#Good luck on your art journey! B*)

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Hi!! I love this series so much, and as someone who hasn’t really drawn since they were a kid but wants to start as a hobby, do you have any advice for sort of learning to doodle on paper and get better at it? I want to start but I don’t really know how/where

The most important step in getting better at any skill is Persistence and Consistency. Practice and keep practicing! The best way to do that is to keep it fun! Picking a project helps generate ideas (e.g. drawing Pokémon, or characters from a series you like). There are also a ton of monthly prompt lists out there!

I also highly recommend scheduling in a 'drawing/practice' time in your day. For me, I started with 30-60 min before bed (bonus: its a good 'no screentime' activity), and the habit took root there.

There are a lot of 'technical' things to study but find the fun first. At a certain point you will discover you've hit a wall, and have a specific aspect/goal you want to target (colour theory, anatomy, lighting, comic layout). Then it's time to go looking for resources.

Once you have the habit and some goals, go collect some inspiration! Find people who inspire you and study their work!

Another little 'art skill builder' I recommend is the Shrimp Method! Only if you find technical challenges like this fun though (Example of one of my studies below)

[99yikes]

Hi! I’m a beginner artist when it comes to digital art and was wondering what app and brushes do you use for your art, or maybe if you have any tips on digital art. I figured I’d ask you since your art is so cool and looks so nice!

aksjskdjf hello there! thank you so much for the compliments, i'm flattered!! my art is super sloppy, but i'm happy you like it (꒦ິ꒳꒦ີ)♡ i'm honestly a little embarrassed to post this cuz i'm pretty much still a novice at digital art stuff, so there are probably better/more concise ways to go over all this, but i'll gonna try my best anyway!! sorry if i ramble ;;

to answer your questions, i use procreate! i'm also pretty lazy and i don't really like to switch brushes often, meaning i work almost exclusively with the 6B Pencil. i sketch with it. i line with it. i even color and render with it sometimes. i knew when i got into digital art i would want to use a textured, pencil-like brush bc my favorite artist did and i always loved the way it looked.

here's an example of just how excessively i use it lmao (with some Pro Tips™ /j):

but ! because i use it so often, i've made some minor adjustments to the brush -- not enough to warrant calling it a completely different brush, but enough that there's a noticeable difference between the original and what i use when actually drawing.

personally, i like a tapered end when sketching and lining so i gave it a little fall off and adjusted pressure taper settings, and i also appreciate more control (less loose/shaky lines bc a pen tip on a glass screen is SLIPPERY), so i upped the streamline setting too!

here's a look at what settings i tweaked if you want to try it out yourself:

other brushes i tend to use are:

Round Brush for coloring. very super mega basic, but easy to work with!

and it's worth mentioning that lately i've been using Baskerville to line things! i used it in this itafushikigi piece. it gives me a lot of control and it's very tidy so i like it (bˊᵕˋ)b

and that's...really it lmao. of course these are all default procreate brushes. no matter what program you use, i just recommend testing out different brushes and adjusting settings until you find what works for you! you can always reset to default if you dislike it and duplicate the brush if you adore it. you can also download other brushes, but i don't have much (read: any) experience with that 💃

other tips would just be get familiar with your app and practice as much as you can. i'm very much a "pick one thing and draw it a million times" kind of person bc repetition gives me an opportunity to work on things i want to improve. 'if i draw yuutafushi enough times, eventually i'll perfect how i draw them' -- that kind of mindset?? idk if that method works for everyone, but, y'know...having a muse helps ;;

digital art was like a whole nother ballpark for me and i felt like i had to relearn how to do everything, so don't feel discouraged if your traditional art abilities don't immediately transfer over! it just takes time to get comfortable with it. drawing with your finger on a screen vs a pen on a tablet vs a pencil on paper are all very different experiences and there's a learning curve for each!

anyways, i hope that helps a little. sorry this is super long! good luck on your digital art journey ❤️

[quaykey]

Thoughts on Writing Anxiety, aka I hate my plot

For the last week or two I've had this anxious dread in my bones. I can't shake it. It's kind of like when you know something is off, but you can't quite put your finger on it. Some might call it a gut feeling, and I suppose it is. It's worse, though, because it's in my chest.

Something about my writing isn't working.

In this post you'll be able to join me as I process this anxiety and dread that's been killing me at work.

We know that anxiety is future based. When you're anxious, it always has something to do with an expectation of the future. Fight or flight (or freeze, or fawn). It's a mode of preperation.

What is it about my anxiety that relates to my writing? How does it relate to the future?

The plot. The outline. It's the thing that tells me in twenty thousand words:

I should be at roughly chapter seventeen, assuming I'm averaging a 4000 word count per chapter.

My characters need to be at this point in the overall journey.

Each character is at their own specific point in their own character arc.

Subplot B and D need to be paid off.

Subplot F needs to be setup.

I'd be surprised if someone didn't get anxiety over such a daunting challenge. I, however, am but a mere mortal.

Image: Takai Art

If you've ever played dungeons or dragons (or any kind of tabletop roleplaying game), you'll know there's a game master or a dungeon master who effectively narrates and crafts the tale.

It's the dungeon masters job to tell the epic story that the group of roleplayers are travelling through. They have to set the scenes, play all of the NPCs in realtime, and offer hooks, conflicts and payoffs to the party surrounding them.

I suppose a DM (dungeon master) has to balance a lot going on. They will most likely have a sketch of what they want to happen in mind. They'll know there's a mountain through a valley where a dragon lives, and the shady man within the inn offers them a contract to go and kill the dragon. The DM will have a few different ideas for combat or conflicts along the journey to the mountain. Maybe a 'puzzle scene', maybe a 'fight with orcs' scene. But the DM will keep the details light.

The DM can't prepare too specifically, because that will force the players to travel down a predetermined path that the DM has created. The whole idea of Dungeons and Dragons is that the players are in an open world! They can go wherever they want to go, and do anything they want to do.

When a DM forces players down a storyline, it's called Railroading.

Huh.

You're smart, so you've already seen the metaphor I'm drawing. As a writer, to outline is to railroad my characters along a single path. If I treat my characters like players - agents of their own story - then they can make an infinite number of decisions! I can present them with a situation or scenario, and see how they react as I write.

This is the best description of railroading I could find.

railroading: - telling a player he can't do something because it would break your story (a good scenario is robust to weird player choices) - continually spawning more monsters until they kidnap an NPC because it's necessary for your story (negating their strategies for protecting him) - putting a plot-centric event or creature in the PCs' path no matter which way they go (AKA quantum ogre, negating the players' choice of path. this will blow up in your face if the players - start scouting ahead or using divination) - fudging rolls to enforce failure (negating the player's luck because it would damage your storyline) - fudging rolls to enforce success (see above) - making the enemies beat your players in a race to a location because they have to get there first for the story to work (negating any clever transportation solutions the players come up with) - having a BBEG (ugh) that serves as a final boss that no amount of player ingenuity will defeat before you want him defeated (self-explanatory i hope) not railroading: - telling a player he can't do something because it's impossible (negating player choice, not to enforce a specific outcome) the villain redirects his orc raiders to try the kidnapping again, rather than continuing to rob travelers (difference: logical NPC behavior, the players have impacted his plans and changed the situation) - having a creature seek the players out actively (again, NPC decisions in response to player choices, with ripple effects on other parts of the situation) - player fails a check (negates decision, not to enforce outcome) player succeeds a check (see above) - the enemies beat the players to a location because the players decided to save money and walk (logical consequences of player decisions) - having villains that evolve (mostly into corpses, honestly) and develop relationships naturally through player interactions

Original Post

Dramatic Superposition is a fantasitc term made by someone who commented. Nothing exists until it's observed.

Really, truly, I should ask my characters what they would do, and I should respect their desire. From there, I can sprinkle in my sketched plot, or I can give them free passage. I could introduce new challenges or characters, or not.

So all this chatting. What's the point?

Well, you see - my attention is no longer stuck in the future. It's not thinking about the seventeenth chapter, and how many words should be there, and what plot that hasn't even been started needs to be finished.

My attention will be in the present, assessing and living through the characters on the page. What they want, I write. And if they want something stupid, I'll rewind, go back in time, edit or add things, and make that option stupid so they don't want it anymore.

Now I'll be in the present, and when I'm in the present, my anxiety dies.

[elphael]

2 4 42 69 for dnd questions

thank you!! gunna do this with my dread domain pcs : )

Do they consider themselves an optimist? Pessimist? Realist? What are they like in actuality?

OPHELIA isn't really quite sure what she considers herself. She tries very hard to be a pessimist / realist but really at the core, she's an optimist and that's why it hurts so much to live in barovia where any hope gets repeatedly crushed. it's hard to live with hope and a tender heart.

ARTORIAS is an realist leaning optimist. he thinks things can get better, but he knows that his situation is dire and that it will take a lot of luck, a lot of work, and a lot of numbers to really start making a difference.

If your character was a work of art, how would you describe them?

OPHELIA is a watercolor painting. The paint bleeds and blurs outside of the lines, and it's messy. But that's part of what makes it beautiful.

ARTORIAS is an old bronze heroic statue dug up from under layers of rumble. There are scratches and dents, but he's still in one piece.

Is there something your character isn’t very good at, but enjoys doing nonetheless?

OPHELIA was like. alright at cooking, but then she became a vampire and part of my particular brand of flavor for her being a vampire is that the primary reason she doesn't eat regular people food is a) no nutritional value and b) it just tastes like nothing. it's completely bland. she can still taste extreme sweet/spice/sour (she loves chocolates & grandma candies and spicy foods lol even if it provides nothing to fueling her body). so. she can't really taste food anymore for the most part. but she wants to be a lesbian malewife So Badly and i know for a fact that she def tries to cook post-campaign for luce and ireena and one of them HAS to be in the kitchen taste testing as she goes bc it will either be way too bland or way too intense. she's got the technical skill sort of but she's lacking a critical component 😭

ARTORIAS is bad at like, having social fun. He has a hard time relaxing in general and can do like, quiet personal relaxation but has a hard time with just hanging out in a group or being silly or dancing. which i think he could stand to learn and to be honest, a lot of the people around him also need that little bit of lightheartedness in their lives.

Journey or Destination?

OPHELIA values the destination. The journey and the act of change is really important to her but she's always wanted just a quiet peaceful life with people she loves, and she craves that sense of home.

ARTORIAS i think is also a destination kind of guy but solely in the way of he's got so many aspirations and so much he is working towards that he's not going to be satisfied until he gets there.

[villumsenfoley40]

Mastering the Virtual Territories: A Deep Dive into Paper.io 2

In the realm of casual online gaming, few titles have captured the attention and captivated the hearts of players quite like Paper.io 2. This simple yet addictive game invites players to conquer virtual territories by strategically maneuvering a paper-like character. With its minimalist design, intuitive controls, and competitive gameplay, Paper.io 2 has become a sensation among gamers of most ages. In this blog post, we shall explore the intricacies of this beloved game, discuss winning strategies, and unravel the secrets to dominating the virtual realm. A Brief Overview of Paper.io 2: Paper.io 2 builds upon the success of its predecessor, offering an enhanced gaming experience that combines strategy, skill, and a touch of luck. The objective is straightforward: expand your territory by navigating your paper character across the playing field. The more space you claim, the higher your score climbs. However, the challenge is based on the constant threat posed by opponents, who'll attempt to block your way or eliminate your character entirely. The Art of Conquering Territories: To achieve victory in Paper.io 2, players must master the art of claiming territories while protecting their own. Here are a few essential ways of consider: a. Expansion and Consolidation: Start by venturing out cautiously, securing small parts of the playing field. When you have a good foundation, gradually expand your territory while ensuring you don't leave vulnerable gaps behind. Consolidating your captured space reduces the risk of opponents infiltrating your domain. b. Opportunistic Maneuvers: Timing is everything in Paper.io 2. Seize opportunities to swiftly capture unclaimed areas or snatch portions of a competitor's territory if they are distracted or vulnerable. Patience, observation, and quick reflexes are fundamental. c. Defensive Techniques: While offense is crucial, don't neglect defense. Strategically retreat to your personal territory when necessary, preventing adversaries from easily eliminating you. Maintaining a strong defensive position can frustrate opponents and force them into making mistakes. d. Calculated Risk-Taking: Balancing risk and reward is essential. Sometimes, a daring move can yield substantial gains, while at other times, it can lead to a premature demise. Evaluate each situation carefully, and take measured risks to maintain an edge over your opponents. Power-Ups and Game Modes: Paper.io 2 offers an array of power-ups and game modes to keep the experience fresh and exciting. By collecting coins during gameplay, players can unlock special abilities offering temporary advantages, such as for example increased speed or expanded territory capture range. Additionally, various game modes, including Solo, Team, and Tournament, offer diverse challenges and opportunities for competitive play.

Becoming a Master: Learning to be a master of Paper.io 2 requires practice, perseverance, and a deep understanding of the game's mechanics. Here are a few tips to help you on your journey: a. Study the Leaderboard: Analyze the strategies utilized by top-ranking players on the leaderboard. Observe their movements, tactics, and decision-making to gain valuable insights that may enhance your own gameplay. b. Learn from Mistakes: Don't be discouraged by losses. Every defeat presents a chance to learn and refine your strategy. Think about https://pestmusic.com/simcity-cheats-for-pc-macintosh.html , identify weaknesses, and adjust your approach accordingly. c. Experiment and Innovate: Don't limit yourself to a single playstyle. Test out different approaches, try new tactics, and innovate your gameplay. This adaptability could keep your opponents guessing and present you an edge in competitive matches. Conclusion: Paper.io 2 continues to captivate gamers worldwide using its addictive gameplay and simple yet strategic mechanics. By adopting a thoughtful approach, mastering territory management, and leveraging power-ups, players can rise through the ranks and dominate the virtual realm. So, don your digital paper character, hone your skills, and go on a journey to become true Paper.io 2 champion. Good luck, and may your territories expand all over!

[theprivatewolf]

How to Start a Dental Clinic in Dubai: A Step-by-Step Guide

Are you a dentist with dreams of opening your dental clinic in the vibrant city of Dubai? With its growing population and increasing healthcare needs, Dubai presents a promising opportunity for dental professionals. However, starting a dental clinic in Dubai is no small feat, and it requires careful planning and adherence to regulatory procedures. In this blog, we’ll guide you through the essential steps to turn your dream into a reality.

What Are Some Essential Steps To Open A Dental Clinic In Dubai?

a. Market Research and Business Plan:

Before embarking on your entrepreneurial journey, conduct thorough market research. Understand the local dental healthcare landscape, identify your target audience, and assess your competition. Develop a comprehensive business plan that outlines your clinic’s objectives, financial projections, and a clear path to profitability.

b. Location and Infrastructure:

Choosing the right location is critical to the success of your dental clinic. Dubai has various districts and neighborhoods, each with its unique character and patient demographics. Ensure your clinic is easily accessible and adequately equipped with state-of-the-art dental facilities and technology.

c. Regulatory Compliance:

Dubai has stringent regulations governing the healthcare sector, including dental clinics. To operate legally, you must meet the necessary licensing requirements and adhere to healthcare standards. These requirements are overseen by the Dubai Health Authority (DHA).

