. Of course, it worked perfectly on him. He looked ready to hop into a new age fashion catalog for outerwear.

“From gentleman thief to a gangster to god… Moving up in the world, are we?” you asked to fill the silence.

“On the contrary,” Arsène told you “There’s no power in being a god nobody believes in.”

“I’d definitely believe in you if you could warm it up in here,” you told him. “I’ve been freezing all day.”

“I’m sure I could think of a few ways to warm you up,” Arsène said, smirking, his eyes dancing with mischievous amusement. “After all, I’m the one who stole the first flame.”

A shaky exhale left your mouth, becoming something like an awkward laugh because he definitely had you going for a second and you knew it was on purpose but still. “That’s what you meant. Right.”

He raised an eyebrow. “What did you think I was talking about?”

“Here you go,” the newbie said with absolutely perfect timing, handing Arsène his drink. At least your blush was keeping you warm.

“Thank you,” Arsène said, meeting her eyes. You were pretty sure you saw her swoon, which made sense. That was the most practical response to him, after all. He looked back to you. “Try to keep warm, I’d hate for you to be calling in sick.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” you said. He grinned, wishing the both of you a good day. And you did warm up. By thinking of all the ways he could keep you warm. At this point, even God Himself probably couldn’t do much about your sinful thoughts.

The next day was another cold one, meaning that it was slow. Because of that, your boss had decided that only one person was needed, and you didn’t mind if that was you. Paid hours were always welcome. More than that, and you hated yourself for it, you hoped to see your Arsène. You’d been scrolling on your phone under the register when the door opened. Winter rushed in like it had been chomping at the bit for the chance, called forth with the jingling of bells. Arsène had arrived right on time, wearing that white cloak coat and tall white heeled boots. Snowflakes shined in his hair, quick to melt in the warmth of the repaired heater. By now, you should have been immune. But you weren’t.

“Alone today?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Eerie, isn’t it?” you replied, gesturing to the empty cafe. “Not that I mind, now that the heater is fixed… What will you be having today?”

“A medium Caramel Leclair Latte,” he said.

“And your name…?”

“Yuri,” he said, which you scribbled onto the cardboard.

“All right… Just gimme a second,” you said. The drink was oddly tame for him, and a lot easier to make. You were pretty sure you could whip up a latte in your sleep. He waited without saying anything, but you could feel him watching. The music was too quiet to be a distraction and you were incredibly aware that it was just the two of you which was stupid because the counter practically put you in a different realm of reality, but-

You forced your thoughts to focus on something else, considering the name he’d given you. It was oddly unassuming, at least by the standards of other names he’d given you. You couldn’t recognize it as anything in particular, either. It was Russian. Or Japanese. It being the name of a Russian thief probably made the most sense contextually, but you were drawing a blank as to the specific reference.

“I can’t figure it out,” you admitted when you finished the drink and set it on the counter between you, “who are you impersonating today?”

Arsène blinked, a second of confusion passing before his lips quirked up just a bit. “Myself, actually. I figured it was time to give you my name. You can call me Yuri. Yuri Leclerc, to be precise.”

That was the seventh thing you learned about him. Your stomach clenched. Out of nerves or excitement or happiness, you couldn’t tell. You smiled, feeling something giddy fuzz in your head. “Well... It... It’s good to meet you, Yuri Leclerc.” Yes, you liked that name. It was better than all the others, even better than Arsène.

“The pleasure is all mine,” Yuri replied smoothly.

“So… Is there a reason for this momentous revelation?” you asked.

Some of the mirth drained from his eyes as he slid two of the little coffee straws into the lid. “I’m leaving town.”

The disappointment that struck you was beyond silly, it wasn’t like you had any claim to him. You’d only just learned his name for God’s sake. “Did the police finally catch up with you?” you asked with a smile, trying to be playful.  

“Not yet,” Yuri said. “I prefer to leave before they catch wise.”

“I can never tell if you’re joking or not,” you told him, shaking your head. Sure, he was smiling, but, well, he smiled a lot. It was always unreadable. Amusement at something. Life itself, maybe.

“For your own sake,” Yuri said, his eyes fixing on yours, “you should always assume I am.”

Because that really cleared it up. You decided not to worry about it too much. “But you are leaving, that’s not pretend?”

“Yeah.”

Your heart sank all over again. Stupid, stupid. At least you finally knew his name.

That made for seven things you knew about him. That was enough, wasn’t it? Lucky sevens and all that? Without thinking too hard about it, you grabbed one of the embossed café cards and a pen, scribbling your name and phone number on the back. “If you’re ever back in town or whatever, this is me,” you told him, handing it over. “Or I dunno, I get vacation time. Maybe it’d be fun to take a trip to Almyra or Albinea or wherever gentleman thieves go until the heat dies down.”

Yuri looked at the card for a long moment before tucking it into his wallet, smiling. You felt like you could read this smile, it was warm and friendly. More real than his others, the emotion catching in his eyes, too. “I wonder, do you mean that?”

“Do you want me to?”

“I might.”

“Then I do,” you said with a shrug, like it was easy as that and unsure exactly how much of what you said was strictly playful. It didn’t really matter because it made Yuri smile all over again and the look was fond enough to make your heart seize.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “Until then, do you by any chance watch the news?”

“The news?” you asked, confused by the shift in topic. “Not if I can help it.”

“Well, you should, at least for a few days.”

“Am I gonna turn it on and see your mugshot slapped all over some headline about a bank robbery or something?” you asked, mostly joking. Mostly.

“What would have ever given you the impression that I’d do something like that?” he asked, feigning a tone of offense.

“Steal something?” you asked.

“Get caught,” he corrected.

You laughed, thinking of something clever to respond with. Unfortunately, the door opened to admit a trio of bundled up students, killing the moment before you spoke.

“That’s my cue,” Yuri said, picking up his coffee. “Don’t miss me too much until we meet again, yeah?”

“Only as long as you promise not to forget me,” you told him.

“It’s a deal, then.”

“Goodbye, Yuri.”

“Goodbye,” he echoed, his eyes meeting yours and voice gentle. Intimate, almost. Then he was gone, a flash of violet and white disappearing into the winter cold.

It was silly, but you kept an eye on the news like he told you, curious to know if anything would come of it or if you’d just fallen for a cute guy’s ruse. But, no, something did happen. A huge theft. The jewel exhibit that had been about to roll out downtown had been robbed. Such a feat was meant to be impossible, there was seemingly no way it could have been done. But it had and there were no suspects, no public leads. And, not surprisingly, no mugshots.