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eldritch-nightmare · 1 year ago

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heyy!! can i request LJ and Candypop ( ,,if you write for him) sharing a fem!reader? (headcanons or something else) i don’t mind <33

a/n: I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT CANDY POP WAIT omg he's one of those creepypastas that i heard about but never really looked into so. first time writing him so i hope i did him justice for you! i wasn't sure if you wanted something more lighthearted or something darker so i did my best to keep it balanced.

LJ and Candy Pop sharing a fem!reader.

warnings: my knowledge of candy pop comes from the creepypasta files wiki page so just a heads up if i get something wrong, opted to make reader a creepypasta here but it's very vague, lj and candy pop are like frenemies in this i suppose, sorta hints that the reader might've been forced into this relationship, my hand slipped and i dropped a 'good girl' in here somewhere i couldn't help myself, possessive behavior from both of them, implied unhealthy relationship.

Man, what's it like having a 7ft tall imaginary monochrome clown that terrorizes children and a 7ft tall colorful Night Terrors possessed jester be in love with you? It's probably a strange experience.

They both argue over who caught feelings for you first. LJ swears up and down that he fell for you first, but Candy Pop claims it to be love at first sight. Honestly, you've just chosen to believe that they both fell for you around the same time.

The two of them were definitely hesitant to share you, though that was more on Candy Pop's side than it was LJ's. Listen, sharing a body/soul with the literal demon king makes you a bit possessive over things, okay?

You don't particularly mind either way, to be honest. They're both a bit... much to handle at times, but you guys make it work. Like... literally. You had to plan out an entire schedule and everything because they kept bickering about how much time the other spent with you.

LJ gets you on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays while Candy Pop gets you on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sundays are days you spend alone because it's always good to have some time for yourself.

Of course, they don't... follow the schedule that often. Why would they? They aren't confined to the mortal chains of schedules.

They are both equally romantic in their own right, and you won't lie, you certainly have enjoyed a few of the spontaneous dates they've taken you on. Sometimes, they'll even get together long enough to plan out an outing for all three of you. They can get along, see?

Now, we can't forget that they are both murderous entities. One is an imaginary friend turned serial killer and the other is... something. A demon? A poor possessed soul of a jester? Whatever he is, he's deadly. Shall I provide some examples?

Example one: Laughing Jack was abandoned by the one person he was created to befriend, so trust me when I tell you that he has some deeply rooted abandonment issues. He's all fun and games until there's even the slightest possibility of you leaving him. Even if someone makes an offhand remark about how you should leave him, his entire persona does a complete 180.

Suddenly, his hold on you is just a bit more tighter than it normally is, and you can feel his nails digging into your skin, threatening to draw blood. It's a subtle, silent threat of what he could do to you if you ever tried leaving him.

Example two: Candy Pop, as a whole, is somebody you have to be wary around because his mood can flip like a switch. He'll be happily humming away about some random topic one moment, and the next he's pushing you up against a nearby wall and looking at you with such a crazed look that it's almost hard to believe that this is the same person who claims to be in love with you.

He's the type to remind you of where you belong. You belong by his and LJ's side, so don't you ever forget that, okay? You really don't want to see what'll happen if you do.

In the end, though LJ and Candy Pop have a habit of bickering with each other, they'll make one hell of a team if it means keeping you in their grasp. You don't fit with anyone but them, and you don't need to fit with anyone other than them. They're the perfect match for you, and you'll come to see that sooner or later. So, all you need to do is be a good girl and stay by their side, got it?

It's Sunday. Sundays are supposed to be your day. You had plans to hang out with the other girls, maybe even play dress up with Sally if she was up for it. So, why the hell were you currently stuck in bed, sandwiched between a clown and a jester?

You have no clue because you just woke up and they were already here. Sure, you could just… wiggle your way out of bed but then they would wake up. Do they even need to sleep? They aren't mortal like you are, so sleep doesn't seem like a necessity to them. But it's not like you can just stay in bed all day either. You had things you wanted to do!

So, with a very silent sigh, you slowly start to sit up, untangling yourself from the mass of limbs trapping you to your bed. You were able to sit up with relative ease, the hard part would be crawling over either LJ or Candy Pop to get out of bed. That would be… that would be difficult.

Even if you were to try and crawl over one of them, you weren't able to because before you could even decide which one to crawl over, you were being pushed back into laying down again by Candy Pop.

You let out a small 'oof' as soon as your back hit the mattress.

"Where do you think you're going?" You hear LJ ask, and with one quick glance at him, you can see a slight pout on his face. It was almost enough to make you forget about the feeling of his nails gently grazing your stomach.

If he just decided to dig them into your--

"She's not going anywhere." Candy's voice murmurs directly next to your ear, effectively cutting off your train of thought. You only belatedly realize that he had buried his face into your neck, his hair brushing against your face, "Right, angel?"

Well… it seems like you're not going to be getting rid of these two today, so whatever plans you had for the day were going to have to be put on hold until next Sunday. You just hoped the two of them didn't make a habit of this.

#anon #laughing jack x reader #candy pop x reader #laughing jack x you #candy pop x you #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #creepypasta #literally slapped a photo of candy pop into pixlr and hyper zoomed on his eyes to look at the pixels to figure out the exact shade of them #and i didn't even mention his eyes in this so it was a pointless endeavor #i spent 4 hours writing this i think bc i kept getting distracted so if it's a mess im sorry

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rotworld · 3 months ago

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17: Perfect Fit

art by @exorbitantsqueakingnoises

the ivarii are complex plant-like aliens that require hosts for mobility and proper sustenance. humans haven't been as eager as they'd hoped to share their bodies, so significant stipends are offered to encourage greater cooperation. you sit in a waiting room, considering how desperate and adventurous you really are.

->original work. basically explicit; contains dub-con, parasites, body horror, discussion of medical procedures.

MEET YOUR NEW ROOMMATE, says the pamphlet in a bold, friendly font with rounded edges. Under the text, a woman with a dazzling smile holds a polaroid-sized image beside her face. It’s eerie blue monochrome-on-black like a medical scan, smears and swirls of soft tissue of a human face in profile. Strings of something firmer thread up the spinal column and into the brain, a forking starburst like a giant dendrite. LIVING TOGETHER IS EASIER THAN YOU THINK, it claims with a curling arrow urging you to turn the page.

You glance around the waiting room nervously. It’s soothing like a therapist’s office, deliberate and almost cloying; speckled gray carpet, baby blue walls, a small collection of cushioned chairs and sofas arranged in not-too-close, not-too-far clusters. Landscape photos of shrub-speckled Martian canyons and clouds drifting over Europan oceans hang on the walls in wooden frames. A circular speaker on a coffee table plays wind sounds and birdsong at a whispering volume. There’s no one here but you and the receptionist who tears open a package of white, powdery Nutrisweet mix to pour into her coffee mug. When she lifts it to her lips, something in her neck twitches and squirms slightly.

The pamphlet opens into a four-page spread of bright colors, bullet point fun facts and upbeat testimonials. The “ROOMMATE OF THE YEAR” section says implantation is PERFECT whether you want company or like your space. One bedroom, one bathroom? NO PROBLEM! An ivarius only takes up as much space as you do. No need to drastically change your eating habits when you can just supplement your beverage of choice with NUTRIENT-RICH FERTILIZER MIX (and with so many flavors to choose from, it goes with EVERYTHING)! Did you know that ivarii can achieve PERFECT SYMBIOSIS with any sufficiently advanced, terrestrial lifeform? You have a FRIEND FOR LIFE when you sign up for implantation—

A door opens and a man calls your name. He’s wearing mossy green scrubs with the Office of Cooperation’s looping flower and stem crest stitched onto the shirt pocket. You must look ready to bolt because he gives you a wry smile like he gets it and comes to you instead, sinking into the chair beside yours. “Nervous?” he asks. “That’s pretty normal.”

You nod, staring at the back cover of the pamphlet. A man holds one of the medical scan pictures over his heart. Thin tendrils loop through his ribs and infest his organs. “Do you, uh…” You glance at him sheepishly. “Do you have…?”

“Yes. I can show you, if you want.” He waits until you nod reluctantly to unwrap what you thought was a bandage around his wrist, a length of thin, gauze-like material with a yellowish sap stain seeping through. There’s a small bump growing out of his skin—the earliest, sproutling stages of a flower bud. The sepals are flesh-colored, overlapping flaps of thin, vein-filled skin. It’ll bloom on top of his wrist like a corsage.

“Does it hurt?” you ask.

“Not at all.”

“And that’s…I mean, is that typical? I’ve seen some people who bloom from their spine, or their eye…”

“It’s up to you,” he says. “From the very start, it’s up to you. If either one of you decides it isn’t going to work, then nothing happens. Symbiosis takes two.”

That’s the slogan for the Cooperation Initiative. “Symbiosis Takes Two,” pasted on billboards and subway tunnels with smiling people tenderly holding vine-covered flower pots like they’re newborn babies. The brochure stand at the waiting room door has every possible approach covered: the humanitarian, the scientific, the pragmatic. Help a species in need; contribute to ongoing research; never worry about money again.

“Okay,” you say quietly. “Okay. I’ll try.”

The matchmaking rooms line either side of a long, quiet hallway. Each door has a small electronic screen beside it with a schedule displayed. You find yours at the very end, a time slot for your meeting grayed out. There’s a vertical line down the middle. Your name is on the left; the name “Sifril” is on the right. The door is open. Like the waiting room, the decor is purposefully unobtrusive and calming with muted colors and soft surfaces. The curtains are sheer to let in some natural light. Two armchairs sit facing each other on a floral rug, a round wooden table between them.

On the table, there’s a slim black speaker next to a strange vase. It’s not glass or ceramic but a shimmery material with a moving surface like foam drifting across water. Long vines spill out from the top and slink down the sides, tapping and poking at the table in searching, licking motions. A thick cluster of tangled stems and leafy growths sticks straight up, covered in alien flowers with colorful, curling tendrils atop spotted petals. Each blossom turns towards the door when you walk in, quivering slightly.

“Oh, hello!”

You look up in surprise. You were so distracted by the sight of an ivarius that you didn’t even notice one of the chairs was occupied. It’s a man—young, clean-shaven, a short, choppy haircut and a bright smile. He’s wearing a sweater with brown and beige stripes, long sleeves covering most of his hands. His jeans are rolled up to his ankles and his socks have little mushrooms on them. You know what the door says, but you start backing up to check the time table again.

“Oh, hey, no, come back!” he says, laughing. “You’re Sifril’s match, right? You’re in the right place. I’m here because your case is sort of special. Here, why don’t you get comfortable?” Reluctantly, you sit down across from him. He offers a reassuring smile. “I’m Andrei,” he says, placing a hand on his chest. “My co-inhabitor is Olanash. It’s nice to meet you.” He gives you his full attention, his eye contact intense and unwavering. “How much do you know about ivarii?”

“A little,” you say, sheepish. “I read the pamphlets.”

“Why did you decide to apply?”

You avert your gaze. “Well, I’m…I saw a poster that said, uh…”

Andrei leans over suddenly like he’s about to grab your hand. He stops halfway there, blinking like he’s just as surprised as you. “Sorry,” he says, settling back in his seat. “Force of habit. You’re giving off distress hormones and…look, I’m not trying to shame you. I signed up because I needed the money, too. But there are lots of ways to make money. This is a lifelong commitment and it takes a lot of trust. What I’m asking is why this, instead of something else? Is there anything else about it that appeals to you?”

You look down at the vase and the ivarius coiled inside of it. “I like the idea of never being alone,” you admit. “I was still on the fence about it, but then I got matched with Sifril and we talked back and forth a bit, and…” Now you’re wondering about that. How, exactly, does an ivarius message someone? Do they dictate to someone else? You really hope not. Your face heats at the thought of anyone else seeing those messages.

Andrei chuckles. “And now you’re here. Sifril’s definitely a smooth-talker, huh? That’s three for three now.”

“Three for three?” you ask, wary.

“Right, we need to talk about that. Do you want to say it, Sifril, or should I?”

A warbling, bassy sound flutters from the speaker on the table. You flinch when you hear a very clear, very human-sounding, “Go ahead, Andrei.” That definitely sounded like a person, but you struggle to identify pitch or tone, masculine or feminine, any particular cadence or lilt. That doesn’t make sense, unless you’re not really hearing a voice at all but something your brain interprets as one. “My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you,” you hear. It seems to echo, like you’re hearing it in a big, empty room.

“Sifril?” you ask.

“Yes,” says the voice. The ivarius in the vase rustles their leaves. “It’s wonderful to finally be in the same room. You’re even lovelier in person.”

“Can you see me?” you ask, suddenly self-conscious.

The speaker rumbles. The sound isn’t loud but it makes your ears tingle. “Hm. In a way. My senses aren’t the same as yours, but I know you’re there and I know you are lovely.”

