#Somewhat of a wip instead of the full reference

[yarmiko-art]

PARAsocial relationship

Miss Anna became the sensation of the Gamble Galaxy almost overnight. Young idol quickly climbed the career ladder, sparing neither herself nor others. Nevertheless, in public she manages to maintain a squeaky clean reputation, hiding her full name - SusANNA Patria Haltmann 2.0 More info under the cut

▲ After his daughter died during a test of the Star Dream interdimensional protocol, Mr. Haltmann was getting closer and closer to the edge. For years, he had been making the same wish on a clockwork star again and again: to bring his girl back to life. But the mechanism remained stationary. Max saw the glass eyes on that damn cat-like metal face open in response to his request, but beyond that, nothing happened. This worthless machine couldn't even fix the tragedy it caused. Instead of bringing mother back into their family, it took away the last thing he had. Mr. Haltmann's condition was already far from stable, when he made a decision: "If magic doesn't help me, then science will" in one of his last attempts to cling to elusive memories

▲ HWC had patents for the cloning technology for some time, although it needed improvement, it was quite capable of recreating the a little girl`s body. However, Mr. Haltmann was gone to far to understand that the clone will be *LIKE* his daughter, but will not *BE* her. He was going to put all the memories of the original into it, of course it had to be her!

▲ The clone turned out to be an immediate disappointment - the hair had the wrong color, the mannerisms are slightly different from those that he is used to. Despite the fact that the girl was just organically developing on the basis of those given memories. But she wasn't good enough for Mr. Haltmann, even when he had almost completely forgotten his daughter due to prolonged exposure to the Mother's Computer. Susanna 2.0 was shelved as a failed project. Max didn't even flinch when it turned out that she had cut off all her ties with HWC and disappeared

▲ Anna has exactly the same data as Susie: starting from vocals and ending with some sadistic tendencies. Which, in the process of her growing up, only worsened due to an acquired inferiority complex, expressed in her absolute hatred of Susie. She identifies all her problems with Susie, projecting very, very hard

▲ When Mr. Haltmann was alive, Anna blamed him for everything (which is deserved), but when she learned that Max Profit Haltmann had died somewhere on the outskirts of the galaxy, and his miraculously-turned-out-to-be-alive daughter took the CEO place... Anna will make sure, this isn't for long.

▲ She felt strange. This man didn't care about her at all. So why then are her eyes burning and she wants to burst into tears?

▲ "Do you know what it's like to remember something and know that these memories aren`t yours? To look in the mirror and see someone you hate?"

[mobiusismycomfortcharacter]

20 Fanfic Author Questions

1. How many works on AO3?

22

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

353,361 words

3. Top 5 fics by Kudos

A Court of Gold and Serpents (647)

59,977 words

Loki x Fandral

Rated M

Enemies to friends to lovers, slowburn, fake dating, idiots in love, arranged marriage

Loki is set up in an arranged marriage he does not want to be in, the only way out is by pretending he and Fandral are in love

Yours Always (221)

174,499 words

Loki x Mobius

Rated E

Mutual pining, slowburn, love at first sight

When a mission goes sideways, Mobius goes undercover to capture a variant. What he wasn't expecting was for the variant to capture his heart.

It's Like in the Great Stories (178)

2,728 words

Bucky Barnes and Peter Parker and Sam Wilson

Rated G

Movie night, character study, Lord of the Rings references

Peter shows Bucky the Lord of the Rings movies.

The Lies We Tell (145)

5,964 words

Loki x Mobius

Rated G

Time theater, comfort, lies, storytelling, 5+1 things

Follows Season 2, Episode 2, except instead of Mobius losing his cool, Loki does and Mobius helps show Loki he might be something more than just a god of lies.

Monster (72)

5,191 words

Stephen Strange x Dormammu

Rated T

Enemies to Lovers, angst, hurt Stephen Strange, feelings realization

When Stephen shows up hurt, with nowhere else to go, Dormammu does what he can

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Marvel, mostly Loki though also some Doctor Strange

5. Do you respond to comments?

Yes. I love comments

6. Angstiest Ending?

I write a fair bit of angst but it usually ends at least somewhat happy. My angstiest ending would probably be for the second fic I wrote: The World Ends Eventually so Come With Me

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

It's a tough choice. I think most of mine end pretty happy. Probably either Yours Always or A Court of Gold and Serpents

8. Do you get hate?

I've been lucky enough not to

9. Do you write smut?

Occasionally

10. Do you write crossovers?

Nope

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I'm aware of but I'm not a very big author and I write a lot of rarepairs so maybe that's why

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but if anyone wanted to I would say yes so fast and probably explode

13. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Yep. Yours Always is one half of a cowritten fic told from Mobius' perspective while my friend Lokinyan wrote Loki's perspective in The Next Time We Meet (Always)

14. All time favourite ship?

Loki x Mobius

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I hold onto hope that I will one day finish all my WIPs. I may also be in denial

16. Writing strengths?

At this point I think I'm pretty decent at writing angst, it's become a favourite of mine to write anyway. All those emotions

17. Writing Weaknesses?

Smut probably, fight scenes, endings - I hate trying to figure out how to end a story

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

It's pretty cool. Never tried it but perhaps one day

19. First fandom you wrote for?

That would have to be Full Metal Alchemist. I was a teenager back then and that was several fanfic websites ago. I believe it was posted to Quizilla. Loki brought me back to fanfic though

20. Favourite fic you’ve ever written?

That's like asking which of my 22 children are my favourite. I love them all.

Yours Always and A Court of Gold and Serpents will always have my heart because they're the ones I worked on the longest. But also:

Not a Want, But a Need

3,738 words

Bucky and Alpine

Rated G

Shuri gets Bucky a cat to help him after he leaves Wakanda. He assures her he does not want a cat and is not going to keep it.

The Bet

3,444 words

Loki x Mobius, Zemo x Mobius

Rated T

Loki and Zemo make a bet over who can get Mobius to kiss them first

I'm very happy with both of them

I was tagged by @loki-is-my-kink-awakening

Passing the tag on to: @thosegayoldmen @distracteddream @insomniaflarrow @lgwilt @zephyrsobsessions

[rusakkowrites]

WIP folder game

@wurzelbertzwerg tagged me to share my WIP folder, so here goes! These are story ideas that I’ve somewhat actively worked on at some point – I also have several notebooks full of scribbled ideas, but fortunately they’re out of scope for this game.

If you would like to share the contents of your WIP folder, consider yourself tagged by me!

Fandoms that I’m currently active in

Pride and Prejudice

Childhood Friends AU: Darcy and Elizabeth meet in London when Elizabeth is eight years old and end up meeting again over the years for various reasons. Probably won’t be finished because the plot involves some fanon-based characterisations and unrealistic scenarios that I don’t like anymore.

Different conversation at the inn AU: A short canon divergence in which Darcy can’t bear seeing Elizabeth in distress and ends up confessing his plan to find Lydia and Wickham. This leads to an earlier romantic resolution.

Elizabeth de Bourgh AU: AU in which Elizabeth’s father was Sir Lewis’s younger brother, who broke with his family, and her mother was Mr Bennet’s cousin. She’s been raised by the Bennets after being orphaned. When she’s 19 or 20, her paternal relatives take a renewed interest in her after she gets a surprise inheritance. Probably won’t be finished. (I actually also have some notes for a different AU in which Elizabeth is related to both the Bennets and the de Bourghs in a slightly less convoluted way – that one I might actually try to work on at some point.)

Hogwarts AU: An AU in which all the Austen characters are witches and wizards, mixing and matching plot elements from Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter. Currently on the back burner because I feel conflicted about writing or posting anything related to J.K. Rowling.

Kitty thinks Darcy is evil AU: A Pride and Prejudice sequel from Kitty’s point of view, featuring lots of ridiculous misunderstandings on Kitty’s part.

Pride and Prejudice and Compound Interest: A short exploration of the potential financial futures of Elizabeth, Lydia and Charlotte. I have a complete draft of this one, but I feel like it would require more research before I’m willing to post it, and I’m not really motivated to do said research at the moment.

Animorphs AU: Darcy’s proposal to Elizabeth is interrupted when an injured alien crashes his spaceship in Mr Collins’s vegetable garden. I have lots of ideas and snippets for this one, but the scope creep became kind of intimidating, so I don’t know if I’ll ever finish any part of this story.

Emma

Snowed in AU: An AU in which the Woodhouses, the Knightleys and Mr Elton do get snowed in at Randalls on Christmas Eve. Mr Elton drinks more wine than in canon, his proposal is even worse, and events butterfly away from there. This one I’m actually actively working on at the moment (but that doesn’t necessarily mean it will ever be finished).

P&P + Emma crossover

P&P + Emma: Elizabeth’s trip with the Gardiners is cancelled and she persuades her father to forbid Lydia’s trip to Brighton, so the meeting at Pemberley doesn’t happen and Lydia never elopes. Instead, Elizabeth is invited by the Gardiners to visit some of their relatives in a little town called Highbury – and coincidentally, Mr Darcy and his sister happen to have family there too. The additional characters cause further complications in the already convoluted plot of Emma.

Northanger Abbey

To Rip What You Sew: A very short little Henry/Catherine piece inspired by a stupid pun. I need to find a suitable Gothic novel to reference before moving forward with this one.

April Lady (Georgette Heyer)

April Lady canon divergence: I actually have a preliminary summary for this one: “A dresser’s discretion and a kiss that is not interrupted put Lord and Lady Cardross on a different path towards reconciliation.” I’ve got most of the story written, but it’s been sitting and waiting for editing inspiration for a few years because I wasn’t quite happy with some parts of the plot.

Permanently abandoned WIPs from fandoms that I’ve moved away from

Yuri!!! On Ice

Yuuri of Green Gables: An AU idea inspired by L.M. Montgomery’s works. I only have a very vague recollection of what the plot was supposed to be, but I remember that it would have spanned from Yuuri’s childhood through his university years and that Yuuri became an artist. There was also a dramatic romantic resolution involving a broken engagement. I also had plans for a sequel that involved Yuuri getting measles and hallucinating. All in all it was a sprawling project that never got much beyond a 12,000-word bullet point plan and a few draft scenes.

Stand Still, Stay Silent

A Dangerous Midsummer: An AU in which Emil went to Finland with a group of cleansers after the first adventure and (of course) ended up working with Lalli. I remember that the story involved troll-hunting shenanigans, swamps, midsummer traditions and eventual romance.

