#should i draw npcs as cats too?

[noneheref]

[ooc; art]

um, Phighting critters?? Cats? Plum? Bean?? I dunno

i drew all 15 phighters as... cats... Don't question me...

[laudrawin]

The cats of Baldur’s Gate 3 but they’re all together!

This came out from the day I thought “Hehe, cat Astarion, catstarion! And then I found myself drawing them all! 🐱💕

Next ones I’m planning to go with Dragon Age Veilguard companions too, but I’d love to read what NPCs you think I should draw from BG3 aswell! I truly have fun drawing catified people 🙊 So feel free to comment if you’re curious about how your fav character would look like! Next one on the list is Raphael 👀

[morrigan-sims]

OC A-Zs / OC Alphabet

I was tagged by @someone-elsa to show off one of my sims for each letter of the alphabet. (Fancy graphic optional, but I love playing in photoshop too much not to make a little graphic.) I could have made this a lot easier by including other characters that I've made sims of (Yasha and Nocticula, for example) but I decided to be strict about it and stick to my own OCs/sims. Surprising to absolutely no one, it ended up being very heavy on the D&D characters, though a decent number of RTQ/ATQH characters (the ones that I created) made it onto the list.

[a (very long) guide to who's who under the cut!] (and I do mean long. You have been warned.)

A - Avra Shadowbreath [D&D]

(she/her) My shadar-kai/reborn phantom rogue from my ongoing Curse of Strahd campaign. Devout worshipper of the Raven Queen, and a massive hypocrite. Kind of a bitch sometimes. Legally and biologically dead. Also a werewolf now.

B - Byron Lockwood [D&D NPC]

(he/him) Rook's least interesting half-brother. The "forgotten" middle child of Lord Alistair and Lady Evangeline Lockwood. Extremely boring. Only Lockwood brother with a job (and shockingly he's not terrible at it). The worst combo of all your shitty bosses.

C - Carrion Vice [D&D]

(he/him) My second-favorite OC at the moment. Biologically a tiefling but mechanically a beasthide shifter. Path of the Fractured barbarian. Transforms into a fucked-up monster when he rages. In an ongoing Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign.

D - Daldinia Veneta [D&D, misc]

(she/her) A sim I made for my random D&D CAS challenge and now want to play for real someday. Reborn circle of spores druid. Named after one or two species of fungi.

E - Elira "Ellie" Duskstep [D&D]

(she/her) High elf abjuration wizard who I might never play, but I love none the less. Very autistic. Has a grey cat familiar.

F - Fallon Oakes [RTQ/ATQH]

(she/her) My queen, the first love of my life, the woman who changed my life. Queen of Anvia and the protagonist of my story. Stubborn as hell. Thinks she has to do everything alone.

G - Gwendolyn [misc]

(she/her) The hypothetical child of Amelie (I can't find the pics I know I posted of her??) and Adrian. I don't know much else about her. She was really just a CAS experiment.

H - Havoc [D&D, Video Games]

(they/them) A tiefling swords bard who stared out as a random sim, became a dnd character idea, and then ended up being my first Tav for BG3.

I - Irina [misc]

(she/her) One of two sims I have named Irina, who hilariously were both made for other simblrs. Made for @/wildfairies ages ago. A classy vampire lady.

J - Jay [D&D NPC]

(she/her) Elf. A former member of the crew of the Tide Breaker, and Rook's only friend before meeting the Vanguard (our dnd party). Made a very brief appearance in-campaign to save Rook's life before being tragically eaten by a giant rainbow snake.

K - Kholl [D&D NPC]

(he/him) Elf. Former surgeon of the Tide Breaker. Jay's mentor. Dragged Rook back from the edge of death more times than he should have had to.

L - Laverna Rosefist [D&D]

(she/they) Tiefling thief rogue. The first dnd character I ever made. Originally made for a simblr thing. Has gone through several iterations before reaching her current (and final) form. A (seemingly inevitable) product of my obsession with both tieflings and rogues.

M - Morana Novak [D&D]

(she/her) Fetchling curse patron witch for a Pathfinder game I'll eventually be playing in. Necromancer. Very practical about death. Has a sketchbook full of detailed drawings and observations about corpses she encounters. Nicknamed "mortician" by one of her party members. Her familiar is a raven named Miro. Autistic as hell and has no empathy whatsoever.

N - ?

O - Odynia Adrasteia Erinyes [D&D]

(she/her) Aasimar vengeance paladin (with a dip into hexblade warlock) sworn to Nemesis. Currently playing in a Greek mythology themed campaign. Made a literal "eye-for-an-eye" exchange. Charged with keeping a man alive who kind of doesn't want to be alive.

P - ?

Q - ?

R - Rook [D&D]

(he/him) My favorite OC of all time, my beloved idiot bastard man, the love of my life. Half (wood) elf swashbuckler rogue. Bastard son of a nobleman who ran away and became a pirate. Compulsive liar and Very Good At It. Chaotic motherfucker. Accidentally made the BBEG get very attached to him (and he to the BBEG). My little punching bag. Had daddy issues. All his parental figures end up shitty or dead.

S - Sera [Video Games]

(she/her) My PC for my first playthrough of Pathfinder: Kingmaker. An aasimar traditional monk. Has an AC of 50 and can make up to 8 attacks in one turn. Never takes her halo off.

T - Tessa Smallwood [RTQ/ATQH]

(she/her) The palace healer at the royal palace of Anvia, near Carisfell. The sweetest person you'll ever meet, but will ask you to please take care of yourself. (A hard ask if you're Fallon, apparently.)

U - ?

V - Val (Kyron Valris) [D&D]

(they/them) Tiefling hexblade warlock. Captain of the smuggling ship the Devil's Scorn. Hired by the Vanguard to chase down Captain Wolf in order to rescue Rook after he was kidnapped. (Aka, my temporary character when he was gone.) Former gang member. Criminal with strict morals. Has more common sense than the entire Vanguard put together. Still isn't entirely sure whether or not they regret taking this job.

W - Wymond of Oryn [RTQ/ATQH]

(he/him) Fallon's biological father. Member of a low-level noble house from the neighboring kingdom of Oryn. A lying, traitorous piece of shit who is directly responsible for the death of Fallon's mother. The only thing he and Fallon have in common is their eyes.

X - Xavier Blackthorne [RTQ/ATQH]

(he/him) Fallon's emotional father, even though she would deny this. Her mother's personal guard before her death, now the captain of Fallon's guard. The nicest man you'll ever meet. Has a habit of collecting strays. No biological kids, but the strongest dad energy in all of Anvia.

Y - ?

Z - Zenara "Zen" Raventhorn [D&D]

(they/them) Tiefling fiend warlock. The first dnd character I ever played. An accidental result of my Mighty Nein obsession. Occasionally gets possessed by their patron and wakes up in the middle of a mess with surprise new powers as an "apology".

[ilikekidsshows]

Am I jumping to far if I call Marinette a psychopath? I mean she uses people as she please for her own benefit, she seems to has no remorse, no conscience, egocentric, impulsive and well, she could be charming I suppose, especially to Cat Noir. Idk what else to call the combi of those trait if not psychopathy🤷‍♀️

---

I don’t think we should be pathologizing selfish behavior. Marinette is selfish and spoiled, and she is being written with the awareness that she’s a wish-fulfillment protagonist. Marinette is a bad example of one, but it’s not exactly comparable with an actual neuropsychological condition, for all the writers tried to use: “she’s traumatized!” as an excuse for some of her actions. This writing direction affects the rest of the cast too, and not just Marinette. The sympathetic characters validate Marinette's behavior almost constantly and any actual criticism Marinette faces in universe is nothing more than friendly ribbing with no expectation to act better attached.

I’d say Marinette is Kirito For Girls, but, like, even Kirito isn’t as selfish as her. Marinette has more in common with the current ilk of the wish-fulfillment isekai protagonists, like Naofumi from The Rising of the Shield Hero, or any other isekai series with similar trappings. The thing about this kind of protagonist is that their actions are basically justified by the protagonist being in another world, where they obviously need to do whatever it takes to survive. Usually these worlds will be made hostile in some way, the nominal hero humiliated and brought low by those in power before he can rise in power and get revenge on them all and win all the girls’ eternal devotion.

We’re meant to cheer for whatever nonsense these characters get up to, because they’re the only real/good humans in these fantasy settings, with everyone else being an NPC in a video game, or every other character in any position of power is the most over the top, ridiculous example of human garbage. The thing is that, as paper thin as these justifications end up being, they’re still something that gives the audience an excuse to root for the hero and enjoy the power fantasy. Even when the protagonist isn’t too sympathetic, the people around them are so much worse that the hero comes across as the better person.

But here’s the reason why Marinette can’t even manage the bare bones of rootability that modern isekai protagonists have; Marinette lacks their justifications. Marinette lives in the real world, she is the most popular girl in school, she has loving parents and caring friends and she’s the “greatest Ladybug ever” and all her “bullies” are ineffectual losers who never really bring her down outside of the almost never shown backstory. Marinette doesn’t get treated badly to justify her rise to power to stop herself from being hurt again (for all ‘Derision’ tries to prove otherwise), her world isn’t filled with awful or stupid people who can’t be trusted with power so Marinette has to take all the power for her own. We’re supposed to root for Marinette just because she’s the protagonist or we're supposed to not root for other characters, not because they've done anything wrong, but because they are not Marinette.

Basically, Marinette is the way she is because the writers view only her as a proper character instead of merely a prop and they write the series with this approach in mind. Marinette exists in a world where everyone else is a puppet dancing to her benefit, either to praise her or to make her look good when she defeats them. With this core concept in mind, of course she isn't going to feel empathy towards what basically amounts to toys. However, this creates the conundrum of: ensemble cast shows tend to have audiences with different favorite characters, Miraculous itself got a lot of praise for the five hero team we saw at the end of season two, yet post-retool Miraculous is telling us we should only care about Marinette, meaning they’ve trashed one of the draws for this show. The attitude of the writers seems to be the exact thing I brought up when discussing how even some of the toy lines are now ignoring that the rest of the cast even exists: “If you like any hero other than Marinette, fuck you, you stupid kids!”

The Marinette problem is so all-encompassing that it affects other characters and even merchandise, so it's very hard to explain with any in-universe explanation.

[higanbana-games]

Hints in Point&Click Adventures. How not to make players feel stupid?

The Point&Click Adventure genre implies a very simple gameplay from its name. Whether it’s a 1st person or a 3rd person game, players are meant to click in various areas on their screens. And that click calls many possible actions: talk to an NPC, pick up an object, use an object, examine some area, trigger an event/action and many other possible variants.

Story is what gives such games a meaning. Detective stories, romance novels or even horrors. However, a good story can simply go unnoticed if the gameplay doesn’t complement that story.

I’ve played many games of different genres, but when it comes to a story quest I often stumbled on one thing that unites such games as Syberia, Fran Bow and even Elden RIng. It’s the lack of in-game hints.

Every story is unique and has its own deep meaning, and I absolutely love every game I mention in this post. So, the following examples will just show some hard parts in the games I mention.

“Fran Bow” - ticket to the Club

The overall game is a masterpiece! Yet, I had a really hard time trying to understand what I was supposed to do to get into the Club in Ithersta.

(The following might be a spoiler if you haven’t played the game yet)

What the quest is about:

you have to find a hidden passage from the back of the club and send your cat in there,

you play as a cat too steal a ticket from one of the guests and bring that ticket to Fran,

Fran shows the ticket to the security guy at the entrance but he can easily tell she’s lying to him and doesn’t accept the stolen ticket,

Fran takes a smeared pest control specialist’s card she picked up ages ago and a green crayon she had got even earlier than that. And she draws herself a ticket on that card.

Fran gives that ticket to the security guy and he lets her enter the Club.

The main problem here is that Fran has had the objects she needs in her inventory all that time, but the quest makes players find a way to steal a ticket and try it first. Only after that sequence of actions can she fake her ticket. Of course, it can be explained like Fran had to see the real ticket before she could draw the one for herself. But this idea wasn’t emphasized in any way, which makes it extremely hard to figure the logic out by yourself.

No chance to skip the mini games

Another concern I had was on release of a wonderful game called “Children of Silent Town”. The game has stunning art and gives pretty but creepy vibes. The story felt so smooth that I did not even once think of looking into guides. Yet, some mini games were relatively hard. Though they had basic visual hints explaining how to play, some of the games took me too much time to enjoy them. And there was no button to skip it nor the more precise instruction showing how to complete it.

“Rusty Lake” - good visual hints

As a good example of guiding players through the game, I would call the “Rusty Lake” series. There are good visual hints following through the gameplay. And when there are no such obvious hints and players feel stuck, it’s up to players whether to try and figure everything out by themselves or press a button and see a thorough visual instruction.

My point here is simple. Hints should be balanced.

If you have to use a head of cheese to open a door with a complicated mechanism and there are no hints on such a unique usage - players might feel too stupid to solve it.

