#4th illustration ive done

[peculiarpinkpig]

promise

[canonicallyobserving911]

WIP Wednesday

Fanonwriter2023 on AO3

Where CANON and FANON collide!

FANON FanFic: Buddie Multi-Chapter - Hiatus Reading: “I’m still in love with you but... I needed to learn how to love myself too!”

Chapter 31 will be posted soon!

This is an EPIC LOVE STORY!

Currently 30 chapters completed: 1.331M Words; Rated: Mature

{Previous snippet #1}; {Previous snippet #2}

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I'm excited to finish writing Chapter 31 because at the end of Chapter 30, after having a conversation with Captain Mehta and being asked to join another fire station, Buck decided he didn't want to accept the captain's job to run A-shift at the new #115 firehouse. Also, he was preparing to contact Bobby so they can talk about his future as a captain or lack thereof at the 118 even though Frank hasn't released him from trauma therapy yet. Eddie's back at work and he's more than 30% done with his Advanced Care Paramedic Certification while Chris' working on his 3rd video game presentation with his classmates that's due on Monday, March 4th.

The chapter ended with Buck and Chris being approached by a person from Buck's past and after he sent Chris to get help so he'd be safe, a second person who'd threatened him in the past appeared and they injected him with a drug but will help arrive before Buck's unable to be revived?

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Here’s another snippet. It's a little more from Chapter 31 and it starts at the end of snippet #2 (listed above). It's more of the conversation Eddie's having with the 118, Maddie, Athena and Detective Romero.

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“It looks like she just injected him with something because as soon as she moves her hand, you can see Buck say, “Ow” then he leans over a little and puts his hand on his shoulder.”  Eddie loudly exclaims.

“But what did she inject him with?”  Chimney asks.

Ravi replies, “I don’t know but from the looks of it, whatever it was… Buck collapsed not long afterwards.  It’s easy to see he was fighting to stay awake and alert.”

Hen looks at Chimney and their eyebrows go up at the same time and they have a quick silent conversation.  After a few seconds, Chimney asks, “Could she have dosed him with Adenosine?”

“Why do you think it was Adenosine?”  Eddie asks.

“Because the night Jonah took us, he injected it twice into Chimney’s IV.  He used it to stop his heart.”  Hen replies a little louder than she intends to because memories of that night still haunt both of them.

They've discussed it numerous times but it's usually when they're riding in the ambulance together.  Even though it’s been almost two years since it happened and they returned to work not long after they were both discharged from the hospital, when a person does something like that to someone, she knows it sticks with them.  She still has the occasional nightmare about it and she knows she needs to schedule an appointment with Frank so she can discuss it but she’s been too busy to deal with it.

“Since Adenosine was designed to slow a tachycardic heart rate down and it can stop the heart of someone whose heart is beating normally, like it did with Chim, it can’t be just that because all of Buck’s organs are failing.”  Eddie admits, then he sighs and stops talking for a moment.  When he looks at them again, he asks, “Hen and Chim… I know it might be difficult to discuss but do you remember if he used any other drugs on you while he held you captive?”

“Yes, he stuck a syringe in my neck filled with Propofol and he gave Chimney some Epinephrine in addition to the Adenosine.”

“And we know those drugs don’t cause your organs to shut down either.”  Maddie replies.

Eddie, Maddie, Chimney and Hen look back and forth at each other as they consider the medicines and drugs they’re aware of.  Since the four of them have a combined total of more than 40 years of medical experience between them, they have looks on their faces that illustrate how they believe they should be able to figure this out. 

After a few moments of deafening silence, Bobby interjects, "I wonder if she knows Buck's allergic to Naproxen."

“That’s a good thought but I don't see how she would know that unless she was able to get a hold of his medical records.  But since me and Chim were able to get access to Jonah's records, maybe she did but injecting him with Naproxen won't shut down all of his organs… he would probably just have an allergic reaction to it."  Hen says.

Chimney asks, “What drug could cause all of someone’s organs to shut down?”

“With all the new drug studies and protocols that have been put in place, I can’t think of one.”  Maddie replies.

Once Eddie hears this, he rubs his hand over his face and like a movie, he starts seeing the men who were Buck’s height and weight they’ve treated over the last few days.  He looks up at Athena and Detective Romero and says, “Whatever drug she injected into Buck, I think they tested it out on other unsuspecting victims first.”

Detective Romero asks, “Why do you think that?”

Why does Eddie think Buck's not the first man with similar weight and height as Buck that's been attacked by Lucy and Jonah? 👀 (foreshadowing was included in Chapter 30.)

Is he right? 🙃

Are his Advanced Care Paramedic studies helping him figure out what happened to his husband? 🤷🏽‍♀️

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Fic Summary: Months after Buck and Eddie were hit by the same lightning strike; they’re still struggling with the aftermath of it.  But before they make their love confessions, they’ll spend time getting to know themselves as individuals first. Eddie learns to enjoy the simple things in life as he participates in activities on his own and with new friends while Buck learns the rest of the 31-year-old deep dark family secret about his conception and birth. Their journey to forever is still a work in progress but once they finally admit they’re in love with each other, everything that follows their love confessions will be cataclysmic.

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Chapter Summaries

Chapter 1 - Eddie makes a new friend while Buck receives devastating news regarding the sperm donation he made for Connor and Kameron.

Chapter 2 - Buck does a lot of research to learn more about the abnormalities found in his red blood cells and Eddie starts a new therapy journey that’s all about him and not the traumas he’s experienced.

Chapter 3 - After more than a month, Buck and Eddie finally spend time together outside of work but it doesn’t end well and they part with a lot of uncertainty regarding their places in each other’s lives.

Chapter 4 - Eddie has a few realizations about his life which causes him to consider moving back to El Paso, TX while Buck continues to be reminded of his past which causes him to take an impromptu road trip across America.

Chapter 5 - Both Buck and Eddie have difficult conversations with their parents and Buck finally learns the truth behind the reason why his mother despised him while Eddie finally tells his mother about the way she tries to control him.

Chapter 6 - More than two weeks after Buck pushed Eddie away after suggesting they needed a break; Eddie decides to try again. Eddie’s there for Buck when he’s at his worst just like Buck was there for him when he was at his worst and he won’t let Buck give up.

Chapter 7 - After Buck’s mental breakdown, Eddie has his back the same way Buck had his when he had his own breakdown more than a year ago.  They share several vulnerable and emotionally intimate moments with one another and they begin to realize their small, sweet and caring gestures matter just as much if not more than any grand gesture ever could because these are the foundations of a long-lasting love relationship.

Chapter 8 - Buck, Eddie and Chris all have their own therapists and during their sessions, they reflect on their pasts while they’re in the present so they can prepare for their future together as a family.

Chapter 9 - Buck and Eddie are there for each other when Buck has to testify as a witness during the trial.  But by the end of it, they’ll both realize their individual and shared traumas are going to keep resurfacing until they talk about them, deal with the fact that they’re in love with one another and face the fact that they can’t live without each other.

Chapter 10 - As Buck and Eddie finally begin to confront their past traumas, they realize how much they need each other to fill in the gaps of their memories.  Additionally, the universe screams at them for what appears to be the one hundredth time so Buck can realize he doesn’t have to ‘find it’ because he already ‘made it’ and Eddie’s reminded tomorrow isn’t promised and he doesn’t have to die alone if he doesn’t want to.

Chapter 11 - A “virga” or dry thunderstorm is in the forecast but once the rain starts, the thunderstorm happening outside won’t be able to match the storm brewing inside between Buck and Eddie.  It’s the universe’s final scream and when the tumultuous winds begin to blow, they’ll have one last chance to hold onto everything they’ve built over the last six years or they’ll lose it all forever.

Chapter 12 - Buck and Eddie have always shared a deep physical attraction and an emotional intimacy that’s unmatched but now that they’re in a relationship, they’re learning how to navigate the romantic intimacy they’ve been waiting for six years to explore. The love they have for each other is a once in a lifetime, soulmate, love of their lives type of love that transcends space and time.

Chapter 13 - While navigating the newness of their romantic relationship, Buck and Eddie take advantage of every moment they spend together. As their individual lives, people from their pasts, time constraints and the possibility of losing each other again make attempts to interrupt and interfere with their journey to forever, they love, care for, support and hold onto each other even tighter to withstand it all.

Chapter 14 - Buck and Eddie can see the lights at the end of the tunnels regarding the results of Buck’s Cancer Screening along with everything else they’re dealing with. But are the lights they see exits to the tunnels or are they headlights on different runaway trains that are speeding towards them in an effort to interrupt their forever?

Chapter 15 - Buck and Eddie have known they were exactly who the other one wanted in a partner since they met six years ago when they agreed to have each other’s backs. They’re in a romantic relationship, they’re both preparing to ask the other one to spend forever with them and by the end of the seventh week into their relationship, together they will plan their most important and greatest adventure for their future.

Chapter 16 - As Buck and Eddie begin to prepare for their marriage ceremony that will take place in Rome, Italy in December 2023, they start planning their first international adventure as a romantic couple. Even though Chris is still the only person they’ve told about their relationship, several people who know them have already witnessed the love they share and as the days continue, others will witness it too.

Chapter 17 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to departing Los Angeles for their international adventure, a moment in time will remind them; life is fragile, tomorrow isn’t promised and every second of everyday should be cherished because everything can change in an instant. The result of that realization will cause them to hold onto each other even more.

Chapter 18 - As Buck, Eddie and Chris prepare for family gatherings before and during the Thanksgiving holiday, the “Santa Ana Winds” start to blow and all sorts of expected and unexpected familial drama ensues.

Chapter 19 - As Buck and Eddie get closer to their wedding day, the universe begins to align everything so that some of their parent and children's relationships are strengthened while others come to an abrupt end.

Chapter 20 - With only 14 days remaining until Buck, Eddie and Chris depart Los Angeles, CA traveling to Rome, Italy, for their first family adventure, an early morning conversation about “tying up loose ends” helps Buck and Eddie realize there are still several things left unfinished on their ‘To Do’ lists. The question is will there be enough time to complete all of them?

Chapter 21 - Buck, Eddie and Chris are finalizing their ‘To Do’ Lists, double checking their itineraries and packing their suitcases in preparation for their trip to Europe so they can board their flight that departs Los Angeles, CA on Friday, December 15, 2023 at 3:25PM.

Chapter 22 - While Buck, Eddie and Chris spend the first 8 days of their European family adventure in Italy, their primary reason for going will be fulfilled as well as several others they hadn’t considered or anticipated.

Chapter 23 - As the Diaz Family continues their Italian family adventure, they’ll say, “Ciao” or hello and goodbye to a lot of things almost immediately after they become an official and legal family.

Chapter 24 - After Buck, Eddie and Chris arrive in London, England on December 24th; the Diazes immediately start preparing to spend their first family Christmas together. During their stay, each of them will hear a few choice words that will be the life raft to get them home to complete their searches to be seen and to be found.

Chapter 25 - After spending more than two weeks in Europe, Eddie, Buck and Chris are back in Los Angeles and they’re getting ready to attend Maddie and Chimney’s New Year’s Eve party. During the event, they have plans to make two surprise announcements but the question is, who’s really going to be surprised, the Diaz family or their found family at the 118?

Chapter 26 - Buck and Eddie are once again faced with their greatest fear of losing each other but this time it could be permanent and if it is, then they won’t be able to spend the rest of their lives together.

Chapter 27 - After Buck resumes therapy, he’ll continue to face the fact that he “DIED” in March 2023 and during those sessions, he’ll learn about the 7 stages of grief. As he continues his healing journey, Eddie will be right by his side just like he promised and the Diaz family will start to deal with their three minutes and seventeen seconds loss as a family.

Chapter 28 - Two years ago, Eddie was asked, “What are you afraid of?”; twice, once by Frank and once by Buck but he only answered one of them without deflecting. Since that time, he’s been to therapy and him and Buck got married but the question resurfaces when Frank asks Buck the same question and Buck asks it of Eddie for the second time. However, when Buck asks, his reasoning will be about something else entirely.

Chapter 29 - After Buck and Eddie have an emotionally intimate conversation regarding their dreams, they make several decisions that will affect their future. When everything falls into place, they’ll realize one of those decisions will result in them no longer being work partners.

Chapter 30 - In 2018, Buck and Eddie met at the 118 and after some initial apprehensions on Buck’s part, they became work partners and they agreed to have each other’s backs. It’s been more than 6 ½ years, a lot’s happened, they got married in December 2023 and they have the family they both chose. With Eddie leaving the 118 in 3 months and Buck getting closer to moving past his grief, what will him losing his work partner mean for him?

Chapter 31 - Will be posted soon.

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Read chapters 1-30 are available on AO3.

Continue reading on AO3

[terriblekakyoin]

[[Hey sorry about the radio silence things have been kinda busy but the inbox is still open and I'll hopefully get to them over this weekend when I'm taking a break from my zine]]

[boy-above]

Do you think the "you're alone and always will be" comment from Shuichi after the 4th trial was justified?

i don’t neccesarily believe it was justified, I think it’s something he shouldn’t have said. but I understand why he said it. shuichi was very angry in the moment and i like to believe it was something he would have grown to regret later. ive said in a previous post that to pin All the events of that chapter on kokichi is doing gonta a disservice by removing his agency, gonta still made a choice even if he was manipulated. we know more about the big picture as the audience than shuichi knew at that point, we know that it was kind of kokichi’s first step in his plan to try to end the killing game, but shuichi had no way of knowing it at the time.

my overall opinion of shuichi is that i wish he would have put more effort into trying to understand kokichi. but kokichi doesn’t make understanding him easy at all. i think the final line from shuichi in kokichi’s ftes illustrates this nicely. “I don't think there will ever come a day when I truly understand Kokichi. I reach out to him...But he doesn't take my hand.” i think shuichi wanted to understand him but was frustrated because kokichi is so difficult and refuses to trust him or let himself be known. and i think that moment in chapter 4 signified shuichi giving up on understanding kokichi as he couldn’t even begin to make any sense of what kokichi had just done, i think that’s where a lot of his anger came from.

so tdlr i wish shuichi hadnt said it but he did have a right to be angry and i think the line signifies a breaking point for shuichi when it came to his desire to understand kokichi.

[georgiahorton98]

Monday 4th January

Today I will starting my next project on the theme of war. I will be doing my research on 3 different artists that have covered the same topic in a range of ways and styles, from modern to classical painters. 

Francisco de Goya

Francisco Goya was a Spanish painter and printmaker. He was born into a lower-class family in 1746 in Fuendetodos, Aragon. He studied art from the age of 14 under baroque painter José Luzán y Martinez and then later moved to Madrid to paint under neoclassical artist Anton Raphael Mengs, this would shape the next part of his life greatly, becoming a court painter for the royal Spanish Crown in 1786. 

Charles IV of Spain and His Family (1800–01)

In 1793, through texts and letters, it was found that Goya suffered from a unknown medical illness which eventually left him deaf. After this point in his life, his works became more dark and negative. 

In 1807, Napoleon ordered the French army into Spain known as the peninsular war, with Madrid being where Goya lived at the time. While not spoken outright in text, through his series of paintings and etchings it can be implied that Goya was against the war that took place, showing the brutal happenings and practices of the French army. 

The Third of May 1808 (1814)

Y no hay remedio (And it cannot be helped) (1818-1824)

The last period of his life, where his famous series the Black Paintings (1819-1823) were produced, show the accumulation of all the darkness within Goya’s life. Alienated by the war in Spain, Goya isolated himself. Later, he would move to Bordeaux in France where he completely the last of his etchings La Tauromaquia.  After a stroke that left him paralyzed, Goya died 16th April 1828 at the age of 82. 

I really love the figure work of Goya, he is one of my favourite artists. Inspired by his work, I would love to use the etchings he did as an inspiration. His pieces were not based of what he has seen but what he had heard, this is something I could take into account when doing my piece. The way he incorporated body language more than anything is my favourite and tells more than the expressions on faces. I could emulate his style by either doing a lino print or and plastic plate etching. 

Henry Moore

Henry Moore was a British abstract-sculpture artist. He also produced many drawings among other graphic works. 

He was born in Yorkshire, England in the year of 1898. Born into a poor family of 8 children, his father was determined not to let Moore become a miner like him and encouraged him to pursue education. After being accepted into a grammar school, his headmaster had payed attention to the passion and talent Moore had for medieval-sculpture. Set on making art his career, Moore attempted to get a scholarship despite the disagreement of his family, who did not want him to become a sculptor. 

