#so if i can get a shop that works well for me that'd do wonders for my stress

[foxsnails]

I'm opening an online shop!

I'm wondering what of my works you'd like to see on there? I already sell lots of prints, stickers and a few zines at local fairs, but I want to know if there's anything that should get priority!

This includes letting me know what you'd like to see merch of! stuff like "more bugs please!" or "hell yeah more digimon stuff" is helpful!

[sawbiter]

a field of geranium - yuuji itadori

--

summary ! you and itadori have been together since middle school. when he randomly breaks up with you and disappears from school, you're left heartbroken and completely alone.

warnings / tags ! angst to fluff , exes to lovers , non-sorcerer reader, hopeful ending! implied fem reader, written with a poc reader in mind (skin tone and race unspecified!), past bullying, yuuji is lowkey dumb, reader is stated to be intelligent, lonely reader .. lots of angst. probably not very canon accurate to how curses work but shush.. reader curses a lot lol.

a/n ! hope you guys like this! i loveee yuuji sm .. this probably isnt good i haven't written in a while ;;

--

you remember a time when it felt like yuuji would always be around.

when he would kiss your forehead before classes and during lunch, hold your hand as he walked you to class and write you childish love notes during maths.

you never expected him to break up with you, let alone over text. you'd planned on confronting him at school after he had repeatedly dodged your frantic calls, but when you entered the school, yuuji didn't go there anymore.

it stung. yuuji had been your best friend since middle school, defending you from the bullies who'd pick on you for various things that'd later become insecurities of yours. (sometimes you wonder if those things are why yuuji left.)

going back to eating alone in the single stall bathrooms and having nobody to talk to during passing periods was a hard transition. your parents weren't any help either, telling you that high school relationships never lasted.

(you can't bring yourself to throw away the promise ring he gave you.)

you see him out one day, with a pretty brunette girl, carrying shopping bags for her. you go up to him; he's clearly moved on. (you can understand why. she's gorgeous.) he doesn't seem to notice you.

--

you're sitting alone the class garden for your botanicals class. you remember a time this was your favourite class (it was one with yuuji; go figure.)

now it's filled with bittersweet memories and the grief over someone you know isn't dead.

you're calm as a boy you've never seen before approaches you. your hands are gloved and your hair is a bit messy as you look up at him.

“be careful around here, please. it's class policy not to walk on the soil.” you scold a bit, his boots having crushed one of the plants.

he looks down at you, his face a bit stoic, “sorry.”

“it's alright- did you need something?” you smile at him politely.

he snaps his fingers, frowns a bit, then says “nope,” and walks off.

you'd never seen him before. he didn't even have the right uniform on.

--

“i cannot believe you just made me do that.” megumi rolls his eyes.

yuuji frowns a bit, “i'm sorry but- i can't go up to her.” megumi rolls his eyes as nobara fumes a bit.

“you broke up with her over text. no wonder no girls like you.” she snarks and yuuji just glares at her.

“i had just eaten sukuna's finger! i thought i was gonna die soon anyways!” he argues back,

“well then why haven't you tried to talk to her again? not that she should take you back- i pity the fact that she dated you at all.” nobara speaks as they walk away from the school.

“she probably has new friends anyways, plus she could get hurt, she's not a sorcerer.” yuuji says, his face looking almost like a kicked puppy.

nobara looks at him and raises an eyebrow, “didn't you say you were her only friend? that curse probably attached to her cause she's lonely.” she pops her gum after saying the last sentence.

“even more proof that me being around her is dangerous! plus- what if sukuna gets out around her while i sleep or something?!” he sighs, looking back and sneaking a peak at you in the botanical garden, “she's better off.”

megumi looks at him a bit, “i'm not surprised. you are the self sacrificing type after all.”

“i just think its rude to break up over text with no explanation, you guys were together for so long too.” nobara shrugs a bit.

“if i had spoken to her any more than that, i think i would've tried to stay.“ yuuji frowns.

--

two weeks after the boy approached you in class, your botany teacher dies in a freak accident, or at least that's what the police said. you aren't too sure.

ms. woods was a smart woman. you knew from the lunches you'd spend in her classroom to avoid bullies that she seriously loved plants.

so dying by ingesting a poisonous plant? out of character and frankly, insulting. you know that can't be the whole story.

that boy had something to do with it; it has to be. you look through your yearbooks after he had left; no sight of him. you go through all of your classes, all grades, you ask around. nothing. he didn't go to your school but he walked up to you during botany class and then two weeks later your teacher dies.

it can't be a coincidence. you go nearly crazy over it. you stay up multiple nights. you cry.

you remember when ms. woods called you smart, when she understood your grief over itadori and let you extend your onion cell project. you cry; something horrible happened to her, you just know it.

so, the night you stay in the school way too late studying poisonous plants in her room, you have a good excuse for why you see a huge monster in the hallway.

at first, you think you're seeing things from the sleep deprivation. you blink, rub your eyes and squint. it's still there.

“holy shit!” you jump out of your seat, going for the door to the garden before realizing they're locked, only able to be unlocked via a key- which you don't have.

the monster, a disgusting bipedal amalgamation of red roses, vegetables, cacti and other odd plants was slowly walking towards you.

“what the fuck.. oh my god- what the fuck?!” you shout, your hands shaking as you go to grab the nearest object to defend yourself as you press your body against the door. you grab a glass flask and hold it out as if it's at all a threat to the 8 foot creature in front of you.

the creature groans and you begin to tear up. this is it- you're about to die the same way ms. woods must have. nobody is going to mourn you besides your parents. you're going to die with people thinking you injested a poisonous fucking plant. you shut your eyes tight in preparation as it approaches.

it never does. you hear the creature use ms. woods' voice to cry out as someone attacks it. you peek to look.

its yuuji. and the girl from the mall. and the boy you thought killed ms. woods.

you gasp as they use all sorts of stuff against the thing and- are those bunnies?

“what.” is all you can gasp out as the brunette and the black haired boy run off, chasing the monster.

yuuji looks at you with his puppy dog eyes and you resist the urge to slap his stupid kissable face.

“yuuji, what the hell is going on.” you say, but it comes out as more of a statement than a question.

“i.. um..” he looks back at the two he came with who are now chasing the monster down the science hall, “that's the curse ms. woods left behind.. we're getting rid of it.”

“a curse? and- and you're fighting it?” you ask, puzzled.

“i promise i can explain but,” he pulls you into a tight, squeezing hug, “I was so worried. A special grade curse against you- I was terrified that we'd be too late. We didn't notice in time to get it before it tried to hurt you.”

“did it kill ms. woods?” you ask.

he shakes his head, “no- the grief from her death created that.” you gasp.

“I made that?” tears spill as the adrenaline settles.

“no!” yuuji pulls away a bit, looking at you put still holding onto you, “no. you didn't- it's not your fault. oh my god, it's not your fault- i love you please don't blame yourself!” he hurries to reassure you.

you sob into the crook of his neck, “yuuji- you.. why did you go? i was so lonely. it's been so hard.”

he can feel his heart break as he squeezes you once more in his embrace, “i'm sorry baby- i'm sorry.” yuuji soothes you, rubbing circles into your back, “i didn't want you to get hurt but- it happened anyways.”

after several minutes of silent comfort, you pull away, wiping your tears before giggling.

“where'd you get those face tattoos?” you sniffle and laugh.

yuuji laughs too.

“it's a long story.“

you smile, “tell me about it. i wanna hear.”

[m-jelly]

Let’s see…

Well hello there 👀

Might I slip a request? Let it penetrate you? 👀

How about a Modern AU! Mike oneshot? Perhaps a fluffy continuation of the smut I requested for your winter event! It’s been a few months of dating Mike, and he is just so wonderful ❤️ It’s summertime now, with the weather being gorgeous in the small village. With all the nice weather, we are able to spend plentiful time with Mike in his carpentry shop! I forget what we were doing in the smut story, were we a baker? 🤣 I think it would be so cute to see a story of just Mike and us having fluffy times in his shop, seeing him show off some of his capabilities for us 🥰 Our little setup is connected to his shop, meaning we get constant view of our man working 👀

Of course, feel free to alter anything you wish!

- Le Skittle

WELL WELL WELL! If it is SKITTLES. Hi <3

Summer Crafting

Pairing: Mike x Fem!Reader

Genre and tags: Modern AU, fluff, romance, being a couple, summertime, admiring our man.

