#I'm determined to finish this piece and get it posted BEFORE the polls come out this time lol.

[chiscribbs]

Sorry the AU comp plot has been on-hold for a bit longer than expected - I've been caught up trying to finish my entry for the next round of polls.

With luck, I should have that posted by tonight or tomorrow morning and then we can pick up where we left off (starting with Raph and Mikey, because it's been awhile since I last checked in on them, lol).

I'll be answering any non-comp asks I'm able to in the meantime! Thanks for the continued love & support ❤

[jeewrites]

Hold Fast - Sneak Peek!

Rating: 18+ MDNI (no smut in sneak peak)

A/N: For my first Frankie Friday I'm posting a sneak peek to my first fan fic Hold Fast (a one-shot? part one? possibly more?). Thank you to @vyduan for being my beta and my write or die! Grateful to everyone who voted in my poll and @katareyoudrilling for encouraging me to post. Full piece coming Friday, Feb 16th!

Tags: no y/n, gymbff!Benny, reader is a powerlifting girlie described as short, Tom is alive unfortunately (we hate Tom), Tom owns a bar, Pope owns a gym, alcohol, brief body insecurity and Frankie being down on himself, swearing (I'm new to this so please lmk if I missed anything!)

Word Count: 591 of ~3.9k

Benny was surprised to see you walk into Pope's one night an hour before closing since you always trained in the mornings. You had given him a short head nod instead of your usual big smile before stalking to a platform and slamming your bag down. 

"Yooooo, everything ok?" he asks as he walks over. 

"Does it look like I'm okay," you huff, aggressively wrestling your knee sleeves on. Glancing at him, you immediately apologize when he hesitates and takes a step back.

"Sorry, Benny. I'll be a lot better after I pick up some heavy things and put them down."

"Might help if you want to talk about it?" he ventures leaning against the barbell.

You finish tying your squat shoes before looking at him again with dejected eyes and sighing. 

"I just went on a crappy date with a guy from one of those dating apps," you sigh again. "He spent the whole time talking about himself and how much he works out. Then he had the fucking audacity to question me when he asked how much I could lift."

"Fucking asshole!" Benny feels himself getting steamed. 

"He just stormed out of the restaurant and left me with the bill when I refused to change my answer," you shrug, but Benny sees your jaw tick. "Apparently, I squat and deadlift more than he does and he couldn't date someone who could do that." You roll your eyes and huff.

"WTF! What a total loser. You don't need a guy like that who doesn't appreciate you," Benny replies incensed. He sees your face fall for a moment, eyes downcast and tight.

"I just — I've been trying to put myself out there again and it sucks," you mumble, cheeks flush with embarrassment. "It's also been kinda lonely since I moved here, and I guess I could just use more friends, too."

"I'M YOUR FRIEND!" 

"Yeah, my gym friend! We don't do anything outside of this hot, sweaty box Benny," you remind him with a small smile and playful shove to get him off your barbell. 

Benny decides this is completely unacceptable and immediately remedies this by inviting you to the next hangout with him and his ex-Delta Force friends at Redfly's, a local bar nearby. "You know Pope and Will already," he reassures, "Tom's the owner of the bar and he's an asshole, but he's our asshole. And there's Catfish — we call him Fish for short. We've been trying to get him to come work out here, but he's been busy with his new pilot job for the hospital. And he shares custody of his 3-year-old daughter with his ex."

He could see your brain turning over all the information he was throwing at you. You don't seem to react either way to the news that Fish has an ex and a daughter. As you adjust the bar height you respond, "You sure? Don't want to crash a regular thing that you have with your guys."

"Nah, it'll be great! They'll love you!" Benny's determined to get you to come. 

You hand him your phone. "Well... okay. Text me the details?"

With your phone in hand, Benny puts his number in to text himself and then convinces you to show him your dating profile. Between sets of squats you both take turns swiping on possible matches, Benny teasing you on your picks. Ever observant, Benny notices your preference for profiles with tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed photos. As you work through your next set, Benny sneaks his phone out and immediately texts Fish.

[ut-versotale]

Update 3/4/2023 (Poll Results + Progress Updates!)

Heyo, we got a brand new update for y’all! A progress report of everything I finished in the week, as well as discussing the poll results. Let’s start with that first, shall we?

The Poll Results

Thank y'all very much for voting in the poll! As per the results, the website will be releasing WITH the comic prologue on it.

Now. Let's talk progress updates!

The Progress Updates

Completed the majority of Frisk’s redesigned sprites. All the directionals are done, as well as their battle and dialogue sprites.

Wrote a lot of the first Underground area and the major scenes, including Frisk’s boss battle. Some things might end up being rewritten from how they currently are, but for the most part, the major pieces are solidified.

Decided on how I'm going to incorporate battles. With the "interactive webcomic" format, the actual way you get damaged and dodge attacks is changed up, as you can't exactly move a heart around a battle box with attacks that are completely stationary. Rest assured, there's still a strategy to it all.

I've bit the rather lofty bullet of determining that I am going to practice making music over my Spring Break coming up soon. I doubt that I'll be able to make anything particularly amazing for Versotale anytime soon, but the end goal for me right now is to get at least one basic "test track" out before my Spring Break ends. I wanna practice so maybe one day I can make music stuff for this project. Again, while it won't necessarily be VT-related, I will link it here, and criticism WILL be very much encouraged.

Well, I think that's all from me for today. I'll attempt to make progress update posts weekly in order to keep myself on track. Thank you all for reading all of this!