#people........................ are much harder. i can still do landscapes a bit

[spiderziege]

can you tell us more about your characters please please please???

ooohh yes i will tho i honestly dont have that much actual story, im just. worldbuilding atm. heres a map! (i posted this before but i cleaned it up a bit and improved the dragon, it was looking kinda weird before lol)

still work in progress though! the dragon is asleep under the earth and has been there for a long long time, shaping the landscape. most people believe its some sort of legend but some do believe its real and might wake up on day and destroy everything

and here's the 6 main guys and also their locations in the world (roughly)

Eshiel & Luz both didnt grow up in the steppe/plains area they live in now; Eshiel grew up very far west deep in the forest pretty isolated from the rest of the land. Luz was born in the mountainrange along the dragons spine, but he spent most his childhood travelling with a circus so i dont think he'd really think of that as home anyway. those two are sort of runaway criminals (as in they pissed off one very powerful and very evil guy). also Eshiel isnt her real name she just changed it so its harder to find her

The town Valérie lives in is very historic, not technically a capital city but sort of a central point for travel and trade. Valérie grew up there and works as a farrier. i havent really decided in what way magic exists here but Val is definitely the one who'd be into it the most.

everything south from that city until you reach the ocean (basically along the dragons neck & shoulders) is completely abandoned and forbidden to enter except for once every couple years for a tournament where people try to cross that land on horseback. which is dangeorus cause theres monsters/sort of demonic forces down there but theres good prize money & glory involved so people do it anyway. all 6 of them end up taking part for various reasons

The last three all come from the snow kingdom in the northeast. Kokoro is a princess and Caliott & Cäcilia are both knights. Koko basically runs off on her own to search for her older brother who took part in that tournament a few years ago and never returned, Caliott & Cäcilia are sent after her to protect her

i think thats it? heres a pinterest board lol. thank you for asking about them :') hope this all makes sense kinda. talking about ocs is so scary why is it so scary

[grimvisionary]

you want to look at my stupid gay little tests into getting back into drawing.

[wormwoodartemisia]

[One of my favourite tropes in all variations: getting rescued, one way or the other - and I really need more people to write about it 😇]

I guess enough of us have probably already made certain experiences with that one kind of guys who simply wouldn't let the issue drop when you tell them that you're not interested, no matter what you say (in decreasing stages of politeness), unless...

{Only this time, we turn the tables a bit. 😏}

Claimed

Sometimes you need to be rescued - and sometimes it's the others…

About 5.2k words

Established Ghoap, civilian afab!Reader; (almost) no specific description (except that Reader has got soft hair that's long enough to run one's fingers through + Reader might appear rather tall at some point, but nothing in detail); no use of y/n

Warning: no smut actually taking place, just some references (mostly implied, intention to have sex); taste of alcohol

[[In case you want some more info: first meeting; aggressive, unrequited flirting: pestering and being a nuisance (when 'no' is interpreted as 'try harder' or simply ignored, but neither by Reader nor Ghost/Soap); fake kiss; What do we think about a threesome {MMF/MFM}?]]

Your original plan was to go out and spend some quality time on your own, focussing on nothing in particular, just floating through your own mind. However, it's one of those nights...

The bar is crowded in a pleasant way. When you enter, you can nontheless still get you favourite spot in the small booth not too far away from the bar counter. The perfect place for treating yourself with your favourite drink and indulging in the typical noises here that let you relax after an ardous week full of work. Normally...

The night is still young, you're in good spirits altogether. On such lazy evenings, you like people-watching, in case someone catches your attention. Then you wouldn't actively listen to their conversations, of course, but discretely observe them a bit, guess their mood and wonder what circumstances brought them here. A good training for staying attentive and creative alike.

Taking a sip from your drink, you casually start scanning the taproom with your eyes, when suddenly you notice a tall, broad figure in black appear from the back of the spacious room and lean against the counter, just a few seats away from you. For the shortest of moments the man takes you in and briefly nods at you in acknowledgement. You have hardly any time to reciprocate his gesture before he turns away again to order two drinks.

Of course you remember this stoic man from several other visits here, outstanding as he is, always looking the same, clad in the darkest colours only, his face covered by a black surgical mask he never takes off fully. He's one of the regulars (even if he's sometimes away for weeks), just like you - but you wouldn't have thought that he’s ever noticed you in here, let alone make it known to you...

In all the past months, you never saw him look your way, not even slightly. He always seemed totally concentrated on the guy he kept company - that boisterous, ever-grinning mohawk with his fiercely piercing blue eyes that winked at you playfully one night when you passed them on your way out to head home. A contagious smile. Handsome man in his extrovert personality, but you don't find his mysterious, calm mate any less attractive, though you haven't seen much of him so far, except his short blond hair, some fair skin and now his dark, steady eyes a few moments ago.

You save his expression in your memory. Definitely something worth remembering.

To be honest, these two are your favourite people to watch.

Together, they take a presence in the room that's unmatched, draws you in, clouds your thoughts, if you allow yourself to go astray. You've never witnessed anything like that before. These two men have captivated you right from the start and it took you some time to put it into words: blowing through the landscapes of your mind, Mohawk is a storm, Mask is its eye... They belong together.

Such a beautiful couple (you're absolutely sure that's what they are, you can’t have misread their interactions), radiant energy, all easy-going, just pure affection, content with and enough for each other, never any drama.

Well, there's always a first time...

When Mask picks up his two drinks, he manages to take two steps back into the direction where he came from before he stops midmotion. Mohawk has just entered the stage of your field of vision, approaching fast from the backroom and stepping at the counter behind his mate. He leans his back against it, sighing audibly. You wouldn't need to be as close to them as you are in order to notice his furrowed brows and the tight line of his lips. It's easy to tell that he’s frustrated - massively so. Slowly Mask turns around, handing Mohawk his drink.

"Well, Johnny, no more damsel in distress, I take it?"

"Ach, haud yer weesht."

You can’t avoid becoming a witness to their talk. Despite the other people around, it’s a quiet evening and their deep voices carry over to you easily, closeby as you are, the tension not to be overheard.

Johnny takes a sip, looks at his partner and rolls his eyes. He's just noticed someone behind his friend. You've never seen him that annoyed: "No second act, please..."

Then you see the beauty beeline towards the two men.

You bet every guy in here would give her 10/10 - and you could readily agree - if not for her flawless outward appearance desperately trying to cover up that one specific look in her eyes, with which she holds her chin up just one bit too high. Though, nine of ten would probably gladly ignore that streak of arrogance (- which you feel so obviously oozing off her in case one is willing to take one closer look - ) if that meant getting a chance to know her better - and her pants.

She's all seductive smiles: "How impolite of you to keep me waiting!", she chirps, addressing both men equally, voice like sugar syrup, sticky, dripping. Used to getting what she wants...

Taking another sip, Johnny doesn't even bother to look at her at this point anymore.

First-row-seat, you can watch the drama unfold.

Mohawk: "We'd rather be alone."

Beauty (flirtatiously): "Now we're getting closer. Just my thought. So we're leaving?"

Black Mask: "You are very welcome to go."

Beauty: "Well, you already get me going, mystery, but I'd love to come as well."

You almost choke on your drink. This woman is terrible, fully ignoring both men clearly pointing out that her attention is unwanted! It has become obvious that she must have already been digging on your two favourites for quite some time, finally even making them change their place...

Yet she doesn't stop: "If you know what I mean."

Mask: "We get it, but we choose to ignore the implication."

Beast: "Ohh, playing hard to get, sweets? I like me some good challenge!"

Mask: "Nice. Then show us how fast you can get away."

Beast: "No problem. I'm off in less than one second if you take my hand."

"I'd rather take yer head", Johnny mumbles, but in contrast to you, she can hear him and grins wickedly: "And I'd give you head willingly, Scotty too Hottie!"

She reaches out to him, but Mask's cold voice actually makes her stop.

"Don't touch him."

Beast chooses to let Mask's words play into her favour: "No need to be jealous, killer."

"Go pick someone else."

You're convinced that he'll finally get through to her, but Beast gets distracted.

"Yeah, pick me, sugar! Anytime!", some random guy in passing by turns to her, immediately posing, showing her his upper arm, flexing his biceps, clearly quite taken with her outward appearance.

"Not now", she dismisses him, noticeably annoyed, but he only shrugs, grinning, before calling back over his shoulder: "Change your mind, lemme know, gorgeous."

Mask: "You should go with him."

She gives that bloke a swift lookover. "Not my type."

"We're nae yer type, either", Johnny points out.

Beast: "Oh, but you are. Love that brogue."

Mask: "Let me rephrase: you are not our type."

Beast: "Don't worry, I can become anybody's type."

She wants to touch him, both of them, badly so, you can tell, from the way her fingers are twitching at her side, but something's holding her back. So she does have a slight idea of boundaries, at least.

"We might nae be interested in women altogether", Johnny states matter-of-factly and has her head snap into his direction again.

"Hot - but you've never had a woman like me before, I promise."

"True. And ah hope we'll never meet one like ye again in future, either."

"You won't. I'm unique - and you really don't wanna miss this one chance, boys. I'll make it worth your while."

Rather worst your while, you think to yourself while you notice their patience wearing thin. It is beyond you why she doesn't take 'no' (all those 'no's') as what it is. It makes you angry, this full display of blunt disrespect, every rejection - in decreasing stages of politeness - just a spur for her to try harder, eagerly pushing an ego that is non-existent...

It's now that Mask furrows his brows and rummages in a pocket of his jeans: "We don't find you attractive at all." On finishing his sentence, he takes a look at what he's holding in his palm now, a silently vibrating mobile phone. He shoots the other man a swift glance: "I'm'a take that call now, Johnny. Make her leave." His tone has changed, laced with finality.

Mohawk straightens, the command initiating a subtle but nontheless visible transformation. He responds to his masked partner with one single firm nod: "Yes, sir."

The mask exits.

Beast was quiet during their exchange but now she's biting her lower lip and turns to Mohawk seductively: "Sexy."

He looks at her, the bright summer sky of his eyes now the cold of the frostiest glacier: "Oan yer bike!", a deep, low rumble.

You can sense that this was his last attempt to give her a decent way out - unfortunately she doesn't take her chance: "I'd rather ride you, handsome."

You know this type of person - man or woman, makes no difference. She won't stop.

Mohawk has just realised this sad fact, too. He breathes out deeply and while his eyes are wearily drifting towards the exit, he grazes your gaze for a split second.

Meanwhile, Beast dares to get closer, the attempt of a huntress, about to reach out and - what? Touch his hips?

It crosses your mind that this insufferable person would have already been removed from the bar had she been a man harassing two women. However, with switched roles (and a beautiful woman being after two broad blokes) nobody (except Mohawk, Mask & you yourself) seems to fathom any fundamental problem...

You can see that this might get ugly (situations easily do with people like Beast) - and since you know how things can be... Your turn.

Ready to avoid the catastrophe...

He doesn’t get the time to say anything, nor does she to lay hand on him. You're faster.

Within one heartbeat you've grabbed your drink and pop up at his side, so much out of nowhere, that you manage to catch Beast by surprise and get her full attention.

You press yourself against Mohawk's side (as unobtrusive as possible under these circumstances) and, by reflex, you guess, his left arm comes to rest around your waist, a pose the two of you have fallen into so naturally, nothing odd about it, no hint of hesitation from either of you.

He doesn’t flinch, doesn’t act surprised. He simply gets what you're doing here - but Beast doesn’t have a clue.

Showtime...

This is the guise you've chosen to present, and you perform artistically: there's a hint of defeat in your features, a slight hue of regret and a thin-lipped smile pointing downwards, emphazising that you know when a game is over.