In 1916, on Moore’s 18th birthday he volunteered for Army Service during the First World War. He was the youngest of the regiment and was injured later in 1917 during a gas attack during the Battle of Cambrai. After recovering from the attack, he spent the rest of the war as a physical trainer, romanticising the war at this point in his life. He later went on to change his thoughts on this, seeing war as “anti-life”. 

Reclining Woman (1930)

After the war and over the next few decades, Moore would dedicate his life to developing his style and teaching sculpting. 

When WW2 started, the school Moore was teaching at in London was evacuated. During The Blitz, Moore did intense graphite artwork of people in the London Underground subway while sheltering. Later, these arts were bought and used as war pieces, making Moore a wartime artist. 

Moore’s home was hit by shrapnel in 1940, prompting him to move out of London and into Hertfordshire, where Moore would live and work for the rest of his life, creating sculptures and art works. Moore died in 1986 in his home. 

Woman Seated in the Underground (1941)

Tube Shelter Perspective (1941)

I like Moore’s sketchy work. It seems scary to me in a way that strikes me as morbid and dark, with the figures having no faces or emotions but still able to communicate sadness and darkness. I would like to try incorporating Moore’s charcoal-y type of artworks into my own for the project, however I am not a fan of the statues. 

Paul Nash

Nash was a surrealist painter and war artist. Born in London 1889, Nash's original passion was in landscape painting because he was bad at figure drawing. He was inspired by landscapes with ancient history, such as rubble forts and castles. 

At the start of world war 1, Nash applied to become a private, training as a guard of the Tower of London, because of this Nash still had time to paint and draw. After being married, in 1917 he then began training as an office, acquiring the position of second lieutenant at Ypres Salient, a relatively calm place that wasn’t majorly attacked during WW1. Later in the year, Nash fell into a trench and broke a rib and was brought back into London. A few days later, a majority of his squad were killed in an assault. Nash considered himself lucky to have injured himself before this incident. While healing in London, Nash took the time to sketch and paint, working from sketches he had done while on the front line. Nash was commissioned to become a war artist just shortly after. 

Spring in the Trenches, 1917 (1918)

In 1917, Nash returned to Ypres Salient as an official war artist during the Third Battle of Ypres. In this time, a tonal change in his work would come, becoming disillusioned by war with the bomb-stricken landscapes. This anger at the destruction of war on the landscape became a creative drive for Nash, creating dozens of pieces of art and even risking his life by trying to get as close to the front lines as possible. 

Returning to England, in 1918 Nash spent 6 weeks on the western front creating what he called the “fifty drawings of muddy places”. When he returned to the safety of mainland England, he developed these pieces. While in Belgium he only worked in pen and inks, but while in England he learnt to produce lithographs, further developing his style of work. He also began working in oils.

Sunrise, Inverness Copse (1917)

The Ypres Salient at Night (1918)

In 1918 Nash was commissioned by the British War Memorials Committee to paint a piece for the Hall of Remembrance project. He chose Ypres Sailent as his main subject. When the war ended in 1920 Nash continued to work as an artist, but slightly struggled with money and work. 

Through the 1930′s Nash did a range of works, including that for galleries, books, illustration and theatre work. 

During World War 2, Nash was appointed to the War Artist’s Advisory Committee as a full time war artist paid for his work. Nash’s work was unpopular for his focus on landscapes rather than figures and brutal war. Nash produced a series of watercolour pieces while working as a war artist during this time. 

The Messerschmidt in Windsor Great Park (1940)

After completing these pieces Nash found himself sick with asthma. He had difficulty painting during this time and decided to do collages instead. Between bouts of illness, he would attempt to paint and create work. Nash died in his sleep of heart failure in 1946. 

I like Nash’s focus on landscapes, I find it very endearing. I’m not a big fan of the style of his paintings a feel a little too bland to me, however I find the watercolours striking, and something I may consider doing as a test to my pieces.

[carlatsukinamistolemyhamsandwich]

Diabolik Lovers Survey 2019 Results

Thank you to everyone who took part and helped to promote the survey. Overall there were 74 responses, which is only 3 less than last year and I was really happy about that. Without further ado, onto the results:

Question 1. Who is your favorite DL character?

1 - Shu Sakamaki (11 votes) (1st in CL poll, joint 5th in 2018 survey) 2 - Reiji Sakamaki (9 votes) (9th in CL poll, 4th in 2018 survey) 3 - Ayato Sakamaki (7 votes) (2nd in CL poll, 7th in 2018 survey) 4 - Subaru Sakamaki (6 votes) (3rd in CL poll, joint 2nd in 2018 survey)    4 - Carla Tsukinami (6 votes) (11th in CL poll, joint 2nd in 2018 survey)    6 - Kanato Sakamaki (5 votes) (6th in CL poll, joint 8th in 2018 survey)   6 - Ruki Mukami (5 votes)  (4th in CL poll, 14th in 2018 survey) 6 - Kou Mukami (5 votes)  (5th in CL poll, joint 8th in 2018 survey) 6 - Yuma Mukami (5 votes)  (10th in CL poll, joint 12th in 2018 survey) 10 - Laito Sakamaki (4 votes)  (8th in CL poll, 1st in 2018 survey) 11 - Shin Tsukinami (3 votes)  (14th in CL poll, joint 5th in 2018 survey) 11 - Kino (3 votes)  (13th in CL poll, joint 12th in 2018 survey) 13 - Azusa Mukami (2 votes)  (12th in CL poll, joint 8th in 2018 survey) Note: 2 people said they didn’t have a favorite character and 1 person skipped the question. None of the other characters received any votes (including Yui, who came 7th in the CL poll, which was a bit of a surprise to me). Rejet didn’t give the exact number of votes for each character in the official CL poll, so I can’t compare the vote percentages, however we can look at them compared to last year’s survey.

I was very surprised to see Laito drop so far down the ranking (although I was not surprised to see Shu take first place).

In terms of why these results are different to last time, while it’s true some people’s favorite character has changed, there have also been some newcomers to the fandom since my last survey.

The rest of the results are under the cut.

Question 2. Who is your least favorite diaboy?

1- Kanato Sakamaki 29 votes (1st in 2018 poll) 2- I do not have a least favorite diaboy 14 votes (2nd option in 2018 poll) 3- Kino 8 votes (5th in 2018 poll) 4- Ayato Sakamaki 5 votes (joint 9th in 2018 poll) 5- Kou Mukami 4 votes (joint 6th in 2018 poll)) 6- Reiji Sakamaki 3 votes (joint 9th in 2018 poll) 6- Ruki Mukami 3 votes (8th in 2018 poll) 6- Shin Tsukinami 3 votes (4th in 2018 poll) 9- Laito Sakamaki 2 votes  (joint 6th in 2018 poll) 10- Yuma Mukami 1 vote (no votes in 2018 poll) 10- Azusa Mukami 1 vote (no votes in 2018 poll) Subaru, Shuu (11th in 2018 survey) and Carla (3rd in 2018 survey) all received no votes and one person skipped this question.

The results for this question weren’t too dissimilar to last time in terms that Kanato, by far, got the largest number of votes. I will admit he’s my least favorite but I do wonder why that’s true for so many people. It was nice to see the Tsukinami brothers receive fewer votes on this question compared to last time but I was a little surprised that Carla got none at all considering some of the things he does in DF.

Question 3. What is your favorite type of DL media?

1- The games 31 votes (1st in 2018 survey) 2- The drama CDs 23 votes (2nd in 2018 survey) 3- The character songs 9 votes (5th in 2018 survey) 4- The merch (e.g. plushies, badges, straps etc) 5 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 5- The anime 4 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 6- The manga 2 votes (5th in 2018 survey)

As before, the games proved to be the most popular form of DL media, with the drama CDs taking second place.

Question 4. If you have played and/or read translations for the games, which is your favorite?

1- Dark Fate 19 votes (1st in 2018 survey) 2- Haunted Dark Bridal 17 votes (2nd in 2018 survey) 3- More Blood 13 votes (3rd in 2018 survey) 4- Chaos Lineage 5 votes  5- Lost Eden 4 votes (4th in 2018 survey) 6- Lunatic Parade 3 votes (5th in 2018 survey) 7- Vandead Carnival 1 vote (6th in 2018 survey) 13 people said that they hadn’t played/read translations for the games or didn’t know. I’ve excluded this data when making the pie chart as that’s what I did with the last survey.

HDB and DF remain the most popular games. I was surprised to see CL do better than LE (although it’s possible that this is due to CL being released more recently). I will say from personal experience that although I’ve only just started playing CL (and have been avoiding spoilers for months so I have no idea what the rest of the game is like) that I’ve been having a lot of fun with it and while I enjoyed LE, it’s definitely true that some of the routes were better quality than others.

Question 5. If you have listened to and/or read translations of the drama CDs, which set of CDs includes your favorite?

1- Bloody Bouquet 15 votes (1st in 2018 survey) 2- Para-Selene 9 votes (2nd in 2018 survey) 3- The original do-S vampire CDs 8 votes (joint 9th in 2018 survey) 4- Bonus CDs 6 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 5- More Blood do-S Vampire CDs 4 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 5- Versus II 4 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 5- Zero 4 votes (joint 6th in 2018 survey) 8- Versus III 3 votes (joint 6th in 2018 survey) 8- Lost Eden 3 votes (no votes in 2018 survey) 9- Chaos Lineage 3 votes (13th in 2018 survey) 9- Versus I 1 vote (3.28%)  (joint 9th in 2018 survey) 9- Born to Die 1 vote (3.28%) The Dark Fate, Eternal Blood and Versus IV CDs did not receive any votes. 13 people said that they hadn’t listened to/read translations for the drama CDs or other. Again, I excluded this data when making the pie chart as that’s what I did last time.

I was in no way surprised that the Bloody Bouquet CDs are still the fan favorite, with the Para-Selene CDs (my own personal favorite) coming in second. It seems the fandom still prefers the more emotional CDs. Given this trend, I suspect the Born to Die CDs would have done a lot better if they featured all of the boys.

Question 6. What would you most like to see if Rejet continues making new DL content?

1- Season 3 of the anime 28 votes (1st in 2018 survey) 2- Another game after Chaos Lineage 18 votes (2nd in 2018 survey) 3- More drama CDs 11 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 3- More character songs 11 votes (joint 3rd in 2018 survey) 5- I am not concerned with any new DL media 3 votes (5th in 2018 survey) 6- Other 2 votes (5th in 2018 survey) Note: 1 person skipped this question.

This result is pretty much the same as before. Personally I’m not convinced we’ll ever get a third season of the anime but I would love to be proven wrong. We already know we’re getting some more drama CDs, with the first More, More Blood CD being released today (technically yesterday in Japan). I do wonder how much more DL media we’re going to get, as I’m not sure any other otome series has quite managed to have the same number of games DL has, but my experience in Japan has shown me that there certainly still seems to be a market for it.

Question 7. How long have you been interested in DL?

1- More than 4 years but less than 6 years 26 votes  2- More than 2 years but less than 4 years 25 votes  3- Over 6 years 11 votes  3- More than 1 year but less than 2 years 4 votes  5- More than 6 months but less than 1 year 3 votes 6- Up to 6 months 3 votes Note: 2 people said they couldn’t remember how long they’d been interested in DL for and no one who took part had been interested in DL for less than 1 month. 

It seems most people have been interested in the series for between 2 - 6 years. I do wonder whether a number of people got into the series around the release of the More Blood anime (which was a little over 4 years ago), Regardless it seems that a lot of us have been in diahell for rather a long time.

Question 8. If you answered the survey I did last year, have any of your choices changed since then?

Note: Multiple options could be selected here and 5 people skipped this question.

- My favorite character has changed: 7 votes - My least favorite diaboy has changed: 9 votes - My favorite DL game has changed: 3 votes - My favorite drama CD has changed: 9 votes 41 people said none of these things had changed within the last year, while 5 people said they got into DL less than 1 year ago.

I mostly asked this question so that if there were any drastic changes between the results of this survey and last year’s, then I’d be able to tell whether it was because people’s opinions had changed or whether there were simply different people answering the questions. As one might expect, it seems to be a combination of the two.

Question 9. Out of the following things released within the last year, which has been your favorite?

1- Chaos Lineage 18 votes 2- The Death Parade merch/illustrations 13 votes 3- The remaining Zero CDs 8 votes 3- The Dark Wonderland merch/illustrations 8 votes 3- The Absolute Zero merch/illustrations 8 votes 6-  The Born to Die drama CDs 6 votes 6- The Blood Affair merch/illustrations 6 votes 8- I’m not interested in DL anymore so I haven’t kept up with new releases 4 votes 8- Other 3 votes

I was very pleased to CL come out on top here given that it was the release Rejet must have invested the most time and money in. I will say I was surprised by just how many people said one the merch sets was their favorite release of the past year over CL or one of the drama CDs where the boys actually interact with you/Yui. 

And that’s all for my Diabolik Lovers 2019 survey. Thank you again to everyone who voted, if you want to check out my post on last year’s results, it can be found here. I’d be interested to know your thoughts on the results of this survey, was there anything that surprised you?

[comicteaparty]

July 4th-July 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from July 4th, 2020 to July 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on the following question:

What was an unexpected aspect of making webcomics you didn’t realize before making one yourself?

Krispy §[Ghost Junk Sickness]§

How much our comic and it's story we're going to change during the years of creation was the biggest and most jarring aspect for sure. There's scripts and thumbs that were all made before we ventured out to make GJS with paths completely different from what we initially thought we would take that have completely changed how we approach not only writing but reading webcomics too. Webcomics as a medium have the biggest connection to time, whether it be production or the consumption, they have this opportunity to exist and transform in the long hours it takes to enjoy and read them. It's honestly one of the biggest advantages imho. To see a story slowly unfold, listening to ur audience reactions, peer critiques, or new inspiration can make such a drastic and intense impact on a long form work- its both jaw dropping and humbling to be apart of!(edited)

Deo101 [Millennium]

For me it was the community aspect of comics. I knew a community existed on the reader side of things (comments!), but I didn't expect the creator side to be how it is! I don't know why, but for some reason I kind of always thought that all of us were sort of throwing our comics out from the void... I guess that was me looking at comics from a reader's point of view! But as soon as I started making comics, I started meeting people who made them too... and it's been incredible!

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

@deo I never really understood what an internet community or internet friends were until I started making a webcomic

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah, I had been in (and quickly decided to not be in 0_0) gaming communities, but nothing really as wonderful as what I've found through comics. Closest I had gotten other than that was comments on social media

Shizamura 🌟 O Sarilho

Community definitely one of the big things, much like Deo pointed. I was kinda expecting to have get connections through readers, but it's much more with other creators, which is super satisfying in it's own way. Also gonna second Krispy's comment about how time affects how you see your story's past and future. A lot of things changed in the past four years that made my comic change as well and having so much time to think each individual scene allows them to be much more complex and interesting than they would when I first thought them through. Having the time really helps. This also kinda touches the topic of personal change too, which affects how I write and what feels most important to focus on and that's interesting to think about as well

eliushi [Keyspace]

How long things will take, the longer the story goes on! I started out being able to complete a page in 2h but then I found more I wanted to try on each page (colours, layout, composition etc) and even wanted to extend certain scenes. With 500 pages planned, I definitely thought I’d be farther along by now, heading into AWT’s first year anniversary in a month. That being said, I’m also enjoying the ride and it’s all thanks to the great community here and making connections with other comics folks/readers. I never expected to get comments and so each one has been a treasure to read.

Desnik

An unexpected aspect of making webcomics is how much people respond to them. I figured I'd be creating into a void but I met so many people as a result of publishing my dinosaur comic

shadowhood {SunnyxRain}

Ditto on the webcomic community. I didn't realize how far reaching it was to have a community that supports each other. And I've enjoyed meeting so many wonderful and creative people who raised each other up. Another thing I didn't expect, however, was how invested I got into my comic.(edited)

At first I was doing it mostly for fun. But the more I delved into it, the easier it was to get sucked into my story and want to draw it out. And as a result taking it a lot more seriously.