“Sifril,” Andrei says, chiding. “Stop teasing them. You can tell they’re embarrassed.”

“I can tell no such thing,” Sifril says. For the first time, the voice has a distinctive feature you can identify: a purr of flirtation.

“You mentioned that you read the pamphlets?” Andrei smiles when you nod. “So you’ve seen the whole ‘roommate’ thing. It’s a useful comparison, but not wholly accurate. Symbiosis is very…intimate. Ivarii love their hosts.” He reaches out, holding his hand over the vase. Sifril’s vines move in slow motion, a shaky upward crawl, until they touch skin. Suddenly they become graceful, curling around Andrei’s wrist and palm. When he spreads his fingers, they thread through the space between and wrap around them in grasping, undulating motions that look distinctly sensual. You feel flustered when Andrei glances up and sees you staring intently, even more when he winks. “They love one another, too. It’s not uncommon for them to pursue courtship and even mate while co-inhabiting.”

“Mate? Like…” You’re sure you’re not imagining it. Andrei’s smile and wandering, half-lidded gaze are definitely showing interest. “While they’re…?”

“So shy,” Sifril says, their flowers swaying.

“Yes,” Andrei says, clearly amused. “While they’re inside us. Sharing sensory information means everything is a shared experience, including attraction and sex. They call that a ‘rebal pair’ when a human and co-inhabitor mate with another human and co-inhabitor. In Sifril’s case, though, they mated before being assigned a host. Their mate, on the other hand, got one sooner.” You glance between Andrei and the vines caressing his hand. Andrei sees you put the pieces together and smiles. “Yes. Olanash is Sifril’s mate. So whoever becomes Sifril’s host will be my partner, and together, we’ll be a rebal pair.”

None of the promotional material ever mentioned something like this. You’re not sure what to think. “That seems tough,” you say. “So all three of you have to agree on the same partner.”

“We’re in agreement right now,” Sifril purrs.

“I know it’s a lot,” Andrei assures you. “And you don’t have to decide right now. We’re supposed to have at least two more meetings to really get a good feel for each other. If you have any questions, I’d be more than happy to answer them.” You nod, not quite meeting his eyes. “Is there something specific you’re worried about?”

“Well…kind of the whole thing,” you admit. You watch Sifril’s vines uncoil from Andrei’s hand. They move like snakes, flexible and slippery as they sprawl across the table again. You can’t help but notice they’ve all gathered on the side closest to you, curled into grasping spirals. “What does it feel like?”

Andrei considers the question for a moment with a thoughtful frown. Then he smiles again, wide and serene. “Comforting,” he says. “You just know somebody else is there, even if they’re not moving. And when they do move around, it’s like…someone touching you. You feel it on your skin. Like a gentle tap, or a caress.”

“And the surgery, is that, um…”

His eyes light up. “Oh, I can tell you exactly what that’s like. Here.” He gets up and gestures for you to stand next to him. You hesitate for a moment before you follow and he beams at you. Sifril’s flowers lean forward in the vase. “First of all, they knock you out. You won’t feel anything. Second…” Andrei slips behind you, a hand landing on your shoulder when you start trying to turn around. “There are several possible methods of implantation,” he tells you. He’s standing way too close, practically pressed against your back. He speaks softly, close to your ear. “One is through the chest. The first incision is made here.” He touches his fingertips to your sternum and slowly, suggestively, slides his hand down the center of your body. “Alllllllll the way down,” he murmurs. “Some of them like to anchor to the ribs. Some don’t. You’d talk that over with Sifril beforehand.”

“The ribs,” Sifril muses. “I would like to feel your ribs. To fill them.”

“Another option is here.” Andrei’s fingers brush against the underside of your jaw in a soft caress. His thumb strokes the side of your neck. He chuckles at your slight shudder. “The neck,” he says, almost whispering. “It’s a really popular spot. Tight. Sensitive. Much closer to the brain. I’ve heard it feels good.” His palms smooth up and down your back, squeezing your shoulders. “Another option. From behind. Olanash and I picked this one. I can feel them right there all the time. Their warmth. The weight of their presence. Like they’re holding me.” His hands slide down your sides and then there’s no space between you anymore. Andrei’s hips rest against your ass and you can feel that he’s hard through his jeans.

You’re frozen, completely unprepared. Is this allowed? Are they supposed to do this?

Andrei’s lips graze the shell of your ear. “No matter what,” he says, “they end up here.” He presses two fingers to the nape of your neck. “All the way up. And all the way in.” He rocks his hips gently, grinding against you. His hand slides higher and he digs his fingers into your scalp. “And that feels so, so good. It’s hard to explain, because you don’t feel it exactly. But you feel what they feel, surrounded by you. And you know they’re there. Squirming…and slithering…like they’re fucking your brain.”

“Olanash told you to say that,” Sifril says, playfully accusing. “They like that sort of thing.”

Andrei chuckles. Emboldened by the little gasps you let out, he holds your hips tighter and starts grinding harder and faster. “So do you,” he says. “I know you whisper all the same filth. I can hear you both when you’re mating.” He pulls you against him, urging you to grind back and enjoy the friction. You let out a shaky breath when he kisses your neck. “It’s kind of exciting to think about, right?” he whispers. “Having someone where you’re most vulnerable. Fucking all the thoughts out of your head. I wish I could show you. Sifril could give you a taste, if you let them. It’s not quite the same as if they were implanted, but it’s like nothing you’ve ever felt before.”

Andrei moans when you start to move with him, pushing back into his humping thrusts. He rewards you with wandering hands and more hungry kisses, his fingers teasing your nipples through your shirt with light pinches and circular motions. His tongue traces the shell of your ear and he licks and nips at it, his hot breath making you shiver. Heats throbs between your legs and you want more than this frantic teasing.

Then it all stops. Andrei suddenly lets go of you, stepping back and leaving you shuddering in the middle of the room. You hear him casually sink back into his chair like he didn’t just try to make you cum in pants. He’s smiling when you look back at him, an elbow on the armrest, cheek resting against his fist.

“But you’ve probably got more questions, right? Don’t let me distract you if there’s more you wnat to ask.” he says. He sits with his legs spread, one hand tapping his thigh in a way that looks teasing. Inviting. He’s moved his chair slightly closer to the table and Sifril’s vase. You think about just how far you saw Sifril’s vines spread. If you sat there, you would be caught between both of them. Easily within reach. “You can ask me anything,” Andrei says, licking his lips. “Anything at all.”

The speaker shudders and rumbles. “You can do more than ask,” Sifril purrs.

This stops when you want it to. You can leave whenever you want. You can tell them you’ve changed your mind, that you’re calling the whole thing off. You can walk out of here and never come back. You have time, you tell yourself. Two whole meetings more before you have to choose. “When, um…” You swallow hard. They wait patiently, both of them—all three, you think—watching you intently. “When am I going to meet Olanash?”

Andrei’s smile widens when you take a timid step closer. He spreads his legs a little wider, leaving plenty of room for you on his lap. “If you want,” he says, “how about right now?”

#rotpeach writes #original #goretober

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exsiopicore · 1 year ago

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"MISTAKES" - AN ORIGINAL PIZZA TOWER COMIC

Before (or after) you read this little comic I made, I wanna say some things.

First of all, this comic was inspired by @gabaobab 's absolute masterpieces. She has been inspiring me since I knew her on Twitter. She gives her best into her animations, art, and even outside Pizza Tower. Knowing that she gives a bit of her living experience in some of her comics, characters and more, really inspired me making my own Pizza Tower comic based on how I feel. Absolutely worth it.

Second thing, thank you ALOT for stopping by and reading this Comic (and this text). I am not a great artist, but I try my best !! I really enjoyed working on this little comic, it made a little side project outside of work for me to enjoy. I am so proud of it :')

Finally, just wanted to say that I had lots lf fun working with the monochrome palette and the light effect with the firefly. It gives a little "more" that I love to bits. No regret. Would do it again.

Hope you will all have an amazing day.

-Exsio

#pizza tower #fake peppino #peppino spaghetti #pizza tower comic

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at1ias · 7 days ago

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@existencebringsonlypain I had to make this a post cause it got too long {side note, hi I'm in the soul segment now, I wrote this when I just started, IT GOT WAY TOO LONG HOLY FUCK} TW: mention of suicide Also, I might get things wrong: feel free to correct me. ALSO: for more in depth stuff, go look at Genius I guess cause as much as d love too, I don't wanna spend all day here- ALSO ALSO: Go listen to the album! It's really good!

The songs referenced in this post are Chonny's {who I will refer to as CJ} covers of Miracle Musical's "The Mind Electric". The covers are from CJ's album, "Chonny's Charming Chaos Compendium" {I will refer to this as CCCC}, which consisted of "covers" of Tally Hall, Miracle Musical, Rob Cantor, and Joe Hawley songs. I quoted the word cover, because sometimes he writes entirely different lyrics. Now for the explanations.

Take a description of the characters I wrote a month ago! FYI: they're all parts of this guy called Whole {he represents CJ!}

Heart is one third of the whole, and is seen as the “emotional one” by Mind. He is also the one seen in more control of Whole in the beginning of the album. His voice in the album is represented by having no effects added, along with being softer. He has a mutual hatred to Mind. He is blind, and therefore also wears a blindfold. It is not specified when he was blinded, and is up to individual interpretation, though seemingly the most popular one being after the “Juno incident”, which I will cover later. Fun fact, HE HAS A GUN?! He represents the Moon, and has a mostly purplescheme. HMS each has a monochrome color that represents them, Heart’s being white. He has also been referred as “Resident Heart”, “The emotional side”, “Juno”, and “Artemis”. He has purple lipstick.

Mind is the second third we talk about, and is the “cold, logical” one, and finds Heart useless due to his emotions. After “The Ruler of Everything”, he is seen to have more control of Whole. His voice is the most distinct, which, THANK GOD- and is deeper and more monotone. Due to “The Ruler of Everything”, and Heart’s last lines in “The Heart Acoustic”, a majority of the fandom sees Mind as an android/ automaton. He has a blue color scheme. He represents the sun and the color black. He’s referred as “Mr. Mind”, “Automaton freak”, and “Apollo”. He has blue lipstick.

Soul is the final third. He is the peacekeeper, working to bring together Heart and Mind, and is determined to do so, saying he’d die trying. His voice is slightly distorted, and I don’t really know how to explain it. He is the one most representing Whole, and is seen in mostly two ways by the fandom, “Mom and Dad are fighting again”, and, “The children are fighting again.”. He has a glowing red trident, matching his red color scheme. In fanon, and sort of canon, Soul has a chicken named Darrel, created by Socialc1imb due to Mucka Blucka (Intro to Cacophony) having chicken noises, and was canonized in the music video for “The Bidding” by OpalTheThing. Confirmed by Chonny, Soul does drink Monster Energy {I think that's true, probably???}. He really wants Whole back and hates the constant fighting. He represents the color gray and the stars {some people see it as something else though}. He’s referred as “The host”, “a madman”, “insane”, “peacekeeper”, and “Atlas”. He has red lipstick.

