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teeth-and-tea · 4 years ago

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ANIME & MANGA I HAVE BINGED IN THE LAST MONTH: May 2021

I've Been Hunting Slimes for the Past 300 Years and Now Ive Maxed Out My Level: incredibly long name aside, cute af slice of life that suffers Same Face Syndrome. I'm still happy to watch it because of how feel good and fluffy it is though, Im probably gonna forget about it in two or three years tho. 8/10.

Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro: I found out this was a webcomic first and suddenly all the HORNINESS made so much more sense. A Femdom, Degradation, Humiliation, Dacryphilia Bullies to Lovers story disguised as a high school rom-com which, I'm not going to lie, misses SKEEVY CITY by mere inches on a regular basis. However, I'm a Dom/Switch and this entire relationship sets off my dom brain center like New York City just shy of midnight. So if you're into that sort of scene, this anime is for you. If not, it's still fascinating but you're probably gonna be a little put off by how mean the Girl!Bully is to the guy MC. Unless you find out something about yourself, in which case, congrats! Stay safe, sane, consensual, and learn about the traffic light system on top of safe words, I promise you'll have a better life in general after that. Still Ongoing, currently 10/10.

Fruits Basket: IM GONNA CRY I LOVE THIS ANIME SO MUCH???? The original anime came out when I was in... I think middle school and my parents were really strict on what I watched so I never got to experience the first wave and I never bothered to watch the show ever after I moved out of the house years later. However, now that I'm much older I honestly can say this is one of my favorite anime to date, and all the characters are charming, lovable, with their own problems that I can connect to or sympathize with, and I love the MC which is always a treat tbh. Except Akito. Akito can suck a sandpaper dick. I'm only on S2 tho so no spoilers! Anime 11/10.

Monster Girl Doctor: went in thinking it was gonna be a monster girl who's a doctor with a homoerotic assistant (her name is SAPPHY okay sue me for thinking it) and ended up watching the entire dubbed harem series. Honestly, I've seen worse and this one has consistent follow-through on interesting characters and backstory enough for me to shove aside the blatant under-monstrousness of the female monsters and the harem-ness of everything else. Dubbing is honestly really good, which is a treat, and the monster designs are not the worst and the MC is tolerable. Honestly, I don't mind having watched it! The mix of cgi and the traditional animation together work pretty strangely though, and it often doesn't flow super well. 7.5/10

So I'm a Spider, So What: Dubbed version which honestly isn't that bad. Took me a bit to get into it, but after realizing that it's got a mismatched timeline a la The Witcher, it made so much more sense. Heavily done in cgi, and you can definitely tell between the 2D and 3D animations, but not the worst in the world. I went in not expecting much but it ended up being an Issekai I can stand and even enjoy. On god has a decent story... with the spider. I'd be a liar if I didnt say I skipped some of the human parts just to get back to the best part of the show. 8/10.

Somali and the Forest Spirit: I'm so fucking nostalgic for this thing it makes me want to go and hug my dad. About a human girl under threat of being eaten with a monster-dominated world. Very obvious "humans fear what they don't understand" message but instead of the humans learning tolerance it's what happens when they get annihilated first so like, kudos for the mangaka for having the guts to do that. I cried like a baby regularly. It's really good, I watched the dub and ID WATCH IT AGAIN!!! 9/10.

To Your Eternity: Oh my god. O h my g o d. Fell in love on the first episode, ngl. About if an immortal being learned how to be a person from scratch. I love it. HOWEVER. Keep a box of tissues on you at all times because you're gonna need them. I'm only on EP7 because that's all that's out right now but just know. I love it. Not for everyone but certainly for my "what do we define as human and the human condition" ass. 12/10.

Those Snow White Notes: A sports anime without any sports. About shamisen playing which is cool because I never realized how cool this instrument was??? Its neat af. OP1&2 are by Burnout Syndrom so know theyre fire. Gonna be real, its pretty alright, but not extraordinary. You can tell they were using the characters as archetypes rather than actually characters which kinda kills a lot of the emotional value you could've had, but I'm still gonna watch it. It doesn't make me cringe as hard as other sports anime tho so I consider it toptier in that regards but if you're a big sports anime fan you might be bummed out by it. Every single musical performance is INCREDIBLE tho. A solid 8/10.

Toilet Bound Hanako-kun: THE ART OMFG IT'S SO GORGEOUS. Listen, if you took coptic markers and gave them an animation budget with some manga panel direction thrown in there, that's this anime. It's beautiful. Gorgeous. I'm in love with the aesthetic every second. Story? Really good. Characters? I love the MC and his evil little twin brother asshat. Demons? Not super imaginative but I'm carrying on happy as can be anyways. Dubbing? A bit shaky at times but I found the voices charming if a little off for some of them. I'm already waiting for the second season with popcorn at the ready. 10/10.

Prison School: I watched this directly after Hanako-kun and it was like I got slapped in the face by sweaty unwashed titties and some fedora wearing schmuck's piss kink. No character is likable or redeemable. I finished it, but at what cost? 2/10 and only because a character shit his pants and I laughed.

Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle: watched this right after Prison School and it was NECESSARY tbh. Its so CUTE and honestly, im not even kidding you, the fucking funniest anime I've seen in months. I watched the dub and the VAs are having the time of their lives working on this anime not just giving it their all but literally just going ham. Its great. If I read this im sure id be bored outta my mind but the VAs giving it a joyous performance make it an insta fave for me tbh. 9/10.

Sk8 the Infinity: i watched the dub with my bro and I can confirm that its a spectacular show because we both loved it and we have vastly different tastes. Incredibly SUSPENSFUL AND STRESSFUL for an anime about skateboarding but we finished it in a single sitting tbh. The last episode is not dubbed for some reason but we still loved it. Like if Free! was less obnoxious but the only fan-service here is Joe ♡ a beefcake who owns my lesbian heart. I think there's exactly one named female character tho and I legit couldn't tell you what it was if there was a gun to my head. So, over all, 9.5/10.

That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime: I'm going to be entirely honest, I went in thinking it was going to be a boring isekai of no value. I was right about the Isekai part. It was honestly pretty interesting and focused on nation building like you're playing civilization rather than the usual "Get Stronger" narrative or "Get Some Pussy" narrative most isekais take which is delightfully refreshing. Granted there are flavors of that in this which means it doesn't alienate the big isekai watchers out there, but it's not the whole dish and it doesn't make me want to cringe the same way others do. You've got a slime MC just vibing and building a nation of monsters nbd. Does lose points for making the female monsters more humanoid than their male counterparts but makes them back by only doing perfunctory fan-service and nothing that makes me want to cry... except the butt sumo episode but in fairness it was all a terrible dream. Literally, the MC refuses to dream anymore after that. solid animation, decent voice acting, decent story, made me realize how HUGE this is in the Light Novel community???? There's like 18 fucking novels and that's WILD. 8.5/10.

MANGA:

Spirit Photographer Saburo Kono: a one shot special by the mangaka of The Promised Neverland! Honestly a really delicate touch of both super creepy and really touching, and I'm not gonna lie I'm bummed that this isn't a bigger project but the single chapter makes it a good taste for their style. I've been wondering if I wanna read/watch The Promised Neverland and now I think I will. 10/10

Deranged Detective Ron Kamonohashi: from the mangaka of Hitman Reborn comes this Sherlock and Watson derivative! Not even 20 chapters out yet with a sort of spotty schedule, I honestly love it even thought it's exactly as you expect. HOWEVER. Kamonohashi the "Sherlock" character uses mental pressure to kill all confirmed murderers and it's up to Toto the "Watson" character to save all those people before Kamonohashi kills them! It's just recently introduced a "Moriarty" family of crime lords (not a big spoiler don't worry it was obvious) so the tension surrounding Ron's past is amping up rn. Personally, I think the art is GORGEOUS, the characters engaging, and the story quick enough to keep my interest. Most mysteries are solved within a chapter or two so you're not stuck 20 chapters into one locked room mystery which is just peachy tbh. RN, 10/10. If this gets an anime, I anticipate a legion of fangirls who ship the two main characters along with their many friends. I've been alive too long to believe otherwise.

Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro: Yeah I read the manga after I watched the show. A slower build than the anime, but it works for the format, if theyd done the same with the show then I don't think it wouldve done as well. Honestly? Cuter tbh but just as horny. You dont start really LEARNING about your character until like, chap 65 tho and no real "drama" happens until like 75. A good chunk of the chapters are like 8pgs so its a breeze to get through. I love these slow burn idiots of the century. 9.5/10 because you can DEFINITELY tell the mangaka does hentai too.

Yugen's All-Ghouls Homeroom: one-shot by the mangaka for Food Wars, it's no wonder there's this constant perviness from the MC, a guy who can see and exorcise spirits. Takes place at an all girl's finishing school with KICK ASS monsters tbh, kinda bummed its not longer. The MC? Blatant monsterfucker who is also a CONFRIMED monsterfucker???? Idk i vibe with that single emotion. Everything else is hit or miss. 7/10 for monsters and cool concept, lost points for the MC very pointedly being okay with admitting he'd wait for the teenagers to be adults tho. Creepy af. Could live without that.

Hell's Paradise: I finished the entire 127chps in 3 days and I was really enthusiastic about it 90% of the time thinking about how deep it was and then I actually thought about it and I ended up being very neutral about the whole thing tbh. The art is fantastic tho, but DEFINITELY deserving of the M rating. Tits. Tits everywhere. But not tits to be ecchi over, no, monster hermit tits on beautiful women-ish figures. Now generally I give that a pass but a huge theme in the story is that men and women are "no better than one or the other" but like, lady tits are what you see 99% of the time. Men tits are few and far between. I call bullshit on most of the "deep" themes is what I'm saying, so it's like the mangaka was trying for those deep thoughts but missed the margin a little too far for my preference. That being said, the MC is a married man who loves his wife which automatically makes him my favorite character so like... idk so many good things, so many misses, but overall really spectacular themes and imagery. Unique but classic all at once. It's getting an anime and I have NO IDEA how much censorship they're gonna be doing but they're going to be doing SO MUCH. Oh yeah, and one guy is a plant/human hybrid who fucks a 1000 year old plant-hermit which makes him a canon monster fucker. And one canon non-binary character who I, a nonbinary, actually like. So like... gosh I've got mixed feelings. 8.5/10.

Choujin X: From Sui Ishida, mangaka to the mega hit Tokyo Ghoul comes this brand new manga!... Of one chapter, lol. Not really binge-y because it's just the one chapter out right now but I'm already keeping my eye on it. The grasp on anatomy in the art is PHENOMENAL and you can see Ishida flexing his art skill which is great. Can't give a true rating but I'm giving it a tentative 9/10 because I'm excited to see more.

Shag&Scoob: technically not a manga, its an ongoing webcomic I binged an subscribed to in one day and I just think it deserves more attention. Starts off funny with "what if Scooby Doo had a gun" and has been led to "what if all cartoons are aliens that survive and receive their powers by the humans that love them in an epic war with Martians." On god, its good. I finished the current series in a couple hours so it's a breezy read, highly recommend it. 9/10.

To Your Eternity: Yeah I watched the anime and then finished all current 143 chapters in like 3 days. GOD IM WEAK. I don't buy physical manga unless I know I want to remember the story forever and I'm already budgeting for the current books out. Yeah, this is a good series. That being said, definitely not for the faint of heart or those who suffer under common triggers like suicide, molestation, death, etc. It's all framed as bad and necessary to the story don't get me wrong, but it's there and has lasting affects on the characters. Incredible story telling by the creator of A Silent Voice. Keep tissues nearby at all times. 12/10.

#i've been killing slimes for 300 years and maxed out my level #don't toy with me miss nagatoro #spirit photographer saburo kono #fruits basket #deranged detective ron kamonohashi #yugen's all-ghoul's homeroom #monster girl doctor #so i'm a spider so what #somali and the forest spirit #to your eternity #jigokuraku #hell's paradise #choujin x #shag and scoob #toilet bound hanako kun #prison school #sk8 the infinity #that time i got reincarnated as a slime

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the-nysh · 4 years ago

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ngl i rlly dont like that the redraw got rid of gremlin!tats. murata finds every single opportunity to oversexualise the female characters even at the cost of character and comedy

While I love me some gremlin Tatsu, who shows when she’s self-assured without getting serious yet, much like Saitama’s gag-egg faces, it’s also oddly true Murata scrapped all those panels (I’m gonna miss em!) in favor of completely redrawing her to look more ~impressive~ I suppose, after he’s long since drawn all her ultimate attacks against the base... Perhaps looking back in hindsight, he felt unsatisfied that her chibi forms were inadequate showcases of her power and...other assets besides. Now, I’m not here for purity wank, but I did have several thoughts/reactions upon seeing the new panels.

Old (left) vs newly revised (right)

So it’s been nearly two years since Murata first drew this ch (which appears to have been moved up from ch106 to ch113 as well) so not only have several events + characters been rearranged that we see a different group reacting to Saitama’s Rover punch, but Murata’s tastes have evolved since then too. Most notably, we’ve witnessed him gradually become an ass man over time (following Zombieman’s and Flash’s of course, heck even the girl merc this ch got another ass shot), so seeing this new panel of floating Tatsu’s rear honestly made me lol.

Because *sighs* it’s unsurprisingly classic Murata. :P It seems we lost Atomic Samurai here and....(!!) wait a sec...Bang lost the definition on his pecs?! Oh no. D: His traded for Darkshine’s on this page I guess, but also there you go - how current Murata’s tastes exchange a pair of tits for an ass. :P

This next one honestly made me go ooooh in awe, since she’s now glowing with the similar display of power as shown in her recent moon shot. It now has that comparable vibe in aura, even though yes we sadly lost her classic unassuming gremlin form.

The panel’s exchange in favor of showing Tatsu prepared to get right down to exterminating business as usual, visibly as the most powerful esper without question now, it seems.

So this one I honestly felt was an improvement over the old panel:

Since I always felt the old one (on the left) was an unnaturally serpentine way for her to stand (warped kinda awkwardly), but now she’s standing firm with no nonsense. Her hand on hip pose was changed to the previous page (above) as she made her entrance before Gyoro started talking. Now she silently crosses her arms in opposition as Gyoro monologues. I’m fine with this change.

This next one is a minor change, but it differs slightly in body language:

Before, Tatsu was more coldly detached and unimpressed at Gyoro’s words, but now after making their formal introductions, she’s more annoyed, scoffing and dismissive instead. Like ‘let’s get this over with as my full powers aren’t necessary here anymore,’ it feels. Whichever panel you prefer is subjective, but her reactions and the way she holds herself in front of the enemy more naturally follow the flow of their conversation here, I think.

So if we take the first revised page (while mourning the loss of Bang’s tits) as a side effect of current Murata’s whims (which I can honestly laugh off), looking at the other 3 pages as a whole, old gremlin Tatsu was characteristically fun to see yes, but she wasn’t serious about confronting the boss from the start. Now she enters posturing/displaying her power while interrogating, then lets up (literally turns off the aura) after their transaction of words leaves her unimpressed. And if Murata doesn’t change their upcoming ‘fight’ after this ch, then Tatsu goes full gag chibi form to even greater unimpressed gremlin effect later. So while Murata’s perfectionism decisions can be fickle (not knowing which ones he’ll redraw or find unsatisfactory) with some obvious trade offs according to his tastes, it’s also not so clear cut it’s an overall cost to character & comedy either. Since I felt the third page was a definite improvement. So for now I guess the reception depends on reader to reader, but we won’t see how it all flows together (how much the changes are worth it) until the next volume’s out.

#opm #tatsumaki #manga spoilers #commentary #long post #Anonymous #replies #murata's edits to the first page made me lol #cause if you wanna see something REALLY upsetting then check out this week's chapter of dr stone :P #where boichi's full gratuitous page of a woman convulsing from a venomous spider bite grossly took me out like wtf....#murata's not nearly as offensive as THAT trust me #anyway we've all witnessed his evolution towards an 'ass man' (even with the dudes)#so if all of this doesn't culminate towards garou's god-level ass too then WHAT'S THE POINT 8'D hahaha

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nalgenewhore · 4 years ago

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With My Life - Chapter Ten

masterlist - ao3 - last chapter - next chapter

warnings: (all graphic) violence, guns, blood, smut, PTSD

an: here she is. i dont have anything else to say.

Elide paced in the parking garage, obsessively checking her index cards.

Her neat, precise notes and paragraph prompts stared up at her until they became jumbled. They started moving off the page and Elide nearly cried in distress. “L, it’s not- nothing’s working.”