If a player character or an NPC comments on every action with phrases like “The door is locked” or “The villain ran over there”, it might frustrate players. For such comments are too basic and don’t give any extra helpful information while on the other hand they don’t guide players nor hint at what to do next.

The balance between making players feel too smart or too stupid is really delicate. 

The main idea is to make players feel smart when they solve another puzzle or listen to an NPC carefully and follow the implication; or just let them enjoy the game in a simple way they choose by directing them smoothly and letting them skip the hard parts.

There probably isn’t one correct answer or a universal solution on the subject (should there really be one?), and I just shared my thoughts and observations.

Every story-driven game is unique, and game designers choose the best way that suits every single project to reveal its potential and touch people’s hearts. <3

[pixelgrotto]

Dogmatic Dungeon Master

The last four weeks of my gaming time were consumed by Dragon's Dogma 2, an extravagana that's something like experiencing a wild D&D campaign that keeps going off the rails over and over again. (I'm pretty sure Capcom would be pleased with this comparison, seeing that they released promo art heavily based on AD&D's classic Red Box.)

DD2 has been a delight to devote 100+ hours to, and I find myself wishing I'd bought its predecessor ages ago, especially during those Steam sales where it sold for ridiculous prices like three or four dollars. I never did because I thought it looked sort of generic. Joke's on me! To be fair, this second one could also be described as looking generic upon first glance (though Capcom's RE Engine is certainly proving that it's got legs since Resident Evil 7), but I feel like that was an intentional decision. The goal here was clearly to create something with the trappings of the iconic Western fantasy setting (plus the inclusion of cat people, AKA Beastren) to draw players in and get 'em comfortable before presenting them with one of the most wacky open worlds in recent memory.

How's it wacky? Well, DD2 has a billion different systems under the hood, all colliding with each other. There are the systems that dictate the schedules of NPCs, who you can find wandering roads and getting into fights with enemies. Said enemies have their own systems, and on more than one occasion when I was fighting one of the game's huge bosses (drakes, golems, minotaurs, ogres and the like), that fight spilled over into the territory of another boss, who proceeded to attack both me and the first boss. A kaiju rumble ensued as the systems of both bosses collided with each other, and sometimes this rumble veered too close to the borders of a settlement, attracting the attention of pawns, which are basically the sidekicks assisting the game's main character, the Arisen.

If you're playing online, pawns created by other players can randomly appear in your game, and there were many special moments when I ran into a bizarrely off-proportion thief with the incredible name "Frog Nasty" and a half-naked mage dubbed "Lucy Liu." On one such occasion, Frog and Lucy joined my ever-evolving kaiju battle, and the incredible chaos continued until a griffin just happened to swoop down from the sky to snatch me up in its arms. As I went in the sky, I proceeded to climb atop that griffin’s head and smacked it silly with my mace until it dropped me into the ocean where I was devoured by Brine, AKA DD2’s in-world explanation for why you can’t just swim everywhere.

My description of this incident is no exaggeration. Unscripted mischief of this ilk happens every five minutes in this game, and it's the result of all those systems smashing into each other with delicious gusto. That said, not all of the systems work as well as they should, and some are half-baked. For instance, there's a romance/affinity system that's a carryover from the first Dragon's Dogma. The affinity levels of characters are never truly explained, and you can unexpectedly cause random people to fall in love with you by giving them the right gifts again and again, or completing their sidequests at the expense of others. This means that the Vernworth tavern keeper, who plays no important role at all, can suddenly show up in the final cutscene as your true heart's desire, in the clutches of your mortal enemy. I guess even when DD2's systems are half-baked, they still yield entertaining results.

As someone who runs a lot of tabletop RPGs (but often doesn't get the chance to act as a player), Dragon's Dogma 2 truly reminds me of a dedicated Game Master who doesn't mind when players test limits. This is a GM who clearly loves madcap battles full of unexpected twists that can take up an entire gaming session, as well as expansive side quests with more flavor than anything else in the campaign. The main story is not said Game Master's preference, which serves as a handy explanation on why you can find many Reddit threads decrying DD2's plot as kinda blah.

I get these complaints. The game's main missions are not terribly long - 40 or so hours, probably - and the clear meat of DD2 is in the exploration and combat. This isn't to say that the story's total rubbish, as it does have poignant moments in its cyclical, meta take on an Arisen who rises up every couple of years to complete a destiny of fighting the titular dragon. There's a secret endgame that also delves even farther into the tabletop RPG comparisons, giving you the chance to "defy the Dungeon Master," if you will, sending the campaign even further off the rails as you potentially see what happens when the GM just has no shits left to give and decides to turn the world into an apocalypse.

All of this makes DD2 probably one of my favorite open world games. I've been thinking a lot about what sort of open worlds attract me, since I'm a firm believer that more often than not, video games don't need to go all massive. (Give me a small-scale, well-developed area over a massive map filled with junky quest markers.) That said, I've noticed that I like open worlds that buck the Ubisoft-style trend of having busywork for really good writing (The Witcher 3 comes to mind) or simply invest in their mechanics to the point that everything fills up like a wonderful sandbox, with lots of bits and bobs to play with (that would be The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild).

Dragon's Dogma 2 is definitely more on the kooky sandbox side of things, with its oversized monsters at every turn and wonderous pawn shenanigans. The true appeal of this game, however, lies in the little stories that you create with your main pawn and other pawns along the trail. There's something special in the relationship you forge with these AI allies, who aren't real in the slightest, but bring forth that feeling of being a Game Master yourself as you corral them into taking down a drake. I was downright emotional when I said farewell to my main pawn at the end of the game (okay, the fact that I designed her to look like my wife probably helped, but still).

So here's to Dragon's Dogma 2, a wild piece of entertainment commandeered by a Game Master who clearly loves the journey more than the destination. Here's to those moments when you and your loyal pawns are facing down an ogre in its lair, or just barely survive a golem's laser beam after a series of hobgoblins stunlocked you into low health over and over again. Here's to sitting by a campfire, enjoying an unpredictable open world, and realizing the grand truth that comes with all tabletop RPGs - that the unscripted moments truly are the best part of the adventure.

[elle-p]

Persona 3 FES all Port Island Station NPC dialogue not in https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/ps2/932312-shin-megami-tensei-persona-3/faqs/50852 ripped from the US version of FES with Persona Editor.

Station Attendent: Recently… this girl has started coming around here… She wears this white dress, with this puffy lace… I don't know what kind of fashion that is, but… it's not my style.

[nm010_001](Port Island Station)

Junpei(7/30): Dude, isn't our group getting kinda messed-up? We got a Persona-using robot, and now there's a Persona-using dog! What's next, man? A gorilla with potential?

Station Attendant: The other day, I saw a young man who was… a little different. He seemed about the age to be in high school, and he was throwing a ball up and down. Do high school students still play with those kinds of toys? Well, I heard people's mental states were in decline, so maybe so…

Movie-loving Man: I sometimes see this girl sitting right over there, drawing. She has red hair and a white, frilled dress… She stands out like a sore thumb. I can't just walk by and pretend like she's not there… It's like some anime… You don't usually see stuff like this. Maybe I should talk to her next time…

Movie-loving Man: You know how in movies, you see bodyguards with tattoos on their arms, and you know they're badass? Well, I saw one of 'em. It was right near here, man. He wasn't built like a bodyguard, though… He was rail-thin… It was easy to tell, cause he wasn't wearing a shirt.

Movie-loving Man: You know how in movies, you see bodyguards with tattoos on their arms, and you know they're badass? Well, I saw one of 'em. It was right near here, man. He wasn't built like a bodyguard, though… He was rail-thin… It was easy to tell, cause he wasn't wearing a shirt.

Nervous Man: T-The weather is nice… The sky is blue, and there's a cool breeze…

Patient Woman: Yeah. The sky's pretty.

Cat: Meow.

(Interact with Chidori)

She's completely preoccupied with her drawing…

Salaryman: I sometimes see a girl drawing here. She looks a little strange, but that's okay. She's so mysterious… it's like she lives in a different world. She doesn't care what other people say, she's living on her own, not following anyone's orders… As a salaryman who follows orders for a living, I'm naturally jealous…

Your Charm seems to have increased! Your Charm went from "{F2 03 01 01}" to "{F2 03 02 01}"!

[ns010_001](Port Island Station)

(There's an unused name '鴎蚊のお伎さん'. It's not the japanese text, since that's still NPC000(Flower Shop Lady))

Yukari(7/28): Akihiko-senpai acts a little different when Ken-kun is around. Have you noticed?

{"Yeah."}

Yukari: I wonder why… Maybe he doesn't get along well with kids. If you ask me, Akihiko-san seems pretty clumsy…

{"No."}

Yukari: You're so thick! You should pay more attention to how people get along with each other.

Flower Shop Lady: Welcome to Rafflesia. What kind of flowers are you looking for today?

Junpei(7/28): Ken really respects Akihiko-san. I totally understand how he feels. Dude, Akihiko-san won 16 straight boxing matches. If even I look up to the guy, then kids must think he's a hero, you know?

{"I think so too."}

Junpei: A hero… You think we have what it takes to be heroes?

{"I don't think so."}

Junpei: Ahh, you just don't understand a man's passion!

Flower Shop Lady: Would you like another type of flower?

Flower Shop Lady: 蔚畏では黄に2応陥、韻韓の館羽鴎をセレクトして舘丸含しております。岸せて鴎烏巌と、それにちなんだ、階々お玩いメッセ‒ジもお癌えします。もしもお眼岩の翫けになったならば、贋いな化です。それでは雁頑、舘丸含しましょう。

{Rose Bouquet}

{Red Pine Bonsai}

{Look at the other flowers}

{Never mind}

Flower Shop Lady: It'll be 2,000 yen for {F2 19 01 01}.

{Mini Cactus}

{Glass Vase}

{Look at the other flowers}

{Never mind}

Flower Shop Lady: It'll be 3,000 yen for {F2 19 01 01}.

Flower Shop Lady: It'll be 4,000 yen for {F2 19 01 01}.

Flower Shop Lady: It'll be 5,000 yen for {F2 19 01 01}.

Flower Shop Lady: Thank you very much for your purchase.

{"Sure."}

{"On second thought…"}

Obtained {F2 19 01 01}.

Flower Shop Lady: Please come again.

Flower Shop Lady: Hmm? You don't have enough space for {F2 19 01 01}. Come back once you've organized your belongings.

Flower Shop Lady: Hmm? You don't have enough money. Save up, and come back again.

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトし��館羽鴎はこちら、ジャ‒マンカモミ‒ルです。鴎烏巌は"悔顔に垣けない概さ"。稲羽にはどこで悔顔が恩ち仮けるかも印かりません。そんな韻、あなたの巻炎にいる稲々がきっとあなたを翫けてくれるでしょう。竃願から稲々の桶企を越っておくのは、とても下臆な化です。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、アルケミラです。鴎烏巌は"危き"。稲は危きに喜かれると器に、また允らも危く化ができます。磯勧、あなたにもあなたの危きがあります。きっとその危きに喜かれて、撹襖の稲があなたとの桶企を越つでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、ジャ‒マンアイリスです。鴎烏巌は"謁翰"。謁翰を基垣ったとき、ある簡の稲はそれを亥稲で永し諌げようとします。しかし磯蓋はいけません。亥奇嬉いて、寄りを運応してください。厭れる稲は、そこに栢ますか?

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、ペンステモンです。鴎烏巌は"衛茨"。允印と岐介な稲々との希額を幾けてしまう化はありませんか? そういう韻は衛茨を越って、忌ら、忌慰らと希してみてください。歌しい揮覚と歌しい允机は、旗々にしてその兜にあるものです。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、アスチルベです。鴎烏巌は"既の期れ"。運た看、黄飲の羽棋さんですよね。茨になる慰の棄とか栢ますか? もしそうなら、機さず炎刊いてみる化も、一えの帰に援れておいてくださいね。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、キンギョソウです。鴎烏巌は"おしゃべり"。おしゃべり、してますか? マンネリとか、してませんか? 毅き花げた桶企を気越する憾には、おしゃべりはとても汽冠ですよ。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、リアトリスです。鴎烏巌は"泳花陰"。泳花陰のない嫁は、危きを鰻くします。危きのない嫁に、稲は畿を碍りません。泳花陰を越って允机の祈季に稀めれば、より紀くの稲があなたを運てくれるでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、アザレアです。鴎烏巌は"允徽陰"。桶企が規い化は於い化ですが、喚りに規いと峨に垣えなくなってしまいます。刊き鋭いの記さと峨規さは姻貴基起。どのくらいのバランスを軌つのか、あなたの允徽陰が革われるでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、カンナです。鴎烏巌は"玩鴛な輝外"。井化も馨て飢絵です。あなたの飲衣羽騎も飢絵です。井も一えずに王ごせば、それが干わる韻、あなたは鬼遠に亀れるでしょう。玩鴛な輝外を廓堰し、於く一えて、飢絵の欧々を薗しんでください。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、ブ‒タンマツリです。鴎烏巌は"いたずら陰"。偽寛箇花既稲輝儀と烏いますが、こういう韻は慨け喜きを薗しみましょう。いたずらな既妓の宜し刊けよりも、いたずら陰の薗しい慨け喜き。そして禍戯を恩ちましょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、アリッサムです。鴎烏巌は"閲宇り"。偽妓が技れた化はありませんか? 偽妓とは宇せるものであり、また宇せるとものと榎じるものです。榎じる擬に、欺めず、そして犠茨於く、員し右けてみてください。そうすれば、きっと宇るでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、ツルバラです。鴎烏巌は"あなたの餌各に疑えます"。あなたの祇鋭もあるでしょうが、義せられた餌各には疑えてください。磯架にはね刊けてばかりいると、その樫は運る運る蟻れてしまうでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、キャッツテ‒ルです。鴎烏巌は"茨まま"。企される化のそれ允巻は、賀して廻い化ではありません。誼外より稲や奥議焔は、企される化で歌たな掬菊に鞠り頴きました。企される化は、歌たな揮覚を吉運する憾の吃とした峨願なのです。茨ままに荏え、欝喫に企される化で、歌たな稲々と夏潟う化もあるでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、ウインタ‒コスモスです。鴎烏巌は"黍却"。揮覚とは客脚として虐逆で丘久とし、その可に黍却を屋るのは溢仇です。允印を宜し嚇すか、休及するか、下俺で吸宮するか、妓弓を箇て喜き援れるか。あなたはどのようにして、稲々との黍却を屋ていますか?

