#this is my attempt at luring yall into a sense of false security

[asummersday]

Cass and Leo (reluctantly) bonding because we didn't get enough of Cass and i absolutely love her

Casey’s dressed comfortably, in baggy sweatpants and a crimson tank top. Her socks have small dinosaurs on them, he notes.

“Nice socks,” he says to break the long stretch of silence, smiling.

She narrows her eyes and studies him suspiciously. “What’s in it for me if I help you?” she demands.

Leo blinks. He was honestly expecting more resistance from her.

“The privilege of me not hating you,” he replies, crossing his arms.

She doesn’t look satisfied. She stands back upright, twirling her hockey stick with one hand, then points the end at him.

“Basketball match,” she says. “To the death!”

Leo grins back, her energy infectious. “Ohohoho you are so on.” He accepts the handshake. “I will destroy you.”

[ticklish-touch]

Decided to post my Backrooms chapter illustrations separately. The links to all the (SFW) chapters can be found here:

I really wanted to push myself not just as a writer, but also as a digital artist for this story.

You can read some rambles about my art process for each illustration below the cut.

Ch 1: For this chapter cover, I wanted to do my best to replicate the eerie, sickly vibe of Level Zero. And that resulted me in really playing around with the lighting and shadows in a way that I hadn't before. I also wanted to give it a bit of wonky perspective and feel a bit like an illusion-house.

Ch 2: Lookit this cheeky fucker. Totally isn't a Tower of Terror employee luring you into a false sense of security. 😁 My initial idea for this illustration was to make it look as if the Manager's cuttlefish head was really morphing & bowing out from within the wallpaper. I tried a couple drafts where I attempted to line up his tentacles and facial patterns with the wallpaper patterns. And idk, it just didn't end up looking as cool as it did in my head. (Also hallelujiah for Clip pattern brushes, they helped me make the trim around the elevator.)

Ch 3: Fun fact: This chapter was originally going to be the second half of my hotel chapter. But I'm glad it became its own thing, cause otherwise it would've robbed me of the chance to draw Rags acting like a supervillain in a construction helmet and flannel 👍

also Clip Studio Assets are a godsend, they prevent me from having to draw out an entire freakin warehouse floorplan. I did color it all myself though.

Ch 4: I remember this drawing taking me longer than I would've liked.Then again I've always struggled to draw somewhat realistic-looking water. The shadow off-shooting below the smaller cube pool into the deeper water was actually a complete accident.

And in case anyone was wanting to see a close-up of Lionfish Rags:

And again, Spike and Drake are temporary names for the sake of this AU setting until I think of actual names (for if and when I ever get around to making a Mer-Nautica AU like I've been wanting to). The silhouettes show how big they were when I first saw them in my dreams:

Ch 5: I had visuals in mind for a group of Wanderers/ Survivors since before I wrote this chapter, and grew even more attached to them as I wrote them. I was originally going to just have them depicted here, but I also couldn't get the stupid image of Rags and his megaphone out of my head and decided it needed to be shared 👌

Ch 6: When I tell yall that it was a struggle to get through drawing this. And not because of genuine art struggles; No, because of the pure Lee Panik that gripped my soul when having to zoom in close on Rags' sadistic unhinged Ler face hhhhhhfdhdfjgkfghl-

This was one of the chapters I was most looking forward to writing. It's still one of my favs in terms of pure unbridled ruthless gang-tickling, the culmination of my pred/prey/chasing fantasies revolving around laughter-hungry monsters, along with some good ol Mad Scientist roleplay.

...Oh and the first official introduction of the final antagonist, there's that too 😛

Ch 7: Yall have no idea the absolute childlike glee I felt when discovering that there's a freaking Bouncehouse/McDonalds Playplace level of the Backrooms. But holy hell, drawing the Toon Monsters was more of a challenge than I thought. There's a surprising amount of finesse in depicting that wacky, slightly-unnerving/uncanny toony charm. (Ballpit brush is best brush, change mymind)

Ch 8: Since this chapter was more or less meant to be a sort of mid-series Climax, a hint of what the battle with the Keymaster would be like, I really wanted to push myself with making this chapter cover truly stand out. It was fun to come up with a full-body design for the Court Jester (based on his Wiki interpretation of course), and it was fun to experiment with the ideas I had in mind for his magic visuals.

Once again, Clip Studio assets are a lifesaver, you can catch me actually attempting to draw a rollercoaster or carousel when I'm six feet under 👌

Ch 9: I was both excited about, and dreading, the chance to play around with various different light colors & sources. I wasn't sure how I was going to make neon blues, purples and magentas work in contrast to Rags' color palette, but I'm very happy with what I came up with.

