#so it shows up when you search on my page for my art process

[rimeah]

The timelapse! I forgot to turn it on at first and only later realised its not a screen recording lol so I'll explain a little more here.

I used clip studio paint and the brush pack is Thick coating Brush Set (厚塗りブラシセット) & it took me 3hr since I had a clear ref and mental illness.

When practicing faces with a ref you can mark the edges of the ref or things like pupils to help with proportions and connect like?? Focus points to find the shapes. Connecting those dots, rotoscoping or drawing triangles and edges will help with learning.

Zooming out a lot, not erasing and instead blurring or going over it will also help with keeping focus on shapes ♡

If you paint base lines like I do you don't have to worry about lineart just base shapes. Set time limit to learn not to get stuck, it really doest matter if you end up painting over it, depends on style. Too tired to English rn but let me know if you have questions bye ♡

Oh I forgot, for some shading I used a multiply layer, rhe glowy thing is the add glow layer option (in sai I use luminosity) and I merge layers constantly bc I like how it blends when everything is on one layer BUT I save copies of the merged layers for backup.

When I use sai most is the same but I play around with the grit of the textures (bg more texture, important focus parts like the face = less grit), since sai brushes are so easy to customize

[purplephloxpress]

Another year, another Fanfiction Writers Appreciation Day!!!! If you are a writer of fanfic, please know just how appreciated you are!! Fandom would be such a different space without your creativity and labors of love. 💜

Holidays are all about making traditions, and the bookbinding friends with @renegadeguild once again came together to bind copies of fics for their authors as a show of our appreciation. This year I had the absolute joy of binding Emergency Help Wanted by the wonderful @piyo-13 and even got to collaborate with her on some of the design elements! It's a Modern AU Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen fic that starts with a "help wanted" ad.

EMERGENCY HELP WANTED

I lied when I got my job. I told them I had a kid so I could leave early from work to pick him up from daycare, take him to doctor's appointments, and occasionally miss a day when he's sick. Long story short, I'm in too deep. I didn't think it through. Looking to rent a kid for bring your child to work day. Must be a boy ages four to six, longish dark hair, likes soccer. Must also be artistic as the macaroni noodle paintings I made seem a little advanced for his age. Also, I will pay extra for someone willing to play the role of husband when dropping him off. He's a prosecuting attorney who often brings his work home. Message me for further details. Serious inquiries only.

Ok. So. I may have gone a little feral with this one. Online "help wanted" ad spiraled into loading wheel scene dividers, spiraled into fake Google search result headers, spiraled into FULLY committing to those authentic looking text messages. In full color. (There are so many. I typeset in MS Word. It was SO worth it, but god what a struggle at some points.) And don't forget the "recent searches" title page! Or the computer cutout on the cover! (It's bluescreening, just like Lan Xichen through this entire fic!) Also that cover/title page image that I just kept adding details to. (It's supposed to be Lan Xichen's desk, so it simply didn't feel right until it had sticky notes on the computer, #1 dad on the mug, scissors and measuring tape, scribbles on the sticky notes) Did I have a ton of fun designing this one? Perhaps. Couldn't say. Maybe just a tad. (This is a lie I had an ABSOLUTE BLAST!)

Historically, I've waited until I finish at least the typeset before reaching out to the author, but not so with this one! I got the idea for the fake google search results from Piyo's authors notes, teasing the contents of the next chapter. But! Those didn't start until about chapter 4! So I reached out and asked if we could collaborate and I'm forever glad I did! Not only does this have teasers for each chapter, I also got to bounce design ideas off of her, including what shade of blue and purple for the text messages. Because my friends, that is a serious matter and changed SEVERAL times throughout the process.

Also shoutout to all my Renegade friends who gave input and encouragement over the past year while I worked on this (what endpages to use? how to make this shade of green perfectly Nie Huaisang? how do we feel about this text message design? or how about this one?) - I love you all dearly and appreciate you so much for putting up with my nonsense at all times.

Binding details below the cut!

Fandom: The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi

Pairing: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin / Lan Huan | Lan Xichen

Bookcloth: Aqua/Purple Dubletta from Colophon Book Arts

Endpapers: Craft Consortium Ink Drops - Ocean pack

Textblock paper: short grain cream from Church Paper

Titling: We R Memory Keepers foil quill

Endbands: leather cording core, DMC embroidery floss for the bands

Body Font: EB Garamond

Title Font: Berlin Sans FB

Text Messages: Roboto

Additional fonts: Times New Roman, Kunstler Script, Magis Authentic

Title page image from Rawpixel and designed in Canva

Various computer graphics from The Noun Project

Tumblr insists on eating and doubling text in this section at its own whim, so if there's something missing that you're curious about, feel free to DM me an ask!

[idyllcy]

sincerely, never mine

word count: 1.6k || pt2 of sincerely, never yours

warnings: manipulation and mild batshit insanity

summary: your flesh and blood. your shared flesh and blood

Tim glances at the collection of sketches left over, licking his thumb as he separates the papers, a wall of portraits of his old servants by you still bright as ever against the horrifying gold of it all. Is it a prison of his mind? Is it a prison of his life? What did he do to deserve all of this? Did you hate him just because he was an elite and you were not? Did you wish for your death so badly as to even kill yourself?

Even when the cleaners had gone to search for your body, it was gone.

Do you despise him to the point of doing anything in order to leave him with only a memory of you? Had he been any dumber, he would have ordered all traces of you to be erased, but that was not possible. He was to be next in line for the position of great leader. It would be him. It had to be him. So, he would smear the narrative surrounding your name and force you to become attached to him at the word, dubbing you his sweet songbird that he had so gracefully set free. It was easy to edit the footage and grant you the false freedom that you had refused when at your fingertips. You did not want to become one of them. You despised him, and he would make it so that you could never hear your own name without being reminded of his own.

If you would drag him deep into the trenches of the ocean, then he would kill you in the process.

Though, his love for you was not just on the surface. There was no way he would be able to play into everyone's perception of a heartbroken leader who refused to marry if he did not keep pieces of you in his study. The cage used to hold you and the chain around your ankle remain there, and he no longer watches and allows songbird performances at events he attends. He can not bear to think of you, everyone thinks. He plays the role of some lovesick heartbroken fool all for the sake that people would be sympathetic to him. It definitely helps that he happens to look like his adoptive father as well.

"The blood of the elite pass down pure!"

Surely. 

Tim stares back at the papers in his hand, raising a brow.

"Is this new?"

"No, master." His aide raises a brow. "It has been there."

Tim frowns. You had never drawn yourself during the entire duration that you had been at the mansion, so how had this ended up in his pages? 

"Do you know who drew this? This was not my bird." He frowns. 

"It is the bird's sister, master. The one whom she had been torn away from?"

Tim blinks. No. This was not the sister of whom he found on the street and turned into his puppet in the newer generation of elites. It was not your father who had replaced your blood mother as the true elite that he had done. Everything he had done was to show that he loved his songbird and for the sake of his public image. The sketch of the young girl he now holds is not of you. It can not be. It had to have been someone else—

A child.

The sketchbook is new. Surely, this was not something he had originally held, and if so, then it had been sneakily hidden in the depths of his attic. The competition was in late January. This was purposely handed to him later than such. This was not dug up recently. this was deliberately given to him by someone, and he would make sure to find just which one of his maids had the guts to imitate your art style and even dream of creating a child that resembled both you and him. There is no person in the capitol insane enough to do such.

"Find me the maid that matches the portrait of the girl. One of the new hires must surely look as her. Then, check her DNA. We have the means." Tim hands his aide the image of the child. You were crazy enough to do it. Only you could match his insanity like that.

Oh, you sweet devil. A devil that would claw and tear at him until it would get to sink its nails into the muscle of his heart and rip it right out of the confines of his ribs.

First, the maid that had placed the sketchbook on his table is found, and Tim offers an abundance of wealth and a ticket out of poverty all to know where she had received the sketchbook. She mentions under the cushion of your cage, but he is well aware of the fact that could not have been possible. Had the money not been enough? Then she would learn her lesson in the confinement of the depths of darkness. 

When Tim receives back the report on the new maid, he curls his lips upwards and gets a fine laugh out of it. Your blood and sweat. His blood resides in his mansion as a mere servant.

"The public must know." His lips curl upward menacingly as he laughs. You, his songbird, you, his siren, had offspring of his own blood and flesh. You had kept the child you knew would have sent you right back into his arms if you had survived. You are alive, surely — and if you were not, then he had his blood to take care of. You are truly cruel to place your shared blood in his hands. You must not love the child very much if that was the case.

Or, you know him better than anyone because of the image he has curated.

There are eyes everywhere regardless of how careful he is with hiring.

"I heard you called, master." The young girl stares into his eyes — the same piercing eyes that you once adorned. Truly, it was like staring at a younger version of you had it not been for the black hair the young maid received from him.

"Your mother was my songbird, no?" 

"I am not aware of who my birthmother is. I was raised by your songbird's sister. The countess."

"And you were sent here to work as my maid?"

"I was informed that I could find my father here."

"Are you aware that you are of my flesh and blood?" 

"I was not, master." 

You are truly heartless.

Tim raises her to be the perfect successor, heartless and merciless with the people, watching as songbirds are killed year after year for only one to emerge victorious. With her, he fears nothing. All the blame could be pinned on the mistakes of her youth, and he would get to ruin your life through your shared flesh and blood. He is sure you are watching — whether that be in the depths of hell or from the peace of your bedroom. You could not have escaped, he tells himself. You are not dead. You can not be dead.

Your shared flesh and blood resemble you without a doubt, eyes like yours as though you were still there staring at him in the room when the songbird emerges victorious and he congratulates them. Is it cruel to use you for his narrative? Surely not. Is it cruel to use someone who had used him? There is no rest for the wicked, and it just so happened that neither of you are the good. He would make sure that the positive that could have come from your flesh would be worse than him. Surely, he would end up affecting more people in the end.

He would dig his own claws into the hole where your heart is supposed to be and personally make sure that you would see the demise of everyone around you just because you had left him. Your sister, father, and every single person he had ever cared about would be dragged into the trenches that you have forced him into just with your voice. One after the other, they fall ill to some mystery and pass away, and no one could pin it on Tim because he had adored both you and your family oh so much.

Tim is truly... is there truly rest when you have become the devil himself?

That is, until he is bedridden early in his life, stuck as his offspring tends to him by hand, always overseen by the doctor. He is on the way for recovery, his doctor says. Though, not that he worries. He has raised his flesh and blood to be a perfect copy of him. He is in good hands. There is no betrayal from someone who has been given everything and forced to stay obedient. There is no—

no, that's not quite the case.

"I am my mother's flesh, father's blood."

And Tim notes the way that his flesh is no longer of your eyes. They are now blue as his own, and in the very last moments of his death with no health to even yell, he is forced to stare himself in the eye rather than you. The way his head is held under the water reminds him of your singing all too much, bubbles slipping past his lips as his lungs flood with your song, hands thrashing to push himself up despite the longing to see you. He can not die yet. He must finish what he started and rip your life to shreds. He must destroy the very thing that you care about.

His vision goes dark, and he mumbles a prayer to you.

But he isn't dead.

No, not yet.

Even if it takes an eternity to recover, he will find you and sink those claws into your skin.

Just you wait.

[ceilidho]

Hello! I'm absolutely adoring your 'FEAR OF GOD' series and wanted to ask what your research process looked like? The fic feels so professional, and it's clear you put a crazy amount of effort in.

thank you so much!!!!

this one is making me do a lot of research tbh. i look at a lot of reference pictures of spaceships in movies/shows/art in order to describe the ship; dig through reddit and quora forums for information on the roles of crew members on longterm space travel; read the whole wikipedia page on space medicine; and a bunch of other random google searches.

most of the research doesn't go a very long way, but it's necessary in my opinion because the little details make the story come together. like i had to research what kind of medical research might be done in space in order to write literally one sentence on what Reader might be doing during the journey to Europa.

also i make a lot of things up because it's fiction at the end of the day, and interplanetary space travel doesn't exist for humans right now.

the biggest challenge for this fic though has just been finding the right words. like actually just choosing the words i want to use in order to convey a specific feeling. i rewrite sentences over and over, and shuffle paragraphs around, or ill use "xx" when i can't find the right word but i need to move on with the sentence, and then come back to it later in order to brainstorm what the word should be. i'm trying to deliberately choose words that feel claustrophobic, clinical, and sterile.

thank you so much though!!!! i'm so glad you're enjoying the fic!!!

[thecutestgrotto]

question! im considering doing dividers as gifts for my friends and I was wondering if you had any tips? is it a better idea to hand draw the designs to avoid any potential copyright issues or is using free to distribute clip resources okay?

I know how to draw and do edits just fine I’m just not sure what other graphic artists do in this regard

Hi anon!

Okay, so this is going to be a little long winded and maybe stuff you might know about the process, but I hope it’ll be helpful as a guide for others too maybe? Tips under the cut otherwise everyone’s gonna have to scroll through it.

1. Personally, I LOVE Canva because it has a library of pre-uploaded elements and its super easy to use. Like if I search stars hundreds of individual elements come up as results.

(I know some people also use Visme, which I don’t have any real experience with, but it’s an alternative with good reviews.)

As long as you are not claiming each individual element is your own creation, you’re in the clear. People making graphics like these almost always use premade elements and combine or edit them into a unique piece. That being said, if you claim that an individual element is your own, you’ll probably be called out. I don’t know how familiar you are with the community so forgive me if I sound condescending: the graphics/digital art community is a wild place when it comes to plagiarism but it’s good that artists look out for each other.

Anyway. Creators that upload designs/elements/templates to Canva are aware that they can be changed/edited. If you have Canva pro (which I recommend because you can do transparent PNGs so easily) some elements are only available via pro subscription and you’re compensating the creator for the use of the element and however you change it.

Basically, the divider/graphic is yours, but the individual elements are theirs. You don’t need to give credit because it’s like using stamps or stickers. For example: You wouldn’t typically use Lisa frank stickers on a coloring page and then credit Lisa frank in the corner of the paper. ⚠️I strongly urge you to stay away from AI art. Generators steal from artists to create what the user searches for!⚠️

2. Hand drawing can get a little tricky. You have to be careful with your dimensions and even file size sometimes. In my personal experience, if you’re new to this type of graphic art you should wait until you’re comfortable with it. It can get confusing. I’ve had MANY graphics come out a blurry, frustrating mess and I’m by no means the best divider maker/graphic artist on the planet.

An extra example: my Cute Coquette set vs my Dark Siren set. Technically, there’s nothing wrong with the coquette ones, but they look fuzzy/blurry. I made them when I was first starting out and I struggled with how to line up the right dimensions. I keep them up because as much as I don’t like how blurry they are, it shows my progress and I’m rather fond of them. It’s not even close to what I do now, like the Dark Sirens, which even zoomed out have a lot of detail but are clear and defined. 🤷🏻‍♀️

3. To avoid said blurring, I recommend using these canvas sizes:

Banners and headers: 1055px x 500px, I’ve also done 3000px x 500px.

Standard Size Dividers: 3000px x 240px

Thicker/Thinner Dividers: Basically you can go as thin or thick as you want as long as that first number is 3000px. I added a screenshot of ones I’ve used recently that might help.

I think if you’re using software like procreate, the canvas sizes are the same but you’ll have to go through some extra steps if you want to get it into canva or whatever graphic editing software you’re using.

4. Lastly and most importantly, just have fun. Play around with the settings and figure out what works best for you!! You of course can DM me with more questions, but I hope this at least helped a little bit.

🩵🌸

*Edited 2 hours after posting to add personal examples, and this little guide can now be found in my navigation post!*

[saltnpepperbunny]

Hi SPB, I was wondering where your motivation/creativity comes from and how you harness it? Thank you!

Hi! owo Uhhh a few different places. My motivation and my creativity come from different places but they work together to help me do what I do.

My motivation to make comics comes from:

Comments and feedback, I want my art to be a conversation with another person and thus feedback is kinda what I make comics for. I love how as my stories speak, people will speak back.

