#<- all my ideas so far that I’ll expand on later

[sirofreak]

Whollies hear me out,

SCP foundation x unwind au⁉️

I already have sooo many ideas for it but I wanna draw them out first so I’m gonna make a reblog chain with all my ideas

[allfryam]

the office part 2

Jason was loving his new job. All of the people were great, he barely did any work, and he was never hungry. Speaking of hungry, it was lunchtime and him and Connor were going down to the food court. Jason ordered 3 double cheeseburgers, a large shake, a side of Mac and cheese, and some fries. “Do you want anything?” He asked Connor.

after gorging on enough food to feed a family of three, Jason leaned back in his chair, revealing a sliver of his smooth belly under his shirt. Jason had gained over 25 pounds in the first month working at the office. He had yet to notice because he was convinced he was still perfectly in shape. He tugged his shirt back over his belly and let out a big burp. “I think these shirts shrink after a bit.” He said. “Yeah. Same happened to mine.” Said Connor. “You should come over to my place later.” Connor said. He explained the new x-box game he just got to Jason. Jason wasn’t all that interested until Connor mentioned pizza. “I’ll be there at 6.”

arriving at Connor’s apartment, Jason noticed 6 large pizzas sitting on the counter. His mouth was already watering. They sat down to play the new game and dig into the pizzas. Connor had easily eaten the first pizza, but he was struggling on the second one. “Man I’m full”. He said. “Oh well. More for me” Jason quickly grabbed the box and grabbed two slices at a time, one in each hand, guzzling down the slices as fast as he could. He was like a machine. He didn’t even slow down until after he finished the third box. He hated wasting food so he kept eating but it wasn’t easy. He got another few slices in before he had to take a break. “Yo do you care if I take my shirt off? It’s kinda hot in here”. “Ya sure man”. Jason took off his skin tight shirt and revealed his tight stomach. It was round and soft and sat just on top of his belt. His chiseled pecs were growing softer too. They began to sag and get bigger they were almost all the way to his belly. He took off his belt and unbuttoned his tight pants. His growing gut surged forward with a groan. “Fuuuuucckk”. “That feels so much better”. He burped and grabbed another slice of pizza.

by the end of the night, there were still 5 or 6 slices of pizza left but both boys were stuffed. “Dude I think I can eat them but I need help”. Jason said. “help?” “ yeah. Just help me eat these.” “Ok.”

Connor grabbed a slice and walked over to Jason. Jason leaned back and closed his eyes. Connor shoved the slice into Jason’s mouth as far as he could. Jason mindlessly chewed and groaned as he ate. Connor continued the cycle until there was one slice left. Jason’s belly was taut and red. It looked like a balloon that was inflated too much. “Uuuugghhh” Jason moaned. But Connor didn’t stop. He stuffed the last piece into Jason’s mouth and forced him to chew. After what seemed like hours, Jason finally swallowed and finished the pizza. He had eaten four and a half LARGE pizzas all by himself. He promptly passed out on Connors couch with his stomach grumbling in pain.

A very similar routine would occur for the next month and Jason loved it. He got to steal some delicious donuts from the break room, have an enormous lunch with Connor and then go back to Connor’s place and play video games and eat some more takeout. Jason’s frame was quickly expanding, and he had no clue. He had started to notice a few changes however. He couldn’t fit into his work pants anymore so he would leave them unbuttoned and hire it under his shirt. He had gone through three sizes of shirts since he got the job, but he still believed his dryer was shrinking them. Jason had no idea he was over 50 pounds heavier than he was just a few months ago, and Connor liked it that way.

[wriheart]

I’ll probably never write a full fanfic for Ever After High (or at least, it will in the far, far future), but since I’ve been seeing so many eah posts lately I thought I’d ✨grace✨ the internet with my rewrite ideas.

As a bit of context, if I ever were to rewrite eah, it would not be a hate rewrite. I love this series so much, so my rewrite is coming from a place where I want to see more, expand on concepts, and add my own twist to things. (A hate rewrite would be if I were to rewrite Miraculous because that show makes me want to go on a deep dive of everything wrong with it.)

Anyway welcome to part one of

🍎🐦‍⬛Wri’s Ever After High Rewrite🧺🌹

For my world of Ever After, I am taking a lot more inspiration from the original grim tales. This doesn’t mean the stories will be exactly like the originals (especially since there tend to be many variations with translations and whatnot), but I will be staying as loyal to them as I can. This means that many of the villains will not survive their story (we’ll come back to this later though ;)) and some characters will be cut, such as Farah Goodfairy (I’m sorry I know she’s so pretty but I like the original tale where Cinderella is helped by the animals). Additionally, I will be adding characters, since the original show doesn’t always give us all the characters from a story (like how they gave us multiple princesses but only two prince charmings) (I didn’t forget about Darling but from what I remember she was in the damsel in distress class so she doesn’t quite count since the school didn’t consider her getting the destiny of a prince). I’m also cutting most non-grim stories, such as Pinnochio and The Little Mermaid. (There’s a small chance I might use cut characters and just say they’re from other fairy tales. For example, I don’t want to cut Sparrow, so I’ll just say that instead of being the Son of Robin Hood he’s the son of a grimm fairytale character.) DON’T PANIC, I’M NOT CUTTING WONDERLAND. Wonderland is staying because I love the characters and world so much and I also have a great idea to make it make sense. Anyway, those are just some of my notes, let’s get into the world.

Welcome to the world of Ever After, a grand empire made up of a plethora of kingdoms whose rulers report to the highly-respected and loved Emperor Grim. Emperor Grim is said to be older than the stories themselves, and it was through his guidance that the kingdoms were founded, and their stories remembered.

There are many kingdoms in Ever After, including the Kingdom of ___, ruled by the descendants of Snow White; the Kingdom of ___, ruled by the descendants of Aurora Beauty, and the Kingdom of ___, ruled by the descendants of Cinderella. These kingdoms and their rulers report to Emperor Grim, so while they are allowed to make decisions regarding their kingdoms, these decisions must be made under Grim’s guidelines. This allows the Emperor to easily rule Ever After, as the kingdom rulers are loyal to him.

After all, they know what will happen if they stray from the path.

But more about that later.

Within each kingdom of Ever After, there is an enchanted forest. The trees in these forests are very special, as they are the birthplace of the stories. When a story is completed, a seed can be found on the last page of the storybook. A few years after all of the stories are completed, each seed is planted in its kingdom’s enchanted forest, and from the seed, a magical tree grows. The tree produces flowers that, once bloomed, reveal children within. The children are the future fairy tale generation, who will relive the stories of their kingdom.

The tree does not give birth to every character who plays a role in the story, instead, the tree only gives birth to children who are to be the main characters of their tale. For example, the trees within Snow White’s kingdom will only give birth to the next Snow White, Evil Queen and Prince Charming (and maybe the seven dwarves, I haven’t fully decided yet). The rest of the characters will be found. (More on this later.) Every story that is completed is planted within the kingdom, the children are born, and when they are old enough, they are sent off to Ever After High, where they will complete their education before signing The Storybook of Legends and fulfilling their story.

Many of the villain children do not have parents who can raise them, since upon the tale’s completion, the villain dies. These children are raised by noble families. The families were long ago granted titles by the Emperor, and have been raising the children for generations. Each kingdom has at least one or two noble families, such as the noble family who have raised The Evil Queen or the family who have raised The Big Bad Wolf.

Ever after high is a four-year school in which all of the fairy tale children are prepared to relive their stories of their predecessors. For the first three years, they go through many general classes, such as potion making for the villains and good kingdom management for the royals. Then, at the end of their third year, they sign the storybook of legends, and for their fourth year they take story-specific classes to make sure they are officially ready.

For the characters not born in the enchanted forest, Emperor Grim invites regular citizens to apply to attend Ever After High. These roles include The Huntsman and The Twelve Wise Fairies, for example. These characters must go through many tryouts to prove they are worthy of being a part of this great tradition.

When a story isn’t completed, the kingdom vanishes. A few kingdoms have vanished in the past, such as the Kingdom of the Seven Ravens (the kingdom of the seven ravens is subject to change). While on the outside these kingdoms look like they are gone, with a dark forest in their place, in reality, they are still there. Grim traps the kingdoms under a bubble that stops people from entering or leaving the kingdom, and stops those on the outside from seeing the kingdom.

This threat looks over the villain kids at Ever After High. Even though most have no interest in completing their story, there is a very real threat that they, along with their kingdoms will cease to exist if they do not comply. It isn’t until Raven Queen starts digging that she realizes that the kingdoms might not truly be gone.

