#zoe looks so done with his ass

[puzzlekinq]

real footage of paul gettin silly with it!!

[taintandviolent]

feed my Frankenstein ; Frankenkyle x reader

summary: stripper!reader decides to dress up like a zombie for Halloween, and when the girls bring Kyle to the strip club…. He makes the decision for himself that he’s going to be with his kind. w a r n i n g s: 5k words! stripper!reader, female reader, cunnilingus, rough sex, violence, mentions of blood, biting, graphic descriptions. kyle being a big, horny zombie who doesn't understand his strength. a/n: [🎃 part of lizzie's halloween fics! 🎃] probably some errors, whoops. I didn't want to label this as dead dove don't eat, but Kyle literally tries to eat reader, so be warned, I guess??? also my ending is very... cliff-hangery. don't come for me, this fic took on a life of its own very quickly. thank you for reading if you did!!! full fic & taglist under cut!↓ / ao3 link here! / ♪ recommended playlist here! ♪

You dab a stippling sponge against your neck, hiding an edge with a speckle of grey makeup. You’d put a lot of effort into your silly little zombie look - but it was Halloween after all, and hardly any of the other girls had dressed up. Sure, they’d started out in low-effort costumes of Dorothy Gale and Snow White, but as soon as those came off, they were just their normal selves again. You… not so much. You went the extra mile. You’d spent hours applying prosthetics on your limbs, and painting your flesh to mimic the rotting corpses seen in cult classic horror films. Specks of blood around your perfectly lined lips, uneven skin, stitches from your neck down the front of your body.

It wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea, you knew. Some of them would lose their boners at the sight. It was time for your first shift. The club was rowdy, you heard it from behind the door. You lean against it, gulp down the last of your water, and fluff your hair before spinning on your red, patent leather heels and pulling open the door.

“I don’t know if this is such a good idea, Madison…” Zoe confesses, nervously. She holds onto Kyle’s arm tightly, guiding him around a booth like an elderly man. He was already entranced by the vibrant lights that swept back and forth in shades of orange and green. It reminded him of his show. Colours….

“Oh, please.” With a roll of her eyes, Madison flips her blonde hair over her shoulder. “This is the best place to put a braindead man… look, they’re everywhere.”

Men cluster around the stage, watching hungrily as women take their clothes off, gyrating their hips close enough to their faces that they could reach out and take bites  out of their full asses. The bouncer in the corner makes sure that doesn’t happen, though.

Over the PA, a loud voice says: “Alright! Put your hands together for our resident nerdy girl, our very own reanimated sexpot…”

As though it was on hinges, Kyle’s head swings heavily to face the stage. H

“Look, he’s already fitting in.” Madison nips.

You prance forward, reaching for the pole in the centre of the stage. Men holler your name, the few regulars that came every night you were working. You’d earned yourself a reputation as the nerdy girl because of your penchant for dressing up on the themed nights. Your hips roll to the beat of the song, coming daringly close to the hands that hold dollar bills. When they don’t get the chance to slip them into your outfit, they flutter at your feet, decorating the stage. You undo the tie of your shirt, revealing white bikini with gratuitous blood spatter. You’d done that yourself.

You wrap one leg around the pole, latching onto it. As it spins, you reach behind your back, undoing the tie of your top. Your breasts fall free, nipples hardening in the air conditioning. You hold the bra out proudly, smiling as the hoots and cheers fill the room.

“C’mon,” she starts, taking hold of Kyle’s thick wrist. His skin is always slightly cooler than everyone else’s. She remembers how cold the inside of his mouth was when they first — She blinks away the thoughts, actually disgusted by the idea. After all, she’d never really wanted to fuck a dead guy…

“Hey!” “Watch it, sweetheart!” “Get outta’ the way, you’re blockin’ the view, toots!”

Madison ignores the heckling, and continues to the front, pressing her bony hips against the lip of the stage.

“Hey! Dead bitch!”

Her voice is loud enough that it carries over the music, and you furrow your brow. She wasn’t wrong, but the bitch part seemed unnecessary. Still, you make your way over to the cluster of them, and bend at the waist to hear her.

“Yeah - what?” You ask, still swaying to the song.

“This is our little zombie — ”

“His name is Kyle,” The other girl interrupts pointedly. Madison throws a look towards the other girl, who nods with a fake smile. Truly, she didn’t care what you called him. As long as she didn't have to deal with him, she was happy.

“Kyle — and he needs a babysitter. He’s a little…” she makes a face, stretching her mouth out in a sneer. You knit your brows together again, unsure what that means.

Kyle, you think to yourself. What a frat boy name. In fact, he looks like a frat boy with really really good makeup. Full head of curly blonde hair, dark eyes, strong but soft features… looks like he can absolutely devour a keg.

He’s wearing an open black shirt and jeans, and beneath the black shirt, you can see raised flesh, scars like he was put back together. Funny that you’d chosen to do a dance number to Feed my Frankenstein.

“Do your job and keep him entertained, okay?” She pulls the peeking string of your thong far enough out to freely press a one hundred dollar bill against your hip and lets go. It snaps back against your skin, hard enough to sting. You wince.

Before you have time to protest, the girls are walking back towards the entrance without their little zombie in tow. One of them casts a woeful glance over her shoulder, and you’re left wondering why if she cares so much, why was she still walking away? You fill your lungs with air, exhale and lower yourself down onto your haunches.

“Hey baby,” you coo, wrapping a single blonde curl around your index finger. It’s angel-soft, and bounces back as you let go, straightening up. He seems to melt towards your touch, starved for it. “I like your costume.”

He watches as your ample cleavage sways with the gentle motion of your body. He repeats the word back to you, laboriously. “Cos…tume….”

“That’s right,” you say, running your hands over your thighs as you stand upright. The long heels of the shoes elongate your legs, making you tower over the club’s patrons. “I like it, it’s cute.”

Kyle watches wordlessly as your hands glide over your body, carefully skipping over the stitches at your knees, along your stomach, and finally up to the long stitch around your neck, which to him is holding your head on. Kyle’s eyes blink repeatedly with recognition.

You dip down, reaching for his hand. The crowd woooo’s as you hand him the string of your skirt. He grips it hard before looking at it deeply. You take one step back, flashing a coy expression to the men in the front row. Another step, and the tie begins to slip through the bow, unravelling. Another step and the skirt falls to your feet. A cacophony of approval fills your ears.

You’re in nothing but the blood-spattered bikini bottoms now, and you sink to your knees again, flashing Kyle a bright smile. He blinks, your skirt awkwardly hanging from his hand by the string.

On all fours, you crawl towards him, popping your ass to the beat of the song. Dollar bills shower the stage,  and when you slide your knees out to the sides, allowing men a delicious view of your backside, someone tucks another $100 in your bikini.

Kyle is watching you, but his hands drop to his groin where he makes a fist, and rubs it awkwardly over his now-throbbing erection. You immediately notice this, and your eyes widen. That’s a sure fire way to get kicked out, and for whatever reason, you’ve clocked him as too innocent to let that happen. There’s either a) something wrong with him, or b) he’s really committed to acting like a clueless, braindead boy. Both options require action.

“Okay, okay,” you murmur, guiding him to the side of the stage. There’s an empty chair, and with a heel, you push him back into it. Sit. Stay. He does. Good boy.

He never takes his eyes off you though, and every time you’re looking at him, his jaw hangs slack, staring at you with half-lidded eyes. He keeps trying to get up, and you have to slowly shake your head at him, teasingly. He seems to understand that gesture, and stays put.   

As you dance, you find yourself watching him, too. Inexplicably drawn to him, for whatever reason. You don’t usually take guys to the back, but $100 is a pretty good tip. Besides, you didn’t want to run into that girl again, and especially not angry.

As your routine comes to an end, Kyle gets up out of his chair, knocking into the edge of the stage. A few guys turn their heads, trying to figure out what this guy’s deal is. You’re too busy picking up your tips, and gathering your clothes to notice. With arms full, you race to the back, throw on a t-shirt and bolt back to the front, praying that Kyle is still where you left him.

He is. He may be trying to climb up on the stage, head craning in the direction of where you exited, but he's still there. You heave a relieved sigh, and saunter up to him, softening your expression.

“Hi, Kyle…” you murmur sweetly. You slip your arm underneath his, linking it with yours and softly pulling him down into a normal standing position again. There’s a small moment of processing and trust before he looks at you and smiles very weakly.

Destinee is next, and while she’s a nice girl, you absolutely loathe her taste in lighting. You enjoy a good rave, sure, but this is like the Electric Daisy Carnival in a much, much smaller space.

You learn very quickly that Kyle doesn’t like it either. At all. In fact, he might dislike it more than you. As soon as the beat is thumping and the bright red and orange lights are washing over the establishment, Kyle wrenches away from you, covering his ears. A low groan starts in his throat, bubbling up through his lips until he’s practically screaming.

“Shhh, shh it’s okay!” You try desperately to console him, but he can’t seem to hear you. Glancing nervously at the guests around you who are starting to take notice of him now, you smile apologetically. “Kyle, it’s okay!”

There’s only one solution - the private dance rooms. They’re quiet, secluded and a perfect spot to store a stressed out zombie boy for a few hours. You looked towards the spiral staircase that led upstairs, and hesitated. You were a dancer who rarely used the private rooms. You had been hard pressed to avoid being alone with any man, especially one that had paid you and felt entitled to whatever he wanted to take. Kyle, however, didn’t seem like the type to… well, do that. Or even articulate that he wanted to do that — did he even understand that you’d been paid to babysit him? Likely not.

You force his hand down as gently as possible, interlacing your fingers with his. “Kyle,” you say. “Kyle, look at me.”

His head moves sluggishly, and his eyes gradually follow. He looks at you with big, black eyes, the surrounding skin darkened and mottled. In the changing lights, he looks so lost, and your heart throbs desperately. Shucking the worries of whispers aside, you lead him through the club towards the wrought iron staircase.

“Hey Lance,” you say. “Private room open?”

“They sure are…” he replies with a large grin, his heavy accent coming through. Lance was one of the bouncers and rotated positions, so you had gotten semi-close with him. He enjoyed your presence and penchant for the strange. “Last door on da’ left.”  

With Kyle in tow, you head down the long, red hallway. Each of the doors were painted black, with gold trim. Kyle’s gaze travels from each door, picking up on the various sounds that seeped from behind them.

“Okay…” You say, your voice a touch softer than before as you push open the last door, praying that it’s been cleaned adequately. You cock your head to the side, urging him inside. His concerned eyes swept from you to the door and back to you before he finally decided that it was safe enough for him to enter. “Look, no strobe lights. No loud music. Just you and me.”

“You… and me….” He grumbles. The door clicks shut behind you. His words are painfully slow and slurred, but you can’t help be charmed by the innocence of them. “You…. You’re…. l-like me.”

“That’s right, baby… I’m like you.” In a quiet, joking whisper, you say: “Raaaaauuuuggghhhhhh…. Brains.”

Kyle seems to like this. The tiniest of smiles forms on his mouth. His chest heaves, and without warning, he lunges for you. His strong arms wrap around you in a steely grip that at first terrifies you; your arms are pinned at your sides, locked into place. His tongue slips over your collarbone, wet and cool like he’s just finished eating ice cream. It slips over your neck, along your jawline, and up behind your ear. He’s licking you, devouring you with such pressure that he has to have eaten some of the makeup by this point. You wince as he nips at your ear lobe, his teeth grinding down on the flesh. With some inhuman gurgle, he descends, covering your chest in his saliva.

You were used to men being hungry for you, acting like rabid dogs the second that they caught a glimpse of your plump tits or your juicy ass. It was part of the gig, came with the territory. But not this. This guy was on something. Had to be. Without warning, he yanks your cropped shirt up, and his jaws clamp down on the meat of your exposed breast. You yelp, pushing him off. He looks hurt or confused, or maybe both. Immediately, you scramble, feeling like you’ve just taken candy from a child.

“Hey no.. it’s okay. You can bite me… I like being bit. But not too hard, honey… that hurt.”

He doesn’t understand. Or he doesn’t look like he understands. His brows knit together sadly, while the dark, ink pools he has for eyes glaze over.

“….biiiiiiiiiiiiiite….” He says.

“Softly,” you finished, with your cutest zombie voice. “Biiiiite soft…ly….”

He cranes forward, mouth finding your flesh again. His teeth continue to graze your skin, slightly softer than before though, so maybe he does understand. His tongue lolls out sloppily to taste every inch. He nears the jumbled up mess of liquid latex on your elbow, and you expect him to stop, or skip over it — but he doesn’t. He feels uneven, soft flesh and his front teeth clamp down on it with a guttural sound. He rears his head back far enough for the liquid latex to streeeetch, and snap.

This gorgeous, blonde boy has a chunk of faux flesh hanging from between his teeth. Fake blood dots his pale lips, and he’s looking at you with the most confused expression you’ve ever seen on a man. It’s a grisly sight, really, but it fits the theme of the night. He’s committed to the zombie act, you’ll give him that.

“Hey, hey, take it easy, spit that out…” You reach up, rubbing the fake blood off his bottom lip. flatten your slender fingers on his broad chest, skin smooth like stone except for the deep scars. These are really good prosthetics. You can’t even see the seam. Because there aren’t any…

Like a dog, he drops the wrinkly skin-toned mass from his mouth and frowns. He looks genuinely disappointed, like he expected blood and guts. “B-bad… th-that… didn’t taste….. gooood…” he stammers. "Hun..gry…..”

For a moment, you’re frozen. Your realization clicks into place painfully slowly, slower than his brain seems to move. He’s really too good at the whole zombie act, and a panicked thought writhes its way into your mind, penetrating it the way that a tissue absorbs blood. Just sucks it in, becomes a part of it. No, no way.

Heavily masking the nerves in your voice, you clear your throat and reach for his shoulder. You stroke the smooth roundness of it, raking your nails against his skin.  “You want something that tastes good, baby?”

