#I’ve been going through my notes on this cosplay since it’s been so long since I started it. Lots I’d forgotten!

[inga-don-studio]

Since I pretty much tore the headcrab zombie mask down to just the base yesterday, I'm trying to figure out the best angle & pose for the new rigid forelimbs. I want them to look like they're jabbing into the host's chest while at rest and in an aggressive threat display when raised. I think I finally got it looking about how I want it, at least from the side profile-

[fanfic-scribbles]

Marry Me Three

Sequel to: Marry Me 2 - Boyfriend’s Back (All Right)

Fandom: MCU Captain America/Avengers

Summary: Marriage is stupidly limited. That’s okay– you’ve never found a box that could fit you anyway.

Quick facts: Romance – Steve Rogers/Reader/Bucky Barnes – Female Reader

Warnings: Fluff, marriage talk, a little fade-to-black sexy times

MCU Timeline: Set some nebulous time after CA:TWS

Words: 3170

A/N: At last, the end of the ‘Marry Me’ saga. Please enjoy a bunch of goofballs <3

~

Bucky is brooding.

This isn’t so different from usual, but what is unusual is that none of your distraction tactics are working. The lovey-dovey stuff gets a little kiss before he’s back to stewing in his own head, the funny stuff gets a half-hearted smile before he once again becomes the protagonist of a Russian tragedy, (it is ridiculous that he is not actually Russian, honestly, even Natasha has commented that she feels lacking next to him), and your last-ditch attempts to be annoying get a scowl and some muttered curses before he turns away and does his best gargoyle impression.

Some research is required.

“Is there a reason you’ve started walking around with a notepad and pen and staring at Bucky?” Steve asks, like for all he knows the answer could very well be ‘no.’

“I’m trying to figure out what’s wrong with him,” you say. “So I’m taking notes and observations so I can put them together later.”

“Ah.” He sips his coffee and stares at you. “That explains the new corkboard. No string?”

“I had to order it. They were out of red,” you admit. “It’s coming with the safari hat.”

He stares at you. “Why safari instead of a deerstalker?”

“The safari ones looked nicer and shipped faster,” you say. “If the binoculars weren’t more annoying than they’re worth I’d be using them too. Maybe if I’m annoying enough I can actually get him to talk about his fucking feelings rather than keep shutting me out.”

Steve pulls you into a hug and kisses your head. “I’ll try and talk to him,” he says and rubs your shoulder. As he pulls away, he says, “No smoking pipes.”

You hadn’t been thinking about that since your Sherlock Holmes cosplay abruptly stopped with the lack of nice hats available with fast shipping, but now that he’s said no you can’t resist the siren song of pushing boundaries. “Not even a bubble one?”

Steve shoots you a glare and wanders off.

Well, if Steve succeeds, hopefully you’ll be able to find another use for the safari hat. But until he pulls through you will continue to observe Boyfriendicus Moodicus and hope a solution presents itself.

~

Nothing magically happens to make things better. Bucky’s still sullen, but he’s sullen with a guilty edge when he comes up one day and hugs you from behind. “I’m sorry I’ve been a jerk,” he says and presses a little kiss to your head.

“You’re not a jerk,” you say and put your hands over his as Steve watches with a look of concern himself. The talk didn’t go so well, apparently, but at least someone else is on the lookout now. “But I know you’re upset and I wish you’d tell me why. Or Steve. Or an imaginary friend. Somebody.”

“I, uh…” He nuzzles you, preying on your weakness. Bastard. You hope he keeps it up. “I don’t know how to say it,” he admits. “It’s something in my own head, and I don’t know how to…say it right. So I wanna wait.”

“But you will?” you ask and he nods. “Fine,” you say uncertainly. “If it takes too long though I’m getting a little hand puppet, okay?”

Even the thought makes him look annoyed, which is exactly what you were hoping for. They know better than to test you on your most ridiculous ideas, and you make a few open and shut motions with your hand to drive the point home. But something about how Bucky looks at your hand catches your attention. There’s a brief burst of longing and what is he even looking a–

Oh.

Oh!

The ring.

~

Over the next week you take your Bucky Studies very seriously. He said he can’t verbalize it and you believe that– Steve has his moments but Bucky has an especially hard time talking about what he wants and what he feels, (and when you think about the why you end up clinging to him like a koala which is not ideal for observation but is great for very distracting kisses), so you don’t try to push him. The safari hat goes mostly unused, alas, but you do pick up on a few things:

A) Bucky doesn’t just give sad longing looks at your ring, but at Steve’s too;

B) If you and Steve are already fooling around, Bucky is a lot more hesitant about joining in than he was when you all started your, ahem, group activities;

C) A and B are very often paired together– and while A can happen during even just the mundanity of the day, B will always have that look of envy;

and A point 2 C B or whatever) The envious look at your rings is almost always followed by a flash of annoyance. And not at you– you’ve gotten very, very good at reading your partners’ looks of annoyance, (you even have a handy card catalogue you reference sometimes to make them very annoyed at you), but seemingly at himself.

It’s sort of remarkable that you can see all this, because while you’re more observant than people sometimes give you credit for, it’s still something special to be able to observe Bucky without having him call you on it once or twice. It’s nice that he’s so comfortable around you. But it’s not nice that this issue– whatever he can’t verbalize– is eating him away so much that he lets it show for all and sundry.

Still, now you have some data. It’s time to try and formulate some solutions.

~

“Hey Bucky?”

“Yeah doll?”

“Would it make you feel better if Steve and I got divorced?”

Bucky chokes on his drink. Steve, to his credit, merely stops cutting his food and looks up at you past slightly raised brows. You think it’s nice that he understands what you meant. Or maybe he doesn’t understand and he’s just used to your nonsense. If you’re being honest, it’s probably more the latter, but it’s still nice to have your general person so well understood that Steve can hear that and not worry.

“Wh-…” Bucky pauses to take another drink that actually makes it down his throat. “Sweetheart, why would I want that?”

“It’s just a thought,” you say. “Because Steve and I love each other whether we’re together in the eyes of the law or not. Just like we love you.” You have to hurry up when he opens his mouth. “And I know you know we don’t love you any less, but knowing and feeling are two different things and we all have doubts.”

“I don’t doubt,” Bucky says quickly. “But…you’re sort of right. It’s just something I have to deal with.” He takes your hand and tugs you in for a little hug that you both have to lean out of your chairs for. “I don’t want you and Steve to get divorced. I like that you two are married. Also, it’d be a huge pain in the ass and pro’ly wouldn’t do much.”

“Okay.” You kiss his head and lean back. Back to the drawing board. Luckily the drawing board still has some sketches on it. “It’s okay Bucky, I’ve got another idea.”

Both Bucky and Steve are suddenly distracted by ringing phones. You sigh but pull yourself together as they jump up. While they get ready, you shove their dinners into containers so they can at least have a little something on their way to save the world.

“I know it sounded bad, but you get what I meant, right?” you ask Steve in between kissing him goodbye. Multiple times, of course.

“I know. And I agree.” He smiles and kisses you one more time before letting Bucky in.

You make sure to give Bucky just as much physical love as you did Steve, but he’s looking at you cautiously. Still, he kisses you, and says, “Don’t do anything before we get home and talk about your ‘idea,’ okay?”

“Have a lovely day at work; be safe!” you say cheerfully. Bucky is about to open his mouth but you are, strangely, saved by yet more ringing from his phone, and the sounds of tires screeching outside. He rolls his eyes and runs out with Steve, not even pausing when he mouths, ‘We’ll talk later.’

You shut the door and turn back to your empty home. You allow yourself a moment of self-pity before you make a fist and hit it to your palm. This is actually perfect– an opportunity to put your plan into action without any super-significant-other meddling. You are going to get right to it–

–your stomach grumbles–

–after dinner.

~

They come back in two days, so it’s a good thing you decided not to procrastinate on your Secret Plan. The mission was quick and neither of them are injured, but they are obviously exhausted, so you cajole them into taking a nap. Steve is tired enough he does as he’s told, dragging a slightly more suspicious Bucky with him. But Bucky is just as tired, so you blow them both a kiss and, once the door is shut and you hear no more moving, you rush to your little box of supplies and start setting everything up.

When they come out for dinner the candles are all set, the food is almost ready, and your two super soldiers take a moment to fully wake up from their nap and appreciate the nice romantic table you’ve put together.

Steve clears his throat and leans in to straighten one of the candles that had tilted maybe a little worryingly to the side. “Oh, oops; good catch,” you say and put down their two plates. “Steve, come be helpful and grab the wine glasses.”

“Really going all out to welcome us home,” Bucky says, eyeing you suspiciously.

“Yeah sure, that’s what it is,” you say, smiling too hard to sell it, and you all but drag Steve into the kitchen where you promptly shove a little box into his hand, and mouth, ‘Wait.’

His eyes light up, but he grins too and nods, and takes the wine glasses and the bottle out to the table while you grab the last plate and go to take your seat. Bucky looks even more suspicious, definitely not helped by how Steve is the absolute worst at keeping a straight face, but you ignore your husband in favor of the modest but still delicious meal you made. “You’re probably starving.”

“Sweetheart,” Bucky says warily, not even attempting to grab his fork. “Don’t take this the wrong way but– what are you up to?”

You don’t answer, and instead take a bite. In all honestly though it’s hard to focus on the food– you’re very excited for this, and when Bucky keeps staring at you, you think…fuck it. It’s time to put him at ease, one way or another.

So you stand up, walk over to him, get down on one knee, pull out the box, and open it. “Bucky,” you say. “We can’t get married before God and law but…fuck ‘em. I love you just as much as I love Steve and if this is only legit to us then that’s all that matters. So, James Buchanan Barnes, second love of my life but not the secondary love of my life, will you marry me according to the law of this house– coincidentally my law– and be my top-secret husband?”

Bucky considers you with a serious face that looks close to cracking. “Will you promise to unassign “Secret Agent Man” as my theme song?”

“Absolutely not,” you say. “But when I sing it the lyrics will be changed to reflect your new status as ‘secret husband man.’”

Steve breaks, laughing and leaning on the table for support. Bucky even cracks a smile, but you try to stay neutral, to let him know you’re (mostly) serious. His eyes soften like he knows. Of course he knows– he knows you just like Steve does, by now. “Well how can I resist an offer like that?” he asks and holds out his hand for you to put on the ring.

You try to take your time, so that Steve can get over his sudden burst of amusement, but he’s still chuckling when you take your seat again. You take your wine glass and give Bucky a sympathetic look. “I wish I could tell you Steve’s proposal to me was more romantic, but it really wasn’t.”

Steve stops laughing then. “Hey…you aren’t seriously going to tell that story to everyone are you?”

You take a moment to consider. “Well, I guess orgasms can be romantic.”

Steve hides his head and Bucky laughs loudly. “Stevie you fucking cheat,” Bucky says with a wide grin and admiration in his voice.

“That wasn’t the real proposal!” Steve insists. “The real proposal was the next morning. That was…”

“Steve being unable to keep a secret to save his life,” you supplement. Steve opens his mouth and you wave him silent. “Yeah, yeah; you can work on Bucky’s proposal later. For now, eat. I worked hard on this.”

“I’ll take the orgasm proposal,” Bucky says but takes his own utensils in hand. “Is that a special I can order?”

Steve mutters under his breath and attacks his meal like it’s going to run away.  You roll your eyes but get to your food. “Dinner first, then honeymoon.” You take a bite and chew for a few seconds before you swallow and add. “And then cake.”

“The only surprise about this, is that cake is coming last,” Bucky says in amusement and follows suit.

There are so many responses to that. You, a true Hero, refrain in order to at least get through dinner and to the fun stuff without your husband and husband-to-be chucking you out of a window.

~

You get chucked onto the bed, which is way more fun and makes you laugh as Bucky grins and crawls over you in a way that should be slightly terrifying but is honestly just fucking hot, so that when he’s close enough you grab him by the shirt collar and drag him in for a kiss.

“That never gets old,” Steve murmurs, his mouth quirked in amusement as he settles in next to both of you, but his eyes are intense as he, seemingly content, watches for now. As you break for air, Bucky takes the opportunity to grab the back of Steve’s head and move in for a kiss just as hungry as the one he just gave you.

“It really, really doesn’t,” you say and lick your lips. Bucky’s attention is drawing back to you, as is Steve’s. You pull the shoulder of your shirt aside to show your bra strap and wink at Steve. His eyes go pleasantly wide.

“So we’re really doing the honeymoon, huh?” he asks, a full grin spreading across his face. Bucky looks confused, but intrigued.

“The dress is in no shape to participate, but the rest of it is fine,” you say.

“What’s this?” Bucky asks as you sit up and wrap your arms around him. Mostly to stay up– your core strength is nonexistent.

“Go on Bucky,” Steve says, laying on his side and unbuttoning his pants with one hand. “Make your wife more comfortable.”

Bucky’s eyes shine so bright looking at you that you elect to watch his hands as he starts pulling your shirt up, alternately grazing and dragging his fingers across your skin. “Don’t worry,” you say, lips turned into an expression that feels appropriately devilish. “Your husband won’t keep his hands to himself for long.”

True to form, Steve doesn’t, and soon the three of you are a tangle of limbs and love.

~

When all is said and done, you’re all in a contented pile.

Except there's one thing missing. You clear your throat. Bucky looks, but Steve doesn’t. You clear your throat again, and this time Steve lifts his head.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” you say and look at Bucky’s one-ring hand and at Steve and at the hand and at Steve and at the hand and at–

“Yeah, what the hell; I thought this was a two-spouse minimum household,” Bucky says. “How am I gonna meet my quota if you hold back on me, Rogers?”

Steve rolls his eyes and flops his hand back on the nightstand which, to you, looks suspiciously empty. “Are you sure, Buck? She’s like a five-in-one special.”

“Nice try,” Bucky says and watches Steve fumble uselessly for a nice ring that isn’t there. “I’ve been putting up with you too long to let you get outta making an honest man of me.”

Steve turns to look and sees the ring isn’t there. You glare at him but he puts his finger up while the loading widget in his brain circles– and then he digs around under his pillow. Bucky waits. You wait. Steve then pulls up his pillows and shoves his arm down the crack between the headboard and the mattress. Bucky shakes with quiet laughter and you gape. “I swear to God if you break my ring, Steven Grant Rogers…”

“The only way it’s getting broken is if it came out of a box of Cracker-Jacks,” he mutters and fishes for it.

“I thought of that but the only Cracker-Jacks I could find had stickers,” you say, not intending to admit to the five different stores you went to and examined thoroughly. You wouldn’t say you’re banned from any of them, but maybe it’s best not to go back to that Wegman’s anymore. At least, not during the night manager’s shift.

Steve stops and looks at you. “Seriously?”

“I thought it would be cute!” You cock your head at him. “Also how long have you known me that you’re still asking that?”

He grins and leans over to give you a kiss– and then props himself up on one arm as he gives Bucky a sweet smile, holding up the (slightly dusty) box. “Hey jerk.”

Bucky snorts. “Hey punk.”

Steve breaks out the soulful eyes and opens the box. “Marry me?”

You snicker to yourself and Bucky sighs as though put upon, but he holds out his hand and Steve slides the ring on. Right on top of yours. “Knew I was stuck with you when you tried to shove me and ended up right on your ass,” he says and kisses Steve. “Yes.”

~

The next morning you put down the silverware, stick Cracker-Jack stickers on their cheeks, and you all go on in your lives– as husband, husband, and wife.

~The End~

~Omake~

“Wait.” Bucky looks at the rings, then at you. “How did you get my measurements?”

You smile sweetly.

Steve stares at you, and sighs. “Did you have Natasha break in again?”

“No.” They stare at you. “Really!” More staring. “…Maybe.” They glare at you. “It’s Russian Spy Enrichment!” You throw up your hands. “God forbid I help out my friends.”

Both of them groan. It’s okay– as far as you’re concerned, they’re stuck with you.

~ The End (for real!)~

[nehswritesstuffs]

A Bad Walk and An Even Worse Time

Sometimes I wonder why in the hell I write something and this is one of those times, lol

5176 words; shoutout to the dude who I saw regular golfing on the way home once in full Luffy cosplay (and shoutout to the club for letting him in lol); I’m overdue for a full-on sports AU but take this instead; apologies in advance at golf of all things but you know how it is; your mileage may vary at some of the relationships I’ve thrown in here but I also vary on them so no worries; related to the Adventures with the Denizens of 1000 Sunny Rd. series, which you don't need to necessarily read to understand this one (for reference, the other fics are here [FFN], here [FFN], and here [FFN] as well) just know it's a modern Midwestern-ish AU where LawNa is an established thing and the Sunny is a sus af party house

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

For what it was worth, Zoro did not usually get terribly upset. A little cranky? Of course. That was almost expected when most of his sleep came from naps and the fact his adoptive pains-in-the-ass were always on his case about shit. “Zozo, you need to bathe more” and “Zoro, you need to consider a career instead of a job” and “why are you no longer cute, Zozo” filled the time he was with his family, which explained why he was at 1000 Sunny Rd. most days. The rest of the people lurking around the Sunny knew that if he chose to suffer through an extended period of Nami’s nagging with the rest of them, it was bound to be a doozy at home he was avoiding between his creepy vampire adoptive dad and the shrill, high-maintenance banshee that he was supposed to refer to as his sister.

Except this time, what he was avoiding had been tasked to him.

“Ah, fuck,” he cussed as he checked his phone. Zoro threw it across the living room and into a far couch, which was not normal for him. He sulked over towards the kitchen island and slumped down on a chair, hiding in his hoodie.

“What the fuck’s up with you, mossbrains?” Sanji frowned. He didn’t like Zoro being there for too long, especially since he was going on his fourth day of no showering, for the love of food safety…

“Mihawk wants me to put together a couple foursomes and he keeps bugging me about it,” Zoro grunted. Usopp and Franky both exchanged cautious looks from either side of the island, food stuffed in their mouths—Mihawk wanted what…?!

“You… uh… gonna elaborate on that, bro?” Franky wondered cautiously. Zoro was silent on the matter, only looking up when Sanji put a protein shake in front of him.

“It’s golf, right?” the blond asked. Zoro nodded silently and waited for Sanji to place a silicone straw in the shake before taking it and drinking while sulking some more. Usopp laughed nervously, almost relieved.

“Why on earth would Mihawk want you to get a bunch of people together to play golf?” he wondered. “Doesn’t golf involve, like, you know, being outside? I thought that was the exact opposite of his thing.”

“It’s his main form of being outside,” Zoro complained, “and there’s a charity circle-jerk and he promised to bring people.”

“That would involve him having friends,” Sanji noted, “which is something he lacks while his son has in spades.”

