#so anyways sam and max art time is back

[sootnuki]

but when he walks in, i am loved, i am loved

[gaycrittercentral]

You know what Easter was days ago at this point but who give a shit!! Here’s a lil comic that’s been kickin around in my brain all the way since last Easter at least and just now saw the light of day lmao

[redactedshapes]

Not to sympathize with Zane but-

Let's forget for one minute the whole mystery if he changed from poet to filmmaker via spooky shenanigans for spooky yet unknown reasons, and instead we see him as an Artist(tm):

An artist who got famous for one of his works, to the point that to everyone he is said artwork. He's been mixed up with the character.

Everyone celebrating the one work of art and the one character, completely ignoring the artist is capable of doing a wider variety of artworks, maybe even ignoring his entire back catalogue.

The moment he did the one movie after immigrating? That's it, his reputation. Forget whatever he did in his homeland, foreigners in a foreign land have now decided he is Tom the Poet. It didn't matter at all that the character was voiced by some other person.

And now, let's entertain for a minute both possibilities being real at the same time: Alan Wake is a fictional character by Thomas Zane, and Thomas Zane is a fictional character by Alan Wake.

In both cases the character has the author's face. To the point that outside parties say it out loud - the Anderson bothers referring to Alan as Tom, Saga seeing a picture of Zane and wondering why does he look like Alan.

And the gall - Alan asking Thomas why does he look like him.

A fictional character now claiming the author's visage. The artist pigeon holed into one narrow genre. The Artist fighting his own work to reclaim his identity.

Thomas Zane goes as far as making a movie and once again play a character in it, but this time it's a different character. Tom is reclaiming his own visage. He plays writer Alan Wake in Yötön Yö.

There's no subtlety, there's no subtext!

Even when Remedy had Max Payne recast, Sam Lake was unable to get rid of the reputation, even if the character was voiced by a different actor. Recognized as Max Payne by foreigners in a foreign land(s).

And then, two decades later his face is back, but this time the IP belongs to Remedy. And it's not just the the voice and face of Max Payne with a different name - the author also plays as himself.

"Finally, voice and face are one and the same!" said Ilkka Villi/Tom Zane.

And if you take a step back, you could see Zane trying to take Casey from Alan as the deal between Remedy and Rockstar have with Max Payne. The IP was developed by one studio but belongs to the other. And now the original developers are reclaiming it by changing the name a little and inserting the character in one of their own IPs.

But you know, Casey is (in universe) a real person, same as a certain author in real life.

So, not to sympathize with Zane, but I understand why he gets annoyed when someone asks him if he was a poet. The poet could've been really just a character from his most famous work.

It is annoying when your name gets only recognized because of a narrow selection of your works. And that work may not even be the most meaningful to you or your favorite one!

These writers at Remedy are having so much fun and I'm glad they're all free to be as unhinged as they've been. I think they should go further.

Anyways, I propose Zane keeps getting confused with The Poet just to bully him lmao.

[stardustbarbarians]

Enchanted

A Daniel Wagner / Samuel Kiszka fic

Summary: Sometimes it takes some meddling to see what is right in front of you.

Tags: fluff, love spell au, very light angst, low-key funny

Words: 10.8 k

Author's Note: Happy (late) Valentine's Day!! I literally got the idea for this one the day of the holiday and proceeded to write this, thinking it would be at max like 2,000 words. So, yeah, this one kinda got away from me. Anyway, this is dedicated to @ofthecaravel for being more enthusiastic about this idea than I was (she also made the cover pic so everyone say thank you, Karou). Title taken from Enchanted by Taylor Swift. Please enjoy!! <3

+++

When Danny had the idea to go to the art fair near his house, he hadn’t thought he’d be walking away with an honest to god love potion. I mean, those aren’t real, right?? It’s all just made up for awful rom-coms and Disney movies. So, when that witchy woman had stopped him and gave it to him for free, he thought nothing of it. 

He had been weaving through the various booths, eyes catching on all the colorful and sometimes gaudy wares these artists were trying to pedal. Some of them were honestly good, others were just clearly trying to make a quick buck. Danny bought a few things; a few jewelry pieces he thought were cute and a fresh squeezed lemonade. 

“Danny?” a woman had spoken up, catching the drummer’s attention. He tensed up at being called out, hoping he wouldn’t be recognized but knowing it was always a possibility every time he left his house. 

Schooling his features to be warm and inviting, Daniel turned on his heel to face the woman. She was what Danny could only describe as a “contemporary witch”, complete with long, black hair and a revealing yet classy black dress and a wide-brimmed black hat. Danny had to suppress his scoff at how on the nose she looked, glancing around her clearly witch-themed, yet populated, booth. But, it clearly worked to help sell her goods, so who was he to judge. 

“Hey!” he responded, abandoning his wandering and making his way over to her. She smiled widely at him, her eyes lighting up as he approached. 

“Oh, my god. My friends are never gonna believe me,” she rushed, her tattooed hands fluttering to her chest. 

“How about we get a picture to prove it to them?” he offered, having gone through this enough times over the years to know that that was what most people were after when they spotted him. 

She nodded, searching frantically for her phone. When she pulled it out from behind the register, Daniel noticed two things. One; her hands were shaking. Two; her lock screen was a picture of him and Sam posed together. It was a picture of them on stage, embracing and beaming at one another and - wow, is that really what he looks like when he smiles at Sam? 

They took their picture, her asking for a hug from him which he happily gave her. 

“So, what brings you over this way?” the woman - ironically named Greta - asked, leaning against the table she had set her register up on. Danny worried for a second as her long hair passed over a candle, only for him to realize it wasn’t real. 

“Had a free afternoon to myself, thought I’d check the art fair out,” he answered honestly, a shrug of his shoulders tacked on at the end. 

She nodded acceptingly. “Find anything interesting?” 

Danny held up his fingers, wiggling them to show off the rings he purchased as well as shook his cup of lemonade in front of her, smiling. She laughed, her head tipping back a bit to show off a moth tattoo that rested under her clavicles. 

“That’s all, huh? You must be pretty picky.” She looked him up and down, her eyes feeling strangely like they were able to see past his physical form. Danny blamed that on the witch-themed booth she ran. 

Danny shrugged again. He didn’t think he was, but then again maybe he was. 

“Here,” she blurted out, jumping up from her perch to brush past him to go deeper into her booth. Daniel watched as she stopped in front of a display of bowls that held vials of various shapes and sizes. Each one was sorted by color, some of them even seeming to glow which made Daniel do a double take. There was probably just a light fixed at the base of the bowl to give them that effect. 

“On the house,” Greta chirped before tossing something at Daniel. He instinctively caught it, letting out a breath of relief that he had. When he got a proper look at it, Danny realized that she had thrown him a vial of baby pink liquid that had been sealed in a teardrop shaped glass vial. The top was a gradient into Barbie pink and formed to a point, sharp enough to probably kill a man. Daniel turned it over in his hand, the liquid sparkling in the light of the sun streaming in through an opening in the tent he was in. 

“What is this?” he dumbly asked, already knowing what the hell it was. 

“A love potion,” Greta flippantly answered. When Danny snapped his head up to look at the woman, he saw the mischievous glint in her eye that never reached her soft smile. 

Daniel coughed on his own spit as he swallowed wrong. He covered it up by taking a few sips of his lemonade. He had no idea how to react to that. 

“Uhh… that’s really kind of you, but I can’t take this.” 

“Nonsense. I insist,” she pressed, waving off his concerns with a wave of her hand. 

Daniel looked back and forth between the woman and the vial in his hand, weighing the pros and cons. Then he realized how ridiculous he was being. It was a kind gesture and love potions weren’t real. 

He tucked the vial into his pocket of his jean jacket and smiled. “Thanks!” 

“My pleasure,” she answered, that devilish gleam back in her eye as well as that feeling that she was seeing through him rather than at him, “and trust me, you will be thanking me later.” 

That made Daniel chuckle a bit nervously. She was starting to creep him out a bit; time to make a quick exit. 

“Right, well. Maybe I’ll see you at one of our upcoming shows!” Danny politely suggested, already backing out the way he had come in. 

“Of course! Talk to you later!” Greta’s last sentence sent a shiver up Danny’s spine. It felt like a promise rather than a send off. 

With one last quick smile, Danny got his ass out of there and trotted down the booths to get away. He definitely wanted to toss that so-called “love potion” away now. There was no telling what was actually in it. He’d just throw it into the next trash can he saw. 

+++

Daniel did not toss it away. Instead, he forgot about it completely and left it in his jacket pocket. It stayed there for a month, silently waiting for the next time someone would wear that jacket and find it. 

“Hey, Dan!” Danny was in his kitchen taking some ibuprofen for the headache he was fighting when he heard Sam call out for him. 

With a big gulp and a gag he didn’t even try to suppress as he felt the pills catch on the side of his throat, Danny responded with a shout of his own. “Yeah?!” 

“Can I borrow a jacket?! It’s cold as balls out and I don’t have one!” 

Setting his empty glass of water in the sink, Daniel ran a hand through his curls. Sam had stopped over at Danny’s before the band’s scheduled studio time so the two of them could carpool. 

“Yeah!” he shouted back. He went through a mental checklist to make sure he had everything he needed before he left, adding Sam to the bottom of that list. 

“What the fuck is this in your pocket?!” Sam called out again, breaking through Danny’s concentration. 

“I don’t know! I’m not over there!” 

It was quiet again for a moment, Danny quickly going through his checklist again as he passed by his laundry room to grab some socks from the pile. 

“Can I drink it?!” 

Daniel, starting to get a little frustrated by Sam’s antics already, huffed out in exasperation. 

“Go ahead!” he screamed harsher than he had meant to. But, really, how the hell was Daniel meant to know what the fuck Sam was talking about. It probably was a shot of fireball or something he never drank. And if Sam wanted to be tipsy while they recorded… Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. 

“It tastes like bubblegum!” Sam excitedly exclaimed, his voice louder as Danny was just around the corner from where he was stationed by the front door. 

“That’s great, buddy,” Daniel dismissed, walking past him briefly as he went to grab his sticks from the living room. Doing the pat down on his pockets to make sure he had his keys and wallet, Daniel finally rounded the corner to his front door only to see Sam sprawled out on the ground. 

“Sam?” Danny cautiously asked, hoping Sam was just being theatrical over how long Danny was taking to leave. 

But then he didn’t answer. Or move, for that matter. 

“Sammy?!” Daniel was distraught now, tossing his sticks to the side as he kneeled down next to Sam to shake him. 

He still wasn’t stirring, but at least his chest was moving. Daniel frantically searched for a pulse, lifting up his hand to check his wrist. That was when he spotted the nearly empty teardrop shaped vial in Sam’s hand and Danny’s heart sank even further. 

“No no no no-” Danny chanted under his breath, pressing his fingers into Sam’s wrist. His heart rate slowed a bit when he was able to feel Sam’s pulse in his fingertips. He sighed deeply, feeling his shoulders sag in relief. 

“C’mon, Sammy,” Danny implored, grabbing his friend by the shoulders and began to shake him. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough to make his head loll around his shoulders. 

When that didn’t work, Danny bit his lip as his brow knit together. He had an idea, but he’d feel awful for going through with it. With another sigh, Daniel resigned himself to it. 

“I’m sorry, Sam,” he murmured, pulling his right hand off the bassist’s shoulder. He reared it back and smacked it smartly against his friend’s cheek. Cringing at how loud the slap resounded in the echo-y chamber of his vestibule, Daniel smoothed his hand back over the pink mark blossoming on Sam’s face. 

It worked, to Danny’s utter relief. 

Sam’s eyes fluttered open as Daniel caressed his fingers across the angry outline of his hand, groaning as he lifted his hand to his forehead. 

“What the hell happened?” Sam grumbled out, sitting up on his own. Danny sat back onto his heels, raking his eyes over Sam to check for any signs of danger. 

“You drank the vial in my jacket and passed out, I guess,” Daniel tried to explain, the concern leaking through his tone. Sam still had yet to look at Danny, his eyes having shut once more as he sat fully upright. 

