#^this post will almost certainly get zero notes

[manishroom]

some may say i'm the one note wonder

[wobblingjello]

The First Chapter of Our Story

Summary: Post prison Spencer enjoyed his spare time in the library. One day, you interrupted his reading time.

Genre: Fluff

Pairing: Spencer Reid/Fem!Reader

Word Count: 3218

Warnings: None??

Author Notes: Please enjoy a tooth-rotting fluff of Spencer and Reader meet-cute!!!

After Spencer was out of prison, he spent most of his spare time in the library. If people asked him why, well for the obvious reasons; he liked reading, and he found solitude by burying himself in books. Now that he also had a mandatory teaching role, he wanted to make sure that he had everything that he needed for his classes. If he wasn’t in the field catching UnSubs or teaching his classes,  then he was most definitely in the library.

Furthermore, as a creature of habit, Spencer always visited the same library. (One time he was completely immersed in reading, he forgot he supposedly had lunch with Garcia and Emily — they found him with zero trouble. He was that predictable). The library was only 2 hours away from his apartment. He could easily get there by metro, or once in a while when he was up for a ride, then he’d ride his car. Not only was the distance convenient for him, the library had a few cozy reading spaces on the second floor — made it even easier for him to get lost in books.

This week was Spencer’s last week on his 30-day mandatory off field. He still had at least 2 classes before he was back on duty. As for today, he wanted to spend it in his current favorite go-to place. After making a simple breakfast; waffle and a cup of coffee, Spencer walked out of his apartment. Honestly, he was still a bit sleepy. He stayed up late rewatching a few episodes of Doctor Who until 2:00 AM. He almost drifted back to sleep when the alarm went off, but he managed to fight that urge. He feared he might end up staying inside the whole day if he did. He used to be fine spending his day off at his apartment, but after prison, it could make him feel trapped. Being in the library was a nice compromise for him — he was technically out in a public space, but could have minimum interaction with other people.

Spencer occupied one of the reading spaces, and had picked more than 10 books to read — some reading materials for his next classes and novels in Russian and German. He had his nose stuck in a book, he didn’t even notice someone approaching him. He heard someone clearing their throat to get his attention. When he looked up from his book, he saw you standing close to him. Tightly holding a novel and a notebook to your chest.

“Um, can I help you with something?” Spencer hesitantly asked, voice barely audible. He was in the library after all.

“I don’t know how to say this without making me sound like a creep, but I’ve seen you here a couple of times, and you always have so many books with you. I always wonder, are you even able to finish reading all of them?” You asked him in one go, with the same hush voice as him.

He was looking at you wide-eyed. Noticing how you were almost out of breath by the time you were done talking, like you were trying to say everything in one breath. Was this how others saw him when he rambled? Spencer found himself dumbfounded, and you most likely took his silence as a sign that he was mortified with what you just said.

“Oh God. I just scared you off, didn’t I? I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to. I’ll just—” You whisper-yelled.

“Hey. It’s okay.” He started softly. He didn’t want to cause more panic for you. “I can answer your question. Do you want to sit here with me?” Wait, what? He wasn’t sure where that came from, and he certainly surprised himself. Well, it was already out in the wild, and he couldn’t take it back.

“Are you sure?”

Spencer saw you fidgeting in the corner of your notebook, and he feared you might damage it. He rearranged the books at the table and motioned the chair across him for you to sit. He could tell you hesitated to sit, but you eventually did. Once you seemed comfortable in your chair, he continued the conversation again.

“Our conscious mind can process 16-bits of information per second. Our unconscious, however, can process 11 million. I can read 20,000 words per minute. So, to answer your question, yes, I’m actually able to finish reading all of them because I can read that fast.”

“Wow. You intrigued me even more now. Are you a genius or something? I bet you are.”

“I do have an IQ of 187, and eidetic memory, so you bet right.”

“Do you mind telling me what you do, genius?”

Spencer, in fact, didn’t mind at all. With a hush voice, for almost an hour, he talked about his job at the BAU, his classes, and why he spent so much time in the library (he spared the part where he once went to prison — he didn’t wish to scare you off). In return, he learned that you worked as a pediatric nurse. When you weren’t at the hospital, providing care for the little ones, you also enjoyed your day off in the library — just like him. Sometimes you even attended a pottery class. It was a new hobby you started a few months ago. You showed the mug you made in your last class a month ago. Another thing he learned was your name, just like you learned his.

Once the two of you finished sharing stories, you both fell into comfortable silence and continued reading your respective books — Spencer still needed to take a few notes for his next classes. Every now and then, he’d glance at you before going back to his notes. He noticed how sometimes you’d smile when you flipped the pages. What kind of story made you smile like that? 

Their little encounter was unfortunately cut short when you announced that you had a dinner plan with your girls. “I’ll see you around, Dr. Reid.” You slid a piece of paper his way, and then left.

You gave him your phone number.

---

It was safe to say that you visited this particular library almost at any given chance. You discovered it by accident many moons ago when you finished your work. Now, you were on a first name basis with the librarians. As a regular visitor, you’ve had your fair share of interesting stories of other visitors. Then there was him. It was impossible not to notice him, especially when he always occupied the same corner of the library whenever he visited. Not to mention the stack of books, and many many notes  on the table. There were at least 10 or 15 books on the table. Was it even possible for someone to read that many books in one sitting?

After many occasions glancing his way like a creep, you finally found the courage to approach him. You even got the chance to learn his name. Dr. Spencer Reid. What a unique name — it suited him. Aside from intelligence, you wouldn’t deny the fact that he was also easy on the eye.

There was something about Reid that made you want to stay longer in the library, but alas, you already had a plan. You had this monthly dinner with your girlfriends, where every month one of you would take turns to host the dinner at that person’s place. This month was your turn, so you needed to make sure everything was set and ready.

On your way home, you thought about how you easily gave Reid your phone number. You normally wouldn’t do that with a stranger. A male stranger to be precise. However, your gut told you that Reid wasn’t like any other men. He chose to spend his spare time reading in the library. How many men did you know who did that? Nobody. It was also probably due to the fact that he was a federal agent. The point was it wasn’t an everyday thing that you didn’t have your guards up around a stranger. Again, a male stranger.

By the time you arrived at your apartment, Reid still hadn’t texted you. Your brain came to two possibilities; he wasn’t interested in you or he already had a partner. You cringed at the thought of you openly hitting on a man who might already be in a relationship. Well, in case he didn’t text you, you’d just have to avoid that particular spot he was always on for the foreseeable future. The library was pretty big, so it shouldn’t be difficult to do that. 

A moment later, your friends started coming into your place. You cherished time like this; catching up with the girls over greasy food and wine. A cute stranger you occasionally saw in the library was long forgotten.

By the time you were getting ready for bed, you heard your phone buzzing — notifying you of a new text. You could hear your heartbeat in your ears when you noticed it was a text from an unknown number. Surely he wouldn’t text this late, right? You unlocked your phone to read the text.

Unknown Number [11:18 PM]: Hi. This is Spencer Reid. I thought about texting you sooner, but you mentioned that you’re having a girl’s night and I don’t know how long it’ll normally take for you. I once babysat my colleague’s son so she could have a girl’s night with the other female colleagues — they practically went home the next day. My point is, I don’t want to interrupt your time with your friends. Anyway, I hope you had a fun night.

You blinked, then reread the text a few times. You found the entire situation funny. Not long ago, you convinced yourself that he wasn’t interested, and practically planned the best way to avoid him in the library. Then here he was. Explaining his train of thought on why he hadn’t texted sooner. Was this how he treated all the women who gave their numbers to him? This had to be too good to be true. You responded to him anyway.

You [11:23 PM]: How thoughtful of you, Dr. Reid. In fact, I just finished cleaning up my place like half an hour ago. Now, I’m getting ready for bed. Oh, I also had fun with my girls.

You didn’t have to wait long to get a response from him.

Reid [11:24 PM]: I’m glad you had fun. You should have that rest. Good night.

---

There wasn’t much text exchanged between the two of you since that night. You both only texted when either of you had the time to do it. On his part, he mostly sent you random facts about any states he traveled to when he was on cases. It was like a subtle way to tell you his whereabouts, if you were being honest.

However, since you started working on the night shift, you were usually still asleep when he texted. You’d reply way later, and he was most likely deep in the case files. The cherry on top was you work on the weekend this time around, so even when he was back in town, you couldn’t casually go to the library to see him since it was in the opposite direction from the hospital you worked at.

Between his constant traveling and your long-hour shift, you hadn’t gotten the chance to see him again. It’s been a month and a half since you last saw him. 

One Friday evening, when you were getting ready to go to work, you received an unexpected text from him.

Reid [5:34 PM]: What about we grab a light meal before your shift tomorrow? We can go somewhere close to the hospital so you won’t be late. You [5:35 PM]: Are you asking me on a date, Doc? Reid [5:36 PM]: Um, yes? I mean, if you want it to be. You [5:38 PM]: It’s a date then. I know a good coffee shop that also has delicious sandwiches close to the hospital. I’ll send you the details.

Honestly, you didn’t expect him to ask you on a date. Well, at least not that fast. But you wouldn’t complain anyway. You got yourself a date with a hot Doctor.

You exchanged a few texts while you were on your way to the hospital. He informed you that he just wrapped up a case in Miami, but the team decided to stay there one more night, so he’d be back first thing in the morning. He never really told you about the cases he worked on, that was understandable — mostly only informed you where he was and when he was coming back.

In return, you told him about your day; things that you were most excited about, or something you wanted to try to avoid doing. For example, you told him that tonight you’d help setting up the stuff for the treasure hunt event. Although you wouldn’t witness the event in person, since it’d be tomorrow during the day shift, you still got to do the fun part; hiding all the treasures. You texted some more until you told Spencer that your shift was about to start.

---

Spencer glanced at the clock on the wall one last time; 2:38 PM. You’ve instructed him to meet you at the coffee shop at 4:00 PM. If he headed there now, it’d take approximately an hour and 7 minutes. He definitely wouldn’t be late, and still gave him a reasonable time to be early. He smoothed out the nonexistent wrinkles on his sweater vest before heading out.

On his way to the coffee shop, he’d unconsciously kept running his palms on his sweater vest, trying to fix his hair, or gripping the strap of his bag a little too tight. He wasn’t anxious for the date per se, but the fact that it’d be his first date after prison. He was still in the process of adjusting to his post prison life, obviously didn’t expect to go on a date this soon. He wasn’t even sure what had gotten into himself when he asked you out.

He could see the sign of the coffee shop. When he stepped inside, he spotted you immediately. Sitting at one of the tables, jotting down something on the same notebook, he believed it to be the same one you brought to the library the first time he saw you. He slowly approached you, then softly called your name so he wouldn’t startle you.

You looked up when you heard his voice, and instantly beamed at the sight of him. “Reid! You made it.”

As Spencer sat on the chair across from you, he heard you chuckling. “What? Is there something funny?”

“Are you always this formal?” You vaguely gestured at his general direction. “I feel underdressed in my plain t-shirt and scrub pants.”

He could feel the warmth on his cheeks. “I don’t really own casual outfits. Besides, you’re about to go to work after this. It’s completely understandable that you’re wearing scrubs.” 

“I’m teasing you, Doctor. The sweater vest looks good on you.” You threw a playful wink at him. “You should order something.”

Spencer went back to the table with his order. Both of you enjoyed your meals while talking about various topics. You told him about when the night shift nurses went shopping for the treasure hunt event, the upcoming pottery class that you’d attend on your next day off, and finally got the chance to tell him in detail about the girl’s night at your place. In return, he told you about the funny stories when his team went out to the bar the other day, what kind of topics he’d probably teach for his next classes and his attempt to clean his bookshelf which ended up with him mostly reading than actually doing the cleaning.

It was refreshing to talk to someone outside of the team, who didn’t fully understand the horror he faced almost every day. For a brief moment, he wasn’t BAU’s resident genius, but was simply a man in his late 30s having a normal conversation with someone he found attractive, you. In addition to that, he surprisingly enjoyed it. He liked listening to your stories, discovering shared interests, or challenging him to do something outside of his routine.

