#edited and hopefully somewhat complete now...

[wingedblessing]

an (poor) attempt at baking. jason todd x gn!reader summary: you n jason try to have a cute baking date with each other. cw: established relationship, fluff, short fic, ooc!jason(?), no pronouns used, no little to no editing - we raw dog this fic together, too much banter with too little baking at all. words: 878 words a/n: i wrote this in the middle of class, it's safe to say;; i am NOT locking in whatsoever but that's okay - more fanfics to write, woohoo! . anw, enjoy!

"You are a complete dumbass."

Jason let out a grumble in frustration from his spouse somehow mixing sugar up with salt. Shaking his head in disapproval as his eyes narrowed at you innocently standing beside him, acting clueless and innocent.

He crossed his arms together in front of his chest, the fabric of his red shirt desperately holding on right now.

You thought it would be nice and fun to bake something with him, something easy like a simple cake.

That, he can do.

It took days for him and you to set up a time together for this activity alone, despite you living together.

Red Hood or Jason as you know him can't do from noon to night since he wants to get some rest before patrol.

And he stayed up late at night with him returning to the apartment in the dead of night.

With you having to work from exactly morning to noon due to your job having a weird schedule for some reason. But whatever, anything to get by and have some money in your pockets.

So naturally, only a Sunday worked for the both of you two.

First things, it started okay with you forgetting to buy some necessary ingredients for the cake, but luckily Jason ran to the nearest corner shop with the checklist in his phone that looked like it had seen better days.

It was going good, you think.

Sure you might have mixed up a few ingredients but it'll probably taste better that way.

Right?

Yeah, you're right. Well, hopefully.

"I'm not, you told me to grab the white stuff!"

You'd rolled your eyes at your boyfriend previously just straight up telling you to grab the white stuff while he was doing the mixing, so normally - you thought he meant salt.

"You didn't specify what type of white stuff you wanted to put in the bowl, so I'd just immediately thought that it was salt."

Quickly you crossed your arms together in front of your chest whilst glancing at him in somewhat amusement.

Great. Now both of you were just crossing your arms together in front of your chests.

The bowl sat still on the kitchen counter, a few traces of flour still visible alongside both of you being covered in batter.

As you two continue to have a mini staring contest silently, Jason quietly dips his hands into the half-mixed cake batter before launching it on your cheek.

"Oops."

His lips curled into a smirk as your eyes narrowed at his antic.

"You little shit-"

Before Jason could fully comprehend your words at him, you dipped your own hands into the batter before accidentally throwing way too much on your boyfriend's shirt.

His favorite shirt to be exact.

Silence filled the air for a few minutes with you awkwardly blinking in surprise.

Just as you were about to mutter an apology, the man's eyes narrowed with his smirk growing wider.

"Oh, it is on."

A chuckle was let out of Jason's lips, his eyes gleaming with mischief as he quickly dipped his hand and threw some batter on you again.

Your lips quirked into a smirk whilst dodging the batter, watching it fall onto the kitchen counter behind you before quickly scoping a handful of batter into your hands.

Some of the batter spilled by the gaps of your hand with you just naturally accepting it as you threw it onto Jason who dodged that easily without any effort.

Well, major efforts to be exact.

"Nice shot, aim better next time."

"Oh, I'll show you what a nice shot is!"

This continued for almost an hour, with you two throwing batter at each other and cake batter flying everywhere in the once-tidy kitchen.

With some on the counter, some on him, and some on you too.

As Jason's hands dipped into the bowl to aim at you, his hands suddenly felt light and not somewhat heavy.

Like there's barely anything in his hands.

He paused for a moment as he looked down at the bowl, to see it nearly empty with only a few teaspoons of cake batter remaining on the sides of the bowl.

Huh.

"What's the matter? Hesitating to attack at the war you started?"

A chuckle escaped through your lips at the sight.

Jason shook his head - before nodding his head in the direction of the bowl, curious yet cautious - you followed his gaze and leaned closer towards the bowl to take a better look.

Nothing.

There was almost nothing remaining of the cake batter left in the bowl.

You blinked not once, not twice, but three times at the sight.

Oops.

"You're cleaning everything up."

Quickly you muttered out the words of your mouth immediately getting a side look from Jason beside you as he smacked the back of your head in protest and somewhat amusement from the two of you antics earlier.

"You're the one that threw the first cake batter at me, you should be the one to clean this place up!"

Safe to say, both of you ended up with no cake and ended up ordering take-outs with both of you two cleaning the kitchen and leaving kisses on each other while still being covered in cake batter from each other.

[©]:; don't copy, alter, or repost any of my works on all platforms, including tumblr too .

[mysouleaten]

' DOC AND BOSS ' [part one] [REMASTERED]

mafia boss! izana x doctor! reader

summary ... finding an injured member of the tenjiku yakuza hiding in an alleyway beside your apartment.. you decide to help!... not knowing he's the one in charge..

warnings ... bullet wound, izana is a bit snappy right now, fluff?, author trying to put their somewhat good writing skills to use..

an ... THIS IS AN EDITED VERSION OF CHAPTER ONE!!... sooo this was inspired by DEAD GIRL'S BEACH by @kokoch4n3l but this fic is a lot more fluffy... lol

[DOC AND BOSS masterlist]

tenjiku was one of the biggest yakuza's that ran tokyo--they were second compared to toman

but still one of the biggest when it came to land and property.. and one of their properties was your apartment complex-- your home

most who lived in this apartment building paid their bills to tenjiku, as they were the ones who kept this building from being destroyed by the government and replaced by some fancy work company.. and also leading you to being homeless..

you were very grateful for the fact they protected this apartment building... it was the cheapest and the closest to your job and university

around 8:45pm you finally were able to leave your job and drive back in the rainy night, ready to get in your comfy pj's and watch crime moves for the rest of the night and maybe order some yellow rice and soup to eat while you watch....! yeah that sounds nice

finally parking in front of your building and having a look outside the car window to see the harsh rain pouring down

you can only imagine how cold it is outside your warm car... and how wet too..

looking behind your driver's seat and reaching for your umbrella to fight back against the pouring rain from soaking you to your very core

"alright.. let's just hope I don't get completely soaked through.."

quickly opening the car door and rushing to open the umbrella over your head, shutting the door and pressing onto your car key to hear the 'beep!' of the car locking

blowing a warm breath you start to carefully walk towards the stairs that lead to your apartment, careful not to slip and bust your ass on the pavement in the process..

but hearing a loud groan made you freeze in place and hearing another louder groan over the rushing rain made you tense again but you quickly walked up the stairs and ran into your apartment... you weren't risking any crime movie shenanigans..

putting your bag down onto the bench under the coat hanger and turning your head towards the door as the.. guilty conscience starts to eat you up from the inside

what if someone was in need of help? you're not taking classes to be a doctor for nothing..!

you groan in annoyance and throw your white coat on the floor before taking the raincoat hanging on the coat hanger and quickly putting it on

slamming the door behind yourself and cussing out: "I hate being a damn doctor..! hate having a good heart..to help others! damn!"

hugging your waist to fight the cold that the rain is giving off and carefully walk down the stairs to your doom

"hopefully it's just the fucking wind and no one is actually here so I can go take my ass upstairs and--" cutting your rant short when turning the corner and seeing someone laying on the muddy ground

drenched and shivering the person was also groaning in pain

"crap.." you whisper and slowly begin to walk toward the person still being cautious and mindful of who this person you were going to help was

crouching down, careful to not touch the muddy water below

examing the man who was shakily breathing through his mouth and scrunching his eyes shut

his white long hair was muddied up and drenched

you looked down to see him holding his abdomen--blood was soaking his uniform, he was wearing the uniform of a tenjiku member!!... craaaaaap...

quickly pulling your phone out of your pocket and covering it from the rain you dial the number for an ambulance but a rough hand grabs your wrist and tries to yank the phone out of your hand "ACK!!" letting out a loud yelp

you stood up--yanking your wrist out of his grasp, and letting your phone drop near the man

you glared down at the man but quickly your breath was taken away by his eyes --which were a beautiful shade of lavender and they were staring daggers right into your own.. but they softened? when his gaze met yours

swallowing the built-up saliva in your mouth "you've been shot.. you need to go to the hospital" voice a soft whisper

he shakes his head against the wet concreate "..no..."

no? this man really wants to suffer with a bullet then..

