#bc without the other they would be nothing

[iwishiwasavampire]

loverboy kevin is all-consuming and very intense; kevin not being a morning person and needing at least fifteen minutes of completely silent cuddle time before getting out of the bed, neil is always the first one out of bed for his morning run so andrew is used to being squished against kevin the moment his alarm goes off (he doesn’t complain much bc he enjoys having his face smushed against kevin’s tiddies); coming back from his team’s game and just flopping directly on top of neil who was watching the game on tv, kevin’s face on neil’s neck, neil running one hand through kevin’s hair and massaging his lower back with the other one, doing a play by play of the game; having one hand on neil’s sleeve at all times when they are out and about; grabbing onto andrew’s belt loops when he wants andrew to ground him; dropping himself on them both when one of them is cooking or reading the mail or just standing still for too long, arms wrapped around them like a koala, face smushed against their neck, he holds neil he tightly dropping all his weight on neil’s back, with andrew his hold is loose, ready to move at the first sign of andrew’s discomfort. I think he would be respectful of andrew’s boundaries, but would also challenge them unintentionally, i think andrew’s mind would have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that 6’1 buff exy player kevin is not a threat, he is big but he a 100% at andrew’s mercy and in the most sincere way desperately needing affection (andrew wonders if kevin realizes how revealing his actions are).

also he would be incapable of just giving a kiss without shoving his tongue on their mouths no matter the circumstances it’s tongue kissing or nothing!

[asterekmess]

I dont get started so much as get sucked in. Went six months without writing a word, rereading my wips trying desperately to find the words again. Nothing worked.

Then i had a random tiny little thought, and it sat in my brain and stewed. And stewed. And it got bigger, and i kept seeing things that made me think abt it and go 'this would be a good scene' 'oh and this one' and 'this one could go after that one'

And then i finally couldnt SLEEP (which is how i know it's ready, it's like the oven timer for me) and i got up at ass o'clock and went downstairs with my laptop and just Smashed out words in a document until i was so exhausted i couldnt read anymore.

Then i went to bed, woke up the next day thinking about it again, reread what i had, and it went from there.

Wrote 30k in a week bc i couldnt think about anything but the fic idea.

It's finally slowed now, but i've found no amount of forcing it really helps. I just gotta follow the ebb and flow. And once ive got momentum, then going back to my other wips, it's easier to jot down a couple words here and there to push forward toward a scene i can really sink my teeth into.

I will say sometimes you need to intake to to create. Binge some movies, go experience something new (a ren faire, a live performance, an arcade). Give yourself things to think about that can inspire you.

hello! i'm not sure if this is entirely the right place, but do you have any tips for getting back into writing? because of real life stuff i haven't been able to write for months, and now that i have the time i just have... no idea where to begin

Oh man, I know that feeling. There's nothing quite like feeling "rusty" to make something seem almost impossible to do.

There are a couple of approaches to take (and I'm sure folks can suggest even more in the notes), and I'll start with the most common suggestion:

Start small. If it's been a while, you might not want to start with a huge fic. Knock out a oneshot, maybe even just do some free writing sprints, just to get into the habit of writing again.

Find your writing space. Relearn what position you like to sit in, whether you prefer to type on a keyboard or tap on your phone. Figure out whether you want a playlist going and what songs you want to include on it.

Don't begin with the intention to post. Start with the goal of writing not with the goal of having written. Write something that you are utterly enraptured by, something that absolutely tickles you in whatever way you want to be tickled. Connect to your id or to your inner child or to whatever part of you really wants to come out and play, and let that part of you loose onto the page.

Which leads me to my last point

Find a story that you can't stop thinking about writing. It doesn't have to be huge. It could even just be a single moment or scene. But if you can feel that inspiration hit you and experience that drive to capture that inspiration in words, that feeling can go a long way to getting you back into writing again.

Inspiration can come from other people, from music or art, from prompt memes or challenges, from the daydreams you drift off into when you're zoning out on the bus. Personally, I have a lot of success with just thinking of a joke that makes me giggle hysterically, and then I write 500 words that gets me to the punchline I want to hit, and I'm done.

What about the rest of you? Where do you pick up writing when you haven't done it for a while? How do you get started again after a break?

