#so maybe it'll also help. but probably the biggest help will be finally getting in the new barn and off these damn dirt floors

[tetedurfarm]

having a snack on their shiny new floor ✨

[quantum1mmortality]

Captain Curly; marriage hcs <3

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Chat I know I mentioned getting back into writing for twst but the current hyperfixation is too strong rn so just bare with me I NEED to write for mouthwashing

!this is written with an AU in mind; curly still works for pony express, but there's no ship. Just a normal job. Also J***y doesn't exist.!

Tw/cw; afab!reader, mentions of pregnancy and having said baby, MANHANDLING!!!!, teasing, use of pet names, uhhh I can't think of any else

Not proofread

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Sfw

I think Curly would definitely be a family oriented person. The further you'd get into your relationship, the more he'd ask about your opinion on kids and if you'd want any in the future.

I also think Curly would be on the traditional side, too. If you said yes to having kids, he'd take that as an opportunity to show you how good of a provider he can be, and how willing he is to become a father.

When you do eventually have children, he'd be more than willing to take off work to help around the house. You just gave birth, he knows it's hard for you, so he'd make breakfast, lunch, and dinner for all three of you.

Sidenote; Curly would definitely be a good cook. He probably took culinary in highschool

If he knew Anya at the time, he'd have her babysit your children so he could take you out on dates. This happens quite often, too; probably around once or twice a month. He just wants to show how much he appreciates you and everything you've done for him and your relationship <3

He'd take you to the most expensive restaurants and tell you to order whatever you wanted, and if you're done breastfeeding, he'd order a bottle of champagne for you both.

He'd be one of those "I love my wife" husbands. Everyone at his job is so sick of hearing him talk so highly of you. It'll be someone's birthday, they'll bring a cake, and he just won't eat it. Why? "My wife could make a better cake."

After you guys got married, he couldn't stop calling you his wife. That name felt so surreal to him; like the woman of his dreams is finally his? And there's a title for that?? Of course he's going to use it constantly.

He probably also took Anya out to help him pick out a ring. And thank god he did btw because he would've gotten you a ring with the biggest diamond they had 😭😭 (sorry to all the big ring lovers in chat rn they're just not it for me)

Nsfw

Curly is a romantic. He'd want to take things slow, cherish you as much as possible, especially if it's your first time.

He wouldn't think of it as sex, he'd think of it as lovemaking; showing you his worth and how much he cares about you.

He rarely gets rough, you have to ask him to be because he just won't do it. But, he's a suck up for you, so if you want something, it's yours.

So, he'd get rough. He'd go faster than he usually does, maybe put his hand around your neck and squeeze ever so gently. But afterwards, he'd feel awful; like he was hurting you or something.

He'd apologize profusely, say he's never gonna do it again, but does it a few days later. It's like going through the five stages of grief but skipping the first four and consistently being at acceptance

He's a hand holder. Since he's an intimate person, his preferred position is missionary. He likes this position for a few reasons; he gets to see your expression if you're enjoying it or uncomfortable, he gets to kiss you, and he can hold your hand. It's one of his favorite things to do, not only because he finds it much more romantic, but he also loves how you squeeze his hand when you're getting close.

Teasing is one of the things he does best. But verbal teasing, not physical. You can hear him giggle anytime he's inside you, practically taunting you when he knows you're close. He'd say something dumb like, "aw, is princess gonna cum?" And then have a shit eating grin on his face.

Pet names are another thing he uses often. Like I said previously, he'd call you princess, but there's also other names he'd call you during the act. Love, darling, and angel are the ones he uses for you most commonly, aside from princess of course.

I saw someone else say this on here and their hcs were actually what made me want to write (I swear on my SOUL I am NOT trying to copy them 🙏🙏🙏🙏 sorry if it comes off like that) but they said Curly would be buff and I completely agree. He would be HUGE, I'm thinking 6'3-6'5, easily over 220lbs.

The manhandling would go CRAZY, you don't like a position? No issue, he'll just pick you up and put you in a different one. Can't keep your legs open while he's being a munch? As much as he enjoys the feeling of suffocating between your thighs, which believe me, he does, he can't exactly pleasure you if he's unconscious from the lack of airflow. Not a big issue, a firm hand on each leg will do the trick.

Another comment on his body alone to wrap this up; he'd definitely be muscular in his legs and especially his arms. I think his stomach would be toned, not a six pack, but toned. Maybe even a little pudge and a v line 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

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A/N: hi guys pls send requests for curly fics plasplsplspslsplsplslsplspls I'm so thirsty for this man oh ky god I'm crynng

[seafoamreadings]

week of december 15th, 2024

these are written predominantly for the *rising* signs but they are also intuitively "channeled" enough that they should work for any dominant energy you have! (try your sun if you don't know rising, or more advanced readers can try moon, anywhere you have a stellium, etc and see what works best for you!)

aries: mercury kicks off the week by going direct in fellow fire sign sagittarius. this is a huge release of energy even with your ruling planet mars still retrograde, also in a fire sign. don't rush into anything too brazenly; mercury hasn't quite regained his feet and it'll do you good to think it out first.

taurus: at the beginning of the week mercury goes direct, making your daily routines likely run much more smoothly, and at the end of the week is the beginning of capricorn season. that's great for expanding your mind, planning a long voyage, or any academic pursuits that interest you.

gemini: with mercury direct, your relationship bumps and hiccups smooth out and calm down. maybe not today, but probably by the end of the week you feel the relief.

cancerians: routines that have been thrown off can get a fresh start this week as mercury ends his retrograde and regains footing in the normal, direct part of his orbital cycle. for many of you, fatigue will also lift around now. and fortunately the sun into capricorn also shines a warm light on your relationship matters.

leo: mercury going direct this week is the biggest news for pretty much all the fire signs (and mutable signs!). for you it's in your 5th house, which brings new levity to romances, creativity, and fun, not to mention a likely increase in all forms of fertility, metaphorical or not.

virgo: whether you're a more mercurial or more cerean virgo, this week involves shifts and changes as well as probably unforeseen delays. you have a natural fluidity that helps you glide through this peacefully, but your sign is also stereotypically known for a bit of neuroticism. take deep breaths and do whatever other regulating behaviors help you out, and proceed with all the poise you've been gifted with.

libra: an airy trine of the benefics this week is your primary focus, yes EVEN with mercury ending a retrograde, and especially if you have planets or important points at the very middle degrees of libra. this is a lucky and beautiful aspect and in particular graces your 5th and 9th houses, so you might, just for some examples, meet a love interest from far away or through a university, or you might have a spiritually enlightening experience by doing art, or so on.

scorpio: don't go crazy financially, but any tight spots when it comes to money start to loosen up from today throughout the week as mercury settles into prograde motion again. your private/public life axis is still not really settled thanks to mars retrograde's interactions with ceres but you don't have to miserly, just a sane amount of frugality will do.

sagittarius: prograde motion begins again for mercury in your sign, and you're finally free of the constant monitoring of his tricksy antics. as the week goes on you'll find brain fog lifting and your eloquence returning to full power.

capricorn: if "who cares about mercury retrograde" has at all crossed your mind in recent weeks, this week is nice because that period ends *and* capricorn season begins this week, marked by the solstice. it may seem like more frivolity than you normally allow for, but go ahead and celebrate yourself as much as you like.

aquarius: friendships that seemed to have veered off course now course correct and the connections that really matter have turned out to be lasting. meanwhile a benefic trine between jupiter and venus in your sign brings you some good luck, especially if you intentionally spend some time doing things that make you happy.

pisces: your public-facing life may have done some backpedaling recently but with mercury retrograde ending, most of this turns out either to have been an illusion, or to have ultimately been a delay in your favor. sometimes we are being divinely protected from moving too quickly. the truth of such things now starts to come to light.

watch the transit posts in real time to have the best guide through your week. want a little more? have a look at my patreon or ko-fi.

check out my etsy for a private reading or dm or email me (readings@seafoamreadings.com) to set up a reading through venmo, cashapp, or paypal.

