#Some Direction

[quinloki]

quin-uhhh:

would you?!

Fic authors self rec! When you receive this, reply with favorite five fics you've written (include links, and if you want- a few thoughts about each one), then pass on to at least five other writers if you're up for it. Spread the self-love ✨

If you don't, I'll just... I'll just... well I won't do a thing but please?!

many fist pumps,

▲ I'm a symbol now

\o/ Tri, my sweet friend, you are - if anything - a symbol of good cheer =D ♥

Let's see, five favorite fics I've written. That's much easier than trying to pick just one ^_^

Birds of a Feather Marco/Reader ( tumblr / Ao3 / Wattpad ) - This is my most recently completed fic, at least at the time of this post, but I love it so much. My passion for Marco feels like it came out of nowhere and has made itself reigning champion in my thoughts. But a story I expected to be relatively short, ended up almost twice as long as I expected, and it was so easy. It was fun to write, and I think it goes down smooth, despite being nearly 90k words people consistently devour it in a single sitting.

Quicksand Sir Crocodile/Reader ( tumblr / Ao3 / Wattpad ) - Not sure if you're a fan of the sandy crocodile-themed warlord? Tread carefully, reading this title is statistically likely to convert you. Quicksand has an alternative ending because the story was originally intended to be a very dark Yandere - to the point that Doflamingo would've been the "good" guy. That's not how things went, and I'm quite glad for it. Quicksand going its own direction is what helped seal the deal in creating the Tales of the Grandline Metropolis, which is currently 3.8 completed stories. (it'll be at least 8 before it's done).

A Light Touch Eustass Kid/Reader ( Ao3 / Wattpad ) - My first Eustass Kid/Reader story. Set in the same AU as Quicksand, it was started from a pun, of all things. I figured Kid would be fancy tech stuff like neural-linked prosthetics, and the idea that would make a prosthetic for the reader after they lost a hand was something I wanted to write. Creating something like that would take a light touch, and if it glowed, that would be a different kind of light touch and getting close to Kid requires a light-- you get the point. Like I said, it's all based off a pun, but I'm really proud of the story, it's one of my favorite re-reads.

Some Direction Zoro/Reader (tumblr / Ao3 / Wattpad ) - A Modern AU where the government mandates who you marry. I have to give thanks to @lyndsyh24 for not only inspiring me to write this one (start to finish in a single month, I was obsessed!) but also for allowing my to play in the AU she'd built up. From Matchbook to the laws themselves, it's all thanks to Lyn. Zoro started out as one of my favorite characters in the series - I still have love for him, and I'm always happy to write him, but he's taken a bit of a back seat to my top three. Still Some Direction is a story I'm really proud of - even if I worry there'll be a mob after me for who the antagonist is 😅

Family Ties Doflamingo/Reader ( Ao3 / Wattpad ) - I was torn on this last choice - even with five slots it's hard to decide between stories I suppose ^^; Also, oops, apparently I only put the first ten chapters on tumblr... I need to fix that >.> Ahem, anyway, Family Ties is the first fic I wrote after over ten years of not writing at all. It's my first reader insert, my first true multi-chapter too. When I wrote it, it was the longest fic I'd written by nearly 50k words. I wrote it because I wanted a more morally ambiguous reader compared to what I'd been reading. It's not a dark fic though, it's pretty tooth-achingly sweet, honestly, but it's currently the only fic I have where the reader is a murderer in a very undisputed and direct manner.

Honorable mention I almost posted as piece 5 - The Dragon's Clause - my Sabo/Reader Noble/Fantasy/Magic AU, and also the only title I mention that's incomplete. But it's a an ode to my favorite genre, and a great many of my favorite tropes.

[mugiwara-no-toshokan]

Some Direction

CisFem Reader x Roronoa Zoro

26 Chapters - 58,485 words - COMPLETED

CW: Language, stalking, violence, sexual themes and situations, ptsd -- surprisingly fluffy despite it all. 18+ only

Summary: This is a time where a new world government has taken over. While the world is now at peace, marriage and reproduction are in decline. This New World Order has stepped in and forced the population into arranged marriages. You've been matched with Roronoa Zoro.