[xo2dee]

Not me camping in your asking and showing up every five business days to ask questions 🫣

As I was thinking of SAL (a daily occurrence I fear) I was wondering several things;

- the first isn’t really a question but I found it interesting that MC is a witch (in training) and she has a cat 💀 containing the witch stereotype but I love it

- an actual question or more so wondering was if MC was to be in the events of DMC 5 how would her interactions be with V? Their dynamic and relationship (if one would even exist) his thoughts of her, her thoughts on him and what would eventually be Vergil?

- are there any ships (tv wise, movie or book wise) that you took inspiration from when building the relationship between MC and Vergil? Or any ships that you think share a similarity between them?

- and to piggyback, is there any other character you took inspiration from or share similarities when creating MC?

- do you have any relationship dynamics in mind when it comes to MC relationships with the rest of the gang?

- it’s clear that MC’s mom plays a role in all of this even indirectly but what of her father? Will he play any role or is he not important 💀?

- and this is most definitely a spoiler esque type of question so feel free to deny but would you be able to give us a sneak peek of what MC and Vergil’s relationship will be in the future in form of memes or reactions? (once they deal with all the situations, difficulties, and become a proper couple couple)

thats okay! i love answering any questions you all have for it ❣️

pls i've thought about this from the beginning, too bad he isnt like salem though and talking her head off

i've imagined various ways that could happen and the only one i've ever been able to make sense was that she was already a trained witch because if MC had been present during the events of DMC5 without all that, she would've died (to urizen, but that's a whole different convo anywhooooo). it's hard to say what the relationship might've been because i can't say too much without spoiling more of the relationship with vergil right now, but missing his demonic side V wouldn't have been able to feel the things vergil could feel so if anything, it would've been somewhat friendly maybe. nothing past that, but it's killing me to imagine vergil returning from hell already knowing MC then he gets slapped in the face with her smell and the uncontrollable desire to have her.

i took heavy inspiration from batman/catwoman in the batman movie, and then also some from spiderman/black cat from marvel. i'm a huge fan of cat burglar characters with a rough past growing up and have this flirty and extrovert attitude but deeper layers into them, but then they also have this dynamic with this man that sometimes border on animosity rather than them liking each other. spiderman isn't broody like batman though so i just ignore that and keep to the whole "she pushes his buttons" relationship in there as he slowly catches his feelings. i have my own pinterest board for SAL and these just screams them to me sometimes

like above, seline kyle and felicia hardy, but also some of madison montgomery and bonnie bennett

none really comes to mind, but nero and mc are kinda like nero and nico, but she doesn't pick on him so much and definitely eases up on it when nero finds about her and vergil bc he DOES use it against her lmao.

nope LMAO. he doesn't matter at all

here's a few

yall can pick who has the sandal

but thank you so much for asking these i had a lot of fun!!

[troolyart]

What if I suddenly turn up the codependency on Stanley and Simon?

Because think about it... They only have each other in there (Simon still doesnt know about Curator and Mariella cannonically) so something is bound to happen. What if Stanley locks himself in a place Simon can't reach? Would he simply reset or would the man spiral like he has in the past?

Or vice versa? Say Simon stopped narrating for a while...Stanley would be frantically trying to find him, signing the words "where" and "need you" over and over again until he finds his narrator.

Yes my au has lovey dovey moments with them, but keep in mind that they are technically trapped there inside the Entity with no escape in sight. Just the two of them and their minds slowly forgetting anything outside of the Parable. Everything but each other.

[clumsypuppy]

who is your favorite AA character? 👁️👁️

ziska… I hope capcom brings her back someday

[ruporas]

in a mood (ID in alt)

[owlheartt]

Something I really like about timebomb is that Ekko actually knows what he's getting into.

I'm not really seeing it get talked about but in season 1 they mention that Ekko and the firelights help people addicted to shimmer get off it and lead more fulfilling lives within the community. I should probably rewatch the scene for the exact wording (might be misremembering tbh) but that comment implies A LOT.

