#since my outline didn't go that far initially

[jacky-rubou]

the 1st anniversary of my blind ford au is happening in a week on the seventh and I cannot believe it's been that long since i started this specific au. if i had gone with my previously normal plan to write everything before posting, i might've been done way earlier like the aus previous to this one were, but the quality of the fic might've suffered due to burnout forcing me to rush things like said other fics. i'm so glad i decided to do it this way, i can write for much longer if i need to, since i can take breaks between chapters. it isn't going to be rushed. as you are well aware now that it's almost been an entire year since i posted the first chapter haha. we're getting close to the weirdmaggedon + epilogue chapters, which will hopefully mean i can be done this year. big stuff!

[parfaitblogs]

oh my lover 𝜗𝜚 s. reid x reader

in which spencer reid undresses you for the first time. 

spencer reid x fem!reader. fluff/smut (18+ mdni). 0.8k words. established relationship. borderline body worshipping? actually he just loves you a lot. kind of soft dom!spencer but only if you squint. use of sweet girl and honey. 

a/n: i saw a textpost about this and thought it was wonderful beautiful incredible amazing. just a silly blurb because my motivation for writing has been almost nonexistent </3. enjoy my beautiful angels

spencer reid who didn't think he could meet somebody more nervous than him when it came to sexual intimacy, soon learning that he has fierce competition and that competition is you.

spencer reid who had to literally coax you into climbing onto his lap many moons ago because yes, he was kissing you, and you were close, but you weren't close enough and he had since discovered that he needs to feel every single inch of your body to be enjoying himself. 

spencer reid who was incredibly patient with you, allowing you to initiate quite literally every time you wanted to do something with him, for he was often in fear of pushing too many boundaries and screwing this all up. spencer reid who would ask before he made any moves, and you who had grown accustomed to quietly whispered phrases such as, 'can i kiss you, sweet girl?', and (more recently), 'do you want me to stop? no? okay, honey. i won't'. 

spencer reid who had you laying beneath him on the forest green sheets of his bed, kisses along your skin emitting the loveliest of whines and mewls from your lips, that had him borderline considering quitting every responsibility he had to focus on you. who was oh so hesitant about taking this any further, until you were so lost in a daze that you had subconsciously been pushing your shirt up your torso. spencer reid who had caught the sight, then your hand, stopping you from tugging it all the way off, an amused smile on his lips. 

spencer reid who murmured, 'can i take your shirt off?', and then laughed when you had feverishly nodded your head. who took his utmost of time with it, despite your complaints, pressing kisses up along the hot skin of your stomach with each inch the shirt uncovered. spencer reid who had to pause for a moment when he stared down at you, nowhere near fully naked but still so, so beautiful, to the point that his brain was malfunctioning. 

spencer reid who's fingers traced the outline of your bra, committing the image to memory the best he could despite the motor fry he was currently experiencing from the sight of you. who then took your bra off with so much ease, and began kissing the skin. again. who repeated every tiny ministration that tugged a moan from your throat, despite being something as small as an open-mouthed kiss on your ribcage. 

spencer reid who was trying to stay focussed on the task at hand (undressing you), but getting seemingly distracted by the way you arched your back when his lips had grazed oh so lightly over your nipples.

spencer reid who's fingers finally — finally — hooked under the waistband of your pants, kissing down your body once more, pulling them down your legs at the same time. spencer reid who looked up when he felt the air in the room shift, a layer of intensity coating the two of you, noting the almost worried expression on your face. 

who had asked, 'what's that look for?' and then been thoroughly confused when you expressed discomfort for him seeing you fully naked for the first time. who acknowledged that it was the first time anyone was seeing you naked, and it was a big deal, and he knew the feeling all too well. 

spencer reid who, instead of continuing straight away, lifted his head back to yours, kissing the tip of your nose and the corner of your mouth, thumbs rubbing soothing circles on your hip bones, slowly. who murmured, 'i'm going to think you're incredibly beautiful no matter what, but i will only go as far as you're willing'. spencer reid who swallowed the protests you had on your tongue about that matter with a kiss, shushing you and enforcing a silent promise that you are as beautiful as he says you are.

spencer reid who took his sweet fucking time removing your underwear from your body, marvelling at the sight of you and forcing his heart rate to remain at a normal enough rate so he could enjoy you properly. who kissed you again, and again, and again, mumbling incoherently about how pretty you looked in between each one. spencer reid who shushed you again, a little less seriously, because you were now giggling that he had this big brain of expansive knowledge, and the only word he could come up with for you was pretty. 

but, regardless, spencer reid who made you feel so immensely loved the entire night, successfully taking his time to kiss and admire each and every crevice of your body, until you were thoroughly exhausted, but pleasantly fulfilled. 

your reblogs and replies are always appreciated ♡

[knightyoomyoui]

The 1% Of Chances | TWICE Jeongyeon x Male Reader Fanfic: CHAPTER 9

Hellooo! Damn, it's been almost 8 months now since I haven't updated this book, and I almost forgot where I left off, which required me to re-read this book and the plot outline I made. Sorry for those who waited, but what's important now is that IT'S BACK, and I'm finally going to finish this to lessen the worklist I have on my drafts. We are now down to 3 chapters left, and so far, I'm also applying some little changes to the ending because I just thought of something better than the originally planned one.

Actually, there's nothing much going on here in the entirety of this chapter, but it serves as a short "calm before the storm" moment that will finally set us up for the climax down to the conclusion of the story.

Since Jeongyeon doesn't have a schedule for today—which includes you as her personal manager—you've both agreed to go somewhere more fun with your spare time rather than just spending it in the dorm.

She offered to drive you home in Jeongyeon's own vehicle, taking the wheel as soon as you were done loading. You were taken aback at first, but because it was her initiating the task, you didn't mind objecting and allowing her to proceed so as not to ruin her fun.

You sat at the passenger's seat next to Jeongyeon and laughed together before she started the engine and operated the vehicle, stepping on the accelerator to get you both to your first destination.

"Do you want me to play some music while you drive?" You asked her, aware at the fact that although you can find yourselves some topic to talk about throughout the ride, it might die down and make the atmosphere a bit boring and quiet.

"Sure." She quickly replied to you, agreeing to listen too. "Hey, wanna do some carpool karaoke?"

"Was that like doing a karaoke while in a car?"

"Nice catch, genius…?" Jeongyeon looked at you in a deadpan manner which caused you to be slightly embarrassed. "Ofcourse silly, you just reversed the name. And yeah, it's simply singing along while we're on a ride."

"Hmm sure, I'll take the male vocals."

"Nope, I want you to sing with me even if it's female." Jeongyeon shook her head.

"I can't sing that well, my voice isn't low pitch." You declined. "And… it's making me shy."

"What? Why? It's just the two of us come on." Jeongyeon whined as she bounced at her seat to express her disappointment. "I wanna see you sing along to some female led-songs."

"I don't sing one, I'm mostly into male-leds."

"You sure?" She side-eyed you. "Hmm then what about when I saw you having that Sabrina Carpenter song on your Spot-"

"Okay okay stop!" You became flushed as you didn't expect Jeongyeon would use this as a retort card to capture you on the corner. "Ugh, fine. But I was just curious about it because I've been hearing it a lot on my Insta feed so… I tried to give it a listen."

"It was a vibe actually." She agreed.

"Yeah it sounds so good. Don't know her that much but that's probably one of my songs I could use to cheer myself up."

"Should we listen to it?"

"Okay…" You were about to search for it on your playlist until you paused. "Wait, we're gonna sing too right?"

"Mmhmm.."

"But her voice was smooth there, I might ruin the song with my monstrous voice."

"Hey, who told you that?!" Jeongyeon knitted her brows in disapproval at the self-deprecating term you chose. "I always thought you'd be a great voice actor or something, and you probably had such a great deep voice. It doesn't even matter if you can't match the notes; all I want is for us to have fun. Just go with the vibe of the song, that's all."

Also, don't you want your partner to be happy?" She was teasing you, pouting her lips and making fun at you with her sulky attitude. You've noticed her habit, and it was too irresistable to ignore without being continuously obstinate.

"Okay, fine, I'm going to play it. Damn it, Jeong, you really know how my weak spot is." You clicked your tongue as you pinched her cheeks, which made her giggle like a little girl. As you played the music, both you and her sang along together. She did laugh at you, but not because of how horrible you sound as what you think of yourself. You were pretty average, and she was just reacting this way because she was obviously impressed by you.

After going through your third song, you noticed in the GPS tracker that you're shortly meters away from reaching the place where you are heading both. You've decided to share something that popped into your mind.

"This is honestly my second time of going here." You recalled. "I remember when me and my family used to come here way before I was young."

"How old were you back then?"

"Hmm… 17 I guess?" You said. "It was a celebration for my brother being an honor awardee in his school. I kinda missed going here, well I wanted to bit you know, time passes and we grow old enough and some interests don't stay with us forever. My brother is already at the right age and he doesn't feel to visit these sort of place anymore like he used to be. Well even if he does, we still wouldn't be able to do so anyway."

"Why so?"

"Broken family." You bitterly smiled. "It won't feel the same as before anymore."

Jeongyeon looked at you concerned and gripped your hand. "Sorry to hear that. Hey, let's stop talking about it if it'll make you comfortable. We're now here, let's not kill the mood alright?"

"Yeah, sorry Jeong. It's my fault."

"No, don't mind it. You just want to recollect some memories you had, and you know I'm willing to listen to your stories anytime you want. I'll be here if you need something to release within yourself okay?" She lightly punched you in the chest then ruffled your hair.

