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mystxmomo · 2 years ago

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I recently got a curiouscat asking for a primer on my characters, for someone who didn't know anything about them and was curious. Yippee!

Unfortunately, curiouscat has a 3k CHARACTER (Not word, but character!!) limit. I tried to keep this under 3k characters, but ultimately I don't know how to shut up.

Perhaps that's fortunate. Afterall, something like Tumblr gives me the chance to actually sit down and articulate my thoughts, as well as include pictures. I'm not going to fool myself into thinking I can keep this short, but I am going to try and keep it contained. As such, I've formatted each character as such.

What they're based on, be it an idea, a personality, a scenario, ect. What their personality is. And some things about their story.

I actually have... a Tumblr Development blog. The character page is a bit dated, with some character designs already having some changes, and doesn't have the proper descriptions up yet. But it should at least be enough to put a name to a face for most of the characters I'm about to talk about.

Here's a link to the character page directly

Basically, all of these characters are for a game I'm making. It explores the idea of the afterlife as something entirely mundane, and domestic. It's the lazy day where you have the fan blowing because it's a little too hot, or wading in the shallows of the beach. This is a game where a happy ending is assured. The characters are already dead. Though they cannot remember their lives, they have lived them already, and are about to rediscover them. And so the point becomes. Do they deserve it? A lot of the characters have done Bad Things. Some of them aren't good people. They're fun characters, but my god they suck balls. Does that make them any less deserving of happiness? Do they still get to grow?

(: so with that established.

my characters.

Estelle - (It's complicated)

Estelle is purposefully based on the stock standard silent rpg protagonist. She's very stoic, is noted as not saying much in game. People respect her, but she's a reflection of the players actions.

Despite being someone who's really reliable, she's kind of like. Implied to be a little bit of a sarcastic cunt? You know just because someone can't speak doesn't mean they are nice. But shes willing to put up with and do a lot.

Laelia - Forest God

Laelia is based on the idea of a whale fall deity. Like, a goddess who's death will feed an ecosystem. She explores a lot of themes regarding love through apathy? She's a nature goddess. To her, Humans are no different then rabbits, which are no different to dogs, which are no different then crows. Why should the death of a human mean anymore - and therefore, any less, then the death of a crow. Does the act of kindness matter less to things that will never truly understand you? She cannot bring herself to hate humanity, as hating humanity is against her very nature as a nature deity.

Personality is based on like. Stoic, noble knight characters. She was originally based on heathers-esc mean girls, and there are still aspects of her personality and design that shine through that. But it's been muddled down a bit. She's a heathers esc mean girl who got Older. She's melancholic, more then anything else, though she chooses to spend her time around people that are Hard To Deal with.

Her story deals with ideas of heroism and honor in small acts. Despite being a demi-god who's biggest claim to fame should have been in her death, she is explicitly most known for silent kindness. She's someone reliable, even in her apathy. There's no honor in glory, and no glory in violence, and no honor in death.

Also she'll just Do things. I think i said that already, but she's the type of character who's willing to jump off a cliff to discover if there are rocks in the water. Her demi-god powers are kind of lame, because "i can't force animals to grow, so why would I be able to do that to plants?" But plants grow on her and that's a fun perk of her design.

Kimon - (: don't worry about it yet.

Kimon is based on the idea of very peppy macabre artists. He's friendly! He's a little sassy! He's introspective! He's the one with the least amount of blood on his hands, canonically. He does graphic gore and decay art. He's canonically a clone of one of the other characters that was made incorrectly, and so his body is actively beginning to stop from the inside out.

The point of his story is three fold. The first one is the idea of identity, and the meaning of that identity. He's canonically a clone. What does that mean for his sense of self? What makes his identity different to the person he's grown from. Is it his experiences? His art? His relationships? He's someone who knew the moment he woke up that there was a clock on his life. What's the point of living a life you know will but cut short? To create? To enjoy what time you have? Kimon plays with the idea of living when you can doing what you can and enjoying the life you're living, and the romance in the mundane.

The second one is a theme I play with in my current fandom, but its one I like so it's one I'm taking. What makes something art? Does art need to have meaning to be meaningful? He has my favorite event planned for the game, where he man handles all of the characters into creating something because he wants people to create and wants to see people through what they create.

But the third one is exploring what makes a good person. Kimon is a nice person. As previously stated, theres currently no plans for him to have killed anyone. He DID cheat on his husband. He canonically says slurs. His sense of humor is offensive in a way that the narrative is judgemental of (because I, as an author, know there's a fine line between just Making An Offensive Character and making something that advertises hate) Like, to be clear about the source of his inspiration, he's based so heavily on emo-subculture and the people in it.