"you-" "you..help me" the man cuts you off

"what!? wait- no! I can't! I don't have the-" your rambling gets cut off with a soft but desperate cry from the man

were you really going to drag a muddy wet mafia man up the stairs and into your apartment?..

you nervously look off to the side again as the white-haired man has been staring at you consecutively for the past couple of minutes after his 'removing bullets' procedure, you'er even surprised he's still awake after that

he's lying on his back with towels beneath him soaking up the dirty water that dripped off of him, bandages wrapped around his entire abdomen and he was facing towards you with a soft but blank? expression, like he was trying to hide everything behind his face and not give you a clue of what he's thinking..

he would shiver once in a while from the cold and you weren't so sure if you wanted to get him a blanket.. and get it soaked muddied up.. maybe you should towel him off properly before getting him a blanket? that sounded like a plan!

"im going to go and get another towel to pat you dry so I can put a blanket over you, please- please don't get up or move around, ok?" you stated

he slowly moved his head in agreement "alright- uh- I'll make you some warm food too- any preferences?" you ask

"no, anything will be alright, just get me out of the cold" he growled

you stood up briskly and rushed to find a towel and bedcover for him before he decided to stop playing nice

coming back minutes later and thankfully he didn't try to move anywhere, wandering to him and crouched down on your knees

"ok, I'll towel you off quickly!.. then you can have the bedcover and I'll get some pain medicine for you, also to try to get some rest, your body needs it...badly" you rambled to him

he didn't say anything back but the look on his face told you to 'get on with it'

jeez...what did you get yourself into...?

an ... OK! i edited some parts in and out and extended the ending! boom!! now I have to edit the masterlist and everything should be good! yaaaaaaaay!!

taglist ... @sennkawwa @mariam12344 @khfviq @wutap @bontensbabygirl @m0onz1 @ilybbg @kazutora-kurokawa @riritvt @manji-hoe @firstdivisiongirl @ureuphoriasworld @haikyuusboringassmanager @kokoch4n3l @m-ilkiee

[SORRY FOR TAGGING YOU SO MUCH, IM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT WHY SOME ARE NOT BEING TAGGED :( ]

[theenbyroiderer]

One more tutorial. I think this is the last one I have for now.

Here's how you stitch a 3D jellyfish. This is a more advanced tutorial. Prior experience with most of the stitches is recommended.

Materials: You'll need several needles, at least one shorter and one really long. I've used sashiko needles in three lengths, 4 cm, 5.5 cm and 8.5 cm. As for yarn, I think you can use whatever you have. Most of it can be done with six-stranded floss, but you'll need some thicker woolen yarn for the fluffy turkey stitch. I used fine d'aubusson (a fine wool embroidery yarn) for the body, six-stranded floss (2-3 strands) for most of the tentacles, a shiny silky embroidery floss for the edge of the body and a couple tentacles, and knitting yarn scraps for the turkey stitch.

Stitches: satin stitch, bullion stitch, padded satin stitch, buttonhole stitch, drizzle stitch and turkey stitch. Please look up stitch instructions on youtube, and do a bit of practice beforehand. This project is probably not a good practice run for these stitches.

Time: depends on the size of your jellyfish. I made quite a large one and it took me about 5 hours to complete.

1. Make a sketch of your jellyfish. At least of the body. Fill this body from edge to edge with bullion stitch, make them a bit longer than the body is wide so that they are somewhat loose. You should be able to get a finger underneath the bullion, depending on the size of your jellyfish.

2. Then it's time to satin stitch the body. For this part it's important that the needle goes through the fabric as close to where it came up as possible. The goal is not just to make a 3D body, but to make it a hollow 3D body. Don't just stitch over the bullion, stitch around it. It's also important to not pull too tight. Bullion stitch of this lenght is rather malleable, so it's a bit tricky to keep the satin stitch even. Hold a finger in the hollow underneath the bullion as you pull the thread tight. This will stop it from getting to tight, as well as make sure you keep the hollow. As the stitching gets thicker the hollow will get smaller, but that's ok.

3. When the top part of the body is fully stitched it's time to do normal flat satin stitch for the bottom part, the inside of the body of you will. Leave an opening in the middle though, you'll need some space for the drizzle and turkey stitch later.

4. This is a good time to give the edge some definition. Do buttonhole stitch around the top edge, then you go around and do another row of buttonhole stitch, kinda the other way around, through the loops from the first row. Hopefully you can see from the pictures what I've done. The bottom edge of the body doesn't need defining and won't be very visible anyway, so I just did some sloppy stitches along there and called it good enough.

5. Now it's time for the tentacles. Start with the drizzle stitch, because the turkey stitch will just get in the way if you start with that... but do remember to leave space for the turkey stitch underneath the drizzle stitch. This is where you need the loooong needle. Pack as much drizzle stitch on that needle as you can. You'll notice that the drizzle stitch wants to rotate around your needle as it gets longer, do let it, that will just help you fit more stitch on there, as well as give the finished stitch a nice curl.

6. When you think you have enough drizzle you can move on to the turkey stitch. You will not need to do a lot of it. You'll probably overestimate how much you need, but that's ok, you can always give the fluff a bit of a haircut later. Do a few looong loops of turkey stitch, a little bit longer than your drizzle stitch. Cut the loops to slightly different lengths, otherwise you'll get a very blocky bit of fluff... tapered is better. Untwist the yarn and separate the strands, draw a needle through the strands to fluff them up.

7. As a finishing touch you can add some long and thin strands around the edge of the body.

Edit: Tfw a post has been up for years before you notice that you forgot a whole-ass step. Apparently #4 has been missing all this time. Oh well.

[into-the-feniverse]

Finished reading Trigun/TriMax a couple days ago and have been feverishly trying to piece together a timeline, so here’s the result of that ✨

EDIT: as of 3/13/24 this has been UPDATED

For a more detailed timeline (with vol/ch marks): google sheet

Full res of the graphic (& other resources): bit.l/trigunresources

Notes & rest of the timeline under the cut!

Edits as of 3/13/24

The detailed spreadsheet is organized and color coded! If you'd like a more concise breakdown of events/see some of my reasoning behind certain time stamps feel free to skim through that

Changed where in the timeline the Maylene and Wolfwood events happened (originally where I had placed them would have made Maylene like 6 when she and Wolfwood reunited which is NOT correct)

moved where in the timeline Knives started collecting the GungHo Guns (at latest he started in 0090 (20 years before 0110) since it's noted that Monev has been training in a cellar for the past 20 years

Moved where Knives initially tracked down Conrad (felt like it needed to happen at least a decade before July)

Changed up some of the months (personally, I don't think the Ark launched in December, since that'd put Milly and Meryl's arrival to the colony in July, which wouldn't make sense. So I placed the ark launch in October which of course offset some of the other month stand ins)

Added an earth year for when Knives and Vash are born. The explanation is I think at minimum there was at least a 2 year period between them and Tesla (since Rem was around for that whole process). I do think it was more than that, but that’s the earliest possible year I think it could have happened. Personally I’m more in the camp of 5-10 years, but def not 50 like in tristamp

Old Notes:

If you see any typos or phrase inconsistencies: no you don’t 💕 (😭)

Blue text can be completely ignored, that’s just kinda my personal preference/wild guesstimating of when “exactly” those events happened

Blue lines can also be ignored, they’re also just rough guesstimates on where exactly in the timeline these could have happened

The distance of the lines from one another doesn’t really mean anything, I started trying to follow a system to notate when things happened really close together but it was//// not consistently done ngl

Fun fact: by the time Wolfwood leaves the orphanage Meryl is 18! And she was 14 at the time of July’s destruction

Additional fun fact: Brad is 17 when he and sensei meet up with Vash in the Factioned city (which I think is absolutely RIDICULOUS), and we know this because he was 4 the one/last time he had met Vash and it’s been 13 years since

It was noted by Karen, one of Meryl’s coworkers, that she and Milly had been on assignment with Vash for about 4 months. (Might be that they were out searching for him during that time as well, but I’m choosing to interpret it as they were actually with him for that amount of time)

I’m also working on a 98 timeline for comparison (but more like just sequence of events cause I don’t think I have the patience to sift through the lore quite as much… mainly making it just to clarify how the anime delineates from the manga)

I am//::: feeling v unhinged after this and feel like it could be improved/i need to do a more thorough read, but I’m calling it quits for now before I actually go insane (but hopefully some people will find it somewhat helpful!)

Also: if anybody has any notes to add or clarifications/corrections I would be more than happy to hear them 👂

[starberry-cupcake]

Hello!! This is an update but also not completely an update, it's somewhat in between, but I thought I'd share these things.

I haven't been able to start Nona because holiday preparations are taking all of my time. However, one of said holiday preparations involves making a gift that is tlt themed and I thought I'd share it (hopefully it doesn't end up looking too bad).

I was asked (it's a gift for my brother's partner) for a book-shaped vase-like thing for placing in a shelf to put things inside it, especially bookmarks and such. I was requested to do it Gideon-themed, so I've already made the foundation with mdf, sculpted the book over it with cold porcelain and I'm painting it in installments, before I varnish it. No polymer clay involved for this one, yes for the other craft I'm working on.

