#this is has been stuck in my drafts for at least 3 weeks

[lightseoul]

#12 please🫶🫶

12, coming right up! tagging also @tsunderelover07, thank you sm for playing <3

(this is lightseoul’s 2k milestone event ft. bakugou katsuki! to play, view the numbered list of prompts here, then simply send an ask with your chosen number and i’ll whip something up!)

12. "I COULD USE A HUG RIGHT NOW." (1.6k)

you’re startled to attention when your phone pings from where you unknowingly dropped it beside you on the couch.

apparently, it has slid by the edge of your butt in the few minutes of you staring blankly at the off-white wall, and the brief vibration right to your ass is enough to snap you back to reality.

your now sucky-ass reality.

picking it up, your frown deepens even more when you see the text.

(7:04 PM) bestie #1 (mina)💞: i’m so sorry i can’t be there with you rn!!!! i got called in last minute to cover for momo. i really am sorry :(((

you know it’s not mina’s fault, but your heart drops in disappointment nevertheless. not wanting to make her feel bad, however, you quickly type in a reply.

(7:05 PM) you: no worries, mina. i understand :) stay safe out there!

sighing, you’re about to place your phone on the small coffee table in front of you when your phone chimes again.

(7:05 PM) bestie #1 (mina)💞: i’ll make it up to you, promise!! can i send someone there to accompany you in my stead??

you feel your eyebrows furrow in confusion. you vaguely remember kaminari and sero talking about their patrol schedules shifting, and how they complained that they now have to cover friday nights.

kirishima’s currently overseas on a classified mission, although you guess it’s not as classified now, seeing as how he told you and the rest of the squad about being drafted in it.

which only leaves…

you shake your head. it can’t be.

mina knows you better than that—knows that out of the friend group, bakugou’s the one you’re the least close to, and you’re even convinced that the man hates you. you’re not entirely sure, but you’re starting to think he’s purposefully avoiding you—always choosing the farthest seat from you, and never attending hangouts when it was just the two of you and one other person.

he may be making it a point not to smile or laugh around you, too. which hurts, because of the unfortunate realization that mina arrived at a few weeks ago before you can even say hold up.

the realization that you may or may not have a stupidly embarrassing crush on bakugou katsuki.

so… scratching him out, who else could it be?

you’re in the middle of unlocking your phone to ask who she’s sending (because knowing her, she may be asking for permission now, but she for sure has already sent someone), when, as if on cue, a barrage of heavy knocks echo from your doorway.

you freeze.

that can’t be a mutual gal friend of mina and yours. not with the aggressive-ass knocking.

your butt remains stuck on the seat for a few seconds of silence, at least until the rapping comes back on and again, and you stumble your way towards your apartment unit’s front door.

it’s moments like this that make you wish you have a fucking peephole, but oh, well.

patting down your hair in a last-minute, desperate attempt to look presentable, you finally reach for the knob and open the door.

only to be met face-to-face with bakugou ‘it can’t be’ katsuki.

you literally feel your soul leave your body as you lock eyes with the man, who, from the get-go, is already frowning at you.

his eyes rove over your face. “don’t you look like shit?”

you can’t help but return his scowl to him even if you tried. “well, hello to you, too.”

the quip doesn’t seem to bother him, though, who only continues to study you. when they get to your eyes, however, his frown intensifies. “have you been crying?”

shit.

you forgot to check your reflection before you answered the door, but you bet there’s no lying out of this one, what with you crying non-stop ever since you got home—the second you closed the door behind you.

“yeah, well…” you start, rubbing your nape awkwardly. “i’m not sure if mina told you, but i got—”

“laid off,” he finishes for you, nodding. “i know.”

hearing it from another person’s mouth, let alone bakugou’s, sends a pang of pain straight to your chest all over again, and you have to fight the tears that are threatening to well up around the corners of your eyes.

“well,” he speaks up after a beat of silence, “are ya gonna let me in or not?”

you roll your eyes, although it’s more playful than anything, and bakugou catches you, to which he just scoffs. he enters as you hold the slab of wood open for him, closing it promptly as he crosses the distance to the kitchen in just a few strides, already familiar with the floorplan from the countless hangouts you’ve hosted for the squad.

and as he opens the freezer, you’re about to ask him what he’s doing when, as if reading your mind, he holds up two pints of what looks like ice cream for you to see. “brought your favorite.”

you beam at him. “aww, that’s so sweet of mina! thank you.”

at that, his face contorts in a look of offense as if you just unceremoniously pinched his armpit.

you frown. “what?”

he only shakes his head, although that pained expression remains on his face. “‘s nothing. sure, thank mina.”

“…okay? i just did, but okay.”

he tosses you a glare, which you just try to shake off. you’re sure comforting someone isn’t exactly part of bakugou’s repertoire, so you conclude it’s better to cut the guy some slack.

“you’ve eaten dinner?” he asks as he rummages through the rest of your refrigerator, most likely judging you for the lack of ingredients and fresh produce.

“yeah,” you respond. he doesn’t have to know that dinner was a cup of instant noodles you pathetically scarfed down in the convenience store on the way home. you figured you could treat yourself to a grand pity meal for getting laid off, but thought better against it. if anything, you needed to save money, at least until you get hired by another hero agency.

straightening up, he eyes you suspiciously as if sensing you’re hiding something. “you sure?”

you nod decisively, which you can only do because you’re technically not lying.

bakugou stares you down for a couple more seconds before nodding curtly himself, now looking absolutely stiff in the middle of your kitchen.

and as you observe the man, it hits you that you may have just robbed him of the only thing he knows when it comes to consoling a grieving person.

by cooking for them.

you’re not exactly hungry, but you can’t help but feel bad for the pro-hero as he stands there seemingly deep in thought, probably trying to figure out what to do with himself now.

you take a deep breath, steeling yourself for what you’re about to say.

“but you can cook—” you start.

“come work for us.”

“what?” you ask, the same time he goes: “huh?”

he’s the first one to regain his bearings. “thought you had dinner already? changed your mind, huh, dumbass?”

you ignore his snide pet name. “what do you mean come work for you?”

at that, bakugou shifts on his feet, shrugging. “you know what i mean. come work at ground riot. we have a vacancy that fits you.”

you gape at him. “you’re kidding me?”

to that, bakugou tosses you a deadpan look. “does it look like i’m kidding?”

you don’t have the heart to tell him he’s looking constipated, like he always does, so you keep your mouth shut. instead, you only stand there a few feet away from him, twitching as you desperately tamp down the visceral urge to kiss the man in glee.

he must be getting weirded out, because he only looks at you with an eyebrow raised. “the fuck is going on with you?”

“i—” you begin, clenching your fists.

here goes nothing.

“—just—i could use a hug right now, bakugou.”

“a what?”

you try to ignore the incredulous expression on his face, let alone the scarlet that’s starting to creep up his neck. “as a thank you. for the offer. and you came all the way here to comfort me, right? i could really use a hug.”

it takes him a beat to reply, mouth opening and closing and then opening again, until he settles with: “that’s pushing it, dumbass.”

despite yourself, you deflate at his rejection. you got too carried away by his generous offer and the fact that he’s here—that he went out of his way to accompany you and even bring you your favorite ice cream—that you ended up crossing a line you’ve never dared to cross until now.

you try to deny it, but it stings.

still, you muster as much of a good-natured smile as you can, adding a light-hearted chuckle to boot. “i was just joking…” you mutter under your breath.

at that, you turn your back against him, face flaming in embarrassment as you start to head toward the living room to fetch your phone when you hear him heave a deep sigh behind you.

and before you can even comprehend what’s going on, you feel something tug at your wrist, spinning you on your heel until you collide with a firm chest that can only belong to one person.

your eyes are wide as saucers when you feel his arms gently wrap around your back, pressing you further against him.

“happy?” he grunts, voice low and reverberating against you.

it takes you a second, but you can only nod from where you’re plastered right onto him, his cologne completely flooding your senses, sending your heart into a total frenzy.

so much so that you almost miss the way his is hammering like crazy, too.

[mibkid]

sketches and colors... and

Hihi Yosuke always ends up there doesn’t he? 

Also,,,,, I am so weirdly proud of that 3rd year yosuke, Shhhhhhhhh he looks cute and soft there. I promise I am so normal about him...  that’s a lie I am not... sigh*. 

Anyway enjoy my silly sketches. 

[justevelynnnn]

“Mustard & Ketchup”

Summary: you’re a runaway mutant and you need a place to stay. you find one but is it worth the chaos?

Warnings: mentions of blood and knives, profanity, written with fem!reader in mind but could be gender neutral or male iyw

A/N: This has been in my drafts for weeks so I gotta get it out before the dust collects on it💀 not really proofread tbh..

You stared at the paper in you hand titled in big letters “Roomate needed” and sighed.

You were a mutant who couch surfed after running away from home. Cue typical tragic backstory stuff. Anyways, the last person found out what you were and you had to bounce. Now you needed a place to stay for cheap and quick. You had a job at some bar (that was a secret mutant friendly space) but it couldn’t really pay bills, let alone rent.

So after work one day, when you saw a roommate need flyer you grabbed it immediately. Under the title was an odd drawing of a ketchup bottle and a mustard bottle done in crayon with some red guy in the corner waving. Then under that was the following(also in crayon) : roomate needed asap. rent’s under $300. must be ok with dogs, blind old people, claws and blood. (Like lots of blood)

You sighed. It’s been a week on streets and sleeping on cold benches and that rent was enticing. Whoever made the flyer though was definitely either a child or someone extremely questionable but you definitely weren’t in any spot to be picky right now. Even though you were slightly turned away by the emphasis of “being ok with blood” (what the hell could that even mean!?!) Maybe you can save up while there and hopefully move out soon.

The address was at the bottom of the paper so you decided you’ll stop by in the morning.

The apartment actually wasn’t too far from the bar and the bench you claimed for the week was close to the bar also so after doing a quick freshing up in the bar bathroom you made your way to the apartment. It was decent enough…nothing shady..but nothing special either. The second you got to the door you heard screaming and a dog barking. Was this really the place?