Concept: Many months into your relationship, you have moved shop location to Mike's Inn. Mike makes sure that the carpentry part of his inn is right next to your little shop. On long days you gaze at your lover and admire him.

Muscles flexed as sweat glistened in the summer sun. A soft grunt escaped the rough man as his large rough hands ran over curved wood. The tall muscle-bound frame rose up and raked back messy sandy blonde hair. Long fingers bent and moved as hair was tied back.

Pale blue eyes locked onto your body making you feel naked even though you were dressed. A playful smirk spread across kissable lips. You'd been caught staring, but you didn't care. You wanted to admire him more and he enjoyed you looking.

You left your post and checked your oven to see your sausage rolls were perfectly cooked. The filled contained meat hunted by Mike and cheese you made together. You collected one thick big one and paired it with a nice cold lemonade.

With a gentle blush on your cheeks, you hurried over to your boyfriend with the food and drink. Your heart skipped a beat when he Mike smirked a little and took what you were offering before giving you a loving kiss.

Mike took a big bite from his sausage roll and moaned. "So good, my little pumpkin. The meat, spice and cheese work well together."

"I'm so glad!"

He downed some lemonade and gasped. "You're just a perfect little peach, aren't ya?" He leaned closer to you. "I wanna take a bite."

Your cheeks burned. "Why don't you?"

He chuckled. "Because we're both at work. Behave and I'll give you everything we both want and need later."

You saluted to him. "Yes sir!"

Mike let out a deep chuckle. "You are so cute."

You giggled a little. "So, I haven't got any customers..." you walked closer and put your hands behind your back and pushed your chest out "mind showing me what you can do?"

Mike finished his food and led you into his workshop. "Mm, sure. I'm making a rocking chair for a customer."

"Oh cute!"

He grabbed a piece of wood. "I'll make one when we have a baby."

You blushed a little. "That'd be cute."

He grabbed your wrist and pulled you over to him. "Let's start." He stood behind you. "We need to shape the wood, so we'll heat it up and put it in this mould to help us."

You shivered as you felt Mike's broad chest against your back. "Y-Yes."

"You're doing well." He kissed the side of your head. "Now we wet it a bit more because we like it nice and wet." He leaned down and whispered against your ear. "The wetter the better."

You gulped hard. "You are not talking about the wood anymore, are you?"

"Maybe I'm talking about a certain wood."

You moaned a little. "I love that wood."

"I know you do." He chuckled and worked with you to bend the wood. "You're very good with your hands."

"Thank you." You huffed a bit. "This is hard work."

Mike locked the wood in place. "There we go, we leave that there for a bit while we carve another part." He pulled you over to the next station. "When you carve you go with the wood. Got it?" He placed his hands on yours and pushed the tool. "With the wood."

You hummed as you worked with him. "With the wood."

"You got it." He let your hands go. "You got it."

"You're incredible to make all these things."

He walked away and picked up a log making you blush at how strong he is. "Thank you." He slammed the log down and sighed. "I have you to inspire me now."

You hugged yourself and smiled. "Well, you make my baking better."

"Aw, thank you."

You walked up to him. "Bend down."

He leaned down to you. "Yes?"

You grabbed his shirt and kissed him. "I love you, Mike."

"I love you too."

[coldgoldlazarus]

METROID PRIME REMASTER

-Those graphics look gorgeous

-The soundtrack seems to be the same, but that's fine because the soundtrack was already perfect

-Wonder if the rest of the sound design will be improved any, though

-Kinda sad the scan visor is still using the little icons rather than Prime 2 and 3's full-object color coding, but I can understand that'd be a bit of a pain to retroactively enact for every single scannable item ^^;

-HOLY SHIT THAT SHOT OF THE GUNSHIP LANDING IN TALLON OVERWORLD AAAAA

-Glad there's both a digital and physical release, 'cause I want this physical.

-Kinda disappointed that dual-stick is gonna be the main control method, but the fact that they mentioned the original gamecube setup and then "other control options" makes me hope against hope that there will still be some equivalent of the trilogy motion controls implemented. Though being more realistic, it probably just means they have customizable inputs within those first two frameworks. But still, maybe?

-Off topic, but Return of Samus and later Fusion coming to the E-Shop make the switch even more worth getting even aside from this.

-If people whinge about it not being the full trilogy, or that it's not Prime 4, I will go full Silco on their asses and remind them of the two-decade wait for Dread.

-(Don't get me wrong, I would have loved to see something about Prime 4 too, but seriously. Just because we're eating well now doesn't mean we get to act entitled or forget the waiting years.)

-Admittedly also wished it could have been the full trilogy, I would kill for an Echoes remaster. But they don't have the same pedigree as Prime, so a remaster for them is probably less likely. Disappointing, but not the end of the world.

-Either that, or (and this is probably me being overly hopeful here, but still) they do have remasters of the other two in the works, and want to space them out to give Retro more time to work on Prime 4? Guess we'll see how that prediction pans out. Also not likely, but I can hope ^^;

-BUT LOOK AT THAT SHOT OF THE RUINS PLAZA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[ilovecupcakesandtea]

Pairing: Steve Harrington/Eddie Munson Rating: NSFW 18+ Summary: Breakfast, a girls shopping trip and some lace lead to some fun. Word Count: 4,623 Warnings: Alcohol consumption Commentary: Thank you to @slipperygiraff as always for writing this with me.

Part one Part two Part three Part four Part six

Less than an hour later the group were sitting in a diner looking through the menu laughing and joking. Eddie sat and watched the other three interacting and wondered how suddenly everything had changed but still looked the same, like everything hadn't been flipped upside down in the last hour. Did Stevie really like him like that? Could something really happen between them? His head, and his heart, hurt a little too much right now to be thinking about that.

They ordered food, ate and made chit chat, well the other three did, Eddie remained mostly silent. Before long they finished up and Stevie paid, at her insistence, went outside and parted ways. Eddie had to go to work, an excuse he made up to get away from everyone and to have a chance to think, J, Stevie and Robin headed for the local mall.   

"We're glad you invited us last night. We had a great time!" Stevie said, offering J a smile.

"What dingus here is forgetting to say is thank you." Robin said, lightly punching Stevie in the arm. 

"Aww!! Well, thank you both for coming! It was a blast last night and we've still got the day together!" J exclaimed, throwing an arm around both of their waists. 

Robin had turned into a store, dragging the other two with her. They had been having a good time, laughing at the ridiculously hideous clothes they'd show each other. The two also helped Stevie pick out stuff to help her feel more comfortable on her feminine days, something she hadn't yet taken the time to do. 

"So, Stevie, Eddie huh?" J said, raising an eyebrow at Stevie. 

"Uh yeah. What about him?" Stevie asked, looking up from browsing through the other side of the rack. 

"You tell me, you were the one who couldn't keep your eyes off him last night." J smirked. Clearly these two needed a push together.

"Oh my god." She gasped, looking back down at the rack in front of her in hopes of hiding the blush forming over her cheeks.  "I'm so sorry J. I tried not to. I'm sorry." 

"I can't blame you, he's a really nice guy and he's cute as well, not to mention his skills elsewhere." J shrugged. 

"Look, I'm really sorry about that. I wouldn't try anything I promise." She really had tried not to stare at Eddie so much the night before but it was easier said than done. The feelings of anger had long gone, making room for other feelings to come back to the surface. 

"What if he was single?" J asked.

Stevie looked back at J, eyebrows raised in confusion. "I don't see why that'd matter. Wouldn't change anything."

"Hmmm but what if it would? What if he likes you too?" J questioned. 

"I'm not going to get in between you two. I just want to see him happy." 

"But what if I wasn't in the picture?" J pushed.

"I uh, I don't know. What are you trying to say?" Stevie was starting to get a little nervous with where the conversation was going. She hadn't wanted to cause them any problems. 

"That we split up this morning, just before you two came into the living room" J shrugged.

"If that is in any way my fault, I'm sorry. Are you ok?" 

"It hurts a little because he's amazing but you were right when you said he deserves to be happy. It's not your fault at all, I have eyes and it wasn't fair on either him or myself to carry on if I'm not the one he actually wants to be with." J replied with a sad smile. 

"I'm sorry. We can talk shit if it'll help. I'm sure Robin has plenty she could say." Stevie said as she quickly made her way to J, wrapping them in a tight hug. 

