#oh well. at least i might finish it in january at least

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

the successor and his 800 year old spiritual mentor + torn pages au doodles ;)

[everestgale]

"A thought is a vine, and some thoughts nurture thorns that bleed the soul. An endless growth that blots your vision and strangles your trust. When I succumbed to myself, you patiently stood by me and cut the thistles that rooted in my skin. Your compassion is what freed us both."

------

I love Thorn so much. I might not draw her often, but she is definitely one of my favorites <3

Well, I do have a project planned that has Witch & Thorn as the central characters... but oh my, it will take at least a month or two of nonstop work on that project to get it done. I don't think I quite have the time for that right now 😭Perhaps it could be one of my backburner projects. We'll see how it goes :]

[Throwback | Scheduled post | Drawing finished : January 12th, 2024]

[Find my Slay the Princess art here] [Princess art] [TLQ art] [Voices art]

[carolmunson]

is he rich like me? (wealthy!s.h. x thick!reader)

desc: hi, we've missed you here at slate insurance hq. i've been working on this WIP since i think october, having the initial idea back then and then going back and forth on it for a million years. anyway, i finally finished it. you and big money steve are finally both on the same page, so here's some porn with plot. big money steve is big money steve, and he loves to spoil his girl. especially before a big dinner deal closing with a new client. tw: 18+ minors dni. p in v sex, oral (f and m receiving), some daddy kink (it's steve c'mon) but he's pathetic, some breeding kink. casual dominance. big wealthy tings. recommended listening: time of the season - the zombies

"what's your name? who's your daddy? is he rich like me?"

Big boxes and gifts were nothing new anymore. Selfishly, they'd become expected whenever you walked in the door from work. Though, if it were totally up to Steve, you would have quit your job the moment the last box of your things came past the threshold of his Tribeca apartment in January. But having at least some semblence of your old life was important to you -- and Robin would lose her mind if she didn't have you to share an office with anymore. Steve on the otherhand, was adamant that once the first baby was on the way, you'd put your career behind you. Presumptiuous of course, considering you weren't even engaged. Tonight was a dinner -- not for the both of you, but for business. Sales pitches, deal closings, re-enrollment. He'd never take you a steakhouse for a date, he'd rather die. But, always a steakhouse for business, 'It's just more -- I don't know how to explain it baby -- money talk, red meat, stuff like that. I know you hate it, I'm sorry, but it just looks good when I bring my girl with me.' He'd make it up to you every time with a new dress, a new pair of shoes, his lips on your neck, your knees to your chest. This dinner was no different, coming in from a nail appointment and a pedicure out to see an array of boxes laid out on your side of the bed. Your main component, which you were expected to wear to dinner tonight, was a black silk dress. "It looks small, Steve," you mumble, holding it up by the skinny straps. Sometimes your wonder if he forgets how full your hips are, how things that look chic on Kate Moss can sometimes look suggestive on you. Not that he minded, he was always very suggestive whenever you dressed up.

"It got it tailored to your measurements, so it shouldn't be," he explains while tying his tie in the mirror, "Just put it on, baby. The car's gonna be here soon."

You huff a little, turning on your heels to his walk in closet -- it might as well be a second bedroom with how big it was. You laid the dress down on the center island where he keeps all of his ties and watches in specially made drawers. You eyed the dress for a moment -- it really was beautiful. Black as night with a high slit on the right side -- of course he made sure it showed some leg so he could run his fingers along the hem under the table.

You take a look at yourself in the mirror in the long line black bustier he bought you. Breasts lifted and high, nearly spilling out of the cups. You'd never seen something without straps have so much support. But then again, you'd never had a bra be custom made either. The matching satin panties sat high on your waist, cut high enough that you'd never see the lines under the silk dress.

Moment of truth, I guess, you think, taking the dress and stepping into it. You waited for the resistance when you pulled it up over your hips but it never came. You waited for the uncomfortable pull of trying to get the skinny straps over your arms and shoulders, but it didn't happen. The dress slid on like butter, like it was made for you.

Oh yeah, duh, it was made for you.

"Can you help me with the zipper, honey?" you call out. Steve still loses his breath when you call him a pet name. So overwhelmed that you want him, that you call him baby and handsome and honey. Honey, honey, honey. Maybe someday husband. Maybe.

He steps into the room with purpose, stopping short when he sees you in the dress.

"Oh, wow," he gasps, "Wow, wow, wow."

"Stop," you bloom heat when he eyes you, "C'mon help me, we gotta go soon."

He steps behind you and you can smell the cedar and sandalwood in his cologne -- having long traded his Aqua di Gio for Creed's 1992 Bois du Portugal. His fingers are warm when he trails his middle and pointer up the skin of your back where the zipper opens, just to watch you shiver. He hooks the closure at the top carefully before pulling the tab at the bottom to slowly close the dress up. At the finish, everything is pulled into place. It was perfect. Dipping and flouncing exactly where you wanted it too, every curve perfectly showcased.

“Do you know where my clutch is?” you ask him in the mirror while his fingers trace your shoulders.

“It’s on the island in the kitchen,” he mumbles, pressing a kiss over the strap of the dress, “But I have another surprise for you.”

“Another?” you ask, eyes wide. He already bought you the dress, the shoes, the lingerie. What else was left?

"Close your eyes." You do, you hear him open one of the drawers and can feel him behind you when something cold hits your chest. He fastens it at the back of you -- you know it's a necklace but it must be nice if he's having you close your eyes.

"Keep 'em closed, baby."

You hear him come around to the front of you, adjusting the necklace, feeling his breath againt your ear. His fingers trail from your shoulder, down your arm to lift your left hand up, "Stay like that." Your heart hammers, but quickly fades out when you feel him put on a bracelet. His delicate touches quicken your pulse, his scent makes your mouth water. Steve had a way of making everything romantic -- getting coffee, going to the grocery store, taking out the trash, putting jewelry on you. Jewelry he bought. Jewelry you know you'll love.

"And lastly..." he continues, while putting your hand down. His nose brushes your cheek when his nimble fingers click a pair of earrings into place -- they're heavy and cold. "Harrington," you sigh, squirming at the pinch of the back going too far into your lobes, "I can put these on myself." "Don't be such a baby, Manhattan," he tsks, smoothing your hair away from your ears before standing back and looking at you. He smiles big at the sight, you simply adorned in his gifts. Steve doesn't know whether to cry or kiss you when he feels his heart leap in his chest. It happens all the time when he stares too long at you, no matter what you're doing. You're his. "Can I open them?" "You can open them," he encourages. When your eyes flutter open and adjust to the light, you see them in the mirror. A platinum set tennis necklace sat across your chest, a matching bracelet on your wrist. Earrings in your ears to complete the collection. You gape at your reflection, mouth hanging open while you try to wrap your head around it -- about how much money you're wearing right now.

"Steven -- they're beautiful..." you gasp out. He stands behind you in the mirror again, grinning at your reaction.

"Sorry there's no ring," he pouts before kissing your cheek, "Not yet, at least."

It was an every other day mention -- the ring. You'd only been officially together for half a year, but Steve knew what he wanted. It felt like you both had been together for six years anyway. You knew the ins and outs of each other, literally and figuratively -- there couldn't be anyone else quite like him. It helt like you both had PHDs in each other's likes and dislikes, needs and wants, goals and dreams.

"Don't worry," you breathe, still not over the sparkle on the rest of your limbs, "This is...this is plenty, babe." He burns in his cheeks -- babe. He's your babe! He presses a kiss to your cheek, settling by your ear to mumble a heady 'I love you,' from the deep base of his chest. His lower lip coasts your earlobe and your eyes roll back in your head, feeling his warm breath fan over your jaw. "I love you so much," he murmurs, hand gripping your waist, you can feel his grin against your skin, "But I need you to hurry the fuck up or we're gonna be late, angel." "You're so annoying," you glower when his sensual demeanor turns into a mean snicker, tapping your ass to get you to move out into the kitchen.

It took every ounce of will power in his body to not cover you in hickeys in the car. He had to give it to himself, he knew how to dress you for stuff like this, and God did your body alway deliver. He had to keep looking out the window so he didn't catch a glimpse of your crossed legs in the rear view mirror of the Bentley. It didn't help that you smelled like heaven, dirving him crazy with every movement, sending Mulger's Angel through his olfactory straight to his boy brain.

He helped you out of the car and waked you arm in arm to the door of the restaurant, always sure to be there at least 15 minutes before his guests. You got accustomed to the song and dance: exchange pleasantries, only ask the wife of whoever he's with direct questions, feign some form of old school obedience, let Steve do all the talking and so help you God if you roll your eyes once he has no problem letting you pay for when you get home. Always in good fun, of course.

Tonight is no different, you look over the menu, sharing sweet moments with each other before his guest arrives. Guessing the status of every couple there, what they're talking about, how long they've been together. A few celebrities come in laying low and you never get excited but Steve always does, still deep down a sweet boy from Indiana. "I think I'm gonna do the salmon," I say with a sigh, "I know that's boring."

"Not boring, honey," he shakes his head, taking off his glasses to clean them off before settling the silver frames back on, "The salmon's really good here." "You're really good here," you tease. "Yeah?" his brow quirks, a smile pulling at his lips, "I heard you're really good here." "Actually, you're really good here," you start to giggle. "Surprised to hear you say that because it was reported in the Culiniary section of the New York Times that you're actually really good here," he laughs, but you're both cut short when you see the m'aitre d guiding your guests to the table. You keep giggling, sitting up straight and crossing your legs under the table cloth so that your thigh peaked out of the slit of the dress. "No more fun, Harrington," you say faux seriously, "No laughing, we have to be boring now." "So boring," he agrees in a fake whisper, but his demeanor changes on a dime when his guest and his wife arrive. Steve stands immediately, hand out for a firm shake.

"Mr. Parker, good to see you tonight," he flashes an award winning smile, the kind that make older men wish he was their son and older women wish he was their husband, "Mrs. Parker, you look stunning. He let's you leave the house looking this good?"

Only Steve can make a joke like that and have it be charming. He pulls the fake string in your back and you start your performance as Business Dinner Barbie as soon as everyone sits down. When the sommelier arrives Steve orders a bottle of white and red for the table and when the waitress arrives he gets himself and Mr. Parker their second highest priced scotch. 'Just because it's the most expensive doesn't mean it's good, they just wanna get the suckers to buy it.' You could mouth the words as he says them at this point, the same schpiel every time.

"And would you like to put your entree orders in as well?" the waitress asks. Mr. Parker orders the steak dinner, rare, which doesn't surprise you because he sort of looks like someone who gets joy out of consuming blood. Mrs. Parker orders the salad because of course she does, she's never eaten a starch in her life, or at least not in the past forty years. Steve places his dinner order, always filet mignon medium rare with a side salad. Steve takes your menu from you to pass to the waitress when her attention turns to you for your order. You open your mouth to speak but Steve's hand finds yours with a light squeeze, keeping eye contact with the waitress. "She'll have the glazed salmon, medium. And I hate to bother the chef but can we pass the broccoli rabe on for asparagus?" he asks, eyes dropping from the waitress to yours as she answers 'Absolutely, Mr. Harrington'. You swallow when his gaze lingers on you, a smirk flicking on the ends of his lips, a moment only shared by the two of you.

"Thank you so much," he replies, still looking at you, "She just doesn't really care for it." He smiles back up at the waitress as he finishes his sentence, pulse quickening when he sees you adjust slightly in your seat. You liked that, and he likes that you liked that. He continues the conversation with a winning smile, pretending like he doesn't know you're melting next to him. Staring at him in his suit acting like you care what he's talking about, like you're not watching the way the leather band of his watch hugs his wrist, how he gesticulates when he talks, his long fingers and big veined hands emphasizing his words. The way his brow furrows when he listens, the slight tensing of his jaw while he thinks of what to say next. While Mr. Parker discusses the potential pitfalls of partnering with Slate Insurance, you feel one of Steve's big hands under the table, resting on your knee. His thumb traces circles on your joint for a minute, you figure it's a comfort touch, something to ground him while he considers his next move. You learn quickly that it's not that at all. He lets a finger trace slowly and softly up over your knee and half way up your inner thigh before grabbing it, slowly and intentionally massaging the fat there, slipping his fingers under the black silk. Your back straightens in your chair, trying to keep your cool while he continues -- soft grazes with his finger tips, back and forth, inching further up as he goes. You grab his hand tightly under the thick white table cloth, catching his lips curl at the edges while he speaks -- no one else would be wise to it. You curse him silently at his ability to always play it cool.

"Have some water, honey," he says sweetly, taking his hand from your grasp and pushing your glass toward you, "You're looking a little flushed." You swallow, your smile a little tight while you take a sip and he watches. A battle between the two of you that you know you've already lost. The cool water passes your lips and you're nearly reinvigorated to try your hand but he comes in with a final strike -- a death blow -- "Atta girl," Steve grins. You've never wanted to pull him out of a restaurant by his collar more than you do right now. Just like always, dinner is a success. Steve always closes the deal before the second scotch so that the cool down conversation can feel more friendly. 'You want the client to feel like they made a friend when they leave so that they trust you. That's business, angel.' He'd say. You say your goodbyes and tell Mrs. Parker you'd be happy to join her book club -- you're unsure how many book clubs you've 'joined' at this point, how many invites got 'lost in the mail'. "Very darling woman you've got there, Steven," Mr. Parker says as he and Steve shake hands, the final seal.

"Isn't she?" he asks, giving you a quick once over. Your blood rushes in your ears at his look, the rest of their conversation muffled by an infuriating need for him. As Mr. Parker and his wife leave, he cleans off his glasses while you both wait for his credit card back for the bill.

"Beautiful job tonight, honey," he smiles, putting his frames back on.

