#the only one I couldn't find the concept art for rip

[dragaliareferencearchive]

Model references for Vivid Argyle -Kohane Azusawa -An Shiraishi

BAD Argyle -Akito Shinonome -Toya Aoyagi Project Sekai: Colorful Stage!

[all-things-skylanders]

With the Poll officially over, it is time to announce the title of the Custom 7th Skylanders game, and all that will come with it!

Skylanders: Twin Skies

The 7th game in the Skylanders franchise, and the 1st (currently only) game in the Custom Skylanders series, Skylanders: Twin Skies is a game based on duality and the Skylanders Multiverse.

Info on how to join and interact with the project at the bottom.

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Story:

Kaos never escaped from the prison that he was put into by the Skylanders at the end of Imaginators, and remains trapped in there to this very day. Recruits are trained, same as always, and the villains turned Sensei's do what they can to help, even if they still have less than moral opinions on some things.

However, what no one ever expected to happen was for there to be a new Kaos in town... Well, other than Sensei Kaos, but he's chill!

When a rip in the very sky itself opened up, and a battleship larger than some entire kingdoms flew through, no one knew what to expect, and were shocked to find a new Kaos at its helm. Going by the name of King Kaos, and wielding his ultimate weapon, "The Infinite Cosmic Destroyer of DOOM!". he has defeated the Skylanders of his own world, and begun traveling the multiverse, destroying Cores of Light in order to feul his ICDoD to conquer more worlds.

The newest team of Skylander recruits had infiltrated the Doom Ship to try and stop King Kaos, but were caught by him, and blasted out of Skylands by the ICDoD. This caused them to split apart and reform throughout the multiverse anew, taking on traits of their multiversal variants. Now, the Twin-Types, as they call themselves, can switch between their variants, being able to have two bodies in the same mind. The Skylanders and their allies must now work together to defeat their biggest and baddest foe ever before. And King Kaos? Well, he has some tricks of his own up his sleeve...

---

Gimmick Type:

Physical Appearance: Twin-Type Skylanders are a team of Skylanders possessing two elements. They can switch between their elements in the same way that the Nintendo exclusive Bowser and Donkey Kong figures switched between Skylanders and Amiibo: By twisting the underside of their base in opposite directions.

The actual base itself is split in two by the elements, one half being the first element, and the second half being the other element. The figure on the base will be shown in an action pose of their transformation between their different forms.

Game Mechanics: The Skylander's transformations have similar designs, but will play differently. Their forms have different stats, movesets, and upgrade paths. Each form's upgrade path has less upgrades individually, but combined they get more than normal.

They can use these form changes to open elemental gates they normally couldn't, get boosted by elemental zone buffs, and overall change their playstyles to match the needed course of action.

---

Example Figure:

One of the two Skylanders already fully designed for the project, this is Pumpkin Spice!

Pumpkin Spice: Life and Fire Twin-Type skylander

Catchphrase: "Spice it up!"

Powers: In life form, he uses pumpkins, primarily. Shooting pumpkins from his flower bazooka, creating extra massive pumpkins that crash from the sky, and snaring his enemies in vines.

In Fire form, he bursts free from his plant shell, becoming frailer but more dangerous. His bazooka now acts like a flamethrower, blasting out continuous bursts of flames. He can also create a wall of flames around himself, and perform a massive jumping flame stomp.

(Art by @soda-tab-society)

---

Meta Info:

So, you want to join in on the project? There are a few ways to get involved!

Firstly, I and @soda-tab-society are hosting a Discord Server where the community will be able to interact and concept directly, as well as talk about other Skylanders related things! Even if you aren't planning on contributing, if you want to be around to watch the project unfold, or just want to talk about Skylanders stuff, join the Discord!

Now, if you don't have Discord, or don't want to join, people can message me directly, or send in Asks related to the project at any point! I won't really be taking many contributions through Asks, but Messages and Discord are fair game to offer things to the project!

For people just looking to watch from a distance, there will be several Tags that'll be listed in my pinned post that lets you search around for specific things as they appear!

A few things to note about that, though.

This will still be family friendly. No gore, maiming or murder would be involved in the game.

This is all volunteer work. No one is being paid for this, it's just for fun.

This won't be becoming a proper fangame, trying to make that work would be totally impossible. Unless some supergenius coder shows up and offers to make this thing, we're sticking to just making a fun community project.

[hellonerf]

suicide is discouraged in the workplace

im not even gonna try to be coherent here. this is not an analysis post i am braindead. if i was a better artist makima wouldve been my muse when i was deep into chainsawman. actuallt she kind of was but i pussyed out

OK everyone here can subconsciously understand this connection. dont get too hung up on makima's strong motherhood theme and i just thought about what if ame was motherly and i couldn't kill myself right aftee thinking that as i have no means to it. that was a joke its late and im just me. i decided i wasnt a fan of motherly ame though so all suicidal thoughts erased. i am really chill now

old makima fanart i drew that im trying not to rip my hairs out over thinking about it with ame. also dont worry if this makes tou find my mainblog or main accounts whatever

actually theyre really different in many ways now that im looking at these. ame is so much of a son and makima is so much of a mother its like oppsoite spectrums. but thay makes the commonalities fun actuallt. i keep thinking about the movies and makima hating bad movies. ame is not an art kid by any means does he even care of the beauty of the world? i doubt it. but he likes bad movies and he likes cheap entertainment so who knows... they'd disagree on that. well i think makima's opinion on that was pretty extreme so i think most would disagree with her really

i could imagine ame going "Chainsawman. Doesn't spit." and smoking for the first time to look cool like in movies only to pathetically cough. thats their common trait... artifice... humans... but in a way that loops back to being Really Human i guess. holds a kind of arrogance and hubris that is so associated with humanity. it cant be anything else. ame should kill himself i think he should get moments of clarity and awareness and want to kill himself rqlly bad

both concepts of control. awesome. SUICIDE IS NOT ENDORSED IN THE WRKPLACE. ame goes to protestant church once or twice and sleeps because hes useless. makima is baptised and goes to local catholic churches not the cathedrals she supports the local christians.FUCK i just remembered the country mouse city mouse thing. ame is a liar and hates everything and loves everything and never feels content. i like to imagine him as a country mouse so fucking bad i want him to chill out one day and go to those middle of nowheres i know exist in america(can i shove cana in here and get away with it). why are they in the city if they are country mice? because..... you know..... you understand..... another w for eternal unhappiness (refer to title of this post)(suicide is discouraged in the workplace)

they are evil bosses i am the employee and when i ask for a break they gaze at me with a vacant stare and smile and i know in my heart they are viewing me like i am beneath them. i get scared and run away but truth is they didnt hear my request. they do not register individual people

if they met they would know immediately and viceversa. because everyone knows subconsciously because lying is futile and everything melts away. ame:i know a toxic boymom when i see one... okay im kidding makima is a toxic boymom if u push the chainsawman in ur head 🙂 ame as a kind of control devil works inmy head. i really believe ame was a polite child but demanding in many ways. sincerely wanting.

ame:gun devil i'll give you one year of the lifespans of the american people. in exchange i want you to kill makima—that is... the control devil (i never got around to drawing this)(ame and gun devil can you imagine)

or:gun devil i'll give you one year of the lifespans of the american people. in exchange i want you to kill alfred f jones—that is... the united states of america (paradox)

throughout all this i wanted to cite the best makima artist in the world ever but i'd feel bad if they wouldn't want to be associated with evil hetalia america blog. also i want to be normal and not cringe at being cringe just becayse i think makima was a thunderstrike of genius that i shouldn't taint. ame is a more flexible character to me for obvious reasons. this is how i'd shove ame into makima's role. but u couldn't put makima as ame. only one way. im okay with that. concept idea consensus words fear control blablabla u get the point i hate using words dont care sleepy now

[maxwell-grant]

So, as a lover of superheroes, supervillains, super-science ETC, i've had Venture Bros on the mind recently, for reasons that should be obvious, and my mind has run into an intersting question I kinda want to pick your brain on: Why does Venture Bros work. Like, it's a show that is absurdly cynical and dark and bleak. It's comedically dark, but sitll dark. Downright mean-spirited a lot of the time. And normally, I find that kind of cynicism very dull, but...For some reason, here it feels like it works. Maybe it's just the sense of affection, of real love for classic 60s cartoons and superhero comics sprinkled throughout, but...I don't know, it feels like it should make me as angry as something like Velma does but it just doesn't. I don't know why. ANy thoughts

I said as much that a lot of that has to do with the fact that the show stuck around, and the characters were developed so vividly, that the creators had to answer the "...okay, so now what?" process, that usually stops those kinds of mean dark parodies right on their tracks when they run out of cheap shots to take. But honestly, going back and rewatching it? Venture Bros was always going to go there, the whole Jonny Quest parody thing just did not last past Season One, hell you could argue it didn't even really last past the pilot or midway through S1. By episode one of Season 2, the show had gestated into it's own thing. The show was allowed to grow, and change, and develop. It got to move past itself and say goodbye to old favorite ideas and say hello to new ones, it got to breathe new life into itself with the soft-reboot of Season 6 and keep being so much more with every new season.

The artbook goes into this quite a lot, actually, with Jackson talking about how Venture Bros started as a one-off gag observation about how Jonny Quest ripped off Tom Swift, and then became a concept when he realized he could fit all of his unused ideas for The Tick and superhero parodies and weird comic ideas. He and Doc Hammer actually specifically address how the parody element faded and why:

I like the pilot. It isn't the show that we made. but I like the pilot. The pilot was made with a different concept. I can watch it and not tie it into Venture Bros. I can go, "Okay, here are these characters in their first bid for comedy,", and it had moments when we both said, "Yes, we will perpetuate these moments. This is who these characters are." And it had moments of single-beat pilot jumps. It was fine. It was not the show that we kept writing, because we couldn't.

There's something about a straight parody that I think has a cap. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe people can write a parody forever, but I think you can only make so many jokes on one thing for a certain amount of time before you go, "We have to develop the world that these people are in.". It needs a revolving door.

You would need to approach it like Harvey Birdman, which said, "We're going to take every character we can get a license for, bring them onto the show, and have them do their thing in our world so we can demystify all the characters you remember from your childhood". It's a great straight-up parody. But if you take Sealab 2021 - that had nothing to do with the original. They took these drawings, and they said, "These are totally different people. We're going to give them their own different world, their own language, characters", and that worked.

We were leaning towards that. Venture Bros was even weirder because we said, "Let's make this world rock solid and deep and long and have just an abundance of information. Let's have the jokes come from everywhere, and the speed is hard to keep up with. You have to watch it twice". And that was nothing that Jackson and I talked about. Let's make this smart, rich and meaningful, and hope that other people have our sensibility and eventually get it. - Doc Hammer, Go Team Venture!: The Art and Making of The Venture Bros.

