#note: this post was accidentally put in drafts a while back and is just now being added to the queue now that it's been found. whoops!

[cluster-b-culture-is]

cluster b culture is sending an ask to a tumblr and then getting scared when they don't respond immediately. like. did i do something wrong? do you hate me? oh god they hate me they're angry at me they hate me

.

[a-cat-in-toffee]

POST WHERE I TALK ABOUT MY HERO OUTFIT DESIGNS FOR END OF SEASON 2 SLASH SEASON 3 PRIME DEFNDERS :33 LONG ASS POST FOR THE RECORD

also I have pictures of their og design in this so. warning for white skinny pd jumpscare /joking

for sake of navigation I'm going in the order I drew them, and the order theyre in on the above image heart emoji.

"Virion" Vyncent Sol up first!! also can we talk about how his hero name is straight up just his name. lol. lmao even.

I HAD THE MOST PLAN FOR VYNCENT GOING IN TBH I wanted something similiar to the origami outfit while still staying reminiscent of his old outfit

I knew I wanted the jacket and I went with the turtleneck so it was the same as Jason's outfit. also Jason has really cool glove sleeve things I thought that was so fucking cool guys. and vyncent is generally from an actual outfit standpoint like... really simplistic? so just ourple pants and boots seemed most logical. I liked the mask and it was in both of his old designs so I decided to stick with it.

and then of course. the belts. there are ten total belts on his outfit jot including the two that would come with the sheath LMAO. plus the two pd colored belts on his boots!! I decided while drawing I wanted them all to have something in eachothers colors cause thats really cute.

i MUCHHH prefer the shorter jacket because of how it shows off the outfit and is reminiscent of his s2 post fauna design . . .

generally had the most idea going into his so there was very little in ways of additional sketching

also the Japanese where Jason's jacket had said Origami straight up just says Knife. I thought that was so funny. ENTIRELY ACCIDENTAL THING his outfit is basically just cantrips but colors flipped LMAO

BUT THATS ALL FOR VYNCENT. next up is (drum roll please)

"Wisperer" William Wisp!!! El wiwi himself. OKAY SO AS YOU MAY NOTICE. THIS IS DIFFERENT THAN THE DESIGN I ORIGINALLY POSTED. I had Not been happy with that one because it felt too cluttered and a little out of character so I ended up redesigning his jacket and redrawing the refs.

WILLIAMS OUTFIT WAS REALLY FUN THO I ended up going with a gas mask like he had in the greyscale arc, hoodie (which will get its own paragraph), cargo pants!! for his cargo and gadgets and gizmos, and then. because it's me and he's william. platformish boots laced with the orlther pds colors.

the hoodie was the thing I had changed in the new design because the old design wasn't william wisp enough for me yknow

i wnjoyed the outfit and it looked really need but it was much more complicated than his original hero suit and didn't really seem like smthn he'd design and wear.

i really liked the wisp belt and wanted to keep that wisp motif, which is why I ended up putting the flames on his sleeves! it looks cool as hell and keeps w the flame designs. IM ALSO SUPER ATTACHED TO THE WISPERER W THAT WAS ON HIS ORIGINAL HERO DESIGN.... so the hoodie has a stylized w.

also dakota and vyncent beads :)

I HAD A.... PROCESS MAKING THIS ONE LMAO. SO THERES A HANDFUL OF DRAFTS

i cinsidered adding stuff to make his outfit like Silhouettes then remebered i haye Silhouettes outfit. the images are out of order but I'm on mobile and can't be fucked to fix it. NEXT UP!!!!!!

"DC" Dakota Cole! only SLIGHTLY better than vyncent just using his name, bro is using his initials......

I CHANGED THE LEAST ABOUT HIS DESIGN HONESTLY. it was very nice to just get to draw Dakota though :)

the most I changed was I made it a bit simpler, and changed the jacket to be more like the Hexpert armor

also made the zipper look like her weird chest thingy....

I REALLY DISLIKE THE SHOES AND THE LITTLE BITS ON HIS ANKLES THOUGH. SO I CHANGED EM. they're now his thing in the others color heart emoji. I'd like to think they all sat down together and brainstormed ways to encorperate eachother into their costumes.....

i also made a little note of the back of hia jacket and I tried to make it look like a jersey

because he played soccer :)

ALSO.... DAKOTA COLE HONEY YOU SHOULD NOT ME WEARING A BELT EITH A BUCKLE. but it looks cool </3 if a little impractical

BUT THATS ALL OF EM FOR NOW..... love these guys.

next I. tackle redesigning this thing.

sighs. I so got this

[katyawriteswhump]

the power of love, part 14

Sorry about Sunday's empty post ☹️ I must've accidentally put a draft template in my queue because I am basically tired and rubbish and life isn’t the greatest right now. Anyhow.... Whoops and really sorry again!

Alternate ending S4: Steve has a habit of surviving near death experiences then getting sick for no reason. And Eddie and those fatal bat bites? After an impossible feat of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from Steve, he’s mysteriously fixed. So, Eddie’s back to being banished, this time with Steve and Robin in tow. Eddie’s healing, but Steve isn’t… and life gets even more confusing, when Eddie develops feelings for Steve, which aren’t entirely unrequited.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 15

(also on AO3 here and as part of my steve whump fic series)

Eddie POV

When neither Steve nor Robin show up after ten minutes, Eddie begins to freak out. 

He, Hopper and El are still waiting for the car, out of sight among some ferns. Hopper’s getting antsy, muttering beneath his breath, while Eddie’s wriggling like he’s got ants in his pants. Which he genuinely might have, though that’s not what’s bugging him:

“Uuuuh, shall I see what’s taking them so long?”

“You do that,” says Hopper. “What’s going on with that guy? He could barely stand! How the hell could he…”

Eddie tunes out, retracing their journey into the trees, calling Robin’s name then Steve’s. Maybe Steve passed out, and Robin got lost searching? Somehow, he doesn’t buy it. A heaviness slows his feet, and his guts twist sourly. 

They wouldn’t just ditch him. Surely? Surely!?! 

Fifteen minutes later, he winds up where he started: “They’re not back?” 

“What do you reckon?” Hopper’s breathing hard and red in the face. Evidently, he’s been running in circles like Eddie has.

“This is for you.” El nudges Eddie and presses a scrap of paper into his hand. “I think Steve left it.”

“What? Where?” Eddie’s stomach clamps tight again. 

Her eyes stretch very wide. “Fell out of your pack.”

Turning the note over in his hands, his fingers stiffen, as if shrinking from the task, bracing for… something. In the event, he gets a literal slap around the face.

“You make me sick,” Steve wrote.

Eddie’s skin burns with the blow. Wow! This is why I never have and never freakin’ will write love songs.

“What does he say?” demands Hopper.

Eddie scans the note one more time, scrunches it in his fist. “I’d hazard a guess he’s gone back to Hawkins.”

“Goddammit! Robin’s gone with him?”

“I think that’s a safe bet.” A wobble in the back of Eddie’s throat finds its way into his voice. Because, boy, is he still processing.

You make me sick. 

What does that even mean? To be fair, Eddie did make Steve sick. More than once. But why the heck write… that. Would suck less to be dumped without a word. 

Thanks for the overkill, man.

“Don’t you even think about scooting off,” growls Hopper. “Your uncle would never forgive me.” 

Oh yeah. Wayne. The only person who ever actually cared about him.

Eddie plonks his butt down on the ground and waits for the car.

…

Steve POV

“C’mon, giddy up,” says Steve. He and Robin make their way along the muddy bank of the stream towards home.

“Is this some kind of race?” she asks. “While I’d forgotten your former life as a douchebag jock, you’re doing a stunning job of reminding me, and… Uuuuugh!” 

“Jesus Christ, what’s wrong this time?” He spirals about, plants his hands on his hips—he’d ditched the sling a while ago. 

She scrubs madly at her lips. “I swallowed a bug! Ugh, ugh, ugh, mega-gross. Eeeeurgh!”

“Maybe if you weren’t complaining, like, constantly, there’d be less opportunities for bugs to get in.” 

“You shut up, shit-bird! I could die of malaria.” She spits into the stream. “Ew! EEEEEEEW!” 

“Ssssh! Hop said the military will be crawling everywhere soon, or—”

“Eddie might hear?” His heart heaves a loaded thud. She looks back sharply, purses her lips. “You know, he could be lost in the wilderness, all alone. Being hunted by evil army thugs. Or bears! Did you think of that when you sauntered off?”

“I did, yeah. I left him a message saying not to follow.” He shades his face from the afternoon sunlight, which shafts between the trees. Also, he can’t look her straight on and say this: “It was kinda brutal, I guess. It was for his own good, right?”

“Oh. Riiiight.”

“You done spewing insects?” he snaps.

“Still heavily grossed-out here. Gimme a minute, ’kay?” She plonks herself on a rock, crumpling forward.

He mops his brow, strips his sweater, and takes the opportunity to check in on his bat bites. They’re still sore, the bandages a bit bloody. Nothing too fresh, though. For the billionth time, his thoughts fly back to Eddie. He hopes Eddie doesn’t get hurt and need healing while they’re apart, and… Holy shit, will he ever see him again? He ties his sweater around his hips, trying to make fumbling hands look casual.

“Steve? You okay?”

“Other than the fact I’m modelling a ‘shoot-me-now-why don’t-you?’ Hellfire Club t-shirt,”—and that I want to punch myself in the face about that moronic note—“I’m good, Robin.”

“You know what? I don’t doubt it.” She brushes her flyaway hair from suspicious eyes. “You’ve gone from death’s door to super-human speed in, oh, I don’t know—feels to me that we’ve been marching for a week. I think it’s been barely an hour.”

“Yeah? We got a long way to go then.” He starts off along the stream’s edge, forcibly slowing his pace. He senses her puffing, panting, then following on his heels.

“Look, Steve, this water goddess who’s pulling you back, whispering in your ear—”

“I can’t actually tell if they’re male or female. Does that matter?”

“Not in the slightest. So, your water… deity. Have they, by any chance, enlightened you as to some kind of divine plan? Or told you exactly where you’re heading?” 

“I got an idea where I’m going, yeah.” To the second place he died, swept away on that blood-red tide—even now, he sees it in his head, like a few frames of a horror VHS stuck on eternal repeat. “Where’s the best place for army generals with dodgy agendas to hang out in Hawkins? There’s never been an army base, apart from—”

“You’re kidding me?” She grabs his elbow, jerking him back. “The Soviet tunnels?” He nods, and her obvious dread has her dropping him like a stone. “No way! I don’t think I can go anywhere near without a major panic attack."

“I’m not gonna march straight in.” He’s already wandering on. Trouble is, now he’s said the idea out loud, it’s become real and terrible. And he’s gotta pretend like his blood’s not congealing to ice. “I don’t know how I’m gonna get in anyhow. I mean, the Starcourt lift is buried under a ton of rubble. I think Hop might’ve know other ways—”

“Oooh, I got a great idea. Let’s go back and ask him.”

“Yeah, real subtle.”

“Steve!” She seizes him again, twisting him around with a furious force. “I know you want to help El, but what can you ACTUALLY DO?” He shrugs before he can stop himself. “Rain? Lightning? How does that benefit us—especially in underground tunnels? Plus you’ve had literally zero time for practice. If we don’t slow down and come up with a decent plan, this is tantamount to suicide.”

“We? Seriously, Robin, I…” His teeth clamp his lower lip. Any moment now, he’ll tell her how terrified he is, how he really, really doesn’t want to get tortured again, let alone die; how the idea of anything bad happening to her is as frightening as any of it. “I don’t think I have much choice.”

“Steve,” she says, gentler now, though her grip gouges into his flesh. “It’s screamingly obvious you’re not thinking straight. You’ve been ill for days and now you’re in a funk, beating yourself up over Eddie.”

He yanks himself free, glares. “That doesn’t make any dif—"

“Bullshit! Trust me, however ‘mean boy’ your literary masterpiece got, Eddie won’t want you to do anything this dumb. Oh, and your resident gender-fluid angel saved your life. They’re not gonna want you to sacrifice it pointlessly.”

