#At first i drew the art and then had the idea to write a short story to go with it and here we are :D

[anisaeee]

Hey guys! This is my first post on tumblr and honestly, I have no idea how this works. I will learn as I go, but here is a short intro to a gryffreader×theodorenott story.

2k+ words

I do not know how this works exactly yet, but i will learn as i go. This is a short write up, I'll elaborate ilon the plot if readers gather!

Do drop your thoughts and let me know if you want a part 2!

It was your last year at Hogwarts. Soft, gentle breeze makes your hair flick around as you make your way to the defence against the dark arts classroom. You were going to miss this place. It hadn’t been easy making it to final year really. You were born and raised in the Muggle world. It wasn’t until your year had reached third year that you received an owl from Professor Dumbledore, informing you of your admission to Hogwarts. Your magical abilities had been dormant, likely a result of an ancient ancestor who’d unknowingly married a wizard.

You had always been a bright student back in your Muggle school. Straight As, top of the class. Magical studies? You were fascinated. You spent extra hours with professors, attended tutoring sessions on weekends, and studied relentlessly. You caught up quickly. Academically, you held your ground with the other witches and wizards your age.

But keeping up with them didn’t mean you fit in. You had missed the first few formative years. The common rooms, the late night laughs, the bonding over shared detentions and Quidditch matches. You weren’t part of any close-knit groups. So, you kept to yourself. More often than not in the library, devouring texts, chasing your dream of becoming one of the most skilled witches Hogwarts had ever seen.

It didn’t mean you were friendless.

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, had found you crying by the Black Lake one evening. You’d been missing home, missing your mum, your cat Flubbers, pizza, and very very frustrated that you couldn’t so much as call your mum, thanks to Hogwarts' ban on technology. He didn’t pity you. He just sat beside you in silence, understanding. He became a friend soon after. Ron and Hermione followed.

But being close to Harry came at a cost. Draco Malfoy and his loyal Slytherins had a new target. You held your own. You never cowered. But some days, you felt exhaustion down to your bones.

You wanted to graduate. Pass your N.E.W.T.s. Leave the whispers, the looks, the constant sense of otherness behind.

Then… there was him.

Theodore Nott.

"No. No, no, no. NO. " you muttered to yourself, shaking the thoughts away as you made your way around the hallways. Why was he on your mind now?

He had caught your eye the day you arrived at Hogwarts. Tall. Disarming. That rare kind of quiet confidence that drew attention without demanding it. At the Slytherin table, he sat like he belonged to another world altogether. Detached. Watching. Girls swooned at the arch of his brow, the offhanded curl of his lips. You weren’t immune to his effortless charm either.

You’d caught yourself staring more than once. In the Great Hall. In the few classes you shared. Every time, you’d force yourself to sit as far from him as possible, because you couldn’t explain why your eyes found him so easily, or why your pulse faltered and quickened around him.

Class went on as usual, you, of course, being the brightest student in the room. 'Mione was irked when you answered all the questions before she could. You giggled, knowing she's going to be muttering curses and fussing with her books all day now. You deliberately waited a beat longer to leave class, spinning an excuse about cleaning up your notes just so you could linger until he left first. Theo. By the time you left the classroom, the corridor was almost empty. Your arms wrapped around your notes as you moved quickly toward the spiral staircase. That’s when the voice came.

“Still pretending to belong here?”

Draco Malfoy.

You didn’t stop.

“You’d think after five years, the mudblood would get the hint,” he added, this time louder.

You did stop.

Spinning on your heel, you faced him, wand already sliding into your hand.

“I don’t have time for your obsession, Malfoy.”

He laughed—lazily, arrogantly. Crabbe and Goyle smirked behind him. Pansy twirled a strand of hair and looked bored.

“And I don’t have time to explain to Muggle rejects how this world works.” He took a step closer.

You raised your wand.

But before either of you could speak—

“She doesn’t need to hear it from you.”

The voice was even. Cold. A hint of anger and yet somehow, calming.

Theodore Nott stepped out from the side corridor, hands in his robe pockets, his gaze fixed on Malfoy like he was the one out of place.

“Really, Draco,” he drawled. “Isn’t it exhausting? All this barking with nothing to bite?”

Draco narrowed his eyes. “Are you really defending her now? The mudblood? ”

Theo arched a brow. “No. Just tired of listening to your voice.”

For a moment, no one moved.

Then, with a sneer, Draco turned on his heel and stalked off, muttering under his breath. The rest followed. You were left standing there, stunned. Breathing hard. Theo looked at you once. Briefly. A flicker of something unreadable in those dark eyes.

“Watch your back,” he said. Then he walked away.

You didn’t sleep that night.

After that day, something shifted. You noticed him more. More than you did before. It was suffocating. His presence. Demanding to be noticed. And he was always, around you. The way he passed you ingredients in Potions without asking. How his hand would linger just slightly too long when he passed parchment back. The fact that he started showing up in the library—never sitting beside you, but always close enough to notice.

You never spoke about it.

But tension? It hummed between you like the low throb of a cursed object. Slow. Irresistible. Sometimes he'd speak. Little things. Comments under his breath that made you smirk.

“You brew like a Slytherin,” he’d murmur one day, nodding at your perfectly-executed Draught of Peace. "Oh please don't. I brew like a Gryffindor. I'm good at it". He'd just smile. The kind of smile you wouldn't notice unless you really paid attention. The little twitch of his lips. The way his eyes softened momentarily. The way he looked, at you.

“You always watch people the way you read books?” he asked another evening, not looking up from his Arithmancy text. It was getting to be too much. Your heart was hammering in your chest. Everytime you were in his vicinity, blood rushed to your cheeks and your usual calm demeanor broke. He was reeling you in, and you let him. Last year isn't it? This should be okay.

One night, during a storm, you both ended up in the Room of Requirement—accidentally. You’d needed quiet. He’d needed solitude. The room gave you both. You sat across from each other in a makeshift greenhouse filled with magical plants glowing in the dark.

Neither of you moved to leave.

That night, he told you he hated blood supremacy. That he didn’t believe in Voldemort. That he didn’t trust most of his House. That night, you realized, he was different. He was stuck in this without a choice.

That night, you realized Theodore Nott was baring his soul to you.

That night, you realized you wanted to protect the sweet boy under all this, darkness he was trying to escape.

That night, you realized you didn’t hate him.

While both of you had some sort of secret friendship brewing that nobody else in Hogwarts knew about, it all shattered that winter night.

December snow had blanketed the courtyard. The Room of Requirement had shaped itself into a forgotten tower—stone walls, a fireplace, cushions on the floor. You met him there every other night now. He stood by the window that night, tense.

“What’s wrong Theo?” you asked, sensing it immediately.

“They're watching,” he said. “The Carrows. Even Snape. Things are changing.”

You approached slowly. “Are you in danger?”

He didn’t answer. Just turned.

“I can’t keep doing this,” he said finally, voice low. Strained. “Whatever this is.”

Something inside you cracked.

“What...you mean me...?” you asked, barely above a whisper.

“I mean…” He looked at you—eyes darker than you’d ever seen them. “You. Us. Hogwarts isn’t safe. You need to focus on surviving. Not… this.”

The silence that followed was the loudest thing you’d ever heard.

You stepped back.

“Then go.”

He didn’t. Not for a few seconds. But then... He turned.

"Don't you dare walk away unless all of this meant.. Nothing.. to you Theo. Unless, I, meant nothing".

He stood, almost frozen for a second. You could hear his breathing, ragged. You hoped, you really hoped he'd turn around again. You didn't want words, or any meaning to all these shared secret conversations and memories between you two. You just wanted him to stay. Just to know that it meant something to him, not even as much as it meant the whole entire world to you now. Instead he left. The door closed behind him like the snap of a wand breaking.

And you… you didn’t cry. Not yet.

But you knew, with that same painful certainty you once felt staring at your first Hogwarts letter, that the magic you’d found—whatever fragile, forbidden thing it was—had just been lost. The dull ache in your chest sharpened. Your throat constricted, like you had been cursed. You sank to the floor. Finally letting the sobs rip through you.

[idunnowhattowriteheretbh]

HIVE short story yipeeeee :D

NOT CANON STORY BTW‼️‼️‼️

HIVE belongs to @braisedhoney, I recommend checking out Captain's acc and also @talesaboardthehive to see canon lore

This story contains some headcanons and there are also ideas from @beartitled about the HIVE (bumblebee dogs, honey pipes, etc.)

And also it is mainly from my hivesona's pov

Anyway have fun reading it :D I'm not sorry for possible grammar mistakes /silly

Late Night Walk

The HIVE was never silent.

During the day you can hear crew talking in the many halls of the ship. Conversations, jokes, laughter, arguments, cries, you name it, you hear it. Sometimes even in the vents when someone went up there, usually followed by startled yelps as they were caught by COLONY.

There are some calmer places to rest when someone is tired or needs to focus on something, you can rest in spots like the honeycomb nap rooms, or the library.

In the morning and evening it is a bit quieter, but not that much, the sound of crew waking up, finishing their duties, or preparing to go sleep can be heard. Its not that loud as it is during the day though.

In the night, most people would expect you could hear a needle fall because of how quiet it would be, but that wasn't true.

The HIVE was never silent.

Late at night you could hear the soft humming of the ship, or the buzzing of many of the mechanics on the ship, or if you pause around one of the many honey pipes you can hear bubbling. And throughout the night you can hear different sounds, like a door opening and sleepy footsteps, or rarely; the bark of one of the bumblebee puppies.

In its own way, it was interesting to listen to all of the sounds. It was calming and it was a way to keep themselves busy when Sol wasn't able to fall asleep like right now.

They listened to the humming, with a bit of imagination you could hear a rhythm in the humming. Kind of like a heartbeat, but that probably wasn't true. The ship didn't have a heart did it?

Along with the soft humming they listened to the quiet buzzing of their lamp on the table. They could've turned on their radio to listen to whatever channel would be able available, but they didn't feel like listening to a radio.

To be honest, they didn't feel like doing anything. They weren't able to fall asleep for the past 30 or so minutes and they have given up on trying to sleep.

Sigh.