Contrary to his team’s belief, Spencer did go on dates every now and then. Well, maybe not as frequent as Morgan used to. He just hasn’t found someone that really piqued his interest, or lucky enough to go on more dates with the same woman to eventually make the relationship official. But it was different with you. He adored how expressive you were — your expressions changed according to the stories you shared. When you talked about something that made you excited, then your whole face lit up; you’d smile from ear to ear, and your eyes sparked with so much joy. When you talked about the sad puppy story you read online, however, the light in your eyes dimmed, and your voice was shaky. He had to restrain himself from reaching out for your hand to comfort you.

He didn’t know how long they’ve sat in this coffee shop, but one thing he knew for sure was he already planned on how to ask you for a second date and where to take you — if you agreed, of course.

The two of you were surprised when the alarm on your phone went off. “Oops. I guess the date is unfortunately over.”

“Did you set an alarm for the date?” He was amused by what just happened.

“Yeah. In case we lost track of time. I still need to go to work after all.”

“Are you walking to the hospital?” You looked confused with the question, but nodded as an answer. “Okay. I’ll walk with you there.”

“Are you sure?” He only smiled at you, then stood up.

It was a short 15-minute walk to the hospital, yet it was filled with another conversation. Mostly him listening to your complaint about how this was going to be another long shift. But Spencer knew there was a lack of annoyance in your words. You loved your job, just like he did his.

The two of you eventually reached the hospital. You turned to face him. There was a brief awkward silence there.

“Thank you, Reid. I had fun today. Definitely a great way to start my shift.”

“I had fun too.” You were about to bid farewell when he called your name. “I’d like to do this again sometime. Preferably soon. With you, of course.”

You didn’t even bother to hide the smile on your face. “Well, between the two of us, your work schedule is more unpredictable. Just let me know when you’re free from catching the bad guy, and I’ll let you know when my shift changes.”

He grinned at your answer. “Right. I’ll definitely do that.”

You started walking backward while waving at him. “Bye Reid! See you around.”

That grin on his face stayed in place as he also waved at you. You eventually turned around and ran inside. Spencer couldn’t wait for that second date.

[facingthenorthwind]

AO3 tag capitalisation and why you can't change it

Have you ever tagged your fic in all Title Case and then discovered one of your tags has become all lowercase when you hit save? Or had it become title case when you tried to type it in lowercase? Does this offend your aesthetic sensibilities?

If you said yes to any of these questions, I would like to offer my deepest condolences. I, too, have had this problem. Unfortunately, you can't fix it (except in one very specific situation).

The first time a tag is used determines its capitalisation (unless it becomes a canonical). For example, I'm sure not everyone who tagged kylux au intended for it to be all lowercase, but the first user who tagged it capitalised it that way, and so it remains. This is because the wrangulator (the part of the AO3 backend that handles tags; yes this is what we officially call it) treats different capitalisations of a tag as the same tag, and isn't capable of having it display differently in different fics.

There are two situations where capitalisation can change: firstly, it could become the exact phrasing of a canonical tag. This is what it's called when a tag becomes filterable and multiple tags that mean the same thing (called syns) get connected together and all redirect to the canonical. For more info, you can read this post I wrote! All canonical tags get changed to title case when they're made canonical, because the tag edit page that wranglers can see enables wranglers to change the capitalisation of a tag (it also allows us to change the diacritics, but not anything else). If your tag is a synonym of that canonical, its capitalisation does not get changed, only if you've used the exact phrasing that later becomes canonical (for how to tell what kind of tag something is, please see the post I linked earlier). For example, if I was the first user of the tag "obi-wan on tatooine" and typed it all lowercase, it will remain lowercase even when the tag wrangler syns it to the canonical "Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine". But if I was the first use of "obi-wan kenobi on tatooine" and typed it all lowercase, when it's canonised it will change appearance on my work to be in title case. Tag wranglers will never change the capitalisation of your tag in any other situation.

Secondly, if you are the only use on an unfilterable tag (which means it has not been synned anywhere), it is technically possible to change the capitalisation if you decide that you want to change how it looks later. In order to do so, delete the tag from your work. Then wait approximately 24 hours (give it a few more for leeway) and tag your work again. You should be able to now tag it with different capitalisation. The reason you have to wait 24-ish hours is because of a part of the wrangulator called the rake. The rake deletes any unfilterable tag that has zero uses (except if it's used in a tagset) approximately 24 hours after it's made. Notably, any tag that has been synned to a canonical does not get raked. If you want to check if your zero-use tag has been deleted yet, you can search for its exact text in tag search. If it still exists, it will be a search result and show (0) after it. If it's been deleted, it won't show up at all. It's important to note that just because an unfilterable tag shows up in tag search with (0) after it, that doesn't mean it will be raked in the future! These are usually tags in a tagset, which don't disappear. A tagset (example) is used by people running challenges for participants to have a pool of tags to choose from. There is no way to determine whether a tag is in a tagset, not even as a wrangler! You just have to assume it's the case if it never disappears. And remember, if anyone else has used the tag you're trying to change, it won't work!

So in conclusion: sorry about the tag that is the wrong capitalisation. You almost certainly can't fix it.

[cripplecharacters]

I've read the post about how arm prostheses are often more trouble than they're worth and it makes sense. My special interest fandom doesn't have robotics or magic anyway, so a prosthetic there would more or less amount to a stick with possibly a hook on the end, and I'm not trying to argue in favour of making anything more advanced than that here. What I would like to know is if the same practical considerations apply with someone who's lost BOTH hands or analogous gripping appendages. Is it worth it to go for the lightest and least clunky prosthetic possible or is it still easier to do everything with the mouth and/or feet? Does it vary depending on what one is doing, or how much of the arm is lost?

Hello!

[Please note, we don't currently have mods who are amputees; you can try checking with some of our recommended blogs from our navigation post, but I'm not familiar with any bilateral arm amputees doing writing advice on Tumblr.]

There are a lot of factors that would go into this, and the two you mentioned are absolutely important, but I'd say that age plays the biggest role. What I mean is how old the person was where they had their arms amputated, since that's where I generally see the biggest difference in prosthetic use.

For the following sections I'll presume a scenario where the person is financially able to buy prosthetics that would suit their body in the technical aspect and potential assistive devices to get them on etc. aren't a problem to acquire for them.

If someone loses their arms at 70, they're almost certainly going to be using prosthetics, at least part-time. They spent decades doing everything with their hands and probably have close to zero coordination necessary to do these tasks with their feet now, not to mention being in worse condition in general due to their age. Even if their prosthetics are the simplest hooks, they will probably give them more independence since at an older age and with no practice, using their legs would be out of the question and using stumps could be much harder for someone whose way less flexible and strong. This doesn't mean that all the cons of an arm prosthetic disappear, because they don't - in this scenario, it just means that the possible pros outweigh the cons.

If someone is born without their arms or loses them as a younger child, they're probably gonna wear prosthetics at first because their parents will want them to and will stop just as fast. Have you tried to put a shirt on a toddler? Now imagine trying to put two arms on them that they can't fully control. For someone younger they will just instinctively do things however they can, whether that would be by using residual limbs (more common if it's below the elbow) or feet (more common if above the elbow). There might be some tasks that might be impossible or very difficult to do without a prosthetic, and then the person might get a specialized one - Bebe Vio is a wheelchair fencer who uses an arm prosthetic to hold her foil because you can't really do that without one. Some instruments might also require the use of a prosthetic, but children generally tend to figure to do almost everything out with what they got. There are armless drummers and guitarists who play with their feet.

You can check this video out, it's by Isabelle Weall where she talks about why she chooses to not use prosthetics arms. Jessica Cox is one of the most famous people with no arms, and she can do more or less everything - fly a plane, do karate, drive a car. Matt Stutzman is one of the best compound archers in the world, and he doesn't use prosthetics either. All these people lost their arms young or were born without them.

Obviously a lot of people will be in the middle. That's where length of residual limbs will play a major role, but also people's lifestyle or what they do on the daily basis. If someone needs the tactile sensation to be able to do their job, they will probably prefer using their arm stumps or feet if the stumps are too short.

But if someone's stumps are too short, and they don't want or can't use their feet (it's not as easy as just starting to do stuff with your toes, it requires a ton of practice, flexibility, and patience) then they might go for prosthetics or a prosthetic, singular. Some people might find it easier to adapt to a body-powered prosthesis because to them the pros of one are more significant than the cons. I mean, not that many people have the flexibility alone needed to write with a pen with your foot, let alone coordination. They could wear a prosthesis when they know they'll be doing a lot of grabbing work because it's awkward for them to try doing it with their residual forearms and take it off to play with their dog because it feels nicer to pet it when you can feel it's fur on your skin.

There is of course the situation where regardless of factors, neither option really works for someone. They might have minimal to no ability to actually use prosthetics (weakness, other disability), while their legs might be atrophied from the bedrest caused by the illness that required their arms to be amputated (or anything else that prevents them from using their legs). This person might rely on caregivers instead for a lot of tasks, and these people absolutely do exist. Sometimes it's a situation that happens right after the amputation and they later find something that works for them, but sometimes they might not. This is a possibility as well.

All these factors should be considered for a character, and then of course you have to factor in the character themselves - can they afford prosthetics? Do they have a way to learn how to use them effectively? Get them fixed and adjusted? If the learning process of using a prosthetic is frustrating to them, they might not want to use it at all, and if it comes easily to them they might be more inclined to actually wear it.

Of course even if the pros-to-cons analysis decides that using prosthetics would be beneficial, the cons are still very much there. They're still heavy, with not the greatest dexterity, sometimes causing skin issues or muscle soreness. It takes a lot of work in occupational therapy to be proficient in using them. As long as you do research on the reality of using bilateral prosthetics (both negative and positive sides, which will be different for different people so you should get as many perspectives as you can) it's definitely okay to include them. There's no point in painting them as either magical tools that are just like regular arms or making them seem like they're completely useless pieces of junk - though they can be that for many, but for others they can also be what helps them live their life more fully, makes bringing groceries in easier, or just allows them to participate in that one hobby they do once a week.

And of course: when in doubt, have a range of disabled characters.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

[jadedxhearts]

𝐁𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐋𝐚𝐜𝐞

Law ends up falling asleep in his office, but is quickly waken up as he starts having a wet dream about you. Needing to get off, Law discovers you’ve left a pair of panties on his desk; the perfect thing to help aid him.

originally posted on August 18, 2023

Please note that this is an old work and isn't representative of my current writing skills!

While it wasn’t strange for Law to be up late, it certainly was odd for him to fall asleep at his desk. He’d almost always avoid it, saying things about how it’s bad for his back.

Which is why you found it quite odd that he hadn’t come back to your room yet. You’d woken up for some water, only to find the other half of your bed cold and empty. 

Sighing, you stretched and drank some of the water on your nightstand, before deciding to go drag your boyfriend back to bed.

—

It’d only been about fifteen minutes.

The day was long and tiring, especially with the crew having routine medical exams all day. Law was exhausted, to say the least. He’d been reviewing papers at his desk when he felt his eyes become heavy. The last thing he’d managed to see before passing out was the clock, which read 12:16 am.

At 12:31, Law woke up. He found it odd he’d only slept for such a short amount of time. Normally he’d be passed out for a good hour before either he woke up and went to bed, or before you’d come and bring him back.

His body was heavy and tense. He felt hot and disheveled, despite only being asleep for not even half an hour. Yawning, Law realized there was a certain tightness constricting his body that could only mean one thing.

Glancing downward with a tired gaze, Law groaned and promptly rolled his gray eyes at the sight. He was hard. Extremely hard, enough that it was nearly painful as his length strained against his jeans. That’s when Law remembered…

He’d dreamt about you in those fifteen minutes that he’d fallen asleep. 

In the dream, Law entered his office, feeling upset over various things, just generally feeling annoyed and irritable. But of course, you could always make him feel better. 

You were sitting on his desk, bare body just barely illuminated underneath the dim candle lighting of the room. Your legs hung off the front of the desk, arms behind you as they held your body up. Your breasts seemed so round and full underneath the lighting, drawing Law’s attention to them before anything else. He licked his lips, wanting nothing more than to suck on them, feed off of you. 