I was given three notes: 1) the cover has to feature the ninth house skull and a design made of bones, with the cover's title in its classic font, the design of where to put the bones and which bones I choose is up to me, 2) the spine needs to have all the nine houses skulls (that will be the end of me, I've already rearranged the design twice) and 3) I have to make up the blurb of the back in the style of my recaps.

So, I thought I'd share the blurb I've been working on as an extra recap and also to peer review it with those interested. I will have to see if it all goes in because I need to freehand paint this, but I'll do my best to make it work. I'm also making a miniature ornament scene at the same time, so painting little things is the name of the game this week. Here's the blurb:

She has thicc arms, aviator glasses and no idea of what's going on. Meet Gideon Nav, a horny gal with a knack for getting in deep shit. While trying to get out of a Bad Situation, she will get into a Worse One and land an unintended audition to accompany the Ninth House necromancer, Harrowcita Nonagesimus, into the latest edition of The Nine Houses' Next Top Lyctor. And, just like Tyra, the Emperor has set some Very Normal challenges along the way. We will meet smart friends, future enemies, strange twins and nasty traitors, creepy leech guys, kick ass girls and also Judith. Hold on to your rapiers and keep your bones accounted for, because things will get freaky up in Canaan House. One flesh, one end, bitch.

Added to this, I did read the Nona blurb! Because it's the first one I have a paper copy of, so I didn't get the blurb experience from the other two. I will react to that accordingly:

"no one expected nona to exist" I don't think the editor expected nona to exist either

I was advertised another book, but here we are

surprise book pregnancy

@lady-harrowhark pointed out there was a burger in her tshirt, this was something I hadn't even looked at before, I should point that out

I'm always looking at her face

she looks so happy, it's disorienting for this series

good for her tbh

living her disney channel sitcom moment

probably won't stay like that for long

"the zombies are coming back"

the what are what now

"all nona wants is a birthday party" very disney channel sitcom of her

"an unexpected young woman growing up in someone else's body"

we got some wei wuxian energy up in here

who's body tho??????

I'm scared

"resistance fighters and besieging necromantic forces" it checks out with the pov we last heard and allegedly camilla, regina george twin and judith acting like coaches for someone who doesn't know who they are

and last we heard the unoccupied body was gideon's but cover girl (put the bass in your walk) doesn't look like gideon so idk

"nona lives a temporary life" oh man, I don't know her but I like her and that makes me sad :(

she looks likeable idk

Extra commentary: I have a bookmark that I think works really well with this book: my sister gave me a lenticular bookmark of the second, third, seventh and ninth sisters from star wars that she got with a zine she received and it fits in a lot of ways

[d3adbr3inc3lls]

Hi!! Could you maybe write performer reader x amethio?

Amethio x Preformer!Reader | HCs & Drabbles

Note-- some of this is written at unholy hours of the morning(/lh) so some parts may not make sense, but I edited this in the morning again, so hopefully that balances it out.

Amethio was usually too focused on his work to look at work to watch anything really,

Conia was the one who showed him the pokémon performers, and you instantly stood out to him.

No matter what pokémon you had with you, you always brought out their full potential,

For crying out loud, you could be using Giratina and you'd be able to make the deity look graceful and like it doesn't have some twisted backstory

You were able to ace most, if not all, challenges that came your way.

Sure you may have struggled with some, but you kept going. You never backed down and that's what he loved about you.

The two of you probably met through Conia, she was a close friend of yours who was always there to support you, and even though you hesitated slightly at meeting Amethio, her superior, who wouldn't? You expected him to be a serious adult and not someone your own age, but she later convinced you that it was a good idea.

When you two finally met, you were in Sinnoh to relax and train your 'mons, and Conia, alongside Zir and Amethio were there because they heard of Kleavor and wanted to get to it before the RVT did.

You two meeting was a complete coincidence and it was unplanned, (Conia originally planned on having the two of you meeting up after their current mission which was to track down Kleavor), so it was a suprise when you heard your best friend yelling your name.

Hearing your name being yelled you quickly spun around to meet a familiar greyish-blue haired woman running over to you.

The two of you have been friends since highschool, and thinking back on it, she was like an older sister to you, always helping you get to class and was the main reason you passed calculus.

Crashing into your arms she gave you a tight hug, clearly missing someone who she views as a younger sibling. Your beloved partner pokémon quickly glances up at the two of you before letting out a happy cry and glancing at Conia, waiting for her to release her Psyduck.

You could see a taller man -who you assumed is Zir- somewhat behind her covering with a shorter man as they approached the two of you rather slowly.

"Your last performance was great, even Amethio and Zir watched you,"

A smile of pride paints Conia's face before she releases her Psyduck -now Golduck- to play with your 'mons.

"Really,?"

You would've never believed it yourself if it weren't for Zir nodding behind her, you wouldn't have believed her. Zir was never interested in anything related to performances, and as far as you've heard, Amethio would probably find it not worthy of his time as he's often training to get better.

But you were suprised to see that you were so wrong with assuming Amethio wouldn't watch you perform,

He enjoyed every moment of your performance, even the challenges that happened before.

The 'challenge' that happened before you had a performance against the Kalos Queen, Serena, involved a pokémon battle.

Not just any regular battle- well, it was a regular battle but it had a spin- you had to show off your partner's moves, and the way they phrased it was a bit off, but it was like a performance whilst battling,

If the two of you ever began to date, expect him to be at every performance. He loves watching you and your pokémon preform, even if you don't win and get to compete in the next rounds, he still is proud of you, knowing how hard it must be to perform not only infront of hundreds of people in person but probably thousands if you concider those watching online.

With that being said, if you ever struggle oe need help, he's the last person you should ask.

Amethio only knows pokémon moves in a literal battling sense, not a performance sense, so he won't be able to help you.

He barely even understands how you manage to turn any move into one for show instead of damage.

But expect him to be there for every performance (he will try his best to go to them, even if it means sneaking out and doing dumb teenager things, he doesn't mind it as much),

Quickly scanning the area, you look for the familiar ravenhead, he's always there to greet you after your performances, -but he did say that he might not be able to meet you because of something to do with summoning a legandary pokémon or something similar that you didn't understand-

You've changed into your regular clothes after the performance for comfort and possible safety issues as you've heard many rumours and horror stories of performers -especially female performers- being harassed by crazed fans.

Feeling a tap on your shoulder, you quickly spin around, anxious to see who may have recognised you, until you heard the familiar voice that put your mind at ease.

"I apologise, I had to get something, that's why I'm late," the familiar ravenhead told you as he handed over a bouquet of flowers, he had always bought you something after your performances without fail, and it truly makes you appreciate him more than you currently do if that's even possible.

In all honesty, you probably wouldn't be aware of Amethio's occupation and role with the Explorers, he doesn't want you to talk to the other admins as he doesn't want either of you to be targets of their comments.

If he does see any of them when the two of you are out, he'd try and avoid them,

If he can't avoid them, he'd definitely deal with them, excusing himself politely, saying that he sees one of colleagues and it is in your best intrest to not interact with them.

Amethio's worst nightmare would be Sango or Spinel finding out you're dating him.

Sango would make her usual Sango remarks whilst Spinel would tell him how shallow he is, spoiler alert- he isn't, he genuinely cares for you, and how it's a typical teenager relationship that probably won't last long

Jokes on him, Amethio never planned for the relationship to be short and genuinely wants it to work out, but if you ever want to leave, he won't stop you.

[nugromancer]

Veilguard Photodump (Spoiler Edition)

End Game Spoilers (mostly me gushing ab art direction (￣y▽,￣)╭ ) under the cut

I can't get over how stunning the light and colour design is in this game. Funniest thing I noticed was that, while treading through any area, there were a lot of very obvious "Photo Opportunities" where the map designer was like Hey. Hey. Come over here for this little bit of treasure haha. Oooohhh but maybe you can take a moment to enjoy the view? (we worked so hard on it please look pleasepleapspslelpeas) And it's banger after banger of beautiful scenery!

I want to get on this level where I can convey something so gd big. It's much more obvious how massive a Titan is when Rook is in frame, but even without, that's a big lad!!! Huge sucker for a good cloud cap that lets the sun peak through. Literal Silver Lining.

This shot from the end of the Corruption questline (and if you complete the Dreadwolf's Memories + Convince Mythal to help) is great. Like our lady's dragon form is beautifully lit, she's got a spotlight and everything!! And it looks natural. It looks like the sun managed to poke through the blight on this one place.

Also allow me to giggle and kick my feet because not only does Dragon!Mythal's design FUCK (look at that tri-crown horn formation like YEEESSSSSS THAT'S MY BITCH!!!!)