They might aswell get up and go for a quick walk. That could help them fall asleep later.

Yea. They could grab something warm like milk with honey to help them sleep....or coffee with honey and work on the armours-

Either way, taking a walk won't hurt.

After a moment they stepped out of their sleeping quarters and looked around. The lights were dimmed and there wasn't anyone in the hallway. It was quiet.

With a sigh they let the door behind them close and locked the door with a keycard, then they started walking to one of the kitchens nearby.

It didn't take them as long as it usually did. Only one door which was surprising, but not like they minded. It was nice not to get lost for once.

After walking into the kitchen, Sol quickly looked through the snacks cabinets and didn't find anything they would like to munch on. Their

Hmmm.

They weren't feeling like eating anything right now.

Might aswell take a walk while they're out.

Upon hearing footsteps getting closer to the kitchen they quickly got out of the kitchen and disappeared in the nearest door. It led them into a hallway. Oo this one has green walls. That's not something you would commonly see on the honey themed ship.

The hallway changed directions few times and they had to go through multiple doors. One of them even lead to the cryo, no idea why there, but it sometimes happened.

Footsteps echoed through the hallways as it took them some time walking in the dark hallways, where the light source came from the dimmed lights and the honey pipes, before they got to the spot they wanted to go to.

One of the big windows that let in the soft light of the stars was on the wall to their right and they walked to it to gaze out into the space. The protective barrier that was around the ship was visible a bit behind the window along with the stars.

They loved to look into the space through the big windows that were around the HIVE.

One would think that windows and space isn't a great mix but the sight out of them is amazing. You just have to make sure the windows are strong enough.

Stars, planets, galaxies, meteorites, supernovas, whole planet systems and more were a sight to die for though.

Sol especially loved to see how colourful the space could be despite how they sometimes got existential crisis over how the space was big and empty.

They liked to space out (pun intended heh) while gazing out of the windows in the living room like places on the ship, not listening to what was going on around them and focusing only on the beauty of the space outside.

It was interesting and amazing to see what could be found there.

When something interesting like a new planet was found, then for the next few weeks it was the main topic in conversations, and the more curious and adventurous crew members even went down onto the planet to do some things to help Leander gather more information. Sol was apart of those expeditions few times and it was always fun.

Most of it was done by drones though to ensure safety. As far as Sol remembered there weren't many accidents on strange planets but it didn't hurt to be safe.

It didn't take away the excitement from how the space could be amazing, in fact, for them it made the unknown even more interesting.

Sol's workplace where they worked on their projects, like the weapons and now also armours, always has few posters with something about space and they even have some in their quarters.

They couldn't remember from where they got it and how long, but one of the posters were about stars and constellations that can be seen from the Earth and they sometimes try to find some of the stars. Sometimes they were successful and sometimes they weren't able to locate some of the stars.

They sighed and put their hand on the window.

(Open the image for better view)

The stars shimmered with soft glow and they stayed there, staring at something that kind of reminded them of the milky way.

It was a pretty sight and they would never get tired of it, it was always beautiful.

The company of the silent stars was welcome after one of the more busy days on the HIVE. The soft humming could be heard along with the bubbling of the honey pipes and they stood there, enjoying how calm and quiet everything was.

The HIVE was never silent.

They took a deep breath and smiled. There was a nice warm feeling in their chest as they continued to watch the space.

Even when they sometimes missed their time on Earth they wouldn't leave the HIVE. They have gotten used to the chaos on the ship and they loved to be here. They love the space and the HIVE with all the occupants. Maybe it was a little foolish to be this loyal, but they had truly found a home here.

The HIVE was their home and they would risk their live to protect it along with others on the ship.

[mikashisus]

ray idk anything about hsr or genshin so i can’t req for those unfortunately 💔 BUT you summoned me by including bllk in your list HEHEHE can i request smth for nagi?? i don’t really have any specific ideas though…maybe childhood friends 🤔 or anything you want really!!

sorry this is so unspecific i’ve never requested before 😔 but ilyyyy and congrats on 200 that’s amazing!!

— definitely not mira 👹

STITCH ME UP

synopsis: you didn’t consider nagi seishiro a friend at first. but now, you couldn’t imagine your days without him latched to your side.

taglist. @pneumosia @pixelcafe-network @gl4di0lus ( join the taglist here! )

word count. 2.1k ( contents : semi angst, injuries, mc has a short temper )

notes. this has been sitting in my inbox since JULY IM SO SORRY MIRA 😭 but it's finally here!! there'll def be a part 2 bc this is so dogshit and i need to redeem myself with a second part. mira i look up to ur writing sm so u only deserve peak, and i promise u'll get it in part 2 queen 🙏 anyw um the title is in reference to the song “stitch me up” by set it off :))

header art by: @/Liiiiiiimsao ( twt )

The first time you met Nagi Seishiro, you were about to go into your first year of middle school, curled up on the side of the street struggling to wrap a bandage around your left arm. 

It was sunset then, and the world was quiet aside from the loud buzzing of cicadas and the occasional car passing by. 

Nagi had just left a tiny convenience store located on the edge of the street, his phone in his hands as he tapped away at the game he was currently fixated on. Knowing the way back home by heart, he began to walk in that direction, unaware of his surroundings. 

It was only when he tripped over something rather sturdy did he finally forcefully take his eyes off the device in his hand. His grip on his phone tightened. He was determined not to drop it and risk the screen cracking again. 

Not paying any mind to what he just tripped over, he sighed in relief that he did not drop his phone, and patted down his pants. 

“HEY!” 

A loud yell drew him from his stupor. He slowly turned, coming face to face with a scowl. He blinked at you for a few seconds, before he faced you properly and raised a brow. 

“Yes?” 

“Look where you’re going, asshole! You tripped over me!” You snapped, patience wearing thin.

His shoulders slumped. Now that you stood in front of him, you realized just how tall he actually was. He kind of looked like a third year. It made you all the more aggravated. You hated anyone that could look down on you like he was. 

“Oh. Sorry, I guess.” He shrugged, acting as if what just happened was not a big deal. “You have a bad mouth.” 

That was the last straw. Your fists clenched tightly, your nails digging into your skin as your eye twitched. You ignored the pain in your palms and challenged his stoic stare. 

“So what?” You crossed your arms over your chest. “Is that a problem?” 

He shrugged again and looked down at his phone. “I don’t really care.” 

He got ready to leave, when he cast one last glance at you, and his eyes landed on the now bloody bandage that came undone from your arm. The longer he stared, the more he realized he'd seen you before. 

He racked his brain for answers, sifting through each memory to try and remember where he’d seen you. Meanwhile, you were silent, fidgety. You did not enjoy people staring at you. It made you anxious, like they were trying to challenge you in some way. 

This weird boy who you did not understand and you deemed an asshole for not watching where he walked made you feel quite nervous. You knew him from school. He was the boy who was exceptionally good at volleyball. 

You could remember how fascinated you were watching him play during gym class. He had all the talent you could only hope for, and the envy had bubbled up inside you, growing exponentially. Despite your envy, you quickly forgot about him after you no longer had to be in the same proximity as him, and you went about your life without thinking of him again. 

Until now. 

Nagi finally remembered where he had seen you. It was as if a lightbulb had suddenly appeared above his head, and his eyes widened slightly in surprise. You were that one kid that liked to pick a fight with anyone taller than you. 

He first caught a glimpse of you in the nurse’s office when he had tripped outside during gym class and cut open his knee. As he was waiting for the nurse to return with gauze, he heard a commotion outside the office and saw your rather short form tackle a boy twice your size. 

With the strength of a lion tucked inside that small body of yours, you refused to give up the fight until the nurse came back and rushed out into the hall to separate the two of you. 

Nagi remembered watching your face fall in defeat when the nurse said to go to the principal’s office and that your parents would need to be called. 

“You’re that kid.” The words slipped from his mouth before he could stop them. “You like to pick fights with people.” 

As soon as the words left his mouth, he watched you deflate like a balloon right in front of him. Your face fell, and your arms dropped to your sides. He wondered what it was that made you so upset. Was it the reputation you had around the school? 

Just then, he saw the loose bandage on your arm completely come undone. It fell to the ground and pooled around your feet. Time stopped, and he stared in absolute horror at the mess of stitches on your arm. You did nothing to pick up the bandages. In fact, you barely moved. 

He would’ve thought you to be a statue if not for the slight twitching of your fingers. You tapped idly against your thigh, your eyes blank as you stared at the ground. He watched closely as your fingers danced in a certain rhythmic movement, and he soon realized you were tapping in morse code. 

S.O.S. 

He barely had time to register that it was morse code. His focus went back to the ghastly stitches on your arm. They looked as if they were done by someone with no experience whatsoever, but there was clearly an attempt. 

The wound itself did not look any better, and he wondered if you had even cleaned it all. He noticed a few other scars littered on your arm. They were smaller and less noticeable, but his intense stare had caught sight of them easily. 

“How’d you hurt yourself?” He questioned softly, unaware he had asked that out loud instead of inside his head. 

You did not answer. Not right away at least. With a heavy sigh, you collapsed back against the fence you were previously leaning on before he had tripped over you. 

“I didn’t do anything,” you muttered with a tinge of venom in your voice. “It was someone else… But no one ever believes me, so as far as anyone is concerned, I did this to myself.” 

He didn’t know how to respond to that. Instead, he picked up the bandages you dropped, careful not to touch the parts covered in blood, and told you to wait here. 

Where would I even go? You thought. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon. 

Within a few minutes, he was rushing out of the convenience store and across the street again, a pack of gauze and a water bottle in his hands. His phone was now tucked into his pants pocket. He kneeled down next to you and gently reached for your arm. 

“Did you try to stitch this up yourself?” 

He did not need an answer. He already knew it, though he felt the need to ask anyway. You nodded, so slight he almost missed it. He pulled a pair of scissors from the second plastic bag wrapped around his arm and carefully cut the string. 

With gentle hands, he removed the stitches to the best of his ability and dropped them onto the bandages from earlier. You tried your best not to move the whole time, but he could tell from your scrunched expression that you were in more than a bit of pain. 

