#whoops this is technically late because it's Friday now

[basil-thoth]

Page 16: an attempt was made

Previous: Page 15

Next: Page 17

Masterpost here

Transcript under the cut!

Author’s note: From here on, Subject 1 will be referred to as “1-S” and Subject 2 will be referred to as “2-P”. Gaster refers to each with both names, but for the sake of simplicity, I will refer to them as 1-S and 2-P. 

Panel 1: [Gaster and 1-S are sitting at a table. 1-S is working on a stack of worksheets while Gaster reviews multiple charts, graphs, and notes while drinking from a mug that reads “World’s Best Dad Scientist. Gaster has 1-S’s SOUL locked in blue magic once again. Gaster seems generally disinterested, with one leg crossed over the other and his other arm resting on the table. 1-S looks at him accusatorily.]

1-S: why did you do that to him? he never did anything to you. he didn't deserve that.

Gaster: And you did? Does only his suffering matter to you? Interesting.

1-S: why did you make us? why are you doing this to us? 

Panel 2: [1-S makes a doubtful and confused face.]

1-S: ...is someone /making/ you do this? is that it?

Panel 3: [Gaster simply observes as 1-S makes his musings.]

1-S: do you not have a choice?

Panel 4: [Gaster suddenly jumps in surprise as his phone starts buzzing from his pocket. In his surprise, he seems to have released the blue magic keeping 1-S at the table.]

Panel 5: [Gaster sets his cup of coffee on the table while he pulls a blue flip-phone from his pocket. 1-S stares in confusion. It’s likely he’s never seen a phone before.]

Gaster: ...I thought I turned this off-

Panel 6: [We get to see Gaster’s phone screen. It reads: INCOMING CALL: ALPHYS. Below is a small line: loading wdalphys.exe…]

Panel 7: [The phone loads the WDAlphys program. The screen says: W D ALPHYS! VER 0.34 waiwai!! On either side of the graphic is a pixel art of Gaster on the left and Alphys on the right. They’re smiling with their arms held up, and a heart floats above their heads. Below the pictures says: Scanning for magical signature… Please touch your phone now, Dr. Gaster! =^.^=]

Panel 8-9: [Gaster stands up and presses a few buttons on his phone, which makes a few digital beeps and dits. He conjures three magical hands, one to hold the phone, and two more to sign for the phone. The program reads the magic signature of his hands while he uses sign language to translate it over on Alphys’ side of the line. This way, he can communicate using a telephone. Meanwhile, 1-S’s mind is blown.]

Gaster (signing): Yes, Dr. Alphys, what is it?

Panel 10: [Gaster turns his back to 1-S, still looking very confused, and continues his conversation with his colleague.]

Gaster: ...Yes, I'm fine. Is something wrong? 

Gaster: ...Late? Late for what? 

Panel 11: [1-S stares for a bit, watching.]

Gaster: Yes, but that's tomorrow, isn't it?

Panel 12: [1-S carefully eyes the doorway…]

Gaster: ...is it really...? Are you sure? 

Panel 13: [1-S slowly stands up. Gaster is still looking away from him, pressing his hand to his head in frustration as he keeps talking to Alphys over the phone.]

Gaster: ...I... I must have lost track of time... 

Gaster: ...I know, it's not like me, but I... I haven't gotten much sleep lately. 

Panel 14: [1-S runs down the hallway and away from Gaster. Gaster doesn’t notice.]

Gaster:  No, I'm alright, don't worry. I'm fine. I've just... had a lot on my mind…

Panel 15: [We see 2-P by himself in the cell. He seems to have been crying, either from pain from the handplate, or separation anxiety from 1-S, or perhaps both.]

1-S: bro! bro!

Panel 16: [2-P jumps to his feet excitedly, looking at 1-S on the outside of the forcefield.] 

2-P: BROTHER!! HOW DID YOU GET OUTSIDE?

[1-S is excitedly gesticulating back towards the other room.]

1-S: i snuck away while he wasn't looking- i'm gonna get you out, okay? then we're gonna get out of here!

2-P: OH, YAY! BUT... HOW?

Panel 17: [1-S touches a hand to his chin, trying to come up with a plan.]

1-S: um... i'm still working on that part. maybe-

1-S: uh... he does something to the wall when he opens it, doesn't he?

Panel 18: [2-P gestures to the electric panel on the wall to the right of the forcefield.]

2-P: YEAH, HE TOUCHES THAT THING OVER THERE, I THINK. MAYBE PUT YOUR HAND ON IT!

Panel 19: [2-P watches excitedly as 1-S puts his right hand on the wall and reaches up to touch the panel with his left hand. But, only one of the three lights come on, and the forcefield does not deactivate.]

1-S: ok... mmph! ...it's not working, only one of the lights went on!

2-P: TRY USING TWO HANDS!

Panel 20: [1-S looks confused at the suggestion, pulling his hand away from the panel briefly.]

1-S: he only uses one though.

2-P: WELL HIS HANDS ARE BIG! YOU HAVE LITTLE BABY HANDS.

Panel 21: [2-P holds both of his hands up placatingly. 1-S looks offended at the insinuation of him having baby hands.]

1-S: i do not have baby hands!

Panel 22: [2-P smirks a little, wiggling his fingers mockingly.]

2-P: YOU HAVE THE MOST ITTY-BITTY HANDS, BROTHER, LIKE TINY LITTLE-

Panel 23: [2-P becomes shocked, looking past 1-S. His eyes glow purple a bit, indicating a sudden bolt of fear.]

2-P: AAAAHH!!

Panel 24: [1-S’s SOUL has been turned blue and he’s magically pulled away from the doorway into the air. His eyes light up into sudden rings of purple. 2-P watches in horror.]

1-S: hgh- no!!!

Gaster: Apparently I'm going to have to keep a closer eye on you. You're slipperier than I thought.

Panel 25: [Gaster appears in the hallway and levitates 1-S a few feet off the ground. 1-S reaches desperately for his brother but to no avail.

1-S: no- no i was so close-!

Panel 26: [2-P looks up fearfully, clutching his right hand. Gaster looks down at him. 1-S is still being levitated and is kicking while clutching his chest, as if struggling will loosen Gaster’s magical hold on him. His face is screwed up in concentration.]

2-P: ARE... ARE WE IN TROUBLE...?

Panel 27: [1-S angrily looks at Gaster, still struggling in mid-air.]

Gaster: Yes. Under other circumstances, it'd be sufficient to punish only you, Subject 1, but your frailty makes it difficult. So…

Panel 28: [2-P looks up at Gaster fearfully.]

Gaster: You BOTH will be coming with me.

Panel 29: [Gaster places his hand on the panel. All three lights easily light up and deactivate the forcefield. 1-S desperately reaches towards Gaster, trying to stop him.]

1-S: don't- don't hurt him!!

1-S: he didn't even do anything- he didn't DO ANYTHING!!

Panel 30: [Gaster turns towards 1-S and looks him in the eye.]

Gaster: Think about that the next time you try to run from me. 

Panel 31: [Gaster escorts 2-P out of the cell and leads him down the hallway, still carrying 1-S by magic. 2-P’s head is hung low but he complies. 1-S has curled into the fetal position, defeated.] Gaster: Come on.

[Previously] [Next, kind of]

Horseshoes and hand grenades, Sans. This one falls sometime after the plate aftermath, though it’s not a direct continuation, exactly.

The WD Alphys app is something that Alphys and Gaster have been working on together to let them communicate via phone, since Alphys can’t speak Wingdings (I’m starting to think that only font skeletons can speak wingdings, actually). Once it keys into Gaster’s magical signature, it follows the movements of the magic hands he creates and transmits it to her phone, along with an attempt at a translation. It’s still in beta and hasn’t been released yet, but they’re hoping once they iron out the bugs and refine it that it can come in handy for other monsters who use sign language. I figure if Alphys can turn phones into functioning jetpacks then something like this wouldn’t be impossible, haha. He talks while he signs because he likes the sound of his own voice, the egomaniac. The little sprites were Alphys’s idea.

Gaster is tired and stressed out, thus why he’s not paying a lot of attention. Also why his coat’s unbuttoned and he left his phone on and why he’s trying to do work while Sans is doing an IQ test (IQ days are kind of “free” days for the three of them to recover from previous experiments).

[Index]

[rad-rat-with-a-tophat]

day 6 of @thetheatergremlin's boyf riends week, technically. I'm sorry this is late. whoops

✨hoodie✨

Michael was absolutely not crushing on his best friend right now. Not at all, in fact, he was completely and totally calm.

Yeah that was a lie, a huge giant lie.

Michael was very much crushing on his best friend right now, and it was all one Jeremy Heere's fault.

The thing is, Jeremy was freezing all day every day. He had the internal heating system of a refrigerator. So when Jeremy had come over for an impromptu sleepover at Michael's fault and forgotten one of his many, many, cardigans, he started complaining non-stop about being cold.

And because Michael was an amazing friend who happened to be a 'living heater' in Jeremy's words, he gave him his hoodie.

Michael was currently regretting this decision, because it was 2 am and Jeremy was draped across Michael's lap like a cat, red hoodie swamping his skinny, twig, body. He was positively fucking adorable with his hair messed up, feet falling off the beanbag on side of Michael and head pressed into the beanbag on his other side.

It was thankfully Friday, so they could stay up as long as they wanted. However, they had both woken early for school and were now thoroughly out of it. The only thing that prevented them from falling asleep was the fact that they were two stubborn teenage boys who simply didn't want to sleep so they wouldn't.

"Michael," Said Jeremy's groggy voice, smushed into the beanbag they were both on, "What the fuck are we watching right now?"

Michael stopped staring at Jeremy in all his cuddly glory for a moment to look at the TV in front of them.

"Yeah I don't know,"

"Can you turn it off? I'm too comfortable to move,"

Michael looked down at the boy in his lap, "You are literally just a cat, you know that right?"

"Sure, can you turn off the tv though?"

"Anything for you Jere-Bear," Michael cooed.

Jeremy groaned and Michael could see the faint blushing rising up the back of his neck.

He's so cute when he blushes, Michael thought, Wait shit, now is not the time to hopelessly pine over your best friend. Because that is all you'll ever be. Best friends.

"Michael, are you gonna turn off the tv or not?" Jeremy asked, twisting himself to glare, blue eyes squinting in an accusing manner.

Oh my god he's literally so pretty for no reason like oh my god, Michael rambled in his head, gently pushing Jeremy off him to get the remote from where it was by the tv and turn it off.

When Michael turned back to the beanbag he was met with a rumpled Jeremy sitting crisscross like a fucking cat with Michael's hoodie, ten times to large, hanging off his frame. He was peering at him with half-asleep eyes, but nonetheless he was analyzing Michael for something.

"Uhh, Jeremy?" Michael said, frozen in place, thoughts and worries going through his head a mile a minute.

Fuck. Did he figure out I like him? Shit! Is he disgusted by me? Is he gonna say that I'm a creep and he doesn't want to be friends with me? Because he should, I'm such a fuc-

"You're really pretty," Said Jeremy, staring straight at Michael.

"O-Oh, I am?" Michael stuttered. All that was going through his head right now was the real life equivalent of a key smash.

Jeremy nodded, then started making grabbing hands at Michael, "Come here, I need to do something real quick,"

Michael obliged and stepped towards him, forcing his mind to block any thoughts that weren't completely platonic.

Jeremy stuck out his hands, grabbed Michael's face, and planted a messy kiss right on his lips.

Jeremy nodded at the sight of Michael's crimson face. "I'm gonna sleep now," He said, stifling a yawn and collapsing into the beanbag.

"O-okay, you do that Jeremy," Said Michael, "Wait, are you gonna sleep in my hoodie?"

Jeremy made an incoherent noise and snuggled himself further into the hoodie, too tired to care about how his back would feel the next morning.

Michael looked down at him, Damn you are whipped Michael, he thought to himself before picking up Jeremy's surprisingly light in his arms and carrying him to Michael's bedroom.

[albatris]

hello

it is 11pm on saturday but technically it IS saturday and i think?? maybe?? you're doing STS?? so yeah. happy storyteller saturday, may i here about the rental car gang's newest additon

well. it's now 11pm on Friday! whoops! but running late is nothing new to me, this is standard, this is standard, my apologies for the delay

thank you for the ask and ABSOLUTELY you can hear about the rental car gang's newest addition!

so, there are a bunch of things about her that are still missing from my brain, but hopefully she'll chat to me more as I write about her :3

onwards!

her name is Zeke! does she have a surname? maybe! do I know what it is? nope!

she's. hm. by day she's a romance novelist under the pen name Alannah Meadows and by night she's a renowned and deadly vampire hunter. or more likely she's both simultaneously at all hours of the day and night, balanced poorly, living mostly on energy drinks and instant ramen. when does she sleep? idk. but as long as she can manage to keep up the appearance that she's totally cool and under control and absolutely not spiraling into near-constant burnout and crisis, she's fine!

romance-novel-wise, she's pretty good at what she does! vampire-hunter-wise, she's fuckin EXCELLENT at what she does! most of the time! idk quite what her methods entail but I know they're a little bit. offbeat and peculiar and make a lot of other vampire hunters go "huh??? that's stupid" until they actually see her in action. she's also broke a lot so can't afford any fancy equipment n has to get a little inventive

her great grandma on her mum's side was also a rather infamous vampire hunter. both her grandparents on her mum's side were rather infamous vampire hunters. her own parents are........

an accountant, an ornithologist, and a funeral director!

(there are three of them, and I mean this in a polyamorous way and not a complicated divorce way)

Zeke has mixed feelings about their professions, just like they have mixed feelings about her following in the footsteps of her ancestors rather than..... not.... doing that. on one hand, she likes her 'rents and wants them to be happy, and they are! on the other, she's peeved that no one taught her ruthless survival skills and how to decapitate someone when she was like four years old and that she had to self-teach most of her vampire-hunting skills. which I guess is why her strategies are a little bit unusual and not exactly the industry standard

but yeah, her parents are all sweet folks, though none of them are super keen on their daughter being involved in such a dangerous and violent profession. and her mum has some capital B Baggage about the vampire hunting line of work due to her experiences with her own parents

now, about Zeke as a person........

hm, well, she's all about calmness and focus and intuition and balance..... she's all about meditation and higher forces and listening to the voice of the universe...... I think she fancies herself a bit of a psychic, actually, or at the very least she's someone who sees herself as having a Unique And Special Connection (read: more powerful than other, NORMAL people's connections) to the world around her. whether or not this is true or just in her head is up for debate :P but yes, she's constantly going on about how important it is to be in control of your emotions and to find balance within yourself and focus your mind....... calm your soul and centre yourself and feel the pull of the universe..... it's all very funny because she has MAJOR fucking anger management issues and explodes on a regular basis. and she's never been patient or calm in her life for more than, like, ten minutes

like she tries SO hard to be the cool calm collected wise sagelike type. but GOD everything is just so irritating how can she be expected to

peace and love and harmony on planet earth <3 but also Zeke is going to fucking deck you if you piss her off

anyway, she has rather big shoes to fill given the reputations of her grandparents and great grandma, and though she's doing a pretty good job of filling said shoes already, she really wants to make a bang in the vampire-hunting profession and achieve some cool shit no one's seen before. she tries many different avenues for this, but hops from one to the next rapidly because she quickly gets bored with stuff and loses interest. recently she's been engaged in a lot of intense research into the well-known vampire urban legend of the Garble, 'cause what could cause more of a Bang than taking down fucking vampire god? this earns her. a lot of laughter from her rivals and colleagues. because the Garble objectively does not exist, it's just a dumb spooky story, obviously

but yes, this is what eventually leads her to Darwelaide and what kicks off her investigations into the city's vampire population, and subsequently her becoming entangled with Quinn :P

she is, in fact, responsible for the two super early-book attempts on Quinn's life, one of which results in the death of expendable bit character Leo (RIP)

Quinn is! irritated! by her presence, because as soon as word gets around that Fucking Vampire Hunter Zeke is in the city, a fair few of their vampire customers and lackeys are suddenly like "oh, I forgot I have to go very very far away from Darwelaide right now immediately for an indeterminate amount of time" which puts a bit of a strain on Quinn's resources

Zeke not only believes Quinn is a vampire (fair) but also that they're basically THE vampire of Darwelaide, and most other vamps are either Quinn's allies or fucking terrified of them and staying as far out of their way as possible (also fair)

but yes, Zeke begins as a rather formidable antagonist but eventually becomes a begrudging ally to the team since their goal ALSO happens to be "murder the Garble". though she's not too pleased when this goal shifts focus slightly, they talk her 'round after a while because the end result will still be the same, it'll just take a little longer to get there. but that's spoilers! hahahaha

eventually, much to her disgust she becomes a beloved member of the gang. tragically they are her friends. regrettably she cares about them

she and Nat have a dicey relationship at first, she and Quinn have a dicier relationship, she and Yvonne are............ fine, ish, but that's a whole other kettle of fish. she thoroughly believes Alex is human to begin with because...... yeah, in the same way people look at Quinn and are like "that's a fucking evil dramatic rich gay vampire if I've ever seen one", people look at Alex and they're like "that's the epitome of Just Some Guy"

Alex fucking exudes Regular Human Energy tbh

it is important to my heart that Zeke and Alex do end up proper best friends. like. even after she finds out it's a vampire. after the Adjustment Period. like this is a reeaaaaally slowburn friendship but the payoff's gonna be. mwah. chefs kiss

man I just think they'd get along fantastically and have some interesting perspectives to share with each other, y'know?

but yeah, Zeke starts off SUPER scary and looming and threatening, this kind of.... mysterious force to take very seriously. but the tone shifts to shenanigans later. there's a lot of, like, ridiculous melodramatic homoerotic nonsense with Quinn, lots of back-and-forth hero-villain-esque banter, lots of very casual murder attempts from both parties

also "Zeke has homoerotic tension with Quinn" means nothing, Quinn has homoerotic tension with basically everyone

once she's part of the gang but still super fuckin grumpy about it, it's sort of just like....... y'know, are these legitimate murder attempts, is it all in good fun, is it just to keep the gang on their toes? no one is entirely certain. but that's just Zeke for you. she's their murder friend and they love and appreciate her <3

she finds out eventually that Quinn is actually just a regular human person and she's fuckin PISSED

also I think it's really funny given the ending of the book that Zeke gets to be like. fuck yeah. everyone look at me. I helped take down motherfucking vampire god. who's the best vampire hunter now. idiots. I'm better than all of you. gaze upon my work and weep

but what she's essentially done is just, like, doom vampire-hunting as a business and put everyone out of work so everyone is lowkey SUPER mad at her lmao

she doesn't care because she fuckin Won

anyway, this is what I know about Zeke so far!! thanks for tuning in!!