Lorcan’s dark head popped up over the roof of the car, his eyes soft with concern, but there was something else. Ever since they had woken, Lorcan had been withdrawn. Detached. “What’s not working?”

She gestured to the cards, hating that tears stung the back of her eyes. “I can’t- I don’t know what I’m talking about! It’s like- it’s like I’m faking my way through it.” Elide looked down at the ground, ashamed that she was talking about her measly little thesis when Lorcan was packing and planning for their lives as runaways. “It doesn’t matter.”

Her vision blurred with tears. Elide sniffled as she heard his steps grow closer until he was standing in front of her and tilting her chin back. “Princess, it does matter. Your work is important and I care about it.” She laughed tearfully, finally smiling. Lorcan’s thumb stroked her chin and he smiled down at her, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’ve grown up in this shit - you know it better than any of those reviewers, ok?”

Elide nodded, rising onto her tiptoes to wrap her arms around his neck and press her face into his chest, “Thank you,” she whispered, the steady tattoo of his heart calming her. Pulling away, she wiped her cheeks, “Remind me what the plan is?”

Lorcan nodded and kissed the top of her head, leading her to the car. He opened and closed the passenger door for her before going around the back to toss in the last heavy bag - Elide didn’t want to think about what was in it, given the contents of the hidden compartment in the back of his closet - in the trunk.

She reorganised her flashcards, making sure they were in the correct order. Lorcan slid in the driver’s seat and breathed out slowly, “You have office hours until nine thirty. Your thesis review isn’t until eleven, that’ll last one hour, at the most, yes?” Elide nodded and he continued, “Then, I’ll pick you up and we’ll go to the airport. Everyone else will meet us there, and we’ll leave.”

Elide nodded, reaching over to grip his hand. She was staring straight out the windshield, a small smile tugging at her lips when Lorcan kissed the back of her hand. “Don’t worry, princess. This’ll all be over before you know it.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Lorcan parked his car three blocks west and one block north of Vaughan’s apartment.

He walked up with nothing more than his car keys and wallet, only keeping his phone in case Elide called.

When he went in, Vaughan was tinkering with something on his kitchen table, playing OutKast’s Rosa Parks as he worked. He slapped Lorcan’s hand away when he poked the device, cursing him away in their mother tongue, “Away, bastard.”

Lorcan laughed and pulled the end of his brother’s braid, leaping away when Vaughan threatened him with the mini blowtorch. He grabbed the kitchen knife lying on the counter and aimed it at Vaughan, making a slashing motion.

They were locked in a dangerous dance, circling each other slowly, Vaughan’s blowtorch lit. Lorcan went to strike when Nehemia walked in, clearly unimpressed and altogether unsurprised by the predicament. “Down, children. Vaughan, stop trying to burn his hair and Lorcan, away with the knife.” They glared at each other, but did as they were told.

Lorcan went to sit next to Nehemia, looking over her shoulder at the computer. “Find anything new?”

The woman shook her head, sighing as she put her braids into a bun and swearing when she realised she didn’t have an elastic. Lorcan pulled one off his wrist and handed it to her, squinting to read what was on her screen. “Are these her Wyrd connections?” Lorcan asked, dragging the cursor over a map.

“Yes, and no. Not all of them are Wyrd… it’s complicated,” Nehemia huffed, grabbing the computer and typing something. Its motor clicked and whirred as it worked. “She’s hidden her imports well. Various legitimate cargo.” She opened an image, “See this, this was a container of produce from Eyllwe.”

Nehemia went to change the image, but something had Lorcan pausing her, “Wait, just hold on… I think I’ve seen that container before.”

“What container?” Fenrys asked as he walked in, carrying a long, suspiciously shaped duffel bag.

Vaughan looked up and frowned, “Hellas, Fen, maybe next time, choose a different fucking bag? It’s like you’re trying to make people think you have a sniper rifle in there, gods damn, man.”

“That’s what I fucking told you,” Connall muttered, slapping the upside of his twin’s head.

“Boys, shut up, I’m trying to think,” Lorcan said, digging out his phone. “I’ve seen that container before. That number, I know it.”

“I’ll reverse search it,” Nehemia said, opening the database of images the agency had access to.

Lorcan clicked through a batch of photos from the largest arms bust they had done. Maeve had wanted each of them to take pictures on their personal phones - for reasons she never explained and ones they all knew better to ask about.

“Here,” he said, showing Nehemia the picture. “It’s the same container.”

She took his phone from him and used a cord to attach it to her computer. The pictures loaded onto the screen and Lorcan got up to pace, “She’s selling guns, isn’t she?”

“Yeah, she is,” Nehemia said, “and it goes back a decade, Lorcan. She’s been in on this since the beginning. Before Erawan started anything, she’s the mastermind.”

They all looked at each other, sadness and defeat flickering in their eyes.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Elide breathed in slowly and exhaled calmly, waiting to be called into the room. Her presentation was memorised and no one knew the subject like her.

“Miss Lochan?” Elide opened her eyes, looking to one of the reviewer’s assistants. “We’re ready for you.”

With a slight, polite smile, Elide picked up her bag and followed the young woman into the cold office, nodding to the panel that sat on one side of the desk.

Darrow was sitting there too and he winked at her. Elide’s tense posture relaxed a bit as she put her bag down.

“Welcome, Miss Lochan.”

“Thank you for having me,” she said, trying to remain calm as she handed out copies of her presentation and connected her laptop to the projector. She checked to make sure it was on the white screen behind her and prayed briefly to Anneith, hoping her goddess would allow a small mercy.

There was a rustle of paper as the reviewers flipped through her presentation and then the man sitting in the middle nodded once, “Whenever you’re ready.”

Elide nodded and picked up her index cards. She didn’t need them and she had hardly ever used them, but they brought a sense of reassurance if she ever lost her place. “Of course.” Elide picked up the fob to click through her slides and clicked to the introduction slide.

Thinking of herself as a child, scared and alone, thinking of the others like her and the ones the system had let down, Elide opened her mouth and the words flowed out of her.

Her words were succinct and precise, no need to embellish a thing. Elide held the room’s attention, she commanded it, and her presentation flew by.

With one minor stumble over the abstract of her latest lab, Elide was proud of what she had accomplished and that shone through her as she finished her delivery.

Then came the questioning period. She answered their queries without hesitation, save for when an older woman asked why she had chosen this particular subject.

“Um, I-” Elide coughed, her throat suddenly feeling very, very dry. She took a sip from the glass of water she had been given at the start, using the momentary pause to collect herself. “I have always been interested by the inner workings of the human mind, I suppose. When I was a child, I was rather shy and could always be found with my nose stuck in a book that I probably shouldn’t have been reading.”

A light chuckle went through the panel at that and Elide smiled, waiting to continue. “When my parents died, the only living relative I had was deemed unfit to care for me, which he was, and I was placed in the foster system. I was never adopted and I aged out eventually. I spent most of that time trying to find a way to get out and the only viable option that wouldn’t have left me dead was school.”

A repressed memory of a foster parent burning her school materials and books, projects and papers she had worked tirelessly over, in an oil drum flashed through her mind. Elide was ashamed of the way her throat burned with the threat of sobs.

Somehow, she managed to finish off, “I have lived through what I study and I can attest to the fact that no one would wish it on another person. The foster system hasn’t changed practically since it was created and it sets children up for disaster, in more ways than one.” With a shaky smile, Elide said, “I want to help and I want change. This is simply the best way I know how.”

Pity, mixed with respect, swam through the questioners’ eyes and they all thanked her, standing to shake her hand as she exited.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

The bags were all packed. Everything, everything was planned and they had strategized where they would all be going.

Elide and Lorcan would be going to Suria by plane, then take the train to Orynth in two days' time. Vaughan and Nehemia were flying to Rifthold and catching a connecting flight to Orynth.

On account of Aelin’s delicate condition, her doctor - after Rowan had said they would be returning to Terrasen for a funeral - suggested keeping flights to a minimum, she and Rowan would be flying directly to Orynth and staying in the safe house.

Vaughan handed out fake passports to them all. Nehemia took hers and stepped out onto the balcony.

She let the boys say their good-byes, knowing it was always the hardest part of an assignment for them. If one was hurt, they all bled.

Nehemia pocketed her fake passport and wrapped her arms around herself, tucking her chin into the collar of her jacket. It was too cold in Wendlyn and she dreaded spending the coldest months in Orynth.

She had never quite adjusted to anything but the balmy temperature of Banjali.

Nehemia looked up when the sliding door opened, seeing her husband standing there. She glanced back into the apartment, just catching the end of Vaughan’s double braid as he closed the door behind him.

“Mi…” Fenrys began, his dark eyes rippling with a deep sadness. “I’m sorry, sweetheart.”

She shook her head and stepped to him, tucking herself into his chest. “Don’t say sorry, please. It’s not the time for apologies.”

Her kind and loving husband wrapped his arms around her, dipping his chin to rest it on her head. “I still am.”

Nehemia pressed her face into his neck as tears pricked her eyes, “It’s not supposed to be like this.” She slid her arms around him, feeling like she would crumble to the ground without it. “I don’t want to say good-bye, Fen.”

Graceful fingers tilted her chin up and soft, heartbreakingly soft eyes met hers. “I don’t want to say good-bye either, but…”

“We have to,” she finished for him, smiling sadly. Fenrys nodded and unclasped the golden chain he wore every day. A gold band hung from it. Nehemia shook her head, whispering, “No, Fen, please–”

He pressed it into her hand, gently gripping her jaw, “I need you to keep it safe for me, Mi.” Fenrys closed her hand over his wedding ring. It was still warm from his skin. Neither Fenrys nor Nehemia wore their rings on their fingers.

It meant more to them to wear them on necklaces - that way they remained close to their hearts and souls. Nehemia wanted to fling it back at him, wanted to scream no, she wouldn’t wear it, but she held it close and nodded. Fenrys cupped her face, brushing his thumbs over her regal, majestic cheekbones, “Hold it when you miss me.” He leaned down, kissing her brow. “Hold it when you’re mad and squeeze it tight enough that I can feel it.”

His lips dusted soft caresses over her eyelids, “Scream at it and be angry because your man had to do the hero thing and save the world.” Nehemia laughed tearfully, her inhale unsteady when he kissed her cheek, “Wear it when you’re sad and wear it when you’re happy.”

Fenrys pressed his lips to her other cheek, whispering softly, “Wear it until I come home to you, ok?”

Nehemia rose on her tiptoes, kissing him soundly, her promise in the embrace as she held her fist to his heart. The other hand cupped the back of his neck as Fenrys dipped her, his arms banded around her waist. “I promise,” she whispered.

Pulling away, Nehemia stroked her fingers over his neck, gazing up into his eyes. “Don’t do anything dumb, you hear me?”

That swaggering, signature Marama twin happy-go-lucky grin tugged at his full lips, his wicked sharp teeth flashing white. Nehemia could’ve sworn she saw fantom fangs ghosting over his smile. “Yes, ma’am.”

She rolled her eyes and kissed his cheek, “I’m going to the bathroom. Don’t save the world until I’m back.”

Fenrys laughed, the sound rich and rolling, “Of course. I’ll try to stop the boys.”

Nehemia chuckled and walked back into the apartment, going into the bathroom and closing the door behind her. She locked it and braced her hands against the sink, sobs trapped in her chest.

She looked at the mirror, the flickering light catching on the cuffs adoring her hair. With shaking hands, Nehemia clasped Fenrys’ chain around her neck and began undoing the cuffs until her hair was plain save for the intricate pattern of her tribal braids. Her tears spilled down her cheeks, but still, her chin remained up. She would not bow her head, not once.

Nehemia didn’t bother wiping her cheeks as she strode back into the living room to find that everyone had returned. Subtly, she tucked the chain beneath her top. Nobody but her and Fenrys had to know that intimate detail of their life. It would be their little secret.

She didn’t look at anyone but Fenrys and walked over to him, pressing her jewellery into his hand. In Eyllwe, she told him, “Keep these safe for me.”

“Mi–”

“Please.”

Fenrys pocketed the adornments, glum acceptance flashing in his eyes. He leaned down, kissing the top of her head where three cornrows crossed before joining the countless others in falling freely down to her waist. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she murmured, pulling away and wiping her cheeks. “We should go. Ellie’s meeting ends in ten minutes and she’ll be anxious if we aren’t on time.”

No one dared to go against the command in her voice. They said one last farewell as Connall lifted her off her feet, practically squashing the life from her. Nehemia laughed, her hands on his shoulders when her brother in law finally set her back down. “Bye, Con. Take care of him for me.”

Fenrys spluttered and pulled her back to him, his hands squeezing her hips reassuringly, “I don’t need to be taken care of.”

Nehemia just smiled and pulled him down for one last kiss, “Humour me, ya hayati.”

He nodded, finally letting her go. Fenrys slung his arm around Connall’s shoulders and shooed her out the door. With one more smile, Nehemia turned and walked away, resisting the urge to look back.

Later, when all was said and done, she would regret not taking one more second to memorise the way they looked.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Elide kept her chin up while she strode through the hallways to her office and collected the things she would need while she was… away.

“Knock, knock.”

She turned, smiling at the sight of Darrow. “Oh, hi.”

“That was very well done, Elide,” he said, stepping in and passing her the various things she had put on her desk. “You’re really leaving, hmm?”

Elide paused, her computer charger held above her bag. She put it down and turned, nodding slightly. “Yes. I just- I’m sorry, Darrow.”

He waved his hand dismissively, “Oh, don’t mind me. Just being a crotchety old man. You deserve a break, Elide. You’ve been hitting a few snags in your work so go. Be with your lover,” he teased, laughing when she made a face.

“Don’t tell him you called him my ‘lover’. He’ll never let me hear the end of it,” Elide said. Darrow held his arms open and Elide stepped forward, hugging him tightly. Tears sprang unbidden in her eyes and she whispered, “Thank you for everything. I can never repay you.”

“No, you can’t,” Darrow said, pushing her thanks off like it made him uncomfortable. “Alright, I have a class to teach. You take care of yourself, you hear me? I won’t be tolerating any calls from some foreign hospital because you decided to let loose for a night.”

Elide laughed and wiped her eyes, “I make no promises.” Darrow rolled his eyes and hugged her one last time before walking out of her office.

She sighed and finished packing her stuff up, remembering to leave the key with the receptionist.

It was cold and grey outside, which seemed to fit the day. Elide crossed her arms over her chest to conserve heat as she waited on the curb for Lorcan.

Just as she was about to pull out her phone to call him, a black car pulled up in front of her. An unbidden grin appeared on her face and Elide bit her lip to quell it as she walked down the stairs. The passenger door unlocked, popping open by itself.

Elide bent at her waist, peering into the car. She tucked her hair behind her ear, frowning, “Can I help you?” The man sitting behind the wheel was decidedly not Lorcan, nor was it any of the other boys she’d become close with.

He had mousy brown hair cut in a shaggy, unkempt style, that he had obviously attempted to brush into some sort of shape. His eyes were blue, but watery. Vapid. Insipid. The man smiled and she suppressed the shudder that ran through her. “You must be Elide. My name is Cairn, Cairn Beinn.”

She straightened, dismissing him. Lorcan would be by soon. Elide cocked her jaw, not in the mood to be tricked by anyone and certainly not whoever this piss-baby male was. “No, I’m afraid you’ve got the wrong person.”

He chuckled unkindly and got out of the car, watching her over the car top, “I admire your self-preservation skills, Ms. Lochan, but I assure you, I’m not here to harm you.” Elide held in her scoff and shifted on her feet, uneasily glancing down the street. No one else was there. “Mr. Salvaterre sent me to bring you to the airport. Please, I can call him for you from the car.”

Elide looked at her watch and tapped her foot. With a tired sigh, she offered Cairn a tight-lipped smile and walked down the path to the car. She missed the way Cairn’s smile turned predatory.

With one hand on the door, Elide took her handbag off her shoulder, half in the car. The voice at her shoulder told her to look once more down the street.

She did, tossing a tired glance over her shoulder just as Lorcan’s Aston Martin turned the corner. She gasped, looking in fear at Cairn. He, alerted by her sound of surprise, looked in the mirror and swore, leaning over to grab her long coat and roughly yank her in.

Elide pushed at him when he leaned across her to close the door and he spat at her, “Sit fucking still or I’ll shoot your precious boyfriend. Again.” Without another word, he revved the engine and sped down the street, tires squealing on asphalt.