The fun of drawing, I just enjoy drawing comics like as an activity, it makes me happy, it's a very rhythmic and relaxing process, and thus its a regular part of my days. I just love having the finished page to stare at at the end.

The fervor of storytelling, that shit's my serotonin bro, I just need to write stories, it's an important part of how I navigate my life on like a structural level. It's how I process the world around me, so as my life goes on and stuff happens, I feel motivated to write about it. And comics are the main way I do my writing now.

To keep up w my community, I surround myself w other comic artists and a lot of us work, draw, and create together. It's a sacred bond between artists. u'w'u If I stopped comicking, I'd have like nothing to show them? There'd be no goal to work towards? Most of my friends make comics lol.

And my creativity comes from:

The need to process, as life treks on I tend to have Big Feelings about Almost Everything and writing is how I process those feelings and just, the world around me in general. You input experiences into this machine and I will output a fiction story. It's how I make sense of things and make meaning of my experiences.

The drive to keep improving, I always want my storytelling to get better and thus I have to continuously get creative to invent new ways to write and draw better. It's a never ending process, there is ALWAYS something to sharpen, so I just keep searching for new means to improve, things to tweak, ways something could be better. It's a never ending challenge and I need challenge in my life. It's like something to work on.

Internal experiences, feelings, opinions, fears, hopes, wishes, thoughts, ideas, questions, answers, et cetera.

Love, is definitely involved. Love has a huge involvement in my creative process. It's soaked into so many different, little parts of the process. Like uhhh taking a character through a journey? That's love. Writing new kinds of rep? That takes love. It's kinda just everywhere and it's something I can draw from very consistently cause those Big Feelings I mentioned includes love.

I also tend to write from anger and a strong sense of in/justice. Could you tell lol.

I like to take a lot of inspiration from nature, also. All my backgrounds are just me blowing a kiss to mother nature.

This is getting long sorry but how to harness it all, uhhhhh. Practice. Build habits. Make an effort to get creative on the regular, not necessarily every day, but try to avoid massive dry spells unless you're really not doing well or there's an understandable reason for it. Dry spells are ultimately unavoidable but don't have to define your creative cycle, it IS possible to create on the reg unless you're not taking care of yourself well. Don't only create when you're hyperfixated cause that just builds a habit to do that, if you're not feeling up to it, just do the thing for like 30 minutes and then either stop and chill or keep going cause the momentum will now carry you. I create p much every day cause it's an important part of how I navigate my life i.e. the processing motive and insatiable need for challenge, I can never stop writing now as long as I live cause writing is how I meet those needs. So yeah, just be like me and sell your soul to the gods art! Make the thing you wanna do fun, don't beat your head against a brick wall if that creative hobby you're trying to get into just really isn't sticking, it's not ALWAYS meant to be and it's okay to admit that and just move on and try something new. I tried many different kinds of art before I ever found comicking and it stuck, and now I basically just do comicking and some of my other older creative hobbies fell away. That's fine, that's life, you'll find your thing if you keep searching out new things. Oh, and also get in community, surround yourself w other creatives and consume they're work, trust me you'll get inspired p quick.

wow this got longER. sorry!

[copperbadge]

Current Events Reading Reccs

I had a couple of people asking me about my “current events” reading in general (news aggregators, podcasts, etc) so I figured I’d just list them off here. 

I don’t read any tumblrs that are specifically focused on current events, I just kinda get news from various people I’ve followed, but I’ve found in general it helps to find people for whom the news is a hobby, not a consuming habit. I have communists and anarchists and prison abolitionists on my dash, but they aren’t people who have made that their identity, which removes the “You are insufferable” factor. So I guess find fandom weirdos with strong political views and follow ‘em. 

Also I want to state at the top that part of why I’m on top of shit that I get through Tumblr is that I have a policy of never reblogging or reacting to anything until I have 1. read the article being linked and 2. done my own research. This has saved me a vast deal of embarrassment, because sometimes I’ll save something outrageous to research and before I can even research it, it’s been rebutted. I cannot stress how important the process of reading and research is -- you can’t get your news from headlines and particularly not clickbait you see on Tumblr. 

As far as I know there’s no single tumblr clearinghouse for good high-level current events reporting and analysis (the analysis I think is a vital part) but if folks have resources they use, drop ‘em in the comments or reblogs.  

Anyway, some mailing lists I belong to are:

Quartz Daily Brief: finance and tech, mainly. Back when they were for-pay I paid for them, this newsletter was that entertaining. I believe they’ve now gone fee-free but they sometimes link to paywalls. I get it as an email newsletter, that’s just a link to the web version. 

Breakfast with ARTNews: Obviously a bit niche but I really like keeping up with the art world and they cover art crime too. The link is to the all-newsletters signup page, I only belong to Breakfast. 

The Futurist: This is the most insufferable nonsense masquerading as news ever. The ads are indistinguishable from the content. But it does help me keep a finger hard on the pulse of what irritating tech bros are into. Watch scams unfold in real time! 

I also follow a number of local interests -- community centers and neighborhood organizations primarily -- in Chicago, so those are always good to hunt up. Most major cities have a “citycast” podcast (just search “citycast [your city]” in your podcatcher) that is also good for local news.  

Some websites:

Longreads: Since longform.org went under, the best place to find the current longform pieces that everyone’s talking about.  

Brand Eating: Extremely niche, but I really love reading about “brand” food trends. It covers new food releases and sales and such in the areas of packaged food (potato chips, candy, etc), fast food, and casual dining. It’s also great as a resource for cheap eats. 

I stopped reading Bon Appetit recently (they ran this appallingly sympathetic story about a dickhead hiring manager) but like, honestly, if you want to track food trends, the BA email newsletter is kinda the way to go. If you’d like good food news in podcast form, I recommend The Sporkful (it’s in the podcast list). 

I used to read the Chicago Tribune, New York Times, and Fortune Magazine (which mostly scraped the not-awful stuff from Forbes) but I’ve cut it down to just the Trib; I don’t really need Fortune to keep me current and the NYT has morphed into a creepy proto-fash nightmare. The Trib has pretty good national/international coverage so if you don’t have a decent local paper it’s not bad, but I don’t know how much access you get as a nonpaying reader (I subscribe). 

Podcasts:

Quartz has a podcast, Quartz Obsession, which is off-and-on in terms of when episodes come out but very interesting when they do. 

Planet Money is a once-weekly podcast about economics, and has a daily show called “The Indicator” which is daily “small bites” current events coverage. 

The Late Show and the Daily Show both have an “ears edition” podcast that’s just the show audio; I’ve stopped listening for the most part but if you want good cultural commentary, that’s the place to go. 

The Journal by the Wall Street Journal is a weekly podcast focusing on one or two news stories, generally pretty relevant. 

Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is a panel show but it’s a fun way to get bite-sized news you can look up later in more detail if you want. And it’s taped in Chicago! If you listen you can hear me in the audience laughing. :D (I’m going to another taping in a few weeks!) 

Behind The Bastards is actually a history podcast but if you’re listening current he does a bit of current-events commentary, and also I just really like it as a podcast.

Stuff You Should Know is a trivia podcast but they occasionally do current-events stuff.

The Sporkful is pretty good about current food news, although I run hot and cold on it.

I used to listen to a really good “professional” medical podcast, but it went full paywall when it started to offer certain forms of professional credit, so I found The House Of Pod as a very good free replacement. It’s not really for non-doctors, but as a non-doctor I still find it accessible and informative. (For medical history and curiosity, I do highly recommend Bedside Rounds, but I wouldn’t call it a current events cast.) 

So that’s how I get my news -- it’s not what I would call fully comprehensive but it’s reasonably informative! 

[ofduskanddreams]

How I download fics and give them covers before sending them to my Kindle.

Hi all, I've been considering making a post about this for a while and now seems as good a time as any. I'm not an expert, and there is more than one way you can do this; I'm just going to show you my process using "Call It What You Want To" by @separatist-apologist as an example. [This will only work on computers FYI.]

Part One — Getting Started

Download Calibre (it's free.) Calibre for PC. Calibre for Mac. They also have it for Linux but idk if that's still relevant.

Follow the program's setup instructions, and then those for wirelessly connecting Calibre with your Kindle account. Alternatively, you can connect your Kindle/e-reader to your computer with a cable and transfer files manually or download the file to your hard drive and share it another way. I highly recommend taking a few extra minutes to set up the wireless sharing as I think it's far more convenient.

Create a folder in which to store fanfiction downloads so that you can be an organized human.

Part Two — The Fanfiction

Find the fic you want to download on ao3 and click it so that you're on the fic's first page.

Above the box of metadata (ratings, warning, tags, etc.) on the far right click the "download" option. When prompted to select a file type, choose "MOBI."

Note: Though ao3 has an "EPUB" option I've noticed a bug that removes the chapter navigation from the fic when downloading the EPUB directly from ao3. If you enjoy the "x minutes left in this chapter/book" feature on your e-reader, you will want to download "MOBI" and we will be converting it later in Calibre.

Save the file to the folder you created.

Launch Calibre if it isn't already running.

In Calibre, click "add books" on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Navigate to the folder you saved the fic in, select the fic, then click "open." Calibre will import the MOBI file to your library.

Now as you can see, "Call It What You Want To" already has a cover when we imported it to the library. That is because the cover image is embedded in the fic on the archive. Some fics will already have covers embedded such as this one.

Calibre is not a genius. If there are multiple images in the fic it will usually take the first one and default it to the cover. In the next section, I will go over how to add/change the cover of a fic in Calibre and how I like to create them.

Note: Even if the fic doesn't have embedded images, covers may have been made by readers and linked to the fic either in the notes or related works sections so it's worth checking if a cover already exists. If a fic is popular enough, a Google search of the fic's title + "cover" or "cover art" will show you if there have been covers already created for it.

Part Three — Making The Cover (I use Canva)

On the Canva homepage click "create a design" then select the "custom size" option. Canva does have a book cover template but I've found that it's awkwardly tall compared to the default size for Kindle books so I make my own.

I set the dimensions of the design to be 1024 pixels wide, and 1600 pixels tall, then click "create new design."

This is where you can get creative, make whatever you want. These basic steps are shown in a gif at the bottom of the section:

One: Choose a background image (you'll want to make sure it's a high enough quality that it won't be pixelated.) I used an image I had already uploaded into Canva, but you can use whatever you would like.

Two: On the sidebar, select "elements" and then "rectangle."

Three: Make sure the rectangle covers the whole design, then change the color. I like using the colors from the photo that Canva suggests and then making them a darker shade. Once you have the color that you want, reduce the transparency of the rectangle to anywhere between 40-50%. (This step ensures that the text we put on top of the image is easily legible, play around with it a bit.)

Four: On the sidebar, select "text" and then "add a text box." Then type in the author's username and change the font, the color, and the size until you like it. Repeat the same steps for the fic's title. I like to center the title on the page and put the author toward the bottom but that's just my preference.

Once your cover looks the way you want it to, click "share" at the top right and follow the steps to download the file as a PNG. I usually just save the image to my desktop so I can grab it easily once I'm in Calibre.

Part Four — Adding the Cover in Calibre

In your Calibre library, hover over the fic and right-click. Then hover over "edit metadata" and click "edit metadata individually."

On the "edit metadata" screen, find the section that says "change cover" and click "browse."

When the file upload dialog box appears, navigate to the PNG you just saved from Canva, select it, and click "open." This will add your cover to the fic. You can use these same steps to add any cover image that you've saved to your computer.

Make sure to click "ok" at the bottom of the screen to save your new cover and navigate back to the library page.

Part Five — Converting to EPUB

In your Calibre library, select the fic and then click "convert books" on the toolbar. At the top right of the converting screen, set the "output format" to "EPUB."

Now, the following steps are unnecessary little things I do to make my reading experience more seamless.

Click "Look & Feel" on the left sidebar. Under the "fonts" tab, I embed the "Georgia" font family. I do this because I prefer reading in Georgia which is not a default option on my PaperWhite*. I have my Calibre conversion settings in place to do this automatically. You can embed any font that you have on your computer.

*It might just be me, but when opening a downloaded fic (following the methods in this post) for the first time on my Kindle the font is always weird. The trick to fix it is to go and change the font from whatever is selected (Baskerville in my case) to "publisher's font" and then I've found that switching it back to "Baskerville" on the font selection screen activates the embedded Georgia... even though it will say that it's Baskerville? Idk why this is, I just wanted to let you know how I fix it.

Calibre defaults to a justified text alignment unless you change the default settings. This appears as "original" in the alignment options. The random too-large spaces between words of a justified alignment give me the ick so to make everything left aligned, I stay on the "look & feel" page but move to the "text" tab where I can change the alignment.

Staying on "look & feel," move to the "layout" tab. To ensure even paragraph spacing regardless of how it appeared on the archive, I select both the "remove spaces between paragraphs" and "insert blank line between paragraphs" options.

On this page, you can also change the indent size of the first line of every paragraph (highlighted pink,) and the size of the blank lines Calibre will insert between paragraphs upon conversion (highlighted green.) I set the indent to 0.0 and leave the line size 0.5 which is the default.

The last thing I do is go to "EPUB output" on the left sidebar and check the box labeled "insert inline table of contents." This just means that Calibre will add a table of contents to the beginning of the EPUB. (By default it puts the TOC at the end which I don't like.)

When everything is set as you'd like it, click "ok" on the bottom right and Calibre will convert the MOBI file you downloaded from ao3 to an EPUB containing the settings we just changed. Both file types will appear in your library when you click on the fic and scroll within the right-side window. I usually delete the MOBI format after I have the EPUB because I don't need it any longer.

And you've done it! Now all you have to do is either right-click and share it to your Kindle, or you can "save to disk" and download the EPUB file to transfer to your e-reader by a method of your choosing.

I hope someone finds this marginally helpful. In truth, I was just bored so I made this post but in light of the recent DDoS attacks against ao3, I think everyone should look into downloading their favorites so that you're never left out in the cold again.

Happy fanfic downloading <3

[litriu]

Hi artists coming here from twitter! Tumblr doesn’t have a gallery function like twitter, so here’s a step by process of what you can do to make sure people can actually find your art! (Me, I’m people, I want to see your art, please god)

More under the cut!

1. MAKE AN ART TAG

Just make a specific tag to tag all of your art with, it can be “my art”, “art”, “homoerotic bible passages”, anything you want as long as you’ll remember it.

If you have a lot of posts already, you can edit a bunch at once through your ARCHIVE page, reachable through [your_url].tumblr.com/archive

2a. FEATURED TAGS

Go into your blog settings and scroll down a bit, you’ll find a section labeled “featured tags”

Input your art tag into that

now when people go to your blog in dashboard view it will be the very first suggested search!

2b. CUSTOM DIRECTORY

Go into your blog settings

Look for the “Custom Theme” section, and click “Enable Custom Theme”

Go to your tumblr page (the one that goes [your_url].tumblr.com) and click the paint palette icon.

Find a tumblr theme with a CUSTOMIZEABLE LINK DIRECTORY with the “FIND THEMES” button! It might be called “sidebar links” or just “links” in different themes.

You can find an assortment of free themes with this functionality, try them out and play with them.

Make one of those customizable links your art tag by using the link [your_url].tumblr.com/[your art tag]

You can also do this with other social media links, a link to your commission info, your portfolio, etc.!

Congrats, you’ve made your art accessible on both the dashboard and your custom blog! If you want to be extra though:

3. MAKE AN ABOUT PAGE (optional)

Scroll to the very bottom of your theme customizing options (the paint palette icon we clicked earlier) and find the “Add A Page” button.

Give that a click, and it will let you make another custom page!

Make sure you click the “Show a link to this page” switch.

In the text box next to that switch, put whatever you’d like the page to show up listed as in your blog directory. In this case, I’d title it “about” or “about me” Most themes will automatically add this page to the sidebar directory under this name, and it should show up in dashboard view too.

There will be an option for a custom URL for the page under that! In this case, you can just do [your_url].tumblr.com/about for example.

Below that will be a box for the Page Title/Header. This is optional, but put whatever you want there.

Finally is the text box! Put whatever you want in there, but I add my art tag (+specific fandom or warning tags, textpost/reblog tab, etc.), my TOS, and things like my pronouns!