But then your face stole the attention away. Your cheeks were flushed red, mouth hung open with drool spilling past your wet lips. Your eyes were halfway closed, lazily. There was a look on your face that seemed somewhere between desperate and fucked-out. 

You looked something straight out of one of those magazines with prostitute pirates in them. Something Law always turned his nose up to, having less than zero interest in. But now, he can’t help but think how good you’d look on one, displayed so prettily for everybody to see.

He approached you, placing a hand on your right thigh, squeezing the soft skin. “Need some help, y/n?”

“Please Law,” you begged, biting down on your lips. “It hurts so bad, need you in me now.”

He kissed you before looking over your body from a front angle now, his eyes landing on your swollen pussy. Your body would tense every other moment, your cunt slightly contracting as you squeezed the muscles in it, clenching on nothing. 

Law moved to kneel, burying his face into your sopping cunt after he took in a deep breath, inhaling your sweet lewd scent. 

But just as his tongue could squirm inside you with a loud, melodic moan leaving you, it was all over. 

Law panted, realizing he had to do something about the monstrosity in his pants right away. There was no way he could walk back to his room like this, and in his state of being blinded with lust, he entirely forgot to think of using his powers to teleport you into the office.

Law quickly tossed his shirt off, unzipping his jeans before throwing them open and freeing his aching cock. Wrapping one hand around the shaft, he let out a hiss from the contact. Shit, he was already feeling as though he could cum at any moment.

Then, in the back of his mind, Law recalled you coming in here last night and riding him while he sat at the desk. And how you’d left your panties in the corner of his desk.

Gray eyes searched his desk, finding the pair of black lace panties sitting just where you’d left them. Law, unable to control himself from the horniness, snatched the pair with his right hand, using his left to squeeze his length. It was so dirty, but Law didn’t quite care right now. He was so turned on by the idea that he didn’t even question doing it; Law brought the black panties up to his face, breathing in the sweet scent of your cunt lingering on them. 

As the smell hit his nose, Law’s hips bucked upward, and suddenly he was stroking his cock with fever, needing to cum as soon as possible. Taking in one last breath of your intoxicating scent, Law reluctantly let go of his cock, fisting the panties into his left hand as he wrapped them around his engorged, needy cock, now using them to jerk himself off. 

A moan escaped him, head falling forward as he rutted up into his hand, feeling the lace of your panties pleasantly rubbing against his reddened, swollen tip. 

“Fuck, y/n…” he breathed out, biting his lip and clenching his right hand as he kept rubbing his length. 

—

You’d expected Law to be completely passed out when you found him. However, what you ended up discovering was the last thing you expected from somebody like him.

With a careful hand, you quietly opened the metal door so as to not wake up your lover. But as soon as your head poked into the room, taking one step in, you could hear it.

Law’s voice sounded broken and weak, as he moaned and whimpered your name. You scanned the room before your eyes landed on where he sat, jeans around his ankles as he had a hand wrapped around his cock, some sort of fabric in the hand which held his member… but, were those-

Your panties? 

Law was using your panties to get off. 

Gasping, you quickly shut the door behind you before somebody walked by and walked into the scene, much like you had. Only, this is something that only you’d like to witness. 

Law seemed scared by the sudden noise, his entire body jumping as he turned his head to look at you. But, his hand never stopped moving. His mouth hung open, pathetic whines leaving his lips as he looked at you, pitifully. 

“Y/n,” he whined, dragging out the end of your name. “Baby, h-help.”

You approached Law, getting a better look at the sight before you. 

“This is what you’re doing? Instead of coming back to bed?”

“I fell asleep, a-nd… when I woke up, I was so hard,” he mumbled, a few gasps escaping him as his hips jerked and rutted upward.

“What do you want me to do?” You asked, pulling his hat off of his head to reveal messy, sweaty locks of black hair.

“J-just… undress, or something, I dunno…”

“Okay,” you smiled, placing a kiss onto Law’s forehead, before pulling your tank top over your shoulders, revealing your breasts to Law. As the shirt got pulled away, they bounced as they released from their hold. The sight caused Law to let out a loud, desperate moan.

Next was your pajama shorts, quickly followed by your panties. You figured Law needed more of a show to get off, so you hopped up onto his desk, spreading your legs for him to see your glistening cunt. 

You could feel yourself throbbing, knowing Law masturbating to you was turning you on way more than it should’ve. So as to not waste time, you licked two fingers, bringing your hand down to begin playing with your puffy pussy lips. 

Using the two fingers to spread your lips, Law got a good look at your hole, a groan leaving him as you clenched around nothing, much like you had in his dream.

Once you deemed yourself wet enough, you dove in, inserting one finger into your cunt. You whined, using your free hand to grope your breast, kneading at the plushy skin while pinching and pulling your nipple in between. 

Quickly, the room became filled with the lewdest noises you’d ever heard. Law’s desperate whimpers, the squelching of your wet pussy as you fingered yourself, combined with your’s and Law’s mixed moans, both of you coming undone at the sight of each other. 

With you now aiding him, Law was able to finish. But, the urge to finish in you took his body over, as he tossed the panties away, grabbed your hips with one hand and used the other to pull your hand out of your cunt, before shoving his aching cock into your wet hole. 

As soon as his length was buried in you, Law’s hot sticky cum spilled inside you, whimpers and cries escaping his mouth as he gripped your hips so harshly you knew there’d be marks later.

Feeling the seed filling you up, you began cumming too, body shaking as your hips jerked up to meet Law’s thrusts, pretty moans leaving your lips.

You both eventually calmed down, you collapsing backwards to lay flat on the desk, while Law fell forward to lay on top of you, his cock still deep inside you.

“F-fuck,” he cursed, burying his face into your neck.

You let out a light-hearted chuckle, beginning to run your fingers through his hair. “Should’ve just told me you needed help, baby,” you whispered, feeling Law’s exhausted body tremble against you. “Though, I did enjoy the show.”

“Y-you’re not mad I used your panties?” He asked, voice weak.

“Of course not,” you smiled, a cute giggle leaving you.

“Th-that’s… good to know.”

[kanmom51]

Rebirth - Muse - JM

[**This post was written before the release of today's BTB and the little explanation JM gave us about Rebirth and Slow dance. What can I say other than just how much more my words feel relevant now. ]

As promised.

Thought I'd sneak this one in before Are you sure? lands, cause Idk, I just have this feeling that once it does we are up for 1 of two options:

I'm so overwhelmed by the amount of content we are getting that I'll be so dumbfounded and unable to post at all; Or, I will be so busy ruffling through everything running after my own tail trying to post post post post, that I will have zero time or ability to post this.

Long story short, this was the time. Do or die pretty much.

So Intro: Rebirth.

Before I get into the lyrics themselves I do want to go back to what we learnt from the Minimoni album exchange.

I kind of feel like a broken record here, but then again, I do think that obviously watching that exchange and my post on it can be a good starting point into understanding not only what Muse is all about, but also that out of all the songs on the album, Rebirth, in a sense, is just a little more personal than the others.

JM talks how the lyrics for this one were really hard to write. He mentions this a couple of times.

This was also when JM talked it was hard to write about having a crush.

Before moving on and talking about the song itself I do want to clarify something here.

I was really surprised to see how people are interpreting this.

Do people not know what the meaning of the word crush is? Not only the actual term JM used in Korean (that perhaps got lost in translation), but the actual meaning of the word in English.

짝사랑 - this is the term JM used while talking to RM.

Which basically translates as unrequited or one sided love, which is just that if you understand the actual term of the word.

Go to Oxford dictionary and crush is described as: "a brief but intense infatuation for someone, especially someone unattainable." And if you look up "infatuation" well: "an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone or something."

Now, when I heard the word crush that is exactly what I understood and it was funny for me to see that there were those that interpret the word as falling in love or being in love or similar to that, when crush means something else all together.

*Side note: JM's love life aside, knowing the concept of JM's album, it's easy to understand why he chose to use the idea of a crush as a metaphor to describe that short lived passion/excitement he was feeling with his work, telling us or showing us, with the development of the songs in the album, that indeed it is short lived and he was yet to find that long lasting feeling of excitement with the things he was doing (work/his art) - still searching for that "who".

Back to the meaning of crush.

As explained, a crush in English means an intense infatuation with another that is mostly unattainable. Two people can crush on each other, but it's a crush only as long as it is yet to be requited. Once it is reciprocated then it's no longer a crush. So, you can crush on someone unknowing that the other person has a crush on you. This crush can fizzle out and end in nothingness. But a crush evolve into a relationship if the two people involved move forward from it. Making that move forward towards each other.

This is what having a crush looks like:

And this is how it looks when you had a crush and are realizing that maybe, just maybe that person is reciprocating.

And this is when you have decided that he really is.

That was back in 2015 btw. August 2015 and December 2015. ALMOST 9 YEARS AGO.

Unattainable.

Short-lived.

Are we surprised JM wouldn't remember the last time he had a crush?

I will repeat this for the rows in the back that might not have heard. When JM says he doesn't remember the last time he had a crush, that doesn't mean he's single. Whoever thinks that is what he's saying needs a crash course in English and/or life.

A crash course in crush... lmao (yes, I am easily entertained).

So, JM had to turn to the youngest member of SGMB (lol) to remind him what it feels like to have a crush. And yet, as I have explained in the Minimoni post, Muse might not be autobiographical, but that doesn't mean that there aren't personal aspects to some of the songs, and the lyrics. Feelings expressed being real feelings drawn from his trove of inner thoughts, feelings and life and love experiences.

I will also add that although crushing is mostly one sided, and when it turns into more, as in the other party reciprocates, of course there are some of the feelings that linger. The rush, the want, the need. But at the same time things change in that the other side is feeling the same. When you look at them, they look back, gazes linger rather than avoiding eye contact, for example. There are the touches when crushing, and there are the touches, just as hesitant, after it becoming MORE. The first are one sided and usually hidden as something else (for example: "I just need to check your arm muscles for a sec"), while the second are two sided, intentional but at times hidden from others.

The differences might be so very slight at times, but if you have a keen eye you can definitley notice them. And they sure were noticeable when it came to Jikook.

Another thing before I start.

One word:

SERENDIPITY

Idk why, but I feel like Rebirth is a prequel to Serendipity. Even though Serendipity was not written by JM (although I do believe he had input into the song just like or even more so with John Billion - remember how JM says he's an American RM...), it most certainly was claimed by him and JK as theirs. You are me I am you being their trademarked catch phrase. A love ode from JM to JK. That song JM said he will gift his loved one and did. Followed by GCFT, JK's love ode to JM. And if I'm going down that road, well, if Rebirth is the prequel to Serendipity I'd say that Letter is the sequel to Serendipity. I kind of think I've mentioned this before in one of my posts about Letter.

Now that I'm done with my precursor, let's move on to the actual song. A song that out of the lot of them in this album seems to be the most personal. The only song that we didn't get to see the process of writing or recording of in content we have gotten so far for Muse (promotions now over).

[Verse] If I'm tryna be special Can I get closer to you? I can feel my heart pounding When your fingertips graze past me If I'm tryna be special So that I can sing while making eye contact with you I'll show you, baby Oh, I didn't realize Oh, I didn't think I'd care Oh my gosh, now I Won't hide You are the light in my darkness Like the sunshine vibe It spreads quietly [Chorus] That I want a real good love, good love, good love I'm tryna find a love, good love, real love I was in pitch black, but I couldn't stop thinking of you all day long I want to take one step and two steps closer without you knowing Stay with you, with you, with you, with you I will be your reason, rеason, reason, reason I hope this feeling rеaches you, to you, you To you [Outro] White clouds The wind passing by Floating petals It feels like it's been waiting just for us When that door opens When I get closer to you I'll tell you this I will be special all for you Special just for you For you (For you) For you (For you) I wanna be with you

I will share with you what went through my mind once listening to Rebirth, all while reading parts of the translated lyrics. The flashing scenes. Parts that screamed JK or Jikook.