[whateverisbeautiful]

There was so much joy in Richonne’s reunion an TOWL did a great job showing the interplay of complex trauma and fear. What do you think will be the biggest challenges or adjustments for Rick, Michonne and their children now that they are reunited?

Great question! I gave it some thought for each of the family members and this is what I can see being their notable challenges and adjustments ⬇️��:

Rick:

There are a few things I can see Rick wrestling with and having to navigate now that he’s home. One that first comes to mind is that Rick will probably be dealing with the challenge of seeing how close his kids feel to other adults who actually got to witness them grow up. I can envision exchanges Rick has with people in the group where they might want to tell him stories about RJ and Judith when they were younger and I can see those stories making Rick really smile while also making his heart break that he wasn’t there.

I feel like it will be this conflicting thing where Rick feels so grateful to people like King Ezekiel, Jerry, and Daryl (once they’re reunited) for looking out for his kids, while also knowing it stings that RJ and Judith know these men better than they know him and maybe even have more of a natural inclination to turn to these men as trusted figures at first.

Like if King Ezekiel was their guardian for however long between the TWD series finale and TOWL, I can see there being moments in the beginning of the Grimes being reunited where maybe RJ innocently thinks to seek out the king’s help before Rick's.

The good thing is I think it won’t take long before RJ and Judith develop a trusted tight bond with Rick to where they feel not just equally but more comfortable with their dad than they do with the other adults who helped take care of them while Richonne was away. And one of the many golden qualities of both Rick and Michonne is they both are good at doing something productive with their feelings. And so Rick wouldn't sulk over the time he missed, he'd make a real effort to learn all he could about his children both from RJ and Judith themselves and the people who know them so that he can be the best dad he can be to them and establish a genuine closeness.

Michonne:

I think a challenge for Michonne might be navigating how much her kids have grown and evolved while she was gone and how their interests and maturity have changed. There might be fun things they loved to do together before she set off to find Rick that Judith and RJ feel too old for now. At their ages, kids change so much in a year so I can see it being tough to know her babies did a lot of growing up in her absence.

After being away from them, I’m sure she’ll want to spend as much time as possible with them and fortunately, Rick and Michonne made it back at a time when RJ and Judith weren’t yet in that teen phase where being around your parents is “lame.” They’ll get to have that valuable family time and make childhood memories with the kids, but it'll be an adjustment to see the kids only become more and more independent. Michonne was really good at knowing how to talk to Carl when he was a tween/teen and prepping Judith and RJ for the real world while maintaining their childhood, so I think she’ll navigate RJ and Judith getting older well, while also forever viewing them as her babies.

I always got the sense that Michonne really does see RJ as her little baby no matter how big he gets, and I feel like that’s an area where Rick will be helpful because I feel like he’ll help guide through RJ’s evolution from a little boy to a man. Even tho of course RJ has time cuz he's not even double digits yet. 😊

A big positive adjustment for Michonne - she’ll no longer be raising two kids alone. When it comes to raising the kids, I feel like discipline will be an interesting thing for Rick and Michonne, and the kids to navigate at first because it’s always an important part of raising children but Rick will be so new to the kids and they’ll be so much more familiar with Michonne’s discipline. They’ll have to figure out how Rick fits into that when it comes to discipline, but the way Michonne and Rick are a well-oiled machine in any role, I think they’ll figure it out in the best way and strike a great healthy balance as parents to RJ and Judith. 

Judith & RJ:

For the kids, I think the biggest adjustment will of course be having their father actively in their lives and navigating what the family dynamic is now that they’re being raised by two parents. (At the start, Judith and RJ will also probably have to get used to Rick staring at them in awe at times. 😋) I think similar to what I touched on about Rick, they’ll have to adjust to having Rick as the go-to male figure in their lives.

Also, something new they’ll be getting used to is their mom being not only a mother but a wife. I think that’ll be a good adjustment tho. I think they’ll really love getting to see their mom happy and cared for by their dad.

As Judith and RJ get older over the years, who they become and how they’re similar and different from their parents would be interesting to see. In my mind, RJ becomes especially similar to Rick, and Judith becomes especially similar to Michonne. And then I’m really curious what that transition from minor to adult is like in that world. Like I don’t know much about the Commonwealth and if they have things like college but when Judith arrives at those college ages I wonder if she’ll want to move out or at least experience something away from home.

I can see both Judith and her parents wanting as much time together as possible after being apart for so long, but whenever that time comes to leave the nest I’d be curious how they all navigate that. I think it would be so special for Rick and Michonne to see their kids grow into well-adjusted happy thriving adults, especially after Carl and Andre's childhoods were cut short. And above all, I think the Grimes will definitely be a family that stays close-knit no matter where life takes them going forward. 👌🏽😊

[thestalwartheart]

I'm writing the saddest Bond fic in the world, and because it'll probably never get finished, I'm going to bullet point it here because I need people to cry with. It's 5000 words at the moment. I think I need it to be about 30,000.

After the events of NTTD, Q is grieving Bond. Privately, he is also grieving that Bond being the one who got away, or at least the one who would not stay. They slept together once, in the aftermath of Skyfall death, and as Q says in the fic, it was "the pinnacle of my years-long journey into vastly unrequited love."

After snapping at Mallory during a meeting, Mallory schedules Q some psychology appointments. There are snippets of these appointments throughout the fic.

Q throws out all his plants. Replaces them with sculptural bits and pieces from around the lab.

Over a year on from Bond's death, MI6 recruits a new 004. His name is Edward Jones. He's tall and lithe, with auburn hair, an excellent sense of humour, and no outwardly visible baggage. He takes an interest in Q.

But Q refuses -- categorically refuses -- to ever get involved with an agent again. That was an unspoken rule before Bond died, and now it's non-negotiable.

Except Q is no good at sticking to the rules. He's just as bad as Bond was, really. Edward is charming, and though he asks Q to dinner, he doesn't press after Q refuses him. Instead, perhaps having talked to Nomi or Moneypenny, he is simply there. All the time. He becomes a shoulder to lean on and a friend, despite all Q's attempts to distance himself.

But then...Mallory asks Q to help on a project that will reverse the effects of Heracles, and Q snaps. Already feeling a colossal amount of guilt for telling Bond it couldn't be fixed, Q cannot deal with the thought of coming up with a cure when he cannot administer it to the one person who deserved to be cured.

Distraught, stressed and full of fury at everything, he sleeps with Edward that night. And -- shock horror! -- sex works as an excellent temporary coping mechanism, so Q keeps sleeping with him. Against all his rules, he's given into his heart again.

“Who was he?” asks Edward, one day, as Q is making breakfast. / “Who was who?”/ “Whoever you’re trying to forget when you’re with me.”

“You’re a bastard,” snaps Q, another day, when Edward pushes too hard. / “Is that me you’re talking to, or him?”

