#teaser story

[aeon-of-cultivation]

Teaser: A New Beginning

An androgynous-looking boy stretched and turned over on the cold ground. He groaned as he massaged his side, grumbling about how he'd definitely get the bed next time.

He reached out to the bioship to say good morning, only to stop dead in his psychic tracks.

The ship he's on is nothing but cold metal. And much, much larger than his bioship. He can't hear his crewmate say "Sawyer, bacon!" nor his kitten paw at him.

Someone started shaking his shoulder, saying something about concussions. Sawyer tried shaking the hand off, hoping that this was all just a bad dream. He's had those before. The kind of dreams where you feel completely isolated from everything.....even though he could normally reach out and still feel his family's presence in those dreams.

Now, he just feels a lonely emptiness.

As the person, a boy, started growing more desperate in waking him up, Sawyer finally opened his eyes. He was met with the sight of a blond boy with shining, golden eyes.

Unfortunately, nothing could stop the unholy screech that ripped from Sawyer's throat as reality settled in.

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Sawyer and the new boy, Yanqing as he had introduced himself, sat at a table in the middle of a plaza-like area. Sawyer was eating a sweet treat on a stick (Yanqing called it a Pheasantberry Skewer) while the other was massaging his temple.

"I'm sorry," Sawyer muttered.

"It's fine," Yanqing assured him. "You said you just woke up here , right? Can't imagine that’s too fun.” Yanqing leaned on the table. “So, just so I have this straight, you aren’t from here and don’t know how you got here? What’s the last thing you remember?”

Sawyer turned the skewer treat in his hand. “Well, I went to sleep on my bioship, something my family uses to travel through space, and that was it. Nothing out of the usual. Next thing I know, I wake up on the ground of a completely different ship.”

He reached into his bag over the chair behind him, hoping he at least had something useful in there. All he feels are some papers and his notebook, which only worried him more. Where was all his stuff???

Sawyer quickly dumped his bag out onto the table, startling Yanqing. As Sawyer watches his staff come tumbling out, he breathes a sigh of relief. At least he won’t be completely defenseless here. As Sawyer picks up his staff to put it away, Yanqing picks up a file filled with papers Sawyer doesn’t remember.

“Here,” he shows Sawyer. “Are you sure you don’t belong here? This building is a condo in a pretty rich district. Looks like it has your name on it.”

Yanqing handed Sawyer the file, though the androgynous boy had never heard of the building before. It must have been obvious on his face, because Yanqing narrows his eyes and regards him with caution. Sawyer didn’t blame him; this was rather suspicious after all.

“Thanks for your help, but I think I’m gonna check this out,” Sawyer grabs the rest of his stuff and gets up to leave. He isn’t surprised when Yanqing gets up in a hurry and offered to help him get there. “You sure? Doesn’t a lieutenant have more important things to do?”

“It’s fine. Just another part of the job,” Yanqing assures him.

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After a thirty minute walk that should have taken ten minutes, Sawyer and Yanqing finally arrive at the complex building. Sawyer is far too absorbed in admiring the architecture to notice Yanqing taking the file from him again.

“Looks like yours is on the top floor. Let’s go,” Yanqing sighs before pulling Sawyer inside. If he didn’t, Sawyer would have wandered off again to see the other buildings.

As the boys ride the elevator up, Yanqing determines that Sawyer isn’t dangerous. Or at least, he isn’t an active threat to the Luofu. Not with how engrossed he is on studying every little detail of the buildings as if it were something new.

But it is new to Sawyer. Otherwise, he wouldn’t look like a kid in a candy store as he meandered from place to place, drawing sketches of the building in his little notebook.

When they reach the top floor, Sawyer runs out of the elevator to find whichever room was his complex.

Looking at the numbers on each door, he sheepishly turns to Yanqing. “Do you know what these say?” Sawyer asks with a slight blush.

Yeah.

Sawyer definitely can’t be a threat.

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Yanqing helps Sawyer get settled in his new home. Not that there’s much they can do since Sawyer barely has anything with him.

“I’ll probably go shopping tomorrow or something,” Sawyer grumbles as he stifles a yawn. “Anyways, thanks for helping me out.”

Yanqing just waves him off, but Sawyer knows that there’s more to it.

“At least I don’t have to worry about being on some watchlist or something,” Sawyer thinks to himself.