I like Kimon a lot as a character. He's a very passionate person, and that's really fun for me to write.

Poppy - Human

Poppy is based on turn of the century hollywood stars and the corruption of the era. The point of Poppy's narrative is... Hm. Self-discovery. She grew up with a mother who controlled her image, got married at 15 to get away from her mother, only to fall into the arms of a man more controlling than she was.

Poppy starts the narrative performing everything about herself. She's a very surface level polite person. She comes across as soft spoken, if not bashful. She refuses gifts that are like treats because, despite liking things like chocolate and cake a lot, it's something she's never been allowed to have. For a bulk of her life, shes only ever been allowed to be what other people tell her to be. There's the reason she's An Actress. There's also themes of the cycle of abuse. Poppy is a mother, but her own abuse leads to her neglecting and abusing her own child. Even when she's outside of her abusive relationship, she's starting everything about herself from scratch.

But there's also this theme of growth I like with her. She has a breaking point. She cuts her hair, she lashes out and breaks down. Life goes on. She stops performing her personality. She's actually a very passionate "follow your heart, do what's right" type person, she'll speak her mind when she thinks something is wrong and place herself in danger for someone else. Break the rules to do what's right and burn the bridge trying.

She has a gun. She discovers she likes working with machines. She becomes a better mother, and life goes on.

Ida - Human +

I'm going to be honest with you going into this. I'm still figuring a lot of things about this character... Out? She's not like my other characters in that she's kind of a very passive one, and that's by design of what she's trying to do.

Ida is based on the idea of a corrupt spiritualist. She's someone vulnerable who was prayed on by the authority of her religion. It's important that I note - it's not a cult. It's a statement on how religion by its nature, while it can be very important and impactful for people, just as often even the most main stream religions can become damaging to the vulnerable.

She has a concept of fate that she feels she cannot break. She believes in fate as a finality. She cannot control the outcome of her own life, it is predetermined, and so anything she does she has to do because that's the Will of it. And she hurts for it. There's a comfort in the finality, but is the comfort of that finality worth the pain of not trying to change? She wants to be a good person, but what happens when you have to do bad things to fulfil your idea of what Good is. You're doing something "for the good" but you're hurting others for it.

She's Human + because she starts as a human, but this is a world with demigods and psychopomps and deities. Her religion consumes her body, and she becomes an echo of who she was.

Personality wise she comes across as a quiet academic type, but she's kind of arrogant and pretentious and it's not in a very Fun way. She can be a little patronizing, and incredibly manipulative, but she's also. Disconnected. Quiet. She might change a little bit, we will see when we get there.

Thales - Lich

Thales is a subversion of the mad scientist/necromancer archytype. The first thing you need to know is that necromancy in this world, while not accepted by the people in it, is accepted by the GODS in it. Olette, psychopomp, LOVES this guy. Isn't it interesting! Isn't it fascinating, watching someone try and avoid death, killing to avoid death, only to be taken by it anyway? Necromancy isnt anymore against the natural order than mending a broken bone, or restarting a stopped heart. Because you can only do it for so long before death will take you anyway.

He's a socialite! He's a party boy! He's nobility. He's so scared of death. And it's fun, because what do you do when you've spent your entire life worrying about dying, only to discover that death is a reflection of life? Have you wasted your life in that worry?

I'm trying to save most of the relationships for the bullet points section, but kimon and Thales are interesting to me in the way they foil the idea of life as something worth living. Kimon accepts his death and spends his days creating and enjoying, and even when he fucks up his community and hurts the people he loves he still has people he loves. Thales loves life and wants to keep life, and he's willing to burn the village to keep his life. He works. He works on keeping his failing bodies alive and growing new bodies to occupy, and at some point he doesn't have anything in life other than that work and the duty of that work.

And so it becomes a question of. Like. If your life is only ever that work, and that worry, did you even enjoy the life you had for as long as you got to have it?

His story also plays into themes of what makes a person good and what makes a person bad, both as he himself reflects it and how he's choosing to kill people. Death horrifies him, and so he only gives it to people worth killing. But that contrasts the theme of the game, doesn't it? What if the person you kill, that you've decided is irredeemable, can grow and change. What if you've killed the asshole, but hurt good people by doing so?

Personality wise, he's very. Academic clever boy. He's kinda flirty. He's also miserable.