There's even this quote from Jackson regarding one of the earliest attempts made in trying to figure out the show's look and design where it was supposed to be animated in CG at Will Vinton Studios, and it was intended to look gorgeous as well as outrageously expensive and within six months everyone aboard had left and Jackson's time in The Tick was up so he had to get production on the new thing moving along. And he describes what wound up being a pretty effective summation of the show post-animation bump;

"Screw the bad-on-purpose sixties Marvel thing. Screw irony. Isn't it way more subversive to do this smart-ass, darkish comedy but have every aspect of it look gorgeous?

That's what got me thinking that it's way cooler to make things well and beautiful than to try to make them crappy on purpose - Jackson Publick, Go Team Venture!: The Art and Making of The Venture Bros.

Most if not everything that makes the show work, that makes it's character work, you can trace pretty directly from that process, of where the show started versus where it ended. It's Rusty Venture becoming a more complicated character and less of a mean caricature. It's Brock Samson needing things to do besides being the action badass who kills armies of disposable henchmen, and the show needing to move past him and make him so much more as a person. It's in how the show was originally conceived in a villain-of-the-week format and The Monarch was a throwaway gag character for the pilot, but The Monarch's defined personality and shtick worked well enough that it made it much easier and more rewarding for them to just go back to him for most episodes, until he wormed his way into becoming the show's other protagonist. It's Hank and Dean growing past literally and textually interchangeable and disposable Hardy Boys pastiches into actual people, distinct people, people who can carry their own plotlines and take center stage and actually be The Venture Brothers as something more than just a throwaway gag concept.

I'm certainly not saying it works for everyone, or that it works 100% of the time, again rewatching the show is putting a lot into perspective for me and a lot of jokes kinda did just age abysmally, but the show knows what it's doing enough to skirt by and avoid a lot of catastrophic pitfalls that usually happen with similar projects.

And really I'd say the main reason it works is, and it's never really just one reason, is because it was, and is, a painstaking labor of love founded on a marriage by two geeks (I'm not even exaggerating, that's how the two described their partnership at least a few times) shooting the shit at a treefort for nights on end, getting to do all these dumb voices that you only get to do with friends, laboring extensively for years on making this thing they'd created the best that it possibly could be, something they put all of themselves into again and again. It's them making a dozen different comedy duos voiced by themselves and finding ways to make each distinct so they can fit in all these dumb and lovely little conversations and skits, it's that combination of their skills and preferences and even disagreements. It's got that Asterix thing where the work is so inseparably intertwined with the partnership that made it, that the work's growth over time is tied to.

So honestly the best way I can summarize why I think the Venture Bros works is because it was 19 years of Jackson Pollock and Doc Hammer at AstroBase doing exactly this, just replace the cartoon sound effects with deep cut pop culture riffs and in-depth earnest extrapolations of why the comic books and cartoons they love and obsess about are deeply stupid on a fundamental level and why this something great that you can spin endless stories and scenes out of, actually no keep the over-the-top battle sound effects, those are equally important.

"Jackson and I, we'd go every day and talk and laugh and get to know each other and not even talk about the show, but just find out what our sensibilites were. It was like the process of falling in love"

We played darts and made up these little skits, much of it became The Venture Bros. It was all kind of based around this idea that Aquaman and Black Manta were not who they were but people that were much chattier and more social. It's almost like what The Monarch and Dr Venture became, actual people that have these bizarre jobs: chaser and chasee. This strange bureaucratic relationship with the paradigm of villain and hero.

I'm a goofball and name shit. Of course I named my studio. We took over the place and AstroBase as this entity - a really filthy fucking painting studio - became a creative tree fort. Owning the AstroBase is one of the things that made The Venture Bros.

A place where we could go at two in the morning and scream at the top of our lungs that had nothing to do with commerce. It was a clubhouse. A pure idiot invention. And if we wanted to stay up all night making costumes or rubber swords, we just did. - Doc Hammer - Doc Hammer, Go Team Venture!: The Art and Making of The Venture Bros.

[spotaus]

please know whenever you give any ichor lore in either tags or a post, i am going

i love love love lore drops.

Wooo!!!! It is so freeing to hear that, thank you haha!!! Everytime you rb or ask or smth I always kinda just go

AND. Y'know- ya know what this gives me the chance to do??? LORE DUMP (putting it under the cut because it might get long lmao-)

I went back on my old phone (basically my art storage system) to find some old art of Ichor!! Like, the four pieces above are not completely Canon anymore, (I couldn't draw Paps to save my life 😭) but this was from before I had decided how Ichor and Reward were created!

The first one labeled 'Judgement' is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of New God aged Ichor! This was when I had it planned that Ichir was the God of judgement abd he made some poor choices so Balance chipped a piece of his power into Reward and Ichor had to raise him. That's no longer the case, but the design transfers over! In the second one 'Punishment and Reward' you can see that Balance's Halo was going to be on Ichor too! This is technically something he *could* manifest still but he deeply chooses not to. The design from 'Eclipse Era' for Ichor is 100% accurate. This was the Era when Ichor ran away from the god's to go stop a prophecy + ended up falling in love and having a full mortal family. (They- they're dead as hell but uhhh-) Then the training fits were scrapped, but the concept continues. Ichor has to train to keep himself healthy since his godly magic is weakened, abd Reward drags him out to do little exercises once they're trapped in the Catacombs!

Another thing is this one specific tree? (Looks goofy af, ignore that- it's meant to be a weeping willow but fluffier lmao-) It's on a ridge a few mountains away from Mt. Ebbot, overlooking a mountain village that Ichor always went back to. It's their sacred tree, but Ichor was the one who made it so different. Smth smth his blood got to the roots once. But basically if he's mourning, if he's celebrating, if he has any big occassion he goes to this tree. It would break his heart if this Tree was ever cut down or severely damaged by anything that wasn't Weather related.

And (old art again, rip my skills-) once upon a time, Ichor could manifest Dragon Features from his magic! Now this translates into a Canon ability to turn into a dragon-ish beast form, but that's more his bones reshaping and less Gold Magic Manifestations lol. He's always had a connection to dragon-vibes, and because he doesn't use gaster-blasters, he *is* the blaster. Only when he needs it though. (And with the chains he can't change shape at all, so that's only a post-story kinda thing or pre-chains thing lol-)

I also have another scheme cooking (two, actually?) One with his Sons (the immortal ones that exist in Catacombtale and escape into the Omega Timeline if that happens-) and the other is Regarding the first drawing I ever made of him and doing a comparison lol- Hoping this was fun lore in the meantime!!

[medievildead]

This is gonna be long and none of you have to read this. I just need to vomit out a happy rant about God of War.

Like I don't know how to describe my joy and I know I keep saying it I know I do but like. Having been a fan of this series since the very first release in the 2000s, loving the story and the depth of Kratos and seeing just how vast and big and huge the fanbase is now. The fanworks people make have made my heart so happy. These games always meant so much to me as a greek mythology kid and its up there with one of the first series me and my dad ever played together (he made me step out of the room during Those Scenes, don't worry)

I remember my dad and I first seeing the demo for the first ever God of War on a ps2 demo disc we got from back when GameStop was still EB Games in Canada. We both thought it was so cool. I watched him play the demo over and over again, until one day he could finally get the full game and we were even more hooked. We beat the game so many times together and watched the bonus content until the disc wouldn't work anymore. We tried our hand at every difficulty just to unlock every costume.

I remember when God of War II came out he was one of the first in line to get it that weekend. He even got the BradyGames player guide, which me and my brother read over and over and over again looking through the pages, all the lore hints and bonus content, all the characters and concept art until the pages ripped out. I still have the poster from that guidebook hanging in my bedroom. I still know where all the secrets are in that game like the back of my hand. When the game was beat and the final cutscene played my gad and I would always day how exited we were for the next installment.

I remember the day my dad got our PSP. He got the God of War bundle, the special red edition with the decal of Kratos on the back, the one that came with Chains of Olympus. I remember waking up early on the weekends to sit with him on the couch and watch him play. And if I ever missed anything because the screen was too small he would describe it to me happily. And when Ghost of Sparta came out I got to experience it all over again.

I remember when we first started seeing trailers for GoW iii and I got so exited. I remember my dad and I playing the demo with the chimera battle and being so, so so happy, saying we couldn't wait for the game to come out. I remember my dad refraining from buying the game on his own, waiting to stop somewhere on the way home from school just to buy it with me. And at this point I was finally old enough to figure out a game controller on my own, without my dad helping me at all, and the thrill of playing as Kratos on my own was a titular moment of me realizing I was growing up. Like not to be emo but playing God of War on my own during my adolescent years hit me more than puberty.

I can go on forever. I remember the day Ascension came out, and booking it to EB Games just to try out all the new features. I remember when I saw the novels for sale at a shop in the city, and not wasting another breath telling my dad I wanted them, and reading them more than I read my books for school reports. I remember almost crying because I didn't own a smartphone and couldn't play God of War: Betrayal and being so relieved to see footage was uploaded online and I was able to experience it that way. The only reason I knew what Soul Calibur even was is because Kratos was playable in Broken Destiny for the PSP. He was my main by the way

TL;DR this series was my childhood. It means so much to me. Every time my dad played he would select easy mode so he could read out the story to me. I hyperfixated on the story. And already being a mythos obsessed kid, GoW encouraged me to research mythos even further. And I was so happy when I would replay the games after learning more and more to understand reference after reference after reference. Teaching myself new glitches and exploits and finding new secrets in hidden areas after every playthrough. Rebuying the games every single time they were ported to a new system or I lost the disc. I own like 3 or 4 copies of each game at this point because I never want to not have them. It was like a new experience every time.

However. The games were always popular yeah. Highly rated. Fun to play. Kratos was a Playstation Icon. but large playerbase meant nothing in the long run for me.

I frequented gaming forums and Facebook in the early days and it was easy to tell most everybody playing these games hardly gave two shits about the story. There was nobody who really wanted to talk about lore. Nobody who really wanted to go in depth about characters. Nobody who really wanted to share ideas beyond the main focus. I remember going on deviantart and seeing people post fanwork on the occasion whenever a new game was released, but then never again. Silence. Interest lost as quickly as it came. Honestly I noticed even when the leaks for the Norse saga were published, the majority of people turned to look, were interested, started talking, but then looked away elsewhere when it wasn't the flavour of the month anymore.

I remember running God of War blogs back in 2012 to 2015 and nothing. Maybe three people interacted. Maybe three people bothered. But there were little to no fans. An audience yes but, fans? Fanartists? Writers? Headcanons? Any kind of fanmade media at all besides a few one off images online? I'd be lucky if I saw a shitpost that mentioned Kratos.

I remember writing fanfiction and posting fanart when I was twelve. I remember having action figures of Kratos decorating my shelf and playing with them till they broke and crying bc I was so upset. I loved enjoying these games. I was having so much fun on my own. I came to terms with an audience of none. Accepting that, despite the popularity of the series, to make fancontent for it, to entertain myself with the deeper lore of it was nothing but a niche.