Finally, Whole. Also known as Harmonia {though some people see them as separate entities} , he is what happens when HMS goes into concord. Not much to say here. Again, he’s also a representation of Mr. Jash himself!!! {EDIT START} Oh wait also here's a quote from Mr. Jash's QnA mostly for me to save but uhm. How are Soul’s, Whole’s and Heart’s vocals distinct from each other? How did you decide on these differences? Why did you make Mind’s voice so distinct from the others? The main difference between Soul and Heart is the type and intensity of their pitch-correction. Heart is made to sound like a normal take, using pitch-correction only to fine-tune the notes that they sing to sit better in the music, while Soul’s is heavily cranked to sound almost robotic, even though each is in the same register. For some songs, Soul’s vocals also get layered on top of a Vocoder that’s programmed to replicate the melody of the song (noticeable in Two Wuv and Light.) The fact that Mind’s voice is so distinct isn’t really a specific choice I made, just that out of the three characters, he seemed to best suit it. Finally, from a sound/mixing/production point of view, the voice of ‘Whole’ as you all seem to refer to me is almost identical to Heart’s. This isn’t really for any thematic reasons, and instead just because it feels the most natural. {EDIT END}

Alright we aren't going to talk about Whole much by the way- So, The Heart Acoustic {I will refer to this as THA} is Heart singing a song from Apathy {I'm pretty sure Apathy is a hole}. He is in Apathy, from what the fans dub, "The Juno Incident", an event where Heart attempted to shoot Mind, but missed. He got sent to Apathy as a punishment. It's what I like to call, Heart going on a rant. Importantly, at the end of the song, Heart says this, "Do what you want, you automaton freak, no I can no longer bring myself to care, this hollowed out vessel's beginning to creak, so take control, let's see how you fare." Automaton freak refers to Mind and vessel refers to Whole, by the way. This is Heart's way of saying, "I give up." The Mind Electric, {TME} Is what I like to call, Mind's third and final "diss track" to Heart {The "diss tracks" in question being songs, "Be Born", "Storm and a Spring", and "The Mind Electric"}. Most of the song consists of him mocking Heart, here's a quote I like, "See how his feet miss the ground, and he falls inside a hole he dug for me.", This refers to Heart being in Apathy, a hole he dug for Mind as his grave for after the Juno incident. The Soul Eclectic {TSE}, A.K.A. my favourite song {yes, I'm biased cause Soul is my favourite but also this song goes HARD} Also, this song is real hard to sum up. So, the first verse is Soul kind of introducing himself. The second has Heart calling Soul a "Damn madman", and Mind calling Soul a "Depressed fool". This could also be taken as Heart and Mind talking about each other though. The last line in this verse Soul says "You seem to forget to you answer to me." This is Soul trying to claim any power he can, and he is telling the truth, Heart and Mind *do* have to answer to him. Third verse, Soul says "Neither is wrong, yet neither is right", referring to Mind and Heart's fighting. At the end, Heart and Mind share a line saying, "Condemn him to the infirmary", which I see as them trying to get Soul out of their fighting. The bridge Soul says, "You must be so arrogant to think That either of you can control The Soul so wholly, when To be one whole you can't hold solely" This is Soul talking to Heart and Mind, saying you can't control me, and you shouldn't think as such. Also, I took the usage of "Wholly" and "solely" as puns for Whole and Soul. Starting in verse 4, Heart and Mind finally start listening to Soul. In verse 5, Soul is pretty much like "I'm done with y'all's bullshit." The second bridge isn't notable, but in the interlude, Heart, Mind, and Soul all say, "I. Am. Me." {I'm only writing that because in the sound it sounds cool as fuck lmao} In the chorus, Soul says: "See how the brain plays around And it splits what once was whole down into three And you fall inside a hole, inside a- Someone help me Understand what's going on behind my eyes Doctor, I can't tell if I'm not me" The brain refers to Mind, and splitting refers to how they're all parts of Whole. The hole, again, refers to Apathy. The last three lines are Soul saying he doesn't exactly know what's happening between the three of them, even as their "host". In the second part of the chorus, Heart and Mind are fighting. Again. Shocker. In the third bridge, Soul again talks about their fighting, saying this: "See how they fight all day The other half won't hear what's had to say It's just the game they play here in this labyrinth maze" Yes, the last lyric is a reference to Labyrinth by Miracle Musical. In the outro, Soul is now fed up, and starts to threaten them. Here's the lyrics: "Screams with no sense for why One more day and more night One more black and one more white One more chance is all you've left to turn the tides Tridential regicide I won't hesitate to kill my Heart and Mind I will abdicate these deviants sat inside I'll take you down in tandem when this rope is tied"

Day / night, black / white refer to Heart and Mind's corresponding things. Soul then says he's giving them one more chance. In the last three lines, Soul threatens them, saying he'd rather die than do this. And I'm pretty sure the rope refers to a noose, which.., y'know.

SIDE NOTE IVE BEEN WRITING THIS FOR OVER AN HOUR, WHAT.

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imthepunchlord · 2 months ago

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Do you think that Claw Noir would be a better character than Adrien cause from what I'm remembering Claw Noir seems more involved with his plot than Adrien ever is.

To my knowledge, that's not true. They gave very little details on Shadybug and Claw Noir's world, and what's given is just... conflicting. But I don't remember it's revealed that Emodrien is more involved in his own plot, he's just playing villain instead of playing hero, acting out his frustrations instead of bottling them (like despite being good, Gabriel is still a terrible father? Apparently?).

Either way, to get to the answer, it depends on if you want a changed dynamic for the leads and your preferences.

There is some merit to doing Emodrien over Adrien.

Adrien, by narrative set up, is meant to rebel against his father. He should reach a point of "enough is enough". Why, in Origins, he's rebelling against his father, running away twice to go to school. And then there's Simon Says where he's not so welcoming of his father's hug and relief for his safety.

But it never bears fruit.

To do Emodrien would work off Adrien rebelling against his father at the start, to show that he's had enough, he's going to do his own thing.

Emodrien would also work off Ladybug having a dicey partner. Adrien cares enough to help out as a hero and work with LB, but clearly not that much given he'll be a brat during a fight when she upsets him and won't shape up until he receives an apology, will detransform during a flood to demand answers instead going about and helping those caught up in the flood waters, actively checking to see if someone's going to be akumatized so he can see his crush, will prank her in the middle of an akuma fight, and won't go out to help in fights because he's bummed about his partner working with other heroes.

It really shows the Miraculous it meant to be used with duty, goodness, and responsibility in mind, it's meant to be used to be a fun outlet for him, to exist outside his father and pressure in civilian life; which would've been fine at the start but it would also need to be addressed.

It wasn't.

So Claw Noir could better work off Ladybug having an unreliable Cat as a partner. He's here to lash out, pull pranks, mess with her and Hawk Moth, and just be a neutral wildcard who will help Ladybug when it suits him (as Hawk Moth is also after him), otherwise he's not into this hero business, too much work. He doesn't want more work or pressure on him. No thank you. But he'll take pleasure in ruining his own face cause that's not his look anymore. Extra bonus it pisses his dad off.

If going a route that characters are expected to have growth and evolve, Emodrien has a more defined path to take for himself than Adrien does. Not to say Adrien doesn't, but it's not well defined. Like, Origins set ups wanting friends, but we never see him engage in friendship, or with others that's not Nino, Chloe, or Marinette, and then Party Crasher everyone is just friends with him. He could have a route of learning to be a hero, but they never take that path. You got the set up of his father being the villain but he's just not involved in plot. So Adrien's just kinda aimless.

Now for Emodrien, he's at a stage learning to live for himself, but it's more centered around his grief, anger, and frustration, so his path is learning to get past those emotions, to expand the world outside of himself, to bring color and warmth into his life and not the coldness of monochrome.

And there's the bonus that he's more set up to be involved in his own plot, because he's more against Gabriel, so when he finds that book in Volpina, s2 would definitely be more around the truth that Gabriel is Hawk Moth. And Emodrien may have a decent enough reason to drag this revelation through s2, cause he's pissed at his dad, but he also still loves his dad. So, what does he do with this information? However it goes, s2 would probably be a reveal between Agrestes, and the crossroads they'd find themselves at.

Another big appeal is how this would effect the Love Square.

For one thing, for those that don't ship it, this is in the realm of possibility to just have it not be, cause Emodrien is in a bad spot emotionally and Marinette I don't see all that impressed or happy with either side of him.

For those that do, you're hitting the breaks and set up to get a more gradual and cohesive romance. Marinette is set up, at some point, to learn the reason behind Emodrien/Claw's actions, and because she's empathetic, will open her up to trying to bond and connect with him.

And Emodrien is still Adrien at the core, he's just Adrien letting all those ugly and frustrated feelings out instead of bottling them. And you can set up that he's going to be drawn to her still, and thanks to the Special, we can go either route.

He could come to like Marinette because she's animated and spirited, literally a source of color to his monochrome life. I can't say how Emodrien is as a civilian as we don't get to see how he is, but assuming he's at least brooding and not going out his way to pick on others, Marinette should be open minded, friendly, and inclusive. And Emodrien is still a lonely boy, so he appreciates the gestures.

For Claw Noir, you can work off that he does have fun messing with her, but there is some admiration to her passion and resolve, and he doesn't want to see her fail or hurt. And for all of her annoyances at him and nagging, she does keep a look out for him, helps him with needing to be asked, and will just have his back. And just to be decent, he'll extend his own claws to help, as needed. And gradually, he becomes the shadow that follows light.

#ask Punchie #adrien salt #ml salt

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reginadraws · 2 months ago

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CSP brushes & assets

hello people! i decided to remake my long-gone twitter thread of some of my favorite CSP brushes & assets with some new favorites! each will have the direct link to the CSP asset website

🖼️monochrome texture pack | link good for throwing noise over top of a drawing. i like the cardboard and steno paper ones. i literally use this on almost everything

🖼️abstract seamless 01 | link mmm. squiggles. i love me some ambient squiggles

🖼️risograph texture | link it looks good. i like the papery look

🖌️filbert dual | link i like how loose and scratchy this one can get. it lays down really well

🖌️tiger brush | link these 3 are color changing ones with different brush shapes. i like tiger bite cause it has like rough edges

🖌️ square texture brush | link i love this for just laying down big color. nice and square

🖌️lazy brush | link i use this thing all the time. multifaceted legend

🖌️ flashito | link nice subtle color changy brush with a little roughness texture

🖌️ MYNQZO brushes | link a brush set with 5 - i like them and they work together well. 2 inky smooth, 3 chalky

✒️ sambfen | link this is a pen brush i've been using lately. it's nice and smooth and quick

✒️little ink | link jittery little pen! comes out loose and globby i like to set it on a small size and use for small details

✒️wiggle brush | link i have been using this one so much. i love the scratchy texture

✒️hhh 2 | link similar in look to wiggle brush but more spiky? almost chalky

✒️ MUGZ BRUSH COLLECTION | link this is a set of 5 - i like the pens in there

⚫️simple retro halftone | link i like to sprinkle this on top of stuff to blend one color into another, or erase something into a fade

⚫️grunge dot | link i use this in background or same thing as ^that one to blend stuff together. good size variation

⬛️ ez mosiac | link easy way to get some fun color / shape details

#reginadraws #reginadraws talks #brushes #csp brushes #csp assets

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mushroomjar · 1 year ago

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Did you think I forgot about it? The Halloween vocaloid playlist is done!! I'll include the links in a reblog so Tumblr doesn't bury the post, there's a YouTube playlist and a Spotify one, the YouTube one being the longer one with nearly 100 songs... yeah, I got carried away lol Reminder for those who have forgotten/not in the know, this playlist starts with cute lighthearted songs about Halloween and monsters, and gets darker in tone and sound the deeper down the playlist you go

I don't want to make the post too long so I'll just include a general content warning for the songs in the playlist, and under the cut I might list all the songs and ramble a bit about what it was like to make the playlist. I hope you enjoy!^^

Content Warnings: flashing lights, bright images, loud sounds and jumpscares, disturbing images and noises, death, body horror, gore, cannibalism, abuse, stalking, potentially paranoia-inducing songs/lyrics

The playlist has been done for days, I've just been procrastinating on actually making the post until now lmao sorry! I had a lot of fun making the playlist and going through the suggestions, it also made me fall in love with some producers I hadn't paid much attention to before (shout out to all of the people who sent in Babuchan suggestions, as you can see I went down a bit of a Babuchan rabbit hole and added tons of his stuff to the playlist, same for machigerita lol)

I'll admit that one of the reasons the playlist kept getting longer was because I'd look at other creepy/scary vocaloid playlists on YouTube for inspiration, and every time I was nearly done I would write down 20 more songs to check out, which is why it took me a whole month to get this playlist done lol. I hope it was worth it! I'm very pleased with how it all turned out

There were also many songs/producers I really liked but decided not to include in the playlist, for example I found DaijoubuP, who I really like, but I didn't think it fit the vibe of the kind of Halloween playlist I wanted to make, so none of his stuff is in the playlist. Same goes for SEIKAI, his songs sound very creepy but I found the lyrics a bit too dark and I wanted to try to keep the playlist a bit more lighthearted. Maybe I'll make a more general vocahorror playlist sometime to highlight all of these producers' work! Who knows

Something else I realized because of this playlist is my standard for creepy vocaloid music might be a bit different than other people's. I got many Maretu suggestions, and I love the guy and completely understand why some of his music was suggested (such as Coin Locker Baby), but it surprised me just how much I'd see him suggested in the notes of my post or in Spotify playlists, he's never really given me the creeps even with his darker lyrics. Not judging! Just an observation I had

You'll notice that I've been using vocaloid as a bit of an umbrella term, since there are a couple of songs that use UTAU and even Synth-V voicebanks^^

I think that's all I have to say for now, so I'll just list all the songs in the playlist and hurry to put the links in a reblog! Thank you so much to everyone who helped with the playlist, all of your suggestions were really appreciated, I would not have as good a playlist if it wasn't for you^^

The song list is mainly because I tried to link back to the original producers whenever possible, and also sometimes the songs were very hard to find, so a lot of the titles are in Japanese, so I figured having the songs and producers written out here would make it a bit easier for you to navigate the playlist^^ Anyway, songs:

