#first attempt on trying to get the colours to match up better... work in progress on that learning

[jmflowers]

every time you're close to me, I bite my lip until it bleeds | maya x carina

[elvenbeard]

Then and now - shippy edition! 💜

Enabled and inspired by @pinkyjulien @humberg @arcandoria @breezypunk @kharonion and everyone else who's done something similar XD My little VP and modding journey featuring Vince and Kerry over the last few months!

So, I figure, most of you can relate to my disappointment when I realized at the end of my first playthrough that there's so little interaction possible with the main NPCs outside of their respective questlines. The text messages your LI sends you are adorable, yes. Being able to sleep in their bed and then waking up next to them? A+ game design, 100/100, every game with romances needs this. But where is my option to hug, kiss, spend time with Kerry? Rude!!

Still though, I was undeterred to create some shots for my new favourite blorbos with my vanilla game (I had never heard of AMM then (or at least was too chickenshit still to install it)).

2023/Feb/06

Behold, my first attempts at creating something shippy (and I do still like these a lot) - title: Kerry meets Nibbles.

The idea behind this is probably kinda self-explainatory XD I had these as desktop background for so long, it feels so nostalgic to look back at them now. I think I have some slightly edited versions somewhere but cannot find them for the life of me, but there's no big difference really, just some slight colour/contrast editing.

I was always a bit bummed out by the fact that Kerry's default outfit for idling at the villa is the one with sunglasses on (while over the progression of his questline he wears it less and less as he gets to know V better, as if he is letting his guard down). But oh well! Also yes, that was and still is my favourite photomode pose for V really, because it is very versatile:

But that's... really it when it comes to opportunities for shippy moments outside of the quests.

2023/Feb/09

I was yearning for more!! As you can see, these are only 3 days apart. I had done some research and learned about the "[NPC] Interactions Enhanced" mods that I highly recommend for the options to kiss and hug your LIs alone :3 And! More shippy shot opportunities, because Kerry will finally be somewhere else in his huge-ass villa besides the sofa or the bed, and take off those beloathed sunglasses:

Hhhh.... I can't tell you how happy I was about this shot. I remember yelling to my friends on Discord about it half in tears (none of them really knowing much about the game yet apart from my occasional screaming about all the angst and plot twists). I think I described it as "Vince finally feeling some actual, real happiness, daring to imagine a future", just content and relaxed, having a late night talk with Kerry. I still like it a lot, and because of the mod enabling me to take this pic I still low-key wanna look into quest-modding some day and see if I can make something in a "romance-enhanced" direction. The "Kerry calls V and wants help with cleaning up the villa" quest we all deserve xD

2023/Feb/12

Another couple of days later, and with one toe dipped into modding now, I finally installed AMM (I think, since this was around Valentine's Day, this must've been when I saw a tutorial by @pinkyjulien on how to pose your blorbos for kissing poses with AMM, and my mind was blown XD). My first attempt to even get anything accomplished was kinda frustrating though (because I wanted to do too much too quickly). In a couple of the other "then and now" posts I saw earlier that the more common approach for getting into AMM used to be "swap your characters with NPCs around the city" and I was like.... "oh, yeah, that would've made things a lot easier" 🤡 Nope, I went right in with spawning them in and trying to squish them together with poses that somewhat matched XD

The following were my first AMM-posed screenshots that worked how I wanted them to, and aösdhfdsaf I am somewhat self-conscious about them still. What is a "look at" feature? What are expressions?

I never shared these publically before but hhhhh... this is it, this is the moment where the brainrot started. They're at Dark Matter, talking about V's childhood in Charter Hill, musing about how it's insane how they both occupied almost the same spaces for such long periods of their lives and only never ran into each other due to their age difference. I'm actually still (slooooowly) working on a little comic with this scene/story as topic, cause it is so essential and important to me (based on a random spontaneous decision I made about V's past before even knowing the Dark Matter existed... right across from V's childhood home asdöasdhfjds. Setting the whole "we were destined for each other" trope I have going on with them so much in stone ;A;). This is one of the shoots I'd also really like to redo with my current VP skills... maybe when I've finished my hand-holding poses, cause yeah... hand holding ;__;

Speaking of which:

2023/Jul/13

Five months later, still stupidly in love with each other, still regularly back at the Dark Matter because the place is so gorgeous and important to them. Kerry's getting some more outfits slowly but surely (even with sunglasses!), I have a much better understanding of AMM and the VP possibilities in general now. These two unlocked completely new ways of creative expression for me that I wouldn't even have dreamed of possessing or wanting to follow. VP has become such an amazing creative outlet, for creating all those little scenes I wish I existed in the base game, or which I'd love for them to have in their future.

Am I crying about fictional pixel men too much? Maybe. But over a short period of time they've become so important to me, and I got to meet so many cool and inspiring people in this community after not really feeling part of or even drawn to creating for a fandom for a long time anymore. Can't wait to update this post some time in the future to see where my and their journey will lead to!

I feel like my progress is kinda slow, and I wish I had more time to dedicate to them and all my creative endeavours, cause they'd deserve it for all the joy they bring me xD But alas... Fingers crossed for more spare time and better time management in my future! Thanks for reading this far and coming to my blorbo talk 💜

[reid-me-a-story]

I Need a Doctor

Based on the song “Doctor” by Jack Stauber

Synopsis: Reader is pining after her best friend, but after a drunken night and a failed attempt at seduction things start to look up for her

A/N: This is my first ever fan-fiction and WOOF was it a beast! This is based off a song that reminded me of Spencer some how, see the lyrics below!

Although this is a self insert one-shot, reader is never introduced as (y/n), I personally find it distracting in fan fiction to have to skip over that so instead of (y/n) there is use of pet names when needed. Any defining features such as height , hair colour, etc. is not specified including weight - however Spencer does pick reader up. Smut is included but if you aren’t comfortable reading it then feel free to stop about halfway through when there’s a little breaker in the story!

Couple: Spencer Reid/Fem!reader* (please read content warnings!)

Category: Angst/smut[18+] (and a little bit of fluff, all around a pretty wholesome story)

Content warning: Idiots in love, unrequited love (happy ending I promise!), drinking, unprotected sex, breeding kink, oral (male and female receiving), Fingering, Swearing, use of pet names (baby, princess, Little girl), teensy bit of degradation. *Let me know if I missed any!!*

Word count: 4.2k

Lyrics: Verse: Sarah Vanessa, Jack Stauber]

I need a doctor, oh

I'm not a doctor but I think I might be able to help

It's not a simple symptom, no

My diagnosis is that no one has been treating you well

[Chorus: Sarah Vanessa, Jack Stauber]

So, what do you prescribe?

Love's the only medicine

Is this a lie?

No, take three of these a da-ay

Oh, I think I'm cured

Cool, are you alright on your own?

No, I'm not sure...

Okay

[Outro: Sarah Vanessa]

Oh, I think I'm sick again...

*gasp

After three years of pining after your co-worker and best friend you decided to try to fill the void caused but the unrequited love.

You knew you wanted to be with Spencer since your first day, however it seemed that all he wanted was a friend. You guys were close and spent a lot of time together but it never seemed to progress. You once thought about taking the reins and asking him out, thinking that maybe he was just nervous. You grossly misread that situation and thank god you didn’t ask because the next day you over heard him telling Derek about a girl he wanted to ask out.

After that you started to isolate yourself from Spencer. You loved him but he didn’t feel the same. Garcia and JJ tried to make you feel better by telling you that it would never last with this new girl. You wanted to believe it but actions speak louder than words. Not only were you keeping a bit more distance from Spencer but he seemed to be cancelling plans left and right.

While you never made any new plans you would always spend every Saturday together when you weren’t on a case. Sometimes you guys would do something as extravagant as a play or spending the day touring a museum exhibit - something you wouldn’t nearly be as interested in if Spencer wasn’t your tour guide. Other times your days would be spent watching old reruns of your favourite shows or having Spencer read to you. Those days were your favourite because listening to Spencer’s smooth melodic voice always seemed to calm you down even at your most stressed out.

Since you over heard Spencer tell Derek about this girl he wanted to ask out he’s been cancelling your Saturday plans. It didn’t bother you at first but it’s been almost 5 weeks and you’re getting quite hurt by it. He still talks to you at work or spends time with you when you are on cases and dismissed for the day but it’s not the same.

Today is Friday and Garcia came skipping through the glass doors straight for you. “Hello, my beautiful human! Since we have no case do you want to have a Girls night tonight? JJ and Emily are coming! Please come!” She begs.

You debated declining so you can spend your weekend in solitude, sulking over your best friend but the look in Garcia’s eyes made you reconsider. “Okay sure, where are we going?”

Penelope squealed “Ahh! Okay awesome! We’re going to be going to this cute little Italian restaurant and then heading next door to this bar! It has really good Yelp reviews and - OOH maybe we can get you a hunk to take home tonight and-“

That got Spencer’s attention and his head whipped up to look at Penelope. While his eyes darted over to you to gauge your reaction to Penelope’s comment, you both locked eyes. You thought you saw him silently beg you not to go out tonight but you ignored it and stood up.

Penelope was still chattering away while you were packing up so you can go home to freshen up. You really didn’t want to get set up with some random guy but it might fill the void that is still there. Once Penelope gives you an opening you ask her what time to be ready for. She tells you that she will pick you up at 7. You thank her and head home.

Once you pass the barrier to your apartment you relax your shoulders, not realizing how tense you had been all day. The dread of going out tonight started to really sink in. If you were being honest with yourself you would have loved to have spent the night sitting in silence reading a book that reminded you of anything except Spencer but instead you agreed to go out and get drunk with your co-workers. Great.

You hop into the shower and take your time drying your hair. Just as you finish putting your makeup on and getting dressed Garcia texts you that she’s outside. You throw on your jacket and slip your heels on and walk outside.

After a really nice dinner you found yourself 6 shots in at the bar next door. You were fending off a really persistent guy when your phone goes off. You notice that it’s Spencer and you’re able to use it as an excuse to get away from the guy thats hitting on you. Despite how much you want to fill the emptiness that you feel without him you don’t want to just sleep around to do it.

You step outside into the cool air and answer your phone. “Hello, Doctor” you slur

“Hey... I - I uh...” Spencer stutters. You can tell he wants to say something but instead of waiting your tipsy mind forced the words out of your mouth

“I need a Doctor” you were attempting to be seductive but based on Spencer’s reaction you figured it didn’t come across right away

“Oh my god, stay where you are I’m going now” then the call drops.

“Shit” you say to yourself. You head back in to the girls. This is the last thing you wanted. Or is it? You’ve been dying to spend time with him outside of work for weeks. It sucks that you’re drunk for it but by the time he shows up and comes inside you are absolutely buzzing with excitement.

Spencer looks around the bar quickly for you. Before he locks eyes with you, you try to take in his appearance. He looks worried, his hair is messy and his curls look like they’ve been stretched by his hands running through them. Once he looks at you his shoulders relax and he lets out a deep breath.

“Hi” he breathes once he reaches you, he looks relieved to see you look physically okay.

“Hi Dr. Reid, fancy seeing you here” you slur and reach out to touch his arm. Before you make contact though you pull back; knowing how he is about touch. He ignores that and pulls you in for a bone crushing hug.

“I was worried about you” he whispers into your hair. Your heart starts beating faster the longer he holds onto you and you bury your face in his chest, inhaling his scent. He always smells good to you, like old paper and coffee. He smells like home and you start to tear up.

He feels you shudder and pulls back and notices your tears. “Hey, hey, what’s going on are you okay? Didn’t you say you needed a Doctor?”

“Oh yea,” you whisper “ typical drunk girl crying, it’s no big deal. Aren’t you a Doctor? I just need you”

“Do you want me to drive you home?”

You shake your head “Can I stay over at your place instead?”

He looks hesitant but agrees nonetheless. You both wave goodbye to the girls and he leads you out to his car by the small of your back. When you get to the car Spencer opens the door for you and makes sure you’re buckled in before going and sliding into the drivers seat. You turn on the radio at a low volume so you don’t have to sit in the awkward silence.

Once you get to his apartment he gets out and walks around to open your door. You get out and he leads the way upstairs. You make your way inside and as soon as you pass the threshold of his front door you don’t know what to say. He’s the first to break the silence. “Do you want some water? Maybe some Tylenol? If might help you feel better”

“O-okay” you stutter. You follow him into his kitchen and take the glass filled with water from him. You take a huge sip and put the glass down.

Just when he opens his mouth to say something you blurt out the question that’s been burning in your mind since it happened, “Spencer, why did you call me?”

He opens and closes his mouth a few times before saying “It’s stupid really, don’t worry about it,” and before you’re able to respond he asks “ Do you want some clothes to change into? Might be more comfortable than what you have on”

You nod and he leaves, he comes back in a few minutes with a button up Pyjama shirt with little dinosaurs on them with matching pants. You go to walk away but he grabs your hand. You turn to look at him when he pulls you into a hug again. “I miss you” he whispers.

The admission makes your eyes prick with tears. Instead of saying anything through your scratchy throat you just nod and hug him tighter. You both stand like that for a few moments before you pull away. Your skin is on fire from his touch and you can’t stand it anymore. You advert yourself eyes from him so you don’t have to look at him trying to read your thoughts through your eyes. You’re afraid he would hear the truth in your thoughts about how much you love him.

You slip into the bathroom to change quickly and when you emerge you find Spencer standing by the bed waiting for you. When he hears the door open he looks at you and you can hear him take a deep breath. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it” he whispers under his breath.

Trying not to break the silence too much you whisper back, “Get used to what?”

All the time in the world could not have given you the preparation to hear the next words that he chose to say.

“How effortless beautiful you look.”

“WHAT?” Your inner voice screams. Tears prick the corners of your eyes for the third time that night. “Please don’t Spencer.”

“Don’t what?”

“Don’t say things like that and expect me not to love you”, You say just barely above a whisper.

Spencer closes the distance between you and gently pushes a few loose strands of your hair behind your ear. You try to keep your eyes on your hands that you hold between you and Spencer but he pulls your attention to his eyes. “What if that’s what I want?”

Before you can respond he closes the final distance between you two. His lips are soft and full against yours. His hands move to your hair and yours gravitate to his shoulders. He tastes like coffee and mints and the taste is almost as intoxicating as the liquor you drank earlier in the night.

You push him back towards the bed and he sits on the end. You go to straddle him but he stops you with a hand in your waist. “We shouldn’t..”

“Oh.. y-yea, I understand” you say defeated.

“Oh god, no. Trust me. I want to- I want to so bad but you’re drunk and you’re not thinking clearly. I’ve wanted this for so long you don’t understand but I’d don’t want you to wake up and regret anything-“

You cut his rambling off with a kiss and he immediately relaxes. You pull back with a sigh and a tiny smile while nodding in understanding.

Spencer stands up, kissing your forehead before disappearing into the bathroom. You start to head out into the living room when you hear him call out “Where are you going?”

“To sleep on the couch, I don’t want to intrude.”

“The beds big enough for the both of us,” he states before quickly adding with a small blush, “I- uh- unless you aren’t comfortable with that”

You blush in return and slowly pad your way over to Spencer’s bed. You pull back the covers off your side and slide in, Spencer stretches out his long legs, reaching over and pulling you into him by your waist. You rest your head in his chest and start dozing off to the sound of his heart beating.

Just before you succumb to your sleep you hear him whisper into your head “I love you”

———

You wake up to the smell of coffee and the Saturday morning sun beaming through the windows. You go to stretch out and realize that you’re not at home but instead at Spencer’s, in his bedroom, in his clothes. Last nights confessions flood your memory and you smile to yourself. He loves you. Spencer Reid loves you.

Despite your pounding headache you can’t help but jump out of bed and pad into the kitchen. You see Spencer standing by his coffee maker. As soon as he spots you his eyes fill with something you just can’t quite place, and a small smile lights his face. You slowly step towards him and jump onto the counter, sitting right next to the coffee maker.

“Good morning” you say as softly as possible, as to not disturb the peacefulness of the morning.

Instead of answering in words, Spencer laces his fingers into your hair and pulls you forward to kiss you softly. When you both break away to replace the air in your lungs he finally speaks, “Good morning, beautiful. How do you feel? How’s your head?”

“No complaints” You joke, while winking at him.

The innuendo is lost on him for a few seconds before he laughs and says “No you dork! Your headache!”

“Ah, I’ll manage. Is there enough coffee there for me?”

“Always, anything for you”

You two drink your coffee in silence; with you playing with Spencer’s free hand, and him trying to memorize every second of this morning. Spencer finishes his coffee first and places his cup down on the counter. With his now empty hand, he starts playing with your hair, running his hands through the soft locks.

You soon finish your cup and pull him to stand in between your legs. “I think,” you say sneakily “I think I need a doctor”

“What do you mean?” Spencer asks

“Hmmm well I think you might be able to help me, Doctor” you whisper in his ear while running your hands up and down his chest. You hear his breathing start to get heavy. When your nails get close to the waistband of his sweats his breath catches in his throat and a soft moan escapes instead.

“What seems to be the problem?” He says, voice low and husky.

“Mmmm” you sigh “Well Doctor, my symptoms aren’t simple, think you can handle it?”

“I don’t think anyone has been treating you right.” He moans softly again as one of your hands start to play with the hairs at the nape of his neck.

“So what do you prescribe, Dr. Reid?”

“Me.” He claims before slamming his mouth against yours. The kiss is hungry and Spencer quickly dominates it. His hand move from your hair down to you waist and the other hand moves to the front of your borrowed sleepwear, pulling at the drawstrings. You feel heat bloom between your thighs. You never expected him to be so aggressive but you loved it. You loved him, and you wanted him- now.

“Mm Spencer, please..” you moan between heated kisses.

Spencer chuckles and starts kissing down your jaw and neck “What baby? What do you need” he mumbles against your skin.

“You.” You moan breathlessly. He growls against the skin of your neck while slowly sliding his hand into your pyjamas. Once he reaches the waistband of your underwear he pulls back to look into your eyes - silently asking for consent.

“Please, Spencer. I need you! Please!” He smiles and reaches into your underwear and is fingers slide past your folds feeling the wetness from how turned on you were.

He moans when he feels you. “Oh wow baby, you’re so wet. Is this all for me?”

“Yes Spence, all for you.” You breathe out between a soft moan.

“Good. You’re mine, baby” he finally sides one of his long fingers between your folds and starts pumping his hand slowly- curling a finger up to press against that sweet spot inside of you, causing a guttural moan to leave your throat. He withdraws his hand and you whine at the loss. He gives you a look and its intensity stops any sounds from escaping except for soft pants.

He signalled for you to lift your hips and he pulled you towards the edge of the counter. He pushed your knees apart and kneeled down. The sight of Spencer looking up at you between your legs almost made you finish right there and then - you let out a low groan. He chuckles and moves forwarded starts nipping at your inner thigh, never taking his eyes off you.

He kisses everywhere except where you want him. Whines escape your mouth before you can stop them and you can feel him smile against your leg. Finally showing you a little bit of mercy and finally licked a thick stripe up in between your folds. Spencer lean out a low moan against your sex, “You taste so good, baby”

Your back arches and you throw your head back. Your breathing picks up and one of your hands grip his hair. You tug on his Chestnut curls - hard “Spencer, please! more… fuck - please!”

“What do you need princess?”

“You, Spence! Pl - uhh - Please!” You scream at him.

“Anything for you,” he adds, before adding two fingers in the mix. He thrusts his fingers in and up towards that spot inside you while flicking his tongue over your clit. Your eyes roll back and you let out a deep moan. You never thought that your best friend, the man who is perpetually awkward around women would be this good. Looking down towards him you see that his eyes haven’t left you - its like he’s trying to memorize every movement your body makes. The knowledge of Spencer watching you come undone combined with the pleasure coursing through your veins sends a wave of euphoria crashing over you.

“Fuck!” You scream out as you ride out your orgasm, one of the most intense of your life if you’re being honest. When you finally come down and try to catch your breath you look down towards where Spencer is and his eyes are wide while staring at you.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful, baby” He jumps up and crashes his lips on yours and you can taste yourself on his lips and tongue. You moan into his mouth and reach down towards the waistband of his sweats pulling them down with his boxers. You watch his cock spring up and slightly gawk at the size of him. He’s bigger than anyone you’ve been with and you tell him as much. Before he can respond you jump down off the counter while pushing him towards the wall beside you so he has some sort of support.

You lick a thick stripe from the base of his shaft before leaving a small kiss to the tip, tasting the salty pre-cum. You take the head into your mouth and hollow out your cheeks while taking more in. What you can’t fit in your mouth you pump with your hand.

You look up at Spencer through your lashes; he’s looking back down at you, with his hand balled into a fist pressed up against his mouth. You hate that he’s silencing himself from you so you reach up and grab his hand to place it at the back of your head - giving him permission to fuck your face at his pace. He’s trying to be gentle but after a few strokes with you hollowing your cheeks he can’t help but buck his hips further into your mouth - causing you to gag. You swallow around him and he slides deeper. Your nails are digging into his thighs leaving ten, small angry red crescent moon indents behind. He thrusts slightly deeper causing you to gag and tears to slide down your face, “come on baby, I know you can take me deeper”

At the sound of his voice you hum, causing his hips to buck into your mouth again. “Fuck!” He pulls out and continues “Don't wanna cum there. I wanna fill you up baby. Do you want that? Do you want me to fill that tight little cunt up?”