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、コリアンダ‒です。鴎烏巌は"澗れた急救"。お畏の稲って、どう迦います? ただの畏蚊とだけ朽り臆っていませんか? お畏の稲も、また稲です。あなたとの吋に、桶企の求喫臼を越っています。そんなお畏の澗れた急救、あなたは茨刊いていましたか?

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、エンゼルランプです。鴎烏巌は"あなたを崖りたい"。この揮覚に汲いて、崖りたい"井か"がありますか? 羽翰をも泣けられる"井か"をこの揮覚に運刊けていますか? でしたら、灸球それらを崖ってください。それらもまた、あなたを崖るでしょう。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、サザンクロスです。鴎烏巌は"究いを窮えて"。笈えば稲から究いを級されたら、あなたにそれが窮えられますか? 糾えはYESです。究いを級される陥の記い給桶があれば、それがすなわち、あなたの鰯です。もし欝蔚に究いを級された韻は、灸球、意までの給桶を迦い夏してください。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、プリムラ·ポリアンサです。鴎烏巌は"嬰旧の牛びと去しみ"。夏潟いと嘉れの居韓が炎刊いています。この亥影で、あなたは井に夏潟い、井と嘉れ、井の鰯を峨に援れましたか? 究わくば、それらが竃く、あなたの椅鬼を巨きますように。

Flower Shop Lady: 意応セレクトした館羽鴎はこちら、リビングスト‒ン·デイジ‒です。鴎烏巌は"拒の危き"。こんな稲が、拠に栢るようですが、あなたは唄っていますか? 允印の拒が危いているだけでなく、叡稲の拒にも危きを挙える稲。その稲の可には、"すべて"があるそうです。

Snoopy Reporter: Interviewers can't rely only on primary sources. Eyewitness reports are important, too. My favorite part of gathering information is all the unique people I get to meet. For example, the other day I talked to a young man who spoke in Kansai dialect. Kansai isn't something you hear every day around here!

…… Ah… Uu…

(4 of these)

…… …… ……

Uhh… Ah… …… Ahh…

Uhaaa… Auuu… ……

Uhh… Uhwa… Aah… Ahhh…

Ahhh… Uu… Uhh…

…… …… Uaaaah…

…… Uh… Uhhhh… ……

Uh… Uh… Uhhhhhh… Uh…

Uaaah… Ahh… …… Uhhh…

(1st time interacting)

It's one of The Lost--victim of the Apathy Syndrome that's causing such a stir. You cannot get a meaningful response out of this person.

Female Student: Ci…elo… Mist…

Female Student: Want… Ci…elo… Mist……

She seems to want something… She's pointing to your {F2 1D 15 11}. Give her the {F2 1D 15 11}?

Female Student: Thank… you…

{Yes}

{No}

The girl downed one {F2 1D 15 11} after another! She drank 20 cans in all! Female Student: Ahh… that hit the spot. The student looks healthier now. Female Student: Huh…? A missing persons flyer…? Oh, I guess I haven't been back home in a while… I'll give my parents a call later. Thanks! The girl decided to phone home. You succeeded in delivering cool liquid refreshment.

Female Student: Not… Enough…

You don't have enough {F2 1D 15 11}. The girl gave the {F2 1D 15 11} back to you.

Female Student: Thanks… I feel better now…

NPC002: You dipshits better watch yourselves. If we see your face around here too often, someone's gonna get hurt.

[nm10_002]

(The only name is 'Punk'.

NPC001: Who are you candy-asses?

NPC001: Apathy Syndrome? Oh yeah, that bug that's going around these days. My buddy's dad has that thing… I dunno what to tell the poor son of a bitch.

NPC002: When you have that apathy thing, it's like you're too lazy to do anything, right? So what's the matter with them that they can't see a doctor? I mean, I ain't never been to med school, but it's gotta be worth a try.

NPC001: Sometimes Gekkou dumbasses come here in uniform. They better change clothes before they get their asses kicked. Who the hell wears a uniform on their days off? We're better off without sad-sacks like that.

NPC002: I guess it's all right to come here in your uniform, if it's like, after school or during the day. But at night? You've gotta be shitting me! Dude's gonna get knocked flat for dressing like that. Y'might say it's in violation of our, whaddayacallit, dress code. You better look out, too.

NPC001: I remember this one dude who was different from the rest… He comes here, but he never talks to anybody. He just sits in his little corner. I wonder what he's up to.

NPC002: I heard people sayin' that dude is stronger than he looks. He's a loner. His clothes are kinda old, but he's cool.

NPC001: I heard some shit went down here, our guys against the Gekkou morons. That wasn't you… was it? Nah. You don't look like you could piss those guys off that bad.

NPC002: But man… why would some Gekkou candy-asses come here? Students should stay at home and do their homework, or whatever.

NPC001: My buddy says these three weirdos come here a lot, but I haven't seen 'em yet.

NPC002: I couldn't give a crap about 'em. Long as they don't start any shit, they're cool with me.

NPC001: Looks like those three weirdos been snooping around here. Guess they're trying to hear the juicy stuff… the stuff you don't find out about in normal life.

NPC002: The whole reason I hang out here is to shoot the shit with my buds. Those three weirdos are the only ones who come here to learn anything. They need to get a life…

NPC001: I saw those weirdos talking to that asshole Shinjiro the other day… They tight or something?

NPC002: I thought that guy was a total loner… So he knows those weirdos? Eh, like it matters. I don't give two shits who's friends with who.

NPC001: You gotta show some respect when you're talkin' to one of my gang. But those three guys were acting like they owned the place. What's their problem…?

NPC002: Those assholes are just using us to gather info. They think we're some handy-dandy tool that'll give 'em the scoop any time they ask. There's something wrong with those guys.

NPC001: Dude, those three just don't fit in. I mean, yeah, it's not like I'd fit in if I left this place. The hell else would I be here? But for guys to be out of place HERE? Shit, dude… that's messed up.

NPC002: Hmm… I can't even imagine what they do with themselves all day. Can you? Especially that long-haired freak. I think he like, doesn't need anything but air to survive.

NPC001: The nutjob trio is down to two. That gothic lolita chick, yeah? Disappeared without a word.

NPC002: Even though there's just two of 'em now, they're still nuts. Especially that long-haired freak! Guy pisses me the hell off.

NPC001: That long-haired freak is up to his ass in tats. It's not like mine, just a word or two. He's got 'em up and down both arms. I could never go that far, man. Truth is, I don't like needles.

NPC002: I ain't crazy about going under the needle, man. But you know how it is… I gotta have one, or else I'm chicken. So what I did was, I got this sticker that looks just like a tat. You tell anyone and I'll beat your ass, got it?

NPC001: One of those Gekkou dudes… Yeah, Shinjiro. I heard he had some kinda accident and died. I heard it happened here, too. I don't care much what goes on around here, but… When I think about a dude getting snuffed… It kinda creeps me out.

NPC002: Yo, this had NOTHING to do with us. Got it? We weren't even here. I know how it looks to guys like you on the outside… But I don't give a shit about them if they stay out of our faces.

NPC001: That four-eyes who's always got that attache case… What the hell's in that thing? It better not be dangerous… Man, who am I kidding? He's one of those three… what else would it be?

NPC002: Huh… I wonder what's in that case of his. He looks like the calmest dude out of the three of 'em. Don't you think? Don't you think so? Maybe he's more normal than I'm giving him credit for. Yeah… there probably ain't anything to worry about in his case.

NPC001: I don't see those two so much anymore. Thank God for that, man. They annoyed the shit out of me.

NPC002: What was up with those guys? They come in, act like a buncha weirdos, and disappear. I don't get it.

NPC001: I bet those two… or three, whatever… thought they were King Shit. The way they strutted around here, in those messed-up clothes… They had to think like that, or they never woulda been able to do the stuff they did…

NPC002: Yeah, dude, it's all about self-confidence. But we don't gotta worry about them anymore. They're long gone, dude.

NPC001: Don't you think stuff's been kinda messed-up these days, dude? Like that apathy thing… It just keeps getting worse and worse.

NPC002: Yeah, I know what he means… You can't go anywhere these days without seeing those weird flyers. What's up with that shit? It doesn't look like any rival gang sign I know, but…

NPC001: I don't give a shit about the new year or anything, man. Some of those guys go up Mt. Fuji out of habit, but… I ain't never did that, and hell if I ever will.

NPC002: Some guys like to plan this stuff in advance… I don't even own a calendar, man. When we wanna do something, we do it. That's our holiday. You gotta be free, dude.

NPC001: The town's been looking like a garbage dump, and I heard it's all those cult dudes' fault. All that graffiti shit… I mean, we do it too sometimes, but… Not this much! They must be outta their minds.

NPC002: It's fine if they want to say, "Those who believe will be saved." Whatever. It bugs me, but at least I get what they're saying. But that weird sign they leave all over the damn place is different. It doesn't make any sense. Creeps me out… Shit…

NPC001: Dude, did you see that magazine!? It has that freak's face on it! You know, the long-haired asshole who used to come around here! THAT'S their friggin' savior!? Those guys got no sense of humor… This is the worst joke I ever heard.

NPC002: I saw that dude so often, I just thought of him as "that freak"… But he's some kinda savior? And he's got a whole cult behind him!? Holy shit, dude! What the hell is everyone's problem?

NPC001: Well, well… Looks like the cult is history, and those three weirdos were sent packin'… Everything's back to normal. }I'm bored outta my skull, but it's better than going through all that shit again.

NPC002: Dude, do you remember anything we did this entire year? I just remember chilling here… That's it. Man, I hate to say this, but… What a waste of time.

He seems to be very weak. Maybe he's hungry… Give him {F2 1D 39 11}?

[ns010_002]

(The names are 'Weak cat', 'Contented cat', and 'Energetic cat'.)

…Mew…

He seems to be very weak. Maybe he's hungry… You want to feed him, but you don't have anything he might eat…

{Yes}

{No}

…Mew.

The cat slowly started to eat.

Meoooowwww!!

……

Meow… Meowww…

The cat is purring loudly. It seems happy. If you come back and feed it some more, it might get healthier… The cat is purring loudly. It seems happy. The purring seems louder than it did the other day. If you come back and feed it some more, it might get healthier… The cat is purring loudly. It seems happy. His eyes are more open now. If you come back and feed it some more, it might get healthier…

Meooooww!

The cat is purring loudly. It seems happy. The cat seems to have regained all its energy by eating the cat food. It seems you won't need to come and feed it anymore.

Meeoooooww!

The weakened cat has eaten all the cat food, and has regained its former energy. It also seems to have grown… It seems you won't need to come and feed it anymore.

[0x4468c7a6a728]

you should do the Prime Numbers for the ask game

ok :3 (this will take a while...)

