thelampisaflashlight

[thelampisaflashlight]

Dew, resting his head on Aether's shoulder while they sit by the fireplace: "...Do you think Krampus has a Krampenis or a Krampussy?" Aether, nuzzling Dew lovingly: "...I think you should shut up now." Dew, after staying quiet for exactly two minutes: "If he has a Krampenis-" Aether, sighing: "Yule can't be over fast enough..."

[thelampisaflashlight]

Roof Shenanigans

Rain, watching the play by play direct from Swiss while at Copia's dining table: "Serves them right for not inviting me to roof time."

[thelampisaflashlight]

I should probably also add that I'm still classified as a part-time employee.

I recently worked around 80hrs with a day off in between, because I picked up a co-worker's shift, and it reminded me of when another one of my co-workers was on an indefinite sick leave and I had to pick up their shifts and train the then new employee, because my old boss would routinely abandon ship midday and leave me to handle everything...

Not for nothing, and I know there's people out there working the full week through without a break, but, man.

It's not as bad as it was then, even though we now have longer hours, since I'm not solely responsible for opening/closing, training, and doing reports anymore, but going back to doing that, even for a day, was tiring after having to work the whole week knowing I'd be back on Monday to start the process over again.

That being said, with this new schedule I have going on, Fridays finally feel like Fridays again... in that I get to that point in the week and I'm really ready for the day to be over so I can sleep.

[thelampisaflashlight]

I recently worked around 80hrs with a day off in between, because I picked up a co-worker's shift, and it reminded me of when another one of my co-workers was on an indefinite sick leave and I had to pick up their shifts and train the then new employee, because my old boss would routinely abandon ship midday and leave me to handle everything...

Not for nothing, and I know there's people out there working the full week through without a break, but, man.

It's not as bad as it was then, even though we now have longer hours, since I'm not solely responsible for opening/closing, training, and doing reports anymore, but going back to doing that, even for a day, was tiring after having to work the whole week knowing I'd be back on Monday to start the process over again.

That being said, with this new schedule I have going on, Fridays finally feel like Fridays again... in that I get to that point in the week and I'm really ready for the day to be over so I can sleep.

[thelampisaflashlight]

Dew, strumming his guitar: "This is the song I wrote while in the bathroom during our last show." -plays a few chords, then starts singing- "I'm standing on the stage, I really have to pee, but it's close to the curtain call and Papa decided to stall, and now I'm waiting, and waiting, holy shit I have to pee... my bladder's full, oh dear lord it's Swiss, stay over there, I have to piss, go away, seriously fuck off, I swear to god, don't interrupt my focus or this will all go wrong..." Dew, deep breath: "Jesus Christ, don't block the bathroom, if you don't move I'll put you in a tomb, and bury you alive, I'm one misstep away from pissing, on everything... Why is there a line now? What the fuck? I'll just use the women's room, oh fuck there's someone in here, just play it cool, this is fine, I'll just you this stall, why is there shit-" Copia, tearing up: "Such a moving and relatable song..."

[thelampisaflashlight]

Last night, I had a dream where I was in a pool of water, not super deep, about three or four inches let's say, and I was exhausted, like, my entire body was weak and I couldn't support myself, so my face kept going into the water as I tried to push myself up.

My hair was wet, so it would stick to my face and cover my nose or mouth whenever I managed to lift my head, and made it hard to breathe.

It was scary, because in the dream I could feel myself suffocating and each dunk into the water made me feel more and more strained...

0/10 nightmare, do not recommend.

[thelampisaflashlight]

Aeon, sitting in the common room with Dew: "When did you know you liked men?" Dew, without pause: "I don't like men, I like dick, these are very different things." Aeon, absorbing this information: "Yes, but sometimes the dick is connected to a man." Dew: "One of life's great tragedies." Cumulus, from the couch: "I prefer silicon personally, I can't toss the real thing in a drawer at night." Dew, angrily eyeing Aether, who is moving about the kitchen: "Not unless you're motivated enough." Aether, nervously making pancakes: "Have I mentioned how much I love you yet today-"

[thelampisaflashlight]

I was messing around with the idea of a new ghoul design, and, instead, I wound up making ghoul!Bea... So, yeah, the gardener is now a ghoul.