“Well, I’m glad it’s just golf, but you’re gonna have to count me out,” Franky said. “Golf is a no-go for me—I’ve been banned from courses in the area for being too super of a guy.”

“You’ve been banned from golf courses?” Usopp wrinkled his nose in thought. “Wait… which ones?”

Franky simply grinned as he took a sip of his pop. Okay. Fine. Keep your secrets.

“Does Mihawk know what he’s asking for though?” Sanji asked. “I mean… it’s us we’re talking about.”

“What are you talking about, Sanji-kun?” The guys all looked to find that Nami and Robin had both walked into the kitchen-living room area, a freshly-rescued-from-med-school Chopper right behind them.

“Oh, nothing to worry about my dears,” Sanji crooned as he set snacks down for the newcomers. “Marimo here is just complaining about his old man making him do shit for once.”

“If it’s golf, then you can count on me,” Usopp bragged. “Why, I was winning pro-am tournaments when I was just a little kid! Had to drop it because they kept barring me from competing, but I’m sure they will have forgotten the ban by now!” Chopper’s eyes glinted in admiration as he sucked down his milk.

“Golf…?” Nami raised her eyebrow critically. “What possessed the brooding vampire-goth man to get into golf of all things?”

“High SPFs, umbrellas, and business bullshit that apparently only happens on the course,” Zoro grumbled. He finished off his protein shake and handed the glass back to Sanji as he sat upright. “I don’t know anyone who fucking golfs! How am I going to get seven people who golf just to please his prissy ass?!”

“Well, you already got Usopp,” Franky noted, “and Robin’s not been banned like me.”

“This is true—I worked a few odd jobs growing up, and one of them was as a caddy—it helped get me a scholarship for college.”

“A golf scholarship?”

“No,” Robin replied, her smile unknowable. Usopp shuddered—he had to ask, didn’t he?

“I’ll do it if Robin’s doing it,” Nami agreed. It was then that Sanji came out from behind the counter in a flurry of emotion, taking the redhead’s hand and kissing the back of it.

“If Nami-swan and Robin-chan are participating, then I will too~!” he crooned. “We can be in a group together!”

“He just wants to see them in short skirts, doesn’t he?” Usopp mused aloud. Zoro nodded in agreement, which got both of them lumps on the head courtesy of the chef. The three became so involved in fighting that they didn’t even notice that someone else walked into the conversation, interest immediately piqued.

“Shishishishi—I’m in!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was a few days later and most of the Straw Hats were at a putt-putt adventure golf course after-hours, the guy who ran the thing owing Luffy a favor or five. How that was the case, no one wanted to know, but they were going to take advantage of it anyhow. Usopp stood at a chalkboard near the entrance; usually the board was filled with upcoming events and birthday wishes for parties coming through, but this time it was filled with equations and graphs that he drew up on the spot from the golfing theory book he had open in his hand.

“If we’re going to win this thing, it’s going to involve a lot of finesse and concentrating on how our bodies move,” he said to a… less than receptive audience. While Robin seemed interested enough, Zoro and Sanji were about to fight (again), Nami seemed bored, and Luffy and Brook were too distracted by the moths beginning to flap about the lights.

“You just asked a bunch of people who don’t math to do math,” Nami pointed out. Usopp knew she was right—the two of them did math all the time, while it seemed like a foreign concept to most of the others. “You’re at least following, right, Robin?”

“My areas of expertise involve the humanities, mainly history, sociology, and anthropology, so I’m following as closely as I can,” Robin admitted. A chill ran down Nami and Usopp’s spines—if they lost Robin, they were doomed. “We’re mainly here to work on our putting, which is something that trips up even the most skilled of professionals, as the amount of force and aim required needs to be precise in order to sink the ball.”

Usopp let out a breath of relief—thank fuck someone was taking this seriously.

“I’m precise,” Zoro claimed. “I’m so fucking precise I can wipe the floor with this asshole.”

“Wipe the floor?!” Sanji scoffed. “Do you even know how to golf?!”

“Yeah! You hit the ball and get it in the hole! You’re not the only one who suffered through rich kid bullshit, Swirls!”

“Oh, don’t even go there!”

“Or what?! You’ll try to throw your daddy issues around?! Like I care!”

“Ladies, please,” Usopp deadpanned. “We all know you both know how to play golf. This meeting is to make sure that we all practice our putting, short game, and all the more scientific parts of the game in order to prevent a case of the yips. The only one of us who doesn’t know what any of this is…” He looked off to the side, with the others following his line of vision.

That’s right. Luffy.

“Hey everyone, look at this neat bug I found!” Luffy grinned. He went over towards the rest of his friends with his hands cupped together; Sanji and Nami both hid behind Zoro in anticipation, while Robin and Brook simply chuckled.

“That’s very nice, Luffy,” Usopp frowned, “but what are you going to do about the golf tournament we’re helping Zoro not ruin? You need to be paying attention so you know the rules.”

“Oh, those; they’re boring.” Usopp hit his own face with his palm out of frustration. “It sounds like it’s all made up anyhow.”

“If you don’t even care about the rules, then why are you participating in the first place?!” Sanji asked from the safety of behind Zoro’s shoulder. Luffy simply turned towards them, bug still in-hands and making Sanji and Nami shiver.

“I thought it would be fun,” he beamed. “It’s a bunch of stuffy people who care about rules, so what better fun than doing it our way instead?”

“Luffy has a point,” Brook mentioned. “You wouldn’t believe the amount of rules that have been relaxed since I was your age. You can say the game was getting a little… moribund.”

“Quit the crap and let’s get on with the lessons!” Nami snapped, refusing to come out from behind Zoro’s other shoulder. “Let the bug go!”

“…but Naaaaamiiiii…”

“Luffy, she’s right, you’re going to need to concentrate for this one,” Usopp agreed. “We’re not doing this because we want to flout the rules, but because if Zoro doesn’t come up with seven people to join him, then Mihawk is going to be extra insufferable.”

“Yeah… that wouldn’t be very fun for Zoro, would it?” Luffy decided. He then stopped and counted everyone there: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… “Wait, seven people total or seven more people?”

“We’re working on one more, now just focus,” Usopp said, tapping the chalkboard with his fingers. Between Chopper having school and Jinbe not knowing if he could get the time off work and Franky being banned from the sport of golf in perpetuity (how the fuck??? Why the fuck??? Wait, scratch that; he didn’t want to know), Usopp wasn’t sure whether or not one of them was going to need to call in a favor aside from the one currently in the works. “The Usopp School of Golf and Putting will make a golfer of you yet!”

How was that easily one of his biggest lies to-date? No one really knew.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was taking everything in Usopp’s power to not scream at the top of his lungs in frustration. Although Nami and Robin were both paying attention and subsequently began sinking many a putt, it wasn’t as though everyone else was taking his lessons as seriously. Sanji and Zoro kept fighting, Luffy kept getting distracted, and Brook was enabling in a bad way.

“Yohoho, good one, Luffy!” Brook cheered, watching as Luffy’s ball bounced around their surroundings. It eventually plopped itself onto the carpet of fake grass, rolling gently until it nestled itself in the cup at the end of the seventeenth hole.

Unfortunately, they were supposed to be on the tenth.

“Why do you keep doing that…?” Usopp groaned. “You’re supposed to aim for that hole,” he gestured with his putter, “not any of the others. You can’t just pick random holes to tee off into on a full-sized course!”

“That’s no fun,” Luffy pouted. “You said he wants to go home! So I let him go to the home he wants!”

“No,” Usopp said while trying to not grind his teeth, “the ball’s home is whichever hole you’re on. Stop keep trying to get it in the pirate ship!”

“…but I like the pirate ship!”

“I know you like the pirate ship, but you can’t always try to sink the putt at the pirate ship. That’s not how the game works. There’s not even a pirate ship at the regular golf course.”

“Well, that’s stupid,” Luffy pouted. “What’s the fun in golf if there aren’t even any pirate ships?”

“Wandering around, getting fresh air, testing your skills in both long and short game…”

“Meh; sounds like they wanted to make going on a walk worse.” Usopp opened his mouth to counter that, but stopped when he heard Nami and Robin both stifle a snicker. How in the hell was he this under-appreciated? “Can I just pretend it’s just the pirate ship for now? I dunno how much boring golfing I’m gonna be doing anyhow.”

Forget screaming: Usopp was ready to start sobbing.

“No, because you need to be better at more than just the pirate ship!” Usopp snapped, his voice cracking. “It’s more than just the pirate ship, you can’t use three clubs at once, there’s no kicking allowed, and we’re not allowed to use the course as a venue for any sort of musical performance while golfing as a means of distraction! Do I make myself clear?!”

A chorus of grumbling came from his friends.

“Alright! Now let’s get back to putting!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It was finally—finally—the day of the charity golf outing. The weather was cooperating at Goa Hills Golf Course and Country Club, a sprawling thirty-six-hole behemoth, which was filled to the gills with wealthy golf-nuts and those who happened to be roped into their antics via work or circumstance. Zoro was sulking off in a corner of the clubhouse before everything was opened, alongside Luffy, Sanji, and Usopp. Brook was there as well, but was off keeping an eye out for Nami, Robin, and whomever they were bringing along as the final piece to their puzzle.

“This is so fucking stupid,” Zoro groused. “Mihawk just wants to torture me.”

“Torture us,” Usopp hissed. He and Sanji were attempting to keep Luffy from attacking the snack table that had been set up on the other side of the room.

“As long as I get to play with Nami and Robin, this will all be worth it,” Sanji said. “Seeing them in those skirts will allow me to die happy~!”

“What skirts?”

“Of course a repressed mess like you wouldn’t understand: playing golf means a dress code, right?”

Usopp frowned, unimpressed with the assessment. “Yeah. Why else were we able to get Luffy in a collared shirt?”

“Well, ladies…” Sanji’s face contorted as he focused in on his mental fantasy. “Ladies have to wear short skirts while on the course! It’s the rules!”

“You need to get laid,” both Zoro and Usopp said simultaneously. Sanji scowled and let go of Luffy, which allowed the individual in question to break free and begin assaulting the breakfast bar.

“Jerk!” Usopp hissed. “We’re here to help Zoro, not help him get into trouble!”

“At least it won’t be eating Mihawk out of house and home,” Sanji shrugged. Usopp took a deep breath to steady himself—if all his work was going to be for nothing…

“Guys! Guy! Guys!” The trio looked out into the crowd and saw Brook coming their way in an absolute panic. He reached them and seemed to be almost in tears. “I’ve got some bad news!”

“What’s the matter?” Usopp asked.

“Don’t tell me that the eighth didn’t show up,” Zoro scowled.

“Even worse!” Brook shuddered as he prepared to levy the news. “It’s Nami and Robin!”

“Are they alright?!” Sanji asked, instantly becoming defensive. “If someone dared to touch a hair on their heads, I’ll…!”

“Oh, it’s nothing like that!” Brook insisted. “It’s just…!”

“What in the hell are you doing?!” Nami’s voice could barely be heard over the din of the clubhouse as she pushed her way through the other participants. She and Robin soon reached their friends, only for Sanji to gape in horror.

Capris. Cut to just above the calf. Not skirts. Pants.

Nami and Robin were in pants.

This was not going to be worth it.

“What in the hell is wrong with you, Brook?” Nami demanded. “Why’d you take off and abandon us?!”

“I got you here, didn’t I?!” Brook replied, affronted. Nami turned towards the others and flicked on her billion-watt smile.

“There you are, Sanji-kun,” she beamed. “I was hoping you’d be able to get my rental clubs from the pro shop. There’s a reservation already for them.”

“Why certainly, Nami-swan~!” Sanji replied, mood turning on a dime. He went off into the crowd with a flourish, completely ignoring the fact that he went right by a flustered Law as the latter was fighting his way through the crowd in an effort to get to the Straw Hats.

“Oh good, you weren’t eaten alive by the country club’s colony of rabid groundhogs,” Robin smirked. Law wanted to give her at least one middle finger, but was already too exhausted for before eight in the morning.

“All of you owe me, big time,” he grumbled, “especially you, Roronoa-ya. I could be literally anywhere but here.”

“You and me both,” the green-haired man fired back. “Gonna hang this over Mihawk’s head for long as I can.”

“That won’t work and we all know it,” Nami reminded him. They all silently agreed on that front—for some reason all of the adoptive pains-in-the-asses were collectively very, very weird and mostly unflappable. It was just that by some unfortunate turn of events that Zoro specifically landed where he was and now it was everyone’s duty to suffer through it.

A crash could be heard and a distant voice began threatening someone whose name sounded incredibly like Luffy. It was better to let that lie where it was; nothing good came from interfering with Luffy and food.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Even though Zoro knew how to play golf, it was definitely not his favorite thing in the world. It wasn’t his most-hated thing, but definitely not by much. He felt constrained, it looked like the park space was being wasted, and he couldn’t even drive through the swans that were terrorizing the third hole even though they were just honking assholes with wings.

“Stupid cook—you can’t smoke here,” he growled. The pair were watching as Law was getting ready to tee off for them, Luffy having already vanished into some bushes like a cryptid in a polo shirt, and now Sanji was indulging in his most effective vice.

“It’s either this or I murder everyone,” the blond sniped back. Fuck, Luffy was taking a long time to resurface. “Hey, I know you know how I got the geezer, but how’d you get your adoptive asshat?”

“Parents knew him somehow; I dunno, I was a kid when it happened,” Zoro scoffed. He guessed he could let Sanji power through a smoke or two—the idiot chef was without Nami and Robin, after all. “Same with Perona’s dad, I guess. I don’t think Mihawk ever imagined that the favors would be cashed because one month his mansion is perfect and silent, and the next had me and Perona arguing. Loud.”

Law hit the ball and it went a decent distance—stayed fairly straight too.

“Not that I can blame her,” Sanji scoffed. “I bet you were a shit as a tween.”

“As though you weren’t? I think I still have the geezer’s phone number; he can verify.”

“Fuck off.” Law returned to their golf cart and put the driver in with the rest of his rental set. “Did you at least see where it went?”

“Yeah; we might actually make it out of here alive if we take turns being Strawhat-ya,” he replied. Law then took a quick look around. “He hasn’t come back yet?”

“Nope,” Sanji and Zoro said in unison.

“Fuck,” Law cussed. “If we don’t find him soon, he’s gonna terrorize whatever kid they’ve got manning the beer cart thinking there’s food there.”

“I say let him,” Sanji shrugged. “It’s not like we’re paying for this disaster of an outing.”

“Make Mihawk regret it,” Zoro added. “See if he asks me for another favor again.”

“I thought the object of this was to get in, golf, get out, and make it so that we don’t get noticed by Mihawk’s weird business associates or anyone else who might be a pain in our asses,” Law frowned. “Cora-san’s brother has been known to come here when he’s in-town—we need to keep a low profile. Can any of you handle that?”

“I know I can, but I don’t know if the moss-for-brains is capable of that, considering how we need to escort him around everywhere,” Sanji said as he got in the driver’s seat and turned on the cart.

“What the fuck are you saying, curls? That I can’t find my way around?! I can do that just fine!” Zoro sat in the front passenger seat, the pair immediately butting heads in the latest round of their constant, figurative dick-measuring.

Law screamed inwardly as he tried to not cry getting into one of the cart’s back seats; the mind-melting sex he was promised was not going to be worth this.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Robin and Brook were standing to the side of the putting green, watching as Usopp was measuring and calculating the sort of putt Nami was going to need to pull off in order to sink the ball. Nami herself was standing next to the ball, tapping her foot impatiently.

“Will you cut that out?” she scowled. “Any longer and we’re going to get people wanting to play through.”

“This is for double-birdie, Nami!” Usopp replied as he laid down on the green to measure at eye-level. “This will help keep us in competitive range! These don’t often happen with golfers of our casual nature! We gotta make this count!”

“Uh… I think you mean eagle not double-birdie,” Brook cut in. Usopp and Nami both glared at him, making him flinch. How scary!

“Usopp, I think I can math my own way out of this one and not ruin Robin’s lucky shot,” Nami grumbled. “You’re making too big a deal out of this.”

“Listen, Nami,” Usopp said, “we all know that you are really good at math, but we also know that I’m better at math and physics. It has nothing to do with making you feel stupid. Because you’re not. You’re terrifyingly smart.”

“Mmm-hmm,” she frowned. “You just don’t want to get murdered in your sleep.”

“That is always a goal, yeah.” He got up and went to go stand by Robin and Brook. “Okay—one of your normal putts should do it.”

“I could have told you that,” Nami deadpanned. She went to putt, only for an unexpected voice to cut through the air and make her overshoot in surprise.

“NAAMII!” Luffy shouted. Nami and Usopp both cringed—how the fuck did he escape the others? Everyone looked to see Luffy approaching via the beer cart, where he was sitting in the passenger seat munching on chips while… wait… Koby was driving the cart?!

“I always suspected the police department to not pay a living wage,” Robin noted as the cart stopped next to them. Koby shook his head.

“I’m undercover… kinda,” he admitted. “There’s a lot of varying movers and shakers participating in this tournament, and Commissioner Sengoku wants me to keep an eye out.” He then gestured to Luffy. “Where does he go so I can drop him off?”

“With Zoro, Sanji, and Torao,” Nami said. She leaned in to Luffy, who tried to ignore her glare. “Why aren’t you with them?”

“Golf is boring,” Luffy admitted, “and I have a lot more fun hanging out with Koby anyhow! We’re gonna go catch some weirdos being weird.”

“I thought you were going to keep an eye on Torao for me,” Nami scolded. “What’s going to happen if we leave him alone? There’s weirdos here that might want him for themselves and then no more Torao at the Sunny.”

“I dunno,” he shrugged. “He’s with Zoro and Sanji though, so I’d say they’re all pretty safe from weirdos.” Luffy then noticed that Usopp was laying down on the grass. “What’s the matter?”

“We just lost a major shot thanks to you…” Usopp whined. “The only way we’re going to make that up is if we score a triple-eagle on the next one!”

“I wouldn’t count on that,” Robin said. “Those are incredibly rare. They’ve never been accomplished in professional play.”

“Yeah—the only way to get a condor would probably be to cheat, and I don’t know if we want to do that,” Brook added. He handed Koby some money and the young man passed him a juice box, which he proceeded to drink loudly. “At least, I wouldn’t do that here.”

“Mr. Soul King’s right,” Koby said. “We can’t lose our heads just because we want to stay ahead in the game! There’s villains out there that we have to catch!”

“You didn’t hear a word I said, did you?” Brook deadpanned. Koby didn’t seem to listen, as there seemed to be stars glinting in his eyes.

“Come on, Luffy! What do you say?”