2. chocolate bars or lollipops?

chocolate! but i don't really like hershey's chocolate much so maybe not in that case

3. bubblegum or cotton candy?

i guess bubblegum? not really big on either of these

5. do you prefer to drink soda from soda cans, soda bottles, plastic cups or glass cups?

i haven't had soda in years so idk

7. earbuds or headphones?

i used headphones for years but i switched back to earbuds and have been liking them a bit more lately

11. what you have for breakfast on an average day?

there's a nice bagel place near the place i recently moved to so i've been eating a lot of bagels with cream cheese lately

13. lanyard or key ring?

key ring

17. most frequently worn pair of shoes?

i put off shoe shopping for multiple years because dysphoria so i have one pair of shoes that sucks, i should get new shoes

19 sleeping position?

right side holding large cat plushie

23. strange habits?

far too many to easily choose one

29. best way to bond with you?

in person it's going on a walk with me, online uhhh talking to me regularly i guess? i'm bad at initiating conversations but like having them so starting them with me is an easy way to make me like you lol

31. what outfit do you wear to kick ass and take names?

i don't think i do that

37. suitcase or duffel bag?

suitcase

41. last person you texted?

my girlfriend :3

43. hoodie, leather jacket, cardigan, jean jacket or bomber jacket?

hoodies are warm and cozy :3

47. favorite type of cheese?

not sure i have one

53. what is the current state of your hands?

clean because i just showered

59. if you were a video game character, what would your catchphrase be?

i would be an npc standing in a train station at the end of the platform holding a camera and say "I love taking pictures of these trains! they're so cool!"

61. favorite line you heard from a book/movie/tv show/etc.?

uhhhhh idk i'll just say "うわなにをするくぁwせdrftgyふじこlp" because it came to mind first

67. good luck charms?

no

71. least favorite pattern?

i'm not quite sure how to answer this, it's very broad

73. favorite weird flavor combo?

idk i like very boring foods

79. which looks better, your school id photo or your driver’s license photo?

both are horrible pre-hrt photos, but the driver's license one is marginally better

83. writing or drawing?

i don't do much of either but i don't think i can really compare them like that

89. who would you put before everyone else?

idk

97. how many phone numbers do you have memorized?

3

[duckprintspress]

May Created Works Round-Up: 8 New Works by Our Creators!

Our monthly “created works round-ups” are Duck Prints Press’s opportunity to spotlight some of the amazing work that people working with us have done that ISN’T linked to their work with Duck Prints Press. We include fanworks, outside publications, and anything else that creators feel like sharing with y’all! Inclusion is voluntary and includes anything that they decided “hey, I want to put this on the created work’s round-up!”

Check out what they’ve shared with us this month…

-

And Then There Weren't Nine (shhh) by firefly124 / @firefly124

fiction || mcyt-evolution smp || no ships || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 607 || complete

summary: The portal they'd found in the maze under spawn had promised them freedom. Instead, Jimmy'd lost his best friend, and nobody was talking about it.

other tags: characters gone missing, watcher/listener lore

AO3

​-

We Are Not Wise by Lucy K.R. / @boomchickfanfiction

fiction || the scum villain's self-saving system || m/m || shen yuan/luo binghe || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 52,243 || complete

summary: Transmigrated into a version of Proud Immortal Demon Way where cultivators manifest their own souls into spiritual weapons, Shen Yuan finds himself sort of kind of…accidentally blackmailing Shen Qingqiu into taking him on as a disciple before Luo Binghe joins the sect.

That should give Shen Yuan plenty of opportunities to make sure nothing goes wrong for his favorite protagonist, right? RIGHT!?

A story of twists, turns, hope, despair, and soul swords.

other tags: Utena-Inspired Setting, Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Shěn Yuán Transmigrates into an NPC

AO3 - TWITTER

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Love Like You by Lucy K.R. / @boomchickfanfiction

fiction || the scum villain's self-saving system || m/m || shen qingqiu/luo binghe || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 19,132 || complete

summary: Luo Binghe grows up in the shadow of his father, the red beryl Tianlang-jun. He loves his mother, and he loves his gem family, but there's something missing from his life.

Enter the enigmatic, elegant, beautiful Shen Qingqiu--a pearl who quickly cements himself in Luo Binghe's heart.

Unfortunately, their quiet days spent side-by-side on planet earth are quickly drawing to a close. When the appearance of Blue Diamond and his human pet changes everything, can Luo Binghe find a way back to Shen Qingqiu?

other tags: Steven Universe AU, He/Him pronouns for gems, mild body horror

AO3 - TWITTER

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to live without regrets by Shadaras / @shadaras

fiction || guardian (tv 2028) || f/f || ya qing/zhu hong || mature || no major warnings apply || 3,245 || complete

summary: Zhu Hong goes back in time. With greater experience and knowledge at her disposal, she makes choices she hopes will help everyone she loves to live without (as many) regrets.

other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Established Relationship, Developing Relationship, Post-Canon to Pre-Canon, Non-Linear Narrative, Light Dom/Sub

AO3

​-

Cicada Sings Amongst Bamboo by Shadaras / @shadaras

fiction || 陈情令 | the untamed (tv), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | módào zǔshī - mòxiāng tóngxiù || f/m || qin su/lan qiren || teen & up || no major warnings apply || 14,000 || complete

summary: Qin Su is given a second chance at life.

This time, instead of the sweet-faced soldier who rescued her during the war, she chooses the Cloud Recesses. And, to everyone's surprise, she chooses Lan Qiren.

other tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Courtship, Time Travel, Second Chances, Recovery, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, References to Canonical Rape, This Burn Could Be Slower

AO3

​-

Desperate For It by unforth/Nina Waters / @unforth

fiction || the husky and his white cat shizun || m/m || chu wanning/mo ran || explicit || no major warnings apply || 4,116 || complete

summary: Chu Wanning is walking, alone, down a narrow alley when he's assaulted by a man far too powerful for him to resist.

Chu Wanning should have known better than to get into this situation.

After all, it's happened before...

other tags: Modern AU, Consensual Non-Consent, Rough Sex

AO3

​-

Drinking Vinegar by unforth/Nina Waters / @unforth

fiction || scum villain's self-saving system || m/m || liu qingge/shen qingqiu || mature || no major warnings apply || 3,439 || complete

summary: Most days, Liu Qingge goes to System Shock Bookstore to pick up the BL titles that Liu Mingyan wants, and he definitely DOESN'T go to System Shock Bookstore to ogle the cute twink owner Shen Yuan.

Most days, by the time he leaves, Liu Qingge resolves to never go back. He's never going to get what he wants, not when Shen Yuan is so obviously interested in the beefy guy who works at the store's cafe.

But, of course, Liu Qingge always goes back...

(Liu Mingyan might kill him if he doesn't pick up her pre-orders, after all...that's the only reason...)

other tags: Modern Setting, Idiots to Lovers

AO3

​-

Dawn by unforth/Nina Waters / @unforth

fiction || mo dao zu shi || m/m || lan wangji/wei wuxian || general audiences || no major warnings apply || 1,325 || complete

summary: Exhausted, Lan Zhan returns to his tent after a long day of battle during the Sunshot Campaign.

And, on his pillow, he finds a letter that cannot possibly exist.

other tags: Time Travel, Canon Divergence, Second Chances

TUMBLR - AO3

-

Happy reading!

Who We Are: Duck Prints Press LLC is an independent publisher. We work with fan creators to publish their original work. We are particularly dedicated to publishing stories and art featuring characters from across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum. Love what we do? Sign up for our monthly newsletter and get previews, behind-the-scenes information, coupons, and more! Want to support the Press, read about us behind-the-scenes, learn what’s coming down the pipeline, get exclusive teasers, and claim free stories? Back us on Patreon monthly!

​

[crescentblossom66]

Hello. As you know, I love your work and I love your ocs just as much! I can't tell you how happy I was when you mentioned Hokusai's work within your work. So let me thank you first for that!

Now, if it doesn't bother you, may I ask you a question about Toshihiro? As I recall, his way of speaking is influenced by haiku, right?

✉️

(1)If the little cuckoo doesn't sing, I will kill it.

(2)If the little cuckoo doesn't sing, I will make it sing.

(3)If the little cuckoo doesn't sing, I will wait for it to sing.

(4)If the little cuckoo doesn't sing, I will let it go.

These are the most famous haiku in Japan. There are four very famous warlords in Japan, they lived in the same era, and all four have different personalities. A poet wrote haiku about the case when they kept a little cuckoo as a pet and its little cuckoo did not sing as they expected.

(1)represents a short-tempered and brutal personality that is quick to kill those who do not get its way.

(2)represents the ability to think out of the box and accomplish what others think is impossible.

(3)represents the ability to persevere and wait for an opportunity to present itself.

(4)represents a character that is very considerate of one's friends, but is cruel to one's enemies.

Which of the above describes Toshihiro? If he does not fit any of them, how does he treat his little cuckoo?

Sorry for the long message. I look forward to your work. Have a good day!

First off, thank you for your support and your kindness. I always like to receive asks and the like, so don't feel bad about sending one, short or long. I always enjoy reading your comments in the tags too, they make me happy. This is a long answer.

1. Creation and design

Now to the topic, after @R3d1ke gave me the ideas for the names, that I never would have thought of by the way. I would have likely given them more western names which would have clashed with what the Nyakuza are supposed to represent in the first place, a Japanese cat mafia. I decided that one of the characters should be more Japanese themed, if that makes sense. I kind of created Toshihiro based off of the good stereotypes we Germans have for the Japanese, politeness, kindness, honor and a serious demeanor are associated with them here, so I decided that he should show those traits...at least on the outside.

He is supposed to show a front of a kind and polite, but a bit eccentric cat that loves art, which isn't entirely inaccurate, more on that later. His design, in my mind at least, you know that I can't draw well, was based on the same concept of a polite Japanese man. He wears a kimono, the pattern on it is inspire by the waves of The Great wave of Kanagawa'. To make him more interesting, I made him speak in haiku like the firefly NPCs in the level 'Spooky Swamp' in one of my favorite games of all time 'Spyro: Year of the dragon” which is the third installment in that series. The characters there have their text boxes show three sentences; the first one has five, the second seven, and the last five syllables again. It made his sentences hard, but fun for me to write and gave the character more personality, it was especially hard to not make the sentences to...simple, for the lack of a better word. Toshihiro was still supposed to sound like a sophisticated man, and not like a toddler that just learned to speak.

I'm really happy that you as a Japanese enjoyed that character, as I was trying to make my characters more diverse and interesting. Nozomi being a mix out of the crazy scientist and cold and calculated secretary archetypes, and Maemi being a non-binary character for example. I just hope that I didn't put anything that could be offensive in there, I know that my little fanfics don't reach a lot of people, but I do care about the few that read them and want them to be comfortable. I do have a tendency to write heavier subjects into my longer stories though, there is no good story without conflict after all.

That covers his creation and design.

2. His personality and backstory

As mentioned earlier, Toshihiro's outward appearance and demeanor reflect how we perceive the Japanese in my country, he is dignified, polite and kind, but that is mostly a front for his more...violent behavior. In reality, he is a calculated and very dangerous cat that annihilates every obstacle in his path. This can be seen in how he easily saw through Bow's diguise and knew that they were coming for him, so he sent his underlings out to deal with other adversaries while he wanted to take care of Bow personally. His underlings, by the way, are based off of ninjas as you see them in modern fiction, stealthy and deadly, I gave them weapons to reflect that too in form of the shurikens and kunais they use. The former being more of a ranged weapon while the latter is more of a melee weapon if I remember that right.

The Toshihiro in the story is a cold-hearted individual, who was once a kind and innocent soul, but his father and his peers tainted his character.

Bow in the story quickly realizes that something sinister and dark hides behind his eyes, something traumatic, and she isn't wrong. When he was a child, Toshihiro witnessed his father kill his own mother brutally, he was too young to properly remember that now, but that trauma is subconsciously still with him. Toshihiro was fond of art his whole life and really enjoyed drawing and painting, yet his father wanted him to take on the family business, like many parents of large companies want their first-born kids to do. He, however, wanted to become and artist, a dream that his father quickly destroyed by making sure to burn all his art supplies, so he could only ever draw at school. He didn't have it easy there either as the other kids made fun of him for speaking formally and more like a person much older than him would, that and the fact that to them he was the spoiled rich kid. His classmates bullied him and at home he was terrorized by his father...so when one day Empress found him on the streets and talked to him back when they both were roughly teenagers and told him to just do whatever he wanted to do, he took that to heart. He worked on improving his art, cutting the ties to his father as soon as he could. He later joined Emrpess's gang of cats, being deeply loyal to her for helping him. Toshihiro is known to be a bit of a freespirit, but he always completes his missions with perfect results...He just underestimated Conductor's accuracy and perseverance in the end.

While he was with the Nyakuza, he was polite to his allies, but emotions and feelings other than anger and coldness were simply...lost due to the trauma and the poor treatment he endured, he simply couldn't be compassionate anymore, that part of him was destroyed by both his father, and the cruel children that ridiculed him.

3. How he would treat that little cuckoo

Being that his compassion has been practically beaten out of him, he would likely kill it for not serving its purpose. His former self would have patiently waited until the cuckoo would sing its song.

In summery, he does care for his allies to some degree, but can no longer feel empathy. His sense of loyalty binds him to Empress, as he feels he has to repay the dept he owes her.

He kills his enemies with no remorse, he has some twisted sense of honor though, as he prefers to use his wit and more conventional means to beat his enemies. Kind of like a samurai refusing to wield a gun even if it was the more effective weapon, as his honor and pride wouldn't allow him to even if he died.