"I can feel my heart pounding When your fingertips graze past me"

This:

And this:

And this:

And this:

More:

I can go on with this all day long. Being one of the most obvious sus behaviours with these two. But seeing that I don't want to exceed my image limit in this post I think this is where I will stop. Point made I guess.

"So that I can sing while making eye contact with you"

This was the first thing that came to mind:

😭😭

Although these did too:

And do we recall JK's sentiments about making eye contact with JM on stage?

They connect on stage. Before, during and at the end of the performance. We have seen it and they have told us so throughout the years.

Was that what JM was thinking of while writing that line?

This is clearly a line that is taken from his own personal experience. Singing while making eye contact is not something that regular people like you or I would come up with to express a feeling of love or want towards someone.

Drawing from his own emotions and experiences, how it is for him and how he might have used to wish it would be.

This line, more than any other is clearly that.

"Oh my gosh, now I Won't hide You are the light in my darkness" and "Like the sunshine vibe"

The latter, as JM explained to RM, was a word game/pun for which he asked permission from Taeyang to use in his song, seeing that his name literally means sun and Vibe was his song, lol.

But, we also know there is someone else, much closer to home, much closer period, that is referred to as the sun. Someone that makes JM happy. Someone that makes JM laugh even when he's sad. Someone that JM chose to go into the army with, together!!! Someone that is the other half of the sun and moon duo, the sun to JM's moon.

And what about this?

I'm tryna find a love, good love, real love

And he found it.

Coincidence? I don't think so.

"When that door opens When I get closer to you I'll tell you this I will be special all for you Special just for you For you (For you) For you (For you)

And he is. JM is special for JK. He has told and showed us this in so many ways in the past.

"I wanna be with you"

I wanna be with you...

Again, JM told us the songs aren't about his life, right? And yet, that doesn't mean they don't have a personal connection, that while writing he didn't take from his own experiences or feelings, that after writing he feels an emotional connection with the song, that even if not intended to it hits closer to home than others. And I feel like this is the case with Rebirth. I do believe that there is a reason it is the connecting song between Face and Muse. That there is a reason the interlude separates it from the rest of the songs.

[liskantope]

Weird -- I could swear there was a post (by a Tumblr I don't know) just the other day about how what everybody feels like eating is just what they're supposed to be eating health-wise with a "why would we be different from other animals in not being evolved to naturally individuals crave exactly what is healthiest for each of us individuals?" bent to the argument but otherwise absolutely zero justification, and then one of my mutuals (and I'm 95% sure I correctly remember who) reblogged it with an excellent response explaining from personal experience that this is not true and that they have to discipline themself on what they eat so as to avoid feeling crappy and unhealthy. And I can't find it among my likes and can't find it on that mutual's blog. I'd been intending to reblog my mutual with a couple of further comments and was "bookmarking" it by liking it.

I've been unusually distracted and overwhelmed lately, but I'm not so out of it that I would have imagined all this. I guess almost certainly the post (most likely the original post) got deleted for whatever reason. (I mean, I'm sure that most of the thousands of notes were from people who supported the OP, but maybe they got dogpiled on, and I don't like the idea that I might have joined in the dogpile.) I try to stay out of the food/nutrition/health discourse; I already get into too many other sensitive arenas of discourse than is probably good for me or others. Maybe this was the gods of Tumblr's way of preventing me from the poor judgment of getting myself into the topic. (Except I'm writing this semi-meta-post about it now... oops.)

[weaselle]

Be very careful when you see things like this:

___________________________________

"Read this and save a life - YOUR OWN

From a surgical nurse and certified CPR teacher:

Please pause for 2 minutes and read this:"

____________________________________

(this was copied from a real post that crossed my dash, btw, and it had more than 100k notes)

Anyone can say they are a surgical nurse and certified CPR teacher... or they could talk to someone with those credentials but misunderstand the information.

the post went on in a numbered format to say this

______________________________________

"6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

7. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

8. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital."

________________________________________

instead of doing any of this, call 9-1-1 

I mean try this after you call, sure, try anything, but this is probably not going to work. See number 8? that is not how human anatomy works, coughing does not squeeze the heart. Changes in pressure around the lungs from coughing instigate a change in blood pressure and also alter the electro-stimulus from the vagus nervous system between the heart and brain, and can give a minor tweak to the rhythm of an already beating heart

Since this coughing technique can provoke any change in heartbeat, it is a thing that sometimes, occasionally, can work in a hospital setting to correct a couple of very specific types of arrhythmia, which is a temporary abnormal heartbeat rhythm, not a heart attack. Basically if your lower ventricles start doing something like adding a tiny extra beat, a deep cough can sometimes get it to kick back into normal rhythm, but it is working on a heart that is beating almost correctly.

For this reason, in a hospital setting, a doctor may occasionally tell a patient to try this coughing to correct a couple of exact and minor heartbeat issues, again, for a patient with a known condition who has a slightly altered rhythm in a heart that is already beating.

Actual heart attacks are marked by wildly chaotic rhythms (or no rhythm) rendering this technique useless for heart attack 99.99% of the time. The thing about chaos is you never know what you’re going to get so if you’ve called 911 or attracted helpful attention, or have literally zero other options, go ahead and try this, but it’s almost certainly only going to help with something you were going to survive anyway.

CPR breaks ribs. That’s how hard you have to squeeze a heart to make it even sort of do its job. If a deep cough could squeeze your heart hard enough for this to work, then every time somebody had a coughing fit they’d risk heart failure.

But don't take my word for it. Look it up. Ask a person you know for a fact is a doctor (i did both before writing this, my father is a retired doctor of internal medicine and my mother is a retired ICU and ER nurse, which is why this kind of misinformation bothers me so much) but more relevant to most of you out there, i didn't even just take their word for it i also looked up the information. Personally i went ahead and looked up how coughing effects the vagus system, which counts as interesting reading for me, but you don't have to do a research project on it, literally just type it in a search bar and look for valid sources

but why would anyone ever make posts like this which are outright lies and also could be dangerous for people to believe?

the answer happens to be in the rest of the original post:

______________________________________________

9. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!

10. A cardiologist says If everyone who gets this mail kindly sends it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life.

11. Rather than sending jokes, please… contribute by forwarding this mail which can save a person’s life.

12. If this message comes around you… more than once… please don’t get irritated… You should instead, be happy that you have many friends who care about you & keeps reminding you how to deal with a Heart attack.

please take the time and boost this post by reposting it and sending it to those you love because we all need to understand how to quickly deal with heart attacks

_________________________________________________

That's why. Look at that. They want you to reblog this multiple times for them, and they tell you to do so 5 times in a row.

Bot accounts and view farmers can make money from getting high numbers of notes, views, or followers. They run their numbers up and then sell the account to entities that want access to the public for marketing or propaganda campaigns.

Random posts and video shorts are NOT the place to get important information. You may find important information in these places, but you won't know it until you check the source and look it up yourself. And if it contains information that could hurt people to believe if it's wrong... try to remember to look into it a little before you share it

[adiluv-moved]

☆ ､､ 𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 !

experimenting a bit more with my layouts! not too visible with this very simple post but lmk what you think! anyway, foçalors seems like an interesting character and i absolutely love her design, so... hope you enjoy! ૮꒰ྀི∩´ ᵕ `∩꒱ྀིა

692 words. written before 4.2, not edited.

lady furina who first encounters you during a civil affairs case, sitting with her head resting in her palm as she'd been forced to watch the owner of a small fruit stand claiming you'd stolen from them. although she'd always had a penchant for the dramatic, she hardly considered three measly apples to be worth her time, such small issues being utterly and totally devoid of the theatrics she drew her entertainment from. had neuvillette not been so adamant in her appearance—claiming it a part of her 'duty' as the hydro archon—she doubted that she would've even made an appearance. alas, he was, and she'd all but resigned herself to her fate.

lady furina who ends up picking up an interest in you as the proceedings continue, clearly noticing the not-so-subtle glances that you send her way. At first, she doesn't pay much mind to it, though her curiosity is quickly piqued when she notices the barely concealed look of awe and adoration within your gaze. it sends her reeling almost instantaneously, posture straightening up completely as a smile graces her features. proud, as she is, she can't help but find your attention amusing, ego stroked by the undivided focus you keep on her. as you should, of course—somebody so pure and elegant deserves it—but she can't deny that your decision to ignore the accusations being levied against you certainly is silly.

lady furina who's hardly suprised when the oratrice confirms your guilt, nearly letting out a laugh at the confused look on your face. she ends up stepping in to change your punishment, noting that it'd be a waste of resources to even attempt fining you when you weren't even able to pay for fruit. instead, your crimes would be repayed by your assistance to the court, a decision that the masses would report as being 'undeniably wise'. while she lives for their praise and has absolutely zero intent to correct them… it was really just an excuse for her to get to see you again.

lady furina who, while noted by neuvillette as being notoriously ꒰and irritatingly꒱ distant in the upkeep of the nation, is now magically more involved. while he does maintain some initial speculation about her motivations, they're easily confimed once he takes note of her desire to make your accquaintance. besides the small setbacks that occur whenever she gets derailed in an attempt to impress you ꒰poor thing becomes the resident third wheel꒱, he's genuinely pleased about her heightened activity within national affairs. The weather becomes warmer as a result, with many citizens taking the opportunity to go diving.

as such, what was supposed to be a short time working beneath the archon eventually becomes a full-time job once the hydro ludex himself ends up recuiting you. ignoring your own personal desires to remain in close proximity to the archon—an honor within its own right—the pay is ludicrously good, more mora than you'd even know what to do with. you'd have to be a fool to decline.

lady furina who would never stoop down to the level of admitting feelings for a mere mortal, instead opting for the more 'dignified' approach of following you around like a lost puppy as often as possible. neuvillette, for the sake of prolonging her interest within the issues of the nations, is roped in to play the part of a middle man—much to his disconcertion. he ends up accidentally admitting the archon's sentiments to you in an attempt to figure out whether or not you reciprocate, nearly giving the god a heart attack as the words slip past his lips.

very luckily, her rising panic is quelled by the ectsatic look on your face, the sudden clicking of her shoes alerting the pair of you as she rushes away to celebrate. you'll have to be the one to go to her, unfortunately, and while she does attempt to squeeze a confession out of you… well, she'd rather just go ahead and skip to the part where you ask for the honor to be hers. she'll make you squirm a little, but don't worry. she has every intent to agree.

i have a taglist, which you can sign up for here!

[zerojobprospects]

NOTE: I wrote this draft ages ago after one of my early watchings of the film and my interpretations have changed, but I'm still posting this because I think it's kind of interesting even if it leaves stuff out, and it's cool to see the evolving of the thought process. I'll follow up in the reblogs with something written a while afterwards that's more in line with my current thoughts.

Cal's response to Andre's somewhat delulu ideas around Zero Day is sooo interesting. Cal shows some level of disregard, almost, for Andre's bravado throughout the movie. One of his personal tapes has him revealing that Andre wants to do a lil Bonnie and Clyde thing after the shooting, and Cal knows that's not gonna be happening, but doesn't seem to have any interest in bringing Andre back down to reality or informing him of his own true intentions (suicide no matter what). Andre is over the moon about the egging, Cal seems to be going along with it. Andre dramatically sets off the bottle rocket, Cal is kinda like "that's it? Ok lol". He entertains Andre's flair for grandiosity (and Cal certainly has a streak of that himself, based on the way he talks about Zero Day) but his attitude towards Andre's vision of Zero Day seems verging on not caring that much. He's there to kill people and kill himself, and he's very grounded in that. He knows that Andre isn't.

This could be seen in a few ways:

1. He knows that Andre needs to see it this way or he's not gonna do it, and because Cal sees this is a big, super important thing for them to do together, he's letting Andre do what he needs to do. At the end, he eases Andre into suicide because he knows it's the best option at this point, and believes that it was all worth it.

2. He knows Andre needs to see it this way or he's not gonna do it, and he needs Andre largely for the technical stuff.

The draft was followed up with:

Andre was gonna come in there on May 1st w a fucking tap routine prepared but he couldn't get Cal to agree to it so he called it off and left it out of the tapes

[realcatalina]

I read your post about sittow's portrait of Catherine. I am leaning towards Catherine as there is a tapestry of her and Arthur's wedding (although they say the tapestry was after Arthur died) it is worth noting that it looks like the sittow painting. From what I found out the date is about 1500. Is that correct or am I wrong?