In his defense, Luffy did seem to think about it. He thought for only a few seconds before a spine-chilling grin crept across his face.

“Nope!”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Dracule Mihawk was irritated. It took a lot of nonsense at once to get him irritated, honestly, for if there was one thing that keeping the brats in his home did for him was turn his nonsense threshold terribly high. There was also the fact that many of his business associates were—unfortunately—absolute goons that made him question the hierarchy of who was able to move up in the world and who was kept down. He tolerated them at best, especially on days where he was made to do social activities.

Even a bottomless wine tumbler could not change the fact that his present company was… lurid.

“Just take the shot already,” he droned. Buggy flinched from his spot over on the fairway—he was in the middle of adjusting his stance, which had been going on for two minutes too long.

“Watch out; you’re going to spook him,” Crocodile chuckled. The pair were sitting in the front seats of their cart while Galdino was standing next to the vehicle. “Do that and we might have to record a mulligan.”

“I don’t care; this is wearing on my nerves,” Mihawk replied. He took another sip from the tumbler and hoped the chilled compartment in his bag was keeping the rest of his very necessary bottle intact and a decent temperature, even with the sun. “How do you do it?”

“Honestly? I’m just glad I can use him as a human shield,” Galdino shrugged. “He’s almost the perfect decoy.”

“Hey, I heard that!” Buggy snapped. “If you’re such big shots, then why am I even here?!”

“…because we’re trying to network through charity events,” Galdino reminded him. “We have to look legitimate, remember? That involves shit like this sometimes.”

“…or would you rather default on that money you owe me and have the next decade of your life be a living hell?” Crocodile threatened with a grin on his face. Buggy swallowed hard while Mihawk sighed in distaste; the other man certainly had a way to make things so base. “What? You mean you wouldn’t want to watch him squirm?”

“At least don’t shout it out to the entire course,” Mihawk replied. He adjusted the umbrella that was shielding him from the partly-cloudy skies and grunted. “I wonder how Zoro’s doing, if making his friends come along has made him behave.”

“I don’t care to find out,” Crocodile scoffed. “That brat’s still on my shit list, as are all his friends. It’s a bad idea if you ask me.” He went to light another cigar and Mihawk’s lip curled.

“You smell enough like those things; you don’t need a refresher.”

“If you can drink, then I can smoke,” he grumbled. “It’s only fair dealing with this shit.” Crocodile gestured towards Buggy with his now-lit cigar.

“Why am I here…?!” Buggy sniffled. “I don’t even like golf!”

“Just hit the ball,” Mihawk, Crocodile, and Galdino said in unison.

“Fine! You want me to hit the ball?! I’ll hit the fucking ball!” Buggy took a running start and smacked the ball as heard as he could; ball, turf, and club alike soared into the air, making his companions groan in frustration. They all kept their eyes on the ball, however, watching as it plopped onto the putting green and… “Wait, what the fuck, did that just go into its home?!”

“It’s called ‘the hole’, you idiot, and it looks like you did,” Crocodile replied, almost impressed.

“So I got a hole in one?!”

“No, but you did get something,” Galdino muttered. He did the quick math and an even quicker lookup on his phone. “Apparently this is called a double-eagle! You’re three strokes under par!”

“Fuck yeah!” Buggy pumped his fist and started a victory dance, in which Galdino joined in. Crocodile simply chuckled as he wrote down the score, while Mihawk took a swig of wine.

“Of course he scored an albatross,” Mihawk sulked. “He is the bloody albatross.”

“He’s something alright,” Crocodile laughed. He and Mihawk watched the victory celebration for only a moment before he raised his voice slightly. “Get in the car and let’s confirm that hole-in-two.”

Buggy did not seem to hear him, continuing to dance to a song being played on an imaginary speaker. He was so engrossed in dancing, however, that he completely missed the fact that the beer cart was coming his way… or that it honked… or that it was about to run him over until he was clipped by the cart, its teenaged driver laughing mirthfully as he sped away on the now-ruined fairway.

“Sorry ‘bout that!” Luffy shouted. “You should probably pay attention!”

“Ow! Fuck! Watch where you’re going you!” Buggy was in the process of being helped up by Galdino when he saw his assailant: wide grin, polo shirt ripped at the sleeves, sandals, jorts cut off at the knee, a straw hat… oh, his blood boiled. “I’m gonna get you, you little shitstain!”

“Oh, that’s tempting,” Crocodile noted. He then watched as Koby ran after the beer cart, his attempt to catch up on foot not entirely feeble in execution. “Ah, one of Garp’s pets is here anyhow. That’s not a lot of fun.”

“Could be,” Mihawk shrugged. “Depends on how you look at it.”

“I evade taxes, not back pain; let them sort it out.” Crocodile saw that Buggy was not yet back on his feet, which was frankly irritating. “Get back in the cart, dumbass, or we’ll leave you behind!”

“I think that idiot broke my ankle!”

“Walk it off!”

“Easy for you to say!” Buggy grumbled under his breath the entire time Galdino helped him hobble to the cart, hissing in pain as he was deposited into his seat. “You couldn’t have gone and, you know, picked me up?”

“Waste of battery.”

“This bitch has a solar panel roof.” Crocodile said nothing as he turned on the cart and began to drive away. “Can we at least stop to grab my club? It’s a rental.”

Eh; he guessed he didn’t mind that much.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

A/N: For those who might not know, referring to something as an albatross that’s not, you know, the actual bird means that something is a burden. A person can also be considered an albatross, but it also can mean the person’s an idiot.

[mintywolf]

A Long Road Home - Author Notes

Page 14

I’m so glad these two touch-starved neruodisasters found each other.

Regardless of how familiar you are with some of my other work you can probably guess who her is. It’s been 31 years since she’s had a hug and the last one ended VERY POORLY. :C And it’s been up to 8 years since anyone has voluntarily gone near Imogen.

I just realized I’ve been neglecting to make it clear that Pâté’s dialogue is actually coming from Laudna, oops. All his text bubbles have been pointing to him. (She’s just a really good ventriloquist, had a long time to practice.) But it’s an important distinction here because she’s using him to communicate while she’s too overwhelmed and uncomfortable to speak about herself. This is mostly extrapolation/headcanon on my part; although she does have him talk about her a few times in canon (mainly about his own origins) it isn’t because she was reluctant to do so herself. But I kinda wonder about the repercussions of him having his own voice now that he’s her familiar and not a puppet she can speak through, having that means of expression cut off from her.

I also want to take a moment to say that I’m really, truly touched by how warmly this comic has been received! It means a lot to me to know that people are looking forward to it every week.

When I was about middle school age I had to learn to curb my enthusiasm for my creative projects because I used to get in trouble when I got too excited or talkative about something I was interested in or working on. My mother would get not just impatient but punitively ANGRY about it. (Which hurt because at the time a lot of it wasn’t fandom but original stories and characters and worlds and mythologies that I’d created and was building with my friends.) She used to call me into her room and tell me “You just go on and on and ON” and that no one in the family wanted to hear it, and my friends weren’t really interested in all of this and were just humoring me. If she thought I was getting too obsessed with something she’d limit my access to it and didn’t let me visit my friends’ houses too often because she was afraid their parents would think I was weird. So I learned to keep how much I care about anything to myself. (In retrospect it’s now pretty obvious to me that there’s some undiagnosed neurodivergence here that she was just not equipped to parent, but at the time it was very damaging, especially since she didn’t treat my neurotypical siblings the same way and let them happily obsess over boybands and middle school drama.)

(And nowadays she’s pretty much chilled out about it, although I am still careful to hide my interests from her. She knows I have them, but she doesn’t know how deeply I’m involved or how much they mean to me. One notable exception was a few months ago when I came back from a convention where I’d cosplayed as Matilda and she wanted to know what my costume was and I couldn’t explain without delving into the seven layer cake of Backstory there, haha. But she was kind of bemusedly tolerant about it. Also if I emotionally damaged you at PAX Unplugged in Philadelphia last December, hi!)

All this is not to say Woe Is Me but to explain that to this day, every time, I have to punch through a wall of anxiety to put my work out there, especially something as emotionally charged and heartfelt as this, because I can’t interact with anyone without her voice in my head like Delilah freaking Briarwood telling me that no one else is really interested. I have a hard time participating in fandom spaces and discussions because even though I know we’re all there because we are rabid about the same thing I still worry that people aren’t going to care about what I have to say. Sometimes I’ll post on discord and then immediately delete it because I’m afraid I’m imposing even though I know I’m allowed to be there. :|

So, if you’re reading this, thank you. I love you! All of you!! It means so, so much to me to be creating something that is wanted and enjoyed. <3

[0-scorch-the-earth-0]

Ooo you’re rewriting Recalibrate?

Kinda!

Essentially, yes, but it’s not the same recalibrate from before. I’m currently working on making a slightly new title, like “Recalibrated” or “Recalibrate Me”. I want to make the fanfic I originally intended to set out to make. A story of love, grief, and the power of growing with someone by your side.

I have a good description of what exactly I’m doing with recalibrate in a recent update of the fanfic. I’ll just copy paste what’s there and put it here for y’all to see 💕💕

Also, I was rewriting Recalibrate chapter by chapter there for a little while before I got too overwhelmed. It’s rewritten up to chapter 6, with better writing and some added scenes, so I highly suggest checking that out!!!

Also also, I wrote a preface to my notes release (which will make sense after reading what is below). It felt like a very important message, so I’ll copy that too.

The update I posted in Recalibrate:

Hey there, all!

It’s been… QUITE awhile since an update. I hope this email finds you all well <3

I’m unsure how many times I’m going to make this apology. It certainly has been too many times to count. But I’ll give it anyway; I’m sorry for disappearing on this story yet again. It’s both unfair to my unwavering readers and to my characters themselves.

I could make the excuse that life has been crazy. Which in all fairness, it has. I got engaged to the person I wrote about in an update so long ago (we’ve been together for over 5 years now!), we bought our first house, I got a stable job at a library, I’ve become way more invested in my cosplaying, I’ve made tons of friends, and I’m just generally more happy now than I ever was before! Which I guess brings me to my next talking point?

I wrote Recalibrate during a time in my life where there was a lot going wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about what I was going through, but it’s safe to say a lot of it came out in my writing. I was mentally unhappy, my parents controlled every aspect of my life (I was writing and posting Recalibrate in secret, as there was a strict “no technology” rule for me in my household growing up), and the only relationship I was allowed to have (straight!) at the time quickly became toxic and made me feel unworthy to be living. I’m sure some of that bled through into the plot of Recalibrate. That coupled with my immaturity meant there were a lot of things both added and missed in the story that didn’t aid it.

For example, the seamless set-up of Zane coming to terms with his artificialness as being something to respect and accept about himself would have led to some powerful character development, but instead I chose to have an ending where he gets magic-ed into being human. Doesn’t make sense to what Zane’s character needed to learn about himself as I know it to be now. And it was also a clear attempt to give myself an example of someone who successfully does not deal with their internal issues and just waits for enough self-sacrifice to happen before they are free of what ailed them without doing any introspection on their self-loathing :D And then for some reason, I also felt the necessity to add a big bad (Morro) into the story, and I distinctly remember thinking “well all good stories have a big bad, so I have to”, not comprehending that sometimes, a story can just be about two characters having issues and growing together. These are just tiny details of what I’m talking about. That’s not even bringing about that my romance writing was, looking back on it, stunted and skittish. Unrealistic. But I can’t blame my younger self. I never knew what an actual relationship, with real attraction and love and trust, looked like until I started living on my own and met my now-fiancé. Back then, I was just trying to do what everyone else was, not realizing until later that I’m not broken and that I literally was just a gay kid trying to pretend at being straight.

This is all to say that, this morning I woke up with a sore throat and sniffles, 5 days before my 25th birthday, saw some anonymous person had left kudos on Recalibrate, and decided to figure out what had really gone wrong in my motivation and love for this story (after chugging DayQuil of course).

You might not like what I have in mind for this story.

A lot of you loved Morro, and I’ll admit I loved my characterization of him and Archer and Bansha. I liked the lore I created for them and the dynamic the trio quickly settled itself into. But everytime I went to continue the rewrite for Recalibrate, this huge plot that I had devised as a 14 year old child would stare me down and make the task feel virtually impossible. I mean, I didn’t even get half way through my planned story, and that was before I started rewriting and adding even more things.

My plans were ambitious. And they were made without knowing myself, my limits, my desires; they were made without relying on my strengths as a writer. I was trying to do what everyone else did, and I wasn’t aware yet that my best writing has always come from character focused introspection and slowly budding romance, not from action or complicated puzzle-like plots.

So, I’m thinking about getting rid of the Morro stuff. I wrote such an idea in a rewrite note back in 2021. In fact, that was the last thing I wrote, before I likely became too heartbroken or too worried about disappointing you all that I didn’t reopen my notes document until today. But in order to deliver a story that I have promised for over a decade, I think I know what needs to be done.

I have notes, so many notes, on what the story would’ve been. Sometimes, when I’d lost hope that I could ever finish the story, I’d think about posting all those notes here for all of you as a declaration of me ending my long hiatus with one last “sorry”.

But I owe younger me more than that. I owe you all more than that. I owe the fandom that raised me more than that. And I’ll be honest when I say I don’t think younger me would’ve been all too upset about me scrapping the large plot I gave myself. After all, this fic was only originally supposed to be an explanation as to what happened to Dr. Julien, written before I even shipped Glacier.

If you mourn the old Recalibrate and the plot an on-the-whole different person made, I’m deeply sorry. If seeing the notes of all that would’ve occurred in the old plot would ease your grief, please let me know. As it is currently, I’m contemplating making another A03 fic as an archive with the chapters I will be deleting, as well as with the notes that would’ve carried me to the end, had I been built for writing extensive plots. Let me know if that interests you.

From here on out, I want to write the story I intended. I want to write the story that my heart wants to write, instead of the story my brain thinks people want. These characters have been banging on my ribcage for ages, begging to be let out and finally be written to an end. I will try my best to listen to them. I hope you all will still want to journey with me.

Thank you all <3

-Matty

The Preface I posted in Ao3 along with my first revealed notes:

In creating a closure to my original Recalibrate story, I’ve decided my first entry to be on the most vital page of my notes, of which I referenced more than any other page. The “End Goals” page, I called it. This page was written on 1/20/16, which was 17 days after I posted the first chapter on FanFiction.net (A fun factoid, which I am unsure how many of you know: I was posting Recalibrate almost a whole year before moving it over to Archive of Our Own. I didn’t know about Ao3 at the time, mainly because I wasn’t even allowed to be on the internet, and barely had enough time to sneak a post on ffn, let alone research other sites I could share my story to).

The end goals served as a road map for me, the writer. And for you, the reader, I assume they serve as somewhat of a table of contents for the updates ahead. A taste of where the story was going, and where it was to end up. For some of you, this very broad summary that follows below may be all you need to sate your curiosity. It gives no exact details. No play by play. Some of you may appreciate that more. If so, I’m glad to satiate you. But for those of you who wanted to know the specific details, the “who dies”, the “how”, I will be making further updates that include chapter specific notes, overarching plot notes, and even a map I drew (if I can figure out how to attach images to Ao3 chapters, that is).

For those of you who wish to keep the story forever a mystery, I appreciate that just as equally. But I suggest you should stop reading soon, then, because for all intents and purposes, we are now entering spoiler territory. If you can even call it that.

However you wish to consume the following content, I want to thank all of you. The comments, the kudos, the support, the dms on Insta and Tumblr; it has been everything to me. I never forget each person who has reached out to me saying I got them through hard times, sometimes that I saved their life. That my writing is their nostalgia, their safe space. I can never express how deeply impacted I am that my writing had such a profound meaning to many of my readers. And, of course, beyond. I remember, way back in the day, the author of then-not-written Chips and Salsa reaching out to me and saying they were inspired by Recalibrate in some way, shape, or form to begin writing a Glacier Fanfic. Which then became the most prolific fanfic of glaciershipping in probably the history of glaciershipping.

My impact has been greater than any scope I could have possibly imagined. I will never, ever take that for granted. I’m so grateful for the role I have been able to play in your lives. I hope, of course, that you may join me on my next journey. But if not, if this is where we part, I just wanted to remind you how special you are. How much you matter. And how grateful I am for your presence in this world, and the small slice of your life that you offered to me in spending your time to read my story, and to read this.

Remember: Ninja. Never. Quit. <3

[zanshlou]

Been a while since I’ve posted something related to XIV so here’s some Carmina. There was something about next patch using portraits for more dungeons and stuff or something? I dono I don’t really pay attention to announcements and just skim patch notes for stuff I care about when things actually come out but I heard something about this and decided that I needed to go in and make portaits for every class. This also resulted in me tweaking a couple glams and making a few new ones. Sadly I use two of my glam plats for my Crafter and Gatherer glams so MNK/SAM and DRG/RPR have to share outfits for now. PLEASE SE I just need 2 more glam plates (though also like a nice rounded 5 would be nice to keep holiday outfits separate on). Anyways random details about all the tweaks and new outfits (along with some of my general long winded ramblings) below the cut I guess.

So SCH, RDM, MCH, and NIN got completely new looks. My old SCH was too close in color and used a lot of the same pieces as my SGE look I put together for story this expansion so it had to go. RDM used a top that I had modded and so didn’t look right anymore. The top it has WAS originally on my new MCH look but I had shifted that to be more pirate-y and still wanted to use the top and it looks great in red. NIN was going to get a modified version of a Cait Sith cosplay I put together for a group Halloween shot my FC did but then I realized when lookig through stuff that I had the Neo-Ishgardian top and that plan went out the window as I decided I had a need to work around that top for the look.

Meanwhile... BRD continues to get stuck with my holiday look whatever that ends up being. So for now it gets to support my Christmas gear. Maybe after the holidays I’ll change it but the look is solid on its own holiday season or not so it may just stay.

For more minor changes... My DNC used to sport a hat, I might even have some screenshots somewhere on here from the past where it still sports that hat. The look was built around an old old glam from the HW days that I made that was very... tap-dancer-esque. These days the new look has kind of been a Mina default look and is what I base a lot of my art and designing around but I always leave out the hat so decided I’d switch it with glasses. They might not stay but I do always love the look of glasses on Mina. Second only to hair flowers (I just didn’t feel I had any good ones on hand to go with the look).

MNK/SAM got new earrings and DRG/RPR got new nails. These were both super minor style changes. I wanted some earrings that were lowkey and that I didn’t really use much (instead of my usual heart earrings) for the MNK/SAM look. That look has always been a staple of my wardrobe since at least early HW if not sooner than that. It’s simple and effective and was built entirely around the gloves and going “what else can I make black that has gold accents?” The DRG/RPR look is similarly an old classic of mine, built completely around the Maelstrom coat. I used to have the sharp beastly nails on the look and I just switched those out for the like regular painted nails. Super minor change for a look that has never stopped being amazing. The way the Y’shtola HW boots pair with that coat is too dang powerful.