————

All EAH AU Posts

[rubywolf0201]

How I would fix the Gang War Arc in BUCCHIGIRI?! (Part 1)

Ok so I think most of the BUCCHIGIRI?!community has collectively agreed that the Gang War Arc was rushed in general and while there are some good moments here and there, I felt that it was a tad too compressed and that it should’ve been longer so here are my ideas on rewriting it:

- Have the first few episodes focus on what the different gang life that Minato Kai and Siguma Squad tend to do. With that, this will give spotlight on how they differ from one another. Siguma was already in a good spot in the third episode with the Look-That-Way Challenge but Minato Kai only showcased a little bit of what they do. An idea I have is that Minato Kai organize martial arts training session where the members test their mettle by trying to karate-chop a stack of wooden planks or even try to knock out a pretty strong tree lol. (Ok well there were sparring matches in Minato Kai but I would expand on it a little more)

- Arajin can still be the reluctant pacifistic everyman who doesn’t want any part of this but have him learn about the gangs, what they do and maybe gain a new perspective on them (albeit still being a bystander at least until Character Development hits)

- Arajin still joins Siguma Squad because of Mahoro manipulating him and Marito putting him in a hard spot, but have him overtime enjoying their company even if he’s not a full-fledge member of them.

- In fact, I would even go further and have him form a friend group with Hagure and Jabashiri, who would serve as foils to Komao and Zabu respectively. (I would go into detail about this friend group in another post)

- NG Boys can still appear but I’ll have the grunts appear on numerous occasions helping to plant the seed of doubts under Akutaro’s orders.

- Akutaro can appear much later but instead of meeting Arajin quickly due to Ichiya, I would build him up slowly and also give him time to interact with Ichiya and how both desired revenge against the people they used to like.

- Zabu can still be the unwitting instigator of the Gang War but instead of just Akutaro meeting him, Zabu would quickly be outnumbered by the numerous NG Boys surrounding him (because Akutaro called them over).

- Outa doesn’t get beaten up and be sidelined in this arc but one of the Siguma members did get beaten up which of course made everyone speculate that Minato Kai is behind it and that’s before Marito and Outa calmed everyone down and that they should focus more on the injured member instead.

- Instead of being disinterested of what’s happening, Arajin would be scared of it (because he was the one who found the injured member) and that’s when Outa ease his worries and that Siguma Squad would find the culprit behind it soon. (This of course would help to build a relationship between Outa and Arajin)

- Once this is all over, Arajin, together with Jabashiri and Hagure walked back to the Tomoshibi family restaurant to treat his newfound friends to dinner esp since both Hagure and Jabashiri lived pretty far from the Siguma base, but just as they arrive they met Mahoro!

- Mahoro was eating and once she saw Arajin, Hagure and Jabashiri, she puts up the cutesy front and greeted the three of the cheerfully. Arajin being the simp he is, greeted her back but neither Hagure nor Jabashiri seems to buy it with the latter rolling his eyes at her.

- The slap scene still happens because of Arajin expressing cowardice but with some notable differences in that Jaba and Hagure are the ones who was against the slap in contrast to Mrs Tomoshibi who just watched it and mistook it for some romance drama fight.

- And just before Mahoro left, she gave both Jaba and Hagure a death glare from behind and muttered to them to not get in her way. Hagure was startled but he stood his ground whereas Jabashiri just huffed out that says ‘Whatever’.

- The dinner scene with Arajin’s friend group would be similar to the Matakara friend group dinner scene in Episode 4 but instead Arajin slowly starts to open up to his new friends about how he didn’t want to be part of Siguma Squad at first but he was amused at how they work but it’s just that he is scared of Marito lol. Both Jaba and Hagure took his consideration and just told him that it’s fine if he feels that way and that they’re aren’t going to force him to fight if he feels uncomfortable but he still needs to contribute to the gang in some way.

- After the dinner scene, both Jabashiri and Hagure said their goodbyes to Arajin and well, the scene of Jaba assaulting the Minato Kai members would still happen and Hagure have to hold him back and the NG Boys would appear later to ambush the Minato Kai members.

That’s all I have to write so far. I still have more ideas but this is as far as I can go for this part . Feel free to add more if you can about this basic outline I have to fix the Gang War Arc.

[waythroughtheice]

Crossed Constellations, Part 5

As always for @absolutely-normal-about-x!

We get some more background on this Geo and Omega-Xis and ummm it's not good, but they're safe now?

I hope you enjoy!

Part 5

Oof, he was so full! “Thanks, X,” Geo said gratefully, handing over his plate. “Do you need help with the dishes?” 

“Absolutely not. You’re a guest,” X said. 

“Besides, Levi and I are on dish duty tonight,” Harpuia said. “We siblings cycle through the kitchen duties so Dad doesn’t have to cook and clean.” 

“Ah,” Geo said. He yawned, suddenly feeling very sleepy and warm. 

“Bed, I think,” X said. “Volnutt, would you mind leading Geo to a room?” 

“Sure!” Volnutt agreed. “Which one?” 

“On our side, I think,” X said, his eyes glinting. “You chose.” 

Volnutt smiled. “Okay! Follow me, Geo!” 

Geo sleepily nodded. His head felt so heavy. 

Volnutt chattered as they walked. Geo was content to just listen. “The Flutter used to be way smaller, but once Dad and everyone else arrived, we were able to rebuild it to be a lot bigger!” 

“The wood is different,” Geo said sleepily. He could tell where the Flutter had been expanded upon--instead of trying to match the previous darker wood, its inhabitants had instead opted for a sandy tan that complimented it. 

Volnutt grinned. “It was Levi’s idea. Looks great, right?” 

Geo couldn’t really muster up the energy to respond vocally, so he nodded. 

“My family stays in the new side--Roll and Barrel stay in the original end.” They stopped before a door. “There are a couple of extra rooms since Dad insisted on ‘em.” Volnutt waved his hands. “Two of them he’s set up already--did one in what he called a “German style” and the other in a “Russian style”--but there are a few he didn’t decorate at all.” 

Geo winced. Rooms for Axl and Zero then, if they ever showed up. 

He shook his head, forcibly driving the gloomy thoughts away. They would. If X was here, they would inevitably follow. It was practically written in stone with those three. 

Refocusing on the door in front of him, Geo asked. “Guest rooms?” It felt like he was wading through water, desperately sinking down to sleep even as he wanted to stay awake. 

Volnutt frowned. “No, we have those. These aren’t one of them.” 

Geo rubbed his eyes. Something didn’t add up. “But I’m sleeping in this room?” 

Volnutt opened the door. “Yup! Dad said so, and honestly it makes sense to me!” He said cheerfully. “You seem like a good guy. Your partner is really cool, too.” 

Geo flushed. “Thanks, Volnutt. You do too.” 

Volnutt laughed. “I try!” He said cheerfully. He gently pushed Geo in. “You look dead on your feet. Go get some rest!” 

Geo smiled and went in. “Thanks,” he managed. The door closed behind him as Geo fell onto the bed. 

“Hey, Omega-Xis…” He said. 

The alien popped out of the Hunter VG. “Yes?” 

“What did you talk to X about?” 

He paused. “Our normal things. And a few other things too. You’ll find out later. Go to sleep.” 

“Mmmkay….” 