He opens his mouth to argue, then shuts it again. He laughs—not a particularly happy laugh, but not totally miserable either. “You win,” he says, kinda sagging with relief. “You got a plan, smarty-pants?”

She laughs with him, equally edgy. “I say we go to Lover’s Lake, wait till it’s dark. If that’s too dangerous, we find some hidden pool where you can practise whatever badass moves you think you got. Hopefully without the puking. It’ll be a bit like Band Camp. But for Magic. Magic Camp. Okay?”

“You really aren’t gonna be happy until I’m a bigger nerd that any of… Shit!” 

He’s been considering hugging her. Instead, he seizes her sleeve, dragging her down into a deep, wet gully. They land with a splash, crouching low, close. She doesn’t complain, because she’s heard what he has.

The distant sound of barking dogs. Likely, army search dogs.

“Dog barks travel for miles, huh?” he whispers.

“Possibly.” She sucks in a scared breath. “One thing for sure—those sniffy wet snouts can pick up a human scent from the next county.”

“We’re in a stream, Robin. They can’t pick up our scent here, right?”

She crinkles her nose, dubious. “Dogs’ sense of smell is pretty amazing.”

“Yeah? Let’s hope this bunch caught colds or something.” 

He’s now the one clutching her way too tight, and he half-wishes he’d ditched her with a bitchy note too. Though, not quite. She smart; he needs her, and she’s really has gotten him thinking clearer: 

“We head for Lover’s Lake. C’mon.”

…

Eddie POV

When the sound of the car engine finally reaches his hearing, Eddie feels almost nothing.

“Don’t move.” Hopper pitches Eddie a forbidding look and grabs El, keeping them low behind the ferns. 

An owl hoots. Despite the hollowness in his chest, Eddie silently cracks up. Seriously? Top secret government goons can’t think of a better signal than me and Robin? 

Hopper’s grip slides to the firearm at his side. He rises slowly. “Over here.”

Peeping between the foliage, Eddie can make out a limo-style saloon with blacked-out windows. A severe-faced woman in lethal stilettos climbs out. “Chief Hopper, I presume? I apologise for the delay. O’Sullivan’s got men everywhere. We must leave right away.”

Hopper, nevertheless, remains stood well off the road with Eleven, not rushing for the car. And Eddie? 

You make me sick.

Steve’s made it simple for him. He should cut his losses and take this chance of escape. Wayne would want him to. Apart from… Eddie literally can’t. What was it that Steve said? Oh yeah. That he was being stretched in the wrong direction. Or something along those lines.

Yeah, I’m feelin’ it, Stevie. 

Nothing supernatural, nothing hinky. You kill me that bad, Babe—even after you turned meanie-King-Steve and dumped me. Oh, and went back to goddamn Mordor without me! 

Gonna trust you had your reasons, and I’m coming anyway.

He turns on his dirt-clotted heels and flees as fast as he can.

Part 15

...

tags: @estrellami-1 @kal-ology @finntheehumaneater (thank you, thank you, thank you!) If anybody else would like to be tagged on this fic or any of my writing, please let me know :) Reblogs, comments and likes also very much appreciated :) Thank you for reading so far :)

(also part of my steve whump fic series on AO3)

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 15

[fairestar]

How do you make your posts so aesthetic im on mobile and literally can't figure this app out😭

with lots of screen time and scrolling through pinterest! all pictures ive ever posted are from there. i love and live for pinterest.

✿ a little tumblr guide :

for formatting your text, just select it and go from there. for the small text, select it and tap the “<s>” button.

for the collages / banners i've included in some of my posts, i go through pinterest, look for pictures that have similar colour palettes, download them and go to this website to make the collage. i don't recommend changing the size of it while on the page because it can ruin your pictures, just work with the predetermined size and once you're done, download your collage and resize it by cutting it with your gallery app.

for coloured text, you can select it and choose one of the fixed options; but if you want a specific colour, you can only do it from the tumblr website. first make a draft of your post, then go to this page to choose the hex code for the text you want to edit (the hex code is the one that's six characters long and made of numbers 0-9 and letters A-F, ex.: #A77BF9), once you have your code, go to this page, write whatever it is you want, select the “solid text” option (if you want a degradé one, you'll need more than one colour code), put your hex code and copy the text at the bottom of the website. now, back to your draft (remember, you can only do this from the website, not the app), click on the little settings wheel at the top right, at the end you'll see something that says “rich text”, open that menu and choose “html”. now, if you don't know about programming, your draft will look crazy, don't worry, that's just the html version of it. go through it until you find the text you want to modify, select it (only the text, not any other thing around it, if you see something like a <h1> or <b> anything with the < > symbols, do not touch those because you'll either delete everything or lose the formatting you might have already applied —if you accidentally delete those when changing the colour, don't worry, once you're done with the colour you can apply the formatting again just as you always do—), and in its place paste the long text you copied from the website. if you want to know if you did it right, at the top of the post there's a “preview” option, choose it and see if your text is good to go. now that you're done changing the colours, go back to the settings wheel and choose the option “rich text” again, so you can continue working on your post. it's kind of a mess, yes. but your posts will be a hundred times prettier. and you will learn the basics of html coding too.

little side note: if you've modified the html code of your post, always go back to the app before posting it and check if it looks okay because changing the html code makes you lose some formatting you might have already done, like organising pictures or adding a “keep reading” button. also, check the attached screenshots for a more visual tutorial!

hope this is usefull ♡ feel free to reach out again if you need help with anything else!

[introvertbard]

MAY 7, 2024: Hey there folks, my preindustrial travel series has reached 6,662 notes as of my last check!

Can you throw a bit of that attention towards my novel drafts? So far they're floating around Wattpad, but I'd love to have these be cleaned up and actually-published soon, and that takes "people reading them and telling others about it," lol.

I have a pinned post about them if you want to reblog that by itself, but here's some summaries and the cover-art photos here!

-

MOONFLOWERS (current link - https://www.wattpad.com/story/324856549-moonflowers ) - The Wild Hunt fucks around with Asian-American Alima Song's family in Ireland, and while everyone has heavy suspicions that they're being targeted for the impending Fairy Raid on Samhain, the Irish gods have a shitty time trying to help because... they're dozens of mounted fairy combatants who cursed a random family that doesn't even live in Ireland. What do you expect?

As of the latest chapter, I remembered that the Wild Hunt pulled off some Red Dead Redemption shit by chasing after Alima's car, and I frantically remembered that most modern people are NOT the Irish equivalent of mounted knights who are 20 years old with 15 years of riding/fighting experience. So now the Irish gods and the Tagalog anito have desperately asked civilian riders and reenactors to help with search-and-rescue for the Wild Hunt's victims.

Trying to get civilian horses to put up with SAFE AND CONTROLLED stunt-riding? It Goes Badly(TM), lmao.

So Alima Song's dad Ned Song will kill the Hunter in self-defense and accidentally end up with a claim to his kingdom. He's a carpenter and knows fuck-all about ruling besides that he killed a king, so Alima takes the throne instead, and she soon gets into a deconstruction of the "rags/middle-class to royalty" trope.

Turns out 1) inheriting a run-down kingdom from a notorious murderer leaves you with a TON of work, and 2) a brown Asian woman being tossed into high-society with spoiled rich people ends with a nice chunk of them assuming that the small Asian woman is just "Alima Song's maid." Depending on how they treat said "maid," they risk getting the shit slapped out of them for the very first time in their lives!

My informal summary for this is "a reverse Conan the Barbarian story," because I have the young queen of a run-down petty kingdom getting dragged off on "adventures" despite her best efforts, and therefore trying to get the fuck HOME.

This is only going to get hinted at in the ending of Moonflowers, but the effects of European colonization on the mortal world AND the Otherworld are going to be a reveal as to why the Folk have stalled at medieval/barely-industrial technology while the modern mortal world is, you know... modern.

-

THE CROCODILE GOD (current link - https://www.wattpad.com/story/324254621-the-crocodile-god ) - On a windy beach in California, Mirasol finds a shipwrecked man and takes him to the hospital. With no phone, no ID, and barely any clothes after the sea got done with him, the most information they can get is that his name is Haik, and for lack of better options, he’s discharged to Mirasol’s place.

Dark-skinned, covered in tattoos, and hailing from Australia, Haik is not the typical Filipino. He tells her stories of the Tagalogs’ far past, a foreign and unknown country–and soon finds out that he is Haik the sea-god, constantly searching for his mortal wife, and they are both stuck in a loop of reincarnation after their whale-goddess daughter was stillborn.

Unfortunately, she also finds out that he’s an undocumented immigrant.

-

Huge stonking content warning about this one!!! It's obviously about colonization in a MUCH more direct way than Moonflowers. A Tagalog god has to deal with the memories/aftermath of Spanish colonization and losing his followers, and then he has to deal with the CURRENT American colonization of "ICE is trying to deport this dark-skinned guy with lots of tattoos."

Family trauma features heavily in the backstory with Haik's stillborn first daughter. The story ends well with nobody getting deported/imprisoned, but getting there is ROUGH.

Preindustrial travel, and long explanations on why different distances are like that

Update March 1, 2024: Hey there folks, here's yet another update! I reposted Part 2a (the "medieval warhorses" tangent) to my writing blog, and I went down MORE of the horse-knowledge rabbit hole! https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/741423906984951808/my-post-got-cut-off-so-i-added-the-rest-of-it Update Jan 30, 2024: Hey folks, I've posted the updated version of this post on my blog, so I don't have to keep frantically telling everyone "hey, that's the old version of this post!" https://thebalangay.wordpress.com/2024/01/29/preindustrial-travel-times-part-1/

I should get the posts about army travel times and camp followers reformatted and posted to my blog around the end of the week, so I'll filter through my extremely tangled thread for them.

Part 2 - Preindustrial ARMY travel times: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask

Part 2a - How realistic warhorses look and act, because the myth of "all knights were mounted on huge clunky draft horses" just refuses to die: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/732043691180605440/helpful-things-for-action-writers-to-remember

Part 3 - Additional note about camp followers being regular workers AND sex-workers: https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/740604203134828544/reblogging-the-time-looped-version-of-my

--

I saw a post on my main blog about how hiking groups need to keep pace with their slowest member, but many hikers mistakenly think that the point of hiking is "get from Point A to Point B as fast as possible" instead of "spending time outdoors in nature with friends," and then they complain that a new/less-experienced/sick/disabled hiker is spoiling their time-frame by constantly needing breaks, or huffing and puffing to catch up.

I run into a related question of "how long does it take to travel from Point A to Point B on horseback?" a lot, as a fantasy writer who wants to be SEMI-realistic; in the Western world at least, our post-industrial minds have largely forgotten what it's like to travel, both on our own feet and in groups.

People ask the new writer, "well, who in your cast is traveling? Is getting to Point B an emergency or not? What time of year is it?", and the newbies often get confused as to why they need so much information for "travel times." Maybe new writers see lists of "preindustrial travel times" like a primitive version of Google Maps, where all you need to do is plug in Point A and Point B.

But see, Google Maps DOES account for traveling delays, like different routes, constructions, accidents, and weather; you as the person will also need to figure in whether you're driving a car versus taking a bus/train, and so you'll need to figure out parking time or waiting time for the bus/train to actually GET THERE.

The difference between us and preindustrial travelers is that 1) we can outsource the calculations now, 2) we often travel for FUN instead of necessity.

The general rule of thumb for preindustrial times is that a healthy and prime-aged adult on foot, or a rider/horse pair of fit and prime-aged adults, can usually make 20-30 miles per day, in fair weather and on good terrain.

Why is this so specific? Because not everyone in preindustrial times was fit, not everyone was healthy, not everyone was between the ages of 20-35ish, and not everyone had nice clear skies and good terrain to travel on.

If you are too far below 18 years old or too far past 40, at best you will need either a slower pace or more frequent breaks to cover the same distance, and at worst you'll cut the travel distance in half to 10 or so miles. Too much walking is VERY BAD on too-young/old knees, and teenagers or very short adults may just have short legs even if they're fine with 8-10 hours of actual walking. Young children may get sick of walking and pitch a fit because THEY'RE TIREDDDDDDDDDD, and then you might need to stay put while they cry it out, or an adult may sigh and haul them over their shoulder (and therefore be weighed down by about 50lbs of Angry Child).