He unscrewed the cap of the water bottle. “This might hurt.” He poured water over your wound, causing you to bite back a scream. 

“I don’t know how to do stitches, so…” He trailed off. “So I just got this.” He held up the gauze he bought and carefully wrapped up your arm. 

As soon as he was finished, he threw the gross bandages into the now empty plastic bag and glanced at you. Your brows were still furrowed and your lip was still tugged between your teeth. 

He stood up, taking a look at the sky. The sun was almost fully over the horizon by now, and he was likely late for dinner. He needed to leave now and get back home. As he turned to do just that, he almost missed the slight crack of your voice. 

“Thank you.” 

Were it not for the temporary silence of the cicadas, he would have missed your words entirely, and it would not have paved the way for your future with Nagi Seishiro. 

The next time you saw Nagi was in your second year of middle school. 

A white volleyball came flying out of the gym one day after school, narrowly missing his nose. It fell to the ground with a plop a foot away from him. Rushed footsteps sounded from behind him as he picked it up, and he could hear the yells of the volleyball team from the open doors of the gym. 

A familiar voice entered his ears. “I got it!” 

Moments later, you were rushing out of the gym doors, sweat lining your temple and your collarbone. An exhausted expression rested on your face, and fresh bandages were wrapped around the same arm he tended to a year prior. 

You stopped as you looked up at him, your eyes flashing with recognition as you took in the tall boy standing before you with your volleyball in his hands. You swallowed thickly, fiddling with the hem of your black t-shirt. 

He handed you the volleyball. “Here you go.” 

“…Thanks.” You hesitantly took it from his hands and hugged it to your stomach. You stared at him warily for a moment before turning around to head back into the gym. 

“You play volleyball?” He asked suddenly, shocking you as you were not expecting him to make small talk. 

You turned to face him again and nodded. “Yeah… My dad is a fan, so as soon as I was old enough to play, he signed me up for lessons,” You said. 

There was a pause, and he could tell by the awkward look in your eyes that you were debating on if you should share more or not. In the end, you caved. 

“I’m not that good. So I mainly just play because it’s fun.” You shrugged. "...I should get back to practice.” 

You left before he could get another word out. Later that day, when you were walking home from practice, you saw Nagi again— this time walking out of his house. His eyes met yours, and you both stared at one another in surprise. You lived in the same neighborhood. 

You never went as far as to consider that you and Nagi were friends. Not at first, at least. You never had friends— not after your reputation of being a short-tempered, fight-starter circulated around the school. Even your volleyball team was not a fan of you, despite the fact that you were surprisingly good when it came to teamwork. 

Everyone was inclined to stay away from you. Either out of fear or hatred, you weren’t sure. But as time passed, you came to accept being the loner who always ended up in the principal’s office. 

That was until Nagi offered you a can of soda after your failed attempt of getting the faulty vending machine to work. It was late in the afternoon on a Friday in Spring of your first year of high school. Up until that point, the two of you only interacted at odd times when you just so happened to come across each other in the halls or walking out of your houses. 

No words were ever shared between you, only slight nods of the head and small waves in greeting. Now, though, Nagi was taking a seat next to you on the staircase, placing a can of soda next to your foot. He pulled out his phone, loaded up a game, and handed it to you. 

“Wanna play?” 

You blinked at him in surprise, before nodding. You got past four levels in the game before dying, letting out a groan of frustration. He leaned over your shoulder, watching the screen intently. Occasionally, he’d chime in with a word of advice, or ask if you wanted him to do that level for you. You two sat there on that staircase for what felt like hours, before a staff member came and told you to leave. 

After that day, you would meet on the stairs everyday after your volleyball practices, playing that very same game together and attempting to outdo each other’s high scores. This routine continued, until one day you invited him to the park with you to play there. 

You didn’t consider Nagi Seishiro a friend at first. But now, you couldn’t imagine your days without him latched to your side.

© 2024 mikashisus.

[azialways]

ronin x reader whos really heavy on physical touch? Like is constantly holding his hand or hugging/kissing him all the time, I love your writing!

that feeling is holy

ronin x touchy!reader

cws: none!

You loved your boyfriend, you loved everything about him. Every flaw and imperfection, you adored it. He was a serial killer? Who cares, not you. He was perfect in every way possible to you, and nobody could tell you otherwise. You fell in love with him from that first call, that charm he had? It drew you in from the very first word. He wanted to corrupt you, and you couldn’t care less. You’d let him corrupt you, as long as it meant you could have him by your side.

And now, he was out at work, and you missed him beyond belief. It was honestly a problem how much you loved him. So you went and texted him, not caring if he was busy.

————————————————————

Ronin 💕💕

you: i miss you

you: a lot

ronin 💕💕 is typing

ronin 💕💕: awh already?

ronin 💕💕: darlin I just left

you: i know but i still miss u

ronin 💕💕: i gotta Work baby

ronin 💕💕: how else Am i gonna pay Rent?

you: kill people for hire like misaki?

ronin 💕💕: ha, nah.

ronin 💕💕: not my style, my Love. yk that.

you: i guess. i’ll just sit here and wait.

So you did, and you missed him every second you did. You ended up stealing one of his favorite tshirts, because you wanted to feel closer to him. The smell of cologne and cigarettes came to your nose, and you sighed happily. It smelled like home. To entertain yourself while he was gone, you went between joining VC in the slaughterhouse, or you played pokemon on his gameboy, sitting by the bed curled up in the blankets. Right now, you were on his PC, sitting on his chair, on VC with the group.

“_____, why are you on Ronin’s account?” Angel asked, and you just laughed in response.

“Eh, why not? He has the better setup anyways.” You shrugged, responding to her.

“Valid, his setup is pretty good.” She agreed, laughing softly.

“Right? And he refuses to help me get a setup.” You complained, but you actually didn’t care that much.

“Really? Why is that?”

“He thinks I’m not enough of a gamer to need one, which is true, but cmon.” You chuckled, and then Misaki chimed in.

“Is he saying pokemon and minecraft aren’t gamer enough? Rude.” They commented.

You and the server members continued to have conversations for what felt like a short amount of time. You talked about various topics, killings, recent victim stories, and general life stories. You heard about Misaki’s transfer pattern art idea, and it shockingly didn’t seem like a horrible idea, even if the concept was weird. V talked about his latest animal rescue, and how he’s currently raising a kitty, and Angel complained about her manager being a douchebag. Of course, everyone offered to kill him off, but she would always refuse. It reminded you of Ronin’s stubbornness in a way, how he always insisted on doing things himself. God even talking to people made you think of him. You missed him.

ding

ronin 💕💕: coming home early, manager decided to close up early.

ronin 💕💕: be home in 10, darling.

You smiled at the message, thanking his manager telepathically for bringing him home to you early. You had been thinking about him all day, craving his touch. Not even in the sexual way, but you just wanted to be in his arms again. You wanted to feel his heart beat on your back as you cuddled, you wanted to hear his breathing slow once he was comfortable. All the small little niche romantic moments, you wanted those with him. Luckily for you, Ronin is equally as touchy as you were, so it never was much of an ask, if he wasn’t already touching you. You typically didn’t have to ask, which you loved.

Eventually, you heard the door creak open and click shut, but so you stood up, but just as you were getting out of his chair, the bedroom door creaked open.

“Didja miss me?” He chuckled, leaning against the doorframe. You stood up and walked over to him, going to hug him, but he already knew and wrapped his arms around your waist. Your arms went around his neck, and for a moment, you stayed like that. You stayed wrapped up in his touch, rocking back and forth gently. You bury your head in his neck, taking in the smell of gasoline mixed with his cologne. It felt familiar, like home. He then picked you up off your feet, making you gasp softly before placing you gently on the bed.

“Hey.” He smirked, looking down at you. He took in the way your cheeks flushed and your breathing quickened as he positioned himself on top of you, holding you up against the pillow.

“Hey yourself.” You responded, looking at him with those big, enamored eyes. He then placed himself between your thighs, resting his head on your chest.

“Long day?” You murmured, your hands going to his hair, gently raking through the red strands.

“Too many annoying customers.” He mumbled against your neck. He left a kiss under your jaw, and it made you smile. He was so cute like this, tired after a long day made for a clingy, touchy Ronin, which you loved.

“I’m sorry babe. I’m here now, and you can just relax and take a nap if you want.” You suggested, stroking patterns in his hair.

“Yeah…I jus’ might.” He yawned, cuddling up against you and pulled the covers over him. He then came up for a kiss, leaning in slowly, giving you a chance to say no if you wanted, but you didn’t. you wanted to taste his lips, to kiss him again. So you leaned in as well, slotting your lips between his, and he immediately perked up. He came up from his place on your chest, and leaned over you, his arms encasing you against the bedframe. You moaned softly at the feeling of his weight still on you as he kissed you. He kissed you like it was the first time again, like you were back in purgatory, with his knife against your throat and his tongue in your mouth. He was gentler, though. He was soft and tender in his kiss, his hand gently caressing your cheek as he pulled away, to then rest his forehead on yours.

“I love ya…yknow that?” He mumbled.

“Mmm, I don’t know. You might have to prove it.” You teased, smirking at him.

“I just might.” He chuckled, teasing your lips of another kiss.

“Be my guest.”

[catspawcreates]

Just curious, why do you simp for Kill Code?

Warning: Passionate Fangirl Lore Rant Ahead!

Honestly? There are a lot of reasons.

Short Version:

I have always had a love of villains. Dark Romantasy has always been a favorite genre.

Kill Code is a supportive single father. As a single mother of two, I connect to him and his struggles and shortcomings with his children.

He’s a multi faceted, layered character with a dark and light side that is really fun to play with! I like murdery Kill Code as much as I like sweet reformed KC.

Kill Code had so much potential as both a villain and a ‘good guy’ there were a lot of missed opportunities, and those are a joy to explore! Plus a giant robot trying to date and find love while suppressing his dark code? That’s such a good flavor ripe for shenanigans.

And… the brain hyper fixates as it sees fit ��

He’s been my muse and I have tons of ideas still to explore.