Bedtime stories and lullabies: A story about Onni’s childhood, exploring his relationship with his family through bedtime stories and lullabies.

Tuuli Hollola: A fic about Tuuli Hollola from Kaino’s perspective.

Side effects: A story from Year 0 told through clinical trial documentation.

The Swedish mage: A story about a Swedish original character who accidentally found out that he was a mage during a visit to Norway. I remember that the dreamworld was involved, but I think I hadn’t quite worked out the entire plot when I abandoned the story.

I generally only post stories that are completely or almost completely pre-written, so these WIPs fortunately aren’t sitting abandoned on AO3 causing me stress. Most of them will probably never see the light of day, but they were fun to work on nonetheless!

[dashawfrostart]

This Week In “Time & Again” #24: Well… I’m Sometimes Bad At Naming My Blog Posts 🤷‍♀️ [and a tiny wee bit techy again]

It's high time to make yet another one new blog post with the progress report - but alas, I just keep working and working on everything according to my little list pinned to my desktop, and I am not sure what to report. It's just... steadily going forward. That is all.

Within these few days, I've finished an artwork that will be used as an easter egg on several pages of Chapter 6. As per usual, that will be a reference to an old and fairly famous but somewhat forgotten*-ish* franchise. So keep your eyes open once the chapter is released next year 😉

Mostly, aside from preparing (mentally as well as organization-wise) for GPop Fair quite hyperactively, I'm also steadily working on the cover arts right now. Which is odd. I don't remember myself working on the cover arts PRIOR to working on the chapters themselves. Oh boy, things sure change. Usually before, as a general rule of thumb, I worked on the cover arts last. Chapter 5 was a very good fresh example. Although I have the most cover arts sketched in my sketchbook (usually they have multiple versions sketched, and yet everything is still WIP until I decide on something concept-wise for sure), I usually set to work on them later on as I could see the full pictures of the chapters. Suddenly, I came up with excellent ideas for the cover arts for both Chapter 6.1 and 6.2. And both of them will strongly refer to a famous franchise that bears an incredible importance in the history of development of "Time & Again". More on the matter in detail I will probably write a paragraph for either Collector's Edition of "Time & Again" or in the Behind The Scenes book.

Here's a snyak 🐍 sneak peak (the screenshot has been made during the sketching phase; that is supposed to be a fairly complex art piece, so I needed the sketch this time to make everything extra clean):

Can you recognize the reference? 😉

That cover art is what I've been working on for the last few days. And finally now I'm getting to work on the cover art for Chapter 6.2 that most likely will take me less time says I often before something unexpected happens and it takes, like, quadruple amount of time vs what I anticipated, lol.

Ah! There is something little and neat I'd like to share before I wrap it up for today 🙃 I decided to try out Krita's native video recorder for the first time. I've known about that functionality in Krita before, but, regardless, I've always used my desktop recorder instead, virtually for everything, from taking screenshots of the lulz and fails found randomly across the internet to recording clips from my gaming sessions for... well, little to no purpose, because I decided not to spam my YouTube channel with gaming videos 😅. But, since it's been learning time for me in many ways lately, I decided to give it a try. Maybe it's awesome and I will use it all the time now?! The awesomeness about Krita video recorder is that it's automated (and everybody knows by now how much I love automation, yaaaaaay!): it automatically records the progress once you open the artwork no matter how much time passes in between the drawing sessions. You can start working on a picture, drop it, return to it, say, in a month, and the recording will continue. Awesome!

Here's the screenshot of the export video dialogue:

The settings are pretty self-explanatory. For those familiar with the basics of video editing, there's nothing new. I had to install ffmpeg in order to properly execute the conversion of the video. I had to fiddle with it for a bit before it started working: apparently, the latest version of ffmpeg (7.0.2) does not work in Krita for the reason unknown to me. I tried to resolve it by myself reading the log file left after the failed conversion - but then I stumbled across a Reddit post that talked about the exact same error I was getting, and it turned out that the previous version of ffmpeg (6.1.1.) still works in Krita. And then it assembled me a very nice video.

I have recorded near the whole process of drawing that piece: from the clean lineart to full colouring, AND including trying out an alternative background that I decided to discard in the end. Eventually I will post the timelapse video on my YouTube channel to pretend it's not dead lol. I will slightly edit and speed it up even more first.

One note though: the end of the video has weird moments of flashing white frames. I was aware that things like that might happen. But still, that's a bit odd. I will have to figure out how to deal with that issue... Because I don't want to have to slap an epilepsy warning in the beginning of the video 😱😅

Ok, wait, there's one more thing I wanted to ponder on before bidding farewell for a week (or two, or a month, how it often happens to me, lol). And it's kind of a... dreamy thing, with a twist of nostalgia and an off-beat bitter-sweet Traurigkeit involved.

Last year I was very upset about one thing. Sometime in Summer, in 2023, it was an 18-year-old anniversary of my very first set of original characters - Jade, Stu, and Alan. These three people were and still are very important to me. And of course, some of you still remember the abundance of the artworks featuring those individuals that I used to post frequently on my DeviantArt gallery. And of course, those of you who have read Chapter 2 of "Time & Again" remember the tiny and short - and rather questionable 😅 - cameo of the three on the background in one scene. I wanted to draw a celebratory portrait of the trio as a little gift to them, and to myself (for personal happiness). I even had a perfect idea for a little hilarious artwork with a cake. But then something happened (most likely, Chapter 4 of "Time & Again" happened, but I don't remember for sure anymore without my devlog notes, and they're in the living room, and I'm far too lazy to reach out to get them right now 🤣), and I simply forgot about my idea. I only remembered about it long due, sometime in mid Fall or even closer to Winter. I was very upset with myself. 18 years is A LOT, let me tell you. That's for how long I've lived with these characters, polishing them, growing them, nurturing them with numerous traits; they have been undergoing an enormous amount of changes in their personalities, backgrounds, personal history, etc. In short: everything that every single one of us is going through their lifetime, in the real life. In this respect, Stu, Alan and Jade are not much different from any of us. They're even fully "legal", LOL. It might look to some that they're obsolete - but that is far from the truth. I still have grand plans for them. They will take part in my future art endeavours 😉 The story of Alan, Stu and Jade has been rewritten numerous times - but it is most certainly still not complete. Doing an incredibly simple, possibly pre-school level math, we can easily deduce that in 2025 the three are gonna reach their 20-year-old milestone. And that's a long, long time.

Since I screwed up the little celebration big time in 2023 😫, and 20-year-old is a good milestone as well, I really want to put an effort into drawing a lovely artwork of the three next Summer. That is überimportant. That must happen. Yes, as you can see, Lothar and Jeanny are significantly younger than the dorky trio. Lothar and Jeanny probably think the other three are elderly people, LOL. Well... there's surely something entertaining that has to be portrayed on the milestone artwork next year. I'm looking forward to it 😁

[deliciouskeys]

Yay! Lots of numbers below, feel free to pick and choose :)

16, 26, 39 (I think you *know* which particular scene I want a snippet of, but anything will do haha), 69, 76 for ZM

Thanks for the asks. I warn you, the following is verbose and references morally reprehensible fics. TW, lol.

16. How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Share one of them?

I have many if just vague ideas count! And I'm sure you'll be pleased that they all revolve around Homelander, one way or another lol. I hate "claiming" prompts on the Meow meow prompt jar because it feels like hogging it unless I'm going to be actively writing, but I did just sign up for your "fertility treatment" prompt. My brain is often eaten up by the idea of HL being happily pregnant, and really self-satisfied to the point of being annoying. Meanwhile Butcher's probably kind of worried-- not like HL's going to be able to get a C section, at least not through conventional means. HL's blithely all 'we'll cross that bridge when we get there.' He's just enthused about getting to use a breast pump in the near future, and probably the fact that the baby he has is going to adore him unconditionally.

Yes, I am gross.

26. Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Hrm. Unfortunately the wildest ride is still probably the first fic I ever posted publicly. Originally on LJ. 51k words. 12 chapters. Of... me being a teenage edgelord and writing about Captain Hook privateprisoning a prepubertal boy, that's not ever going to grow up, as if the chanslash wasn't bad enough.

Anyway, I skimmed through this fic about a year ago just to recall what was in it again, and I had forgotten just how fucked that story is, beyond even the pairing premise itself. There's gangrape of a child, ye olde macabre medical horror, and severe emotional trauma and manipulation/gaslighting that leads to really inappropriate bonding. But it did have impressive levels of worldbuilding, and pretty intricate dynamics between the, um, leads, but also side characters. It was a very rich environment. I was "1 or 2 chapters away from finishing it" and then never did, because, damn that thing was hard to wrap up in a not-completely-disturbing ending. I still occasionally get requests to finish it and people are subscribed, but I would not be able to get back into whatever mindset I had at that age. "Wildest" ! = "good" lol, but I'd never delete it.

Don't judge me for what i was doing ~20 years ago D:

39. Share a snippet from a WIP

Heh, full disclosure I criiiinge posting snippets of my fics because they're so awkward out of context, it's like walking in in the middle of sex. But here you go, from a section you asked for. I wish I just had this done and posted to AO3 -__-

Homelander probably senses the hesitation and decides to get himself up to a kneeling position, tilting his face up, licking his lips invitingly, probably hoping to defuse and redirect the weird energy in the room into something sexual rather than violent.

"Oh no you don't." Instead of undoing his fly, Butcher hoists Homelander up to his feet and pulls him out of the cage and towards the breakfast nook. "Lie down across my lap," he commands once he's situated himself in a chair.

"Why did you--" Homelander's words catch in his throat as Butcher yanks him down to lie across his lap, not waiting for obedience. "…take Temp V?" He sounds worried, and tries to lift his head, only to get his shoulders shoved back down.

The first thwack across Homelander's ass sounds really loud, echoing off the walls of the living room. Butcher gave it his all, somewhat forgetting that his strength was amped up. His palm smarts and he can only guess what it feels like on the receiving end. Homelander doesn't make a sound, maybe too shocked. Butcher swats him again.

"Really? This is just childi—" Another thwack resounds across the room and Homelander breathes hard through his nose. "That hurts, you know," he hisses.

"Yeah, that's the general idea. I know no one probably ever punished you while you were growing up, so it must be a new concept…" Butcher trails off, suddenly recalling the photocopied lab notes from Vought and realizing what he's saying is uncharitable.

Homelander doesn't argue, just lets out a strained whimper when Butcher's next whack lands square on the place he hit the first time. Angry red splotches are forming on his skin, helpfully marking out where he's already been hit and where he hasn't.