You make sure that Beast gets enough time to study your facial expression. Then you donne Mohawk a genuine smile: "OK, honey, you win. I am fucking jealous seeing you flirting with some random woman. You were right, I was wrong. It really pisses me off when you tease her. I need this bad charade to end right now or I’ll forget myself", you notice a spark of mischief in his eyes, "And yes, darling, for the records, you have just won our bet. Happy now?"

Mohawk smirks at you, "Wasnae too painful tae confess now, was it, luv?" and makes you wonder how a grin can be so subtle and triumphant at the same time. You can feel him squeeze your waist in affection.

Now you turn to the other woman: "Really good job, dearie, digging on my man, testing my limits. So, have a nice one and farewell."

You can see the wheels in her head turning.

Does she call your bluff? No, at least not yet.

Doesn't mean it's over, though...

She gives you a calculating look-over, probably wondering why this man would be with you [in general, but especially] when he could have her - but she doesn't voice you're not his league, as some might say. She notices his hand caressing you softly, small gestures that make your acting convincing - the final proof, you think, to make her believe your claim is true.

Yes, "OK, I get it, the two of you belong together", but "but then I won’t let that blond enigma off the hook, for sure!"

Your heart skips a beat.

"Pity", a deep voice chimes in. Neither that woman nor you have noticed the masked man's return, his eyes fixed on Beast. So both of you stare at him when he takes one final step, "I'm all hers as well. Actually", to put his arm around your shoulder and drag your body into his possessively, "we're a throuple."

That poor woman is speechless for a second, blinks, flummoxed. "Throuple?", she repeats, utterly dumbfounded, her voice dripping with doubt.

"Aye, throuple, ye ken?", now Mohawk closes back in on you as well, his hand sliding to the small of your back. His once mischievous smile grows darker as he pulls up one eyebrow and a corner of his mouth, showing teeth, grinning - it's the wolfish way: "We fuck each other relentlessly and live happily ever after, just the three of us."

The blond wolf knows to add an eloquent thought: "With just the right amount of cocks 'n' holes to take care of, one sweet, perfect cunt. Yours not needed."

Her eyes go wide at their crude, blunt proclamation, a behaviour so different from before, but you yourself can’t help the smirk that creeps on your lips. Too much information for her...

Her eyes dart to the upturned corners of your mouth, the way you can hardly conceal your grin gets her suspicious.

However, your own focus finds a reason to shift when at the same time you feel the two men moving you in perfect sync. While Mask's right hand is sliding up from your shoulder to your neck, his left hand is tracing your left arm downwards until his long fingers can intertwine with yours. Using only soft, sweet pressure, he's holding your hands against your hip. Meanwhile, he's turned your body away from facing the other woman so that your back is firmly pressed to his front.

You feel the outlines of his muscular body, too fascinated to do anything else but comply - and why wouldn't you? It's too delightful a moment not to simply bask in - hyperaware of how your handsome 'darling' has also fully turned to you.

He's the counterpart to the man behind you, pressing his chest to your front, radiating heat that directly pools into your core. It comes oh-so naturally for you to place your right arm on his shoulder, your fingers sliding up his neck and into the soft strands of his hair, by instinct. You could swear you hear him faintly moan in pleasure; you can see dark night dawning in the shining sky of his cerulean orbs.

Caught between two predators, you couldn't be a prettier prey for them to play with... They're a sling that grows tighter around you, a closely woven net you don't want to escape.

You just concentrate on the feeling, let it swallow you whole, relishing in the moment, pretty sure you'll never get anything comparable again.

It's a perfect moment - apart from the fact that it’s not real.

However, maybe that's just what's made it all possible for you - no self-doubts, no fear of overstepping or misreading anybody's signs, no fear of rejection - for you won't ever be close to one of these guys, who aren’t into any woman after all. That has been clear to you from the very beginning, undeniably. Maybe it’s the first time you really feel at ease in a situation that could be part of a fantasy (literally your own fantasy!) - and the way they play along (a bit exaggerated in a way, perhaps) does some good to your self-confidence, despite only being a play pretend.

Suddenly you are pushed back over the edge of reality when the reason behind everything disturbs your haunting demon of harmony.

"You do them both?", Beast inquires, voice too shrill.

Don't let her catch you, this was your idea! Play cool!

Your remark sounds casual enough: "Well, yes... Not necessarily at the same time, though..."

"Not necessarily not at the same time", Mask clarifies pointedly, just loud enough for the four of you to hear and he lets his hips roll against the curve of your arse in one smooth motion that holds enough pressure to softly push you forward.

His partner knows how to catch you, perfect timing, by letting his own lower body meet you less than halfway. If you thought the three of you were close before, then you were wrong. Now you definitely feel the outlines of their dicks against your body. The vice their muscular frames create presses a shaky breath out of you that you didn’t know you were holding. It sounds too close to a wanton moan.

Suddenly feeling caught out, you hurry to hide your face from her in the crook of Mohawk's neck, blushing.

"Careful", you whisper into his ear, in a mild shock regarding your reaction to the two men. Mohawk makes you look him in the eye, tenderly thumbing your chin, and grins like a challenge. The way he then gingerly licks his lips makes him look hungry, almost lets you assume he might actually want to try and get a bite of you... What a silly idea for you to have...

Time seems to stretch and leaves your mind in a dizzy state.

"Lucky you." Her comment startles you. Why is she still there?

You sigh. Ultimately, you've put yourself in this situation - which isn't unpleasant in itself, rather the opposite. So don't be shy in the last few metres. Keep playing until the curtain falls...

"Luckiest girl in town", you confirm and mean it, "Can always have my favourite sandwich whenever I want."

You turn your head so you can have it leaning against the cheek of the man behind you, who closes the distance between your faces immediately. He welcomes the gesture like a purring cat and you feel the low sound vibrate in his chest.

Finally Beast truly takes a look at the two men and the woman who has claimed them. She can’t but feel betrayed. Her face turns into an ugly display of her defeat.

She snaps at both men equally: "You could have just told me right from the start that you got a girlfriend."

"Less fun", Mask comments deadpan and doesn't care about how she looks at him, fury raging in her eyes: "Arsehole! Wasting my time like this with your childish games! Grow up!"

How you despise her for her ignorance, for not letting the issue drop at once unless another woman has put a valid claim on the objects of her desire... How you loathe people not accepting 'No' and blaming others...

There is a jet black feeling boiling under your skin like the most Stygian gloom.

Beast is still glaring at the three of you, she might be even waiting for an apology that will never come.

"We're done talking now", your voice is ice crashing on her heated temper.

Mohawk knows a drastic method to underline your words. He turns your face away from her, his warm hand cupping your cheek, and draws you in. For a kiss...

You feel bold, (wrath coursing in your veins because of her) moving your lips as a tribute to all these Hollywood film-kisses you've seen in your life, mimicking passion; no tongues, no such line would be crossed with him. This will stay safe, you assume.

He tastes of whisky - tar notes and peat with tangy crisp seaweed and smoky bacon swirling on the surface, hints of sweet vanilla. Mouth feel is superb, dark and sweet, grounding you.

How long is this imitation of a kiss taking that you can process all these impressions? What's your flavour on his lips?

The woman watches you kissing for an endless moment, but how would you know?

You're focalised on the open-eyed dance of your mouths that you're sharing with this stranger of your dreams, concentrated on keeping up the façade while the two of you are holding each other's gaze, his boyfriend pressing your backside to his own body. What a strange intimacy...

When you feel the man behind you carefully untangle your intertwined fingers to let his hand find its way between Mohawk's and your own body in order to have his wide palm spread below your heart, his other hand wandering up your neck and into your hair, soft strands gliding through his fingers like liquid silk, a pull that's not a pull, you know that the other woman has finally left.

It's time for you to break the kiss, observing the man in front of you, that smug smile spreading on his delicious lips and reaching into his eyes, half-lidded now like those of a well-fed cat. You are preparing for an awkward feeling to set in, but it never comes. Somehow you stay caught in that surreal bubble the three of you have created.

Should you have a bad conscience towards the man in your back for your having indulged in kissing his partner? You decide against this notion. He has no reason to be upset or jealous, has he? You did nothing wrong, only responding to a kiss, not initiating it yourself; somehow it wasn't even a kiss, all just a fake, a game, nothing serious...

Right here, right now, you don't have the slightest idea how right and wrong you are at the very same time...

[Prepare to learn, dearie dove - choices have consequences.]

"Pure dead brilliant, bonnie", Johnny beams, "Tha was the nicest way out of this fucked-up situation. Ta."

Your proud, sly smile replies: "Just couldn't tolerate her disgusting behaviour anymore." Then you shift your weight to prepare for stepping aside in order to give up the formation of your human sandwich, but the man in your back reaches out his left hand, placing it on his partner's biceps.

Your cerulean bliss smiles impishly at the masked man in a way that leaves no question as to their feelings for each other (Beautiful!) and lets the fingers of his right hand come to rest on Mask's lower arm.

Just a gesture of affection among them, for sure, but your attempt of leaving this flat triangle has failed miserably, keeping you caged between the two of them. (Probably for the better since Beast might still be around!) Anyway, why would you complain? So when his two saphires return to you, you add: "I knew I simply had to do something when she was about to get all handsy with you."

He grimaces in repugnance: "Aye, got too close, that one", then he addresses his boyfriend, "Bloody bint was about tae grab ma bahookie, ye ken?"

"English, MacTavish."

You can hear the grin in Mask's deep baritone.

"Sorry, sir", he's not sorry at all, "Let me translate: my arse." He flashes you one of his flawless smiles and a conspiratory wink you bathe in. Their banter is enjoyable!

Grinning, you present your own theory: "I bet she would have even kissed it right on the spot if you had told her to or simply let her..."

The man in front of you says nothing in reply, but you see his eyes flick to your lips. You feel the weight in your back shift when the tall blond leans forward to whisper in your ear, just loud enough for his friend to hear, too: "I think he liked your kiss much better."

Then you feel a soft press against your jaw that confuses you. Has he just put his masked lips on you?

You need to blink several times, clear your throat and reply: "That wasn't... real. Only some sort of film-kiss. No real kiss, you know?"

"It was lips on lips, hen. Half way up tae geez a winch, eh? Sounds much like a kiss tae me."

"Bloody looked like one as well."

"And tasted so, too. Yer such a nice addin tae Scotch whisky, bonnie."

You swallow - speechless, considering the turn this conversation is taking. You want to come up with some witty remark - but you totally lack any clever ideas... You play for time, reaching out to the bar counter, taking a sip from your drink.

You notice the blond's hand close around his own glas. It's only when Mohawk places his right hand on your hip that Mask lets go of the other's arm. To you it’s nothing but coincidence. The only thing you do know is that Mask will now turn his face towards the bar, away from the crowd, before pulling one sling of the mask off from behind his ear to take a good swig of his beer. You watched him do so many times in the past while you were observing the two of them. - Enough of a reprieve for you to sort out and contemplate your feelings.

You convince yourself that you shouldn't read too much into their flirty behaviour. After all, these two men are a gay couple. You will just enjoy yourself. Clearly no reason to get flustered, right? Have fun and flirt back - and let them kiss you if they like. For your part, you liked the kiss(es?) - real or not!

Then the fabric is back in place and Johnny grins at him, a thin-lipped, intense little smile, that suits his half-lidded eyes: "Ah bet she'd taste delicious with tha drink of yers as well, Simon."

The pale man hums in anticipation, a deep, rich sound, promising. "We shall see."

Still trapped between the two them, you turn to Mask as far as possible, attempting a self-confident smile in response: "Now shall we?"

His right hand lands at the nape of your neck, his thumb ghosting soft circles on your skin. "Guess so, sweet'eart. Or do you think we haven't noticed you staring and watching", your eyes go wide and the crinkles growing around his eyes tell you that he’s smiling, "at any occasion, right, Johnny?"