As one last random aside, BLU continues to be my most extra look. I have tried to make it over the top and extravagant in ever incarnation I’ve made of it. This one is decidedly less silly than it’s first main glam (which I should dig up some old pics of) but it still has that very loud, “LOOK AT ME” showmanship to the design. Every time I make a new outfit for it I have a lot of fun with it. The only look that I think brings me more joy from the sillyness of it is my blindfolded “I can’t read” SMN look.

[selfiecharmedlife]

RE: Guilty Queer 2: The Sequel

Way back in 2019, I wrote a piece for this blog about the Guilty Gear series and how it had played a big role in my own journey through life and gender. Guilty Gear is a franchise spotlights the character's growth and allows them to change based on the events of the storyline. I mean, just look at Ky’s transition into a thriving wifeguy and father.

Like the metal genre that inspired many of the game's motifs, Guilty Gear has always been pretty gay. The most recent installment in the series, Guilty Gear: StrIVe (get it because IV is 4), turns the volume up to 11. After the reintroductions of Testament and Bridget after a decade+ long absence, Strive has some of the best queer representation I’ve seen not just in video games but in media overall. 

(Spoiler and note: I’m going to use They/Them and She/Her to refer to Testament and Bridget respectively)

I didn’t expect that either of these characters would come back to the series. In prior installments, Testament was an antagonist turned brooding recluse. Prior to Strive, their story dealt mainly with their lingering guilt and their inability to forgive humanity for what they experienced during the crusades. Their only remaining purpose in life being to protect Dizzy who leaves on her own adventure at the end of the game. 

Fast-forward to their reintroduction and Testament is now at peace with themselves having adopted a more fluid sense of gender coupled as well as an androgynous presentation. With Dizzy gone and too much free time, they also picked up a pages long list of hobbies including streaming, failing to improve at art and building gunpla. There is even some subtext implying Testament and Johnny are more than friends. We just love to see an empty nested gay thriving.

This kind of stuff is what makes this series so special to me. Testament’s arc wasn’t just tacked on for representation points. It was earned through over two decades of storytelling. The focus on character development makes it easy to feel invested in these characters that aged and matured along with me since I picked up a copy of Guilty Gear XX.

High School was not an easy time for me. I was an effeminate kid and used to get regularly beaten up and called slurs by my peers. It got so bad that my parents pulled me out of public school and put me into a private all boys high school. During that same time, I also started to go through puberty (the first on anyway). I learned how to front machismo enough to get by in a school where the halls were permanently stained with axe body spray and the dress code required students keep short haircuts. Meanwhile, my body was changing in ways I didn’t want and didn’t understand. Some nights, I’d lay in bed imagining a different life where I had been born a girl and cry. In the morning, I’d put on a polo shirt (shirt and tie on Church days!) and go back to school.

There has never been a point in my life that I did not know I was trans. From the point I realized boys and girls were different, I knew I would rather be a girl but I resigned myself thinking that I had drawn an unfortunate lot in life. I wanted to make my parents happy and correctly assumed they would not accept a gay child. The 90's hadn't been a kind decade for trans representation either. Finding Bridget in Guilty Gear was a light bulb moment for me. Here was a story about a character pressured by her parents to present in a way she didn’t want while still striving to carve out her own form of masculinity. It wasn’t a 1:1 fit but her story got me thinking that maybe I too could find my own niche that would feel right for me. 

She was the first character I ever “mained” in a fighting game. I played her story modes over and over again trying to tease out every bit of her characterization. Through Bridget, I found and projected onto other otokonoko media, started learning about makeup/cosplay in secret and started eating a lot of soy thinking it would turn into estrogen in my body. 

Over the course of several years, I got interested in weight lifting which led to a desire to build the body to cosplay Gilgamesh from Fate. My connection to Bridget and other otokonoko characters waned as my body became more muscular but my interest in feminine things and expression never fully went away. At a fighting game tournament, my then girlfriend surprised me with a Bridget keychain knowing how much I still loved the character. That keychain has been in my wallet or hanging on my purse ever since.

It took many years, but I did it. Outwardly, I was an extremely attractive man. I looked in the mirror after hitting my goal weight but couldn't see that in myself. I had all the things I thought I wanted and the affirmation of colleagues, friends and family but it felt empty. Sure, I was fine in my day to day life, but I couldn’t envision a future for myself where I wasn’t either dead or a woman.

Fast forward and I’m now approaching my five year HRT anniversary. The endocrinologists I’ve worked with have told me that this is where most people stop seeing non-surgical changes. There have been some tough feelings coming to grips with that. My relationship with my body is better but remains complicated. One of the last things I expected over the last few days was for Bridget to come back into the Guilty Gear franchise.

Strive takes place 7 years after XX where Bridget last appeared meaning she’s probably around the same age I was when I decided to transition. Her story picks up with having the fame, wealth and affirmation she was looking for but feeling lost regardless. After soul-searching with Goldlewis (who I read as a gay man regretting denying his sexuality when he was younger) and Ky, she decides to accept herself as a woman. After having a feminine identity pushed onto her, she’s found her own sense of femininity on her own terms. I cried when I first watched her arcade ending. I cried again when I watched it a second time on stream. I’m crying while I’m writing this. 

It’s hard to express how it feels to have this character reappear at this junction in my life. In some ways it feels like meeting an old friend again and realizing you’re both girls now. On top of that, the way the voice actors, directors and writers handled this scene is incredibly nuanced and sensitive. It’s one of the last things I would have expected from a video game with such sparse dialogue, but this is Guilty Gear. 

Outside of a loud group of weirdos that don’t understand Japanese and insist Bridget being trans is a translation error, the reception I’ve seen has been gushingly positive. People with no prior interest in fighting games are thinking about learning Guilty Gear because they want to learn more about this character.

I still have a lot of feelings about this but I’m not sure how to best express them. I guess I’m just really happy to see my friend again and excited that a whole new generation of people get to meet them too.

Maybe she can be to some other people in need what she ended up being to me.

[fill-me-with-your-memes-daddy]

Watching the Rise of the Titans movie and I'll be documenting all of my thoughts/reactions here. [Spoiler Warning]

So instead of reblogging every new update, I'm just going to have this post up on my phone as I watch and type my reactions in a bullet list format.

Nari's human disguise is so cute. As someone who does have a cottagecore aesthetic, I want to cosplay her so bad

Are Skrael and/or Belroc non-binary coded? Regardless, I'm also obsessed and I want to fuck Skrael and be Belroc.

STEVE CARING ABOUT JIM BEING HURT YESSSS!!! My god his redemption has probably been one of the greatest there is because he doesn't just suddenly go from being a bully to a completely good person. You can see the gradual shift in learning better throughout the shows which is awesome.

IN NEW YOOOOOOORRRRRRRK!!!!!! CONCRETE JUNGLE WHERE DREAMS ARE MADE OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!!!!!

The mugshot montage reminded me of season 1 of trollhunters when toby and Jim were arrested at the museum.

STRICKLER PUT A RING ON IT??? HE'S THE ONLY DILF IVE EVER ACTUALLY AGREED WAS HOT WYM I CAN'T HAVE HIM??? well I'm still really happy about his arc over the series probably one of my favorite character growths.

Eli my guy got his growth spurt!!! As an 18 year old who is still 5'0", I'm happy but envious for him

So I went into this movie without watching any trailers or promo, but I doubt anything could have prepared me for the existence of mpreg. In fact, I wasn't going to document my reactions until I saw that.

NAMURA!!!!!!!!! MY BELOVED!!!!!! I CAN STILL THIRST FOR YOU WITHOUT GUILT

The coach teacher just called the kids zoomers so I have to dock one point from my final rating just because of that. Unforgivable

Those husky animation models suck lmao

Oh fuck the titans got power ranger zords!!

God why did they include the mpreg??? This movie would have been perfect without it.... After that plot point being revisited only one time I'm already beyond done with it

Like it's bringing me back to the v*ltron days where they're was a suspiciously high amount of klance omegaverse and mpreg fics and art created and it physically hurts because Steve and Keith's voice actor is the same person meaning this is especially cursed to me since I was unfortunately in the v*ltron fandom and remember all of that

But like on another note, how old are these characters again??? I haven't checked any wikis because of spoilers but is Steve an adult??? I know aja might be technically a lot older than 18 because alien but is whatever age she is equivalent to an adult as far as emotionally and physically in Akaridion development??? IS THIS A TEEN (M)PREGNANCY IN A KIDS SHOW????

Like bruh I saw a singular post on here before going into the movie that was like "rott spoilers without context" and there was a pregnant belly but I was absolutely not expecting the actual context of it. I'll find the post after I finish and edit this post to tag the creator right here: @makoden

This entire post is just gonna be me ranting about mpreg huh

Anyway I love the whole roundtable allusion to the legends of king arthur (not the toa version but the one he's based off)

THERE'S 3 TO 5 BABIES????? I need to take a break bruh this is just too much

Alright I've taken a 30 minute break got some food and did some things i love (decompressed by tactile stimming with some owl plushies and watched some videos on my favorite owl, Garu. He lives in Japan with his owner and is a domesticated eagle owl who basically just acts like a sky cat. If anyone else needs some eye bleach, here is their YouTube channel)

Blinky and ARRRGHHH!!! saying their "if one of us doesn't make it" talk my god one of them is going to die I can see it and I will be utterly crushed. Jim can't lose another father figure and Toby can't lose his wingman again I will riot if this happens

On a similar but unrelated to the movie note, can we just talk about how toa started with Jim having 0 dads and (if strickler and blinky live to the end) will end with 2 dads? Like I just really feel happy for him that he has two dads who actually figured out how to put the past behind them to not have any infighting between them so that both of them are healthy father figures. Jim has already been through literal hell and back losing his actual humanity in the process so if he loses one of them, I'm going to be really pissed because at this point, this is just Jim torture porn. Y'all know how as SpongeBob SquarePants went on, the show just became Squidward torture porn? It's starting to feel that way for toa and I really hope they cut the shit by the ending

Jlaire is such a good ship but like I feel like it's too perfect they never disagree with each other

YESSSSSSS Someone finally doesn't treat toby like a fat waste of space who messes stuff up!!! I think out of all the characters that would have been most deserving of a rewrite, it's Toby. Sometimes I just feel he's only comic relief and any heartfelt moments he's had in the series was also born of stupidity (ie his flour baby project being unharmed was seen by him as divine intervention from his parents but was actually just Eli and Steve behind the scenes).

Ohhhhh yesssssss Archie's father!!! I was hoping I'd see him again because we got so little of him last

Ooooooooooh Asian trollmarket!!!!!

Oh never mind slavery trollmarket

Bruh titanic camelot

I feel like we're not seeing enough of the villains because I completely forgot about the power ranger zord things

NAMORA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MY LAST CRUSHHHH

STRICKLER NO NOT YOU TOO PLEASE

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE ONLY TWO CHARACTERS I SIMP FOR ON THIS SHOW DIED WITHIN FIVE MINUTES OF EACH OTHER

THAT WHOLE ASS RANT I WROTE IS COMING TRUE FUCK THIS MOVIE THIS SERIES IS JUST JIM TORTURE PORN

WAIT JIM'S SPERM DONOR INFO?

Oh thank God I don't want to know anything about that person

For the record, I call that man Jim's sperm donor because he has no business being called a father to him. All he did was donate some swimmers to the creation of him and give him abandonment issues

Oh another blind troll elder???? This fucker is just if vendel was a bad guy

Bruh I was grieving

PACIFIC RIM WITH GUN ROBOT VEX AND THE BELROCZORD? I've never seen that movie but I know the reference

Bruh Blinky doesn't read horoscopes? Does he realize conspiracy theories are just the manly version of horoscopes?

NO DON'T KILL VEX STOP KO-ING FOUND FAMILY MEMBERS

Oh thank God he's okay

NO NOT ARCHIE AND CHARLEMAGNE OH MY GOD

oh never mind they're just gonna coup de tat I believe in them :))

But I want to see him again

But I'm glad to see vex

Yay they're in arcadia!

But yeah I wondered why the trolls and Merlin didn't keep the whole "daylight doesn't hurt trolls" feature from the eternal night but now Guillermo del Toro I see you were playing the long con in that just to kill my girl Namora :(((

Oooooh I love the animation of the Narizord over Chihuahua!! It looks very good and realistic (if only they could have put some of that into those huskies from before smh)

Bruh the character designs of the arcane order are so good I want to be them

Nari making sure the Skraelzord doesn't crush the bus

DAMN DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Bruh I'm just glad we finally have an answer on why arcadia had everything going on as opposed to literally anywhere else!! I always found that as a weird coincidence for plot convince.

BRUH WERE BACK TO THE MPREG IM SO JEALOUS I FORGOT ABOUT THAT EVEN THOUGH IT WAS BECAUSE I WAS GRIEVING THE LOSS OF MY LOVELIES.

Oh that's real convenient that the ninth configuration meant all of them. Way to not decide which character gets more attention. Though it probably was a smart way to not have any infighting in the fandom between each character's stan group.

Bruh I just realized where is Barbera did they just ditch her on the Camelot ship???

And where are the other trolls that migrated at the end of trollhunters s3? They said something about new jersey but obviously Jim and the other main characters got on Camelot instead.... This feels like a plot hole

And we never learned the process of how changelings are made and bonded to humans and stuff. We just know it's super painful but I'm curious ffs!!!!

THE DONT THINK BECOME HERO SPEECH ALL SAID TOGETHER!!!

BRUH THEY REALLY HAD TO SHOW HIM GIVING BIRTH??????? WAS THAT AN ABSOLUTE MUST??????

Plus the main audience for this series is little children (the rating for the movie is literally TV-Y7) so even though my adult ass is not in the target audience, I STILL DONT UNDERSTAND WHY WOULD MPREG AND ANAL BIRTH WOULD BE AN IMPORTANT THING TO 7 YEAR OLDS???? THIS IS A LITERAL FETISH HIDDEN IN KIDS CONTENT ITS ELSAGATE ALL OVER AGAIN Y'ALL 😭😭😭😭😭

Though it's probably hypocritical of me to think fetishes don't belong in kids tv when I've openly admitted to thirsting for strickler and namora

HUZZAH

NEW AMULET WAZ GOOD????

STAB THAT BITCH JIM

WAIT NO I SAID STAB NOT GET STABBED

Alright good job just missed the directions at first but you fixed it

SEVEN KIDS?????????

T O B Y ????????????

W A I T NO

N O

IS HE ACTUALLY

OH MY GOD THERE'S HOPE

NO THERE ISN'T

F U C K THIS SHIT THEY REALLY JUST HAD HIM TO BE BULLIED THEN KILLED

Y'ALL IM ACTUALLY CRYING THIS NEVER HAPPENS

I NEVER ACTUALLY GET SO EMOTIONAL OVER MEDIA THAT I CRY IT ONLY HAPPENED ONCE AT THE END OF VOLTRON BUT AHHHHHHHH

W A I T

HE'S GONNA BE BROUGHT BACK?????

HOLD UP THEY'RE JUST GONNA BRING ALL THOSE DEAD PEOPLE BACK??????

WAIT IS HE

BLINKY CALLED HIM A SON

HOLD ON IS THIS GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER???????????

BRUH THEY REALLY JUST CAN'T END THE SERIES WITHOUT CLIFFHANGERS like there's always an open ending

TROLLHUNTER TOBY????? You know what forget the whole rants I had on how toby was written they just redeemed it all

And that's all! I'd rate it a 6.5/10 because it's definitely the weakest of all the sequels but still had amazing animation and some good plot points. It's just really hard to look over the bad stuff enough to rate it any higher.

[cloudywithachanceofanime]

Brothers React To MC Grabbing Their Butt: Luci, Mammon, Levi

I’ve had to write this 2 times now. If Tumblr deletes this post, I will be fighting someone. 

TW: Drunk character, use of phrase KMS

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Lucifer

You just left your room to go down to the kitchen for some quick snack when you bumped into Lucifer. He gave you a nod which you return with a simple wave.

You were about to continue walking when a something white on the back of Lucifer’s coat. You glanced at it and saw it was a sheet of paper. “Lucifer has a flat ass  -Mammon”.

That was not Mammon’s handwriting. You recognized it as Levi’s since he always left notes in the manga you borrowed. He must be trying to get revenge on him. 

But, will you let your first man get hung up. He did buy you your favorite treat yesterday, even if he denied it. 

Turning around, you tiptoed behind Lucifer while you gained distanced on him. Your hand reached out towards the paper. 

“MC, why are you-”

Why was a slice of Lucifer’s cake in your hand? You froze up as you realized the situation you were in. 

You just groped one of the strongest demons in hell. Dear Diavolo, please make sure my funeral is fun. 

“MC?” You didn’t have the strength in you to look into Lucifer’s face. You weren’t ready to face death. No matter how thick he was.

“MC.” You knew that tone. He was getting angry. You should really let of his cheek, but you so overcome with fear that you can’t move. 

A blink of an eye. That’s all it took for you to have you back against the wall with Lucifer’s arm trapping you. Heat seems to be radiating off of him in thick rolls.

“MC, look at me,” he growled out. Your eyes briefly flickered up before dropping down once you saw that fire in his eye. 

A gloved hand traveled from the base of your neck up to your chin where it gripped it tightly before tilting your head up. You were met with the sight of Lucifer’s smirking with his red eyes slanted in mischievous.

“Looks like someone’s being disobedient. I want you in my room by the time I return to it. You better be ready to be punish.”

With that, he let go of your chin and walked away. The sign balled in your fist seem to go unnoticed by him. 

“Got in trouble for this dang lie,” you growled out, throwing the paper in the wastebin. Even if you tried to act disgruntled about what happen, the butterflies in your stomach on what was about to happen told a completely different story. 

Mammon

It was a complete accident. Mammon was out most of the night drinking and stumbled into your room about 3 am asking you to hide him.

You got out of bed and helped him sit down on it. His clothes were strewed haphazardly on him. Guess someone had a good time. 

“MC, MC, MC, MC,” he whined while kicking his feet around. He was making so much noise that it would be so easy for Lucifer to know he was here. 

“What?” You asked in a quiet voice. He stopped calling your name and instead held his arms out and made grabby motions towards you. 

“You haven’t talked to me in foreverrrrrrrrr.” You literally talked to him at school. He’s the one who’s been gone most of the night. 

You made your way over to stare at him. His brown skin had a heavier red tint underneath it with his bluish yellow eyes glazed over. He really got wasted tonight. 

