#or things just coincidentally ✨ didn't work out ✨

[blackberry-command-cap]

it is so dumb that I am this into a love triangle but if Farideh ends up with Dahl I am going on STRIKE

[crazyyluvr]

My brother forced me to rewatch Sakamoto Days for the 8th time after I exposed him to the anime 💀

And now I can’t stop thinking about, like, Shin x old assassin partner that supposedly “died” in the line of work when in reality, said partner faked their death to have an easier retirement like Sakamoto

It could be platonic or romantic, whichever you decide to choose ✨😋

Hey, So... I'm Not Dead!

pairing: shin asakura x ex assassin!reader (written with fem in mind but can be read as gn i think!)

wc: 1.8k words

note: the rewatching is so real though, although I have yet to rewatch sakamoto days LMAO. thank you for the request, i had fun with this one!! i hope this meets your standards. enjoy!

Shin swore he was hallucinating.

His eyes kept darting between the cash register and the face of the customer that recently entered the shop. A new face — well, to shop it was, but not to him.

Lu must have spiked his drink with something strong. Or one of Sakamoto's more violent thoughts of killing him had messed with his head.

Because there was no way it was you that was going through the instant ramen isle, perfectly alive and well.

The last Shin had heard of you, it was a death notification.

You had worked for a different organization, but you and Shin had collaborated often on various missions. Shin had grown used to your unorthodox style to the point that it had gotten hard to work with anyone else. You were recklessly calculated, taking risks that made it seem like you didn't expect to make it out alive, but you always did.

Which was why it came as a shock when he saw your face one day on the board his organization put up for hitmen that had been killed in action, almost three years ago.

He didn't exactly know what to feel about it. If Shin was feeling bold enough, he would probably consider you a friend. Well, you were the closest he had to one, but that didn't really mean much. You were the only one who tolerated him enough to invite him to the bar after work, where you yapped about your life (he knew that you were lying about most of it �� but he could never really find out the truth. Of all the minds he had ever read, it was hard to understand yours). When Shin was bored in between assignments, he'd find himself texting your number, and you'd talk about the stupidest things.

It didn't take long for his face to start burning every time you smiled at him, or his heart to start racing when his thoughts somehow always end up about you. Of course, he put his feelings aside — being anything other than professional as a hitman was dangerous.

He couldn't really believe that you had died. After everything the both of you had been through together, it almost seemed like your heart just refused to stop beating, but death was a common thing in this line of business. The news had hit him like a freight train, but he knew that dwelling on it would make the grief even worse. All he could do was move on and make sure that he didn't meet the same fate.

That's why he felt like his brain was going to explode at the present moment.

Why was he the only one in the shop? Out of all the times Lu had to go to the bathroom and Mr. Sakamoto stayed outside to eat his ramen and read his newspaper, it had to be now!

Shin locked his eyes to the back of your head, mentally adjusting his psychic ability to try and tune in to the frequency of your thoughts, but he found himself struggling.

No way was it actually you.

It must be a trick of the light. Maybe the customer just coincidentally looked like you and had a difficult mind to read. After all, doppelgangers are a real thing (Shin didn't really believe that, though). Or maybe you looked common. (You most certainly didn't, especially not in Shin's eyes.)

When you — the customer — finally picked out an instant ramen cup to buy, you faced Shin properly, and Shin swore his brain actually froze.

It was you. It had to be you.

Or was he just hallucinating the flash of familiarity in your eyes?

"W-Welcome to Sakamoto's," Shin stuttered out, finally remembering that regardless if it was actually you, he had a job to do. "Is this all you'll be having?"

You — the customer, goddammit — nodded, giving Shin a polite smile that made Shin feel dizzy. "Yes. Thank you."

If it was actually you, why weren't you properly acknowledging him?!

"That'll be 150 yen," he said, blinking furiously to get himself to focus.

By the time he handed you your change and bagged your ramen, Shin still didn't have the confidence to properly talk to you until you were halfway through the sliding doors.

"Wait!"

You paused immediately, looking over your shoulder with a curious look. "Did I forget something?" You asked.

Shin shook his head. "I just wanted to ask, uh- what's your name?"

The customer offered him another smile. He never thought he would see that smile again.

Just when he was actually convinced that it was you, the "stranger" answered his question.

"It's Larry."

Shin blinked once. Then twice.

"Huh?" The surprised sound escaped him before he could stop it.

Your persona fell as you laughed out loud, a sound that shook your entire body as you clutched your stomach. You stepped back inside the shop to let the doors close behind you and you laughed at Shin's misery.

"What's going on?" At this point, Shin didn't really know what to believe anymore.