After the above fight/angry sex/make up sex combo, Edward goes away on a mission and gets shot.

Q, reeling, doesn't visit him in hospital. Though he wants to, he thinks it's smarter to stay away. Best not get too attached (Oh, Q! we're crying, you're already attached!!!)

Edward, unsurprisingly does not take this well. “Enjoy living with your ghosts, Quartermaster,” he says, before going home to heal and get very drunk.

And maybe it's the getting shot bit, or maybe it's that they're making progress on a cure for Heracles, or maybe it's Moneypenny finally shaking Q until something comes loose, but Q cannot sleep. He feels sick about Edward. He feels awful. What kind of Quartermaster doesn't visit an injured agent? What kind of friend doesn't? What kind of lover, casual or not?

Plagued with guilt and realising he feels more for Edward than he ever intended to, Q turns up at arse-o-clock in the morning, in the rain to Edward's flat. Amongst other things, he says:

“He was an agent. Another Double-0." and

"I'm so sorry." and

“I spent nearly a decade of my life hiding that I loved him, from myself, him, and anyone else who might have wanted to hear. It’s the biggest regret I have. I don’t want to make the same mistakes again.”

Hot, passionate, intense, slow make up sex.

After a few more missions, Edward tells Q, "I'm finished. I enjoyed the job, but I only loved it because it led me to you."

They take a visit to Skyfall, where Q runs into Kincade and talks to Bond's grave where he says, among other things:

"Hello, James. I hope you’re getting some well-earned rest." and

“I love him. Eve told me you would want to hear that. I’m not so sure. You always were a bit of a possessive prick about the other agents having what was yours.” and

“I still love you. I think I will until the end of my days. It’ll be a privilege to carry you with me. Whatever small part of you I had.”

Q is in a daze most of that night. In the morning, he apologises to Edward for all the tears, and Edward replies:

“Never — and I do mean never — apologise for loving someone, especially not as well as you loved him."

Cue the I love yous and sex.

They return to London, where the Heracles cure has hit a roadblock. Q tells Mallory he wants nothing to do with the project anymore. However it turns out, it wasn't his burden to carry in the first place. He wants to be free of it.

The story ends in a quintessential English garden: Kendal in the spring. It's years later, and Edward brings Q a cup of tea in the garden, where Q is trying to read Les Misérables and failing. Instead, he's taking notes in the margins on hummingbirds.

They look up to see a red kite soaring through the air. Q things wistfully of Bond. It's a dull hurt, now, not the scraping raw thing that it was when he met Edward. Bond would probably enjoy Q remembering him in the wings of a bird of prey; always free.

Q still loves London, but he thinks he can imagine another life, a few years away yet, watching the birds in the Lake District and working in his shed, with Edward reading a book at his side.

FIN.

[osarina]

i’m actually so interested in how wykyk will end because i genuinely can’t see pmreader leaving the port mafia any time soon nor can i see mori letting her go. pmreader is so loyal to mori and regardless of moris fondness for her, with dazai gone, he needs someone else to fill in the role that he made for dazai. as much as i want dazai and pmreader to have a happily ever after i just can’t see it happening unless mori DOES let her go for some reason or the pm and ada come to a truce after doa arc

actually you know what nonnie, let's talk about this. LET'S talk about this. bc this kind of gets into what i want to see in the manga too and ive been itching to talk about this with you guys. eventually i'm going to write this, i don't know if it'll end up being a series concluding wykyk bc i dont think it'll fit in a one-shot but it will be written.

anyway, after the doa arc, yokohama is naturally going to be in shambles. lots of deaths, lots of destruction, the city is not in a good spot right now. if you've been on my blog for a while, you know that after the doa arc i very highly anticipate an order of the clocktower arc which i think should be the final arc. i see the order of the clocktower (OOTC) swooping in while yokohama is in shambles to "help them" rebuild - maybe they came in earlier to "assist" with the tri-polar singularity to gain a foothold in the city already, or maybe they come afterwards, but one way or another they're going to come and they're going to use "helping the city" as a guise for being able to get their hands on atsushi and look for the book.

and i have this going back and forth with how this will turn out. i think either way, it'll end with the port mafia and ada having to completely work together to get rid of the threat and protect the book from the OOTC, but it's a matter of whether they'll keep this conflict on a low scale or if it's going to escalate into a second great war.

^ i dont know if asagiri will go the second route, but I MAY go the second route with my fics because i think it'll be very interesting to explore the characters in a setting like that. and i don't think it would be necessarily too far off the mark to say that it's kind of been hanging over our heads. the great war in general has been such a driving force behind the characters in the present: mori, yosano, verlaine, chuuya, probably countless more that i can't think of off the top of my head. we don't know much about it but we know that it's been one of the biggest factors building the bsd universe.

+ the OOTC is a british state organization. they're NOT a mafia or a secret society like the doa and the guild. they're a GOVERNMENT agency. so if they start making a move in a foreign country and it escalates into a conflict ... it could very easily blow up into a war.

+ i would really like to explore the characters in this setting, especially yosano & pmreader because they both have SEVERE trauma from the first great war so it would be a really good setting to explore their development. but i'm not sure, i'm not set on anything—i think it would be a really neat route for the bsd universe coming full circle to the event that's been the foundation for the series in general but it would also be a HUGE project for me to tackle if i go about it that way in pmreader universe.

[elizabethshaw]

hm. thinking thoughts

under the cut for spoiler reasons:

this is literally just me writing stuff up in no real order so there is probably not all that much coherence to it. ah well

loved how unsettling it was having something wrong with the tardis! the tardis (in the tv show at least) is usually the one guaranteed safe place in any given dr who episode and so to have it suddenly a threat like that felt genuinely unnerving

the time window sequence was cool. really liked the fuzzy, there-but-not-quite-there visual effects

i also loved the monologue/prophecy/whatever, built things up very nicely and idk. i just vibed with it. i have more to say but the words are not coming to me right now

"and standing on high is the Mother and Father and Other of them all" i haven't even read lungbarrow but them saying "other" here immediately got my attention lmao

for an episode called "the legend of ruby sunday", it felt like (particularly in the last third of the story), there was remarkably little actual focus on ruby. while i do genuinely like her as a companion, i do feel like she's been one of the biggest casualties of the shift to a shorter series length with less time for "filler" episodes - we simply haven't had the time to get to know her on a deeper level, and i was hoping, given the title, that this story would do something to rectify that a bit. and then it didn't.

saying that, i did appreciate them giving her some more scenes with her mum this episode, i think she has a really nice dynamic with her family and we haven't seen enough of it since the christmas special imo

no trickster :( he got a mention at least but i was hoping he'd be the villain ngl

i have watched pyramids of mars once, four years ago, and barely remember the plot (my main memories of that episode are sarah with a gun ngl), probably going to have to rewatch it before next week. dailymotion you may have to be my saviour once again

not entirely sure how i feel about sutekh as the main villain. this is at least in part because my memories of pyramids of mars are hazy as anything, but i'm just... undecided. to its credit, the episode itself actually did a good job of getting me very excited about the reveal while i was watching, but as an overall thing? i don't know yet. i think i'm going to have to wait until i've watched the finale next week to form a full opinion

i reckon he must have hitched himself onto the tardis around/during "wild blue yonder" though - this is the first time where the tardis starts making The Noises, and is also the first time susan twist turns up, and that can't be a coincidence, especially given that, as previously established, it was likely fourteen's salt trick in this episode that let the toymaker back into the universe

i rewatched "the church on ruby road" earlier this week bc i figured it'd be a good shout and i hadn't watched it since broadcast, and during that i felt like mrs flood was maybe a "retired" companion, possibly a future companion (maybe of a future doctor) that we haven't met yet. after this ep though, i'm not so sure. she seems at least aware of sutekh in some way, and also seems potentially antagonistic, but i'm not sure she's actually directly linked to him. i'm fairly sure as well rtd said at some point she's more of a mystery for later series so. hm. it'll be interesting to see what more we get of her in part two

i can't shake the feeling that they are going to do something with susan further down the line. there have been more mentions of her in this series than in basically the rest of new who put together and i can't help but think that this must be for a reason even if susan twist wasn't her

anyway the real mystery for me: what is the vlinx. i have been thinking about this on and off since december. what is it. how did it get into unit to begin with. i need answers