Below the cut, because clothes were a no.

Colors are just for outlines/shadows... and because I never get to use my highlights, so yeah.

Some notes on ghoul Bea:

-Despite working with plants, she's not an earth ghoul, but rather a water/air hybrid. I considered making her fire or even quintessence, but, ultimately, her personality felt more suited to water/air; Goes the path of least resistance, but is stubborn and steadfast, while being able to pick up and go as she pleases... etc.

-She became a ghoul after Sister Imperator passed as written in her contract (they had a preestablished deal that Bea was to become a sort of guard/watch over the property and by extension Copia in exchange for her being able to live and work peacefully) and doesn't have any regrets so far.

-Mountain is not super happy that his friend became a ghoul without telling him, since the ritual is incredibly dangerous and can alter more than just the physical body, but, Bea is still Bea, for better or for worse.

He isn't really sure how to feel about her being a ghoul just yet, but he does have to admit it makes it easier to explain certain behaviors to her.

And lastly;

-Bea still inhabits her cottage by the lake, but there's also about a 75% chance she's in the lake if she's not in there.

[thelampisaflashlight]

Girls' Night

[A short blurb based on that girls' night chat post I made.]

"I'm gonna shape your brows," Cirrus says, studying Dew's face intently, licking her lips as she thinks, "other than that, I think maybe some eyeshadow?"

"Do what you gotta do." Dew shrugs, watching Cumulus and Aurora pick through the carefully curated outfits Mist has pulled from her closet in the mirror in front of him, "Not that one."

Aurora makes a disappointed noise and drops the short, demin mini skirt she was holding onto the bed, "But it's cute..."

"No, I agree with Dew," Cumulus hums, picking up a soft looking balloon skirt, "it's cold out, cute or not, we can't have our honeypot freezing his balls off."

"Been there, done that." Dew scoffs, sitting up straight when Cirrus takes hold of his face to start working on his eyebrows, "Tell me about the mark."

"He's the owner of a megachurch," Mist says, pulling a file out from under her pillow, "middle aged, married but looking if you catch my drift. Two kids from his marriage, a son and a daughter, and a couple 'little secrets' he's sending hush money to..."

"Funded by the parishioners?"

"One hundred percent!" Mist chirps amusedly, "The rest you can read yourself when Cirrus is done fixing that ugly mug of yours."

"If I didn't wanna risk losing one of these press ons, I'd get you for that." Dew says, emphasizing his point with a click of his manicured nails, then looks at them appraisingly, "I'm starting to think we should have gone with a nude shade, this red is, like, a lot..."

"That's the point-" Mist starts to say, but a knock at the door has her slipping the file back under her pillow and motioning for the others to stay still, "Who is it?"

"It's Rain."

A pause.

"Is Dew in there with you?"

Mist glances at Dew, who carefully slides out of his seat in front of the vanity and climbs into her wardrobe.

"No??" she does her best to sound offended as she opens her bedroom door, "It's girls' night, he'd stink up the room with his boy germs."

Cumulus, Cirrus, and Aurora wave from their newly assumed positions of the bed, sat around watching a video on Mist's laptop.

"Oh..." Rain pouts, "I haven't seen him all day, I'm worried."

"Aw, missing your boytoy?" Mist coos, pinching his cheek, "Pretty sure Frater Imperator stole him away to go over some documents in the archive room. Poor bastard is probably balls deep in some ancient tome transcribing some disturbed monk's ramblings."

"I do remember Copia muttering about having to redo some transcripts because of how Terzo fucked up the sorting system years ago..." Cumulus adds, and Cirrus nods in agreement.

"We have an archive room??" Aurora blinks, having genuinely not known this information before, "How have I not seen it??"