Happy Halloween - Junky

SLASH/ER - Circus-P

Ghosts Play To The Audience - PinocchioP

Kikkai Kettai - Meddmia

Zen'yasai no akuma - mayuko

Furaan Furaan Zombie - nem

Fake-Cryer Pumpkin - CycleP

Zen'yasai no kuroneko - mayuko

Halloween Patisserie TrickaTorka - machigerita

Halloweenya - Chinozo

Dream-Eating Monochrome Baku - nem

Creepy Toast - CircusP

Pumpkin March - momocashew

Selfish Princess - fujiwo

Pumpkin Head Spooky Dance - machigerita

Dream Meltic Halloween - machigerita

Giga giga witch - Kurosawa Madoka

Trich, Trach, Trick Parade - sasasaP

Happy Hollow And The God Club - Nanou

Saa, Docchi? - HINATA Haruhana

Propaganda! - Crusher-P

What Gave It Away - R.I.P

Shadow Shadow - Azari

Splatter Party - Camellia

Who? - Azari

Pandemic - YuugouP

Twilight Homicide Song - Kiraboshi Hikaru

Greedy Halloween Candy Nights - machigerita

Gochisou - Xitoo

Spiral-Luvox - Tune Tonic/Switch

Mrs. Pumpkin's Comical Dream - hachi

trick and treat - OSTER Project

Strange Masquerade Halloween - machigerita

Oxidation And Dream Monsters - Ghost

Oz no Kaitai Show - Ankoku DouwaP/Joruzin

Sadistic.Music Factory - cosMo@BouSou-P

Hourglass - HiiragiKirai

Dance With The Dead - Ghost

Alice of Human Sacrifice - Yugami-P

Candy Addict Full Course - machigerita

The Boy Who Went To Hell - SHUDDER

Crazy Clown - Intro-P

Ideal Picture - NanoritaP

Serial Contraption of Malice - Ghost

Twins - Babuchan

Not As It Seems - Creep-P

Amydgala's Rag Doll - Ghost

Hyouhon Shoujo - Kiyozumi

Rotten Girl, Grotesque Romance - machigerita

Grotesque Love Song - shoutarouP

That Woman - shoutarouP

Musunde hiraite rasetsu to mukuro - hachi

Hide And Seek - Ho-ong-i

Tokeru Sakana - Yuzuri_Hal

Greetings From The Bottom Of The Well - machigerita

Color & Electricity - mushiP

Patchwork Toxin - machigerita

Bacterial Contamination - Kanimiso-P

Song for Great Satan - Nanka-P

Taiyou-sama - Abuse/Abuse-Ken

Fear Garden - Chaa

Despair The Burguer Factory - Groy Anderson

The Cyclops - David K.

Tears of Artificial Flowers - Babuchan

Moon Prescription - Babuchan

Rugrats Theory - Crusher-P

Monochrome Ward - Yugami-P

Bone Dead Mansion - Babuchan

50/50 - Risshuu

Dark Woods Circus - machigerita

Wide Knowledge of the Late Madness - machigerita

Tell me you'll love me - Babuchan

After School - Okashi-P

Lavender Town - neku

???????? - SocialPhobiaSynaps

behe-laino_hotza-bihotza - sakizakisaki

In A Rainy Town, Balloons Dance With Devils - hachi

Sand Gum - MOL.

Nodoka na Kyuujitsu - HikkieP

Broken Toy Mania - Babuchan

Red Flower - Babuchan

Cry Baby - Babuchan

Fuzai - MondaijiP

Boku Yaranai, Kimi Itooshi - nicol

Ant Observation - Healing-P

A 13-Year Old Killer - Sunazame

0 People's Waltz - Babuchan

Varicella - Babuchan

Kagome Kagome - Zawazawa-P

potatoman - MondaijiP

Okaasan - machigerita

VOCALOID UTOPIA - dennoko-P

Hyperpnea - Hikkie-P

Crushed Mary - Mondaiji-P

Nakazu to mo Rokkaku Wrench da Hototsugi - MondaijiP

Complex - Watashi no koko

#vocaloid #vocal synth #vocahorror #halloween #utau #synth-v #vocaloid horror #vocaloid halloween #vocaloid playlist #playlist #halloween playlist #cat rambles #musicposting #now to post the links in a reblog faster than lightning #three... two... one... go!!

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loveselenade · 10 months ago

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Madoka 1.5

Since I’m watching PMMM for the first time (with a lot of it spoiled due socmed lol), I figured it’d be fun to write my thoughts so far, 1.5 episodes in. It goes without saying, but don't send me any further spoilers, as this is only fun if I can manage to remain as ignorant as I am now.

Things I knew before hand:

-Kyubey is a bastard.

-It has Shinbo Akiyuki's artistic sensibilities all over it (reason I started watching, tho I'm unclear what exactly his involvement in this is lol). Also, Urobuchi Gen is the main writer for this lol

-Madoka dies.

-Madoka is the paragon of good.

-Lesbian Satan.

-Homura has catholic guilt??

-Someone's backstory involves a brother or something.

-Guns

-Time loop.

-Jewel seeds but evil (this only makes sense if you've watched Nanoha, sorry lol)

-Witches

-Madoka saved a cat

---

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Illusory motion.

[image id: top view of a monochromatic, distorted staircase that looks like a spiral.]

An upwards climb or a downward spiral? The irregular curving of the stories and the pattern alternance sure makes it look like it's spiraling inward. As our lace curtain lifts so the play can begin, this is our first look at the kind of world that awaits us.

[image id: gif showing a close up to Madoka's legs and then a panoramic top view as she runs through a monochromatic hallway with a chessboard pattern]

I don’t have a lot to say about the witches’ labyrinths yet, but I’m always a sucker for dreamscapes (I loved them dearly in Flip Flappers, where they had the incredible work of Studio Pablo strengthening the storybook look), and I’m assuming the labyrinths symbolize something about the interiority or the difficulties the witch in question faced. I don’t have a lot to go by with the two labyrinths in episode one, but I did love the glimpse of the one we get in the opening sequence. I love the effect that it creates when alternating between panoramic shots or extreme close-ups to Madoka’s legs and back as she runs—respectively making her look too small against this overwhelming set piece or claustrophobically trapped in her impotence. As the camera moves along, there’s a sensation that the different patterns in the floors are moving. Because of the way we perceive depth via ascertaining the apparent parallelism or convergence of lines and value/color contrast, among other things, the pattern alternance in this monochrome set piece creates illusions of either motion or that each row is a step more elevated than the other. It’s a properly trippy place. I enjoy it. The straight white for the lighting and tiles creates an artificial and alienating atmosphere. The uniformity of its looks is disorienting. Is Madoka going the right way? It’s really a fantastic introduction to the world of Madoka Magica.

The path you must follow has been prepared for you.

[image id: A green, flourescent exit sign is centered in the screen, hanging above a dark path framed by silver chain fence]

Despite the disorienting feeling, Madoka follows mostly straight paths and there's a clearly labeled, correct exit. This brings to mind the predetermined paths present in Revolutionary Girl Utena's imagery.

Additionally, I find the way Madoka’s run is boarded reminiscent to Utena’s chase after Anthy in Adolescence of Utena:

[image id: gif showing a panoramic view of of landscape shwoered in sunset lighting and red, square pillars towering over the space. Utena, looking tiny, runs further into the place.]

[Image id: gif showing a top down view of a long monochromatic corridor with chessboard pattern that Madoka, a mere pink dot in the screen, crosses running. The corridor is right in the middle of the screen and surrounded by different equally black and white mandalas that turn slightly.]

We get panoramic overhead shots emphasizing the disorienting, geometrical maze and the impotence of our heroines' tiny figure against them.

Before reaching their destination, they both cross a stairs-bridges of sorts; Utena, towards the dueling arena where Anthy waits for her to continue the dueling cycle with Utena as champion; Madoka, towards the foyer where she can find her exit to where Homura is struggling against another hopeless, fighting cycle, one which Madoka choses to perpetuate when making a contract with Kyubey…

[Image ids:

The image to the left shows shows a stich of two Adolescence of Utena's screenshots: the one on top showing Utena crossing a bridge; due the top down angle and the inclination of the bridge, the planks on the bridge look like stairwells. The image on the bottom shows Utena crossing the bridge against the creamy, pinkish sunset sky. The bridge railing is shown a black silhoutte in the foreground.

The image to the right is a stich of two monocrohmatic Madoka Magika episode one screenshots: the on the the top shows Madoka crossing a corridor, the foreground is dominated by abstract geometric shapes. The one on the bottom shows Madoka going up an ample stair well, and the surrounding walls have a similar geometric patterning.]

Absolute Reality.

[Image id: Predominantly black and white screenshot showing a dark tree on the foreground and black debri flyaing around. A little to the right of the middle line stands Madoka, with Kyubey sitting on top of some fallen pillar. The subtittles are Madoka's dialogue and read: "Can I really do something to help?"]

The offer that tempts Madoka into a contract is the promise of agency. She can’t stand the reality where there is nothing she can do, thus it's the promise she does actually have power to influence the narrative and help others and stop their suffering what Kyubey dangles in front of her. Madoka feels deeply moved by the pain of others and has a strong empathetic response that makes it very easy for her to be preyed upon by our resident ugly cat here. It’s detrimental to her. Maybe Homura has a point in reversing her wish to be the divine embodiment of Goodness.

It’s then interesting that she expresses disappointment upon waking up not only in the premiere but in episode 02, as well. Her waking up animation might as well become bank during this introductory arc (I’m betting it does, can’t wait to be wrong). When confronted with the thought the world her senpai Mami introduced to her, one of great danger but also apparently fulfilling and actualizing, might be nothing but an illusion, Madoka expresses disappointment. Even though she has a happy, easygoing life full of friends and family that love her and that she loves in return, there is something else she is looking for.

Confronting your own humble plainness again.

[Image id: Screenshot of Madoka's room dimly lit. Madoka is drawn towards the bottom left edge, hunching and hugging her huge body plush with a beleagered expression.]

Appearances, facades.

Trained confidence.

[Image id: Screenshot showing makeup labelled with numbers, as if to indicate the order of steps.]

Following Madoka’s "dream", we learn about her homelife anchored around her interactions with her mother as they talk about the love lives of the people around Madoka, contrasted to Madoka's own assertion that no one has an eye on her. Their whole bathroom conversation could be characterized as "girl talk": they go on about love and the need to maintain an appealing image as means to reach it. I could easily accuse this scene of being sexist (and it did rub me the wrong way initially), but the dialogue is naturalistic enough to paint a trusting, warm bond between mother and daughter; plus the repetition of the make-up motif in the second episode while interspersed with Mami's explanation draws attention to themes of appearance and desire.

A remark that can easily be taken as reinforcing gender essentialism lol

[Image id: Screenshot showing the sinks at the foreground barely visible at the bottom edge, with Madoka and her mother in front of them. Madoka is holding her red ribbons with her left hand hesitantly, while her mother has her hands over her hips, talkig matter-of-factly: "A woman's appearance is the one thing she can't afford to get looked down at."]

The contrast in the way mother and daughter carry themselves is apparent. When Madoka relays her reports about her homeroom teacher's love life, her more experienced mother offers keen observations about the possible state of the relationship. Where Madoka takes things at face value, her mother can see deeper. The same applies to the image they project to the world— where her mother has a set (numbered) method to achieve her ideal image, Madoka fumbles and fusses about her ribbon choice and not being seen as too much. The frame pan showcasing the end result has Madoka standing timidly with her hands folded over her lap and her back reflection shown in three different angles in the background mirrors, as if she's being thoroughly scrutinized. While her mother confidently observes her reflection in the mirror, Madoka shrinks at being observed.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka in the middle with a dopey and hesitant expression and her arms drawn close. Her reflections are shown in the mirrors in the background.]

I can't say that Madoka’s self-confidence is worryingly low given what we’ve been presented with—while she lacks the self-assurance her mother possesses, she doesn’t seem particularly self-deprecating. While her affirmation that no one looks her way reflects that self-consciousness, Madoka doesn't further put herself down. Instead, it could simply be that she's a teenager only now discovering her identity, what she's comfortable with, what she wants and what place can she carve for herself in this world. Her mother advises her to train the image and behaviors of someone confident as a first step to grow more certain of herself. The scene places emphasis on the process of purposefully building the image you project, which becomes relevant as episode two's layouts play with a reflection motif around talks of desire.

While thinking back on Kyubey’s proposal of granting them one wish in exchange of risking their lives, Madoka ponders about what she wants. Her waffling contrasts to her mother’s immediate, cutting response concerning pragmatic concerns from her work life when Madoka echoes the question to her. Although, of course, her mother lacks the whole context that makes the decision heightened, Madoka’s roof talk with Kyubey and Sayaka reinforces that there isn’t anything she wishes for that strongly. Yet.

Additionally, when Madoka proposes a bigger ambition to her mother (“Wouldn’t you rather become CEO yourself?”), the image her mother projects into the mirror changes drastically into a more fierce and dangerous look, complete with the repetition of her labeled make-up symbol. This ties a connection between the image people project and what they desire. And just like Madoka has a rather inhibited persona, so do her desires appear mild.

This takes us to Mami, their helpful senpai.

A slightly distorted image seen from below the glass table totally screams trustworthy.