Even with the release of 2018, as happy as I was for the new hopeful wave of fans, I was always a little upset when I saw people who played that installment as their introduction to God of War, go on to say they had no interest in giving the previous games a whirl because of the difference in gameplay and story.

At the end of it all it was still a niche.

So just... here we are today.

Here we are today and I can go into the God of War tag and be hit with a wave of the most gorgeous shit I've ever seen. Here we are today and I wake up to the most incredible drawings and paintings of the characters I grew up with in the most creative scenarios. The fanfictions that span chapters and rip deep into Kratos and his story. The headcanons that take inspiration from the most obscure lore bits from the series. The OCs that are inspired by this series' specific interpretation of mythology.

I can't put it into words. With the release of the Norse saga it's been... amazing. I just genuinley can't describe my joy. When I was playing the games themselves and the older games, the games I've been hyperfixated on my whole life were mentioned, that was one thing. But seeing other people comment on it. Discuss it. Be invested. Enjoy it enough to be inspired. Its like... So amazing.

I don't know what it is. Maybe its because of how the new games were more story driven than the previous installments. Maybe its because of the protrayal of the characters. Maybe its because of the popularity of norse mythology. I don't know and honestly I do not fucking care what the reason is. All I know is that I'm seeing people fall in love with something that means this much to me. Thank you Santa Monica for not forgetting about the story and games that made Kratos.

Seeing people who finished Ragnarok saying they were finally going to start playing the previous games. Or watching gameplay. Or reading up on the lore. Making fanart of the Greek saga. Fanfiction of it. Talking about it. Talking about the story. The deep, heartbreaking but important story that the games have always been telling and was always there that I have been invested in since childhood. I see fanart of Kratos and Calliope together, of Orkos, of Deimos, AUs and headcanons about them, and I want to cry happy tears.

I know you guys aren't making this content for me specifically. But I still have to say thank you. Thank you for making my heart happy. Thank you for reminding me of my most beloved memories every day with the stuff you make. You make my soul happy. Thank you for making stuff I can love and cherish and share with other fans, OTHER FANS, that I can talk to and listen to and discuss lore and art and ideas with about something so beloved to me and now beloved to others. I see people posting about it in depth and I am so happy to talk to or just hear people talk.

To ALL the fanartists, writers, and just fans in general who actually enjoy my or anyone else's GoW content, all of you on behalf of every long time God of War fan thank you so much for being a part of this community.

The feeling of knowing a series of media that's been so obsessively near and dear to me my entire life is becoming dear to others is indescribable. I know I'm being so emo about this but fr like... having people I can just. Talk to about GoW lore and nodding and agreeing and. Ahhhh.

I'll stop rambling now because I could go on forever but just like. Thank yall for being here. The stuff you guys make and share means more than you think.

Thank ya 💕💕🙏

[cannibal-nightmares]

For the ask game, 9, 10, & 34 !!

from this ask game!

9 - Tell a story from your childhood.

I'll admit, this ask sat in my inbox because of this question. I've realized I remember mostly only snippets and themes and flashes from my childhood, and I think I've taken the word "story" too seriously in this context; the actual "stories" that remain are either that of horror, or teenage mischief (in which I am not about to be a bad influence on the internet heheh), some of which I would need help from my friends to recall in detail. I tried to maybe find my old photos of when I dressed up as Crona for Halloween when I was about 12 years old, but they must be on my old computer. (For the record, I don't remember that Halloween, I just know it happened. My two best friends dressed up as Medusa and Eruka.) My memories seem to be that of a zoetrope with a lot of the frames cut out; don't get me wrong, I spin them, still, all the same, but I must say it took me a whole month to think up of something to answer with...

Let's see, how do I start this story... I suppose I should preface that I was a bit of an anarchist in high school, in the ways that I could be. An example of which, with the help of some friends, we started two clubs, one of which was an under-the-table incognito after-hours ordeal that was meant for queer kids to have a space with like-peers--especially if their homes were unsupportive and unsafe--and the second was the art club. Now, an "art club" may seem pretty standard, but it was more or less based around a similar idea to the former ^^; But the reason I am describing all of this is because the art club--being comprised of a bunch of other-minded LGBT and ally kids--simply didn't want to (or couldn't, due to their idenities) go to prom. Sooo, instead, we organized a trip to Volcom (RIP), an art studio, an outdoor art museum, and--the headlining event--the graffiti park (also RIP). The graffiti park was just as it sounds: Tiered rows of walls where the public could just come by to make art. We all dressed up in thrifted formal wear (yknow, stuff we could get paint on, dresses and button ups) and played around with spray paint for the afternoon. I caught a glimpse of what makes Austin TX that day as a guy sat at the foot of the hill with a typewriter--you could pay or trade him anything to have him write you a poem (I didn't get a poem from him, but I did get one from an artist last year ^^), and... A guy and his friends who spotted my buttons. He asked if I wanted to trade pins with him. Being a kid, I cautiously declined, but he departed with words I still hold very close to me to this day:

"Peace, love, and anarchy."

10. Would you say you're an emotional person?

This is a fascinating question because I have no idea how to answer it. When you initially sent this, I paced around about it until I got tired. I feel inclined to say "Yes, undeniably," and simultaneously "absolutely not." I'm mentioned before that I'm schizoaffective--one part schizophrenic, one part bipolar--but, I'll admit, the latter has hard for me to get my head wrapped around and conceptualize, I've only very recently have been able to observe and acknowledge when more intense emotions come and go, arrive and vanish without notice. But this is just the thing, right? Observation? I don't know how not to compartmentalize my emotions, so while I might feel something intensely, I sincerely don't know how to express it in a way that's adequate (or "appropriate"), so oftentimes I just don't. Or I get ahead of myself and know I am going to feel completely different--and very starkly so--so my subconscious tries to constantly find a middle ground to rectify future confusion for anyone else involved, or to mitigate the damage of whiplash. How do I explain this? It's hard to excite me, but very easy to interest me, and I often worry that discourages folks sometimes because I tend to have a flat affect about things. "Mania vs happiness" is a very new concept I've been trying to untangle and decode within myself, too. For whatever it's worth, the only emotion I have a firm grasp on is rage--nothing makes me more level-headed and laser-focused than pristine anger, hahaha, and, really, I don't know why. Am I emotional? I don't know. I guess on paper, at least, I am. I come upon social situations and obstacles and I can't help but break them all down to fact and observation. A sort of disorganized tidbit here, but, too, if anything, I struggle to name the emotions I do feel; when people ask how I am, I don't know how to answer other than describing whatever activity I'm doing or project I'm neck-deep in. With both constant compartmentalization and a broken affect (either generally flat or I can't stop grinning about nothing), it's hard for me to pin it down. Perhaps I should ask for an outside perspective... I hope this starts to answer your question.

34. Any pet peeves?

I could ramble on about how much I can't stand small talk from strangers or when my colleagues use work-specific lingo in trying to communicate with patrons, but I've got one better: It blows my mind (/neg) when people seemingly don't have a shred of curiosity about anything. Nothing? Really? NOTHING is fascinating? Okay, yeah, maybe plants are boring to the next guy and maybe they don't care about how the cogs in a machine work, but when I drop a foreign word at work or a patron comes in with a wacky hat or we watch birds court on the sidewalk or we hear a questionable factoid on the news and nothing makes you go, at the very least, "huh..." ??? Rocks my world in a bad way. And I'm not talking about someone with low energy or someone who has a hard time focusing to absorb these kinds of things, I'm talking about "Hey, do you ever wonder--" "No." WHAT. Nothing at all? And curiosity doesn't have to be factual, "why does the moon revolve around the earth?" it doesn't have to be social, "What's your favoruite color?" Curiosity can be dragging a pen across paper just to watch a line appear; so when someone has absolutely no fascination? Maybe it's just something I don't understand. Tell me, AITA? Curiosity is the only thing that keeps me sane, I swear by it.

Thank you so much for the asks and for your patience. ^^

[meggannn]

2022

I didn't read a lot of books, or write a lot of fic, or even watch a lot of TV, but I did play a lot of video games!

my real life is a bit of a controlled mess right now, this year I had a medical procedure and a minor breakdown and moved suddenly because covid malfeasance in the city terrified me and I think I need to be with family right now after we've had several family deaths over the years. one day I'd like to move back there but only when I can afford to live alone, which is definitely not in the cards any time soon with how the rental market is looking.

I am proud that I started posting and finished Tides, Receding this year. because I started writing it... three years ago? oh god I just looked it up and it was Feb 2020 that I made the post that ended up spawning the fic. and I told myself 2022 was the year I'd get it done, it's been sitting in my lap too long, and I did it. (party horn noise)

anyway my 2022 game list is under the cut, check it out for recs or whatever. this does not include the games i replayed, which included HZD, DAI, and FE3H, but lbr I'm always replaying those games in my heart

Puzzle games:

The Last Campfire (4/5): Play as a little... thing...? lost from its companions trying to find its way home. Some of the puzzles were a little too simple but this was a short and sweet game.

TOEM (5/5): Play as a tourist taking photos around various places and cities. perfect little photography game with cute side objectives and diverse landscapes.

Inscryption: I ended up abandoning this one during Part 2 because it just didn't hook me and I was hanging on by a thread with the creepiness as it was, but Part 1 was a lot of fun and I'd recommend it for anyone who's a fan of card games, escape rooms, horror, or Yugioh.

Unpacking (4.5/5): Unpack the protagonist's life across various moves. I loved this, my only criticism is that it was too short; I'd love more levels.

Into the Breach (4.5/5): Play as groups of time travelers trying to stop aliens from taking over several war-torn archipelagos in a turn-based combat system. the actual game (till the end credits) is great, the combat system is clear and intuitive. the story is pretty short, but progress carries over at the end cause time-travel. I could've gotten more mileage out of this one, but ultimately burned out cause I wanted to do more than just play the same levels all over again with different units.

FRAMED collection (3.5/5): I guess? for a cool concept—adjust comic panels and strips to help the characters progress through levels—it was a bit forgettable. still, nice for a few hours and probably cool for big comic fans.

Please Touch the Artwork (3/5): An abstract game that combines puzzles with modern art. Oof. I had to give some stars for effort cause I felt like the concept was cool, but I just couldn't get into this one. someone who enjoys both might like it?

Elli (3.5/5): Play as a guardian in a 3D platformer, search for gems and coins, try not to get swallowed by the time rifts. I remember really enjoying this this fall, but now that I'm writing this wrap-up, I barely remember playing it. I liked the puzzles a lot but I think it went on a little long.

Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion (4.5/5): You're a turnip. You rip up taxes in a sentient veggie world. need I say more.

Later Alligator (3.5/5): Play as an Alligator in Alligator New York City and do puzzles and solve crimes. it's adorable, it is, but I wish it was a little more forgiving; if you fuck up a puzzle, you lose so much time in an already limited day cycle.