That ‘something good' is your cunt. You’ll let him eat you out so you can think. You assume he’ll eat you out like most men do — boringly — and you can process the realisation that this poor creature in front of you is actually really badly scarred, and possibly, a victim of head trauma, or something. Because there’s no way you’re meeting an actual zombie. Even on Halloween in New Orleans. That’s insane. So, you’re going to let him eat you out while you sort this out in your mind.

That was the plan, anyway.

Except the second you sink into the vinyl chair, he’s on his knees, looking at your pretty cunt with hungry eyes and the visual wipes your brain clean. It was like you put a plate of food in front of a starving man. His mouth opens. You untie both sides of your underwear, letting them fall to the floor. His eyes drop heavily, watching every move.

At first, his tongue juts out, curiously tasting what you’ve put in front of him. It presses between your folds, pauses, before wiggling around. Your eyelids flutter; you were ready to zone out, but Kyle’s inexperience, his curiosity feels so good.

“Good,” he growls, the word vibrating your cunt. His cool breath washes over your core, sending a chill up your spine. He delves deeper, tasting more of you.

His tongue flicks at your clit, flipping the swollen bundle of nerves mercilessly. Your whole body is trembling, and you feel the first of your orgasms rushing towards your centre. Carefully, not wanting to scare him, you grip his angel curls and ride his mouth slightly. Shit. Almost instantly, the throbbing starts and you make a mess of his poor boy’s face, squirting over his lips and chin.

“You like that?” You ask, through uneven pants. The first of the night always feels sooo good.

He nods heavily on your cunt, still lapping up the juices that leak from your slick hole. Your legs start to quiver and a fire burns deep within your cunt. You try to pat his shoulders, wordlessly telling him to stop. His tongue delves in, and he freezes.

“Kyle?” You ask nervously. Unconsciously, you clench around his tongue. He snaps to life, like someone flipped a switch in his brain. His strong arms wrap around the front of your thighs, tightly. Very tightly. He starts to pull you off the chair, lifting you up into his arms. Your ass cheeks are pressed against his chest and the back of your head is on the chair’s cushion now. He’s holding you tightly, upside down, still swallowing mouthfuls of your sopping wet cunt. He can’t seem to hear your desperate, pleading cries to stop.

You blink back tears, your vision throbs. You don’t know if it’s because the blood is very obviously rushing to your head, or because you’re coming again so quickly, but he’s drilling his tongue into your cunt like there’s a cream centre. If there is, he’s found it.

A scream fills your lungs and your body lunges upwards, trying to find leverage — something, anything to hold onto. She clenches again, pulsating around his cold, slippery tongue. Kyle’s practically drinking you with each clench. The overstimulation is crippling, and you can’t help but scream out.

“KYLE! STOP!”

At the shrill sound, he immediately drops you and your body hits the ground with a heavy thud. Your ass aches a little from the fall, but it’s nothing that’s going to ruin the night.

He’s frowning at you, his lips and chin glazed with your cum.

“S-sorry…” he grumbles. “Sorry. Bad.”

“No, no… not bad. Accident. Accident. Kyle?”

You call his name and he’s looking at you with those big, hopeful, dark eyes of his. You can tell — he isn’t sure if you’re going to scold him, or praise him and the uncertainty terrifies him. You get to your knees, crawling towards the sofa. Once you’re up on it, you pat the spot next to you three times.

“Can I see?” You gesture to your own body, tracing the remaining prosthetics with a single finger before pointing to him. He looks down, his bottom lip jutting out. He nods after a few seconds and lumbers over to you, sitting down heavily.  

Your fingers dance over his skin. He was literally pieced back together. His head, his arms, his legs, the lower half of his torso… he was sewn back together like Frankenstein. Different parts connected as one. You’re sitting next to an actual zombie.

And then it dawns on you. Those girls. You’d seen them before. You knew their faces. They lived in the massive mansion on Jackson Avenue. They were witches. Witches were a dime a dozen in New Orleans — in fact, it was weirder if you didn’t practice some kind of craft. But zombies… you’d only ever heard stories. You’d never seen one, let alone be eaten out by one.

You stroke Kyle’s broad chest. For being a zombie, he’s surprisingly soft. You’d always imagined them as dried out, crusty creatures, but he only had a few patches of dry skin. In fact, he had more patches where you could see dark blue pooling underneath his skin, where blood had settled after death. He is cold however, and that’s the most jarring part.

You ease him back on the leather sofa, making sure his head goes down softly onto the arm rest.  

“It’s okay, Kyle…. I like your body.”

“Costume….” He says. You shake your head.

“Body. Body.”

His hips give the tiniest little buck, and it slips between your ass cheeks. He whimpers, trying to get a visual of what he’s feeling. Gradually, his thrusts increase in pressure, and you adjust for your own pleasure.

When you adjust, forcing his cock to slide in between your cunt instead, he feels the slick warmth, and his feral nature returns, stronger than before. His thrusts pick up, and he seems to realise that you are a living thing, with pulsing blood and a throbbing heartbeat. Something else is throbbing again, too.

You whine and match his thrusts, letting your head loll back.

Kyle has a different idea, and before you can stop him, he has your forearm in his mouth, teeth clamped down on the soft, warm flesh. It only takes a few seconds for you to feel the stinging ache consuming your arm. It hurts… bad. The muscles in your fingers contract, twitching limply. He aggressively shakes his head, and your heart drops. The terror sets in, and you’re suddenly running cold.

“Kyle, no- OW! KYLE!”

He shakes his head again, biting down harder and digging his the ridges of his teeth deeper into your skin. You don’t necessarily feel the flesh tear, somewhere near the top, but you certainly feel the warm flow of blood that drips down your arm, dribbling onto his chest. Your pupils dilate. The blood keeps flowing, and you feel him start to rear his head back. Something pulls back with him. The ache is replaced by a searing burn, and you realise that if he pulls back any further, he’s going to pull off skin. You’re panicking now, and don’t know what else to do but try again. This time though, you roar at him, bringing back your zombie voice. It’s not so cute this time. “Raaaaaaaaauhhhhhh, KYLE. KYLE STOP. STOP!”

You try to rip your arm away from his mouth, while pushing his head. Thankfully, his powerful jaw goes slack and your arm slides out, strings of spit stretching from his lips. Your blood is smeared across his chin and bottom lip, and collects in the corners of his mouth.

With your vision bouncing thanks to Kyle’s furious thrusting, you look at your arm, watching the bright crimson well up in the indentations of the bite mark. Amidst the rest of your makeup, the bite doesn’t look out of place. You hold your arm out further, trying to come up with a story for this one. Maybe the makeup had stained in an absolutely mind-blowing way. And you had a reaction to it, hence the bizarre swelling and scabbing. That sounds good, sounds believable.

“Want… more…”  He says, and your stomach drops, praying that he doesn’t mean more flesh. You’re not sure you can handle another one. Mid-thrust, Kyle’s thick, veiny cock angles just right and slips into your cunt. She swallows him easily, still wet from being eaten — a mixture of cum and Kyle’s viscid, slimy saliva. You plant both hands on his chest, letting out a breathy, melodic moan. He feels good enough to make you forget about the bite, and as you begin to ride him, it seems that he forgets too.

You’re taking control, grinding on top of him, using his cock like your own personal toy. It’s hitting every spot you want it to, pressing into your walls with its girth, and you can’t help but whine about it. Pausing to smear your blood across Kyle’s chest with your middle finger, you leave deep, red streaks across pale skin. You shouldn't find that hot, but you do.

Kyle wraps both hands around your waist, pulling you down onto his cock relentlessly, each thrust feeling harder than the last. You lean forward, pressing your tits against his almost bare chest, and allowing him to take control, thrusting his cock up into you. The slightly bent positioning of his cock, head grinding against your spongy insides is enough to make you cum right then. You don’t though, holding back, clenching your pussy as tight as you can.

“You like it, Kyle?” You ask, through shaky pants. “You like that?”

Kyle nods, heavily, his darkened eyes watching the way that your body quivers on top of him, wordlessly marvelling at the way your thigh muscles contract and shake on top of him every time he slips out, and buries himself inside your dripping pussy again. He loves how it feels, even if he can’t articulate it the way he wants to, the sensations are everything he wants. Everything.

He grips you harder, lifting you off his cock and slamming you back down, repeating this violent display of strength over and over again. Your cunt shudders, unable to hold back your orgasm any longer. Kyle feels it first, and the sudden tightness has him growling, snarling and pushing his length into you as deep as he can. Kyle digs his heels into the sofa, lifting his legs. You feel the pressure against your cervix as he bottoms out, and press against his cock, forcing his cock deeper into you, until you feel the ache. You ride out the waves of your own orgasm, feeling his as it comes in thick, sticky ropes.

There’s a gentle knock at the door, and you quickly get to your feet, pulling your shirt over your head. You scramble, trying to find the bikini bottoms and once they’re tied, you throw open the door. It’s Lance, who is looking very concerned. Your legs are pressed tightly together, in fear that Kyle’s load is going to start dripping down your thighs and onto the floor.

“Miss Y/N. The club is closing… are you alright in there?”

Closing? What? It was bareley eleven when you brought him into the room. The seedy, slick realisation that you’d been fucking this zombie for almost four hours made your cheeks blossom with heat. You immediately tuck your bitten arm behind the door, flashing Lance a charming smile.

“Yes! Fine! Just uh, finishing up a dance. Hey - Lance… did two girls ever come back, asking for this blonde guy in here?”

He pauses, thinking. After a few moments, he shakes his head and apologises.

Okay, guess he’s coming home with me, then. “Thank you, Lance. I’ll be down in just a second.”

You shut the door and lean against it, looking at the zombie on the sofa. He’s staring up at the ceiling, a small smile on his face. “Kyle, do you live on Jackson Street? Where do you live?”

He sits up abruptly, turning his head to face you. “Uhm…” He murmurs. “Big…… white.”

“Big white house?” You repeat, making a house shape with your hands. He nods.

“You wanna’ go home?”

~

After throwing on a pair of dolphin shorts, collecting your duffel bag and giving Lance a generous tip, you have Kyle in tow, fingers laced tightly with his. Jackson Street was maybe a twenty minute walk, something you both could handle.

Despite it going on 3 AM, the streets were still filled with partiers, people in masks, and drinks in their hands. You and Kyle blend in as you walk, heading down the busy roads. Once you arrived at the Mansion, the gates were open, a fine mist spilling into the sprawling yard.

The woman who answers the door is beautiful, graceful and composed. She wears all black, her honey blonde hair cascading graceful over her shoulders.

“Good Evening,” she says.

“Good Evening. Um.. this is going to sound strange, even for Halloween, but, um…”  You want to continue. Desperately, but for some reason, you already know the answer. He does belong here. As though she’d said it to you, plain as day, he belonged here, this is where he stayed.

Zoe and Madison must’ve forgotten him.

Your brows furrow, indignantly. How could they?

Cordelia’s plump lips flatten into a knowing smile. You swallow, suddenly feeling uneasy. You scratch at the liquid latex on your neck, fiddling uncomfortably with one of the edges of the prosthetic.

“Well, Kyle… here you go. Go with…?”

“Cordelia.”

“Cordelia. Go with Cordelia, you’re home now.”

Kyle seems somewhat hesitant, but when Cordelia holds out a hand, he obeys and lumbers inside, looking over his shoulder at you one last time.

“Thank you for bringing him home,” she says, softly. “Would you like to come inside?”  

You consider that for a second. Deep within the wetness of your bones, and the warmth of your blood, you feel like you should. There’s something extremely comforting about this place, but… “No, no thank you. I should be getting home. It’s Halloween. Weird things happen on Halloween.”

She smiles again. “That’s quite a bite you have on your arm… did Kyle do that?”

“Oh, uh… yeah. He got a little excited earlier, I’m a dancer, and uh, y’know. Men.”

“I have something for that.”

You look down at your bite again, it looks nastier than before. You clear your throat, ready to reject and explain that your older sister is a nurse and she’ll help, but instead, and you’re not quite sure how that happened, you’re walking through the doors. Kyle is delighted to see you again, pausing on the grand staircase to look at you.

Cordelia’s hands end up being very, very soft.

t a g l i s t : @kaismanwich / @redwoodghost / @elsamars / @silverzoomies / @kaissweetlamb / @thewolveswithin / @80strashbag / @twinkiemaximoff / @spill-the-t / @stucktothetwo / @evansb1tch / @enchanting-evan / @petersevans / @yesdevineruler / @enchanting-evan / @anonymous0316 / @eventually27 / @violetharmonscupcake/ @my-own-walker / @kai-slut / @evanpetersfansblog / @fuckedbykai / @iluwmycats / @nova-kayne67 / @dewberryobssesed / @the-goblin1 / @dirtyfairy97 / @jellyluvr / @strangerthings420 / @kai-anderson-whore / @piecesofcain / @lilthbunny / @quickandsilvers / @tatelangdonsweater / @ifeeltoofuckingmuch / @howtobesasha / @randodummy / @throwinginmythai / @hyperharlz

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Trouble Comes Twice - the Postmortem

We celebrated Trouble Comes Twice's anniversary around a month ago! We'd hoped to post this postmortem back then as well, but it's taken us a moment to find the right words haha.

Anyway, we hope that this postmortem can give our players and other visual novel devs some insight into what the development process looked like for us. It's also a great way for us to look back at what went well and what went less well.

We'll be taking about the ideation phase, our (lack of) marketing for the Kickstarter, and also sharing (what we can) on our earnings from the game!

Coming up with Trouble Comes Twice

The original tone of Trouble Comes Twice was a lot more comedic and packed to the brim with anime tropes we enjoy. Most didn't make it into the final game, but some stayed and evolved e.g. all of the love interests are based on popular visual novel archetypes - the childhood friend, the tomboy, the shy girl, and the bad boy. 

Some, like Cameron and Zoe, changed a lot from their concept while Adrian and Stephanie stayed quite loyal to our original ideas of them. Cameron's character actually underwent the most changes after the initial reception to the demo, where a lot of people felt like he was too much of an ass haha. (Fortunately, he became a fan favorite when we dropped the new demo!)