Once you’re done, click save and you’re good to go!

All finished! You have now made your art super easy to find! Great job. :]

[thedecadenceofwar]

The Kiss of the Muse: Young Royals. A meta.

Alright. So I was rewatching young royals (stream young royals lets make season 3 happen) and I noticed at the end of episode one, Wille is doing his homework! (Good for him!) And his book is open on this page:

Oh, what an interesting painting, I thought. And then I thought, it’s Young Royals; nothing is by accident. So I went searching for this painting, and I found it. It’s by Cézanne, and it’s called The Kiss of the Muse.

The wonderfully informative cezannepaintings.com had this to say:

The Kiss of the Poet shows a poet who is experiencing difficulty in his writing process. Although the scene doesn't include a writing implement, a piece of paper is resting on the desk. It appears as if the poet was in the middle of creating a poem and got stuck. Exasperation is written all over his face. His entire form screams of a man tired of what he is doing. Dream of a Poet is an apt alternate title for the painting because it describes this scene perfectly. The poet and his eyes closed so the muse on his shoulders could be part of a dream.

Pretty sure they meant Kiss of the Muse at the beginning (whatever, errors happen) but one of the things I want to point out is that the ALTERNATE title for this painting is Dream of a Poet. In this essay I will -

talk about how both titles are symbolic for Wille and Simon, and how they are both the poet and the muse in this painting.

Disclaimer: I don’t have a degree in art history. I don’t know anything. Feel free to disagree with me entirely. Enjoy!

Simon as the Poet; Kiss of the Muse.

Immediately before this scene in Wille’s bedroom takes place is the first time Simon sets a boundary before Wilhelm. I’ve been thinking about you all break, he said, but it’s nice to have some space. You can see in that interaction how exhausted Simon is, how he’s entirely fed up with Wille not being able to understand where he’s coming from.

(Apologies for my godawful Netflix screenshots.)

While Simon might be faced away from his muse, clearly sick of this mental block, Wille is always behind him, always with him. The poet’s muse inspires him to write, just as Wille inspires Simon to write the new Hillerska song. But at this point, Simon has not yet begun; the artist in the painting notably does not have a pen or quill.

It speaks as well I think to Wille’s constant presence in Simon’s life. The poet has given up on his poem. He’s sick of throwing himself at the wall and never being able to get through. And Simon constantly tries to take back his agency; through Marcus, through the Hillerska song, through the boundaries he sets with Wilhelm. But it’s never enough. Wille is constantly with him. The muse stands behind the poet; he cannot see her, but he can feel her presence. Dream of a Poet (the alternate title) implies that he wishes she was there, that he yearns for her constantly and the creative impulses she brings, but he cannot access them.

I feel ascribing the poet to Simon is a fairly obvious comparison; two creators, both feeling stuck and art-blocked. Simon as poet and Wille as muse represents Simon’s artistic and emotional journey through the season; he tries to look the other way, but Wille is always drawing him in, constantly with him.

And oh, the kiss. Simon cannot sing his song without Wille there. The muse is vital for the art.

In episode 4, when Simon realizes Wille has left the ball, he goes in search of him. Wille, the song is about you. He needed Wille to be there, to hear him sing those words because without him there the full impact of the premier is lost. What would happen if the muse left the poet? The kiss must happen. Wille must be present for the song.

Simon goes searching for him because he knows this. If Wille is not present to hear it, the point of Simon writing it is lost. He may not have known it until Wille threatened to leave, but he knows it when he goes after him. He seeks the kiss of the muse. Once he receives it, he is free to make his art again.

Wille as the poet; Dream of the Poet.

Speaking of that kiss. I’m sure we’re all aware at this point that the music that plays during this kiss plays during Wille’s dream at the very beginning of the season. He’s dreamed of this moment for so long, this kiss, and to finally receive it is such ecstasy he’s speechless.

(Look at that queer fucking joy. My god. I nearly cried.)

But I digress. We must return to the point at which he flips the book to the painting. Then we return to Wilhelm’s dream.

So, where is Wille coming from at the moment this painting appears? He is certainly under extreme duress. I would compare him to Cézanne at this moment:

Here, the defeated demeanour of the poet could represent how Cézanne faired during his early days as an artist. It looks as if he has lost hope until a muse bestows inspiration. It took a while for the French painter to gain recognition for his talent and maybe a muse of inspiration had something to do with it.

So Cézanne, like Wille, like the poet, was stuck in a cycle where he was doing his best, trying his hardest at something, and still nothing came of it. Wille is terrified of being crown prince – it affects him so physically he vomits simply at the thought of speaking in front of others. He is fighting as hard as he can but the forces surrounding him are far too big for him to ever prevail against them.

Time and time again, he tries to reason. He tries to threaten. He begs. And always, nothing real comes from it. He gets to stay at Hillerska, he gets his bodyguards moved. He still has to make the speech. Still Crown Prince. Still forced into a role he doesn’t want. With Wille as the poet, the block is less creative and more literal. He wants to be able to do what he wants, to be who he is, but he’s not allowed to be. And he’s allowing this to happen to himself. He begins to mold himself into the shape of the Crown Prince.

But for the dream. The dream of a kiss of inspiration. The one thing driving Wille up until this point (at the ball) is this dream that he can, somehow, win Simon over. His whole motivation is to get Simon back – the means may be questionable at times, but it’s undeniable that Simon IS the force behind Wille’s actions. His muse.

Similarly to Simon, it’s not always necessarily a good thing. In the end, Simon inspires Wille to come out on his terms, but up until the ball, where Wille first tries to let go, what he inspires is a relatively selfish feeling in Wille, the I want of winning Simon back. Likewise, Wille as Simon’s muse almost hangs over his shoulder in every interaction, causing guilt and anger and helplessness. It’s the kiss that changes everything.

Wille dreams of being free. Simon is stuck behind an emotional block. The kiss of these two poets’ respective muses represents the freeing of both of their blocks. Wille’s dream becomes a reality; Simon is able to perform his song. Moving forward, as inspirations for the other they become better versions of themselves as they push away the mental, physical, emotional, and creative blocks that kept them away from each other.

Paul Cézanne’s The Kiss of the Muse, also entitled Dream of the Poet is representative of both Wille and Simon in both roles of the painting, as muse and poet. Both act as inspirations to help the other overcome some kind of block, and one quick flip to a page showing this painting in Wille’s textbook acts as foreshadowing for the entire rest of the season.

[xxjadeablexx]

Anthony/Angel Dust

Anthony, referred to as Angel or Angel Dust, is one of the main characters in Hazbin Hotel. Angel is the tallest of the main cast, being 8 feet in heels. While he is actively searching for redemption, he has a contract with Valentino. Valentino is basically a pimp, with Angel being his “favorite toy.” In Episode 4, Charlie decides that Angel needs to be at the hotel more, despite him needing to go to work. He works as a porn actor, as per his contract with Valentino. You can tell that he doesn’t like this. Despite his comments about how he was made for the industry, you can see the huge toll it takes on him. After Charlie goes to his work, Valentino drags Angel to his dressing room. He gets physically aggressive with Angel. At one point a chain manifests, a visible representation of the contract/bond. During this scene, Angel visibly dissociates, only giving Valentino the answers he wants to hear. After running away from the hotel, Husk is sent after him. When Husk finds him in the bar, Angel is surrounded by men. Husk watches, and a few moments later watches as someone roofies the drink. He then drags Angel from the bar. Angel breaks down after, yelling at Husk. “You think I ask for it? I don’t ask for any of this shit! I didn’t ask to be this way! I didn’t ask for Charlie to save me! I didn’t ask you to save me. I can handle myself.” It really shows how he feels about his position. Both in his position in the industry he is practically forced to work in and in his relationship with Valentino. He even goes on to say things like:

 “It’s not an act! It’s who I need to be!”

“And this, this is my escape. Where I can forget about it all. How much I hate… Everything.”

“A place where I can get high and not have to think about how much it hurts.”

“And maybe… If I can ruin myself enough in the process, if I can end up broken, I won’t be his favorite toy anymore. And maybe he’ll let me go”

It is important to note the change of tone in these voice lines as well. While Angel is a male, his voice is usually pitched up roughly an octave to sound more feminine. However, when speaking about wanting to get away from it all, the voice drops, implying Anthony is speaking, not Angel Dust. 

Angel also has two siblings, his older brother, Arackniss and his twin sister, Molly. We know from Vivziepop that Angel was originally from a film called “The Spider Brothers.” This went into Angels living past as a mobster. It is believed that he joined his families 'business’ which is what led him and his brother to be sent to hell, and his twin rejected the life and went to heaven.  Molly and Arackniss both make appearances in the main series, but as non-speaking background characters. I’ve seen many posts online about Sir Pentious meeting Molly after he goes to heaven, and it’s honestly sob-inducing to think about but still brings a comfort knowing he won’t be alone. 

It is also kinda obvious that Angel was Vivziepop’s favorite character. His wiki page trivia says “Angel was created during her later years at the School of Visual Arts college, and she recalls how she would draw him excessively, to the point her classmates would comment on it.” And even looking at the wiki, it has more information than even the main characters page. He is altogether a bit more of a well rounded character. We know more about him from before the events of Hazbin Hotel, we know about his family and their dealings. His relationships. We really know about everything there is to know about him. And I do mean everything. Since we actively see him at work, we even know what he’s into/okay with ummm… “intimately.” Even down to the fact that he hates feet. 

Altogether Angel is an amazing character with a tough past and I just want to hug him so badly. Is that so much to ask for?

[the-sidekick-club]

Enemy of my Enemy is my Kid!

Part 1 : Part 2 : Part 3 : Part 4 : Epilogue

@heroes-villains-side-blog★​​@tratieisdabest★@just-a-space-rabbit​​  

TW:Choking, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional manipulation, Emotional abuse

❘〣❘〣❘★ Enemy of my enemy: Epilogue ★❘〣❘〣❘

“Did you get it?” was the first thing Kim heard as they entered the dark office. 

‘Shit, he's already angry…’ they thought as they noticed Vulcan’s tall silhouette waiting for them by the window. Kim did not answer as they closed the door behind them, bracing themself for the meeting ahead. 

It was a cold office, and everything just felt… sharp. All the items felt calculated down to the inch of their placement and nothing was allowed to be without purpose. 

There were several objects of notoriety, mostly stolen art or older relics, some of which Kim themself had stolen in Vulcan’s name. But there were other relics of importance too; some inspiration for Vulcan, who was always drawn to the power that ancient empires once had. It took someone with real skill or power to steal things of this caliber. 

The whole room was a mix of cold metal and royal purple, a shade chosen after spending far too many hours comparing fabrics and paint samples. Normally, it would have been a stark contrast to Kim’s green and earthly colored clothing, but not today; Vulcan had demanded they wear their suit for this mission, making them almost match the room, and Vulcan himself.

Kim silently walked up to the long desk in the middle of the office, before placing the secured case on it and finally answering, “I was able to get the E.G.G., but—” 

“But what?” Vulcan interrupted coldly, yet calmly. 

As he began moving closer, his two-tailed cape began to flick dangerously behind him. Kim knew, just by the way he was controlling his cape, that they were treading into dangerous territory. But there was no going back, so they held their ground. 

“But I was unsuccessful in gaining the notebook and all the needed blueprints—”

Before Kim could finish their sentence, Vulcan's cape had moved faster than Kim could react. It wrapped itself tightly around them and pinned them hard to the wall. 

“Dragonfly hid most of the blueprints!” Kim began to yell out in panic. “He would only show one or two pages at a time!” 

Vulcan did not loosen his grip. “Kim! I gave you ONE task! How could you fail me like that!”

“I’m sorry!” Kim said desperately. 

“Sorry?” His voice was fairly calm, but filled with more rage than Kim had ever seen before. “Kim, without those notes and blueprints YOU have set us back years!” 

“He was suspecting us. All of us!” Kim answered in a panting voice as Vulcan’s grip kept tightening, “I never got more than one chance to look at—'' everything was starting to go black as Kim continued “I… g.. ot… so-s… me pi… c… tu… rs.'' They gasped as Vulcan finally let them go, and they fell to the floor with a thud.

“Pictures? Pictures of what?”

Kim was still gasping for air, as Vulcan kneeled down in front of them, their eyes still filled with danger. “Of Andaka's notebook…” they answered him, “where he talked about the theory of the E.G.G.’s activation process.”

“Show me,” he said, calmer than before, but Kim knew as they took out their phone that his anger might come back. Vulcan snatched the phone out of Kim’s hand and began looking through the borderline blurry photos. 

Although it seemed the photos had been taken in a hurry, there was no doubt about it: these were photos of Andaka’s notebook. 

Kim continued talking as Vulcan transferred the photos over to his computer, and began looking into them further. “I tried to search for the notebook after getting the E.G.G., but it was all destroyed when I got back to it, and then the agency was closing in on me—I had to leave!” The sorry tone was still within their voice, but it seemed no longer necessary. 

“Enough…” Vulcan said calmly and Kim immediately stopped talking, not that they wanted to talk more, as they still felt the phantom pain from the tight grip. Their eyes wandered to the floor, and they hoped that they would get the order to leave soon. 

However, looking up in response to the sound of the blinds coming down, which left the room almost totally dark, their hope for escape dwindled, as the images were projected onto the holo screen. Clearly, Vulcan wanted to study every photo closer first, so Kim had to wait. 

The pages were filled with scribbles and notes, seeming to have built up over the years. From what they could tell, it seemed Andaka kept returning to a few specific pages more than the others. 

Two of the pages seemed to be showcasing the activation process, which seemed to have been the task taking the most of Andaka's time to figure out. 

The other two were even harder to decipher, being more blurry than the rest. But Vulcan could make out that the two pages were detailing the E.G.G. in use. “Looks like old Andaka cracked the code,” he said, his voice laced in something akin to awe, “so he figured out the theory on how to separate Aura, and how to lower the E.G.G.’s power levels. But he was unable to stabilize it at a safe extraction level... ” 

The last of the pages had a sketch of what seemed to be the power-repressing gem Desolite, there were scribbles around it, one in an older black, and another in red; clearly this was important if the professor had decided to come back to it. Unfortunately, or fortunately, Vulcan was unable to read the blurry photograph. “Now, why did Andaka write about Desolite?” he asked himself, before turning to Kim for an answer. 

“That was what I was trying to find out,” Kim said in a weak voice, “but then Dragonfly almost caught me and I never got a chance to take a second look…”

“Well, then…at least these pictures are more than enough!” Vulcan said, his demeanor a sharp contrast to the Vulcan who had berated Kim just minutes earlier. “With this, we can start everything. I knew you were the right person for this mission, good job, kid.” He walked over and lifted Kim up into his arms. “I’ll take you down to the med bay. After that, you can take the rest of the day off—you deserve it.” He spoke in a kind and soft voice. “Then, tomorrow, you're going to tell me all about the things you did not get photos of."    

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Part 4 : Master List

Master List : Character list

[fountainpenguin]

Can you share some of what your planning process for long fics is like? What kind of outlines do you do or what prep do you do to get in the zone?

Thanks for the ask! [Tagging #ridspoilers for minor plot outline, birthday, and alien planet calendar spoilers for Origin of the Pixies, Frayed Knots, and Factor It In]

---

I write on Google Docs; it might not be for everyone but it's what I've found to work well for me after a lifetime of writing (Ex: When I was a kid, I used WordPerfect and Dropbox and it would take hours to sync my documents before a long road trip... I travel between two locations a lot, so these days I just pop open the Google Docs app on my phone or use the Edit Offline extension on my laptop and it's always up to date, which works great for me!)

I also like Google Docs because I can link between documents and have lots of open tabs [along the top of the browser] in "one tab" [along the bottom bar], which isn't something I was able to do as a kid or with Microsoft Word, and it just helps me feel clean.

---

Masterlist Doc [1 per fandom]

I keep all my Fairly OddParents 'fics in a doc titled FOP 'Fic Masterlist. I have my most important resources at the top and they're all broken down with clear labels and doc links.