-

Well, that certainly was a long ask to answer, but I had fun going into depth and fleshing out my characters more. I kinda wished that I had thought of those three (Nozomi, Toshihiro and Maemi) earlier, but I'm never too confident in writing any Ocs into my works, because I don't know if people can engage with the character and find them fun to read about.

If you have some time, could you tell me how you felt when you read my attempt and including a Japanese-themed character? Was I offensive or did I do an okay job and made him fun to read about, even if he was just there for 2 chapters? I might try to include more Ocs in my stories if people like them.

Thank you for your ask and your nice words again, it meant a lot to me. I always love your art, even if I only reblog sometimes and not write anything in the tags, I will try to write more in the tags next time. Have a good day or night!

[blazlngblade]

Favourite(ish) 2023 Artworks

New year, and I forget to post art here all the time, so I'll just do some favourite pieces that I did throughout 2023. Some might be reposted, I forget what I post here. XD

It's mostly just CotC.

Favourites of January

Vietnamese Year of the Cat, and the Chinese Year of the Rabbit with Tiziano and "Little Bunny" Pierro.

Spent the early point in the month working on the CotC Chibi Project! Hopefully I get a lot done this year too!

Favourites of February

Cat Day art with Elletrix and Leon!

Valentines ladies!! I did a countdown to the day, and these were some of my favourites! L'eeto, Erika, Iris, and Elletrix!

Favourites of March

To complement the Valentines drawings, I did a White Day Countdown as well! I drew the partner that I ship them with. I hope to draw the outfits and ships again for Valentines Day or White Day... maybe both? Anyway, that's Barrad, Leon, and Tiziano!

4th Anniversary drawing of CotC's demo! Hard to believe that 2024 is the 5th Anniversary! Better go all out on that one later! Happy Anniversary to Sofiano!

Favourites of April

Elleon chibis!! I should remake these.

Favourites of May

Mermay Chibis! This was the best Idea I've done for Mermay... would like to do them all again if I can think of a different way to draw them!

Favourites of June

I... drew nothing in June, and nothing I am really all that happy with either.

Favourites of July

5th Anniversary Countdown and the artwork for it too! I wanted to celebrate with Kit Crossford! One of my favourite NPCs!

July was Art Fight month too, so most of my drawings this month were attacks!

Favourites of August

My last drawing for Art Fight was an attack on my best friend Cinna! I drew their OC Lucifer.

Favourites of September

Project Path Action hosted a Weekly Drawing prompt, so I drew Elletrix for Week 3 which was about favourite Guardians of the Light! Love her so much!!

Favourites of October

Seed Story's 1st Anniversary art! I drew all the know Sage Caits! I am happy that they are able to playable now!

Collab for Cinna for the 3rd Anniversary, I still look at this and say, "We did that???" So much fun to draw all of them! And Cinna did AMAZING with the ring forms.

After drawing Saint Sazantos in the anniversary drawing, I really wanted to try drawing him normally. So I did that for the PPA Weekly Prompts, was fun!

Favourites of November

Huevember!! Aaa I had so much fun with 2023 Huevember! Here's to 2024!

Favourites of December

My second choice for the PPA Free Week! I love Leon a lot!! Needed an excuse to draw him with the spear that I now headcanon his. (It's the Grandport spear!!) He matched perfectly with the earlier one of Elletrix! They are married!!

Team Asano Secret Santa entry! Was fun to draw this scenario!

Holidays in Grandport would be so lively, so dressing the Elves up as... well elves was fun! And of course incorporating the lord of Grandport with her husband was also much needed! I love Grandport a lot!!

I wanted to draw a 1 Year Anniversary drawing for Erika/Elle's CotC implementation! She was one of the most excitable reveals they've done in a presentation! At this rate, nobody's going to top her reveal unless it's Oskha or Tiziano.

[barilleon]

The LICHES method of descriptive text

A while back a friend asked me to write up some pointers for how I write descriptive text. You know, for dungeons and such. I gave her the LICHES method, which I'm posting here now. The primary purpose of descriptive text is to clue players in to what they need to pay attention to. When you ask your players, "What do you do?" think of that as less of an open-ended question and more multiple choice. Your descriptive text gives your players the potential answers. (This is, of course, a broad statement. Players will always pull something out of left field.)

Good descriptive text includes any applicable lights, interactables, characters, hazards, egress, and senses—LICHES.

Light

Characters should know how much light they’re dealing with, and what the source is. Sconces, torches, moonlight coming in from a window? Sunlight filtering in from the forest canopy?

Interactables

If there’s something in this room the characters are meant to look at or touch, put it in. If you want them searching in the desks, tell them there are desks. The opposite is ALSO true. If you put something notable in your description, players are going to expect to get something out of interacting with or studying it.

Characters

If there are people in this room, what are they doing? It's very helpful to give DMs a look at the "moment before" for any NPCs in your description. What were they up to before the characters interrupt their lives? This goes for monsters, too, if they’re readily visible.

Hazards

This one should probably come earlier on the list. Like if something's on fire, you either mention it FIRST or LAST. But lesser-noticeable hazards, like "patched-up holes" or "slits in the wall" can be mentioned casually, without drawing a gigantic verbal arrow to it.

Egress

Some people might disagree with me on this, but it’s very helpful to be told that there are doors, even if they’re already on the map. Some tables don't run maps, and sometimes your VTT's fog of war tool obscures what is and isn't a point of egress on your map.

Senses

A lot of LICHE is based on what the characters can see, but you can play with the other senses as well. Characters can smell “a foul odor wafting from the pile of corpses,” hear “the lazy whistling of a popular folk song,” or maybe even taste “the salt on the wind at the docks.”

Putting it all together you might get:

Fire crackles in the hearth, casting long shadows on the papered wall and the sturdy oak desk pushed against it. An orange tabby yawns and stretches out on the plush armchair, revealing for an instant her sharp claws. Two doors lead out of the room: the western door that leads further into the house, and the eastern door that opens into the porch.

L: Fire I: Oak Desk C: Cat H: The cat's claws (watch out) E: Door into the house, Door out to the porch S: The crackle of the fire, the plushness of the chair

Don't worry about making this stuff sound poetic. You just need to give the players a list of things they can interact with or react to. Role playing gets compared to improv a lot, and there are a lot of similarities! Think of an effective description as the thing your players say "yes, and" to. And you don't have to include every letter in LICHES if you don't want to, or if they don't apply. Sometimes a room is empty. There may be no hazards. But this rule of thumb has really helped me write up some descriptions for both published adventures and home games.

[yourplayersaidwhat]

The Most Useless Golem In The Universe(tm)

I’m the DM in this and the party is made of a tiefling magus, a human warrior, a kitsune oracle and a catfolk ranger… with a puma companion. It will be important later.

They were in your usual catacombs, in the usual mission of “killing the big bad guy to save the land”, when they encountered an Iron Golem in one of the rooms. Since they were slightly underleveled, they chose to sneak through instead of fighting it.

At first it was fine, and the warrior and the oracle passed without problems, but then came the ranger’s turn.

Ranger: Okay, so I rolled a 16…?

Me: The Golem rolled a fourteen so you’re fine. Magus you’re next!

Ranger: Wait, my companion cross the room with me right ? Should I roll for him ?

Me: Sure!

Magus: You should be fine, I mean, it’s a cat, he should be good at sneaking, right ?

Oh boy were we wrong. The Ranger and I rolled at the same time and… well…

Ranger: I… rolled a one.

Me: …I also rolled a one.

The table lost it at this point. I gathered myself eventually and described the scene:

Me: Okay, so your companion attempts to cross the room, but somehow trip on his own paws and hits a wall. Luckily for you, the Golem somehow does not notice. You can see a loose screw fall from its head.

Magus to the Warrior, both laughing: You should draw this later, this is hilarious !

Me: Alright, since both NPC are useless, I’ll allow you a reroll for your companion.

The Ranger reroll.

Ranger: … I rolled another one.

Oracle: HOW ???

Ranger: How bad is it ?

Me: I rerolled another fucking one too.

Oracle: That’s… that’s a probalility of fucking 0.00000625% how the FUCK ??

Warrior: Probalilator the Golem.

Me, dying: So I GUESS your companion attempts to get up and THEN falls again ?? And the Golem still doesn’t notice and just loses more screws I guess ??

Magus: Alright that’s enough, I’ll just pick up the puma on my way, since clearly he can’t do shit on his own. Besides, the Golem will probably not notice the big guy in plate armor holding a big cat in his arms given its track record.

Me: Given I just rolled a four ? Yeah, you pass without problem. Most. Useless. Golem. Ever.

[korpuskat]

Kinktober Day 17 - Pet play - [Tomura Shigaraki/Reader]

[Ao3 Mirror] Rating: Explicit Word Count: 4,265 Summary: Your Quirk is useless, it just made you small. Too bad Tomura thinks that makes you cute. Contains: noncon, kidnapping, Yandere!Shigaraki; DFAB Reader; petplay (Master/Kitty), Praise Kink, Size Difference, Forced Orgasm, stockholm syndrome/mind break

======

Your back aches, burns low in your spine. Every joint sings in the same agony, whines and pleads for you to just give in. You blink, shift in the plastic and lift your eyes onto the flashes on the screen. The avatar of his character runs through the winding halls of his castle, making his way to the NPC he’s looking for.

That’s probably how he sees you. An NPC, a side quest he’s working on. He’s meticulous about it, just like he is with his games- purposefully working towards absolute completion, metering out the pointless companion quests between the main storyline. At least it’s something to watch. Gives you any entertainment at all that isn’t…

His character has stopped moving. The NPC’s dialogue box sits long past the audio has stopped playing, the reminder of what button to press to continue the conversation flashes in the corner. You swallow, but goosebumps have already erupted over your skin. You don’t have to turn your head to know he’s no longer looking at the screen.

“I have your favorite…” He coos, the low rasp of his voice turning sickly sweet. You shrink down into the plastic, but you can’t make yourself look away from him. He turns, reaches into a little box by his bed. He returns holding the tiny tin foil wrapped candy and you can’t stop your mouth from watering. “All you have to do is sit.” He pats the floor next to him, “Will you be a good little pet?”

Sitting next to him… You can do that. You’ve managed that before, to set aside that hatred and disgust for a while… It has been some time since you’ve been allowed to just exist on your own. You bite your lips and look to the tiny piece of chocolate. It’s okay. You can do that. You nod- and Tomura’s grin spreads wide over his face.

He pulls the key to the padlock from his pants, undoing it and setting it on top of the crate. The springs in the door squeak as he pinches them, opening the grated door. He backs off then, gives you a moment. You’ll get to stretch your legs, your back- you’ll get chocolate. You just have to be a little closer to him than you were before. That’s all. Palms and knees ache as you crawl out. You try to ignore the pride on Tomura’s face.

“You’re so obedient now.” He coos again and you flush. He lifts his hand, shows off the bandage that’s still wrapped around his palm. “I nearly killed you, you were so much trouble.” He leans forward as if to touch you- and where you once would’ve bitten and screamed, you sit. Complacent, docile as he pats your head. “Kurogiri was right, you did come around… I just needed to raise your affection level.”

You cast your eyes down. A side quest.

Tomura scoots back, leaves space for you on his floor. Your muscles ache as you crawl towards him- you worry for a minute he’ll make you sit some weird way. Like a cat, loafed up for him or make you sit in his lap- but his face never changes as you sit next to him. Never falters from that giddy pleasure as you stretch your legs out. Like this you can really see the difference in your sizes-- your toes barely reach past his knees, his scarred face towering over you even as he slouches. There’s nearly a foot between you, but it seems to satisfy him. Holding it by the long paper trail with two fingers, he places the chocolate onto your lap.

You wait for the catch, but it doesn’t come. Tomura picks up his controller again- careful to keep his little fingers pressed on the side of his ring fingers. And that’s just it- he goes back to his game. You sit still for a long time, unsure of what you’re allowed to do. At least you allow yourself to shakily unwrap the chocolate and set it to your tongue. Red eyes slide over to watch you and you shudder, pretend not to notice. It doesn’t matter; Tomura returns to his game, speeding through the NPC’s dialogue.

It isn’t bad, you decide. The chocolate melts on your tongue and you are soothed by the easy music of Tomura’s game. It’s easy to forget like this- how you wound up here. To forget those first few weeks- waiting and waiting for a hero to come while Tomura’s patience with you thinned.

It had changed at some point. No longer him threatening to hurt you if you didn’t go along with his fetish. He spoke softly- not the rasping voice that commanded you to heel, but as though he were speaking to a stray cat. He moved your crate to sit near his desk so you were always with him.

And then came the treats. The first few times you rejected him outright; over and over his fist closed around his gifts and they faded to dust. He’d return hours later, ready to try again. Ready to just sit beside you, play his games, speak in quiet words to soothe your worries.

And all the while he’d fawn over you, how cute you are.

Your damn Quirk. Stray heteromorph gene that dictated your every interaction- a Quirk that left you clocking in at less than four feet tall.