Floant - Kitsune

Floant is the little fox bitch I'm always drawing. Hes based on the idea of.. kitsunes, but also a asshole pacifist. He's the shopkeeper of the game! He's the only shopkeeper in the game!! He is everywhere, you literally will not escape this guy. He refuses to sell weapons, despite being the only shopkeeper in the game. Also, he doesn't actually understand the concept of importance of money. He'll just give people his wares if he likes them enough. He's kinda been shoe horned into this position, so why should he care? He's also the strongest character in the story, just sheer ability wise. But coming back to being a pacifist, he is useless for it. He is very good at running away.

The point of his story and the themes of it are... Tragic romance and love. He loves with everything he has.

And so Floant as a character plays into the concept of love as something neutral. You're not a better person for your love, suffering for your love is just a tragedy, clinging to ghosts

Personality? Masquerades as a Cheshire cat figure, but he's pretty strategic and level headed, all things considered. He likes being very annoying, like. He takes so much enjoyment out of being a shit for brains person. But he's not annoying because he's stupid, he's annoying because he thinks it's funny to get under people's skin.

Momoko - Kitsune (2 of them!)

Momoko is based on the idea of mothers who never grow to love their children. She's a Rotten Mother. Nevermind the fact that having children ruined her life, she is someone dealing with a lot of grief that she refuses to acknowledge or touch on. So she could not bring herself to love who she brought into the world. I won't say she's never hurt one of her children, because. Lmao. This bitch guilty of period typical infanticide. But she was not physically abusive to the child she chose to raise, nor was verbally or emotionally abusive. She just could never come to love him.

And so, that brings in the question of what actually makes a good mother, and really, what love even is. Momoko is mean. She's brash and loud, easily irritated and kind of snappy as a person. But she takes care of her son and keeps him safe in a world and time that really wants the both of them dead. She spends time with him, actively verbalizes that she holds a great amount of respect for him, and she does see him as his own person with agency. Is that still love, even when she says she hates him?

I'll give you a guess as to who her son is, based on the species alone. First guess doesn't count.

I do not generally like to advertise my characters for their queerness. I personally think.. well, one, it should go without saying. But two, the selling point of the character should be their story and the queerness of it should be an accessory rather than the point of it? It's the type of representation I like to see. I'm personally very, very tired of coming of age queer stories, and so I aim to write stories that happen to have queer characters in it, rather than stories about being queer. Or at the very least, I want to write stories where queerness is weaved into and reflective of the relationships and community of the characters, rather than the plot.

Having said that, I do want to talk about the fact that kitsunes bastard 1 and 2 are very purposefully playing in the realm of gender ambiguity. Like, a lot of characters are, but with these two specifically... Floant is drawn in very effeminate cultural clothing, long hair, ect, and Momoko has a very purposefully androgynous silhouette. Despite being The Mother, she's given a lot of very masculine traits and tendencies. Floant is the Romantic and The Caretaker, but he's the guy. If you're ever thinking "is this intentional?" The answer is probably yeah.

There are a few other trans characters. I refuse to say who.

I swap between they/them and he/him-She/Her pronouns for the two of them, but ultimately the pronoun aspect of it does not matter. Like I mentioned in the first paragraph of this ramble, I want the idea of it weaved into their design, rather than just placed there.

Anyway. Small tangent over. I like them a lot, they're fun characters.

Olette - Psychopomp

Olette is based on horror movie girl archetypes. Shes the nerd, she's the final girl, she's the popular girl, she's the killer and the monster and the victim. She's so much of everything at once. She's loud! She's performartive! The world is a theater and she's playing in it! I mentioned it in another recent curiouscat, but shes the only character who has Every Single Emote as a new indivual full body pose.

She's a lovecraftian protagonist. She saw the horrors and just rolled with it. She doesn't have to understand the old gods to know that they're there. She loves the horrors! She gave herself to them because she had no one else to give herself too.

There's a building joke that every character in this game starts off hating olette, and she loves them all despite that. They think she's annoying. She doesn't know how to stay out of their business, she's the reason they are where they are and why they're going through what they're going through.

Her personality is... She performs being loud and arrogant and confident and mean, but she's kind of pathetic and sad. She's a theater kid. If she succumbed to the mortifying ordeal of being known, it would mean admitting she's so horrifyingly lonely, so she won't! She's also kind of clingy, and scatterbrained. She chooses to dress like that. Yeah. In my idv au for her I had her as a fake psychic, and I think that fits still.

Bullet time. Important relationships

Laelia and Floant - Weird co-dependence. They Do Love Eachother, but ...