"I'm — I'm sorry," you gasped, wiping a stray tear from your eye. "For a psychic, you're just — you're still so easy to tease, Shin."

Shin's shoulders dropped, along with his jaw as he stared at you with wide eyes. "It's actually you?" He uttered your name like a prayer.

You gave him a smile, a genuine one this time. "Long time no see, partner. How 'bout we catch up outside over ramen? I already asked Mr. Taro if I could snatch you for the rest of your shift."

Yeah, Shin's brain is probably broken at this point.

—————

Shin still had trouble processing what you just told him. 

“Wait, wait,” Shin put his hands up, as if that could help make understanding easier. “So you’re saying that you faked your death.”

“Yep.”

“For three years.”

“Mhm.”

“So you can live out retirement in peace?”

You shrugged, eating another bite of your ramen. “That’s pretty much it. The assassin life gave a lot of money, but in the long run… it does more harm than good.”

You didn’t have to dive into the specifics for Shin to understand. He knew, better than anyone, the toll that being a hitman can take on a person. It removes the lightness from them, making them see the world in nothing but shadows. 

The haunted look in your eyes was still there, but it was much less apparent now. He could relate; ever since he quit being a hitman to work for Mr. Sakamoto, he’s felt much lighter than he’s ever felt in years. 

However, the psychic still had questions. 

“I thought you were dead for real,” Shin pointed out, a quiet chuckle escaping him, but it wasn’t that humorous. “It was hard to believe, but I eventually got used to the idea that I would never see you again.”

You sighed, slumping back in your chair. It was a familiar sight; you always sat the same way whenever you and Shin would hang out together in your usual seats in a crappy bar. “I wanted to tell you, I really did, but I wanted to detach myself from that life completely.”

“And that included me.” It wasn’t said out loud, but Shin understood the message.

You frowned in slight guilt. “You weren’t part of the bad things during my life as a hitman; quite the opposite, actually. But…”

You looked out onto the setting sun, the light hitting your face and basking you in the last rays of its warmth. “But I knew that if I told you, it would make leaving harder than it had to be.”

Shin stared at you. You, alive and well, the harsh lines of a life of blood and death softened on your face and on the corners of your eyes. 

Although Shin always thought you looked beautiful, he could see that you looked best as an ordinary civilian, whose biggest concerns was not how to eliminate their next target, but something simple, like what they would have for dinner, or what movie to watch tonight. 

Retirement suited you, even if you were a little too young for that. 

"So," you cleared your throat, grabbing your cup to drink the soup. "How about you, how have you been?"

"Uh..." Compared to your life, his wasn't that interesting. You know, except for the fact that he spontaneously decided to retire as well, that Mr. Sakamoto basically adopted him and Lu Shaotang, and that there was an active bounty on his boss' head. "I've... never been better, actually."

You grinned knowingly. "Retirement is much more fun than killing people for a living, right?"

Shin offered you a meek smile. "Yeah, I guess so. I get why you'd go to such lengths to leave it all behind."

"Exactly," you nodded, downing the rest of your soup, and laughing when Shin wrinkled your nose at the food you willingly chose to consume.

"Nonetheless,” you hummed, “I’m glad our paths crossed again. In all honesty, I kinda missed you, partner.”

Shin didn't know how to take that. You, missing him? How... weird.

The thought of being missed by you made his heart jump a little in his chest, but it wasn't an unpleasant feeling at all.

"I... missed you too," Shin replied, mentally cursing at himself for sounding so awkward.

But you didn't comment on it. You just smiled.

"Now," you clapped your hands together, standing up. "It's getting late, and I still got some errands to run, so I should be going. I'll pass by when I'm free."

Shin jolted out of his seat. Had that much time really passed by? It felt like it had only been a few minutes since you had seen each other again, and frankly, he didn't want to part ways so quickly.

"Or," you glanced at him, your smile turning teasing as you tossed your used cup over your shoulder. Without even having to look, it landed inside the trash can behind you. "You could, you know, ask me out this time."

Shin paused, his face suddenly burning up in a bright shade of red. "W- What do you mean 'this time'?!"

You raised your hands up mockingly. "Oh I'm sorry, were you the one who asked to hang out at the bar after every other mission? Or the one who would drag you to the park, or the rooftop of the old organization, or —"

"Okay, okay!" Shin cut you off loudly, laughing. "Fine. Let's meet up for coffee next time. My treat."

You gave him another soft smile, on that made him weak in the knees. "Alright. I'll hold you to it, Asakura. See you then."

You waved goodbye, and Shin didn't go back inside the store until he saw you turn a corner, leaving his sight.

He let out a great sigh, looking up at the few stars that sprinkled the sky.

Coffee next time, huh?