You hated your Quirk before being locked in a dog crate, but now you longed to be Quirkless. Maybe it wouldn’t change anything. You draw your legs back up, tuck them to your chest. You should be stretching out, enjoying your momentary freedom but now all you can think of is that disgusting face he’d made the first time you’d nodded and accepted his gift. First the awe and distrust- like you’d spit it back at him. You didn’t. You took the treat with shaking hands and cried.

He’d hushed you with a giddiness in his voice, That’s my good little girl…

Something touches your head- you jolt, spin to face him with wide eyes. He withdraws for a moment, but starts again with slow, careful motions- four fingers running through your hair, his thumb raised high and away. “No need to be nervous, pet.” You shudder, feel the cold creep down your spine as he hand continues on.

It’s not the reassuring hair-stroking of a lover, the calming head-patting of a parent- it’s something strange. Like he’s emulating something he’s only ever seen done. A halting pattern of his nail dragging over your scalp for a moment too long, starting again at the top of your head, sliding down to the base of your skull. It’s not soothing… but it is the only human contact you’ve had in… you don’t even know how long. How long since the heroes had stopped looking for you? His hand starts its stroke again and you close your eyes, rest your chin on your knees.

“You’re soft.” He states so quietly it might’ve just been for himself. Warmth graces your cheeks, the luxury of having shame one of the last bastions of your memory of the real world. He presses harder with his fingers, the nails- rough, uneven, scratch at your skin, trace down the curve of your skull- and this time he drifts further. Right on down to your neck, skimming over your heavy black leather collar, to scratch along the highest notches of your spine- you shudder.

Tomura hums, repeats the action and is rewarded with another shudder. You can’t help it- it’s sensitive there, unused to being touched. “This feel good…?”

In another world you’d gag at the thought of finding his touch agreeable. But here, his nails make your skin erupt into pleasurable goosebumps. The threat of displeasing him still looms overhead, so you tell yourself that’s why you nod. He grins wider and does it again, lets his hand drift even lower. Down and down- until four fingertips slide up under the hem of your shirt.

Your arms lock over your chest and you stare at him. He just smiles down at you. His fingertips are cold as they skirt across your skin beneath your shirt. Tomura’s never touched you like this before- always kept it relegated to his awkward head petting. You should fight. Should bite him again- and he speaks in that carefully controlled voice. “It’s alright. Good girl.”

good girl. you shiver. Close your eyes. Praise keeps punishments at bay. Means you get more time to stretch out your legs, more freedom-

So you don’t even struggle when he lifts your shirt over your head. Tomura doesn’t chide you for covering your bare chest, so you assume it’s fine. He doesn’t immediately go for it anyway: instead he keeps petting your back, drawing his nails lightly across your shoulders, the base of your neck. You give in: let your head fall forward, give him better access. It doesn’t go unnoticed. He scratches there, cards through your hair in affectionate motions until you nearly are purring.

You're nearly relaxed as his hands settle on your shoulders, urges you to lay down beside him. Fear makes your eyes go wide, but the lingering pleasantness of his touch makes you compliant, easy- your only resistance is a quiet "Tomura?"

"Shhh," His attempt at a calming voice doesn't quite soothe your nerves, but at least he's not angry. Reflexively, your arms tighten over your chest- but he doesn't even touch your arms. Instead, he eases his palms over your belly. The muscles there flinch away from him- and he pursues them, feels how they tremble with tension beneath his fingertips. Now that you can see them, the threat of that lethal touch isn't far from your mind.

His hands slide over your skin, rub in circles around your navel, up until his rough-bitten nails nudge at your forearms, always so careful to keep two fingers arched away. But he doesn't push more than that. Just strokes, slow, heavy passes of his hands, moving in wider circles out towards your ribs, down to the top of the curve of your hips. Any lower than that and he’d brush the threadbare pants he’d let you keep.

But there's a hunger in his eyes and you know it's coming. The inevitable pushing of your sanity- and those deadly, nimble fingertips brush across your wrists. You whimper, press your hands harder to your chest. He doesn't pull, doesn't try to force it- just works his fingers around your wrists and waits for your weak attempt to skirt his anger.

"I'm not..."

"Shh, kitties don't talk." He shushes you again, strokes his thumbs over the thin skin of your wrist. Any pressure there at all would have you wilting, capitulating to the pain- but he's had weeks to perfect his technique, too many long nights of discussing his goals with Kurogiri. A patience cultivated by sheer necessity and tempered by your slow acquiescence to his will. "You've been so good for me today. Don't you want your reward?"

A reward? Your eyes flit over to the little bag of chocolates, think of the still-easing ache in your legs. With hesitation, you nod. It can't be that bad.

When he tugs at your wrists this time you pinch your eyes closed, set your jaw, and let him. His breath shudders; a vein of barely bridled giddiness weaved into his voice as he tries to praise you again, "That's it, you're being so sweet." With his guidance, you rest your hands on the cool floor, curl your fingers into fists. Even with your eyes closed, you turn your face away from him, seek any reprieve from the shame of having Tomura stare down at you. His hands leave your wrists, walk spider-like across your waist, twitching with excitement. "Stay."

He leans back- and from the crumpling of plastic you know he's retrieving your reward. He sets the tiny swirl of tin foil next to you and you wrap your hand around it like a lifeline. Your stomach flexes as his fingertips ghost over your belly again- resume those large, heavy strokes of your skin. They tickle over your ribs- and the enthusiasm makes him rush upwards and stop. With your eyes closed your senses narrow down to his touch- and the ever increasing volume of his breathing.

He catches the curve of your breast in the crook of his thumb- and a single whimper involuntarily rises high in your throat. Tomura doesn't even hush you, too entranced by what he's doing that his hands are shaking. Even so, he's always aware of the placement of his fingers. He's spent too much time working on you, investing time in your side quests for you to disappear because of a quirk mishap. With a turn of his wrists, the weight of your breasts rest in his palms, index fingers pointed high and away from your skin. He experiments, plays with them- squeezes into the soft flesh there until it dimples around his fingertips-

You peek an eye open- and Tomura is staring, red eyes twinkling with the lights of his game, utterly bewitched by how your breasts roll and lift and fall and move with each motion of his palms. Like this, laid out on your back and him half curled over you, he looks even bigger. A glance down- and his hands nearly consume your chest, his long, thin fingers cover completely from one side of your ribs to the other. And past them- where his legs have come to straddle your own- a bulge sits prominently in his pants.

Sickly realization sets in- and you don't even have a moment to contemplate what's going to happen as his grip shifts, adjusts so only his thumb and index touch your skin- and pinch down on your nipples. You jolt- arms wrap around your belly just below his, gaze landing back on his face- and you want so badly for him to just this once be human.

"Please," breaks free from your lips. It won't help. "Stop, please."

The grin you’re met with is cruel, monstrous. "Just a little more, kitty..." Tomura licks his lips, draws the bottom on in between his teeth as he keeps on toying with your chest. A tweak of his fingers and you're jolting- he tugs on them and you're arching into his hands just to relieve the pressure. You bite your tongue to keep making any noise- but that seems to be the entire point for Tomura. He experiments, tries different angles, pressures, twists- and when the edge of his thumbnail catches on the tip of your nipple and your vow of silence is shattered by a single broken wail.

A lopsided grin carves its way across Tomura's face, reveals the teeth sunk into his cracked lips. "You're so cute." He croons, repeats the motion- flicks his thumb against the underside of the darker, sensitive skin until they raise up into stiff peaks. Tomura shifts his weight, lowers himself to rut softly against your thighs. The first iota of friction and he's groaning, eyes falling half-lidded- and the shaking fear resumes. You expect him to lose all control, so close to the prize he's been seeking for so long and from the way his hands tremble and squeeze at your chest you think he nearly does. But his thrusts remain slow, heavy on the downstroke as he forces his shaking voice from his chest, "Come on kitty, make your Master happy."

Your lower lip wobbles and does nothing to deter his hands from traveling again. Down, past the swell of your breasts, over your hands still clinging to yourself. His fingertips have warmed from your skin, but his touch is so light and delicate over your stomach it tickles- and his touch skates on downward, stopping at the last soft pouch of your belly. His breath shudders, wide fingers grabbing at your sides, at the curve of your hips while his thumbs squish the soft flesh below your navel.

He stops there, as though waiting for permission- glances excitedly between the apex of your tightly pressed thighs and your face. Your consent won't come- he knows that, you're not ready for that yet. One day he'll have you begging for him, but for now he's waited long enough to get a taste of his long awaited prize, just a taste of the achievement he's been grinding for. Tomura knows he should be slow, not scare you anymore- but the prospect of having to untangle fabric from your legs makes the itch flare- and his fingers close around the waist of your pants.

He coos to you, attempts to soothe the anxiety he's wrought, "It's okay, shh, shh,"

You squeeze your eyes closed. With his absence from your chest, you cover your chest and let one hand rest over the bottom of your face, to hide the worst of your quaking grimace. His hands stroke long paths across your now bare skin. Your body so small in his grasp he reaches from the underside of your breasts to the tops of your thighs without effort. It's meant to pacify your nerves, you think, these slow, heavy strokes- but the raw, innate knowledge that he's not anywhere near done with you keeps you on edge.

As soon as he realizes the trembling of your body isn't going to stop, Tomura moves on. He shifts, moves awkwardly until he draws your legs out from under him. You keep your thighs pressed together- and that's fine by him, your legs stretching up against his shoulder, sitting just under his chin. It's fine because he lifts you with one hand under your butt so he can rub the firm bulge of his clothed cock against your pussy. A sigh rips itself from Tomura's lips and you're digging your fingers into your own hair for any other sensation to focus on.

"Lemme see," and there's a mania in his eyes. Your nails bite into your skin- and your legs offer little resistance as he spreads them, forces them apart, draped across his thin thighs. One of his thumbs- so massive compared to yours, pulls your small, plump labia apart, stares down at your little pussy. Tomura moans. Shame burns your cheeks- and the overwhelming truth that there's no point fighting, no use in any of it.

He doesn't even touch you directly, too overwhelmed and already focused back on himself. His pants fare better than yours, end up shoved down around his thighs. The heat of his body burns into yours and he draws out his cock, already hard, standing proudly between his legs. You peek between your fingers, stare at him with wide, fearful eyes, unable to focus on either his thick, uncut cock or his gruesome, wide-stretched lips.

"Look, I'm so big." He says, his voice nearly cracking, betraying how wound-up he is. He holds it down on you- it's as wide as your wrist, dripping precum messily across your skin where the tip throbs against you. And as small as you are with your damn useless quirk, the thick head comes up to the bottom of your rib cage. It makes your stomach churn, fear taking root deep inside you- and in the same moment a heat settles inside you, a useless, unhelpful primal reaction to it all.

"I could break you." Eight fingertips bite into your thighs- and his hips stutter forward. The underside of his cock slides between your legs- and the meager slickness there eases his way. "You're so wet." You aren't sure if Tomura doesn't understand your body or if he's playing into his own fantasy- but it doesn't stop him from closing your thighs around him and rutting down again. "I won't, I won't- I promise. Don't want to hurt my little kitty, my- ah- my sweet little pet..."

The friction on your clit only increases with your legs holding him in place. He thrusts against you- and though on all sides except against your slit your skin drags, warms as it chafes, Tomura doesn't seem to mind. If anything, the roughness is only making it better for him as he rambles on, "I'd take such good care of you! I'd love you if you'd let me- you just have to be good." Through your fingers you meet his gaze; his eyes are glazed over in lust, the red obscured with his thin eyelashes. He pants through open lips, nearly drooling as he thrusts against you. "You want to be good for me don't you? For your Master?"

His angle changes, slots in closer to you- and oh. He hadn't been quite up on you before, the drag of his cock more along the full length of your pussy than the single point of your clit, but now--

The gasp is quiet, barely there. Between the slap of skin and slick noises between your legs, the gentle music of his game's pause screen, and his own ragged breathing you want to believe so badly he hadn't heard it. But his reaction is immediate: where his gaze had been half-lidded, lost in his own ecstasy, it is now wide, his pupils shrinking down in shock, leaving the crimson ring of his iris to glow in the low light.

"Here?" He says- and rubs the firm head of his dick against you again. You're too sensitive now to pretend it doesn't feel good, as much as you don't want it to. No matter how hard you squeeze your eyes closed and shake your head, the helpless little rises of your hips are all he needs to encourage him. As meticulous as he is, he keeps the pressure on your clit and doesn't let up for anything- returns to his long, swift strokes, the wetness of your pussy letting him glide through your folds and over your clit without resistance. Between your legs, his cock fucks your thighs, the head smearing your mixed arousal over your skin, leaking milky precum across your belly-

"See, see- I could make you feel so good, I'd take care of you, I could make you cum." He rasps, leans over you and lifts your hips with him, pulls your lower back clean off the floor so he can keep that sinful angle. He moves down as though to kiss you and you're so glad for once that you're too short- or perhaps he's too tall- for him to reach your lips. No, instead his chest comes in close to your face, the warmth radiating off him and you splay your hands across his pale skin just to weakly try to push him back. He doesn't even notice.