[whimsicallyreading]

An angsty one-shot for your day. I stayed up way too late to write this.

CW- drinking

Aelin keeps the letters stacked neatly on her desk.

Each letter is stamped, addressed, and ready to mail. In tiny marks on the back, she writes the date every individual one was written. The envelopes are his favorite shade of green. A deep, pine color that she’d painstakingly scoured every stationary shop to find.

Delicately, Aelin seals the latest envelope and adds it to the growing pile.

My Love,

It’s almost winter here in Orynth. I know it’s your favorite season and you are probably sad to miss out, so I took a Polaroid of the clouds coming in over the staghorns for you.

Do you remember how we’d sit in front of Mistward every year and watch the first snow storm come in over the peeks? We would drink hot chocolate and talk for hours. About our families, our futures, anything and everything. It’s still one of my favorite traditions.

In fact, it’s where I am right now. Writing this letter to you. Just because you are overseas doesn’t mean you get to bail out. I bought two hot chocolates, but I suppose I’ll have to drink yours for you. What a shame.

Writing to Rowan was her weekly tradition since he got deployed. No matter how busy life got, every Friday she wrote him two full pages front to back. Whether she got to sit at her desk or had to scribble against the rusty bench at the bus stop, every inch was covered in her hand writing.

That was her personal rule. They had to be handwritten. Aelin felt it meant more that every piece of the letter was entirely from her. So she keeps a collection of colored pens handy for whenever the urge to speak to her husband grows to be too much.

At the bottom of the last page, next to her signature, Aelin always kisses the paper with red lipstick. Maybe it’s cheesy, but it’s the same shade she wore at their wedding.

You could see the ghosts of the color along his jawline in their favorite photos together. His beaming smile, the smudges of red on his face and the collar of his white dress shirt. A remnant from the happiest day of her life she thought would bring him comfort.

My love,

Winter is here! It’s so cold outside. You would say it’s this frigid every year, but it just feels different this time. Maybe it’s because you aren’t hear to snuggle up with and your side of the bed is empty? You were always so warm.

I keep your slippers by the couch. They are ridiculously huge on my feet, but I swear they still feel like you just walked in them. Your warmth is still there.

You would laugh if you saw me hobbling around the apartment in them. My toes slide all over the place. Truthfully, your feet are atrociously large, dear- Still they remind me of you, so I love them.

Aelin gets home late from work that night.

Humiliated tears sting her cheeks, even as she rubs them away. The feeling of that creep, Cairn’s, hands lingering on her ass.

She was used to fending off handsy patrons. What bothered Aelin is that when she complained to her boss, Erawan, he publicly berated her for instigating the customers.

None of the other waitresses would meet her eye when she looked for back up. Grave, the bartender, sniggered through the entire dressing down. Aelin could still feel their eyes on her skin as Erawan accused her of being provocative.

Rowan would have demanded she quit the job. He would have marched down to the bar and broken Cairn’s face. Possibly even held him back so Aelin could do it herself.

Aelin needs the money, though. Rowan’s accounts were frozen due to some stupid technicality at the bank. Without her paycheck, she would lose the apartment.

Sniffling, Aelin slides her feet into Rowan’s slippers and plops at her desk. It isn’t Friday yet, but she’s desperate to speak to him.

As her hand flows across the paper, Aelin knows she won’t describe the days events to him. He’s under enough stress without her work drama adding to his worries.

My love,

Yulemas is next week. Aedion is in Caraverre with Lysandra and our new nephew. Lorcan and Elide are going up from Perranth to stay with them, but the roads are so frozen in Orynth I may just stay here this year.

Besides, work is busy right now. They need someone to man the place for the people with nowhere to go for the holidays.

Maybe I’ll host a little celebration at the bar. Like we did that one year when we got stuck in the Hostel in Rifthold. We made the best of a bad situation, and it was the first time you told me you loved me. I think I’d like to relive a little of that this year.

I miss you. Please come home.

Aelin lays in her bed the night before Yulemas and sobs.

Ugly, guttural noises spill from her chest and she soaks their pillows with tears. The newest envelope is clutched against her chest, and the building stacks mock her from their spot across the room.

Her heart is so raw. Aelin knew it was a bad idea to count the letters, but there was so many. Curiosity got the better of her, and now she was bleeding for her mistake.

Fifty-six.

A full year of letters she hadn’t been able to send.

Rowan had only ever written her twenty before he was declared missing in action.

A year ago, she’d been hanging bobbles and decorating a tree knowing her husband only had a few weeks left of his tour.

Aelin had painted a welcome home banner, and her whole family made plans to come and spend the holiday with the soon-to-be-reunited couple.

She had his slippers waiting by the door. Rowan’s favorite blanket was laundered and folded on his side of the bed in case he wanted to lay down. Aelin had it on good authority that the bed would be one of the first places they visited when he arrived. Emerys had even given her a mixture of their favorite hot chocolate to make.

Everything was perfectly in place for his return.

That’s what when the soldiers arrived at her door and her world fell apart.

Lorcan came home a week later. He hugged Elide and she cried into his shoulder. Happy tears. So unlike the ones Aelin had been shedding. Her friend beamed ear-to-ear, as the love of her life gathered her into his arms and squeezed.

It was a touching sight, but Aelin could feel the hot knife being twisted in her chest. Elide’s happiness caused her physical pain, and it made her feel so selfish. She didn’t begrudge Lorcan his life, or Elide her joy- Aelin just missed her own husband.

Elide and Lorcan spent Yulemas together. Kissing and holding hands. Lysandra finally announced her pregnancy. Aedion’s expression when he opened the box with the baby onesie inside was priceless. Her cousin whooped and hollered, almost dancing with the prospect of becoming a father.

Aelin smiled. She gave her congratulations and celebrated with her family. They hugged, and laughed. Aedion took care to include her in everything, and she played her part even as she tried to ignore the concerned looks her family exchanged behind her back.

Aelin made it to lunch before she couldn’t take it anymore.

Fenrys was the one to find her having a panic attack on the bathroom floor. She hadn’t even known it was a panic attack. Aelin just assumed the pain of losing her soulmate was finally killing her. The tightening of her chest and the body aches felt enough like a heart attack to be convincing.

He gathered Aelin in his arms and counted breaths with her. His twin brother Connal was lost in the same fight where Rowan had gone down. Fen had seen the whole thing from the cockpit of his plain, and nothing he did could’ve saved them.

He shared his pain, and for the first time Aelin felt like someone understood her.

Fenrys let her lean on him as they excused themselves from the celebrations. They drove to some bar in Caraverre and spent the rest of the day wallowing over whiskey.

Aedion came to collect their drunken asses later that evening. Worry etched into every line of his kind face. It only made her feel ashamed that she’d rained all over their happy day.

He was going to be a father, and she’d forced him to spend his time fretting over her instead of reveling in that news.

Now here she was a year later. Aelin wasn’t going to subject herself to that again. Couldn’t. She wouldn’t force her grief upon anyone else this year, either. Just because she was hurting didn’t mean that everyone else had to suffer with her.

So, as Yulemas Eve came, and before she could finally distract herself with work, Aelin pulled Rowan’s blanket over herself. She’d spritzed it with his cologne, donned his shirt, and pulled his socks over her feet. Aelin did everything she could to feel surrounded by him.

Then, alone in their bed, she watched as the clock ticked down to midnight.

Rowan,

Wherever you are, I hope my words reach you and that you know you aren’t alone. I wish with every ounce of my being that I could trade places with you- would give anything, just to know where you are.

It breaks my heart, to be without you. Every breath seems pointless. I lied in my last letter. The roads aren’t frozen. I’m not needed at work. No one really needs me to be around them. I just couldn’t spend another holiday surrounded by happy people when the other half of my heart is gone from me.

When you come home, I will feel like celebrating again. I’ll wrap my arms around you, and we can make up for lost time. Just please, don’t make me wait too much longer.

Merry Yulemas, my love. We will be together again one day.

Until then, I’ll keep on writing, only so long as you don’t yield.

Sincerely, your loving wife

Aelin

[panda-writes-kpop]

One Year of ‘Panda-Writes-Kpop’, And I Think It’s Time We Had An Honest Conversation

Yep, you read the title right - it’s been one WHOLE year since I started writing on this blog. Well, technically, this Friday (the 22nd) is the one year anniversary, but I didn’t want to mess up my writing schedule, and it’s more convenient for me to publish this now. 

Now, before I continue, I just want to state that I mean to cause no alarm with the title. I promise I’m not going anywhere, but it’s time that I be honest with all of you about what goes on behind the computer screen sometimes. 

Let’s Talk About The Elephant In The Room - The Avengers AU!

Okay, so maybe you guys wouldn’t consider this the ‘elephant in the room’, but it is to me since I, you know, published the last teaser in January and haven’t done more than allude to it since then... whoops. Moving on, I am happy to announce that all of the chapters are fully written, and I just need to edit them and send the first chapter or two off to a beta reader (or two or four; you know who you are ;P) to make sure that I am producing the highest quality of content for you all!

This being said, I am finally ready to announce a date and schedule for the Avengers AU - granted that nothing else goes sideways. So... September 5th will the release date of the first chapter, and a new chapter will come out every three to four days. Now, if you’re scratching your head and wondering, “Katie, how will you work this into your writing schedule?” 

Oh my goodness, do I have a great solution for you, my pearls! I actually will not be posting any of my regular content during this time. I know that this may be disappointing for my readers who aren’t interested in this series, but think of it as a great time to explore other fantastic writers (I have plenty of recommendations, feel free to hit me up for some!), or if you feel so inclined, maybe you want to explore some of my content that you haven’t read yet! 

Also, something else to add, if any of you are fans of the Take Me Away series, then you’ll know that I explicitly stated that I was not going to take requests for that series. Well... that won’t be the case for this series. There are a lot of loose ends and potential dates/endings/relationships to be expanded upon, and I think you all would have way more creative ideas for what should be done from the ending point of the series than I would.

Writing’s Hard. I Know You All Probably Knew That, But It Doesn’t Make Anything Better

Yeah... I’ve been lacking a lot in creativity and motivation as of late. I don’t really know why, but it sucks when I have a lot of ideas and I’m not sure where I want to take them, or if I even want to write them at all. 

I feel pressured by my own very high personal standards to put out only the best of the best for people to read. I’m scared that people won’t like what I write, and, by correlation, me whenever I publish a new fic. Despite what you may or may not think about me, others’ perception of me is part of the validation I need in order to get through my day. I want people to tell me that I’m a good writer, not for the ego boost or anything, but because it helps me feel less like garbage when I get too much into my own head.

I don’t know, everyone, I just want to write because it’s my form of escapism. Sometimes, just writing helps me process my feelings better than talking to someone else. I love writing, just as I love different types of music. K-Pop is a music genre that I adore, along with the groups and idols in it, so it made sense to me to combine these two loves of mine. I didn’t think I’d get this far, and don’t get me wrong, I am so thankful for all of the love that I receive. Every person that I’ve had the pleasure of interacting with has been nothing but lovely and kind, and I hope I’ve had the same impact on them. 

That got quite sad fast... let’s move ahead and talk about something different.

What Does That All Mean, Katie?

I said I was going to be honest, so I will be. This fall, I’m going to be attending a local university to major in Chemical Engineering. I’ve spent the last few days applying to different workplaces in the hopes of getting a part-time job before I start going to college. I’m getting my first debit card in the mail sometime this week or next week.

Basically, I’m becoming an adult, and honestly, it’s terrifying. The realization that there’s a limit on the free time that I’ll have is scary to think about. I’m going to a new school that is exponentially larger than the high school that I went to. I’m scared that I’ll hate what I’m majoring in, and that everyone will be disappointed in me if I don’t please them.

I promise I’m not trying to be sad or anything, but I want to be realistic and honest. While taking a look through my blog, I had to be honest with myself. Do I love writing with all of my heart? Absolutely. Do I eventually want to take the experience I’ve had from writing here and use it to publish my own original novel? Yep! Is this blog something I can manage while toggling being a full-time university student and holding a part-time job?

Well, I guess we’ll find out together, huh? I promised you all in the beginning that I won’t be going anywhere, and for the most part, that statement is true. I won’t be abandoning this blog - but I will be making a few changes.

First off, the upload schedule’s got to change. After the Avengers AU is fully out and done, I will be going to one post a week. I’m thinking about doing Saturday or Sunday (aka the days I don’t have school LOL). I’ll probably be working on Saturdays in order to have some sort of income while I’m in college, so it’ll probably be either late Saturday night or sometime Sunday.

Second, anon asks - I’m going to try and dedicate one day a week (separate from the posting day, of course) to answering non-request anon asks all at once. I’m thinking about Wednesdays since that’s usually when I reply to anon asks, plus it’ll be a nice way to relax and unwind from college since I enjoy talking to you all.

Third, requests and the groups/idols I take requests for - I will keep requests open, but I ask for your patience since I will have a much smaller amount of time that I can spend on writing than I had before. A high school student has way more freedom than a college student has, or at least, that’s what I’m expecting. Something I’ve been thinking about changing, however, is the groups that I take requests for. I recently got a request for a 4th gen rookie girl group that I don’t write for, and I honestly want to write the request since I really enjoy that group’s debut. The problem is that I don’t know the group or idol well enough to write for that group yet. So, I’m going to allow requests for girl groups I don’t have on my Masterlist, but when you request for a group that I don’t write for, you understand that the request may take longer to be added to my WIP since I don’t know them that well. I would prefer if you all requested idols/groups that were on my stan list, but I’m not opposed to exploring new groups that I haven’t listened to yet.

The Future Looks Brighter Than Before... I Wonder Why That Is?

I know we’ve discussed some heavy information in the past sections, so I want to end on a positive note. Thank you all so, so much for supporting me through every hill and valley that I’ve had to climb over and under in order to bring you the highest quality content that I can. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been here from the beginning, if you’ve just met me, or if you come from somewhere in between. I love and appreciate all of you for everything you’ve done. You helped me survive and endure the last year of hell high school, and I can only hope that you will continue to support me for many anniversaries and future projects to come.

Speaking of future projects, since you’ve come this far, I do suppose you could use a bit of a ‘thank you’, huh? Feel free to let me know which fic or idea you’re looking forward to the most. 

The 7 Dreamers Separate AU Project - Basically, since I already wrote three longer AU fics for my ult girl group (Gunslinger! Dami, Ghost! Gahyeon, and Demon! SuA). I figured that the other four deserve to have a chance to shine as well. Look forward to fics about Princess! Handong, Monster Hunter! Siyeon, Egyptologist! JiU, and Zombie! Yoohyeon - the last will be a Halloween Special, FYI)

Gunslinger! Dami will make a return with more fun characters to be revealed, and more love and shenanigans to be experienced. Will Gahyeon get into another bar fight? We’ll just have to see...

Ghost! Gahyeon will also be making a return. I like to publish two Halloween fics - one that’s more angsty and horror (Ms. Zombie! Kim Yoohyeon for this year) and one that’s fluffier and sweeter. We’ll finally get some resolutions to the unanswered questions that left people on the edge of their seat.

I’ve done an elaborate AU for my Dreamcatcher girls, but don’t you think that some of my other girls deserve the same amount of love? Well, it won’t be as long as Dreamcatcher’s, but they will get lots of love from me. In case you were curious, here’s what I’ve been thinking:

Greek Mythology/Goddesses! - Itzy

Witch! - Blackpink

Dating Otome-Style AU! - Twice

Don’t have any ideas for the soloists, Red Velvet, or Mamamoo, but I’m more than open to suggestions!

To end the spoilers, I’m looking to add more soloists to my masterlist, and I have a couple in mind, but I’m curious about who you would like to see added to the list next! As for groups, I’m looking to balance out the Masterlist with some fourth gen girl groups, but there are so many potential candidates that I’m facing a bit of indecision at the moment lol.

[spaceskam]

The Road You Didn’t Take (7/7)

day 7 of @michaelguerinweek : “I’m only here to establish an... ali-bi.”

Happy bi visibility day!

ao3

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 

Michael woke up to the feeling of fingers on his jaw, tilting his head towards a pair of lips that kissed his nose and his cheek and eventually his lips when he made a noise to show he was awake.

Alex’s tongue slipped past his lips, bringing him to life nice and slow. If he woke up every morning like this, it would truly be heaven. Alex’s hand dragged over his side and pulled him as close as he could as he kissed him. Michael pressed against him and wanted to never move.

“You gotta get up,” Alex murmured as he broke the kiss. Michael whined, reluctantly opening his eyes. Alex was right there and looking all too beautiful for just having woken up. “You’ve got an interview. Go shower and make yourself look nice, I ordered food.”

“Can’t I just stay here?” Michael pleaded. Alex hummed, his thumb dragging over his bottom lip.