Desnik

yeah sometimes I miss my dinosaur comic even though I had some pretty good reasons for moving on. It was created out of desperation and evolved into something that made me feel good about myself

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

How much work and time it takes to keep a weekly update going with no backlog

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yeah same

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

For me, I didn't realize how much it would affect my life to make comics, and vice versa. In a weird way, I didn't know how interrelated the two were, or how easily life could interfere with my comic, or the inverse.

eliushi [Keyspace]

Making comics became a lifestyle for me

@Haruh2 (Colony Life) When I had no backlog I was updating every two weeks with 7 pages per update; so about 14h of work. But this is with a finished script. I am also told I work fast.

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

omg

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

That's soooo much, Eli!

That's at least twice as much as I do (edited)

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

For me, I didn't realize how much it would affect my life to make comics, and vice versa. In a weird way, I didn't know how interrelated the two were, or how easily life could interfere with my comic, or the inverse.

I hadn't realized how much I put myself into my comic! My friends who read it have all said that it's incredibly in my voice and reflects my opinions and worldviews Before I shared it with people I hadn't thought of it in that way at all

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

As an artist, I didn't expect how my comic production and mindset will change. Once I started comics, it brought out my ideas from thoughts to a physical form. I start to invest more time into it. Each project evolved through each chapter. How to balance script writing to a polished piece. I put alot of time and research in my works. It makes me glad to hear other creators do the same. I'm not the crazy artist who's wasting her time. One of the positive change was meeting other creators, how we give advice and receive praise.(edited)

eliushi [Keyspace]

The support has been amazing. It makes the work less lonely

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Fish, oh for sure! I didn't realize until recently how much my characters are all just facets of myself!

eliushi [Keyspace]

(I don’t work that quickly anymore and I’m making big changes to the format soon so it’s going to be a Transition)

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I've been in school with art students who never made comics, so when I came to CTP discord, reading comic discussions. It was comforting and fun. I enjoy the cooperation our group has, helping each other.

eliushi [Keyspace]

I like to commiserate about the unique challenges comics have

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Hahaha, yeahhhhh

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

I agree, it's different from illustrations. Different approach(edited)

eliushi [Keyspace]

I am perpetually balancing time spent on a panel vs how much time the reader will spend on it

Vs illustration: lemme make all the details

Joichi [Hybrid Dolls]

Oh I agree, each panel takes longer than it takes to read it. Hence I dislike when readers call manga creators 'lazy'

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

how much time does it take to read one of my pages?

20 seconds?(edited)

haha

e.e

wait is that emoji supposed to be someone rolling their eyes??

i jsut looked it up

i might've been using it wrong this whole time

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Pacing

It's way different than in novels, and definitely came as a shock at the start

eliushi [Keyspace]

Yeah have to play to the strength of the medium. Still imagining AWT as an animated movie written from a novel, in the format of a comic

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Haha, same kinda

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

@eliushi [Keyspace] ah haha, that makes me feel better about my update habits, but thats a good goal for me to shoot for now that im learning a new way to make long comics specifically

cAPSLOCK (Tailslide)

I completely underestimated the amount of effort that would have to go into formatting, website design and maintenance, etc. If I got to do it again, a little more research beforehand probably would’ve saved me a lot of time and hassle.

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I really overestimated the "if you build it they will come" aspect of webcomics lol. Like, you actually have to work to advertise your comic in order for people to read it. Nobody ever got hundreds of readers just from posting their comic onto some hosting site without doing major marketing work.(edited)

dako

yeah, I feel that

I've never really been an advertising type before my comic, im learning to just get used to it

Deo101 [Millennium]

I've not really done much advertising tbh, it makes me uncomfortable

dako

it feels kinda...embarrassing? might be too harsh of a word

i dunno

Deo101 [Millennium]

its just uncomfortable idk! i feel awkward doing it

dako

yeah, same ive done it a few times on reddit but i have to force myself

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

it does feel, odd..hell most of the time it just feels like i open the door to my house and toss a bunch of paper to the wind hoping someone can see it

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah, I dont know if ive done anything other than posting updates on twitter and talking about it in groups like this

and twitter is mostly just me talkin to people who already read it...

idk talking about my work without being asked first makes me feel like im inserting myself where im not allowed

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Self promo got MUCH less intimidating for me when I started thinking of it like: "okay, so my comic is made for readers like me, people who share my tastes. That means I only need to answer one question: what can I say to get me to check out this comic? I don't need to impress anyone else. I just need to appeal to me." (since "me" is my target audience)

Deo101 [Millennium]

mhm ^^

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

But take it with a grain of salt because I'm still not really promoing

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

exactly, thats why i find it hard to tweet about it most of the time, but i get the whole if i dont care about to talk without being asked no one else will either

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah lmao mood im like what would get me to read... hmmm... probably exactly what im doing.... I'll keep it up then :)

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

yea i get excited to draw out certain parts..but wouldnt want to just tweet about all the little tidbits of the story ruining it for others

Deo101 [Millennium]

sweats

dako

i made a whole side twitter for my comic cuz talking about it on my main intimidated me too much

it is my containment chamber

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

hm may do that, just to say i did it and to get my mind away from the thought

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

yeah same

Deo101 [Millennium]

My main is just whatever I want it to be idk. Its kinda for all my comics, since my comics are all I want to talk about

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

though my main is mostly just retweeting from my side twitter lol

Deo101 [Millennium]

it removes a lot of the pressure of like what if my followers dont wanna see this??

cause they wouldnt be here if they didnt wanna see it

cause its all Ive been doing the whole time

dako

thats a good point

i had my main way before my comic so most of my mutuals/followers dont follow for that

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

yea, it can feel abit disorienting when there is no interaction one way or another on anything you tweet (also if twitter has messed up and causes your tweets to not show up)

Deo101 [Millennium]

but yeah I dont really advertise cause it just makes me so uncomfortable >.<

dako

understandable

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I'm kind of somewhere in between. I advertise my comic mostly because it is all I wanna talk about, like Deo. But I also don't think it's gotten me many readers. Most of my readers came as far as I can tell because I was making something that appealed to them. (The whole "if you build it, they will come" thing.) Although, I really don't have a big audience, I do have an audience, and I am certain most of them came from me just posting.

I think it's determined a lot by luck, and also, how big your niche's audience is to begin with (and some skill tbh).

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah like I think "gay sci fi" is a p big niche so ive got a big amount of people I could potentially reach

which makes it much easier to draw people in

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I'm particularly lucky, I guess, that fantasy/romance has a lot of readers (also more competition, but...)

Deo101 [Millennium]

yeah fantasy romance is a damn big one

Haruh2 (Colony Life)

eh i think im in an awkward void with my action/drama story (since im not doing romance drama)

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I just go with the mindset: "what makes my fantasy/romance different from the rest" and go from there.

Deo101 [Millennium]

mhm

tbh I dont think my sci fi romance is doing anything special?

but im having fun so :) I dont rlly care about that hahahha

dako

having fun the most important thing

Deo101 [Millennium]

its not my goal to make somthing mindblowing ^^ truley im just here for a good time

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I mean, LGBT+-inclusive sci-fi is pretty unique

I haven't seen a lot

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

It's clear that your characters are people, and that's special, regardless of how common/uncommon

dako

think if i didnt love my comic as much as i do id have stopped a long time ago

Deo101 [Millennium]

thats true keiiii, thank you <3

also yeah its Sad that theres not more LGBT+ sci fi cause its like youve got aliennnssssssssssssssssssss you can do whatever you waaaaaant

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I knooowww

Deo101 [Millennium]

guess it shows what ppl want or something

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

yup

Deo101 [Millennium]

off topic

so to make it back on topic

I underestimated how much people would like gay sci fi GJKLAGJLAJLKAGJSLAKGJKL

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

One thing I learned specifically with my current comic... I did not realize how much difference the reader's cultural background would make in terms of interpreting my story.

Deo101 [Millennium]

!!!!!

I actually almost mentioned you in class once tbh keiii

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Big oversight, in retrospect

!?

Deo101 [Millennium]

saying "someone I know makes a comic which they noticed, it's interpreted completely differently just depending on cultural backgrounds" kind of a thing

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

like I would not have made the comic any different, but I would have approached the... presentation differently. Like, talk about it differently

Deo101 [Millennium]

cause we were talking about how narratives affect rt

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

I guess another thing that was unexpected about making webcomics was... there are way more people with my exact tastes than I thought

Deo101 [Millennium]

and I was saying that I think the viewer's narrative affects art more than the artists narrative

I mean, the artists narrative obviously is what makes it so.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

In the eyes of the beholder

Deo101 [Millennium]

but interpretations and all that... yeah!!!

so. actually I might have offhandedly mentioned you I cant remember if I did or not

lemme check

I did! very like "second hand" offhandedly mentioning though ahaha

hope that doesnt make you uncomfortable GSKLGSJALGJLGK no one replied to me so e.e

in the class I mean

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I am super uncomfortable and offended !!!!!

j/k

Deo101 [Millennium]

hgjkghsjkagskajgdhsakgjhgjd

but... yeah idk starting out I truly just was making it cause I really love my characters a lot, the idea that other people would like them too is very unexpected :) in a good way

I also definitely didnt expect how important enviornments were e.e

didnt plan those well enough.

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

that relatable feel

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I really desperately advertise my comic everywhere. I don't really know how to do marketing effectively though & I don't know if its working

eliushi [Keyspace]

I find what increased readership most consistently is still the feature aspect from the hosting sites. It’s really about finding the right readers/right readers finding you

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Same, I'm basically a rounding error away from being 100% reliant on the features for subs

sssfrs (JOE IS DEAD)

I don't think my comic has ever been featured on the hosting sites. My numbers have always been low on Tapas and maybe thast why

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Yeah, features help a lot

I've been featured on Webtoon, but not Tapas, and you can really see the difference in readership there

Deo101 [Millennium]

Ive been featured on both, uhh in a couple of diff places, if you wanted a breakdown of how many readers i got from the diff spots and stuff ever just lmk im happy to share

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I've been featured on both. It certainly got people to check it out and even sub, but retaining those people (even if they've subbed!!!) is a different story. I think my story is just not the right type for the platforms, but eh, even if 99% of the platform users aren't into the kinda thing I'm making, 1% increase is still an increase.

Which is another thing I learned over the course of running this comic, specifically (since the internet has changed so much after my first two attempts). Just because the majority of your subs don't actually read the comic, doesn't mean your work sucks. Today's internet caters to casual users, and there's a bajillion factors affecting who's actually reading your stuff.

dako

i agree

my comic has never been featured on either, and webtoons doesnt have a guideline on what they pick but tapas does and my comic doesnt really meet their featuring requirements so i dont think either site ever will feature mine haha

so i gotta advertise on reddit and use twitter tags a lot

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Don't go too crazy with twitter tags; they can make people zone out and not look at your tweet.

dako

i try to use 5 at the most, i know too many is unpleasant to look at haha

Jib {WIP haha}

Oh huh, my rule of thumb is to use 1-2 on twitter and as many as I can on Insta but I’m no expert lol

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Yeah, IG seems to be where you want all the tags XD

varethane

Webtoon's algorithms are like turning a hose on and off lol

The difference between views and sub growth during periods of being featured vs not is stark(edited)

carcarchu

i've never been featured by webtoons but i've seen series grow from 100 followers to 10k overnight

not an exaggeration

varethane

I put my new comic on webtoon in november 2019, and in 1 month I crawled up to.... maybe 50 subs?(granted I only put up one episode and then paused for a bit)

Then in December I started updating it weekly and got placed in the new and hot section of the app

And bam, 6k subs

It last 2 weeks and then the section updated and all growth stopped, and subs went down by 10 or so over the next week

Krispy §[Ghost Junk Sickness]§

(Omg featured is like the new Daily Deviation goals from DA way back in the day!)

varethane

Until it got another feature on a different part of the website and went up another 2k. It was like playing with the handle on a faucet lol

dako

I got some pretty good growth during canvas week, but beyond that not really

I get 1-2 subs after an update if I'm lucky

varethane

I feel like their algorithms are very reliant on the regular rotation of features that staff have to do manuallt

Outside of that, discoverability is quite weak

Mostly because of the volume of comics on there

boogeymadam

same boat as vare. the only thing i know about webtoons features is they have stated a couple times one of their recquirements is consistant updating, so if u skip a week that disqualifies u for a lil while i imagine

varethane

I wonder what they count as consistent. I was doing every 2 weeks for awhile, but this month I'm gonna try weekly to see if it helps me earn more $$ from ads :U

dako

I wish there was more incentive for readers to check out the new section on webtoons and tapas

carcarchu

i have found some amazing gems in the new section

i swear i've seen stuff in featured that were not at all updated consistently

dako

I have too, there's a ton of good comics that get overlooked because they're not in the front page

some featured comics havent updated in months sometimes

varethane

I definitely would not have considered myself consistent at the time of the first feature, considering there was a gap of a month between episode 1 and 2 lpl

carcarchu

the consistently updating thing is more of a recommendation than a requirement i feel?(edited)

boogeymadam

ooohh good to know!!

varethane

I'm sure it cant be a hard rule, especially for comics that have just launched

boogeymadam

im just going off their canvas qna's from last year

dako

if it's actually a hard rule for staff to feature comics that regularly update they break that rule a lot

i also heard a bot picks up comics too

carcarchu

well i at least think the staff or bots or whatever at webtoons are doing a better job with features than tapas is

tapas is always pushing their premium comics way more than their indie stuff

boogeymadam

tapas needs to bring new comics onto the frontpage more often than it does, yeah

dako

yeah I agree

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I mean, I get why they put premium on the front page. But I feel more variety would help them because it's more interesting for the readers?

dako

I can't tell whats premium or not with tapas sometimes

boogeymadam

i do like that they've been asking stuff like this in the forums tho

carcarchu

more distinction would be helpful to me too dako

i don't think its as clear as it could be

dako

yeah, webtoons at least it's clear what is and what isnt featured or canvas

Jib {WIP haha}

Huh, anyone remember that really popular writing podcast? I forgot the name

Or have any recommendations I guess

Moral_Gutpunch

Terrible writing advice? It's sarcastic

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

is this related to the topic?

Moral_Gutpunch

It's a podcast about writing, so I'm going to say yes.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

I think snuffysam meant the weekly topic for the channel

Moral_Gutpunch

Oh

Just for this channel, no. I'm too new to know that.

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Please check #rules

Moral_Gutpunch

Sound more like someone forgot context than the rules

That's why I'm hardly here. I don't know stuff people who've been here for a long time know like podcasts or older comics(edited)

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Basically each of the channels under "CTP Activities" on this server has its own topic of the week.

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

It's not a matter of being here for a long time or not. This channel is used solely for discussing the weekly topics, and such information can be found in #rules

Moral_Gutpunch

Kudos then. I came for creator babble only.

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

For general webcomic creation-related advice (either seeking or giving) and such, #shop_talk usually is the place!

creator_babble is for answering the topic of the week

It's not actually for generalized "creator babble" despite the name.

dako

looks like they left

Jib {WIP haha}

Oh my bad, it’s been a while since I read the rules, I brought up the new subject

keii’ii (Heart of Keol)

Happens!

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

No problem, we were just reminding you all :)

Jib {WIP haha}

Ty for that then haha

dako

I think one unexpected thing for me is that no one tells you how crazy the highs and lows can be

well I guess people do but you really don't know until the highs and lows happen to you if that makes sense

Cronaj ~{Whispers of the Past}~

Oh God, that's so true

Burnout is way more dreadful than I could ever guess prior to experiencing it

Feather J. Fern

One unexpected thing for me was how many people I would meet because of my comic. It surprised me greatly that I found so many cool people through the comic community and made the friends I have made now. Love you all

rajmews

The unexpected thing for me was just how much you have to just...predict...what the market will want to read. Like even if you research a whole lot, and you draw really well, and have been doing art professionally, you can still strike out. It's a humbling experience, but being able to just let go of poorly received pages and move on and try things differently is a lot of the battle for doing a webcomic. It teaches you how to fail gracefully because...it's all a process of learning your readers better. Even if they're few at first.

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

My major unexpected thing was how much my initial ideas change as I work through a page. Everything from the expressions, dialogue, and layout can change as I look at it and 'solve' it more closely than I did in thumbnails. There are pages I look back on and realize they are ENTIRELY different than what I had first sketched. And they're better for it. Allowing myself the freedom to edit during the artwork... it's created some majorly awesome opportunities.

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yes!!!!! Me too!!!