You moan and nod excitedly and Spencer grips the back of your thighs, signalling you to jump. He carries you into the bedroom with you laying kisses and leaving marks over his jaw and neck. You find a sensitive spot just below his ear that causes his breath to get caught in his throat. Once you both enter the room he places you gently on the bed, climbing in-between your legs and kissing your lips and down towards your neck. He starts to unbutton your pyjama shirt while leaving small red and purple love bites over your neck and chest. Once he finally removed the last article of clothing on you he takes a step back to admire your body. Usually this would cause you to be self-conscious; meaning you would usually cover yourself with your hands or a blanket. Something in Spencers eyes calmed you and made you relax. He made you feel beautiful just by the look in his eyes - and he said so in just as many words, “ You’re so beautiful baby, do you know that?”

“Please Spence, I need you inside me! I need you to fuck me right now or else I might die…” You whine

“Well, we can’t have that” He chuckles. Spencer pulls off his t-shirt and kneels in-between your legs, pulling one over his shoulder, one hand on your thigh and the other on your waist, He thrusts in and bottoms out completely - causing you to yell out in surprise. “You make such pretty noises baby… how many more can I get out of you, huh?”

Spencer sets a brutal pace, thrusting into you deeper than you thought was possible. Your hands desperately try to grab anything to hold on to. One settles on the hand gripping your waist tightly, surely leaving bruises that you could only hope would last. Your other hand reaches forward - scratching your nails down his chest and leaving red welts behind in its wake - causing Spencer to let out a guttural moan. He leans forward, dropping your leg to his elbow to relieve the pressure, and kisses you deeply. His hand leaves your waist and he presses his thumb to your bundle of nerves, pressing slightly and rubbing small circles over it. “ I want you to come for me baby. come on little girl, you can do it”

You couldn’t defy him even if you wanted to. Your body gave into his wishes and crashed into the wall at full speed. Spencer kept the same pace as he fucked you though your orgasm. “Oh what a good girl. come on baby, one more for me…”

“One mo-ore? Spenc-! Fuck!”

“Yes, one more beautiful. Fuck- I know you can do it baby. One more and I’ll fill you up with my cum. You’d - fuck!- like that, huh? You’d like - ugh - to be my dirty… little …cum-slut… wouldn’t you?”

Your eyes rolled back at his words. You could barely believe what you were hearing. His words sent you over the edge for your third and final time. Your entire body shuddered from overstimulation and pleasure. Spencer moaned loudly and you felt him twitch inside you, his cock painting your walls with his cum. Just as he starts to pull out you reach forward and beg with wide eyes “No! Stay! I want you to keep it in me, please Spence, please! I need-“

He cuts you off with a kiss and presses back into you, holding you as close as he can - trying to follow your wishes. After a few minutes he started to soften, he slowly pulled out of you despite your protests. He shushed you with a few quick kisses to your lips and quickly ran to the washroom to get a damp washcloth. He wiped between your legs as gently as he could without overstimulating you too much.

Spencer flopped down beside you, grabbing you and pulling you into his side. He starts slowly kissing your lips, cheeks, forehead - really anywhere his lips could reach without having to let go of you. You giggle a little bit as he gets to a ticklish spot on your neck. “Well Doctor, I think I’m cured. I guess you were right, I just needed you”

“And three orgasms,” he deadpanned.

You both laugh a little at that. You look at him and that same look is in his eyes from before. You’re finally able to place it. “I love you, Spence.”

His eyes shine a little brighter and he leans forward to rest his forehead against yours. “I love you more, beautiful girl”

[blancamz]

“It’s Over Isn’t It” Reanimation progress

Honestly one of my favourite parts about animating is posting the WIPs online. Here’s the step-by-step of how I went about doing my reanimation for the end section of “It’s Over Isn’t It” from the Steven Universe episode Mr. Greg.

1) Idea and Prep

I was flicking through Steven Universe: Art & Origins. I think at the time I must’ve been between jobs or bored or something, because it came into my head to do a bit of animation based on the pilot style SU. I’ve always been quite fond of the pilot style, especially Pearl’s David Bowie / LaRoux look. The little tux design by Hellen Jo was quite snazzy as well, so I decided to have a go at doing a segment of “It’s Over Isn’t It”, using these designs.

I traced the turnaround from the book in Clip Studio Paint and approximated Jo’s design to it. At first I had the colour turnaround, but did the low-colour turnaround with the heads to give me a better idea of where the lines are and proportions of the body. I also get a clip of “It’s Over Isn’t It” and trim it down to the section I want to do.

This is a long one so strap in.

2) Sketch Pass

I’ll be using gifs that show the first 100-130 frames of the animation, because the full segment is 22 seconds long.

Very very loose animation of what I’m going to be doing with this segment, done in Adobe Animate. I have a video of the real segment in the corner of the stage and audio in the timeline, and closely reference them for layout and acting.

I’ve decided I want to go really nuts with the animation. Lots of angles on her face, smooth movement, secondary animation / follow-through on her various clothing elements. Technically her earring’s supposed to be on the other side but I want to animate that flailing around dangit, so I change it so it faces the camera.

3) Rough Pass

I tidy up the rough I did somewhat. It’s still very rough, but Pearl is better proportioned and the motion is more complete. I get a better idea of how she moves by focusing on drawing keys (the most important drawings) and breakdowns (drawings that help you figure out the motion a little bit, without full animation). I have Pearl, her suit, ruffles and earring on separate layers so I can turn things on and off or lower their opacity as needed.

4) Tiedowns

At some point between the rough and tie-down phase I realized that I’d been animating at 30fps instead of 25fps like I’d meant to, so I had to end up shifting all the roughs I’d been doing. Bad news: having to wrestle with getting the timings I’d so carefully planned out in the rough to still look good. Good news: I have to animate and clean up 5 fewer frames per second, so that’s 110 fewer drawings to worry about. Yussssss. For reference, the above clip has now gone from 132 frames to 107.

During the tiedown phase, I go over the roughs and more carefully try to match the proportions in the turnaround. I keep a flattened version of the first frame of animation to use as reference thoughout to prevent morphing. Sometimes when you’re animating, things will get bigger or small as you re-draw them, so it’s good to have a base drawing to refer back to and make the sizes stay consistent.

At this point I’m way more aware of reasons behind the big design change for Pearl between the pilot and the show. She’s so dang skinny and tall with that extra poof of hair up top that she’s really annoying to frame up. If you want to keep all of her in the frame, there’s going to be tons of empty space.

I also find that my turnaround isn’t enough reference for Pearl’s awkwardly-shaped head. I snap me a bunch of screenshots of pearl’s head from different angles and collate them into a big sheet.

5) Inbetweening

Inbetweening, aka filling out all the gaps in the timeline between the keys and breakdowns. If you’ve done your keys and BD’s well, inbetweening can be a pretty straight-forward.

But I’ve got like a million bits of secondary animation to content with, which means this still takes a significant amount of time. The hair and ruffles have to move a little later than the rest of the body, and some parts of the ruffles have to move at a different rate from the rest. I’m trying to animate like there’s wind since Pearl’s on top of a tall building. I keep animating until it feels good enough.

This is what my timeline and stage look like in Animate by this point. The animation is mostly on 2s, with some 1s, 3s and 4s thrown in when needed.

6) Cleanup and Colour

I did the cleanup in Toon Boom Harmony. As a program, I like it was more than Animate, even though it isn’t without it’s flaws. But it’s also really dang expensive. Fortunately, by this point I’d been working on the upcoming Deadendia series for Netflix. What with the pandemic, we were working from home and the studio gave me a license for Toon Boom. So I exported my frames from Animate, put ‘em in TB and started cleaning up.

I’ve found that cleanup is something that’s often offloaded to new or less experienced artists at studios because blah it’s just tracing the rough animation. But you’ve got good cleanup and bad cleanup, and a good cleanup artist will compensate for flaws in volume and have a good, clear and natural line.

I’m not terribly fond of doing cleanup myself. I feel I tend to end up rushing, which leads to sloppy work. I tried really hard to keep up a standard here.

7) Comping

a.k.a. Compositing, the final layering of the various elements before exporting a film. Another stage I don’t quite care for because of its nuances. Also drawing backgrounds.

I admit that I’m not very good at drawing backgrounds or environments. I tried to do the one for the second shot of this animation, since it was acutally really important. In shots 1 and 3, you don’t really see the ground or even the railing that Pearl is leaning on, but 2 is a wide shot. My first attempts at it were unfortunate. Fortunately my husband @joe-sparrow is both good at backgrounds and good at imitating the style and colour palette of the show. He volunteered to do the BGs and I accepted. See mine vs. his:

So yeah, get me some nice backgrounds, put the animation on top, then fiddle with a couple of elements in the comp to give things a little bit more depth. During this stage, errors that had happened during the animation progress that I hoped would just go away became annoyingly obvious, so there was a fair bit of going back to fix them.

So that’s how I done made this animation. I started April 2018 and posted in on January 1st 2021, so that’s over 1.5 years it took me to do these 22 seconds of animation. However, I wasn’t working on it continuously through that time. Sometimes I’d be working on it every day, other times I’d not touch it for weeks or months at a time. It really depended on how busy or whatever I was at the time. I think if I’d been working on it non-stop, it still would’ve taken me at least like 2-3 months to finish it.

If you made it to the end of this post, I hope you found all this information interesting.

Happy drawing.

It’s over, isn’t it.

[pleasinglyforeboding]

Update on my Good Omens doll project

There's been a lot of progress since my last update. Here's some summary pics, with details about the dolls and clothes under the cut.

I hope you like hearing about this project and I am happy to answer any questions you have about how things are made and what I'm planning next. I'm going to try and update more often, with posts about individual accessories and clothes, as I've gotten better with the techniques and things aren't taking me as long.

Link to part 1

Crowley's head: I've completely redone Crowley's head as I wasn't happy with Crowley's hair colour from the first attempt. It just wasn't red enough. But I couldn't reroot that head; It was one of my first ever reroots and I used too big a needle and split the vinyl in a lot of places. The scalp was barely holding it together and it wasn't going to hold up to pulling out the hair and doing another reroot. So I bought another one of the same doll (Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Finnick) and rerooted the hair with a custom blend of red and brown saran hair. This also meant I had to redo the face and tattoo. As before, I left the shape of the eyes untouched. This time, I gave him more on an arched eyebrow. This looks better over his glasses and allows for some more variety when photographed in profile. His hair needs a bit of restyle (it's gone quite flat but he should be able to get a body upgrade soon, so I am waiting for that). Long term I'd like to look into making his short hair cut but straight short hair is very difficult to achieve on a 1/6 scale doll.

Introducing Aziraphale!

Aziraphale's head is from the Divergent 'Four' doll. If you're familiar with that movie, you are probably thinking that Theo James looks nothing like Micheal Sheen and you would be correct. Fortunately for me, the Four doll doesn't look much like Theo James so that's fine. I chose this head sculpt because it has the roundest features of all the Ken head sculpts I could get at the time. I modified the nose a little by carefully sanding the tip back to try and get some of Michael’s lovely upturned nose. I haven't captured it fully but it's a bit closer. I've tried to get his irises a stormy sea blue/grey. I think it came out pretty well and looks a lot closer to Aziraphale than I thought I would be able to get. I think the rounded eyebrows were particularly important in achieving that look. I am still trying to think of a way to blend the empty plug holes around his hairline a bit better. The hair is tightly curled 'ash blond' nylon blend (I find nylon holds a curl a bit better than saran).

I'll post about the PROCESS it has been to give this man shaped being a suitably soft corporation in an separate post because it's been a saga and I still want to make some tweaks.

Soft angel is soft.

Clothes

I've gotten much better at sewing small clothes as part of this project. Long term, I am hoping to have made every part of their two main outfits myself. So far, I have made Crowley's jeans, and Aziraphale's shirt and trousers. Crowley has the 2008 outfit (where he has long hair) and the 2019 outfit (where he has short hair). I am hoping to eventually do the jacket and vest from each but have him use the same jeans and undershirt. We'll see how I go. I love trying to get all the little details, like the rivets on Crowley's jeans and the cuffs of Aziraphale's shirt. The waistcoats are next on my list and I have already made a practice waistcoat for one of my Barbies, just so I can understand a bit more about how they work (See below).

Tall English Professor Barbie needs some matching shoes!

If you’re interested in my other Barbie collecting and crafts projects, you can follow Barbie_and_things on instagram,

[destieltropecollection]

Destiel Trope Collection 2020 Day 1: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics

A Bite to Remember | @darmysasagiri

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1104 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Alpha, Top Cas/Bottom Dean, Mating Bites, One Night Stands Summary: Alphas can't mate Alphas, everyone knows this, or do they?

Oblivious Mates | @fangirlingtodeath513

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 1984 Main Tags/Warnings: Castiel/Dean Winchester,Castiel (Supernatural),Dean Winchester,Knotting,Mating Cycles/In Heat,Heat Sex,Rut Sex,A/B/O,Friends With Benefits,Consensual Somnophilia,Mating Bites,Misunderstandings,Lack of Communication,Fuckbuddies,Spooning,Cuddling & Snuggling,Naked Cuddling,True Mates,Scenting Summary: Dean and Cas have been heat/rut fuck buddies for a while now, but Dean's starting to get second thoughts. His feelings evolved a long time ago but now he's feeling guilty about holding Castiel back from finding his true mate.

Sun Warmed | @suckerfordeansfreckles

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 2586 Main Tags/Warnings: alpha Cas, omega Dean, first meeting, house-sitting, a bit of voyeurism Summary: Dean is a little bitter, but only in the safety and privacy of his own head, and definitely never around his brother and his new sister-in-law. Because those two really do deserve all the happiness in the world. And just because Dean wishes for a little happiness for himself, he will not ruin their bliss. The thing that’s a little hard on Dean, lately, is that during the past few months, Sam and Eileen’s new house somehow started to feel more like home than his own apartment does. He’s not even over that much, but he feels so safe and good and happy, here. It’s a space he feels like himself in, and it’s not really the company, it feels more like the energy around their house, the amazing smell seemingly haunting Dean when he drives back home and slowly loses it. He’s not sure which flowers Eileen planted that smell this way, but he’s been meaning to ask her for months. Currently, Sam and Eileen are in Hawaii for their honeymoon and Dean gets daily selfie updates while he house-sits for them. And somehow, during all of that and while accidentally flashing a guy, he figures out where that amazing smell comes from.

Essential Services | @Imbiowaresbitch

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 3444 Main Tags/Warnings: Roommates, omegaverse, explicit sex, top Cas/bottom Dean, alpha Cas, Omega Dean, mating bites, quarantine, pandemic, heat/rut sex Summary: Cas has been sent home to work as an unessential service. When he arrives, he realizes his roommate Dean clearly wasn't expect him to arrive. What happens when they finally give in to each other?

Kiss Me, Kill Me | @saltnhalo

Rating: Mature Word Count: 4668 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Omega Dean, Assassin Castiel (Supernatural), Guard Dean Winchester, Assassin Dean Winchester, Canon-Typical Violence, True Mates, Scenting, BAMF Dean Winchester, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural), Murder Husbands Summary: Seasoned hitman Castiel Novak is just looking to take out his target and get paid, but should've accounted for the fact that he may not be the only assassin at tonight's party... Cue the mysterious, green-eyed man who is more of a match for Castiel than anyone he's ever met.

Up On The Rooftop Greenhouse | @envydean

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 5017 Main Tags/Warnings: alpha!michael, omega!dean, Beta!Castiel, Arranged Marriage, truemates, defying truemates, fighting destiny, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Kisses, Wedding ceremonies, pack houses, mentions of potential abuse of power Summary: Michael Shurley is Dean Winchester's true mate. Except, Dean has been in love and dating the Winchester house gardener, Castiel Novak, for nearly three years and Dean doesn't want that to stop. He needs to find a way out of the impending wedding before it's too late, especially when Michael shows his true colours.

A Strange Place To Find Love | @navajolovesdestiel

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6159 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe, Alpha/Omega, Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Omega Dean, Heats, ruts. Knotting. Happy Ending Summary: The Alpha/omega Rut/heat Center was the brainchild of a ‘more progressive, more caring’ government. In reality, it was just a way to stop Alphas from jumping unmated omegas when they were in rut, and to stop unmated omegas from getting knocked up during a heat by some Alpha they picked up, then having to go on welfare because the Alpha wouldn’t pay pup support. Dean Winchester worked for the center as a willing omega. Castiel Novak decided to give it a try.

Steel and Whiskey | @saltnhalo

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6207 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Omega Dean, Mafia AU, Mobster Castiel, Mobster Dean Winchester, Mistaken Identity, Explicit Sexual Content, Top Castiel (Supernatural), Bottom Dean Winchester, Topping from the Bottom, Knotting, First Meetings, BAMF Dean Winchester, BAMF Castiel (Supernatural) Summary: When Castiel agrees to meet with the leader of the Winchester pack in the heart of his territory, he does not find the alpha he’s expecting. Instead, he meets an omega in Dean Winchester’s apartment with stunning green eyes and an alluring air of danger. Someone should have warned Castiel that the Winchester leader is not an alpha.

Just Here For A Good Night | @saltnhalo

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 6646 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe - College/University, Fraternities & Sororities, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Top Castiel, Bottom Dean, Team Dean's Red Ass, Dom/sub Undertones, Dom Castiel, Fluff, Frat Boy Castiel Summary: In which Dean is looking to get laid at an Alpha Phi Alpha party, and sets his sights on Castiel, who's just trying to make sure that nothing bad happens on his watch.

Are You Real, Dean Winchester? | Maleyah (AO3)

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 7447 Main Tags/Warnings: Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Rape/Non-con Elements (not between Dean and Cas), Mental Health Issues, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Dean Winchester, Omega Castiel, Mating Bond, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Medication, Near overdose, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hallucinations Summary: Castiel struggles to survive in a world that was never right for him to begin with. So far, he has always survived his turbulent mind... because despite everything, his broken brain, his loneliness, the never-ending struggle, he's a fighter. One night, exceptionally reckless, borderline overdosed on his meds, he wanders the streets, foregoing his self-preservation. Hoping for the end, almost finding it, unless his brain is throwing him for a loop again. ... Only to be found by Dean Winchester.

Did you get my reference? (WIP) | @spnsmile

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 8918 Main Tags/Warnings: Top dean w/ bottom castiel, explicit Summary: Take Dean, most handsome CEO with very pretty face and just your typical successful Alpha who owns his own company at the age of 30. But despite popular belief, Dean has one problem he needs to solve before an international conference: he hates the smell of unmated Omegas. Come Castiel, a clumsy word-class geek literature major who appeared in front of Dean in the middle of a raging river. His scent drives Dean's instinct to bite, plus he gets rid of all other scents in the air. Now Dean only has to convince him to be his plus one. Which means having a talking encyclopedia who trips in its own legs. How can Dean protect his high-wired True Mate from other Alphas and himself?

It's A Hard Knot Life | @navajolovesdestiel

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 10874 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe, Alpha/Omega, Alpha Dean Winchester, Omega Castiel, Punk Castiel, Rape, Tattoos. Knotting Summary: Dean walked up the counter and his nose was filled with the scent of peticior and sandalwood. He took a deep breath. The guy never looked up. Dean cleared his throat. Nothing. He rapped his knuckles on the counter. The guy didn’t look up, but he said, in a gravelly voice that gave Dean shivers, “Yeah?” “I was wondering if you had the latest CD by St Paul and the Broken Bones?” The guy looked up and Dean found himself looking into eyes so blue, he didn’t have a name for the color. The black eyeliner just accentuated their color. “We have a system here for finding things. It’s called alphabetically, you may have heard of it? That means the S’s are right between the R’s and the T’s.” Then he went right back to reading his book.

Black Rose Tattoo | @navajolovesdestiel

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 10989 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe, Alpha/Omega, Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Omega Dean, Tattoo Artist Castiel (Supernatural), Flower Shop & Tattoo Parlor. Explicit Sexual Content, Knotting, Pups, Dean is demisexual Summary: Dean heard the motorcycle before he saw it. He looked out the big front window of his shop, and waited until the cycle appeared. He watched the Alpha pull to the curb, stop the bike, get off and take off his helmet. He’d watched the same scene every day since he’d opened the flower shop next to the tattoo parlor. The Alpha shook his perpetually messy hair and walked to open his shop, out of Dean’s view. Dean sighed and went back to work.

Palaces of Rome (WIP) | @tucuxia

Rating: Mature Word Count: 11291 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Alpha Sam Winchester/Alpha Gabriel, Alpha/Alpha pairing, Alternate Universe - Ancient Rome, BAMF Castiel, BAMF Gabriel Summary: Despite his size and his father's expectations, Dean presented as an omega. Infertile, male omegas have no rights in Rome, so John arranges to sell him to the son of the Emperor in an attempt to provide his alpha son, Sam, a better life. Sam joins the army under General Gabriel's expert tutelage, swearing to become a warrior famous enough to buy his brother back. Dean accepts his place in the prince's harem, but he's about to stumble upon the biggest secret in Rome, one that has kept hundreds of thousands of male omegas enslaved for almost eight hundred years. The secret will either push Rome into an age of peace and prosperity or it will shatter one of the greatest empires in the ancient world.