Heavy forests, wetlands and rocky hills/mountains are also going to be a much shorter "distance" per day. For forests or wetlands, you have to account for a lot of villagers going "who's gonna cut down acres of trees for one road? NOT ME," or "who's gonna drain acres of swamp for one road? NOT ME." Mountainous regions have their traveling time eaten by going UP, or finding a safer path that goes AROUND, so by the time you're done slogging through drier patches of wetlands or squeezing through trees, a deceptively short 10-15 miles in rough terrain might take you a whole day to walk instead of the usual half-day.

If you are traveling in freezing winters or during a rainstorm (and this inherently means you HAVE NO CHOICE, because nobody in preindustrial times would travel in bad weather if they could help it), you run the high risk of losing your way and then dying of exposure or slipping and breaking your neck, just a few miles out of the town/village.

Traveling in TOO-HOT weather is just as bad, because pushing yourself too hard and getting dehydrated at noon in the tropics will literally kill you. It's called heat-STROKE, not "heat-PARTY."

And now for the upper range of "traveling on horseback!"

Fully mounted groups can usually make 30-40 miles per day between Point A and Point B, but I find there are two unspoken requirements: "Point B must have enough food for all those people and horses," and "the mounted party DOESN'T need to keep pace with foot soldiers, camp followers, or supply wagons."

This means your mounted party would be traveling to 1) a rendezvous point like an ally's camp or a noble's castle, or 2) a town/city with plenty of inns. Maybe they're not literally going 30-40 miles in one trip, but they're scouting the area for 15-20 miles and then returning to their main group. Perhaps they'd be going to an allied village, but even a relatively small group of 10-20 warhorses will need 10-20 pounds of grain EACH and 20-30 pounds of hay EACH. 100-400 pounds of grain and 200-600 pounds of hay for the horses alone means that you need to stash supplies at the village beforehand, or the village needs to be a very large/prosperous one to have a guaranteed large surplus of food.

A dead sprint of 50-60 miles per day is possible for a preindustrial mounted pair, IF YOU REALLY, REALLY HAVE TO. Moreover, that is for ONE day. Many articles agree that 40 miles per day is already a hard ride, so 50-60 miles is REALLY pushing the envelope on horse and rider limits.

NOTE: While modern-day endurance rides routinely go for 50-100 miles in one day, remember that a preindustrial rider will not have the medical/logistical support that a modern endurance rider and their horse does.

If you say "they went fifty miles in a day" in most preindustrial times, the horse and rider's bodies will get wrecked. Either the person, their horse, or both, risk dying of exhaustion or getting disabled from the strain.

Whether you and your horse are fit enough to handle it and "only" have several days of defenselessness from severe pain/fatigue (and thus rely on family/friends to help you out), or you die as a heroic sacrifice, or you aren't QUITE fit enough and become disabled, or you get flat-out saved by magic or another rider who volunteers to go the other half, going past 40 miles in a day is a "Gondor Calls For Aid" level of emergency.

As a writer, I feel this kind of feat should be placed VERY carefully in a story: Either at the beginning to kick the plot off, at the climax to turn the tide, or at the end.

Preindustrial people were people--some treated their horses as tools/vehicles, and didn't care if they were killed or disabled by pushing them to their limits, but others very much cared for their horses. They needed to keep them in working condition for about 15-20 years, and they would not dream of doing this without a VERY good reason.

—

UPDATE January 13: Several people have gotten curious and looked at maps, to find out how a lot of cities are indeed spread out at a nice distance of 20-30 miles apart! I love getting people interested in my hyperfixations, lol.

But remember that this is the space between CITIES AND TOWNS. There should never be a 20-mile stretch of empty wilderness between City A and Town B, unless your world explains why folks are able to build a city in the middle of nowhere, or if something has specifically gone wrong to wipe out its supporting villages!

Period pieces often portray a shining city rising from a sea of picturesque empty land, without a single grain field or cow pasture in sight, but that city would starve to death very quickly in preindustrial times.

Why? Because as Bret Devereaux mentions in his “Lonely Cities” article (https://acoup.blog/2019/07/12/collections-the-lonely-city-part-i-the-ideal-city/), preindustrial cities and towns must have nearby villages (and even smaller towns, if large and prosperous enough!) to grow their food for them.

The settlements around a city will usually be scattered a few miles apart from each other, usually clustered along the roads to the city gates. Those villages and towns at the halfway point between cities (say 10-15 miles) are going to be essential stops for older/sick folks, merchants with cargo, and large groups like noble’s retinues and army forces.

Preindustrial armies and large noble retinues usually can’t make it far past 10-12 miles per day, as denoted in my addition to this post. (https://www.tumblr.com/jadevine/739342239113871360/now-for-a-key-aspect-that-many-people-often-ask )

[dashawfrostart]

These Two Weeks In "Time & Again" #14: My Feelings For Facebook Are Still Surprisingly Mutual... And I'm Getting There!

A big announcement! The artist contracted a wee bit cold 🤧 This is sad, for it broke my impressive "I never get sick!" streak that lasted for, like, 7 years or so. I guess I'm not gonna get that notorious achievement anymore. And fine, see if I care! I don't like achievements anyway (which is, perhaps, pretty clearly stated in Chapter 3 😁) But don't get me wrong: under any circumstances pathetic excuses such as "having a cold or something alike" most certainly do not set me free from working on "Time & Again" 😤 They might hinder my progress, which is truly unfortunate, since the work is almost done - but that will not stop me, by any means. *for some reason, I really wanna put that weird "shake fish" smiley from DeviantArt in here*

Trying to prettify and overhaul, completely or partially, the social pages for the upcoming release of Chapter 5 is not easy at all... A long time ago - and that means well over a month ago - I submitted a name change request for my art page on Facebook, to better reflect the current obsession priority and certain ethics of the author in this great adventure. I was told that it might take up to 3 days for the changes to take effect, if approved. But it's been already that long, and there's still no change, nor can I submit a new name change request. I mean, I absolutely don't mind "Art by Dasha W. Frost" as a page title, but, honestly, "Official Time & Again Graphic Narrative Page" would simply be better right now, while I'm still working on this "genre abomination experiment of a graphic novel". That's a little bit sad to me. So this is where that post title comes from. Facebook seems to really dislike me - but you know what?! My feeling towards it is truly mutual 🤣

Somehow, I believe, constant dissatisfaction with the social netwroks has always been one of the most prominent topics I wrote on back in the day, when I used to have a secret blog on Wordpress. However, it's getting a tad too old for me (not the blog, but the topic; the blog is long gone), so I don't want to keep up with the "tradition" and I'll just move on without it. ... also, how I accidentally misspelled "networks" in the second last sentence really makes me think of yet another one Ultravox song. So, once I realized I typo'd, I just decided to leave it as is, for the sake of fun association. (I sure somehow became a big fan of this band over the course of, like, 5 months 😅)

But on a more positive note!!! I finished up all the teasers for Chapter 5 that I had in mind (and one of them you've already seen in the previous post 😁), and that's one of the biggest and the most important things I've done for "Time & Again" within the last two weeks. W00t and doot!!! You know what else happened?.. I finished up all the new inner covers (also known as Vorsatz und Nachsatz in book printing ☝) and the main cover for Chapter 5! And I really like the results 😁 (some snippets of the progress go below)

I guess you will see the finished product soon enough 😁 And yet again, I want to praise Krita's Assistant Tool: I used Vanishing Point assistant to draw a better urban perspective for the cover art. I think it turned out pretty good and significantly less crooked. Haha)))

I also finished up the author's letter that will be included into the chapter as a bonus material. I started writing it long ago, gradually adding more and more to it as the time went by. This is not what I usually do, for, at times, writing in segments might quickly become a disaster for me. Even writing future snippets/drafts of the blog posts in here often represents a sort of challenge to me - although I clearly seem to magically succeed somehow. (yay? 🥳 I guess?..) But nevertheless, this is what happened to the author's letter/afterword for Chapter 5. And it turned out good... but big 😅 However, after an attempt to figure out how to make it shorter... I simply decided to keep it as is. Because WHATEVER! You can read the whole thing if you want. It's moderately entertaining after all 😁 Or you can skips some parts in it. Or you can skip the whole thing (because you probably came here for the artworks anyway, right?..). I don't care. I just did what I thought would be good and what makes sense to me, as an author. That's all, deal with it! 😎 The readers are not obligated to like everything 😁 Also, the author's letter/afterword turned out very sincere. ... Heh, as if I can ever be insincere? That's ridiculous.

"Then, what's left now?", you ask me. Good question. Indubitably. The right answer is: not much. Not much at all. Just one more session of proofreading (damn, I hate hate hate discovering typos already after I posted stuff! 😫), and tiny touch-ups here and there, and assembling the last bonus pages from the materials I have on hand. And I also need to write a short dialogue for a certain background. An ugly dialogue, I must admit. But I'll rickroll my sleeves up (for realsies), and I'll do it. Preferably in one sitting. Perhaps even today. 💪 And shortly after that I'll finally initiate the last stage of work: I'll recut it into a webcomic. And I'll finish up drawing all the extra designs that I need for the itch.io release.

I ask myself this question more and more frequently lately: how did Lothar even end up as a protagonist after all?.. That's quite a turn of events. Originally created in late 2014 - mid-2015 as a side character/antagonist for a story about catpeople that I never happened to finish writing (and not only that, but apparently, I never even posted any substantial artwork of the catpeople Freia and Fjolvarr together, so I cannot show almost any proof... sadness), Lothar has sure come a long way. He's been through a lot - thanks to me. I never really asked his permission; I mostly just did whatever pleased me as a writer/artist. And now... we can see him as a main character in an effing blooooody graphic novel - a format that I haven't even been familiar with up until a few years ago! That is quite a change!!! And what the peck even happened to me as a content creator? I think I possibly lost my mind. But again... Lothar has sure been through a lot in the last few earthly years. And my first comedic one-shot is probably gonna be about that.

But I think that's enough talking for today. The important piece of a dialogue won't be finished today if I keep talking. See you next time!

[mythicaldemigoddess-of-deltarune]

I Wont Sign Back On Until Maybe Monday Or Tuesday (Of This September 2023)

[Note: Only Read This If You Want To, It Is Optional. also even though this has "for everyone" post, but I still rather have this be read by a "mature audience only" like the tags shows...]

I first want to say that, I notice a mistype on the last post I did....and well, after I post this, I will fix that...

I'm still not feeling okay with what happen, plus it isn't right that someone, not just me, if I'm not the only one going through this...

can't see their own saved drafts, just because one of their posts is mature, and wasn't placed as "for everyone" even if when you sign back in, you should still be able to view YOUR stuff, but then I find out something is just off...if this is part of the update, then I just don't know if I like it....plus maybe I can ask about advice about the whole problem of my not being able to get to my saved drafts, and the only reason I had saved the one I was still writing well yesterday now, and lucky I was able to save the original but I know I had wrote more when I put the copy of what I wrote on here...

it's like I was still writing it even before I signed in, and when I signed on, I still had the thing I had open up where I moved what I wrote on to here....you know, but then I had to leave the room because of a certain reason, and I didn't want to risk losing what I had put on here, so I had saved it in draft, not knowing that it's being....well, how it is right now....

also while I'm not happy about it not being visible right now, but in the post before this one, I had accidentally put "visible" instead of "invisible" when talking about it.

also privacy can be really important.

and hopefully the "search history" that is being talked about, means just in tumblr.....I wouldn't feel okay if it went outside that zone...

and yeah, even if not everything I wrote that I added when trying to finish writing on tumblr, will be at 100%....

and yeah, double checking and it does seem that some of the still important stuff is still there, so it was a good thing I was already writing it on the computer before placing it on to here, and well, lucky I didn't ex-out the thing I was writing it on or I be even more unhappy.

the episode of Helluva Boss Season 2 Episode 6, really did make me feel a lot better from, the other thing that had me feeling not so great.....I will post about it in a few days, thank goodness I was still able to keep some of it.....but the whole thing that is going on with my draft right now, is still not okay...

I just wont save anything with draft on here for a while....not until I get,whatever is the problem, fixed somehow....

