#Hooray for bad writing consistency

[bluewolfangel01]

Obey Me content creators, be prepared to carry the entirety of the fandom ✊️

Edit: as if yall weren't already

[kittencomicslol]

Awake at night again unable to sleep. Decided to write another snuggle/comfort fic with Gyutaro but this time w demon Gyutaro!! Hooray :3

No TW’s, it’s literally just more tooth rotting fluff. It’s a little short but it’s nice. Did my best to spell check this one too but Y’know I was sleepy so if there’s any errors just lmk >_<

With a small little huff, Gyutaro laid down next to you on the bed. It had been a rather long day… Daki handled a Hashira rather immaturely. Though everything ended up fine after Gyutaro came quickly to defend her, and their secretive location didn’t get it out, it was still upsetting for Gyutaro. He tried to explain to Daki that she needed to be more careful about dealing with high ranking slayers and per usual, Daki got upset and whined about how he needed to let her be ‘more independent’.

Gyutaro didn’t try to push much since the last thing he would ever wanna do is upset his dear little sister, but he was still rightfully annoyed after their fight.

“Hey..”

You spoke out softly, your voice ringing in his ears in a way he could only describe as comforting. Somehow, your presence was always able to help him calm down even when in a fit of blind rage, and oh how he loved you so for it.

Gyutaro was still upset, and since he didn’t know how to properly handle or express his feelings he just let out an angry huff as he kept his back turned to you. Fortunately for him you knew him well enough to understand what was going on and how to help.

You weren’t pushy, and you didn’t ask him a bunch of questions or berate him. You simply scooted closer, gently wrapping your arms around his thin body and resting your head against his back. Gyutaros heart ached.

He loved how sweet you always were with him, how you handled him so gently as if he were the most precious thing in the world. He loved you dearly and if there was one thing he didn’t want, it was for you to be uncomfortable. He hated being the little spoon when you cuddled or having you up against his back. He knew his body wasn’t perfect.. he didn’t exactly mind. He was proud of his ugliness and how much of a monster he was, but he still knew that it would be less appealing to touch. He knew you claimed it was fine but he didn’t want you to be uncomfortable due to his weird protruding bony spine or hips.

He grumbled slightly, flipping over and gently pulling you against his chest. He made sure to not bring you too close though, out of fear his ribs might make you uncomfortable. But you didn’t seem to mind all that much when you gladly snuggled yourself up against him, resting your head against his weird skinny chest.

Gyutaro didn’t think he would ever fully comprehend how or why you were so comfortable with his deformed hideous body.. but it’s not like he was upset at you for it. If anything, he was impressed and thankful that someone could actually love him. He had grown up accepting the fact he would always be alone and became content with making Daki his top priority.. but then you came along.

Gyutaro grumbled, nothing coherent or of meaning; just a habit he had when thinking about something or having overwhelming feelings. He wanted to scratch himself since even thinking about the fact you loved him overwhelmed his senses.. but he didn’t. He wanted to keep you safe and comfortable, and right now that consisted of holding you close.

“It’s nice to see you, Gyutaro.. seems like you had a long day, hm?..”

Your voice was something he would never get used to either. But that wasn’t a bad thing at all, because he would never get tired of how soothing it was. He huffed in an upset manner and nodded slightly, seeming to be in a frustrated almost nonverbal state.

He was glad you never pushed when he was upset, because even if he knew he wouldn’t ever lash out or harm you because he loves you too much, he still got frustrated from questions when he was upset. He always found them so hard to answer when he was overwhelmed which only always caused a spiral into more anger.

A content sigh escaped the demon's lips as he felt your hand gently run along his back in a tender manner, selfishly indulging into all of the pampering you gave him despite his knowledge he did not deserve such love. It was only natural after all.

“Well, don’t worry.. we don’t have anything to do at all tonight… we can just relax.. sounds good?”

Simple yes or no questions were always better in moderation during such situations, especially if it was context to help him settle down. Gyutaro let out a grunt and nodded again, giving you a slight squeeze while keeping you held close.

You couldn’t help but smile, grateful he was trusting enough of you to confide in your comforts when he felt vulnerable. Hell, he didn’t even do this sort of thing with Daki.. he didn’t want her to think he was weak or unfit to protect her. Besides, Gyutaro knew very well she was just too young and immature to properly understand or handle his complex feelings. Gyutaro still loved Daki dearly and allowed her to confide in him when she was upset, but he never wanted to stress her. He only ever wanted the best for her, willing to overwork and stress himself to the bone just to make sure she didn’t have to raise a finger.

He was able to find solace in calmer moments, and was always able to push through even if he was ticked off and overwhelmed after extensive work. Your help was also another thing that helped keep him more stable.

Every time you helped him calm down or showed him love, Gyutaro seemed to understand why Daki enjoyed him helping her so much.

No wonder Daki confided in his assistance if being tended to and pampered felt this good.

“M��� proud of you, Gyu.. always working so hard.. you’re such a sweet man, you know that?”

Your voice cooed, causing his stomach to do flips from the simple words of praise that acknowledged his hard work. The words ‘sweet man’ were definitely not fitting for him in any other circumstances or around anyone else, and he knew that he wasn’t sweet. But he could care less, always brushing off the rationality and letting himself comfortably melt into your sweet words of affirmation and love. As long as he was with you, he was more than fine being a sweet man. Anything that made you happy, anything you wanted to call him.. he would love all of it, just seeing you smile is enough to make his heart race. He never realized how emotionally sensitive he was until he met you, but.. he doesn’t really mind it.

At first Gyutaro was worried and even intimidated by how you made him feel. fuzzy, comforted, calm.. all were signs of weakness to him, which was something that he couldn’t be based on what was instinctually ingrained into his head. At least.. that was until he actually started working with you and becoming more comfortable with the idea of feeling comfortable. He still hated the idea of being weak.. but he didn’t mind being calm for a little bit, even if it meant showing some weakness. He felt this way because you would be there, someone he knew that he could show these ‘weaknesses’ around without being viewed as lesser.

He grumbled softly, pulling you closer just ever so slightly. Gyutaro made sure to be gentle, always aware of his weird boney physique and always worried of hurting you, or even just making you uncomfortable.

“You did good today, Gyutaro.. so good. I’m so lucky to have you, and so is Daki.. you make us the luckiest souls in the world..”

These words were ones that he would never forget; Akin to whenever else you praised him. He would just never get over it, and never fully get used to how good and relaxing it truly felt. Despite what you claimed about you and Daki being the luckiest souls alive because of him, he felt the opposite. Because despite his misfortune, he honestly and truly believed he had to be one of the luckiest men alive to have gotten to meet and form a relationship with you. He was the luckiest man alive to be able to provide and care for his sister and you, and it was a task that made him feel something nothing else could.

Lying peacefully in your arms listening to sweet words of affirmation, for once Gyutaro truly felt at peace in this hectic life he upholds.

[olivereactsaboutgarbage]

Higurashi When They Cry - Watanagashi All-Cast Review Session

Okay so you may have noticed that my plan to post more consistently once again didn't work out.

Every time I think my life is done turning itself inside-out I end up being wrong, so: a Pologies to my Many Fans (4) because unfortunately a consistent posting schedule is forever beyond my grasp, and by extension yours

BUT! I was one post away from finishing Watanagashi. And that fact has honestly been bugging the crap out of me. So I'm just gonna write this one post real quick, after which point you'll go back to not seeing me for at least another month I suspect

So I don't really remember what happened in Watanagashi, but basically, Mion was the good guy, right? :)

Nah but in all seriousness, by which I mean in all copium, something I remember considering at the time is that like, making a green person listen to Toddlers being brutalized is only so cruel a punishment for a green person with no personal connection to those Toddlers. Like, there's a certain Cruelty Minimum there which no reasonable person would be especially inclined to exceed, but without any deep familiarity, the Cruelty Maximum can only get so high.

Anyway, Rena is once again glad I read Higurashi. Took her long enough to show a little gratitude, yeesh.

The Toddlers are pissed off again. Mion is reveling in being the center of attention. Good for her.

The Toddlers complain that this should have been a Toddler 01 arc instead of a Mion arc. Rena stares directly into the camera and says "Maybe some other time."

The Toddlers start talking about boobs. For some reason, this summons Camera. It summons Ooishi too, which is the worst tragedy in all of Higurashi.

Camera's girlfriend and Shion also show up, to up the ante from last time when there were only six guys. Keiichi doesn't show up, because he has to always be a punchline.

Toddler 02 uses her thumb to point at Camera and says "I'll have what she's having," while smirking.

Toddler 01 says "Thank god, Higurashi is solved now." Shion says "Yeah duh" Ooishi says "Yeah duh" Toddler 02 says "Haha yeah"

Rena gets increasingly uncomfortable.

Camera's girlfriend says "Y'all're dumbass bitches"

me in court

Mion says that the prior incidents definitely weren't an elaborate Sonozaki conspiracy because no crime family that smart would spontaneously get so stupid.

Rena, Toddler 01, and Ooishi say "Hooray! Team Supernatural Explanations wins!" I forgot that they had that team, but apparently they had that team.

Shion is like "Uh, NO, you dolts don't win, because, uh, it was all Me all along"

me and my friend when we're trying to drop subtle hints that we don't like someone

Everyone decides that it was an elaborate two-person scheme for Mion to make herself into an Absent Scapegoat so everyone would stop thinking about the various incidents. Toddler 02 doesn't think that's true. Camera's girlfriend is like "lol"

Everyone starts talking about how it doesn't make any sense why bad things keep happening to Keiichi.

Ooishi says that Keiichi must be the key to all of this, so Camera speedreads all of Higurashi in 0.00001 seconds to look for clues. He spots nothing.

The Toddlers say that Keiichi must be getting killed as retribution for being sexually aggressive towards Toddlers. "How enviable," says Camera. "Yeah, I wish I was him," says Ooishi.

...guys, stop...

That sounds really hard. I wouldn't bother if I were you...

Anyways that was nice. Goodbye forever

[tokyopewpew]

Veilguard Breakdown Part 3

I'm consistently going over post limits so this is going to continue to take awhile. This is reactions to the FINALE and major ending choices (and the beginning of my criticism of the criticism of the game) Spoilers under the cut.

Oh my god what a long and drawn out fraught miserable amazing devastating final Fight against Ol Ghil

Ok more like five final quests. holy shit holy shit

The choice between Dav and Harding?? Fucking impossible. Miserable. i will never be able to handle it. Nor Varric. Oh my god. My heart hurts. I’m sick to my stomach. Miserable. But that’s good writing baby. You got me to care.