"Do not speak to me," you say with a smile, heat pooling through you while a soft pink appears on his cheeks. "Don't worry," he shakes his head, getting his card back and signing off on the receipt. He helps you out of your chair like a gentlemen, passing you your purse as a means to press a kiss to your cheek, "We won't be doing any talking when we get home."

By the time you get home to the Tribeca apartment, all of your lipstick has been worn off. You're lucky if Vinny doesn't quit being Steve's driver after all of that. "Sorry," he says to Vin while you get out of the Bentley, "Won't happen again, I'm so sorry."

You try not to count how many hundreds Steve flips through when he goes into his wallet, you try not to see how many he slips his driver in embarrassment. Sometimes it still made your chest tight. "You say that every Friday night," Vinny laughs, taking the money, "And every Saturday I gotta get the interior detailed. Goodnight, Mr. Harrington."

The air is a little humid when you get out of the car, sticking to your skin slightly -- the soft rush of the river calms you in the quiet of the night, and there he is, in the glow of the lights outside of your building. He doesn't say anything when he approaches you, just pulls you in for another air stealing kiss. Steve's big hand pushing you in at the nape of your neck to give him better access to you. You frown when he breaks away, a small one, a gentle tug on your eye brows an lips. His hand drops to yours, taking you inside, greeting the doorman and front desk concierge by name as he does every morning and night.

The brightness of the lobby is a harsh contrast to the low light outside and the burst of air conditioning makes your nipples peak in your bra. Goosebumps trail up your arms, but you aren't sure if it's the blast of cold air or the way Steve impatiently waits for the elevator to get you both upstairs. The door barely closes when he's on you, shoving you against the wall of the front walk way. "How dare you," he murmurs, lips peppering kisses from your lips to your jaw, tongue licking hot at your neck, "Look this fucking good all night." "It's kind of your fault," you laugh, panting slightly while his teeth graze over a sensitive spot by your collar bone. You kick off your heels, leaving $2600 on the floor of Steve's apartment.

"Mostly yours," he grunts, pulling you over to the living room after taking off his own shoes. He opens the big vertical blinds so that the city glitters into the penthouse apartment. Steve wastes no time however, getting behind you the same way he did earlier, fingers nimbling unzipping your dress. You both watch it fall to the floor in a delicate puddle, black water silk at your feet.

Now there was $6600 on the floor. Steve takes a second to admire you in your skivvies, his bottom lip tucking between his teeth. He surveys you like a work of art, like a statue carved just for him. You shudder while he circles you, feeling the heat of his ambers eyes burning with need on your skin. He chuckles when he notices you get a flustered, settling down on the couch. He motions for you to you come forward and while you are never one to listen, you make your way over to him without question.

"You like when I spoil you?" he asks huskily, pulling you down to straddle his lap. One arm wraps tight around your waist while the other wraps delicately in your hair. Your stomach presses against him while your breasts heave in his face. He pulls your head down to kiss you, hungry and powerful, while his hips press up to grind against your satin covered cunt.

"Mhm," you whimper into his mouth. His hands reach behind you to the hooks and ties at the back of your bustier. Steve's fingers never met a bra that they couldn't take off in an impressive flick of the wrist.

"Let's get all this off you," he mumbles breathily before sliding his lips from your mouth to your neck. The bustier falls forward slightly before he gets impatient, pulling the straps down your arms before discarding it on the ground. You reach for the necklace but he stops you, reaching back up to capture you in a hungry kiss. "Keep the jewelry on," he says, ambers eyes meeting yours. He's stern in his request and you nod obediently, hands lowering down to meet his chest.

Now there was $8,000 on the floor.

His hands find your breasts and he lets out a rugged groan, massaging them with his hands while he presses kisses down onto the soft skin.

"You can't come with me to dinner looking like this anymore," he murmurs between kisses, "Barely closed that deal. Too busy staring at these tits."

"Steve," you gasp out, giggling, "You closed it just fine."

"Mmm," he nods, mouth occupied by taking a nipple between his lips. You can feel the flutter of his tongue over it while he looks up at you, eye shining wickedly. Your whine just encourages him to keep going. Your hips press down against him, reminding him what you want more than his mouth, than his hands. He pops his lips off of you, the sound echoing in the open living room.

“Is there something you want?” he asks sweetly, leaning back on cushions of the couch. You nod, rocking your hips over his hard cock in his pants, letting out a soft tiny moan at each bit of friction.

“You're so spoiled angel,” he teases, thumbs brushing over your nipples before rolling them between his fingers, making you whine. His voice still dripping in depth and heat, “I think you should work for it.”

“I thought the whole point of this was so that I didn't have to work anymore," you tease back, leaning forward to kiss him. He hums into your mouth and you can feel him smirk into the kiss. Bastard, you think to yourself.

“Hmm,” he considers, palm skating over your thigh, “You do make a good counter point."

“I think giving into my demands is a good return on investment,” you assure, hips rolling against him in a way that makes his thighs tense up, "Imagine the long term benefits?"

He groans when you parrot him, getting harder at the thought of you genuinely listening to his business speak when you do these dinners. He squeezes the fat of your hips, tongue gliding over his kiss bitten lower lip while you take off his tie and start to unbutton his shirt. “Take these off,” he says, looking up at you while his finger traces your panty line. You heat up when he says it, a smug smile blooming on your face. His actions only confirming that he’ll always give in, “If you ask for want you want, I'll consider it."

“Oh, you'll pass that on to your team? I'd love to be considered,” you ask with a laugh, but he's done joking around, a tap to your thigh reminds you that he asked you to undress. You stand up off of him, your feet meeting the cold hardwood, your panties sliding down your smooth legs.

Now there was $8250 on the floor.

He undoes his belt while you stand in front of him, eyes glued to yours while he does it. You swallow when he winks, thighs pressing together — you know he notices. Steve shimmies his pants down slightly, enough that he can keep his legs spread wide while pulling out his length. It's clear that he's painfully hard, a guttural groan escaping him while his hand offers him some minor relief, “Is this what you want?”

“Y-yeah,” your voice barely above a whisper.

“Why don’t you suck on it first and I’ll tell you when you can ride it," he smirks, and without thinking, you start getting to your knees. He stops you before you can make it to the floor, putting a throw pillow beneath you to protect you from the hardwood. Steve can't help but kiss you softly once you make it to your knees, he was never any good at being mean and forceful with you. You'd been right the whole time, he couldn't boss you around -- at least not for too long.

You unbutton the rest of his dress shirt that will now need to be dry cleaned and repressed. You let a hand trail down his chest, gliding through the hair there while pressing wet hot kisses down to his pelvis. Pulling some of the skin between your teeth to leave red and purple bruises behind.

“That’s it, baby,” his breath blends with his words as he adjusts on the couch, leaning back so you have more access to him. You kiss close to the base, tongue trailing over the crease of his thigh, breath ghosting over his shaft while your mouth stays occupied with his heavy sac. You feel him lean back, relaxing while you work him up, his hands coming behind his head, arms bending at the elbows. "Just like that, honey," Steve purrs, "Just like that."

Your hand reaches up to stroke him, slow and deliberate, mouth getting wetter while you leave sloppy kisses at the base and on his pelvis. Your thumb glides over the shining bead of pre-cum pooling out of the tip, teasing over the seam just under it. Your tongue finally glides up to the tip expertly, letting your lower lip catch on the head -- his eyes meet yours behind his glasses, burning with need. It feels cruel to keep him waiting when he looks at you like that, so you don't wait. While keeping eye contact you adjust, taking him all the way to the back of your throat without so much as a wince.

“Oh fuck, good girl,” he gasps into a growl, hand reactively entwining in your hair, “That’s daddy’s girl.”

You groan into the praise, sucking diligently on his cock, thighs pressing tight together. Your back arches into a posture he can only recognize as needy, making him grin while he runs his free hand through his own hair.

“Learned to like that, huh? Whose your daddy, angel?” You smirk up at him in response, tongue gliding from the base to the tip again, taking half of his shaft in your mouth before taking it out with a low laugh, "You are, honey."

His eyes roll back, hips canting up towards your mouth while his grip in your hair tightens. You press him by the thighs back down onto the couch eyeing him while he whimpers when your tongue traces the curve of his cock again. Always on top even on your knees. "Fuck, don't stop," he breathes out. He lets go of your hair, arm reaching behind him to clutch the back of the couch. His hips roll up again, disrupting your rhythm slightly. You taste the salt of him on your tongue while you continue, a soft giggle erupting from your throat, sending shockwaves through him.

"Having fun, honey?" he asks, pulling himself away from you slightly. You sit back on your heels and smile, nodding. He leans forward, blessing you with kisses, deep and slow, "Let's take this to the bedroom."

"I'm on top, right?" you ask. He smirks, watching the jewelry glitter on you in the low light. "Not a chance," he giggles darkly, "Not tonight. Really wanna show you how bad I want you tonight."

"Oh, just tonight?" you ask smartly, getting up from your knees to head to the bedroom.

"Every night," he says with a roll of the eyes, getting up and tossing his dress shirt and tie on the couch. He watches you as you walk slowly to the bedroom, eyeing your smooth skin, the way your hips and waist twist when you walk. He knows you're walking like this on purpose, but he'll never complain. You fall back on the sheets you've been sleeping in for six months and he watches your breasts and thighs and tummy jiggle when you land. Steve grins, sliding off his slacks, socks, and boxer briefs before stepping between your legs, standing over you while you lay on the bed. "Hi," you say, a genuine smile pulling at your mouth when you look up at him. A stripe of amber light from outside pools into the room from between the billowing white curtains, coating you both in a dreamy haze.

"Hi, baby," he says back, his hands reaching down to slide from just under your breasts to your waist, "So beautiful," he whispers to himself.

"Move up a little for me," he instructs, his voice sweet and deep. You scooch up the bed, settling between the mountain of pillows leaning against the short head board while he settles between your legs again. He watches you and the way your body manipulates when he reaches down behind your thighs, pressing the tops of them to your chest. He leans forward, pressing his own chest against what can be felt of yours. Your knees are at your decolletage when he leans in closer to give you another deep kiss before leaning back again, quickly tossing his glasses on the bedside table.

You both stay quiet while he strokes himself a few times, smirking down at your glistening core while he lines himself up to push in. You aren't sure why, but every time he does, it feels like the first time.

"Oh my God," you whine while he pushes in slow, "Stevie." "I know, angel," he nods, gliding in all the way to the hilt. He grunts when he feels you grip him tight, trying to pull out slightly only to get sucked back in. He grips the back of your thighs for leverage, pulling back half way and pressing in, feeling you get wetter around him while he picks up a rhythm.

"Shiii-Steve, that's so deep," you whine. It only encourages him to push in deeper.

"Gotta practice, honey," he grins, starting to pant while he looms over you, letting go of your legs to get close to you again, "Need it to stick when we do it for real."

You pulse over him when he says it, back trying to arch despite your position beneath him.

"You like when I talk like that?" he whispers, his voice sliding back to gravely in your ear, "When I tell you how bad I wanna cum inside you?"

"Mhm," you whimper, nodding against his searing kiss, working himself up the more he thinks about it. "Get you all fuckin' full with me?" he growls, "Keep you nice and pregnant the second I get that ring on your finger?" You burn with lust while he babbles on, wrapping your legs around his waist while his thrusts get rough and desperate. Your body shakes and quivers while his hips slam against you, filthy wet squelches filling the high ceilings of the room. Mixing with a symphony of both of your sighs and moans, the smell of your sweat mixing with his cologne. Slam, slam, slam, slam, slam. The headboard beating the wall between the windows with a thud over and over again. "I fucking love you," he grits out. "I love you, too," you whine, eyes rolling in the back of your head. Heat licks at your lower belly, building while the slight curve of his cock makes the head brush over your g-spot in rapid succession, "Baby, I'm..." "Yeah?" he asks with a knowing smile, "So close for me, hm?" He sits back on his calves, still able to thrust while he looks down at you. His thumb presses against your lips, asking for entry. You let him in, making sure to get it extra slick with your spit before he takes it out, reaching down to slide it in circles over your clit. "How's that, angel?" he asks, thrusts not showing a hint of slowing down, "Does that feel good?"

Your thighs shake, eyes pricking with tears, shining while they look up at him. Well he's pleased with himself, you think, making a mental note to throw him on his back tomorrow and ride him into next week until he's a babbling mess. "It does, huh?" he asks softly, nodding down at you while you nod up at him. "Shit," he huffs, "Oh fuck."

"Not so...oh my god, oh wow -- not so t-tough now, are you?" you giggle. He groans when you giggle, Why are you so fucking precious? he thinks to himself, Who allowed this?

Heat rises even more, the jewelry starting to feel clingy as it sticks to your shining skin. Steve keeps his pace, eyes closing softly while he leans his head back, the column of his neck begging to be bitten and kissed by you. You whimper, pulling at the clasp of the bracelet, tossing it onto the carpet next to the bed. Now there was $48,250 on the floor. Feeling less trapped and more desperate to destroy his neck and chest, you sit up, your manicured hand pressing against his hair covered pecs. It doesn't take long for him to allow it, looking up at you while you climb on top of him.

"That's it, honey, give it to me," he breathes, "Show me how bad you want it."