69. What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

I'm not embarrassed per se, but I probably should be (if by nothing else than the sheer length of these three). Original dates, reposted to AO3 later.

2003- 51k chanslash mentioned in the previous question

2006 - 21k of working through some angst issues. Original work set in WWII Germany, also starts out underage although at least postpubertal,  problematic and historically inaccurate

2008- 59k of Pineapple Express mpreg, although I do recommend that movie to anyone who likes implied gayness in media and bizarre, funny dialogue which was a fun challenge to try to emulate in fic

76. Did you have any ideas that didn’t make the final cut of [ZM]?

I have generally managed to get everything into ZM that I wanted! One longish sequence I remember discarding (no mourning) was HL goading Billy to take Temp V with some form of misbehavior, and that being the thing that finally tips them into an overtly sexual, rather than a covertly-in-denial-kinky, relationship. It was violence that ended up as sex. But it was pretty rapey, and I didn't like it for this pairing. I prefer the version posted, where they're almost accidentally upping the ante, and kind of mutually sexually harassing each other, and it's about as consensual as it can be, at least within a private prison setting.

Plus Temp V does make an appearance towards the end of the fic, as you can tell from the WIP snippet lol.

[blancamz]

“It’s Over Isn’t It” Reanimation progress

Honestly one of my favourite parts about animating is posting the WIPs online. Here’s the step-by-step of how I went about doing my reanimation for the end section of “It’s Over Isn’t It” from the Steven Universe episode Mr. Greg.

1) Idea and Prep

I was flicking through Steven Universe: Art & Origins. I think at the time I must’ve been between jobs or bored or something, because it came into my head to do a bit of animation based on the pilot style SU. I’ve always been quite fond of the pilot style, especially Pearl’s David Bowie / LaRoux look. The little tux design by Hellen Jo was quite snazzy as well, so I decided to have a go at doing a segment of “It’s Over Isn’t It”, using these designs.

I traced the turnaround from the book in Clip Studio Paint and approximated Jo’s design to it. At first I had the colour turnaround, but did the low-colour turnaround with the heads to give me a better idea of where the lines are and proportions of the body. I also get a clip of “It’s Over Isn’t It” and trim it down to the section I want to do.

This is a long one so strap in.

2) Sketch Pass

I’ll be using gifs that show the first 100-130 frames of the animation, because the full segment is 22 seconds long.

Very very loose animation of what I’m going to be doing with this segment, done in Adobe Animate. I have a video of the real segment in the corner of the stage and audio in the timeline, and closely reference them for layout and acting.

I’ve decided I want to go really nuts with the animation. Lots of angles on her face, smooth movement, secondary animation / follow-through on her various clothing elements. Technically her earring’s supposed to be on the other side but I want to animate that flailing around dangit, so I change it so it faces the camera.

3) Rough Pass

I tidy up the rough I did somewhat. It’s still very rough, but Pearl is better proportioned and the motion is more complete. I get a better idea of how she moves by focusing on drawing keys (the most important drawings) and breakdowns (drawings that help you figure out the motion a little bit, without full animation). I have Pearl, her suit, ruffles and earring on separate layers so I can turn things on and off or lower their opacity as needed.

4) Tiedowns

At some point between the rough and tie-down phase I realized that I’d been animating at 30fps instead of 25fps like I’d meant to, so I had to end up shifting all the roughs I’d been doing. Bad news: having to wrestle with getting the timings I’d so carefully planned out in the rough to still look good. Good news: I have to animate and clean up 5 fewer frames per second, so that’s 110 fewer drawings to worry about. Yussssss. For reference, the above clip has now gone from 132 frames to 107.

During the tiedown phase, I go over the roughs and more carefully try to match the proportions in the turnaround. I keep a flattened version of the first frame of animation to use as reference thoughout to prevent morphing. Sometimes when you’re animating, things will get bigger or small as you re-draw them, so it’s good to have a base drawing to refer back to and make the sizes stay consistent.

At this point I’m way more aware of reasons behind the big design change for Pearl between the pilot and the show. She’s so dang skinny and tall with that extra poof of hair up top that she’s really annoying to frame up. If you want to keep all of her in the frame, there’s going to be tons of empty space.

I also find that my turnaround isn’t enough reference for Pearl’s awkwardly-shaped head. I snap me a bunch of screenshots of pearl’s head from different angles and collate them into a big sheet.

5) Inbetweening

Inbetweening, aka filling out all the gaps in the timeline between the keys and breakdowns. If you’ve done your keys and BD’s well, inbetweening can be a pretty straight-forward.

But I’ve got like a million bits of secondary animation to content with, which means this still takes a significant amount of time. The hair and ruffles have to move a little later than the rest of the body, and some parts of the ruffles have to move at a different rate from the rest. I’m trying to animate like there’s wind since Pearl’s on top of a tall building. I keep animating until it feels good enough.

This is what my timeline and stage look like in Animate by this point. The animation is mostly on 2s, with some 1s, 3s and 4s thrown in when needed.

6) Cleanup and Colour

I did the cleanup in Toon Boom Harmony. As a program, I like it was more than Animate, even though it isn’t without it’s flaws. But it’s also really dang expensive. Fortunately, by this point I’d been working on the upcoming Deadendia series for Netflix. What with the pandemic, we were working from home and the studio gave me a license for Toon Boom. So I exported my frames from Animate, put ‘em in TB and started cleaning up.

I’ve found that cleanup is something that’s often offloaded to new or less experienced artists at studios because blah it’s just tracing the rough animation. But you’ve got good cleanup and bad cleanup, and a good cleanup artist will compensate for flaws in volume and have a good, clear and natural line.

I’m not terribly fond of doing cleanup myself. I feel I tend to end up rushing, which leads to sloppy work. I tried really hard to keep up a standard here.

7) Comping

a.k.a. Compositing, the final layering of the various elements before exporting a film. Another stage I don’t quite care for because of its nuances. Also drawing backgrounds.

I admit that I’m not very good at drawing backgrounds or environments. I tried to do the one for the second shot of this animation, since it was acutally really important. In shots 1 and 3, you don’t really see the ground or even the railing that Pearl is leaning on, but 2 is a wide shot. My first attempts at it were unfortunate. Fortunately my husband @joe-sparrow is both good at backgrounds and good at imitating the style and colour palette of the show. He volunteered to do the BGs and I accepted. See mine vs. his:

So yeah, get me some nice backgrounds, put the animation on top, then fiddle with a couple of elements in the comp to give things a little bit more depth. During this stage, errors that had happened during the animation progress that I hoped would just go away became annoyingly obvious, so there was a fair bit of going back to fix them.

So that’s how I done made this animation. I started April 2018 and posted in on January 1st 2021, so that’s over 1.5 years it took me to do these 22 seconds of animation. However, I wasn’t working on it continuously through that time. Sometimes I’d be working on it every day, other times I’d not touch it for weeks or months at a time. It really depended on how busy or whatever I was at the time. I think if I’d been working on it non-stop, it still would’ve taken me at least like 2-3 months to finish it.

If you made it to the end of this post, I hope you found all this information interesting.

Happy drawing.

It’s over, isn’t it.

[jake-marshall]

WIP Wednesday

Gay N*zis?  Gay N*zis.

@canis-raine and I have been endlessly discussing Landstrom (as per usual) and I’ve been chipping away at the numerous ideas we have for them.  One of these ideas takes place shortly after the Reich occupies France (so, late 1940), and Hellstrom ends up visiting Landa, a full year after certain ~events~ (spoiler: murder), and they haven’t seen each other since.  There’s a lot of repressed emotionss on Hellstrom’s end (only somewhat involving Landa) that he can’t properly articulate so he ends up getting drunk off his ass, and Landa takes full advantage of the opportunity. :)

This has NSFW references and Hellstrom is completely wasted, so if the idea of drunk sexual relations is a no-go, turn away.

“My room is upstairs,” he says firmly, facing Hellstrom as he takes a couple backwards steps up the stairs.  He points behind him, towards the first floor.  “And that's where I'll be, regardless of if you wish to join me or not.”

Even the sheer prospect of rejection momentarily stuns Hellstrom.  His eyes, so bright in the dark, blink up at Hans, with the same lost cloudy look like when Hans found him in the inn lobby, drowning his woes in a bottle of wine – only multiplied by five.

Hellstrom takes one step up, now two below Hans. Reaches for Hans's jacket, both hands fists that tightly take hold.  “You can't... you can't just...!”  He sounds alarmed, almost childishly so.  Does he really think Hans is abandoning him here, means to allow him to pass out at the foot of a staircase?

Well, it's not entirely out of the question for him to think so, especially since Hans truthfully has half a mind to.  The other half of his mind can picture Hellstrom at the foot of the staircase, but instead of passed out in an unceremonious heap, on his knees and fixing those hazy eyes up on Hans as he greedily sucks his cock.   Hans doesn't think any amount of alcohol could prevent Hellstrom from performing that task with anything but the most expert skill.

Hans leans down to tap two fingers to Hellstrom's mouth, a patronizing gesture meant to silence him.  He smiles at him with the same sense of superiority.  “Quiet now,  Hauptsturmführer.”

“You be quiet..” He pulls Hans down another step, that the usual separation in their heights is now almost perfectly reversed, and presses his mouth to Hans's.  The kiss is slow, in a sluggish, unpracticed way, and tasting heavily of whiskey.  But the enthusiasm wins out, and Hans finds himself enjoying it nonetheless, sighing in soft disappointment when Hellstrom ends it.

[eldritch-bf]

Blame Atlas Save Atlas by Angelo Lytle: Review

Spoiler Free!

Link to the self-published book. Support an indie author! Who is also on tumblr @/angelolytle.

Summary on Amazon:

A missing voice. A missing mother. Who will be taken next?

There's something in the woods, and four years ago, it took Trinity Warren's voice. All she wants is to speak again, yet her search has led to a dead end. That's when she discovers the Students' Aid Alliance, run by fellow college students Isaac and Noah. Maybe this is the spark of hope she needs—if she can convince them to help her.

A cynical skeptic, Isaac refuses to believe Trinity's story. But when Noah's mother disappears, a midnight search leads Isaac and Noah to an unsettling discovery in the woods. Isaac, Trinity, and Noah must come together to find the truth—and reclaim what they've lost.

Review Below The Cut

Praise:

Story is written in present tense, which is unusual but not disagreeable. It has the benefit of putting you right in the POV character's shoes and makes you feel like everything is actually happening right now, instead of being told what happened (past tense).