[n-anon]

The Truth (Part 1)

So-its been about 3 months since Book of Bill has come out-and I've decided to be a little crazy. So with fresh eyes, and more sleep under my belt this time:

I'm going to go over every bit of it, and try to find out which of Bill's stories in here are truth, exaggeration or flat out lies

Bill as we all know him is a great storyteller, give that demon a yarn and he'll spin a web so intricate you won't realize you've let the spider dance on your carpet. He lies, he tells a truth inbetween to make you believe. He'll do anything to get out of the Theraprism. Even if it means biting at his own pride.

So without a further ado, lets go to one of the first pages.

This is a lie. He's not fine. Never has been. That's one of the easier ones.

Next the interview page:

This. This is the first inkling of truth. I want to remind you for this entire interview, Bill is interviewing Bill for a live audience made of Bills. He's not happy. He only pretends.

Also funny lie on this page:

We learn later said Howling Void is an ex.

Onto the powers section, i want you to take note of this line. It'll be important later. (For clarification 'Cipher, Cipher, he's insane, starting fires with his brain')

Love page:

Its the truth. And he would know, wouldn't he?

The Morality page is full of lies. But there's one truth in there.

'Make the screams finally stop?' From what we learn on the website, Bill hears the screams of everyone he's ever (possessed? Killed? Up for debate).

And here's our first exaggeration. Along with one truth. The Parallel Dimensions page.

Here's the truth.

I do in fact think that there's a timeline that the Pines family lost. I don't know what happened then, I don't think we want to find out. However. Here's the exaggeration:

I don't think there's an infinite number of ones they lost limbs or got dismembered. I think Bill is just mad he wound up the sucker stuck with the ones who survived.

The silly straw page is so full of truth it's gonna be it's own bonus part.

But I'll get to the meat of part 1. The biggest lie of them all. I'm not talking the backstory, that bits actually true. The parts he remembers anyway.

I'm talking about this:

'Everyone loved me immediately, and the mayor dubbed me "the best baby of all time" made my birthday a national holiday, and gave out free knives'

However I think in some sense it's true. From what we know of the parents lullaby, Bills eye is something no one had seen, perhaps when he was a baby, he was an oddity, maybe something special that got everyone in town to adore him cuz it was cute, he had weird powers, kind of sounds like another certain cute child 'psychic' right?

But by the time he had grown up a bit, they probably called him names, gave chants about his odd powers, bullied so much about his made-up fantasies about stars that he snapped. And well you know what happened next.

(if you got to the end of this, congrats you win-Nothing but a passion lol please help I've gone insane. But honestly if you enjoyed this, I'm glad, and thank you :D)

[bluebudgie]

Oh hi. I heard it's gifs tips'n'tricks time.

View this as a little addition to this post I made a while back.

This time I thought I'd take you through my gif making process. It'll be very specific to Photoshop CS6 but maybe some of you will find parts of it helpful regardless.

And since our biggest nemesis appears to be ~The Tumblr 10MB File Size Limit~ I decided to go for the absolute worst premise for a gif: Lots of stupid wobbly particles and gw2 bloom and transparency effects. Because huge gifs love these.

Aah, a horrifying amount of those in this single scene. Perfect!

Let's start with a little timelapse video, and I'll get into the details with screenshots below then.

So this actually went smoother than expected? Not super much fiddling needed in the end, but here's how it went in detail:

Load the raw footage into photoshop.

You can do this in two different ways: What I do is simply drag & drop the video file into the program and it'll open with a video timeline and some rudimentary video editing options.

What you can also do is File -> Import -> Videoframes to Layers and select your source video, which will give you a timeline of separate still image frames instead.

It comes down to preference, I used both methods in the past but nowadays I find the video timeline more intuitive.

Cut the footage to roughly the right length.

From experience I know that most of my gifs are around 3-4 seconds long. This can of course vary depending on different factors. Don't get too attached to the exact seconds you selected, you might have to shave off a bit depending on how evil the file size decides to act.

Optional: Change footage speed

Depending on the gif and its purpose, I slow the footage down. I usually do this for the visual effect (especially nice for showing off animation details) but it also has the practical side effect that it can help with file size. Say you want a gif that loops after 4 seconds. At 100% speed your gif will move at your original framerate (in my case 60 fps); if you slow it down but keep the same length in seconds it'll logically use less frames. That's less data to blow up the size! Yey.

Crop the image.

Now this is probably one of the most crucial parts when it comes to your final file size, and your gif looking nice on tumblr. Since the tumblr dashboard displays images at a width of 540px, you want this to be your absolute minimum image width to ensure a crisp image. If I can, I'll make the gifs larger (I like starting at a minimum of 600px and then reduce the image dimensions if needed).

With that in mind.... choose your image crop wisely.

A "widescreen" image like this will be the most merciful in terms of file size, but might not always be what you want in terms of composition.

Given tumblr's very vertical nature, this kind of approach will look great in posts (if it fits your image composition of course), but at 540px minimum width tends to be a file size monster.

For the gif I'm attempting to make here I opted for a more square approach. The subjects of the scene fill out the image's space nicely, and it's still a nice size for tumblr posts overall. Let's see what the file size will say about this.

Replay your footage after cropping to make sure you didn't accidentally cut off any motion you didn't mean to cut.

Next up: optional colour corrections

I tend to crank up the saturation for gifs way, way more than I ever would for regular screenshots since I find that often the limited web palette can make them look fairly dull. But like everything else so far, this greatly varies depending on the scene you're showing.

Note that colour correction can increase or decrease file size depending on what exactly you're doing. The more different colours you have, the larger your file size will be.

Reduce image dimensions

Since my original video footage was fairly zoomed out, the cropped area only left me 575px of width to begin with. In an earlier attempt (that I absolutely did not fail to capture and therefore had to record the whole thing a second time) I tried to leave it at these dimensions, but the 10MB size limit did not like that so now I knew better and immediately reduced the width to 560px.

Note: After you've changed the video's dimensions it won't let you edit the speed anymore (for some reason), so make sure you've got that settled.

After all the adjustments are done it's time for the moment of truth...

File > Save for Web...

This beautiful window will open and...

Aww almost.

But honestly? That's not bad at all. I've had completely different disasters to deal with in the past (starting somewhere in the mid 20MB, good luck trying to make use of every size-reducing trick you've got up your sleeve).

Before I do any adjustments to shave off the last few KB though, I preview the gif to make sure it loops correctly. I want the Chak to sway seemlessly. Turns out it didn't, so I back out of the window to remove a few frames from the footage. And when I open the "Save for Web" window again....