"No no, that's not needed. He really is a great guy. He was upset when it ended so I know he felt something for me. The point here isn't me, Stevie, you've got to get yourself a man, if you want him that is"  J said hugging her back.

"I couldn't do that to you. You guys just broke up only a couple of hours ago. Plus it's not like he has any feelings for me anyway, not with the way he left Hawkins." She felt wrong at the idea of going after someone right after they ended a relationship. Sure it'd be nice if Eddie had feelings for her but that didn't feel likely. Yeah she'd been trying to get over him leaving but that was proving to not be so easy. Stevie was quickly pulled back out of her thoughts by the sound of Robin snorting just a few feet away. 

"I'm with Robs here, he's head over heels for you. Eddie left because he had too, he didn't say goodbye to you because he couldn't, too scared to face you and too scared you'd try and stop him." 

"I probably would have. It would have been hard to try not to get him to stay.  I get why but still…" At least she could admit that. It would have been difficult to not try and convince Eddie to stay, even if it wouldn't have been right.

"I need you to know that if you get with Eddie his life is here, he has a job and friends, he has a life here, you can't force him back to Hawkins." J said sternly. 

"I couldn't do that to him. I promise. I can see how much better off he is here."

"That boy is stupid over you, anyway ladies, let's shop!!" J exclaims grabbing both their hands and walking quickly, dragging the two towards the next store. 

"Uh, J? What are we doing?" Stevie asked, confused. This was not at all where she thought they'd end up when agreeing to go shopping. 

"Well I need some new lingerie and this place is the best!" J smiled, starting to flick through the various styles.  

"Loosen up Stevie! It's fine." Robin says looking over at Stevie who had her hands behind her back, rocking on her feet, and staring at the ground.

"Oh I really like this one" J says, picking up a cute red lacy set. "What do you think Robin? Would it suit me?" J winks.

"Um, yeah." Robin stammered. "That'd look great on you."

"Then I have to get it now!" J smirked. "Hmmm this one too" J smiled, picking up another set, clearly not in their size, "This way ladies! I need to try these on"

"I'll just uh wait over here." Stevie said as she walked towards a chair just outside the dressing room. 

"I don't think so! I need all my girls with me!" J says grabbing Stevie with her. 

"Guess I don't have a choice." Stevie shrugs and grabs Robin before J can pull her too far. "Which means you don't either!"

J, Robin and Stevie all squeeze into a dressing room and J starts to strip down to try the new set on.

"That. That uh." Robin stutters, followed by an elbow to the side from Stevie. "Looks hot." Robin squeaks, quickly throwing her hands over her mouth. 

"Yeah, looks really good on you." Stevie beams at J after rolling her eyes at Robin. 

"Thank you, you two. Want to try this on?" J asks turning to Stevie and gesturing to the other set she had brought in with her, a set that looked like it would fit Stevie. 

"Um. I don't know." She whispered, blushing slightly. 

"Take your time, you don't have to if you don't want to and we can always let you do it on your own if you want?" J whispers. 

"I guess it couldn't hurt." Stevie admitted. It was just the three of them. What harm could it really do? She stumbled putting it all on but once it was on all she could do was stand there. Frozen looking at her reflection in the mirror. It felt right, good even. 

"Oh my god! Look at you!! You look so hot! Seriously! You have to get it!" J exclaims. 

"You think so?" Stevie said wetly, sniffling and failing to hold back the tears that were starting to stream down her face. 

"Yeah, you really do. Eddie is going to absolutely lose his mind when he sees you in this." J winks. 

"They're right Stevie. Looks good." Robin agreed. 

"What would I do without you two?" Stevie asked, trying to wipe her face. 

"Love you Stevie" J says hugging her, "I'm so proud of you." Stevie began to cry again, holding J tightly in return as Robin joined them. She just couldn't help it, people didn't often say they were proud of her. It took them several minutes to gather themselves enough to change back into their clothes and leave the dressing room, Robin offering to take it to the register for her. 

After wandering a few more stores, they ended their trip with Stevie insisting on buying them milkshakes. She could tell them a million times how much she appreciated them but it wouldn't feel like enough, treating them when she could would just have to do. 

It had been a week since Steve and Robin's trip to Indy. They had both had a great time but a movie night soon after had been needed. The movie had mostly gone ignored as Robin talked about her quickly developing crush on J. Not that Steve had been surprised when Robin finally said something. They weren't blind, they could see the way Robin had been looking. It'd be hard to blame her, J was easy on the eyes and quickly proving to be a wonderful person. Steve was absolutely going to encourage it, they had been pretty sure they noticed J flirting. 

Then it had been time to talk about Steve. They were having a hard time. Still working to move past the last bit of negative feelings from Eddie leaving only to find out that not only was he now single but had feelings for them too. It was only making Eddie leaving without a word easier to understand. 

Steve could have gone to Eddie before leaving Indy that day but it didn't feel right. It didn't matter if he had feelings for them, he deserved some time to process too. They weren't sure who needed that time more, them or Eddie. What were they going to do? It's not like they were ready to leave Hawkins. They'd miss the kids even if it wasn't that long of a drive and asking Eddie to come back was absolutely out of the question, they'd promised not to. Could it work only seeing each other when they had time off? For Eddie they'd make it work, he was worth it. 

Stevie finally had a day off but Robin was working and the kids were off doing whatever it was they did when not pestering her for rides or to use her pool. The house was quiet as always, still no clue when her parents would return but the longer they stayed gone the better. She may not enjoy a quiet house but at least it meant that she didn't have to pretend like none of her recent self-discovery had happened. 

She was standing in the mirror, wearing the lingerie she'd gotten on their shopping trip and fidgeting with the straps. She felt so good in it, thankful her friends had helped push her yet again. Which only brought to mind J's comment of how Eddie might react to mind, giving her an idea. 

She put on the longest coat she owned, reaching just past her knees, and slipped on a pair of boots with extra chains and buckles. Did she really think this through? Was it actually a good idea? She wasn't going to dwell on that, thinking about it any more would just stop her and she was sure if the courage would ever come back. 

Stevie turned the volume on her stereo all the way up once getting in the car. She didn't even care what tape was in, she just wanted something to drown out her thoughts. If she thought too much she'd turn around. She hadn't had the courage to tell Eddie how she felt before he left and she wasn't sure she'd find it again if she lost it now. 

Maybe this was a bad idea? Sure both J and Robin had said she should go for it but they might not have meant like this. It was too late now, or was it? 

Stevie parked the car and took a deep breath. Sure she could drive back home now without going through with it, the long drive has given her doubt too much time to start creeping in. Looking up at Eddie's apartment building, she dug deep and found the last little bit of courage she had left and got out of the car. 

Thankfully Eddie's apartment was on the first floor, she was already sweating a little with nerves; she didn't need stairs to make it worse. After knocking on the door she put her hands in her coat pockets and started rocking on her feet as she waited. Was he home? Shit, she'd forgotten to look to see if his van was in the parking lot. 

She jumped at the sound of a nearby door unlocking. No one else needed to see her like this, sheepishly waiting outside Eddie's door. It's not like they'd know what she had on under her coat, though she'd still be worried they somehow knew. Turning around and heading back towards her car she scanned the parking lot. No van in sight. 

Did she really drive all the way here just for him to not be home? Where else could he be? Should she have called first just to see if he was home? It was only making her more determined to find him. It was still early enough in the day, maybe he had a client? Already having driven this far, it's not like a couple more minutes would hurt.

Stevie didn't see his van outside the shop either but there was probably parking in the back, she just didn't know how to get to it. Putting on a fake look of confidence she walked in and up to the front desk where a woman sat looking through a magazine.

"Hi, can I help you?" The woman asked, smiling up at Stevie. 

"Is uh, Eddie here?" She half whispered.

"Oh, no. I'm sorry honey but he's not here. Did you have an appointment?"

"No. Sorry to bother you. Thank you!" She groaned as she turned around, leaving quickly. If he wasn't at home or work then where else was left to look? She knew J had a shift at the bar tonight, maybe they'd know where Eddie was. Back into her car she went, hoping that J would have some answers. If they didn't Stevie wasn't really sure what was next. 

Walking into the bar was even harder than she thought. There were a lot more people than expected. She shoved her hands deep in her pockets as she walked up to the bar. Thankful that J was there, giving them a timid finger wave as they locked eyes. 

"Hey you!! Everything ok?" J asked as Stevie walked towards the bar. 

"For now, yeah. Any chance you know where I can find Eddie?" Stevie asked. 