What Is The Licensing Procedure To Open A Dental Clinic In Dubai?

a. Professional Licensing:

As a dentist, you must have the necessary qualifications to practice in Dubai. This involves obtaining a license from the Dubai Health Authority. You will need to submit your academic credentials, proof of clinical experience, and pass the relevant exams.

b. Business Licensing:

For your dental clinic to function legally, you must apply for a commercial license through the Department of Economic Development (DED). The DED will evaluate your business plan and ensure it meets the regulations.

c. Facility Licensing:

To operate as a dental clinic, your facility must meet specific standards set by the Dubai Health Authority. This includes ensuring your clinic is equipped with the appropriate medical equipment, adheres to infection control measures, and maintains a clean and hygienic environment. Once you meet these standards, you can apply for a healthcare facility license.

How to Register and Issue Dental License?

a. Professional Licensing:

To apply for a dental license, follow these steps:

Visit the Dubai Health Authority website and create an account.

Complete the application form and submit the required documents, including your qualifications and experience certificates.

Attend an interview and assessment.

Pay the necessary fees.

b. Business Licensing:

The process for obtaining a commercial license involves:

Choose your business activity type.

Choose a trade name for your clinic.

Determine your business legal structure.

Rent a suitable location and obtain approval from the relevant authorities.

Apply for the commercial license from the DED.

Pay the associated fees.

c. Facility Licensing:

To obtain a healthcare facility license:

Ensure your facility meets DHA standards and requirements.

Request an inspection from the DHA.

Submit the necessary documents and application to the DHA.

Pay the required licensing fees.

To Sum Up

Starting a dental clinic in Dubai requires careful planning, adherence to regulatory procedures, and a clear understanding of the healthcare landscape. Begin with comprehensive market research and a solid business plan. Make sure to obtain the necessary licenses for both your profession and your dental clinic. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can navigate the regulatory process and open a successful dental clinic in Dubai. Good luck with your entrepreneurial journey in the dynamic healthcare market of Dubai!

M.Hussnain

Private Wolf facebook Instagram Twitter Linkedin

[popculturebuffet]

Ducktales Finale Review: The Last Adventure! or So Long and Thanks for All The Ducks

Hello all you happy people. The day we’ve all simultaneously waited for and dreaded is here. The grand finale to a five year journey.. and for me an almost one year journey of covering season 3 as it came out. It was thanks to this show i’ve been able to make money doing what I love. Without it I never would’ve found my patreon Kev, and I never woul’dve had the solid focus to keep going as long as I have. And I never would’ve had all you lovely people reading my work. Thank you for that. I hope you’ll stick around even though the series is gone, I love you all. But as the sun sets on this series I have one last episode of the season, and the series to cover. I won’t be doing it in my usual recap style due to it’s sheer length and scope, but I promise you if you join me under the cut I will break down eveyrthing I can about this final adventure, it’s huge, awe inspiring twists.. and it’s heartwarming conclusion. It’s everything you could want from a finale short of a Grandma Duck Cameo, and i’ts under the cut with full spoilers. Seriously if you do not want any spoilers TURN BACK NOW. I’m opening with probably the biggest spoiler of the finale. 

I Think She’s A Clone Now You were warned. So.. Webby is Scrooge’s Clone, made by FOWL as part of a decades long scheme to find the papyrus of binding, and raised by Beakly to keep this precious child out of their sinister clutches. I have hundreds of reaction images, several for what the fuck.. none of them seem sufficient.. ALL OF THEM together like some megazord of what the fuck are not sufficient for how much this reveal caught me off guard. It caught ALL of us off guard. I’m sure even those who called it still were suprised that’s the direction it took. I think we all expected her parents died by FOWL, or her parents were FOWl with Pepper being one of them, or anything else. So naturally it took around 14 drafts, and me going the fuck to sleep as I had stayed up to watch the finale and thought I could just smoothly transition into writing the review despite there being a LOTTTTT to unpack.

Even after the recharge though this took a bit of doing... so now i’ve done it... what’d I think? Whelp....

I liked it. I like it the more I think about it. Even the problems I had with it just kinda melted away as I thought about it. I understand if you do not. This twist will not be for everyone, it changes Webby’s character and story entirely, ruins tons of fan theories, and in general is batshit even for a series that in the same finale, turned Manny into a shout out to Gargoyles, complete with Keith “My Body is Ready” David. This series is genuinely batshit and loves it, but this is a LOT to ask dramatically, a lot to rewrite expectation wise and a lot to thinka bout. There’s a reason besides sleep deprevation it took me a whlie to fully grasp how I felt. So if you don’t like it fine, but i’m going to make my best case. 

Starting with something that made me realize I fully like it: It dosen’t invalidate Webby’s charcter. The one little problem I had left was “Well dosen’t Webby having the McDuck bloodline mean she couldn’t be specail if she wasn’t a McDuck? That sure the rest of the cast are specail but you can’t be really important without it?” Honestly.. no. Webby is who she is not because she’s a McDuck.. but because she’s Webby. She got her martial arts and mystery solving skills through Beakly and being raised. She had intate talent sure.. but as we’ve seen with the boys through the whole series, talent has to be honed. Skill has to be earned and learned.  Webby worked hard to research other civilizations, worked hard to hone herself into a deadly fighting machine with her mother’s help, worked hard to be every bit as cool as her idol who turned out to be her biological dad. She earned her badassery, her wisdom and her courage SQUARE. 

And more than that she’s her own person. Her adoptive parent and biological parent are both paranoiacs afraid of betryal, unwilling to trust, and slow to let anyone in. By all accounts Webby should be the same.. but she’s not. Oh sure she has some paranoia and is willing to slit some throats, she was raised by the world’s best spy and is the daughter of the world’s greatest hero, that was never going to be gone entirely. But at her core she just wants to trust people. She just wants to love them and be loved. And.. that’s why her family loves her. Because she’s the kindest, the warmest and the best of them. They love her because she’s Webby and that’s she’s family, they could care less who she’s related to. All it really changes is how Scrooge acts around her and that gives us fans tons to work with. 

It’s also expertly revealed, which helped ease us into it. Webby is just as shocked and confused as we are and is seriously hurt, which makes her vulnerable to the villains. Kate Miccui deserves a goddamn award for voice acting and if their isn’t an award show for that their should be. While she’s been fantastic with Webby all series long this is her finest performance, going from Webby’s usual self, to all the hurt she goes through.. to her quitter moments at the end, calling Scrooge dad and giving out a little noise that makes it clear as Beakly tries to leave, that no.. she’ still her family.. she’s still her mom and she’s not going anywhere. 

As for the concept being a bit ridiculous yes it is.. but so is this universe. This universe is entirely insane in the best fucking way possible: I mean.. look at this final group shot. 

We have an old man whose somehow still alive simply because he was too busy to die, an inventor whose cloned himself multiple times so clones are fesable and is probably a clone himself given how the last finale went, an awkward armored superhero and his biotech filled girlfriend, a small boy robot weapon of discretion who put his head on his brother’s body, a no longer headless manhorse former harbinger of the apocalypse with the silky voice of keith david as one big homage to gargoyles, a lesbian living shadow and her sister, a superhero who based himself on a fictional character and his boyfriend/sidekick who by all accounts should be dead by now, a lesbian military superheroine from the moon, STORKULES COCKBLOCKER OUT OF MYTH, his moong goddes sister, two adopted family stunt pilots, a bunch of super intelligent mice, an odd duck whose kinda sorta dating a giant shrimp, his cousin with super luck powers, my globetrotting boys, an immortal treasure hunter and in the family proper: a former spy turned adopted mom of a clone, a woman who lived on the moon for a good decade, a man who once trapped everyone in what would essentially be the plot of the mcu’s second best work by pure accident, a blue boy whose piloted a plain, captained pirates, and has his own talk show, a green boy whose ran a multi-trillion dollar company, nearly destroyed all of time and space and is under investigation for fraud, and a red boy who has a hulk-esque rage filled embodiment of all his suppressed emotions, whose fondest wish was tall legs, and who can easily take out a giant magica supermachine with some fancy wiring. So the richest duck in the world having a clone daughter, while divisvie and what not.. is far more plausable than we give it credit for. As are her new sisters who Id in’t forget but are part of the whole twist. 

So yeah, I like the twist and my nitpick is more that despite having a full season to set it up.. they saved it for the last episode. Instead of BUILDING on Webby’s desire to know more about her family and having the twins show up earlier.. it’s all shove into the finale. It’s a well done shoving but there’s so much that could be explored with Webby being Scrooge’s daughter, so much that futzes with the regular family dynamics and we don't’ get any of it. Sure it was probably saved for a possible season 4 but they treated this season as the last. Manny being an apocalyptic man horse voiced by the uber sexy keith david, and no I will not stop bringing that up even outside of it’s own section and why yes it is getting it’s own section, is the kind of revelation you can leave for one last episode. “One of the main cast is a clone” really isn’t and that’s disapointing. 

Especially since thinking back to life and times.. Webby IS a lot like Scrooge was before circumstance hardened him. She’s tough, resourceful.. but also has a peppy spirit to her. It adds interesting shades to her character, where she zigs where Scrooge zags, how much of it is her upbringing with Granny versus his with his parents, how much did Beakley play into it. There’s A lot to dig into and given I have most of the series left to review, I will get to dig into it, and there’s a lot to be explored in fanfic so if I wasn’t already planning a massive one before I sure as fuck am now. So it’s not a bad twist nor bad we get to write the future.. but I do wish the crew THEMSELVES had done more with it. Still my bar for “not fucking up the entire show” is pretty low after Star Vs ended with her committing implied genocide to stop a genocide and How I Met Your Mother ended “But the real journey was in how much I want to bang, bang bangity bang I said a bang bang bangity bang your aunt robin now your mother conveniently died”. I can handle “This twist is kind of weird but also really intresting.” If the twist isn’t for you, as I said i get it. This is my opinion. Now for the thing I won’t shut up about. 

I LIVE AGAIN:

Look i’ve made no secret how thirsty I am for Keith David nor how much of a national treasure I rightly believe him to be. He’s one of my faviorite voice actors, with a mind boggling number of awesome rolls, mostly recently as a fowl mouthed coffe cup encouraging a teacher to sabotage his rival teachers breaks on close enough. Even if I didn’t like Gargoyles, which I do, i’d have an entire section talking about that Manny reveal. 

Manny was already objectively one of the best parts of the show, a hilariously weird addition that was also relatable as he just wanted to fit in. I did not know you could make him better. Then they gave him Keith David’s voice and revealed he’s one of the four horseman of the apocalypse, but doesn’t want to end the world he just wants to be a normal dude, AND turned him into a shout out to the last part of the disney afternoon they hadn’t touched, my favorite part of it and a show i’ve been sitting on watching in full for far too long. Motherfucking Gargoyles. 

But given how unique it was for the Disney Afternoon and how much Disney had no desire to ever reference or use the franchise, still no fucking clue as to why they are sitting on money here, I expected it to be sadly but understandably left out. Instead they made Manny into an expy for them, gave him the voice of their leader Goliath, the voice of an angel, and had him say “I LIVE AGAIN” complete with the utterly transcendent theme song. Seriously give it a listen. 

So yeah I couldn’t not mark out at this. Amazing fucking stuff and almost as unexpected as the clone thing and easily my second faviorite part of the fiinale only NARROWLY topped by the curtain call. Which we’ll get to. Keith David took his time getting to this series but they saved the best guest voice for last. Utter tremendous. 

Huey Season?: I”ll save more of this for my breakdown as the season as a whole but yeah while the finale as a whole was good.. I do feel Huey got short changed. He got PLENTY of development this season, and some REALLY good scenes with Bradford.. but ultimately he got overshadowed by the Webby thing. it just never quite felt like Huey got a real resolution to his character arc the way his brothers did. He still got some REALLY good moments, his “Just cough up the information Bentina!” was one of his finest and Danny Pudi did his best. The BUILDUP was good but hte payoff was non existant and easily the weakest part of an otherwise triumphant finale. I feel the final plot was ultimately just a bit too jam packed to really have Huey feel vital to it the way Dewey was to the Della arc and Louie was to his own arc. Both tgot big emotional payoffs in his finale but the most I could gather here was he accepted adventure? I guess. It just really feels off, like I missed the payoff to everything when it’s probably just nonexistent and that bothers me a lot. In a finale that was almost all hit.. this was easily the biggest misstep. I don’t have as much to say here on it.. but that’s because it’s really that simple: they gave Huey’s arc a ton of build up in this last episode and some of his others, really made him into Bradford’s good counterpart.. then just sorta.. forgot it because “oh shit Webby’s scrooge’s daughter kinda need to pull focus here”. Had they given this arc at least one more episode, we might of had time for it. Granted i’m not sure how much they could get away with but we clearly needed at least one more episode and what they chose to jettision, the climax to Huey’s story.. was way more important than they clearly thought and i’m heavily disappointed. 

Bradford’s Big Hole Speaking of payoffs the missing mysteries payoff.. is a mixed bag. I expected all of them to combine some how into some elaborate plan I just wasn’t seeing. In hindsight it does make sense that wasn’t it: Bradford hates overcomplicated schemes, so his would be incredibly simple and require as few moving parts as possible. It still dosen’t stop the fact that the big plan to cap off the entire series built over a season... was to build a giant stygian hole of non existence to throw people into. 

Yes really. Instead of using the Payprus to write them out of existance, if carefully worded or try doing it all at once or anything practical.. Bradford just plans to shove everything he dosen’t want in the world anymore into a hole.  Look i’ts not like it ruins the episode, there’s still tons of tension from him holding Scrooge’s loved ones over his hole and threating to throw them into it’s gaping void. And it’s foiled by a 12 year old just.. shutting it off. Like I get him leaving an off switch on, that’s just common sense.. but why wouldn’t he have a remote or something to turn it back on? one with a password or something to lock it. There’s something inherently underwhelming about as series ending plan that can be summed up “hope no one shuts my unguarded hole. “

The finale does make for it by using the missing mysteries all in VERY clever ways. In fact every episode in the season had some sort of payoff here. It’s what makes up for how baffling the main plan is: every other thing, from the missing mysteries to the guest stars has lead up to this one moment, this one final adventure. Which leads me too

An Hurricane of Payoffs:

So from the top Challenge of the Senior Junior Woodchucks!: Isabella Finch herself ends up being VITAL to the story and to Bradford’s backstory, as does Junior Woodchucking as a whole. Quack Pack!: Gene is the fuel for Blot’s glove.. though he also fucks off right afterwords.. never to be seen again or help out at any point...

Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!: This was the most unexpected and elevated the episode in hindsight for me as what seemed like a waste of time.. wound up setting up the first part of the finale, and the final battle with Steelbeak, and in clever ways with Steelbeak using the intelliray on himself, Launchpad muttering the map in his sleep via his smart self and Dewey remembering the base layout. 

The Lost Harp of Mervana: Used as a lie detector for that heartbreaking interrogation scene. 