Well that's anticlimatic. Apparently those few frames were enough to get the file size where I need it. (Note: Sometimes Tumblr likes to be a little b* and pretends your file is too big when you're this close to the 10MB limit. It be like that.)

While my gif journey theoretically ends here, I want to at least show you a few more things that could have helped if I had needed to get the file even smaller.

So this dithering thing I keep making a big deal of...

It can make or break a gif. In my experience this is so, so crucial to the final file size and quality of the gif.

In my own very amateurish words, dithering is a way to emulate colours that aren't actually part of the images colour palette. This is especially needed for in-game transparency effects like fog, glowy stuff, or smooth gradients. And that is part of why I chose this hell scene of all the ley line glow and the typical gw2 bloom that's particularly bad in this area.

PS CS6 offers you three different kinds of dithering techniques: Diffusion, pattern and noise.

My go-to is diffusion dithering, which has adjustable quality levels.

In my opinion it's generally the type of dithering that's often the least noticeable and creates the smoothest looking images. Unfortunately, it's also the one that creates by far the largest file sizes. Another downside is that it doesn't work super well with heavy DoF/fog etc. effects and is prone to really ugly banding, especially visible the more you decrease the quality. It looks awful for this particular scene. (Look at the glow around my asura's headpiece if you don't know what I'm talking about. Or... just the entire background.)

Both noise and pattern dithering will get you smaller file sizes, luckily.

I've never used noise so far (it tends to look messy in my opinion), but pattern gets the job done! Especially for gradient heavy gifs it's a lifesaver. It's definitely more noticeable than the diffusion dithering on static parts of the gif, but it absolutely makes up for it by not having any ugly banding effects. This is also what gave me the neat little 9.99MB file size in comparison to the diffusion dithering's 15.31MB.

Last but not least, if fiddling with the dithering or image dimensions doesn't help you get below that magic 10MB mark...

Limit the colour palette

You can either manually colour edit your image to use less colours for a more artistic approach, or you can let Photoshop limit the palette to its best abilities.

Additionally you can double click each individual colour to replace it how you see fit. (I've done that in the past when Petthri's yellow eye colour got erased and I had to bring it back manually.)

In this gif's example, reducing the palette from 256 to 128 colours has brought the file size down from 9.9 MB to about 8 MB. It can have a big effect, but doesn't always in my experience.

SHOW US THE GODDAMN GIF ALREADY!!!

Not the best quality gif we've ever seen on tumblr, but given the extremely unfavourable source material I think it turned out alright. I have to admit I'm actually surprised it worked at all.

Oh well! This got long (once again). I hope this was at least a little bit helpful to someone out there. Happy gif making!

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.194 thoughts

[Violence for Violence is the Rule of Beasts]

(Contents: lore)

Always appreciate a lore drop

So we've finally confirmed that not every UMA has a Negator, and not every Negator has a UMA. It does seem strange to me that Fuuko would say the pairings are rare when we've seen so many, though. Death, Change, Luck, Move, Stop, Burn, Tell, and possible Information with Unknown, that's 7 or 8 out of 28 Negators who have a UMA counterpart: that's between 25 and 30%, I wouldn't call that rare, and it seems likely that many other Negators do have UMAs like presumably Justice, Fade, Sleep and Break at the very least since those feel like the most restrictive

Maybe I'm misreading it though and every Negator does have a UMA, and the pairs are rare in the sense that it's rare to find a UMA that can be Negated directly. Still, the main point is there's no Unbeast, there may not be an Unsoul, there's probably no Unsummer/Unwinter/etc., and most disappointingly there's no Uncrab. I really wanted to see that one, too...

With this revelation, we now know that the already dire disparity between Negator and UMA in this competition is much worse than it ever seemed. I never really considered the possibility of, say, every Negator and UMA lining up to square off against each other, but if our original concept of all Rules having one on each side were true, then it would be only slightly skewed in favor of the UMA since they're giant monsters with healing factors. Knowing that there are significantly more UMA than Negators, though, that would be an obvious loss for the Negator side as the sheer number of nigh-invincible monsters would obviously overwhelm the smaller force that can Negate at best a third of the opposition

However, I don't believe that Luna simply let Sun stack the deck in his favor completely unilaterally. The fact that there's never been a point where all of the UMA could attack at once and the rules of engagement allow for the Union to team up against them while also utilizing Artifacts means that Luna must have made a concerted effort to rebalance the game, though clearly she's the "challenger" since Sun is still undeniably the one with the advantage. That's a fairly standard rule in bets like this - the one who wants to usurp the throne has to fight at a disadvantage to prove that they're stronger or more deserving of it than the current ruler

It also just makes for more exciting storytelling for the main cast to be weaker than the enemy, as everyone loves an underdog story. Equal rivals are fun too, but uncontested beatdowns get stale fast, so it's for the best that the cast that the audience follows has to struggle. This is especially fun in series like UU since it requires that the cast gets clever with how they use their powers, like Andy stacking Unchange/Undraw/Unbreakable to squish Sick in under a minute

I hope that this ends up getting brought back up when we next fight Sun or talk to Luna, cus the nature of their relationship is probably the biggest hole left to fill here. Right now they're pretty nebulous gods; we know about their game, and we've seen that Luna has a surprisingly nasty personality for being ostensibly on "our side," but other than that we know next to nothing about either of them. What kind of life did they have before they started their game? How long did they exist? Were there other gods, or just them? Were they always enemies? Are they even enemies now? It looks like it'll still be a while before we get to answer any of these questions, but this chapter really helped contextualize exactly how their wager is set up

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[infinitestarsdev]

Devlog 2025-01-03 (What we've been cooking… Contains slightly nsfw images.)

2025 is going to be absolutely amazing!

You might have noticed that our pinups have been sporadic at best, which really sucks for everyone, and it's something that we're fixing. Hirodan, who has been drawing the last few pinups, is an amazing artist, but he, unfortunately (for us), got a full-time job which demands all of his time. (yay for Hirodan for getting the job!)

We've employed a new permanent artist who started on the 1st of January to help us create more characters for IF THEN ELSE, and one of their monthly assignments is to draw the pinups. (Franco has graciously allowed us to share some teasers of what you can expect from him going forward!) Besides Pinups and Character Asset packs, Franco will also be helping with some of our side projects, the first of many being a short game set in the Infinite Stars universe for the Sealed with a Kiss jam running this month. (We're excited for this one!)

(Some examples of what you can expect from our 2025 pinups!)

If that wasn't exciting enough, we are currently in the final stages of bringing an additional permanent (meaning not-a-freelancer) writer on board to focus on some of the side projects we have planned for 2025 and beyond.

I should probably stop while I'm ahead and stay quiet, but call it New Year excitement babbling: We are looking into expanding the team to include a permanent Python developer to help code all the cool ideas we have for Infinite Stars and the other planned side projects. This isn't official yet, and affordability will be the biggest deciding factor.

With the additional help, we aim to do four modest to large public Infinite Stars releases this year, so one release per quarter giving you more Infinite Stars goodness with less waiting in between. The season 1 wrap-up is on the horison. We still have a few more surprises in store, but I'm going to be lying if I said my mind doesn't wander off to plan and imagine content for season 2.

All of this costs money, quite a bit more than what we are pulling in from our amazing patrons right now. Luckily, I've built up a bit of savings from my day job, which I intend to push back into Infinite Stars as a calculated risk until it becomes self-sustaining again.