Huffing out a laugh, Sam looked at the vial in his hand, a drop of that baby pink liquid slipping out of the opening and splattering onto the floor. He turned it over in his fingers a few times before he spoke again. “Hell of a rush.” 

Daniel couldn’t help but snort, his worries easing significantly at the joke. Sam was going to be ok. Maybe a little groggy, but ok. That Greta girl should count herself lucky nothing worse had happened to Sam or else he’d bring down hell around her ears for hurting his best friend. 

“Alright, Sam. Let’s get you up or else we’ll be late for studio time,” Danny grunted out as he hauled Sam up to his feet by his arm. 

“Right, right,” Sam quietly answered, his hair flying out around him as he shook his head to presumably clear it. 

And that was when Sam looked at Danny for the first time since he fell. 

“I’m so fucking in love with you.” 

+++

“Hey, guys, we might want to reschedule.” 

“Yeah? And why is that?” Jake was the first one to look over at Daniel. And when he did, Danny watched as his entire body went rigid as his eyes flew wide open. 

“Something wrong- oh my god.” That was Josh, this time. And just like Jake, Josh’s eyes got comically wide as he took in the sight of Danny and Sam. 

And Daniel really couldn’t blame them. He’d have the same reaction if he saw his little brother clinging onto his best friend as if his life depended on it. 

Sam had long since jumped into Danny’s arms, his arms and legs wrapped around Daniel as if he were a monkey and Daniel his favorite tree. He had refused to get down, Danny having tried to fight him in the parking lot before entering the studio to get him to walk on his own, but Sam was having none of it. Even on the drive over, Sam had tried to climb into Danny’s lap a few times all while gushing about how pretty he thought Danny was. He finally got Sam to stay in his seat after promising to hold his hand as he drove. But as soon as they stepped out of the car, it was no holds barred. 

“What the hell is he doing?” Jake asked, his eyes still locked onto his baby brother’s strange behavior. 

“I’m holding the love of my life!” Sam answered for Daniel. And if Daniel’s face wasn’t burning before, he was certain it was set ablaze by that. And the worst part was Daniel could tell Sam was using a genuine tone. 

He watched the twins look between the two rhythm section members, their lips pursing as they took in the sight. Daniel wanted to hide his face in his hands, but they were currently holding his obnoxious best friend so he couldn’t. 

“Oooooooooo-k. Umm, what the fuck is going on?” Josh had abandoned his station at his microphone, setting the equipment down on a chair to his left before he joined Jake at his side. 

Danny sighed, his eyes closing in shame. He wanted to look everywhere else but at the twins and their calculating and bewildered gazes. 

“You wouldn't believe me if I told you.” Daniel let out a squeak after he spoke, Sam surprising him with kisses he placed on the side of Danny’s neck where his head was nuzzled. He tried to pull away, but Sam just chased after him with his lips. 

“Try us,” Josh answered, his arms crossing over his chest as his hip popped out. Jake was idly fiddling with his guitar, probably not even aware that he was playing at all, but his eyes never left Danny. 

With a deep sigh, Daniel launched into the story of Greta and her stupid fucking love potion. While he was explaining, he knew his story sounded made up. I mean, for god’s sake, the titular character shared the name of their band. It just sounded like he was caught in a lie. The only thing he knew would work in his favor was the potion vial that he had the foresight of bringing with him. 

It was a fight, but Daniel was able to wrangle Sam off of him and set his feet on the floor. However, the man still refused to let go of him completely. So Daniel had to live with Sam resting his head on his shoulder and wrapping his arms around Danny’s torso. With his hands finally free, Daniel was able to fish that vial out of his pocket and toss it over to the twins. 

Josh caught it, Jake watching it sail over towards his twin with his eyes. Daniel watched as they inspected it, the baby pink liquid still shimmering in the light. He pointedly ignored Sam and his embarrassing antics. Or, at least he tried to. It was very hard when he kept peppering kisses all over Danny’s cheek and neck as he spoke sweet nothings into his ear. Danny felt shivers dance their way across his skin, his veins warming at all the contact and compliments. But he refused to indulge in them. Sam was not himself right now and he would be damned if he was going to take advantage of him. But, they still felt nice. 

After a few seconds of turning over the evil liquid, Josh tossed it back over to Daniel. 

“Alright,” Jake started, pulling the cord out of his guitar, “we believe you.” 

“Really?” Danny was truly bewildered. He thought the twins were going to think it was some kind of stupid prank they were trying to pull on them. He was actually relieved they did. 

“Yeah. We’ve never seen Sam act this way before. Plus he’s a dog shit actor,” Josh answered, a laugh escaping his lips after the last sentence. Danny had to agree; he’d seen the movies Josh had made where Sam was the lead. There weren’t that many. 

“Oh, thank god. Because I need help.” Daniel’s tone was desperate, his hands trying to pull Sam’s off his waist. But every time he tried, Sam would just slide them back into place. He eventually gave up, huffing in resignation as Sam giggled in his ear. “Yeah, I’m gonna be honest with you on this one. I don’t know where we’ll even start,” Jake bluntly pointed out, placing his guitar on its stand. 

“What if you two try to contact the people who organized the fair and see if you can find the woman who sold me the…” God help him, “...the potion.” 

“Yeah, alright. What are you going to do?” Josh was already pulling out his phone, not looking at Danny as he spoke. 

“I’m going to see if maybe she posted that picture and contact her that way,” Daniel explained, having to shove Sam’s hips away from his own in order to get his phone from his back pocket. 

“Sounds like a plan. But how about we don’t do this here,” Jake posited, his eyes sliding over to where their producer and mixer were watching raptly as Sammy placed yet another series of kisses onto Danny. 

They all agreed. They wanted to spare both men as much embarrassment as possible and also minimize the possibility of this leaking and sending the wrong message to their fan base. 

Daniel offered up his house considering it was the closest. 

“And I’ll drive lovebug here, too.” Danny hooked his thumb towards where Sammy’s face was pressed into the side of Danny’s, a dopey smile on his face as he nuzzled deeper into Danny. 

“I don’t think you have a choice,” Josh so helpfully pointed out, trying poorly to suppress a laugh. 

“Yeah, ha ha. Let’s go,” Daniel sharply ordered, trying once more to rip Sam’s arms off of him and failing. 

“No, no, wait. Let us get one video for blackmail,” Jake quickly requested, already having his phone out and pointed at the two. 

Danny, knowing that there was no way they’d relent, groaned and let Jake record his misery. 

“Alright, Sammy. Tell us how you feel about Daniel,” Jake prompted, the laugh in his voice barely contained. The youngest perked up at the question, his smile getting brighter. 

“Well, where do I even begin! There’s so much I feel about him,” Sam cooed, resting his chin against Danny’s shoulder as he spoke. Danny felt Sam’s hair slip off his own shoulder as Sam tilted his head to get a better look at Danny. 

“Why don’t you start with the physical,” Josh, that bastard, piped up. Danny shot him a glare, Josh only responding with an “innocent” smile. 

“Oh! That’s easy! He’s got these beautiful dark eyes that you can easily get lost in. They’re this gorgeous shade of amber brown that have this nice green in them that remind me of moss in the forest. Oh! And when they catch the light just right they’re so bright and I get butterflies. And speaking of butterflies, when he smiles at me I can’t help but feel like I’m going to pass out from how beautifully warm and overwhelming it is-” 

“Alright,” Danny squeaked out, his voice cracking as his face began to heat up, “that’s enough.” 

“No, no, we’re just getting to the good part. Sam, what else about Danny do you like?” Danny bared his teeth at Jake. He knew it was ineffective, what, with his face burning as bright as a stop light. 

“Oh, his arms are really nice. I love it when he picks me up because then I can feel them flexing and it makes me all dizzy.” Sam’s voice was dripping in honey. It was so sweet it made Danny’s stomach ache. 

“Really? And what about his freckles?” 

“One of his best features, definitely. They get all dark and prominent in the summer when he gets more sun. He’s got 137 of them!” 

“Alright that’s-” 

“And what about Danny’s personality?” 

“He’s the sweetest guy ever! I swear, he’s so sweet he gives me cavities. Like this one time, I was feeling really down in the dumps and then Danny went out of his way to get me a case of my favorite beer and made me laugh so hard I nearly pissed myself. He just knows me sooooo well. And also he takes care of Rose the best and he is always so gentle and loving with her… what isn’t there to love?” 

“Ok, show’s over. We’re done here,” Daniel firmly decided, reaching out to yank Jake’s phone away from him and end the recording, holding it out of Jake’s reach as he tried to grab it back from him. 

Danny tossed it back at him when he was done, watching the guitarist nearly fumble the device to the ground. He shot Danny a confused look at his shift in mood, but he didn’t respond. He simply held onto Sam’s arms as he turned the two of them around and made for the door. 

As they walked to the car, Daniel pointedly did not think about the fact that Sam apparently just seemed to know how many freckles Danny had off the top of his head. Or how that made his heart flutter within his chest. 

+++

The car ride back was considerably less dangerous than the drive over; Sam hadn’t tried to climb into Danny’s lap since he preemptively laced their fingers together. However, Sammy hadn’t stopped talking. And it wasn’t his usual babbling, no. It was much worse. 

“I love you.” 

“I know.” 

“I love you.” 

“I know.” The shock of it had worn off at the thirtieth time Sammy had confessed it to Danny, that first time making the drummer jump out of his skin. Now it was just getting annoying, like the beep of a smoke detector. 

“You’re really hot,” Sam giggled, leaning his head across the consul and bumping it into Danny’s shoulder. 

Danny just groaned, throwing his head into the headrest behind him and asking god what he did wrong to deserve this cruel and unusual punishment. It was one thing to toy with his destiny, it was another entirely to play around with his emotions. 

“I hope we fucking crash,” he whined, the light turning green and taking his foot off the brake. 

“I hope we fuck.” 

Daniel felt his foot involuntarily slam down on the gas, forcing the both of them to jerk back in their seats as the engine loudly revved like an animal letting out a warning growl. Danny whipped his head over to Sam briefly, taking in his lashes batting flirtatiously and his wolfish grin. The driver felt his heart pounding in his chest, ripping his eyes away from his distracting passenger and forcing himself to look at the road. 

“What?” he croaked out, not really wanting to hear it again but also wanting to know if he heard Sam right. 

“You heard me,” was all Sam spoke in response, a dangerously flirtatious edge to his words that made Danny’s heart lurch in his chest. 

“Just… Just keep those thoughts to yourself, ok?” 

“Ok!” Sam cheerfully agreed, settling back down onto Danny’s shoulder. That was another thing about this that was driving Daniel slowly insane: Sam did almost everything Danny asked of him. 

He was so, utterly fucked. 

+++

“Ok, so Greta must be a popular name among artists or something because the fair organizer said there were about thirty booths registered under that name,” Jake explained after hanging up the phone. He tapped his pen on the pad of paper he’d been writing on idly, turned towards Danny’s spot on his couch. Sammy had tackled him onto it, curling up right against his chest like an oversized dog and refused to move. 

“Did she give you the list of businesses, too?” Danny asked, having to crane his neck to look over at Jake. 

“Yeah, and I was able to cross off a few of them already,” Jake answered, swiping away at his phone again.

“Nice work,” Danny praised, his eyes darting back to his phone. He and Josh had taken on scrolling through Danny’s instagram mentions in order to try and find the famed Greta. And, Jesus, people really loved tagging him in shit. They had been at it for hours and were still only finding posts from about two weeks ago. 

“Is this her?” Josh hoisted his phone up into Danny’s field of view. Danny squinted as he analyzed the woman’s face. 

“No,” he groaned, his frustration mounting as they had zero luck. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Sam like this, it was just… It was too much. Yeah, maybe Danny had been dreaming about this exact scenario for years, but this wasn’t how he wanted to get it. He’d felt guilt slam into him with every touch Sam bestowed upon him as he remembered that Sam wasn’t in control of his actions. It was that stupid fucking potion that was making Sam all cuddly and cute; the normal Sam would never do that. The normal Sam wouldn’t repeatedly confess his love for Danny in a myriad of ways, or kiss his neck and cheeks, or cling to him every second of the day. No matter how badly Danny wanted it to be true, Sam just wasn’t in love with Danny like the drummer was in love with the bassist. 