"Okay." You smiled nicely at her. She gave you a quick kiss on the lips after that, increasing your energy back at its full capacity for today.

"Let me park this big boy right here first." She said as she paid for the parking fee at the guard before proceeding to enter the vacant lot.

You and Jeongyeon got out of your car and took your stuff after finding a spot to park for a while. You take her hand obediently as she shows the tickets to gain entry into Lotte Park, your first of three destinations to have some alone time together. You strolled across the park's entrance afterwards.

She put on her mask to reduce the attention she might get from individuals who might recognize her as a member of TWICE and a K-Pop idol. Even if it means that she will have to give up her freedom to display her bare face in public, she doesn't want anyone to disrupt this moment with you. She doesn't care because, at this point, all that matters to her is to be with you today.

"Where should we head on first?" Jeongyeon said as she viewed the entire interior of the amusement park, the different rides, attractions, arcades and many more all visible in your eyes to choose.

"Hmm… I want to… I want to eat first."

"Yah, seriously?" She chuckled at you. "We just ate before going out of the dorm and now you're hungry again?"

"I love eating, you can't blame me."

"You're also unfair and unbelievable, you know? You eat this much and yet you don't get fat." Jeongyeon elbowed you on the stomach. "Alright, you male counterpart of Momo, what fast-food chain you want?"

"Some hotdog station will do."

"I'm easy to talk with, so let's go." She grabbed your wrist and pulled it with her like you're a child being dragged along by your mother.

Reaching the 2nd floor where the food section is at, both of you stepped in front of the hotdog station where you wanted to eat. She lets you choose the order first since you're the one who requested this, and you kindly obliged to it.

Minutes later, you have received your foods altogether and ate it while watching the visitors around the place, having fun in their own ways. Even at sightseeing was fun to do so with your carefree and adventurous girlfriend, there won't be an instance where she wouldn’t try to find something hilarious for both of you to share laughters with.

For instance, she was telling you how much the other members enjoyed hotdogs when she just broke out into laughter. She mentioned that she had just witnessed a dad stumble in front of the playhouse while chasing his child when you asked her why. Even though you may not have witnessed it directly, Jeongyeon's laughter is contagious enough to make you get along with her easily.

After emptying your hotdogs, Jeongyeon brought yourselves back onto the main business of going here in the park. You immediately said your first preference to try.

The couple has attempted almost the entire selection of rides, attractions, and arcades all around the main lobby of the park, leading to yourself being highly exhausted from the adrenaline, enthusiasm, and laughter you have both spent playing like crazy.

You two rest on a bench first to conserve your energy for the next destination. You volunteered to wipe Jeongyeon's sweat across her back and arms and also bought some cotton candy for you and her. Another brief conversation has passed through, and after making yourselves satisfied, you exit and ride the car again with her to head to the following location.

You took the wheel this time as you let Jeongyeon sleep for a while after she shared that she's feeling sleepy. It was a silent ride, so you reopened your playlist and played it at a minimal volume to avoid disrupting your girlfriend's peaceful sleep.

It took like 45 minutes to get to the Seoul Museum of History, which was your suggestion to visit with her since you have to learn the history of everything, from its origin to how it evolved and what it left for the next generations to either adapt or innovate with respect to the progress of time in our world.

You woke up, Jeongyeon, after successfully reaching the designatedplace. She nodded in response, and she did some adjustment of her look to prevent looking haggard outside from her sleep. Bringing your camera with you, she walked with you again with arms clasped on each other, accompanying you towards the entrance of the museum.

You happen to roam around and snap pictures of the items, people, and events that transpired or existed in South Korea with Jeongyeon as a keepsake of your time spent with her, and these areas are organized into categories via each floor. Additionally, Jeongyeon was amazed and intrigued by several fascinating informations you learnt about Seoul and South Korea as a whole.

Once you've finished looking over all of the artifacts, antiques, statues, and other items on exhibit inside, you tell Jeongyeon that your time is up and you may go on to your final destination and finish the day with her.

Driving under the sky of Korea, about to greet the nightfall with the gradual emergence of the bright moon and the soft transition of the clarity of the clouds to the darkness of the aerial perspective, you and Jeongyeon calmly watched the surroundings you two were passing while on the way there.

Sighting the familiar spot from the distance, it brought relief for the both of you that you have made through all of these safely and successfully, bringing much joy to each other. Parking the car again for the third time, you joined Jeongyeon to stroll with you around Seokcheon Lake Park, your final place to spend the remaining time available tonight with her.

Apart from the rows of cherry blossoms that surrounding them, both of them were thrilled to capture the stunning scenery that would be perfect for a lovely pair like you and Jeongyeon.

You have spotted a tteobokki cart and without hesitation, you bought each for yourselves and claimed an available bench in front of the lake as you take a break along with her.

"Oh… mhmm… wow. Tteobokki will always remain one of the greatest foods I've ever tasted." You complimented after chewing the rice cake and sipping its sweet and spicy sauce.

"I'm with you on that." She also took a bit again and hummed at how satisfying delicious it is. "We did shaped this day better as what we expected, right?"

"And we deserve this too, after such hectic schedule that we had from you. I just hope the girls are doing well too on their own." You replied.

"I'm most certain they are. They aren't choosy or like timid to try something to entertain themselves through their day off. They're basically easy to explore things as long as they develop interest to it." She said.

You finished your food and threw it at the nearby trash bin before returning beside your girlfriend and cuddle with her. While watching the reflection of the nightsky through the crystal clear water of the lake, you inserted a topic that suddenly crossed your mind.

"Jeongyeon, do you think we'll last long?"

She looks at you before returning her gaze back at the scenery in front of you two. You felt her shoulders shrug, but the way her arms clenched yours tighter is enough to confirm her answer.

"I don't know, but I really hope we do. We just have to commit ourselves to do anything that won't break our trust for each other."

"Yeah, and for me… I don't even think it's possible for neither one of us to fell out of love someday. Especially me, I really do love you a lot, Jeongyeon. So much that I think even after everything that may happen to us for better or for worse, my heart would always bring me back to you."

"Can tell the same as mine." Jeongyeon smiled and made her head more comfortable laying atop on your shoulder. "We'll either just leave the fate on us… or we create a fate of our own where no matter what happens, from the start until the end, it will still remain to be you and I forever."

"I really can't wait for our wedding in the future." You chuckled as you caress her hand, especially the finger that you would love to insert your engagement and wedding ring for her. "But about that… I still have something to accomplish first before we get through there."

Jeongyeon may have caught what you meant by that. "Are you sure about that, YN?"

"They definitely knew about our relationship now anyway, it's all around the news and internet. I say we must not take them too long waiting for us to confirm it ourselves."

"So you're ready now."

"Almost… but I can handle it. I-I'm a bit nervous still at what your parents are going to react."

"They have no problem with it when they confronted me about it. They're nice, YN. I'm sure you'll easily win their approval, I mean… you fit the qualities of what they like the most for a guy that will take their daughter to marry." Jeongyeon giggled and and blushed at that fact.

"So you mean they're not also against on you loving a non-celebrity guy like me?"

"Tsk, as if they give a damn about it." She rolled her eyes and stared at you a bit intensely. "Them and even I don't need somebody who is also popular to be told as my perfect match. I take love seriously, and what I need in return is somebody who can give me that pure and sincere. I'm not someone who prefers bragging a relationship because of our social status, I just want a man who is willing to love me for who I am inside and outside, and I found it from you, YN. Because of that, you have stolen my heart and gave me the feels."

She tried to be serious after admitting it all to you until she slowly cracks a laughter after she saw your expression noticing something suspcious.

"Wait a minute…" You also began to cackle with her. "Did you really just included a reference to The Feels?"

"Yah! I thought I was too slick for that." She conceded defeat. "But I said what I said, and you know I mean what I mean, YN."

You pulled her head against you and kissed her directly on the lips, which took some time for yourselves to separate as you encouraged her to move your mouths deeper to make your intimacy more passionate, just as you wanted it.

You leaned away for a second and stared deeply at Jeongyeon's sparkling eyes while brushing her pink tinted cheeks. "I know, Jeongyeon, and I'll always have it on my mind while I feel your love for me."

"Great, then get back here and let me give you more." She pulled your collar through her, forcefully inviting you back into another heated kiss of affection.

As they arrived on the dorm, you both tried to continue making out with each other when suddenly it got interrupted again when you felt a stinging pain again in your head returned from yesterday.

"YN what's happening to you?" Your girlfriend checks up on you as she observes you loose the hem of her shirt from your grip while you groan and crunch your face.

"It's hurting again…"

"What? Where is it?"

"My head." You said as you hold your skull to endure the kicking pain that causes you severe discomfort.

It made Jeongyeon alerted at your condition. She went through the first aid kit and looked for some painkiller pills and filled a glass of water before going back to you and instructed you to take it.

You followed her advice and she let you lay your head beside her neck as she cuddled you. She slowly laid you down on the bed with her and gently stroked your hair.

"Calm down, YN. It will be gone shortly. I think you're tired of everything we did today, so rest up for now okay?"

"Okay."

"There you go. Goodnight and love you." She kissed you on the forehead before she continues taking care of you.

"Love you too, Jeong. Goodnight."

Both of you went calm that it disappeared and the medicine worked atleast… although only for a while.

Two days later while you are currently helping the stylists who are applying make ups to Jeongyeon and cleaning all the managers' leftover food containers, another episode of pain attacked your head again. It became confusing and quite frightening to you that the more you're suffering from this, the more painful it gets compared to last time .

