#firefly rambles about art

[bam-stroker]

This illustration by Mucha has changed my brain chemistry

[ellethespaceunicorn]

Some Things You Just Can't Refuse

Title: Some Things You Just Can't Refuse

Rating: Explicit, 18+, Minors - DNI

Pairing: Dom!Clark Kent x Sub!Reader

Word Count: 4.7K+

Summary: A collection of first times with Clark Kent, and one last time.

Warnings: dacryphilia, unprotected p-in-v sex (wrap it up babes), creampie, spit kink (for like two seconds), Reader being a brat

A/N: This has been a plot bunny that sat in my Google Docs while all my other works got attention. Did I really just write a 5+1? Unbeta’d, we die like people who tried their best. 

Dividers by: @firefly-graphics

Support/Reblog banner by me

Cover Art by me

My Masterlist 

Clark Kent was a simple man, for the most part. He had preferences, sure. But he knew what he liked, and went for those things more often than not. One of his preferences was a certain kind of woman. 

And you were that kind of woman. His Sunflower.

The perfect combination of submissive and strong-willed. What others may call bratty, Clark would call “a little feisty” and he wouldn’t change it for the world.

And that is where Clark was anything but simple. He was your Dominant, you were his submissive. He loved you, he provided for you, and he kept you safe. He kissed the ground you walked on, he broke you, and he put you back together.

The first time you met Clark Kent was in the break room of the Daily Planet. 

You were an intern for the summer, just working to get some credits toward your journalism degree. You weren’t all that interested in going to warzones and reporting on drug lords and shit. You wanted to tell stories about starving artists and activism. You wanted to surprise people with your ability to capture the essence of someone’s emotion and relate it to the reader’s own experiences.

While doing your writing at work, while you were supposed to be doing whatever Lois Lane threw at you this morning, you decided to take a break to recharge. Since energy drinks gave you the jitters, you opted for a warm-ish mug of hours-old coffee.

As you reached up to the cabinet to get a mug, you watched as a hand appears above you to grab the handles of two mugs. You turned, following the hand, to see who reached over you. Eyes blue like the Atlantic Ocean behind a pair of plain black rectangular frames looked back at you. You can’t help but smile at him as he beamed, bright enough to illuminate your entire day.

And your writer’s brain was getting way ahead of itself already. Who the hell was this mountain of a man? I wonder what his lips taste like. Should that tie go with that shirt? Fuck, did he just ask me something?

“I’m sorry, what?” You shook yourself out of your thoughts.

“I asked if you wanted the black or the flower mug. I was gonna offer the flower. But I’d rather not assume you didn’t wanna just take the plain one. So, I’m gonna stop talking and let you answer.” 

Fuck, he’s cute when he rambles.

“Sunflowers are my favorite.” He offered the mug and your fingers touch and you’re glad that you are the only two in the break room.

“Clark,” he says, as he poured himself some coffee, “Clark Kent.”

You gave your name and he put out a hand to shake yours. With your hand in his, you notice how it engulfed your own. You thought to yourself about that hand around your throat. Just lightly squeezing the sides of your neck, as a warning.

“Nice to meet you. I hope Lois has been easy on you. She can be a little…much.” He said it in a way that lead you to believe he’s been on the demanding end of Lois more than once.

“Eh, she’s alright. I mean, Ms. Lane is just fine.” You tried to cover your disdain for Lois. In reality, you saw her as a ‘Pick-Me’, but you tried to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“Yeah, sure she is. I dated her, so I know her pretty well. Not that I should be saying anything. But, don’t let her try and get in your head. She’ll use whatever she can to get a scoop, whether in the field or the workplace. She’s a great journalist, but-” You cut him off, not wanting to take part in putting down another woman.

“I think I get the hint. Watch my back around her.” You assure him you understood as you poured your coffee and put in some cream and sugar.

“Yeah, sorry. I shouldn’t talk about her behind her back. That was rude of me. My mother would be disappointed in me for that.” He looked into his mug, and you saw that he was not proud of himself for putting down his ex.

“It’s all good, Clark. I can tell you didn’t mean anything by it. Emotions are tricky, ya know?” You don’t know why you wanted to give him an ‘out’, but you did.

“That, they are. I better get back. See ya around,” He gave a cute little wave and exited the room.

The first time Clark Kent called you Sunflower happened about a month after your first meeting. 

The two of you ended up together on a test run for Perry to see how you go about working with other reporters. He probably just wanted to see if I could share a byline.

You could tell that Lois saw a tenacity in you that reminded her of her younger self. While that was great, you wanted to be seen for your ability to get people to talk to you without making them feel like they were in an interview. Just a conversation between people.

When you asked Clark to work on the assignment with you, he jumped at the opportunity. In truth, he wanted the chance to see you at work. He’d listen to Lois talk about how you just saw things differently. Almost like she was jealous, but she would never admit to that.

“So I was thinking we could go to Gotham. Before you say anything, I know it’s dangerous there but we’ll be going during the day. And I finally got the go-ahead from Wayne Enterprises to shadow one of their board members. A Day in the Life kind of piece. What do you think?” You rambled out, arms crossed as you leaned against Clark’s desk.

“I think I can get you an exclusive with Bruce Wayne if you wanted.” He stated nonchalantly.

“I would owe you big time. Wait, how the hell do you know Wayne? What, were you boy scouts together or something?”

“We just end up at a lot of the same places.” Clark offers no other explanation.

“Right,” you nodded at him, not letting it go, “So, I run point on this and you back me up?”

“Sounds perfect. You’ll do great, just know he will try and flirt with you so don’t make it easy for him, Sunflower.” The nickname caused heat to rise to your face, remembering that first time you met him.

“Sure, like the most eligible bachelor in Gotham who can buy whatever he wanted would look at me twice?” You weren’t being down on yourself too much, more like you were being realistic. The man had dated supermodels and heiresses, not chubby junior reporters.

“Without sounding unprofessional, trust me when I say Bruce will look at you more than twice. You say the word and I’ll set him straight.” Was that flirtatious? No way.

“Um, if you say so, Clark,” you tried to laugh it off and walk away but Clark caught your wrist, your eyes locked with his and you felt…something. 

“I do say so, Sunflower,” he lowered his hand from around your wrist, “Just prepare to shut him down more than once. He’s, uh, persistent.”

“You trying to save me for yourself, huh?” You couldn’t help yourself. If he denies it, you could say you were joking. If he confirms it, then…

He simply smiled and tilted his head, neither confirming nor denying. 

During your interview with Bruce Wayne, you were surprised that he indeed did flirt with you as Clark said he would. You managed to steer the conversation back to Wanye Enterprises each time he would stray to learn more about you. You would give him a detail here and a tidbit there, but you kept it professional. Clark was there to take notes, letting you take the lead. He was impressed by you. You kept Bruce flirting with you to get him to spill details about new things he was working on for Gotham.

The first time you kissed Clark Kent was three months into your internship. 

Lois had taken a shine to you, loving what few pieces you were able to get past the intern pool and into an issue. You figured it would be in your best interest to go to her with any journalistic questions you had. You may not like her very much, but she was still a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and you would be an idiot not to take a few pointers from her.

There was one thing you didn’t talk to her about, and that was the massive crush you had on her ex. It just seemed too messy, and honestly, you didn’t need her permission to do anything. 

That’s why you accepted Clark’s invitation to make you dinner. Frankly, you weren't surprised he asked you. You had been flirting with each other, exchanging glances and smiles across the office. Spending hours a night talking on the phone and texting back and forth naturally lead you here.

Armed with a bottle of wine and all the courage you could muster, you make it to Clark’s apartment just as he is finishing dinner. He answers the door in jeans and a grey long-sleeved henley, looking so comfortable and so different without a tie on. He thanked you for the wine, took your wrist to pull you behind him, and shut the door with a socked foot.

Pouring you both a glass, he congratulated you for completing half of your internship. It completely slipped your mind that you had reached this milestone, but he remembered. And that was saying a lot. You clinked your glasses together and took a sip of the pinot noir. 

“This is going to go great with dinner. Thank you again for picking up some. I can’t believe I forgot to,” Clark bantered, setting his wine glass down to check on the pork tenderloin and roasted potatoes.

“You were too busy trying to impress me,” You insisted, smiling when he gives you a stern look.

“Watch it, Sunflower,” is all you hear and you shifted from one foot to the other to hide your search for friction. You barely had two sips of wine in your system before this man had you feeling drunk.

“Time to let the pork rest while the potatoes finish up. Should be done in a bit,” Clark picked up his wine glass, settling his other hand on your lower back to guide you to the island counter. He didn’t expect it when a shiver ran up your spine and caused you to giggle, but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t like it.

You sat and chatted during dinner like you’ve known each other for ages and it just felt very comfortable. He told you about his mom, growing up in Smallville, and how he came to work at the Daily Planet. You spoke about your schooling and how you’d one day like to write for the Planet and publish a book of short stories. He was stuck on your every word and it made you feel important to have his undivided attention.