“No,” he said simply, “You need to get ready.”

“You’re a tease,” he complained.

“Mmm, is it teasing if we both know I’ll deliver later?” Alex asked. Michael nearly melted which only earned him two more kisses before Alex patted his hip. "Get up."

It took a lot more effort than he would ever imagine, but he managed to get out of bed and not fall over when he did so. Alex got out of bed much easier and stretched in all his half-naked glory. Yeah, this couldn't be real. There was no fucking way.

"Stop staring and go take a shower!" Alex laughed, "You gotta impress these people so you can get buff like you so desperately want."

Michael dragged himself to the bathroom and found himself smiling so wide that it hurt for no goddamn reason. Well, there was a reason. Because apparently he got to hook up with Alex now. That was something he could do. He didn't know what exactly that meant in the long run or if this was something they were going to keep doing, but he knew Alex promised more and he had an interview and he was on top of the world.

He'd been wanting something better for so long and finally he was getting that something better.

He came out of the shower as quick as possible, still drying himself off as he walked out. Alex was sitting on the desk, sipping coffee and looking at his phone. Michael hadn't seen him have a phone since the moment he stepped in his car on Friday.

"Look, see," Alex said, showing his phone to Michael as he came close. It was an instagram post on a Fever Dream fan account saying that Alex was seen in Mississippi. "Told you."

"That only has, like, 200 likes, did you search your name or something?" Michael laughed.

"I gotta know where they think I am so my band doesn't try to track me down," Alex said, " I left a note saying they could keep the name and their share of the royalties, but I'm not coming back.i still don't trust them to not make it harder."

"I'll keep you hidden," Michael promised. Alex smiled, leaning over to kiss his damp cheek.

"Thank you, but it'll come out eventually. I just need more time, you know?" he said. Michael nodded.

The delivery girl came as Michael texted Isobel good morning and a short promise to tell her about what happened. She sent back a series of emojis that seemed to show how scandalized she was. He just rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Alex. He rested his head on his shoulder they ate, refusing to sacrifice any semblance of closeness. Alex didn't seem to mind.

It was easy to be comfortable with him despite it being so new. Very new. He technically just met him two days ago and already he wanted to glue himself to his side. He'd never met anyone that made him feel like that. He refused to give it back.

"You know, if I get this job, I bet they'd be okay with you staying with me," Michael suggested casually. Alex laughed.

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I should get an apartment," Alex said. Michael sort of felt like that was a rejection, but he tried really hard not to. "Let's date first."

"Date," Michael repeated, "Going on a date with Alex Manes.That sounds like something teenage me manifested."

"But last night wasn't?" Alex laughed. Michael lifted his head.

"I was never bold enough to ever even consider that might happen. Still processing."

"Let me help you process some more," Alex offered, his fingers pressing into Michael's jaw to pull him in for a kiss. It was more than welcome.

They sat and kissed for a long time, just making out like they had all the time in the world. In some way, they kind of did have all the time in the world. Wasn't that something?

"Alright, let's go so you're not late," Alex said.

They made their way towards the front desk and that same kid was back for his night shift. He paled a little when he saw Alex again, but Alex just smiled slyly and walked right up him.

"We're gonna check out," Alex said. The kid nodded and started to pull up the paper they needed to sign.

"So, where are y'all headed?" he kid asked.

"Florida," Alex answered easily. Michael didn't question him, choosing to stay quiet until they got into the car

"Florida?" Michael asked.

"I'm only here to establish an alibi," Alex stated with a sigh. Michael smiled and shook his head.

"Fair enough."

Alex took his hand again as they followed the GPS directions towards the farm. The closer they got, the more neevous Michael felt, but he tried to hide it as best as he could. He just needed to stay calm. Alex was going to wait at a coffee shop that was a few miles away and look online for an actual hotel to stay at until he found an apartment. They were going to start a life here. A new one where they were happy and unbothered. Or that was the plan.

"You're going to do incredible," Alex promised as the got to the coffee shop. Michael was too nervous to make a comment on whether he believed that or not. Alex grabbed his face and kissed him enough to take away some of it. "Call me when you're done?"

A stupid, giddy smile found Michael's face. "I don't have your phone number."

"Whoops," Alex laughed. He took his phone though and typed it in before giving it back. He gave him another kiss before getting out of the car and going inside. Michael took a deep breath before heading towards the farm.

He was greeted by an older couple who were immediately welcoming. They explained that the heavy lifting was getting a little more difficult in their old age and their son was leaving for college and didn't have plans on coming back to the farm, so they needed someone to help out. He promised he was down for anything and they liked the sound of that. They showed him to the little airstream that was on the far end of the property that even had its own driveway towards the main road. It was small, but it was enough and it would be the first time he had his own space. He wondered if he and Alex could fit in the bed.

They showed him around the farm, the different barns, the different fields, and introduced him to the animals. Anything he wasn't sure how to do, he promised he could learn. Which he could. He'd always been a fast learner. He found himself getting giddy as he pet the cows and got a look at the tractor. It all was so appealing to him. Why hadn't he done this before? He remembered being so deadset on being an agricultural engineer that it hadn't even crossed his mind to do something similar. This felt similar.

Not only did it feel similar, it felt like the start of something new. It felt like he was finally going to be able to be himself. Truly and purely and he was excited.

Damn, it felt good to be excited.

"So when can you start?"

[the-colony-roleplay]

COL22EVENT ⚔️ DRUNK MAN’S CHEST: Victory Party ⚔️

It was a little late, by the time the party came about—almost exactly two weeks after Delma’s victory in the first Games of the season—but Felix Turner had always been of the mind that ‘a little late’ was a perfectly acceptable trade off for something to be done right. This party was about him after all.

...Well, okay, it was technically about Delma and their ‘exciting’ victory—which was ironic considering Felix pretty much hated everything about his first experience with Colony 22′s infamous Games and most of the people in his house didn’t even seem to like him—but beneath the surface, this party was really about Felix. This was his chance to show off a little, and to prove that even if not everyone here recognized his name or respected his celebrity, it still had a place here; it still pulled some weight. It didn’t matter what stupid-bitch-face   Whitmer had to say, Felix was still a cut above the rest and that’s just the way it was. 

So this had to be right. Especially because, though he was unlikely to admit it, he was actually pretty desperate to find acceptance here. Which was like, sort of gross to think about, considering this entire Colony was basically one giant damp and odorous reject’s table, but whether he liked it or not, he was stuck here now and had to make the most of it. Besides, now that he was starting to form relationships here he actually cared about, he couldn’t risk letting a—totally undeserved—bad reputation ruin them.

In the end, his conversation with Koda about the decor had indeed convinced him to adjust his initial vision a bit. There was no way he was going manage a totally modern club vibe in this shit hole, so he figured he may as well... lean into the rustic thing as creatively as possible. But it had to be fun and surprising and it had to take people’s breath away, so Felix definitely still had his work cut out for him. That first week of March quickly became a blur of around-the-clock prep. Thank God for the help from Koda and Angel because even between the three of them, hunting down all the decoration materials had been a nightmare: Hours of sorting through the storage boxes Cambie had told him about (mostly a lot of fugly junk and tinsel), and days of Felix personally harassing trade merchants and marines. Though, having a person like Angel on his good side definitely paid off some in that department. 

And then there were all those extra hours he’d put in with Bee to polish up their dance. When he’d convinced her to agree to get it ready in time for the party, he’d acted like he’d not had any concern at all about whether or not they could pull it off. But he was concerned. Because just ‘pulling it off’ wasn’t good enough. They had to nail this. His reputation was at stake, and honestly, he couldn’t think of much worse a threat. He knew they both had the chops to do it, but that didn’t mean they could slack off. It’d been a long time since he’d danced in front of people. Plus he’d had to practice his vocal performances too... those came easier, because much of it was like muscle memory, but he was still nervous.

The evening of Friday the 4th, Fee arranged to have the Catch closed early (thanks Dad), and he, Koda and Angel loaded in boxes and got to work. When Tuck In came around, they were excused from roll call (thanks Angel), and they continued on until Fee’s fingertips were sore from using the staple gun to hang the sting lights. At which point, he’d passed it off to Koda, whose decorated hands were much stronger and more deft with these things (read: he was less of a pansy), and so they went a few hours longer. By the time they decided to call it a night, it was well into the early hours of the morning, and a very good thing they’d been excused from their Saturday wake up calls and activities (thanks Cambie). God, it was nice to be so well connected.

During the set up, Xavier Crane had stayed around after closing to supervise Fee’s little decoration team, which wouldn’t have bothered Felix so much if the bartender had just minded his own bloody business. He’d kept moaning stupidly about ‘Powerpack Limits’ when Fee had been testing out the twinkle lights and fog machine, and then when he’d been looking for a outlet for the dance floor tiles (for which he’d paid a bloody fortune to get off the Market), the bartender had had the audacity to interrupt again. Felix, of course, had gritted his teeth, plastered on a snide smile and kindly reminded him that he was Felix Fucking Turner and he knew exactly what he was doing, thank you very much.

Catch 22 remained closed and locked all of Saturday before the party, and Fee and Angel handled any necessary finishing touches. They even had time for one more quick tech run. By supper time, Felix was practically trembling with anticipation, and in the dining hall, gently excited chatter about the party could be overheard at every table. It left Felix feeling quite pleased with himself.

And the young, idyllic socialite would soon be equally as smug when the first half of the party and its opening performances go off without a hitch. In the hours that follow, however, he would come to wish he’d not dismissed Crane’s grumpy mutterings quite so hastily...

CHECK OUT FULL EVENT DETAILS AND SUMMARY UNDER THE CUT!

Welcome To: ⚔️ DRUNK MAN’S CHEST: A DELMA VICTORY PARTY ⚔️

This post marks the official commencement of Colony 22′s 8th non-games related event, “Drunk Man’s Chest”!

                                        ⚔️ Event Details ⚔️

Date: Saturday, March 5th, 2163 Time: 8pm-1am (doors @7:30) Location: Catch 22 Note: In lieu of a cover charge, Felix requests that guests consider donating credits at the door to compensate the Trade Merchants and Elites who made the event possible.

Alrighty mateys!! We’re pleased to bring you this belated but eagerly anticipated Delma Victory Party thrown by none other than The Felix Tee (insert groans and exasperated/fond eye rolls as necessary). Since this is a follow up to our last event and the first Games of Colony 22′s 2163 season, Dead Man’s Chest, Felix and his happy helpers have carried on with the swashbuckling theme.

It is not explicitly a costume party, but it is themed, so attendees are encouraged to dress up. At the door, citizens will receive gold ‘doubloons’ which they can exchange at the bar for complimentary drinks of their choice. They may also order from a menu of three feature cocktails, designed and named specifically for the night’s celebrations, by none other than yours truly. Doubloons allowance per citizen will be allotted as follows:

Delma SC1, SC2 & Elites: 4 doubloons

Delma SC3: 3 doubloons

Brink, Calyset, Torren SC1, SC2 & Elites:  3 doubloons

Brink, Calyset, Torren SC3s: 2 doubloons

Doubloons have a value of one drink each. Excess cocktails and other beverages may be purchased using individual credits, at standard bar price. Alcoholic consumption regulations according to the New Wave Mandate still apply.

Additionally, in the interest of inclusivity, Felix is providing complimentary earplugs at the door for any increased hearing citizens who feel they might need them for the dance party. (Due to limited quantities, they are reserved only for Infected citizens.)

                                     ⚔️ Decor & Menu ⚔️

Decor for the bar and table sections of the Catch was inspired with a ‘crow’s nest’ aesthetic in mind. Enough twinkle and string lights have been hung from walls, ceilings, posts and tables to replace the overhead lights entirely, which have been left off. Every table and booth features a rustic candle centrepiece (tea-lights dropped into short, somewhat mismatched, frosted-glass candle holders of coppers and golds) and rolled bits of parchment tied with twine, designed to look like treasure maps.

The walls and surfaces are modestly scattered with a variety of pirate and captain’s hats, as well as a few classily-displayed maps—some printed and some tastefully hand drawn.

The feature cocktail selections are as follows:

The Delma Daiquiri Rum, lime juice, and simple syrup with a splash of cherry liqueur. Blended with raspberry puree* and ice. Garnished with a maraschino cherry.

Feequila Sunrise Tequila and grenadine topped with delicious, foamy peach juice shaken over ice for a glimpse of that sunrise on the horizon! Garnished with a fuzzy peach candy.

TeeTotal A non-alcoholic mocktail shaken with lime juice, honey and black current puree*, topped off with sparkling water.

**All purees and juices made from tinned fruit.

                                     ⚔️  Performances ⚔️

Performances start at 8:30pm and take place on the Catch 22 stage. The Catch having been set up for small performances plenty of times before, this portion of the evening is executed with no hiccups.  One hand-designed set list on parchment-like paper is found on every table.

As a whole, the vocal performances have a laid-back, acoustic vibe. The dance performances, however, close the showcase with a lively and upbeat mood. Before the show, Felix also reminds citizens that some dance performances (*cough*) may not be appropriate for all audiences.

Of course, Felix had made Corbin promise [x] that this ‘exotic dance’ of his would not be a strip show and, like a fool, he’d believed him. The afternoon before, he’d watched the inked Delma install a pole (that he’d apparently gotten off the trade market years ago...) at the back of the stage and practice a few (begrudgingly impressive) moves.

But tonight, when the time comes for the showcase’s highly anticipated closing number and Felix quietly flicks on the smoke machine, he is suddenly reminded that Corbin is known around Delma for his exhibitionism, not his honesty. And so, biting his lip nervously, he watches on amidst a whooping crowd as Corbin—on brand as ever—makes a meal out of baring it all.

Check out the full set list on the graphics blog, HERE! Please also check out the source links for the songs as I’ve carefully picked out acoustic versions to represent each in-verse performance as closely as possible! (With the exception of Angel’s songs, who is mostly singing to Echo Tracks). The dance performances feature example source links as well!

                                         ⚔️  Dance Party ⚔️

When the performance showcase is over, the real party begins. Live music is replaced with Echo playlists filtering through the sound system (Felix’s opportunity to boast many of his own dancier tracks, of course), and the relaxed, rustic vibe is no more. The twinkle lights around the bar stay, but with the bass bumping and the moon now high in the sky, Felix slips behind a curtain and starts flicking switches like a tot smashing elevator buttons.

Blacklight tube fluorescents spring to life along the back walls. Overhead, a rotating disco ball blinks multicolours and begins to sparkle and turn. Felix starts cracking and throwing glow sticks and bracelets into the crowd by the the dozens like a manic Twink-Oprah: ‘You get a glow stick and you get a glow stick and you get a glow stick!!’

And finally, the dance floor starts to glow, too. 

Though there is usually some open space in front of the stage, tonight all of the free standing tables have been pushed tighter together into other areas of the bar to make room for the easy-snap LED tiles that have been laid down (in roughly a ten by twelve quadrant). When turned on, these tiles light in a variety of colours and respond to vibrations, pulsing and changing to the beat of music.

The crowd responds well with whoops and cheers and calls for more drinks, and it’s everything Felix had hoped for. It’s also the beginning of everything Crane had warned him about. With the blenders still whirring away with drink orders, and the old, creaky ice machine straining to keep up, Felix’s party is suddenly asking for much more than what the Powerpacks allotted to the Catch can provide. Fortunately for the attendees, between the P-Packs and the back up auxiliary power,  it would be enough to keep the fun afloat. Unfortunately for Felix, his arrogance would yet again be at fault for his own disappointment and embarrassment.

                                       ⚔️ The Mishaps ⚔️

Technically speaking, the disruptions in the rest of the night’s electrical can be relatively easily explained: because of the overloaded power supply, periodical power surges will cause Catch 22′s Powerpack Supply (PPS) to fail, and the back up auxiliary power from the Colony’s main frame to kick in. However, this is a system designed specifically for emergencies, and once the PPS reboots, anything drawing electrical power will falter for a moment as its source switches back to the PPS.

This is the simplified explanation of the cause. However, the visible results, for anyone who doesn’t know anything about electrical systems, just wind up looking a bit like something out of a made-for-TV haunting flick. Of course, after a handful of incidences, the average person may put two and two together rather quickly. Felix, however, despite Crane’s insistent ‘I told you so’s is secretly becoming increasingly convinced that perhaps it’s not the power at all, but rather the Praeterics—the Poltergeists of the Colony—trying to mess with him and ruin his special night.

Below is a list of some of the disruptions experienced periodically over the rest of the night.

Flickering lights: including surging and weakening

Momentary power failures: lights, music and appliances all lose power and return about 8-10 second later with the auxiliary power

Weird humming and buzzing coming from light fixtures and sockets: usually moments before a power failure

Berserk blenders: brief power surges sending any appliances in use on the fritz

Lawless locking mechanisms: due to the frequent switching back and forth between the power supplies, the emergency security systems begin to malfunction. As many blackout protocols include lockdowns for security reasons, the system’s automated lock responses are now getting backed up and confused. The result is individuals getting locked in and out of the Catch’s only washroom (multi-stalls and gender neutral) as well as the front and back doors of the Catch, for periods ranging from two to ten minutes.

The above ‘mishaps’ all occur repeatedly over the course of the evening, some more frequently than others. 

There is one more malfunction slated to occur which does not appear on this list, as it will only happen once near the end of the night, and it will be announced on the main blog sometime before the wrap of the event.

                                       ⚔️ RP Guidelines ⚔️

All our standard event guidelines with which most of you will be familiar apply again, and they are as follows:

As of right now, you may not post any new threads that are not affiliated with the event or in alignment with this timeline.

You may continue any old threads you have going, though we ask that you tag them #preevent or indicate they are pre-event in the timeline. This is just to help keep things clear on the dash as to what’s going on at the party and what’s not.