Louie’s Eleven: Introduced Daisy setting up Donald’s plot which i’ll get to. 

Astro BOYD: My baby boy comes back for this episode! He also gets one of the best lines of it “I’m a Head!”. That is the most ralph wiggum the boy has ever been. I’m so proud. 

Rumble For Ragnarok: Okay I was wrong nothing from this one comes back. Still a great episode. Same with the trickening. Both are VERY stellar episodes though, so I give it a pass. You can’t give a nod to EVERYTHING. 

The Phantom and the Sorceress: The Blot and Super Sayian God Super Sayian Lena, as well as Lena’s character development from said episode.  They Put a Moonlander on the Earth!: Launchpad helping Penny realize her purpose.  Forbidden Fountain: Jeeves is un-babied as a trap Let’s Get Dangerous!: Drake and Gosalyn Return, and Solageo’s Circut ends up being vital to the climax.. in the strangest and funnest way to say possible but still. It counts.  Escape from the Impossibin: Beakley’s near breakdown at the idea FOWL has come back. It was already heartbreaking and the first adventure had made it even more so.. but now it’s out and out DEVISTATING. The one thing after her daughter is not only back.. but SHE’S the reason he’s in Scrooge’s life and home and her giving up SHUSH has now left her wide open. 

The Split Sword: Probably the best out of all of these as it ends up directly playing into the climax in an awesome way i’m saving for Bradfords New Gods: Storkules shows up. Okay so that every episode claim bit me on the ass. Also when did these two meet? I mean probably at end of spear of selene but the more important question is WHY DID YOU ROB  ME OF THESE TWO MEETING AT ANY POINT IN THE SERIES. 

The First Adventure: Naturally the Payprus comes back as Does herons needling bradford to stop denying what he is. 

Fight For Castle McDuck: Suprisingly the blessed bagpipes ended up being VITALLY important. And giving us sexiest man alive infinity years running Keith David for an episode.  Last Christmas; Santa Cameo

Beaks in the Shell: Gandra being taken and the Lost Library being setup for this episode. 

Lost Cargo: The Stone of What Was. And Credit where its due what FELT like simply a filler episode with a tantengal connectoin.. ended up probably being one of the most important episodes. Fair play. 

Life and Crimes: Magica turning Bradford into a non sentient bird, like what happened to her brother.... proving once again this episode really REALLY needed as subplot attached to lead into the finale or something. 

Bonus Round: Pilot payoffs by the pound. Seriously Scrooge and Donald’s last lines to each other, the badass return of “I’m a Pilot”, more on that in a minute, and even other smaller call backs like “Keep Getting Up” and webby sucessfully getting some juice to Louie’s pride. All top notch stuff and it really makes the finale FEEL like one with all this coming back full circle. So i’ve hinted at it enough, let’s bring on the bad guy. 

The First Woodchuck

We’ve had some mixed payoffs so let’s get to one that’s just out and out excellent. Bradford Buzzard.. is the best villian the show ever had. Now I will give the caveat that my favorite forever and always will be

You know it, I know it. But Bradford is the best genuine threat of the series, with Marc Evan Jackson perfectly balancing his menace and genuine evil.. with his steadfast believe that he isn’t evil, and his calm, controlled business demeanor. It’s one of the best performances of the show and he deserves all the credit for it and after seeing him in supporting roles for his career, even if his role as Kevin on Brooklyn Nine-Nine is fucking awesome and I’m sad that show is ending, it’s nice to see him step into a big meaty role as the big bad and utterly nail it. 

And the finale.. pays eveyrthing off with him, apart from the plan itself perfectly. Starting off him being revealed as Isabella Finch’s grandson... was  a stroke of genius. I didn’t expect her to come back in play but it gives perfect reason both why he knew about the mysteries.. and why he’s like this. 

Like Scrooge did with his nephews, niece and daughter, Isabella dragged Bradford all around the world seeing the unseen, thinking it was fun. The problem was... Bradford HATED it. He hated every minute of it, like as one post pointed out Rusty Venture from the Venture bros, and felt he should be in school. He wanted a normal life and a normal world and not.. this waking nightmare. So to him, fixing the world, stopping this sort of thing is the only way and that doing so is a good thing. His problem is how he adapted to it.

We see that best in his mirror images, the people he’s in direct contrast with and the show knows it. Starting off with the one he’s not like at all is Scrooge. Part of what makes Bradford perfect is he’s Scrooge’s evil opposiite. The Luthor to His Superman, The Joker to his Batman, the Green Goblin to his Spider-Man, the Iron Monger to his Iron Man, the Sinestro to his Green Lantern. Both come from a long line of adventure but while Scrooge embraces that and loves it, Bradford hates it and wants to destroy it. One is energetic and always ready, the other’s calm, calculated. And one sees what he is.. and the other dosen’t. Simple as that.

But his other mirror’s are more like him, moving onto Huey. Their both woodchucks, both prefer caution and planning, and both want to make some sense of a nonsensical world. Both want to feel safe when they constnatly don’t. One’s prone to panic attack the other’s calm. But what makes Huey the better man... is that he accepts the world is the way he is. It goes all the way back to terror of the terrafirmains. While he was all for adventure he started his doubting things, not beliving things were real.. because the reality that there are some things you just can’t prepare for, just can’t know, and you can’t be always ready.. it shattered him. He nearly let himself die rather than live knowing what’s out there. Webby pulled him out of that, literally and figuratively.. and he never went back. Sure he still tries to have an order to things, still breaks when his structure’s broken.. but it’s gone from a paranoid fear of the unknown and weird to embracing it. To relishing in finding unsolved mysteries and new clues to unlock, to finding new things to explore. He went from seeing this chaotic world as something to run from, to embracing and studying it. To loving it the way it is the way his family loves him for who he is. Bradford.. denies reality belongs the way it is and wants to force it into what HIS idea of it is Superboy Prime Style. The world isn’t waht he thought it should be so he’ll MAKE it that way. Huey grew as a person.. while his arc didn’t have a full payoff.. it still pays off here by showing what he COULD’VE been. had he let his earlier fear and his always present neurosis drive him like Bradford has. Let his big brain make him think he knows what’s better for EVERYONE instead of using it to genuinely help people. Bradford lacks the boys heart and empathy and that’s why he fell. Huey had his family backing him, his best friends coming to get him, and his brothers ultimately rescue him. Bradford.. threw his only true ally down a styigan murder hole. 

Finally.. we have the one that’s not brought up directly.. but is very much there. Donald. While the two don’t interact hardly at all... it’s VERY fitting that Donald is the one Bradford picks to threaten Scrooge with. Like Bradford... Donald grew to hate adventure, he wanted to get as far away from it as possible and took it from his boys for as long as he could. Granted that was in part Bradford’s fault, and that was an INCREDIBLY clever twist: it dosen’t make him entirley responsible or anything that robs the moment of it’s imapct, Della still chose to take it out by herself, she still lied to Donald and she still got lost all by her own decision and impuslviness. But it fits perfectly into it: Bradford’s horrifying smile when Scrooge gets taken away from saving her is even WORSE now with full context, and it still fits that knowing about the project.. he’d want to set it up to screw up Scrooge’s life. I don’t think he sabotaged the rocket or anything, too obvious and something Della would’ve mentioned by now.. but he knew it was unfinished. 

Back to the parallel the diffrence is once again.. change. Donald let go of his hate of scrooge and his past and realized it wasn’t all bad. He let himself grow as a person after a decade of bitterness and anger. But most tellingly and poignantly is Quack Pack... both had a chance to make a world that was safe, normal and what they always wanted. Both out of terror of the danger of this world.  Thing is.. Donald’s was noble. He feared for his kids, his sister, his uncle.. loosing one again and any of them at all. He wanted a normal life to be safe, to hide from that.. but it’s not what THEY wanted or who they are. He accepted that’s not how the world works and how it does.. is still pretty great. And his growth shows: he’s ending the series planning to go off with his girlfriend globetrotting, KNOWING things might not be safe, but diving into adventure, having accepted it as part of him. He even finds some new family and takes in two girls who badly needed a home. He learned to accept things how they are... and Bradford refuses, not beliving in this world as it is and vowing to force it into the way he wants it to be. 

And it’s that inherent selfishness.. that makes Bradford the Cartoon Supervillian he desperatley claims he isn’t. Bradford dosen’t care how many lives it takes, how much worse it makes the world, or how many people he has to stab in the back... the world WILL be “normal”. Bradford cares for no one and nothing except his own ambition. He kills Heron despite her loyality, and his own clones who loyally served him.. simply because their chaos too. No one or nothing else matters, not how they feel, not their right to exist.. only HIS vision. If he wanted to keep the world safe he’d be more of a hero, if still throughly a bastard... but he dosen’t. He wants to make it “normal”. He wants the world the way he thinks it shoudl be and damn anyone else and perfectly represents all the old assholes like him today who refuse to accept something diffrent or against the norm because “that’s how it’s always been”.  Like those real world assholes.. Bradford is wrong. The Duckverse is beauitful how it is in it’s chaos and risk and love. And he just can’t see it because it’s not what he WANTS to see. 

And that’s why I also love the Sword giving him big, black and red classic villianous monster, slowly mutating him as he fights the duck family. Because that’s his inner strength: he may deny he’s a villian but he’s forcing his will on others, refuses to see the world as it is for selfish reasons, and is willing to kill his own friends and allies if it means getting it. He’s the bad guy. And while he denies it to those around him... it’s clear from the fact the sword is working for him that he KNOWS IT, he knows he’s a villian and this is just what he wants but is so up his own ass he can’t SAY it or admit it. And in the end he’s fully beaten by the fact that his forcing his will on everything’s what’s unnatural: While his plan was ingenious, have scrooge sign a contract agreeing never to adventure again, since he’s right Scrooge would solve nonexistance it’s the same reason “launch hulk into space” only resulted in a smarter, more skilled hulk coming back with a space army to get revenge. He just didn’t bank on the inherent rediclousness of the unvierse: family really is the greatest adventure of all.. and the papyrus accepted it. It was the one thing he coudln’t palnf or because he can’t see the woirld how it is.. and that’s why he lost. He was so confident how he saw the world and how he worked was the only way... another way beat him. 

His fate.. was also awesome and endleslly apporirate. Being mocked by the other villians who while less capable aside from Magica, at least admit what they are and what their doing.. and turned into a Vulture for Magica, left to be a mindless lackey in tons of chaotic schemes for the rest of his life. It couldn’t of happened to a nicer jackass. Okay three more sections to go. Let’s go.

Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away, Come Sail Away With Daissssyyyy

Donald’s leaving for a long, romantic adventure with Daisy is the perfect capper to Doanld’s character. Donald started the series hating adventure: blaming it for della being gone, his rough times during it, and wanted to escape it in the boat and keep from loosing his kids to it. He felt like a looser for not having reached his dreams or properly provided for his nephews, when really he did his best and still raised three wonderful kids. A bit overproective, god yes.. but despite his grief and anger he still got through ten years with them on his own merits, hard work and determination. 

As the series went he reconclied with his past, realized Scrooge lost something too and that blaming him soley when it was Della’s choice was just taking his anger out on the one person he had left to take it out on instead of embracing his only family left, accepted Storkules as his friend (JUST his friend), accepted adventure through quack pack realizing that while it may be weird, dangerous and sometimes stressful for him... it’s what his family love doing and they should be who they are instead of who he wants them to be, and finally.. accepted himself by finding Daisy, someone who loves him for who he is, and literally and metaphorically understands him and turned right back around from dumping him to save him from a giant monster she roared at. He’s finally at peace. 

And that’s why leaving. Not forever, He , Daisy, and his girls will be back in a few months or even a month. It’s very clear this is a vacation.. but it’s one  he’s earned.  He’ll always love his boys, his surrogate daughter/cousin, his sister, and his best buddy launchpad. But it’s okay for him to want to form his OWN family, to spend time with his future wife and show her the world. To make his own story for once instead of sharing it. To find his voice. 

I also find it very poetic that a story that started with Donald raising his nephews like their dad.. ends with him adopting two more children. Two kids whose lives had been misrable: rapidly aged in tubes, deemed failures, constantly bellittled by the closest things they have for parents, so desperate for answers they’d kidnap their own sister and betray her trust and do things they know are wrong, And all this.. for nothing as their  Dad kills their mom, bad as she was, and plans to kill them. And Donald’s first thought when given the chance to have a kid free time to himself, with no guilt having earned it? To take these girls in, start his own family, if Daisy’s cool with it mind he thankfully clearly called to talk this over first, and give them their own. Because that’s who Donald is, a good man whose finally earned his happy ending and the life he always wanted.. and accepted who he always was. An adventuerer, a loving fiance.. and  dad. 

The Real Hero: One last one before the bonus round and a quick one. The Launchpad Scene.. was one of the shows best. His arc in this episode of thinking he’s not a hero.. made sense. He’s been plenty heroic.. but his boyfriend is a martial arts and gymnastics savant and one of his three best friends has a giant suit of armor and is a genius. But the payoff made even more: He may not be the strongest, the most skilled or the smartest.. but he has the heart of a hero. He’s always been the kindest, most trusting, most friendly one of the main family, a guy who never gives up, even when he should, never surrenders and loves everybody. And that’s why he’s inspired so many people: Fenton to not give up after his firing and keep going, leading to his path as Gizmoduck. When Drake was lost, his fllm gone and his mentor seemingly dead (In fact skulking around the sewers like an evil ninja turtle), and his future unclear... TOLD HIM he could be Darkwing, that he could become the hero they both ihdolized and the inspiration to kids he wanted to be by his own bootstraps, and he gave Gosalyn faith in darkwing and hope at at time she had none. He also gave those mice their freedom. Not as poignant but you try creating the rescue rangers and see how far you get. I’ve lost a lot of chipmunks and mice that way. 

Launchpad’s last stand makes up for his lack of being in the season during the final  half. Launchpad realizing that despite his quirks he’s just as noble, valuable and wonderful as his families, both of them. And that he is a pilot. Sure he gets the gizmoduck armor.. but the armor isn’t what makes hi ma hero... i’ts being launchpad that makes him a hero. Loving adopted dad, wonderful partner, best friend... and a pilot

Bonus Round:

Okay this is just stray stuff from throughout the episode I didn’t have several paragraphs worth of material on before we get to the final thoughts. But it had so much good I can’t not talk about it. So...

Gyro calling Little Bulb BOYD’s brother. My heart wept. So sweet. As was him fixing his son at the end. BOYD has the two loving families he deserves.. and the brother he deserves.. and the brother he dosen’t deserve who will probably also is skulking around the sewers like an nafarious ninja turtle as the series ends. 

Gosalyn fixing up Darkwing’s outfit for him. Awwww. Adopt that child you coward. Also if they don’t base the reboot on frank’s work here, I will riot. 

“Just cough up the information Bentina!” that was just pure comedy gold especially the sheer fear radiating off him. Also right. 

Manny’s “I can explain” and , once he has silky smooth keith david voice going “Come on man I just want to live my life.” That man is a legend. 

