#under a cut because it got LONG

[chanbig]

Big Kinnporsche and his uniform

i know the costume design dept gave the theerapanyakul bodyguards different versions of their uniform to make it easier to distinguish between them and make it visually more interesting (even though the point of a uniform is homogeneity) but i think it's interesting how they make big and porsche outliers

Porsche is out here in his slutty little vest and tie (the only one in his shirtsleeves because he is freewheeling, he is bucking the rules, we gotta show off that shoulder-to-waist ratio). he is new, he is special, he doesn't give a fuck. he is the Main Character.

pete, ken, arm and pol are in the usual blazer, no tie, shirt with a couple of buttons undone combo, with varying levels of undone-ness. (pete has the most buttons done up, intriguingly!!!! he typically only has the top button undone. what does this Mean. what could he possibly be hiding under there 🤫). this is what the typical bodyguard wears—most of the bodyguard extras are wearing a black suit and white shirt (one or two have ties, but most don't). they are integrated into the system. they are a team.

chan gets distinguished as head bodyguard by being allowed to wear all black, which gives him a very intense, no nonsense look. he stands out from the crowd when he first walks into frame—without words, you can tell THAT is a man with authority (😳 <- live me reaction)

AND THEN you have big over here in his closed blazer, shirt buttoned to the neck, perfectly knotted tie, and suspenders (!!) outfit. the whole getup. no one else on the main cast is doing it like him—literally. he is on the opposite end of the spectrum from porsche, even though they wear almost the same number of pieces. with the blazer on, big's outfit gives him the most buttoned up/rigid/follows the rules look, like he will wear the fullest version of the uniform because It Is The Correct Way. he has been at this job for years and he is still so strict about this. he is so strict about this BECAUSE he has been at this job for years. even with his ponytail and edgy eyebrow cut, he comes across as 'I am 100% on the job all the time'. he is All Business.

spot the suspenders 🧐

even when he's wearing the standard tracksuit, it's zipped completely up to the neck, sleeves all the way down.

we never see him in the pool. we don't see him in casual clothes. he is always SO closed off. he takes his uniform blazer off ONCE (making porsche crawl across the floor is hard work 😏).

spot the blazer thrown over the chair in the back 🔍

the only time we see him wearing a shirt with the buttons undone is when they're at the casino and he's being forced to 'blend in'. looking closer, though, even that outfit looks like the shirt and trousers he normally wears, just without the blazer, tie, and suspenders.

same slim-cut black trousers, same type of stiffened spread collar, same big pocket. his trousers fit him well—clearly the suspenders are just for the Look.

hmmm ive seen this shirt before.

the only time we see him in a short sleeved shirt is when they're on a SWAT-style rescue mission and everyone else is ALSO wearing that.

field trip time. everyone put on their outside clothes.

so arguably even both 'more casual' outfits are literally part of his uniform

where am i going with this... we see the others in their casual clothes. we see them disheveled, drunk, unbound from their jobs. they are allowed to be something other than just a bodyguard, even if just for a minute, even if they're still with tankhun at the bar—they are allowed that measure of freedom and personality. they drink, they laugh, they have fun. they have desires outside of their jobs (notably, we see ken in a hawaiian shirt when he is revealed to be the mole, i.e. have desires outside of the main theerapanyakul house)

we do not see big outside of his role as a bodyguard. he is this role and this role is him. there's something there about him scrubbing away all of his personal wants and needs to fit into this role as kinn's Head Bodyguard. giving up everything else so he can do this job, be of use to the theerapanyakul family—to kinn. not allowing himself to think about or want things outside of the compound because those things will distract him. no faltering from his role, or any vision of him as a person is allowed to come through. all he has is just a single minded pursuit of his goal and his focus (protecting kinn). he has dedicated himself and he is proud of that. he still gets up and puts on the whole uniform every day, suspenders on, shirt buttoned up, tie tight. he follows the rules and his orders even though he hates them sometimes, even though he might protest at first—one word or gesture from kinn or korn or kim and he falls silent. he will push down everything else he might have wanted under the role he has chosen for himself, that he has now become. he has already given up everything else for the theerapanyakuls—so, in the end, why not his life? what else does he have to offer? what else is left?

[queerdiazs]

some of my personal fav eddie hcs 🫶🏼

he's the oldest cousin and only boy so he doesn't know what it's like to have any older siblings, but when he met hen and chimney, he felt for the first time what it was like to be taken care of as a younger brother and he's never ever going to take it for granted

it took him a while to grieve his wife, but eventually he brings shannon's things out of storage and puts them out all over the house. sometimes it hurts, but it's all worth it when he gets to answer his son's questions about where the eccentric iron armadillo came from

when shannon found out she was pregnant, she told eddie and they decided to run away. it was fun while it lasted, but eventually they ran out of money and had to return home. he'll forever treasure those few weeks they had together; it was their happiest time.

shannon loved music, so when he's missing her he'll put on the songs she liked and dance all over the house with christopher

he LOVES watching movies at the theater and often goes alone in the mornings after he drops chris off at school. he stops at the dollar store first and get snacks and puts them in his boots to sneak them in

he's queer (it's easier than explaining the complexities of being bi and on the ace spectrum) and he's known since he was 20 years old. it wasn't a sudden realization; it hit him slowly, like snow falling one by one. he's comfortable in his queerness and he has support from his family.

he wore his wedding ring even after shannon died. he lost it, though, and he went to a pawn shop to buy another one, and then buried it next to her grave when he finally felt ready to let her go

what sold him on the 118 after graduating the academy was how hard bobby fought for him without even knowing him. he didn't have to prove himself. it was nice.

he doesn't want anymore children. he didn't even want christopher, honestly, but it takes two to tango and shannon was excited and he was, too, even though it took him a while to wrap his head around the idea of being a dad.

bobby and buck are his emergency contacts.

he used to wear his abuelo's boots because the man was a real-life cowboy and eddie wanted to grow up to be just like him

he used to love thunderstorms but after buck's accident he doesn't like them much anymore + listens to music when it's late and the thunder's too loud

he has his childhood dog's name tattooed on his leg

his favorite flower is magnolias. he likes dark chocolate covered strawberries and buys two dozen for himself every valentine's day. he brews his own sweet tea. he leaves his tomatoes on the windowsill to sun and ripen further.

bobby's like a dad to him, the kind he deserved

he had a little crush on linda when he was at dispatch (and buck LOVED it)

he loves buck, like that, but his heart's big enough for more than buck buckley and he's enjoyed every relationship he's had that led him and buck to one another

when buck proposes and they start planning their wedding, he turns into bridezilla. groomzilla?

he is a sassy dude. his mouth gets him in trouble sometimes, but he says stuff so dryly and blandly people look over it. it drives chim up the wall.

he dances with maddie at her and chim's wedding, and jee-yun, too, who stands on his shoes

he tries really hard to be normal when christopher starts dating, but it's hard when it's the kid of abbie jean gentry, pta president and eddie's sworn enemy

he visits shannon's grave often and talks with her. she's dead but he isn't gone, not when he can see her in their son's smile and hear her in their son's laughter, and he likes to tell her what chris is up to even though he's pretty sure she's watching

he loves cartoons. LOVES them, i'm so serious. i can't stress enough how INTO cartoons he is, okay.

buck said kissed him first and decided they were going on a date. eddie went batshit, didn't go to the date because he was making a list of all the reasons why he and buck shouldn't be together, and buck finds him in his kitchen and he's pissy, and eddie shows him in the list, and on it there's 'buck keeps his loft on 68. cold.' and 'buck uses too much onion powder' and 'buck doesn't wear socks to bed and he sticks his cold feet on me' and buck just laughs and laughs and laughs because they're terrible for each other, kinda, but that's what makes them perfect for each other, too. losers.

his favorite color is green and when apple came out with a green iphone he was so excited he squealed

he's a fan of country music. not that new age, jason aldean, toby keith did to country music what pantyhose did to fingerfucking type shit, but the real country music, full of outlaws and rebels and rednecks. it's one of his roman empires.

his favorite movies are twister, titanic, without a paddle, dirty dancing, and dazed and confused

patrick swayze in roadhouse was his Awakening

he enjoys sex, even with the people he had one night stands with, and doesn't care whether he tops or bottoms because it feels good regardless. he does tend to lean toward the (soft) dominant side of things, which his partners respond to beautifully

he was born 31 october 1991

he was held back a grade in middle school to give him another year of eligibility of playing baseball in high school

he was a member of ffa, held office as sentinel all throughout high school, and supports the organization still. chris is in 4h, but the high school he wants to go to has an active ffa program and eddie's really excited about it

he's soft and so full of love he doesn't know what to do with it sometimes. it just spills out of him, splashing at his feet and flooding everybody around him. he doesn't hold it in anymore because he likes the way people respond to him when they realize he's sharing his love, all smiles and acceptance and unconditional love in response

[soulsxng]

Laisren Cynwrig Ris, life to current day, pt 1

Another fae born in the Unseelie, to two longtime advisors to the Queen-- a birth that coincided with that of the Queen's only child. Laisren grew up in a rather sheltered environment, with few peers his own age...aside from the young royal, that is, whom Laisren quickly grew rather fond of.