She looked in the side mirror, through the cloud of burning rubber, and saw Lorcan’s car speeding after them. Fear seized her, Elide was frozen. Until, that same voice reminded her of the blade she kept in her bag.

Carefully, Elide reached her hand into the outer pocket, her fingers closing around the cool weapon. Cairn swerved violently around a truck, causing her to bump into the window and cry out softly.

He whipped his head to her, snarling something nasty, but Elide wasn’t listening as she withdrew her fist and stabbed, managing to get his eye. Cairn screamed, slapping his hand over the wound, “You bitch!” He slapped her backhanded across the face, sending her crashing back in her seat. “You’re fucking dead.”

Elide gripped her bag as he slammed on the breaks, managing to stay in her seat and not go flying.

Cairn turned to her, blood dripping down his face, which was purple and twisted with rage. “You’re fuckin–”

She lashed out with her foot, the thin heel of her stiletto ramming into his gut. While Cairn was incapacitated, doubled over, Elide wrenched the door open and shot out, the tires of Lorcan’s car screaming as he braked.

She didn’t look back as she grabbed her bag and ran. Lorcan leaned across to open the door for her and Elide dived in, quickly slamming the door shut behind her. “Go,” she breathed, bracing her hands against the dashboard as Lorcan nodded and ripped away, shooting past Cairn as he stumbled out of the car, holding a gun up.

Lorcan looked in the rearview mirror and swore low, “Fuck, what did you do to him, princess?”

“Stabbed his right eye,” she said bluntly, feeling numb as the adrenaline faded away. Her face really fucking hurt from the slap and the cut, courtesry of Cairn’s rings. Elide worked her jaw, hissing through her teeth. “And kicked him. Really fuckin’ hard. With my stiletto heel.”

Pride glowed in Lorcan’s eyes as he turned into an unmarked alley and parked the car. He turned to her, scanning her for injuries. His eyes were practically spitting flame as he gently gripped her jaw to tilt her head. “What did he do.”

Breathing out slowly, Elide put her hand over his, “He slapped me after I stabbed him.” She attempted a soothing smile, “That’s it, L.”

He grunted, narrowing his eyes. Then, he covered her eyes with his hand, “Close your eyes, love.”

She held in her sigh, knowing she didn’t need to be checked for a concussion. “L, I don’t need–”

“Humour me,” he said, not able to hide the tremble in his words. He was scared. Her big, terrifying, intimidating, and aggressive boyfriend was… scared.

Elide did as he asked, the smarting sensation in her face fading as she waited. After a minute, Lorcan pulled his hand away, checking to see how her pupils dilated. He nodded, his smile relieved, “All good, Lochan.”

Gently, he cupped her face, stroking his thumb over the cut on her cheekbone, “Still wears the rings, huh?”

“It’s not funny, L. Who is he and how does he know me? How does he know where I work?”

Lorcan didn’t say anything as he reached across her lap and opened the glove compartment. He took out the first aid kit and opened it. “He’s… an old employee. Holds a grudge, I guess.”

Elide ran her tongue over her teeth, fuming silently. “You guess? I just stabbed someone and the best you can come up with is I guess?”

“El–”

“No, you know what? I’m done. I can’t do this, Lorcan! I don’t want to do this,” she said, her voice shaking. Her eyes were wide. Lorcan tilted her chin to the side, focusing on the cut. Elide wanted to scream, but his fingers were soft and soothing on her skin, grounding her as her thoughts swirled around her mind like a storm.

He kissed her forehead after he cleaned the cut, “Just a flesh wound. I don’t even think it’ll scar.”

Elide exhaled, pulling away from him just enough to look into his eyes, “I’m scared.”

Lorcan sighed through his nose and brushed her hair back, picking out a piece of something. “I know.” Those two little words tore at his heart. He wasn’t sure Elide had once let herself break and with two words, her cracks were showing. He moved his seat back and pulled her into his lap, tucking her head under his chin.

And it was there, in the front seat of Lorcan’s car, that Elide Lochan finally broke.

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Vaughan was the first to hug Elide when she and Lorcan arrived at the airport. She’d gotten a chance to change out of her meeting clothes. Now, she was wearing a pair of leggings and a hoodie. Perfect for air travel. “Ellie-Boo!”

“Hey, V,” she whispered, offering a tired smile.

“L said you stabbed someone?”

She froze, her shoulders tensing. Lorcan noticed and stepped up behind her. With a supportive touch on the small of her back, Lorcan gently tugged her to his side. He spoke in his mother tongue to Vaughan, always preferring the melodic language of his childhood over the common speech.

The man nodded, quickly distracted. Elide all but sagged against Lorcan, turning her head and pressing her forehead against his body in thanks.

Aelin trailed up, sipping on something through a straw. She smiled and rested her hand on Elide’s upper arm, rubbing softly, “Hi, sweetheart. Do you want some milkshake?”

Elide huffed a laugh and shook her head. She raised on her toes to kiss Lorcan softly and whisper something before turning back to Aelin. “Oh, I’m not hungry.”

“Well, I’m starving and these parasites need some food. Come with me?”

Lorcan looked at Aelin over Elide’s head and relief flooded his face as he mouthed, Thank you. He knew what Aelin was trying to do.

Elide looped her arm through Aelin’s and nodded, “Let’s find you some food, then.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

They met up in front of security, just to the side and in a camera blindspot. Elide was picking at a wrap and sipping on a lemonade. It wasn’t much, but at least she was eating something.

Nehemia distributed their boarding passes out. Her face was closed off after saying farewell to Fenrys. Elide slid up to her, wrapping her arm around Nehemia’s waist and offering her the extra lemonade she had gotten.

It was ironic that Elide was forcing her into consuming some sort of nutrients. “So, where are we going?”

“V and I are going to Rifthold. Ace and Ro are going straight to Orynth, I wanted to minimise flight travel for her. You,” Nehemia said, exchanging a pair of passes for the lemonade, “and Lor will be going to Suria. We already got a hotel room for you two, so don’t worry about anything, ok?”

Elide wanted to make sure Nehemia was ok, but Nehemia did best when she was fussing over everyone else. “Thank you, love.”

Since her and Lorcan’s flight was the soonest, they had to get going. Elide hugged everyone, leaving Nehemia for last.

As she hugged the elegant woman, Elide felt Nehemia slump against her and braced her. “You got this, ok, Mi?”

Nehemia sniffled and nodded, standing up straight. “I know. It’s not forever, right?” She nodded to Lorcan, standing by the entrance. He was talking quietly to Vaughan and Rowan. “Go, go. I’ll see you soon, anyhow.”

Elide nodded, reaching up one last time to wipe Nehemia’s eyes, “I’ll see you soon, ves’tacha.”

+*+*+*+*+*+*

Ya hayati: Arabic, ‘my life’ (i previously used Xhosa for Eyllwe, but since i see nehemia as east african - specifically sudanese - i changed it to match the local languag)

inspo for nehemia’s braids

Ves’tacha: Romani, ‘beloved’ (i use Romani for Blackbeak)

@mythicaitt @tinywolfofeyllwe @schmlip-scribble @the-regal-warrior @empire-of-wildfire @ladyverena @ttakeitbacknoww @shyvioletcat @alifletcher2012 @tswaney17 @ourbooksuniverse e @flora-and-fae @thesirenwashere @queenofxhearts @maastrash @mynewdreamwasyou @cursebreaker29 @empress-ofbloodshed @b00kworm @hizqueen4life @silversprings98 @amren-courtofdreams @minaidss @superspiritfestival @lovemollywho @queen-of-glass @jlinez @sleeping-and-books @ireallyshouldsleeprn @verypaleninja @januarystears @magicalunicorngypsy @sis-it-dont-add-up @keshavomit

#with my life #wml chapter ten #elorcan #elide x lorcan #elide lochan #lorcan salvaterre #isa writes #nalgenewhore #very intense no #i wonder what cairn meant by 'again' hmm

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ask-them-bois · 4 years ago

Text

Ancient Sounds 2/5

AS.pt1

Oliver took a deep, steadying breath, running his tongue over his lips as he waited. The chill of the ice rink slipped under his clothes and ghosted over his skin, making him shiver. He adjusted his stance, his bloodpumper thudding against his thoratic cage. He never felt blinder than when he was on the ice; the cold negated every scent, and at the moment the rink was dead quiet. His cane was sat on a bench outside the field.

Yet, with the anticipation turning his blood hot, he’d never felt more alive. The music started with a burst of fanfare over the speakers, and Oliver shot off across the ice. One moment he stood near the wall, the next he was gliding halfway across the rink. The music thrummed in his ears as he spun about and leaped like a ribbon dancer, coming down cleanly on a practiced, one-footed landing, only to bend back further than should be natural.

She laughed, unbridled glee shaking her apart as she threw her arms up, reaching for the invisible audience in the empty stands. She went with the momentum she’d built, flipping onto her hands. A twist, jump, and she was back on her feet, dashing forward and spinning. The music swelled as she reached behind herself and grabbed her leg.

She stopped in place and spun, spun, spun, one hand up, palm raised to the ceiling. As the music crashed into its climax she crouched and threw herself skyward once more, arms spread like she was flying, before she rolled forward into a flip and landed once more on her feet.

She couldn’t see it, but she could imagine her cape flowing out behind her, glimmering like fire as the warm colored glitter caught the spotlights. The gems and sequins on her uniform sparkled, setting her limbs aflame like the wings of a phoenix.

The music began to fade as they soared in circles, until the track stopped completely. They stopped, too, panting, and lit up at the scattered applause to their right.

“Well done, master Maddel, as always!” One of Oliver’s entourage called; the goldblood, from the sound of it. Oliver flashed her a charming smile and skated towards her voice, one hand out. Their fingers tapped the low wall around the rink and they grabbed it, coming to a stop.

“Thank you, darling, did you like that?” He purred, leaning his elbows on the wall.

“Yes, ma’am, that was spectacular.” Another troll chipped in.

“Thank you so much, my dear. It’s a little more basic than the dance I did earlier, but it won me a competition a few sweeps ago. Could one of you hand me a hydration cylinder, pretty please?” Oliver purred, her voice giggly and sweet. She heard a flurry of movement, then the cool metal of the soda can was pressed against her arm.

She took it with another sugary, “Thank you, darling!” and cracked the tab before taking a sip.

“When’s your next performance, master Maddel?” The goldblood asked.

“I’m afraid it won’t be for a while, my sweet, I’m all tied up in some other business at the moment.” Oliver told her forlornly, setting his soda down. “Speaking of, what time is it?”

“It’s just past midnight, sir.”

“Ah, then I’m afraid I need to get going, I’ve been practicing since the sun went down, and I have a video date with my precious morail I don’t want to be late for.”

“How will you video date if you can’t-” The goldblood began, only to be abruptly cut off; by the ‘smack’ sound, Oliver could guess someone had covered her mouth.

“Can’t see?” Oliver finished for her, before he chuckled, turning and skating for the nearby gate, “I don’t need eyes to hear my beloved’s words, do I?”

“N- no, ma’am, I suppose not.” The goldblood said meekly.

Oliver only chuckled again. The gate beeped, signaling he’d arrived next to it, and he pushed it open. Stepping out onto the rubbery ground, he carefully and somewhat awkwardly walked to the bench across from him. He sat, easily untying and removing the skates.

She flexed out her toes, relieved, and felt around. On the bench next to her laid her cane and purse, both of which she scooped up, along with her skates. “Good night, my loves!” She said cheerfully, shouldering her purse and headed for the locker rooms.

When they shouldered their way into their VIP locker room, they tapped their way towards the showers, stripping down as they went and dropping their purse and skates on a chair. A quick rinse, and they stepped out, grabbing a towel from the waiting pile.

He toweled off as he headed for his locker, scooping up his uniform as he went. He pressed his thumb to the scanner and it popped open, and Oliver traded their skates for their street clothes.

Binder, jumpsuit, cape, and white band were traded for bra, a band shirt, and skinny jeans. He tied an olive green band around his eyes before slipping a pair of pumps on his feet and brushing out his hair.

She sighed, relieved to be out of uniform, and pinched the collar of her shirt, pulling it up to her sniffnub and inhaling deeply. The shirt smelled like her morail’s cologne and detergent; probably because she’d stolen it from him. With a laugh, she grabbed her purse and cane and headed for the door again. She slipped out the rink’s front door, in time to hear the scuttlebuggy pull up.

“Good evening, master Maddel.” The driver said as they emerged from the buggy and walked around to open the door.

“Good evening, darling.” Oliver replied, hand out. The driver took his hand and helped him into the carriage, before shutting the door and walking back towards the front seats.

“Where to, sir?” The driver asked as they got in.

“Home.”

“Yes, sir.”

The scuttlebuggy started up and began to move, and Oliver opened his purse and dug out his palmhusk and a pair of earbuds. He slipped them into his ears and turned the screen on.

“Home screen.” The buds informed him, “Two new messages, four missed calls.” With practiced fingers, Oliver pulled up Trollian and pressed a button. The buds promptly began reading out the messages:

-HeavymetalMeowbeast began trolling SightlessFirebird!-

HM: HEY BABE!!!! HM: GUESS WHAT?!?! I FOUND SOMETHING I THINK YOURE GONNA LOVE!! MESSAGE ME BACK ASAP!! LOVE YOU!! <>

-HeavymetalMeowbeast is idle-

Oliver smiled softly, thumbing the speech-to-text option. They raised the palmhusk closer and began to speak.

SF: Hello, sugargrub~. What is it you want to tell me~?

They waited, and were not disappointed by the swift response, which the buds quickly read out:

HM: OKAY OKAY OKAY SO!!!! HM: YOU KNOW YOUR ANCESTOR, THE DEADSCAR DUDE?!?! FUCKING EPIC NAME BY THE WAY!!! ANYWAY, I DECIDED TO DO SOME DIGGING ABOUT MY OWN BLOODLINE AND YOULL NEVER FUCKING GUESS WHO MY ANCESTOR IS!!!!!!!

SF: Hmm~. You’re right, darling, I can’t guess~. Do tell, though~.

HM: HIS NAME IS DMITRI “THE HIEROPHANT” AKSHAI, AND HE WAS THE FUCKING FOUNDER OF THE BLACK HAND!!!!! HOW FLIP FUCKING COOL IS THAT?!?!?

SF: Very 7lip 7ucking cool~. Did you 7ind out anything else~?

Oliver smiled softly to herself; she knew her morail’s ancestry already, she’d just neglected to mention it to him. Why else would she have chosen him as a morail? As her second in command at the Black Hand? Well… that’s why she chose him at first, but he’d grown on her exponentially since then. Not that he needed to know that.

HM: YEAH I DID!! I FOUND SOME CONNECTIONS OF HIS!! GOOD NEWS FOR US, MOST OF THEM ARE ALREADY BACK!!! MAYBE WE CAN TALK TO THEM, SEE WHAT THEY KNOW??? OR, I GUESS YOUD HAVE TO, SINCE IM ON TOUR!! YOU DONT HAVE TO THO!!

SF: Well, it depends~. Who are his connections~?

HM: OKAY GET THIS!! I FOUND RECORDS OF NONE OTHER THAN HOUNDING, BLUEGILL, SOME GUY NAMED BRIGAN, A DUDE CALLED THE IMPERIAL ENFORCER, AND A DUDE NAMED BLADEPEN!!!! HOW FUCKING COOL OF A NAME IS THAT?!?! HM: ANYWAY, COULDNT FIND MUCH ON THE LAST TWO, THEY WERE BARELY MENTIONED IN THE RECORDS I FOUND!!! SOME KIND OF COVER UP??? NOT TOTALLY SURE!! HM: ANY OF THEM RING A DONGSHOUTER??

SF: Hm~… Yes, I believe several o7 those ring a dongshouter~. Well done, BB, I’ll dig around and see what I can 7ind~.

HM: OKAY!! WE STILL ON FOR DATE NIGHT LATER???

SF: Absolutely, my love~. <> You’ll see me in a 7ew hours~.

HM: LMAO, OKAY!!! PALE FOR YOU OLLY!! TTYL!! <>

-HeavymetalMeowbeast ceased trolling SightlessFirebird!-

Oliver purred, raising his head as he felt the scuttlebuggy come to a stop.

“We’re here, sir.” The driver said, parking the vehicle and getting out. Oliver nodded, gathering his things and getting out of the buggy with the driver’s help.

“Thank you, dear.” They told the driver, pressing a few bills into their hand before they tapped their way to their hivestem’s front doors.