——

Long Version With More Art Below:

When Kill Code was first introduced as an actual character both the wickedness and the wonderful design by Inkypop really drew me to him. Previously Eclipse had been my fav, but then there suddenly was this ominous presence. A foe from within, an inner demon… so I started drawing him.

But there was more to that demon. He was a caring father, taking on the twins immediately and sharing “bloody fun” with them. He was supportive of his sons. Although Eclipse was always salty, Kill Code did get him out of the twins head to the relative safety of the lab computer. That wasn’t entirely altruistic, but he never hated Eclipse.

I started to ponder what his motivations were. What was driving this murderous code? He wasn’t all bad. There were more layers to him. This led to writing my fanfic.

When the show gave him a change of heart it wasn’t like the murder parts went away. The creator tried to reactivate it in a later episode (which they never explored sadly). It was sheer force of will that he altered himself to be better, to do better, to grow as a person. He was a pacifist by choice and by determination to be more than what he was programmed for.

A theme that has come up many times since then in the show.

While his redemption arc was rushed and most of his character development was off screen (as Lunar put it in a ranking episode), this also leaves much to the imagination and is like a sandbox to play in.

Later Kill Code helped Sun train his star powers and offered support where he could. Whether that’s atoning for his past self, honoring old Moon, or just the kindness he’d cultivated in his code he just wanted to help his family as best he could.

When they said Kill Code was on tinder, well that opened a flood gate of new potential shenanigans and scenarios to imagine. What’s not to love about a reformed murder robot awkwardly seeking love and companionship?

In his final moments, when Bloodmoon confronted him, Kill Code stayed true to his convictions. He knew he failed the twins, but he urged them to evolve. He wanted them to grow past their code and be more than they were programmed for. Kill Code knew they were on a path of self destruction and still wanted the best for them.

It really tugged my heart strings. I cried so much. As a parent I want the best for my kids. To see them flourish and find a bright future… it really hit home.

And don’t get me started on the hilarious April Fools Uno 😹

I love the original DCA’s, SAMS DCA’s, AU versions and all in between….

But this Kill Code gripped me in his claws and my brain hasn’t let go 😅 hyper fixations are wild. I’ve been around a lot of different fandoms but never have I latched onto a character so fervently.

And I love every moment. 💕

[fishsticksloser]

Heyoo

Love the stuff you're writing

I hope you take some requests

I was just wondering on one thing -

Artists tend to draw the person they like, it's like this person become artist's muse

So reader is an artist /you can decide are guys either are dating or no, also totally okay with platonic relationship/

And turtles don't really know how reader feel about them

Until they find the sketchbook full of drawings with them

I'm pretty interested how each one of turtles would react on this)

Totally okay if you don't really want to write about smth like that

Have a wonderful day ✨

Artist!Reader

RotTMNT x gn!reader

Warnings: crushes, boys are snooping, kinda short

A/N: there are 2 requests are where the similar so the other one will be at the end.

Donnie

Was 100% snooping

He wanted to know how you felt about him

So here he was, in your room

He found a sketchbook, but hesitated

Mikey always hated it when people looked through his sketchbooks without permission

Donnie decided to look elsewhere

Ultimately though, he came back to that sketchbook

He slowly flips open the cover

Then flips through a few random sketches

He sees a sketch that caught his eye and flips back

Him...

It's a sketch of him bent over his desk as he works

He flips forward a bit more

Find more and more sketches of him

Donnie's working, rambling, relaxing, training

Everything he does seemingly sketched into the book

He is confused, wondering why you'd draw him

And draw him so beautifully

Either way he's flattered

A few days later, you give him a painting of him

He's so flattered, he can't even speak

After a lot of convincing from Mikey, he does eventually ask you out

Leo

Chronic snooper

He can't help it

Your sketch book is just there

Taunting him....

He quickly caves, flipping the cover open

He flips through a few sketches

Enjoying the scratchiness of it

Flipping a bit more, he found sketches of hands

And arms

Flipping further

Leo found sketches of necks and shoulders

Legs

Intrigued, he flipped further

The bodies you had drawn grew more

Legs to waist

Plastron to shoulders

There were some of his brothers

Then flipping a few more pages .....

A whole page just of him

His eyes widen

Seeing how you sketch out the expressions he made

He continued to flip through

Seeing more and more of himself

He jumped, slamming the sketch book closed when he hears you come in

Leo tosses it to the other side of the bed where it had been sitting and acted like he was the most innocent person ever

He takes his time before asking you out

He teases you gently

Stretching and flexing any chance he gets

Mikey

He didn't mean to snoop

He really didn't...

Mikey understands how important it is for your sketch book to stay private

He feels the same about his own

But ...

It was there

On the table

Open...

He couldn't help himself

He was curious what you drew

He looked at the open page, seeing himself

In the sketch he was painting

On the page next to it he was cooking

He couldn't help the way his heart swells

The detail you put

The care you took to get his expressions

Mikey stares at it, seeing the hearts

The way you even wrote his name

He jumps when you come back in

His face burns in embarrassment

But he compliments your art

His first date idea?

Painting each other

Raph

He'll deny it until the end of time, but he's a chronic snooper

He found your sketch book and wasted no time

He flipped through it

Raph saw all kinds of sketches

Cups, balls, his stuffies

He flipped further, curious about what else you'd sketched

He found drawings of his arms

Even some of his brothers' arms too

He didn't think much of it until he continued flipping

Pages and pages of just him

His tongue sticking out as he stitched up one of his stuffies

Raph training

Raph laughing

He continues flipping through

Pages and pages full of him

Ones just of his shell

His shoulders

He blushes deeply, a little embarrassed

But also incredibly flattered

He eventually brings your sketch book to you

Blushing madly, mumbling something about you leaving it in his room

But now he watches as you sketch, tail thumping

Excited to see what you're drawing

[kaiannae]

It is time- (Or: It Has Begin XD)

Greetings, my dear readers, it has been quite some time. First and foremost I would like to assure you that yes, I'm alive, and no, I have not abandoned my writing. But, I HAVE been distracted by somehing in the last few months, and I think its time to reveal it. I made a game! And not just a game, a Shadowgast game. I would like to present to you:

Beacon Run.

Ko-Fi This game begun its existance as a homework project for a game dev course I took about a year ago. I was supposed to implement a simple chase and pickup game and I thought, "Why use some random sprites when all I can imagine is small chibi Caleb chasing small chibi Essek around while Essek is trying to nom beacons?"

This idea lit a fire in my brain, and I just had to implement it but I had a very short time for the assignment. Iended up implementing something very simple, but I just couldn't let it go afterwards and vowed I was going to finish that small game and get it out for the fandom to play.

It has since been rewriteen, refactored and recoded several times, until I had something workable to show others. This is the place to mention the major contribution the people fo AIFL had on this little game. As I was maing this game, I shared its early stages with the server, and people have been kind in thier enthusasm, gave me ideas and provided invaluable criticism and feedback. They kept me motivated and kept me going through the lows of frustration one gets when coding. I got @bumble-b-goode 's permission to use their designs for the Weezards and drew my own sprites using that as inspiration. I ended up creating most of the assets for this game. Drawing the art assets took quite some time and I've learned a lot in the process.

Beacon Run not big or complicated as a game. In essence, is a tribute and a love letter to the Critical Role community and the CR crew. To the people who brought to life the Mighty Nein and have shared, and continue to share their stories with us on a weekly basis throughout the years. For Liam and Matt, who have weaved the tale of two broken wizards mending each other into better people, and keep their children of ink and paper alive for us to enjoy. The game: You as a player, are randomly assigned a little wizard to play for each match, so you can play as Essek or Caleb. The board dimensions and obstacles and even the flooring art are randomized for each match so each match is different. Your goal: to collect as many Beacons as you can during the allotted time, and end up with more Beacons than your rival which is the other wizard played by the computer. You gain projectiles over time, which are fake Beacons you can throw at the other wizard. If hit, the rival wizard is stunned for a short time, and drops several of his picked up Beacons for you to gather. However, beware! The rival wizard can also shoot you and stun you for a short while, and make you drop beacons as well. (You might notice that Essek gets stunned by sour lemon Beacons, while Caleb gets stunned by hand-knitted wool Beacons XD) In addition, when the rival is hit, he may drop a Magic Abeyance Bead which contains a Chronurgy spell. if you pick it up, it will provide a short time bonus for the match. In short, the game is a small, cozy game, made out of love for the wizards and the fandom, and I hope you'll enjoy it! I it still in the late stages of testing and development, as the feedback players provide is invaluable and lets me find bugs, add ideas and content suggested and tweak the mechanics to make it more enjoyable. So I would very much appreciate feedback, suggestions, con-crit etc. I would be happy to head what you like about it, what you think needs tweaking, ideas of content to add.... you name it! (Note that currently, the game does not work on mobile. I am planing to revamp the input system and add touch suport for mobile in the near future) Also it is worth mentioning that as I fix bugs, add content and tweak things, I upload new versions of the game so its worth following the Devlog and updates. The game is avaliable for play in the embedded player on the page, and also available for download to play offline (Though you might need to redownload it with every new version as I don't have an auto updater for it.)

In addition, if you like my work, feel like enabling me to make more of these or just want to buy me a coffee, It is always very much appreciated as it sure helps me stay afloat! Tip Jar

So, I hope you forgive me for my lack of writing for the last few months. I really wanted to get this out. I am trying to keep writing in my spare time, but the muses haven't been with me lately. I hope that now that this is out I can finally get my mind off it XD Stay tuned!

[sucre-writes-things]

Drabble of this idea that was on X.

Here's my first little drabble that I've written in quite some time! Time to shake off the dust, so to say. I've been wanting to write again for a little bit, and this just kind of got the creative juices flowing once more. I'm also sorta in my LaDS phase, so yeahhhh.... lol. I hope you enjoy!

Stares at the gym were a common occurrence for Caleb. Fit, tall, friendly, and handsome were good adjectives to describe him, and were just some of the traits that drew people to him. Women attempted to get his number, but he always declined their advances. Why? Well, that's because Caleb only had his eyes for you.

All he did, was for you - and his mind, that would never change. But today, he wanted to impress you with how his workouts were going. Maybe get a little inspiration, a way to spur himself to keep going for the day. So when he went into the locker room while his friends, he decided to snap a photo for you.