"He's sat over there in that booth," J answers, pointing to the corner of the bar, "what are you wearing under that coat? You must be a little cold with no pants on" J smirks. 

"Well. Uh. Let's just say there's not a lot under here ok? Yeah I'm cold but I didn't think I'd be running around town." Stevie sighed, running a hand over her face hoping to hide her embarrassment. 

"Oh babes he is absolutely going to lose his mind!! Just keep everything family friendly in here" J winks, "Want a shot for courage?" 

"Oh my god, yes please!"

"Not that you need it" J says pouring Stevie a shot of sambuca "on the house" 

"Thank you! I owe you one." Stevie says before quickly taking the shot and turning around to find Eddie. 

Eddie had had a really tiring day. His first client had made him redraw the art work 3 times before it was deemed good enough. That set the tone for the day and by the end of it he needed a drink and a chat with J. Sitting contemplating whether to pick up pizza on the way home or not he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. Not really thinking about it Eddie continued to be in a world of his own. It wasn't until a hand was placed on the table that Eddie paid attention. 

A perfectly manicured hand with forest green nails was sitting by his drink. Eddie looked over at the owner and was met with the nicest set of legs he had ever seen. Far too much of them was hidden by the coat their owner was wearing. As his eyes travelled up the body to see who it was Eddies couldn't help but admire the figure that was in front of him, strong looking but soft around the edges. 

Finally getting to the face Eddies was lost for words. In front of him stood Stevie, perfectly curled eyelashes with just a sweep of eyeliner underneath, she looked devastatingly beautiful.

"Hi," Eddie squeaked out, cleared his throat and then tried again, "Hi." 

"Hey yourself" Stevie smirked, "Fancy seeing you here." 

"Yeah, fancy that. Errmm, not that this isn't wonderful, but how come you're here?" Eddie questioned. "Do you want a drink?"

Stevie looked around quickly, leaned forward and opened up the collar of the coat slightly to reveal a thin strap and some black lace, before standing back up again and making sure everything was hidden. 

Eddie took a deep steadying breath and a quick sip of his drink before he spoke again. "You, urm, here to see someone then?" he asked, glad that he sounded more with it than he felt, his mouth was dry and his pants were suddenly a little uncomfortable. 

"Fuck sake," Stevie whispered, "I'm here for you, if you want me to be that is, if not I'll just go, you know what, I'll just go anyway, this was a bad idea" Stevie said shakily starting to turn. 

Stevie was here, wearing THAT, for him?! And she didn't think Eddie wanted her? Oh fuck, she didn't think Eddie wanted her and was starting to walk away.

"Hey hey hey sweetheart, I was just in shock is all" Eddie suddenly said moving forward and taking a loose grasp of Stevies wrist. "Come back here" he said tugging slightly, pulling Stevie towards him and down on the seat. "You really come to find me wearing something lacy mm? What a lucky man I am" Eddie whispered into the ear of the woman practically sitting in his lap.     

"Wonder what else you're wearing under there" he said seductively running a hand up and under the coat reaching the line of the lace panties. "You little minx, anyone could have seen you wearing this. You like the thought of that?" Eddie teased at the low whine and the cock twitch that preceded the sentence.   

"You, just you, all for you" Stevie replied breathlessly. 

"Up," Eddie demanded, "Let's get out of here now before I have you begging me to fuck you in the middle of this place." Pushing Stevie towards the door and grabbing his bag he hurried to catch up. 

"I'll see you at home in a few minutes princess" Eddie whispered, grabbing Stevie's chin and forcing her to look at him before walking off towards his car. 

Less than 5 minutes later he found Stevie waiting outside the apartment block looking wide eyed and relieved when she saw Eddie walking towards her. 

"After you gorgeous" Eddie said, opening the door to the building and holding it open. 

As soon as they were through the door Eddie pulled Stevie close and kissed her. Starting slowly and building more and more passion. 

"I know I turned up in the hopes of this happening but I need to get this out there." Stevie said resting her forehead against Eddies, "I need to know if this happens it actually means something to you, that after this you're not going to run away again and ghost me, I can't go through that again." 

"Never, I will never leave you again" Eddie replied quickly, "leaving you was the stupidest thing I've ever done and that's an extensive list" Stevie laughed wetly at Eddie's confession.

"Take me to bed Munson" Stevie mumbled against Eddie's lips before kissing him again. Their kissing grew more and more passionate and before long Stevie was pressed against the wall running her hands through Eddie's hair, tugging lightly. "Fuck" Eddie moaned "baby I need to see what you're wearing under this" he said reaching for the ties on the coat and pulling them open. 

Eddie felt his hands swatted away and Stevie pushed him back slightly and reached for the top button of the coat, opening it up very slowly to reveal the lacy underwear set she was wearing. Taking the coat off and throwing it to the side she looked over at Eddie. 

Eddie Munson had never considered praying to any god and thanking them for anything in his life but Stevie standing in front of him wearing this set with those boots had him wanting to thank every deity he could think of at that moment. 

"Never before have I seen something so beautiful." Eddie said in awe as he stepped forward, pressing Stevie against the wall again and cupping her cheek before kissing her softly on the lips and then moving down to her neck leaving small hickies in his path down Stevie's chest and to her nipples. 

"Stop teasing and take me somewhere to fuck me!" Stevie moaned out as Eddie bit down on one nipple and sucked. 

"As you wish princess," Eddie said, picking her up and carrying her to the bedroom. 

"Such a caveman" Stevie giggled as she was thrown on the bed. 

Eddie quickly stripped down to his underwear and joined her on the bed. 

Eddie kissed his way back down Stevie's body and carried on past where she wanted him the most. Lying in between her thighs Eddie spent time kissing, nibbling and leaving hickies all over the inside of them as Stevie grew more and more impatient above him. 

"That feel good, hmm? Seems like you're all nice and wet for me" Eddie teased running a finger up the damp fabric covering Stevie up still. "As breathtaking as you look in this we are going to need to lose these" Eddie said pulling the pants down slightly and looking Stevie in the eyes. 

Stevie noded. "Please" she whimpered.

"Good girl using your words and your manners, so good for me already" Eddie praised. 

Eddie slid the panties down and threw them to the side and took Stevie in hand using his thumb to massage the tip. Reaching over to his bedside table Eddie fumbled for the bottle of lube he knew he had and a condom, putting them on the bed next to him before taking Stevie in his mouth. A few seconds later Eddie stopped what he was doing. 

"Patience," Eddie chastised, swatting Stevies thighs as she whined at the loss. "Turn over" 

Stevie turned over and leaned down onto her forearms pushing her ass up into the air as Eddie opened the lube and warmed it up in his finger. Eddie reached around and took Stevie back in hand loosely before starting to open her up. Soon enough Eddie had two fingers inside her down to the knuckle.

"More please, feels so good" Stevie cried out as Eddie crooked his finger finding that spot. 

He opened her up with a third finger before withdrawing and rolling the condom on. 

"You ready baby?" He asked and he added more lube to his cock. 

"Please," Stevie replied. 

"So fucking tight princess, feels so good" Eddie groaned as he pushed inside slowly. He took a moment after bottoming out. Rocking his hips experimentally he took a few shallow thrusts. 

"Harder, fuck me like you mean it, I'm not going to break" Stevie bit out. 

"Brat" Eddie replied, lightly slapping her ass. "Oh you like that do you?" he asked as Stevie moaned below him.

"Yeah, please, harder. Leave a mark, need to feel you after" 

"Fuck, you're perfect" Eddie moaned out before speeding up his thrusts and spanking Stevie harder on her ass. "Say red if you need me to stop baby ok" 

"I'm so fucking green right now Ed's, please, i can take it." 

"Good manners get rewards" he said smacking her ass harder and fucking into her even harder. 

Soon the room was filled with moans and the sound of skin on skin.

"So close, I need to see you," Stevie groaned out.  

Eddie pulled out and Stevie lay on her back before Eddie pushed back in again pushing Stevies knees up towards her chest.

"Oh fuck," Stevie cried out as the new postion meant that Eddie was hitting her prostate with every movement. 

"hey, hey you ok princess? Am I hurting you? Do we need to stop?" Eddie asked, pausing his movements as he noticed that Stevie was crying. 