What's surprising was that it didn't also occur at night which was way earlier today, pointing that it also happens now at a random period of time.

“Unnie, he’s been like this since few days ago. I don’t know what to do.”

"Jeongyeon, join YN. I'll call emergency and JYP for a while." Sadness said as she hurriedly reported your condition to both of these important people that can hold responsibility for your currently worrying state.

She returned to the dressing room, passing through staffs and the other TWICE members who are heavily scared and worried for both of their friends. "The ambulance are on their way now. JYP also agreed and mentioned that he will pay some visit for YN afterwards."

"Thank you unnie." Jeongyeon nodded before she returned her gaze at you who is still clenching your body like a ball while gripping your head furiously in pain.

"Hold on for a while, YN. Okay? Help is coming. Please, I hope nothing bad must happen to you," she said as she started to get teary-eyed seeing the love of her life suffering in her arms.

The medical team arrived at the place a few minutes later and immediately rescued the poor YN, putting him on a stretcher while Jeongyeon insisted on joining her boyfriend's side on the way to the hospital.

She guarded you intently, watching you barely opening your eyes and weakly breathing, while the thoughts and feelings disturbing her were filled with fear and anxiety regarding your health.

[itsbenedict]

So this year went... not as good, vis-a-vis doing the things I wanted to do! Breaking down the goals...

Finish the first case of Justice/Arcana and revise the draft

Nnnnnope! I got through most of it, the players figured out the primary trick, but then I kind of hit a wall where I realized that I hadn't done enough to narrow down the culprit based on figuring out the trick. Doing so would require reworking the logistics such that the back room is the kitchen (an offscreen location the first draft never investigated) and characters have sandwich alibis. I've kind of got to go back to the drawing board here.

Finish the SakuraPetalFantasy walkthrough portion of Datasouls (not with the whole combat toy situation, just the rest of it)

Nope! I got chapter 4 done, but chapter 5 is only in an outline state right now. I did spend like a couple months doing Lost in Hearts instead, which built on the concept a little, but I didn't put in the work to finish things up.

Do 24 TFJ recaps, two per month

Nuh-uh. I got about halfway, but in addition to falling victim to my slump in the latter part of the year, TFJ itself kind of came to an unceremonious end due to some structural issues and player conflict. Current plan is to work with Farn to use the campaign as raw material to write a fantasy novel focusing on Saelhen.

Work through all the exercises in Genki 1 and 2, and catch up on WK reviews.

Nope- I mean, I caught up on reviews, but then fell out of the habit halfway through the year, and didn't finish the workbooks.

Date someone. I feel like I look decent and have a lot of desirable qualities that would make this not too hard to accomplish, but I have to put effort into looking or it’s never going to happen on its own. (I am unfortunately of the gender that doesn’t typically get asked out and has to take the initiative.) It’s gonna be tricky since I’m a weird person with weird life priorities and finding someone who’d actually be happy partnering up with that long-term is a tall order.

Haha, no. I wrote up a dating profile thing, and I did get one bite, but then she ghosted and it's been a couple months and it'd be awkward to try and go "hey, uh, are you still there?" at this point. I tried looking around myself, but I don't really know where to look- most dating sites are just hookup apps where you just swipe on faces nowadays, and that's useless to me. Everyone I've ever developed a crush on organically has been one of taken, ace, or lesbian, and at this point I have to assume there's a causal factor and I'm not just unlucky. I think I'm going to have to move somewhere more densely populated to have any shot at finding a good fit.

Actually get that standing desk walk-while-working workflow set up and establish an exercise routine that I keep to for more than half the year

Not quite. I did keep to an exercise routine for exactly seven months, but I didn't get the walk-while-working thing worked out- I haven't found any under-desk ellipticals that aren't extremely precarious and awkward to use while focusing on something else, so I'm thinking I should look for a mini treadmill next instead.

Release a functional version of that Fire Emblem content authoring tool

Nope! That was way more work than I expected- or at least, I expected I'd be able to keep working on it on and off throughout the year, which didn't happen. I did make pretty good progress, though- I'd say it's like, half done?

Replace grody old kitchen sink that has weird white stuff growing out from inside the handle

Okay I did do this one. But that was basically just a matter of ordering a thing on Home Depot and calling a plumber, so like, not exactly an achievement, just something I knew I'd keep forgetting to do indefinitely unless I put it on the list.

Finish the games I’m still playing through from this post

Almost! Still haven't finished The Sekimeiya, though I did make it far enough that I think I've got some kind of idea of how that egg thing works and how things fit together, even if there's a lot of gaps in the specifics.

Find some new source of income reliable enough to pay the bills without making me work more than 20 hours a week. (I’m a programmer, this is hypothetically doable.) Freelancing/contract work maybe?

Sorta? I did quit the horrible company that bought my division, but I stayed on as a contractor for miscellaneous stuff (and insisted on writing the noncompete clause out of the contract in negotiations, which they agreed to), and went back to work for the old company at the same time. At $100/hour, I worked an average of ten hours a week... kinda. The first five months or so, I worked almost not at all, living off my savings and doing odd jobs for less than my monthly expenses. The rest of the year, various disasters occurred and I was working my ass off putting out fires, so I was basically working full-time for much less than a full-time salary. I wouldn't say I nailed the employment situation, but I did keep my head above water.

How Come I Fucked Up?

Four reasons.

First, and smallest- halfway through the year was when the fires started at work and I started having way more stress and way less time. It was hard to focus on anything when something new was breaking and I was on the hook for it for months at a time.

Secondly: two of my grandparents died this year. Not only was this a pretty severe emotional blow, because they were amazing people and it's stupid and unfair that this happened- it also meant lots of traveling, to funerals and family events. It chewed through my budget and necessitated spending more hours on work, and left me exhausted and strung out for several weeks.

Thirdly and fourthly: the Elden Ring DLC came out, and also I got addicted to Pokérogue. I put... a stupid amount of hours into these games. Like two or three hours a day for multiple months. All my productive energy was consumed first by work, and then by vegging out and playing video games due to a lack of willpower.

This was a colossal failure. Like, from July onwards, I got practically nothing done. Half a year of my life, up in smoke! This is not sustainable. I need to do something major to course-correct here.

I think one thing that'll probably be worthwhile is... having failed to find a romantic partner, I need to move in with someone. I can resist the temptation to sit around like a lump doing repetitive videogames as long as there is some witness to my squalor. I'm very comfortable living alone, but I have to fight the temptation to vanish into comfort and never complete any of my many missions. I gotta have a friend around who can see when I'm wasting time, and cares at least a little about whether I'm getting things done.

So current plan is I'm moving to Providence with Farn pretty soon? And I'm going to try to land a flexible full-time position with just one of these companies I'm working with, so I can have health insurance and don't need to worry about being in the red during slow months.

[idrellegames]

Apologies if this (or anything similar) has been asked before, but how long did Wayfarer take to plan/write/etc before you started posting about it on tumblr or actually.. writing the game?

I'm currently in the very early planning stages of my own IF and I don't want to rush on making the worldbuilding. I imagine lots of planning went into Wayfarer (?) before you started to actually write the game or promote it on tumblr, and I suppose I'm just curious to know? Again, my apologies if this is a weird question or one you don't want to answer.

Oh that's a good question!

To be honest, I wouldn't use what I did as a good example of what to do. 😅 As some of you know, Wayfarer has its roots as a Dragon Age fan game. That game went nowhere (and has no similarities to Wayfarer other than Alexia, Ren, Calla and Aeran were all originally OCs for it), but it did mean that I had an audience from the DA fandom when I made the switch to original writing. I made this blog and did announcement posts and OC questions before I had anything substantially written. I released one demo in May 2019 and didn't get much further than that.

2020 was when I made changes and abandoned the fan game to work on what is now Wayfarer. I did about 5 months of plotting and planning before I made the announcement; I actually did most of the initial worldbuilding and outlines for a video game scriptwriting course I was taking at the time. I had to develop a game bible for a hypothetical game, so I used Wayfarer for that coursework, although that game bible is not very representative of what the game is now since I had to do specific things in specific ways to appease my professor.

The first thing I did after announcing the switch to orginal fiction was commission a portrait of Mel. 😂 I already had portraits of Aeran, Alexia, Ren and Calla and though those ones were commissioned while the game was still Dragon Age, their character designs are still the same. Though I don't think artwork is necessary to have a successful IF, it can be very helpful in terms of gaining an audience. Visuals are eye-catching!

I tried a lot of different things in 2020. Some things worked, some didn't. The first half of the year I was worldbuilding, outlining, and reworking the game bible. I wrote and coded a Prologue that eventually got scrapped, and the beginning of Episode 1 up to the fight with Kane, which didn't. I livestreamed it on my Twitch channel with my partner reading and doing voices (shout out to anyone who remembers Southern Sero because that was... a thing that happened).

I rewrote the Prologue with the one we have now in September 2020 and worked to add more material to Episode 1 before making an official game announcement in November 2020. I can't quite remember how far that first demo went, but I think it was the Prologue and Episode 1's fight with Kane if the player went to Rat Alley and up to the end of the meeting with Zenaida if the player went to the docks. All of that would have been around 51k words of playable content in the game when the demo released.

Looking back, I probably would have done things differently. I also think that there's no one way to make an IF. What works for one person is not necessarily going to work for another, it's okay to find your own path. 💗

But I can give a little bit of advice:

You need to know what you are writing before you go ahead and write it. IF is not a medium that can be pantsed (unless you're creating a short or micro game). Get comfortable plotting and outlining in well in advance. You should have an idea of how your game is going to shape up and the main thrust of the plot before you start, otherwise you're going to get overwhelmed with too many ideas and risk fizzling out.