Mammon lean up a little and wrapped his arms around you. Yanking you down the bed next to him, he cuddled into you. “Wvndoisnvf”

“What?” you asked, leaning away from him. He made a low groan in the base of his throat before pulling you down into him. 

“Warm. You’re warm... but I’m hot... too much clothes,” he slurred. You navigated your head so you could get a view of him. He was staring at the wall behind.Then like a light bulb going off, his eyes widen. “I can- I can teleport to my room. And change... Be right back.”

He unwrapped his arms from around you and started rolling off the bed. The dumb idiot.

Shooting up, you grabbed whatever you could get your hands on. Which was his upper back.... and an entire handful of his butt.

“Mammon, you can’t teleport,” you growled out. You pulled at him to try to get him to get more into the bed. He was literally on the edge of the bed, tilting. If he fell on the floor, it would definitely make enough noise to wake up Lucifer. 

“Mmm, harder,” he grumbled. Remember, MC, he’s drunk He doesn’t know what he’s saying. 

“Mammon, if you don’t get in the bed, I won’t cuddle you,” you threaten. He let out a small whine, but he scooted into the bed. Relief filled you as you released your grip on him. Now, you can go to sleep. 

Mammon’s arms found their way around you and pulled you down again. You didn’t fight against him or the warmth he provided. 

“Wait,” he mumbled. His hand wrapped around yours and pulled at it. You allowed him to move it lower. He placed it on top of his butt and released your hand. 

You were too tired to question him. So you fell asleep with one arm wrapped around him and the other on top of his butt. 

Leviathan

“Hey, Levi, I was wondering if I could-” 

Your words died in your throat as you stared at the scene in front of you. You knew you should’ve knocked, but you didn’t think it was a big deal. Boy were you wrong. 

In the middle of his room, in a pink and white maid costume was Levi. His hands were froze in the midst of pulling up some tight pink stockings. 

“I can- um- Are you busy?”You didn’t know where to look at him. You tried to look at his face, but the pink eyeliner was causing you to stare. His neck was a no go with the bell choker on it. 

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” You jumped at the ear piercing screaming coming out of him. His face was the deepest shade of red you have ever seen it get. 

“Levi?” a voice downstairs called out. Followed by the sound of footsteps. 

“Sorry, scared him. Everything’s fine,” you yelled out. Yet the footsteps kept coming. In a fit of panic, you entered the room and shut the door. You were quick to lock the door behind you.

“OMG OMG OMG OMG KMS KMS I’m such a disgusting otaku,” he cried sinking to the floor. His hands covered his face as he started crying. 

“No, Levi, sweetie. You look amazing,” You comforted walking over. He let out a small sniffle, but seem to be slowing on crying. “Is that the limited edition Ruri- chan maid outfit you were telling me about last time?”

His head lifted up with a giant smile on his face. His nose was a little red from crying, but it blended in with the blush on his cheeks. 

“You- you remembered,” he croaked out while wiping the tears. He pulled his legs together and rested his chin on it, allowing you to see his entire beautiful face. “I got it in the mail today. And I was just going to put it on the mannequin and take some pictures. But-”

He trailed off for a little as the blush returned again. He let out a groan. His head dropped in embarrassment. “I can’t believe I forgot to lock the door. You probably think I’m some gross otaku who like to dress up in maid costumes all the time.”

“I mean, you look hot while doing it, so I don’t see a problem with it,” you admitted, glancing at his figure. He was a little muscular, but his shape seem to accentuate the outfit in the best ways. 

“Hey, is everything okay in there?” Lucifer’s voice rang through the door. You glanced at Levi to see his face still red and his pink gloved hand gripping the sides of the costume. 

“I locked the door. Don’t worry, he can’t come in,” you whispered. Trying to comfort him some more, you ran your fingers through his hair. 

“Y-yeah, I’m okay. MC scared me while.. I was playing a game. Sorry for screaming,” Levi mustered out. Lucifer let out a long sigh before his footsteps disappeared. 

You released a breath you didn’t know you were holding. Levi visabily relaxed too. 

“Sorry for bargaining in. I was trying to asking to borrow a new manga,” you explained. Levi let out a cough as he stood up. Your head lifted up as he grew in height. 

“Sorry for showing you this gross side to me,” he grumbled, pulling the bottom of the skirt down. Guess it wasn’t made wit hhis long legs in mind. It showed so much legs. Not that you were complaining. 

“You’re just cosplaying, nothing wrong with it. Plus as I mentioned earlier, you look hot af in the maid outfit. I mean damn,” you growled the last word. A dark red blush exploded over his face as a low whimper slipped out of him. 

“Well, if you like it. Would you mind-um- roleplaying a little.” 

You took a step forward and wrapped your arms his waist. You looked up at him with a innocent smile, but in each hand was a butt cheek. “Serve your master, Levi.”

I apologize for stopping here, but Tumblr just didn’t seem to like this curse post and I’m so tired that I can’t force myself to write the other brothers only to delete it again. I do plan on doing the other 4 brothers.

[eponymous-rose]

Return of the Revenge of the Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E108-109 (September 15, 2020)

It’s been six months since the last Speech Machine Upper Luminosity (is that right?), so let’s jump right back in like nothing ever happened!

Tonight’s guests are Laura Bailey and Matt Mercer!

Announcements: Talks will now be biweekly, discussing two episodes at a time! Unfortunately, this means fan question submissions aren’t doable yet, since they’ll often be filming Talks for episodes that haven’t aired yet; questions will come from crew, but fanart and cosplay from earlier episodes will still get awards. Dani Carr’s new official title in the company is Lorekeeper!

Episodes 108-109

Brian asks Matt about the tug-of-war with the Moonweaver’s influence: “how much of that did the Traveler and Jester’s interactions influence him not going back to the Feywild?” Matt: “Okay, well, the Moonweaver isn’t necessarily happy about taking on the images and icons and co-opting elements of her worship, but also isn’t a vindictive deity necessarily.” She has a similar fey history to Artagan, “so I knew this encounter, there would be a punishment involved, at the very least to take Artagan down a few pegs.” He wasn’t going to be actually banished; the Moonweaver just wanted to “scare the shit out of him: You think you’re a trickery god? Welcome to the original trickery god, bitch.” There was a possibility of him just vanishing for a while, if there was no sign of humility; but based on their interactions, it was just enough to show the planetar that maybe this isn’t the same “troll of an Archfey” that the Moonweaver had known. “Maybe this is enough of a lesson.”

Laura thought Artagan was going to be “gone-gone, and Jester was going to be left alone”. She thought there was going to be a Feywild rescue, and Jester would have to try to find a new deity.

Laura’s wi-fi conks out. So does mine. Ah, 2020.

Jester would probably have followed the Moonweaver in an attempt to make amends. Laura mentions that every time she sat down to prep something for Traveler-Con, she realized Jester wouldn’t sit still long enough to plan it.

Laura: “If that cult hadn’t been there and she hadn’t seen what a false god could do to people, I don’t think she would have come to the realization that what her and the Traveler were doing was detrimental: oh, we’re fucking over people’s lives, hardcore.” If Artagan hadn’t been on board with picking a different deity, Jester would have stepped down at Traveler Con and she would have exposed the lie.

Matt’s “super happy” because he was purposely making sure he didn’t know what was going to happen at Traveler Con. “Okay, everything around it’s going to be interesting and fleshed out, but as to the actual convention, I have no idea what’s going to happen.” He wanted to balance a complete train wreck with character beats and mini-arcs, and he was satisfied with how that worked out.

Brian asks if Jester ever considered walking away from the Traveler. Laura: “Yeah. It could have progressed to that point. Jester always gave him the benefit of the doubt, and loves him with her entire heart, so if he would have not seen that what they were doing was not acceptable, in his own way, then Jester would have probably walked away. I don’t know if she would have walked away from him, but it would have been a big issue for her. I have no idea what that would have meant for her... my entire character arc.”

How does Jester feel about the Traveler now? “She loves him, but at the same time, she doesn’t adore him without boundaries. She sees a little bit more of who he is, and the worshiping aspect isn’t there anymore. She sees him more like another friend. That’s a complicated relationship for a cleric to have.”

Matt talks about what a fan he is of his players. “I’ve just been enjoying the hell out of this.”

Has Artagan learned his lesson? He’s been living for a long time, and old habits are hard to break. Matt points out that Artagan “is free in a place that he doesn’t have complete domain over, and he’s been humbled a few times. I think he’s definitely learned a series of lessons to some degree. We’ll see how far it sticks and where their relationship goes.”

Brian asks Laura how it’s been to have the spotlight on Jester for a long time. Laura: “It was nerve-wracking. I feel very relieved that it’s on to something else now, but it was so much fun, too. I feel like I kept getting so emotional as her through all this. Having to come to terms with all the things she was going through was crazy. But it felt good.”

Cosplay of the Week: An amazing Yasha by @shiieldmaiden on Twitter, photo by @asheneyed.

Matt: “I took a bath for this.”

Brian notes that Jester found herself caught between her god and the M9. Who would she have chosen if Artagan hadn’t kicked her off? Laura: “Here’s the thing. If Fjord hadn’t jumped on my back, Jester would have gone. But him doing that, I mean, that’s why I froze like I did. I really didn’t know where it was going to go. Thankfully Artie made that choice for me.”

The Vilya reveal’s been waiting since Marisha made Keyleth’s backstory. Brian recalls that the question of what happened to Vilya came up in the campaign 1 recap, and Matt was cagey about it. “When I got the original backstory from Marisha, in my head, I was like, her mother’s probably still alive, just lost to the chaos for reasons that I’ll get to, but I like the idea of an eventual reunion when it made sense.” As they got later in the campaign, Keyleth’s story became about taking on this leadership and stepping into her mother’s footsteps: “I didn’t want to rob her of her journey by bringing her mother into it before it was complete. There wasn’t a beat that felt right for it in the first campaign unless the players actively wanted to go and seek it out.” He knew she was on an island somewhere, and that there was an issue with her memory, but the details were still hazy, and it never came up in the first campaign. “As soon as we got to Rumblecusp as a possible visiting location, I was like, this would probably be the island that Vilya’s at.” He knew the community would pick up on it quickly, but the players would likely be too engrossed in their own story. “Getting to send her home was wonderful, both for an idea of closure, but as a long-waiting gift to Marisha and Keyleth. It’s something that I’ve been looking forward to giving to her.”

On building Vilya’s character: “I wanted to make sure she wasn’t too similar to Keyleth. She couldn’t remember her family, but when she did, it meant everything.”

Brian asks what inspires Jester’s thought process to try and befriend every creature they come across. “Everyone is interesting. Except for Celia, she’s a bitch. If you piss her off, she might just hate you forever, but everybody else she thinks is pretty great. Jester can hold a good grudge.”

Brian asks Matt about the inspiration for Vokodo. “It is a heavily customized version of a Morkoth. I was just intrigued by how they had created this creature that creates this island around it. It has ways of affecting the minds of creatures around it. I didn’t enjoy that the creature was only Medium in size, and I wanted it to be something that was a little bit more changed by its experiences.” He also tied it in with the Astral Sea lore and suggested that it had been changed by its proximity to this volcano, similarly to how Thordak did in the first campaign.

Fan Art of the Week: An amazing Traveler Con Jester and Artagan by @callanthee on Twitter

How about the visions of the living city? Laura: “I don’t know what the fuck is going on with that thing. If it true that there’s a Molly connection, the Eyes of Nine, I don’t know. It’s just too much. We have to look into it.” Matt, blandly: “Weird mysteries.”

Who would the Disintegrate spell have hit if it had ricocheted? “Initially, I would have wanted to choose Caleb, like back at himself, because the immediate threat of that ray towards Vokodo, it would have been just right back at him.” But the runner-up would have been Jester because of the threat of the banishment back to the Astral Sea, the one place he didn’t want to go.

Laura could tell from Liam’s gameplay that he hadn’t realized someone was going to perma-die from that. “I thought it was going to be me, because I had been the one to banish him.”

Dani points out that the group would probably have gone after Artagan if Jester had died right before Traveler Con.

Matt highlights Cad’s Divine Intervention as pretty much the only way they could have learned the important information they used to prepare for the fight with Vokodo. He was torn between frustration at not being able to use this boss to its fullest potential... and pride in his players.

Laura is amused at listening to the characters talking about Jester when she’s not there. “It’s fun to hear but not be able to use that at all in your interactions with them.” Laura points out that even her sister who watches the show doesn’t trust the Traveler. Matt mentions that he’s always being very careful with the relationship between the Traveler and Jester, because it could get into rough territory. “There are unhealthy elements of their relationship, very much so. A lot of her story has been about disillusionment.” Laura: “Yeah. Eyes open.” They’ve set up bumpers to make sure they don’t veer into territory the players find uncomfortable. 

“Artagan at the end of campaign one versus Artagan at campaign two are different. He came into this world a purely selfish being of id and impulse. He still has those dark tendencies and can lean down those dark paths. But he went from a purely chaotic, selfish creature to unintentionally beginning to care for people that aren’t him.” Traveler Con definitely left a mark on him. “Aw shit, I let them in.”

Sam starts Facetiming Brian. “How does he know when we’re filming this?! No. I’m not going to do it.”

Matt and Laura are "super excited” for the new landscape of the next part of the journey.

Laura notes that Jester is getting past the point of “needing to put on the mask”, including around her mom. And as that’s happened at Traveler Con, the small breakdowns have been piling up. “That’s what therapy’s like, right?”

On the new goliath shopkeeper (even with the mispronunciations as clues, I got nothing on that spelling), Matt points out that purchasing magical items is tricky because most things were pulled into the war effort. He was trying to figure out how a shopkeeper could build a business in that environment: “with a bunch of really small, shitty enchantments”. As a kid, he loved novelty shops, and took a lot of inspiration from those memories.

So glad everything’s back in business! “As always, don’t forget to love each other. And don’t worry, it’s almost Thursday.”

[fbfh]

here’s to always finding each other

pairing: percy x gn child of calliope reader

wc: 1.6k

warnings: percy kisses reader following a prior agreement that they don’t remember but it’s 100% consentual, you work retail, a hell yeah, memory loss, I think that’s it

summary: You didn’t really expect to have to spend your entire eight hour shift organizing shoe wax any more than you expected your fictional crush from middle school to be real and your boyfriend. Only one of those happened (and the shoe wax was still very disorganized when you left).

song rec: this lofi mix, boba manifesto - chris flemming (mostly as a joke but it slaps)

a/n: i am wOrKiNg oN tHiNgS!!!!!! It’s going well!!! expect some fun surprises soon!!!!!!!!!

Crouched down on the ground, rearranging an end cap of shoe wax in the men’s department wasn’t really what you thought being a grownup would be like as a kid. You can’t complain too much, the pay is pretty good and working conditions are decent - as much as they can be in retail. You stand up to check your progress (and stretch your legs) and notice that guy is still there. He’s been hovering around the athletic shirts and pants for a while, and he keeps checking his phone and looking around. You’re sure he’s probably just waiting for someone, but you’re considering asking if you can help him find anything. 

He has a vaguely familiar energy, and your stomach drops for a moment, hoping you don’t know him from school or something. God, that would be a nightmare. That’s happened to you once or twice, bumping into someone you went to school with, and it’s always as bad as you expect. 

‘You know what,’ you think, trying to see if you can fit the last few containers of wax on the shelf without making them topple over, ‘he’s probably fine. If he needs help he’ll ask for it.’ 

You go back to scanning and adjusting the prices of the clearance shoe polish - the company had changed their packaging recently, so it’s out with the old and in with the identical - but you still can’t shake the feeling of familiarity. 

He turns around, holding up an orange shirt that says ‘go for it’ in a ridiculous font, and you get a glimpse of his face. 

You crouch back down so he won’t catch you staring, and the realization dawns on you. He looks a lot like Percy Jackson from the books you read in middle school. Or was it high school? Everything between 6th grade and high school graduation is kind of blurry and confusing in your memory. Man, you should really re-read those, you heard there was a TV series in the works and you want to remember all the details for when it comes out. You’re a little surprised at how nervous that revelation makes you, like the feeling when you’re a kid going to a theme park and you can see the roller coasters as you pull into the parking lot. Weird. Anyway, it’s not the first time you’ve seen a customer who looks like a character from something. One time you saw someone who you swore looked just like Pidge from the Voltron reboot that came out a few years ago, and a coworker saw a girl who looked like an anime character she loves… Raka something? Her name sounded like gravity, but that wasn’t it. You shrug, making a mental note to ask her about it later. 

You stand up once again to take one final look before you move onto the next end cap, and see that the guy is standing next to you. You look up at him, and all those weird feelings of excitement and something close to anticipation amplify, as you get a closer look at him. He really, really looks like Percy Jackson. Like if the Viria art was a real person. 

“Uh… hi, can I help you find anything today?” You ask, snapping out of your daze and into your customer service voice. He takes a second before answering, and you’re a little unnerved by the way he’s looking at you; warm and intimately, like he’s known you for years. 

“No,” he replies, a dreamy tone to his voice, “I’ve got everything I need.” You’re pleasantly surprised and a little freaked out that he even has the accent. Seriously, if he’s not already, this guy should really get into cosplay. Also, is he flirting with you? He seems to realize what he just said, and backtracks slightly. 

“Actually, um, I was wondering if you could help me out with something over here,” he says, and you agree, in your signature chipper tone. He guides you to a table covered in various sweatpants behind a mirror. 

He glances around again, and you have to ask. 

“You know, if you’re having trouble finding someone we can-”

“Walkie customer service to have my group meet me at the front desk.” He finishes seamlessly. 

“It’s not my first time at the rodeo,” he chuckles, and you get the feeling there’s more meaning behind what he’s saying, like an inside joke you’re not a part of. 

“Oh… yeah.” you say, and he can sense your surprise, “How did you…” you trail off, and he can sense the silent question in your voice. He lets out a breathy chuckle, cheeks flushed pink.

“Like this.” 

He catches your face in his hands, and presses his lips to yours. Your eyes widen in shock, mostly at the fact that you don’t feel threatened by his presence at all. You’re shocked at how comfortable you feel around him, how you feel in your bones that you’ve known him for years when the logical side of your brain is telling you that you first saw him ten minutes ago. He pulls away, searching your eyes for… something. 

“Uh…” you glance away, brow slightly furrowed, then back up at him, “what the fuck?” 

His expression softens, and he says gently, “Give it a minute.” 

You’re about to ask him to give what a minute, when a barrage of memories, feelings, people you don’t think you’ve ever met but seemed to be best friends with knocks you off your feet. You try to take in a breath, but the air in the room seems to have taken a temporary vacation from your lungs. 