Laelia and Ida - what do you do when you can only consider yourself a good person if you manage to guide someone to their death? What if you grow attached to the person you're supposed to kill? Yeah.

Floant and Momoko - look back at momokos section.

Thales and Poppy - What do you do when the first person who has ever respected your agency as a person is Kind Of An Asshole? Let's find out.

Kimon and Laelia - they're just buddies. It's important to me that they're buddies.

Floant and Olette - they're so fucking funny to me personally. Floant cannot get under this girls skin and he's so thrown off by that it loops back around into him becoming a straight man to her antics.

Estelle and Olette - Ghost wearing my childhood friends face. No I'm not delusional. Why are you looking at me.

Okay edit time

The warrior cats. — Today at 2:29 AM

Estelle is also insane but I can't talk on this post about her being a sleeper agent old god with amnesia wearing the face of olettes childhood friend (who olette killed) to keep her happy

That's insane and only makes sense in context

The warrior cats. — Today at 2:31 AM

I think the line I wrote down about their relationship is "Olette loves Estelle like a woman loves her wife Estelle loves Olette like a person loves their dog"

But like a really good dog owner. Who takes care of their dog instead of dragging them by the leash

She keeps her safe but blinded to the world

And it's this theme of Love and how people love and if the context of that love changes the fact it's love places my face in a pillow the lesbian drama in here is insane

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dashawfrostart · 9 months ago

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These Two Weeks In "Time & Again" #14: My Feelings For Facebook Are Still Surprisingly Mutual... And I'm Getting There!

A big announcement! The artist contracted a wee bit cold 🤧 This is sad, for it broke my impressive "I never get sick!" streak that lasted for, like, 7 years or so. I guess I'm not gonna get that notorious achievement anymore. And fine, see if I care! I don't like achievements anyway (which is, perhaps, pretty clearly stated in Chapter 3 😁) But don't get me wrong: under any circumstances pathetic excuses such as "having a cold or something alike" most certainly do not set me free from working on "Time & Again" 😤 They might hinder my progress, which is truly unfortunate, since the work is almost done - but that will not stop me, by any means. *for some reason, I really wanna put that weird "shake fish" smiley from DeviantArt in here*

Trying to prettify and overhaul, completely or partially, the social pages for the upcoming release of Chapter 5 is not easy at all... A long time ago - and that means well over a month ago - I submitted a name change request for my art page on Facebook, to better reflect the current obsession priority and certain ethics of the author in this great adventure. I was told that it might take up to 3 days for the changes to take effect, if approved. But it's been already that long, and there's still no change, nor can I submit a new name change request. I mean, I absolutely don't mind "Art by Dasha W. Frost" as a page title, but, honestly, "Official Time & Again Graphic Narrative Page" would simply be better right now, while I'm still working on this "genre abomination experiment of a graphic novel". That's a little bit sad to me. So this is where that post title comes from. Facebook seems to really dislike me - but you know what?! My feeling towards it is truly mutual 🤣

Somehow, I believe, constant dissatisfaction with the social netwroks has always been one of the most prominent topics I wrote on back in the day, when I used to have a secret blog on Wordpress. However, it's getting a tad too old for me (not the blog, but the topic; the blog is long gone), so I don't want to keep up with the "tradition" and I'll just move on without it. ... also, how I accidentally misspelled "networks" in the second last sentence really makes me think of yet another one Ultravox song. So, once I realized I typo'd, I just decided to leave it as is, for the sake of fun association. (I sure somehow became a big fan of this band over the course of, like, 5 months 😅)

But on a more positive note!!! I finished up all the teasers for Chapter 5 that I had in mind (and one of them you've already seen in the previous post 😁), and that's one of the biggest and the most important things I've done for "Time & Again" within the last two weeks. W00t and doot!!! You know what else happened?.. I finished up all the new inner covers (also known as Vorsatz und Nachsatz in book printing ☝) and the main cover for Chapter 5! And I really like the results 😁 (some snippets of the progress go below)

I guess you will see the finished product soon enough 😁 And yet again, I want to praise Krita's Assistant Tool: I used Vanishing Point assistant to draw a better urban perspective for the cover art. I think it turned out pretty good and significantly less crooked. Haha)))