I just need time to emotionally heal, do some self healing my way.

maybe just lay down in bed and sleep all day, or if I'm not able to do that all day, then maybe I can do some reading, or like binge watch some episodes of shows I like and even watch a few movies...

well, I'm looking over something....and I might know what the problem is.....maybe, and it might not have anything to do with my mature post that has that Crossover drawing, because I wanted to put it in mature just in case because of one of the characters in it...

everyone else is basically fine, it's just one character....and well if what I'm theorizing right now is true, then it could mean that there is a perfect logical explaining about why my saved drafts are all invisible and I can't find or see them where they would normally be at....

so yeah, what it says about the community labels, and there is some words like "Show", "Blur" and "Hide"....

and all has "Hide" I mean I saw it before I signed off, and well I decided to watch some episodes of Steven Universe, which I'm done at least for now, but might watch more later...

I still need to get some sleep....but yeah, I think if I switch them from "hide" to "show" maybe it will fix that problem and I can check to see if my drafts are visible again, but if it does work, I wont say it right away, because after I post this and edit the last post I did before this one.....I'm heading to bed, and I will sign back on either Monday or Tuesday.

things haven't really been perfect, and it doesn't help that Boomers are in charge, well more like Toxic-Boomers, well even if some boomers are okay, but I don't trust all of them and I think I can only trust a few. and I don't want to talk about those reasons at this moment.

I guess it's like knowing there are good boomers, but some boomers who ya can't truly trust because of certain reasons.

and once again, I rather not say right now, and would rather just write about it in my diary for right now until I feel ready to talk about it fully, well, I might of before, or maybe I haven't...

anyway before I try to test the theory, I will edit the last post I did before this one, and fix one of the words and change the word "visible" to "invisible" and maybe put it in bold, to show which part had the mixing the words of visible and invisible on...

I know that some might not fully get why I also don't fully trust all Male-Angels, of course that would include the Fallen Ones, and I do mean both sides....even if there are some Male-Angels I can trust, I want to keep my guard up, and yeah as weird as it might sound...

if I got my hands really cold, I had the thought of wanting to place both of those hands on each side of Lucifer's face....

yeah, one of the weirdest thoughts I had this year...maybe I can talk more about that odd and very weird thought in a future post.

sometimes my hands do get really cold......take me to him so the deed can be done. XD

yeah that weirdness kind of cheered me up a little, but I still think I need bit more self and emotional healing, I just need time.

I'm a weird and defective earth angel, who is but one of possibly many of Cain and Seth's Grandchildren....with a lot of Greats in there.

I still don't think Cain was born a monster, he was deeply hurting and it only got worse the more no one gave him the proper help he needed, and he is still not the first to give a "game over"....

and yeah, I still think both him and Abel were both in the wrong, but for maybe different reasons.....Abel needs to understand he isn't 100% innocent either, and if I had to do so....I would put my cold hands on his face too....

and yeah, anyway I'm weird and I'm still gonna hope that Jesus is only a distant cousin, because of stuff I had read about before...

I don't mind that he is family, but I don't want him to cross lines, and I don't want the antichrist to cross lines either...

their masculine energy fighting can be a problem I think, and yeah the whole Lucifer starting that rebellion, and both sides fighting during that imbalance between the masculine and feminine, is still not okay.

for now, I will post this as "for everyone" but it will have the tags "mature audiences only" and "not for kids" because well just in case.

I might change this by editing it from "for everyone" to "mature"

also not everyone has to agree about the whole believing in a Goddess now, just don't be Toxic-Religious about it like that Toxic-Religious jerk who kept throwing those hurtful words at me, which once again, I had figured out they were misusing them...

I mean if your going to use those words that has to do with The Heavenly Father, do it properly and don't hurt someone's feelings with them, just because they say they believe in both God and Goddess now....

I think maybe, while I'm doing some self and emotional healing, I might do some meditation, well meditation my way by just listening to some music and having my eyes closed...

I'm going to listen to Agnes's music.

like one of the songs being "don't go breaking my heart"

not to be confused for the other song of course...

oh yeah, and the song "Release Me"....if I want to try to do meditation to those songs, and maybe a few others as well, then I'm gonna try.

and if it were possible, I would still want to put my cold hands on both sides of Lucifer's face.....at the moment they aren't really cold or even a little cold right now.....but give it time, they will be....

and if I was able to, I would put my hands on both sides of his face....even if he turns out to be much taller than me, because I'm like around 5'5".....I will jump to his face if I have to....

I don't know how tall he is.....but if he is like way taller than me, then I might need to try to jump to his face to put my cold hands on both sides of his face......I know it might not really be possible, but I can dream right...?

some might not fully get it, but maybe some would kind of get it...?

I don't know.....but anyway, guess my weirdness coming out means I'm feeling a bit more better, but I still need some time to do some self healing, and some emotional healing.

maybe watch some shows and movies I like and do some reading, as well as playing some video games.

anyway like I said, I might not sign back on until Monday or Tuesday.

also like my calling dibs on Mammon's butt, because his greed energy crossing lines.....cause no one messes with my need for coca-cola.....of course the price went back to normal....but Mammon was the first guy I had thoughts of wanting to punch like that, which I'm not going to say, but if some seen the last few posts that talked about it, you might get it......

also if anyone is gonna put their cold hands on both sides of Lucifer's face, well it's either gonna be me or someone else....

I don't think my hands are cold at the moment and might not get cold enough for the task....doesn't mean I still don't want to try to do that.....I mean if I was able to, even if it might not be possible at the moment.

Viva La Feminine Revolution! and well the proper balance between the positive feminine and masculine energies.

speaking of "revolution" maybe after I get some sleep, I will watch RWBY.....but maybe before that, I can watch Transformers Movie or Show....

also I had realized something about Megatron's Mentor, if Sari is Megatron's daughter (and also with that new theory I have that so is Optimus Prime, which I will explain about that in a future post....)

so yeah, if it turns out that both TFA-Megatron and Optimus are both Sari's Sires (and because of the Allspark).....that would make Megatron's Mentor and Optimus's Mentor......

"Grand-Mentors" or like Sari could call them "Grandma Termagax" and "Grandma Codexa"....

yeah, there is a reason why I ended up thinking that Optimus, well TFA-Optimus might be the Other Sire/Dad.....

I mean let's think about TFA Shattered Glass, if some info is true and it is SG-Optimus in the lab instead, it would make sense that SG-Sari was born in that same lab.....and well, it wouldn't just be that both versions are two different people and are like half-sisters, because they have two different Mechs as their Cybertronian Fathers....

and well, I can try to explain about this weird theory maybe either on Monday or Tuesday....and maybe during one of those days, I can post one of the weirdest drawing ideas that came into my mind....

but yeah, now my weird fan-headcanon is that both TFA-Optimus and Megatron are both Sari's Cyber-Biological Dads....

and it was a accident caused by the Allspark, and Megatron ended up being the carrier....

once again, that version of Megatron is long overdue for that Hatchling Shower....but besides the whole Optimus being like Dad-3, with Megatron being Dad-2 and Isaac being Dad-1....

we know that some fans had formed the theory about Megatron being Sari's Cybertronian Father/Sire since placing the pieces together when figuring out she was born in the same lab where Megatron was being kept.....

and well since Megatron is technically the one who made TFA-Soundwave (even if in a episode later, Isaac tried to take credit after the whole other Sound-Waves were made....did he forget that he didn't really make them, and it was all Megatron.)

so that would mean that TFA-Soundwave, is also Termagax's Grandson.....and yeah, Sari would technically be that Soundwave Jr.'s big sister....

and anyway, maybe it does help to talk about the fan theories and headcanons that has to do with families in Transformers different universes and timelines....

I think that in Hazformers Crossover, if Termagax was a lizard demon...I think she would be possibly much taller than Megatron...

I'm gonna be re-reading some chapters of the story that is "Becoming a Demon" by Blitzy-Blitzwing.

and well maybe when I feel at 100% and not just maybe at a 94% or 98% better, I can try to do another ship drawing of Alastor from Hazbin Hotel and Amethyst from Steven Universe....

if we can OTP ship Blitzhusk, then well, I can Crossover OTP those two, I'm weird and some times, ships are gonna get weird, and my wanting to ship Alastor and Amethyst is gonna be in the weird zone...

anyway I'm starting to feel, not so great now, not like the sad feeling I had ended up getting because of the stuff I had talked about....

I think I should just hurry this up and post this....and then edit that last post I did, and then try to change the whole "hide" to "show" and maybe if it works, it will show my drafts....hopefully.

anyway I think taking some time to do my way of self and emotional healing, could help me feel better after the stuff that made me feel sad, and not just the whole draft thing (but hopefully it can be fixed soon...) but I mean like thoughts about how some Male-Angels can be jerks, and yeah it was that new Helluva Boss episode that made me feel better, and well....I can talk more about it either on Monday or Tuesday....

anyway hopefully I will feel more happy later, even if talking about some weird thoughts about wanting to place my cold hands on each side of Lucifer's face, as well as my weird theories about Megatron and Optimus from TFA, did help some...

so yeah, see ya later and hope some can understand where I'm coming from with how I was feeling and hopefully it will work out.

oh and if I'm not on by Tuesday, I might be back on Wednesday instead.

and after I edit what I need to edit in the post that came before this one, I'm going to go to sleep...I think that not so great feeling stop, but just in case, I'm going to hurry and do what I need to do, by editing what I need to edit and then go to sleep.

once again, if I'm not back on Monday or Tuesday, I might be back on Wednesday.....and by one of those days, I will post a drawing that will be weird, well I think it's weird but it's also a little funny, it also has to do with a story I'm writing, but I'm not going to say what, plus I am still working on the chapter and haven't posted yet....

anyway I'm just gonna go now, and edit what I need to edit from that last post and do that whole other thing I mentioned and then I'm going to sleep...so good night, well it's morning now, but I haven't went to sleep yet but I will soon....and well hopefully I will be feeling at 100% even after the sad feelings that happen...at least Fizzy and Ozzie made me feel better in that new episode, even though before I checked to see if that episode was up, I had those thoughts about Male-Angels...well I can talk more about that later, maybe in a few days.....anyway see ya later, I'm going to go to sleep. (but I'm going to do that edit first, and then go to sleep.)

[melting-tofu]

something he likes of you - 4nemo edition (seperately)

▪

notes: modern au, including both sfw and nsfw parts! pure fluff for the first half, under the cut is nsfw, minors please do not interact.

chat: hi, i have 7 drafts and 9 untouched asks right now, 14 of them were requested, man i'm updating so slow </3, some of them got me stuck with the plot. and i do have the work overload, when one is done the other goes in. i'm sorry to all those who has been waiting for too long! a must in the next week for me is to rush asap and publish at least 2 posts, one (sfw) is requested and the other (nsfw) is not, like a collab i joined?, stay tuned <3 and as always: minors please don't interact with nsfw posts.

▪-------▪

sfw branches:

Aether:

this boy loves seeing you in his comfy sweaters. like, he feels so special because you like wearing his clothes! how could you not? they are warm, they hug you perfectly and his scent is calming too 👉👈 though he doesn't admit out loud, he sure bites his bottom lip to prevent the noises of joy when he sees you wearing something of his. there are several times he walked in on you trying on the clothes he left in bed too, and oh, the way you struggled with how oversized a certain shirt was, so cute <3

Kazuha:

absolutely melts when you touch his hair, just run your fingers through it and tell him how soft it is and he's on heaven! he allows you do his hair whenever you want to, not minding whatever style you choose. of course on the other end, will you let him do yours too? he isn't really creative in this and often gives you some simple hairstyles but he's actually trying! we all approve his efforts right? also loves it even more when you attach some cute hairclips on him, doesn't care if it's childish because as long as you like it then he's happy! :D

Venti:

this is weird but... pillow fights! he's a funny guy, often coming up with some jokes before bedtime that usually end you both up in a fluffy war :') as long as you're okay with it, he's not going easy on you either (except when it's too harsh), whatever you do, there can only be one winner. if he wins, his prize isn't as much special as he only wants to oversleep with you in his arms until the next morning. if you win then it's up to you! please don't put up a real fightー

Xiao:

he likes to sneak out with you at 3 in the morning for a drink run, he personally will choose milk tea. at first it was your idea, but xiao could never deny you and he decided to indulge you once.... until you asked for it again, again, and again, and he grew to like it??? what an unhealthy habit, or hobby, of his </3 and yours too! don't look at me as if you're innocent >:( xiao also likes taking pictures of you (with your permission) during the moment because you just look so cute sipping your drink.

nsfw version:

Aether (dirty talk, degradation):

who expects a nice, innocent-looking boy like him can whisper the dirtiest things to you in bed? actions completely contrasting to his words, with soft gestures on your body, he playfully nibs at your ear and tells you all sorts of things that are so out of character for him. he loves how embarrassed you get from his vulgar words, they just make you become more submissive to him and he feels proud of his doing.