It's exciting thoufh

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Absolutely same

Could plan something out meticulously but then change it in the last 2 secs before uploading

Deo101 [Millennium]

Yup... I don't thumbnail much ahead of where I'm at cause of this(edited)

I thumbnail a scene at a time, and then usually I end up changing stuff halfway through ahahfjjdkskdkss

varethane

Same hat, haha. I often make changes at every stage-- even the thumbnails will often depart from the script. If anything, I wish I made even more changes-- I feel like my page layouts tend to be pretty standard, I do a lot of pages with the 3 rows of 2 panels each, and I want to break out of that more. But... well, that's a work in progress.

[justoneday-namjoonii]

color me moonlight. V

☾ • I • II • III • IV • V • VI • VII ☽

› Summary: Some flowers are not to be plucked, for their thorns are far too sharp for any hand to graze, yet, they were chosen. She shined, light radiating from the depths of her soul. She was radiant, powerful – she didn’t know it, but a creature as beautiful she could never be bad. However, he was made to consume the light. For the light was meant to dwell with darkness just as powerful, but far more dangerous.

› pairing: Taehyung x reader/OC › genre: angst | m | fluff | sci-fi au | supernatural!au | mutant!au | hybrid!au |

- Flashback - 

November 21st, 1980

I believe my calling is to heal people, make them stronger, beautiful—better.

“Jane!” 

A wide-eyed 5-year-old came running down the hall, a sheet of paper in her hands. Lenny. She’s a carbon copy of her big sister, just a tiny version with two pigtails and a jet black bob.

“Look,” She took her paper and put it over her sister's biochemistry homework, “I drew this for you.” She had the cutest smile and her oversized shirt hung on her tiny figure adorably.

“Thank you, Lenny,” She smiles, “but mom said you were supposed to stay in bed, Doctors orders.” Jane was currently in school for her first medical degree and she takes her little sister's illness very seriously.

“But I just wanted to bring this to you.” She pouts, bottom lip poking out.

“Well, your picture is beautiful,” Jane tilts the photo to the side and furrows her brows, “who is this pretty girl?” She points to the photo illustrating a girl in a garden with a sun behind her in vibrant crayons. 

“That’s the girl I see in my dreams sometimes, the light follows her, it’s like- like the sun.” She jumped on Jane’s bed, playing with the charm bracelet on her wrist. 

She’s having the visions again. Lenny has a rare ‘disorder’ that Jane has been researching with other doctors for some time now. She sees what they believe to be the future in vivid dreams and visions, and she sees it backward. When the doctors were testing her and trying to figure out why she would get so fatigued, that’s when they found the reason.

“It does what she says and that’s how the plants grow.” She giggled, crawling off the bed and jumping into Jane’s lap.

“Wow, she must be really special if she can do that.” 

“Of course she’s special,”

She giggles, “she’s your daughter.”

“My- My daughter?...” She reiterates to make sure she heard the little girl right. When Lenny nods, a cute little grin on her face, Jane just shakes her head with a giggle. “Ok,” She gets up and scoops Lenny into her arms, 

“You officially need to go back to bed, you’re talking crazy.” 

*

*

Agent Jeon has one goal, find Y/n and take her to SRMA. 

His first attempt to capture you backfired, but with all of the research he’s doing, he should have no problem tracking you down. Nelson didn’t say much about what you could do, so he didn’t know how cautious he should be. But then again, you ran away from him, you didn’t try to fight. So that makes him wonder, do you even know how to use your powers?

“I made a list of contacts, I’m going to meet with Jung Hoseok, a friend of hers who works as an intern at the SRMA. I’m going in now to ask him a few questions,” He nods at whatever is said through the phone, “I’ll make sure he knows.” He walks up to the front desk. 

“Excuse me,” The woman looks up, “hi. I’m looking for Jung Hoseok, he’s an intern here I believe.” 

“Oh, yes. And your license please?” His brows furrow as he reaches in his back pocket to reveal his form of identification—his FBI badge. By her widened eyes, she deems is identification enough for her. She directs him to the elevators so he can go to the 4th floor. He gets on the elevator and in just a few moments, he’s walking down the hall, and coincidentally, he sees Hoseok walking by with a clipboard and a lab coat on his shoulders.

“Excuse me, Mr. Jung.” Hoseok looks back at the call of his name.

 “Hi,” He pauses in his tracks to look at Jungkook, “can I help you?” 

“Yes actually.” Jungkook shows his badge and Hoseok recoils at the sight. “My name is agent Jeon Jungkook and I’d like to ask you a few questions.” 

“Alright...but what’s this all about?” He swallows, trying to remain composed in front of the agent.

“Is there somewhere we can talk privately?”

“Sure,” Hoseok let his coworkers know he would be a minute before leading Jungkook to the break room. They both take a seat across from each other and, Hoseok twiddles his fingers as Jungkook gets comfortable, pulling out a pen and paper. 

“So,” He sits cross-legged, “how do you know Y/n?”

“We met in a class, I’ve known her for about 4 years now.”

“I see,” He writes that down, “and are you to close?”

“Close?”

“I mean, does she share a lot with you? Does she confide in you at all? or vice versa.”

“Well,” He contemplates his answer. While you two are great friends, there are some things you tend to avoid, questions about your past, questions about your family—you avoid it like the plague, “we’re close but I know there are some things she keeps form me, that’s just the kind of person she is. I don’t argue with her about it, she gets upset if I pry too much.”

“That makes sense.” He nods, “What do you know about her involvement with The 1989 Project?”

“I don’t think she has any...Every time I bring it up, she changes the subject or talks about how she doesn’t believe it. She knows I work here but mutants freak her out.” Jeon nearly laughs, Hoseok definitely isn’t aware of the truth.

“I see,” He scribbles a few things down, “and has she ever come to the SRMA for any reason at all?”

“I’m not sure, I told you we really don’t talk about the SRMA. If I’m completely honest, there’s not a whole lot I know about her. I do know a bit about her past, what she does for a living...She even confides in me at times, but-...I don’t know, I worry about her.” Hoseok is reminded of the message you sent him this morning about you staying at a friend's place—that’s very out of character for you.

“When was the last time you spoke with her?”

“This morning actually, I texted her to tell her I was returning a book but she wasn’t home. She said she was at a friends house, I’m not sure what friend though.” Jeon asks for your number and Hoseok reluctantly gives it to him.

Jeon sighs, closing up his notebook before standing to his feet. “Thank you for your time, Mr. Jung, I truly appreciate it. If you have any information on her whereabouts, please, don’t hesitate to give me a call.” He walks out of the room with swiftness. “Have a good day-”

“Wait, what’s going on? Is she okay?”

“She’s fine,” That was a half-truth, “this is just an extra precaution we take when we think we have a potential lead.” Hoseok’s brows furrow and his stomach churn at the term—lead. At the SRMA, when a lead is admitted, that means a potential subject of The 1989 Project. 

“A lead? You think she’s a part of that? That’s impossible, she can’t stand the mention of it...” Hoseok shakes his head at the FBI agent’s implication that you, of all people, are a product of Jane Sato. That’s absolutely ridiculous.

“You can never be too careful these days, it could be anyone.” 

This is not, by any means, your best blouse—but it’s as good as you’re gonna get until you can go buy a new one. 

You buttoned up your dress pants, slipped your day-heels on, and walked out of your room to see if Taehyung was out there. He was in the kitchen like always, pouring hot water into a portable teacup. When he looks up, you ease out of your room and it makes him smile. He had gotten up a lot earlier than you, around 2 o’clock in the morning to be precise. But instead of staying with you, he opted for going to his bedroom and sleeping there. Lately, he’s been getting these waves of pain in his head, like little tremors of headaches and it was difficult to sleep. Even when he went to his room, he had to take a few ibuprofen to get a little shut-eye. And there you are, looking like sunshine and moonlight tied up in one beautiful creature.

You walk into the kitchen. “Good morning...”

“Good morning, are you ready for your first day?”  

“Yeah.” Not really. “Are you sure I should start today? Or should I even be doing this in general...” 

“I don’t see why not.”

“The whole city is paranoid and there are people looking for me.”  

“The city has always been paranoid. But you don’t have to worry, they don’t have a bunch of pictures of you so no one's gonna easily  recognize you.” He seems to underestimate the paranoia that some people have. You sit on a barstool at the island and grab one little vine of grapes from the bowl he had out with various fruit. “Just hide in plain sight, you’ve done it all this time.” He retorts, raising his brows when you frowned. 

“I’m not really hidden anymore...”

“You’ll be okay, just keep a low profile.” He grabbed his bag off of the chair beside you, you scurried to get your purse and trailed behind him. He locks the door you two are on your way.

The commute was nice, quiet, but nice. You two didn’t talk too much, you asked him simple questions about what you’ll be doing, what time you get off, things like that. He had a lot on his mind, you could tell by the way he seemed to zone out at red lights. He pulled in to his designated parking spot and pulled the keys out of the ignition.

 “I’ll try not to interact with you.” You speak up all of a sudden. “People might start suspecting things,” You nibble your bottom lip anxiously, “about me and why I was transferred here...Why I was in the inner city now I’m working in the North Heights, and arriving with the CEO...” He admits that you do have a point. 

“Ugh,” You drop your face in your hands, “who do I need to introduce myself to? I have a supervisor, right?”

“Yes, you’ve met her, Margeret.” He got out of the car and you followed him, your steps steady and deliberate. Taehyung walks confidently as if the ground was lucky to be graced by his steps. “She’ll tell you what to do.” 

“Okay...” You two walk into the elevator and when the doors close, he looks down at you, a grin on his lips. You furrow your brows when he continues to stare. “What’s that look for?”

“I like your top, it suits you.” He diverts his gaze, that grin still present on his lips.

“Oh...” You glance down at the basic blue blouse and you almost smile at the compliment. “Thank you.”

When the elevator stops at the desired floor, he steps out first and you follow with timid steps. You realize you’re back on the same floor you were called to the last time. Margeret is already walking from the coffee station with a cup of coffee and a smile.

“Good morning Mr. Kim.” She greets him with a bow and a smile. “The progress report for the Milan group  

“Thank you, Margeret,” Taehyung shuffles you forward with a hand on your back, “you remember Y/n, don’t you?”

“Yes sir, I remember.” She kindly smiles at you.

“She will be under your supervision from this day forward. Anything you need to be done, she can do it for you.” You could have sworn he said you’d have a job inspecting cameras or something, but being an assistant ain’t half bad.

“Oh,” She looked a little surprised but that expression quickly returned to a smile, “alright.” She turns to you as Taehyung walks into his office and closes the door.

“Y/n, I’ll have your work in the file room, for now, follow me please.” She walks behind her desk area and opens the door to the room back there. When you maneuver your way in front to get a better view of what’s in there, you’re met with a little office with a computer and some file cabinets.

“I need you to document the costs of each manufacturer and compare it to the preferred budget. If you could bring me what you’ve documented in the next two hours, I’ll have your next assignment.” 

“Okay,” You shuffle into the room and she closes the door, “okay...”

After a few minutes of figuring out the system, it doesn't take long before you’re typing up the first price comparison. Albeit boring, it is kind of nice to have a set list of things to do. Your other job wasn’t bad but unpredictable phone calls can be very stress-inducing, extremely so. Let’s just say, you partook in quite a bit of wine after the Christmas sales. 

Your new little job was going well until the screen froze and the screen turned blue. “What the heck...” You type a string of random numbers to maybe get the screen back to normal, but it does nothing—it might just need an update or something. You wait for a little bit, thinking it might go back to normal soon but nothing changes.

Meanwhile, you had tiptoed to the door to hear Margaret. She asked to speak with Taehyung and both of them are in his office, for some reason you were uncomfortable with the idea—but you shouldn’t be, right?

“What did you want to talk about?” Taehyung swivels in his chair slightly and Margeret stands with an uncharacteristic anxiousness that he quickly picked up on. 

“Mr. Kim, I hope this is not out of line but...Who is that girl?” She finally confesses what he knew she'd been thinking. “I just don’t understand. She came from the downtown office per your request, now she’s working here.”

Taehyung has a thoughtful expression, she’s not wrong to have her suspicions. But if he’s honest, he rather not explain the whole situation right now. 

“She’s just a bright employee that I think is valuable for the company. I can’t imagine how that would bother you.”

“Sir,” She made that face she always made before saying something truthful, “I’m always honest with you, right?”

“Yes, you’ve never tried to sugarcoat the truth,” He furrowed his brows, “why?...” Don’t say what I think you’re gonna say, don’t say what I think you’re gonna say-

“She just seems-...I don’t know, out of place. She’s a sweet girl and all, but you’ve never treated someone the way you treat her. You don’t like extra unnecessary people, that’s why you got rid of my last assistant.” He can’t deny that she has a fair point.

“What are you trying to say?” 

Now he’s getting annoyed.

“I did my research on her when I first met her, like I do all of your visitors, for your safety. And she’s not the most well-off woman in the world, I mean she worked downtown as tech support and she has no family out here.”

“Say what you’re trying to say.”

“Your father never did anything like this, what do you expect me to think? I think she’s a desperate young woman who’s found what she thinks is a cash cow. I think she’s a sugar baby.” 

She says that last part so cautiously—but you hear it loud and clear.

He’s shocked—and you’re offended. 

“Excuse me?” 

Is she serious right now? You hiss to yourself in the stupid little closet she put you in. Her hurtful words trigger sadness in you and you’re on the verge of tearing up. You are fully aware that she’s close with Taehyung and his father, but that’s just too much opinion to give. She has no right to research and ridicule the people Taehyung chooses to have around him. How can she be so quick to judge? Either way, you refuse to be supervised by someone who thinks so little of you.

You walk out of that room and with all the courage you could muster up, you knock on the office door. You noticed that their conversation comes to a halt when they hear you knock. You can feel Taehyung’s frustration radiating off of him in heavy waves. He is quick to open the door and his heart sinks into his stomach at the sight of you—he knows you probably heard everything.

He opens his mouth to say something but nothing comes out.

“Sir,” He winces at the way you address him, “This isn’t gonna work out...” 

You shoot Margeret a knowing-look but she avoids looking at you – that heifer. Before Taehyung can say anything, you’re storming off, and you know for the sake of hiding your true relationship, he has to keep himself from following you.

Margeret messed up.

“Look what you did!” He raises his voice for the first time and she’s surprised by his reaction.

“She fucking heard you.” You could have heard her if you were across the street but that’s beside the point.

“Taehyung, I have to be honest, if she eavesdropped and got butthurt, that’s not my problem. I don’t know her but I do know this-”

“You’re right, you don't know her.” He spat, cutting her off. His eyes are suddenly physically feeling like they were on fire. “You don’t know shit about her Margeret, and you were way out of line.” 

Her eyes widen, she has never ever, in her life, been scolded by Taehyung. She stands unsure for a moment before opening her mouth to say something, but closing with her head hung low. 

“I apologize, sir...I didn’t mean to offend you, I just-...I’m a married woman and I’ve seen these young single girls trying to make a financial mess of people's lives and I don’t want it to happen to you...I said what I said out of concern for you, I’m sorry if my delivery was poor.”

Taehyung doesn’t say anything, he dismisses her with a hand. It takes him a moment to process how he’s going to get you back and make up for his secretary’s bluntness. 

But you’re running down a flight of stairs, anger, and insecurity bubbling in your chest. Not only that, but your hearing went through the roof and you feel like anything you touch might melt. You’re burning up.

You’re not sweating, but it’s that same energy that burns. The energy you feel when you’re on edge and about to blow a light bulb or something—I need some water.  

When you reach the last flight of stairs, you practically leap to the exit. The cool air outside hits your face but you don’t care, you need to catch the first bus to downtown- oh wait, that’s right, you’re wanted. Public transportation is not an option right now, walking it is. With your light-weight jacket and little shoulder bag, you walk with your head considerably low, to avoid eye contact. Everyone is looking at me, they all know it’s me, they know it’s me. You took a deep breath and continued to stroll down the busy sidewalk. Unfortunately, you get stopped at a pedestrian walkway, and that’s when you look up. 

Oh no.

The agent that tried to take you away is standing on the opposite side of the street and he’s looking directly at you. For a moment, you pray he didn’t recognize you, but when he presses a finger to his ear, still maintaining eye-contact, he says, ‘I just found her, stand by.’ You book it out of there. Instead of waiting for the light, you make a right to try and lose him but he’s mirroring your path on the opposite street. 