"No no, just feels so good," Stevie said, moving her hips the best she could to get Eddie to move again. "Feeling a little overwhelmed is all"

"So close baby, need you to cum with me." Eddie moaned out taking Stevie back in hand and matching his hand movements with his thrusts. Seconds later Stevie was cumming with a cry of Eddie's name and Eddie was cumming with a choked out moan. 

Eddie pulled out of Stevie gently and he felt her tense up. "I'm just making sure I don't collapse on you ok, and I need to go and get a cloth and the ointment." Eddie reassured kissing her before he moved off the bed. 

He soon returned with a warm cloth and some soothing cream. After cleaning Stevie off he threw the cloth towards the laundry basket. 

"Turn over for me please princess," Eddie asked. 

"Stings, feels good" Stevie hummed as Eddie put some soothing cream on the bright red hand print covering more than half of Stevies ass cheek. 

"Please tell me you don't have to go anywhere tonight at least?" Eddie said as he got comfy and pulled Stevie over to him to lie on his chest. 

"No I'm off for a couple days now" Steve mumbled sleepily. 

"Good, I was going to ask if you'd allow me to take you out tomorrow." Eddie asked nervously. 

"Hhmmm let me think about it" Stevie joked, poking Eddie in the side, "I guess I can allow you to try and make up for running away from me" 

"I'm so sorry about that, so so fucking sorry for leaving you. I'm never going to leave you again, you're stuck with me now" he replies, kissing the top of Stevie's head.

Soon enough breathing evened out and conversation slowed before the sound of gentle snoring took over the room. Eddie pulled Stevie a little closer and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead before closing his own eyes and letting sleep take him. He didn't think he'd ever gone to sleep so happy. 

[tea-and-spoons]

hi we're really sorry to bother you but we're really sort of desperate for advice?

so we have a vague cardiovascular condition that seems to be affecting our legs a whole lot. so we get really intense pain in the lower halves of both our legs. rest helps, of course, but its slow and we wont always be in a scenario where we'll be able to rest, yk? so we've been looking in to mobility aids because we kinda like the idea of being able to walk around outside without being in terrible pain /lh

but we've kind of got a few issues with it, being mainly: a) what. do we get. we're looking towards wheelchairs because the sitting will be good for the legs and also the hypertension. we do get a decent amount of activity in to avoid aggravating it (being. we pace around at home A Lot lol)

b) how do we get any kind of mobility aid without our parents knowing. our mother is the type to not really take us seriously at all regarding our health

and c) how to deal with the whole "erm. [xyz] = you cant get a mobility aid". for us its a whole fear that we're the cause of our own physical issues and therefore we arent Allowed to get a mobility aid cause that'd be. "stupid" ig, despite the fact thats a pretty fucking dumb line of reasoning. not like they'll stop making fucking. walkers if we buy one or whatever lol

sorry for the long ask, we're just kinda. desperate lol. and your blog seems nice (though totally no pressure to respond of course lol)

hope your day's going well :)

Hello hello, I'm sorry it's taken me so long to answer you! I hope things have been going okay in the meantime. I also support the idea of being able to walk around outside without terrible pain! Here's what I'm thinking that may help you get a mobility aid:

There are a few places where you can try out different mobility aids to see what you like- pharmacy, medical supply store, even the grocery store should have some scooters and possibly canes in the medical aisle. Nobody should question this, but if they do, you could tell them you're checking the height to see if it works, or shopping for your grandparent.

On a related note, try to make sure that your mobility aid isn't causing you to hunch forwards. If it is, you either need to make it taller, or you need to stay leaning on the backrest while you push a wheelchair.

If you find something you like at one of those stores, great! You might also find a secondhand version for cheaper online. I think you can have things shipped to the post office to pick up there.

Especially if you're not using the mobility aid around the house, I'm wondering about keeping it in your car or locker or a closet at work- whatever applies to you.

I will just put this out there- I obviously don't know your situation, but some people do change their minds about mobility aids when they see how much your quality of life improves.

Honestly I love your response of "it's not like they're going to stop making walkers"! Your physical issues are not your fault, and looking to reduce pain is a good goal. Even if it was your fault, you still deserve to feel better. Mobility aids are for anyone who benefits from them.

Good luck with everything! 💙

[biganimal92]

update for the 4 of you reading this that care (this isn't meant to be pessimistic I just mean that very few of my friends follow me on here lol)

I feel like my art has been stagnating for a long time and it's mostly because I limit myself to fandoms and the attention I get for my fanart messes with the way I value my self-worth so a few months back I decided I wanted to start doing a lot more with my art to gain more personal fulfillment and to give myself a direction i actually wanted to take it in so that i felt like i was making progress and going somewhere with it. I was making plans to create a proper portfolio of things that weren't star wars yaoi or the dudes from fall out boy fucking, and I was planning on launching a YouTube channel where I posted speedpaints and stuff and I actually made some decent progress

I drew something I was really proud of and I knew the content in it would be pretty popular despite still technically being fanart, and I had a time-lapse recorded for it and everything, I was even halfway through the script. I also had a number of original drawings I'd done that I never posted anywhere and I felt like by this time I should have been able to properly launch this stuff and start taking appropriate steps to have my art reach a wider audience.

butttttt then my laptop died suddenly and randomly (i was literally using it just fine, i lifted it up from my lap and it shut off and wouldnt turn back on) and it's been in the repair shop for a week and they still don't know what's wrong with it. they think it's a motherboard issue and if it ends up being at least $600 to repair it I'm just getting a new laptop. I think they can transfer the data on the hard drive to an external that I have and if so that'd be wonderful because that laptop contains all the work I've been doing these last few months for this thing I wanna do with my art.

thankfully since then my roommate is letting me have one of his backup gaming pcs (he works in tech so he has plenty) and I've been able to get set up there in case I need to start my progress over, but the issue is that it's a Linux and clip studio literally doesn't work with Linux because the desktop version of the program apparently relies on either edge being installed if it's windows, or safari being installed if it's Mac. so I can't sign in or download the full version, I'm stuck with the super limited trial version, and because of this I've been trying to get comfortable with Krita. which thankfully can record time-lapses.

my mental health has only been improving since moving to Seattle despite some pretty low lows so thankfully, even though this is uh a pretty big deal all things considered, I'm handling it really well. I had one horrible encounter with a psychiatrist when trying to get treatment for my anxiety and adhd, but since my insurance here sucks since I'm poor and nothing has worked for my other issues I've been fortunate to be able to see doctors about, I've officially become a crystal mommy and I've resorted to ~alternative medicines~ and as a result I've had a considerable amount of improvement in a very short amount of time with the things I've struggled with getting help with from a professional psychiatrist. so yeah, I'm only getting better

biggest issue that still impacts me is that my attempts at befriending people irl have not borne much fruit, granted I haven't been trying super hard but with a huge covid spike coming up soon, said weak attempts are going to have to be put on hold for the time being. especially since the main thing I was literally going to do as soon as Christmas was over was join this drawing group that meets up every other Sunday, but now I don't have my laptop so it'll just have to wait regardless of what the state of things are looking like otherwise

uhhh what else. oh yeah I got into Chinese yaoi and Indian cinema and I got out of my head enough to start playing genshin impact again so basically I'm a huge faggot ama

OH SHIT I forgot to mention I got another horrible job and I'm kind of trapped into keeping it for at least a year unless something catastrophic happens because it's giving me really important experience in the field I'm trying to go into, but when I say it sucks I mean it's probably the most disorganized place I've ever worked at that wasn't a locally owned franchise. I work at an open-access low income healthcare organization that's all over Seattle so when I say it's terrible and disorganized I think you get the picture

anyway I don't know how often I'll be on here but I'm bored and lonely and scrolling through tumblr seems like a better use of my time than spending an entire shift looking at r/shittyfoodporn

[thessalian]

Thess vs Gluten

So I did manage to get enough spoons together to make a late-ish trip to get groceries. I have plans. Many of those plans involve baking. I'm going to do the chocolate mayonnaise cake, I think. Might make another batch of the gingerbread, now that I have a hand mixer and won't kill myself with all the mixing. Definitely going to do some more chocolate chip cookes, and the three ingredient peanut butter cookies, but also pondering ginger snaps and thumbprint cookies (going to try filling those alternately with peanut butter, black cherry jam, and chocolate spread).

Look, I bought a cookie jar and I am going to use it.

Also intending to try the potato candy, and that too will be alternately filled with peanut butter, black cherry jam, and chocolate spread. Honestly, one of my objectives was to get a few bits and pieces that'd work well with various recipes from my Baking Yesteryear cookbook. It was a gift, and it is a very treasured one, and I will USE IT YES.