Dewey and Louie just not talking the “you kids stay behind shit” pointing out both their stake in this and how they’ll just go anyway and him proudly accepting it. Given the kids turned the tied of things a lot, good call. 

Dewey and Don Karnage singing their own background music as they air joust. Hell yes. 

Pepper got a promotion! Goodf or her... it’s meaningless now but hey she has a partner in both senses. 

Speaking of pepper she had the best line of the episode “He’s a grown man who has the strength of a baby!”. Only Amy Sedaris could’ve given that delivery just the perfect way she did. 

The Funzo’s opening sequence was dynamite, from how well set up it was as an infilfration, to Webby having learned how to scam free drinks (Louie was so proud), to Lena cheating for her sister at DDR, to Scrooge paying full price.. it was wonderful> The payoff was also great as rather than be mad her special day was used as part of an elabroate spy operation.. she’s giddy. Because of course she is. Two specitic  bits that get their own items

The Cabs came back one last time! It dosen’t effect my now finished retrospective, but after spending all that time with them it was nice to see them for what will probably be the last time for some time. 

The whole scene where Della finds out about the trip. Just all of it. Her casually and accidentally choking daisy TWICE, Fethry, who sadly did not get an episode this season, being the one to blab about it and only realizing it .. after repeating that they told him not to, and Gladstone who not only was casually winning at Skeeball while his cousins both got pissed at it, relateable as hell, but then awkwardly escorting his baby cousin out of the situation. 

“Satstically with Hubert gone one of us should be pancking but WHO I ASK YOU WHO?” As if I needed more evidence they were perfect for each other. 

Lena just.. slumping over after Dewey finally has her drop the cloak. Comedy gold. BOYD scanning her later likewise so. 

The second best line and line read of the episode goes to Louie/Bobby Monihan. “That is not comforting, I do not want to die”. He couldn’t of summed up Louie in one line any better. 

Ludvwig was a national treasure.  Not only did I squeel internally when it turned out he was alive but the explination for it was hilarious as it was batshit, and him just causally revealing Webby’s origin was fucking amazing “Ill give you all a moment ot process” The acomplanying “bless me bagpipes” was also amazing. 

I do wish we found out where FOWL went but it was probably to leave the remains all free to come back as villians of the week. Frank outright said they had a tailspin sequel episode ready to go.

The Webby and June fight was a masterpiece and I REALLY need to do a top 12 fights list someday. 

Lena connecting with the new twins , having pretty much the same background of being created by a villian for shitty reasons. 

“one is silver and the other is “ “Flintheart glomgold!” they should consider a teamup. What’s a little brainwashing between friends?

“We’re sisters’. No you and violet are sisters, Webby is your girlfriend your both just in denial. I only say this because Webby also thinks Della and Penny are just friends and I feel she simply dosen’t know what being gay is or again is in denial. They’ll get there. Plus it feels like Lena just didn’t want to loose her and would say anything which is valid. 

Curtain Call and Final Thoughts:

The Curtain Call was the perfect way to end a spectacular finale. Each bit of it’s a masterpiece, and every character gets one last awesome, heartfelt and hilarous goodbye with the camera and ending how it should: on our five most important characters, in a circle, together, smiling, freefaling into the next adventure. I”d have it no other way and any other series finale credits and last moments will now pale in comparison. 

So the finale as a whole is messy, some bits aren’t resolved as good as they could’ve been, Huey go the shaft, and it REALLY needed another episode leading into it to help take the pressure off. While it needed 90 minutes for the plot it had to tell, it needed more to build up to that and while the season was tight with episodes they BADLY needed one more they didn’t get or even a subplto to help take the load off this episode. 

But even with that... it was an utterly awesome finale on par with other recent standouts like “Let’s Fight to the End”/ “Thank you For Watching the Show” (Both feel like finales to me but in diffrent ways), “The Future” and the whole arc leading up to it, both parts of “Heart” and “Nice While It Lasted” . It was heartstopping, heartrending and heartfelt and ended the show as it should be: with over the top insanity, big reveals, a hell of a final battle.. and a focus on family. It’s not the perfect finale, and I defintely need more ducktales.. but it’s still a classic one and one of the series finest hours.. literally in this case. 

I.. am going to miss this series. I went into it before but it’s thanks to this series I make a living. If you’d like to contribute to that, I have a patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet, my next stretch goal is a darkwing duck epsiode a month so  kick in a buck won’t you? and take comissions so if theres an episode from the first two seasons that’s not part of the season 1 arc (I’m almost done there) or Lena’s story (already being paid for that) feel free to shoot me a line to comissoin it for five bucks an episode. 

But more than that it was an excellent well crafted show that took a franchise I love and updated it for a new generation. My nieces love it, I love it, and I will always love it for that. Young or old, this show as phenominal, it was stupdendous.. it was a duckblur. It will remain in my heart for probaly the rest of my life among such shows as Steven Universe, Parks and Recreation, The Venture Bros, Letterkenny, DBZ Abriged, and so many more that have touched my life. It was simply the best. And i’m going to miss it. Thank you for reading this, i’ll see you at another rainbow, if not one quite like this.

Next on this Blog: Duck week continues after this review took two days to complete. Sorry about that. Our heroes head to castle McDuck and Dewey is forced to face the consequences of his actions, while Scrooge yells at his dad , his dad yells at him and his mom is the most precious thing tha’ts ever lived. Also Launchpad in Donald Cosplay. And it won’t stop there as till saturday the rest of the week is all dedicated to Ducktales as I finish up the Della and Lena arcs for season 1 and get started on Lena’s last three episodes. So if you liked some ducktales, stick around. And once again.. thank you. 

[spideypoolbigbang]

SPBB 2020 Masterlist

Title: All Cats are Grey in the Dark 

 Author: mayatheyellowbee 

 Artist: Cheermione 

 Rating: Explicit 

 Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence 

 Word Count: 28,511 

Summary: Peter is a Witcher, hired to kill Deadpool, another monster hunter gone rogue. But when he meets his target, he realizes there is more behind Deadpool’s recent killing spree than what he’s been led to believe. Despite their diverging opinions on the subject of murder, they have to put their differences aside to face a monster far worse - and more human - than any they’ve ever fought before.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: The Past, the Present, and the (im)Possible Future

Author: Jennicide — AO3 and Tumblr

Artist: WaterMe — AO3 and Tumblr

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 44,833

Summary: Peter B. Parker drops back into his crapshoot reality after a little detour to an alternate universe. He thinks he might have finally figured out how to make it work again with MJ, but he forgets that there’s still that infamous ‘Parker Luck’ to contend with. (Un)Fortunately for him, there’s a totally available Deadpool on his side of the multiverse who’s been waiting years for a chance to pick him up!

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: A Year in the Gallery

Author: Princess_Breetlejuice

Artist: TheLazyDrawer

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Word Count: 43,579

Summary: Wade is kidnapped by a strange man who has a very peculiar job offer. While he’s skeptical, the man promises to compensate Wade very generously for the use of his body. Sounds [sketch], but Wade is all for easy money, and it’s not like he has anything better to do right now.

And really, what’s the worst that can happen?

(Or: Peter is an immortal sex demon with a penchant for sadism, and Wade is about to learn he can endure unimaginable agony with a smile.)

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Anchored 

Author: @jolinarjackson​

Artist: @violettavonviolet 

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Implied/referenced homicide, implied/referenced character death 

Word Count: 34,999

Summary: In a world in which Empaths are common and their gifts considered useful, Peter, as an Empath, is an outsider because his gift is irreversibly broken. Unable to initiate physical contact with anyone, Peter lives isolated and is forced to keep the few people in his life at a distance. His only escape is going out on patrol as Spider-Man and the friendship he developed with Deadpool as his alter ego. Peter’s life changes dramatically when he and Deadpool accidentally touch, resulting in an unexpected Empathic bond that goes against everything Peter knows about his Broken Empathy. While trying to figure out what exactly is going on between them, Peter and Wade also join forces to stop a serial killer who seems to have taken up residence in New York, unaware that Spider-Man is one of his intended targets.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: When We’re 40

Author: doctoring (AO3)

Artist: Chez (Tumblr)

Rating: Teen

Warnings: No AO3 Warnings Apply

Word Count: 61,241

Summary: Peter B. Parker returns from the multiverse to find out that Mary Jane has moved on and is engaged to be married. Feeling that he’s been left behind in life, Peter agrees to a marriage pact with Wade, mainly just to get his dinner back that Wade’s been holding hostage. The deal sets the two men off on a year-long journey of navigating their feelings for each other and what a ‘significant other’ really means. Eventually, they both realize that they don’t want just a silly little marriage pact, but something more real and meaningful with each other. Too bad they’re not the best with admitting their feelings.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Sympathy for the Hurricane

Author: meinposhbastard (AO3, tumblr)

Artist: thatbanananana (tumblr)

Rating: Teen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 27,702

Summary: Peter has never been more scared in his entire life. He’s on the run, and the last place he should take refuge in is the Trenches, the deepest and most dangerous place of the Atlantic Ocean. But he’s desperate. If they catch him, it will be the end of him. The Monster of the Trenches is a creature that has been in numerous wars and has lived for a thousand years (or so the folk tales say). Peter has grown up with them, among others; this monster is that old. So Peter expects something big and formless and dark and maybe hungry for siren flesh. What Peter finds is a merman full of scars, a tragic past befitting them, and kindness.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Don’t You Dare Forget the Sun

Author: Klaus

Artist: Zet

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Major Character Death, Angst, torture, blood and gore, experimentation, psychological torture, established relationship, canon typical violence and language.

Word Count: 12,382

Summary:

“Cold white walls, keep you from your pad and pen 

You just wanna stab again 

I can’t believe it’s half this hard You never knew your mind was dark, no!“ 

Peter Parker, self-proclaimed superhero and honestly a nice guy, finds himself locked within the confines of a top-secret definitely not legal medical facility. Maybe it was the kicks to his head, or possibly the chains that kept him hogtied in the back of the vehicle, or even the horrible experimentation was done to his body but something tells him that he is in a No Good Very Bad Place. 

Not that he can really feel much of the pain anymore. He didn’t realize he was falling perfectly in place for these doctors’ nefarious plans and now he can’t think much of anything anymore. He’s following orders. He’s here for Shield, right? The doctors tell him he’s doing good. He’s amazing. He’s Their perfect soldier and Peter can’t help but say yes to everything asked of him.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Your Friendly Neighbourhood Deadpool

Author: Nimohtar ( AO3 | Tumblr )

Artist: Princesseellie3 ( Instagram | Tumblr )

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Major Warnings Apply.

Word Count: 42,873

Summary: When Aunt May moves to the small town of Berry Hill, MA for a new job, Peter doesn’t anticipate things will change too much in his own life. That is, until he meets the town’s self-proclaimed leather-wearing, katana-wielding local hero, a.k.a Your Friendly Neighbourhood Deadpool…

A story told in snapshots of holidays, where strangers become friends, and then something more.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: To You

Co-Authors: AnGoose — AO3 and Tumblr; Y_ellow — AO3 and Tumblr

Artist: PastaPapi — AO3 and Twitter and Tumblr

Betas: Atem — AO3 and Tumblr; Water — AO3 and Tumblr

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 13,653

Summary: Deadpool’s quest to make best friends with Spider-Man is a strange and convoluted thing, made all the more complicated by the letters he keeps finding in his safehouse. They’re all addressed to “Ben, Love Peter.” And they’re all just a little too on the nose regarding Spidey’s personal problem of the month. Wade isn’t going to say no to a little extra insight into how to woo his very best Spider-Friend, though.

Or, five times someone mistakes Wade’s crummiest safehouse as a post office, and one time Wade plays the sexy-mailman part in this (emotional) porno and hand delivers a letter to Spider-Man.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

___________

Title: Lost in a Shadow of You

Author: @lunastories​ (AO3)

Artist: @ah-geee​

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Major Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 34,514

Summary: Peter always suspected he’d be a shitty fisherman, but after some rather unfortunate events in New York force him to be a recluse in a secluded coastal town, he can say for certain he sucks at this. Fortunately for him, the resident cryptid, one Siren known as Wade Wilson, is around to save him from himself. Misunderstandings and shenanigans ensue when Peter’s ‘thank you for saving my life’ gifts are mistaken as ‘please have babies with me’ courting gifts by the Siren. Only time (and some low-key therapy) will decide if they figure their shit out.

This is a story of two monsters who despite all the odds, find a home in each other.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost 1, 2

__________

Title: Heatwave

Author: TimidTurnip [Ao3 | Tumblr]

Artist: VictoryThorn [Instagram | Tumblr]

Rating: E

Warnings: No Major Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 16,911K

Summary: Peter can handle anything life decides to throw his way. He didn’t freak out at all when Wade professed his love, the heat wave isn’t turning him into a puddle of goo and he’s totally got a firm grasp on his finances. And Wade… he just wants to know why Peter won’t date him, even if he has to push a few boundaries to find out.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Snippets Through Time

Author: Lalapaya | Tumblr: @manyfandomsnotime​

Artist: 343EnderSpark | Tumblr: @343EnderSpark

Rating: Teen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 9,668

Summary: Peter Parker has to face the normal tumultuous daily routine of being the only child of a famous billionaire philanthropist and a historic icon. The one to help him through this is his best friend and partner in crime Wade Wilson. But what to do if this said friend suddenly becomes the target of affection?

A few excerpts of Peter Parker’s life growing up with Wade Wilson as his best friend and Iron Man and Captain America as his fathers.

Fic Masterpost  | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Nothing Gold Can Stay

Author: cheekysstyles (tumblr)

Artist: aquamerryne (insta)

Rating: M

Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Word Count: 30k

Summary: A year and a half ago, sixteen year old gymnastics prodigy Peter Parker left in the middle of the World Championship competition, costing Team USA a chance at a medal. After one too many run-ins with the law, Peter gets an ultimatum: return to the sport he left behind or end up in juvenile detention.

When he arrives at X-Force Gymnastics, an elite gym owned by Wade Wilson, Peter is unprepared to rediscover his love for the sport and to confront the very thing that made him quit in the first place.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: A Mate Most Begrudging 

 Author: Vixen13 (Twitter) 

 Artist: Gensyz 

Rating: Explicit 

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply 

Word Count: 46,189

Summary: It’s the height of the Gilded Age in America where everyone is searching for a new life and a new fortune from booming industry to the colonization of the wild frontier. Wade Wilson is a disgraced alpha trapped in the in-between of east and west, high society and labor, recluse and shunned. Though he’s convinced himself that he’s just fine on his own, others are more than happy to meddle in his perfectly quiet life before he loses his grip on reality more than he already has.

Peter Parker is a down on his luck omega who needs money fast. Knowing that laying tracks is a quick ticket to a short life, he let himself be talked into joining the mail order omega program. He’s careful about the alpha he chooses and determined to carve out a life for himself with a handsome stranger. But the shock of his alpha’s appearance is nothing compared to the slamming of the door in his face as Wade declares he has no intention of mating with anyone, especially not some gold-digging omega tart.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Three Steps to Inferno

Author: @waterme-stories (Ao3)

Artist: @atemy (Ao3)

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Word Count: 31,399k

Summary: On August 26th, 1934, Gwen Stacy brushed past the doorman at the Ritz-Carlton, walked into the dining room, and set herself on fire.