All new event threads being posted must be titled as such, indicating that they are Event threads. So they could look something like this:

PARTY PARTY YEAHHH // FELIX + WHOEVER // DRUNK MAN’S CHEST OR LIKE:

SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS-SHOTS | T.A. & M.P | DMC OR LIKE:

BOOTEH BOOTEH ROCKIN’ EVERYWHERE | CORBIN AND ? {EVENT} …and so on and so forth. Formatting does not matter! Do it however you like. Just indicate somewhere in the title bar that it is event related. 

You are also permitted to do threads that take place anytime Saturday the 5th before the event, if you want to do getting ready threads or anything like that. However, for clarity we suggest you indicate this somewhere in your tags, title or with a timestamp at the top or your starter. 

Also, since it’s a theme party: You may post photos of your character’s clothing/outfit(s) etc, if you wish, but you are by no means obligated to do so. Feel free to post these to your own blog. However, if you make any stylized graphic-art related to the event, please submit them to the graphics blog as usual.

Finally, please tag all your photos, self paras and event starters with #COL22DMC (and don’t forget the regular starter tag for starters as well!) 

Alright, it’s been literally a million days since I started writing this post (I’m not kidding, I’ve somehow been working on this event for about ten hours a day, three days straight *dies*) and I think that just about wraps it up?!?!? I survived!!! Leave it to fucking Felix Turner to make me work so damn hard on a stupid little party.  

A MASSIVE shout out to Lottie for helping me brainstorm and work out the details for the framework of this event, and to Maddie for all her wonderful input with drink menus and other things!! Also, thank you everyone for your patience in reading this mile-long post, and without further adieu, I set you all free to do your RP thang! (Fly my pretties, flyyy!!!) 

And remember! Please, please direct any inquiries you may have along the way to the main blog’s ASK so that the mods can address them publicly if need be in case other people have similar questions or concerns!

Big Big Love,

Your Colony 22 Mods!! Xx

[silenthillmutual]

horror/thriller movie recommendations based on your fave Danganronpa 1/2 character

the series in general: Saw (2004, dir. James Wan) - i can’t give much of a reasoning for this as i haven’t seen it but the “punishment fits the victim” trope appears to be a thing in Saw?

Makoto Naegi: It (2017, dir. Andres Muschietti) - as much about the power of friendship as it is about a fear beyond all others. the premise is probably relatively well known by now for the fact that there’s a big clown in it. content warnings: clowns, unsanitary, implied incest and csa.

Sayaka Maizono: Psycho (1960, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - this suggestion is an incredibly cheap shot, please forgive me. famous film, not sure if i can talk too much about the plotline without giving away the most important part.

Mukuro Ikusaba: Us (2019, dir. Jordan Peele) - doppelgangers show up to wreak havoc on an american family. themes of identity theft. much bloodier than Get Out. 

Leon Kuwata: Scream (1996, dir. Wes Craven) - admittedly haven’t seen this either yet. i know, i know, i’m a fake horror fan. but i know that it was made as a sort of tongue-in-cheek homage to the tropeyness of horror films, and i didn’t want to put any movie too blatantly humorous here. i thought this would fit Leon.

Chihiro Fujisaki: A Quiet Place (2018, dir. John Krasinski) - monsters that attack based on noise terrorize a family. most dialogue is delivered through sign language. also has a really touching family dynamic, especially between the father and his children.

Mondo Oowada: Pet Sematary (1989, dir. Mary Lambert) - haven’t seen this one either, whoops. all i know is it’s about, like, bringing people back from the dead or something, and that it’s based on a Stephen King book.

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: The Stand (1994, dir. Mick Garris) - technically a miniseries, but i wasn’t really sure what other horror story fit him. it’s the world at the end in a final battle between good and evil, and nothing says Ultimate Moral Compass more than that to me.

Hifumi Yamada: Strangers on a Train (1951, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - the whole “i’ll do your murder if you do mine” kinda hits for chapter 3 i think. i also remember his hostage being his sister, so he’d probably like the relationship between Anne and Barbara.

Celes Ludenberg: Crimson Peak (2015, dir. Guillermo del Toro) - there’s a line the main character says that’s something to the effect of how she’d rather be like Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley because she died a widow? that’s Celescore. content warning: incest.

Sakura Oogami: Hereditary (2018, dir. Ari Aster) - both in the way that her dojo is a family business and in the themes of being afraid of hurting your loved ones. content warnings: child death, car accident, decapitation, possession, drug usage.

Toko Fukawa: Rebecca (1940, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - again haven’t watched or read the book on which it is based but the fact alone that it is based on a book? and it’s not directed by stanley kubrick’s book-ruining ass?

Byakuya Togami: Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - based on a play which itself was probably based loosely on the Leopold & Loeb case, it’s famous in part for its protagonists being gay. also they have superiority complexes and think that the privileged few should be allowed to murder inferior people because they’re above morality.

Yasuhiro Hagakure: A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984, dir. Wes Craven) - i feel like this is closer to what his brand of horror would be, but also people not really believing that what’s happening is actually happening is kind of his m.o. too. content warning: i don’t remember if this is explicit in the original or not, but Freddy Krueger was a pedophile.

Aoi Asahina: Friday the 13th (1980, dir. Sean S. Cunningham) - again i just think this is closer to what Hina’s brand of horror would be, but also i feel like the summer camp aesthetic would be for her.

Kyouko Kirigiri: The Secret in Their Eyes (2009, dir. Juan Jose Campanella) - i don’t totally remember it but detective going off the rails trying to solve a rape & murder case. Very intense, but very good.

Junko Enoshima: Midsommar (2019, dir. Ari Aster) - gaslighting people into joining a death cult? yeah, that screams junko. content warnings: graphic suicide, drug usage, gaslighting, people on fire, nudity, sex.

Monokuma: Child’s Play (1988, dir. Tom Holland) - creepy toy carrying the soul of a murderer. still need to finish watching this one, other than “creepy doll” i don’t have anything to offer in the way of content warnings. 

Hajime Hinata: Get Out (2017, dir. Jordan Peele) - reluctant to go too much into details because i wouldn’t want to spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it, but the experiment done on Hajime vibes w this movie. content warning in that this film is about racism.

Twogami: Vertigo (1958, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) - too many details would give away spoilers but the identity theft theme of the film fits for a guy whose talent is in identity theft.

Teruteru Hanamura: Halloween (1978, dir. John Carpenter) - had a hard time thinking of a horror movie for Teruteru, but Halloween (and 80′s slashers in general) have a tendency to punish the horny.

Mahiru Koizumi: I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997, dir. Jim Gillespie) - would it be too much of a spoiler to say there’s similarities between this film & what gets Mahiru killed in-game?

Peko Pekoyama: The Purge (2013, dir. James DeMonaco) - people using masks to enact what they feel is justified revenge on the one day of the year when all crime is legal.

Hiyoko Saionji: The VVitch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers) - based on colonial-era folk tales about witches. very atmospheric, features the same kind of abusive slut-shaming verbal assaults Hiyoko hurls at others. content warning for briefly implied incest, some nudity, and parents being shitty.

Ibuki Mioda: Green Room (2015, dir. Jeremy Saulnier) - still need to see this one; punk band tries to survive to the end of the night after witnessing neo-nazis commit a murder.

Mikan Tsumiki: Carrie (1976, dir. Brian De Palma) - another film based on a stephen king novella, and also a pretty famous story. a longtime bullying & abuse victim starts to lose her shit after she begins developing telepathy. content warning for some nudity, fire, and an abusive mother.

Nekomaru Nidai: Les Yeux Sans Visage (1960, dir. Georges Franju) - wasn’t really sure where to go with him either, at first, and settled on body horror considering what happens to him later in-game. a doctor attempts to find a new face for his daughter after she is left disfigured from an accident. 

Gundham Tanaka: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1921, dir. Robert Wiene) - a mad scientist claims his hypnotized ‘somnambulist’ can see into the future, including the deaths of carnival-goers. highly influential silent film, german expressionist so peak aesthetic.

Nagito Komaeda: The Silence of the Lambs (1991, dir. Jonathan Demme) - it’s probably well enough known for Hannibal the Cannibal being in it, but it’s worth noting he’s not the primary antagonist of the film. he is the most memorable part of it, and his psychoanalysis is what made me think of Komaeda. content warnings for gore, sexual harassment, referenced cannibalism, period-typical transphobia (period is the late 80s/early 90s).

Chiaki Nanami: V/H/S (2012, various directors) - a horror anthology film of found-footage type shorts, not shown in chronological order of events. i don’t really remember the contents enough for warnings, check at your own risk.

Akane Owari: The Blair Witch Project (1999, dirs. Eduardo Sanchez & Daniel Myrick) - don’t really have a good reason for this one other than “they all go feral, which Akane is seconds from doing at any given moment.” i think she’d dig it. no real content warnings to be had, the original found footage film.

Kazuichi Souda: Jaws (1975, dir. Stephen Spielberg) - i’m not even entirely sure i know what would make him like it, maybe just the mechanical shark? i think we all know this as the movie that made people double down on their hatred of sharks. i don’t particularly care for it, but it’s popular.

Sonia Nevermind: Perfume: Story of a Murderer (2006, dir. Tom Tykwer) - follows a would-be perfumer as he murders women in an attempt to create the perfect scent. in retrospect i probably should have picked something based on a real crime, but i still think she’d like this one.

Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu: M (1931, dir. Fritz Lang) - when the police fail to catch a serial child murderer, the criminal underworld steps up to take action into their own hands. fitting, no?

Usami: Trick ‘r Treat (2007, dir. Michael Doughtery) - another sort of anthology film that follows what happens to townsfolk when they don’t abide by Halloween traditions. i put it for Usami because i thought it was actually kind of cute, as far as horror films go.

[theonyxpath]

WOW! What a weekend!

And it started with our Legendlore Kickstarter funding on Friday! Now we’re moving into Stretch Goals – so please, if you haven’t already, check it out! The link is below in the Kickstarter section!

And and, to get you started, here’s a review of the free PDF of the complete text for the book linked on the KS site: https://thetabletopalmanac.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/rpg-reviews-legendlore-manuscript-preview/

Of course, this leaves the rest of the weekend, which just happened to consist of the first-ever Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention!

What a fun time!

We really didn’t know how folks would respond, but now that the three days of panels and gaming are done, I can say that our community was in turns hilarious, supportive, giving, excited, and energized. And that energy really flowed right back into all the events and energized all of us!

I mean, we’re still tired as all get out – who’d have thought that a con I could attend from my own house would do that? – but pretty sure we’re all still feeling the love, too.

Just to pull the giving part out for a second, we are absolutely thrilled that our charity goals were blasted through sometime mid-con, and we’ll be donating over a thousand dollars to each of our excellent causes: The Bodhana Group, and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund!

Now, back to the whooped by the con part, we are and I am, so today I’m just going to pull out some impressions of the events from a bunch of us who normally would have had our Monday Meeting today – we rescheduled it for later this week.

SCENES FROM A VIRTUAL CON:

Matthew: The Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention was the first con I helped organise, and while it had its share of stresses in the setup, it came to excellent fruition due to the fantastic teamwork of everyone working hard behind the scenes and amazing engagement from viewers, panelists, players, and those who donated to our charities and took advantage of our sales on onyxpathcon.com

RichT: I started us off on Friday night with the Opening Keynote speech, and then just sort of chatted with Matt McElroy, Dixie Cochran, Eddy Webb, and Matthew Dawkins about what was coming with the con.

For me, I then rolled into my first game, I played one per day, which was the first Actual Play of Exalted Essence. It really did run both fast and smoothly, and all of the various Exalted types we were playing had their times to shine. I was able to put a different, more easy-going, pie-eating, spin on my bear-totemed Lunar who still wound up grappling with the big bad and bear-hugging them in place for Danielle’s Solar to practically one-shot the sucker!

Ian: Convention was great, despite a few hiccups. I was on two streams early on: one Friday evening and one Saturday morning, and then the rest of the con was “free.” Travis and the GG crew were all-stars. Travis couldn’t get Nightbot working for a bit so I took over the random prize drawing for a few streams. I was often juggling two different streams in different monitors to help keep dialogue going in chat. Kudos to everyone, especially those of you who worked multiple panels and games in a single day.

RichT: In fact, the panel Ian refers to on Saturday morning was the “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” panel that started off the day at 9am. This is a panel where a bunch of developers and I talk about upcoming projects for their lines, and answer questions. Eddy and I started doing them about a decade ago when it was “What’s Up With White Wolf?”, but changed the name for obvious reasons after Onyx Path appeared.

During that panel, a couple of things came up: Matthew teased that we might very well do They Came From (the Old West!, or something more flavorful that fits the genre) as the third They Came From game, and Ian talked about Trinity Continuum: Aeon Mission Statements, a book all about the organizations in the setting that aren’t the Psi-Orders. We also noticed that some folks in the chat were new to Onyx Path and what we create, so that was unexpected but welcome news!

Then, I played my second game of the con, which was a sneak preview of Scion: Demigod! Neall took us through a voyage to the Grecian Afterlife, using the Ready Made Characters from Heroes of the World and I got to play a stern Horace Farrow ala Sam Elliott, while Steffie cut up many, many things with Yukiko’s Grass-Cutter Sword. Then, another panel on Community Content and why it rocks wrapped up my Saturday.

Matthew: I didn’t encounter one instance of bad behaviour in chat or anything dubious discussed on screen in games or on panels, and I attended most that I could as a viewer, if I wasn’t an active participant.

Viewership of panels and games peaked at around 250 to 300 people at one time for a couple of the shows, and bottomed out at around 50 people. Those are good figures. Our subscriptions and follows on Twitch rocketed, with many subscriptions being gifted by viewers and even more just being purchased or acquired via Amazon Prime.

My own highlight is impossible to choose between the games and panels I ran or appeared on, though the “Create Your Best Character” panel, which I suspected would be a sleeper, turned into an excellent talk on not playing harmful stereotypes and break out of dangerous tropes.

Eddy: The convention was great for me. My scheduling was a little odd, and I ran into one minor technical issue, but otherwise it went smoothly and it seemed like people in the chat were excited and appreciative. I felt like we got to dig into topics we aren’t able to do in normal convention settings, and attendance was definitely higher than usual for panels at other shows. I also heard that people had a good time watching the games or playing in ad-hoc games all weekend. I know there were some problems on the back-end of getting this all together, but I don’t think any of our attendees noticed anything but a nice, polished experience.

RichT: Sunday started out just like Saturday, with the second “What’s Up With Onyx Path?” panel, although with a different set of developers. The big news was when Eddy ratted out that he was working on Squeaks in the Dark, the mice/rats supplement for Realms of Pugmire!

I then had my second panel on Sunday, the “Art of Onyx Path” one, where Mirthful Mike Chaney joined three of our freelance artists and I in discussing just how illustrators work for us: how they submit their work, how they are contacted, how art notes work, how artists work, and what sort of music do we listen to while doing illustrations. Lots of great questions from the audience, and a wide range of experience within the panel, made it really interesting.

RichT: Then my Sunday game was the first public playtest of They Came From Beyond the Grave! run by Matthew, and featuring Dixie’s Rose Thorne, a driven vampire hunter with attitude, and 70s hair. She teamed up with B. Dave Walters’ smoooth street investigator to blast the ever-lovin’ hell out of evil cultists, while Ian Mueller’s exorcist (sorta) shot the big bad between the eyes with Rose’s derringer, and my slightly odd professor tried to save as much weird-science lab equipment as he could. Science! We left the haunted house as the superimposed fire effect began to devour it, fortunately for all involved (except the dead 70s prog-rock star sacrificed by the cultists).

I immediately had to log into my last event, but what a special event it was! Added late in the proceedings as we had to work within a lot of people’s schedules, I was thrilled to sit down with a bunch of my old co-workers at the original White Wolf in a “Memories of WW” panel with Bill Bridges, Rich Dansky, Ethan Skemp, Mike Tinney, and my old go-to designer for graphics, Matt Milberger.

Much reminiscing occurred, interposed with questions from the chat, that pretty much focused on our time from the early 90s to the early 2000s, although we did chat a bit about the late, lamented WoD MMO, as most of us worked on that in one capacity or another. Mike talked about how he cozened us an arcade version of Dark Stalkers for our little lunchroom, and we had fond memories of the WW Blood Bowl League.

(My Children of the Khorne chaos team won the cup two seasons in a row, just sayin’).

And although I didn’t want it to end, it did, and my time at the first-ever Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention was over. Which was actually pretty good because my brain was on autopilot at that point.

Ian: Everyone on both sides of the screen seemed to have a great time, and the only real complaints I heard were that there were too many good things happening at once and people had to make a choice on which stream to watch.

Matthew: While many games had a tendency to overrun, I’d say they each ran to optimal length and didn’t cause too much disruption farther up the schedule.

RichT: Which are all good things to happen, actually, with your first online convention, so we’re going to review all the metrics we can gather ourselves and from the super folks at Gehenna Gaming, and see what we can learn from all that.

Will we do another one? We just don’t know yet, but whether we do or not, this one sure did what we wanted to do – folks who attended had a whole lot of fun! If you missed out and want to watch the games and panels, they are currently on the Onyx Path and Gehenna Gaming Twitch channels for subscribers, but will soon migrate over to the Onyx Path YouTube page for all to watch!

So, from all of us to all of you, whether you attended or didn’t, thanks for making it a real joy to walk with you exploring:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

The Legendlore Kickstarter funded right before we started the Virtual Con last week! A really great way to start things off! Now we’re building towards Stretch Goals: the GM’s Screen, and starting the Legendlore Companion book PDF!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/339646881/legendlore-rpg-setting-for-5th-edition-fantasy-roleplaying-0

Grab your friends and escape to another world!