::Nervous chest breathing::

That being said, I'll need your help to get there. I'm willing to put my own money where my mouth is, and I hope the results will earn your enthusiasm and support. Patreon has been nagging me to update our Patron tiers, so if you have any ideas as to what would earn your buy-in on our journey, please be so kind to share them with me, no matter how silly or unrealistic they might seem to you. I've always loved doing the impossible, and maybe, together, we can get it done.

On to the actual reason you are here: News about the new Infinite Stars content. It's still cooking, unfortunately. The last internal word count on content not yet available in the public build was around 4x the length of Episode 1, with a bit more to go.

This will also be the first time you'll encounter a "wrong" decision that leads to a premature ending of the story. (It's clearly labelled, so there is no need to stress about it!)

It'll also introduce several new characters, most of them alien.

(A sharp-eyed theory crafter might notice one of these isn't like the others.)

It has quite a few new MC portraits that haven't been released yet.

As I've alluded to before in the past, it has some anxiety-inducing content that will probably top that scene near the end of Episode 3. I've also hinted at some twists and a few new things we're trying out... Honestly, I can't wait to share it with all of you, and I wish it was already ready.

Have a fantastic weekend. Be kind, be safe and remember to see the beauty in the small things that you might miss otherwise. <3

[sablesides-writing-corner]

My Muse's Mirror (Pt.2)

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

The dread set in once Virgil realized it was nearly five in the morning and Roman still hadn't come in to tell him to go to bed.

It wasn't the kind of dread that made him think his beloved was dying of course, but it was dread nonetheless.

“Roman? Is everything ok? Are you just asleep?” Virgil whispered as he approached the main bedroom.

The racking chorus of coughs that followed was all the answer he needed.

“Right! Well- you are not going into work tomorrow- and I'm going to sleep on the couch tonight-” Virgil said, Roman only responded with a feeble thumbs up and another outburst of coughing.

It was going to be a long night.

Virgil plopped himself back down on the couch, mourning the loss of warmth at not sleeping in the same bed as his knight in shining bother, but safety was safety- he wasn't about to get himself sick and risk not being able to take care of Roman.

Roman still wasn't awake by the time Virgil tore himself up off the couch, electing to start the day with a completely normal and healthy 3 cups straight of coffee with extra extra sugar.

Then it was time to get started on The Soup.

The Soup, as Virgil remembered it, was a longtime ancestral recipe of his families, which was supposed to cure any sickness, and hey, it did its job on him when he was a kid, why not try it out now.

So Virgil got out the biggest cooking pot he could find, and got to work.

It was a long, grueling, sweaty few hours later when the thing was finally done, and the kitchen smelled so alarmingly of backyard herbs that Virgil wouldn't be surprised if the smell was still there by Christmas.

And, just in time, he heard the dismayed groaning of Roman finally waking up from what Virgil could probably only describe as a brief coma.

“Alright big guy- I've got something that might help” Virgil said as he finished ladelling some of The Soup into a bowl.

“I feel like I got hit by like. Six buses.” was all Roman could manage to get out.

“Summer sickness'll do that to you- now eat up before I start spooning it in for you,” Virgil said with a laugh. Once he was sure Roman would finish the food on his own he went back to the kitchen to get the rest of The Soup into a suitable container.

He also took it upon himself to call into Roman's work to confirm his sick day- or days, if necessary- and muttered a silent prayer that it was his nice coworker that answered the phone this time.

Then it was time for the dreaded family phone call.

“Where is my ailing baby brother! I've got presents!” Remus called as he burst through the door.

“Remus that was locked,” said Virgil in exasperation.

“Oh- well! It's probably not broken!” Responded the man, ruffling Virgil's hair- as if it wasn't messy enough already from the humidity in the kitchen.

“He's still moping around in bed, hasn't gotten up pretty much all day,” Virgil answered Remus’ earlier question.

“Shouldn't be contagious- seems like it's just a cold so we're hoping it'll go away soon,” Virgil said, pulling out his drawing tablet while Remus had his little visiting hour with his brother.

It was a few hours before Remus left, and Virgil felt like his social battery was almost completely worn out.

“You know, you could still go to the carnival without me- if it's still in town,” Roman said in a raspy tone from the bedroom.

“I mean what else am I gonna do? Buy more jewelry?” Virgil said.

“I mean it! I think it'd be fun to hang out on your own for a bit- or invite Janus or something-” Roman continued, he seemed. . . Urgent. . . About it, almost weirdly so.

“I- alright- alright fine- I'll just- call Janus I guess-” Virgil said, pulling out his cellphone.

“So. . . Where did you say this carnival was? I thought it was open till the end of next month?” Janus said, looking around confused at the very much empty lot.

“Well. I can say it was here yesterday because I have picture- maybe something happened and they had to-” Virgil paused for a second as something glinted in the corner of his eye. He took a few steps towards whatever it was, and found a pendant lying on the ground, a spider holding a large purple gem hanging off of the chain.

“This that necklace you were going on about?” Janus asked, Virgil nodded, eyes still transfixed on the jewelry.

“Well, they left it here, their loss I guess- shall we?” Janus asked.

Virgil still didn't respond. Something about the necklace was. . . Familiar. . . He just wasn't entirely sure what.

“Virgil. . . Virgil. . . Virgil!” Virgil was finally jolted back into realty by the sound of his cousin's yelling in the background.

“Oh! Uh- sorry- got uh- distracted-” Virgil responded, Janus looked bemused.

“Let's- let's just get home ok? I think you've got a stuffy nosed prince to be looking after, hm?”

“I uh- yeah. . . Yeah. . .”

He'd worry about the necklace later, after he washed it off thoroughly.

Roman still wasn't any better when he got home, which was expected- Virgil hadn't thought he'd cured him, but he'd at least expected him to get a little better.

But he'd been wrong- in fact Roman almost seemed to have gotten worse. . .

“Goodnight hun,” Virgil said as he left the bathroom to go lay down on the couch.

He stared at the necklace in his hands for a long time, turning it over in his palms, running his thumb along the purple gem in the center.

He knew this necklace from somewhere. . . He just couldn't remember. And that was very, very inconvenient.

He set the pendant down on the table next to the couch and decided to leave the pondering for tomorrow, worrying about it now wouldn't do him any good, probably. . .

[project-wildcard]

My inspirations!

My biggest inspiration, by far, is Just Roll With It. It's a TTRPG podcast that is just so good at every aspect of story telling! Every single campaign they've done I've cried out of some kind of emotion that they make me feel. The characters are all incredible! Gillion Tidestrider is probably my favourite and everyone after that is just a close second and they're all tied with each other because they're all so amazing in their own ways.

Wildcard specifically was actually inspired most The Trickster from Prime Defenders. The story of exactly how that came to happen is a little silly and for another time. You'd think with the multiple forms and changing personality gimmick that I'd have been most inspired by Vyncent and yes there's a lot of similarities but I want to make the distinction here and now that every form Wildcard takes is still Charlie at heart. They do not become a completely different person, it just changes the way their emotions work. At their core it's still the same person.

Thank you Mutants and Masterminds for being the system I used to create Wildcard's character sheet back when I was in denial and thought I'd just play them as a character in a campaign despite having no friends available at the time to DM such a campaign. I also use those character sheets to get a good idea of building and balancing all the heroes and villains in the world (although there will be plenty of leniency based on what I think is cool and fits the story).