And that was the time that Sam decided to stir just enough to burrow deeper into his embrace with Daniel, grumbling something under his breath that was reminiscent of a cat purring. And just like it never happened, Sam fell back asleep again. Danny watched for a bit too long as Sam’s chest rose and fell with each even breath he took, his face held in a content smile as he dreamed away. 

“Man, I haven’t seen him curled up with someone like that since we were kids,” Josh commented, taking a break from his endless scrolling to crack his neck and stretch. He had watched the whole thing, Sam’s stirring and Daniel’s flush creeping onto his face as he gazed down at the cozy bass player. 

“What do you mean?” Danny had moved his own phone out of the way to properly look at Josh. The man had taken to sitting on the floor with his back against the couch that Sam and Danny were laying on. 

“The last time he looked that content while sleeping was probably when he was about eight-ish; that was when he stopped taking naps with mom,” the singer explained, his eyes cast upwards as if searching the farthest reaches of his mind. 

“What, are you calling me his mother?” Daniel felt his face pinch into one of disgust as he remembered what Sam had sprung on him during the ride over. 

“No, what he’s saying is Sam has always liked to cuddle, but only feels comfortable doing it with certain people,” Jake clarified, not even bothering to look up from his notepad. 

“Yeah, he’s never done that with us. And, now that I think about it, he’s never done that with his girlfriends, either. At least, from what I’ve seen, anyway,” Josh added, rambling just a tad at the end. He even brought his hand up to his chin as he thought, his fingers stroking the hair on it absently. 

Daniel had no idea what to do with that particular bit of information, so he elected to shove it into his mental box labeled “The Sam Incident” to be ignored until further notice. It was starting to become alarmingly full. 

He went back to his scrolling, his eyes beginning to burn with how long he’d been staring at the screen. He wasn’t aware that he’d taken to running his fingers through Sam’s hair and absently playing with it as he focused on finding the proverbial needle in a haystack. 

Right when he was about to take a break and grab something to eat, he spotted her. 

“AHA!” he exclaimed, bolting upright and rudely jolting Sam out of his peaceful slumber. The bassist even grumbled, rubbing at his eyes and shooting a grumpy look at his personal pillow for the violent awakening. Danny felt the sympathy ache in his chest for Sam, rubbing a soothing and apologetic hand over Sam’s arm. Though, with how frizzy and staticky his hair looked, Daniel had to bite his lip to keep from laughing at Sam. 

“You found her?” the twins asked simultaneously, Danny feeling briefly like he was in The Shining as they both gave him the same expression as he looked between them. 

Daniel nodded his head, turning his phone around to show the others. Sam took the opportunity to sleepily and unceremoniously flop himself down against the drummer’s chest face first, wrapping his arms around his waist. Danny instinctively placed his hand onto his back to steady him, rubbing it as Sam mumbled something into his chest that Danny could not understand. 

“Well, what are we waiting for?” Jake, ever the impatient one, urged Daniel. He pushed away from the table he was stationed at, making his way over to lean over the back of the couch to watch the drummer’s screen. 

danielrwagner: Hey, so uhhh

danielrwagner: This is going to be a strange question but

danielrwagner: Are you the woman who gave me a vial at an art show a month or so back? 

Daniel had set his phone down onto the couch, figuring he’d have to wait a while for a response - if he ever got one, that is. What he didn’t expect was for his phone to buzz almost immediately afterwards. 

StarshineGreta: Hi Danny!

StarshineGreta: Yes, that was me

StarshineGreta: Why did someone drink it? 

danielrwagner: Yeah

StarshineGreta: Who was it?

Daniel swallowed nervously, glancing down at Sammy who was still wedged into his chest and showing no signs that he was moving anytime soon. 

danielrwagner: …Sam

Call from StarshineGreta 

“Guys, what should I do?” Daniel panicked, his heart rate kicking up in speed inside his chest as his ringtone started to cheerfully chirp in his hand. He frantically looked back and forth between the twins, looking for their help. 

“Answer it!” Josh screeched, his thunderous voice that Daniel normally heard echoing through stadium speakers just as loud and commanding in his living room. 

With a nervous bite of his lip, Danny did as he was told. 

“Hey, Greta. Just so you know, you're on speaker with… with the whole band,” Daniel greeted, making sure to give her the courtesy of knowing that everyone could hear her. But, it seemed that she didn’t even register what he had said. Instead, she launched right into it. 

“Alright, how long ago did he drink it and what are his symptoms?” Her voice was nearly clinical if it weren’t for the clear enthusiasm dripping off her words. 

“He drank it at about ten this morning-” 

“And he’s acting like a lovesick puppy and won’t leave Daniel alone,” Josh interjected, leaning over so that he was closer to the phone to be heard. Though that wasn’t really necessary since the man had shouted, anyway. 

“Yeah, Sam won’t stop touching and cuddling him and if he tells him to quit it he gets all mopey and sad,” Jake added, flashing Danny a grin that Daniel merely glared at. She really didn’t need to know all that. 

The beat of silence that followed made Danny’s nerves spike into the stratosphere. What he didn’t know was that Greta had merely muted her own mic so that she could laugh as boisterously as she wanted to without being heard. 

“Interesting. And how much did he drink?” 

“Pretty much the whole thing. There’s about an eighth or so left in the bottle, I’d guess,” Daniel informed, feeling as if the vial in his pocket got heavier as he thought about it. 

“Wow. Ok, wow. No wonder he’s so clingy,” Greta replied, her surprise seeping into her tone. 

“I wouldn’t call him that-” 

“Dan. Try standing up.” 

Giving Jake a disgruntled look, Daniel tried exactly as suggested. As he did, Sam’s arms tightened around Sam and pulled him back down towards him. “Nooooooooo,” he had whined out in protest, his brow knitting together in a grumpy frown once more as he looked up at Danny through his lashes. 

“No,” he said again, this time more firm and accented by Sam’s grip readjusting around Danny’s ribs to pull himself even tighter against Danny’s chest. 

When Daniel looked over at the younger twin, he was met with a small yet smug smile of victory. 

“Shut up,” he lamely shot back, wanting to cross his arms over his chest but being prevented by a certain bass player. Instead, he just settled his free arm back onto Sam’s back right below where his hair stopped in the middle of his spine. 

“Is it a problem that he drank so much?” Josh asked, completely ignoring the exchange that happened between Jake and Daniel. 

“Not really, no. The effects will just be stronger than if he had just drank the recommended amount,” Greta explained. 

“Will it last longer?” Daniel quickly interjected, the horrifying thought of having to deal with Sam acting like this for a month causing panic to lance through his heart. 

“I don’t think so. Maybe a few extra hours, but it should be worn off by tomorrow evening.” 

“And how come your potion actually works? Like, why isn’t yours bullshit like the other ‘love potions’ out there?” Jake so delicately questioned. 

“Normally, most of mine are but… well…” Daniel did not like how her tone shifted from confident to apprehensive, “I won’t sugar coat it. The potions I make are meant to amplify what emotions are already inside someone. They can’t manufacture love or hate or happiness if they don’t already exist in the person who drank it.” 

After she finished her explanation, the room went silent. Daniel felt as if his mind was beginning to overheat inside his skull as he tried to process the information she had just dropped onto them. 

“I don’t get it,” Daniel croaked out, feeling as if his mind was halting all function as he stared blankly down at his phone. 

“Do you have that potion on you?” Greta’s voice wasn’t scheming, per say, but it was clear she had a plan. 

Daniel dug into his front pocket, fishing out the aforementioned vial. He held it up into the air, looking at it and wondering how something so unassuming could flip his world on its axis. 

Before the drummer could even respond to Greta, Jake had swiped it out of his hand so quickly Danny could only blink dumbly at the man. 

“Josh!” he called before tossing it towards the man. 

“Wait-” was all Daniel could get out before the singer had uncapped the vial and tossed it back like it was a shot. 

“Ooh, bubblegum flavored,” Josh cooed after he swallowed, flipping the vial in his hand after he replaced the cap. 

Daniel just sat frozen in place. Great, now he was going to have to deal with two Kiszkas attached to his hip at all times and he wasn’t going to be able to do anything-

“How ya feeling, Josh?” Jake had asked in a voice reminiscent of a gameshow host from the 70s. 

“Honestly, Jake, I feel no different. Daniel, I love you, man, but not like that,” Josh answered, pointing at his little brother curled up into Danny’s chest like an overgrown cat to prove his point. 

“So, that means…” Jake prompted, holding out his hand as if to cue Daniel to understand. It didn’t work. 

“I still don’t get it. And now I’ll have two of you on top of me-” 

“Oh my god,” Josh impatiently groaned, tossing his head back in frustration as he scrubbed a hand down his face. 

“Jesus, you’re dumb, Dan,” Jake added, exasperation of his own causing him to pinch the bridge of his nose as he shook his head. 

“I’m sure he’ll figure it out eventually,” Greta optimistically offered, her voice cutting through the groaning from the twins. 

“But, wait, what should I do? Is there anything I can do to help Sam? Or, like, cure him?” Danny inquired, electing to ignore the twins and their antics. 

“You’re just going to have to wait it out,” Greta answered, her voice not even remotely sympathetic to Danny’s plight. 

“Thanks for the insight, Greta.” Jake leaned in towards the phone again, giving it a two fingered salute. 

“Yeah, and thank you for the free blackmail!” Josh was smiling as he waved at the phone, his tone chipper and not at all matching the devious words he spoke. 

“Any time, boys!” 

And with that, the call had ended. 

“Well, we best get going,” Josh sighed as he got to his feet, stretching his arms over his head. 

“Yep. Seems like you and Sam need some time to yourselves.” Jake had playfully nudged his baby brother on the shoulder with his hand, Sam only responding with a half-hearted grunt of annoyance at being jostled. 

“Wait, hold on-” 

“Goodbye, lovebirds!” 

With a slam of the door that carried with it a sense of finality, Daniel was left alone with a love-drugged Sam. In his house. Alone. 

“I thought they’d never leave,” Sam yawned, mimicking his older brother from earlier as he stretched his arms above his head, his face pinching together as he did so. Daniel pointedly did not look at the sliver of tan skin the bassist exposed above his waistband as he stretched, a playful teasing of his happy trail poking out briefly. 

“Uh, what?” 

“The twins! I thought they wouldn’t take the hint,” Sam playfully implied, his hands tracing up from their perch on Daniel’s stomach to his pecs. And that was when he realized that Sammy was straddling his hips and looming above him with a look in his eye and a smirk on his lips that was anything but innocent. 

Danny was stuck in his position on the couch, feeling like those butterflies they displayed in glass with those pins that pierced through their wings stabbing through his own limbs. He felt frozen, caught between his own animalistic desire and his morality; the angel and devil on his shoulders waging a war. 

“Are you hungry?” Daniel squeaked out, his voice breaking as he shoved Sam off of him and bolted off the couch. He felt like his face was on fire as the rest of his skin prickled with its own heat. He stood himself on the opposite side of the room, all but pressing his back to the wall. He didn’t care what that witch or the twins said; Sammy would never do that. 

He’s not himself. 

Once Sam recovered from Danny tossing him into the couch, Sam turned those sultry eyes back onto the drummer. “Yeah. For you.” 

Daniel gulped. Sam’s voice had purred out of his lips, matching the very clear bedroom eyes he was shooting Daniel. And Danny was not liking how his body was reacting to that. 

“I’ll order sushi,” Daniel quickly stated before bolting out of the room and away from Sam as fast as he could. 

+++ 

Dinner was an ordeal. Daniel had to essentially manipulate Sammy into eating, which made him feel like garbage. But, he tried to reassure himself by saying it was for Sam’s own good. And if Danny had to use his powers of suggestion over Sam to do it, then it was just a means to an end. To be fair, it wasn’t like he was forcing Sam to do something like make out with Danny or anything like that. It was just getting him to eat his goddamn sushi. 

It also didn’t help that Sam had scooched his chair right up beside Danny’s and would move closer to him each time Danny had tried to move away. And then Sam had tried to feed Danny his food. Which was… an experience. 

“C’moooooooooon Danny! It’ll be cute like Lady and the Tramp!” Sam whined, waving his chopsticks in the air. 