“No, this can’t be happening,” You bite your lip, eyes searching for an alley or something you can run into, “why, why...” 

You make a sharp right into what looks like a slum infested alley beside an abandoned building. You look back and the agent is crossing the street and you freak out. You run into the old building and you instantly regret it when you get inside. It smells like urine and old wood since your sense of smell has been heightened lately, it smells a lot worse than it probably is. It’s an old abandoned restaurant, it’ll suffice for a suitable hiding spot. You can hear Jungkook’s footsteps approaching and you run as quietly as you can to hide behind the 20-foot bar that took up most of the little place. 

The wood creeks under your weight and you know he knows you’re in here. 

“Miss Y/L/n,” You cringe, “if you know what’s best for you, you’ll come on out.” He pulls the stun gun out of its holster and walks armed and prepared to fire at any moment. 

You can hear his footsteps approaching and you crawl as quietly as you can further down the expanse of the bar. 

You scream when you feel his hand on your wrist. “No!-” 

He managed to sneak up behind you and when you try to run, he turns you around and tries to cuff you. “Stop resisting!”

“Let go!” You yank against his hold, causing your self more pain than anything. “Let go of me! Let go-”

“You are being taken into custody for violating statewide protocol.” He proclaims as if that means anything to you.

“Let me go, I didn’t do anything wrong! I- I just-” You are becoming more and more worked up, eyes squeezing shut in frustration.

Jungkook is steadily trying to cuff you when he catches the eye of your hands and your wrists that are covered and glowing with luminescent veins. 

“Whatever you’re doing,” Jungkook leans in to hiss a threat into your ear, “you need to stop, right now.”

You’re confused unto what he’s referring to until you open your eyes and you can feel the familiar energy coursing through you—this is your chance, you can use your powers to get out of this. You’ve never really tried to do this before but there are very few options on the table now. You focus on bringing all of that feeling to your fingers. He’s speechless. He’s witnessing what looks like a light traveling down to your fingertips. Nope. He is not about to fight someone who appears to conduct electricity through their body, that's not within his pay grade.

Before you could even do anything, you feel a sharp pain in your neck and you fall unconscious. 

“Now this,” He supports your suddenly limp body before you fall to the floor, “is what I was trying to avoid.” He keeps you up with one hand before whipping out his cellphone to make a call.

‘Tell me you have her this time.’ Nelson said over the phone.

“Send a car and I’ll have her at the SRMA within the hour.”

Jungkook hung up, Nelson dialed Jane’s number immediately after.

Today is jogging day and she just hit the 3-mile mark. She decided to stop at a park bench to catch her breath before starting up again, and that’s when she got the call.

“Jane, Jane,”

Nelson spoke hurriedly over the phone, 

“they have her.”

She felt her heart beat faster and a smile crept onto her lips, and tears to her eyes. “Really?...”

“Yes. She’ll be proofed through the SRMA then I’ll her transferred to the facility, and then you can see her.” He knows she’s excited by the fact that she’s barely saying anything. 

“Is- Is she okay? They didn’t hurt her did they?” Nelson only smiles at the protective attitude towards you, even though she hasn’t seen you since you were an infant.

“Our best agent was on her case, no harm came to her. I can guarantee that.”

“I’ll be in the facility tonight, don’t let anyone do anything to her, got it? I don’t know how evolved she is.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It’s quiet now—you can’t hear anything, barely even your own breathing. You’re laying on a small bed, head throbbing as soon as you moved to sit up. You were wearing a loose white shirt and long pants.

They got you.

All you remember is kicking this guy, getting hit on the head, and here you are. Taehyung was nowhere to be seen before you went unconscious.

You’re afraid, deathly afraid. When the man clamped a metal brace around your wrist, you panicked. All the lights blew, you felt a sharp pain in your neck and that’s all you can remember.

Just when you considered getting out of the bed, the door opened. Your heart sank into your stomach and you bit your lip, waiting to see who it was.

It was a woman, she looked about 40 or 50. For a moment, she just stared at you, eyes drifting from your face to your wrist, her eyes immediately furrowed.

She took a step into the room, closing the door as she continued to approach you. From what you can tell from her exterior, she’s harmless. But who is she?

“Did they hurt you?” She sounded concerned, her eyes saddening at the sight of contraption they put on you. “I told them not to touch you unless absolutely necessary…and they go and put this thing on you.” She reaches out to touch your arm and that’s when you go on the defense again, jerking away from her. She looks as if she regrets

“Where-…Where am I?” You seethe, clenching the sheet in your fists.

“You’re safe now…” She wears a sweet smile. “You don’t have to worry.”

“Who are you?…”

She doesn’t answer you, instead, she extends a hand in wonder. Her eyes are scanning you, analyzing your entire face.

“I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” She sighs, “but you grew up to be so beautiful, Yves.”

You just stare at her, in shock—in terror. Mr. Kim told you who gave you that name, the woman who started this mess. So this is her. She’s the person responsible for your parent's brainwashing and their inevitable demise. Because of her, you grew up disgusted with who you are, you were convinced that you were a mistake.

All those years, your entire life had gone by with you assuming you’d never understand why. Why this was done to you, why anyone would basically sacrifice pieces of someone’s humanity without consent.

“My name is Jane,” She smiles, “Jane Sato.”

June 10th, 1981

“Happy birthday Lenny!”

The giggly 6-year-old blew out her candles and smiled when her mother began to cut her a huge piece of cake—probably too big for her little self. The party was a nice change for the rigorous studying Jane has been doing for school. She had just proven her research case study and her senior biochemists and doctors have been wanting nothing more than to work with her in opening her own center.

Unfortunately, after getting her slice of cake and watching Lenny open her presents, she had to get on the computer to work on some things. Jane sits at the living room table while her family watches a movie with Lenny and at times like this, she wishes she was gifted with a mind that required so much work.

“Jane,” Lenny suddenly hops off the couch and runs up to Jane with her new flamingo stuffed animal, “what’re you doing?”

“I have to write this paper that explains a patients condition, I’m sorry I’m doing this on your birthday, my deadline is tonight and I procrastinated,” Jane sits back from her computer and Lenny takes a seat on one of the stools with her poofy purple tutu.

“It’s okay, you always say ‘a doctor has a big responsibility,’ so I get it,” She replies rather maturely with a sweet smile, “I’m not mad.”

“How are you enjoying your day? Did you like the canvas and paint set I bought you?”

“I love it!” She smiles brightly. “How did you know I wanted it?”

“I just knew.” Jane simpers.

“Oh! Oh! I made you something this morning, let me go get it!”

Jane furrows her brows and waits for Lenny to come out.

“Here,” She comes stumbling in with her sketchbook and sits back in her seat, “I saw him in my dreams.”

When Jane looks a the piece of paper, she is at a loss for words. It’s a drawing of a boy in a pond of wilted flowers, a murky looking forest surrounds him, and dead animals lay at his side. This is the darkest drawing Lenny has ever created and it makes Jane’s heart sink at what this dream might mean. “Wow, um…Are those dead animals?”

“Yes, he controls the air…and he takes the energy of living things, it kind of scares me a little bit…” That made Jane even more worried because Lenny’s dreams never scared her. “But just a little, he’s actually a good person. He likes flowers, trees, he especially likes the sunlight.” She smiles.

“So, um, who is he? Does he have a name?”

Lenny hesitates, eyes drifting from Jane to the photo before giggling. “You should know his name,”

“How would I know his name?”

“He’s your son.”

He hasn’t heard from you since you walked out and you won’t answer any calls, it’s almost been 24 hours. It’s well into the morning and there’s not a trace of you anywhere. Maybe you were more than just offended by Margaret, maybe you’re angry—angry at your situation, angry at him for putting you in this position. But he doubts that you would just leave without telling him something. But he doesn’t know you, know you. He may have a connection with you but he hasn’t had much time to really pick up on your patterns and such. He can’t feel you anymore and that’s what scares him.

Taehyung resorted to his safe haven, his father’s home.

“I don’t know what to do.” His hand tightly held up a cup of green tea as he had to consciously make himself blink.

“And you said the last time you saw her was at your job,” He made a plate of stir-fry for him and Taehyung, knowing that was his son’s favorite, “why did she walk out?”

“Margaret wasn’t too thrilled that I brought her up from the downtown office to headquarters. I was shocked, she was going on about how she could be a gold digger and she even looked her up on the internet to screen her herself! I can’t believe her, she said she was trying to keep me safe but she was out of line. And of course, Y/n heard all of it. She came and told me that she didn’t think things were gonna work and then she just left.”

“Taehyung,” He took a seat, fork in hand, “she was hurt. On top of that, she’s probably worried about everything that’s going on with SRMA trying to screen everyone. And I haven’t known her for very long but I have a feeling that it takes a long time to gain her trust, just be patient.”

He sighs, not convinced that he should take the patient approach to this. “But I’m afraid something bad might’ve happened to her.”

“Maybe she went home- His father is cut off by the buzzing of his cellphone. The caller ID was unknown, yet, something in him felt the need to answer it.

“I’m sorry Taehyung, give me a minute, I should take this,” He quickly gets up and exits to the room, leaving Taehyung to dwell on his worry for you by himself.

He answers the phone and awaits the voice of whoever’s on the other end.

“Hello, is this Kim Taewoo?”

The female voice sounds the slightest bit familiar and his brows narrow.

“Yes, who am I speaking with?”

“It’s Jane…”

He nearly drops the phone and his eyes widen. “Jane…I haven’t heard from you in years, what’s going on?”

“I thought you’d be happy to hear from me,” She lets out a nervous laugh, “especially after all that’s happened. I just wanted to let you know that I-.” She pauses, silence filling his ears until she speaks again. “I’m doing well.”

“That’s great to hear Jane, now I’m sorry to sound so blunt but why are you calling?”

“I wasn’t going to tell anybody about this but I felt like I could trust you,” She takes a deep breath and sighs, “I found one of the children.”

“One of the children? I don’t know what you mean.”

“From the Flower Garden,” She’s surprised as to why he even asked that, she knows he remembers her taking him there, “I think it’s Yves. You remember, she was Winnie and Joon’s little girl, she has the full M2 gene through Winnie.”

“What?…How is that possible? I thought all of the children were lost and sent off to other countries, how could one end up here?”

“I thought so too, but none of the subjects from the other projects were like this. This has to be her.”

“And you’re sure?”

“I’ve never been more sure of anything in my life. We plan to run tests today, hopefully we’ll find out what we can do.” She pauses, “I’m sorry, I have to go, but please, don’t tell anyone.”

“Wait, Jane, you-”

Dial tone.

She tucks her phone into her pocket when she heard the second knock on her office door. “Come in.” The door opens and she looks up, “Senator,”

“I came back as soon as I heard,” He sits he briefcase on the chair near the door and smiles at the petite doctor. “agent Jeon told me he was able to get her. How is she?”

Jane breathes, taking a moment to compose her thoughts.

“She’s fine, a little on edge but she’s okay.” She sits down, head shaking in disbelief, “I can’t believe I actually found her, she’s my life’s work…”

“What was so special about her? You said all of the children in the Garden were closest to pure offspring of the M2 gene. Why is she so different from the other children?”

“She’s one of the few that I was able to begin mutation on her almost as soon as conception. She’s one of the closest things to M2 carriers of the past, my hope was that she would grow up getting help with her abilities, but she’s been alone all these years and I’m not even sure when she started showing signs.”

“But she does have the abilities?”

“There’s no way she could not have them. The way she was designed, her energy is in sync with living organisms, light, electricity, she can control it and sense it.”

“Wow,” Nelson steps back, “then she’s more powerful then the others you’ve told me about. And she’s the only one like that, that’s amazing…”

Jane brushes her hair back, shaking her head. “She’s not the only one, she has a coequal.”

“What? You never mentioned that,” He furrows his brows, “she had a twin?”

“No, no, she’s an only child. There was another woman, I found her at an adoption clinic. I told her about my work and she trusted me to take care of him after he was born. It was only a few weeks after conception when I started work on the baby, the alterations for him were just as intense as Yves. Both of there mothers had similar symptoms during their pregnancies but his mothers were more draining. I had to monitor her closely because he would deplete her energy, make her really sluggish, almost to the point where she’d pass out. While he is Yves coequal, his power is- It’s the opposite. He sucks up energy.”

“Did you make them like that on purpose?”

She bites her bottom lip in thought, “I did, I hoped that one day they’d parent the first pure M2 child.”

“So why aren’t we looking for him?”

“Because he-…He’s gone. I don’t know how they did it, but someone took all of them and sent them away. It’s out of pure luck that we found Yves, I highly doubt he’s even in this country.”

“Hypothetically,” Nelson makes a thoughtful expression, pacing with a hand under his chin, “what if we did find him, what if we had them both together?”

“Well, they’re a dyad. If they were to come together, use their powers, honestly…There’s no limit to what they’re be capable of, I really don’t know the extent of their abilities.”

“Well,” Nelson looks down at his watch, “I have a meeting in 20 minutes, whenever you think she’s ready to meet me, let me know.” He picks of his briefcase and closes the door with a click.

Jane cringes, thinking of the truths she withheld from him.

She loved Yuma like her own, but she never knew how to get past the dream that Lenny once shared with her. The little boy in her dream was Yuma—the child was capable of draining the life from animals, plants, anything living. What he could do with it, Jane had no idea, but she feared finding out.

- Flashback -

The hallways were your least favorite, it’s what you hated most about school.

Girls congregating near your locker, talking, they’re always talking. Some boys, they’re really loud and they like to run past you and everyone else minding their own business. It takes a while to sneak through the people walking to their classes, or whatever they’re doing. Only when you fight your locker to open it do you see your academic advisor looking at you, it looks like she’s trying to say something. Oh hell.

“Miss, Y/L/n, can I see you for a moment?”

You pop out your earbuds and stick them in your pocket, this should be fun. You pull your hair forward, dragging your feet to enter that wretched little office.

“Hi, Mrs. Williams,” You deadpan, taking a seat in the gray chair that you’re all too familiar with.

“Y/n, I heard you got into a fight.”

“Did you?” You sigh.

“Y/n, don’t give me that.” She’s heard your B.S for years now. “What happened? They said you were in the cafeteria, Lena Bale and you just fell out.”

“She doesn’t know when to shut up…”

“Y/n, you can’t keep getting into situations like this. That’s not gonna look good on your record if you ever plan to-”

“I don’t plan to do anything.”

“Don’t say that…” She takes her glasses off, auburn hair falling on her face when she presses her temples. “Tell me what happened.”

“I stepped on her foot by accident and she just went off, she ripped off my earphones screamed at me. I flipped my tray at her…She overreacted.” “Sweetheart, I know it’s not easy, but you have to try to be the bigger person. Your aunt has asked me to look after you, and I want you to keep your head on straight, keep you on the right path.”

“For what?!” You stand up. “Why does any of that matter to you? I’m tired of everyone thinking they know what’s best for me, like they think I have some bright future at a perfect college, with a perfect major, a perfect family, and perfect friends. That’s never gonna happen for me!”

“So, you saw the news last night then.” You deflate instantly, sinking back into your seat when you think of what you saw. It hurt you to hear them re-tell the story on the anniversary of the fire, of how so many people perished. including your parents.

“I knew Winnie, we went to the same college.” She’s told you that more times than you can count. “And you’re just like her, you have so much heart, but you have to learn to let people in, let people see who you really are.” You want to cry because you hate who you really are, who you really are has never been accepted by anyone. You want to curl into a corner and cry, but you can’t do that.

“Now, get to class.” She rubs your shoulder and you get to leave, earphones returning to your ears.

You’re taken from your sleep when you hear a knock on your door, by the breathing, the field of energy surrounding the individual, Jane Sato.

The door opens and you quickly shuffle out of bed, standing to your feet. When she enters, you see your clothes in her hands, they look washed and folded.

“We washed these for you,” Her black hair sits at her shoulders and her face looks as kind as it was last night, “I thought you might want to put them back on.” She sits them on the end of the bed and keeps her distance.

“I know you’re probably confused and that’s understandable. But I want you to know that we don’t mean any harm, you’re here for your own safety.”

“You kidnapped me for my own safety?” You finally speak.

“The news stations have speculated that there’s a, for lack of a better turn, Sato-cross experiment, on the run for the while now, I assume it was you.” She sits on the end of the bed as you walk towards the window that seems to give you the view of what you think is SRMA’s medical city.