The premise with the bet was something we invented to create some drama and establish a common plot thread throughout each route. Honestly, looking back, we would probably have approached the bet differently if we wrote it today and a lot of our pre-planning was... clumsy, at best. Still, it was a labor of love and I'll never forget the fun and excitement we had everyday balling ideas for the characters and coming up with their designs.

As Melli and I are just writers with limited coding experience, we worked with a past game jam friend to code the GUI and set up the base for the game (though the actual scripting was done by us and Melli put everything together in the end). Our biggest expenses pre- and post-demo was the character art and CGs, meanwhile we relied on free music and BG packs to save money.

Why a bisexual romcom?

So, this was sort of a no-brainer to us. We had decided right from the start that both twins could date both the male and female love interests, and (at the time) we feel that a lot of similar games had playersexual MCs rather than established bisexual/pansexual MCs. While playersexual charas are also awesome, we wanted to write a romcom where the main cast are always queer regardless of who you end up romancing. 

At the same time, bi/pan people don't all approach romantic relationships the same way e.g. Cameron is confident and has experience dating people of all genders, while Adrian's demi and Jace still struggles a bit with his attraction towards men. We know that some of our players felt like that made certain routes less romantic than others and we hear you on that feedback and have 100% taken it into consideration for our future romance games. But anyway, that was our thought process behind Trouble Comes Twice's romance dynamics!

Preparing for Kickstarter & the actual Campaign

Our Kickstarter launched at the start of August and let me tell you, we were nowhere near as prepared as we should have been. 😭 We hadn't set up a Steam page yet, we were trailer-less, and we only had a couple of hundred followers across our socials at best. I feel that there's a lot more successful Kickstarter projects to refer to and even a lot of marketing guides and advice now, but mostly it's on us for not researching more. 

The Kickstarter campaign did surprisingly well despite the lack of promotion and only having a rough alpha demo - we were even able to double our goal! - but we  wouldn't recommend what we did for other devs.

You should invest time into making a good demo, spend time building an interested audience before launching your campaign, and research so you've got some kind of marketing plan. We were lucky with word-of-mouth and that other visual novel devs with larger followings helped share our game, but we should have made more effort reaching out to bloggers, streamers, and game sites. Some crowdfunding successes may seem like they came out of nowhere and were just pure luck, but there's usually a lot of grinding behind-the-scenes that you don't notice.

The post-Kickstarter era, at least for us, was the harder bit. We now had 353 loyal backers who had expectations based on promises we had made and we had to make sure we met those expectations while also staying true to our wants as the devs. It was a learning process for sure, but we're fairly proud that we always did our best to keep our backers in the loop. It's frustrating to write an update explaining that the game has been delayed again, but backers are more open to being understanding than you think as long as you communicate!

A tip we'd give to new devs considering Kickstarter: Don't overestimate what you can do, but overestimate what you need. There's always hidden costs, unexpected taxes/fees, and other unknown obstacles that might eat up your budget. In our case, we made enough to make the game as planned, but had to change CG artists around halfway through development which meant our original budget didn't cut it anymore. Fortunately, we had earned a decent amount from our Patreon and pre-orders that we were able to use to complete the CGs, but that isn't always going to be an option for everyone and that also meant we were unable to use that money ourselves. (We didn't take any money from the original Kickstarter campaign, so whatever was earned through patreon and pre-sales was our only "salary" at the time.) 

Writing the game

Writing is, for obvious reasons, one of the most important parts of a visual novel. Melli wrote Jace's routes and I wrote Hazel's routes, which removed some pressure off our shoulders compared to trying to write over 300,000 words all on our own. 

It's fun working with another writer, but there are also some unique issues and considerations that come up when you're writing a game with two protagonists split between two writers. Especially because at the time, there weren't many visual novels with a similar set up to refer to.

The main things we learned, were:

Consistency. We wanted each couple to have their own dynamic, but the characterization needs to remain consistent between routes. You don't want Adrian in Jace's route to feel like a totally different character in Hazel's route. Additionally, we had to be careful that the tone and writing style of the protagonists' POVs still felt like you were playing the same game. Some routes can be more comedic than others, but we've got a problem if Hazel's routes are all (unintentionally) more serious/angsty in tone than Jace's or vice versa.

Watch out for your word count! Longer does not always equal better and writing eight routes, we had to put some restrictions in place. Even when writing on your own, it can be tough to guess how long your story should be, and it was important to us that the routes were roughly the same length so that none felt more "canon" than the other. However, with two writers who have different writing styles and ways of planning, it was tricky to compare our outlines and we struggled at times when it came to matching each other's word counts. Moving forward, we're probably going to be more lenient when it comes to word counts - some routes have to be longer than others, it doesn't mean that route is automatically more "important". We're also doing more regular meetings and frequent check-ins to make sure we're on the same page. In the future, we hope that should save us a lot of trouble when it comes to pacing! 🙈

Balancing your own wants with the wants of your players. In theory, these overlap most of the time. But making a commercial game (that people had already "bought" through the Kickstarter), there is some pressure when it comes to meeting certain expectations. We can't always just write what we want and assume everyone else is going to love it, but we also don't want to neglect what we personally like. We had a survey for the beta where we were able to get regular feedback and a lot of helpful advice. We definitely want to continue with surveys in the future - they are a great way to gather opinions from different players and figure out what works versus what doesn't! 

We took on too many tasks outside writing that distracted us. This bit is sort of inevitable for indie devs like us. 😅 Working with a limited budget and limited resources, you just end up having to wear a lot of hats! We think we did quite well sharing these duties though, and moving forward (thanks to you guys) we can afford more hands on deck to help us out. 

Marketing

The bane of every indie game dev's existence... although secretly, I kind of enjoy marketing but don't tell anyone that!

Having learned a thing or two from promoting the Kickstarter, we spent more time researching games marketing but in the end, trial and error was the best teacher.

As we got closer to the release date, we were posting almost daily on social media and grew our Twitter to over eight thousand followers. We didn't have any viral posts, but we saw a consistent growing interest in our game and it was such a motivation boost to see comments from potential players being excited for the game. We know a lot of devs have said that Twitter didn't help their game much but according to our stats, a decent number of our players found us through the platform. 

We saw less success here on Tumblr. Perhaps we haven't cracked the code here yet or maybe we're just comparing our numbers from Twitter unfairly! We're not hung up about it though, we love it here because it feels easier to connect with our followers and other devs there, and it's nice because we're able to write longer posts like this one! 💓

Aside from posting on social media, we reached out to several streamers and some bloggers prior to release to send them free game keys. 

We also commissioned some art from other artists to share, as we obviously couldn't reveal ALL our CGs before the release lol and visual posts tend to do a lot better in our experience. It was so much fun to see the characters in other art styles and we hope we can afford to commission guest art pieces a lot more frequently in the future!

In hindsight, we definitely regret not releasing a trailer sooner! We underestimated how much interest a good trailer could garner and delayed setting up our Steam page because of it. Steam was the platform where we sold the most copies and most of our buyers found the game through Steam itself.

Also, posting your trailer on youtube adds another site where you're promoting your game so there's really no reason not to get that trailer done as soon as you can. 

Final Notes

After the initial stress, we were pretty happy with our release! Although there were some things we would go back and change if we could,  that's just the nature of these kind of things. For the most part, we're proud of what we achieved and happy that we have learnt so much from Trouble Comes Twice that we can take into consideration for future projects.

We can't share exact numbers, but we wanted to open up a bit about our earnings for the game to help other aspiring devs: As of writing this, Trouble Comes Twice has earned close to 85,000 euros. This counts our profits from 2020 to now (the Kickstarter, Patreon, pre-sales, and actual sales). Removing fees, taxes, the salaries of our talented artists and other freelancers, as well as the money invested into our next game, our personal pockets did not see anything close to those numbers. But we're super proud of how much our little game has made and so grateful that it's allowed us more creative freedom with our next title! 

So, what's next?

You might have heard but for the past year, we've slowly been working on the demo and upcoming announcement for our next visual novel:

A 17+ supernatural neon-noir romance game about monsters, love, and other horrors. 

Play as vampire detective Circe (female protagonist) or hellhound cop Dante (male protagonist) and delve into the mysteries of North Haven, where demons, vampires, and supernaturals hide in plain sight among humans.

The game features six routes, with three romance options available to each protagonist. Dante only has male romances and Circe has both male and female romances. 

The game tackles a darker, more angsty tone compared to Trouble Comes Twice. Still, we hope that those who decide to check it out will enjoy it! We plan to announce the game this coming Autumn. Follow our Twitter (we're still not calling it X sorry) or Tumblr to stay up to date.

[quillsandblades]

A Minute of Rest

Based on the art by @shunkani

Dancing candle flames and the muted glow of the lanterns swam before her eyes. Hange Zoe would swap tedious hours of paperwork with titan or—as these days demanded—technological research any time. The mechanisms of a rail engine or the complex arrangements and workings of gears and wires were certainly more suited for her exhausted brain than planning the next steps of their alliance with Hizuru.

Nevertheless, it wasn’t like she had much of a choice. With a sigh, she adjusted her glasses and pulled another sheet towards herself. Yellow parchment, embedded with small black text. Shadows flickered around the words. Her brain caught fragments of them.

Diplomatic relations with Hizuru date back to more than a century ago . . .

The unique characteristics of the Iceburst stone enable . . .

Potential reason of interest . . .

. . . cornered nation . . . no other country tolerates Eld . . .

She hunched over the table, squinting at the document, willing her mind to turn the words over and whip out a solution. There was a throbbing in her temples, and her back was stiff. But no, they had to plan their next moves; Hizuru had extended a hand of friendship and provided Paradis with ample resources for research about the outer world. She had to go through it all, understand the stance and motives of as many countries as she could. She wasn’t going to consider Hizuru as a reliable ally though, they were more concerned with Mikasa and the Iceburst stone rather than a good future for Paradis.

Hange slumped over her desk, face hidden in her arms. She was so tired of dealing with hate and mistrust and selfish, close-minded people. So tired.

A door opened behind her; quiet, measured footsteps sounded.

Levi.

A scraping sound on her desk followed by the weight of a hand on her shoulder.

‘Hange,’ his voice was low and made something warm and soothing unfurl in her stomach.

‘Mmm?’

‘Get your ass in bed if you’re so tired.’

She lifted her head. Levi was standing beside her, shadows playing upon his face; there was a cup of steaming tea on her desk. She sighed, pulling another paper towards herself, ‘Can’t.’

‘Your brain won’t understand shit in this state. Get some rest, a few hours won’t hurt.’

Oh yes they would. She squeezed her eyes shut. Time was precious, if she slept now who knows how many seconds, how many minutes would trickle through her fingers like water, and then she’d wake up, regretting it, because she could have done more research, maybe she’d have found answers, but then it would be morning and everyone would be awake and bustling about, and her presence would be demanded everywhere, and there’d be meetings where Zackly and Pixis and Lady Azumabito would stare at her, asking for their next moves, and whether she’d figured out something or not, but she’d just sit there with a blank face because she was so damn exhausted that she slept and there wouldn’t be time to do anything at all then, because she jus—

Fingers pressed into the back of her shoulders, kneading her stiff muscles, cutting out her thoughts.

Her surprised exhale crumbled into a weary one. Levi’s hands gradually moved to her shoulder blades, thumbs digging into the sore, knotted parts of her back. Warmth rippled through her body at his touches, easing out a tension she wasn’t aware of until now.

‘This feels so fucking good,’ she mumbled heavily. ‘I didn’t even know I needed this.’

‘With that shitty posture, of course you needed this,’ he said, pushing her back and straightening her spine. ‘If you sit in that position for hours, it’ll definitely make your muscles go all tense.’

‘You’re starting to sound like Moblit,’ Hange chuckled. ‘Ever the worrywart.’

‘Someone has to look out for your clumsy ass.’

‘So you’ve decided to take full responsibility then, Captain?’ she grinned.

‘Never got the liberty of deciding in the first place,’ he droned out.

She laughed softly, somehow feeling lighter than she had in hours, days. His hands were still pressing upon her shoulders, lifting the invisible weight, induced by stress. She hummed softly and leaned back, so that she was pressing against Levi’s chest. His hands stilled, curling around the curves of her shoulders.

‘Oi . . .’ he said softly.

The back of her head came to rest against his neck. She inhaled deeply, a clean woody scent invaded her nose, making her eyes flutter shut and her breaths slow down. It felt good, having Levi so close, feeling his warmth all around.

‘Hange,’ he called her again.

‘Can we just . . . stay like this . . . for a while?’ she whispered.

Yeah, just for a while. Because she still had work to do, so she couldn’t give in to the heavy pull of sleep yet. She’d rest for a minute, with Levi right beside her. Then she’d start again.

‘Okay,’ he said quietly.

‘Just . . . don’t let me sleep. I still have . . .’ her words dissolved into exhausted breaths, ‘so much to do.’

‘Sure, don’t worry.’

So late in that night, when the golden hues of the candle flames splashed against wood and stone, and the barracks lay under the heavy spell of sleep, a tired Commander rested against her faithful Captain, knowing he would pull her out of the velvety folds of slumber and get her back to work soon.

But for now, she had a minute. A minute of rest.

[jacquesthepigeon]

I think it’s hilarious actually that That Guy is so hellbent on making Chloe look like a mini Hitler or something but then they… redeemed her father?? “No b-b-but you see she’s rich and privileged” and the white guy who literally controlled Paris isn’t?? Lmao. The fact that his “redemption” is a five minutes cringe scene where he doesn’t take accountability for the shit’s Chloe’s done as if he hasn’t been enabling her bad behavior for years. They really wanna make us believe parents are somehow blameless when their children grow up spoiled and racist - if my daughter acted like that on public she would never hear the end of it. Like no way you’re living in my house thinking you can go around spitting racist stuff and bullying people because you’re rich. I’m not even a Chloe stan but even I think it’s ridiculous. That man literally threw her out like trash and took in the better version. Poor Zoe I hope someone can get her out of this crazy family. Andre is as bad as Audrey idc, you’re a full grown ass man incapable of taking responsibility. He legit abused his power to let Chloe bully her classmates and doing stuff she liked, “redemption” my ass he should’ve been thrown in jail

Deadass

Anyone with a solid moral compass can tell the storyline is bs

I can’t say exactly how parenthood has influenced the crew, but it does give me similar vibes to that one influencer that had a kid and soon after started accusing another influencer of abusing her father by “forcing him to stay homeless” when he was literally just a guy traveling around the country in a van of his own volition bc she “couldn’t imagine” her son treating her like that. Like some people assume their own strongly felt experiences are universal and draw all the wrong conclusions and sympathize with all the wrong figures. Those are the vibes I’m getting. As if the crew is in the headspace that all parents are doing their best and deserve forgiveness for every transgression and therefore it’s the “bad” kids in the show who are at fault. But again, just vibes, I can’t actually say what’s going on in the crew as I don’t know any of them.