She's also PINK AND PURPLE?? LIKE HELLO??? The lighting is absolutely saturating her scales (plus she's breathing lightning, which glows violet/blue, adding to the effect) so it's brighter than it probably is. But what a fantastic coloration none-the-less!!

End-game Arc doesn't fuck around either. The gold ring from the eclipse against that eye-searing magenta is just. Augh. Ough. Foreboding has never looked so damn pretty.

(Also this general area is one of my favourite places in the Lighthouse. The lighting is just so on point. I have a dozen other photos of this section bc I always stop to admire it lmao.)

That magenta is striking. You'd expect it to be solid red across the board! But once we're in the "real" world we get those warmer tones you would normally associate with this sort of thing... But now that I think ab it, it's probably from the amount of smoke rising from the antaam encampment. The Crossroads don't have pollution! Of course it'd be more jewel-toned! I wonder what our sunsets would look like if there was less of that. Sigh. Anyways--

The Regret Prison. Probably my favourite sequence in the game. Yes I love colour, but let's not forget CONTRAST.

It's soooo easy it end up with a horrible clashing of shapes if you don't balance contrast. So you gotta Contrast the Contrast... by reducing the Contrast. Yes there's depth-of-field shenanigans (making lines blur the farther from the viewpoint they are) but there's also mist/dust/atmosphere. I love this shit.

Not to mention that subtle introduction of colour by incorporating greenery (still heavily desaturated, as to not be glaring/distracting) as you make your way through the map. Like. The starting area was desolate and devoid of life. Any plants you saw were dead. Bare-bone roots. But as your proceed you find Life scattered around. Hope.

I didn't get a proper shot/video clip of the end sequence for this quest, where you're walking across a barren expanse and can see the ritual sight erect itself piece by piece in the distance as you get closer. That sequence knocked me out it was so fucking good!!! To the person(s) who all made that happen, I'm sending them a big sloppy kiss on the cheek it was so elegantly executed. <333

Anyways I feel like I said a lot without saying anything at all but hopefully this was somewhat interesting to someone thank you for coming to my TEDtalk <3

[casinogutz]

About c!wilbur and c!tntduo.

I wanted to state my views and my personal opinion on the cwil character and also ctntduo as a whole. It is completely fine if you don't agree with these.

With the wilbur situation going on I understand why people would not want to think about tntduo or the character anymore because anything associated with him might make people think of everything that's happening and has already happened. And I understand, it's a gross feeling. But I think most of tntblr can agree that, this feeling is eventually going to gradually pass. The harm done by ccWilbur will never go away, but the pain fans (and not only) feel will fade with time.

With this, I do believe that cwilbur can be separated from the creator. They are different people. It is not the characters fault for what he did. The cc can control the c, but the c can't control the cc. I don't find it incredibly right to hate on the character for something the creator did. And since dsmp ended, the creators have basically abandoned the characters and left them into our hands, the community remaining. That somewhat makes them our ocs, and we can choose to edit and remove whatever part of cwil that feels too similar to the actual person. I do believe people can still like cwilbur and enjoy ctntduo, even if it will take time. I get why this right now might feel wrong or gross to think about, and that's completely fair. But I do wish and believe that that might change in the future.

I was going to start posting ctntduo content on here, but because of this, I'll wait a few weeks. Maybe even a month. It doesn't feel right to post stuff like that right now. I'll wait until people affected and fans alike hopefully feel better from this whole situation. I encourage people who still want to keep cwil or ctntduo to do the same.

It is completely reasonable to drop the character and ctntduo as a whole because of this situation, some people will never be able to look at anything he's made or he's part of the same again because of what he's done. I do hope that people who loved the cc and still love his character don't blame themselves for supporting what he did, we would have never known. He played his cards so well that nobody even thought to bat an eye. And that's what is severely disturbing about this situation to me. Because this once again proves that you can't trust ANYONE, especially not content creators. You do not know what goes on behind the scenes, you do not know what goes on inside their minds. You only see what they want you to see.

ALL my support goes to Shelby and I am by absolutely NO MEANS on Wilburs side and will never be. Support victims.

[reimenaashelyee]

The World in Deeper Inspection UPDATE Read: (Chapter 1: Pages 57 to 68) (COMPLETED)

About the comic

Grimsley confronts the man who set him on this goose chase.

And with that… that’s the end of the 10th Anniversary revamp!! Can’t believe it took me almost a year to get this short project done, but blame my school and day job for that! *drives the nail into the TWIDI IS NOT DEAD sign deeper into the wall*

It was enlightening to reinterpret my first ever completed comic (more complete than the strips and unfinished or one-off shorts I had done prior) – basically the one that started me down the road to a career as a published author. I was happy to see how much my style had improved – not just in the layout, flow and pacing – but in how my characters have become more expressive and energetic, and how comfortable I am with the cartooning. Here is the proof that drawing comics helps you get better at comics!! It only took 10 / 11 years!

Plus, after a long while of drawing with a more reserved, professional approach (see: Seance Tea Party, Alexander Comic), I enjoyed the abandon and whimsy of TWIDI. The lettering is inconsistent all over but that only adds to the handmade whimsical charm of TWIDI, so lol.

Anyway – I have the 10th Anniversary ebook edition up on my Ko-fi and itch.io! This edition carries both the original and revamped versions of Chapter 1. No new cover or illustration for it this time; I think they are perfect as they are.

I have been meaning to make a continuation of the end of TCM that bridges the start of Chapter 1. It’s a long time coming: a story that had somewhat existed since the early days of TWIDI in 2010. Hopefully I will find that stability in my life to return.

Open the cut below to see my notes.

There’s also nothing exciting here, EXCEPT I severely cut down on the number of panels (and the verbiage).

As with the previous spread I cut down and distilled a lot of the verbiage. I shifted the dialogue slightly so that the reveal that Mr. Brown is a Lord comes from Grimsley (in 2013, Mr Brown never admitted he was an aristrocrat until this page) – it made more sense since Grimsley had gotten the info independently from the newspaper article and Andrew, and Mr Brown not mentioning it himself fits with his whole lying thing. For this spread and the next couple of them I am zooming out the panels to include more scenery. The 2013 layouts felt very claustrophobic, with the over-reliance on bust shots of the characters to carry the tension of the conversation.

Some more dialogue trimming and background scenery. I decided to change the setting for the chase sequence to be within the cemetery – just ’cause it makes more sense than if it was done all around Brookham. The panelling for it is a bit more dynamic too – look, Grimsley is parkouring!!

I have no idea why 10 (actually, 11) years ago I had so much trouble conveying and pacing this sequence of Mr Brown being set on fire. That’s the hindsight of experience, I guess??? Anyway I added a few more panels for actual build-up, and the blocking is way better now – there’s more energy (especially Skeleton’s expressions) and clarity (omg we can finally see where and what’s happening to the lamp). The last panel is a new addition to better connect with the next spread. Also… I am excited to see how much further I can draw Mr. Brown’s demise.

Man, the difference some changes in pacing can make. I added some panels with witnesses to the fire, just to emphasise why Grimsley and Skeleton have got to run. It’s crazy enough if a Brookie has got to witness immolation in the middle of the Night, but two paranatural spookies??? Also human fat has such a colour hdsjkfhsdkf the things that come out of an immolated body are so eerie….

The 2013 spread is almost perfect. 18 Year Old Me got it.

[ambyandony]

Giorno Giovanna - Monster AU Profile

(hopefully screen-reader-friendly edition with detailed image descriptions)

Giorno Giovanna, part vampire, part... human..? and part... something else.

guest appearance from limbo because she's the only lycanthrope who was applicable to use

Preface about species type:

In the Monster AU, 'standard' vampires are a little more like traditional European folklore / pop-culture vampires. While some JoJo vampire rules still apply, so do many traditional vampire rules. Being only part-vampire also changes the rules somewhat. Usually to his benefit, making his vampirism-related weaknesses less potent against him. And there’s something else about him… he doesn’t seem to be a full 50% vampire and 50%…human.

His other behaviours seem consistent with a somewhat rare, rather misrepresented species… The Gentry.

Details related to Part-Vampirism:

Sunlight will not burn Giorno. It may slightly irritate his skin and eyes and will diminish a majority of his vampiric abilities when he is directly in it for too long, but it will not burn him.

He has little to no reaction to garlic. He’s just not that into it. This isn’t to say garlic necessarily has 0 effect on vampires (it’s mostly just an extreme irritant and deterrent, really), but it’s only about half as effective on him, and he’s lived in Italy since age four so he’s built up a tolerance.

Heightened sense of perception, especially in the presence of blood. In the presence of fresh blood, he becomes hyperaware.

Craves blood but probably can survive just fine without consuming it (he just won’t).