Your hips move with a slutty percision that he loves, grinding against him for your own pleasure and his. He hisses when you bite down on his neck, letting out a soft laugh when you pull at his hair, "Come for me, angel, c'mon." He hears you pant in his ear while you lean over him, the diamonds in your necklace shimmering in his eyes. You sigh, sitting up straight, unclasping the necklace while you bounce on top of him, gently tossing it to meet the bracelet. Now there was $198,250 on the floor. "Do not," he groans out, hands grabbing your hips with bruising grip, "Put those earrings on the ground, we will never find them until a post ends up in my fucking heel." You laugh, your own head leaning back, making him yearn to taste the column of your neck this time. But your laugh doesn't last long, it morphs into guttural moans while he holds you in place, thrusting up into you in an unforgiving speed. Steve gasps, watching your breasts bounce in front of him while he continues on unrelenting. "Baby..." You squeak out, "Steve...oh fuck, oh Steve -- Steve, Steve, Steve..." The heat builds and builds and builds. Your eyes water while his cock bullies into you. The head hitting your g-spot, pushing in deeper while he goes. You let out a cry, nails digging into his broad freckles shoulders while our hips slam down on him, thighs vibrating while white blooms behind your eyes.

"Good girl," He coos while you shake, collapsing onto his chest, "That's it, angel, that's my girl." He eases you onto your back again, giving you slow kisses on your neck and chest while he chases his own orgasm. It doesn't take long, nearly on the precipice of cumming since he zipped you up in your dress earlier in the evening. His mouth gapes while he sends his seed over your tummy, painting you with ropes of glistening white. "Jesus Christ..." he gasps, settling himself with some big deep breaths that expand his sculpted chest. You both look at each other, panting and sweating, the passion wearing off to a pure and gentle love for each other. You both start laughing. "We swear we're sexy," you laugh up at him. His smile makes you melt all over again. You watch him ease up off the bed, leaning forward from the side to kiss your forehead. He picks up the jewelry, inspecting it for missing gems, or - god forbid - a scratch, and places it carefully on the side table with his glasses. "Wanna get cleaned up with me?" he asks, tilting his head, "Can you stand?" "Oh please," you roll your eyes, sitting up slowly, "I can..sort of stand." You already feel the ache between your legs from taking him, knowing you'll need at least a day to recover from something so big. He helps you up, taking you into the en suite bathroom and getting the water just right for you to step into. "I'll be right back," he says, pulling you in for a kiss on the temple before he disappears in the steam. When he returns behind the glass of the standing shower, covered top to bottom in dark green tile, he passes you a glass of Malbec that matches his. "A little celebratory night cap," he says sweetly. "To closing the deal," you grin, giving his glass a clink to cheers. "To closing the deal," he says back before you both take a sip.

"I know you're not wearing those earings in the shower, Manhattan," he sighs, putting the glass on the product shelf out of the water. He reaches for you ears but you yelp playfully, stepping away from him, "You're gonna be the fuckin' death of me, honey. I swear."

[bolddeducktionneverfails]

Long time, no post. 🍂🍁☕🍩

Yeah, I don't have the heart to delete my Tumblr presence, so I guess I'll keep adding content here on certain occasions.

Not sure about longer-form content like essays. I think I'd rather keep those...somewhere else.

Oh, yeah, the drawing. Uh:

Over the summer, I was thinking about creating a new Fall piece to tie-in with the upcoming season. I wanted to draw Della in her alternate outfit again (the painting Dewey found in the garage) to go with LP's chauffeur outfit since those colors fell in line with fall very nicely. I love trying out all the pumpkin spice flavored things when Fall hits. And pairing it up with one of my favorite ships? The perfect idea! This was something I was definitely going to draw! But then a battery issue with my laptop came up and wrecked my plans...😑

I was so fixated on what I couldn't do, that it distracted me from at least getting the sketches done traditionally. Once I got ahold of another laptop to use in the meantime, I was able to settle down and get to it. The newer laptop couldn't read my Clip Studio paint CD, so I tried to use another program. Then I remembered it lacked the tools I needed. I tried another one and it kept freezing on me. After that, I gave up and just had to wait until my laptop was fixed. Once it was, I had to get another art piece out of the way. THEN I got absorbed into working on things for that "somewhere else" and started to contemplate on whether it was even worth doing now that it's December. But Fall does extend into this month...and I don't feel like holding it off until next year...might as well keep going. 🤷🏾‍♀️

(Though I did have to axe the bonus content I intended to go along with it...maybe that'll be the thing I get to next year...)

Soooo, yeah, as you can tell, this took quite some time to finish and now it's more of a farewell to fall than anything. 😂😓

I'm hoping to have something more Winter-oriented later this month. Maybe something New Year-ish in January too. 🤔

[landoom]

organised by @33max and @leatherandcherryblossoms - header from them

List of prompts

Day 12: 🧣 Mistletoe Kisses (I won't be able to finish every prompt today but I'll keep going in January)

“Hey, guys!! Look!” Lando shrieks, pointing at Alex and George who are talking near the double doors leading to the living room.

All the drivers present turn their heads towards them.

“What?” Alex asks.

“Look up!” Lando says, nearly bouncing with excitement.

Alex does. George does, too. They both freeze. Mistletoe.

“Reckon you have to kiss…” Oscar says.

“Of course, they have to! Or else it’s seven years of bad luck.” Lando adds.

“That’s for the broken mirrors, Lando.”

“It’s the same, Osc!”

“So? Are you kissing?” Max starts and soon everyone is cheering for them to kiss.

Alex looks at George. George. His best friend, his Georgie. The person he knows the best and the person who knows him the best. It shouldn’t be that hard to put a friendly peck on those lips. Just a joke between friends.

But it’s more than that. Because Alex has wanted to kiss those lips for years. He has managed to hide this want so deep inside, to learn to live with it and now… 

“Suppose we can do it…” George says trying to sound nonchalant but Alex knows him enough to see he’s blushing slightly and that he feels awkward and he decides to save him from that.

So, he leans in and puts a little kiss just on the corner of his lips.

Immediately, they get booed by their friends.

“That wasn’t a proper kiss!” Daniel says.

“Come on guys!” Lando encourages.

And before Alex can think about a way out, George’s hands are on his lips and he’s kissed. Like properly kissed. He hears the cheers of their friends but soon it’s like everything is disappearing outside of the feeling of George’s lips on his.

And then, it stops. George let go of him.

“Was that enough?” George asks as he joins their friends and leaves Alex frozen, under the mistletoe, alone.

***

“Look up,” George says.

Alex does and spots the mistletoe.

“Again?”

George nods. Alex smiles. Remember their first kiss a few days earlier, in front of their friends. A kiss that led to an evening of awkwardness until Alex was brave enough to go talk to George…Which led to another kiss and some confession.

“But we’re alone this time,” George notes with a fond smile Alex knows so well…But a smile he has just learned the true meaning of. 

“True.”

“So? Are you gonna kiss me?”

“Why should I be the one kissing you?” 

“You’re an idiot, Alex.”

George kisses Alex.

***

“Did you put up the mistletoe?” Alex asks as he looks around their apartment to check if everything is ready for their New Year’s dinner with their friends.

“Of course…”

“So the trap is set up?”

George nods.

“We can get our revenge on Lando.”

“Perfect.”

“But we might want to try it, just to be sure it’s working,” George suggests as he grabs Alex’s waist to put his boyfriend under the little shrub.

“Oh yeah, we can’t do with a malfunctioning mistletoe…”

They kiss. A few times, just to be sure.

***

“I wasn’t expecting that…” George says.

“Me neither ” Alex says nodding towards the couch where Lando has been sitting in Oscar’s lap since they arrived.

“Seems like we bet on the wrong horse…”

“But at least the mistletoe worked…” Alex says with a look at Max and Charles embracing under the little shrub.

[vgperson]

What Did I Do In 2023?

Whatever I wanted, mostly.

----

As I mentioned last year, my site now has an RSS feed with basically everything I've done back to 2020, so this will mainly be going over the same stuff from that, just with added context.

In January, I finally sat down and properly realized an idea for a short story I'd had sitting around for a while: From the Sidelines, about a fantasy RPG expedition going sideways. I remain very proud of it in both concept and execution, and hope people read it.

In February, Your Turn To Die was released on Steam Early Access, receiving character profiles and some bonus mini-episodes, adding two more later in the year.

After finishing From the Sidelines, I carried that momentum to revisit my Ut0p1a story series about funny computer animals. I'd always meant to continue it - and conclude it - but hadn't been satisfied with the ideas I had for it until totally rethinking them this year. In March, I posted the remaining stories one after another: Right to Code and Left to Code. I'm very proud of these as well. Also in March, Kenshi Yonezu released LADY. (Video, interview)

In April, Uri released the Data Book of the Strange Men Series, a big collection of the writing she's done on the games in the series, with a lot of new parts as well, all translated by me.

Then in May... uh, well, let's see. In April, Capcom released the Mega Man Battle Network Legacy Collection. I always adored the Battle Network games, and was initially excited that they finally did the thing... but by the time it came out, I was pretty disappointed by how, while you certainly couldn't call them low-effort ports, the effort didn't extend everywhere I thought it should, with the biggest offenders being the total absence of any "convenience features" except Buster Max Mode, the bad font, and the almost entirely untouched translations.

So, I ended up deciding I might as well just replay the originals, and that was a fun time (aside from the parts that were bad). Doing this, I couldn't help but notice how... turbulent the translations were, even if I'd always known they were less than ideal. I mean, the first two games just used periods for ellipses despite the tight character limits, then in BN3 they had an ellipsis character... but it's center-aligned, Japanese-style? Aside from the intro, which has normal ones? Gosh, somebody should fix that - it's simple enough to find and edit in YY-CHR. "JapanMan" is silly, too - I wonder if anybody made a patch for that? Wait, what do you mean there's just a tool to extract and insert text in all the Battle Network games including the Legacy Collection???

Thus began a journey that sort of occupied the rest of my year. First I did the BN3 Translation Revision, trying not to worry too much about cross-referencing the Japanese text unless something seemed wrong, so that I didn't spend too long on the project. Then I began to consider BN2, with its unfortunate "foreigner" text that would need some more significant reworking. I established more convenient tools for comparing with the Japanese script, and thus did a much more thorough job with it, releasing the BN2 Translation Revision in June (AKA Princess Pride Month).

Finally, after giving myself time to recover and actually finish replaying the series, I knew what I had to do to close things out. With the BN4 Translation Revision, you can finally play Battle Network 4 with a translation that isn't such a mess. Whether you'd want to is for you to decide, though if you can get over the structure, I don't think it's the worst game in the series by any means. (Oh, and in December I also updated the BN3 Revision to 1.1, doing a thorough pass with the methods I'd honed. But I think I'm pretty much good on MMBN translations now.)

Anyway, backtracking to other things that happened during my Battle Network haze... June had Kenshi Yonezu's Moongazing (video, interview), and July had Globe (video, interview, interview).

Last but not least, released in November, I translated Refind Self: The Personality Test Game, a short game from Lizardry (creator of 7 Days to End with You) with a fun concept.

----

Obviously I was right to have said "no promises" last year. But really, Your Turn To Die should get its final part on Steam sometime next year, maybe even early-ish in it. That's certainly the goal.

I'm also hoping to buckle down and finish one of my own games, but as usual, who knows how that'll pan out. Letting my whims carry me this year let me finally finish From the Sidelines and Ut0p1a, which was great, and it also led me down a Battle Network rabbit hole, which was... fine, but definitely for a narrower audience. I'd always like to get back to more free game translations and the like, too, but it takes effort to find things I'd want to translate. For now, I think my increasing desire to be able to let loose some of these original games I've been planning, and the stories in them, might come out on top.

[fanfic-scribbles]

Dinner Date Chapter 36

Masterlist

<<Previous Chapter Next Chapter>>

Overall Story Facts:

Fandom: MCU Captain America/Avengers

Story Summary: Steve Rogers has a girlfriend. A prickly, generally asocial girlfriend, but they make it work. They have more in common than some people might think.

Quick Facts: Romance – Steve Rogers/Reader – Female Reader

Story Warnings: Reader-insert that verges on OFC, written in 1st person past tense

Chapter 36: Wake-Up Call

Chapter Summary: Steve needs to go for a walk, and vent. Sometimes, love means waking up at five am– because anything less would have to wait until at least seven.

Chapter Word Count: 3328

A/N: Happy December; hope you all are well as can be <3 I’m realizing my next chapter isn’t going to work so well so I’ll be scrambling to finish something else for January, but I will see you all…next year! =P

~

The 4am wake-up call came both earlier and later than I expected. Earlier, in that it was only Saturday when Steve showed up at 4:37 in the morning, and later because...well, it was at least closer to five when an unexpectedly large body sitting on my bed propelled me into a heart attack.

“Fucking fuck,” I said, gripping my chest after recognizing the body was a familiar one.

“Sorry– sorry,” Steve said– was he trying not to laugh? I smacked at his arm, but I was still half-asleep and my fingers just kind of flopped across his skin.

He snorted hard and clamped a hand over his mouth. “Oh fuck you,” I grumbled and rubbed my face. I inhaled and let my heart return to a more reasonable pace. “Shit; is it time for walkies?”

He chuckled, and squeezed my hand. “It doesn’t have to be,” he said. “I am sorry; I know you said– whenever, and I wasn’t able to sleep at all, so I waited for a better hour, but I guess I got too restless and–”

I put a finger to his lips. And waited for a single brain cell to start working. After a few half-hearted attempts, something finally sparked. “It’s fine,” I said, starting to ease into full-brain consciousness. Steve definitely seemed keyed up; so much so for such an early hour– “Wait, did you not sleep at all?”

“I can do it later.” His expression turned stormy. “I’ll have time today.”

That did not bode well for all the SHIELD meetings he had been in to discuss the ‘Winter Soldier issue.’ I swallowed a sigh, and instead took a deep, steady breath. “Okay,” I said, setting all that aside for when I was more awake. My eyes continued to stay open, at least. “Let me get dressed, you find us a coffee shop to stop at, and then we can…mosey.”

“Just mosey?” He leaned his head against mine. “How about amble? Stroll? Saunter? Trai–”

“We can do all of those to a library so I can beat you with a thesaurus.” I scooted away, to the other edge of the bed. “Gimme ten, and we can meander all you want.”