To promote a game, you need to have a game. Before you launch an announcement post and officially start marketing your game, you need to have a playable demo with substantial content. Think of it this way: you only have one shot to make a first impression and it has to be a good one. The demo needs to introduce the player to their character, the world, the game's main mechanics, and a plot hook. The amount of work this is going to take is going to differ depending on the scope of your game and your writing style, but a character creator and 1000-3000 words is not going to cut it.

Don't use your blog as a way to worldbuild. Keep that offline and between you and your beta group or writing circle. If there's one repeat tendency I've seen a lot over the past few years of IF development on tumblr, it's that there is sometimes more interest in answering OC asks and writing flash fiction and answering prompts then there is in writing the game. These asks can be a lot of fun and can absolutely drive engagement for your blog, but at the end of the day they can either take away from the time and energy you should put towards your game or they will spoil the development of your characters for the players. The line between player engagement and player participation in a game's development is a very fine one that can get tricky to walk.

Worldbuilding isn't something that you do at the start and never again. It's something that grows with you as your write your project; sometimes you'll have to shift things and change them, fill in holes you didn't see coming, scrap ideas entirely. Allow yourself breathing room. I think you're off to a good start by knowing that you don't want to rush the worldbuilding. It's something that takes a lot of time to grow organically, and it's going to change and grow with you.

Good luck! 💖

[amywritesthings]

hi there! I want to start off on congratulating you for the success on P4. needless to say that it was very well received by the levi community.

that being said, I have some thoughts I wanted to ask about. was the ending to P4 the ending you originally had in mind or did it flow to you while you were writing the series (hopefully that makes sense lol)?

I speak for many of us when I say that I’d love to see a sequel. there are so many questions left unanswered. does the chemistry between reader and levi translate irl? does reader tell annie about levi and how does she react? does levi meet porco? ugh so many thoughts, so many possibilities

whether or not you decide on writing a sequel, I want to say that this my favorite levi series by far. I’ve never stopped thinking about this fic since I read the first part 🫶

Helloooo! Thank you so much for the thoughtful message, this means a lot. 🌸 The ending of P4 that you read is, in fact, the ending I wrote in my outline prior to posting part one.

For me, I struggle with finales. It took nearly nine months for me to even remotely entertain an ending for my longfic, SU. My goal with P4 (I actually wrote the idea a year go? i think?) was to have a definitive amount of chapters so I wouldn't just go onnn and onnn and onnn with a story. There are a lot of unanswered questions, and I know several people have already said they're upset Levi/Scarlet didn't actually hook up, but I think tackling the idea of navigating something parasocial to something real deserves a multitude of chapters in and of itself. It's a nuance I didn't want to sacrifice for the mysticism of this Sleepless in Seattle-esque story, so I chose to end it there as intended and stay true to my outline.

I'll be candid: I did not anticipate the response this story got. I literally wrote this story for @sixpennydame and @nube55 after the two of them were so encouraging and excited about the idea.

I don't mind sharing my bulletpoints, actually, if you'd interested in them under the cut - it's the same ending, but I changed a lot around re: order and how we got to the final dialogue.

(A lot changes between two months + actually sitting down to write a story and that's why i love writing as i update, because i can get influenced on the dime to change a dynamic/dialogue choice/etc. If this helps anyone see how I initially outline, then I'm happy to do so!)

i also talk to myself in the outlines, so. witness my insanity lmao.

[dottoreparadox]

Ok, I actually have more I want to say about Dottore's segments, but this stuff didn't fit into the 'how they were built' post.

So here we go. I'm not done with my bullshit yet.

So I think that we've seen four or five segments so far, assuming the ones we see in the manga are not the same ones we see in the game. (And that is an assumption. We could easily argue that the second one we see in the manga somewhat fits Omega in personality so they could be the same segment.)

I think I've probably lost a few of you by saying that, as the fandom tends to lump Webttore into a single segment. I am here to say that I think this is wrong. Webttore is the first segment we see and the one with the most screen time. He's the fucker with the pink bowtie who then turns Krupp into a robot.

(here we see my favorite panel of him. i too wish to zone the fuck out when i am placed in a meeting. major mood)

The other segment is the one we see at the end. This guy is much grumpier and less energetic. He also dresses in a somewhat darker color palette from what little we can see under his coat.

My main reason for thinking these are two separate segments (besides the slight differences in personality we see) is that they seem to hold different interests in research topics. Let me emphasize that part. One of the few canon pieces of info we have about the segments is that Dottore made them and then put each of them up to different tasks.

According to Childe: "I heard that he took segments of himself at different ages, made prostheses out of them, and assigned different tasks to each one."

Now, this is phrased like it's just gossip so it could very well be nonsense, but I think it's more likely to mean that he just got this info from a Harbinger other than Dottore. Which still makes it gossip, I guess, but gossip can be factual.

Anyways.

Webttore is very interested in Visions and is likely the segment responsible for the development of Delusions.

Webttore 2.0: Grumpy Boogaloo does not give a flying fuck about the remains of the Delusion Diluc mails him. One could argue that this is because it's broken and now useless, which was my initial take as well. But coming back to it with additional information on Dottore makes this feel less likely. We aren't given an area of research he is interested in (god remains maybe? since this guy had the racist caricature as a subordinate and he was experimenting with god remains and eleazar), but it does not seem to be Delusions.

(side note: while you can argue that webttore also seems really interested in robots since he turned krupp into one, i would argue back that any version of dottore will be interested in that. it's a key feature of being dottore. man loves robots and turning people into robots. that doesn't mean this isn't the segment assigned to the creation of delusions and continually looking to improve them even after their completion. it might even be a broader category than just delusions and instead be a more generalized topic of elemental energy manipulation, which could tie in to making robot people. idk. they gotta power them somehow)

The manga does have some discrepancies with the game and they might not have finished developing Dottore's character when they made this. I think they probably had the main characters and antagonists mostly fleshed out before they started making the game though. We did start seeing references to the different Harbingers all the way back in 1.0 (Capitano and Pantalone I believe are mentioned by NPCs? That was a long time ago. We def had the Crimson Witch lore though), so I think they likely had outlines of at least some of the Harbingers done by then. Since they featured Dottore in the manga, I would imagine he was one of the more complete ones, but I could be completely off base though and giving them credit where none is due. Tl;dr: take manga information with a grain of salt and always put info from the game first.

As for the Segments seen in the game, we definitely saw two (and possibly a third if the one in Winter Night's Lazzo was neither of the two in Sumeru).

Boat guy (who seemed cheerier than...I was about to say Omega but actually, we don't know which segment was Omega? Did Omega delete the others or was he boat guy? I'm gonna say he's the one who deleted the others cause narratively it makes the most sense.)

And the one negotiating with Nahida were definitely different segments. Yet I don't see any differences.

I think it's really interesting to note that the Segments were identical. We didn't see enough segments to make any definite statements, but if we consider how close the manga segments looked to each other and how close the game segments looks, it is possible that Dottore purposefully makes all his segments look the same despite them representing different points in his life.

If you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense for all the segments to be identical despite being different ages mentally. Dottore clearly employs their identical appearance as a tool in order to lower the guard of people he is manipulating by making them think he is somewhere else. And it's true, he is somewhere else. He just is also in multiple places at once. He's a headache like that. But it's true that no one expects there to be multiple Dottore and he is very willing to use that to his advantage. So making each of his segments look individual could actually be a draw back. He clearly doesn't respect them as individual people (see: him deleting all his segments and calling them surplus), so why would he make them look the age they're supposed to be?

But I don't think it's that simple either. If the manga and the video game are both true depictions, then it's equally possible that Dottore makes each of his segments in sets of two or maybe three. This would account for Columbina telling him he looked "very young today" and then asking about "the segment in the prime of his life." He could then pair them up in different regions. One would be out and being "seen," at least on occasion, while the other would be operating behind the scenes. It's honestly a pretty clever scheme, imo. How better to lower someone's guard than to make them confidant that you are one hundred percent gone? He could even go a step further and disguise one the way he did Escher while the other continues to look normal. (how the fuck did he do that, by the way? does he have cloaking technology? shapeshifting? unimportant)

Actually, wait, Columbina's words deserve a bit of a deeper dive. Because that part was actually really strange looking back on it. She said he looked young, but then, when we cut to the one in the "prime of his life," he looked identical. That's fucking weird. Look:

(bonus little guy)

Their outfits are different, but I don't actually see any differences in their physical appearance. Maybe their hair has some small differences?

This could be a reference to their mental ages rather than physical appearance then? Maybe? Columbina might not be human (our first non-withered/dead seelie, anyone?) and might not be viewing the segments based on their physical appearance. Especially since she walks around with her eyes bound closed. Sus. How's she seeing anything like that? Anyways, this could be evidence that they're all physically identical, or it might mean something else that we don't have the context to interpret yet.

Or it might just be the limits of making all the characters bishounen and beholden to one playable character model. Aging doesn't exist, right? Or it might have been Hoyo not wanting to develop another Dottore design. Who knows. Trying to figure out what's intentional, what's limited by it being a game, and what's just time crunch is difficult. It is weird though.

Alright. That was a good bit of rambling there. I think we can cut it here. I'm sure I'll be back to scream about the segments some more later. They absolutely fascinate me and I desperately want to blabber about how (i think) they work.