I love first person. I know its "preferable" or whatever to write in third person limited but *blows raspberry*.

The novel is fairly lighthearted. Yes, there are stakes and bad things happen but all in all in its fun and enjoyable and has a background hum of hope and optimism. Its rare I finish I book and don't feel like dying afterwards.

We get to switch different character POVs each chapter which I obviously love, since my wip has different POV characters.

This book made me laugh many times.

It didn't make me literally cry but it made me want to cry. It's very heartwarming and somewhat ouchy at parts.

Canon queer characters. And this isn't even because of an empty, rehearsed "xyz is good because it has xyz rep" sentiment. I love explicit queer representation as a queer person especially from a queer author. I also liked the variety of queer experiences shown in the story.

I am consistently charmed by unique page breaks; in this case instead of an asterisk or simply the enter key, there is a simplistic doodle of pine trees and stars.

There's a vine reference in here that I busted a gut laughing over instead of cringing as occasionally happens with out of date internet memes, but its a classic vine.

Criticism:

Don't ask me to tell you the word count but the book feels closer to a novella than a full-length novel, which means my main complaint is that it isn't longer, which is actually a compliment I guess.

I really am trying to find something to criticize simply from one aspiring author to published author, for improvement purposes.

So, maybe there could be more scene setting. There wasn't a terrible amount of describing the scenes but honestly who's to say you have to spend ten pages describing a bedroom or the woods when most of us are going to imagine our own bedroom or our local woods regardless.

Honesty, this book was great. I've been recommending it to friends to get them to buy and read it. I think we are all desperate for a fun and quick queer story.

[hatterstan-shameblog]

Could I perhaps persuade you into sharing something more from your wips 👀 cause I would like to see it.

They're always hilarious, such a fun read 💖

Okay alright okay alright you’re getting:

That’s an After-Breakfast-Problem: How Danma Takeru Accidentally Got a Cat

Warnings: drunkenness, drug mentions, a teensy bit of sexuality thrown in there, absolute tomfoolery

Rating: PG-13

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

It’s half-past three in the morning when Takeru stumbles through his apartment door. He’s sober enough to remember to lock it behind him, but drunk enough to trip over his own two feet and faceplant onto the hardwood floor.

“Whyyyyyyy,” he whines, head aching from impact...and definitely not the extra B-52 shot the flirty bartender gave him on the way out.

Rolling over onto his back is a Herculean effort, and he makes sure to moan and groan the entire time—just in case anyone thought he was having an easy go of it. His boots (the extra cool ones, red with the buckles on the sides) are lazily kicked off, landing somewhere by the door with two loud, hollow thuds.

Takeru has slipped halfway into sleep when he realizes that it’s really, really hot in here. Like, ‘hair-sticking-to-his-forehead-and-shirt-plastered-to-his-back’ hot. Like, ‘Satan-called-and-he-wants-his-space-heater-back’ hot. Like, ‘that-scene-in-Pretty-Woman-with-the-piano’ hot.

Hot enough that Takeru tugs the leopard-print shirt over his head and tosses it across the room, not caring that it lands in a wrinkle-inducing lump on the kitchen floor.

“Still too fucking hot,” he says with a scowl, hands now working to shimmy his leather pants down his hips. Was leather in August a good idea? No. But did his ass look incredible the entire night? Yes, yes it did, and that’s what really matters.

Left only in his underwear and socks, Takeru has started to feel somewhat better. So much better, he is able to pick himself up off the floor and drag his legs to the kitchen sink to slam back a glass of water. And then another one. And he realizes that he’s probably going to wake up like three times to take a piss in the middle of the night, but that’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make to feel the cool caress of liquid at the back of his throat.

It’s on a whim that Takeru opens the kitchen window—barely more than a crack, just enough to let in a bit of summer breeze—before trudging his way to his bedroom. He doesn’t bother changing into his pajamas, he doesn’t bother brushing his teeth, he doesn’t even take the time to moisturize—he simply flops onto the bed and lets sleep take him, fuzzy-brained and covered in drying sweat.

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

Takeru starts off the next morning the same way he always does: regretful. His phone reads 8:23, which means he slept nearly four-and-a-half hours—which for him, qualifies as a full night of sleep. Despite the water he gulped down the night before, he’s still managed to earn himself a bit of a hangover; and while it’s not unexpected per se, he’s not pleased about it, either.

Well, there are few things better for a hangover than a hot shower, and Takeru indulges in turning the water temperature to near-scalding. After shaving and brushing his teeth, he feels like he might actually be able to survive the morning—provided he have a cup (or four) of coffee to help him along the way.

And it’s when he’s a quarter of the way into his first mug of dark roast that he considers the clothes so pitifully strewn across the floor—unfortunately, left there by his own hand instead that of an eager lover—and sighs. The pants will be fine, but the shirt? That’ll need dry cleaned for sure. And there’s a weird-looking stain on the one sleeve...

And then it moves. The shirt, balled up and left previously inanimate, is wiggling. Takeru jumps, sloshing a splash of coffee onto his foot and wincing at the burn.

Haunted shirt, haunted shirt, haunted shirt, his mind screams as he stumbles backwards, until he’s pressed flat against the refrigerator. If he was less terrified, he’d commend the spirit on its impeccable taste in sartorial matters, but right now? Right now, though, he’s dialing Aguni’s number in a panic.

“Please tell me I did drugs last night,” Takeru begs the second he hears Aguni pick up, “I’ve gotta be tripping balls right now.”

“Good morning to you, too.”

“Mori-chan, this is serious! My shirt,” Takeru whispers, “is moving!”

“Are you wearing the shirt? Because if you’re moving, the shirt’s gonna move too.”

“No,” Takeru snaps, “it’s the shirt I left on the floor last night. Oh, fuck, it just did it again!”

“Did what?”

“It moved, Mori-chan, keep up!” Takeru runs a shaky hand through his hair, “Fuck, man, this is not good...”

“Do you need me to come over?”

In that moment, Takeru feels his eyes well up in tears—in one eye, those tears belong to fear, and in the other, they belong to sentiment. What a beautiful thing it is to be loved by friends!

“I don’t want to trouble you—“

“Yes you do. Troubling me is your favorite hobby. I’ll be there in twenty.”

Relief washes over Takeru—for a handful of seconds, until he notices that his shirt is now apparently breathing.

“Just...try not to do anything stupid until I get there, okay?”

💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

Aguni stands in front of Takeru’s door and sighs. The twenty minutes he had promised his friend over the phone had doubled—partly because the line at the donut shop had been particularly long, and partly because he had taken his time, dreading whatever mess he was going to find.

Balancing the paper bag of food in one arm and unlocking the door with the other, Aguni takes a deep breath and steels himself for the worst.

“I brought breakfast,” he calls out, kicking off his shoes, “got a croissant for the haunted shirt, in case it wants something.”

“Great news!” Takeru shouts, “Shirt’s not haunted, I’m not high, and I’m a dad now!”

Aguni’s head snaps up.

“Excuse me?”

And he sees Takeru, sitting with his elbows on the kitchen table, holding his head in his hands like a love-struck schoolgirl. In front of him is...well, it’s probably a cat, lapping milk from a saucer.

It’s important to note that this...thing looks like an absolute mess. A scraggly little lump of brown and black fur—matted and tangled and patchy and just generally sad-looking—with a missing eye and half a tail.

At least it’s not an actual child, Aguni thinks to himself, dropping the bag of donuts on the table and taking a seat opposite Takeru. The cat-like shape looks up at him and blinks.

“Mori-chan, this is Ziggy,” Takeru says, petting his index finger along the cat-thing’s head, “Ziggy, this is your Uncle Mori.”

“I’m gonna be real with you with you, Takeru,” Aguni says, reaching into the bag and pulling out a chocolate-iced ring, “I was sure you were hallucinating when we spoke on the phone.”

Ziggy purrs and rubs his nose along Takeru’s hand before dipping his head back down to the saucer and settling back into his meal.

“I know, right?” Takeru leans over the feasting little feline and grabs a jelly-filled pastry from the bag, careful not to get powdered sugar on his new friend, “But, apparently, this little guy snuck in through the window last night and thought my shirt would make the perfect bed. He blended right into the fabric, and that’s why I thought my shirt was haunted!”

Frankly, it’s embarrassing to witness Takeru turn his attention to Ziggy and start cooing about how “fashionable” and “brilliant” this weird little cat is. And it’s especially weird when he hears Takeru refer to himself as “daddy” in a non-sexual context, which...well, maybe that’s not necessarily a bad thing?

“Sounds like you’re keeping him,” Aguni says with a chuckle. They make quite a pair, but he’s beginning to think that Ziggy would be good for his eccentric best friend. Something to come home to at night, something to care for...something to cough up hairballs onto his shoes and keep him humble.

“How can you say that,” Takeru chides, “when Fate has clearly brought us together for a reason? He is my son, and nothing will come between me and my son!”

“Except a bath, hopefully,” Aguni says, “he’s looking a little...rough.”

In a worrying display of language comprehension, Ziggy looks Aguni in the eye and lets out a pathetic little yelp, which sounds like someone squeezed a dog toy that is also a four-pack-a-day smoker. Even Aguni can’t help but smile a little at that.

“That’s an ‘After-Breakfast-Takeru Problem,’” Takeru says, merrily munching on his pastry.

I imagine we’re going to have a lot of those, Aguni thinks to himself, but...well. That’s an ‘After-Breakfast-Aguni Problem.’

[thisweekingundamwing]

This Week in Gundam Wing (Sept 27-Oct 3, 2020)

Welcome to spooky season Gundam Wing fandom!  Lots of treats below the cut, so be sure to show your fellow fans some love!

--Mod LAM

Fanfiction

Warmth by @deejayers​

Characters: Heero, Duo

Pairing: 1x2

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: fluff, mermaid AU

Summary:  In which Heero and Duo have a somewhat lazy morning and play around like kids a little.

Gundam Wing Diaries by @noirangetrois​

Tags / Warnings: personal diary entries on GW

Summary:  I have recently rediscovered the diaries I kept back in eighth and ninth grade when Gundam Wing first aired on Toonami [and] I decided to share them.