"Aye, very accurate, Si. Studyin us as if it was her job."

Despite the fact that he's talking to the mask (Simon!), Mohawk (Johnny!) is looking at you solely. "Like some spy, gatherin intel or so."

Spy?! Something in his voice makes you believe that this might not entirely be a joke. On the one hand, you're shocked about the fact that - obviously - you are far worse at people-watching than you thought. How embarassing! But on the other hand, it’s such an appealing idea that they think you capable of actually being such femme fatale. Thrilling! (Or worrisome?)

However, ... what would there be to spy about them, anyway? Despite their scars, testimony of various hardships, they'd hardly be some modern James Bonds...

Well, you couldn't care less! This evening is the most exciting thing since... Oh, don't rack your brains, honey!

You bite your lower lip as not to let them see the wide grin that would definitely threaten to appear on your face. "I'm no spy." A soft smile in your voice can be heard unmistakenly as you are about to look down to where your and Johnny's bodies are touching, but, within a split second, Simon's hand reaches around your throat, with the softest of pressures only, and keeps your head tilt up with his index finger.

"Luckily, you're not", Simon's voice, close to your ear, sends a shiver down your spine.

Johnny's words make it whip straight into your core, the promise of an underlying danger: "Good fer ye, lassie, and good fer us. Win/win situation. Rare enough." His hand seems to burn on your hip. And once more your world shrinks down to these two strangers.

Simon's mask touches your earlobe: "Had a bet whether you would take the first step, doll."

"And what a first step tha was, bonnie, placin yerself in my arms, makin me yer man. Sweetest compensation fer me losing." He winks at you conspicously, daringly, but you are still processing their words.

Simon lets go of your throat when you take your drink again. You drain the rest of your glas in one go.

"Finished?", the Scotsman asks, "Then cummoan."

You glance around the taproom. "Have you seen where she went to after she'd left us alone?", you ask.

It's Simon who answers your question. "Left the bar some time ago with her friends."

You nod, relieved immensely, for you wouldn't like her to come across you sitting here all by yourself. "That's good. OK. Have a nice evening then, you two." You try a good-natured smile. It makes you a bit sad that your night together has already come to an abrupt end.

The roguish look Simon and Johnny exchange with each other goes completely unnoticed by you.

Now Mohawk playfully nudges you with his shoulder, slowly, tenderly, as not to really push you away with it. "Wiz talkin tae ye, hen. Had the impression it got pretty obvious that the three of us would be leavin thegether."

This is an unexpected turn...

You stare at the grinning man in front of you, dumbfounded, kind of, speechless.

Could I possibly misinterpret their intention regarding the things to come?

The way Johnny's looking at you makes unmistakenly clear: he means it; however, they won't coax you into anything you wouldn't want - you can decline, put a stop to it, anytime; they themselves wouldn't offer anything they disliked, either. No obligations.

You turn to get a look at the man behind you. He holds your incredulous gaze, unblinking, followed by one single affirmative nod.

This can’t be happening...

Their directness, sincerity, makes your decision an easy one.

Too good to be true...

A playful smile starts to spread on your lips. You only wish your voice sounded firmer when you finally answer. "I'd like that. So what happens now?"

Johnny's palms run up your arms and down again. "Listen, bonnie: ye set the pace. All ye need to ponder about is the timing, eh?"

"The timing?", you ask, slightly confused.

"Aye. Make up yer mind, take a moment tae decide. We've got plenty o' time. Ye can have anything."

You're still no wiser when Johnny addresses his mate as if you weren't there and listening: "Ah'm curious tae see what she will pick. Ah bet she's already gone through every scenario in her head since she started watching us, our wee minx." Simon slowly nods in response. "Got that impression, too."

On your way out, you're comfortably tugged in between the two almost-strangers who have just happened to become your two boyfriends by accident. Johnny’s got his arm around your waist again, a heavy, pleasant reminder, solid warmth, whereas Simon's massive hand is a crisp burn at the back of your neck, alluring autumn on your skin, the phantom of a chill ready to reach under your surface.

The moment the three of you are out of earshot, the masked man helps you to see things clearly, to understand the transition from fantasy to reality:

"So, how do you want us, love? One after the other - or both of us at the same time?"

[eightyonekilograms]

Obviously, JD Vance's proposal to give parents additional votes stirred up a furor from progressives saying it's anti-feminist, reactionary, trying to keep women in the kitcen, etc.

And I agree with them. Frankly I wouldn't shed a single tear if Trump "who will rid me of this meddlesome running mate"-d a second VP in a row and I never had to hear from Vance or his 2010!NRx ideas ever again. But I have a more prosaic objection also: if implemented, I don't think this plan would actually work?

Like, as I understand it, there are two proposed justifications for how this might be a good idea, but I don't think either of them stand up to scrutiny.

The first (and less plausible) one is, people who selfishly want more votes will have more children in order to get more political leverage for [whatever they want]. Even though they're doing it for selfish reasons, children are a public good, and so on net this is good for society.

I think this theory can be dispensed with pretty easily. It sounds just like one of those $1000 payments for having another child that budges the birth rate not at all because it's way too small a reward for the expense involved. Even speaking as someone intensely annoyed by trendy anti-electoralist cynicism, I know the EV of an additional vote is microscopic compared to the expense of having children. It won't move anyone except at the very bleeding edge of the margin.

But that's the easy case. The much more interesting theory of the Vance Plan is that of fixing broken incentives. The story goes like this: one feature of democracy, for better or worse, is that it rewards those who show up. If you have no vote (or don't use your vote), you are invisible to democracy, so your wants will be systematically underrepresented. This is why wealthy first-world countries are increasingly gerontocratic in both legislative makeup and resulting policy: old people reliably vote, young people don't, so even with no conspiracy involved, democracy gravitates to favoring the wants of the old. Vance says, hey, children cannot vote, so just as you'd predict, their interests (as a class!) get ignored, so we end up with a legislative landscape that doesn't favor children and makes it harder to raise them.

It makes perfect sense on paper! But I think in the real world it falls apart.

What are the actual bits of legislation and policy which discourage people from having more children? I mean, people can and do argue furiously over this question, but IMO three of the most significant ones are:

NIMBY localist housing policy locking young potential parents out of the housing market

More localist tax and education policy making competition for "good schools" a Red Queen Race which drives up house prices still further, requiring two working parents

Safetyist legislation which, while well-intentioned, is making everything from cars to child care more expensive than it necessarily needs to be

In order to believe that giving parents additional votes will cause a more child-friendly society to emerge via electoral pressure, you have to believe that parents are more likely than non-parents to oppose 1, 2 and 3. And that just... doesn't seem true? At best there's no difference, and to be blunt, I think as a class parents tend to be worse than non-parents on all three. #NotAllParents, of course, there are plenty of people with kids who still want good abundance policy, but averaged over everybody I think it's hard to deny that parenthood tends to push people toward defensive, loss-averting "protect the children" mentalities which, on a global scale, fuck everyone else over. That talking point you constantly see among the Very Online Right that parents are more likely than non-parents to think Beyond Themselves and want to build a stable world for the long term, just seems obviously false to me. Or at least if it is true, it's true in a way which is mostly irrelevant, since these "long-view parents" don't know how to turn those wants into policy which actually achieves them.

Frankly, I think it's easy to envision a world where the Vance Plan makes all policy around child-rearing worse instead of better, and depresses the birth rate even further.

[38sr]

I know this is gonna be a strange one, but I do have an industry question;

I've been looking for a job for the last 4 years post-grad, I've tried every bit of advice I've gotten over my 6 years in school and 4 years out. Is it too late for me?? Or more so what advice would you have at this point?? I'm starting to feel really negatively about this venture, and getting a day job has been just as difficult;;

Hello Sky! Hope it's okay to call you that. Ah post-grad job hunting.....I don't miss that period of my life at all. Before I begin, just want to preface that what I say going forward is strictly from my perspective/experience. I am not the absolute of the animation industry so if what I say doesn't align with you, you do not have to follow it haha. Alright, advice for post grad job hunting.... Well, I think I want to start off giving a bit of context for the animation landscape these past 4 years that has been rough for everyone (trust me it'll come back around to your question): 1.) COVID Pandemic

This one might be a confusing for some people because when COVID hit in 2020, the only facet of entertainment that was able to keep going was animation. If you remember, during this time streaming numbers went up because people were stuck at home, every studio was launching their own streaming platform (HBO Max, Disney+, Peacock, etc.) and celebrities were given animated shows because live-action had stopped dead in its tracks. This period allowed artists outside of California state to get hired because what's the point of capping the talent to the local area when we're already working remotely? In short, it was a boom. But an exponential boom rather than a gradual boom. You never wanna grow too fast because you'll crash out quicker (and harder) which leads us to our second factor.... 2.) Netflix's first ever round of layoffs in summer 2022, streaming actually isn't profitable?????

In short, this year is when Netflix's growth finally stopped and was the beginning of The Great Animation Contraction. Other studios who were looking to Netflix as a the new model of distributing/creating entertainment had realized Netflix wasn't invincible. As well as their business model. So naturally, they got scared and and take action (aka layoffs). I was affected by these layoffs while working at Marvel Studios and many artists got laid off at studios to save face from the mistake that was streaming (though at this point studios were still double downing on it). Also, around this time live-action was slowly restarting thanks to vaccines and social distancing protocols. So those celebrity studded animated productions dwindled down (and also they caused so much havoc for us animation workers because most of those celebrities had no animation production experience). Which now leads us to...

3.) Mergers everywhere! Yeah, uh, mergers fucking suck. People kept losing their jobs because companies kept absorbing into each other and multiplying their debts to ungodly dollars amounts! Apparently no one took a math class and understood if you multiply any number by zero you will always get a zero. These merger also caused more shows to get shelved and canned, making the job market even slimmer. And by then we get to 2023 and the....

4.) WGA, SAG and TAG Contract Negotiations By now, studios have realized that streaming is losing them money because it costs a butt load of money to not only create a streaming site, but also maintain it, update it, create new media for it, acquire established franchises for it, and maintain the current library. Streaming shows aren't being advertised like they used to on cable so shows don't last beyond one or two seasons. Worker contracts are becoming shorter and shorter (I had a co-worker who had a 3 month contract! Isn't that insane?). And what happens in the midst of this streaming meltdown?

WGA, SAG and TAG are gearing up for their contract negotiations. And as we know SAG (actors) and WGA (writers) did strike which good for them! But now there are no live-action jobs and once again, animation (TAG) is the only one running because our negotiations don't officially start until 2024. At this point, so many animated productions have been cancelled left and right for the sake of "saving money and cutting costs". And the effects were very much being felt in the animation work force. Some animation workers were starting to leave the state of California to more affordable cities, some getting day jobs as baristas, hell some leaving the industry all together. It didn't help that studios were kind of withholding production greenlights 'cause 1) they're greedy corporations 2) these strikes were putting pressure on them. And when we did enter 2024 for our contract negotiations, that contraction was at the tightest. The job market for animation had become so bone dry that you have director-level talent taking entry level jobs to stay afloat. But because of that new, emerging artists are blocked out from breaking in. Anytime a job listing would go up people would go in a frenzy and try every thing they could to get the job. That's how little shows were in production this year specifically. Of course, by now it is public that TAG has ratified the contract (meaning we will not strike). But up until then, studios were quite literally waiting with baited breath for the duration of negotiations. A ton of stuff was in development but nothing was getting a greenlight in fear of a strike. So many animation workers at this point have been laid off for at least 2 years, got priced out of LA county, or got so burned by the industry that they left for a more sustainable paycheck. At this point of the post you're probably thinking, "Why is she talking about all of this and not answering my question?"

And the reason for that is because I what to highlight you didn't miss your chance. You unfortunately graduated at a time where the circumstances were not good for breaking in for the past 4 years.

