#adding close ups in addition to other posts which has been going around

[ardentfervour]

So someone made this prop replica and had David sign it during a panel at the Proud Nerd con, it was very amusing.

[rockethorse]

I've been shaping the suburban area of Calcinidae Bay recently and allowing myself to plonk down empty lots just to get a better sense of how I might lay things out in the future. It also made me go searching for specific shells to fill the gaps I had left over, which was a lot of fun & very gratifying.

Most of the houses here are ones I've posted about before (Cadillac Flats, Desert's Welcome & Blue Suburban on the right side of the rightmost street, with Mid-Century Burst and the Lewis House opposite them; then Potter's Paradise way in the bottom left corner) so here's a brief rundown of the new additions and the unique ways they intersect (warning - long post/many images):

I already shared some screencaps from these houses in this post about hallways/vestibules; this is the house with the little mudroom at the front that I really like. It's teeny tiny. As you can see, the original TS4 shell by ReneeMwangi had no flooring in the triangular room on the bottom floor, like so:

Was this an unintentional accident because of how TS4 sometimes doesn't recognise enclosed rooms? Most likely! Did I think it was a cool additional challenge to try and work around anyway? I sure did.

I kept it floorless as a sort of greenhouse room - enclosed enough that the parents don't get cold going to their bedroom, but outdoors enough to encourage plants and grass to grow.

There's a funky little kid's room upstairs. Since it's a bit small, they get their own balcony area too. In my head I've decided that the non-diagonal rooms were originally the entirety of an old two-storey cottage, which the owners renovated, and the diagonal part is an addition that had to go in at an angle to avoid an already-existing pool.

The next house is my go at "Shell Challenge Oliver" by TS4 Gallery ID FridaMay. It has a little fish pond out the front like its neighbour Potter's Paradise. I was looking for something that could accommodate the L-shaped space I had and this was perfect because it already came with the gazebo, which I placed at the same distance from the house shell as in the original TS4 shell.

The master bedroom has a subdued but neat colour scheme and I had some fun in this teen's bedroom using wallpapers I don't normally look at.

Rough floorplan. Lots of spaces for entertaining. The little conservatory area is my favourite, I bet it's so nice to curl up and read in there. I originally had the upstairs study area an open landing but decided to close it off so that it could be an extra/guest bedroom if necessary, because this house really didn't have "3 bedroom" vibes.

I also finally realised that if you rotate those outdoor tiles randomly they don't look so horribly repetitive and now I actually really like them & will probably get lots more use out of them!

The aforementioned gazebo, which was a part of the shell challenge, so I take little credit for how cute it is. It fits so perfectly in this little back yard and is yet ANOTHER entertaining/conversation area, lol. I figure that teenager is a photographer so she has her vintage camera set up here to take some nature shots.

As you may have picked up, this lot and the first lot overlap using the Lot Adjuster, like so:

Normally, the issue here would be Z-fighting on any terrain that isn't covered by floor tiles, with the added issue that the ground from the gazebo lot completely covered the pool from the other lot. These are only visual glitches and don't affect gameplay at all but they're really annoying and distracting.

But I figured out a solution that's obvious in hindsight; I simply lowered the terrain on the gazebo lot wherever it overlapped with the other lot. The other lot's LOD ground covers the hole when I'm playing the gazebo lot, and I don't get any Z-fighting on either lot!

This only works because I don't need/want to be able to access the other lot's backyard from the gazebo house. If I were trying to make, say, two houses with a shared park area between them, I'd still have to cover the entire area in floor tiles or get Z-fighting. And the downside of the "hole" method is that the trick is obvious from neighbourhood view:

Sometimes the pool looks like this and sometimes it looks a bit different but still glitchy. For what it's worth, I went back and terrain-painted over those ugly cliff squares in the lowered area and now I can barely tell from hood view. I will always prioritise how my houses look in lot-view/during gameplay VS how they look from hood view, but this is probably a dealbreaker for some.

This lot doesn't overlap with Potter's Paradise, but it does kind of accommodate it visually, with this little divot carved out to make it look like next door's kiln has more space.

Anyway - onto the final lot:

I needed something pretty long but also not super-narrow to fill the space left over and found the perfect TS4 shell from the Gallery ID "feouirtsutnrusl". I liked the turret shape at the front and since it was absolutely MASSIVE inside I decided to turn it into some rowhouse apartments, taking just a pinch of inspiration from New Orleans shotgun houses.

Since the bottom two apartments don't have as many windows (especially in the middle), I took advantage of the roofing situation to throw in some skylights, as you can see in the image at the top of this post.

The middle apartment has two skylights - one over the kitchen/dining area and one over the master bedroom - and the right apartment has one over the twins' shared bedroom.

I had a lot of fun with the floorplan of these ones. It was really interesting trying to figure out how to make the most of the spaces without things looking too gloomy without windows, especially the living room in the middle apartment (since the windows at the front and back needed to attach to bedrooms, and it didn't even have any privacy windows). I couldn't even borrow too much space from the leftmost apartment because it had to attach to the back/side door (which was actually a quirk of the original shell).

The entire top floor is one apartment (with a little extra hallway on the bottom floor that serves as an office space). The angsty musician kid doesn't get the cool turret bedroom but they do get their own little balcony. Originally I had the back wall entirely filled with windows before I realised it would give them a birds-eye-view down into the skylights, LOL. But I don't think it really needed any extra windows and the wall space ended up being more versatile anyway.

I really liked this space. It's somehow retro/nostalgic and kinda fresh at the same time.

I love the master bedroom. It's so over-the-top. It's like they won a house makeover on a mid-2000s reality TV show and the only input the producers heard was "we like the beach". But they LOVE IT.

This lot doesn't overlap with any of the other lots, but I did make this minor tweak to the Lewis House for a bit of privacy. Now the upstairs neighbours don't have to worry about staring directly into their back yard and they get a bit of shade cover as an added bonus without blocking the sun completely.

If any of you read this far then I hope you got some interesting ideas! I like being able to make lots feel connected/integrated, like they flow from one to the other instead of being entirely separate entities, and I feel like I achieved that here. And I'm looking forward to expanding into those empty lots in the first pic!

[cumplanecrash]

If you saw this at 6 am, no you didn't. Tumblr wouldn't do that to me, we're too close for that 🤣🤣🤣

Over 1200 words of panic! in the bamboo house, including the snippet I posted last Wednesday. It's a beefy boy because I'm far enough ahead that I feel like I have enough buffer to edit with a clear head, so splitting it up in the middle of a scene just feels petty. This part follows directly from chapter 1 of the AO3 version.

Also please tell me if I'm using any words wrong, I am very new here haha

AO3 🔗 just the updates 🔗 writeblogging this au 🔗 first 🔗 prev

How the fuck did Qi-ge figure out something was wrong this quickly?

And just why was he here? They'd been on-Peak for a shichen tops, and Shen Jiu didn't know exactly what Shen Yuan did when he had to deal with the sect leader (he very purposely buried himself into his metaphysical blankets whenever Yue Qingyuan came around), but even if he filed his reports promptly, it still took time for characters to be written and ink to dry.

Fucking -- if Yue Qi had ever had a weakness, it was children. Especially bratty little boys named Shen Jiu who chased other children with legitimate intent to kill, wearing ill fitting robes that had been dragged through the mud. (Just a bit! As little as possible, because Shen Qingqiu's disciples did not deserve to have their belongings ruined! But, even shrunk, the robes were sized for teenaged disciples, not toddlers.) The scene felt designed to ensnare Yue Qi's sympathy, and even more distressingly, his meddling.

"Two Xiao Jius...?" Yue Qingyuan was saying with quiet awe. Which! Was exactly what Shen Jiu was talking about!

"No!" Shen Jiu shouted from his hiding place behind Shen Yuan, impulse control of a four year old combined with the speech-compelling aspects of the curse, difference clear now that he had felt one without the other. "Two Shen Qingqius, only one Xiao Jiu!"

"Don't get it twisted!" Shen Yuan sounded just as angry in front of him, crossing his arms and stamping his foot. "There's a nice categorization system already in place; don't confuse everybody needlessly."

"Yeah!" Shen Jiu shouted. "Don't get it twisted!"

Very helpful addition, that.

Shen Jiu did his best not to hold it against himself -- running his mouth had been his most fatal flaw throughout most of his childhood, such as it was, no matter how many times he should have learned to hold his tongue -- but he couldn't help but be frustrated. They still hadn't come up with much of a plan for how to handle the other Peak Lords, and now he was hiding from Qi-ge while yelling at him, as if that made any sense.

Qi-ge went to one knee, staring directly into Shen Jiu's eyes as he said, "Xiao Jiu." His gaze refocused slightly to Shen Jiu's right, "And...? I'm sorry."

"Yue-da-ge doesn't--" Shen Yuan started, before making a retching sound. Shen Jiu quickly glanced to make sure it was an affectation. "A-Yuan never had a chance to say. The curse is effecting our word choices, by the way."

A large, warm hand cradled his left cheek; he could see the other hand move to mirror the move on Shen Yuan. "Xiao Jiu and A-Yuan have been suffering. Not to worry; you'll have access to any resources the sect can rally to resolve this." He turned to Ning Yingying, visible in the doorway behind him now that he was kneeling. "I assume Mu-shidi has already been called?"

Shen Jiu turn his head, making a face, only to find himself looking into the eyes of Shen Yuan, also making a face.

"A-Yuan had hoped to have more information to share before troubling Yue-da-ge and Mu-ge," Shen Yuan blatantly lied.

Huh. The System had called it a speech-compelling curse, not a truth-compelling curse. Useful, that.

"And clothes that fit," Shen Jiu added, nodding to Ning Yingying.

"And something more substantial to eat than whatever snacks we all had in our pockets," adds Luo Binghe's voice from farther outside. "Of which there should be enough to go around, if Zhangmen-shibo is inclined to stay while Shizun and Shizun make themselves presentable."

Shen Yuan cupped his hands around his mouth to call out, "Stick with the same names, Bing-ge! This situation is already confusing enough without all that!"

There was a pointed silence where everyone wondered whether the cheeky little brat would actually take that liberty, and Luo Binghe blushed furiously. "Ah, Yuan-shizun and Jiu-shizun...?"

Shen Jiu waved his arms to negate the notion, backing from Shen Yuan a step to accomodate the movement. "Xiao Jiu isn't anybody's shizun," he said quickly. "Yuan-ge has the golden core and the people skills; he's got all that covered."

Yue Qingyuan gave him a sharp look at that, but he had also made enough room for the disciples to enter, and Shen Jiu needed to be able to take more than a step without stepping on his borrowed robes in order to have this conversation.

"Yingying-jiejie, hand that here, please," he chirped quickly. "Yuan-ge and Xiao Jiu can help each other make sure everything lays right, don't worry about us!"

"Everything smells delicious, Bing-ge," Shen Yuan said warmly. To be fair, it really, really did. "Don't let Yue-da-ge bully you out of your own room, okay? This is Bing-ge's home too."

The no-so-little-anymore beast blushed luminescently at that, and, well. Shen Yuan had certainly done a good job changing their prewritten fate! Given the choice, Shen Jiu would rather be a calamitous beauty than the victim of poetic justice. Just. Just leave all those parts to Shen Yuan to be awake for.

Getting dressed in appropriate robes did not actually leave much room for private conversation, especially with the sect leader on high alert so close to the door, so Shen Jiu did not have much extra time to confer with Shen Yuan. "Do we have a plan, or...?

"Keep it as vague as possible?" Shen Yuan hissed as he tugged at the side of Shen Jiu's robes, laying them straighter. "None of the things we know are actually relevant, if you think about it."

"Speech-compelling curse," Shen Jiu ticked off, tugging his hair out from where it had gotten caught. Did they have time to tie it up? Shen Yuan had the now-oversized guan when they'd been split, but Shen Jiu's hair was loose and likely greasy as all hell, in a way it hadn't been since the Qiu estate. "Speech controlling curse, at least enough to misdirect." One of the more complicated ones then.

"And almost entirely separately, the transformation," said Shen Yuan, dragging him over to his (Shen Jiu's? Shen Yuan's? Shen Qingqiu's.) bronze mirror and digging into the boxes on the table until he found the simpler ribbons he used when he braided his hair for bed. Yeah, good enough. "It couldn't have been two spells though, it was so fast -- way faster than the demon had been up until then."

"Activating a preset array of some kind?" Shen Jiu asked. "Why there?"

"The only one who could tell us is now very, very dead," Shen Yuan noted with sad finality. What an innocent soul, to mourn a demon who had inflicted such a hardship on them.

"Remember to teach your disciples that they can't question the dead," Shen Jiu told Shen Yuan's reflection in the mirror. "They're teenagers, so it's a forgivable oversight, but it's always easier to interrogate even a liar than a corpse."

"Our disciples," Shen Yuan said with conviction.

"That is not the deal the System and I made," Shen Jiu told him with the same strength of conviction. "It's not fair, but you can't actually make me go back."

"Oh." Shen Yuan draped himself across Shen Jiu's shoulders. "You said that. I keep expecting to have to fight for my right to be here, but you really want me here?"

"Gege," Shen Jiu chided. "I really hated teaching. And being Peak Lord comes with way more responsibilities than privileges. Sorry, but you'll have to be stuck with the shit end of the stick." And Shen Jiu flounced out of there.

Next

[kiragecko]

What’s your favourite period of Batfamily dynamics?

What’s the one that you’re most interested about exploring through fanfic? Reading the comics for? Reinterpreting, so that it Actually Works? Not the best one, but the one that gets you most excited (even if that 'excitement' is furious fix-it fics, or long metas about how it COULD have been so good)! You don’t even need to have READ the comics. Choose the period that makes the most interesting fanfic!

(Edit: If you prefer stuff that mixes periods, or non-comics' canons, I've added a follow-up poll in a reblog. Answer this poll based on what's most similar to your interests - which characters tend to be around, is Dick a teen on a superhero team, etc. And then give me the nuance in the next poll!)

I did this in 2023, as well, but 10 options wasn't QUITE enough, and polls couldn't handle formatting. So we're trying again ;) Thanks to @zahri-melitor for most of the post-Flashpoint details! (Any mistakes are my additions.)

Here are our challengers!