Just when you were about to turn around and rethink this whole thing the door flung open. You gasped as a man with….spotted skin?? stood at the door with a knife stuck in the side of his head. He was bald and actually kinda tall? Notably, he also wore pink boxers paired with a my little pony shirt. No socks. Very odd sight to see and take in.

“Sorry, I think I have the wrong-“ you started but the man looked down at you holding the flyer and immediately exclaimed, “Oh! Logan! Someone’s seen one of the flyers I made! Oh, do come on in we were just having a friendly fight…”

All you could muster was, “Friendly?” As you glanced at the knife and blood in his shirt. Distracted, he successfully ushered you in the door as you were soon met with a small, old looking dog with its tongue hanging out. It barked at you and you jumped slightly.

“Oh, don’t mind her…he’s as sweet as pie. Well, maybe some really old and hairy pie but still sweet regardless.” The man said as he closed the door. “I’m Wade by the way.”

You smiled at the dog but soon turned to protest being in the apartment. It was quite the scene. You knew it was at least more than one person living here, not only because you heard arguing before the door opened but because of all the stuff. I mean, no way this was all him? Right?

“Hey, so, you know what…I dunno about all this…I mean..wow..” You looked around and soon noticed more blood, clothes everywhere, multiple bottles of alcohol , definitely a lot of knifes and..swords..? Half lit cigars? And why does the couch have 3 large claw marks in them? Surely, it couldn’t have been this dog.

Was that stuffed unicorn?

Wade noticed you concerned and sighed.

“You know this place was a lot neater a week ago, but let’s just say I recently adopted an alcohol addicted wolverine so everything has gone to shit. I mean, look at my head!” The man dramatically pointed to the knife. “He did this!”

You just laughed and backed up. Okay, now it’s time to really get the hell out. Of course, before you could move or even reply, soon entered another character. You watched a gruff, also taller but older looking man walk out. He was, too, covered with splats of blood.

“Speak of the devil. Hey, you got an apology yet, wolvie? Hm? Go on.” Wade crossed his arms and glared at the other man but the man just stared at you in confusion.

“Wade, who the fuck is this?”

Oh, this was awkward.

“I told you, someone saw our flyer! You never listen! Y’know, I’m starting to want a divorce!”

“Our flyer??”

“Well, I told you I was making one! Again, you don’t listen! You’re not being very mindful or demure right now!”

“What??????” Cue a head tilt which you found sightly amusing. “What the fuck are you talking about-….”

You decided to interrupt. “Um..yeah so if it’s gonna be a problem I can go….”

You started moving towards the door but Wade stopped you and said, “Oh, no no no..don’t let this meanie beanie weenie scare you away. This monster. This..this drunk!” Wade glared at him as the man rolled his eyes and looked away. “You’re welcomed to the family as of right freaking now!.”

The older man sighed and silently cursed as Wade sat you on the couch.

“Well, I don’t have anything other than this paper I guess..oh and my wallet and phone.” You decided you should also tell them the biggest secret you normally keep from others. That you were a mutant. Luckily for you, it was more hidden but it scared the hell out of the last person you stayed with so you wanted to get it out the way now. “Um…I should have you know, since my other folks didn’t like that i suprised them.. that I am a…y’know..”

You trailed off hoping he would get it but you quickly got your answer when Wade shouted, “A mutant!”

The old man glanced at you for a second as you fearfully watched their reactions but when the older man didn’t move and Wade hugged you,rather tightly also, you felt some relief.

“Me, too girlfriend…actually us two! It’s so nice to have another mutant friend. This whole thing is playing out just like my fan-fiction!”

“Us?” You asked ignoring the odd comment he made at the end.

“Means me.” The older man spoke up. “Name’s Logan.”

He waved once and walked up to Wade.

Logan asked Wade if he could speak alone and Wade told you to stay put as they went into another room. As you heard some back and forth going on you couldn’t help but wonder what mutations they could have. Maybe that explains Wades skin? And the fact he had a nice in his head, even now still, that didn’t seem to bother him. At first you just ruled him out as crazy but this makes sense too.

You were left alone for 5 minutes until Wade came back out.

“Okay, so, here’s the deal. Logan is being a big fat baby but I say you can stay on the account this is my place. We definitely need some extra hands around here so you can just stay on the couch. All the beds are taken right now unless you wanna share with me or Wolvie. And umm, do you already have a job?”

“Well, I work at the bar not to far from here…” You calmly replied.

Wade nodded “Great! Got another alcohol fan here, you’ll get along great with Mr. buns of steel in no time! He love alcohol, any kind, including the rubbing kind!”

Logan walked out the room again but immediately told Wade to “Shut the hell up.”.

“What?! It’s true! You do have buns of steel! And i literally saw you drink that rubbing alcohol-!”

Logan rolled his eyes again, sighing heavily as he grabbed a bottle of alcohol and sat in an armchair, turning on the tv.

You and Wade went over the rent, he mentioned the other resident, some older kind lady, and also explained when the trash comes. He kind of went over his lore and why he called a man a wolverine but it was all hard to follow.

“Wait, he’s an X-Man? Like comic book X-Man?” You said when Wade brought up Logan’s past.

“Oh, yes except it’s real in his universe and many others.. He’s actually the worst one but that’s just between you and me. However, he kinda makes up for it as he’s real good with those claws….” Wade winks but you can only tilt your head.

“God..-“ Logan grumbled as he finished the bottle. “Do you ever stop?”

“Not unless you beg for it.” Wade quickly replied but even quicker added, “No homo. Actually, full homo.”

Logan just stared in annoyance and focused back on the tv, shaking his head.

“Ok, well…why the ketchup and mustard on the flyer?”

“Oh, I just call us that. Cute little pet names.. yeah.. I’ll call him cutie patootie and he’ll call me a dumbass.” Wade sighed like he was reflecting on good times while Logan laughed out once. Wade soon adds, “I’m ketchup cause my suits red and I’m the more popular, more loved “condiment” anddd Logan is mustard because he can be more bitter and not as popular..I mean ask anyone reading this and most people would say they like ketchup more it’s a fact!”

Right after Wade finishes talking Logan throws a book at Wade’s head barking at him to shut up yet again.

“…We have fun here.”

“I see.” You looked around again at the chaos as Wade rubs his head and pouts at Logan. Wade asked if you could help clean this mess up. And any other future messes.. He said you could pay a bit less on rent if you did. You just agreed, having cleaned up worse at the bar.

You knew it was going to take some getting used to but you could make it work. On the bright side, you some what enjoyed Wade’s odd behavior. You wondered however, if Logan liked you but then again that didn’t matter either. You watched as the dog walked up to you, wanting to be picked up.

“Oh, look, it’s like she chose you! Like how beginning Pokémon chose their trainers…or, is it the other way around?”

You laughed as you picked up the dog.

“Well, thanks for letting me stay here.” You began petting the dog on your lap. “Don’t worry about me being here forever, I’m gonna try to save up and maybe give it take in 6 months I’ll be out your….um”

“Hair? Ha! It’s ok sweetheart, no offense. But you don’t have to worry about rushing out, I like you already and I’m sure Wolvie here does too right?”

Logan chugged the last bit of the bottle and just stared at Wade and you, sighing. With Logan’s face unreadable, Wade just laughed and said, “Give him time, most Wolverines start this way but they warm up in a few days at most a couple weeks….”

You just nodded like you understood and relaxed into the couch taking in your surroundings. Wade and Logan started to go back and forth again but you ended up tuning them out. Yup, this is your new life. Was it worth it?

You watched another knife fly in the air, barely missing you.

Maybe.

[walkawaysoreeyes]

11/2/2024 READING

Today i'm reading Lamentations chapter 1, i'm just going to write about somethings that stuck out to me, how God might have used His word to talk to me and what i learned from it.

"She finds no resting place." Lamentations 1:3

How often do we try to find comfort or rest in someone or something other than God? God is our ultimate protector and safe place; we can tell him everything and anything because He already knows! But us communicating with Him and letting Him know about our day to day lives and struggles is important, because then we learn how to rely on Him and not others! We shouldn't let it get to the point of us avoiding God that we no longer find rest with Him. Don't let satan guilt and shame you, he only speaks lies. God needs us to come to Him, especially in times when we feel too ashamed to. Let God be your shelter and home.

"Look, Lord, on my affliction, for the enemy has triumphed." Lamentations 1:9

Jerusalem at this point, had no one else to call out to, she has exhausted all of her resources and allies have turned their back on her. Many of us, me included, have used God as a last measure, as a fire extinguisher. He is meant to be the first one we call out to. He is our Father; we are meant to be calling out to him when we fall and wound our knees so He can make it better! We need to start seeing Him that way, how we see God shows in how we live our lives.

"Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me," Lamentations 1:12

A personified Jerusalem feels as though no one will know her pain, that it is not comparable to others pain. We all feel that way, that no one will know what we are going through and feeling, that's a LIE! Jesus came down to this earth and lived a human, perfect life. GOD LITERALLY CAME DOWN ON EARTH AND WALKED WITH US! Yet our human brains think that God won't know what we are going through, that we can't talk to Him? Pardon me, but that's insane!

"My sins have been bound into a yoke: by His hands they were woven together. They have been hung on my neck, and the Lord has sapped my strength." Lamentations 1:14

If you don't know what a yoke is, don't worry, "A yoke is a wooden bar or frame that joins two draft animals, like oxen, at their heads or necks so they can pull together." Refer to image below for an example.

The yoke that was put upon Jerusalem was one that was made out of their own sins. So, for visual thinkers, imagine all that sin, bundling up together and making this yoke, that was then "It was bound to them by cords woven by God’s own hands." (Enduring word) Thats a heavy thought! That is why in Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." This is a burden we are meant to carry with the Lord, even on heavy boxes it shows two people should carry it! So, why do we think of our sins and burdens as something different? Carry it with Jesus and let Him help you!