I literally keep ping ponging back and forth between which could be worse. They’re both so bad.

For me, Davrin dies a hero’s death. Assan was a protector until the end. I couldn’t do that to Harding, or Taash. Harding deserves an apology from Solas (spoiler: boo she doesn’t get it edit: ok damn she does get a weak ass one!! i just didn't get that banter?? Man I wish I got more banter). I chose Davrin because the griffons are set up to have their new beginning. They are his legacy, but Harding hasn’t had the chance to share the Titan’s memories. It still fucking hurt so bad tho. Assan…

I also chose Bellara to disable the wards. Which I ultimately really liked Belara’s final thing with the blight better than her actual main quest so i’m super happy to have chosen her. Her having the archive and using it when it suits them but also being like you aren’t MY GOD and fucking Elgers up. Amazing heroic moment. And she survived! Hooray for being a hero!

did have to restart a section because I accidentally killed Emmerich which was um. The Worst thing to see knowing his problems with mortality and giving up lychdom to revive Manfred? That got my jaw cracked to the floor.

Amazing awesome set pieces and animation for the finale. Final fight was not hard at all. I got a bit OP’ed tbh lmao

FUCK YEA TO THE HAPPY SOLAVELLAN ENDING THO! Or as happy as they can be

Solas and Inquisitor in the fade together sigh. Forming it to their quiet idolized life of study and magic. That juicy thick, raspy Thank you, Rook got me. Him crying was SO well animated and voiced. Sad wet egg.

The hilarious non serious version is that she’s like oh my fucking god I am sick and tired of Chantry bullshit. I don’t want to be in charge anymore. Please the south is so fucked and everyone is gonna be so mad at me regardless and I cannot fucking deal with it again. Please take me away.

THE MYTHOLOGY of her actually having an end like Andraste??? Wild, genius, so big brained. Another instance of people being very Literal tho and applying real world relationship standards. Or I guess being mad it doesn’t fit their canon? Idk it’s very odd to me to get such a different read on Solas. Like he fucking hates the material world, idk how his story could end anywhere but in the Fade drenched in magic? I also am gonna choose to believe they aren’t completely cut off from the rest of the Fade. One, because the prison was opened when Solas released the Evanuris. Two, together they should be able to release the binds of the prison. And three, the Fade is Dreams, where mages can be fully conscious in the Fade. So she’d be able to visit people in their dreams, and like fully communicate with Dorian

There’s SO MUCH dialogue i missed so I’m gonna have to read like a script. LIKE SORRY I KNOW IT GOT MENTIONED ELSEWHERE BUT LUCANIS HAS A SNAKE? i know for like venom and poison and stuff but oh my god. I feel like I got so little banter but that’s my fault for fast traveling and sprinting everywhere. Punished for being too good at game.

NOW WE GONNA TALK ABOUT THE HARD CHOICES:

God take the game away from idiots complaining about the hard choices. Do you want the game to be gritty, dark, with hard choices? Or do you want it to be a point system where if you do enough good, you can save everyone? YOU CAN save most everyone! if you didn’t do that you can lose like the whole team!

Like saying it affected you deeply and gave you actual GRIEF over these characters is a GOOD NARRATIVE! they made you care THAT MUCH! and it DOES have to be between those characters because that’s what makes it such a hard choice! If they let you sacrifice your least fav companion and walk away unscathed emotionally THAT WOULD BE CHEAP.

How many times do they have to say we’re fighting the gods?? We won’t come out unscathed, Solas saying we have to make the hard choices, make sacrifices. i’m coming from Origins and DA2 where someone has to die or compromise their morals A LOT to kill the archdemon and no matter what you do Kirkwall ends in tragedy.

It's also REALLY EASY to talk shit on Solas and be like "well I wouldn't let anyone die, I wouldn't sacrifice people to win." WHICH HE TELLS YOU, if you do it right you won't have to make that call, they'll do it anyways (and subtext of you'll still feel responsible for it. It will still feel like YOUR FAULT. That's his whole deal, his whole problem, is feeling responsible for his own AS WELL AS other people's decisions).

I’m trying not to be soft on the game but seeing people’s frustrations and complaints is a little between… I get it, i think that would have been nice, i think it could have been cool, i wonder what that game could have been…

But also i know enough about writing and game/general production that i totally see why they made the choices they did. I see the narrative arcs, and see the streamlining needed for the scale/scope/pace of the narrative and I can imagine where it would have gone if they DID go the other way people will ask... and still see why they chose to do it the way they did.

Also none of the choices have mattered across many of the games. Love DA2 but in game none of your choices really matter. The qunari still destroy the city and the Mages rebel. How it gets there matters to us playing it but in the grand narrative it doesn’t.

Same with the Warden. If one of the main options is for the Warden to DIE then they can’t have any Concrete story where they show up. They have to write to include ALL possible realities.

OVERALL VERY HAPPY! Very much enjoyed the game! I thought it was the most fun gameplay of all of them and I love my Solavellan ending and getting a new series of Ships to set sail on.

The next posts are going to be more into the production and game designing stuff I touched on a little bit here in the end.

[onemattwolf]

I really wish my ears would stop hurting.

Can't get ahold of the ENT who saw me. They hurt and it's getting increasingly distracting.

If I finally reach her and she tells me to keep trying with nasal spray I WILL flip a table. My ears haven't been this consistently bad in years. And an episode hasn't been this painful as far as I can remember.

At least my hearing abilities seem less impacted than they can be? Which is all people care about, anyways. Like, in testing, my hearing is fucking Amazing. My results are well above average. So no one believes me when I say that sometimes?? I can't fucking hear. Sure it all just be APD, which I know I have, but it's different when it lines up with this stupid fucking pressure in my ears. And when that happens... I can't fucking hear.

Now, I can hear ok, maybe not as good as normal (sound has felt blunted for a couple weeks now, since this current episode started, but I've gotten use to it), but my physical ability to hear is not a current concern. Just this stupid fucking pain.

And it isn't, like, a typical pain. I have no idea of Tylenol would help with it at all. I can ignore it if I concentrate. But as soon as my focus shifts, it's there again. And a 3rd of the time when I swallow, my ears pop, and for about 5min I have a shimmer of relief as well as the full extent of my hearing back.

Then it's gone again.

The ENT called it eustachian tube dysfunction. But gave no explanation for why mine keeps coming back, how to prevent an episode, or any functional advice around getting relief. I barely registered that, though, because after bringing this up with doctors since age 20 when it began, I *finally* had someone listen enough to give some semblance of a diagnosis.

But months later i'm here like... where was the follow up? Or actually telling me what to do about it? Or further investigation?

And. Well. That's just our healthcare system I guess. Sure it's free and that's amazing. But there's gaps that leave a lot to be desired.

I haven't talked to many people in my life about this because my friends and fam know a lot about the other shit i'm currently going through, and I don't want them to be like, "ugh, there he is with one more thing." so i haven't brought it up. And in some ways that's been helpful because it's helping me ignore it.

Wait ok gonna stop writing now I was trying to distract myself from a pain spike but I think it's fading.

Hooray.

[puckness]

even more miscellaneous headcanons hooray

cellar. LET ME OUT. uhhhhh this one also consists of other monsters this time not just celestials

strombonin cant pronounce words like warm correctly resulting in yawstrich bullying the hell out of them

attmoz's fur has two textures, one being as soft as a cloud and the other feeling damp and rough on your hands candelavra can never raise their voice, so when they gets angry they just starts... melting if a fung prey is feeling in a bad mood, instead of a beautiful viola noise it'll instead sound like nails against a chalk board, this encourages them to cheer up so they can play their song!! when rooba's not smoking weed or playing the dilruba they write! often collecting pens and notebooks to just write their thoughts or stories, sharing them with the residents of psychic island and their family

whisp likes to taunt the residents of ethereal island a lot, their main target is nebublob, remembering all the things that scares them in exact detail

blassoom tries using vhamp sort of like a cart for their plants on celestial and starhenge, carefully placing the pots and getting them escorted easily ! clakula and fluoress are the tallest of the magicals, flootfly would be the smallest if they weren't able to fly so it's theremind who's actually the shortest! this "flaw" has an upside though, since they're the most intelligent out of the four since tympa is afraid of lightning and screemu is deaf, tympa often goes to screemu so they can sing, otherwise blocking/muffling out the sounds of thunder hyehehe sometimes makes silly contraptions and cherubble repeatedly finds themself getting dragged into it, having to make explosives, wacky things that have no use, toys, etcetera. only some of these things have a use though since the explosives can be used to clear the obstacles of mythical island furnoss cooks all of the meals on celestial and starhenge, but whenever it sets everything up on celestial baby galvana always gets to it first.. furnoss loves how much they enjoy their food but do they have to eat everything? all the single element ethereals have matching bracelets, they all connect to make up an image of ethereal island! (ps, they got ghazt's specially made so they could wear it) sooza's love language is psychical touch, so they smother floogull and the pomily in hugs, kisses, and more! while floogull's love language is gift giving, there was a point where sooza had so many gifts she had no where to put them anymore

[neko-rogers]

hey!! I’m not sure if your inbox is still open but I thought I’d send this just in case! what would you think abt a dark!peter who’s obsessed w s/o and offers to have her stay with him during like the stay-at-home pet of covid so she’s not alone then when it’s lifted he’s like lol you’re not leaving. sorry that’s kinda long and super specific. i absolutely love your writing though!!💗

Jamie All Over

words: 2,040 (no, i should be sorry bc this was chaotic)

tags: didn’t expect it to be this LONG, manipulative!peter parker, grooming, overprotectiveness, slight mentions of sex, don’t expect too much lmao its a headcanon

a/n: hi babe! i wasn’t entirely sure if you wanted this as a one shot (but if u do let me know!)

so you’re pretty unaware of every move peter is trying to do with you, you know? you were not really sure if it was a kind gesture, as the gentleman he seemed to be, or was it just a special treatment

ever since second year and until now as both of you were on your fourth year, he was consistent with his efforts

these moves were moments like when he would carry your books to your next class or confidently invite you to a study ‘date’ at the library after – often times he tells that his friends were invited, but would never show up later on

sometimes he would bring you lunch. you tried to turn it down kindly, but he insists that it was purposely packed as an extra for when he stays late around the university.

it was a lie though. anyone could tell by the way it was prepared looking very appetizing and tasted just as amazing at it was presented. 

and as peter had mentioned that he lived alone, you also assumed he was the one to make his meals. you were so sure he doesn’t pack for an extra and intentionally wants to impress you with his skills.