Rain on Your Parade (4/5): Play as a cloud. Rain on people's parades, wedding days, office parties, whatever. Snow, thunder, acidic goo, you name it. go goblin mode. probably ideal for kids.

Moncage (3.5/5): solve environmental puzzles within a six-sided cube matching elements up across different sides of the cube to affect the scene. very similar to Goragoa, for the three other people who've played that game. short, beautiful, zen game, but man was it hard sometimes or I’m just an idiot. thank goodness for the hint system

Narrative games:

Heaven's Vault (3.5/5): You play as a young woman charged with tracking down a missing archaeologist across the galaxy with a robot companion. Really cool mechanic in this one where you decipher an ancient language as the main gameplay. RPG style choices set across make me want to rate it higher than I have, but some clunkiness (like not being able to revisit sites once you've left) knock it down. Someone once called this made by people who "want to bring archaeology to games but don't known how to make a game" which I agree with.

Tacoma (5/5): You explore an abandoned corporate space station trying to figure out what happened. Honestly, no notes. Interesting narrative, easy mechanics, great writing, doesn't overstep or overstay its bounds.

When the Past Was Around (3.5/5): got stuck on a couple dumb things that the game wouldn't let me interact with, and some other things were really not that intuitive, but other than that I thought this was short and serviceable, good for an afternoon with a sad story.

Wytchwood (4/5): Play as a witch who's charged with collecting twelve souls to deliver to a talking goat in a fairy-tale world. not really a narrative game but it's not puzzle or an RPG, so here it goes. anyway I had a lot of fun with this game. some of the backtracking was annoying and I wish the resource management was a little easier to, well, manage, but overall I enjoyed it.

Forgotten Fields (3/5): Play as a young author traveling home as his family decides whether to sell their home. Honestly a bit let down by this, there were some clunky mechanics I couldn't get over but it had interesting topics about moving on and finding artistic inspiration.

Adios (4/5): A pig farmer decides to quit his job disposing bodies for the mafia. Great voice work in this one, I enjoyed it; even though you know how it's going to end, they still managed to make it suspenseful.

RPGs/Open-world:

Horizon Forbidden West (3.5/5): I think I've already expressed my thoughts on this one this year but overall: great open-world game, mechanically and visually impressive; just OK story, unless you were a big fan of the first game, in which case the story was a big letdown.

Sable (4.5/5): Play as a young girl on her rite of passage as she travels a harsh world called Midden. hard for me to rate any open-world game as perfect because eventually some parts of it somewhere feel like padding, but despite some technical hiccups, Sable is the peak for me. non-combat, vibes-only, beautiful graphics, incredible soundtrack, easy recommend.

Control (3.5/5): Play as Jesse Faden, who arrives at the Federal Bureau of Control looking for her brother after his disappearance several years ago. this never wow'd me the way it was clearly trying to but I did enjoy it, whenever I could get over my fear of anything that moved. gameplay itself was great and i loved the oldest house as a setting. probably fans of the supernatural/horror genre could appreciate it better.

Citizen Sleeper (4/5): play as a cyborg who arrives on a space station and tries to make their way in the corporate underworld. a bit like Disco Elysium meets Murderbot Diaries. there's no combat, so I'd recommend this to fans of the RPG genre.

Paradise Killer (4.5/5): Play as Lady Love Dies in an island out of time, full of gods and demons and human sacrifices tired of being human sacrifices. Someone has been murdered in Paradise and you have to find out who did it. I had SO much fun with this one and the soundtrack is admittedly a huge reason why. (I'm serious listen to Ego 24-7 and tell me it doesn't get you pumped.)

Persona 5 Royal (4.5/5): the Phantom Thieves steal the hearts of corrupt people throughout Tokyo with their inner Pokemon-like demons and man this concept is cool, the soundtrack is killer, the only thing that fucking sucks is the unapologetic sexism that is unavoidable and irritating AF. (am I a little bitter I paid full price for this only a week before it went on sale for half off, yes. but I got a lot of mileage out of this that week during which when I was preparing for a medical procedure, so.)

God of War (4.5/5): Kratos and Boy travel to the highest peak in the realms to spread his wife's ashes. honestly? it's best enjoyed as a guy who enjoys puzzling going on a long walk with his son. as an action game it's meh.

Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered (5/5): I am PETER PARKER and I can throw MANHOLE COVERS at people while insulting their OUTFITS it is hard to top that

still playing:

Phoenotopia Awakening: A young woman named Gale sets on a journey to rescue the adults in her village after they are all mysteriously kidnapped. I haven't finished this one yet cause I hit a wall but ugh I just want to recommend it somewhere. there is so much love in the little details in this game, so many characters and puzzles and enemy types and history, you can tell so much heart went into this that I'm disappointed it won't get a sequel. my biggest criticism for it is that it is HARD, unnecessarily so at times, and there are no difficulty settings which sucks. but it might be good for Zelda fans or people who are good at 2D platforming, which I am not.

Eastward: Sam and John live in an underground town where travel to the surface is forbidden, until a mysterious event triggers Sam's magical powers and the mayor banishes them... eastward. I want to like this more than I am, the post-apocalyptic concept is very in-line with what I like, but jesus this writing feels like it never saw an editor. it just drags. I don't know how many times I can button-mash past Sam saying "Come on, John!" the game is beautiful, the designers and animators really earned their paychecks, but IDK the jury's still out.

[thetantiger]

doing this 'cause I'm already experiencing art withdrawal from my hiatus I've forced onto myself with light encouragement from my friends so here we go

also I realize "game" likely implies some schmo is supposed to be like "please answer #69!" but fuck you I go by my own rules and have fun with it too

LMAO so this computer is only about a year old, a while ago my other computer literally shit itself and died so I used to have paint tool SAI on there but now on this one I legit only have the one I actually use which is FireAlpaca

Forward, but left is easier than right

I used to have this warriors self-insert OC when I was REAL YOUNG named Moonfeather that I still hold near and dear to my heart but haven't made art of in literal years and don't have a concrete design for. yes she was special, yes she could turn into a dragon (???) But if you mean ideas I currently use, Ray's been around since I was 10 so

EDITH LOL drawing little kid her is easy as fuck 'cause she looks almost exactly like kid-Gray but current/teen her is so aids 'cause she has all that dragon shit going on + her hair is complicated

literally I post everything online (that I can ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)) because I need validation there is not a single piece of digital art that I've made that hasn't been posted on the internet (for the most part ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°))

my own goddamn trauma. literally half the time I look at an arc a character just had and went "yo the way snarky like came back in a new form with blue reminds me of how my current cat acts exactly like the one I lost" and then I mental boom

gouache (spelling?), that shit's so pretty

literally just made a video about this lmao, the Animals PMV. RIP

if it's a finished piece in the form of a png I name it the piece's title, if it's a WIP art program file I name the file something like "ass" and move on

hoodies.. or scarves. belts are fun too

music or podcasts. sometimes vcs

face/expressions, I fucking LOVE drawing expressions SO MUCH

lotta them undertale/deltarune fanartists are fucking amazing but I've never been into that fandom. Also my husband is super into FNF mods and those are neat too

the little fucking ocean wiggles on fantasy maps y'know the ones

my house/desk lol

fuck idk. the shit I've trained myself to get good at is the shit I've really cared about, however my least favorite part of a piece is lineart

dear god no I HAVE to separate food from that shit, I have enough food anxiety as it is. I watch videos while I eat

not a whole lot actually, I don't distinctly remember doing so pretty much ever

literally fucking none actually. like I legit scoured my art and animation for this shit and couldn't find ANYTTHING. I adore drawing characters so much and anytime I have to draw something inanimate that's not directly clothing -on- the character or weapons it makes me want to kick a baby. broken glass is fun tho I guess???

hands. not that it's easier for me but I like how expressive I can be with em

tybaxel is so fucking amazing but that's like my only answer, not that I don't like other people's art that doesn't look like mine either but that's literally the only example I could think of because I don't keep track of this sorta thing, if it looks pretty I follow. that's my philosophy

lol

not sure what this means actually so no

only rarely for like purposes of poses or perspective. almost all the time my reference window is just a wow screenshot

nothing is coming to me off the top of my head but I have noticed characters or concepts I thought of before I found certain media crops up in said media anyway. like Detective looks very Lackadaisy and I'm not tryna say I'm salty about it I think it's neat actually

any piece with amab characters whose design includes being shirtless. like bro, tree is just chillin'

sometimes I scribble cool/dramatic expressions before drawing but only occasionally

i helped paint a mural in my hometown :D

vivzie's creations, a lot of the character designs are too spiky/thin for me but I understand the stylistic choice

LITERALLY the one I JUST posted based off the song Mama by My Chemical Romance I'm literally in love with it and I don't think anybody saw it fucking rip

anyway yeah fuck it I just felt like doing that lmfao

Weirdly Specific Artist Ask Game

Didn't see a lot of artist ask games, wanted to make a silly one.

(I wrote this while sick out of my mind last year and it's been collecting dust in my drafts, I might as well let it run free) 1. Art programs you have but don't use

2. Is it easier to draw someone facing left or right (or forward even)

3. What ideas come from when you were little

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

5. Estimate of how much of your art you post online vs. the art you keep for yourself

6. Anything that might inspire you subconsciously (i.e. this horse wasn't supposed to look like the Last Unicorn but I see it)

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

9. What are your file name conventions

10. Favorite piece of clothing to draw

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

12. Easiest part of body to draw

13. A creator who you admire but whose work isn't your thing

14. Any favorite motifs

15. *Where* do you draw (don't drop your ip address this just means do you doodle at a park or smth)

16. Something you are good at but don't really have fun doing

17. Do you eat/drink when drawing? if so, what

18. An estimate of how much art supplies you've broken

19. Favorite inanimate objects to draw (food, nature, etc.)

20. Something everyone else finds hard to draw but you enjoy

21. Art styles nothing like your own but you like anyways

22. What physical exercises do you do before drawing, if any

23. Do you use different layer modes

24. Do your references include stock images

25. Something your art has been compared to that you were NOT inspired by

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

27. Do you warm up before getting to the good stuff? If so, what is it you draw to warm up with

28. Any art events you have participated in the past (like zines)

29. Media you love, but doesn't inspire you artistically

30. What piece of yours do you think is underrated

[m-jelly]

hello Jelly this is the first time I ask you for Helloooooo Jellyyyy i have a request for u with mafia!levi, so imagine that levi's SO is kidnapped by an enemy gang and levi is very distraught 🥺 maybe with a happy ending and with something to do the love in the end <3 i want to angst and fluff with some lovely smut🥹🥹🥹 if it doesn’t matter too muchhhh

Sure, I can do this. I won't do full smut as this is a lot to write, but I'll do a suggestive ending where it's implied they're going to.