This way, even if I haven't accessed a doc in a while [meaning it doesn't come up when I type its name in the URL search bar], I always know where I can find it. Also, thanks to my edit offline extension, all I need is this one link and I know I'll be able to open any doc I need.

I have a lot of 'fics, so this doc is several pages. If you've ever read my FFN or AO3 bios and saw that note about how I keep a queued Tumblr post containing links to my unfinished 'fics in case I unexpectedly die, that queued post links to this doc!

You'll also notice that I have distinct scrap docs for Origin, Knots, and the 130 Prompts. I change or cut a lot of stuff and it's nice to keep the old WIPs in case I ever want to look back on them (each of those docs is 25k words just of scraps). Sometimes those scenes get recycled, but usually they just sit there. It's a lot easier to cut things from a story when you have a place to put them and you're not deleting them forever.

[Cnt'd under the cut]

---

Table of Contents Doc [1 per long 'fic]

All my long 'fics have a table of contents doc, which I highly recommend for anyone doing a large multi-chapter project. I always slap the cover image, a height chart, or a character reference on top to make it pretty, then the doc will contain some notes I might need. For example, Origin's doc has two height charts:

and this-

Makes it easy to know where to find things. Also, you don't have to draw your own height charts, but I recommend keeping a list of heights on hand. Even if you don't tell the reader someone's exact measurements, it's always nice to get a feel for how characters compare to others and whether they should be looking up or down.

Come What May's doc has this screenshot comparison on it, which I put together by measuring different characters who appear next to each other as carefully as I could, and it works too:

Obviously Kevin and Molly never appear in the same episode, but since they're about to become step-siblings in Come What May, it was important to me that I knew how tall they were, so I measured Molly against Timmy and then Timmy against Kevin. Same for Mrs. Crocker, who I measured against Timmy to get a feel for how tall Kevin is compared to his grandma.

I know it's a fanfic so it doesn't really matter, but you have to do self-indulgent things sometimes :)

Frayed Knots also has Sunnie's character reference [i.e. Anti-Cosmo's patron nature spirit, the water dude], which I just want to show off because this is still really good art for something I drew in 2017:

Other things I keep in my table of contents docs are lists of episodes where certain characters appear, random notes that I need to keep track of (like any canonized character addresses or allergies), and chapter title ideas. I also keep track of the starlight levels [i.e. which season it's bright outside vs. dark], school year reminders, and Anti-Fairy migration season.

I keep my Vatajasa name chart in Knots too:

Factor It In's table doc contains a list of villains who appear in the 'fic (Red for ones who don't appear, green for those who do). It also links to the Wiki page for the Evil Villains Association so I can remember which villains are and aren't in it. It also has my timeline details:

---

Timeline Notes

Factor It In is set in 1998, and my table doc has all the notes I used to narrow down to that date (ex: I originally planned to set it in 1987 because I felt that the late 80s fit the technology level we see in the show before I re-watched the episode "There's No V In Team," which specifically refers to the year 1987 as having happened in the past).

One of the reasons I liked using 1987 originally was because Factor It In is a story about Kid Math training under WordGirl, and it takes place shortly after the Kid Math episode, which aired in 2014. Factor It In opens in early January, so I like the Easter egg that the 2015 calendar would be the same even if we took its airdate literally. 1998 was the only year in the 90s that also matched the calendar, so that's what I ended up with.

I like keeping my timeline notes around so if I take a hiatus, I can always come back and remind myself why I picked stuff. Also it's way easier to expand your worldbuilding if you kept your notes... it's awful if you threw your math away and have to start over (I once redid an entire timeline because someone said I'd messed up the dates on my chart, and I believed them and redid it all, only to realize several months later when I ran into a timeline problem that my math had actually been right all along :') Don't be like me. Record your work and leave notes explaining why.)

[I always use THIS calendar website when I'm planning timelines. It tracks moon phases, which was important when @zachbrightside and I were working on the FOP timeline and heavily relying on moon phases as a guide, and you can easily type any year and month into the URL bar so it's super easy to navigate.]

---

Birthday Notes

I also kept all my notes on determining birthdays (very important for long 'fics with lots of characters that take place over several months! One of my FOP resource docs is specifically for birthdays and annual events, ranging from parades to anniversaries to carnivals).

My headcanon for Becky Botsford's birthday is July 28th. We know she starts the series at age 9 and has a birthday in Season 1 episode 4, meaning she's 10 for much of the series. There are at least two episodes where she cites her ages as "10 and a half," and we saw that in her next birthday episode ("A World Without WordGirl"), her cake had 11 candles on it.

Show canon implies that time IS passing and that the show doesn't exist in a timeless void (see also, Timmy Turner wishing to freeze time for 50 years), so it was important to me that I nail down her birthday. I knew I wanted it to take place after Rhyme and Reason if possible since there are no more birthday episodes, though I would also be fine with having "Rhyme and Reason" shortly after her birthday [to ensure she stays 10 and 11 for the majority of show canon].

Here are some of my notes on her birthday for anyone interested (Hopefully they're not too squished):

^ Like I said, I switched 1987 to 1998, but yeah. Rex's birthday comes out to June 13th, 1989 and Becky's is July 28th, 1986.

Clickable links for Rex and Becky on the age calculator if you're curious... Important for me since one of Rex's math powers is to always know how old someone is to the day.

Fun Fact - I deliberately gave Rex June 13th as a birthday so he would share a birthday with Foop, who is also a Season 7 Episode 1 debut kid over in Fairly OddParents :)

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Having birthdays planned is also nice for when I want to write multiple 'fics in the same world, even if they're not the same 'fic. In my story "Flypaper," which takes place in early June, Rex is eagerly awaiting his 17th birthday and Becky muses on how she'll be turning 20 at the end of the summer... Just a nice detail not only to set the scene, but also to help the story feel grounded and realistic since one of the themes of "Flypaper" was that Becky felt time was slipping away from her.

It's also important to note that Rex and Becky are always among the youngest in their school years since they have summer birthdays. Tobey is 12 for most of the time Becky is 11... Little details that don't take a long time to plan for, but can really help a story feel like the author put effort into the world.

Again, I highly recommend leaving clear notes to yourself about why you're doing certain timeline things. I much prefer having the breakdown of the episodes I looked at over simply leaving a note to myself that Becky's birthday is July 28th!

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Character Arc Notes

Before planning the events of the story, it helps to get an idea for what themes and character traits you want to focus on. Frayed Knots is about love and betrayal- it's about Anti-Cosmo pushing for what he wants even though it hurts his loved ones (appropriate theme for a villain backstory 'fic).

I want to show some notes I have for Factor It In because I think they're interesting. Factor It In is my first attempt at doing a story that deliberately focuses around two protagonists and their separate but equally important character arcs, and I'm excited :)

Everything that's in my doc is the "tell" part of "show don't tell." The story tries to show what I have in my notes:

Rex arc - Lack of Stability / Lack of Control - Failing, getting tricked, being unwanted, not good enough, not understanding things. Being in foster care is scary. Unfamiliar planet is scary Show Kid Math always being super inquisitive. He always wants to learn. He knows the most, he is the best, he gets upset when he's fooled or when he fails. He was 2nd best in school. He feels lost when he doesn't know what's happening in his future. Gets upset when WordGirl doubts his decisions. In the opening scene of Factor, he's mind controlled by Mr. Big. Literally has no control Kid Math clings to his superhero certification / Hexagonian education. He was raised by his aunts and has basically no relationship with his parents (though he tries to hide the fact that this hurts him). He feels like a burden; he feels like his mom considered him "too much work" and that his father considers him "not worth bothering to visit." Rex constantly struggles under this fear that he's a burden. He wants to prove himself a good superhero so that his education (and life) aren't "a waste." Conflict: Kid Math has already spent his entire life feeling like he's no one's first choice; that he's only "second best" (because he was second to top of his class in school). He understands that he and WordGirl are sharing the city, but it's important to him that he's considered an equal. He wants people to like him. It hurts when WordGirl comes on too strong and makes it obvious she lacks faith in him, because he feels like a burden: his worst nightmare. Throughout the story, Rex internalizes his successes and failures. He cannot separate his superhero identity from his civilian identity. He always sees himself as "Rex, who trained to become a superhero." He calls himself Rex and has no distinction in his mind. His secrets slip, he uses his powers when he's Rex, and he expects people to attribute KM's failures to Rex (Ex: school kids laugh at how he falls for tricks as Kid Math and it upsets him as Rex). Rex values control, and will do all he can to avoid losing control. His deadly sin is Wrath, but he has a lot of emotional control and will try to remove himself from the situation. As long as he has his safe space and his comfort things, he's okay. We get several scenes of him wanting to break stuff when he's upset but he holds back... with the underlying tension of wondering how long he'll last before he snaps (pitting his nightmare of losing control against Becky's nightmare of losing his friendship).

I want to highlight the part about how Rex cannot separate his two identities. This is something I showed even back in "AlgoRhythm" - Rex always calls himself "Rex" inside his head, even when he's dressed as Kid Math. However, when I write from Becky's POV, the third-person writing swaps between calling her "Becky" or "WordGirl" depending on how she's dressed.

I also have notes about how Rex's character arc relates to the story's finale, but that's spoilers. Since Rex's character arc is about how he hates not having control, then the worst thing that could happen to him is not having a say in things: hence why the plot about bouncing between foster families is such a hard thing for him to go through. Eventually, he'll also be put in a position where he needs to think about who he is as Rex vs. who he is as Kid Math, and we'll see that in the story climax.

Becky has a fun arc too:

Becky arc - Loss / Change - People being hurt, losing her friends, hurting or losing her family. Fear of change. Show WordGirl being upset when relationships fracture, even with people who aren't super close to her. She struggles with the idea of Kid Math befriending her villains or losing her position as a hero and getting replaced by Kid Math. Put simply, WordGirl is a control freak who refuses to admit this to herself. WordGirl struggles to relinquish control to Kid Math (which is where they come in conflict since he ALSO feels stressed when he doesn't have control). WordGirl is a bit of a helicopter mentor; she hovers around Rex, interferes with his work, and just generally gets in his way (which is pretty funny imo since Rex never got in her way during "Kid Math"- he's capable, he just causes problems with social interaction and not with the actual fighting... WordGirl gets the social interaction part but definitely gets in the way). Conflict: WordGirl doesn't enjoy having Rex around, but she can't tell him that because it might hurt his feelings and that would cause her "loss and change" pain. She would feel guilty and sad. Rex being Exposition Guy's foster kid is a big source of conflict between them, as Rex believes he should "get dibs" on info EG shares. WordGirl stresses when Rex doesn't do things "her way" and Rex gets frustrated that she doesn't trust him. Tensions keep rising because WordGirl starts seeing "the bad" in Rex; she keeps seeing Miss Power traits in him and she worries that Miss Power might have been his teacher back on Hexagon. Her nosiness strains Rex's trust in her and he starts pulling away emotionally... sending her into a spiral about change and loss (especially as more and more villains and civilians grow familiar with Kid Math and start to think he's cool). Lots of resentment towards Kid Math for "replacing her" even though she NEVER admits that to herself; she still has trace amounts of jealousy towards him in later stories like "Flypaper..." WordGirl doesn't mean to be jealous or greedy, but it's always been one of her flaws (i.e. someone else getting a key to the city, or when she snapped during Miss Power special about Chuck getting a collectible unicorn, wanting to show off a bit during "Invisible Hand"). She's a very nice person but Envy is absolutely her deadly sin.

So yeah! Fun times ahead; I'm excited.

We've already started seeing cracks form between her and Chuck... In Chapter 4, Chuck confronts her, asking if WordGirl is retiring and if he'll still get to see her. Chuck has his own little character arc in the background, which is that he broke his foot a few days before the story starts- he has to sit on the sidelines watching the other villains get "WordGirl time" while he has to watch Kid Math go through hero training.

A lot of other characters have small arcs too, though Chuck's and Victor Best's are probably the most notable-- Chuck and Victor are both characters who struggle with being "the second best" compared to a more successful sibling, so they resonate heavily with Rex's character arc.

WordGirl's arc is about control, so Mr. Big and Tobey (mind control and robots) are pretty obvious choices for her, along with Dr. Two-Brains... but actually, Granny May and Eileen are two villains I really wanted to look at in Factor It In. Granny May's life hinges around being a "people person" (to the point that she had an episode about how she could be way more successful with a different schtick; she just likes talking to people too much to trade that for success).

Granny May is super calculating and manipulative and she also struggles with little losses of control in her daily life (getting on in years, mobility issues, and the episode "Granny's Book Club" where the Evil Villains Association tried to force her to retire). I like Granny May because she looks like this sweet old lady but she also, like. can fly and has a robot suit, which is SO funny.

With her cold, calculating patience and her manipulative ways, Granny May represents the worst of Rex AND Becky at the same time, which is great. I'm excited to get to her chapters. Eileen is also a fun villain to juxtapose Becky because she's the embodiment of envy, which Becky struggles with, so I'm looking forward to that too.

A lot of characters are also working on school projects, so they always have "something to do" or "something that is causing them stress." Mapping out the background character arcs and conflicts can help the story feel more alive, and I think that's a useful part of outlining :)

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Once you know your character arcs ["What is my character's biggest fear, what is something my character will do wrong, what event forces them to face their fear, and how do they resolve this situation in a way that shows them growing as a person?"] then the story sort of writes itself :)

Make sure you have a goal or a problem and make sure there's a reason they can't achieve the goal or solve their problem in the first chapter. Here are some examples from 3 of my long 'fics:

Origin of the Pixies - Fergus (i.e. H.P.) fears being responsible for others... His father wants him to study psychology and take over the family therapy business (Wish Fixers) even though carrying the weight of others' emotional problems sounds like the worst fate imaginable... so Fergus cuts ties with Dad, drops out of the Fairy Academy and runs away from home. Now he only looks out for himself, can start his own business if he wants to, and he can drink and party all the time. What could be better than that?

Fergus's nightmare of being responsible becomes unavoidable when he (a pixie) starts reproducing asexually... during a time when no one really knows what pixies are and Fairy World has a baby ban in place. Fergus pursues a life of business and money-making, fighting to provide for Sanderson and the rest of his clone offspring (some of whom are predisposed by their genetics to kill him when they come of age, which is fun). Things get even worse when Fairy World and Anti-Fairy World go to war... Being responsible for kids during a time of peace was hard enough, but war? Forget it.

After successfully navigating the chaos of war, Fergus is ready to settle back into a peaceful life, but tumultuous politics keep him on his toes. His best friend - the leader of Anti-Fairy World - gets overthrown by hotshot Anti-Cosmo, and Fergus is forced to re-evaluate his friendships, priorities, political alignments, and personal needs if he wants to maintain political piece between the Pixies and Anti-Fairies.

While raising his pixie clones, Fergus has always kept them at arm's length and called them "interns" or "employees" or even "nephews" to avoid calling them his sons. The older he gets, the less he's able to do the things he liked to do in his younger years - goof off, wrestle, attend parties - and the more he needs to think about putting his pixies first. As death looms nearer and nearer, Fergus grows increasingly desperate to ensure his pixies will still thrive without him... and he'll do anything, regardless of who it hurts or how badly he endangers the magical world, to ensure they do.

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Frayed Knots - Anti-Cosmo fears being unloved; his father isn't in the picture, his older brother is aloof, and his mother isn't kind to him. He's desperate to not grow old without a soulmate by his side. When he fails to match with a partner during a betrothal ceremony, he lies his way through it and tricks his peers into believing Anti-Saffron is his fated match.

As the centuries pass, it becomes more difficult to maintain the lie and Anti-Cosmo begins questioning whether maintaining his relationship with Anti-Saffron is even worth it. Breaking things off in a society that believes in luck and fate, however, is incredibly risky and could get him labeled as an outcast for the rest of his life.

Anti-Cosmo struggles to balance his dying feelings for Anti-Saffron with his growing feelings for Anti-Wanda, and things get trickier and trickier as his friends realize he's been lying all his life and start pushing him away. Finally, Anti-Cosmo has to choose between his comfy lies and his betrothed or else throw away everything so he can chase after Anti-Wanda... who might abandon him too, just like his friends did, and leave him alone and unloved.