So you're asking if it is indeed Catherine depicted within the tapestry and if the tapestry is the right date for the wedding? (1501)

Well, we know that before Catherine even arrived to England, engravings of the wedding did exist.

(Here her sleeves are much too narrow to be from 1501-that's 15th century for sure.)

Thus you are rightfully sceptical.

There seems to be a whole of tapestries thought by some to depict the betrothal of Arthur and Catherine and eventually their wedding.

These tapestries(as far as I know) are located in Magdalen College, Oxford.

And potentially some of them might be.

But whoever labelled this one as Catherine and Arthur, didn't think it through:

Yes, we have several ladies wearing cofia de tranzado(Spanish headwear). But the central lady here(under the tapestry with the pomegranate), has a crown and sceptre. But since her husband doesn't-it means only she is the ruler.

Which makes zero sense for Catherine and Arthur. And you won't get away with the excuse that Arthur's attributes might have been removed(altered) after he died. Because even if Arthur as prince of Wales got depicted with a scepter and crown-his wife wouldn't be.

While queen consorts are depicted with crowns and sceptre at coronations, have you ever seen a princess consort to be depicted with one? I haven't.

The cofia+pomegranate+ sceptre and crown. Points to the woman being either Isabella I or Joanna I. But since Joanna's husband almost immediately proclaimed himself a king-that ambitious man would never have a tapestry depicting her with a crown and him without made.

Thus it should be Isabella and Ferdinand.

Isabella became Queen in 1474, while Ferdinand only in 1479(when his father died.) No shame in admitting his father died after her brother did.

But the big question is, who did commission this?

Several couples come to mind.

Philip and Joana(after 1500), Manuela and Isabella or Maria, Ferdinand and Isabella themselves, and Henry VII for the wedding of Catherine to his son.

The decor of the wedding of Infanta with the English prince could certainly showcase the ancestry of both bride and groom. So perhaps some showed some of Spanish history.

And it doesn't matter that this tapestry has only pomegranates and no roses. Because potentially you would have Spanish history with Spanish symbolism on one side and English history with Tudor symbolism on the other side.

So it truly boils down to the question where does the fashion fit?

For Catherine and Arthur, the tapestries should have been finished by 1501 or 1500(because she was supposed to arrive earlier), and frankly-this is not based upon a real wedding, otherwise, gable hoods would be there!

Hence we'd expect Netherlandish fashion either of the late 1490s or from year 1500 when Henry VII visited the Netherlands.

(We have windows depicting Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, and Philip and Joana. But they are not that helpful in this case.)

-although they showcase similar underparlets.

For Catherine and Henry, the fashion of the early to mid-1500s.(it is unlikely that with heated relationships of the late 1500s, that Henry VII would waste money on it then, and in 1509-not enough time I think.)

The problem is this is not the best quality picture and I failed to find a better one. Because the dresses between the 1490s and mid-1500s didn't change much in the Netherlands-you'd have to go by headwear or necklace.

Headwears are either Spanish or type-which appears much in tapestries-but I could never place it:

(So headwears are useless.)

And necklaces in this quality-I am not sure if these are the 1490s style or the more elaborate 1500s style.

Thus I cannot tell if the necklaces are 1490s or 1500s style.

So, against my best judgment I am forced to date the tapestry based upon the male outfits, something I am not good at!:

However, since this one resembles the fashion of men in the 1510s so much(way more than any in the 1500s). (But female outfits don't fit the 1510s.)

Thus I would say that our tapestry is not meant to be for the wedding of Catherine and Arthur(d. in 1502).

More likely for the planned wedding of Henry and Catherine in 1505(-which was postponed indefinitely until his father died). Their 1509 wedding was private, so if these were ever used, it would most likely be for their coronation in 1509.

Or potentially(if they were finished), they might have also been used when Mary Tudor got married by proxy to Charles V in 1507.

(People call it betrothal but in the eyes of Tudors it was a wedding).

And because Henry VII was strongly in favour of that marriage-we cannot rule it was meant for Mary's match, rather than to have anything to do with Catherine. (Showcasing side of the groom-his ancestry.)

We would need to see as much of this tapestry series( in HD preferably) and study it in detail to figure it out.

But there might be a good reason why you think it is Catherine by Sittow-genetics.

It's possible the Netherlandish artists got inspired by her sister Joanna(who also resembled their mother a lot) and used her as inspiration for Isabella's face.

[butt3rnugg3t]

Tell Me A Tale

Authors Note: Plz be nice!! First thing I've written and posted in like 4 years, I'm rusty! I fear there's a lot of dialogue. I'm thinking of making this with multiple parts but for now this is it.

OH! And this isn't set in Hawkins. So, this is an AU where Eddie is just a hot tatted dude. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. 👍

Word Count 702 (Unedited)

The bell dings, echoing through the small shop on the corner of 5th and Main. Floor to ceiling bookshelves wrap themselves around the store, dust settled in on a few shelves. The door said open, but the vacant counter to the right of the door was unoccupied. Maybe Eddie had read the sign wrong, but he was about 90 percent sure the sign said open.

“Hello?” His voice seemed to echo around the space for a moment before a loud clattering sounded from the back room. 

“Be with you in a moment!” drifted back to him, followed by another series of clashes and finally a few curses. That caused Eddie to smile softly to himself. Another few minutes passed by before he finally saw a pair of legs appear out of the back room, just legs because the rest of her was hidden behind a large stack of books, stacked haphazardly in her arms. “Sorry about making you wait, it's technically my first day working the store by myself and as you can probably tell I've got my work cut out for me."

“I can see, I thought this store had been here for the past 20 or so years though." Thats what Steve had told him when he brought up needing a new copy of 'The Hobbit'.

Eddie grimaced as the store owner tripped on a loose bit of the carpet and almost dropped everything before quickly correcting herself. Taking a deep breath she finally deposited them at the counter before turning to take Eddie in. And Eddie in turn was finally getting all of her as well. She was just as frumpled as he thought she would be, it made him smile.

Denim overalls layered on top of a plain black t-shirt, bright red converse on each foot. Mismatched socks along with her hair looking like it was about to fall out of the messy braid it was forced into. Skin slightly damp from the sticky summer heat that had taken over the city during this hot July afternoon. She looked adorably...tired. Like she had been running on zero sleep and 3 cups of coffee. He felt bad for just realizing it, even though he had just stepped into her store for the first time.

"Yeah, once again, sorry about the mess," She stepped around the counter truly taking the mantel of 'bookseller'. "Um yeah, I just took over from my grandmother." The pause between her words seemed forced, necessary for her to calm down. He felt a stone fall into his stomach, waiting for the next words to fall from her lips. "she's not doing too great recently but," she paused once again, regaining her composure. "Sorry, I'm sure you didn't come in to hear about my life, how can I help you?"

To her credit, Eddie was sure he'd be a blubbering mess if he had to go on and act like everything was fine if (heaven forbid) anything were to happen to Wayne. He certainly wasn't going to hold her small word vomit against her. He also wouldn't mind hearing all about her life if he were to give him the chance.

"All good, I'm actually looking for a copy of 'The Hobbit'," He stepped over to stand across from her, the counter between them. "My last copy is covered in strawberry ice cream" (read: Dustin made a mess)

"Ah, unfortunately were out of our copies. But if you're willing to wait I can order one for you on my next shipment?" Eddie was convinced this girl could talk him into anything. Even if he was in a hurry to own the book again. (He wasn't)

"Yeah, It's absolutely no rush. What do you need for that?" He watched her pull out a receipt pad, jotting down the book title and price in swirly handwritten letters.

"Just a name and good number to contact you at? For when the book comes in," She was quick with the second sentence. But regardless, Eddie was completely content leaving his personal information in her capable hands. And within minutes the book was paid for, and he was set.

All he had to do now was wait for her call.

[death-munchkin]

I have come to the conclusion that there is a very very large overlap in the people who assume that Astarion is "secretly uncomfortable" with a polyam relationship with Halsin and people who a) have zero social awareness, or b) are polyphobic, or c) both. Astarion is not uncomfortable with polyamory, he is uncomfortable participating in sex. Those are two very different things. Astarion is insecure about his ability to be a 'fulfilling' partner to Tav due to his aversion to sex, and that is a perfectly natural fear almost everyone who's ever been repulsed by or reluctant to participate in sex can attest to. My fellow Ace and/or sex repulsed people you should know well how scary it can be to not feel sure that your partner is satisfied. Astarion at no point sounds sad about the proposal, with the exception when specifically asking if it's because he hasn't been putting out enough recently (Note, Astarion and Tav would not have had sex at this point for a wee while), and if Tav reassures him that he is special to them just the way he is, he is genuinely happy.

"But he doesn't enjoy having sex with the Drow twins." My dear sweet child, he explicitly says he's not ready for that yet. At no point does he pretend to be okay with it only to secretly not be. He clearly and firmly says he is not okay with it, and you only get the narration about him seeming empty if you pressure him into it. This does not happen with Halsin. I repeat. This does not happen with Halsin! Astarion never, I repeat NEVER says anything akin to "not being sure" or "I don't know", or "I'm not ready for this" in regards to Halsin's proposition, while he CLEARLY says that about the Drow twins.

Why, you may then ask, is he uncomfortable with the Drow twins but not Halsin? Well, for one, the Drow twins are sex workers. And while in this house we 100% respect love and support all sex workers, they were unfortunately likely targets during his thrall days, and they almost certainly open up some wounds he's not ready to explore yet. Secondly, with the Drow twins he is pressured to participate. Again, Astarion is uncomfortable participating in sex, not with polyamory as a whole. Astarion would be uncomfortable being pressured into basic vanilla christian one on one sex with Tav just as much as he would be uncomfortable being pressured into sex with the Drow twins. That has nothing to do with polyamory. He would not be and is not uncomfortable with Tav having sex with, kissing or flirting with Halsin, as long as he is at no point forced to or pressured to physically participate himself.

Consider why every other character who is against a relationship with Halsin explicitly says so (for those of you who compare Astarion to Karlach, Karlach does explicitly say she is against it.) Consider how every single time Astarion is against something, with the exception of some events in Act 1, he explicitly says so. Consider how Astarion literally does bring up something that concerns him in that very conversation, and clearly states his concerns regarding his own sexual availability, but at no point even hints at being uncomfortable with Tav's romantic/sexual interests. And perhaps consider why you are so intent on having characters be "secretly against polyamory".

Because I will die on the hill that Astarion is a sex repulsed polyam sexual (possibly mono-romantic) pan gremlin of a man. edit to clarify: This post is about people who are insistent on that assumption, as in, refuse to accept that they may be mistaken, or that their assumption is exactly that, an assumption with no direct proof to support it. I don't mind people who headcanon, you live your life I'll live mine, I mind people who assume he's secretly against it, and then state that as fact and canon when it simply isn't, it's a headcanon, an assumption, a plot you would like to believe, NOT something established by direct canon evidence. If you prefer to read him as uncomfortable, that's fine and none of my business. If you prefer to read him as secretly strictly monogamous and either too insecure to speak up or doesn't realize it himself, that's fine and none of my business. Hell, if you draw fanart about it and write a whole ass 100 million word fanfic creating a whole new alternate universe which becomes more popular than the game itself, it's still fine and none of my business. But the second you speak your opinion and assert that it's fact, I have just as much a right to speak my opinion and tell you you're wrong.

[vgfm]

Predicting the Release of Deltarune Chapters 3, 4, and 5

a.k.a., “I spend way too much time analyzing a dev cycle that I do not fully understand and have no control over”

Undertale’s 8th anniversary has come and gone, and it’s left some fans feeling disappointed. I wasn’t expecting anything too major this year since the last three anniversaries were a bit of an anomaly. We’ve truly been spoiled to have gotten the Undertale concert, Chapter 2, and the Spamton Sweepstakes back-to-back-to-back. It’s easy to forget that the anniversaries before this were far more low-key affairs.