“Why do you think that?” You play dumb.

“Yves,” She stands up and walks towards you, “you don’t have to hide around me.” She places a hand on your shoulder.

“That’s not my name. My name isn’t Yves,” You shy away from her hand, “it’s Y/n.”

“I’m sorry, Y/n. Listen, I know you’re upset, but you have to understand, I thought I’d never see you again. Your mother, Winnie, she said if anything ever happened to her, to take care of you. After the fire, all of the children like you were gone and sent off without my knowledge, I couldn’t forgive myself,” Her head hangs low, guilt clawing at her chest. “but here you are.”

You stare at her silently, eyes sweeping over her with the utmost apprehension. She doesn’t mean any harm, you know that much, but this is a lot to take in. Life for you was awful because of this woman. She made something, she took someone and changed their fate for her own desires.

“So, you knew my parents,” You sigh, placing your hand on the window, “they were like you,”

“They believed in my work, believed that people like you were possible. Gifted people who hold powers and ability’s unseen for centuries.”

“People like me,” You have to scoff, it’s amazing how she speaks about you with such high regard, “look…I can’t stay here.”

You quickly step past her to grab your clothes but she grabs your arm before thinking. “Wait-” Regretting her decision immediately, she holds her hand to herself, wincing.

“I- I’m sorry,” You panic, dropping the clothes and walking far from her, “I didn’t mean to do that.”

“No, no! it’s not your fault. It’s your body’s defense mechanism, like a deterrent, I was pretty sure you’d develop this. Has this happened a lot in your life?”

You nod.

“Y/n, have you ever been to a doctor?”

“No- Well, when I was little, but that’s about it, I don’t really get sick.”

“Please, just let me look at you,” She pleads, “your anatomy and your DNA isn’t like ours, it’s delicate and I want to make sure you’re okay. Please, I can tell you about your parents, we can talk about your powers, anything you want to know.”

Your parents? There had been very few people who could tell you about them. It was always the same run-around about them being scientists and doing their own thing. No one had ever really told you about who they were as individuals, why they were so passionate about their work with at the SRMA. This woman has all the answers, and all you have to do is withstand a little check-up.

“Fine.” You pick up your clothes and sit them on the nightstand. “But I need to make a phone call, I need to let my friends know I’m okay-”

“I’m sorry, but we have a strict policy of no phone usage on this side of the center, after the check-up I can take you to the garden and you can call there. You’re welcome to freshen up before you come to the lab,” She stands in the door frame, “I’ll have my assistant bring you.”

She leaves with a kind smile and when the door closes, you rip through your clothes in search of your phone. They took your phone. There’s no way for you to contact Taehyung, but he’ll find a way. Something in you tells you he’s looking for you.

He’s worried about you.

“I haven’t heard from her in a while,” Hoseok closes his laptop and gathers his books, “I had an FBI agent come to question me about her.”

“Seriously?” Wendy stops typing and takes her glasses off in thought. “Geez, I hope she’s not in any trouble,”

“I can’t imagine her being in any trouble,” Hoseok defends, knowing Wendy had always had an aversion to your ambiguous past, you didn’t seem to have any family anywhere when you all met. Wendy has always been curious.

He even called your job yesterday, they said you had been transferred to another branch of the company. When they directed him to the new number, the woman on the phone said you weren’t in. “I’ll see you Wednesday, I’m taking off tomorrow to dog sit at my sister’s place,”

“Well, have fun, I’ll let you know if I hear from her,” She waves him goodbye, eager to get back to her internet surfing.

On his drive to his sister’s house, all he can think about is you. He doesn’t have a clue on where you might be, you haven’t answered texts, emails, calls, nothing. In his effort to settle on a conclusion of your whereabouts, he remembers you telling him that you were with a friend. Oh no, no, no. What if that “friend” is the reason for your disappearance? He knows some of the things you’ve been through, the very few unfortunate relationships you’ve experienced. That what scares him the most. He recalls vividly when you were fresh to the city, you came over his apartment with Wendy and his roommate Jin, because your car battery died. It was too late for you to be out by yourself so he convinced you to stay. In the dead of night, when he got up to use the bathroom, he found you on the back patio, wide awake.

He asked if you were okay, genuinely searching for an answer when you nodded. In the smallest of voice, you said, “I can’t sleep in a place where there are people I don’t know,” you had just met his roommate that night, “I’m sorry, I know I probably look silly, it’s nothing against your roommate, I just-…It’s hard for me to relax, y’ know?” You laughed, your eyes glimmered with a hint of sadness for a moment.

That night he saw you. The sides of you that you hid in front of everyone, the sides that made you vulnerable—your fear. He saw a glimpse of your true self and it made him feel closer to you. He stayed up with you that whole night, and you talked until sunrise.

After that, he made a promise to himself to always check on you. He assumes that you have since gotten over that fear, or maybe you haven’t, who knows.

He parks his car, glad to have made a speedy arrival to his sister’s place so he can get some rest. When he takes his weekender out of the car, he used his key to get inside to greet her hyperactive puppy. He coos over her like always, picking her up and taking her to the couch where he switches on the TV. He doesn’t pay much attention to it, he just uses it as background noise to his scrolling through his phone.

That’s when he gets a call from an unknown number. Hoping it might be you, reluctantly, he answers.

“Hello?”

“Hi, is this Jung Hoseok?”

“It is, who is this?”

The voice is deep, distinct, definitely not someone he knows.

“I’m a friend of Y/n’s, I just wanted to know if you’ve seen her this morning or last night even-”

“Wait, wait-” He stops the mystery man on the other end, “are you the friend she said she was staying with?”

“Yeah,” He answers plainly, “but she left yesterday and I haven’t heard from her. I was worried so I called the only number she’s contacted within the week, have you heard from her?”

“No…I’ve been under the impression that she’s been with you. Who are you? She’s never mentioned you before and it’s not normal for her to just stay with anyone, are you related to her or-”

He hangs up.

“He hung up,” Hoseok looks down at the phone in shock, “who is that guy…”

Hoseok is beyond worried now, he needs to know the true identity of this supposed friend of yours. He looks down at the number and decides to throw it in a search engine to see if he can find anything. The first few digits aren’t super familiar, he doesn’t know many people with that area code. The results that pop up don’t help him too much, but it shows that the number is calling from The North Heights. Since when have you had friends over there?

Taehyung went to work to pick up a few things from his office, but rather than taking his usual means of transportation, he decides to take the subway. Knowing that’s what you used to get around, he hoped that just maybe he might pass you. For a moment he thought he might get recognized, but with a casual hoodie and jeans, he doubts anyone will even spare him a glance.

The crowded subway comes to a sudden stop. People are getting on and some are getting off, he eyes the crowd especially hard, in hopes that he might see you. To his disdain, it’s just a bunch of strangers, no one interesting.

He looks around, watching the woman across from him typing on her phone. Her aura is so gold, it’s glowing transparently around her. That color could mean many different things; happiness, eagerness, jealousy, and even apprehension. It all deepened on the hue, the shade of the aura. Whenever he sees that color, his mind gets a little foggy, and as soon as that happens, the color begins to fade and that person becomes blurred from his vision.

When he confided in his father about it, he told him to try not to look if it made him feel unwell. That’s when they discovered that his body was reacting to the aura, in what way? They never had the resources to further research it, Jane invented most of the practices that went into making him. Unfortunately, there were some things Taehyung went through physically that his father wouldn’t know where to start in trying to help.

When the subway halts at his stop, he gets off, maneuvering through the crowd so he could start his walk back to his dad’s place.

It’s so quiet. That’s what he first notices when he walks along the sidewalk. His eyes follow the people walking in all different directions, hoping you might be there. But he’s only fooling himself, if you were around, surely he’d feel your aura.

When he enters his dad’s home, he sees that he already left to start his work shift. Not enjoying the silence, he trudges over to the couch and turns the TV on. Of course, the news is on and they’re covering the same forecast for the third time today, probably. He turns a deaf ear to it and leans back, not feeling good enough to start working. The thought that you might have just decided to leave him, it crosses his mind. But you wouldn’t do that, would you? It seems he’s discovered more about his powers in the short time that he’s known you than he has in his entire life.

It might seem too early to say, but he feels like he needs you around. Every fiber in his body seems to crave your presence in your absence. He’s never had this type of draw to someone, not even of his loved ones, not even his father. It’s not a platonic need, not an emotional or physical need, he’s not sure what it is. But ever since you two somehow merged consciousness, he’s felt the need to go back to that part of his dreams. But he doesn’t know if he can do it without you.

Selfishly, that’s one of the reasons he wants to see you. He thinks that maybe if you two can connect like that again, you’ll both gain some clarity about who you really are and what you’re capable of.

His eyes try to stay open, but he soon falls victim to sleep.

Gasping for air, his lungs expel water, and his body jerks forward. When he takes in his surroundings, he’s in what looks like a lake it’s as dark as night. Swimming to the edge, he hoists himself out of it and stands to his feet looking around for some type of familiarity. When he fully takes in the new environment, he’s in the forest. Trees and plants arch up, branches and vines hanging on them, ropy and sharp edges on it. Nothing bright and bushy with life like one would expect. The leaves are dark, not wilted but dull and heavy.

Cold. He’s ice-cold. A sensation he’s seldom felt in these dreams before.

“What is this place…” He mumbles arms hugged to his sides to supply some warmth to himself. His bare feet drag on the forest floor—it feels so real, it’s hard to grasp that this is only a dream. Curious to find out what this place is, he turns back to the body of water he came from. Coughing due to the cold temperature, he runs back to the body of water and stops when he reaches the edge.

It’s frozen over.

“What is this?…” He gets on his knees, staring down at the now icy body of water. Rubbing some of the ice from the top of it, he looks closer and for a moment he sees a light. Something familiar, warm. When he leans down to get a better look, the ice breaks under his weight, a sound that nearly shreds his eardrums before the cold abyss swallows him whole.

When he opens his eyes, he’s in the same darkness he had been in with you, and he’s completely dry, not a drop of water on him.

Warmth.

He looks around, gathering that this place looks similar to where he just was, but the plants are thriving bright green, the fruit is growing abundantly. Everything looks dewy, supple, ripe—nothing he’s ever seen before.

Light. The farther he walks towards it, the more it calls him—draws him in. Before he realizes it, he’s running, he’s running towards it. The closer he gets, the better he can see a silhouette, it looks like your silhouette.

“Y/n?…” He whispers, eyes narrowing when he notices you grow further away from him as he tries to get closer. “Y/n!” Desperately, he calls your name.

Why aren’t you looking back at him, can’t you hear him?

When he manages to get close enough to the aura surrounding you, he can only see the form of your body, almost appearing bare. It’s obvious that he’s not making any progress trying to follow you, so he stops, and that’s when you stop moving.

He’s entranced in the intense glow emitting from you, just trying to make out your frame. Suddenly, you start to look around, head-turning left to right, as if you weren’t sure where you were. All while you obliviously look around, he’s thrumming in desperation to get closer. Physically, his energy responds so strongly to you.

He can’t take the distance anymore, he takes a step towards you and he cringes when you release a bloodcurdling screech. Your body collapses and all he can see is darkness.

The warmth ceases, and he’s cold once again.

Jane sits idly by your side, gazing down at the IV in your hand and the sticky monitors all over your forehead. You began to toss a bit, a deep furrow in your brows.

Her assistant, Peony, is accompanying in your check-up. In the young doctor’s eyes, this is the highest honor Jane could give anyone working by her side. Not only is this a top-secret project, but no medical professional has ever gotten this close to a child of the Flower Garden. They were assumed to have been lost, but here you are, a full-grown woman with mysteries soon to be discovered.

“Dr. Sato,” She speaks softly, eyes not leaving the brain activity monitor for a moment, “the activity just spiked like crazy, I don’t know what’s going.”

“Let me see,” Reluctantly, she leaves your side to observe the monitor and she’s taken aback, “her brain activity is going to be much different than ours, but that is a bit unusual-”

The lights flicker.

“What was that?” Her assistant glances at you, watching your fingers twitch erratically.

“The power in this facility state-of-the-art, we don’t get shortages or anything like that because we’re not running off of the city’s power,” Jane furrows her brows, looking up at the lights that have since gone back to normal, “it must be her,”

It burns, it feels like your blood is on fire. The machines in the room, the lights on the ceiling, everything charged by electricity is connecting to you. Screaming at the top of your lungs, you try to wake yourself up.

You want to wake up, it’s too much.

Peony seeks reassurance from Jane with wide eyes, pushing her glasses up her nose out of nervous habit. They’re eyes drift over to your arms, and the glowing veins are something they’ve seen in other experiments. You have it too.

Both women duck down when they hear the building’s power surge. “Dr. Sato, what’s going on- Ah!”

“Dr. Sato, I think we should turn it off!” Peony holds her hands to her ears as Jane tries to turn off the monitor that’s now flashing bright colors that it definitely wasn’t meant to do.

She flips the switch off, brows furrowed when it does nothing at all. “It’s not shutting off- She’s- She’s powering it.”

The alarm starts blaring a painful screeching to their ears, the lights glow brighter, so much so that they look like they’ll pop. Peony’s mind immediately goes to the other patients in the building and she fears you might be affecting them.

Instinctively, she runs to the com so she can call an emergency code. Jane blocks her way to the phone, “No! Don’t call, she’s doing this, we just need to wake her,” Peony is struck with fear, she’s never seen anything like this.

“Y/n,” Gently, Jane shakes you a little, not fearing your ability to unintentionally hurt her.  “Y/n, wake up,” Biting her lip, she hesitates to but calls you by the name she knows you by, “Yves, wake up,”

Slowly, your eyes flutter open and your brows narrow at the now poorly lit room.

“Sweetheart,” Jane touches your arm lightly, “how do you feel?”

“I have a headache,” You hold your forehead, “what happened to the lights?”

“As soon as your brain activity started spiking, the lights, the fire alarm, my equipment—everything started overcharging, it was you. What were you dreaming about?” Jane inquires, “Peony, take notes on my laptop.”

Still, a bit shaken, Peony walks over to the desk and opens up the laptop.

You glance over at the assistant, Jane notices your hesitance. “Peony will be by my side as we do further testing, you can trust her.”

“I was in a garden, I think that’s what it was…I felt overwhelmed like I was connecting to something, I was trying to wake up.”

Jane stands, a notepad and a pen in her hands so she can have personal notes.

You pull the monitors off as you get out of the bed and walk towards the door, you open it before they can stop you. Jane doesn’t mind though, she glances at you as you peek out there and see the hallway lights off.

Have security check the circuit breaker, none of the 4% are powerful enough to cause something like this.

You clearly hear a male voice coming from one of the lower floors and it really hits you—you’re powerful enough to knock the power out of this huge building. Closing the door softly, you take a step back. For your entire life, you’ve wondered why you were given these powers, why it had to be you. If you really possess the gifts she says, how come you’re so unfamiliar with it? Taehyung didn’t as distanced from his powers as you but he still understood them better, he had his father there as support. But you had no family, no friends, you had no one.

“What’s the 4%?” You look at both of them, patiently awaiting an answer.

“How did you know about that?” Peony furrows her brows.

“I heard someone say it just now, somewhere downstairs, what is it?”

“Wow, I knew your sense was heightened, but your hearing is incredible,” She smiles, still taken buy all you can do. Your expression doesn’t change though and she clears her throat to answer your question.

“The 4% are individuals all possess the M2 gene. The M2-gene is a genetic trait passed down to a handful of humans, it’s supernatural gifting. I devoted the final project for my doctorate to prove it’s existence.”

She goes on to explain the M2-gene, the Flower Garden, the experiments, all the things Taehyung’s father had told you. The treatments, the experimenting process, she rambles on about it but one thing she hasn’t mentioned, Taehyung. If his father was right, she should be eager to tell you about him, even mention that you had someone out there who had powers similar to yours. You wished you had the powers Taehyung had, then you’d be able to read her. His ability probably came in handy when it came to interacting with you, you weren’t always truthful. You bet he’s wondering where you are and you wish you could tell him, but you fear to expose him to Jane. So you’ll suffer alone until you can find a way to leave. You don’t have to kindest of feelings towards her but she seems to care, that puts your mind at rest for right now.