First: Ekko's mission is helping people where he can, he would probably try and help Jinx even if he wasn't in love with her

Second: He has experience dealing with severe mental illness as that often goes hand in hand with drug abuse, namely depression/suicidal ideation like what Jinx was exhibiting

Third: He's probably mapped out best course of action FOR dealing with this and has already figured out his own limits/boundaries. Meaning he knew what he was getting into trying to talk Jinx out of suicide, and was thus more equipped to deal with the aftermath

Fourth: He's probably helped ex members of Silco's gang. The firelights seem to have a theme of healing and repairing and recovering, so they've probably also learned to forgive. If they're mission is to rebuild the lanes into a safe space, they can't exclude people they don't like, they have to make room for them. I think they fought Silco out of necessity, and I doubt Jinx would be the first person they help who's killed one of them.

These all might be a bit of a stretch but I think it really fits. Beyond that, it shows that Ekko can ACTUALLY help Jinx. As much as unconditional love can do, Ekko has the tools for Jinx's recovery and a path ready for her. He also probably knows that her "healthy" will look different from AU Powder's "healthy." On top of that, I expect he knows how to respect her even in the middle of psychotic breaks and won't agitate her already frail mental state

[circuitcircus]

in defense of kabumisu……..

addressing things I see people say about why kabru being shipped w mithrun is ‘bad’ or why their canon relationship ‘doesn’t mean anything’ while also clearing up misconceptions of the characters some fans have

listen it keeps popping up and I just gotta do this or my brain will melt (if you don’t see it around then god I wish that were me) there’s an age gap!- erm there’s also an age gap in farcille (ily), the most popular ship in the series...also chilchuck looks like a kid but a lot of fans recognize him as a dilf because of his relative age, so there should be no age gap discourse among adult characters because it feels so conditional tbh

kabru taking care of mithrun is racist!- marcille likes to take care of others as well. is that sexist, or just an aspect of her character?

kabru isn’t treated like a servant, waiting on mithrun hand and foot…I mean he gives mithrun a foot massage but no one told him to do all that lmfao

he's also not the only one to care for mithrun. pattadol is shown to worry for him and milsril was the one to start taking care mithrun in the first place after he…...y’know. speaking of which-

they probably met when kabru was a kid!- neither of them showed signs of recognizing each other the entire time mithrun was introduced nor when they were together. and im pretty sure KABRU of all people would show some kind of recognition if they'd met before. it's kabru!!! the people person!!! mr. "i-noted-down-50+-characters-in-this-dude's-backstory-for-fun-and-actually-enjoy-social-gatherings"

you would think some kind of memory would come back to him especially after hearing mithrun’s backstory if milsril had even told kabru about him as a kid. but nope. it’s just fan speculation unless there's a side comic suggesting otherwise that i haven't seen

mithrun doesn't care about kabru, his shapeshift double looked like shit!- it's obviously because of mithrun's (then) lack of desires that it looked like that, but they really grow on each other

i think it's safe to assume it'd look more like kabru after they spent so much time together (also laios can barely even remember kabru's name..also saw his face multiple times and didn’t recognize him when they talked for the first time)

mithrun is racist!- he’s actually the least likely character to be racist since he lost his desires and that includes a desire for superiority over others. he even calls his past self out on that part of himself. the other elves in that side comic were being just as racist to shorter lived races but just didn’t use ‘outdated slurs’

(unfortunately literally every main character in dunmeshi is at least a lil prejudiced, but I believe it’s worldbuilding and a sign of the times rather than a reason ryoko kui is giving to hate each character)

taking care of others is a pain in the ass!- saying this as a reason kabru and mithrun shouldn't be together is basically saying disabled people shouldn't be allowed to have romantic relationships because they're a "burden"...if someone is actually willing to put in the work, then let them be.

that's not even all of their relationship, mithrun is the fighter of their duo and kabru would've been killed by the shapeshifter or something if he'd fallen down the hole on his own since he sucks at fighting monsters. mithrun helps collect ingredients for cooking every time, too (barometz fruits and griffin egg). he pulls his weight and then some!! i feel like people forget that part of mithrun a lot somehow.

+senshi literally cooks for everyone all time. it's kind of an important aspect of the narrative.