1. The Golden Age (1939 - 1960) - Bruce and Dick need no motivation beyond 'it's the right thing to do' and 'we're AWESOME' (and why would they?), Bruce murders people in the (very) early issues, and Alfred is a bumbling fool who isn't yet Alfred - [22 years]

2. The Silver Age (1960 - 1980) - Dick gets fun Teen Titans friends, Bruce goes on space/time travel adventures, Alfred still didn't raise Bruce, and, after a few fumbles with other female 'wholesome heterosexual dynamics here' characters, we get BABS - [21 years]

3. Early - Mid 80s (1980 - 1986) - Dick gets to be oh so melodramatic with his new angsty Titans friends in New York, Bruce says 'Chum' and 'Lad' as he ruffles tiny Jason's hair, Alfred raised Bruce and is his awesome self, we realize Babs will keep adding impressive new jobs to her resume forever (Senator! Librarian! Lawyer!), and they start to be an actual family - [7 years]

4. Late 80s - Early 90s (1986-1992) - The Dark Knight Returns heralds a dark new era, Babs is crippled, and Jason dies. Tim is a new type of Robin - one who supports Batman. Babs rebuilds herself, no child needed. Dick and Bruce try, but mostly fail, to communicate. Alfred becomes the heart of a family that doesn't know it's a family - [7 years]

5. The 90s (1992 - 1999) - Dick and Tim are brothers. Oracle rejoins the Batfamily, while continuing her separate life. Dick moves from New York to Blüdhaven, closer to the Bats than the Titans. Bruce has 2 sons, even though neither realize he thinks that way. Catwoman grudgingly dabbles with heroism. Steph arrives, and exists on the edges, only connected to the family through Tim. A variety of other people come and go through their lives - Jean-Paul, Helena Bertinelli, Harold, Sasha Bordeaux, etc, and Gotham is a whole CITY of heroes - [8 years]

6. Early 2000s (1999 - 2003) - The family grows and becomes tighter knit. Cass continues Babs' legacy, and Steph finally gets a friend. Babs and Alfred are in some ways joint centres of the family, and fight with Bruce about how to raise kids. Dick calls Tim 'little brother' for the first time. Tim starts Young Justice, and Dick is back with his oldest friends - [5 years]

7. Mid 2000s (2003 - 2007) - The era of death. Donna dies, Dick's team disbands, and Tim's team renames themselves the Teen Titans. Bad idea, many teens die, including most of Tim's friends. Steph dies. Tim and Cass get close, until Cass is brainwashed and kills a lot of people. Many, many people around Dick are murdered, and eventually Blüdhaven is exploded. Jason is back from the dead, and exuberantly contributing to the murders. Bruce can't work with equals, and Babs leaves the city. Dick is furious with Jason, Jason is violent towards Tim, and Tim is far less forgiving than fanon pretends. Babs gets colder, Alfred gets older, and Bruce shuts down - [5 years]

8. Late 2000s (2007 - 2011) - The era of grief. Bruce, Dick, and Tim take a year long cruise to recover. Cass, Steph, and Babs eventually return. But the scars run deep. Everyone's relationships are shaky. Jason has a different motivation every arc. Tim is trying to clone people and being head-hunted by Ra's al Ghul. Damian shows up and topples the already unsteady situation. Bruce dies. Cass leaves. Tim fights with Dick and goes off to prove Bruce is alive. Damian and Steph both rebuild themselves in the ashes, while Dick tries to hope for a better future - [5 years]

9. The New 52 (2012 - 2016) - The universe is rebooted. Jason has friends now, and for some reason is the only Bat Tim talks to? Dick spends some time as a secret agent. Babs is Batgirl again. Damian and Kate continue their preboot growth. Tim … exists. Steph and Cass mostly don't. Harper and Duke are introduced, but not really integrated. Everything is centred around Bruce. Most of the past no longer exists, and along with it, most of their relationships - [5 years]

10. Rebirth (2016 - 2020) - A world in transition, struggling for identity. Comics slowly bring in previous continuity, and it's uncertain what exists for who. (Except for Jason, we keep the new Jason.) Both Dick and Bruce spend a lot of time with amnesia. Tim gets a turn being fake dead. Duke finally gets a costume and codename. Selina almost marries Bruce, but editorial explicitly says that Bruce isn't allowed to have nice things. Nuclear family is centred over found family, but everyone is still kept apart. (And Jason should be kept even farther away for his own safety!) Eventually, Alfred dies, and Damian runs away from home - [4 years]

11. Infinite Frontier (2020 - 2025) - Relationships and memories get reestablished. A few characters stay their rebooted versions, some reinstall the old version, and many are an complex mix of both. People start being able to interact without Bruce around. Cass and Steph become Batgirl alongside Babs, and Babs starts reestablishing Oracle. Tim becomes Robin alongside Damian, and they explore the differences in their roles. Tim also rejoins Young Justice and remembers his friends, and Dick regains his relationships with the Titans - [5 years]

[enidtendo64]

How is Preston in the Diner at the end of falls au

I know you said that you think Pacifica is thinking she can change him. But does he deserved to be changed? The man conditioned Pacifica with a bell which is horrific!

But who knows maybe having his face re-arranged and his wife leaving him changes a man. But I am curious and skeptical about him.

Also I absolutely love your au, so far I’m loving the additions you made to characters and the fun dynamics I’ve seen so far!!!

I never thought of Albert Corduroy before as a character but I find what you did with him interesting!

AND You added additions like Tres and Quattro and Abigale that make me JUST *GESTURES HANDS HAPPILY*

One more thing is McGucket and Tate also going to be in this? And if so, what is their relationships with Pacifica like?

I know some people started making McGucket and Pacifica close because of weridmagedeon and because Pacifica might have inventor genes from Abigale so I’m wondering your thoughts on it

Sorry if this is just a bit much but this quickly gained my attention and became one of my favorite aus

Oh I’m not even gonna try to be mysterious about it, Preston sucks lol. It’s more just, it’s more about Pacifica’s evolving character that she wants to try to help him than him in general. She sees herself cut from the same cloth as him, I mean she’s as Northwest as he is. But with Dipper and Mabel’s help, she was able to grow despite her environment and people around her. She thinks that if she doesn’t at least try to help him, then isn’t she kind of like a hypocrite? Like why is she any different than him?

But really that’s just all part of the entire mock show’s recurring themes of Pacifica being forced into situations and headspaces that kids don’t normally have to deal with (I.e. having to work to pay rent, worrying about job security, being consistently in the face of the concept of death and loss) and her not realizing it’s different for her and her dad. She was just a kid, sure she did make her mistakes, but they also had a heavy hand in why she was who she was. Sure Preston can change, but he has more responsibility and penance bc he’s an adult—he should’ve known better. Oh and also he’s like her dad so she is also clinging to that lol.

Thank you! Honestly this started out as just finding it funny that Paz works at the diner post show, but then I started just using it as a way to use and explore other minor or background characters in the show. I more or less gave myself a rule that I’ll try to have no complete ocs for the living people, and I can make OCs only for the ghosts, just so we can really use everyone! Or at least try to, to an extent lol

YES I had to put Archibald in bc he’s basically one of the catalysts for why Pacifica has such an interesting post series story! Not only is she working at the diner, but apparently Archibald and the rest of the lumberjack spirits around have been protecting her from Bill! Like she really won them over with that party 😭 makes sense tho that the zombies from scaryoke got introduced during a party they love to go crazy

YEAH! I just like using the background or one off characters lol. Quattro and Tracey are interesting cause like their clone brothers straight up died, but what’s the difference between clones vs being your own person? Did the clones have ghosts/sounds that moved on? 🤔 and then Abigale Blackwing was just a fountain of good shit to headcanon. I think her being some ghost supreme is just really cool and also lowkey fits the Northwest brand of being haunted af (like what do you MEAN they have their own graveyard on their property 😭)

So as for McGucket and Tate I had planned something where their (re)introductory episode would be ghosts bothering Pacifica at the diner and saying something crazy’s going in Northwest manor. This leads to Paz and Kevin going to Paz’ old house and Kevin finding out the Pacifica Northwest lore of her growing up in a haunted house, and Pacifica ACTUALLY seeing how haunted it was instead of just getting a chilly feeling all the time. They meet with McGucket and Tate who are the reasons the ghosts are in a tizzy, they’re full ghost harassing! All four team up when an especially malevolent Northwest ancestor starts up some trouble.

Throughout the series I imagine McGucket and Tate and the Northwest manor being recurring appearances, especially regarding either they need something specifically science-y with the ghosts OOOR…when they need to find homeless Tracey and Quattro a home….hello Father McGucket!

In terms of Paz and McGucket and Abigale, I think Pacifica feels a little weird about McGucket since he effectively owns her old home now (she’s better but lbr she’s still petty lol) but I think there’s some mutual respect. McGucket might find some of Abigale’s old schematics maybe? And probably have some great admiration/respect for her with what he sees. Paz might also surprise him by being surprisingly adept at mechanical thinking and actions (as if she’s got…muscle memory? 🤨) but Paz doesn’t think of it since she doesn’t have a huge interest in that stuff. But now you know why she’s so damn good at minigolf (“it’s all geometry, duh.”)

Thank you so much for showing so much interest! I’ve spent an embarrassingly long time thinking of this AU and will probably continue to think more of it so I’m glad there are people who like it!

[agirlandherquill]

the twelfth day of writemas

day 12, phew! christmas break has finally arrived, for me at least, and that means i have nothing but time now, which is strange, really its very odd to be able to do whatever i want without a deadline hanging over me, but time means i can write, and who knows? i might finally participate in the game myself, we shall see, but for now i cannot wait to see what you all come up with!

the rules, for those of you that are new or simply need a refresher: choose a prompt from the list, write something and share your creation with the rest of writeblr, and share the game with others, because as we all know writing is a gift and it deserves to be shared! and of course, tag me in your responses because i cannot wait to see them!

p.s - the game is open to all, as discussed in the invitation post - which, if you'd like to be added to the tag list, is still being monitored for newcomers and late additions - all are welcome to the game!

now for the part you're all here to see - the prompts!

Prompt List:

Dialogue Prompts:

"You don't love me. You can't. Because I love you, that's how this works. Not the other way around. You are meant to hate me."

"Help me, if you want to do anything else for me, you can help."

"I cannot do this alone. I will try until my final breath, but I need you too."

Setting Prompts:

A tavern

A dream

A dining room

Narration Prompts:

The emptiness in their eyes hurt, there was no recognition, no respect, nothing close to love. It was though they saw a stranger.

He shut his eyes, willing his mind to rid the image seared into his very being, to forget the blatant betrayal he had stumbled into.

The heartbeat beat in their bare palm, dripping dark, dripping bloody. Even out of its cage, the organ beat. It was admirable. It was beautiful.

Feeling Prompts:

The hesitation of touch

The crushing of disappointment

The softness of snow

(because i'm insanely overeager, this post like its predecessor will be going live at 00:01 UK Time, apologies to those of you that receive it early but hey, early presents are still pretty good presents :) )

eagerly awaiting your creations, and as always, happy holidays!

~ A Girl And Her Quill

the invitations have been received so here you all are, i bestow upon you the gift of writemas! p.s if you want to be added to the tag list, interact with this post <3

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[prophet-rebellion]

Jolene's Emergency Vet Visit

Description posted from GoFundMe Campaign:

So for those of you who gave followed me (and maybe seen the update) you'll know Salem has been missing for almost 6 months.

She was my ESA, and given my declining mental health, I didn't have much choice but to get a new ESA.

Enter miss Jolene Macchiato L. Whom I adopted almost two months ago and have whole heartedly decided to keep after realizing just how well we mesh.

You may also know I've been in the hospital the last few days - staying with my roommate who was admitted. I've been coming home to feed the cats and (unsuccessfully) treat them for ear mites. My new roommate was dog sitting and he brought fleas and ear mites into our home.

During this time, Jolene went to the bathroom on my bed multiple times. I at first chalked it up to stress and was told to keep an eye on here. Less than a day of being back from the hospital and her stool is light in color, runny, and most terrifyingly, has blood in it.

This is no longer an issue of stress, but could be a major intestinal/stomach problem when mixed with her inability to wait and use her litterbox. On top of that, she was running around like she was in pain, or something was wrong prior to going.

My second job is not a sure thing yet - it has been more than two weeks since the company reached out to me - and I have been looking for more. The money I thought I won was more a scam to get me down to the car dealership (which by the way, I hated as is because of the older man behaving increasingly grossly and inappropriate towards me).

My funding for Salem has stopped at this point - I have done every physical thing I can to find and bring her home. And now I need to focus on the new feline in my care.

I am taking Jolene to the vet tomorrow and using my new credit card - but there are limited funds and paying it back is my current concern when I have payments taking up to the 1,000s combined due these next two months.

I am setting it to $550 for now (because they take a portion), but the price my change depending on what the vet says and what is wrong.

I know she still need to get treated for ear mites ($300 on it's own) because the current medications I've been using are not working."

This is my fundraiser.

Additional pictures of her adoption papers added on here as well proving when I got her. JOLENE IS A REGISTERED ESA NOW.

Jolene as far as I have been told is two years old, though she is very small for her age. She is a sweet heart though she was likely on the streets for a most of not all her life before she was taken to the shelter and I adopted her a month later.

She is a sweet cat that just wants to check and make sure that you're okay. She'll cuddle. She doesn't meow but she does trill and sound like yoshi.

She just wants to make friends with everyone. And if you're not petting her enough then the grabs your hand and brings it right to her face as she stands on her back legs.

This is the last fundraiser I'm making. Ask anyone I know in real life and they'll tell you just how much I despise asking for help. I want to be able to do things on my own. But until I get one bite from the hundreds (literally) of jobs I've applied to as a secondary then I'm at a loss. I can't afford to wait and save up for this vet Visit - not when her health is on the line.

I can post a picture of her at the vets office tomorrow as well to confirm, along with the update of what they set.

GoFundMe

PayPal

Venmo

Currently $750/$750

UPDATE - 08.02.2023

UNDER THE CUT

We went to the vet today.

TL:DR - she is on medications for the next two weeks, roughly. She did very good at the vet and was very brave. $500 was close, it will come out to be roughly $700 all together after ear mite treatment; we are holding off for now until the other cat in the house can be treated or they will just jump between them, which gives some more time to get there funds. But the over the counter medications are not strong enough to fight the infestation, and depending on severity, it could lead to long term health problems.

So I changed it from $550 -> $750 (again, because they take a processing fee). I also added in there roughly $200 that had been sent from PayPal and Venmo to give a more accurate show off current raised funds.

Below are screenshots of the update explaining more, along with pictures of Jolene at the vet today.

(Straight up, I almost cried because in the right two months that I have had her this was the first time she had crawled into my lap to lay down and cuddle with me.)

[fallloverfic]

Han Yoojin's Black Choker

This post isn't going to be everything, but it's going to hopefully be easier to find/navigate than the handful of posts I'm seeing floating around and that I've responded to: a summary of official art with Han Yoojin wearing the black choker in S-Classes that I Raised, its maybe appearances in the text of the novel, and its maybe relationship with fanart. For the short answer, yes it appears in multiple pieces of official novel art, and maybe at least once in the novel text. But it might also be a fan design that's sort of accepted as official at least in some cases? Explanation beneath the read more.

Yoojin's black choker is most likely Grace, the protection item Myungwoo made from Shalos. Other folks have said it's the translation item he gets from Yoohyun, and I disagree, but I'll get to that.

The novel covers and text

Yoojin is not wearing a choker on either novel cover. The first cover, on the left, has a black line for his collar, not a necklace or choker. It appears often in the manhwa. The black collar is gone in onlyraii's cover on the right (even though onlyraii had drawn Yoojin with the collar in fanart years prior to this, detailed later). The first cover seems to be from when the novel started publishing, and the second cover came out in April 2022. More on the second cover later.