He let out a chuckle, smiling as he went through the sliding doors, Sakamoto telling him through his thoughts that they should close up soon.

I'll look forward to that.

[ladyjayde]

Okay, I have some things to say about the first season of The Magnus Protocol... This might be a long one but I don't care ✨

SPOILERS OBVS IF YOU'RE NOT UP TO DATE

I'd like to mention beforehand that I absolutely ADORED TMA, and I'm a big fan of Jonny and Alex's work. Maybe this is just me having too high expectations for this series, but I have spoken to some of my friends who also listen to this podcast and have listened to Magnus Archives and pretty much everyone agrees. So here we go

I'm not feeling it. I didn't enjoy this season at all in all honesty. The only moments that excited me was the lore we had for the TMA characters to which, as far as we know, have nothing to do with this story. It was all filler to please the fans which is appreciated, but every statement in this season felt unimportant. Sure, we had Mr. Bonzo and a couple others that we saw again as part of Gwen's work, but they never truly felt like a threat to me. If anything, most interactions they got felt coincidental more than anything.

Which leads to my second point, there was no action in the season and it made it political and boring to me :/ I understand that's this is how TMA kinda started as well, with a lot of build up and set up for the world. BUT, at least we got SOMETHING by the end of the season. There was real danger and survival instinct activated for the characters. TMAGP has none of that... They jump in, no questions asked and no questions answered. There's no thrill, there's barely any suspense. It feels empty.

And now the characters themselves. Well, except from the very charged introduction to all of them at once that lead many fans to be confused and have difficulty identifying each of them in the first few episodes, they are pretty mundane. None of their stories truly engage with me. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, but they feel a bit boring and all too similar to each other. They get lost in the plot and don't feel like individuals. It's like they're forgetting who they are in order to feed into the plot.

Now, with all of that being said, here's what I think could've helped make this a better series.

1. Make it a longer series. As of now, there's only one episode left which, yes, is supposed to be double length, but nothing has happened yet for me to want a second season. Even if it has taken an extra year or two, I would've rather waited. So, unless something very intense happens next Thursday, I don't think S2 will be in my "Need to listen" list. Too much setup, not enough fear. Like, I'm not even worried that Sam or Celia will die in the next episode. They have so much plot armor I'm certain they'll survive.

2. Make the statements have an effect on the characters. Only Sam seems to take interest in them. But with the others just setting them aside and ignoring the stories, it makes us feel like they're unimportant as well. And it sucks, cause TMA's statements had an effect on the characters and changed their ways of thinking. Now, they're just there to be there and not much is coming out of them.

So yeah, this is MY PERSONAL OPINION and I still want to support Rusty Quill for all the beautiful podcasts they create for us, but TMAGP was not it for me. I love this fandom, I love the lore and the writing itself, but the story didn't hook me in as much as I would've liked it to.

I might regret all of this by next week when the last episode comes out, but for now, these are my thoughts.

I'll get back to you all next week to share my overall thoughts on the S1 of The Magnus Protocol.

Feel free to comment or repost with your own thoughts! I'd love to hear if I'm alone in this or if people agree

Love you all <3

[onlyancunin]

Hey guys,

a little update on my situation with my ex if anyone's interested. Gonna be a doozy, but there's just so much in my head right now and I know there might be some worrying about me.

Or maybe I'll just spark a bit of confidence in someone else ✨

You know how you get a pizza, all excited, try it, and it's not good? Like it was fine at first and hey, you were hungry, but with each bite it progressively got worse. Do you stopped after a piece or two or three. And just tossed out the rest.

But it was enough to give you a severe food poisoning. So you spend a good portion of the next however many days throwing up and not being able to meet with friends and family because you're too sick. And you're so frustrated, because the pizza wasn't even that good, and you didn't eat that much, but you're still unable to function??

So yeah, I got severe emotional poisoning from relationship with my ex. But after we broke up I got nowhere to go, and he agreed to continue living together, so that I can move out once I secure money for deposit and whatnot.

Never go for that.

Last Sunday ex threw another jealous fit at me, making me unable to work for another 2 days - and then he was off to holiday with his friends (which couldn't come quick enough, I literally counted hours for him to leave). That left me and severely poisoned, but also gave me opportunity to collect myself and regroup a little away from him.

3 days later I had a new place and just today I got the keys.

Coincidentally my post about him about two months ago sparked a friendship with someone from here (Tumblr is a country okay). She kept me together through all that and let me tell you this was fucking tantalizing. It's surreal how things can change in such a short time. Having her as a friend truly opened my eyes as to what a relationship is NOT, seeing how someone who was just a stranger a few months ago, today cared for me more than he ever did.