~

We did. Mosey, amble, etc; me with a coffee in one hand and slightly leaning into him on my other side. It was early enough no one was around the park to care, and if they were, they were passing for a reason and not stopping to note the random man hunching in on himself and somehow also partly shading me. He was going to get a crick in his neck if he kept that up, but I didn’t really want to be too negative at him when he was already so dour. We were less ‘moseying’ than we were trudging and lumbering, and I was still too out of it to be of any help at all.

“You know, science says five minutes of sleep is better than zero minutes of sleep.” I blinked a few times, and then squinted to make sure my eyes stayed open. “Far be it from me to doubt science, but…”

“…But you doubt science?” Steve asked with a wry smile. I made a ‘tiny bit’ pinching motion with my fingers, and he smiled slightly and shook his head. “Why were you up so late?”

“Umm…” I sipped my coffee slowly.

He leaned in closer. “Couldn’t sleep?” he said, his voice dipping into concern.

I pulled the cup from my mouth and sighed. “No,” I said. A little sullenly, because I didn’t want to admit to the why– it seemed so stupid in the scope of things.

However, my attitude was just enough for him to suss out the truth of the matter, because after a few seconds, Steve let out a little snort of recognition and then asked, “Were you playing a game?”

“Shut up,” I said, much more sullenly, and drank some more as he chuckled. He would have laughed, normally, but I took what he could give.

“I don’t feel quite so bad now,” he said.

I hip-checked him. Or tried to; I moved more like a bumper car losing power, but the feeling got across, I thought. “Don’t feel bad at all. I told you I’m here whenever and I meant it.”

He put his arm around me. “I’m just a little worried about your coordination.”

“What, you don’t like my 5 a.m. coordination?” I asked, but I stood upright and took a sip as I slipped away from him. Steve made a pathetic noise and got close again, but I just took a step to the side (and tried not to trip over my own two feet). “Nope; s’what you get for making fun of me.”

“I think your 5 a.m. coordination is adorable,” he said. “Be careful of that lip coming up though unless you want to lose your drink.”

I way overexaggerated stepping over the little ridge of sidewalk as it came up (even though it was a good call and I probably would have tripped on it, given my current amount of attention paid to our surroundings). “That’s why SHIELD pays you the big hero bucks,” I said. However, Steve was conspicuously silent at that, and when I looked at him, his mouth was on a downturn and he was focused on the ground. My stomach did a little flip. “Steve?”

He sighed, but when he looked at me, he did a little double-take. “Hey, no, it’s not that dire; I’m just…annoyed.” He tried for a smile but the bitterness was still there. “Fury is too. I’m on ‘temporary enforced leave,’ which sounds bad I guess, but it just means I can’t come in for a few days while Fury gets over himself.”

“Is that even possible?” I asked. I had nothing against Fury normally, but right now Steve was mad at him, and I was nothing if not loyal. And there was no better bonding experience than shit-talking a loved one’s boss.

But Steve, goody-two shoes he sometimes was, just shook his head. “It is. He will. And so will I,” he said. “It’s just…”

He went quiet for long enough that I briefly leaned against him again. He leaned into me too.

“The coffee must be good,” he commented lightly. “No complaints yet.”

“The complaints will come when the drink is gone. But they will be small complaints.” I sipped slowly, trying to let him settle. He didn’t. “Hey.” I bumped my head against his shoulder. “I won’t make you talk about it. But you can talk about whatever.”

He let out a gust of air. “There’s nothing to say. I mean that almost literally– we’re at a stalemate,” he said, and leaned his head closer to me. “SHIELD won’t budge on how they see B- the Wi- Bucky.” I looked and saw his jaw muscles tensing as he continued to speak. “I understand the…logic. At least part of it. He caused a lot of suffering.” Steve blinked rapidly a few times, and swallowed. “But he suffered too. He didn’t have a choice; he wasn’t even allowed a sense of self. He’s different now.”

I re-capped my nearly-empty cup, snuck a look around, then slipped my free hand into his. He squeezed, and let out a sigh. I squeezed back. “I’d offer to yell at SHIELD for you, but I’m honestly not all that good at it,” I admitted, with a little bit of shame. “I’m sorry I can’t help.”

“Being here is enough. And honestly, there are enough people yelling at SHIELD.” Steve actually cracked a small smile. “Clint and Natasha show up to every meeting looking like disappointed parents– Clint’s idea. Jane called Thor down and he started yelling at Fury before anyone even told him why he should. Bruce made a really, really long presentation on neuroscience that he got some doctor friends to help him out with. Even Tony has been helping, in his own way.”

The level of wonder at that last one caught my attention. “Is it that surprising?” I asked and threw back my cup for the last little bite, and caught only a few drops. “He seems like he’d enjoy yelling at SHIELD.”

Steve looked askance. “It’s…complicated.”

I took that to mean they were fighting again, and let it drop. “But they all have your back, even if SHIELD are being jerks.”

“Yeah.” His face relaxed again, and he seemed closer to a smile than a frown, at least. “Yeah. They have my back.” He looked around, then slipped an arm around me for a brief squeeze. “And I’ve got yours. More coffee?”

“Yeah,” I said, looking around for a trashcan. “But how about breakfast? There’s a–”

“I know just the place.”

The seductive female purr right into my ear was so unexpected that my feet almost left the ground entirely, and my cup flew out of my hand and landed several feet away– right near a trashcan.

You can’t murder Black Widow, you literally physically CAN’T, I told myself, clutching my chest for the second time today, as Steve and Clint laughed themselves sick, and I came down from a mix of terror and…well, it probably was on purpose that she used a sexy voice, but I was not going to mention it. “What the fucking fuck, Natasha. You are so lucky that cup was empty.”

She gave me only wide-eyed innocence. “Am I?”

“Yes,” I said firmly. “Because I will go down, but I will go down swinging, and then you will have to deal with Steve moping at you for the rest of his life.”

Natasha actually made a face at that, and I nodded with satisfaction that the message was properly received. Steve, though, scoffed. “I think I’d do more than mope at her,” he said, a bit sulkily. Before I could tell him not to battle his friends to the death, he added, “I would do my PSA voice and say, “how could you, I am so disappointed in–’”

Both Natasha and I made noises of disgust as he actually did his stupid Captain America PSA voice. Clint, by contrast, coming back from throwing my cup out properly, made an admiring noise and said, “Wow, you’re really good at pulling that out on cue.”

“It’s very annoying,” Steve said, as though appreciating Clint’s comment. “But we were just about to go for breakfast. Do you two want–?”

“Breakfast, yes,” Natasha said and went to manhandle Steve into facing another direction. It was a little funny, actually; it was like watching an otter wrestle a whale. And win. “We know just the place.”

~

The diner looked closed, but Natasha and Clint strode fearlessly forward, so Steve shrugged and gestured me to go ahead. Despite the heavy blinds in place to block everything outside, the lights were all on full, sounds and smells came from the kitchen, and there were several tables shoved together in the middle of an otherwise empty dining room, around which sat a bunch of people. Those being: Sam, Jane, Thor, Bruce, Tony, and Pepper. It brought Steve up short– more than just taking in who was there, which he surely did faster than me.

“Finally!” Tony said, drawing everyone away from a conversation that had Thor looking mildly annoyed. But he sloughed it off for his usual poise, and his eyes brightened when he looked at Steve. Sam relaxed in his chair, Jane sleepily waved a coffee cup, and even Bruce turned to smile.

Despite the abundance of people I wasn’t prepared for, I relaxed more than when I’d thought we were just going to a random diner full of strangers. They really did have Steve’s back.

Clint and Natasha herded Steve and me over to a couple of chairs at the table, Steve sitting next to Sam, with Jane at the end and Thor and Bruce circling that side, while I sat next to Pepper, with Tony at the end on her side, and Clint and Natasha filling in the last seats across. As soon as I was seated, I flipped over the empty cup in front of me– and snagged the carafe Tony had just been going for. Honestly, it was an accident that happened because I grabbed it before I even saw him, but when he narrowed his eyes at me, I tried for the sweetest smile I could while I filled a cup for me, and a cup for Steve.

“Oh, thanks sweetheart,” Steve said absently, slipping the cup in hand as he paid more attention to whatever Sam was saying.

“You’re welcome, Honey-buns,” Tony said in a ridiculous falsetto, and tried to swipe the coffee back.

I pulled it just out of reach and looked around at the empty cups not in front of Tony. “Pepper,” I said sweetly to the woman giving Tony a hairy eyeball. “You look a little low. Would you like a top-off?”

“Please,” Pepper said and moved her cup closer. Tony channeled his Most Annoying personality and tapped his fingers as loud as possible while occasionally giving a heavy sigh at his oh-so-interminable wait, but as I was the one annoying him, it was like music to my ears. Once Pepper’s cup was nice and full, I didn’t even get to pretend to offer any to Clint or Natasha before Tony found his chance and stole the pot from my hand.

“Tony!” Pepper scolded, but I used my newly free hand to pick up my coffee and sip it slowly while he waved around his prize and made stupid faces at me. Eventually he did go to pour– and he got about a tablespoon out of the nearly empty pot. How he couldn’t tell how light it was when he grabbed it, I didn’t know, but the way his face scrunched in displeasure made the entire early morning worth every single second.

“Mmmmmmm,” I said and added a noisy slurp as he glared at me. The waitress came around with a new pot of coffee and I momentarily wondered if I could get away with grabbing it before he noticed, but after she filled Clint’s cup and set it out, Tony snatched it, fast as a starving snake, and, still glaring at me, poured himself a full cup, with only a minor correction from Pepper tilting the spout into a better spot.

At a laugh from Thor, I looked at that end of the table to see Steve, still with his entirely full cup, just in his other hand, completely wrapped in conversation with Sam and Thor, with Jane piping up and Bruce just watching. Though Bruce did glance at Tony, then flashed me a wry smile and a wink.

I was saved from having to figure out how to respond by the very sudden appearance of food– something that also surprised Steve, from how he jerked slightly but sharply, and his hand immediately went to my leg under the table. The waitress and waiter didn’t seem to notice, didn’t even have time to, considering the frighteningly quick efficiency they used in setting the food down and getting the heck out of dodge. I wondered if Tony was paying them extra to give us as much privacy as possible. That was…oddly sweet.

It almost gave me hives, so I put that thought in the back of my head and moved on with looking at my plate. It was stacked full of food and looked and smelled amazing, and I lifted my head to see Natasha watching me as she poured extra syrup across her pile of pancakes already doused in in the stuff, with piles of decadent whipped cream. She gave me a knowing smile, but then pouted and said, “You didn’t offer me any coffee.”

I almost rolled my eyes– she wasn’t even using her mug and instead had a fancy-looking drink with ice and a straw and everything– but since I felt Very Annoying and no longer had anyone to turn it on, I made a heart motion with my hands right in front of my face.

I then immediately got a tiny straw-paper ball to the nose. I sputtered and jerked back. “You–!” But I immediately laughed and admitted, “That was really good.” I put the little paper trash ball into position, lined up my flicking finger, and took aim.

“Are you seriously going to attack Natasha back?” Clint asked in amazement.

“Yup!” I said, and fired. Natasha, knowing it wasn’t going to hit her, just stared at me flatly– until the little Paper Ball That Could landed right on the whipped cream of her pancakes, which was honestly even better than I was hoping for– I had been aiming for the syrup. Her eyes narrowed, and I decided to spend some of my last minutes on earth indulging in a fistpump. Steve continued to be oblivious, talking to Sam and Jane, and perhaps that was for the best.

“I’ve always wondered if you could kill somebody with a tiny paper ball,” Clint said as Natasha stole another two straw wrappings and started forming them together into a tightly packed projectile.

“Hm. I mean, if anybody could survive it…” I glanced at Steve. Still oblivious. I grinned. “Hey Nat,” I said and made the heart shape in front of Steve’s face– a good frame, but just far enough away that he wouldn’t notice. Natasha smirked, Clint leaned in eagerly as she took aim, and Tony choked on a sip of his coffee.

“–and I wa- uh, sweetheart, what are you–?”

Natasha fired.

I thought I heard it plink off his face, and he slammed himself back so hard he almost fell over, and Tony and Clint and Thor and Sam all burst out laughing. Thor was so loud I almost couldn’t hear Steve right next to me. “Fuck Nat did you have to get me right in the eye?!”

“Your offering was acceptable,” she said, smiling so hard the apples of her cheeks were almost fully pushed out.

I turned, and– after one quick glance around– gave Steve the quickest peck on the cheek ever. “Thanks for taking one for the team,” I said and smiled sweetly at his scowl.

“What team,” he muttered sullenly and rubbed his face like he was a four-year-old who had just endured enthusiastic greetings from Aunt Gretchen.

“The team of you and me! And also your team in general, who would have had to deal with you when Natasha sent me to an early grave,” I said. I made another little heart– and a paper ball pinged off Steve’s mug and went right into my shirt. “Fuck!” I said and scrambled to get it out without flashing the table.

“Gooooaaaaaaaaaaaal!” Clint proclaimed with his arms up and out. Things devolved into a bit of chaos after that, with several of us trying to get pieces of napkins into coffee cups, off foreheads, and into food. When Tony started trying to figure out a makeshift catapult, Pepper put her foot down, and we all got back to eating and pretending to be grown-ups.

A little over halfway through, I leaned against Steve and let my stomach settle. He was quiet, resting his chin in his hand, but he patted my thigh in acknowledgment. I knew Bucky wasn’t ever far from his mind– if he wasn’t far from mine, then I doubted Steve could get away from the elephant whose shadow still cast in his physical absence– but he seemed a little lighter, even if he also seemed a little more thoughtful. “You’ve got a good team,” I said softly, keeping it just between us.