With the city plunged into pandemonium, I didn’t think twice before I hit the pavement: both as private eye Peter Benjamin Parker, and behind the scenes as The Spider, New York City’s most notorious vigilante. The criminal underworld cowered at the sound of my name and the shadow of my webs — but there were some parts of the Big Apple’s seedy underbelly that I couldn’t begin to imagine…

(A Spideypool Noir Mystery)

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Mutable Materials 

Author: @ciceqi (AO3) 

Artist: @nhrive (AO3) 

Rating: Mature 

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply; warnings for Temporary Character Death, Suicide, Insectophobia 

Word Count: 12,853

Summary: Ever since the field trip that hijacked everything from Peter’s genetic profile to his daemon’s shape, he’s had to hide his entirely-too-recognizable daemon from the world.  He doesn’t expect to come across a man with an embarrassment of daemons, or maybe…no daemon at all.  Is Deadpool as delusional as everyone thinks?  He’s certainly been helpful, but how long can that last if his reality hinges on the existence of a daemon no one’s seen in years? 

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

Author: @mscaptainwinchester​

Artist: cottonclover

Rating: Teen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Canonical Character Death, Physical Abuse (Alluded To), Emotional/Psychological Abuse

Word Count: 21,551

Summary: This is the Disney Cinderella AU no one asked for. In a faraway kingdom, in a comfortable cottage in a comfortable village, Peter Parker grew up with two wonderful parents who loved him very much. And then those parents died, and he was left to life with his stepmother Liv, and her two terrible children, Jessica and Eugene. His happy home turned into an unhappy life of servitude with no end in sight.

An invitation to a Royal Ball reminds Peter of a long-dead wish to see the palace his mother told him stories of, and he becomes determined to attend despite the protests of his miserable family. With the help of his new fairy godmother, a little bit of magic, and a whole lot of hard work, his dreams of visiting the palace and finding his very own Prince Charming will come true. Or will they?*

*They totally will. What kind of Cinderella story do you think this is?

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Thanks for the Memories

Author: Actionpackedlips

Artist: Moemai

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence, Sexual Content, Canon Divergence

Word Count: 50,461

Summary: What if Mysterio never outed Peter?

Deadpool comes back from a mission to find his favorite Spider-Man, his only Spider-Man, the boxes so helpfully remind him, missing. Specifically, kidnapped. Mysterio’s remaining crew were brimming with the need for revenge after their leader’s death, and so they vowed to use updated B.A.R.F tech to learn Spider-Man’s specific superpowers in order to harness it for themselves; another failed attempt to continue Mysterio’s grandiose plans of becoming the best superhero ever. With the help of the Avengers Peter is found, connected to a device not even Tony has full comprehension of.

Deadpool valiantly volunteers to be hooked up; death was a regularly scheduled program for him, after all. He’d guide Spider-Man to a subconscious level that was safe to be extracted from, and (total bonus!) hopefully win his favor as Spidey’s knight in shiny leather! But once Deadpool enters, his deepest, darkest, repressed memories are on display for him and his friendly neighborhood spider to see. Deadpool fears not only what Spider-Man will think of him after it all, after everything he sees, but just what he’ll have to relive in order to rescue the man who not-so-secretly holds his heart.

Fic Masterpost  |  Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Paradise Awaits

Author: bisexualbarry

Artist: doctoring

Rating: Mature

Warnings: canon typical violence, minor character death

Word Count: 32k

Summary: “For those who prove worthy, paradise awaits…”

Fifteen years after assuming his childhood best friend died, jaded treasure hunter Peter Parker comes out of an early retirement when Wade Wilson comes back into his life. Now fully scarred and clearly hiding secrets, Wade drags Peter back into the thrill of searching for legendary pirate Captain Henry Avery’s lost treasure.

Fighting for their life from the Shoreline mercenaries chasing after them, Peter and Wade continue the dangerous search of a pirate treasure worth 400 million, at least. It’s too bad their ex-partner, Harry Osborn, wants them dead to take the treasure all for himself.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Ducks!

Author(s): Devral

Artist: LordAvon

Rating: Teen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 7,994

Summary: After a fight with Peter, Wade goes stomping through Central Park. He stumbles upon something extremely unexpected. He’s not ready to be a mama!

Fic Masterpost |  Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Puppy ex Machina

Author: riseofthefallenone ( Tumblr | Ao3 )

Artist: Jennicide ( Tumblr | Ao3 )

Rating: Explicit

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 83,044

Summary: A year after his divorce, Peter is trapped in a depressive cycle and still not quite over Mary Jane. When she shows up at his door, begging him to watch her dog for a week while she leaves town, he can’t really bring himself to say “no”. No one was expecting that little Pomeranian to turn his life around and help him realize that his friendship with Wade has been teetering on the edge of something more for a while.

Fic Masterpost  | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: The Fourth Wall

Author: RansomNotes (Ao3)

Artist: thelazyartist (Ao3)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Word Count: 13k

Summary: Between college and his side jobs and his alter-ego, Peter barely has the time to sleep at his apartment, let alone spend any time hanging out there, which works out since it’s a cheap and empty and depressing apartment, now that he and Ned aren’t roommates on-campus anymore. So hearing his rude loudmouth neighbor through the wall all the time shouldn’t matter much, except it’s classic Parker to somehow make friends with the crazy guy next door, to the point he’s actually sad to leave his crummy apartment. But Peter seems to have a real penchant for bad company, since he’s spending all his free time with someone he’s never seen, only heard through the wall, and spending most of his patrolling time with someone else crazy, since Deadpool showed up recently and somehow monopolized his time as Spider-Man. It’s probably just a phase. Everybody goes through a fall-catastrophically-hard-for-separate-but-unavailable-people phase, right?

Fic Masterpost  |  Art Masterpost

__________

Title: In Which Peter Finds Hope

Author: ladyamante (AO3)

Artist: Areon (tumblr)

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Canon-typical violence, sexual content, Past child abuse

Word Count: 62,245

Summary: Peter just wants to relax after last year. He hit a rough patch, and Deadpool helped him get through the worst of it. After identity reveals, therapy, and a few explosions, things have finally started to settle down for them both.

But just as Peter’s getting into the swing of things, a strange man with a metal arm shows up claiming to be a time-traveller. He says Peter is the only one who can help him save mutant kind.

Peter finds himself pulled from his home and dragged through different dimensions as he and Cable search for the key to their survival. Meanwhile, they keep running into different versions of Peter’s boyfriend. It seems that everything connects back to Wade. Cable thinks it’s just a coincidence, but Peter is sure there’s a deeper reason behind it all.

Fic Masterpost  | Art Masterpost

__________

Title: Whether By Accident or By Design 

Author: crookedswingset 

Artist: thelonebamf 

Rating: Explicit 

Warnings: Graphic Violence, Temporary Major Character Death (Wade), Sexual Content, Cannibalistic Symbiotes, Blood and Injury, Secret Identity, Body Horror

Word Count: 188K 

Summary: Peter is about to graduate college and become an officially licensed Pro Hero. Too bad he’s already burnt out. Years of operating as an illegal vigilante with a supposedly subpar Quirk will do that to you. But just as he’s about to quit altogether, he meets actual Pro Hero Deadpool, a reformed villain who works hard to make sure others don’t follow in his footsteps. Despite this achievement, Wade’s just as jaded as he is and has completely given up on making things better.

As their relationship deepens, Peter realizes he is not quite ready to give up on being a Pro Hero, a resolve that is tested when a new Pro Hero agency comes to town and takes over. The so-called “Guard” is a group of four eight-foot men with eerily similar Quirks—and they have no intention of making nice with New York City’s friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

Fic Masterpost | Art Masterpost

[writingdotcoffee]

#153: The Uncertainty of Being a Writer

This week's post was supposed to be about Writing Analytics, but I had to delay the launch by a week. Stay tuned for next week!

One of the hardest questions that writers face, particularly in the early days is: ‘Will this thing work?’

Will the hours that I pour into this endeavour pay off? Would I be better off doing something else?

What if you spend the next ten years writing books and short stories and trying to get them published. No major publishers pick them up so you decide to self-publish and only sell a handful of copies. What then?

Luck does play a part in success – from being incredibly lucky or awfully unlucky. You may do everything right, and it may still not happen.

It sucks thinking about things like that, but that’s what’s been on my mind lately. The uncertainty is real. It will get to you eventually, so why not deal with it early?

Writing your first book is a particularly uncertain business. For a long time, you're toiling away on your own. You have never done it before, and you have no idea whether what you're doing will be good.

When you're in the book-writing trenches, it's easy to fixate on the end goal. You're doing whatever it takes to get the book over the finish line – working nights and weekends, skipping pub with mates, abandoning hobbies.

I'll finish the book, and then it'll be all good, you think. But what if it isn't?

Tim Ferriss – a best-selling author and famous podcast host – has an exercise called fear setting. Years ago, he did a TED talk about it which blew up. The idea is to spend time with your fears. Imagine that what you fear the most does happen. What then?

Let's say you're 35. You look about 45 because, over the past 10 years, you've spent every free moment outside your job pursuing writing. You're always twitchy, particularly when around other people.

You can no longer log in to Instagram because all your friends have kids, big houses, flashy cars. You're nowhere near repaying your student loans.

You signed with an agent for the fourth full manuscript that you've completed, but no publisher would buy it. Now she's writing to you to terminate your contract in 30 days. Ouch.

So what can you do to prevent this from happening?

1. The Journey, Not the Destination

As cliché as that sounds, you should do whatever you can to enjoy the time when you're working on your book. The journey might be all that you get, what can you do to enjoy the ride?

Are you learning skills that you could apply elsewhere? Maybe you can connect with like-minded writers and start a writing group? Could switching genre make writing more enjoyable?

Write for fun, first and foremost.

2. Practice Healthy Detachment

Notice what happens when you go to an interview for a job that would be nice versus a job that you desperately need. The anxieties that we have shape our behaviours and performance. Worrying about being successful might just be what makes you miss the mark.

If you make wanting to be an author a part of your identity, it will be hard to deal with all the rejections that come along the way.

3. Don't Abandon Everything Else

Every once in a while, someone talks about how not having a plan B was what gave them the motivation to hustle. I don't buy it. It might have worked for them, but there are dozens, hundreds and thousands of others who also didn't have a plan B and failed, and exceptionally shitty times ensued.

Keep your friends. Keep your hobbies. Keep your job. You can always abandon them when you're rich later.

So do I think it's worth pursuing a career as a writer? Absolutely yes.

In an alternate universe, you're 35, married with kids, living in a modest house that you own. You've been writing for 10 years, and while no publisher ever bought your book, you've had a blast writing them.

Every Thursday night, you meet your writing group downtown. They're like your second family. Your jaw hurts from laughing every time when you come home.

Juggling your work, family and writing isn't easy, but you're not in a rush. You're working on a novella in a series that you've been publishing on your blog. The deal is that if it makes more than $100 in profit, you're buying drinks for everyone.

And in another universe, in a galaxy far, far away, you're on your way back home from a successful book tour that coincides with the release of a brand-new Netflix film which is an adaptation of your most famous novel. You're looking at the lights outside as the plane takes off. The PR round was exhausting. It's about time to start thinking about what will you write next...

Thanks for reading ❤️.

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Past Editions

#152: Working with Creative Constraints, July 2020

#151: My Favourite Writing Podcasts, July 2020

#150: The Business of Making Art, July 2020

#149: All That Matters Is What You Leave on the Page, July 2020

#148: Keeping a Victory Log, June 2020

[moqi2004]

Genshin Impact party headcanons - part 2

I was going to link part 1 but finding your past posts on Tumblr is like digging through your rubbish to find that one thing at the bottom of the bin you now want to keep. But oh well.

The parties have changed since last time! Characters included are:

Team A:

Qiqi

Keqing

Venti

Bennett

Team B:

Albedo

Fischl

Chongyun

Barbara

-Lumine and Paimon are still around, Lumine just doesn't fight anymore. She just kinda manages everything. It's her journey, after all.

Albedo often paints while everyone settles down in the Serenitea Pot (no need to camp anymore, we journey in style). A lot of people have come to check on his art skills, and he receives frequent praise. He doesn't take commissions, but he has drawn a couple of the party members during specific moments.

Chongyun noticed Albedo's signature on his painting matched the pen name of the Artist Xingqiu requested to illustrate his novel. The two had pleasant conversations about Xingqiu and his novels, and Albedo clearly noticed the crush Chongyun was harbouring for the writer. He chose not to press him on the matter.

Venti and Barbara often sing together to boost team morale. Barbara gets very self conscious about her singing, and she often puts her skills down because she believes Venti's talent is greater than her own. Venti obviously tells her this is far from the truth, and that their styles are merely different.

Bennett's luck hindered the team a lot in the beginning. He could easily get himself or others hurt, and they suffered many close calls because of it. After a good while, Bennett distanced himself from the group, believing he was only bringing them down. Fischl and Barbara had to convince him to come back, which was easier said than done.

After a while, however, Benentt's bad luck seemed to have been tamed, if only slightly. Major incidents would happen a lot less frequently. Nobody else realised, but Bennett felt a change in the winds around him. A blessing from the Anemo Archon, perhaps? Little did he know that bard was standing with Lumine nearby, a proud smile on his face.

When Bennett does get hurt, Barbara always tends to his wounds. When his injuries were more serious, she was worried about how long the healing would take. Her worries subsided when she felt a tug at the hem of her skirt, as Qiqi passed her a small bundle of herbs. The zombie also used her cryo powers to assist with healing, as long as they were near a fire. The first time Qiqi assisted, Bennett quickly froze up.

Venti and Lumine have a "safe spot" in the tea pot, where Venti can be open about his status as the Anemo Archon. He often talks to her about minor troubles and past experiences.

Albedo helps Qiqi with her memory from time to time by showing her pictures he's drawn of the places they've visited.

Fischl still talks everyone's ears off with her stories, and Keqing still manages the group's affairs.

[inanauthorsworld]

how to use three act structure in your writing

Ah, three act structure! While I learned about this in a screenwriting workshop as a method for constructing screenplays, the model has worked wonders for every fiction piece I’ve written and just about any modern story is constructed in this way. If you’re struggling in finding the arch of a story, this outlines it very well!