"Because it's the kind of place where if you so much as breathe wrong, someone jumps on you and accuses you of endangering hundreds of years old books." Mist says, "Only a handful of people have access, and as big of a dumbass as he is, Dew used to do archival photography and preservation work before he came here."

"Yeah, Dew's a big ol' nerd!" Cirrus laughs in the direction of the wardrobe, imagining the middle finger Dew is undoubtedly holding up behind closed doors.

"That would explain why he hasn't answered my texts..." Rain murmurs, taking his phone out of his pocket, "He gets really absorbed in that kind of stuff. Oh, I hope he remembered to eat..."

"Tell you what." Mist pats his shoulder, feeling a little bad on Dew's behalf for having to ghost his boyfriend for the sake of their mission, "If I see your man roaming the halls like a zombie later, I'll send him your way for make up cuddles and snacks."

"Would you?" Rain asks, sounding adorably hopeful, "I appreciate it!"

Another short moments of chitchat later, and Mist's door finally clicks shut, and Dew emerges from the wardrobe looking a little down about the mouth.

"I'll give it a minute and then I'll text him." Dew says, digging into the pocket of his sweatpants for his phone, "I couldn't message him while I was waxing..."

"You should send him a pic along with the text as an apology, like, 'Sorry I was so busy! Make it up to you ;)' and, boom!" Cumulus suggests, wiggling her fingers, but frowns when Dew frowns at his phone, "Aw, gumdrop, it's okay if you wanna dip and go see your boy..."

"No, it's just... I do feel bad, but I want to do this, too, and I just... I feel bad that I can't tell him what's going on." Dew rubs the back of his neck, "...Fuck it."

"Huh?"

Dew picks out a dress from the piles.

"I'm not gonna take a photo... I'm gonna make him an entire fucking album."

"Not in that you're not." Mist tuts, going through her closet again, "You need silk and lace, and a pearl necklace-"

"Mist!" Dew flusters.

"The actual kind, I think it'd pull the look together, plus, fish boy would appreciate the added details..."

"So is the plan to take the photos first and then go catch us a dirty preacher to steal his stolen relics or is this an after kind of deal?" Cirrus asks, "Because if it's an after thing, I can grab my polaroid camera and we can make it extra special for him with some physical photos."

"Can we skip the heist altogether and just take tasteful nudes of Dew? That sounds a lot more fun than robbing some crusty dude..." Aurora wonders aloud.

"No, duty calls as they say." Mist proclaims, hands on her hips, "Work first, play later, ya know."

"Aw."

[thelampisaflashlight]

An Empty Throne

[The girls are fighting. Something, something, I was bored and made RainDrop fight. Feat. prince of Hell Rain.]

"So... When were you gonna tell me?" Dew asks, taking out a box of cigarettes out of his jacket pocket, tapping the cardboard in an effort to calm himself, "That you're a prince?"

Rain sighs, leaning against the wall of the stairwell, "I-"

"Is this," Dew interrupts, breaking the plastic seal, "is being topside like this just a vacation to you? Or what? You on the run from an arranged marriage or something?"

"It's not like that at all." Rain waves his hand dismissively, pulling his lighter from his jeans and offering it to Dew, who takes it with a not unnoticed amount of hesitation, "Being a 'prince' is like being a 'ghoul' up here, it's... a broad term. But, the long and short of it is that I have some of Lucifer's blood in my veins; I'm not a direct line, but it's there."

"It means my magic is a bit more potent, and there's more... rules, I suppose." he continues, watching Dew take a drag from his newly lit cigarette, sighing as he inhales the first, peppery waft of lingering smoke in through his gills, "About carrying on the bloodline and such."

"Oh, so the arranged marriage part wasn't far off then." Dew chuckles nervously, "Don't you want... huge tracts of land, Rainy?"

Rain rolls his eyes.

"Not a Monty Python fan?"

"Dew, I'm being serious right now."

"I know, I just... Fuuuck, Rain." Dew mumbles, pressing the butt of his palm into his forehead and grinding slightly, "I... Fuck."