[zoe-oneesama]

Hi Zoe! I see you're done with Party Crasher. If I'm not wrong, Frozer is up next. What do you think about the episode?

This episode is a prime example of why Season 2 has nearly no rewatch value after you've endured Season 4. It's so hard to watch with hindsight.

So, the biggest funk of this episode was definitely Chat Noir - it was him when the episode came out and it still is now. Literally opening the episode with another romantic gesture when Ladybug confirms this MUST be post "Glaciator" because she very gently and sadly reminds him that he knows she's in love with someone else.

Well, he took the rejection SO WELL in "Glaciator", so why should we expect any different here?

This episode (paired with "Glaciator") is the episode that launched the "Nice Guy(tm) Chat Noir" idea. He says things in this episode that I swear were pulled right from reddit. He decides they should go solo because she turned down his rose... "We don't always have to do everything together, after all. It's not like we're a couple." Seriously dude? All this time together, our partnership, our relationship, our friendship, it all means nothing because I don't want to be your girlfriend? Because I was honest about having feelings for someone else? THAT'S the kind of person you are? What a great role model.

But then he's over it, like, immediately. I'm so confused as to why this was even here. To make Chat Noir look like a dick? Way to sell your main love interest, show~

So Sadrien sadly takes his sad rose to fencing practice and gets his sad ass handed to him by Kagami, who's like "wtf kicking your ass is boring if you just let me" and he asks her "do you ever feel like you're stuck, replaying the same story over and over again and hoping for it change but nothing ever does?"

And Kagami's response is her infamous "the biggest mistake a fencer can make isn't choosing the wrong technique. It's choosing the wrong target. Change targets" advice.

First of all, her metaphor sucks. Fencing is a 1 vs 1 sport, you can't "change targets". You can switch from aiming for the chest to aiming for the leg, but it's still the same opponent, weirdo.

Second of all, nothing about what Adrien just asked you suggested he was talking about a person or a romantic suitor whatsoever. Your only hint was that he was holding his Reject Rose, but even so, why wouldn't your first thought be that he's talking about his father???

Seriously, this could've been a good lead in for the Adri////gami set up if Kagami had assumed he was talking about Gabriel and responded with empathy. "Yes, sometimes I feel like that with my own mother, but I realized I don't like feeling like I'm waiting for change to happen. I make my own change happen. If you want your story to be different, maybe it has to come from you."

And Adrien, still thinking romantically, is struck. 'Wow' he thinks, 'she understands me in a way that honestly? Not a lot of people would.' And he declares that she's right, he's going to change his story starting now, and hands her the rose, starting their romance story.

But no, sure, a bad fencing metaphor about how he should forget other hoes and look at her, that works too, who needs BUILD UP amiright? I was a fool to think that maybe Kagami would need a REASON to be into the Writer's Pet Adrien when he's OBVIOUSLY already PERFECT.

Not that any of this matters since Adrien all but tells Kagami to her face "I had a great time but I'm sticking to my original pick." and she says she'll wait for him, girl, have some self respect.

But that's getting ahead of ourselves. After the two part ways, we have a scene with him and Plagg about Adrien maybe switching targets, and uh..

Look, I noticed a real problem with the dialogue in this episode - there's a lack of connectivity throughout the episode with the things people say. I know I make jokes about the show having five writers per episode who don't communicate with each other, but here it reeeeeally feels like maybe that's not a joke.

Like here: Plagg suggests that Adrien is going to start pursuing Kagami and Adrien rejects this idea because he's in love with Ladybug ("No, no way. Ladybug's the only one I love), and it probably wouldn't work with Kagami anyway because it's his technique that's wrong and he needs advice on what to do.

This seems to suggest that Adrien isn't going to go after Kagami, and if he did, it would be to test out a technique on her. Like going out with Kagami would be practice. Now that's obviously not verbatim what he said and could justifiably be seen as reaching, but do you see my confusion? Not once does he say anything about being into Kagami or wanting to go after her (though admit-ably he did give her the Reject Rebound Rose).

But then two scenes later when he's asking Marinette for help, he's describing Kagami as if he's in love with her, as if he's really interested in her. Where did THAT come from between scenes?! Writers! COMMUNICATE!

Also he says in the French version that they have classes together, and in English that they study together, and I would just like to see WHEN?!

There's another example when Marinette goes off to the bathroom after Kagami gives more..."advice". Tikki asks why she's sad, and instead of pointing out the very obvious "Oh, I don't know Tikki, my crush asked me for advice on how to get close to another girl, I'm third wheeling his date and am forced to watch them skate around holding hands, she practically claimed him when Phillipe was trying to recruit Adrien for his ice rink by reminding him AND me that Adrien is with HER, aaaaand I fell on my butt in front of him, her, and the guy who I also have caught feelings for but am feeling bad about potentially leading him on because of my lingering feelings for Adrien. And then my crush's date basically told me it's my fault that all these things are happening to me because I 'hesitate'. That might have something to do with why I'm sad."

But instead her answer is she likes Luka but doesn't know if what's between them is that they're just friends, like with Adrien????

Even if that WERE a part of it, that's not the thing that started this or even the thing that set her off. So why is that the thing they made her stuck on??? That's like the fourth thing on the list of Things That's Made Her Upset. Her answer sounds like it comes from a pre-edited script or something.

So yeah, the dialogue is...weird. But that's almost normal for Miraculous Ladybug at this point.

So anyway, Adrien vows to get advice from someone who is Not Plagg and realizes very quickly that every adult in his life is utterly worthless so he scouts out his friends. Except of the 4 couples he zones in on (Marc and Nathaniel, Ivan and Mylene, Alya and Nino, Juleka and Rose) 3/4 of them are together because of Ladybug and an akuma.

"Hey bro, I need some advice, how'd you and Alya get together?"

"Oh, Ladybug locked us in a panther cage during an akuma attack after you tried to set me up with her best friend."

Maybe it's not as crazy that he went to Marinette as I initially thought.

(That said this gave me flashbacks because for some reason all my friends came to me for relationship advice despite being chronically single for most of high school, so, I felt that pain Marinette.)

And just...wow, writers, I know Marinette is your punching bag but this was just cruel. Having her crush, the guy YOU'RE SELLING as her true love go off about how pretty and special and amazing this other girl is right to her face? Is this supposed to be an equivalent heartbreak to what happened in the first scene? Because this doesn't feel equal, this just feels malicious on the writer's end. Ladybug didn't grind into Chat Noir's face how AWESOME the mystery boy is and at least Chat Noir got to throw a tantrum about it, where's Marinette's tantrum?!

I'll say the one point I give to the Girl Squad is them telling Marinette she's crazy for agreeing to third wheel this date and that she should definitely cancel on Adrien. If he can't handle being alone with the girl he wants to date, that sounds like a them problem, there's being selfless and then there's being masochistic, girl.

But then they lose that point for yelling over her when she tells them she's going to try being Just a Friend for Adrien.

The Girl Squad scene is also frustrating in this way that Miraculous is continuously frustrating in that the characters just don't quite say the thing that makes sense (like in "Maledictator" with Marinette calling Chloe "useless" instead of things that would actually stick like "bully"). Marinette says she's giving up on Adrien because she stutters around him and dating would be impossible if she can't even talk to him, and that she's calmer when she's trying to be his friend instead of dating him.

But what she should have said was "he just asked me advice on how to ask out someone else, he's clearly not into me!"

She has a good point with the stuttering thing, but that puts all the weight on HER for the relationship not taking off. It's HER that can't get it together, it's HER that can't get her words out, it's HER that's stopping them from being together. Meanwhile Adrien's over here asking out other girls, calling her "just a friend", not showing up to meet ups that she'll be at... Hell, he tried to set HER up with SOMEONE ELSE ("Animan"). He doesn't want to date her! Message Recieved!

So she brings in Luka, (which honestly, smart move, because how much would Kagami have REALLY hated Marinette if she showed up by herself on THEIR date) and we get The Metaphors.

Marinette is clumsy, this is a known fact, yet the only times she's clumsy at the ice rink is because she's focused on Adrien - when she focuses on Luka, she's smooth, easily let's him guide her, and is pulling off professional moves. ALMOST like he's a good, calming influence compared to the chaotic energy that Adrien brings.

The "problem" (if you're writing for this show and want to encourage Adrien and Marinette being together) is that the episode never challenges why this should be a bad thing. They want her to be with Adrien, soooo why are they basically visually proving why Luka is the better option? Why does this whole episode feel like it's actively trying to turn Marinette away from Adrien?

I mean obviously they're starting the Love Rival drama, but I mean long term. With the Skating Metaphor and Marinette bringing up how her own inability to think clearly around Adrien is a problem, and then never COUNTERING those problems, why are we supposed to root for them again?

Oh because Luka gave his consent in the end, not because of any merit that Adrien brings to the table, got it.

Then there's the obvious Two Guys Reaching Out to Help Marinette Up and She Hesitates Because Her Heart is in Conflict Metaphor. I only give this one props because at least none of the characters explained that one, they just let that one speak for itself, even if it was obvious.

Though that one accidentally extended when the reason Marinette doesn't choose is because Phillipe forces his way into the interaction to beg Adrien to join his rink - kinda like random, out of pocket shit that she has no control over is CONSTANTLY MESSING UP HER ATTEMPTS TO MAKE MOVES.

Gosh Kagami, maybe Marinette would've made a choice if she'd gotten five seconds between them without INTERRUPTIONS! Maybe she even would've grabbed BOTH of their hands, then what would you have done?

Sighhhh, I'm sorry Kagami, I don't mean to rip on you. It's just that you were so freaking RUDE in this episode to anyone who wasn't Adrien (and also a little bit to Adrien tbh). You can turn Phillipe's offer down without telling him his favorite sport is basically trash. You can help Marinette up without rubbing it in that you got the guy first. You can let Adrien turn Phillipe down himself without peeing on him, as if you're jealous of a this guy just for asking Adrien to join a sport ("he already fences with ME!"). Let the boy speak for himself - maybe he actually was interested, did you check in on what he wants?

Yes, Adrien shouldn't just go along with people to make them happy, but he's not going to learn to stand up for himself if you just speak for him.

And Luka...well you're just here for a good time, aren't you? So patient, so kind, so the only person in the room who can read the writing on the wall. At least someone in this group isn't lying to themselves.

I'm losing steam, so let's rapid fire:

I knew I'd hate Phillipe as soon as I saw him and I was right. He's annoying and I bet he's the reason no one wants to come to his stupid ice rink because he's lurking there interrupting other people's dates. I was on Andre's side when he ragged on him for trying to force people to join (though dude you gave him ten minutes, what did you think would happen?)

Luka's so magical he can play electric guitar without an amp or any sound amplifying device, impressive. Or the people on this show have never touched an instrument.

Also Luka, your advice to just be natural and go with the flow is great and also WASTED on Adrien, his "natural" is a DISASTER.

Adrien panic-lying that he brought Marinette to teach him how to skate was pointless. Maybe Kagami would've thought it was endearing you were too nervous to go on a date with her alone if you were just honest about it, but now it's just Another Thing Kagami has to turn into a competition because she sees Marinette as a RiVaL (which honestly amazing jumping to conclusions because wut, where'd you get that idea?)

Also, does Kagami shoot a bow? She says she only participates in "noble" sports, like bow or fencing, but I can't tell if she's listing sports she considers noble, or listing sports she participates in. Also what does a "noble" sport even mean?

S-stalac-Tikki...and Plagg-lagla. I know it's Plagg-Glacier in English, but it's Plagg-lagla in French and it sounds like Adrien's VA is gargling or stuttering when he tries to say it.

What happened to Luka and Kagami, you're not even going to show them frozen?!

Frozer is so ugly omigoooood not looking forward to drawing him.

So yeah, anyway, Frozer is hard to watch, especially with hindsight, the bad parts with Chat Noir are really bad but don't stick around long, so there's that, and while it doesn't feel like the characters are being too bad during this whole "dating" fiasco, it suuuuure feels like the writers were~

[leffee]

Top five favorite Vinnie moments from the show go!

Oh boy, okay!

His absolutely mad destroying rage when he found out Sunil is not coming in for the day. I don't remember if I first watched that episode when Sunil was still my favourite or when Vinnie was already that, but either way I loved it. Love me a crazy bitch like that. Me when a small, happy-go-lucky normally treated as harmless guy is angry and everyone else is suddenly scared shitless. Who else goes absolutely berserk cause they can't see their bestie for a while? Only Vinnie, the crazy bitch, love him.

Basically everything he did in "Bake It 'til You Make It" to help said bestie. Like he did so much just to help Sunil and also to commit an elaborate lie but shhhh, it's all for Sunil's sake so that's fine.

Whatever the hell he did at the beggining of "Two Pets for Two Pests", I just love everything about it. Him and Penny Ling both really, but I love how fucking cuddly he was with Penny and all like "Idc where I am as long as I'm with my friends" ^^ just <3333 boy can you love them any more. But then! Oh then, as soon as he found out he was the one chosen (again, along with Penny) he pulled out ol' switcheroo and was like "Aha, fuck you you, bitches I was chosen, I'm better than you!". He's such an asshole, I love him, love the immediate change.