I also finished up the author's letter that will be included into the chapter as a bonus material. I started writing it long ago, gradually adding more and more to it as the time went by. This is not what I usually do, for, at times, writing in segments might quickly become a disaster for me. Even writing future snippets/drafts of the blog posts in here often represents a sort of challenge to me - although I clearly seem to magically succeed somehow. (yay? 🥳 I guess?..) But nevertheless, this is what happened to the author's letter/afterword for Chapter 5. And it turned out good... but big 😅 However, after an attempt to figure out how to make it shorter... I simply decided to keep it as is. Because WHATEVER! You can read the whole thing if you want. It's moderately entertaining after all 😁 Or you can skips some parts in it. Or you can skip the whole thing (because you probably came here for the artworks anyway, right?..). I don't care. I just did what I thought would be good and what makes sense to me, as an author. That's all, deal with it! 😎 The readers are not obligated to like everything 😁 Also, the author's letter/afterword turned out very sincere. ... Heh, as if I can ever be insincere? That's ridiculous.

"Then, what's left now?", you ask me. Good question. Indubitably. The right answer is: not much. Not much at all. Just one more session of proofreading (damn, I hate hate hate discovering typos already after I posted stuff! 😫), and tiny touch-ups here and there, and assembling the last bonus pages from the materials I have on hand. And I also need to write a short dialogue for a certain background. An ugly dialogue, I must admit. But I'll rickroll my sleeves up (for realsies), and I'll do it. Preferably in one sitting. Perhaps even today. 💪 And shortly after that I'll finally initiate the last stage of work: I'll recut it into a webcomic. And I'll finish up drawing all the extra designs that I need for the itch.io release.

I ask myself this question more and more frequently lately: how did Lothar even end up as a protagonist after all?.. That's quite a turn of events. Originally created in late 2014 - mid-2015 as a side character/antagonist for a story about catpeople that I never happened to finish writing (and not only that, but apparently, I never even posted any substantial artwork of the catpeople Freia and Fjolvarr together, so I cannot show almost any proof... sadness), Lothar has sure come a long way. He's been through a lot - thanks to me. I never really asked his permission; I mostly just did whatever pleased me as a writer/artist. And now... we can see him as a main character in an effing blooooody graphic novel - a format that I haven't even been familiar with up until a few years ago! That is quite a change!!! And what the peck even happened to me as a content creator? I think I possibly lost my mind. But again... Lothar has sure been through a lot in the last few earthly years. And my first comedic one-shot is probably gonna be about that.

But I think that's enough talking for today. The important piece of a dialogue won't be finished today if I keep talking. See you next time!

#TimeAndAgainbyDWF #This Week In Time And Again #Krita #WIPs #graphic novel

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kats-randomology · 5 years ago

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A little drabble I had to write after the idea popped in my head while writing the other drabble

::::

He’d managed to sneak his way into Liu Hai’s personal room/office. If there was a way to break the chain, it had to be in here where most folks wouldn’t be lucky enough to get to. He had to move fast though, Liu Hai would notice his absence.

Surely there had to be something in here. Some book or scroll that explained things, that would be nice. He quickly made his way toward a large bookshelf, and skimmed over the titles until he found exactly what he'd hoped for: 'Magical Imprisonments and More: A How To for the Inexperienced'.

He flipped through the yellowed pages, until stopping on one that caught his eye. A chapter on breaking supernatural bonds, that had to be it. This was it, finally Luck was on his side again--

The door slammed open, making him flinch as he glanced over his shoulder.

Liu Hai towered in the doorway, fury in his eyes and shark-like teeth bared in a snarl. Gladstone stood frozen for a moment, fear quickly taking over, before he hastily tried to lighten the mood.

"H-hey, Hopper, buddy! Was just lookin' for you; you know, you have got a really nice den here,"

The spirit's fury didn't lessen as he stormed towards the babbling goose.

"A-and I am really diggin' the jade curtains, really brings the whole atmosphere together in here, very classy, and I can see you aren't buying a-word-of-this-so-I'm-just-gonna-go--!"

His speech dissolved into a jumble of words as he dodged around the advancing toad, and made a break for the door. A hand caught him by the arm though, and jerked him back to face Liu Hai's anger. He snatched the book from his grasp, and eyed the cover for a moment before fixing his furious eyes back on the panicking goose in hand.

"Clever, Mr. Gander, but not clever enough," he growled, warping the book back to its place on the shelf, "admirable as it is that you got this far, my patience is wearing thin with your antics."

"Well my patience is wearing thin with your....EVERYTHING!" Gladstone snapped back, pulling at his arm.

"You think I like being stuck here?! You think I'm just gonna roll with it?!"

"I think if you want to continue having the niceties you have, you'll start behaving--!"

"I'm NOT a freaking toddler!"

"THEN STOP ACTING LIKE ONE!"