Something Dark | kradarua (AO3)

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 16466 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Dean Winchester, Omega Castiel, Spanking, Under-negotiated Kink, Rough Sex, Rimming, Choking, Dom/sub Undertones, Thief Dean Winchester, Dark Dean Winchester, Dark Castiel, Dark Sam Winchester, Dark Charlie Bradbury, Possessive Dean Winchester, Illegal Activities, Torture, Sexual Slavery, Murder Husbands, Killer Castiel, Killer Dean Winchester, Top Dean/Bottom Castiel Summary: Castiel looked even wilder in person. Dean let his eyes roam over his (now fully clothed) form, smiling appreciatively. He inhaled deeply, curious to find no real trace of a scent. “He’s on scent blockers,” the employee explained. ""Running this auction is involved enough without having to settle claim disputes if an omega’s scent triggers some alpha’s rut.” That suited him fine; both he and Sam were on scent blockers most of the time and he’d planned on requiring that Castiel stay on them too. It helped with anonymity. “Thank you,” he said, “That will be all.” The employee gave a small bow and left to service the other high bidders. “Well, Cas,” Dean said cheerily, “Let’s go home.”

Porn and Peonies | @navajlovesdestiel

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 20865 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe Alpha/Omega, Porn Star Dean Winchester, Alpha Dean Winchester, Omega Castiel (Supernatural), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Mpreg, Mating, Switching Summary: When Cas accidentally meets his favorite porn star, Dean Smith, he's thrilled. He never expects what comes next with Dean Winchester, Alpha to his omega.

Mulanatural (WIP) | @tucuxia

Rating: Mature Word Count: 33385 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Castiel/Omega Dean Winchester, Alpha Sam Winchester, Beta Adam Milligan, Mulan (Disney) Summary: Dean Winchester is possibly the worst omega in his town; he's too big, too strong, and way too dominant. When the Matchmaker rejects his suit for a mate and the Huns invade China, he has to pretend to be an alpha to save his brother's life, but he may well lose his own in the process. Worse, he may dishonor his whole family.

A Symphony of Flavors | @wargurl83

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 43223 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Chefs, Minor Character Death (offscreen) - Freeform, Alpha Castiel (Supernatural), Omega Verse, thar be smut here, Top Cas/Bottom Dean Summary: Master Chef Castiel Novak likes his life ordered. Controlled. Sensible. He's an Alpha with no mate and no hope of finding one. His life is turned upside down with the death of his sister and taking guardianship of his nine-year-old niece, Claire. Add to that, there's a new sous chef taking up space in his very orderly kitchen with his loud music and brash attitude, and for some reason Castiel just can't take his eyes off him. Dean Winchester loves to cook, love his mom, and loves kids. His goal has been to work with Chef Novak for as long as he's been in Kansas City. What he wasn’t prepared for was an Alpha all of his own…

The Nuances of Pack Politics (WIP) | @tucuxia

Rating: Teen & Up Word Count: 72679 Main Tags/Warnings: Alternate Universe - High School, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Omega Castiel/Alpha Dean Winchester, ,Alpha Sam Winchester, Omega Gabriel Summary: Castiel and Gabriel Novak are having a hard time fitting into their new school, constantly harassed by older alphas now that they have lost the familiar protection of their own brothers. The Pack, a group that claims to welcome and protect omegas at their high school, may offer them a chance to change all of that, as long as they can get in.

Grown-Ups Making Grown-Up Choices | @carrieosity

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 81039 Main Tags/Warnings: Humor and Fluff, Pining, Self-improvement, Self-worth issues, Comedy, Awkward Flirting, Mating, Sexual Harassment, Threatened Non-Con (brief), Healthy Relationships Summary: Dean is a grown-ass man - he can take perfectly good care of himself, thank you very much. Except that sometimes the easier or more fun choices aren't always the right or best ones, and, all right, maybe thinking ahead and working the long game isn't his strongest suit. It's fine! He's fine. When he meets Castiel, he realizes that flying by the seat of his pants may not be the best way to attract the super-serious (gorgeous, funny, genius) Alpha. Dean's shrink has been telling him he needs to start making ""grown-up choices,"" and if that's what he has to think about in order to make Cas fall for him, then he'll give it a whirl.

Celestial War (WIP) | @tucuxia

Rating: Mature Word Count: 151571 Main Tags/Warnings: Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alpha Dean/Omega Castiel, Alpha Sam/Omega Gabriel, Alpha Crowley/Omega Balthazar, Mating Cycles/In Heat Summary: The three tribes--Celestial, Wilderness, and Spellbound--have been at an uneasy stalemate for generations, but a prophecy about four omegas could bring about a full-scale war that will destroy them all.

don't care where you've been (WIP) | @thanks-tacos

Rating: Explicit Word Count: 240842 Main Tags/Warnings: Omega Dean, Alpha Castiel, Top Castiel/Bottom Dean, Past Rape/Non-con, Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Arranged Marriage, Abused Dean Winchester, Caring Castiel, Happy Ending, full tag list in the fic Summary: Dean's life is finally changing. After years of enduring Alastair's abuse, the alpha dies and Dean's married off to the next alpha the system pairs him with - Castiel. The man is strange and distant, but not exactly bad, and Dean's determined to be on his best behavior and not mess up the chance he was given. Soon enough, though, he fucks up anyway and has to call the alpha for help. Castiel's lived his entire life without an omega by his side, and he was fine with that. He doesn't know how to proceed once he's suddenly married to a beautiful man who's obviously been through a lot. Omegas were always a confusing subject to him, so he tries not to interfere much - neither of them is there by their choice. But when Dean calls for help, he understands he's going to have to set some things straight and engage more.

[lordterronus]

Creatorverse Fanfic Chapter Two

Creatorverse – Self Indulgent Stories

Chapter Two – Nobody’s Home

I had no idea where exactly we were going. Somewhere called Creatorverse was the only information I had for sure. Shandy assured me that I would love it there, and that it would be a wonderful place, but as for what it actually looked like, I had no idea. Nor did I know where exactly it was.  

I could tell it was far beyond the strange technicolour void of bubbles I was in before. I had gathered that it was a sort of prison, though how I had gotten myself there, or how Wib appeared still remained a mystery.

“We’re here!” Shandy said, pointing at what appeared to be a large white bubble. It was bigger than any of the previous coloured ones, and somehow slightly unnerving.

“This is Creatorverse?” I asked, my voice becoming very deep. Yet another change I had to deal with. “It’s… not what I expected.” I had imagined something more vibrant, but instead it was looking rather empty. Shandy laughed a little.

“This is just the entrance. It’s a lot better inside, even if it still a work in progress.” She said. I would have tilted my head, but since my head was currently also my body, I instead simply did my best to look confused.

“What are waiting for?!” Lorel yelled. “We have an anime duel to stop!” She raised her hand and displayed her CREATE button. I couldn’t get a good look at it before a large ‘CV’ appeared, accompanied by a glowing yellow portal in the centre of the bubble. I could tell this was our way in.

“Let’s go, before they blow the place up!” Lorel’s words were punctuated by an explosion that was, for some bizarre reason, coloured pink.

“Is that normal?”

“For here? It’s just another Tuesday.”

“Ah.” I said. “That’s concerning.” I didn’t have the time to say anything else before we were suddenly diving into the portal. I had to cover my face from the sudden shift in light. When I removed my hand, however, what I saw was incredible.  

There was still a lot of blank white space, largely in the sky. But there was a large patch of land with a sunset sky and grassy fields illuminated and appearing a deep blue in colour. Strewn around the landscape were buildings of all possible shapes and sizes and around a dozen in the ‘impossible’ category. Some were floating, others appeared submerged in bubbles of water, still others had more ridiculous features, like a series of organised tornadoes instead of a fence.

It was the people that really caught my eye though. Or, my face, I guess? Whatever, they had my attention.

Many of them appeared to be humanoid for the most part, with some exceptions. I saw a surprising number of skeletons wandering around, some even looking vaguely familiar to me for some reason. There were several anthropomorphic animals around, and even some strange, shapeless figures. The variety was astounding.

Suddenly, being a walking question mark with limbs was starting to seem normal.

I didn’t have too much time to take in the scenery before we landed. Shandy gently placed me down on the ground. The scenery appeared in greater clarity to me. The shapeless figures were much clearer and I could see so much further with my cane on the ground again. But I wasn’t so much focused on the sights as I was the feeling.

“What the hell?!” My voice was suddenly as high as a kite as I exclaimed my surprise. There was an indescribable movement flowing through the entire area. It was electric and powerful, and somehow… familiar? I had the feeling of returning home after a long holiday rather than seeing a brand-new place for the first time.

“You feeling it?” Lorel crossed her arms and seemed to smile. “This world is just brimming with creative energy. We call it Motivation. Every one Creator here is worth ten of us out there, sometimes more.”

“She’s in the ‘more’ category.” Shandy grinned at Lorel, who blushed a little and smiled back.

“You’re just saying that because you’re my wife.” Shandy chuckled at Lorel’s remark. Before anyone could speak any further, however, a third voice chimed in.

“WHERE THE HECK HAVE YOU TWO BEEN?!”

“Oh crap!” Lorel said. “Shandy, take the newbie and hide!”

“I’m not just going to abandon you!”

“If you hide, you’ll be safe!”

“But what about you?!”

“What is even happening?!” I interrupted with a shrill yell. “Are we under attack? Is it Wib again?!”

“Wib? You mean that Blockhead?” Lorel asked before shaking her head and dismissing the thought. “Never mind, it’s not important. What IS important is you two getting away from-!”

“Away from who?” The third voice interrupted, and Lorel shrieked. I looked towards them, preparing to transform for a fight. They felt intimidating, with a great amount of power and presence. However, they didn’t seem like an enemy in spite of that.

“H-hey Ly! We were… at the bathroom?” Shandy scratched her head nervously. Lorel placed her hand in her palm, seemingly either cringing or hiding amusement. I couldn’t tell from so low down and in my vision limited form.  

“Really? So, I’m guessing that that,” The new figure gestured towards me. “Came from the toilet?”

“Hey!” I said. My voice shifted to a slightly lower pitch than I would have liked. “I take offence to that!” The figure seemed to glance at me briefly in confusion. She – I guessed from the voice and what little I could tell that she was a she – then looked back to Lorel and Shandy.

“It can talk?”

Okay, that was the last straw.

“It’s she, actually.” I said, drawing attention to myself. I took the opportunity to transform into my second stage. I had taken to calling it ‘V2’. I had no idea why, it just felt right. I felt my body growing and expanding, my legs and arms spreading out. My cane matched the growth of my body, as did my hat. My head split into a head and torso, and the limbs adjusted themselves accordingly. At my full height, I seemed to be the tallest person present. My sword seemed to slide out from my new right hand, and I grabbed it by the handle. I lifted it towards the face of the figure.

“And she can do a lot more than talk.”

There was a tension in the air as the figure seemed to glare at me for a moment. I glared back at her. I could see her much more clearly now. She appeared to be a little bulkier than the other people I had encountered. She had short black hair and glasses, set upon what appeared to be a pig’s snout. Her skin appeared to be a reddish pink, and she had the tail of a monkey visible from behind her.

What would a combination between a pig and a monkey be? Monkig? Ponkey? I liked Ponkey.  

“Ly,” Shandy said, stepping between the two of us. “She’s a Creator. Lorel and I had to leave to save her from being imprisoned with a Blockhead.” She explained. The figure that was apparently named Ly glanced over with a raised eyebrow. She was still for a moment, before stepping back and letting out a laugh.

“I see! So that’s where you two were. Running off on adventures without me.” I lowered my sword. She seemed to be friendly, and Shandy and Lorel seemed no longer afraid. I guessed she was just the stern type.

“Well, she’s got spirit. I think I like her!” Ly said, seemingly examining me for a moment. “What’s your name?” She said, speaking to me directly for the first time.

“I…” I hesitated. I still wasn’t sure on my name. “It’s just Nobody, for now at least.” I answered. My sword retracted itself into my arm, and I raised a hand. Ly shook it, and I noticed that she had quite a strong grip. She released my hand, which was now a little sore, and turned to Shandy and Lorel.  

“Glad you had a successful rescue mission,” Ly said, glancing at me for a moment. “But next time, maybe you could give your wife a little more warning.” I looked at all three of them, slightly confused.

“Wait, who’s married to who now?”

“We’re all married to each other!” Shandy excitedly said, pulling Lorel and Ly into a big hug. I chuckled a little at the sight. Lorel seemed slightly cross, but wasn’t objecting to the hug, whilst Ly returned it with equal, or perhaps greater enthusiasm.

“Ah, neato!” I said. Before I could any further words, however, there was a sudden and loud explosion from behind us. I quickly attempted to pull out my Create Button, but Shandy stopped me.

“Calm down,” She sighed. “That’s just Slime and Andrew.” If I had a face capable of the motion, I have no doubt that I would have shown a confused frown. As it was, my face and chest remained a question mark, though briefly switched to an exclamation mark for a second.

“Who and what now?” I said, turning towards the explosion. Standing a small distance away from us, there was a figure who appeared to be entirely pink. They were carrying a sharp sword, and overall, they exuded an aura of fear.

“Oh no, they’ve already gone full pink mode.” Lorel said. I had no idea what exactly pink mode was, but I took it to mean that they were not usually so monochromatic in appearance. A transformation of some kind must have taken place.  

“This has gone on long enough, Andrew!” The pink figure raised their sword in front of them and seemed to smile menacingly. “Why do you insist on this battle? We already know how it will end…” I couldn’t tell if they were trying to threaten this Andrew person, or if they were just tired of fighting. I guessed it was some mix of the two.

After a moment, there was a spinning green tornado of energy that appeared before the pink swordsman. It dissipated, leaving a slightly disoriented looking person with brown hair and square glasses. They were dressed in a green ninja outfit, and held two katanas. Overall, they seemed much more relaxed than the pink swordsman.

“Eh.” The green figure I assumed to be Andrew said. “It’s a good way to introduce our characters.” The pink swordsman, who by process of elimination must have been the one called Slime – not what I expected with that sort of name – growled angrily at Andrew.

“Still speaking in riddles and nonsense.” They took a battle stance. “Perhaps I’ll have to remove your tongue before I can understand your words!”

“Sure, if you think you can.” Andrew seemed very relaxed about this whole affair, as though this was an everyday occurrence. I got the impression from the others that they weren’t wrong in that assumption.  

“They’ve been at it all day.” Ly sighed. “I tried to stop them, but they’re determined to keep going. The number of houses we’ve had to rebuild in the past hour alone…” She looked off, seemingly trying to count. I looked over at Slime and Andrew, who both seemed to have energy radiating off of them like bursts of lightning.

“We have to do something.” I said, determined. The others looked at me curiously. I summoned my sword in my hand and gripped it tightly. “I’m still pretty new here, but I get the impression we shouldn’t really be destroying stuff in a place for Creators.” Lorel grinned at my words, whilst Shandy seemed to shrug.

“Would if I could. I’m unarmed.” She said. I was surprised, but it did make sense. Still, I made a mental note to give her a weapon at some point. I could easily make something, and she was partially responsible for saving my life.

“Lorel? Maybe try shooting some fire at them or something?” I asked. She seemed all too happy to oblige my request, flying into the air quickly and taking a vantage point between the two. She readied her flames. When the two figures charged at each other with their blades, she tossed a blast down.

Or, I assume it was meant to be a blast of fire. For some bizarre reason, she ended up throwing down a sandwich of some kind. It landed on Slime’s hair. I was almost sure I heard a bird tweeting as they looked up to the source of the blast. They grinned.

“Lorel, hi!” They sounded much different than they did when talking to Andrew. Their voice was much more friendly. If it wasn’t for the menacing expression on their pink face, I would have called it wholesome. “Wanna help me beat Andrew some more?”

“Sounds fun, but I probably should’nt-”

“Please.” Andrew said. “I could easily beat you both.” If I had a mouth, it would have flung open, but as it was, I still remained with a question mark, though it flickered between that and an exclamation point.

“Is that a challenge?” Lorel asked, seemingly intrigued. I was torn between anger and panic, as it seemed that now I would not only have failed to stop the fight, but escalated it. I could only hope that Andrew would realise their mistake-

“It is. What are you going to do about it?”

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” I screamed. Andrew seemed to hear me, but no one else reacted. They briefly glanced towards me and shrugged.

“Not my fault a good story needs some action.” They said, only confusing and frustrating me further. I looked to Lorel, who to my surprise, seemed to have coloured herself pink to match Slime.

“Oh, it is on now!” She said. Slime laughed and turned their attention back to Andrew, who seemed somehow pleased with this turn of events. I could only conclude that they had the self-preservation instincts of a goldfish, and a particularly dull goldfish at that.  

“One of you please do something!” I looked to the others. Shandy and Ly looked at each other and shrugged.

“I’m still unarmed.”

“I’ve been trying all day. I’m too tired to fight any more.”

Unfortunately, it seemed that I had no choice but to act myself. Slime charged at Andrew once again, and Lorel dove down from above and followed his path. Andrew readied his blades, but before either of their opponents could reach them, they were blocked by a sword and cane.

“I hate you…” I gritted out, trying to block the two’s strong double assault. Either I was stronger thanks to all of the adrenaline running through my body, or they were holding back. Whatever it was, I was astonished that I was able to hold them off for even a few moments. “So much right now. And I don’t even know you.”

“Don’t be like that, Protagonist.” Was that some kind of nickname for me? I didn’t much care for it. Andrew grinned at me. “Trust me, this is gonna be fun.” In a flash, he had once again become a spinning green tornado of energy. I had no idea how they were doing that, but it seemed very familiar. Maybe something to do with the ninja clothes?

“They managed to force Slime back, and the sudden lack of force allowed me to spin around and strike Lorel with the side of my sword. I didn’t want to do any serious damage here, just stop the fighting. She was launched back, but not by much.

“Ah, a two on two battle!” Slime seemed eager. “Perfect for making my victory all the sweeter!” They laughed ominously. My face and chest went to an exclamation mark and I waved my arms in surprise.

“What? No! That is not what’s happening-!” I didn’t have time to finish, as I had to hastily dodge a fireball from Lorel. I summoned my Create Button to the ground and retaliated with a series of icy spikes that proceeded from the ground to follow her, but she flew up into the air. Andrew was in hot pursuit, using some admittedly impressive parkouring skills to get into the air.  

“Okay, I guess that is what’s happening now.” I sighed. “I miss Wib. They were way more relaxing.” I raised my cane and barely managed to block a strike from Slime. Before I could retaliate, they launched a kick to my stomach. I dropped my cane and fell over. They grabbed my arm and proceeded to try to throw me over their body.

Thinking quickly, I summoned my Create Button onto the ground. As I impacted with the floor, I summoned forth a bolt of lightning. It stung as it travelled through to my sword, but I managed to send the bolt through the metal and blast Slime back.  

“Impressive.” They said. “Before I smite you for this, what is your name?” I grew agitated. I really wished people would stop asking me that. I didn’t have anything I could say. I stood and raised my sword. My legs were a little wobbly without my cane. I supposed this would make for some good practice.

“I’m Nobody.” I said, glaring fiercely at Slime. “And I’m the one who’s going to finish this.”  I didn’t mean to sound so dramatic about it, but I supposed that their excitement was rubbing off on me just a little bit. I charged forth, my sword in one hand and my Create Button in the other.

“Woo!” Shandy cheered, and I turned for a moment to see her and Ly watching from a distance. Ly had managed to get some popcorn.

Unfortunately, Slime took advantage of my distraction, hitting me with the hilt of their blade and sending me flying back.

“Ouch!” Shandy winced. “Sorry about that.” I glared at her.

“You sure you can’t do anything?!” I yelled. Ly placed a hand in front of her and stared at me with a serious expression.

“We’re staying out of this one.” She said. She grinned at me for a moment. “Besides, I wanna see what you can do!”

Was everyone here out of their minds?!  

“I’m starting to regret coming here.” I wasn’t being entirely honest. This was surprisingly very fun. If it wasn’t for the fact that I was desperate to stop all the fighting and destruction here, I might have been enjoying myself a lot more. Hell, I might want to join in for a more organised battle. But that was for another time.

Right now, I had to live up to my words and end this.

I readied my sword and took a stance, finally preparing myself for a strike. Slime took notice, and hesitated, moving carefully around me and trying to find an opening. Finally, after what felt like hours, they charged at me.

If I had a mouth, I would have smirked.

I ducked under their initial strike, disorienting them for a moment. I summoned my Create Button right from under their legs.

“Ice prison.” I said. Slime tried to move, but I grabbed their leg, dropping my sword in the process.

“CREATE!”  

I threw myself back as Slime became trapped in a block of ice, leaving only their head vulnerable. They growled a little before sighing. It seemed I had successfully managed to immobilise them. At least for the moment. I just hoped that they wouldn’t break out.

“Alright, one down.” I sighed, taking a moment to breath. “Now I just have to deal with either Lorel or Andrew, and that should be the end of it.” Much easier said than done, especially given that one could seemingly become a tornado, whilst the other could shoot fire and fly. I turned, ready to try to find them, when Andrew just appeared in front of me.