"I want to- the only one- only ever me-" He grunts, huffs, drops one arm down to hold himself up. He's close, the pleasured trembling of your legs only making it more enjoyable for him. "You're gonna cum." It's a demand, a promise- "Gonna be my good little kitty who cums on my cock."

There's no point fighting- and still your nail dig into his chest, scratch red welts into his skin as you turn your face away from him. Tomura hisses- and tears your hands off him, pins your wrists down to the floor with his wide palms. Though his face twists into a scowl, he never stops his rough humping of your thighs. And now, now there's no barrier between his skin and yours other than your own legs, your body nearly bent double with his need for closeness.

He groans- and you're restless under him, consider kicking him, biting him, anything, anything- and the fear of punishment keeps you still. He wants you to- to-

"Be good, come on- be good for your Mah-ster. It'll feel so good, kitty, just cum, just let go-" and you sob, close your eyes and lean into him. Every stroke has your clit tingling, aching-

"That's it, that's it!" He breathes, "Give in, let me take care of you."

You're crying, cumming, your legs squeezing tight around his cock and thrusting back against him, riding out your high as he praises you, curses. His hands pinching your wrists as he shakes, arches, drives down over and over- and hot cum splatters against your belly, up to your chest. He's gasping, shaking- and all at once he drops down over you, bends your legs back, pins them between your stomach and his. You grunt, squirm under him- and he's kind enough to lift his hips, dislodge his body from yours, and lowers himself again.

He's so big, he covers every inch of you- and he's just conscientious enough to leave you room to breathe. tocry. Because you haven't stopped, chest shuddering with each inhale- and with his orgasm leaving him boneless, pliant, you wiggle your hands out from under his. He stirs, shifts just enough to look down at you with suspicion, with that familiar disappointment that you'll try to scratch him again and-

and you wrap your arms around his torso. Broken by your own sobs, you can only force one word out between wails, "Tomura- Tomura-"

He sucks in air through his teeth. His arms shake as he pushes himself up to sit and drags you along with him. So small, you don't even reach the underside of his chin while in his lap, he holds you close, whispers sweet words in your ear, sweet kitten, good girl, i love you, shhh, it's alright, i'll take care of you.

=====

If you like my writing, please consider reblogging or leaving me a tip!

[askamnesiamoonjumper]

🌙Au explanation/blog rules🌙

Welcome! this post functions as a basic tldr of the plot with links to the master post and mostly functions as a faq post

Under the cut you will find my au my hat game obsessed monkey brain made known as the Amnesia!Moonjumper au (lovingly referred to as a!au)

!!🌙I would suggest look at this before going forward🌙!!

🌙ask box is open! MoonJumper is available for asks!

🌙look at the masterpost please-

UPDATE: A!AU IS GETTING TURNED INTO A FIC SOON! SO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED FOR THAT! ^^

(Proshippers get of my lawn)

anyway here we go:

🌙What’s the au about?

The au itself is centered on moonjumper and their struggle with the amnesia of their past before they died, plus him adjusting to life in subcon/outside the horizon and learning about how his magic works.

The found family dynamics formed of the characters is also a big player in plot, specifically the one between mj and hatkid, mj and snatcher, basically just a bunch of dadjumper/moonparent + snatcher moonjumper sibling indulgence lol

you’ll find losta angst here folks get ready to cry (but fr theres lots of tw topics later but specifically some later chapter go into dark stuff, ill tw everything when that chapter actually happens)

🌙Things to know about the blog:

-the au is post game

-Vanessas curse dlc is non canon because the au was made before it came out but the lore stuff that was in VC is canon (aka the curse magic/ability itself is canon to a!vanessa)

-M!anon is not allowed sorry

-no nsfw based asks please that’s weird bro- (though suggestive jokes are fine just yk don’t cross boundaries)

-no shipping unless specified

-the au has lots of hcs/backstories for characters I’ve made myself so even though the au is canon leaning most things are just my own original ideas ^^ I mean it’s not called an au for nothing lol but yeah basically just expanding on the og characters/info we have of them(plus some stuff from Shane frosts versions of the characters are used as some inspo too it’s a number of things lol)

-anons/askers are portrayed as dwellers (though will be replaced by other npc characters in any non subcon areas ex if they are in the metro the anons will be the cats or alps will be nomads etc)

🌙 “what should I do if I want to use your art for a pfp or post it somewhere else? Etc”

IF YOU DO ADD CREDIT (or ask first!) But Yes that is fine BUT JUST DONT STEAL MY ART!

🌙 “can I voice/dub your comics/fic/au?”

YES YES YES, i would love to help out too! ive done dub editing before and i love voice acting too so I have some experience, I would die on spot oml that would be so cool😭

🌙 “am I allowed to make image descriptions of your posts?”

YES! ABSOLUTELY! PLEASE DO!!!

I would do it myself but I’m really bad at describing things (theres a reason im a comic writer first and NOT a fic writer lol) so I’m gonna leave it to the people who are good at it and actually have experience...

🌙 “can I write a fic for your au?“

YESYESYESYES HOLY CRAP YES PLEASE SHAKING AND CRYING I AM BEGGING!!!!!! KILL ME ON SIGHT WHY DONT YOU?? YES PLEASE!!!!!!ASFHKPITWWHBSQP/POS

🌙 “can I make fan art/animation/comic/animatic etc?”

Ofc! Yes!!

🌙 “can I write a song/music for this au”

GRABS YOU OMG YES YES YES YES HOLY CRAPPPP THAT WOULD BE AMAZING??

🌙”is this a comic?”

yes! ...and no? its a comic yes! But some events later on will be shown without comics, such as drawings or fics or still frames with dialogue wrote under the post or maybe some animation etc etc its mostly a comic but sometimes breaks that format when it needs to (either if I don’t feel like drawing a full comic for a scene OR a full comic won’t be enough for a scene etc you get the idea)

EDIT the au has now been converted to a half comic half fic! So this is sortof half right now?

🌙who is the mun/mod?

my name is grace! Just a kid who thought way too hard about unimportant details if this game and made an au about it lol, my main is @gracebeth3604!

I tried to list as many fan content/faq things as I could think of but if there’s anything else you can think of just ask! please @ me so I can see Anything y’all make I would love it!

if one of y’all ever catch someone stealing my art without credit please lmk asap!

oh! And if anyone needs to know one of the characters pronouns ill be happy to let you know (seeing as a lot of them use they/them or different pronouns from their canon/cut character counterparts)

like I said earlier PLEASE check the Masterpost bc half of the art on the blog is just drawings/non canon stuff the Masterpost is really good for if you need to catch up with stuff in order

The blog is a big passion project thing so it’s not the best most amazing writing at all times and definitely not the most organized (especially seeing as it’s still my first time running a big story blog) so excuse that;;

but yeah that’s all have a good day!^^

-mun grace

[anokaiwritingblog]

Oh hey. I forgot I have a writing blog. Here’s a WIP of my short story collection for my creative writing class. It’s a WIP for one of my major ideas I want to do.

Once every century, it is said that the planets of the solar system align perfectly. In a perfect row, they cast upon the ultimate shadow upon one another; opening the gates to other realms far from our own. It was said that the fallen god rose from this gate and set his sights on destroying our system just like his own. But where evil went, goodness was sure to follow. Out from this gate came the Holy Maiden and her summoned knight. Together, they sealed away the fallen god and cast light back into our system. The two understood that the battle was far from over. “Catch a fish for a man, he would eat for a day. Teach the man how to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” Despite their love for each other, the Holy Maiden and her summoned knight agreed to go on separate pilgrimages to spread their teachings. The Holy Maiden remained in our system and founded us, the Holy Order, to pass on her teachings and traditions to future Holy Maidens. Her summoned knight, on the other hand, returned into the gate and spread his words to the numerous realms behind the gate. With their sacrifice, we have prevented the fallen god’s awakening over a thousand times…​

“Ay yo… so, like… cool lore but like… pretty cringy not gonna lie. You lost me at the “aligning of the planets” bit. It went from horoscope bullshit to cliched pre-teen novels with a bit of a JRPG elements in there,” a voice spoke out, breaking the breathtaking spell that weighed heavy in this beautifully painted dream.

The wind blew soft through the empty courtyard as no one said anything. In a walled-off garden stood seven bodies, each facing each other in a circle with a pond that separated each figure. Each stood on their own path that was surrounded by the water on each side but behind. A mini pier if you wish to imagine. The water was clear, yet the light was too blinding to see past the surface. All seven figures were outlined well enough to show that they were all women, yet a shadow covered their faces to remain a mystery to one another. Sitting above all this was a pink-haired woman. Her hair was braided back and looked far too youthful to be talking like an elder. Her prink eyes scanned each woman to search for the back talker, a glare like a dagger and on edge. Despite that, she kept an icy façade.

“Who cut me off? Head Nun of the Holy Order?” the pink-haired woman spoke up, looking down at the crowd of women below her.

“Uh, me.”

Slicing through the air, the Head Nun’s eyes locked on to the woman who spoke up; her hand raised slightly while maintaining the image of being smaller than what she was. Her limbs were tightly held together like a defensive turtle yet flashing a Chester cat grin in reception of the attention. “No offense lady but I felt like I heard this exact same plot with some gacha game I played last month. Can we just skip all this tutorial nonsense to get to the fuckin’ point already?” the woman continued, her blunt and straightforward words not matching the lowkey appearance she was trying to give off.

“Oh! You played Fate/Grand Order too? I’ve been trying to pull Gilgamesh for my team for months,” the woman on the right of the back talker chimed in. Though she was covered in shadow, the third party was animatedly clapping her hands together in excitement that she found a companion who played the same game.

“Eh, I stopped after two months. The drop rates are insane for that game and you don’t get enough of the in-game currency. I prefer Epic Seven since you actually win the gamble in summoning a strong hero-“

“Silence!”

Slamming her hand against the armrest of her chair, the Head Nun demanded all attention back onto her. The sound of flesh against marble echoing throughout this supernatural courtyard. Zeroing in out the outlier, the Head Nun sized her up before letting out a scoff. Receiving this judgmental look was a young woman of 21 years. If she never stood by herself, she might have blended in with a crowd with her rather ordinary looks. Brown hair, matching brown eyes, and a pair of glasses. Tell that description to any sketch artist and they would draw any other woman. One in five women look exactly like her. Was that statistically correct? Of course not, but most would believe it these days.

The nun craned her neck over these seven girls, peering down with arrogance. Who would have thought that the bold one in this group wasn’t the goth but this… loser. Despite not being affected by the spell, the rebel was overseen like the shadow of her chair or the tree’s. “Are you done speaking over me?”

“No, actually. You aren’t hurrying the fuck up and you rudely cut me off from having a pleasant and stimulating conversation from my neighbor here,” the woman said, “If you aren’t going to tell me what my horoscope is, I don’t want to hear another hour of lore.” From her sides, the woman could hear the reactions from the other girls who listen in to this back and forth. Some ‘tsk’ from her disrespectful actions while others acted a bit shocked. Of course, there were those who snickered from the show while one seemed to be rather disinterested. Tough crowd… To be fair, she wasn’t normally as blunt as she was today. She knew when to keep things to herself but quite frankly, this lady was going on for the last hour about prophecies and cosmic evils. This nun sounds like those writers who only focus on worldbuilding and not writing their story.

“Hurry up? We’re talking about the end of the world- YOUR world. This “lore” is vital. People’s lives are at stake with this information, Two,” the Head Nun said.

“Shit, really? Then why don’t you act it? Literally… no agency. This is the part where a creative writing teacher tells you “show don’t tell”,” Two answered right back; sarcasm dripping from every syllable. She wanted to correct the hag. Her name was Mia, but she understood there was anonymity for a reason. She was tactless, not stupid. Well, Mia would argue she had some tact, but her patience ran thin do this grossly, mishandled magic society. She thought those campy young adult books with groups run by idiots were meant to be… you know, fiction?

It all started right when Mia got to bed. She just got home from a long shift at work and all she wanted was nothing more than lay in bed. And that she did once she took an evening shower before bed. It was normal, everyday stuff for the third-year college student. She had school tomorrow and Mia just wanted to rest her aching body. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she opened her eyes to a completely new world. Looking around, she found herself not alone. There was one other person with her face covered and the pink-haired woman as well. Mia was greeted as “Two” and was told to wait for the other five to show.

That was an hour wasted in waiting and add in the additional hour for the hefty speech, we got our recipe for an irritated Mia. She didn’t go to bed just to stand up for two hours for some fantasy bullshit. Any other time? Sure. It’s cool. But now??? WHEN SHE HAS A TEST TOMORROW?! INCONVENIENT! It killed Mia since this was pretty fucking cool and different from the norm. Everyone dreams of being picked the chosen one but, come on… this was too predictable. If you read a fantasy book or consumed any fantasy media before, then you know what’s going on.