Anti-Cosmo maintains his lies as long as he can, hurting his loved ones in the process, and struggles to pick up the pieces left behind. Even if no one else forgives him, he can't keep living in the past; he has to learn to forgive himself if he hopes to be approachable and trustworthy again. Being an evil villain, though, I guess whether or not he grows as a person is up for some debate...

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Factor It In (Rex) - Rex values his personal achievements; he finds joy in superhero work and regularly brags about himself, his schooling, and his home planet Hexagon in general (right down to the fact that his planet has "the tastiest raisins in the universe.") Unfortunately, he's stuck in a cycle of giving his all but never feeling satisfied with his achievements because he's "never the best." One of his greatest fears is being confronted with evidence that he really is a burden and a failure, which would absolutely crush his spirit.

Rex doesn't love the way that Becky pushes him around; she's not mean, she just tries to guide him towards foster care even though he doesn't want to go. He doesn't speak up about it because he wants to put his faith in her and believe that he can learn from her and become a better person (since "being a good person" is the one thing he values above personal pride). He still feels inexperienced and overwhelmed in the early chapters, so he's hesitant to speak up and explain why he doesn't like what Becky's doing... up until she starts crossing his boundaries and then he has to draw the line.

Rex's desire for independence leads him to trust very easily. He puts his faith in Victor, Tobey, Chuck, and Granny May, who steer him down a wobbly path of moral grays. Becky keeps pushing him further away, so Rex continues bonding with the villains because he feels safe with them. Obviously this doesn't end well and he has to face the consequences of choosing the villains over his friendship with WordGirl.

In his determination to mend things with WordGirl, Rex accidentally lands both of them in a terrible situation and puts them (and therefore the rest of the city) in danger. In order to fix this, he has to push through his personal pride (Ow), accept his mistake (Double ow), and go against his training (which became useless while Bad Situation is in effect) so he can find a new way to save the day.

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Factor It In (Becky) - Becky values her identity as a superhero and how much work she puts into protecting the city. She fears that Kid Math will be a worse hero than her (endangering people) but also fears Kid Math will be a better hero than her (blow to her self-confidence).

She can't resolve this problem in Chapter 1 because she's scared of hurting his feelings and would rather try other options to avoid direct confrontation; instead, she deals with her concerns by trying to "fix" Kid Math. She trains him and pushes him towards foster care. As long as she feels like she's helping him, she's assuaging both fears: she's proving she's "better" and she's helping him not be worse. Ergo, she "no longer has a problem."

Becky's already on a path that puts her in conflict with Rex, who desires control over his own life and has to deal with her pushing him around until he can't take it any more. Conflict arises when Becky oversteps boundaries and breaks Rex's trust in her. Things get worse when she makes a mistake that sours the city's attitude towards her. Her worst nightmare is coming true: she's "not as good as Kid Math" and people might get hurt without her.

As things keep getting worse for the city and Rex is struggling, it's obvious that she and Kid Math need to team up again. That means repairing their friendship... which she can only do if she proves that she really does trust Rex to do things by himself. Therein lies the pickle...

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Anyway, I really rambled on there, but... Point being, a lot of fun stuff goes in my table docs, and this is the type of outlining I like to do for characters and story plots.

I highly recommend having a table of contents doc for long 'fics. You don't need to bog it down with all your worldbuilding notes (Hopefully you have a separate place you can put those, like a Tumblr blog or other docs), but for things that you know you'll definitely need and are worried you might not be able to find again, I highly recommend keeping them in the table doc.

You shouldn't normally be editing your table doc after you've done your outlining, which means you're less likely to accidentally delete important notes (compared to keeping them in a story doc) and you won't bog your story doc down with stuff you need to scroll past.

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Chapter Docs [1 per chapter]

I have links to all my individual chapter docs (important to me since my chapters are normally 10k+ words... Can't fit everything in one doc or it would be a pain to navigate and take an age to load).

Here are some snippets of my outlines. As you can see, the descriptions I have in my table docs are loose and vague:

This is from Come What May:

Come What May is special because it takes place over just a few days (while my long 'fics span months or even thousands of years). It's based around Kevin's appearances in Fairly OddParents Season 10.

I wanted to share this because even though my notes for "Cold Shadow" are basically nothing, it still gives the info that's actually important for me to know when returning to this project after a hiatus: "Here's exactly what day it is in the timeline. This episodes shows kids turning in a homework assignment on the founding fathers, which means we need to see Kevin doing this homework assignment (or at least acknowledging it) in prior chapters.

Regardless of the weird supernatural stuff Kevin is dealing with in this 'fic, it's still intended to be canon compliant, and I know that's a detail Future Me could easily forget but would want to know. It's like what I said earlier about birthdays and timelines: leave yourself clear notes. You'll never regret having too many notes, especially if you intend to return to a project after a long hiatus.

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Origin - I unfortunately scrapped my descriptions for all previous chapters of Origin and Knots so forgive the "spoilers," ha ha

Origin was originally drafted in a single document, which I later split into separate chapter docs. That's why I have notes like "Hawkins hand scene." I know exactly what that's referring to and my table of contents doc helps me remember which chapter it got moved to.

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Knots - I wanted to show these to emphasize how vague some of these are:

Even though they're vague, you can get a good sense of the direction the story is going. Outlining doesn't have to be a painful, in-depth process. You can knock out the basics in a single afternoon if you just sit down and do it.

I picked one chapter and opened it at random ("Fox's Folly") and it has 8k words in its draft right now. "Tipping Scales" has 15k. At the time of making this post, Frayed Knots only has 34 chapters posted in public, so we're at least 1 or 2 years away from getting to this point, yet there's already a lot of draft info I can go back to. I've added a lot of bits and pieces to these chapters over the years and sometimes I just open them when I'm in the mood for reading something fun.

Having the documents already set up in advance brings you one step closer to opening them and throwing stuff in them and I highly recommend that.

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Factor - These chapter outlines are more detailed (minus the early ones... the first 3 chapters were drafted as 1 chapter originally). If you've actually read Factor thus far, however, you'll notice that the scenes in my outline don't match perfectly with the finally chapters. And that's okay! The outlines are just guidelines and the final chapter can be different:

Lots of screenshots but I feel like my Factor doc is the most authentic look at my outline process (since it's recent while Origin and Knots were outlined like 7 years ago). I use black on my initial draft and red for things I change on a later sweep.

There are little notes to myself and sometimes I switch the order of things around. Also, "Torus" was written from scratch (no outline) since I came up with ideas for it later, and the nice thing is that I felt comfortable doing that without feeling like I'll write myself into a corner or wreck the pacing.

Having a story outline and all these separate docs means I already know where the story is going and I can jump in and write from anywhere in the timeline when the mood strikes. I think having a lot of options on what to write is the best way to fight writer's block, so this system works well for me.

Origin was drafted in 2016 and Knots in 2017. I create new scenes all the time (and scrap others), but a lot of the early story beats are still the same.

That about covers what I do in my outline process :) Thanks for asking and hopefully this was a fun and interesting read!

[albatmobile]

The Art of Rehabilitating Snowbirds Chapter 8

𓅪 After not hearing from Roy or Jason for five years, you suddenly find yourself taking in extra income as a babysitter for Roy and Jason's child.

𓅪 Rated: M | TW: mentions of alcohol/weed | 10.2k includes: Damian and Jason train you (gray sweatpants, enough said), you hang w roy and Jason while the batfam is out of town and steamy shenanigans w jayroy occur (shotgunning and drunken making-out yall)

fem!Reader x Jason Todd x Roy Harper [masterlist]

Chapter Eight: I Wanna Be Your Man | ao3 - wattpad

THEN

It calmed down for the most part after the party, with Damian not refusing to let you escape from your promise to learn self-defense. 

“At least just the basics until you get them down. After that, I can show you the impressive moves they attempt to illustrate in those pathetic comics of yours.”

You ignored his ever-present cynicism. “Really?!”

Damian rolled his eyes. “Yes, really. Bruce had us taught by the best in kidnapping defense and retaliation. I know some pretty cool moves.” 

He motioned you forward onto the central mat in the manor’s extensive gym.

You laughed at his terminology, “Even if you show me, it won’t matter anyway because you’ll never play superheroes with me.” 

“Aw,” he pretended to pout at you, “you’re right. Now come get your ass beat.”

“Whatever,” you huffed but, regardless, stepped toward him to copy his stance.

He bent his knees slightly and you followed suit. “Elevate your heels a bit,” he advised, coming up from behind you to kick lightly at them. This movement forced you to balance on the pads of your feet. “Good,” he said.

You cleared your throat at his unusual praise, pushing down the butterflies that fluttered against your stomach, “Thanks.”

Now was not the time to be getting horny, fucking weirdo. This was about your safety.

“Alright, now that you’ve felt out the stance a bit, I’ll show you a strike.” 

He demonstrated where to place your hands in front of your face, bringing his arm across his chest to push in between your chest with enough force to send you tumbling backward.

“Woah!” you exclaimed, managing to catch yourself before you tripped. When you returned to the original stance, you tried to emulate him as best you could, but when you made contact with his chest, he didn’t budge in the slightest. You let out a disappointed sigh and tried again, but to no avail, “How come you didn’t move?”

“You have the strength of a toddler, that’s why. Any other obvious questions you want answered?” When you shot him a deadpan look, he moved on to show you how to make a fist by taking your hands into his and curling them just so. “Watch my legs as I punch.” 

You saw them shift in tandem with the movement and replicated it, lifting your heels off the mat just slightly. Then you were off in a flurry of fists and dodges that made you feel like you’d jumped straight from the pages of your favorite comic books and out onto the gym mat.

A particular punch of his had you stumbling back and tripping over a stray weight with a yelp. Damian attempted to catch you, but your leg extended out in a way that ended up tripping him in the process. Damian ended up landing right above you with his weight on his hands that lay on either side of your head. 

He tilted his head slightly at your flustered face and leaned in closer.

Your breath unwittingly hitched when his lips seemed to hesitate over yours as if he were contemplating what it’d be like to close the short distance between your mouths and taste your rosy lips.

It’s quiet aside from your faint, overexerted breaths. Time seemed to have frozen you in your position as your widened eyes stared up into Damian’s half-lidded hazel eyes. 

“I’ve never kissed anyone before,” he finally broke the silence.

You swallowed lightly as your eyes searched his for any answers, but all you found was thinly aroused contempt.

“I haven’t either.”

You both seemed to have revealed your ace of hearts and, thus, were left in the tension of the aftermath.

He nodded before finishing the lesson like nothing happened. “I’ll be in the showers. They’re open stalls, so I’ll go first. In the meantime, it’s imperative you cool down and stretch.”

He showed you a few good ones before leaving you to your own devices.

Damian was off in the showers and you were bending down into the cobra stretch he’d shown you when Jason found you. 

“Why are you working out in that?”

You followed Jason’s eyes as they raked over your revealing sports bra and short workout shorts as you arched off the ground.

“What’s so wrong with it?” you breathed into the stretch, attempting to ignore him. You could hear the water running loudly from the other room and tried to focus on that as you finished your cool down.

He knelt down and tapped your nose, making it impossible to ignore him. “Bit whoreish.”

You gaped at him but recovered quickly enough to impress him, “Leave the fashion policing to Dick, Jay.”

He fake gagged as he stood off to the side to observe you. “Please never call me that again.”

“What?!” you huffed and stood up, realizing you weren’t going to be able to do any cooling down with Jason in the room. “But you let Roy call you that.”

He looked around the gym theatrically before landing on you once again with his mirthful slits of green. “Don’t see Roy in here, soo.”

“So, only Roy can call you Jay,” you started listing off on your fingers, “only you can call me babe and only Roy can call me princess?”

“Something along those lines, yeah,” he responded as if it were obvious.

“Do you just pick random days to be a cunt, or is this just like an everyday thing now?” You eyed him up and down with faux judgment. “Because it seems like it’s an everyday thing.” 

“Fuck off and come fight someone who actually knows what they’re doing. How about that?” He tilted his sharp jaw towards the center of the mat and motioned you to follow him. “Show me your stance,” he demanded. You laughed but, nonetheless, followed him to replicate what Damian had shown you. Jason immediately tutted as he looked over your form, “Keep your legs shoulder-width.”

That was the same thing Damian had said, too.

“Why?”

Jason kicked lightly at your feet and you closed the distance between them. “Your legs seem to be your strongest asset.”

“Are you hitting on me?” you joked, but he merely rolled his eyes.

“Anyone can see that you’ve got killer legs, so use them to your advantage.” 

You blushed at the off-handed compliment and nodded.

He started moving around you with a cadence that reminded you of a dance and you tried to follow suit but were dragging slightly due to soreness in your legs from your previous sparring with Damian. You did perk up pretty quickly once he threw his shirt off, leaving him in just his grey sweatpants. 

Damn, that outline was doing things to you…

You didn’t have much time to appreciate his athletic build before he broke into a sprint your way, tackling you to the ground with a resounding ‘thud.’

“Agh! Jason, what the fuck?” You attempted to lift your arms off the mat, but Jason had you pinned with one hand. “How the fuck is this training me? Get off of me, you fucking fat ass,” you wheezed, pushing at his heavy form, but it was in vain.

“Get me off then, babe.” He shifted his grip as he smirked down at your struggling form. “Find an object, an anchor, in the room and steady your breathing.”

You didn’t have time to catch the innuendo. No, you were too busy squirming below him while attempting to find your anchor and regain a steady air supply to your lungs at the same time. 

“You’re too heavy,” you heaved pathetically against the overbearing weight of his chest.

“Try shifting your hips like this,” he offered and used his free hand to tap at the base of your hips where your underwear began. He then lifted off your body with his free hand. “Then move them like you’re bucking.” 

He demonstrated how to shift them from side to side while hovering over you single-handedly. 

You watched his hips move above your own, but they quickly trailed up his to each of his rippling biceps: one on your hip, the other on the right side of your head. 

“Bucking…” you trailed off, watching as he lowered his weight back onto your chest.

“Yeah, just like I showed you,” his breath fanned across your face as he spoke. There was no mistaking how close you guys were with your nose came tip to tip with his. 

You thought back to what Damian had said about not having kissed anyone and wondered if it would still be true for you by the end of Jason’s training session.

He seemed expectant, so you shifted from side to side under him, albeit distracted by the intimacy of the position, something he noticed immediately. One look at your distracted gaze and rosy cheeks was all Jason needed to see. He wasted no time in hopping off of you.

You coughed lightly when you sat up and inhaled dramatically to play your arousal off. “Fucking hell, dude,” you winced, rubbing at your ribs where his weight had been predominately on. “What does Alfred feed you guys?”

“You should know. You’re here almost every day, which, I might add, also makes you a fat ass,” he said, reaching out a hand that you accepted easily and he helped you to stand. 

“Touche, Todd.” 

It was Jason’s turn to leave you in the gym when he heard Roy calling from down the hall. You don’t stay alone for too long, however, as Damian emerges from the showers mere moments later.

You attempted to sneak up behind Damian and attack him using what Jason had just shown you, but he simply yawned and flipped you onto the mat with a heavy thunk. 

“Oof!” You had the breath knocked straight out of you. “How did you see me coming?”

“What did I say about obvious questions?” he said your name, not bothering to help you up. 

You couldn't help but chuckle at the stark differences between the Wayne boys. 

You assumed it was just you and Damian now, so you tried out some of the things you’d noticed while training with Jason. Damian instantly settled into his stance to meet you. 

“You really want to try fighting me again? You’re either dumb or have a death wish.”

You giggled with glee. He sounded exactly like some of the comic book characters you kept up with.

“I’ll take my chances.” 

He smirked and drew you forward onto the mat once again.

“Fine. I appreciate your enthusiasm, though not much else can be said of those shit punches you keep throwing.” He took the time to show you the proper way to make a fist again and how to follow through with your legs. After that, you were back in the game.

Damian was really playing superheroes with you. No fucking way.

“You should’ve never taught me these moves, Damian. Someday, soon, I’ll overpower you.”