@kenkopanda-art <3

That's my wife

Pairing: Levi x Reader

Genre and tags: Gangster Levi, romance, fluff, cute, love, minor violence, kidnapping, angry Levi, rage mode Levi, happy ending, badass reader, badass Levi.

Concept: Levi returns from a meeting and receives a call that you, his wife, have been kidnapped and the rival gang is asking for money and power. Levi goes into full rage mode and wants to wipe out the whole gang to get you back. While Levi is ripping the city apart to get to you, you are teasing and winding up your captives because you believe in your husband. Levi breaks through the building you are in and rescues you. Levi takes you home and tells you how much he loves you.

Warning: Suggestive themes throughout. Violence is described, but it is the reader and Levi committing them.

Levi climbed into his car and sat back in the backseat as his driver took him back to the base. He sighed and clicked his neck as he felt the stress of the day biting at his muscles. He wanted to go home and relax in a nice hot bath with you in his arms.

Levi smiled when his phone vibrated in his pocket, which meant you were calling him. He pulled it out and answered without looking. "Bunny, I miss you so much. I want to share a bath together so I can feel your hot, wet, naked body against mine."

"Uh..."

Levi frowned at the voice. He pulled the phone away to see an unknown number. He pressed the phone to his ear. "Who the fuck are you? Why the fuck are you calling me? Fuck off."

The man cleared his throat. "We have your wife!"

Levi raised a brow. "You have my wife? She at a spa? She causing trouble again? I'll pay for the damages again and please accept my apologies for whatever she's burned and what rebellion she started. She has the best intentions, it's just she gets a bit too excited."

"Mr Ackerman! We have your wife and we will kill her in two hours."

Levi's eye twitched as darkness spread on his face and his voice deepened. "You what?"

"We have her, we'll kill her! You better give us upper town and two million. You have two hours! We'll text you the bank details."

Levi gripped his phone tightly. "Give me proof you have her."

"Fine!" The masked man walked over to you. You were tied to a chair with a bleeding lip from being punched in the face. He reached for you but you bit the air near him making him flinch. "Fuck! Don't bite! Your husband is on the phone!"

You gasped in delight. "BEAR!" You squealed in happiness. "Hi, bear!"

Levi relaxed at hearing your voice. "Bunny. Are you okay? Have they hurt you? Do you know where you are?"

You hummed. "I'm okay, they only punched me in the face. I don't know where I am, sorry. They knocked me out and brought me here."

"They what?"

"I'm fine! Come get me. I miss you."

"I'll come get you and we'll have a nice hot bath together and I'll explore that wonderful body of yours."

The man pulled the phone away. "That's enough! We want that money and land!"

Levi sighed. "Listen here, you fuckface!" He stepped out of his car and walked to his base. "I'm going to find where you're hiding and I'm going to do things to you that you couldn't possibly imagine. I'm gonna make Saw look like a, fucking, kids' movie once I'm done with you. No one touches my wife, understand? No one."

"Money and land."

Levi stared at his phone after they hung up. He stormed over to Hange's lab and threw his phone at them. "Trace that fucking number. I want to know where they called from. Check out the bank details too."

Hange plugged Levi's phone into their computers. "Sure thing."

"Urgent. They have bunny."

Hange stiffened. "I'll find them."

He nodded to them. "Thank you. I'm going to rally the troops." He stormed his way through the base to the main hall to see everyone was there having lunch. He climbed onto the table. "Attention!" He snarled as everyone looked at him. "My wife has been taken by a group of shitheads and they're asking for money and land, but guess what? We're not giving them jack shit. Hange is tracking their location. We're going to march down to where she is and make them all regret crossing the scouts!" He jumped down when the room cheered and got into action. He was going to get you back.

As Levi rallied and found out your location, you were watching the people holding you captive like a cat watching its prey before it pounces. You smiled at one of the masked men when they looked over at you. You grinned wide making them shiver and hurry away leaving you with two.

Red mask shivered. "What does he see in her? She seems nuts."

Black mask shifted on his feet as you made him feel uncomfortable. "All the pretty ones seem crazy. Maybe he likes her because of how she is in the bedroom."

You moaned. "You're right. I'm wild in bed. Why don't you come here and I'll give you a kiss?"

Black masked hummed a laugh. "You know what? I think I will." He walked over to you. "Once in a lifetime, right? You might be dead in two hours." He grabbed your chin and jaw in one hand making the skin between his thumb and index finger dangerously close to your mouth. "I'm going to enjoy this."

You grinned. "Me too."

You bit down on the flesh in front of your mouth making him scream in pain. You whipped your head to the side causing you to rip and tear the muscle and flesh off. You spat it on the floor as blood poured from your mouth. You looked at the black mask as he screamed in agony and stumbled back before slipping and falling onto his back.

Red mask looked at the scene in pure horror. "You crazy bitch!" He ran at you. "I'll break you."

As soon as he was close to you, you stood up quickly with the chair tied to your arms. You slammed your head into his jawline knocking him back a bit. You twisted your body and smacked him with the chair making him fall to the floor. You jumped up in the air and fell back on him causing the chair to break.

You grabbed the knife on his belt and rolled backwards off the guard. You turned to the black mask as he gritted his teeth through the pain. He pulled out his gun to shoot you. You grabbed the gun at the top and pushed it so he shot his friend. You flipped the knife in your hand and caught it before stabbing black mask through the arm and ripping the knife up to the back of the elbow.

You pulled the knife out as he screamed and then kicked him in the throat. You walked over to his friend as blood dripped from you. You walked over to red and kicked him across the face and knocked him out cold. You walked over to black and did the same.

You let out a long sigh before walking over to the camera. You looked up at it and waved. "Did you really think the wife of the big bad crimelord would be weak?" You shook the knife and tutted. "Shame on you." You giggled. "Now, either let me go now or I kill anyone in my way." You gasped when you heard an explosion and gunfire. You walked over to the window and looked out to see Levi below with the gang. "Bear." You looked back at the camera. "You are soooo fucked."

You skipped over to the two guys on the floor and stole their weapon belts. You checked the guns and knife before unlocking the door with a key. You hummed a little laugh at how stupid it was of them to leave only two men in the room with you and for them to have a key.

You slipped out of the room and hummed. "Let's have some fun."

Levi led the charge into the building as you made your way down. He clicked his neck as he walked into the building. He walked past people shooting and screaming in pain. He raised his pistol and shot a man between the eyes, then another with barely any effort. He fired all his bullets and took out anyone in his way.

Levi stopped when he was greeted by a talented man with a knife. He twisted his body side to side. He sidestepped and turned his body. He grabbed the man's fist and his hair. He turned the knife around and slammed the blade into the man's neck over and over.

He yanked the knife out and let the body drop. He wiped the blood off his face and kept walking down the hall. He threw the knife down the hall to his right and hit the running guard between the eyes. He loaded his gun as he stepped into the lift. He pressed for all floors so he could check each one and see where you were.

He hummed along to the elevator music as he went from floor to floor, but there wasn't anything on the others. He sighed when the doors opened and two masked men pointed their guns at him. He shot one in the foot and shoved the other one's gun up into the air. He pressed his gun into their jawline and shot.

Levi shoved the man back and grabbed the one with the hurt foot. He slammed him against the lift wall face first. "Where's my wife?"

The guard whimpered. "I-I won't tell you! I'm not scared!"

Levi pushed the man's arm up and smelt pissing. "Tch, is it normal for a not scared man to piss himself?"

"I won't tell!"

Levi sighed. "So many bones to break, so little time." He snapped the guard's thumb and waited for him to stop screaming. "First I break, then I cut."

"O-Okay! T-Top floor!"

Levi hummed and pressed for your floor. "You better be right."

"I am!"

Levi watched the numbers go up until he reached the top floor. He peered out to see you kneeling on a man and stabbing him in the back. "You were right." He sliced the guard's neck open and dropped him. He walked out of the lift and smiled. "Bunny."

You looked up and gasped. "BEAR!"

He opened his arms. "Bunny!"

You dropped your knife and ran for Levi. You jumped into the air and landed in Levi's arms. You squealed as he spun around with you. "I missed you!"

He looked up at you as you wrapped your legs around his waist. "I missed you so much."

You pushed your fingers into Levi's hair and crashed your lips against his. You kissed your husband roughly causing your lips to be bruised. You shoved your tongue into Levi's mouth and moaned in delight when his tongue massaged yours.

Levi carried you to the wall and pressed you against it. He grinded his body against yours as your kiss became more heated. He gripped your ass hard in his hands making you moan into the kiss. You tugged on his hair as a reply making him grunt.

You pulled from his lips and panted as he nipped and sucked at your neck. "Levi."

He growled your name. "We really need that bath when we get home."

"We do." You gasped when a thought clicked in your head. "Levi! We need to get the gang leader."

He put you on your feet. "You're right." He held your hand. "Come on, my love, we have a man to capture and hurt."

You skipped along with Levi. "Can we have pizza tonight?"

"Yes." He went to kiss the back of your hand and saw dried blood. "Tch, bunny! You've made a mess."

You pouted. "You have blood on you too. It's on your suit."

He looked down at himself. "Oh yeah...tch, damn it."

You pulled out a key and unlocked the door. "It's okay. I can get the blood out."

"You're really good at hiding evidence and getting rid of blood." He kissed you. "My cute little monster."

You giggled and opened the door. "Thank you."

Levi winked at you and walked into the office. He yanked you against him and kissed you as he shot the gang leader in his knees. "I really do love you so much."

You licked your lips. "I love you too." You sighed and looked over to the leader crying in pain. "It's not that bad!" You walked over to him and stepped on one of his knees. "I've seen worse."

Levi lifted you off the man. "Bunny, leave him be."

You pouted. "He kidnapped me! He's also the one who punched me."

Levi grabbed the guy's ankle and dragged him to the lift with you. "He'll get what he deserves at the base."

You pressed the lift button and hummed. "Can we have dessert too?"

"What are you thinking?"

You hummed in thought. "Could you make your amazing ice cream sundaes? You know, with the works?"

"Of course. I'll make a nice big one." He dragged the man out of the building as he talked. "We can put the brownies in that you baked."

You skipped around. "Yes! That's going to be so delicious."

He threw the man to a group of his gang. "That's the leader." He watched them grab him like a horde of zombies. He turned to you. "I'm sure we have chocolate sauce."

You jumped into his arms. "I think we do."

He carried you to his car and sat in the back with you. "First thing we need to do is have a shower to clean ourselves, then a bath."

You nuzzled the crook of his neck. "Yes."

He covered your face in kisses as his hand slowly massaged your thigh. He kept kissing and touching you until you reached the base. He picked you up and carried you to his place. He put you on your feet and peeled your clothes off until you were naked.

Levi turned on the shower and slapped you on the ass. "Go clean."

You giggled as you stumbled into the shower. You rinsed yourself and watched Levi start a bath. You opened the door and waved your naked husband over. "Come help me. I'm so lonely and there are places I'm struggling to clean."