Daniel, knowing his willpower against Sam was weakening, relented. He huffed out a “fine” and half-heartedly opened his mouth. Sam squealed excitedly before gently picking up a roll with his chopsticks and placing it between Danny’s lips. Daniel figured the pain of Sam’s nagging was worth the pleasure of seeing his brilliantly excited smile as Daniel chewed his sushi. 

“Ok, ok, now me!” Sam exclaimed, setting down his chopsticks before opening his mouth wide and sticking out his tongue like he was about to get his tonsils checked. 

With an exasperated yet fond sigh, Daniel selected a sushi roll and brought it up to Sam, cupping a hand underneath it to catch it if it fell. As he placed the sushi on Sam’s tongue, Daniel made the mistake of looking his friend in the eyes. When he did, his breath hitched inside his throat. Daniel could feel as the air around them crackled with a charged energy that sparked to life as their gazes met. And Daniel felt himself unable to tear his eyes away from Sam as he slowly pulled his chopsticks away.

When Sam slipped the food into his mouth and began to chew, that was when Daniel was able to look away. 

That was a few hours ago. The two of them were once again cuddled up on Danny’s couch, Sam trying his absolute best to get every part of his body touching every part of Daniel’s. They had thrown on a crime procedural show; Bones or Law & Order, Daniel didn’t know. He was far too distracted by how Sam kept attempting to get Danny to kiss him or let him blow him or an assortment of other things that made his face glow bright red. 

He’s not in his right mind, Daniel had to keep reminding himself. And he would not break to love-drugged Sam no matter how many times he would flash Danny those puppy eyes that would normally make him fold like a house of cards under a slight breeze. 

“Daaaaaaaanyyyyyyyyyy,” Sam sang, wiggling himself onto Danny’s lap in order to plant himself right in front of Daniel’s field of view. He would no longer be ignored, despite the fact that Sam had always had Danny’s full attention; he just was acting as though he hadn’t. 

“Sam, I’m trying to watch this,” Daniel weakly protested. He had no idea what the plot of the episode was, much less the actual name of the show. 

“Watch me instead,” Sam whined, his shoulders slouching as he theatrically threw his head back in frustration, “you’ve been ignoring me all day.” 

“That’s not true-” 

“It’s like you don’t love me.” And that was what finally caused Daniel to break his facade. He looked Sam right in the eyes, taking in the pout of his lips and the dejected nature of his eyes. Daniel isn’t ashamed to admit that he felt his chest ache at the sight. There was genuine heartbreak in Sammy’s eyes that did nothing to quell the guilt that had been thrumming through Daniel’s veins all day. 

Sam could not have been further from the truth, really. Daniel did love Sam. Like, embarrassingly so. He felt it swelling in his chest every second that he spent with Sam, even when he wasn’t with him. Actually, that was when he felt it the most, when Sam wasn’t with him. Those were the moments when he found himself wishing for the man to be near, feeling his heart long for his calming and wonderful presence. 

But, he knew Sam didn’t feel that way about Daniel. Danny knew Sam the best out of everyone on earth; he’d be able to tell who Sam was in love with. It wasn’t Daniel. 

“That-That’s not…” Danny didn’t know how to answer that. He really didn’t. He had no idea if Sam would remember anything from this after the potion wore off. He really did not want to risk the most precious thing in his life. 

Instead, Daniel just gently lowered Sam’s head down into the crook of his neck, wrapping his arms around Sam in order to pull him as tightly against his chest as he could. If he couldn’t say it, he’d show it. 

Sam calmed down after that, apparently perfectly content to just exist inside of Danny’s personal space. It wasn’t long after that Daniel felt drowsiness creep up on him. Despite not doing much moving around considering the human ball and chain known as Samuel Kiszka was attached to him all day prevented that, he was still exhausted. Emotionally, that is. Who knew having the love of your life falsely confessing his love for you would be so draining? Danny sure didn’t. 

“Alright,” Danny yawned, reaching for the remote to turn off the tv, “time for bed.” 

“Carry me,” Sam murmured, already half asleep against Danny. 

“Sam…” Daniel protested with a sigh, knowing that he was going to anyway but hoping Sam would change his mind. 

“Please, baby,” the bassist whined, moving his head so that one eye poked out from his curtain of hair to give Danny that wretched Puppy Look. 

Like the whipped man that he was, Danny just sighed as his shoulders sagged in defeat. After shuffling around Sam’s limbs to better fit around Danny as he stood, Daniel walked the two of them up to his bedroom. Danny decidedly did not think about what this would look like to an outsider. 

“When did you get so heavy,” Danny grunted halfway up the stairs. 

“It’s not nice to comment on a lady’s weight,” Sam shot back, his face still completely nuzzled into Danny’s neck. The breath of his words made Daniel have to suppress a shiver. 

“Oh, I didn’t know I was talking to a lady.” 

Sam giggled, the vibrant and gorgeous sound making Danny’s heart soar. 

Jesus, he was so doomed. 

+++

It had taken some master level bargaining on Daniel’s part, but he was able to convince Sam to leave him alone long enough so that they could each finish their nighttime routines. Daniel had just loaned Sam a pair of his sleep shorts and a shirt to use as pajamas; the shorts were just a bit too big on Sam and caused the waistband to sit dangerously low on his hips. Daniel found himself having to force his eyes to focus on anything other than that sliver of skin on Sam’s abdomen, which was an incredibly hard task. 

Daniel was far from surprised when Sam had climbed into the bed next to him and proceeded to wrap all of his limbs around Danny. It was like the man had managed to find the exact places where he would fit perfectly against Danny like he was meant to be there. Frankly, it was driving Daniel mad. 

“Don’t I get a kiss goodnight?” Sam hummed directly into the drummer’s ear, able to feel the vibrations in his best friend’s chest that was pressed into his side. 

The question made Danny sigh. He knew what would happen if he said no. 

“You’re going to keep going until I snap or give in, won’t you?” Daniel addressed the ceiling, unsure if he was speaking to Sam or god at this point. 

“Yep,” Sam replied, popping the P in the word. Daniel could hear the mischievous smile in his words. 

Now, it was just a matter of weighing Daniel’s conscience against his desire to get some goddamn rest. And, well, he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want to kiss Sam. But, once again, not like this. But… well, it wasn’t like they hadn’t kissed before. It happened a few years ago when they were both drunk; the both of them had laughed it off afterwards, but neither of them spoke of it again. Danny was sure that if he had explained to Sam that he was only doing it to get him to relent so that he could sleep, Sam would understand. Hell, this would be far from the first time Danny had done something Sam had asked of him to get him to shut up so he could sleep. 

“Fine,” Daniel had begrudgingly agreed, the word sighed out. But, before he could tell Sam that he was only going to get a quick peck and nothing else, Sam had pounced. 

Danny’s cries of protest had been drowned out by the press of Sam’s unfairly soft lips, his facial hair not an unpleasant bristle against his skin. But, no matter how good it felt, Danny couldn’t allow this to continue. There was just one small problem: Sam had managed to snake his hands from where they had wrapped around Danny’s torso to his head. He felt those lithe fingers weave their way into his curls, locking him in place like a boa constrictor did with their prey. No matter how… how hot that was, Daniel was the one in his right mind. He was the one responsible for his own action, so that meant he had to… to… oh, dear lord, Sam’s tongue was soft; feeling like the finest velvet money could buy. It beckoned Daniel’s own tongue, gently pleading with it to slip inside Sam’s mouth. And, truly, who was Danny to argue? And, god forgive him, Sam’s mouth was so warm and inviting, it should be a sin. 

Daniel blames his fixation on Sam’s mouth for the reason he failed to notice just how long their kiss had lasted. What finally broke him out of his trance was when Sam’s thigh slipped its way between Daniel’s own, brushing against his interested dick and pulling a surprised yelp from his lips. 

Fighting against Sam’s, admittedly strong, grip on his hair, Daniel pulled away from Sam. He made sure to physically push away Sam’s thigh from its spot between Danny’s legs, knowing that should have been his first act. He was out of breath; another indicator for just how he had failed to be responsible. And looking into Sam’s confused and hurt eyes did nothing to help the guilt mushrooming within his chest. 

“You’ll thank me later,” Daniel explained, even sounding out of breath as he tried to put as much distance between himself and Sam as the love-drugged man would allow. Or you’ll hate me later. 

“But what about here and now?” Sam whined, closing the precious distance Danny had built up. 

“You got what you wanted-” and fucking then some, “-just go to sleep.” 

“Daaaaaaaan-”

“Go to sleep, Sam.” Daniel snapped, immediately regretting his tone as soon as he saw the genuine hurt in those amber eyes. 

With a scowl, Sam settled down into the sheets. What hurt the most, though, was when Sam had retracted all of his limbs from where they intertwined with Daniel’s, flipping on his side to face away from his best friend. Despite having wished for it all day, Danny had no idea it would hurt so fucking much. 

Even though he wanted to so fucking badly, Daniel did not reconcile the situation. It was for the best, he had to tell himself. This way, Daniel would be able to actually sleep and Sam wouldn’t be as weirded out towards Danny when he inevitably snapped out of this spell. 

It was for the best. 

Then why does it feel so wrong? 

+++

Daniel had gotten no sleep. 

Despite how much he tried, it seemed that every time he closed his eyes he was met by the image of Sammy’s disappointed face. He knew, deep down, that it was the right thing for him to do, to push Sam away like that. But that really was a thin comfort when the hurt in Sam’s eyes before he disentangled himself from Danny was still playing on loop in his head. Isn’t that what he had been trying to avoid this whole time? Hurting Sam? And, somehow, he had managed to do just that. It was frustrating and exhausting and Danny just wanted to get some fucking sleep. 

Through the night, however, Sam had managed to intertwine himself once more with Danny. It felt like a hollow victory. And when he eventually, slowly, woke up, Sam had seemed to be completely over their spat from the night prior. 

He had simply stretched his arms over his head, his hair a mess of tangles and static, and asked Daniel about breakfast. How Danny had wished that he could just brush off what happened the night prior. 

The rest of the day had happened much like the day before; Sam refusing to let Danny stray too far from his touch. It had been inconvenient as Danny tried to go about his day with another person attached to him at the hip. However, he was able to adapt by lunch time. Sammy was still whispering things in his ear that made his blood simmer in his veins and did nothing to suppress his guilt at what images and scenarios his brain supplied him with. 

Daniel had resigned himself to the fact that his day now would revolve around Sam entirely. He had wanted to go to the grocery store to restock his fridge that was becoming barren, but he knew there was the possibility that someone would recognize the two of them and their… compromising position. 

So, instead of going out and being productive like he had wanted to, he sequestered the two of them to his house. They settled on a Harry Potter marathon, Daniel once again unable to focus on the screen whatsoever with Sam pawing at him continuously. Daniel had ordered food and plopped the two of them on the couch. 

By the fourth movie, Sam had fallen asleep in Danny’s lap. Daniel, now with those doe eyes off of him, felt that he was finally able to end his guise of watching the screen. It had reached the late afternoon, that golden light sun streaming in through the windows of his living room and highlighting the lazy dust mites floating in the air. Most devastatingly, however, was how that sun had focused on Sammy’s profile. The man looked angelic, ethereal in a way that should not be feasible for a mortal. His hair glowed a golden hue, making it look like a halo was crowned onto his head. It made Danny’s heart ache within his chest. 

Daniel had been so distracted by how gorgeous his best friend looked that he failed to really notice that Sammy was beginning to wake up. 

“Daniel?” Sam’s voice was gravelly again. Danny felt his eyes focus on Sam’s, snapping him back into his own mind. 

“Sam?” 

“Wh… What happened?” Sam had lifted himself off of Danny’s chest, sliding a hand from where it rested on the small of Danny’s back to grab at his head. He blinked rapidly, sweeping his eyes around the room as if it was foreign to him with a grimace on his face. 

“How much do you remember?” 

There was a pause before Sam responded, his eyes sliding their focus in on Danny’s. “Remember? Dan, I’m not missing any time.” 

And if that didn’t make Daniel’s blood run cold. 

“So… So…” Danny couldn’t spit it out. No matter how much he wanted to, he just couldn’t say that Sam knew everything. That would make it real. 