I'm not saying this to deter you from animation either. I just want to be transparent and honest about the current state of animation because it really has been bleak for the past 4 years. So it's not your fault but rather the industry was just in a seriously bad drought. Both emerging and veteran artists have been struggling to find work and when they do it didn't even last for 6 months. Hopefully, with the renewed contract studios will start greenlighting productions again so everyone isn't fighting for one job opening. But I can't tell 'cause I am not Raven Baxter haha. But what advice can I give during this tough time? Start developing your own projects. Things may be pretty dry right now but now is the time when you can create and develop your own original stuff that can be used in your portfolio. Short or long form, showing progress videos, just create. Because once you start working it's gonna be hard to find that personal project time (trust me I'm going through that right now haha). Also, you'd be surprised how just doing your own thing can garner the attention of someone who does have the power to hire you. How do you think I got to work on the shows I have in the animation industry? Almost all of my jobs happened because I was just creating my own thing and it just happened to match the sensibilities of a show produced by a Hollywood studio. And if I had any additional advice... it would probably be don't think that Hollywood is the only way you can tell your stories.

This one is more of....a recent revelation I've had after going through a pretty bad work experience but Hollywood isn't the only way you can be a storyteller. Whether it's comics, games, streaming, animation, or film....the Hollywood system isn't the end all be all. And by Hollywood system I'm referring to breaking into a big studio like Disney, Nick or something and trying to get your own movie/tv show to win an award or something. That system often works for a certain group of people and fails other groups. That's why I say develop and create your own thing because you might find something that fits your creative voice more than Disney or any other Hollywood studio. Maybe that's inconsiderate of me to say as someone who's been incredibly lucky to work in the animation industry for almost 8 years now....but I still wanna be honest that there are other avenues that isn't the Hollywood way. All in all, please don't give up or beat yourself up. The current state of animation within America was out your control and resulted in many artists struggling to find a job. You aren't too late. In fact, I would say now is your time to do your thing in preparation for when that hiring boom comes again (or you can just take another route to tell your stories). I hope that answered your question!

[wisteriamusic]

killer stages hobbies

So, I think while a lot of hobbies are shared throughout the stages some of them are exclusive or only one or two do so.

Stage 1: Most of his paintings are of friends and other people never of himself. He's taken a lot to writing which can range from children's books, horror stories, mysteries, crime, romance, almost every genre under the sun. He also does enjoy cosplay and crossdressing. He decided to pick up clay sculpting making nice pottery he doesn't trust himself with knives. He also does poetry along with him writing fictional stories.

Stage 2: Their biggest hobby is wood carving most often of animals like bunnies and cats. Painting is of course another hobby they mainly draw landscapes, flora, and fauna. They enjoy sketching new clothes to make and wear. They like to make their own clothes and do a lot of embroidery adding more detail. They also enjoy acting quite a bit. They decided to learn how to sculpt marble for a harder challenge and just to try something new and enhance their already good skills now on a larger scale. They still indulge in science of course even if its not the typical one of most Sanses. Probably also picked up wood burning to make their own wood carvings more detailed and to add a new skill. They are quite good at board games and other games and is actually a major hobby a safer way to discover new things with npcs that don't concern actual people. Along the way I think they learned metal working and black smithing its not an as often hobby its mainly for making knives and other bladed weapons to replace any it uses and for good quality ones that's actually hard to find in the multiverse. They definitely enjoy exploration both of just nature but, also of new aus and people. Him and Ink will sometimes go people watching and without looking at the code or script try to guess their life and personality. They also enjoy gardening they are quite connected to nature. They enjoy reading not as much as Dust but it's a way to gain new information and pass the time.

Stage 3: Its painting are of a lot of death and destruction a funnel for their more destructive and angry emotions rather then other people. They also decided to start playing music it was something sans did and it's something they wanted to reclaim of themself. It also enjoys puzzles and can get sucked into it for hours.

Stage 4: Color was the one who pushed stage 4 to get a hobby of some kind. Any hobby was find as long as it gone one. Color mainly asked him to pick a hobby and left the room he wasn't far but he didn't want his facial expressions or body language make stage 4 pick something based off of what he thinks is good. Painting was the first hobby it picked up its a common hobby that all of the stages enjoyed so it decided that was the safe choice. Later it would pick up dancing specifically, ballet while it does enjoy other styles of dancing it prefers ballet even if it wouldn't say so. Its more often to be pushed to indulge in a hobby rather then just do it itself whenever. It does have some soft rules that allow it to do actions without explict orders that allow it to make choices. Most of its paintings are of chara, the player, horror inside its mind real psychological horror one of the only way it can express its emotion.

[louroth]

Hello hello everybody! It is time for another months progress, and I am so excited to share with you, all the things I have gotten my grimy little gremlin hands on. First off, what we are all here for; writing. I have been on fire, to be honest! Last month I churned through the last of the first batch of erotica stories (there's 6 (!!!) of them on my patreon already) and set them up for publishing along with two more unseen ones- I'm still going over the logistics of where to publish for the best revenue (I know this sounds boring, but I have to make an income somehow, and hopefully find another audience as a smut writer on other platforms 💀 I love writing it so why not!), and I am making headway, learning the ins and outs of self publishing. On patreon, there are also two Q&A's that are written in a bit more fictional manner, in character: a more fun way than just writing answers straight up and down. I have enjoyed those so much! There's a bunch of other stuff I haven't even mentioned- honestly, I have to say, I'm really proud of my output on Patreon even though I have been really anxious about writing full time. It's going great! I have to thank my new friends and support-network on discord; you make this all worth it. I cannot express how fun it is to shoot the shit with you in vc, gaming together, or seeing your shenanigans in gen or your in depth theories (thanks for the brainworms!) or memes or staring longingly at the fanfic channel or drooling over your art (ouro related or not) or... Gah. You are just amazing people, and I will waste no opportunity in saying so. Thank you forever and ever and ever an-

When it comes to OUROBOROS, I am happy to announce that the next chapter is damn near done! I was halted because of the discovery that dashingdon is no longer supported by it's creator, and have been working on the twine version ever since, earlier than I expected- it's tough work, but I am so excited to make this an actual game made entirely by myself, and not submitting to a company that quite frankly leaves a bitter aftertaste. It is taking long to make because I want to make it mobile compatible from the start, which there isn't a lot of resources for. But I'm doing my best! The plan is that I will be posting the next chapter for Patreons in the coming month, and then treat you to a full twine release here on tumblr. I haven't made any rewrites when porting the twine build, but I would like to do that too... so we will see; this plan is not set in stone. I will just have to see how it evolves over the next month. Yes, beta-readers is still on the schedule, just holding off a little while while I wrap my head around this new coding landscape.

Other than that, I have been working on the set aesthetic for ouro, which has been really hard, a lot harder than I expected. You all know I am no wizard when it comes to graphic design, but I want to at least develop a set palette and imagery and portraits that is cohesive to the story. The work is ongoing, and I don't have much to say about it- even though it is taking a lot of my brain power. I'm hoping I can come to some kind of set and in depth conclusion that I am happy with before the twine release, because I want the game to feel like a treat to open up and play; a world to get lost in.

That's it! If you want to see weekly and more in depth dev-logs, you know where to go. I hope you have an amazing day or night, and we will see each other soon. xx

[atoriv-art]

Hihi!! So so sooo sorry if this is a random question, but ur art style is so insanely inpirijg and beautiful to me, so do u have any tips on how u learnt? Like any specific stuff u tried to learn first, specific websites u used, etc? If ur not comfortable with answering this im so sorryy😓😓 YOUR ART IS GORGOUS!!

i don't mind answering, dw!

my learning process is very random to be honest, i usually get a little obsessed with trying to learn one particular thing and end up focusing on that for a bit. the most recent one was trying to learn how to draw better clothing folds :P

the general journey i took isn't really much different from what looks to be what most people do tbh, you can never go wrong with figure drawing (there's many people who can explain it better than me but it's just drawing from reference — preferably in-person, but i've never done that LOL — in short amounts of time trying to get the key elements down. the big website for this that i know of is [line of action])

i also use [these] [websites] for references, i think it's important to know at least the gist of how the human body actually works, how the muscles stretch etc, but you will affix all of that information in your brain much faster if you actually see them in action. for proportions and such i think 3D models are completely fine (and i use them. so much) but when it comes to drawings muscles or fat you will have a much easier time if you've actually seen how they work and look. it'll make you better at shading them too!

there's a bunch of resources for anatomy but my favorites are the [anatomy for sculptors] book (they post tidbits of it on social media, they're geared towards 3D artists but that's just a plus for me imo because you can understand the form you're trying to achieve much better) and the famous morpho: fat and skin folds book (i don't have a link but just like. google it it's the first one that pops up)

i alsoo tried studying color theory a lot but honestly it's rare that i find something i like enough to share KSJDKSJ once you get past the basic "what is an analogous, complimentary, tertiary palette" stuff it gets a little harder to find meaningful stuff online, but if i were to offer any advice it'd be to study light-dark values bc a lot of the time the hue doesn't matter, it's the contrast that does

relatedly (at least for me), for composition i'm still getting the hang of it (orz) but what has worked the best for me so far is this [youtube channel], he's a traditional landscape painter and yet i still find his insight very useful :P i also really like his book on composition but i dunno how available it is.. but essentially any source on composition will just tell you it's an arranging of shapes, the tricky part is how to construct those shapes (via color, contrast, etc) and how to make them convey what you want them to convey.

speaking more broadly and not just what websites/books i use, what i like to do is to save any and all images that look appealing to me, even if i don't feel like doing anything with them at the moment... i do this with pictures, paintings, literally any image that i like lmao pinterest is an easy place to do this in but you could do it wherever, i also have a pureref file full of just Cool Images That I See Online. whenever i feel like i'm stuck i look at the things that inspire me and usually i get the spark to try to do something

i also do this with poses i find in the websites i mentioned earlier, makes it way easier to find a reference for what i want ^^

you'll notice my "style" sometimes fluctuates a lot and it's usually because i saw one particular artist / style of illustration that really inspired me and i wanted to try something similar KSJDKSJ for example the more painterly stuff i've been posted is heavily inspired by aleksander rostov's art for disco elysium!

also i would feel like a liar if i didn't mention this. using "cheats" is completely fine LMAO it's very common that i do some more complicated angles / structures / lighting in 3D with blender to heavily reference them afterwards 😅 i also like environment texturing so in a few cases for my backgrounds i'm painting over a render i made. but you don't have to go that far LOL i'm just saying there's nothing wrong with stuff like that so long as you're not stealing from someone else.

and if you struggle with motivation for studies i'll just say, you can cheat a little and make the studies about something you actually like LMAO like when i was trying to get better at clothing folds i just drew a bunch of naruto characters and paid more attention to the clothing. it's silly but it works :)

[louisisalarrie]

i still can't believe they chose to make louis a party boy having a random girl pregnant than letting him come out i mean really is that terrible for them? how many fans would they risk with him coming out that are not risking with the whole bg?

The primary theory, in which I believe to be true as well, was they were gonna let Harry come out (as bisexual, whether that is true or not) and that was the trade off. With how loud larries were back then, and 1d’s team constantly scrambling to “prove” they weren’t together, they couldn’t have just let one of them come out and not have a surefire way to remove any possibility of larry - so the best way was to ensure louis looked as straight as possible was “proof” that he had sex with a woman, and a stunt gf wasn’t enough if Harry was going to be out.

I think the thing is, is that it was such a different landscape back then to what it is today. It would be much harder to closet larry had it been happening these days, but SC was making good money and didn’t wanna ruin the marketability of 1d, because he’s a selfish prick. So anyway, he decided cool, if these guys are gonna still keep trying to come out, we’re gonna throw one under the bus to be totally straight, and the other more famous one can come out as a compromise.