He pulled a card from his purse and took a moment to locate the scanner, before pressing the card against it. The scanner beeped, and he heard the doors swish open in front of him. He headed for the vertical ascension box, thumbing the button.

His fingers drummed against the head of his cane as he waited, humming to himself. When the box pinged, signaling the doors had opened, he ducked inside. He felt for the panel and ran his fingers upwards, until he felt the correct number under his fingers and pressed it.

The doors shut, and the box began to rise. As she waited, Oliver clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth, thinking. Finally, the ride ended, and the doors opened. Oliver stepped out, into her own hive.

Oliver’s hive was a vast, penthouse apartment near the top of the hivestem. From what he’d been told, it had a lovely view of the city on one side, and the mountains on the other. He had everything, from a large mealblock to a hot tub on the balcony, to an entire block converted into an aviary for his pets and lusus.

After dropping his purse on the loungeplank, he headed to the mealblock and dug leftovers out of his mealvault. Thin slices of sashimi, cooked just enough to sear a crust of spices along the edges, and a bowl of sugar-glazed scarabs.

Oliver hummed, carrying his dinner to his studio slash office, and set it down next to his husktop, which he boot up. Popping a scarab in his mouth, he picked up a small remote and clicked it. He heard a beep, and his audio-crate began playing music at a low volume; it was thundering, screeching heavy metal, with intense bass and drums. A moment later, Oliver’s morail’s voice started howling out lyrics.

Smiling to themself, Oliver heard their husktop beep to indicate it was on and ready. With the screen reader as a guide, they located the desktop Trollian and opened it.

-SightlessFirebird began trolling TheDecaying!-

SF: Hello, my lovely dear Brigan~! You do not know me, but I am a 7riend, in dire need of your assistance~. I need in7ormation~.

There was a pause, before the husktop pinged.

TD: Wh_ is Brigan?

Oliver frowned.

SF: You are, my dear~.

TD: I am wh_?

SF: You are Brigan~!

TD: I am?

Oliver sighed, beginning to wonder if this was a good idea.

SF: Yes, my love, and I want to know- have you ever heard of a man called the Hierophant~?

TD: Wh_ are y_u?

SF: I am a 7riend, as I said~. Do you know the Hierophant~?

There was another pause, much longer than the first. Oliver began to get concerned after several minutes ticked by; he’d nearly finished his plate of sashimi by the time his husktop pinged.

TD: I d_ n_t kn_w y_u. Th- magg_ts whisp-r y_u ar- n_t t_ b- trust-d. A blind bird dr-ss-d in flam-s will _nly b- c_nsum-d by what mak-s th-m pr-tty. Fir-s di- wh-n th-y ar- suff_cat-d. Th- Hi-r_phant fl-w _n wax wings, t__ cl_s- t_ th_ flint and st--l that lit y_ur f-ath-rs, and n_w h- burns.* *(I do not know you. The maggots whisper you are not to be trusted. A blind bird dressed in flames will only be consumed by what makes them pretty. Fires die when they are suffocated. The Hierophant flew on wax wings, too close to the flint and steel that lit your feathers, and now he burns.)

Oliver sat back, surprised, before he scowled.

SF: So you *did* know him~?

TD: Knew who?

Oliver took a deep breath, a frustrated growl rolling in her throat.

SF: Thank you for your help, Brigan~.

TD: G__dbye, Blind Ph_-nix.

-TheDecaying ceased trolling SightlessFirebird!-

-TheDecaying has blocked SightlessFirebird!-

That was a waste of time, Oliver thought bitterly, mentally scratching Brigan off their list. They tossed another sugar-scarab into their mouth and chewed on it ruefully, thinking.

“An evil god nestled somewhere in time, A bloody spider- no warnings, no signs. Judgement day and the rotten child arrives, Eventually, laid bare are his crimes.

The records went up in flames, no turning back, ‘Cause I just had to see, was the spider’s bite watching me? In the mist, the facts twist, and bones do snap, as I lay on your altar, bleeding, bleeding, bleeding.”

Oliver’s morail’s voice cut through their thoughts and they turned their head towards the radio, which was still playing one of their morail’s albums. Oliver knew that album; Spades of Revolution, their latest release.

“A bloody spider…” Oliver repeated aloud, tapping their claws on the desk, “And a rotten child…” A wicked smile crawled across their face and they turned back to the husktop.

Dismissing the failed conversation, Oliver pulled up a new chatroom.

-SightlessFirebird began trolling WacobaRanchOffical!-

SF: Hello, Mr. Bluegill~. My name is Oliver, and I am a huge 7an o7 your work~. I was wondering i7 I could ask you a 7ew questions~?

Oliver sat back and waited. Having cleared her bowl and plate, she picked them up and took them to the mealblock sink. She stopped by the aviary to feed her birds and lusus, giving them each a minute of attention- they’d get more later, before sunrise- before heading back to the office.

She tapped a button on the side of her mouse, but the screen reader only read back the message she’s sent. She frowned.

SF: Mr. Kappal~? Are you there~? I don’t mean to be a bother, my dear man, I’m just very curious about a 7ew things~.

Still, no response came. Oliver waited several minutes, which stretched onto hours. He went and showered, did his entire hair and skin treatment routine, and got changed into a comfy robe.

When he checked again, nothing, and the clock informed him it was nearly time for his video date with his morail. Nibbling on his lip, he sent a final message.

SF: Well, just get to me when you can, sir~! I hope to hear 7rom you soon~!

No response ever came.

Somewhere, far away, in a hive by the seaside, a husktop pinged three times over the span of several hours. Only one of the residents heard it.

But he couldn’t stop staring at the blood on his hands.

#ancient sounds #long post #very long post #story time #oliver maddel #sightless sounds

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nnobara · 3 years ago

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this is the anon from before, hope u don't mine me following up w a response but ur tags weren't too much bc i also agree as well the change in his style for that arc didn't hurt it imo at all! more specifically the part everyone talked abt the most, the rough sketch that begins when maki crushes two guys throats(wonderful)and ends when jinichi starts going after her. it's like, who knows if he ever would've tried this if it weren't for his state of mind at the time- but where he chose to give himself a break in the chapter, which panels/how many, he placed it perfectly. to me it flowed naturally as, from that point we were seeing thru ranta's pov as he's activating his ct, he sees her kill the 2, then he gets traps her in a literal eye(that we're seeing thru!!), and then from there on we're back to a general view normally. not that he needs an excuse for how to draw his story, but if we didn't know anything at that point abt how he was tired behind the scenes he could've gotten away w it as a creative risk. didn't seem out of place in my reading :-)

hi! no no i dont mind at all! yes that very part! while i did see that there was smt unusual w the panels i didnt even register those were rough drafts until ppl on socmeds brought it up and later gege confirmed it himself since it just seemed appropriate? in delivering the chaoticness and brutality of the situation no? it also looked like it was done deliberately since just like what u said only happened during that ranta guy in action.

it's like, who knows if he ever would've tried this if it weren't for his state of mind at the time- but where he chose to give himself a break in the chapter, which panels/how many, he placed it perfectly.

!!!!!! now now we literally have the same thought?? i was thinking of putting them on the previous answer but i didnt really know how to phrase it exactly so thank you so much!!! its like...

...you know while he probably failed to meet his expectations and things were rough for him (like tell me again how many he had to draw that week only? 20 pages for a chapter, a lead color page, a colored spread... hell) yet its not everyday we get to see this style of his right? ive came to think that it was really something to treasure while i reread that chapter on the days of jjk hiatus

and your last two sentences, very true. tho he eventually said it himself he submitted rough drafts when he couldve just said it was just his artistic choice.. guess he received quite some call outs atm (which was inconsiderate considering his insane workloads) which he answered w another call out ajsjjdk never change gege

anyway thank u for sharing your thoughts!! it was nice to look back at things now it was quite uproar at that time with every kind of comments and responds ppl had abt that rough drafts that i didnt get to think for myself on what i feel at that time lol (just simply praying that gege was not ill or stuff)

#come to think of it im curious if gege gonna keep the panels that way with little final touches or fixing it completely in the tankobon #most likely the latter but either way so excited to see that bloodbath chapter in its final form #asks

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artificialqueens · 4 years ago

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Cause Though the Truth May Vary, This Ship Will Carry (Gigi/Nicky) - Campvanjie

AN: Based on the prompt: “You weren’t supposed to hear that.” - “Well, you shouldn’t be saying it then.” A slight AU Gigi/Nicky, little bit of unrequited crushing and a lot of fate, originally posted to my old AO3 account on May 24th, 2020. Edited as well to add non-binary pronouns for Gigi out of drag, as the original used male pronouns. Don’t worry, I’m the original author and only want all of my stories collected under one pen name.

Summary: Nicky and Gigi strike up a friendship online, but just can’t meet until the time’s exactly right.

CW: slight mentions of homophobia.

The sun’s almost setting on an August day when Gigi flicks through the games in their library, bored of sniping enemies from rooftops, set on finding something else that has a competitive mode, kicking underneath the bed to find their headset. It would probably be best to at least try to talk to other people, and maybe even count up all the times people call each other gay without even realizing they’re talking to someone, who’s made sixteen dollars an hour dressing up as a girl and working at the rock climbing wall for all of high school.

There’s gay, and then there’s Gigi Goode; with a closet hanging full of custom couture, not that they’d ever admit to their mom that her work isn’t the worst.

There’s only one player in the team’s group chat, as Gigi adjusts their headset so they can talk into the mic.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Hi!”, laughs the voice in his headphones; crackling as Gigi shoots and blows apart a box in the game’s lobby. There’s an accent there he can’t quite place, not that it matters so much, since the guy on the other end easily guides him through the map and even cracks a couple of jokes as one of the other team’s players is booted off a cliff. Maybe he’s Spanish, or Russian, since there are lot of Russian people on the server at this time of almost- night.

They queue for another round, his player’s character stopping next to a poster of one of the girls in the game.

“I like her, do you?”, he asks, and Gigi cringes a little. Straight guys were fucking exhausting, but this was just embarrassing-

“Like, this coat, with the belt like this, makes her waist look like she is a wasp. The insect, not the white people.”, he keeps talking, and Gigi’s eyes widen a little.

“Yeah, I’d buy those boots.”, they joke, hoping that whoever it is, will take it in stride, and he won’t have to listen to someone who’d been cool for the past half an hour, suddenly start losing their mind over how gay that was to say out loud.

“The boots? I want this hair- I want just Mortal Kombat hair but like this color, and maybe instead of a gun I want the scepter, like Sailor Jupiter. You’ve seen that, yes?”

Gigi blinks a couple of times. He’s serious?

“Like, of course. Yeah.”

“She’s a Mugler bitch. Hm, aren’t you?”, the voice teases on the other end; kicking at one of the boxes in the game.

Gigi is silent, as their queue timer runs out, and their team join another game which is already active when they’re dropped in.

“It’s the Hermes winter collection.”

“What?”

“That jacket is a dupe from the Hermes winter collection. You said Mugler-”, Gigi repeats, blasting through a wall in the game.

“Oh- oh you’re saying- this past winter! Of course! Maybe someone on the design team is also a fan?”

“Maybe.”

The two of them finish the round, and Gigi eagerly hits yes; when a little box pops up to add TheNickyDoll to their friends list.

(Gigi adds him back on Discord, too- because they’re probably not taking the Xbox to college, and then, they can send pictures right away.

He’s not a serial killer, and he’s cute.

Gigi can’t help but wonder if Nicky thinks the same of them.)

They slowly knit together in between Gigi’s first semester, and when Nicky moves into a new apartment in the eleventh arrondissement in Paris, and pops a bottle of champagne against his camera on his phone, propped up in his new kitchen. He plays with the zipper on his hoodie, and Gigi still can’t help but be surprised with how simple his wardrobe is.

Gigi spends hours carefully curating their wardrobe, though they supposed in Europe, there were just better pickings.

“Don’t you have friends?”, Gigi jokes, shirtless against the white brick walls of their dorm.

“Everyone will be over later, but I just wanted to do a toast for your timezone. It will be like three am for you when everyone else gets off work.”

“So this is a private party? Well… okay let me get my card.”

“Seriously? Not that kind of party!”

“Didn’t say it was. Congratulations, by the way. I got you something! Well like, I found it, and it’s so you-“

Gigi flicks the camera to face forwards, swinging to a painting hanging in the closet.

“Aw, well you didn’t have to- what the fuck is that?”

“Putin! I painted him in like the eighth grade. My mom was dropping off some stuff last weekend and I can mail him-“

Nicky’s eyebrows shoot up, pots and pans clattering on the other end of the line.

“Bitch, I am trying to not be the victim of a hate crime.”

Gigi laughs a little bit, flipping the camera back to focus on their face.

“I never asked, what do you even do?”

“What?”

“Like you- you have a job right? What’s your job?”

“Ah, I’m working, well I worked at a makeup store, but now I have some contracts, and maybe, you know- this neighborhood is where all the bars and the clubs are. If there’s no work on the runways maybe some will be looking for new girls.”

Gigi’s cheeks run hot for a moment.

“Wait, you- you’re a girl?”, they ask weakly, hoping it won’t absolutely ruin their entire… whatever it is, when you’d rather have a private housewarming alone in bed, than pretend to enjoy the beers that are flowing through the rest of the hall downstairs.

“Only when I’m being paid. Do you know- well, you have to in America you have RuPaul’s show- it’s like that-“

“You do drag? Wait, really?”

“Shhhh.”, he stops them, pressing a finger between his lips. “It’s like, I haven’t got any bookings yet but some of the clubs are interested- some of the parties, too. I can be a bottle girl.”

Gigi simply blinks repeatedly in the screen.

“What- is that too gay? I thought we were both pretty gay.”

“Yeah. Yeah. Hey-“, Gigi keeps the camera on their face, their eyes flicking up towards the naked mannequin resting against the closet door. Most of Gigi’s things were still at home, but there was a black feathered swimsuit they’d been working on- if they took out the waist just a bit-

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Wow, we are getting deep in, Dr Phil.”

“Seriously, what is it?”

“I’m feeling pink recently. Usually just- something simple. Blue. Black. It’s soothing.”

“Black is not a color.”

“Then it’s my favorite not-color.” Nicky pours from the bottle into a flute on her counter. “Get something to drink, come on.”

“Uh-“

“Doesn’t matter what. Come on!”

Gigi reaches for Red Bull, yesterday’s alcohol mixed into it, tangy and stale in the metal can.

“Okay.”

“Pace a Salute!”, Nicky cheers, and they clink their drinks against the camera.

Two months later, there’s a wrapped package on his stoop, covered in foreign postage, wet at the edges like it’s been through- what Americans would call the ringer, the labels so scratched over he can barely make out the return address, when he cuts the cardboard open on his kitchen counter.

If this was that stupid Putin painting, he was deleting Gigi from his entire life-

Inside, is fabric folded in paper, a little cloth ribbon tied around where a card is tucked in.

“I dont know what your actual skin tone is because you need better lights but merry Christmas if it doesn’t fit or doesn’t match sell it on eBay and get better lights”,

Gigi has written, in neat, large letters.

Nicky carefully unfurls the rest of it, and there’s a blue and pink bodysuit inside, accented with green and yellow panels that glitter like the facets of a diamond, and a yellow jacket, the bottom cut off just below the ribs, hemmed in thick stitches so the fabric won’t roll up.

Had Gigi gone and had this made? Or was it off the rack?, he wondered, digging for price tags and labels in the fabric.

Nothing.

Shit.

He fires off a message to Gigi, who is still showing as offline, given it’s probably six in the morning where he is.

14:17

How much is this “gift” you got me? Wtf…

FaceTime me later.

There’s predictably no response, and that night; he paints carefully in the mirror in his bedroom, laying out the little black dress he had chosen for the performance on his bed.

At the very last minute though, it’s that little suit from Gigi that wins out, nude panels sliding over his tights as he shimmies in front of the mirror.

It’s not perfect, but it all looks very nice.

When later comes, Gigi is wearing a red wig with blonde streaks that she runs her long fingers through, winking at the camera.

“My mom’s actually a professional seamstress. It didn’t cost anything, babe.”, she says with a little shrug, a tight yellow dress barely moving around his shoulders. There’s always a party here; and Gigi can’t imagine hating it more, the little college town bigger than he was used to, and yet still- too small for what she really wanted.

“If you want other stuff, I’ll send it. There’s lots of stuff that I don’t really wear anymore and we kind of have the same style. It’s not like anyone can say anything, then they’d have to admit they’ve seen me out in public. Or I could even make you something, I’m bored all the time.”