Levi growled and climbed in with you. "How can I help?"

You took his hand and placed it on your pelvis. "Here." You moved his hand down to your pubic area. "Here." You moved his hand lower and moaned. "And here."

Levi smiled as he slowly moved his fingers. "Oh, I can help with that." He pressed you against the shower wall and kissed you. "I love you so much."

You panted as pleasure burned through you. "I love you too."

[neonnoir-ao3]

Some Words of Comfort.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of people (especially those who have read spoilers/are actively searching for leaked content) lament about their future reactions to the deaths of our beloved characters in-game.

We all knew this was inevitable, and that them living was not an option for the plot of the game, but the time has finally come to face it head-on.

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I understand that someone outside this community might be like “it’s just a game”, but I know it’s way more than that to many: the concept of a female villain that, to many, can be seen as sympathizable and even endearing, is a bit of a new concept— especially on such a large scale as this instance.

In addition, Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters have become a bit of a comfort item for some (with an emphasis on sapphics/wlw, from what I’ve seen personally) in the form of a large, protective, and caring hypothetical partner, or even just a maternal character one can appreciate simply because of her love for her children. Regardless, most of us are here due to some desire for comfort.

Take my own story with this community, for example:

(tws for death, covid, suicide, and general medical emergencies)

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Frankly, 2020 and the beginning of 2021 have ruined me. I lost two men who were the only two positive father figures I’ve ever had. The last of the two tested positive for covid and deteriorated within days, to the point where less than a week after testing positive, my family was making the choice to pull the plug. This all occurred days before Christmas and my birthday. On the first day of the spring semester, having not had the time to properly mourn my grandfather, my mother is in the ER for multiple days with an internal infection that doctors said likely would have turned septic if she had waited to come in any longer. This led to three surgeries throughout the next few months. (Oh, and one of my relatives quite literally dropped dead on that first day of class, too). I am also estranged from one of my parents, and they have been trying to contact my family: they have multiple untreated mental illnesses (severe NPD, bipolar, and more) and they are extremely aggressive in that state of mind and they are agitated extremely easily. That only brings more stress, along with resurfacing trauma and related emotions. Every moment of every day has been a struggle. So much so that I failed half of my classes voluntarily simply because I couldn't do them anymore.

To be perfectly honest with you, I didn’t expect to be here right now. I expected that the pain of simply moving forward would have finally overridden my fears of death and that I would have already ended my suffering by now.

Then, in late January, I saw something trending on Twitter. About a new female villain in an upcoming horror game. And it went from there.

As cheesy as it sounds, this fandom and its content seriously saved my life. In the darkest of days, I’ve come to this tag for comfort. The oddest way I found said comfort was through those who were attracted to Alcina aesthetically. I have extremely long-term trauma related to being bullied and being the victim of a hybrid catfishing/'Oreo Game' on early social media by peers in middle school to the point where I do not think of myself as being able to be loved, let alone being worthy of it. Finding this community not only provided a great form of escapism (and opened a door into a fantasy world where I could imagine my own person vampire milf gf), but also gained a little bit of self-esteem (as many of you know, I share a lot of visual qualities with Alcina. -yes, I'm still kinda freaked out about it-) via seeing people where features/attributes like mine were actively praised and desired rather than insulted and pushed away like they have been until now.

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(okay sorry that kinda turned into a trauma dump but I needed to emphasize the fact that this community has seriously helped me during a really dark point in my life, and I know I can't be the only one with that sort of experience)

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What I’m trying to get across here is that, like many others, this community and its content have been comforting and therapeutic, and it really is more than just a game to us. It’s entertaining and even a form of escapism in these extremely trying times. We all have some degree of PTSD from surviving a literal mass plague— and this is something we're using as a method of coping. a distraction. a coping mechanism.

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With that being said, here are some ways to hopefully assist in lessening the emotional stress:

(please note that I am not a mental health professional and these may not be healthy coping mechanisms for everyone.)

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Understand that it’s just a game.

I know, this sounds completely counterintuitive, but it’s more or less about keeping your level of immersion down. Personally, I can’t do scary shit in general: I have to listen to music on low volume while watching dark ARG vids at night or when I’m alone because I get too into it, and then my paranoia kicks in. Sometimes just pausing for a moment and grounding yourself/reminding yourself that this is a video game: a jumble of code and 3D rendering that doesn’t have to affect your views/headcanons if you don’t want it to. Did your favorite character just get slaughtered? Nope, that 3D rendering of them just got un-alived, that’s all.

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Ignorance is Bliss/We are the Captain Now

Simple: Capcom can’t even pronounce Dimitrescu right, or even acknowledge the way it’s correctly said in Romanian culture itself. How can you trust them to give you a perfect canon? That’s the thing: with that logic, you can’t. What they say is true means little (if anything, for that matter) to your headcanons and preexisting ideas of the Dimitrescus. In short: fuck ‘em.

I’m currently seeking a double major in pop culture, and one of the cool things I’ve learned so far is affirmational vs transformational fandom. Affirmational is where official canon is seen as the law of the land, and followed to a T. Transformational is seen as much more inviting for audiences, allowing them to bend canon as they wish to fit their own creations. This fandom is obviously transformational, so take that game canon, rip it up, and get back to whatever you were doing.

Capcom’s canon is not the end-all, be-all. Far from it, actually.

Want to still acknowledge canon? Godmod your way out of it.

Character A died? It’d be a shame if they emerged from the rubble they 'died in' a few hours later, very beaten but alive nonetheless... how awful would it be if they sulked away, nursed their wounds, and continued to live... (/s)

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Ignore it completely.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there w be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the in any way. Stay with the version in your head that makes you happy.

Get Creative!

If you're into creating fanart, writing fics, or even just posting a list of headcanons, take some advice from the late Carrie Fisher: "Take your broken heart, and make it into art". Make the fluff oneshot of your dreams! Draw the fanart you've been wanting to! dump lighthearted headcanons into the tags! Not only will it cheer you up, but sharing it with the community will spread the love!

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I know a lot of people are struggling with this emotionally (especially with the pandemic making entertainment like this even more important sources of escapism and coping mechanisms) and I hope that, at the very least, I was able to help comfort one person who reads this.

Remember: give it time. Once the game drops, there will be a wave of grief, but eventually, we as a community will recover, and get back to business as usual. Think about it like the flowers that bloom after major wildfires: after a period of loss, some beautiful can still come of it.

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💙

[snowfianna]

Fable IV rant:

I'm so pumped up for the 23rd because everything has led me to believe that Fable 4 will be announced this year and the game's existence has been confirmed for a while anyway it's just a matter of time of when will Fable 4 show itself. It's a badly kept secret tbh.

So to those who don't mind a big rant or wish to add on to my rant- here we go!

Can you imagine how good the graphics would be for this game, we've all seen modern games, surely, and they're all bloody fantastic looking. Fable Legends is technically the most recent Fable game despite it being a free to play online game

and that it's cancelled

but it also had a gorgeous look to it all! And the character models did great justice to the concept art and honestly that has my hopes real high because I love the concept art of Fable, specifically from Mike McCarthy, so exaggerated and recognisable- yet in all the games I can confidently say they did not do justice to his character design, specifically for Reaver. Sure, he looks stunning in the third game, but not quite what he looks like in his concept art sadly.

But also, since Fable was made in Unreal Engine (I'm pretty sure at least) we've seen examples of what can be done in Unreal Engine now and it's absolutely breath taking!

If you haven't seen here are some examples and they're so life-like.

Moving on from graphics!

Since Playground Games is behind the development of Fable 4, they would be spectacular at an open spaced world, judging from the Forza games.

I always loved the open world feature added to Fable, it made things more adventurous and you could do so many things that weren't at all related to the main quest to progress the story and it was just thrilling to see there were other things going on! I'd love to just have my dog companion running through fields, fighting enemies left and right and finding buried treasure or forgotten chests.

Run into strangers who request aid in something silly or rather serious and it would be up to you with how you go about the quest or if you even accept it to get renown or gold. Cause a massacre in towns and villages, running off with low morality and plentiful loot- oh one could fantasise of this all day.

Story, characters, writing and voices.

Fable has always had a fun environment of fantasy and a rather good story (despite the curse of mundane or pathetic boss fights in which I hope Fable 4 breaks this cycle) but the one thing that's always kept me on my feet in the games is the writing and the characters. It always just tried not to take itself too seriously, throwing in absurd quests that probably requires cheese or a really weird-looking outfit. It always kept my attention rather than just pure edge and seriousness of life or death.

The characters are a given, the writing done for them all is perfect in my eyes, I love hearing the variations of how characters of NPCs interacted (enough so that I even bought two of the Fable books written by Peter David). Despite Fable 3 not being the greatest at it's time, I found myself absolutely enjoy the characters for how they were- I even cried over Walter's death because it genuinely felt like I lost somebody pretty close (RIP Walter🙏). The writing and the chosen voice actors were superb and I'd love more of it.

I hope this time we can receive a full story instead of how Fable 2 and 3 were where plenty of plot points and such were cut out due to time constraints- thanks Microsoft, very cool. I'm still in anguish when listening to the Developer's Diary 3 of Fable 3 hearing lines that were just never said in the final product and it was definitely not just additional lines that weren't required as it seemed to mention entirely different things that weren't in the game; i.e. Reaver talks about his pirates in Bloodstone and how he misses them- in the final product he never mentions it and it's even shown that he's tried to completely bury his pirate past for whatever reason.

The pacing in Fable 3 was rather strange too, it felt like the revolution should've lasted longer.

Another hope of mine is to have choices that aren't so painfully black-and-white because it's very obvious which is the good or bad option to a scenario- personally for me I'd like to be morally grey rather than pure good or pure evil.

They better have kept the mechanic of your actions affecting your appearance too to the point where you grow horns and get cracked magma-like skin or this slight glow and aura around you and this flawless skin. It kind of died down in Fable 3, only looking more tired or have completely black eyes and the good- eh yeah not much I can say for when you're good. Purity and corruption seemed to also vanish in Fable 3 (at least I think) since you couldn't really change prices of the homes you were renting out, unless I've been a big goof who didn't arrange the rent prices in the game because I didn't know how.

Combat

Combat in all the games was rather straight forward, especially in Fable 2 and 3 where everything was just easy to beat or you could get overpowered around the start of the game. I'd hope the combat improves greatly this time and even bring back real consequences to dying instead of immediate revival with some lost experience and a scar. We need more serious consequences to your actions (this can be applied to all decisions rather than just if you die in a battle) even if it's just having to reload the last checkpoint. Makes things more challenging this way.

Another thing is to make boss fights less repetitive and simple- sure I can forgive it if the boss is from around the start but if they had phases you had to keep ontop of and didn't rely on summoning a bajillion other enemies to strike you, I'd be ever so grateful.