Standing in front of a large mirror, Caleb positioned himself so he could see his whole reflection. Oh yeah, this would work. One hand held his phone, as his other ran through his damp locks, tussling his bangs a bit to show just how much hard work he'd done. After doing that, that same hand that was in his hair went to the hem of his sleeveless shirt, pulling it up enough to expose some of glistening abs. A playful look was in eyes as a light smirk played on his lips. Taking the photo, he then looked at it to see if said photo was good enough. Nah, it was lacking... something.

It had to be redone - it needed to get you riled up. And just the thought of you getting all flustered over his gym selfie got him excited, prompting him to take another photo. This time, though, he'd take the hem of his damp shirt and bring it to his lips. With this, he could fully show the dedication to his hard work. Caleb's necklace that he cherished stuck to his chest, showing under his pulled-up shirt. Oh, now this was perfect. That same smirk persisted as he went to add one more detail to this photo - a hand trailing down to the waistband of his shorts, just to tease with a glimpse of the waistband of his boxers. Purple eyes went to the mirror, tilting his head down some to really capture that somewhat sultry look.

As soon as the photo was taken, he went to make sure it was good enough. And oh, was it! This would be just the thing to get you all hot and bothered. He allowed the shirt to fall, covering his body once more. Now it was time to actually send this work of art to you.

[PICTURE SENT]'

'whatcha think of my progress, pipsqueak? looking good, huh?'

Caleb captioned, his smirk was now plastered onto his features. Surely you'd write back something...

And as he was about to put the phone into his pocket, he heard the tone go off. You wrote back! Hurriedly, he unlocked his phone to reveal your message and it was...!

'👍'

A THUMBS UP?? Surely you weren't going to only write that - no, he was sure that you were going to write something else! Smirk fading, he waited a bit longer to see if anything else would happen.

A few moments pass... and nothing. Nothing other than that damn thumbs up emoji.

'that's all? not even just a little "keep it up?" c'mon, don't leave me hanging!'

He texted, crestfallen. Damn, if that didn't work..

Well, maybe he had to try harder next time... second times the charm, right?

[friendship-test]

The making of Friendship Test:

I have always wanted to make a RPG Maker game. Throughout the years I have played several games with small pixel sprites as characters, as worlds, and I have always been fascinated that you can create a beautiful, funny and interesting story through them. I can not code and I do not have any 3d art skills, the chances of me ever making a videogame were very limited, but I have always wanted to make one. RPG Maker always seemed like the most available objective I could achieve, but I was never motivated enough to try anything cause I never had any good concept in mind for a videogame.

The year of 2024 started with a big robot obsession for me. Robot Dreams had recently came out and I did not stop thinking about it ever since, and soon after I started playing Toontown Corporate Clash, needless to say I adored those corporative robots too. I have always loved robot characters and thought it would be fun to create a story with them, I had several OC projects in mind but none of them included robot characters, so I thought I should change that.

I daydreamed about the concept of a story with robots, suddenly came with an idea: “what if an army of robots turned ‘good’ and only one of them was still ‘bad’?”

A very simple concept, one that would change and develop a lot, but an idea that I really liked. Of course, I like writing character dynamics, so it could not be a solo story, I gave the corrupted robot a companion in their journey. It was the story of a robot that was built to be kind turning ‘mean’ and a robot that was built to be a weapon turning ‘good’, traveling through a laboratory of abandoned robots that had all turned ‘good’, but how maybe that’s not as nice as it sounds.

I had that idea in mind, but I wasn’t planning on doing much with it. Perhaps a quick drawing, post it on tumblr and move on to other projects for now. But an image showed up in my brain that I could not shake off: I imagined this game as a rpg maker game. I imagined the sprite of the protagonist walking around this abandoned lab. And the strangest thing? It looked good. It looked promising. At least, it did in my brain.

The story was nothing but a mere simple concept, but it was good enough to give me enough motivation to look up tutorials on how to use GameMaker. Yeah, you read that right, GameMaker, not RPG Maker. I wanted to try out a more complicated engine, spent three days learning how to build one single room. I followed the steps, but somehow, I ran into a bunch of issues and it was not working properly. It did not feel great to waste three days for nothing, I was ready to give up and just go back to drawing simple drawings, go back to something I already knew how to do just fine.

But the image of the little robot still roamed around in my brain. So I decided to look up tutorials for RPG Maker.

Needless to say, I should have done that from the beginning.

I didn’t become an expert immediately, I still am not an expert whatsoever, but even if it took time and effort, RPG Maker was easy to use. No wonder so many use it to make videogames.

Again, the concept of this game was still very limited, I had a lot of ideas in my mind on how the story could go, drew a lot of concept art, wrote a few lines of dialogues, but nothing was set and stone yet. I decided to make one short area at the very least, and while I was creating it, I could think on the story some more.

I did just that, the first area is basically exactly what I had in mind since the beginning: a dark, empty abandoned lab. FriendProgram’s character design was very stuck on my brain too, they did not require a lot of concept art, their final design was very clear to me.

I made a couple of rooms, learned the basics on how to move from one room to another, how to change the character’s speed, how to make them interact with things, how sprites worked, all that stuff. But I needed to make FriendProgram interact with SOMEONE at some point. I needed a couple of funny NPCs for them to interact with. That’s how I came up with FUN and GAMES.

Now, I already had a few ideas for characters we would meet later on the story, but these two were not planned ahead, I just needed a funny duo to introduce us to the test ‘battle’ mechanic and to showcase the overall humor and dialogue style this game has.

However, I ended up liking them so much that they became part of the main cast of characters, even if their role is smaller than others.

When it comes to the tests, I was a bit concerned with that aspect. I knew that was the main gameplay of this game, the friendship tests you are put through, but I was not certain how I was going to pull that off. Would it be boring? Would it be repetitive? Would I not be able to program it? As flawed as they are, I am pretty satisfied with the results.

You have only seen a pretty simple friendship test, they get a bit more creative later on.

When it comes to the ‘battles’, I wanted them to be short and simple, nothing that takes too much time and nothing too complicated either. It’s the reason why there are so many, cause they are all meant to be pretty short, and the game allows you to save whenever you want. I hoped that getting a game over would not be too punishing to the player, since I’m aware some battles can be a little difficult to figure out what you are exactly supposed to say. Game overs are a bit essential to the point the game is trying to make.

Still, I am aware the battles can hurt the pacing a little in the first act, which is why they are better distributed in later acts, instead of getting 5 consecutive battles at once.

The mechanics of the battles change a little in each act, with act 2’s probably being the most complicated. But battles are not the main point of the game, which is why you might see less of them as the story progresses. Still, I’m okay to have a flawed ‘battle’ system, at least I have one at all, which I was worried I might not have been able to have.

The other gameplay ‘mechanic’ are of course, the friend_test_mode. They are however meant to be more story-focused than anything else, the first one is very simple, the other one can be a bit more annoying to get to the correct answers, but both of them do not punish you with game overs and are not meant to be anything too complicated. It’s presentation, part of the story, less a gameplay mechanic.

But enough about gameplay! This is a videogame that is more about characters and stories.

Before arriving to the new location this act takes place in, you find yourself with two experiments and learn all about the battle system. One of the two experiments is Exe, a strange mysterious rabbit. Exe was originally not part of the story, I adore characters like Exe, the funny annoying comedic relief characters, I tend to include them a lot in my stories. But so far, I hadn’t included any characters like that, I thought that maybe they would annoy people and it wasn’t necessary to the story. This changed however, I realized that if I’m making a game that I would like to play myself I had to include a character I would love, even if there were people who wouldn’t like them. So I included Exe, who serves as a tutorial and overall guide to the player. She started out as a small funny character, but as I wrote the story she became so essential that now I can not imagine the game without her. Sometimes the annoying comic relief character can save your story.

But now we arrive to the Reprogram Town! Very early on I knew that the first real area of the game should be a place full of nature, a huge contrast to the rest of the lab. It’s not just the nature, but the people are also very different from what you will see in this lab. The reprograms have sealed themselves away from everyone else, which means they can live in peace, away from the rules of BestFriendProgram, the program in charge of the lab.

The concept I had for this first area was to evoke something familiar: a cute little town with fun and kind NPCs, a bunch of simple quests, a bunch of simple battles and a story that ends with a nice lesson and with the characters being happy and loving each other very much, all thanks to you, the protagonist. I think it’s something we have seen in plenty of games, you play this area and you have an idea on what to expect, it is something pretty simple and easy to swallow. You are a nice protagonist that helps others and becomes friends with everyone, this is a game where you will meet a lot of programs and become friends with all of them and make everything better through kindness! This is what you are meant to believe.

The protagonists of Reprogram Town are Hammer, Keys and Wrench. The story is all about them, you are helping them but you are not part of their story. You are just a kind silent protagonist that doesn’t steal the spotlight from the story we are witnessing.

I knew from the beginning I wanted a simple but emotional conflict between these new characters, something that you could solve in one episode, but still has meaning to it. Just because you are a little deceived into thinking this game is going to be one way and then it turns out to be a little different than expected, doesn’t mean that the emotional conflicts have no meaning. What these three go through is real and they still have a lot to go through, specially Keys, who will get more things to do later on.

Something I really like about Keys is that he is a character that has kind of already went through his big character arc, there isn’t really much you can help him with when he has already grown as a person on his own and with the people he is close with. It doesn’t mean his journey is over, but it makes his interactions a lot of fun.

His asexual side plot is the first aspec-related story we see in the game and it is very essential to the character, at first I mostly implied it but I wanted to make it very obvious, this is not the ‘implied aspec’ game, this is the ‘stated aspec stories’ game after all. Keys is asexual and is a huge part of his story, as we will see later on.

Kindness is a big theme in this game too, and I really like the story of Hammer choosing to be a kind person despite everything. I like Wrench a lot too, even if he doesn’t show up as much I wanted his personality to be so vibrant that you will forget he has very little screentime. I really like when stories focus on siblings so of course I wanted two of the main cast of characters to be siblings and this is the act where they get to shine.