“So… what happened?” Sam prompted again, seeming to be more lucid with each passing second. 

Danny involuntarily gulped, feeling a cold sweat breaking out across his skin. Why was he so nervous? It wasn’t that hard to say what happened; he already told the twins. So why the hell was it so difficult to look Sam in the eye. 

“You… You remember that vial from my jacket that you drank?” 

“Mhm, tasted like bubblegum.” 

“...Yeah. Well, that uhh…” 

Oh, for fucks sake! Just say it! 

“It was a love potion,” Daniel rushed out, the words all mushing together to sound like one long word. 

Another beat of silence passed between the two, Sam staring down at Daniel from his perch in his lap and Daniel looking everywhere he could that wasn’t Sam’s eyes. He really wished Sam would move, it would at least help the raging blush on his cheeks. At least slightly. 

“Oh, sick!!” 

Finally, Daniel looked Sam in the eye. Of all the ways he had forecasted that Sam would react to that information, enthusiasm and whimsy was not even on the list. He had expected Sam to get awkward, to politely remove himself from Danny’s touch and make an exit as quickly as possible. He had far from expected Sam to link his hands behind Danny’s neck and eagerly inquire about the potion. 

“Dude, that’s so cool! You know what this means, don’t you??” 

“...No?” 

“Magic is real! And we just proved it!!” Sam’s smile was huge, bright enough to outshine the sun. 

“Sam-” 

“So, like, how does it actually work? Like, I remember that conversation we had with the witch about it only affecting those who already are in love, or whatever, but did she say the actual mechanics of how it worked? Like, is there a special ingredient that it needs to work?” Sam reminded Danny of a puppy in that moment. His eyes were bright and full of enthusiasm, his entire body buzzing with an energy that made it impossible for him to sit still. 

This time, it was Daniel who failed to give a timely response. His mind was too busy reeling over what Sam had glossed over during his rambling to properly process the man’s question. Realizing that the reason Sam was looking at him so expectantly was due to him waiting on the drummer, Danny shook his head to force it to work. 

“H-Hold on,” he began, taking a hand that had rested on Sam’s waist and bringing it up to his forehead, “you… you remember that conversation?? You were asleep!!” 

Danny hadn’t meant for his voice to come out like a screech, however he was just so damn confused that he really couldn’t focus the brain power on proper speech etiquette. 

“What?” Now it was Sam’s turn to knit his brow in confusion. “Oh, yeah! No, I was just faking it. It’s an old trick I pull out sometimes to get out of work; I started doing it so that Jake, Josh, and Ronnie were stuck doing chores instead of me.” 

Daniel felt like he was losing his mind. How was Sam so goddamn chipper about this?? 

“Ok. Ok. Oh my god.” Daniel forced himself to take a breath. It felt as if his entire world was crumbling beneath his feet and his brain was struggling to keep up with the rapidly shifting terrain. 

“So, you remember that whole conversation.” It wasn’t a question, though Danny had intended it to be. 

“Yep!” Danny felt a piece of his soul die at the chipper tone Sam used. He elected to ignore it. 

“And… that means you understand how it actually works…” 

“Apparently better than you did, Danny Boy,” Sam snarked, a playful grin that bordered on flirtatious spreading across his lips. 

Danny could only stare incredulously at Sam. 

“And you’re ok with it??” 

“...Yeah,” Sam answered slowly, “I already knew I was in love with you.” 

And that, right there, was how Daniel Wagner died. In retrospect, he had a good go of it. He was able to follow his dreams, be a rockstar. If he had to pick one, he’d say his one regret in life was ever befriending Samuel fucking Kiszka. It would have saved his life, after all. 

“Danny?” 

Sammy’s voice snapped him out of his cardiac arrest, pulling him back to the present. 

“Y-You… You…” Once again, Daniel felt like his brain was melting out of his head and pouring out of his ears. This can’t be real. Like, it just can’t. “You already… me??” 

“Yeah…” Sammy was looking at him strangely, as if Danny were the one acting weird. 

“You realize what you just told me, right??” 

“I don’t understand why you’re acting so surprised. You already knew this.” 

Danny tried to follow Sam’s logic in his head, he really did. He was still under the spell. He had to be. It was the only way Sam’s behavior made any sense to him. 

“Sam… you were drugged, ok? I don’t know exactly how, but those… your… actions were not your own,” Danny tried to explain, careful and gentle as possible. 

Then, it was as if a lightbulb went off inside Sam’s head. Daniel felt relief hit him; finally Sam got it. They could move past this and save their friendship. 

“Daniel, look at me,” Sammy slid his hands from behind Daniel’s neck to rest them on the sides of his face, positioning it so that Danny had to look at him, “I am not under any spell right now. I am in my sane mind, do you get me?” 

Danny opened his mouth to speak, but Sam cut him off before he had the ability to protest. 

“I am so fucking in love with you. Like, so fucking in love it’s probably illegal. And that was why the potion worked. Because I am in love with you. If I wasn’t, it wouldn’t have worked at all… do you understand what I am telling you in very clear, not-able-to-be-misinterpreted words?” Sam had said every sentence slowly and with a gravity to it that left no room for debate. They were spoken as fact; as law. Just how energy cannot be created nor destroyed, Sam Kiszka was in love with Daniel Wagner. 

Yet Daniel still had a hard time grasping the concept. 

“But… all that… that cuddling and-and kissing and all that… you’ve never acted that way before,” Daniel reasoned, believing this to be the work of the potion and hard evidence to support that belief. 

Sam just laughed, the noise warming up the ice that had frozen in Danny’s veins. 

“I always wanna kiss you, Daniel. The only reason I hadn’t yet was because I didn’t think you wanted me that way. And before you try and say it was the potion forcing me, it just never occurred to me to not act upon my feelings.” 

Danny was still apprehensive, unable to fully grapple with the concept that Sam wanted to kiss him at all times. But, he was beginning to see what everyone had been telling him the past 24 hours. 

“...Prove it.” 

With nothing but a quick “ok” spoken under his breath, Sam wasted no time launching forward and locking his lips with Danny’s. His hands slid from Danny’s cheeks to the back of his head, manipulating it so that Sam could tip it back and deepen the kiss. Once again, Danny felt dizzy. But, unlike the other kiss the two of them shared last night, this one was quick and urgent. Sam had something to prove and he was not about to let Daniel walk away from this without getting his point through Danny’s thick skull. 

It was Sam who eventually pulled away, having to gasp for air. 

“Holy shit,” Danny panted, his head feeling woozy as he took in the sight of his best friend looking absolutely ruined, yet giddy just from his lips. 

“Yeah,” Sam breathed in response, his smile turning dopey as he laughed. 

“You… You love me…” 

Danny watched in real time the excitement and shock that flooded Sam’s eyes. 

“Oh, thank fucking god,” Sam quickly uttered, throwing his head back, “YOU FINALLY GET IT!” Sam had taken to shaking Danny by the shoulders. 

“That’s actually great news because I’m also in love with you,” Daniel admitted, a giddiness of his own flooding his veins at finally being able to say those words out loud to Sam. 

“I would fucking hope so, you dense idiot.” There was no malice in Sam’s words. Quite the opposite, really. He had leaned back down onto Danny’s chest, burying his face into Danny’s neck as they embraced. 

“Wait… when did you-” 

“Truthfully? When we graduated.”

Daniel started to process what that meant. Since we graduated…

“YOU MEAN WE ACTUALLY COULD’VE FUCKED THIS WHOLE TIME??” 

+++

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[comingyourlugubriousness]

Something that doesn't make sense but compels me.

- Me and @bunnwich where talking about that troupe where characters get turned into lil kids and interact and I was like hmm. I imagine it's due to some alchemy class potion mishap!

In my mind Yume is 9ish here and Idia is 10.

(If you enjoy my art please consider commissioning me! Comm's close in a few days!)

Anyways on to my random thoughts: (warning long)

Younger Idia Headcanons:

Idia’s age would still be post losing Ortho and since it took him about 2 years to make Ortho, this would be an Idia that had been living with robot Ortho for only 1 year. 

Because of that I think he wouldn’t be surprised to see Ortho, but I think he would be amazed at how fair his design has come since he first invented him. Since it is a good 9 years later. I imagine Ortho has been through a lot of updates in the past 11 years.

I think he’d really just want to ignore everyone and spend time with Ortho.

Speaking of others he IS SO ANXIOUS AND AWKWARD AND AFRAID. (the big 3 a’s). He’s hiding behind Ortho whenever he can. I don’t imagine at this age Idia had any friends, let alone friends his own age. And he probably had never even left the Isle of Lament yet.

His only interactions with people I imagine were online. So everything here at NRC is new and overwhelming. 

Hides his hair because he KNOWS everyone will think its freaky. He wears his hood whenever he can, until he realizes everyone knows about it and someone tells him that it looks pretty.

But when he’s not shy and anxious you know he’s being a shithead. I imagine being raised on the internet for two years as an impressionable kid probably made him a real troll. And why I don’t think he would be rude to adults, people around the same age as him better be prepared to be roasted if they push him or try and get him to do something he doesn't want to. (Ortho excluded.)

Despite that I think some people would say (when he's not gushing about his hobbies) that he acts mature for his age. He definitely strikes me as a kid who had to grow up fast in some regards. And that playing with Ortho was his only outlet to actually being a kid. And when Ortho was gone he fell hard into using games/anime as an escapism to try and capture that feeling once again, but never quite could.

He probably finds it a little weird that Ortho acts a bit older, since he’s supposed to be the older brother. But I think he would be too happy to see Ortho to really care.

Strikes me as a low maintenance kid that’s used to taking care of himself. Just give him a corner and a computer/console and he’s good. 

Idia's hair is at a weird phase where there's a lot of it but it's not long so he pins it back otherwise it will get in his face.

Doesn’t understand why Ortho is trying to get him to spend time with others, especially the few kids around here that are his age…?

Younger Yume headcanons:

Yume turning younger is an interesting concept, as they don’t have any real memories of their past. In a strange way this would carry over even when they are younger. Like they know they had parents but can’t recall where they live? Everything feels fuzzy and it kinda scares them that they can’t remember. If anything this would just be a glimpse into their past, but not the full picture.

Yume is a very shy kid. Like Idia they are hiding behind (younger) Yuuta

 While I imagine Idia finds it easier to talk to adults, Yume is the opposite. They much rather talk to kids around their age and they get intimidated easily by adults. 

Too young to have their glasses at this point in time.

That kid that carries a stuffed animal everywhere. They get very distressed when they first turn until Sam offers them a free toy on the house. 

Mostly an okay kid, but if you try to give them medicine they will kick and scream and cry like their life is on the line. 

Doesn’t like rough housing and doesn’t know how to hold back so they will kick you as hard as they can if someone takes it too far.

Picky eater to the max.

Hates being yelled at and will take everything personally and cry.

They get a little scared by Grim at first, but once he tones down the “minion stuff” a little bit. Yume warms up to him fast. They think he’s a stuffed animal.

Scared of the ghosts at first until they tone down the silly scares.

Tries to be a very independent kid who doesn’t like asking for help, but is frankly too small to do a lot of things. 

Curious about a lot of things and can get distracted easily. So you have to watch them bc if you are not careful they will wander off to go explore. 

Asks questions about EVERYTHING.

Holds on to peoples shirts instead of their hands. When asked why they just shrug and say “it's what they were told to do”.

When there is no were for them to sit, your lap is not safe, it is free real estate 

Hates sudden loud noises. Terrified of heights, but loves piggy back rides and being carried.

Scared of the dark, hates being in complete darkness (if only they had a nightlight hmm...)

Thinks Vil is a real life barbie.

Tries to get Jamil to hold some bugs.

Is impressed by Ace’s magic tricks.

No beastman is safe, Yume wants to touch their ears, pretty please?

Hates Crowely and thinks he is a monster bc of his get up.

Both the lil nerds:

I imagine Yume would be a little intimidated by Idia bc he acts more mature then he is sometimes, but they hear him talk about video games and their eyes light up and suddenly they follow him around like a little duckling everywhere.