The ebook release also got a cover, but it doesn't have Yoojin on it.

Text-wise the "choker" is possibly from novel chapter 109, where Grace turns into a sparkling choker at one point (which Yoojin notes is more over the top than a bracelet during his struggle to get her to turn into something less ostentatious). Some folks looked at different text in the novel here for how it and particularly Grace look, but just as a warning, there is no official English translation for the novel outside what we get in the manhwa, which is somewhat modified because it's a manhwa adaptation. There are fan translations for parts of the novel, but a lot of folks use machine translation, which can be very dubious.

In other places in the novel she's just described as turning into a necklace, not specifically a choker, though in novel chapter 176, it's described as sitting close around Yoojin's neck (which sounds like a choker). Whatever jewelry she turns into is specifically described as having a blue/silver jewel from which her bird form emerges (as she has in novel chapter 156, which is the chapter one fanwiki lists it appearing in, and in which she is described as turning into a necklace, not specifically a choker). So there's very little textual support for him to be wearing a choker, though he does at least on occasion wear necklaces.

Revised ebook novel volumes

SCTIR the novel was (and still is) originally released chapter by chapter on Naver, Munpia, and Ridibooks (currently Side Story is only available on Naver, but the chapters of the main story are on all three). The main story was eventually collected into 35 volumes and partially revised or at least given additional scenes in places. Each volume contained at least two pieces of art. For volumes 1-14 this was seemingly a character portrait with their bio (e.g., age, height, likes, dislikes), and 1 piece of interior art, with the latter at least being by 비완 (the manhwa artist). Volumes 15+ switched up interior artists, for a total of I think at least 3-4 artists, and those volumes had at least 2 pieces of interior art, with volume 35 having 4. The individual chapters didn't have this, it was added for the ebook release.

The volumes themselves are available on Ridibooks and Naver (they might be somewhere on Munpia, but I couldn't find them).

The first volume of the ebook released in May 2020 (the Ridibooks release lists an earlier date for some reason than the one on Naver, which is November 2020). By this point, fans had already been drawing Yoojin wearing a black choker with a gem (usually blue or silver) on it since at least 2019: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. <This fanart is by onlyraii, the artist who went on to make the new cover for the novel published in April 2022. So at least some of the official artists were involved in the community and knew of popular fan designs (though notably, Yoojin is not wearing the choker on onlyraii's official book cover).

Just want to emphasize: there's a difference between an author drawing/commissioning art and ensuring that it complies with their specifications in the text/their vision and their publisher commissioning art that might not even get approval/comment from the author. I don't know how much geunseo had a say in any of the art for the novel. If there's some interview or something somewhere where they state clearly how many/which pieces of art they approve and the level of control they have over what the art looks like, I haven't seen it. It's not unusual for third party artists to have more freedom to do stuff and draw fan designs/things that aren't accurate in "official" art and for it to get approved (e.g., some of the interior art for the official English translation of "Mo Dao Zu Shi", which actually goes directly against what's on the page; it's kind of unclear how much control MXTX had over this stuff, and heavily implied she had little to none; it's possible that's the same case with geunseo). So whether or not you view this stuff as official is up to you. But it is in the official ebooks, though designs are inconsistent, which implies there was a lack of strong direction in what artists were/weren't allowed to do.

비완 potentially drew Yoojin wearing the choker in volume 13, for the Chuseok art (September 2020, I'm going by the Ridibooks release dates). It's very hard to tell whether that's his shirt collar or a choker. But judging by the color of what's beneath it before robe starts and the skin above the choker, it looks like it's again the collar of a white t-shirt, not a choker.

The next time it was potentially drawn was by a different artist in volume 18 (July 2021). It's hard to tell because he's holding a bouquet that mostly covers his neck, but on the right side of his neck seems to be part of a black choker.

You can kind of see something that looks like a black choker near Peace's front left paw.

The clearest earliest example of him wearing it in official art is in volume 19 (April 2022), where he's clearly visible wearing a black choker with a blue gem on it. I don't see it mentioned as something he's wearing in the text of that chapter, at least from a brief browse. Also again, this is long after fans had been drawing him wearing it, and it became a popular fan design.

He's also definitely wearing it in two pieces (one each) of art for volumes 20-21 (April 2022). Here's the one from volume 21:

In volumes 22 (April 2022) and 25 (August 2022), Yoojin seems to be wearing a cat collar with a similar design in two other pieces of art (one each volume). Not exactly a choker, but he's at least wearing something on his neck. Here's the one from volume 22:

The other art of him with the cat collar in volume 25 is a lot more similar to the other interior art choker designs, with a black ribbon or whatever it is and a blue gem in the center, rather than a blue ribbon.

After that, they switch artists at least once if not twice and none of them drew Yoojin with the choker - or any necklace at all - that I can see. He didn't lose Grace for good in the novel, though he doesn't wear her all the time, but no other artist for the interiors drew him wearing the choker for the last 10 volumes of the revised ebook novel release, if not the last 14. Whether that's a narrative choice or the inclusion of the choker at all is random/whatever the current artist wants/what was geunseo/the publisher's mood, who knows?

The manhwa adaptation

This is how manhwa episode 103 depicts Yoojin trying to get Grace to turn into something wearable after first receiving her (art by 비완), when the alleged "choker" description appears in the novel text:

I'm not seeing a black choker anywhere. The black line near his neck is the collar of his shirt.

As of posting on November 6th, 2024, there is no art in the manhwa of Yoojin wearing the choker, either as Grace or the translation item he got from Yoohyun. The manhwa depicts the translation item differently, and Grace has only appeared as fancy necklaces or a bracelet. If 비완 drew the choker on Yoojin in the Chuseok ebook novel art for 2020, although the manhwa hasn't gotten there yet, they have drawn him wearing the choker before in official artwork, and yet have not drawn him wearing it since in the manhwa, for whatever reason. We'll have to see how the scene is drawn when the manhwa gets to Chuseok.

In the manhwa, Grace is shown turning into a simple bracelet after negotiation in episode 103:

You'll note he often wears shirts with black collars on them.

Grace is drawn, consistently, in multiple episodes, as this bracelet. Not as a necklace. And not as a choker.

This is the translation item that Yoohyun gives Yoojin as it appears in manhwa episode 55:

Which is roughly how it's described in novel chapter 68, absent any specific color description for the metal ornament. Someone else said this is actually what people are drawing when they draw the choker because the design is vague enough to match a choker, which is strange to me, because from what I recall of the novel, Yoojin has this in his pocket/inventory most of the time. He's not wearing it constantly (he also already had it when he got Grace). It's kind of implied if not stated he doesn't like wearing it much and only puts it on out of necessity and takes it off at the first opportunity. He does, however, typically wear Grace (though he does, for various reasons, take her off a decent amount).

The April Fool's 2022 art by ? and the 2022 official novel cover by onlyraii

Someone else pointed out the "sketch" for the official novel art by onlyraii (final art below):

And here it is when it was released seemingly originally on 31 March 2022/1 April 2022 (KST).

In the other post I'm seeing about the "sketch" for this, the unfinished "sketch" listed was actually the April Fool's Day joke for 2022 that seems to parody onlyraii's cover, but with all the guys being bald:

(A lot of manhwa and I think Korean webnovels do April Fool's Day joke posts with fake "new" art done by official artists; 2022's SCTIR manhwa April's Fool's Day joke was magical girl themed, and this was 2024's, which had most of the cast become dinosaurs).

You can also see that while there are similarities, this is very much not what they ended up with, and again, it's dubious this was an actual sketch for the cover: it's not on onlyraii's twitter, though that doesn't mean it wasn't posted elsewhere, and seems more in the style of 비완's art, so it's likely this is the manhwa team doing a jokey post (the manhwa started in November 2021, and 비완 was still doing art for the novel ebook revision at least around 2020, so they'd have been around, and serikachan, the lead storyboard artist, does post about recent novel chapters on twitter, so at least some of them pay attention to the novel). I think it's intentional that all the men are bald as well, to note it's a joke; a lot of the Korean commenters are commenting on their baldness.

A core issue is the similarity and that they were released 11 hours apart (the gag went up around 11 hours before the official cover was released; onlyraii commented on their work for the cover around 40 minutes after the official cover was released). The "sketch" seems to show maybe a planned choker, but if it was an actual sketch in whole or part, it was clearly nixed for the final design. Who made that decision is anyone's guess.

"Sketch" or not, again, onlyraii has drawn Yoojin with a choker many times in their fanart dating back to 2019: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Before the 2022 piece. If onlyraii and/or 비완 wanted to incorporate a fan design into the official art in some way, again, they wouldn't be the first fanartist/community member to do so on official artwork. But at least in this case, that didn't happen in the final design.

In conclusion:

At this point I don't fully know if the design/his regularly wearing a choker comes from the novel or fanon that was later incorporated by fans into canon when they worked on the official art, or if geunseo suggested it or at least okay'd its inclusion on official art, but these things at least are true:

Grace is apparently mentioned as being a choker at least once in the novel text, but it's described as being rather fancy

the fan design/idea of the black choker with a small gem in the middle predates at least the official release of the ebook art with him wearing a choker (if they were released earlier than that on an artist social media post or portfolio or publisher post somewhere, in some form, encouraging fans to use it in fanart prior to the book releases, I have no idea), so at least the stuff pre-2020 was not inspired by the ebook interior art, and potentially nothing before 2022 was inspired by interior art because the clearest art with him wearing it wasn't out until then; it was likely inspired by the potential single/two times Grace is described as a choker in the text, or just generally popular fanon about him wearing a choker (wouldn't be surprising, there's a lot of emphasis on Hyunje grabbing Yoojin's neck all the time and how Yoojin's neck feels when he's not grabbing it)

Yoojin wears a black choker/collar with a gem in the middle of it in at least 3 if not 6 pieces of official ebook interior art, and a blue ribbon collar in at least one piece of official ebook art

after the choker/collar shows up on those 3-7 pieces of interior art, it stopped appearing at all (his neck is visibly bare of any necklace of any kind in multiple art pieces), and he doesn't wear anything on his neck in the artwork for at least 10 volumes; furthermore, despite the manhwa artist potentially drawing him wearing the choker in one of those pieces, they have not drawn him wearing it in the manhwa in the years since that ebook art was released, even after he had both Grace and the translation necklace item, both of which have been suggestions for what the choker is

So does he wear a choker? In the novel text and novel art, maybe, at least sometimes, but not currently in the manhwa. Does it look like it does in fanart? Maybe: it's not really described in the text and the few novel art pieces we have don't quite match each other. The publisher and/or possibly geunseo okay'd at least some official art with it on (though I don't know how much control geunseo has in that decision, and the author of the original work okaying art is different than the publisher okaying art, particularly depending on what degree of control geunseo had over any changes/what could be drawn, or if they were just allowed to say yes or no and that's it).

I'll try to keep this updated if new information/art comes out, so if you're seeing this as a reblog, check the source post to see if there's an update.

[lightleckrereins]

Six the musical boots guide part 1/3 the boots

I promised like last year that I would make a full breakdown of how the boots work so here it is. This part is about the boot styles, part 2 will be about rhinestone patterns and part 3 a breakdown of who wears/wore what. And note, all three posts will be super long, so under the cut part one.

Six boots are high heel black combat boots witha a block heel (which means lace up with a bulkier, round military style). At the start six actors wore store bought boots and decorated them with a variety of scattered rhinestones and studs. With the 2019 West End cast change they introduced new boots in the same style high heel combat style now with straps around the ankle in most cases. Custom made by dance shoe specialist brand LaDuca and with rhinestone designs on the heels and straps in the queen's colors made in collaboration with crystal embelishment specialist @/crystalledbyjane who still does the UK boots.

A note before we start. I explain this below but I will generalize to US and UK boots a lot. This comes from which production office and design associate team works on or supervises each production, not the country where the production happens although those are heavily linked. US boots refers to the ones worn on US productions (Broadway and both tours) and Canada. UK boots refers to UK productions (WE and UK/intl tour), Australia, South Korea, Japan and cruises (even if cruises got US costumes for most of their run boots stayed UK).

All the boots have the same basic shape and cut but there are a number of differences in the lenght over the leg, the amount, shape and style of the straps, the material, the heels and the embelishment style.

First lenght and straps, which combined I call the style. When the custom boots were introduced there were three styles, all going just over the ankle. I will go over which queen had what below but at this point there was no standarization for this and most costumes had boots in at least two of the three styles for different actors.

(Left to right)

Boots that have no straps over the ankle. This were retired after the 2021 reopenings.

The single strap boot, with a single wide strap with two buckles going over the ankle, versions of this one are by far the most common one even before full standarization happened (more on that in a bit).

The three strap version, it has two thin straps each with a buckle around the ankle and a third further down the foot that cuts before the heel. This design was slowly retired starting with the UKT 2023 cast change and fully went away with the closing of the cruise productions in early 2024.

For the Broadway transfer new styles of boot were introduced. This added a patent leather lattice grid (materials below) with studs on the body of the boot replacing the rhinestone grid from the UK boots. This remains a US originated production exclusive (US, NA tours and Canada) with all others following UK boot styles, with the exception of Cleves (that one is right below). (Left to right)

They kept the single strap boot.

First new addition was a taller boot reaching mid calf with a second wide strap also with two buckles.

And then they introduced thigh high boots with no straps and additional lacing on the back for Cleves.

Later UK productions introduced designs closer to the US style. (Left to right)

The UK Cleves boots are also thigh high boots with extra lacing on the back and lattice over the body of the boots. Materials are slightly different than the US boots and they alternate studs and rhinestones on the lattice.

Then for the 2023 WE cast change they introduced the taller double strap boots and a new version of the single strap boots, both with removable straps for principals which until then had been an alt exclusive element (below) those two kept the rhinestone grid in the body of the boot like previous UK boots instead of the lattice.

Last are the alt boots. Starting at the Aragon tour opening (2022 UKT cast change for UK) alternates got boots with neutral colored heels and no fixed straps, instead they added tabs at the back where interchangeable straps matching the costume are inserted. US alts have lattice and either single or double straps. And UK alts get rhinestone grid and so far all have single straps.

The straps are inserted at the back tab, are attached with snaps behind the zipper and then buckled. Buckles on removable straps are sewn with elastic for a little extra flexibility and to make buckling easier. My personal side note is that this is a great option for cosplayers who want six boots but for whatever reason don't want to fully bedazzle the boots (can't afford a dedicated pair or like me wear the boots outside of cosplay and dont want rhinestones on them). The tab is not too intrusive, but for short periods you can go without that and you can rig a temporary fix with magnets (if someone is interested in that one send me an ask).

Heels. When the boots were introduced all of them (with a few injury exceptions) had a 10 cm (4") heel. Casting calls said performers needed to be able to dance in that size of heel and had to wear similar boots for dance calls. Starting at the Canada opening in mid 2023 they switched to 7.5 cm (3") heel likely to prevent injuries and auditions changed to reflect that. Aside from that there are a few lower heel options for times when the queens can't wear heels due to injury or strain, in the UK in some cases for long term issues they wear a lower 5 cm (2") heel. Or a flat boot, UK boots are made as needed, while US productions generally get boots made from the start mirroring the heeled boot style, US flat boots also get embelished heels. All the boots have a short patterned platform that both helps make the heel feel a little shorter and gives them a better grip of the stage. There are also cases of other flat or lower boots being worn in emergencies (below).