"hm? don't tell me you're turned on merely by what i told you just now? i've barely touched you..."

it's also a win-win if you're wearing only his shirt, because he can humilate you for creaming all over and dirtying his most favorite sweater.

Kazuha (hair pulling):

about his hair again... he finds it hot when you accidentally pull at his hair because of the overstimulation he's giving you, it just... turns him on even more?? his cheeky grin fades once you cry out an apologize that you didn't mean it, but don't worry, he enjoyed it and wishes you to do it again.

"sorry for what? you thought that hurt me? do it again, i would like to see you try."

keep pulling at it... his hair gets so messy the next morning. he will laugh at the way you keep apologizing for doing it too roughly, instantly getting cut off by a kiss and when he yanks at your hair to pull away... oh.

Venti (pillow riding, dirty talk)

pillow fights... who knows such an innocent act like that would end you up like this? you're clinging onto your boyfriend, sobbing into his neck as he guides you across the pillow. this is an unmentioned reward for him now that he won the fight... he knows that you want something better, something to fill you up but he's not giving it to you that easily, because you lost, it's only fair that you indulge him right?

"greedy... you want me that much? go on, prove just how much you're desperate for my cock."

▪-------▪

this is like torturing, him only allowing you to get yourself off on the pillow while hissing dirty things into your ears, talking about how low you can get for his body...

Xiao (oral - m receiving):

he made you trip on purpose, making you spill all the tea left over him. it was not much, but he used it as the excuse to "make it up to him" because you caused a mess... and here you are, on your knees and being face-fucked by him. you dig your nails into his thighs in order to keep yourself up and for him to slow down but he can push you back, forcing you to take his greedy dick and clicking his tongue whenever you gag. despite his rough pounding, his free hand is gently caressing your cheek and wiping your drool away.

"my fault? it should be your fault for asking for it so early in the morning..."

he watches you through half lidded eyes. sucking him like a straw like that, it's pathetic, you're pathetic, how can he not have dirty thoughts later when you two go out for a drink run again?

i take back my words when i said aether didn't seem like the type to swear for me

[sil-and-seals-blog-something]

XD I think the general Gothamites would eventually give them the name ‘The Children of Gotham’, not only because it’s telling of who they are, but also suitably foreboding enough for some of the rumors they’ve heard about the kids’ successes and the odd foreboding feeling some people would probably get around Danny.

MAD SCIENCE LAIR! It’s eventually even crazier when they learn how to scrub the mansion of any evidence of their work (they had to learn how to do so so that Tim’s parents wouldn’t catch on). It’s a frightening piece of information that many rogues learn after being put through the ringer. These kids could’ve killed any of them and no one would’ve known. The fact is enough to keep those who have gone through it quiet. The third Robin when working with the Children of Gotham is just marginally more creepy than usual, is all they’ll tell.

Danny would absolutely be a menace to rogues as well. He’d totally leave sticky notes behind like “Hey, took a sample of this gas, hope you don’t mind!” whenever he thinks he can get away with it. He channels his gremlin energy and annoy anyone until they wind up some how fond of him and his baffling antics.

Alfred would absolutely let them trust him at their own pace. He’d probably bring food over for them to “sample” to better understand the recipe (he just wants to get them extra food). I just love the idea of Alfred teaching this bundle of kids how to cook and eventually having some of the kids come up and ask for advice on other things in their lives.

The imagery of Jazz and Batman is immaculate. Just this red-headed thirteen (13) year old sitting down and looking at the Batman with the best therapist-like appearance (Jazz would totally be itching to write pages upon pages of observations about Batman’s mental state) she can manage. It makes for an odd sight to pass by, but definitely not the weirdest thing Gothamites have seen.

I love Tim just absolutely being down to take over Gotham with his pseudo-family that he’s had for a few days now. It’s the pack bonding and osmosis of insanity. Bruce would feel dawning dread when he seems the glint of a mad science weapon made Fenton style under Tim’s cape, just the utter confusion of how the Fenton style works and now having it right there makes him want to figure it out while he also knows that he’ll likely never look at engineering the same again if he does figure it out. Tim knows this. Tim knows exactly what Bruce is going through, but he was taught peek petty by the Children of Gotham and was convinced by them to be a little petty towards Bruce for them. He already signed up for the 12 year plan, a little pettiness is simply good fun in comparison.

I love Dick having no idea that the kids have taken to having lessons with Alfred or that they even figured out who Alfie was. He’s just being slowly worn down by the kids without realizing the havoc their wrecking back in Gotham.

I just melt at the cuteness of the interactions between Jason/Jason’s gang and the kids. It’s just a mutual understanding and desire to keep each other safe while in Gotham, it’s always so adorable. It’s also hilarious that Jason is just so down to watch these kids play the long game and watch the dramatics. He can appreciate a good, long term plan with the appropriate amount of dramatics after all.

(Also, I totally didn’t just accidentally leave this in my drafts for a few minutes, thinking that I posted it already, haha, that’d be silly)

As it turns out, Danny makes a pretty good leader. His little gang of homeless children has grown immensely, both from picking up strays and from assimilating other gangs into his group.

Danny might only be 10 and still figuring out his powers but dang, intangibility and flight are over powered even before you add invisibility and laser blasts. At first he regretted sneaking into the lab alone to check out the portal his parents made in this basement. Waking up in a cold alley in a city you've never heard of is a terrifying experience even without the corrupt cops trying to sell you into human trafficking, but finding out he had powers and could do whatever he wanted? That was great. It no longer mattered that adults didn't listen to him or chased him around. He could do anything now. Be anything. Take anything.

He and the people under his protection often robbed places, never banks or anything but high class restaurants and stores that usually wouldn't even let them in through the front doors. Yeah, Danny can admit most of thier robberies were because of grudges the other kids had because of how they were treated but Danny being ten thought this was fine.

The real issue was Gothams Paw Patrol (who absolutely hate being called that :3 ) they were always on thier case, Dannys especially. They kept insisting that the system could help them -Danny called bull. No one helped him or Jazz back in Amity and it was waaaay nicer that Gotham- and kept getting him and his fellow kids arrested. That didn't really matter. Anti-meta stuff never worked on him so getting himself the other kids out was no big deal.

After overhearing a conversation between Nightwing and one of the other bats a kid came into thier current secret base announcing that Nightwing was poor and the other bats weren't. This caught everyone attention. Appearently Nightwing was trying to establish himself outside of the colony cause he didn't get along great with whoever the bats super daddy was, which was fair. A lot of them were runaways for one reason or another and knew a bunch of reasons why you wouldn't want to except "free" money.

This led to them fetching Nightwings "wingdings" and batarangs instead of keeping them/selling them like they do with the others, sharing some of thier spoils with him like the groceries, jewelry, fancy clothes, ect that they stole.

Dick even catches one of the kids in his apartment in Bludhaven filling up his fridge which has him panicking about his secret id being compromised. Luckly the kids had only followed him there and didn't think to check who was on the lease or anything cause they assumed it would be a fake name or something.

Just Dick getting forcibly adopted by a child gang.

[hikunn]

treasure's hair pt2!

nebly’s note : this has been in my drafts for like two months now 😭😭 only posting it now tho sorry 🙏 part one

YEDAM.

boa noona this is for you

a pigtails typa guy

has scrunchies on his wrist 🌝

likes his perm too much so he won't let you straighten it

wants you to put pins in his hair

for that y2k aesthetic u know

lets you play around with hairspray

yedam finds it funny when his hair turns crunchy bcs of the spray

"oooh! crunchier than the bag of cheetos i forgot to close!"

JAEHYUK.

RIBBONS AND BOWS RIBBONS AND BOWS :(((((

wants you to put anything and everything in his hair

headbands, bows (a lot of them), clips, etc.

STOPPP HES SO CUTEEEEE

might as well have a tea party while ur at it

playful but will teach you abt hair products

it's a very soft but memorable moment

"tea party in my closet later?"

ASAHI.

i bet his hair smells super nice

LIKE STRAWBERRIES

and it's SOOOO soft too

asahi loves it when you just touch his hair

loves when you brush through it

omg he's a sucker for scalp massages

what if hypothetically you find a bald spot

you ask him what happened right

"oh so you see jeongwoo accidentally shaved some off bcs he was trying to draw pengsoo on my head but yk that really didn't work out and now it looks like that! ha ha..."

JEONGWOO.

he bought himself a new razor right

tells you to sit back and watch him cut his hair all by himself

coMPLETELY messes up

cut his bangs super short

"hey y/n... think you can fix this?" LLLOOOLL

you sigh

disappointed but not surprised!

you try your best to thin and even out his bangs (w scissors not w a razor)

"you think you can give me a fade next?"

JUNGHWAN.

will probably fall asleep

ask him if he likes his hair

u get a snore and a “huh? what?”

has absolutely zero trust in you

very hesitant when you offer to cut his hair for him

surprised when it actually turns out good

you fail to tell him u actually had no idea what u were doing LMAO

“you and scissors don’t look good together…”

JIHOON

thinks ur doing everything wrong

"do NOT burn my hair. YOURE BURNING MY hAIR?? IM AN IDOL I CAN'T AFFORD BURNT HAIR??"

worries for absolutely no reason

ends up liking the finished product

which is just a ponytail... bcs he wouldn't let you do anything else 😢

but then posts it on weverse

"doesn't my hair look so good rn?? i had complete trust in y/n!!"

masterlist

© 2022 by hikunn

[redhoodedangel]

The Three Jokers (Jason Todd/Red Hood X Scarlet Witch!Reader) Part 1-Two Shades of Red

So, I accidentally uploaded the original unfinished draft of this story, so I just copied it onto a new post and made the original a preview. I also changed the title of this first part cause the one in the preview wasn't a permanent one.

So, once again, as a reminder, this story is based off the 'Three Jokers' three-part comic. Meaning most of the dialog will be from that story with a few altercations to include the Reader.

Now, for some backstory... Reader, at a young age, was experimented on by Scarecrow, who used her as a test subject. However, when she developed an immunity to his fear toxin, Crane used a different toxin/drug he created that, unbeknownst to him, unlocked a super gene she didn't know she had, giving her psionic powers and, later, leading to her unleashing her Chaos Magic. With her new powers, she escaped and was found by Batman, who then took her in. This is how she meets Jason and they become friends, later becoming lovers, even after his torture and death at the Joker's hand, his resurrection and him becoming the Red Hood.

Just as an added note, there are themes of violence, death, torture and themes of mental health and illness. Read at your own risk.

P.S.: Your costume is the same as Wanda's Scarlet Witch attire as the end of WandaVision.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Criminal...

The Comedian...

The Clown...

The three words or names used to refer to Batman's greatest and deadly foe. The Joker was as difficult to read as he was unpredictable, ruthless and psychotic. And you were one to talk... You were practically the manipulator of Chaos. It was your sword and your shield. But chaos comes in many forms.

The Joker was the violent and sadistic form of it, the destruction and death it brought, which manifested as his and others' crimes... the violence of everyday life...

You were the more quiet form of chaos, the many probabilities of one event, the messy side of justice, the good luck gifted to well-meaning individuals, the side that supported and protected life...