Inspired by Lyndsyh 's Closure series - Which you should read! The world building and character usage is really well done! (It is *very* angsty, especially compared to my piece, but I wanted to do something more light hearted while I enjoyed Lyndsy's hard work =D https://www.wattpad.com/story/151287153-closure-trafalgar-law-x-reader )

Chapter 1: Meeting

You had been at work in the library when a man in an ill-fitting government issue suit and tie had approached you with a package. Everyone knew what it meant, these sorts of notices weren't sent through the mail, but you were a little upset you were being notified in the middle of work. You weren't exactly fond of being the center of attention, unless it was during a presentation for the library, and even then you weren't leaping for joy at the prospect.

Your boss, an older gentleman with a slim build, an impressive afro and an exceptional love of tea came over to you as you turned the envelope over in your hands.

"Oh-hohohoho, your fate has been decided I see, (Y/N). You can take a break and review it in the back room." He offers, taking a sip of his tea. "I can watch your section for a little bit, oh-."

"But your eyes don't work anymore," you mutter with a sigh. Normally you didn't dislike his jokes, but you were in a soured mood now. "Mr. Brook, your sight is amazing given your age."

"You mustn't deprive an old man of his jokes, (Y/N)." He pouts. You often teased him for being older than most of the books in the library, but there wasn't a fleck of grey in his hair, and despite his slim build, he was in good physical condition. You wouldn't be surprised to see him performing in a circus or some other equally high energy venue.

"Mm." Smacking the envelope against your palm you turn toward him. "Thank you, I think I will go in the back and open this."

Sitting down in the mostly private back room you opened your Match Book. Match Books had a lot of information in them, part of why they were delivered by hand, and that information included things like pictures, phone numbers, addresses, work information, blood type, interests, family situations, and other bits of data to help make a first meeting go smoothly. Matches had 48 hours to meet after receiving their Match Books, and six months to arrange their weddings.

You always felt the process went a little too quickly, but it worked more often than not. Even if part of that had to do with the law itself, the punishments for breaking fidelity and the fact that there was a robust system in place to offer marriage counseling. The whole point was to make people stable enough and happy enough to bring the population numbers back up. As well as the Government could hope to facilitate such a thing, they had done a socially accepted good job of it.

Your first look at your match made your face twitch. He looked like a hoodlum! He had three piercings in one ear, a scar that was only impressive because you weren't sure how he survived getting it, and every picture seemed to have caught him with a scowl. There wasn't one image of him smiling or laughing, and he had a sword in his hand – sometimes in both hands and one in his mouth – in almost every shot.

Match Book photos were candid images, but it seemed like your match had two settings: wielding swords or sleeping.

First impressions could be poor, so you tried not to let it drain you, but you had really expected your match to, well, match you. At the risk of being cruel, you weren't entirely sure this Roronoa Zoro even knew how to read. The data did show he graduated, so he was educated. As you read more details your initial concerns melted away a little and you started to understand how you were both matched.

You and Zoro were both orphans, you had both gotten through school quietly. While your grades were higher, they weren't that much higher. You did martial arts to keep in shape, but not competitively, and certainly you could see how they'd connect that with his passion. The dojo he attended was owned by his adoptive father, and it wasn't far from where you lived and worked.

You heard a low whistle behind you and let out a long-suffering sigh. Nami was looking over your shoulder.

"I did not expect you to get matched with such a -."

"Muscle Head?" You prompt.

"I was going to say hunk, but that works." She sits down across from you, a mischievous grin on her face. "So?" Nami was looking forward to her match adamantly. Though, knowing her as well as you did you imagined it had more to do with her desire to get matched with a rich man, as opposed to any romantic reasons.

You shrug. "Match Books hardly spark a connection on their own. I guess we'll see how it goes. I'll give it a couple hours before I reach out. I don't want to contact him before he's had a chance to flip through whatever they gave him about me."

You didn't want to make too many assumptions, and you didn't even want to read the whole Match Book. There was just something too clinical about getting to know a person from a government provided dossier. You'd rather get to know him through conversation.

Time for a change of topic. "How're things going in the sea chart restoration project?" You ask Nami, pulling your eyes away from the book.

Nami smiles. "It's been a real pleasure. Thanks for telling me about it, it's the most fun I've had with old sea charts since I was a kid."

"Yeah, sorry you gotta deal with the old man."

"Oh don't be, I've already made a few thousand berries off him."

You freeze. "Nami, you did not."

"Of course I did, it's just underwear, (Y/N)."

You put your head in your hands and sigh. There's a pat on your arm as another of your coworkers, Nico Robin, is closing your Match Book for you and giving you a look that already has you worried. The older lady was still young by conventional standards, just older than you and Nami. She normally had the most impressive neutral expression on her face and in her voice, but not right now.