The two grew up closely with each other, and many thought that one day, when the young royal took the throne from their mother, that Laisren would come to be their top and most trusted advisor.

The young fae himself, however, dreamed differently. Having taken a rather grand admiration toward Bleddyn, his only dream was to one day become a royal knight. Someone that could stand by his best friend's side to protect him, as well as beside his longtime idol.

...Unfortunately, his lessons had little focus on combat, and for a long time, the dream seemed so far out of reach that it would be better to let go of. For Laisren to move on from it. It was the young royal that changed his mind, and encouraged him to speak with Bleddyn about becoming a student under him.

Though he was promptly turned down (Bleddyn couldn't risk compromising his duties by trying to teach a completely green student, after all), Bleddyn too, encouraged him to "hone his craft", and-- should he still harbor the same goal later on-- to ask again at that point.

It was then that, against his parents' wishes, Laisren forwent the path that they had chosen for him, and began to study the path of the knight, instead. He flourished in this new environment, where he had once struggled to keep up with the lessons he had been given before. In this time, he was able to broaden his horizons. Visit new places and meet people that he never would have had the chance to encounter before.

Years later, when he decided it was time to make his request to Bleddyn again, it was with his head held high and a confidence in his voice that convinced the older knight that now, finally, he was ready.

Laisren proved to be a quick study-- hanging on every last word and every action. If there was something to be learned from his mentor, then Laisren would give the matter his entire focus.

And it very quickly paid off as, at nearly the same time that his best friend took the throne, he was made one of the youngest royal knights in the Unseelie. He was always proud that he was able to continue standing beside his friend, doing a job that he felt he was meant to do.

The days passed at leisure, and in that time, the relationship between Laisren and the young ruler blossomed into something more. Along with a third-- a dryad healer from near the Mortal Realm's entrance to the Unseelie, whom the two met by little more than chance-- they fell into a love that endured even in the hardship of the days to come.

It was the dryad whom the young ruler eventually married. Their relationship with Laisren remaining mostly a secret, so as to allow the royal knight to continue on in his duties without being constantly bothered with other matters. And it was because of the relationship remaining a secret that Laisren eventually came to be the one to discover the first seeds of the coup within the young royal's own trusted allies.

The two in question being his very own parents.

He never did come to know their reasoning for siding with the coup-- be it that they didn't agree with the direction the young ruler wished to take the Unseelie, or that they had been planning such a thing even during the Queen's rule. Perhaps they had simply been too afraid to act against her, but that wasn't the case with the young ruler?

Laisren couldn't say. And though it pained him greatly, he showed them no mercy when he learned of their transgressions-- it was by luck alone that his mother was able to flee, where his father was struck down.

At first, he expected to be viewed with scrutiny by his lovers and Bleddyn alike...but not once were his loyalties questioned. As always, he was met with the same acceptance that he had been before. Something that only served to further his loyalty, and the lengths that he was willing to go for them.

When his son was born-- when Oleander was born-- it was simultaneously one of the happiest, and most terrifying days of his life. For the more his family grew, the more fearful he grew that one day, something would come to take it all away.

...It took two decades, but the time finally came. Bleddyn was sent away to bring Oleander to safety, and Laisren remained.

The coup invaded the palace undetected, which left Laisren and some small few royal knights against a force that quickly saw them surrounded. For each opponent that fell, he saw his family that much closer to safety. He held nothing back, even as he was met with familiar faces standing against him, he would cut them down without the slightest hesitation.

Close...he had been so close, when he was run through. Having been met with a trap when they were mere feet from escaping, Laisren had leaped before his beloveds to protect against a blow that he otherwise would have had no hope of defending against. And just like that, he fell.

With the last shreds of his awareness, Laisren could hear them cry his name. With the last of his strength, he pleaded for them to run.

His last thought, a prayer that his family would be safe.

[front-facing-pokemon]

[acrobattack]

bliss redesign based off one I made in my teens

thought process + various other bits and bobs under the cut

I was 15 and annoyed by everything that moved when this character first came out, so in my own head I was very much making a Point with this redesign. Hence, I made very minimal changes. I wanted to work with what was already there and basically just make the existing design more thought-through. Little breakdown ahead (keeping in mind i myself am very much An Amateur who doesn’t know shit and am just ranting about my opinions and i also haven’t seen a single second of the 2016 reboot so i don’t know much about Bliss to begin with)

1. one of my Biggest pet peeves with Bliss is that the powerpuff girls each have bangs that are simple, memorable, and iconic while also being unique from each other and being reminiscent of irl little girls hairstyles. It’s very neat and clever and I like it a lot

and then Bliss has this confusing jumble of shapes that looks like it changes in style halfway across her forehead

i have absolutely no idea what the intent is here. My only guess is maybe it’s meant to look weird on purpose like she was trying to cut it herself or something (I suspect it’s something like that since she seems to have normal looking bangs as a little kid from what I can see) but it doesn’t really come off that way if that’s the case. It just looks like baby’s first PPG OC where you Understand that it’s meant to be hair and that it is made out of shapes but have 0 understanding of hairstyle or character design in general. Heck I might have put this exact hairline on a character in the past at the age of like 8

So in my redesign she’s got 5 even notches across her bangs, not thee most exciting change but it does the job I think. It is pretty reminiscent of Blossom but they look different enough from each other that I wasn’t too worried about it

2. low-hanging fruit time, Bliss’s hair color is horrible on the eyes. I’m bewildered at the decision to do this, especially since there is just so much of it, I struggle to think of how she could exist in any scene without hogging all the viewer’s attention constantly. That said, I understand they wanted her to have an unnatural hair color to really signal that she is a Fresh new Teen character from the late 2010’s, which is. Whatever, that’s fine, so she gets purple hair now. I kept the streak for the same reason, especially since she’s got a lot of hair, so no harm in a little extra interest in there.

I also learned recently that her hair glows sometimes? which i did Not know when first drawing her but well i think the darker color helps anyway. It adds some contrast for when she’s normal vs when she’s glowing and makes the latter appear more,, idk threatening or powerful or whatever the mood generally is when she’s doing that.

I did re-add that toothpaste blue to her eyelids though. I like to think it’s also the color of her lasers. It’s a cute color, just not as like 70% of this character’s palette

3. real talk I was drawing this from memory and didn’t mean to change the way her hair flares out from her head. realistically I think the original is fine, maybe just a little boring but fine, so that part of the redesign was an accident. Only thing is, it’s in the exact same position in every screenshot I’ve seen? It doesn’t seem to whip around when she’s flying or anything which looks weird and probably looks weirder in motion, especially since it takes up so much space onscreen. Idk it’s a strange decision, esp since the original show liked to use the ppg’s hair to emphasize their movement, so I’d just bring more movement into her hair. I mean if nothing else it’d make her look cooler.

very very rough little visual of what I mean

I also ended up making it shorter in my redesign—again, not really intentional, but I think it’s better that it eats up a little less of her silhouette

4. Her headband is largely the same, I didn’t hate the idea of her having an accessory, so I just toned down the colors. I’m not personally a fan of the powder blue and that pink heart is very bright and just doesn’t go with the rest of her (once again the color of her hair is doing it no favors). I also moved the heart over. Not necessarily needed I think, but I feel like it reads quicker as a headband and not a weird crown that way+introduces some asymmetry into her design that I think is nice.

5. my biggest gripe other than her bangs are her hips. I’m not against adding anatomy to this character design to make her read visually as older than the girls, but it’s so awkwardly done and distracting. I feel like it even interferes with her line of action more often than not (which is not helped by her unmoving hair).

