#twl chat

[kaoharu]

i an the worlds saddest girl atm

[snickerdoodlles]

for @the-cookie-of-doom 😘

context

It begins with a hello, a sniff kiss, and a comment on Kim's livestream.

The hello is from Chay, coming back home from coffee with friends. The sniff kiss is from Kim, nose pressed against Chay's cheek because he's shy to kiss with an audience. The comment on his livestream goes by ignored until Kim turns back away from Chay to see his comment section on fire.

Kim blushes against his will. His only consolation is his camera doesn't seem to have picked up the subtle hue, but that doesn't change that he knows it's there.

"That wasn't even a kiss," he half-protests, half-scolds his viewers, and furiously wills the heat across his nose to go away. And that would have been the end of it, had he not caught the next comment;

user: stfu i am NOT explaining omegaverse to WIK

"What's o...omegaverse?" Kim asks, and his comment section explodes.

Kim blinks dumbly at the replies whizzing by, mostly protesting his involvement and telling him nothing, and decides to just scroll back best he can. It's not easy, especially as more protests roll in, but when he finally reaches the flood of "awww cute!"s about the right time for when Chay had come in and before the audience's protests begin, there's one comment that stands out from the rest;

user: lol calm down alpha

Kim frowns. He still doesn't know what this "omegaverse" is, but he will not stand for trolls in his livestream audience. He tries to scroll back further, but this "Alpha"'s comment fails to reveal itself.

Kim gives up as another push of comments flood in and he loses his place--the content of the comment probably doesn't matter anyways, and he hadn't seen this "Alpha" user anywhere else when he was skimming anyways. But still.

Kim clears his throat awkwardly. "Hey guys, remember, if you see a troll, just don't engage. I didn't see who this 'Alpha' commenter was or what they said in the chat, but comments are forgotten sooner if you just...ignore..."

Kim trails off, blinking bafflingly as the flood of comments gets even worse.

user: oh wik honey NO

user: hndjsjshdbjdjdbd

user: no baby alpha as in U not a user

user: shut uP

user: EVERYBODY ST O P SAVE YOURSELF WIK

user: twl (today wik learned): omegaverse

user: AJDHJJS

Kim blinks, again, now firmly out of 'baffled' and well into 'bewildered' territory, and just gives up. "Chay?"

Chay pokes his head out the bedroom door, looking cute like usual.

"Have you ever heard of"--Kim squints at his screen--"omegaverse?"

Chay makes a strangled noise. Kim stares at him, alarmed, as Chay opens his mouth once, twice, and then just shakes his head and disappears himself back into the room.

Kim turns back to his livestream, utterly lost. "What?"

Another storm of replies rushes in, and still no answers to be found.

[nonuggetshere]

If you're still doin requests ummm maybe lurien!!! Or twl if lurien isn't your jam (no pressure for either of them though!)

(ID start: A picture of the White Lady and Lurien the watcher from Hollow Knight on a plain grey background with a darker blotch of grey behind White Lady. The White Lady is looking down at Lurien, smiling as she talks, her left hand raised up to her chest. White leaves and vines grow out of the branches on her head and neck, coiling around and hanging off them She's wearing a blue dress and a white shawl dropped over her shoulders with yellow, red and green floral patterns at the bottom, and a circlet on her head. Lurien is seen from the back, taking off the hood of his blue cloak as he looks up at her, revealing his brown and white antennae and fluffy neck, his yellow and orange with black blotches butterfly wings are visible, his cloak draping slightly over them. End ID.)

They're chatting :] I think trying to find a good species for Lurien (because I never established a specific species of butterfly for him) took as long as this picture, but I eventually decided to base him on a small tortoiseshell. I wanted something with either yellows and oranges to contrast nicely with the blue of the city and his cloak, but I still wanted some blue on him, so this butterfly was prefect

[ineedtotalkaboutshadamyrightnow]

The Whole Love got me thinking about that one scene at the end of Shadow '05.

So many conflicted feelings about that line.

Because she does kind of say it out of admiration, but at the same time, it kinda makes her seem like she doesn't care, whereas Rouge is the only one actually worried. The sub is even worse than the dub, she's just like "come on, he's immortal."