With materials I am assuming a little because my shoe making knowledge is very limited. There are three main outer (upper and heel cover if you know shoemaking terms) materials in six boots. Not sure on the inner structure but its likely a mix of leather, some sort of synthetic for the inner sole and the rubber heel. The outside of the boots is all black leather, dance shoes are generally made of softer leathers to allow the shoes to bend with the foot, I think six boots are probably stiffer than most dance shoes but still softer than regular shoes as the shape is not as fitted around the toes and foot and they need extra support on the ankle. UK style boots are regular leather (there is def a term for this but idk what it is, visually it is what you imagine when thinking leather shoes or leather clothing) and pattent leather for the Cleves boots lattice. US boots are made of black suede. Lattice and the area around the eyelets is made with black patent leather. And heels and straps are made of suede to help the grip of the rhinestone glue.

I've mentioned a few times that the boots were standarized at one point. That started with Broadway and has slowly reached all productions. But before the current system a few different things happened.

When the boots got introduced there was a loose system of who had what but it was not consistent from one company to another. This was used by all productions with UK boots that debuted until late 2022, and by all cruises until those ended in early 2024. And note: this is the most common things, basically all of them have exceptions that are not hard to find. In this system A/S/H/P alternated between one and three straps, Boleyn usually had one strap (there is at least one case of no straps) and Cleves had 3, until they introduced the thigh high boots for WE at 2021 reopening and UKT at the 2022 cast change. Black and pink alt were usually three straps, teal one, orange was three and sometimes one, and silver has always been one.

The second UK system was introduced in early 2023 with the South Korean opening. In this one all principal queens have single straps minus Cleves who has the thigh high boots, alternates switched all to single interchangeable straps and swings have single straps.

When Broadway was preparing its original opening in 2020 they introduced a system that is now the base for all companies worldwide. In this one A/P have double strap boots, B/S/H have single, Cleves has thigh high boots. Originally alts had a single pair of boots in neutral colors. For the Aragon tour opening they switched to interchangeable straps with either one or two straps. There is no pattern on what alts will get aside from it being either half or mayority single strap.

With the WE 2023 cast change they switched to the current system that mirrors the US one: A/P double straps, B/S/H single, thigh high boots for Cleves, and alternates with interchangeable straps (all single) plus silver swing in single strap.

And now special cases, or as I like to call it: emergencies, experiments and NCS makes choices. Since the custom boots were introduced there have been a few cases of different boots being worn.

A lot of them are related to the cruise productions. Early cruises got the rhinestone designs but not the Laduca Boots so they had to adapt the designs to store bought boots. Later cruise productions had LaDuca boots in standard sizes that were reused for different casts (so not custom made for the actors) and relied on having boots available in new queens size and roles (or unembelished) so a few interesting things happened. The rest are either tests that were not done again after their first appearance or things done for emergencies in land productions.

Left to Right.

Boots with no laces or straps, most cruise store bought boots tried to mirror the LaDuca designs as best as possible but a few pairs had no laces.

A style with two thin straps with buckles around the ankle which was probably the most common cruise style aside from no straps before they got LaDuca boots.

The low cruise heels. Early cruise casts had a second pair of boots with short block heels to perform on rough sea days.

Fourth and fifth are what I call the extension boots. This are regular six boots that got a leather extension sewn at the cuff and a strap over it, there was a version with only that top strap (4) and another with both the usual single strap and the extension/strap (5 here pictured without the top strap).

Left to Right.

The last cruise specific ones are not six boots, they look like regular character heel boots (note the curved heel) customized to look as six boots, this was only briefly worn by Janice Rijssel before getting a regular pair which points to there being no Cleves boots available in her size.

The Abby Mueller boots, she had a low heel (about 4 cm/1.5" is my guess) and no platform, this design was never used after her but is an early version of the lower heels the UK has sometimes.

Third is a notable emergency UK boot with one thin strap worn by Rebecca Wickes and Chlöe Hart while new boots were being made for them.

Four and five are the two most common emergency flat boots. If a queen has no flat boots and needs them on short notice usually for injury related reasons, costume team will get them a store bought pair and embelish accordingly. This results on things like embelished cuffs instead of straps and US productions adding studs to the body of the boot to simulate the lattice. The other option done usually in the UK is for the queens to temporarily wear a pair of LIW boots which are also LaDuca makes in a slightly different construction style to queen boots and embelished with studs.

[toyouhellohowareyou]

Alterity/Ocarina, Oracle - Bonus Content 1

As part of me paying child support for @not-freyja's 'Lore does Link's Awakening' WIP (Gale) here's a bonus scene/concept snippet featuring young Legend/Lore post OoA in Ocarina, Oracle

New readers, series start: Two Moon Pearls and the Master Sword

Bonus Content 2

Lore had a list of 'Things Legend was fucked up about'. It included an intensity scale, but he hadn't had the chance to put it in order yet. Hadn't been able to properly dissect how badly his future was going to bend and break him into that man. There hadn't been the time after all the new additions and his rushing to finish things off in Labrynna.

He had started the list when he was eleven, shortly after his first quest. It had included 'Whatever had happened in the Palace of the Four Sword' and 'Whatever is coming next in general' and 'Himself (Folklore)'.

'Himself (Legend)' had also recently been added to the list, (honestly he should have guessed that one way earlier), along with a heck of a lot else. Some of it was obvious, he'd been ship wrecked enough times that he seemed to dread the idea of sailing. Which was disappointing because Lore had been looking forward to learning on the trip home. Way to preemptively ruin it.

Other things were more nebulous, like how he seemed perfectly happy, eager even, to pick fights Lore would have avoided. When had his flight response swapped to fight? Was it just confidence? Did he want to cause hurt? Have control? Was he just restless? Lore got restless too.

It definitely wasn't good to think too much about such things, but at the same time how could he help it? He'd been looking for any trick he could get his hands on to help control his life since he was eleven years old. Now it was all laid out before him.

Five or so years of it at least.

He'd lived with a window into his future for days. He knew what was coming, probably, and that was its own kind of terrifying. What was worse, going in blind? Or walking to straight towards your fate?

He just had to meet it, just had to make it through until he had the Triforce again. After that… after that didn't matter. That was future Folklore's problem.

He would save Hyrule, he would save Lorule, he would save the others. He'd even go do 'that nonsense in Hytopia.'

That was the point of him.

He didn't know if there was an after. 'Legend' wasn't after, Legend was in-progress.

There was a kind of directly proportional relationship between how little Legend had wanted to talk about a thing and how much baggage he seemed to be carrying from it.

And oh boy had he hated talking about Koholint.

Lore hadn't understood, not until he stood there with his toes curling in white sand and the warm ocean lapping around his ankles. Seagulls calling overhead and the triplets laughing in the distance. Hadn't understood until hours after the prettiest girl he'd ever met had grabbed his hands and shut down his brain.

It didn't feel like a dream. That was the danger of it. Legend had not known, and he had allowed himself to feel safe. Mistake. Mistake, mistake, mistake. There's no such thing as safe.

He had to get home because his Uncle was… he had to get out before his body died outside of the dream. Yes. Because he still had things to do. Save Hyrule, save Lorule, save Light and the Fallen Hero.

But Legend had been here for ages, he hadn't known and he'd survived so…

He closed his eyes, feeling the warm sun on his face and the water tug at his legs. He has a little time still. He couldn't leave now if he wanted! He does want, really he does. He does! But he's not done yet.

Someone calls his name, and he turns away from home to go to them.

[cripplecharacters]

Hi! Do you have some ideas in regards to facial differences and fun/cool make-up?

I'm planning to re-design a character, and was planning to give her a port wine stain during the redesign; she's also the type of character who'd really enjoy fun/cool make-up, like stuff that incorporates rhinestones or wild eyeliner shapes. I feel like she might enjoy incorporating her port wine stain into the make-up, but I'm drawing a blank as to how she might do that, and all google gives me is how to cover them, which is the exact opposite of what I and the character want. Are there any resources you could point me to? Or am I missing something that'd make it distasteful to put so much attention on her FD, even positive attention, since I don't have one? (I'll definitely try to have some more characters with FDs who are just, like, neutral about them/don't draw attention to them through make-up like that, but the character in question is one of the main characters so I want her design done before focusing on the more minor characters)

Hey!

I will preface this by saying that I'm a guy with close to zero experience or knowledge about make-up, if I misuse any basic terms or am ignorant about it, I apologize.

The idea of a character incorporating their birthmark into make-up is really fun. I definitely don't think it would be distasteful. I can easily imagine an influencer with a facial difference deciding to do something like this.

Some of the cool things she could do;

She could make it stand out more, rather than less - maybe make the color pop; make it more brightly red (or purple, or any other color hers is)?

Coordinate colors. Matching the color of her birthmark with her lipstick, or eyeshadow, or anything else. Or fun palettes; maybe a sunset gradient that incorporates the port wine stain's color?

Make fun shapes with it. If she has PWS spots, she could maybe turn them into stars, or if the whole thing is visible enough, maybe she could make it into a heart?

Adding rhinestones actually sounds awesome. It probably depends on where on her face it is, but maybe she could frame the stones to go around it, or point towards it?

She can of course wear regular make-up that doesn't put any additional attention to her PWS, there's no issue with that. Just don't make her cover it (but you know that).

Personally, the rhinestone idea sounds the most exciting to me. There's something high fashion, or maybe even royal about it that characters with facial differences don't really normally get. I would love to see that.

I think that, assuming your character has internet access, the lack of resources is an issue you could bring up in the story. A "why do I have to do everything myself, there's only so many ideas I can think of!" or "no, Unspecified Search Engine, not how to hide it- oh my god, why is it so useless" kind of scenario when she can't find anything new to do when she's out of ideas or hitting the artblock. I've been there when trying to find tutorials on drawing people with facial differences. This is how being a disabled artist kinda is.

all google gives me is how to cover them, which is the exact opposite of what I [...] want

And well, sounds like you got a lick of that facial difference experience =). Now, imagine if incorporating FDs into art was popular and this wasn't an issue- okay, I probably made this point in too many posts now, but if your body of work ever gets published/popular, it could have an effect on things like this. I love seeing facial differences shown as something to be proud of and not to hide. I also enjoy that you mentioned additional side characters with FD. Thank you.

mod Sasza

[sluttyten]

You In My Arms

Chapter 7: An Eye For An Eye

full masterlist || haechan masterlist || YIMA chapter index

summary: now that the truth is out in the open, you find it harder than ever to keep yourself from wanting Haechan constantly. But at least now you know that he wants you just as much.

length: 9,317 words

tags: voyeurism, exhibitionism, slowburn, friends to lovers, masturbation, public sex, fingering, general perversion, smut

previous chapter || next chapter

Waking the next morning, you stare up at the ceiling for a good long while. Remembering yesterday, remembering last night. 

You got the truth from Haechan. You shared secrets. 

He kissed you. 

And still, you feel giddy about it, like a young girl with her first kiss. 

Haechan kissed you. 

You kissed him. 

You cover your face with your hands to muffle the excited sound that spills from your lips. 

What happens now?

You go through your day as normal. You clean the apartment, you and your roommate make a grocery run in the mid-afternoon, and then as the day creeps towards evening, your thoughts start to turn and focus exclusively on Haechan. Thinking of what you’d said to him before he first kissed you. An eye for an eye; a truth for a truth. You want equality, which means he’s watched you, so you want to watch him. Properly watch him instead of just from a distance in the dark, though you didn’t share that particular truth with him last night. 

Your roommate leaves for the night to go on a date with her partner and then stay at their place. Which leaves you to fend for yourself for the night. Before she got into this relationship, the two of you spent many Friday and Saturday nights together here in the living room, bundled up in blankets with takeout from a variety of your favorite places. But tonight you either have to decide on a place for yourself, or you can throw together dinner from what you’d bought earlier at the grocery store. 

Unsure what you really want, you just play around on your phone until your brain and your stomach can come to an agreement on what to eat. 

You scroll on Twitter for a little while, get lost down a TikTok rabbit hole until the sky outside is dark and the time staring back at you reads quarter after nine. You switch to Instagram, and right there at the top of your screen it shows that one haechanahceah has added to his story. 

You tap on it. 

He’s holding his phone close to his face as he laughs, the blue sky of twilight barely visible behind him along with a flash of YangYang’s face and toothy smile. The sound of wind rushes against the microphone. The camera flips and you see a skateboard under his feet, pavement rushing by, and then a path stretching out along the river. 

The next part to his story: pictures of food covering a table. Haechan tagged several other people, though YangYang and Ten’s are the only usernames that you recognize from them. 

Drinks. Everyone clinking their glasses together. 

And then the most recent addition to his story is just a simple picture of the moon shining like a fat pearl in the velvet night sky. There’s a song playing, lyrics scrolling over the image of the moon, and it’s a song of neediness, desire, longing. 

It was posted five minutes ago. 

And just as you’re about to close out of the app and order yourself some dinner, your phone chimes with a message. 

“Are you doing anything right now?” From Haechan. 

When you don’t answer immediately, you receive a second message from him. “I saw that you just watched my story. Don’t pretend like you’re not on your phone.”

You call him. 

He answers immediately. 

Judging by the lack of wind, you assume he’s not outside any longer. And furthermore, the silence in the background makes you think he might not even be with the others anymore. 

“Hello?” He says, a little breathlessly. 

“What did you want?” 

Silence, then a slight rustling sound. Then, “I was just wondering if you were free or if you’re busy. I’ve been out with some guys all day, I just got home, and I want to send you something.”

“Oh?” You cradle your phone against your face. “Like what?”

“How was it that you phrased it yesterday?” Haechan pauses, as if thinking, then says, “Oh, right. You said you want equality. You want to watch me, since I’ve watched you.”

Your heart thuds in your chest, sending pulsing heat to your extremities. “Haechan….”

“So let me ask again,” his voice dips lower, asking, “Are you doing anything right now? Can I send you something?”

All thoughts of dinner have been removed from your mind. The only hunger you feel now is for what Haechan is offering you through the phone. 

“I’m not doing anything.” You hope your voice isn’t shaking, that you don’t sound nervous or over-excited. “Send it.”

He laughs a little under his breath, and you know that you failed at sounding so cavalier. The eagerness and hunger bled through in your voice. 

“Alright, I’m hanging up now.” Haechan’s own voice is light with amusement and excitement. “I’ll send it shortly.”

After the call goes dead on his end of the line, you sit there, clutching your phone in your hands, perched on the edge of the sofa. You wonder if you should order food, if you should just try to eat something. It’s late. If you’re going to eat tonight, you’d better do it now before you get so swept up that you forget to eat altogether. And where do you want to watch this video at? Do you want to just watch it out here? Or should you close yourself away in the privacy of your bedroom, snug in your bed to witness exactly what you’ve been longing to see for so long now?