“hey, y/n!,” he calls, “look this eggroll has a cute design!”

he honestly was an epitome of a walking sunshine. his smile seemed so pure and you never felt any ill-intent for every gesture he had done for you

his friends seemed very welcoming the moment he introduced you to his group

you got along with ned who seemed to be just as joyful and funny as peter. meanwhile mj was a bit more of a tough cookie, nevertheless you both eventually got a long better than you expected

however, it came to one point wherein your own group of friends started being disheartened with your lack of communication

“you’ve been spending more time with that parker boy, huh?” “yeah, kinda?” “are you two like... dating?” “oh no! no... no... nooo!”

the moment they frowned at you was then that you realized and felt a little more guilty. you always remembered that friends were supposed to be friends despite the lack of time and effort, right?

somehow you tried to compensate for the lack of time with your friends. but every minute you spend felt more awkward than before

they weren’t sharing the same vibe with you and you were starting to question if it had been always like it – were you only adjusting to them?

you reached out for peter, considering that he became one of the closest and trusted people around the university. plus, he seemed to have genuinely great friends

“do you feel happy when you’re spending time with them?”

“well i used to but recently–”

“then you should stop being friends with them.”

you were upset for a second. the way he instantly told you that cutting ties with them would be the (only) option

he sounded serious on the other end of the line and you were just speechless for a moment. the dead air between lines was evident, but you didn’t know what to say

“sorry,” peter makes up, “i didn’t mean to sound too serious. i just don’t like people who are rude, especially to you.”

“oh, it’s fine. i totally get it.” you felt a batch of butterflies around your stomach. someone actually cared for you!!!

the moment you didn’t hesitate on losing your friendship with your past friends and moved on with joining peter’s group, things felt lighter.

somehow you felt more expressive than you realized. they were open to your ideas and thoughts, just as you were with them. you felt super comfortable and realized that you weren’t holding back on anything anymore

that’s why you had expected your winter break to be better than your past ones

everyone agreed to skate around the ice rink in rockefeller for christmas. along with it, also spending new year’s eve at the time square

news flash: you finally had the cliche new year’s eve kiss, with none other than peter parker!!! hooray!!!

for anyone who had common sense, your feelings for peter had accentuated. you weren’t denying it either, and the boy wasn’t oblivious to it too

he was just so irresistible and kind to you, like, all the time – to surreal, honestly

you felt and KNEW you were spoiled with peter (and his friends, who liked to spend time with you outside too, just not as much as him)

just as you were planning your spring break activities, it had to be postponed for another time

a lockdown had to be implemented around the country as it was under the state of a pandemic

mj and ned told the group that they’ll be with their families since lectures had to be concluded for the mean time

you planned to do the same, but you expected that this situation wouldn’t last long. so you chose to stay in your dorm rather than return to your hometown

completely sucks since you not only don’t get to hang out with your friends, but you weren’t able to see anyone in person...

until you got a text from peter

he was literally inviting you over his apartment since he explained that he wasn’t returning home either

you practically rushed to pack a small amount of clothes for a sleepover whilst not forgetting to wear a mask (bc it’s fucking important ok)

you arrived at his address and a big warm hug ensues 

his unit was so tidy and you were convinced he did it to impress you

peter was so happy to see you, acknowledging that you’re also spending a few nights with him

the nights mostly consisted of eating snacks and binge watching movies

however during one of those nights, both of you got a bonus – making out on his couch and further, completely forgetting the television

making out with peter wasn’t awkward at all. most of the time he was the one in control, which you didn’t mind

his hands treated you so gently but the way he teased you made you crave for more than what he was offering

a lot of whining, swearing, and begging – you weren’t aware but he was enjoying it a lot

on his side, he did praise you from time to time, but most of it consisted of raw tension and actions. the room was full of grunts and short breaths 

just want to include how sexy peter would be while he moans all over you. like his whole sunshine personality just drained away the moment he places his hands on either sides of your waist

the next day you felt like a princess even though you know it shouldn’t be???

apparently peter prepared breakfast for you and you felt embarrassed walking around his place only in the shirt you wore yesterday and underwear

just when you thought the extra lunch he packs for you was already amazing, the breakfast he prepared whilst being fresh and hot was just incredible

“you really like it?”

“of course! you really have to teach me to cook sometimes”

peter laughs and jokes, “yeah, don’t worry. i feel like we’ve got a lot of time ahead.”

ok fast forward to a few more days when you were beginning to feel like a freeloader. he lets you borrow a few of his clothes as yours were in the laundry

by the time you wanted to stop by your place, peter started to be more... clingy

at first he didn’t want you to go but after a few more debates, he felt defeated and instead insisted on going with you

eventually you caved and let him. it wasn’t that bad either, he talked to you about a lot of things on the way leaving you entertained the whole walk without realizing how far it had been

he helped you ‘pack’ more stuff so you wouldn’t be going back and forth from his place and yours. you felt like you were going out of town for a month with the amount of clothes and products

both of you returned to his place around late afternoon. you felt pretty tired and didn’t hesitate to pass out on the living room couch

when you woke up you sensed that you were in peter’s bedroom, meaning he carried and tucked you during the night

plus! an arm was wrapped around your midriff and you could feel peter’s breathing against your side

you closed your eyes and appreciated the moment. it was cute and made butterflies flutter around your stomach, and you tried not to move much to not wake him up

anyways apparently the pandemic lasted longer, and more serious, than expected (fuck the government and their incompetency) 

you spent more time with peter and was thankful that you didn’t spend this quarantine alone

within a blink of an eye, a month and a half already had passed. you couldn’t deny that most, or all, days have been unproductive

eat, cook, watch tv, cuddle, fuck, repeatedly get spoiled??? yeah sounds like the dream

weird though because you haven’t completely brought up to peter if you’re actually in a relationship with him. oh no were you just friends with (a lot) of benefits??

but you also felt like it wasn’t the time to bring it up. neither of you were saying anything so it was best to let it be for the fear that things might go downhill from there

anyways this continued for more weeks, especially since the ‘stay-at-home’ policy was deemed necessary

you started to help him do errands around the apartment just to feel like you weren’t an actual freeloader – but it wasn’t a surprise when he kept insisting that you should relax

more cute moments

more sexy times

and more cuddles during night (peter’s grip became tighter every night, but you shrugged it off assuming that it was just you getting homesick and overthinking)

ok but when you brought up being homesick and mentioned that you planned peter wasn’t entirely happy about it

the way he acted wasn’t just clingy. he insisted that he’d be the one to go and that you were staying

“ok but i’m not a dog, peter?” “i know, honey, but it’s too dangerous outside. i wouldn’t want you to be at risk.” “i wear a mask?? i follow health protocols?? i’ll be fine??” “you don’t understand–”

oh god he was becoming controlling

you tried not to argue anymore, rather ignoring and pushing past him to proceed to the door

and peter instinctively wrapped an arm around your waist and prevented you from walking further

there was a lot of struggling, but you didn’t know he was this strong. literally what the hell.

you tried to scream too but he pretty much threatened you to your core

“let’s talk this out,” he grunts as he secures his grip around you

“the hell? let me go!”

things got more complicated. he did convince you to talk with him (by means of tying your arms and legs to incapacitate you from running and righting)

it was a nightmare. he was really soft and sweet with you, even getting teary eyed after stating, “i only want what’s best for you... for us”

however you could sense the manipulativeness through it despite being making everything else look convincing

“trust me, sweetie, i wouldn’t want to hurt you. it would crush me” “please don’t cry. i’m only protecting you” “people are disgusting, they don’t deserve an angel like you” “don’t worry, i can protect you”

it terrified you to your nerves, sending shivers across your spine

at first you didn’t realize it, but eventually after days of being trapped, you figured he had been grooming you the whole time

he tried to make you dependent of him and somehow he did a fine job. just not enough to completely exploit you

though, it made you question what would have been better in your situation: being conscious of his sly nature with the hope of escaping or being unaware and completely wrapped around his finger whereas letting him continue how greatly he had been caring for you?

[meimae]

16/04/21

I finally finished ISLAND! This is only the second visual novel I’ve ever read, but my growth in reading in Japanese has been outstanding if I do say so myself, and I’m thrilled to share my progress with you guys.

I followed a guide for the game since I wanted to get the route order correct, and cover all available reading material. The choices are not really spoiler heavy, so i didn’t mind reading through them before I started. A lot of them make sense and have a lot of variation, too, so if you want to go and read blind you can. 

The game also gives you multiple options to skip to the next choice menu so you don’t have to read through the same text over and over again. It also changes the color of the text to indicate that you’ve already read it before which was nice, because I like to keep my character count as accurate as possible. It makes the whole jumping around and going through all the endings a much easier and less tedious process. This was the best choice list in game, imo:

Before I get to the nitty-gritty details of this wonderful visual novel, here are some stats I’ve collected throughout the 87 hours and 51 minutes (within 31 days) I’ve spent reading. Hooray, graph time!: 

I personally recorded a total of 828,689 characters and a line count of 43,568 in this visual novel. These numbers may be less or more than what it actually is due to minor texthooking issues, so take it with a grain of salt. I didn’t know upwards of 1500+ words, and I have no intention learning them all just yet, because their frequencies are all over the place. Gives you some perspective on just how many basic and rare words you can encounter and learn even by reading only a single visual novel. And yes, it definitely covers a whole slew of “JLPT” frequent words, particularly from N1.

The visual data I gathered is very fascinating to look at. Prior to reading visual novels, I only have read two full length novels, a hundred or so volumes of manga, and maybe a few news articles when I can stomach the boredom, so you would expect my stamina for reading Japanese to be not too low but not too high either. 

With ATRI, I would get mentally exhausted after doing two hours of intensive reading, and doing any more than that would be pointless because my concentration, and therefore, my comprehension drops significantly. 

However with ISLAND, which in my opinion is leagues harder than ATRI, I could intensively read for a much longer period of time before feeling tired. It started at around day 13, during the first route in the game, and I’ve since then been more or less consistent with my pace of 20,000-40,000 characters a day. Time spent reading also decreased over time the more I got used to the writing style: repetition of words, tone of how the characters spoke, and the revelation of major plot points. In the end, I was averaging 9,295 characters an hour, a vast improvement from 6,062 characters in ATRI.

I developed a very nice pace with reading, and I’m really happy with the results!  Overall, this was such a good VN to read, because it had a nice balance between slice and life, romance, drama, comedy, and fantasy that made all the lore heavy stuff not too tedious to read. These are my favorite genres to get into, and just like and even better than ATRI, I really could not have gone wrong with my choice.