"Guess that explains it though," he sniffs, the cold making his nose run a bit, "why the others treat you that way."

"What way?"

"You cannot be... Like that, ya know? Like you're so..." Dew's thoughts trail off and he shakes his head, dropping his cigarette onto the ground and snuffing it out under his boot, "I dunno..."

Rain furrows his brows, "What's on your mind?"

"I think..." Dew blinks, then runs his hand over his face, taking a deep breath, "You and me, I just... I can't, Rain. I don't... I don't wanna get tangled up in any of... any of that kinda stuff. I don't want the drama. I... For a while now, ya know, I've been wondering why people have been whispering things under their breath when I'm with you, and I just thought it was because you're, well, you're you and I'm... me... and I was thinking I was just regular not good enough, but whoo boy!"

"Dew, you're-"

"And, like, you just let me think that!" He laughs bitterly, "I gave you my-"

Dew snaps his mouth shut before he finishes his sentence, straightening up his stance before jabbing a finger into Rain's chest, looking like he's about to yell at him, but, much more painfully so... his voice comes out as a whisper.

A wobbly, strained whisper from the way he's holding back his tears.

"You. Stay. The... Fuck... Away. From. M-Me." he manages, punctuating each word with a halfhearted poke that slowly gets rougher until Dew is pushing him away.

"Dew, please, I... You never told me you felt that way!" Rain tries, but Dew fully shoves him away this time, and he staggers backwards on his feet, "Dew!"

"You and me promised no secrets between us... I told you fucking everything, and you..." Dew's eyes water, "You fuckin' lied to me."

"I didn't lie, it just never came up!"

"...What else are you not telling me then?"

"What?"

Dew closes his eyes, shaking his head again.

"I'm going inside."

"Dew, come on, please, we can talk about this!"

"Maybe." Dew says, "But not now, not when I'm... I can't. I just can't."

"...I can make it up to you." Rain offers, "Anything. Anything you want, I-"

And, perhaps, that was the wrong thing to say, because the feeling of Dew's hand slapping across his face comes in an instant.

"How about a boyfriend who doesn't lie to my face and then try to buy me when he realizes he messed up?" Dew scoffs, "How about that?"

[thelampisaflashlight]

Aether, watching Rain help Dew get ready for mass: "I can't believe that guy is gonna lead the sermon today. Like, c'mon, it's... it's Dew. I've seen this man do some shit that'd make the devil himself blush." Swiss, thinking for a moment: "Doesn't that mean he's a perfect fit for the position then?" Aether: "Yes! That's what I'm saying! I just... It... It's Dew." Swiss: "Ohhh, so what you're saying is you're going to be paying attention to today's service really 'hard', is that right?" Aether, head in his hands: "...Yes." Dew, letting Rain fix his hair: "Ya know, I wanted to be a nun when I was a kid, but I have to admit there's something about a nice, flowy robe..." Rain, tying off his braid: "Unholy cassock go swishy swish." Dew, continuing: "Although Cumulus said that some of the sisters' habits have a slit up the leg, and then I wouldn't be able to go commando..." Aether: -dying noises-

[thelampisaflashlight]

Dew: "Sometimes the guys hangout without me, which is whatever, but, like, whenever the girls hangout, they're always like, 'Dew! Come on, it's girls' night!' and I'm like, 'Okay, cool, have fun.' and they're like, 'No, come on, silly, let's go, you're part of the girl gang!'..." -arms crossed- "...I dunno how I got into the girl gang, and quite frankly I'm scared that I may never know." Rain, jealous: "I never get to be part of the girl gang..." Dew, hands on his hips: "You wouldn't be able to handle the pressure, Rainy." Rain: "Pressure?" -flashback to the previous girls' night- Cumulus, leaning over the map of Vatican: "-at which point, Dew will slip into the artifact room and grab the skull." Cirrus, slamming her hand on the table: "Dew's not ready for this, let me do it!" Cumulus: "After last time?! I can't risk another loss!" Aurora, sniffling: "Poor Sunny, she was so young... and now she's trapped in a lake... Salt Lake City, Utah..." Mist, shouting: "Enough! We'll go ahead with the plan as is. Dew! Can you handle this responsibility?" Dew: "I-" -fades back to the present- Dew, wistfully: "You just wouldn't understand, Rainy..." Rain: "???"