Part of the issue is she still has the teeny tiny torso, just… with those square-ish hips slapped on, which makes her legs look all gangly and stretched out. I tried to balance out the proportions more in my redesign, as well as change the hips to a flared skirt. I think it helps differentiate her from the girls and still implies hips underneath, it just also functions as a less clunky transition from her torso to her legs.

Lengthening her torso also allows the stripe to look more like a belt above the skirt, which I think helps to sell her as “similar, but not the same” from the ppg

6. Her leggings(? Idk Im not a fashion person) aren’t a bad idea I think. like a more mature version of the girls’ stockings, but I think the white makes them look really distracting. It would help to make them a darker color I think, but since I wanted to keep them reminiscent of the girls’ socks I kept them white and just shortened them.

7. Not really sure what Bliss is wearing on her feet. I think they’re Mary Janes, but they’re drawn a bit different from the girls’ and I honestly think it’s too babyish a shoe for her to wear. I’m not sure what she’s actually wearing in my redesign either honestly, but the goal was just to make them look like the girls’ Mary Janes while clearly being something different.

8. Uh her signature color is something I’ve contemplated changing a lot but to be real I think it’s fine. I feel it was a very bad idea from a marketing standpoint because people were hype about Bunny and would obviously be mad they didn’t get her once the character actually dropped (and in the long-run she would just end up being overshadowed by the character everyone has already assigned that color to) but I’m personally not bugged by her being purple beyond that. If I were to draw them together though I think Bunny would have a more pinky shade of purple and Bliss leans more blue.

Loosely on the same topic, because of Bliss I’ve had a running headcanon that “only child” types of powerpuffs tend to come out purple. Kind of like how trios tend to have a red, blue, and green. It’s a fun little piece of fake lore to rotate around in my brain

Anyway with all that out of the way, here’s some redesigns I decided to have some fun with. Wasn’t being too precious about recognizability or simplicity or anything like that, but I did run out of steam partway through. There’s also one based off Whoopass Bell bc idk, why not

Finally, here’s some OCs I only ever drew once before out of a desire to give Bliss her own teen girl archetypes to form a team with. This is Bee and Beetle, who I’ll probably definitely forget about again immediately after posting this

[foxdrabbles]

Red and co. visiting the convalescent garden together? I really like your stuff with them!

A knock. Then another, more confident. Perfumer stretched, slipping a ribbon between the pages of her book, standing from her armchair and stepping lightly over to the door to her office.

"Hello, Frostleaf. Please keep your voice down, she's asleep right now."

"Oh, um, ok." Frostleaf tucked her hands back into her jacket pockets. "Hi Miss Lena."

Perfumer smiled, turning and beckoning Frostleaf in to her office, who stepped nervously past the threshold.

"So, um. How did things... go?"

"About how I expected them to." Perfumer sighed. "There's only so much that can be helped along with perfumes and medicines. Working on yourself isn't something you can shortcut."

"Mhm." Frostleaf nodded solemnly. "I know."

"I know you do"

Together they moved, inch by inch, over towards the couch were Red was sitting limp, arm in a sling, head rolled back into her hood, lightly snoring.

Frostleaf softened, her entire body shifting, and Perfumer smiled gently.

"She's trying her hardest for you, I hope you know."

"I know." Frostleaf leaned her hands against the back of the armchair, not breaking her gaze towards Red. "I just... "

She trailed off, and Perfumer laid a hand over top of hers.

"You want to be good for her."

Frostleaf nodded, stonefaced.

"You are. I can hear it in the way she talks about you." Perfumer gave a gentle squeeze of her hands. "You don't need to be perfect. She doesn't need perfect. She needs you."

Again, Frostleaf nodded, but her lower lip trembled just a bit.

"She loves you more than anything."

The tears that had been welling in Frostleaf's eyes began to spill, and she blinked them away, pulling her hand free and wiping at her face with a sleeve.

"Sorry. I'm sorry. I just -- "

"Here, dear."

Perfumer offered a tissue box, and Frostleaf took it, dabbing at her face.

"And don't you dare apologize for crying. Everybody does, it's how we process intense emotion."

"frost... leaf?"

A voice whispered from the couch, and Frostleaf snapped to attention, swiftly moving to the couch.

"I'm here, Red."

"mmm." Red gently pressed her forehead against Frostleaf's arm. "frostleaf needs to rest too. frostleaf should come. next time."

"Red, I don't know if -- "

"frostleaf will like. lena is nice." Red reached out, grabbing on to Frostleaf's jacket sleeve with her free hand.

Frostleaf glanced over to Perfumer, eyes full of conflicted emotions.

"Only if you want to. But my door is always open."

"...I'll think about it."

Perfumer smiled warmly, and Red hummed, pressing her shoulder to Frostleaf's. "now dinner?"

"Yes, Red, we're going to dinner now."

Together they made their way to the door, Perfumer trailing just politely far enough behind them, watching as they paused at the door, turning to wave together.

"Thanks, Miss Lena."

"thank you."

Perfumer smiled, returning the gesture. "Of course. Take care, you two."

[moonfromearth]

On Repeat - an oc tag by @elderwisp

"rules are pretty simple, pick as many (or as little) oc's as you'd like and find a song that you relate to them the most! feel free to mention why too! o and tag some more ppl too! that would be cool!"

I may have gone a little overboard 😅 To be honest this tag came around at just the right time! I'd just gotten a new song association and have been working on schoolwork so much that I really needed to do something creative 😆

Originally these were all going to be in similar editing styles (more like Corey's) but somewhere along the way that stopped because I had different ideas that I really wanted to do. Also I cheated a little and a few got more than one song... 🤫

I'm really proud with all of these in the end, and if you want to read more about the stories behind them you can check below the cut! ❤️

I know I'm pretty late to the party now buuut I'll tag: @igglemouse @swiftviolets @stargazer-sims @auspexsims and @seniorpollinationtechnician. Feel free to ignore though if you've already done it/don't want to! 😁

[deep dive under cut!]

COREY ALTMAN

"Holiday" - Green Day:

This song being here is random song association at its finest. The trail pretty much goes "Holiday" by Green Day > Surf's Up > Beach Vibes > Sulani > Globetrotter Challenge > Corey Song. If that makes sense... 😂 Pretty much, you can blame the Sulani round of the Globetrotter Challenge for it, plus the fact that I feel like it's the type of song/genre Corey would use in his own music.

"Catch Me If You Can" - Set It Off:

Now, it would be a crime to talk about songs and Corey without a song by Set It Off. Corey was created when I was listening to their songs a lot, and it definitely rubbed off on him. From his aesthetic to the songs I imagine him playing, a lot of it came from Set It Off. Even his name was derived from the band's lead singer (although changed from Cody to Corey because that's the route my mind took with it idk). So, this song in particular specifically reminds me of Corey for... Honestly probably obvious reasons 😆 "Catch Me If You Can" was pretty much the theme of his Globetrotter Challenge, where he was constantly moving on the run from the law. A line I really like though for him is the part that says, "I only feel at home when I'm on the run," because I feel like that leads into the deeper aspects of Corey. He really isn't at home anywhere, he's always on the move, even when he's not evading capture anymore. There's a certain non-permanence to everything he does. Something funny about the image itself is that it originally wasn't going to be edited to look like the back cover of a CD. When I took the picture of Corey with the guitar I kind of thought "this looks like the back cover of a CD" and when editing I just needed a way to fill the space at the bottom and it turned into a CD back cover edit 🤣 It actually kind of fits though since both of these songs are the sound I associate with Corey's own music so it worked out in the end.