"No one is near to comfort me." Lamentations 1:16

That's already a hard-hitting verse, it hits deep because we all can feel alone too, like we have no one to turn to. I can talk about at least 5 times this week i have felt this way, so you aren't alone! But God, He never moves away from us, He never takes a step away. Only we do that and oftentimes we do. We do walk away from God when it gets rough, we do move away from Him, BUT HE ALWAYS STAYS! That's part of His goodness! So please remember, He doesn't ever leave us, nor forsake us, just turn to Him!

"I called to my allies, but they betrayed me." Lamentations 1:19

This one i'm going to leave short and sweet. All i'm going to do is ask you a simple question. How often do we seek help from the world, before we seek help from the ultimate healer and physician God?

[pumpkin-spike18]

✨Weekly Progress #31✨

Oh, hey~ I actually managed to post this 1 week in and on a Monday! :D

Weekly Progress #31

Posted devlogs

Finished 2 SYVNH TY art

Finished fan project BG sketches, got them approved

Answered comments/asks

Finished + sent proposals

Drafted SYVNH survey

Yaoi Day posts

Worked on Comms

Bug BL VN concepting

Reviewed next steps (as dev, and for specific projects)

Doodled chara ref sheet

Doujinshi planning

Stuck in a Yandere Visual Novel...HELP!!

I think my last post summarizes my work on SYVNH this week pretty well! But in case you missed it, we're working on bringing some merch to life for SYVNH! And to start that, we'll need your help in filling out our Interest Check survey!

You'll be able to get some wallpapers at the end of the survey so be sure to check it out! 😉

Future Projects

I spent a portion of this week re-evaluating my next steps as a VN/game developer and planning for future projects. I know I want to finish my current projects (BWBOK and SFB), but I was quite disorganized for the timing of when that will happen. So I did the only thing I knew how to do: schedule, schedule, and more scheduling! 😤

Goals:

BWBOK: finish for SuNoFes (9/3); admittedly the schedule for this one is a little out of my hands currently. But I will aim to finish my portions by 8/15 (hopefully).

SFB: Demo 2.0 for YuriJam (12/1); I haven't fully planned out how much of the story I'll release for 2.0 yet, but I am to finish all the sprite art this month. Afterwards, I intend to focus on finishing the last part of the story.

A long term BL project. This was what has been bouncing around my head for the past week. There are a few contenders and they're all currently untitled. The plan is to make a commercial BL game for steam in the 50k+ wordcount size. I have 3 projects within various stages the concepting to outlining phase and hopefully, I finish the outlines for at least 2 of them before the end of the month.

Fan Stuff

I've joined a few vtuber fan projects! ...Which I'm not allowed to talk about, so that's about all I can say. It's been fun so far, though!

I originally challenged myself this year to make a 20 page comic. Recently I've been reading and looking at a lot of doujinshis so... here's the outcome of my challenge: plan a small doujin. idk how much of it I'll discuss here, though...

🎃 and that's all I've got for this week! See everyone next week!

[looniecartooni]

Okay- for over a decade now, I've thought about publishing a comic book series or graphic novel, but have never found the time, energy, or resources to get one off the ground. I've also been really nervous about exposing my writing despite coming up with multiple storylines in my life. I am planning to start a Kickstarter or something for at least one of them. I know I've pitched creative projects or theories before and haven't gone through with them, but I want to at least see what of things I have developed or began development on interests' people before I start anything.

So... I am going to start a poll. Maybe I'll make one free short comic before I dedicate myself to something that requires funding.

Descriptions below:

These Hands- A first person perspective from former Diamond Cutter infiltrator and later cause of their demise- Mimic the Octopus. See from when he first joined the Diamond Cutters and follow into his fall from grace. Will his plights be sympathetic or shall he be forever scorned by himself and his actions?

A full storyboard draft has already been created for a one-shot story. If chosen, it may take between a couple weeks to over a month to release (depending on my college schedule)

Henchmen for Hire- A cowardly magician with the power of luck on her side (and her Eldrich terrain shifter best friend) are stuck in their jobs as Henches for Hire for random Elites and criminals of their world, escapading on dangerous quests through ancient caves to find mysterious power sources and ancient treasures. While life is fairly comfortable (despite them having to live in a cave themselves because how can you live in a nice place when you're stuck in such a shady business?), the past is catching up to them, and one of them has a knife. Can these two ever live without the fear of being alone and helpless when nothing but danger plagues their lives?

This series is one of the ones I am currently working on and its still very early in development. It may take a couple months, maybe even a year to complete. There are maybe 3 stories and 5 or 6 plot points planned out. But I'm having a lot of fun with it and do hope to make something off it some day.

Experimental Living- A mad geneticist and engineer finally returns home from his stay in prison and is ready to wreak havoc on the world with his new genetic experiments. However, things do not go as planned and in order to keep his cover as a "reformed" villain, he must raise them as if they were his children, which the 10-year-old and 6-year-old are more than happy with. With help from his Henchmen, constant harassment from his mystic and militant father, and suspecting eyes of heroes and citizens, will this evil villain turned single dad ever succeed in his violent plans to save the world?

I storyboarded almost the entire series and a sequel series for this for almost a full year. There are still many parts that need to be tweaked or rewritten as there are gaps and maybe some problematic elements, but this could be something that could get started sometime in the Summer. I want to be able to fund it, but I don't have the elements to do so at the moment and I'm afraid the premise is a bit too close to the idea of a Starline, Surge, and Kit AU. Though it is more loosely inspired by them with a lot more to it than that, I don't know if I might run into some copyright issues if I go through with it, no matter how loosely the characters or premise are to their inspirations.

Journey of Eclipse- The Light had fended off the Darkness for hundreds of years, constantly sealing it in a cave to protect the world from his curse. Now, a child born from the Light and conceived by the Darkness must tread on a perilous journey to save his mother from the curse that now finally firmed its grasp on her. But this story is not so black and white, and the circumstances that lead to the birth of such a child may have a much more deep-rooted tale than what has been told.

I had this idea back in High School and recently revisited it. I would imagine that it would be a rather short series or graphic novel, but may need a few months to fully get a good narrative out of it. There is a clear beginning, middle, and end, but much more needs to be fleshed out and reconfigured to tell a well thought out tale.

Angel Story- A long time ago, super soldiers known as "angels" were created to protect villages from strange dark entities referred to as "demons" or "shadows". With the dark entities seemingly vanished, the angels and their children were now declared to be the protectors against criminals and symbols of order. However, new chaos arises as these angels are seemingly vanishing, or getting corrupted by a similar energy to that of the shadows which should be impossible. Now a new crew of angels must try and stop these new monsters and the energies that are driving them.

Only one plotline of this supposed to be short series has been fully developed, but it's fun to work on and reread the storyboards for. It may take a few months give or take to fully start, but I feel it will be a fun read when worked out to its full potential.

I have quite literally cabinets full of stories that I have created since freshman year of high school and have on and off worked on quite a few. There are some others that I am currently working/reworking on such as a superhero trying to find out what happened to her superhero dad while being raised by her evil uncle. Feel free to ask for more information on any of these projects or any other projects. I've been too scared to bring them up or publish any creative projects because of being overwhelmed with school and fear of possible backlash. But I'd be happy to share anything people might want to ask about- I want to know if I could actually do this or if this is one of those dreams I've got to just put on the back burner.

I'll still create just random fan stuff for BBU and things like that. I did try to start a videogame/visual novel last year, but that never truly got really developed or much attention. I might work on other different kinds of projects in the future when I have the time, money, and energy (or stop making excuses). But for now- let me know what you guys think (very kindly) and if you'd ever wat to see an independent project created by me. If not- that's fine too, just please be nice if you think this isn't a good idea.

If no one chooses anything- that's fine too. I'd probably still do something eventually or try my shot again with other pitches. I welcome any advise for creating, publishing, self-publishing, legally making money or legally getting money to make something, ect. I'll be posting on other social medias as well. Let me know your thoughts (nicely and constructively). Thank you.

[alexanderwales]

The Current WIP List

Inspired by this post by @a-memory-a-distant-echo, this is a list of ongoing works-in-progress, where "in progress" I will define as "I have added at least one sentence in the last year as an indicator of actual mental load being used". This does not include worldbuilding or planning documents, which spring up like weeds. I am also including the ones that I get paid for via Patreon or publication deals or whatever.

Thresholder is my currently ongoing web serial, publishing two chapters a week (in theory ...). It's about a guy who travels between worlds and fights other people who travel between worlds, with each world being a relatively contained book. Currently about 750K words.

Doomsday Pivot! is, in theory, the follow-up to Thresholder, about a start-up that has to make a sudden change in plans when the end of the world gives everyone a character class. First book is rough draft complete but needs some responses to developmental editing, sitting at 104K words. (You can read a noncanonical first chapter here, which I had previously made public on my discord.)

Millennial Scarlet is a webcomic I write about a gig-economy demon hunter. Writing comics is awesome, mostly because I get to see my words come to life. In word count ... I'm not sure right now, but probably not all that much. In the middle of writing the fourth issue right now.

Glimwarden was a web serial that I abandoned, a black mark on my record. I intend to go back to it at some point, because it was my wife's favorite. You can read it up to the point where it was abandoned here. There are currently ~3 unreleased chapters, but most of the effort put into it has been rewriting it and bringing it up to snuff, as well as fixing some problems with it. Will get a relaunch at some point, probably, when I'm ready to commit to that. No idea on the word count.

Untitled Dance Magic story is probably a short story, currently ~5K words. It's based around a magic system where people do ballroom dance to create architecture, and is a somewhat traditional romance and/or coming of age story. I started writing it on a whim after a conversation with @etirabys at LessOnline, and hopefully they haven't started their own story, and hopefully if they have, hopefully their story doesn't overlap mine. I'll check before posting, hoping to get this one finished and out there.

Kensuke Fucks the World is an existentialist horror erotic novel, which I describe as being "like the Erogamer, but sad". Currently 75K words, and might never see the light of day. I think I can wrap it up in another 25K words, but I think it needs a lot of work.