Automatic boost to charisma. Everybody agrees vampirism does this

Excellent regeneration ability. Stop cutting off your arms.

Has to stop to count spilt rice.

Can be around and make some contact with holy objects, but prolonged contact with them will cause him harm. He can be inside a church, but he tends to be inflicted with great discomfort or sometimes pain simply from stepping inside one.

Can be seen in mirrors! But only in some mirrors so he has to be careful. If it’s silver-backed, he can’t be seen. Silver-backed mirrors are less common nowadays (and by nowadays I mean also in 2001) but they’re still around so he has to be careful about mirrors in public places lest he out himself as a vampire.

Often has to be invited into a house. Or… perhaps just prefers to be?

Popular to contrary belief, he does have blood. His own blood usually doesn’t make him hyperaware though, as drinking his own blood would be completely pointless.

Details related to Faehood:

Seems very intent on people giving him their Names…

Occasionally steals your gender

Takes promises very seriously… and never breaks one. If he appears to do so, that’s on you. That’s something you did. You know who you are.

Sometimes looks a little… different. In a way you can’t quite place…

Seems to have an iron allergy. Which may be part of the reason he doesn’t presently drink blood despite his craving for it.

Details about Giorno:

Smug, pretentious, and a little bitch.

Snakey with wording and finds amusement when others are loose with theirs.

Is generally just proudly unfazed in most situations. He knows he’s powerful and thinks he’s invincible, in a perhaps rather childlike way.

Acts ominous, vague and mysterious but do keep in mind he is a 15 year old and a idiot

Very interested in Fugo because of the sheer audacity.

( sort of like "I like this one!"/"I would love to study you.")

When Giorno first met Fugo he was like “May I have your name? :)” and Fugo was like “no you cant have my fucking name you fucking dipshit” and Giorno was so taken aback by the sheer audacity that he just didn’t do anything about it and got attached to him

* and post part he keeps pestering Fugo like “can I have it now” “can I have your name now”

He likes messing with people. Especially Mista because he knows he can get away with it.

Doesn’t need blood but refuses to go without consuming (or complaining about not getting to) because he’s a little bitch.

Can theoretically fuck up technology by his mere presence if he’s not careful enough.

Holds people to their promises, even if they didn’t know they made one.

Good at charming people. Good at tricking people. Likes doing both.

shut up shut up shut up please shut the fuck up

Overdramatic and makes it everyone else’s problem. Occasionally sparkles, not because he’s a vampire, but because he’s a silly dramatic loser. Shimmers in the moonlight but it’s not clear if that’s possibly involuntary.

gender

[theflyingfeeling]

thoughts from last night's St. Aurora show 🖤

2 seconds into the warm-up act and suddenly I'm living in an alternate universe in which Joonas Porko is the lead singer of a rock band (more under the cut but I just need to share this first because I just can't get over this lol):

then he took his jacket off and I was like ??????? if not Porko, then why so Porko-shaped 😭

(I'll post one more video I took of their set so you can see it for yourselves, because he kinda also sounds a bit like Joonas at times 😂😭)

Joonas Porko doppelgängers aside, Delta Enigma was actually pretty good and I hope I'll remember to check out more of their stuff at some point! I had my picture taken with the lead singer but didn't get to chat with him properly as the last band of the evening just started to play when I got to him, so hopefully next time

St. Aurora was so much fun!! 😭 They were really just a group of friends playing some songs and having fun 🥺💕 although if I'm being completely honest it did feel a little weird to be there, as I only got into their music literally three weeks ago, and even though I have tried my best to do my homework and listen to their music a lot, I was not able to sing and jam along like I would at a BC show for example (and they didn't play the only song I already know the lyrics to 😔), but they were super fun to watch, both the music and the banter in between songs was top tier entertainment 👌

and then after the show they were hanging out by the merch stall. I've been looking for a cap to wear at summer festivals but none of the bands were selling any, so I asked Nile how much he wants for his own, but he wouldn't sell it lol, although he appreciated that I was brave enough to ask 😅 so I bought a totebag instead (the one they had on display, which apparently was the only one they had 😂), and I got to meet all the band members and have the totebag signed as @johnnyporko quite literally dragged me around and pushed me to them one by one like "Now there's Petja. Go!" and !!!!!!!! they were all so ridiculously sweet, gentlemen through and through, each and every one of them, from Nile who texted everyone backstage to come back so that I could get my totebag signed, to Eemi who seemed so grateful that we had come (as a side note the crowd was very sparse that night) and when we were saying our goodbyes and he and @johnnyporko were hugging, I was all prepared to be on my merry way when they'd be finished, but then Eemi turned to me and hugged me too, even though I hadn't even initiated a hug as I was feeling a bit shy 😭💗💕💞💖💗💘 honestly, already during the show I kept thinking Eemi seems like such a sweet person, because whereas Nile and the others were bantering away and talking "whatever their spit brings to their mouth" as we say in Finland lol, there was Eemi thanking everyone for coming and giving shout-outs to members of crew and just being an angel in general, and in person he's even a bigger sweetheart 🥺 my interactions with Vallu, Petja and Osku were somewhat briefer but I assure you they were all incredibly nice as well and seemed very down-to-earth. ngl I'm kinda bummed I forgot to show Osku some pictures of our old man Osku the dachshund lol, but maybe next time, because there definitely will be a next time!! 🖤

huge huge thanks to @johnnyporko for not only being my company last night but also for introducing me to St. Aurora, both to their music and to the individuals playing in the band 🫶

edit. oh, and Luna Kills was fun too! I listened to some of their songs earlier this week and really liked them 👍

[currentlyobsessedwithobi-wan]

To the person who asked me to make a list of my favorites Star Wars time travel fanfictions, and anyone who may be interested, first of all sorry that it took me so long. For some reasons my dumbass self didn’t bookmark the fics so I had to go and search them.

Secondly, I don’t want to disappoint but you should know that I’m not really picky when it comes to fanfics. Meaning that there’s a lot of thing that I don’t actually agree with but that I’m ready to accept in fanfics (for example madalorians. I honestly don’t know enough to either love or hate them in canon but I don’t ,mind them in fanfictions, as long as they’re not just here to bash the Jedi). Really, my only hard limit is no Jedi bashing.

That being said, here are some of my favorites that I was able to find again (most of them are incomplete or WIPs). I tried to put a simple description for most of them, but if you want something really accurate I advise you to just check the fanfiction :

The Lesson by cjwritesfanficnow

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26486284/chapters/85863850 :

Work in Progress. This one is pro Jedi but also pro Mandalorian and feature Jango/Obi-wan, so be warned if it’s not your cup of tea.

Basically, Jango realize what an ass he was, and is confronted with the consequences of his actions. Then he get to time travel in order to fix it.

Little Light Age by SpideyGrayson

https://archiveofourown.org/works/44444098/chapters/111788134 :

In progress. This one is also Pro Jedi. It’s mostly fluff for now. Ship : Cody/Obi-wan.

Obi-wan is send in the past, back when he’s 12, and becomes Shaak Ti’s Padawan instead of Qui-Gon’s.

Take it from the top and try again

https://archiveofourown.org/series/3535600 :

it’s a serie of two fics, one completed and one in progress. I honestly don’t remember if it’s completly pro Jedi or Jedi critical. But it’s not straight up Jedi Bashing. No ships for now.

Obi-wan is sent back at the time of Phantom Menace, and wants to save everyone (yes Anakin too, so if you truly truly hate him this one is probably not for you). It involves a lot of politics.

To Fix the Shattered Past by Forever_A_Thief

https://archiveofourown.org/works/42912192 :

Work in progress. For now it’s (and hopefully will stay) Pro-Jedi. But it’s Qui-Gon critical/bashing (because, you know, Legends). Anakin friendly (yes again, sorry to those who may be bothered by that). Dooku redemption (one of those things that I only accept in fanfiction. Though in this one, if I remember correctly Galidraan hasn’t happened yet and Dooku is not even close to falling).

Obi-wan, Anakin and Ashoka are send back in time during Melida-Daan. Obi-wan is physically 13, Anakin 6-9, and Ahsoka 3. For now it’s a lot of fluff (i like fluff, okay ? 😆) and a bit of angst.

Reprise by Elfpen :

https://archiveofourown.org/series/454408 :

A serie composed of four main parts. Three completed, and one in progress. Honestly, I read this one a long time ago so I don’t remember much. But I know that I liked it a lot. I would have to re-read. But I also read this before I became completly Pro Jedi so beware that this one may be slightly Jedi critical.

Since, like I said I don’t remember much I don’t want to risk making a mistake while describing it. I just remember that Obi-wan comes back as an adult (as Ben) and so there’s two Obi-wan : Qui-Gon’s padawan and the Obi-wan who died and time traveled. So if you want to know more, just click on the link.