[blackhairedjjun]

flowers of every color | writer's behind the scenes!

some stuff about my writing process for the fic! be warned that if you haven't caught up yet, there are spoilers

tagging people who liked and/or replied my interest check post: @agustdiv1ne @mazeinthemoon @txtistheloml @kyaneosprincess @teletubbiesssss @banggyu0308

these are pretty long so i'm putting them behind a read-more hehe

story planning:

while we've gotten plenty of yeonjun in prince outfits over the years, the main inspiration for this fic is yeonjun's opening outfit in act: sweet mirage! i saw that and was like "oh man he would be SO DASHING as a prince 😍" and just went from there

if you've been here from the start, you might know that i didn't originally plan make a series! i just word-vomited the first chapter (well, what became the first chapter) directly into tumblr's post editor because the thought of prince!yeonjun wouldn't leave me alone, especially after seeing a few other prince/commoner and prince/servant fics floating around lol. chapter 1 is also the only chapter made using tumblr's legacy editor rather than their new one (which is also why the cover pics are one big edited photo and not 3 separate photos, i couldn't figure out how to get 3 photos to line up in the legacy editor).

i honestly did not expect people to read chapter 1 but they did!! and they liked the idea!! plus even after writing chapter 1 i STILL couldn't get the idea out of my head so i decided to write it as a full story. i've written plenty of oneshots before under my (non-kpop) ao3 account, but this is my first multichapter series! so i opened google docs and made a quick outline of the story's main events.

the original outline for foec had 6 chapters + 2 endings, but as i wrote the story, i realized that more detail and scenes were needed than what i initially outlined! chapters 3 and 4 (ball preparations + the ball / gazebo dance scene) were supposed to be one chapter. chapters 5 and 6 (y/n hanging out with the chois + getting caught + punishment + intro of arranged marriage) were also supposed to be one chapter. chapters 7-9 (end of friendship, reconciling with soogyu, y/n & beomgyu talk) were also supposed to be one chapter!

i actually started writing the bad ending first before the good ending -- my reasoning was that if i were the reader, i would want to save the good ending for last so that i could end the series on a positive note. i was very surprised when people voted for the good ending first in the poll LMAO also as far as i'm concerned, both endings are canon in a "branching timeline" kind of way. they are both the real ending! i do have a soft spot for the good ending but also i love angst too much to not write a bad ending haha.

honestly most of the story beats from my original outline made it into the final fic! the biggest change has to do with queen hwayoung's and princess ajin's roles in the story (more on that below).

character notes:

when i was first brainstorming i really wanted to include both taehyun and hueningkai in the story as well, but i struggle with writing ensemble casts and choi line + y/n (+ the supporting characters in the castle) were already enough for me to handle. soobin and beomgyu were the easiest for me to incorporate into the story since they have the same last name and i could go "oh in this universe they're part of the same royal house hence the same last name" HAHA. i do imagine that the house of choi princes are also friends with tyunning (kai does get alluded to in chapter 9), but they're off doing their own adventures.

some of little moments in the fic were inspired by actual things txt have done in variety shows! yeonjun, y/n, soobin, and beomgyu playing cards in chapter 5 is based off to do ep. 53 where they also play cards. soogyu playing badminton in chapter 8 is inspired by gbgb era idol human theater where they played a little badminton by the pool. and there are a lot more small character quirks that are inspired by gifs or fancams i've seen of them haha.

queen hwayoung and princess ajin were originally not supposed to be part of the story! my original idea was the have the arranged marriage subplot be heard secondhand by through advisers so that it feels like an invisible force pulling yeonjun away from y/n. but i needed to make the threat of the arranged marriage stronger and ended up writing the scene with queen hwayoung in it for chapter 6.

princess ajin especially was a late addition -- originally she was never supposed to appear at all, never visiting the castle and only speaking through her mom / royal advisors, so there was that threat of yeonjun being married off to someone he's never even met. but after looking through the feedback of chapter 6 i realized that i kinda-sorta accidentally made setup for her oops. people were wondering what she'd be like, and it would feel too anticlimactic to never have her appear in the story, so i wrote her in. which i don't regret because i did enjoy writing her big scene in chapter 10!

speaking of which: a friend of mine asked what happens to princess ajin, and honestly i wanted to give her proper closure too! but i couldn't find a way to fit it into the story in a way that felt natural. if you ask me though, she gains some level of political independence from her mom (represented by her visiting the castle in the good ending). she still marries for political reasons, to a prince or nobleman who is also in it for the politics, and at first they treat their marriage as a business partnership. eventually they grow close and form a devoted "i'd do anything for you" bond -- not necessarily romantic in nature, but caring in its own way. (i'm describing a queerplatonic relationship basically)

tbh i don't have the energy to write another multichapter right now, but i would love to see spinoff fics for soobin and beomgyu or even taehyun and kai as princes in their own kingdoms! so if you're reading this and you want to do it, you have my blessing <3

flower notes:

while some chapter titles were planned around a specific flower representing the events & progression of the story, others were not (because of the chapter splits i talked about earlier) and i just chose whatever flower was in it lol. the planned chapter title flowers are: yellow roses (ch2), pink roses (ch4), sunflowers (ch5), striped carnations (ch7) , purple hyacinths (ch9), red roses (ch10), daffodils (GE), and white lilies (BE). the unplanned title flowers are: irises (ch1), lilies of the valley (ch3), red and purple zinnias (ch6), sweet peas (ch8).

i mostly used this website as a reference for the language of flowers, BUT i also double check with one or two other websites to make sure i'm getting an established flower meaning and not something made up! when i started fic planning i made a list of flowers with meanings that fit the main story beats and character progressions, then picked the ones with the most established meanings (i.e. supported by multiple "language of flowers" websites) and/or the ones that were appropriate for the growing season.

even though i wrote a disclaimer not to pay attention to botanical accuracy re: seasonal flowering times, i originally envisioned the fic to take place over the spring. then when it got longer, i imagined it taking place over spring and summer, so i tried (keyword: tried) to choose seasonally appropriate flowers or flowers that bloom year-round. this is hard for me because i live in a tropical country. i have never seen a lot of these flowers in person because they don't grow in the climate here, and i have no idea what a four-season year feels like. so i decided not to put time-of-year markers in the fic and leave the season ambiguous, and added that disclaimer about the flowers' accuracy.

an example of this: chapter 9 is named after purple hyacinths. i first decided on this back when the story was only supposed to take place during the spring, since hyacinths are a spring flower. i considered naming it after hydrangeas because they mean something like "thank you for understanding" (i.e. y/n going "thank you for understanding what a hard position i'm in" to yeonjun), and also because they're one of my favorite flowers. but i wasn't sure about their seasonal appropriateness since some sources said that they bloom during early summer so i changed it to hyacinths. BUT THEN the fic got long and i started imagining that the later chapters take place in the summer SO the hyacinths ended up being seasonally inappropriate after all! and hydrangeas would have been more appropriate! especially since txt literally has a song called hydrangea love out aarghhh noooo but anyway it is what it is

other flowers that didn't make the cut + their meanings: sweet william (gallantry), alstroemeria (friendship or devotion), freesia (friendship, thoughtfulness), white tulips (forgiveness, consideration, respect), thyme (courage, strength)

other notes:

the key lime pie in chapter 6 is based on a real pie that i ate at my friend's house when i visited her there and i thought it was the most delicious thing i have ever eaten. in the original draft it was a lemon tart!

i wanted to keep this series strictly sfw, but i did consider making both the good and bad endings have suggestive, fade-to-black scenes. for the good ending, the suggestive part would have involved y/n in yeonjun's room the night after their speech / before waking up together. for the bad ending, it would have happened when yeonjun visits y/n's quarters. i didn't write them bc i... am not good with anything suggestive or nsfw klsadjfklasjd

I COMPLETELY FORGOT BUT Y/N'S FATHER WAS ALSO IN THE AUDIENCE FOR THEIR SPEECH IN THE GOOD ENDING... i have no excuse for not writing him in other than I Forgot. i am so sorry but please imagine he was there

--

that's all i can think of for now! if you have other questions about foec or my writing process please please feel free to reply to this post or send an ask <3

[phantomoftheorpheum]

PLL: OS (Summer School) 2x06 thoughts pt. 2

*Spoilers for 2x01-2x06 of Summer School + the trailer for the final 3 episodes.

Okay, I've had a little time to decompress from my immediate reaction to the episode, and I feel like there are a couple of things I forgot to talk about, or that have been nagging me now that I've had to time skim back through the episode again. These thoughts are going to be a bit less structured, but here we go-

There's an up close shot of the knife that Rose tries to stab Imogen with (it looks like the same knife she's had all season). I'm far from a knife expert, so I don't know if it provides any clues, but it kinda looks... rustic? Idk, it's giving me a "cabin in the woods" kind of vibe, visually. Anybody know what kind of knife it is and if it has significance? Is it possible we've seen a character with this actual knife (beside BR, obviously?)