His mouth lifted to one side, but he briefly leaned in to press his head to mine. “I really do,” he said, and slipped his hand into mine under the table, and kept hold for the rest of the meal.

~

<<Previous Chapter Next Chapter>>

[hannahssimblr]

Shane arrives in the late afternoon, and suddenly we are five. In the aftermath of the storm, when the tarmac is black and the air is fragrant with petrichor we hike to the touristy side of the beach to have drinks at the Surf Shack. We wipe rain off the picnic benches and sit overlooking the sea. It’s choppy, the sand pockmarked with puddles, but the humid heaviness the last few days spent building has been lifted away, leaving crisp, fresh air in its place. At least for now.

Jen starts demanding everyone’s highlight reel of the past year after only two minutes of small talk, and we talk about how Joe broke his wrist playing frisbee, Jen applied to eleven business schools because she didn’t know what else to put on the forms, and Shane lost his virginity to some girl called Aishling in January, though getting that tidbit is like dragging information from a stone. To distract from our nudges and kissy noises Shane asks me about Michelle, which doesn't help, because then I have to tell them all that we broke up.

It instantly zaps the fun out of things and makes the boys awkward. They grumble vague condolences and start looking around the place like they can pull a less depressing topic of conversation out of the air. I remind myself not to mention her again. 

But they don’t have to sit in this particular discomfort for long, because our drinks arrive, carried by Liam, who invites a brand new one by lingering around the table and trying to make conversation. I grit my teeth and remember to be nice.

��Ah look who’s here!” He beams, “the gang are back together!”

“Hi Liam!” Jen’s tone is straining with enthusiasm, “good to see you again, you done your leaving cert?”

“I am indeed! Finished up there last week, t’was some slog, I’ll tell you that. I was just dying to get back out here to the beach and do a bit of surfing. The first group of kids doing the classes are to be down now on the first week of July, and sure then it’s go go go! But look, sure it’s great craic altogether, can’t complain.”

He’s met with blank stares. 

“Oh yeah! Sounds fun.” Jen says after a beat, “Well, it’s nice to see-”

“Having any parties or anything like that this summer?” he asks. 

“Um, well we’re not sure, but if we do we’ll invite you.” I give her a subtle kick beneath the table, which is a mistake, because she turns her huge, beaming smile on me. Her eyes glint threateningly, “You should ask Jude though, we’re staying at his house, so he gets to decide.”

“Yeah,” I say, “Um, we’ll invite you to whatever we’re doing, we just don’t know yet.” Fine. I want to say to Jen. I’ll invite him, but you can take care of him in the toilet when he’s hammered and sick after one beer. 

“That’d be so cool, thanks!” he says, “and I’ve something you can do too, as it happens. My dad is having the first karaoke night of the year down at the local pub next week, you know, just to kind of usher in the beginning of the busy season. You should definitely come along.”

“Karaoke?” Joe echoes, “you want us to sing songs?”

“Well who doesn’t like a good auld sing-song? It’ll be a bit of fun.”

“Probably not,” Joe then turns to Kasper to try and explain to him what is happening in simple English. “Nah, Karaoke, like, singing, and shit” he mutters, “like,” he holds an invisible microphone to his mouth, “la la la, bla bla bla, like, that, like.”

Look, maybe,” I tell Liam, “I don’t think we’re exactly singers here, but we might come to the pub anyway for a few drinks.”

“You might be compelled to belt out a tune or two while you’re there.”

“Stranger things have happened.”

“Alright!” he starts walking back to the Surf Shack, turning one more time to point into our faces, “Think of ye’re songs between now and then, will ya? Just in case you change your mind at some stage!” 

Jen looks at me expectantly once he’s gone, and I immediately groan, slumping in my seat under the weight of her expectation. “Fine, I’ll invite him to whatever party, Jen, but I’m not fucking doing karaoke.” 

Beginning // Prev // Next

[boneskullravenriver]

I'm trying to get back into reading and less time dicking about on TikTok. Because I want to finally finish words of radiance. And according to a note I have in obsidian (where I have a book tracker thing I cobbled together).... I started this book in OCTOBER (2024). It is now January of 2025. Lmao.

I'm in the later half of the book so... I've had this event thing set on my calendar to remind me to read 50 pages a day. It's a big annoying full screen notification that buzzes when it pops up on my phone at exactly the same time every day. So I put in some ambiance music on my laptop and I set a stopwatch to time how long it takes me to read 50 pages.

Hopefully at this pace I can finish soon. Been trying to Pavlov myself into reading and not going "oh, I'm gonna do this tomorrow..." *Tomorrow comes* "nah, the next day!"

Then I don't read for like a month lol.

It's been going good so far. I have this small, really small notebook that I jot down what page I've started at, what page I'm aiming for, the date.. what book I'm reading, and then really short hand-ish indicators on what pages I find interesting, maybe a brief comment to remind myself why I found it interesting (not too long) so I can go back to my obsidian book tracker thing to expand on it later where I have more space to write.

I also write down the amount of time it took me to read (from the stop watch).

It's a lot and I know some folks will ask "why can't you just go... Read?? Why all the extra shit?"

Well, you see, my attention span is so shit nowadays. Even though I might like whatever book I'm reading, my brain goes "won't it be easier to just watch a video, or spend the whole day scrolling TikTok for cheap entertainment?" Because it's less of mental energy to do that.

Reading means engaging with a story. Understanding what's going on, or figuring out what's going on, and picking up whatever small hints the author is trying to put down. If you're watching a TV show, you get these things from visual or auditory cues.

Like, slightly ominous music or making the POV look like it's from the perspective of a stalker coming up behind the protagonist in a scary movie or something. In books, you don't get that. It's through words. Character actions and other things. That requires you to be engaged, not passive.

I'm also trying to read more because i feel like I wrote better whenever I was reading more. I have this old document of a story I wrote in highschool.. and I was blown away by how much I seemed to have imitated the pacing and story structure of the books I was reading back then. I was crafting a story with plot and struggle for my characters to get through... But also not neglecting their relationships with one another and giving them all different quirks so they weren't all the same.

I was doing all of that without outlining, without banging my head against a wall trying to figure it all out. I was just... Doing it. I remember typing most of it on my phone on Google docs (I didn't have a computer for a long while because my old one became busted) like wtf!!

And I remember distinctly thinking to myself "I'm such a bad writer... I don't know where I'm going with this"

And then I come back, years later looking this over like... Damn... I was cooking something!

Little snippet I found:

I dont mind sharing this since it doesn't really show explicit detail about the story or anything so it's whatever. This is from at least... I think.... 2017 or 2018 I want to say? So would have been 16 or 17 lol.

I even had a trans character before I really understood what that was, which shocked me lol

[alicepao13]

Hudson and Rex S04E11 - Capital Punishment - Part C

I will finish this. One way or another. I promise.

It took this smooth operator five seconds of standing like an idiot to tell Trina that she looks great.

Rex is watching carefully.

He does.

"But I want him with Sarah."

What did she do to that poor bowtie?

"Where would I be hiding weapons, moron?"

Only internally.

The bowtie has magically fixed itself. Not that I'm paying close attention or anything.

I'm sorry but what use are internet cafes in 2022 when most actual cafes have a decent internet connection?

I'm sure everyone opens doors that way. If he wanted to not get fingerprints on it, he could have used his elbow.

"[...] showed Canadians that extremism isn't just something our southern neighbors have to contend with." Yes, only the US has terrorism. What? Even my country has had a quite deadly terrorist organization.

Well, they usually give awards to the least deserving people. We are the exception, of course.

Tell him, Joe!

"If no one's going to do anything about this, I'll do it myself."

Well, there's no plan for "my dog took off with a bomb in his mouth."

Okay, first of all, this is the funniest way to say "I'll blow up Rex". Second, I think we should be more concerned about the fact that Rex might be anywhere, including (as we saw later) running next to dozens of people. Generally, it's not a great situation, even though Rex ultimately did save the day.

Uh-oh, Charlie has an idea.

"Rex does this all the time, how difficult can it be?"

I think I actually made a Geralt joke (from the Witcher, I mean he'd have been killed from that height) somewhere on this blog the first time.

Okay, Hamilton, how much did you guys pay for that slow-mo? This is embarrassing. And Rex looks like he's lost.

Damn, he has a strong head.

Wow, dude hates us.

That's a nice shot. I'm not particularly fond of the slow-mo on Charlie's expression in the next shot because he has to also hold his fist up and it kind looks weird in my opinion but this one's a nice shot.

This. I mean, I did what to see his expression, I just don't find the pose particularly great.

This I love, though. The music stopping, the sound coming like he's underwater, the sound of his breaths... And then as he punches Houle, there's nothing but the sound of his rage and his punches until he hears Rex barking.

For the record, I believe you should be allowed to punch the guy who you think killed your dog, cop or no cop. John Wick that motherfucker.

"Hey, hey, hey, I'm here, man, I'm okay."

He was so worried.

"You did fuck him up a bit, though, right?"

I was very normal about this all the 1564 times I watched it between January 21, 2022 and Mar 23, 2022. The first 1200 times were all on the first week because we were snowed in. I'm not crazy.

"Let me give you a proper lick-up, it lowers the stress level. You silly goose, you really thought I can die?"

Stop it! I'm serious, I don't want to have to open a new post for the remaining 3 minutes!

Jesse: "Charlie is getting an extended vacation?" Sarah: "Jesse, I wouldn't really call it a vacation." Jesse, let the man fuck.

That Iris Cross report must be important. I'm kidding, I know that Jesse is probably trying to find a way to not mention the countless moments of negligence in that report.

Don't read that, there's probably tons of inaccuracies in there.

You can mention the word teamwork a million times, it still seems like nothing.

Yes, yes, we're all Charah shippers. Anyway, I'm into multi-shipping lol. But I mostly wanted to screenshot this to showcase that Rex seems kinda left out, which is not how the moments with Charlie, Sarah and Rex are shot. The latter ones always seem to include Rex, showcasing that they're family. So, yeah, for more reasons than one, I am glad to have this.

Rex: "Oh, fine, I'll allow it. Just because we're leaving tomorrow."

I definitely liked Trina, I'd love for her to come back to the show, obviously not as a romantic interest for Charlie anymore.

I'm a basic bitch, so Charlie became 50% hotter when he punched Houle. I'm unapologetic about it, and I 100% believe that dogs are worth killing for. Also, as an off-duty cop, Charlie did not act as a cop but as a person who loved Rex. If he was on duty, he'd have taken out his gun and shot him, and I would have cheered. Okay, maybe not cheered because there are real consequences from shooting a rat bastard terrorist person but I wouldn't have cared about Houle. This reaction humanizes Charlie, and I'd like for him to lose it a bit every season lol. He doesn't have to beat up people every time, we'll find other outlets.

Furthermore, I think that reaction, should it have ever been reported back to the SJPD, would have carried zero blowback. Subduing a terrorist after his bomb has blown up, and using excessive force off-duty, while saving dozens of lives? They'd have given him another medal. But the most likely scenario is that it would have prompted Joe to keep a closer eye on Charlie, because while warranted, Charlie as a more put-together cop in another time would have tried to restrain himself. My main issue with this is it wouldn't have been reported back to Joe so he wouldn't have had that information, otherwise I'd have liked it to be referenced in the season finale.

Finally, I consider part of S4 as Charlie's slut era, and I think the last time I intimated that, someone blocked me lol. At the time, it might have sounded like I was judging Charlie. But it's not really a bad thing. He's an adult, Trina is an adult, they both know that they'll only have that night and they're okay with it. Sarah is with another guy (I'm assuming they're having sex), was either of them meant to be celibate until they figured their shit out? Plus, I think it re-enforced how much in love with Sarah he was because in the next episode he got back and tried to kiss her.

[spotsandsocks]

✨ 2023 writing round-up ✨

Tagged by (and I might have missed some people sorry) @exhuastedpigeon @jamespearce9-1-1 @heartshapedvows @thekristen999 @jesuisici33 @daffi-990 @hippolotamus @wikiangela

Links to all 23 fics I’ve written which I’ve just realised coincidentally matches the year maybe I shouldn’t work on that Christmas fic after all 🤔 All under the cut cos that’s quite a few and your dash does not need to be bothered by that! 😆😆 I will forget to tag someone I know it, so if I do I didn’t really and you’re tagged too cos you’re wonderful

💕💜💕Thank you to each and everyone of you who talks to me, tags me, supports and encourages me, reblogs and likes. Sends asks and questions and prompts and love in my direction. Thank you for sharing your time, talents , your words and creative skills with us all. You make my days brighter and more fun. I adore you all and wish you all a happy kind and peaceful 2024. 💕💜💕

January

Home Wanted 6k established Buddie new pet based shenanigans 🐀🐁🐀

Could Have Should Have Would Have 3k my biggest hit this year angsty then sweet

Who You Gonna Call? 9k Eddie calls Buck and works out how he feels

February

This Must Be Love 5.7k fluffy valentines fic featuring pea puns 🫛

March

Just another minute 1.2k 6x10 spec

No Place 8.4k coma!buck spec fic with a few similarities to what we got actually

It's Such A Feeling 1.8k couldn’t remember but apparently hand appreciation fic that gets smutty 😉

April

Date Night 2k I got stuck on bus for almost 3 hours and this happened - surprisingly popular considering I had no plans to write it until traffic hit!

The Answer I Needed 2.4k Buck is always there for Eddie 5plus 1 across time till love strikes

Always There 1.6k Tía Pepa sees all at Christopher’s birthday party

May

Everything But (temptation) 4.7 5plus 1 of Eddie being a flirty tease and driving Buck crazy

Worth the wait5.7 same fic but from Buck’s perspective

July

Good Knight Sweet Prince 167,316k ahh my best beloved started in 2023 and finished this year. I adored writing and sharing this what turned out to be epic length fantasy au. Knights princes dragons thwarted love and a happy ending what can I say if that’s your thing give it a go.