This first act establishes a lot of world-building as well. There is still a lot of things to find out about, but little by little you learn how this world is supposed to work. The mandatory tests, the water damage, the reliance on metal, the unconscious days, the data corruption, the old organisms… So much information in what appears to be a very silly and cute chapter of a bigger story.

Speaking of a bigger story, seems like that’s where FriendProgram and Waterbottle will truly get to shine. Waterbottle shows up very little in this act, and FriendProgram barely acts like a character, but this changes completely after the ending the demo. The rest of the game is very different from these first few hours and it’s all because of this program duo, especially FriendProgram, but it is also not different enough that it’d feel like a completely different game. The demo gives you a very clear idea of how the tone, pacing and dialogue of this game is usually like, even if there will be improvements later on.

Waterbottle is, in my opinion, probably the best character in the game. They are very fun to write and I enjoy every moment they are on screen, I think this character genuinely makes my game way better, which is why the demo is one of the weakest parts of the story, simply because Waterbottle is barely in it. Not for any other reason, it’s just cause Waterbottle doesn’t have enough screentime.

Now when it comes to FriendProgram, I did not want Friendship Test to be a cynical story where I “criticize” games that “force” you to be kind just to get what you want, I thought that would be very dumb and against everything that I am. FT offers a funny scenario of a character that has no other option than to be a really good friend to be able to advance the story, but it doesn’t mean they are not a complex person with no kindness in their heart. It doesn’t mean that helping other programs is meaningless, it doesn’t mean that FriendProgram hates everyone and would kill everyone if they could. There is a lot of layers to this story and this character.

You might be wondering however: ‘Where are the aspec themes? You said this game was about lovelessness!’ To that I say, patience! Don’t worry, the rest of the game does NOT shut up for a second about the main message of the story, but it was very important to establish the world building and characters first before fully focusing in the main themes. Besides that, the demo is also meant to trick you into thinking this is another story about the power of love, there is a reason why it is not really discussed at the beginning. There is more to the story and to FriendProgram than you might think.

I am very proud of my game, despite the flaws, I’m happy that I finally had the motivation to make the rpg maker game I have always wanted to make. Perhaps this game will help me make a better game one day, who knows, for now I am very happy with the result so far.

The first update was more about the making of the demo, but the next ones will all be about previews and presentations for the rest of the game! Next month I will talk about the next area of the game: The Emulation Area!

Thank you for reading and supporting, see you!

-------

Get your updates 1 week earlier and extra posts in Patreon!

[sleepyghostuwu]

The Artist and the Gem (Part 2, rewrite)

Synopsis: You start brainstorming about your mysterious client's request and begin working on it. Unfortunately, that means finding a way to get your unconventional art subject to cooperate with you, whether or not he knows about it.

Notes: (Edit: I wasn't too happy with how it turned out and it was bugging me a fair bit, so I had to redo it for my own peace of mind.)

Fem! Reader POV will be used in this series as it is what I'm most comfy writing in ^^ Also it's really lengthy lmao (I got too excited writing this) so get ready-

Previously: Part 1

It has been a good number of months since you've received the mysterious client's commission.

You've been finding yourself becoming increasingly productive in both your white collar and artistic jobs, presumably from wanting to rid yourself of as much work as you could to work on Aventurine's portrait. It has gotten to the point you even managed to send out most of your commissions to your other clients, even the impatient one who had been living on your nerves for what felt like an eternity. What made you want to get his portrait done and over with so badly? That was a question you were too afraid to find answers to.

Speaking of Aventurine, you have a slight problem: while you knew how he looks like very well, you had no clue how to draw him that well. The fact that the both of you work in different departments and hence very rarely see each other made your task of observing his appearance better all the more difficult.

With all possible odds pitted against you, only two solutions remain: you could either spy on Aventurine during your lunch and tea breaks and sketch him in secret, or directly ask him to pose for you for a few minutes. Given your current ranking in the IPC, you have a slightly better chance at the former. As the clock strikes at lunchtime, you quickly grab your tablet and head for the first place you can think of: the lounge.

-------

"...Don't worry, I'll be sure to send you the updates as soon as I get them," Aventurine's carefree voice echoes like a chime as he and the other Stonehearts leave the meeting room for their break. Your breath hitches and you quickly crouch behind the nearest potted plant you spotted in the vicinity, peeking through its leaves cautiously.

"This is the worst idea I've ever thought of..." you curse under your breath as you stabilised yourself against the wall. You have passed by Aventurine during work before on several occasions, and rarely ever get to briefly speak to him about work-related matters, so seeing the man himself with your eyes was not something unfamiliar to you. However, what left you the slightest bit horrified was the next thought that entered your mind.

Aventurine is stunningly handsome.

His sandy hair, which was slightly tucked behind his left ear, flowed down his neck like sand in an hourglass, and his eyes were as vibrant as stained glass windows in the sun. The deep green and gold coattails trailing behind him reminded you of a brightly coloured bird as he strode across the hallway, always seeming like he had people to show off to in every corner.

(Y/n)! Focus! You frantically shake your thoughts out of your hand and ready your tablet. It's your only chance at this, so don't mess this up! Propping yourself against the wall as you continue crouching behind the potted plant, you whip out your stylus and begin drawing furiously.

The first few attempts you made were a little sloppy (by your standards, at least), but in a short while, you manage to fill the better half of your drawing spread with surprisingly good sketches. The fact that Aventurine was perfectly still as you drew each pose made your success feel too good to be true. As you watch Aventurine leave the vicinity with a few cups of coffee in hand, you heave a sigh of relief and stood up, propping yourself against the wall as you wait for your legs to recover from crouching on the ground for so long.

And it's still lunch hour, too! You smile to yourself as you turn to leave for the office cafe. Everything went according to plan. Surely nothing could possibly go wrong after this-

"Oh, (y/n)? I didn't expect to see you here."

A chill runs down your spine as you slowly come face-to-face with none other than Aventurine himself.

-------

"H-hello, sir," you squeak, clutching your tablet in a tight embrace as you desperately tried to hide its contents. Clearing your throat, you add, "I was just going to the lounge to...well, take a rest."

"Hmm..." Aventurine stares intently at you before checking his watch. Then, he looks up at you again and chuckles. "Really? With that tablet of yours, too?" He raises an eyebrow at the tablet in your arms. "I'm pretty sure doing extra work isn't something a person would be doing to take a break."

Damn, he's catching onto me. Embarrassment and fear kicking in, you avert your eyes from his. Aventurine tilts his head to the side in feigned curiosity. "What are you doing here anyway? Are you...hiding something from me?" His eyes shift to the tablet in your hands.

"No..." You cling to your tablet tighter as the voices in your head scream for you to run before he does the last thing you want him to do. However, Aventurine swiftly swipes the tablet (which, much to your dismay, was still switched on) from your hands before you can physically react.

"Well, well, what do we have here- oh?" Aventurine's smirk gives way to a more surprised expression as he gapes at the canvas of digital sketches of him. "Oh my. Is that- is that me?"

You feel the heat rising in your cheeks as your worst possible outcome unfolds before you. Frantically, you attempt to snatch your tablet back, only to have your hands flail in vain as he kept moving it out of reach, only relenting and returns the tablet to you after a good few minutes.

"Oh, relax, (y/n). I didn't mean anything negative by that. Those sketches of yours are quite majestic, really. I'm just...pleasantly surprised, hehehe~ Though, I have to ask..." He leans slightly closer to you, his iconic sly grin now back on his face.

"What exactly are they for?"

[archie-sunshine]

Hello I'm currently scared of being perceived. I've had this idea for a short fic involving Meter and my oc and I know you love and encourage fan work of your ocs but I'm Nervous cuz we aren't mutuals and the thing involves them being friends and ends with slight sexual suggestion and wanted to ask permission first. Please and thank you for your time

A ton of my mutuals I met via the fanart they drew of my characters or aus!! Like I’d say a good third of them are people who enjoyed my work who followed me and drew them, like most of the fanart of meter people sent in caused me to follow them because their art was fantastic(and I felt like I didn’t deserve it, cough cough)

Also you could fully write about Meter getting rawed in the most violent and kinky way and I’d probably follow you because you took time out of your day to write about my character! That’s really nice of you!! Like do you guys recognize how nice it is to receive something someone made!

ALSO IM A PORN ARTIST WHO DRAWS PORN OF METER BEING CRAZY RAWED, I WANT TO SEE HIM BE CRAZY RAWED AND READ ABOUT HIM BEING CRAZY RAWED!!!!

TLDR, yes. Please write that. Please. I will love it.

[cyandreamzaceattorney]

❀ Kay Faraday and co. ❀

Today I finished up this page in my sketchbook (unfortunately I forgot to write that I drew this on the 10th-12th until after I took a picture (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠)) and I'm really happy with how it looks! This was my first time drawing both Tyrell Badd and Byrne Faraday and to my surprise I had a lot of fun drawing them! I'm a lot less expensive drawing both male passing and/or masc presenting characters and older characters. So when I started, I was worried I wouldn't enjoy drawing them, but then they ended up being a lot of fun to draw, and I think I translated them to my art style pretty well (⁠ㆁ⁠ω⁠ㆁ⁠).

Rest of post contains aai1 spoilers

I also had to draw both Calisto and Kay to complete the Yatagarasu theme, then to fill out space I decided to do colour swatches which look nicer then I expected. Definitely need to do this more in future >:3!

Finally I was going to draw a comic (hence the line) but unfortunately forgot the clear idea and layout in my head (⁠´⁠-⁠﹏⁠-⁠`⁠；⁠). I knew I should've quickly sketched the idea out or documented it some other way but alas, I didn't. So intead I drew my take on adult Kay (set post AA4 of course). Aside from unfortunately doing the lineart a bit too thick around her right eye I really like this drawing!

I stole the concept of her wearing Tyrell's jacket from this amazing and super cool design and tumblr post because it looks cool and ties into my hc that Tyrell adopted Kay after her father was killed. Then I gave her blue shorts that both reference her kid design, and teen design (cuz in her teen design she has her shirt sleeves folded up like these shorts), her dad's blue scarf, and a crop top that's inspired by the top she wears as a teen, but I hope by cropping it and making it form fitting it looks more athletic, which I think suits an active character like Kay. Oh and she has a long braid because I think it looks cool.