Even so, the 8th anniversary still felt a bit lacking. I had been hoping for a full status update post to the Deltarune website, but instead we got a much shorter update in the autumn newsletter. It’s true that we’ve gotten 3 other newsletters in the time since the 7th anniversary, and each has had tidbits of Deltarune news as well as their own share of fun extras. However, even all four newsletters combined seem to have less to say about Deltarune’s status than an annual update post usually does.

Fans who’ve been paying attention also seem a bit disappointed with the current progress of the game. Early status updates made it sound like Chapters 3, 4, and 5 were speeding along, while later ones make it sound like Chapter 3 has slowed to a crawl. I initially felt this way, but upon reflection I think this mindset is due to two main factors: (1) fans interpreting status updates overly optimistically, and (2) Toby sometimes using unclear language when describing the status of development.

I’ve poured over the recent newsletters, Deltarune’s past status updates, and Toby’s old tweets and interviews to get a better picture of how the game’s development is progressing. I also looked to the development of Chapters 1 and 2 to get an idea of what a completed chapter’s dev cycle looks like, and with that info I’ll try to piece together my best estimation for when Chapters 3 through 5 might finish.

Yes, I’ve hit peak hiatus brainrot and, like some others, I’ve run out of things to theorize about the game itself and now I’m trying to write a theory about game development, despite the fact that I have zero experience in game dev outside of making a couple of goofy low-effort mods. I want to emphasize that I’m doing this for fun and that I don’t want to rush Toby or his team—I’d like for Deltarune to take as long as it needs for the best result and for the team to not be overworked.

With all that said, before I can make a prediction, I must first break down my observations for each chapter’s development cycle so far. As mentioned, I’m pulling this info from newsletters, status updates, and Toby’s tweets and interviews. I won’t cite a source for every bullet point, but it’s not too hard to track down this information.

Note: Dates referred to here are release dates for products and status updates/posts. I’m aware that most major posts that Toby writes nowadays are made at least 1 month in advance due to the need for translation. To make things simple, I’m using the publishing dates instead of second-guessing the date of writing.

Chapter 1

Took roughly three years of total development time, from late 2015/early 2016 to October 2018

An unknown amount of early planning was done during and prior to Undertale’s development.

Toby and Temmie largely worked on this chapter alone

This chapter required creating the entire party-based battle system

This chapter required designing the entire Hometown and ensuring it would “set up” future events in the game properly

Except for composing some songs and writing the story, Toby didn’t work on any future chapters during Chapter 1’s development

My assessment is that this was almost certainly the hardest and most time-consuming chapter to develop. Toby had to create the game nearly from scratch with the fewest resources at his disposal. All future chapters benefited from using chapter 1 (and later 2) as a base and having things like Hometown already set up in advance

Chapter 2

Came out three years after Chapter 1, but Toby later said Chapter 2 only took 1.5 years of active development—beginning in May 2020 and releasing in September 2021. This 1.5 year period likely does not include planning and pre-production, since Toby tweeted about designing and writing parts of Chapter 2 prior to May 2020. However, this 1.5 year development period would include testing and other finishing touches.

The other 1.5 years prior to Ch 2’s full development were spent experimenting with other game engines, hiring team members, pre-production on Chapter 2, and planning future chapters of the story.

Toby finished outlining the rest of the game and writing most of the full game’s dialogue during and prior to Chapter 2’s development. Toby decided what all battles will be for Chapters 3 through 5 and most battles for the rest of the game. Toby also has all locations planned (in the form of text) for 3 through 5 at this time. This is all outlined in the 2020 status update.

After the first four months of active development, Toby guessed chapter 2 was 50-80% content-complete by the time of the Undertale 5th anniversary. He also projected that the game would be ready to enter beta testing by the end of 2020. 

Chapter 2 was in beta testing by April 2021 at the latest, since Toby tweeted about it at that time, so Chapter 2’s development phases can be broken down thusly:

Design (Pre-production; writing, planning, designing assets): Less than 1.5 years

Implementation (Active development; programming, graphics, creating battle assets and environments, music): 8-12 months

Finishing (testing, translating, polishing): 5-9 months

My assessment is that, although there was a 3-year time period leading up to both Chapter 1 and 2, it feels like Chapter 2’s development period got a lot more done. Toby has said that chapter 2 is the largest chapter in the game in many ways. Toby was working with a team starting with Chapter 2 and he was able to start planning and pre-production work on future chapters in the meantime, allowing for a much smoother start to Chapter 3’s development than chapters 1 and 2 had. Chapter 2’s release also seems to mark a shift in how Toby’s team structures their development phases, which I’ll go over in 3 through 5.

Chapters 3 through 5

Most early planning for chapters 3 through 5 was completed during chapter 2’s development, likely shortening the pre-production phase compared to previous chapters. However, Toby did mention in the 2022 update that “certain aspects” affecting 3 through 5 needed a while to set up. As of 2022, those “aspects” are now in place.

As of September of 2022, one year after Chapter 2’s release, Toby’s team is working on 3 through 5 in parallel and has already completed more than one chapter’s worth of “bullets, cutscenes, and gimmicks”. I will elaborate on this in a bit.

In March of 2023, Toby’s team is primarily focused on finishing Chapter 3. We can say for certain that Chapter 3 entered active development in early 2023 at the latest

As of September 2023, Chapter 3 is in a fully playable state from start to finish and is presumably ready for alpha/beta testing

Chapter 3 seems to mark a slight shift in the team’s production order for each chapter. Chapter 2’s phases were outlined in the 2020 update as three phases: Design, Implementation, and Finishing. Based on context clues from last year’s update and this year’s newsletters, chapters 3 through 5 seem to be following a modified four-phase workflow:

Phase 1 – Design – writing the story, planning the game, and assigning roles to team members. It’s hard to quantify how long this took with chapters 1 and 2, but the good news is that most of this phase was completed for future chapters during chapter 2’s development, according to the 2020 status update. The 2022 update does imply that there was still some set up required leading into chapters 3 through 5. This could be connected with the rumored engine changes to GameMaker to allow multiple games to be launched from a single launcher. Either way, this set up was finished before the 2022 update and be presumed to be done for all three chapters.

Phase 2 – Early Implementation – I’ve split implementation into two phases for reasons I’ll explain in the next phase, though these two halves likely overlap. I suspect this first half of implementation involves preparing dialogue for translation (which was previously done as a finishing step for Chapters 1 and 2) and creating assets in bulk to plug into the game later. This phase is likely when the “chapter’s worth of bullets, cutscenes, and gimmicks” mentioned in the 2022 update was created. Later newsletters imply that Chapter 3’s locations were in an earlier state of development than many fans expected, so I think Toby has artists and programmers design enemies, puzzles, and cutscenes in advance before areas are created to put them into. Chapter 3 seems to have completed the early implementation phase. Chapter 4 has had a significant chunk of this phase complete, based on the 2022 update, and currently 4 and 5 both seem to be in this phase, as of June 2023.

Phase 3 – Full Implementation – This consists of programming game world locations and assembling the full structure of the game. I believe this can be treated as a separate phase from the early implementation because (1) Toby mentioned in the 2020 update that he doesn’t draw map designs until the team starts programming, (2) Chapter 2’s maps had only just been started when its cutscenes, songs, bullet patterns, and other assets were nearly finished in 2020, and (3) Chapter 3 seemed to be early in this phase in 2023, despite more than a chapter’s worth of assets being created in 2022. Chapter 3 recently finished this phase, and chapters 4 and 5 likely haven’t gotten far in this phase or reached it yet. All implementation for Chapter 2 lasted between 8 and 12 months. It’s likely this will take less time per chapter for 3 through 5 due to Toby saying Chapter 2 was the longest in the game and Toby having more resources available to complete early implementation on 4 and 5 while 3 undergoes full implementation and the next step:

Phase 4 – Finishing – This is presumably the same as Chapter 2’s finishing phase, only with translation likely occurring earlier in the process, per the March 2023 newsletter. Chapter 3 recently entered this phase. This phase took anywhere from 5 to 9 months for chapter 2, depending on when that chapter entered beta.

Conclusions

Overall, we know that chapters 3 through 5 are using Chapter 2 as a base, Toby has a larger team and more resources available to him than ever before, and Chapters 3 through 5 are being developed in parallel. Chapters 3 through 5 also had the advantage of having most of their planning and design taken care of during Chapter 2’s development cycle. To reiterate, Chapter 2’s development ended up like this:

Design: Less than 1.5 years

Implementation: 8-12 months

Finishing: 5-9 months

Based on what we’ve heard regarding chapter 3, I think we can extrapolate the following timeline for Chapters 3 through 5 so far:

Design: FINISHED (all chapters). Less than 1 year – I’m not counting the design work on 3 through 5 that was already completed before Chapter 2 released. The 2022 update did hint at some form of set up or planning affecting 3 through 5 that had been resolved by September 2022—this makes one year of design the maximum possible amount in this development cycle, though it was likely considerably less

Early Implementation: FINISHED (Ch 3), IN-PROGRESS (4&5). 6-17 months – The 17 months figure is from adding up the year between the 6th and 7th anniversaries and ending at the March 2023 newsletter, when finishing chapter 3 was announced as now being the team’s main focus; this assumes that early production began as soon as Chapter 2 released and that priorities didn’t shift to Chapter 3 until right when the March newsletter came out. The 6 month figure is assuming that most of 2022 was spent on design and resolving the “factors” that affected 3 through 5, which is highly unlikely. We know that early implementation assets were worked on for chapters 3 and 4 simultaneously in 2022, and it’s likely that Chapter 3 alone would have taken less than a cumulative year at this stage. Extrapolating from where things were in 2022, I’d guess Chapters 4 and 5 are at least halfway done with this phase cumulatively.

Full Implementation: FINISHED? (Ch 3). 6-12 months – I base the 12 month figure off of the idea that focus switched to Chapter 3 immediately after the 2022 update and I base the 6 month figure off of the March 2023 newsletter being the point where focus shifted. Chapter 3 became fully playable in September 2023, marking a probable end date for this phase

Finishing: IN-PROGRESS? (Ch 3). Unknown. This could match the 5-9 months for Chapter 2. It’s also possible that 4 and 5 could move onto full implementation while 3’s playtesting takes place, since the latter can rely on people outside the team playing the game while members of the team are freed up to work on other things. Bumping up translation earlier in the pipeline might also shave some time off this phase.

The Prediction

Overall, I’m reasonably certain that Chapter 3 will be completely done within the next 6 months, barring some unforeseen difficulties. Game development can be unpredictable, so anything’s possible (especially delays). Toby has remarked on how strange chapter 3 is and he’s implied that some segments have had to be removed or cut down, so it’s possible this chapter was a lot more experimental and needed more time.

I’d say chapter 4 is, bare minimum, halfway through early implementation. More likely, I think it’s nearing the end of early implementation. I say this because having more than a chapter’s worth of assets completed in 2022 meant that not all of that was for chapter 3, and 2022’s update made it sound like 3 and 4’s progress was roughly neck-and-neck at the start of this phase—hence, half a chapter’s worth of assets done for 4. Obviously focus has shifted to chapter 3, but Toby did reiterate that assets are still being made for 4 and 5 during the summer newsletter, so it’s likely 4 has the majority of this phase done and 5 has made some progress.

Where do I think we’ll be in a year? The optimist in me would like to say that all three chapters will be done by next September, but I’m honestly doubtful. I think a more likely scenario is that 3, 4, and 5 will release sometime between the 2024 and 2025 anniversaries. If we’re lucky, then end of 2024 or early 2025. I think the best case scenario would be that Chapter 3 wraps up around the end of this year (or final testing frees up the team to focus on 4 by then) with Chapter 4 ready to have its maps created immediately afterwards (or already started). Chapter 4 would then enter testing in early-to-mid 2024, with chapter 5 following a few months after to be ready just in time at the end of the year.