“Why are you doing this?”, Nicky asks.

“I dunno. It’s not like you’re my competition. You’re my friend.”

19:41

Anyway, I’m dropping out of school, getting a nose job and moving out to LA.

Gigi types out on their phone, underneath the table at their family’s annual thanksgiving dinner.

19:41

Maybe not all at once.

Nicky’s reply comes lightning fast- making Gigi grin.

“Are you seriously getting nudes right now?”, one of their brothers asks, and their mother glares at the both of them over the table.

“I’m getting some new sketches from my atlier in Paris.”, they seethe, glancing back down at the floor. Nicky’s been trying to teach him French, like it’s something that occupies them so that Gigi doesn’t implode; in between sending him links to his favorite shows to watch, and YouTube links to makeup tutorials.

(He still hasn’t figured out if Nicky means it; or if he’s trying to be shady, and just doesn’t know how.)

“Atlier is where you get the clothes made, dumbass. Mom’s sewing room isn’t Paris.”

“Shut up!”

“All of you just stop-”

19:43

It’s a hard time in life in general.

Try not to listen so much to those voices in your head.

Nicky’s text pops up with a loud, mechanical pinging noise, three dots still hovering under the message as Gigi forces looks up from the screen and glowers across the table as they reach for more baby carrots.

19:43

Make mistakes, but not too many, haha. You’ll figure it out.

If it makes you feel a little bit better, I’m moving to San Fran

19:43

What? For real?

Gigi’s nails frantically tap over the screen.

19:45

Yes! I bought a ticket.

And my husband called an immigration lawyer, we’re going to get my green card situation set.

“Lawyer-”, Gigi gasps; and their entire family pauses, glancing over the table at them.

“Jesus Christ. You did it, didn’t you? You got arrested your first semester, and you weren’t even gonna tell us-”

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”, they snap, flipping the bird at their oldest brother.

“Well, you shouldn’t be saying it then.”

Their whole table erupts in a discussion Gigi can’t pay any attention to.

19:50

Cool.

That means I get to see you soon.

It’s gonna be great.

They taps ou, and close the app with a smile.

They hadn’t known if Nicky even had a boyfriend, not that it mattered; until it did.

Apparently; he had been married, for almost the whole time they had known each other- a blow Gigi hadn’t quite expected, to leave them as breathless as landing in Los Angeles; the shock not setting in, not in full, anyway- until they are standing in a new apartment, looking down at a menu of instructions on how to set up the wifi in the unit, fingers hovering over everyone in contacts.

They can’t call their mom; not this soon, and their brothers would tell her, and the whole plan would crumble; just like everything had with Nicky; whose calls Gigi had declined for the past solid month; the nights they had spent with their phones propped up behind desks and dressing room mirrors fading into something beyond memory; that they refused to think about any more than they had to, the messages asking if they’re alright answered in curt, short replies.

How could they have been so stupid, thinking that they were talking-talking, teasing that Nicky and they were friends; when Gigi didn’t even know what his real name was.

(Unless it was Nicky?)

Shit.

Gigi waits for their phone to load into the app, and refreshes the friends list a couple of times, until they can see Nicky’s icon at the top, the side of the circle cut through with a little green dot, and taps twice to start a call.

“Hi?”

Nicky’s greeting floats in the air, between a breath and utter silence before Gigi swallows their pride, pressing the phone to the side of their face.

“What do you know about connecting a router to a tower if I live on the…um third floor?”

The line crackles, but soon there’s a tiny, familiar chuckle. “First of all, that is not how you do any of that-”

They talk a little more, every day; in between, Nicky moves to New York and Gigi cuts a tape that they put in the mail with a wink. They’re due for a visit home soon, and carefully proposes- maybe it’s time they meet Nicky. New York isn’t far at all, and a layover would make for a cheaper flight, anyway.

Their plans stack up in hours of calls; and Gigi think they’re almost back to normal. Until, three days before the flight is supposed to leave, there’s a call they had forgotten to wait for, and their fingers hover over the message box below Nicky’s name, vibrating with anxiety and excitement all at once.

09:22

Hey. I had a family thing come up.

Gigi types, and then erases the text, steeling themselves as they taps out another one that makes a little more sense, and doesn’t seem like such a lie.

09:30

I’m so so so so sorry about this

I had some things come up and my trip fell through.

They send this instead, surprised to see Nicky start typing back immediately.

09:35

You’re not going to believe this

I have some work things that started recently and so it would have been really shitty to have a guest over now.

09:35

No way!

09:37

Yeah. :(( But we’re gonna hang out someday, I swear!

09:37

Dont worry! You’re definitely gonna see me.

Real real real soon!

“-Where do I go?”, Gigi asks, pulling at the bottom hem of the ornate jacket she wore, fiddling with the gold telescope in her hands. The lights behind the set burned brightly, making the thicker bottoms of the outfit feel much warmer than he had remembered them being.

“Go to that green square on the ground, and wait there, when you see the little arrow light up, you can enter the Werk Room and then we’ll have you stop inside, get your opening line, and let you see the other girls.”

“Okay.”

He does as he’s told, prancing in and kicking his boots in front of him as the lights move to capture Gigi’s entrance, his head only snapping to the side when given the signal, so he can see the others who are already crowded around the pink tables he’s only dreamed of seeing for so long.

“Holy Shit…Nicky?!”

In reality; Gigi can see far more of the detail of Nicky’s face; of her eyebrows and carefully painted cheeks and lashes, of all the effort that they had only really talked about, his eternal summer tan and the long fringe of black hair that he’s always nudging across his forehead, or slicked against a beanie, gone behind a platinum blonde veneer that’s so much brighter than Gigi has ever seen. She’s thinner, and taller, careful breaths underneath sequinned shoulder pads, knees knocking together as she gasps.

“Gigi!”

Widow and Crystal glance at each other over the pink table.

“Hold up, you guys know each other?”

In the flesh; Gigi is impossibly small, the sharp angles of her face, and the dark brown hair that sticks up in angles which Nicky traces against the white of his pillows in his bedroom on the screen of his phone in the morning, taped underneath a gold-tipped pirate hat, and lush, wavy curls. She looks like a model on the runways where Nicky used to work; so close to him that he can feel Gigi’s breath on the back of his hand, as he tightens his grip around the epaulets on her shoulder.

“Gigi Goode.”, she repeats, and Gigi giggles a little at that.

“The Nicky Doll.”, she laughs, and her voice sounds so much more solid, than it ever has over every crossed wire.

Gigi’s hand swings, squeezing Nicky’s tightly as they swing around the table; like the others who are there don’t matter at all. She rests her head on Nicky’s padded shoulder, cocking it just slightly, waiting there, as Crystal’s eyes flash at the scene before them.

“…and may the best woman win.”, Gigi whispers, only for Nicky to hear.

#rpdr fanfiction #nicky doll #gigi goode #gigi x nicky #pre-ship #fluff #online friends au #s12 #on set fic #queen au #campvanjie #concrit welcome

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amazingphanisnotonfire-imagines · 5 years ago

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Madelaine Petsch//Blessing (part 2)

Request: Hi, I was wondering if your request are open? If so could you please do a sequel to Blessing? I absolutely loved it and I'm dying for more!!!! But if you dont want to that's grand, I'm just here for your amazing writing not to make demands XOXO

part 1

“What’s been your favourite part of filming season 4?” A fan asks and the cast all look at each other, silently deciding who’s going first.

Today has been great. You woke up feeling much better than the last night, especially because you were wrapped in your girlfriend’s arms.

However today has been busy. So busy that you’d barely seen your girlfriend or your sister, since early this morning. You’d watched all their panels/interviews from behind the cameras, smiling proudly at both of them, and trying to figure out if Camila’s going to say anything stupid, which you had you’re fingers crossed for.

This was the final panel of the day, meaning the entire cast had reunited on stage, ready to answer questions and talk about what they loved. You were backstage, watching proudly as all your favourite people talked about how much they loved their jobs. However a frown appears on your face as you watch Madelaine become more and more anxious as it gets closer to being over. Her leg is bouncing while her fingers tap against the table and she keeps glancing at her watch.

Something was wrong, and its seems you weren’t the only person that had noticed. Cami kept glancing at her and now you were really worried.

Could she be breaking up with? Could one of them be sick? Even worse...were both of them sick? Oh god, Madelaine’s breaking up with you for your sister. It makes sense. Now you think of it, they’ve both been acting weird. Since you woke up you’ve barely seen them. Madelaine’s been very secretive for the past few months, not a lot, its been very subtle, but you can see that she’s changed. And now you think about it, Cami’s also been acting weird, its only been for the past few days, but it could have been longer. Thats why she slept in yours and Mad’s room. Its not because Charles chose to stay with KJ. Its so they could continue their love affair. You’re never going to hear the end of this. You may bring up every embarrassing thing she’s ever done when you’re at family events, but she’s going to your ex-girlfriend to them...so who’s really won?

“And I think that wraps this panel up.” The interviewer says and you quickly look up, your eyes widening as you realize you just missed the last god knows how many minutes of the Q&A. “Thank you for answering our questions. And thank you guys for asking them.” Loud cheers can be heard throughout the room, and the entire cast is beaming as they look out into the audience, well everyone but your girlfriend. She’s smiling at you, brighter than anybody on stage and you know she could never cheat on you. But that still doesn’t answer why she’s being weird.

“Actually.” Madelaine interrupts quickly making the room fall silent. She looks at you one last time before glancing at Cami and your friends. “I have one quick thing to say. Y/n, can you come here?” She asks and you look at her with pure terror on your face as you’re all but pushed on stage.

The cheering starts again as you appear and you wave awkwardly as you slowly make your way towards your girlfriend. She stands up and meets you halfway, grabbing your hand once she’s reached you.

You give her a half puzzled, half frightened look and she laughs before squeezing your hand.

“Y/n?” She starts shakily and you return the squeeze, despite not knowing whats going on. “I knew since the moment I met you that I would end up loving you. And I also knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. You made me laugh the first time we met, and you’ve been making me laugh ever since. You make me the happiest I’ve ever been, something which I think everybody has picked up on.” She looks behind her to Cami, who despite the tears flowing down her cheeks, has a bright smile on her face and now you understand whats happening. “Everyone has bad dreams, you more than anybody. But if you’d let me, I’d like to be next to you every time you wake up from one to make you feel better. I’ve had this ring for four months, your sister has given me her blessing. So Y/n Mendes. Will you marry me?” She lets go of your hand to pull a ring out of her pocket as she kneels down and you can’t help crying. The entire room is filled with screams and cheers, and you can barely make out the sound of your own voice, but she hears your answer and her smile mirrors yours as she stands up and slips the ring on your finger.

She kisses you sweetly, making it become the cheering even louder, before she’s pulling you off stage, the rest of the cast following. Cami’s the first to hug you, both of you crying uncontrollably.

“I thought you and Madelaine were having an affair.” You mumble in her ear and she laughs loudly.

“She clearly only has eyes for you.” She replies and the two of you look at her, to see her already staring at you, a soft smile on her face.

“Definitely.”

#riverdale #riverdale imagine #madelaine petsch #madelaine petsch imagine #madelaine petsch x reader #madelaine petsch x you #cheryl blossom #cheryl blossom imagine

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tunes-on-a-typewriter · 4 years ago

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Cosmopolitan: Chapter 4

"Well, my friends," cried Alex when he arrived in the dining room the next morning about an hour later than everyone else. Clarence and Daniel looked up from their plates, but Ivy calmly continued to stuff herself with orange marmalade toast. Travis, who was just about to leave, merely shook his head and coughed to hide his giggles. "What do you think about taking a trip to the capital for once? Breathe in a little of the good Thames air? "Or a nice walk along the peaceful streets of Hackney," Clarence said, raising an eyebrow. "So if you start like that again right away, I won't do anything with you anymore," Alex replied, pretending to pout. "No no, I think it's a very good idea", Daniel said quickly. Clarence rolled his eyes. He actually liked Daniel, but when he behaved so servile, he couldn't stand him. "And what about you, Ivy?" Alex asked. "What?" said lvy with her mouth full. "I don't know. I don't care. It certainly sounds more fun than sitting around here all day. Besides, I'm scared to death every time your brother comes up behind me out of nowhere." "That's a very accurate description of my brother," Alex replied amusedly. "So it's decided then. And you're coming too!" he said towards Clarence. "Yes yes. The king said it, the boy ran, that's what happened, didn't it?" "Very true. I just have to ask my mother." "How will you ever become an independent man if you always ask your mother first," said Clarence, but he did it so quietly that Alex did not hear him.

Of course, Lady Catherine allowed it, because it was almost impossible to refuse Alex anything when he looked at you pleadingly from big, sapphire blue eyes. So the small group set off for London the next day, Ivy and Clarence in Ivy's, Alex and Daniel in Daniel's car.

Oh yes, London was something different from tiny Chagford with its two shops and smoky pub. London was a symphony of the street and in the middle of it all was the Cosmopolitan Cafe, a golden palace of sin, with wooden panelling on the walls and lots and lots of champagne flowing through the corridors. It looked impressive from the outside, but could not hold a candle to its interior. It was high and painted completely white, similar to a Parisian townhouse with ornate balconies and an enchanted breeze blowing around it. No ominous lettering pointed to the inside, only through a small entrance with a single lantern above it could be reached.

As if in a trance, Alex and his companions stepped over this sacred threshold for the first time. They saw the thick red velvet carpets on the floor and the artfully intertwined stairs that seemed to lead everywhere. As it was still quite early in the afternoon, the evening regular clienté had not yet arrived, only a few guests who had not made it home from the day before were more or less hanging around the brightly polished bar.

The whole establishment was run by a small, chubby man of indeterminate age who called himself M. Poullier, but it was by no means certain that this was his real name, let alone that he was French. As Alex would later learn, M. Poullier preferred not to reveal anything about himself, his background or his business, but instead to look after the welfare of his guests alone. And so he did, with heart and soul.

Now they’ve arrived at least!

taglist: @alias-levi @hildy-dont-be-hasty @writerlywonders @buster-keaton @rememberedkisses @writingbyjillian @tragediesoftory. If you also want to join/leave the taglist, just ask or dm me! :)

#my wip #cosmopolitan #there will be more plot in the next chapter I promise #but it was necessary to introduce y'all to the location #my writing

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homespork-review · 5 years ago

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Homespork Act 2: The Racism of the Conductor’s Baton (Part 2)

FAILURE ARTIST: We don’t get much time to mourn with Dave because the comic flashes to a weird wizard statue. This statue is ZAZZERPAN THE LEARNED. Wizards are another recurring theme in Homestuck. Andrew Hussie once artfully defaced this cheesy book called Wizardology (warning: lots of really offensive humor). Anyway, Rose hates the giant statue and the other wizard paraphernalia her mother collects and believes her mother does this only to spite her. On a platform is a bronzed vacuum (with a place to put alcoholic beverages) that Rose gave her as an ironic present. On the couch there’s a life-sized princess doll that Rose has attached a Cthulhu-type head to. All these things set up Rose’s troubled relationship with her mother. Rose believes her mother is taunting her and Rose taunts her back.

BRIGHT: This scene also establishes that some things (the Cthulhu doll for one) are too big to be captchalogued.

CHEL: Actually, that was noted with the harlequin doll earlier but we forgot to mention that.

FAILURE ARTIST: Rose goes to the kitchen. On the fridge is a crude picture of her late cat Jaspers, who turns out to be more than a family pet. There’s more signs of this cold war between mother and daughter on the fridge.

CHEL: Also, numerous liquor bottles in the kitchen and comically exaggerated displays of wealth, such as a fifteen-thousand-dollar picture frame.

FAILURE ARTIST: After fussing with the fridge, Rose tries to leave the kitchen only to run into her mother. She tries escaping but lands comically in some wizard statuettes.

CHEL: Mom Lalonde is mopping the floor, with no water in the bucket, holding a martini in her other hand. The woman clearly has a problem. Again, this is an issue with the portrayal of the parents; this is pretty funny, but were a real mother behaving this way, it would seriously mess up the kid, and whether we’re supposed to take it as Rule of Funny or not later becomes inconsistent.

BRIGHT: I think a lot of the humour here is supposed to come from the implication that Mom Lalonde actually is a loving if clueless (and drunk) parent, and Rose is reading her badly. On the other hand, something is clearly very wrong, and while Mom Lalonde may indeed be loving the situation is definitely having an impact on Rose.