One of the things that is making me more suspicious of Christian is that sometimes he says stuff that feels very planned and stilted. This has always been the case, but I initially brushed it off as being down to some awkward introductory stuff for his character, but I felt this a lot when he and Tabby were at Wes's and he's like (paraphrasing) "Everything you said about this guy was true, he's a fucking poser," and it just felt... like a rehearsed line. Since I am unfamiliar with this actor, I don't know if this is a reflection of the character or of the performance (or just the writing, sometimes the dialogue in this show...). But it just feels like, "Oh, let's go investigate where Wes is. Wow, look at all this potentially incriminating stuff, what a surprise," and that makes me suspicious that Christian is setting Wes up. I have been Wes' #1 hater, and to be clear this doesn't make me like him any better, but Christian's "hatred" of Wes feels a bit... potentially leading? (this wording has been edited, as the original post included poor phrasing that caused offense to a reader) Like he's been very anti-Wes, and while he is correct, it feels like it could be deflection (does he even know about Wes grooming Tabby last season?), or perhaps as a tactic to distance himself from Wes because they're working together. Christian does have the "too good to be true," kind of presence, but since they did that with Henry, Ash, and Shawn last season, and none of those characters turned out to be villains (in season 1, anyway), it feels like this show just has a tendency to do that sometimes. But Christian has had a lot of screen time for having basically no conflict/flaws.

Johnny & Shawn both have the "too good to be true" thing going on too, but we don't see them as much. Shawn has a potential motive (if he knows/knew about Noa cheating on him), and Jen is clearly portrayed as a flawed character, so both Shawn & Jen have some red flags (for opposite reasons) as far as "could they be involved in the BR plot?" and I've already outlined my suspicions of Johnny in my first 2x06 analysis.

Not to beat a dead horse or anything, but I went back and watched some scenes over again, and I brought this up after 2x05, but one thing that really gives me a negative gut reaction is the way that Jen responds to confrontation. She gets incredibly defensive (not a huge surprise, lots of people get defensive and double down when confronted), but then she'll try to turn the situation around into you feeling bad for her, and it feels so manipulative. Like- yes she stole the money from work, but don't be mad at her because their boss sucks and she and her mom really need it; or why would you be mad at her for nearly exposing your relationship and flat out taunting your boyfriend with it because she wasn't actually doing that she just wanted some coffee; or yeah, she did rob your boyfriend's house after he spent his money bailing her out and didn't even expect to be paid back, but it's just that all this has been really hard for her because you're taking too long to make up your mind. If someone did this to me in real life, you can bet your ass that I would not have it (listen, y'all only have my word for it, but one of the key things I'm known for with my friends is that I will not take your or anyone else's bullshit [probably why I relate to Faran the most and she's my favorite] and if you try it with me or with anyone I care about, I will call you on it), so this kind of thing will make me dig in my heels and stand my ground, because sorry, but you're not going to talk your way out of your poor behavior that's impacting me. ANYWAY, this really stood out to me in this episode, because after Noa tells the girls about Jen, I thought maybe the show was just going to lean fully into their relationship, and then the whole "Jen robbed Shawn's house," thing came out and we're back to square one again.

I was looking at that poster for the season (which, tbqh, I saw one time and didn't pay that much attention to until someone pointed it out to me, because I thought it was a fan edit) and it definitely feels like it implies a minimum of 3 people in on the BR thing. Could be more (since we see all the demon masks, which could be about Christian, but could be about Redemption House, or could be about the online cult) and we're going to have some massive reveal of a bunch of characters.

I do very much feel that there could be a reveal (possibly next episode) of an antagonist that is "bad," but not part of the bigger Bloody Rose conspiracy (like Chip last season).

I'm seeing a lot of chatter about Davie and while I know this show loves a twin twist, Davie has been so background this season, it does feel like that would be hard to pull off in a satisfying way. I guess I kind of was leaning more towards "Davie is a part of Imogen's internal journey," and less, "Davie or her twin are Bloody Rose." So... guess we'll find out.

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress 2024 #13-15✨

I thought I missed 2 weeks, but turns out it was 3 🤐

Weekly Progress #13

Submitted DGM Page

Submitted 1/2 Fan Project checkin

Fleshed out about 1/3-1/2 P^3 outline

Read through + ID'd illustration points for Fan Project #2

Weekly Progress #14

Made SYVNH Script plan

Copied SYVNH + Side B to renpy

Talked with SFB musician

Drafted a pitch

Initial scripting pass for SYVNH main story

Sketched SFB Dove & Avia sprites (additional poses + outfits)

Linearted SFB Raven sprite

Weekly Progress #15

Initial scripting pass for SYVNH Side B

Finished 19 new additional SYVNH art assets

Coded in additional SYVNH art

Programmed in Side B link in main menu

Scripted in additional SYVNH art

I had a lovely two weeks of scripting 🙂🙂🙂

Yes, I lost my mind. Yes, it was mostly missing to begin with so no harm done.

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel...HELP!!

As I discussed before, I do my scripting in multiple passes. Though, this time I checked to make sure my staging is good before doing sound bites and audio. I'll admit that it's mostly so I can listen to streams as I go through the rather mindnumbing task. There were 10 files for the main story remaining so I tasked myself to script 2 files per day. Each file varied from as little as 150 lines (like 1 file) to 200 lines (most files) to 300+ lines (1 ending) and completing 2 files/day took about 6-8 hours.

Scripting mistakes result in both above and below. ...This is what I get for calling MC's sprite "mcs" and the male extra sprite "ms" One missing letter gives me a black shadow jumpscare.

The Side B scripting was a bit forgiving. It's only 28 pages compared to Scenes 5-6's 55 pages. So altogether Side B only took me 2 days for first pass scripting. That gave me time during the rest of the week to draw... new art assets... that I realized I needed during scripting. Some of them weren't required, but I felt would make a scene flow better.

And since I'm an artist?

Of course I did all 19 of them.

Wait, this wasn't updated- Just trust that I did 19 new image assets, including 3 new sprites 😂

Here are some previews. Is that a familiar character? Maybe~

So yeah, I've coded and scripted in all the new art, but I haven't tested everything yet. I plan to do that when I add in the soundbites.

A Sky of Falling Birds

...Still don't know what sort of visual I want for the game so I just started making sprites and lineart. I might make a demo with just the flat color at this rate tbh.

I got some positive reactions on their sprite sketches, so that makes me shy happy ;//v//;

Peter Pan Project = P^3

Still no title, but I've gotten used to calling it P^3 right now haha.

I didn't get very far with this project in the last 3 weeks, but about a third-half the story is outlined.

The story comes in 2 parts. The first part is 2/3rds outlined (1.7k+ words). The second half of the story is two bullet points lol. Granted, The second half may be a rapid descend to a conclusion. The planning document is already 2.3k+ words, which surprised a few folks...? I think my longest planning document was 11k+ words.

Hopefully next time I update, I'll have more info to share.

[Fan Projects]

Not too much/anything I can show yet as project rules have me not sharing until specific dates. It will be for Ace Attorney and D. Gray Man c:

[queenburd]

....said you want to talk about mini-games and achievements endlessly so. bts from the ask game for it ????

eeee.

my favorite passage, hm.

haha okay I actually have a lot to say about the Countdown ending set up it's hilarious.

So I had this idea in my mind since I made a lil comment about the narrator joking about making the minigame in the co-op mode fic. I dont know if I had thought much about it before then but for the most part I didn't have any intent to write it until that bit. and then my entire brain went "oh they would be at it for AGES."

My initial thought was to start en media res, but then I was like "hang on if this is supposed to work, how would he get it functioning. I need to reference this properly."

And, me being me, I would feel REALLY BAD about loading up my game and making Stanley go through the countdown ending again and again and again just to get references for the environment in the light. Cos Im a goof. I ended up pulling up a YT video to reference the room from, and watched it and paused and rewound bits while I sort of outlined how the game would work. There was SO MUCH workshopping, and I did it before actually even starting the fic. and then I played the ending myself once to be sure.

(and then I gave Stanley the silly birds ending. and then I took him to the Zen room and closed the game without finishing that ending. I am.... I have issues. I love him too much. i could write a whole thing about me making my intents VERY CLEAR to a fuckin. game character. about what's about to happen.)

so I am really happy with the end result, it does feel almost like an actual game that can be played. It doesnt have EVERY element of the control room but it has most of them!

the narrator just loves making things for Stanley. the pair of them really have done everything to take the Parable and make it their own with what elements they have access to. that's my biggest takeaway from a lot of the drabbles Ive made--they cant change the routes a lot, and they cant make a lot of new things, but they CAN have individual experiences with the content they have, and they get really really far with it because they're both creative minds and they're working together.

[scratching92]

So I've been working a bit on my Currently-Unnamed Lancer Module, and I feel I've hit a bit of a wall as of late with regards to what, exactly, I want it to be about.

When I started writing some background for the setting my module takes place in, I basically wanted to hit two particular notes; firstly, that the setting was a former colony that had gained independence (in this case from SecComm). Secondly, that after the revolution, the planet devolved into infighting between the various factions that had participated in that revolution, resulting in on-again-off-again warfare across the planet.

I thought this would be neat to write about because, well, as much as I love a good story of plucky rebels fighting off their oppressors and liberating themselves, I'm also from a country that actually did have, in a certain sense, a bunch of plucky rebels fighting off their oppressors and liberating themselves, and... Well, look. I'm never going to say we were wrong to fight a war of independence, but we did kinda fight a civil war immediately afterwards. Life is just messy like that. And so I wanted to kind of touch upon that sort of thing a little.

But also, after I had written that setting lore, I looked back at my outline and realized it didn't really have much synergy with what I had written, beyond that it was, presumably, one of many wars since that initial collapse into in-fighting amongst the revolutionaries. So I figured "Fair enough. Let's throw out this current outline and draft up something that does!". So I did. And I think the new outline I have is decent! But... Once again, I'm finding myself wondering if my current outline is a little too far in the other direction. I'm worried now that it's no longer about the relationship between the various factions on the planet, but about the planet's general relationship to modern Union (and the complicated relationship between ThirdComm and SecComm, with ThirdComm both being a rejection of SecComm while also in a strange sense an inheritor of it (or, at least, an inheritor of the problems it made)). And it's making me consider throwing out what I've written again.