+also, while it is a popular fan thing I see around that kabru handfeeds mithrun, he literally never does lol this is mithrun using his own hands to eat:

also here we have him washing his own body

just saying because people like to treat mithrun like a baby even though the narrative respects him as a capable adult who also has special needs because of an accident. he’s captain for a reason

kabru hates taking care of mithrun!- not exactly, he was initially surprised and put off but got used to it quickly. i’m sure he’s grateful for all the times mithrun saved him from a monster and teleported them out of danger as well

he even starts doing “unnecessary” things for mithrun’s comfort and safety like when mithrun pushes himself too hard fighting, even after his mission to take care of him was complete when the canaries came back

here is even kabru resting while mithrun keeps watch (mithrun let him sleep for 5 hours before waking him up from the nightmare earlier, too):

there's nothing more to their relationship!- they actually have had a very tight and consistent dynamic since they met and they incite the most change within each other by the end. kabru is the one who inspires mithrun to create new desires so he doesn't waste away, and mithrun is the first person we see kabru being genuine with and it leads him to be more honest with others by the end instead of tiptoeing around everyone all the time (that mask was also the reason some ppl initially disliked kabru…)

kabru’s relationship with mithrun is honestly so important for his character and vice versa, but it’s often disregarded because of one over exaggerated aspect of it (an aspect that isn’t even the first way they interact with each other) or because people want to just straight up ignore it for some reason 🥲🥲

kui dedicates many panels to them that don't particularly serve the narrative as a whole in order to demonstrate this and i think that's pretty significant

you're taking this too seriously!- as if i'm the first person in the world to be crazy about a ship or the characters 😭 i love analyzing text and it's upsetting to see them mischaracterized when kui lays out the characters so clearly and deliberately

also they end up touching each other like all the time and have the kind of canon validation most ppl can only dream of lol i feel so insane look at this:

and this is just when they're first getting to know each other cuz there's a fuckload more

kinda hard to explain how i don't actually need them to get married or whatever but i'd die on this hill for them and i enjoy their dynamic immensely

haha you thought you were reading ship discourse but it was actually a character analysis 🤪🤪🤪

also don’t somehow take this to mean I think anyone has to ship them, I just need everyone to understand these accusations kind of don’t make sense especially when they can also apply to other pairs or characters

bonus kabru just looking at mithrun:

[saturnniidae]

I think Astrid Hofferson has a bad case of the 'my childhood was wasted, I grew up too fast for something ultimately proven pointless.' Syndrome and that she deserves to get to do silly things she missed out on and take up new hobbies, even if she's not particularly good at them–it's purely for the experience yknow, and learn to finally breathe no longer needing to be on constant high alert and get to be truly happy

[moldy-flowers]

Sakura and her comically oversized axes

[feroluce]

Belobog was my fave main quest but a lot of it is so. Contradictory. It's like they had multiple groups doing different shit and none of them checked in with each other for consistency. And you see this so much in Gepard's profile.

So in the main quest, they made him unfailingly, unquestionably loyal to Cocolia. Gepard's character arc is him learning to question authority etc etc. And this isn't even a bad thing; that's a story worth telling! It makes good conflict between him and Serval! And I love that we got Gepard as a boss battle and I get to see him all the time in SU!

But then you look at his character stories and it's like. The complete opposite.

According to his profile, Gepard has already HAD this awakening, long before the Astral Express, and he'd already decided Cocolia sucks. Even outside of his stories, there's a pretty damning readable between him and Pela.

He even disobeyed direct orders right in front of her- he has been disobeying orders for a while now!

So I've decided I'm marrying the two different sides of this into a 1.5k fic-ish thingy, because I think there's some fun potential there with Gepard not trusting Cocolia, but still having to pretend to be a good obedient little soldier.

Anyway. I love to think of it as like. Gepard knows Cocolia has sunk into her apathy. He can see it in her eyes every time he looks at her. She doesn't care. Not about him, not about Pela, not about all his soldiers on the frontlines giving their lives to protect the citizens. And that's... It makes him bristle a bit, but ok. Gepard can deal with this. Even if Cocolia no longer cares, as long as she does her job then it's fine. Having compassion behind an action doesn't matter as much as the action itself. If Cocolia's heart is no longer swayed, then he'll just have to care twice as hard to pick up the slack. He considers it part of his duty as a captain of the guard anyway. It's fine. Gepard can deal with it.

And then, Cocolia starts coming down to the restricted zone. Issuing direct orders.

And Gepard realizes he is in way over his head.