Let me stay by your fire (for nothing warms me like you do)4.5k couldn’t let go of mediaeval theme so knight Buck this time coming home to his blacksmith friend Eddie. Oh and bees. 🐝

August

Something Worth Staying For 21k an enemies to lover (although not really enemies) small town newspaper au where Buck turns up and Eddie hates him until he doesn’t. Featuring my real life computer disaster 😆

Tied To You From The Start 13.4k a challenge I took on and did rather well if I say so myself 😆😆 paranormal mysterious shenanigans. Buck in peril and on the run Eddie trying to save him from his own self sacraments and hot sex.

September

The Comfort of Your Hands 2.9k inspired by an anon talking about Eddie running fingers through Bucks hair. No plans for this one it just happened and again was well received. Maybe I should stop planning fics and just see what happens.

October

The Price of Love (is high) 7.7k autumnangstfest drama. I put them both through it. All past traumas coming back to cause trouble.

Your heart or mine? Yours every time 3.6k a hungry vampire!Buck and Eddie get stuck in a lift … things occur

November

100 word fics added a short fic to this little collection i actually love doing these. It’s a great challenge

Only one answer 590 couldn’t remember.. had a look and went oh yeah that was cute. Proposal fic in under 600 words

In my defence I was left unsupervised 1.3k Buck gets bored with sissors Eddie likes the results … who could resist buzz but Buck… not Eddie it seems

Nov/Dec

The Lost and The Found wip 5/10 48k this was not meant to be this long but guess what.. got carried away and plot is plotting and demands around 100,000 at least in the end I suspect. 5 chapters out number 6and 7 before Christmas this counts as 2023 doesn’t it? Come join me for the ride

@daffi-990 @shortsighted-owl @monsterrae1 @rogerzsteven @hippolotamus @loserdiaz @the-likesofus @stagefoureddiediaz @yelenasbuddie @hoodie-buck @buddierights @bekkachaos @thekristen999 @ronordmann @caroandcats @spaceprincessem @disasterbuckdiaz @heartshapedvows @underwater-ninja-13 @wildlife4life @wikiangela @thewolvesof1998 @exhuastedpigeon @weewootruck @giddyupbuck @housewifebuck @honestlydarkprincess @pirrusstuff @elvensorceress @jesuisici33 @eddiebabygirldiaz @jamespearce9-1-1 @theplaceyoustillrememberdreaming @wh0re-behavi0r @princessfbi @jacksadventuresinwriting @ci5mates @katries @megsvstheworld @like-the-rest-of-la

[iantimony]

2024 year in review - roundup style, plus bonus graphs!

we're so back! doing things in a slightly different order than last year: first, reviewing the 2024 resolutions.

--> get back on a regular workout schedule: swimming 1x a week, weights once or twice a week. would like to try and work towards my One Pullup goal again. would also be cool to try and work towards a hand/headstand. Ha Ha. yeah. no. did not do great with this one. definitely did a non-zero amount of exercise but I probably averaged about 1 gym visit a week, if that. I think I am going to add a "working out" section to next year's weekly roundup, right now I've been posting that on dreamwidth under my 'gains' tag but I think slapping it in the weekly roundup will help a lot. I've been doing a lot more yoga than normal in December so I would like to keep that going in the new year - I paid for down dog last summer and have actually used it which is good, and I'm doing their 'every day January' challenge thingy so that should be a good place to start. realistically after January I will not do yoga Every Day but I bet I can make it happen 2x a week. more on that in the 2025 resolutions section.

--> try and be more mindful. i'm going to continue the grief therapy but also think about meditating more, doing more yoga, and so on. I got ghosted by my grief therapist at the end of January lol <3 and was quite bad about meditating and journaling especially this year - in 2023 I was really good about regularly journaling and I think it was really good for me but that fell off almost entirely this year.

--> there's a gallery on main street that solicits work from local artists for bimonthy themed exhibitions and i really want to submit at least one thing to it this year! the one due by end of january is themed 'florals', and the one two months after that is 'layers', so i'd really like to submit something to one of those. weeps cries throws up. I didn't even submit to the artists' choice show for December. I should have though - I peeked in the gallery and based on the caliber of work. I absolutely would have made it in. Oh well.

--> more weird art! use that big canvas i bought in literally 2022! paint!!! did essentially Zero painting this year besides some watercolor in a travel journal, Ha Ha. did not do anything particularly weird or fun.

--> finally put together that travel journal from korea & japan (and also scrapbook-ify the papers i have leftover in a pile from that) also did not do this :'D I DID work on my travel journal for England somewhat though.

--> also, maybe do current scrapbook a little different? might need a new binder at the very least. kind of! I did portion off the current binder into just 2021-2022, I have separate 2023 and 24 events in chronological binder sleeves but now that those years are done I think it would be cool to do them in a more traditional book format.

--> hang up that expensive quilt i bought in august IT IS STILL IN A PLASTIC BAG IN MY CLOSET …. however, I DID move into my own place this summer, and my boyfriend is going to help me hang it up in January when he's visiting after the holidays, so. it wasn't done but it's imminent.

--> speaking of quilt: do some hand quilting, english paper piercing! i have so much fucking fabric! did do some of this! have not finished that exact project but I did do some of it! I also have done a lot of Thinking about fabric projects which I know doesn't count but it has been marinating is all I'm saying.

--> find a new apartment to move into that hopefully won't suck! completed! only sucked a little bit to do, and the actual apartment itself is good, if a little dire in terms of insulation!

--> try to secure some sort of summer internship or project that will let me develop some new skillsets that i might not be getting with my current research this failed for last summer but I learned a lot from the process and am very optimistic about this coming summer.

--> finish the masters degree did do this!

--> write…a paper? for the work i just presented??? did not do this! it's complicated! big pain in the ass!

--> keep tweaking neocities and make some more pages basically didn't touch neocities at all this year.

--> keep track of recipes this year as well in my making section this was a success!

i might start a little spreadsheet this year to keep better track of all my stuff because i really did Not want to go through all my separate listening and reading sections and extract what i liked the most, etc. this post required me to first back up a few extra early tuesdayposts from this year to dreamwidth, and then skim all of them to accumulate the above, and that was kinda a pain. and i love an excuse to start a new spreadsheet. I did not actually MAKE the spreadsheet til December but fucking whatever I did do it. and it was great.

of those roughly 15 notes, if I am very generous in what I count as a success, I accomplished about 7 of them! about a 50% success rate implies to me that I was a little too ambitious. this was a 2023 not 2024 resolution but I did partake in bandcamp Friday this year also so that's fun!

now. THE DATA. there is a part of me that really, really wants to whip out some old bokeh macros to sexy-ify this data. that could be fun to host on neocities and/or my real-name website as an example of my data viz prowess. but for now, google sheets plots will suffice. they are not very accessible (color blindness, etc) unfortunately.

behold! a bar chart! this data isn't necessarily 100% correct or perfect, some of these numbers are deffo estimates.

listening: saw more live music this year for sure - saw Haken, St. Vincent, ELO, and Sammy Rae live and they all slapped. lots of podcasts, even more music. April doing some heavy lifting there due to the spotify algorithm playlists, especially the release radar but also other miscellaneous generated playlists.

my bigass 2024 playlist!

reading: I THINK I read significantly less AO3 this year but I read a lot of other articles and a few books! notables were Bunny (bad) and The Left Hand Of Darkness (good) (which I think mirrors last year, which was also [modern lit book] bad [ursula le guin] good if I recall right)

watching: more youtube in the second half of the year than the first. something about background noise maybe.

playing: largely dnd with a smattering of video games and magic the gathering.

making: mostly pottery with some fiber art in there.

eating: yay recipes :-) adding this section was a roaring success. considering compiling a 'favs of 2024' pdf to distribute. should be pretty easy to do so stay tuned for that.

misc: finished masters degree! saw the eclipse in April! became a member of my local temple this year! england/scotland trip!

the 2025 goals!

once again: workout routine! setting this at 1 day of cardio, 1 day of yoga/adjacent, and 1 day of weights per week. this feels sustainable. would like to make it through the yoga every day down dog challenge for January.

reintegrate journaling into my day-to-day.

clean up some digital clutter; organize photos and files, empty..my tumblr likes …… [80k posts]

generally move away from perfectionist tendencies (in writing/journaling (feeling compelled to record Everything), painting, etc)

submit to the gallery on main street for real this time

finish the travel journals

learn some quilting

get back into neocities! maybe start crossposting these on there?

read like...10 books this year

pass my prelim exams ;_;

onwards and upwards. good night and good luck. here's to 2025 :-)

[t-lane-writes]

2025 - Year in Preview

Plans. Not resolutions ;) but plans are necessary, at least for me.

Here goes. I am at "inciting incident" in my re-draft of Black Wings, so, obviously this is the story I'll be continuing through January. I'm off work till the end of the month, so I have high hopes of FINISHING the re-draft, even if I'll have to skim through a lot of chapters. But, knowing me, the re-draft may stretch longer.

For that reason I'll add The Triad and Duke and the B Brothers to my January/February plans. For January I'll be doing some 4 hours of Black Wings work and then one hour each of the above. Not that I really expect it to work that way, lol. But that's a basic outline, which will be adjusted on a daily basis.

I also want to increase my social media presence in January, but I think I'll be doing that on the weekends.

In March and April I want to either get back to Crystal Spring Valley or Specters and in May and June--to the other one of those two.

It would be amazing if I managed to finish Crystal Spring Valley, but I don't think it's a realistic expectation. I probably might, if writing was my day job, but with the need to still be earning some monie.. Yeah. But I want to at least create a solid plot for that final stretch, change whatever doesn't work in the story as it exists now, and have a clear path to the finish line. I hope that can be done in two months.

As for Specters (I hope @echo-bleu finishes reading, before I get to it, so I can brainstorm through the edit phase with them :*) I have to write the chapters which now exist in "the character does X here" form first, and then start some line-editing I think? Or another phase of plot/character edit? IDEK, I'll have to re-read it first.

I really, really wish I could have a finished, ready to query piece this year. It would require A LOT of work and may not yet be possible, but with both Big Girl and Little Girl becoming more and more independent (neither lives with us anymore (finally ;) ), perhaps it will be easier to give my novel-babies more attention.

Um. The second half of the year... Whatever I plan for it, never comes into fruition (except for NaNo plans in past years, alas NaNo is no more).

It would be awesome to write first draft of Duke and the B Brothers. I'd love to work on the Mars idea (untitled) more extensively. Like, how about I get to the detailed plot phase here? Hmmm? Also, I want to write at least one, maybe three short stories in The Triad universe. Is all of it doable? Or only some of it?

I should get back to Black Wings at some point as well, but it won't be until toward the end of the year, maybe even in 2026.

ETA: Oh. And maybe that one more rewrite of Ananke? IDEK...

[amethystficarchive]

Feels Like Home

Fandom: Genshin impact

Ship: VenLumi

Event: FicWip's A Picture is Worth 1000 Words January 2025

Rating: Explicit

Wordcount: 1K

Tags/Tropes: Hurt/Comfort

Link to A03 for easier reading: here 

Preview: After Natlan, Mavuika asks Lumine where home is and her first thought is of Mondstadt, and a certain bard.

“Where will you go? You’re welcome to stay here, of course, but I don’t think this is your home. One should always go home and celebrate after a victory.” Mavuika said with a smile and Lumine let out a tired hum of acknowledgement.

Home?

She had no home. Especially not now with her twin so far from her.

Forever doomed to be a traveler. A warrior. Alone.

Only… that wasn’t true… was it? She had made many close relationships here in Teyvat.

She was never truly alone. Not with the wind at her back and… perhaps… perhaps she could call Mondstadt home for now. Yes, that felt right.

It would certainly be a nice, gentle reprieve from everywhere. Somewhere she could lay her burdens down, if even for a moment. Somewhere to rest and be protected, surrounded by her earliest friends, and him.

“Mondstadt. I am going to Mondstadt.” She finally said, the breeze swirling around her in a lover’s embrace as she gave a faint smile.

Yes. It was time to go home, where it all began.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Lumine hung back for a moment, hiding in the shadows between the buildings as she watched Venti play alongside another bard. She had gently pushed Paimon towards Cat’s Tail with a bag of Mora and was content to simply watch her lover enjoying his craft.

That is, until he spotted her, eyes twinkling as a gust of wind pushed her forward. He twirled around her playing, his eyes knowing as he lightly sang. He and the other bard finished playing, and he nodded to her, taking Lumine’s hand.

“Oh! I’m so sorry for keeping you! I had no idea you and the Traveler were….” The other bard said with a blush that Venti met with a wink and an airy laugh that was infectious, Lumine smiling as well.

Yes, she was right to think of this place as home, as a refuge. Here she could lay her burdens down.

“It’s true! And I have something to show you!” Venti said, turning to Lumine as he gently dragged her to the outskirts of the city before whisking her away in a gentle whirlwind of feathers and warm gales.

She sucked in a breath as they landed on the roof of a quaint cottage and farmhouse on the top of Starsnatcher Cliff.

How long has she been away?

“What do you think? I might have taken some liberties, but at least it’s not pink!” Venti said, hopping down and bringing Lumine down with him to the front door.

“You built it? Why?” Lumine asked with her head tilted. Venti hated being in one place, so why would he…

“I had someone build it, yes, but it can’t be that hard to guess.” Venti said with a soft smile that still left Lumine confused, he took her hands, kissing them before leading her over to where a blanket was set out, looking up at the starry night sky.