Long Stairs will probably be novella length in its finished form, and will probably not be finished. It's an old story, which predates Worth the Candle by a few months, and is about a military fireteam making a routine delve into an endless shifting dungeon that the US military has already pulled a lot of magic out of. Medics with clerical healing, wands and firearms, high fantasy and military. There's unfortunately some stuff in there that I cannibalized for WtC that needs to be changed so it's not a repeat, but nothing structural, and there are a lot of plot beats that I enjoy in both the 15K words that are already written and what's in the notes. I did not put a bunch of work into this one, but it was one of those cases where I was reading through old stuff and got enough of a head of steam that it latched onto me again. (I also don't know enough about the military or how to write that kind of stuff, which is one of the reasons that this fic never got my full attention.)

The Lot is a story that's basically just "the backrooms, but with cars". It think it was inspired by a tumblr post, but probably won't be finished, since it's probably novella length. Currently 9K words, more a character study than it is about people stuck in an infinite parking lot and scrounging off what they can find in glove compartments.

Kitchen Sink is a bureauporn/bureaupunk novel about the agency created to deal with the rise of mutants circa 1977. Currently a mere 9K words, but the plan was for each successive part of the book to focus on another genre being discovered by the department, so you'd get a book with wizards, with vampires, with aliens, etc., mostly with a focus on how these are handled on an administrative level. No way I would ever be able to sell it, unfortunately.

Robot Team Isekai (not its real title) is about a van full of kids on their way to a robotics team meet that get transported to another world where their individual specialties grant them awesome abilities in a "your hyperfixation makes you perfectly adapted to the fantasy world" kind of way, but for five people with different hyperfixations. 2K words, probably will never see the light of day.

Full Meta vol. 2 is a novel about a group of high school students who get metafiction powers, so like ... one girl gets the ability to read the text of the novel they're in whenever someone is engaging in exposition, one guy can read the flashbacks, someone can read all the romance scenes or whatever, and they have a dysfunctional time dealing with each other through college and into adulthood. I fully recognize that calling it "Full Meta vol. 2" when no first volume exists is a gimmick title and would be confusing enough to immediately turn people away.

Dark Wizard of Donkerk was an old NaNo novel, but got halfway dev edited before my dev editor on that one flaked. I think it's a good story, just a matter of getting into the guts of it and making it great, but that takes time. 173K words, but this is old old. If you like rough, unpolished creative output, you can read it on my website.

Untitled Hermione/Draco fanfic is, uh ... I guess according to the logs was something that I put effort into in late 2023. I have read vanishingly little HP fanfic, and I'm sure there's a ton of this stuff, and that some of it is even good. This one doesn't adhere too much to canon or fanon, and is mostly about trying to write a realistic racist who falls in love with someone he's racist against. 14K words, I cannot believe I added anything to this recently, but apparently I have.

Technically by the criteria set out, I should count all seven of the NaNo test chapters I wrote. Of those, the only ones that have retained any brain space are "The Inevitable Return of Nathaniel Greene" and "Dungeon Core".

There are a few more that are technically outside the arbitrary time limit of one year, but I'm going to include them because I have thought about them in the last year (and will not include the ones that I have not thought about).

Of Witches and Wizards is what I thought was a romance but was told does not fit the apparently pretty exacting mold of a "romance novel". It's about a widowed witch whose two sons have left for college and a wizard who travels the world writing about places for a travel guide. They fall in love. Tons of worldbuilding stuff as they visit different cities and see the breadth and beauty of magic in the world. 15K words right now, was going to be a nice and slender novel.

Eager Readers in Your Area was a short story I wrote a year and a half ago. The WIP is a novel-length version of that about ... art, artists, AI art, dealing with people online, and a bunch of other stuff. I wrote an outline I thought was quite good, but if the short story is the first chapter, then I want an equally good and tight second chapter, and that's hard to do.

Slaver Slayer (not final title) was about a slave who assassinates a high-ranking member of the kingdom and through an oversight gets a magical artifact that might possibly let her kill her way through the monarchy in an attempt to end the institution of slavery. The other protagonist is a detective who's grappling with his complicity in the system and is trying to stop her. Made it to 13K words. Another one of those that was outlined to be a nice tight novel.

[chipped-chimera]

WIP WEDNESDAY - 21/06/23

(I mean it’s technically Friday now between timezones and spoons but have this otherwise I’ll keep forgetting) My first WIP Wednesday! Thanks @theviridianbunny​ for the tag! I’ve been really getting stuck into modding - as well as falling into my usual mod habit of ‘start like six project at once and end up with a million WIP files' but I guess I’ll talk about the major ones.

Graphic design is my passion ...

(Long) rambling about mods I'm making + things I've learned below the cut~

My V’s tatt project is still ongoing, and I’ve (somewhat begrudgingly) been trying out Substance Painter to work on bits of it, mainly polishing seams between UV maps. It’s definitely got a lot of benefits, especially for graphic placement in really tricky areas (like anywhere in the entire head mesh region for example) but I still think a lot of the heavy work will still be done in Photoshop so I’ll probably be writing up both experiences with them when I do that tutorial I keep hinting at for complex tatt work. I’ve started drafting a tumblr tutorial but I wonder if that’s the best format, maybe a PDF? Google doc? Github wikis look cool? (tho I think I need to pay for that) - if y’all got suggestions for tutorial formats pls let me know!

As for the other arguably overly-ambitious-project-where-I-bit-off-more-than-I-could-chew ...

H A I R.

Hair has been the bane of my existence for about the past week( ... weeks? Maybe two?), most of it involving cursing, a lot of reverse-engineering game meshes and smashing my head against blender. But if not already evident from my monowire post - I am a stubborn bitch with too much time on my hands so even though there were at least two moments where I wanted to curl up on the floor under my desk and just stay there - we got there.

This all started because my favourite hair mod which I cannot split from my V’s identity was acting funky and the shape of it had been altered since a physics update. It wasn’t her anymore. So I needed new hair. I tried editing the existing hair. I tried importing the old hair mesh. I tried so many things and they didn’t work out one way or they threw a million errors or there were an obnoxious amount of verts.

I even tried looking for replacement mod hair. None of them fit, all of them felt too ‘clean’ for my V. So I just concluded: FINE. I’ll make my own damn hair. From scratch. At least then I’ll actually KNOW what’s going on with the mesh, right?

Problem with hair is tutorials are very limited in respect to Cyberpunk, so I had to learn a lot of this by myself and looking at other processes used for building game hair. I’ve had a previous stint in game design at uni but it was very introductory and more broad-strokes concepts not specific stuff like what ‘real time hair’ is and how you actually go about placing hair-cards (there’s a million different ways btw) but after another 3 days smashing my head against blender I finally got shit to work to a satisfactory level using hair tools for blender and the particle hair grooming system (not the 3.5 blender system, maybe more on that at some point).

Putting together the hair cards I was 120% convinced this was going to blow up in my face, primarily through vert count. But this hair tool plugin? Alarmingly efficient. I was frequently checking my work against Alt's hair mesh (one I was planning on rigging to) and here's the final-ish stats -

This is with only Alt's hair mesh selected (no cap) and then only my mesh(s - lots of layering to build it up), and by comparison I felt I'd built up the density of a chinchilla. This is not a brag, this is mostly genuine confusion over how efficient this plugin is, all I did was smack around hair curves. It did all the UV mapping junk on the fly.

Although structurally complete, I still consider this a WIP (yes I know there's a reeeeal fun vert funkiness in that second render, it's been fixed) since I'm having to go back and fine-tune some of the UV's the plugins mapped that I'm not happy with and generally figuring out my density problem because if anything, after putting it in-game it felt too dense.

Because yes, somehow I got it in game.

WITH. PHYSICS.

This may have driven me absolutely up the wall between having to learn blender from scratch then what the heck real time hair is and how that works etc. etc. but ... god, seeing her move back from the mirror and just feeling that instant catharsis of 'IT'S HER!' made it so. Damn. Worth it.

It looks too thick - this might be because I chucked in the 'doubled' feature Wolvenkit comes with because I hadn't spent any time doing backfaces. But it also might be because it's black? That's going to need investigating.

The physics need a lot of work too, I did a pretty rushed weight painting job last night on a merged version of the mesh because I was worried whether it was even viable and I'd already dumped an insane amount of hours into this between trying to salvage the old hair and building a new one (with some more bells and whistles. Mainly - curly). That wasn't without it's issues -

This almost fucking cracked me, given this was one of the issues I was experiencing before trying to fix an existing mesh mod. Turns out I was just being dumb and forgetting to export the armature, which I'd thought I wasn't supposed to do after having blender throw a bunch of errors on other hair attempts. I gave it a try after one last shot and boom. Worked. (I dunno what those errors were about man but now I know armature? very important).

Will I release this hair? no damn clue, depends on if I can get it to a level I feel is 'releasable'. I already know what I'm calling it though - Venatrix her side-handle I've decided on.

I look forward to adapting it into maybe a comb-back version, as well as a tied up version, so I can show off both her undercut + have the option of NOT hiding every damn tatt I've obsessed over placing on her neck haha.

In other news -

My much-needed wacom tablet replacement arrived (as well as other things I was looking forward to 👀) meaning my Wacom Cintiq, workhorse of ten years can finally enjoy her retirement. Her controls were getting funky, she had a few dead pixels but man. I'm convinced they won't make them like her ever again. Either way she's done unfortunately - upgrading my monitor to 2k made this painfully obvious. I don't think it's even running in full HD, it's that old. And with Phantom Liberty coming out this year? I'm probably going to need a new videocard and DVI compatibility isn't really a thing anymore.

So for future I think I'll just stick to the basic tablet set up, invest in screens. Also now I FINALLY know what her hair is gonna look like and with the tablet here, I can get back to work on the tattoo bodysuit.

Anyways, that's it for now! (Jesus Christ did you really read all of this? If you did you're a fucking trooper). Sorry for the extended ramble but MAN I did a lot, I needed to yell.