Soon, Yanqing leaves and Sawyer collapses onto the couch. He knows he’ll have to figure life out, but he’s too sleepy to do that now.

Everything will still be here tomorrow, so he can deal with it then.

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Author’s note: Wanted to post this in time for Sawyer’s birthday (6-21), but don’t have much motivation recently. Curse writer’s block.

Status: Unedited

[kathaynesart]

REPLICA PLAYLIST

MUSIC UNDER CUT

I have been receiving requests for any songs that inspired Replica, so here, have my personal playlist. Sorry it’s not Spotify/Soundcloud but they don’t have some of these songs available so uh… guess you’re stuck with YouTube vids. For fun I'll include my personal titles for them (which might give a few hints of what to expect in the future/end).

Replica Main Theme - “Die for You” by Grabbitz Like Father Like Son Like Brother (Omega and Shelldon) - "As Above So Below" by Alistair Lindsay Mikey's Theme / The 1st Vision - "Suzume no Tojimari" by Nanoka Hara Military (Mad) Dogs / Central Park Colony - "Imperium" by Madeon Shanghai - "Icarus" by Madeon Boom Goes the Donnie-mite (Mikey/Donnie vs the Sweeper) - "The Red Zone" by Mitsuoto Suzuki The Day the Sky Bled Red - "7 Seconds Till the End" by Nobuo Uematsu Going Out Like a Boss (Raph and Leo) - "Agape" by Nicholas Britell Remembering the Right Way (Mikey and Leo) - "The Souls of Many" - by Alistair Lindsay Mystic Hands / The 2nd Vision - "Am I Dreaming" by Metro Boomin x A$AP Book 2 Trailer - "Sea Dragon" by Covet 7 Years Later - "Iron" by Woodkid Leo's Theme / Attack on the Labor Camp - "Ego Death" by Polyphia Omega's Theme - "Touch" by Daft Punk Flat Lines (Omega Alone) - "Die Toteninsel Emptiness" by 1000 Eyes Spear - "Monsters" by Tommee Profitt Final Protocol - "The Kraken" by Katie Dey Rise / Epilogue - "Close in the Distance" by Masayoshi Soken & Tom Mills

I will admit, it's a little embarrassing since you can easily see the patterns of what I've been listening to for the past year or two. I swear I listen to more than just videogame OSTs, these songs just jive well with the story and I often find lyrics distracting when brainstorming scenes. Regardless, the music I listen to is such an important part of my creative process and some of these songs really defined the scenes I now have locked in my head. So I figured it was only fair to give them the credit they're due.

I will continue to add to this playlist, and will note in comic updates when one of these songs is applicable!

[circlesuponcircles]

Out of bounds.

[xulips]

🌻🥀 you weren't supposed to be here

[zu-is-here]

A young actor ends up on the street following a family dispute. In a bid to avoid publicity, he finds shelter with an older co-star, and this play without a script opens up new roles for them.

[lululawrence]

You Should Be Here With Me

A 2024 Advent Fic by lululawrence

The festive period is a traditionally hectic one in the world of Premier League football, and this year is no different. A lot is riding on how Manchester United is able to come through the fixtures in the coming weeks.

Louis and his teammates know all too well the pressure that is on their shoulders. They need to prove, not just to fans of the club but the entire league, that they still have what it takes to be a team worthy of fighting for the top of the table.

Throw in the fact that Louis is all too aware that he's not getting any younger in a profession that demands your peak physical fitness year round and the incredibly fit Harry Styles, who is part of the club's social media team, and this year's festive period might just be the most important one yet.

���Coming December 1st! 🎄

[nights-at-crystarium]

Fragments Friday tomorrow!

[welcome-to-ratterrock]

Ratterrock Teaser: Pretty Lips Pt 2

Padraic Regal is the boss and Sage Locke is a brat. There’s reprimanding an insubordinate employee, and then there’s adding fuel for some very frustrated feelings…

Part 1 / 2

Art: @bajingoarts

Story: @suzie-guru

See early pages, spicy stuff, concept art, and enter raffles on Patreon!

Here's part two of the teaser! >:)

[jasminesilk]

"The Charm family has produced generations of distinguished Spellcasters, as Minerva often reminds her children. Gemma resents her family's high expectations even though she secretly wants to make them proud. Darrel is an aspiring duelist who just got engaged to Emilia, a newly ascended Spellcaster who has a lot to live up to."