But I think it says more about Amy's character if she does care, but doesn't worry. She's a fortune teller with a hopeful outlook, always thinking about happily ever after. Before this, she never even got a chance to be surprised that Shadow survived sacrificing himself in SA2 (partly for her sake, btw) in the first place, and you could chalk that up to Heroes being so weirdly lopsided story-wise, but she might have also just, like, known. She might have never mourned him because she knew the whole time he'd come back and be fine. Which is consistent with how she treats Sonic; she always believes in him, and she's always right to. Which is exactly what makes her influence on Shadow so crucially good for him, starting with their big important chat in SA2.

What we get of Shadow interacting with Amy in 05 is him telling her and Cream to stay away from Eggman for their own safety, literally the opposite side of the coin, worrying instead of assuming she'll be fine. Shadow's life experiences have taught him to expect the worst, and you know, he's not all wrong either. Sometimes hope is blinding, sometimes things don't turn out for the best, sometimes you need to take care of yourself and stay out of trouble, sometimes you need to give up on things that aren't actually working out for you (cough Sonic cough). And sometimes you need to keep fighting anyways when all hope is lost. It's more than opposites attracting, it's like they're able to see the world and themselves more clearly when they share their perspectives, where they're both susceptible to tunnel vision otherwise. Idk if I harped on it too much, but it just hits me how subtly perfect they've always been for each other in canon and how excited I am to have finally smushed them together in TWL.

[dreamsinfiction]

April 2024 recap (aka the month my social battery was truly spent)

Lol am already two months behind my recaps haha. It's okay, as long as it gets done, it's okay~

Highlights of April:

a. Got a better-than-expected PB 🥹 - Alhamdulillah! Honestly thought I was gonna get an average or get thrown under the bus with a lower than average PB since I already posted out of my previous dept. But yes, thankfully my efforts over the past year was (rightfully) recognised (because I was thrown a lot of shit in my last couple of months there hahaha)

b. Dad's birthday and impromptu Raya shopping - Brought the family to The White Label (before they closed the North Bridge Road outlet and reopened back at a Bugis hotel) for my dad's birthday and it was really nice seeing everyone enjoy a good meal out since it's so rare. TWL's food is really the best and the food didn't disappoint. The night also turned out to be an impromptu Raya shopping for the parents cos I convinced them to get matching baju with me and my sister. Getting older, it does make me feel warm inside when I was able to buy them the clothes that they want without worrying about the prices. Alhamdulillah for the little things truly.

The food was next level amazing gah.

c. Signed up for volunteering - This year I wanted to do more for the community and thought Ramadan was a good place to start. I did sign up with a volunteering organisation but I think it was oversubscribed and I didn't end up getting picked 😔. Need to be more intentional next year; maybe signing up with a smaller organisation will help my chances. If anyone knows of any lobang to volunteer for a meaningful cause, please let me know!

d. Raya! - This Raya was more meaningful for my family because my dad semi-reconciled with his siblings. It'll be too long to get into the reasons why they were fighting here but I'm just happy to see everyone trying to make nice as they get older. I guess it also helped that they have a common foe (maybe too strong a word but I can't wordsmith it right now) in my grandma and her very stubborn/toxic ways. They banded together and tried to manage her situation right. I really enjoyed visiting everyone and seeing how they're growing up (even though it's at the costs of my limited social battery hahaha)

Featuring a vary manja cat at Nek Muda's house heh.

e. Meeting up with Aunty Eny - Aunty Eny was here for Raya! And also for some medical check ups for Uncle Jim in the area. Even though we've not met up in a while (think the last time was early 2023) it still felt so easy and peaceful to chat and catch up. She also recently opened up a cafe back home in Glasgow so now my mom, sister and me are itching to go back and visit heh (summer 2025?😛)

f. IU in Singapore - OMG fangirl dream came trueeeee. I actually went to the concert alone (not a big deal for me, in fact I loved it more cos I could truly appreciate her music and bop along) in my baju kurung cos I came straight after visiting my cousin for Raya hahahaha. Also my seat was amazing like it was very near to the stage and I barely need to zoom for my videos. IU is amazing live - she's the same age as me but I don't know how she has the stamina to sing and perform for 3 hours straight with 2 encores?? K-pop concerts are putting Western concerts to shame hahaha. During the second encore, she straight up just asked the audience what song we wanted her to perform and she just sang it (to the horror of her live band quickly flipping thru their scores lol). Love it. Ngl, I did tear listening to her ballads which are my fave (Love Wins All, Through the Night)