Till next time Chooms! Thanks again @theviridianbunny for the tag~ <3

Oh shit wait, have the blender renders before I forget because hahah I figured out how to do that too lol -

[hawnks]

hello its me im a stranger in your inbox brought here by the allure of gojo fics

but LISTEN this is actually wild. at least from my pov. so i'm looking up omegaverse gojo fics

so i come across one of your omega!gojo fics and i love it, it's fun, it's novel, gojo as an omega is so valid actually, very in character, omega tf out of that bitch and i run to your blog to find more of it

they were all delicious works and gosh i love how you write gojo in general. man you have got. SO MUCH. of the vibes. the perfect vibes. i've got tons of gojo fic stuff in my drafts, a lot of it being character study, and i see your character ramblings on him AND IM LIKE

YES!!! THAT'S IT THAT'S HIM THAT'S THE BRAND!!! THE TRUE GOJO!! THE CORRECT GOJO SATORU!!! intensely lonely actually but too far removed from the regular human experience to understand how to properly connect. i see all of your opinions on them and theyre so correct

but then like i'm scrolling through your blog anD YOU WROTE!!!! IT'S YOU!!! YOU WROTE THAT FIC!!!! "ariadne's thread"!!!

i read that fic ages ago when i was first descended into the madness that is this fandom. i read like a million other fics and a couple weeks later that fic was still stuck in my head and it's the reason i started bookmarking fics for jjk now.

you also wrote that soulmate fic with the fanta soda?? which i also ended up reading??? that was AWESOME, i've been wanting to write soulmate stuff for jjk forever and it was such a sweet romance that was actually like normal and removed from the actual curse stuff

in retrospect it's actually super interesting. ariadne's thread is all about gojo and the aftermath of his spectacular life, and the soulmate fic is actually all about the reader and the trials of their mundane life. and in ariadne's thread gojo finds his peace by appreciating the trivialities of your regular life when he no longer cares about his

anyways sorry if i'm blabbing too much at you. it just felt like such a crazy coincidence, but only because i am apparently blind to author names on Ao3 XD

your pinned says you're shy so rlly don't feel pressured to reply to this, i just enjoy rambling in other people's inboxes

AISKSKKDKDKDKKDDK

Hello, welcome to the omega!gojo quicksand pit; there is no way out <3

Thank you, this is so sweet!! 😭🥺💕🍰🧋It’s funny because I do have fics that are more reader-centric despite being about characters. I think it’s because there’s sometimes world building that has to happen in reader’s POV and I try not to switch perspectives too much.

Strangely enough, I think gojo really has an appreciation for everyday things. He likes B-movies and street food, he buys tacky souvenirs, he takes the train. He’s like… 20% a normal dude actually

[campbyler]

ok. a genuine question. how do u guys write 20-30k *chapters* bc i will outline fics minutely or i will just let myself start writing based off a vibe & either way i will get 600 words out of maybe. two hours of work. on a good day with no distractions/interruptions, & i very much do not have an uninterrupted two hours to write very often, so you can imagine how slowly things get written T_T so i’m interested if there’s any aspect of any of your writing processes that really enables u guys to write so much or if it’s not really something you think about? anyways i really like ur guys’s work, & thank you for deciding to write for byler bc i know me and a lot of people enjoy it a lot. thanks!!

hello !! this is a super valid question and i’ll try my best to answer it for you 😗✌️

andi infamously writes a lot faster than thea and i do (she finished draft 1 of chapter 3 in like. two days. which was so scary. i’m in awe of her fr) but she has also spent a lot of time editing ch3 so it’s definitely not like these chapters are publish-ready in a short amount of time by any means! it took thea a couple of months total to fully write + edit ch1 and it took me about 3.5 weeks to write ch2 and another two weeks to edit it which is part of the reason we’ve spaced out our posting schedule like we have — we put a lot of effort and care into these updates and we want to give ourselves as much time as possible to get ahead before all 3 of us inevitably get so super busy with work and/or school in the fall!! so while we do write a lot, please don’t think we are so insanely speedy about it because unless we are having Really Good Writing Days, that’s definitely not the case. sometimes we do have days where we are really in the zone and write more than usual, but at least for me, this is so so so rare. whatever i write in this time gets heavily edited because so much of it was nonsensical brain vomit LOL

as far as writing process goes, i think one of the things that motivates us a lot is that we genuinely do just talk about this au constantlyyyyy like we’re always coming up with silly little hcs or drawing for it or adding to the Lore ™️so we’re always getting inspired to write! all three of us are definitely people who use writing as a way to relax or even reward ourselves after a long day; we would probably die if we had to go too long unable to :/ messages like “i can’t wait to get home and write after work today” or “i’m going to write a little bit of ___ before bed because i deserve it” are very commonly found in our gc because we really just look forward to it so much! as for our scary word counts, i feel like there is a lot of worldbuilding in this universe specifically, and pacing is really important to us — we want to make sure introductions and set-up to a scene and character interactions are meaningful and flow naturally, and building tension (which is a hallmark of this fic hehe) does take some time, which can definitely add up word count-wise.

for the most part, none of us usually have a solid few hours to sit and write either (unless it’s on our days off or after work if we’re not too tired) and we get a lot of writing done in chunks! we hold each other accountable for short check-ins (“ask me for a snip in 30 minutes”) which is super helpful when you’re stuck, because it kind of forces you to get Something down without worrying if it’s super polished and edited and perfect. if you’re writing on your own, something i’ve started doing lately is setting a 15 minute timer and just seeing how much i can get done in that time, and then setting another and doing it again (up until however much time you have to write that day). i’ve found that the artificial deadline helps break the monotony of sitting in front of your computer for Hours on end with nothing to show for it bc TRUST we’ve all been there and it sucks so bad 😔✊

this got super long so i apologize but i hope at least a little bit of it was helpful! it definitely helps that we are constantly feeding into each other (i.e: having brainrot) and offering inspiration and advice, which does wonders for creative flow tbh. we’re definitely not cranking these chapters out as quickly as people might seem to think — thea started chapter four, which won’t be posted for about a month, maybe a week or two ago. i just started chapter 5 — about 6 weeks away — yesterday lol so we do take our time! don’t be scared by the giant chapters, we just had a lot of content we wanted to include in each one and are in too deep to take anything out 🥳🥳 thank you for the question! good luck with your writing we believe in you 🫡

[abrushwithdeath]

((Hey! Again, just wanted to say that I'm still alive ^^; As I said before, the interview went really well last week. Got my fingerprints done on Thursday morning. Had a call back yesterday morning. Tomorrow I have to go fill out some paperwork at 1, then, after that's finished, I could start working literally any time. It's going to be shorter shifts at the start, and it's only a temp / sub position (though it could turn to full time in the future) so, for now, I'll probably be working quite a bit / nearly full time until the person I'm covering for comes back. Then it's kind of... work whenever they need me. Which means probably having to get a second part time job just to be safe ^^; But hopefully that won't happen until well after Christmas.

Anyway- I can't make any promises about when I'll get to stuff, I've been trying to gather things up to put in my drafts to do when I have motivation. But for right now, between the move, unpacking, holidays, visiting family, babysitting (which has been, like, 3 times in the past week alone and the kids are great but they're 3 and 5 so... yeah, it can feel like a lot), and having been at least mildly sick for the last 3 weeks straight... I've just had a lot of brain fog and not a lot of motivation to write. However-! I'm trying to get back into READING, which always helps me get back into WRITING when I'm stuck! I just have to find a book that'll hook me enough that it gets my brain reeling again! (I'm also gonna try to sit down tonight and just WRITE a little, even if it's just short replies, so here's hoping that helps! Sometimes I just have to force myself to write some ^^;)

So, yeah! Book recs are always appreciated (though I can't promise I'll be able to read everything that's recommended because I have very limited $ right now), as are song recs (sometimes songs give me fun ideas~) Also, seriously, 1,000,000,000% always feel free to toss plot ideas / AU ideas / ship songs or playlists / whatever my way because they get my brain going sometimes! I know I've not been especially chatty lately, but I promise that I'm at least READING everything you send! So don't hold back! Sometimes all it takes is one fun little idea to get my mind running enough to start writing again xD

Love you guys! I hope your December is going well <3))

[fishandships]

Super soft intimacy: sliding hands under their clothes ||Rosario x Luchino|| I love the idea it's when in his lizard form cause he needs warmth and Rosario is the only heat source Luchino has XD

Super soft intimacy prompts (accepting for IDV faves!) thank you so much for this omg i also really love that idea ;w; fortunately for Luchino, Rosario naturally tends to run warm :3

      The weather was unseasonably chilly for summer, owing at least partly to how overcast the sky had been for the last week. While most of the Manor’s residents were unbothered, the brisk climate made Luchino sluggish. By now he was used to taking necessary precautions, but something that could not always be accounted for was the mistakes of others. A window left open posed few problems to anyone else, but Luchino was so focused on the paper he was writing that by the time he noticed the draft, his limbs were stiffening up. He let out a huff of irritation. “Accidenti.”

      Worst-case scenario, he would be stuck there all night in a state of torpor, essentially frozen in place until some warm-blooded individual came along to open the window and light a fire. It wasn’t the first time such a thing had happened. But that was before Rosario had been brought back to the Manor. With any luck…

      “Luchino? You’re up so late.”

      A fond smile tugged at the corner of his mouth at the familiar voice. “Flawless timing, caro mio. I’m afraid I was lost in my work and didn’t notice a chill creeping in.”

      Rosario immediately reacted with sympathy. “Oh, dear. I’ll close the window. Maybe a cup of tea will help?”

      “Grazie mille. However, before you leave to put the kettle on…” 

     He crooked a claw to beckon them near. They obeyed, uttering a soft gasp of shock as he folded them in his arms. “Oh…you’re so cold…”

      Luchino curled as much of his body as he could fit around their comparatively smaller frame with a gusty sigh of contentment. “And you’re so pleasantly warm.”

      He slid his hands up the back of their shirt, eliciting an undignified squawk as they jumped at the coldness of his skin. “Luchino-!” 

      “Sorry,” he chuckled without a trace of remorse.   

      Despite their outcry and poor attempt at a rebuking frown, they rested their head on his chest and felt relieved to hear his heart rate picking up to a more normal pace. After the initial shock, his touch actually felt extremely pleasant, his scaly skin gliding smoothly over their own in gentle caresses. Now was their turn to sigh contentedly. “Let me know when you want your tea. I can stay here indefinitely otherwise.”