I think part of the thing that makes it so precious - quite aside from the one who gave it to me in the first place - is that it taught me why so much gluten-free stuff in shops is so bleh, most of the time.

See ... it's apparently not worth it, in capitalism, to properly accommodate people with dietary restrictions. They don't make many gluten-free products at all, and the ones they do tend to get lumped in with vegan bits and pieces. So a lot of mass-produced gluten-free food is also made without eggs or butter. Now, apparently the point of gluten is elasticity and stretch, trapping gas so that a bread dough can rise, and gluten is therefore more or less pointless for cakes, even though it's very much needed for bread. Now, I say 'more or less' because recipes that call for gluten-free flour ask for an addition of xanthan gum if it's not already in their flour mix. So I'm kind of wondering if it's just that most places that mass-produce gluten-free baked goods are using the amount of xanthan gum that they'd need for bread in everything, and that's making the end result a little tough and dry. Not as noticeable when there's egg and butter adding moistness and richness to the whole thing, but without it? The end result seems to be overly chewy baked goods.

But of course, I need to test that theory a little more. Hence the chocolate mayonnaise cake, actually - I remember Dylan Hollis raving about how moist the cake was, clearly as a result of the mayonnaise, and I want to see if I succeed with a chocolate mayonnaise cake where I failed with the Wacky Cake.

Anyway, also I did burgers ... with a bit of a twist. I couldn't be bothered with most gluten-free buns, so instead I put together a couple of patties, fried them up in the same pan as I was sauteeing some sliced chestnut mushrooms (in garlic butter), put the patties on the plate first, topped each with my dairy-free mozzarella, and then topped all of that with the mushrooms so that the heat from all that would melt the cheese. Then I just ate it with fork and knife, sans bun. With hash browns. It was a bit of a late dinner, all told, but worth it.

[forthedancingandthethriving]

(Context)

"Get- off of me!" Lily grits her teeth, trying to kick the man's long arm. Unfortunately, it doesn't exactly work, considering how easily he was pinning her down.

"You're the ones who gave Rose so much trouble?" the man cackles. "Then how come I'm holding you down and him up so easily?"

It was true. A strange, oily, and inky black substance covered parts of the man's body. A majority of it was on his arms, which he was using to hold down Lily and hold Lil Coding up in the air.

The duo glance at each other before glancing back at the man. Lily opens her mouth to vocalize, while Lil Coding begins to summon his spear, but neither get very far, especially when Lily begins to cough and hack.

"Lily?!" Lil Coding exclaims, worry and confusion taking over him. He struggles more in the grip of the strange man, watching as he lets go of Lily. But his friend only gets to her knees, grasping at her throat as she continues to cough.

"What did you do?!" the Code demands.

The man only grins. "How do you think the ink could've gotten into her?"

Lil Coding stops to think before realization strikes him.

"Why did you say that like it was a completely normal thing to say?" Lily snorted as she took her milkshake from the counter.

Lil Coding grinned as he took his and sipped from it. "Because it's normal for me to say!"

"I wonder who you get your stupidity from." Lily teased with a grin as she sipped from her milkshake, and the duo exited the shop.

"Oi!"

Horror dawned on Lil Coding as he realized his predicament as well. The man dropped the Code as he also began to cough.

"It was a pain in the ass trying to figure out a mix that would work on you and not end up killing your friend other there." the man glances over at Lily, who was also coughing still, but the black liquid that was on his body was beginning to drip from her mouth. "I mean, come on kid, couldn't you have been human?"

"What.. d-do you want with us..?" Lil Coding demands weakly, and it feels like his mind is escaping him.

The man grins. "I need some little helpers back at Omnia Academy. Nothing too big, yknow, just kidnapping students to experiment on and then help with the experimenting. And so why not the kids that gave my friend and business partner such a hard time!"

The man then pauses. "Speaking of which, where is that lady? Haven't heard from her in a damn while."

"Burning.. in hell.." Lil Coding spat, though the black liquid began to spill from his mouth.

"Not surprising!" the man laughed. "But man, she owes me money now. Maybe I'll get it from her when my lab ends up exploding at some point. Or when I get found out. Whatevers first, yknow?"

Lil Coding had no clue how the man was able to joke and act like a casual friend at a time like this. He glances over at Lily, and his heart stops.

The strange substance had covered most of her body and seemed to lose its oily and inky appearance. Now, she looked like a purple and blue shadowy version of herself.

"If people saw a weird, inky and oily looking child, it'd draw attention, kid." the man snorts, as if it's obvious.

"Go to hell.." Lil Coding sneers, and he feels his mind slipping from him as the substance begins to overtake him as well. He can feel it cutting off several of his communication functions.

"I've got several reservations, kid." the man grins.

○●○

"Yeah, it's just really weird. Apparently, Mr. Damian has some new assistants for his Experiment Club. And everyone knows it's true because there's some more supplies in there and it's a lot cleaner, but no one has seen them!"

"Eh, you know how much a nut job that dude is. Maybe they're just clones or something."

"Oh that'd be horrifying and also would make a great movie."

"I am not going down there with you, Ben!"

"Come on, Mark!"

Damian snorts to himself as he shuts the door to the club room. He walks over behind his little area and opens a trapdoor, going through it and shutting it behind himself.

He descends down the ladder before letting the same strange substance from before appear on his body again. It was absolutely exhausting keeping up this human form, but in the end, it was worth it.

He walks into the lab he was somehow able to build underneath the academy. He was still surprised that he managed to con his way into getting the headmaster to agree to it.

He exhales and runs his hand through his black hair. In his pursuit to make sure he'd be able to live for an eternity, he'd turned to experimenting on the people of this strange little world. It was risky, especially with the Admins, the Anamoly, and all that, but he'd found ways to make it work.

For now, his best bet seemed to be meme energy, but since it was too pure for a virus like him, he needed to find a way to corrupt it.

He grins and looks over to a table, where a shadow-like Lily and shadow-like Lil Coding were preparing tools for his next experiments.

One of the many things he liked about being a virus. The ability to infect others. It was a damn doozy, though, trying to make sure it'd be able to get past the Code's antivirus and not kill the human girl.

But he had managed to do it. And now?

Damian had all the time in the world to pursue his eternity.

[duckprintspress]

Hi, Friendly anon here! I was wondering if y'all had any updates on your projects? I found a reference to a Trello taskboard thing that looked like it might have some but I got waaaaay confused trying to understand it. How goes everything?

Hey anon!

Yeah, we've publicly shared our Trello here but for someone who's not familiar with how Trello boards are set up I can absolutely see how it could be confusing. So I'm figuring I can answer this Ask two-fold: first with what we're actually up to right now, and second with a quick how-to that'd hopefully help with understanding the Trello in the future.

Current Projects and Their Statuses:

And Seek (Not) to Alter Me: Kickstarter fulfillment is complete except for people who haven't done their backer surveys. We are planning to release the e-book and some surplus merch on our website on October 1st, so we've been doing work related to that: taking pictures, preparing shop listings, working on our controlled vocabulary, etc.

He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown: we've got virtually all the merchandise here and ready to go with a few exceptions; the bath bombs still need to be repackaged, the patches are currently shipping and are slated to arrive on Wednesday, and chocolates we won't get until it's time to ship, so they won't spoil while sitting around waiting. We're still hard at work on the books themselves and the stories. There are a total of 36 stories in the two collections; as of right now, 19 stories are completely done/edited/ready to go, and 7 more are close (at the final step before completion). The rest are in various stages of editing. We've ended up behind our originally (intentionally optimistic) projected schedule for a variety of reasons, but we're well within the range of our more "pessimistic" projections, which had us fulfilling in March or so. As it is, we expect to be able to complete fulfillment/ship people's purchases in early November.

Our Next Anthology: we've been hard at work on the planning for our second Queer Fanworks Inspired By... anthology. We've hammered out all the details, figured out a schedule, got a title, drafted and edited the websites and surveys that include the rules, guidelines, recruitment stuff, etc., and we anticipate launching recruitment (which will mostly be internal) on October 1st.

An Enamel Pin Campaign: we originally intended to launch a campaign featuring only enamel pins in September. We're still planning to launch it, but we had so many ideas that we've struggled to narrow them down, and so odds are we'll be launching this in October instead. Right now, we've narrowed it to a specific theme and right now we're voting on which specific pins we want within that theme.