Within seconds of putting himself under the covers and putting his head on the pillow, he was dead to the world. 

~~~

(Recollection of the past: Omega-Xis and X) 

X focused on the being in front of him as the child left the room. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by Omega-Xis’s sudden bow. 

“I need your help,” Omega-Xis asked. 

X’s brow furrowed. “What?” 

Omega-Xis sighed. “The kid needs your help,” he elaborated. 

X leaned against the counter, his gaze never leaving the neon-green alien. “Alright,” he said. “But I have a few questions of my own that I’d like to ask.” 

“That’s fine. I’ll answer them all, as long as you answer some of mine,” Omega-Xis said boldly. 

“I’ll answer what I can,” X said neutrally. So far the alien didn’t seem to be the devious kind. If need be, X could take him in a fight--but the boy, Geo. How would he take such a thing? 

“This world. Is it safe?” 

X blinked. “Is any?” 

Omega-Xis shook his head, grimacing. “Is it peaceful, X.” 

“I believe so,” X said. “It’s a quiet world we have, but it’s our own.”

“Your son is a Mega Man, though?” 

“It became more of a title,” X said stiffly. 

“But you let him have it so I guess it must be peaceful….” Omega-Xis contemplated. 

“He earned it.” 

“C’mon, you and I both know if there was a real threat you’d take the mantle back.” 

“Why did you ask, then, if you already knew?” X asked sharply. 

Omega-Xis shrugged. “I needed confirmation.” 

“Fine. My turn. Why is he running?” X said. 

Omega-Xis stilled. “A fight from our own world went badly,” he answered. 

X’s eyes narrowed. “Someone’s chasing you?” 

Omega-Xis shook his head. “No. Geo’s running because he has nowhere else to run to,” he said quietly.  

….Ah. X’s face softened. “How many?” He said. His voice was noticeably gentler. 

“All.” 

Rust and verdigris. X sucked in a sharp breath. All? At Geo’s age? How?

“It was an enemy--two enemies, really,” Omega-Xis continued softly at the unspoken question. “If they had been on their own, we could’ve taken ‘em no problem. But the thing was somehow, along the way, one joined up with the other, and--well.” His claws flexed, like he was imagining an enemy. “We joined up with another guy we knew--Cepheus--in order to stop them. We finally did, but not before everyone the kid knew was gone…along with a good chunk of our universe.” 

“...I see.” X said quietly. “I’m sorry to hear that.” He could understand that sort of grief. He still dealt with that sort of grief, even thousands of years later. 

Omega-Xis snorted. “Ain’t your fault. Anyway, we defeated the duo, but their power was so strong that they threatened to get out of our timeline and harm others nonetheless.” 

X’s fingers tightened on the counter, but he kept himself quiet, and listened. 

“They were sealed away, but there was always a chance they could get out and threaten other people, and the kid--” just a hint of a smile appeared on Omega-Xis’s face before wiping itself away again, “didn’t want that to happen. Neither did a lot of people. But the catch was….to close the “door” on any dimension means it has to lock on both sides, not just one. And a lock like that has to be permanent in order to work. No touching the door ever again, especially on the outside, which was by far the more critical of the two.”   

Oh. Oh no. “And the child was chosen to lock it on the outside, never to return home again?” X asked sharply, getting it immediately. “Why not this person that fought with you? Cepheus, you said?” 

Omega-Xis sighed. “It takes a lot of power to cross dimensions,” he said. “Cepheus could do it, but, well….he’s a king. His people were still living.” 

X’s lips tightened. “And Geo had no one left.” How pragmatic. How logical. How cruel. 

“We were--and are--stronger than Cepheus, so we were able to cross dimensions easily,” Omega-Xis agreed. “We were the strongest warrior our dimension ever produced, so it was determined we could defend ourselves, and get far, far away from our dimension as an extra precaution.” He scoffed. “Tch! We’d just won the war for them, and the survivors just tossed us out in the cold!” He sighed. “But the kid just accepted it. Said he didn’t want our foe to ever have the chance to hurt anyone else, said his goodbyes to Cepheus, locked the door, and then we…” 

“Traveled,” X said flatly, anger simmering under his skin. 

“Traveled,” Omega-Xis repeated darkly. “I think it was better this way. The human government was beginning to look at Geo strangely, and I didn’t like it. Getting him away from that timeline where he’d lost everything might’ve been the best thing. He had no one left other than me, anyway, so I hoped that maybe he’d be able to heal.” 

“Has he?” 

Omega-Xis grimaced. “Sort of. Most of the dimensions we’ve gone to haven’t been exactly peaceful, or I didn’t think the adults would help Geo out enough. He needs a home.”  

“What about Dr. Light?” X mentioned, only for Omega-Xis to shake his head. “His dimensions are never peaceful, and the governments are always super nosy around him. Governments and Geo don’t mix, by the way. Is there a government here?” 

Despite himself, X’s lips twitched. “Not an overarching one. Definitely not one that would bother or care about you or him or us.” 

Omega-Xis grinned. “Great!” He sobered. “There was one dimension that I considered bringing up the idea of staying--it was a dimension were Dr. Light had bio kids.” 

X’s eyes widened. “Really?” 

“Yeah. We lived with his son and grandsons for a time. I could see us living there, but….it was too similar to the world we’d left behind. It hurt him to stay in a world that was so similar.” 

“It reminded him of what he’d thought he’d failed,” X said quietly. “That’s understandable.” 

“Plus, it’s weird,” Omega-Xis mused. “We’ve met a lot of adults that have expressed a concern in Geo, but the human ones--they never put up too much a fuss about him fighting or anything. The only adults that ever really did were the you, and the Hunters.” 

“Not even the Dr. Light?”

“He tried, but having dealt with your big brother for so long I think he was tired of trying,” Omega-Xis said flatly. “Also, his government is always super nosy, and not in a good way. I think I mentioned that.” 

“You did,” X responded tiredly. 

“But you,” Omega-Xis said grumpily. “Are always the same, no matter the war or age. It’s super annoying. “Why is the child fighting?” “You should be in school.” “Are you eating enough?” “No, you’re not going out onto the battlefield.” And on and on and on. Zero and Axl did the same thing, just not as verbally.” 

X smiled. “Really?” 

Omega-Xis groaned. “Oh yeah. Same thing with Signas.” 

X barked out a laugh. “Signas did it too?” 

Omega-Xis shivered. “Once was enough.” 

“Fair enough,” X said, a smile still playing on his lips. 

“He loved you all the best out of all the people we met. But your worlds are never peaceful,” Omega-Xis said. “So we’ve never stayed. But you’re here,” he said. “And it’s peaceful.” He sighed. “X. I have nothing to give to you, but please--” He bowed. “I beg for shelter for Geo Doran Stelar and myself.”  

“You two can stay,” X said seriously. “You don’t need to ask.” 

Omega-Xis sighed, and straightened up. “Thank you,” he said. “The issue will be getting the kid to settle down. He’s been running for a few months now and it’s a habit.” 

“Habits can be easily broken,” X responded easily. “And my children will be happy to help.” His eyes glinted. “Let’s help a wanderer settle down.” 

Omega-Xis cracked a grin. “Thanks, X.” 

And despite not having met this alien before, X could sense that perhaps there was a reason why his other selves hadn’t separated him from Geo before. “You’re welcome,” he replied. 

[taylorrepdetective]

Wait could you expand on says don't go / cornelia street analysis? I would like to hear more about that

Say Don’t Go was written with DW during the last days of December 2013. It appears to be about a new, undefined relationship where Taylor is in that stage of not knowing where the other person stands and is confused and a bit distraught that they are leading her on and don’t feel as strongly as Taylor does. Taylor is hooked and desperately hoping this person isn’t gonna be another unrequited love. You can read it as an early non-labeled relationship because Taylor says “I love you” to the person apparently for the first time, and is met with devastating silence. Ouch. (It obviously could be read as a relationship that is trying to be rekindled and the other person is not fully into it, but to me, new, undefined relationship fits best, especially with the timing of what I believe was going on at this time, and with other context, which I’ll get to.)

The lines “why’d you have to lead me on” and “I’m trying to see the cards that you won’t show” is a direct parallel to Cornelia Street’s looking back to the early stages of that relationship “Back when we were card sharks playing games, I thought you were leading me on”. So assuming Say Don’t Go was written contemporaneously to the events of late 2013, and that verse of Cornelia street is looking back to then, we got a resolution to the questions asked in SDG. Taylor thought they were leading her on but the “you called before I hit the tunnel..showed your hand” indicates that the other person finally explained themselves and they weren’t leading her on. And since in CS she is looking back from 2016 (when she lived at Cornelia st) to the early part of relationship, we can assume that that showing your hand bit in CS means the relationship from late 2013 continued for years.( Yes I know there’s that pesky “packed my bags left Cornelia st” that doesn’t fit 2013 , but let’s not forget she buzzcuts things and doesn’t always write literally because she is in the closet. Personally, I substitute The West Village for Cornelia St here.)

There are lots of other parallels in this song to other songs. First of all we have “cat and mouse for a month or two or three” which in my world view points to an early undefined relationship where they were sort of playing games with each other before they defined it. And Delicate, which was them having The Talk to define it.

The most intriguing parallel, though, is with YAIL. This new idea that Taylor’s confession of love was met with a devastating silence, and then by the time she wrote YAIL she was able to reinterpret that silence into a form of falling in love with your best friend (with the fear of ruining it causing confession paralysis that is such a core queer experience) is really something. I always loved YAIL, but this interpretation takes it to another level that makes me want to jump off a cliff.

Other possible linked songs:

-shot in the darkest dark and Getaway Car’s we never had a shotgun shot in the dark.

-The way she yells “I Love You” calls back to Cruel Summer’s screamed “I Love You” which was met with a devilish grin.

- the knife and the bleeding also ties to cruel summer.

I don’t want to go too far because it’s easy to get caught up in Swiftisms and see parallels that aren’t really there (like she wrote songs about trucks and dresses and rain and porches when she was 13-15 yo, it doesn’t mean she was still singing about that muse 10 years later.) But the card sharks, showing your hand, leading me on stuff between CS and Say Don’t Go is as clear as anything we ever get imo.

Lastly, we have this diary entry to tell us, contrary to her public statement that she stopped dating for two years, she was clearly dating someone during this period (one week after writing SDG) and it wasn’t going well:

Also, the original prologue to 1989 included this:

I wrote about moving to the loudest and brightest city in the world, the city I had always been overwhelmed by... until now. I think you have to know who you are and what you want in order to take on New York and all its blaring truth. I wrote about the thrill I got when I finally learned that love, to some extent, is just a game of cat and mouse.

So another parallel to Lover, that is specifically about deciding to move to NY.

So to me, it appears that sometime shortly after this diary entry, the Delicate conversation happened and the hand was shown. And she decided to move to NY by the end of January,

[destiny-in-the-universe]

two down, another to go.

This is going to a mix of about 4-5 different prompts and it’s going to be very much a doozy, esp. because of the fandom choice. It’s extremely late, and I’m not expecting anyone to see this until sometime tomorrow, but the fandom oddly enough is Cars. As in the Pixar movie!

It’ll be an extremely niche reader group but oh fucking well. This is what I’m fixated on writing apparently. For some explanation, it follows the most alt canon to ever be written but it is implied to take place following the events of Cars 2! Lightning is still a racer and at the top of his game, though things take an unexpected, sudden turn in this - since I just like to be mean when it comes to my favorites lmao which includes this boy. Also! Keep in mind everyone is human.

I will say he gets to go through it and is loosely inspired by a great series on Ao3 which I will link later if I can find. It’s definitely becoming its own multi-chaptered work though I’ll cover that later since I’ve no idea if people will be interested in that!

Read below the cut for more information about the Cars whump prompt!

Whumptober Event

Following an alternative canon, Lightning McQueen has returned for another year of racing in order to win the latest Piston Cup, but when things take an unexpected turn for the worse - will he be able to pick himself back up again?

The characters are, of course, humanized. Timeline wise, it’s supposed to take place after Cars 2, but presumably before Cars 3. There are a few key differences from the canon franchise however.

Cars AU Headcanons

I am not incredibly mean, so despite that my love for angst, suffering, and whump - Doc Hudson is not dead. Also because I’m a complete sucker for Doc’s dynamic with Lightning McQueen, and is a huge part for the incoming series/whump writing event.

Mater is very much Not Straight. He doesn’t have a label on himself, but after breaking things off with Holley Shiftwell - he has begun catching feelings for a certain someone. We’ll get to this later!

Mater is also Extremely Autistic and ADHD. You can’t convince me otherwise, holy shit

Lightning McQueen is so ADHD. This is canon now. I make the rules!

Sarge and Fillmore are in a committed relationship, and have been ever since the 1960’s. This is not center to the au I’m working on, but it’s also going to be referenced so,

Doc Hudson has mobility issues and uses a cane to help him walk. His crash won’t be a main focus, but yes, the cane is a mobility aid due to scarring from the incident in his youth!

Hurt Lightning McQueen means adoptive parent Doc Hudson. This is all you’re getting!

Finn and Holley might not appear in this installation, but they’ll probably get referenced in some way!

Lightning is an orphan. It’s unclear what happened to his parents, so all the people he has are from Radiator Springs.

While it’s not a major focus in this version, and is more in the past, I am very much a Harv basher. Have fun with this!

I’ll expand on this universe later, but the short version - Lightning deals with the aftermath of an incident during a race and the road to recovery is far from easy; at least he has his found family to help every step of the way. In other words, I traumatize Lightning for my own whump serving purposes. I’ll be in touch!

[pigeontheoneandonly]

Would you be willing to expound on the Kaidan/Anders similarity? I’d never really considered it and would love to hear your ideas 💛

I wish I had a dollar for every time I’ve started this post over the years, and abandoned it unfinished when it got out of hand.  But I’ll try my best to be succinct.

At its core, the reason why I find Kaidan and Anders to be similar is that both are centrally driven by profound compassion, and preyed upon by the consequence of profound compassion, which is an absolute intolerance of injustice.

Let’s dispense with the superficial details of their arcs.  Both are outcasts in their societies due to their unique capabilities, feared, loathed, and used as tools in the same breath.  Both have chosen to turn those abilities towards the service of others.  When we meet Anders in Awakening, he is literally trying to survive, to hide from the templars and maintain his own freedom.  When we meet Kaidan in ME1, he is metaphorically trying to survive, to keep his head down and be a “normal” marine, in hopes this will let him escape the stigma of being a biotic.  Anders declares to you “this is a place of healing”; Kaidan confides that he won’t use his abilities against sentient beings.  Both see their feelings harden and their willingness to accept more extreme methods expand as their enemy’s power grows. 

Even their childhoods are similar.  Anders was obviously taken as a child and imprisoned in a mage tower, but I’m not sure many people realize BAaT was founded when Kaidan was nine years old.  Though it’s mostly assumed Kaidan was taken to BAaT as a teenager, since he’s in the first known exposure group, there’s a case that he was actually taken much younger.  Regardless, both characters were strongly marked by their early experiences.  Anders escapes to the Wardens because the tower is so awful it makes that option look good.  Kaidan escapes to the military because it’s one of the few ways he can actually make use of his abilities, even if he has no illusions this will allow him to escape surveillance (“might as well get a paycheck for it”). 

In both their romances, they view their partner with a sense of wonder, and as a grounding point, making them feel safe and like they have somewhere to belong.  There is a sense that they are extending a trust that’s been buried a long time, which makes it all the worse if their partner then chooses to leave them later.  But both will stand by their principles even if it costs them their partner. 

Anders’ anger has been examined by the fandom at length, but we say relatively little about Kaidan’s anger and the ways it changes and hardens him, on Horizon, and especially through the arc of ME3.  He clearly understands and believes that the reapers are sentient beings and even expresses curiosity about them in ME1, but by the end of ME3, he’s fully willing to wipe them out because of the evil acts they’ve committed.  It takes a real act of effort for him to step back and try to understand Shepard’s role in Cerberus and reconcile that with what he knows about Cerberus.  His sense of injustice is twisting his perspective every bit as much as did Anders’, but it’s somewhat easier for us as players to sympathize with someone fighting against an ancient race of machines vs. someone facing down a religious institution that has far more parallels to real life situations.

(I also believe that if Kaidan were Subject Zero, the comparison would be that much more obvious.  Imagine that the side mission in ME1 where you rescue the hostage, Chairman Burns, instead becomes Subject Zero!Kaidan’s recruitment mission.  Imagine a Kaidan that much more deeply impacted by trauma, who has made it his life’s work to help other biotics.  Starts to sound a bit familiar, right?)

[unhumanrights]

Spell Trek brainstorms

Okay, so I thought it would be a good time to start brainstorming Spell Trek in earnest, since I’m giving my T’Lyn/Mariner/Tendi fic chapter a few days to marinate (probably pick it up tomorrow, actually). I decided to live-blog my thoughts and just go through the entire process here because why not. It will be messy, but fun. Plus, people could leave feedback if they wished. Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but for now, you all will witness the process. Might leave some questions unanswered, but I can at least go through possibilities. Let’s go!

In case you haven’t seen me talk about it before, and in case the naming wasn’t too obvious, Spell Trek is my fantasy conversion of Star Trek. While I’m a fan of some sci-fi (obviously), I am personally a fantasist, so I thought this would be a good way for me to write slightly bigger stories than I could if I stuck to the canon universe. My knowledge of science is not extensive. Magic, I can do.

I guess the best place to start is with the big stuff and work my way down. So, what’s the cosmology of this setting? Obviously, the original Trek is in space. Should I basically just keep it space, but magic? Planets, nebula, black holes? Maybe it would be analogous to space, but modified. Actually, if you’ve ever heard of Spelljammer, that’s a possible way to do it. I don’t know much about the setting, but I skimmed the Wikipedia article for it, and it’s kind of what I’m talking about. Might have to do more research into it.

Perhaps instead of traveling through space, it’s all interplanar travel? Each species could come from a different dimensional plane instead of planet. Might be some kind of “space” between planes that the ships would travel through, which is where the actual space stuff would occur and would allow for actual travel instead of just blinking from plane to plane. Almost the same as the previous paragraph, I guess, just…worded differently. Planets, planes, same diff. Yeah, it’s pretty much the same concept. Magic space.