Entry #1 (Episode 10)

Entry #2 (Episode 11)

Entry #3 (Episode 12)

Entry #4 (Episode 13)

Twenty Kisses (Ch.17-18/20) by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Characters: Heero, Reader

Pairing: Heero x Reader

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: romance, kissing, drabble collection, reader insert

Summary: drabble collection of kissing Heero

Het Circus (Dutch) by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Characters: Trowa, Quatre, Catherine, Dorothy

Pairing: Trowa x Dorothy

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: one shot, romance, mild adult situations

Summary:  Dorothy vond het altijd prachtig om ze zien hoe fatsoenlijke mannen over zichzelf struikelden als ze hun een miniem glimlachje toewierp, om ze vervolgens af te wijzen. Maar Trowa zou niet over zichzelf struikelen. Oh nee… hij zou haar eerder verslinden.

Niet voorbestemd (Dutch) by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Characters: Trowa, Dorothy

Pairing: Trowa x Dorothy

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: romance, drama

Summary:  Haar affaire met Trowa Barton was van korte duur geweest. Twee maanden van geheime ontmoetingen en zinderende seks… en daarna… daarna had ze het beëindigd.

The Empress’s Third by @tziganecaffiends

Characters: Wufei, Meilan, Treize

Pairing: Wufei x Meilan x Treize

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: character death fix-it, everyone lives / nobody dies, post-canon, prisoner of war, coercion, Dom/sub, pegging, happy ending, multiverse

Summary:  Out of a war, she had secured the safety of her husband, obtained a third, and had a daughter. They had managed to fix their colony, and they now had viable economic gains that were steady and sufficient to support their people because she had felt greedy, angry, horny, and petty, yes. Because her husband had been fascinated by the man who was now showing Mei-Xing the parts of a rose bloom, and stumbling for a moment as Wufei gave him the right words in Mandarin.

Summer Fires (Ch.1/3) by @destinysblackrose​

Characters: Heero, Relena

Pairing: Heero x Relena

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: reference to lockdowns, angst, fluff, smut, slice of life, married life, love and expectations

Summary: Set a few months after February Ice, the newly titled Mr. and Mrs. Yuy head to the L2 Colony to try to live a 'normal' life. But, nothing seems to be going according to plan, much less meeting their individual expectations of 'marriage'. Will they still be able to make things work?

Behind the Sea by @storiesfromthebanshee​

Characters: 5 pilots and original female character

Pairing: Heero x Duo, Trowa x Quatre, Wufei x OFC

Rating: EXPLICIT

Tags / Warnings: language, violence, blood, time skips, kidnapping, sex trafficking

Summary: Wufei hadn't expected the leader of a mercenary group to be a girl. Let alone a girl his age. She also shares a striking resemblance to Relena, but she is the exact opposite. Ayame is crass, foul mouthed and occasionally violent. They get on each other's nerves and want nothing to do with one another. However, they have to come to terms, instead of blows, in order to work together.

LAM!Verse Snippet (#1) by @lifeaftermeteor

Characters: Wufei, Relena

Pairing: Wufei x Relena

Rating: Teen and Up

Tags / Warnings: romance, adult situations, married life, slice of life, fluff

Summary:  They had bid their guests farewell on the tarmac and took one of the jeeps back to the plantation house.

LAM!Verse Snippet (#2) by @lifeaftermeteor​

Characters: Duo Maxwell, ESUN President Reuson

Pairing: Heero x Duo, background Wufei x Relena

Rating: General

Tags / Warnings: slice of life, post-canon

Summary:  Duo stood in the kitchen, still bleary-eyed and half asleep as he hovered over the coffee pot and skimmed through the alerts on his phone. 

Fanart

Duo Kiriban Giftart shared by @cuteciboulette​

Duo and Heero Giftart shared by @cuteciboulette​

Duo and Wufei by @lemontrash​

Heero and Relena by @enelle89​

Trowa for Blacktober by @desarea-doodles​

Quatre and Dorothy by @yawniverse​

Other Fanwork

Gunpla and Cosplay

Shenlong by @ss3dj​

Heavyarms WIP by @ss3dj​

Deathscythe by @christianmswanson​

More Deathscythe by @christianmswanson​

Headcanons and Discussion

So You Want to Build a Preventers Organization by @lifeaftermeteor​

Duo and Wufei: The (Wasted) Potential by @ikuzeminna​

Scene Analysis: Treize’s Suicide by @ikuzeminna​

OC October Days 1-3

Day 1 by @noirangetrois​

Day 2 by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​

Endless Waltz Opinions by @mama-birb-raevehn​

Scans, Edits, and Other Fun Stuff

Bookmarks by @cuteciboulette​

A full set

Detail of macrame and beads

More details with Duo, Quatre, and Wufei

MS Gundam Wing OST on Spotify (shared by @bobo-is-tha-bomb​)

Operation 1

Operation 2

Operation 3

Operation 4

Operation 5

@incorrectgundamwingquotes​ still making us laugh in these trying times (for example...)

Wufei luring drunk friends by @incorrectgundamwingquotes​

Calendar Events

Cocktail Friday Prompts continue over at @gwcocktailfriday

Post your prompt on Friday between 3-5PM EST

This week’s prompt is over here

GW OC October has officially kicked off at @gwoc-october​

Check out daily prompts over here and be sure to tag your submissions!

The Holiday Exchange is gearing up over at @thisweekingundamevents​

Participants have been announced over here

Creation period runs October through December and posting begins in early January, so stay tuned!  More info over here.

[psychecoffee]

Reintroduction

I’ve been quite inactive the last year admittedly, and some things have changed, so I feel I should reintroduce myself.

I’m Lonnie, gender is a social construct, and I’m going to be studying Mental Health Nursing at University this September. So I might become a bit of a studyblr to get my adhd ass into gear. Or I might become a bit of a ghost again ;;

I’m currently a rather unproductive writerblr, which in part was not my fault since my iPad decided to hide all my wips for 4 damned months. Seriously I cried when I could redownload my wips again, which my mum found to be quite a funny sight.

My wips are:

Dager, which I feel is like my unruly child which won’t let me concentrate on it when I am in front of my damn iPad or any writing utensil. Within this universe I am writing a sort of prequel currently entitled ‘The Sound’ which is supposed to be a metaphor for the sound of mourning and how grief leaves an echo. I feel that theme is so prevalent within Dager and TS that I have to admit that they have the same feeling, and even if both the main characters have experienced it in different ways, the feel of it is the same. These are my most psychological intensive books, so it’s taking me a bit longer to write them. It is safe to say these are not YA novels, and are at the core crime novels.

Rerum (the Aenir Prophesies) which include three books (including a very important prequel) that scream at me from all ends before I can even begin completing chapter six of the first book!! The first two books focuses on a prominent group of individuals in the mist of a ‘plague’ (referred to as a ‘misery’), and the deep desire to destroy the group who created it. It is full of deceit and secrets, and the small loneliness that draws the group together. The prequel focuses on the Heir of Aenir, whom is glanced upon in the original books, and is based about a decade after them, and deeply focuses on the Heir trying to prove herself capable of her title.

And Death Defies Zir, which is an anthology of stories from the afterlife, and the organisation that helps run it. Honestly half of them are emotionally exasperated or repressed assholes. Green Light is another small wip, based on a sweet lesbian giant of a women going through her first heartbreak, trying to find her footing in the world of medicine while trying to discover her passion in life. Honestly I turn to GL whenever I’m feeling particularly sad or uncertain, which I do feel reflects quite well on the feelings on the POV.

I’ve decided to put ‘Dager’ on hold for a bit, as I feel somewhat inexperienced to truly write Maeve’s and Christians story, with how psychologically rich it is. While I say that I am still writing TS, which by extension means I’m still getting the foundations up for both the novels. They both involve the same killer, however that individual is never the frontline of either novels. Instead both novels focus on the emotional chaos that is left in the wake.

Books I love include: Howls Moving Castle (Sophie and Howls relationship is base line chaotic and I live for it), Jane Eyre (because I’m a simple soul that loves independent women and wild fools like Rochester), Pride and Prejudice- really anything by Jane Auster (its the FOOLS I tell you!!), The Great Gatsby (because be bi and do crime- also I am an absolute mad lad for unreliable narrators), the Lincoln Rhyme books (I never have gotten over how stella Denzel Washington and Jolie were in the movies), and anything by Maria V. Snyder, Trudi Canavan and Cassandra Claire. Seriously I go especially feral if Maria V. Snyder’s Poison Study is mentioned because uGH intelligent FOOOOOLS 💕👌🏻

I also play interactive fiction such as: The Wayhaven Chronicles (and it is not an understatement when I say I am a FOOL for them!!), Breach: The Archangel Job (ugh gosh my heart and mind and ugh everything about this game is fantastic and intellectually gratifying), and The Soul Stone War (I am feral for all the characters, I would simply die for them- they’re all so damn loveable and funny, but if anyone simply touched my Mare I would surely deck them).

Random rubbish about me: I’m chaotic good (which explains a lot), I love coffee and herbal tea and hot chocolate, don’t ask me which is my favourite it changes all the time, I love cats an insane amount, I love horror films and binge watching series (currently binging Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds- both for the first time), and I absolutely cannot watch or read anything sad. I’d say I was passive aggressive but I’m too passive to be aggressive haha. I am a simple chaotic creature.

[dialovers-translations]

Diabolik Lovers Anime Official Fan Book: Sakamaki Ayato’s Cast Interview [ENG Translation]

Character profile ll Character design ll Character interview

**🐙~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~🐙**

MIDORIKAWA HIKARU

Q1: What were your initial thoughts when you first came into contact with the series?

I had never voiced blood drinking scenes before, so my initial thoughts focused mainly on wondering how I was going to pull those off. There are a lot of things you do not know until you actually try them for yourself at the recording sessions, and I have the impression this was strongly the case this time.

Q2: Ayato is an ‘ore-sama’ style do-S, but are there any similarities between the two of you?

In general, I’m actually an M. (lol) However, this doesn’t mean I don’t have any sadistic tendencies at all since I can actually relate to Ayato’s trickster-like personality and his mischievous attitude. But I remain an M at heart. (lol)

Q3: Amongst the six brothers, who is the most like you? How are you similar?

I somewhat had an idea from the situation CDs and the game, but during the recording of the anime I got to experience the other brothers first-hand and I was shocked by how they were even more intense characters than what I had imagined. (lol) 

I can’t predict Kanato’s mood swings at all, and even Reiji who I always perceived as the most composed character has some really harsh lines. Shuu is the character I always liked best just based on appearance, but taking a bath with your clothes still on is a little... (lol) 

I’ve known him the longest, so my answer will have to be my beloved Ayato.

--> In Japanese, he says ‘愛着のあるアヤト’, which translates to ‘the Ayato who I have an attachment to’. 