I know it may sound bleak to some to be willing to wait another 1-2 years, but keep in mind that this pace is still much faster than what development has been so far. In six years we got two chapters of Deltarune. With my estimate, we’d be getting three chapters in 3-4 years. Chapter 2 took 1.5 years of dedicated development time, plus pre-production, whereas 3 through 5 seem poised to take less time per chapter. I predict that chapters 4 and 5 will go more smoothly, partly because they seem to be more “standard” chapters but also because the groundwork is already being laid for them while 3 is being finished. It took less than a year for Chapter 3 to go from a pile of assets to an assembled and test-ready game. At that pace, it wouldn’t take much longer for 4 and 5 to both bridge that gap—the only extra time will come from finishing up early implementation on 4 and 5 as well as testing each chapter.

I don’t have much else to say in terms of predictions, but I did write up a big timeline of Deltarune (and Undertale’s) development while making this post. I was originally going to put it at the beginning, but it was hard to parse and contained some redundant information. On top of that, Tumblr messed up the formatting so it may be a little hard to read.

Instead of placing the timeline front and center, I’m including it below for all you truck freaks out there who want to know where I pulled various dates from, or if you’ll just read anything Deltarune-related. For everyone else, this post is basically over now. Bye!

Timeline

2011

Toby is first inspired to make Deltarune from a dream (according to interviews)

2012

Toby attempts to create a Deltarune-like project but abandons it before creating Undertale

2013

May 23 - Undertale demo is released

2014

Toby develops Undertale and continues creating Deltarune concept art on the side (according to 2018 tweet). Toby also teases Deltarune’s existence on the Undertale Kickstarter at some point between 2013 and 2015

2015

September 15 – Undertale releases on PC and Mac

Toby creates and updates the Deltarune.com website between 2015 and 2016. Development on Deltarune chapter 1 likely begins in earnest in late 2015 or early 2016

2016

July 17 – Undertale releases on Linux

2017

August 15 – Undertale releases on PS4 and PS Vita

September 15 – Undertale 2nd Anniversary. Toby releases early draft of alarm clock dialogue. First mention of Rudy Holiday

2018

September 18 – Undertale releases on Switch

October 31 – Deltarune Chapter 1 releases on PC

According to Toby’s Twitlonger, Chapter 1 was content-complete “a little while” prior to October 4th and was still being translated as of the 4th. This implies that, during Chapter 1’s development, translation was one of the final steps. According to Toby, Chapter 1 took “a few years” to create. At this time he says 7 years is the maximum time he’d be willing to spend on a project. Toby announces his intent to release all remaining chapters at once. It’s implied that Toby created chapter 1 mostly on his own, with art by Temmie. He mentions wanting to hire a team for the rest of the game. Toby mentions that Chapter 1 needed to create the entire Hometown “correctly on the first try” in order to “set up properly for the rest of the game,” likely adding to development time. Toby says that apart from creating some songs and writing the whole story, he hasn’t completed any work on the other chapters at this point. Specifically, no programming or final art has been done.

According to later statements by Toby, he and his team will spend the next two years writing, composing, designing, and drawing content for future chapters

2019

February 28 – Deltarune chapter 1 releases on Switch and PS4

March – Early development on future chapters begins, but “99%” of the work at this time is spent on investigating alternative game engines to GameMaker. During this period, Toby continues planning the game and writing its story

April 18 – Toby tweets that he’s “making great progress designing Chapter 2” and posts concept art, indicating that the chapter is still in early development

June 12 – Toby tweets that he has “about 50” songs past Chapter 1 in various stages of completion, compared to Chapter 1’s 40 songs. He also mentions that he’s currently writing and drawing bosses, bullets, cutscenes, and characters for future chapters

July 5 – Toby reiterates via tweet that he plans to release all remaining chapters at the same time

September 15 – Undertale’s 4th anniversary and Deltarune Chapter 2 status update

Toby reveals annoying dog in toy car sprite from Chapter 2. Toby posts early versions of the songs Lost Girl and Welcome to the City. Toby posts concept art of Susie’s angry reaction to Noelle looking at her tail. Overall, Toby says the design of the game is going “really well” but that other aspects are “facing some hurdles”. This seems to imply that Chapter 2 is still in early development at this point.

2020

Around March or April, Toby experiences severe wrist pain that slows down his ability to develop the game

“A few months” prior to August/September, Toby completes readable outlines for every chapter in the game, including first-pass dialogue for almost all cutscenes. All major events and battles that will take place are now known. Toby also decides around this time to go back to GameMaker as the engine of choice for the full game

May – Deltarune chapter 2 begins full development, using Chapter 1 as a base

September 15 -  Undertale’s 5th anniversary concert and Deltarune Chapter 2 status update

Toby reveals he’s now working on a team with four full-time members (including himself) and other part-time members. Toby is designer and programmer. He also proposes hiring more people to work on Chapters 3 and beyond. Toby believes that Chapter 2, content-wise, will be done before the end of 2020 (not accounting for translation, bugtesting, and porting). This likely meant that, by the end of 2020, Chapter 2 was in an alpha or beta state where it could be played through from beginning to the end. Toby estimates that Chapter 2’s design/early development phase is 100% done. Toby estimates Chapter 2’s art is 90% done, Cutscenes are 80% done, Bullet patterns are 70%, other battle elements (ACTs) are 30%, audio is 80%, “other”/misc content is 65%. Chapter 2’s maps are mostly started or placeholder but with all NPC interactions completed. Toby reveals that he doesn’t draw his map designs until his team starts programming. Chapter 2’s balancing/bugfixing/translation/porting are all 0% done. Overall Toby suggests that Chapter 2 is between 50% and 80% done. Toby makes a distinction between Chapter’s 2 development and the development of remaining chapters. He also says that the game will be released in “many Chapters,” perhaps implying he was already reconsidering his goal of releasing all chapters at once at this time. Toby describes Chapters 3 and onward as having story and progression 100% done, cutscene dialogue 95% done. Ch 3+ Textual map design is 70% done overall and earlier chapters 100% done. “Earlier chapters” likely means 3 through 5. Drawn map design is 0% done. Ch 3+ enemy conceptual design is 90% done and bosses are 100% done. Enemy bullet designs are 80% done overall and 100% done in earlier chapters. Ch 3+ music concepts are 95% done, completed music is 50% done. Ch 3+ background concepts (first-pass) are 75% done. Ch 3+ bosses (first-pass) are 100% done. Ch 3+ sprite art is 20% done.

November 23 – Toby tweets the giant toilet from Chapter 2

2021

March 16 – Undertale releases on Xbox One

April 17 – Toby tweets about a friend playing the beta version of Chapter 2, confirming the game was in beta and undergoing playtesting around or prior to this time

July 20 – Toby tweets again about another friend playing the Chapter 2 beta

September 15 – Undertale 6th anniversary, Deltarune Chapter 2 announced

September 17 – Deltarune Chapter 2 is released

Toby’s team has expanded since the last status update and he considers expanding the team a little more. Toby says Chapter 2 was the biggest chapter in the game in many ways, including by cutscene count. Toby confirms changing his mind about releasing all chapters at once. Instead, Chapters 1 through 5 will be bundled together as a paid release once 3, 4, and 5 finish development.

September 23 – Deltarune Chapter 2 released on Switch and PS4

September 24 – Toby confirms in an interview that Chapter 2’s development took 1.5 years. This would line up with development starting in earnest around May 2020. Toby also confirms that chapter 2’s programming was handed over to another member of the team due to Toby’s wrist injury. Toby is now working as director on the project.

2022

February 9 – Toby posts concept art of future chapters

May 17 – Toby posts more concept art and mentions he’s gotten more people to help with development

September 15 – Undertale 7th anniversary

Toby’s team is simultaneously working on chapters 3, 4, and 5. Toby confirms more people have joined the team and the pace of creation has improved from Chapter 2. Most work completed has been for Chapters 3 and 4. Between 3, 4, and 5, the team has created more than one chapter’s worth of bullets, cutscenes, and gimmicks (likely meaning puzzles). Toby mentions 3, 4, and 5 having “certain aspects” that took a while to set up but are now in place, which will make development go smoother. Toby releases screenshots and songs from chapters 3 and 4.

September 17 – The Spamton Sweepstakes

November 17 – Toby announces Undertale/Deltarune mailing list

December 19 – The first Undertale/Deltarune newsletter is delivered

Toby says “the end is in sight” for some of the content in Chapter 3, but is very vague overall.

2023

March 30 – The second newsletter is delivered

The team’s main focus is completing Chapter 3. Translation for chapter 3 is close to starting. Based on what we know from later updates, it seems that translation is beginning sooner for these chapters than it did for chapters 1 and 2.

June 29 – The third newsletter is delivered

The team is still focusing on Chapter 3, but a few people are working on bullet patterns and puzzles for later chapters. The team is creating the final overworld area for Chapter 3, which is the last thing to complete before Chapter 3 is fully playable from start to finish (i.e., entering an alpha/beta state). Toby mentions how chapter 3 is an unusual chapter and implies it may have been harder to work on than a typical chapter. He also says Chapter 4 will be a “much more standard chapter”.

September 14th – The fourth newsletter is delivered

Chapter 3 is now playable from start to finish and is (presumably) undergoing testing and polish.

[putschki1969]

Kaji Fes.2023 Day 1 FULL Video [Reupload]

Find the original post from last night HERE. It doesn't show up on the Tumblr dashboard so only people who actively check my blog have seen it. I exchanged the video with an official one so I guess it might have been a copyright issue. Don't think I've ever had one, very interesting.

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I was quite excited to watch this since I only attended Day 2 last December. I didn’t necessarily regret not going for Day 1 but there were a couple of really neat songs in the setlist that I kinda wished I had been able to see performed live. The audio seems a bit dull but maybe it’s just me… Anyway, it’s still a pretty epic live. Please note that they decided to cut a handful of songs from the broadcast (probably to keep the whole thing at roughly 2 hours). The following songs are not included: fake garden, canta per me, she has to overcome her fear, I beg you and 砂塵の彼方へ.

Here are some random thoughts┗(•ˇ_ˇ•)―→

fake garden

canta per me

the world: Nothing much to say here. Decent performance but I liked the song more when it was led by Keiko.

Liminality: Loved, loved, loved this version with the amazingly talented Yuri Kasahara, Keiko and Kaori. The bridge here might be my favourite of all time.

in the land of twilight, under the moon: Never been a fan.

swordland: Another highlight for me. I think it’s easy to tell that I am a real sucker for YK’s guest vocalists that use a more operatic singing style.

she has to overcome her fear

luminous sword: Always been a big fan of Yuki’s SAO soundtrack. I understand why it gets performed a lot.

星屑: Even though this is a Keiko-centric song, I’ve never really liked it all that much so I don’t have much to say about it.

花守の丘: Solid.

ｗe’re gonna groove: Those who have followed me for a while know how I feel about the accordion. I dislike this instrument with a passion and it’s just featured way too heavily here. Fun fact, when Day 2 started with the accordion, I got really scared and wondered whether or not I would enjoy myself.

Obsession: Can’t say I’ve ever heard this song before. Sadly, it’s nothing that leaves a lasting impression. Also, that accordion…(¬_¬) Weird choice for LINO LEIA. It was fun hearing Keiko sing a bit of English though.

千夜一夜: Once again, not familiar with the song. Like this one a bit more though. Generally, I think I prefer rito’s vocals over LINO’s even though I don’t really know why.

Point Zero: This is one of my all-time favourite YK songs and one of the few tracks I really regret not seeing live on Day 1. Another epic performance by Yuri Kasahara. God, I love her so much.

salva nos: Speaking of regrets, yup, I’ll admit it, I am pretty bummed that I missed this one. “salva nos” and “a song of storm and fire” were the very first YK songs I ever listened to and they quite literally changed the trajectory of my life. Without those two songs, I wouldn’t have looked into more of YK’s stuff and I certainly wouldn’t have discovered Kalafina. One day, I wanna be there for a live performance. At least I got to hear “a song of storm and fire” on Day 2. So grateful for that!! Anyway, super epic.

花の唄: No thoughts.

I beg you

櫂: Ahh, I almost forgot about Aimer’s Mizu no Akashi 2.0. It’s so funny to me that this is literally copy/paste. Lovely melody, I don’t even mind the vocals all that much but damn, it’s not even coming close to Wakana’s Mizu no Akashi.