[Image ID: Screenshot of Mami drawn in a low angle, showing her sitting with her legs neatly folded under her backside and her hands resting on her lap. Despite the sunset light filtering through the windows, she's very dimly lit. Most of her image, from the waist up, is shown slightly distorted as its filtered through the glass of the table. The table legs curve outwards and frame her the image in a strange way. The subtitles present her offer: "You should see for yourself what it's like to do battle with witches."]

Knowing the spoilers that Homura is trying to save Madoka from death via time loops and preventing her from forming a contract with Kyubey has an interesting effect— that is, it casts suspicion over other characters. Mami is the helpful senpai that shows up in the nick of time to save them from the witch, heals Kyubey, explains the situation to them and even promises to protect them from Homura at school. She also offers to show them the fieldwork so they can make up their mind about whether to become contracted! The earlier, careful portrayal around purposeful appearances and the reflection motif repeating during their talk can’t be coincidence. Clearly, she wants to be seen as someone who’s dependable, and whether this has more sinister implications or is stemming from personal wishes is unclear to me yet. Mami feels more like Kyubey’s sales associate than anything else. “You can come observe” it’s the pitch you give someone unsure whether to join a club so you can lure them further in. She’s encouraging them to take on a responsibility that can have rather grim outcomes, despite her early assertion that magical girls don’t necessarily work together to reap the rewards of fighting witches—a statement that further reinforces the narrative of Homura as an antagonistic force to our young heroines. Mami either is very upstanding and thinks it’s a duty they should take on since they were chosen or there is something deeply fishy going on here.

For all intents and purposes, Mami is a completely separate entity to our young heroines, not unlike Homura. She’s the one who’s a magical girl already, they’re the uninitiated. They sit on the same side of the table, opposite to her. This shot emphasizes their separation through the black leg of that foreground furniture.

There’s clearly a lot we don’t know about her.

[Image id: screenshot showing Mami's living room. There's sunset light still filtering in, but the room is mostly dimly lit. Mami is on the side of the wall, so she's in the shade. They're sitting at the table, Madoka and Sayaka together on the same side and visually opposite to Mami. The black legs of a furniture are shown in the foreground, creating a strong visual barrier between Mami and her juniors.]

Isn’t it just so fun how this reflection shot obscures her face? Like she’s covering it with her hands in sorrow. Seems charged that it coincides with her explanation about witches causing suicide and murder, does she know of someone who was a victim of them? OR better yet, someone who became One?

I know that magical girls become witches in this series, which also poses interesting possibilities…

[Image id: Screenshot showing Mami's lap with her hands resting on top of it as she sits in front of the table. Because of the top angle, the reflection of her face shows dimly on the glass table. Her face overlaps her hands. The subtitles read: Many of the inexplicable suivides and murders that occur..."]

Are my suspicions on Mami’s intentions totally off-mark? I have no idea, but it’s incredibly fun to doubt her lol

Speaking of despair lore, I usually raise my eyebrow—think it’s full of shit— when there’s worldbuilding that links suicide and violence to supernatural entities; it’s a run-of-the-mill battle shonen explanation, Noragami also uses it with Ayakashi as amalgamation of negative feelings and energy from the people of the places they haunt. Now, this could still work on an allegorical sense of how oppressive environments lead to such emotional outcomes, since most stories don’t engage with the structural causes of such problems… It can be that, or end up attributing a metaphysical cause as the source of all darkness without even so much extending understanding and sympathy to the people who suffer from it. Where does Madoka Magica fall, I wonder…

Blessed fools.

A pained smile framed behind by bars, a surefire sign that someone isn’t totally trapped.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Sakaya's back with her face turned in profile towards the right. She's smiling ambigously and her right hand is holding to the white chain wall that dominates the background against the bright daylight sky. The subtittles read: "Well... Maybe the pair of us are just fools?"]

Given our young heroines lack of direction, ardent ambitions or anguishing desires, Sayaka muses that perhaps the fact they don’t have anything they’d die for is a sign they’re blessed fools. This rings true for Madoka. She’s a happy kid with a supportive family and friends. Despite her longing for something more—her own agency? confidence? Romantic love?—, there doesn’t seem to be anything that is making her actively miserable. Her mild adolescent ennui is not necessarily something pernicious and would’ve likely resolved itself as she experienced and tackled more challenges in her life with the guidance and support of her family. This whole business paints more ill-fated for her (and I mean, I know it is. What a tragedy, hers).

But is this true for Sayaka? This brief shot with its ominous red sky and its bedridden figure shrouded in darkness begs to differ… The fact she feels guilty over being chosen, thinking there’s people who’d make use of a miracle much better than them makes me think it’s rather someone she knows… Is this her motivation to get into Kyubey’s magical girl agency? I don’t have a lot to go by…

[Image ID: Screenshot representing a short-haired person in bed shown facing right . Most of the shapes are represented as black silhouttes, sans the translucent curtains and the ominous red sky framed by the window. The subtittles read "We've been so blessed.."]

Sayaka and homoeroticism.

Welcome back, Shinohara Wakaba.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka, Sayaka and their irrelevant friend Hitomi at the park. Sayaka is hugging a slouching Madoka from the back, saying "You must be my bride, Madoka!".]

The Girl Talk in episode one continues as we follow Madoka’s commute to school with her two friends: the blue one, the to-be Magical Girl, Sayaka and this one random girl that I'm surprised it's even there. The banter and physicality to Sayaka and Madoka’s interactions is fun and warm, selling their chemistry as friends. And near the end, Sayaka playfully proclaims Madoka must be with her, which immediately brought to mind Revolutionary Girl Utena’s Shinohara Wakaba's own ambiguous, very physically affectionate date-play with Utena.

Rather than being a maiden in the sidelines, however, Sayaka is positioned as Madoka’s protector against Homura. Given Homura is fighting to be Madoka’s silent protector herself, this is unbelievably funny to me. When Madoka finds Homura's staring off-putting during P.E., she hides behind Sayaka. When Madoka— with Kyubey in her arms— is alone facing the inscrutable, darkness-shrouded, threatening Homura, the one who shows up to save her is Sayaka. When they're alone within the creepy labyrinth, Sayaka protectively embraces Madoka. When Madoka is worried that Homura might try to attack them at school, Sayaka offers to punch Homura. This antagonistic placing of Madoka's two protectors is hilarious, and I'm curious to see if the dynamic fizzles out as we delve into Sayaka's innermost wishes and struggles or if the tension will boil over into something interesting.

'Get behind me, Madoka! I got the fire extinguisher!'

Such a hilarious way to break the tension.

[Image id: Screenshot showing Madoka and Sayaka in a dark parking lot, with most of the background shrouded in shadows. Sayaka is holding a fire extinguisher that she's shooting towards the left, and Madoka stands behind her, holding Kyubey.]

Even their sitting order in class positions Madoka behind Sayaka lmao Does Sayaka have a thing for Madoka or just a hero complex?

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Madoka and Sayaka sitting in their classrooom. Sayaka is shown sitting a row in front of Madoka, a column to the left. Madoka is holding Kyubey in her arms. The subtittles read: "If she tries anything on you, I'll punch her lights out!"]

The show acknowledges the homoeroticism between the two in a tongue-in-cheek manner during their commute in episode 2, when their normie friend feels put off by the apparent intimacy of their silent (telepathic) communication:

"You've been staring so intently into each other's eyes… What on earth did you do after I left yesterday?!"

This girl is too homophobic to become a magical girl, smh.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Sayaka, Madoka and their friend Hitomi drawn in profile at the park. Sayaka and Madoka are positioned on the left side of the screen, with a tree in the background subtly serving as visual barrier between Madoka and Sayaka. Madoka is slouched and halfheartedly reaching to Hitomi. Hitomi is positioned on the right side of the screen, with her hand to her heart and running towards the left. Her dialogue reads: "Don't you see that it's a love that can never beeee?!"]

Madoka points out that their normie friend's remarks sound a lot like what Sayaka tells to her on a regular basis, lending credence to my Wakaba comparison lol This gag could simply be an acknowledgement of the charged homoeroticism present in the series, but it still amuses me so far a lot of it has circled around Sayaka and Madoka.

Akemi Homura

Her soundless, despaired scream as she catches sight of Madoka with Kyubey was so cinematic ❤️

[Image id: gif showing a zoom out of Homura's face as she screams. She's resting on a tree branch that's represented as a black silhouette, with debris floating around represented in the same way.]

Speaking of homoeroticism, it's time to talk about Homura. I actually felt a little sad that I already know about her motivations because she's so incredibly off-putting, I'd have had a lot of fun speculating about the meaning of her actions, the way she's framed and the meticulous way her micro expressions are portrayed. However, it's not like there isn't still some room to have fun reading into them. She enters the picture via the classic transfer student trope. From her introduction alone, she creates an awkward atmosphere with the way the standoffish silence lingers due her laconicism.

Despite her aloof demeanor, and in pure transfer-student fashion, Homura still stands out both in academics and physical feats (she even breaks the regional high jump record lol!); as such garners the attention of her peers. Nonetheless, she couldn't be more uninterested in them, as the one she can't keep her eyes off is Madoka. Her taciturn, blank-faced and cutting demeanor can paint her staring as downright aggressive. This is further reinforced by being color coded with the darkest values in the cast so far: black and purple are her signature colors, classic villain palette.

Her conversation with Madoka as she rehashes the "could you show me where the infirmary is" routine is the big standout of hers in episode one —the tropey nature of this encounter makes it very easy to imagine how their first interactions went down the first time—. The low angle that emphasizes her head tilt and the accentuated shadows on her face and body make her look haughty and intimidating.

She's literally staring down Madoka lol Worth noting this same framing is repeated as she warns Madoka in a few minutes, complete with rotating animation for gravitas, contributing to Homura's bad vibes.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura's face and shoulders slightly turned to the right side of the screen. The right side of her face is heavily shadowed and so are her shoulders. She's looking down on the viewer. Her dialogue reads: "May I ask you to accompany me?"]

While one could think that the reason she approached Madoka was to issue her warning, I'm actually not that certain. It could be due the way her anguished reactions to being around Madoka make her look quite erratic as she tortures herself with these distorted echoes of her memories—but I also have to point out the abrupt way she brings the interaction to a halt, stomping and suddenly turning. The way she behaves through the whole interaction feels quite impulsive, which gave me the impression of Homura purposefully trying to recreate the past (whether out of indulgence or to torture herself, I'm not really sure).

It's really fun the way this obscured close-up to her profile hiding her eyes— making it difficult to parse her emotions— paired to how the next highlighted extreme close-ups have her clenching her teeth led credence to the "Homura is a hostile party" narrative. Personally, the timing is what gets me. She reacts deeply upset to the fact Madoka politely yet impersonally addresses her as "Akemi-san" lol This girl was in the trenches.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura's shadowed profile facing left. She is holding her face up, seemingly imperious and her mouth is tightly shut.]

The way the timing makes it seem like she's really pissed at Madoka’s remark that her name is weird + subsequent fumbling is very funny lol I wouldn't say she's not upset from it, but mostly in the "it's painful to be around you" way.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing a extreme close up to Homura's clenched mouth, as she lowers her face. There's heavy shading on the left side of her face and lens flare coming from the right side of her face.]

There's a lot of natural verticals in the panels of their classrooms and the windows they transverse that create visual divisions between the two. I found it particularly noteworthy that while there's a natural sense of distance and awkwardness between the them, Homura is the one who accentuates it and fully brings herself to the other side of the threshold when she suddenly skips forward ahead from Madoka. The idea she's intentionally cultivating a distance between the two is very intriguing and appealing…

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura and Madoka facing left as they walk through the corridor with blue window panes. There's a particular wide vertical division in between Madoka and Homura, placed more or less in the middle of the screen. Homura is on the left side of the screen, but closer to the blue vertical division. Madoka is falling behind, with more white space between her and the middle.]

Their sitting order reinforces this idea, situating Homura all the way to the front, completely out of reach.

[Image ID: Screenshot showing Homura sitting in the front row, looking back at Madoka's seat.]

They look fully at odds with each other thanks to the high contrast between the bright windows and the shaded frames. The dark values to their visual barriers fully bring out the tension brought by Homura's sudden halt-and-turn as she issues her warning. Homura is framed as thoroughly oppositional to Madoka, and she herself doesn't bother to correct any misunderstandings. It's pretty interesting she's fine with being vilified if it might grant her any slight chance to get what she wants.

[Image ID: screenshot showing Homura and Madoka drawn in a symmetrical composition, separated visually by the regular window panes. Homura is drawn towards the left edge of the screen, facing right and standing imperiously. Madoka is drawn on the right side of the screen, towards the edge as well, slightly slouched and in a timid pose. Subtittles show Madoka's dialogue: "Yes, really! I couldn't lie about that."]