I can’t wait to pick this up again in the future when my reading has gotten better than it is now, and maybe realize that, “wow, this was so much easier than I remember!”.

I’m still in the process of picking out my next VN, but you’ll most likely hear what it is in my next monthly immersion update.

Discussion of major plot points, thoughts on the characters, more beautiful game CGs, and overall thoughts on every route in ISLAND. SPOILERS AHEAD. 

Bonus visual novel reading setup under the cut! Sorry it has major spoilers in it, too.

三千界 切那 (Prologue) - 19.14 hours

Oh boy, I did not expect to like 切那 as a protagonist, but underneath all the bad セクハラ jokes, he has a lot of depth, and is very interesting once you start piecing things together. His whole intro could have been a real hit or miss - the whole 記憶喪失 situation - but I love that even though he had enough personality to fill a ship, he is as much of a blank slate as a character could get, so both 切那 and you as the player are left to explore and question everything that’s happening in the world through his eyes.

I will be writing in route order going forward.

枢都 夏蓮 - 18.12 hours

The most slice of life-y route, but a decent intro route nonetheless. It made me realize how bad it would be to only read one route in a VN without checking out the others which is a common thing to do (because best girl blah blah), since her whole route, even though there were non-obvious hints scattered about, wouldn’t exactly give you enough information to piece together the bigger, more interesting plot of the VN. 

It was a nice practice route to get used to how the game mechanics worked. This one in particular (even though it doesn’t affect how the game progresses) made me think very hard for a moment! A decent example of how word choice can affect how things can come across.

Unfortunately, this is my least favorite route, because half the time I was thinking, “I could be watching this as a slice of life anime instead” or “where the heck is the time travelling stuff?”. Didn’t realize how tedious reading in Japanese could get until I began looking up words and realizing I was reading about laundry one minute and then DNA, chromosomes, and rocket science the next.  Also, not really a fan of tsundere types.

What I did appreciate was the realism this route brought into an otherwise fantasy plot. Remember all the セクハラ jokes I was talking about? Yep, there’s prison for people involved in them in this one! It’s very rare to see a character, the protagonist moreover, to actually go serve time for their crimes. I was very wary of all the NSFW VNs out there that throws around the sexualization of girls like it was nothing. I’m very glad this VN actually went ahead and addressed that issue somewhat. Makes the entire existence of 播守 太郎 more relevant to the plot outside the extra comedy he provides when he accosts 切那.

伽藍堂 紗羅 - 17.46 hours

One of the hardest characters to understand, because her entire route is mostly lore heavy. She’s also a bit batshit crazy which made the routes that involved her, especially the bad ends, quite shocking at times. This made her very interesting though, cause it was like she was holding the secrets to the universe even though she didn’t.

My reading really slowed down whenever she was talking, because there was a lot of information to take in. It was pure word vomit in Japanese, and I can’t say it wasn’t tedious to read. Not gonna lie, I also fell into the trap of thinking 切那 was her dad, because c’mon, even he thought so. Thank goodness he wasn’t, because that’s a big yikes moment.

Remember fellas, T-pose to assert dominance.

御原 凛音 - 12.99 hours

Her whole personality and background was super interesting, and I loved reading when she was on screen. It was hyper dramatic, and gave me Titanic level of sadness the entire time. It was also a little confusing towards the end when her personality keeps shifting, but my goodness, the voice acting for her role was amazing.

My top tier favorite scene in this entire game. I thought 紗羅 was batshit crazy, but this entire scenario with the voice acting and the freaky CG was borderline chilling. Talk about “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned”.

Best girl…#2. Surprisingly so.

The entire time I was reading, I kept thinking gotta get to 凛音’s route, because clearly she was made to be best girl. Like, why do I have to go through two other people’s routes if she isn’t, right? Oh boy, was I wrong…

Never Island & Re: - 20.14 hours

This is my favorite route in game hands down. You can tell because pretty much the last few days of reading was dedicated to these routes. While reading, I thought that the lore in this seemingly side story was borderline more interesting than the whole legend that was repeatedly pushed in ISLAND. This is where セツナ’s personality shines the most, too, because he has finally enough information to piece things together, even though he starts off in a 記憶喪失 situation again.

Also, best girl #1 exists in this timeline! Protect リンネ at all costs. She’s actually the most precious character in game. Every time she sings her little world saving theme song, I just cry a little.

I initially thought that the whole future plot was pointless since I was being fed a lot of lore again, and for what purpose? To go back to the past again because it actually sucks to be alive during that time, so maybe change some stuff up, essentially making the lore useless? 

The whole Re: timeline really cleared that up though and so much more, ‘cause I wasn’t expecting it to actually be the past instead. It made so much sense, too, with the whole witch burning, plague-like disease, and generally bad life people were living. 

御原 玖音’s whole personality and knowledge suddenly made a lot of sense, too, since she was OG リンネ all along. ♡ But also not and they’re all the same person, plus potential incest, because it seems like a different person in weird timelines what??? 

My goodness I really couldn’t wish for a better, well thought out ending, that just closes up all matters really well. The few final CGs was so full of hope, too, for the both(?) of them. AH, my feelings!

BONUS: Visual Novel Reading Setup

Some of you might be interested in how I was reading, AND looking up words, AND counting them all, AND mining from it too, so here you go! I’m not really a tech person, but a quick Youtube search will show you tons of tutorials on how to get a similar setup. I did a lot of trial and error in the beginning and ended up with this, and I love it!

From L-R: windowed mode of your VN, texthooking page (with clipboard inserter extension), & Yomichan (with a million J-J dictionaries, a couple of J-Es, and my go-to frequency lists).

Vital background apps: Textractor (to copy VN text to the texthooker page so you can Yomichan), ShareX (to take screenshots, OCR unhookable text, and record audio among other things I haven’t fully explored and utilized), Anki (with the AnkiConnect addon so I can mine words with a click of a button)

It’s a lot of little things combined to make the ease of reading and sentence mining from visual novels so much easier than before, most especially for beginners who need to look up a ton of words. I have never touched a visual novel prior to learning Japanese, and it is an arguably complicated way to start, but I’m in it for the long haul with this setup!

This has been a very long post, and if you read through the spoilers, and got to the end, thank you and I hope you continue reading and supporting my blog!

I’ll catch you again next time!

[yiling]

Character meme: Xue Yang

oh fuck YES TIME FOR BEST! WORST! BOY!!!!!

How I feel about this character: I LOVE XUE YANG HE IS SO FUN. see the funny thing about this is I...did not like him initially. when we met him in episode 3 in CQL i was like “ugh, an overacted bad boy villain, how typical, he’s going to be really annoying and have a ton of obnoxious stans”. and then episode 10 hit and i was like huh he’s actually pretty fun. and then. yi city. and reader? now I am the obnoxious Xue Yang stan. he is very evil and mean and having a fantastic time, until his own cruelty catches up with him and then he is having the worst time ever. he falls in love as deeply as he’s able and then destroys it. he is actually an incredibly smart and talented cultivator! and he has a very good Obligatory Tragic Backstory. everything about him is just really great, I adore him.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: oh everyone, Xue Yang is the fandom bicycle and I love that for him. he’s so audacious and horny that you can throw him in with practically any character and get some fun out of it, and as a weird rarepair liker, that’s extremely good. of course, my main ships for him are Xuexiao and Songxuexiao, because tragedy and murder and sudden gutpunches of sweetness and tenderness and then way more murder. I used to not be able to see Songxue as much as the other two but recently i’ve been thinking about how they spent eight years together, and all of that time was spent in bitter mutual grief, and...yeah. Yeah, I want to explore that in my brain a little more. I’m also gratified at the popularity of Xueyao, because hooray murder fuckbuddies. I’m very mad at the relative unpopularity of Xuexian because come ON, Xue Yang has a crush on him that’s visible from space, Wei Wuxian gets where he’s coming from but also hates his guts, and then there’s the inherent eroticism of fucking your narrative parallel. There should be reams and reams written for this pairing! Off the top of my head I’ve also read and enjoyed fic where he was paired with: Lan Wangji, Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Jiang Cheng, Wen Qing, and Lan Xichen. And then there’s that one Xue Yang/Jiang Yanli fic which may be one of the best things ever written in the fandom.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: ...Honestly, I feel like most of the dynamics I’m interested in with him involve sex, or at least attraction, partly because I feel like whenever he feels strongly about a person he feels everything for them at once (see: Xuexiao), and also I am a horny son of a bitch. I am, however, interested in his relationship with A-Qing and their uneasy peace that barely lasts until it doesn’t. I wrote a whole thing about that and I’m pretty satisfied with that exploration, but I feel like there’s definitely more to talk about with them.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Haha oh man. This certainly is a character that lends himself to unpopular opinions huh. I have two that I think will be unpopular in very different segments of the fandom:

A lot of people who dislike him dismiss him with “he’s just a random murderer, he has no reason to be so evil!” and I think that’s a pretty big misreading. He has a clear explanation for why he is as he is: he grew up in a world of deprivation and violence. Moreover, his character is set up to parallel Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao, whose backstories are more elaborated on but who follow the same pattern. Xue Yang as a character is meant to drive home the theme that people who are seen as lesser or subhuman often end up doing terrible and desperate things as a result. He’s fully consistent with the rest of the story and he’s certainly not just a random murdertwink. There’s also the whole “it was only a finger” thing, but I’ve got a meta cooking about that. 

On the Xue Yang apologist side of things, I think there’s a tendency for people who like him to...flatten him a little bit, make him a bit softer and easier to grasp. Not that people make him “too sympathetic” or whatever, I think that he’s just difficult to write correctly, since his worldview is so inhumane, and people fall back on troubled-but-cute tropes for fic with him. Like, a lot of fic has him be weird about affection and praise, which I do think is in character, but I think people don’t get the reasons for it quite right.  Xue Yang is not insecure and does not see himself as undeserving. (Basically the complete opposite actually) If he struggles with affection, showing it and accepting it, it’s because it is so alien to him and he doesn’t expect it to last. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s there, and I keep running into it in fic.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I keep saying this for the Yi City gang but i’m really satisfied with their canon! the arc basically ties up in a bow, for Xue Yang especially, since he meets the end he was always going to meet. If anything, I do wish we had more scenes from his cottagecore AU life with XXC and AQ, but there’s also all the fic in the world for that. Xue Yang as a character is just very satisfying to me. A good little monster.