The Dark Sovereign was also a chance for me to play around with chiaroscuro, an art technique that I've always admired (and actually really liked to do with chalk & pastel back in college). As much as I'm a slut for bright colors, I love stark contrasting black & white.

Ch 10: I went through about three iterations of sketches for this chapter cover. I felt like I just couldn't figure out how to angle the perspective of the treeline in comparison to the Giant. I'm still not even sure if I thoroughly pulled off the proper perspective of the greenhouse in the far distance. But once I added all the pretty, spooky fog effects, I became much happier with it.

Unfortunately I do not have a standalone drawing of Naga!Rags. It will definitely happen one of these days.

Ch 11: For this chapter, I wanted to draw a very cramped, stark, foreboding stretch of environment: Basically, a quintessential scene that one would see in the Backrooms if they were wandering through them alone. This is meant to be a much more down-to-earth chapter than the rest, with an air of melancholy and uncertainty. Turns out it actually lined up quite well with some of my own mental and emotional struggles that I was going through at the time.

Ch 12: For the final hurrah, I really wanted to push myself as a digital artist for this piece. (Though that doesn't mean I was about to draw all those goddamn keys from scratch, lmaoo you can thank Clip Assets for that key ring.) I wanted to try and find a way to make the Keymaster the more imposing figure in the piece, despite the fact that Rags is fully powered-up and closest to the viewer. I'm not sure if I entirely succeeded, since my end solution for making him stand out more was "MOAR GLOWY KEYS!!!"

But it was still fun, and very rewarding to get it completed.

Ch 13: I was very happy to finally get the chance to fully render Kenni for this fic. As much as shading his tendrils still drives me up the wall, it felt nice drawing the good soff boi. And I was happy to give an idea of how his Dream realm looks, with all its pastel clouds and close proximity to the Astral plane.

[nightswithkookmin]

So you talked about claim and certain level of possessiveness before, especially when it comes to Jungkook. And I agree that these traits are needed to be present in healthy strong relationship. Then how do you view the Jungkook’s “joke” comment that basically gives permission to anyone who wants Jimin to themselves? It lacks that sense of “mine”. But there is the opposite side how we can interpret it. The thing is he felt like he is the one to approve what others can do with his hyung, like we should ask him and he has that right... Maybe and most probably I and several others are too strong headed to comprehend just light-hearted pass-through note but you know..what Jungkook wrote perhaps mindlessly can tell something about his attitude towards JM, right

Not you quoting me to me when yall said I was crazy with the claiming stuff

Personally I don't see the Joke in this but whatever rocks our collective boat💀

There's absolutely nothing funny bout JIMIN BEING MADE FUN OF, MOCKED, TEASED, SLURRED- MEMEMIFIED cos a band member threw him to the wolves.

Did yall not see a man punch another man on live television for mocking his wife?? That shit ain't funny. He's gonna catch a hit to his jugular.

Plus i don't see anything wrong or shipper leaning with this comment. I want to kidnap Jimin, can I? Sounds more like a thirsty PJM midnight confession than a delusional shipper to me.

It's the kind of thirsty comment I'll leave in Jimin's inbox or Namjoon's or Bang PDs. Lord knows I've said the same exact thing out here a countless time. Jimin is hot sweet sexy with perfect ratios I want him not gonna lie. If I could kidnap him I would. Not lying. I've thought of kidnapping Jungkook just to use him as a bait to lure Jimin in my bedroom🤣

I saw that comment and giggled cos I felt Jungkook wanted to expose the thirsty ass freaks in his comments. Especially as it relates Jimin. I thought way to stroke JMs already Inflated ego😭

Lizzo thirsting, James thirsting, I'm thirstinh, now everyone thirsting damn. i did not know he was being ghetto💀

Historically, neither him or JM have responded well to shippers putting their ship in their face. I mean he had a pretty strong reaction when JM reached for his hands while talking about marriage. JM almost killed someone for calling him by Kook's name. He made Hobi apologize for calling him JK.

It's really disrespectful for shippers to throw their ships in the member's face. That objectifies them. But really I don't think this was a shipper throwing Jikook in his face.

But let's say this really was a shipper trying to put their ship in his face- IT'S A JOKE. WHERE HIS SENSE OF HUMOR AT???

RICH FOR A GUY WHO ASKS JIMIN TO STAY FOR RAMEN AND THROWS A SEX JOKE TO SELL A HOODIE.