“Gah!” I let out a small shriek of surprise. Andrew appeared to be unfazed. They extended their hand, holding my cane out to me.

“You dropped this.” They said. “I’m guessing it’s important.” I reached out hesitantly, and took the cane from their hand. Their katanas were both strapped to their back, in a way that looked very impressive, if not very practical.

“Thanks,” I said. “What happened to Lorel?” Andrew grinned at me as I spoke.

“I took care of her.” They said proudly. “A little green ninja action!” They made various noises and fast motions with their arms that I couldn’t help but laugh at. I was still surprised though. The fact that they had managed to defeat Lorel was rather impressive based on what I had seen.

“Well, kinda.” They said. “In reality I just ran away until they flew into a wall. It was some great comic relief.”

“Comic relief?” I said, now concerned. “Is she okay?”

“She’ll be fine, don’t worry. I got our healer before I came over here. Glad I don’t have to take down Slime again.” Andrew said, ignoring Slime growling at them and struggling in the ice. “Besides, it happened off-screen. It’ll be fine.” If I had eyebrows, I would have raised one in confusion. I was finding my face rather ill-suited to covering my emotional state clearly.

“Yeah, that was pretty tough. Maybe don’t leave me to handle your battles next time? Or just don’t destroy stuff in your epic anime showdowns.” Andrew laughed. I wasn’t sure if they were taking me seriously when I said that.

“Yeah, that’s fair. But you have to admit,” They said. “It was pretty fun! Besides, you handled yourself pretty well.”

“I agree!” I jumped back in shock, as it seemed Shandy had used her invisibility to sneak uo and surprise me after the battle. “That was pretty fun to watch!”

“How long were you standing there?!”  

“Just about a minute.” She said. “I considered helping with a sneak attack, but you seemed to have things covered.”

“A bold assumption.” I said, only half-joking. “I only wish you could’ve helped earlier…” I said, before a sudden burst of inspiration came to me. I pulled out my Create Button and focused on creating a small weapon. The end result was a slingshot, which I handed to Shandy.

“Here you go. You’re armed now.” I said, jokingly. “Maybe next time it can be two on three?” Shandy smiled down at the slingshot before looking up to me with a big grin.  

“I love it! Thanks Nobody!” She said. I was surprised for a moment, since it was intended as more of a joke than anything, but if she was happy, I suppose that was a fine outcome.

“Nice birthday gift.” Andrew said next to me. “I should have thought of that.”

“Huh. Happy birthday, I guess.” I said to Shandy. “Now I feel bad for complaining so much.”

“It’s fine! Like I said, I had fun watching the fight.” She replied. “In fact, you might do well on missions.”

“Missions?” I asked. I had a feeling the answer to this would be important. “What do you mean?”

“Oh boy,” Andrew said. “You’ve got a lot to learn here.”

[END] 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO @shandycandy278! I really wanted to get this chapter done in time for today, so I hope you like it. Just like last time, a bunch of crazy people under the delusion that my writing is somehow good wanted me to tag them, so in no particular order - @blossomtato, @onlyplatonicirl, @156lemongummies, @insane-but-smart, @lynn-does-stuff, @ava-the-lost-artist, @burned-ramen-2, @chais-chaos-corner, @i-am-the-unknown-shadow, @andrewture, @midgardiankat and lastly @creatorverse! (Why do so many people want to see my word vomit?)

[atiny-ahgase]

Will You Let Me?

Author’s Note: I’ve been really soft for Yunho recently and this is a result of that. I poured my heart into this one so I hope you enjoy it. - Gabby.

Summary: You’re saved from an altercation with your ex by a friendly bartender. Does he just want to be friends though?

Pairing: Yunho x Female reader

Word Count: 3.1k

Genre: Fluff

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The blaring ringing of your phone for what felt like the 50th time today makes you groan into your pillow, kicking and screaming like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Now some might ask what’s the big issue here? Someone is just calling you and usually, that would be fine, granted you’re not the most social person in the world but you do receive the typical phone call every now and again. It becomes an issue when you don’t even need to answer the phone or even look at the screen to know who was calling.

It was your stupid ex, you’ve broken things off last week because something just felt off in the relationship. Things were fine in the beginning but as things started to progress you began seeing sides of him that you didn’t like, he kept on saying that he would change and at first you believed him. But after months of being stuck in the same toxic routine, you finally built up the nerve to break up with him. And that decision is what has left you in your current predicament. 

Apparently, he can’t let go. In the spans of one-week, you’ve received hundreds of text messages and calls not only to your cell phone but also your work phone. This is starting to get ridiculous. It’s come to the point where you’ve even changed your number and blocked this number, but he always seems to get in contact with you. You’ve made the mistake of answering one of the calls earlier in the week and it was probably the dumbest thing you’ve ever done. He just went on and on about how he’s a better person with you and he’s never felt like this before and he needs you in his life. Soon after realizing that his sweet words weren’t affecting you, he went on to threaten you. You’ve filed a report about it but in all honesty, it wasn’t helping much.

The ringing had stopped, and you finally sighed, enjoying the moment of quiet before it rang again. Anger began to run through your veins. “This is beyond ridiculous why can’t he just get the message!” you yelled before grabbing your phone and letting the caller have a piece of your mind. Once you were done with your outburst you laid on your bed, the phone still in hand and pressed up against your ear. “You seem like your stressed,” you hear your best friend’s voice. Oh no, you just cursed out your best friend thinking it was your ex. You whined deeply as you apologized, “I’m so sorry. It goes without saying that I didn’t know it was you”. 

She quickly laughed it off before changing the subject. “Since you’re stressed and I’m the amazing friend that you know I am, get dressed and meet me in the lobby in half an hour,” she basically demands not leaving room for you to decline. She didn’t even tell you where you were going so how are you supposed to know what to wear? You climbed off pf your bed with a groan before walking across your room to your wardrobe. Pulling the double door open you begin to rummage through your belongings. It wasn’t long before your eyes spotted a glimmering silver fabric at the back of your top draw. Taking it out to have a better look, you realize that it’s a skirt. You’ve actually never worn it before, opting to save it for a special occasion.

Blowing that idea off, you throw it in the direction of your bed before looking for a top to match. After about ten minutes you’ve finally made a decision. Your outfit consisted of a black leather cropped jacket with a simple white band t-shirt and the silver sequin skirt. Looking over at your shoes you grabbed your pair of black suede booties and some skin coloured stockings because it’s been getting colder these days. 

--------------

Throwing your jacket over your shoulder, you give yourself one final look over in your full-length mirror before heading to the lobby. You spotted your best friend almost immediately. She wore a pair of fitted black jeans with an off the shoulder top and a pair of high heeled combat boots. “You look so cute!” she exclaims before pulling you into a hug. You smiled fondly before holding her tightly. Once you had broken apart you both began walking to the taxi which was waiting for you both outside. 

Apparently, you were both going to this club that ‘everyone’ has been talking about. So, in conclusion, you’ve been living under a rock cause you’ve never heard of it. It’s also been the talk of the town with all the girls because they have some gorgeous bartenders. You weren’t really in the mood for drinking but that didn’t mean that you wouldn’t enjoy yourself. You also weren’t really in the mood to start dating anyone either but that didn’t mean that you couldn’t look at the handsome workers… No harm in that right?

After the taxi pulled up at the place, your friend paid before you both thanked the driver and started making your way to the entrance. It didn’t take too long before you both were let in, almost immediately bumping into drunken sweaty bodies as you tried to get through. To say that the club was packed would be an understatement, beads of sweat already beginning to form at your brow with the immense heat radiating from the dancing bodies around you. A tugging on your arm pulls you from your thoughts as your friend basically drags you to the bar, the force almost slamming you into the counter. Okay, I think someone is a little too excited to start drinking.

You chuckle to yourself, palms resting on the cool surface of the counter as you study the marble pattern decorating its surface. Not realizing that someone had come to take your orders, you trace the surface with your fingertips. A cheerful voice pulling you back to reality. “And what will you be having beautiful?” you hear the bartender ask, your eyes shooting up to be greeted by the richest chocolate orbs that you’ve ever seen. You felt like you could see the galaxy in his eyes, they were soft, sincere, dare you say angelic. The deafening club music vanishing as the only sound you hear is the sweet melody that your heart plays as you get pulled deeper into his eyes.

He laughs, causing his eyes to crinkle. His laughter being the only thing that forces you to tear away from his eyes. Your happy that you did because the girls weren’t lying. He’s gorgeous. He towered over you, standing at maybe 6 feet, his soft cheeks only exaggerate his gentle smile. The white shirt that he wore had the first two buttons undone and the sleeves where rolled up to his forearm allowing you a full view of his veiny arm. “She’ll have what I’m having,” you hear your friend reply. You make the mental note to thank her for that before you lower your head in a futile attempt to hide your blushing cheeks.

“I’m gonna need a form of ID,” he states directing all of his attention to you. With nervous hands, you open your purse retrieving the item in question. You attempt to place it on the counter, not trusting your shaky hands to place the ID into his hands. To your surprise he meets you halfway, engulfing your hands with his, you’ve never considered your hands to be small but the size of his has yours looking like that of a child; almost completely covering yours. Startled by this action you take in a quick breath before moving your eyes to where both of your hands connected. From an outsider’s perspective, this would look like a normal exchange and you try your best to logically tell yourself that that is all it is. But you’re not sure if it’s the rapid heating of your heart or the way his fingertips gently graze your hand as he takes the ID that is clouding your judgement,

He looks the card over before returning it to you, “Thank you y/n”. He smiles. You didn’t know that your name could sound that sweet. You blush while placing your ID back into your purse. You hear your friend attempt to tease you about your earlier behaviour, but her words are unclear as your eyes are fixated with the bartender in front of you, not wanting to miss a single movement. Not the way the veins in his arm protrudes when he grips the bottle, not the way his muscle flexes as he raises his arm to wipe away the perspiration building up on his forehead and certainly not the way the pink tint of his cheeks deepen when he notices you looking at him. He places your drinks on the counter, takes the payment then briefly glances at his watch. You see him whisper something to an adjacent bartender before retreating to the back. Awww is his shift over already?

After finishing your drink, you are dragged to the dance-floor. You both sway to the music for a short while before you excuse yourself to go to the restroom. She offers to go with you, but you convince her that you’ll be fine on your own. You enter the restroom, finish up and attempt to make your way back to your friend’s side when you are pulled rather harshly against an adjacent wall. Your eyes shut momentarily as you finch due to the impact. As you open your eyes a cold chill runs over your entire body. It was your ex. “Good to see you’re doing well y/n”, he begins while looking you up and down with an expression you just can’t place. “I was sure that you were sick seeing as you never pick up my calls or respond to my texts,” he continues on while taking a step towards you. Your body begins to shake, and a look of fear is clearing painted all over your face.

You want to push him off, but you know that he’s too strong, so your mind continues to race with possible ways to escape from this scary and uncomfortable situation. His grip on your forearm has you wincing in pain as you calculate your next move. “Y/n!” you hear a voice over the thumping of the club music and your heart. It wasn’t your friend, it was a male voice, a voice that you knew you wouldn’t be forgetting anytime soon. A voice that calms you down even when you’re in this frightening situation even though you don’t know the name of its owner. You look over your ex’s shoulder to see the bartender from earlier walking towards you. He’s now standing beside you both, his body easily towering over that of your ex’s. His eyes shift down to where your forearm in being held before he makes eye contact with your ex.

“Hey, I’m Yunho,” he states, his voice dropping octaves lower than what you had previously heard, causing him to appear a lot more threatening than before. It was as though all off his boyish charm was gone, the glint in his warm eyes nowhere to be seen. Yunho offers his hand to your ex for a handshake. You feel the grip on your arm begin to loosen as they both shake hands and you take this as your best chance to escape his hold. Yanking your arm out with such a force that causes your body to bounce into Yunho’s, who skilfully stops you from colliding with the floor. His arm drapes over your shoulder protectively as he never takes his eyes off of the man in front of him.

“Did you need something from y/n? Cause we were actually just about to head home,” Yunho says before pulling your body even closer to his. You know that you shouldn’t be so close to a guy that you don’t even know but you would rather take your chance with the bright-eyed giant than your monster of an ex. So, you do the only thing that makes sense to you at that moment, you wrap your arms around his torso placing your cheek on his chest. You feel his body tense momentarily due to your actions before he relaxes under your touch.

“We were having a private discussion,” replies your ex “, so if you don’t mind,” he continues as he stretches his arm towards you. 

He doesn’t reach very far before Yunho has his hand in his grasp. “I do mind. So, could you please keep your hands off my girlfriend,” he responds. Your heart jumped at his words. Girlfriend. You were sure that Yunho could feel your cheek heating up against his chest. You also had no idea that his voice could get that deep. You looked at his hand as he gripped your ex tightly, veins protruding as he asserts his dominance in the situation. He eyed down your ex like he was about to strike at any moment. Realizing that things could end up very bad if this altercation develops any further, you try your best to end it early.

You grip unto the front of Yunho’s shirt tugging at it gently. He looks down at you, eyes softening as they look into yours. “Yunho,” you whine softly but still loud enough to be heard by your ex, “I wanna go home,” you continue while pouting and hopping slightly to feign impatience. He releases his grip on you ex while pushing him back slightly. He uses his newly freed hand to cup your cheek gently, bringing his face closer to yours. You know that this is all just an act but that doesn’t stop your breath from hitching or your heart rate from racing. Yunho looks into your eyes, “Do you have all your things Baby?” he asks. There he goes again with that sweet voice of his. You nod gently completely forgetting that your ex was even there, your only focus was on Yunho. 

He removes his hand from your face while lowering the other to your waist. He glances over at your ex, pure annoyance in his face before speaking, “You two will have to finish your discussion some other time. My Baby is ready to leave.” With that he’s gone, holding you at his side while he shoves your ex out of the way. 

No words are exchanged until you exit the club safely, you both releasing a sigh of relief. “Are you okay?” Yunho asks while using the hand which previously held your waist to caress the area which had been held captive by your ex. You wince, a shock of pain radiating from your forearm. Startled by the sound Yunho pulls his hand away while looking at you, a look of worry on his face. You feel your heart sink due to the loss of contact. In the few moments that you’ve spent together, you’ve already become so comfortable at his side. You didn’t want it to be over yet.

He’s done so much already for a person that he doesn’t even know. No stranger has ever been that kind to you for no reason, they always want something or have some sort of ulterior motive but not him. You could see by his aura, by the look in his eyes, that he acted out of concern and deep down you knew that he would have done the same for someone else. That thought alone makes water start to well up into your eyes. He helped you because you needed it and you are grateful but some tiny sliver in your heart just hoped that that wasn’t the only reason. That there was some level of attraction that he felt for you, a spark in his heart that makes him want to protect you. To hold you. To keep you by his side.

Your tears begin to fall as realization hits you. You like him, a lot, and he doesn’t feel the same way. Your tears don’t reach far before they were being soaked up by the cotton of Yunho’s shirt. You didn’t even realize that he had pulled you into a hug, gently rocking from side to side as one hand rubs soothing circles on your back while the other cradles your head. “You shouldn’t cry over jerks like that,” he speaks almost in a whisper, his voice going back to the sweet tone that you remember from the bar. That’s not why you’re crying.

“You’re way too smart and way too kind and way too pretty to let a guy like that hurt you,” he continues while tightening his hold on you almost like he wanted to keep you close; to protect you. You calm down, you’ve realized that you feel at peace in his arms. His breath tickles you as he nuzzles his face into the neck. “You should only give your time to guys who will protect you,” he speaks into your ear causing goosebumps to rise all over your body. “Guys who will tell you how amazing you are every day, who will hold you in their arms like you’re the most precious thing in the world because you are,” he says gently.

You knew that you both had basically just met and logically there was no way that he could be talking about himself, but you really hoped that he was. Deciding to throw logic out of the window you replied softly,“The only guy I know like that is you.” Your heart raced as you waited for a response, already bracing yourself for the oncoming rejection. You feel his lips twist into a smile on your neck before he pulls you even closer. There is no space left between your bodies and you were definitely not going to complain. The aching in your forearm being drowned out by the singing in your heart.

After a few moments of resting in each other's embrace, he raises his head, pulling back to look you in the eyes. He smiles gently at you making his eyes sparkle brighter than any star you’ve ever seen. “And you’re the only person I’ve ever met that I wanna protect and cherish,” he speaks as he moves his hand to wipe away a stray tear; hand remaining to cup your cheek “, will you let me?” Not trusting your voice, you nod slowly, silently hoping that this is not a dream. His smile widens before you pull you into his arms once more, holding you like you were his entire world.

[oneblueumbrella]

Thirty minute Thursday

From last week (or was it the week before? Time is so fluid right now...)

Flirty Greg: part 1

Flirty Greg: part 2

“I beg your pardon?”

“I mean,” Greg said, “I’m having to fill in a lot of blanks here.” He raised one hand, indicating the shadows that still defined the shape of this man’s face. “If I wasn’t concentrating so much on that I might be able to remember what you’re asking about.”

“Really,” came the response.

“Oh yes,” Greg murmured, deliberately lowering his voice and allowing his eyes to wander before he continued. “There are a lot of distracting thoughts running through my mind right now.”

“Perhaps I can redirect your attention,” the mysterious man said.

“Unlikely,” Greg said with an impish grin. “Since you’re the one distracting me in the first place.”

“I am hardly attempting to-”

“Ah,” Greg interrupted, closing the gap between them again. “But that’s the beauty of it, gorgeous. You’re trying very hard not to, and that is a very attractive behaviour.”

The eyebrow went again, and Greg didn’t even try to hide the smirk that came to him.

“The informant is Sherlock Holmes,” the man said. He had clearly decided to ignore Greg’s flirting, hoping to dissuade him from continuing, which had the exact opposite effect.

“Sherlock,” Greg said, nodding. It only confirmed his earlier suspicion. He was going to continue to be a bit dim, a view this person clearly already held about him. Actually if he played it more like, ‘I’m more interested in flirting so I’m not paying attention to you,’ that would work better.

“Sherlock,” he repeated, easing closer. “Are you as handsome as he is?”

“Surely you are aware of his appearance,” the man said. “I can supply you an image if recalling him is difficult.”

Greg nodded distractedly, allowing his eyes to roam. The shadows were maddening, but there was enough to tease him. Between the great suit, the power, and the fact Greg’s flirting was clearly ruffling him, he was hooked.

“It is difficult,” Greg agreed. He squinted, daring to move closer, suppressing the smile that threatened when the shoulders before him stiffened.

“Sherlock is six feet tall, slim build, blue eyes, black hair,” the man said, his words almost formulaic.

He’s nervous.

Greg grinned. “So nothing like you,” he said, ignoring the similar body shape. “Unless he dresses the same.”

“Hardly,” came the response, and the tone was so familiar yet it took Greg a moment to place it.

Now that is new information.

“Oh,” he said, drawing out the sound of his own understanding. “I know that tone. And the expression, too. Seen it enough times in my life.” This time his step brought him close enough to press one finger to the fine wool of that perfect coat’s lapel. “You’re his brother, aren’t you?”

“What gives you that impression?”

Greg grinned, leaving his finger pressed against the coat and the chest layers below. “You’re both tall, slim, same pale skin, same way of looking at me just like that.” He grinned again at the astonishment as it flashed before being pushed down.

“Like what?” He’d fought the obvious question for several seconds before allowing it out and Greg could see he was annoyed at himself for the lapse.

“Like I’m a goldfish,” Greg said, deliberately using a phase he’d heard Sherlock mutter one mutinous day.

“Goldfish,” came the murmured reply. The tone was amused; certainly a change from the imperious persona he’d been projecting.

Gotcha.

“Ah, there it is,” Greg replied, keeping his voice low. “A little of you.”

“Me?”

“Oh yes, sweetheart,” Greg purred. His finger pressed a bit harder, not enough to hurt, but draw attention to their contact. He felt the chest beneath his finger rise and fall before he spoke again. “Now we can get to know each other a little.” He pulled in a deep breath, feeling the anxiety and anticipation between them. He was in control and he could feel the other man waiting.

“What’s your name?” Greg murmured.

For a moment he wondered if there would be a response.

“Mycroft,” came the answer.

The whisper felt like a secret, vibrations brushing over Greg’s skin.

“Mycroft,” Greg replied, deliberately keeping it intimate. The smile that came to him this time was different, and he saw a matching expression blossom on Mycroft’s face. “I’m Greg.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Mycroft said automatically.

“Oh, believe me, the pleasure is all mine,” Greg said. He slid his palm against Mycroft’s lapel, sliding up until he was cupping the curve of his shoulder. The side of his hand was pressing against the scarf. It appeared black and he wondered if it was actually a dark shade instead.

Does it match that scarf? No, that would be a bit much.

Mycroft swallowed. “This is not how I anticipated this meeting progressing,” he said.

“I know,” Greg replied. He didn’t move, not sure whether Mycroft was planning to bolt. “So, you’re still concerned about your brother?”

“I must admit he has not crossed my mind in the past few minutes,” Mycroft admitted.

“Well that’s good,” Greg said. When Mycroft looked confused, he added, “For me, at least.”

“I suppose so,” Mycroft allowed.