Idia hates it at first. And wants nothing to do with them. They make him really nervous. So he kind of just tries to ditch them all the time. But then eventually realizes that’s is very similar to how Ortho would follow him around when they were younger and is surprised that he doesn’t mind it. Yume is pretty cool to talk to and likes to listen to him talk about his favorite games and shows. They don’t look at him like he’s weird or annoying, they actually look...really happy when he starts rambling. And when they look very cute and get excited with him it makes him feel like the coolest person in the world.

He doesn’t know how to feel about that, so he tries not to think about it.

Think Idia also kinda has that older brother's instinct when he sees lil Yume trip or fall over or try to do something they're too small to do bc Yume is too stubborn.

I have a headcanon that straight up Idia can’t tie his shoes so he wears slip ons and velcro. So he got super embarrassed when his shoe came untied and he had to admit that he didn’t know how to tie them. And even more embarrassed when Yume made him sit down and easily tied them for him.

Yume is light up Skechers while Idia is velcro Skechers solidarity

When Yume finds out that Idia's hair is blue and lights up they think its the most amazing and pretty thing ever and gush about how they once had shoes that glowed in the dark too!

_(:3 」∠)_...They

[twinvenus]

2022 SUMMARY OF ART!!!!

JAN/FEB

it was a really slow start this year... in january i didnt actually finish anything, all i have to show for that period is a single flight rising drawing -- i had another one, but it's now Lost Media (sadly) from when i got my new PC.

(more recounting under da cut! i've included a lot of unposted/unfinished sketches down here!)

MARCH

march was a lot of desperate attempts to get back into drawing by sketching out little character designs i never posted, mostly wizards. that wizard right there is my favourite of the bunch. Fantastic energy from this creature.

APRIL

april is when i started getting into working on Gnome Lore that i have on my site, gnomes.neocities.org! gnomes are my special interest so the enthusiasm of learning about gnome mythology/history, and my own ideas for gnomes, actually got me COLOURING PIECES. incredible feeling.

this was the back end of my flight rising fixation, and included a few humanised sketches of my dragons Mirth and Gerana, pictured above. i was also getting really into WoW again at this time, so there were plenty of little wow-inspired sketches. + a bonus Jurgen from sam and max in the bottom left!

MAY

the gnoments (gnome moments) carried on into the month of may as i designed other known mythological creatures. i also rehashed a beloved old DnD gnome OC called April and included her in that lore. love that lil gal.

during this month i got really into working on my neocities page, and so a lot of art i did was assets for that. you can see a majority of my May drawings over there on the lore page. :-)

JUNE

june was a month of OC swag for me. i was totally inspired in the month leading up to ArtFight and put my heart into character design! from this beautiful month i got one of my new favourite pieces, shown there, of my ocs ZAP! APPLE and STEP KID. they're inspired by the band The Avalanches, specifically the album Wildflower. during this month i also created some of my newest and favourite OCs such as RANBOLIN, Beanie Boy, and Professor PJ!

during this i also did some new art for characters like irene, nadia, and D.A. Private Eye. i think a vast majority of this can be found in my "ocs" tag...

JULY

and here it comes.... my traditional Best Month for art. i was popping off HARD this month even though i didn't do as much as last time. i am SO happy with everythign that came out of this year's artfight, deeply. here are some of my favourite pieces from that period:

i was really into one-layer drawings this year. these were all done on two layers MAX, with the binary brush on sai. it really pushed me to be creative with my colours and detailing, and it's become one of my favourite ways to draw.

YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED. that the art for july features a certain Recurring Character. this is because in the month or so prior i had begun rewatching Naruto with my brothers. although the full-force naruto hyperfixation didn't settle in until months later this was the beginning of it. Rotating gaara in my mind always.

AUGUST

hmm... august got quite slow again. i might have been burnt out from going so hard in the other couple months. i have a few odd doodles from that month aside from the birthday gift to @l0gitex you see there, including THESE:

i also started developing a naruto OC when some brainrot started to settle in. their name is kodama, after the tree spirits. i wanted them to be from konoha, you know, to match -- originally i wanted them to have that wood type stuff, but recently i've been thinking that something to do with funghi and mycelium networks might be really interesting, especially due to their connection with trees, and how kodama live inside trees. these were some outfit concepts but i think i'll change their colour palette to match konoha more. more blues and browns i think.

SEPTEMBER

the dawn of my BRIEF SPLATOON ERA! i haven't played since that month LMAOOOOO! anyways, i drew a few splatoon-related pictures in that time.

birth of Blupi. as well as this September is the beautiful month in which i began to learn using Blender. here's a little ref drawing for the gaara model! (why do i keep doing stuff with gaara?????):

i was so proud of how that model came out. i had some other models of OCs like tomato cloun and one of ranbolin i never finished rigging (i hate weight painting so much oh my god-)

OCTOBER

man i wish halloween was like, anything here. during this month i started working again on my gnomes page so there were some more little designs done, visible on the lore page! specifically, the boggart and warren gnome were from October, as well as Awesome Rando.

NOVEMBER

november was kind of an epic month for my OCs, actually! alongside my interest in naruto REALLY starting to fire up again i was redrawing and bringing back older OCs as well as bringing in beloved Clary! here are Ranbolin and Dee as well. <3 let's go girls

beyond this the naruto brainrot had really settled in. so i began drawing my favourite characters: you know who. happy birthday Rock Lee!

DECEMBER

OHHHHHHHH HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!!!! DEPTHS OF HYPERFIXATION STRIKE!! i know i've posted a lot of art lately, and i'm so excited that i have -- i didn't know if i'd ever get this stoked again since earlier in the summer but i am so INTO IT RN!!!!!

check out this hinata wip:

awesome thing about being fixated is i tend to finish a lot more of my drawings, it really carries my enthusiasm. so i'm hoping to have this picture finished soon! if not, many more will be finished in its place.

man if you read all of this ur a real one, thank you so much. i'm so excited to see what comes in art for 2023!!!!! MY wicked hands will concoct such bountiful imagery. I can feel it

[1218-814]

I decided to make a profile for my OC, which I changed more things than I thought I would. Also because I can't find my Wacom pen and I was bored.

(by the way, this child is a carbon copy of me but cuter so-)

Name: Yuu Lupine (Very much a fake name)

Grade/Class: 1-A

Birthday: 3/10 (Pisces)

Age: 16 (?)

Hight: 163 (Looks smaller than/as tall as Riddle because of posture)

Dominant hand: Right

Homeland: The World Beyond The Mirror

Club: Board Games. Can't go sometimes because they work at Sam's.

Best Subject: Magical History

Hobby: Sleeping and drawing

Dislikes: Betrayers/surprises

Favorite food: Salmon/ikura

Least favorite food: Depends on the mood

Talents: Fast reading skills

Main Base: Mickey and all the people who wandered into a foreign place. (Same as Yuu, basically)

Sub Base: Loki, Mulan, Gogo, Edna (will add more if felt like it/some are taken what I assume canonically)

Black Butler Base (similarity): Sascha and Othello

Magic: No, but actually yes.

Idia did make something for them to have the ability to use magic. Based on Loki's staff, it holds a magical artifact inside. Blot will work the same; basically magic pen, but not pen. Only uses it sometimes, to prevent overblots.

Rollo comes in later and he dislikes it a lot.

Doesn't tell a few people, for some reason.

~~~~

Lv up 1: ...What is this "level up" for-

Lv up 2: I wonder if I can get stronger...

Lv up 3: Maybe I can be strong in this world...

Card lv max: Wait, hold up, I'm pretty sure this isn't magic. What do I need this for!? Well, they do say "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger".

Limit break: I think you should re-think this-

Groovy: I feel like I can beat some of the dorm leaders now! ...Never mind, I'm back to normal.

Episode lv up: Freinds are cool... I can't explain it, but it feels kind of nice and warm inside... Sorry, that was embarrassing, pretend I said nothing. We should have tea some time to talk again.

Lesson 1: You should let me follow you to class, I don't know where I'm supposed to go.

Lesson 2: Ditching class is an option, you know. I mean I think it's good for us to go to class though.

Lesson 3: Wait we have a quiz?

Lesson start: Let's get this over with.

Lesson End: I think I want to have a snack now.

Battle start: I can't use magic... Let me just cheer you, people, on.

Battle win: well, rip to you people who lost.

Attack/duo/etc.: N/A

Magic history ★1: Grim, give me some snacks/ Lucius is as cute as always/ meowww nyaaaa/I'm really bored right now...

Magic history ★2: I've read this before/ I finished this!/I memorized this part/So it's the same thing back in my world?/ My ink...

Magic history ★3: I could write an essay on this in 40 mins/I guess I got some luck today.

Crowley/Special lesson: Did you find a way back for me? No? Then why are you here./ It's not going to matter in the end anyways...

Flying: N/A, just watches (sometimes with Idia)

Alchemy: N/A, just watches. (For now, at least)

~~~

Relationships:

Same as MC, but doesn't vibe with a few. (Including Kalim, Cater, Trey, etc.)