After dinner, you retired to the living room to watch some tv. It was more just on as background noise as you conversed with each other. When you both reached for the wine bottle at the same, you both laugh and then look at each other. And it was all you could do not to melt into a puddle as those blue eyes stare longingly at you.

Clark reached up and took off his glasses before tossing them on the coffee table. Fuck. But, he does nothing more. For what seems like minutes, you sat in silence just staring into each other’s eyes until you speak up. 

“Clark, please?” You whined, growing more frustrated with every second.

“Use your words. Tell me what you need, Sunflower.” The way he said it had you shifting in your seat.

“I need you to kiss me, please?” You pleaded, the little crack in your voice not missed by Clark.

He cupped your face with one large paw, his touch so soft that you leaned into it to feel his warmth. His thumb moved over to wipe across your lips, followed swiftly by his lips.

Your lips met and you felt the warmth radiating from him. You could taste the sweetness of the wine on his tongue as he begged for entry. You let him in, moaning into his mouth. Clark grunted in return and pulled away to rest your foreheads together.

“I have wanted that for far too long, Sunflower,” Clark groaned, licking his lips.

“Me too,” you whisper, scooting closer to Clark to lace your fingers together, “Can we do it again?”

Instead of answering you, he pulled you into his lap and attacked your mouth with fervor.

The first time you tell Clark Kent you love him is exactly two months after your first kiss.

It was completely by accident, but no less true. 

Clark invited you over for dinner and a movie. The two of you were in the middle of watching 10 Things I Hate About You. Patrick was dancing on the bleachers and singing to Kat. The most romantic scene in the movie apart from the poetry scene.

“Ya know, if we went to high school together and you sang ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ to me in front of the whole school, I would have melted,” you say, stuffing popcorn into your face, “But then, I already love you, so you wouldn’t have to do the whole singing thing.”

Clark’s head whipped around so fast that you can feel the wind coming off of him. “What did you just say, Sunflower?”

You look to Clark and you realized what you had said at the same moment and your eyes went wide. “I think I just confessed love during a ‘90s romcom.”

“Yeah, I think you did,” Clark looked at you with that look in his eyes, “Good thing I love you, too.” He says nonchalantly, trying to not freak you out, and went back to watching the movie.

“Clark, I love you.” You wanted to feel the words on your tongue again.

“I love you too, Sunflower.” Hearing the words come from him was like a cozy embrace that coated the night in warmth.

The first time you had sex with Clark Kent was at the end of your internship.

Clark wanted to wait- 

No, he didn’t want to wait, but he chose to wait until your internship was over and you were offered an actual job at the Daily Planet to not seem like he was cruising for tail in the intern pool. 

Little did you know, but Clark had it all planned out. Candlelit dinner, romantic music, wine, and chocolates. The whole nine yards. But you didn’t get to experience that version of lovemaking. 

At the same time Clark was lighting candles, he heard your heartbeat spike across town. He sped away to your location, without putting on his suit. He flew above the city before he found you being held up at gunpoint in an alleyway and his blood boiled. He watched you comply with your attacker and hand over your purse before flying down behind the man quietly. The man had no idea what hit him when Clark flicked his temple and the assailant falls over unconscious.

He didn’t even think to keep his identity secret anymore. He steps over the man to get to you and check you over for injuries, both external and internal. When he sees nothing, he questions you, “Are you alright, Sunflower?”

You look almost through him because there he is in a sweater and dark-wash jeans, glasses slightly askew. You step back an inch as he reaches out to you. He can see it in your eyes that you are piecing together little moments. 

How he got across town in what seemed like seconds. How he never got sick. How it felt like he was always hiding something. This is what he was hiding from you. For your safety? For his?

“There were so many times I wanted to tell you I was Superman, I just didn’t know how. Do you forgive me, Sunflower?” Clark’s pleading ultramarine eyes burned into yours. 

“I mean, I guess this is as good a time as any to tell me. I have so many questions. Of which, you will answer all of them, Clark. But, all I need to know right now is how the hell you found me?” Your breathing was starting to speed up again and you tried to calm down but given the circumstances, you were acting pretty normal.

“I kind of, know your heartbeat. I can hear it at all times. Wherever you are, I can hear you,” Clark makes an odd face and then forces out an embarrassed laugh, “Now that I say that out loud, it sounds weird.”

“Yeah, it’s a little weird. But it’s also super romantic, too,” you reach to Clark and pull him to you, “What’s my heart sound like now?”

“Sounds like you’re excited,” he let his hand drag down your body, “Smells like it too. Now, why would that be?”

“I mean, I did just find out my boyfriend is a superhero. That’s sorta hot. Sorta, I mean, he hasn’t taken me flying yet.”

“Brat! How hard is it to ask for what you want?” He picked up your purse from the unconscious attacker and handed it to you. When it is secured around your shoulder, Clark picked you up and you wrap your legs around his hips. “Hold on, Sunflower.” He took off so fast that the world blurred around you.

As he got closer to his apartment, he slowed down and flew a bit higher near the clouds. He rolled over onto his back so that you are straddling him. His hands found each other behind his head as he floated above Metropolis, all attention directed at you. Your eyes wandered around the city as you adjusted your seating which stirred his arousal.

Clark tried to adjust himself under you without you noticing but instead, you took the opportunity to grind your clothed sexes together. The groan that escaped Clark’s mouth is enough to spur you on to continue your ministrations. His eyes are already rolling back in his head and you feel quite proud of yourself. You reached under Clark’s sweater and ran your fingers through his chest hair as you continue to work your hips over him.

“Clark?”

“Yes, Sunflower?” He opened his eyes, pupils were blown wide with lust, breathing becoming unstable.

“Take me to your place so we can get more comfortable?” You flirted with him, wrapping your arms around his neck and shimmying up his body.

“Yes, Ma’am.” He grabbed under your thighs to have you wrap your legs around him once more and began to descend to the balcony of his apartment. He let you inside first but is quickly behind you following you into his bedroom as you start to shed your layers.

You spun around and gave Clark a show of your skin becoming visible in the moonlight. When you are fully undressed, you knelt in front of him with your head down and your hands on your thighs. 

He walked over to you and kissed the top of your head. He listened for your heartbeat, and it was steady, if not a little heightened. You were awaiting instruction, as far as he could tell.

“Sunflower, I want you to pick a safe word.” He stood behind you and undressed down to his underwear.

“Unicorn is my safe word.”

“Good girl,” Clark caressed your shoulders and squeezed them, “Are you okay with calling me Sir?”

“Yes, Sir.” Your heart rate evened out, Clark noticed. You’re happy. He beamed down at you.

“Good girl, now turn around and take out Sir’s dick.” 

You turned around and reach up to Clark’s boxer briefs, cupping him over the fabric before hooking your fingers into the waistband and pulling the underwear down and off. His length sprung up to bounce in front of your face and you lick your lips in anticipation but don’t go any further without direction.

“Such a good girl, Sunflower,” he grabbed your chin between his thumb and forefinger, tilting your face up to meet his eyes, “Come lay down so Sir can taste you. I can already smell how wet you are.”

You took his hands as he helped you up. Clark pulled you close to his body, your back against his chest. He attacked your neck, nipping and sucking marks that would show in the morning. His length on your hip has you testing your limits. 

As if reading your mind, Clark reached down and cupped your netherlips. You instinctively clamped your thighs around his hand and he used a foot to kick your legs apart. With one hand exploring your cunt, the other slides around your throat as a warning.

“Don’t ever block me from my pussy, Sunflower. This belongs to Sir now, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, Sir, it belongs to you.” You were sure Clark could feel you clench around nothing and you didn’t care. You wanted him to know he was doing everything right.

“Good girl,” He dipped a finger into your wetness and pulled it back out to wipe across your bottom lip, “We’re both gonna taste your sweet honey.” He used the hand around your throat to turn you around so he could claim your lips.

You tasted yourself as his tongue invaded you, whimpering into his mouth. His answering groans had you trembling. He walked you backward until your legs hit the edge and he pushed you down. Leaning over, he knelt and pushed your thighs back as far as they would go, marveling at your glistening slit.

With the flat of his tongue, he licked from your entrance to your neglected nub, pausing to suck on it lightly. He ate with the hunger of a man starved. He steeled his tongue, probing your core and tasting you from within. He made out with your pussy, pulling back to spit on it which drew moans from you and had you squeezing your breasts in response.

Clark was good at this, not that you were surprised because of how good of a kisser he was, but fuck! The way he fingered your pussy, making sure to curve his fingers to hit that sensitive bundle of nerves inside was heavenly. 

When he sped up his fingers and pushed down on your lower stomach, you gasped and realized he understood the assignment. He was rewarded with you squirting over his hands and chest.

“Such a good girl for me, Sunflower,” he said, before sucking your juices off of his fingers and moving your limp body up the bed, “Now, you’re going to be an extra good girl and take Sir’s dick.”

That was all the warning you received before Clark was pushing in, stretching you wide over his thick hardness. With every inch, he would pull out and press in an inch more than the last thrust. He made sure to stretch you slowly, keeping your tightness while allowing you to get used to his girth. 