Q4: What were you conscious about while voicing him?

I voiced anime Ayato with a slightly higher tone, but as the story begins to head into a more serious direction, it steadily changes to a lower one. 

During Ayato’s childish moments such as with the Takoyaki, I also adapted to the other characters to create a balance in which his tone would not become too high.

Q5: Do you have a certain part you particularly struggled with?

There were times where we had to do the voicing without having the images. 

--> When the voice actors are recorded, they either have the polished version of the anime rolling in front of them as a guideline, or they will get the WIP drawings so they at least have some idea of what the scene looks like.

Also during the essential blood sucking scenes, there were times where I had to constantly fix my mistakes while voicing. Instead of simply wanting it to seem realistic, I kept on thinking to myself ‘will the fans be pleased if I do this?’. I was especially focused on making him sound sexy.

Q6: What’s a particularly impactful scene?

That has to be the scene where they sleep next to each other at the end of Episode 8. The way Ayato, despite being an ‘ore-sama’ style do-S all the time, let’s his softer side shine through. (lol)

--> He uses the term デレ or ‘dere’ here, which you might know from words like ‘tsundere’ or ‘yandere’. It’s often used to refer to someone’s soft side. 

Don’t you think it’s impactful because you get to see a side of Ayato which he usually doesn’t show?

Q7: What would you do if you were to be enslaved by a Vampire yourself?

I wouldn’t want it to be a full-fletched veteran Vampire, but a freshly-turned female Vampire timidly asking me: “May I suck your blood, please?” may not be that bad. (lol) 

Being asked stuff like “It’s difficult to drink so could you do this, please?” because she’s bad at sucking, for example. (lol) If it’s a clumsy girl like that, I could get on board with it.

Q8: Please leave a message for the fans!

The anime has been carefully put together and turned out to be a much greater work, exceeding my expectations. 

It would be great if you could enjoy the world (of Diabolik Lovers) to its fullest, including the DVDs, anime and the CDs. 

If the “Diabolik Lovers” anime becomes a hit, there might still be more coming in the future, so we’re all counting on your support!

[nny11writes]

1, 33 and 48 for the writers ask meme? :)

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Oh god which one?????? Fic I’m currently get good writing in on and excited about is How to Quit You which is already posting but not finished. Buuuuut, I think I want to talk a hot second more about the dang Art Model AU that jumped me in a back alley. One of my friends has a story she’s writing/planning for a different fandom (Power Rangers: Jungle Fury!) and we were hashing through her idea that one of the characters was an art model back in college and he took his crush to an art gallery where a nude of him was hung up.  I liked it! And then weeks go back by, maybe months, and suddenly all I can think is, “How fucking hilarious would it be if Adora was an art model? Like, she’s not ashamed of her body or nudity, she’s not bothered by the process or images of her being put out into the art world.” and then the very next thought was, “We all like hc Catra as an artist in Modern AUs, oh my god she could be the disaster lesbian she is!”

And now I’m a few thousand words into it and Adora has started attending the drawing sessions when she’s not a model with a cheap drug store “art book” and her mechanical pencil she chewed to death. Because she’s fallen for the mean artist and wants to impress her she has a genuine interest in learning how to draw even if everything she puts on paper looks like a misshapen potato.

I’m going to force them to ride in the car while Animotion’s Obsession plays on the radio and they both break out into a sweat.

(Warning for that song, it’s one of those “oh this is so catchy, but I can’t hear lyrics when listening to new songs” and then I looked it up and it’s a bit date rapey. Like, why do so many 80′s tunes I like end up really skeevey?)

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like?

I would hesitate to say I even have an actual process for revisions and rewrites. Basically, every time I open my doc to work I always go back to the start of the chapter I’m working on and re-read until I hit where I need to write.

This gets me in the right head space for the fic, helps me remember what the characters are doing/plot, and nail down the same tone in my writing.

But it also means that every time I write I do a bit of editing before hand. Heck, if I need to re-read an older chapter or skip ahead to a later one to double check consistency I’ll do some editing /while/ I’m writing as well.

Because I tend to look at one fic then a different one then a different one, with no consistent schedule it ends up being the great advice of write it and walk away. Come back a day or two later and look at it again because you’ll see more errors that way.

I think this isn’t the best system for most people. A lot of folks need some separation between writing and editing so that they don’t hamstring themselves via perfectionism. I’ve been learning over the last year that I’m, in fact, not a fat lazy bastard like I’ve always thought I was. I am, in fact, a fat overachieving hype-man. Which is wild! So I know I fall into that trap sometimes too.

Great example is Chapter 18 of how to quit you, I wrote the chapter, edited that for about two or three months, then realized it was really not good and deleted it to start over, edited that for a few weeks and realized it’s still not right. So I might need to delete it again but I’m going to try and fix it via smaller section re-writes and adjusting what I thought I wanted plot wise. But what chapter isn’t finished and is next to be posted? Chapter 11. Fucking, god damn it all. Almost every chapter from 11-14 has been heavily ignored despite needing to be in the story and being good I just can’t get my brain to work. So instead I get stuck editing and editing and editing and not WRITING.

On the other hand, I tend to bulldog it and then when I do ask people to edit/beta read there’s not as much obvious stuff that they have to slog through since I’ve caught most of my common spelling mistakes (-ign instead of -ing will kill me some day), tense mistakes, and consistency errors.

I like doing it this way, and while it can get it the way it normally helps. But again...it’s not exactly planned out. I just launch into a fic and go “cool I wanna write something for this fic” and I’m not a chronological writer so god speed little dude.

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

I mean, kinda like I talked about above I tend to edit and polish parts of my draft while still actively writing other parts of it. Like, with the same chapter and across the whole fic.

I honestly fall into both categories because I’m somewhat of a blend of them. I lean more towards expanding on what I’ve already written but I don’t tend to write super skimpy drafts that need actual fleshing out.

I do love [I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS BUT TRANSITIONS ARE MAGIC] for areas I have a vague idea about, but there’s usually fully fleshed out scenes on either side of it. It’s just when I’m doing the editing to write thing that I’ll sometimes go, “Oh, wait, this would be much more impactful if I expanded a bit more.” So a one off line about Obi-Wan realizing that Palpatine ordered Maul to kill Qui Gon and is trying to corrupt Anakin, became a third of a chapter that I felt was really well rounded already both before and after that moment. Or a short paragraph about Glimmer and Catra riding back into work devolved into them teasing one another and got some good descriptions in (I’m so bad at describing physical things in stories, so that one line about Catra’s cheeks looking like hibiscus from her blushing was fucking god tier for me), and all the sudden I didn’t just have a short transition area, I had a full blown scene. (Thank you again dontcallmebugaboo for listening to me ramble about how the transition sucked and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and you just said “romantic horse ride” and the clouds fucking parted, ilu) The most COMMON version of this is when Characters Suddenly Take Over and completely derail my story. Because then as I look around I go, “Hey yeah that could work, but I need a chapter about A and then need to seed in more references to B before I can expand on C.”  

So idk is the short answer lol. I tend to write things out as I go along and every so often I get jumped in a dark alleyway.

[lirlovesfic]

chiaroscuroverse replied to your post:  4, 7, 21, 25 ? 😀 This is in response to this...

   Something I’m wondering about your Part Human journey, if you want to talk about it: how was your process for developing how things unfolded? Did you have strong headcanons or react against early tropes or anything like that. Or did some headcanons organically emerge from the story?    

Okay, I have to get back in my mindset from 8 years ago, so this might seem rambling a little as I’m writing as I think.

When I first started reading fic, particularly Tentoo fic, I read everything I could find at the time on ffnet and TSP. I didn’t know about either AO3 or LJ at that point. I don’t remember everything I read, but I remember in particular stories by WhoMe (particularly But the Story Never Ends) and a series by WhoInWhoville which is no longer available. Also a story by BiteyMadLady, whose name escapes me. (And is still a WIP after 8 years. I still hold out hopes she’ll finish it, since she told me it was almost done and she was going to try to finish it, but who knows.) Those stories are a large reason why I wanted to be a fic writer, in particular the stories by WhoInWhoville (all of them, not just the ones she pulled).

Part Human has a lot of tropes that are almost a given in any Tentoo story, getting to know Pete and Tony, going shopping, working at Torchwood etc. That’s why all of that is in there. But a lot changed while I was writing. First, the title was originally Half Human, and I changed it after listening to the dialogue again. Tentoo uses the term Part Human, so I changed it. I also thought of him as a clone at first. (Please don’t hurt me!) But then I did more research. First, he refers to himself as THE DOCTOR. Second, he talks to Donna about their past history in the first person (you and I did this and that, instead of you and he did this and that). Third, I had to go back to the Master. In DW, the Master is always the Master. He’s stolen bodies, regenerated himself with a couple of cells, a magical incantation and a kiss from his former wife, and I don’t know what all else. But he’s never NOT the Master. When he stole Tremas’s body, he was the Master. When he was in the form of a snake, he was the Master. When he stole the paramedic’s body, he was the Master. When he was turning into a cheetah person, he was the Master. So why wouldn’t a Doctor formed from the Doctor’s hand be the Doctor?

Also with Tentoo, I really believe (as a headcanon) that he probably would forget occasionally that he wasn’t a full Time Lord, particularly at the beginning.

Then there is why Tentoo isn’t just a duplicate of Ten. In my mind, “That’s me when we first met,” was meant semi-literally. Tentoo is like Nine in some ways. He’s also got a bit of Donna in him. In many ways he’s his own incarnation. In fact, when I first started reading fic with him, some people called him 10.5, half an incarnation after 10.

One of the other differences in Part Human compared to some of the other things I had read at the time was I went with the idea that the Doctor had split his incarnation in the aborted regeneration. I read somewhere someone saying something about Tentoo not being half of Ten or something, and that held me back for a little bit, because I was so new to the meta about DW at that time. But Ten splitting his incarnation in my mind could have led to some of his instability after JE and it made the most sense to me.

Then there was Rose. The look on her face on the beach after the TARDIS leaves, and the look she exchanges with Tentoo in that last shot, says to me that they weren’t going to have an easy time of it right off the bat. But so many people were writing that she would totally reject him and be a total bitch to him because she was mad at Ten, or that she would treat him like dirt and insist he wasn’t the Doctor ( *cough*JennyTColgan*cough*) just didn’t seem to be in character. By the time of JE, she wasn’t the somewhat immature girl she’d been at the beginning of Series One. And even then she’d been compassionate to everyone. Even Cassandra in The End of the World. (And don’t get me started on Mickey. He was in no way the perfect boyfriend, and she might have been a little rough with him, but he was not particularly great with her either.) And she was always so gentle with Nine. Even when he’d put her in dangerous situations where she almost died, which happened a lot actually, she’d always say to him that it wasn’t his fault and that she wouldn’t have missed (traveling with him) for the world.