Unexpected awakening by Rhiw

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15436701/chapters/35831454 :

Work in progress. Once again, remember reading, somewhat remember liking it, yet for some reasons can’t remember any details. By the tag, seems to be Pro Jedi. No ships tagged.

Please click on the link to know more.

Edit : so, I started re-reading this fic right after I posted this. I’m at chapter 4 for now, and it’s actually seems to be very Pro Jedi. And I really likes the writing style. I don’t really know how to describe it, but to me it’s almost…soothing. Where I’m at in the fic it’s still mostly hurt/comfort, but that’s the kind of thing that I really enjoy.

Revolving sun by SiennahRobek

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31766296 :

Work in progress (though I don’t know if it’s abandoned or not). Pro Jedi. Semi Anakin friendly. No ships.

It’s an alternate universe where Luke is raised by Obi-wan (and is somewhat his padawan) and they both ends up back in time, during the clone war. I really like this one despite it being incomplete.

When The Time is Right by robinasnyder

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26242654 :

Incomplete (still in progress? Dunno). Anakin friendly (listen there’s not a lot of time travel fanfics that are Anakin critical. Believe me I actually like it when he has to face consequences). Pro Jedi if my memory serves me right, but you should probably check just in case. Ships are : adult Obi-wan/Cody, kid Obi-wan/Cerasi/Nield.

Obi-wan, Anakin, Padmé and some clones ends up in the past. Obi-wan for some reasons that I can’t remember takes Bruck Chun as his padawan.

Teach the Padawan. Save the galaxy. by alexjanna91 https://archiveofourown.org/series/2520193

A serie of 4 works (each completed). Ships are : obi-wan (Ben) Kenobi /Tahl and temporary young Obi-wan/Satine. Kookie is Obi-wan’s son (I honestly didn’t remember this before doing my researches), So this is the fic that I talked about in my original post about time travel fanfictions. Be aware that while Jedi are still the good guys in this, it’s rather critical toward the Jedi Code. Pro Mandalorian (I think) but they’re not the main guys. I decided to add it here anyway because even if I have my issue with it now that I’m pro Jedi I still feel…nostalgic, since it’s one of the first time travel fanfiction that I have ever read.

Ben Kenobi is send back in time, save his younger self from Melida-Daan. Then he takes young Obi-wan as his padawan and trains him. And tries to save the galaxy.

Well, that all for now. Please let me know if I made any mistakes, and I’ll correct it (if I’m not too lazy).

[solarfyn]

author's note

hellooooo minsung ficathon readers! i feel like i'm a Pretty Niche skz author, so if you're new to my page, hello and welcome! i'm a multishipper and lover of character explorations, serious and Unserious. sometimes i like to do these horrifically long authors notes for my fics because i spent a long time writing them! and i love to break down my thought processes, so hopefully you find this somewhat entertaining sldkhfliwehflishdf

first off, this fic would not exist without the movies Everything Everywhere All At Once and Spiderman: Across the Spider-Verse (and ofc the first spider-verse movie). the concept of traveling across the multiverse in the name of love is something so beautiful to me and i really wanted to capture that and really hone in on the "soulmate" concept that minsung seem to fit so well into! so if you haven't already, i highly suggest you check those movies out <3

now for the actual writing process...

god this fic fought me so hard. fun fact, this was one of the very first fics i started for minsung! way back in i think--what was it, april 2024? i originally picked it up as an off-season prompt from round 4, and then took way too long to complete it, and then abandoned it for about half a year, and then changed my mind and resubmitted it as a self-prompt for round 5, so it took me exactly a year to finish it!!!! it's been shuffled through about 4 significant google doc drafts hahaha

i had so much trouble writing this one, just because it encompassed so many different minhos and jisungs, and i didn't really know how to explore that in a fic. one of my biggest struggles was i spent far too long in the spinoff universes, trying to establish those, instead of focusing on the Reason why jisung was out here fixing things up in different worlds.

what is jisung prime's goal? why is he going out of his way to do all these things? the real center of the fic should be jisung, figuring out that running away from his problems by conveniently being whisked into a bunch of universes is Not the move. that he needs to focus on himself back Home too. i realized this about uhh. a month before this fic was due? so Far too late in the game. LSKDFLSKF anyway it turned out fine so remember everyone... trust your gut and trust the process...

because i've spent so long on this fic, i ended up doing Heavy editing and some serious rewrites for the first half of it because i was learning how to Write Fanfiction the past year, and so the beginning draft was. so rough. please see an excerpt from the original document below...

i wrote this bit in april of 2024, and at this point i was Extremely aware that my writing didn't meet my own expectations. i didn't like the flow, i didn't like how robotic jisung's thoughts were, and i didn't like how it was so short! i think being able to write 11 (!!!) fics and 7 drabbles since last year helped me a lot so i could come back and finish this one :)

it took me a little while to find my footing within this fandom especially because it's so big!!! but eventually i found my friends and they've inspired me so very much so i'd just like to shoot a short thank you to everyone i've met-- you guys make me love writing <3 and it's been amazing to bounce ideas and skills and advice off of each other!!

in another life is my longest fic to date, spanning across a grand total of 28,395 words. if you know me, you know that wordcounts are my ENEMY. before this, NONE of my fics have crossed 10k, and more often than not, i'm out here cranking out so many ideas in the form of drabbles, and just never expanding on them. so to create a fic that took a whole year of my attention span on Top of being 28k words is pretty cool. that's an accomplishment that i'll pat myself on the back for!

ok now let's pretend we're having a conversation.

you: so, with this many universes, i'm sure there are... ones that got Rejected, right? me: yeah do you want to see them here you go enjoy

unfortunately i did have to cut some universes out from the final lineup for length and time purposes... in an ideal world this fic would have a gazillion different situations for jisung prime to prance around in, but at a certain point, he's not really doing too much in them anymore! the more mini stories i add, the more it takes away from the main "point" of the fic... so i had to cut it short to one of each "category" for jisung to learn from

jisung prime's world, canon compliant

canon divergence

childhood friends to eventual lovers

spiderhan. there's no explanation to this i just really wanted to write spiderhan

QUEERBAITING!!!!

inspired by eeaao's rock scene, but i wanted to make minsung a couple of cosmos flowers <3

(+ a secret nct one that my good friend and beta hal suggested HAHA it was perfect and so funny and i just had to add it to the fic)

also canon divergence, but with a Big Regret

now for the rejected ones and Why...

this idea spawned from when i was deep in the trenches of my bridgerton hyperfixation (around when season 3 was released). i did not have the capacity to figure out how regency era minsung would have used english... that's it... that's the whole reason... but here's a little snippet from my comments....

2. so... big news.. i actually repurposed this and created an entire universe inspired by teen wolf!!! unfortunately for some of you it is vaguely implied poly ot8 (they're a wolf pack!!! they're gonna do wolf pack things!!! sometimes it includes a little polyamory!!!), so if that's not your thing, i am sorry and please only read the first installment of the series, which will be minsung-focused, found here <3

3. coffee shops are cute, but i don't think it would've added much to the story unfortunately... maybe in the future i could write it as a standalone?? no promises though!

oh yeah! a final note... one of the biggest of the small details was that i made sure not to let minsung kiss a single time until the very end. as mentioned above, i wanted to make sure the end goal of the fic was for minsung to get together in their Own world. and so if jisung got with minho in a different universe, that's taking away the attention from jisung's original goal. does that make sense? i hope that made sense. feel free to dm me if it doesn't at any point hehehe.

man these blog posts always get way too long and way too disorganized. it's fine, we'll get better with every post hahaha that's always how it is... stick with your passions friends! they will reward you <3

[cornelis-rage-poetry]

The diary of an Underground Writer January 16, 2025

In 1980 on my fifteenth birthday I got this amazing present from my parents "26 Griezelverhalen" (26 Horror Stories) by Edgar Allen Poe. Published by Hollandia, in a translation by Simon Vestdijk (a well known Dutch writer in his own right) and with illustrations by Arthur Rackham.

I remember it was at the top of my wish list, I don't remember how or why I, as a young man had become interested in the works of Poe, but for some reason I was drawn to it, fascinated by the dark and mysterious nature of his stories. And in later years I bought several other publications of his work either in hardcover or paperback, always with a somewhat secretive desire in the back of my mind, to one day read his work in the original English language.

And now, practically a lifetime later, again it's my birthday, today I turned 60 (can you believe that? yeah I know I'm an old boomer)(hehe), and to mark the occasion I bought this present for myself, usually I don't buy presents for myself, but because I turned 60 (!!!) I thought: oh well, might as well buy something special and make myself happy. And so I bought this Barnes & Noble edition of "The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe", in the original English language. And it feels like a circle closing from then, way back in 1980 when I was just a boy, to now as I've become an old man.