LIZZY ALTMAN

"Unopened Windows" - Set It Off:

So this one is the context behind this post lol. It's been like two years since I started working on this plotline I have to finish it eventually 😆 Anyway, Lizzy's been teased in many tag games so far, but without a name or much information (note: and this name's not final I'm not sure yet). Here you can probably guess based on the song choice how her story goes 😅 Going back to the epilogue of the Globetrotter Challenge, we see that something is going on, and it leads to Lizzy and her dad being separated. So, the entire song lyrically I really felt spoke to them and their situation (more in a future gameplay 😉). Bonus points for it being a Set It Off song, who I associate with Corey, and thought music could have been something that they bonded over and enjoyed together. I have a few things to say about the image itself because it was a struggle but I looooove how it turned out! It turned out essentially how I imagined it with Lizzy playing guitar in the foreground with a sort of memory of her time with her dad in the background. I probably had about five or six different poses that I put in the background because I couldn't decide which one I liked the best 😆 This was the last image I had to work on out of the four, and I was having trouble with how I wanted the song title to look. While I was browsing for overlays and stuff I came across a lot of cutout style poems and ended up adding in some of the lyrics because I thought it would help explain the concept behind the image. In the end this one is one of my favorites which is unbelievable considering how much I thought it was not going to turn out like I imagined 🥰

*UNNAMED*

(Sorry I don't have a name for her yet and don't want to commit to a temporary one 😭)

"Little Chaos" - Orla Gartland:

In a wonderfully serendipitous coincidence, this was the song association I was very into when getting tagged, and was already planning what became this edit! I rarely have song associations for sims/sims stories (despite how many ended up coming together here) so that's why I'll never get over how well timed this all was (thanks again elderwisp!!) On to the song, it has to do with my upcoming gameplay story centered around the For Rent game pack, and starring the pictured sim (who doesn't have a name yet sorry! 😅). She's going through a bit of a tough time where she's very lost and I thought the lines, "And it's a good day for a meltdown. All my thoughts getting too loud," fit really where she's at, especially at the start. Plus, the vibes are perfect. The image itself was inspired by the song's MV and one part in particular, but it looks a lot different now (I was limited by the poses I could find because I refuse to sit down and learn to make my own yet). I liked this idea of the torn pages framing the image, especially because it plays into the plot, which sees the main character do a lot of journaling throughout the story. So, the lined paper had to do with that, and it doubled as being good for making the letters stand out, which I wanted to be big and misaligned to be more "chaotic," though I think that could have been done more/better. Aaaaand the background is a picture of Tomarang, where the story takes place. To be honest this will probably be the cover image once I finalize a name and get started on playing it 😉

GHOST COWBOY

(no he also doesn't have a name yet same as above 😆)

"Ferryman" - Schafer James and Will Wood:

I've actually been having a lot of fun with this character since initially creating him back before the Horse Ranch pack came out (more on him coming out in a few days for the outlaw challenge 😉). So this song.... The entire concept of our ghost cowboy is that he, being somewhat half dead and half alive, winds up being a good source of convincing "unwilling souls" to cross over, and works with the character Death to do so in exchange for finding out why he's not entirely dead. I'll explain it better another time, but I also really love this song and just thought that the concept of the ferryman and the ghost cowboy as ferriers of the dead.

"Toss A Coin To Your Witcher (Epic Version)" - Samuel Kim and Black Gryph0n:

Liiiiisten... My family made me watch three seasons of The Witcher I had to get something out of it 😆 I joke a lot that this character gives off Geralt vibes but honestly they are definitely super similar just based on their overall aesthetic and horse companions. I wanted to be special though and chose this epic cover instead of the original... Just for fun 😁 There were some cool piano covers too that almost made the cut. This is probably a good place to talk about the actual image (yay!). I hope the visibility on it isn't too bad because it ended up waaaay more cluttered than I originally intended, plus the mist effect definitely makes it harder to see the characters. I made his (also unnamed) horse a little more transparent to try and give off this ghostly see through effect so I hope that comes through. The font isn't the kind of "wild west wanted sign" font that I wanted, but I think it's close enough lol.

Credits:

Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik

[moni-logues]

The ~engagement 'issue'~

I feel like I'm seeing more and more posts about readers' lack of engagement with writers on here and I now want to say something. I don't say things short so buckle in lmao

TL;DR: idgaf if you, readers, comment on my shit or not. I care that you enjoy it and, if you did, job complete, mission accomplished, well done. I want to be part of a community, not a service provider/'content creator'. I write because I want to and getting to hear people's thoughts and feedback is just a huge fucking bonus to that. Also, readers I love you.

I love my readers. All of them, loud and silent alike. Readers who comment with long reviews, pulling out quotes or bits they liked, reacting with predictions or responding to the characters. Readers who just comment that they really liked it! that it was good! Readers who like. Readers who read and leave no mark at all. Readers who follow me and readers who come across something I wrote another way, who didn't follow me before and don't after. I am deeply grateful that anyone takes the time to read the things I write, whether you've read everything I've ever posted or just one drabble.

I know that all writers are similarly grateful to have this space and to have people here who read their work. I do, to a certain extent, understand the frustration with regards to like:comment ratios.

However.

I know that reviews take effort. I am a chronically unenthusiastic person and it takes a lot for me to summon the energy to respond how I feel I should, in a way that I think would make the writer happy, in a way that I feel is befitting how I actually feel about the fic I read. There are other reasons I have been reading less recently but one of the reasons is that I feel pressure to review every single thing I read. So I just don't read!!! Isn't that stupid???? Sure, I'm putting imaginary presure on myself by thinking I need to respond in a particular way and that is very much my problem (and I'm trying hard to address it and read/review more anyway), but I feel like readers are taking a bit of a bashing right now and I don't ever want readers to stop reading or to have the reading experience spoilt by feeling a pressure to respond.

I write because I enjoy it. When I first started writing, I had no followers. It took me months to get 100 followers. It took almost a year to get to 1k and then I started over with a brand new blog. I wrote all 60k of A Fine Line by myself, with absolutely no one else reading it because I wanted to. I love getting comments from readers; I love hearing people's thoughts about the shit I write; I love this little community here... But that's what it is: community. This is not transactional! or at least, I don't want it to be! I am not writing fics as a service for which I am paid in reblogs. I am being a fan of BTS with other fans of BTS and we are making up little stories and imagining scenarios and having all kinds of fun with each other, whether you write or gif or edit or just consume. We're in this together!

I saw once, I don't remember where or when, a thing that said, if you are feeling miserable, do something nice for someone else and it will lift your mood. This is, in my experience, absolutely correct. Writers, if you are feeling miserable about your engagment, engage with others the way you want people to with you, write a review for someone else's fic that would make your day if you received it. We writers are all readers, too, and we are not exempt from these ~criticisms~ just because we write.

I am not trying to ~call anyone out~ or, in turn, criticise writers. I'm not. I understand. I do. But every time I see one of these posts, it upsets me, because if I were an active, engaged reader, it would make me feel bad. If I were a silent reader, it would make me feel bad. I don't ever want to make anyone feel bad for enjoying something. Readers don't owe us anything! If this issue is ruining the writing experience for you, it is on you to examine that; it is not the fault of your readers. If it means that you no longer enjoy writing, stop writing. Our time on earth is short and precious! Let's spend it, as much as we can, doing things we enjoy! Not doing things that make us miserable!

Fin.

[14dayswithyou]

Listen to me, I don't have a specific taste, I like all the fiction man all the time. But one of my all time favorites is similar to Redacted/Ren.

Saeran/Ray from Mystic Messenger. OMG I WOULD DIE FOR RAY AND I WOULD KILL FOR SAE.

So, what if Redacted/Ren notices that. Like every now and then the MC loses sleep to play with their route bc they just love it.

What if the MC said "I really love Ray but imagine having a hacker bf, that'd be so cool!" While infodumping Ren about every lore piece of Mystic Messenger.

✦゜ANSWERED: Ironic because Ren was slightly based off of 707/Saeyoung (though he's changed over time) 💀 I kinda dipped from the Mysme fandom before Saeran's route came out, so I honestly have zero clue about them skjdgksj

But if it was a lasting fixation, then Ren might be willing to slowly ease parts of his real self into his Haruko/"Ren" persona. He won't ever tell you about his affinity for hacking (more-so out of safety), but he'd definitely let you know about how tech savvy he is.

Ren is also willing to hack into your Cheritz account to give you more hourglasses — so long as it means that you'll finish Saeran's route faster and spend more time with him afterwards.

He might even get a but prickly and pouty with how often you talk about your fictional crush, though he won't ever act upon it or do anything rash.