TIER: Say whatever you want, but when putting on the late game Cerebus Retcon goggles there are probably non-humorous questions to be asked about how screwy Mom Lalonde is as a parental unit if her daughter has ended up interpreting most of her actions as mocking or backhanded towards herself. Like, kids don't just decide that.

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 3

CHEL: Back to Dave, he’s chatting with GG and they’re being adorable. GG comments about her birthday present to John, the green box we saw in the car earlier, and…

GG: no!!!!!!! GG: he will not open it GG: he will lose it!!! TG: oh TG: uh TG: wow sorry to hear that i guess? GG: no its good actually! GG: because he will find it again later when he really needs it GG: which of course is why i sent it in the first place! TG: see like TG: i never get how you know these things GG: i dont know GG: i just know that i know!

I think here is when we start to get inklings of the kids’ unusual abilities - I mean, unusual in the context of the weird world they live in. A bit more is established about GG’s home life and Dave’s attitudes, too:

GG: i have to feed bec which is always a bit of an undertaking TG: man TG: if i were you i would just take that fucking devilbeast out behind the woodshed and blow its head off GG: heheheh! GG: i dont think i could if i tried!!! TG: yeah TG: say hi to your grand dad for me too ok GG: ._. GG: yes i guess an encounter with him is almost certain GG: it is usually........ GG: intense!!! TG: well yeah isnt it always with family TG: but he sounds like a total badass

“Intense” in a world where attacking your father with a hammer isn’t worthy of comment sounds worrying. We’ll see how that goes.

FAILURE ARTIST: Dave has the tiniest of smiles here and in Hussie’s annotation he says that one pixel created Dave/GG. Whether or not their connection is romantic, Dave obviously feels great affection for her.

CHEL: Interactions between all four of the kids are really sweet, honestly. Dialogue and character interactions are one of the strongest points of the comic overall. Personally I have a soft spot for the OT4.

TIER: In my unprofessional opinion, the beta humans are by far the most functioning and tight knit group of the various groups within the comic, for what that's worth considering the overall dysfunction junction. They're sweet to one another is what I'm saying.

CHEL: Dave talks to John, who mentions the creepy trails around his house and how he thinks he’s seen monsters, which we the audience have definitely seen; creepy little black imps with fangs and, oddly, jester outfits. They bear a striking resemblance to the Wayward Vagabond, in fact. Dave makes fun, but at least pretends not to disbelieve him, and urges him to keep his hammer at the ready. Dave can’t find his Bro, but can find “Lil Cal”, implying Bro is nearby.

TG: lil cal is the shit EB: that's fine, you are entitled to your opinion, i am just saying that being a white guy who is a rapper with a ventriloquist doll is not cool by any stretch of the imagination or by any definition of word cool, ironic or otherwise. that's all i'm saying. WHITE SBURB POSTMODERNISM: 5

Would a non-white rapping ventriloquist be any cooler? I’m struggling to see how. Ventriloquism, by definition, sucks the cool out of any other aspect of the thing. And now I’m picturing Carlton from Fresh Prince trying to rap with a ventriloquist’s doll.

BRIGHT: Back at the Lalonde residence, Rose attempts to ‘Youth Roll’ out of the front door, but her escape route is blocked by her mother, who appears with martini glass in hand. Time for our second Strife of the comic! (And can I say that I really like the music for this one?)

As with John’s strife with his dad, this strife tells us a lot about Rose’s relationship with her mother. John had the AGGRIEVE and ABJURE options; Rose also gets AGGRESS (PASSIVE) and ABSTAIN. It’s pretty telling that one of these options is an EMPTY SUICIDE THREAT, and ‘Abstain’ has Rose fending off her mother’s insistent offer of the martini glass.

FAILURE ARTIST: I liked the EMPTY SUICIDE THREAT at the time but now I think it deserves an ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?

BRIGHT: Mom Lalonde may be intended as loving-but-clueless, but she’s offering her thirteen year old daughter alcohol, over Rose’s protests, and something is clearly very wrong if suicide threats are a normal part of life. (Something similar will come up in the future, but in that context it isn’t played for laughs.)

ARE YOU TRYING TO BE FUNNY?: 4

On a lighter note, ‘Abjure’ has her mother offering her A BEAUTIFUL PONY. Rose reacts in the moment like this is terrible, but does later pat the pony’s nose.

At any rate, the strife ends when Mom Lalonde apparently gets bored and decides to do some dusting. This takes all the fun out of using the front door, so Rose goes around the back to make her break for the generator.

Meanwhile, John is trying to read up on weaponizing sylladexes (sylladices?), but is being nagged by a voice to turn around — which he finally does, just in time for a monster to ram into him so hard it turns the panel pixelated. Strife time!

John’s bout with the Shale Imp kicks off with the monster threatening the Con Air bunny. John’s efforts to defend it are intercut with Rose’s progress out of the house and through the rain to the mausoleum. I think this interplay works quite nicely — it keeps both things moving without letting the reader get impatient -- but your mileage may vary.

The imp aggravates John by punching the bunny in the belly and waving it at him. John attacks the imp and breaks his hammer, then attacks it with the handle and gets knocked flat. Finally he weaponises his sylladex and chucks his inventory at it until it explodes into a shower of grist.

PUT THE BUNNY BACK IN THE BOX!!!!!! Now why couldn’t he put the bunny back in the box?

Because he’d set it as his strifekind, it turns out.

In true video game style, defeating the imp causes John to level up! In Homestuck, this is done by ascending one’s echeladder, a series of player levels with whimsical, old-fashioned names. John climbs two rungs, from Greentike to Plucky Tot, and earns 125 Boondollars.

Note how efficient this is: In one panel we can see that the echeladder is a levelling system, that Boondollars are in-Game currency, and that levelling up has increased John’s amount of grist and how much of it he can carry. He’s also got a new kind of grist called ‘Shale’. Hussie does take an extra panel to clarify the grist capacity expansion, but that makes sense as it’s a small part of the original panel. Compare this to the dozens of panels we’ve had laying out how sylladexes work. These panels are much more information-dense, and the comic flows better for it.

CHEL: Exactly what “grist” is and what it does beyond allowing changes to the house, why those changes are needed, and what “boondollars” are for hasn’t been explained yet, but will be soon, and it’s clear they’re something to do with the game so it’s not outright confusing.

BRIGHT: John spends the next few panels sorting his strife specibus out, and stashes the bunny in there for safekeeping. There’s something amiss, but he can’t quite put his finger on it...

Meanwhile, Rose has reached the mausoleum and prepares to activate the generator. The taxidermied corpse of her beloved pet lies in state, dressed in a tiny suit. A sad fate for an animal who should have peacefully decomposed in a flowerbed. Rose kicks it off the pedestal to make room for the laptop.

John discovers what’s wrong when a bucket of water perched atop his door lands on his head. The culprit behind this sudden dousing?

"[S] WHAT THIS IS SO OUTRAGEOUS (HD)" (Watch on YouTube)

Apparently the sprite has a sense of humour.

Next up is a pesterlog between Rose and Dave. There are hints that all is not well in the Strider residence.

TG: hey TG: dont tell john this but i think he might have been right about the puppets TG: theyre sort of starting to freak me out a little TT: You're referring to your brother's collection? TG: i mean dont get me wrong i think its cool and all TG: the semi-ironic puppet thing or whatever TG: or semi-semi ironic TG: man i dont even know TG: im just starting to think some of this shit is going a little far and its kind of fucked up TT: I've seen his websites. TT: I like them. TG: haha yeah well YOU WOULD TG: oh man i wish lil cal wouldnt look at me like that TG: with those dead eyes jesus TG: sometimes i dream that hes real and hes talking to me and i wake up in a cold sweat and basically flip the fuck out

Well, not so much hints as flashing neon signs. Dave’s gone very quickly from insisting that everything his brother does is cool and Lil Cal is awesome, to admitting that he has nightmares about Lil Cal and is freaked out by his brother’s ‘semi-ironic puppet thing’. We don’t know much about Bro’s websites yet, but we do know that Rose has a morbid streak, and Dave is clearly disturbed by the content.

Dave leaves to find his brother’s copy of the game, and we return to John, who, to quote Rose, has ‘just had a bucket of water dumped on his head by the ghost of his dead grandmother, who also happens to be dressed like a clown.’

And yes, that is indeed John’s dead Nanna, returned to help him on his journey through The Medium and beyond -- or at least, she claims she is. John has to take her word for it, as he doesn’t remember her at all. According to his Dad, John was pretty young when she died. Speaking of his Dad, he’s been kidnapped by the forces invading John’s home.

Nannasprite gives John the background of the game and what’s going on. His house is now in the Medium. This place was created by the game software, but is physically independent of it -- and no, he’s not inside a computer. The Medium floats in the Incipisphere, a place outside the normal flow of time in the kids’ universe. Above the Medium is the realm of Skaia.

According to Nannasprite:

Legend holds that Skaia exists as a dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential. What does this mean, you ask? I'm afraid my lips are sealed about that, dear! Hoo hoo!

Nannasprite is somewhat like a tutorial assistant for the game -- she helps guide John and provides information, although she’s somewhat cryptic.

We are getting a lot of new words here, but Hussie is defining them pretty well as we go, so I don’t think it merits a point.

At any rate, Skaia is defended by the forces of light, while forces of darkness plot its destruction. These two forces exist in an endless stalemate on a stage at the centre of Skaia until a player with a prototyped Kernelsprite enters the Medium. Then the prototyped Kernelsprite splits, with one Kernel carrying the prototyping information up to a kingdom basked in light, and another Kernel carrying it down to the kingdom of darkness. Each kingdom has four Spires, and when the Kernel reaches one, it propagates the prototyping information to the kingdom’s forces.

This is why the imps were dressed as jesters: John prototyped his Kernel with the harlequin doll, and whatever the other players prototype with will influence what forms the soldiers take. When the first Kernels reach the spires, the battlefield gets bigger and the war begins for real.

Oh, right -- and the forces of light are always destined to lose.

So what’s the point? Apparently, that’s for John to find out. For now, though, he needs to head towards Skaia, going through the first of seven Gates. The first Gate is situated directly above John’s house, but the others are going to be harder to reach. We now find out what all that Build Grist is for: To get to the Gate, they need to build the house higher to reach it. And then they can rescue John’s Dad, solve the ultimate riddle, and save the Earth from destruction!

...or not.

Nope, according to Nannasprite, Earth is doomed. Done for. Kaput. There is nothing they can do to save it.

John is pretty bummed about this. He isn’t cheered by Nanna’s assurance that he has a much more important purpose than saving the planet, although she fails to elaborate on that point and instead floats off to make cookies.

CHEL: I think here we earn another couple of points.

HURRY UP AND DO NOTHING: 2 HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 11 Failing the Turing Test - wherein the character has no reactions whatsoever While the emotional lives of characters should not be described in their every tiny wrinkle, characters must have emotional lives. When someone boos them off a stage, they should experience chagrin. When they fall from a tenth-storey window, they should feel alarm. The writer should not count on dialogue like “Yikes!” to get the point across.

Brief confusion and feeling “bummed out” by the news that one’s entire planet is doomed does not count as an adequate reaction. I’d expect more fear, more concern. As pointed out before, doesn’t John have any friends other than Dave, Rose, and GG? His Dad has friends, wouldn’t he be concerned for them on Dad’s behalf? If nothing else, more curiosity about this “more important” business?

BRIGHT: Now, I could actually buy this in some circumstances — John is a teenager, doesn’t seem to have close connections outside those we see on screen, and he’s been having one hell of a weird day. I wouldn’t be surprised if grasping the scope of destruction was simply beyond him at this point. It’s a lot to take in, and it’s only been a few hours since life went to hell in a handbasket — not to mention, he’s in an active combat zone. There’s a lot going on, and if he was to shove it out of his mind while he dealt with the immediate crisis, I could see that as pretty realistic.

Of course, that would depend on him actually reacting at some later point, when he had a chance to slow down and it could sink in. As it stands...well, if that does happen, we never see it.

CHEL: Does this also count as “Oh, Don’t Mind Him” for the How Not To score?

BRIGHT: I think so, yes.

CHEL: Then here it goes!

HOW NOT TO WRITE A WEBCOMIC: 12 Oh, Don’t Mind Him - where a character’s problems remain unexplored In real life, people are riddled with chronic problems that are not addressed for long periods of time, if ever. But in fiction, all problems are just the opening chords of a song. If there is a brother who has a problem with alcohol, a child who has lost her dog, or even someone whose car has simply broken down, the reader will worry about those people and expect the author to do something about it.

Technically, this could count for seven billion or so points, minus any people who successfully entered their own game sessions, but we don’t want to get out of hand here and it really only counts as one big problem.

However! I am very fond of this idea in theory. The obvious option would be that the purpose of the game is to save the player’s homeworld. We’ve all seen the “save the homeworld” idea in scifi and fantasy before. Here, the homeworld is beyond saving, but there is another option, and exploring that is the storyline. The forces of light cannot have a traditional victory; the protagonists must find a victory on the terms they have. It’s not a theme one sees often, and I like it.

FAILURE ARTIST: John and the other Beta Kids’ lack of angst of the destruction of their planet doesn’t stick out as much here as it will later when almost everything else is milked for angst.

CHEL: I’m not really sure the planet being destroyed is a great basis for a Rule-of-Funny-based story if that was what he was going for, to be honest. “Billions died, lol!”

#homestuck #let's read homestuck #homestuck meta #homespork #homestuck reread #homestuck review #sporking #literary critique

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oblio-k · 6 years ago

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ANYWAYS ive been working on a mila fic whenever im exhausted and here it is. whether it’s love or manipulation is up to the readers

Invitation

As Mila pulls a weed from the little garden she’s started behind her employer's mansion, she finds it hard to keep her mind from wandering. From thinking about how her life is so different now.

She forces herself to use the word different because if she uses another word she fears she may start crying. And if that happens, someone would undoubtedly see her, and her employer would take her aside and ask her if she was alright in a way that would sound kind but could drag any answer out of her that he wanted. She likes working for him and vastly prefers this life, this job to her old one. Crying will just make things difficult.

Master Tain had been cruel and treated her as if she was nothing if he noticed that she existed at all. She’d been on the receiving end of his wrath quite frequently and had been left with bruises more than she cared to admit.

Agent Tain is cruel, but never to her. To her, he’s careful and kind, respectful. He goes out of his way to spend time with her and never raises a hand to her. When he looks at her, he doesn’t look through her, and she’s glad to be acknowledged.

She knows he’s only so kind because she knows who he really is. Who he isn’t, rather. But she likes to think it’s also because they’re friends. Or, at least, are becoming friends.

But when she looks at him when he’s working, she’s reminded of how they met, and she can’t stop her hands from trembling just a bit. Before meeting Agent Tain, she’d only ever seen people die from old age or illness. She’d never seen people be murdered. She’d never seen people be or had been interrogated, never had to learn how to use a weapon-

“Miss Garak.”

When she stands and turns, Enabran is behind her. At first, his ability to sneak up on her, to appear out of nowhere, had scared her. Now, it still frightens her, but she doesn’t worry he will hurt her. He’s had so many opportunities to get rid of her, to eliminate the last person besides his superiors that knew his secret, but he’s never taken them. She is alive and unharmed, save for a scratch on her palm from a tool she’d grabbed the wrong end of while gardening.

Before she can greet him, she sees the wound cutting across his abdomen. It’s as if someone had slashed him with a sharp knife. One hand presses tightly against the large wound, like he’s keeping himself from spilling open, though it does nothing to stop the flow of blood. A smaller puncture wound by his clavicle bleeds profusely. She forces herself to get over her shock after looking at each injury and takes his free arm around her shoulders. He leans against her and she helps him inside.

It’s not the first time he’s come to her with injuries, and she can never tell if he is in pain. Enabran is silent as they walk to the master bedroom, and his breathing is steady. It’s not typical for an Obsidian Order agent to appear immune to any injury, from what she’s overheard and seen.

She’s not entirely sure she knows why that is. Mila suspects he’s not a normal agent, that these assassination and interrogation attempts come so frequently because he is proof of something his superiors would very much like to erase.

He sits on the edge of his bed and she washes the dirt from her hands and retrieves the medical kit he has hidden away. It takes a moment for the wall panel to open when she lets it scan her palm, and when she turns around, Enabran is pulling off his bloodied, torn shirt. There are no wounds on his back, and he lies down as she opens up the kit next to him.