You think back to the night that started all of this interest in watching and being watched. The night of the hot tub. The first time that you felt there could genuinely be a little something more than just friendship between you and Haechan as you shared that bed with him. You remember longingly noticing the bulge in the front of his shorts when he’d emerged from the hot tub’s water, and you remember about an hour later when he’d stripped beside you in the dark. It had been quite dark, but not dark enough that you hadn’t caught the barest glimpse of his ass and just the shadowy hint of his cock. 

But now? Now your curiosity will be satisfied. 

You snack on something you pull from the pantry, waiting and waiting and waiting. After twenty minutes, you send him a text with a bunch of question marks. 

“Patience baby” is all you get back from Haechan. 

But the thing is, you’re feeling rather impatient. You’re horny now, excited thinking about getting to watch him. You do move to your bedroom, closing the door, turning the lights down, tucking yourself in with your phone held to your chest. You’re going to enjoy this. 

Finally after too fucking long, your phone chimes again. 

When you open the message, the rectangle of the video is just black. 

You tap play, and it fills your screen, still black. 

For a moment, you think something’s wrong with the video, but then you hear sound. The rustle of sheets. A shuddering breath. Something moving in the dark, which you realize a moment later is the shadow of some part of Haechan’s body against the faint light of his computer’s blinking power button. 

What is this? You wanted to see him, not just hear him. 

And then the video is illuminated as his bedside lamp is clicked on. The phone camera passes over rumpled sheets. There’s a flicker of tanned skin, the curve of his bare thigh. You hold your breath as at last the camera focuses on the fit of his fingers around his dick. 

It’s pretty and tan, just like the rest of him. 

His cock is actually bigger than you imagined it would be. You figured Haechan would be a little below average in terms of size, if you’re being honest, but the cock you’re looking at on your phone screen exceeds your expectations. He’s probably average in length, but damn, he’s thick from base to the tip, which is a pretty shade of pink that reminds you of his lips. He’s got a perfect cock, in your opinion. Right away, you want him in your mouth, your throat aches for it. 

And then you just sit back and watch the video, admiring the way he touches himself, the sounds he makes, the way that as he gets close to orgasm his hips twitch off the bed to rock into the circle of his fingers. You drink everything in, hungrily consuming the video to notice all the small details. The small scattering of moles across his belly and thighs and his arm and hand. The dusting of hair leading from below his navel to the base of his cock. 

You’ve been with a decent amount of men. You’ve seen cocks, touched them, tasted them, had them inside you. But you’ve never had Haechan’s, and the longer you sit here watching, the more that you feel like this video is just a cruel tease. 

Is that how he felt while watching the video feed of you masturbating in the office? Like it was just a cruel tease of what he couldn’t have?

Haechan moans your name in the video and your belly goes tight and hot at the sound, a whined praise from his lips.

How long would it take you to get to his apartment right now?

His hand flies over his length in the video, his moans like music to your ears. “Oh, fuck,” he grunts, “Baby, bet your pussy would be so tight around me right now, so wet and slippery. I know you get super wet. Are you wet right now?”

Fuck. Yeah, you are. You’re not touching yourself though, too caught up in simply watching him to want to take away from it. But your core is throbbing with heat, panties soaked through. 

“You’d be taking my cock so well, angel.” Haechan gives one sharp thrust into his hand, his heels digging into the mattress as his hips lift off the bed. “Do you think you’d be a good girl for me? Do whatever I ask? Would you get on your knees and beg for me?”

If you were there right now, you certainly would be on your knees, mouth open wide, tongue out for his cock. You would let Haechan make such a mess of you. You would let him cum on your tits and your throat in public, and you would proudly wear that pearl necklace like a prize.

“Or would I need to punish you? You’ve shown me how naughty you can be.” He moans, passing his thumb right over the weeping slit of his cock. “What would even be a good punishment for you? Taking you out in public, teasing you, but not letting you cum? Sit you on my cock in front of all of our friends, tease you nice and slow while you keep my cock warm. But, no, you would enjoy that too much, wouldn’t you? What if I didn’t allow you to cum? Would that be punishment enough? I’d have to take you home, angel, edge you for as many times as you nearly gave us away.”

Your toes curl at the sound of his words, and you feel your pussy clench around nothing. You can’t take it anymore. 

You slip your fingers inside your panties, dipping them through your wetness. 

Haechan moans again, and your entire body buzzes and flares with heat in response. 

“I’ve never really done anything in public before, not quite like you,” Haechan says, still fisting his cock. “Only ever when I’m tucked out of sight, in semi-privacy, or after dark.” His hand holding his phone shakes, his breath shudders. “But you make me want to try getting a little riskier.”

You can just imagine it now. Taking Haechan out with you like you’d tried to do with a few of those random guys you hooked up with. Taking him to the park to have some fun on a picnic, tucked in a corner of the aquarium as the pretty fish swim by, fucking around in the car on a hot summer day with the windows down and your sweaty bodies exposed to the sunlight. 

You fuck yourself on your fingers, trying to keep your eyes focused on the video, but your vision grows hazy with lust, fantasies sweeping into your mind to overlay the visual of Haechan squeezing his hand around his cock with a groan, bucking his hips up into the tight grip of his fist as he finally cums with your name on his lips. Pearly drops coat his fingers, landing on his belly, and he keeps touching until he cums weakly again, spurting from his cock onto his belly too, all of it gathering in the dip of his belly button. 

You want to lick him clean, gather it all on your tongue and let it leak over his dick again before you blow him just to see how quick his refractory period is. 

You replay the video, and this time you touch yourself. You fold a pillow on the bed, straddle it, and ride your fingers while you hump the pillow, keeping the volume on his video loud where your phone lies beside your knee. You close your eyes and imagine that you’re riding him, fucking yourself on his cock instead of your fingers, that your clit is gaining friction from contact with him instead of your pillow. You imagine that it’s his hand coming down on your ass, a sharp smack that leaves your skin smarting; that it’s his fingers that pinch at your nipples; his shoulders that your fingernails dig into instead of the mattress. 

You slump to the side, fingers still slowly pumping as your body trembles from your orgasm. Your free hand searches the bed for your phone and when you swipe out of the video, you see Haechan has sent you a few more messages that you somehow missed. 

One is a closeup photo of his belly, shiny and wet with his cum. One is a simple question of “did you like it?” And then the third and final message is just a steamy mirror selfie, where only a circle to show his face has been wiped clean on the mirror, and the rest of his nude body is blurred out by the steam. 

You simply respond with a picture of your hand, cum stretching between your fingers, more wetness dripping down your palm. “I liked it.”

Monday morning, you don’t see Haechan at all before you go into your meeting with Johnny. It’s probably for the best. You wouldn’t be able to focus on the meeting if you’d seen Haechan; instead you’d be lost in dreamland, thinking of his cock, the rasp of his voice as he moaned your name. 

So you walk into the meeting with a clear head, which makes it run smoothly and successfully. Johnny is proud of you, he’d told you, stating that you worked hard and efficiently on the project, finishing it in less time than it would’ve taken anyone else. And he doesn’t say it in so many words necessarily, but he does hint that there might be a promotion coming up for you. 

You leave the meeting ecstatic, and the feeling carries you through the rest of the day. 

Tuesday, Haechan gets called away for a business meeting on the other side of the city. Wednesday, it’s your turn. Annoyingly, now that you’re finished with the project and finally thought you’d have some free time, something has always got one or the other of you busy. 

You’re never at work at the same time for that whole week, and that weekend he goes home to visit his family. 

You receive a video then of him on the beach at home, the sunset stretching out before him, and Haechan jerking off. He sends it along with the message “since I once saw you by the ocean, this is only fair,” which he explains he meant he watched you and Renjun in that outdoor shower in Thailand. 

You message each other back and forth constantly that weekend. Just casual conversations and then also the deeper, dirtier kind of conversations. More talk about his watching and your enjoyment of being watched, his new experimentation with exhibitionism. You talk about more things — other kinks and interests. His somewhat unsurprising interest in consensual non-consent. Your interest in a threesome, which you’ve never participated in; Haechan follows this up in recounting what he’s experienced. 

Come the following Monday morning, following all of that talk with none of the action, you’re itching with the need to see him. To actually be in the same space as Haechan. 

That need for proximity only grows when you walk into the office and spot Haechan sitting at his desk just a short distance from yours. 

He’s sipping at an iced americano, spinning back and forth in his chair as he stares at the desktop computer’s screen. He turns to catch your eye as you pass him. Your fingertips brush the back of his chair, just barely touching the fabric of his shirt, but he turns his entire seat to follow you with his eyes. 

“You smell nice today,” he says. 

You turn to look at him, and Haechan’s eyes are currently trailing down your legs. The skirt you’d worn today is perhaps a bit shorter than entirely appropriate, but it has captured his attention fully. He hungrily stares at your thighs, your calves, the way that your heels hug your feet. And then his attention sweeps up to your face again. 

“Do you have plans later?” He asks even as you keep walking away to your own desk. 

You don’t, and you tell him that, but before he can suggest any plans for you and him, someone else speaks up from where you hadn’t even noticed her. 

Johnny's secretary. 

“Oh, Channie!” You cringe as she uses a nickname for Haechan. “Mr. Suh was actually wondering if you could help him out later. You have a friend that’s a mechanic, right? Mr. Suh's car has been acting up, so he was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking it for your friend to look at?”

Haechan barely conceals his scowl. The friend in question is Chenle, who recently took his history of wealth, an interest in the inner workings of luxury cars and what he’d learned while studying for a business degree, and he opened a car repair shop business — a far cry from the culinary degree he’d mentioned pursuing when you last saw him. 

“Sure, I can take it to him. But his shop is expensive. He typically only works on luxury cars,” Haechan says. And as far as you’re aware, Mr. Suh drives a Hyundai to and from work everyday, not exactly a luxury vehicle. 

The secretary just smiles. “That’s fine! Mr. Suh recently upgraded to a BMW.”

Hours later, as you’re leaving for the day, you follow Haechan down along with Mr. Suh's secretary to see the car. It is in fact a shiny, brand new BMW. You wouldn’t think there would be anything wrong with it at all since it looks like it just rolled right out of the factory into this spot in the parking garage. 

The secretary passes the keys over to Haechan, and you don’t miss the nervous way his eyes widen as he takes in the feel of the keys in his hand and then eyes the length of the flawless and expensive car. 

“You’re sure he wants me to take it? He doesn’t want to? I could give you directions, and give my friend a call.” Haechan’s fingers close around the keys. 

She shakes her head, smiling widely as she looks from Haechan to you and then back again. “Mr. Suh has a flight to catch for that conference in Germany. So he’s unavailable to take the car right now, and since he’ll be out of the country for the next week, it just makes sense to have it get worked on while he’s gone.” And then she passes a card over to Haechan as well. “You can charge the mechanic’s bill on this card. And once the car’s finished if you wouldn’t mind just bringing it right back here, and you can leave the key and the card in his office. Thank you, Channie, we both really appreciate it!”

And then she’s walking off, leaving you and Haechan standing there to gaze at the car. 

“You do have your license, don’t you?” You ask. 

Haechan nods wordlessly. “Yeah, but shit. I’ve never even been in a car this nice; I’ve definitely never driven one as nice as this.” 

He unlocks the car, and you watch as he nervously reaches for the door handle. The door opens smoothly, soundlessly, unlike your car which groans loudly pretty much every time you touch it. 

The interior of the car is a cool, sleek black. The dashboard is a screen that comes to life the moment Haechan turns the car on. The engine purrs, and Haechan settles into the driver’s seat, making himself right at home. 

“How do I look?” He asks, gripping the steering wheel and staring ahead through the windshield. “Do I look like I could drive one of these?”

You laugh. “You look hot, Haechan. Like a very, very wealthy man who uses flashy cars to impress people.”

He glances over at you. “Is that what you think Johnny's doing? Using the car to impress, possibly to compensate?”

“Impress yes. Compensate?” You look Haechan in the eye as you say, “I think you’d be the one who could tell me that. Does he have anything to compensate for?” Haechan’s admitted that he’s watched Johnny fuck the secretary through his hidden cameras, so he should know if Johnny's gotten a flashy car to compensate for dick size or his skills in bed. 

Haechan shakes his head. “No, he’s fine. Just to impress people then. And it’s definitely working because I’m impressed.” He buckles his seatbelt, adjusting the seat height and distance from the steering wheel, readjusting the mirrors. He does look very hot in the driver’s seat of this nice car. The suit he’d worn to the office today and the pair of sunglasses that he plucks from the cup holder certainly help with the vibe. 

He closes the car door, and a moment later rolls down the dark-tinted window so you can see him again. 

“You want to come with me?”

You lean in, resting your elbows on the edge of the window. Your face is only inches away from Haechan’s, and that delicious fragrance he wears is all you know for a few delirious seconds. You can envision yourself sliding onto the buttery soft leather of the passenger seat. You can envision convincing Haechan to pull over into another parking garage or a park’s parking lot, into anywhere at all and letting you ride him in the driver's seat of this fancy car, finally getting to experience his cock for real. 

You think you can see some of your fantasy playing out behind the dark brown of his eyes too. He’s smiling with a little edge of heat. 

“I shouldn’t.” You take a step back. “I know I said I didn’t have plans, and I haven’t seen Chenle in a while so it would be nice to see him, but I have a feeling that if I get in that car with you…” You meet Haechan’s gaze. “I feel like I’d be distracting you a little too much. Or at least I would want to.”

Your gaze drifts from his eyes to the curl of his hand on the wheel. You don’t think you’d even be out of this parking garage before you’d already be tugging his hand to rest on your thigh, urging his fingers up beneath your skirt. After a week of being denied Haechan’s physical presence in your life, a week filled with nothing but want for every part of him, you feel like an addict being presented with their drug of choice, and it’s almost impossible for you to say no to what he’s offering. But you’re trying so hard to not jump Haechan in your boss’s car. 

“What you’re saying is I’m too sexy right now in this car. You’d be throwing yourself at me?” He grins. 

That’s not what you said, but yes, it’s exactly what you meant. 

You take another step back. “I’m going to go home. You take this car to Chenle for him to work on. Maybe let me know when you’re done, and we’ll see about making some plans then. If not, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Again, you look at his hand on the wheel, the way it flexes, squeezing around the curve of the steering wheel, and your mind flashes to the videos he’s sent you — his hand on his cock, fingers dripping in cum. 

You walk away, taking the elevator to the third level of the parking garage where you’d left your car this morning, and then you sit in your car for a few moments to compose yourself before you head home. Your thoughts, as much as you try to steer them away from the crafted fantasy of fucking Haechan in a fancy car, keep returning there. Again and again on the drive home. 

You’ve just arrived home, just stepped out of your car to head up to your apartment, when you receive a message from Haechan. 

Without hesitation, you open it. 

A video. At first you can only see the interior of the car, and then the camera swings down to focus on his lap. Or, more specifically, on his bare cock. 