I gave myself up for scraps of attention and believed when everyone around was telling me he is "one of the good guys". He came from nice, big family, with stable finances, nice group of friends. A noble job, a paramedic, which always impressed my sorry graphic design/IT developer ass. Like the only thing I'm saving is oceans from existing with the amount of shit that's being produced partly by my designs. So it felt good to be supportive of the good person and finally have a family, since I do not have one of my own.

Which is probably why I took the break-up so badly, even if I initiated it. I felt incredibly guilty for letting everyone around down. Everyone loved him. And I mean everyone. The only thing I ever aired I discussed with people outside of our common friends, and those were the people who told me something doesn't add up. And as I started following my gut feeling (and had a speedrun to breakup by hurting my knee and needing help where my ex completely dropped the ball), he started acting up. Suddenly setting boundaries with his family was me being jealous over him even having one, I just couldn't understand apparently how I'll never be the most important to him. Me asking him to be here for me when I'm having a hard time was met with "You're having a hard time EVERY DAY!".

Essentially I just ruined his family visits, his vacation with my knee injury, his days with my bad moods etc. But he ruined one too many Sundays for me.

So here I am, packing my sh#t and planning what goes where because I know I will be thoroughly exhausted after all things are moved, so I need to plan ahead.

And I still throw up emotionally, sobbing every 10 minutes, I don't even know why anymore. I just cry until I stop and then I continue prepping for move.

It's just a bad pizza.

[thevalleyisjolly]

Could I ask 🥺🤡✨ for the emoji ask game ❤️

Oooh, thanks Dani! <3 <3 <3

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Hmm, I don't know if there's a single type of interaction that'll reliably get me, but I have written more than a few character interactions where one or both characters know what the other person is thinking/about to do without them having to say it, and then take it upon themselves to relieve the other character's burden however they can. Which is cathartic in ways that I simply don't have time to unpack with my imaginary therapist!

🤡 What's a line, scene, or exchange you've written that made you laugh?

Aha, funny you should ask that, more than one of my fics has been inspired or even built around a funny zinger that wouldn't make any sense without a whole story to scaffold it XD

Let's Do It, Let's Do It Tonight entirely grew out of a exchange cut from my longer Jynmelshian project where Melshi and Jyn joke about Cassian having the worst taste in partners. I ultimately felt it didn't fit the tone of the longer fic but I still wanted to use it somewhere.

I wrote in the face of death's mystery because of a throwaway joke on a tumblr post where I scribbled a small scene about Lapin and Cumulous being chill roommates who could both coincidentally dom the hell out of a very willing, very embarrassed Theo. That scene is the beating heart around which the rest of the story grew, and when I look back at that fic, the very first thing I think of is still "Damned fortress full of doms. He is not getting paid enough for this."

More recently, here's an exchange from my wip What Is This Feeling?, which is the medium Jynmelshian fic I'm working on (as opposed to the enormous Jynmelshian fic I'm also working on)

"Congratulations," he says when he catches sight of her in the doorway. "You're the talk of the Rebellion." "Is that the only thing you lot know how to do around here? Talk?" "Welcome to the power of democracy. It doesn't do much, I grant you, but who am I to argue with what the people say?" "The first in line, usually."

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

I flatter myself that I'm quite good at getting a sense for the rhythm of a sentence, figuring out where the emphasis should go and how different words change the feel, not just with variations in meaning but with the way the sentence flows and move. I think I also do a good job of building up scenes and characterization so that moments of tragedy or comedy or high emotion feel earned.

[mysticsparklewings]

Obscutober 2024 Day 7: Orphrey 🪡

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Orphrey (n.)

elaborate embroidery or a piece of such

an ornamental border or band, especially on church robes

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1. Yay, we survived the 1st full week of October/Inktober 🎉

2. I continue to astound myself with dumb posting mistakes 🤦‍♀️

3. At least the art came out nice—Might be my new favorite! 😇

Click the "Keep Reading" and I'll explain more about those dumb mistakes...and of course my thoughts/process, too ✨

⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

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Once again: Hey, congrats everyone—We've survived 1 full week of Inktober/October/etc! 🎉

And with that: Lucky Obscutober Number 7 comes first with an apology and second with a correction: I, in my infinite wisdom, misspelled "Orphrey" as "Orphey" on the original and Lite prompt lists. 🤦‍♀️ 🙄

I've since fixed it in the places I'm able to (so if you go looking and can't find the mistake, that's why!) and added a comment correction to the ones that I can't...And also made the discovery that I previously somehow accidentally deleted the Instagram post of the prompt lists?? 😦 So that's been restored now too.