You look up at him, eyes flared in understanding and shock. He mutters something in confirmation. Someone yells nearby, and you both look over to an adolescent boy asking his mom why he can’t wear neon basketball shorts to school. Percy looks back over at you.

“Is there somewhere a little more-” the mom starts arguing back and forth with her son at a louder volume, and he continues, “private… where we could talk?”

“Uh, yeah, I’ll… I’ll get somewhere.”

A few minutes later, you’re sitting across from each other on two step stools in one of the stock rooms. You’re still surprised at how easily you had lied to your boss that your long distance boyfriend showed up a few weeks early after over a year of not being able to see each other, and you needed a moment to catch up. She had agreed readily, asking that you tell her when you’re ready to get back to your tasks. 

“I’m sorry about that,” he starts, snapping you out of your train of thought, and you look up at him, “I never would have kissed you without asking, but you made me promise last time that the next time you lose your memories I would get them back to you as fast as I can.” 

“Uh, it’s okay, I feel like I remember talking about that.” Your memories are still fuzzy, but coming back sporadically.

“It can take a few days for them to come back fully.” He adds. 

The most surreal part of this is you remember vividly what happened in the books - because you lived through it. You hold back a giddy laugh bubbling up.

“So…” you begin, and he looks at you, his gaze warm, “it’s all real?” you breathe the words, almost afraid of an answer. 

“Yeah,” he chuckles, looking away briefly, overwhelmed that you’re with him once again.

“The short version is, since your godly parent is Calliope, you sometimes get sent to other worlds. You kind of have to hop scotch from one place to another, like getting a goldfish used to a new bowl of water. The mist - or sometimes,” he glances up, pointedly and irritable, “other factors - usually take away a lot of your memories. They say it’s to make the transition easier, but who knows. Anyway, there are these waypoints, kind of like a time loop that you hang out in until you’re either ready to leave or one of us finds you first.”

“So this…” you motion around to the rows of cardboard boxes filled with plastic cups and paper towels. He nods and you let out a laugh of relief that you really won’t have to work here long term. 

“As soon as you’re ready we should probably head out to camp. It’s gonna be a bit of a drive.” 

“Wait, it’s all like… here? Like in this world?”

“Yeah,” he smiles again, once more sending butterflies through your chest. 

You let out a disbelieving, excited laugh.

“Alright. Yeah, okay. Let’s do it.” 

Before you can get up, he takes your hand in his. He watches his fingers skim back and forth for a minute before looking up at you. 

“You know that I’ll always find you, right?” there’s an overwhelming torrent of emotions he’s somehow managing to convey through his eyes. 

“It doesn’t matter where you go, or how long you’re gone, or if we even remember each other. I will always find you.” His hand comes up to your cheek for the second time today, and your head tilts into his embrace automatically. You somehow trust him more than anyone or anything else right now. You nod gently.

“I do.”

He glances away again, cheeks flushing red, and he sighs, kissing your forehead. 

You get up and head towards the exit together, and he wraps his arm around your shoulder.

“How about we get some bubble tea once we’re in the city?”

“Oh hell yeah!” 

You don’t remember the last time you had bubble tea, but it sounds really, really good right now. 

[luna-the-moth]

Leviathan, Satan, and Asmodeus with a Genderfluid!MC (SFW)

Hello Love! Thanks for sending in the request! As the title says, Genderfluid! MC, SFW rating.

DISCLAIMER: There is a lot of diversity in the genderfluid community, and I can’t possibly cover every genderfluid person’s experience here. This will be based on the information I’ve researched and heard, along with firsthand accounts. Thank you to @writing-with-olive​ for writing about your experiences, along with the commenters who added important insight/additions. If I wrote any misinformation, please feel free to tell me in the comments!

Writing from a Genderfluid Reader’s POV by @/writing-with-olive

@/charged-wanderlust’s adding on to that post, including important details

Leviathan, Satan, and Asmodeus with a Genderfluid!MC (SFW)

Leviathan:

One word: Cosplay

(Bet you saw that coming, huh?)

He’ll adore the fact that you can dress in an array of styles with him, the possibilities are endless!

Whether you choose masculine, feminine, androgynous, etc, styles of clothing you prefer, he’ll have a costume whipped up for you.

After all, he’s known to be talented in outfit-making in-game, especially when it comes to cosplays.

Whatever identity you decide for yourself, he’ll happily create enamel pins for you, so people know what pronouns to call you.

Please ask him to make enamel pins, he’s literally so excited and honored to make you something you’ll wear.

I hc Levi as a person who’ll cosplay as masculine, feminine, or any orientation, so it’ll be nice for you to join him as well!

Cosplaying aside, he absolutely loves you, gender-fluidity and all.

If you’re ever feeling multiple genders at the same time, Levi’ll make sure to use those pronouns, and takes note of every change you go through.

I think that because his interests and passions used to be shunned, along with who he is, he’ll pay special attention to your changes.

He’s been uncomfortable or upset due to others being insensitive countless times, and he doesn’t want to accidentally put you in that position.

Oh he absolutely finds it fun to play video games, if you choose differently gendered/oriented characters to play with.

You both can experience quests and battles in a new way, exploring different characters, and their varying skills!

Plus, don’t tell anyone this, but he’d love to go shopping with you for clothing once in a while....

After all, seeing you embrace yourself wholly and expressing yourself through clothing is inspiring for him, and who knows?

You may be able to bring him out of his shell, my dear!

Satan:

He’s quite fascinated, to be honest.

To demons, gender-fluidity is a well-known term, as it’s not exactly uncommon for demons and Devildom inhabitants identify with it.

I personally hc that gender isn’t really made a fuss in the Devildom, and the demons don’t really care about it.

Since majority of them can change gender at will, it’s surprising to hear that there’s such discourse and discrimination in the human world in terms of gender.

As long as you feel happy, who cares?

It’s interesting to see how you go through gender fluidity, and if you give him permission, Satan would love to document your experience as a genderfluid person.

If you change to masculine (Or if you prefer to wear masculine clothing no matter what), he’ll offer up his clothes, feeling a small swell of pride seeing you wear them.

Definitely buys couples’ clothing for the both of you, with multiple sets to match whatever gender you are at the moment.

On the chance you prefer to keep a set of spare clothes of a different gender with you, he’ll offer to carry it, or give you a pendant/amulet/charm in which you can summon the clothes on at any given moment.

After all, it’s more convenient, and easily portable!

Any time you experience a sudden gender change, he’ll make sure to see if you’re alright, as (for some), it can disrupt your train of thought for a few moments.

Satan wants to make you feel comfortable and validated, so if there’s any signals that you have to signify your gender, (i.e a color coded bracelet, ring, accessory, etc) he’ll immediately take note and acknowledge you as such.

All in all, he adores you for who you are, no matter what you identify as.

He totally takes you shopping but unintentionally selects ugly as hell clothing for you to try on.

“Y/n? Would you try this on please? I think it would look nice with these bottoms and scarf.”

(Proceeds to show you a deep yellow and bright red checkered dress shirt, ripped bell-bottomed jeans, and a vivid neon blue scarf.)

“Look, I even have a matching set so we can be a pair!”

(Pulls out a matching suit with a white jacket, neon blue lapel, with a yellow and red dress shirt, polka dotted.)

At least the colors of the outfits match?

Asmodeus:

Ohoho, he’s ecstatic.

His darling is so versatile, it’s lovely, really.

Well, if you’re unsure of your gender-fluidity, or not sure what you identify as, he’ll gladly help you through the process, should you ever want his help.

Like, if you want to try out masculine/feminine/androgynous clothing to see how you feel in it, he’s got you covered!

Literally has closets of clothing with different genres and styles.

If you’re not the same size as him, don’t worry, he’ll ask Satan to enchant the articles of clothing you want to fit however you’d like!

Plus, if you prefer any accessories that signify your gender identification, he has t o n s, honey!

Bracelets, rings, earrings, hair clips, glasses, gloves, you name it, he’s got it!

After all, he (I hc him as this anyhow) fluxes between a variety genders and identities, simply because he feels more comfortable in that clothing.

So he always has different clothing options available for just about any type of mood/orientation/identity you can think of!

He also has a bottomless purse or bag on him at all times, for his makeup and accessories, but he’ll always ask if you want to put a spare change of clothes in as well!

Whenever you feel gender dysphoria, he’ll do his best to bring you to a calm, quiet place where you can focus on yourself a bit.

Should you ever need comfort or feel insecure, he’ll gladly comfort you, or make sure that you have space, his darling rose should take care of themself, after all!

Honestly, if you ever ask him for guidance or advice (seeing as he is old- but don’t tell him that-) about anything you’re unsure about, he’ll sit you down, light a candle, (or not, totally depends on if you want one or not) and gently guide you through your emotions and thoughts.

“Darling it’s ok to be confused, or disoriented. It’s normal for everyone, human, demon, angel, whatever! You’ll get through this, and I’ll be there every step of the way for you, my rose.”

[dailylogyn]

Logyn Meta: Loki & Sigyn’s relationship in the Marvel Comics

Photo Source (by Sexy-Salmon): https://lokisergi.tumblr.com/post/70164902295/siege-loki-problems-it-almost-looks-innocent

Other Logyn Meta’s: https://dailylogyn.tumblr.com/tagged/logyn-meta

Did you know Sigyn was in the Marvel Comics long ago? Did you know Loki had a wife? 

Oh...that’s probably because Marvel wanted you to forget their terrible writing mistakes concerning this great Norse Couple. 

Let’s dive into this exploration of history where the Marvel writers realized they fucked up on telling a perfectly good couples story, and in the process, setting off a spark of rebellion that caused some retconning and a group of fans to demand justice for both Loki & Sigyn -- not just as a couple, but as their own individual beings. 

#JusticeforSigyn #JusticeforLoki #JusticeforLogyn

Where it First Began (Meeting & Marriage of Lies):

In September of 1978, Thor #275 came out featuring the first appearance of Sigyn, Loki’s wife from Norse Mythology. She was introduced as a beautiful Asgardian Loki had randomly come across while looking into a crystal ball inside his castle, wanting to find some companionship to fill his loneliness. 

However, when Loki came with riches and jewels to offer her in exchange for her hand in marriage, Sigyn outright rejected him, stating she would never take someone as vile as him, even stating she was already engaged to an Asgardian Warrior part of Odin’s guard -- Theoric. 

Unable to accept this, Loki came up with a plan to have her fiancee killed during a mission, resulting in the Trickster taking on the disguise of Theoric in order to take Sigyn for his own. Despite having slightly suspicions of her lover being more romantic than before, Sigyn didn't notice that her lover wasn’t exactly who she thought he was.

Now comes the day of the wedding as Odin marries the happy couple. This was when Loki finally revealed his true self and what he had done. Odin tried to null the marriage, but it was against Asgardian law for even the High Father to do such a thing. Hence, Sigyn accepted her fate as Loki’s wife. This caused Odin to name her the Goddess of Fidelity. 

Where it’s Heading (Cargo of Incantation-Fetter’s Arms):

Loki being Loki, he did some shit that ended up with him being imprisoned in a tree by Odin, something that infuriated Sigyn, resulting in her trying to take control over Donald Blake to use over the All-Father as a way to free her husband from his punishment. However, it didn’t work out, resulting in a bunch of other crazy shit happening and putting Thor on their trail.

After Balder was killed, Loki was put on trials for his crimes and received yet another punishment that Sigyn had to protect him from -- having burden over the fact she was “the evil’s wife.” Just like the classic Norse tale, she holds a bowl over his head, shielding him from snake venom and leaving to empty it momentarily when it became full, resulting in Loki cursing her. 

Also, Loki and Sigyn had a child -- Narvi, but they died young, being used as the binding to imprison Loki (following the Norse myth too.) 

Some more crazy shit happens and now Odin has shackled Loki to Sigyn so he doesn’t cause anymore trouble. Loki of course is not pleased about this one bit. Having had enough of this, he went to Odin demanding to be released, only resulting in him being banished to an outpost. 

There Just Might be Hope????:

Some more shit happens again, resulting in Loki being stuck in an astral form and bound to a suit of armor so he could reside in Asgard thanks to Sigyn. A fight happens with Thor, Loki and Mephisto, putting Sigyn in danger. This is when for the first time ever, Loki ends up having a tender confession of love over Sigyn, asking Thor to save her since he could not.

It’s unknown if this is just Loki putting on an act or being real, but you know how the Trickster God can be. 

After the battle, while Loki had released Sigyn from her marital vows, his wife swore to always be there for him when he needed her.

And that’s the last we see of Sigyn’s regular appearance in the comics in 1996. She makes a cameo in Avengers: Unleashed #1 in 2019, but it’s nothing more than a flashback to her time of helping Loki. 

A Hypothesis & Notes on their relationship in comics:

The whole entire plotline consisting of Theoric and Loki killing him in order to obtain Sigyn is just something most of the fandom doesn’t like. Not only does it objectify Sigyn, but it makes Theoric a Pointless character to introduce anyway, only used as a tool for means in which Loki can get Sigyn, when honestly, he could have done so in a different way.

I like that they stick with Sigyn being the faithful wife of Loki (that’s who she is), but they honestly don’t give her any agency in this besides that trait alone. The writers don’t even let Sigyn be her own damn person! She is SO MUCH MORE than Loki’s loyal wife. SHE IS A FREAKIN GODDESS! I know there is more we can do with her.

Instead of pulling the ‘woe is me, my husband is evil and I’ll just go along with it’ card, something else could have been done. LIKE LITERALLY, ANYTHING ELSE! We know Loki can be a troublemaker, but Sigyn knows how to deal with his shit. She isn’t some damsel in distress here! It’s another reason Loki likes her.

Couples can bicker in times, it’s normal in marriages and relationships, but to have Loki whining about how much of a burden Sigyn is is just....WHY? I mean, you went after the woman and killed another guy for her. This is what you wanted! *shakes head at writers*

I will give them kudos though for some of the stuff near the end when Loki actually starts displaying his true feelings of love towards Sigyn. And sadly we only got a little taste of that...and we aren’t even sure if it was an act or Loki being real.

THE FACT THAT SIGYN ISN’T EVEN IN THE COMICS ANYMORE SINCE 1996. She’s only mentioned, but it’s just as a tale, not as an actual person who USED to be his wife. They literally killed her off. EXCUSE ME! #JusticeforSigyn (We’re still waiting for her in the MCU...)

NORSE MYTHOLOGY TIE-INS:

There were some moments in the comics between them that they writers took from Norse Mythology with them. Thought It’d be important to list.

Loki’s Punishment of snake venom dripping onto him while Sigyn holds a bowl to collect it and shield him.

Narvi being Loki & Sigyn’s son who was killed and his insides used to bind Loki for his punishment.

Sigyn being Loki’s wife. 

DIFFERENT WRITERS, DIFFERENT CHARACTERIZATION:

As is the case with everything out there, if you have different writers working on the same project, there is bound to be a difference of characterization and interpretation, resulting in OOC moments or just something completely different altogether. After researching and pondering on this subject, I FULLY believe this is what has happened with Loki & Sigyn’s relationship in the comics. Let’s take a look at the evidence I’ve found:

For the comics Sigyn’s creators were Roy Thomas, John Buscema and Tom Palmer. 

Loki’s creators for the comics were Stan Lee, Larry Lieber, Jack Kirby, Violet Barclay, and honestly, many others.  

My favorite quotes on them from the comics:

Wait? Despite the crappy writing, I actually have quotes I like from the comics? GASP! I call these the only positives from the comics of their relationship. 

“My Sigyn-- the love of my immortal life...” — Loki, Thor Annual Vol 1 #19

“Aye-- For only Sigyn, of all in the realm eternal, feels love for Loki. And among all Asgardians, only for Sigyn does Loki feel...” — Loki, Thor Annual #19

“Sigyn loves me-- just as she is the only thing in the nine worlds that I truly love.”— Loki, Thor #483

Photo Source: https://www.zerochan.net/1262293#full

Fandoms Wish for MCU & Future Appearance Justice:

Fans would like to see Sigyn make an appearance, not only in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe), but also the Marvel Comics once again. They would like to see Loki & Sigyn’s characters done justice with proper writing, especially regarding their relationship with each other. 

This is why there is plenty of fans out there writing Fanfiction, making Fanart, Roleplaying and even Cosplaying them, giving their interpretation’s of what their relationship would be like. This is THE VERY REASON this blog and @sigynappreciation​ was created to help spread awareness and unite fans who feel the same way. 

These characters are very near and dear to our hearts. Some of us even worship them in our religions. We would like to see their relationship grow and portrayed in a way that helps fill the pieces of the missing puzzle to how they came to be in Norse Mythology. 

CONCLUSION:

Although their relationship in the comics usually leaves fans grimacing, at least we got to have it explored. Who knows if Marvel will ever touch anything with them ever again, but at least it’s brought together a small community that continues to go strong -- and honestly, that kind of unity is what Loki & Sigyn would want. 

So imagine to your hearts content! Draw that fanart! Write those fanfictions! Dress up in that cosplay! Be those characters! But just remember, you have a family here to love and support you. 

SOURCES:

Sigyn’s info on Marvel Database: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Sigyn_(Earth-616)

Loki’s info on Marvel Database: https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Loki_Laufeyson_(Earth-616)

Sigyn on Marvel Universe: http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix/sigynthor.htm

Logyn on the Shipping Wiki: https://shipping.fandom.com/wiki/Logyn

Loki & Sigyn’s relationship through Media: https://www.alehorn.com/blogs/blog/norse-mythology-loki-and-sigyn

[rayveewrites]

Ray Hijacks the Team ZIT Ghostbuster AU Again

So @shadeswift99 made a few posts a while ago about a Team ZIT(S) ghostbuster AU, And then I may or may not have hijacked the post to add in ideas for most of the other hermits because why not.

Now, back then I was spitballing ideas and making them up on the spot, which is admittedly my usual writing process, but hey.

That said, I've had more time to think about it, and then last night I blacked out for a few hours and came to with a Google Doc filled with short bios for all of the hermits and a handful of hermit-adjacents. Now, this rapidly turned into an urban fantasy AU in my hands, but hey. It's fun.

This is in alphabetical order, with alternate personas (EX, Helsknight, Beetlejhost) beneath their original counterparts when applicable:

Bdubs

Lives in an old mansion in the woods alongside Doc for reasons known only to them. Bdubs works as an interior designer, with a side gig as a freelance hairdresser. His eyes are unnaturally large, similar to Keralis’, and he is at least partially a plant. Completely feral and frequently gets in trouble for having knives on him at all times. He and Cleo have a thing called Knife Club which makes everyone else nervous. Nobody messes with Knife Club. It’s not worth it. Sunbathes frequently.