In the industry, 1d is a reflection of SC. He’s going to try and make sure he doesn’t look like an idiot, as much as possible. He needs to make it look like he’s cool, calm, and collected, with an excellent boyband who do all the right things, and are perfectly marketable good little boys. This doesn’t include: two of them being in a relationship, mental health issues, substance abuse issues, videos of them smoking pot etc., but, in order to look like a super cool forward thinking high up dude who is down with the kids and is an empathetic and accepting boss to the larger industry and GP, he was like “alright cool, one of you can come out, and it’s going to be Harry. It can’t be both of you. So, it’ll be a small sacrifice for the greater good and you can both eventually come out, but you don’t wanna lose fans, do you??? We need to be careful about this, and separate you as much as possible. Wouldn’t you rather have a bit of freedom than none at all?” and then that’s kinda what happened, but it all ended up in a dumpster fire.

It’s kinda like having kids (not that I know what that’s like but it’s an apt comparison often used for folks who look after artists), you want them to reflect how good of a caretaker and person you are, always with a smile on their face and that nothing is wrong at all, even if its not always that easy behind the scenes, if you know what I mean? And Letting Harry come out was gonna be great for SC, an absolutely HUGE move at the time that he was happy to go through with because it was gonna make him look great, but it could never have been both of them coming out, and never the two of them together. Not for a long time anyway. It was baby steps.

And I just wanna point out, that while larry is known to be real within different parts of the music industry, this is a massive business and not everybody knows. Oftentimes I see people saying “oh everyone knows” but it’s literally not true. They have small inner circles, and the very high ups know, but it’s not some industry wide knowledge that they’re together. It’s still quiet in that respect.

And to your point, anon, they’d risk the overall marketability of their prime demographic, having them come out. And louis was going to be a lot harder to explain when coming out than Harry. Louis was in a long term relationship, committed, his gf’s initial tattooed on his hand, already didn’t get along well with SC, and it would’ve stopped Harry coming out. So, Harry was the easier choice and Louis’ stunt was gonna be short lived anyway. Except it wasn’t. And I just have to stress how different this was back then. Nothing like this at that scale was happening at the time, and never with this many fans unravelling the narrative. It truly was one of a kind and SC and team didn’t know how best to deal with it.

Anyway, truly a shit show.

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

I hope you're having a good day! And if not I hope you find comfort

hey there anonymous; good morning, you sent this to me last night when i was well in bed (sun had barely even set, even; time change makes sleeping at 8 feel even earlier than usual);

mostly ignoring this to blog a bit about the usual thing i always whine-about (maybe it:ll help someone 'relate' or feel 'less alone' but lord knows its just me spinning wheels cause i like writing): the flattening of my mood: like every-thing had just become this one singular wide featureless plain with all site in sight being just the same stretch without pit and without hill: the sort-of landscape that'd provoke NO PASSION and NO THOUGHT equally and just-so also smooth away any great pain and any great joy: which is exactly just the comfort i am tired of, as it:s like some crawling thing that keeps taking more and more, example: food now all tastes the same, too, taken under by that same wasteland plain barren; although i:d describe my mood as being fairly 'up' (there are still things i:d been getting keen about: writing isekai story, the new ABA in strive looks really cool, i have religious programming to write, there is new media to read and watch) it never seems to amount more than a small 'pop' that ends-up nearly always more disappointing than fulfilling or centering; it is like the spirit has begun evaporating out of me through these little fissures in the Make of my material that had let that esprit DRY, KILN, BAKE, ASH out and leave the innerworks of me (MARA!) as little more closer and closer to being some fine spotless beetle of mechanics, and operations, clicking with spring and circuit forward and forward to next task: cook, eat, clean, exercise; count in fours always; pray in mornings, too; it is the experience of life not as a person but as the mechanical, where life ceases to be felt as life and yet as mere experience of time (both four letter words, as it were; vision poor enough they:d be the same grey smudge on the screen; vision poor enough they:d be the same dead bug on windshield before the bugs themselves became rare); my mood has been up and i still have these black thoughts flowing out from Dieth and Daniela and centered around how inescapable and infinite Wasteland seems: the self is extricated out and becomes a paperdoll where (impersonal) you imagine it undergoing a hanging or a suffocating of all air, and imagine the 'ecstasy' of whether the viewer can undergo the felt feelings of the paperdoll as it goes to 100% material; the act of moving limbs to go through with the task, to resolve, to collect the instruments, to imagine the Afters (the people who knew), to imagine all the things unsaid and things yet wanted to do and done undone and the willingness to let self be robbed of 'fate' (?) where death claims its 'natural' (?) due;

very-much i:d just like to write and focus and be left fulfilled, but it:s all fairly boring; i:d like to play the new ABA and grind her in practice mode (i SHAN'T be spending money on games though) and just instead imagine how anxious sitting in a practice mode hitting buttons feels and can:t imagine undergoing that more than eight minutes at most (this is much how writing is; much how drawing is); there:s this alien quality being poured in-to me, may-be byproduct of adhering to Etiquette like the years of slowly embodying an ill philosophy has led me further ill and alien: it becomes harder and harder to find any reason to talk to another, to nurture friendships, to say Hey, to want to do anything with others as it all just becomes more stretch on the barrenland and buttons to hit and mechanical beetle limbs to undulate, undulate, driven just by fluid sacs or what-ever dumb organ drives beetles (for me it:s my yap organ).

all of this is to say: i wish i could be playing new ABA cause i like her design a lot but can:t imagine playing a fighting game ever being fun without having a friend to do it with, and nothing sounds more boring to me at the same time, but i:m tired of being bored, too. i want to be at a joyous tone 4! a joyous tone 4! so engender a joyous tone 4 in your own life, anonymous, cause if you will it surely it:ll happen.

[fizzigigsimmer]

When does billy realise that Steve is just as good a ballet dancer as he is? Maybe they have different strengths and different areas they excel in but one is better than the other right? Sorry, I’ve read one too many fics where billy is better than Steve at everything and my inner Steve girl is frothing at the mouth. I love them both equally but people put Steve down too much 😔

Ooh I love this question, and I get it anon. I love Steve & Billy both for their own reasons. I think I write Steve better/get into his head easier, but that may just be my own insecurity talking. Billy holds a special place in my heart, but he’s also the character I relate most to so it’s just a different experience. Not a bad one, just not as simple. That said, it is SO WORTH THE EFFORT EVERY TIME. IDK what else to say I just love their characters, and character is a big part of why I write anything. When I plot I’m always most interested in the whys of the characters and how they will change over the course of the story, and everything else is secondary. Which is both a strength and a weakness. 🤪 I’m well aware that I can spend pages in a characters internal landscape without actually moving the plot forward.

So to actually answer your question: I don’t have the performance nailed down yet, but there’s this tentative stretch between them being rivals and deciding to be real friends where Steve is making an effort to be friendly to him and BIlly’s not certain he wants to take the olive branch; because Steve scares him. Eddie and Argyle he can keep at a friendly distance but he’s not sure he can do that with Steve, and Steve’s like “nope you’re stuck with me now just accept it.” Anyway he’s torn, until he overhears a bit of an argument Steve has with his dad and is worried about him so he follows him to the studio. Steve’s working on a some mix of combinations for class, blowing off steam and Billy’s watching him pour his heart into it and he’s just struck by it. Steve’s always been good. But that was different. That was electric. Like I can just hear him, “Where the hell have you been hiding that, Harrington?” He’s so pissy at the thought that Steve has been holding back from him. It’s like a personal insult. 😆

The beautiful thing about ballet as an art form is that it’s about telling stories with your body. That means you can know all of the rules and all of the moves, be technically perfect, and it still won’t mean you’re better than the next guy. There will always be things that physically your body can’t do quite as well as someone else’s: shapes, and float, that reads different to the viewers eyes simply because your body and your intention gives it different meaning. Knowing your body, knowing how to bend it, twist it, and push it just right to convey an emotion that your audience can actually feel requires more than just skill, but also self awareness, vulnerability, and an emotional investment on the part of the dancer. Because it’s acting. Only harder because you can’t use any words. And Steve is just better at this than Billy in the beginning. He wears his heart on his sleeve and throws himself into his performances, eager to give the people what they want, and proud of his ability to move them. He’s an expressive, open, and giving performer and a real joy to watch.

When Billy arrives at school he is better than Steve, from a technical standpoint. His technique is cleaner, he’s physically stronger and frankly he just wants it more. That’s because dance for Billy has always been higher stakes. They share a strong connection and a passion for it, but for Billy it has also been his only means of escape and feeling a sense of worth. It also connected him to his mother whom he couldn’t save or protect from the harsh realities/disappointments of their life. And you know what they say, you don’t get diamonds without pressure - so that’s where Billy is when they start. he’s a diamond in the rough and he’s as good as he is because he has to be, or risk being stuck in the same life that killed his mother and is slowly doing the same to him. But it’s a double edged sword, because he’s so focused on needing to be perfect in order to get out that he’s lost sight of everything else - the whole point of being alive in the first place. He’s closed off and walled in. He doesn’t even remember how to eat for pleasure without worrying about how it will change his body and affect his technique. He’s not living, and his dance while technically perfect lacks what the critics would call ‘inspiration’. You can’t make an audience feel what you’re too afraid to feel yourself.

Steve on the other hand doesn’t know what he wants. He’s talented, but he’s aimless and complacent. He’s grown up under the shadow of his mother’s fame as well as his father’s misogyny and subversive homophobia. In his father’s mind, dance is an okay hobby for a little boy to have while he follows his mother around, but he will have to grow up soon and take on a real man’s responsibilities. Real men don’t dance around in tights flipping their hair for a living unless they’re soft. You know?🤷🏾‍♀️ Steve’s dad won’t actually commit to “being the bad guy”. He won’t outright tell Steve to quit being a gay boy and give up dancing because that would make him a homophobic prick - instead he’ll just cut him down with snide remarks and discount all of his achievements while making it clear how disappointed he is in him. And as a result, Steve is stuck, and lazy. Too stubborn to give up the thing he loves entirely, but not confident enough in himself to own who he is and risk total rejection. The fact that he’s always been good and love and adoration has always been heaped on him in dance rooms makes it easy for him to coast, clinging to that high while on his way to his miserable life behind a desk.

Billy shakes up his world. Billy is proof positive that he won’t always be ‘the best’, that the love and attention of an audience is fickle, and he’s 1000% threatened by him. Which makes for some great initial friction, but honestly their love story is about realizing how similar they are, how good they both are, and how much they need each other. They help each other reach their best and I love that journey for them. 🥹

[sobredunia]

tell me about Fez, please, im looking through your blog and like, i am intrigued

please click read more for an unskippable cutscene

ALRIGHT SO.

FEZ is an indie game created by a (now hated on the internet) guy called Phil Fish. If you wanna find out why he's hated do your own research this isn't about him it's about his videogame

It came out on april 13th of 2012 (yes. homestuck day. i know), and it sold over a million copies by the end of 2013. I've tried finding how many copies have been sold up to this day in total but didn't find anything, but the general gist is that it was pretty much an instant hit, and people absolutely loved it, working together to solve its intricate puzzles even to this day. Yes, there are mysteries hidden in here that an entire community of dedicated fans still hasn't found the solution to 11 years later

(tiny warning here, do not play this game if you have motion sickness or are severely affected by rapidly changing images, there are whole areas that are a doozy to play through. Please stay safe!)