You interrupt her, “Did you really know my parents? Personally,”

She falls silent, sitting down her notepad. “I did, and I know they’d do anything to be with you now.”

“Tell me about them,” You sit down, “my aunt and uncle didn’t talk about them much…”

“That’s where you were?” She never knew where they sent you. “Do you still live with them-”

“No, my uncle kicked me out when I was eighteen, I haven’t seen or heard from them since. I want to know everything you know about my birth parents, if you’re going to hold me here against my will,” Suddenly, the lights flicker back on and the building hums, the power coming back on, “I think you owe me at least that,”

“Alright,” She swallows, walking to the door and opening it up, “I have a section dedicated to all of the doctors and scientist who helped me, everything I know about them is there.”

“Can you take me there?” You walk up to her, eager to finally learn something about them that wasn’t just a picture that you stole from Taehyung.

You want to know who you are, where you came from—who you would have been had you met them.

*

She’s showing you everything you’ve asked to see without hesitation. It is so surreal. The person you had always imagined behind the name Dr. Sato acted much differently in your mind. Now that you’re standing face-to-face with the woman you cursed throughout your teen years in a moment of frustration – but you’re not angry. She looks at you with infatuation, complete and utter infatuation. She tries to make it subtle but with her little henchmen following her every move and writing down your answer to every question, it’s obvious she has a tiny obsession. That’s reasonable.

“This was your mother’s journal and your father’s bracelet with your name on it,” Jane opens a drawer and hands you a purple journal and a thin gold bracelet with a little plaque on it, “she tried to write down every little thing about the pregnancy, and things she wanted to tell you when you got older. And your dad had the bracelet made just a few days after you were born, he was gonna give it to you when you got a little bigger. I hope I could give it to you one day,”

With hesitant hands, you take the dainty bracelet, admiring it and the spelling of  Yves in delicate calligraphy. Closing the bracelet in your fist, you open the journal. A smile comes to your face when you see the inconsistency in some of the manuscripts, a problem you used to struggle with. As hard as you try, you can’t bring yourself to read any of it. Because once you’ve read it, the words she dreamed to tell you, they’d be out in the open. No more wondering. What if you were disappointing? What if the hopes and dreams she had for you were things you couldn’t amount to, would she be proud of who you are? You always hoped she would.

“I don’t have anything from my parents,” You close the journal holding it to yourself protectively, “thank you.”

“Of course,” She glances down at your clenched fist. “Do you want to wear it? I can put it on for you,” She offers, anxious to see if you’ll brush her off or let her help, “it clips on and off-”

“I’m fine, thanks…” You clear your throat, walking off to the other side of the little museum-like space. Suddenly, as if you were back in the dream realm, you sense something hot. It’s just for a split second but it was so weird, you almost dropped the journal. You must have looked spooked because Jane is looking at you with concerned eyes.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just a little tired, I think I need to get some sleep, it’s been a long day,” You see if she’ll take the bait and let you go to your room.

“Oh! I’m sorry, of course, yes, I can imagine you’re exhausted. You’re welcome to stay in here a little longer and you know where your room, I’ll see you later,” She leaves the room with Peony on her tail and you wait until you hear their footsteps grow further before you let yourself react.

“Huh…” You look down at the journal, still not ready to read it, but even having it in your hands is enough right now. Placing your hand on the window, you pray that Taehyung can wait for you a little longer – just until you’ve found what you’re looking for.

The senator is on his way to a conference on the other side of the city, he’s been asked to talk about the new policy. It’s been deemed necessary for all citizens born between 1992 and 1998, it’s newly been suggested that all citizens consider visiting SRMA.

Just when he thought things were getting interesting, it gets more interesting. He gets a call from agent Jeon. As he holds the phone to his ear, his relaxed expression twists into one of confusion when Jungkook rambles on. “Wait, wait, the memorial?”

Jungkook is a safe distance away from the lake, gazing at it with more confusion than curiosity, “Yeah, the gates and the Mantra in the garden is just- It’s- it’s all on fire.”

In the large garden where the memory of Lenny and the Flower Garden lay, the 8-foot gate and the once-grand plaque in the middle of the garden burns. The letters spelling Jane’s younger sister’s full name, Lenoir, melt before their eyes.

Humans can be morphed into something greater, stronger, and far more beautiful through science and mutation. Through technological advancements, the idea of physical imperfections, chronic illness, genetic disorder, and even the common cold will be made history through rigorous genetic and biological alterations. There is no denying that a human’s DNA is beautifully made, but the M-2 gene will usher in a new being, radically transforming humans with abilities beyond our comprehension. 

All of that was once in the middle of the garden in front of the fountain, and it’s up in flames, along with the water in the fountain.

“I’ve never seen anything like this, it’s definitely the work of someone but I’m not sure why anyone would do this here.” Jungkook looks around, see no other part of the garden is touched, 

“This part of the facility is blocked off from the public and some of the staff if someone was trying to make a statement, it looks like they were making it to Dr. Sato personally.”

The firemen frantically raced to put the fire out, but they’re too late. The gates are destroyed, the plaque and the fountain still have flames that devour the former beauty.

Greene groans, pressing his temples firmly. “Does she know about this? She’s working on something really important right now, we don’t need her upset about this right now.”

“Okay, sir,” He sighs, “but she comes out here almost every morning, she’s gonna find out.”

*

In the forest outside of the facility, a pale-skinned dark figure sits in the highest tree, watching the little haven go up in flames with a devious smile. His hands have a lingering burn but that will always fade in time, this was worth it. The thought of Jane’s face when she sees this, one might have pity but the pain she’s put him through, the pain she’s caused – she can’t ignore this.

[ivabellini]

My #Instagram #foto #cultura: https://ift.tt/2PzpVzX | #Repost from @maas.art with @regram.app ... Here's my drawing of @blakelively from last year. I never grow tired of drawing Blake (I think this is the 4th or 5th one i did of her) and will probably do a new one soon, although this is probably my favourite ive done of her so far. #TBT This sketch was done in graphite and white charcoal on toned strathmore paper. Its 11" x 14"⠀⠀⠀ #maasart #blakelively #ryanreynolds #lively #drawing #portrait #sketch #illustration #charcoal #graphite #ala #cultura

[signor-signor]

2018 - My contributions to SaveWOY

And so, another year without complete knowledge of Wander Over Yonder’s shelved third season has gone by. Sometimes I compare the show’s current situation to the backstory of Dave, the octopus and main antagonist of the 2014 DreamWorks film, Penguins of Madagascar - you can guess which TV shows represent the penguins in said backstory. Rather than getting revenge on the successful shows or getting back at Disney and the viewers for not showing any affection for WOY, we fans develop our own means to let them know that WOY still means a lot to us. As 2018 draws to a close, let’s look back on the stuff I made to build more awareness of the show to the world since I joined Tumblr. The bolded text has a link.

LEGO Star Nomad - After getting a Volkswagen Beetle and Camper Van LEGO, I was inspired to do something no other Wander fan has ever done before. I started working on it with LEGO Digital Designer in December 27th, 2017, and I got the overall structure done in ten days. I did have to fix it up at least couple of times afterwards, but it’s quite an amazing sight nonetheless.

Lord Hater’s little rant - Made just in time for Keith Ferguson’s birthday, this illustration drew some inspiration from what Tamatoa says after the credits of Moana. It’s also to give the executives and most viewers a subtle note regarding their obsession with Gravity Falls and the effect it has on WOY.

Fan-Made DVD/Blu-Ray covers - Released on May 4th (Star Wars Day), these pieces are patterned after the pictures for the Star Wars trilogy (IV-VI) on VHS. If WOY had a third season, it would be cool to have a perfectly complete set in this format.

WOY S3 Prediction Polls - Much like SaveWOY Thought of the Week (ongoing since June 2017), the polls are exclusive to Twitter. 27 have been made so far, one of which was about the choice for a company that deserves to own the rights to the show (most users voted for Netflix owning the rights).

The First 5 Years - One of my biggest achievements made with Adobe Illustrator to date. With more than 140 faces/figures and a few indicators of the existence of a third season, this image could very well be crown jewel of every fan art I’ve ever done. If this isn’t enough to convince Disney how much I care about the show, I don’t know what is.

Summary of my prediction of the 3rd season premiere - You’d think that with all the hints we’ve accumulated, we’d have someone coming up with an idea of how S3 would play out by now. The crew are still tight-lipped after more than two years, so I had this “fine, I’ll do it myself” moment. I brainstormed this idea for a hypothetical S3 premiere in order to appease the fans, inspire them, and motivate them. I also came up with the three new mains (not official) and a song to go with my summary.

Lastly, since September, I’ve been uploading close-ups of characters on my First 5 Years fan art on birthdates of the voice actors who performed them. So far, only four of them noticed and appreciated what I did (Charlie Adler, Kevin Michael Richardson, Ken Marino, Josh Sussman).

So there you have it.

@crackmccraigen, @suspendersofdisbelief, @owner-of-wendys, @atalkingmagpie, @benbalistreri, @skulptduggery, and those who were involved in the show, I know you’re all busy working on other projects, but stopping a show after two seasons when one more season was planned out to close it out right was most definitely an imbecilic move on Disney’s part. No question. The executives didn’t think giving Fish Hooks a third and final season would be a mistake - it ended perfectly when it got three seasons and hence no SaveFH/SaveFishHooks. Anyway, you just keep going about your business while the fans continue to spread awareness.

Fans of overrated shows, all I ask is that you show some sympathy for Wander fans and help them talk some sense into the executives. I know it’s a long shot, but any world that leaves something ominous and unexplained until the end of time just wouldn’t be right. It’s plain to see that nobody asked for WOY to get canceled. In fact, if every Disney XD viewer had shown even the slightest interest in the show, we’d know everything about that third season by now. Nickelodeon gave Hey Arnold! closure, Cartoon Network gave Samurai Jack closure (albeit on the Adult Swim block), so it shouldn’t be that difficult for Disney to give WOY closure, or at least get some other company (maybe Netflix) to do it for them. You don’t have to abandon your favorite fandoms to save this show. I’m currently interested in Steven Universe and OK K.O., but that doesn’t preclude the fact that I want to see what happens after WOY’s second season. So go ahead, show your support in every possible way.

As for me, something new in my life will be happening. In the next four months, I’ll be attending a four-month long class learning to be an engineering technician, so my posts won’t be as frequent as they were before. Every now and then, I’ll continue to check on the status of SaveWOY as well as provide Thoughts of the Week and S3 Prediction Polls on Twitter (if possible). And guess what, in March of 2019, it will have been three years since SaveWOY launched. That’s longer than the period between the S1 premiere and the S2 finale (2 years and 9 months, if you count The Greatest to be the true premiere)! Maybe some of you might come up with something to commemorate the occasion.

Keep your chins up, keep your patience and sanity, and keep the campaign going!

@disneyanimation

@disneytva

@disneyxd

[6mike6end6]

INSIDE LIFE Studies based on the specimens from the Gallery of Paleontology and Compared Anatomy. Ive done 6 sessions at the museum over 6 months. I definitely want to go there more regularly in the near future. All those designs are also available as tattoos. LONDON-> 1st-4th of October Booking/ mikeend666@gmail.com or dm #drawing #drawingstudy #bones #anatomy #tattoo #flashtattoo #tattooflash #paris #paristattoo #tattooparis #tatouage #blackwork #blackworktattoo #blacktraditional #parloiruk #dsrupttt #tttism #tatowierung #illustration #skulltattoo #skeletontattoo (at Galerie de Paléontologie et d'Anatomie comparée) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0iZAGIlOcH/?igshid=a0pt9t58cdnm

[the59er]

2021: March

Holy macaroni, March has ended!

So as per usual, recapping my life for my future self.

1st Mar 2021 One of my ways of picking myself up is by buying myself flowers.

Do I sense an episode coming? Or am I just hormonal? It’s too early to tell. It’s 10mins past midnight as Im typing this and I feel like something is missing.

2nd March 2021 Surprisingly mellow day. Heard some tea from work :( Distracted and calmed myself down by photoshopping this foto we took on my birthday back in Jan lol

3rd March 2021 Had significant progress on the deck that I was supposed to be done with, 2 weeks ago. Also impulsively ordered cookies from twili......

4th March 2021 J’s birthday! & not to blow my own trumpet BUT I actually love this foto I took of him lol:

Earlier today I played chauffeur for my Dad to and fro UMMC. So thankful. Next month when Im finally back to WFO, I wont have this much excess time with my folks again 😢

5th March 2021 Some work mishap enabled me to only start working after lunchtime. Dentist day. COD my shoes to my carousell buyer afterwards. Received cookies I ordered 2 days ago. Delicious but fat and tomorrow is my weigh-in :(

6th Mar 2021 Hospital. Managed to not gain from my previous visit. Grabbed groceries while waiting for Mars to finish class & we bumped into Naqi! 💙 Lunch was fatbirdramen 😋 I spent my night doodling & trying to sell myself to illustrate for Y’s book! My last commission for a book was for TJ how many years ago.. Im praying this will turn out well 😅

7th Mar 2021 Stayed home because I felt my mood going down so I wouldnt want to ruin it for others through my forced socializing. So stoked that Ocean’s 11, 12 AND Thirteen are now on Netflix! 

I love the team! Cant decide whether my favourite is “the mormon twins”, Basher, Rusty or Rueben? Or maybe even Danny himself!

8th Mar 2021 Finished my very first drawing with my apple pencil 😊

Im not sure how it looks like on other people’s eyes but I personally love it primarily because it was a fun experience 😊😊

However as usual I do not gain as much traction on my instagram anymore. Id be lying if I say Im not sad about it, because I am. I use instagram to share my story to broader people because a) I dont have that many friends in the first place so I can’t be bugging these same few friends all the time otherwise they’d be annoyed 😅 hence instagram to dump my stories and doodles in; and b) Because of point a), I quite enjoy making new friends albeit online. BUT due to the new algorithm, no traction = no engagement from my online buds ☹️

9th Mar 2021 I ordered taco from some random taco place I found while searching for “taco” on Grab and realised it’s Taco Tuesday!

10th Mar 2021 Im still on my Kings of Leon binge.. I am obsessed. They make me feel young and hopeful, just like how I felt back in uni, when everything was easy. Roads felt wider. I was carefree. 

11th Mar 2021 I can’t recall what happened :(

12th Mar 2021 My work email was acting up all morning so couldn't get jackshit done. Left for lunch at teppan which tasted “healthier” due to lack of MSG (I assumed). Came back to 90 emails in my inbox 🤯 so as soon as I clocked out I went out again for my usual gtl & whitebox because I deserved it! Spent my night browsing for handbags that can fit my ipad..

13th Mar 2021 Hospital follow up from last week. Lost a kg 😊 We went to Gardens for lunch and I sort of accidentally bought a bag 😳 It ticks off my important criteria of fitting the ipad 😊 BUT I still feel a bit guilty about dropping a significant sum even though Ive worked hard for it ☹️

14th Mar 2021 Met up with DLN! Always nice to see the face you used to always see every other weekend, again 😊 

15th Mar 2021 Succumbed to fever 🤒 So I just spent my Monday taking it easy. Received the cookies that I ordered from twili (again!) but this time I also ordered for J which I plan to deliver via goget tomorrow!

16th Mar 2021 Packed up the care package for J’s belated birthday 🥳 Runner was late, but he drove fast enought to reach J’s place at the end of the world in less than 30 minutes 😳 I wished I had taken a picture of the care package, it was really fun to do!

17th Mar 2021 I think few days ago I sent my first draft to Y for her book and I am currently progressing on the next chapter. Praying so hard she actually likes it and not just take it because she has paid a deposit for it 😩

18th Mar 2021 Slept really late because was trying to be as free as possible since I will be on leave tomorrow.

19th Mar 2021 Wasted my off day on a work call that lasted all morning ☹️ Was late to COD my dress to my carousell buyer. Brought my office laptop out with me so I can work while I lunch.

OU was quite empty and it never fails to make me feel 16 again. Unfortunately the shop I meant to go to for my Mom’s handbag had shut down ages ago when I asked the concierge where it was 😔 As soon as I got home, I immediately ordered the bag online.