“I wanted to give you somewhere to come home to, My Beloved. You have journeyed long and hard, rest, Love.” Venti said, tucking her hair behind her ear with an earnest expression as Lumine’s throat closed and tears pricked her eyes, the weight of the world crashing down on her.

“Why?” She croaked and Venti pulled her into a tight embrace that she desperately returned, clinging to him.

“Because, you are worth being here for. I was terrified when you went to that place and I could not sense you. How could I keep my promise to you, to have the wind always protecting my beloved? I can’t imagine what you have been through, but I hope that you can find solace here, and when you are ready to tell your story, I will listen.” Venti said and Lumine sobbed, burying her face in his chest as he pressed his cheek to her hair and wrapped his wings around her.

She ached with bone tired weariness as everything hit her all at once. Venti held her and rocked with her, humming lightly and carding fingers through her hair.

When she had no more stubborn tears left to give, she raised her head and kissed him.

“Make me forget? Give me something better to focus on. Something more pleasant.” Lumine croaked desperately as the stars shone down on them.

Venti nodded and lay her gently on the blanket, covering her with his wings as he kissed the tear tracks away on her cheeks. With nimble fingers, he lifted her dress and found her dripping center, dancing along her slick folds and aching clit as if she were his favorite instrument. When he moved to nestle his head between her legs, she grabbed him, shaking her head.

“No, I want you here. Take me now, Barbatos.” She whispered and Venti shuddered slightly, kissing her jaw tenderly as he drew his cock from his shorts, smearing the leaking tip. With how she ached for the familiar burn and sense of belonging, he had no trouble sheathing himself in her, peppering kisses on her face until she was squirming.

He laughed, pulling his wings tight around them, Lumine only able to see the starry night sky through the golden tips of Venti’s wings. He hummed as he rocked into her gently and she held him close, looking up at the sky she once called home, far far beyond her reach as the stars hurtled overhead and she lost herself to pleasure and comfort, Venti bringing her to the edge and guiding her over her cresting, always there to catch her.

Soon she lost track of time, only thinking of how to bring the both of them pleasure as they traded kisses and sweet whisperings of love and comfort. When he finally filled her, his mouth open in a noiseless cry, wings spread high as Anemo gently moved the cecilia flowers around them, shooting stars shining through the errant feathers and his warm eyes finding hers, smiling, she was finally, truly home.

[enokito]

for ao3 wrapped; 3, 10, and 11

hi saiint!!!!! meowww :3c ask game here

3) What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

OH NO I'm about to yap about things that are so nothingburger to you 😭

Unfulfilled Prophecy has caused me to write THE most words ive ever written in a year, we're nearly at 180k and i want to hit 200k by the end of the year. It's one of the least insane things I've written (although there is still a bit of insanity in it merely due to my nature) but I think everything about it holds up and it's the first time I've really been happy with something long-form and plot-centric rather than just a thinly veiled character or relationship study. I've always adored time travel, transmigration, fix-it, and political intrigue stories... and this is my first time actually writing something like that.

the first installment of lay all your love on me barely counts bc i mostly wrote it last year and only happened to post the last chapter this january, but i wrote i am your boy all this year soooo. that whole verse. it has so much brain disease in it, its SO much more insane than unfulfilled prophecy, but unlike most of my more diseased fics (ie, communing w dangerous men, all my kenwatts) its actually pretty polished and not just 90% purple prose. i'm really happy with it.

10) What work was the quickest to write?

hahahahaha i wrote five in like an hour the day after the election in like a fit of stress. needless to say i wasnt feeling well :3c but its only like 400 words and i do still like it.

11) What work took you the longest to write?

coldhands project im so fucking sorry. i wrote one chapter of you in like march and then neglected you the rest of the year. i said i would finally finish death frozen over and then i started a whole ass longform WIP on a whim. i prommy ill come back to you it might just be another. glances at the calendar. four years. sob.

[mirorbdangamachine]

Games that I finished in 2024

One of my favorite things every year is when everyone posts their top ten favorite games that came out lists and the typical end-of-year awards discussions. It’s exciting watching everyone have these analytical talks and detailing why they’ve enjoyed what that year had to offer. Something I don’t see as commonly though are people reflecting on games they’ve played that hadn’t come out that year, which I think is an incredible disservice. There are tons of gems hidden away in yesteryear that are just waiting to be discovered, and I think they deserve the time to shine.

It will be January 31 when this post goes out, so I’m running out of time for this topic to still be relevant, but I wanted to go over every game I finished in 2024, be it on my own or with my friends. To clarify, this won’t be about every game that I played, else I would be here forever, but rather ones that I had completed the main stories of. This is going to be written mostly in the order of how I completed them, at least as best as I can remember. I’ll be keeping better track of that in 2025, but for now, let’s get this show on the road.

Nancy Drew: Message in a Haunted Mansion

So this game will hold a special place in my heart as being the first game my now girlfriend and I played together after first speaking to each other two weeks prior. The Nancy Drew games were ones I hadn’t really played when I was younger, and so it was fun getting to experience some of them last year with him as he took me on a trip through memory lane. This one had a very good sense of atmosphere in its short runtime, feeling very genuinely spooky at times. The puzzles were all solid, we had a blast messing around in the maze segment, and aside from one touchy tile puzzle, the game held up pretty well. Out of all the Nancy Drews we played last year, this one is probably my favorite of the bunch. I even surprised my girlfriend with a tapestry of the poem in the game when we met, so it will be near and dear to me.

Famicom Detective: The Girl Who Stands Behind

I am almost ashamed as to how long it took me to actually finish this game. I’m fairly certain it took me… Two years, roughly. As a murder mystery lover, I always felt guilty about having never picked it back up again, but now that I have finished it, I am so glad I finally did. The reason I put it down the first time was because of the command prompt system that the game utilizes to do actions. It was simple enough, but there were some points in the early and mid game that made me frustrated due to not understanding the typical workings of this style of ADV gameplay which would require me to have to repeat options or do them in particular sequences to trigger. I was much more used to how the Ace Attorney games handle it where your options are more free flowing and clearly labeled on what you hadn’t done yet, so to go to a game where that wasn’t the case, I became frustrated and took time away from it. Once I finally let myself give it another chance, I remembered why I kept trying to throw myself at a wall to try and get through it in the first place, and that was because this game was a very solid mystery, but more importantly, had an excellent grasp on making you feel for the characters within it. With this being the prequel between the original two games, this one centered on the backstory of Ayumi, and I cannot express to you enough how seeing her try and do everything she can to solve the mystery of her best friend’s death made me feel so many things for her. I didn’t want to stop because I would have felt bad about not seeing her story through, and once we finally got to the end, it was all well worth it. This game doesn’t lean that far into the horror elements that you might think it would based on the premise of everyone thinking a ghost haunting the school killed a student, but when it does choose to go that route? Oh buddy, it hits. While I prefer The Missing Heir’s actual overarching mystery more, I think this one handles its character development better. If you have the chance to play this game, please do give it a shot, and don’t feel bad about having to pull up a guide at times if you feel lost.

Return to Mysterious Island

Another one of the old computer games that my girlfriend has shown me this year, I can confidently say that upon starting Return to Mysterious Island, I couldn't have have guessed where it was going to lead. I don’t want to elaborate because it is definitely best experienced going in blind. Exploring every nook and cranny of Mysterious Island was a joy, and it definitely puts your brain to the test in trying to think of ways to use your inventory. If you’re looking for a short and fun adventure game, this would be a good one to have a romp through with some friends.

Nancy Drew: The Haunted Carousel

Nancy Drew winds up at an amusement park to investigate a haunted carousel and somehow causes massive property damage along the way. Sounds like an average Tuesday for Nancy! When it comes to the Nancy Drew games, the actual gameplay is the same for all these ones that came out in the 2000s, so nothing is different there. I feel like this one didn’t hit the atmosphere quite like Message in a Haunted Mansion, though there’s were some fun set pieces to go throughout it. It was another cute one to play through with my girlfriend while we were with each other in person, so grab a friend or a loved one and just have a laugh at some Nancy shenanigans.

Murders on the Yangtze River

If you were to ask any of my friends how I was when I talked about this game, they would probably say I was extremely annoying because I constantly kept recommending it to them all every chance I had. Murders on the Yangtze River is easily in my top three games I finished last year, all of which I am still juggling as to where they sit in that said ranking. As previously mentioned, being an Ace Attorney fan, any game that has a similar feeling in its investigation system is probably going to get a thumbs up from me. Playing as the very well traveled detective Shen alongside his silly yet ingenious inventor sidekick Afu made every investigation a joy to experience. The two have very fun back and forths reminiscent of the Edgeworth and Kay from the Investigations games, with Shen being more socially adjusted than Edgeworth. When it comes to any mystery story that is from the perspective of a detective who is stated to be known in-universe as extremely competent and knowledgable, you always run the risk of not meeting those expectations due to trying to stop the player from trying to get ahead of the character’s current logic, and thus making the detective seem dumber than intended. Thankfully this is not the case here, as each chapter is handled with diligent care to ensure that the player feels right next to Shen each step of the way, with neither you nor him having their intelligence downplayed. All of the crimes were very well thought out, and the cast of characters in each were all thoroughly enjoyable form beginning to end. The game also has one of the most unique systems to solving one of the overarching mysteries near the end of the game that I have seen, and for that alone I think this game would be worth experiencing. There is only one part of the game that I could mark as a negative, that being a very small horror detour that we take in the latter third, but it is not big enough of a section to make me lose any overall enjoyment. Going throughout the story, you wouldn’t think the experience of each chapter could ramp up as much as it does when all of them are as solid as they are. And if you were curious, I’ll even say that this game doesn’t suffer from “Case 3 Syndrome”, so that’s all the more reason to play it. All in all, I absolutely think this is worth every penny, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I did if you try it! There is going to be a DLC case released for it sometime this year, so when that drops, you will find me right there playing immediately.

Unicorn Overlord

Something very funny occurred as I was writing this out. Before I began on the entries, I had written down all the games in as close to chronological order as I could remember, so I could go about them in the same order and try and remember details of each one better. The only game I I had forgotten to put down was Unicorn Overlord. This was not because of it being a forgettable experience, far from it. In fact, this is another one of my top three games of the year as I had mentioned in the previous entry. The reason I hadn’t listed it is because I had somehow convinced myself that this was Fire Emblem Awakening, my favorite game of all time, which I had once again replayed this year as well. The reason I confused it for that game is not just because it features a blue haired swordsman as the protagonist in a medieval fantasy setting, but rather because just as I had done with Awakening, I 100% completed Unicorn Overlord. I played every level, I recruited every character, I saw all the endings, I had unlocked every single rapport conversation available between all units, and I had even gone and watched every Rite of the Covenant scene at the end of the game with every character on my save file. For those who have played this game, you know that there are over 60 playable characters to unlock, and all but roughly five of them have rapports to view (this game’s version of Fire Emblem’s supports). Once I had started this game, I had become obsessed with it, not putting it down until I saw literally everything that there was on offer. All of this is being said before I even have mentioned the gameplay! A lovable cast will get you very far in my books, but this game also backs it up with a modern version of the Ogre Battle team combat system mixed with real time strategy in the overworld. You get to comprise multiple units for your band of merrymen to go ride into combat together, and with a bevvy of classes that all have unique properties, there are seemingly infinite combinations you can make. Sure, there will be those layouts you can create that will just utterly run through the game, but if you are someone who loves experimentation, then you are going to fall in love with this combat system. The game incentives you to watch battles play out so you can make adjustments between each one on the map so you can better tackle it and try to retain your members. This game does does have varying degrees of difficulty available, all of which have since been fine tuned by the developers in patches to make it as fitting and fair as possible, and while there is no permadeath mode to begin with, you unlock one to play on after you finish your first playthrough of the game. There is so much to love about Unicorn Overlord that it even made me log into my old Tumblr to go reblog fanart of it and actually make posts in the subreddit for the game, which I have never done on Reddit before. If you are a strategy RPG fan of any sort, or you are wanting to try and jump into the genre, then I would say this is a wonderful game to do that with if you were wanting to look beyond the usual recommendations of the Fire Emblem series.

Death Come True

This is an FMV mystery game that was the first released project by Too Kyo Games, the studio that Kazutaka Kodaka and Kotaro Uchikoshi, the creators of Danganronpa and Zero Escape respectively, founded. Centered around our protagonist waking up in a strange hotel with an unconscious woman tied up in the bathroom with no memory of how he got there, this is a wonderful and short game that you can finish in a day. The portrayal of the main character by Kanata Hongo was the highlight of the game, he really made this story come to life. As it becomes evident that this is a timeloop story, he does a great job at showing off the growing agony of the perpetual infinity. Due to this game being so short, I don’t want to go much further beyond that so as to avoid spoilers. It is well worth checking out, and I am sure if you got some friends together to go through it, you all would have a fun time. The game also comes with behind the scenes commentary and interviews, so if seeing the production of an FMV game is something that interests you, it is all there to see as well.

Stray Gods: The Roleplaying Musical

Stray Gods was crafted in a basement by a Professor Plutonium-like figure who was searching for the best form of addiction possible to hook either queer folk who were theater kids in high school, Percy Jackson fans, or the most likely scenario: Both. As you can imagine, I fall into the “both” category. The songs all were wonderful, and the fact that they change depending on how you choose to behave leading up to that point makes for a great way to encourage replayability. I do think that maybe the games leaned a bit too hard into its dating sim aspects, but then again, it never really tried to act like it wasn’t going to also be that on top of the story being told. Surprise surprise that it is rooted in another murder mystery, so if the idea of using magic and fantasy elements in mysteries is something that excites you, I think you would have a fun time with this. The worldbuilding is very solid, the idea of the gods now living among us out of sight is one you can see being real and they take some fun liberties with the concept. The cast, while not feeling particularly faithful to their original mythological counterparts, is still fun to see go about the world they find themselves in. It goes on sale on Steam somewhat often, so if you find it for 20% off or more, then I would recommend getting ahold of it yourself to go through it. 