I've also, definitely taken a lot of inspiration from the Spiderverse films, which might come across more once the first part of the story is released. Those movies are perfection the characters are incredible the story they're telling is innovative and fresh while still falling into the feeling of a Spiderman story. I love Gwen I love Miles I love Pav I love Mayday I love Peter I love the Spot I love Miguel and I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hobie! One of the characters in my story that I'm yet to speak about yet is very similar to Hobie and I'm so excited and I love the parallels and as I write them I'm definitely gonna be pulling so much from Spiderverse Hobie's personality. Spiderman in general (most versions of them) is my favourite superhero so there will probably be a lot in my head that I don't recognise I'm taking from Spider people stories but I'm just gonna make the sweeping statement now that there will likely be similarities. I will not, however, be going into multiverse or time travel stories, at least not in the main canon story, maybe I'll do a weird little "what if" after I finish telling my story where a "balanced" and fused Wildcard meets a "corrupted" and vibrant Wildcard.

Shout-out to Marvel in general, comics and movies, I've seen a lot of that stuff so again, it'll probably just leak in without me realising.

This helps me when I'm struggling to let myself write

Finally, a big thank you to all my friends who encourage/enable (in the bad way) me. I am on my shit and my shit is telling an intricate story that I am very passionate about with characters who I love and care for. Namely, all 3 of my friends on that one discord server where I first infodumped about Wildcard, Hazel, for helping me build the character sheet and helping me come up with names and also letting me info dump to you, and Mimi, for basically the same reasons as Hazel, as well as being the first person I made a superhero story for (we did an introductory session of DnD in a superhero setting. Her character will be making a cameo at some point most likely). Also everyone who's tried to help me learn how to draw because I'm not gonna lie, my only motivation there was drawing characters for this story.

[mamamittens]

Well, didn't get as much done today but I'm on track to finish the first comm this week at least. Would have helped if we didn't have a +1 today but tomorrow is looking to be the same so idk how much progress I'll make after a shower and dinner.

Not going to lie, I fell into a bit of a slump the past two weeks which was... Interesting. Stress, burnout, anxiety, or whatever really said "make time or it'll make you" huh? Mostly with inexplicable exhaustion. Anyone in my DMS probably noticed I was spacy as fuck and honestly, it was a bit embarrassing. Is embarrassing.

Got a discord group I've basically not interacted with (sorry Franky bro) cause I've been so spacey and tired. Hopefully I'll clear my plate enough to chime in soon without losing the plot.

I'm still tired. But it's not quite soul deep this week so far. Still not quite Tuesday though so we'll have to wait and see on that front. Helped I slept 14 hours and then spent the day with my brother and his friend who treated us to dinner and a movie (The First Omen, I liked it but kept forgetting it was a prequel. Did NOT expect to see full pussy in a nightmare/hallucination scene so warning to the dam that was wanting to watch it.) and saw the biggest fucking parmesan chicken in my life.

They brought that bitch out on a pizza stone and I legit thought he changed his mind and ordered pizza. A pound of chicken the size of a personal pizza COVERED IN SAUCE AND CHEESE ENOUGH TO PASS AS A LITTLE CEASERS.

Mad lads.

And I also started thinking about Nikia in Wano again! Shockingly, it's been a minute. Seems like pouring out my hyperfixation has helped me focus on other things instead of being consumed by pokemon while in the middle of One Piece shit lol

This is about the end of the useful updates btw, the rest will just be me rambling about Wano thoughts

So, I suddenly had the thought about what little dramatic plot would go nicely in the middle of this for the bois to do while the Straw Hats are fucking shit up.

And clearly, Izou is gathering Intel while keeping Thatch from blowing their cover. Nikia taking advantage of her anonymity to do some sight seeing and maybe take some eyes off of them cause who wouldn't investigate this new woman with giant ass wings?!?

(she's not a fan of the nosy bitches but we tolerate things for the people we love. They'll make it up to her later lol)

Had the hilarious mental image of Thatch disguising himself, specifically his hair. Very upset to part from the pompadour and gets a topknot that has a suspiciously shaped bundle up top. Izou hates it but picks his damn battles at this point.

So! The cheap trope drama I figured I'd give a little spin was!!!

Amnesia!

Manufacture to be specific. As maybe a follow up once King clarifies that Nikia is absolutely NOT Lunarian. Maybe to keep her in check so she doesn't run off before they do DNA tests to see wtf she is. No idea she can fly, so they (I feel like Kaido is the one suggesting it first cause he's a bitch with Big Mom seeing no issue and King just going along with it cause Nikia may not be like him but she's close enough he doesn't feel alone so whatever works, right?) go with a bit of a caged bird thing.

She's a 'guest' while she 'recovers' with King 'looking after her'.

And even with no memory of who she is, she doesn't trust this set up at all. Like, more in an awkward way cause it's clear she's meant to be displayed in a way so she can't 'repay' her 'hosts' like she'd traditionally want to via chores or cooking. She doesn't know what she's supposed to do at all and hates it. Her aloof expression just barely masking the 'someone give me a social clue about wtf is going on already'.

Gets on well enough with King, especially once he stops wearing the damn mask cause it really freaked her out. Pretends to be amicable with the others, can't erase the 'hostess' mask that easily. So it's a legit surprise when she finally admits she doesn't like or trust anyone there at all and has smelled the bullshit from the start and just didn't say anything.

Runs into Yamamoto at some point and likes his spunk even if he's a little weird. Has a hard time keeping up the act under his insistent investigation about why she's there cause honestly, same fam. Why am I here? WTF is going on?!?

I feel like Big Mom tries to touch her wings at some point out of curiosity and King stops her cause I can't imagine that's not a pretty intimate gesture for even Lunarians. Wins brownie points. Thanks for being a bro and all that.

On the night of the throw down the Bois finally manage to get into the palace and shit and Nikia immediately recognizes Thatch from his silhouette despite still not remembering shit.

A hilariously awkward "oh, hey, what are u doing here? Trying to steal shit? I heard it was bad out there but this is pretty risky don't you think?" And Thatch is staring at her in full Wano gear, makeup and all like

(⁠｡⁠ŏ⁠﹏⁠ŏ⁠)

"I'm looking for my lover"

"OUR lover"

"ye that. Uhm. U seen her?"

Nikia just stares at them.

"... Ya gonna describe her or am I supposed to vibe check everyone I've seen here?"

They do recognize her btw, it's just painfully clear she doesn't so they're wondering if she's the real deal or something.

Cue Thatch trying to come up with a noteworthy detail she'd realize is her own feature but her hair has been changed up and he doesn't even think about her wings. Trying to be smooth and razz her up a little to knock some memories loose.

Notices the lipstick.

"Oh! She has a freckle on her lip! Right here!" He's so proud of himself, Izou ready to smack him as he continues "It's my s--one of my favorite places to kiss!"

It takes a moment before she blushes, realizing the obvious implications.

"ah... Why do I get the feeling you were about to say something else? Are u sure your lover would like you talking about that with a stranger?" She's flustered horribly as Izou smacks him.

"Ignore him. He's being an idiot. May we have your name?"

Honestly didn't have an alt name planned, thought it would be funny briefly if it was Nika but idk. Not committed to that but yet.

Anyway! She does remember on her own as she considers how compelled she feels to trust the two and how familiar they are. Comforting, dare she say. And, without remembering she can fly either deliberately does her 'clearing exercise' or is tossed up in a fight.

The clearing exercise is a rather dangerous, borderline suicidal act she does every so often when she feels conflicted or uncertain.