His absolute disdain for Esteban in his episode, I love how lowkey passive-agressive he was cause you never again see him do it with anyone else really and that's a damn shame, I love this kind of Vinnie the most, cause the enitre time he's just "Bitch you so stupid."

Him leading the pets when it comes to that Chinese dragon dance. It was such a small part of this episode yet it was undeniably there, I love how he took charge and was all in all "Don't worry, I've got this. I might not normally take charge, but dancing is the one thing I know how to do so I'll do my best."

Those five favourite moments are really just the moments that came to my mind first that I liked with him, I'm sure if I were replying to it some other day I would choose different moments and/or change their order, but today this is it :3.

Honorary mention to literally every other Vinnie moment, but especially to *takes a deep breath*: when he tried to cheer Penny up and gave her a tissue, he (and Russell and Sunil) being stupid while the girls were in Blythe's room, him being sad when the judges didn't like his dance and then being sad about abandoning Blythe, being an absolute tsundere about Sharukh first being like "meh" but then absolutely fanboying, him being the first one to shake off the sugar rush and be like "Guys wtf we doing", being grumpy about being taken by Alice and being trapped in that aquarium (without water, phew!), being tsudnere when Sunil was scared and hugged him but then immediately jumping on his head when he got scared, basically whenever autotmy happens and he lost his tail with the first one being the best, Penny holding him when they found out Blythe was going to F.U.N., his whole dynamic with Zoe in The Big, Feathered Parade, when he tried to stand up to Wiggles cause they both reptiles, him and Sunil being absolutely unhelpful at first in Blythe's Big Idea and takinf that "bath" together, him not letting others watch Zoe's dog show in France cause holy crap insect channel, whenever his coldbloodness is mentioned, "and don't call me Vincent" and whenever Vincent is mentioned, him being done with Sunil's crush on Delilah he was just so 🙄 about it, Sunil calling him "undersized buddy", basically everything he and Sunil were doing in War of the Weirds especially them dising Uptown City that was so funny I swear (alright it was mostly Sunil but Vinnie was on it too), him laughing at Penny in gorilla costume and right after she was like "Won't I look ridiculous?" he did say she does indeed look ridiculous (sorry but that was so fuuny), his chase with Cashmere and Velvet (why did he shake his ass at them smh), like half of The Very Littlest Pet Shop's plot being revealed to be his imagination and pls he and Sunil were so cute in his imagination hmmmmmmmmm, him writing on his own a forumla of nuclear fission (the smart Vinnie episode we never got :(), his goofy ahh explanation for why Blythe can understan pets and being all :) about it while everyone else is just ???, "Dad!" "Roger!" "Sunil!" "Llama?", him being happy when Blythe called him smart (my poor compliments starved baby :( ), him sitting on top of Sunil's head basically the entire lenght of In the Loop episode and also any other moment when he chils on top of someone's head, making that disgusting dish with flies and being happy when no one else wants it cause that means he can eat it all, Jerry calling him a komodo dragon (another case of being misspecied smh), being obsessed with Royal Henry's, being really really (really) sad when Zoe wanted to leave the pet shop to be with doctor handsomeface, eating gecko nom nom treats cause why this name so cute ugh, being the goodest boy in the world and forgiving Pepper for breaking his lucky rock as well as him being all sad that episode, being so fucking sad about Penny this time leaving the pet shop (except she wasn't really but you know), being happy about being worth 10 000 dolars, giving his favourite pillow to Sunil when he was being all grouchy (he never got that pillow back), being absolutely done with that one male moose's dancing and just being a jerk the entire episode "He's been like this whole day" >:(, catboy Vinnie in season 4 finale and many many more.

[cyrusthedragon]

Okay, I know this post will read only one man and his dog, but I really need to write down all my thoughts on season 4, and just keep it structured. If you're interested in discussing it - you're always welcome!

HUGE SPOILERS BELOW, CHAPTER 1/2

Word count: 1,057

Includes: Vicky Neuman, Zoe, Kimiko, Frenchie, Hughie, Hughie's mum

1. Victoria Neuman + Zoe

First of all, I really need to appreciate this intro cuz, excuse my goddamn french, Vicky Newman is HER. Vicky Neuman is absolutely HER, I'm really looking forward to her character development. I honestly don't think she's a villain, she's just an antagonist, but a very good one. She is not a bad person in any particular way, she has an Idea in her, she has a Meaning, she has Reasons and Motivation. More Neuman please, especially in GEN V. Thanks.

Like Vicky, her daughter is also a scary ass Supe, but unlike Vicky, who's a bloodbender, Zoe's powers hardly can be used for anything good. Some headcanons here:

While Vicky thought that she was the monster because of her “terrible” abilities, she, by injecting her already grown-up daughter CompV, somehow created a real monster. She stupidly turned her child into a freak, who will be very difficult to accept by society, because her... superpower is something that u often see in nightmares. And it’s unlikely that the typical "don’t judge a book by its cover" slogans will be enough to accept that someone can pierce your mouth while kissing you with their four...tentacles? Whatever they are. I personally find them cute, btw, but in The Boys Universe, I'm not sure ppl will accept Zoe. Zoe, forgive your mom. She's not thinking rationally when she's worried about you.

It is also very much worth thinking abt her willingness to kill without any questions asked. That was definitely not her first murder. Vicky could use her power, as a politician perhaps, and bring victims to Zoe so that she could kill them and get used to it.

2. Kimiko

These are just very beautiful shots that I want to share with yall. First - Zoe tore off Kimiko's hand, it just grew back :D I love this scene for its absolute absurdity. God bless Karen Fukuhara. + Demonstrated that Annie can fly, also a good introduction to new abilities! Well done!

Secondly, I ADORE Frenchie's reaction here, it just shows so much love he has for her: Kimiko's face literally peeled away, she REATTACHED IT, and Frenchie, her platonic soulmate, at first was confused af, and then he UNIRONICALLY SMILED to his girl being literally unkillable. I feel you, Serge, I love her too!

Kimiko is very balanced. Information about her comes up every season, and each time there is enough information left to theorize but be satisfied. She's small and cute, like a mouse. She loves girly stuff like doing hair, wearing jewelry, and dressing up. She’s all about having fun and smiles a lot. Her gentle, kind personality totally contrasts with her powers of mega strength and near-immortality from regeneration. She was raised to defend and attack, but her empathetic nature is well shown in the smallest details.

For example, new information: Kimiko gets wasted super fast. I adore her.

3. Frenchie

Next to Kimiko, literally being her soulmate (i fuckin' can't believe that we're so lucky that in addition to the chaos of dicks and murders, we also have the genuine, platonic love between a man and a woman AT FIRST SIGHT), is Frenchie. We've already seen he's bi; this isn't the first rodeo, but now he shows it ON THE SCREEN, HURRAY, COMRADES. I'm very proud of him, he's my baby 🥹 we finally, with the help of his new love interest, found out about all the murders he committed when he worked for Little Nina and even before that. Frenchie is a very balanced character, just like Kimiko, you learn a little about his life in each season, and each time enough to build theories and be satisfied. I wanna know how to write like that.

My favorite things about Frenchie are his wild love affairs and his doglike loyalty. He's got an unbelievable knack for forming strong platonic (with Cherie also sexual, but you get the point) bonds with women, who end up adoring him. Probably because he has a heart of gold and doesn't act like a jerk. He also sincerely tries to be better. C'mon now, he's doing his best! All the love for my boy.

4. Hughie

Hughie loses the only person who has been with him his whole life. His father was a great, excellent parent. But it’s time for Hughie to stand on his own two feet and become at least a little bit the main character - which means, eh, i guess rest in peace, Mr Campbell?... If this doesn't happen, I'll be overjoyed. Although besides pushing Hughie to mature, the coma plot also provides a chance for us to learn about his mother. His dad is in a coma - won't she come? Here we learn a lot of interesting things about our babyboy.

Hughie's emotional outburst when he sees his mum for the first time since he was just a kid is very realistic and I love everything in here, including the cast choice. Because Hughie is a spitting image of his mother. This kind of attention to details makes me wanna chew Kripke's brains off.

Hughie is very similar to his mother: in speech, in movements, in facial expressions. For some reason I really like this. He, like his mother, has tenderness and a steely core, they are both very stubborn. Although he also has a note of “cowardice” from his father, his desire to push forward and that decision in the first episode to go help Butcher and take revenge on Reggie were just visible sides of his mother’s character.

Not gonna say that was the original idea, but I think Hughie saw Butcher in his mother. Because 'I'm not made to be a father'. And he realized that Butcher was almost just like she was. At least it seems to me that way. That being like Butcher is... normal. Ppl do fear being parents. And this is currently the best representation of postpartum depression, very realistic shit, Kripke, I'll stuff your brains into a Thanksgiving turkey. With all love and respect.

If you've made it this far, congratulations, you're a survivor! If suddenly s/o wants to be tagged in the second part of this review (well, sort of), write in the comments and I’ll tag you!

[jerzwriter]

Tension

This magnificent artwork was a commission from the incredible @/artbyainna. This left me breathless! Look at that lighting! Look at them! I love seeing my little people come to life!

I hope you enjoy this beautiful piece, and the accompanying story too! It's nice to take a little break from the angst in my WTD World.

Book:                Wake the Dead

Pairing:            Eli Sipes x F!MC (Zoe Rivera); feat. Troy Hassan

Rating:             Teen

Category:        Fluff / Friends to lovers / Pining

Summary:       On a rare afternoon of respite, the colonists all find a way to unwind... except for Eli and Zoe. Taking the opportunity to perfect their skills leaves them anything but relaxed.

Words:             2035

A/N:   I imagine this scene to take place just before the trip to the amusement park in Chapter 10. These two are fighting a hell of a lot more than zombies. :) Participating in @choicesjanuarychallenge - Day 17 - Relax

WTD Masterlist Full Masterlist

It was an unusually quiet afternoon at the lodge. The colonist’s hard work had paid off: fortifications and watch crews were keeping the drones at bay, and the gardens and livestock left the pantry full. With daily chores out of the way,  most were free to enjoy a rare afternoon of tranquility.

Troy reclined on one of the couches, humming quietly as he took in the scene around him. Shannon sat nearby, gripping an old magazine she had found as if it were the holy grail. Published around the time of the outbreak’s start, she was adamant it could contain something to help her research. In a distant corner, Minna was setting up a table with May, who was eagerly prepping a tea party for her stuffed animals. Seeing his friends relaxed and experiencing joy… just as he was… brought a smile to his face. And then… there was Eli….

Troy fully expected to find him crouched in front of the fireplace, working on his bow or doing something else… productive. To Troy’s dismay, that’s how Eli defined “resting.” But today, Troy was amused, watching his friend surreptitiously as he hurriedly walked in and out of the room at least half a dozen times. Stretching his neck in every direction, Eli was definitely searching for something. Troy could have asked what he was looking for… as if he didn’t already know… but this was much more fun. Entertainment like this didn’t come along daily, and Troy wasn’t about to let it end too quickly. But on Eli’s sixth go-round, Troy took pity on him.

“Looking for something, Eli?”

Eli turned gruffly in his direction. “What makes you say that?”

“You’ve been in and out of here six times… you’re either looking for something or working up the nerve to ask me to take my night watch shift tonight… any chance on that?” Troy begged, using his best puppy-dog eyes. They might have worked on half of the colonists in Olympus but on Eli… not a chance.

“Keep dreaming, Hassan.”

“So then you are looking for something….” Troy winked. “Or better yet, someone….”

“I didn’t say I was. I….”

“She went outside… mentioned something about going to the range for target practice on the one afternoon we get some downtime!”  Troy shook his head with disgust and pointed a finger Eli’s way. “I hold you responsible for this! She used to be fun. Now, look at her!”

Eli did his best to suppress a smirk. Shrugging his shoulders, he strode past his lounging friend.

“I don’t know who you’re talking about,” he replied straight-faced.

“Yeah, my ass,” Troy yelled after him. 

“Troy… I will never be looking for your ass,” he mocked before heading out the front door.

The moment the fresh air hit him, his feet carried him swiftly in the direction of the range. He was moving at twice his normal speed, though there was no need to rush. No drones were on the property, and no one needed immediate protection. His chores were done, so he wasn’t completing a task. Still, just the slightest bit faster, the man would have been running. Even the elders from Sunflower Creek seated on the porch commented on it. Eli couldn’t help but overhear… then his mind went into overdrive.

This is just how he walked, he tried to convince himself. There was nothing suspicious about it. He was headed to practice himself and wanted to get there before the sun went down. Of course, the sun wasn’t setting for another five hours… but still. There was no reason to be suspect. None at all.

As he neared the range, he could hear the twang of her bow as an arrow released, then seconds later, the dull thud of a target being hit. He waited patiently for the next sound; there could only be one of two outcomes… and a smile crossed his lips when it was the one he had hoped for.

“Yes!” Zoe cheered. Followed but a string of happy little noises Eli couldn’t describe if he tried.

But another sound broadened his smile and made his heart race…. silence. She was alone, and while he’d reprimand her for being unsafe later, for now, he was delighted… Zoe all to himself. He almost surrendered to the rush that washed over him, but without warning, that voice was back in his head. 

What does it matter if she’s alone? She’s not why I’m here. I’m going to practice. Zoe being here is good because we can offer each other tips. If someone else was there, that would just be more input. This means nothing. Nothing at all. His head may have listened, but his heart hadn’t heard a word, and Eli cursed it for continuing to hammer in his chest. This. Meant. Nothing.

Zoe was startled when she heard footsteps approaching through the brush, raising her bow in preparation.

“It’s me,” Eli hollered, “Don’t shoot.”

Her bright smile appeared naturally when she saw who it was, but she quickly turned it into a coy little smirk by her own design.

“Not so much fun to be on the other side. Is it, Mr. Sipes?”

“Are we ever going to stop talking about that?” he deadpanned, but Zoe was astute, and she didn’t miss the smile in his eyes.

“Absolutely never!”