You’ve found an enchanted portal — a transition point — between worlds. The portal, called a Crossing, takes you to a world you thought only existed in novels and films: a magical land where dragons roam the skies, orcs and hobgoblins terrorize weary travelers, and unicorns prance through the forest. It is a world where humans join other peoples such as elves, trolls, dwarves, changelings, and the dreaded creatures who steal the night. It is a world of fantasy — of imagination.

It is the Realm.

It is Legendlore.

Onyx Path Media!

This week: the most exciting episode of the Onyx Pathcast ever, recorded live at the Onyx Path Virtual Gaming Convention!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Hi all!

We’ll be back next week with our usual promotion of all the excellent games on our Twitch and YouTube channels, but for now, we encourage you to do what it seems a lot of people are doing right now, and hop over to our Twitch: twitch.tv/theonyxpath

While the convention has ended, but subscribing to our Twitch channel (which you can do for free if you have Amazon Prime), you get access to all the panels and games that ran on it over the convention weekend. So, if you missed a panel or game you really wanted to watch, head on to our Twitch, subscribe, and browse our back catalogue!

Other than our content, we would like to promote a couple more games for those without Twitch:

Occultists Anonymous continue their excellent Mage: The Awakening game here:

Episode 106: Friends & Minions The cabal combats the uninvited guest summoned by an Exarchal Supernal Being. The danger of the Exarchal attention prompts further investigations away from the Supernal. https://youtu.be/YSErlwnC7Nc

Episode 107: Making Promises Songbird reaches out to the Queen of the Vampires of New York about a divine blessing. Wyrd and Atratus hatch a plan to make a car… https://youtu.be/dueYYUl0FrY

And A Bunch of Gamers have just started up a two-part extravaganza of They Came from Beneath the Sea! right here:

The Crabby Lizard from the Murkey Depths

Episode 1: In the small east coast town of Chatham Massachusetts things are easy. The soda pop shop is ready for any of the locals. The city comes together for a bake sale to help their neighbors, and everyone knows each other. All that changes when a strange electrical storm and a booming voice can be heard over the jukebox. Tonight, the strange, the horrid, the damp creatures from beyond the stars and the depths of the sea rise up to meet the people of Chatham.https://youtu.be/UwxzdwVoYQE

The Tabletop Almanac has released a lovely review of Legendlore that you’ll want to see! https://thetabletopalmanac.wordpress.com/2020/06/15/rpg-reviews-legendlore-manuscript-preview/

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to get Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau out into stores, as well as to individuals through their online store. You can pick up the traditionally printed main book, the screen, and the official Pugmire dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

We’ve added Prince’s Gambit to our Studio2 catalog: https://studio2publishing.com/products/prince-s-gambit-card-game

Now, we’ve added Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

On Sale This Week!

Available this Wednesday, we are just a bit embarrassed to say that we’ll be releasing on DTRPG the PDF and PoD versions of Swine and Cheese Party, Et Al., excerpts from The Complete Duke Rollo, for Trinity Continuum: Aberrant!

Also available this Wednesday on DTRPG: the Advance PDF for Quantum Entanglement the Trinity Continuum: Aeon Jumpstart!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

Under Alien Suns (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Post-Approval Development

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Trinity Continuum Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Post-Editing Development

City of the Towered Tombs (Cavaliers of Mars)

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Monsters of the Deep (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

Pirates of Pugmire KS-Added Adventure (Realms of Pugmire)

Tales of Aquatic Terror (They Came From Beneath the Sea!)

Terra Firma (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Scion Titanomachy – Art coming in.

Tales of Aquatic Terror

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – Prepping KS assets.

Aberrant – AD’d. First new comic in.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – Dividing up among current artists.

Legendlore – KS running.

Technocracy Reloaded (KS)

Cults of the Blood God – Rolling along.

Scion: Dragon (KS) – Waiting on art notes.

Masks of the Mythos (KS) – Some tweaking to art notes and hiring artists.

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Tweaking art notes, hiring artists. Splats in progress.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS) – Finals coming in.

TC: Adventure! (KS) – Cover art finishing.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

TC Aeon Terra Firma

V5 Let the Streets Run Red

Pugmire Adventure

Proofing

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Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Today is feet up and dozing after the busy, busy, Virtual Con and celebrating its success!

[wildflowerhigh]

Second Time Around (c.h.) | Part 4

Read part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8

Summary: Sure, Harper is just a friend to Calum, right?

Word Count: 1.7K

A/N: Sorry I posted late! I finished writing this ages ago, I just forgot that yesterday was Friday and forgot to post. I’m just extremely stupid lol hope y’all like this one!

---

“Do any of you wanna come with me to the café?” Ashton asked, looking around the room. Calum’s hand shot up from his position on the couch, and he pulled himself up, after setting his acoustic guitar down. He had been stuck in the studio the whole night finishing up a song, and he really needed to get out.

Ashton and him walked into the café, just like they had five months ago when they had run into Harper; Calum mused about how much had happened since then. He certainly wasn’t expecting to see Harper once again, sitting at the exact same table, in an almost deja-vu like moment. She waved at them with a smile on her face, her phone in her other hand.

Calum stopped dead in his tracks, while Ashton waved back at her. “What is she doing here?”

“Oh, we meet here almost everyday. She’s normally here at the same time to eat breakfast,” Ashton replied.

Calum stood there, taken aback. Michael’s berating had left him with a lot to think about, but as of now she was just a friend. He finally waved at her, after way too long a pause, and walked over to join her.

“Good morning!” she said cheerfully, and Calum greeted her as well, taking the seat opposite her. Ashton was placing the coffee order at the counter. “How’s the album coming along?”

“Pretty good actually,” he said, voice rough from lack of sleep. She seemed to notice, and frowned slightly, but before she could ask, Ashton joined them, steering the conversation in a different direction.

The three friends sat there for quite a while, chatting away about their previous day, Calum occasionally leaning over to eat out of Harper’s breakfast, before she informed them that she had to get to work, and left. He and Ashton went back to the studio, a smile stretched across his face.

The next day, Calum jumped to his feet as soon as Ashton entered the studio. “Are you going to the café?”

“Yeah, I am.” Ashton set down his phone and started to remove his jacket. He waved at the producer sitting at the controls. “Just as soon as I finish recording a bit.” Calum looked down anxiously at his watch- it was close to the same time as yesterday, when they had gone to the café.

“Let’s go now,” he said, moving to stop Ashton as he walked to the recording booth. Ashton looked at him, puzzled.

“Why are you so desperate to go? You normally never come.”

Calum paused, his mind running a mile a minute. “I just… really want some coffee right now.”

Ashton’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at his friend, but agreed. They told the producer, who had watched the whole interaction with amusement, that they would be back in some time, and left for the café.

The minute they entered the small roadside café, Calum’s eyes scanned for Harper, and spotted her at the same table, digging into a plate of pancakes in front of her.

“Get me a vanilla latte, will you?” he muttered to Ashton, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. Harper looked up from her breakfast and waved at the two boys, and Calum grinned and went to join her, leaving Ashton to place the order.

“Could have at least paid for it,” Ashton grumbled, noticing how the two old friends talked, mesmerized with each other.

And just like that, going to the café became a daily routine. Calum said that he needed his ‘daily dose of coffee’, but most of the days never bought anything, unless Ashton got something for him.

On one of those days, when they were walking towards the café, both their phones pinged simultaneously- Harper had messaged them, informing them she couldn’t make it that day because of a meeting. Calum just stood there, scratching his head, confused about what to do next.

“We could still go get coffee, I mean, that’s what you came for everyday, right?” Ashton mocked.

Calum noticed his tone, and pushed past him, rolling his eyes. “Asshole,” he muttered, making Ashton laugh. They walked the rest of the distance to the café, and ordered their respective drinks. Calum looked back wistfully at the table where Harper might have been sitting if she had come that day.

He definitely wasn’t gonna admit to Ashton (or to himself) that the real reason he came to the café everyday was for Harper. But the intense disappointment that came over him told him that he couldn’t live in denial for much longer.

---

Calum fixed his blonde hair and pulled on his leather jacket, just as he heard the doorbell ring. He opened the door to a grinning Harper, Ashton and Kaykay.

“We’re going bowling!” Harper declared, and Ashton hooted. She sang the same phrase repeatedly, with continuous whoops from the redhead, and the two danced around each other.

“They’ve been doing this the whole time,” Kaykay said, and Calum chuckled. He grabbed his phone and keys, and stepped out and locked the door. Harper and Ashton’s little singsong and dance finally came to an end.

“Where are the others?” Calum asked.

“They’re coming there directly,” Ashton replied. They all walked down to Ashton’s car, and made their way to the mall.

The bowling plan had been made after Sierra had randomly mentioned to Luke that she had never actually been bowling before, and everyone came to the same conclusion that she had to be introduced to the game once and for all. They also figured that it would be nice to all go out together after so long, and so planned an outing to the mall.

“How good is your bowling?” Calum asked Harper, as they stood next to each other, putting on their bowling shoes.

“Best of the best, baby,” she said, smirking, and Calum’s heart beat a little faster.

“There’s no way you’re better than me,” he challenged, and her smirk grew bigger.

“You’re on, Hood.”

The group occupied two alleys due to their size, and Harper and Calum dominated their respective alleys, having the highest scores.

“This is so much fun, guys, I’m so glad we came today,” Sierra commented, and the group murmured in agreement. But Calum was only focused on Harper- well, on beating Harper. Sports always brought out his competitive side, a characteristic leftover from his footballing days.

“Let’s up the stakes, Calum,” Harper said, apparently also not responding to Sierra’s statement.

“Ooohhh,” Luke said. “Wait, what’s happening?”

“I think they’re having a face-off,” Michael stated.

“Damn right we are!” Calum exclaimed, slamming the bench dramatically and coming to his feet. When he was at the peak of his game, he fed off the attention. “What do you suggest?”

“Ten frames each. Highest score wins. Loser buys everyone ice cream.”

“That’s not exactly high stakes, is it?” Ashton remarked.

“I’m not bringing money into this, Ash,” Harper replied, glaring at him.

“Well, technically-”

“ICE CREAM!” She shook her hand threateningly at Ashton, and he raised his hand in surrender, stifling a laugh. She turned her attention back to Calum, who was tapping his fingers against the bowling ball he had picked up. Why he had an adrenaline rush from a simple game like bowling, he couldn’t understand. Could it be because he was playing against Harper? “Take it or leave it, Calum,” she continued.

“Taking it. Let’s do this.” He smirked, and grabbed a bowling ball.

The next half hour was intense. The others saw by and watched as the two competitors played, both of them getting strikes in a row. “Not bad, Romano,” he commented, when she was gearing up to play her ninth frame, and she flipped him off, making everyone laugh. Seeing the look of concentration on her face, with her eyes squinting at the pins, biting subtly into her lip, Calum could barely resist the smile that threatened to break onto his face; she looked adorable.

She expertly bowled another strike, turning around and bowing as the pins clattered behind her. Everyone cheered, and Calum stood up for his turn. Passing her as he moved to take her position, she wiggled her eyebrows at him, and smiled the smile that made his insides get all jumbled up. He felt like he was floating on air when he stepped up to bowl- and consequently, knocked down only three pins.

His friends gasped at his play, including Harper, who looked at him in shock. Still fazed by his mistake, Calum played again, still managing to knock down only four pins. He sat down, still confused by what had happened. He never got distracted like this. Harper glanced at him warily, but scored another strike, getting her the highest possible score.

By the time his last turn came around, Calum had cleared his head, and bowled a strike; but it was too late, because he was already behind on points. Harper had won.

---

Calum paid for the ice cream, and thanked the server, before grabbing his cup off the counter. Surprisingly but thankfully, they hadn’t run into any fans at the bowling alley or the ice cream shop, so the whole group ate their ice cream, loud and content. Harper slid up behind him and tapped on his shoulder, and he turned around to face her.

“Good game, that was,” she said, and he nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but she continued speaking. “I know you let me win.”

“What?”

“You were playing so well, then you fuck up in the last round and lose? No way. Don’t know what weird male ego thing this is, but-” She pulled out a 20 dollar bill and handed it to him. “Here. For the ice cream.”

“Well, first of all, have a little more faith in your skills,” he said, taking a lick of his pistachio ice cream. “Second of all, I got distracted, that’s why I lost.” He pushed away her hand holding the bill. “You won fair and square.”

She scanned his face dubiously, before pocketing the money. “What did you get distracted by?” she questioned.

“Just… something.” He shook his head, and spooned out a little of her chocolate ice cream. “Yours tastes so much better, ugh.”

She laughed, her eyes shining bright at him, and Calum got the same feeling at the pit of his stomach as he had at the alley. Nothing to get distracted from this time, though.

---

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[punkdaddylouis]

quatre: you fit me better than my favorite sweater ♡♡

here comes chapter four :D for whoever cares to read...

♡♡♡♡

"See you tomorrow, Hazza!" Jade, his colleague at Velvety Roses, waves goodbye to Harry as she and her other friend Leigh-Anne descend from the dressing room with their forearms linked, leaving Harry alone in the room, still dressed in his casual clothing.

He smiles contentedly as he sits down and shimmies his bag off of his shoulder, focusing on the mirror and his reflection on it, switching on the yellow light bulbs that are placed along its frame.

He doesn't have any circles under his eyes tonight, it seems; no trace of the tiredness and exhaustion that used to always be prevalent in his system, maybe the full-nights of sleep that he's been getting lately has finally began to pay off.

Harry smiles to himself, knowing that his improved sleeping schedule is very much a derivative of who he is spending his nights in bed with. Harry's been feeling giddy and ecstatic lately, and since he doesn't want to jinx it, he opts for keeping it to himself. The whole thing.

Yes, he hasn't told any of his friends yet about Louis; the unmarried man he's been sleeping with for over the past two months now. Gemma and his mum are the only people that he even decided to inform about this matter, and Harry thinks he'll let it stay that way for now—for as long as he can manage, really.

The only problem is, he and Louis aren't even official yet (technically). Sure, they text every day, talking about their lives and their favorites, and basically anything that crosses their minds, but other than that, neither of them have deemed to put a label on what they are. Not explicitly, anyway.

To be honest, I immensely despise marmite chicken.

Really now ? But they're brilliant ! I'd love it if you would cook me some actually, mon amour ;) xx

Ugh, Lewiiiiiiiis. But okay :) anything for DADDY

No , but seriously ?

Seriously. But you know whattttttt?

What , baby ? :)

I wanna be the Coney Island queen...

Oh , but you are !! :)

But like, I kinda wanna live there, see. I wanna build a house near that place, I wanna be able to visit it any time??

Well ... babe , again , you will :) just you wait and see ! ;)

Huh. What do you mean 'just wait and see?' :o

Louis.

LOUIS?

Daddy! :/

It has been nearly three months since they first met, like officially met—nearly three months since Harry went over to Louis' place for a proper introduction.

After Louis' returned from his trip to Paris back in mid-July, they've gone out on posh dates, well, that's what Harry calls it, and they still regularly go out whenever Louis' free. Louis has taken him to extravagant restaurants around LA, bought him flowers and offered him joyrides downtown, and whenever they got back to Louis' mansion in Beverly Hills they'd have mind blowing sex that would make Harry feel like he's walking on air for days.

They call each other when they're not together, having decided that they didn't want to limit their communication to just texting, visit the other when one is working and the other isn't, and just, they can't seem to get enough of one another—it's almost like they're over-infatuated teenagers that are undeniably in lust with their brand new crush and it's addicting. Louis has been painting different versions of Harry relentlessly, and Harry has been basking in Louis' talent and open devotion to him. It's the type of infatuation that's more like a whirlwind and Harry wants to swim in it forever.

When Louis is gone to destinations for work and Harry is unable to visit him, Louis usually brings home souvenirs or postcards when he returns.

"So, hey, I was at work tonight and I heard this song on the radio and thought of you. Just thought I'd call you up and share the news," Harry rasps over the line, grinning madly to himself, talking about an 80's love song he heard from the radio.

"That's cute, baby," Louis replies in a fond voice, sighing on the other line. "I'm actually signing some papers at the moment. Exhausting, if you ask me. I'm glad you called, just what I needed. Thank you."

Harry hums, nodding despite the fact Louis doesn't see him.

And then after a beat of comfortable silence, "God, I wanna see you, Lou," Harry confesses, groaning. "Miss you."

"I know, baby," Louis agrees softly, his tone near-cooing. "But I have to finish with this, though... Hmm. How about I take the first flight Friday morning and hop on a plane to get home to you, oui? And then before you even wake up the next day I'll be on that bed of yours, sucking you off so good you won't even know how to breathe proper. How does that sound?"

"Sounds like a plan..."

"Mhmm. Glad we agree."

It's been set in stone that Louis will be painting every version of Harry that he can possibly dream up—which Harry feels so special and beautiful—and so he dresses up for the older lad to have his figure translated on the canvases, articulately painted on by various paintbrushes and oil paints.

They do this a lot, even though it's only possible for them to do it when Freya's not around. The lass parties a lot, and it has only made more sense to Harry that she and Louis didn't really share a lot of things in common because, apparently, she was adopted when she was a teenager and had a difficult time throughout her past. Now she's rebelling, and her actions only worsened when her dads parted ways years prior. She's more fond of Phil, Harry now understands—that guy who broke Louis' heart by cheating. Harry isn't really that bothered by any of this, now that he knows...a little.

Taking out his outfit for his tonight's performance, Harry immediately strips off his casual clothing and then slips on a new pair of tight women's jeans and his new pink floral sheer shirt he bought from YSL. He fixes his hair as he looks at the mirror, ruffles it a few notches, and then slips on his trademark headscarf, some of his curls sticking out. He decides to leave them be. For the final touch, Harry puts the clip-on earring (a cross design, because he and his sister have got an affinity for cross and it's their thing now), the one Gemma got him last week, and he's finally done by wearing his sparkly boots.