...story coming soon...

[larissa-the-scribe]

Tell Me About This Time Loop, Again?

And so it begins... @inklings-challenge

Day 12

In Zo's mind, it never felt like the day was properly begun until Lyn woke up, looked around at the room they'd been staying in, frowned, and said—

Day 13

"Where are we? And why does it feel so... familiar?"

"Well you see," Zo replied, as he always did, peeking at the underside of the egg he was frying, "we're stuck in a time loop."

Day 14

"A time loop?" Lyn swung her feet over the side of the bed, seeming to realize for the first time that she was in one.

"Don't worry, it's clean." After confirming they were, indeed, in a time loop, one of the first things he had suggested was finding a comfortable place to set up camp. Somehow it had worked, and they had ended up there every time things reset. "And there doesn't seem to be anyone around, so I don't think we're stealing or trespassing." 

Lyn raised an eyebrow. 

Day 15

"Well, we might be, but no one minds. It's a ghost town. Everyone seems to have disappeared." And since it was a time loop, they never ran out of cooking gas. Or food supplies. That, at least, was convenient. 

"Disappeared?" Lyn stood up, adjusting her shirt from how it had gotten scrunched up in the night. Despite her attempts to look bright-eyed and alert, he could see the sleepiness that still hung from her eyes. 

Day 16

"Our best guess so far is that it's connected to the time loop." Zo flipped the eggs. If this all persisted, he could open up a fried-egg restaurant once they got out; he was getting an absurd amount of practice flipping eggs.

"That makes sense." Lyn padded over to the window, still barefoot, and pushed the shutters open. "Do we have any evidence, or is that just, well, a guess?" 

Her gaze swept the view, which he knew without looking was nothing more than the empty lines of blocky, one-story buildings and the too-smooth black-top of the streets. The neighborhood was pressed together as if sheltering from the plains beyond the town, with such a veneer of newness covering it all that each house might have been churned out of a factory yesterday. They hadn't been, though, considering the subtle signs of wear and tear inside the houses. 

"Eh, a bit of both. Something weird is clearly going on with the area, and we know time is affected, too, so it's a logical guess that the two are connected. Whether that means some psycho wiped the town out before setting up their experiment, or just that their timey-wimey dealybob messed up physics in general is still up for debate. Do you want toast?"

"Yes, please."

Day 17

"Good. We have to finish the bread before it goes stale." Zo left the 'in case we get to the next day' implicit.

"I'm surprised we still have butter. I thought it would have gone bad in your pack."

"It smells a bit odd, but so far we haven't been affected by it."

Day 18

"Okay, but how do you know we're in a time loop?" Lyn asked, setting the table. 

They were in a ground-level studio apartment, so the dining room, kitchen, and bed were all in the same space. No couch, which Zo took to mean that the owner was either poor or a cheapskate. Either way, it was disappointing. Still, the carpet wasn't bad. He'd slept on worse.

"Because you've asked me that so many times I've lost track of the number," Zo said, "and you seem thoughtful every time, like you're not as surprised as you thought you'd be." 

She nodded and set a fork down carefully, wearing the expression she always did just then, brows squeezing down over far-away eyes.

"In all fairness, though," Zo clarified, "I mostly lost track because I wasn't really counting, and then it seemed pointless to start. It's been over two weeks, though, I'm fairly certain."

Day 19

She smiled, and the tension in her brows eased a bit. "This all does feels familiar. Like, I don't remember the other days, but all of this feels like I should, somehow, know what happens next. But I don't."

"I do know," Zo replied, "and it's getting a bit tiresome."

"Fair."

Zo nodded, slotting toast into the toaster. "Very. Whoever owned this place pretty much only had eggs in their fridge. I'm not sure how many more days in a row I can eat those without losing my mind."

Lyn looked up sharply.

Day 20

"Relax," he said, waving his spatula, "they respawn every day, so I don't think it's even technically stealing. If it is, we can pay them back later. There's a fully-stocked but unmanned convenience store down the road, one which we have very nobly not taken anything from, every single day."

"Good," Lyn sighed. "After all, if we get out today, we wouldn't want to be rewarded by jail for petty theft." She tacked on a fierce look at the end of the sentence.