[thelampisaflashlight]

Mountain: "Once, during a full moon, I wandered away from the abbey into a farm field in full creature mode, and there were these sheep, yeah? Well, I was like, 'HELL YEAH! SHEEP!!!' and was petting them... and then the farmer showed up." -clicks tongue- "After he decided NOT to shoot me, he just kinda sat on a rock for a while and didn't say anything, but Copia did get a letter the next day that said, 'Not for nothin', but ya could've warned me about the huge large feckin' moose of a dog you've got over there.'... Suffice to say I haven't returned." Cumulus, standing with her hands on her hips: "You just have to blend in better, become one with the flock and they'll be none the wiser-" Copia, holding another letter from the farmer: "Which one of you got sheared by accident?" Cumulus, sporting a new haircut: "You've no proof of anything."

[thelampisaflashlight]

Aether, staring at Dew laying on the couch: "You think he's alright?" Swiss, peering at him over the backrest, whispering: "I can't tell if he's breathing..." Mountain, concerned: "Put your head on his chest and see if he has a heartbeat." Swiss, shaking his head: "I'm not doing it, you do it." Mountain: "You're closer." Aether, frowning: "I don't wanna accidentally wake him up if he's really just sleep-" Rain, entering the room holding the ice cube tray from the freezer: "Stand aside, gentleman." -walks over and takes out a single ice cube before handing the tray to Swiss- "Hold this... You all might wanna step back." Aether: "What are you planning to do?" Rain: -applying the ice cube directly to Dew's nipple under the shirt- Dew, snaps up, screeching, holding his hands over his chest: "WHAT THE FUCK?!" Rain, without pause: "Swiss did it." Swiss, holding the tray, realizing: "You sneaky bitch-"

[thelampisaflashlight]

Farm doodles:

The farm my aunt and uncle own has a massively steep hill at the back that they lend out to another farmer, because their main focus is taking care of their animals.

Not featured are the three pigs they also have, because the pigs were much smarter than the rest of us and stayed in their hut lol

I also learned that, because of the altitude some snack foods explode?

The packaging swells from the pressure or something and then they pop, and upon mentioning this to us, my aunt commented, "Yeah, makes you wonder what it's doing to my head!" and laughed.

So yeah.

This was also probably the longest I've been around a dog in a long time, but Speed Demon (her code name) was actually pretty fun to play with and take on walks... although the amount of deer poop she tried to eat was not zero.

[thelampisaflashlight]

One trick for making an OC feel more like a person/work out their personality, is to give them a group of friends and other people to interact with.

Like, "A has been best friends with B since they were children, so their dynamic is like this-" or "A and B were friends since they were little, but recently started to grow apart-", you don't have to go into a lot of detail unless you want to, but it does help.

Also consider, "A is in a store, this is how they greet the cashier-" or "A is in a restaurant, this is how they treat the staff-" because that also builds them as a person.

And, of course, the grocery cart question; Do they return it to the place it belongs, or do they just leave it in the parking lot?

These things build the morals/ideals of your OC, but can also demonstrate how the people around them may see them based on these things.

If B saw A leave the cart in one of the empty parking spots, how would they feel about that? Would they think it's rude? Would they put it back themselves? How does this action affect B's perception of A and vice versa?

Stuff like that.

[thelampisaflashlight]

I'm realizing now that the reason the sheep were probably looking at me like, "WTF" was because I was wearing my frog beanie.

It's like one of those hats with the bear ears, except the ears are the frog's eyes.

This would explain a lot lmao

I just got back from a trip to visit my family on their farm, and I never realized just how judgmental sheep can look.