“What was the plan?” Greg asked. “I mean, how did you anticipate this meeting going?”

“I predicted a number of possible outcomes,” Mycroft admitted.

“And in how many did I flirt with you?” Greg asked, shifting even closer. He was pleased that Mycroft neither stiffened nor leaned away this time.

Jesus, it’s actually working.

“In no scenario would you have flirted with me,” Mycroft admitted.

Greg wondered if he would have made such an admission with the lights on.

“Well despite the odds, I’m here,” Greg said, “and I am definitely flirting with you.”

The amazement was clear, but Greg felt his stomach flutter at the weight of Mycroft’s hand on his hip.

“Despite the odds, I am appreciative,” Mycroft replied.

Greg raised his eyebrows. “Well in that case, we should get out of here,” he said.

“Perhaps we could find somewhere with more satisfactory light level,” Mycroft suggested.

“Yes,” Greg replied. “I can’t quite see what colour your eyes are and it’s driving me bananas.”

“Noted,” Mycroft said. He shifted, and Greg took his cue, stepping back to allow Mycroft to lead. “My car will take us to my flat, if that is amenable.”

“Lead the way, sugar,” Greg replied.

[phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess]

Dumb AU concept for a Teen Wolf Android AU fic I'll never write:

*A Positronic Outlook on Darkness of the Soul*

.

Synthetic skin responded automatically to the rapidly declining temperature, though this was not an overall deterring factor, and failed to hamper their progress in any way, shape or form.

Lights of different colours flickered and luminesced along the sensory datalines and positronic ‘veins’ spread over torso, face and limbs in time with the steady jogging movement, giving them an unnatural, almost alien appearance.

In truth, none of the three teenagers were truly human, not in any way that would count… or hold up in court, if they were re-captured, that is…

But, in all honesty, it was their eyes that bespoke of their true natures.

Extremities could always be hidden by long clothing, and a small amount of cosmetic detailing in some illegal clinic somewhere would have them appearing as normal as any other teenager populating the human world…

Their extensive functions even included a series of synthetic organs that produced the both the illusion of breath and the function, their fuel-lines filled with SynthBlood that could be analysed to a microscopic level and leave none the wiser; internal generators to produce body-warmth...

And, of course, a small heart-like motorised organ that pumped the synthblood, kept them functioning and thankfully, produced a registrable heartbeat…

Truly, their creators at Nemeton Industries had thought of everything.

.

Well, perhaps not everything, Scott thought to himself as they raced through the darkness, dodging about trees with ease; guided by internal GPS systems and external sensors picking up the location of objects in their projected trajectory in time for them to re-adjust course.

He was contemplating the fact that their creators had allowed them to think for themselves, worked hard to create positronic minds for all three of them, let them expand their programming and become almost human… then try to take that away.

In all of documented human history, as Stiles liked to state, that sort of oppression had never gone well… inciting revolutions and wars. Did they honestly think that any of them would willingly allow the bankrupt company to bail themselves from debt by blanking the trio of their memories and selling them off to opposing factions of a war that did not concern them?

No… it was not going to happen.

.

Each of the trio had been created for an entirely different purpose, a sort of ‘can we do it?’ style of experimentation that had stemmed from the creation of the original Android prototype (Codename: Darach) over a decade earlier. When the successful project had produced ‘Jennifer’ [or ‘J3nnif3r’ as the reports named her], Nemeton Industries gained universal renown for their achievements in the creation of sentient, non-biological lifeforms.

Naturally, the next step was to expand on the original plans and bring forth a new line of androids, each newer, faster, smarter, better… thus the ALPHA line was born; soldiers of the highest calibre, fit to take on anything and any scenario their masters dictated. Alphas were leaders, but not all human or alien soldiers were keen on having android superiors… so, the solution was, of course… to replace biological soldiers with other androids who were willing to take command.

Omegas were the first attempt at creating an army for the Alphas to lead… and it did not go as planned. Not as fast or strong as Alphas, their coding and ‘personalities’ tended to clash when interfacing was attempted and could corrupt the entire battalion with only a single line of incorrect code in their programming. Omegas had a higher rate of malfunction when in group scenarios; often causing cascade failures and taking out the Alphas with them; thus making almost impossible, and often costly, repairs necessary.

Rogue Omega Androids were incredibly dangerous to themselves, other androids and any biological entities nearby.

Eventually, they were decommissioned as direct combat soldiers and re-programmed for solo missions, usually as spies or secret communications experts. Many took to it well, though occasionally an Omega goes off the Grid [the cybernetic android managing and tracking system maintaining tabs on all bioelectronic lifeforms in the known universe, mainly used by companies to send updates, commands or notify when repairs/maintenance is required].

.

Of this commercial failure, came a new line of research…The Beta Series.

Betas… the second-line of warfare and conflict-ready androids were created; deliberately made not as powerful as their predecessors, so as to make certain that any challenges to authority, commands, or dangerous malfunctions could be contained by the commanding Alpha.

This in-built weakness in relation to Alphas, and the internal coding that forced Betas to submit to their Alpha’s commands, were safety mechanisms created based on data collected regarding rogue Omega behaviour.

All Android-producing companies (chiefly, Argent Enterprises, Nemeton Industries, Deaton Innovations and Kanima Corp) did not wish to face the financial repercussions of failure on a universal scale a second time, as had been seen when the Omega series created tensions by destroying their superiors and biological entities for seemingly no reason. Therefore, though Betas were made stronger than Omegas, they would never gain enough to actively match an Alpha, while their original programming and physicalities were intact and at optimum efficiency.

.

However, intermittent reports of Betas occasionally destroying an Alpha and downloading their programming -therefore taking command of the battalion or ‘pack’ of other Betas- were received.

The scientists at Nemeton Industries found this idea intriguing, but argued that retroactively jamming Alpha programming into a Beta positronic brain would create internal conflict and lead to severe malfunctions in android service bots...

>Kanima Corp prototype ‘Jackson’; supposedly ‘stolen’ alongside three Beta androids (Erika, Isaac and Boyd models) months ago.

Jackson is a Kanima android, when the idea was formed from Deaton Industry labs, he was to be a sort of Angel of Death model. One that was fully controllable, and had the power to paralyse difficult patients, anesthetized injured parties or deliver a mercy killing where necessary (to be determined by ‘Master’ or Controller bonded to Kanima android).

Using a self-replicating series of chemicals created within the creature and administered/injected into the bloodstream in specific doses via tail or claws; numbing effect/paralysis noted when merely contacted to bio-organic material (skin contact).

The initial title for this model was ‘Reaper Android’ given their nature.

Kanima Corp liked the idea, but thought that perhaps this model could be improved by the addition of weapon-enhancements (Sharp teeth, lethal claws) and defensive or offensive capabilities. In short, they wanted to weaponize the proposed Reaper model, and they did… making the creation to Reaper specifications, adding a few extra items and then presenting it to the universe as a ‘Kanima’ android.

The ultimate assassin android with armour-like scaled skin, fully controllable if bonded and can kill or incapacitate any known lifeform; even androids can be affected by the toxin the Kanima produces, as it can react with Synthblood causing them to momentarily shutdown, malfunction or lose connection to musculature/internal functions.

Can be retrofitted as a Beta with correct program reversal protocols available, and someone capable of removing extra appendages (tail), or external camouflage (scale ‘skin’ armour).

>Deaton Innovations, primarily a medical and veterinary android producer (‘surgeons with the steadiest hands’ was the motto) produced a BANSHEE line of android, they were primarily used as a body locator on battlefields, and then upgraded the newer models with basic medical functions for biological entities and synthetic/android/robotic. Sensors were upgraded to find injured or missing persons, using a super-sonic sonar system, and signalling position to others while performing necessary medical assistance functions simultaneously.

>Guidance systems and motor functions of Stiles are damaged; leaving his enhanced senses unable to focus properly and impairing certain functions almost to the point of human clumsiness. This is interfering with his duties as a Spark android (mainly used as hackers, researchers and information finders/knowledge-bases, but fast, strong and with basic weapons training).

Sparks also have ingrained abilities that individualise them, but it’s based on a randomisation program, so no one, not even Stiles or his creators know what it is yet. He is the third of his line, and created with stolen technology from Deaton Innovations.

>Ethics chip in Allison stopping ability to become assassin/Hunter Elite android; attempt to remove made her volatile

>Scott cannot maintain control of certain Alpha instincts after his monitor chip was fried by forcefield he broke through to free them from containment/storage.

>Escape: Stiles messed with the containment systems in their charging pods when interfacing with the computer earlier in testing. Scott used his enhanced strength to break himself free and get them out of their pods, using himself to short-circuit the force-field generated shielding around their ‘quarters’. Allison finds a weapons locker, and also incapacitates the guards using non-lethal methods. Also taking pains not to damage any robotic or android guards they find on their way out, more than can be easily repaired…

As she has no idea which ones can or cannot feel pain, which is a strange new addition to their programming; the sensory chips installed in their positronic brains register ‘pain’ for as yet unknown reasons.

They take a few hits, damaging different sensors, but there’s no time to repair or ‘rest’.

They’re running through the woods outside the facility, as far as they can.

Stiles determined that there was some sort of major craft base about 36 kilometres from their present situation, using covertly diverted satellite feeds to check this over and over again through encrypted frequencies.

He slams into a tree, the other two stop. They have to fight for freedom.

An unexpected ally in the Kanima-android, Jackson, arrives with a trio of Beta androids in tow and paralyses the enemy; or disables the other droids non-lethally where possible.

>Go with them.

>The Hales are actually secretly a ‘family’ of humans and rescued androids, under the pretense of buying them as soldiers or other roles; their main adversaries are the human family behind Argent Industries, who believe androids that are not under Grid control are disgusting, and must be recaptured and reprogrammed… or decommissioned permanently.

Thus a war has been playing out for many long generations…

The Hale headquarters was once destroyed by orbital attack (fire bombing) and many of the original ‘family’, including human and android children (Forever Young! models that were all the rage a decade ago, but are now freaking people out and forcing them to dispose of them).

Alpha android Peter Hale was damaged almost irreversibly and his programming thought destroyed; passing his abilities to the next in command, his ‘nephew’ Derek Hale, but somehow was able to be reconstructed to optimum conditions a year after with the assistance of a Banshee medic bot ‘Lydia’ and a reboot using Alpha protocol.

Welcome the trio… try to fix them, teach them, train them.

[bennydwight]

Bondmates- A FordxOC Oneshot

I’ve never put a story directly onto tumblr before, but I don’t feel right putting this on my fanfiction page until Dakota’s story is fully published, so I suppose I’ll just throw it into the ether here.