Harry slips out of the dressing room to see if his mate, Ed, has already finished with his own performance on stage, but when he sees he is only halfway through his last set, it gives Harry a few more spare minutes to relax in the dressing room.

He sits yet again on his stool, tapping his fingers against the chipped wood of his vanity. He didn't have an incoming text from Louis when Harry checked it early on, and he wonders if there is one now. He isn't unlocking his phone to find out though, he's too anxious to do so. In the end, Harry just picks up the lipstick straying in his reach and applies some on his lips, completing it by pursing his plump lips together. And Harry wants to giggle as he stares back at his own reflection, because fuck if he doesn't look great. Louis will totally bend him over his desk later on tonight, he's sure of it. Harry grins wickedly at the thought, feeling himself blush at the image entertaining his mind.

~*~

Harry's got five songs in his set list for the night, all will be played by Ed, who is his backup guitarist, and he's ready to perform as soon as he steps on the stage, the spotlight focused solely on his figure, playing glorious shadows with the contours of his body.

This is what Harry loves doing, he has always loved it, but now he's loving it even more—especially now he's got inspiration. Harry puts on his most charming smile, knowing Louis has promised to be in the audience tonight, wanting to give his best. He's picked out his most favorite songs he has spent days rehearsing over and over again, and he's determined to show his daddy what he's worthy of.

The room is dimmed, Velvety Roses once again filled with men and queer folks, the majority of the crowd being bikers and drunken travelers from either the south or up north.

Harry grips his personal microphone, the green taped below visible to the audience, his gaze searching the crowd for a certain man with the fiercest persona he's ever been acquainted with in his entire entity. The one man that's actually made him feel sexy and fuckable by just being stared down by him. The one man that can give him one piercing, icy gaze racking over his body and make him feel weak in the knees. The one man that can make him either bend over a table and beg to be fucked or drop down to his knees in a millisecond flat, mouth wide open so his throat will get gagged, mouthful of thick, hard cock. Louis fucking Tomlinson. His man, his painter, his Frenchman fresh from Paris, who always smells of expensive perfume, always is adorning Rolex watches on his wrist and loves driving him places with his black Mercedes Benz.

Harry licks his lips just as his eyes stop directly on him, finally; there, right there. Louis is seated on a stool by the bar, wearing what Harry can make out to be some royal blue blazer and trousers that match, his soft fringe brushed up, revealing his forehead, aviators perched over his nose and covering his dominating blue eyes, a flower pinned to his suit's breast pocket, probably an indication he's just gone to some event and went straight from there to see Harry without bothering to change. And fuck—fuck he looks good, is the thing. Daddy looks so fucking god-like, a fucking modern-day James Dean. And Harry's so weak for him; so, so weak for him.

Has seemingly noticed he's been looking, Louis raises his hand holding a pint and commemorates a toast to Harry. Harry just nods, face instantly numbing with heat, shoulders sagging into submission. Yep, Harry the usually confident and notorious harlot is a downright submissive when it comes to Louis, and yes, it's insanely ridiculous.

"Good evening, boys," Harry greets over the crowd, his voice echoing all over the dingy ole bar. Wolf whistles and loud whooping erupt from the audience, men of different sizes and colors clapping enthusiastically. Harry smiles his best, batting his eyelashes in a flirtatious manner. "How's everyone's night so far? If there's any newcomers here, please kindly stand so the veterans can welcome y'all."

There are four or five newcomers who stand, earning greetings from others, and Harry spends that chance to look at Louis across the bar yet again, catching Louis watching him intently while sipping on his beer. Harry winks at the older man, before proceeding to speak over the mic. "So, tonight folks, Ed here, you guys know him. He is gonna be my guitarist. And of course, as per usual I'll be singing five different songs for you all."

There's another round of bustling and applause, but when it dies down, Harry takes that as his cue. Ed starts plucking, strumming the first notes.

And so Harry closes his eyes and starts with the first verse, already quite into the moment. "Blue jeans, white shirt. Walked into the room you know you made my eyes burn. It was like, James Dean, for sure... You're so fresh to death and sick as ca-cancer..."

~*~

Harry tries not to squirm as Louis nibbles on his left ear. He fails anyway, giggling madly as he scoots away from Louis' reach. "Look so beautiful tonight, baby," Louis murmurs softly, smiling from the driver's seat. "Earring looks perfect on you, too, maybe I should buy you a whole set."

"Really now," Harry challenges, cocking a brow at Louis mischievously. He's lighting a cigar, putting it in between his lips.

"Oui, chéri. You look pretty in them," Louis insists as he nods vigorously to get his point across, turning onto a street and honking at another car. They're on their way back to Louis', with Louis driving them both in his car number three, as Harry marks it. He's got six of them, so it's best to just be naming them by numbers. Harry sometimes goes to work without bringing his own car, knowing Louis will fetch him in one of his exuberant vehicles.

"Fine, fine. Thank you, babe, but that's a no," Harry responds after his giggling fit, blushing red. He thinks nice try with Louis even suggesting buying him things. Don't get Harry wrong—he believes Louis' only being sweet and nice at the same time for spoiling him, but. Really. Louis spends ridiculous amounts of money on him, despite the money usually going towards dates and free rides, free food. Perhaps buying him something every once in a while is good, but not this soon though. Louis has literally just bought Harry a new cellphone, he doesn't need anything else.

Shaking his head at the thought, Harry exhales the grey smoke and makes a face after realizing they're suffocated inside the car.

"Are you sure? But you'll definitely look wonderful in other designs, Harry," Louis presses on. Harry shuts him up by leaning over and kissing his open mouth. Louis moans in response, and before he can even kiss back, Harry pulls away and sticks his tongue out, teasing Louis and making him make that gaping, surprised look he's giving Harry, and then takes another drag from his cigar. "Tease you are, doll. Keep it up and daddy won't fuck you tonight," Louis tells him.

Laying back, Harry puts his legs up and rolls down the window next to him, letting the brisk evening air swell against his face, grabbing a stick of gum and starting chewing. He lets his smoke join the fluttering wisps of wind as he ignores Louis' threat altogether; knowing full well, not he nor Louis actually believes that bullshit. "So, where were you before you went to VR? You look pretty fancy to me, wearing that suit and everything." He gestures with his hand to give emphasis to what he's pertaining to.

Humming, Louis stops at a red light and thrums his fingers against the steering wheel, glancing at Harry. "Was called in to have a meeting with the rest of the gallery insulators just this afternoon; discussed a few things, mostly about the blueprinting of the place... They needed me in a tux, I gave them matching suits." Louis smiles again, removing his aviators and wearing them to Harry, catching Harry off guard a bit. "Did you like it?"

Harry bites his lip, keeping himself from breaking into a fully wide grin at that. "Like?" He breathes out, fixing the glasses over his nose and pecking Louis' hand. "I love it, Lou. Truly," he says honestly. "How was the meeting, though?"

Louis shrugs. "Alright."

Harry nods.

The ride doesn't take long now, the two of them laughing about absolutely nothing and every little thing mentioned, and before Harry can even finish his third cigarette, Louis' pulling him inside the house and is backing him up against the wall, hungrily going for his jaw and nipping at his skin, the chance that Valeria could be lingering by the kitchen doorway be damned. Harry laughs as he has the need to drop his cigarette stick on the floor's tiles, hugging Louis with his right leg and letting their groins grind.

"Honey, don't you think we should..." Harry starts but sooner trails off, just as Louis lets out a low mixture of growl and moan, letting go of Harry and then dashing up the stairs, looking back just to signal Harry to follow him.

Harry does as he's told, taking two steps at a time as he ties up his hair in a bun.

Once they get to Louis' room, Harry is bent over the bed with his arse poised upwards into thin air in record time, Louis lingering behind him, probably admiring his pert bum from behind, given the fact he's not even touching Harry but just breathing on his exposed hole. Harry groans and squirms, whining his protests at all of the impatience that's swirling in his abdomen. "Sshh, baby. Just... let daddy look at your beauty for a little while more," Louis whispers huskily, obviously hot but is refraining in the name of casually admiring someone's ass. Jesus.

Hot in the ears, Harry swallows as he wiggles his ass a bit, face smashed against the plush pillows on Louis' bed, hands clutching the sheets as he waits it out. He can feel his muscles retracting at each fan of breath Louis lets out that hits his cooling skin, feeling his dick already forming a semi. And fuck, Harry needs Louis to do something.

"Please..." He pleads, word muffled by the sheets.

"So, so beautiful, baby. So pink, that hole of yours. I love it. If only I can paint you looking like this. So loose, so submissive for daddy," Louis recites, tone of voice clearly enticed, and wow. He really, surely makes Harry feel so admired—treasured—and cherished. And no man has ever... not in this level of, not this way, considering he'd always been just a fuck. Harry's heart feels as though it will fucking explode, just thinking about the possibility that he may not be anymore.

Writhing on the bed, Harry untangles his legs from the duvet and spreads his thighs for Louis' sake of better access. He hears the older man hum in appreciation as he does just that. Harry thinks he's ready. Like so damn ready.

Moments to their silence, eventually so, Louis grabs on Harry's arse cheeks and slaps one of them, making Harry hiss in both pleasure and striking pain, pushing forward and sheets-clenching. Louis yet again lets out a low growl, and then he's suddenly sticking his tongue across Harry's sensitive rim, tasting him, spiky stubble against meaty flesh.

Moans and multiple incoherence escape Harry's lips just as Louis' started properly eating him, tongue lapping across his hole and nibbling, thin lips against tingling pink skin. "Oh, jesus fuck," Harry suppresses in a low voice, breathing heavily in and out. Louis rewards him with another spanking at that, making him yet again yelp and writhe responsively, consistent currents of arousal coursing through his veins and going directly to his untouched cock. He can feel himself leaking and it's driving him fucking mad.

"Tellement bon pour papa," Louis murmurs against his puckered hole, eager tongue pushing in and out, hot breath fanning and rendering goosebumps on Harry's exposed arms.

"Louis... Louis..." Harry chants in loud squeaks, "please, daddy... just... please..." Harry doesn't really know what he's begging for if he's honest, but with situations such as this one, he can't seem to help murmur words out of his mind. It's ridiculous. They are ridiculous. But Harry thinks they fit anyway.

And so it goes. Louis continues to eat him out, hand spanking his ass again and making him moan loud, before going for his completely hardened dick between his thighs, and then pumping on it fast. Harry feels wrecked quite already after that, can't stay still, pushing and pushing his ass toward Louis' face for more, more, more. Louis gives it to him, he's a non-difficult negotiator when it comes to giving anyway. He may be is born to give.

After a few more thrusts, Louis frees him for just two seconds and then quickly flips him over, spreading his legs wide. Harry's so dizzy with pleasure he can barely see straight now.

And until it all gets blurry from there, being the only thing Harry is remembering is that of Louis fucking him hard without the use of condom and only lubricant, leaving him limp and pliant in contentment afterwards, cleaning him up off come and the both of them sleeping the night off, cuddled up in heavenly soft bundles.

He also remembers Louis kissing the top of his head as he spoons him from behind.

~*~

By the time Harry stirs awake the next day, he finds himself curled up in a ball, strong, tattooed arms wrapped around his torso, soft snores being pressed against his nape. Harry allows it as Louis' still deep in his slumber.

Harry ever so slowly takes Louis' arm off his body and presses his feet on the ground, stretching his arms wide and then padding across the room. Harry gets in the bathroom with nothing on, switches the lights on, and borrowing a toothbrush from Louis. He brushes his teeth to get rid of the staleness that formed overnight, washes his face with cold water, and then takes a morning wee.

When Harry leaves the loo, he sees Louis' still peacefully sleeping, so that gives him more time to himself.

He sits on his rumpled side of the bed, and gives into the urge to look at Louis' sleeping figure next to him, and to just like, admire what he's like. He stares for a bit before the thought occurs that watching Louis sleep is weird and creepily intimate, considering they aren't even official. The realization brings a stinging feeling in Harry's stomach. For some reason that he can't define.

Speaking of, Harry should probably cook them some breakfast.

Picking up his underwear off the ground, Harry quickly slips it on, and then, seeing as his overnight clothes are all somewhat dried off of the work's worth of sweat, Harry disregards them and just goes straight to Louis' closet and plunders it for something he can fit into. He chooses an oversized jumper in the end since it's the only thing that can wrap around his bigger frame. It's a lavender colored one and is tremendously cute, and it's large enough that it stops on his thighs and leaves his underwear out of plain sight, creating sweater paws with how long each sleeve is. Harry happily sneaks out the room wearing just that, and then he travels down to the kitchen, meeting Valeria halfway there.

"Hi!" Harry greets her cheerfully, waving a hand and dimpling, leaving Valeria no choice but to swallow down her French and say Hello back, accent exceptionally thick. Giggling at the sound of it, Harry proceeds to the kitchen and drags the old woman with him, linking their arms together enthusiastically, as though they've been the best of buddies for years. It is the first time Harry hears Valeria's laughter bubble from her lips, asking how last night had went—casually too! Well, Harry's just as proud and vocal as he tells her about everything, from his performance to the ride back home, minus the awesome sex, though. Because he's kind enough to spare her those details.

When they reach the kitchen, they both help each other make pancakes and tea, Valeria willingly giving Harry the details as to where things are around the massive place, and as to how does Louis like his breakfast each morning in 'the Mademoiselle Valeria way'. Harry's just really happy he gets along with the housemaid, no matter if she's only that; a housemaid.

Two sunny side ups, a few sausages and mountains of perfectly browned pancakes later, Harry and Valeria take the trays full of food with them and soldier back up the staircase, taking their time strolling along the long quiet hallway, and then stopping at the door to Louis' room.

It's Harry who hip-checks the door open to reveal a still sleeping Louis by the bed, only now that the man has changed positions. Harry nods at Valeria as she beckons to place the tray by the bedside table, and then she leaves with a kind smile right after that. Harry, on the other hand, places the tray he's holding on the other bedside table where Louis lies near, leaning down to whisper in Louis' ear.

"Mon amour," Harry coos, attempting French. It causes him to laugh when Louis pries an eye open at hearing him say that.

"Bonjour, chéri," Louis rasps, smiling tiny at him. Harry smiles back, his heart pounding drastically in his chest at how blue, blue, blue Louis' eyes are as he looks back at him, especially when the sunlight is hitting his face like this, softly contoured eyelids and nose and cheekbones presented like magnificence at its best. Harry aches to touch him, feel the stubble that, yet again, left rashes on his pale, sensitive bum and thighs—serving as a reminder just how sensational Louis Tomlinson truly is.

"Made you breakfast, Lou. Heard pancakes with the side of eggs and sausages are your favorites..."

"Ooh," Louis muses in excitement, chuckling lightly. He sits up slowly after a while, and Harry immediately busies himself bringing the trays over to the bed, placing each in between himself and Louis, laying the food down. "This is so lovely, Haz," is what Louis says as he takes his first bite out of three layers of pancake, chewing happily. "I didn't know you can cook! I'm so used to French and Italian cuisines, but this," Louis stops to take another large bite out of a sausage with a piece of egg, before finishing his sentence with a mouthful, "this is good."

Seeing the bright smile painting Louis' lips as he eats, Harry can't help smile to himself as well as he looks down on his own food-full of plate, mentally patting his head in victory at his success of having Louis' clear as day stamp of approval at his cooking skills. He thinks perhaps he'll cook for Louis more in the future... like, just to see that wonderful, handsome smile again. Especially the part where Louis' eyes are crinkling at the sides, cheeks dented with hints of dimples and pinks. And Harry never even knew Louis has dimples. That's news. Amazing news.

After they're done eating, Louis sets their trays aside and pulls Harry back in bed with him, nuzzling his face against Harry's exposed collarbone. "Glad you loved the breakfast I cooked, Lou."

"Mhmm," Louis hums in affirmation, pressing a soft, lingering kiss on Harry's throat. "Was so good, baby. I'm impressed."

"Valeria helped me a bit. She's a very nice woman," Harry says softly.

"She is, she is. Been working under me since my twenties."

"Really?" Harry drawls, grinning down at Louis because of the new information, imagination kicking in as he thinks about a young version of Louis, already posh and oh so lovely with less wrinkles and brisk skin, fringe softer and probably always kept lying against his forehead, being served by a French younger Valeria, early discovery of his talent in painting on the works. And then there's the thought of a younger Louis in French style clothing next, suspenders and tight trousers hugging his thighs and legs probably, flat vintage shoes with his ankles out, beret or potato type of hats atop his head, long and thick black eyelashes cascading shadows over the hollows of his prominent cheekbones. And damn—damn if Harry's not so fond of him; damn if Harry's not so drawn in his daydream he actually forgets just how he's literally holding the older version of the same Louis he's imagining inside his head.

Harry's just...he just really feels blessed to have met Louis amidst his laid back lifestyle.

He can still remember how things had went for him before all these. He used to sleep with different men each night, going home with them after a night spent working at VR, and then leaving first thing in the morning with not so much as a greeting, credits left unspoken despite a previously good hell of a fuck.

It's different with Louis though; it's a whole different story when it comes to the old Frenchman, it seems. This one, Harry actually enjoys spending time with, has so much fun with, has several laughing moments with. Harry never did that to any man he'd ever let either fuck or touch him from the past. Just Louis. And it's only Louis, too, that he's ever confessed how he wishes he could just forget his job and fly to New York next, make rounds in Coney Island, build a house near there and then spend the rest of his life visiting back and forth and spend time making memories at the Boardwalk.