You managed to land a pretty decent hit on his stomach, which he gave you the pleasure of stumbling backward in an exaggerated manner that left you smiling at his theatrics.

He snorted but continued along, “Infidel, I should have you hung for saying something as sacrilegious as that." Then, he returned a barrage of attacks that you eventually managed to dodge after you understood the little patterns within his movements. 

“You’re growing predictable.”

“So are you,” he didn’t miss a beat as he swept you off your feet and stood over your head. He pretended to whip out a sword before pointing what would be its imaginary tip at the jugular of your throat. “You’re a pathetic excuse of an adversary. I-”

“No way.”

The two of you simultaneously looked up at Jason’s voice to see him and Roy snickering with an amused Bruce behind them. Damian quickly dropped his arm that was holding the imaginary sword and attempted to flee the room, but the crowd outside the door wouldn’t let him.

“You losers are actually playing make-believe superhero?” Jason had to hold himself up on the wall at what he’d walked in on. “This is actually too good. I don’t think I should’ve seen this,” he cut off any further shit talking to shift and bar Damian from exiting. 

“Shut up!” Damian hissed, once again attempting to push past Jason’s bulky form, but it was fruitless with Roy right there behind him. 

Bruce had long left you guys to your antics, though it was obvious how glad he'd been that you and Damian were playing if the huge smile on his face was anything to go by.

“You’re definitely never living this down, hellspawn.” Jason made to mess with Damian’s hair. “Though, it is nice to see you act like a kid for once.” 

"I'm no kid, Todd." Damian smacked his hand out of his face before he could ruffle his hair again and spat, “Do not mistake that.” He eventually gave up on trying to escape. Instead, he sighed and helped you up from where you lay on the floor, “We’re never doing this again.” 

You frowned big before shooting a deadly glare Jason’s way. 

“Sorry, babe. We can always role-play later, don't worry that pretty little head of yours.” It sounded more like Roy’s banter than anything, but it still made your body flush all the same. 

You hated the control they had over you.

Jason finally relinquished his position in the doorway, finally allowing his youngest brother to pass. Damian didn’t bother with another word as he exited the room like a bull, slamming his bedroom door soon after. 

You’d attempted to follow after him, but the locked door coupled with his pissy mood, meant Damian was out for the count. Taking the loss, you doubled back to the showers, knowing if you stood there any longer, you’d only be wasting your breath.

 Roy and Jason are still there waiting for you when you come out in leggings and a crop top. “Where’d Damian go? Still holed up in embarrassment?” You shrugged at Jason’s question. “You’re not embarrassed?” 

“Hell, no,” you answered honestly. “You guys already know I’m a freak, so why should I care?” 

“We do know that, don’t we, Jay?” Roy teasingly wagged his eyebrows at you.

“Shut up,” Jason smacked him.

They shuffled around awkwardly and looked at each other after that. 

“What?” you asked somewhat impatiently. It wasn’t like them to act like this.

“We just wanted to check in on you after that thing in the apartment.”

You froze before beginning to pick at the hem of your shorts anxiously, something they both noticed easily. 

“Have you talked with your parents about it?” 

You lied in a vain attempt to get them to drop it, but they seemed like they already knew you'd try it before you knew yourself. Knowing this, you still lied.

“Yeah."

You hadn’t talked to them since your first day of school when they asked you why the fridge was so empty. At the time, it’d been the first time you’d seen them in two months. You remembered rolling your eyes at their complaint, knowing that once they left, they’d just be gone for a longer amount of time.

“We just don’t want you to be scared to go back," Roy continued on with what Jason didn’t say, trailing off bashfully in a way you’d never heard before, "and that we’re always here for you, you know? You don't have to face it alone. Not when we're here.”

Alone.

How much did they know?

You felt your defenses fly up before you could stop them.

“It’s so like you guys to come back and be randomly friendly like this,” it slipped out before you could stop it, but you stuck with it. 

You couldn't help but feel like a toy that they played with when they felt like it. Easily discardable. Why would they care if you felt alone?  

“What do you mean?” They appeared genuinely stupefied at the sudden shift.

“What do you mean 'what do I mean?' You guys totally blew Damian and me off at the party, acting like we don’t hang out, too.” 

They became sheepish at that. “You’re so young.” 

“You should be hanging out with someone your age like Damian, not us,” Jason agreed with the redhead. 

You were over it.

You refused to listen to their bullshit any longer and regretted not just saying ‘thank you’ to Roy in the first place. 

“Whatever, are we hanging out or not? Damian ditched me, so if I’m sticking around, it'll either be with Bruce and Titus or you two fucks.”

It went unsaid that you really didn’t want to go back to your apartment. This was how you ended up roped into squishing between the two of them on a couch in the game room. After all the physical exertion, it was more of them playing the game and you cuddling them until you fell asleep with your feet in Roy's lap and head tucked against Jason’s.

You’d continue your lessons a few times a week and found that you were getting significantly better each time. 

Sometimes Dick would join you with Damian and Jason. Other times, it'd just be Damian or Jason alone in the gym with you. Damian had gone back on his rash statement in the gym with Jason and Roy, electing only to indulge in your superhero fantasy when no one was with you and only after he’d double-checked to be sure. 

You weren’t complaining.

•

Toward the middle of the year, it was just you and Jason at the table. 

“Where is everyone today?”

Tim hadn’t even been there to greet you at your locker and the only thing Damian had texted you was that he wouldn’t be at school for a day or so. 

“Some family vacation thing,” Jason replied simply, not looking up from his book. 

You flicked at his book at forced his emerald eyes to meet yours, “So, why didn’t you go then?”

 “Something about father-son bonding. Nothing that concerns me, anyway.” He tried to seem unbothered by diving right back to his book, but you could tell something was eating him up.

You frowned, wondering what that meant exactly but switched the subject anyway. “What are you reading this week?” 

Jason changed books like Roy changed girlfriends.

“Dickens.” 

You scoffed, “You should recommend Tim books. He needs the sleep.” 

“Cunt,” he hissed, though his eyes glimmered with mirth.

“Jason!” you gasped in faux offense. “You absolute, fucking Dickens fiend.” 

Who knew all of the Wayne’s were such assholes? 

Oh, wait, you did.

“You should still come over. You know, even though Damian and Tim won’t be there,” he stuttered out the last part, leaving you to tilt your head at his uncharacteristic behavior. Jason always seemed so sure of himself; it wasn’t like him to act so nervous around you.

You shrugged, not seeing the difference. “I’m there every day basically, so, sure.” 

You both smiled at each other as the bell rang.

Jason grabbed both of your trash, throwing it out before coming back to the table to where you and his bag remained. “I’ll meet you after school by your locker.”

“Still no bike?” you called after his retreating form. 

He shrugged, turning around while still walking. “Until I ‘learn to behave myself,’” he said around air quotes, “I’ve lost privileges until the New Year, babe.” You knew he had to be quoting Bruce and had to laugh a bit at his accurate impression. He turned back to face the direction he was walking in before you could say anything and sent you off with a tiny salute. “See ya later, kid.”

•

“How are you still this drunk after seven periods?” you questioned a highly intoxicated Roy, who’d shown up to school still drunk from the college party that had apparently happened last night. 

Typical Roy. He showed up drunk or high to school at least twice a week, if not more. 

It was something you were getting used to, but it concerned you nonetheless. Jason never brought it up thought and you didn’t think you were necessarily close enough to Roy to say anything, so you just kept your mouth shut. That didn't stop you from shaking your head at him when you noticed.

You’d only heard about the party after Roy wouldn’t shut up about being invited. You sighed; obviously, a freshman couldn’t go to a college party, so you were left to take it in through the details Roy dished out. 

He wobbled slightly as you walked over the uneven gravel of the Wayne Manor driveway. You and Jason quickly came to his aid and helped stabilize him. 

“I wanna go to the next one,” you whined lightly, knowing they’d only object.

Roy just groaned, laying his head on your shoulder while you and Jason continued to support him inside, “Your voice is so annoying right now, princess. I’m sorry to break the unfortunate news to you.”

"Fine then," you quickly dropped your arm from around his waist to let him stumble to the floor, “carry yourself.”

“Okay, okay,” he winced, motioning for you to come back. “Get your angelic vocal cords back over here.”

“How sweet.” You rolled your eyes but, nevertheless, slid your arm back around him to where it rested against the warmth of Jason’s own. “I still think you’re hamming this up just so Jason and I will hug your perverted ass. There’s no way you could’ve managed around that big ass labyrinth of a school on your own for eight hours in this pathetic state.” 

“Just call me David Bowie, sweetheart,” he let out an over-exaggerated moan that had you and Jason looking at each other in amusement. “And, so what if I’m a touch-depraved little boy?”

You’d so caught him, but you obliged anyway, knowing his hoe-ass was the furthest thing from touch starved. His connect-the-dot heap of hickeys lingered, never faltering in their angry red color amongst the splatters of freckles across his neck. It was common knowledge that on any given school day, Roy could almost always be found making out with someone in the hallway, up in the projection room, or behind the bleachers at any given point of the day. 

Yes, double standards. They exist and they suck. 

“Sure you are,” you responded tonelessly. At the same time, you couldn’t exactly complain about the close contact you were currently getting with two of the hottest guys you knew. When you got inside, you noticed how quiet it was. “Is Alfred here?”

"No," Jason pointed in the direction of the stairs with his sharp jaw and you followed, “he’s just out running errands or something.”

“Just the three of us? Suddenly, I’m feeling a lot better,” Roy said through a smirk and straightened up to carry himself up the stairs, leaving you and Jason to huff. “What? It’s not like I’m as heavy as Dumbo over there.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder at Jason’s scowling form.

Instead of rising to the bait, Jason fake gasped, nudging you roughly in jest, “What a rude thing to say to a lady.”

“I hate you both,” you huffed, moving past both of them to stalk off to the library. You didn't need anyone to guide you anymore. No, you were becoming very familiar with the manor and all its inhabitants. You sat down on the couch with Jason while Roy elected to fall to the floor with a loud thud you guys ignored. “And to think I still do your homework for you, Roy,” you teased right back.

“Hey! Jason said it, not me, babe-” He stopped suddenly before wincing at Jason. 

Jason was already looking down at him with annoyance. “Thought we talked about that, Harper,” he warned.

Roy ran a sheepish hand through his greasy strawberry locks. “Sorry, Jay,” he then looked at you, “sorry, princess.”

You shrugged, remembering how when you’d trained with Jason, he’d gotten upset with you for using Roy’s nickname on him. 

“All good,” Jason sounded content but was still squinting a bit at Roy’s slumped form on the floor. “What’s wrong? I thought you already admitted you were faking it.”

“Yeah, the walking part. Thanks, by the way.” He shot you guys a wicked smirk before grimacing and rubbing at the spot between his eyebrows. “But yeah, I’m still pretty fuckin' hungover.”

“That’s what happens when you do five body shots in a row,” Jason reprimanded. 

“Worth it.” Roy covered his eyes with his hand and smiled. “‘Sides, it won’t matter for long if Alfred and your pappy are out.”

“He’s not my dad,” Jason’s tone left no room for argument. Roy instantly backed off without another word.

There it was again. 

You looked up from the homework you’d pulled out while they reminisced over the college party they’d gone to and see Jason attempting to look busy doing the same, but his eyes were unfocused. 

“Roy, what’s your assignment?” Jason looked at you gratefully and Roy followed your lead in changing the subject. 

“We’re doing short stories, so I picked the shortest one.” 

You shuffled around excitedly, motioning for him to hand you his laptop. You already knew his password and entered ‘BatmanrulezR0binDr00lz’ with a roll of your eyes.

Taking one look over his paper on Harrison Bergeron, your face squinted up in disgust. “Roy, what is this?” you questioned.

“My genius analysis, ba- princess.” You and Roy looked over to Jason, whose embarrassed gaze quickly forced itself downward at his predictability. “It’s about how being equal isn’t everything people crack it up to be and shit,” the redhead finished.

At his response, you and Jason share a knowing glance. 

You scroll through the pages of the text again with brows furrowed together in concentration. “On the surface, for sure, but when you look deeper, it’s about how total control over society is damming and destructive to those not in charge.”

“Total control?” Jason sat up and took the computer from your lap. “Maybe if you were a freshman, you'd think that. Oh, wait.”

You snatched it right back. “Maybe total control wasn’t the best terminology,” you tried again, starting to type, “but unchecked power. Think, in our terms, Batman per say and all the debate that goes on over how much control, er, power he has and who’s there to check it? Same with all of the other superheroes. That might be an interesting angle?” You titled your head innocently at Roy, who merely chuckled at the cute sight.

“Sure, works for me. As long as it sounds like me.” Roy picked himself off the floor and headed toward the door. “Back in a flash.”

Roy gave you a wink and made the Flash’s starting running pose before disappearing out the door. The redhead quickly returned with his pale, freckled arms filled with bottles of alcohol. Meanwhile, you and Jason were still arguing over his paper.

“And then, what of the ending? Is it still about unchecked power? Or is it about how people and love persevere even in the face of totalitarian adversity?”

“If you’re referring to the ending of the TV program, then yes, I could see your point, but,” you pointed to the last paragraphs, “the actual ending goes back to Harrison’s parents and them not remembering that they've witnessed their son die as a result of government brutality. Complete use of parallelism in the beginning scene. Roy, are you writing this down?” You didn’t have the laptop in your hands, so you needed him to capture the information before you forgot what you were saying.

“No, but, woah, you guys need to chill out. If you keep this schtick up, I might start to think you guys actually liked each other,” he said while wiggling his brows and looking between you and his scowling best friend beside you.

“How does that even make sense?” You wrinkled your nose at his nonsense. 

All you guys did was argue and pick on each other all the time.

Jason agreed with a passive glance at his nails, “The kid and me? Pass. Besides, the demon child would no sooner sacrifice my soul to the pits of hell.”

“Bit too late for that, eh?” Roy dropped the bottles next to Jason and nudged him on the shoulder to show him something long and brown in his hand that you couldn’t quite see.

Jason laughed, finally surrendering the computer over to you so he could follow Roy out to the balcony, “You write his C-worthy paper then, brat.” 

You blushed at the new nickname and just let yourself be confused, realizing this was probably one of those things they wouldn’t explain to you, but it was whatever. 

You were used to it at this point.

Hell, if you hadn’t known any better, you might think they were together. However, Roy’s flirtatious nature and Jason’s more reserved one meant there was no way it would ever work.

You finished typing your preliminary notes and outline for Roy before shutting the laptop to see what they were up to outside. As soon as you stepped outside, you smelled the distinctness of fireworks in the chilled air.

“What is that?” 

You, of course, knew it was weed, but you didn't know how they were able to be so chill about smoking in Bruce’s house so freely. Sure, he’d been gone a day, but after that? You could practically visualize him coming home with Tim and Damian and following the scent like a bloodhound, knowing exactly what had gone on up here in an instant. 

You didn’t want to disappoint him again… but… if you just sat with them… that wouldn’t be too bad, right?

“That’s a blunt,” Roy answered your question as he popped the bottle on the Whistle Pig. “Don’t do drugs.”

“Maybe you should follow your own advice,” you laughed as he chugged directly from the bottle before handing it off to Jason, who did the same. It was an arduous task to sit down while his Adam's apple was bobbing so temptingly when you were so close. Your decision to perch yourself at the end of the lounge chair he was on had clearly been a mistake. “I don’t know how you guys do this shit.”

“It’s easy,” Roy shrugged. “Don’t do drugs,” he repeated again as he hit the blunt and exhaled through his freckled nose.  

You laughed at his hypocrisy, “I’ve never smoked before, so I don’t think now would change that, regardless of Bruce being gone or not.” You shivered at the memory of him reprimanding you after the party Jason and Roy had thrown. “ButI won’t say no to a drink.”

“Good to see you without a stick up your ass for once, babe,” Jason said. 

“Amen to that,” came Roy’s already tipsy cheer. “Here’s to our good girl!” You blushed but cheersed nonetheless, cringing immediately at the taste. They both laughed, “If you’re not into the whiskey, try this.” He looked around dramatically at the large selection he pulled but apparently wasn’t satisfied. “Hold on,” he said before running downstairs only to return with a blue bottle of wine. 