[castlebyersafterdark]

There's a lot in fic as well that I think only works in fic. Certain phrases are fine on paper and get a pass but if I ever heard in real life I'd bust out laughing or cringe really hard.

now THIS interests me. cos i definitely read all written fiction as if it's happening in real life or visually happening in my brain including sound, setting, etc. unless its a book that feels very theatrical, then i'll imagine it all on a stage and sort of design the set and lighting etc too.

its why i started writing fic, cos lots of what i read didnt feel like the show and i wanted something that tricked me into thinking i was watching stranger things in my mind's eye lol. when i started writing i wasnt really inventing what they were saying, but just listening to the characters going about being people in my head and transcribing what they said and did. the characters feel real to me so picturing what they do in between seasons and episodes is so fun to imagine.

but yeah... with smutfic, i dont know, i think praise could be realistically written for me. i like what you said about combining physicala and emotional feelings. depends on the compliment maybe. sometimes you can tell someone is just praising you in bed so they can get the pleasure they want from the situation. so i'm always a bit distrustful of whether its honest praise or manipulative praise i guess. but one of the best compliments ever is "youve got the nicest touch i've ever felt" - how sexy is that????

(and maybe because we've heard so few direct compliments from mike to will in the show, i think im waiting to hear him compliment will in s5 and see how he frames it! i think he might just go all out, having realised what will means to him, and start being more accepting and overt, wanting to finally get things going with will because theyve waited long enough and now the world is literally ending lol)

Gathering this theme together! Now, in reverse order. To non-plussed: I think the thing with it being a praise kink specifically, instead of just reacting to praise and compliments and feedback in general - it's all about the context, the person delivering it, the situation. Personal and slightly graphic, but where are we: if I did a really good job at work on my assignments and my boss called me in to praise me and let me know I did a good job, I'm probably not gonna blush and get turned on (I mean, unless you're attracted and into your boss - but my boss is a 50 something year old woman sooo not my type haha). But If I'm in bed with my man and I'm doing something he likes and he starts giving me really detailed, complimentary feedback, talking sweet in particular reference to myself and/or what I'm doing to him - yeah, that'll do it for me. That's kind of what I want, what I'm into. Sure, there's an element of give and take, action and reaction, it's definitely in a sexual context - but that doesn't also mean it's insincere.

Continued:

Not all conversation exchanged during sexual/aroused situations is manipulative, even if the goal is to to elicit a reaction or get something. Can it be disingenuous or manipulative - sure, anything can be!! But, not in the instances I'm describing.

But to that point - I think the best demonstration of praise kink that I want to read/write/engage with, switching here specifically to fic writing rather than real life (which is even more nuanced and complicated, so I will more focus on fiction), is when it is more sincere. Certain tropes are typical to classic erotica and smut writing technique. I recognize the style but I personally avoid it and don't write that way. A lot of praise and feedback based dialog in fic sounds out of character because it's very stock phrase for generic sex cliche situations, watered down sometimes. Like the master, servant dynamic. Where one party is giving and serving and obeying commands, a goal might be receiving praise and compliments over how good a job they are doing, what a good boy, look how well you suck cock, look how well you take it, etc. - and this dialog doesn't always match the character. Takes me out of it dependingon situation. It's less praise kink and more dom/sub and I've made it known time and time again (not an invitation to reignite this in my inbox ssshhh sorry) that it's not my jam. So, that's where the insincere angle might come in? Tropes rather than molded to specific character?Often times it's just a line or a phrase that does it, not the entire dynamic, so the entire fic is fine, but I might be scrunching my face at a line of dialog that I think was going for really sexy and to me - not so much.

"You've got the nicest touch I've ever felt" - ooooh that's a good one! See, these are the types I think work really well. Specific rather than generic. Good boy/girl is the most generic. I also don't think it sounds like something a teenage boy would say, you're right. I write all ages Byler and I probably wouldn't write the good boy dynamic for any age, but that's also a taste thing. Not my writing dynamic. There's nothing wrong if someone writes it or likes it - as I've said, what's hot for me might not be for you, vice versa. I'm just giving the background to my mindset. Never want to alienate anyone!!

I think one of my recent drabbles could be traced back all the way to a praise kink kinda thing, or at least what spawned Will to react the way he did, where thinking about Mike admitting he "could kiss him forever" was the thing he fixated on and what ultimately took him over the edge. That's physically reacting to a compliment. I explore a decent amount of what could qualify as praise kink in my early relationship exploration "staying at the Wheeler's" fic (always comes back to this one, doesn't it? But so much that I'm interested in can fall under a new relationship and also it's a long chaptered fic so it's gonna cover a lot) because that deals a lot with body image and self esteem and that early on stage where you and your reciprocated crush are shy and bold and fluctuating between both, learning how sex works (in general and with each other) - so the praise and feedback is actually really important.

Imagine two insecure boys who are wrapped up in their own personal issues, getting together, so into each other, how sexual situations would go with them. The shy compliments and guiding instruction as they try stuff, learn how different activities go, what they each learn they like. I'll be sure to include a lot of sincere dirty talk and more sweet talk, through that one. Demonstrating how a natural dialogue might go in the bedroom and not sound like it's cliche erotica or a prno. Also - very true, re: hopeful thinking in the show. Compliments between the two! Will gave Mike so many veiled ones in the van speech, and Mike is capable of giving Will so much in return. They always have these dreamy heart to hearts with sweet words - take it to the next step. It would make so much sense. Also, want to see either of them flustered around the other. Please.

[eowynstwin]

🎧 and 🍵

@dotcie's ask game

🎧 ⇢ what song (and lyrics) currently resonate with you?

sorry for being basic but Sun Bleached Flies "god loves you but not enough to save you" by Ethel Cain yoinked my soul from my body and continues to do so

🍵 ⇢ rant about anything that has been on your mind lately!

so i've been spending the past couple years trying my very best to give myself a comprehensive sex education because i grew up in an abstinence first red state in a baptist household raised by a mother ashamed of the fact that she had me out of wedlock.

overwhelmingly there is SUCH an emphasis on knowing and communicating exactly what it is you want out of any given sexual encounter in order to ensure that you get to have satisfying sex. above everything else, that seems to be THEE MOST IMPORTANT.

which is just utter bullshit to me and always has been because how can you know what you want when you don't even know what's available to you? how can you communicate what you want when your socialization as a female in a conservative culture has expressly trained you to be embarrassed and ashamed of what you want to the degree that to even say the word "sex" out loud feels punishable by divine law???

furthermore why is it that it's a woman's job to fully plan out any sexual encounter she might have to MAKE SURE it's a good one? why are we not interrogating the fact that the best sex advice people can give is to tell women they need to take on even more emotional labor in addition to all the other crap she/we have to figure out every single day?

that's not even touching the fact that communication for me, as an afab on the spectrum, is such a massive challenge because the way *I* want to communicate in order to preserve as many spoons as I can is so different from the limited way the rest of the neurotypical world is willing to understand me.

the only piece of literature that has ever resonated with these frustrations has been Tomorrow the Sex Will Be Good Again by Katherine Angel. I need every "sex ed" author who thinks they know shit to read that book and read it again.

[balladetto]

speculation about why aegis and the kids who were stolen away with him were so affected by their time in the still world despite surviving it, beyond just they spent a really long time in there, as well as the reason for his ability to sense rifts before they can actually manifest:

i'm basing this off a single playthrough of the game and so might adjust the concept as i consolidate my understanding, but i'm interpreting people fading away in the still world as null seeping its essence into them ( that void is their domain as much as it's their prison, so i don't believe this is too far-fetched ) and devouring them from the inside-out. like. breaking them down to reintegrate it all into itself

it's not a quick process, as shown ingame with zelda's ( and various npcs' ) experience with the rifts herself, and null probably consumes nonliving things faster than they do living beings

spending so much time on that plane without falling to that fate and most likely escaping without a prime tri's help might mean that though the children left the still world behind, remnants of null remained within them. not by way of sharing consciousnesses or anything, but more as a null has settled within all the spaces left by what they devoured kind of deal

"all of the kids [...] have lost something" and "[they] lost a lot in that ordeal" would be massive understatements. i think every one of them is grappling with that black-hole emptiness of having virtually Everything eaten away, in a sense ( a feeling that is at once because of and comes from null, though in their case it looks like it's manifested as Hunger and externalised as a need for fulfilment [i.e. restoring the 'order' of nothingness, revenge, etc.] ), aegis is just...further along the road to recovery

what i mean by that is i think he handled things about as well as the rest of the kids when they first returned, if only slightly better due to not having accumulated as big a share of null's Influence ( implied to be related to the reason why he can move in the still world ). he was completely withdrawn, barely reactive, and couldn't find the will to do/try to do much of anything now that the goal driving him forward at that point — get out of the rift with everyone else — was accomplished

aegis is doing a lot better since, ofc! with the support of his community and those who care about him, he's learnt to commit to crafted routines and re/formed his own daily habits over the years, such that he can manage everyday life without needing the same level of help he initially did post-first rift contact

cementing a new purpose to work towards — investigate rifts, defeat the monsters that come from them, make sure nobody is swallowed up — helped in getting him back on his feet, too! even if it kind of backfired once null was defeated because he was more or less left adrift again ( he gets nudged towards treading a healthier path of Living eventually, don't worry :'D )

went on a bit of a tangent, but! back on topic: i think what pieces of null are left behind in him and the others before the end of eow sort of like. resonate with the null in the still world, in that they can all feel* when and where null concentrates its power beneath hyrule's dimensional fabric for another breakout attempt — i.e. when and where a rift will form. aegis just happens to be the only one who can do something about it

( *to varying degrees. aegis probably has the most accurate sense for it, whereas the others might be more aware of when a rift will form rather than where. and even then, it's hard to say if they'd know what the feeling actually means or if they'd have the wherewithal to acknowledge it at all )

[tathrin]

Hi! How does a pirate au with gigolas sound?