"THEN STOP HOLDING ME HOSTAGE!"

They both fell silent to catch their breath, glowering at one another; finally, Liu Hai took a long breath, before releasing it slowly.

"You're going to go back to the game floor, and at least pretend to enjoy yourself, and maybe I'll forget about this grievance."

"No."

"....no?"

"No, I'm not going back out there! I'm not playing anymore; I'm not doing anything!"

"Tread carefully, Gander..."

"Or what?! What're you gonna do?! Lock me in my penthouse?! Oh no how terrible, I'll be stuck in a luxury suite for the rest of my life-- oh, wait, I ALREADY AM! You need me so it's not like you're gonna actually DO anything worse than this!"

Another tense silence descended. Liu Hai's narrowed eyes studied him for a minute or two, before he finally turned to the wall beside them. Waving his free hand, a square opening appeared, revealing a small room. Gladstone found himself rudely shoved into it, stumbling to catch himself, and turned back questioningly.

"I think you need some time to reflect and consider how you'd like for your stay to go from here on out."

And with that, the doorway was gone as suddenly as it appeared, leaving him alone.

He scowled at the bare wall, before turning to take in the rest of the room. Well, not a room so much as a glorified box; no windows or doors, or furniture, or anything that would make it a room. There was no sound either, must be soundproofed with magic or something. So his big plan was to just take away his luxury?

Granted it was boring and uncomfortable, but if it meant he got to stick it to Toad, then he'd take it.

Shrugging, he took a seat on the floor, stretching out with a sigh.

He could use a good nap.

The wall opened some time later, and he looked up with an agitated scowl as Liu Hai entered.

"I trust you've had enough time to think things over?" He asked, face set in a stern frown. Gladstone rolled his eyes as he pushed himself off the floor.

"You mean have I decided that you're still a jerk? Because I never considered otherwise; or, was I supposed to be thinking about how busting into your office room whatever to find an escape was bad? Because again, I don't consider myself the villain in this case."

"I see," Liu Hai clicked his tongue, "stubborn as ever then? Perhaps I haven't made it clear how lucky you have it here."

"I'm an expert in luck, so I think i have a pretty clear idea--"

"And I'm a immortal spirit of luck, which of us truly knows better?"

He only scoffed, and Liu Hai's passive face finally broke into anger.

"There is much you don't know, Gladstone; for example, I have many ways of draining the luck of mortals, but you've been fortunate enough to only experience the nicer methods."

"Uh huh, very interesting..."

"Harvesting through acts such as gambling, prolonged physical contact,"

Gladstone did briefly pause at that; was that why he was so hands-y? Well he certainly wasn't going to be letting him continue his 'friendly' breaching of space bubbles...

"But, then we get to the more...brutal and direct methods."

"Look I was never big into educational speeches-- hey!"

Gladstone yelped as the toad suddenly snatched his arm in a tight grip, and yanked him closer; he was quickly trapped in a headlock, and he yelled angrily as he attempted to slip free.

"Dude what are you doing?! Let go...!"

"You see, luck is tied to your qi, and as a spirit of luck, I can tap into it and drain you directly. It provides a larger amount with less effort on my part. But, unfortunately for you, it's quite painful."

"I literally cannot care any less about your dietary methods, now let go of me!"

Liu Hai gave a light chuckle, and something about it rubbed Gladstone the wrong way. It was just unsettling, somehow...

"But you probably should, if you want to continue living peacefully here,"

"What are you going on about?!"

Another laugh, and he felt him pressing closer.

"There's a reason some legends refer to me as a luck vampire, Gladstone..."

It was a minute or two before he processed the statement, he was too focused on trying to squirm his way out of the hold; once it did, though, his movements ceased, as he turned his head slightly to meet the spirit's humored gaze.

And behind the humor was the growing spark of hunger.

His grin was full of now very sharp teeth that were evidently more than just for show.

Gladstone's struggling returned with vigor, pulling at the arm keeping his head in place, kicking behind him, pulling at his outstretched arm currently being held in the toad's other hand. All of this did nothing to loosen the hold, only drive Liu Hai to hold him tighter as he pulled the coat and shirt down to reveal the skin and feathers underneath.

"Let go, don't you even dare! Let go of me...!"

"Are we beginning to see just how nice we have it?"

"Yes, yes, I get it! W-we can stop now, I get it, just let me go and we can get back to that..!"

"Mmm, but see, with you, it seems demonstrations are far more effective in getting my point across."

"No," his voice was verging on hysterical as he clawed at the arm, "nonono I'm good! No demonstration needed, point made! You don't have to do that no...!"