It COULD all take place on one world, and each species is a different race and nation. Kind of limits the scope, though, unless I introduce some ways to expand it, like the Underdark, parallel planes, etc. Still would have a physical limit. Unless…it didn’t? Okay, THIS is new to my brain. When I’ve thought about the possible setting before, I’ve usually thought about the previous two paragraphs, really sticking as close as possible to outer space. I briefly imagined it as one world before, but dismissed it due to limited space, and therefore lacking in terms of exploration. But what if…the landscape just had no known limit? One unending (as far as anyone knows) physical landmass/watermass? Could still have ships, but they would be airships instead. Warp could still work, as the landscape is basically infinite. Exploration is still doable. It being a flat world instead of 3D space, that would make travel slightly different, but that’s not important. Actually, maybe the travel could still be 3D? Could have underground species, perhaps landmasses in the sky, too. Or maybe…what if there are multiple physical planes stacked on top of one another? A big lasagna of reality. Cosmology is fun to play around with, huh?

Well, this brainstorming session has given me some things to think about. To summarize, it seems like I have two options for the overall setting (with some sub-options thrown in):

Basically outer space, but magic instead of science (like Spelljammer).

Replace the infinite space with infinite landmass and watermass (and possibly multiple layers).

Not sure which I prefer. I like the latter because it’s the shiny new idea I just came up with, and I wouldn’t have to worry about astrophysics or anything like that, but I guess I could always fudge it all if it’s magic anyway.

Is anyone reading this? If you want to give an opinion, you can. Oh hey, I can do a poll! I love you, Tumblr. So just take the poll. Well, you can reply or reblog/tag too, if you want, but if the poll is easier for you, by all means.

Okay, bye now.

[timespaceandfilm]

Reinventing the Wheel - Ch 28: Raven's Descent

Author: timespaceandfilm

Fic Rating: E - this fic has some NSFW content in other chapters, 18+ only

Chapter Rating: E - There be Smut under the cut!

Pairings: Sebastian x Female Farmer

Notes: This chapter has one little section of Seb's POV

Chapter Word Count: 14.6 k

Chapter Warnings: panic attacks, alcoholism, some pretty unhealthy self-image/self esteem stuff

Chapter Summary: Charlie's past continues to haunt her as her birthday draws nearer and nearer. Sebastian can tell something is up. So why isn't she saying anything?

Blurb:

Sunday brings one of those damp days where the mist rolls off the hillsides and pours down into every crevice of the valley. Luckily, the rain is much more tolerable, coming down in a drizzle far gentler than Thursday’s relentless downpour. Still, I strap a tarp over my wagon to keep the hardwood inside dry as I escort it up the mountain trail. To the untrained eye, it would seem like I’m pulling it normally. In reality, my right hand is hovering a few centimeters above the handle, as I use my magnet ring to guide it along. I want to save as much physical energy as possible for tonight so I can finally catch those last two fish.

Robin is literally twiddling her thumbs when I make it through her doorway.

“Future daughter-in-law!” She gasps. She stands up so quickly that I hear the stool under her clatter to the ground.

I remove my bucket hat so Robin gets a clear view of my deadpan expression. “I can leave and go turn this hardwood into fencing.”

Robin just laughs as she steps out from behind the counter. “And miss out on all this cash?” She waves an envelope at me. “That seems so unlike you.”

Once we get my wagon unloaded, Robin insists I stay for lunch and coffee. We chat about my plans for upgrading the coop and possibly getting a shed built so I can expand my keg operation. Then we get on the topic of the upcoming fair and the smile on Robin’s face becomes slanted.

“I wish I could’ve seen Grandpa’s display,” I sigh. “But I never got to experience fall in the valley til this year.”

Robin sighs too. Gets this far-off look in her eyes. “Henry’s entry was always the best, even when he didn’t win first prize. Pierre’s looks good, but it’s pretty much the same every year. Your grandfather always had something new in his display. And he had more variety. Gemstones from the mines, mushrooms foraged in the woods, and the very best animal products and artisan goods O’Brien farm produced each year. Henry knew how to flaunt his abilities. And your grandmother’s of course. Her cooking was often the highlight of their entry.”

It should be nice, in a bittersweet, sentimental way, hearing Robin wax poetic about my grandparents and how talented and successful they were. It’s clear that she loved them as much as the rest of the valley did. But, all it does is cause an anxious murmur among the bots. Not only do I have Pierre to compete with, but I also have a legacy to live up to. And I have just over a week to do it.

“Well, hopefully I can give Pierre a run for his money this year.” I get up and grab our dishes so I can wash them. “Any idea if Seb’s up yet?”

There’s a long silence before Robin responds. “Not sure. I know he had a late night working.”

I opt to ignore her careful gaze on me. “Yeah, that’s what he told me. I think I’ll tempt fate and see about waking him.” There’s coffee left in the pot so I grab Seb’s “Just Don’t” mug from the cabinet and fill it up. “Thanks for lunch, Robin! It was great to catch up with you.”

It’s no surprise that I’m met with a weary groan when I knock on Seb’s door. “Special delivery,” I sing, before trying the door. It opens and I’m hit with a wave of deja vu as the light pours into Seb’s dark room in a line.

Sebastian squints up at me from where he’s lying under the covers. His left arm is folded under his head and his hair is a sight. When his eyes adjust, he sits up, grabs his phone, and a few seconds later, the lights come on, glowing warm and dim. I close the door behind me, dropping my bag on the couch before I bring the coffee over.

“I hope it’s still warm enough.” I sit on the edge of the bed, not even pretending not to ogle him as he takes a sip.

Seb downs half the mug, then places it on his bedside table. “Actual angel,” he rasps, leaning over to kiss my cheek.

I laugh and roll my eyes, trying to keep the incoming blush at bay. “How’d you sleep?”

“Awful,” Seb groans. “I had everything done but when I went to do a test run the whole thing crashed. It’s gonna take me all day to comb through and figure out what the issue is.” He looks at me with a guilty frown. “I might be here late again but project’s due at midnight so I should make it home tonight.”

My eyebrow twitches as those last few words catch in my head and ping-pong around. Seb just yawns and swings his legs over the edge of the bed, completely oblivious to what he just said.

“That’s fine,” I finally respond. “I’ll be out late catching the walleye anyway. You might even make it home before I do.”

He gets up, sporting nothing but a pair of boxer briefs, and stretches. Mmm-mm.

“Maybe. Are you hanging out, or just performing drive-by miracles?”

I check the time on my phone. “I have a few hours before eel time. Was gonna go for a nap since I’ll be up so late, but I could be convinced to stay.”

Seb picks the mug back up and turns to peer at me over the rim. “Could you now?”

My lips curl into a smirk as I let my eyes rove up and down his form. “Yeah,” I nod. “Definitely.”

“Good. Why don’t you get undressed for me while I freshen up? I’d like breakfast in bed to go with this coffee.”

It takes me less than a minute to strip down, so rather than give my mind the opportunity to wander, I grab something random off Seb’s bookshelf. Cave Saga X. Looks interesting enough. I recline on Sebastian’s bed with my legs crossed and the book propped up on my tits and start reading.

By the time Seb emerges from the bathroom, I’ve actually become pretty engrossed in the plot. I don’t even bother looking up until I hear him chuckle.

“Nice pick. That’s a good one.”

I frown when I see that he’s got a pair of sweats on now. When I begin to put the book aside, Seb protests.

“No, no. Don’t let me interrupt you.”

Well alright then. I guess I can finish this chapter before-

A cold hand on my ankle pulls a gasp from me. I tip the book down so I can watch Seb uncross my legs. 

“Keep reading, darling.” He drops to his knees and a shiver runs through me.

“There gonna be a quiz on this?” I quip breathlessly.

“Maybe.” Seb wraps his arms under my thighs and over my hips, tugging me to the edge of the bed. “You’d better study, just in case.” Then he’s lifting my legs over his shoulders. The feeling of his warm breath fanning over my core has my hips rocking up. Seb just hums and places an arm over my belly.

At first I try to play along. I actually make it through another page as Sebastian begins kissing up each thigh. My concentration begins to dwindle, though, and I’m forced to reread the section I’m on every time he pauses to suck a bit of skin between his teeth. By the time Seb’s tongue starts to run over the tendons at the crease of each thigh, my mind is blank and the book is nothing more than a prop.

When he begins to administer soft, careful licks to my outer labia, I press the book flat over my bare chest. Seb chuckles and pauses to look up at me.

“Tired of reading, angel?”

I nod, closing the book and setting it aside. “Turns out I’m illiterate.”

“It’s a comic book, there’s barely any words.”

“I think I’m blind too- oh fuck!” My head tips back as Seb places an open-mouthed kiss right over where I’m soaked for him.

“Your eyesight seems fine to me.” He does it again. And again and again. Practically making out with my slit without actually delving in where I need him to be.

“Fuck, Seb! I thought you had work to do.” My hips are twitching with the desire to grind against that wicked tongue.

“I do.” Another kiss. “Doesn’t mean I can’t make space for my favorite pastime.” I roll my eyes, but the feeling of his fingers finally spreading my labia apart recaptures my attention. “Just maintaining some work-life balance, y’know?”

Read the Full Chapter on AO3

[tinycowboyart]

ooooh, I love Doc's new references!!! If you don't mind me asking, can I ask about his curse? I'm sorry if you've talked about it before, but I'm very curious. I fucking LOVE cursed characters, and they're SO MUCH FUN to play with, especially if you have a good DM (especially especially if you have a good DM who likes to "yes, and..." your crazy ideas, akjdsakdas.).

