#Left Keyboard

[episodes-without-incident]

5/8/2025:

1 episode since Drawfee last referenced Cats (2019)

2 episodes since Drawfee last referenced Everytime We Touch (2005)

[horseshoemybeloved]

“ His authority for joy was pervasive, and to be in his presence was to understand that music is supposed to be joy. We’re supposed to share this together “

[never-rxne]

RUUUUUUUUUNE. ☹️

Fucking look! A bitch is crying in the club rn oh my goddd 😭💔 Also don’t mind me, you’re like my go-to person to show Sevika content to atp

(art by jin_hattori on ig)

Lee. Lee. LEE. LEE.

WHY. WHY???????

[wickjump]

a formal thank you to jakei for not blocking me for talking about cross 174832898 times a day. i probably would block me i'm really annoying. any way i very much extremely appreciate you andyour au.hhave a good break your so cool

love wick

[anadrym]

Extended Author's Notes for Left Behind Ch15.

Spoilers!

Chapter title is from "Dark On Me" by Starset. I was kinda iffy on this one, but only because I can't find a single version of it without the outro for my playlist.

"The pain of it is unbearable. She bears it anyway." - Well, that's just Vi in a nutshell, isn't it?

Vi is hallucinating (in order) Vander, Tobias, and Felicia (her mom). Every time she notices their hands not feeling right, it's because she's actually feeling Caitlyn's hands.

Ah, the ring. Vi typically uses it to try to jumpstart her memory, which is why she goes for it when she's trying to remember something. But its being missing isn't just about her losing her anchor, it's also that she knows it's not hers and that she was supposed to give it back to someone. And she will, eventually. ;)

And of course, when she tries digging her nails into her thumb instead, Caitlyn stops her from hurting herself. Removing pain as the trigger, replacing it with comfort. In a way, Caitlyn is taking over as Vi's anchor. :')

God, it took me so long to write Felicia's part. I couldn't figure out how to describe her voice, what to compare it with to make it clear who she was. She sounds like Jinx/Powder, but Vi doesn't remember enough to make that connection. So we ended up with: the height chart for little Vi and Powder, dancing, and the record player. In that last little scene, Felicia is dancing with Powder and Vi is sitting on Vander's bartop.

AAAHHHHHH, something about Vi recognizing but not remembering the lullaby! She remembered it for years and sang it for Caitlyn, and now that she's forgotten it, Caitlyn can sing it to remind her! It's a cycle! If she hadn't shared it with Cait, she might've lost it forever! Something about preserving yourself by loving others! I'm going insane!

So, what happens with Caitlyn at the end of Vi's POV: She hears someone arrive, leaves to see who's there, recognizes the smugglers and gets Nasir's attention (he was already looking for her), then leads him back to Vi.

Cait did tell Vi that she'd be right back, but Vi couldn't understand her (and Caitlyn knows that, which only makes it worse). She knows that leaving Vi alone won't go well, but she doesn't have any other option; she can't get Vi to the ship on her own. So she tries to reassure Vi, knowing that it won't work, and then leaves. And when she comes back, Vi is crying and hyperventilating and shaking out of her skin. Just imagine the guilt.

And of course, Caitlyn is also panicking. When she left Vi behind five years ago, the Baroness got ahold of her. When she left Vi behind just a day ago, Vi was dragged down to Maintenance. She's absolutely terrified of not being there to protect her partner.

Vi doesn't know that the smugglers were coming. She has no idea that there are supposed to be any other people helping them. For five years, she's had nobody she could trust, aside from Caitlyn. She's been so abused that she sees everyone else as a threat. So when Cait turns to ask Nasir to help her get Vi out of the drainage pipe, Vi thinks they're being threatened and reacts accordingly.

With the way Vi has fallen, her ankles are pretty much all Nasir can reach. He is careful not to grab her injured leg, but she still freaks out. There's nothing they can really do to calm her down, and they have to get her out of the drainage pipe, so Nasir just has to keep dragging Vi out by her ankle while she has a panic attack.

While she's panicking, Vi notices a voice right beside her and someone touching her shoulder - that's Caitlyn. Vi just kinda... forgot she was there.

She also forgot that she already panicked about losing the ring too.

I wanted, so badly, to work in something about Vi choosing to die instead of going back to the Baroness (think along the lines of holding a blade to her own throat), but I couldn't get it to fit. She's not armed, for one thing, and she also wouldn't kill herself when Caitlyn was still at risk. But I do think it'd be fun to explore the "no, I don't want to die, but I would rather end my own life than suffer like that again." Also, imagine the angst potential with Caitlyn seeing that.

Nasir knows that Cait is injured, but this is a small ship used for short trips. They don't have much in the way of supplies. The best he can do is get her water and a place to rest.

When I say "airship," I want you guys to think about the ones in Stardust (the 2007 movie), which fly but can also sail in water.

The smell of wine reminding Cait of her childhood! Caitlyn loved her parents so much! They were so important to her! Their memory will haunt her for the rest of her life! Also, I love the idea that slightly-buzzed Tobias and Cassandra would absolutely put on a record and dance around their living room barefoot.