And I've also noticed as I've become older, the more I feel this desire to go back to how things once were, it's not just this feeling of a circle closing, it's also with a sense of nostalgia, you know like the glow of moonlight, glistening on the surface of a river at night, as the water tries to finds it way back home, to the sea.

Update on my writing, everything goes forward with a steady pace, the formatting of my poetry collection into an ebook for kindle and kobo is mostly a technical formality and doesn't require much time. However the rewrite of my little novel does require time and attention too. I finished the first draft half way December of 2024, and now half way January I'm almost done with the second draft. And it's not only about rewriting, it's also about bringing balance to the story and the style in which it is written, as I've noticed that earlier chapters have a slightly different writing style than the later, as it's been written over the span of about one year, and one's writing style always changes a little bit over time. One might say, as it matures within the story.

And in the rewrite I'm trying to bring the writing style of the chapters closer together, bring balance to the story as a whole and make the reading experience more homogeneous. I hope to finish this second draft later this month, or perhaps early February, I will then let it sink in for two or three weeks, and give it another read to see how it holds up, maybe do some more rewriting, if needed. The plan is to round it all up in March and April, and then hopefully bring the poetry collection as well as my little novel out on kindle and kobo before spring sets in, so they can surf the waves of warm and sunny days.

Alongside these two projects, I've also started working on a third project. It's about the story of why we are here, the story of the Universe and evolution and stuff like that. I've started making notes a few years back, and at the time I had no idea what it was all about. But in recent times, I've started to notice a thematic structure in all those little scribbles and now (like two weeks ago) I've started organizing these notes by theme and topic, to get a better understanding of what it's all about and what it all means and then once it's all organized, usually the main story will show it self. I know it's a weird way of working, but for some reason it works for me, the same thing happened with my little novel. For now let's give it the working title "Project 3", I do have some ideas of what to call it, but it's still very early to give it a real title, and besides I'm not yet sure if it's a little novel or a collection of related stories and or meditations.

Anyway, today was my birthday and it was a good day. I've slept for seven hours, it's cold outside and I'm at peace.

[clown-friend-gt]

Mentorship Blues (Old Version)

Edit: This story is now out of date. Part of this has been repurposed for Chapter 20 of "Up, Up, and Away." Other parts of this that weren't included in that chapter may show up later in the story.

This is the last "introduction chapter" I have written at the moment. The fourth of my established characters, Ajax is introduced in this chapter. He's a well know superhero in the city that this story takes place in, San Solaris.

As part of the training program that Trevor, Addie, and Wren are a part of, each student is assigned a superpowered mentor to help them learn to control their own powers. Usually, this mentor has past experience as a superhero. For Trevor, that's Ajax.

Their first meeting goes...poorly, which is turning out to be a bit of a pattern for Trevor, though it's not really his fault.

Hope you enjoy!

************************************************************************

Sam Douglas, better known as the hero Ajax, had a bit of a conundrum on his hands. After a long career as an active superhero, the Lively Institute had decided it was time for him to do a mentorship. That wasn’t the issue. The problem came with the kid he was being made to mentor.

On one hand, he figured he should give the kid the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, his mentee would be coming straight from Corrective Custody. He had people close to him working there, and their stories didn’t paint the inmates there in a favorable light.

Either way, there was no way that a 20 ft tall teenage boy would be anything but a handful. But if anyone was up to the challenge, it had to be the all-might Ajax, right? That’s what everyone kept telling him, at least.

Trevor arrived a few minutes after Ajax did. He silently thanked whoever designed the Institute’s facilities for making everything so big and imposing. That way, he had less trouble fitting through the large double doors that led into the training room where he’d meet his mentor.

The room was sort of like a high-school gym in its size and layout. It had bleachers on either side, which were currently stacked up against the wall. Rather than a wooden floor like a basketball court, the floor was softer, almost like a wrestling mat. Similarly, there were a few rings painted on the floor scattered throughout the room. Ajax stood in the most central ring.

Trevor had seen Ajax plenty of times on the news, so he recognized the trademark suit that he wore. The base was a sleeveless black bodysuit with blue stripes running up either side. On his elbows, knuckles, and knees, he wore dark blue armor-like pads. On his hands he wore fingerless gloves. A black domino mask covered his face and completed the look.

Trevor wasn’t exactly starstruck, but he was somewhat intimidated, even if the man before him stood barely above his knee. Ajax was a legend within the city for his strength and fighting ability. If there was anyone who could help him control his strength, it was him. Trevor just hoped he could prove he was worth it.

It wasn’t often that Sam was made to feel small around someone else. First time for everything, he thought to himself looking up at his new student. Nevertheless, he had to establish his authority, so he took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and did his best to project as he introduced himself.

“Afternoon, young man,” he boomed. “I’m Ajax, and from now on, you and I will be working together.”

Sam reached out his hand to shake Trevor’s. Trevor paused, looking at it for a moment, before lowering himself down a bit and taking Sam’s hand in his as best he could and shaking it. His grip was firm.

“I’m Trevor,” he introduced himself.

Is he looking down on me intentionally? Sam asked himself, feeling a bit overwhelmed. Hopefully he’d be able to get a read on the kid soon, so he could figure out how to go about this whole “mentorship” thing.

“Good to meet you,” Sam replied. “Now, as I’m sure you know, we’ve been paired together because we both have some degree of super strength.

“What I wanna know,” he started, taking a few steps back, “Is just how strong you are. So, I’d like you to hit me as hard as you can.” With that, he placed his hands on his hips and prepared for the incoming blow.

After twenty years of being a superhero, this was still his best icebreaker. He’d learned to tell a lot about a person by the way they lashed out. If nothing else helped him figure the kid out, this would.

Trevor furrowed his brow. “Are you sure? I can hit pretty hard,” he said.

He’s cocky. Not sure how I feel about that, Sam thought to himself.

“That’s the point of the exercise, kid. Come on, I’ll be fine.” Sam gave him the showy smile he’d had to perfect over years of being in the limelight.

“Alright,” Trevor replied. He’d seen Wren pick plenty of fights, so he tried to copy the sort of stance they entered when they did. He crouched down and raised his hands in front of him. After a bit of indecision, he swung his hand with as much force as he could muster.

The back of his hand connected with Ajax’s torso. His eyes widened as Ajax was sent flying across the room. He hit the wall with a smack and fell to the floor.

Is he okay? This is what he asked for, right? He worried silently. He tried to hide the concern on his face, not wanting to look weak.

Sam took a few seconds to recover before he sat up from the floor. He was made of pretty tough stuff, so he doubted he’d be injured. Still, he needed a moment to catch his breath. It had been a while since he’d been walloped like that.

As he stood up, he got a good look at the kid’s face. It held no expression, no sign of concern. Despite himself, he had to suppress a shiver.

Fine. If that’s how you want to play it. He cracked his knuckles and began preparing a lecture in his head.

When he first started out as a superhero, many of the calls he got were to deal with some superpowered brat going on a rampage. Some people got a taste of power, and it went straight to their heads. He was always the one to remind them that there was always a bigger fish.

“First lesson,” Ajax started, making his way back towards Trevor. “About the meaning of strength.”

Ajax’s sudden shift threw Trevor for a loop. Still, he did his best to pay attention to what he was saying.

“Strength—” Ajax continued, breaking into a sprint.

“—is all about—” he leapt into the air.

“—how you apply it!” He twisted midair, landing a roundhouse kick to the back of Trevor’s knee.

Trevor cried out in pain and surprise, his knee buckling underneath him. He managed to throw his hands out in front of him to catch himself. The floor shook slightly from the impact. He looked at Ajax in shock, who had landed next to him and continued speaking calmly.

“If you don’t know how to apply your strength properly,” he suddenly grabbed one of Trevor’s hands in two of his own. He pulled it behind Trevor’s back, and the force of it made him fall on his face.

“Then you don’t deserve to have it.” Before Trevor could try to get up or pull away, Ajax began to twist his hand in a way that made it painful to resist, trapping him on the ground.

“So,” Ajax said, speaking above the sounds of Trevor struggling in his grasp, “I want you to think about that before you try and put the hurt on someone. Understand?”

Trevor did not. Between the pain, confusion, and frustration, he was stumped. Trying vainly to free himself one last time, he groaned bitterly and slumped in defeat.

“...I never wanted to hurt anyone,” he muttered, mostly to the ground.

“What was that?” Ajax asked.

“I said—” he turned his face to look at Ajax as best as he could. He shot him a glare before continuing, “I’ve never wanted to hurt anyone.

“But ever since I got these stupid powers, that’s all I’ve been able to do. That’s all I’m good for, apparently!