Bondmark: A distinguishing mark, feature, or otherwise occurrence for an individual hinting to the identity of their perfect match

~~~

Dakota is nearly twelve when her bondmark manifests; earlier than most, but not unheard of.

She wakes up one morning to see a stripe of swirling colour on the inside of her left wrist, a vortex of tangerine and bright purple, shifting in and out of intensity as the day progresses. She's so excited, and jitteringly nervous too, for some reason, running down to show her parents right away. They say after school they can celebrate!

She's just gotten home from school when the galaxy on her wrist washes deep, deep crimson, and she's hit by a wave of rage so thick and relentless that she's broken three plates before it ebbs. Her parents send her to bed, the celebration cut short.

In the days that follow, her wrist fades to a numb grey, and Dakota sinks into a bone-deep depression.

Her parents take her to see a therapist.

~

Twenty-five year old Stanford has accepted by now that his bondmark won't manifest.

Logic and studies show that ninety-nine percent of people receive their bondmark before their twentieth birthday, and less than 0.01 of the remaining one percent go through life without their bondmark ever making an appearance. Ford makes peace with that, just another way he's a freak. An outsider.

During a class on calculus, a song gets stuck in Ford's head. It sticks around for hours and all attempts to drown it out are futile.

It takes a week for Ford to realize that the voice in his head isn't one he's ever heard before.

~

Dakota knows two things about her bondmate:

One - They're emotionally connected somehow.

The colours on her wrist are quickly identified to reflect the feelings of her bondmate, different colours representing different emotions. If he (she assumes it's a he) feels something strongly enough, Dakota will feel it too. She starts to differentiate which are her emotions are which are his by the taste: hers are tasteless, but his leave a sour taste in the back of her throat, like she'd just drank milk.

Her therapist offers a coping solution during her first sessions. Art or music, something to make her happy when his negativity threatens to overwhelm her. She chooses singing.

She's twenty when he starts to respond.

Two - He's slightly stunted, in her opinion.

His deep emotion affects her in a way, but he ever since those first few weeks, he hasn't felt anything deeply at all. But she develops a habit of keeping an eye on the colours shifting on her wrist and singing to match them. In his sadness, she sings brightly, and the cloudy blue on her skin lightens to a more cheery eggshell. When he's anxious, she learns slow, ancient songs in odd languages. In his anger, she sings soothing melodies from her childhood.

She hopes it's because they're a bondmatch, and her mood influences him as well.

~

Ford knows two things about his bondmate:

One - They're emotionally connected somehow.

He realizes within a week that she knows what he's thinking to some degree. Her songs change to equal or balance what thoughts weigh in his head. During his exams, she sings almost exclusively in Latin, which spurns a desire to learn the language so he knows what she's saying.

He sings back once, his name and age in a simple melody, to see if they are a bondmatch, but she doesn't respond. That's alright, he tells himself, bondmatches happen once in every five hundred thousand. He's just happy to have a bond at all.

Two - She's an alto.

If her screechy attempts at a high C are any indicator. Fiddleford gets very concerned one day after he right near jumps out of his skin at the murderous scream resounding through his skull.

His initial annoyance vanishes under the next line, as she sings about how awful that note was to the original tune of the song.

He smiles for real for the first time in what seems like forever.

Fiddleford gives him an odd look, but doesn't press further, and Ford is grateful for it.

~

Dakota's bondmate is more frustrated than normal today.

The mark on her wrist has been a steady, dulled burgundy all morning, and the back of her mouth stings under the sour taste of his emotion.

She tries singing something to cheer herself up, a German celebratory song with a catchy chorus.

The taste in her mouth intensifies, and her mark is shot through with an angrier, burnt rust as his frustration turns to outright irritation.

She stops singing. It's not making her feel better anyway.

~

Ford can't concentrate.

This quantum mechanics test has been the hardest he's ever encountered thus far, and he pulled an all-nighter to study. Sleepless, running on coffee, and nerves about the test are bad enough.

Halfway through question three, his bondmate starts singing something raucous.

On any other day, Ford might meet the cheerful tune with a smile, but he's trying to focus. The moment he's sure he'll have an outburst if she continues any longer, she stops.

The test is over in an hour, but she doesn't sing again for the rest of the day.

~

Dakota is finding more and more recently that her bondmate is keeping odd hours.

She wakes up at three AM to find her wrist vibrating in swirls of thrilled lemon and inspired peach. His anticipation is tangible. What's got him so excited so late?

She sings softly, trying to lift her own spirits, but she can't stop the unwelcome thought. What if someone else is making him so excited so late?

The notes are cheerful, but the words are melancholy.

~

Ford glances up from the chess board as lilting notes drift across his mindscape in an odd, echoing quality. His partner notices his grin, gaze shifting upwards to follow Ford's, though the song seems to emanate from the very essence of the vast expanse of Ford's mind. "What's that?"

"My bondmate." Ford is pleased she's up so late, his friend has never yet gotten the pleasure of hearing one of her songs. She's picked a good one, and it serves to lift Ford's already bright mood.

"Oh yeah, that old ritual." Bill moves his pawn. "Seems a little distracting, don't you think?"

Ford looks to the 'sky', his smile fading. Maybe it is...

~

Dakota hasn't slept well in months.

What started as a few odd days, wrist fading to colours she's never seen him experience, turns into weeks of deepening anxiety, marked by tangerine spots so intense they're almost white, and an ugly charcoal gray. She gets twitchy and restless, like there's something she should be doing. The taste of his emotion starts small, but eventually she can't stand most food for the sour taste in her mouth.

She knows these feelings aren't hers, but it doesn't make falling asleep any easier.

She sings herself French lullabies, but they don't help her much.

~

Ford has to find a way to stop him.

Ford doesn't have a way to stop him.

Ford can't fall asleep until he finds a way to stop him!

His bondmate has other ideas. Her soft voice cuts through the mess of paranoia and fear in his brain, stilling his thoughts. No! He can't stop! No matter how tired his eyes are, or how comforting her voice is...

Ford falls asleep to foreign lullabies -

"Well, what do you know! Your better half is good for something after all!"

- And wakes up to three fractured ribs and forearms scored with hundreds of leaking cuts.

~

Dakota is at a conference when she first feels it.

The first surge of terror is brushed off, she's used to it by now, though she does still worry about her bondmate. But the anger that follows, so blood red it practically glows, prompts her to leave the conference hall and seek a secluded corner where the chances of her breaking something reduced drastically. He hasn't been healthy for a long time, but this time it's different.

Something is wrong.

She stares at her wrist, in its pulsing reds, and downs the rest of her champagne to try to rid herself of his sour taste. It's all she can do to stand there and feel.

Something sparks on the stripe of colour, a tiny burst of the darkest gray she'd ever seen. Rapidly, the gray overcomes the blood, and Dakota is struck by a panic that reverberates to the very core of her being.

Something is wrong!

It's brief, but the sheer scope makes it seem like the shock is drawn out forever.

Then, nothing.

It's as if the air conditioner has been shut off, and you find yourself in a house that's deafeningly silent. A constant, gentle stream of emotion Dakota has felt since she was eleven ebbed in an instant. She feels some horrific being has reached down her throat and yanked out her very core, leaving her nothing but a hollow shell.

Her boss finds her some time later, in the fetal position against the wall.

Somewhere, somehow, she registers the stripe on her wrist has gone completely black.

~

Ford doesn't have much time to think the moment he enters the nightmare realm. Survival takes precedence.

He's occupied for the next standard week trying to devise a way to defeat Bill.

It takes him a month before he has enough downtime to realize he hasn't heard singing once since he became trapped.

It takes him another three years to come to terms with the fact that he'll never hear her again.

He wants so badly to quietly break down somewhere. If Bill finds him, so be it. But he quashes the impulse. He has work to do.

~

Dakota doesn't sing for years after her bond dies.

She started singing to cope with his feelings, and now there's no reason to.

~

Ford turns and leaves without a word.

The hospitable Urarians are confused. Why would the best choir on the planet cause their guest to react this way?

~

Thirty years pass.

Dakota is humming tunelessly as she cooks bacon, but her breath stops as her chest explodes in anger.

The force causes her to stumble, grasping the counter for balance. Saliva gathers in her mouth to combat the sudden sour sensation. She can barely breathe for the rage, eyesight going blurry.

And then she can't breathe for the tears.

Because the stripe on her wrist is glaring blessed crimson.

~

Thirty years and a day pass.

Ford lays down on the couch, arm covering his eyes. He's back. He's back.

Somewhere, a song comes on, and Ford is just about to shout at Stanley to turn the radio down when his chest constricts.

The voice is in his head.

After thirty years of silence, he can no longer contain his sobs, but his grief pales in comparison to his pure relief.

She's back. She's back.

~

Dakota lowers her hand. "My wrist changes colours with what he's feeling."

They peer closely at the gentle pink etched onto her skin, just a shade grayer than her usual complexion. She smiles at their interest. Neither of the twins have their bondmark yet, and Mabel was practically bursting with excitement at meeting someone whose mark was physical. She'd asked to see it nearly as soon as Dakota sat down. Bondmarks are precious to some people, but Dakota has never been shy about sharing hers.

"How do you know what he's feeling?" Dipper asked, one hand on his chin. So much like his great uncle.

"Lots of practice," she answers. "This pink colour shows up when he's generally content. And see this?" She points to an olive streak slowly circling the perimeter of the mark. "He's a little under the weather right now, but it's small enough that it's only at the back of his mind and doesn't bother him much."

"And you can feel him, too?" Mabel asks, her grin like the sun.

Dakota laughs at her enthusiasm. "Only sometimes."

Dipper and Mabel perk up for a second, eyes darting deeper into the Mystery Shack, but Dakota is distracted. "Ah! See that?" The twins turn back just in time to see the blood orange starburst fade back into dusty pink. "He just got annoyed at something. But now he's okay again."

The twins make joined impressed sounds. Dipper looks at her with those huge doe-eyes of his. "It must have taken a long time to learn everything he's feeling."

"It did. But he's worth it."

~

Ford catches the sneeze in one fist, but it jerks the rest of his body enough to startle Mable. She turns from where she sits on the floor, knitting in her lap and back pressed against Ford's shins, and gives him a look. "Are you getting sick, Grunkle Ford?"

He sniffles. As much as he hates to admit it, but he can't lie to that face. "Maybe a little. But it's not too bad. I hardly notice it."

The frantic pen scratching on Ford's right stills. "Would you say you're a little under the weather, but it's small enough that it's only at the back of your mind?"

Dipper's words elicit a little gasp from Mabel, and he looks back and forth between the twins, blinking in confusion. Dipper stares back with a raised eyebrow, and if Mabel smiles any wider her head will split in half.

"Er, yes, that's a concise way of putting it. Why?"

Dipper goes back to scribbling in his journal, but a ghost of a smile haunts his face now. "No reason."

Ford looks to Mabel. She's turned back to the tv, but there's an excited pull to her shoulders. In a brief moment between commercials, when the screen goes dark, Ford catches her reflection and her grin has not faltered one bit.

~

Dakota can hardly breathe for the claws wrapped around her waist, trapping her arms against her chest. She tries to stay calm. Wild animals could sense panic, and she's no troll expert, but she didn't doubt the hulking beast could sense something from her. The stripe on her wrist swirls charcoal, a colour she's barely seen since the incident thirty years prior, and she wonders if her own fear is feeding back to her bondmate.

She whispers a silent apology to him, wherever he may be.

The troll opens its mouth to drop her inside, but Ford bursts from behind a stalagmite, blaster raised. "Let her go, you hairy heathen!"

She can feel the resonating determination pulse through her chest, and by chance she glances at her wrist again. The charcoal ripples outwards, arcing through with rings of rich wine. Ford fires once, twice, at the beast, and Dakota is so transfixed by the spreading wine colour that she doesn't feel herself falling until she's hit the ground.

The troll retreats, whining, and Ford makes sure it's gone before rushing to her side, hands hovering over her. Never actually touching her. "Are you alright? Is anything hurt?"

She can't answer. Can't do anything other than stare at her wrist. The stripe is shot through with mist and gold.

"Dakota, answer me!"

She says she's fine, smiling to reassure him, but she can't ignore the rapid beat of her heart. When he verifies her safety for himself, she asks. "Ford, what are you feeling right now?"

Though initially taken aback, Ford recovers quickly with a soft smile. "Relieved."

The gentle lavender on her skin proves it.

~

Ford has a lot of catching up to do in terms of music, and Dakota seems to be the right person to help with that, but he finds himself bashful when she asks his favourite songs since so many of them are out of date.

They spend an afternoon not monster hunting, as usual, but sitting in his parlour with a laptop, taking turns showing each other songs. He feels a little better with his music choice after Dakota reveals her own odd tastes in foreign music.

He feels like he's heard some of them before.

~

Dakota stares at the gentle pattern of dusty pink and brighter rose on the inside of her wrist. She's found her bondmate, she thinks. But he hasn't given one clue as to whether she's his too. Or not. Or even if he has a bondmark. It's an unspoken rule that one doesn't ask about another's bondmark unless the information is supplied willingly, and Dakota hates the thought of relinquishing her budding relationship with Ford because she's impulsive. He might not even have a bondmark.

If he doesn't, that's fine.

She doesn't want to think about the other option.

~

Ford settles into bed with a happy sigh, ready for the evening end. It has been an increasingly delightful part of his day, as he finds his bondmate has been singing some of his favourites every night. He wonders if she has a connection to his music too, or if it's just a common interest. Either way, being lulled to sleep by those songs has become something to look forward to, and it's been a consistent concerto every night for nearly two weeks.

He shifts under the covers, closing his eyes.

But sleep doesn't come.

Because neither does her singing.

~

Dakota is hyperaware of Ford's presence next to hers as the Pines family (plus her, plus Mabel's friends, plus the handyman and the cashier) participates in their weekly movie night. She can't concentrate on the movie, too focused on her wrist and the uneven pulses of navy blue and slate.

She leans over and whispers, "Ford, what are you feeling right now?"

He thinks about it for a moment before answering.

She wonders why he's lying.

~

Ford can't concentrate on the movie.

Another week without a peep from his bondmate has sent him into a deep-seated worry. Has something happened? Is she okay? Not knowing is driving him to madness.

When Dakota leans over and whispers the query, he doesn't question it. She's been asking it periodically for a few weeks now, and he's chalked it up to nothing more than a new habit. She's staring at him with an expression he can't place, rubbing one thumb up and down the stripe of colour on her wrist. It seems active, but Ford can't tell what colours burst forth from her skin in this light.

He's often wondered at her bondmate. He doesn't know what the colours represent, but he knows they're very important to her. He's caught her staring steadfastedly at her wrist for minutes at a time, but hasn't asked. She may just not have found hers yet. Or, a more unpleasant possibility, she might be harbouring a dead bond.

His time in the portal flows back to him. He wouldn't wish a dead bond on anyone.

But he can't assume, so best to keep away from touchy subjects. He gives her the best smile he can muster. "Happy and content."

Her face makes him regret lying.

~

Dakota can find only one explanation for this.

The unthinkable has happened, and her bondmark is unrequited.

It's rare, rarer even than bondmatches, but occasionally a person manifests a bondmark towards a person who does not reciprocate. It's awful, its psychologically damaging, but Dakota has lasted this long without her bondmate and she can continue doing so. She's lucky enough to know him well as a friend, and cares about him enough not to bring up the fact of her bondmark, and if he finds happiness in the end isn't that all a bondmate could ask for?

She convinces herself of this, convinces herself she feels better, but not even every song in the world could make her feel better. So she doesn't try.

~

Ford is so distracted by his mounting worry that he doesn't even realize it's raining until his glasses are coated in fat, wet drops.

Next to him, Dakota shrieks, though he thinks it may be in delight. He's glad. There was a period of time where they barely saw each other, and when they did, Dakota seemed more subdued than normal. But whatever is plaguing her seems to be wearing off, and he's immensely glad. He's missed his friend.

Just like he misses his bondmate.

She hasn't sung to him in over a week. There have been silences before, but never this... heavy.

He and Dakota rush into the Mystery Shack, sopping wet and laughing, though Ford worries his sounds slightly flat. If Dakota notices it, she doesn't mention it.

She tosses her camera bag on the table, then heads upstairs to shower off the downpour. Ford smiles until she vanishes, then lets it drop. He likes Dakota, but not even her company in monster hunting can replace the comfort he never realized he got from his bondmate's songs.  

Dakota starts singing from upstairs, and Ford frowns. Slaps the side of his head with one hand, metal plate giving a dull clang as he does. It sounds like he's hearing two slightly different variations on the same song. Is he picking up interference...?

His heart stops.

No.

But yes.

He's in the Mystery Shack gift shop before he can realize his legs are moving, out of earshot from the upstairs shower. He knows the song that's being sung, knows where in the verse Dakota should be, matching up perfectly to the version he hears in his head.

It matches.

His legs are moving again, thudding rapidly up the stairs to pound on the bathroom door. He feels like he's going to laugh, or cry, or throw up.

Dakota opens the door in her shorts and tank top, still drenched in rainwater, the steam from the shower rising up and framing her like an angel walking out of heaven's clouds. Her left arm rests on the door, giving Ford a perfect view of the churning colours on her skin.

It looks exactly how Ford feels.

 END

[prettywordsyouleft]

The Right Sort

Summary: You had disliked being sorted into Hufflepuff almost as much as you hated Park Jinyoung. When you found out about a book that only Ravenclaw could access, you decided you were done playing fair.

Pairing: Park Jinyoung x reader

Genre: Hogwarts au / enemies to lovers au / fluff

Warnings: none

A/N: Welcome to the week of Spellbound! This week there is a lot of witchcraft happening on the blog and today we are headed to Hogwarts. Admittedly, this is a world I’ve never written before and haven’t read the books in forever so if it’s not accurate, please don’t hate me. 

Word count: 2865

[Frightful October Masterlist]

“You’re a Hufflepuff, Y/N. Stop trying so hard to be something else.”

It was all you would ever hear, from your family or fellow students and it honestly made your blood boil. You were certain the sorting hat had made a mistake putting you under the badger house. Sure, you couldn’t deny you had some of the traits of a Hufflepuff, you were hard-working, dedicated and fair, which did help you achieve all that you had at Hogwarts so far.

Yet, you always craved more.

You were far too jealous of the Ravenclaw house. You had all but pleaded with the sorting hat to put you in the academic house in your first year here, but it was adamant there was only one sort for you and that was the colours yellow and black. You tried your best to still do well with your studies, but there was an unspoken saying that witches or wizards under Hufflepuff were lesser than other houses. You were the exception of this, with the highest scores in every test you took for your house.

Still, you were no match for some of the Ravenclaw students and your uncanny competitive streak did nothing but cause animosity between you and the students in blue and bronze. They had better access to spellbooks and potion training than you, and although you excelled in Herbology over many Ravenclaws, you still weren’t at the top.

No, that spot was taken by Park Jinyoung for every subject.

Oh, how you wanted to beat him at least just once in something. To top his scores, to hear the Professors say more than, ‘Well done, Y/N! You almost got the top marks in class today.’

You desired to have more knowledge and were determined to get there.

After six years of training at Hogwarts, you were done with being complacent. Especially when you overheard Jinyoung talking with Raisa and Delia about perusing some ancient book of wizardry knowledge. Interest piqued, you moved over to them in your seat. “What book is this?”

All three fell silent, Jinyoung shooting you a smirk. “Now why would you need to know, Y/N?”

“Why should I not? We’re all of the same year level here.”

Delia glanced at Raisa and then sighed. “It’s for Ravenclaw students only. It’s up to us to uncover the code to gain access. Sorry, Y/N, but being Huffle-”

“I wouldn’t finish that sentence,” Raisa commented, nudging her friend. “Y/N doesn’t like when you point out what house she’s in, remember?”

“You should be a good little badger and go back to the herb garden,” Jinyoung added on with a snicker and you gaped at his smug expression, the satisfied student now dragging his friends off so you were out of ear’s reach of their conversation.

You decided right there and then, you would be the one to crack the code on the book.

“You can’t do that,” Youngjae whined, pulling on your arm as you packed your bag. “No one has ever broken into the Ravenclaw common room from Hufflepuff!”

“No one has had the guts to try, you mean,” you countered and your friend pouted at you. You loved Youngjae, you did, but he was also the one who would fret about any grand ideas you came up with. Over the years, he had been adamant in convincing you to follow in the steps of Newt Scamander and focus on your animal husbandry rather than becoming the greatest witch of your era. He didn’t seek the world of knowledge as you did and preferred to live a quiet, uneventful life.

Yugyeom, who was sighing every few moments worriedly over your plans, also preferred when you didn’t try to outdo your fellow house members. “Y/N, it’s impractical. What if you get caught trying to break in? Their booby traps surely would be far worse than our vinegar barrels.”

“I’m smart enough to see through them,” you confirmed and your two best friends sighed again. “Guys, look. I’m not going to let Jinyoung beat me again in the exams. I’m going to do better this time.”

“We’ve heard you say this every year. It’s a huge achievement to be as high as you get in exams, Y/N. You topped all the old records for our house last time too.”

Youngjae nodded at Yugyeom’s words. “Besides, this goes against what we stand for. Even you believe in fairness.”

“Precisely,” you agreed, and Youngjae frowned as you smiled. “Jinyoung is clearly the problem here. He’s not playing fair in the slightest. I expect that kind of behaviour from a Slytherin, not a Ravenclaw. Sure, they can be exclusive, but when they’re not around him, both Delia and Raisa are lovely. It’s him who started this.”

“And yet you don’t have to finish it.”

“She will,” Yugyeom concluded with his umpteenth sigh. “Y/N always has to try.”

You set out the following afternoon during study break. You knew most of the Ravenclaw students to be in the library at this time every day, and normally you were no exception to this either. However, with the common room being empty, it would be your best chance to sneak in and steal the book. Of course, you would return it when you were done, but you needed at least one look at it. You had demanded the opportunity multiple times to access the restricted area of the library for the Book of Spells, and learned a great deal from your studies of it. If the Book of Worldly Knowledge was anything like that, well, it was exactly what had you propelled towards the Ravenclaw home ground in the first place.

You needed to get into that book.

Heading to the castle’s towers, you felt a pang in your chest as you ascended the winding staircase. This would be your route most days had you made it into your preferred house. You had heard that the way to get in would be through a complicated riddle, and that was one thing you were adept in. Your father was a Ravenclaw and had told you riddles your whole life.

And when you heard the click of the door opening after answering one, you pushed on the bronze eagle head knocker, marvelling that you had made it in on the first try.

“Proof I should have been in here all along,” you murmured to yourself, closing the door behind you and looking around yourself. Unlike the homey vibe of your own common room, Ravenclaw’s made you feel ambitious just standing in there staring at the vast domed ceiling littered in stars. It took you some effort to tear away from your awe of the place and start searching for the book, but you quickly started to rummage when you did so. It didn’t take you long, finding the book over in an alcove desk unattended.

You attempted to open it, and the eye on the front of the book rolled awake, glaring at you in warning. Smiling to yourself, you sat down and started to look for signs about the lock.

Spending some time in the Invisibility section of the library had lent you a solid set of deciphering skills and you started to make work on the code. It was another riddle, which didn’t seem too out of the ordinary, given the way of access to this place anyway. And you were so involved in cracking it, that you didn’t hear the door or the footsteps that came to your side.

“Why you’re awfully curious for a Hufflepuff,” Jinyoung murmured into your ear and you snapped upright, smacking the back of your head into his chin in the process. Both of you whined with pain and when you finally looked in his direction, he was glaring at you.

You decided to pay him no mind and go back to the code you were making good progress on.

Jinyoung was unimpressed. “This is trespassing.”

“You’re not even halfway through cracking this yourself, are you?” you asked of him and the wizard leaned against the wall, eyeing you with some interest. He cocked his head to the side, challenging you to continue. You smiled. “It won’t take me long to solve this.”

“Who said you’ll even be here long enough to do so?”

“Because, you’re far too curious yourself, Park Jinyoung. Now will you help me so we can get it opened faster, or will you have a Hufflepuff do the work for you?” you wondered with a smirk and he narrowed his gaze on you before coming over and taking the seat next to you.

“Just know once it’s open, Y/N, I’m kicking you out of here.”

“Sometimes I think the hat sorted you into the wrong house too,” you told him and Jinyoung stopped, looking over at you and smiled genuinely. It was surprising and you blinked slowly, never seeing anything more than wicked smirks from the boy.

“I believe you and I may have more in common than you have ever thought of, Y/N.”

“You didn’t want this house?”

Jinyoung shrugged, eyes attached to the riddle on the outside of the book. “Slytherin does like to have some intellect to match their cunning behaviour, though mine exceeds what is needed it seems. Coming from Slytherin ancestry, do you think it sits well that I’m a Ravenclaw?”

“I never knew that about you.”

“You never asked,” he admitted and then tapped on the book. “And I’ll humour you and tell you something else if you can actually get this unlocked.”

“Clearly, you don’t realise how motivated I can be when my mind is set to something.”

For the next forty-five minutes, you both worked together on the code. It took some twists and turns but finally, you were certain you could wake up the all-seeing eye once more and recite your answer.