Also, friends with my other OC, Sice (Mob who was friends with Riddle for a short period of time).

~~~

Anyways my other OCs are:

Since- number 6 of the Hearts dorm. He's based off of Doll. NRC

Bishop Hunt: Twin of Rook, very opposite lore. RSA

There are 2 or 3 OCs for the movie "Frozen". Elsa boy is very powerful bc of his UM being similar to Trey's

Might post some art of them in the future?

[consumed-by-fandom]

Sketchbook tour from hell

Time to show you all a snippet of my previous horrific works and sketches, aka a LOT of panel and shot redraws because I find drawing cartoons to their reference very easy and it’s good practise.

To save you all from eternal scrolling you get a nifty cut.

Starting off we have an attempt at a glitch 3D effect plankton, I’m 90% sure I just took this from some guy who drew the same thing except way better because I was like 15 at the time

(Also excuse the lighting for most of these I kinda took half assed pictures)

Next we have the prelude to a god awful amount of sam and max sketches

You will be seeing many little comments ignore them I don’t know what I was thinking lmao

Thus begins this double page nightmare:

I had a period of time where Max was the easiest motherfucker for me to draw and so I ONLY drew him. I think I drew him so much I can draw him from memory.

Anyway if any of you know metal family I drew a few Dees

All three panel redraws from different videos, highly recommend watching metal family, it’s a russian animated webseries and it’s on season 2 though due to uhh yknow it’s taking a while to get episodes out rn. Maybe avoid the fandom though shit gets a little bAd

Some more random drawings, I’ve always wanted to learn how to draw ren really well, I might get back into it. And a salad fingers too

That second one I was thinking of completing actually

Also you do not see the spamton you do not perceive the spamton

And finally the rough sketch for the wip I will eventually finish (I swear it’ll get done eventually)

You ever use triangles for faces it works surprisingly well

Anyway this concludes my sketchbook tour there was far more in here but they will never see the light of day, in short traditional art is easier for me I just do digital for the colours thank you

[butterfrogmantis]

I posted 789 times in 2022

That's 223 more posts than 2021!

643 posts created (81%)

146 posts reblogged (19%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@/schtroumpfalunettes

@/primeministerofantarctica

@/pan-pixie

@/bluebluebluewoods

@/kittysmurf

I tagged 756 of my posts in 2022

Only 4% of my posts had no tags

#smurfs - 500 posts

#the smurfs - 407 posts

#bfm ng - 114 posts

#my art - 94 posts

#butterverse asks - 81 posts

#op answers - 73 posts

#butterfrog answers - 58 posts

#misc - 55 posts

#not my art - 46 posts

#handy smurf - 46 posts

Longest Tag: 137 characters

#it was like corrupt timeline au or whatever but basically some villain goes back in time and fricks around with some of the relationships

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

They were literally the ship that dragged me into this fandom I’m never letting them go I’m havin’ another phase rn

Tbf Brainy he’s wearing regular Smurf pants underneath anyway so what’s the issue XD

Gutsy and Brainy (c) The Smurfs

44 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

#4

Day 14!

Gargamel can’t be all bad.... right?

Gargamel and Azrael (c) The Smurfs 

50 notes - Posted October 14, 2022

#3

Happy pride month

BV Hefty is the local himbo ally 

Hefty and Handy (c) The Smurfs

62 notes - Posted June 11, 2022

#2

Sybil “I-can-fix-him” Pandemik my beloved

Shoulda been with Superball :/

Sybil (c) Sam And Max

64 notes - Posted March 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Been obsessed with SDV again for the first time in ages~ Started a beach farm, finally made it to Ginger Island! And what do I find but another dwarf!!

Which reminds me

My beloveds

246 notes - Posted March 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[xeymol]

Ok uh been awhile since my last post💀

I know I said i would start posting again but I ended up getting punched in the gut with some things and haven’t been doin well till now thankfully I’ve gotten better and I have my energy for art again and I might even post every now and then, While ive been gone for the second time I’ve remembered something I was into at some point and got into it again so I’ll likely be posting about that sometime

By the way the thing I’ve gotten back into is Sam and max Freelance police, I have no clue if anyone who knows me would be interested in me posting about it but I’m posting it anyways because it’s kinda the only thing I have the energy to draw rn lol

[fmp2mt]

An Idea that crossed my head when looking at one of my previous works of art was that I could make a modern point and click adventure game based on the detective genre. This would not be the first time this got thought up, of course, such classics as Sam & Max are a comedy duo that just happen to be police detectives, produced by the always inspiring Sam Purcell. Once a major company after making such games from pre-established franchises as the Walking Dead, King's Quest and Batman, Telltale Games are known for there large and extensive point and click catalogue that humorously includes a Sam & Max game. Sadly Tell Tale went bankrupt in 2018, probably not helped that people, instead of buying the games, rather watched others play them as they became similar to TV as starting with the Walking Dead (TTG) they became far more narrative focused.

The concept of the game would follow a detective named Detective, a man so focused on his craft that it has become his very existence, hes strict, stubborn and is the only one in the room to take something seriously, being a physical manifestation of the straight man while everyone else are loony in comparison, making Detective seem extremely dry in comparison. In this game he would be on the case of what happened to the late Luther Cross where he is put against the supernatural, conspiracy and the angelic, problem is he's a steadfast atheist and puts it all up to coincidences and tricks.

The game would have a very British sense of humour with such influences as Wallace and Gromit and hopefully, in certain areas, the positioning of characters and cinematography will relate to Wes Anderson’s style as I think it would be quite unique in the market and also incentervise the comedy.

The story would relate to gags and would be lighthearted in its execution, perhaps a bit raunchy in areas, around a 16PG in Britain. Why I would love to take more from series like Sam & Max, I think that comedy and sense of absurdity is a different breed of weird, which I intend to tone down in this hypothetical game.

This game would exist as a 3D point and click adventure game, a homage to Tell Tales games in particular, where all the modals would be done in 3D but be using post processes and tricks to make them feel more 2 dimensional. The characters will look like skewed humans, their faces twisted and shaped to hit that uncanny valley feel while still being comprehensible and watchable instead of inducing your gag reflex.

When thinking up how scenarios go, I was thinking of Comic Panels for some reason, it just felt right to think about as it enhances certain moments by giving them their own entire shot, this could be used in game play to reveal clues and to just be stylistic, as in most games in Tell Tales archive you usually only ever see one face when talking to someone and the back of the other, but this could allow you to see both faces, what could again reveal clues and be used to pass jokes that could have once been lost.

I don’t want the game to have any gore, a pitfall of games that try to be cute or funny always head down is adding realistic gore or disgusting scenarios to add shock value. I don’t find it funny, I wont add it, I’d rather have stupid deaths than serious ones anyway as it would add to the value of jokes that could be made. 

By Retying to use this image in a new scenario I have again taken from my mind map, perhaps if I follow through and make this into my FMP, I could look into other wasted or leftover characters and designs and like the image that inspired this, add it to this games history and world full of mismatched weirdos and scenarios.

A plus to this idea as an FMP is that point and click adventure games are on the surface easier to produce than others, usually due to their more puzzle focused adventures and reliance on story, allowing game play to be more lax. An example of this is the original Sam & Max game, where 2D sprites move across a flat image, if I were to make a game more in homage to that I could easily rig that up by putting the player sprite on a cube that moves across the screen to wherever the mouse clicked, placing walls at the edge of the image to simulate walls, disallowing the player to move through them and to keep a sense of dimension to the room. After that is all done, you layer the sprites and artwork, calculate if the cube is going up, down, etc, and allow movement as such.

If I was to continue this into my FMP, these are the conditions I wish to be met:

At least one level artistically complete, (All art assets and story relevance)

The overview of the entire story to be laid out

A set of documents highlighting puzzles that could be in the game.

With these conditions, I would be able create artwork and sprites for Detective and all the NPCs in one of the levels that would be outlined in the story brief. I wouldn't also mind having conceptual art of other levels outlining the themes of the story if I have time to spare what could be the case as I am un-knowledgeable of how long it will take me to produce this.

Overall, I wouldn't mind continuing this idea as my FMP, While I wish to focus on artwork for this project, if this was my chosen path I might actually try and make a proof of concept trying out the aforementioned way to limit movement and character location, what could help bolster my FMP. This project would also be allowed to go down a more interesting artistic direction inspired by artists like Sam Purcell and Lavender Town, due to the absurdist reality that I wish to construct for it.

Another Idea I wish to look back on due to my initial research is another game I envisioned during my original summer work, originally dubbed the Veil. The game, inspired by contemporaries like the Elder Scrolls series and Destiny 2’s ability and gameplay loop, would follow the protagonist in a new world full of magic and wonder with its own mythology and gods. I knew then, and now, that I could never actually ever develop this game, especially by my lonesome, due to the seer scale and amount of ideas I wished to jam into it. I wanted melee and ranged combat that felt good, a transformation system based on being close to wildlife, unique weapons that had exclusive perks and an open world.

However, I would still like to go into the artwork that one day could have the potential to become something.

The artwork I produced for this idea originally was some of my most detailed and varied, going into weapons, factions, classes, abilities and even using a website to manufacture a map for the world I had envisioned. I even planned potential later content by adding inaccessible islands around the worlds borders.

This game already has some things that could be improved by my mindmaps and research, such as my deeper dive into the ideas around blood. Blood has always had importance in this game, with the main race, Desterians, having been conceived, assumedly, by their God, giving them a right to exist what powers their escapades that divulge into violence where they start to look further and further down on those who gave up their godly ancestors to monsters who people started to merge with passively, becoming less human as a result. This leads to derogatory terms for these hybrids and worse treatment, ranging from exile to execution.

I would also like to improve the world, while happy with how it looks, most areas have no history or story, what’s not uncommon, sometimes a town is just a town and by adding in more unnecessary content you could actually start to bloat your game full of continually worse side quests that start to coalesce and become one large gulch of boredom of busy work. Alas, having no side content that can be done during the main quest or after the fact in post would leave the huge world feeling bland and lifeless, so it's best to add a nice balance.

I wanted the game to give the player a large range of possible routes that they could take, for weaponry to appearance and skills. The ‘evolution’ mechanic would involve your character taking in animals residue magic and allowing it to alter you. This would come with benefits, like gaining more resistances and abilities but also came with negatives like reducing magic capabilities and also causing some NPCs to disregard you or even fight you while others would not talk to you if your fully human either. A problem with said mechanic is that it would lock you out of content till you change to match it, what could be irritating for some players who just want to play the game and don't want to be restricted out of large aspects of the game due to alliances. Because of this, I could change it slightly to be more of an ability, being able to change in between your human appearance and more animalistic form that you have adopted, this also could add even more potential for storytelling but could also make your character the ‘Chosen One’ trope, which is a bit repetitive at this point.

This idea, at least from an outsider's perspective, looks like it's going to be the hardest one to do. Of course, I could just make it smaller in scale, but that would defeat the purpose of this world that I have already started to envision and make, and if problems were to come up, it would be far more interesting to see how it would be resolved.

My one major fear is that I did try to have a side game inspired by this, and it went south quickly and got changed into another world due to the character’s mount looking horrendous and foul. I wanted to take the world in a more alien direction, where everything looks new and unique but believable in our world, but that mount was so wrong that I gave up on it, what is something that I rarely commit to.

Yet, if I were to continue this as my main FMP, I would wish to see:

New map, preferably made by hand instead of using a website

Rewrites of mechanics and story

Adding new weapons to the original set, and including some redesigns

A cover for the game art for a potential case that I could even try to make in real life.

Altogether, this looks like it would be the hardest of all potential FMPs to make what might make it the best to produce in the aspect of getting the best grad, yet, I believe that if I try to make this work I will come up barehanded. I envision that I will not finish this project and rather make an incomplete product, not meeting my minimum viable project. Because of this, I think it's wiser to choose another project instead of this, sadly.

[gaycrittercentral]

sameth and maximus !! doing some old timey stuff in the old times, I feel like I could see them getting up to some charlie chaplin type hijinks lol

Oh hell yeah I love those guys!! :D their designs are so delightful teehee

Although admittedly I couldn’t think of any very good shenanigans for them to get into, so here’s my best attempt ^^; phonograph fun ehehe

I know swing dancing is more of a 20's thing, but I just keep seeing them doin’ that in my mind’s eye. Maybe I just miss cotillion lmao. Or I just really like jazz. Or both

Btw if anyone can think of other stuff to draw them doin I’d be totally down!! They’re just charming ^^

[sanssupremacy]

No sleep tonight fellas, only me, my tablet, YouTube and a lot of insomnia.

Won't sleep until i finish more than three commissions.