      Another chuckle. “Good. I’m not nearly warm enough yet.” 

      He gave them a little squeeze. As he’d hoped, cool weather wasn’t nearly as frustrating an ordeal with Rosario around. If it got him tea and cuddles, he thought, he might just leave the window open on purpose from time to time.

[astral-athame]

((Life for me has pretty much been: Wake up at 8am. Desperately try to get more sleep until 9 (usually I doze off for, like, 2 or 3 minutes at a time and that's it). Get ready for work. Leave between 9:30 and 9:45. Work from 10-1:30-ish (it's supposed to be until 1:15 but I'm never out of there on time). Get home around 1:45. Leave for work part 2 around 2:30. That goes from at least 3-7, usually closer to 7:20 when I finally leave (sometimes stay until 8 or 9). Get home between 7:30 and 7:45. Make a quick dinner, shower, etc. Around 8:30, watch Ba.tt.le.st.ar Gal.act.ica with a couple of friends (if things work out, this couple may eventually be more than just my friends, but we'll see how that goes ^^;) until about 10:30, then chat with them for a bit after that, usually until almost 11. Bedtime routine (wash face, brush teeth, etc etc). Then stare at drafts until midnight when I realize I need to get to bed because I know I'll be up earlier than I need to be. Then the weekends have consisted a lot of babysitting, running errands, and trying to finish unpacking here and there because it's been 4 months and finding time to unpack has been a pain in the ass with everything that's constantly going on. Also, I spent 3 hours on Saturday putting together a kitchen cabinet- thankfully we have extra screwdrivers because the phillip's-head screwdriver they included was such bad quality that it was messed up and unusable less than half an hour in because the metal of it was so soft -_-

ANYWAY- Work both shifts the rest of the week (except Friday, but only because I don't have to do the second shift, still have the first). Saturday we're going out for my dad's birthday (which was actually last week, but we couldn't make things work for going out last weekend like we'd wanted to). Saturday night is also game night, as usual. Then Sunday I *should* have some free time, but I also desperately need to get some cleaning done that's being semi-neglected throughout the week. So what I'm saying is Sundays are chore days.

If things go well, I should, soon, only be working the first shift in another week or two (with the second shift just being Fridays and when absolutely needed)? Right now both my sister and I are stuck doing the second shift every night (and have been since before mid-winter break last month) because the custodial staff is down two people (one girl broke her leg and has been out since October, I think? And the other has been on temporary (paid) probation since early February while they consider whether or not to fire him and go through all the legal jargon of all of that). But they should be coming to a decision about that soon, I would hope, which would mean that if he gets to come back, then we won't be working nights unless someone calls out. And if he doesn't come back, then they should be hiring someone to fill his place so we'll just have to wait until someone snags the job (hopefully, in that case, they'll offer it to my sister first because usually they try to offer it to substitutes and she really wants it, but we'll see). They're also slowly running out of budget for substitutes, so, that's something to consider, too.

ANYWAY- TL;DR: I've basically had no writing time / personal time and that's why I've not been around. Hopefully work stuff will calm down soon because leaving the house around 9:30am and not really getting to be home until usually after 7:30pm (sometimes 8:30pm or 9:30pm) has been exhausting ^^;

I'll try to be around on Sunday (probably focus on Rogue's blog because I've been writing the fic in my head at work most nights so I have a lot of muse for her AND her blog has been sorely neglected for at least a few months now WHICH MAKES ME SO MAD AT MYSELF). If I can even get one or two asks done, then I'll consider that an accomplishment at this point!

I'm so sorry about the long absence. I'm sorry to everyone for neglecting replies. I'm sorry to everyone I was writing with and haven't had the time / social and physical energy / emotional capacity to reach back out to in a while. That's on me. I dropped the ball on that. I've never been good at ooc communication anyway, tbh. I was really hoping things would be a little bit calmer after I moved, but instead they went in exactly the opposite direction and haven't really slowed down any since November. In fact, they've just gotten more hectic over the last few months ^^;

I adore you all so much and I really do hope that I can get back to writing soon. I've been missing it (and all of you) terribly.

Take care and I'll try to be around soon <3))

[shivasdarknight]

Fic Writer Interview

I was tagged by @sheepwithspecs for this! Looks fun, let's go! 🙌 I'm only tagging @starswornoaths and @fiercynnhere because I really lost track of who still writes and who doesn't 😅 So blanket "do this if you see this" statement here - also this goes for any AO3 alternatives people have bailed for given the state of that place right now.

How many works do you have on AO3?

20, though two are exquisite corpses so 18 are all me

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

259,190, though that's bound to jump up because a chapter I've been working on is ~22k rn, and that's just one draft

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos

I gave you dirt, I gave you water, you gave me uncontrollable horniness (108) - this is the second exquisite corpse that I did, and it's a rosemary fic that was more coordinated so I'm not surprised tbh? I wrote two sections for it, but it's so old. title is a reference to Little Shop of Horrors

The Shape of Water (2017) (53) - the first exquisite corpse, both were the same group and this was nonsensical. I wrote after the coordinator, and it devolved fast it was fun to work on. More Homestuck - but this was dirkjake - but it's also old and doesn't reflect my current writing. Take a guess why it's named that.

spare a moment, would you? (47) - oh hey this one's all mine. Yeah is it any surprise that the top 3 are all smut? wolysayle stuff, still like this one, though being a long fic writer and seeing the 4k word one do well is. Something alright.

how long you would wait for me? how long I've been away? (28) - wolestinien for wolestinien week, and this was a higher rated fic because yeah vague smut. I still like it, don't misunderstand, but I've got a different favorite lmao

don't test the tank (25) - the noncanon one because g'raha is no longer in the polycule lmfao. I'm pretty sure that's entirely why it got attention, since all of my non-exquisite corpse fics that have high kudos feature male characters in them and that's just not my focus rn. So it's really unsurprising that my favs have like. 12 and 2 kudos compared to all of the ones above, given they center Ysayle.

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I respond to all comments! At least most if I can lmao I like getting them? I also like giving them when I read fics, because idk. Acknowledgement that you saw something, discussing something dear to someone. That kind of thing.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

I think probably somehow, silence hurts the most? There's not really any good resolution besides Surkukteni recovering. Ysayle's dead (as far as she knows, shh), she tried to kill someone who used to be close to her and couldn't go through with it, and she's being shuffled off to another conflict while she's still not healed from the last one - even if it's where she had wanted to be, she's still stuck with the wounds from the war she didn't want to get involved in.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Oh, easy: i had a dream about you. It's a fucking rollercoaster of a fic, it's one of my favorites, and I managed to make someone cry :D It's definitely the one that has the happiest ending, because I wouldn't call one-shots really...that? They're set in their tone unless it's a longer fic. Multi-chapter is really the only way I actually like getting a happy ending from something because you had to work to get there.

7. Do you write crossovers?

Well, I used to. FanFiction Dot Net was just...better for crossovers than AO3 tbh? Even though AO3 is better set up for it, most people on there hate crossovers unless it's an AU of something (y'know, like the old -stuck fics). I've still got some of those mentalities from that site in that I've used adjacent crossovers to fill out the cast of things, but most notably would be Inkspill. It's a Bleachstuck fic, but there aren't any Bleach characters whatsoever. It's just the setting and Rose is the main lead. It also epitomizes the fact that I don't like crossovers/AUs where people stick to the OG plot beat-for-beat? Like if you're coming to it as a fan, why do you want to see it exactly but with new faces. Bending the plot to the characters is a lot more fun and you get more stuff out of it (see: a ffx/homestuck AU i was plotting at one point that saw Jake replacing Yuna and Dirk replacing Tidus). But Homestuck was one of those weird fandoms where this kind of thing was encouraged and thrived. Being in XIV, I'm kind of loath to step outside of it because the setting itself has so much going for it that I don't really need to supplement it with anything else - which is hilarious, since this is the game full of crossover events! With those, it's like...I'll supplement other FF titles in the same vein as the game does already (eg: you can tell what era of Allag's rule tech is from based on if it's Pulse or Cocoon tech from FFXIII; Garlemald uses FFVI and FFVII stuff, while older stuff they've appropriated is things like Tactics and FFXII; the FFIV stuff, etc), but all the non-XIV stuff (sans tactics ogre, because POTD is Staying), that just gets a passing reference and not a main focus. The most notable instance of this is how Nier is handled, because while the storyline is canon, it's more of a joke. Everyone talks about it, everyone is confused by it, but I'm never going to actually write them dealing with the crossover because they don't really add much? It's just more funny having a bunch of medieval fantasy heroes trying to grapple with Yoko Taro-ness and breaking their brains over it.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

...hm. I mean, the worst I've gotten on a fic was on Inkspill, where someone decided to get snippy with me because the second chapter is ~10k words. I'd love to find them to show them the word counts of my current drafts lmfao. But actual worse stuff was role play, which involved people tearing apart my writing in private and using it as an excuse to try and get me kicked. But considering I lost the receipts from the person who leaked it, I can't say shit despite one of them being a large ffxiv account who runs an anti-bullying schtick here and on twt so. Yeah.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I definitely write smut, but good god is it difficult to work on. Like, I don't have issues visualizing it, it's just the language. And actually writing the scene out. Makes me so gd awkward, even if it's arguably vanilla shit. Which is admittedly really frustrating, because part of why I do write smut is to try and reclaim that facet of writing from some pretty nasty stuff from a past relationship (no details; very few people actually know the details). So much of it comes from trying to be able to write stuff for myself, but that hesitation is still there. As for what, it's predominantly female focused. As in, you're not really going to see a lot of shameless smut focusing on men (be it m/m or m/f). If men are involved, it's predominantly service stuff for a female partner. Cunnilingus tends to be my go-to, obviously fingering and w/e, but I'm trying to also expand what that means because Surkukteni frankly has had a fair number of flings with trans women and fems. So muffing is on the list of stuff to write (the surkie/cylva fic, stuff with heustienne and venat...), but in general just trying to get away from this pervasive idea that trans fems always have to be tops and have to penetrate their partner. If you're looking for this kind of stuff, I recommend Fucking Trans Women. But either way, most of what I write tends to be a response to stuff I've had to go through + wanting to see other depictions in fanfiction since it's. So often so samey.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not really, but I did have this weird encounter on an AU server where they said that people could just set up channels to discuss their AUs and whatever, but I wanted to distance myself from that group and they really did not want me to delete my stuff. Like, they got aggressive and snapped at me for not wanting people to to use an AU that was fairly personal to me. ...Like, they said it was just a place to talk about AUs, I was never told that their intention was that if you post it, it stays, and free reign for everyone else to do stuff in it. This and the role play server have just really made me never want to engage with Kingdom Hearts ever again.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I'm open to the idea.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Well yeah, I'm part of two exquisite corpses that I linked above lmao Those are seriously fun, y'all should try it sometime. But aside from that, I tried to with my ex gf but that was. Less actually co-written, and more me doing all the work.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