Mila doesn’t understand why he trusts her. Still, she dutifully heals him and when the medical scanner picks up an odd substance in his system, she asks, “Have you been poisoned, sir?”

“It’s a truth serum,” he replies, an odd smile on his face. His voice is completely level, as if he hadn’t almost bled to death. “A very strong one.”

“But it doesn’t work on you.”

“Of course it d-doesn’t.” His voice cracks, and he closes his eyes. But he’s too late to hide it when she’s looking directly at him. His pupils dilate. Bizarrely, he begins to laugh. “Why would it work? I’m Cardassian.”

It means something, that. An inside joke that she’s not privy to the context of. But Enabran glances at her, an invitation for her to investigate. He won’t be upset if she finds out what that means- he wants her to, she’s almost sure. The secret she knows could destroy everything he’s worked for, what’s another?

“Miss Garak, are you finished?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thank you. Would you get me a cup of tea?” Master Tain had never thanked anyone. Agent Tain never thanked anyone unless he was manipulating them, and even then, only rarely. Enabran always thanks her. She likes to think it’s genuine. He rubs his eyes as she turns, and sits up.

He has a small tea set in his bedroom, a little burner and a few boxes of the different teas he’s collected on his travels. It’s an indulgence of his, and he’ll get a distant look in his eyes for a moment when she hands the cup to him.

She’s thrilled and worried about noticing and knowing these little details about him. It’s an exposure of that part of him from before.

A weakness he would cease if she dared to point it out.

“Make a cup for yourself,” he adds.

“Yes, sir.”

She picks an herbal blend with a pleasant taste she knows will help with his recovery and help relax her nerves. Blood still isn’t something she’s very used to, especially not large quantities of it. Perhaps in a few years, it won’t faze her.

A few years. She’ll be lucky if he lets her live that long, and she’s not sure what she’s feeling when she realizes she only ever thinks about her future being here, serving him.

By the time the tea is done, he’s changed into fresh clothing, a garish orange turtleneck covered by a drab green shirt, with black pants that don’t match the rest of the outfit at all. Fashion is not something he’s good at, but then again, he seems to be good at everything if asked. She’s sure if she requested it, and he was so inclined, he could choose an outfit fitting of his position as heir to the Tain fortune.

As he takes the cup from her and doesn’t even check it for poison, she thinks to herself that he would very likely be inclined to do what she asked. But she won’t. She knows her place.

“Miss Garak, how is your garden?”

“It’s doing quite well. My brother sent me some seeds to try growing, and they’ve finally begun to sprout.”

“Tolan, correct?”

“Yes, sir.” She’d never told him her brother’s name before. “I’m afraid I’ll never quite meet his skill for flowers.”

“I never understood why people enjoy flowers so much.”

“They’re beautiful. People like to look at nice things.” He opens his mouth to say something and hesitates. Perhaps the truth serum is affecting him more than he wants to admit, though she doesn’t know what he could possibly say about flowers that he wouldn’t want anyone to hear. She asks a question that she thinks will be inconsequential, “If there’s anything you would like to see in the garden, I would plant it for you.”

“No. I’m sure whatever you grow will look beautiful.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Though perhaps you should grow more edible plants than flowers. It’s been quite some time since I was last able to eat something that I’d picked myself.” That distant look. Then his pupils grow large and he looks down at his tea as he says, “When I was a boy, my caretakers would take me on walks around the estate grounds after I’d finished my studies for the morning. We’d eat from the garden until lunch was ready. It was nice.” They’re as wide as she’s ever seen on anyone as he finishes.

Before she can offer her own story about her and her brother enjoying fruits and vegetables from their father’s garden, he asks her, “Miss Garak, do you know how to play kotra?”

“I’m familiar with the title, not with the rules,” Mila answers, dropping the sir to see what he hopes to gain by teaching a servant a complicated game.

A smile tugs at his lips, and he gets up and pretends not to have noticed. “It’s a game I quite enjoy. I believe you would be a good player.” He retrieves a board from within his desk and brings back to the bed. “I was taught how to play when I was young.”

She expects to find a knife at her throat in an hour, then. “I don’t expect you to play any way but your best, sir, despite my inexperience.”

“Kotra is a game about bold tactical strategy…”

Sure enough, after having quickly lost two games against him and arguing with him after she realized he was allowing her to win their third match, a disruptor is pressed against her throat, her wrists held tight in his other hand. She hadn’t even seen him grab it.

“I think I need to get back to work, Miss Garak,” he tells her, voice cold.

Enough was enough. He couldn’t risk appearing close to her so soon after an incident. Quietly, she agrees, but he doesn’t let her go.

“You understand, don’t you, Mila?” It was too dangerous for them to be friends. To be whatever they were. Mila wonders which one of them he’s afraid for.

After all, why should he care if something happens to her? Attachment was a weakness. He’d said so himself to another agent, and for once, she was absolutely certain he had been honest. “Yes, sir.”

It’s even more likely that he’s not worried at all, that all this is a game to keep her quiet. Still, she enjoyed their time together and will look forward to the next, if it comes.

Agent Tain releases her, lowering the disruptor.

#uhh warnings for blood and injury and tain being absolutely drugged i guess? though its not like. graphic about those things #ds9 #enabran tain #mila garak #star trek #oblio's fics

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r4bbitdragon · 6 years ago

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cracks knuckles. alright. lets do this.

now, i’ve seen some confusion as to how zi-o could travel back to skywall times. shouldn’t they technically not have existed in the fused world? wellllllllllllllllllll, they dont exist in the new world, no, but i am unconvinced that that means they never existed at all. i think there is a way fro this to make sense. to illustrate this point i have prepared a few graphs.

now, in figure A, i have prepared a spatial representation of what happened when the worlds fused, just to make things as clear as possible. as you can see, the old main rider world and the build specific world were fused together, leaving only one, new world afterwards.

but, what about from a temporal standpoint? now, this, figure B, is one way the fusion could have affected the two worlds’ timestreams. this is what i’d call a Total Temporal Fusion: just like the worlds themselves, the two timestreams were combined, leaving only one timestream afterwards. of course, the flaw with this is just what we have been shown in zi-o. the new timeline would have never had a skywall, so how did zi-o get to it?

however, i believe there is another way to visualize the timelines’ fusion.

in figure C, i have illustrated what i would call a Temporal Merge. in this model, both timelines remain separate up until the point the black and white pandora’s panels were activated, and they merged together into the single, new timeline afterwards. however, neither of the old timelines leading up to this point retroactively don’t exist: they’re still there, way back when. like two rivers flowing into each other.

now, you may note: but, wait, the residents of the new world remember things from the new timeline. how could they, if under this model, the new timeline doesn’t exist up until the moment of merger? well theres two answers i could give you.

the one i lean towards, is that these memories may not be entirely real: they remember the timeline of the new world, but these memories were actually entirely constructed in the fusion, and dont necessarily correspond to an actual past.

(the other, lands in the wibbly wobbly timeline bullshit pile. which would technically be a third theory that is a combination of the above: that the new, merged past timeline exists, but also somehow didn’t erase either of the old timelines. Time Can Get Weird Like That)

anyways, with that understood, how would zio have ended up in the build timeline if it really was still separate? that’s actually pretty easy. note here how Geiz’s time mazine pushed Tsukuyomi’s out of the timestream.

from there it follows, that since the pre-merger build timeline would obviously exist in close proximity to the old timeline they were in, that it makes sense that being pushed out of the timestream would result in them landing off course in said build timeline. figure D illustrates this point.

anyways, thank you for your time. It All Makes Sense, Really, and i have now officially put more thought into this then mister toei probably.

#words typed #decade 2.0 #kamen rider build #kamen rider zi-o #long post

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firstpuffin · 6 years ago

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake

-Note: It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but my comments around the visuals of A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are straight-up incorrect. The two games did not share the same visual style and I honestly don’t know why I said that; I most definitely knew better. Still, I’m not going to get rid of it because the internet needs more examples of people admitting to be being wrong.

I say a lot that I want to be positive, but it’s really gonna be hard with this one. See, at the latest Nintendo Direct it was announced that they would be releasing a remake of the 26 year old game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As it happens I was already considering writing something about this game in a “Games from my Childhood” article, but that would actually have been positive! This one is… well, I’m going to at least try and balance every negative with a positive.

-at least the title screen looks good-

So where to begin: I won’t cover the story because spoilers but how about some personal background? The game came out a year before I did (ha! bad jokes) and I have no idea when I got my grubby little paws on it, but it was a part of my life genuinely for as long as I can remember, along with the Pokémon games. I never completed it as a child, but my memories of it were so good that I returned to it as an adult and completed it, learning its sad secret.

-hey! according to this it released the same year I did; me getting my years mixed up I guess-

Link’s Awakening (LA) was originally a pet project made outside of work hours which is why it borrows resources from other games such as the Mario series, but it was eventually released to critical acclaim. The gameplay is much the same as its immediate predecessor A Link to the Past (LttP), but with a number of new items and a unique soundtrack. Visually it is much the same as well, although its original release was black and white for the GameBoy with Link’s Awakening DX adding colour for the GameBoy Colour.

So let’s start with the visuals as that is most of what we have right now: the original shared its visuals with LttP what with them using the same assets (tools, resources etc) and LttP had a sequel recently that looked really nice. But the upcoming LA remake looks nothing like it; I wouldn’t expect it to but when a defence of the artistic choice is that “it’s an update of the original graphics” (so why not use the assets from the LttP remake?) or that it somehow “reflects the atmosphere of the original” except there’s no reason for it to be any different to, again, the LttP remake. And in response to the “atmosphere”, LA was one of the darker yet in some ways more whimsical games; this new style is childish to the extreme.

Don’t get me wrong, I love something that is good and childish, but there is a level when it stops being great and starts to feel like they condescend to the player. Bright colours, simple faces, high pitched noises- Oh god the noises!! I’ll expand on the sounds later but I’m still on the visuals. I’ve heard the game described as looking like Claymation, which isn’t wrong, but my immediate thought was that it looked like cheap plastic. And after watching it again and again as I discussed it with a friend, this opinion stuck.

-tell me this doesn’t look like claymation; this isn’t a game, it’s an animated short film-

You know how shiny and tacky cheap plastic usually looks? Imagine an entire game like that; an entire world like that. Fans of anime may understand what I say next, but there is a large element of “chibi” in this new game. Large head, tiny body. It’s often seen in short 4 minute spin offs of popular series.

-as you can see, chibi is hardly meant to be taken seriously-

-just to hammer things home-

So shiny plastic, silly chibi art with a soulless expression. Oh yeah, that. Link’s eyes have zero soul behind them. Zero. He’s a freakin’ monster. Have you seen those Funko Pops? You know how empty they look? Some have said it somehow reflects the original game’s art again, but back then they didn’t have the technology to make him look soulless and young me always thought he looked determined; it was really cool.

-determined; dead inside-

Okay, so I said I would try and be fair, and I have shat upon the plasticine toy-box long enough, so here’s what is good visually. The areas are actually really nice.

Ignoring the nail varnish sheen on everything, things are really detailed. There is an unfortunate trend in games, likely due to technical limitations, to have flat textures. Basically, imagine the difference between a tile or wood panel floor, and a picture of a tile or wood panel floor. But this game looks to have really tried in these areas. The grass looks thick and lush, tiles look like more than a photograph on the floor and even the flat flowers on the ground look decent. Just a shame it all looks like LEGO. Actually, a LEGO Zelda game would be awesome. But this is not that.

I haven’t explained that very well, it’s an area that I am new at but I will say that clearly a lot of care has gone into the assets and the world. It is not a lazy game in any way.

-don’t tell me those trees and rocks and- well, everything, don’t look like LEGO-

Next I’m going to talk about the sound. First of all, I’m convinced that they have artificially increased the pitch of Link’s voice so it is painfully sharp to the ears. I’ll admit, I have an unusual sensitivity to lights and sound and thus I prefer darker colours and quieter sounds; I avoid clubs like the plague and not just because I’ll likely catch it there. So maybe, just maybe, I’m noticing something that won’t be a problem for most, and is just unfortunate for me. And let’s ignore that it doesn’t match the darker tone of the game.

And the music? Also quite high pitched. And super cheery. It doesn’t have either the dreamlike or dark tones that could be expected (and just thinking of how it could be dreamlike gives me shivers; it could be so good) but is instead inanely cheery. In fact, I hope they sped everything up for the trailer and the pitch is just an unfortunate side-effect.

On the plus side, the trailer opens with a cool cinematic and I swear the music changes from a nice, cheerful rendition (I don’t dislike cheerful in-and-of-itself) of the Zelda main theme to the death squeals of various instruments that I mentioned before. On top of that, it ends on a really nice vocal version of the LA theme, Ballad of the Wind Fish. If the trailer had been the cinematic and that closing song alone then I would be beyond excited about the remake. Thank heaven it wasn’t, I’m not sure my love of the series could survive such a plummeting disappointment.

youtube

-and here’s the actual trailer for your perusal-

So I’ll finish here. I was originally very pleased, excited even that they had decided to remake what was a favourite, underrated and apparently forgotten game, but I kept my expectations low because I knew what to expect from these companies. I thought I did anyway. I was still disappointed. I thought I had prepared for the worst. Still, at least it gave me something to write about.

But, the game has clearly had a lot of work put into it and gameplay-wise it actually looks to flow really well so I’m sure it controls like a treat. But the visuals and music are too big of a deal for me to let slide; if it keeps up like this then it could literally be painful for me to play. Still, games do change a lot from the initial trailer to its release and I even put forth an idea of why the sound may hurt me so much here. Maybe the final game will be a lot better. Unfortunately, the things I want to be done in games and such rarely are, and I am often alone in my complaints.

And finally, yes I am aware that the famous and incredibly popular Wind Waker entry in the series also had similar complaints and became, as I said, incredibly popular. I wasn’t a part of that crowd, I was too young and honestly, Link’s Awakening was the only Zelda game I had actually played at that time.

#first puffin #opinion #video games #nintendo #legend of zelda #links awakening #links awakening dx #links awakening remake #remake #thosetagswilldofornow

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erght · 4 years ago

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still just a week in and i already invested in moving to Opera from now on. though last time i said that im going to use this as a leisure browser only; now that i had my take on both—Firefox is my daily driver—i decided to switch them, so now my daily driver is Opera and my leisure only browser is Firefox. im going to explain why but first; i really dont know that Opera is having such a massive UI/UX rework than how they were a couple of years back then when i last tried them, so its kind of a surprise for me which made me want to appreciate them a little bit. here are some of the things that i think could alleviate my work flow by switching to Opera:

workspaces.

with these; i could lessen the ugly cluttered tabs that was straining my eyes just to find the tab im looking for, while retaining to open just a single window browser. so now; i could cluster my general opened tabs, my emails related tabs, my documents related tabs, my dashboards related tabs, my platforms related tabs, all each on their respective clusters/workspaces. neat.

messengers.

with these; just like what i said above, separates my messengers tabs into their own dedicated place. meaning that they wont intrude in my list of tabs. further more; when i opened them, they wont take the entire space like how a tab does when you open them. all this made possible cs they were being opened in a resizeable pop-up window that was glued to the sidebar. so; once again, neat.

music players.

with these; jUst liKe whAt i SAid abOVe, separate my music player—spotify—into its own dedicated place. yeah, literally just like what i just said about the messengers. and so; for the third time, neat.

custom site panels.

with these; *its just—(ɔˆз(ˆ⌣ˆc)*. the major breakthrough for my work flow; like, literally. it allows me to pin a custom site that behaves just like messengers and music players above. so now; i could pin my google notes in it and start to take notes as i watch my team’s presentation on google meets that was running on my current tab, all within the same window. i repeat. all. in. the same. window. meaning; i no longer have to open two windows side-by-side to do it. if you cant relate how seamless it is to do things in a single window then im sorry; as the only thing that i could think of is how you love a messy UI/UX, eh (?). i said this with a disclaimer though; cs someone—i guess its their dev—said that this feature is not ready yet, so it might misbehave at any given point. as how its not there—by default—yet. you could enable it by tweaking the experiment page in opera://flags/#sidebar-site-panel. once again; it might misbehave, but i just havent encountered one yet. thereby; for the fourth time, neat.

all of those was placed in a reachable sidebar that was not so intrusive like how i thought it would be. its basically an upgrade of how a bookmark toolbar should have been, instead of just being a saved label of sites that was glued beneath the address bar. so far; i like my experience with this sidebar, how intuitive it is and how seamless it feels. i get this feel of oh so there was actually a browser that was leaving the embrace of the old rigid UI/UX’s design. just like how i choose OH for my mobile browser which i already shared as of why at some other post months ago. well; my point is that im just happy with it, atm.