Gameplay

Fez has a singular core mechanic that remains unchanging throughout the entire course of the game, and that is the ability to change perspectives

this is what the game looks like, a 2d pixelated landscape with tons of beautiful colors

but.

this is what the game also looks like

that's right, baby, this shit's actually in 3d

you use this change of perspective nonstop throughout your adventure, to cross gaps like demonstrated in the gif, or to simply access places you couldn't in that current perspective. There are other tiny mechanics that get added, like invisible platforms, crates and buttons, bombs, timed platforms that disappear... they add a bit of flavor, but the main mechanic is always there

There's also a really big emphasis on puzzles towards the latter half of the game, but I'll get more into it later

Story motivations

Your name is Gomez, you are a tiny little guy living in a cozy 2d village that you have never ever left. One day, an old man named Geezer sends you a letter asking you to climb to the top of the village. There, a giant fucking cube appears outta nowhere, teleports you to a satanic ritual, then to the vaccum of space, speaks to you in a strange language you cannot understand, and gives you a free hat. Oh and also he explodes or something

After you're given the hat, the fez, you discover that the world is actually in 3d, and you can now change perspectives. You unlock the core mechanic

After that, you wake up in your room with the fez still on your head, and a being in 4d called Dot is sent from who knows where to tell you that the cube that gave you the hat is called Hexahedron, is actually technically kinda god, and you fucking killed him. Now, your mission is to pick up its 64 pieces and reconstruct him

You see all those tiny golden cubes? You have to collect 8 of them to make a bigger cube, and you need to collect 32 of those

Now hold on, I hear you ask, didn't you just say that you need to collect 64 pieces? Why are you changing your mind and saying 32?

Because, my dear friend, there is another type of cube that you have to also collect

These are called anticubes. Y'know, "a negative for every positive" type of stuff. You have to also collect 32 of those

The main difference between an anticube and a normal cube is that they aren't broken into 8 pieces, when you find one it'll be whole. You can also sometimes encounter full golden cubes btw, but they're rarer than its normal tiny pieces that you collect. Another main difference is that these cubes are much, much harder to find, and I'll go into detail in the next section

There's also this one hub area, with four doors that will only open once you have enough cubes (anticubes also count)

Once you open the door with 16 cubes, you'll enter this one town filled with people that aren't quite like you. In there there's yet another door that will open when you get 32 cubes, so get to gathering motherfucker, you got a long way ahead of you

Puzzles (anticube edition)

When you collect that first anti cube, there is no going back. The floodgates have opened and you are now too deep in. You know too much. You must see this to the very end, for better and especially for the worse

The puzzles in fez are actually surprisingly varied when it comes to difficulty and accessibility. Most likely, the first anticube you'll find will be in this one room. You'll scan the qr code and do the instructions it says, and then the horror of your new life will begin

But this is just the tip of the iceberg, because BOY OH BOY are anticubes convoluted to find in some cases

Sometimes you'll get them by solving relatively easy puzzles, like this one

others will require a bit more thinking, like this one

and then we have the hardest ones where you'll have to learn how to read words, numbers, and commands in the FEZ language

and these arent even the hardest bullshit puzzles the game will pull at you. it gets worse. it gets so much worse

Game ending

Surprisingly enough, you can get a game ending with just 32 cubes. In fact, it is literally impossible to get the 64 cube ending without the 32 cube one unless you have outside help, you know the answer to all puzzles, or you somehow get extremely lucky in a very specific number of rooms

Behind the 32 cube door there's a giant gate that, and I shit you not, teleports you into fucking space

Aliens are canon in the fez lore and they look like squids

Once you reach the top of the alien temple fucking thing, you enter an eye(?) and there you meet the shell of god, the Hexahedron. Since you haven't gathered all 64 cubes, it fails to reconstruct, and it breaks down. This part is pretty dangerous for people with epilepsy, by the way, as there's rapidly changing black and white colors. The 64 cube ending is a bit easier in the eyes, but yeah, just a heads up

In the 32 cube ending, you get sent back home, and you see how the town gets more and more pixelated. Then you see a weird sequence that's like those videos of people really zooming in into things and you see the particles and microscopic stuff?? idk. and then you see Gomez playing the drums :D

After that, you wake up in your room, still with your Fez, and the same sequence at the start of the game plays out. You go to the top of the village, Geezer summons a giant fucking cube, you meet god, but instead of getting another fez, you get cool glasses, that allow you to finally solve a batch of puzzles you couldn't see before and you can finally gather the last anticubes

In the 64 cube ending, the Hexahedron reforms correctly, and instead of zooming in, it zooms out. You see that your world is a tiny cube next to many tiny cubes, and then those tiny cubes form a 4d entity that looks just like Dot, and then those many Dots next to eachother zoom out until they're nothing but static, and then it looks like a tv is turned off, and then the credits roll

They're both very strange endings, and definitely not what a lot of players expected or wanted, but what can you do

Puzzles (hell edition)

NOW.

You thought that was the end?

You thought you could simply walk away scot free?

You thought that this game had no more last "fuck you"s up in its arse?

You thought fucking wrong

Because you know that something's not right

Because you're in too deep

You've played this far. You've scrolled this far.

You have to see how this ends

You have to tie up the last loose ends

You see this? This is the game's map. It actually has a really clever design! Not only are the icons for the areas cubes, but you can also change perspectives like how you do in-game! Pretty cool, right? There are also some small indicators you can see on the bottom left. They mark if you've left any cubes, bits, treasures, or locked doors. They also mark any secrets you might have left! And they turn golden once you've found everything there is in that room, including secrets

If you were normal (let's imagine that for a bit, okay?) and you got the 64 cube ending, that's it, right? You've gathered every cube, you've gathered every map (you need them to get all cubes), you've gotten every key and opened every locked door, that should be it, right? You have everything the game asked you to have, so the whole map should be golden, right?

...right?

No! :D you fucking fool, you poor summer child

In fact, there are three rooms left. Three rooms left with a secret symbol next to them, and one other special room

First, we'll talk about the special room

Once you gather 64 cubes, you'll be able to open a door hidden on an unsuspecting island and access this one special room

kinda weird, right? It has a tileset that appears nowhere else in the game, same with its background. There's also a strange transparent heart over it? Strange

Now, the three ungolden rooms

First, the observatory, the room with the easiest puzzle, at least in comparison with the other two

Second, you have whatever the fuck this is. In order to solve this one, you HAVE to know the Fez language, no ifs or buts. Not only that, but there's a high chance that you were reading the language the wrong way, so in order to have the remote chance to solve this mf you'll have to git gud and realise the error of your ways

And last, but definitely not least

The most infamous room in the entire game aside from maybe the heart room previously shown

This cunt

These three are the hardest challenges the game has to offer, no exaggeration. And also, the first two rooms can be solved at any point of your adventure, but for the third one you HAVE to have completed the 32 cube ending, no workarounds

Now, how to solve them?

If you go to the observatory at night, you'll notice two red blinking stars in the corner. They're speaking in binary code, with one being 1 and the other being 0. Then, that binary has to be translated into a buncha diff languages to be decoded, and once you're done you'll be left with a set of commands that you'll enter in the observatory to get a special red cube that not even Dot, the motherfucker in 4 dimensions that knows things beyond our comprehension, knows what it is

For the second room in fez language, you'll need to answer a question with the cubes provided to you. It's a weird thing where you have to mix this word with the name of the company who made the game, I don't know man. Once you've answered you'll get the second red cube

And now, the third room

Commonly denominated the black monolith room

Why is there no black monolith?

Because you have to make it appear

First, you have to get this burnt map

Behind it, there's a string of code that translates into commands

You need to get into the room, and use the special ability given to you in the 32 cube ending: first perspective mode

You'll have to stand in the tiny square inside this infinity symbol thing that doesn't have a line in it (basically, not the one the screenshot is looking at lol), and then you'll have to do the commands

Once you do it, the black monolith will appear

Okay, you did it

You put the code correctly

Now what?

This isn't a collectable. This isn't a red cube. This doesn't do anything. What is this? How do I solve this puzzle

You wanna know the answer?

Who fucking knows

No one knows the answer to this. No one knows how to solve this. The community solved this a week after launch by bruteforcing it. I shit you not they made a bot that spewed random fez inputs and people just tried them until they got the correct solution

No one knows how it's meant to be solved. To this day, people still go on the r/fez subreddit to give their theories on what the intended solution was meant to be

They have tried everything

The position of the candles, the boiler room, some other random ass rooms that look remotely similar to the black monolith room, a random shower room, it somehow being on a book in the game that's just filled with haikus??, some bullshittery mobius strip mental gymnastics, the other half of the code being in an abandoned airport in Arizona...

...whatever the fuck this is...

by far the most known theory was the release date theory

but that got disproven by one of the devs a few years ago

but anyways, we've already gone through insanity for long enough, it's time to be normal now

Once you've gathered all of the red pieces, they will appear in the heart room

that's it

we're done

.

..

...

....almost

there's a secret code

one that was actually intended to be datamined for once lmao

If you look at certain artifacts in the menu and you rotate them a certain way in a certain order, the heart will vanish and the screen will turn white

you'll be sent back to the menu, and if you load that save file and go back into the temple...

there will be nothing waiting for you there

that, my friend, is the true end of Fez

You wanted to know too much, you wanted to learn everything, to the point of wanting to tear open a creation that took blood, sweat, tears, and five years to complete. And now there is nothing. You ignored the game's boundaries of only wanting to let you know this much, and now the game is empty, the love is gone, and there is nothing left for you here

You can leave now, I hope you're satisfied

[deviljaythey]

Darksider - Vampire Fantasy Novel (WIP) Chapter 3: Safety

Read and comment on the full story here <- <- <-

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

They were lucky the weather was calm, otherwise they would have been buried in snow in minutes. The snow was heavy but thankfully manageable, simply lowering their visibility slightly. Arlin knew the landscape well, he’d often sneak out to play with his friends. He watched how they moved across the tundra, gliding past the roots and patches where the snow was not as compact. 

“Careful.” Arlin warned Leon. “The snow’s hiding a hole there.” 

Leon was thankful for Arlin’s help, it was clear he wasn’t as experienced with the snow or mountains. He didn’t move as nimbly as Arlin, taking his time to slowly wade his way through the thick snow. 

“Is there no snow in the rest of the Valley?” Arlin asked.

“There is snow, although nothing nearly as thick as this.” 

“I could go without snow for a while.” Arlin shook off a bunch of snow that had fallen on his head. “I hope it’s warmer.”

“It is still cold but much warmer than here; I personally prefer the rain.” 

“Rain?”

“Do you not know what rain is?” Leon asked.

Arlin shook his head, more snow falling off. 

“Hm, how do to describe rain?” Leon thought for a moment. “It is like snow in some ways, but it is not frozen; it is water falling from the sky.” 

“Is it cold?” Arlin asked, tilting his head to the side. 

“It can be; in fact, you may get sick if you stand in it for too long.” He explained. “But it can also be warm. In spring, when it rains most, it is quite nice.” 

Arlin thought about it, the phenomenon of rain. From Leon’s description it sounded strange, but exciting. Arlin didn’t hate snow, but he was used to it; he had experienced it all his life. Rain was entirely different, but he could still imagine it—a light breeze of water shining down on the world. It was something that Arlin wanted to experience.

“I want to see rain.” Arlin stated. 

“And so you shall, I’m sure we will see it on our journey.” 

“Speaking of, where are we heading?” 

“Well to be honest with you, I’m actually not sure.” Leon admitted. 

Arlin was taken aback slightly, Leon had seemed very prepared so he just assumed that he had a plan. In retrospect, such an assumption was nearsighted. 

“I had originally planned to take you to Noxnora, but now that we are off that path and the coach is now several miles down the mountain with a hoard of animals attacking him, I am not sure where to take you now.”

“Then what’s the plan?” Arlin asked.

“I am still devising one, but to start we need to get off this mountain. After that, we will head to a settlement and figure out what to do then.” 

“And how much longer till we reach the bottom?” 

“At the pace we are moving, it should take around a day and half before we reach the bottom. Apologies for slowing us down.” 