One of my current dnd characters is also cursed, and it's a lot of fun, especially because he's determined to hide it and pretend that he's fine for as long as he physically possibly can, and then keep lying to cover it up. (My boy is a swashbuckler with expertise in both persuasion and deception, and also happens to be more or less a compulsive liar.)

(Oh, speaking of swashbucklers, that one pirate NPC you drew and posted a while back? He is GORGEOUS. I'm about as (aesthetically) in love with him as an aroace person can be. Though I won't deny the fact that he's a pirate makes it even better...)

I’M SO HAPPY YOU ASKED, I’m always down to info dump about my characters!!!!

So Doc was born into a well know adventuring family, whose bloodline were blessed by the gods and divine, leading to everyone having innate magic of some kind, except when he was born, he didn’t get any. All throughout his childhood, he tried to learn magic in a lot of different ways, but to no avail. The lack of magic also led to him being sort of the disappointment child of the family.

Later in Docs life, a few years back from where we’re at in the campaign, he got pretty desperate and conducted an ancient and mysterious ritual, in a last ditch effort to gain any type of magic. The ritual backfired and he gained his curse! At least thats his conclusion, he thinks it’s either a curse of a magical disease of some kind.

Currently Doc absolutely despises magic, he doesn’t want anything cast on him, and he’s always saying whatever magic can do, he can do better with machinery and science. (He knows this isn’t true, but he’s stubborn and arrogant, and refuses to accept it)

Anyways the curse was only up to his wrist when the campaign started, he kept it well hidden from his party members

But then we went into “the nothing”. To understand what that is I have to explain the campaign setting, so; basically, around 500 years ago, a rift opened where the sun was, blocking it out. Then a darkness started pouring out of the rift. This darkness is filled with unimaginable horrors, and few survive going in there, the ones that do come back changed. (They are called the ashfallen, one of our party member, Il, is one)

This darkness, later dubbed the nothing, started expanding, and has been consuming the world slowly over centuries. Currently there’s only one continent left, called Ethnass, a newly discovered, wildly magical land thats now a culture clash filled with conflict

ANYWAYS, long story short, at the ripe level of 2, we went into the nothing. It was wild (and a long story, if anyones interested I’ll talk more about it)

When we eventually got out of the nothing, freshly traumatised, Doc’s curse had grown all the way up to under his shoulder. And when he tried to inspect or look at it, he got a deep feeling of dread and discomfort, like the hand wasn’t his own. So he’s covered it up for now, trying to find a way to get rid of it

Last session we actually met an NPC with the same looking curse, and Doc got to ask him a few questions (it was rushed, he’s going to ask more questions next session). He figured out the curse is called void decay, and it shows up when people find out too much, or get too close magically to the nothing, so I now know it’s connected to the nothing!

Anyways our DM is AMAZING, and such a good storyteller. I’m his biggest fan fr. The way he worldbuilds and drags our characters into the world is absolutely amazing, he really makes out characters connected to the world! We’ve played about 11 sessions so far and I’m so attached to the world and characters

[thewertsearch]

Ask Compilation 02/10

Yup! I just checked, and no new comics seem to have been unlocked since I first checked it out, so it seems like they all dropped at once. 

@scouttf2isnamedafterjerma​ submitted: this is canon this really happened

LOVE when she said this, in the comic,

Sburb Glitch FAQ? Color me fucking intrigued. 

Thanks! It’s going to be a long time till I can read any of these, of course, but I’m filing them away for later.

Imagine meeting an alien for the first time, and not only are they shockingly humanoid, they also have your hairstyle. And your glasses. And - essentially - your name. What could be up with that? 

Refer to the chart, Terezi!

Although with your intuition, you probably know the answer to that question better than I do. 

Oh yeah! That’s some fun foreshadowing. 

I initially took that as a sign that the 8-ball was answering Jade’s question from an ‘out-of-universe’ perspective, but now that we have an in-universe explanation for its answer, I no longer think that’s the case. 

I totally get why she’s the troll now. Hoping to see many more Vriska Incidents in the future!

She did say she was into apocalypses, and this one is even dice-themed. I wonder if this is merch from Troll Problem Sleuth?

Oh, god damn it. 

Are the forums really completely kaput? It’s absolutely bizarre to me that no large-scale backup or archive was made, in the decade(?) the website existed. 

I guess we’ll always have the Wayback Machine, but its coverage tends to be patchy for more obscure websites.

(For context: I got a question from @krixwell​ about the blog’s spoiler policy a week or so before the pause, voicing some worries about potential spoilers in asks. The tl;dr is that I’m alright with some minor spoilers - for example, asks about what my Homestuck Title would be, or jokes about the weird structure that the comic seems to take(?) later on)

We’ll see! I really enjoy the discussions brought up by asks, and I’ve had a lot of fun with Titles that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I’ve been fine so far, but I agree that if I do get burned, I’ll reconsider. 

I did dodge a bullet here, admittedly! Mind you, I think if I’d noticed this before the Vriska reveal, I’d probably just have been smug about puzzling it out beforehand. 

Vriska decides to beat the Noble Circle at their own game, and becomes Vah’ru-Ee’skaie, eldritch horror of the 8th Dimension. 

Gotta give the Homestuck Forums props for picking these troll names - there’s so much going on with each of them. 

She is constantly Spaced out. Mind you, half of all Sburb Players have their heads in the clouds!

This relates to my theory that Vriska can only make people do things they already wanted, on some level, to do. 

Hence, Karkat must have wanted to keep talking to her. Honestly, the idea that he still wanted to insult her is a pretty safe bet, and I think that’d definitely be enough for Vriska to work with, if this is indeed how her power operates.

Oh, that is a challenge and a half. The trolls all look really cool, with appearances that reflect their personalities really well.

However, this is an undertaking I’d rather take with all twelve troll designs at once. Come back to me when we have all twelve sprites!

Even if the the ‘games for girls’ thing was expanded on later, it’d be hard to prove it wasn’t a Hussie retcon. I love Karkat, but he’s a shitty teen, and it wouldn’t even be the worst thing he said today. 

Vrish-ka just feels right to me. Damn it, I can’t believe that’s how my Britishness comes out. This is almost as bad as ‘sweeties’. 

I love how this, coupled with the previous ask, accidentally implies that Sollux is British. Now that’s a headcanon I can get behind. 

He’s picked the wrong gimmick, then - he’s meant to be ‘never wrong’, but I’ve seen some wrong-ass spoilers!

Yup, I’ve arbitrarily decided this is my OTP - especially given that Lord English has become a more prominent character recently. This is the arc this comic needs!

Forgot about that. Perhaps your lusus’ diet depends on its subspecies, and Vriska - in a matter that she’d consider fitting - rolled the lusus with the worst diet of all. 

If we can pick our Aspect-themed powers, can I call dibs on ‘always has energy?’ 

True. Homestuck - the comic itself - has just one writer, though, so we shouldn’t be dealing with any Expanded Universe shenanigans. 

I guess Hussie could answer differently every time you ask a given question, or write multiple conflicting backstories for a character, but that would make the comic sort of hard to engage with or enjoy.  

I wouldn’t say it’s completely cut-and-dry that canon Midnight Crew implies canon Problem Sleuth. For one thing, the Midnight Crew isn’t even canon to Problem Sleuth! 

I never considered that Godhead Pickle Inspector could actually be an imaginary entity, only ‘omnipotent’ in one sphere of reality. That would make sense, given his origins. It would be fun if he was the source of the dream magic which allows Jade to grow extra arms, since that’s pretty close to how Imaginationland works.

We talked about it! Just in an ask, rather than the main liveblog. Quite a lot of chatter goes on on those asks, so check ‘em out!

[watmels]

Shiratorizawa’s Spy (Reflection)

I made the first panels of my comic Shiratorizawa’s Spy in January 2022 on a whim, based on doodle requests from my Instagram Story. I didn’t think it would turn into a big project that would take over a year, but I’m glad it did! To finally wrap this all up, I wanted to organize my thoughts about my experience making the series.

🌞 Highlights ━━━━

Shiratorizawa’s Spy-noff + Shiratorizawa’s Spy-noff 2

It was incredible to see art and writing that others created based on the series. I was especially wowed at how several writers were able to capture what I wanted to convey. To see it written out... it’s unreal!

Comic style

I’m really thankful that I drew/colored the initial panels roughly, because this style let me work quickly. If it was full color / rendered... I probably would have burnt out.

Crowd-sourcing ideas

Many plot points and even the character Goshiki Toshiki came from my followers 🙌🏻

Reading comments

This was sooo motivating. Knowing that I made people laugh, or that people felt conflicted because of Oikawa... It made me happy that my work could touch people like that! 🥺

🌚 Lowlights ━━━━

Lack of Seijoh bonding

I totally understand how readers would feel that Oikawa should have stayed at Shiratorizawa in the end, because most of the comic illustrated his relationships there... I should have drawn more interactions between Oikawa and the Seijoh team to build a stronger sense of belonging. I really wish I had introduced Matsukawa and Hanamaki in the beginning. And I probably could have expanded on the Seijoh captain, but I was reluctant to make decisions about that guy...

Losing track of the timeline

I had a bit of a meltdown when I realized InterHigh was quickly approaching in the storyline.

Discovering again that Oikawa has an Android phone in canon