“That’s right, Sunflower, open those sweet petals for Sir,” Clark soothes your whines as he fucks into you, “I promise I’ll make it all better when you let me all…the way…in.” He punctuated his words with jolts from his hips. 

When he is finally seated inside you, he pauses. The sudden stop has you reaching for Clark and moving your hips to gain friction.

“Look at you trying to fuck yourself on my cock,” he leaned over you and watched as tears flow from your eyes, “These tears are gorgeous, but use your words. Tell me what you want.”

“Sir, please,” you whined, looking into his eyes, “Need you to fuck me, please.” 

The smile on Clark’s face is brilliant, he’s got you right where he wants you. He kissed your face, stopping to wipe away your tears with his tongue. Pulling back, he secured your legs around his hips before he leaned down to wrap one hand around both of your wrists, holding them above your head.

When Clark fucked you, he paid attention to every aspect of your body. He looked into your eyes. He kissed and nipped at your neck. He pinched and teased your nipples. He rubbed your clit while he pounded inside you. 

Clark just did it better than any of your partners before. Maybe because you allowed yourself to be vulnerable around him? Or maybe because he was just…better. It didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was that you were with him and he was inside you and you were all his.

You lost track of how many times you came, but Clark remembers every time. He committed them to memory, seeing you arch your back and feeling your walls flutter around him. He could tell by the sheen of sweat on your body and the way your body is vibrating that you were beyond spent. Possibly even a bit overstimulated. Perfect.

“You ready for my cum, Sunflower?” He licked his thumb and pressed on your clit as you keen, “Do you think you can hold on for me for just a bit longer?” 

“Yes, Sir,” you moan as he slid his hands to your hips.

“There’s my good girl,” he groaned and began his assault on your pussy. At this angle, he can stimulate both your hooded center and your G-spot. A punishing pace that set you ablaze. While you held onto his biceps, you looked into his eyes. Where there used to be blue irises, only dark pupils remained. His curly hair was a sweaty mess on his forehead. He was barely a man now, more like an animal rutting into you.

Before long, his hips stutter in their onslaught. Breathing erratically, he squeezed your hips so hard you knew there would be bruises tomorrow. He moved to kiss your neck and latched onto your shoulder with his teeth as you feel every twitch of him releasing inside you. You know there will be bite marks in your shoulder for days but you don’t care.

Clark’s teeth left you, followed closely by his tongue soothing your almost-broken skin. Sometimes, he didn’t know his strength. And it was a close one this time. He was still inside you semi-hard before he decided to pull out slowly causing you to whine at the sudden feeling of emptiness.

He moved from the bed for a moment. You closed your eyes for a millisecond before you feel warm wetness between your legs.

“Just cleaning you up, Sunflower,” He wipes your delicate folds softly and throws the towel in the clothes hamper before crawling in bed beside you, “You go right to sleep, you deserve it.”

The last time you refer to yourself as Clark’s girlfriend is a year and a half into your relationship.

Clark proposes to you over dinner in the house you bought together. He bought the ring after you talked about marriage just two weeks ago. Well, technically, Bruce helped him buy the ring. As in, Bruce bought the jewelers store and had them design the perfect ring for you. 

A smoky quartz center with marquise and pear-shaped citrine petals around it. You had mentioned more than once that you didn’t want a diamond engagement ring, you wanted something that matched your style.

Clark presented the ring to you on one knee, ever the traditionalist. You said yes, of course.

This man was your life, your hope, and your future. You looked forward to every minute of every hour of every day with him. 

He is your light in the darkness, and you are his Sunflower.

A/N: Yes, the title is from "Sunflower" by Post Malone/Swae Lee. Yes, the song was for a Spider-Man movie. So, what? It's a good song.

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[stelladess]

I feel a bit annoyed by people saying Firefly is the star rail version of Kallen. As a fan of both characters I feel they got next to nothing in common whatsoever. They dont look similar, they arnt similar people, they dont have similar backgrounds or motives... there is just nothing really. It feels like reducing them to Stelle/Caelus girlfriend (this one is supported by the story but I feel like much of what makes Firefly and this ship interesting gets overlooked, admittedly some of it assumes the theory about Firefly being SAM is true and some lore knowledge about SAM but even without taking that into account Firefly is a great character in her own right) and Otto´s girlfriend (which, as a huge Otto fan, I will say, of course has its own issues and I do not like the romantic interpretation with them, the previous era versions of them are different people and dont count for this imo and there is no evidence at all Kallen of the current era was into Otto and also Kolosten heavily suggests it wasnt even a romance thing for Otto either) I highly recommend people read the prequel comic focused on Kallen, its when Kallen is younger then when we see her in flashbacks, set before meeting Sakura (i highly recommend also checking out that whole story at some point even if it can be a bit awkwardly time gated in game and slightly confusing) in HI3 so her personality/demeanor is a bit different from how she was by then (she is a lot more naive for one) but I think its still a good introduction to see why Kallen is a good character and a good showcase of how she isnt like Firefly at all and doesnt require sitting trough all of Kolosten and several side stuff in game to get to, so its a convenient starting place to see if you want to see more about Kallen. Which I hope anyone reading this ends up wanting to but even if not thats fine and is why I recommend starting here since its an easy read with very nice art and a fairly self contained story. Also if you dont play HI3 and am just curious on Kallen because of what other people are saying. Elan Palatinus: https://manga.honkaiimpact3.com/book/ Some spoilers for Penacony mentioned below here....

Firefly I dont wanna go too deep into character analysis here cause some of it relies heavily on an unproven theory, ill probably write about her more later though. But either way I feel like she is a very well written character, her desire to indulge in some escapism to get a break from her harsh reality with her terminal illness, her determination to find the watchmaker´s legacy despite the risk, her clearly having gotten a lot of experience dealing with dangerous situations despite seemingly wanting to just live a normal happy life, she hasnt been in the game very long (yet, the boss that "killed" her whole gimmick is that you can free the souls it claims so im not so sure she is actually gone, also you can see a Firefly leave her body before she dissolves shortly before Sam shows up...) but she is already very strongly characterized even with her limited screentime. If the theory that she is Sam is also true then it would add an extra layer to her closeness with Stelle in that some lore about Sam suggests Sam was artifically created for the purpose of fighting against the swarm, so she likely would relate to Stelle on account of the whole... being made to fullfill a purpose thing. As a stellaron hunter in this case she would also know about that quite likely so I like the theory. Idunno I just feel frustrated how characters often feel like they get boiled down to just their archetype or role (and sometimes not even any of those but just completely unrecognizable) when they are actually very interesting and well written characters. I want people to appreciate the writing that went into these amazing characters, not just these two but also many other examples but I wont ramble on here. So I strongly recommend people read more about them if at all curious, altough be careful since there are tons of leaks and spoilers in general going around regarding anything Penacony related, so with Firefly it might be best to wait a bit if spoilers are a concern.

[silvercloudedskies]

playlist for @queruloustea 's incredible fic, "that makes two of us, then". i love this fic and pairing so much; i've shed so many tears and been quite inspired by their writing! more words/explanations under the cut :3c

cover art by me! give it a look, perhaps?

it is so so difficult to say how much i love "that makes two of us, then". i discovered it at the perfect time (right when i was getting back into hk) and it grabbed me by the shoulders and refused to let me go. broken bugs falling in love in the softest way possible (and holding each other up by the way) is my new favorite thing. and, like many things i love, i have a lot of music that i associate with both this fic and quirrelhollow in general. so.... here it is!

a few explanations for the Overall Vibe and a few favorite songs:

i tried to go for a softer, more comforting vibe for this playlist! while i love rock and metal and loud drum noises they did not seem like the move for this particular theme. songs i added are both sad and hopeful, which i hope speaks to quirrel and hollow's dynamic and the overall growth happening to both of them throughout the story. (side effects of this include accidentally making a pretty good study playlist)

as for songs, second chances in particular sums up the themes of this fic perfectly and hearing it by chance the other day was one of the reasons i decided i wanted to make a playlist. the cave is a perfect song for hollow and how they're coming into their own; i think it works for quirrel as well! until i found you was another overall inspiration; it really speaks to the mutual care and healing that these two give to each other. i also included songs like turn the lights back on and new discovery to emphasize that theme of growth and discovery of the self that i can really see in hollow and quirrel. finally, fireflies is a song that i also associate with the fic in general in a less-thematic way - more just Vibes. i added an acoustic version to stick with the playlist's softness a bit better than the original.

if anyone stuck around to read my rambles, thank you! i could go on forever about my playlists (also this fic, quirrelhollow, and hollow knight in general... i'm a yapper i fear) and if anyone wants to chat further about anything at all i'd be delighted! thanks for reading and, to queruloustea, thank you for writing the Sillies in the delightful way that you do!