“Traffic,” Haechan says. “I’m stuck in traffic, and I’ve got a boner because all I can think about is how if you were here with me right now, you’d be throwing yourself at me.” He laughs a little. “Okay, maybe I’d be the one unable to keep my hands to myself. But unfortunately, right now my hands are all I’ve got for myself, and we’re barely moving in traffic, so I just, ah, thought I’d bide my time productively. I said it the other night, you make me want to take risks in public.”

He’s just rocking his hips off the seat, driving his cock against his hand. 

“The fact this isn’t even my car makes this even hotter. Do you think our boss and secretary have fucked in here yet, or am I the one breaking it in? Shit, if you were here this could be your hand around me. Or maybe your lips. We could break this car in together, would you like that? The windows are so dark though, no one would be able to see you.”

He strokes his cock with a moan. The car lurches forward, you can see his thigh relax and clench as he releases and then steps on the brake. 

“Gotta be careful,” he mumbles to himself. But then he’s right back at it, stroking his cock, and it rubs against Johnny's steering wheel by accident. His fingers squeeze around his tip and you can see the shiny smear of his precum against the material of the steering wheel. 

He thrusts his hips up, another moan breaking through his lips. 

“It’s gonna be a mess when I cum,” he grunts. “Knew I should’ve brought you for easy cleanup. Could’ve cum in your mouth, made you swallow every drop.”

Your body reacts to that. A lurching feeling of arousal in your core, imagining cleaning up Haechan’s cum. 

His hand stills on his cock for a moment, just the thumb teasing slow circles around the tip, and then he releases his hold with a curse. “We’re moving again.”

And the video ends. 

It’s not until that moment that you realize you’ve just been standing frozen there beside your car this whole time. You pocket your phone and head up to your apartment to take a cold shower. When you get out, you have a new message. 

Another video. 

In this one, the phone is at a different angle and his pants are gone, his shirt is lifted up to expose his belly. And he’s quickly jerking off. There’s no finesse, no teasing or dirty talk. It’s just a quick, short clip of Haechan’s hand moving fast and tight, bitten back moans escaping his teeth as he cums over his fist, dripping down onto his thighs and onto that flawless leather seat. 

“I get why you like this,” Haechan says, bringing the phone up so you can see his chin. “Some man just walked by where I’m parked on the street outside Chenle’s place. The windows are dark so he couldn’t see in, but I had the window rolled down just a little, and he definitely heard me moaning. He was looking, and that’s when I came. What do you think he’d have done if he actually saw me?”

Exactly. That’s exactly what you like about exhibitionism. The thrill of getting away with it and the questions of what if you hadn’t gotten away with it. What would they do if they caught you?

In the video clip you watch Haechan wipe his hand clean on the inside of his undershirt before he tugs his button-down back into place. He straightens his tie and his jacket, then he manages to slide his boxers back up over his hips with one hand. 

“Do you think he’s got any napkins or tissues in here?” Haechan mumbles, reaching around to rustle through the contents of Johnny's fancy car. “I need something to wipe my jizz up with.”

You smile to yourself, noting the blend of amusement and frustration in Haechan’s voice. 

Eventually he finds something, and he wipes and smears the glob of his cum that had landed on the leather seat. 

It’s then that he slides his phone onto the car’s dashboard, giving you a view of the sky through the windshield. He makes some noise that you assume is him pulling his pants back up, and then he finally picks his phone back up again, showing his face on the video. 

“Anyway, I’d better head inside now and pass the car off to Chenle.” The car door opens, the sounds of the wind and traffic mixing with the sound of his voice. “I’ll have to see how long this takes, but maybe we can still make plans.”

You hope so. 

You spend a little while after that taking care of the Haechan-inspired itch that needs scratching, feeding yourself with fantasies featuring him. You keep expecting to be interrupted by him texting or calling about plans, but you’ve taken care of yourself with no word from him. 

You wait, going about your afternoon doing some laundry and a little cleaning around the apartment. All of it is meant to distract you from being nervous about the reality of making plans with Haechan. Plans that you assume will only lead to finally having sex with him. 

And when he finally sends you a message, your heart takes up an erratic pace. 

But it’s not quite the message you’d hoped for.

“Chenle wants to hang out. He already messaged Renjun, YangYang, and Xiaojun. Do you want to come?”

Now, those aren’t exactly the plans you had in mind, and even as your heart swells with disappointment, you agree. You do want to see your friends, especially Chenle who you haven’t seen in quite a while. But considering that you’re meeting up with all of them for dinner, that they all have a tendency to want to chat late into the night, and since you’re picking up YangYang and Xiaojun on the way, you don’t find your odds of any actual plans with Haechan happening tonight. 

Xiaojun’s girlfriend has basically moved in with him, so she comes along too, and your car is crowded on the way to meet the other three for dinner. And the booth table Chenle booked is even more crowded. 

Everyone is squeezed in so tightly that Haechan has you pressed up against the wall. Across from you, Xiaojun pulled his girlfriend onto his lap. The woman that comes over to take your order only offers an apologetic smile and says that this is the only size table they had left. 

It’s fine. Really. 

You’re all very close friends, so if some of you have to sit with arms around each other, ankles knocking and twisting beneath the table, that’s fine. 

And if it means that at some point after your order is put in and the first round of drinks are served, Haechan tugs one of your legs up over his so he can slide just a little closer to you and save a little extra space for Renjun on his other side, well… you’re not going to complain. 

He glances your way, a sparkle in his eye. 

His hand doesn’t leave your thigh. 

You’re still wearing a skirt, though it’s not the short one you’d worn to work today. 

This is a longer, casual skirt. One that’s loose and floaty enough that when Haechan starts walking his fingers along your thigh, the fabric easily starts bunching up, gathering beneath his fingers and drawing up your leg. 

You tamp down the urge to shiver when the pads of his warm fingers make contact with your bare thigh. 

Liquor burns the back of your throat as you quickly drink the alcohol the woman brought to your table. You hope that the flush of alcohol in your cheeks might conceal the way that you can already feel yourself blushing beneath Haechan’s touch. 

And then he starts stroking his fingers over your inner thigh. Moving them back and forth, fingers drumming gently a melody that you can’t determine. 

The frustrating thing is that you’re in a tizzy, but Haechan is perfectly cool. He’s maintaining a conversation with the others while he builds the heat inside your core. 

And then he squeezes your thigh. 

Palm flat to your skin. Fingers pressing in. 

You snap your head to the side to look at him, your hand dropping beneath the table to cover his hand on your thigh. Your leg draped over his twitches, foot kicking out. 

Unfortunately your accidental kick makes contact. 

Chenle frowns, looking around at your side of the table. “Who just kicked me?”

“Sorry,” Haechan apologizes quickly, covering for you. 

Judging by the way that Chenle moves and the slight thump beneath the table, paired with Haechan’s grunt and jolt, you assume Chenle landed a retaliatory kick. 

Haechan pouts and starts to whine, playing it up dramatically. The others roll their eyes and tease him as he reaches for Renjun asking for him to kiss it better, as he tells Chenle he owes him dessert because his kick had been an accident while Chenle’s had been fully intentional. He asks YangYang to kiss it better, too, to which YangYang flips Haechan off. 

Then he turns to you. “Will you kiss it better?”

Renjun laughs into his drink, nearly choking on it. 

He’s known about your crush on Haechan for ages, so you’re sure he finds that comment very amusing.

You glare at Renjun from over Haechan’s shoulder. Haechan pouts at you, and as much as you desperately want to kiss his soft-looking lips, you’re not going to kiss him in front of your friends right now. “Just take a drink, and you’ll forget about your boo-boo.” You pick up his glass and lift it to his lips for him, tipping it back and pouring it into his mouth. 

Haechan holds eye contact with you, and a pulse of something races along your spine. 

Some of his drink spills from the corner of his mouth, and he lifts a hand to your wrist, pulling your hand and the glass away from his mouth. “I feel better already.”

Beneath the table, he massages your thigh again. 

When the food is served, you would’ve thought he’d need both hands to eat, but to your surprise and satisfaction, Haechan keeps one hand firmly on your thigh, the other to handle his chopsticks. 

You do your best to maintain conversation with the others. After a while, once you’re used to the weight of Haechan’s hand on your thigh and the press of his fingers along the sensitive skin of your bare upper thigh, conversation and concentration get a little easier. You eat and laugh and talk with your friends all while Haechan’s fingers roam higher. 

It’s only once the food on the table is dwindling, once Haechan has eaten his fill apparently, that he turns his focus back to teasing you properly. 

He’s in the middle of talking to Xiaojun about some culinary festival. His fingers slide higher than they’ve been yet, brushing the soft edge of your panties. 

You choke a little on your food, and his fingers withdraw for a moment as attention around the table turns to you. 

“I’m fine.” You cough, reaching for your glass, gulping it down quickly to cool the heat consuming you. 

Xiaojun resumes talking. Haechan’s fingers return to your panties, slower this time and accompanied by a glance to the side from him. Checking with you. 

You slide your hand down to his again, giving him a nod of approval, and applying a little pressure to get his hand moving again. 

The corner of his lips turn up in a barely-suppressed smile. 

The smile grows when his fingers brush along the center of your panties, and he finds them damp. You try to steady your breathing, try not to lean into Haechan as he circles his middle finger over your clit, as he strokes along your slit over your panties, working you up, making you wetter. 

You lean back against the cushioned back of the booth, shoulders pressed into the corner. 

Your hand shakes when you lift your glass to your lips. You hope no one notices. You hope no one notices the attempt you make at taking a steadying breath. Pray no one notices that your eyes are growing distant, your face warm, your posture dissolving.

Haechan eases his fingers inside your panties, and you slide a little lower in your seat to spread your legs just a bit wider. 

You’re reminded of that first time with Renjun. This is a very similar set of people, but this time you don’t have to stare longingly across the room at Haechan’s thighs. Now you’re able to drop a hand to his lap, your hand curving over his gorgeous thighs wrapped snug in his suit pants. You don’t touch him — not in the way that he’s touching you, anyway — just leave your hand there on his thigh, fingernails dragging over the material of his pants as he slides his long, middle finger into your core. 

How he does this so smoothly, so casually, showing nothing at all on his face…. You don’t understand. 

You’re shaking. You’re blushing. 

You’re an exhibitionist, but tonight Haechan has you blushing like a virgin. 

Luckily, the others are pretty much distracted. They don’t notice when you thump your head to the side against the wall, when you lower your gaze to your lap to watch the indecent bulge beneath your skirt as Haechan starts moving, thrusting first the one finger, and then as he adds a second. 

You bite the inside of your cheek to keep from making a sound, though Haechan keeps glancing your way as if hoping to catch your lips parted around a silent moan. 

If anyone does look over at you while you’re utterly distracted, then they probably just assume you’ve hit your limit in alcohol. You’re flushed and your eyes are looking a little glazed. You look like you’re about to fall asleep leaning against the wall with your head angled down like that. 

Truly you’re a hot fucking mess. Your upper inner thighs feel slick with arousal. You’re sweating behind your knees, the back of your neck, under your arms. It’s taking everything in you to not just throw caution to the wind entirely, to haul yourself into Haechan’s lap, to kiss him and ride him right here at the table in front of your friends. 

That thought ignites a new level of heat inside you. 

You remember talking about something like that once with Renjun. Imagining cockwarming him in front of your friends. He’d not been too sure about it, but that had been at the start of whatever it was you’d been doing. 

A little sound slips out between your lips. 

Haechan looks at you, his mouth twisting with amusement, teasing words right on the tip of his tongue. 

You grip his thigh, nails biting into his leg even through the pants. Whatever words he was going to say, he swallows down, just watching you eagerly as he fills you again and again with his fingers. Neither of you pay any attention to your friends around the table, each of you too focused on the same goal: your orgasm. 

When it hits, you just close your eyes and ride it out on Haechan’s fingers. The waves of pleasure pulse through you, and you can feel the way that you’re soaking his fingers, the way he keeps pressing in for more and more, until finally you move your hand from his thigh to push his hand away from in between yours. Wetness drips against your thigh as he removes his fingers. You may have squirted just a little bit, and judging by the heat in Haechan’s gaze, he liked it. 

“Need some water?” He asks, voice just loud enough for the others to barely catch it. “Something to sober you up a bit?”

With his clean hand, Haechan pushes a glass of water towards you, the sides of it dripping with condensation. Gladly, you accept it, gulping down a few mouthfuls of icy water before you press the cool glass to your cheek. When you open your eyes, you make eye contact with Xiaojun. 

His gaze flicks away to Haechan, then back to you before he returns his attention to YangYang who’s in the middle of some dramatic retelling of a sleaze from the club the other night. Just once more, Xiaojun glances your way, and you can’t help wondering if he’d noticed. He’s seen you orgasm before, never in public, but he’s no stranger to it. 

You wonder if he’s told his girlfriend that you used to hook up? 

Before you can pay much more thought to that matter, Haechan brings his hand up from beneath the table. While everyone else is hanging on every word of YangYang’s story, Haechan builds himself a little perilla leaf wrap. You watch him, only barely listening to YangYang, more interested in the way that Haechan fingers glisten with your wetness as he holds the perilla leaf to fill it. 

He catches your eye as he bundles the leaf around the filling, and then he all but shoves the entire thing into his mouth. Including his fingers. 

It’s lascivious the way that he basically sucks his fingers clean of your wetness. The way that even after he’s pulled them out, he waits until he’s finished chewing and swallowing the perilla leaf wrap, and then he licks each of his fingers. 

When Chenle eyes him with a mildly disgusted face, Haechan just shrugs. “What? When you’re eating, don’t you know the juice is the best part?”

“I wouldn’t lick my greasy fingers in public like that,” Chenle responds, shaking his head. 

“Yeah, well, there’s lots of things people shouldn’t do in public.” Haechan smirks and wiggles his eyebrows suggestively. 

You sit your glass down and lean forward against the table, resting your hand on his leg beneath the table. “You’re interrupting YangYang’s story. Be quiet, Lee Haechan.”

The rest of the night doesn’t last long. YangYang has to go to work, so he just catches a taxi to take him there. Xiaojun and his girlfriend decide to go check out a restaurant of one of his culinary friends for dessert a short distance away. 

“How’re you getting home?” Haechan asks after you’ve all paid and the others have begun to head their own ways. “I know you’re not drunk, but I think you’ve had too much to safely drive yourself.”

Outside, the cool night air brushes against your warm cheeks. You know he’s right. You were drinking quite a bit earlier, and driving wouldn’t be safe. 

“You can take me.” You grab for his arm. “My car is right there. You can just drive me home.”

“Chenle did quick work on Mr. Suh's car earlier. I have to return it to the parking garage at work. I can’t do both.” Haechan leans against the wall outside the restaurant, looking at you. You can’t help smiling, can’t help gravitating towards him. 

“I can drive.”

You turn around, almost surprised to see Renjun there. His hands are in his pockets, and he even looks a little surprised too. 

“I can drive you home,” he says to you. “I haven’t had anything to drink in the past couple hours. I can take you. Plus, it’s been a little while since we got to talk, just the two of us.”