“What is it?” 

“Moscato, princess.”

Roy popped off the cork with an extremely dangerous-looking pocket knife, then grabbed a huge, expensive wine glass. You’d had red wine before, but this one was chilled and bubbly looking when he poured it.

You eyed the fizzing liquid suspiciously. “It’s a fucking Tuesday,” you complained mildly but had to admit that the wine was good. You hummed in approval at the sweet taste, “It’s basically just sparkling apple juice.” 

You were toast.

“That’s when it’s dangerous, though,” Jason confirmed your worries in such a serious manner that it caused you to face him directly. 

You could already feel a pleasant warm bloom in the depths of your stomach and the heat swelling in your cheeks. You could blame it all on the alcohol, sure, though you couldn’t deny the beauty of your company nor anyone that walked around these halls for that matter. 

You nodded and began sipping slower as you watched the clouds that passed by. “What were you guys talking about before I came out here?”

“Nothing,” they both said a bit too quickly to be true, then glared at each other. 

“Alright then,” you sighed and let them leave you out again.

You couldn’t help but sometimes feel that they didn’t want to hang out with you, but other times, they sought you out. The hot and cold confused you, to say the least. But, hey, at least you were hanging out now... right?

Roy seemed to sense your dampened mood and quickly tried to rectify it, “We were just talking about classes and how, without you two, I probably wouldn’t be passing English. Hell, probably any of my classes, for that matter.”

“Well, glad you keep me around for something.” You pointedly sipped, leaving Roy to wince. You knew he was thinking back to how you voiced similar concerns in the gym all those months ago.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it,” Roy looked at Jason for backup, but Jason remained transfixed in fiddling with his lighter. Roy’s emerald eyes bore into yours with sincerity. “We like you. A lot.”

“Sure have a funny way of showing it," you huffed in annoyance. "One day, you guys want to hang out with me and the next, you guys are ditching and dissing me.”

“First of all, we always diss you, babe,” Jason said, tipping the now-lit blunt in your direction. 

“Yeah, and you ditch us too,” Roy pointed out, moving to snatch it from Jason.

You considered both of their points, realizing you were probably just getting in your head. 

“Whatever. I hate when you guys are right.”

“Get used to it,” Roy said your last name with a wink that left you rolling your eyes.

You really didn’t know what to talk about and they were extra quiet today. If Jason hadn’t specifically invited you over earlier that day, you definitely would’ve felt like you were intruding on them.

“Isn’t Bruce throwing a gala here next week?” 

You’d been careful not to say 'dad,' considering you didn’t want to ruin the mood further, but you’d been curious. All everyone in school had been talking about was the elusive guest list, while others bragged that their parents were included at the top of it.

“Why? You want an invite or something?” Jason offered. He seemed amused that you’d even brought it up in the first place.

“I’m not allowed to go anymore ever since I drunkenly tried to kiss the mayor,” you snorted loudly at Roy’s confession and quickly moved to cover your mouth. “No, you can laugh. It was pretty funny. Brucey was pissed as ever; you’ve seen it. You know when he gets that little view in the left corner of his forehead?” You did know and laughed again. “Exactly.” 

His green eyes stood out almost alien-like against the red that now stained the whites of his eyes. You looked at Jason, noting much of the same.

“Roy’s forgetting to mention he almost pissed himself, too.”

“Did not,” Roy argued. At this, he pushed at Jason’s shoulder, knocking him into you. You knocked his shoulder back and he knocked his shoulder back into Roy, who repeated the process all over again until everyone was too busy cracking up to shove anymore. 

“What the fuck is wrong with us, Jay?” 

“We’re drug-slinging heathens, obviously.” 

“Sure, whatever that means,” you waved off Jason's odd response in favor of begging Roy for another drink. He wiggled around the empty bottle before leaving to grab another for you.

“You should really slow down,” Roy cautioned.

You still felt warm, but you honestly felt fine. It really was like juice. The buzz you’d felt earlier had already passed and you knew you’d be fine with another glass or two. Besides, it’s not like anyone was here or home to care, but you did want to remain cautious even if you did trust Jason and Roy.

“I know, I just like how it tastes,” you whined slightly, causing him to smile. 

“We weren’t really talking about you when you came out, you know?” Jason sipped at the whiskey whilst looking at you out of the corner of his emerald eyes. “Roy and I just get into shit other people might not understand’s all.”

You giggled, “I knew I felt some tension between the two of you.”

“What?!” Jason exclaimed incredulously, looking frantically behind himself and back into the house to see if Roy had returned, but the coast was clear. “There’s absolutely nothing going on there at all. Roy’s definitely straight.” 

You couldn’t tell if Jason was trying to convince you or himself. 

“Oh, yeah. For sure,” you agreed, but you knew he saw the knowing glint in your eyes. 

You both knew Roy would fuck anything with a pulse; gender be damned. 

Even back in the parking lot of the diner, you’d made him flustered when you told Roy and him to stop teasing each other with gay. It was obvious Jason was going through something, but hell, who wasn’t when every direction you looked in was filled with charming, extremely hot men. 

It really was a burden, but it was one you didn’t mind bearing. 

“Like you know anything,” you merely sipped your drink, leaving him to furrow his brows in annoyance, “I bet you’d tell me you didn’t know Damian liked you or some dumb shit like that. All this being said, who are you to tell me about tension?” 

“Damian doesn’t like me.”

Jason seemed like he was ready to facepalm. “Alright, well, now you can’t tell me shit because you’re obviously blind,” he chuckled and shook his head at your cute giggle.

“If you need me to help you with your promposal to Harper in Spring, just let me know. I’ll be sure to keep my calendar open.”

“Calendar open for what?” Roy came back out, causing both of you to stiffen at his entrance. Roy chose to ignore the reaction it in favor of filling your glass back up. Once filled, he grabbed for the blunt in Jason’s hand before sitting back down with a satisfied puff on it. 

You recovered quickly to wiggle your brows up and down as you looked between the two of them.

Roy looked like he wanted to kill you. “Oh, sure. You pick up on that, but not-” Jason quickly covered Roy’s mouth with a damning glare. “What?! You didn’t even know what I was gonna say, Jay,” Roy complained against Jason’s hand but made no move to remove it.

That was until...

Jason cringed and withdrew his hand as Roy seemed to lick at it. 

They tussled around a bit more, but you ignored them in favor of staring at the blunt. You couldn’t deny that, after a few drinks, you kind of wanted to try it.

“I’m fifteen now,” you mentioned lightly out of nowhere, breaking the roughhousing they'd been in the middle of. “It was my birthday a few weeks ago.”

They were off of each other in an instant. Roy pouted in an overly dramatic manner, though Jason suddenly seemed genuinely upset.

“Princess, why didn’t you tell us?” 

Did you really think so little of their friendship? 

“Did Damian know?” Jason’s low voice cut through the quiet blanket of chilling air that wafted around the balcony.

“No.” Your face scrunched up at his random question. “Why would that matter, though, when you guys keep secrets from me?” You motioned between the two of them as you brought your glass to your mouth. Literally, Jason had just told you they had their secrets.

“Well, happy belated then,” Roy tried.

Meanwhile, Jason seemed to be in the midst of an internal battle you couldn’t begin to understand. 

“Thanks,” you trailed off and motioned for Jason to hand you the blunt. “Now, let me try.”

“Woah, no,” Roy said, smirking as he snatched it out of Jason’s hand, who seemed like he was going to pass it whilst caught up in the haze of his thoughts. “We’re not going to corrupt you even more, especially when you’re already buzzed.”

You felt betrayed by the rosiness on your cheeks. The bright stain was as much alcohol as much as it was hormones.

“Am not.”

“Are too,” Roy mimicked you and snatched the second bottle of Moscato from your hands when you attempted to ignore him in favor of pouring more. “Not that it wouldn’t be fun to see you let your hair down again, but you shouldn’t feel like you have to do this just because we are.”

You pouted. “I love that you’re being responsible and all, for once, might I add,” the redhead huffed, “but I know what I’m doing, Roy. You’re not my dad.”

He winced slightly, making you want to take the last part back. 

“Alright, princess,” he finally conceded. Roy wiggled the cork out from where he’d shoved it back into the bottle and over-poured another glass for you without another word. 

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to freak out like that,” you apologized, feeling awkward at your sudden outburst. You weren't used to having anyone watch out for you. It made you feel somewhat uncomfortable even though you knew Roy had the best intentions. You were just fucked up, but you didn’t need them to know that. “I just.. I know I can take care of myself, is all.”

He nodded and you knew you’d gotten your point across. 

“You smoking then, or what?”

It was a peace offering. 

You grinned, taking the blunt he offered you naively. 

“Just inhale a bit, actually, here,” Jason advised as he plucked it from your hands to inhale it himself. 

“Hey!” you objected when he grabbed it from your grip, but he leaned in and motioned you to do the same. “Uhh.”

He held the smoke in his mouth as he spoke with tiny streams leaking out from the corners of his closed mouth. “Just try to swallow it.” His scarred cheeks remained puffed out as he grabbed the back of your head and brought your lips to his. 

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…….. 

You subconsciously pouted your lips to meet his in a kiss, but he merely pried them open with his own chapped ones to slip the smoke he’d been holding in his mouth into yours. 

You blushed at the fact he’d been trying to help you inhale and you’d just gone and kissed him. If he noticed, thankfully, he didn’t say anything. That being said, you knew your bright blush gave everything away. 

You self-consciously tucked a strand behind your ear, feeling a pressure steadily building from the burning in your lungs. You sputtered into a coughing fit that had you glaring at the two cackling men in front of you. The tears streaming from your face only served to make them laugh harder.

“Oh, jeez,” you said, placing a tentative hand on your head when you felt a slight fog forming that you’d never experienced before. It was like someone had covered your brain with a weighted blanket. 

Weird. 

You must’ve said it out loud because they both laugh again, but, by then, you were already feeling a bit paranoid that you would somehow get in trouble. 

“You guys can’t tell Damian about this. Or Dick,” you hastily tacked on Jason’s sexy cop brother, thinking it’d probably be best he that he didn’t know either. “Got it?”

“You’re the only one who snitches around here, anyway.”

“You try lying to Bruce Wayne’s face, then get back to me,” you said, crossing your arms indignantly at Jason. 

“I do it all the time, you’re just weak,” Jason insisted though a quick glance at Roy seemed like he completely agreed with you.

You laughed into your cup, “He looks like he could just rip you in half or some shit but, at the same time, he’s just sort of a himbo.”

Roy chortled at that, “Himbo, I’m gonna use that. So, what does that make Jason?”

“Jason’s like an angsty little Wednesday Adams with a skunk stripe.” At this, your face morphed up into Jason’s typical scowl.

Roy howled, forcing himself to calm down only after what seemed like minutes of rambunctious laughter, “Do me next!”

The two of you were now both full-on dying of laughter at Jason’s unimpressed deadpan.

“You’re just Roy,” you said. “Fucking weird and always horny.”

“Hey, I’ll cheers to that,” he responded with a cheeky, freckled smirk.

You nudged Jason to join in, which he eventually did, albeit with an eye roll, further adding credibility to the characterization you’d given him. 

"Please, sir," you said after you finished the rest of your glass and motioned to Roy for more, “may I have some more, please?"

“Fuck you,” Jason shot down your Dickens reference. 

You weren’t yet two full bottles in, but you’d practically been chugging the Moscato like juice, leaving your head a bit clouded. A quick glance at Jason and Roy’s lax states told you they were feeling it somewhat, too.

“Y’wannaother hit?”

You looked over at Roy, who was now holding the blunt. In your haze, you half realized you should be pulling down your skirt that had been riding up, but you couldn’t find it in you. Especially not after you noticed both of them eyeing the newly bared skin of your thick thighs. You couldn’t deny you loved the attention.

“Wannaother hit?” Roy tried again.

“What?”

Roy motioned to the blunt in his hand with an amused, clearly tipsy, smile. “Want another hit?” he over-articulated his words this time, leaving you to giggle a bit.

“You gonna assault my mouth too?”

“Ask and you shall receive, princess.” He inhaled and held similar to how Jason did, but this time you knew what to expect. 

You got up languidly from the lounge chair, handing Jason your drink in the process before bending over to trap Roy between your arms in his seat. 

If they were going to play, so were you.

You kept your eyes slightly open as you tilted your head and met his mouth with pliant lips. He moved easily against your them, scratching slightly as he did due to his chapped lips before finally releasing a steady stream of smoke into your mouth.

Similar to your previous hit, you immediately began coughing, quickly vanquishing whatever confidence you’d built up into the chilling evening wind. 

You rubbed at your throat that burned from the inside, retreating back to your seat to quell it with a sip of your drink.

“Fuck, that shit hurts.” Your head felt even more underwater now, but you couldn't deny that you liked it. 

“Don’t do drugs,” Roy repeated his catchphrase of the night. You and Jason to both cackled. 

You rubbed a bit at your arms, looking longingly inside at the warm library. 

“I’m cold.”

“Go inside, then.”

“No,” you answered Jason petulantly. 

“I’m gonna tell Dick and Damian you smoked if you start acting like a fucking brat now, babe.”

“Stop calling me a brat,” you pouted with crossed arms. “Besides, I like it,” you gasped, looking underneath your ass to see if you’d somehow sat on Wonder Woman’s lasso of truth. That was the only reasonable explanation for your random bout of babbling, right? At the sight of the empty space, you realized you only had the alcohol to blame.

“Ew,” Jason shoo’ed you away with his hands as if you were a fly, “get the fuck away from me you foul, hormonal cretin.”

“Hey! Don’t talk to Roy like that,” you slurred slightly. “He’s sitting right there, you dumbass.” They both seemed thoroughly amused by your tipsy antics. 

Eventually, they put out the blunt, gathered the bottles and headed inside.

Roy immediately took it upon himself to scour through the shelves of books in search of Jason’s hidden novels, insisting he had to have some cringy shit hidden somewhere, but you doubted it. He was definitely just a classics guy in your eyes. Off on your own, you perused each row, never having taken the time to do it before. 

You quickly realized, however, that your buzzed state wasn’t necessarily the easiest condition to read in. 

“You’d like this quote, you Wilde fiend.” You felt Jason’s warmth sidled up behind you before his voice ever reached you, using your earlier insult from school against you. “‘Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.’”

Your breath was completely caught in your throat by the time he finished the quote. 

His eyes danced lazily across the page as if it were merely for show, like he’d already known what words to say without actually needing the text in front of him.

You tilted the book towards you, reading over the scribbled notes Jason had left in there. “I love A Woman of No Importance.”

“Because it’s so fitting?” he taunted you with a wry brow.

“Oh, haha. Hey, what’s this?” Your eyes squinted at the scribbles in the margin next to the quote as you tried to decode through the slight illegibility of Jason’s handwriting. “'Remember for them?'”

“Huh?” Jason’s eyes widened dramatically as he yanked the book from your reach. “That’s old.”

“Old? Like last week, old?” You pointed amusedly to the comment in the same color that he’d dated back to last Monday. “Who’s them?” you repeated your question. “Remember what?” 

You’d never seen Jason really pay any mind to any of the girls at school. You'd honestly, at this point, considered him gay and a hopeless romantic for Roy’s unreachable playboy heart. 

Speaking of Roy.

“Are you guys making out over here or something?” his gravelly voice traveled through the many rows until it reached the game of tug of war taking place between you and Jason over the Wilde book. “I found a hidden gem!” he singsonged, finally catching sight of the two of you and practically skipped across the remaining distance. “We have a special treat tonight, lady and gentleman.”

“Are you not a gentleman as well, Roy?” You glanced at the book cover and were surprised to see a taboo, Canva-esque book cover and grinned widely at Jason’s nonplussed face. 

Classics guy only, your ass.

“Oh, princess. You should know the answer to that by now is no,” he purred. With a wink sent your way, the redhead opened the book dramatically, adjusting invisible glasses further up onto his nose. “Ahem, Jason here has this quote highlighted and underlined.”