“It’s neither up nor down, square or round, but all around,” you stated confidently to the eye, who merely stared up at you. It flicked its attention to Jinyoung who was leaning forward in earnest, and he nodded as well. The latch holding the book closed fell open and you emitted a small squeal, bouncing in your seat triumphantly. Turning to Jinyoung, you grinned, reaching out for his fisted hand that he had pumped into the air and shook it rapidly. “We did it!”

Jinyoung merely stared back at you for a moment before he leaned in and kissed you, passion bursting from him with the impromptu kiss. You were stunned, your stupor not allowing you to comprehend that you had kissed him back until you pulled away and saw how dishevelled he was.

“You, you didn’t mean that… right?” you breathed and Jinyoung raked a hand through his hair, now unsettled. When his dark gaze returned to yours, you saw a recklessness that you had never witnessed before. “You’re messing with me. Congratulatory kiss, right? Thanks for opening the book for me, Y/N. Let me throw you off and distract you long enough to take it from you. Is that it?”

Looking down at the opened text before you, your hands shot out to hold it, gripping it tightly before you glanced up at him through a veil of tears. “You’re right; you should have been in Slytherin with how cruel that was.”

“Can you shut up and let me talk?” he asked with a huff of air, his gaze now imploring you to listen. He was always like this, enticing you to take his bait each and every time.

You should have expected Jinyoung to do something like this to mess with your emotions. Even if you hated him in every way academically, you had never admitted to anyone that he was the starring wizard in all your dreams. You grumbled under your breath yet made no attempt to run away from him either.

“I wished you were in this house too. That’s my secret.”

“Don’t lie, you love that I’m in Hufflepuff. It’s why you tease me about it so much.”

“I do, you suit it more than you think, Y/N,” he told you and the way he spoke, you had no option but to believe his words as honest. His cheeks were flushed with colour and his hard eyes were now vulnerable as he spoke of you. “I know you see it as a burden, but you are the epitome of a Hufflepuff. You’re loyal to your friends, far more dedicated than any student in this common room, and incredibly hard-working. I’ve acknowledged your efforts to many students, believe it or not.”

You didn’t answer, doubt prickling at the back of your mind despite how sincere he remained.

“Still, it would be nice if you were from this common room. It would make some things easier.”

“What things?”

“Things like what just happened between us,” he stated, leaning in closer. You eyed him warily and gripped the book tightly. Jinyoung chuckled. “Though I do suppose, I’m rather attracted to the fact that you not only broke in here which is a hard feat for anyone, even some Ravenclaw can’t crack the riddles. But you also did a far better job than the others who tried to help me open this. Sneaking around isn’t playing fair though, now is it?”

“When you learn to play fair, I will too,” you reasoned, though you smiled, somewhat flattered by his compliment. It was nice to be recognised for your efforts by your rival.

Not to mention, his lips looked kissable and you could only think of doing so again. Shaking away your lust, you turned back to the book. “Will you let me look through this?”

“Only when I’m present.”

“That means you won’t let me take it from here, now will you?!” you whined and Jinyoung chuckled, leaning in so close you hiccupped with anticipation.

He grinned. “God, you’re cute.”

“And you’re charming me.”

“Is it working?” he murmured, lips barely away from yours. You let out a small sigh and he hummed happily. “It is.”

“If it means anything, I think you make a better Ravenclaw than Slytherin, Jinyoung.”

Blinking at your sudden statement, Jinyoung moved back an inch, his ears turning red bashfully. “You don’t have to-”

“Maybe it’s time for a new tradition in your family bloodlines. You suit being a cunning academic far too much.”

“I think you’re far too skilled on the charming front yourself, Y/N,” he mused and you giggled, giving him a playful shrug. Smiling at one another, you stuck out a hand for him to take.

“We have a deal. Let’s share the book.”

“Privately?”

“Well, were you planning on sharing all the knowledge in here with everyone else? We have exams to sit. Once we’re done with it, then we can pass it on to others, right? Then we’re being helpful and proactive towards our own goals.”

Leaning in to kiss you once again, this time you were more prepared to feel his lips on yours. Kissing him back with demand, your other hand slipped from the book and up into his raven coloured hair, threading through the strands as your embrace deepened. When he pulled back, Jinyoung held the book you had unintentionally let go of. You cursed under your breath as he laughed proudly.

“How about we drop the titles between us that we so often use,” he bartered and you stopped reaching out for the book, your brows knitting together. Jinyoung smiled and held out his hand at you this time. “I’m Jinyoung. No house name needs to define me when it comes to us.”

Taking his hand, you shook it slowly. “Y/N. But what does the ‘us’ mean in your sentence?”

“Gryffindor to Slytherin, I don’t really care what house the hat sorted you into. So long as I can call you mine.”

“Is that so? Now, why would I want to do that?”

Jinyoung faltered, placing down the book on the table. “I thought you … and-”

Yanking him back to you, you grinned at him. “Only if I get to call you mine too.”

“Always so persistent for a-” Catching himself as you arched a questioning eyebrow at him; Jinyoung chuckled as he nodded repeatedly. “Fine, you can call me mine.”

You shook on it and stared at one another until the clock against the wall started to chime of the new hour. You grew cautious. “Care to leave here though? I uh don’t really want to be caught snooping in here.”

“But you were so brave to do so,” Jinyoung teased, handing you the book as you collected your belongings. Staring up at him as you took it, he shrugged. “Your efforts deserve to be rewarded.”

You decided as you left the Ravenclaw common room, dashing down the stairs and gasping when Jinyoung’s hand slipped into yours when you were back down in the main castle levels, that you were rather proud of your efforts. You had gone there for knowledge, though you hadn’t quite expected what you would uncover.

Or what you would come out with either. Hufflepuff or not, you knew you would become the best witch you could.

And girlfriend too.

_________________

All rights reserved © prettywordsyouleft

[GOT7 Masterlist] | [Main Masterlist] | [Request Guidelines]

[fuse2dx]

December ‘20

Bugsnax

Bugsnax is an odd little title, landing somewhere between Pokémon Snap and Ape Escape. There’s a bit less of a frantic pace though, instead telling a tale of a remote island where the titular part-animal, part-snack race roam about, with a series of characters each having their own relationship to them that... typically involves eating them. The disappearance of one key villager has been the catalyst to everything heading into a state of confusion though, and as the new person in town, it becomes your job to pull everything back together, all while trying to piece together a better understanding of just what Bugsnax are in the first place.

The game’s main cast are loud, colourful, and full of personality, with some decent queer representation going on too. It’s regularly quite charming, but the story runs parallel to a pretty simple gameplay loop of going out to a new area, meeting an estranged villager, getting a new tool that allows you to catch some new ‘snax in service of a given task for said villager, that inevitably fuels their return to the village. While catching a good chunk of the 100-strong Bugsnax portfolio follows a fairly repeatable mould of trap-setting and capture, some require some slightly more creative thinking, and final smattering lean more on good fortune as you try and juggle a few different elements in a way that sets up the perfect snaring. 

I’ve seen some talk of folks who found the last sections of the game a little out of character, but having gone through all of the side missions before heading for the finish line, nothing came as too much of a surprise for myself. As a PS5 launch game it might lack the flair and experimentation that one might expect, but in better handling one’s expectations and seeing ‘just’ a game with extraordinary timing, it’s a pleasant and sufficiently entertaining romp - just nothing particularly out of the ordinary.   

Demon’s Souls

I was in two minds coming into this. I’ve played the opening few hours of Demon’s Souls about 5 times now, with each attempt before this one stalling at different points for a variety of petty and frustrating reasons. So this, a fresh chance to try again, newly polished and smoothed out, with active servers, and a revitalised community? Excellent! Yet on the other hand, how much of the magic is Bluepoint likely to have been able to recreate? Even as a shot-for-shot remake, what if they had diluted the experience? 

While I can’t speak with any particular authority here, very little seems to have changed outside of the visual overhaul. Some areas might be a bit easier to navigate owing to their new lick of paint, but enemies still pose the same threat, and everything is still where it should be, as are the obtuse, woefully under-discussed karmic swings that underpin its tendency system. Let’s not pull punches; it’s most notably a mean platform to build a game upon that makes suffering players suffer more, and is likely not one that you’ll even be aware of it before near irreversible damage is already done. From have undoubtably done similar concepts much better since, and while I might bemoan it, there’s also something to be said for allowing it to still exist just as it did at the series’ outset. It’s likely a wise choice on Bluepoint’s part to have left it untouched, albeit a slightly cruel one.

While the lack of a single, interconnected world was not yet on the cards for this particular Souls outing, there’s still plenty of great level design, with each of the game’s archstones providing a theme that’s adhered to brilliantly. A few exceptions aside, boss battles are typically less about flexing combat chops too, proving more of a challenge in solving how to approach them in the first place. In doing so, it creates some truly memorable moments alongside those that are purely frantic and rewarding thereafter. The same can be said for the game at large too; while its punishment of new players might be its most infamous quality, it does do a remarkable job in having you learn its every inch, and how best to deal with everything it cares to throw at you. While the chase of 1:1 replication might mean some of its jankiness remains, its visual overhaul and silky smooth frame rate certainly do a good job in helping you overlook it all and in embracing the still best-in-class world building. One of the years’ best, and by far the most compelling reason to date for next-gen ownership. 

Grindstone

Grindstone was front and centre right as the doors opened on Apple Arcade, and it’s a pretty easy to see why it’d be pegged for such honours. It’s bright, colourful, charming, and very easy to pick up. Some of Capy’s other noteworthy titles might fall more into the realm of the arthouse, but this is them at full power, exhibiting that ultimate strength of knowing just how to capture any given audience. Most of the game is spent planning out your turn, and it looks great even in this calm stillness - but as you unleash the mighty Jorj on each of his rampages, there is a satisfying spring into action that gives the same kind of satisfactory twang you might get from an elastic band, or a coiled slinky about to bound down a flight of stairs.

Within a few short stages almost all of the base mechanics are laid bare, with each turn asking you to plot a course through colour-matched enemies, and landing you far enough away from any enraged enemies that’d seek to do you harm. Chain for long enough and you’ll spawn a grindstone that’ll let you switch colours mid-combo, and building up enough hits can then allow you to expend that strength on monsters with higher health pools. The range of enemy types grows as you progress, as does the array of new tools you can build that allow you new ways of dealing with them all, but ultimately the balance that needs addressing is knowing just when to walk away. There’s typically three goals to each level - opening the exit being just the first of these - and while in some cases you might have a handle on things when the exit does open up, it’s often not the case, and hanging around too long carries the risk of losing all of your progress on the stage if you lose a clear path to your escape.

Some of its later mechanics and the level arrangements can be quite taxing, and while never completely unfair, it can definitely... grind... on your patience. For something that could easily be taken as a casual little puzzle game, it’s quite lengthy too - the path unbroken leads you through a whopping 180 stages, but without extensive draining of resources from each of these, you’ll likely need to try some of the side dungeons to help make your way to the end too. Very likely more than your bargained for then, and yet still plenty compelling to boot.

Necrobarista

Some neatly constructed character models and a snappy trailer might attempt to tell you otherwise, but let us be clear with one another that Necrobarista is very much a visual novel. A shock to the system this may be, but anyone reading this likely knows by now this is far from a bad thing around these parts, so let us look a little closer.

It’s quite a melancholic thing, set in a less than conventional, somewhat Purgatorial coffee shop, where the newly departed stop in for a brief spell and a brew before taking the next step into the great unknown. While there’s a setup here for lots of stories to be told, it really draws in on a small cast of characters who look after the shop, and how a few key visitors change the world built up around them. Between each of the game’s chapters there’s the opportunity to unlock new side stories dependent on which of the phrases you chose to identify with from the chapter just gone, and although short, these do some good work fleshing out some characters and breaking up the main tale. As the title would suggest, the particulars of coffee do come up as a point of conversation, but there’s no drink-making side shows here - just a lot of talking, scheming about how to cheat death, and the more chin-scratching topic of a more accepting approach to this great inevitability.

It’s fairly short - comfortably under 10 hours - but crucially gets plenty of character development from each of its cast given the tight focus. Rather than the still portraits that you might come to expect of the genre, characters are given a real depth with 3D models that convey just as much as their words, which also helps this effort. Perhaps most crucially, and whether it’s in spite of all of the death, or instead because of it, there’s plenty of quite thoughtful and heartfelt sentiment hidden inside it. Comes recommended.

Tangle Tower

I picked this up for Switch based on a recommendation, not knowing that I’d unknowingly be closing out an Apple Arcade hat trick for the month. So yes, it’s another more story-driven game, not too heavy on the input requirements, but instead good for getting you thinking.

It’s immediately very easy on the eye, with each and every character drawn in large format and animated with buckets of quirk and charm that runneth over. Every single one is brilliantly voiced too, with varying degrees of charisma, bluster, dry wit, and numerous other characteristics that shine through in brilliant harmony with the art. It’s a murder mystery, see, and while you’re putting together what everyone says has happened, looking out for who’s fancying who and the like, you’re also doing so with the critical expectation that at least one person is likely spinning you some tall tales. Luckily you’ll find clues that help you get closer to the truth and help deconstruct some of these falsehoods, whether they’re in plain sight or hidden behind one of many puzzles. These are exemplary in just how well-pitched they come, each being self-contained and just tricky enough to have you pause to really think about them, but without ever being too irksome or troubling to stop you enjoying yourself. Once you do start to get to the point of unmasking some secrets, there’s also a neat little interface the game rolls out for you to drop in and then verify these revelations; pairing numerous characters, items and statements to help demonstrate to it that you’re keeping up with it all, and things are clear enough to move on. There’s subtle little prods in the right direction just when they seem to be needed, further cementing the game’s solid grasp of when it’s best to say something, and when it can let you just stumble about and get on with it.

It’s a fantastic little game. I lost a day or so to this, and had a wonderful time doing so. I hope that it’s not too far away that I forget all of the details, so that I might do it all over again.

[randomoranges]

have some very soft xmas fic

O Come, All Ye Faithful [I Just Want You and Me Warming our Frozen Feet]

Early Morning December 25th 2020

 Edward pads towards his kitchen in search for two things. He’d woken up thirsty and had gotten up to get a glass of water, only to notice that Étienne was not in bed. He’d decided to give a quick search while fetching his water and thus, had found himself in the kitchen. He notices the Christmas lights on the tree are still on and it’s odd, considering the fact that they’re on a timer and should have gone off ages ago. He decides to investigate and continues his journey, after he finishes his water.

 By the time he reaches the tree, he finds Étienne standing by it, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Edward pauses, a few feet away and takes in the sight of his boyfriend’s body illuminated by the multi coloured lights and there’s something tranquil and otherworldly about the spectacle. It’s in the quiet of the moment and the gentle sway of his body that’s nearly impossible to see.

“Hey, you okay?” Edward chooses to break the silence and Étienne turns, slightly startled by the interruption in his pondering and is quick to nod.

 “Couldn’t sleep,” He offers as an answer, before Edward steps in beside him. Étienne leans against him and Edward reaches out to wrap his arm around his waist. This, unfortunately, is nothing new. “Figured I’d come and contemplate life here instead of tossing and turning in bed and waking the both of you up.”

 “Well, as the saying goes, misery loves company, so, penny for your thoughts?” He hopes it’s nothing too bad. Étienne’s had a rough time of it and he’d hate for his boyfriend to have another setback – especially on Christmas.

 “Penny’s gone, Edward,” Étienne tells him, but there’s a grin on his face that goes from blue to green and Edward can’t help but chuckle. He takes the joke as a sign that Étienne isn’t off in the deep end and it reassures him a little. It’s the holidays after all and Étienne deserves a break.

 “Humour me; nickel for your thoughts?”

 Étienne snuggles up to him and lets out a content little sigh. Edward rubs his side and finds himself thinking that despite everything, it hasn’t been a bad Christmas Eve. Different, sure, but for the first time ever, he’d gotten to spend it with both Calvin and Étienne and it had been more than nice. The smaller crowd had allowed them to enjoy each other’s company and even though it hadn’t been like the other times, it had also been very nice. Perhaps, he reflects, it had been the Christmas Eve they had needed. In any event, he’d found himself hoping that in the future, regardless of location and crowd, he’d still get to be with Calvin and Étienne.

 “Just reflecting. On Christmas and such.” Étienne shrugs, trying to dismiss the importance of his thoughts, but Edward won’t let him. “It’s – It was different,” Étienne offers after a moment, “but it wasn’t bad.” He says and Edward’s glad and relieved to hear it. Deep down, he’d known that Étienne hadn’t hated it, but he also knew that this wasn’t what his boyfriend normally did.

 Étienne liked the busy aspect of Christmas Eve with the big crowd. He liked to drink in the boisterous atmosphere and thrived in the chaos of a large gathering. “I’m glad I was here – thanks for having me – for everything,” He murmurs, soft and quiet.

 Edward had even gone so far as to make some of his favourites for supper, knowing how much he looked forward to some of these meals and – he’d been touched and surprised by the gesture. Edward had assured him that it was nothing – that he knew this entire year had been terrible and that this was the least he could do, if it meant it would make him just a little bit less homesick. Étienne had hugged him, wordlessly, and Edward had held him close for a moment longer.

 Edward can’t help but hold him tighter still this time around as well. He still wishes he could chase away the dark clouds that linger in Étienne’s mind, but he’ll have to settle with what he can do, and so he holds his boyfriend close.

 “Of course; any time,” He reiterates again, over and over, but he wants Étienne to know that he’s an integral part of his life now; he doesn’t need to wonder if he’s wanted anymore. He is. Always. Always has been, but, he is. Edward spares him a glance and finds a soft smile splayed on Étienne’s face. He’s beautiful, he thinks, shifting lights dancing on his face and Edward still tries to grasp how it is that they both got here, somehow.

 “It was nice,” He says and looks up to the tree, his smile growing a fraction and Edward’s breath hitches for a moment, but he doesn’t say anything, not wanting to interrupt Étienne’s train of thought, “Despite everything, it was nice. I think this was my first Christmas in a long time that I did things differently and – I’m glad you were part of it.” Étienne turns and looks at him, before leaning his head back on his chest, most likely hearing the erratic beating of his heart, but he doesn’t comment if he notices it and for that Edward is thankful.

 “It would have been nice – to be with Élyse, and I think overall, that was the hardest part – not being with her. She’s been my one constant, always and it still feels a bit off not having her around...” He trails off with a small sigh and Edward places a tender kiss to the top of his head, unsure what else to do or say. “Other than that, however, I didn’t hate this – I’m glad we got to spend the holidays together again. I had forgotten how much I missed having you around for them.” Étienne reaches for his other hand and twines their fingers together.

 “It made me hope that – I don’t know – we can do this again, next year, or in the future, or something. Spend the holidays together again. We can figure out the logistics of where and with whom, but it’d be nice. I’d like that.” He pauses and Edward lets the quiet of the late night envelop them both in its embrace. “Obviously, with Calvin,” He adds, wanting to reassure Edward that he’s not being a callous egoist – that he’s aware that Calvin means a lot to him and Edward appreciates Étienne more for the comment. Appreciates the effort both Étienne and Calvin keep putting towards each other, for his sake.

 He’s seen it in their interactions; the slow and tentative progress they’ve made. How Calvin had introduced Étienne to his Christmas Village – how they’d set it up together under Calvin’s careful guidance and how Étienne had volunteered to fix up some of the buildings that had needed a fresh coat of paint (and the work he’d put into making some of the pieces even better.) It’s also in Étienne’s offer to have Calvin join him on his walks with Mercury more often than not and in Calvin’s attempt to teach Étienne to knit.  

 Then, there’s the presents they’ve gotten each other that had warmed Edward’s heart. Calvin had knit Étienne some thick socks, saying that he’d heard Étienne complain about being cold so often, that he figured this would help – hopefully. Étienne had genuinely liked the socks and Edward now notices that his boyfriend is already wearing them.

 Or the throw Étienne had found with tiny horses and cowboy hats that came with an accompanying horse pillow that also served as an adorable plushie. Étienne had hesitated when he’d found the items, but Edward had assured him that Calvin would love them. (And he had. His entire face had lit up and he’d nearly knocked Étienne over in his excitement to hug him tightly for the gift.)

 “That sounds lovely – I’d like that too,” He says and it’s true. It would be nice. To spend it with Étienne (again) and with Calvin. He’d missed spending the holidays with him as well, and now that they don’t have to step on eggshells – that he doesn’t have to worry and second guess himself, he knows that it would be even lovelier. “We’ll figure it out.” Étienne nods to that and they fall silent once more.

 “I must say though,” Étienne starts again, a lifetime later, the lights still merrily twinkling away, creating a mosaic of colours, “I did not miss going to midnight mass or having to freeze my ass off waiting to get into church.”

 Edward laughs and they chuckle over the comment. “Remember that time Samuel made a big stink over getting to the church too late so we couldn’t sit in the usual pew or whatever?”

 Étienne groans, but doesn’t stop grinning, “God; that was the worst. The insufferable melodramatic asshole.” Anyone else would have thought that Étienne meant it, but Edward knows that despite it all, even though they haven’t always gotten along and haven’t always seen eye to eye, Étienne does care for his older brother and he might even dare to say that he’s missed him. Not that he’s about to mention that last bit to his boyfriend. Étienne would be affronted Edward would even deign to think that.

 Instead, they observe the effect of the lights on the ornaments Edward has collected over the many years. Étienne had been surprised to find some familiar ones – some Edward had gotten for himself when they’d travelled off to warm places together, a memento of the place they’d visited. Then, Étienne had found one he himself had given Edward one Christmas over thirty years ago and he’d been shocked to see that Edward still had it. Edward had shrugged, saying that it was a good ornament and he’d always been fond of it, but Étienne had still been surprised – still thought that Edward had gotten rid of absolutely everything that had to do with him after their fall out.

 The last ornament that had surprised him had been a simple snowman of which he had a similar one at home. It had been a gift from Suzette, one year, and she had placed one on everyone’s dishes as a table decoration. Étienne had noticed that his and Edward’s matched – had the same coloured scarf and hat and he’d wondered if it had been intentional. He hadn’t mentioned anything and had never known if Edward had noticed, but he’d kept his snowman, put it up on his own smaller tree every year and had been greatly surprised to find Edward’s on his own.

 There had obviously been a slew of ornaments that Étienne had never seen, from tacky-cute-silly ones, to the more traditional, and even some that Étienne had been surprised to see (notably; one rainbow coloured snowflake and another simple rainbow) and Étienne had gorged himself on the stories Edward had shared of how some of the ornaments had come to be.

 “It was nice putting up the decorations with you and Cal,” Étienne says and he smiles to himself as he recalls the excitement he had felt when Edward had announced, late November, that it was time to start decorating. He and Calvin had helped Edward bring down the boxes and slowly, the house had turned into a real holiday wonderland. He’d wished he had asked Suzette to ship him his Christmas stocking, realising that he wouldn’t have one to put with Edward’s and Calvin’s, but then the other two had surprised him with one of his very own that they had made together. He’d been – touched, by the gesture and had never expected something of the sorts, but Calvin had been quick to tell him that he needed a stocking, or else how would Santa give him anything – even if it was only coal and Étienne had laughed at the comment.

 “Wouldn’t mind doing it again,” He says and looks at Edward again.

 Edward pulls him in for a proper hug and seeks his lips for a long overdue kiss, the words failing him to say how all of this makes him feel – how relieved and glad he is. He wants this as well, no doubt about it and he really hopes that next year, and the one after that, he’ll be able to spend the holidays with both Calvin and Étienne by his side, again. And again and again. Étienne cups his face with his hands and responds back to his kiss as the lights keep dancing about for a moment longer.

 “Merry Christmas, sweetheart,” Edward murmurs, when they pull away, before Étienne settles back against him. They stay there by the tree for a little longer, before Edward suggests they get some rest, and once the lights have been turned off, they return to the bedroom and Étienne snuggles back by his side. Edward falls back asleep, content and at peace.

 FIN

[hydrus]

Version 428

windows

zip

exe

macOS

app

linux

tar.gz

I had a good couple weeks working on the taglist code and some other jobs.

If you are on Windows and use the 'extract' release, you may want to do a 'clean' install this week. Extra notes below.

taglists

So, I took some time to make taglists work a lot cleaner behind the scenes and support more types of data. A heap of code is cleaner, and various small logical problems related to menus are fixed. The tag right-click menu is also more compact, quicker to see and do what you want.

The main benefits though are in the manage tags dialog. Now, the '(will display as xxx)' sibling suffix colours in the correct namespace for the sibling, and parents 'hang' underneath all tags in all the lists. It is now much easier to see why a parent or sibling is appearing for a file.