[this-aint-massachusetts]

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☆-Basic info:

- I like to go by Cory or Massachusetts or Firefly any one is okay

- I use he/him/it’s pronouns

- I am a writer, bot creator, and artist

- I am 19

- I recommend for 16+ blogs to interact because I post smut and sometimes it just makes me uncomfortable to chat/interact with 16- people

- English is not my first language so I apologize for incorrect grammar or sentences that don’t make sense

═════════•°•⚠️•°•═════════

☆-What I post and what to expect to find here:

- c.ai and j.ai bots

- Fanfiction

- lgbtq+ things

- (almost) Every media from Josh Hutcherson

- Random rambles and rants

- Stimboards

═════════•°•⚠️•°•═════════

☆-What I will and won’t write for requests:

- I will write: male!reader/user, gn!reader/user, certain phila’s (like autoassassinaphila but not pedophila if that makes sense), smut, CERTAIN cnc or dubcons, basically anything that isn’t on my won’t write list

- I will not write: Pedophila, anything that implies homophobia or transphobia, real people, hard cnc, female!reader/user, DD/LG or any other variation of it, proships, comships, BDSM (I may change this later but I am not well enough traversed in that to write it correctly), mpreg, A/B/O

═════════•°•⚠️•°•═════════

☆-Main fandoms I post about:

- Detention 2011

- Josh Hutcherson

- FNaF

- Future Man

- What Remains of Edith Finch

- Head count

- The Hunger Games

- Alex Bale/DFTM/HMF

-G/t

(I have more fandoms I post about but I didn’t add them because they aren’t what I mainly post about)

═════════•°•⚠️•°•═════════

☆-Links:

All my c.ai bots

All my j.ai bots

All my fanfics

Other writing works

Art

My Ao3 account

My instagram account

(If there’s no link it’s because I haven’t added it yet or it corrupted)

═════════•°•⚠️•°•═════════

☆-My boundaries and dni list:

- 16- blogs interacting

- nsfw only blogs interacting

- pro/comshippers

- any lgbtphobes

- terfs

-radqueers

-endo/demo systems (yes we are system friendly here :3)

-Any ‘Joshcest’ shippers (like if you ship Billy and Mike please get away from this blog)

And I think that’s all? I may add more to this later if needed. Anyways

:♡.•♬✧ Happy travels!

[tiny-paws]

Pinned post! :3

Hello!! This is a blog run by a few members of our system ( @the-honey-system ) who wanted a space for agere and therian content. We take requests for moodboards, outfits and bags!

Please read our DNI near the bottom of this post before interacting!

introductions, request info and DNI below the cut!! ^^

(divider by @firefly-graphics)

Introductions!

Mikey (he/art/paint) - rottmnt fictive

- age regressor (5-9)

Bee (they/hon/paw) - brainmade

- therian (calico cat)

The Doctor/Ten (any pronouns)

- doctor who fictive

- age regressor (1-5)

Pearl (she/her)

- hermitcraft/life series fictive

- age regressor (6-12)

Tango (flare/spark/cog/char)

- hermitcraft/life series fictive

- age regressor (3-10)

Requests:

We take requests for agere and otherkin/therian related moodboards, outfit boards and bags!

We will do:

✅ fandoms: ben and holly’s little kingom, bluey, bnha, celeste, doctor who (up to s7), dsmp, glitter force, hazbin hotel/helluva boss, hermitcraft, life series, minecraft, mlp, nimona, rottmnt, studio ghibli, the magnus archives, tmnt 2012, turning red, zelda botw/totk

✅ non-fandoms (eg animals, plants, colour schemes, seasons)

✅ moodboards: a collection of photos with a theme, meant to look nice!

✅ outfit boards: clothes and accessories, with a toy or fidget

✅ bags: a backpack/bag with items for a day, such as food, toys, books, etc.

We will not do:

❌ anything in our DNI list

❌ anything religious (only modern religion; ancient religion is okay!)

❌ anything medical in nature (including vets)

❌ diapers (sorry about this one, diapers are super valid, we’ve just had icky experiences)

❌ the dream team (from mcyt)

❌ cc!wilbur soot

Extra notes:

✨ please specify whether your request is agere or therian related! this makes it easier for us to make exactly what you want!

✨ feel free to request something for a fandom not listed—we might say no, but it’s worth a shot! (you might need to be more specific on themes with characters we don’t know!)

✨ be as specific as you want with requests, although if something’s too specific we might not get it perfect. if your request is very general, we may take artistic liberties!

✨ we have the right to deny any request. sometimes we just won’t feel comfortable completing something.

DNI:

- nsfw/k!nk, abd|/dd|g/variants, sh or gore, pro-ed, blogs you wouldn’t show a child

- anti-LGBTQ+, anti-xenogenders/neopronouns, racists, ableists, fatphobes, etc

-anti-agere, anti-otherkin/therian, anti-petre, participants in “cringe culture”, bullies

- tcest, blogs that post abt ince$t/pedoph!lia

- anti-self diagnosis

- endogenic systems/supporters (neutral r ok), syscourse, discourse in general

(dni banner used in our posts made by @little-catgirlboy)

Tags list!

#mikey chirps — mikey’s posts/rbs

#bee meows — bee’s posts/rbs

# tango purrs — tango’s posts/rbs

#pearl hums — pearl’s posts/rbs

#ten rambles — ten/doctor’s posts/rbs

#little helpers — other members of the system

#tiny paw boards — moodboards/requests

#tiny paw styles — outfits/requests

#tiny paw packs — bags/requests

#tiny paw scribbles — doodles/art

#tiny paw talks — text posts

Userboxes!!

(we’re kinda hoarding them hehe)

(userboxes, in order, made by: @empyrangel, @me-and-the-squad-being-otherkin, @chronicallylav3nd3r, @xenohunt, @inclusysboxes, @omegathetaone, @very-normal-userboxes, @sweetpeauserboxes, @strwbubs, @strwbubs, @scungledfiles, @lil-kibby-zone, @pumpkinangelminnie, @sweetpeauserboxes, @sysboxes, @scungledfiles, @bi-lesbian, @sweetpeauserboxes, @cutevintagetoys, @tazmaboxed, @sysboxes)

[224terminal]

⋆⁺₊ ⋆ ☾ ₊˚. 𓆟｡⋆༄ 𝒸𝑒𝓉𝑜.

a few scattered ramblings about my twst oc!

> her name is ceto and she's an anglerfish mermaid from a very deep, dark depth in the coral sea. her eyes are milky white and aren't very reliable at times, so in human form she doesn't have the best eyesight. she wears prescription color contact lenses because she thinks glasses are troublesome to keep up with. also, she thinks pink eyes are pretty. as soon as she came to the surface, one of the first things she did was cut her hair to match the style of a drowned woman she happened upon when she strayed from her usual depths. it's a jellyfish cut. additionally, her nails are always sharp and manicured, painted in various patterns of hot pink.

> she has sharp, needle-pointed teeth like an anglerfish's. she likes to smile and show off her teeth, but her smiles are a little too eerie and wide most of the time, which unsettles most people. she dresses in a lot of formal business fashion. black and pink is the main color scheme in her wardrobe. she wears a lot of ocean-themed jewelry, but her go-to are the fishbone hair clips which she fashioned from the bones she finds on the sea floor.

> she's very energetic and friendly, if a bit morbidly disturbed at times with her odd sense of humor and textbook knowledge on the strangest, most obscure subjects (which cause most to avoid her), and despite her fearlessly outgoing and curious nature no one seems to know much about her.

> she likes rumors and gossip and will often spread them in passing. for that reason, you should be selective with what you choose to tell her.

> in mer form, she does have an esca like an anglerfish! in human form, it acts as her tonsils (it glows at night). her unique magic is called “bocca della veritá,” and it’s a spell that allows ceto to learn of the afflicted victim's deepest fears, secrets, or insecurities. when someone looks into her open mouth, their reality falls away and is replaced with that of their greatest terror, forcing them to confront things they may not want to confront. ceto doesn't use her um often, but she does like to playfully warn others not to stare at her too much or else they may just open their eyes to a nightmare.

> she is interested in the art of pinning insects and can spend hours poring over textbooks and video essays on the subject. she keeps a journal of dried and pressed flowers and has even tried to collect and pin a few insects of her own. butterflies and fireflies are her favorites.

> despite dressing in formal business attire, she has no interest in business. she just likes the fashion and how she's able to pair it with heels. speaking of heels, she taught herself how to walk in them because it was a challenge many mers-turned-humans struggle with and ceto likes to challenge herself with difficulties like this.

> most of her behaviors are sweet and disarming. it's a tactic she uses to lure others in, whether for friendship or to learn more about them for various reasons. she sometimes wears bright colors against dark suits (such as pins or other jewelry) in hopes that others will take notice and be compelled to approach her.

[andydrysdalerogers]

Yours Submissively ~ Communication

Steve Rogers X OFC Isabella Davis

Summary: Five Years after the events of Civil War, Steve Rogers has moved on from avenging and has started his own business, Grant Inc. He has a secret that would turn his world upside down. And he's good at keep that secret. Until he meets the woman with violet eyes that could bring him to his knees. Now his mission is to make her, his. But she is the key that could bring the world into balance... or chaos.

And she has no idea.

Series Warnings: slow burn at the beginning, smut, angst, sexual themes of BDSM, dom/sub dynamics, kidnapping, loss of virginity, (and a bunch of others that will come up)

A/N: the taglist is open!