Zo shrugged, and let Lyn interpret the gesture as she would. "Eggs are almost done."

Day 21

"Good. I'm weirdly hungry. Also, thank you for breakfast."

"Don't mention it," Zo smiled. "It's nothing I haven't done many times before."

[medusalith-amaquelin]

—JOHAN X NORTH · FOUREVER YOU ·

[toptierteaser]

Fatty Microchip

Imagine, fat boy...

Being unwittingly hooked to a Fatty machine.

A chubby ex-jock, dissatisfied by the layers of pudge he's accumulated onto his once-fit jock body, eagerly jiggling his way to have a microchip installed. A microchip supposedly meant to repress his appetite and encourage healthy living. Tiny cameras hidden at work, at home, in your car, to watch for any signs of fattiness…

But that's not what the microchip is for...that’s not what the cameras are watching for…not any longer, at least…

You see, each of you fatties, each of you lard asses has actually been implanted with a chip meant to CONTROL your weight, to CONTROL your appetite, your self-discipline, your motivation to exercise, your dignity...and considering the potential for the controls to so easily fall into the hands of a corrupted jock, a fit hottie with a vengeance, a muscle stud with a thing for fat boys...well, you could see how quickly the devices could become corrupted...

Now, after a few months of diet and exercise and self-control you were starting to see results. But something has changed. Something has altered. You've noticed you can't seem to be full, no matter what you do stuff yourself with! And you certainly aren't filling up on carrots (unless you count them when they’re in a cake!). No, it's cupcakes you're shoveling in, fat boy! Saucy burritos! Cartons of ice cream! Pancakes for breakfast, corn cakes for lunch, and cheesecake after dinner! Stuffed to the max every night!

What's worse, you have no motivation for exercise! You can't seem to get your lazy, larding butt up off the couch to do anything except to waddle to the fridge in search of more food! You're tubbing up, barely able to fit into your clothes! The buttons on your pants, your shirts are all getting tight! Bunching up and straining against the fat on your stomach and love handles and chest! You look like a tick about to POP, fatty!

But little do you know, as you stuff your face, bingeing as your eyes glaze over in front of the TV. Little do you know as you waddle around at work, as the guys laugh in the corner while you jiggle by, self-consciously stuffing yourself with another snack cake from the breakroom, that the men hired to watch you, to adjust your microchip when you’re feeling lazy or hungry, that they are the ones doing this to you. You had no idea that as you stuff yourself, shoveling in plate after plate at your favorite restaurant, glugging down milkshakes in front of your teasing friends, helping yourself to seconds, thirds, fourths of your buddy’s birthday cake—that behind the screens, a cluster of men are watching you, laughing their asses off as yours threatens to bust the seams of your pants!

You see, because you’ve become something of a guinea pig, fat boy. Their guinea pig. Whenever they see your appetite decrease, these workers flip a switch, dialing up your hunger, watching as you ravenously gut the fridge, cramming in whatever you can fit into your tubbing, insatiable belly! When they see the seams on your pants fighting to hold on for dear life, they press a button, sending your head into a tizzy as you immediately begin to gorge. When you go for a run, they twist your mind, making you doubt yourself, making you self-conscious. As if everyone is watching your juicy tits jiggle on your chest. As if the jocks who pass you easily on the trail can see the way your ass quivers and shakes!

And they keep feeding you, fat boy, making you feed yourself, helplessly ballooning in your own home! Crammed into briefs that will bust at any moment, mindlessly stuffing yourself! Unable to stop, to do anything but succumb, outgrow your clothes, become trapped by embarrassment as your body expands like dough! As you give whatever little control you had over to gluttony, contained and controlled and in the hands of jocks whose lone agenda is to make you thicken like a tubby butter ball. Like a fat, pathetic, remote-controlled toy!

[genshinimpactresources]

Story Teaser: Flowers and Dreams | Genshin Impact

CN | JP | KR

Due to recording arrangements, there is no English voiceover.

[drrav3nb]

A KILLER PARADOX (dir. Lee Chang-hee) CHOI WOO-SHIK as Lee Tang SON SUKKU as Jang Nan-gam

[rambrandt-the-painter]

Honestly it's not queer romance unless a bloodborne monster tries to get the characters every once in a while

[gazkamurocho]

Working hard on that 80s Goromi doujinshi 👀

Also a test for the screentone background xD