Knife-like teeth grazed his neck, forcing his desperate ramblings into a shriek as he tried in vain to pull his arm free.

"Don't, don't, please...! Just let me go back to the casino, I-I can play games! Any game, you name it! As many as you want, I can play along, I'll play along, Toad please...!"

His head was forced to the side, leaving his throat and collar bone exposed. Terror finally brought his wild yells and flailing down to a meek and desperate sob.

"I'll do whatever you want..."

A soft laugh, and hands tightening their hold as if in preparation. Liu Hai finally responded, hissing in his ear.

"I know you will."

Several sharp teeth sunk in, and fiery, agonizing pain exploded in his shoulder and traveled down his arm.

A ragged scream went unheard by the world outside.

He was dropped to the floor with little care, pressing a hand to his screaming shoulder. There was no blood, he noted with some bewilderment, but it wasn't his top concern.

No, that was reserved for the luck leeching demon now standing over him. Liu Hai gave a satisfied sigh, and crouched down before him and tilted his head back. He sneered at the wide eyes, panicked and afraid and exhausted all at once as they found his.

"I hope you've learned something from this," he murmured, leaning closer as his eyes took on a terrifying glow, "otherwise we're going to repeat this lesson until you get it through that pretty little head of yours."

Gladstone flinched, and gave a timid nod, too afraid and in pain to respond otherwise. Liu Hai stood back up, smile and demeanor now pleasant and reminiscent of his hotel persona.

"Very good, then; shall we return to your room?"

He didn't wait for answer; a snap warped them to the far brighter and much friendlier suite that had become his home away from home.

"I suggest you get a good night's sleep; I expect to see you downstairs tomorrow. I'll be generous and let you stay in until noon,"

The smile fell away into a snarl.

"Don't make me have to come get you."

And with that he was gone.

It took a good chunk of time for Gladstone to start moving, forcing himself to stand. He dragged himself over to the bed, and sunk into it with a moan. He burrowed under the blankets, desperate to hide from the lights. He didn’t have the energy to turn them off at this point.

His head was throbbing, coupled with the pain in his arm, it was enough to leave him in tears.

He had to go along with this. For a while, at least; play games, keep Liu Hai happy, don't make him mad again or else...

#vampire toad #gladstone gander #toad liu hai #ducktales 2017 #house of the lucky gander #ducktales #fanfiction #liu hai #duck angst

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judas-had-a-crown · 7 years ago

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good evening, I came here to give you some dull ficlet ideas about Death Note: Light's character reflected through any of seven deadly sins --- ancient Shinigami realm --- Kira's Tokyo --- anything about task force (if you don't mind) :D

Hello dear^^

Finally… okay, the following; since my brain likes to do things without my permission, I’ve gathered your first and second request in one text, thus using six giant sentences in total. For Kira’s Tokyo, I chose a poetric way and hope it doesn’t sound too ridiculous. When it comes to task force I must confess it’s my first time writing anything about them so… bear with me XD I like Matsuda best tho. I want to protect him.

Light’s character reflected through any of seven deadly sins + ancient Shinigami realm

When Light demands to see the Shinigami realm with his own two eyes, feet planted firmly on the ground, posture straight, his gaze a strict fixture towards him, Ryuk cracks him open like the cap on a bottle of coke.

And though it’s a dream - for dreams, the shinigami said, always walk a fine between life and what’s beyond and grey territory is good for entering a grey world like his own - Light lets him in with shuddering breath; he knows Ryuk enjoys this, prattling on nonsense as he breaks into his bones to count, rib by rib, carving his name upon each with seldom caution to resolve the last barrier that keeps him on earth along with the Death Note locked in his desk.

Pain is not the name for it, more of a furious tickle when nerves are cut opened to tangle anew, stripping him barer than his flesh alone, taking the muscles too, the molecules, the very essence of being human; with eyes closed Light feels the damned god reach beyond matter and mind at last, and even though his scraping nails, long and and sharp and merciless, borrowed from a rabid animal it seems, burn their stigma of boredom into him, he clenches his teeth for he himself is curious to feel if the wilted muscle of his heart has yet failed beating in this realm, where nothing has ever been alive to begin with…

Songs of the dead hang in the tight-strung air, loaded sweet by the stench of decay and dust, as a rough tap on his shoulder encourages him to open wide and take a look around; his feet sink into colorless sands and scrapes of parched skin when he does, a soft layer of fog hanging over his scalp like a rain’s threat refusing to fall; observing further, lakes of crimson pique his sight behind ragged hills and shadows that seem blurred no matter how far or close they are to their position; he steps ahead till he reaches a puddle in his reach and dips his hands in the blood of his victims; he can’t help but smile at the warmth - only then he feels his own frame shake and he wonders how this can be since the dead know no cold no heat no relief or remorse.