If we're talking about normal definition of ships, probably Edelgard/F!Byleth. Like, don't get me wrong there's a lot of stuff in XIV that I care about npc/npc wise, but something like Ryne/Gaia is like how I feel about NamiXi in that...I adore them, but I wish they'd been around when I was that age? They're cute, but I was introduced to them as an adult and there's still that disconnect. Love queer teen stuff for the queer teens, but I'm nearly 30 lmfao Obvs I'm extremely deep into stuff like Ysayle/Venat, Ysayle/Heustienne, etc. but that's like. So minor that there's not a lot of community around them like there is with edeleth. But that's what happens when you're a f/f shipper 💀💀💀 But in all honesty, the actual answer is wolysayle. I'm blanket including other peoples' dynamics because I just really like seeing people actually use Ysayle and give her further purpose, but also I'm super deep into Surkukteni/Ysayle and all the nonsense that surrounds it - especially how partners like Venat are involved. I care them, I'm very emotional over them.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

As much as I would like to return to Inkspill, I'm never going to. It's an old fic and if it wasn't clear already, I'm not super interested in writing exclusively about teenagers. I'm also working on a fic that has been shown in snippets and whatever, but I'm hesitant about it because it's. This frustrating fkn thing of the fact that it's Perfectly Goddamned Normal, but people are so weird about it online - both the people who are way too into it, and the detractors. I just want to write about what Surkie goes through from post-shadowbringers to endwalker (which, iykyk what that entails), especially since this Scenario actually allows her to slow down and focus on other aspects of her relationship with her now-fiances, but people get so genuinely nasty about this topic. So even if I enjoy writing it and how it has her navigate her relationships - romantic, familial, and platonic - I'm not sure I'll ever finish it because of gestures.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I've been told I'm very good at writing dialogue, and I can't really argue that because I really do enjoy writing conversations between people. I know people are sick of the Marvel irony that shows up in dialogue and so it makes everyone leery of sarcastic exchanges, but sarcasm and banter are genuinely my favorite things to write. I like obnoxious assholes who know what the other's boundaries are, so they can just be as blunt or snide as they like without a wrong word causing things to get contentious. It's a stark contrast between Surkie and Estinien dialogue and Melisande and Ysayle, because the former is two people who deeply understand the other and know when to stop, vs the current stuff which is Melisande picking at every way she can upset Ysayle because she just does not like her. I try to keep speech habits in mind when writing, I also keep track of how frequently someone curses and what expletives they use, and it's just...really fun trying to make it so distinct that you don't need tags to tell who's speaking? Means I've done something right. And - at least, according to my mother (because she does know about my writing) - I'm apparently good at descriptive prose, because it's "very evocative" and "paints a good mental image".

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing smut, tbh? Like, I know it's similar to action, but I just can't get it for the most part. I'm also not very good at writing stuff that skims over things to cover a long span of time because I like idling in moments and having things go slow. Jumping from place to place and scene transitions are the bane of my existence.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I think it's important to at least try. I've run into this issue because my WoL is a polyglot but also has the Echo. Like was mentioned in the tag's post, I use Writing with Color a lot to inform me about how to better handle accents from other languages so I don't wind up with how people like Lovecraft write (because that's embarrassing), but I also try to use what I know to inform sentence structure because people kind of just...ignore that? I'll be more specific: I incorporate various English accents and dialects into what I write to get a better idea of what their voice sounds like, but nowhere in there is that used as a signal to view them as unintelligent the way that XIV (and frankly most English-speaking media) does. Kitase has a thick accent, but it's more Lominsan so it's reflected in his speech. However, both he and Surkukteni speak Hingan (japanese), Doman (ig japanese as well because fkn stormblood), and Rural Doman (chinese). I don't know if anyone's picked this up, but Surkie and Kitase both tend to drop the subject of who they're talking about after a while, and very rarely use self pronouns if talking at length. "You" is also fairly absent compared to a native Common (english) speaker, more so in Kitase than Surkukteni due to exposure. These habits come from Japanese sentence structure and how a lot of context is dropped if it can be clearly inferred. Obviously, it's a habit in English, but not to the same degree. Sign language is in here and a version of it used with the dragoons is prominent to Surkie. That led to a long research stint into trying to figure out how to portray that - and there's no good one answer? So I settled on using [Stuff like this] to show that it's talking, it's formatted as talking, and doesn't have the same flourishes as other speech. This is mostly because of how I format dragonspeak, internal brain buddies, and other things. It's treated exactly like normal dialogue, it just has different tags and punctuation. Otherwise, it is exactly the same to not make it seem like it's lesser to spoken languages.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Kingdom Hearts, but we don't talk about that.

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Fire Emblem Three Houses, but HEAR ME OUT. HEAR ME OUT. Yes, I would love to contribute to the femslash edeleth, but my main motivation for an FE3H fic is a New Game+ meta fic. I got the idea from starting a new route and finding that supports and skills could transfer over, so it got me thinking about a looping story involving Byleth - an ever changing person, in presentation, name, and relationships - having to relieve the story of FE3H and trying to figure out how to break out of it. They're more cognizant with each loop, more manic, until it finally splits into the femleth and guyleth. Femleth remembers the fact that this isn't right, Guyleth stands in opposition to her. Femleth ends up with Edelgard and the Black Eagles, Guyleth ends up with Dimitri and the Azure Lions. And it's going to get messy. But I havent really had the energy to write it because it means finishing all the other routes, and doing Black Eagles first has made it very hard to go through Azure Lions. I'm sparing people my feelings on it, but omfg. I just want to go back to Crimson Flower.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

i had a dream about you and you want a better story. who wouldn't? Like, they were the most fun to write (the latter is my active draft), and I just care them. Very proud of these two uwu

[notsopersonalcharlie]

Hotshot Part 4 - Waffles

Aaron Hotchner x Fem!Army!OC - Fluff

tags: @rousethemouse @hotchgan​ @hotchnerxo​ @chaoticconnoisseurgiver​

Warnings: None that I can think of

Notes: Basically just meeting Jack, but also other stuff lol. Also a long one. The long awaited part 4, hoping to draft part 5 soon as well, which will more than likely be the last part in this series. Let me know what you think. Gif isn’t mine

Part 1 here - Part 2 here - Part 3 here

Aaron woke up to weight on his chest and opened his eyes to find Jack sitting there staring down at him. 

“Daddy, your alarm has been going off literally forever.” Literally forever had been his favorite thing to say recently.

“You know you staring at me is very creepy.” Jack grinned, holes where some of his teeth were still missing or growing in. 

“You said we have big plaaaaans,” he said, flopping to the side and starfishing out as Aaron reached to his bedside table to turn off his alarm. He had a text from Willow that had been sent an hour ago. 

“We do, why don’t  you go get dressed in jeans and a shirt and we’ll head out soon.” Jack nodded, bouncing up and down a few times before dashing off. 

“And don’t forget a sweatshirt, it’s cold out!” 

“Okaaaay.” Aaron looked at his phone again, reading the text. 

Willow Cutler: Back from the gym. Ready to go when you are. 

He shot back that they would be ready soon before getting out of bed and starting to get dressed. It had only been a few months now since they had met again, but the engagement ring he had kept for her was sitting on his dresser. He looked at it for a moment before picking up the challenge coin beside it and going to check on Jack. He had jeans on, but was rifling through his drawers for a shirt. 

“C’mon buddy, what color do you want to wear at least?” Aaron helped him pick out a shirt, but when Jack put it on he noticed a grass stain. 

“I can’t wear that one,” he said, hurriedly going back to try to find another.

“Why not? It’s ok if its a little dirty.” Aaron pointed out that he was wearing a t-shirt and a sweatshirt as well. 

“I want your friend to like me.” Aaron couldn’t help but smile. 

“I promise she’s going to like you anyway. But let’s find one you want to wear.” Jack finally settled on an orange and black Star Wars one that was the match to the shirt Aaron was wearing. He put on a hoodie over it from his soccer team before grabbing socks and following Aaron out to the car. Aaron texted Willow that they were on their way before starting the car. It wasn’t a long ride. 

“Where are we going? It’s not too far right? I still have to go to practice later, remember?” Aaron nodded, catching his eye in the review. 

“I know buddy, we’re just going to get breakfast.” 

“Oh YEAH!” Jack yelled, sticking his hand out the window. It was a little chilly out, getting closer to the fall, but the sun was shining and it really was a perfect day for his soccer practice. They arrived at the diner pretty quickly. Jack and him went there often when Aaron had time off and Jack hopped out of the car on his own and raced to the door. Willow was leaning against the front of her car and looking at her phone when the car pulled up, and had watched the boy bolt for the door. 

“Likes breakfast?” She asked, walking up to where Aaron had stopped to make sure the car was locked. 

“Loves it. Waffles though, not pancakes.” She grinned, and Aaron gave a small sigh of defeat. 

“Yes, I know. They’re better because of the-”

“Pockets of goodness!” Willow finished. 

“Jack, bud, this is my friend Willow. We’ve known each other for a long long time.” Jack looked up at her and stuck out his hand. 

“Nice to meet you.” She shook it and smiled. 