“It’s okay, I don’t think many people are used to the snow up here.” 

“You are, that is a useful skill.”

“I don’t think it is, it’s pretty situational. I’m not sure anyone would really want it as a skill.”

“I would.” Leon said. “It would stop me from slipping so much.” 

Leon slipped a little when he said that, he grabbed a tree branch to right him only for it to break and a pile of snow to fall on top of him. He got up, shaking the snow off as best he could.

“See? With your skill I wouldn’t embarrass myself in front of you.” He said with a smile.

Arlin actually laughed at what he took as a joke from Leon, it also helped that he looked quite silly covered in snow. 

“Okay, maybe you’re right. At least a little bit.” He admitted. 

With a bit of help, Leon got up and continued down the mountain. A bit higher in spirits than before.

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

It was a long journey down the mountain, steep and dangerous the whole way. As well as Arlin knew the area he still needed to be careful or he might fall down the sheer cliffs to his end. Leon was having a harder time, he was lucky to be strong enough for the winds to not blow him away. Although it didn’t help him in needing to watch his step, losing his footing a good few times. 

Despite that however, they managed to make their way around three fourths of the way down from Leon’s estimations. They would be away from the mountain by midday tomorrow, and Arlin couldn’t be happy at the prospect. However, before then they’d need to camp, Second Night had just started and the two of them were exhausted from the descent. 

Leon was prepared, he had packed camping supplies for the journey just in case. He hadn’t packed to stay in the night up here but they would have to make due. 

“Arlin, could you try to gather some firewood? Make sure they’re dry and not in the snow.” 

“Sure thing.” Arlin replied.

The sticks on the forest floor were out of the question, they were covered in snow and far too wet to make use of. He decided to head for the trees, climbing up to get to the branches not drenched in snow. Arlin had been climbing the trees here for a while, he knew how to scale them even while they were coated in ice. He tried to find the branches with as little snow on them as possible, shaking off and patting down the ones that were usable. When he was finished gathering them, he hopped down from the tree. Arlin summoned a dark falcon to slow his descent, giving it some neck scratches when they reached the bottom. 

Leon had already set up the base, a circle of rocks with a couple of logs to elevate the fire above the snow. 

“Here Leon.” Arlin said, handing over the firewood.

“Thank you Arlin.” he replied. “This should work.” He piles up the sticks into a pile, quickly taking some dried parchment to start a fire. The flame ripples to life, first small but winding out to become a roaring fire. Arlin got close to it, he reached out but flinched as the heat became uncomfortable, like a needle piercing through his palm. He moved back slightly, just a few inches from the fire. It didn’t hurt, it was warm, comforting. The flame was chaotic, it seemed to move and shiver as if it was a living thing. He wanted to touch it, to let the fire flow and pass through his hands. But he couldn’t, it was a beauty he just couldn’t interact with. It was sad, but in a way Arlin found meaningful.

Leon watched closely, making sure Arlin didn’t get too close and hurt himself. He reached into his bag and pulled out two wooden containers filled with beans, placing them by the fire to warm up.

“This is all I brought so I hope beans are to your liking.” 

“That sounds good, that’s more than I usually eat.” Arlin admitted. 

“Have you not been eating well?” Leon asked.

“I’m not sure. I usually feel pretty hungry, the animals usually brought me food to eat. I couldn’t eat what my caretakers gave me.”

“What were they giving you?” 

“Meat and blood. I just couldn't stand to eat it, animals are my friends so eating them is just wrong.” 

“So you have never had blood before?” Leon asked, a hint of concern in his voice.

“I haven’t, is that bad?” 

“Not necessarily, most vampires outside of the High Coven actually do not have much access to blood. Especially human blood.”

“Really? Why’s that?”

“The High Coven often hoards premiums to legitimize their authority and status, sometimes doing the same with necessities. Blood is one of these premiums, it is a sign of authority to indulge in it.”

“So it’s just for fancy assholes?” Arlin grumbled. 

Leon laughed. “I suppose you could phrase it like that, yes.”

“Does it even do anything?” 

“It does but it’s not needed. Blood, especially human blood, enhances the abilities and senses of vampires. It gives them a boost in a sense, the effect becomes more potent when taking the blood from a living creature. Although, most vampires related to the High Coven deem it too ‘uncivilized’ for their tastes.” 

“The High Coven sounds, awful.” Arlin replied. 

“I am glad you have not had the displeasure of meeting them, I believe their guards were quite enough.”

“Yeah, I’ve had enough of them…” Arlin trailed off.

Leon looked a bit saddened, he could see the baggage from Arlin’s face alone. He reached over to the fire and took out the containers, handing one over the Arlin before taking one for himself.

“Be careful.” Leon warned. “It is hot.” 

Despite the warning Arlin did end up burning his tongue slightly, a small pang of heat in an otherwise enjoyable meal. 

“I apologize for my slowness in our journey.” Leon said. “It is unideal for us to stay the night out here, the wilderness of the Valley is dangerous. Especially during Second Night.”

“Why’s that?” Arlin asked.

“I know the weather here often hides the sky but Second Night is far darker than First Night. While Frist Night is illuminated by the stars, Second Night only has the dim moonlight for illumination.”

At the mention of the darkness, Arlin scooted closer to the fire, becoming far more aware of the shadows around him. 

“As such it’s difficult to travel during Second Night, the lack of visibility could end with us getting lost, or even encountering something dangerous.”

“Something?” Arlin asked.

“There are many threats that we may face in our journey, Beasts being one of them.” “What’s a Beast?” 

“Beasts are like a middle ground between animals and monsters, more intelligent than animals but without our reason. What they lack is what makes them dangerous.” Leon explained.

“What are they missing?” 

“Compassion, guilt, empathy, they lack the capacity to appreciate life and the lives of others. They are beings who act on violent impulses, their desire to harm and kill others.”

“So they just hurt others? That’s their existence?” 

“It is, they don’t have the capacity for anything else. They act on their nature and can not do anything else. They do not even have the ability to understand any other possibility.”

“I feel bad for them.” Arlin said, his mood seeming to go down substantially.

The thought of the Beasts saddened him, he couldn’t imagine what living like that must be. To only exist to hurt others, to know nothing else, it was terrifying to him. He knew that they wouldn’t feel remorse for him, but he couldn’t help feeling sorry for them. 

“There is more than the Beasts unfortunately, but it’s far less likely we’ll encounter any of them.”

“Encounter what?” 

“Latro, monster hunters.” 

Arlin froze up a bit. “Monster hunters? But, why would they hunt us?” 

Leon winced a little when he saw Arlin in fear but he continued to answer his question.

“The Latro are a group of humans who have devoted their lives to hunting out kind.” He explained. “I have tried to find reason in it, to find some logic to why they find us akin to animals to hunt for sport. I am sorry but…I do not have an answer.” 

Arlin was stunned by this. “I’m not satisfied with that, there has to be a reason! Why would they just want to kill us, what did we ever do to them?!” 

“I know Arlin.” Leon reassured. “I want to give you an answer you will be satisfied with, but sometimes there are things that I do not know. I am sorry.”

“You don’t need to apologize, I’m sorry for yelling.” 

“Well, you also do not need to apologize. I understand your frustration.” 

Arlin exhaled, he was frustrated but he didn’t want to take it out on Leon. He didn’t like the idea of things not having answers, there not being reason behind actions. He wanted to understand, but if he didn’t know the reason why he couldn’t. And he hated it. 

He was deep in thought, so much so that he didn’t hear the trilling growl turn into a roar as a streak of white pounced toward Arlin. As he realized what was happening, jagged hooked teeth had surrounded his throat, inches away from tearing him apart. However, Leon was faster than this creature. He grabbed Arlin, tearing him away from its jaws with only a small cut on the young vampire. 

“Get behind me.” Leon said, guarding Arlin from the new threat.

It had the body of a wolf but it was as big as a stag, its fur a stark white that blended in with the snow around them. It seemed that the creature was built to blend in with the environment around it, with massive antlers that looked like tree branches; they were better suited to a demon than a deer. With a discordant sound, the Beast snapped its jaw open showing rows of jagged mauled teeth. It’s tongue seemed to slither out like a snake, itself being a hooked monstrosity. Its four blood-red eyes stared down Arlin and Leon, ready to rip apart its next meal.

“Is that a Beast?” Arlin asked, staying shielded behind Leon.

“Yes, it is.” Leon answered. “I will take care of this, stay away.” 

Leon took a step forward, crouching down slightly to meet its gaze. 

“You’re gonna fight it!? You can’t take it on alone!” Arlin yelled.

“Not to worry Arlin.” He assured the young vampire. “It is my job to protect you, and I am quite capable of doing so.”

With those words, Leon began to transform. His stance changed, dropping to all fours like the Beast in front of him. He started to grow in size, his clothes shifting alongside him. His nails extended into giant claws as his legs bent and buckled. Fur began to cover his entire body, his nose and mouth forming into a snout. Leon howled as the transformation was complete, now baring his fangs toward the Beast that threatened Arlin. 

Arlin looked on in amazement at Leon’s new form, his true form. He was a wolf man, a lycanthrope, a werewolf. The Beast was quick to attack, running forward and aiming to gore Leon with its horns. However, Leon was ready, grabbing the creature’s horns and holding the two of them in a deadlock of beastial strength. They pushed against each other, trying to use their raw power to make the other kneel. But they were locked in a stalemate, their strength equal to each other. 

The Beast’s jaw snapped open, its tongue slithering out to lash at Leon’s gut. The attack landed, tearing through his shirt and slashing through. But the blow was shallow, blood was drawn but it would not impede Leon; not one bit. With his hands on its antlers, he lifted it off the ground and into the air. With tremendous force, he slammed the creature into the earth, shaking the landscape around them. 

Leon didn’t stop, he ran forward and raked his claws across the Beast’s stomach. It yelped, black bile seeping out of the wound left by his attack. He held the creature to the ground by its neck, intending to chock it out. The Beast yelled, thrashing on the ground trying to escape. Its whipping around for but a moment made Leon lose his grip, but that was all the Beast needed. The creature reared up, reversing the pin that Leon had on it. He tried to move his arm up to push it away, but that was a mistake. It bitedown, sinking its barbed fangs into Leon’s arm. He screamed out in pain as the Beast bit down harder, having now pinned Leon. 

“Leon!” Arlin yelled. He tried to run over to help but Leon yelled.

“No! Stay back! It is too dangerous!”

Leon tried pushing back but he couldn’t find the ground, he was laying on his back as the Beast pushed down harder. He was trapped, his own strength wasn’t enough to fight off this creature. Arlin felt powerless, he wanted to help Leon but he was afraid of the Beast. If Leon couldn’t overpower it what hope did he have? He tried to move but his body wouldn’t listen to him. His blood was ice, his body lead, he was completely frozen as he watched Leon struggle. He watched helplessly, cursing himself for all his weakness. 

Move. 

A presence entered Arlin’s mind, a darkness that threatened to swallow the young vampire. It was terrifying and worse, familiar.  It was like leaping into a blaze to escape the fangs of a monster greater than any fire. He slammed his hand into the snow, conjuring up as much shadow that would listen to him. His ruby eyes burning, glowing to life as he mustered all the magic in his body to try to help Leon. He conjured a falcon of shadow, soaring into the sky before diving down; straight into the Beast. 

The falcon impact, its form dissipating as it struck the creature’s head. The attack for a brief moment stunned it, which was more than enough for Leon. He grabbed the creature’s upper jaw, ripping its teeth away from his arm. He grabbed the bottom jaw as well, pushing both sides past the point they could normally turn as Leon ripped off its jaw. It limped forward, somehow surviving without most of its face, and tried to stab Leon with its tongue. He saw it coming, grabbing it and starting to pull. With a sharp pop, not only did the Beast’s tongue come out, but it’s whole spine with it. 