Because Cocolia orders him to stay back and issue commands from the ramparts, away from all his comrades, away from where he can protect them.

Gepard had thought nothing could be as bad as watching a fellow guard die right next to him. But the first time he watches someone struck by a killing blow, so far away, it hurts. Every defensive scar across his arms itches, his fingers curl in want of a weapon, the cold cannot numb his hands enough as they desperately ache for his shield. It hurts.

Gepard tries to find any reason to stay. Because surely... He knows Cocolia has lost her love for her people, but surely... She wouldn't...

One day, Cocolia orders for their gunners to advance 20 yards. There are no survivors. She almost looks like she smiles.

Gepard doesn't sleep that night.

Pela brings him the report at the end of the first month; and then the month after that, and the month after that. A significant uptick in losses, and all of it started on that first day Cocolia started overriding his authority and issuing her own orders. The ends of Gepard's pens have all been nearly chewed off. Pela outright calls Cocolia an idiot, and Gepard corrects her. Cocolia isn't an idiot. Gepard had known her through Serval, knew her through all her college years and then some, and he knows how intelligent she is. It's not that she's stupid, and it's not that she's inexperienced, it's nothing of the sort.

Cocolia knows exactly what she's doing.

She must, there's no way she could make such a horrible mess of things so badly by accident. And Pela, quick as a whip, sharp as a tack, always too smart for her own good, catches onto the meaning behind Gepard's correction without any further prompting. The tent goes deathly quiet, nothing but the wind howling outside.

"...She's trying to kill us," Pela whispers, her voice swiftly suffocated by the silence.

Gepard swallows. He can't bring himself to correct her this time. There is nothing he could say that he would actually mean.

His gaze drops, back down to his desk and the reports on it. The names aren't listed, just the numbers, but Gepard knows them, knew them, and there must be something wrong, something he's missing, because why, why would she-? What could this possibly accomplish-?

“Gepard! Focus!” Something snaps right under his nose, and Gepard startles, eyes instantly honing in on Pela's irritated face as she leans over his desk. She holds his gaze for a moment before she huffs and begins to pace, wedges a knuckle between her teeth and bites like Gepard hasn't seen her do since cadet school.

Pela angrily strides from one end of his tent to the other, words hissed between her grit teeth. “What are we going to do?” In the dim lighting, Gepard can just barely see the damp spot of blood weeping under her gloves. “We need a plan.”

“A plan?”

“Wh- Yes, a plan! Unless you want more people to die!” Pela rounds on him then, all the wrath of a blizzard, winds roaring and snow sharp enough to cut.

“We don't even know-”

“What does it matter?! She killed-!!” Pela cuts off with a garbled noise when Gepard leaps up from his desk, hastily shoves his hand over her mouth. The prosthetic, not the flesh one, because he knows better than to assume Pela won't seize the opportunity to leave teeth marks in his skin.

“You're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry; you're right. But you need to keep quiet.” Pela quirks an eyebrow at him and Gepard can read the question in her face. “Because we both saw what she did to Serval,” he hisses.

It's amazing the snow plains haven't thawed out yet, the amount of heat Pela can put behind a glare. The mere mention of Serval, and the smoking ruins Cocolia had made of her life and career, have her bristling up like a riled cat. The sudden hot breath she takes fans fog across his metal skin, and Gepard wisely keeps it in place until Pela finally sighs and reaches up, taps her fingertips against the back of his hand.

The second she's free, Pela bats him away and then her knuckle is right back between her teeth again, Gepard leaning back against his desk with his arms crossed to watch her resume her pacing. “If we spread the word, she'll have us discharged and make sure we can't even touch the frontlines,” Pela's voice seethes like an open sore. Gepard nods but keeps his silence. He knows better than to get in her way.

“And if you and I are both out of the picture, Belobog is fucked.” A little harsher than how he would have put it, but there's no denying that they're both important to the city's survival. Pela has the restricted zone running as efficiently as ever, and Gepard had become the youngest captain on record for a reason. “We need to keep this tight under wraps, at least for now… It can't leak to anyone higher up the chain.” Another nod. “Serval might know other discontents…” Another n-

Gepard's head snaps up. “No.”

“No what?”

“No. We're not involving Serval in this.”