Dividers by @firefly-graphics

I do NOT give permission for my work to be translated or reposted on here or any other site, even if you give me credit. DO NOT REPOST MY FICS. Reblogs, comments, likes, and feedback ALWAYS appreciated

Previous: Consideration

Series Masterlist ~ Main Masterlist

Wednesday came and Belle arrived home after her late class.  All she wanted was a shower and some food.  Lila wasn’t home, having gone on a date with Bucky.  She sighed as she looked over her mail.  A letter caught her eye. “Manhattan School of the Arts” it said.  She trembled as she opened the envelope. 

Dear Miss Davis,  Thank you for sending us your resume and school records.  Pending receiving your state credentials, we are pleased to offer you a position as a teacher for our First-Grade students.  Training would begin in June and the school year would start August 1st.  We offer our congratulations on your pending graduation and look forward to working with you in June.  Sincerely,  Headmaster David Zolinski Manhattan School of the Arts

Belle couldn’t believe it.  She did it.  She was finally a teacher.  She snapped a photo and sent it to Lilia. 

B: I did it! L: Congrats! Celebrate Friday? B: Can’t this weekend L: Why? B: With Steve L: even better celebration. TTYL? B: Say hi to Bucky for me L: He says congrats. 

Belle wanted to celebrate.  She sent the same photo to Steve. 

SR: Congratulations B: Thank you SR: We’ll celebrate on Friday B: OK

She was deflated.  She hoped for more.  She quietly made dinner and sat watching a cooking show when she heard the doorbell.  She opened her door and was surprised by Steve.  “What are you doing here?”

“I realized that you just had a major life accomplishment and that Lila wouldn’t be here.  You should be able to celebrate in the moment.”  He held up a bottle of Prosecco and a paper bag. 

“Are you allowed out by yourself?”

“I have security.  They are downstairs.”

“Bucky approved?”

He chuckled.  “Bucky approved.  Can I come in?”

“Oh shit, sorry.  Yes of course.”  Steve walked in a deposited a kiss as he passed.  Belle felt her head start to swim from lack of breathing.  “Umm, let me grab some glasses.” 

Steve noticed the uneaten plate on the coffee table. “You haven’t eaten?”

“I just got home from school.” 

“It’s late.” 

“Yeah, it’s the only time for this particular lab.  And it was rough.” 

“How so?” 

“Had to find a new lab partner.” 

“Why?” Belle hesitated. “Isabella, tell me,” he ordered. 

“Because my old partner is Scott.  And we’re not talking right now.” 

“You spoke to him about Saturday.” 

“I did.  And he said some things that upset me so I told him I wouldn’t speak to him unless he apologized.  Which he hasn’t done.  So, I asked MJ to be my partner.” 

“MJ?”

“Michelle Jones.  She is Peter’s fiancé.” 

“You have a few friends.  I didn’t know that.” 

“Yeah, just the six of us. Well, you and Bucky can be added, I guess. I mean if we are friends. Wait. I mean, I don’t mean we’re not friends I just mean…” She stopped.  “How long are you going to let me ramble?”

“I don’t know.  It’s cute when you do it.” He laughed.  “We’re friends Isabella.” 

“Just friends.”  She sighed and took a bite of her now cold food. 

“Isabella?”

“Sorry, I’m just working through it.” 

Steve cleared his throat and tried to change the subject.  “So, I brought you a dessert.”  He revealed two slices of cheesecake. 

“I love cheesecake.  Thanks.”  She tried to smile but it wouldn’t reach her eyes. 

“Isabella, talk to me.”

“Why are you here?  If you don’t want this type of relationship, why are you here?” Steve went to reach for her hands and she pulled away. “No.  I want an answer.” 

“I do want a relationship, just not a romantic hearts and flowers type of relationship.  But you’re right.  We do need to be friends for the type of relationship I want to work.  You have to be able to talk to me and you don’t right now.” 

“I don’t?  I told you about this.” She held up the letter. 

“But it’s the first time you’ve ever done it.  Please Belle, I’m trying.” 

“I don’t know if I can do this.” 

“What?”

“Be like this.  Submissive.” 

“Its not just that. We will spend time together when we are together on the weekends.  Just try.” 

“One weekend?”

“One weekend. That’s all I ask.” 

“Does it have to be this weekend?  I have to start studying for finals.” 

“When are finals?”

“Two weeks. Graduation is in three weeks.” 

“Ok, two weeks then.” Steve took a bite of his dessert to let the room calm.  “I have to ask, I need a date for a benefit on Saturday.  I would like to ask if you would be my date.”

“I thought…”

“As friends, Isabella.  Just as friends.  I don’t expect anything else.” 

“I don’t have a dress or anything.” 

“Tell you what, this weekend, stay with me and we can get to know each other more.  I’ll take care of everything else.  No more, no less.” 

“Like a sleepover.  So we can gossip in our pjs?”  Belle quirked a smile. 

Steve chuckled and shook his head.  “Whatever you want.  Movies, pizza, the works. I just want to be with you for now. I want you to trust me.” 

Belle could see the honesty in his eyes.  “Ok.  This weekend.  Sleepover. And a benefit. No big deal.” 

Belle walked into her new office area in Stark Tower on Friday with a small overnight bag.  She was stuffing it under her desk when Tony approached.  “Going somewhere?”

“What?  I mean, excuse me?”

Tony chuckled.  “The bag Belle.  I’ve never seen you with such a large bag.”

“Oh.”  She looked at the bag.  She knew Steve said he would take care of everything but she just wanted to make sure she was prepared.  “I’m going to stay with a friend for the weekend.” 

Tony furrowed his brow.  “Doesn’t seem like a lot of stuff.” 

“Yeah,” Belle scrambled.  “I’ve stayed there before and have stuff there.  No need to add to my drawer there.”  She laughed at her excuse. 

“Boyfriend?”

“Excuse me?”

“Is the friend you are staying with a boyfriend?”  Tony was on high alert. 

“No, just a friend.”  Belle fidgeted and cleared her throat, uncomfortable with where the line of questioning was going.  “Did you need anything Mr. Stark?” 

“No Belle.  Just get started with the usual.  Need to go through my schedule in a few.” 

“Ok, no problem.”  Belle turned on her computer to get to work.  A new email popped in her inbox.

From: srogers@grantinc.com To: idavis@starkindustries.com   Subject: Personal Pick-Up Service Isabella, I look forward to our weekend together.  Bucky and I will be by to get you.  What time? Steven Rogers CEO, Grant Industries. 

Belle tried to keep calm. She knew Steve had infinite resources and it wasn’t like her email was a top government secret.  It was just unusual to see it without knowing where he got it.  She calmly typed out a reply to the super soldier CEO. 

From: idavis@starkindustries.com To: srogers@grantinc.com Subject RE: Personal Pick-Up Service My, to have the CEO of a major corporation in the palm of my hand.  I am done at 6PM.  I’m looking forward to our weekend as well.  See you later. xx Isabella Davis Intern to Tony Stark President, Stark Industries

Steve read her response and laughed.  She did have him in the palm of her hand, and he would gladly let her live there.  Wednesday was interesting.  He learned so much about Isabella in just a few hours.  Whether she realized it or not, she ate the same way with all of her food, needed to taste all the flavors at the same time.  

She always played with her hair, rearranging it several times until it was in a knot on the top of her head.  The way she slept very peacefully.  She had fallen asleep against him, and he very gently picked her up and placed her in her room. He covered her up and pressed his lips on her forehead before he left.  He took her keys to lock the apartment and then slipped them into the mail slot.  He sent a message to Bucky to tell Lila about them. 

As he made his way downstairs, Clint held the door open for him.  “Cap.” 

“Barton.  Thanks for doing this on such short notice.” 

“Not a problem Steve.” Clint closed the car door and climbed in the driver seat.  “Is she ok?”

“I believe so.” 

That night stayed on Steve’s mind along with their first night together. Bucky wasn’t super happy that Steve had gone out but at least he had Clint with him. 

The end of the day came quickly and Steve and Bucky headed to the Stark Tower. “So Punk, are you ready to have your life taken over by a girl?” Bucky snickered. 

“Show some respect Jerk. She already took over and you know it.” 

“Why are you making such a big effort Steve?  She really worth it?”

“Yes, she is.  Is Lila worth it?”

“Ok fair.  I’ve just never seen you this way before.  Not with the other girls, not with Sharon or…”

“Don’t say her name.” Steve clenched his jaw. He didn’t need the reminder. 

Bucky looked contrite.  “I’m sorry pal.” 

Steve counted to ten, needing to relax before he saw Isabella.  His girl. Just her name became a talisman for him.  “Its ok Bucky,” he finally said.  He looked him in the eye.  “She’s different.  She challenges me.  She has something that none of them, including …” he swallowed.  “None of them had it.” 

“This won’t be the usual contract, will it?”

“I don’t know.  The next two weekends will be the test.” 

“Understood.”  Bucky glanced at the entrance and jumped out of the car.  Steve followed his gaze and saw Belle with her bag.  He opened the door just as he heard her say thank you to Bucky when he took the bag. 

“I thought I told you I would take care of everything this weekend.” He kissed her cheek and took her hand.  He guided her to the open door and she slip in. 