[joyful-soul-collector]

What are your thoughts on a chapter being less than 1k in word length? I'm trying to write songfic 5+1 and the word count is absolutely kicking my ass but I dunno how to make the scenes I already have longer. I just feel bad cuz I don't want to like cheat readers out of content? Idk

It’s better to have a good chapter rather than a long chapter. Beats in a story don’t need to be consistent length, they should just be consistent quality. If you feel like the chapter is good and makes sense and you’re proud of it even though it’s less than 1k? You’re not cheating people out of content. 

Readers aren’t gonna be upset at you for having chapters that are short. I mean, think of your favorite fic, and imagine that they updated with a chapter less than 1k. Do you feel cheated out of content? Of course not! You’re just happy you got an update! Hooray new words!!!

Tons of writers have short chapters or inconsistent length chapters. I’ve updated with short chapters for sure, but if I had made the chapters longer it would’ve felt out of place. So if you think your chapter is good and ready to publish, who cares if it’s short? In terms of chapter length: Quality over quantity every time man

[discordisagoodnoodle]

If you don't mind going into detail, I'd love to hear why you dislike Starlight. I didn't watch her episodes besides her first appearance, so I don't have a strong opinion. She does come off as Twilight 2.0 and kinda OP from what I've seen though. I mean, she oneshot Discord in a fight. Yeah he came back 10 minutes later, but that seems extremely strong for a unicorn

Ok so here's my official Starlight hate post I guess. Long post warning ahead

REASONS I'M NOT VERY FOND OF STARLIGHT:

ONE: I actually didn't hate her as a villain. Like, she wasn't my favorite but I didn't hate her and then- we find out the reason that she is an ACTUAL CULT LEADER (and like I know people compared her more to a communist which if you're not thinking too hard the equal sign makes it seem like that, but her actual actions parallel a cult more) and the fact that she literally tried to erase a whole ass timeline is because her friend had to move away??? Like really??? It was...very bad. Kind of a shame, because with better writers a cultist villain could have been a lot more interesting. In fact, her premiere episode on it's own was,,,fine, and if Starlight was simply defeated and never showed up again I wouldn't have a problem with her.

I'm actually gonna go on a side rant here because I really reaally REALLY hate how they made a villain like Starlight and redeemed her. The fact that her actions as a villain so closely resemble a cultist on its own wouldn't be an issue, *but then they had the audacity to act like her being sad MATTERS when she destroyed people's lives in a much more realistic, much more uncomfortable way than guy who wanted to take over world lol and fucking redeemed her* Can I just say how discomforting it is when people write redemptions like that? Watching the pony villain equivalent of somebody who's committed horrible acts of abuse and indoctrination to others get redeemed is UNCOMFORTABLE. IT'S VERY UNCOMFORTABLE. DO NOT LIKE.

TWO: She feeeels sad and that's enough for her to be labelled Deserves Sympathy And Redemption. See, this on it's own wouldn't be as big a deal if...again, she wasn't made to parallel real world bad people? Like, if Starlight was just a run of the mill dickwad in charge of the town doing run of the mill dickwad things, we'd be having an entirely different discussion. OR if she wasn't the cult LEADER, but a member of the cult who was groomed to fully believe in it, and slowly had to be unindoctrinated. But, as it stands, no.

THREE: Her power level. In the premiere, Starlight in shown to be a stronger than the average unicorn with some niche knowledge that's helpful to her. In the finale and onwards, she's...on the same power level as Twilight, an alicorn princess who's main field of study is magic itself. This is kind of an issue in power scaling that the show has had in general, but it was compounded onto Starlight in a very intense way in which she's basically always the strongest person in the room, hooray Starlight! (And despite the fact that Discord being blasted was intended by the writer to be Discord letting Starlight hurt him, you can kind of see it with him winking, that scene wasn't very obvious about it and made it look like Discord, literally the most OP character in the whole show, was suddenly less powerful than Starlight? Lmfao ok.)

FOUR: Starlight always has to be the strongest, smartest creature in the room. You remember the season six finale where Starlight was labelled leader (despite the fact that she really shouldn't have been, hot take I guess.) of everybody and also she was the only person who ever had any ideas and also all of her ideas worked basically, and she figured out the Plot Weapon of the day? That happens in the show far too often, and it's boring. Plus the fact that it too often stupidifies other characters in order to make her look better, makes me very annoyed!

FIVE: Her personality consists of, feels bad, anxiety, and being the best all the time. I'm bored just thinking about it quite frankly. It is absolutely not fun watching Pony Cult Leader remind me she was a cult leader and also how bad she feels about it! I don't care!

SIX: The show acts like she's super amazeballs at friendship, and she's not. (Also, the whole...friendship as some sort of tangible skill you can achieve and Be The Best At instead of just learning interpersonal skills? No thanks fam.) Like...Starlight should not have been a guidance counselor, one, because being The Good Friend ABSOLUTELY does not make you qualified for responsibility of the mental health of actual children, two, even if it did, she's not that amazing at being the Good Friend! She...still does a lot of shitty things. Or before that, when she got a """friendship medal""" for saving Equestria and suddenly deemed a Friendship Master? WHAT?! Those things have ZERO CORRELATION. Very bad.

SEVEN: the fact that she'll get treated better than other reformed villains (cough cough Discord) by everybody around her despite...also doing shitty things is really annoying and a huge double standard! Stop that!

THINGS THAT ON THEIR OWN I WOULDN'T CARE ABOUT BUT SINCE I'M ALREADY NOT FOND OF HER JUST ANNOY ME:

-She's rich. Eat the rich.

-I'm actually not fond of her design. It's not the worst...but I don't love it...

-The fact that she's another Twilight clone not clone like with Sunset. Especially because they kept making jokes about how Starlight and Twilight are so similar haha! Like,,,god just stop it's so boring.

I uh. I think that's it. Maybe.

[inherbookishhead]

Through the Veil of Time.

For the last three days, I couldn't get rid of the scene in my head, where the Doctor is in a deathly situation but his raggedy girl comes to rescue. I find the concept of "unlikely companionship" between the War Doctor and the Bad Wolf entity really intriguing (their dynamic was the highlight of the DOTD for me even though it was very different from that of Rose and any other Doctor (who are my ultimate OTP)). I would really love to see and explore some of the moments where these two weird immortals interact, so, basically, I tried to write one of such encounters (and hooray, my first ever piece of fan fiction).

Where am I going with this? Yeah, I guess I’d love to have a War Doctor/Bad Wolf girl audio drama spinoff.

Also available on ao3

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf/The Moment (Doctor Who), Bad Wolf/The War Doctor (Doctor Who), The War Doctor/Rose Tyler Characters: The War Doctor (Doctor Who), Rose Tyler | Bad Wolf, Bad Wolf (Doctor Who), The Moment (Doctor Who) Summary:

The rare moments in time and space when the paths of the War Doctor and the Bad Wolf cross.

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

It's almost dawn and, alas, he finds himself surrounded by yet another group of alien enemies. This time, however, they managed to have him completely cornered in the ruins of some who knows when abandoned building. He doesn't know who they are, but he certainly knows what they want to do. Well, at least to him. The Doctor sighs. He feels old, immensely tired of all the fighting he had to endure recently, and so completely done with yet another unnecessary distraction. 

The leader of the gang takes his time to mock the Doctor, clearly enjoying the process and still riding the euphoria of how the tables have turned. In all honesty, however, all affected seem to lose their minds these days. The war, which Time Lords have started, doesn’t show mercy to anyone. 

The alien points a gun at the Doctor and orders him to kneel while his gang is coming closer to enjoy the execution. These creatures, as the Doctor notices, are of humanoid form, tall and strong with their glistening blue skin and a single crooked horn peeking from behind their heads. He wonders for a fracture of a second what purpose that horn serves in the course of their evolution. The aliens, on the other hand, look quite desperate even now, and the Doctor knows that the main reason for their debauch is an enemy, whose name consists of only two words: Time Lords. And the Doctor just happens to be one of them. He obeys the order with a resigned expression, then looks at the angry lot and gives their lead one final warning to stop and go away while they still can. 

The gang leader, blinded as he is by pure hatred, doesn’t listen, of course. No wonder, they rarely do. He makes a pompous speech about finding his purpose in liberating as many worlds as he can. After all, the whole universe is in chaos and about to perish anyway, so his kind can finally become the force the universe needs to set the things in the right way, which naturally means, in their own twisted way, and not without sacrifices. He briefly mentions the other nine galaxies that had to be wiped clean, and the Doctor slowly starts to lose his patience. In the end, the young man wonders how such a feeble old misunderstanding of a being can be a Time Lord, and asks, eventually, if the dusty old grandpa has some last words to say before he dies in this forgotten ugly place, all alone and without a single soul to mourn him. The grandpa in question perks up at that.

“Me?” the Doctor gives a chuckle and shakes his head in what looks like an amused disappointment. “Oh, dear boy," he rasps, "what in the whole universe made you think I’m alone?” 

The boy is surely a man, and certainly not dear. He knows it, and that is why he switches off the safety on his weapon. His sneer fades as he pulls the trigger and fires a bullet aiming right into the Doctor’s head. 

His eyes, however, grow even wider as said bullet turns out to be stuck in a time loop right in front of the Doctor’s forehead. After a moment of complete silence, the gang leader hears screams of his fellow mates and his eyes catch a moving silhouette a few feet behind the Doctor. Soon he can outline its details: the creature appears to be a rather short female, whose old saggy clothes are so torn they barely stick to her body. Her expression, though, tells a different story. It is tense and utterly angry, her wild eyes are ready to kill with their golden gleam. 

The Doctor looks for a while at the blinking motion of a bullet that makes its rounds in desperate attempts to reach his head but gets immediately thrown back again, and then turns his attention back to the leader.

“Have you met my friend here?” the Doctor says in the most unperturbed voice imaginable. 

The alien points the gun on his new target, but the raggedy creature splashes a wave of golden light that knocks down his whole gang at once. One by one they start dissipating into the piles of dust until the remnants of the last blue-skinned creature are floating down in the dimming light.

The Doctor gets up from his knees without turning to look at the woman.

“Thought you might show up,” he says casually then goes to the pile of dust that used to be a hostile living being just some moments ago, crouches over it, and scoops some grains with his fingers.

“You know, one of those days you might be the one to finally bite it,” the woman remarks, pointedly looking at the dust on the Doctor's fingers as she approaches him. She offhandedly gestures towards the bullet to release it from its little temporal trap, and it crashes into the nearest wall with a final bright sparkle. 

The Doctor considers her words for a while, then looks at her and smiles, “Nah, young lady, I had it all perfectly under control.” He stands up and dusts his hands off.