It's possible I'm just massively overthinking it, and a lot of my problems are just things that are always going to have to be left up to a GM to prep anyway even when working from a pre-written module. I'm planning on running the first session of a playtest pretty soon, so maybe I'll feel different once I've run my current outline with an actual group and it's no longer just abstract ideas on a page. I dunno. I guess we'll see in like... two months or however long it takes me to run this playtest game.

[bklynmusicnerd]

Can u outline what u want Trina’s storyline/arc/scenes to be going forward while Spencer is gone? I know for sure that I don’t want her in a boring Ashford/Curtis storyline of her helping him through his therapy. As bad as it sounds, I want a Depressed that turns into semi-dark Trina😂. Not dark as in evil, but a “ while I’m in my depressive state it’s fuck you, fuck your feelings, and fuck the world” type of dark. Preferably to her mom and Laura. Even though I love her borderline good girl who never puts a wrong personality, I want to see the effect and toll Spencer’s death has on her that changes her for the time being. Then after coming to terms and accepting his “death”, she slowly comes out of it right when he returns.

So I wanted to wait to see the week play out before I responded to this because I was really curious to see how they were gonna write Trina in the immediate aftermath of the moment. First of all, I just want to praise TA for playing the sort of quiet shock and the frustration in the middle of Trina's grief because the script they're giving her is very generic "soap heroine has just 'lost' her love" grief. I'm finding myself frustrated because I'm finding the way everything's playing out so far to be really lazy and by-the-books.

I actually think it would have been much more interesting to have Trina completely in denial about Spencer being dead and everyone around her fearing that she's refusing to process reality. I also feel like it would have been more true to her. Trina locking herself away with Curtis and Portia is too similar to the post-Rory stuff and I guess I'm just waiting for when the writing gets interesting for Trina again? I get what they're trying to do, Trina is depressed and gives up until she sees a sign of hope and she starts chasing that lead.

I just think it would be more true to Trina, and everything she's experienced (it's not her first rodeo with death at all), for her to dive into her work and ignore everyone just accepting that Spencer's dead. Have it culminate in frustration and anger over everyone "giving up" on him. The emotional beats are just being so rushed in the script that I almost think they should have just put Spencer in a coma if they didn't want to take a presumed death arc seriously.

Right now, I'm disappointed in this initial direction for Trina (strong performance from TA and EM in today's ep aside), I'm hoping it pivots soon, and I'm looking forward to my Cam and Trina bestie reunion and Nik and Trina interaction. I still want Gray Trina but more importantly I want ACTIVE Trina. I just think she's a proactive character at her core and I don't think her grief is really being written that way. So in the hope that things pivot and get better with this story, I want this all to build to Trina being entangled in Cassadine mess and interacting with Spencer's family more.

I also want them to lean into Trina's ruthlessness as hinted in lines like "let her bleed." We should have seen Trina expressing her rage over Esme ripping away her planned life yet again to Joss. They keep putting Trina through trauma but then dancing around letting her have ugly emotions. Grief isn't always pretty, Trina's shouldn't be.

Let Trina see the mercy that she showed Esme as a mistake that she'll never make again. Right now we're getting a Trina that's basically accepting defeat, I hope that changes soon. In general, I'm not planning on taking the Feb writing too seriously since those two got fired for a reason.

[writerrobinarnett]

hii it's always me! (this will be very long i'm so, so sorry 😭)

recently i was thinking a lot about the love square and how much dysfunctional it is in mlb (in my opinion at least) bc they put everything in the "last" season and they don't know how to write and i was wondering how you would evolve it to make those two (mike and will, obv) work without creating an unhealthy and unbalanced relationship. bc.

following the mlb's story we see that marinette likes adrien and chat noir likes ladybug. but for making their relationship balanced after a identity reveal they firstly make ladybug appreciate (in a almost romantic subtext) chat noir and make adrien appreciate marinette in the same way. bc in the numerous fanservice eps where they do a identity reveal and then they forget everything (not chat blanc) we see that marinette (as it should be) firstly is insecure and dosen't accept immediately that adrien is chatnoir. after some time she finally accepts it. then we have adrien- now. adrien always says he would've loved ladybug, whoever she really was. he dosen't care who she really is. so when he found out that ladybug is marinette... "well?? ok! nice! she's one of my bestfriends so that's nice!" no way dude. he IMMEDIATELY accepted that but he didn't love marinette for her qualities. he started dating her just bc she's ladybug and this is NOT OKAY. this is totally unbalanced and disrespectful to marinette. and the writers knew this. so, trying to "fix" everything (as usual...) they put in the basically last season that one day adrien woke up and said "ohh ig i'm in love with marinette now". and marinette woke up one day saying "wait... i like chatnoir now! and he also loves ladybug so i'm lucky this time!" and marinette's crush survived about two days. than marinette and adrien started dating (tbh... i liked how they worked as a couple but idk??? since the first season "ladybug, my love" and now???)

now. the whole point is. there will be moments where will and mike will start to "like like" their counterparts or you will build them in another way?

another question is: what do you think about the love square's building in mlb?

this came out very long, forgive me 😭

Great analysis of MLB! I love reading detailed and in-depth opinions like this one so no worries, it’s so cool to hear your perspective! I’ll share my incredibly long reply lol

The short answer is, yes, I am planning to show Mike and Will starting to “like like”their counterparts before the reveal. Now here’s the much, much longer answer lol.

First a WARNING: Some parts of the following explanation are a little bit SPOILERY, but not too much. Only if you are obsessive about having no spoilers. I’ll try to keep it pretty vague

Okay with that out of the way, I’m gonna share a lengthier explanation of my thought process for writing Strange and Miraculous Tales. It’s long so bear with me lol

So, obviously, Mike’s long-time crush on Will is gonna make the transition post-ID reveal relatively easy for him. After the shock wears off, Mike can transition pretty well into being comfortable with and/or progressing from platonic to romantic. (In my opinion anyway) Although, Mike is gonna have a lot to process before he gets to that point

Will is the difficult one. Obviously, there’s a lot of problems with falling in love as superheroes, since they can’t get to know each other properly. To combat this, when I drafted my initial outline, I decided that Will was going to start to see Mike in a different light (a more romantic one) before the ID reveal.

I’ve only showed this a little bit of this theme so far. I started off in the beginning (ch. 3) hinting that Will was demi and that he already thought Mike was kinda cute, but that he only likes people he’s known for a while/is comfortable with. I hoped to build on this over the course of the story, showing Will growing close with Mike (again lol) and giving him an opportunity to start falling in love with Mike, as they become close friends (even though Will doesn’t realize this is happening ‘cause he’s a little dumb sometimes). As the story progresses, Mike has also started lowering his guard and becoming a little less flustered, which also helps Will to get to know (and love) Mike more.

In case the theme is too subtle, here’s another example of one of the ways I showed Will starting to develop a minor crush (that he himself doesn’t realize yet): when Will thinks that Mike’s getting flustered is cute and enjoys teasing him in ch. 6. Will’s feelings towards Mike have been very, very subtle so far, but I intend to make a few, more overt references (of both of them falling for their counterparts) as we near the ID reveal. There might be other small references already in the story, but I can’t remember them atm. (Also, if you haven’t read ch. 20 yet, there’s a much more blatant reference to Will starting to develop feelings for Mike hehe)

As a side note: I’ve also tried to pepper in some of Chat thinking that Z is kind of cute, but dismissing the thoughts, because he knows he likes Will. For instance, Mike had a mini freak out about thinking Z was handsome/cute in ch. 5. And he also wanted to remember Z kissing him in ch. 7. What’s more, I will say… the time Z kissed him in Oblivio might be affecting Mike more than he’s let on so far 😉

To summarize – I’m trying to address the love square by having Mike having invasive, romantic thoughts about Zombie Boy, and Will developing some subtle feelings for Mike, before the identity reveal, just like you said.

Most importantly though, I hope you keep in mind that my version of an MLB ID reveal and byler getting together won’t be perfect. I’ve already tried to show them liking each other, but it might have been a little too subtle. I did my best to lay the groundwork for a healthy relationship, and I think I did pretty well… but I may have fallen short. (I try my best but I’m still regrettably, a human who does make mistakes 😅). What I’m trying to say is: I hope you can still enjoy the story, even if I don’t execute this section perfectly

Now! To address my thoughts on the love square in the show… I hope it’s not disappointing, but I don’t have a lot of thoughts lol. I am the kind of person who overanalyzes a lot (and often times I enjoy analyzing things), but when I’m watching TV, a lot of times I try to turn off my brain and tend to be forgiving, even when the writing is iffy.

The exceptions to this in MLB: (1) the reversal of the love square was so freaking disappointing to me. I had always loved MariChat before those episodes, because I believed that they could build a really strong relationship, if they just focused on getting to know each other as friends first (and that was the only part of the love square where they weren’t flustered fools). But the way the two of them completely fell apart in the show was such BS! Ladybug not being able to focus on her job as a hero, had me like, wtf guys! Bc Chat was totally fine when he liked LB, so why is it so different the other way around. And I don’t care if you promised yourself you’d stop liking Adrien for some (very BS) reason Marinette – if your crush suddenly likes you back and you still like him, why on earth wouldn’t you start dating him!?!?! (2) The second thing I hate in the writing is Lila, and the idiotic storylines where no one believed Marinette, and they all believed this random person, who just showed up, over their longtime friend. Stupid. And not fun stupid. Sorry for the rant lol.