Homura's dead-eyed ominous warning vs Mami's personable, smiling offer of support, fight! But this is truly why I can't trust Mami lol Should you really be tacitly encouraging them, Yellow Senpai? A cutting warning really seems more befitting here…

[Image ID: Extreme close up to Homura's blank left eye with the right side of her face being heavily shaded. The subtittles read: "Because if you do, you will end up losing all of those things.]

Odd ends.

There's a lot of small gestures that really bring out charm to the interactions and feelings, but if I pointed out absolutely everything, I'd never finish this lol

There's one thing from the Madoka-wakes-up Bank I do want to point out, though: the odd feeling Madoka’s head turn with the hard shading gives me. Now, I know it's a Shaft™ thing, I've watched another TV series directed by Shinbo that was produced there and I've heard of it. But I still find the timing peculiar— after the opening sequence with her running to the rooftop in episode one and the brief recap with Mami's transformation in the second, just before she wakes up. Of course, this reinforces that sense of being at the verge of waking up from an odd dream, which Madoka fully believes, but it can also get a sense of deja vu. Typically, one would assume that Madoka’s run towards the rooftop is a glimpse to an event that will happen later down the line. But given the nature of this being a time loop and Homura's insistence on preventing Madoka’s death via preventing her contract altogether, which it's implied to happen in that sequence, I don't think there isn't any reason to think that it's not something that didn't already happen. If this ends up being the case, I'm curious how that'd affect further loops.

Tell me your secrets, you pink little one.

[Screenshot showing a extreme close up to Madoka's eyes facing towards the left. Her face is drawn almost facing front, leaning towards the right. There's heavy shading on her face and a black background.]

Expectations for the rest of the introductory arc:

-Second half of episode 2 will end in a cliffhanger that'll destabilize routine while they fight a new witch.

-Said cliffhanger will involve Mami (I HOPE IT DOES). I'm suspicious of her and hope she does something terrible, but I think it's equally, if not more, likely that something terrible happens to Her lol

-🤷🏻‍♂️

Hmm that's it. I'm not very good at imagining scenarios lol

I'm also half-expecting to be wrong about nothing making Madoka miserable, mostly because I've been obsessing over Takamachi Nanoha, another seemingly well-loved, normal kid who turned out to have Important Baggage lol

#pmmm #puella magi madoka magica #madoka kaname #Homura Akemi #Sayaka pmmm #Mami pmmm #so this post made me discover that the image limit is 30 pictures LMFAO #anyway i'm dead and i'm tired. I get it now. I need to save a back up of my file and images and write the img ids as i go #i'm dead #long post #like extremely long post #Mami Tomoe

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spockandawe · 9 months ago

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Hello! I've been thinking about binding some danmei novels in my native language, but I don't know where to start. I found your blog recently and find it very inspiring! I was wondering if maybe you could share with me what tools and materials would be good to get started with?

Sure!!!! So, I'm on mobile and don't have links at hand, but if you go back through my bookbinding tag, there are other replies I've got about the materials for making a book specifically. The renegade publishing blog also has resource documents that walk through the bookbinding process and include links to educational materials, etc. So for here, I'll focus on the danmei side of things!

So, a fun feature about these books is that they tend to run LONG. I've seen a number of people try to take up bookbinding in google docs, and honestly, it's doing things on hard mode. For many danmei, it's basically impossible. I think my EARLIEST earliest attempt at svsss began in gdocs, and that's not a super long novel, but gdocs was choking on it. A word processor on your desktop is going to be your best bet. Personally, i invested in a microsoft office license, because it was familiar and i could afford it. But the free parallel to that will be libre office, which does basically everything word can do, with just minor differences.

On the fancy end of bookbinding software, affinity, indesign, and microsoft publisher are also names you may hear tossed around. These can do fancier, more artistic layouts, but also come with a heavier price tag. And because i had webnovels on my radar from the start, i wanted something ROBUST. I wanted to be able to dump all of the husky and his white cat shizun into a single file and work from it. And i did eventually do that! Being able to typeset a single file rather than repeat each step across several is great, especially since i tend to tweak design choices as i go.

For danmei, you're also going to want a robust printer. I have a color laser that's been an absolute beast of a machine, but a black and white laser can get you a long ways, and monochrome designs can be very elegant. You don't want an HP brand printer, their toner subscription practices are downright predatory, but Brother and Canon are names I've seen recommended highly. You probably don't want an inkjet printer, because long books take a LOT of ink. The one exception would be if you can find an affordable ink tank printer.

And the last major thing i can think of is that if your main computer is a laptop, consider typesetting with an external mouse and keyboard! Danmei novels are split into lots of short chapters, frequently split across just as many web pages, with lots of footnotes to format, and laptops are convenient but not ergonomic. Doing too much on there is just asking for a repetitive strain injury. I've done it, but often paid for my sins in pain! And your laptop keyboard may start complaining too, I'm almost certain my first typeset of mdzs was the nail in the coffin for my last laptop's keyboard, haha

I hope that helps! Best of luck to you! Ive found binding cnovels to be EXTREMELY rewarding, even though my original reason was because these things would NEVER be licensed in english 😂 I'm delighted to see people experimenting with it for other translations in other languages, I really hope it goes well for you!!!!

#spock replies #bookbinding

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sparklingdemon · 3 months ago

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take care!! i really hope we can figure out how to start this thing up.. ive been trying to finally go and read thru the whole thing to get a grasp of the full image of the story thus far so i can better puzzle thru it but its taking me a while 😭 hell hyperfixating on it def rubbed off on me hshfsjgz they kept bouncing their theories offa me

either way, im excited for whatever it'll be! but also more than willing to wait. updating blogs daily in any capacity gets really taxing (i keep having to learn that the hard way.. it was always insane to me seeing how often monochrome updated at times), so please take as much time as you need- ik it'll be more than worth the wait!! its kinda scary to know thisll be a big event but it makes it more exciting :O

and of course, best of luck!!

thank you starry!! i appreciate you taking the time to go back and reread everything! speaking from experience, it's a LOT of posts to go through, so feel free to chip away at your own pace. i hope that with everything fresh in your mind, it'll make the upcoming parts hit even harder for you. glad to hear you and hell both have been having fun with it though! i love hearing you guys' thoughts on it <3

i'm excited too! this plot point has been TWO YEARS in the making, so it's crazy to think it's fast approaching. i wanna make sure it's the best reading experience it can be, so i promise to work as hard as i can to get it ready as soon as possible! i know it'll be worth the wait. thank you!!

#ask #100nebulas

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i-drew-a-dog · 7 months ago

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More Doctor Who confusion I guess

There's a lot in the last few episodes of Doctor Who that I don't really get?

The dust? Everyone gets dusted in 2024. They go to 2046 everyone is STILL dusted but now there's DNA data. How did they gather the DNA if everyone was killed in 2024??? Did Sutek dust everyone simultaneously?? Like all throughout time?? What???

The time window? We are told it's rudimentary and they "only saw the colour of the quill that signed the declaration of independence" but it's monochrome? You didn't see the colour of it?? Also it's all holograms and yet they treat it as if it's real? Why do they have guns?? Why is everyone afraid?

The snow? Why does Ruby have this power? I know we've established that her mum is some Eldrich being through the power of believing in her or some shit but why can Ruby do that? Also can every foster kid do that? If so that's really funny.

Suteks death? Why did dragging him around behind the TARDIS and smashing him into space potholes like some mafia hit kill him when literally sending him through time to the moment of his death didn't work?

Idk if these are pointless questions but the writing recently has just been overall baffling to me. Out of this whole season, I think the only episode I genuinely enjoyed was Rogue because it was just taking the piss out of Bridgerton the style of that big brother episode back in 2004. It was fun and understood the assignment of a silly villain that still posed a threat.

I know the vibe in the fandom is always "the worst Dr who writer is the current Dr who writer" but I haven't really enjoyed this season as much as I thought I would when they announced Russel was coming back.

Rewatching Bad Wolf is just a slap in the face after this like what happened??

Sorry for the rambles but idk I just have a lot of thoughts about this season but the fandom seems to be in the "look at all the references to old who" phase

#doctor who #15th doctor #dr who spoilers #the empire of death #Sorry for the rambles but idk I just have a lot of thoughts about this season #but the fandom seems to be in the 'look at all the references to old who' phase #so idk if any if this is an unpopular opinion or like if any of my questions have been answered by the fandom #but like if i have to rely on the fandom to answer these questions then whats the point on asking them #might rewatch them just to make sure im not a dumbass but hey

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whitepeachrum · 6 months ago

Text

Desk to Dinner: A Shift in Priorities

Fandom: Hetalia (personified) Pairing: Arthur x Kat (EngUkr/UkrEng) Content Length: Solo Chapter (~1700 words)

With all the paperwork he’s been tackling and all the shifts he has been covering for his colleague, Arthur was up to his nose in meaningless work. He was tired of seeing numbers race across his mind when his eyes were open and when he tried to them close at the end of the day. It was one peculiar morning when Kat noticed that he had looked exhausted. Not that he hadn’t looked exhausted the whole time. It just seemed to be extra prominent on this particular morning when he decided to have coffee.

Arthur didn’t really like coffee, but she knew that it was often reserved for times when he was restless and needed a break from the monotonous day-to-day life. She wasn’t sure if he would be in the mood to talk this morning. So, she kept quiet until he was ready to chat. Unfortunately, Arthur needed her to say something. He was falling asleep at the kitchen table. Kat watched worriedly as his head barely managed to stay up.

“Arthur?” Kat put a hand on his upper arm to gently wake him up. Arthur sharply inhaled and looked at her, coming back to reality.

“Mm? What?”

“You’re falling asleep asleep at the kitchen table.”

“Oh. Yeah?” He wasn’t even forming full sentences!

“Honey, you have to take a break.” Kat took the delicate cup from his hand and placed it on the table so he wouldn’t accidentally break it or hurt himself.

“Yeah…”

“Could you take the day off?”

Arthur yawned and crossed his arms. “..Yeah.” He nodded off mid-breath and fell asleep in his chair.

“My poor baby.” Her fingers gently pet his hair and she spoke softly again to him. “You should go lay in bed. It’s more comfortable there.”

“Mm.”

“...Arthur?”

“Mm?”

“Are you going?”

“Mhm.”

He lied.

Kat finished breakfast on her own and cleaned up the table. The sound of the dishes being cleared out signaled Arthur that he should migrate to the couch in the living room. Kat sat by his side in the armchair and decided to share a peaceful morning crocheting. Or as peaceful as his light snoring would allow it to be.

By the time evening came around, Arthur had felt guilty for wasting a day doing nothing but catching up on sleep. He thought working from home for the rest of the day would help him get back on track, but this was a decision Kat greatly objected to. If he was going to take the day off, he needed to rest. She walked over to his desk, gently pushed some of his papers aside, and sat on the sturdy wooden table, hoping to sway his mind.

“Hi, my love,” He placed an affectionate hand on her knee as his eyes remained glued to the confusing mix of words.

“Arthur?”

“Yes?”

“I was thinking.”

“Mm? What about?”

“Maybe we should go on a date.”

Arthur’s eyes focused out of the text and onto her face. The confusion remained, but at least this time his eyes were looking at something much prettier than a monochrome Times New Roman on a bland canvas. “A date?”

“Yeah.”

“What do you want to do?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” she looked into the distance for a moment, playing coy. “Maybe some dinner, a stroll through the town. Maybe we could even check out that new karaoke place that opened up.”

“Do we have time for all that? It’s getting pretty late.”

Kat sighed dramatically and even pouted a bit. She was setting the trap for him and he was slowly making his way into it. I mean, how could he say no to a face like that?

“Well, I wasn’t going to say no, but I just wondered if it would be too much to handle in one night.”

“Should we just go to a bar, then? Or a club?”

Arthur debated on her suggestion. It did sound like fun to get plastered and just unwind after all the stress from work, but he didn’t want to be surrounded by people who were also plastered. They created a type of chaos that Arthur had difficulty shielding Kat from.

“Are you drinking tonight?” Arthur asked, gauging to which degree he was allowed to be drunk. If she said yes, he’d need to be the designated driver. If not, he had to make sure they both got home intact. Arthur frowned, realizing that neither situation would allow him to let loose to the degree he wanted. Actually, there was no degree of drunkenness he could allow himself to be with Kat present. When did he become so lame?

Kat glanced at his face and smiled, happy that her distraction now occupied his thoughts.

“Maybe I’ll have a glass. We’ll see where the night takes us.” She slid the paper from his grasp and put it beside her.

“Well, I need to know, Kat. Do I drive? Do we take a cab?”

“We can take a cab for safety. That way you can drink more if you’d like, and we won’t have to look for parking either.”

“Hm. Right.” That made sense. He was fine with her reasoning, but what did he want to do tonight? Arthur contemplated his choices. Maybe karaoke would be fun…

“You know what? I will go and get dressed and then you can tell me what you think our plan for the night should be. Okay?”