And if there's other characters fighting along side you, I'd hope they'd genuinely be helpful and keep up to speed with the player. I'm sure the AI in the past was the problem for this as AI wasn't at its best during that time so characters fighting by you didn't do too much or just did whatever that wasn't helpful. Now though, AI has improved immensely (I mean look at The Last Of Us 2, the AI is👌) and due to this, I'm sure characters would make battles more fun and the characters be more involved with the fight and even story.

Mana should be brought back as well, in Fable 2 and 3 mana just ceased to exist so you could just endlessly and repeatedly use the same spells and it just gave you too much power and the enemies barely stood a chance.

We need challenges people- CHALLENGES!

Medieval times? Yes.

I love Medieval fantasy and as much as I like the Victorian era too, I didn't think it quite suited Fable, as fascinating as it was to see fantasy turn industrial, it kind of took away from the Fable feel that I so crave. If they have indeed brought the game back to medieval times it means more creatures and enemies are back rather than driven away or limited to the same handful of enemies.

We can all also agree the guns were overpowered, though I did like receiving the Red Dragon late in Fable 2 to absolutely mow down enemies, it was satisfying to say the least. However, guns were far too powerful for the game, so I demand the bows and crossbows back thank you very much- or even throwing knives- I'll take what I'm given.

I'd love to see more of the natural landscape rather than towns or buildings that took over once entirely natural areas (Millfields/Bowerlake). However, I won't object to ruins of old buildings taken over by nature.

Skeptical with Playground Games? Don't be.

Are you worried that Playground Games wouldn't do justice to Fable since it's not Lionhead Studios? Don't be, it's been noted that Playground Games has hired several ex-lionhead workers and plenty other skillful workers to ensure we get the best product. I have high hopes and expectations for Fable 4 even if it's developed under a different studio, I've seen great things from them and I will believe they'll deliver us only the best.

Side note to all this

I will crash and burn if I don't see a crumb of Reaver or Jack of Blades in Fable 4- I don't know how true any rumours are of Fable 4 with time travelling and Jack returning, but we'll just have to see. Reaver still remains as my absolute favourite character of all time and I'd love to see more of him, even see him before he was 'Reaver'.

Jack too, more of his lore is stated elsewhere rather than in the game itself and I'd love to see it all be brought into light and really expand on his lore and make it known- rather than have ever-loving Fable fans like me dig around for these rather delicious bits of canon information.

That's my big rant, feel free to share your thoughts and what you'd look forward to!

Have some accidental art leaks from a Playground Game concept artist- believed to be for Fable 4👀

[author-a-holmes]

I've been thinking about how to phrase what I want to say. Because the right to stop writing a piece of work is 100% always the author's perogative.

I also know from the comments that the other IF author didn't request this work be stopped or changed. So there's no negative vibes coming from that side of the discussion either.

And other people have already pointed out that, unless the content has been copied and pasted verbatim, then you're in the clear in terms of plagarism. Idea's cannot be copyrighted. There are no new idea's, only new combinations. And whatever similarities there MAY be, no one can write the same story you can. With the same turns of phrase you use, your authorial voice, and your decisions when it comes to plot twists and relevations.

But I have also been in this author's position.

When I was much, much, younger. Under 20, and still writing fanfiction, and someone dropped me a private message asking if I was rewriting someone elses fanfiction (So essentially a fanfiction of a fanfiction). And while I, in no uncertain terms, explained that I'd never even heard of this other fanfiction, let alone read it for it to influence my own work, even subconsciously, I do understand how knowing about it can shake a creator's confidence in their work.

I remember considering reading the other work to see how similar they were, but I thought that would probably just make it worse. Because then I couldn't honestly say I knew nothing about it. In the end, after about a month of worrying, I private messaged the author and explained that someone had reached out to me, and I wanted to reassure them I had never read their work, and had no intention of doing so, but if they wanted me to recommend their fanfiction in the author notes section of mine, I'd be happy to do that.

The author never got back to me. I continued writing my project. And honestly, until right now, I forgot all about it.

All that to say I completely understand the need to step back, take a break, and let yourself just... reel or wallow, or soak in the reality and think about it a bit.

...

What I would add, to anyone thinking about reaching out to an author like this, maybe pause first. Maybe let yourself think twice. Maybe just don't.

Unless you can see that someone has ripped your writing wholesale, copied and pasted your work into their own, perhaps let other creators create in peace. Idea's aren't copyrighted. You don't own a concept or genre or a fantasy race or a magical trope.

And you never quite know what might destroy a piece of art; not just for the artist, but the potential consumers of it too.

I don't know this other Interactive Fiction. But if I enjoyed this project, it's highly likely I'd have gone and read the other one. If someone liked my fanfiction, it's highly likely they'd have gone on to read the other users fanfiction. No one has ever been sad about two cakes. The rising tide lifts all boats, so if you find a story with similar themes to yours, ask if you can cross promote instead! Help each other reach MORE readers, and everyone benefits.

Discontinuing work on Such Happy Campers for the foreseeable future

This is to inform you guys that I will drop SHC for the time being. I don't know if I'll pick it up again anytime soon; right now it seems unlikely. The reason is that another author (whom I do genuinely admire and look up to) has contacted me privately implying plagiarism. They were polite about it, so no hate there or anything.

Any resemblance between SHC and any other projects is unintentional, but I think knowing that Such Happy Campers is being perceived that way (and by an author whose IF I really like, no less), has and will continue to taint my own perception of it.

I just can't imagine going on with the story right now. I know that it might be early to make such a decision, especially since that just happened and I'm still kind of in shock about it, but continuing with the IF after this is kind of unthinkable to me. Plus, I don't want to invite drama or beef with anybody, so this is also a preventative measure. I'm admittedly fragile about my writing. Right now, I really want to forget Such Happy Campers ever existed.

To those who liked this project, I'm sorry <3 I really am. I'll still be working on my other project, so no worries there, and I hope you guys will understand.

ETA: the author in question didn't ask me to take down my writing or anything, that's my own decision. Don't wanna make false claims here.

[princebugs]

A meeting with Niles.

Quivering digits rub and scratch at the back of his own neck, goosebumps rising as his eyes shift from corner to corner. He swallows, the nervous lump in his throat dissipating for only mere moments before quickly arising once more. His movements remain shaky, and shifty. He feels nervosa creeping up his spine leisurely, causing his hyperactivity to skyrocket. Remaining still is no easy task.

The male can almost discern a feeling of eyes on the back of his brunette tresses, watching him from the shadowed corner of the room. Perhaps a figure is awaiting the perfect time to pounce on the human and rip his throat out, at a pace fast enough that he wouldn't scream--- no one would hear his death. He whips his head in that direction, his heart pounding against his chest.

Cue a sigh of relief.

It's just dust. It's just dust, Gavin. Can't hurt you. Maybe fuck with your allergies a bit, but it won't hurt you. You're probably just crazy, like your uncle Kevin--- he still lives in that shed, right? Still talking about those damned 'creatures of the night', hiding in there with a shotgun with hopes that he'll be the one to kill 'em.

Maybe you'll be like that soon, if these delusions go any farther.

A sound of a doorknob clicking interrupts his thoughts and causes the male to jump in his seat, right forearm raising in a defensive manner before realizing that it was only his new therapist, clad in a black turtleneck and black pants.

When did he get here?

Gavin briefly takes a glance down at himself, and is just a slight bit pissed at himself for not dressing nicer.

If this was anything but a therapy session where Gavin would have to speak openly about his mental problems, he would have dressed better. He didn't see the point of wearing something appealing when it was just therapy, and his therapist was most likely going to be some old man or young female that he didn't need to impress.

Sadly for him, the male was definitely not an old man. He looked, roughly, around Gavin's age--- yet he had the sort of timeless face that could pass for a nineteen-year-old. The turtleneck's sleeves were pushed up to his elbows. Gavin usually considers turtlenecks "phckin' ugly" but this guy has changed the definition for him.

And he was overwhelmingly pale. Did he never go outside?

Lesson learned. Wear cute clothes EVERYWHERE.

“Mr. Reed?“ A voice brings Gavin out of his train of thought, and he notices that the male is no longer standing, and is, in fact, sitting right in the position ahead of him, with his head tilted in slight concern as well as confusion.

Dammit.

“Shit, ah,“ Gavin struggles to push away his thoughts for the time being, his nails scratching at the back of his neck as he awkwardly laughs half-heartedly. “Yeah, yeah. That's me, alright.“

The therapist merely emits a soft chuckle, though his mind seems to be elsewhere. He doesn't know for sure, but he thinks that he's making a mental note of some sort--- probably from his behavior. This feels almost like a job interview, and that makes Gavin straighten out his back and lock eye-contact with the male across from him, his cerulean optics now gazing into steel hues. This, however, prompts another brief snicker from him.

“This isn't a professional setting, Mr. Reed. You can sit however you see fit; it is better that you feel comfortable while we converse with one another.“

Gavin's brows furrow together in exiguous uncertainty--- this man spoke like he was reading from a college art essay. Though he said it wasn't professional, it almost felt like it was; like Gavin was being judged for every single movement he followed through with.

It was almost as if he was being ordered to feel more comfortable, which is the most awkward thing ever. It puts on pressure, and makes the situation even more uncomfortable. Nonetheless, Gavin leans back, slouching a modest amount whilst placing his elbows on the back of the couch he sat upon. He stared ahead with half-lidded eyes, and his therapist was studying his body language the entire time.

Gavin would consider this creepy, but it's alright because it's his therapist.

“I'm Dr. Anderson, but you can just refer to me as Niles,“ His therapist--Niles-- begins, his nimble fingers picking up a set of reading glasses and placing them on his visage for a few moments to seemingly read Gavin's file, then setting both the glasses and the file down on the table in front of him. “How about you tell me why you set this urgent appointment with me, hm?“

His voice was smooth, like velvet draped across pale skin. It brought chills down Gavin's back. Compared to how coarse and rough Gavin's voice was, Niles' voice was soothing.

Calm down, dude. This isn't a therapy session for questioning your sexuality. Reply to his question, fucknut!

“Yeah, sure, sure. Uh, where do I fuckin' start?“ Again, Gavin laughs to release some tension, and when the room is silent, he coughs. And continues. “Hah, erm... well, I've been having these weird delusions and feelings of someone watching me. Paranoia, or whatever. I can't sleep, either.“

The concept of therapy wasn't really Gavin's thing; the idea of sharing all of his thoughts with another person was just plain idiotic, in his opinion. He'd much rather keep his feelings to himself, but since his mother called him out of the blue and informed him that she had scheduled an appointment with an "experienced therapist with good reviews" (which sounded shady as hell) because she was worried.

Truth is, he couldn't blame her for being worried. He had shut himself in his apartment, and wasn't even going to work the majority of the time. And when he did go to work, he only got sent home because he continuously kept falling asleep at his desk. Probably because he doesn't feel the eyes on him as he sleeps at work.