"Oh, did you now?" she muses. The girl still looks quite menacing with her glowing eyes and messy hair, but the corners of her mouth turn slightly up. 

"Oh, come off it, Bad Wolf girl," he pretends to chastise. "What would you do for the fun of it, if you didn't have to save this old man every once in a while?" 

A part of him still feels like a prey she keeps playing with and expects her to make that deathly leap at any moment. The other part of him just loves her company. 

"You are turning it into a full time job, Doctor", she counters back, smiling.

"Don't call me that," he pleads quietly, his expression earnest, "You know my name." He averts his gaze and starts looking at the morning sun peeking above the horizon.

"I've got to go," she says with a hint of sadness, "Next time, be a darling and try to stay out of trouble. It will be over soon, I promise." That's the only reassurance she can give, whatever "it" or "soon" really means.

The meditative silence that settles is a comforting moment to kick off the day.

"Suppose I am a darling," the Doctor continues after a while, holding his hands behind his back, and squinting his eyes, still stubbornly examining the sun, "would you visit me sometime when I am not at the brink of death?"

She ponders.

"Maybe, one day," she surprises him with her answer, "if you behave, that is."

Now he is ninety-seven percent certain she is mocking him. He shakes his head. After all, he concludes, someone finally finds him amusing for a change.

"I always wanted to go to Barcelona, you know. An interesting planet, they say," he still faces the sun. She nods, then abruptly stops, puzzled, then nods again. 

"Dogs with no noses?" her question sounds more like a statement.

"Dogs with no noses," he genuinely laughs. 

The Bad Wolf girl takes one of his hands and turns her gaze to the sun the Doctor is so preoccupied with. They stay like that for a while. Then, the cold wind blows and wakes the Doctor out of his reverie. He looks at his now empty hand and returns it to the other behind his back. The Time Lord takes a deep breath, throws one last glance at the rising sun, and turns around, ready to meet the day.

[plounce]

do you have any molly or widomauk fic recs? You have good characterization taste & I miss him and need to recover from seeing caleb/nott/molly as a relationship tag

well after that gutpunch of a closing line, here are my offerings:

… under a cut because there are a LOT. rifled through my bookmarks and subscriptions for this. hope you like these! my ultimate personal faves are bolded. newer additions are starred.

massive widomauk indulgence (oneshots & completed fics)

take your kid gloves off - oh this is SUCH a fave!! teacher au. really good mature emotions… still has the pining that makes fic great but it doesn’t feel soap opera-y as some do. read this please.

my only sunshine - soulmate au! i can be very picky about soulmate aus but this one really agreed with me. follows canon where it can. this was great!! very tender and sweet and hurts at the right parts and is so good at the right parts

twisters chasing storms - written in the week between ep 25 and ep 26. beau centric with side wm. the remaining members of the m9 have to deal with doing what they must to get them back. kind of dark but just like. oof. i reread this a bunch. really good character work in this. (violence warning)

Caleb, huddled on the cart over Molly’s books, says what Beau has been thinking all along: “Jester and Fjord and Yasha were not terrible. This—” and he gestures around at all of them, “—is a terrible combination.”

“That’s slander,” says Molly. “I’m a good person. And—you know, you’re—you’re not all great, sure, but you do good things. I like you.”

The rest of them look at him.

“Okay, that was weak,” he admits.

any clever ideas? - molly and caleb make out in the evening nip in order to dissuade cree from talking with molly. it is SO GOOD and just. rules. it hits those trope buttons perfectly. i LOVE this one 

strictly ballroom - UNDERCOVER AT A FANCY DRESS BALL… DANCING… PINING… JEALOUSY… this is SUCH an indulgent fave and i just enjoy it so much. this is a FUN read. THIS is what i enjoy fic for

discover us safely destroyed - an interesting character study from the zadash arc

our early days - pre relationship. figuring each other out and being tender and protective. taking care of each other. (violence warning)

the crossroads - caleb falls in battle and has a conversation in limbo (without knowing he’s in limbo). very bittersweet and so like… OOF

hopscotch - a lot of the m9 body swap. good character stuff. the differences in molly and caleb’s brains in terms of memory capabilities is… ouch! ouch!! it’s really good. “you’re my friends. i trust you.” <– THAT line hurts BIG

let’s dance - this one is an older one one, and cute! dancing!

comfort walks softly on little cat feet - h/c. an older one, and very sweet.

strange light - a good coda to the cali ep, which was hard to find. measured characterizations with some molly details i adore - his love of theatrics, and keeping copies of lucien’s wanted posters that he’s torn down and using them for kindling.

a street cat named frumpkin - a cute little modern au with side wm! hooray for kitties.

familiar comfort - frumpkin pov. implied wm. really super excellent. i LOVE frumpkin pov stuff

until you set your old heart free - modern with magic… established relationship… molly gets rezzed and returns home… ohhhhhhhh. oh my heart 

take me back into your arms - molly gets rezzed! tam lin setup! hell yeah! power of love babey!!

kiss me once, kiss me twice - a series for kiss prompts!! so sweet. this one has some really heartwarming modern au installments that i just adore

something new for me and you - this one recently wrapped up! a good multichapter, probably the peak modern urban au in the tag. very detailed and has some very good themes about like… feeling love and feeling deserving of relationships and having to grapple with being bond to the people you’re close to. ALSO has background claysol which you KNOW i’m a BIG SUCKER for. very charming!

*indelible - modern au! tattoo parlor stuff, which can be very hit or miss for me, but this was such a sweet, lovely au with a lot of like. recovery stuff in it? for both of them. very nice.

*meet me in the woods - OOF this has such such delicious piiiining… yearning! molly Noticing caleb’s hands and the two of them slowly growing closer. it was such a sweet read and i enjoyed the whole thing like a soft blanket.

*boats and birds - i love this! such a great snapshot of molly (swinging from the ropes on the ball eater, and being a bit reckless & unlucky in his circus tricks - that’s my bitch!), and such a lovely, telling interaction between him and caleb. i loved that “did you just tell a joke? well, it was a good one” bit, and i love fics that revisit it with a bit more future tenderness. this is the line that won me completely over to this fic:

Because Molly is an idiot and likes to pretend that he has a chance of breaking through the ten layers of trauma Caleb wears like a second skin to find the person underneath and convince him he’s worth something, he takes a minute to appreciate the view.

*matryoshka - immediate fixit after molly’s death, which rules. molly’s ghost gets to carpool in caleb’s body before they rez him. i think this scenario was written enjoyably but with appropriate weight as well, which could be very hard to find. pre-relationship, which i always enjoy - i love me some people meandering towards feelings. it also has some very interesting lucien theory tidbits sprinkled in, which i enjoy.

*cat magnet - molly gets turned into a cat for a hot minute and cuddles up to caleb. short and fun and not weird (thank goodness).

*devil’s tongue - i’m always a bit bashful/hesitant about reccing explicit stuff, but this one has such excellent and caring characterization that i feel correct in putting it on this list. the best explicit ship fics always have an element of knowing that the characters aren’t losing their personalities once they get in bed, and this one has both characters as like. people. the d/s stuff does not overwhelm the characters or the fic and is very light - you see that these are real people in an equal relationship trying to help each other feel good (and i’m a judgmental bastard about fic, so you can take my word on this). AND it has some linguistic stuff about infernal as the actual plot, which i can be a sucker for.

*a thin line - molly gets injured, caleb sews him up, they dance around a conversation before actually Talking About Stuff and becoming closer. excellently written h/c. this is an early wdmk fic, but actually writes the characters pretty well in hindsight! op rules. it’s interesting to see what the author manages to get right, and the backstory elements they made up are still engaging and consistent for the molly & caleb they have written.

*heartfrost - molly lives au, taking place around ep 72. molly is resistant to fire, so he’s vulnerable to cold. he has a bad time with that, and with grieving for yasha as well. caleb takes care of him. this was just sweet h/c whump, and reading molly getting his feelings validated by caleb was *kisses fingers* very good.

*limerence - caleb accidentally casts a spell that makes everyone who sees him fall in love with him - except the party lesbians and… molly, for some reason. isn’t it strange that a love spell doesn’t alter molly’s behavior towards caleb??? synopsis aside - i really enjoy how this fic took the fact that molly canonically wouldn’t pursue caleb because he sees caleb isn’t in a good place to have that; molly’s respect for consent with regards to relationships shines through here and agh i love him. also, i am beau in this fic.

**VWOOP! (every time a bell rings, a tiefling gets their wings) - a really interesting take on the soulmate au involving true name stuff (the author has some notes at the end about “true names” which made me :) about the concept in terms of identity and meaning, so dw about deadname snarls yk). wings! soulmates! friends with benefits that accidentally evolve into feelings!

**the fool, reversed - i’m a hack who loves to see molly slotted into present canon just for fun. this one has him being abducted with yasha by obann, and in dealing with the trauma afterward accidentally discovering his incorporeality bloodhunter powers. good stuff.

**the skin beneath the facade - this one is so self indulgent and i love it. fake dating at a fancy party! kissing! POISON! A CAT! fun fun fun read.

WIPs that i am subscribed to and really enjoy, and are good reads already: 

the prophet of tortham - LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE THIS ONE… god i just love it. molly scrambling to be the best scammer he can and rolling miracuously well, while trying to solve a mystery! very perceptive caleb and perfectly slow burn widomauk. it’s an au where molly pretends to be an actual fortuneteller to a lord that the rest of the m9 work for. i’ve been adoring this one so far, such a great molly.

there’s a ghost in my lungs - vague future canon! the m9 finds molly again, but the empire put a bunch of stuff in his head and the gang seeks to cure him, all while getting tangled up in a town plot and festivals. very good widomauk pining. side note: the “winter soldier au” tag has nothing to do with marvel at all besides the basic premise of what’s up with molly, but for the vast majority of the fic he is himself (changed somewhat after what he’s gone through, but his wonderful self). i’ve been keeping up with this one for a long time and i’ve been loving it.