Hope you all enjoy these drawings :D

[off-mozzarella]

Taking this insomnia as an oportunity to yap about the soulswap AU xD I was going to talk abt everything here but it got kinda long so I might make more parts about the other posts!!

First comic - how it started 🐱

Now... The existence of this + the fact it's my post popular post is funny and kind of ironic considering I've never really been one to enjoy -swap AUs but here we are xD

I got the idea in the beautiful daydreaming time before bed lol, and during a few weeks I was just kinda coming up with scenarios

So then I got the idea of making it into a comic, which honestly I didn't take that seriously at first bc I thought I wasn't actually gonna do it, but still I tried planning out in my head what I wanted the introducction "story" to be, how I could represent the actions through panels, and I even thought about the dialogues a lot and how to organize the speech bubbles, I'm honestly not one to like writing stuff down so I just memorized it all 😹

Soo yeah, one day I was just like "fuck it I'm gonna do it". (I just remembered I can use periods I'm sorry). This would be a personal project in which in the worst case I would have a ugly comic, and in the best it would be something I'm actually proud of, but either way the important thing for me was to actually try to do it and challenge myself with something I've never done. Lowkey also in spite of all the art ideas I've had in my life and never even attempted to create xD.

I think I decided to start like, exactly a week before my lasik surgery 💀 so I took that as a deadline to try to finish as soon as possible, otherwise I would be giving myself room to overthink it and probably scape it xd. Since I wouldn't be able to draw for a few days after my surgery, I also thought it would be nice to (lowkey unhealthily) put all the work into something I wanted to get done and go rest those few days feeling acomplished.

So I gathered a bunch of references, made a lot of my own got to drawing and suffered but also had fun lol. I'm ngl I just wasn't going out from my room bc I was either drawing all day or searching for references. Straight up forced myself to be an expert in drawing those two (jk I still can't draw them properly but at least it's a bit easier now).

I was really overthinking the chain of events that occurred before the comic so what was happening and what Hyrule said made sense lol. I ended up changing a small bit of the dialogue and I still think it doesn't make sense but no one thought about it (probably) so that's fine. I also had to change some panels so they would be an even number, it was had trying to keep it flowing correctly, honestly everything was hard!!! High respect to comic artists, I've only read a few comics and mangas so I honestly have no idea of what I'm doing.

Anyways, there isn't really a way to add text on procreate so I drew the speech bubbles kind of guessing the size xD taking into consideration the planning I had done about their placement. This worked for most panels but for some I had to import the page with the text and redraw it again. Took a bit but I finished the night before my deadline, it was so hard not to post it inmediately 😿 I told myself I'd wait until the next day bc maybe I could reach more ppl.

So yeah, I post it the next day. It very quickly got quite a few likes and reblogs, so I felt relieved to see it was getting well received! It was something unlike anything I've done before and an idea that would not be of everyone's taste so I hope you understand why I was a bit anxious 😹. I was reading your reblogs in the waiting room before the surgery and it helped me feel less nervous so xD thanks. And coming back after those few days to so many nice comments?? Beautiful.

Enough yapping about me, now some stuff about the actual comic!

These are my fave panels:

The hardest to draw:

Aaand my least favorite:

I had to do some recycling because I was running short on time but it looks so stiff 😓 I wanted to change the angle or the pose but it was too late. The recycling just doesn't work as well here as in the last page.

Random facts:

-I redrew the bottom panel of the first page like three times bc I didn't like it and still didn't like the final one lul.

-In the first one I considered adding the fairy flying away but Idk.

-I decided to draw the weapons during the entire comic bc I'm insane. I don't recommend it.

-I had to do some weird stuff in front of the mirror and on the floor to understand what I wanted with certain poses 💀 honestly this is true for a lot of my drawings.

-I tried to keep details but if you pay enough attention you'll notice some inconsistencies lol.

-I remembered Hyrule's bracelet until I was almost done and decided he was just not wearing it that day ✨

-Ig that the canvas was too big or smth but when I tried to watch the timelapse on my previous ipad the app would crash xDD. I have a pro now so I can actually watch it lol, I wanted to share a vid so you could see my messy ahh workflow but maybe next time bc I don't wanna turn my ipad on lol.

-I worked mostly in a single layer, cleaning up the drawings rather than trying to do lineart bc I knew if I did that it would look rly stiff and I was going to get stressed out. I rly aimed to get it done as best as possible in as little time as possible xD. It's not the greatest piece of art but it looks good enough. It was a rly interesting way to get out of my comfort zone.

Overall, this has been fun! And I'm glad to see this many people liked something I made. Embracing my cringe self and healing 💅.

Stay tuned for more yapping posts 😼👍.

[strangerthingsfanworkrecs]

I'd like to rec aggressivviking for the artist highlight!

Artist Highlight: Aggressive Viking

This week, we're highlighting @aggressiveviking! All recs tagged #aggressiveviking will be for his work, both fic and arts.

Nikki both writes and draws for Stranger Things. You can find links to all his social media here

His unique style comes from a background in traditional drawing, and you can still see the inky-outlines in his digital-only work. For writing, he does incredible world-building that naturally weaves into the narrative. If you run out of his Stranger Things arts, be sure to check out his work for other fandoms!

Nikki answered some questions about his writing process under the cut

Why stranger things?

I wasn't actually a big fan of the show back when the first season came out. Not to say I didn't enjoy it but it didn't really grab me beyond "oh hey, that's interesting". At the time I think this was one the first 80s nostalgia thing to come out and I enjoyed it as a novelty I guess when it came out and forgot about it right after (I'm not a horror fan so it wasn't exactly up my alley) I guess it started off with season 2 for me. The story was meh but it was Billy's character that drew my attention. Not because he was hot or anything but because his backstory resonated with me even though we didn't see much of it. I related to him in more ways than one, as weird as that sounds. And I also liked his style so I drew him. At the time I was getting back into art after giving it up for a while so I was drawing a lot. So I drew him a few times in a very short span of time and for some reason when I posted that on tumblr I actually had people interact with me over it. It was my first time having that happen so I decided to stick to it because it was fun and I kept drawing him and the rest is history. I guess it was the timing of it that was most important because I was going through some shit at the time and I really needed something to focus in. Billy ended up becoming my comfort character in the meaning of I would vent my own feelings through the art I did of him and it made me feel better And it also made me happy that my art was connecting me to other people. Billy fans at the time most often were similar to myself, people that related to him for his backstory and I ended up finding a community through that. I met a lot of wonderful people that knew exactly how it felt growing up like that (being abused and being in the closet) Because that's how we interpreted the character. I made good friends, we had fun doing fandom stuff and I stuck around. It was a huge comfort to me exactly when I really needed it So I found it hard to let it go as the years passed, and I'm still here after 8 years I did phase out of it for a bit around 2020. I focused on original character and stories with a friend at the time (we met through the Billy fandom and had very similar family situations and living situations). I was happy and content, I didn't really need the comfort of stranger things anymore. But my friend passed away unexpectedly a few years after and it hit me really hard, so I came back to Billy because it was the last thing I remember that gave me comfort. And it did. I met a lot of new wonderful people, tho the fandom had changed a lot and it was a little harder than before Had to deal with people who were spewing hate and didn't understand why there was a community around Billy's character, which was a first for me. The Billy fandom was a really special place before, I've never met so many wonderful people at one place before it. The kindest and most generous and talented people. I'm really happy to call some of them my friends

What's your drawing process like? Any tool you favor in particular?

My drawing process in general, no matter the medium I'm using is this: I get an idea or inspiration, look for references, and then try to draw the thing I'm drawing in one sitting because if I dwell too much on a piece I start to focus on it's flaws And that's no fun and it only ends up making me dislike my own art I always look for references tho, and if I can't find any I take pics of myself doing the poses or angles Sometimes I sit down to draw without having a particular idea. Then I just look for a reference that seems fun to draw. I used to do a lot of statue studies and such and turned them into fanart in the end I've been drawing mostly digitally for the last year or so just because it's faster but I personally would always prefer paper and pencil I feel like there is something I can catch with a pencil that I can't on a tablet And one of my favourite ways to draw would always be with black ink. It was my favourite thing to use in any way. I've used ink pens, fine liners, ink brushes, ink washes. And combining that with watercolor was my favourite I honestly want to go back to traditional, but I haven't had the time. Digital has been easier because it doesn't need set up, separate materials, clean up after, and the transfer of paper to digital (by picture or scan, that also needed editing after)

What's one thing about writing via RP that you think might surprise people?

Hm I'm note sure. Everyone is familiar with what RP is. I'm not sure why other people do it but what I personally enjoy most about it is that collaborative side of it. I live to discuss, and plan out a story with someone else and what I post enjoyed while writing is the element of surprise even within an already planned out scene - the details leading up to things. It made writing feel exciting even during the most boring scenes Tho I assume that's the same for anyone who enjoys RP

What was your favorite project so far?

I've been in love with every project I've started. If I don't love it, I don't start it

What was your hardest project so far?

Perhaps the OF account. It's not that it's particularly challenging, but it's just a lot of work. I have a partner for it and it's still a lot to keep track of and do and we tent to take breaks from it when we get busy irl We also want to eventually write a fic for it, following the timeline of the account, including the artworks inside it, but that's even more work and we've not been particularly free so we've pushed it off The original idea for it was a lot smaller and simpler. I wanted an excuse to draw porn and also hped to get some thematic prompts. After I saw how much people were interacting I felt like it would be a waste not to try and make something fun out of it for everyone who wanted to be a part of it. My friend Suo had experience running big event accounts so together we tried to come up with way to make it into something other people could participate in as well. That made it a lot bigger project than I ever imagined it could be and I've never run anything like that myself so it's definitely been the hardest project I've been doing

Is there a Fandom interaction, like a comment or fic rec that really stood out to you?

I've had some people show me some works they did based on my pieces of art and even years later I remember that fondly. even had someone make cosplay out of one of my art pieces and like that's amazing. I'm happy I can inspire other people with what I do

Is there anything we forgot to ask that you'd like to add?