Arthur sighed, frustrated that he had to decide at all. He got up and placed himself in front of Kat, putting his hands on her cheeks, and giving her a tender kiss. She smiled at him, feeling her heart thump with excitement about their night out. He then held onto the edge of the desk, leaning slightly into her bubble and looking thoughtfully at Kat.

“I am thinking..” he began, “that we skip dinner. Pass on the bar. Take a rain check for the karaoke place. Save money on cabs. And just go straight to dessert. What do you think?” Kat crossed one leg over the other, leaning into his face to assert her position on the stance.

“I’m thinking..” She said as she perfectly executed the triangle method. Arthur took note of it quickly and gripped the table tighter, his knuckles turning white as his face turned pink. “I’m thinking I have a new dress I’d like to wear out.”

“Oh, a new dress you say?”

“Mhm.”

“Couldn’t you just wear it at home?”

“And have it come off as quickly as I put it on?” She kissed him and chuckled against his lips. “I don’t think so.”

“Damn.” Arthur put his head down in defeat and she chuckled again at his reaction. He was so cute when he was flustered.

She knew she was getting under his skin. And she was right. Arthur was suddenly tempted, baited, and trapped in a situation where he had to make quick decisions to accomplish everything they wanted to do that night. He had considered the shortest path he could take to his happiness but knew that Kat would make him work for it. He had to think of her happiness as well. As a matter of fact, the decision was never really his to make. He just needed to pick what she wanted to do and hope it would satisfy their desires evenly. He realized that he was just standing around and wasting time. He sighed, gently tapping his foot in frustration.

“So, what’s the plan?” she asked again.

“Alright. This is what I’m thinking: Bar. Stroll. Dessert. Leftovers.”

Kat considered his proposition and added, “And no more work until tomorrow.” He looked at all the paperwork. Looking at the pile of papers, he realized how miserable it had been to be enveloped by work that wasn’t even challenging. It was all just mindless and never-ending. It had gotten so bad that even his wife thought about his work when it wasn’t even her job. He would be willing to put it all on pause for a night. Maybe even two.

He nodded, finally caving into her suggestion, and looked back at her beautiful ocean blues. “No more work for a lifetime.”

“Hm.” Kat hummed as she put her arms around his neck. He placed his arms around her waist, finding more joy in holding her in his arms than holding onto a desk for dear life. “Maybe I should reward my hardworking husband for all his efforts.” She ran her fingers through his hair, teasing him a bit more. Arthur pulled her hand away from him and gave it a gentle kiss. He knew what she was doing and could not afford to lose control this early in the night. His heart felt like it was going to pop out of his ears and it took every bit of willpower to keep his word to her.

“Not yet, my love. Dress first.”

“If you let me go, I can go do that.”

“I can never let you go.”

“Well then. Maybe I should help you with that.”

Kat untangled her arms from him. She pushed all the paperwork around her onto the floor and leaned back on the desk, proud of her accomplishment.

“Whoops.”

Arthur smiled and looked away, shaking his head at her attempt to get him to let her go. “Unbelievable.”

“I think you dropped your papers, Mr. Kirkland.”

"I dropped them? I believe this was your doing."

"They're your work papers, aren't they?"

“Not for tonight.”

“But right now, there’s a mess in the house.”

“We can’t leave the house a mess before we leave, now can we?”

“Nope,” she smirked at him.

He sighed and slowly let go of her, ushering her towards the door.

“Go. Go change. I’ll clean it up.” She happily got off the table and walked towards the door. He knelt to pick up the trash from the ground and snuck a cheeky glance at her. Arthur’s eyes watched the curves of her body exaggerate on each side as her hips swayed further and further away from him. He couldn’t help but smile and deeply blush at the ways of his flirty wife.

#hetalia #aph england #aph ukraine #engukr #ukreng #whitepeachrum #wpr snippets #oh i forgot to mention that i also think this duo is constantly flirting with one another #and that there is probably never a time where I don't think these two are married #the domestic life chose them. i don't make the rules 👀

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phantomskeep · 2 years ago

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Putting the "Fun" Back in "Funeral" Chapter Three

AO3 | Chapter Two --- Chapter Four

Chapter Three: Emotional Constipation Has Never Been Easier

When Danny made his way out of the swirling green abyss many dimensional beings called home, the sun had long since set. As he was hovering over the Ops Center of his childhood home, he sent a quick text to a chat that was fondly named “Ghostly Therapy Plus Some.” It was a work of love that Tucker had made for the original ghost-fighting trio - a private server so encrypted that even the Guys In White couldn’t get in. The chatroom was home to many summons for late-night calls, memes based around the Amity Park rogues, and various debates between the now-adults who occupied it. Danny knew, even at ass-o’clock in the morning, that his friends would respond to any message he would send.

It was with no small amount of guilt that any sort of late-night text left Danny’s side of the chatroom. His friends, Jazz and Danielle included, had completely normal lives outside of Danny’s whacky one. Each one of them had successfully left Amity Park. They were in college, or out exploring the earth with no care in the world. It was Danny who was stuck, who was stagnant in a haunt that no longer felt like his.

However, the Ghost King also knew that if he just disappeared for a few weeks his friends would freak.

So, a quick text was sent. A completely normal “hey guys can u call rq” which elected an immediate response from Tucker. It made sense, as he was off in California double majoring in computer science and computer programming. It wasn’t quite as late for him, especially compared to Jazz and Sam. Both of them were on the east coast with majors in psychology and social justice respectively - they were an hour ahead of Danny, timezone wise. Ellie was… somewhere in the world. Chances are she would either respond within a few minutes or would not respond at all.

While the local ghost hero was waiting for a response, he was lazily heading south from Fentonworks. Easily drifting on his back above the cloud layer currently overhanging Amity, Danny couldn’t help but rest his heavy gaze upon the millions of twinkling stars before him. It was only twenty-four hours ago that he had fought his last ghost as a semi-normal person. His entire world had shifted, changing completely. Danny now had the ultimate power of the Ghost Zone. It was a startling realization that hit him quickly, and he couldn’t help but grieve his childhood. While he hadn’t really had much of one in the first place, Danny still wished things could have been different. That he was in university with his friends, studying astrophysics, trying to be an astronaut.

But no. He had to step into a portal to a different dimension and have it open up on top of him. He had to die before he even started highschool - and he couldn’t even do that correctly.

A loud groan of annoyance left cold lips, gloved hands coming up to grasp at white hair. The ghost boy flipped around to float on his belly, facing the dark clouds rumbling below him. Grasping on the tingling feeling of intangibility, Danny summoned his power to the forefront of his being before letting gravity take hold of his form. He dropped quickly towards the ground, eyes closed. Powerful winds encased Danny in a mockery of a hug, tugging at him like a plea to stay in the air where he was safer. It was from years of practice that the halfa knew when to allow such a pesky notion of gravity peel away from him, his monochrome shape hovering just above the down-trodden apartment complex he called home.

A bright flash lit the sky behind Danny’s still form, the clap of thunder chasing behind not even a second later. Bright green eyes tracked his shadow as the late-spring lightning storm passed through Amity. He hovered there, for a moment. Allowing the wild winds whip around him as the storm’s power picked up, shaking the leaves of blossomed trees. Distantly, Danny registered that rain began drizzling from the cloudbed he was just so far above. It was with a mournful shake that Danny finally moved to enter his barren apartment.

When his boots lightly tapped his threadbare carpet floors, Danny let the rings of his transformation wash over him. Gone was the royal outfit he had still yet to inspect, and in its place was the slightly dirty clothes the young man had pulled from his floor earlier that very day. Black hair flopped to cover his eyes, no longer snow-white and being kept out of view by his powers. It was with a quiet sigh that Danny moved to push the strands back, pulling his beat-up phone out from his pocket.

With practiced movements, Danny allowed himself to fall back onto the worn couch shoved in the middle of his living room. The halfa didn’t move to turn on the lights around him - there would be no point in it, after all. He could see better than an average human. Just another of the many side-effects of half-dying.

A quick entering of his password had Danny’s cracked phone unlocked, icy blue eyes skimming the two messages of confirmation from Sam and Tucker. Quickly tapping out “jazz?” and smacking the send button allowed Danny to let the device fall onto his lap. He threw his arms back dramatically, face tipping back to eye the water damage on his ceiling critically.

He really should put in a maintenance notice.

A buzz from the top of his thigh had Danny grabbing his phone. He unlocked it, read the message sent by his older sister, before heaving his body from the old couch. Wandering into the single bedroom of the apartment, Danny snatched his laptop from where it was charging on his bed. The man booted up the clunky device, quickly joining the video call where Sam was already waiting.

The sound notifying other members of the call pinged twice, and Danny couldn’t help the grin and automatic “Jinx!” said at the exact same time as Tucker. Laughter filled the cyberspace as Sam rolled her eyes at her two boys.

“Hello to you too.” The goth’s sarcastic voice echoed around Danny’s barren bedroom. With a dramatic sound, Danny turned and flopped himself onto his bed, keeping a steady hold of his laptop the entire time.

“Hi, Sam, Tuck,” Danny said, smiling as he burrowed himself into his pillows. “How’s school going for you guys?”

Tucker’s loud groan caused Danny’s smile to widen. “It’s nothing but studying for finals and finishing up projects, man.”

“That’s what you get for being stupid and wanting two degrees.” Sam’s cutting remark was waylaid by her smile.

The young tech genius smirked at his camera, using a hand to move his glasses up on his nose. “I think you mean being smart?”

“Actually-” whatever friendly argument Sam was about to stir up died before it could live when a loud ping alerted the three friends to another person joining their call. A round of greetings passed in response to Jazz’s tired appearance, and Danny couldn’t help but feel guilty for interrupting his big sister’s sleep.

“Hi, everyone.” Jazz’s smooth voice came through the speakers of Danny’s beat-up laptop. “Is everything okay, Danny?”

Said man had to fight to keep the guilt from showing on his face. Not only was he interrupting Jazz’s sleep but he was also worrying her with late night calls. While it was true that the young man hadn’t been the best at keeping up with his friends (and sister), he had been trying to talk to them more in the few weeks leading up to his coronation. Obviously, if Jazz thought he would only call if something was wrong, Danny wasn’t doing the best job at it.

“Yeah, yeah.” He said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “Clockwork and I were just talking earlier today and I kind of wanted to get you guys’ opinion?” He paused, but quickly rushed out the last part of his weird explanation. “Well I kind of already agreed to it so I guess this is more of a warning? Kind of?”

Silence filled Danny’s bedroom as his three friends cautiously exchanged pixelated looks. “What do you mean by that?” Sam was the one who spoke, sounding exasperated.

“Yeah, man, can we get some context?” Tucker spoke next, looking worried.

The halfa heaved a large sigh, bracing himself to dodge around the truth as he had learned to do. “So, I was in the Ghost Zone, yeah? And Clockwork and I started talking. He asked me if I could go on a long-term time adventure for him in like a different dimension or something?” He paused, pulling air into his lungs in a habit he never could quite break. “He said that it would only be a few weeks that would pass in this dimension, but a few years in the other.”

Sam immediately started protesting after the words left Danny’s mouth. “No. Absolutely not.”

“I’ve already agreed to it!”

“No! You don’t get to just up and disappear on us for years!”

“It won’t be years, Sam! It’ll just be a few weeks! You guys will all be busy with your finals, anyway!”

“It’ll be years for you, though! You would be like what, twenty-six by the time you came back to us?”

“Maybe, yeah, but it’s not like it’ll matter!”

“Of course it matters, you idiot! You’ll be alone, in a different dimension, growing up without us!”

“It’s not like I can grow up, anyways!” Danny finally shouted, hair being pulled by his shaking hands. He didn’t look up from where he was staring at his laptop’s keyboard. He didn’t want to look at his friends as he finally admitted an ugly truth he had been trying to prepare himself for since gaining the knowledge that he was the future Ghost King.

A stunned silence filled the call, the only sounds Danny could hear was the gentle pitter-patter of rain tapping along his window and the distant sound of rolling thunder.

“Danny,” Jazz’s hesitant voice broke the agony whirling throughout the young man’s head. “What do you mean by that?”

Blue eyes flickered back and forth across his keyboard, taking in the broken “enter” key that he never quite got around to fixing, to the dent the old technology had on its lower left side. Danny remembers when he was told that his forms would stop aging. The raging denial that had filled Clockwork’s tower as he argued against his mentor. How his being had filled with absolute betrayal, all aimed towards his own body.

Clockwork had explained, back when Danny was first told about what being the Ruler of the Realms would entail. How all ghosts eventually stopped aging at the top of their prime, how very few of them had changes happen to their forms after only ten years of being a denizen of the Ghost Zone. He had explained to his ward that because Danny was only half of a ghost and still had a human form, usually this means he could continue to age regardless - though at a slower rate. However, because Danny was meant to take the throne and would therefore have to perform the coronation ritual, he would stop aging as soon as the Realm fully accepted him.