General Business Tasks: as we're getting closer to finishing the stories for He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown we've been tackling a back-log of more general tasks. For example, we've opened up opportunities for authors we've worked with to publish their solo original works (as in, personal projects by our authors instead of themed anthologies) and we're in the process of reviewing the interest checks people sent in, gathering more information from the authors, and getting the ball rolling on having more stand-alone/solo projects coming down the pipes. This is an essential step in widening the scope of what we publish, and we are aiming to start getting out roughly a novel a quarter starting this winter. Also, starting in October, we expect to publish a short story per week on our website, though we're still getting the ducks in a row to make that a reality so consider that tentative, not official. We've also also been expanding the resources part of our website, preparing a style guide, an e-book formatting guide, a fandom lexicon, and more. Our resource-related posts have tended to be well-received, and also because the resources are free we consider providing them an important part of our mission of helping fanfiction author publish their works: even someone who never works with DPP can benefit from a public, free, thorough, professional-level guide that helps them format their story for e-book publication without needing any special/expensive software, for example.

That's...all the basics I think? there's also a continuous background buzz of Things That We Do - regular blogging, daily monitoring/upkeep on our social media, maintaining our Patreon and ko-fi accounts, accounting, end-of-month and beginning-of-month fiscal activities, etc. - all the day-to-day activities that keep a business (even a business as small and new as this one) running.

How to Navigate the Trello

So, while we're still hammering out the details on how best to organize the Trello for utility both for us as we organize things and to the public - in particular, I'm going to need to tweak how it's set up if we're going to effectively use the built-in calendar functionality - here's how it's set up now.

LISTS:

The highest level of organization on a Trello Board is the lists. We've currently got a whole bunch of different lists.

At a Glance: this is the "overview" lists. It includes all of our current projects, and all of our regular/general management. Those are organized on Cards - more on that next.

Merchandise: lists all the merchandise we've currently got in production/in process, and what their current status is. (it does NOT include merch produced for past campaigns/activities)

After those two, we have a whole bunch of lists that all serve the same function: they indicate what stage of editing we've completed for each of a number of stories we're currently working on.

Developmental - Writing in Progress: first draft isn't done

Developmental - Draft Completed: first draft is done, waiting for an editor

Concept Editing - First Pass Completed: a concept-edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review

Concept Editing - Second Pass Completed: a second concept-edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.

Copy - First Edits Completed: a SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.

Copy - Second Pass Completed: a second SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.

Copy - Final Edits Completed: a final/clean-up SPAG edit run has been returned to the author and is pending their review.

Final Edits Approved, Contract Sent and Pending Signature: the author has approved the final edit run and has been sent their contract.

Story Completed, Contract Signed, Author Paid, Preliminary Formatting Done: what it says on the tin

Typesetting - First Pass: the typesetter has done the first run on formatting the story for print.

Typesetting Completed: what it says on the tin.

Not every single story ends up needing every single one of these, and sometimes stories need more concept or SPAG runs than this, but we thought this division reflected the process stories go through most often. We've given the stories basic anonymizing so that no author feels "called out," though more often than not it's the editing team that's behind, not the authors.

Long-Term Ideas, Lists, Information We May Need Someday: the last of our lists is what it says on the tin. We keep track of ideas for future anthologies, potential merch, things we've thought of and went "we can't do that now but maybe someday..." etc., and we just toss it all there so that the ideas don't get lost.

CARDS:

Every List is composed of Cards. Each Card reflects one category of "thing that needs to be done." There are a lot of ways to actually set up lists and cards (and we may change ours in the future) but currently, we have:

Cards for all our main projects/overarching "areas" in which we're working. These are on the At a Glance List.

Cards for all currently in-progress Merchandise, on the Merchandise list.

Cards for all stories we have in-progress at the moment, on the appropriate Lists for their current status.

Cards for some over-arching categories of "things for not now," on the Long-Term Ideas list.

All the Cards on At a Glance have the same basic structure. If you click on the Card, you'll be able to see sub-tasks/checklists related to the items on that list. For example, here's the Recurring Tasks Card:

This is one of the most complex of the Cards, as it includes all the activities we engage in daily, weekly, monthly, and annually to keep the business running smoothly. Other "management" related Cards on this list include two related to our weekly management meetings and monthly all-server meetings, and the General Task Card, which lists a whole slew of background activities that we've been working on and/or intend to do (divided into separate checklists for each category, cause there are just so many).

Then, below the the general Cards the cards for specific projects. Here's the one for He Bears the Cape of Stars and She Wears the Midnight Crown.

This, and the other specific project Cards, list all the tasks we currently know of/have thought of that need to be done for the given project. The checklists give a quick idea of what the task is, and indicates the current status of that task. A few also have dates attached to them, though not most cause we don't tend to treat deadlines as that "hard" internally - we prefer to maintain flexibility considering how many people are involved in these projects and how complex all our lives are and how the world just, ya know, is right now.

As we complete tasks, we move them into the Comments section at the bottom of the Card. Because we only recently implemented this public system (previously, we worked from a private Trello that looked a lot like this but was just a bit messier and not designed to be viewed by outsiders, like, we used a lot of shorthand, that kind of thing) it doesn't include tasks completed before we implemented this system, but we've been doing our best to keep on top of it since we opened the public Trello a couple weeks ago. For example, here's the completed tasks for our upcoming anthology that we expect to open recruitment for on October 1st:

So, I think that's the basic?

Because we want to use the Calendar more, we may end up breaking out more of the individual tasks currently listed on checklists on Cards into their own Cards, since the Calendar mostly functions at the Card-level, not at the checklist-item level. If we do that, we'll likely make additional Lists for our main active projects, with cards for each task that is currently a checklist item. However, that's not going to happen immediately just cause there are higher priority things to be done.

If there's something more specific that you're finding confusing, I'm happy to put together a tutorial - I tend to figure that if one person has a question and actually tells me they have a question, there are at least a half-dozen other people who had the same question and decided for whatever reason not to ask, and as you likely know, anon and everyone else reading this, we're committed to transparency, and the Trello is one of the biggest, newest facets of that, so ensuring it's navigable for new comers is really important to us. It's hard to create a public-facing system that maintains a certain degree of confidentiality and still serves our needs for managing the business, and also just - we've got a lot going on basically all the time (and more and more as we grow), so there's a lot that has to go on there, which means by necessity it's kinda complicated. I do worry that if it's really complex, it'll serve to create obscurity instead of transparency, but...well, we're doing our best, and we'll keep doing our best, and we hope that when questions/issues/concerns/delays/etc. do arise, people will continue to be as patient with us as they have been! <3

Hope that helps, and thanks for sending an ask!! We're always here to help. <3

[pokemoncenterofficial]

had a wonderful chat with connie, a floaroman native, an employee at the pick a peck of petals flower shop, and the only person i've ever seen chug a hot cocoa in the MIDDLE OF SUMMER.

[an audio file is attached! at first, we only hear the sounds in the background. the soft music, clinking plates, people and pokémon talking, and hot liquids being poured indicate that the recording takes place inside a café.

Theo: "Hey! Thanks so much for agreeing to meet here to talk! Would it be okay if I recorded the conversation? I want to help anyone else that might be out there in a situation like me, so it'd be great to have a primary source like this."

???: "Oh, sure, that's fine!"

celeste the cleffa cries in greeting, along with a pachirisu.

Theo: "Okay, thanks so much! First things first, would you mind introducing yourself for the recording?"

???: "Of course! I'm Connie, and I work at the Pick a Peck of Petals Flower Shop in town. I understand you came into possession of a... Shaymin egg?"

Theo: "Yeah, that seems to be the case. I've had it for a few weeks, and it's perfectly healthy, but I don't think it's going to hatch for a while. Probably because Shaymin is a Mythical Pokémon and all.

Alright, it seems like Shaymin is pretty closely related to the Gracidea flower, right?"

Connie: "Yep! Legends say that Shaymin can use the Gracidea flower to undergo a sort of transformation."

Theo: "It's closer to something like Cherrim's different forms than something like Mega Evolution, right?"

Connie: "I believe so, yeah! Gracidea flowers are commonly given as a way to show gratitude or apologize after a fight. It's a Sinnohnan tradition, we've been doing it since... well, forever, I guess."

Theo: "Is Gracidea grown all over Sinnoh?"