I think I'm more bothered by the fact that it took me over a week to notice than I am that the mistake was made, but oh well. [Although—Maybe I did almost catch it and that's what happened to the Instagram post?? I don't know. I just know I thought I was losing my mind when I couldn't find it and I'm so glad Instagram has a "trash"/recently deleted place it went to so I could just restore the post as it was.]

My absent-minded posting mishaps aside, I got a later start on this one than I really wanted to, but this time it's purely my own fault for losing track of time while I was working on something else [the fruits of which will hopefully be revealed closer to November] so I can't say I'm all that upset about it.

I'd be more upset if I'd had more trouble pulling the mandala together, but this one came surprisingly easy. To be fair, I did look up a few references of embroidery and actually "orphrey" pictures before I went to bed last night, so my subconscious got some more time to chew on it. Another big help is that a lot of the orphrey pictures I saw reminded me a lot of mandalas and motifs I've already been using or thinking about.

Believe it or not, that was purely coincidental. I actually didn't look up pictures for any of the words while I was assembling the prompt list. If it didn't happen to come up while I was verifying different sources of the definitions—so usually, a small reference photo on Wikipedia, if that—I haven't seen it, so in that way I'm still often diving into these things about as blind as people who didn't put the list together. 😆 It wasn't a "rule" or anything that I set for myself, I just genuinely didn't think to look up any images at the time.

I noticed while looking at the images that it seems common to do a motif that alternates a more circular emblem and a square one like this example, so I made sure the get that in there. If I'd had more space, I would've filled my circles and squares a little more elaborately both per the definition and the reference photos, but I wanted to leave some room for other things and not spend too long on super-tiny details that would be difficult to see.

Besides, I think the way I did it, while maybe less elaborate overall than is really ideal, does a fairly good job of echoing the more simple stitching we (or at least I ) often think of when I think of more informal, artistic hand-embroidery.

And that simple embroidery stitching is more of what I focused on for the middle round of the mandala, in case it wasn't obvious. I looked up some embroidery stitch references and tried to replicate some I thought would be a little more recognizable as different from my "normal" mandala lines and dots. I kinda wanted to get some more variety in there, but I had enough trouble as it was trying to think of some simple motifs that would show off the "stitches" without feeling "inappropriate" for "church robes," so I just stuck with what I was more confident in.

Oh, also, I probably should've mentioned this sooner: A small disclosure that most official definitions for "orphrey" don't say "church robes," they say "ecclesiastical vestment." To which, upon first reading, I thought: "Thank you, that is no help at all."

There's definitely a hefty dose of irony in an already obscure word using two more arguably even more obscure words in its definition, but there is also a limit to exactly how far this "obscure word" rabbit hole needs to go. So I looked up that 2-word phrase and both of those words separately and determined that "church robes" is a reasonable substitute that most people will actually understand when you say it.

Anyway. When I think of both church-related and embroidered garments, my first thoughts are dark, heavy fabrics with gold or silver thread, which pretty succinctly explains all of the color choices here. The white mandala lines kind of stand in for silver, then spot color with the gold which also works the idea of heavy gold trim on some fabrics like that. And a bonus I didn't even think of until I was done: Since the gold borders are circular, they really echo halos, which is very nicely church-adjacent imagery. 😇

And then I mixed black, burgundy, and a bit of navy together for the rest of the background since those were the robe colors that came to mind the quickest.

I think the background colors are doing more heavy lifting here than I can fully appreciate; Typing it out and knowing how I put the lines together, the final product more feels complex to me than I think it should. That's certainly not a bad thing, though!

If the rest of the Obscutober pieces could come together this smoothly and I be this pleased with them, that would be amazing, but I know better than to expect that. 😅 But a girl can hope, right? At least it was a nice way to polish off the first week!

Now to hope I can get this thing cross-posted decently quickly without any more ridiculous incidents like the spelling mistake that making it technically started with... 🥴

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See the Prompt List

Artwork  © me, MysticSparklewings

Obscutober Concept Inspired by nikolas_tower

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⭐️ Like My Art and Want to see more of it? Here's All My Links! ⭐️

[evanox]

Mmm I feel like sage would be a pretty decent cook. Definitely not a professional tho. He can handle chopping and cleaning pretty well and make himself and/or tulsi some really delicious small meals but not something for a full on feast. He probably follows his impulses waayyy too much so a lot of the times he fucks up by adding some random ingredients just to see how it would taste together. Oh and adding beer to random shit, most likely learnt that one from balsam. He definitely starts eating small bits of whatever he's cooking along the way to if it's taking too long. ALSO SAGE LEARNING HOW TO MAKE YOURS AND TULSIS FAVOURITE FOOD AND BRINGING YOU SOME CAUSE THERE OH SO COINCIDENTALLY HAPPENED TO BE LEFTOVERS BOY OH BOY WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT BETTER EAT UP Or he'll cry. You can be his taste tester!!!!!!!!!! UGH MY HEART-

LUCAN BAKES. THATS IT. THIS MOUNTAIN OF A MAN LIKES DECORATING CUPCAKES.