“Quite the gentleman. It’s nice to meet you, Jack. Your dad has said a lot about you the last couple weeks.” Aaron went to open the door and just barely caught the boy saying, “Dad has a picture of you on the wall in his room.” Aaron squeezed his eyes shut and pulled the door open, a blush taking over his face. Jack skipped in, going straight to the hostess. Willow gave him a smirk as she stepped by him. 

“A picture of me, huh?” 

“Yes, I do have a picture of you and me.” Aaron’s hand rested on her lower back as they walked, following Jack and the hostess to one of the booths. 

Breakfast was easy, and Jack took to Willow immediately, fascinated by the few stories she told about Aaron when they were younger and the fact that she had been in the Army with Aaron. He asked a million questions a minute until he got his waffles and then things quieted down, Aaron tapping his knee against Willow’s as they ate. 

“Do you want to come to my soccer practice?” Jack asked while he stole bacon off Aaron’s plate. Willow’s eyebrows went up and she looked to Aaron, who gave a small ‘its up to you’ shrug.

“You can practice with me too! We always get there early so dad and I can run around,” Jack continued, then in a poor stage whisper said, “He’s not very good.” Willow grinned. 

“He never was. And sure, I’ll come.” Jack clapped excitedly, and continued to talk about his soccer team and about all the people on the team. She drove her own car over to the apartment complex, and for the first time entered Aaron’s new home. As they walked up the stairs, Aaron could remember the first time he had gone to her house, later than he had hoped after over two years together. 

Aaron hopped out of the blue pickup, checking himself in the side mirror before going up to the door. He could hear barking inside, and he knocked twice before taking a step back. A burly man opened the door, surveying Aaron with careful eyes. 

“Hello, sir. Aaron Hotchner.” The man’s eyes narrowed, but he reached out and shook Aaron’s extended hand. 

“C’mon in.” They stepped into the house and Aaron was immediately accosted by two large German Shepards, which came to sniff every inch of him they could reach. 

“Willow, the boy’s here,” her father called up the stairs as he walked past. 

“A drink?” he asked him. 

“Uh, no sir, I’m not old enough yet.” The man nodded as he made his way into the kitchen that Aaron could see down the hall, leaving Aaron alone with the dogs. 

“Sadie, get off’im,” Willow’s voice came, and Aaron turned to see her coming down the stairs.  Her hair was down in loose waves, and she hopped off the last step into his arms. It was the first time they had been apart for any length of time since they met. Aaron squeezed her tight, face buried in her shoulder. 

“I missed you.” 

“I missed you too,” she said quietly. He set her down, careful of the dogs, and she led the way further back in the house.

Aaron unlocked the door, and Jack raced in, turning a corner and disappearing.

“Welcome to the Hotchner residence.” To Willow’s surprise, in the back corner on a shelf, the first thing that caught her eye, was a number of things from their army days, including a framed photo of their unit. The living room was cluttered with children’s things, but it looked lived in and clean.

“What?” Aaron asked, as she stood looking around the apartment, just inside the doorway. She looked at him, a smirk on her face. 

“What?” he asked again, stepping closer to her so he could press a kiss to her lips. It felt like he had so many more to make up for. 

“You don’t see it?” she asked, taking a step in and peeking into the kitchen as well. 

“No?” 

“So you didn’t intentionally set up your living room exactly like ours was?” Aaron looked around and froze after a moment of thinking back to what their living room had looked like. He didn’t think of himself as sentimental all that much, but apparently his subconscious was. The TV was across the les wide part of the room from the TV and along the back wall there was two bookshelves around the window, with a small bench under it littered with a number of Jack’s things on it. Still, it was exactly the same as their old house. 

“I guess... I d-” Willow cut him off with a kiss, arms wrapped around his neck. Aaron’s hands slipped to her waist, tugging her closer. When he pulled away from her lips, he pressed his face into her shoulder, arms wrapping all the way around her and pulling him flush against her. Willow’s eyes closed, fingers running through the hair at the back of his neck. It was still short like he kept it when he was in the Army. Aaron didn’t want to let go. He could feel the last time he hugged her, the last time he hugged Haley. Those last moments with both of them had destroyed him, but he told himself this time he wouldn’t he holding Willow’s body for the last time. He wouldn’t let her away from him ever again. 

Both of them pulled away with tears in their eyes, and Willow used her thumbs to swipe his off his cheeks, her mascara already running. He kissed her softly, then pressed his forehead to hers. 

“I love you.” 

“I love you too, Aaron.” Once they finally pulled away from each other, Aaron couldn’t take his hand from her side as they walked around the small apartment. 

“Alright, you gotta let go of me so I can use the bathroom and fix my face.” Aaron grabbed her waist, spinning her into his chest. 

“There’s nothing wrong with your face.” He kissed her, and let her go, peeking into Jack’s room to make sure he was almost ready. 

“Can you get me an extra water bottle today, dad? I ran out last time.” Aaron nodded and headed to the kitchen. One cold water bottle was in the fridge already, but Aaron put ice and water in another, tucking them into Jack’s soccer bag and checking that his cleats were in there as well. He went back to the kitchen to grab some snacks and water for him and Willow. 

Willow stepped out of the bathroom, watching Aaron head back into the small kitchen, and then took another step across the hall into Aaron’s bedroom. It wasn’t big. Jack had gotten the better end of the deal, and clearly Aaron had given him the master bedroom of the apartment. They had talked about Jack, about Aaron’s life with Haley, about all of his guilt. He was carrying so much, and doing it all alone. There was a picture of Aaron and herself in the room, one of the photos they’d taken after their engagement. The room itself was just as she expected. The bed was made neatly, with a few clothes tossed on top of the dresser. Aside from a single glass of water on the nightstand, the room was clean. 

“Whatcha doin?” Willow turned to see Jack standing in the door. 

“Just looking. Ready for practice?” The boy nodded. He was wearing what looked like a practice jersey, bright orange with a soccer ball on the front and a number on the back. He was holding a soccer ball, and she gestured for him to toss it to her. 

“Dad says no soccer in the house.” 

“He can’t tell me not to,” Willow said with a grin, taking the ball and dribbling it past Jack into the hall. He came up around her and managed to get the ball from her, and he burst into laughter, running up the hall while moving the ball between his feet. 

“Hey! What did I say about soccer in the house?” Aaron exclaimed, seeing them come up the hall. 

“Sorry, my fault,” Willow said, suppressing a smile. He tried to look angry at her, but he couldn’t manage it, especially not with the huge grin on Jack’s face. 

“Alright, no more though. Come on, we got to get out of here.” 

“I just need to grab a jacket from my car,” Willow said as they got outside. She jogged off while Aaron got Jack and his bag situated in the car. 

“Daddy?” 

“Yeah, what’s up buddy?” 

“Are you going to marry Willow?” Aaron turned to look at his son, spotting Willow running back to them with the jacket in hand. 

“If it’s alright with you Jack, I think I will.” 

[jonriptide]

Writing schedule v2

So by previous writing schedule has been taking a bit long, I know that. Mostly it has been life happening and reduced amount of writing time this year, however, writer's block has been taken a toll as well.

For the first part, I can at least say that I have no intentions of abandoning writing at the moment. Though life is life you know. I'll try to keep a better pace than I have had this year, but in no way expect a chap every week. Busy dude.

For the second part, I have decided to restructure the way I schedule my writing. In the past I have written whatever I felt like, with some stories updated often (by my standards), while others were left in oblivion. That's the reason I changed to a fixed schedule, though braving through writer's block on a stuck story didn't help, especially when I could have made progress elsewhere instead of being stuck.

So, I've decided to make adjustments (an evolving process). Mostly, I'll try to keep my priority list, but whenever I am stuck I'll move to write the next story in my list and so on, while constantly getting back to the first story to see if I can get it unblocked. Here are the ground rules:

I am still not committing to any dates, as I am terribly slow, people still know that. The schedule is for fic writing order, not dates of publishing.

Still giving more priority to updating the fics that have stayed the longest without update, and to my Ron Weasley series.

I will still keep publishing new stories, because is fun and refreshing and already have stuff written about a bunch of them.

I have a very long schedule, I will put all of my active stories with progress so you can get an idea of how much work is pending on your favorite and how many stories I have to go through before I revisit it.

That being said, here it is:

Ron Weasley and the Chamber of Secrets. Chapter 6. (Sequoia Locklear). Haven't started writing this one yet.

Harry Potter and the Ships of War. Chapter 5. (The Ship that Must Not be Named). Solid first scene completed, but haven't started with the rest.

(New Story)... I have a few stories to get around

Rainbow Hermione. Chapter 2. (Sunshine) Haven't written a single word about chap2

Uncrushed. Chapter 5. (L'Esperto Turistico - Hermione's POV) I have 0 words written of this one, but it is going to be a riot to work on.

Back In Time: The Lightning Thief. Chapter 7 (Grover IV). Passable draft which I need to work on.

Broken Conscience. Chap 2 (Afterwards) I have like 10-20% of the chap done.

Harry Potter and the Founders' Scroll. Chapter 4. (The Fresh Appeal of Ancient Runes). I have literally 0 words written about this one. It might take a while

Harry Potter and the Unity Cup. Chapter 2 (The Unity Trials). I have zero words of this.

Harry Potter and the Halfblood Weasleys. Chapter 10 (The Woe's of Mr Malfoy). I have 0 words for this one, but know exactly where it's going.

The Marauders and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Chapter 3 (The Boy Who Lived - Lily's POV). I have an old draft to work for this one. Shouldn't take long to finish once I return to this story.

Potters, Weasleys and the Son of the Legend. Chapter 5 (Tidings of War - Ron's POV). Next chap is like 80% done. I still plan to get the previous ones checked by my beta.

Hermione is an Owl. Chapter 6 (Tarantallegra) 0% done.

Mighty Morphin' Potter Rangers. Chapter 3. (Lavender's POV). 0% done.

Harry Potter and the Gatekeeper's Book. Chapter 6. 0% done

(UPDATED IN 9/18/2024)

I'll update this when new progress is done.