Leon exhaled, trying to catch his breath as the Beast laid there; dead. 

“Leon!” Arlin yelled as he ran over to him. “Are you okay?!”

“I am alright, I apologize for scaring you.” 

“But your arm! Are you going to be okay?” 

“Not to worry, I can take care of it.”

As he said that, the wound on his arm began to change. The flesh and fur that had been ripped out by the Beast returned as the arm began to repair itself. After a few seconds, his arm had completely healed. 

“It’s healed, but how?”

“We do not have the time currently, but just know that it is an ability that can be learned by all monsters. I can use it to heal wounds like this, but I was lucky. A second longer and that Beast would have broken the bones in my forearm, the one thing I can not heal. I thank you for preventing that.”

Leon smiled and Arlin managed one as well.

“I just wanted to help. You don’t need to do everything on your own, I’m here too.”

Arlin stepped forward but stumbled slightly, that attack took more out of him than he realized. Leon caught him, supporting him as the young vampire struggled with exhaustion. 

“I understand you want to help, but you are still a child. You are inexperienced and there is nothing wrong with that fact, you must grow before you fight.”

“Alright.” Arlin relented. “But I’m still gonna jump in to help you, even if you tell me not to.”

Leon laughed. “I’ll be sure to keep that in mind. Now, we need to get moving, this area is not as safe as I thought it was.”

Leon rose, picking up a bit of snow and using it to smother the fire. 

“I can move faster in this form.” He said gesturing to his wolven appearance. “I can get us down the mountain by dawn, but I am going to need to carry you. Is that alright?”

Arlin nodded and as soon Leon saw the confirmation, he picked Arlin up into his arms and began rushing down the mountain. It was the complete opposite of how Leon was traveling before, the terrain was irrelevant to him as he glided through the landscape.

“I should apologize to you, Arlin, for frightening you with what I told you.”

“Do you mean about the Latro?” Arlin asked.

“Yes, that is what I am referring to.” 

There was a moment of silence, the only sound coming from the trees whizzing past them. 

“It’s okay, I know you weren’t trying to scare me. Besides, even if it does scare me, I want to learn more about the world. I want to understand it as best I can. Plus, I’ve got you to protect me.” Arlin smiled, Leon couldn't help but smile as well. 

“I will be here to protect you, Arlin. Try to get as much rest as you are able, I will get us to the nearest city.”

When Leon mentioned it, Arlin felt his eyes become heavy, it didn’t realize how tired he was. His eyes closed, and almost immediately fell asleep. It was the first time Arlin was able to sleep soundly, without fearing what might wake him. He had someone watching over him, and that made him feel safe.

[torchickentacos]

15 Questions!

Tagged by @gaycey-sketchit !!!!! Thank you so much for the tag, and I loved reading yours! Long post, sorry lol.

1. Are you named after anyone? Nope! Not to my knowledge, anyways. Though if my mom told me that she named me after Taylor Hawkins from Foo Fighters, I would not be shocked.

2. When was the last time you cried? I think monday? I cry really often, at every single emotion. Happy? I'm going to cry about it. Laughing? My high school theatre class would always point out when they made me cry laugh. Sad? ABSOLUTELY crying about that. I didn't cry but I DID tear up yesterday because I was really happy about something nice someone said to me.

3. Do you have kids? Nope, and no intention of having them. Regardless of my desire to or not (usually not, being the oldest of four is enough for me), my health is not, and never will be, in an acceptable position or ability to go through that, and I've accepted that for a while now.

4. What sports do you play/have you played? As a kid, I played soccer and did gymnastics! In middle school, I BRIEFLY did fencing. My mom told me that when I was fencing is the only time she's ever seen me look truly graceful (lmao, love my mom dw. She's right). Then health stuff came up and I had to stop, but fencing just came as easily to me as breathing did. I always wonder where I'd be if I could have stuck with it. Nothing's ever immediately clicked with me the way fencing did, but it's hell on my joints.

5. Do you use sarcasm? Sometimes, usually when I'm annoyed which isn't TOO often. Or if I'm being hyperbolic for a joke.

6. What is the first thing you notice about people? No clue. I guess their demeanor- if they seem happy or not, if they look stressed, how they're feeling (or how I perceive them as feeling, I guess).

7. What's your eye color? Blue! My friend swears up and down that they're kind of green. I think she's colorblind.

8. Scary movies or happy endings? Happy endings!!! I am not built for scary movies. I can do some buzzfeed unsolved and I can watch markiplier play indie horror games but that's kind of my limit. I LOVE some types of horror, but my anxiety does not. I will be paranoid for a month after.

9. Any talents? I can play music by ear. Give me a guitar and a random song and ten minutes at most!

10. Where were you born?

11. What are your hobbies? Landscape/scenery art (also other art but it's much harder), writing, playing guitar (used to play piano too but not well. I also own a ukulele that I'm bad at, but generally I can play something on any instrument you give me). But mostly, I pick up and put down hobbies all the time. I've dabbled in crochet, embroidery, sewing, painting, archery, coding, needle felting, gardening, cooking, a little bit of everything. Never long enough to get good at most of them, though. I get bored too quickly.

12. Do you have any pets? A lovely husky (shelter girlie <3) and a gecko! And, for the gecko, a bunch of crickets at any given point in time, which I guess counts because I have to take care of them, too.

13. How tall are you? 5'2 and a half. 5'4 with my doc martens.

14. Favorite subject in school? Assuming lunch doesn't count, I was a theatre girlie. Assuming THAT doesn't count, English. I liked English because if I didn't have an answer, I could just bullshit one, but I usually did enjoy it and had real answers. I'll tell you why the curtains are blue and why they're the specific fabric they are and what the rest of the room means- if I'm interested, anyways.

15. Dream job? Oh boy, uh. Still trying to figure that out. DREAM job, like, without worrying about money or my physical ability to do it? Pro fencer, but I gave up on that a looong time ago. I genuinely believe I could have done it if my knee hadn't gone to shit at fourteen. I'd love to work in a record store or a music store, though, which is a little more in-reach.

Tagging: Anyone who sees this, lmk if you do it from this post!! But also, NO PRESSURE AT ALL but @soulsilversprings @nowandevermore @lostlegendaerie @mozukumi !!! Also whoever else wants to, I get nervous to tag people so assume you're tagged, too!

[grodyego]

happy 25th dude!!! i have some OC questions for you. 1) what is the relationship like between rakesh and vega? 2) who is iggy's favorite and least favorite out of emma's friends? who's fish's favorite and least favorite? 3) how would nemo fare in our wexico universe?

THANK YOUUUUU !!! 🥳🎉✨✨✨ THESE ARE ALL REALLY GOOD OMG IM STOKED TO ANSWER THEM !!!

LOVE THIS QUESTION MIGHT BE MY FAVORITE ON THE LIST !!!!!! ive thought about their dynamic a lot. man without literally just copy and pasting a huge chunk from the. actual word document breaking down everyone in the trio's (IVE GOTTA GET A FUCKING NAME FOR THIS GROUP/STORY) relationships to each other: rakesh and vega are extremely close friends. arguably the closest friend the other has ever had. they were brought into T.A.R.G.I.T. at the same time (vega was 17, rakesh was 24) and to say both were not doing great is a severe understatement. they have fully seen the other genuinely at their worst, at rock fucking bottom, and as you can probably imagine that made for quite the rocky start ! initially rakesh was just kind thrown at vega under the guise of being a "lab assistant" to make treating him as a guinea pig less conspicuous (Unsuccessful) and neither of them were happy with that arrangement. over time though they got to get to know and understand each other better, and share in a lot of. ups and downs so to speak besides, and as a result they care so deeply for each other they basically view the other like a sibling ! they would never say as much out loud though, for their own reasons, but the care and affection shared between them is still quite open and obvious

oh another fantastic question. iggy's favorite i think surprisingly would be xavier. hes lacking in the rest of the group's whimsy and she too has a bit of that herself but i think she would actually find his somewhat long-suffering nature endearing because (as somebody who had to take custody of a teenager when she wasnt expecting to) i think she'd recognize that it comes from a pretty genuine place of like, worrying for everybody's safety, like that protective streak. She Would Get It. least favorite would be kevin. honestly nothing even that personal, its just that hes a guy named kevin. fish's favorite... maybe victoria ! we make jokes about her being kind of a dork and a loser woman but thats also kind of the reason fish came to take such a liking to iggy, among other things. somebody's gotta be weird in the mundane ways in this apocalypse anyhow. and besides victoria has very a very niche interest/aera of expertise and fish just loves hearing people talk about those sorts of things/collecting extremely second-hand eclectic trivia. least favorite. actually infinitely harder. might also be kevin. hes kind of an acquired taste even if he has his moments. its not an active dislike or anything though

IVE TRIED TO THINK OF THIS BEFORE ! he would honestly kind of be both better off and worse, depending. honestly in his own regular canon reality breaking and exposing him to horrible things he can't make much sense of is just another tuesday for him, but he would find himself way more distressed to be out of a job and without a way to get or store his frozen tv dinners. i think he would wander the vast landscapes of wexico aimlessly hoping at some point to encounter the world's lasting functioning computer-monitor combo, not even knowing what he would do if he did, just kind deciding he'll go from there, and then just kind of incidentally encounter other people/phenomena. on the plus side for him with complete societal collapse he would start to be a bit less afraid about exploring his gender and sexuality so at least he'd have that going for him

[the-fallen-blue]

If this is something you want to experience, it actually is pretty accessible; there are still a number of places in the modern West where we still act toward music the way that we used to, before it became understood as the provenance of professionals that most people only experience and appreciate, rather than doing.

Usually it requires getting away from "civilization" a bit. If you go on a backpacking vacation for a couple weeks, for example, and spend eight hours a day between campsites hiking through the woods, you'll probably be belting out a cappella pop songs with your buddies by the end of the first day. Might take a little longer if people are shy, but it will eventually kick in. It's a little harder in more mundane life, but there are still echoes. If you're at a game and the crowd breaks out in Queen, that's one. If you work in any kind of coordinated group labor (unloading freight, landscaping, whatever), if someone puts on music and the whole group starts singing along, then even with the recorded music, that's actually reasonably close to the experience of a work song. Especially if it's not-quite-work-appropriate and everyone sings "WORK SUCKS, I know" or "the poor groom's bride was a WHORE" really, really loudly. That connection, the not caring about your own skill or the aesthetics of your contribution, just vibing with the people around you and keeping yourself focused and paced and expressing that shared sentiment of joy or partisanship or staving off boredom together, music as something spontaneous and ephemeral and of the people and the moment, it's still in our lives in some places.

And kids are pretty much good for it anywhere. You can get a pile of young kids singing dumb kid songs on the bus, in the classroom, at the soccer field, at the ice cream parlor. Kids have no shame and they love social interactions that they know all the rules to. Slightly older kids will stop doing it everywhere but are still pretty easy to get going in places where "normal" rules are suspended, like camp, vacation, sporting events, whatever. Actually the cut-off age for this is pretty closely related to when their parents start trusting them with autonomous control over anything that could serve as a portable music player, like say their own personal tablet or phone. So I guess the answer is pretty much "go anywhere where you can't get music on demand, and watch people revert several centuries of music practice overnight." It's honestly pretty cool, though. That connection to generations of humans before us, working the fields or traveling between settlements or just keeping a bunch of annoying kids as busy and distracted as possible, and making music like it doesn't matter at all as they go.

sometimes I think too hard about like. how the ability to record audio fundamentally changed how humans interact with music. can you imagine if the only time you ever heard music in your whole life was when you or another human being in your actual physical presence decided to create it. and 99.99% of the time that person was not a professional but just like your wife or your dad or your co-worker or church choir singing or playing whatever they happened to know. i honestly don't think we can fathom it