First of all, let’s cover the structure itself: i. status quo: how things are at the beginning of the story, before things change. Doesn’t have to be included in the novel/screenplay/etc explicitly, but is the ‘before’ circumstances. ii. inciting incident: this is where your story really starts! It’s the thing that makes things change, like your protagonist finding out they have super powers or that their best friend is in love with them. iii. plot point one: this is where the story transitions from the beginning to the middle section. After the inciting incident, the character reacts to that change, and this is the reaction. It’s usually a decision made by the main character and their final goal is introduced. iv. complications: fairly straightforward. When a goal is set, there are complications that come along the way. A good model to follow is three main complications, though it isn’t so strict. v. midpoint: the midpoint is usually the most emotional point in the story, aside from the climax. It can be either an extreme high or an extreme low, dependent on the ending; a story with a happy ending has an extreme high in the middle, but a bad ending has a very low point. For example, a superhero story where the protagonist changes the world’s midpoint might be a montage of the hero rescuing civilians, while a more disappointing superhero story would show our hero in a funk where he’s unable to save anyone. In modern film, a lot of midpoints are montages, but that’s not a set rule. vi. more complications: don’t think our characters are getting a break just yet! Generally, three more complications will happen post-midpoint– usually either continuations of earlier complications, or problems that happen as a result of solving those. vii. plot point 2: circumstances change yet again! This time, a big decision is made to resolve complications. It can be thought of as the inciting incident of the climax. Transition from middle to end. viii. climax: the most intense part of your story. This is where every complication, including the main complication, comes to a point and either gets resolved all at once.  ix. new status quo: same as the status quo, it isn’t always directly shown. It’s the way things are now, how things settle down after the journey our characters went on earlier. Should be different from the original status quo.

As three acts this is:

Act One: Before plot point one. It’s the beginning of the story, when things are beginning to change but haven’t yet. Act Two: Between the first and second plot points. The middle of a story, where action is happening and the story is in rapid progression. Act Three: Post-plot point two. The end. Things are settling down into how they’ll be in the new status quo.

For an example, here is a basic love story told through three act structure:

i. status quo: character A and character B are best friends. ii. inciting incident: character A accidentally discovers character B is in love with them. iii. PP1: character A decides they have to make character B stop loving them. iv. complications: 1— character A doesn’t want to lose their friendship. 2— character B doesn’t know why A is being distant. 3— A isn’t completely sure of their own feelings, and is feeling intense jealousy in their attempts to set B up with someone else. v. midpoint: character A realizes they have a crush on character B, shown via a montage of closeness and internal panic of character A. vi. more complications: 1— character A doesn’t want to ruin their friendship, now for different reasons. 2— character B doesn’t know why A is acting so weird. 3— A struggles to hide their crush well, even though character B is completely oblivious. vii. PP2: character A has enough of this, and decides to just tell B everything they know. viii. climax: character A arrives and character B’s house and confesses everything; they kiss. ix: new status quo: characters A and B are happily together.

OR

Act One: Character A and B are best friends, but A knows B’s secret. Act Two: Character A decides how to deal with B’s secret. In the process of dealing with this, A discovers a secret of his own. Act Three: A confesses to B, and B’s reaction is positive.

A few things to note:

Status quo and new status quo’s difference.

How the inciting incident leads into PP1, same with PP2 into the climax— I’ve heard it described as the inciting incident/PP2 being the pulling back of the slingshot and PP1/the climax being the releasing of it.

PP1 and PP2 are both decisions being made by our protagonist.

The similarities between the first and second set of complications. Essentially: 1-- character A doesn’t want to lose B. 2— B is confused. 3— A is also confused.

If you set up your story with this structure, there will be drama and change. The main problem I find in the structure of new writers’ works is that either there is insufficient conflict, the conflict is too short compared to the story, or, after the solving the conflict, everything is completely normal again. With this method, it’ll be very easy to prevent that; if your story doesn’t fit this, it likely needs altering. The structure can honestly be difficult to understand, but watch a few films or reference previous things you’ve watched/read and find the structure— eventually, you’ll be doing it subconsciously every time you consume any media it applies to!

On implementing it effectively:

All three acts shouldn’t be given equal screen time. Generally, the ratio of Act One:Act Two:Act Three should be about 1:2:1 (aka, in a 100k word novel, 25k Act One, 50k Act Two, 25k Act Three), but that could altered (like in the case I stated— 25k of act one? No thank you). All the time, though, Act Two should be at least as long as the first and third act combined. All three acts are necessary, but I’ve seen some films with less than ten minutes of Act One where it helps the story.

When your story’s introduction requires much explanation or backstory, such as building a fantasy world or even a vital relationship between characters, it might be on the longer side, while a love story between two characters who are only just meeting might take shorter— it’s extremely dependent on the narrative itself and requires you, as the author, to gauge the situation and decide how it should be. Even with a structure as formulaic as this, writing is still an art that can never have any general rules applied to fit all situations. 

Good luck in your writing! My DMs and ask box are both open!

[firefliesintheskyline]

(Me, prompting myself under the shower : What if we take the popular “person A is drunk and asks person B to be their partner, person B laughs and answers by saying they are married already (without saying they are actually married to person A) and person A pouts” and add “what person B doesn’t know is that person A sees them interact with person C and thinks they are the significant other”)

So, I guess… enjoy???

(Now on AO3 !)

INTOXICATED (Nicky x Joe + the Immortal Family)

Their last mission in France had been extremely successful, so Andy wasn't entirely surprised to find 2 cases of champagne in front of their safe house. She had to admit that, while at first she had been very reluctant to give Copley the address, taking the risk to share the information had paid off nicely more than once. He also really didn’t need to know that this was only one of the half dozen properties they had in Paris and its surroundings.

“Well, I guess we are in for a big celebration tonight!” Quynh was enthusiastically emptying the first box and passing the bottles over to Booker, while Nile and Joe were already heading to the kitchen to get some glasses.

“Don’t start moping, Nicky,” Andy gave him her signature half smile, “you don’t have to drink, if you don’t want to.”

Nicky looked almost offended by her suggestion.

“Just because I have a very low tolerance, it doesn’t mean I have to refrain from alcohol entirely, Andromache.”

She shrugged, completely unbothered.

“If you say so.”

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

From her spot on the sofa, Andy let out a self-satisfied smirk when she noticed that Nicky was curled up into the armchair, looking comfortable and completely gone.

“Hush, love,” Quynh pinched her very lightly on the arm, “stop making fun of him. After all, you where the one who instigated the drinking.”

Andy gave her a pointed look. “I merely told him that he didn’t have to, if he didn’t want to.”

“Because you knew exactly what his reaction would be,” Quynh retorted, looking back at Nicky with fondness in her eyes, “I still don’t get how he could be the fiercest warrior in the room and yet be totally unaware of the tricks you play on him.”

“I didn’t play any trick,” Andy shook her head, “and you know it. He knows it. Nicky has been too tense lately, and I need him to loosen up a little.” She got up, heading for the kitchen to refill her empty glass. “And you can call him the 'fiercest warrior in the room’ only once I’m gone from this world.”

Quynh laughed quietly and scooped closer to Nile, who was lazily trying to engage Booker into an art debate. The frenchman was mostly content to listen, while resisting the urge to drift off to sleep.

Joe, who was sitting right next to him, was about to pitch in as well, when suddenly Nicky decided to get up from the armchair and drop himself unceremoniously into his partner’s lap.

“Hi.”

The room went quiet for about half a minute, before Nile tactfully started talking again, soon followed by both Booker and Quynh. However, it didn’t stop them from taking turns to glance back at the couple every once in a while.

“Well, hi to you.” Joe wasn’t used to Nicky being openly affectionate in front of their family, and wasn’t sure if he should indulge in this. He didn’t want Nicky to feel mortified the next morning. Still, he put his hands very lightly on each side of Nicky’s waist. “Do you want to go to bed?”

Nicky tilted his head on the side a little, looking at him with lust. “Would you care to join me?”

Joe was a little flushed by the situation, but couldn’t help the soft smile that escaped his lips. “I have to say, your proposition sounds extremely appealing, but if you think you can get my pants off of me that easily…” he trailed off, winking.

Now it was Nicky’s turn to feel embarrassed. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…” He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “You are very handsome. And I want you. Very much. And I think your body wants me too. So, if you accept to be my lover, I can bed you and make sweet love to you. Or rough love. Both. I think I would enjoy both very much.”

It took Joe a whole minute to register all the words that came out of Nicky’s mouth. His Nicky, who was always shy with words (but never with gestures), who took months to actually voice his love for Joe at the beginning of their shared journey, but was now apparently propositioning him in the middle of a room full of people.

The same Nicky who, in the meantime, was getting worried by the lack of response. “Please be assured that this wouldn’t be a one time occurrence, I wouldn’t dare deflower your body without promptly making an honest man out of you…"

At which point Joe couldn’t help it and burst into laughter. “Well, that is very noble of you,” he said, and then, just because he wanted to see how far he could push it, “but unfortunately I’m already united in wedlock.”

The color drained entirely from Nicky’s face, making it very clear that this was not the answer he was expecting. Joe immediately regretted his words, and was about to add more concerning the obvious piece of information that Nicky was missing, when he got distracted by Booker, who was laughing hard at one of Nile’s joke, squeezing Joe’s arm with both of his hands in the process and putting his forehead on his shoulder. “Did you hear it? Man, that was hilarious.”

Joe faintly registered that Nicky was moving from his lap and slopingly getting up, but didn’t want to be rude to the rest of his family. “I’m sorry, I was not listening, would you mind repeating it?”

While Booker was making himself more comfortable into his side, Joe vaguely noticed Nicky leaving the room, but decided to stay and listen to Nile before following him and explain the misunderstanding. Or at least that was the intention, spoiled completely by Nicky who came back in the room almost in a rush and vehemently slapped Booker with a glove.

For the second time of the night, the room went very, very quiet.

“I demand satisfaction!,” Nicky exclaimed in a loud voice, slurring only slightly and making sure that the attention of everyone was on him, “this man has been distracted in frivolous conversation for the entire night, and when I decided to make a move on his beloved, only then he reminded himself of his duty as a husband! But tonight, we will end this,” he said, his fierce eyes on Booker, “I challenge you to a duel.”

Nile was, surprisingly, the first one to break the silence. “Is this a regular thing?” she said, uncertain on how she should feel about the whole situation.

“No, it is not.” The mischievous light in Andy’s eyes was unmistakable. “Ladies, let’s go get the popcorns, we can’t miss this for anything in the world.”

“Boss, you can’t be serious,” Booker called after her, but was clearly ignored. He straightened himself up. “Nicky, come on, I’m n—“

“Not. Another. Word.” Nicky looked at him pointedly in the eyes, before dropping on one knee and taking Joe’s hands in his. “You have to forgive me, I have acted out of pride, without even asking in which direction your heart was pointing…"

“You. It was pointing at you. Tonight, tomorrow, always. I would always choose you,” Joe didn’t hesitate for a single moment, and was rewarded by Nicky’s beautiful smile.

“Well, let the challenge begin!” Nicky pointed at his sword and at Joe’s scimitar, set on the wall on a corner of the room. “We have the weapons, now we just need some… space.”

“I’m glad our backyard is huge,” Quynh took the blades and started walking outside, “chop chop guys, we don’t have all night! Some of us want to use the early morning hours for better activities.” She winked at Andy, while Nile was rolling her eyes, clearly over their not-so-subtle flirting.

They were followed by Nicky and Joe, while Booker was contemplating the idea of making a run for it and loose himself in the Parisian night. He shook the thought out of his head and joined the rest of them outside, aware of the fact that sometimes his family could be too goddamn much.

“It’s going to be a duel to first blood! Since, well, death wouldn’t stick anyway…” Quynh clapped her hands, excitedly, “good luck to the contenders!” she yelled, before going to sit next to Andy and starting to eat the popcorns with way too much enthusiasm.

Nicky was about to reach for the sword, but Joe pushed the scimitar in his hands instead. “A token of love,” he whispered tenderly, before giving Nicky a light kiss on the cheek.

Booker took the sword and sent a clearly exasperated look in their direction, but couldn’t help the little smile on his lips. He really did admire the lengths these two would go to keep their love alive, he just wished they didn’t need to involve the entire family on a regular basis.

Andy gave the signal, and soon enough they started to fight. In a normal situation, Nicky would have had the upper hand, but he was still heavily inebriated, and only his consummated skills as a warrior made it seem like he was doing perfectly fine. He shielded himself from a couple of blows and was about to strike, but he got distracted by Joe’s anxious stare and tight grip on Nile. That was all Booker needed to make a cut on his forearm.

Cheers erupted from both Quynh and Andy, who run to Booker and started clapping on his shoulders, while Joe rushed on Nicky’s side. “My love, are you alright? I should have not given you the scimitar, not after you had so much alcohol…”

Nicky put a hand on Joe's cheek, stroking him softly. “Don’t you worry for me, vita mia. The only thing that makes me sad is to be parted from you.”

“No one will ever part us, hayati. I belong by your side.”

“Even if I lost to him?” At Joe’s strong nod, Nicky pushed the issue further. “You would leave your husband for me?”

“In a heartbeat.”

Nicky looked triumphant, and pulled Joe in a fierce kiss, before taking his hand and walking back into the house, leaving the others behind.

“I say one week.”

Nile, who had been distracted by Nicky and Joe’s epic act of love, turned her head at the other three people left there, looking utterly confused.

“What are you guys talking about?”

They completely ignored her.

“Very optimistic of you, Booker. A month,” Andy smirked, looking entirely confident.

“Oh please, Andy! It’s wasn’t that bad,” Quynh was shaking her head, clearly unimpressed, “I’m not even sure it’s going to last more than 24 hours.”

Andy started laughing very loudly. “None of you has known Nicky for as long as I did. He has a serious problem with holding grudges.”

“Guys,” Nile tried again, “what are you betting on?”

Booker took pity on her. “How long before we’ll have to leave them alone in the house to avoid the noises of celebratory sex."

“I’m pretty sure they are doing... ‘that’ right as we speak?” Nile loved her new family, she really did, but she still wasn’t comfortable with the amount of intimate information that were often shared as an off-hand comment.

“Definitely not,” Andy was looking straight at her, “Joe would never take advantage of a drunk Nicky. Even if I honestly doubt Nicky would have any objection.”

Nile shrugged, “Well, then tomorrow morning.”

“That’s when Nicky is going to wake up and remember.”

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

Joe was awakened by the morning sun, and he stirred lazily while keeping his eyes shut. He didn’t remember the last time he had been in such a good mood right at the beginning of the day. After the duel, he and Nicky had sat on the bed for a long time, making out like a couple of teenagers, until Nicky had wanted to push it a little further and Joe had gently stopped him, pressing him to lay down on the bed. They had lazily curled into each other and had been fast asleep only moments later.

But now they were both sober, and Joe was very well intentioned to take his sweet time and make love to the perfect, gorgeous man who was laying by his side.

Except Nicky was not by his side, and suddenly Joe realized that his arms were empty. He moved his hand up and down the other side of the bed, until his fingers brushed along other fingers. He tried to reach for them, but after a gentle squeeze, the other hand left his. He opened his eyes.

His Nicky was looking at him with something that looked like… disappointment.

“Nicolò, come back to bed.”

There was no answer. No reaction.

“Light of my eyes, moon of my life, can you tell me what is wrong?”

Nicky kept glaring at him, much to Joe’s dismay.

“Tell me again how you would leave your husband… in a heartbeat?” Nicky’s statement was followed by a heavy sigh, and a shake of the head. “I didn’t think you such a cruel man, Yusuf.”