“I know, but I wanted to bring some things that give me comfort. You know, for my room.”  Belle looked down at her fingers.

Steve caressed her cheek, “My Belle, don’t be embarrassed.  I didn’t mean you couldn’t bring anything.  Forgive me if that’s what you thought.”

She looked up and smiled.  Steve was dazzled. “Thank you, Steve.  Its just some of my favorites that I have extra.  I thought I could leave them there.” 

“That is a wonderful idea.  You know I would have bought you anything you wanted.” 

“I know.  But some things cannot be purchased.” 

“Really?”

“A stuffed bunny that my parents left me?”  She raised her eyebrow. 

“Fair enough. I thought we could head to dinner.  Casual, nothing formal.” 

“Sounds good.”  

Bucky drove them to Brooklyn, to a little mom and pop restaurant.  Belle smiled. She jumped out of the car as soon as it stopped and ran into the restaurant.  Steve and Bucky exchanged a look before Steve exited the vehicle. He walked in to see Belle being embraced by an older woman.  Steve cleared his throat. Belle looked over to Steve.   

She turned to look at the older woman and spoke in flawless Italian. “Mamma sono Steve. Mi ha portato qui per un appuntamento a cena.” (Mom this is Steve. He brought me here for a date.) She smiled, “Steve, this Mamma Maria Capolini.  She runs the restaurant.”

Signora,(Ma’am) Steve greets her with a handshake.  The lady takes his hand and inspects him.  She doesn’t say a word but after a moment, she reached up to Steve’s face and kisses both cheeks. She lets him go, kiss Belle on the forehead and heads to the back.

Belle takes Steve’s hand and heads to a table in the back.  “She approved of you. This is my favorite Italian restaurant in the entire city.”

“You know her.   Well.” 

Belle blushed.  “Dad and I would eat here at least once a week.  Momma, she taught me to cook and I learned Italian.” 

“That’s beautiful. I wanted to bring you to somewhere with the best Italian besides going to Italy itself.”

Momma appeared again with some anti pasta and bread.  She looked at Belle. “Vino?”

“Grazie.” She came back a moment later and filled two glasses with red wine. 

“Isabella, tell me more. What secrets do you have?” Steve took her hand from across the table. 

“Not many more, I guess.  I speak Italian, obviously, Spanish, French and English.  My dad wanted me to well versed. I stopped before I got to German and Japanese because I only wanted the romantic languages.”  Belle flushed, forgetting to filter her words. 

“That is very sweet.”  Mamma appeared again with two plates of pasta. “Buon Appetito.” 

“Grazie,” Steve replied, and they ate.  Steve enjoyed the little noises Belle would make as she ate. “Isabella, did you want to talk about this weekend?” Belle stopped and looked up at Steve.  She swallowed her bite and nodded.  “So tonight, after dinner, I thought we could go back to my place and just talk, get to know each other.  Saturday, I would love to take you shopping and lunch before the charity event in the evening.  On Sunday, brunch out on the waterfront.  Does that sound ok?”

“Sounds like fun.  But you don’t have to take me shopping.” 

“I want to.” 

“I don’t have much of a choice, do I?”

“You always have a choice.” Steve looked sad.  “I just want to make you feel special.” 

“I already do, Steve.  You don’t have to spend money on me to prove that.” Belle smiled. “I just like spending time with you.”  She studied Steve’s face.  “But if it makes you happy, shopping it is.” 

He gave her a dazzling smile. “Thank you, Belle.” 

They finished the meal and headed back to Manhattan.  Belle wondered what exactly had she gotten herself into. 

NEXT

Taglist:

@patzammit

@texmexdarling

@slutforchrisjamalevans

@jennmurawski13-writes

@firephotogrl74

@tinkerbelle67

@before-we-get-started

@bunnyforhim

@alexakeyloveloki

@amiquette

[frostironfudge]

Cupcake and The Coffee Conundrum (Bucky Barnes)

Summary: For Week 4 of @the-slumberparty's Across The Universe Challenge I came up with Tattoo Artist!Bucky and Florist!Steve now I couldn't pick between either one so I've created an AU for the two of them with separate nicknamed female!readers. It's going to be Bucky x Cupcake and Steve x Petal. This is the first part of the multipart AU called Stencils, Bouquets & Icing.

A.N.: A big thank you to Navy and Roo for inspiring me to come up with an unexplored by me AU 💖💖💖💖💖

Warnings: fluff, angst, feels, bucky is insecure about his bionic arm

Word Count: 1.7k || Dividers: @firefly-graphics

Stencils, Bouquets & Icing AU Masterlist || Main Masterlist

Alright the scent of coffee was strong enough. Now it just had to stop spritzing everywhere and having you clean the entire damn machine and your display case. So much for having a state of the art machine. So much for the three hour learning with the installation person and the countless youtube videos. 

Even the damn two broke girls episode rerun you settled upon watching… that did house a similar operation issue wasn’t enough to help out or distract you from angrily huffing at the espresso stain that you were rubbing at with the sponge.

“Is this a bad time?” A deep baritone inquires.

You look up at the stranger, his hair flows to the tops of his shoulders, an easy grin on his lips. Blue eyes genuinely carry a hint of worry. You stand up stabilising yourself on the counter. Quick movements are not your friend.

“Hi, nope not at all.” You clear your throat, why did you sound breathless? The man only chuckles.

You hope you don’t embarrass yourself further.

“H-how may I help you?” Your voice switches to professional mode. This bakery was your dream. Even if it had coffee stains, it was yours and you would conquer that damn machine.

“I was hoping for one of your signature desserts, any recommendations?” He runs his glove clad hands through his hair.

You gesture to the first shelf of the display, “Those are the caramel and sea salt cookies, that is the classic chocolate chip, on this side we have cake slices, red velvet is a personal favourite I make it with cream cheese frosting, in vegan options–,”

“Cupcake?” He has your rambling pause.

“Um, yeah this is the Starry Night cupcake, dark chocolate and the icing is buttercream the yellow and blue swirls with star shaped mini cookies. There is a molten centre which you might enjoy, coming up with it was really fun, I got the idea when I went to the van Gogh immersive, that's what also inspired the sunflower cookie cupcake.” You look up at him.

“Sorry I tend to ramble away…” You look down at your baked treats, biting your lip. 

“It’s nice to see someone passionate about their craft. All of these look good but I’ll have the cupcakes first to go if possible? I have a possible apprentice to interview.” His warm smile makes your racing heart feel calmer.

“Anything else?” You pray it’s not the coffee, anything but coffee.

“An espresso would be,” He stares at your annoyed expression towards the machine. Bucky can’t help but laugh at the situation.

At first when he was peering from his window to yours he thought you were dealing with someone who annoyed you. Hands moving around in frustration upon closer inspection he realised you were yelling at the coffee machine.

Your cheeks are aflame when you look back at him, “I’m sorry the machine doesn’t cooperate with me at all. I’ve been washing down splatters all day.” You sigh dejected. 

“I hope you aren’t hurt, or burned or anything.” His brows knot, worriedly glancing over you again. Noting the splatters across your lavender apron and sweatshirt. 

“No, um good day to wear full sleeves...” You shrug, “I can make you a milkshake…” 

“Can I take a look at the machine?” He offers, you watch him warily.

“I used to work as a barista.” He explains.

“Oh, um, by all means please and also,” You hold out another apron for him to wear. He takes it from over the counter as you head to the flip up counter to let him through.

“I realised I never gave you my name, I’m James Barnes, better known by Bucky, I own the tattoo shop from across.” He says while shrugging his jacket off and navy henley clinging to him. You look out of your window to the shop. 

“I was going to bring everyone ‘hi I'm the new neighbour’ boxes. I’m Y/N.” You offer your hand, Bucky takes it. 

The gloves cause an uneasiness in his chest but you don't recoil, nor do you say anything. You only smile at him, it eases his nerves. Bucky puts the apron on, he turns to the mirrored wall. 

“Suits you.” You add making him laugh, eyes crinkling at the outer corners. Your heart thumps faster at his handsomeness. 

Bucky stares at you for a moment, taking you in, he licks his bottom lip, then bites it. 

Your brain malfunctions staring at his pink lips. 

The machine whirrs to life, Bucky reaches forward with his left hand to detach the nozzle. Hot steam whistles out.

“Bucky, that's extremely hot! Don’t!” You yell but his left hand grabs the hot metal and pulls it out, he presses a few other buttons and the whirring stops. 

You stare at him then your adrenaline kicks in, “Ice wait! Hold it under cold water!”  

You leave him rushing to the back to grab the ice pack from the freezer, 

“What is wrong with you! I would have returned the machine–,” You stare at the emptiness he left. The apron discarded over the counter haphazardly. 

You set the ice pack down, picking up your phone to dial the company to return the fucking machine.

Dum Dum Dugan looks up from his design at you when you walk in holding two lavender boxes. He raises a brow, you look at him, not a tattoo in sight upon his arms that were exposed in the muscled tank.

“Only got one kiddo, wife and kid’s birth years over my heart.” He pats his chest with a fond smile, “Now watcha got there?” 