Then there’s Pete. Some people even then questioned why I wasn’t writing a more antagonistic relationship between Pete and Tentoo. I went back to the Doctor’s relationships with other men, particularly his relationship with the Brigadier. I saw that relationship as being a parallel to Pete’s relationship to Tentoo.

So that’s all I can think of at the moment. If there was anything else influencing the story, I don’t remember right now. But most of everything else kind of flowed organically from the story, and from my desire to be as true to the characters as possible. Rose rescuing herself. Tentoo blowing up the beacon (and taking down a building and destroying Pete’s car in the process). Stuff like that.

Sorry this is so long. And if you can think of any other questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. Maybe it’ll shake something loose in my brain.

[sundaynightnovels]

15 Questions Tag Game

i’ve been tagged this time by @kidsarentallwrite and @elizabethsyson ! sorry, it’s been a hectic week so i’m only just getting to this! i find it especially apt that the latter has done the 15 questions game for a character called ‘Death’ (who i already adore), considering what my wip is about, yknow. somewhat. yea. && yes!! new characters from ashleigh!! i’ve previously done this for Zhen & Lu and Ren, Jia & Jun (i like to do these interviews in sets if you can’t tell), so... hmm. i’m going to do this for Shou and Teng -- the two sweethearts ! (as in, they both are adorable -- not that they are together. that would be havoc) the questions that i’ve gotten from my two tags are different, but i’ll use @kidsarentallwrite ‘s set of questions instead (because i can’t really answer questions about species / magical forms). also, be prepared -- these two can talk a lot.  1. What is your full name? Shou: Shou. Teng: Teng Shou: i don’t suppose we have to add anything else to our names, do we?  Teng: you should know better than i do! Shou: that’s not fair! i’m a newcomer here too! in fact, there hasn’t even been an orientation -- i wouldn’t even have had a place to live if not for zhen’s generosity! hm. this is a serious matter indeed, i should bring it up to someone. do you know who i can contact with regards to this complaint? Teng: how would i know??? i didn’t get an orientation either! i never thought of it as an issue, but it is, isn’t it???? how did zhen get her kid??? isn’t there a rule on how many men can live together in one apartment?? where does ren live??? can jia just move into someone else’s home just like this? there are so many loopholes! how do we live like this? we need to start up an organisation asap -- [the rest of irrelevant conversation redacted] 2. What does your name mean? Shou: ah! that is the most pertinent question! names should mean something, shouldn’t they? when ren had first returned me my name, i thought it meant ‘hand’ -- and that was particularly interesting! in palmistry, all these lines on a person’s hand means something individually, and a hand in itself is -- Teng: shou, they’re doing that thing again. that thing with their fingers that means they want us to hurry up Shou: -- what? do they not want to understand the deeper meaning behind the lines that they are naturally born with on their hands? do they not realise how a person’s entire life path is marked, since their birth, right in the palms of their own hands? is it not utterly fascinating? Teng: i don’t think so... Shou: then why are they asking questions when they do not want to listen to the answers? 3. What are your nicknames/other names? Shou: i believe that Ren refers to you -- and the rest of your army -- as the ‘Noisies’. Teng: what?? that’s a terrible name! Shou: i agree. but unfortunately, there is certain merit to it. we can use it to refer to all of you as a whole -- which happens quite frequently, considering the three of you never seem apart -- and also, the name seems rather apt. Teng: are you saying that we’re noisy? we’re not! i mean... i’m not! i mean, well... jun... uh.... okay! Yu(m) isn’t! you can’t deny that! Shou: ... 4. What’s your gender? Shou: i believe i am male. Teng: yea. is there anything else to be? uh wait. okay, i think jun warned me about this, said something about not opening up a can of worms... but i don’t get it! is there anything else? Shou: i don’t know. the world has changed vastly compared to when i was alive, so it is not my place to assume anything. also, zhen had also warned me about this, and i think it would be prudent to listen to their advice.  Teng: yea, i mean, i don’t know of anything else either. the world has changed a lot (nods sagely) Shou: yes, indeed (nods sagely as well) 5. What’s your sexuality? Teng: Jun mentioned this too. Shou: Zhen as well. Teng: (nods sagely) Shou: (nods sagely) 6. Where are you from? Teng: well, i just came straight from my apartment...  Shou: oh, is this what this meant? thank you for the clarification, i had no idea! i wanted to answer that i was born from my mother -- of course, that is such a redundant answer that i wasn’t sure if it was the answer at all! in that case, yes, i just came from the kitchen. Teng: ... the kitchen? you mean, the kitchen in your building? as in, the one zhen cooks in? as in, you came from lunch? after eating zhen’s cooking? is that it? Shou: ... i must excuse myself for a moment 7. How old are you? Teng: how rude! I am young! Young! Don’t listen to any of my boys, i’m not that much older than them! Shou: how old are you, then? Teng: uhhhhh.. well. fine. yes, i’m older than them! but not by that much! they make it seem as though i’m past my prime, but i’m really not! Shou: which is? Teng: uhhhh. i’m 27, i think. about there. 27 - 28. you? Shou: i don’t remember the age at which i died. if you are talking about post-death, however... no, i don’t know either. 8. Any special talents? Shou: he does! he does!! Teng: huh, me??? Shou: yes! you do! don’t be shy now, we all know what you are capable of! Teng: uhhh. i’m pretty good at cleaning up -- even though jun makes it seem like i’m dirty and disgusting. is that it? Shou: no! i’m talking about your imitation of a bear! you are amazing at that! Teng: ????? since when have i imitated a bear?? Shou: all the time! when we met for the first time, you were snarling and growling like a beast! it was amazing! how do you do that with your vocal cords? i have tried many times, but alas it is not a skill meant for me.  Teng: ohhhhhh, you mean that, huh? uhh, ahh, it’s nothing, really Shou: please do not sell yourself short. it is an amazing skill worthy to be proud of!  9. Do you have kids? Teng: if you are talking about the boys, then well, yea, i guess. though i wouldn’t really call them my kids.  Shou: you mean, your gang members? Teng: what gang?? why do people keep saying that i’m in a gang??? 10. What’s your aesthetic? Shou: i don’t understand. if you are talking about what i am wearing, right now i am wearing one of jun’s many robes. it is very comfortable, though unlike the previous garment that i had donned, it has less of a breeze.  Teng: i’m just wearing normal clothes i guess. don’t know how you want me to describe it further. 

11. Who’s your best friend? Shou: best friend? as in, a friend above all other friends? that’s terrible! how can you ask me to choose such a thing? Teng: yea! that’s terrible! i can’t make such a choice! Shou: so you don’t have an answer to this as well? Teng: yea! also... well... i don’t know if i... i mean, well, the boys are just the boys, right? outside of them, i don’t even know if i have any friends... so uhh, yea. yea. can’t really answer this anyway. Shou: am i not your friend? all this time i have considered you my comrade-in-arms, leader of the Noisies, an odd man and a great friend -- yet could it have all been my imagination? have we not fought in battle, have we not shared a meal, have we not been tormented by the same slow tale and have we not slept together under the same roof? has this all been one-sided on my part? have we never been friends all this while? Teng: well... you fought against me in ‘battle’... but yes! we have! we have shared a wonderful meal, and we have been tormented by quan’s horrid story, and well, i guess you have slept in jun’s room before so yes! we have slept together under the same roof! i’m sorry, i was too caught up in moping in my own sorrows that i’ve somehow neglected the friends by my side! my answer is you! you are my best friend, shou! you are! i’m sorry for having forgotten you all this while! Shou: thank you! thank you for realising your folly! yes, we are friends ! Teng: ... Shou: ... Teng: ... are you not going to say that i’m your best friend as well? Shou: ... it just seems like an important decision. i don’t want to make a choice so quickly. 12. Would you ever get a piercing / tattoo? Shou: absolutely not! how can you suggest such a thing? our physical bodies are a gift from our mothers! they should not be desecrated just like that!  Teng: aren’t those painful? uh, i mean, not that i’m afraid of the pain, it’s just... you know! uh... uh... right! i don’t know what to put on it! where would i pierce, what kind of design would i put on my body -- those are all important questions! Shou: if i could, i would paint an image of the flaming sun on my chest. Teng: i thought you said that our bodies are a gift from our mothers? that we shouldn’t destroy them just like that?? Shou: well, since i am dead, i think it’s right to assume that my mother is as well. and we have long lost our physical vessels, so there is no real damage. furthermore, i have to remember how scary the sun is. (shakes head) it is not simply the glowing ball of warmth you think it is. 13. When are you happiest? Shou: that is an impossible question to answer. how can there be a ‘happiest’ when there is nothing to compare it to? there will always be a ‘happiest’ moment in your future! when you think you are happy in the present -- even, perhaps, the most happy that you can be -- you never know what is coming your way next. there will always be another ‘happiest’ moment. as the saying goes, there is always a higher mountain. you cannot limit yourself your current happiness. you will always be happier! you must trust in that! if there are constants in life, that would be it! Teng: (wipes away a single tear) Shou... Shou: that being said, my happiest moment would be when we are all together. Teng: (wipes away tears from both eyes) Shou! Shou: ah, and perhaps when i’m eating a sugared gourd. that as well. 14. What’s your biggest secret? Shou: what secret??? i have no secrets! i am not lying! Teng: uhhh. i don’t have any i think. shou, you are acting kinda weird though. Shou: i’m not! i’m not!! 15. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Shou: it used to be their names, but now i am not certain. i haven’t been around enough people -- though yes, i am around a lot more people now than i was in the past. it is rather incredible. Teng: uhhh. i notice that they are people? i don’t get it. am i supposed to say something specific? but i notice them as a whole! if someone’s walking towards me, then they’re walking towards me. i don’t know what you want me to say! tagging @insearchof-solace @elliswriting @vhum @thedreamsofthesky @coffehousecreations @snowdropwrites @focusdumbass @chrysanthos-writes @bookenders @inexorableblob @incandescent-creativity @radley-writes @minnowf @thel3tterm @pen-for-sword

[bubblesthemonsterartist]

obi finding kiki's scars, like under her arm braces, or wherever you like (big eyes emoji)

Prompts are currently closed while I catch up. I will announce when I am open! :)

A/N: Again, I am here, trying to work through my promptpile by offering you another sneak peak of a WIP. This time, it’s from a futurereveal or hidden scene of Best Laid Plans. 