朝が来る: Decent but nothing to write home about.

My Story: Ohhh, another score track from “Hanako to Anne”. I was actually blown away by Day 2’s “希望の光”. This is not as good but still quite nice. Weirdly enough I am obsessed with the uilleann pipes. How come I can’t stand the accordion but I absolutely love this instrument? Probably because I am really into the celtic sound?

Parallel Hearts: Ugh, never liked this song, not even when Wakana was still around.

stone cold: This on the other hand is a song I’ve always enjoyed but with Wakana no longer in the picture, it’s just not the same. Will never get used to the Kaori chorus. Sorry T_T Still like this though.

the image theme of Xenosaga II: Good stuff.

蒼穹のファンファーレ: Love that this is focusing on the FJ regulars. My favourite performance of the song so far.

[goron-king-darunia]

Asked for my thoughts on the contenders so here goes:

Team Heroes (Sonic, Tails and Knuckles): Classic. Sega honestly hit it out of the park with the characters, even if the gender distribution on trios is doomed to be unequal even when trios do make an effort because, well... we don't have lots of Enbies in pop culture yet. Still, Sonic and Tails and Knuckles are just excellent character design in general and even if they've been Flanderized to hell and back in newer games and media the interpersonal dynamics have always been fun. Carefree leader type, little buddy/brother type trying to earn and keep a place by the leader's side and not in their shadow, rival-turned-friend who's more serious but gets dragged into the antics anyway. Primary colors all working together. 10/10, no notes.

Team Lilac (Lilac, Carol and Milla): No idea who these are or where they're from but I like that this seems to be the exact opposite of the Sonic Team where we've got a gaggle of animal girls. They're also doing the secondary colors triad going which is super fun. The knot and tassle literally tying them together as a team is also stellar. I THINK just based on looking at them that they're a Rabbit, Cat, and Dog, but I could be wrong. Milla's got my fave design because I like big floppy ears as a stand in for long hair in animal character designs even though the actual hair on the character suggests a more sporty bob. Also the big chunky bracelets oh my goooooood, I love them.

Mario Bros. (Mario, Luigi and Wario): Wario is such a wildcard here. I would have gone with Peach. That said, I can see the three of these guys working together in a tenuous relationship. Mario to do what's right, Luigi to help his bro, and Wario for the financial incentive. Also, I kind of love how Nintendo has gone with these character designs and how subtle details tell you about them. Mario and Luigi have different colors of denim. Mario's is a brighter blue and it makes for a more friendly and outgoing but also a more literally stand-out design. This man is a walking advertisement for his business. He wants you looking. Luigi has a darker shade of denim. Meaning he either takes extra care of it in the wash or he likes a more subdued look. They both have patches on their hats. Actual embroidered and sewn on patches. Wario? No denim and the decal on his hat looks like hand-done iron-on which is cheaper than an embroidered patch. This guy is ACTIVELY aping the brothers' looks. This is a guy who avoids labor to work the back end if he can and he's 100% trying to steal clout. He's so greasy and evil, I hate (positive) him.

Maverick Hunters (X, Zero and Axl): Don't know them other than "Ah yeah, Megaman." They have classic chunky robot designs a la Tezuka's Astroboy. I assume X and Zero were designed as rivals or alternates considering their color scheme, but Axl's cocky grin is pretty fun.

Team Disgaea (Laharl, Etna and Flonne): Only know the name of the franchise and couldn't name these guys without outside help. Laharl has that fucking cocky little bastard vibe and I dig it. Especially with the two cowlick/ahoge/antenna hair things. Especially with the scarf he gives me such "Ratatosk" vibes. This guy would fuck with me on purpose, I want to bite him (positive.) Etna definitely has "artist's barely disguised fetish" thing going with the shiny, skin-tight leather-looking gear and thigh highs. Not helped by the fact she's not got big bazongas, actually. Flat-chested women certainly exist but it's a little uncomfy that she almost looks like a preteen. That said, big chunky bracelets are always a fuck yeah. The collar though? Depending on whether that character is a side character or edgy as hell it's either an "Oh dear" or a "fuck yeah" from me. She actually seems to have more room for her organs in her body than Laharl though, so that's a plus. Thank you for giving women waistlines whoever did the designs. Flonne is cute and has something between Playboy bunny girl and girlish night gown going which is kind of cute and the confidence sells it, but I don't know enough about the characters to know if this is just Japan being Japan with younger women/teens being used to peddle gooner bait to NEET guys or if the characters have at least some justification for being like that. I'm not against sexy designs but it's weird how the culture has fluctuated where some stuff aimed at teens is raunchy as heck and then stuff for adults has to be sanded down to vanilla nothing or amped up to goddang guro nastiness as if sex is something adults should be ashamed of or if they dare thinking about it at all then they must want hardcore stuff. IDK, just feels like stuff for adults could stand to fill out the spectrum more and stuff for teens should take stuff down, like, one notch. But then again I grew up in a generation where Sonic's Rouge the Bat was an awakening for a lot of young boys and girls so, uh, I'm probably not one to talk.

Knights of Ratatosk (Emil, Marta and Richter): *FERAL BARKING NOISES* Ahem. We all know where my vote's going. That said, I actually really love how these three have a character design harmony. Their hair is all at least a little muted and they run a small rainbow together of the warm colors and run from Richter's mostly muted accent colors to Marta's slightly brighter pinks to Emil's brightest blue. Excellent color synergy with them honestly and it makes me feel even more like if they had stuck with the original concept for the game being set way in the future that maybe these characters would have been teammates and not partners versus an antagonist. The stocking and long glove "kink" concept are done very subdued here so while I'm sure someone is getting their jollies off to it somewhere I find it much more tasteful than the Disgaea character design philosophy. Rule 34 and all that. It's impossible to find anything 100% vanilla but at least with Marta that's something I could imagine a real human wearing out and about and not just "here is the character eye-candy." But then again I'm the freak looking at Richter being mostly clothed and objectifying his ass from the age of teens to the age of however old I am now/in the future like "Yeah boy, what them coat tails doin', tho?" Kidnapping that grown man and stuffing him in a mason jar and hand-feeding him lettuce like a turtle and studying him for science, etc. etc. I want this guy exasperatedly trying to parent these two "kids" because he's the oldest and somebody has to be responsible here and Emil and Marta just absolutely running him ragged because Marta is head-strong as heck and Emil is a pushover so he's caught between thinking Marta knows what she's doing and wishing Emil had that confidence but also trying to talk her down from 90% of her decisions like "Jesus Christ girl, calm down."

Team K' (K', Kula and Maxima): I know zilch about these guys but I am getting vibes. Dark leather with so many seams, a cross, sunglasses, white hair. K' is a badboy type. Kick ass and take names badboy. Maxima has, and I hope this isn't just a me thing, sort of monkey-like features that are massively reading as Sun Wukong. I think it's how far down the hairline goes and how defined the brow ridge is and how close the sideburns come in. But the massive mech suit tells me the guy is tanky and probably a goofball deep down? Digging Kula's bright shiny rose-red fit with the gold and how it ties in with the blue as sort of a self-contained primary color thing but she seems such a stark contrast from the other two for having so much bright color at once.

Mitsurugi Agency (Es, Touya and Mei) Vaguely know Es and not much else. Nice to see a triad with 2 girls and one guy instead of just two guys and a token girl, but Mei's design philosophy almost seems too different from the other 2. Es has that sort of clothing appeal where the body of the skirt coming up under her breasts reads slightly as "Maid kink clothes" but the ruffles everywhere else and the boot ribbons say "nobility." The ahoge and hair floofs give her a sort of playful look even though her expression reads as Kuudere. Touya's open posture and soft smile are definitely approachable Lloyd-esque main protag, while the uniform is serving equal levels of schoolboy and military dress uniform to me. Mei has big clothes and a more closed off posture, so she seems intense, somewhere between a no-nonsense rival figure and a Tsundere type.

Gressenheller University (Layton, Luke and Emmy): My classic friend-shaped dorks. The earthy tones of the Layton cast always gives off an air like they're from a weathered old scroll and I love it so much. The chunky and almost scribbly minimal linework too. There's also a VERY subtle shape language thing going on in addition to playing with the Primary Color Triad. Layton is ever so slightly more square/rectangular than the others, Luke is more round, and Emmy is more angular, even though they all have a variety in their silhouettes. The red band and the russet shirt make Layton an earthier red than usual in the Primary Triad but next to Luke's muted blue and Emmy's warmer yellow it works really well. Anyway I cannot believe I got into Layton so late. I remember seeing it when it first came out but based on the puzzles on the back I was like "Eh, this feels like kid stuff." But when I heard it was good I started picking up the new stuff and then had to get my hands on EVERYTHING because they were so good and so fun. I understand they wanted to make the games approachable for younger kids but man they really almost missed me with their marketing and I nearly never played their games and what a terrible waste that would have been.

Cunning Hares (Nicole, Anby and Billy): Once again, don't know them, but enjoy the two girls and one guy dynamic. Nicole has an excellent posing. Personality readable instantly. Bratty and cocky and a tiny bit snooty but very perky and confident and unconventional. The belt thing is just a Japan thing at this point. Used to be the hallmark of Kingdom Hearts games for me and now it's just everywhere. And though I really like the fluffy torn "too short" short shorts on her, the strap that's sort of like a waist garter along with the unbuckled belt makes me think "Girl, do you need money for pants that actually fit?" Like, I enjoy the design and the way it looks on her but it also makes it look like she understands that one wrong move will have those shorts popping off of her. The big long loose loop is effective at carrying the flow of her big pink hair downward but I'm not sure what it's meant to be practically. Anby has a much more sensible style choice from how she shows less skin. Reads much more combat-oriented than Nicole. That safety clip style belt also reads as a much more no-nonsense practical choice since it's secure but also easy to undo if she needs to take off (I assume) the gear that seems to be on her back? I'm guessing either big gun or sheath for that sword thingy. Billy has the white hair, red clothes, AND a mask, so immediate mysterious badboy rival vibes. Big Belt, Thigh pouch, gun, ab armor, and leather jacket all give off the sort of cyberpunk equivalent of a cowboy vibe? It serves "rural and practical gunslinger" but also cocky and techy city-slicker. Very interesting design philosophy.

FrostFire (Juliette, Dubu and Estelle): Again, don't know them. Juliette has that kind of figure that makes me go "where are her organs!" Every time I see thighs that big under a waist that small I'm always like "how? How are you eating enough to keep those hams all muscled or fattened up with no internal organs?" I understand a lot of thin character designs are in a sort of race to the bottom because we're so used to seeing them that we slowly stop seeing them as exaggerations of thinness so characters just have to keep getting thinner and thinner for use to read their silhouettes as "thin" but holy cow. She definitely has sporty vibes. And once again the trio play up the Primary Color combo, but it seems like this time the lead is firy and the rival is a cool and collected type. I cannot get over how small Dubu's head looks. Can't take him seriously. Warm yellow and big round body definitely give gentle, soft, and tanky buddy but WHY HEAD SO SMOL?! XD I feel like he curls up like a Goron and rolls everywhere. Estelle definitely reads as an icy character, especially with the name and blue scheme. Long wavy hair, floral designs on the pauldrons, and the sleek black and white are giving battle maiden and nobility vibes.

El-Alcangel (Grave, Bunji and Quartz): Don't know them, and the more realistic style and close shots make it hard for me to read their designs. Grave has a name and design philosophy that reads as packrat loner nomad type. Like he never stays in one place too long. Mercenary vibes. Bunji has a more "protagonist" vibe, and the veins and cigarette thing suggests he has some sort of mysterious power and probably fights in an unusual way rather than straight forward. If he fights at all. He's giving more weasel vibes, like a guy that does stuff from the shadows or works the back of house while everyone else is up front doing the dirty stuff. Quartz has equal parts dress and armor but also equal parts boobs and ass in that shot which reads very squarely to me as equal parts sexy assassin and feisty eye-candy in terms of design. But I'm doing all of these off the cuff so who knows! Maybe I'm wrong!

Anyway, that's all of them @annon-guy2. Hope you enjoyed.