Beef

Is a perfectly normal human being. He works as a butcher with a side gig as a graphic designer specializing in album covers and spends his free time playing pokemon and dragging Etho along to social events. He was the first person to spot the cryptid, and the first person who Etho approached of his own accord.

Biffa

Is a ghost possessing a robotic shell. Biffa is from the future. While initially his main goal was to get back home to his own time, Biffa has since made friends and settled down into a new life running a cafe specializing in a wide range of teas. He’s quite content with this, and has actually found himself far happier than he was in his own time. While his nature means he can see, hear and touch ghosts, his body was built specifically for a disembodied soul to be in the driver’s seat, and he doesn’t want to risk another taking control. Also, he has more important things to do than have fistfights with ghosts.

Cleo

Is a ghost possessing her own dead corpse. Her nature allows her to see, hear and touch ghosts. Can and will fistfight spirits. She works as a teacher, so she’s usually busy, but occasionally in really nasty situations the Beetlejhost will drag her in to break a ghost’s legs. Does sculpture in her free time, and is actually really good. The only one who can wrangle Beetle to any real capacity, and she’s learned to keep him on a fairly short leash. Housemates with Joe, and Keralis also pops in pretty frequently. Has Knife Club with Bdubs. Has an enchanted flower crown that prevents her from decaying further; a gift from Beetle. Recently started learning magic in the form of necromancy and illusions. Has an ongoing ‘feud’ with Zloy, in which she temporarily traps his soul in random inanimate objects every now and then.

Cub

A bit of a ‘mad scientist’ archetype, Cub’s experiments are not exactly the most ethical, though they’re at least more professional than Doc’s. Responsible for the creation of Jevin. Cub gets possessed stupidly easily- sometimes willingly- and can usually handle it himself but sometimes has to call for help. Has a magical method of communication with Scar for exactly this reason. Has a day job as co-owner of a business called ConCorp, which he started with Scar. Has probably broken the Geneva Convention.

Doc

Was presumably human at one point. Now an abomination. Repeated experiments on himself have resulted in a massively changed facial and foot structure, a body covered in mottled green scales, claws, and goat horns. He lost half his face in one of his experiments, and constructed a new cybernetic one. He lost his right arm fighting God. Killed said god and would do it again. Lives in a mansion in the woods with Bdubs, though nobody’s really sure why. Owns a casino because of course he does. Also a living crime against fashion, because the man refuses to wear anything other than his tattered lab coat, torn jeans, and crocs.

Ely

Runs the local radio station. Nobody’s ever seen him in person, and nobody knows where he gets people’s voice clips for his remixes. Probably a cryptid. Maybe a ghost. Seems pretty chill, despite the blatant invasions of privacy.

Etho

Is a cryptid. Lives out in the woods in an abomination that can barely be called a house. Has never been seen in anything other than full Kakashi cosplay. Tends to keep to himself, but occasionally lets Beef drag him along to social events, often with Doc and Bdubs. Nobody really knows what his deal is. Probably not human. Probably.

False

Used to be part of an illegal underground cage fighting ring, until she earned enough to buy her way out. Having grown up in said ring, she struggles to adjust to normal life, but living in a town where the barista is a robot and the local tailor has wings makes it easier. She now has a job as security at Doc’s casino, alongside Iskall.

Grian

Is either an angel or a demigod, but nobody knows which. Has wings. Is both a tailor and an architect. A complete gremlin who has elaborate masks of various birds and will wear them to commit crimes. Eats seeds. Messes with everyone else’s plants. Lives in Jungle Wood Flats. Volunteers at the local theatre.

Hypno

Has three eyes, but hides the third one under a bandanna at all times. Can see ghosts with it. Had problems with sections of plumbing randomly getting clogged and also making very weird noises, and eventually called Team ZIT when the plumbers couldn’t find the source. Was prepared for ghosts, but wound up with a slime creature instead. Works in a $2 store for some reason.

Impulse

Is fully human. The most sensible member of Team ZIT (which admittedly isn’t saying much), Impulse has a day job as a freelancer building custom PCs and fixing broken tech. Agreed to the whole ghostbusting deal because he was bored, mostly. Was the first one to meet Skizz face-to-face, and is the one to own that particular place outright. Gets possessed every now and then, usually by larger spirits. Used to run solely on caffeine and chronic anxiety until Zedaph started getting on his case about his sleep schedule. Now he runs on less caffeine, more sleep, and the same amount of chronic anxiety.

Iskall

Was part of a cloning experiment to create the ultimate hitman, and was the only known one to both survive and escape before the whole thing was shut down by the authorities. Their eye and arm were replaced with cybernetics in order to increase their already enhanced abilities, and they were chased by said authorities, eventually winding up on Mumbo’s doorstep and becoming Mumbo’s problem. Now works as security at Doc’s casino, alongside False. Lives at Jungle Wood flats. Occasionally volunteers at the local theatre. Does bonsai as a hobby.

Jevin

Is the slime creature in the pipes. Hypno lets him live with him under the condition he stops blocking the plumbing and making weird noises at 3 AM (Jevin still blocks the plumbing and makes weird noises at 3 AM, just not as much as he was). Has taught himself to take a humanoid shape, and likes having fingers. Sleeps in the bathtub because he can. Was created from a vat of chemicals in a secret lab underneath the house, which used to be owned by Cub. Doesn’t really talk to the man in question that much, but will occasionally refer to Cub as his father for the sole reason of watching him go through eight existential crises in three minutes. Has a glock.

Joe

Head librarian at the local public library, and has read a lot of books on Supernatural Things. Is a veritable fountain of exposition if you can figure out what he’s saying or have Cleo along with you to threaten the integrity of his shins. Has never been seen in the same place as the Beetlejhost. Are they the same person? Are they entirely separate beings? Is there a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-type situation going on? Who knows!

Beetlejhost

Literally nobody really knows what his deal is. Nobody. Team ZIT ran into him on a call that they expected to be a false alarm and then he decided to follow them home. Spends most of his time being a minor nuisance in the most bizarre ways possible. Is implied to be responsible for the Ever Given getting lodged in the Suez Canal, but never confirmed. When he’s not bothering Team ZIT or getting them out of tight spots, he’s usually pestering Cleo, the only one who can keep him in line. It’s not really known if he and Cleo have a history or if they’re just Like That.

Keralis

Is a ghost haunting an architecture firm, and is mostly bound to the building, though he can travel to other buildings the firm has built, which is, uh, most of them. Initially only able to do small things- mostly writing notes or drawing diagrams- he eventually meets the Beetlejhost when the latter follows Mumbo to work one day for shits and giggles (he wanted to see how long he could mess with Mumbo before the man noticed. As it turned out, about a week, and by the end it was Iskall who noticed). After a couple of days in which Beetle teaches Keralis Ghost Things™, he scares half the office when he finally manifests for the first time. Has unnaturally large eyes and nicknames for most of the workers. Has no idea how he died or what his unfinished business might be. Very knowledgeable about architecture, and his input is usually very much appreciated.

Mumbo

Is a perfectly normal human being who does IT at Keralis’ architecture firm. Lives at Jungle Wood flats and spends most of his free time tinkering with tech and trying to keep Grian and Iskall out of trouble, which is a losing battle. Has a large, beating golden heart in his flat. He’s not really sure what its deal is, but if he feeds it apples it produces enough power for the entire building. Oh, and if he forgets to feed it for an extended period of time it starts draining his bank account. It’s really weird.

Pixlriffs

Was a perfectly normal human being until he died protecting a certain Russian zombie and became a perfectly normal ghost. Was a reporter in life and is a reporter in death. Runs a blog alongside Zloy about the local goings-on, supernatural or not. The blog’s the type where unless you live in/near the town you most likely won’t stumble across it, but they do have a small following of outsiders who assume the blog’s just a work of fiction. His unfinished business is to prevent Zloy from doing anything particularly stupid, a constant battle. Is able to go more places than Zloy due to being incorporeal, but respects people’s privacy. He’s bound to Zloy to a certain degree, not being able to go beyond a certain range of his friend. The range is pretty big, though, and he has plenty freedom of movement.

Python

Had a run-in with the fae as a kid, in which he accidentally pissed one off. In retribution, the faerie challenged him to answer a riddle or he’d be turned into a snake. Python’s answer was partially correct, so the faerie only transformed him partially. Python is fairly chill, though he strongly dislikes the cold and starts hissing if anyone disturbs him during Sun Time™. Sometimes Bdubs, being partially flora, joins Python for Sun Time™. He’s not venomous, because, you know...python. Also, he has a mildly disturbing habit of strangling rats and mice and then eating them whole, but he can’t help it and just tries not to do so when he has company.

Ren

Is a werewolf. He’s pretty chill regardless of form, though it’s only been recently he’s been comfortable enough leaving his ears and tail visible. He works as a lumberjack. One time Pixl introduced him to Monty Python’s Lumberjack Song and it quickly became his favourite thing. He spends most of his free time volunteering at the local theatre because Ren is absolutely a theatre kid and nobody can convince me otherwise. Gets possessed every now and then. Lives in Jungle Wood flats.

Scar

Works as a landscape developer. Gets possessed absurdly easily, though not quite as frequently as Cub. Has a magical method of communication with him. Technically co-owns ConCorp, but isn’t as involved. His cat, Jellie, is very obviously an eldritch abomination in feline form and he is comedically unaware of this. Lives in Jungle Wood Flats with Grian, Iskall, Mumbo, Stress, and Ren.

Skizz

Is the ghost haunting Team ZIT’s office. He was murdered by someone he’d thought was a friend who was trying to use his place to hide from the cops, and he’s stuck around, haunting the building. His unfinished business is to make sure nobody else uses the building for anyone shady, but the ghost rumours tended to chase most people off. Eventually he gets used to having Team ZIT around, and when Tango admits he doesn’t really have anywhere to go one day, Skizz eventually makes the decision to finally unlock the still-furnished upper floor for him. He’s bound to the building, but Impulse learns that carrying Skizz’s old vest with them allows him to leave. After that, Skizz sometimes accompanies them on missions and occasionally just hanging out. He’s usually more helpful than the Beetlejhost is.

Stress

Is a witch. Stress lives in Jungle Wood Flats and works as a doctor who specializes in supernaturally caused injuries- Team ZIT are some of her best customers. She also sells magic potions of various kinds, and has a side gig as a florist. She’s 90% of the Jungle inhabitants’ impulse control. Also has cryokinesis.

Tango

The Team ZIT member with a car. He gets possessed with frankly ridiculous frequency, but claims not to believe in ghosts for a long time (and keeps up the bit for even longer). Has developed various signals to indicate when he’s being possessed again. The strongest one, a rather nasty demon Cleo and the Beetlejhost had to team up on, left him with his glowing red eyes. He didn’t really have anywhere to go before Impulse bought the office, and tended to sleep on the couch or in his car until Skizz decided to let him into the upper floor, where he now lives alongside Zedaph and Impulse.

TFC

A now-retired ghostbuster, TFC calls in Team ZIT one night when he finds himself in over his head against a ghost with a grudge. He winds up becoming a bit of a mentor figure to the trio, usually coaching them over the phone if they’re not sure how to deal with one of the stranger spirits. Lost his leg years ago in a fight with a poltergeist that could have gone better, and now has a robotic prosthetic made by Doc.

Wels

While Team ZIT was out investigating some rumour or another in the woods, they came across a large stone box. Following video game logic, I guess, they then decided opening this large stone box sounded like a fun idea. Well, Tango and Zedaph did. Impulse was a bit more hesitant. The box actually held a medieval knight who’d been put in an enchanted sleep for centuries by his demonic doppelgänger, and was very much not prepared for modern life. Team ZIT took him to Xisuma, who happened to live closest, and Wels is currently helping out on the farm and trying to adjust to life in the 21st century. He can understand and speak modern English just fine because magic. Volunteers at the local theatre quite a lot.

Hels

Is Wels’ doppelgänger. Technically a minor demon. Won a fight with Wels and sealed him away for centuries as a result. A recurring problem. His real motivation is that he really desperately doesn’t want to go back to Hell, but he’s too proud to admit it. Lives in the woods with EX, who’s basically his only friend, though the weirdo with the brown cardigan keeps pestering him about his backstory and feelings for some reason. Has minor pyrokinesis.

XB

Like Biffa, XB is also a ghost from the future, though it seems to be a different timeline than Biffa’s. His unfinished business is preventing the apocalypse, but he has no idea how to do that, no idea if he’s in the right timeline, and is pretty sure he’s gone back a lot farther than he probably should’ve. Also, there’s the whole paradox issue, where if he prevents the apocalypse he never has a reason to go back and prevent the apocalypse, so he doesn’t prevent the apocalypse, so he has to go back and- he tries not to think about it too much. He mostly just hangs out in an abandoned house on the edge of town and vibes.

Xisuma

Is a beekeeper. Nobody’s ever seen his face; when he’s not in his beekeeping outfit, he’s either wearing a helmet, or (more recently) an extremely lifelike and detailed animal mask (is it a mask?). Actually a shapeshifting alien, he crashed down to Earth after a scuffle with his evil clone and was stranded because Earth doesn’t have the right tools or resources to repair a spaceship. These days he’s actually found he’s happier tending to his bees, selling honey, and helping his friends out, and probably wouldn’t leave Earth even if he could. It’s a simpler life, but a pleasant one. He bonds with Biffa over a shared love of tea and being stranded in a technologically inferior world and finding a home.

Evil Xisuma

Is Xisuma’s clone. Feels that if everyone’s going to call him ‘Evil’ he may as well own it. Shot his original’s spaceship down in a scuffle but wound up being brought down with him. Currently hides in the woods. Generally more of a minor nuisance than an actual danger. Used to spend his free time bothering X but has gotten put off by Wels, who has a problem when it comes to evil clones. His friends consist of Hels, who is a terrible role model, and Zedaph, who’s trying to help him work through his problems behind everyone’s backs. Can summon lightning because he deserves it.

Zedaph

Is the reason Team ZIT is ghostbusting in the first place. He’s a sheep shearer by trade, but that’s a fairly seasonal thing and ghostbusting is more fun anyway. Has somehow never been possessed, and claims it’s because he’s always standing next to Tango. He makes sure the other two gets enough sleep Because we all know they can’t be trusted to do it. Probably has some sort of really bizarre and situational magical powers he is thoroughly unaware of. Qualified to be a licensed therapist. Made friends with Evil X at one point, somehow.

Zloy

Like Cleo, he’s a ghost possessing a corpse. Unlike Cleo, there’s a good chance it’s not his corpse. Eh, it’s not like anyone else was using it. Runs a blog with Pixl, because why not. Was already a zombie when he met Pixl, who was still alive at the time. His body is a bit more decayed than Cleo’s, but it’s fine. His goggles are enchanted with the same preservation spell; it’s not really ever explained where he got them from. Has no regard for privacy but is fortunately unable to turn invisible or phase through walls due to inhabiting a physical body. Both can theoretically physically fight ghosts and has enough time to physically fight ghosts, meaning he would be a valuable ally if he could be bothered. Lives in a graveyard. Has an ongoing ‘feud’ with Cleo, in which he puts jabs at her on the blog. Once spent a week as a (very sarcastic) floating potato.

Hermiton

Is the name of the place they all live in/near. Located in an ambiguous location in an ambiguous country, Hermiton is technically large enough to be considered a city but has Town VibesTM. Supernatural going-ons are a fairly normal part of life, and a good number of inhabitants aren’t humans. Despite this, the wider world seems mostly ignorant of the existence of ghosts, magic, etc. I’m not too sure about geography, but it’s surrounded by forest in most directions and in a warm enough climate to not have snow in the winter (so Python doesn’t, you know, freeze to death). Most people don’t tend to bat an eyelid at strange-looking people walking down the street or serving them at the store; they’re used to it by now. There are several theories as to why Hermiton specifically has so much going on when it comes to the supernatural- ley lines, secretly the resting place of some long-forgotten god, et cetera- but it’s actually more of a case of ‘people who have supernatural traits hear rumours of a place where a lot of people have supernatural traits and go there in search of answers/a place to belong’. This doesn’t exactly explain where all the ghosts came from, but hey. Nothing’s perfect.

[carmenxjulia]

I put together a transcript of the 1 hour Q&A Interview the Carmen Sandiego Discord did with Abby Trott (Ivy) and Rafael Petardi (Chase Devineaux). All of the questions were submitted by server members. You can read everything below the break!

PizzaHorse:

Hello everyone! Please welcome Abby Trott and Rafael Petardi to our Q&A today.

Abby Trott:

Hiiiiiiiiiii!

Rafael Petardi:

Hello Bonjour!

PizzaHorse:

Let's get started. How did you get started as a voice actor? Was there anything that inspired you to pursue it as a career?

Abby Trott:

Oh MAN. Long story.

Rafael Petardi:

Mine is very short. I'm an actor and my agent started sending me on voice auditions and eventually I booked some!

Abby Trott:

This is a novel so I started typing it ahead of time, haha. I was an acting/theater major, and when I graduated from college I moved to Japan on the JET program to teach English because I wanted to travel so freakin' badly. I had never even been on an airplane. I was placed in rural Akita, (inaka), and absolutely LOVED it. The only problem was I wanted to be and actor/singer… womp womp. At that time, I also started to mess around with characters and voices - I would record voice memos and conversations with myself while driving around. One day, a friend was in the car and my phone was on shuffle and one of my "scenes" started playing - I was absolutely MORTIFIED. But that moment solidified for me that I need to move to the big ole city if I wanted to really pursue acting. I ended up heading to Tokyo, where I performed in children's musicals, and did other gigs here and there. That's where I started doing VO professionally! I was able to do some character voices for the shows I was in, and some other side projects. I realized how much I loved VO, and eventually decided to move back to the States to pursue it, since most English VO for games and animation is produced here.

When I moved back, I started searching online for VoiceOver opportunities, and stumbled across a contest hosted by Bang Zoom! Entertainment. I BARELY got my entry in on time. The contest took place over several months, and in the meantime, I moved to NYC and started taking VO classes. For the finale of the contest, they flew me to LA. I ended up winning! Still can't believe it. (O-O) I got to dub my first anime "Miss Monochrome," and realized that if I wanted to work in games and animation, I should probably move to LA… and the I DID.

THE END

PizzaHorse:

What do you think are the best and worst things about being a voice actor?

Abby Trott:

Oooh. The worst things? Job insecurity... constant rejection...

Rafael Petardi:

The incredibly talented and cool people you meet and work with.

What Abby said

Abby Trott:

The best things? Working with amazing people, AND it's so much fun - even auditioning is fun!

PizzaHorse:

How did you land your role on the show?