Caleb blinks, as if coming out of a Frumpkin trance. Beau knows better, though, she’s seen him staring at Molly like Molly’s a lighthouse in the dark, and he’s a man paddling desperately back to shore.

we circle by night - a far-flung-future caleb travels back in time and accidentally averts molly’s death! and there’s a splintered timeline. slow burn widomauk starts kindling but caleb’s dealing with uh… pretending he’s not an older and higher-level wizard inside a canon age caleb body. VERY good. love it.

fractured moonlight on the sea - molly is a selkie and doesn’t know it!! i looooooove this so far and can’t wait for more, this is such good like… pining for stuff you don’t know, romantically and sealwise.

map to alexandria - modern music au! very good writing of like. human emotions. very good relationship themes. this is my good buddy mauve @phantomsteed‘s fave fic!

the gay and wondrous life of caleb widogast - this is a modern with magic childhood friends road trip au! it is also fjollygast, and i really enjoyed it. extremely good and well-written pining and relationship drama, that luckily has been resolved. from what i’ve detectived, it seems like it’s been put on permanent hiatus after canon has diverged a lot from what the author was working from. but it stopped at a very good point and is a fave. extremely delicious pining.

wilderswans’ 30 day nsfw challenge - this is such a great series with a lot of character work and like… stuff about intimacy and it’s really good and tender! early relationship. really sweet and well-written!

**the names that make us - soulmate au! with twists and turns. starts out as bren/lucien and will become caleb/molly. looking forward to it.

molly focused:

true north - molly and yasha relationship stuff… i love them. platonic soulmates. a grand adventure!

visions in lightning, voices in thunder - yasha and molly again, but this time more of a snapshot. implied wm and by. yasha’s aasimarness interacts with ukatoa’s dreams in a nasty and cool way. this one has a line that alwaaaaaays gets me right in the gut

“I’d keep an eye on him, if I were you. There’s still some sharp edges to him.”

Molly chuckled. “I’m well acquainted with sharp edges.”

Yes, and you cut yourself on them all the time, Yasha thought to herself. If he cuts you, will you bleed for him?

also if you haven’t… you should read my high school au oneshot where beau and molly are siblings ;) if you want some numbers to back my self promotion it is the 9th highest kudos’d wm fic on ao3 atm… AND it’s a oneshot. blue gatorade rights

OH and as an edit: here’s my more serious in tone wdmk fic, canticle. it is very good and self indulgent. molly character study and repressed pining. ep 25/6 divergent au, as one does. inspired by twisters chasing storms, recced above.

[theorynexus]

This would seem to bring us to Post Number 60, the 62nd post of this series, if you count the decimalized ones.

LAST TIME ON MEAT EPILOGUE It would seem we are returning to John and Terezi, this time--- wooo!~   Apparently, he looks pretty bad. This is unfortunate. On the other hand:  YES, MEAT EPILOGUE CHAPTER/SECTION 6!!!

Hey, don’t try to shame John for being the sub in this situation. It’s not like he has experience with that kind of thing (not that it’s something generally to be ashamed of: I’m just saying that it is something he seems to be somewhat embarrassed about, and his inexperience meant that it wasn’t exactly by choice on his part--- which is not to suggest that Terezi molested him in any way).  Aaaannnd Trolls (especially highbloods) are supposed to be particularly vicious in nature, generally, right? It makes a whole lot of sense that that would extend to the bedroom, as well.

... But yeah, that doesn’t help with his health. He was already doing pretty badly, just after the surgery. He didn’t really need that sort of mess tacked on afterward.     Oh, and... why “mysteriously” sticky, you derp? XD

And I am glad you were kidding.   (That slapping was very interesting to hear. Hmmm.)      Yeah, him being confused and uncertain about it also feels just about right~ ~~~ On a random note, I am reading this just after going through the memo where Karkat, John, and Dave were talking about romance/the propagation of the species, and KK insisted that John and Dave stay away from troll women.    That makes this all wonderfully hilarious, in retrospect. 

Huh. I’ve never seen “cuckold” used in that sort of context before.  Indeed, this is quite the question, though.  Could John Egbert handle a blackrom? A caligionous one, at that?   A very hard question, that is.   I’m not sure he’s emotionally capable of giving himself into the kinds of hate and playful ribbing that would be constantly involved in that kind of relationship, if healthy.  I suspect it might have been just a particularly violent flushed thing, though.  We’ll see.

Pffft. Slithers.   That said:  Huh. I was not expecting that turn. Let’s see where this goes~

Oh my gosh, Dirk, would you stop being such a downer? XD I think this is indeed very, very cute~     Soul-shattering is a weird sort of term to use there, for a normal person. Seems right for Dirk, though. He understands the nuances of how shattering can be more or less than a whole break.

That is practically the definition of a subjective judgment.  I know you’re being ironic and all, but come on, man, that’s just base as heck. But yeah, I think he might have it bad, indeed. 

The question here is, “Does he mean to suggest that Andrew Hussie is God to him, or does he mistakenly [in the context of Homestuck, which has given no distinct evidence for it] believe that there was a God that he actually usurped?”   “replaced” is a very interesting and useful word, here, given the working interpretation that I have is indeed that he is interpreting AH as God and likely believes him to have abandoned Homestuck, thus removed himself from his directorial capacity over its narrative, until he managed to take over.

WHY ARE NEITHER OF YOU THINKING OF RETCON-PORTING IN TO RESCUE HER FROM HER DEMISE BEFORE IT HAPPENS?!?!?!? But yeah, you really should get home and recover first, if it is possible.

Whoops. Not a good sign. Noooot a good sign.

The Power of Three is a very strong thing.

Here we gooooooo!!!~    The first time (I think) that I’ve continued a post beyond one page!!!

No.  Also, probably Jake English. He has strange effects on people.

Wow, someone’s a bit miffed.  That said: Hooray, acknowledgement by the narrative! :’D

I do not appreciate your repeated suggestions that Jake is dumb! That said: No. No, I do not want to engage in wanton promiscuity with such a man.  I am, to put it quite simply, not interested in meaningless sexual encounters with people I am not deeply connected with. Even if I had such a bond with Jake English, I would not be inclined to engage in such activities. Quite frankly, I am not exactly partial to the type of equipment he sports. As for the political side of things... well, that’s complicated. Yeah, people can indeed become far too energized by the attractiveness of candidates and those associated with them, rather than their substance.  Maybe that’s the case, here.   I’d like to think that the actual results of the election will in fact prove people wrong. Maybe there will be exit polls that we can see excerpts of to judge things for certain.   I don’t know~

FINALLY, SOMEONE FRICKING ADMIRES THE SUFFERER!!!

Eh?  I mean, I guess even Dave and Karkat were acknowledging the possibility of a misstep. We’ll see what happens.

Heee’s probably gonna try to sabotage this, isn’t he?   Also, I wish I were more familiar with human muscle anatomy.

“The Kibosh” is a good phrase to use.  That said:  ***snerk***    It’s like Karkat has wedding day jitters. XD

Man, it is annoying how spiteful you are toward him, Dirk. Can you give him a break for just a second?   I mean, you probably caused the sweating to begin with.

Wow. Such dudebroism, which I just suddenly realized/-membered Dirk was supposed to slightly embody, somewhat.  (I blame Gamebro Magazine, and the sharp contrast between the diction there and Dirk’s writing style.) That is a funny description, though, the brain-tonguing.  Also, gosh, Jake is nervous.

Oh, hey, I think Dave’s going to finally get a feel for the Narrative, and maybe end up confronting Dirk.  That will be incredibly interesting.

Wow, this is getting to him.  It’s like he’s made of sugar, and someone’s just begun to drizzle water on him.  Or maybe made of witch.

***lip curls up in a snarl***    Dave better make this quick.  I am somehow edging on more angry at this Unreliable Narrator than I was before Alt!Calliope took over...!

Well, that’s, umm... interesting. Particularly, the cultivated Obfuscating Stupidity bit. But moreso the fact that Dirk will acknowledge he’s smarter than he seems.

Yes... I think I most definitely am more furious than ever at this piece of garbage, now.  After the sweet taste of freedom that Jake was finally able to feel, and the burst of confidence he’d found in it, you pour all of this blithering waste on him?   Jane was trying to use him!   I’m sure she hasn’t loved him for a long time, and even then, I Jake never toyed with her heart intentionally, I’m sure!   Grrrrr...!

Honestly, though, he brings up a complicated and intriguing question.  Jake has definitely been used and abused throughout his history, and at least part of his recent activity to exploit his Hope-y Assets must have been Dirk’s doing, but how much of his sexually promiscuous revelry has actually been something that he would not and did not choose, say, as a result of his drinking problem, rather than him reveling in his identity as a   

WORLD RENOWNED EXPLORER-NATURALIST-TREASURE HUNTER-ARCHEOLOGIST-SCIENTIST-ADVENTURER-BIG GAME HUNTER-BILLIONAIRE EXTRAORDINAIRE 

 just as your pre-Scratch self was?  Regardless of the level of culpability he actually has in the matters of his life, he is nowhere near deserving of this kind of shaming, and Dirk should be ashamed of himself for this kind of disgusting behavior which he is almost certainly engaging in specifically to throw Jake off.

Oh, also, victim blaming is BS, and the answer is an unequivocal, “You, you insincere, megalomaniacal, self-justifying dirtbag.”

***is so fricking ANGRY that it is taking a great deal of willpower not to release a roar of primal fury and break my hand on my computer screen*** THIS IS NOT HOW HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS WORK!!! THAT IS NOT HOW SOMEONE WHO IS ACTUALLY WILLING TO SUBMIT TO YOU LIKE THAT WILL BEHAVE, YOU FFF---     ***RRRRRGH!!!***

YOU HAD BETTER NOT FRICKING LISTEN TO THIS GARBAGE, JAKE!!! RESIST HIS INFLUENCE, AND---         Huh. The thought just occurred to me that both Dave and Jake could be interpreted as stand-ins for Simon, if Dirk were Kamina (despite how different Kamina’s personality is from Dirk’s), because Simon really seems like he could be interpreted as a Page of Hope too, for some reason (but curse my ADHD! XwX)   ---AND DEFEAT HIM WITH YOUR HOPE BUBBLE!!!

...  At least he apologized. For what that is worth.    This is going to seem so obvious to Dave, though.  Obviously, he isn’t going to kill his Bro, but... well, let’s see how things turn out. Hmm. Also, this is hilarious insofar as it derailed the press conference and probably took away much of the steam that could have been generated for the Karkat/Vantas ticket by Jake’s endorsement, but it doesn’t exactly do all that much for Jane Crocker’s side, either.  It was a very sickening and weird spectacle, but I am not sure how it will actually play out in their favor?   Seems like it might cause Jane’s side trouble, and might cause tensions between them.

I still can never consistently remember what “smh” means. But yes, “HICCUP???” is right.   STOP HIM, DAVE!!!  

TACKLE HIM AWAY INTO THE FUTURE!!!