Call Harry a child, call Harry juvenile, but it's what he's always wanted. Living nearby Coney Island will always be in his Bucket List, and he'll always be proud of that optimum. There are many things Harry likes. One of which being dressed up. And then there's the freedom of wearing lipstick, wearing head scarves, wearing earrings, prancing gracefully, having his hair grown freely, singing songs for men, painting his nails various colors and all that...

But there are more things Harry wants done, and if only he can go to Coney Island...

"You look perfect in my clothes, sweetheart, maybe I should let you wear them all the time," Louis suddenly tells Harry, breaking him from his heavy thinking.

Harry smiles down at Louis' grinning facial expression in a lieu of compensating, fireworks exploding for the first time ever since they looked at each other this close and this serene; Louis looks like the sun, Harry decides, and Harry is the moon. Louis' moon. The one running after him, but not being given a chance by the universe itself anyway. It's gonna be exhausting, it's the inevitable, but Harry the moon will do anything just to get to Louis the sun in any way he can either way, so there really is no point of discussion.

"Well, I love being in your clothes. They smell just like you. Makes me feel safe wearing them," Harry tells Louis honestly.

Louis laughs lightly, tapping Harry's chin. "I am glad, baby doll," he says, voice a bit groggy. Harry leans in and captures Louis' lips, closing his eyes at the instant bliss it gives, sucking at the man's bottom lip much longer, before letting go of it with a flourish. "Say, what do you feel about going out of town, Harry?"

Harry opens his eyes. "Mmhm, where to?"

Wiggling his eyebrows, Louis grins widely. "You know... to the city that never sleeps? I am not working for a week, so I thought maybe... you might want to ask that boss of yours for a leave of absence, so—"

"Yes!" Harry squeals, not even letting Louis finish his sentence, excitement bursting through his veins. He's so excited about going he has just lost all traces of finesse. "Yes, yes, yes, Louis! Oh, my God!"

Laughing, Louis flips them over and Harry goes along with it, laughing too. And then they're rolling uncontrollably as they hug each other, both of them ending up lying on the floor. Harry hurriedly scrambles up to his feet just as he's recovered from his excitement, straddling Louis' hips and leaning down to snog him senseless. Harry feels so ecstatic he's afraid he might just burst from it.

[leifandthorn]

Webcomic Buffers And You, for #WeHeartComics

I keep turning up new webcomic-related Twitter discussions. This one was an (irregular?) offering from WeHeartComics, a product of the SpiderForest collective. (Think “Hiveworks for artists who aren’t into bees.”)

Last Friday was a chat about buffers. Which was a striking thing to jump into, because I’d just been listening to the ComicLab episode where the hosts go “ahh, regular updates are so 10 years ago! Just update whenever you draw something. Readers will be into it.”

And that works great if you’re Kate Beaton (of Hark! A Vagrant) or Sarah Andersen (of Sarah’s Scribbles), where your whole thing is random self-contained standalone bits. (It also helps if they’re Really Good standalones.) But, listen, it’s all wrong for a comic with any kind of continuity. If you slack on the updates there, readers will forget where they are in the story, and end up losing interest.

I don’t know if if strict update times are necessary in the social-media age. Nobody knows when Webcomic Woes is going to update, and it doesn’t matter, because as long as you stay on top of your Patreon/Deviantart/Tumblr feed, it’ll be served up to you.

But for those story-based comics, you’ve got to keep a regular update rate (e.g. “twice a week”). So you may as well keep the posting dates and times consistent too. Keeps your life simple, makes it easier to track your to-do list.

And with that, on to the questions…

Q1. Do you try to keep a buffer of comic pages? Why or why not? #WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/aYgkNRoD9W

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

For Leif & Thorn, yes. I like titling strips in the format of “This Storyline 1/24” (a tic picked up from Bruno The Bandit)…and that only works if my buffer reaches the end of This Storyline.

The current arc is getting broken up into sub-acts — starting with “The Show Must Grow On: Overture” — mostly because I’m not far enough to have the numbers otherwise. Did the same thing splitting off the 14-strip An Incredibly Platonic Shopping Day, even though it leads straight (hah) into the next storyline, because Summer Sunshine clocked in at a full 84 strips. I could manage to be 84 strips ahead, but not 98.

As of this writing, I’ve drawn 18 strips into The Show Must Grow On: Act I. Which is…not bad, but there’s gonna need to be a crackdown of work this weekend. And the next one. And probably the next.

For But I’m A Cat Person — eheh, it used to have a buffer. Now I’m almost always working one page ahead. Talked a lot about the effects of that in an earlier WebcomicChat about pacing.

And then there’s Webcomic Woes, which is bufferless by nature. It gets made on a “whenever I have an idea” basis, and I don’t have more than one relevant idea per day.

A1 YES!

I'm working on getting a buffer of at least 52 pages because I have a crazy day job and I want enough buffer for a year of weekly updates.#WeHeartComics

— TeJay is Drawing (@TeJay_the_Mad) April 6, 2018

This here is a heroic effort. I’ve never had a full-page buffer that long.

(Technically, I’m 50-ish updates ahead with Leif & Thorn right now — but since it’s a daily strip, that only comes out to a month and a half’s worth of lead time.)

Q1 #WeHeartComics I prefer to always work on solid ground so right now I have a hefty buffer of 800 pages. (even more if I include book 2)

— 🐀Kristen🐉Kiomall-Evans🐒 (@BatichiKristen) April 6, 2018

…and here we have the winner of this thread.

Q2. What drawbacks or advantages does your current buffer (or lack of) give you?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/wmju0giUTm

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

Low buffer gives you a quick turnaround on “whoops, readers didn’t understand that reference, I’ll have a character explain it on the next page.” High buffer gives you security in case you fall out of a tree and have to put your drawing arm in a cast for three months.

A2: The advantage is if something happens, I won't have to miss an update. Since I post on Webtoons, this kicks me down in rankings, which potentially loses me subs/PVs. Drawbacks, are that I can't make any changes to the story arc or I'll have to redo portions #WeHeartComics

— Lisa ⭐️ リサ (@asilris) April 6, 2018

…and then there’s algorithms. Or, on a site like mine, the Webcomic plugin is configured to send cranky emails if the buffer runs low.

Although I find that having a large buffer, so you can redo something while it’s in the buffer, is much easier than redoing it after it’s posted! If you realize on page 10 that you need a Chekhov’s gun that should’ve been on the wall on page 1, you really want page 1 to be unposted. I’ve resorted to post-posting edits, but only in the case of serious continuity errors.

(If you’re really bored some afternoon, go through the BICP archives page-by-page and see how many errors you can spot compared to the originals — which are all preserved on the SmackJeeves mirror.)

Q3. Life sometimes eats away at buffers. What techniques do you use to get around that?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/qKtmCWYUDA

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

With Leif & Thorn: hasn’t been a problem. (Knock wood.)

With BICP: uh, mostly posting stuff late with apologies. The comic was originally 3 pages a week, and I couldn’t keep that up full-time, so I took it down to 2 (it goes back up sometimes for special events, like the second Christmas special), and that helped.

I do a week or two of filler between chapters, and I’ve given myself a couple longer hiatuses…but do not have the discipline to use them for buffering, heh. I just use them to recharge before jumping back into the “whoops, gotta draw tomorrow’s page now” rollercoaster.

Waaaay back in the day (2003!), And Shine Heaven Now had 6-strips-a-week updates. When my Dell died and the buffer ran out, I drew a week of filler at the library in MSPaint rather than go updateless.

In retrospect, under the circumstances, I’m sure readers would’ve forgiven a mini-hiatus! But for some reason it honestly didn’t occur to me as an option.

Q4. Do you have advice to those wanting to create buffers?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/S1v4ndaZVI

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

Work up a big one before your comic actually launches. I had several months of Leif & Thorn drawn before I started posting, and the buffer has been healthy ever since.

After that, just pace yourself. Figure out what your workflow is, and adapt your schedule to work with it! Some authors like writing out a script beforehand, others like working it out as they draw. Some artists need strict and well-planned schedules, others (*cough*) get revved up by looming deadlines. In the immortal words of Jan Valentine: whatever works is cool.

Q5. If a buffer can’t be made, what advice would you give others seeking to reduce the stress of regular updates?#WeHeartComics pic.twitter.com/5ipyS6qiOh

— WeHeartComics (@WeHeartComics) April 6, 2018

…I mean, if your comic is suited to irregular updates, you can always just do that.

If not, you’re allowed to take breaks. Just give your readers accurate information about your plans, and then stick to them. Don’t be the person whose site still says “after this short hiatus, My Awesome Comic will return in May 2017!” when it’s April 2018.

If you can’t do irregular updates, and you can’t make a buffer, and it’s too stressful to keep up regular updates, and you can’t even get back from hiatus…then maybe this isn’t the comic you should be doing, and it’s time to gracefully bow out. (More on that next post.)

(Original post.)

[kewpiemeayo]

Blind!Reader as an Avenger

A/N: I came up with this HC idea while working on a Quicksilver imagine and I ended up collaborating with @a-fallen-little-pine-cone and it became a giant mess of blurbs? Whoops...

You used to be able to see as a child but after a tragic accident when you were twelve, you lost your sight. For a while you hated it, having to adjust to feeling and hearing solely to get by, but you resented nothing more than your probing cane until one day, you almost got run over while crossing an intersection. You technically had the right since the crosswalk was still counting down, the driver was just being an ass.

But that was the day when you realized your world wasn’t safe anymore and people didn’t understand you couldn’t see so you started learning how to use it. It didn’t turn out as terrible as you thought it was going to be but every once in a while the end of your stick would get caught in the sidewalk crack, which threw you off. The only negative parts were the judging glances you felt boring into you as you walked by, or how some students would mutter jokes.

Being blind left you vulnerable and a group of bullies once pushed you over and tried to steal from you but you managed to hit a few of them with your cane when a classmate of yours saw what was happening and came to help. Your parents found out and forced you into taking self-defense class but you ended up falling in love with the feeling of landing your punches and kicks with only your sense of hearing and touch. That’s how you found your passion for hand-to-hand combat and mixed martial arts.

This spiraled into you going out once a week to find thieves and bad guys, trying to put your skills to the test. You found yourself fighting in the dark much too often and decided to call yourself Blackout. Really it was a two-way street, they couldn’t see you since you dressed in all black and you couldn’t see because you were blind.

Then somehow you ended up being a part of the Avengers, recruited by the one and only Natasha Romanov. Everyone was very welcoming and Tony Stark took great interest in you soon after, always finding a way to try and get you to let him add some “cool gadgets” to your probing cane.

“Okay, but does your cane have a light source?” “…” “…” “Why would I need a light, I can’t even see, Tony.”

After months of constant hinting at the fact he really wanted to give you upgrades, you still refused to let him mess with your original probing cane but gave him permission to make one specifically for training only. He worked on it for days with Bruce and eventually came up to you one morning with the new cane tucked in the neatly wrapped box.

You took it to the training room with you to test it out to see what it could do and you fell in love with it. You relied mostly on your hands as weapons but you decided to be open-minded about having an actual weapon now. Although it did take some practice getting used to because you might have accidentally sacked Steve during team training… soz cap. 

However, your first mission with your new cane went really well. Turns out the light feature was good for confusing the bad guys if you spun it around really quickly like some super cool bo staff spinner.

Your relationship with the team was just fine, but you found yourself talking to FRIDAY more than anyone else. If you were bored you would call for her and the two of your discussed random world events on the news or you would just have deep thoughtful conversations about life and people. Natasha was practically your mom considering you were her protégé. She always checked on you and made sure she trained with you for a minimum of half an hour every day, Thor was like the fun uncle that visited once in a full moon, Tony and Steve were the dads while everyone else was like siblings.

“You want to blow up a weird metal box, go ahead.” “No. TONY DO NOT GIVE THEM THAT IDEA! Do not blow up a metal box, (Y/N), that’s a terrible idea.” “So was defrosting a man.” “YOU DID NOT JUST GO THERE!” “Oh yes I did.” civil war “I’ll blow up the box with you,” whispers Bucky and the both of you leave.

Clint, however, was your best friend since you both found comfort with each other and would often train together. He would turn off his hearing aids/take them out and you would revert to using your original cane. The two of you came up with touch signals since you couldn’t see and he couldn’t hear. Taps on the wrist meant to prepare, whichever shoulder was bumped meant bad guys were on that side, kicks to the foot meant run, elbow to the ribs meant “Clint, STFU.”, and a smack to the back meant going back to back.

During your free time, Clint would take time out of his day to teach you sign language, and since you can’t see, he would explain it to you, move your hands in the motion and correct your positions. He obviously taught you the bad words first

The two of you often had small conversations in broken dialect (you signing and him talking to respond) to annoy Sam. I smell aftershave. Has he dressed up again? “Yup.” Tell me he doesn’t have the gross green handkerchief in his pocket. "I thought I was the only one who found it unsettling!” "COULD YOU PLEASE STOP DOING THAT! I KNOW YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT ME!” Sam turned on his heels to leave as he mutters under his breath.

When you guys aren’t busy saving lives and just want to go on outings to relax, you would bring your probing cane but everybody would take turns holding your hand to guide you, especially Wanda and Clint who often fought over it behind your back. If it gets really serious, Vision would come in to drag you out of it.

Aside from being great partners, you and Clint were the biggest pranksters out of the Avengers. Clint would stand around a corner you would be turning, unmoving, but you always sensed his breathing from afar which in turn, gave you the upper hand at purposely scaring him by holding your buzzing taser merely inches away from his face when you rounded the corner. “Don’t test me, Clint, you know this taser doesn’t really give you a light zapping.” “Sorry I can’t hear you.” followed by the screams that escape his lips when you poke him in the rib (the taser wasn’t even on).

That following night, you hid a couple alarm clocks in his room, all set at different times throughout the night. By the time the fourth alarm clock went off, Clint had completely shut off his hearing aid but that meant he didn’t hear his real alarm clock the next morning. He was late to training...

One time, you made the mistake of trusting Clint to pick your outfit for one of Tony’s dinner party, the kind where everyone was there, reporters, rich people etc. and it was a disaster. The team were all scattered about doing random things like greeting guests, hiding or helping out behind the scenes so no one told you how your outfit choice wasn’t the greatest, not even the guests that talked to you, until Natasha asked why you were in pajamas, mix-matched high heels, and a bedazzled leather jacket.

After that incident, you skipped the next three dinner parties and galas still completely mortified at your appearance in front of all those people. Eventually, Wanda made you promise you’d start going to them again if she chose your outfit for you because she got bored at those and she’s always wanted someone she could dress up.

And also because now that you were part of the family, you kind of sort of had to attend. Tony was just trying to be the cool dad and letting you off the hook every time you refused to go.

Idk why the hell I found this ending so bland, but I didn’t even change anything since this afternoon. I apologize if it sucks. 

I think I’m down for a bonus part??? Um... Maybe I’ll see if Kath wants to do the bonus. 

>> Masterlist

Tagging: @cupoftim @vermelian @lbug1025 @trashyemonerd

[ijustwant2write]

Our Friends Across The Pond-Avenger!Reader x Eggsy Unwin

(GIF credit to owner)

Masterlist

Summary: Requested by @zainab-al-huwaizi:‘Hi!! Can you make an Eggsy Unwin x Avenger reader?? Where the reader is Tony’s cousin and she helps Eggsy in a mission and they meet more and stuff? (her powers are Telekinesis and Pyrokenisis) Idk if you like mixing two fandoms but I think it’s a good idea!’

Characters: Eggsy Unwin x Avenger!Reader

Meanings: (Y/N)= Your name

Warnings: Bit of swearing

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“You’re sending me where?” I asked, wondering if I had heard my cousin right.

Tony continued to work on his suit.“To England. There’s a secret organisation like S.H.I.E.L.D stationed there. I hear it’s very James Bond though.”

“Why am I going? I mean, I’ll do it! But why me specifically?”

“They want to breach out their agents. Now that the world has realised that there are people with powers out there, they want to use it their advantage like S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“So I’m the test run?”

“Yeah. So don’t mess it up.”

I was to fly out to England the next day. Trust Tony to leave it last minute. Being the cousin of Tony Stark had brought many dangers, one of them being captured and experimented on. Only five years old and one of the last members of Tony’s family, I was an easy target. They kidnapped me from school, just as I was about to catch the bus, locking me up for years. Three years passed slowly, torturous experiments day in and day out, until they realised that they had done their job. They had given me telekinesis. However, because I was so angry and tormented by all of this, the telekinesis formed to gift me pyrokenisis. Tony was able to rescue me but these powers would take years to control.

Walking out to the launch pad, I saw the quinjet that had been prepared for me. Dumping my bag inside of it, I tried to calm myself down. I was representing in-humans everywhere. This secret service wanted to introduce them to their programs, we could all work together in peace, no one would be afraid anymore.

“Don’t be nervous. You’re powers won’t work.” Tony made me jump.

“I’m fine. It’ll be weird working with different people.”

“You know what to do if they give you trouble.”

“Light their asses on fire.”

“That’s right.”

Laughing, we hugged each other goodbye before I dissappeared onto the jet. FRIDAY was going to be piloting it for me. It was a long flight, around eight hours. That would give me enough time to think how I was going to be around these people. Would they be accepting? Was I going to be helpful in this mission?

We landed on the greens of a huge mansion. This couldn’t be it could it? Unless this was like a HQ thing? As FRIDAY touched down, I spotted a man stood further ahead with a clipboard, two younger (what I assumed were) agents standing either side of him. The back of the jet opened, revealing the cold weather I was told so much about; welcome to England.

“(Y/N) Stark, welcome to Kingsman. We are so glad that you agreed to come.” the bald man said.

“How could I say no? Free vacation to Britain sounded nice.” my American accent sounded harsh in contrast to theirs.