“Rude child. This information isn’t something as trivial as a novel,” the Head Nun spoke, looking down at Mia like a haughty teacher.

“I’m gonna assume that we’re all candidates in being chosen as the new Holy Maiden. We chose our knights or whatever. Compete and whoever wins must reseal the fallen god then tada! Happy ending! Yay!” Mia said. She even raised her hand at the ‘yay’ portion of her phrase. “Listen dude, I play too many games and read a shit ton of books for this. Can we please not do this while I’m in my pajamas?” Mia said, practically begging to be released from this mild inconvenience.

“… You guys weren’t exactly chosen. The universe brought you to us…” the Head Nun spoke, not really arguing with what Mia said. There was a cocky grin on Mia’s face as she just couldn’t help but find it funny how she got some otherworldly person tongue-tied.

“A lottery system huh… sounds about right. An NPC like me wouldn’t be chosen normally… I’m way too smart to be a main character,” Mia thought. She glances to the side for a moment before back on the show.

“Well… I’ll work with Two on this point and speed things up. Time is of the essence,” the head nun spoke, acting as if she was graciously fulfilling Mia’s wish. At this point, Mia didn’t care. Whatever helped the nun feel powerful or whatever… “As Two pointed out, all seven of you are candidates for becoming the new Holy Maiden. You will come into this realm three times a week for your lessons to strengthen your magic and during your regular days of the week, you seven will compete with one another. Your knights are the extension of your magic. When one knight trumps the other, they prove you are the strongest magic user and your defeated candidate is knocked out of the running. This continues until the last one is standing,” the nun explained, “We have hidden your faces and names from each other to keep you guys from cheating and attacking each other when you aren’t ready for combat. If you wish to fight, it’s up to you guys to discuss how to go about it.”

“A battle royal? I thought dystopian novels where kids kill each other in a game was out of fashion? I mean- they already got the Mirai Nikki vibe with the covered faces in the central hub…” Mia thought. She laughed under her breath with mild amusement at the situation. She decided to keep her thoughts hidden now as she surveys the competition. She wasn’t sure if she was going to take this seriously, but she thought she should start hiding her thoughts on the matter now. “The Head Nun never said we couldn’t figure out each other’s identity and jump them… nor any etiquettes of battle… how curious,” she continued her train of thought as she waited for the nun to finish.

“We’ll now do the summoning ritual. One, please kneel down and place your hand into the water to help your knight rise,” the Head Nun spoke. One looked around confused by the order, but she soon nervously did as she was told. She knelt and placed her hand inside. There was a good pause before One jolted. Slowly, One stood up to her feet as a tall figure rose from the water. Just like the girls, his face was hidden from everyone else but his master, no doubt. But his figure was very much noticeable.

“YO! Did you just summon a furry?!” Mia exclaimed before bursting out laughing. She pointed a finger at the girl next to her in a mocking fashion. While she couldn’t see the competition, Mia could at least see a pair of fuzzy dog ears on the knight’s head. But despite her words, Mia knew that, realistically, this knight was most likely a beast man or even a werewolf. She simply didn’t want to lose this chance to taunt her competition.

“Two! Please restrain yourself and respect your fellow maidens and their knights,” the Head Nun spoke. The pink-haired woman coughing into her hand to break up the interaction. “Now, for the love of God. Please shut up, kneel, and summon your knight.”

“Damn, at least ask for my consent before forcing me on my knees,” Mia muttered before kneeling as instructed. She felt rather stupid but seeing how the first maiden got a knight, Mia decided to just trust the action. She submerged her hand in the opaque lake. It was wet alright. Yet despite being in spitting distance to the surface, Mia couldn’t see past her reflection. “Come on RNG don’t fail me now. A hot guy would do wonders for my mental health,” Mia joked, “I hope re-rolls are free.”

On the edge of non-existence and existence, a subconscious mind rose to consciousness once more. He drowns in nothingness and breaths in hopelessness.

There was no sky nor ground to define his abysmal prison. Not even a memory to keep him company.

A hand reached out from above. A hand surrounded by light and a promise of warmth. He attempted to reach for it, yet he was restricted from moving and was forced to watch another steal the opportunity from the shadow. He watched the pair of hands meet and just like that, the light was gone.

He sank deeper into the depths of this unholy waiting room.

Yet again, a hand was extended from the dark with the temptation of freedom. Cautious to reach for it after the first time, he looked around for others who wished to take it. Many came and all walked away. No one wanted to take this hand.

He made an attempt to take it, if only to escape, but found that he was unable to pry himself free. Defeated, he decided to give up on the opportunity. It was pointless anyways.

Left unheld, the hand does not reel empty handed. No. Instead, it curled its fingers until one finger remained up.

One big ‘fuck you’.

What the fuck? So much for an inviting presence. Who did this person think they are? It wasn’t like he didn’t try to take their hand. But seeing this middle finger dangling in front of him like a fishhook with bait, he reached for it once more to drag the hand down into the depths with him. He was tied in place but after some furious tugs, he was freed with a pop.

Taking the hand, it became evident that the one getting snatched wasn’t them but him. Curled fingers shifted forms into a vice grip around his wrist upon skin contact. The dark veil that covered him were ripped off in that instance. Lights, sounds, textures, tastes, and smells flooded his senses as he became a person once again.

Planting both feet on the ground, Mia used both hands to reel up her prey. This summoning was nothing graceful like the girl next to her. It was primal and chaotic as Mia’s partner was floundering under the water. So much for a knight in shining armor. This guy isn’t fighting any dragons anytime soon if he’s having difficulty wrestling against an inanimate substance.

Letting out a battle cry, Mia used all her strength to bring her knight to the surface and onto the pier with her. It wasn’t his entire body but enough of it was on land that it was easier to drag the rest of him out with less trouble. Mia fell backwards on her butt and was slightly out of breath after that intensive ritual. Shiiiit. Carrying a body is a lot harder than it looks kids! Don’t trust what you see on TV. The more you knowミ★

Mia was the image of ‘tired’ with her slightly flushed cheeks and skewed. Fanning herself, she patiently waited for the man she pulled out to make the first move, yet he was belly-down, still as a door nail. For someone who had a lot of energy to fight against help, he suddenly became as complacent as a kitten.

Oh fuck... he isn’t dead, is he? Cause that’ll be pretty awkward ngl ┐(´-｀)┌

Mia leaned forward to inspect what she pulled out. She lifted his pale arm to search for a pulse. It was cold to the touch and she couldn’t tell if the steady thud she felt was his or an echo of her own. Upon letting it go, it limply fell to the ground with no flinch from him. Crap. Don’t tell her that she accidentally pulled out a dead body?! Well, Mia knew that pulling trash can happen during fishing mini games but she thought that this more of a “guarantee knight summoning” deal. Mia refused to believe that she waited five humiliating minutes waiting just to pull out a corpse. She wants a refund, god damn it!

Moving his head, Mia planned to check his pulse from his neck to double check if he was dead. There was no resistance in the action, yet she found herself meeting a pair of responsive red eyes peaking from between snowy white hair. The two of them stared at each other for a moment as they both seemed like caught criminals in the middle of a crime. The man’s chest raised up and down as he breaths; a piece of evidence that doesn’t escape Mia’s attention. He’s…

“HE’S HOT!!!”

Scrambling to her feet, Mia put both her hands in the air and let out her victory screech to the worried silhouettes surrounding her. No wait- she should be yelling how he was alive, not his appearance. Yet here she was, doing a victory dance on top of her knight in a pair of polka dotted pajamas. Give her a pitchfork and a tail then you got the image of an imp dancing on a grave. “Bro! He’s so hot... Edward Cullen lookin’ ass- I mean, not like the musty looking Robert Patterson version but how you imagine he look like based on the description,” Mia explained to anyone listening with a wildly inaccurate and vague description of the man. She waved her arms animatedly as she gossiped with her peers with the person in question crawling to his feet.

“Dude, that should be the last of your concerns,” Five said.

“I think you should make sure he’s okay…” Seven said, joining Five in expressing concern.

“Whoa there! You can’t really blame my maiden here for getting hung up on my dashing good looks. Dead or alive, you’ll notice my face first before anything else.”

Laying a heavy hand on Mia’s right shoulder, the man wrapped his arm around the woman to stand in solidarity it her. Surprised by the action, Mia tilt her head to the side to look at her knight to judge which side he was playing on. She locked eyes with him once more but not on accident this time. His touch was uncomfortable, yet she doesn’t push him away. They were a pair of souls with two different goals yet had a silent agreement to meet in the middle for the moment.

“Good to see you again, Catherine. You hardly look over two thousand years old,” Mia’s knight said, being the first to break their line of sight to look at the Head Nun. The nun sneered as the source of her stress doubled over the course of ten minutes.

“Ashley…” the Head Nun said, nearly hissing out the name. Her knuckles were turning white due to how tightly she held onto her armrest.

“Ash,” he corrected her, with equal amount of distaste in return. Ash was smiling but he on edge just like the Head Nun. But this rivalry was interrupted when Mia pinched Ash’s hand to catch his attention. He looked back down to receive Mia’s disapproving expression at his brief quip with the Head Nun. It seemed hypocritical that Mia was suddenly policing his attitude considering she was flaunting on the competition, but Ash clocked on what’s making her step in. “It’s okay,” Ash said, leaning down to whisper into Mia’s left ear, “This was just between me and her. No one heard me use my name. Not like it matters.”

“I’m just disappointed that you don’t have a chainsaw arm,” Mia whispered back, pretending she never had that concern by throwing out a seemingly random thought. Ash stared at her as if she was insane and as if to say ‘what are you talking about’ with expressions alone. “What? You never seen the Evil Dead franchise?” Mia whispered, “Not a fan of zombies movies?”

“You watched me rise from the depths, fight other knights, and you’re asking me if I’ve seen a movie?” Ash said, in disbelief at her question yet finding himself amused by it at the same time.

“I take it that you don’t have Netflix in the void then.”

Watching the duo snicker and conspire with each other like a pair of high school delinquents, the Head Nun rubbed her forehead as a migraine began to surface. She was losing control once again thanks to double trouble. Even the other girls who were patiently waiting began talking among each other. “Oh my god… like I thought, this was the worst combination I’ve ever seen in my lifetime…,” the Head Nun muttered to herself. She covered her face as she shook her head slowly as if she was contemplating something. “I didn’t realize it would be this bad… Out of all the times for that guy to make an appearance, he had to end up with her,” she continued muttering before ultimately lifting her head to look down at Mia and her summoned knight. The Head Nun needed to separate them. “Ah, Two? I don’t mean to disturb your… fun. But you summoned one of the more… troublesome knights considering his background. I’ll allow you to “re-roll”. How does that sound?” the Head Nun spoke, her voice sickening sweet and obviously fake.

Mia and Ash quickly turned to look at each other for how their partner would react. They wordlessly conversed with Mia gesturing the two of them then to the Head Nun. Ash’s only reply was an uncaring shrug but ended up nervously shaking off the water that stuck to his hair to appear distracted. “Yeah… no deal, Howie Mandel,” Mia said, trailing off for a moment to gauge last minute expressions from Ash before turning her full attention on the Head Nun. “You doing that makes me want to stick with Mr. Abominable Albino even more,” she said.

“Abominable Albino?” Ash said. He had a hand over his chest and appeared almost offending by the alliteration. He was hardly offended by being called such a thing but the fact that Mia wasted a braincell to make an awful pun in the middle of a fantastical end-of-the-world scenario.

“Whenever some untrustworthy figure makes some inflammatory comment about one of the leads, they’re obviously doing that to cause aa divide between the leads for their own benefit,” Mia continued as she ignored Ash’s offense to her words. She waved her hand in the air as if to disperse the fog of misinformation. “You even had a mini aside moment where you muttered to the readers that there’s something more about Ash!”

“Pardon?”

The Head Nun looked completely lost as Mia’s rambling turned to the meta and spoke about invisible audience members. But just like Ash, Mia ignored her words to continue her spiel. “And even if he’s a piece of shit. Worthless. Good for nothing. Pathetic. Dead weight. Only a pretty vase-“

“Okay. I think she gets it already,” Ash said, cutting in as the terms began to pile in his heart. He squeezed Mia’s shoulder to have her move on to the point.

“I will never give him up,” Mia said.

“And... why is that?” the Head Nun asked, wringing her dress in fear that Mia figured something out that she wasn’t supposed to.

“Because he is hot. I made that pretty clear since the beginning,” Mia said. She held her head high and mighty with not even a hint of shame. For a moment, Ash was about to feel touched by Mia coming to his defense. Touched enough that it would make him loyal to her and act as a spark to a turbulent but heartfelt young adult love story which would turn into a mildly popular trilogy with an eventual movie deal before fading into obscurity. But the curtains closed on that sparkling yet oddly specific future as Ash realized that he was stuck with the weird kid. “I mean- I guess I value him as a person too… or something. Power of belief or whatever inspirational term author’s like to use to tug on heartstrings.”