“Interesting,“ Niles bobbed his cranium in confirmation, his weight now leaning back as he crosses his arms over one another. He always seems like he is analyzing Gavin in some way.

Weird as fuck.

“So, perhaps you could be having some sort of stalker, or PTSD from something happening to you in the pa--“

“No, no. It's not like that.“

Niles seems suddenly interested and more inclined to listen, his head once again now tilted to the side in curiosity as his brows raise upwards. “Oh?“

Gavin gulped--- the aura that this guy gave off was intimidating as hell, and it was difficult to trust him. “Yeah, like... if it was something like that, then wouldn't I feel some sort of recognition kind of thing? Stalkers are usually people that the person knows personally or knew personally, and PTSD... don't think that's applicable to this situation. I don't think it's that.“

“Elaborate.“

“If it was PTSD, then it wouldn't feel so... so...“ He struggled to search and find the correct vocabulary, the right words-- it was on the tip of his tongue. His eyebrows knit together in comprehension, irises looking down at the couch as he--

“Real?“

Niles' tone is almost demanding in generality; it causes Gavin to shudder and almost cower in fear. Momentarily, he remembers how stern his father's voice was, how it terrified him to his core. Fear can make anyone curl in on themselves.

Gavin nods his head, his grey-blue hues now gazing out the large-sized window located directly to his left, watching as doves fly away. “Y-- yeah. Real. I've experienced PTSD before, and it's nothing like that, at least not this time. It's inhuman, almost. Like... like someone, some thing is going to pounce on me at any second. I don't feel safe in my apartment by myself. Hah, I even had a little moment in here before you got here--- thought something was in the corner.“

His therapist only stares, bobbing his head every now and then as a way to show that he was listening. Though, it didn't seem like it. It was as if he already knew everything that Gavin was saying. He identifies a sudden feeling of recognition--- one that chills Gavin to his very core.

“I, uh--- have I met you before?“ The detective leans forward now, setting his elbows on his knees. He can feel the shadows under his eyes growing deeper-- is that normal? How long had it been since he had slept? Gavin's calloused phalanges weave through his brunette locks, then gripping them tightly. “God, I must be going crazy. Of course, I haven't seen you anywhere--- what am I thinking? Turnin' into Uncle Kev-- I've been seein' shit that just isn't there. It's probably just sleep deprivation, and this therapy session won't do anything, I'm just wastin' my ti--“

“Here, walk with me outside,“ His incoherent rambling is cut short by Niles' request.

Gavin's pate raises upwards, catching sight of the therapist's outstretched palm, reaching for him. Motioning for Gavin to take his hand. His eyes lock with Niles.

“Wowza! Hand-holding? At least take me out to dinner first, eh?“ Gavin internally slaps himself. Meanwhile, Niles just rolls his eyes. Not in an annoyed way--- in an amused manner. Phew, Gavin didn't scare away his therapist.

“Come on, you said that being in here made you have a little 'fit' as well, right? Perhaps being out instead of holed inside your apartment will make you feel better, in some fashion?“

Gavin ponders about his next move, though it didn't seem much like a request at this point. Niles just seemed like he was politely ordering him to go outside. Reluctantly, he places his tan-colored hand in Niles' pale palm, letting his hand envelop over Gavin's and pull him up to his feet abruptly.

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

They meandered around the perimeter of the building for several moments, neither of them uttering a single word the duration of their walk. Gavin wasn't particularly skilled at breaking the ice when it came to long periods of silence similar to this; he would usually make it worse, actually. Saying something that would be so unexpected that it catches the recipient off-guard, or something that just makes the air between them extremely awkward all of the sudden.

Eventually, Gavin can't stand it anymore. He coughs to clear his throat up, his hand clenching into a fist for him to cough into for a few moments before scratching at the back of his neck again, and again.

“So, like, you have any family around this area, or are you new to Detroit?“

Greaaat question, Gavin. What if he has no family, and you just brought up shitty memories? GOOD GOIN', PRICK.

Niles hums. “I am relatively new here, but my brother lives here with me. You probably saw him whilst walking around the building, yes? Shorter than me, brown eyes?“

Gavin recalls seeing someone who fit that description. “Yeah, that's your brother?“

“Indeed, he is. He's... a little brat sometimes, prefers to do his own thing, but he's still family. We had to move rather abruptly due to some... sudden consequences of our actions, I suppose. Nothing for you to worry about.“

That bewildered Gavin, but he decided not to press further.

Luckily, Niles kept the conversation going. If the silence began once more, Gavin thought he could die.

“You mentioned an uncle earlier?“

Right, during his ramble.

“Yeah, hahah--- Uncle Kevin. He's like, the weird family member, y'know? The one who lives in a shed with a shotgun--- claiming that he'll prevent the apocalypse by killing the bloodsuckers, or something like that,“ Gavin laughs at this, yet Niles is silent.

“How peculiar. Bloodsuckers, you say?“ Niles inclines his head towards Gavin, his arms remaining behind his back as he walked. “What do you think of that?“

Gavin's face scrunches up, emitting a confused noise before sighing softly, remembering that this was a therapy session after all. “I dunno, man. Frankly, I think the idea of vampires existing is stupid as fuck, actually. Like, wasn't it just a myth, or fairytale? Or something like that. Nonetheless, it's hella dumb, and I don't believe in it one bit. If I ever saw a vampire in front of my face, I'd probably call it ugly and scream.“

Niles does laugh at this. “Be careful about what you say, Mr. Reed, you never know who, or what, might be listening.“

The way he said this caused shivers to go down Gavin's back. He sneered at Niles, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and emitting a disgruntled huff. “Don't even joke about that shit, man. I mean, I may find it funny, but the way you say that shit just makes me feel hella uneasy.“

“What if I told you that you should be feeling uneasy right now, Gavin?“ Niles' tone is almost playful, like a cat playing with its prey before chomping down on it.

Gavin just emits a confused noise in return. “Huh?“ He should be feeling uneasy? Why is that such a... weird statement to make?

“I'm just messing with you-- a mere jest. Everyone feels uneasy with their new therapist; that's a sign that you're normal, Gavin.“

Exhaling a soft suspire of relief. “See, when you're all serious like that all the time, I can't even tell the difference between the real seriousness and the fake. That's what makes me feel uneasy.“

“That's how life really is, though. No one can distinguish reality from dream, but we believe that we can. How sure are you right now that you are in reality? At this exact moment, do you know if I am real, or a figment of your imagination?“ The taller male stops in his tracks, and Gavin struggles to stammer out his reply.

Gavin turns his head to Niles.

“I-- I'm totally freaked right now, dude. You're gettin' all... weird. How the fuck did we go from talkin' about vampires to--- this??“

“Gavin. Keep your windows unlocked at night, okay? It's extremely difficult for someone to break a window in a quiet manner. And it just becomes a hassle to clean up later on...“

What the fuck?

Gavin has no time to respond, Niles speeds up and just walks away with a mere wink and a smirk with relatively sharp canine teeth for a human. Remarkably, Niles had no shadow. Weird, weird, weird. Everything about Niles was weird and unexplainable.

Gavin is left on the pavement outside the building with no one around him, awkwardly standing there. He didn't know where to go. Should he follow Niles? No, no--- Gavin didn't want to be around him anymore.

He must look pathetic, wanting to run away and cry to his mother about what had just occurred--- but he'll do it nonetheless.

There was only one thing that Gavin knew from his first and last encounter with his therapist.

He's locking the windows.

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ALSO POSTED ON AO3:

[kimdaily]

Hey, I don't know if you remember me, the same aged law student, who hates law and wanted to actually study architecture???? But I wanted to update you. I applied to architecture and I am waiting up on the admission results. Tbh, I am really scared. Changing my major so late in the game. I am 24, might as well be an old lady for university, and it might take me 3-4 years to finally graduate but I couldn't stay in law school anymore. And it's also terrifying because I don't know if I have made /1

the right decision even tho I have always been interested in architecture . What if I go and I have zero talent or can barely make it?Or all this just proves that I am not fit to be an architect?and I know that all majors are difficult and ultimately your passion and perseverance determine if you make it or not, but I guess I have lost all my confidence in the last few years due to all my failures and this just scares me. I can’t go to architecture with that kind of weak mentality. /2

I don’t know how to regain my self confidence and get rid of all this fear.Tbh, I thought I would have been more excited about applying, but the fear is overshadowing everything.Fear that I don’t get accepted, fear that I might be stuck with law forever, fear that I won’t do a good job.My parents are already disappointed af for taking so long to graduate and I haven’t even told them about my changing majors.Only my brother and my hest friend knows and they support me , but I know my parents /3

will never support me on this.They will drag me back home and make study whatever they want me to do.I guess I feel way too anxious and afraid of everything.I am sorry for rambling and making no sense, but I do view you as a confident and ambitious person and I want to be at least 1/8 of how confident, hardworking and strong as you are.I know it seems much to say this, but you are an inspiring person.I did follow you for bts quality content, but I found you as a person much more interesting./4

And I will definitely follow your career. In case, I don't get to do it myself, I will live vicariously through your art. /5

1. nothing is ever certain in life and like you said it’s all about how much time, and effort you put into it to get to where you want to be like in all things in life

2. we all have to start somewhere. year 1 I was absolute shit and had no confidence in the work I produced. I had so much difficulty learning how to do hand drafting and hand rendering and just trying to get my ideas out on paper or even just trying to find inspo to design. the truth is 90% of people suck at first. it’s all a learning process. no one is good at everything they do or try. we have to work at it, and if it’s important to you and it’s something you really want you just have to work hard

3. I get it trust me, it is scary to switch majors but it’s never too late. 24 is so young when you look at time as a your entire lifespan. would you rather continue in law and hate what you do for the next 50 years? or try architecture and take though 3-5 years and come out doing something you love and are passionate about. the unknown is scary but you don’t know the result of anything unless you try

 4. it’s going to be hard, but you’ll have to work. and in this field perception is everything. even if you make something shit and you know you’ll get ripped during crits, or even if you designed something that is not strong to your concept, you fucking make yourself confident and act like you know your shit and all your decisions were made for a reason to help support your concept because at the end of the day you’re also selling yourself, not just your work. if you don’t seem confident in your work, people will know and will see fault in your designs and if you’re not people around you will find ways to take advantage of you 

5. fuck everyone. I could have finished my two fucking degrees at the age of 21?22? and that’s what my parents wanted but I took time for myself, I did shit at my own pace because it’s already so hard. fuck everyone else, this is your life and you need to do things to satisfy yourself and not those around, who cares if you only finish at 34. if this is what you want, and what you need you have to do it

6. even if you don’t get in this time, work on your portfolio and reapply. if it’s something you really want, go out and get it. don’t let anything or anyone stop you

I wish you a lot of luck. yes, it’s extremely hard and you’ll need to work really hard and it’s going to feel too much more often than not. try not to give up. keep working hard and at the end you’ll feel like it was worth it. and as always I’m here if you need advice or want to talk about anything