-egg anon (dumb bitch anon)

Sage is a great cook and I'll kill on that hill (/lh) but yes after much contemplation I can see your point, and now I have many thoughts about the griefers and cooking m.list

Now, comparing Sage and Balsam depends on which period of their lives we're talking about. As kids/teenagers Sage was probably the better cook; they had the bare minimum to work with and Sage knew how to make it work. He also had Tulsi (and probably Balsam) to take care of, and for her he's willing to go above and beyond. He might like his meat half-raw it could almost start breathing again, but Tulsi doesn't so he had to adjust to her tastes.

In fact his impulsiveness was probably his strongest point. Recipes are too boring for him to follow, but it was his spontaneity and willingness to try anything once that made him such a good, creative, and adaptable cook. He figured out what worked and what didn't through trial and error.

Further into adulthood, when Balsam got his own place, he was able to stock up the shelves with herbs and spices, and could peacefully experiment with cooking thus honing his skills. Probably better at following recipes than Sage, because he truly was lost at first when it came to cooking and needed all the help he could get.

I do agree he probably threw in a little beer or wine when he wanted to feel ✨spicy✨

So, ultimately, in the wild Sage is the better cook, but in the kitchen Balsam does better. The lack of many ingredients made it easier for Sage to experiment, whereas in a kitchen setting he might be overwhelmed with just how much stuff there is to work with. What do half of these tools even do?

That's where you can play the role of Sage's taste tester, maybe even cooking assistant. You guys are stuck in Fathom until this whole Griefers and corruption thing is resolved, and he's sick of Felix and Anisa's attempts at cooking. (I wouldn't immediately discredit Felix's potential but his tastes might be too specific for Sage.) So he starts experimenting in the kitchen, and your help would be most appreciated.

Starts small with the things he's already used to: frying eggs, meat and fish, and maybe the occasional vegetable, then he starts to branch out with all the different ways you can cook these things. Yes, you have to stop him several times from taking one too many bites of the food. He'll probably smear some of it on your face just for an excuse to kiss it off, or it can evolve into a food fight. You're surprised when he's the one to bring the fight to a stop, then he insists that food must not be wasted and that's when you understand.

Sage will scoff about how he doesn't care how the food comes out, "y'all can either eat it or find your own thing," but he does care, especially about your (and Tulsi's) opinions. His eyes are fixed to your face after he spoon-feeds you something, but he quickly averts his gaze when you catch him in the act. Please put his heart at ease and tell him it's great, or show him what might need fixing. Sage is surprisingly accepting of criticism when it comes to food.

Unless that criticism is coming from Felix, then Sage will tease him about how spoiled the bourgeoisie must be. Little does Felix know that Sage does keep all his little complaints in mind, not that he'd ever admit to it.

If anyone is more likely to flub a recipe it's probably Lucan. This man doesn't know his spices and what's even worse is it doesn't matter to him because he'll eat anything. Like Sage, he likes his beef raw and never had any reason to adjust to something different.

You'd probably have to introduce him to baking yourself. Then you'll have to keep stopping him from trying to shovel all the whipped cream into his mouth. This grown man can't resist a sugar high.

His favorite part is when the batter is in the oven and he can watch it rise, just... this mountain of a guy sitting cross-legged before the oven watching it like he's in a trance.

He keeps Elowen in mind when drawing cute kitty faces on cupcakes, because he knows his cool and stoic sister can't resist a cute kitty face. Elowen can't help it, though; her little brother will always be a baby to her and anything sweet that he does for her might make her tear up just a little.

[clusterduck28]

Hunter Back On His Bullshit AU(?)

Okay, check this out, it's the Human Realm, Connecticut, Gravesfield, the Hexsquad has been hanging out here for a solid month or two, everyone is slowly but surely settling into their new routines, Hunter is deep in the process of working through his identity crisis, it's fine, it's whatever.

Amidst all the uncertainty one thing becomes clear to him: despite all the horrible horrible emotional baggage attached to it, he still really misses being Golden Guard. The sense of unquestionable authority, the confidence, the sass, the outfit, OH THE OUTFIT... He simply can't help himself. Denying that Hunter might very well still be Golden Guard's biggest fan would be an act of Self-deception and We Don't Do That Anymore, Hunter! (internally, to himself). Anyway, he's very conflicted about this, he keeps rotating the general notion of GG in his head with no particular end goal in mind, it's just sort of there fading in and out of the background as he's going about his day working at McDonalds, never bothering him too much, nor ever really going away entirely.