Just try to be unapologetic with your art, writing anything you create 😭 Do it any way you want and any way it's easy and fun for you, fuck what anyone says

[dont-offend-the-bees]

Hi, it's Quill! For the fic writer asks, can you please answer 40, 56 and 65? 😘❤️

HELLO MY FRIEND THANK YOU 💛💛💛

40. If someone were to make fanart of your work, what fic or scene would you hope to see?

Ooooooh, now THAT'S a toughie. And and all art of my fic would be recived with literal tears of joy, but let's narrow it down lmao. Discounting my horny ass just wanting aaaallll the art of my smutty side account fic (and tbh more horny art of the Cat King in general), I think it would be lovely to see art of Lonely Bones, considering how much time and feeling has gone into it and considering I think you could have a lot of fun with moody compositions. Somewhere Beyond the Sea is only on it's first chapter but especially from chapter two onwards it's gonna have so many fun and whimsical things/characters to draw! I'd also be an absolute GLUTTON for more of mine and L and H's 1920s poly boys as seen in Keep Me Warm, Love Me Long, Be My Sunlight, but that's a bit more niche!

If I had to pick one singular scene, I think I'd melt like butter if someone drew Charles in subspace getting therapeutically, nonsexually dommed by Edwin with silly cat's cradle games in ’Cause You Cut Through All the Noise. I'm so fond of that fic you have no idea.

56. What’s something about your writing that you pride yourself on?

Character voices!! I need to rewatch DBDA again soon to refresh my memory lest I drift into made-up voices but generally speaking I think my dialogue characterisation is pretty fun and believable!

65. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

I am looking forward to each and every aspect of the 1920s AU I'm working on with @dear-monday and @tw0-ravens, but especially the Thomas dialogue/arc/letters. I'm also huuuugely looking forward to writing my Edge Chronicles AU, but mostly for the world, vibes and character backstories especially pertaining to Edwin -- I'm currently struggling a bit with finding the actual plot, though! I'm also SO excited for the rest of Somewhere Beyond the Sea, there's going to be so much fun and whimsy and fantasy and sweetness, I'm really excited for the bits I've added as well as the bits I'm adapting from the source material!

Get to know your fic writer!

(And because you asked me to talk about WIPs, here we go, a very short, rough snippet of the Edge Chronicles AU from my notes app -- flashback to Charles and Edwin's first meeting!)

It was freezing cold in the prowlgrin roost. Maybe not up in the nests and the roosting poles, where the big old beasts dozed by the light of the burning braziers, the lucky sods. But down in the straw and the muck the winter chill was biting, creeping through every crack in the ancient slats. Charles was huddling down pathetically, dragging the ratty old prowlgrin tarp tighter round his shoulders, when he heard a creak. Louder than the wind through the slats, slower. The door. He froze, holding his breath. The air had... changed. It was crackling with something, making Charles' hair stand on end. And then, footsteps.  Charles shrank back, tried to make himself small. But the shape that stepped into the roost wasn't any boy that he knew — anyone who might be looking to finish what they'd started. It was... strange. It was like looking at those old barkscroll woodcuts from way back; those odd, early academic knights with the leather armour, all tooled and riveted. Like something out of a fairytale. It looked at him, right at him, and pulled off its leather helmet and underneath was just… a boy. Not like any boy he'd seen, though. Pale, worryingly so, and gaunt, eyes the most piercing blue he'd ever seen; unearthly, iridescent. Like open, uncharted sky. "I was looking for the library," said the boy, softly, hoarsely, like he hadn't used his voice in a good long while. "It used to be here, did it not?" Charles frowned, for a moment too confused to be scared. Of all the things to be looking for! "Not anymore, mate. Moved it 'cuz of the rot, didn't they? That was what, thirty years back or summit." "Thirty years..." he hummed like a rumbling storm. "Right. If you might point me in the right direction — I have some very important reading to do.” Charles was starting to think the dunk in the lake had frozen his brain. "It's three in the morning,” he said, baffled. The boy knelt before him, and raised his hand. Charles watched, horrorstruck, as his long, slender fingers lost their shape and stretched, vaporous, into elongated strands of crystalline cirrus. "It is rather pressing," said the boy, deadpan.

And some of my tests of the art style so far 😊 this AU's gonna take me a WHILE with the illustrations as well as the writing lmao

[angelofchaos001]

Meet Shale!

Okay I made a proper introductory post for Shale! (Schist will come once I figure out their design) I'll make them a separate post for all the dialogue I came up with.

some spoilers for the game but not a lot, also tagging time: @doodlebug091 @mellow-mooon @sawyer-is-eepy @a-crawling-chaos (Just poking at my followers/moots who I know like Outer Wilds)

Alright! Let's start the bidding at this beauty of a reference. I know it's got some messy colors and no I don't know which layer the two random dots are on to erase them, but I'm proud because I drew this without needing to reference someone else's posing art. I just used my own arms and legs to figure it out and winged it and it looks like a person. I'm proud.

While we're on the topic, I might as well discuss my thought process for their design. This is Shale when they're not busy exploring dangerous ice asteroids. I tried to make the design look comfortable, and that's the main thought behind it. Shale likes scarves. They like fingerless gloves. They like baggier shorts. They despise long pants. They don't like wearing bright colors. They like grays and browns. It's Shale in their peak of comfort.

And then we've got this one! Also done without a pose reference. I actually did draw a whole spacesuit originally, but then covered it up with that big coat they're wearing. Anyway, Shale's suit is designed to be bulky, thick, insulted, everything they'd need to explore space properly. But to add onto that, they brought the scarf and coat for extra warmth on the Interloper. A lot of their patchwork fixes were done by them on the fly, and they even made their viola case all on their own. Shale uses yellow as their bright coloration because they hate the color orange. They have a ton of rope, ice picks, and grippy boots because they knew they were going to an ice place. And that antennae on their helmet is meant to pick up distant signals, so far it has not picked up anything new.

Now it's time for what nobody came here for, the infodump about their history and personality!

Shale developed a fascination with space at a very young age. Extremely young. All it took was young Shale getting one look through a telescope to become completely obsessed with the idea that they, someday, would join the well-known travelers out there and do something legendary. Sometimes, when things lined up right, Shale got to opportunity to talk to the travelers over radio. They loved hearing stories of Feldspar's glory and dreamed to be immortalized like they were.

Once they were allowed to join Outer Wilds Ventures and start learning how to be an astronaut, Shale wasted no time being both a delight to teach and an absolute headache to watch over. Whenever they weren't learning or doing their part in the village (Shale helped keep the observatory clean), they were working on their own little project. With some help from Slate, they attempted to make a jetpack just like the spacesuits had. They got precisely two attempts at this before they were shut down, but the first attempt went off mostly fine. Despite the device not working, Shale landed mostly safely in the water and their only injuries were some scrapes and a sprained ankle.

Shale never stopped writing new ideas, but didn't physically attempt any more jetpacks for a while. Instead, they focused on studying and getting closer to the other trainees they were learning alongside. They did grow close to the protagonist, and another recruit named Tin, though weren't able to click as well with the slightly older hearthians, Schist and Bismuth. Most of their time was still spent with their mentors, but whenever hatchling wasn't working with Hal on the translator, Shale liked to be around them.

When they were a little older and nearing the end of their training, Shale made their second attempt at the jetpack, and came out with a promising result. However, this attempt went far poorer than the previous one. For one, they moved the attempt location to avoid being caught by anyone, sneaking away to some of the further-out geysers with Tin (in case something impossibly went wrong). They even snuck a spacesuit (yoinked from the Zero-G cave), since their plan was to launch from a geyser and leave the planet, just for a moment (They didn't take the jetpack there because the entire point here was testing theirs).

The plan went smoothly, with Shale indeed getting launched from the geyser and coming close to leaving the orbit of the planet, except for the part where their jetpack failed. Catastrophically. It actually exploded on their back, pretty much destroying the "borrowed" suit, but more critically, burning Shale badly. Luckily, they had brought someone else with them, so Tin was able to (try and) catch them so the fall wouldn't kill 'em and then get help for them.

Shale got taken to be medically treated, and everyone agrees they're incredibly lucky to have survived as well as they did. In spite of the massive burns, the suit protected them from the worst of it and it was really only their back that got hurt severely. While the smaller burns along their neck and arms healed fine, much of their back burns scarred and took a lot of time and effort to heal.

So. Obviously Shale got in massive trouble.

Such trouble that not only did they move their launch date back (both for recovery reasons and punishment reasons) significantly, but the others considered forcing Shale out of the space program. In the end, Shale was allowed to stay a recruit as long as they 1) Did not try that again 2) Agreed not to sneak around again 3) Helped repair the suit they'd broken and 4) Spent some time after healing not being in the program (think getting suspended). While in this suspension period, Shale got to watch Schist launch off, still fantasizing about that being them.

Shortly after Schist was Bismuth, and as Shale's own launch date approached they were eager. Tin launched a few days before their own, and so Shale spent a lot of time reassuring them that it'd be fine and they'd do great things. Eventually, it was finally Shale's turn. After camping with Slate (and having an amazing conversation about 'Why did you do the stupid thing' - 'Why did you let me do the stupid thing'), they set off for their ambition: The Interloper. They were determined to find out where it came from.

This ambition proved harder than they'd thought, but it didn't deter Shale from their goal. They became an avid studier of ghost matter by extension of their Interloper studies, and theorized a lot about what happened to the core of the asteroid and it's origins. They also spent some time studying how to make ships designed for deep space, hoping that the frozen Nomai ship they found on the asteroid could hold the answer for that.

Some time later, Tin sent everyone frantic radio messages to come back to Timber Hearth and that they'd discovered something new. Tin desperately tried to explain how they'd found a new hidden spinning disk thing, but as time passed with Tin being unable to provide real evidence, Hearthians began dismissing their claims. Shale was one of the last to give up on Tin's ideas, but eventually waved them off as mad like everyone else. They feel bad for Tin and their situation, but don't disagree with their grounding and truly believe their friend went a little crazy.

After that, some time passed, and then we hit the events of the game. They did radio Hatchling plenty of reassuring words before their launch, though!