He walked blithely past her and settled down on a large rock to prepare his bow. Zoe’s eyes trailed his every move, returning to shooting? It wasn’t even a thought. She didn’t flinch when he looked up, catching her in the act, and only a slight blush rose to her cheeks when he raised his eyebrows in question.

“Yes? Do you need something?”

“Oh… so, so many things,” she chirped, not missing a beat.

His lips twitched as he turned back to his bow, looking anyplace but at her. He tested the strings before standing.

“It sounded like you had a good shoot when I was walking down here.”

“Of course I did! I’m good!” she boasted, chest sticking out with pride… how he tried not to notice.

“Yes,” he chuckled, and now her heart was racing. She couldn’t describe how she felt when she made Mr. Grumpy laugh or smile, breaking that cold façade. All she knew was it was intoxicating, and each time it happened, she desperately craved more. “You are good,” he continued. “Very good. One day, you may even be great.”

“Oh,” she teased, slinking over in his direction. “And what’s standing between me and greatness?”

He all but lost his ability to think, though he knew he needed to come up with a response. He could just turn around and aim for the target, ignoring what she had just said, but at the moment… he had forgotten how.

“I.. uh… I mean… you…”

“Don’t worry,” Zoe laughed. “I know what I need… even if you don’t.”

“Oh, and what is it that you need?”

“I need to perfect my shot with a standard bow,” she offered immediately, “That’s why I’m here. Most of my training back at the tower was with a crossbow, and I rock the crossbow. But there are differences, and I want to improve there.”

“There are differences. And lucky for you, the traditional bow is my specialty.”

“Oh, I know,” she winked. “That’s why this is my lucky day.”

Her heart fluttered when he smiled again, she could tell he was trying to fight it, but he didn’t stand a chance. Again, she was left yearning.

“Come over here,” he demanded, and she quickly complied. “Now, get into stance. Remember, your feet need to be parallel to the shooting line.”

Zoe glanced over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. “I’m not a complete idiot, Eli.”

“I didn’t suggest… I’m just taking it from the top!”

“And I’m just teasing you,” she giggled.

“Zoe, if you want to perfect your shot, you should take it more seriously.”

For a split second, she almost felt embarrassed, but only for a second. Her sass was quick to return.

“And if you want me to perfect my shot, perhaps you should show me and just bark orders,” she goaded.

“Fine!”

She assumed he’d get into position, raise his bow, and pull the string with godlike precision. They’d watch his arrow fly through the air like the work of art it was until it hit his desired target… dead on. That’s what she thought would happen. Instead, she gasped silently when she felt his hands on her waist.

“Get into position,” he commanded, and her mind went numb.

Somehow, she managed to raise her bow. Her shirt rose a bit when she lifted her arms. Suddenly the sensation of the rough pads of his fingers brushing against the delicate skin took her breath away.

“Now, turn a little more. Just like this,” he instructed, twisting her the slightest bit to the side.

She wondered if he felt like she did right now, and if her heart wasn’t thumping, she would have felt his pounding against her back. For his part, being this close to her was doing things he hadn’t fully expected; the feeling was overwhelming. But Eli’s game face was unrivaled, and, despite the longing of every fiber of his being, he presented a somber, almost stone-like effect.

“Now, relax your knees….”

Was he kidding? If she relaxed her knees, she was quite confident she’d dissolve into a puddle at his feet.

“Right… relax…” she muttered. 

She was flustered, and he saw it. A chill ran throughout his body, and Eli was uncertain. Was he winning or losing?  

“Your shoulders should be a little more in line with your bow arm,” he began, “and you want to use your back muscles to aim….”

He hadn’t finished his sentence when her back muscles aimed for their intended target, lying flush against his chest. Neither of them could breathe, and if not for the sould of the gentle breeze rustling through the trees, they would have believed that time stood still. Each waiting, in silence….

“Try shooting,” he blurted. He had to say something.

And she did… instantly… without a single thought. The ping of her bow was followed by silence as her arrow flew through the air, ultimately falling to the ground. But Eli hadn’t moved at all, and neither had she.

“Well…” she stammered.  “That totally sucked.”

The two broke out into a fit of nervous laughter, still leaning in closer to one another when interrupted by an approaching voice.

“Eli! Zoe!” Angel called.

“Over here,” Zoe shot back. “What’s going on.”

“There’s a brawl breaking out in the kitchen,” Angel said breathlessly. “I don’t even know what it’s about. All I know is even Feather looked like he was ready to flip out.”

“Oh, that can’t be good,” Zoe chuckled.

“It’s not. That’s why Troy said I should go get you….”

“Oh, Troy sent you,” Eli sneered.

Angel scrunched her brow in confusion, “Uh.. yeah… I mean, is that a problem… or….”

“No, it’s not a problem at all,” Zoe said, gathering her things. “Let’s head back now.”

“Yeah,” Eli scoffed. “I’ll handle Troy later.”

The three made their way back to the lodge, with Angel running ahead. Trailing behind, Zoe looked up at Eli with a coquettish grin.

“Yes?” Eli acknowledged with a raised brow.

“I just think I was really getting it back there,” she grinned. “We’ll need to do it again soon. I think I’m perfecting my shot.”

“Really? I wouldn’t say that based on your last one,” he half-smiled.

“I don’t know,” she said, starting up the steps. “I think certain good things could be said about it.”

“Like what?

“Like….” Zoe opened the door, and they could hear the clamoring and chaos at once. “Oh, my….” She sighed.

“It’s probably best you tell me some other time…” he smiled. “It looks like you’re needed in the kitchen.”

“Me… needed in the kitchen,” she laughed. “Words I never thought I’d hear!”

“I’ve gotta admit,” he smirked. “Neither did I.  Perhaps I should join you.”

“Yeah, wouldn’t want any cooking breaking out with me unattended.”

“Lead the way,” he grinned, “then when I’m done… I’ll handle Troy.”

Permatags: @a-crepusculo @animesuck3r @annoyingmillenialnewbie @crazy-loca-blog @fayeswiftie @differenttyphoonwerewolf @doriopenheart @genevievemd @gryffindordaughterofathena @inlocusmads @jamespotterthefirst @jennieausten @kingliam2019 @liaromancewriter @lucy-268 @onikalover @openheartforeverinmyheart @potionsprefect @quixoticdreamer16 @rookiemartin @secretaryunpaid @socalwriterbee @tessa-liam @trappedinfanfiction @jerzwriter-reblogs-asks @choicesficwriterscreations

WTD: @cariantha @kyra75 @lilyoffandoms @missameliep

[jess-moloney-malarkey]

Does anyone know if Jamie's tattoos have meaning? Does he randomly get tattoos because he likes? Or do his tattoos represent yours project he’s done? your music.. movies.. series..

There are a number of his tattoos that he hasn’t talked about so I don’t know if they all have a meaning. As someone with a lot of tattoos myself, I would be inclined to say he probably has a fair amount that he just thought looked cool lol. He has spoken about his “light and dark sides” in terms of the layout for his tattoos. So the side with the skull on his finger is the dark side, and the side with the cross on his other finger is the light side.

But he has shared that a few of them are ones he’s gotten after completing a job. The anchor on his bicep refers to his role in Sweeney Todd, Anthony Hope, the young sailor. The ball and chain on his other bicep has “11-12” under it, which is the character he played in The Prisoner. He also has a knife on his thigh with the date of Counterfeit’s first sold out show, I think.

I also know the writing and rose on his forearm were a matching tattoo with Lily Collins when they were dating, she has hers on her back. He has a cross on one of his arms that was done by former tattoo artist girlfriend Ruby. The large heart with butterflies on his chest is actually a coverup for a tattoo of a former girlfriend’s name, he had the name Zoe tattooed there many years ago. And Bob Dylan on his ass was a drunken dare as a teenager lol.

[theanxiousghostartist]

So I watched Workin Boys from Starkid....

My thoughts below (spoilers for the production) the cut.

(Also, yay, I finally figured out how to add it 😭)

YAYYAYAYAYAYAY

The resume !!!

Foreshadowing ??!

OMG Ruth gets to act?! Yay!

Zoe's back?!

"WHeRe ArE tHe BALlS?"

Hidgens and the boys where struck by lightening and he was the only surivor?? Poor man ):

"I'm glad my friends are dead so they don't have to see you make a mockery of their memories!" HOLY SHIT

Bill and Ted!!!

Gerald and Linda!!

"fucking raisins" lol

Grace and Ritchie !!!

The cop and the teacher from NPMD!!!

BuSiNeSs CaLlS I'm UP tO mY ASs iN sHiT

WHeN alL I wANt tO DO iS sPEnD tHe DAy wITh -

And CHAD!

" I think they like it- they're laughing!"

"At all the wrong parts" ):

'two weeks notice' is a bop

The ghosts of the boys??!!!

Greg??? STeve? StU? MARK? LADEN? Where's Chad???

"We haven't worked out the kinks yet!!"

Chad's coming!! Around 5 O'clock!!!

"Do it Henry, for Chad..."

"For Chad..."

Ruth 😭/pos

"Exsuse me who are you?"

"I'M RUTH!"

I CAN'T WAIT TO GET HOME TO MY GIRLS

Linda looks so done lmao

Hidgens : murder spree!

"What do you think of the show so far?"

"It's fucking transcending!"

Dragging the bodies off the stage: "Annunciate!!"

"Oh my god, I think all the actresses are dead!"

"Good." (Linda OMG 😭)

Proceeds to start the show over, covered in blood, playing all the parts.

Nooooo not Ted!!! ))):

Grace vs the Cops part 2

Rip Hidgens )))):

GRACE???!!

He can't wait to get home to his boys )))):

Linda clapping LMAO

If I had a nickle for every time a Starkid production ended with Grace Chasity killing someone, I'd have two nickles, which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

[alexlesuagz]

(Uhhh so I wrote this a while ago based off of an idea for an alternate ending to S5 Case 52 where the player decides to accompany Jones as he walks home. Have fun reading it, I guess, I’m not that proud of it, but eh. I hope you enjoy!)

(SPOILERS FOR S5 CASE 52 AND TW FOR SEWERSLIDE IMPLICATIONS)

(Also, sorry if any of the canon characters are OOC-)

“A Tough Time Holding Up”

“…I don’t think you should have done that.”

Gloria’s whisper is the only thing keeping the tension in the car from going silent.

And stale.

“Done what?” I ask, my voice a low grumble.

“You know what I mean.” Gloria replies, not even raising her tone.

The silence I give as my response causes her to sigh as we stop at a red light. “Listen. I don’t like Leroux for a lot of reasons, killing Zoe being one of them…but breaking his nose wasn’t-!”

She runs a hand through her hair and groans. “You know what? Whatever. Leroux got sentenced, and his cowardly ass is going to rot in jail for a long time…Zoe’s finally at peace.”

She says the last part with some level of uncertainty. I don’t blame her at all.

There were too many unanswered questions to this case — Leroux’s motive, Zoe’s involvement with Dreamlife, et cetera, et cetera. Gloria and I had to find these explanations fast.

But first, we had to check up on Jones back at the station.

After we park the car in front of that oh-so-familiar blue building we see everyday, I practically barrel out and make a mad dash into the station to find Jones.

I can’t find him anywhere.

Shit, where is he?!

“Jones?” I ask, running over to his desk to see if he’s there.

He isn’t.

“Oh, are you looking for Jones?” Gabriel asks as he sips from a mug of coffee. I nod somewhat frantically in response.

“He’s in the bathroom right now.” He tells me. “I think he’ll be out pretty soon.”

“Ah, alrighty then. Thank you.”

I sit down at Jones’s desk and wait patiently for him to show up.

Sure enough, a couple minutes later, I hear a door open and close, and Jones walks in from around the corner.

Judging by his physical state alone, he looks better(?) than before - he’s calmer, albeit looking a bit exhausted, and it looks like he had splashed cold water on his face.

“Oh! Hey, Val.”

“Jones! Hey!” I reply as I get out of the chair, making sure to give him a warm and friendly smile. “How are you feeling?”

Jones just gives me some sort of dazed stare in response, and I just look at him right in the eyes, waiting for him to answer my question.

He does not answer my question and instead says, “...I heard you arrested Leroux��for murdering Zoe.”

I flinch at the mention of Leroux, and I nod. “Yup, we did…and I even broke his nose. For, y’know, good measure.” I make a fist with one hand and make a swinging motion to demonstrate, and Jones gives me a half-hearted chuckle.

We stand in silence for a couple of seconds somewhat awkwardly until Jones reaches past me and grabs his jacket from a chair. “...Well, I’d better get going.”

Going?

“Uh, wait, you’re going? If you don’t mind me asking, where, exactly?”

Jones flinches at my question. “Oh, uh…I’m just gonna go home and take a nap. I’m…exhausted.”

…Something about his words feels off to me, but I don’t know what.

“A. A nap?”

“...Yeah, what about it?”

He’s only glancing at me, but I can feel his eyes boring into my soul.

“...Oh, uh, nothing really.” I stammer out, feeling a bit embarrassed with myself.

“...Alrighty, then.” He frowns slightly in response.

“I’m going to take a rest.” Fernando tells me. “I’m…I’m just tired right now.”

Something in my gut is pulling me towards Jones, telling me to make sure nothing bad happens to him.

But how do I help?

I know fuck-all on what to do.

I’m internally panicking, mentally scrabbling around to try to find ideas.

Jones is saying goodbye to Gabriel and Gloria as I’m just standing by his desk like a complete goddamn fool.

“Take care.” Gloria tells Jones with a comforting smile.

“Stay safe, alright?” Gabriel says to Jones, putting his hand on Jones’s shoulder.

Jones flinches at Gabriel’s touch, looking at the floor as he mumbles, “I’ll take care of myself, don’t worry.”

He’s lying.

I don’t even have to look at him, and I know he’s lying.

I don’t know what he’s going through, but all I know is that I have to help him somehow.

But how?

I have no game plan, no nothing.

Jones is heading towards the exit carrying nothing with him, even leaving his jacket by his desk.

…Fuck it, we ball.

I make somewhat of a mad dash at him, grabbing his jacket along the way. “Jones! Wait up!”