Famicom Detective: The Missing Heir

In the last Famicom Detective section I had mentioned that it was the prequel, so now we are onto the original title that spawned the series. You can definitely tell as much as this story is more focused on the protagonist rather than Ayumi, to the point that she barely features in it for the most part. You will be conducting an investigation into the Ayashiro family, whose matriarch has just passed away, though her butler seems to think that there was foul play afoot. As you look further into each member of the Ayashiros, you will come to find that all of these people are thoroughly unpleasant people to be around with the ownership of the family business at the core of the story. It is a very classic setup that finds ways to surprise the player, even if they have experienced something like this before. Like I said before, I enjoy the actual mystery that was occurring in The Missing Heir more than I did in The Girl Who Stands Behind, it is a good and meaty taler to read through with twists and turns you wouldn’t expect. If you are going to play these remakes, then I highly suggest to play them in the order of The Girl Who Stands Behind and then move into The Missing Heir, as it is going to provide some more characterization to the main character that makes this story more enjoyable to consume. I am very happy that I finally got through these, and I am currently in the middle of the new entry in the series that just came out last year, Emio: The Smiling Man. If this series continues beyond this third game, then I think these two games have established two very solid leads in the main character and Ayumi to guide us through.

Nancy Drew: Ghost Dogs of Moon Lake

Fun fact, this is the only Nancy Drew game that I played a part of when I was a child. I didn’t finish it back then, and frankly after going through it last year, I am not surprised that I didn’t as there were some puzzles that even as an adult had me a bit stumped. You know when you and your friends have to bust out a guide for a Nancy Drew game that this game maybe was a bit above the mental capabilities of a five year old, hahaha. Nancy has once again found herself at the behest of a friend calling in a favor, this time investigating a seemingly haunted house on a park lake that gets attacked by - you guessed it - ghost dogs at night. Winding through the history of a gangster who once lived there and the untold riches left behind, it comes as no surprise that someone wants their grubby mitts on a piece of the pie. This was another fun adventure with Nancy, and it had a very unsettling atmosphere to it that had me freaked out as the night approached each day. I would recommend giving this one a shot, but do not feel bad by any means if you have to bust out a walkthrough.

No Case Should Remain Unsolved

This might be one of the most emotional two hours I have ever spent playing something. This is such a beautiful short story in game form that I truly think everyone should go and play. It is centered around unraveling the timeline surrounding a missing girl and her family to figure out what must have happened. The gameplay itself is relatively simple in connecting keywords across the bits of conversation with each family member to unlock new pieces of information, with the occasional question asking if you know enough to unlock a new answer. With that said, please, go take the time to experience this. 

Dokapon Kingdom Connect

Have you ever seen those videos talking about “the most rare/expensive Wii games”? If you have, then you have probably Dokapon Kingdom included in a few of those. Thankfully, the game has since been rereleased on Steam as Dokapon Kingdom Connect, meaning you and your friends can all… Suffer. Suffer, forever… Okay, that’s an exaggeration. The game is genuinely an extremely fun time, as if you made a Dungeons and Dragons campaign into a board game featuring rock-paper-scissors combat. The game is heavily luck based, to the point that even if you try and plan accordingly for maximum profit in gaining the most money and towns, you can still very lose everything at the drop of a hat. Over the five months it took us to play through this game, all four of us at various points were either vastly far ahead of the rest or way behind everybody on the weekly scoreboard, and then after one chapter event, everything would be scrambled. If you go into it with no expectations and just are wanting to have a good time, you will enjoy yourself. You can sabotage the other players and steal the lead from them, constantly threatening your friendship as if this was Mario Party cranked up to eleven. The problems arise however when you get to the final three chapters of the game, where the enemies become exceedingly difficult, and the game begins to cheat against all of you. This is not an exaggeration either, as the final four boss fighters of the game do actively read what inputs you are doing to try and counter them, and it caused my friends and I to have to grind seemingly forever to stand a chance, only to then still lose all of our progress. When we finally got to the end it was pure catharsis, however, I would never want to wish going through all that nonsense on my worst enemy. Thankfully, we have since discovered that you can just have a set umber of turns to play through, so you can have much more fun and take far less time to get through it all. For anyone wishing to go through a full campaign, I wish thee luck, and may you have either the greatest friends in the world, or not mind having a bunch of computers to just try and zip through it as fast as possible. 

Find Love or Die Trying

This was a tale of two halves if I have ever seen one. The first half of the game is akin to The Bachelor, where you take on the role of the lead love interest, except the twist here is if you aren’t entertaining enough and the show ratings go down, you get killed by the production crew. I thought that was a very unique premise as it is what the game is sold upon, and while it has its moments, the week that you play through is almost excruciatingly unbearable when it comes to cliche and over the top writing. The executive producer is comically evil to the point of annoyance, and outside of the outlandish date events you get, the only really interesting part is the underlying plot with the director after each day of filming. However, once you get through the week, that is when the real game truly begins, as you realize you have found yourself in a timeloop story, forced to repeat this cycle again. Normally I wouldn’t spoil that, though I found the first part of the game to potentially be painful enough for some people to put it down. Once the pretenses of the situation are dropped, the writing actually becomes very good as you and the girls you are taking go on a thriller adventure trying to uncover what is going on behind this show, all while trying to act like you are none the wiser. Beyond the first week, I thought the whole cast was really fleshed out and I found myself attached to each of them and wanting the best for them, and I am happy that I pushed myself to continue after that initial hurdle. I know everyone hates the whole “I promise it gets good after a certain amount of hours” argument, but thsi is a case where I think it is warranted. It also helps that the initial week isn’t that long to play through, perhaps two to three hours at most depending on how fast you read, so everything beyond that point is smoothing sailing.

Mindcop

By now you should expect this list to continue with the trend of mystery games. Adorably drawn and animated with a charming detective duo, Mindcop is what I would call the puzzler’s murder mystery. Combining match three and detective gameplay together worked much better than I really thought it would, with the mind surfing mechanic giving us detailed mental examinations of those we are interviewing. The set up has a Twin Peaks feeling to it, where an extremely small town faces its biggest challenge yet in one of their own having been murdered, just replace Twin Peaks with Merrilyn Crater Camp and Laura Palmer with Rebecca Goodman. Not to say that this story will eventually devolve into the paranormal, though it does share the idea of the further you, the titular Mindcop and your partner Linda, go, the more of the dark secrets of this town will be uncovered. Coupling this with the fact that the game features a time mechanic where each action takes a certain amount of time and you only have five days to catch the killer, I felt like I was racing against the clock all the way until the end to try and confirm whether my suspicions were correct. You can end the game whenever you like by arresting who you think the culprit is, but I think the fact that I got down to the final two in game hours left before I was able to make my decision with enough confidence to feel good about it is a testament to how well done this game handled its core mystery. The fact that this is a nonlinear investigation game as well greatly serves this purpose, so one playthrough is very unlikely to be like another. Even when I had finished my first run, I wanted to go back and explore so much more that I didn’t have a chance to before. Thankfully there was a free play mode after that gave me the chance to do so. While it isn’t in my top three games I played this year, I would recommend this to anyone who is a fan of either match three or mystery games.

Loco Motive

Speaking of my top three, Loco Motive is the last of those titles. As someone who hadn’t ever played point and click adventure games growing up, this to me felt like I was watching a Hanna-Barbera cartoon play out on a Saturday morning, except it was based around a murder mystery on a train. Once again another very classical scenario to the mystery genre, you are playing as Arthur A. Ackerman, the estate attorney to Lady Unterwald, the head of a major railway company. With her not getting any younger, she keeps making adjustments to her will, but tonight, on the Reuss Express, she is going to finally announce who she will be granting the business to once she retires. Right when the moment of truth comes however, after passing through a dark tunnel, tragedy strikes, and Lady Unterwald is found dead! Now it is up to you and your extreme lack of qualifications to try and figure out who did it! With a very beautiful pixel art style and fully voiced dialogue, this game oozes with charm. To those who are more familiar with point and click games than me, I am sure you will find some similarities between it and popular ones of the genre like the Monkey Island series. For anyone who hasn’t experienced games like that and have wanted to try it out, then I say look no further than Loco Motive. I found myself laughing about the whole way through this title, and I wouldn’t have traded that experience for anything. 

Queer Man Peering Into A Rock Pool.jpg

One of my friends who I had played through Dokapon with gifted this to me for Christmas and I decided to play it that evening after he had told me it was a good short game, to which he was correct! This falls into the “walking sim” genre, and is a very metaphysical expression of living as a gay man and trying to navigate how the world acts around you while you try to make the best of your situation. That is just one potential explanation of many, as the creators intentionally left it ambiguous as to what it was all supposed to mean. If you want a game where you walk through what looks like a synthwave music video and then eventually starts pulling out The End of Evangelion references, then this is a game for you. It is another game that can be done in just under two hours, so it a fun think piece to sit with.

The Case of the Golden Idol

This was the last game I had managed to squeeze in right before New Years as the player alongside my friends. Upon opening this game up, you have a very minimalistic tutorial given to you on how to open menus and then you are off to the races and have to piece together how to proceed on your own. Normally, I would say that is a horrendous approach to the beginning of a game, however, this time the developers made it work. The Case of the Golden Idol felt like what an advanced version of an ISpy book, where you are given a scene of a tragedy and from there you are meant to fill in the blanks as to what is actually happening. You get to examine the people and environment to add keywords to your bank, where from there you try to slot them into the spaces they are meant to go in and see whether or not you were right. This process with each scene was always very entertaining and felt like a good puzzle to try and solve each time. Watching the overarching narrative unfold all centered around the aforementioned golden idol was fascinating, and my friends and I always felt like we deserved pats on the back for being able to get through some levels with how minimal the information you are given is. There is a sequel to this called The Rise of the Golden Idol, alongside two DLC stories, and us three have already said that we will definitely be checking them out sometime this year. If you are looking for a fun puzzle game to play with friends, then this is definitely the one I would recommend to you!

Games that I have watched to completion

This is going to be a much smaller section, but I wanted to still shout out these games that I watched my friends play all the way through. Seeing as I wasn’t the one holding the controller I can’t really speak for how these feel to manuver, but still experienced the entire story.

First off is a slice of life visual novel called Twofold, but to call it just that would be doing the game a huge disservice. You play as Olive Penn, a college student on the verge of failing out, who is looking for a club to join in hopes of trying to get study partners before they get given the boot. They eventually find themselves stuck between the Literature Club and the Art Club, ran by our two main love interests in Millie and Caprice respectively. Depending on whose club you choose to join will determine which path you will be on, but the two are much more intertwined than just being a route split. Navigating through Olive’s life and seeing them try to connect with the various members of the club and seeing how they are all going through their own struggles, it is a game that really pulls at your heart strings. I very rarely cry when it comes to games, but learning more and more about both Millie and Caprice really did bring me to tears on numerous occasions. For a game to be able to do that to me makes it very special in my book, and I think this is a story that you should seek out and experience all the way through on both sides. I don’t want to say too much, so please go and play it yourself, or watch a playthrough of it. You can find my friend Don’s stream VODs of it on YouTube, linked here!

Next up is a game you have probably seen floating around by now due to the explosion of popularity it receieved in Mouthwashing. It is a psychological horror game that while being light on the jumpscares, makes up for it in rich storytelling and making you reconcile with everything that you are witnessing on screen. This is truthfully a game that I would not watch a content creator go through, as the topics within it are very serious, dark, and deserve to be treated with sincerity, rather than being played through with someone trying to be entertaining. My friends and I were aware of this when we went through and it was a harrowing experience, though one that I would say is more than worth experiencing. This is another game I would try to go into as spoiler-free as you can, though again with the popularity and level of fandom it has achieved, I understand that it can be hard to avoid. I normally am someone who is not a fan of horror games due to being easily scared and not finding the adrenaline rush enjoyable, but this is a game where you will not have to worry about that. There is a segment in it that does behave like a traditional horror game that I think overstays its welcome in the maze section, but beyond that, I think this is a fantastic game.

Finally, another horror game, albeit one that doesn’t quite feel like it due to its aesthetics: MiSide. I think the premise is a fun one, where the trope of the yandere girl is subverted in how Mita doesn’t actually care about you romantically, but rather she just wants to keep you trapped for her own amusement. Going through and meeting the various Mitas was a fun concept too, and you could feel the looming presence of Crazy Mita and how she has affected all of them. Perhaps calling this a horror game isn’t quite right, as it is more of a thriller with the occasional jumpscare and spooky setdressing. All in all, it was a fun thing to go through with friends, but it wasn’t something I would have personally found interesting had I been on my own. At the time of writing, the development team is still working on the “Peaceful Mode”, which I assume will just be the continuation of the romance slice of life activities at the beginning of the game. However, with the team currently leaning into the posts that go “Oh I can fix her”, I don’t foresee it coming out and being in the spirit of the rest of the game. Maybe I will be proven wrong, time will tell.

With that, those are all the games that I had experienced last year! Looking back on it, I really didn’t imagine that my top three games of the year would actually be from 2024, let alone the fact that I would say they all rank amongst my top ten favorite games of all time. Last year was a wonderful year of gaming for me, and I hope 2025 gets to be the same! I am going to be smart about this for next time and write these entries as I actually complete them instead of all at once. At the very least, I accomplished my goal of getting this out before February, though in the spirit of me, it was at the last minute. Hopefully this article will have given you some good suggestions for games to check out, and if you do, tell me what you thought of them!