„Care for a bath?“ Ruvik asks, his hulkish frame hovering behind him like a second shadow in the sun; if the Shinigami world had a sun to begin with, anyway; the mocking tone has faded in favor of a growl, low and slow and strained; as if a weight was added to his tongue; even then, the alien curiosity Light has come to know so well during the years shines in his round, unmoving eyes; Light tilts his head, a half-smile carved into the right corner of his mouth; it is not fit for a king to bathe in the filfth he created, yet the thought does not irk him as much as it probably should; „Sure. If you go first.“ His hands are soaked in the liquid; he rubs it between his thumb and index finger and waits, but it doesn’t dry, „Did you always have lakes here? Blood, water in general?“ Ruvik snorts despite his apparent difficulty of forming words now; „Not till you came along. You killed so many people in such a short amount of time, their deaths literally bled into our domain. It‘s a nice change of scenery though. A pinch of color to garner the dust.“ A cackle follows, the melody to an old rhyme.

Light sighs; may it be time or local paradoxes or sarcasm that holds this place, he can’t scrub the red off his palms; he lets his hands hang to his sides then; annoyed; wondering, the little wheels in his head giving off steam „Still, they’re rather small, don’t you think? I thought I’d done more than that.“ Ryuk shrugs a shoulder, the movement laggard; „The Shinigami world is vast. A huge, dry, tiring plane. A thousand years of watering won‘t make this earth fertile.“ he hums - Light’s hands move into fists of their own; a thousand years… he doesn’t even have a one-tenth of them left to bring justice to all who deserve it - „I see.“ Minutes uselessly pass into the silent void; then, in a deadpan voice he says gently; „Would you like to have an ocean here, Ryuk? I could teach you how to swim.“ This time, the cackle holds a burst of laughter too; chilling and plenty as ice spinters running down Light’s mortal spine; „Nah, I don‘t care much for oceans.“ Light turns his face to Ryuk’s pale visage bowing to him far too close all of a sudden and sees his own bloodlust reflected by its static features and soulless grin; „But I‘d like to see you try.“

Kira’s Tokyo

Cold and dead the dread did spread, blinding hollow eyes when there in the echo of tears uncried light was shed, it built itspread. Leaving god on osseous thronewith a graveyard to call home.

anything about task force

The day Matsuda said he had met someone, a person sweet as spring (which was arguably and of course over the top, all things aside) , he started to whistle in the office which caused some looks being thrown at him (more of surprise and wonder humbly translated in a „what the fuck?“ being growled from the right side of the room, no malicious intentions gathered, thank you very much); also, his walk held a somewhat lighter step to it and he tripped considerably less times than he was prone to do on a regular day - he even shared a decent moment with L when he decided to buy two big ice cream bowls and sat next to him, humming absently as he put the spoon to his mouth repeatedly and thus, when it came to L in that matter „being in love does seem to make Matsuda less annoying than before“ added by his occasional whisper of “interesting“; in L speech, he deemed it acceptable, so everyone else was down with it was well.

Matsuda’s cheerful behavior continued for two weeks in total until he went through the door on a Wednesday morning one hour late, a blueish-black bruise covering his right eye cast down in a motion far too akin for shame to not alert several heads turning as he staggered to his desk; Ukita was the first to enquire about the injury with Matsuda hastily answering it to be the result of an unfortunate accident that included a door falling into his face - despite being highly aware of Matsuda’s clumsiness, the remaining members of the Task Force had been working alongside him long enough to conclude he was also a truly terrible liar; that day, and the rest of the week following after, L did not receive another “candy invitation“ by Matsuda; actually, no one saw Matsuda eating anything at all anymore; and people, though most of them surely tried to stick to their own life, stuffed with personal problems to deal with as they were, started to show concern for the young man as he continued to hunch into the restrictive patters of a person he was not.

It took the sight of Matsuda limping to work a week later that had L ask Soichiro to take care of the matter and find out about the lover’s address in addition, allowing the men who felt up to the task to pay them a short visit for the “need of clarifying most basic things“; no one was really surprised when nearly the whole division headed into the same direction after work.

#acerbicapplecoffee #thank you!#I was glad to write something again ^^#replies #story meme

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