When Danny originally questioned what Clockwork meant, the old ghost had gone on to explain to him that being the King of all Ghosts involved gaining new powers on top of his responsibilities. As soon as Danny gained all his new abilities and learned to control them, his aging would halt.

The near-panic attack that the halfa had after that particular information bomb was something the two had silently agreed to never bring up again.

So, yeah. For the past couple of years, Danny had the time to come to terms with not only being the Ghost King, but he also had to learn to accept that he would never be able to grow old. He would never be able to follow his family and friends into death - a rough lesson he had to learn with Dan - and he would be forever alone in a castle surrounded by the dead. It was something Danny did his best to never truly think about, even though his ghostly mentors did their best to support him through his journey of becoming the King of the Zone.

Danny had never brought it up to his friends before. Ghost Writer, after one particularly bad fight with Valerie, had taught him a lesson he would never forget. The halfa had gone to the ghostly author to rant about how his friends had been pushing him into telling Valerie that Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom were one and the same. Typically, whenever Danny needed someone to vent to he often went to anyone except Ghost Writer, but the then sixteen-year-old had honestly been itching for a fight. Instead of a brawl, though, the gray-skinned being had sat Danny down in one of his library’s squishy armchairs and taught him. The halfa had reluctantly listened as Ghost Writer spoke to him about an old legend of a man who’s cunning was his greatest power. Of how this man, adrift from everything he had ever known, had used the knowledge he had gained fighting enemy after enemy to prove everyone around him wrong and get back to his homeland - to his family. Ghost Writer wove words together in a beautiful way, that night, and for a while Danny really thought he had a shot at telling Valerie why he was being such a bad boyfriend to her.

The two of them were not trying to fight, honestly. But the pressure of having to run off at the drop of a hat to take care of a ghost problem had been quickly becoming too much for both of them. Hence, running into the Ghost Zone to pick a fight with someone who would actually be a challenge. It wasn’t his fault that Ghost Writer suddenly decided that teaching Danny was better than fighting him. And, despite it all, Danny had walked away from his time in the library more sure of himself than he had in a while.

However, when he passed through the portal, he saw a small, helpless blob ghost fighting against the restraints being used to hold them down. Danny was shocked still as his parents shot a bright, electric blue beam straight through the helpless being, leaving behind only a smoking spot on the steel table. His parents had cheered, after that, not noticing their greatest failure hovering in front of their greatest success. The two had excitedly talked about how they were sure that test was the best one they’ve had in weeks, about how excited they were to learn more on how to destroy the pesky unfeeling masses of ectoplasm.

It had made Danny sick to his stomach.

The hope that Ghost Writer had given him that day had rapidly turned into a warning Danny always held closely to his heart. Knowledge is power. Don’t let anyone know you, don’t let anyone see you. Don’t be a fool and give them the power to destroy you.

So Danny hadn’t told Valerie about who he really was. He hadn’t told his best friends about being the future Ghost King. He never dared to tell his parents that their invention had killed him before he even made it to highschool.

Knowledge was power, and power killed.

But here he was, ignoring the story of Odysseus, and telling his friends that he would never get to grow old with them. That he was stuck, forever caught in the body of a young adult until someone challenged him for the throne and did him in.

“I mean…” Danny finally croaked out, curling up a little bit as he carefully balanced his laptop on his knees. “I mean that I’m going to stop aging. Soon. Clockwork said. And I-” He broke off, wishing he could hide his head between his ripped jeans and never have to face his friends as he spilled out such a bitter fact. “I won’t be able to grow up with you guys, anyway.”

“Oh, Danny…” Jazz’s soothing voice wasn’t as comforting as one of her hugs, but her familiar cadence still caused him to shudder out a sob. “Little brother, you know we love you no matter what. If you stayed as a scrawny fourteen year old boy we would still stay by your side. You’re still my brother if you’re old and gray, or if you stay as young as you are now.”

“Yeah,” Tucker’s voice had a shaky confidence to it, sounding forced to even someone as socially inept as Danny. “Y’know you’re stuck with us forever, Danny.”

“But it won’t be for forever,” another sob tore out of Danny’s chest, though there were no tears. “I’m going to be forever. You guys will grow up, you guys will die and I’ll be alone!” He spat the last word out, tearing his hands from where they had been buried in his dark hair. His trembling digits were caught in the eerie green glow of his ecto-blasts, body filled with too many emotions but with no way for them to get out. Sharp eyes turned to the screen where his friends’ faces were warily watching him. Danny caught the reflection of his irises, a radiant neon beacon shining in the darkness of his room. Lightning cracked across the sky, and the sound of it filled up the empty space he had created with his confession.

“I’m going on this mission,” Danny said with a confidence he did not feel. “Clockwork said it would help me. I trust him. He- he wouldn’t tell me something that’s not true.”

“Alright,” Tears were spilling from Jazz’s teal eyes. “Alright, Danny. We trust you, we trust Clockwork.”

“No!” Sam also had tears in her eyes, but she didn’t let them spill. “If this is true, then we need to figure out a way to stop it. There’s got to be a way!”

Tucker’s broken voice cut over the last of the resident goth’s. “Sam, Sam no-”

“We can fix this!”

“There is no fixing it.” Danny distantly noticed his voice was an empty, broken thing. “I’ve asked.”

“We can find a way-”

“Sam, you’re not helping right now,” Tucker cut in. He was scowling, glasses reflecting the light of his laptop. “Like Jazz said, we trust you Danny. If you think this will help, then go for it.”

“We just want you to be safe, to be happy.” Jazz added. Her voice was still shaky, but she was doing her best to be brave in the face of her little brother’s emotions. “If Clockwork says this is something you need to do, then go for it.”

Danny paused, bowing his head. The toxic green glow that had once surrounded him had dimmed, but the pattering of rain only grew louder as the wind picked up. “Clocky said there’s others like me there. That a friend of his would be able to teach me.”

Jazz hummed, the sound barely picked up by her own laptop’s microphone. “That’s good, little brother. Did he say for sure how long you would be gone for?”

“Not really,” Danny said, barely lifting his head. His voice was still devoid of emotion, just a shade of who he was. “He- he said it would be a week or two for you guys. He never really told me how long I would be in the other place.”

A smile that was blinding white despite being forced graced Jazz’s elegant face. “Well, I know for sure Valerie would be more than happy to take care of Amity Park while you’re gone. Thank you for letting us know you’ll be gone!”

Danny was suspicious at Jazz’s sudden acceptance of what he just told her, but brushed off his concerns. At this point, he just wanted to hang up and mope until he felt brave enough to go back into the Ghost Zone. Nor did he want to tell his older sister that calling on his ex-girlfriend was not going to do any good, as he could simply ban travel into Amity Park while the halfa was dealing with this other dimension. That would mean explaining how he could order ghosts around, which was really something he wanted to avoid for the next sixty years.

“Yeah, yeah of course…” Danny said skeptically when Sam and Tucker didn’t say anything. He chanced a glance at his screen, noticing both of them looking down and furiously typing.

“Just- just at least text us before you go.” Emotion coated Jazz’s voice, though Danny wasn’t able to fully pick them apart by the time Jazz kept speaking. “We love you, Danny.”

“Yeah, Danny,” Tucker agreed, his voice still filled with that false confidence. “Maybe see if you can keep us updated every once in a while?”

“I don’t think that would work,” Sam cut through. “So just… keep a journal or something. We all know you have the failing memory of a goldfish.”

Danny couldn’t even muster up the energy to feed into the age-old argument between the two of them. “Y-yeah, okay,” he nodded as he spoke. “I can do that.”

“Good.”

A yawn, obviously fake even to Danny, cracked open Jazz’s jaws. “I need to get back to bed. But, Danny, go get packed and let us know before you go, okay? We’ll keep an eye on Ellie and Amity as much as we can.”

“Sure, Jazz.” Danny agreed, trying to smile at his friends. “I’ll text you guys before I go.”

“You better.” The threat came from Sam, who was no longer angrily typing but was now visibly fuming. “I don’t like this, so you better be safe.”

“Of course, Sam.”

“And get us souvenirs! Take pictures, be a tourist. I expect a lot of stories about everything when you get back.” Tucker cut through the tension created with an easy-going grin.

Danny found it in him to give a small, genuine smile to Tucker. “Yeah, Tuck. I’ll bring you guys back something cool.”

It was then that the four finally said goodbye, and Danny closed his laptop with a definite click. He stared out at his barren room, at the boxes that had never been unpacked.

When Danny originally moved out from his parents’ house, at the ripe age of eighteen, it was with a certain type of excitement. Jazz had helped him house hunt and Vlad - who had long since given up on any attempts at being a major Fruit Loop - was on call to discuss the legal side of things when the siblings got tripped up. He had picked his current apartment because it was on the cheaper side. Because even if Vlad said “no strings attached” with a steady stream of please believe me-this is not a trick-honesty-honesty-hONESTY, Danny couldn’t help but be a bit wary of accepting help.

However, when it came around to actually packing up all his stuff from his childhood home, Danny’s excitement had fled. Packing up his model rockets, he couldn’t help but be surrounded by the memories attached to them. The Saturn V his dad had helped him build when he had come back from his first day of kindergarten crying about his classmates making fun of him from having kooky parents. His dad had helped Danny build it for all of thirty minutes before he was distracted by something down in the lab, and little five-year-old Danny finished it up himself after waiting for his dad to come back. For seven hours, Danny waited for his father to live up to his promise to be back in “just a second”.

His hanging International Space Station had been a gift from his mom, back when he broke his leg fighting off the mutant food in the fridge. Danny had been so scared of the rotted deli ham that had attacked him whenever he was looking for a meal. Jazz had been at a Mathlete meeting or something, so it had been up to Danny to get his own food that day. The sliced ham, old enough to be green without the assistance of ectoplasm, had jumped on him as soon as he opened the fridge. He remembers screaming for his parents to help him, and he tried to climb on top of the kitchen table, away from the mutant meats. They had surrounded him for hours, crying for someone to come save him. When he finally started to gather up the courage to bolt for his room, though, the possessed processed food had finally managed to climb onto his hiding space. Danny had been so scared that he had fallen off the table, twisting his leg in a way that it snapped, the break echoing across the empty house. It was only with the help of adrenaline that he managed to hide himself away in a closet, stuffing random coats under the crack of the door so that the meats couldn’t get to him.

That was how Jazz found him, when she finally made it back from her meeting. She dropped out of Mathletes the next day.

Danny had been seven at the time.

Those memories had haunted him as he packed up the various models he had gotten as birthday presents from his schoolmates, or apology gifts from his parents. It was with a certain sadness that he pulled down the glow in the dark stars lining his walls and ceiling, remembering how Jazz had pestered their parents into helping him put them up.

At the time, it had seemed like every small childhood thing in his room was tainted by the signs of how badly his parents had treated them.

When Danny had finally finished packing up his old room, he couldn’t find the energy to unpack the unlabeled boxes in his new home. So they were stacked hazardously throughout every room. His kitchen, the living room, even his bathroom wasn’t safe.

It was now three years later, and they were still untouched. It had taken his parents six weeks to realize that Danny had moved out. The call he had gotten from them was a furious one - Danny had yelled at them with a type of security he had never felt before. He listed off every reason why he had been so excited to finally move out from under their thumb. Why he was angry at them for not noticing if he just disappeared. How they only ever noticed the bad but never the good. How he couldn’t live in a house where they tortured and experimented on sentient beings.

It was at this point in their argument that his mother hung up. They hadn’t spoken since.

“Get yourself together, Fenton,” Danny mumbled to himself, brushing his laptop off of him. The Ghost King stretched, gazing forlornly at the sealed childhood around him. Shaking himself to get rid of the hazy feeling, the young man started to gather up various important items he might need in a massive blue duffle bag covered in NASA and ghost themed patches.

It was time he packed up, took a nap, and then set off towards Clockwork’s tower, after all.

╭( ๐_๐)╮

Want to keep reading? The rest of the chapter is on ao3 because goDDAMN THIS IS ONE LONG BOI

Taglist (as always, if you want to be added/removed just let me know!): @vixen-uchiha @apointlessbox @mentalcarebear @asphyxia778 @horribly-lost-and-gay @may-rbi @blacksea21090 @kyrianclawraith @fisticuffsatapplebees @stargazing-bookwyrm

#dead on main #DCxDP #DPxDC #dp x dc #dc x dp #Putting the Fun Back in Funeral #the spirit of gotham is a lesbian #pariah dark is a seahorse dad #danny fenton #danny phantom #jason todd #danny fenton needs a hug #danny fenton is a sad little baby man #he's trying to file his taxes #same tho #I just filed mine #and yikes #danny fenton died of taxes not the ghost portal #L bozo

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