I forgot about this and gave him an iPhone. When I found out again, I was unwilling to change it midway... I don’t stress about this that much though haha

📝 Lessons about making comics ━━━━

Plan ahead

It’s fun to make spontaneous filler episodes, but it’s important to remember the timeline! After my meltdown, I carefully planned the rest of the story. I’m glad I had an outline of each part towards the end.

Comic boxes

I initially drew a new box for each panel. Later, I changed to duplicating & rotating the same box for most panels. This saved a lot of time.

Procreate stuff

My process for making the comic was to duplicate a previous file, keep a few things (series title, some boxes, my signature) and create the new part.

I wish I knew earlier to TURN OFF THE PROCESS RECORDING! As time went on, my files loaded so slowly... eventually I realized it’s because every file was bigger than the last, with ever-increasing video info 💀 thankfully you can purge the time-lapse recordings.

Text

I came to this conclusion before SS, but still wanted to mention it. I much prefer typing text over handwriting it when creating a comic. It saves time, it’s easier to edit, and it’s more legible for readers!

And... that’s it! Shiratorizawa’s Spy is my magnum opus...

✈️ Now some personal updates ━━━━

This year I’ve been making some life changes and want to make even bigger ones. So it works out well that I was able to end Shiratorizawa’s Spy at this time. Next week, I’ll be moving into a friend’s apartment for a few months.

After that, I really hope to move internationally to South Korea for... an unknown amount of time. I am thinking about quitting my job. I’m grateful for my opportunities and experiences thus far, but I feel lost as an adult... I don’t know what I want to do except that I want to try living in another country. I had an amazing vacation in Korea last year, so I think I’ll start there. I’m really anxious because I don’t speak the language though.

I have so much to learn about personal finance, fitness, beauty, growing as a person, etc. I still want to draw and post occasionally, because art is my first love and passion 💖  but not sure about the frequency.

👋🏻 Anyway ━━━━

Was reading Shiratorizawa’s Spy fun? Like, about as fun as buying a coffee from a shop or seeing a movie in a theatre? If so, I would really appreciate a tip on Ko-Fi. How else could a comic artist make money — maybe mostly drawing through Patreon...? 🤔

Thank you for following me through all this. I hope it was interesting! 

[kinocomix]

devlog 15: meanwhile...

The script for TSTW is coming along. So far I have written 3 scenes. i expect the pace to pick up soon, but to be completely honest with you we’re deep in the “trust the process” part of the making of this. it’s been a bit weird finally jumping into the deep end of this, i’ve prepared for it but the inevitable “this is a different story” realization finally kicked in. we march on. 

As that’s happening I want to discuss an idea I’ve had for a while that won’t really work as a webcomic per se-i imagine It’ll instead be released as a PDF or something (i’ll figure that out later) here’s what i have so far. some time ago I drew this character that a friend jokingly said should be called killouette. (this design was an early one)

i quite liked the energy she was giving off since it reminded me of my cousin christy so initially i wanted to make a children’s book. I even got to the third draft and had some semblance of the idea of what it would look like. we’ll be talking about that later. here's the scrapped script for that:

The reason I ended up ditching the idea of making it a children’s book is because I honestly don’t feel comfortable squeezing narratives into that small a form factor. I genuinely envy people who can do that and make it the only version of the story worth telling, as opposed to a more expanded version being the superior one. So I shelved the idea for a while until one day I was having a conversation with a friend about an experience he had as a scout. What's to note here is that I was sharing the fact that I didn’t have any worthwhile adventurous memories as a kid because I was an indoor kid. We’ll talk about that in another devlog but I want to bring your attention to a very specific thing that I do with my projects. when an idea had something interesting but not enough meat and potatoes to justify the time investment, it usually ends up getting combined with another one.

case in point: I really liked growing up media about kids with practical intelligence like Harriet the spy or kids next door or spy kids. There's like sixty million examples I can give and while I’ve always contemplated making my own, I never saw a reason to seen the overcrowded niche. At some point last year it clicked with me that i could combine the current skills that i have with killouette and the idea of very smart kids and use that as a jumping off point to talk about my experience growing up: that of an indoor child with helicopter parents who didn’t do many things. now obviously if i did that one to one it would be a depressing slog of a book that was mostly unintended emotional child abuse occasionally interrupted by me talking to my therapist at 25. instead, here’s the vision:

the book would be formatted to look like a child’s diary, except that this child loves drawing and presents their diary as a comic book. It would be a compilation of multiple children’s points of view all drawn by the same person detailing their adventures in trying to do normal kid things such as smuggle candy or get internet access. what’s better is that it makes sense for killouette to be the person drawing here because in some ways her being the head of operation who lives vicariously through her friends is the most empowering thing you could do. kids are also like, very smart. here’s some of the screenshots i’ve been compiling off of reddit:

this one is a fake doctor’s note that was presented to a school:

So really, the only suspension of disbelief here is the fact that the characters are animals. I’d like to include an annex for the schematics for all the machines that the kids make in the book. In addition, it would be really fun doing some parallel storytelling here (I’ve explained this in devlog 5). Maybe since this is a child's journal, it was packed alongside their favorite book, which could be about these two:

and we could use this second story to talk about the themes of the first one in a more mature way that’s not filtered through the lens of a child.

great! making a plot at this point emerges naturally from the subject matter: what does a kid care about enough to put in their journal? I have the answer since I technically started thinking about this at the same time as this devlog started. Kids want to have fun. What does a kid hate and is afraid of? having fun taken away. great. how do we embody these two things within our narrative?

for the having fun thing, it involves answering several other questions which is the point of the whole book. what actions do these kids undertake to get what they want and what are they trying to work around? off the top of my head, based on my personal experience they could be trying to do normal kid things that they’re not usually allowed to do: leave the house, see each other outside school, have internet, pass the time… while thinking about all this i realized that everything would come as an extension of the characters because the events and reality the story takes place in are very normal. so:

Talbas, a bear who acts as the computer wis of the group. He has access to the internet thanks to a previously successfully executed plan by the group, which was to connect an ethernet cable from the cafe at the bottom of the building to his house on the fifth floor. Talbas is a girl, easily excitable and way too down the rabbit hole of weird internet videos she should not be watching at her age. She can be quite prone to anger, given her history of online gaming and is usually the first to suggest new activities for the group to do. She's clumsy and lazy and very awkward in person, but in reality she cares deeply about everyone in the group and is always happy to be there in person.

bata tete, whose gender is never known. The kids simply refer to them as “bata” and never use any pronouns, even addressing the fact that they have no idea if they’re a boy or a girl and that it doesn’t matter, because they’re really strong and good at aiming. bata is on the large side, and frequently lets their gluttony get the best of them which is the main reason behind the candy fiasco of july 2018*. bata is very brave, gentle, and generous and frequently strands on the frontline of the group’s operations, though they can be stubborn due to their anxiety, [redacted]

Motsik, a skinny chicken who acts as the eye of the group. motsik owns a walkie talkie the other end of which is with killouette. Motsik is very softly spoken, quiet, only ever speaking when spoken to. [redacted] he also mentions at one point how he enjoys being in high up places, and wishes he could bring killouette (and even the others) to see things from his point of view. he has some self destructive tendencies that show up for example in his lack of desire to participate in some of the group’s plans, in response to which killouette has to coax him in. his occasional apathy is contrasted by his encyclopedic knowledge of certain topics, as well as his undying loyalty and love for the group. 

Falefil the bear is the spokesperson of the group. his parents are frequently shown being very kind to him. He's very polite and is learning to play the flute, citing that one day he wants to own a tin whistle:

falefil is a coward, frequently bowing out the second danger peeks its head around the corner. he’s also neglectful [redacted] he has the iq of a tomato plant and is very spaced out. [redacted]

Zmik is the new kid in town. He acts as the audience surrogate in some scenes and is…boring. He doesn’t do much, rarely has anything interesting to say on account of having lived a very similar “jailed” life to killouette up until that point. Recently he’s been allowed out of the house, and over the course of the story his character develops as he takes on the different sensibilities of the group.

Claude is a hercules beetle that lives in killouette’s closet, frequently helping her spy on her parents for intel. she’s her best friend, is a genius when it comes to making contraptions and [redacted] for the most part, claude is very cheerful and is always excited to talk about science, her inventions or anything really. She's very curious and is always excited to socialize or plan some new scheme. She's quite intolerant of authority, frequently showing signs of vengefulness whenever parents affect one of her friends.