Pairing: Kikiobi

Content warning: Reference to sex, adults making stupiddecisions while drunk, and frank discussions of past self-harm/cutting.

Mornings, as her father would tell anyone, have never beenKiki’s strongest suit. For a girl raised in the country, she was downright allergicto them, thriving only when her father sent her to the city or adjusting thewhole households schedule for her benefit. The days seemed brighter when shecould stay abed until noon, the nights more tolerable when she could hone herblade by moonlight.

Come dawn, though- Well, the early hours were made for the birds. And she was no bird.

She had gotten better with age, though, much to her father’s and Izana’s pleasure. Mitsuhide’s Sereg upbringing and total patience was capable of training even an owl to rise with the sun. He kept his voice soft, prompting both Zen and her into quiet contemplation, prodding them with the simplest of questions until they fully awoke, but still-

She hated them.

This morning might take first place for the worst among them, though. Groggy, her eyesbarely open through the crust of sleep gluing them together, only to slam shutthe moment light meets them.

Mother’s milk and father’s porridge, what was in that drink last night?

Moaning, Kiki rubs her face against soft bedding, handstangling in her own hair and finding a mess. Flopping, she turns on her side,away from the window, and glances down at her body.

Her clothes are gone.

Obi must’ve been here, then.

He’s not here now, though, and both her bed and her fireplaceis cold. Squinting at the clock ticking far too loudly upon the mantle, shegroans at the thought of waiting for two more hours for the maids to show upwhen all she needs is a simple drink of water. So she gets her arms underneathher, pushes herself up-

-and hisses when she’s rewarded with a sharp painshooting straight from her wrist to her elbow.

She’s already lowered herself back to the bed when shehears a familiar voice drawl, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. You weren’texactly kind to it last night.”

Dragging her head across her pillow, Kiki flinches whenlight briefly blinds her, the familiar silhouette of Obi crawling through herwindow coming into relief.

“What are you doing?” she asks, her voice more muffled cloth than actual human words.

“Helping!” he chirps, grin on his face and really- Hermemories are a fog, broken pieces scattered by sensation and noise, but eachone that floats to the surface tells her that her behavior was barelyacceptable last night, even by Obi’s feeble standards. And yet still, he wavesa bucket and a nondescript bag of… something in her direction like he’s nothere to dispatch her. “I am a decent hand at first aid unless you want to explainour little adventure last night to Miss.”

Wincing, she flops her hand in his general direction.“Close the window. You’re letting in a chill.”

His smile thins, but he pullsthe pane shut, closing the curtain so the room reaches a level of dark that istolerable. Her eyes flutter shut gratefully. “Thank you.”

As always, he is quiet, crossing the room with thatunearthly silence that makes him more ghost than flesh and blood. It would bedisconcerting if she did not know him. Even more if he did not make apoint to allow the bucket and bag to make something of a sound when he set themon the bedside table.

“How’s your head?” he asks, hushed.

“Horrible,” she replies, and is pleased when that earnsher a little laugh.

“Yes, well,” he sighs. “Next time get something a littleless poisonous.”

“I was going off the seller’s recommendation,” sheprotests.

“For what? An early grave?” Liquid sloshes into acontainer somewhere near her head. “Water?”

“Oh gods, yes.” Peaking a single eye open, Kiki wraps herhand around the cool glass being pressed to her. She sips, careful because she’s not such a fool that she thinks her stomach is in muchbetter shape than her head. “Thank you.”

He hums, pulling the cup from her hand, and she is justdrifting off, just being pulled back under when her wrist jostles, the tug oflacings being pulled through leather straps loud in her ears, and she- shepanics.

“Don’t!” she snaps, fully awake as she yanks her handaway. It’s too fast and it jars, white hot pain lacing all the way to hershoulder this time; through each and every finger, too. It, embarrassingly enough, pulls awhimper from her.

The sigh registers through her pain, as do Obi’s mutteredwords about how no wonder miss complains.

“Fine,” he says, and when she opens her eyes again, he is settinga prepared ice pack back in the bucket. “But when your wrist swells up to thesize of a grapefruit and you have to be cut out of that wrist guard, I don’twant to hear any complaints.”

Kiki stares at him, frowning. His profile is sharp, noteven watching her out of the tail of his eye, and she wonders about the natureof words, how people abandon their vocabulary and adopt another’s. Just how manyare his, and how many- how many are- are hers.

Slowly, carefully, she uncoils her arm from itsprotective hold against her chest. “Sorry,” she mutters. “It’s habit.”

He stares at her, the pupils of his strange eyes bleedingwide in the dark, and it’s hard to meet them. Even now. But he doesn’t sayanything. For once in his life, he is silent. Instead, he just reaches out,tugging on the laces. “Let me know if it hurts.”

She doesn’t, even when it does. But he is being gentle with her, moving her arm no more than necessary until he peels the leather backand she lifts so he can pull it out from underneath her.

Cool air touches sweaty skin and Kiki cannot meet hiseyes so she stares at the pale skin, the rooms shadows and little hatch marks ofpink somewhat hiding the silvery lines of white scratching themselves up and downthe soft of her forearm. It’s been a while since she’s seen them last in full light. She wonders if she should count them like prisoner countshis days.

How long will it take him to notice? To say something? Although maybe- maybe he’ll explain it away in his head. Or yell. Or scold. Or leave. Or maybe-

Maybe he just won’t care.

“Sorry,” Obi begins, sitting on the edge of the bed. Takingahold of her elbow, he leads the bone of her forearm to lean against his thigh.And he is silent, spreading some sort of minty poultice leaves warmth over all it touches.

“Does that burn?” he asks.

Slowly shaking her head, Kiki replies, “No. It’s justwarm.”

A smile tugs at the corner of his lips. “Good.”

Riffling through the pack, he pulls out a roll of gauze, unspoolingit before twisting it around her arm. This way and that, smooth and practiced,until her wrist is snugly wrapped.

“Has Shirayuki been giving you lessons?”

He doesn’t flinch at the mention of her name. His faceonly softens in that fond way that has always revealed his deepest secrets.“Not really,” he laughs. “More like I’ve been giving her reason to practice.”

“You should be more careful with yourself,” she tsks, notthat she has any room to judge. It just seems right to say so.

His smile grows more. “You don’t say.”

She watches him work. “You know,” she begins. “You’regood at this.”

He grunts, taping the binding into place. “There we go!”he quips, taping her once on the nose. “That wasn’t too bad, was it?”

Going cross-eyed for a second, she rolls onto her back, andstares at his handiwork.

“When the warmth wears off, you should switch over toicing it, but keep it elevated as much as possible,” Obi says, pulling out the ice pack again toillustrate the point. “I don’t think you’ll need to go to the pharmacy, but ifyou do-”

“You’re not going to say anything about it,are you?”

Obi’s eyes pull wide, mouth dropping into a frown. “Asmuch as I love Miss scolding me, I don’t actively seek it out, no.”

“No,” her lips twitch, before settling once again intosomething more sober. “That’s not- that’s not what I meant.”

“Kiki-jou.” Eyes sliding from her face, Obi lingers atwhat the bandages once again hide. “I’m the last person to judge someone fortheir scars.”

Kiki stares at him, suddenly breathless, and it’s- it’s like the first time she took a punch to the gut. The light headedness. The disorientation and the not-quite pain. How easily he had delivered it, how flawlessly, like he didn’t now hold her darkest secret in the palm of his hand.

“I’m just-“ He coughs, turning to stare at her headboard.“I’m just glad you’re still here. It would have been boring if I never had the chance to meet you.”

“I wasn’t-“ Kiki swallows, searching for her courage andfinding so very little. “I didn’t want to leave,I just-”

He’s staring at her now, and no longer do those eyes lookstrange, something foreign and terrifying like a creature you never would wantto meet in the wood. Instead they look just… curious. Just like she’sexplaining the movement of sword or a formation of an army and it makes iteasy, for once, for her to open her mouth. To give her voice the air and lightneeded to speak it.

“All my life,people have controlled me. My hair. My dress. My posture. Even the cadence and clip of myvoice.” Her throatfeels tight and she wishes he hadn’t taken that water away so quickly. She would like to hide behind it. “Even-even who I was to give my body to, who I was to marry wasn’t mine to choose, not at first. Not until-”

Kiki gestures with her arm, her tongue failing her. Ormaybe her throat just stings too much to allow herself to continue.

“I just- I wanted to be in control. Of just… one thing.”

She represses the urge to flinch when she feels Obi shift onto the mattress, but she jolts when his thumb drags beneath her eye. It pulls back and she’s shocked tosee them come away wet. Just a little.

“Did it work?”

The question gives her pause, more liquid leakingpainlessly from her eyes. “I thought it was, in the beginning,” she admits, surprising herself with her honesty. Tracingthe length of a scar from memory through the gauze, her lips tremble. But thenshe shakes her head. “But no. It didn’t.”

Sighing, Obi pulls himself the rest of the way up and into her bed, propping himselfagainst her headboard. She waits for the longest time for him to speak, andwhen he does, it’s with a level of lightness that she does not expect. 

“I guesswe’re not too different after all,” he says, scratching absently at his chest.

She doesn’t know what to say to that, but one of thoseclever hands of his finds her hair, picking at a gnarl they both earned her in the training yard last night.

“You’re a mess,” he mutters.

Her lips twitch, and her chest is… surprisingly lighter. “My problem seem like less of one whenI look at yours. Or Shirayuki’s,” she says, halfheartedly attempting to bat away his hand.

He bats her back. “Miss would say-“ Obi coughs out a laugh, a wet thingwithout humor. “Miss would say that it doesn’t matter. Our problems are ourproblems. If they’re big to you, then they’re big.”

Kiki looks at him, the softened lines of his face as he bringshis other hand to work on her hair. “That does sound like something she wouldsay.”

Obi peers down at her, his mouth settling into itscustomary grin, and it’s- nice. It’s nice to know that she didn’t ruineverything. “You’re still have to answer for last night, you know.”

Face falling, Kiki swallows a sigh. “Can’t I just blame it on the drinkand be done with it?”

“Kiki-jou,” his voice is thick with censure, tugging alittle harder than necessary on a knot. “I never pegged you for aheart-breaker.”

She smiles, a weary thing. 

If only he knew.