“Give me that!” Jason's flailing grip missed Roy, who danced around you for protection. 

“But it’s soo steamy, Jay. You wouldn’t want us to miss out on this beautiful piece of literature,” he began to read, leaving Jason absolutely red.

“Roy,” Jason warned again but to no avail.

Jason pushed you out of the way and tackled Roy to the floor, who continued reading the quote, anyway.

“‘For her, an orgasm felt more like a sneeze, certainly not the earthquake her friends described. What would that feel like to be so overwhelmed- OW!” Jason socked Roy in the stomach, but he merely let out a brief groan before continuing, “’as to actually scream?’ Oh, Jay, you absolute dog.” 

You wished you hadn’t been so affected by Roy reading that. What was making it all worse was knowing that Jason had highlighted the section in the first place. It also didn’t help that you were still buzzed and slightly high, nor the fact that Jason and Roy were currently toppling over each other on the floor.

They came to a head as Jason had Roy pinned in an inescapable embrace you’d also had the misfortune of experiencing.

Jason, who used the power in his position over Roy, lost focus as he was too busy staring at you combing through the bookshelves to notice that Roy had gotten into prime position. He used the new momentum to knock the raven off with a ferocious thrust of his hips. 

Jason quickly followed after him as Roy escaped off in your direction. 

You eyed them, half-interested from between the gaps in the books, but continued mulling around to inspect the plethora of titles the library offered.

“I think I have an even better one than Roy’s and I know Jason’s seen the movie,” you walked over to their panting forms on the floor while holding up Call Me by Your Name. “Now, I could read some steamy, peachy shit,” Roy whistled appreciatively from beside you. You looked down to where he’d slumped against you and one of the shelves to stay out of the way of Jason’s half-hearted attacks. “Don’t tell me you’ve seen the movie?”

“It’s a classic,” he said, trying to hide his embarrassment through a curtain of his red hair but had failed miserably. 

“It came out in 2017, Roy;” you pointed out, much to his chagrin, “that hardly labels it a classic…”

“Jason made me watch it!” he tried again as Jason tackled him back to the ground. You barely managed to jump out of the way in time, sufficiently managing to avoid becoming a casualty in the attack.

The way they were looking into each other’s eyes, you wouldn’t be surprised if they actually did like each other. From where you stood, it seemed like they were mere seconds away from making out right then and there on the library floor. 

“Liar! You wanted to watch it,” Jason retorted quickly, “and you liked the peach scene, fucking homo-oh.” He stared at your disapproving glare and attempted to rectify his insult, but it was too late. “Sorry,” he trailed off awkwardly.

You ignored his apology. “For two guys who regularly call each other gay slurs, you both sure seem pretty cozy.” They stilled. Jason took Roy looking over at you as a chance to buck him off the top again. “It’s okay. I was about to diss you in a quote, anyway,” you cleared your throat and placed your finger on the page you’d been looking for. “‘People who read are hiders. They hide who they are. People who hide don’t always like who they are.’ So basically, Jason hates himself and hides in books.”

“Sounds about right,” Roy confirmed with a baiting grin.

Jason huffed, snatching the books you and Roy had been holding before either of you could react, “I think we’ve all had enough reading for one day. Besides, I need another drink.”

“Amen to that.” They both wrinkled their faces at your response. “What? I’m not drunk! Drunk people can’t read… Or wait, is it that you can’t read in dreams?” you continued to drunkenly ramble while Jason and Roy steered you toward the cough to sit. “I think I remember reading in a dream once, though, so maybe not that either.” They were both staring at you now. “What?”

“Yeah. You’re good on drinks, doll-face.”

“What’s with all the new nicknames?” you questioned with a pout. “I like ‘babe’ and ‘princess’…”

“Oh, please don’t tell me you’re gonna act like Jason about these dumb things. It’s just a nickname, babe, princess, doll-face, brat.” The last one seemed pointed, almost like Roy was judging your reaction to being called it. 

You squirmed a bit, seeming to confirm whatever suspicions he’d surmised. He bit lightly at his chapped bottom lip, glancing away as if lost in thought. 

Soon enough, they began to play a video game on Jason’s computer. You quickly became disinterested when the movement of the camera made you feel like you were going to puke. 

You groaned softly as the weight of the evening settled heavily across your body. It was as if the time rushing by had finally caught up to your body. You felt every pounding second as if it now took double the time.

“You good?”

You mumbled something that made them shake their heads. 

Your head felt like it was on a rollercoaster. A quick look at Jason and Roy proved that they weren’t sober either, as evidenced by the way they swayed and constantly shifted their weight to stay sitting upright. 

You couldn't help but giggle at the sight. 

Fuck them. 

If they were going to laugh at you, you would do the same for their drunk asses.

The minutes ticked by agonizingly slow as you stared at the sides of their concentrated, albeit lazy gazes. They were zoned out, half-interestedly playing whatever shooting game Jason had downloaded, but you were getting restless for some reason. 

You felt like you needed to do something. 

To do them.

They chattered on about stats about whatever gun Roy’d found and continued to do so for the next few minutes, but all you could focus on was the steady warmth that crept along your body the longer you watched.

You needed them.

You bit your lip lightly at the thought and looked at your hands before either could notice the shift. They were both steady and you figured that was a good sign. Your heart and clit both pulsed rapidly at the thought alone of going up to them and taking what you wanted. 

Maybe this was the ‘them’ Jason had been referring to. You couldn’t quite disagree. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.

In your drunken haze, you quietly slipped off the couch and onto the floor. 

The light that radiated from the computer was the only light on in the room and glowed against Jason and Roy’s faces. 

No one had spoken to you in, well, too long, in your opinion.

You were going to change that.

You craved their attention- craved the warmth and dizziness it always left you with.

You must’ve not been as quiet as you thought because soon, they both took notice of you. You hesitated only briefly before crawling languidly across the floor with a mischievous glint in your eye that neither could ignore.

“Woah, princess. What dooya think you're doin'?” Roy slurred slightly as you stretched over Jason’s lap to grab Roy’s face and bring it to yours. 

You brought your lips to hover over his, giving him the chance to back down.

“You talk so fucking much, Roy. Can you just shut up for once?” you asked breathlessly, staring into his slitted, iridescent eyes.

He hesitated for only a moment before whispering into the minimal space, “I think I can do that.” It was husky, slightly scratchy, leaving you to smirk at just how affected he was by your presence. 

You closed the distance easily, moving your lips against his in an unhurried fashion, savoring each and every searing touch as your lips worked against each other in the most delicious way. The heat you’d felt earlier pounded against your lower stomach, dripping down to stain your underwear with slickness. 

You whimpered slightly into the kiss, shifting across Jason’s lap further to get a better angle, but stopped when you felt Jason’s arousal pressing into your lower stomach to gasp. 

You reluctantly broke away from Roy’s lips to address a wide-eyed Jason. He swiftly feigned nonchalance, but it was quickly ruined by the way he looked anywhere but down at his lap. 

You, on the other hand, couldn’t look anywhere else. 

His cock strained thickly against the tightness of his uniform pants. You were confused how he could be hard because of you when all he ever seemed to do was insult you.

“But you hate me…”

“I don’t hate you,” he rasped against the evident arousal in his voice.

That was all the reassurance your submerged mind needed. Without wasting another second, you surged forward to tackle him to the ground where you then straddled him in your drunken haze.  

He brought your lips to meet his, cutting off whatever dumb retort you’d been concocting before it could even form. You gasped against his firm lips and quickly tilted your head to a better angle as his tongue flicked languidly against your own. It was sloppy, erotic and doing things to your body you’d never felt before. You rested your forehead against his, staring down at his hazy green eyes riddled with lust that easily matched your own. 

He gave you a mere moment to breathe before he pulled you back in for a head-spinning kiss. 

You needed more. 

You whined when his hands come to rest slightly below the dips of your waist, teasing against the sides of your ass. 

“Most guys don’t fancy double-dipping, princess,” Roy chuckled from next to you, drawing your attention briefly, only to be brought back into it by Jason biting teasingly at your lower lip.

You didn’t have time to worry if Roy was actually mad or not, you just moaned louder into your kiss with Jason, arching salaciously against his chest. It was a complete reversal of him crushing you against the mat in the gym all those months ago.

“Doesn’t seem to bother either of you,” you said, breaking away to face Roy to confirm he was joking. The sight that met you assured you that everything was just fine. 

Roy was a pathetic, panting mess, not bothering to hide how he palmed himself through his pants as he watched you take charge on top of his best friend.

You whimpered, eyeing him up and down before Jason drew your attention back to him. To reward Roy for being so good, you bent back down slowly into Jason’s chest, arching your back as you did so to give the redhead a good view as you brought Jason’s lips to meet yours once more.

“Show me you don’t hate me,” your voice came out sultrier than you’d meant it, though you blamed it on the liquid courage. 

Regardless, they were eating it up.

Or, so you thought.

One moment, Jason was gazing at you with a burning passion and the next, he looked completely constipated. You tilted your head in confusion, opening your mouth to voice it, but before you could, he was already turning away from you to focus on the ceiling above. 

“I think we’re all a bit too drunk for this right now.” Your stomach dropped at the blatant rejection, with your face notably falling. He seemed like he wanted to reassure you but was biting his tongue. You shrunk back to sit on his lower stomach and his hands immediately pushed off the floor to right himself, bringing you face to face. “Get off,” it was coarse and choked and you had no choice but to follow his demand. 

Even though he said he didn’t hate you, it sure seemed like he hated you. You turned to Roy for support, but he was in a similar state of looking anywhere but at you.

“Sorry.” Your adrenaline was crashing hard. You yawned lightly as you wobbled unsteadily to stand up, only to trip forward, onto the couch with an oof! “I’m sorry,” you whispered as your head pounded in pain. 

You didn’t realize your eyes were closed until you're nodding off caused them to flash open, though you only managed to keep them open for a few, measly seconds. Before you knew it, you were resting your head against the back of the couch to quell the pressurized dizziness that was suffocating your brain. 

The rest was an inexplicable haze of warbled voices and tunnel vision. 

•

You woke up with a heavy blanket on top of you and the light streaming through…? 

You looked around at your surroundings blearily as you rubbed at your eyes. You were still in the library. 

You groaned as you sat up and nearly knocked over the aspirin that had been placed next to your head and you gratefully took two with the water on the coffee table. 

“What the fuck happened?” You sat with your heads in your hands as you tried to recall your last memory of the night, but everything was so hazy.

You remembered the quotes and… 

You sat up in an instant. The kissing.  

You stood up, searching for Roy and Jason, only to realize you were alone.

Had you actually had the balls to kiss them last night??? No fucking way. You shook your head, not believing for a second anything actually happened. There was no way it hadn’t all just been one hell of a drunk dream.

A quick glance at your phone proved that you were already running six minutes late to homeroom. 

Shit.

It was going to be one hell of a day.

•

You didn’t know how Roy did it every day.

Seriously.

You were hungover and all you wanted to do was curl up in a pitch-dark room and hibernate for a week. You winced, rubbing between your temples in an attempt to quell your raging migraine, but it did absolutely nothing. The school's obnoxious fluorescent lights stabbed you in the eyes, leaving you to squint and cover them with your hand the entire first half of the day.

Even art class with Damian was so unbearable that, two minutes into the tutorial, you had to lay your head down. Damian questioned this, but you ignored him, much to his dismay. 

You didn’t see Jason or Roy the whole day, but Tim and Damian were both back and quick to tell you that you looked like shit as soon as they caught sight of you.

“Feel like it, too; thanks for that.” Tim patted you on the head in response, which you instantly batted at. “Don’t make me look worse. My hair is the only thing going for me today.”

“Whatever, Booster Gold,” Tim joked. “What have you been up to?”

“Yeah,” Damian gave you a disapproving once over as he said your name. “I’m gone for one night and come back to see you looking like you’ve walked through a tornado.”

You blushed. “Just did homework s'all," you tried to play it off, but you could tell neither were buying it.

“I hope you didn’t go to a party without me.” He analyzed your face as you answered.

All the while, Tim stood off to the side, watching your interaction like he was observing two animals interacting in the wild. 

“I promise it was no party,” you shook your head as you willed away the dreams (???), of last night in the library, “just homework.” 

“Just homework, then,” he said, though he didn't sound convinced. If anything, Damian sounded hurt. You, however, were more focused on trying to survive the day- not focus on all of this recent jealousy you’d been experiencing from Damian. 

“Yup.” 

These Wayne boys and Roy were seriously going to be the death of you. 

Fuck. 

A/N: last lines sum up the entire fic basically lol- so excited for the story to get started! stop by and let me know what ur thinking!

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[pinklikeroses]

people like you trashing on rachels webtoon cause shes using it for marketing purposes ..is this your story?? did u run through HOURS of writing and drawing the art? no stfu, stupid religious idiot. so suck a holy cross and read the bible which is the christians best webtoon.

I’m

wow

Okay

//TW// Assault, SA, R*pe

First off I’m not trashing anything, I’m simply critiquing. Second it’s not the marketing I have a problem with it’s how she’s marketing her comic, if she’s even in charge of that.

Hinting that a mc who was severely assaulted btw , is going to get a sex scene where she’s engaging in consensual sex and then glossing over her development around it—

(It’s okay if there wasn’t a graphic depiction of it, its fine if she didn’t show it)

Just to get ppl to go to fast pass, and use up coins is disgusting.

Especially when u could’ve easily used it to show your audience the difference between a loving caring partner and a predatory, abuser .

So sorry for having common sense and being appalled at the fact that an author showed her mc get assaulted, yet barely touch on her comfort with consensual sex 🙄

Sorry for having nuance And holding this poor story telling accountable.

You can put hours of work into something but that doesn’t absolve it of criticism. Nothing no matter how hard someone works on—

is or ever will be absolved of criticism.

Third

No I will not “shut up” I have just as much to express my opinion as anyone else and if that bothers u then stop coming onto my blog and looking at my page. Stop reading my stuff. Simple as that

FYI the Bible isn’t a WEBTOON it’s a book with words. And full sentences. There’s this amazing search engine called google. Use it.

It’s also incredibly ironic u call me a “religious idiot “ when the comic itself is based on actual deities that ppl still worship, and have spoken up about the disrespect they’ve received along with their faith.

Sounds like you need to reevaluate your thought process and educate yourself .

If caring about the way assault is depicted and used as a meager plot device in media, instead of being told in a respectful manner makes me a “religious idiot” ——

Then yeah I’m a “religious idiot”.

[lancecharleson]

TBH despite saying I’m back on this site for good this time, I also don’t want to do what I did back when this site was more active before 2018, that is liking a post and then going to my likes section to reblog every single one of them.

I love this site, but I also don’t like it because of one thing it lacks; Efficiency.

What do I mean by this?

I like archiving posts I like to look back on, but reblogging also involves putting in tags, so that it makes looking through my archive much easier.

On desktop, I like how posts in the search section all show up on full screen because they’re spread out across like an organized set of shelves.

But for whatever reason, this isn’t the case for the likes section, because the layout is more like twitter in that it’s a linear dripfeed of posts.

And the more I scroll deeper into the likes section, the slower the page becomes as more posts load in, making tagging an equally slower process.

Are you beginning to see the problem here?

If I where to commit to reblogging every individual post I haven’t reblogged thus far since probably early 2022, I would be stuck doing nothing but that for months. 

I do not want to do that when I’ve got projects I want to focus on in my own time.

Lastly if you’re wondering why then you’ve seen new reblogs from me popping up every now and then, those are actually queued posts from like over a year ago. 

One thing that is going to stay a constant is reblogging important posts that need to be signal boosted, but going forward, here is the plan. 

I’m just gonna use the site normally, pop in every now and then to see what’s new and like/reblog posts that catch my fancy, ESPECIALLY reblog works artists have posted because they need it more than shitposts. 

One thing I might do to make up for lost time is go into the blogs of artists (which includes close friends) I follow, and give some of their posts likes/reblogs. Thank you in advance for your understanding and if you’re an artist who took the time to read this;

I see you and you’re doing great sweety. 

Your art is fucking amazing. 

Keep it up. 💖