“Um, I opened the store, well dessert store if you will, and this is just a little treat for the neighbourhood.” You smile at him, handing him the bigger box. 

Dum Dum chuckles admiring the cakes and cookies, “Well, you need anything let me know, I accept cookies as payment.” He takes a bite and hums delightedly, “Oh definitely you can pay me with these.”

You smile at him, but your eyes search for Bucky.

“He’s in the back. Stormed in about an hour earlier hasn’t come out.” He gestures to the section. You shift your weight from one foot to the other.

“Fuck it.” You mutter, taking strides with purpose and Bucky comes out of nowhere and you almost smash the box into his chest.

“Cupcake!” He steadies you, you look up at him.

“You just left.” You shake your head, “How is your palm?” mentally chiding yourself for not asking first or earlier.

“I um, it didn’t hurt, the gloves are protective.” He shifts his gaze to the box held in your extended arm and then to you.

“You left without… I gave um,”

“Timothy Aloysius Cadwallader goes by Dum Dum Dugan.” Bucky explains.

“Do all artists have monikers?” You question.

He chuckles, it reverberates against your chest, “Not really only some of us.”

“Oh um well. These are for you.” You step away, when he lets your waist go.

“Thank you, how much–,”

“On the house, the machine was faulty, the model number was in the call back list but they had my email wrong in the system. Thank you.”

“Happy to help.” Bucky smiles down at you, taking the box from you and admiring the two cupcakes.

“Oh and the new machine comes in tomorrow at two, I can have your espresso ready then.” You smile, he grins.

“I’ll be there.” He promises.

The next day Bucky enters the bustling store with a beautiful arrangement of sunflowers and baby’s breath. He grins easily, holding it in his left hand and settling it down. 

“The sunflower cupcake was my favourite.” He gestures to the flowers to explain.

You admire them, “These are beautiful. Thank you.”

“Sort of an apology and a welcome rolled into one.” Pink dusts his cheeks and you watch him endearingly.

You hold out his espresso, not in a to-go cup. He looks around the crowded store raising a brow. 

You point to the side of the counter, you have placed low back supported barstool chairs.  

“Well in that case, may I also have a red velvet cookie, Cupcake?” He grins at you, mischievously. 

“A very original nickname, Bucky.” You shake your head, grabbing the cookie, and plating it for him.

“I’m a man of taste.” He defends with a shake of his head. 

You chuckle, “I'm sure.” 

“Excuse me?” An older gentleman stands at the display, you excuse yourself from Bucky before helping the man.

“I have a question for you.” He says when you return to him, dismissing the apology you were to offer.

“Ask away.” You prompt.

“Well I saw this place’s instagram, you shared a video of the sunflowers immersive. You seemed so in awe, I mean it looked beautiful but I just want to understand, people usually fawn over Starry Night?” 

“I used to really adore sunflowers when I was younger, somewhere along the way I just changed my preferences because they never fit into concepts, I don’t know and when I was there,” You remember the way the sunflowers took over all the screens, gooseflesh still rises to your skin, “I just remembered all of it, all of it that I gave up. Plus it was beautiful, so utterly beautiful, Bucky I really wish I could go again and again.” You sigh dreamily then look at him. 

“I hope you get to go again…” He trails off.

“Have you ever?” You ask. 

He shakes his head, his fingers flex tightly then extend. You keep your eyes only on him.

“Well if it comes to a nearby city again, we’re going to go. It will help with your creative flow for your tattoos.” You beam.

“Are you planning a future date with me, Cupcake?” He says it so lightheartedly.

“Well I am, no matter what, if Van Gogh’s in town, we’re paying him a visit.” You hold up your pinky.

“Pinky promise.” You request, he chuckles, wrapping his pinky around yours, it feels right.

“Pinky promise.” He repeats.

Your hands part, he wears his jacket. You watch him cross back to his shop. He waves at you before entering, you wave back, laughing to yourself happily.

bucky permanent tags: @slutforsexyseabass

[newtsnaturethings]

Your Opinion on Ghibli movies.

🔥 🔥 🔥

cracks knuckles

Okay. So I will put the caveat that I stopped watching Ghibli movies after I was sorely disappointed with the Ghibli take on “Tales of Earthsea”, so any of my opinions are gonna be applied to only the ones I’ve actually seen.

Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind: amazing. Soft apocalypse with massive bugs and a spooky jungle. Great environmental message. I would love a pet fox squirrel. Nausicaä is awesome and I want her wind glider. The ending never fails to make me cry. You see the origins of the “girl with strong connection to nature with a guy who loves and supports her” theme.

Castle in the Sky: this one’s one of my favorites. Giant super weapon and soft apocalypse vibes. The protagonists are ride or die. And “girl with strong connection to nature with a guy who loves and supports her”. The sky pirates are wonderful and the villain is so much fun (he’s a complete asshole).

Grave of the Fireflies: watched it once. I’m good.

My Neighbor Totoro: this is the second movie I ever watched. I love Totoro. And the Catbus. In fact I think we should invest in Catbus as a means of public transportation.

Kiki’s Delivery Service: this movie hits different when your an adult. Kiki’s journey and the burn out she eventually gets like. Definitely a comfort movie, but Kiki’s journey resonates with me. Oh and I want to live in that cabin in the woods with all the crows.

Porco Rosso: I too, would rather be a pig than a fascist.

Whisper of the Heart: this one’s just sweet. Like. It’s so cute and wholesome.

Princess Mononoke: look. Look. This movie changed me as a person. I saw this as a kid and boom..that was it. San lives with wolves and lives in the forest. Ashitaka is awesome and badass and rides a deer. Also like. The themes of this movie. It’s got the strong environmental message about the importance of living in community with nature, but there’s a lot of shades of grey. You see all sides of the story and it’s fantastic. I could talk about this movie for hours. And it has that classic “girl with strong connection to nature with a guy who loves and supports her”. Ashitaka and San are looking out for each other and it’s great.

Spirited Away: another excellent one. I think this one has my favorite soundtrack. And Chihiro’s journey to find herself and save Haku. I don’t have much else to say on this one. Go watch it it’s great.

The Cat Returns: it’s got walking cats. What more could you want.

Howls Moving Castle: I have to view this one as a separate entity from the book it’s (supposedly) based on. I enjoy this one as its own thing; the Howls Moving Castle book is like…so good. One of my favs. Anyways. Movie Howl - the feathery hug between Howl and Sophie low key rewired my brain chemistry.

Overall I just love these movies. The art is incredible and remains a huge inspiration to me, and you can see how much love gets put into those nature scenes. I could stare at then endlessly. And I love how Hiyao Miyazaki shows love in his movies, where like. The two protagonists help each other grow and make it a goal to live for each other. They accept each other where they are and are ride or die for each other. I just. That shit gets to me. Love it.

Thanks for the ask (and letting me ramble)🦎

[aroace-polyshow]

Hi you said you want to ramble, could you ramble some more about hollow ☆ wonderland i tried looking through your blog but search is. not working. so i failed to find anything at all

HEHEHEHEHH OF COURSE!!! and the reason for that is probably bc i haven’t posted very many details about them!! most of my rambles have been contained to dms with two of my friends and a currently 2.4k word doc of word and idea vomit 👍

anything posted before the most recent ask hasn’t been tagged correctly either, iirc i had a brief summary of the group a while ago though, tagged with “nightcord wxs” i think?? cause i didn’t have a name for them yet at the time. not changing it cause i’ve figured out more stuff since then so it’s sort of outdated. there’s probably a few posts lost in the marlo’s stuff tag, though that i didn’t tag properly but it’s okay those rambles are probably somewhere in my google doc.

anyway, since you didn’t rlly specify something in particular i’m probably just gonna ramble about whatever comes to mind. once again under the cut cause i can tell this is probably gonna get a bit long:

hollow ☆ wonderland is an online music group, and their videos are like kikuo style ones. but not necessarily ones like you are a useless child and aishite, more ones like and then you became the moon, welcome to the star inn, don’t look at me in that way, etc. pretty cutesy and happy sounding with a cute art style and then the lyrics tell a pretty dark story. that’s their general vibe. there’s a few songs i associate with them like judas by abuse (like i mentioned before) but i can’t confidently say it’s the kind of music they’d make. maybe that’ll change though we’ll see.

the group is composed of hoshi (tsukasa) the main lyricist, koki (emu), the artist, tako (rui) the animator and eventual co-lyricist, and kurage (nene), the composer.

they’re all silly online friends who like making music videos together and while none of them really talk about their issues pre-main story given that they’re not super close/don’t know each other super well yet, they still enjoy doing this together and care at least a little bit about each other.

i’m still figuring out how exactly the main story goes, but i’ve definitely made more progress now so HOPEFULLY i figure out a coherent story soon. i rlly do want to write a fic for them but don’t get your hopes up too much.

a few basic ideas i do have currently are some stuff like tsukasa, despite also being on his last hopes like the rest of them, is going to be the one to really encourage them all to start theater again. their sekai is a rundown theme park with lots of fireflies around, all the plushies are still there but they’re also worn down and have lots of patches and stuff on them. wonder stage has been closed down already, but it hasn’t been like torn down or replaced with a new attraction or anything. will it make a comeback? will hw be using it? we will see :)

i think the world hasn’t even started yet is still gonna be their untitled too. i’m thinking for their unit fits it’s gonna be something similar to the circus jester set cards? or at least the face paint thing. i’m absolutely giving them the face paint thing. and then there’s some other plot ideas i have but i’m not totally sure about them yet and i dunno how much sense they make on their own so i’m not gonna add them here.

uh. tsukasas name is hoshi since it means star iirc? so obviously he gets that name. koki meant something like to glitter, to shine, and i think emu would have liked that enough to choose it. and i already mentioned why rui and nenes names are what they are 👍

that is all for now. once again i’m more than happy to answer any other questions (like seriously i was so giddy and happy getting asked about them) so yknow feel free to ask. might answer a bit late cause i’m in school atm and have a lot to say but i will answer it eventually :3

[ellethespaceunicorn]

Sometimes The Silence Guides A Mind

Title: Sometimes The Silence Guides A Mind

Rating: Explicit, 18+, Minors - DNI

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x Reader

Fandom: Enola Holmes series

Word Count: 1.7K

Summary: As you were getting close to Sherlock, he stops visiting. You pop over to Baker Street and share an eye-opening moment.