You nod. “My car is right here.” You point across the street to where your car sits like a piece of garbage behind Mr. Suh's fancy BMW. Your keys are in your purse, and it takes you a minute of rummaging around to find them, but once you do, you drop them into Renjun’s waiting hand. “And here’re the keys.”

Haechan knocks into your other hand, his knuckles skimming along the back of your hand. “Let me know when you get home, okay? Both of you.”

You’re quite tempted to kiss him goodnight. To drape your arms over Haechan’s shoulders, to taste the saltiness of the samgyeopsal, the sweetness of the soda he’d been drinking too. 

He taps a finger against your forehead. “Don’t fall asleep before you get home. Renjun won’t carry you to bed.”

Renjun laughs. “I could.”

You’re not blind to the look that Haechan shoots at Renjun. A sharp look. A curse embedded in there. The threat that spells out that Renjun had better not even try. 

Wordlessly, Renjun unlocks your car, and with a loud groan (from the car, not from him), he opens the door on the passenger side for you. You slide in, and Haechan fills the open door, fitting himself in between the door and the body of the car, a hand on each one as he looks down at you. 

“Text me once you’re home.” His voice is a gentle command. Your heart warms, and you nod. 

“Goodnight, Haechan.”

The driver’s side door of your car squeals open, and Renjun drops himself into the seat. 

Haechan steps back, closing the door for you, and he just waits there on the sidewalk, watching as Renjun starts the car, as you both buckle in, as Renjun pulls away from the curb. You wave, and Haechan waves back, watching you go. 

You’re still watching him shrink in the reflection of the side mirror when Renjun starts laughing. You look over at him. “What?”

“So you finally succeeded? That’s happening?” He laughs, readjusting his grip on the steering wheel. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” You fold your arms, checking the mirror again, but Haechan is too far now for you to be able to see him anymore. 

Renjun waits a moment, during which the quiet sound of a turn signal is all that fills the silence. And then, “I’m not blind. Maybe the others were somehow oblivious, but I was sitting right beside Haechan all night. Also, I’ve fingered you around our friends before, I can see the signs.”

“Shut up. You couldn’t tell.” You shoot a look over at him, but he stays focused on the road. 

“Maybe. Maybe not. But either way, you just confirmed it for me.” He smiles, sending a short glance over at you before he looks ahead again. “You were too squirmy, and there was a long time that Haechan only had one hand above the table. Guess you found your perfect match in him, didn’t you? Lucky, since you’ve had that crush on him for so long.”

You sigh, tipping your head against the window. “He’s gross, Renjun. A real pervert.” You say those words as if they are compliments, as if you’re calling him dreamy, a real prince.

Renjun makes a noise on the other side of the car, and you’re not sure if it’s disgust or one of intrigue.

“I love it, honestly.” You twist your head to the side. Renjun’s profile is outlined by streetlights in pale amber. “We talked one night recently, and everything came out into the open. The things I’ve done, things he’s done. He’s so much worse than I am.”

Renjun tilts his head. “How? You were constantly begging me to fuck you somewhere public. How could he be worse than that?” He doesn’t say it with any vitriol, but rather like he’s teasing you. You know Renjun was just as eager to do everything as you were.

“He’s been watching people for a long time. I won’t give you all of the details, but did you know that when he went through your phone while we were all in Thailand, he sent himself videos from your camera roll?” 

That makes Renjun’s head finally turn to look at you fully. Luckily you’re stopped at a red light already, so he runs no risk of rear-ending anyone. “He what?”

“It’s just one of the confessions he told me. He didn’t show me them, just told me about them.” You shiver a little with delight as you recall, “He told me that his favorite one is the first one we filmed together, me riding you in my car. And he doesn’t even know that it’s me; I haven’t told him that yet.” You laugh, resting your cheek again on the cool window. “He also said that he wasn’t asleep that final night in Thailand when we messed around right there beside him. He’s a little perv, Renjun, watching us and all of our friends too. It’s just… gross, but I can’t explain it. I like it.”

Now he laughs too. “You’re both gross. I should’ve known that about him. After he spent months crashing on our sofa at school because his roommate caught him being a chronic masturbator.” He shakes his head. “Maybe caught isn’t even the right word.”

You laugh too, but your mind is filled with the vivid imagery of the video Haechan had sent you earlier. His fingers wrapped around his cock. Cum dripping pearly white down his fingers. Your laugh tapers off into a sigh. 

“I’m happy for you,” Renjun says after driving a few moments in silence. “For you and Haechan.”

“I’m not so sure there is a Me and Haechan yet. We just talked. We’ve kissed.” Your heart flutters in your chest, wishing you’d have kissed him goodnight. “He’s sent me a few videos, and we talk of course, and then there was tonight. But we haven’t, like, talked and we haven’t gone on a date or actually had sex. I want it to be a proper thing, not like what you and I did, and not like what Xiaojun and I did.”

“Trust me,” Renjun shares, “The way Haechan looks at you, the way he treats you… he likes you. Genuinely and completely, and both of you are fools if either of you let the other get away. I’ve known him longer than you, and I’ve never seen him the way he gets with you; and he’s been that way for a while now, honestly. When I talk with him, you always come up inevitably, in some way he always twists conversation to mention your name, to tell a funny story or to praise something that you did at work. And he’s always been, like, protective of you, whether you noticed it or not. I don’t think you need to worry about it not becoming a proper thing.”

When Renjun drops you off at your apartment door, you’re left with a lot more than just the car keys that he returns to you. Your mind and chest are buzzing thinking about what you’d talked about in the car. 

You want to call Haechan as soon as you’re inside. You want to hear his voice. You want to tell him that you like him too, because it’s only now that you’ve been mulling over Renjun’s words that you remember that Haechan had confessed the night you first kissed. He’d whispered an “I like you” after you kissed on the street, and you’d been too busy reeling him back in for another kiss to tell him that you like him too. 

You decide maybe you’re still a little tipsy, and maybe you should wait to call him and confess that you like him too until you’re in a clear state of mind. 

So instead of calling him, you just send him the confirmation message that you got home safely. 

And he calls you. 

He’s still driving, returning the car to the parking garage at the office. You talk to him when he’s returning the car, when he’s riding the elevator up to the Neo Corporation’s offices, as he drops the key and the credit card off in Mr. Suh's office. You keep talking, just keeping him company, as he leaves and rides a cab back to his place. You keep talking to him as you go through your bedtime routine — brushing your teeth, washing your face, using the toilet, changing out of your clothes. 

“I’m home now.” Haechan yawns in your ear after a while. “It’s been a long day.” 

“It’s been a long everything.” You sigh, sinking into your bed. “About earlier, at the restaurant….”

Haechan hums quietly on his end of the line, and you can hear him close a door, sit his phone down, and from the way sounds are more distant and slightly echoier, you assume he put you on speakerphone. 

“I really enjoyed that.” You stare up at your ceiling, fighting the blush that rises to your cheeks, the heat that flares in your belly as you remember the feel of his fingers — Haechan’s fingers! — against your thighs and inside you, pulling you apart so easily. 

“Me too,” he admits. “Though I would rather have had you spread out on that table so I could get a proper taste of you. The little licks I got off my fingers weren't enough.”

You have to bite back a whimper at the mental image he’s painted. “Haechan… I—I still haven’t gotten to touch you. Or taste you. I feel like I’m at a disadvantage again.”

His voice sounds distant from the phone when he says, “I guess we’d better remedy that, angel. But there’s one thing I need you to do for me before you can get a taste.”

“Hm?” Your heart is racing. 

“Go on a date with me. A real date. Dinner and talking, maybe a movie. Dessert.” Haechan’s voice draws nearer again, and then suddenly you can tell he’s scooped his phone back up, that he’s holding it to his face. “I want to be wined and dined before you have your way with me, babe.”

That makes you laugh. But you quickly agree. 

“A date. Name your time and place, Haechan.”

The smile in his voice is clear when he promises, “I’ll get back to you on that. Goodnight.” 

You haven’t felt so giddy at the idea of a date in a long, long time. How are you meant to fall asleep right now?

“Goodnight, Lee Donghyuck.”

previous chapter || next chapter

a/n: not quite the full thing, but they've finally!! at last!! done something with each other! they're building up towards it lol which I'm sure is torture for all of you who've been dying for them to fuck, but it's coming! I swear!

[accio-victuuri]

February CPNs

hello! it’s that time of the month again that i compile the sweets brought to us by the boys! this month started out very quiet but in this fandom will mean that things will take a turn in the next week/s. you just never know what will happen next. i have added some commentary here on certain incidents that i didn’t talk about separately on my blog to have “bonus content” for this round-up.

• XZ’s GQ cover and collaboration sweets + additional ones connected to fake rumor

• not really cpn, but our boys continue to make it in the weibo hot search trend report - i still hate sina weibo but i understand how it’s relevant for them.

• XZ’s wedding suit from the AV festival. yes, this was made for him but we just had him wear that white backless wedding suit by jacquemus for GQ and now this? hmmmm. me thinks he has a preference? lol. he prefers white and that’s fine, but the choice of what looks like a wedding suit is ���. i am on standby, let me see if this continues.

pair it off with WYB! and it’s perfect. tho i would prefer it if they are both in white. 🤍

• xzs has the same caption as a cpf

• yibo’s watch and gg’s GQ props connection the number 91 and 3.

• chinese new year candies - gg’s weibo post, wyb’s red envelope cover clues etc

• rufeng shares new thailand fm rehearsal footage

• tencent video posting their new year vcr so close together! they could have easily posted it one after the other but maybe they didn’t want some solo fan drama. i’m happy that bobo continues to collab with 10c, and ZZ is not exclusive to 10c anymore— so hopefully this means in the future they can work on a project together <3

• clowning over XZ’s song in spring festival gala as you wish + same composer as wyb’s singles and how wyb was listening to a song from this artist lately.

• this parallel between their looks. it’s not just their characters that match each other, but their outfits from certain events. so classy!

but i think this one is the best. seeing them get recognition for their acting in the past few months has been very rewarding. all the hard work and challenges are bearing fruit. remembering them talking about wanting to become professional actors and really take that path — studying and dreaming together. now here we are 🫶🏼

• a cute tidbit, but the cat xz is playing with is called xiao wang. that’s because on it’s back looks like the character for wang! what a coincidence!!!! 🥹

• Bottled Joy stirring the CPN pot again by posting this on 2/13. As You Wish. The context of the post is that, as you wish — fans can get these wallpapers and photos of Bobo. but it’s a coincidence cause it’s the english title of the song GG sang @ BRTV Spring Festival Gala. 👀 the colors too, white and silver which is the same color combination of GG’s outfit. This may be meh to some, but knowing Bottled Joy’s cpn history, you can’t blame us.

• Golden Hour and Eason Chan songs @ yibo’s playlist

• Small weekend roundup - includes mention of asian pop magazines where the boys are both mentioned, supplement to xz using tickets for his spring festival photos last year as support of bobo’s movie and the phone card case appears.

• Rumor of Wang Yibo being in Hengdian - one / two / three ( i feel like this one is up there with the leica camera and gg’s bday cpn but this one is more risky on their part. as i have said in my posts, what is important is they are safe and happy. it’s their personal life. their relationship is between the two of them. as cpfs, we should be protecting them and not be people they are wary of. if we are not careful, we are no different from ss and yxh. )

• On 2/20, Yuehua & YBO have posted about the slander recently going around related to WYB and that they have reported it to the police. This went really high on HS and was widely talked about, even Du Hua reposted and reacted to it. Hours later, XZS has posted their own reminder to fans in relation to people disturbing his drama filming. What made it more important is that XZ reposted it too and put in a very firm reminder to everyone.

to give some context, the horrible rumor regarding WYB was spread around by mostly XZ fans. There was a melon that said “X” has STD and then toxic people started saying it’s WYB ( cause toxic xz fans doesn’t want it linked to XZ because of the clue given so they throw it to WYB. i know it sounds stupid, but it’s actually a common tactic done by both sides ) and even fabricated some photos. another actor, xukai was also implicated and he also reported to the police.

so this can be read by so/os as XZ&XZS trying to cover up for the toxic solos and what they did. i get why other people will think that and i personally wanted them to address the bad things his solos do. however i also understand why xz and his team can’t “betray” the solo fans. that’s just how it goes. however, in cpf interpretation, this is XZ’s way of taking away the heat from wyb and a way of putting a stop to the conversations about that horrible lie. it worked in a way that it went on HS, but not as high as WYB’s. I was also surprised that XZ reposted it himself. i am aware that the leaks and everything else is a serious issue and XZ is someone who hates being a bother to the crew. but he usually doesn’t do this. he usually leaves it to XZS or the drama account. This tells me that he personally wants to lend his name and his weibo account, to get more of the heat. The last line he said can also be a message to his toxic so/os: respect others and respect yourself.

• On 2/20, there were tarot readings some BXGs have enjoyed. One is this that is a new year CP reading done on 2/4. What made fans 👀 are:

1. this card, where OP said it’s them being hand in hand and don’t get tired of each other. and in the background is a sacred building, which symbolizes them having a vow to each other.

more cpn was added into it when GG did MFW and people realized not to take this literally cause it could be representing the Duomo.

2. Here is the part that was v interesting to cpfs cause this person gave a prediction that followed what we cpn and happened in the next couple of days.

The two of them haven’t had many official activities recently. So from February 4th, there is a chance for the two of them to meet each other in the past few days. And as soon as the two of them meet, they won’t be going out. Yibo knows he is active but he will close up and be willing to hide at home for XZ.

this is so close to what we speculated! that they spent a quiet cny break together. 🥹🥹🥹

3. Next one is so on point it’s scary cause i have already discussed the bad rumor going around and was directed at WYB before this entry. OP was sort of right. tho i don’t know it this will be another hateful rumor, i hope not.

My prediction is that it will be in March 2024, around this time, I feel that WYB will have a a force of public opinion surrounding him. It's unfriendly to him. This power of public opinion including but not limited to WYB. If we use the 8 of Swords to understand the external environment, it is a relatively sharp. There is some public opinion about the two of them that may cause some trouble

If something happens to WYB, XZ will immediately rise up and have to rush out to protect him. XZ will work hard behind the scenes silently in his own way and are some practical actions.

I don’t think i need to further explain. It fits what happened in 2/20. 👁️👄👁️

4. WYB’s resources for 2024 will be very good. In the first quarter, the number of resources was not very large but the quality of the resources is very good. Then the Queen of Pentacles in the third quarter. In the fourth quarter, the Queen of Cups.

For context: The Queen of Pentacles, therefore, depicts a certain level of success and prosperity. But the rabbit at the bottom cautions us that we should be careful of where we leap when we are chasing that success. Queen of Cups - Generally speaking, this is a positive card for both career and finances, suggesting you're "in tune with yourself, have a good work-life balance going on, and overall a positive job experience.

The reading is close to 1 hour long and I just can’t translate it all so i’m going off what CPFs are highlighting.

• XZ’s pre Milan flight Gucci & camcorder cpn

• Fake Rumors : getting caught kissing / spending time during CNY

• XZS first post in Milan is the invitation given to XZ by Tod’s for the show. Those who had the same time as Milan saw the actual time stamp which is 1823. A beloved kadian number!!!!!