Somehow, even the same tone that leaves entire squadrons shaking in their boots has never worked on her. “You're not deciding that for her, Gepard.”

Pela hadn't seen the worst of it, though, back when his sister had just been banned from the Architects. Serval's pride hadn't allowed it. Pela wasn't the one to find her passed out bottle still in hand, hadn't been the one to wash the sick out of her hair or carry her to bed. 

Serval still has trouble thinking clearly when it comes to Cocolia, still can't quite bring herself to be objective. And Gepard maybe doesn't want her to be purely objective- but he would worry a lot less if she thought twice before she acted more often.

“At least let me be the one to bring it up to her.”

“Whatever, fine,” Pela gestures affirmatively at him as she paces past, and Gepard sighs. Good, at least that's one thing he can help.

From there, it's a lot of hemming and hawing and frustration. Cocolia has them under her boot, and Gepard and Pela both know it. Even with the way she's been cracking down on freedoms lately, Cocolia is still, overall, liked by the people. It's unlikely anyone would believe them. They don't even have solid proof, because most people don't know Cocolia as well as they do and won't see the clues in the same light. 

The Fragmentum has been ramping up in recent years, too. Everyone is struggling just to survive as is, they can't afford a fight on two fronts. Gepard is a damn good captain, one of the best for that matter. But they're at a massive disadvantage, his experience is narrowed to fighting a defensive battle against monsters, that's all he's ever done. That's all anyone there has ever done. He has no way of finding first-hand knowledge for taking the offensive against a human opponent, and if he goes at this blind, there's no way he'll get everyone out unscathed. He's going to lose people. He's going to lose a lot of people.

He'd never thought before that Cocolia would have it in her to have someone killed. And with this new knowledge, he has no guarantee she won't go after Serval or Lynx if she decides to retaliate.

Gepard has to remind himself to breathe when he realizes this.

Pela writes down every name the two of them can come up with. Lists and lists of names and groups and anyone they can think of who might be an ally in all of this. They memorize every bit of it, make their plans of who to talk to and when. Gepard watches the sparks reflect off Pela's glasses as they burn the evidence together.

Pela finally leaves, far too late to make it home, but says she wants to stay in the restricted zone anyway to investigate. Gepard watches her make her way in the direction of Dunn's tent, watches her back until she's out of his sight and squashes down the urge to follow and keep an eye on her. His tent feels empty.

In the morning, Gepard is up before the wake up bells. He drags himself out of bed, leads his soldiers through their morning training. The same people gravitate to each other everyday. Friend groups and training partners. There's an ongoing rivalry between a few squadrons that everyone bets on. Some of them have lockets around their necks, keepsakes, mementos. Some of them wear wedding rings.

Gepard is suddenly, painfully aware of something acidic clawing at the inside of his throat, of a heavy weight low in his chest that blooms, takes up room until it threatens to spread his ribs. His mouth tastes of bile and blood.

He rearranges the schedules. Puts himself down for every open patrol into the Fragmentum, makes sure he'll be on the frontlines every single time Cocolia visits.

He only hopes that it's enough.

[robotwrangler]

I wish I was as joyously cringe as my 14 year old self. I think often about how I wrote a wattpad book back then that was literally just an open diary of what was going on with me + my hyperfixations (which I just called ‘obsessions’ at the time bc I didn’t know the word or that I was ADHD or anything) and despite it being a borderline incoherent mess of lolrandom and weeb shit (almost 500 chapters of it btw) it amassed over 100,000 reads and got to like #2 in the “other” category for a while

[nyan-bynary]

As cute as satosugu is, it's SO important to me that no matter how much they loved each other (romantically or platonically idrc to argue w/ ppl) they did NOT tell each other. That they lost their chance bc they were young and strong and full of hope and they thought they had all the time in the world to tell the other how they felt, y'know, like how teenagers are supposed to feel about life. But they couldn't be together, they couldn't have each other's company the way they really wanted. Their youths were forcefully taken away from them their emotions that they were still not fully settled on forced out of their hands because they had bigger more grave things to worry about now. It's so important to me that they were always doomed no matter what.

[moeblob]

Erin, to her crush: You're a dick

Mason, the crush: I won't argue! But to clarify -

[cerealandchoccymilk]

oaaagh i need to get Outside but i have class in like 2hrs....