However, you used your Chaos Magic and other abilities to bring order. Especially after your experience with a certain fear-drunk doctor. It was because of Crane that your powers were unlocked. But, they weren't as strong then as they were now. Otherwise, you probably would've been able to save your best friend, now resurrected boyfriend, Jason Todd, The Red Hood, from being tormented and killed by the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Back when you were both staying with Bruce... back when Jason was Robin...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You were doing a fly around Gotham while listening to the news, via a radio installed in your Wiccan coronet. The black domino mask over your eyes concealed your identity as your normally (e/c) were now glowing a luminous crimson. You flew with intent as you listened to the reports, which flooded into your ears like the rain water invading the suburban streets currently.

The murder of the Moxons, a crime family who many believed were behind the murders of Bruce Wayne’s parents, despite Joe Chill saying during his trial that he was flying solo when he committed the crime…

The grizzly livestreamed murder of comedian, Kelani Apaka, at the hands of the Joker…

Another Joker sighting at ACE Chemical with bodies being left at the scene…

So much mayhem in a short period of time only raised more questions than answers. How did the lunatic manage to pull off three different stunts at three different locations, all in one night? Was he working with some impersonators or having his goons do his more unsavory work in order to keep the law off his scent? Or was there something more sinister and complex going on that no one, except the Joker, knew about?

Your thoughts of the current events were put on hold when you heard the sounds of gunfire and a struggle. Stopping mid-flight and hovering in the air, you caught sight of a cemetery, a familiar red metallic helmet and a group of Joker's thugs. Geez, Red must be itching to get at the Joker, especially considering the recent news reports. You then saw that the criminals were tackling and piling on top of the anti-hero, causing Red Hood's... well, hood... to fly off...

Okay, time to drop in...

You then halted your flight spell and used your magic to soften your landing, causing a slight tremble to shake the ground. A couple of thugs felt the tremor as they looked back at you and realized what was going on. They knew who you were to Red Hood... and you made sure that they never forgot why.

"Shit, it's the Witch!" One of them screamed, knowing damn well how royally screwed they all were.

You then used your powers to manipulate the water from the rain, gathering just enough and using it to grapple two of the men. You then threw the thugs in your grasp away from the fight, allowing Red Hood to gain the upper hand. The vigilante punched the other thugs on top of him and neutralized them. You then walked up next to him and offered him your hand. He took it and you help him up to his feet.

"You were pulling your punches..."

"I had it under control..." the voice of your boyfriend and fellow partner retorted back. You simply scoffed it off, replying with, "Sure, you did. I could tell by the way they jumped on you like ravenous dogs."

Jason ignored your comment and grabbed his helmet from the ground. By the look on his face, he was deep in thought. Your suspicion was confirmed when you saw flashes of the Joker beating him with a crowbar from years ago. Before he had died, you made a mental link between you and him, a failsafe if something were to happen to his comm. That connection was severed when he was killed, but was reconnected upon his resurrection. Though, Jason had mentally blocked his end unknowingly, leaving you in the dark as to what had happened to him.

You then decided to get more serious and more in the present, not wanting to bring back any painful memories, "I'm guessing you heard the news?"

"Yeah. You were on your way to one of the crime scenes, weren't you?" He asked, his tone softer than before.

"Yes, I was. Feel free to follow me... that is if you want to~..." You pressed a kiss to his cheek before walking away from him and resuming your flight. Over the comm in your coronet, you could hear...

"You're gonna be the death of me, (Y/N)..."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You had just arrived at ACE chemical, catching sight of the Gotham City Police, Batman and Batgirl. You landed right next to the two vigilantes, making your presence known.

"Sorry, I'm late. The rain is a bitch to fly in..."

"At least, you're here now. There's three bodies with no way of determining their former identities. Any DNA testing we could use will be corrupted." Batman, or Bruce Wayne, said in that deep tone of intimidation with a gravelly edge.

"I'm assuming all of them are dead? I can't pull a name out of a dead brain and body with no activity going on in it. Though, even if they were alive, the chemicals they were dipped in would put up a wall between my magic and their memories or scramble their minds into a nonsensical mess. Just like the head honcho who did this to them..."

Your powers could do many amazing and impossible things, but you were still learning more about them. Bypassing a mental block, created by a vicous toxin that could alter a person's very appearance and mental well-being was not yet one of them. Hell, you couldn't heal a broken or fractured bone yet.

"I'm afraid so, Scarlet..." Batgirl, or Barbara Gordon, replied simply.

"And I'm guessing the psycho behind this made off with a truckload of the chemicals before anyone arrived on scene?"

"Yes. I flew over to the empty tank when I got here." The redheaded bat responded once again. As you put together the puzzle pieces yourself, something still felt amiss. What did the Joker want the chemicals for? Was it just to make more Jokers to wreak havoc and cause destruction? Or was it something much deeper than that?

"Ummm...Scarlet Witch, ma'am, today might be your lucky day... one of them is still alive!" An officer, standing over the bodies, exclaimed as the Jokerized John Doe cried out to him for help before jumping up and bursting in manic laughter.

Using your magic to separate the officer and the victim, you then yelled back, "Someone get a gurney!"

Two paramedics came out of the ambulance, gurney rolling between them. They picked the man up and strapped him to it before wheeling him towards the truck. However, as the paramedics ran past you, your magic picked up on a familiar aura coming from one of them. One that you knew all too well…

‘That bastard…’

You, Batman and Batgirl then started to escort the ambulance back to the hospital, you flying overhead with your magic and the two bat vigilantes riding their respective vehicles. You kept a close eye to the truck to make sure nothing abnormal or askew happened. Something felt all too easy about this... and you weren't talking about the victim, whose mind was being poisoned by the toxin and could lash out at any moment...

Your suspicion was confirmed correct as the truck started swerving in and out of the left and right lanes...

"Batman..." you said into your comm, voicing concern.

"I'm already on it..." the vigilante replied, climbing on top of the ambulance and hooking his grapple gun.

You then flew up to the driver's window, slamming your fist on the glass and yelling, "Hit the brakes!"

The driver complied, immediately stepping on the brakes and bringing the truck to a screeching halt. Once the vehicle stopped, you flew to the back to see Batman and the Red Hood in a fighting hold with each other. You then used your magic to hold the two men in place, causing them to stop their fight and look towards you.

"Bats, let me talk to him..."

"Alright..." Batman then moved to help the driver with the victim while Red Hood got out of the ambulance. Jason then removed his helmet, revealing his face with a domino mask over his eyes to further protect his identity. As much as you loved him, you really wanted to slap him in the face for the stunt he just pulled.

"Hood, what in the name of Spontaneous Creation were you thinking?!" You fumed, crossing your arms over your chest.

"I was thinking I should find the Joker before he kills anyone else, (Y/N)." Jason said, while watching Batman give the John Doe an antidote to dull the toxin's effects.

"By interrogating one of his victims?" Batgirl joined in on the scolding.

"Victims? Intel from Joker's thugs told me that the men the Joker picked up and juiced at ACE Chemical were from a halfway house. That 'victim' in there? He has a rap sheet that includes domestic assault against his own kid. He's lucky I didn't throw him out of the ambulance." He replied, having a semblance of a clue as to who the John Doe really was.

One thing you knew and admired about Jason is his soft spot for kids, especially since they are often targets to criminals and violence. He grew up on the streets, where drug-trafficking and crime flew under the radar and ran rampant. He didn't want any kids to be involved in or influenced by those kinds of things. But, right now, that wasn't an excuse for tonight's high jinx.

"Well, I'm sure he regrets that now since Karma bitch-slapped him in the face by having a sadistic criminal clown force him to take a dip in some toxic chemicals." You retort back.

"Jason?" Batman came up to you three and started talking to Red Hood.

"If you're here to lecture me too..."

"You were on Joker's trail before he came to ACE Chemical." Batman stated, looking at his former apprentice.

"Been trying to get on it since he broke out of Arkham this week." Red Hood reluctantly responded. You were surprised that he didn't tell him about your little run-in with him at the graveyard. Then again, Jason barely tells Bruce anything, except when it's necessary.

"So have Barbara, (Y/N) and I. And the various sightings tonight have verified what we both already speculated since his escape. He's not working alone... so neither can we." Bruce explained, obviously asking for Jason's help.

"Well, if that's the case... Jason, did Joker's thugs tell you anything else?" You asked, turning back to your boyfriend.

"Yeah. They told me that the Joker was planning to store the chemicals somewhere at the Gotham Aquarium."

"Well, we should head there now..." Batman added before walking out to the Batmoblie.

You then looked at Jason before using your magic to switch him out of the paramedic outfit and back into his suit and jacket. He nodded to you in thanks before hopping in the passenger's seat. Before he closed the door, he grabbed your hand and pulled you into his lap. You were about to protest, but Jason stopped you, "You've been flying out in the rain for a while now. I'm not about to let you get sick. Plus, you need to save up your strength."

You lightly blush and just relax into his lap, but remaining tense due to the mission at hand. The Red Hood wrapped his arms around you in order to protect you in case of an accident or danger. In that moment, you both know the same thing...