Connie: "Oh, no. Just in Floaroma Town, actually! It's a very fussy plant, and the rich soils of the town are the only place it can grow. Well, one of very few, I guess."

Theo: "Oh, ok! You said it grows in a few places, where else could I find it?"

Connie: "Well, we don't actually know! The plant isn't native to Floaroma town, but where the flower actually comes from is a bit of a mystery. The most widely accepted theory is that it came here with Shaymin when the area was first blessed with its power. It DOES grow flowers on its back, maybe a seed or two fell off?"

Theo: "That makes a lot of sense, thank you! Has a Shaymin ever visited Floaroma Town since?"

Connie: "Yes, actually! Around every decade or so, we'll get a Shaymin visit. Ask anyone old enough to remember, and they'll tell you all about it!"

Theo: "Have YOU seen Shaymin, then?"

Connie: "Aaagh, no! Last time a Shaymin visited, I was out of town on vacation, so I'm one of the unlucky few who's never seen it in person. I think someone uploaded a video of it to MewTube, though. I'll send it to you if I can unearth it."

Theo: "Dang, that sounds super frustrating. A mythical Pokémon visits your town and you're on vacation? Do you think you'll get to see it next time it visits, at least?"

Connie: "Yeah! Speaking of, I think it's going to visit pretty soon! They're all very strict with the every-decade thing. The next visit should be this year, actually! That's what you're hoping for, right? So you can return the egg?"

Theo: "If I can find a Shaymin, that's the plan. I'm terrified of what might happen if it hatches first. I'm definitely not qualified to take care of it, and I doubt it would be able to live in the wild if it was raised in captivity."

Connie: "It might be worth picking up some Gracidea while you're here, then. Maybe it'll resonate with the egg? Ooh, what if it transforms? That'd be a sight to see."

Theo: "I'll have to swing by your shop later and pick some up! Alright, I think that's everything we need. Thanks so much for your time!

Connie: "Hey, anytime! It was fun!"

celeste and connie's pachirisu say a quick goodbye to the camera before the recording cuts out.]

[aspenmissing]

𝙳𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚕'𝚜 𝚃𝚛𝚊𝚙 (𝙿𝚝 𝟹)

"It's you, isn’t it? We've been looking for you for a long time" Sam says.

"Well, you found me"

"But the holy water?"

"You think something like that works on something like me?" Sam tries to fight the force that has pinned him to the wall, but fails.

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"Oh, that'd be a neat trick. In fact," He puts the gun down on a table "Here. Make the gun float to you there, psychic boy" Sam looks at the gun, but nothing happens.

"Well, this is fun" He walks over to the window besides Dean and Y/N "I could've killed you a hundred times today, but this...." He sighs "This is worth the wait" Y/N struggles, but it still pinned to the wall. John looks over at her.

"Your Dad – he's in here with me. Trapped inside his own meat suit. He says "hi", by the way. He's gonna tear you apart. He's gonna taste the iron in your blood"

"Let him go, or I swear to God-" Dean says.

"What? What are you and God gonna do? You see, as far as I'm concerned, this is justice" He comes over to Dean "You know that little exorcism of yours? That was my daughter"

"Who, Meg?"

"The one in the alley? That was my boy. You understand"

"You've got to be kidding me"

"What You're the only one that can have a family? You destroyed my children. How would you feel if I killed your family?" He smiles at Dean "Oh, that's right. I forgot. I did. Still, two wrongs don't make a right"

"She died screaming...I watched her wither in pain as I finished the last verse of the exorcism" Y/N says. She suddenly feels a force and she couldn't breathe.

"Stop! Stop it, let her go you fucking bitch!" Dean shouts. The force around Y/N's neck disappears and she takes deep breaths. John smirks at her.

"You son of a bitch" she says.

"I wanna know why. Why'd you, do it?" Sam asks. John turns to him.

"You mean why did I kill Mommy and pretty, little Jess?"

"Yeah" John turns back to Dean and Y/N.

"You know, I never told you this, but Sam was going to ask her to marry him" John backs up towards Sam "Been shopping for rings and everything" He turns to Sam "You want to know why? Because they got in the way"

"In the way of what?"

"My plans for you, Sammy. You...and all the children like you"

"Listen, you mind just getting this over with, huh? Cause I really can't stand the monologuing" Dean says and Y/N nods, faking a yawn. John goes over to them.

"Funny, but that's all part of your M.O., isn't it? Masks all that nasty pain, masks the truth"

"Oh, yeah? What's that"

"You know, you fight and you fight for this family, but the truth is they don't need you. Not like you need them. Sam – he's clearly John's favourite. Even when they fight, it's more concern than he's ever shown you. And Y/N was John's princess, he would put her before you any day"

"I bet you're real proud of your kids, too, huh? Oh wait, I forgot. I wasted 'em" Dean just smiles at him and John looks at Dean. He steps back and puts his head down. When he looks back up Dean suddenly yells in pain.

"Dean! No!" Sam shouts.

"Let him go you fucking bastard!" Dean starts to bleed heavily from his chest. Sam and Y/N start to struggle against the force pinning them. Y/N is forced to look next to her and see her twin being killed.

"Dad! Dad, don't you let it kill me!" John looks at him again and smiles. Dean starts screaming in pain.

"Dean! No!" Sam shouts.

"Please! Stop!" She pleads, tears falling down her cheeks. Blood is flowing out of Dean. Sam and Y/N struggle as hard as they can to break free. Blood is running out of Dean's mouth.

"Dean, please" Dean passes out.

"Dean!"

"Dean! Dammit keep your eyes open. Please!" John then walks over to Y/N, grabbing her by her chin and looking at her.

“And you, my daughter. I don’t know what to do with you. Can’t exactly kill you…at least not yet. So, I wonder.” John then stands back as Y/N feels the pressure back in her throat as she begins choking.

“Stop! Stop! Leave her alone!” Sam shouts.” Damn it! Stop it!” Theo slowly begins to lose consequence.

"Stop" John, the real John, whispers. Sam is suddenly let go "Y/N" Y/N is then let go, the pressure around her neck too, where she falls to her knees and breaths heavily. She then goes to Dean and cradles him, keeping pressure on his wounds. Sam dives and grabs the gun off the table. John turns to him, eyes yellow once again, and Sam aims the gun at him. "You kill me, you kill Daddy"

"I know" Sam fires the gun, shooting John in the leg. He falls down and goes over to his brother and sister.

"Dean? Dean, hey? Oh God" Sam says, helping Y/N put pressure on his wound.

"He's lost a lot of blood, Sammy. So much blood" Y/N says, breaking down.

"Where's Dad?" Dean mumbles.

"He's right here. He's right here, Dean"

"Go check on him"

"Dean"

"Go check on him" Sam looks at Y/N.

"Go, I've got him. She says" Sam gets up and goes over to check on John. He is lying motionless on the floor.

"Dad? Dad?" John suddenly looks up.

"Sammy! It's still alive. It's inside me, I can feel it. You shoot me. You shoot me! You shoot me in the heart, son!" Sam aims the gun at John "Do it now!"

"Sam, don't you do it. Don't you do it" Dean says.

"You've gotta hurry! I can't hold onto it much longer! You shoot me, son! Shoot me! Son, I'm begging you! We can end this here and now! Sammy!"

"Sam, no" Y/N says.

"You do this! Sammy! Sam..." The demon suddenly leaves John in a black cloud from his mouth. It disappears through the floor. John looks at Sam accusingly.

==

Sam is driving with John by his side. Dean and Y/N is in the back seat. John gasps in pain, Y/N has her arms wrapped around Dean, who is slumped in her chest.

"Look, just hold on, alright. The hospital's only ten minutes away"

"Please hold on Dean" Y/N says, putting her head on his, tears falling down her cheeks.

"I'm surprised at you, Sammy. Why didn't you kill it? I thought we saw eye-to-eye on this? Killing this demon comes first -before me, before everything" Sam looks in the rear-view mirror at Dean and Y/N, seeing how vulnerable the two are.

"No, sir. Not before everything. Look, we've still got the Colt. We still have the one bullet left. We just have to start over, alright? I mean, we already found the demon...."

"WATCH OU-" Y/N is cut from an eighteen-wheeler that suddenly slams into the passenger side of the Impala at full speed, driving it sideways in front of it. The driver of the semi is sitting behind the wheel. His eyes are black. Dean, Sam, Y/N and John are all unconscious in the car-blood covering them all.