Rafael Petardi:

I auditioned

Got the job

pretty boring I know

Abby Trott:

I auditioned through my agency, and got a callback. I went to the callback and their note was "more Boston." Then I had a second callback and their note was "even MORE Boston." So I went WICKED BOSTON and got the job

PizzaHorse:

What was your favorite/the most fun thing to record (episode/scene/line)? Any least favorites?

Rafael Petardi:

For me, the funnest scenes to record are the ones I got to play opposte the incredibly talented cast.

The least favorite... did not have enough scenes with the Wonderful Abby Trott

Abby Trott:

Awww Rafe! Singing was the MOST FUN! The Karaoke Ep, and the choose-your-own adventure one, where we got to sing the theme! Mikey (Zack) was cracking me up constantly.

Least favorite was the last ep because I didn't want it to eeeeeend

PizzaHorse:

Were you allowed to suggest lines to be said by your character, or improvise the script at all if you thought something would add to the scene?

Abby Trott:

YUP! And Mikey and I definitely did, hahaa. It was encouraged. Always fun to see what they keep...

Rafael Petardi:

Yes we were. I improvised mostly sounds and noises. Words once in a while but not very often. Thank God for Duane

PizzaHorse:

What was the hardest part of voicing your character on Carmen Sandiego? Was there a particular episode that was difficult to record?

Rafael Petardi:

Keeping the consistency episode to episode of the Chase's accent, pitch and energy

I did not want hime to sound different ever

Abby Trott:

I think the hardest part was keeping up the EXTREME Boston accent. But it was also SUPER fun...

PizzaHorse:

What traits do you share or have in common with the character you play?

Rafael Petardi:

I am like Chase in the sense of a Dog with a Bone. If I get pasionate about something, I go to extremes. Abby Trott has scene this for example in my bread making endeavors

Also, I'm an idiot in life too sometimes

Abby Trott:

Ivy and I are both... from Mass! we both have brothers who we argue with but really do love when it comes down to it. We love chocolate, aaaaand... I think we're both brave. (brag?)

Can confirm Rafe is v. passionate about bread. And and idiot.

Rafael Petardi:

All True

PizzaHorse:

What character on the show would you voice if you had the chance?

Abby Trott:

Chase

Rafael Petardi:

I would love Maelstrom

Abby Trott:

Jk... Coach Brunt seems SUPER fun

PizzaHorse:

If you could meet a character from Carmen Sandiego in real life, who would it be and why?

Abby Trott:

Carmen! she is the coooooleeest. I'd ask her to teach me some tricks

Rafael Petardi:

Julie Argent. She's cute

PizzaHorse:

Which character do you think you are most like or that you most identify with?

Rafael Petardi:

CHASE

I think that's partly why we're doing the roles we do

Abby Trott:

I think Ivy, for real! Casting was ON IT. I can be serious when I need to be, but I'm a giant goofball (if you couldn't tell from my latest tweet/insta post...)

PizzaHorse:

Who is your favorite character, other than your own?

Abby Trott:

Mime. Bomb.

Rafael Petardi:

Other than my own? Hmmm... uuuh... mmmm. tough...

Abby Trott:

Seriously, I think Mime bomb is hilarious.

Rafael Petardi:

Yes Mime Bomb!

PizzaHorse:

Do you wish your character had more interactions with another character in particular?

Rafael Petardi:

Yes, I would love to interact with Ivy and Maelstrom

I think the interaction would be odd and awkward and funny

Abby Trott:

Yes. I would love to see how Ivy handles the specific VILE members... I would love to see IVY try to go to VILE academy...

PizzaHorse:

Are there any themes or lessons from the series that you would want people to remember?

Rafael Petardi:

yes, don't jump to conclusions and be an idiot

Abby Trott:

Yes! That! also, don't be evil. ALSO also, be loyal to your friends.

PizzaHorse:

Do you ever look at fan content?

Rafael Petardi:

yes all the time. It helps when I'm tagged rafaelPetardi on Instagram

Abby Trott:

Yes! I look at fanart sometimes, and see what cosplays are happenin'

Rafael Petardi:

I've posted many as well

Abby Trott:

Haven't read much fanfic... but I know it's out there.

PizzaHorse:

What did you think about your character's development and arc throughout the series?

Rafael Petardi:

I absolutely loooooooved Chase's arc

Love redemption stuff

he was just misguided

just was alway his thing

Abby Trott:

I love Ivy's journey - she really grew up, from a troubled kid to an adult, accepting responsibility and accepting new challenges. Donning the hat, if you will.

Rafael Petardi:

*justice as always his thing

PizzaHorse:

How do you feel now that Carmen Sandiego is at its end?

Rafael Petardi:

sad. miss evrybody so much

we will have to have a cast reunion when this pandemic thing is over

Abby Trott:

SAD! But grateful. It was THE MOST fun to record, and I wish it could continue forever.

Rafael Petardi:

I'm grateful too. yes

Abby Trott:

and YES reunion!

PizzaHorse:

Yesss can't wait for that group photo to pop up on social media!

Were there any moments in the series that had you legitimately emotional?

Rafael Petardi:

yes ofcourse

losing Julia was tough

Abby Trott:

A lot. But one that stands out for me is after Carmen gets stuck out in the snow, and is reunited with her crew. (:_;). Also the stuff with Shadowsan and his brother... and anything with baby Carmen...

Gah. So many...

PizzaHorse:

Did you enjoy how the show ended? Is there anything you would have changed or would have liked to see more of?

Rafael Petardi:

I loved the way the show ended! I think Duane did a fantastic job tying loose ends and bring the story to a satisfactory close for all characters

I do hope for an ACME Ivy, Zak, Julia and Chase spin-off

Abby Trott:

I love how it ends. I think it wrapped so well considering the number of eps - the writers really got it done. I WISH Ivy and Zack could follow Carmen forever, but she has her own story to unravel it would seem.

And Ivy does look good in that suit let me tell ya

PizzaHorse:

Can you share a favorite behind the scenes moment?

Abby Trott:

Mikey. Is. So. Funny. Hard to choose one moment - he would make me laugh harder than anything. Especially when we were singing. Or any time he had to gag...

Rafael Petardi:

OMG!

That singing stuff we had to do together was hilarious

we could not stop laughinh

PizzaHorse:

What, in your opinion, are the best pizza toppings?

Abby Trott:

Cheese. Caramelized onions. Roasted garlic. Spinach. Mushrooms.

Rafael Petardi:

buffala mozzarella and tomatos period

oooooo fancy Abby

Abby Trott:

Rafe why aren't you as obsessed with pizza as you are with bread? And can you be?

Rafael Petardi:

I am

Abby Trott:

!

Rafael Petardi:

I just don;t like to share pizza

PizzaHorse:

Here's a specific question for Rafael. Did you sometimes get mad at your own character for the way he behaved towards Julia earlier on in the Series?

And one for Abby. As a Massachusetts native, how did you feel about voicing a character from Boston with the iconic accent?

Rafael Petardi:

I did not. I always felt, however misguided Chase was, he was always on the path of turth and justice no matter what was in his way. It's the same principals that led hin to see the truth about Julia

*principles

Abby Trott:

I think it's so cool, and kind of an honor, in a way. I was worried about it being too much, and people saying it's over the top. Turns out comedy wins, haha.

PizzaHorse:

Were you familiar with the older animated series when you started work on the Netflix original?

Rafael Petardi:

I never heard of Carmen Sandiego before I did this series

Abby Trott:

Yes! I had seen a bit. I also remember watching my brother play the game. Someone gifted me a mini arcade version of the game this year, and I'm excited to play :slight_smile:

Rafael Petardi:

Which I think helped when I had to say the iconic line

"Where in th world..." there was no pressure

LoL

Abby Trott:

LOL

PizzaHorse:

Okay, last question. Do you have a favorite quote from the show?

Abby Trott:

"La Femme Rouge!"

or Mime Bomb's classic "..."

Rafael Petardi:

"the game is over!"

PizzaHorse:

Woohoo!

Abby Trott:

Hooray!

PizzaHorse:

Thank you so much Rafael Petardi and Abby Trott for joining us today! I hope everybody had a wicked awesome time.

Abby Trott:

Thanks for having us! What a pleasure.

Rafael Petardi:

It was great! Thank you to all the great questions.

Abby Trott:

Thanks for watching the show! Great questions. I'm sure I'm going to think of more quotes as soon as I log off... haha.

Rafael Petardi:

See you all soon!

Abby Trott:

Stay safe, take care, and see you all on various social media platforms!

[loquaciousquark]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E111 (Redux! Oct. 13, 2020)

Gooooood evening good evening good evening, all! I started the VOD late for this recap and somehow the first four or so minutes of the show have a Twitch audio copyright claim, so I am reduced to only reading Brian's lips when he asks if we're on the internet. Hilariously, Marisha's background room is a comfy-looking blue/gold fabric wall with a ceramic colorful abstract lamp and a yellow silk scarf over the lampshade, and Taliesin's is an industrial looking games room in grey and black with multiple monitors, overhead speakers, and mysterious metal fixtures behind him. What a treasure this group is, honestly.

Tonight's guests: Marisha Ray & Taliesin Jaffe, discussing episodes 110 and 111 again. I wildly speculate once more about what might have caused their absence: jury duty? Sam appearing on The Masked Singer? Something to do with the animated show? One day, we’ll know, one day... (One day this “copyrighted audio” section will come back from the wars, too. Ugh!) Finally! The audio comes back to reveal Brian discussing the endless reality of digital meetings and Marisha talking about (I think) her glare-reducing glasses she’s wearing. Welcome to the New Age (welcome to the New Age, to the New Age).

Announcements: Marisha suggests checking out Dimension20, another live tabletop gaming group, which premieres live on Wednesdays at 4pm (CollegeHumor). 

Brian immediately wants to know how they feel about the revelation that Molly is alive. Taliesin’s personal reaction: he “knows some things” he can’t talk about and is aware of several possibilities that might be going on, but had a sneaking suspicion that there would not be a body for them to find. He says it’s almost all there for anyone to see in past material. Marisha’s personal reaction: she just wants to know how she’s doing with her theories, & was trying to block Tal’s face out deliberately as she was going off on her theories in the last episode. Taliesin says he thought her ideas were pretty good!

Cad has no clue what to think - it’s like listening to your friends talk about Buffy. Marisha thought it was a 50/50 Molly would still be there, but Beau had no idea. Not that it mattered, because as soon as Matt went through with it the reveal still blew their minds. Tal laid out his plans for the character with Matt during Campaign One (towards the end) after they all got their VM tattoos.

It is a “horrifying and gross” thing to dig up a body, and Beau was pretty reluctant to do it. Tal, as Cad: “Sometimes dead’s better.” The moral quandary of trying to speak with a dead friend was very different here than the frequent occasions they used the spell in C1.

Taliesin says his poker face is very bad, so it’s easier for him to over-react and let it all play out. The only other player he can see very easily from his place in their current setup is Travis, and because he knows Travis doesn’t watch TM, tweet, or participate in social media, he admits he thoroughly enjoyed watching Travis freak out at his freaking out. He says he only knew about 20% of what Matt described at the end of that episode. He was picking things to mug to increase Travis’s surprise. I love this so much.

Taliesin provided the table left leg shake; Travis provided table right. Ha!

Beau is really accepting her role in the Cobalt Soul. It’s good when “as a person, you feel like you can settle into your calling. Sometimes you can do more from the inside than fighting from the outside.” It’s a mirrored but opposite path of Keyleth from C1; Beau felt like she was too good for her duty, while Keyleth thought she wasn’t good enough.

Caduceus is not a big believer in jumping to conclusions. He does have an idea/notion of the “city of the undead” and thinks all this necrotic energy must come from somewhere, and wonders if this is the “capital of anti-death.” He’s willing to believe whatever he sees. This is one of the few things that trigger a bit of loathing and disgust in him. It was terrifying that the Wildmother didn’t know anything.

Beau is pretty confident in her Charlie Day impression laying-out-the-research last episode. She enjoyed taking the things that were known & extrapolating around them; this is a huge facet of Marisha’s own personality and she really enjoys it, so she built a character this time that would allow that kind of puzzle-solving. It’s also why she repeatedly notes when Beau journals, so she can avoid metagaming. Trent’s mention of Vess Durogna’s tomb raiding was completely circumstantial, and the only reason she’d made the connection to the Tombtakers was because she’d recently reviewed those notes for a separate unannounced project. Sometimes she tries to make connections and Matt is like, “It was...just descriptive. Just flavor. The curtains were red...” and she has to discard a paragraph of notes. She feels like it’s still something they have to do because of “look at what he does! Look! It’s totally valid!”

Cosplay of the Week: @kitsunstudios with a gorgeous Caduceus with a very intricate silk vest.

Caduceus’s takedown of Trent! One of my favorite moments in the entirety of C2. Taliesin felt Trent was an asshole; Caduceus felt sorry for him because of how dumb he thought he was. Caduceus’s response was "this is the dumbest man I’ve ever met in my life. He’s so dumb! Is nobody going to tell this guy how dumb he is? Oh, they’re all freaked out. Somebody needs to tell this guy he’s an idiot before somebody gets hurt.” (Marisha: “Before?”) Tal says it was the product of several years of therapy and many drunk conversations with Whitney Moore. It was from a genuine place of concern from Caduceus. “How are you allowed to have this much power and be that dumb?”

Brian loved how funny it was to watch everyone tiptoe around Trent and then Caduceus bulldoze through the end of the meal.

Taliesin: “Damage doesn’t make you interesting or better. It’s not what makes you good. Character isn’t found in damage. Just recovery.”

Brian & Marisha commiserate going through the stage where believing surviving something automatically made you a stronger person, better for the pain; instead it just meant you had to pick up the pieces after. Marisha talks about how strength through survival may be true for some people, but it shouldn’t be considered a necessity. Taliesin talks about how he used to think he had to be miserable to write. Brian talks about how believing he liked reading and writing miserable things only limited him for years.

Marisha feels it’s a C2 theme that almost all the PCs have someone trying to handwave or take credit for their accomplishments or explain their pain as being for their own good (Trent, Beau’s dad, Obann). She thinks it’s interesting to see all the various ways people try to take credit for your work/delegitimize you as a person. She loves that RPGs allow you to explore these odd moralities in interesting ways. The only way to fight it is to have a sense of your own self-worth, which is a problem a lot of the M9 started with.

Caduceus likes everyone, and really likes people who appear to need role models (Eodwulf). “With the right friends and the right bar and the right attitude, I think he’d be okay. Come over here where it’s so much better. That seems like an exhausting friendship that you have there.”

Marisha loves the mix of personalities in the M9; Veth, Cad, & Jester were all “we kind of like them!” after the dinner, and she immediately made eye contact with Travis and they both shook their heads. She knows Beau has to go along with it for Caleb’s sake for now, but she & Fjord are pretty sus of Trent’s proteges.

Beau is less concerned about Artagan’s relationship to Jester because “he showed his ass--she’s less worried about Jester now because a little of the magic is gone.” It’s a little like becoming an adult and realizing your parents are also just adults & human. Caduceus wasn’t suspicious of the Traveler for a long time until they got to the island. Aside: Taliesin loves the pantheon in D&D. “The notion of attempting to apply common Western conceptions of religion to a world where you have a pantheon of interventionist gods as baseline makes no sense to me. Everyone admits that every other god is there and doing shit; it has more in common with ancient Rome than anything else.” Now that he knows it was a con, he feels the wind had been taken out of it. He does have a sense that Jester’s gotten back together with an ex: “I hope that I’m really happy for you.” They’re both interested to see how Jester navigates the new relationship.

My internet goes out, of course. I panic for a second, thinking I’ve lost everything above, but all is well! Thanks, Form History Control addon!

Marisha loved punching Artagan, but regretting rolling so poorly. “I miss violence.” Dani lets us know it’s been about four episodes since the last battle.

There’s no way the Cobalt Reserve doesn’t have a single document on the Eyes of Nine. Beau believes “there are no real secrets” because people are just bad at not writing things down. For there to be no information at all seems really suspicious for her.

Fanart of the Week: @oddalchemist on twitter with some awesome Beau conspiracy red-thread boards overlaid a distant shadowy Molly walking away.

Caduceus feels a little guilty for really enjoying his time right now with the M9 and not wanting to go home. He’s starting to suspect that he’s going to go home very different than when he left. “He has the softest problems. I don’t know if I want to move back in with Mom & Dad.”

Beau is trying to get comfortable with the idea of being happy. Jester is probably Beau’s first real best friend & one of the first healthy female friendships she’s ever had. As long as she still has Jester in her life, she doesn’t care. For Yasha... “At the end of the day, Beau is a lonely person and has always been a lonely person. And I think you kinda reach this point where once you’re not lonely anymore, you can kind of come out of the fog and realize that was horrible! And terrifying! And is even more terrifying now that I know what I could have, and I don’t want to go back to that. At the end of the day Beau doesn’t want to be lonely anymore. There’s always been that flirtation with Yasha, but everyone had to figure their own shit out. And now it feels like it’s coming out a little bit of that haze, maybe this actually could be...” There are a lot of ways they complement each other & are good-different from each other. Marisha believes people can be attracted to more than person at once.

Caduceus doesn’t think nature turned against him on Rumblecusp, it was just a reality of nature being dangerous and violent. “He has a complex relationship with nature.” He doesn’t expect special treatment.

Thoughts on the mansion: “Man, it’s nice to be seen.” Marisha: “I don’t know how I ended up becoming the Scanlan of this campaign, but I’m living for it.” It felt like an echo of “I’m better for having known you.” They compare Marisha taking specific notes on the campaign to Liam taking specific notes on people’s favorite tapestries, comics, etc.

They talk about missing theme parks and daydream a park version of the mansion in CritRoleLand. It’s lovely.

Taliesin never expected Divine Intervention to work; he just wanted to roll some dice. He’s still processing what he saw/heard. They all agree it was very useful in the Vokodo fight.

Vilya! Marisha: “Ah! Ah! Ah!” As a player, Marisha was so deep in Beau’s eyes she didn’t pick up it was Vilya at first (especially since Matt really emphasized they should not be looking for C1 NPCs). Marisha’s brain melted. She bawled her eyes out on the ride home after that episode. Right after it ended, Laura told Marisha “Keyleth finally gets her happy ending,” and it makes Marisha emotional again since Keyleth’s story ended so bittersweetly. She talks about the very real feelings of “just wanting them to be happy, though!” She went back and listened to all her old Keyleth playlists. Everyone was teary after the episode. “Everyone has these 100% real memories of being these characters and having these good times.”

And that’s that for that! Thanks for your patience, all, and is it Thursday yet?