“Hm?” Jones turns around to face me, looking more tired now. “What is it now?”

“…Can I walk you home?”

“…What?”

“I- I mean, if you want me to, of course- your home is kinda far away if I remember correctly, and you seem pretty tired right now-”

Jones blinks once. Then twice.

“I- uh- what I was trying to stay, I mean say- is that you could use some company???” I blubber out like a fool.

I immediately brace for incoming rejection.

You know what? If he wants to head home, then that’s alright. Maybe I’m worrying too much about him. I probably am kind of bothering him and distracting him from his own thoughts, after all-

“Sure.”

“W-what?”

Jones gives me a small smile. “Yeah, sure. I think I could use the company right now. So why not?”

“I-”

I almost fucking gape at him like he just told me I won the lottery.

“…Val? You alright?”

“I- uh- yes!” I exclaim with a smile, patting (unintentionally slapping) him on the back. “I’ll- I’ll go get my jacket-!”

“V-Val, you’re wearing your jacket-”

“Ah! Alright! I’ll go ask the Chief for permission to walk you home then!”

I scoot over to Chief Parker’s office and almost kick open the door.

“CHIEF.”

Chief Parker yelps with surprise as she almost drops her papers. “Ah!- Detective Perez, please do not scare me like that again-!”

“Sorry! I- uh- so Jones is going home, can I escort him?” I stammer out.

“…Perez, you have work to do-”

“I know, I know!” I exclaim. “But I’m genuinely worried about Jones, and- and I want to escort him home to keep him company and make sure he feels less alone…”

Chief Parker sighs as her eyes flick around the room. “Pere- Val, listen. I’ve known Jones for a while, and I’m genuinely sure that he’ll get through this…eventually, he just needs a bit of time. He’s…a strong individual…”

“Chief.”

“…and I’m sure that all he just needs is a bit of time to himself to recover mentally.”

“Chief. Chief. Chief.”

“I do understand your concerns, but right now, Jones needs some space alone to breathe, alright? Also, you have other work to do when it comes to investigating Leroux’s claims of Zoe’s telekinesis-”

“Chief!” I shout.

“What?! What is it?!” Chief Parker shouts back.

We’re in a bit of a silent standstill for a moment until I exhale.

“How long have you known Jones?”

“…3 years.” She responds, raising an eyebrow. “Where are you going with this?”

“Well, I’ve known Jones for 5 years, and even I don’t know everything about him.” I reply. “Just because he looks calm right now, it doesn’t mean that nothing’s going on for him. I do also believe he needs some time alone to process everything, but goddamnit, I am VERY sure that he needs comfort and support right now instead!”

A pause. I notice the Chief rubbing her fingers together repeatedly as she looks around for a moment.

“I’ll be fine.” Fernando tells me with an exhausted, slight upturned curve of his lips.

“Trust me.” I say. “I know something’s wrong. Just…PLEASE let me be there for him.”

“Val, I-”

I’m tearing up right now, but I don’t really care. I just need the Chief to understand what the hell I’m saying.

Fuck it. I even get down on my hands and knees and start begging.

“WHOA! Val, HOLD ON-!”

“PLEASE, Chief Parker. I’m worried for him. I just want him to be mentally okay, but I don’t want him to be alone…please, please, please, please, please…”

I look up for a moment at Chief Parker’s shocked expression. “Val, I’m not su-”

“CHIEF, I WILL LICK YOUR SHOE-”

“ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT!” She exclaims, stepping back. “I will let you accompany Jones on his way home, and I’ll ask Gabriel to partner up with Gloria in the meantime.”

“OH, THANK THE GODS-” I almost sob with joy.

“Val, please calm down.”

“-Ah, alright. Sorry.” I get up from the floor and dust myself off. “Anyway, thank you so much, genuinely.”

“It’s no problem.” She replies with a tired smile.

I nod and bid my farewell as I leave her office.

To my dismay (but not surprise), Jones was not where I had last left him.

He was already across the street when I dashed outside like a maniac.

“There you are!” I exclaim, running over to catch up to him.

Jones flinches at the sound of my voice and flips around. “Oh! Val! Heyyyy!” He says nervously.

“I thought I was gonna walk you home! Why’d you leave me in the dust like that, man?”

“You- you were actually serious about that-?”

“Yeah, of course!” I reply. “You’re one of my closest friends, man. I can’t just leave you alone.”

“Oh!” Jones looks pleasantly shocked. “I- thank you.”

“No problem.” I grin at him. “So…do we take public transportation to your home, or-?”

“…Nah, don’t feel like it tonight. I just feel like walking.”

“Ah, alright.”

“…”

“So, your home’s this way-?”

“N-no, no, Val, it’s that way. We’re literally going to Newmark right now, I live all the way in Fairview.”

“Ahh, shit, my bad.”

[citrus-simp]

Mission Log 03

A/N: The last chapter wasn't so great so I hope to make it up here; so overdo that I had to read the last two chapters.

Warnings: language

"This is Captain Erwin Smith and we are on the 36th day of our journey. Over the course of our first month my co-captains, medic, and scientist have been up and at work. I will not ignore the fact they are also my friends who have come back to brighten my days in this dark void." he said into the camera "The others in our crew have also woken up, we fully have all hands on deck. Our technician Molbit Berner works alongside Hange Zoe. Our young recruits Eren Yeager, Armin Arlet, Mikasa Akerman, Floch Forester, Jean Kirstein, Sasha Braus, and Connie Springer. They were entered into the program not only to aid in repopulation but as well as become our heirs and learn the skills to continue on. Food supply is stable, oxygen is stable, and the embryos are in stable condition...."

He paused as if he was hesitant to say what was on his mind. "...the only concern I would have would be our engineer. His name is Zeke...I had no information, no papers...nothing on him. He said he was an engineer and that he woke up in the shop. He's shown hard work and stays true to his word however I will be keeping a close eye on Zeke. Y/N Ackerman had a small scare the other day where she had also gotten a small injury while in the cargo. She's recovered well and works as hard as she always does. This is Erwin Smith logging off"

The ship was now lively with so many others. The younger crew learning their new skills and purposes on the ship. More work getting done, but also more people to interact and travel with. Mikasa, Armin, and Eren all happened to be very close friends, knowing one another from childhood. Jean, Sasha, and Connie were another trio who had met the first three in high school. The only outlier seemed to be Floch, although he was very dedicated to his work. He seemed distant at times, and kept to himself more. Luckily the space craft was very large to give everyone their own room.

"it's like having a bunch of brats and we're the parents"

"oh so you consider them your children?" you teased

"No, brat," he said pinching your cheek

"excuse me captain?" you hear a gentle voice

"oh, yes Armin?" the blonde stood next to you seeming a bit hesitant, no doubt because of your husband

"W-well there's a certain bypass in the system I don't have access to, could you help me?" he asked almost childlike. Levi would try and get you to admit it, but you never gave in. However, you may have a soft spot for Armin.

"Of course Armin," following the young blonde, you came to a screen and gave your access key "there we go, should be all set. I'll make sure to program the system for you guys to have access." you made a vocal note

"Thank you captain" the blonde smiles

"excuse me " a new voice sounds making you spin around. A new face. Tall, blond, full beard and glasses "Zeke Yeager, at your service" he extends a hand which you take and give a firm shake "We hadn't been introduced and I just had to know the lovely captain of this ship" he flirted with you

"Well it's nice to meet you Zeke and I'm not sure if you've met-"

"Me" the stoic voice calls behind you "Levi. Her husband." Now Levi had a very specific talent. And that was telling when men wanted you and this big ass blonde tree 1000% wanted you.

"Ah yes the famous Ackerman, I've heard and read much about you" he offered his hand which Levi did not take it and left him there until he brought it back to his side. "Hange is asking for you in the med bay by the way. Don't wanna keep four eyes waiting." he said crossing his arms. Zeke looks at you and leaves with a smile

"Stupid bastard" Levi mumbles

"Anyway come on Levi I want you to come check the embryos with me" you said tugging on his arm.

"Why the hell do I want to look at a bunch growing pains in the ass?" he asked as he was being dragged off by you. Even though he'd prefer not to, he'd rather do things to please you than to not at all. You get to the very secure and quiet room on the ship. You enter your pin and the door slides open with a hiss. It was like a library, each wall securely but delicately carrying new lives. Luckily the technology the ship had can sustain them until they are practically ready to be "born".

"Damn, how many are in here?" Levi said picking up one container and examining the Alien looking creature.

"From what I hear about 200. We have one set of twins, and one set of triplets." you said pointing to the containers that were in different colors from the rest. "The others have no relation tho....it's crazy don't you think?" you ask him

"that we're floating in space with a bunch of developing babies plus teenage brats? And Hange? Yes" he says sarcastically, pulling out a laugh from you

"Well yea but...all of this" you express towards the walls "This is where is all starts bur can also end. You have to admit it's a little scary. Its...up to us. Everything. The past, the present the future, its in our hands." you say with more in mind, and he knew.

"Y/N you kno-"

"Levi to the training bay" he groans hearing the intercom call him to go and train the recruits.

"We can talk later okay captain grumps?" you tease pecking his lips "I have to have some work done in here so if I'm not in our room I'll probably be here"

He pulls you in close to him and gives you a deeper kiss, as if he were going far far away. "Don't work too hard" one more kiss to your forehead was placed before he left to attend to his duties. Turning on the lights you go and sit at the desk near the back of the room and get to work.

You were generally in charge of the embryos and tracking their growth. Any abnormalities or effects were to be documented and monitored.

"Log number 38, this is captain Y/N in the embryo deck. The embryos seem to be developing well with no abnormalities. Each have grown to about 1 month along. They are still very new and delicate. We keep the shelves to a stable temperature to resemble the womb of a mother. We also do not keep this room cool like the rest of the ship" you note "Which means I sometimes sweat a storm in here. Now I know this is not professional but whoever is watching this, you've probably become a whole new society by now. new ways of life, maybe new languages, new everything. Just be sure to care for one another and the planet. Look on our mistakes and improve from that, I am terrified whenever I am in here. I am in charge of your very existence. I can only hope I'm doing it right. This is co-captain Y/N Ackerman signing off and continuing work"

As you worked tirelessly you hadn't noticed that house had gone by. You had eventually fallen asleep on your desk. As your form rose and fell with each breath. You felt a hand caress your upper back and fingers rake through your hair. You stir awake with a slight smile expecting to open your eyes and see Levi.

"mm Levi?" you stretch upward and turn to find yourself in the room alone. You could feel your heart drop into your stomach. You knew you felt someone touch you! You weren't imagining things! Saving the progress made, you quickly leave the room and lock it up.

You walk your way down the hall and to the right making your way to the dinning room. Everyone was there and seemed to have just finished their food.

"Captain Y/N, you must be hungry! You gotta try this chicken! Its AMAZING!" Sasha exclaimed waving a chicken leg around in the air making some of the juices fly around

"Sasha watch it!" Jean said trying to get her to stop flinging the food around. "You don't know if she wants that or not! Not everyone is as food obsessed as you!"

"I'm surprised you're not 200 pound more than what you are now" Connie added

"Cooonniieeee, that's meann" she wined with a frown.

It was never a dull moment with these kids huh?

"Thank you Sasha but I'll eat later. Do you know where Levi is?" you asked they all pointed to the main cockpit

"I think he's in there speaking with Captain Erwin and Hange" you nod and stroll over to the double doors and go inside where said persons were.

"Y/N perfect timing," Hange said clapping her hands together "how was that nap of yours?" she asks

"Well it was honestly strange-wait how do you know I was napping?" you asked

"Well, I was going to go and offer some food but you were drooling away on the desk" the scientist chuckled "but in all seriousness have a seat we've got something to discuss" You pull out the chair and sit

"Well, we are on course heading the right way. Our rough estimate is about a month or so. If things go smoothly, we preserve gas and supplies, we may get there even sooner" Erwin stated

"Wait...really?" you asked looking around at the other captains "so...we'll finally make it?" you ask again with hope in your eyes

"That's right," Hange sang "we'll finally be off of the ship, start our lives over, and our new future will begin"

"But that also means we need to have these recruits, taught, I shape and on track. That brings us to subject two" Levi said "Zeke, is my concern. We don't know what sewer the bastard came out of. You're in charge of getting information out of him but I don't want you alone with him"

"I can handle myself Levi you know that." you say crossed your legs as you explained your best offer "Look we have a room with a two way mirror. You stay on the other side and when you feel you need to come in, you come" ""I can handle myself Levi you know that." you say crossed your legs as you explained your best offer "Look we have a room with a two way mirror. You stay on the other side and when you feel you need to come in, you come"

Levi sighs heavily. He knew you were right, you were smart and quick on your feet. He hated how much he loved that about you. You can handle yourself in any situation, but he wanted to be the one to protect you.

"..fine" he gave in begrudgingly "We'll do it later this week." he declared. After setting a schedule for the meeting, Erwin had informed Zeke on what will be happening later on. But for now it was to your shared room, it was long day. You change into your more comfortable clothes while Levi was taking a shower. You rub your eyes and look at your reflection in the mirror. Maybe you were just imagining things.

"Hey, are you ready for bed?" Levi asked as he walked out drying his hair with a towel.

"Yea I am" you shuffled over to the bed and let your body fall limp on the mattress. "It's been a long day" you sigh opening your arms for Levi to come and lay in. Once he was dressed, he crawled over to your to lay on your chest. This was the best place to be in, on Earth or in space. No where compares to the comfort of your arms. You both lay there in the silence, letting yourselves drift off into slumber.

Little did you know of the lurking eyes that are watching you as you sleep soundly. The same eyes that have locked on to you for sinister plans only its twisted mind could know.

“Soon enough you will be mine.”

<-Prev Next->

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🏷 Taglist -> @happygalaxymilkshake @midaribaby @levisbrat25 @araveticazx @captainchrisstan @bakaide @ally22042000 @ravensleepyeyes @mysteriousmagicx @citrus-simp-appreciation-blog @leiaausmus @loveislevi

[aequitas-if]

So how would the sidekicks react if a stoic MC gives them a short head pat as a way of saying congrats or I'm proud of you after they have a successful mission?