Joe’s eyes widened, in alarm. “Nicky, I was talking about… him! Not you! And even by intending you as my husband, which was by the way absolutely not what was happening, I would have still left you… for you!” Joe knew he was making absolutely no sense, but he had just woken up. And he and mornings didn’t necessarily get along.

Nicky shook his head again, clearly dismissive. “I’m deeply hurt, my heart. Someone bats their eyes at you and suddenly you forget all about your husband.”

“You were batting your eyes at me, not just… someone!” Joe was slightly starting to panic. “I wouldn’t notice anyone else if they tried to bat their eyes at me!”

“If you say so.” Nicky got up from the bed, and only then Joe noticed that he was already dressed up. “I’m taking a walk with Nile. Let’s see if when I come back, you’re going to be here, or if you have just decided to run away and leave your husband in a heartbeat.”

Nicky exited the room without another word, content to just leave a loudly groaning Joe on the bed. He made it to the kitchen, where Andy was drinking her coffee.

“How long?”

“A month.”

“Never going to happen,” Nicky was fighting the urge to smile, “I am merely trying to make a point. My instincts are already screaming in protest."

Andy rolled her eyes.

“Fine. But at least wait more than a week, I don’t want to lose to /Booker/.”

“I said this morning,” Nile approached Nicky and touched him lightly on the arm, “and by the look of it, it feels like that’s what you want to go for.”

“My dear, dear Nile,” Nicky covered her hand with his own, “let’s go quickly buy you something with the money that our brothers and sisters are going to owe you.”

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

(originally written for @percivlgraves birthday

(Notes:

1) this is my first fanfiction in almost seven years, hopefully it’s not too bad;

2) this is my first fanfiction in english E V E R, please don’t be too harsh, I swear I’ll try to improve!!)

[onelastfic]

I posted 808 times in 2021

101 posts created (13%)

707 posts reblogged (88%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 7.0 posts.

I added 518 tags in 2021

#callyieverse - 121 posts

#future au - 83 posts

#oc - 72 posts

#tales of mewni - 70 posts

#next gen - 42 posts

#nextgen - 32 posts

#nenet - 29 posts

#personal - 24 posts

#dai tai - 23 posts

#marvel - 22 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#this can apply to whatever neurodivergency but for me personally it's adhd and probably-autism-my-diagnostic-process-got-derailed-by-covid

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

At The Ball 🕛

“W-Wow! Cindy, you look prettier than Brandy!”

“Oh, JJ… And you’re more charming than Prince Christopher.”

This is a belated birthday gift for @laylaylamode! We both love Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella so much and were so happy when it came out on Disney+. The outfits are based on the iconic looks from this beautiful scene:

https://youtu.be/LT2uorSLsGU

My love and bias for sunshine bois really shows with JJ. His smile is like a sunny day. His smile is especially sweet when he looks at Cindy, his princess. Cindy loves her clumsy Prince Charming. They are so cute together. 😊

Artwork done by the talented @rainbowneonexplosion

18 notes • Posted 2021-03-19 02:55:10 GMT

#4

AWWWWWWW!!!! I knew it! I just knew that Hades would be using a bident! The mythology doesn’t lie!

20 notes • Posted 2021-11-29 17:02:36 GMT

#3

Future AU Basteta

“Ya wanna gaslight me? I’ll set that fucking gasoline on fire.”

“I know how to fight and I ain’t afraid to shove my Louboutins up ya ass.”

“Good mothers have a certain strength when it comes to shit like that. We have to stay calm, even if we don't want to, for the sake of our children.”

“Does my hustle offend ya? Good, that’s my brand.”

“I ain’t got time to work. I’m busy being with my family.”

This ✨✨beautiful✨✨ commission is done by @rainbowneonexplosion of MILF Basteta! Taller, older, and thiccer than double decker snickers. This bad bitch hasn’t let kids slow her down. Whether in the boardroom or in battle, she’s still a force to be reckoned with! You can't fuck with Queen B!

20 notes • Posted 2021-01-23 23:29:43 GMT

#2

Sweep her off her feet

“This ain’t what they meant when they said princes should sweep girls off their feet, hot head?!?!”

“Probably not, but I’ve got my own way of doing things, kitten.”

“Ya fucking jerk…”

“Do you want me to put you down?”

“……no……”

“Heh, thought so.”

——

Where Gods and other monsters alike have failed, Lacerta Butterfly is one of very few outside her family that is capable of making Nenet The Hellcat flustered. Though she’ll never admit less his head get any bigger.

Been wanting a pic of them in this pose for a while. It’s SO freaking cute! Hehehe, Nenet and Lars in one their signature moments. Lars is always sweeping Nenet off her feet (literally). This fabulous commission was done by the amazing @harchibudytgorichi! Great job!

Lars belongs to @kururu418

24 notes • Posted 2021-11-21 18:38:17 GMT

#1

First, lets give a big cheer to @harchibudytgorichi for this incredible cover art! This art and artist is fire!🔥🔥🔥🔥 Really adds a creative element that I can’t.

Additionally, for the Callyieverse I present to you my multi-chapter fic series that centers around my oc, Basteta.

I’ve actually had this pic for while but haven’t had the confidence to post it. I’ve never done a big fic series with my and other people’s ocs…I was really nervous (still am actually) but I really wanna get started (especially with ToM God Arc coming) and I think posting the cover art will be the first step I need to start the journey. Anyway, wish me luck and I’ll try to have the first chapter out soon.

28 notes • Posted 2021-06-15 02:23:46 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[specterchasing-a]

Hold On (Part 2) || Eddie & Alfie

TIMING: One month ago, directly after part one.

LOCATION: En route to the woods.

PARTIES: @yikesimonfire​ & @specterchasing​

SUMMARY: Alfie and Eddie have a heart-to-heart in the car.

CONTENT: Internalized homophobia tw

Eddie mindfully secured his filming equipment in the trunk of Alfie’s odiously yellow station wagon. As he took a step back to close the hatch, an idea occurred to him. He hastily ducked back into the trunk and unzipped his bag to pilfer for his camera. Now satisfied, Eddie slammed the door shut and walked briskly to the car’s passenger-side. The moment he settled into his seat, a pronounced frown settled into his features.

“When are you gonna get your AC fixed?” Eddie implored, his gaze settling on his chaperone. “Every time I get in this car, it feels like the air’s been replaced by uncomfortably warm dog breath.” He refrained from adding that it smelled like it as well. Alfie didn’t need to be subjected to verbal beration of that magnitude after agreeing to accompany him tonight.

While Eddie packed his gear into the back, Alfie hopped into the driver’s seat, helplessly turning the ignition repeatedly until the engine sputtered to life. Immediately, he was hit with a blast of cold air before the air conditioning unit forgot how to work. The ration of cool air was quickly replaced with a suffocatingly stale breeze. Alfie stretched over to unlock the passenger door and cranked the window open before rolling his own window down to allow a more comfortable airflow. Soon enough, Eddie was in the seat beside him.

A laugh reverberated in his chest at Eddie’s comment. “What do you mean?” Alfie asked, emphatically waving his hand at the dashboard. “It’s doing its best. Besides, parts are hard to come by.” That’s what he got for being cheap. What he needed was a new car altogether, but that wasn’t happening any time soon. The wagon got him from point A to B; that would have to be enough. It wasn’t like he needed a functioning air conditioner anyway, not that Eddie was privy as to why. “We can always take yours,” he offered with a small smirk.

“I hate to break it to you, but its best doesn’t cut it. It needs to do another car’s best,” Eddie riffed while opening the viewer on his camera. With the press of a button, it became a diligent archivist of its owner’s per view. Without warning, Eddie lifted the device to eye-level and pointed it in Alfie’s direction. He knew well and good his friend didn’t enjoy being in the crosshairs of his filming, but that never stopped him in the past. Why would it deter him now?

“Trust me, I would love to take the Mini, but it’s… well, mini, and you know that. As quirky as your car is, it has better storage options.” Eddie’s voice lacked interest—he found himself too caught-up in recording to have any to spare. “You have a nice profile, have I said that before?” he asked, slipping further into his seat as he rested his feet on the dashboard. Meanwhile, his eyes (and camera) remained fixated on Alfie.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen,” Alfie chuckled as he shifted the car into reverse and eased out of his parking space. With his eyes now fixed on the path ahead, Alfie didn’t notice the camera focused on him. “You really should have considered that when you bought it. What would you do if I ever wasn’t around to lend my cargo space?”

The compliment that soon fell from Eddie’s lips made Alfie’s brow raise. His eyes flickered to look at Eddie, only to find that he was being filmed. “Wha— Christ’s sake, Eddie, would you turn that thing off?” A fire rose in his cheeks, coloring them a vibrant red. He quickly turned his head away, but was unable to avoid the camera’s watching eye. Damn it. He hated being recorded; Eddie knew that. “Or, I’unno… turn it somewhere else, at least?”

As the car reached the edge of the parking lot, Alfie applied the brakes and looked back at Eddie, the blush still prominent on his face. “And buckle,” he scolded — albeit playfully — with raised eyebrows. “Seriously, are you trying to get yourself killed?”

“Die, probably,” Eddie deadpanned. If he were to make an effort, his car could likely hold whatever necessities he needed it to. Alfie probably knew that, too. However, if he went that route, he wouldn’t be able to spend his time being a nuisance in the passenger’s seat. He much preferred reclining and filming to focusing on the road. A miracle happened the day he got his license, that much was certain.

Alfie’s reaction to being caught on candid camera inspired an impish grin from Eddie. He noticed the change of color in his cheeks—so did his heart, actually. It drummed desperately within his chest, as if also begging Eddie to rethink staring at Alfie for so long. Unfortunately, he rarely listened to what either of them had to say. “I can’t believe you hate art so much that you’d deprive me of my muse,” he said.

Eddie rolled his eyes, also playfully, when Alfie scolded him. “Not today,” he answered before he quickly switched his camera off and buckled in like he was told.

Deprived of his main source of entertainment, Eddie resorted to turning on the radio. Like everything else in Alfie’s car, the display refused to work properly. What should have been words and numbers looked more like hieroglyphs. Eddie briefly toggled through stations before a familiar tune (‘Hold On’ by Wilson Phillips) caused him to turn the radio off with evident disdain. 

A strange sensation tugged behind Alfie's navel at the suggestion that Eddie would die without him. It wasn't true, of course. With any luck, Eddie would go on fine without him; he had to. Still, the thought made him feel… guilty? Alfie's time in this life was growing increasingly limited. He couldn't afford to think about it now. It would only make the time he did have left with Eddie less worthwhile, for fear of causing him any grief. 

"Your muse?" Alfie nearly cooed. "Please—" his voice cracked. "I have complete faith that you'll find something better." Once again unable to make eye-contact with Eddie today, Alfie shook his head with a breathy chuckle and rolled his eyes. His attention was back on the road and as the seat belt beside him clicked into place, assuring Eddie's safety, Alfie merged onto the street to begin their journey.

It didn't take long for Eddie to begin fidgeting. He knew well enough by now that finding a suitable radio station in the station wagon was unlikely. Alfie wouldn't complain about the music as long as it kept the camera off him. But when Eddie abruptly cut the radio off, he successfully piqued Alfie's curiosity. 

"What was that about?" he asked, an impish grin tugging at the corners of his mouth, and his eyes darting between Eddie and the road. "You trying to tell me you hate Wilson Phillips or something? And you were just getting onto me about hating art," Alfie teased.

Alfie’s insistence that Eddie would eventually move on to something better almost made him laugh. For years, his thoughts revolved around his reclusive neighbor and not much else. Alfie and Youtube; that’s what filled his days since he moved downtown. “No, I won’t,” he gently corrected him. “Besides, I don’t want to.” It didn’t worry him to voice his genuine fondness for Alfie, not when they had years of friendship behind them. At this point, it would’ve been more alarming if he didn’t love the guy enough to negate his self-deprecation.

“Wilson Phillips is not art.” Eddie emphatically pointed a finger at Alfie. “Not that song, at least. ‘Hold On’ is trite and cheap. And, all it does is make me think about the time I spent in group therapy as a teenager when our counselor insisted on performing an acoustic version at the end of every single session. Every session, Alfie,” he looked at his chauffeur with bewildered eyes. “She even made eye contact with us while she sang—who does that? I never felt like I could look away, not when she was tearfully pleading with me to break free from the chains. It was torture. Wilson Phillips is torture, not art.”

Alfie didn't want to argue about how quickly Eddie would (or wouldn't) move on. No matter how much Eddie didn't want to, there would come a point that he would have no other option. Besides, Alfie playing the part of Eddie's muse was clearly a joke. Or, perhaps more accurately, a metaphor for their friendship. All that mattered was Eddie had not meant it in a literal sense. So why had he allowed himself to become so flustered over it?

"Bullshit!" squawked Alfie, who was now fully prepared to enlighten Eddie about his previous love affair with the early 90s pop scene. Before he had a chance to share however, Eddie shared his own history with the song. Alfie's jaw slackened and he shot Eddie an incredulous look. "Every session?" he parroted in disbelief. His face scrunched as he imagined what kind of hellscape that must have been. Being forced to listen to acoustic covers was bad enough, but on top of awkward eye-contact? 

"Okay, yeah… no. I see your point," Alfie softly spoke after a moment. "Who in their right mind thought she was still fit to be a counselor after the first time that happened, anyway? Like — I'unno, you'd think someone would've had to question her capability or whatever at that point." 

"Still," he continued after making a point to showcase his disapproval with a series of disdainful facial expressions. "I stand by what I said. I think there's something beautiful in wanting to turn around and say goodbye — much like how you must have felt after being subjected to that special brand of hell."

Eddie adopted a tight-lipped grin when Alfie conceded. “Every session,” he confirmed. Looking back, he couldn’t remember liking anything about group therapy. Owning up to his issues should’ve never been something that required an audience. As extroverted as Eddie could be, he kept his cards close to his chest when it came to his emotions. Alfie knew him better than anyone else and even he didn’t get the whole truth half the time.

Eddie let out a terse laugh at Alfie’s final comment. “Real cute,” he snarked playfully before his expression became more serious. “It didn’t help that I hated therapy in general. Not only did it well and truly suck to talk about my feelings, but the only reason my parents even made me go was the whole… ghost-vision deal.” Eddie emphasized his annoyance by accompanying the tail-end of his sentence with a flippant flap of his hand. “Funny, that they pegged the one thing that made me happy as the problem.” His brow raised as he pursed his lips.

“But, uh, wow—sorry about the impromptu sharetime,” Eddie said when shame began to collect in chest. “Don’t mind me complaining about therapy while simultaneously making you my therapist.” He hoped levity would be the cure for oversharing.

Alfie’s face lit up at Eddie’s initial response. “I’m the cutest, obviously,” he chided with a lopsided grin. He couldn’t recall any previous conversations about Eddie’s group therapy, but he was well aware of his friend’s relationship to his parents. Maybe he had mentioned it before; it was truly a testament to how solid Alfie’s active listening skills were. “Fuck your parents!” his voice trilled. “Seriously — when have they ever cared about your happiness?” His commiseration was probably unnecessary; Eddie didn’t need another reminder that his family were awful. “Sorry… too far,” he added with a small frown. 