#opera

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askguyslikeus · 7 years ago

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oh shit yall send lots of questions hoo nelly answering almost all of them under the cut ,,, im gunan try and answer more technical ones first then fun ones and ones about the mod later so u dont gotta scroll all the way to the bottom for the good deets

Hi! I'm still kinda new to the blog and I was wondering what are the 'do and do-not' kind question I should do? Because im sure theres always that one ask thats just Innapropiated, like that one of Michael 'taking advantage og high Jeremy' that was just not cool. i got this ask a lot so ill be clear with yall. im just not a big angst fan? so sending michael asks about his anxiety nonstop and about how he had a panic attack in the bathroom over and over again wasnt that fun. usually if it pertains the musical though you should be find sending an ask about it? but sometimes i get asks that are like “jeremy ur nothing and how does it feel knowing u fucked everything up” like homie how i think its feels? how u think hes gunna react to that? i made this blog to negate a lot of negativity in my own life so i can promise u im going to be answering asks mostly positive always forever. that being said tho i sometimes get asks pertaining to a few things that ive dealt with in the past and these topics make me very very uncomfortable. dont send asks about these topics please. this is the no no list

-self harm, cancer, suicide, rape, parent death, car accidents, sudden death.

What was your inspiration for this blog? hoo boy well,,, ultimately i thought of them rooming together and got emotional and made a huge list of headcanons and was like ,,, why not run an askblog for a bit ill just abandon it after three asks lets have some fun. but somehow im still here and i got sucked in by the complexity of michael and jeremy. i know that sounds kinda silly but just, as someone who is dealing with a lot of similar things, like dependency issues and abandonment issues and depression and anxiety, having these fun functioning character to explore was such a gift for me. i believe honestly thats why im still here and doing this. being able to try and portray a healthy relationship and a healthy way of coping and growing has helped me a lot this past month and given me an outlet i didnt have before. TBH THO the main reason i made this blog if imma be real with u guys id because i didnt like the treatment of a lot of these issues in the fandom. it made me very upset to see depression used as an plot device and michaels dependency issues treated as romantic so i wanted to make a blog that had little to no angst. ANYWAYS somehow im still here ,,, gvrkjvrnkjfd sorry i rambled

honestly I just wanna say first that I love his blog and your art and you're so cool and kind!! a question would be (I'm not sure if you've answered this before or not) but is there like an on going story here, or is it mostly just answering questions with the characters set in this universe? (if that makes sense I'm sorry!) thank you, you're super awesome! ❤️ djrnjg first off thank u so much aaaa,, ive kind of answered this before but its ok its been a while since then! but um i do kinda have a story but how howdy i sure am dragging my feet. the story isn a hUGE OVERARCHING EPIC OF WOE AND THIS PERSON IS UPSET AND THIS PERSON IS MAD AT THIS PERSON its just michael and jeremy getting together. i have a plan and ive talked to a few people on how i want it to happen but ive gained like ,,,, 6,000 followers since then and im kinda nervous BUT ILL DO MY BEST but also please understand that i do this for fun for myself and if i dont get to it im so so so sorry woops

i know this has been said before but i'm really really happy w how you're handling so many aspects of their characters. i.e. michael being trans, michael and jeremy's anxiety, michael's dependency issues, and other stuff i'm too tired to think of. you made the characters have even more depth than they did in the play and i'm rly grateful for the way you're dealing w my favorite boys. (also your richjake is suuuper adorable) ahhhhhh thank u so much? i talked a bit about this on my main but im really glad people are happy with my decision on this blog because im suPER SUPER NERvous anytime i post an ask dealing with these things. (ask hachi or nate i always message them like freaking out and send them my scripts and asks and wait for them to tell me its ok before i post it omg) also like i talked about before i love,,, having these fun stoner gamer boys to explore these issues with. im honestly shocked by how many people also deal with dependency issues because when i first listened to the musical i was so overwhlemed by the song michael int he bathroom because i had never heard someone basically write “dependency issue: the song” and it felt so so so good to realize i wasnt alone in this pit of despair i fall into so easily aha. but im!! glad everyone is ok with this wild ride im on right now (also thank u so much i struggle writing rich and jake but i get so emotional cause they would TOTES call each other babe)

how come you just use sketch form for most of your drawing (sketches and uses sketch for the final result)? im ,,, not really sure what this is asking but i thnk its along the lines of why do i only sketch my answers?? and i do that because dude do u see how often i post and how lONG some of them are. i made this blog for fun and i love doing comics but i hate lineart and coloring and if i tried to churn out finished pics for every post id defs have given up a few asks in,, shrugs

I want to say I love your little comics they're so funny! How long does it take you to make a comic? Are any of them based on your experiences? Ok have a nice day! thank you! i love my little comics too! it usually takes me anywhere from an hour to five hours if im dragging my ass or talking on discord while im drawing. it can be kinda exhausting but since i took my break ive also been like, starting long comics one day and finishing them another day which, before i would do it all in one sitting then post it hahha. AS FOR EXPERIENCE the first half of the lifeguard comic was based on real life! we were stuck stoned up there for like an hour or two? but we didnt have anyone to help us but we got down eventually!! the wendys comic is also something i did because man!! i need to compliment food workers if they do a good job!! ummmmm just like jenna i also have a friend that said HAHA BYE and moved to cali and she is also lIVING IT UP and doing really well for herself and shes very independent and shes very inspiring to me! hmm i think thats it besides i used to have movie nights with my dad all the time too except we would watch my fave animated movies and sometimes lord of the rings cause my dad loved that

What kinds of things can we NOT ask ? What kinds of things do you WANT us to ask ? i covered the what not to ask in the first question so!!! um if my askbox is open and u want to respond to previous asks ive answered for the boys that would be so so so rad. sometimes im done with a certain ask and i have nothing to add but sometimes ive got more to say but am looking for an opportunity! that being said it made me really happy that i got a lot of asks about pj? shes not going to the main focus of any more asks but!!! i was nervous to introduce her and im glad u guys like her shes fun to write. but overall just general asks i can make a big ol fun story out of so!! dont worry too much about what to ask, if its something ud ask a real person and not like “lol what if ur dad died” ur gunna be fine probably

Hi! Not a question but your blog is so sweet and refreshing! I actually really appreciate that you refuse angst, that stuff tends to rub me the wrong way in fandoms... Keep taking good care of these boys ! gggg thank u!!! it means a lot to me that a lot of people are backing me up on this! i mean if u are an angst fan there are a lot of askblogs that explore that!! so its not in short supply bmc askblog fandoms got something for everyone

Which drawing program do you use?? i use paint tool sai and my tablet is a cintiq !!

this isn't really related to the faq but that bakunawa boy reference was great I LOVE THAT FIC MAN!!! the line was originally a little diff in that ask but i changed it cause ,,,, i could,,,,

an art style question. how do you keep the design of characters consistent from frame to frame? my characters they look a lil different every time I draw em (or a lot different) and it tends to disrupt the flow of my comics/animations ohh boy hoo wee props for doing animations im too scared to give that a whirl but!! it helps that i draw all the panels for an ask on one canvas! so if my next panel is going to be the same character in the same spot just in a diff pose i keep the lower layer on just at low opacity so i can use it as a ref! that helps me a lot!

Sorry if I'm nosy or rude, but are you reflecting Micheal Anxiety, Panic attacks and depence? iii think this is asking if i reflect my own issues onto them boys? and if so then yes i do. i dont place any of my own personality or anything on the boys but i do use them as a way to help me learn how to cope with my own shit and i try to deal with their issues in the healthiest way possible while also keeping in mind they are flawed individuals aaa

what are your pronouns??? and maybe your main blog?? im a cis girl so she/her is good! and my main is squigglegigs! also that being said IF YOU SEE THE USERNAME SQUIGGLEGIGS ANYWHERE JUST?? ASSUME ITS ME?? i have a twitter and an instagram and my tumblr account

((Hello mod will Michael and Jeremy eventually someday get together. I love them.)) if all goes according to plan yes! if i get overwhelmed and stop having fun on this blog then no! sorry thems the breaks but! i do want them to get together so HOPEFULLY

going off on that confrience on pornogrefy for birds, Im geussing jeremy has played Hatoful Boyfriend. am I wrong? well it wasnt intended as that ref and i dont know anything about hatoful boyfriend but i can see jerm finding it and playing it so, sure homie! the pornography for birds thing is a my brother my brother and me reference! i love that show and them boys so give it a scope!

I'm crying bcuz Michael said he's in love with Jeremy and it's beautiful yeah that boy is DEEP IN love with his bro bro

Any advice for running an ask blog?? (Ps i love this blog keep it up) personally whats worked for me so far is doing just sketches for art. honestly ive been able to work so much more and post so much more often while also trying to work on my expressions and poses! also taking my own experiences and shaping them to fit the characters has been SO MUCH FUN. th most important thing tho is,,, dont overwork urself dude. if ur having a fun time it shows. if ur just forcing urself to churn out material and its not fun? like shit we doing this for free dont push urself? idk idk overall being looser with my art and writing the dialogue before hand has been the most helpful for me for this askblog! ive run a bunch before including @ask-maz and ive run that sporadically for ,, three or four years? its so funny cause u can see my art style juMP AROUND SO MUCH but i love that blog and i only update it like every other month or so but?? i still like doing it and no on likes those posts but it makes me smile so ANYWAYS

~ok from here on its mostly just me replying to nice messages or people asking me personal questions that dont pertain to askguyslikeus so!!~

I just wanted to say I really really love your blog and just your art in general!! Keep up the good work and hope you're having fun! thank u!!! i am having fun and im glad u enjoy it!!

What other musicals do you like? :0 i really like heathers A LOT. i also like doctor horrible i know thats not technically a musical but i just relistened to it and im emotional. i like dear evan hansen but it makes me really sad so i can only take it in moderation! ummm rent? chicago?? music man? now im just naming musicals i was in rip. being in a musical fandom is a new thing to me? i was really into heathers last year but didnt really interract with the fandom at SO THIS IS SUPER NEW?? ive never been into a musical as much as im into bmc and heathers tho

tell us a little bit about urself!! u seem v cool i am squigs or fork!! im 24 and work fulltime as a barista at starbucks! i get high on the beach with my friend gwen a lot and drink wayy to many slushies, my tv shows are brooklyn nine nine and bobs burgers right now! i table at conventions sometimes and sell my art as merch and whatnot and i cosplay as a hobby as well. im pretty boring but i draw a lot and always carry my big sketchbook with me and im pretty sure its given me back issues BUT OH WELL HAHA also i am very not cool THE TRUTH COMES OUT

Who do you most relate to from bmc and why? like ,,, a mix of michael and christine with a sprinkle of jeremy i guess ahaha i relate to michaels dependency issues and overarching positive attitude and love of music, i relate to christines bright disposition and the need to not stick to one set thing? like she loves theater cause she can be sO MANY PEOPLE and like same homie thats why i cosplay. and jeremys need to be likes while also ability to put himself out there is very relatable. i also identify strongly with his dad issues idk idk whats good

Also -- just thank you for how you handled all the panic attack and anxiety attack asks. I used to deal with anxiety attacks multiple times a day and it just was really nice that it was positive and not them having one. Thank you, sincerely. ahhhhhh ur so welcome i,,, have anxiety and it sucks and i deal with panic attacks like everyday at work so i dont really wanna come home and draw someone having one i guess? im glad its helping other people too tho!

Dude- I love your art? Actually so much? It's... I love it. The whole sketch-ish way your art style is, and the way you color, and the expressions! I'm so glad I found your work - you've given me so much inspiration. Keep doin what you're doin and I hope you have a good day! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ANytime any one compliments my expressions i die cause i legit made this blog to help with that as well ,,, like dam

im lvoe ur art style b o i :0 !!!!!!

Mod, I love you so much I love you you have my soul and my love and my eternal gratitude thank you and I love you (This is the guy who was excited about PJ on your ig live stream a while ago and I love you) !!!!!!!!! im so happy u like my content omg and that u like pj im so glad!! shes a good bean

I just wanna say... I'm crying over that post about Michael and his anxiety? cuz I know how it can feel that you're only your flaws and weaknesses, but Michael just tells that to screw off in the most wonderful way and I'm?? thank you so much for that post, I bookmarked it for future times when I can't look past my depression... honestly, that post made my day (along with every other post on this blog), thank you for being such a lovely part of this fandom ,,,, im,,,, im scared of a lot of this fandom tbh but if i can be something good that come out of it and my love of these boys and desire to show them functioning together in a healthy way can help other people its so much more than i ever thought id ever be able to do. i am blown away everyday by the support ive been given on this blog and i might be crying right now because i never thought id be able to touch other people like this and i just. im really glad yall are here with me for all this.

(To the mod: You are a beautiful person that I highly respect. I love this blog and what you set out to do. thanks for giving something that makes me smile and gives me something to look forward to everyday, keep up the good work! ❤ ) hey im still crying from the previous ask aaaaa im honestly so emotional

what are ur true feelings for wendy's??? i fucking love wendys man thats some top tier fast food right there

what fast food restaurant do you think has the best nuggets WENDYS HANDS DOWN

do you have a favorite movie? paranorman makes me very nostalgic and ive seen it like eighty times and used to watch it with my dad a lot and i love it

I would just like you to know that your Wendy's comic prompted me to pull the same thing with a bakery in the town I'm visiting and the baker got so excited and happy, so thank you for making that comic because I made that woman's day. GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD GOOD I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE COMPLIMENT ME WHEN IM WORKING DUDE LIKE IM SO GLAD IT MADE U DO THIS!!! IM SMILING REALLY BIG!!

chocolate milk or strawberry milk? or plain? woops i hate milk im so sorry

do u love michael mell with all of ur heart, mod? i really truly do man what a fucking good ass character

hi squigs i love you! i love your content too and i hope u have a good day pal :> WHAT A SWEET BEAN!!! THANK YOU?? OMG

I'm just saying that recent ask you did with Michael really hit me hard because I really related to it and I started crying because it made me realize that I've been pining my self worth on everything my anxiety causes and I'm so much more than that. Thank you, so much for that I really needed it because I'm in a really bad place right now. <3 -for the mod i legit cry everytime i get asks or dms like this cause once again the idea that im helping other people is so ovwehelming i love you??? i let myself just be”depressed” for ahwile and by that i mean i just,, let my sadness consume me and i was scared of getting better cause the sadness was all i knew for so long and just. its so easy to think u are ur illness but you are so much more. soooo much more man.

I relate A Lot to Michael so the way you portray him in the blog is really good, and I think it's really awesome you refuse to like?? do terrible stuff and answer bad questions just bc people wanna see that. You run this blog really well 👌 AHHHH THis is the biggest compliment thank u so much ,,, i get real anxious bout this blog soemtiems but then yall send me sweet things like this and its worth it man

Hey mod, just know you're a really cool person. Thanks for running this blog in the first place. Keep doing the great work. thank you!!!! for ur support!!!!

not really a question!! i just wanted to say your posts on this blog always brighten my day and you're really an incredible artist and person, keep rockin on my dude!! *clutching my heart* the fuck this is so sweet

1 .I just wanted to say your blog is really awesome! It's very lovely. I also like how you made michael trans and like handled it? (just with how all the characters treat him and stuff its v nice). Your art is super duper! Thanks for running this awesome blog! 2. Hey! This isn't a question but I wanted to say that I appreciate michael being trans!! As a trans boy it's just rly awesome to see something like that casually thrown into an ask blog without making it a huge weird deal :D immm,,, i kinda really love the idea of michael being trans cause a lot of my trans male friends are actually pretty confident in their skin and michael is a very confident character? and u rarely see that with trans representation and its so refreshing to see it portrayed well. im trying to do that here but again if! i do anything wrong let me know!

how did you first get into art? (also i really love your blog, it's amazing!) ive been drawing as long as i remember! ive got mad adhd and wasnt diagnosed until late in ym life so i would just draw nonstop in my classes ahaha i used to read the sunday comics a lot and they really inspired me to try and make comics of my own too!! (and omg thank u)

someone also asked me if i went to church or was religious but tumblr ate the ask but i used to go to church a lot as a kid but im currently not religious at all aaa

ok holy shit that was a lot but thanks again to everyone i legit cry a lot about how supportive u all are thank u so much aaaa

#modpost #holy fuck that was so much

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