g. Work stuff - Volunteered to do some extra CCAs! One was organising the monthly divisional meeting for the next quarter (Apr-Jun) + the quarterly HLS/teambonding activity. Doing it with Farah and I think our combination is the best - she comes with the wacky ideas and extroverted self while I help to rationalise everything/tone it down when needed and do the backstage stuff haha. I also volunteered to help out with the Volunteer Festival happening in July! Thought it would be good to have some brownie points on my appraisal this year and it seemed quite straightforward in terms of stakeholder management, ground ops, plus the location I volunteered for will be at Lot One hehe.

Phew my April was super packed; how did I even go through all that and come out in one piece lol. Till the next recap! Which should be quite soon since I'm so far behind in writing them down hahaha.

[ezra-b-a]

Ez had found a quiet spot in the monastery after a brief, whispered conversation with one of the sisters. He was never religious, even the Burk’s were only Christmas and Easter Catholics,  but he could respect those who had faith and remained kind and welcoming. Especially this one sister who took pity on Ez and let him in on a secret stash of wine. He did have all intentions to share but... one glass by himself seemed fine. Right?

Ez pours his second glass as the door opens. It might have already started to have an effect. 

“Apparently it’s fine to drink if it hasn’t been blessed yet?”

[jaytheyounggun-blog]

Jason made a beeline towards the pantry when he was able to set his sac down, finally, was it just him or had that thing increased in weight since last he’d carried it? How long had he slept? Not long, it was still the crack of morning. They’d be making breakfast soon. He would like to put everything away before he ate, the ache in his belly wasn’t too bad, considering he’d eaten a can of beans just last night.

“Morning.” He greeted politely at the person at the person who entered the kitchens while he was putting away the edibles from his scavanging trip. He didn’t bother turning around around from his task, working quickly. He did that when he was as tired as he was now, attempting to get tasks done as soon as possible so he could nap in his bed. That was assuming he still had one since so many people had arrived at the Monastery. He’d really been looking forward to a bed.

[thexspitfirex]

“How about fuckin’ knockin’ when the doors closed?...it ain’t like I ain’t had this room for the past two weeks.”

[pvttycake]

Milliseconds after her gun went off, Patty shrieked, then cut it off with her hand, other one tossing the instrument of war to the side. It was early and she wasn’t exactly in a populated area, but with the amount of people within this small section of wall, there was bound to be someone. And there was. Just a few feet from where the bullet had actually landed. Great.

“Shit.” She cursed, staring wide-eyed at the person nearest to the smoking hole in the ground, briefly at a loss for words. “Don’t tell Nate.”

[coldxeyes-blog1]

Wet and Dry

Caio had just come out of the shower, cold water, what he wouldn’t do for some warmth. Though in all honesty, it probably matched his soul, cold and painful to the touch. He’d just wrapped a towel around his waist, the scar on his chest on show as he heard someone and turned quickly.

“Want to get clean? I saved the soap.”

[notsoblessedmasha]

@theruinous

There was something wrong. At least she thought so, she doubted herself, knowing so little of her new senses and yet unable to shake them. It bothered her like a thorn digging into her hand. Should she or shouldn’t she?

She had promised Daniel that she would come and let him know if she felt anything wrong, anything like he felt. Yet the person she had felt as ‘wrong’ was his husband, and she didn’t like the way that looked. He loved him, obviously, and she knew that personally she would become very defensive of someone she cared about that much if someone tried to tell her that there was something ‘wrong’ with them. Especially in the way she was implying. 

She looked for Daniel casually while she decided, not seeming urgent, but busy ‘running an errand’, this errand nameless and vague to any who asked or tried to stop her to chat.

When Masha did find him she found him on a roof, a place she wouldn’t have thought to look and wouldn’t have bothered - if not for the fact that she had, since meeting him, become aware of his energy as well. Sensing him was not unpleasant, and in fact almost familiar, so unlike sensing the darkness in her brother. So unlike sensing... well.

“Daniel, do you have a moment? It is about your husband, Ezra...” She begins, folding her arms and walking up to him, not wanting to be too loud.