• xz’s collar and whole look for GUCCI MFW gave us so many thoughts. lol. i know sexualization of the boys is a complicated issue in the fandom but when things like this happen — how can we stop? lol. no. but seriously. it is what it is.

• checking their fingernails + similar pose to HB

• a comment that implies xz went to zhuhai with wyb to ride a motorcycle

• their photos match so well. 🌅

from zz’s post in milan. it’s filled with the elements they love like the moon and a beautiful sunset background. gg was also showing off his re web shoes which is of course, because he is a gucci ambassador and all that but the “web” cpn is getting stronger. however, i am personally losing my mind over the implications in the caption he used.

• clues in zz’s mfw interviews, matching talismans on their phone cases and similar ads for shu uemura & loreal

• 8 fake rumors from CQL shoot/era that i posted about 📝

• A place CPFs landmark lol

• spotted same mannerism! twins ☺️☺️☺️☺️

see you all next month for another round up of sweetness! just continue to support the boys and ignore the toxic moves of irrelevant people. fandom is supposed to be fun and a safe space so i hope we all fight to keep that love & peace here 🫶🏼

[kangals]

oh i forgot to write up an update on the embark situation!

if you missed my posts last month (or didnt read them because they were certified walls of text): i got kep an embark test and in addition to the expected stuff, it also flagged him as having some genes related to copper storage disease - specifically that he had 1 gene for copper accumulation, and 2 genes that make accumulation less severe, meaning he inherited copper-related genes from both parents. when i did some reading into it,i couldnt find ANY studies or resources regarding copper disease in collies - it was almost entirely focused on labradors and dobermans, with an occasional hand-wavy comment of "sometimes seen in other breeds idk." because this test only got added by embark last month, i ended up doing a new test on stellina to check and see if she also had it.

basically my thinking was: A: does the presence of these genes mean that kep is actually at risk for copper storage disease, OR B: was this an incidental finding and the genes really only affect labs and dobes.

with stellina's test results, i think i'm pretty confident in guessing that the answer is B!

stellina's results also flagged as having one gene for copper accumulation - which, since i know that kep and stellina are pretty distantly related, indicates to me that it's much more likely that the genes are widespread in the greater collie gene pool as opposed to both of them just so happening to pick up a rare and harmful gene.

and most notably, now that's been a month and embark presumably has more data, they also had this new information listed:

those are HIGH numbers - and is an even bigger indicator that the gene, for whatever reason, simply doesn't affect these breeds that much. great pyrs, for example, are primarily working, livestock guardian dogs - there's no way that 80% of these dogs are suffering from copper storage disease. and while frenchies and cavs are certainly poster children for "breed with lots of serious health problems", copper storage isn't one of them. given the extreme popularity of frenchies, if 90% of them had this disease, someone would have noticed.

(interestingly, last week when i looked at this instead of pyrs it had pembroke corgis listed in that spot at around the same numbers - i wonder how many other breeds have large percentages of this gene but embark is just only listing the top few. this is such a new test that i expect a lot of information to change)

so i'm guessing that copper storage genes are actually pretty common in dogs - especially breeds with known low genetic diversity, such as collies, cavs, and dobermans. but given that there's nothing noted in studies about breeds besides labradors, dobermans, and a few terrier breeds, it just might not affect the rest of them. similarly, i know stellina carries the gene for "saddle tan" coloration, as do a certain %age of collies - but collies don't come in saddle tan. it's suspected there's another gene needed to "'activate" the pattern that's missing from collies. i'd guess the same thing is happening here - lots of dogs have the gene, but the "activation" genetics are only in a few specific breeds.

i'm definitely still going to be keeping a close eye on it, the test only released in May so it's still very early and i imagine they're getting a ton of data from this - would love some research into if my thinking is correct. if you have a dog that's gotten an embark health test from may and onwards this year, i'd be interested to know what breed(s) your dog is and if they also carry these genes. but i think, overall, this indicates that it's more incidental than a real concern.

[jokeroutsubs]

📝ENG Translation: The band Joker Out has gotten used to London

Article published today, 13.3.2024, by Primorske Novice, available here.

The guys from Joker Out have been living in London, where they've been working on new songs, for almost two months now. The first one of them, 'Everybody's Waiting', has just recently been released to the public "Our routine is quite music-oriented", the Jokers, who live in a shared house, told us.

LONDON > "We found a lovely house in a nice area of London. It's very comfortable, not the most spacious, but it gives us a closeness we've never had before," said the musicians, who go to bed around 3am, which is why they wake up late, and then slowly get ready for the day. Then, after lunch and coffee, they head to the rehearsal space.

Vrhnika bolognese by Jan Peteh

"Janči is the main cook in our house. Since we've been in London, he's fallen under the influence of Jamie Oliver, but otherwise we rotate a few recipes, our favourite being the Vrhnika bolognese, which is a risotto with minced meat that we highly recommend," told us the boys, who also love rice cooked with milk¹ and popcorn - but not together of course! A bigger challenge than the house was finding a place to rehearse.

¹ T./N.: 'mlečni riž' = a simple dish made by cooking rice with milk instead of with water. Usually a bit of butter is added for better taste. It can be additionally sweetened with some sugar and other additions, like cocoa or chocolate powder.

"Our main requirement was to find a place where we could rehearse 24 hours a day, every day of the week, which is more challenging in London than we imagined. Obviously bands here rent spaces by the hour, not like we do in Slovenia, where we have a permanent space. Neighbours are also usually a big problem in London, because it's a metropolis.Then, luckily, we found a place where we can rehearse in the middle of the night, but it's more of a garage setting, so it's reminiscent of the early days of our band life."

Camden is their favourite

After rehearsals, the boys usually head home, but sometimes they go out to explore the city and London's musical scene a bit. "Out of everyone we've met, the musicians were actually in the minority, but on the other hand we've made friends with some really great people, including a photographer who has become our friend. We've also already found out that Camden is an area of London where practically everyone is involved in music, which is why it's now our favourite part of the town," said our Jokers, who set off on their European tour last week.

-~-~-~

❗ DO NOT REPOST, and if you quote, please link back to this post.

[cramberry24]

I Am No Mother, I Am No Bride, I Am King

BACK ON SCHEDULE hope ppl reading this enjoy long, looooong fics bc this babey is gonna be huge

Chapter 13: Feed Me Promises, Keep My Heart Well, I'll Sing You Songs Until The Darkness Does Recede

Pairing: Robert Zussman/OFC

Tags: 18+ Minors DNI, Explicit Language, Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Period Typical Attitudes, Historical References, Historical Inaccuracy, War, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Medical Inaccuracies, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff, Friendship, Period-Typical Sexism, Idiots in Love, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Period-Typical Racism, Period-Typical Homophobia, Feminist Themes, Queer Themes, Survivor Guilt, Self-Esteem Issues, Blood and Gore, Graphic Description of Corpses, Protective Robert Zussman, Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Choking, Buried Alive, Not Actually Unrequited Love, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Denial of Feelings, Misunderstandings, Yearning, Mutual Pining, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Implied/Referenced Suicide, no beta we die like, well you know, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Panic Attacks, Anxiety Attacks

Summary: Eve is superstitious. First platoon meets an oddball. Dellucci experiences karma. Pierson is...nice? With special guest Boris Karloff!

Snippet as always under the cut!

The next few days are just travelling, patrolling, and exploring.  They run into a few platoons of Germans early on, getting stuck in those pesky hedgerows, but the attack doesn’t last very long and there’s practically no casualties.  The city is far behind them now, and instead there’s more and more farmlands, fields, forests.  Some of the land has been scorched, destroyed as the Germans left, but some of it is untouched.  The rolling green fields are a breath of fresh air - literally - but Eve loves the forests the most.  Unfortunately, they stick to the farmlands and fields, which is better, she supposes, and everyone settles into the monotony of their travels.

Eve is just starting to settle, finally letting go of the stress of the city, when she hears it.  It’s late at night, actually early in the morning, during the witching hours, and Eve’s on watch while everyone else sleeps.  Lowe is the only other person awake, on the other side of their little camp.  She can’t see or hear him, not unless he yells, and so she’s practically by herself.  The rest of the men are sleeping close by, and mist swirls around their still bodies, Eve’s boots, nearby tree stumps.  She hums under her breath, tapping her foot softly as her eyes lazily scan their surroundings.

She may be bored, but she’s still alert, but only for any signs of German soldiers.  As such, when the demonic, grieving, screeching wail cuts through the air, Eve’s heart just about gives out right then and there.  She jumps, lifting her rifle up and putting her finger on the trigger as she staggers a few steps forward, the rabbit thumping hard in her ribcage with every thundering beat of her heart.  The shriek rises in pitch and Eve blinks in the inky darkness, her shoulders tense and mouth thick and dry with terror.  Then, abruptly as it started, the keening cry vanishes, leaving only the rustling of the men and trees and the pounding of her heart.

No man could make that sound, Eve’s certain.  She’s heard men scream, in fear, desperation, pain, grief, and she knows there is no way on Earth that a man could scream like that, with such volume and horror.

A woman, maybe?  Had a woman just been attacked?  No, no, that scream was not made by a person.  It had been too…not of this world.

Foxes make unholy noises.  Maybe a fox?  There had been that time when she was a kid, clinging to her momma and listening in horror to two foxes shrieking and fighting over a kill.  But as unholy as those foxes had sounded, they were still nothing compared to this wail, now.  A chill runs up her spine, and she spins to see if anyone else has heard the terrifying scream, becoming more unsettled when she sees no one has stirred.  How has no one reacted, woken up?  It had been so loud, left her ears ringing.  She checks with Lowe, but he just gives her an odd look, and she sinks into her thoughts, unease swirling in her gut.

It’s Zuss she goes to a day later, when she’s checked that no one else had heard it, when she’s had time to think about it.  She’s convinced, stubborn in her belief, and Zuss watches her with an amused expression on her face as they tramp through more fields.

“It was the goddamn Hag of the Mist.”

Robbie huffs out a laugh. “Who?” he asks. “Listen, if it was as loud as you say it was, why didn’t anyone else hear it?  Or her?”

“That’s why it’s the Bean-Sidhe !”

Zuss blinks, frowning in confusion, and stumbles as he trips over a hidden dip in the ground.  He mutters a curse under his breath and Eve smiles fondly.  The tables have turned, now.  In the city, Eve had felt off-kilter and Zuss had been perfectly at ease, but now, out in nature with not a single building in sight and nothing but land, it’s Eve who’s sure-footed and Robbie who’s unsteady.

“What did you just say?”

“It’s Irish,” Eve explains. “A banshee!”

“I thought you said it was a hag?”

A groan and a roll of her eyes. “The banshee is the Hag of the Mist!  My mam told me about them, from back in Ireland.”

Zuss’s forehead is still creased as he frowns.

“A banshee is a Faerie Woman,” Eve continues. “She comes at night, and she lets out the most unholy wail you could possibly imagine.  She screams as a warning, or an omen, or something.  My momma told me that the banshee waits outside a family’s home and screams to let them know a loved one is about to die.”

Zuss hums. “Have you ever heard a banshee before?”

“No.  My mom hadn’t either, but she said her mother heard one the night before her brother died.”

Zuss cracks a small grin. “So it’s not real.  Just a made up scary story, then.”

“It’s not made up!  I heard it that night, I swear!”

“I thought you said it appears outside people’s houses?”

She purses her lips. “Well, I don’t exactly have a house right now, do I?  But I’ve heard people scream, I’ve heard animals cry, and I know that was something not of this world.”

Zuss outright laughs at that, and Eve flushes with embarassment.

“Fuck you!” she snaps, but she’s not really mad, even though she does stretch out her stride to move ahead of him.

“Oh, c’mon, angel!” He’s still grinning as he hurries to catch up with her again. “I just didn’t think you believed in all that kinda stuff!”

“What kinda stuff?”

Robbie waves a hand in the air in front of them. “I don’t know, all that stuff!  Ghosts, and goblins.  Should I warn you the next time I see a black cat?”

“Shut up, will you?  So what if I’m superstitious?  Ugh, you’re just like Nora.”

“Oh, Nora doesn’t believe in all that either?  Consider me shocked .”

Eve snorts, turning her face away and lifting a hand, pretending to itch at her nose to hide her smile.

“It was probably just someone screaming.  Maybe artillery?”

“I’ve heard more artillery than you, I’d recognize it in my sleep.”

“Maybe you actually fell asleep standing up-?”

“It was a Bean-Sidhe, I know it!  If you’re just gonna make fun of me, I’ll go back to my own squad.”

“Oh, come on, angel!” Zuss bumps her shoulder. “I won’t laugh anymore.  I swear.  Cross my heart.” And he does, pulling his face into a somber expression, lips turned down and eyes wide.

“Whatever.”

He drops it, back to casual. “So, why’d you say they scream again?  A warning?  Coulda used that before the train, I’ll tell you that-”

Eve’s lips twitch as she fights a grin. “No, it’s not that kind of warning.  It’s an omen, that someone in your family is gonna…”

She trails off, chewing on the inside of her cheek.  She tries to be optimistic, especially about Emma.  She’s heard rumours that the Airborne have gone back to England, have a break before they have to go back into combat again.  So she should be fine.  As far as she knows, everyone else in her family is doing well, except her grandfather.

She hasn’t gotten any letters from home since her stay in the hospital.

“Could it be, like, any of the soldiers?  Since it appeared here?”

Robbie’s voice is softer than before, and she appreciates it.

Eve considers his words for a few seconds. “I don’t think so.  It’s always a family member who passes.”  Her fingers flex on her rifle and she takes a shaky breath in. “I mean, my grandfather is sick, and Emma…”

She doesn’t want to think about that.  Her father’s been having those back issues again - what if they got worse, or something went wrong?

“Hey, I’m sure everything’s fine.  Besides, maybe banshees aren’t right all the time.  You know, like those near death experiences!  You said she’s supposed to show up outside a house, but she didn’t here.  So maybe there’s some give and take here, some room for interpretation, if you will.”

Eve hums, but she doesn’t say anything, worrying her lip.  Would she get a telegram if Emma was killed in action?  Or would she have to wait for her parents to receive it and then send a letter to her?

“So, you didn’t see her at all?”

He’s trying to distract her from thinking about death and instead focus back on this creature, and she takes the bait easily.

“No.  I don’t think you’re supposed to.  All you hear is the scream.”  She shudders again, the wail echoing in her mind. “The caoine .”

“Damn.”

There’s still a tingling in the back of her mind, a worry and dread that someone she loves is dead and she’s just left in a state of unawareness.

“Well, what do you think she looks like?  I’m picturing some old, hunched over old woman, covered in warts!  She’s mean, and she’s got ugly, gnarled teeth-”

Robbie bumps her again as he holds up a hand as if to show gnarled teeth, grinning at her, and she shakes her head with a smile.

“No, no, I think she’s tall, and young, and-”

“No, she has to be short-”

“You’d never even heard of her until five minutes ago!"