I have like only one day left of free time before school drags me back and it sucks.

ANYWAYS im gonna decorate my notebook with drawings of Sam and Max and probably cool art from other artists in the page dividers (send yours if ya want in the ask box so i can print em out)

[bryan360]

Here’s my note before I’ll get started….

(DON’T YOU EVER COPY FROM MINE OR MY FRIEND’S WORK, CHARACTERS, AND STUFF IF ONE OF YOU ARE IMPOSTERS WHO HAD HABITS OF PLAGIARISM! I WILL BLOCK YOU FROM MY BLOG IF I SEE YOUR POST WITH MINE OR MY FRIEND’S ORIGINAL WORK BEING EDITED ALL OVER! I’LL EVEN SHARE IT ONTO MY BLOG SO IF EVERYONE WILL SEE THAT YOU TRYING TO COPY MINE OR MY FRIEND’S THINGS FOR NO GOOD REASON WHATSOEVER! That will be all….I mean it.)

Easter Time is Max Time and Chocolate Bunny OCs

🇵🇷Me: Today's the day of what I came to prepare during this year's Easter with Maxwell and his family. Though decided of bringing two related artworks I've work on from past weeks, but originally would've save it at DA. Nevertheless, I'm came for to share at Tumblr as a way to celebrate Easter with my closest friends. Hope to see them and everyone can have their good Easter Day as well. What that being said, here's what I called my latest art posts to worth checking in.

🦊⚽️Sam: Definitely. While looking at it though would've been so cool if you go with digital coloring via PicsArt app when you had much time to go around.

🇵🇷Me: I know. At least knowing I'm doing well with using colored pencils to work out. Although needed to edit things up later to make it look brighter as I can.

🦊⚽️Sam: I see. Good thing that it looks alright for both artworks in quality. 👍🏼

🐰🖌Maxwell: Mhm. The first one that he placed on top though is surprisingly bring some of my cartoon art style appearances. There's even on the left side in "Jellystone!" version of myself that you've previous did back in November. 8th, 2021 to list on; including others as well.

Ollie and Moon Maxwell (April. 18th, 2018) - Link Here

Playkids Maxwell (November. 6th, 2018) - Link Here

Peppa Pig Maxwell (April. 19th, 2019) - Link Here

Cuphead Maxwell (July. 3rd, 2019) - Link Here

George of the Jungle Maxwell (October. 13th, 2019) - Link Here

The Simpsons Maxwell (Dec. 9th, 2019) - Link Here

STH Maxwell (February. 15th, 2020) - Link Here

Animaniacs (April. 18th, 2021) - Link Here

Jellystone Maxwell; aside May and Sam's inclusion (November. 8th, 2021) - Link Here

🐰🖌Maxwell: Though almost complete of myself that would like to see all of them, but at least this came close enough while having to celebrate this year’s Easter.

🇵🇷Me: That's alright, Maxwell. I had the same feeling as you were for a reason. However I may wanted to included those in their rabbit forms as your are. You know, because today’s Easter Sunday in terms of rabbits? 😅

🐰🖌Maxwell: I see. Well no problem that you've tried your best to go through it. Still looks pretty good anyways. As for the second one though, wasn’t that a remake from your original 2016 Easter artwork that you’ve posted on DeviantArt?

🇵🇷Me: That’s right. Thought I’m hoping it was a good case to have. I did well to redrawn your family or just your chocolate designs of yourselves; while making sure to added details and changes. It looks better to make as a comparison if you wanted to check out my original through link down below. ⬇️

Happy Easter 2016 - Link Here

🐰👊💥May: That’s really good to take us back in memories from years ago, but this looks better with the flowers bloom then last time you’ve drawn. No offense, though.

🇵🇷Me: That’s alright, May. It was something I worked on when doing practice I’ve been getting through in my life.

🐰🖌Maxwell: Well gotta say that it turn out alright after you’ve finished it, but also to share with my family and friends together. Just wish you can join us, Sam.

🦊⚽️Sam: Yeah. Though make me wanted crave those chocolate bunnies to snack on....I mean not literally on real bunnies of course! Just saying. 😅

🐰🖌Maxwell: Okay then? Anyways, hope you guys enjoy our creator friend’s art post to celebrate Easter Sunday this year. See you next year when we’re hopping around! 😆

Maxwell (plus other of his alternate cartoon art style versions of himself), May, Choco, Windy, and Scottie created by me; BryanVelasquez87 (Bryan360)

[catnipster69]

Get to Know the Blogger

Thanks @redmyeyes ! I don’t get tagged for these things often, so yay! Note that I changed some of the asks on here as some of them bored me beyond acceptability.

About Me

Name: You may call me…catnipster

Sign: Scorpio

Height: 5'7”

Time zone: The least populated but the best of all time zones, US Mountain

Favorite band/artists: The Who, David Bowie, Screaming Trees, Paul Kelly, Queens of the Stone Age, Trail of Dead, so many more.

Last movie: “Fire Island.” It was OK. I don’t see as many movies as I used to pre-Covid. For one thing, I used to go weekly with my Dad. Now he’s afraid to leave his apartment. Not that there are any good movies to see in the theater anyway. Last one I saw in the theater: “Nope.” Meh. There was a lot of water footage on stuff that maybe was symbolic? But otherwise irrelevant?

Favorite movie: My old standby has been “A Clockwork Orange.” The interesting thing about this movie is how disturbing it is. I first saw it when I was 12, and I found it less disturbing then than I did when I was more mature. I have to put a word in for “The Death of Stalin.” I feel like no one saw this, and it’s the funniest movie I’ve ever seen. In a black comedy way. I also love “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Bladerunner: 2049,” “Last of the Mohicans,” and many more.

Last shows: I just watched Supernatural 11x1 on my umpteenth rewatch. Partway through The Sandman. The Rehearsal. Primal. Evil. Uncoupled. Blown Away. Great Pottery Throw Down. The Late Show. Sex Lives of College Girls. Iron Chef.

When I created this blog: May 2021. I’m not really an oversharer. Much.

What I post: Pretty Dean and Jensen pictures. Great shots of Sam and Dean. The occasional wincest art. Wincest fic recommendations. The occasional recap or essay.

Last thing I googled: “deficiency caused by corn consumption” (answer: Pellagra). I was talking to a friend about how skeptical I am of all supplements. But I did mention that Pellagra was a real problem in the US south in the early 1900s.

Do I get asks: Once? Apparently my air of mystery is off-putting.

Following: 105

Average hours of sleep: 7 if I’m lucky. I tend to wake up in the middle of the night and then I can’t turn my brain off. My “favorite” is rehearsing conversations; or rehearsing explaining the history of the Tudors or network routing to an imaginary audience.

Instruments: My favorite is singing. But I did play electric bass for a little while. I wasn’t very good, but I was proud of myself for singing and playing at the same time in the terrible garage band I was in. We never played live. We covered The White Stripes, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, U2, Donovan, The Cars, Devo, Arctic Monkeys, and so on. Our previous lineup was an obscure psychedelia cover band. I can’t believe I sang “Mind Flowers.”

What I’m wearing: I’m almost always overdressed, which isn’t really the “look” around here. My uniform is a jersey wrap dress. I have like 30 of them in various prints. The secret is that they’re really comfortable. Beats yoga pants.

Dream job: I used to dream about being a home decorator or house flipper. But I know that if I had to cater to other people’s tastes, I’d hate it. I don’t know that there’s any money in that anyway.

Dream trip: Japan. I’m a big fan of classic Japanese cinema. But a few things: I’m fat, and I would feel insecure about my size. Also my back sucks. Also, my husband hates crowds. Also, expensive. Also, I really like comfort.

Nationality: American

Favorite songs: Didn’t we already list favorite bands? I don’t really like the current hit makers. I kind of think when old fogies listen to the latest music it’s a little try-hard.

Last book I read: Consider Phlebus by Iain M. Banks. I’ve read it a few times. I’ve been in a fan-fiction hole for a couple of years now, so my book reading has really slowed down. I love science fiction, and mysteries to a lesser extent. I’m a huge fan of Jack Vance. I’m looking forward to the next Naomi Novik book. My book club book is The Lost Apothecary (I am always really skeptical about reading “best seller” type books, because they aren’t always to my taste. I did like A Gentleman in Moscow, which was one of those. And now Ewan McGregor (❤️) is going to star in the series!) Queued up: Bad Sex, the Fever of the World and a lot more. @lovetheirloves mentioned rereading the Raven Boys, so I might do so too. The weird thing is I recently loaded all of my favorite wincest fics on my Kobo, and it’s weird seeing The Light of Munin next to The Lincoln Highway.

3 fictional universes I’d live in: Middle Earth. I was pretty entranced by the Lord of the Rings back in the day. Similarly, I loved the Ursula LeGuin book The Beginning Place, and I wanted to pass over the creek into that twilight world. I’m not thinking of a third…

tagging: @digitalmeowmix @bloodwritesfic @runsquidling @mvdeanw @amoreanonyname @fandom-hoarder @fictionallemons @killabeezish @bangingpatchouli @zxroh

[satanisnotapogostick]

sam playlist liner notes

1. jesse got trapped in a coal mine – goodnight, texas

dean picking sam up from stanford in the pilot: jesse getting trapped in the coal mine

(he never DID marry his girl)

2. me and bobby mcgee – kris kristofferson

to me, me and bobby mcgee is about when sam runs away from dean and hangs out with meg before she outs herself as a demon

3. dorothy - mewithoutYou

“one turned into sr. Margaret, and I said "if you can change your shape that easily can you take the form of my dead father?”… then last night I was somewhere near virginia rebuking satan with ironic faithfulness. and satan turned to me: have you thought much about that cry?"

lucifer AND john themes???? yes.

4. life during wartime – talking heads

this song is sam adjusting to being a hunter and being at war, where he’ll stay for the rest of his life <3

5. this is how we do things in the country – slim cessna’s auto club

ok so this song is about sam killing madison. when you murder the girl you’re sweet on but it’s righteous and everyone thanks you for it. this is how it’s always been! this is how we do things in the country! (and also getting amy killed, a little bit, but that hasn’t happened yet. this is still early seasons)

6. clampdown – the clamp

“the voices in your head are calling. stop wasting your time, there's nothing coming, only a fool would think someone could save you… but you grow up and you calm down, and you're working for the clampdown.”

damn maybe we’re not the good guys. anyway!!

7. smith & jones forever – silver jews

smith & jones (salmondean) together!! forever!!

8. everything you did – steely dan

oh bro you slutted around with a demon and let satan out. what have you done

9. tortoises all the way down - mewithoutYou

“everybody knows, son. everybody knows what you've done!!”

just crazyass guilt song

10. up jumped the devil – nick cave

the tiger. he destroyed his cage. yes. YES. the tiger is out.

11. (ghost) riders in the sky – marty robbins

“then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride. tryin’ to catch the devil herd across these endless skies”

just s5 endless chase vibes

12. needle in the hay – elliott smith

demon blood detox time baby

13. emperor – mark lanegan

“why can’t I get right? all these demons to enslave me. who’s left to fight? oh, just the emperor.” the emperor being lucifer. obviously.

14. skating away (on the thin ice of a new day) – jethro tull

they have the horseman rings!! sam’s about to jump into the cage!! your world is about to end, but it’s okay!! you’ve done it!!

15. the passenger – iggy pop

and lol now he’s possessed by lucifer

16. the mercy seat – nick cave

okay now we’re at stull and he’s REALLY going to the gallows (jumping in)

17. when you die - MGMT

I imagine this song happening during the fall itself from stull into the cage. honestly this is a weaker entry but like. haha tfw you die

18. fifteen feet of pure white snow – nick cave

thee cage song.

“I waved to my neighbot, my neighbor waved to me. but my neighbor is my enemy. I kept waving my arms til I could not see, under fifteen feet of pure white snow. is anyone out there please? it’s too quiet in here and I’ve beginning to freeze. I’ve got icicles hanging from my knees, under fifteen feet of pure white snow”

you’ve even got icy temperature themes!

19. loverman – nick cave

yeah <3

“there’s a devil waiting outside your door (how much longer?) there’s a devil waiting outside your door and he’s bucking and braying and pawing at the floor and he’s howling with pain and crawling up the walls…. loverman!!! till the bitter end!!! while empires burn down forever and ever and ever and ever amen”

nick cave count: 4

20. satan it’s you – jett screams

@polishnatural recommendation. cellmates (and bunk buddies) with the devil in hell type vibes

21. relax, take it easy - mika

the war has already been won and nothing that happens in here has any effect on the real world. why not relax into the simplicity of it all!! (sometimes it’s just better when things are bad type vibes)

22. don’t lose your temper - xtc

we’re out of the cage! and starting strong with a mocking song bc he already lost his temper and grew mild and that’s why he’s too tired to fight. so this is the only hallucifer era song on the playlist

23. first wave intact – secret machines

war metaphors. extended wars. unwinnable wars.

“I wonder what you're waiting for. I wonder what you're working for. I wonder what you're living for. I wonder what you're dying for”

same king

24. mexican war streets - mewithoutYou

“but how long before our tails are caught by our "free" thought?” INDEED

“nature had another plan (& failed to run it by me!) nature had another plan, some other surrogate self to live in the sediment of so many somebody elses' innumerable lives and you were right: it's not a person who dies but worlds die inside us”

SO TRUE. we’re fully breaking into late seasons here

mwY count: 3

25. screen shot - swans

these are all sam’s meditation mantras. he’s offering a course: how to become okay with really horrible situations that you are also complicit in. “love! now! breathe! now! love! now! breathe! now!”

26. god’s away on business – tom waits

IT WASN’T GOD IN YOUR HEAD SAM

27. when the lights come on – they might be giants

when the lights come on (when lucifer brings you back to life)

28. light’s on

TWO songs about sam’s resurrection at lucifer’s hands??? yeah ;)

“the lights are on, you don’t know just who your friends are. the lights are on, and it’s light you’ll never know”

29. devil’s resting place – laura marling

I mean. yeah. his time in the cage with the devil coming back to haunt him

30. failure - swans

see my edit that I won’t link bc I can’t find. but anyway yeah. this guy fails a lot

31. last song about satan – slim cessna’s auto club

ding dong the devil is dead!!

32. president – max frost

@girlkingsam recommendation. late seasons sam vibes for sure. plus this song can be read as being about hell politics which is fun. I don’t give a damn who’s president (of hell)!

33. the road goes on forever – the highwayen

cycles of violence, etc. the road goes on forever, nothing ever (really) changes. (also yes sonny is dean and sherry is sam. I guess)

34. careers in combat – parquet courts

the namesake of my little fanfiction.

“there are no more summer lifeguard jobs, there are no more art museums to guard. the lab is out of white lab coats cause there are no more slides and microscopes. but there are still careers in combat my son!!!”

king of hell ending please please you’re nothing. anyway he’s been at war his whole life and war is his legacy. anyway.