From this prompt-meme.

Oh definitely not like something that's been slowly simmering in the back of my mind ever since I first saw this thing months ago.

We're going with a sort of East India Trading Company/Golden Age of Piracy era-mythos for our vibes, and a world that has less magic and epic battles to its history than Middle-earth for our setting, but one that still has our various fantasy species running around.

Númenor is sort of like an England/America hybrid, in that it's a newer land than the main continent, very expansionist/colonialist in attitude, and simultaneously an old power, because it has a bunch of colonies on the old continent now, and a belligerent attitude towards everyone else. They are the largest sea-power and like to claim even more dominion than they actually have.

Meanwhile to the south-west of them we have the islands of the Teleri (Eressëa) which are widely described as "the last free elven isles," and mainly stay that that by being A: not enough trouble to conquer and B: too much trouble to conquer. They keep to themselves (and their waters shrink a little more each year as Númenor keeps pressing in) so no one feels inspired to deal with them, and there's a lot of risk to trying to because water gets weird around those islands. Lots of shipwrecks, lots of strange creature in the waves. (The Teleri get some sort of mingled siren/kraken vibes here.) The eastern elves tell stories of a farther island beyond theirs, where no mortals have ever gone; where the seas themselves are sundered so as to protect their inhabitants from all encroachment...but more people these days know those are just fairy tales. There is no Western Shore; there are no Undying Lands. That's all just old sailors' stories and superstitions.

Anyway, Middle-earth itself: very old-school Europe vibes going on here, with lots of little kingdoms always sniping at one another for advantage, and whose power-balance has been kind of skewed by the Númenorian Colonies of Gondor and Arnor—really not colonies anymore at this point, because Númenor looked back east generations ago and decided to return to their ancestral homeland and claim it again farther back than any living mortal can remember. That doesn't stop Númenor from treating them like colonies still, which Denethor, the current ruling steward, isn't thrilled by. His people are more torn on the issue, with half of them liking the regalness of being Númenorian and the other half resentful at not being able to rule themselves. They even had a king once, for a few generations, but that collapsed during the civil wars called the Kinstrife, which were rumored to have been instigated by Númenor itself, although no one was ever able to prove that. There are rumors that an heir escaped the slaughter (Anastasia vibes!) but no one has been able to find proof of that. It may be no more than a pretty story. At any rate, no king has been seen in Gondor for generations.

Beyond the colonies of Gondor and Arnor, Númenor has other strong allies on the continent as well: Erebor, for one. The dwarves of the Lonely Mountains were driven from their home by the last of the dragons long ago, and the deal that their king made to acquire Númenorian assistance for taking it back from Smaug left the dwarves more indebted to the Númenorians than they intended. If only they could have found the Arkenstone, and been able to buy Númenor off with that the way they had planned...but if the Arkenstone was ever among Smaug's horde, it must have vanished at some point before the siege. (Some dwarves insist that it was there, had to have been there; and the only way it could be gone was if Númenor betrayed their word and burgled it when the dwarves' backs were turned—but that is a claim they cannot prove, alas, and so they must live with their debts to the White Island.) Erebor's might is more of craft than warfare, but those crafts have been put to good work on behalf of Númenor's military, and their armies are now the best-outfitted in the world, thanks to Ereborian smith-craft and manufacturing. They are allies far too valuable for Númenor to ever give up, no matter how richly they repay that debt.

As for the elven-lands, perhaps the most notable is the smallest: Rivendell. Founded by the brother of the First King of Númenor, Rivendell occupies a unique place in Númenorian headspace: it is deeply respected, but also looked down on a little. Elrond was clearly the lesser brother, choosing a life of lore and healing over the leadership that should have been in his blood; and yet, he is known for that wisdom, and his healing arts have saved many lives. He sails to Númenor occasionally to share his knowledge with their healers (although less often with each century) and to walk the lands where his brother once lived and died, and he is well-loved there...but they prefer the legend of Elrond to the reality, and their leaders more and more often welcome him with strained smiles than they do with open ones. Elrond will not participate in any endeavour which would lead to war, and the suffering that comes from such conflict; that does not mean that he approves of Númenors politics in these days of domination, and while he is always polite and respectful, he does not hesitate to offer its rulers his true opinions and advice.

They don't really care for that. But he is Elros's brother, so they force smiles and grateful platitudes, and then try and bundle him back onto his ship and off to his lovely but insignificant little valley as quickly as possible, and try to think about him and his dour warnings as little as they can when he's not around.

Mirkwood is the largest elven-kingdom, and the only one these days that truly counts as a kingdom. The lords of Númenor aren't keen on such a large nation existing without paying even lip-service allegiance to them, but on the other hand...does anyone really want alliance with Mirkwood? It's a terrible place, dark and dour and full of monsters. The elves there aren't like other elves; they're less wise, less refined...more dangerous. Feral, almost. There are rumors that—well, really it would be easier to compile the stories that aren't told about Mirkwood than to start listing all the ones that are. Death lives in those black trees. Even the water is dangerous to drink, more likely to cast you into a hundred years of dreams than to refresh your thirst. There are spiders in there the size of horses, deer with all their bones on the outside of their skin, squirrels that are venomous and moths that suck your blood. It is said that if you hear laughter in those trees, you might as well slit your own throat before the merry sound dies because you'll never escape the terrible, laughing things that hunt there. The stories even say that there are ghosts in those woods, wandering the south lands by the ruined citadel that towers over those gnarled black trees.

No one sane would live in Mirkwood. No one sane would even set foot in Mirkwood. No one sane should want anything to do with Mirkwood—and Númenor does not. Even the Daleman, known for being provincial weirdos, know better than to actually go into those black trees, even if they're deranged enough to trade goods with the elves that lurk there. Well, let them; and on their own heads be it when the wicked elvenking leads his people out for a feast of man-flesh!

(Some of the stories are true, but even the other elf-lords no longer know how many. Mirkwood has done far too good a job of spreading those terrible tales for anyone—maybe even them, sometimes—to remember which are false, and which are real. Even other elves steer-clear of those black trees, these days.)

The last elven-realm, Lothlórien, is something of an outlier among all the lands of Middle-earth: it is a small realm, which neither offers nor seeks trade or commerce with others, and yet which wields an outsize power in the affairs of greater nations. Lórien is a land of lore and mysteries, and it is said that the elf-witch who rules those golden trees can read a man's secrets merely by glancing at his eyes. Númenor wishes no war with the eerie elves of Lothlórien. Lady Galadriel is consequently invited to every grand affair of state, and never ever wanted there. Sometimes she attends (likely just to remind Númenor that she is real, and should not be trifled with) but mostly she stays in her trees, whispered about yet unseen.

As for the other lands of Middle-earth, many of them are tired of being to some degree under Númenor's heel, but not to the point of daring to risk open war against them. They all remember what happened to Eregion when Ost-in-Edhil's smith-lords though to oppose Númenorian domination.

Now, the world has settled into a sort of tense peace, where nation-states fight through commerce rather than the battlefield, and use their armies more for posturing and prestige than actual warfare.

Into this world, enter the pirates.