With a clear road ahead, Alfie lifted a hand from the steering wheel and maneuvered it around to rest on Eddie’s shoulder. “Hey, man, don’t sweat it — really. I will gladly take an impromptu sharetime over an awkwardly silent drive to our inevitable doom.” His gaze shifted to Eddie as he gave him an apologetic smile, allowing his hand to linger a bit longer than was probably acceptable. “Besides,” Alfie added, gently squeezing Eddie’s shoulder before returning his hand to the wheel, “that’s what friends are for, right?” 

It wasn’t often that Alfie referred to them as “friends”. The word was scattered few and far between, but that didn’t make it any less true. “From now on, that song is banned. We don’t talk about it. We don’t listen to it. It’s purged from our lives. What song? Wilson Phillips, who? Never heard of ‘em!” Alfie tilted his head in Eddie’s direction and peered at him expectantly, waiting for some sort of positive reaction to ensure he’d sufficed at making his friend feel better. 

Eddie glanced at Alfie in surprised amusement after his initial outburst. “You’re right and you should say it,” he encouraged in a light-hearted tone that didn’t fit the topic. If he didn’t try to lessen the weight of the conversation, he might have to admit to how much it hurt to discuss. He couldn’t risk letting Alfie know the extent of his damage. 

When Alfie’s hand landed on his shoulder, Eddie felt a lump form in his throat. Usually, he initiated whatever physical contact they shared. He didn’t know how to react to being on the receiving end. Alfie’s mention of ‘inevitable doom’ managed to ease his uncertainty. Eddie replied with a soft huff of laughter, his eyes shining with fondness.

Soon enough, Alfie deprived Eddie of his hand, but didn’t give him much time to be upset about it. He called them friends. “Oh, is that what we are?” Eddie asked with a teasing grin. “Could’ve sworn our relationship was more like whatever Bugs and Elmer had going on.” His expression softened, though his grin remained throughout Alfie’s condemnation of Wilson Phillips.

“You’re…. You’re a really good guy, Alfie,” Eddie said. “Thanks for humoring me tonight.”

It didn’t seem appropriate to continue down the path of shit-talking Eddie’s parents, no matter how much they deserved it. Eddie didn’t enlist Alfie on this adventure just to talk about all of his woes. If he was going to do this, then goddamn it, he was going to make the best out of it. Eddie deserved that much. “‘Course we’re friends,” Alfie returned with a playful sneer. “Though, I think you’re way off base with that one. If anything, we’re more like Bugs and Daffy.” His eyes focused on the road, but his mind was lost in thought. “Actually—” Alfie corrected, “come to think of it, that’s really fuckin’ accurate. Just, y’know, don’t ask me who’s who.”

In an instant, Alfie’s eyes were back on Eddie. Immense guilt crept over him for trying to turn down the invitation in the first place. It was glaringly obvious that Eddie was trying to involve him in his life; something Alfie tried to avoid with just about everyone who did. His heart ached. He didn’t want to refuse Eddie, truly. There just happened to be parts of his life that were better off private. But it wouldn’t kill him to hang out with the guy more every now and then. Well, given Eddie’s track record, it very well could. But it would be worth it… RIght?

“Listen, Ed… I know I’m a pain in the ass. It’s not — I don’t do things like this, y’know? I stay at home like the grumpy hermit crab that I am and that’s how I like it.” Apologies were never Alfie’s strong suit. It was rare that the words “I’m sorry” ever made it out of his mouth. “But I’m already pretty glad I came with you.” Once again, he was dancing the conversation dangerously close to heavy. Alfie mentally berated himself; he needed to keep things light. “But if we make it out alive, you do still owe me those Baby Ruths,” he teased, lightly nudging Eddie’s arm with his own.

[lavenderhq]

           hello everyone ! ! ! i’m anth and i’m very much in love with kim jongin. anyways, i’m twenty-four, he/him, and from the eastern timezone! i’m also old considering i go to bed rather early. but anyways, enough about me and being excited to be back. i bring you changmin, who goes by the name of lavender (we’ll get into that), and he’s here to have a good time ! ! !

( anth. 21+. est. he/him. ) welcome aboard, changmin “lavender” lee, student #32. we are excited to set sail with you !  has anyone told you that you look like kim jongin (kai)? according to our records, you hail from seoul, south korea, prefer he/him, are cis male, and are here to study fashion design & dance. we also see you received a spot on the ss university because of your money — we won’t tell anyone. during your first few weeks here, other students said you were + debonair, + affable, but also - blunt. it sounds like you spend most of your time at the pool 3. upon checking your luggage, we noticed you packed a limited edition gucci jacket. hopefully your roommates don’t steal it!

general facts!

full name: changmin “lavender” lee.

birthdate: january 1st.

birthplace: seoul, south korea.

education: boarding school in london, england & some college in paris, france.

current location: on a boat.

gender: cis man

pronouns: he/him

sexuality: homosexual/homoromantic.

majors: fashion design & dance.

spoken lanuages: korean, japanese, english, & french.

height: six foot, one inch. 

parents: lee cheolmin (president & chairman of the family’s conglomerate) & park aeun. (incredibly famous actress.)

backstory!

lavender was born lee changmin (i have to be completely honest i named him around another one of lomls, shim changmin) in seoul, south korea, on january 1st. he was the first baby of the new year in seoul, and he was plastered all over newspapers when he was born due to his mother’s status as a famous korean actress. 

his father is the president and ceo of the lee family conglomerate. they have a subsidiaries in just about anything that you can think of and they’re one of the most successful congolomerates that exist. they’re based out of seoul, south korea. his mother, as mentioned before, is a famous korean actress, who’s very much award-winning. 

lavender is the eldest of six children, he’s not really a fan of being the oldest, but, it is what it is, and lavender has always been a good influence and example for his younger siblings. he’s always gotten good grades and excelled in what he does. 

as a child, he got really into dance, and his parents sent him to dance classes for stuff to do. then, he got really into fashion design, especially when he attended a fashion show when he was young that his mother walked in. he told everyone that he was going to be a fashion designer and a dancer. that’s all that he had ever wanted and when it comes to fashion designer, his parents just heard money - but, that’s not really shocking.

at age 13, lavender had begged his parents to send him elsewhere to attend boarding school. he really wanted to live a normal life, he was tired of being famous because of his mother, and he wanted to feel a bit normal. so, his parents had agreed, and sent him to a boarding school in london. when he was old enough, he told them that he would cover his own expenses, and started working a bunch of jobs to cover his expenses. this was something that really just made him feel normal, and what he needed. so, he spent his schooling in london.

lavender gained his english name of “lavender” while at boarding school. he really likes lavender and he’d constantly have lavender, so the kids at boarding school gave him the nickname of lavender, it was something that ended up sticking, and he’d tell everyone that his name is lavender. 

after graduating from boarding school, lavender would return back to seoul, where he’d become changmin again. this time, while there, he had done his mandatory military enlistment, that he has to do as a masc korean citizen. this lasted two years, of course, as it’s normal, and he would leave seoul once he was one. 

lavender would found himself in paris, france - as that’s one of lanuages that he manages to speak. he would begin to attend college in paris at a top art school, where he would begin his double major journey in fashion design and dance. he was really, really happy, to say the least, to be in another new place. 

however, lavender was itching for more, and he told his parents this, and without having him really apply - when he could have gotten in on scholarship, they instead paid for him to get into seas. while thankful, he wished that he could get in on his own accord. 

but, he’s here now, and he’s just really excited to be on a cruise ship going around the world, learning what he wants, and is happy he transferred. 

personality!

to start this off, lavender is very much a soft boy. 

he’s kind, charming, friendly, fashionable, and everything in between wtih those things. 

however, he can be a bit blunt and stubborn, things that he really can’t help. 

probably don’t want to get on his bad side cause that’s not the best that you want to do. once you screw lavender over, you’re done for good. 

lavender is also a very caring person, however, being caring can simply make him be a bit reckless, because he can be protective and a bit overprotective. he can simply just be reckless about things and not really care about the consequences to this. his recklessness also goes hand and hand with him being impulsive, as his recklessness can be caused by impulsiveness. i think this is what can get him a bad influence. 

over-all, lavender is a really good influence, but now that he’s being persuaded by a bad-influence, he’s probably very much now a neutral-influence. 

fun facts!

he always drinks black coffee. either hot or iced, he doesn’t care. though, at holidays, he will spice it up with a peppermint mocha or a pumpkin spice latte. he’s a simple man.

can fluently speak, read, and write in korean, english, japanese, and french. these are all languages that he learned when he was rather young. 

he likes to play video games in his free time. he’s not like one hundred percent that good at certain games, but he’s still playing them and doing his best. he really has his luck at times.

probably shirtless often.

very much a fish and loves being in the water. which probably explains why you’re going to very often find him at the pool. 

he’s very excited about double-majoring in dance and fashion design because they mean a lot to him. he’s not entirely sure which one he’s going to go into when he graduates or if he’s just going to be independently wealthy.

he’s very, very gay. just very gay. that’s it.

he’s also a bit of a hopeless romantic, if he’s honest.

his playlists are a mess because they’re filled with all different types of music; pop, r&b, punk, punk pop, rock, kpop, jpop, etc etc.

[thesunnyshow]

Name: kelsie Writing Blog URL(s): @lovingyong​

Age: 22

Nationality: american

Languages: english, some sign language and spanish

Star Sign: libra

MBTI: INFJ

Favorite color: pink

Favorite food: taco bell (lol)

Favorite movie: pride and prejudice, kill bill, gone with the wind, or the handmaiden

Favorite ice cream flavor: green tea

Favorite animal: otter

Coffee or tea? What are you ordering? tea or hot chocolate. never coffee because i’m allergic

Dream job (whether you have a job or not): human rights attorney or writer

Go-to karaoke song: never gonna give you up - rick astley

If you could have one superpower, what would you choose? teleportation

If you could visit a historical era, which would you choose? mmm hard to say bc i enjoy my rights as a woman so i guess probably the 90s

If you could restart your life, knowing what you do now, would you? Only starting at the summer before high school

Would you rather fight 100 chicken-sized horses or one horse-sized chicken? horse sized chicken but i could not explain why. It’s just my gut instinct

If you were a trope in a teen high school movie, what would you have been? I was the floater/nobody for sureeeee

Do you believe in aliens/supernatural creatures? yes aliens allll the way lets go

Fun fact about yourself that not everyone would know? I only type with two fingers on each hand but can still type 60 wpm

What fandom(s) do you write for? nct but i want to also start writing for haikyuu soon

When did you post your first piece? july of 2018

Do you write fluff/angst/crack/general/smut, combo, etc? Why? I like a good combo. Life is never completely fluffy or totally angsty. It’s good to have a balance to make it all seem more realistic and immersive

Do you write OCs, X Readers, Ships...etc? x reader right now but when i write for haikyuu, it’ll be ships

Why did you decide to write for Tumblr? I think it was just… there and available. Ao3 is fun but there’s not a lot of chances or opportunities for interaction so i decided to go back to the hellsite

What inspires you to write? Oh goodness, anything and everything. Oftentimes it’s music. I hear a song and i’m immediately like i need a story for this asap

What genres/AUs do you enjoy writing the most? Mafia and crime. It’s such a guilty pleasure of mine

What do you hope your readers take away from your work? I just want it to be a temporary escape and provide at least some form of enjoyment

What do you do when you hit a rough spot creatively? Read more or watch anime just because both of those are enjoyable things for me but can also give me the inspiration to create again

What is your favorite work and why? Your most successful? you may regret this is literally my baby. It’s not my favorite, but i think taeyong’s spin off story, a way out, is because it's everything i wanted for ymrt, i just didn’t have the same skills at the time. Another favorite of mine is hanakotoba because it’s literally my heart and soul in a story and i’ll always have that deep personal connection to it. My most successful is white knuckle tight which is truly still fascinating for me because it was an idea i got on a random tuesday during christmas break and i just ran with it. I think it’s an alright story but it’s far from my favorite. I lack the emotional attachment that i have to other pieces.

Who is your favorite person to write about? taeyong. Writing him is almost like second nature to me. His character is always the easiest for me to construct and i think people will find he’s the most consistent character throughout stories. There’s not as much variation.

Do you think there’s a difference between writing fanfiction vs. completely original prose? Yes and no. i think writing kpop fanfiction is much more similar to original prose because you don’t have a world to build around. You only have a person. In fact, you don’t even have that. You only have an idea of a person to construct into a character. I think the only difference is that you can get away with a lot more unreasonable plot lines.

What do you think makes a good story? Good characters and enough emotion to create an attachment to the plot. I want to care about what’s happening and the best way to do that is by leading me to some sort of connection to the characters

What is your writing process like? Very chaotic and sporadic. I’ll come up with ideas at 3 am, make a random note about it, and then do my best to bring it to life when i’m actually awake. I don’t plan. I just have snippets of scenes i would like to include. So much of it is just writing whatever comes to mind while im writing it

Would you ever repurpose a fic into a completely original story? I’m doing so with one right now, though 8-% of it is getting scrapped and changed. There’s nothing wrong with that though. Having good bones is what matters and i think this story has exactly that

What tropes do you love, and what tropes can’t you stand? I love enemies to loves if it’s done right. Exes to lovers is another classic. Mafia is a given. Hanahaki and soulmates always does something to my heart. I can’t stand hybrid and a/b/o fics idk why i just have never been able to get into them. Yandere like tropes are also really hard to do right so i usually avoid those as well

How much would you say audience feedback/engagement means to you? It means a lot. I’m sure any writer can tell you that but it’s truly the reason i still write fanfic and haven’t just given up and written only original prose.

What has been one of the biggest factors of your success (of any size)? Timing. It’s always about which member is really getting to people at the moment and which trope is gaining traction. 85% of writing on tumblr is kind of just dumb luck

Do you think fanfic writers get unfairly judged? Yes. i think it just comes from lack of understanding

Do you think art can be a medium for change? Without a doubt. Art pieces as well as writings have made significant impacts in my life in a variety of ways. It’s a medium of awareness and recognition

Do you ever feel there are times when you’re writing for others, rather than yourself? Not really because i kind of just do whatever the fuck i want (sorry for my language lol) but i usually come up with totally self indulgent ideas and then just do it. 

Do you ever feel like people have misunderstood you or your writing at times? No… not yet. I expected someone to with shattered memories but it seemed to do and say what i wanted to

Do your offline friends/loved ones know you write for Tumblr? My roommates. My friends know i write they just don’t know what

What is one thing you wish you could tell your followers? I’m doing my best and i wish i could put stories out more often 

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers who might be too scared to put themselves out there? Just go for it. You have to try if you want to see any sort of results. Plus these people don’t know you so what’s the risk

Are there any times when you regret joining Tumblr? nah

Do you have any mutuals who have been particularly formative/supportive in your Tumblr journey? Kai, jewel, and abbey for sure. They were some of my closest mutuals when my blog really started to take off

Pick a quote to end your interview with: 

You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go… - dr. seuss