I hate when idols play into shipping, actively participate in shipping culture and turn around and call shippers delusional. I hate it.

It's how they act gay and turn around and act like calling them gay is an atrocity.

And he is delusional if he thinks anybody cares about his ship with Jimin. So delusional and a false sense of security if he thinks people like his relationship with Jimin. His ship with Jimin is the most hated ship in the fandom for him to be pulling stunt like this- if it is what people say it is.

He really didn't have to answer that.

OF ALL THE COMMENTS HE GOT BOUT JIMIN- ALL THE SHIP COMMENTS, HE CHOSE TO ADDRESS THIS PARTICULAR COMMENT.

Feels passive aggressive to me rather than funny at worst, at best it's a failed attempt to get Jimins attention and hop on the fan thirsting over JM trend.

It gives me the same vibe as Jimin reading the where is Jungkook comment in his solo vlive. Remember I said it felt passive aggressive as well and low key shady cos he was trying to force hybe's hands and the next day they shoved Kook before the camera??😏

Jungkook really didn't have to answer that especially when the Asker might have been a PJM-

It's endearing seeing him try to interact with Jimin's fans. It's just as Jimin getting out of the way to let Hobi's fancam capture him, or him getting his ass out of Tae's shot when he sensed the fan was Tae biased.

Until I saw Tuktukkers making fun of Jimin, I didn't read too much into this.

If someone had said they wanted to kidnap my partner, I'd say yes with a smirk😏

Or I'd say get in line with a knife 🤺

Either reaction is valid to me

How many times have bts read comments from fans asking for Yoongi's hand in marriage? It's almost a running joke at this point.

When a fan asked him if he would go out on a date he said yes. Does that yes invalidate his personal commitment and intimate relationships??

Why can't this be construed as him playing into that sort of banter and validating Jimin in the process??

You think a guy who called out a hater in a calm level headed manner when that fan asked him to eat shit won't calmly call out shippers on unambiguously shippy posts and comments??

Same person who called Shippers funny for suggesting he names his painting Rock Bison??

Same person who read out "they call us Taekook" knowing very well what that meant...

Same guy who tells funs Hajima when they crossing the line.

And did he post and delete that??

Idols who've addressed shippers post aggressive comments and delete.

And which delusional bubblegum think Jungkook would be giving his permission for ANYBODY TO KIDNAP ANOTHER MEMBER OF BTS.

If JK really wanted to clap at shippers he chose the wrong post to do that on. It's unwarranted, unnecessary, and missed its mark.

And all these tmi they be sharing no one forces them to share. Script where?? Do I need to know he eats Ramen with Jimin?? No. Do i need to know they eat chicken together, work out together- naa this man is delusional. If he wants to clap at shippers he should clap at himself cos really no one be shipping jikook but themselves 💀

If he'd said no to OP it really wouldn't mean anything as well💀

It wouldn't be a moment of him claiming him whatsoever- not in the serious sense of the word. it would be just as Jimin or Tae or Hobi have said Kook is mine.

No one forced him to say Jimin is his I am you you are me.

I think it's delusional for him or anyone to read more into this.

Of all the savage clap backs at shippers by idols and BTS this pales in comparison.

Get out of your imagination

He's a man too so why would my heart beat for him?

Hahaha. Let's cut it out now.

I will shoot poison needles in yo neck

Yes, of couse.... really guys??💀

And the fact he thinks it's his place to give permission to anyone pls peak delulu

I would have asked, and you need my permission why??😴

If I wanted to be sassy.

Or ask Jimin yourself

Or do whatever you want

We will never know what his intentions were or what he hoped to accomplish. I wouldn't want to read anything positive into his actions if he intended malice flowing from his desire to instill boundaries with shippers- particularly Jikook as a ship.

Nor do I want to contrue his words in a negative light because that would be gaslighting him.

He has the right to freedom of expression and is allowed to communicate his boundaries and his delights.

To me he simply enabled and indulged a fan who expressed desire to have JM for themself.

The comment wasn't inappropriate so the response can't be construed as inappropriate and ill intended.

If the comment was ill intended then for sure it merits that kind of response and it would be justifiable. Shippers don't know their boundaries sometimes and need to be put in their place.

Look beyond shipping for a moment, these people are human beings and their dignity as humans must be respected.

If the fan crossed their boundary then whatever Jungkook did should be construed as a move to instill boundaries and put that fan in their place as Tae and he himself has done on several occasions

GOLDY