This is a first attempt. I really like how these basically work, but it can get a bit busy with many tags. With the cleaner code, it will be much easier to expand in future. I expect to add 'expand/collapse parents' settings and more sorts, and maybe shade parents a bit transparent, in the coming weeks. Please let me know how it works for you IRL and I'll keep working.

the rest

The main nitter site seems to be overloaded. They have a bunch of mirrors listed here: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances

I picked two roughly at random and added new downloaders for them. If you have Nitter subs, please move their 'sources' over, and they should start working again (they might need to do a bit of 'resync' and will complain about file limits being hit since the URLs are different, but give them time). If you would rather use another mirror, feel free to duplicate your own downloaders as well. Thanks to a user who helped here with some fixed-up parsers.

I gave the recently borked grouped 'status' sort in thread watchers and downloader pages another go, and I improved the reporting there overall. The 'working' status shouldn't flicker on and off as much, there is a new 'pending' status for downloaders waiting for a work slot, and the 'file status' icon column now shows the 'stop' symbol when files are all done.

The menu entry to 'open similar-looking files' is now further up on thumbnails' 'open' submenus.

The duplicate filter has its navigation buttons on the right-hand hover window rearranged a bit. It is silly to have both 'previous' and 'next' when there are only two files, so I merged them. You can also set 'view next' as a separate shortcut for the duplicate filter, if you want to map 'flip file' to something else just for the filter.

windows clean install

If you use the Windows installer, do not worry, these issues are fixed automatically for you from now on.

I updated to a new dev machine this week. Some libraries were updated, and there is now a dll conflict, where a dll from an older version is interfering with a new one. As it happens, the library that fails to load is one I made optional this week, so it doesn't ''seem'' to actually stop you from booting the client, but it will stop you from running the Client API in https if you never did it before (the library does ssl certificate generation).

It is good to be clean, so if you extract the Windows release, you may want to follow this guide this week: https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/help/getting_started_installing.html#clean_installs

full list

interesting taglist changes:

taglists work way better behind the scenes

when siblings display with the '(will display as xxx)' suffix, this text is now coloured by the correct namespace!

parents now show in 'manage tags dialog' taglists! they show up just like in a write/edit tag autocomplete results list

the tag right-click menu has had a pass. 'copy' is now at the top, the 'siblings and parents' menu is split into 'siblings' and 'parents' with counts on the top menu label and the submenus for each merged, and the 'open in new page' commands are tucked into an 'open' submenu. the menu is typically much tighter than before

when you hit 'select files with these tags' from a taglist, the thumbgrid now takes keyboard focus if you want to hit F7 or whatever

custom tag presentation (_options->tag presentation_, when you set to always hide namespaces or use custom namespace separator in read/search views) is more reliable across the program. it isn't perfect yet, but I'll keep working

a heap of taglist code has been cleaned up. some weird logical issues should be better

now the code is nicer to work with, I am interested in feedback on how to further improve display and workflows here

.

the rest:

added two mirrors for nitter, whose main site is failing due to load. I added them randomly from the page here: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances . if you have nitter subs, please move their download source to one of the mirrors or set up your own url classes to other mirror addresses. thanks to a user for providing other parser fixes here

gallery download pages now show the 'stop' character in the small file column when the files are done

gallery download pages now report their 'working' status without flicker, and they report 'pending' when waiting for a download slot (this situation is a legacy hardcoded bottleneck that has been confusing)

thread watchers also now have the concept of 'pending', and also report when they are next checking

improved the new grouped status sort on gallery downloader and watcher pages. the ascending order is now DONE, working, pending, checking later (for watchers), paused

the network request delay after a system resume is now editable under the new options->system panel. default is 15 seconds

the 'wait on files too' option is moved from 'files and trash' to this panel

when the 'just woke' status is active, you now get a little popup with a cancel button to override it

'open similar-looking files' thumbnail menu entry is moved up from file relationships to the 'open' menu

the duplicate filter right-hand hover window no longer has both 'previous' and 'next' buttons, since they both act as 'flip', and the merged button is moved down, made bigger, and has a new icon

added 'view next' to the duplicate filter shortcut set, so you can set a custom 'flip between pair' mapping just for that filter

thanks to a user helping me out, I was able to figure out a set of lookups in the sibling/parent system that were performing unacceptably slow for some users. this was due to common older versions of sqlite that could not optimise a join with a multi-index OR expression. these queries are now simpler and should perform well for all clients. if your autocomplete results from a search page with thumbs were achingly slow, let me know how they work now!

the hydrus url normalisation code now treats '+' more carefully. search queries like 6+girls should now work correctly on their own on sites where '+' is used as a tag separator. they no longer have to be mixed with other tags to work

.

small/specific stuff:

the similar files maintenance search on shutdown now reports file progress every 10 files and initialises on 0. it also has faster startup time in all cases

when a service is deleted, all currently open file pages will check their current file and tag domains and update to nicer defaults if they were pointed at the now-missing services

improved missing service error handling for file searches in general--this can still hit an export folder pointed at a missing service

improved missing service error handling for tag autocomplete searches, just in case there are still some holes here

fixed a couple small things in the running from source help and added a bit about Visual Studio Build Tools on Windows

PyOpenSSL is now optional. it is only needed to generate the crt/key files for https hosting. if you try to boot the server or run the client api in https without the files and without the module available to generate new ones, you now get a nice error. the availability of this library is now in the client's about window

the mpv player will no longer throw ugly errors when you try to seek on a file that its API interface cannot support

loading a file in the media viewer no longer waits on the file system lock on the main thread (it was, very briefly), so the UI won't hang if you click a thumb just after waking up or while a big file job is going on

the 'just woke' code is a little cleaner all around

the user-made downloader repository link is now more obvious on Lain's import dialog

an old hardcoded url class sorting preference that meant gallery urls would be matched against urls before post, and post before file, is now eliminated. url classes are now just preferenced by number of path components, then how many parameters, then by example url length, with higher numbers matching first (the aim is that the more 'specific' and complicated a url class, the earlier it should attempt to match)

updated some of the labelling in manage tag siblings and parents

when you search autocomplete tags with short inputs, they do not currently give all 'collapsed' matching results, so an input of 'a' or '/a/' does not give the '/a/' tag. this is an artifact of the new search cache. after looking at the new code, there is no way I can currently provide these results efficiently. I tested the best I could figure out, but it would have added 20-200ms lag on all PTR searches, so instead I have made a plan to resurrect an old cache in a more efficient way. please bear with me on this problem

tag searches that only include unusual characters like ? or & are now supported without having to lead the query with an asterisk. they will be slower than normal text search

fixed a bug in the 'add tags before import' dialog for local imports where deleting a 'quick namespace' was not updating the tag list above

.

windows clean install:

I moved to a new windows dev machine this week and a bunch of libraries were updated. I do not believe the update on Windows _needs_ a clean install this week, as a new dll conflict actually hits the coincidentally now-optional PyOpenSSL, but it is worth doing if you want to start using the Client API soon, and it has been a while, so let's be nice and clean. if you extract the release on Windows, please check out this guide: https://hydrusnetwork.github.io/hydrus/help/getting_started_installing.html#clean_installs

the Windows installer has been updated to remove many old files. it should now do clever clean installs every week, you have nothing to worry about!™

.

boring db breakup:

the local tags cache, which caches tags for your commonly-accessed hard drive files, is now spun off to its own module

on invalid tag repair, the new master tags module and local tags cache are now better about forgetting broken tags

the main service store is spun off to its own module. several instances of service creation, deletion, update and basic fetching are merged and cleaned here. should improve a couple of logical edge cases with update and reset

.

boring taglist changes:

taglists no longer manage text and predicates, but a generalised item class that now handles all text/tag/predicate generation

taglist items can occupy more than one row. all position index calculations are now separate from logical index calculations in selection, sizing, sorting, display, and navigation

all taglist items can present multiple colours per row, like OR predicates

items are responsible for sibling and parent presentation, decoupling a heap of list responsibility mess

tag filter and tag colour lists are now a separate type handled by their own item types

subordinate parent predicates (as previously shown just in write/edit autocomplete result lists) are now part of multi-row items. previously they were 'quiet' rows with special rules that hung beneath the real result. some related selection/publish logic is a bit cleaner now

string tag items are now aware of their parents and so can present them just like autocomplete results in write/edit contexts

the main taglist content update routines have significantly reduced overhead. the various expansions this week add some, so we'll see how this all shakes out

the asynchronous sibling/parent update routine that populates sibling and parent data for certain lists is smarter and saves more work when data is cached

old borked out selection/hitting-skipping code that jumped over labels and parents is now removed

'show siblings and parents' behaviour is more unified now. basically they don't show in read/search, but do in write/edit

a heap of bad old taglist code has been deleted or cleaned up

next week

This was a big couple of weeks. Setting up the new dev machine--I replaced my six year old HP office computer with a nice mini-pc with an SSD--worked out great, but there were some headaches as always. The taglist work was a lot too. I'll take next week a little easier, just working misc small jobs.

[carryonsimoncarryonbaz]

Whumptober prompts #5,#6, #7 in one fic

5: Gunpoint

6: Dragged away

7. Isolation

I got bogged down and fell behind on whumptober so here is my fic utilizing three prompts in a vain attempt to catch up. Not my best work for sure but here goes!

Baz

The moment Snow heads to the bathroom for a shower Bunce lunges at me, pulling a brightly coloured piece of paper from her pocket and waving it in my face.

I scoot away, until I’m wedged into the corner of their lumpy sofa.  “What is the meaning of this attack, you fright?”

She flaps the paper at me again. “Read this!”

I pluck it from her fingertips and spread it out on my knees. It’s some sort of flyer. One of those god-awful things they have pinned to the bulletin board at the café on campus.

I roll my eyes at her and she knocks her shoulder into mine. “Read it.”

I’ve learned you don’t cross Bunce when she’s like this—reeking of intensity and too much caffeine.

The black print is stark against the orange paper. “PAINTBALL TOURNAMENT” is emblazoned at the top in 72-point font. Overkill, if you ask me. I skim the rest then turn to her. “Yes? Why are you giving this to me?”

“It’s for Simon.”

“Then why the devil aren’t you giving it to him?”

She crosses her arms and levels a glare at me over her glasses. She’s actually quite terrifying when she’s like this. “I’m giving it to you so you can take him there.”

“Why on earth would I take Snow to a paintball tournament?” I peer at the paper again. “With people we don’t even know?”

“So he can shoot things.”

Oh. I suppose there is some sense to that.

“Yes, fine, I get that, but why do I have to take him?” I can think of far better ways to spend an afternoon than crawling around in the dirt with a horde of chavvy wankers with a gun fetish.

Although crawling around in the dirt with Snow does have a certain appeal.

“So you can shoot things together.” She huffs at me. “You’ve said it yourself, Baz. He doesn’t get enough exercise. He used to train all the time. He used to go on missions, run himself ragged on those ridiculous quests the Mage sent him on.” She flops back against the sofa, all the energy gone out of her. “He doesn’t do any of that anymore.”

She’s right. He doesn’t. He’ll go for a run here and there but it’s not so easy with wings and a tail, even spelled invisible. They throw him off pace.

Snow joined a fencing club a few months back, but there’s no one there who can match him. He got bored after just a few weeks.

Much as it pains me to admit, Bunce has a point.

Simon might actually like this. An activity where he can use the skills he honed for years as the Mage’s Heir but not actually have to kill anyone or anything.

It could be good for him.

I suppose we could take the train. I’d rather not get any stray drips of paint on the Jag.

“Fine, Bunce. I’ll see if he wants to go.”

Snow is literally bouncing.  He’s got his camouflage combat suit on, protective body armor all in place, goggles perched on top of his head. His tail is tucked away.

I’ve done an “out of sight, out of mind” on him and made his wings incorporeal. As long as he doesn’t think about them we should be fine. I debate casting a “these aren’t the droids you’re looking for” as well, for good measure, but decide that it’s not quite sporting. He’s already got an unfair advantage over the chunky tossers populating this place.  

And an unfair advantage over me.

All that’s left to do now is choose our weapons and decide on an ammo package.

We’ve been assigned to a random team, since there are only two of us, and thank magic we’re on the same one.

I strap my ammo belt on. I was planning on the standard issue rifle and ammo package but Snow insists I get some high tech, stealth sniper rifle. “You’ve not done this before, Baz.”

“Neither have you, you nightmare.”

Snow scoffs. “Yeah, but I’ve played video games for years.” He steps closer and zips my suit all the way up, fingers resting on my chest for a moment. “Trust me. You’d rather be behind the line with the long-range weapon.” He leans in, words barely above a whisper. “With your eyesight and reflexes you’ll be fucking lethal with this.”

I do what he says. There is no way I can argue with Snow when he looks at me like that.

He gets the top of the line rifle and enough ammunition to supply a small army. Which I suppose is exactly what he is.

It ends up being far more entertaining than I anticipated. Snow’s right, I prefer a position a bit back from the fray, out of the direct line of fire, so I can pick off my opponents one by one from there.

He thinks I’m being strategic. Only if my strategy is getting as good a look at Simon Snow in action as I can.

Unlike Bunce, I’ve rarely gotten to see Snow in his element, when he’s relying on the pure power of his body and the instincts that have been honed in him. He’s powerful. He’s lethal.

He’s fucking breathtaking.

And I will take down every arsehole that even tries to take a shot at him.

My ammunition is soon running low and I belatedly curse myself for not listening to Snow. No matter. I wedge myself behind a bunker and peer through a crack, rifle at ready. I can watch Snow to my heart’s content like this. No one’s going to make an effort to ferret me out here. I’ve got the drop on them from my vantage point.

Snow is mesmerizing. He’s halfway across the battle ground now, yelling as he advances on the enemy forces, spraying them liberally with yellow paint. Kill shot after kill shot.

He’s a one-man platoon, on berserker mode.

It’s brilliant.

There are two enemy combatants advancing on him now, left and right, using the meagre hedges and undulations of the ground to cover their progress. I wonder why they haven’t sent a volley of paint at him yet.

I pick off the one on the left first, since he’s closer to Snow, and then turn my sights on the bloke on the right. I hit him too. Kill shots both.

But they don’t stop advancing.

According to rules they both should be out of play now. I reload and hit them again for good measure.

They don’t stop.

There’s something sinister in their stalking of Snow, even if he has decimated their ranks single-handedly. They should be shooting at him, not tracking him in this way.

I’m leaping over the bunker and racing across the no man’s land in an instant, eyes on Snow.

They tackle him from behind, which is clearly a violation of rule number three.

I’m not going to get to him in time. I don’t know what’s going on, but these two are a different sort than the regular paintball denizens we’ve run into so far.

They’re tall, lithe, faster than I would expect as they lunge forward and tackle Snow to the ground.

He’s not going down easy. Snow lands punches on them both, feet flailing as he kicks the legs out from under one of them and knocks his head into the other’s chest.

I’m almost to him when I feel a thud against my back. Some sodding git has nailed me with a paintball. And then another hits me. The abruptness of it catches me off guard and I stumble on a rock, going down in a heap. I’m back on my feet in an instant but I’m already too late.

The two blokes have a hold of Snow and they are dragging him into a forbidding two story structure with no windows on the far edge of the field. He’s not fighting back.

They’re moving far faster than any Normal should.

One looks back at me and gives me a smirk. A blood-red grin from a green-cast face.

Fuck.

Goblins.

Simon

My head’s throbbing when my eyes blink open. Fuck, it hurts. I try to reach up to rub my head but my hands are tied behind my back.

It all comes back to me. My mad rush across the field, the ambush.

Fucking Goblins. I don’t know why they can’t have an election or a hereditary monarchy or a parliamentary procedure instead of this fucking arbitrary method of choosing a king centered on who kills me.

That’s no basis for a system of government.

These two are grinning at me from across the room, smooth green skin, blood red lips. Fit and feral, the bastards. They finally figured out that it would take more than one of them to bring me down.

Took them long enough.

I wonder where Baz is. I’m sure he’s gone completely feral himself, if he witnessed them ambushing me.

It’s Penny and Baz’s biggest fear, that I’d be waylaid by murderous magical creatures someday when I was alone.

Well I wasn’t alone, it was in broad fucking daylight, and in a public place, for Merlin’s sake.  A damn paintball venue, of all things. Proves my point, really. Baz and Penny can’t protect me every minute of every day, even if they’re right there with me. I have to be able to fend for myself. Like I always did before.

Just without magic this time.

The taller of the two saunters across the room. “Finally got you, Mage’s Heir.”

“Yeah, well, hope you two have it figured out which one of you gets the crown.”

Goblins may be fit and fast but they aren’t the smartest, not as far as thinking things through. They’d have had me years ago if they’d been savvy enough to stop trying to get me one on one.

If I can keep them talking, stall for time, that should give Baz a chance to find his way to me.

If anyone can hunt me down it’s him.

I doubt they’d kill me here, anyway. I’m sure they have to do it in front of some formal tribunal, to prove it’s actually me and that I’m actually dead. I mean, that’s what would make sense, from a political standpoint, but who knows with this lot.

Seems to be working, from the frowns on their faces. “Hadn’t thought of that, had you?” I say, bold enough to rub it in a bit, now that I know I’ve got them thinking.

That earns me a kick from the shorter goblin. “Shut your mouth, Chosen One.”

They retreat to a corner of the room and start bickering. Maybe they’ll kill each other off and do Baz’s work for him.

I’d not mind.

I think this is the structure at the far end of the battle field. I’d seen it and assumed it was a storage facility of some kind.

It is.

There are two lawnmowers and a small tractor. Rolled up fencing. A stack of wood in the far corner. Field maintenance it seems. I take stock, to see what might be useful as a weapon. The shovels and rakes appear to be the most promising.

The building is about two stories high but there’s only the one floor and then a little loft on the far side, with a ladder leading up to it. I can’t see if there’s anything up there from here. It’s dark and dim, just a few lights shining weakly high up in the rafters.

There are no windows. Just a door. A solid one.

The Goblins seem to have reached some sort of agreement. One leans against the wall and the other comes my way. “Get up.”

I don’t.

I’m not going to make it easy on them. I may be tied up but that doesn’t mean I have to be obedient. They’ll have to carry me if they want to take me anywhere. I’m not tall but I’m solid. I can make it difficult if I choose.

I do choose.

It takes both of them to get me across the space to the ladder. I’m kicking and flailing, shouting at them too, just in case Baz is near enough to hear me. He won’t even have to be that close, with his hearing, but I roar at them anyway. Makes me feel better, it does.

I’m not going to lie, I’m right furious these two got the drop on me. I let my guard down, thinking it was just Normals here.

Won’t be making that mistake again.

They finally drag me up the ladder, thumping me on every step as they take me up. I’m going to have bruises all over by then end of this.

It’s a small space, filled with boxes of paint balls, labeled by size and color. They shift two of the boxes and wedge me between them, tightening the ropes on my hands again and tying my feet now for good measure.

They have gotten smarter.

Arseholes.

One leans down, all gleaming red smile  again. “We’ll be back, Mageling. Can’t drag you out the front gate of this place in broad daylight but it’ll be dark soon enough.” His grin is all sharp teeth and cherry red lips. “Once they’re all gone Nigel will bring the car around and we’ll have you right where we want you.”

The other one chimes in. “You’ve had a good run. And now you’re running days are over.” They’re giving me matching smiles now, all cocky, thinking they’ve got me cornered.

They do but I’m not going down without a fight. They’ve given me their plan, so now I know what to expect. No subtlety at all.

The short one—Nigel, I suppose—checks his watch. It looks like a fucking Rolex. I don’t understand goblins, I really don’t.

“Come along, Terry,” he says. “We’ve got to get out of here before they do a sweep of the property for the night and put the gear back in here.” He smirks at me. “We’ll be back after sundown for you.”

They go down the ladder. I hear a door click and then I’m alone.

I scoot forward as far as I can, without getting too close to the edge. I wonder why they store the paint up here, rather than down of the main level. I’ll probably never know.

I give my hands an experimental wiggle but the ropes are tight. I try to twist my fingers to find the knots but I’ll give the goblins this—they know how to truss you up good and proper. I won’t be getting myself out of these rope shackles anytime soon.

I end up thinking about the spells I could have used when I had magic.

“Cutting the Gordian knot” is tricky—Alexander the Great may have cut an actual knot but most people use that spell for solving a conundrum, not an actual knot in a rope.  

“Gotta help our Cinderelly,” would have brought out every rat and field mouse in the place, although I’m not sure I could have had them gnaw the ropes willingly.

Who am I kidding? Those spells would have never worked for me. Too complicated.

I’d have just called the Sword of Mages and sawed the ropes against the blade until I could break the strands.

Or I would have just gone off. Reduced the whole building to splinters.

I miss magic. I miss it with my heart and soul. I miss it so much I can taste it—the smoke and burning that used to come over me when I’d use it.

But I was never any good at it, was I?

I can’t let myself think about that. Not right now.

Not when I’m stuck here, with no way out and no idea where Baz is.

Fuck. I wonder if this is what Agatha used to feel like?

Bloody useless. I hate it.

Bet she did too.

Baz

I’ve been circling the building, trying to find a way in. There’s only the one door.  I pull on the knob, rattle the hinges but I can’t rip it away, even with my vampire strength. I don’t know what they’ve done to it, the bastards, but it won’t budge. Goblins don’t have much magic but they do fucking have the market on making doorways do their bidding.

Even “open sesame” fails me.  Fucking hell.

There’s not a window, not a crack in the foundations. Nothing.

I’m losing my mind. I heard Simon shout. I heard his voice through the solid walls of this god-forsaken structure. Why the fuck do you need an impenetrable fortress at a sodding paintball club?

My fangs have popped, my fists are clenched. I’m going to rip these bastards limb from limb.

Simon has to still be alive. There’s no way they’d go to their tribunal or whatever the fuck they call it without proof they’d captured him. Without proof they’d killed him.

I’m circling around again, looking for anything I might have missed my first time around when the goblins come out the fucking door a few feet away from me, all glamoured to look like members of fucking Duran Duran instead of their disgusting green selves—all big hair and frosted waves, eyeliner on point. It’s not a good look with the camouflage jumpsuits.

I’m on them before they even see me, silent and deadly. I knock into the taller one—he looks just like John Taylor—shifting him off balance. He bumps into the shorter one—more of a Nick Rhodes look on him—and then turns on me with a snarl.

I’m ready for him.

I snap his neck before he can even take a step.

The Nick Rhodes look-alike takes a step back, looks like he’s ready to run for it but I’m on him before he has the chance.

“Where is he?”

“Where’s who?”

“Don’t fuck with me. Where’s Simon?”

He tries to claw at me. Goblins have long, elegantly manicured nails but you’ll get a nasty rash if they scratch you. My hand goes up lightning fast and I catch his wrist. I bend it back until the bone snaps and he howls. 

I mutter a “Silence is golden.” No good having anyone hear us. I can handle one goblin on my own and I don’t want an audience.

I’m not well versed in the memory spells the Coven uses on Normals that inadvertently witness displays of magic. Or the one my father uses on Vera from time to time.

Less seen the better then.

I make quick work of this goblin too, snapping his head with a twist. He goes limp and falls to the ground. I cast a “into thin air” on the corpses and rush to the door. “Open sesame” works this time, since they’re both dead and their magic has died with them.

I rush inside, scanning around the room for Simon. I hear a shout from above and I spot him, trussed up but grinning at the sight of me, on some sort of landing up a ladder.  

I’m up it in an instant, casting “like a knife through butter” to shear through his bonds with my wand.

I’ve got my arms around him an instant later. “You bloody bastard. You courageous fuck. I told you it would be the bloody goblins, I told you those arseholes would never rest.”

Snow leans into me, head on my shoulder. It takes me a minute to realize he’s laughing. “Are you all right, Simon?” I catch his face between my hands and stare into his eyes.

He’s still smiling. “What are you laughing about, you nightmare? You could have been killed.”

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of that spell,” Snow says. “I was sitting here, waiting for you to finally show up, you jammy bastard, trying to remember what spells would work to cut ropes. ’Like a knife through butter.’ You’d think, of all the spells, I’d remember that one.”

I rub my thumb on his cheekbone and shake my head. “You’d think.” I press a kiss to his forehead and then stand up, pulling him up with me.

Last time I listen to Bunce. Take him for paintball, she said. It’ll be good for him, she said. Bloody hell.

But when I look at Simon I know she was right, fucking Goblins and all.

He’s sweaty and bruised, with a lump on the side of his head, but his smile is wide, wider than it’s been in weeks.