[sanguisx]

     He enters the building with crimson dripping in a trail behind him, fingers      wet with red. Perhaps ghostly pale is the norm for the blood witch, but       today his steps are unsteady, the self inflicted gash running deep from      palm to wrist. “Wards are up,” Leon grumbles, injury free hand rummaging      through his pockets for a pack of fresh smokes and the lighter he’s forever      misplacing on his person. “We’ll see if it matters.”

[finedierum-blog]

another nightmare.

raegan shot up in bed, the sweat sticking her shirt to her back while she tried to regain her thoughts. there wasn’t a lot to be had right now, just the thick, heavy darkness of the room and the fading footsteps outside her door. being a light sleeper was always an issue -- especially in places like boarding school -- but sleep was already elusive these days and she tried to gather as much as she could when she could. 

but, tonight was not one of those nights. finger nails raked against her scalp and her knees pulled up into her chest. internally, she reminded herself to take deep breaths and that she was safe here.. even if her nightmares told her otherwise.

but, it was nothing a cigarette wouldn’t fix. she didn’t even bother with changing, but puled her hair up on top of her head and threw on her jacket before moving to the door and down the hallway where a voice behind her in the silence made her freeze in her tracks and spin on her heels.

“ didn’t your momma ever teach you its rude to sneak up on people? ” she asked, raising an eyebrow at them, trying to play it cool even though her heart pounded in her ears. “ it’s also a nice way to get yourself decked in the face. “

[professorbianchi-blog]

“Oh fuck I feel like I got skewered...” Eva awoke, groggy and vision blurry. The first thing she remembered was that, - “I did get skewered. Well... this calls for some whiskey then who wants some? You? You there, if I tell you where I keep my stash I’ll let you have some. I can’t see who you are but it’s a good deal come now be a good sport.” Eva bartered with an individual she couldn’t really see, she found she could not move her torso and had to crane her neck this way and that attempting to look at her surroundings. 

She was in the medical ward of the base, a place she had only been in once before, and it made her want the whiskey that much more. “I take it this means we won right? Was it a lich? I knew it had to be a lich that motherfucker. Where’s Kane he was talking shit about my gun what was wrong with it?”

[theorxcle]

     “Hey um-- I want to go out for a while. Just a little ways out, that’s all.      Would you um-- Would you come with me? I just-- I want to check       something, that’s all. I have this weird um-- I feel weird and I just want      to put my mind at ease, I guess? I promise we won’t stay out long.”

[memoriesoftomorrow]

Did you know if you listen closely, you can hear the universe singing? 

It’s a strange song, but Shia has been listening to it for so long she isn’t sure there is something other than the song. There are people and animals, monsters and demons, but they all fit into the swing. A symphony, cacophonous in its glory as it falls to pieces. 

When Shia was a child, she was the before and the after, but nobody believed her. Why would they? 

Unlike most of them, she prefers the Now, to the Then. Then there were shocks and medications, restraints and treatments. The monsters were there but hidden under a smiling face. 

She prefers the harsh silence in the wake of big death, the broken asphalt showing clear what is underneath. Now a monster is a monster is a monster. The truth has been laid bare, and there are no more dark secrets lurking under the bed waiting for her to put a foot on the floor. 

There is a peace in madness and futility, and so few are able to grasp it that she might as well be walking alone in the wasteland.

Shia isn’t alone now though, and she knows it. Behind her are the walls of the compound, built of pain and the before protecting them against the now. Them, because she is not alone. She has people — breathing, alive, not wounded, not fighting, not strapping her down and pushing the drugs and the treatments and the screams that claw from a choked throat — who she would protect. 

The now has pain, but it is separate from the Then.

She shouldn’t be out past the walls, but there is something that is calling her. Not quite what will be. If there is a Then, and a Now, there is also a To Be, and it calls to her from there. From the To Be like a Siren wailing out to sailors in the night. 

Soon though. Soon it will come, and she will put metal to flesh and know whether she is here or there. Now or then. In the meantime, there are things to do and a knife to whet. Still, she’s almost sure she isn’t alone as she turns back to the walls. 

Almost sure that her solitude has been damned by the presence of someone else. Her steps are slow and even paced. No fear or anxiety. If she dies now, then there will be no To Be, and that isn’t the way it goes. 

Not this time at least.