This night was going to be a wild one...

~~~~☆~~~~

[cheswirls]

no more tags but everythings under a cut bc i do not wish to be acknowledged

another cool idea was the spe au where gold and silver swap lives. no notes nancy means i have no idea where tf i was going w it but i remember being super into it at the time!! gold being a runaway rocket prince (i think????? or a runaway masked child) and silver living in a house full of pkmn with a doting mother. same teams different circumstances. a spe!gsc arc rewrite god i wish i had more to go off of

i have all of those pmshi oneshots from the fk verse compiled in a single doc which makes me remember i was supposed to do a 10-20yr follow-up coinciding w the giratina event. where i think red tells silver giovanni is outta jail on immunity or some bs and tells him without saying it flat that silver's gotta be the one to take care of him. as in. put him in the dirt. so thats what he and gold go to do while their small children are stuck in the distortion world trying to appease giratina. would still love to give that a shot someday. i remember doing most of those ficlets for writing warmups in english class. in. i was 16. maybe i did some for a creative writing elective too bc i remember doing fk stuff for that that never saw the light of day (in the classroom among my peers i mean)

the amnesia au is STILL a draft somewhere among my 106 drafts on here. i started that shit my second semester of uni and vividly remember spending most of the night dming someone on here abt details bc they asked and i couldnt stop myself even tho i was pulling an all-nighter to complete an art project due that next morning. ye so def when i didnt have my priorities straight goooooood thats so painful to think abt

the pmshi soulmate au was around that time too. admittedly i should've let it set more before posting to ao3 (one of the first things on my ao3 asaaaaaaaaaa kill me) but even tho my interest was killed for that i still would like to go back to it someday. when i am out of uni nd school in general and it becomes comfortable to write using my own experiences to some extent. truly that is the reason i ever stopped - school started to suck and i didn't wanna think abt it when writing smth and i still feel the same way now. maybe will revive it after graduation (and grad school prolly) since its still interesting but i am def rewriting that shit lmao

wygtm (sumo rewrite) i am still planning to come back to. still love it. still love the post-game epilogue i drafted while in a summer course in 2019. still love the sequel idea that incorporates usum elements while also being set in the future (so mizuki+lillie are adults and have established jobs in alola and some of the brunt of the usum plot is shoved onto an unsuspecting kid to mirror how those 2 handled sumo events (ailey i think????? was the name of usum!mizuki in the demo, so i ran with it. they were 2 separate ppl) buuuuuuut ik a holdup w that will be that ill have to rewrite everything and actually decide on a personality for mizuki and also. idk i still like the name faaora i think it was french polynesian??? or smth for "hero" which was fitting. this was before the selene/elio name reveal and before i liked moon. if i redid this now i'd jus call her mizuki and have her nn be moon like i did in komadori

oh i JUST checked n the perfectworld fic was last modified (digitally) august 2019. that literally could've been accidentally pressing a key and deleting it tho im not sure. i think my first rewrite was in a notebook so maybe this is the most current version n its digital. i opened it in 2022 which im almost positive was when i did those sketches for korrina and gurkinn's granddaughters from johto. dont you just love when you make ocs for a fic in your teens and still love them years down the line.

i think the last one of note is the ranger au set in sinnoh that p much is abandoned at this point bc i've admitted to hell n back that i didnt write plot details down anywhere n its been so long ive forgotten everything. the only thing i can repurpose is all the background info i had for the sinnoh quintet and how each of them has a difficult relationship with their family and why they're out as "wandering" trainers. i've thought abt this so much bc i still love the designs i gave those 5 and all the lore i established. was gonna do a riley/roark fic last summer using my tron notes for him so maybe this summer i will. doing smth for each of them in detail would be fun since i love them sooooooo. (also i can absolutely still stuff marley/candice into her fic and actually write polartwilight for the first time ever bc i looove them)

looking @ old fic i started when i was 14/15 is so funny bc im realizing once again why i never mark fics as abandoned even if its been literal years since i've touched them. specifically i was checking docs for stuff i started and either did or didn't post to ffn.

and its like. nothing is bad??? like i can see where my outside-the-box ideal of fic writing comes from. not just fics but writing in general, i'm p sure. even if it's a total cliche plot setup, there are details on each that rly make it stand out like oh yeahhhhhh i did have this great idea once upon a time.

funny too bc was it executed well in prose??? no absolutely not i wrote like shit when i was 15. would i revive an idea one day and revise it to be less cliche or cringy while still keeping the stand-out elements??? yea maybe. i might. everything i'm currently working on that i started from 2021 up to now still holds my supreme interest, but like i'm not gonna say never.

esp since i write fic first and foremost for my own need and specifically what i like to read, it makes it impossible to consider an idea i've thought extensively about "not worth writing anymore". anyway not making this too long i jus found everything interesting to consider

[thornescratch]

I fear it might be too much to ask you about all the hockey rpf wips 😅 but I’d love to hear you talk about any of them!!

Aww, you're sweet. Have some brief background summaries on a couple of them that no one asked for on their own.

Honey Hole - I woke myself up in the middle of the night to write "ALEX OVECHKIN A/B/O HONEY HOLE????" on a post-it note some time ago, and have not known peace since. Ever since Thatcher Demko used that phrase, it's been bouncing around in my head. Anyway, Alex Ovechkin is the NHL's most nontraditional omega. It's a weird story that might actually absorb another one I as writing at one point, which was something like "the five rookies who took Ovi out to dinner and found out by dessert he was already in a long term relationship with someone else." I think it was inspired by a picture of Ovi out to dinner with Barkov where Ovi has a shit-eating grin on his face and Barkov looks like someone just kicked his puppy.

the brotherhood of the traveling sweat-jeans- exactly what it sounds like on the title, for once. Inspired by Alex Ovechkin’s magical sweat jeans (sweans, if you will) and the fact Karl Alner casually dropped in an interview that various members of the Caps like trying on Ovi’s bonkers outfits now and again. So it’s about how the sweans make their rounds throughout the Caps over the years and it gives whoever wears them magical powers or luck or whatever.

Soulmate first words tattoo bullshit - This was something I started to write for a fic exchange and then dropped because I didn’t think it really fit what my assigned person wanted. So this was a take on that trope that the first words your soulmate says to you are on your body somewhere, which would make Nicklas Backstrom’s very interesting, given that they’d be “The Washington Capitals are pleased to select Nicklas Backstrom.” So Nicky grows up knowing who he’s going to get drafted to, but also vaguely weirded out that it’s likely to be, uh, the GM (even though GMGM was a silver fox) and then SURPRISE, it’s Ovi. And then there are misunderstandings because the first thing Nicky says to Ovi is something generic like “hi” and for a while, neither of them know who’s on first re: soulmates.

Behold, a man - Ovi and Nicky accidentally transform into chickens (as you do) and Brooks Orpik reluctantly deals with it. Title is from the Diogenes quote. I started writing this to cheer Weaglerock up about something-- probably playoffs-- and because every year I rent chickens for a thing, and it provides some very useful firsthand research.

Here’s a bit from Behold, a man:

"Hey, hi, so like, O and Backy turned into chickens, it's not my fault," Willy said, standing on his front step with a large cardboard box in his arms.

"It's his fault," Burky said from somewhere behind Willy.

"Totally Whip fault," someone else—Kuzy? said, also from behind Willy, who took up a lot of space on a normal basis and even more so when he was apparently hauling boxes around. One arm poked out from behind him and waved wildly, and then there was an unmistakable giggle, so it was definitely Kuzy. "Batya, let us in."

"Fuck you, it's not!" Willy said, and then hoisted the cardboard box up slightly. The box peeped at Brooks loudly, and he jerked back in surprise. "Here, let us in, lemme just explain," Willy added, and then Brooks had three—no, four, no, five, Djoos and Orlov were apparently quietly lurking at the back of the pack as well—teammates stampeding into his house like they were trying to outrun the cloud of youthful indiscretion that Brooks could just fucking see hanging over them.

"Curse my slow door-slamming skills," he said to his now-empty front step, and then closed the door and took a deep breath in order to prepare for whatever the hell was going on.

Most of them were all in his kitchen. Willy had put the box down on the kitchen table and he and Burky were in his pantry; Kuzy was looking in his fridge; he didn't see Djoos; and Snarls, bless his heart, was the only one being polite and standing near one of the chairs, clearly waiting for permission to sit down. Brooks made a mental note to tell Ovi about it, since Ovi believed in positive reinforcement when it came to nurturing the kids, and would probably buy Dima a new car or something.

The box on the table was still peeping. Before Brooks could deal with that, it was drowned out by an even louder noise, which was apparently directly related to Kuzy pawing through his vegetable crisper drawer.

"Batya! It's terrible!" Kuzy said, leaning out of the fridge and brandishing an eggplant at him.

"All of his crackers are wholegrain stuff," Burky called out from the pantry, muffled. "He doesn't have any chips."

"He's got two bags of Skinny Pop, though," Willy added. "Original and White Cheddar."

"Everything so healthy," Kuzy said, making a face. "It's terrible but I guess also good. I know we make best choice to come here."

Brooks took the eggplant away from Kuzy and slapped it against his palm once with a pleasantly solid noise. It had some good heft. "The last person who isn't sitting down at the table quietly in the next fifteen seconds gets to explain to Barry why they have to go on LTIR because someone beat them senseless with an eggplant."

"Like, a real eggplant, or is this a dick joke," Willy said, leaning out of the pantry before his eyes went wide. "Oh."

Kuzy was already opening his mouth with that glint in his eye again, so Brooks pointed the eggplant at him. "Sit. Down. Where's Juicer?"

"I was using the bathroom, please don't hit me," Djoos said meekly, slipping back into the kitchen and sitting down immediately, hands folded on top of the table neatly like a good little d-man. Brooks made another mental note to let Nicky know. Nicky had his own nurturing system for the kids, though that usually ran along the lines of a series of slightly less murderous than usual glares that he used for those currently in his favor.

"Can we bring some Skinny Pop?" Burky asked. "Actually, can we bring both bags?"

"I mean, actually you wouldn't really need to explain so much—" Willy said, and then Burky wiggled past him out of the narrow pantry doors with a bag stowed under each arm, and dove for the table, yelling out, "Willy's last one, hit him, Batya, hit him!"

"Hey!" Willy said indignantly, rushing after him and almost knocking Kuzy over in the process.

There was a briefly chaotic interval like a particularly violent game of musical chairs, but it ended with everyone sitting down in a chair, even if Burky and Djoos were sharing one. Less sharing, maybe, than Burky getting physically dumped out of two chairs in quick succession by Willy and Dima, and then Burky climbing into Djoos's lap, planting himself there, and winding his arms around Djoos's neck despite Djoos's wide-eyed expression of panic, but Brooks decided he couldn't afford to be too particular about it, and Djoos was just going to have to learn to desensitize himself to Burky-induced boners and personal space issues.

The box was still peeping.

[dysfunctionalcrab]

cold nights

pairing: georgenotfound x reader

pronouns: gender neutral

description: you wake up in the middle of the night feeling cold, turns out george is the cause of that.

note: LMAO i thought all my drafts were posted but this one was accidentally posted privately. here ya go! requests are now open! if u wanna rq please read the rules and information link c:

your eyes fluttered open. the room was pitch black and silent.

it took a minute to process that you were even awake. you let out an exaggeratedly long sigh. you fell asleep earlier today, knowing that you wanted to go to bed before george started streaming, because it was definitely going to start around midnight.

it wasn’t usual that you randomly woke up in the middle of the night, so you questioned yourself why you were currently awake now. your head turned to see the sleeping boy beside you, grinning as you heard his innocent, soft snores

the grin was quickly wiped off when you realised he had the entire blanket to himself. he was swaddled in it like a newborn baby

you looked down to your own figure, seeing that you were completely exposed to the coldness of the room, you hadn’t even noticed you were shivering. son of a bitch.

george was the reason you almost barely managed to go to sleep at a decent time, with all his damn screaming and shouting on discord with the boys. you always put up with it because you loved him immensely. but you weren’t going to put up with the fact he had the audacity to yank the blanket from your grasp while you two slept.

slowly, you grabbed the blanket, pulling it towards you.

but george instinctively clutched the blanket. his grip was firm and not allowing you to put any of it over your own body. you tugged the blanket again, but george was persistent. even in his own sleep.

you pursed your lips. i mean, you could easily go grab an extra hoodie from your wardrobe but it wasn’t the same as being wrapped up in a blanket. plus, your current position was super comfortable and you didn’t want to move.

not in the mood to battle george’s unconscious self, you just decided to wake him up.

“george,” you whispered, poking his side

silence

“george,” you said a little louder.

he let out a small whine, his entire body shifted to face you. he was definitely awake enough to respond to you.

“baby, if you keep hogging the damn blanket i swear to god i will pull a jackie chan and karate kick you off this bed,” you threatened

george’s eyes snapped open

“you what?”

you rolled your eyes playfully.

“share the blanket, you idiot,”

he glanced down at himself, muttering a small ‘oh’ and unwrapped the blanket from his body. he threw it over the both of you.

“thank you,” you mumbled. satisfied with this newly found warmth you rolled over and turned your back to him. allowing sleep to overtake you. george pulled a face

“what, you aren’t going to cuddle me?” he huffed. you flicked open one eye

you shook your head at his cuteness, and turned back around. you opened up your arms. he instantly cuddled up to you, resting his head on your chest and arms placed securely around your upper waist. you adored it when george was feeling clingy. it wasn’t often.

he tightened his hold around you, and you watched him fall back asleep. it never failed to alarm you how quickly he managed to fall back asleep after being woken up. nevertheless, you smiled lovingly at him, and eventually, you were both snoozing away.

———

masterlist

[thelucyverse]

How To Interact With Beta Readers - for Fanfic Authors

I wanted to make posts both for fic authors and beta readers, because I realized in several recent interactions that some helpful unwritten rules of fandom seem to have become lost to people who are new to it.