The hiding place under the floorboards is pretty much described in the chapter, but I'll just recap it here: it's about the size of a twin-sized bed, just big enough for two average adults to squeeze into. It's got some padding on the bottom and walls, for comfort and soundproofing. The panel that covers it is made of removed floorboards, so it blends right in. This never came up in the story, but there's also a loose nail in the panel that can be pushed up from inside the hiding spot, in case whoever's inside needs to signal for help without being noticed by someone who doesn't know to look for the nail.

I simply must sprinkle in little moments of each character being more concerned about the other than about herself. Vi, poisoned and feverish: "Where's Caitlyn, I have to protect her." Caitlyn, tired and hungry and with potentially broken ribs: "No one worry about me, Vi's more important."

I never go into Nasir's backstory, but he is deaf and he communicates mostly through sign, though he can read lips. He and Petra have known each other for years, and that hiding place beneath the floorboards gets way more use than it should have to.

I love how Caitlyn doesn't even consider cleaning herself up. Nasir hands her a wet cloth and she immediately takes care at Vi. You know she has to have blood and sweat on her own face too.

"From underneath her broken nails, where the skin is broken by a dozen tiny cuts caused by gods-know-what." - They're from the mirror shards. Cait doesn't know about that yet. She doesn't know that Vi fought back, that that's the reason the Baroness left the mansion, that that's the reason Vi was taken back to Maintenance. She doesn't know that Vi fought back!

"Damned ring" - She doesn't recognize it! She doesn't know whose it was or what it means! She hates that it's been used to hurt Vi! (And it's gonna be a bit before she understands any more than that.)

Caitlyn feeling worse as the hours go by is because she hasn't eaten. Girl has low blood sugar.

I like the idea that, in those last few paragraphs, Vi wakes up because of the noise and because of how tense Cait gets. But she doesn't panic because, even though it's dark and she's confused/delirious, she recognizes Caitlyn's scent and touch and the rhythm of her breathing. :(

Originally, I had a small bit about Vi, in her confusion, trying to grab at her injury, but there really isn't enough room for her to move in here, and it didn't really work out. Oh well.

Teaser for next week:

Netherworld's back door swings open again and Petra steps out into the alley. Caitlyn's knees go weak with relief.

"Didn't really expect you to --" Petra stops dead, looking from Caitlyn to Nasir to Vi and then back to Caitlyn. Her dark eyes narrow as she opens her mouth again.

"Petra, please," Caitlyn begs, cutting off whatever Petra had been about to say. "Please, help her."

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

I keep forgetting to post this, but a while ago I got some truly gorgeous sculpts by Bulkamancer for a fun (and educational!) painting time. The level of detail on these is mindblowing.

Aylin's got some progress on her, though there's still soooo much work to be done (and I am genuinely looking forward to not having her wings occupy half my desk):

The first bit I test-painted was back in May - here's me marvelling at the shiny scale mail:

Isobel is... still waiting to be primed. Sorry.

[reflectionsofgalaxies]

met a VERY charming lil friend yesterday who i have never (knowingly) seen before!!! 🖤💛

this is the Sequoia Pitch moth (Synanthedon sequoiae), yes, moth! these fascinating little creatures bear an incredible resemblance to members of the family Vespidae, like common paper wasps and yellowjackets, and that’s no simple coincidence!

the appearance of these moths is an example of Batesian mimicry, a type of mimicry where one species mimics the warning signals of another species, but without having the same harmful or undesirable defences.

in this case these moths look like they may give you a nasty sting, but really they’re about as harmless as a moth can be! (plus they have gorgeous slightly iridescent black-lined wings and fluffy little shrimp-like tails! absolute cuties!)

[foldingfittedsheets]

Yo!!! My wife wants to get that shrug text emoji as a tattoo!!! Delightful to find another enjoyer of it.

I love it so much but I’m not fancy enough to try to type it so it’s a keyboard replace of the word “shrug” and I’ve been questioned several times how quickly I respond with it and I feel like a powerful wizard for having a keyboard command to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[zanarkandfayth]

I took a break from writing earlier to go shower, and while I was gone my cat decided he wanted to help me out with my fic...

bless his furry little heart -_-

[questionable-idea]

Alternating between qwerty and azerty keyboards is turning my brain to mush. Fingers moving like drunkards on a square hitting poles

[art-flordesalonviejo]

For a while I wanted to make a portrait of the character but since I didn't know how to do pixel art I hadn't made any progress but now I found a program that made it easier for me.

[garygoldenbignaturals]

Never typed garma's name in japanese before but somehow it's in my autosuggest already

[tls123]

absolutely adore the new dude, will be using him in every single conversation until i die

[simonsquest]

I am DELIGHTED by all of the edits of TRFSB Simon in situations. My goodness. You're all incredible. I haven't laughed this hard in such a long time.

I'm gonna make a masterpost with them (with credit and descriptions!) after work so they all live in one post over reblogging each. I am also inspired to try and make more edits myself...

So please, keep them coming!

[hawnks]

I think it's important to read about writing and read about theory and craft for a lot of reasons but also just talk about what reading is like for you with other people because I didn't know you were supposed to see the story until I came across that one tumblr post. The Apple is a vague insinuation in my swamp of a brain. I hear 'the curtains are blue' and I just take their word for it. Been rawdogging literature my whole life and didn't even know it.

[mylovesstuffs]

Never in my life have I thought I'll write a deadass Wikipedia shit of a thousand words and format it with all the possible links, and then Tumblr will decide to test my patience AND NOT SAVE IT!

@staff