One day though, something clicks into place. Nobody's really sure where exactly he got the idea from, might've been one of the movies Luz has been showing the rest of the squad in order to help them catch up on human culture. Could it have been The Batman? Spiderman? Perhaps an odd episode of Darkwing Duck that was supposed to be fulfilling the role of background noise but managed to inexplicably get a strong grip Hunter's attention? Regardless of where it came from, it soon became clear that the idea of caped and costumed vigilante justice has firmly planted itself in Hunter's mind and he'll be damned if he didn't at least try to do that cool thing where the guy goes and beats up a bunch of nasty bank robbers and cape go whoosh while he's doing it and it looks really cool or something like that.

Aided by insomnia, an old sawing machine, YouTube arts and crafts tutorials and an occasional concerned chirp of encouragement from Flapjack, it takes him about 2 weeks to put together a near perfect replica of the old GG uniform, complete with the mask, the cape and even the GG seal! You know, the one that is coincidentally happens to have a near one to one resemblance to the Gravesfield town seal, which is extremely convenient for Hunter as he doesn't have to reach too far for his new superhero name - "The Gravesfield Guard"!

On his first night out TV cameras managed to catch him miraculously saving a small kitten that was being mugged in a dark alley way by an evil scientist while tied to burning train tracks with a speeding train full of bank robbers and thermonuclear bombs on its way.

Crazy situation, I know, Hunter's luck is just like that that, the important thing is that he rescued the kitten in the end, okay? At least that's the kind of thing he'll be saying to the rest of the family next morning after they are horrified to find out about his antics through the morning local TV news because of course he was trying to keep it all a secret from them too. He end up spending the rest of the day having a big ol' nap and waking up to an ✨INTERVENTION✨ and they collectively come to the conclusion that if you're gonna be back on your bullshit you should at least let ppl know beforehand, sheesh...

[poisonnxkki]

Witchcraft & Beginning The Journey✨

How I Started:

I spoke about this briefly but I'll go into more detail here. Witchcraft was not something that I just found and dove straight into. I took many years for me to develop my beliefs and at some point I just ended up on this path. I believe that even if I had to redo this life 100 times, I would always find my way back to witchcraft. As a child, I was raised Christian but I never really believed in it or felt like I belonged in that community. Around 12-13 I found alternative forms of spirituality (this was also when I was given unsupervised internet access... coincidentally). At the time, people were posting random beliefs on the internet and I tried to absorb everything (but wasn't really sure what I agreed with). As I got older, my interests began to change as well. I went from reading random "spiritual" quotes to learn about the history of religion and about different ancient cultures. Eventually I stumbled onto witchcraft and at first I thought it was a joke. Of course I loved the idea of witches and potions but I couldn’t really wrap my head around the concept. The idea kept popping up though as I scrolled through my corner of the internet and eventually it was all I was looking into.

Witchcraft became the space that I had needed all those years ago and allowed me to exercise my creative freedom. I could follow my interests, pick up concepts that resonated with me and really tailor my spirituality in a way that other religions wouldn’t allow. Everything felt unique, personal and reflective of what I wanted for myself. There are those who believe health consists of three things, body, mind & spirit. Without witchcraft my mind and spirit were lacking. It has helped me find hope, provided my spirit with a place it can flourish and now provides me with a community I can share my experiences with (& I'm really grateful for that).

Titles & Self-Confidence:

People who call themselves beginners often do so because they are either just starting (in which case the title works) or lack confidence in their skills. Regardless of what you call yourself, there is a lot of fear mongering targeted towards "beginners" in this community. Additionally, the imposter syndrome we face in regards to our own abilities or skills can be just as detrimental to our confidence as the fear mongering. I have named this experience "the beginner’s block" because it feels like something that everyone goes through when they are first starting out in witchcraft.

Most people who enter this community don't want to look foolish and so before experimenting with witchcraft, they try to do as much research as possible. There are even those in the community who recommend researching for x amount of months before beginning. I can't say that I'm a fan of that idea because, like anything else, experimenting is how we learn and grow. It is also how we build confidence in our skills to begin with and no amount of research can teach that.

The reason the title of beginner felt like it was weighing me down is because I used it to cover up my fear of being wrong. If I was wrong about something, if I didn't fully research something, if someone knew more than me on a specific subject, I could just say I was a beginner and not feel ashamed. Since abandoning that title I've realized that there is no need to be right all the time. No need to know everything about every subject and no need to question my skills. Being confident, regardless of how long you've been practicing, and being able to learn from your mistakes are probably the most important lessons I learned from the beginner’s block.