Hope all of that answers your question! 😊 And I really hope that you aren’t thinking, “omg tmi” right now haha

[seancamerons]

I love semma so much. I love them so much. I have literally written roughly 60 pages of story for a universe I completely aside from a few things, made up, comprising and spanning over twenty years of time so far.

Impressive mildly, to say the least considering I rediscovered an outline for this from 2000s? I of course fleshed out doctored this storyline there's been quite a few versions of this story but ultimately I kind of have a hope that I have given my thirteen or fourteen year old self justice somehow?

At the very least I'm finding myself a writing machine which makes me feel good. 🙃

here's to the genuine hope that someday soon I will complete backtrack, find a way out of this corner I wrote myself into in together forever (an emjay vehicle and my pandemic baby), and some other long, multichaptered works. I suck at writing endings. ✍️

I always aspire to write a holiday esque story this might be the year it happens to be finished on time. Backtrack believe it or not was slated to be in the earlier chapters but I kind of diverged and I'll fated maybe this Christmas I pretty much scrapped and time got away from me is literally holidayesque. I have one I hadn't posted pretty much and this story ive been working on has always been a holiday type story but it doesn't like my other stories aren't all one ship there are multiple relationships interleaved such as in Backtrack there's Cranny and Janny in a weird triangle that ultimately leads to fall out for one ship and a full on romance for the other relationship which initially was planned to play out much differently than I started with, in this story mentioned above there is an original character and entire life that didn't pan out in canon who now exists in this universe I created circa 2003 and fleshed out and humanesque. By comparison Camille of Backtrack, the Wasaga Beach "girl next door" who is sort of cursed by where she comes from was somewhat based loosely on Theresa from The OC and also if you could believe it Haley James from One Tree Hill.

Camille, affectionately known as Cami or Cam, was Sean's childhood best friend he grew up with in Sean’s trailer park in Wasaga Beach. They were both not from money, she was a smart girl and had potential to be something but circumstances and luck seemed to not be on her side. While other kids in their neighborhood were about parties, drugs, are generally prone to growing up too fast, experimenting deviant behavior and the like they largely flocked together and that stuffc didn't phase them and they were boy and girl but the best of friends, the trope kind of Haley and Lucas or Steve and Robin. No sexual or romantic undertones what so ever. That was them, Sean and Camille, though at thirteen.

Camille knew Sean was going through a lot. Tyler Bishop was a popular guy who would push the other peers around but she never put up with that. Things were going in a bad direction and Sean’s anger was reaching a boiling point.

He blacked out in a rage and we know what happens next.

It's worth noting she initially dated or pursued Tyler, who was Sean's enemy, bully, and later catalyst for his departure from Wasaga, to get him off of Sean's back and she had a slight crush on him but she didn't intend to betray her best friend but tensions with Sean and Tyler only intensified.

When he went to live with Tracker, he unfortunately lost contact with Camille. She grew to love Tyler a little prior to Sean and Tracker’s fight, implied he

Fast forward to when Sean returned to Degrassi, and he and Tyler with Camille's now together in a long term happy relationship, Sean was able to bury the beef with Tyler and be peaceful and worked toward a friendship while they attended Wasaga High together for their junior year. Camille was still gearing up for her future. She still had good grades she had uncertainty about college and lack of funds and since Sean left she became a popular student through her relationship with Tyler and experienced the things they'd sort of thumb their nose at as young kids before things changed.

Sean then of course joined his friends back in Toronto at the start of the next school year and ultimately pursued the military and enlisted and all that. Fast forward to 2013 he briefly returns to his trailer park community. Camille is around, she wasn't successful post college and returned home after she graduated and is living with Tyler in this off and on revolving door relationship. She was in home Healthcare and taking care of Sean’s sickly father and her own older parents we don't really know them. The old friends catch up one night over beers and in their loneliness and drunken state have a brief hook up and one night stand resulting in a pregnancy and around the time Tyler and Camille reconcile. Days later Sean returns to Toronto and pursues a life there and also Emma who Camille knew all about her and was supportive of him. Their hook up wasn't something that ruined their friendship and was buried because she didn't know she was pregnant until months later. When she finally discovered it she assumed it was Tyler's because they were in a relationship around two days after Sean’s and they had make up sex. It's also worth noting Tyler is an alcoholic but he is a hardworking guy and loves Camille. He can't wait to be a father but she's looking for a way out because of his temper. They've had violent arguments before it's implied much like Theresa and Eddie in Chino and the animosity between Sean and Tyler in the past is the only real reason for their arrangement and she felts guilty, couoled with arguments and she can't justify staying together but ahe doesn't know how to be alone anymore. He's a very possessive boyfriend and she'd be arguably more successful and got away like Sean did if Tyler didn't root her in Wasaga and financial aspects and other influences too keep her complcant compliant and generally beat down so nothing changed really.

Tyler's alcoholism intensified with the financial stress of working more to provide for the incoming baby. It became more evident that there was a possibility that he might not be the father of the baby. Sean and Emma, since we're in a committed relationship, and paid his mom and dad a visit in a later chapter. Emma heard a doorbell ring and opened the door to find Camille in the early morning to take Sean's father's daily vitals and such visably pregnant. They shared a pleasant conversation while Sean slept unaware.

Emma had never heard of Camille or his life in Wasaga like it was some dirty little secret and she had limited information aside from how he wound up in Toronto but not the key players in the rest of it in the meantime. In Sean's past, she was key and instrumental. It needless to say hurt her feelings.

By now, all four are adults. The pregnancy on Camille is unplanned, but timing was on their side. Prior to this, Emma had been previously married to Spinner. They never had children and were currently divorced for over a year, and Sean and Emma reunited in December and quickly became romantic by Christmastime. Also, Tyler wants to be committed with Camille stable but his alcoholism and implied temper cause tensions and barriers and the fight to end all fights puts her in fight or flight mode and she ran away when he passed out.

somewhere along the lines prior to this all, Emma finds out she can't have a family of her own. She is essentially sterile Camille agreed to a surrogate situation upon finding out the news, and her circumstances being what they are it made the most logical sense. By now she sheltered by a battered women's drug and mental health center in Toronto since the violent fight with Tyler, she later meets Alex Nuñes there who is in recovery (drug addiction) become close as roommates. Sean and Emma catch wind through Alex of this situation, and Camille gets discharged, and she moves in with Sean and Emma.

[independentzaun]

Cats, unpredictable things.

Continued from here with @elisethetraveller

Elise would have pulled the hood tighter across her head if her hands had not been busy ensuring her cloak stayed closed. Especially since the ears started moving, shifting to what would have been a forward position to focus on Renata had they not been stuck beneath the heavy fabric. It was like they had a life of their own, and she could only be thankful that the tail was at least behind her as it drifted back and forth.

Still, despite everything, she was happy to see the other, and the teasing question made her smile in return. Elise had to admit she wasn't used to the other woman's new voice, the cybernetic sound so different from the voice she associated with her. That wasn't to say it didn't fit her new persona, and she'd seen its effect on people when the former brawler barked out orders. Elise felt bad as the other's voice trailed off, fearing that she had been too harsh in her rebuke. Had it been any other day, she would have welcomed the company, but today she was, indeed, busy.

Stepping back to avoid Renata's closer scrutiny, Elise relented. "Alright, come in then." Pushing the door open, she waited for the woman to enter before closing it behind her. "Though if I recall correctly, our last 'break' was anything but quick." The mage teased.

The inside of Elise's home was modest, and every table surface seemed to have at least a small bundle of papers, herbs or medical equipment. A couch sat almost in the middle of the room in front of a fireplace, though an outline against the wall revealed where it had initially stood. The corner of the room was occupied by a kitchen area, while two hallways led elsewhere into the little house.

"May I offer a drink? I don't have any Noxian wine, but I have both water and ale." She had more potent stuff too, but that was not for drinking. Moving towards the kitchen, the mage only made it halfway before she was stopped by the cloak catching on the corner of a table. The yank travelled, and before Elise could do anything, a fluffy ear was peeking out from beneath the fabric.

As always Renata was quite observant, and the little twitches under Elise’s hood made her rather curious. She still had no real idea what was going on, but she couldn’t resist the urge to find out if at all possible. Of course if Elise had actually said to leave she would have nodded, and accepted it. Elise wasn’t one of her people to control, and give orders to after all. However with Elise relenting there was a faint unseen smile under her mask as she stepped into Elise’s home.

A soft chuckle came from her as she nodded. “Perhaps, but it was still a very enjoyable break I must say.” Glancing around she shook her head. “I still think you should let me get you a larger place.” It wasn’t something Renata was going to argue about, but with how Elise used every surface possible it seemed like she couldn’t help the thought that other woman needed something more suitable. “That’s perfectly alright. I still enjoy a decent ale. You know it’s surprisingly difficult to get used to the water here again after being gone for a bit. Don’t misunderstand my body can handle it, but the tas...te…”

Turning around to see that fluffy ear peeking out Renata’s eyes widened a bit, and reaching up she hit a button making her mask retract so it was simply one piece next to her ear displaying her entire face. “Elise. Lovely. I don’t remember you having fluffy ears the last time I saw you… Is there something you’ve neglected to mention?” Sounding far more amused, and intrigued than anything else she took a step closer to Elise as she chuckled. “It suits you though. Cute.”