20th Mar 2021 Happy birthday to Nadow 😊 & happy birthday to my bionic self! I had my scoliosis corrective surgery more than 10 years ago and until now it’s one of the best memories in my life. 

via rubyuzi

Vacuumed our living room before leaving to see J! We had a 5-hour lunch 😂

21st Mar 2021 Aqiaqi dropped by ❤️

22nd Mar 2021 So the bag that I ordered for Mom arrived, UNFORTUNATELY she finds it too big. I knew my first choice (which she eschewed in a flash) was the actual RIGHT choice for her, which kind of made me proud with the fact that I know her taste better than she knows her own taste 😂. But it’s still a very good looking, sturdy bag:

(Mom and I have a weakness for croc-effect bags lol). I did think about keeping this for myself but I already bought a bag last week! 

23rd Mar 2021 Budget meeting. Later that night my brother came back with bulletproof coffee which was apt because I had to get more work done.

I crashed at 130am which in my opinion isn’t that bad. I honestly thought the coffee would keep me up all night.

24th Mar 2021 Woke up to a very annoying email reply from his highness. & Im not sure if it’s placebo effect or not but Id like to think that last night’s bulletproof coffee gave me more energy today. 🤔

25th Mar 2021 Thanks to Sephora sale, total of the skin stuff I bought did not feel as daunting. 20% sounds little but it’s actually quite significant. 

26th Mar 2021 Off day! Also our budget meeting next Monday is canceled 🎉 Spent the day with @nevermind-doesntmatter​ ! Finally put the birthday gift card I received from my brother & spent them on office shirts & a pair of cord pants which I was initially very excited about until I tried them on at home and it’s SUPER high waisted (my rib cage does not bode well with it ☹️). Other highlight of the day was my parcel from Espanyol arrived 🎉 It’s the other new bag for Mom!

27th Mar 2021 After a year+, Mom finally got to dress up & go for kenduri today & she used the new bag so it was perfect timing that it arrived yesterday 🥰 Lunched & coffee at copper pot.

28th Mar 2021 Errands Sunday. Sent my carousold, dropped off old clothes at the clothes bin, got my matcha & HH suggested we go visit afiq @ movement. I love afiq’s coffee but since I was still sipping on my matcha, I had to forego his fix.

Also today made me look at the calendar and...

..I still have no idea what I plan to do with my life. I also dont think I have achieved anything since the past 3 months 😕

29th Mar 2021 Tehj’s birthday! 🎂  However, not feeling very excellent (mood wise) but forced my way through.

Slapping the frown away via rubyuzi.

30th Mar 2021 Bit annoyed with someone at work for not understanding my definition of a mockup. Dont you hate it when you get scolded over something that is NOT your fault? 🙄

31st Mar 2021 Dad off to kebun leaving me & Mom to lunch just the both of us. Got pretty bummed over something at work but I guess it’s just not my time..

..which was not a great ending to my March. Typing this at 1:34am on April fool’s day. I hope my April wont end up being a joke 🙏🏼

[lucyrevellstudioiiib]

Reflective Diary

Week 1

In class a small group of us worked through a “lotus” brainstorm exercise to dig deeper into wellbeing factors affected by stress in the city. This was useful as our full attention was on digging deeper into specific factors, rather than jumping around many like in a mind map. This exercise pushed us to think of 8 different “stems” from each key idea, getting us to think out of the box a bit. This was helpful to think of smaller wellbeing issues we might have missed if we only focused on the big ones. 

Week 2

This week Henry and I worked well together. We have a clear focus on sensory overload in retail spaces and how this affects those with neurological differences. At the beginning of this week, we worked on some journey maps to better understand the situation and later in the week we began drafting points for our proposal. We made a lot of progress this week and treated our selves to a team bonding beverage. 

Week 3

We received lots of great feedback this week! We found that talking to other groups was really helpful - it was also interesting to see what everyone else was working on. Above is the photo of some feedback we received - but what was more useful were the conversations we had with other teams as we could bounce ideas off each other. 

Week 4

This week Henry and I finished up the proposal - we’re quite happy with the final result! We worked on the presentation and devised a plan to play a track while we’re speaking - making it harder for the audience to focus - showing them what it can be like for those with neurological differences when in a supermarket. We talked with Donald and had a plan for him to cut us off and tell us to turn the noise down. This went well in the presentation and some of our classmates didn’t know it was planned! I’m happy with how our presentation went, and enjoyed looking at everyone else’s work :) 

Week 5

After last week I have switched brief and have joined Sophie and Keely and their original brief that focuses on kids taking more risks and engaging more with the outdoors. I’m excited about starting this brief and focusing on something new! 

Week 6

This week and last week we brainstormed what we want to do with this brief. We’ve got the idea for three touch points to be an event as the main touchpoint, a city installation for the hype, and a take home kit from the event. The event would be inspired by the weet-bix triathlon but would be for families. We got some good feedback from some 4th years which was helpful and made us think more about our primary and secondary audiences and the tangible idea. 

Week 7

This week we started testing ideas for the city installation playground by prototyping and using basic props to test a scenario. This was useful and helped us to see what elements will get what kind of reaction, and action. 

Week 8

This week I felt inspired after the talk we had from the 4th years. We’ve had our idea for a long time but haven’t done much about it yet. We starting brainstorming the identity or brand of the event and the organisation. When thinking of symbols and icons that could be used I thought of gumboots. Putting on gumboots is a sign that you’re about to get dirty. They also remind me of being a kid and playing outside. We started brainstorming kids legs in gumboots in lots of wacky scenarios. They need to be crazy enough that it’s obvious we aren’t actually telling the kids to do these things - we’re aiming for them to be humorous, silly, vibrant and fun, but refined. 

Week 9 

This week we planned our presentation! We also all attended the climate change protest which felt very powerful and reminded why I want to work on projects that will make a different. 

Week 10 

This week we made a lot of progress. The interim was helpful and posed some good things to think about and change. One point of feedback was to think about how we present and make the initiative clear through a story perhaps to show how the whole system would work.

Another point was to add more colour to the station cards. I have tried a couple of different ways to do this but I feel it’s too much on the front to add colour so i think it works well to have the back of the cards in colour.

The website needs some work. We have introduced a textured visual element across the project so we need to continue that through all touch points. We are thinking about swapping jobs and working on different elements to get fresh eyes on the touchpoints and make progress.

Week 11

The weekend Sophie and I worked on the project and made some changes to the touchpoints and how they fit into the journey. We realised the information was repeated a lot across the cards and the book and the website. To sort this out we’ve made the cards “collector cards” that have less info about why risk is good. This info is then on the web and inside the parent manual that will be given out at school and inside the risk kit when bought online. To ensure the info can still be read on site at the risk stations we will mock up a sign that would be at the site. Some users may just come across the sites without knowing the initiative so this is a good way to tell them about it. I also went to the beach for a breather!!

Week 12

This week everything is coming together - we’re printing a lot of our touch points as we feel the tactile element is important to the project. I’m really happy with how the printing it going. I finally feel proud of the project! 

I quite enjoyed this project and mainly the creative freedom of this paper. It was an insightful opportunity to be able to work on something that feels quite real and that could actually exist. I feel like that made me more passionate and want to work hard. I feel like I'm still finding my style and perhaps this isn't exactly my style yet but I have been able to work on my illustration skills in this project which I haven't done in many other projects yet. If I were to do this project again I would have picked a brief that wasn't to do with kids - for some reason I've realised Ive done many projects with kids as a focal point and id like to work on something with people my age being the main audience. Overall I liked this project and brief and I feel like it really came together when we printed everything. :-) 

[topicprinter]

I almost didn't make a post this year, mostly because Ive been to busy, and well, uninspired i guess. But i decided hey, i already did 4, why not keep it up. so, hopefully you guys enjoy, ill keep it short and sweet, you can ask any questions you like.quick back story, my wife and i bought a bagel/coffee shop in June of 2015. Its been quite the experience learning how to be a business owner. We were 22/28 respectively when we bought it. Here are links to my prior Reddit posts on the shop, if anyone wants to read them.2018 https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/8ueecf/wow_its_already_year_of_owning_my_first_small/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x2017https://www.reddit.com/r/smallbusiness/comments/6inm0g/30_growth_our_2nd_year_in_the_books_of_owning_a/2016https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/comments/43aeny/the_good_the_bad_the_bagel/​The 4th year of ownership has probably been the easiest, though that's relative! still a lot of challenges this year for sure. first, quickly the numbers. This year we saw 18% year over year growth, with an average daily sales of $1264 and a yearly gross of $450k. when we took over, the business had done $160k and $515/day over its previous year. This is all in 600sqft, ( 150 kitchen, 100 front house, 150 dining area, 200 basement). We have also developed quite the local base of customers. When we took ownership, less than 25% of our total sales were people who lived or worked in the area. Its now easily 60-70% of our base. It helps that are particular are is undergoing gentrification.we now have the best crew we have ever had! we have 3 full time employees, and 4 part time, tho when college starts in a few weeks that will drop by 1. We have several multi year employees now, and have created a reliable staff who loves their jobs. We now pay a base pay of $12-$16, plus tips run $4-7/hr. This has also helped us develop a stellar reputation for our AMAZING service. Our staff loves our customers, and vice versa. This helps, along with our constant striving for high quality food, us maintain an impeccable rating on social review platforms.Unemployment here in Reno has remained under 4% which has made hiring difficult and driven up wagesWe participated in a university marketing course this year, as sort of a class project, and this has helped us in a lot of ways. We are definitely doing more now to market ourselves better. The wife and I are still working quite a bit, but it has improved since the first years. We now work 38-48 hrs per week, with occasional 3 days weekends. This has been great for our health, as the first few years we often worked 60-80hrs with no days off for weeks on end.we managed to solve the huge problem of our AC issues before this summer started. Long story short, our unit was no designed to handle the amount of equipment, people and operations we have. Its was old and inefficient. Temps were regularly 80-85* in front and 82-92* in the kitchen, depending on how hot it was outside. it would cost $10k to put a new unit in (rooftop) and we weren't about to pay that. Our landlord is useless. So this year, we installed a 1600sqft Evap cooler in one of our kitchen windows ( humidity here is between 8-15% during the summer) and it has been a work horse! kitchen temps between 68-75*. we did have to buy a supplemental window AC unit for the front , but with a few well placed fans, the front has been between 72-77*. This has been a huge WIN for us, and saved us $300 a month on electric ( we had 3 portables last summer that ate so much power)We also performed a renovation on New years of our front of house. We polished our concrete floors ( they had this black glue on them from when they had lam. in the past), reorganized our layout to create better flow and more space, and installed digital menu boards. We also simplified our menu, removing some under performers and creating a few new options. We try to do this every so often, and now with digital menu boards we can. We even made our own artwork for it on Adobe illustrator. We also made a move to serve our food to-go. in such a small space (we have 12 total seats inside, then about 28 seats outside), it makes the most sense, especially since 70% of our orders were already to go anyway. People are welcome to stay and hang out, but this helps our efficiency (reduces steps and confusion in the kitchen), and encourages the movement of people.Looking back, we have come so far. We have created so much efficiency in our space compared to when we first took over. We operate like a well oiled machine, and our ticket times never get above 5-10* minutes. In fact, when its not crazy busy, most orders go out in under 4min. We have learned a lot, and have some new challenges this year, including the sale of the building we are in. Ive attached a few pics, if you have any questions i will do my best to answer.pics https://imgur.com/a/MWDYkk6

[timobook]

Learning Python 4th Edition

Learning Python 4th Edition Download About This Book This section underscores some important points about this book in general, regardless of its edition number. No book addresses every possible audience, so it’s important to understand a book’s goals up front. This Book’s Prerequisites  There are no absolute prerequisites to speak of, really. Both true beginners and crusty programming veterans have used this book successfully. If you are motivated to learn Python, this text will probably work for you. In general, though, I have found that any exposure to programming or scripting before this book can be helpful, even if not required for every reader. This book is designed to be an introductory-level Python text for programmers.* It may not be an ideal text for someone who has never touched a computer before (for instance, we’re not going to spend any time exploring what a computer is), but I haven’t made many assumptions about your programming background or education. On the other hand, I won’t insult readers by assuming they are “dummies,” either, whatever that means—it’s easy to do useful things in Python, and this book will show you how. The text occasionally contrasts Python with languages such as C, C++, Java, and Pascal, but you can safely ignore these comparisons if you haven’t used such languages in the past This Book’s Style and Structure This book is based on training materials developed for a three-day hands-on Python course. You’ll find quizzes at the end of each chapter, and exercises at the end of the last chapter of each part. Solutions to chapter quizzes appear in the chapters themselves, and solutions to part exercises show up in Appendix B. The quizzes are designed to review material, while the exercises are designed to get you coding right away and are usually one of the highlights of the course. I strongly recommend working through the quizzes and exercises along the way, not only to gain Python programming experience, but also because some of the exercises raise issues not covered elsewhere in the book. The solutions in the chapters and in Appendix B should help you if you get stuck (and you are encouraged to peek at the answers as much and as often as you like). The overall structure of this book is also derived from class materials. Because this text is designed to introduce language basics quickly, I’ve organized the presentation by major language features, not examples. We’ll take a bottom-up approach here: from built-in object types, to statements, to program units, and so on. Each chapter is fairly self-contained, but later chapters draw upon ideas introduced in earlier ones (e.g., by the time we get to classes, I’ll assume you know how to write functions), so a linear reading makes the most sense for most readers. In general terms, this book presents the Python language in a linear fashion. It is organized with one part per major language feature—types, functions, and so forth—and most of the examples are small and self-contained (some might also call the examples in this text artificial, but they illustrate the points it aims to make). More specifically, here is what you will find: Part I, Getting Started  We begin with a general overview of Python that answers commonly asked initial questions—why people use the language, what it’s useful for, and so on. The first chapter introduces the major ideas underlying the technology to give you some background context. Then the technical material of the book begins, as we explore the ways that both we and Python run programs. The goal of this part of the book is to give you just enough information to be able to follow along with later examples and exercises. Part II, Types and Operations  Next, we begin our tour of the Python language, studying Python’s major built-in object types in depth: numbers, lists, dictionaries, and so on. You can get a lot done in Python with these tools alone. This is the most substantial part of the book because we lay groundwork here for later chapters. We’ll also look at dynamic typing and its references—keys to using Python well—in this part. Part III, Statements and Syntax  The next part moves on to introduce Python’s statements—the code you type to create and process objects in Python. It also presents Python’s general syntax model. Although this part focuses on syntax, it also introduces some related tools, such as the PyDoc system, and explores coding alternatives. Part IV, Functions This part begins our look at Python’s higher-level program structure tools. Functions turn out to be a simple way to package code for reuse and avoid code redundancy. In this part, we will explore Python’s scoping rules, argument-passing techniques, and more. Part V, Modules Python modules let you organize statements and functions into larger components, and this part illustrates how to create, use, and reload modules. We’ll also look at some more advanced topics here, such as module packages, module reloading, and the __name__ variable. Part VI, Classes and OOP Here, we explore Python’s object-oriented programming tool, the class—an optional but powerful way to structure code for customization and reuse. As you’ll see, classes mostly reuse ideas we will have covered by this point in the book, and OOP in Python is mostly about looking up names in linked objects. As you’ll also see, OOP is optional in Python, but it can shave development time substantially, especially for long-term strategic project development. Part VII, Exceptions and Tools We conclude the language fundamentals coverage in this text with a look at Python’s exception handling model and statements, plus a brief overview of development tools that will become more useful when you start writing larger programs (debugging and testing tools, for instance). Although exceptions are a fairly lightweight tool, this part appears after the discussion of classes because exceptions should now all be classes. Part VIII, Advanced Topics (new in the fourth edition) In the final part, we explore some advanced topics. Here, we study Unicode and byte strings, managed attribute tools like properties and descriptors, function and class decorators, and metaclasses. These chapters are all optional reading, because not all programmers need to understand the subjects they address. On the other hand, readers who must process internationalized text or binary data, or are responsible for developing APIs for other programmers to use, should find something of interest in this part. Part IX, Appendixes The book wraps up with a pair of appendixes that give platform-specific tips for using Python on various computers (Appendix A) and provide solutions to the endof-part exercises (Appendix B). Solutions to end-of-chapter quizzes appear in the chapters themselves. Note that the index and table of contents can be used to hunt for details, but there are no reference appendixes in this book (this book is a tutorial, not a reference). As mentioned earlier, you can consult Python Pocket Reference, as well as other books, and the free Python reference manuals maintained at http://www.python.org for syntax and built-in tool details. Via TimoBook