This is such a cute scenario!

Alex: Alex would give a small smile and gently clap MC on the shoulder after they are done patting her on the head. She would have no special reaction other than there being small flush on her cheeks as she looks you in the eyes.

“Fighting with you is always an honor, my friend.”

Jasper: Jasper smiles so widely you think his face might split in half. He chuckles and lightly throws his arms around MC’s shoulders, pulling them into a side hug. It’s hard to tell from the flush on his cheeks is from the fight or something else entirely.

“We did a good job, didn’t we? Not that we don’t always fucking kick ass but still…”

Zoe: Zoe laughs and affectionately scoops MC up into a hug. She is beaming with pride and looks at MC with nothing but pure affection. After putting MC down, she pats their head in return.

“We were quite successful today, weren’t we? Oh! Maybe I should bake some cookies as a treat! I’m sure the kids (the sidekick squad) would like that- I always did that after our missions back when we were on Aequitas!”

Rowan: Rowan would stop dead in his tracks. He’s completely still for a few moments as his face gets redder and redder. Finally, after what feels like an eternity, he snaps out of it.

“What the- why would you- do you have a fuckin’ concussion or something?”

You think it might be genuine concern. Maybe.

[h0n3yk1tt3n]

💙🩷🤎

💙 Blue: What inspires you to finish writing a fanfic, and what makes you quit writing one at any stage in the process?

For Store Playlist, it was the fact that it was part of a big bang and I'd feel gross for not finishing it lol. For Left 2 Chill, it was/is a multi-year labor of love that i wanted to see to the end. And the epilogue will be going up in like 12 days!! So we're nearly there! (Also the deadlines I had in my head of September-October 2023 and April 2024 for a 28 Weeks Later joke/reference kicked my ass into finishing... but good lord i still need to go back and make edits bc spell/grammar check has never been kind to me)

As for what makes me abandon one, the fact of the matter is that I don't seriously start enough fics/story ideas to make them feel.. real?? I've mentioned incomprehensible scribbles in my notes app, which were made either bc I wanted to make a comic for them or just write them down before I forgot them (cough cough royal pains manifesto). So like, it's hard to call them abandoned since they were never really started beyond Vibes (halo au... i can see like three scenes for it and no other story beyond that)

As for actual fics of mine that have been abandoned (one of which has gotten a weird influx of kudos despite not being updated since 2018) were from the era of the infamous Deleted Progress of 2019 from when my old iPod Touch was being a douche about its cloud storage. So many months worth of progress... just gone.. it still makes me sad...

Sooo short answer on reasoning for abandoning fics: not being able to commit or literal outside influence I guess lol

🩷 Pink: Do you find a certain character (or characters) easy to write? More difficult -- and if so, do you avoid writing that character (or those characters) when possible?

Jeremy and Zoe are generally easy bc they're just like me fr (oddly specific familial trauma what whaaat), but it really depends with other characters. I've done very little writing for characters other than the boyfs outside of l2c (which! I! Want! To! Get! Better! About!) so like.. the au versions of the characters are generally easy for me bc. I invented them for the most part lol

I guess it was harder for me to pin down Rich, since he was a "main cast" character whose head I spent about the least time in (next to Jared, but I've already gone on abt the meta reasoning for not getting in his head much, and writing him was less hard and more mentally taxing bc i kept fussing over potential readers Not Seeing The Vision) mainly bc the other characters had more interesting things to going on to pick apart

🤎 Brown: How did you decide to write for (or why are you writing) a certain story? (Asker, feel free to chose a specific story you're curious about. You can also let the answerer choose the story.)

I'm gonna speedrun a few bc I feel like it

Left 2 Chill: started playing Left 4 Dead 2 again. Doodled Jeremy saying one of the most metal lines from the game/trailer. Quarantine happened a month later. "Haha look at me writing an au about a viral outbreak during a viral outbreak I'm sure there's no correlation at all."

Store Playlist: worked at a grocery store and watched over the self checkouts. Fun songs played sometimes that I would dance/lipsync to. Funny customer/manager interactions. ("He's sixteen." "Nuh-uh! I'm fourteen!" — "Want some water? It tastes like roses. [...] Want some roses? They taste like roses." — [The cucumber thing]) "Hmm what if self-indulgent blorbo au?"

[Anything for the Weakness saga (hi becca)]: 5am brain rot, brain rot, gay, what if missing scene, 3am brain rot, gay gay gay hgfgvcgg g a y

[delicatebluebirdruins]

Devil in the Details (DLC edition)

Daughters:

Jack, I've put our guest to bed in the trailer. (I told her she could have the old bedroom, but she insisted…)

Marguerite

Mia trying to isolate herself incase contact with her would expose the Bakers to infection... I think it might have done actually considering how quickly it snowballed in daughters and the infection coming and going in waves (they were fighting it)

To the Baker Family,

Thank you for saving my life. But please forget all about me.

Mia tells Ethan and the Bakers to forget about her. And she forgot herself really

I was assigned to transport some important cargo on that ship. Getting involved with me, or that cargo, can only cause trouble for your family. Big trouble.

Please don't contact the police or state authorities. Just pretend we never met.

few reasons for this warning: one is because the police and state authorities would be woefully unprepared. two the connections would catch up a bit quicker (maybe the connections were monitoring missing persons cases along the route?) and take Evie back or outright kill her and Mia

And… you saved me, so take this advice in return. If you see a girl near the ship who looks about ten years old, DO NOT approach her.

I would have put this sooner to be honest. And another thank you. One good turn deserves another.

If she talks to you, get away as quickly as you can. Just try not to make her angry in the process. If you've been feeling ill at all, then I'm afraid the worst may already have happened.

It's a fate worse than death, and it can't be cured at a hospital. I'm so sorry.

of course the people infected lose all form of self just wanting to please whoever infected them

There is a way to stop it, though. Serum. If you inje stop the symp

as we know from the reports in the salt mine the serum Mia is referring to would not work. But maybe hope would be enough to keep them sane (it was for Zoe the only one to read the letter)

and the ending is because Evie caught up and interfered

Bedroom: (i love the start where Clancy gets told by Margurite that Evie wants him to be her big brother just the big ass ?????)

Jack's Journal fragment (I want to say this diary entry is from 2015 or 2016 we don't know but I think 2016)

Jan. 24 Marguerite's on the warpath again.

I can handle her when she's yelling–it's when she gets all quiet that you gotta watch out. At that point, you say one word and she flies off the handle. Nothing for it but to wait.

as someone who has gotten jumped on by Margurite without hearing her and dying during Ethan must die yeah sounds about right

Margurite is the angry one with a short fuse acknowledgment something

Jan. 28 Goddamn Zoe. All Marguerite did was yell at her some, and Zoe went and pointed a knife at her.

Just pulled it right from the dresser! Who knows where else she may be hiding them.

I better check everything in the house, just in case.

What am I gonna do with that girl? It's like she doesn't appreciate a loving family.

Zoe showing some sign of infection and being scared of her family

hi Evie and her ideal

Not A Hero

Operation "Lurking Fear"

Primary Mission Extract Lucas baker

Location Dulvey, Louisiana, USA Baker estate

Threat Profile ·"Molded": Alpha variant, others ·Anti-personnel traps (lethal and non)

Notes: Due to the lack of intelligence and the number of unknown factors involved, Chris Redfield of the BSAA wll act as a bioweapons specialist on missions.

they have some intelligence (I wonder who they got it from) but not a lot

so they send in the luckiest (and unluckiest if you have to rely on him unless your name is Jill, Claire or Sheva) and most experienced man they have

LOCATION UPDATE:: Recent intel has confirmed that Lucas Baker s holed up in the mines near the Baker estate.

Profile - Lucas Baker: Suspected associate of criminal organization The Connections (role unconfirmed). Holds vital intel regarding said organization.

they need info and Lucas is the best one for it at this point

Profile - The Connections: Criminal organization producing bioweapons for sale on the international black market. Limited intel on size, market share, and members. They are the prime suspects implicated in the production and distribution of the E-Series bioweapon. E-Series model "Eveline" is present and active at the Baker estate. Lucas Baker seems to be monitoring her and reporting on her activities.

Limited: meaning small in amount or number. so they have a small idea of how big the organisation is, how much they're worth (market share meaning: the percentage of the market for a product or service that a company supplies) and how many members it has

prime suspects. Prime meaning most important, suspect to believe something to be probable. to me this reads as the connections not being the only group experimenting the with mold

Letter from Blue Umbrella

For many of you this is your first mission with us, so we wanted to make it clear what Umbrella is all about.

Though many of our staff hail from the infamous pharmaceutical giant Umbrella, our purpose is to make amends for the atrocities perpetrated under the Umbrella name. That is why we re-incorporated as a PMC in 2007.

We will put a stop to not only anyone who is engineering or selling bioweapons, but those who support those efforts as well.

We made a mess and now we have to clean it up. By keeping the Umbrella name, we show that we take responsibility for that mess and we want you to remember that you carry this responsibility with you in every mission

thank you game developers for including Graves Diary and the Scientists dying message in RE3R. Umbrella collapsed in 2004

Eveline Observation Log

E-001 Log - July 22, 2016

Health: Good Mental State: Good Mutamycete Secretion: Normal Other: n/a

Not much change. She just plays with dolls all day. Turned two guys Molded today.

why do these records start in July 2016 when Lucas has been cured since 2015 (lmao that's today I'm writing this)

what change was the writer looking for

bit of normalacy for Evie. those guys were turned into the white molded possibly (i say this because the white molded have more human like heads and have human organs. but it could be either)

E-001 Log - August 12, 2016

Health: Coughing, exhaustion Mental State: Slightly stressed Mutamycete Secretion: More than usual Other: n/a

After playing ball with dad, she started complaining about being tired. Turned one guy into a Fat Molded.

self explanatory

begining of Evie's decline and another moment of normalacy (I wonder what Jack thought of this and I wonder if Margurite was involved at points as well)

it depends on the individual on what turns into what

E-001 Log - August 26, 2016

Health: Bad Mental State: Stressed Mutamycete Secretion: High Other: Sudden aging

She's aging all of a sudden: losing weight, hair falling out, the works. The more she screams, the more she vomits. Basement's heavily contaminated. No apparent cause for the aging. Gonna ask for further instructions

poor Evie.

the basement in the main house obviously and then got moved to the proper lab in the mines

E-001 Log - September 9, 2016

Health: Weak but stable Mental State: Delusional, incoherent Mutamycete Secretion: Stable Other: n/a

Aging has slowed, seems pretty stable. Got the E-Necrotoxin from the company. Orders are to use it "if she gets out of control." And I thought I was the funny one.

the connections have no desire to salvage Evie after they got her data from an entirely new environment (not quite real world but close enough) Lucas wants to keep going until she dies (?)

Researchers Journal

June 11, 2017 I'm sick of this guy Lucas. They just gave him my job as lead researcher.

Who do they think I am? Why do I - a Stanford graduate with a master's in microbiology - have to work under this lunatic? All he does is mess around with the test subjects-making them all fight each other and doing unnecessary autopsies. He's sick. He knows nothing about the E-series mutamycete's potential. I'm going to report his behavior at the next meeting with HQ.

that makes the time frame interesting as he was in charge for a month (ish)

what the fuck did Lucas do to get promoted to lead reseacher?

Lucas is a little like Alex Wesker and that is not a compliment

as for the potential Lucas wants to see how far it can go we don't know anything about these guys

Lucas Journal

I killed off all the Connections' researchers.

They were poking around where they weren't supposed to when I wasn't looking, but I knew exactly what they were up to. Probably didn't like having to report to me.

So, I thew them in a cage with some Molded. They shit their pants and begged for their lives. I'm just worried I won't be able to hold back from laughing when I make the report that they met with an unfortunate accident.

Probably a good time now to cut ties with The Connections. I'm the only one who can really make good use of Eveline's mold.

I wonder what exactly the other researchers were looking for

considering Lucas is aware of our movements as Ethan and as Chris (turning all the traps in the green shutter)

Lucas is terrible

What was his exit strategy? And here it is the reason why he betrayed them in the first place

Email Log:

Sent: Thursday, July 20, 2017 10:22 AM

Things got a little out of hand, but I took care of it. I'm sending the E data now. It shouldn't take long.

After it goes through, I'm outta hetw;j

Umbrella and Chris

I wonder if he was planning on destroying the lab

Note on the Wall

Buyer for E data? → Got one -Get set up for transmission

still don't know who he was talking to

End of Zoe

Orders are as follows, effective immediately:

The mutamycete is on the loose in the swamp, and it'll keep mutating as it encounters new organisms. We can't allow the stock of medicine compounds to be exposed-if they suffer a mutation they'll be useless.

Transfer the whole anti-infective synthesizing station over to the paddle boat.

these are a bit better then what the connections were dealing with but still able to become useless if not careful

Analysis Report

We've finished analyzing the tissue samples believed to be from Jack Baker.

The cells exhibit an extraordinary resilience to physical and chemical damage; the E-Series mutamycete secretes a telomerase-like enzyme through the cell wall, causing abnormal activation of the ERK pathway to achieve forced cell division-quickly regenerating damaged tissue.

However, the repeated cell division quickly leads to breakdown in the intercellular structure, leading to the sloughing, slurry-like effect we've observed in the collected tissue samples. Our working hypothesis puts this down to the cells reaching their Hayflick limit.

Note that the samples from the other family members (the wife Marguerite, the son Lucas, and the daughter Zoe) do not exhibit the same extreme regenerative properties. The symptoms may differ from subject to subject. Further study required.

The Hayflick Limit is a real thing

how did they get the samples? what are the samples with Lucas and Marguerite its obvious as they're both dead. But what did they get from Zoe just some hair and/or dead skin? probably it had to be something of a size to be able to test how it regenerates and how can they tell what is regenerating? I wonder what else they learn from Zoe after she gets checked up? (did they take samples from Mia and Ethan? probably. I wonder what they found)

confirmation of what we know (report in salt mine)