Lastly there’s killouette. part of what killouette’s job is, is balancing all the moving parts and variables between the different members of the group. She's the mastermind of the operation, and is fiercely protective of her friends. if you hurt one of them, you have another thing coming. mischievous to her core, incredibly caring yet meek in the face of her parents. She's never allowed to leave her house alone for whatever reason other than school, and so decided to cultivate her gang of criminal friends that live nearby by inviting them to her house, eventually causing her friend’s parents to have her come for sleepovers. The story is centered around empowering the idea of killouette, so she doesn’t have any noteworthy flaws. 

I don't know exactly what all these mission impossible things they want to do are, but i do have a semblance of a plot structure with an end goal, thus the [redacted] bits in the above section. I don't have much in the way of themes yet, but I do know the core thesis is problems are what you make of them. In this phase of the devlog as I’m writing the script for TSTW, we’re going to be working on killouette. it’s less research than TSTW, but I do think there’s a lot of interesting things to talk about here. 

that’s it for now.

devlog updates on tuesdays. 

[lajulie24]

For the ask game?

27. How long did it take to write Won’t Do? Describe the process. (Since it’s still in process, maybe how long per chapter?)

27. How long did it take to write One Half Won’t Do? Describe the process. (Since it’s still in process, maybe how long per chapter?)

*laughs maniacally for a moment*

So, One Half Won’t Do was originally born from an idea I had in September 2019. Yes, you read that correctly. Four years ago. I can’t believe it either sometimes. So the story of writing this fic (so far, it’s not done yet, hopefully I will get the next chapter done soon) is the story of several things, in part that whole global pandemmie thing really making it difficult to concentrate or get much writing done for a long while there, but mostly the story of a pretty good idea for a oneshot completely breaking containment.

(Apologies in advance, I get kind of wordy when I talk about these things. If it threatens to get super long I’ll put some of this behind a cut.)

So anyway, at that time @hanleiachallenge was doing a monthly prompt, and people would write fics inspired by that prompt and they would reblog them. Kind of like HanLeia Week but a monthly single prompt thing. The prompt that inspired this fic was “tropes.” My fic tends to be fairly trope-y anyway, so I was looking for something different, and came up with, what about fake marriage with a bit of a twist? Usually when Han and Leia have a UST-filled time because they are pretending to be a couple but (ostensibly) aren’t, it’s the outside world who is fooled by the ruse and notice what a great couple they make, but all their friends back at the Rebellion know they’re not REALLY an official couple. What if, instead, Han and Leia had gotten fake married for a mission, but for REASONS even their closest friends didn’t know it wasn’t real, and totally bought that they’d really gotten married? And maybe they had to keep pretending for a while? So really the first thing I came up with was Chewie and Luke assuming they really HAD gotten married and being royally pissed off that they weren’t included and had to find out from rumors on base.

I talked with fellow writer @amilynh and bounced some ideas off of her, and she helped me think through an actual reason why they would keep pretending once they got back from the mission, and how they would end up on the mission in the first place, and how to include Chewie and Luke being surprised but then make it so that they could be part of a very tiny circle of beings who knew the truth. And I started writing, and it was going great…and I got my first clue that this fic was going to expand. I wrote about Leia and Han on the actual mission where they get married (or their aliases do) but Leia started having a lot of feelings about being dressed in wedding attire and cultural traditions and the like.

So that fall I think I finished most of the first chapter as well as some scenes that ended up later chapters, although at that time it was all one big chapter. I thought it was just going to be a long one-chapter fic. But I was realizing that I didn’t have the scenes I wanted quite filled out enough to actually finish and post it yet, and I did have a sort of natural stopping place that was pretty much ready. So I asked some other writer friends (including @graciecatfamilyband) what they thought, and I was kind of itching to post something anyway, so when they said “you should post the first part and make it a two-chapter fic” I listened. That was winter 2019-2020.

Each time I have posted a chapter of this fic, I have thought, “the next chapter will be the last, I will finally wrap it up then.”

Some scenes I wrote pretty early on haven’t shown up until much, much later in the fic — for instance, some version of “Han does a desperate search of the random junk in his ship storage because he told the Rogues he gave Leia a Corellian wedding stone and now needs to show them the stone” was written around the same time I posted the first chapter. Other things, like a scene with Rieekan telling Han that his bounty recently went up, weren’t written until very soon before I posted that chapter.

Chapter 1 was probably the most straightforward writing experience; subsequent chapters have taken a while because I would have 80-90% of the chapter written, but there was just a scene or a few that I needed to connect things and have a satisfying narrative, and writing those last few scenes would take me a couple of months (off and on). I had the concept for “the Rogues want to throw Han and Leia a wedding reception on base” pretty early on, but it took a while to connect that to the rest of the story and lead into why that would come up, and I ended up editing it a lot.

I have at least some of the ending already written. I know how this fic ends. The tricky part is getting from where I am to there. Perhaps in the next chapter? (See above GIF.)

Anyway, the good news is that I really enjoy writing this one, and already have a good start on the next chapter. And the encouraging comments and support do really help with the motivation! So thank you.

Thank you for the ask!

Questions for fic writers

[twistedtummies2]

Year of the Bat - Number 12

Welcome to Year of the Bat! In honor of Kevin Conroy, Arleen Sorkin, and Richard Moll, I’m counting down my Top 31 Favorite Episodes of “Batman: The Animated Series” throughout this January. TODAY’S EPISODE QUOTE: “Life used to be so placid! Won’t you PLEASE put down that acid?! And Say That We’re Sweethearts Again!” Number 12 is…Harlequinade.

Ladies and gents…let’s discuss Harley Quinn for a bit, shall we? I’ve been saving up the chance to really dive into Harley till now, because I felt it was important to wait till this episode for reasons I’ll go into. Almost without any argument or doubt, Harley Quinn is the single greatest and most lasting legacy that “Batman: The Animated Series” left behind. Of all the characters and concepts that the show fostered or expanded on, Harley is the one who truly broke the mold: an original character made for the series, she started off as sort of that one semi-obscure Batman Villain that only “real fans” who loved the TV show knew about…then started to make her way into more mainstream recognition, slowly at first, and then suddenly with explosive intensity. She’s now got her own TV show, a couple of movies with her as the main character, and more comics than you can shake a stick at, not to mention numerous other adaptations in other media. For me, however, the version from the DCAU will always be the truest and greatest version of her character: the first and still the best. Harley was originally voiced by Arleen Sorkin, and the character was partially inspired by her, as well. I say “partially” because Harley’s truest inspiration – and this is most obvious in her earliest appearances – were the henchgirls that frequently popped up in the 1960s Batman TV Series. (In fact, there are at least two specific henchgirls who I am convinced directly influenced Harley’s character, since both seem almost identical to her.) Over time, the character became more fleshed out and really blossomed into a major player in her own right. In my opinion, the episode that OFFICIALLY settled Harley as a mainstay was this one: “Harlequinade.”

The plot begins with the Joker stealing a nuclear bomb, of all things, and then going into hiding. Knowing time is of the essence, Batman and Robin decide to team up with the person they know is closest to the Joker’s cold, black heart: Harley Quinn. Harley agrees to help the Dynamic Duo out in finding the Joker and dealing with the bomb, in exchange for an early release from Arkham Asylum. What follows is a wild, chaotic ride of hijinks and shenanigans, as the trio bounce around Gotham trying to track down the Joker, complete with a random musical number…yes really.

This, I feel, is the episode that really put Harley on the map. Before this, yes, we knew she was a fun character, and she had a lot of great lines and moments, but she was always in another person’s shadow, whether it be the Joker, Poison Ivy, or even both. This, the Honorable Mention “Harley’s Holiday,” and one other episode I’ll get to later in the countdown really solidified her as a proper character in her own right. We learn more about Harley in this story, with little hints to her backstory and a better idea of her philosophy and motivations. We also get a greater idea of her beyond just being a villain, as she proves to be a surprisingly capable helper and even shows signs of right thinking. She’s not as far gone as the Joker is, she has things she values and cares about that make her more human and sympathetic. You can really see this episode as the start of where Harley would go in later/more recent years, with her becoming less of a villainess and more of an anti-hero: a wild card who can’t always be trusted, but makes for a surprisingly great ally in a tight pinch. It’s not by any means the darkest or most complex story, nor even the greatest look into Harley’s mind and personality we ever got…but it’s a LOT of fun, and one of the main stories that helped to make Harley who she is now, for better or for worse.

Tomorrow we move on to Number 11! Hint: “Why don’t you show them what an overdose can do, Daggett? Why don’t you tell them about ME?!”