Usually, she'd go to the practice cliffs with updrafts. And then she'd fall down. The idea is that the threat of death would help clear her mind and what really matters to her. Is it really that important if it's not the first thing she thinks of when faced with the threat of death? And then she uses her wings to glide out of danger. She never does this injured, but the awareness that inaction will kill her is part of the process. She tends to overthink so this really streamlines the process in a way that can't be argued with.

She did NOT mention this habit to anyone before so the bois bout shit themselves when it looks like she's free falling to her death. Maybe Marco is there and goes to help only to end up banking with her as she recovers instinctively at the last moment, memories flooding back.

She's a little too good at faking an uncontrolled fall as part of her 'fighting style' to throw people off and it's steadily giving the bois gray hairs. Mostly because she's lost control while flying a lot due to the chaotic up/down drafts on the mountain.

Anyway, thats about all I thought of while spiritually ascending from this plane of existence for this scenario. Who knows if I'll use it or scrap the whole damn thing.

[cindersalad]

It's time for the usual end of the year thoughts post on this blog. Horay!

Hey, hello. ❤ I hope you're having a fantastic day, or that it'll get better if it's not a good day! It's the last week of the year, another Christmas has gone by ('thankfully', whispers I, a very Grinch-y person), and I'm sitting here thinking about my year. And what a year. It has been a roller coaster, and on the personal level I got probably the most full year I've had in the latest, what, six years? I'm learning to kind of manage my anxiety, I'm learning to ask for help when I can't (which is probably the biggest thing)... I got a job, too, finally! It'll start the first days of next year, which will reduce a lot my free time, but I've never been happier. I feel useful.

But scrolling through my blog I also fully realized that this has probably been the least productive year in terms of drawings. I think I've posted only 11 drawings, not even one per month, and in general I think I've spent... months? not even touching a drawing supply. It was probably for the best: I really needed to fix some stuff. To finish some of the things I started, too. But, man, did I miss drawing. I think it's one of the biggest voids I had this year, together with just... telling stories. Any story, in any format. I miss drawing comics, I miss writing stories, I just miss it.

Next year it will be a whole new story. With the job starting and a lot of other big changes already in plan, if this year seemed to me full I can't even imagine how I'll feel next year, but for some reason I feel having a lot less free time will make me use that little window a lot better of having an entire free day. I want to return drawing much more frequently, I want to return telling stories! It probably won't be immediate, but I have a lot of sketched illustrations that I want to continue, and my itch for taking the pencil daily is returning stronger than ever. I want to post more often, my sketches as well, despite always feeling so insecure about them. Perhaps some processes, too? And I want to return to write. I have so many stories in my mind, and a lot would work very well as fanfictions - I wanted to draw most of them, but I suddenly realized that I could very well write them too. Nothing stops me from adapting parts of those fanfics into fancomics in the future, anyway! Writing entire stories in my second language won't be easy (and at least one of the fanfics I have in mind will probably be in Italian and I'll have to see if to translate it), but I roleplay a lot in English, so I feel pretty confident. >:)

I don't know what I'll manage to do next year, I'm not setting any real goal in terms of productivity here, but... man, I really wish I can start an original comic this time. Humbert's story and Avi's story are both really well darn developed, but going from notes to an actual flashed out story is a step that has been too big for me for now. But with all I accomplished this year, maybe the step is becoming more and more doable. ❤

Anyway, I've kept you here long enough. ❤ I'm not sure how much stuff I'll actually manage to make, but a year is longer than we think! Everything I'll do, you'll receive updates here, so worry not! Thank you so much for sticking with me all this time despite the very few updates, of all your patience and support, comments and messages. You're the best! ❤ I hope you'll have a fantastic day, and that your future will be golden and full of good things. Take care, and I will see you next year! ❤

[autisticmagicalgirls]

Hey I'm still alive, just have been having a lotta mental and physical health stuff going on. I did finally decide on some names for the characters, though! As well as a bit of personalities!

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The wand user is named Ethel Hart. Xe works very hard at school, and xir biggest fear is being seen as a failure. Xe works a bit too hard to avoid that, which may eventually cause burnout. Xe doesn't have a special interest, but rather, cycles through sort-term hyperfixations on various nonfiction topics to read about. As such, if xir memory is functioning right, xe has approximate knowledge of several things. Buuuut xe has an issue of getting facts mixed up in xir head sometimes due to swapping interests so often.

For example, xe can tell you some fun facts about spiders if you encounter one, buuuut xe might forget which ones are poisonous. Perhaps the three are fighting a snake monster. Are its bites poisonous? Was it round or diamond heads that have pois- whoops too late, Chrissy got bit. Guess Ethel'll find out which it was soon enough.

Xe lives in a college dorm as xe desperately tries to figure out what xe wants to major in for xir bachelor's degree. There's so many choices! There's so much stuff to learn! Deciding on just one stresses xir out.

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Bear arms/hands user is Christina "Chrissy" Robinson. She is mute, and uses an AAC device to communicate with others. She does know sign language, but only really uses it at home when she doesn't have her AAC with her, such as if it's dead or she left it on the couch when going to grab some food.

She lives with her sister, Pauline (Polly), who acts as her caregiver and helps her out whereever she can. Their mom is a doctor, and isn't home a lot. She pays Polly to help care for Chrissy since Chrissy has trouble with certain things. The two girls have only recently moved to town to be closer to their mom's workplace.

I'm thinking I might have Chrissy's dyspraxia be rough. Like... She has difficulty balancing when going up and down steps, trouble gripping small objects like forks and pencils and such, and she tends to either drop things or grasp them too hard. She also tends to fall a lot, if not careful.

I'm flip flopping between weather or not she minds eye contact, but anyway,

Due to her dyspraxia she has difficulty doing certain things like cooking, cleaning, bathing, and other things. Her sister helps her as needed, and Chrissy also has some devices and tools that help her out. For example, a spoon with a thick handle that's easier for her to grasp, with a mechanism to help itself stay balanced even if her hand goes shakey. I'm not sure what else though! If anyone has ideas, let me know. Perhaps a cane would be helpful? Idk. My dyspraxia isn't that severe, so I'd like to hear some from those who struggle with it more than me!

As for Christina's personality, she's sarcastic, blunt, and she's a bit abrasive when it comes to interacting with new people. She doesn't trust easily. Growing up she was bullied a lot and had some friends betray her trust, so now she's a bit standoffish with new people as a sort of defense mechanism. Friends can't betray you if you have none, right? People can't attack your insecurities if you hide them behind enough false confidence, right?

She read the words "fake it til you make it" and she FELT that shit. In junior year of high school, she started closing herself off, whilst putting on a show of false confidence. She began insulting people back when they made fun of her, and eventually they seemed to shut up and stop bothering her. So that's been her strategy for the last few years.

As such, she might be a bit of an asshole at the start. It'll take some work for her to open up to working with the other two. Knowing her she'd probably try to go it alone several times and get her ass kicked hard a few times before begrudgingly admitting she needs their help.

Maybe as she befriends them and slowly lets them into her heart, she'll realize that not everyone will betray her and that she can trust people again.

I'd say her biggest fear is being all alone. As much as she intentionally tries to drive people away so that they can't hurt her, she's also fucking terrified of being fully alone. She wants people to love and trust, but she feels like it could just lead to more pain. And yet... She doesn't want to be alone.

As for Zaps, I'm still working on her personality and her whole name, but I'm thinking she'll try out "Hannah" first