“I thought if anyone could understand what that feels like, it’d be you. But I guess I was wrong,” he finished, turning his head away from Ajax again.

He let Trevor go. Trevor’s arm went slack, and he laid face down for a second. Then he propped himself up just enough so he could roll over onto his back, covering his face in his hands.

Sam had royally screwed up. In his haste to prove…something, he’d forgotten what he was supposed to be doing here.

He did know what Trevor was talking about. He remembered what it was like to wake up one day, changed forever. Unable to trust yourself around the people you care about. Worried that if you lost control, they’d wind up seriously hurt, or worse.

He sighed, sitting on the floor next to Trevor’s head.

“Listen, kid. I do understand how you’re feeling. I misjudged you.” Sam hesitated, then added, “I’m sorry.”

Trevor slid his hands down his face, shooting Sam a look as he did so. Then he sighed and looked away. “You wouldn’t be the first.”

“I don’t know how to make things right. Could we start over?”

Trevor sat up, watching him carefully. “I don’t know. Are you gonna beat me up again?”

Sam shook his head. “No. We’re going to do this completely differently.” He reached up to his face and peeled off his mask. He let the mental mask of ‘Ajax’ that he wore slip as well.

“Sam Douglas.” He began to reach out a hand again, then stopped. “I’d offer to shake your hand again, but I think the first time was awkward enough.”

Trevor nodded warily, still a little rattled by this turn of events.

“Um,” he said aloud. “Trevor Castillo. Nice to meet you.”

Cas-Tee-Yoh, Sam thought to himself. Glad he said it before I embarrassed myself with my pronunciation.

“Now,” he began, “If I had thought ahead, I might’ve brought some stuff to help us work on control. I’ll have to remember that for next time.

“Today though, there is one thing I can teach you. If you want to interact with people, you have to learn to relax.”

Trevor nodded to show he heard, although it didn’t make much sense to him.

“When you’re tense,” Sam continued, “your muscles contract. You’ll end up using more strength than you mean to.”

“I guess that makes sense. It’s just hard to be relaxed when everyone around me seems so…” Trevor trailed off.

“Small?” Sam offered.

“…Yeah,” Trevor admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. “I worry that if I’m not careful around everyone, I’ll wind up hurting someone.”

Sam nodded. “I’m not saying it’s easy. It’s a careful balance you need to strike, between being relaxed and staying focused.” He thought for a moment. “You ever try meditation?”

Trevor shook his head.

“That’s what we’ll work on today, then,” Sam decided with a snap of his fingers. “Close your eyes and I’ll guide you through it.”

[alexanderwales]

The Current WIP List

Inspired by this post by @a-memory-a-distant-echo, this is a list of ongoing works-in-progress, where "in progress" I will define as "I have added at least one sentence in the last year as an indicator of actual mental load being used". This does not include worldbuilding or planning documents, which spring up like weeds. I am also including the ones that I get paid for via Patreon or publication deals or whatever.

Thresholder is my currently ongoing web serial, publishing two chapters a week (in theory ...). It's about a guy who travels between worlds and fights other people who travel between worlds, with each world being a relatively contained book. Currently about 750K words.

Doomsday Pivot! is, in theory, the follow-up to Thresholder, about a start-up that has to make a sudden change in plans when the end of the world gives everyone a character class. First book is rough draft complete but needs some responses to developmental editing, sitting at 104K words. (You can read a noncanonical first chapter here, which I had previously made public on my discord.)

Millennial Scarlet is a webcomic I write about a gig-economy demon hunter. Writing comics is awesome, mostly because I get to see my words come to life. In word count ... I'm not sure right now, but probably not all that much. In the middle of writing the fourth issue right now.

Glimwarden was a web serial that I abandoned, a black mark on my record. I intend to go back to it at some point, because it was my wife's favorite. You can read it up to the point where it was abandoned here. There are currently ~3 unreleased chapters, but most of the effort put into it has been rewriting it and bringing it up to snuff, as well as fixing some problems with it. Will get a relaunch at some point, probably, when I'm ready to commit to that. No idea on the word count.

Untitled Dance Magic story is probably a short story, currently ~5K words. It's based around a magic system where people do ballroom dance to create architecture, and is a somewhat traditional romance and/or coming of age story. I started writing it on a whim after a conversation with @etirabys at LessOnline, and hopefully they haven't started their own story, and hopefully if they have, hopefully their story doesn't overlap mine. I'll check before posting, hoping to get this one finished and out there.

Kensuke Fucks the World is an existentialist horror erotic novel, which I describe as being "like the Erogamer, but sad". Currently 75K words, and might never see the light of day. I think I can wrap it up in another 25K words, but I think it needs a lot of work.

Long Stairs will probably be novella length in its finished form, and will probably not be finished. It's an old story, which predates Worth the Candle by a few months, and is about a military fireteam making a routine delve into an endless shifting dungeon that the US military has already pulled a lot of magic out of. Medics with clerical healing, wands and firearms, high fantasy and military. There's unfortunately some stuff in there that I cannibalized for WtC that needs to be changed so it's not a repeat, but nothing structural, and there are a lot of plot beats that I enjoy in both the 15K words that are already written and what's in the notes. I did not put a bunch of work into this one, but it was one of those cases where I was reading through old stuff and got enough of a head of steam that it latched onto me again. (I also don't know enough about the military or how to write that kind of stuff, which is one of the reasons that this fic never got my full attention.)

The Lot is a story that's basically just "the backrooms, but with cars". It think it was inspired by a tumblr post, but probably won't be finished, since it's probably novella length. Currently 9K words, more a character study than it is about people stuck in an infinite parking lot and scrounging off what they can find in glove compartments.

Kitchen Sink is a bureauporn/bureaupunk novel about the agency created to deal with the rise of mutants circa 1977. Currently a mere 9K words, but the plan was for each successive part of the book to focus on another genre being discovered by the department, so you'd get a book with wizards, with vampires, with aliens, etc., mostly with a focus on how these are handled on an administrative level. No way I would ever be able to sell it, unfortunately.

Robot Team Isekai (not its real title) is about a van full of kids on their way to a robotics team meet that get transported to another world where their individual specialties grant them awesome abilities in a "your hyperfixation makes you perfectly adapted to the fantasy world" kind of way, but for five people with different hyperfixations. 2K words, probably will never see the light of day.

Full Meta vol. 2 is a novel about a group of high school students who get metafiction powers, so like ... one girl gets the ability to read the text of the novel they're in whenever someone is engaging in exposition, one guy can read the flashbacks, someone can read all the romance scenes or whatever, and they have a dysfunctional time dealing with each other through college and into adulthood. I fully recognize that calling it "Full Meta vol. 2" when no first volume exists is a gimmick title and would be confusing enough to immediately turn people away.

Dark Wizard of Donkerk was an old NaNo novel, but got halfway dev edited before my dev editor on that one flaked. I think it's a good story, just a matter of getting into the guts of it and making it great, but that takes time. 173K words, but this is old old. If you like rough, unpolished creative output, you can read it on my website.

Untitled Hermione/Draco fanfic is, uh ... I guess according to the logs was something that I put effort into in late 2023. I have read vanishingly little HP fanfic, and I'm sure there's a ton of this stuff, and that some of it is even good. This one doesn't adhere too much to canon or fanon, and is mostly about trying to write a realistic racist who falls in love with someone he's racist against. 14K words, I cannot believe I added anything to this recently, but apparently I have.

Technically by the criteria set out, I should count all seven of the NaNo test chapters I wrote. Of those, the only ones that have retained any brain space are "The Inevitable Return of Nathaniel Greene" and "Dungeon Core".

There are a few more that are technically outside the arbitrary time limit of one year, but I'm going to include them because I have thought about them in the last year (and will not include the ones that I have not thought about).

Of Witches and Wizards is what I thought was a romance but was told does not fit the apparently pretty exacting mold of a "romance novel". It's about a widowed witch whose two sons have left for college and a wizard who travels the world writing about places for a travel guide. They fall in love. Tons of worldbuilding stuff as they visit different cities and see the breadth and beauty of magic in the world. 15K words right now, was going to be a nice and slender novel.

Eager Readers in Your Area was a short story I wrote a year and a half ago. The WIP is a novel-length version of that about ... art, artists, AI art, dealing with people online, and a bunch of other stuff. I wrote an outline I thought was quite good, but if the short story is the first chapter, then I want an equally good and tight second chapter, and that's hard to do.

Slaver Slayer (not final title) was about a slave who assassinates a high-ranking member of the kingdom and through an oversight gets a magical artifact that might possibly let her kill her way through the monarchy in an attempt to end the institution of slavery. The other protagonist is a detective who's grappling with his complicity in the system and is trying to stop her. Made it to 13K words. Another one of those that was outlined to be a nice tight novel.