This isn't meant to be a call-out post against anyone to say 'you did it wrong!' (really, how could anyone be mad if you just didn't know any better), and there aren't even any definite rules for anything - but I just thought these things might be nice to know and helpful to share around. This first part will be @ the authors, the second part is @ the betas.

Asking for a beta reader

When you want someone to look through your fic, whether you ask in a tumblr post, @/helper in a discord server, in the notes of an already posted work or anywhere else, it's important to state both a) what the work that you want betad is and b) what you want from a beta reader.

The facts about the story.

The first most important facts about the story are a) length (in wordcount, as that is the most-used measurement for fanfiction - you can see it below the tags of an ao3 draft, or at the bottom left of a Word document), and b) rating and warnings. No, please don't just ask 'i have a fic for xy ship to beta' - that's nice information, but not helpful for someone who needs to decide whether they a) have the time to work on the length of fic and b) are willing to be confronted with the kind of content you have written.

In addition to that, you should of course also write what fandom, characters and dynamic it is about, because most beta readers are only willing to beta stories they would also usually read for fun. To make sure that the right people find the ask for a beta reader, you best target the post to them, so tag a tumblr post with the fandom and ship etc, and on discord share the request in a server or channel for the fandom, not an unrelated one.

What format is the draft in?

A word document you can send them via e-mail, a copy-pasted text in a direct message, link access to a google docs? Not everyone is comfortable with all of these methods, and you need to figure out one that works for the both of you.

Also, do you want the changes made directly in the text, in comment functions of the document, or as messages to you? If for example you send someone a Word document, and don't want them to change anything directly in your text, but they aren't comfortable working with the comment function there and end up writing you separate messages telling you what page and line the edits are one, that's going to be a lot more work for you to look through than you might have liked, so make sure to communicate it all beforehand and figure out a way that works properly for everyone.

What do you want from your beta?

'Well, to look over the story, duh?' but it's not that easy. Do you want the beta to:

- Only check for spelling and grammar mistakes in comments next to the text, No other suggestions at all because they would make you feel bad about your work/you don't have the time or want to spend the time on editing anything but honest mistakes/ any other reason?

- Grammar and spelling checks but also suggestions for word flow, repetitive words and phrases that could be changed and stylistic things like adding paragraph breaks (which are always nice to have for mobile reading)?

- [same as above] and also point out possible logic flaws and places where you might want to move a scene forward or back, or suggestions to things you could add to the story, with explanations as to why?

- [same as above] and also give suggestions for text you could cut that is unnecessary to the story or interrupting the flow of a scene in the opinion of your beta reader?

- Include nice messages as to what the beta liked best of the fic, or stay completely objective?

- Point out things they subjectively didn't like and would change about the story if they wrote it themselves, or not?

- Make corrections directly in the story, so afterwards you barely need to look at it anymore before you can publish it, or only give suggestions in comments or messages?

All of these are things some people welcome and others find incredibly annoying and/or hurtful! So make sure to communicate exactly what you are looking for. You don't have to do so in your initial public request, but once you have found a potential beta, you should text them the details before giving them access to your fic.

Do not be afraid of cancelling on a beta if you don't think it is going to work out! Whether because they aren't comfortable using the format you like to use, are a language teacher who can't stop correcting the long sentences you choose to keep as a stylistic choice, or just someone you don't vibe with, whether it's before or after they have started beta reading - be kind, but let them know that it just isn't working out, and that you would rather stop now before either of you wastes any more time and effort. If they want you to, you can tell them what you would have liked them to do differently, but don't ask someone to change how they are, and don't give unsolicited criticism, no, not even to a beta reader.

Decide on a time-frame

When are you going to send them the fic? Chapter by chapter over the next days, or the entire work? When do you want or need the work to be beta read? Is it for a challenge or gift exchange and needs to be finished on the same day, or can they wait for the weekend? Even if you don't have a specific deadline, when do you want them to send it back at the latest?

Working with a beta reader

After - or, if you are in for example a google docs at the same time, while - your beta reader does the corrections, you should look at them and decide which corrections you want to keep, and which to disregard. This is entirely your decision, it is your story, you don't need to feel bad if you don't take all of the suggestions for your work, even if you end up only correcting the spelling mistakes and ignoring everything else, it's your decision and this is fine.

If your beta gave suggestions for additional scenes or sentence changes, you can let them know once you have new text for them to correct, but keep in mind that they might no longer have time or energy to beta now, and don't be disappointed if they tell you this or don't reply. They already helped you, and you can always look for a new beta if you feel that your story still needs it.

Crediting your beta reader

Where are you uploading your fic, and how does your beta reader want to be credited? You best talk about this beforehand as well, as some betas only want to work on something when they will get the credit on a platform they are also on.

When posting on tumblr, it is usually expected to @ the person who helped you and write their url or tracked tag in the #s as well, but make sure to ask beforehand, as maybe they don't want other people to know they beta because they don't want to get swamped in work requests/ they don't want their url associated with for example explicit work/ they want you to tag a sideblog for the fandom instead of their main url.

On ao3, you can link to another author's dashboard or profile page (ask which one they prefer) in the notes by first going to the work text - rich text, writing their name, clicking the link symbol, pasting the url, going back to HTML text and cut-pasting the code to the note you want to have it in. You can do the prep work in a new work instead of your actual draft so you won't accidentally cut any of the work text. Again, ask the person beforehand whether they want to be linked there, or just want a nickname or their tumblr url credited.

You can also gift people works on ao3, and while this is in no way a requirement and most beta readers won't ask for it, just about everyone is happy to receive ao3 gifts! You can ask them beforehand if they want that, but as people can accept and refuse gifts on ao3 themselves, you can also let it be a surprise.

If your beta put a lot of work into your fic and wrote parts of it themselves, you can also make them a co-creator of the work on ao3, but only do this if you know and trust the person, as they will gain access to the fic and will be able to edit everything just like you.

Let me know if I missed anything, and I will update the post!

Tips for beta-readers themselves here!

[ghostboyjules]

@queerofthedagger Hiii 💕✨ finally back with the promised shared rambling abt the National 😅 this is my second attempt, because after formatting the first one exactly how I wanted it, tumblr decided to eat the post and not even save a draft.. or anything. almost made me cry. just a little bit. ajcjsjfjg I'm gonna put the bulk of the ramble under a break because it's going to be very dumb and messy because I'm very Sleepy and my brain just. started throwing word spaghetti.

(before that tho I did wanna say; when I said "albums/songs" and "favorite" in the same sentence, I knew you were gonna do the incredibly reasonable and sexy bi brain energy move and choose multiple.. 😏 fell into my trap of getting you to talk about multiple things hehehehe 😌💕✨)

If I'm not mistaken (which I very well could be) I think I started listening to them in 2017 - which when I went to look at their albums, really tripped me up cause iaetf came out in 2019 apparently???!!!?? it feels like it's been. so much longer than that.., what.. but then when I thought about it a little more I do remember the day it dropped, listening to it for the first time and accidentally crying at work 💀💀 (me: -headphones in and quietly weeping while trying to take pictures of a part that goes into a helicopter engine- my coworker: bro are you good??)

Also, basically SINCE 2017 I've been referring to them as my "Sad Dad" music, because what I didn't have words for then, I do now. and what it really is, is that the Gender I feel while listening to this band is so.. specific. and the only way I can describe it is Sad Dad. like, it's a nice gender feeling for me IDK WHAT IT MEANS AJDJSKFK I had to explain cause like, I'm not calling THEM sad dads.. I'm calling ME the sad dad in a very gender queer way because apparently that's just how my brain works sometimes. on that note, lemme stop speaking gibberish and get into the music, beginning with the albums

Trouble Will Find Me (NO SKIPS. NOOO SKIPS NO SKIPS... god this album... THIS ALBUM....)

Sleep Well Beast (I think this was actually the first album I fully listened to of theirs.. changed my whole goddamn life - unironically.)

okay I'm choosing High Violet for this one but it was SO CLOSE to being I Am Easy to Find. it's just that for *me* High Violet is more of a 'no skips' album, whereas with iaetf, there's like 4 songs (or more) that are. just. so so incredibly impactful to me but then others that I'm just kinda 'meh' about. (but meh in the way that I still absolutely love them, I just don't listen to them as much as I do the specific 4)

I think I'm gonna have to combine my "fave" song section with the lyrics, because they're just so... they go together in my brain.. AND this is gonna go in no particular order because I literally could NOT rank them if I tried, it's so goddamn hard 😭 this selection is. probably gonna tell you a whole lot more about me than anyone ever wanted to know but HAHA

Pink Rabbits

It wasn't like a rain, it was more like a sea / I didn't ask for this pain, it just came over me

what am I supposed to do with this Matt Berninger? huh? and then skip a few to closer to the end and you get:

You didn't see me, I was falling apart / I was a white girl in a crowd of white girls in the park / You didn't see me, I was falling apart / I was a television version of a person with a broken heart

at first listen this part kinda made me laugh a lil bit. but then I kept listening. and got older. and then really thought about what he means here. and THEN it started fuckin me up. sleeper cell of a song. I stg.

Oblivions

It's the way that you're gonna stop needing to tell me / You want me as much as I want you to tell me / I'm over the threshold / Everything is gonna be totally okay into oblivion

and then the way they sing this next part makes me LOSE IT, it's so so beautiful and moving and has soooo much feeling in it..

It's like a tide in the city lifts me and carries me around / And oh, my mind is made up out of nothing now / If nothing scares you about me and you, never put me down / Oh, my mind is made up out of nothing now

this will probably be one of my forever favorite songs. it makes me so goddamn emotional. I couldn't listen to this song without crying at one point. and now it only happens if I think too hard :') it's just. SO. BEAUTIFUL..

Hey Rosey

I will love you like there's razors in it / And she'll love you like a radiant flame / There's never really any safety in it / Please do it again

this whole song... just. this whole song... my god.

Demons

Can I stay here? I can sleep on the floor / Paint the blood and hang the palms on the door / I do not think I'm going places anymore / I wanna see the sun come up above New York

this whole bridge. just the whole bridge. the bit at the end? when I walk into a room I do not light it up? I *wept* when I heard this song. WEPT.

Don't Swallow the Cap

I'm not alone / I'll never be /And to the bone / I'm evergreen / And if you want / To see me cry / Play "Let It Be" / Or "Nevermind"

and also the part you posted, careful fear and dead devotion... I remember being fuckin STUNNED when I heard that lyric for the first time...

This Is the Last Time

You're the only thing I want / And I said I wouldn't cry about it

😐. this one fucks me up. and the outro?? fuck dude. get me outta here.

Graceless

I am not my rosy self / Left my roses on my shelf / Take the white ones, they're my favorite / It's the side effects that save us /Grace / Put the flowers you find in a vase / If you're dead in the mind, it'll brighten the place / Don't let them die on the vine, it's a waste

there's so many things I could talk about with this song but jfc.. just... whew

Slipped

I don't need any help to be breakable, believe me / I know nobody else who can laugh along to any kind of joke / I won't need any help to be lonely when you leave me / It'll be easy to cover, gather my skeletons far inside / It'll be summer in Dallas before I realize

this song breaks me. still breaks me. will always break me. just like that fuckin line says, I don't need any help to be breakable, believe me. 🙄 sjdjskf FUCK. and the way he delivers the 3rd verse. ruinous. why does this song hurt so goddamn much jfc. but it's so so good.

Lemonworld

I'm too tired to drive anywhere / Anyway right now, do you care if I stay? / You can put on your bathing suits / And I'll try to find somethin' on this thing that means nothin' enough

this is the part that's always stuck with me, but the chorus loves to get stuck in my head too.. makes me wanna lay on the floor and stare at the ceiling

okay, that's all for now.. literally took out like 3 songs because I just.. couldn't get my brain to work any more 😅 but we can always talk abt the ones we didn't get to later 🥰

anyway, thank you so much for answering the original ask, I was so excited to see your answers and I love love love seeing someone else talk about a shared interest, it makes me so incredibly happy, and I hope my answers can bring you as much joy as yours gave me <3 ttyl Mona 🥰✨

Hiii Mona <3 I couldn't help but notice that we were both losing our minds abt the new National song, and because I always need ppl to talk to abt them, I simply *must* ask. do you have a favorite album/song of theirs?? 👀 maybe even favorite lyrics? 👀👀

Jules!! <3 Oh this is such a pandora's box question because the National is just one of my favourite bands... 😭😄

God so albums is already so hard but with it all being very close it's

1. Trouble Will Find Me 2. Boxer 3. I Am Easy to Find

and for songs.... oof. i am bisexual why would you make me choose anything ever 😭😭

Don't Swallow the Cap

Graceless

Weird Goodbyes

Slow Show

Rylan

About Today

Mr Novemeber

Vanderlyle Crybaby Geeks

Mistaken for Strangers

Light Years

and i could go on but. i. yeah. top 10 it gonna be 😭😂 and if i got into lyrics we'd be here forever but generally speaking I just really love the way they understate things and then make those punch your teeth out, like in Weird Goodbyes the

your coat's in my car, I guess you forgot / it's crazy the things we let go

or like, in Tropic Morning News (which honestly would deserve a place on that list... anyway) the

oh, what happened to the wavelength we were on? / oh, where's the gravity gone?

AND in Don't Swallow the Cap the !!!!

I have only two emotions / careful fear and dead devotion / I can't get the balance right / with all my marbles in the fight

ALSO because I can't NOT mention it the fucking line in Graceless that makes me want to eat glass namely

There's a science to walking through windows without you // plus // God loves everyone / don't remind me

Like ugh there's so many more this feels blasphemous but!! also please please please tell me all of yours I want to hear them ALL they just make me INSANE (and thank you so much for making me ramble about them I'm really terribly normal about them😭❤️)