Realistically, he should have no problem with speed at all. Time power shown a la cheating with Jade in games should let him get there instantly, and even his flash step that he has shown since before entering the Game should allow him to get there on time.      Man, Dirk is a prick about manipulating things. Especially since we are going to see things derailed and shift to another setting, right when Jake is supposedly going to make the biggest contribution he’ll ever make.  WHICH DOESN’T EVEN FRICKING MAKE SENSE!!!

[claihn]

[Bal/Cry] LF LTRP for New Character aka “Candlelight”

“Candlelight” is the word I am using for tags and references for this new character. I am extremely excited to RP her, as I am indulging in some of my favorite designs and personalities. While she will be new, please do not fret as I plan on investing quite a bit into her. She is a creation I have been working on for admittedly sometime, but is at the stage where she is a bit dependent on some key long-term connections that I am hoping to establish before Shadowbringers or sooner!

SNIPPETS

♟ Candlelight‘s race and name are pending, given that I am waiting for the benchmark. She will either be a Viera or a Miqo’te, as both races work just dandy with her background, so it will be completely dependent on looks! 

♟ She is a young adult that has a great deal of room for personal growth. Her strengths lie in supportive magic meant specifically for buffing and aiding another individual and is lacking in any sort of personal strength meant for herself. Hooray for twisted upbringings! 

♟ Her entire life was dedicated to supporting her prodigy sibling, who is now MIA.

♟ She is a neutral character that teeters upon the line. Her codependency (both past and present) make her vulnerable to outward change and give some fun with the layers of her personality of what is true inner change or not. This makes her open to latching onto individuals of any alignment without care if they’re a murdering psychopath or a heroic savior. So long as she’s allowed to follow and is useful, that’s all that matters. I am super interested in seeing how she will change over time!

HOOKS

♟ “Candlelight” -  She needs an individual to follow, whether they are a villain/antagonist, a neutral adventurer or the epitome of good. There are so many scenarios that could be spun up to strike this connection that can be established or role played out! Maybe an antagonist discovers how willing she is to be manipulated or help with unsavory tasks? An adventurer might like to have someone who’d use support magic for practically nothing. Or maybe a more stalwart individual takes pity on her and she just... keeps following them.  ** This is a high priority connection for me. Please only consider this if you’re wanting a long term, meaningful connection for your character! I will not assume anything about how the dynamic of the relationship grows either, so never fear!   ** 

♟ “Taxes” - This is more for characters of questionable morality. She is a rather meek and malleable individual from a social standpoint. Perhaps your character has convinced her that she has to pay taxes and stops by to collect coins once and awhile. Or that she should keep an ear out for certain tidbits of information and occasionally prods her to see if she’s picked up on anything. Etc! 

♟ “Donations” - This is more for characters of “better” morality. Maybe your character saw how out of sorts she was with the city/land. (The invisible neon sign of “GULLIBLE” could have been a giveaway too.)  So perhaps your character checks up on her once and awhile and keeps an eye out, offering advice or a trinket or two. Of course, she’d feel like she has to pay such kind acts back and doesn’t have much of a gauge for what the appropriate response would be. Etc!

♟ “First Aid” -  She is not a healer on the scope of a full fledged conjurer. However, her entire life was dedicated to supportive magic. She can heal and perhaps more uniquely, provide invigorating magical boons that last for a decent amount of time depending on the scenario. Perhaps your character was down on his or her luck and seeing this, she offered some assistance. Or they were completely outmatched in a fight and she threw a little spell your way. Etc! 

INEVITABLE OOC

♟ I am more than happy to divulge more details to anyone who might be interested in this sort of RP! I left out the basics (personality/background) to keep this shorter and geared more towards the concept. No worries or hard feelings if you are not interested after our discussion or ideas do not mesh after inquiring. 

♟ Candlelight will be a serious character that I am looking forward to watch grow through stories and interactions. I LOVE ANTAGONISTS AND VILLAINS- so please don’t be shy! However, valiant knights and others are just as valid too! Her themes (and my RP preferences) range all over the board, with an emphasis for dark fantasy, drama & adventure. The only genre I am not too inclined for is pure comedic fluff and no AU’s. 

♟ In-game RP is my main preference! However, I do not mind RPing on Discord if scheduling gets wonky sometimes and definitely love it for just chatting/throwing ideas/random inspirations. My hours of operation tend to be 6PM - 2AM EST on most days except Saturday! Not including Discord randoms.

♟ I generally write 1-2 decently (? xD)  descriptive paragraphs, but will sometimes shorten it for events, lengthen it for personal or adapt if the moment doesn’t require it. Quality is more important to me than quantity. My past partners can attest that sometimes I do get carried away though- but usually only over Discord! >>; 

♟ I LOVE communication and I like to think that I’m friendly. I’m hoping to get some connections for long-term RP that can be consistent. I do not generally lurk around hubs waiting for RP because I’d much rather actively be doing something, but please do not mistake it for being too busy! ^^

♟ Both my RP partner and myself having fun is the highest priority for me. 

THE END

Did I mention I’m bad at summarizing? Ah...anyway!  If you have any questions or are interested, do not hesitate to give me a poke.  Messaging via tumblr works (I’ll keep an eye on it more due to this post haha) but you are also more than welcome to add my Discord: Lain#0004 .  I know this kind of LFRP is a little unconventional, but thanks for at least giving it a glance! I’ll keep my fingers crossed that this little idea strikes some fancies! 

[nicklesthename]

Here we are again, at the end of another year of our lives and nearing the beginning of one more. That means it’s time to look back and see how I did with my resolutions from last year. I’ll be honest, it’s not good. I’ll say that right now.  This year seemed to kind of get away from me and it doesn’t help that in the last two months of it, I was in a depressive episode. That really put a dent in my goals. Excuses aside, here is how I did during 2019:

Run a 5k

Yeah…this didn’t happen. I started off the year pretty strongly, running on the treadmill a couple times a week. I just stopped at some point. I think I had to miss a couple times and I let that discourage me enough to just give up. I really didn’t exercise much at all in 2019. I tried to get Just Dance and do that regularly, but I just didn’t follow through. I have a fitness-related goal for 2020, but this is a much more realistic one.

Get 100 subscribers

I may not have hit this goal in 2019, but I am proud of the growth my YouTube channel saw. I started the year with 74 subscribers and ended it with 85. That may not seem like a lot, but to me, every new subscriber means so much to me. The fact that anyone watches my videos is amazing to me, so the fact that someone would subscribe to see them all is amazing. Maybe next year with be the year I finally hit that 100 subscriber mark I’ve been after for about 2 years.

Increase watch hours to 400

Just to remind those who aren’t familiar, watch hours are how many hours have been spent watching your videos total. At the end of last year, I was at 195 watch hours. And at the end of this year, I managed a grand total of 112 hours! Hooray! Yeah, so I didn’t do very good in this department. A huge part of that is that comes down to the fact that I haven’t really been making videos for the second half of the year at all. That is due to the aforementioned depressive episode.

Receive 10,000 views on my blog

My goal for 2019 was to go from 3,450 to 10,000. Instead, I regressed back to 2,866. My theory on why I set such a lofty goal is because, at the end of 2018, I got a big boom of search engine and Pinterest referrals. It seemed like things were on the up. And maybe I would have been able to reach such a goal if I actually wrote a good amount of posts in 2019. However, from basically September onward, I didn’t write any posts at all, let alone good, searchable, relevant ones. I think I could have hit that goal if I had been writing.

Complete the Popsugar 2019 Reading Challenge

This resolution might be the closest I came to succeeding all year. Instead of just giving myself a number of books to read all year, I wanted something a little more creative and challenging, so I decided to do a reading challenge. Popsugar does a reading challenge every year. It’s two pages of prompts relating to different aspects of books, from specific words in the title to the art on the cover. There were 40 regular prompts and 10 advanced prompts. I did 35 regular prompts and 0 advanced ones. So all in all, I completed 70% of the whole challenge! I think that’s not bad. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be. Finding books that fit such random criteria as having a plant in the title or on the cover or set in Scandinavia AND I also thought it sounded interesting and compelling? Not so easy. It led me to reread a lot of books that I knew were short, easy reads that matched a prompt. I don’t want to have to do that again, so 2020 will not be featuring this type of challenge.

Learn sign language

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

Onto 2020!

Find a form of exercise that I enjoy doing

This resolution is about as simple as I could make a fitness-related goal. I’m tired of trying to make running more interesting or fun. It’s just not that interesting or fun. Neither is doing different workouts on the ground or mindless cardio. I want to find something I actually look forward to doing and does not feel like a chore to do. There are a million and one ways to get my body moving out there, and I’ve only tried such a small percentage. Things I am going to try first include: Just Dance, Ring Fit Adventure, yoga, and some fitness classes.

Listen to music every single day

This goal might seem lofty since it requires I do something 365 times, but this one is important. Music makes me feel good. It inspires me, energizes me, and makes me want to get things done. The only reason I don’t already listen to it every day is that I know it’ll make me feel this way and my depression brain would rather lay in bed and be sad. If I listen to anything, it’s My Favourite Murder, which is an amazing podcast but hardly does anything to inspire or motivate me. So from now on, I have to listen to at least one song a day. I think I can take 2-5 minutes a day minimum to help with my mental health.

Get 100 subscribers

Yep, we’re doing this one again! I swear, one of these days I will reach 100 subscribers, it’s just taken a couple years longer than I thought it would take. No biggie. 2020 is the year, I can feel it!

Reach 5,000 views on my blog

Last year I really shot for the moon with trying to go from less than 4,000 to 10,000 in just one year. That’s a pretty lofty increase to try to complete. This year I am going to shoot lower and then I might be able to blow the goal out of the water instead of failing again. I know that all I need to create content regularly and the new views will come. For over a year I’ve been getting views on my blog every single day. Not a ton, but its the consistency that is the key.  Search engines are working for me. I just need to work for me.

Read 60 new books

As I mentioned in my wrap up from 2019, I have a bad habit of just rereading books in order to reach my reading goals. I choose short, easy reads that don’t really challenge me and definitely don’t give me a new experience. So instead of doing some big list of complicated prompts or just giving myself a number to reach, I just have to read all new books. I can read sequels of books I’ve read before, but not if I’ve read that sequel before. This should be easy for me since I have such a huge to be read list, I just keep ignoring it to meet arbitrary goals.

Those are my 5 new resolutions for 2020! What resolutions do you have for the first year of the new decade? Do you bother to set resolutions anymore? Let me know!

How did I do meeting my goals last year? And what do I have planned for 2020? Here we are again, at the end of another year of our lives and nearing the beginning of one more.