Númenor's domination of the sea has not gone unopposed. Círdan long defied them, until they sent their entire navy against him, landing soldiers to crush the Havens and take him and his lords prisoner back to Númenor for trial and punishment—but though the Havens fell, Círdan was not found there. Some say that he and all those closest to him were slaughtered, and Númenor covered it up; others say that he managed to slips their nets and sail West, and find the promised shores beyond the islands of the Teleri; still others say he is on those oceans still, hurrying Númenors ships as a rebel captain of a small pirate fleet. Whenever a ship fails to return to harbor, there are whispers that it fell to Círdan's rebels...but more likely it was claimed by waves and weather.

Probably.

The stories spread anyway, and those who sought to defy Númenor's will listened, and so they began too to seek the sea. Small, single pirate ships are no material threat to Númenor: their navy is too large for the sacking or disappearance of a few ships here and there to make any difference to them. But the stories of pirates being able to defy their might and slip away free of consequence...well, that might have more lasting repercussions. Certainly Númenor's leaders must think so, for they have devoted quite an undo amount of effort to hunting down and destroying these pests otherwise. Unless, of course, one believes the rumors that Gondor's lost heir is out there somewhere amongst the pirates, capable at any moment of returning and staking his claim to the throne—a claim which, thanks to the faltering and intermingling of generations since, gives him actually the most direct claim not only to the throne of Gondor but to Númenor itself, now that the line of the founding kings has broken so many times...provided such an heir even exists of course, which he does not.

Clearly.

And now, it's finally time to turn to our cast of characters: the good ship Fellowship was originally a merchant vessel, sailing the waves on behalf of the wealthy Took family. Hobbits do not go to sea very often themselves, but they appreciate life's comforts enough to finance ocean-going vessels, and are quite happy to pay the necessary tariffs to Númenor to have their protection on the waves, and there are always Men in Bree who are happy to sail on Hobbit ships (the rations they provide are always much nicer than you get on any other vessel!). Old Bilbo was one of the rare Hobbits who actually followed his sense of adventure all the way out to the waves, and was captain of the Fellowship in deed as well as name, and when his nephew was old enough he brought young Frodo along with him.

(Every gossip in the Shire said they would both come to a bad end, drowning just like Frodo's parents did; but even the sneering Sackville-Bagginses never expected pirates!)

For many years, the Fellowship went about its trade-routes quite respectably, causing no trouble and earning no malice. But then...well, the trouble started with that fellow called Strider. He was one of many sailors who signed-on from Bree one day, and should have been no more special than any of them. But there was something about him that always seemed a little disreputable, a little dangerous—and so it soon proved.

No one back on shore is quite sure how it happened. The nearest anyone has been able to piece the story together is that there was some sort of shipwreck, or a raft that escaped a shipwreck, and there was something on it—some chest or treasure. Whatever it was, it proved to be too much temptation for the sailors of the Fellowship. Instead of making a quick salvage of the wreckage and continuing on their way, they abandoned their course and their cargo's intended destination, and went from being respectable merchants to pirates.

Old Bilbo (who had retired some years ago) was scandalized, of course; positively scandalized. But of course, Bilbo had always been something of a scandal himself, and there were far too many suspicious eyes on him after everything went south. He sold Bag End, packed up his things, and disappeared from the Shire three weeks after the first wanted-for-piracy posters of his nephew went up. Rumor has it he went to Rivendell, but no one from Hobbitton has ever gone after him to check; Hobbits don't generally care for travel, and Rivendell is such a long was away. Must more pleasant to stay home by the fire, and gossip.

And gossip folk do, and not only in the Shire. Stories of the Fellowship quickly came to spread far beyond Hobbit-lands, and they got bigger as they went. Soon it was being said that Strider was not just a brigand, but a romantic scoundrel too, who had managed to steal the heart of Elrond's daughter before running away to sea before her brothers could revenge themselves upon him. He had a magic ring, which he had used to enthrall Frodo, and declare himself captain of the boat. He had a magic sword, which could break itself into pieces as short as a dagger and then reforge itself as long as a boathook at need. He had elf-blood, and was decades older than he looked. He had served in Gondor's army, and in Rohan's, and had learned healing from Elrond himself. He was one of the Rangers, the secretive wanderers that spread rumors against Númenor and hunted for treasure and forgotten beasts in the wilds.

The more outlandish stories even claimed that he was that lost heir, and his real name was Aragorn or Arathorn or something of that sort. Nonsense, of course—but nonsense that Númenor wasn't happy to hear being whispered up and down the Misty Mountains.

Their displeasure grew when word began to spread of Strider's companions: Frodo somehow recruited three of his friends to the ship (Hobbits at sea! What were the youth coming to?) but he had arranged for one of their more land-locked fellows to act as a blackmarket middle-man, passing coin and supplies and information back and forth between Bree and the boat. Fredagar Bolger was soon caught and arrested, but someone broke him out of prison before his trial could begin, and he disappeared as thoroughly as Bilbo had. (Rumors said that the Brandybuck and Took families had helped in that jail-break, for two of their own were among Frodo's crew, but no one could ever prove that; indeed, no one who had been on duty at the jail that night reported seeing anything. Fredagar had been there when they went to sleep; the next morning, he had been gone, and no one ever saw him in Hobbiton again.)

Even more outlandish than the idea of four Hobbits at sea, the stories insisted that they had a dwarf on the ship as well. Everyone knew that dwarves hated boats, and feared the ocean; everyone knew that a dwarf would sooner shave his beard than go to sea. Nonetheless, the stories persisted: the Fellowship had a dwarf. Rumor claimed that he was a disgruntled son of Erebor, who had joined Strider's band of pirates out of disgust for the debt that Númenor held over the Lonely Mountain; others insisted that his father had been friends with Bilbo (in addition to his other oddities, Bilbo had been known to have friends among the dwarves, somehow!) and that it was Frodo who had somehow coaxed a dwarf away from land and out to sea. Whatever the motivations that had brought that dwarf to the Fellowship, there was soon no denying that he was there: only dwarven craftmanship could have kept that ship afloat through all of Númenor's efforts to sink it, and sailing faster than any of their own vessels could follow.

In addition to the dwarf, there was an elf among the crew as well. A less absurd notion on the surface, but strange when one dug-down to the details, for this was no Teleri; nor was he even one of the elves of the Havens, or from Rivendell. No, this was a Wood-elf of Mirkwood, one of those half-feral creatures of death and shadow and knives in the dark. His eyes were keener than any looking-glass that Númenor could fashion, and he could see as clearly in the starlight as men could under bright sun. With those elven eyes in their crow's nest, there was no chance that the Fellowship could ever be sneaked-up upon again; and those who survived attacks by Strider's pirates told stories of his terrible bright laughter echoing across the waves like the ringing of doom-bells in their dreams.

(There was surely, surely no truth to the rumor that the elf and the dwarf were any more than grudging crew-mates; elves and dwarves were notoriously distrustful of one another's people, and since Eregion's fall there had been no sign of reconciliation or camaraderie between any of their kind again. The sailors who reported that the two had been heard cheerfully competing like friends during the battles taking Númenorian ships were mistaken; the ones who claimed that they had witnessed victory-kisses were suffering from sunstroke; and the shaken survivors who whispered that the elf had lost his mind and slaughtered an entire crew himself when one of their number managed to wound the dwarf were surely just suffering from shock. No single elf, not even a Mirkwood elf, could slay an entire contingent of Númenorian soldiers like that; and no elf would ever be spurred to do such a thing for a mere dwarf. These stories were just one of Strider's many attempts to undermine Númenorian rule, by attempting to foster an alliance between Erebor and Mirkwood based on ridiculous false rumors about the joining of two of their people. Such things simply did not happen.)

The worst of the Fellowship's many assaults upon Númenorian sea-supremacy was when they took a ship that had been carrying Rohan's princess out to make a state-marriage on the White Island. The rest of the Rohirrim they let go, including the king's nephew, whom one might have expected them to hold for ransom; instead they took only the girl, and no ransom demand ever came back for her. Indeed, rumors soon began to whisper that she had been somehow seduced to Strider's crew as well, and could be seen with a cutlass in one hand and her fair hair streaming in the salt-air, a fell smile on her face, whenever the Fellowship boarded their prey, her own unfettered laughter ringing out alongside the elf's deadly merriment.