"Robin?"

"You'll want to go to the study desks, (Y/N). There's a young man with green hair looking through a Match Book, and, well..." She tilts her head toward your Match Book.

Your eyes go wide. "No way." You grab the Match Book and go out into the library proper, heading over to the study desks. There was no running in the library, so you were half-a-pace away from jogging.

You didn't have to look around long to catch sight of him. Green hair was pretty easy to spot. You walk toward him automatically, not really thinking about what you would do or say. Of all the places he could end up reading his Match Book, it would be your library. It wasn't like you'd spent your life looking forward to meeting your match, you had a more practical outlook on the whole thing. Something about this felt a little overwhelming though, and you realize as you are reaching out toward him that he might need space.

Stopping short of reaching him by a few feet, you stand there in silence for a moment trying to decide what to do.

"Need something?" He questions, and you feel a shiver run up your back. Match Books couldn't tell you what someone else sounded like, and his voice was pleasant, if not a little irritated at the moment. What catches you off guard the most was the fact that he hadn't even so much as twitched his head in your direction. There was no way he could've seen you, and you didn't wear hard-soled shoes, so you hadn't made any noise despite the speed in which you approached.

How in the heck did he know you were there?

"No, er, yes. I mean. I'm sorry, it was quite rude of me to approach you this way." You bow, as you usually do when giving an apology at work, and hear the chair slide across the floor as he turns toward you.

"What do you mean," he starts to question as you straighten back up, "by... that." His eyes go wide as realization dawns on him. "Gah! I thought you were at the library by the dojo! What're you doing here?"

You blink at him blankly for a moment. "But... this is the library by the dojo."

[flame-shadow]

hey did you know??? that if you stop stretching and maintaining mobility in your body then it goes away?? things get tight and you can't move the way that you used to??? and when you decide to try getting a stretch routine going that the first week fucking sucks because you keep going 'damn i used to be able to do this no problem' and then you have to switch gears and be kind to yourself and just focus on getting better from here instead of berating yourself for dropping the good habits in the first place??? and your body never stops aging so you gotta keep taking care of it and sometimes you gotta take care of it extra in certain areas because of things that happened when you were younger and it's boring and sometimes hurts but it's so necessary???

i am yelling this at myself right now i am going through An Experience (trying to get into a routine of body maintenance again for my physical and mental health)

[mumblesplash]

comics as an art form make me insane. they’re so difficult to do well. there’s so many different ways to make sequential art work and most of them are deeply unintuitive. onomatopoeia that feels completely ridiculous to put down often reads seamlessly. panels on a page become a fractally nested image composition challenge that’s only possible to lose because if you do a good job no one will notice. you have to direct the readers’ eyes on a specific path across the page but also account for the fact that they won’t follow it. comic time isn’t linear. if the order of events isn’t crystal clear the story becomes incomprehensible. sometimes you need to do this on purpose. all this for a medium almost universally considered less effective than animation and less respectable than plain text. even its own name doesn’t take it seriously

[demi-pixellated]

Shadow's No Good, Very Bad Day

[koobiie]

A lone swordsman stands in the chamber. He seems... quite lost.

[marciaillust]

an Angel

[chloesimaginationthings]

The story of Ballora in FNAF..

[sweetandglovelyart]

My response to the Nintendo Direct

[yaolmao]

au; Kid is a bit less orderly than how Death made him to be. Or Kid and Blackstar are mad

Dialogue in Yukio Mishima, Confessions of a Mask (pg.82)

[webvein]

I can’t believe I forgot to show you guys my ‘what if I made koraidon a straight up lizard’ drawing.

You can take one home today, if you so choose.

[lesmiserablol]

matt distracting heather in the shower so she stops asking about his bruises. putting on his glasses whenever their conversations get too serious. dismissing her concerns about his trauma. saying everything feels fake then plastering on a smile and a “i love you too”. we are so fucking back.

[mugiwara-no-toshokan]

Sooo, Zoro always says "scars on the back are a swordsman's shame" But does that count scratches down the back? 😉 😉 🤔

XD I actually answer that question in Some Direction - which you can find on my pinned post for this side blog, or on Ao3

[chrliekclly]

names….

[vodid]

Do you trust me, Agent Blurr?

[rejamart]

took a run at designing a questing beast, partially inspired by a take by Veli Nystrom where it was coughing up tongues made of dogs. I like the designs that incorporate the dogs literally.