He shook my hand.“I am Merlin, I’m in charge of anything technical and overseeing new recruits.” He gestured to the woman beside him,“this is Lancelot,” then to the man,“and this is Galahad.”

They all saw my confusion.

“Those aren’t our real names.” the woman smiled.

Merlin also smiled.“No. They certainly are not. Just codenames.”

I chuckled.“Oh right. I wasn’t sure whether it was just insanely British around here.”

“Well, I suggest we head inside and have a briefing of the mission.”

When walking through the building, my mind was going crazy over the thoughts of everyone else. Clearly, talk of my arrival had been spread around. Many of these thoughts were negative. They couldn’t believe what the organisation was doing; some were bad mouthing the Avengers. They had no idea how much we had saved them from. One thought stuck out for me though, coming from a young man to our right.

'This is barbaric. They’re just going to end up hurting anyone who is normal.’

Tired of all these silent comments, I marched towards him. He obviously seemed panicked but was too slow to react to anything. Grabbing him by the collar, I created a flame in my hand, holding it just out of his reach.

“Sir, I would appreciate it if you would clear your mind of those disgusting thoughts. I’m here to help, and once y work here is done, you’ll be working with a lot more people like me.” the flame intensified.“So if you don’t want to get third degree burns, shut the fuck up.”

Everyone around us had stopped, shocked by what they had just seen. Shaking my hand, the flame went out and I went back to Merlin, waiting for him to continue walking. He cleared his throat, carrying on. I saw the two other agents smirking. At least someone enjoyed it.

I heard Galahad whisper to Lancelot.“That was bloody mental.”

The mission wasn’t a hard one. I was simply going to meet the target at one of his charity balls whilst Galahad would break into his office to gather his files they needed. As I had telekinesis, I would be able to see into his mind and hopefully gain the passwords we needed.

“So, what’s your real name?” I asked Galahad as we gathered up weapons.

“Eggsy.” his cockney accent rang out.

I tried to suppress a laugh.“Eggsy?”

He scoffed out a laugh.“Ok, well it’s actually Gary, but no one has ever really called me that.”

“I actually like it. It’s different.”

“So are you.” Eggsy stopped loading his gun.“I didn’t mean that to sound horrible-”

“No, it’s alright. You’re not wrong.”

His face suddenly lit up.“I couldn’t believe what you did! I’ve only ever seen something like that in superhero films! Come on, guess what I’m thinking.”

I laughed loudly, surprised by his enthusiasm.“Eggsy, we don’t have time-”

“Please!”

I sighed.“Alright.” I looked at him, wanting to mess around.“You think I’m utterly amazing.”

“Not far off luv.” he smirked.

I couldn’t help blushing, shaking my head as I tucked away a pocket knife.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Bloody hell, that was amazing!” Eggsy whooped as we sped away in his car.

“No it damn well wasn’t! I almost set fire to the place!”

Although I was successfully able to flirt and recieve the passwords needed for Eggsy, he was caught escaping the office. To cause a distraction for the guards, I had produced a small flame, setting alight to the long curtains that draped throughout the huge hall. However, I had not predicted that a bigger fire would erupt, causing everyone to evacuate. Eggsy had just grabbed me and made a dash for the car.

“When do you leave?” Eggsy asked.

“What? Uh, tomorrow I think.”

He sent me a charming smile.“Good. You need to see the sights of London before you leave.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“And where are you off to?” Tony called out, sounding fed up.

“Take a guess.” I grinned as I saw him standing at my bedroom door.

“You going out with full english breakfast again?”

That was Tony’s nickname for Eggsy, not only because he was English but also because his name had 'egg’ in it.

I rolled my eyes.“He just finished a mission here and he’s got a few free days.”

“He seems to be over here quite a lot.”

“Yes he does. And I think it’s lovely that he wants to see me.”

“When I say 'quite a lot’, he’s been here six times in the last month.”

“Look Tony, I’ve not got enough time for this. I’ve got a date.” I grabbed my handbag, walking past him.

“Date? Hold on, it’s official now?” he followed me down the corridor.

“Yep. Now go work on some really technical thing, I’m going to be late.”

I managed to escape him in the elevator, heading straight down to the lobby. Bursting out of the doors, I couldn’t help a huge smile light up on my face as I saw him leaning against his car. Hugging him tightly, I whispered to him.

“I’ve missed you.”

“You saw me two weeks ago.”

“Eggsy, that’s a long time when you live across the ocean.” I pouted.

“Well I’m here now.” he kissed me smoothly, still leaning back on the car.“And we always make the most of it.”

“I know.” I sighed, slightly dazed by his lips. The effect never wore off.

His time got softer.“Don’t worry, we’ll be together soon, properly though.”

“Promise.”

“Good. Cause you know what I would do to you if you broke that promise?”

“Light my arse on fire.”

[katrinawritesthings]

Taemin-Centric; Fry Guy; PG

just like... high school au where the kid always has fries

where does he get them

how does he hide them from his teachers

will he give u one??? maybe

ao3

Monday Taemin brings a sleeve-covered hand up to muffle his yawn into, and then kind of just leaves his sleeve over half of his face. The morning air is so cold and his sleeve is so warm. He’ll go through the whole day like this. One hand over his mouth. He doesn’t give a shit.

He shuffles up to the low wall that separates the gas station from the corner of the sidewalk and sits, blearily watching cars drive passed to the school down the block. The usual few kids are walking their sleepy butts down the street and Taemin sighs because he’s going to be joining them soon as soon as Jinki meets back up with him. He glances around the parking lot of the shopping center behind him with a grimace. As soon as Jinki decides to show the fuck up, more like. Sticking his hand into his hoodie pocket, he first pulls out a fry, lovely and crispy and warm, and pops it into his mouth. Then he pulls out his phone and opens up a game to pass the time while he waits.

Eventually, there’s a tap on his shoulder and he looks up to see his big bro standing there with his morning coffee. Finally.

“Sip?” he asks, standing up and leaning on Jinki’s shoulder.

“Mmhmm,” Jinki replies, handing over his warm cup. Taemin takes it as Jinki reaches out and presses the crosswalk button to the school side of the street. There’s too much milk, as usual, but Taemin takes his free sips of coffee where he can get them. He takes three little swallows and then hands it back to Jinki with a tired smack of his lips. “Fry?” Jinki asks as he holds his cup in both hands.

“Mmhmm,” Taemin hums, pulling one from his hoodie and handing it over. Jinki reaches for it, but then hesitates with a little frown.

“Is that a Burger King fry?” he asks, pointing at it. Taemin nods, wiggling it at Jinki. Thick and crisp and fluffy on the inside. A little bland, but still good. A wholesome fry. Jinki scrunches his nose, though, and returns his hand back to his coffee. “Ew,” he mumbles. Taemin scoffs, offended down to his very core.

“I’m sorry?” he says, curling the fry to his chest protectively. “Do I know you?” he asks. No brother of his would say something so disgusting.

“Oh my god,” Jinki says, rolling his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic.” Taemin shakes his head in disbelief. Out of the corner of his eye, he notices that the crosswalk is open so he starts walking without reply, stuffing his lovely fry into his own mouth. Jinki steps a little quickly to catch up to him and nudges his shoulder. “I’m still driving you and your friends to the mall this weekend, right?” he asks.

“Sorry?” Taemin says again, frowning at him with confusion. “I don’t talk to strangers,” he says, and pulls his hood up.

“Taemin,” Jinki says flatly, but Taemin just hops up onto the curb and walks purposefully down the sidewalk to the school without looking back.

Tuesday Taemin props his chin up on his bag, hugging it close while he waits for the rest of third period biology to fill in. They’re supposed to take notes today and he doesn’t know how he’s going to get his notebook from his bag when he’s using it as a pillow, but he’ll cross that bridge when he gets there. Maybe they’ll watch a movie and he’ll just get a worksheet to fill out instead. That would be nice.

With a glance at the teacher, he slips his hand into his hoodie pocket and pulls out a fry. McDonald’s today; a classic, long and crisp and extra salty. A blessing. He loves that the good Mcdonald’s is by the school instead of that garbage one with the soft, mushy fries by the movies. As he chews slowly and reaches in for another, a head of black hair with red streaked bangs comes through the door. Oh. There they are.

Key drops their bag on their desk next to him and then sits in it with a little hum like they always do. Taemin watches tiredly as they pull out their notes and pencil box, and then raises his eyebrow when they turn expectantly to him.

“Hey,” they say, barely waving for a second before holding their hand out, palm up. “Let me get a fry,” they say. Taemin snorts, looking away.

“Get a better attitude first,” he mumbles. Immediately Key gasps and huffs and acts all indignant, but Taemin doesn’t really care. He hates when people demand shit from him and Key knows that. He blandly ignores Key’s whines and insistences until class starts, and only tries to keep his smirk down a little bit when he eats another fry right in front of their eyes.

At some point Key gets up to throw something away and Taemin leans over and places three whole fries on top of their notebook. When they get back they take one look at them and huff, throwing Taemin an annoyed little glare.

They also eat the fries.

Wednesday Minho only just barely makes it through the door of sixth period world history before the bell rings. Taemin breathes out a slow, relieved, impressed breath. That was close. Closer than usual. Before Minho has even collapsed into the desk in front of him, Taemin is holding his whole container of fries out. There’s only about a fourth of a large left this time, but they’re Carl’s Jr fries. Thick fries. Seasoned fries. Skin still on. Hearty fries.

“Thanks,” Minho breathes, taking them and pulling two out at once. Taemin nods with a little shrug. He always saves his mid week fries for Minho. It’s Wonderful Wednesday in the gym classes, which means that Minho just ran all period long and then had to hightail it all the way across the school and up the stairs to make it in time for this class.

He’s never even asked for any fries, to be honest. Not once. Taemin just gives him whatever leftovers he has every Wednesday. Taemin has never known a human to be more deserving of fries than Minho. He’s a good egg.

The teacher starts them off by going over the homework from last night; Taemin listens tiredly and checks his answers while Minho slowly makes his way through his fries. When he gets up to turn it in, Minho holds out his paper with a pleading little smile and Taemin smiles back, nodding easily as he takes it. He doesn’t know why he has such a soft spot for his tall classmate. It’s probably the big eyes and the ease with which he shares his notes.

He sits back down and tugs his textbook close to turn to the new chapter, rubbing his palms into his eyes before getting into a comfortable learning slouch. Forty-something minutes to go until he’s free but until then, he feels like he can learn some things.

As he’s tapping his pencil over his bottom lip and trying not to zone out of the powerpoint, Minho taps softly on his desk. Taemin glances at the teacher, then at him, and blinks when Minho hands him back his container of fries. Oh. Nice. He’s saved Taemin all of the thin, little, crispy ones. What a good and pure human.

Thursday From: Jinki 4:53pm taemin i swear to fucking god do not make me tell mom that youre ignoring me because i dont like bk fries

Taemin glances at the text that pops up in the corner of his phone and snorts. He swipes it away without opening the app and technically looking at it, slipping his phone back into his pocket. He doesn’t even care about the fries anymore; now he’s just ignoring Jinki because it’s amusing.

His phone vibrates more, probably with texts from his friends telling him to hurry up because the trailers are starting. He ignores them as well but continues his walking through the movie theatre a little faster. He knows that he’s late. He had important fry business to take care of first. As he approaches the right ticket checker he smiles, recognizing him easily.

“Hey, Jong,” he says, holding out his ticket. He loves running into his computer class buddy here. He’s always so cute, all snazzed up in his uniform and everything.

“Hey,” Jonghyun says back, smiling a smile that’s part customer service and part genuine. He takes his ticket and rips it with a quick glance. “You’re number seven, the third on your right,” he says as he hands it back.

“Mmhmm,” Taemin hums, stuffing it into his pocket. “Thank--”

“Hey, wait,” Jonghyun says quickly. He holds a hand out in front of Taemin’s chest, and when Taemin turns to him with a confused look, he’s glancing around the rest of the lobby. He looks Taemin up and down and cocks a brow. “What kind of fries you got?” he asks lowly. He glances at Taemin’s hoodie pocket meaningfully as well and Taemin frowns.

“Jonghyun,” he says, voice carrying a whine. He doesn’t wanna give up his fries. They’re Five Guys fries. Gorgeous. Salty. Deep. Flavorful. Fried to perfection. Expensive.

“Taemin,” Jonghyun hisses back. “It’s against the rules to bring your own food in,” he says, nodding around the rest of the movie theatre. “I could get in trouble by letting you. What fries are you bribing me with?”

“Oh my god,” Taemin huffs. He shoves his hand into his pocket and pulls out four wonderful, perfect, lovely fries. “Here,” he mutters, pushing them into Jonghyun’s eager hands.

“Oh my god, are these Five Guys?” Jonghyun asks. “Fucking bless. Enjoy your movie.” He’s smiling wide as he pops one into his mouth and Taemin grumbles, shuffling passed him and into the theatre.

Friday Taemin bites his lips as he watches his hash browns frying in the pan. This is just. So good. So nice. He has no idea why today is a Friday off but he doesn’t mind in the slightest, not when he’s cooking himself up a late breakfast right now instead of falling asleep in second period algebra. He should probably pay more attention to holidays and whatnot so he could be more prepared, but whatever.

He gets on his tiptoes to pull down the bottles of seasoning salt from the cabinet over the stove, uncapping one and sprinkling it over his potatoes. With the second bottle, more comes out that he was expecting and he pauses, frowning at the very obvious dusting of salt in the pan. Hmm. Whoops. And the salt from the bacon fat he’s frying this up in will be added to that as well. Shit.

Taemin stares at his mistake for another few moments before he shrugs and shuffles back to the freezer. He’ll just add more shredded potatoes. No big deal. He takes the bag out, pulls off the rubber band, and pours some more out on top of the ones already in pan. Sure, he’s not supposed to have too much in a pan at once, but whatever. He’s in charge of his own destiny. No little instructions box on the back of a freezer bag of potatoes is going to tell him how to live his life. He kind of likes when these potatoes aren’t as crispy anyway.

When he puts the bag back into the freezer he also glances at the clock on the wall. Hmm. It’s been about ten minutes so far. He’d be the few blocks down the street and at the shopping center by now. Maybe it would have been faster to just walk down there and buy some breakfast fries for himself. Maybe some of those crispy Jack in the Box ones.

It wouldn’t be as warm and cozy and relaxing, though, Taemin tells himself, and he shrugs as he moves back to stand over the stove again. It would also be largely more expensive than free, which is what these hash browns are. And he wouldn’t have bacon or a blankie to go with them. Yeah. He smiles softly as he pokes his potatoes around the pan. This was definitely a better idea.

[rhi-b87]

19-25/11-18

Lovely start to the week with meeting Julia for lunch in my favourite place Leroy espresso...bit nervous as Julia’s a vegetarian and pro barista into her specialty coffees...so I didn’t know if she would like it, but she loved it which was awesome and I also managed to sell her the idea of groupon. After lunch we went to the beach for some sunbathing and swimming...30 degrees whoop whoop.

Didn’t get up to that much during this week, work was slow again, which is peeing me off now, it jut feels like you have to be constantly available for 10hour days yet only actually working 3!

Went to event on Friday night with Robin and Julia and Jordan to see a dj who was frickin awesome and such a great crowd of people, such a contrast to the mongaloids of last weekend! Had a great time and although we paid $30 each for the tickets, you realise your kinda paying yes to see a dj but also paying for a nice group of people to share the experience with which actually increases the value of it loads, also it was nice that they did small beers for $3! Took Ale for a walk through the casino first as he’d never been and he venue was just around the corner...so he put $20 into the slot machines, went down to $10 and then up to $28 which Jordan and I demanded that he retrieved his money but no, the gambling took over and he went back down to $20 and then cashed out....so technically we still beat the casino because we had free fun and use of their machines 🤣. The picture you see is a Perspex tube of super shiny $1 coins...apparently there’s 400,000 in there! If only there were 2p coins and I had access to them, then I could have some real fun on my kind of slot machine 🤣

Chill day on Saturday for me as I had the day off...pretty annoying as We could of gone away for 2-3 nights but it’s my Christmas party on Sunday 😡.

So Sunday came and off to Riva by the harbour but he weather was a bit shite! Arrived a bit late but a good 15mins before anyone else other than my manager and boss 🙈. The Christmas party was....tight! Convenient wording so that we all just shared a few snacks plates and then asked ‘do you want something else? because we are all fine’ ok no then! Did get an espresso martini though...why not! 2bottles of wine were purchased! As my good friend and colleague Alessia put it...honestly that was totally the shittest Christmas party I have ever been to! 🤣. So we left after 3hours or so (everyone not just us) me, Alessia and one of the massage girls Ilma decided to go out for a few drinks in St Kilda. Was really nice to catch up with them and once again here a load of shit about work and the people I’m struggling with are being dicks to everyone! Unfortunately it seems that there maybe a bit of a darker side to my manager and boss than I first thought... in terms of profit they probably run a business very well....full stop! Sad but true, they are not people I would like to work for full time, however it’s a job and I live the therapy side of things but I’m literally just going to ignore the bullshit targets and constant pressure now and stand my ground a lot more with my manager as now I know it’s not just me saying this stuff, anyway the day/evenings n was good fun thanks to Alessia and Ilma. Ready for the week ahead just hoping the weather will improve soon, had quite a lot of rain recently, apart from those 2 freak days last weekend, on the plus side though I have been getting free uber rides all this week to and from work as to stopped using three for a while so they told me if I take 6 rides in a week they will give me $7 off every ride the next week...so that’s been handy and now they have given it me again so it will be the same again for this coming week 😬.

From left to right. Ilma, me, Alessia, Carene, Megan (boss), Alaiya in grey and mckayla (my manager) in the shirt.