That was a crime too far. Númenor needed to stop Strider's pirates, and stop them now. Gondor dispatched two of her own to go to sea and hunt him and the Fellowship down: Boromir and Faramir, sons of the Steward and noble warriors of stout heart and stalwart arms. Everyone assumed that that would be the end of the Fellowship, for no pirate had yet escaped bold Boromir, and Faramir's cunning wits would surely be enough to outsmart some ragged Ranger. For months they pursued the pirate vessel, chasing the Fellowship through storm and fog and sun-kissed waves; then, far off the coast of the Teleri islands, a hurricane rolled in, and both ships were lost from sight behind the grey rainclouds.

Imagine Denethor's fury, and Númenor's wrath, when the next stories that came back from the sea told of how bold Boromir and cunning Faramir had joined the terrible crew...

[front-facing-pokemon]

[bravevolunteer]

VERSE — MOVIE ( CONTAINS SPOILERS & CANON DIVERGENT, tw for canon-typical themes & suicide mention )

just to get straight to the point : it's mainly canon divergent in the sense that i will be altering details in order to make mike an afton. do i think this is going to happen in the movie timeline? no. do i think it's more likely that they're going to explain the oddly personal kidnapping through mirroring the emilys? probably. but it's MY michael afton blog and i can put on my tinfoil hat as much as i want about it. of course i am willing to adapt based on other's info / preferences but given that this isn't my main canon anyway it is meant for those that are interested.

Mike thought he knew everything there was to know about what happened to his family: what he was never told is who his real father was. He was too young to remember anything about William Afton before his mom separated herself from him entirely ( one night stand, breakup, what have you, i'm not picky- ), so he always thought of the father he grew up with as his dad, the reality never changed anything about that.

Until he was twelve years old and Garrett went missing, and everything fell apart. William followed the Schmidts there, taking Garrett in a targeted attack ( whether or not he was trying to grab Mike, took him out of spite, anything else is also flexible ). Everything grew solemn and tense, each of the Schmidts lost in their own individual grief. Slowly, they stopped having dinners together, stopped going out as a family, stopped being able to feel like things were normal. The grief and guilt only added to Mike's developing anger issues and depression. Although it wasn't on purpose nor with any malicious intent, his dad was the more distant of his parents at the time, serving as the first hint towards his biological parentage and simply because as much as he cared for mike, he was grappling with losing his biological kid ( think tse henry- well meaning but drowning in grief enough for the child to pick up on it ).

This is where Abby comes in, where the Schmidts have another kid in an attempt to feel like a normal family again. It almost seems to work, although there is still that underlying sense of collective grief. Mike was older by then, too ( while he graduates high school, he either doesn't go to college at all or doesn't finish it ).

Their mom dies and the brief sense of possible stability disappears again. It's when Mike is staying at home again for the funeral/to help with Abby that their father commits suicide, unable to take the grief. Mike has had custody of Abby since then.

The events proceed as they did in the movie, William's recognition of Mike in the office not only stemming from the kidnapping but the fact that it's his kid, although Mike doesn't find anything out beyond the fact that it's the man who took Garrett. There is potential for more hints towards this in past interactions with his aunt or birth records or even his dynamic with Vanessa, but for the most part this specific realization is left open.

Following the movie's events, he... does come home to his aunt in the living room. After reporting her death, Mike actually goes back to Freddy's one more time to get security footage in order to prove his innocence. Afterwards, he does his best to hold down another job to keep taking care of Abby in peace, but something about Freddy's gives him the sense that he'll come back to make sure nothing like this happens again.

[aubins]

she is rasping and literally crawling toward yuri with big wet eyes because the week has been very unkind to her and she's a little scraped up from getting caught in a wilderness trap but don't even worry about it. however! she reaches them and her fluffy head perks up.

"yuri! yuri, we weren't on the same island last week, and bernie didn't want to miss you just in case—" rustle, rustle. from her belongings, she fishes out a lilac-ribboned box. inside there is makeup, carefully curated and dorothea-certified of course, along with a flower accessory she'd made herself. its blossom is the color of their eyes, which she is doing her very best to meet now, thank you very much.

(in fact, she's trying so hard that it pinches her brow just slightly. eye contact will always be her worst enemy but god if she isn't pulling out all the stops to show her earnestness. they deserve that much and plenty more.)

"happy, uh, early birthday...!" the gift is ushered into their possession. then her arms flap at her sides, and she blurts: "please don't get eaten by alligators, okay?! wait, are there alligators on this island? w-well, don't get eaten by anything! please. um, yes." nod, nod. "i don't get this whole competition thing, but you're still bernie's dear friend. and bernie really, really wants to keep being friends by the time your next birthday comes, too."

a pause. then, lips curl into a silly, fond smile that bernadetta can't help but make. "a-and it doesn't have anything to do with this weird island, but, um... you make me happy. so i hope this makes you happy, too."

Yuri Leclerc does not celebrate their birthday.

Sometimes, there are exceptions. Like the treats and surprises of a certain red-haired girl or the odd greeting here and there from Abyssians who have known them for long enough to learn it. Yet no matter how routine these exceptions start to become, they will always be just that: exceptions. Because, for so long, the day they'd said was theirs never really was their birthday anyway. Because, a long time ago, the boy who was born on their actual birthday died on the streets of Adrestia.

“Bernadetta,” is their hummed greeting as their gaze flicks over her, pleased— well, always pleased, really, to see her, and even more so when she appears to be in relatively one piece— their usual smile curling at the corner of their lips. “That for me?” they ask, tone teasing as she fishes the box from her belongings. It's not even my birthday yet, is the follow up, already upon the tip of their tongue when—

“Happy, uh, early birthday...!”

And Yuri blinks, stunned for a moment, because no, they think, they will never quite get used to these exceptions. Even as Bernadetta shuffles the gift into their hands, babbling that they shouldn't get eaten by alligators, if there even are any— “No,” they think they hear themself say automatically, first instinct always to reassure, “I haven't seen any alligators. And I won't get eaten, so don't even worry about it.”— and that they're her dear friend— “...ah?” is the only sound they make in response to that one, a little quiet and a little confused, because there's no automatic answer to it, not one that they want to give to such a genuine effort anyway.

They glance at the box now in their hands for a beat, then pull it open gently, as if afraid it might break. “You didn't have to,” Yuri says, gaze immediately attracted to the collection of makeup within. They know, of course, what it costs, and suddenly mean it doubly so. “Must've cost you a pretty penny. You should've spent it on yourself.” And even if some people would say it just to be humble, humility has never been one of their features. They know what they do and do not deserve.

After all, Yuri is no stranger to gifts like these. Makeup and jewelry offered to them because only the finest of accessories should decorate the most beautiful dolls— and never for free, of course, because nothing in this world is ever for free, and they are quite used to trading both face and body.

They kept them all, no matter how they loathe them sometimes. They may be prideful, but they are not foolish. There is a trunk under the floorboards beneath their bed in Abyss filled with their hoard, bountiful enough to convince someone they are a magpie and not a mockingbird. Bountiful enough to remind them that, now, the Savage Mockingbird can take a noble's expensive gift and slit his throat while wearing it if they wanted, then toss it without a second thought to disappear within their collection.

But while Bernadetta is a noble, she is not like them. (But how do you know? asks a voice. Yuri silences it. They just do— they must believe that.) Not because of this island, she says next, and as much as Yuri can guess where her mind tends to spiral to, they wonder if she can do the same. Because they would have thought it next, yes, wondered about an objective handed to her in the interim that perhaps needed completing or some other game their hosts wanted to play. Even with the reassurance, they might have still wondered.

But maybe it is because it is Bernadetta, because she had known them before they were Yuri, and know all the secrets and vulnerabilities that come with that, because no matter how many times she says she has forgiven them, Yuri is used to bracing for betrayal, that the mockingbird pauses. Briefly, yet completely and utterly struck still mid-flight.

And then they believe her, even when the first instinct ingrained in them is not to.

“It...” they start, then pause. Correct themself. “You make me happy, Bernadetta. With or without the gift. But thanks for thinking about my birthday.” Because it's nice to be thought about, in the end. If it needs to be put simply for her, without the mess of their past, then it— and she— makes them happy. Bernadetta doesn't need to know the rest. Yuri grins, then plucks the flower accessory from the box to hold out to her. This one, they can think about without straining their smile. No shadow haunts it; this one is just Bernadetta. “Help me put it in my hair?”

Next birthday, we'll still be friends. But they do not say it aloud. This one is a promise all for themself. Yuri resolves not to break it.