Topics for Your Book of Shadows/Grimoire:

🖤I'm purposefully not going to mention definitions or topics that are used for reference (like herb correspondences) because they are things that you can always look up on demand. I'm focusing on topics that might take a bit more time to really research and maybe point you towards your path. Pick and choose which topics interest you, don't feel like these are mandatory or necessary.

The history of witchcraft

Types of magic/witchcraft (Draconic, Green, Kitchen, etc.)

The history and mythology of your country/background (beware of closed practices)

The 4 basics (cleansing, protection, banishments & warding)

References for divination (personal gnosis, guidebooks, etc)

Ethics in witchcraft (depends on if you follow a structured belief system like wicca or not)

Plants/animals in your local area

The differences between spirits, deities, dragons & daemons (if you plan on doing any deity/spirit work)

Physical witchcraft (with ingredients) vs non-physical witchcraft (& which method you prefer)

Recipes/spells that you want to try

Shadow work prompts (if you plan on doing shadow work)

Social media witches that inspire you (Youtube, Tumblr, TikTok, etc.)

*All images are from Pinterest*

[anak-sapi]

Haha happy Wednesday from the anak sapi family 😎😎🐄😎😎😎

And want to introduce my boys!!!! They could meet, talk, or maybe "take over someone else's body" with each other on their mind. Kinda like sense 8 if you have watched it!

Age dont really matter since they are born based on when I read/make their stories for the first time.

【Last Edit : 16 February 2022】

*leans to an expensive car* "hey lol"

Aries OG is the oldest! Started from only a one time character name around 2018, and then I was like "Aries is a pretty good name" and a unisex name too! Though I am a cancer but I just found out last year that aries is my moon sign so, I guess something just meant to be.

He is from my ✨original works✨, that only has so many snippets rather than the original works itself. He got cursed by the nature because of the stuff I havent come out with, and got a yearly accident that involves bones. The worst one is when he's 18: he got into a car crash that makes him wore prosthetic on his right leg. He is now fine tho! Maybe. Back in his college year he is known as the "Korban tabrak lari". Now he works at his family company.

Other Aries called him Abang since he is the oldest. Somehow he is like mama sapi's right-hand man. Other Aries likes to go to him for advice.

"Why would you go to me for advice? We are the same."

"Idk I just feel like going to you."

*sigh* "Well let's see whats the problem and resolve it together

"I hope I get a raise... I want a new car."

Next one is Detective Aries Raylight from cyoa games The Wayhaven Chronicles! It's the first time I put the name Aries in a cyoa game, and the start of my interactive fiction obsession 💀

Detective Raylight has a high people skill, but he get overwhelmed pretty easily by Felix's flirt and compliments. Sadly he got kidnapped by a pshyco scientist vampire and ever since that he got scared of needles and possibly have a traumatic experience that he would not ever forget. Recently there's a hole in his apartment ceiling and his car is dying.

In the fam he tends to become the neutral police when other Aries fight each other.

"If it isn't the consequences of my own action."

Next one is Aries from a cyoa games Breach: The Archangel Job. He got so many names like this Watt Zit Tooya and sometimes he goes with Aries like other Aries. Sometimes he refers as Criminal Aries.

He was an undercover cops, task to infiltrate a criminal group. In the middle of his mission, he realize being a criminal is way more fun and he can dismantle other criminal group faster with them rather than with the law. And he also happens to fell in love with on of the leader so... yeah. Really depends and believes in luck.

I really like the story! Very contrast to Detective Aries. Though they got along pretty well with each other. He likes to pick a fight with Aries TATW.

"3 am and I'm still awake."

The Tired College Student Aries! He is from, yes, another cyoa games Keeper of The Sun and Moon. He's been through a lot!

His 1st semester didn't go well... Turns out he is not a human, monsters keep attacking him, the class subject is hard, and so on. Lately he found out that his mom is an empath! As in, can control other people emotion. And why you'd look at that! Turns out his boyfriend is an empath too 🚶 Oh and his father? Currently date his professor back in university. His mom is a

Probably the quietest among the Aries. Other Aries likes to help him do his homework.

"Does this thing exist in the 1920's???"

The time traveler Aries! Or the out of pocket Aries. From the story Two Against the World at fictif app.

The point is, he got isekai to a gangster movie. He help this leader of the crime family to decide the fate of the movie. With the said leader, now they get out from the gangster world and live as a movie producer. Got tangled with too much headcannon, his story start to really stray away from the original. They both like it tho.

Sibling-hate Criminal Aries because coincidentally Criminal Aries's love interest is the one who killed 5 families of NY, and Aries TATW's love interest is one of the 5 families on NY. Mama sapi already told them they came from a different dimension, but they wont listen.