Warnings: age gap(reader is about 20 in this, Sherlock is mid-30s), slight voyeurism, masturbation (male), handjob, unprotected p-in-v sex (wrap it up y’all), creampie

A/N: I’ve been throwing around this idea about Sherlock for quite some time. I hope you enjoy it. Unbeta’d, we die like people who tried their best.

Dividers by: @firefly-graphics

Support/Reblog banner by me

Cover Art by me

My Masterlist 

You’ve been friends with Enola for a short time, only since the beginning of the year. She’s led you on a few fun adventures, but more often than not, she’s led you on wild goose chases. She has helped you come out of your shell and you are grateful for that. On days that you weren’t exploring the countryside or causing a ruckus in the city, you would lounge around her large house. 

Spending time with her in her large house had its benefits. One of which was 6’1 with a head of unruly curls. The famous Sherlock Holmes was your best friend’s big brother. He lived in the city but came to visit Enola every week. 

You always made sure to be available on those days. If only for the chance to say hello to Sherlock. You wanted more but, truth be told, he made you a bit nervous.

You tried your best to keep calm when he would arrive, but Enola noticed your demeanor change every time. She teased you endlessly about your little crush and you would always bring up Tewkesbury. That would usually shut her up.

In truth, she did not care that you liked her brother, she just didn’t want you to waste your time. The man was not exactly sociable unless he found value in the opinions of others. One opinion he respected was that of his sister. You could sit and watch them talk for hours. She would get him to laugh with her jokes, and he would bring her to annoyance with his riddles.

You would interject a thought here and there and when Sherlock would give his attention to you, you froze. Something about the look in his eyes, it was more than attention. It was intense as if the two of you were the only ones in the world let alone the room.

More than once, Enola had cleared her throat loudly to get you and Sherlock’s attention back on her. But sometimes, she would just listen to you ramble on while Sherlock seemed enthralled in your thoughts. You mused about music and how interesting you thought his cases were. The more you spoke with him, the more comfortable you felt around him. 

Sherlock would show up now and then with little trinkets from his cases. At first, it was just things for Enola, but soon he would start bringing you little gifts as well. He started small with a single flower or a tasty treat from his favorite bakery. But soon, his gifts grew oddly specific. He bought you a brooch you had mentioned seeing at a store in the city. He would learn pieces of music from a composer you talked about and play it for you, much to the chagrin of Enola who wasn’t a fan of the violin.

It was when he didn’t visit for two weeks that you started to realize you were developing feelings for the older detective. You’d come to enjoy his presence and not because of his gifts. You just enjoyed seeing his face light up when he saw you. You relished the power you felt when the normally unflappable and distant man would sit enthralled when you gave voice to your thoughts. 

So, why did it stop so suddenly? Had you done something to offend him? 

You wracked your brain and Enola’s brain for that matter. She gave you his address so you could go and talk to him and she could finally be free of your fretting. 

You arrive at 221 Baker Street, your hands trembling as you knock on the main door. A sweet woman opens the door and introduces herself as Ms. Hudson. When you ask to speak to Sherlock, she sends you up the steps to 221B.

As you’re about to knock, a man opens the door and almost collides with you.

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry. May I help you, Miss?” 

“Ehm, I’m here to see Mr. Holmes…but I can come back if that’s–” You are cut off when he speaks again.

“You wouldn’t happen to be friends with Enola, would you?” You nod, giving your name, “Of course, Sherlock mentioned you. I’m Dr. John Watson, and I have to be going but you are more than welcome to come in. Sherlock is just in his room down the hall.” He points around the corner from the door and walks past you before waving goodbye.

So, that’s how you end up in Sherlock’s apartment. It is eerily quiet and you think he might be asleep. That is until you hear soft moans coming from down the hall. Your first thought is it must have been the floorboards creaking under your feet.

What you hear next is the unmistakable sound of your name followed by a whimper. It sounded like Sherlock was calling to you, but how would he know you were here already? You walk down the hallway quietly and see that his bedroom door is slightly ajar.

Peeking in, you are blessed with a sight! Sherlock is laid out on his bed with his shirt and waistcoat open, his hairy chest on full display as it rises and falls quickly. His beautiful face constricted in pain one second, solemn and peaceful in the next. His curls are a sweaty mess on his forehead. One hand is fisting the sheets at his side and the other hand is wrapped around his thick veiny dick. You’re mesmerized watching him stroke himself until you hear him moan your name again.

In a moment of bravery, you step into the room. Your bosom heaves in your bodice as you breathe shallowly, adrenaline coursing through your veins. 

His hand stops its ministrations and he looks to you as you walk towards him. He’s frozen on the spot and can only watch you as you climb atop the bed and lay next to him. You replace his hand with yours and continue to pump his dick. Your hand barely fits around him and you enjoy the feel of his soft uncut length in your hand.

His hands come up to caress your face and pull you down for a kiss. When his tongue begs for entry, you allow it in. Heatedly, you mold your mouth to his, letting your moans and whimpers be consumed by him. Breaking the kiss, he looks into your eyes and you can tell he is close.

You remove your hand from him and stand up from the bed. It is only when you remove your undergarments does Sherlock understand why you stopped. Climbing back on the bed, you settle yourself with your cunt dripping onto him.

“I want you to be certain that you–” You cut him off as you slink down, his velvety smoothness sliding inside your wet heat. You take a moment to get used to the sheer size of him. He stretches you almost painfully. Leaning down, you whisper into his ear.

“Do I seem certain, Mr. Holmes?”

Instead of an answer, Sherlock groans and twitches inside you. His hands travel under your skirt and rest on your hips. You take that as a sign and sit up. With your hands on his chest, you begin to ride him slowly, agonizingly to the point where his hands start to guide you to a quicker pace. 

Using you like a ragdoll, he flips you so he is atop you while you are on your back. He slams into you repeatedly and you are no longer in control. He savors the sounds coming from you as he fucks into you. He urges you on as he kisses and licks and nips at your neck, careful not to leave any marks.

Pulling out, he moves you to your hands and knees before inserting himself again. The angle allows him to go deeper and you thank the Gods for it. As he holds onto you, he hammers into you. The filthy utterances that come from his mouth only serve to solidify the notion that he missed you too.

“I knew you would feel like Heaven, my sweet angel…”

“This pretty pussy belongs to me now…”

“You would look so perfect with my cum dripping out of you…”

“I could fuck you all day and night and still never get enough of you…”

“Be my good angel and come all over my cock,” He reaches down and rubs your clit between two fingers as he plows into you. You never stood a chance, your walls quivering around him within moments, “That’s my good girl. So good…for me. Fuck, so close!”

“Sherlock, please! Need you to fill me with all you have to give!” You surprise yourself and your lover with those words. 

Sherlock’s answering grunts as he makes mincemeat of your pussy are music to your ears. His punishing thrusts falter and he pulls you flush to him. He’s deep enough to kiss your cervix with the tip of his dick. You feel him swell inside you and it’s enough to make you climax again, milking him through his release. 

And the noises he makes when he comes are more intricate than the 24 Caprices. You’re sure that Sherlock would disagree but you don’t even care. You revel in the melody of his moans and surrender to its hold on you.

Sherlock’s hands roam over your back, your hips, your ass, and your thighs. As if he can’t get enough of you. He doesn’t pull out until you wiggle your hips, a sign that your legs are tired. Extricating himself from your sensitive folds allows his spend to escape. He catches what slips free and pushes it all back in before helping you lay down on your front.

He lays down next to you, pulling you close to him with one arm while the other rests behind his head. He looks so peaceful as he closes his eyes and hums. The feminine urge for pillow talk is high, but so is the need to just bask in this moment.

You’re in the arms of the man you care for, who also adores you. You rest your cheek on his shoulder and tangle your fingers in his chest hair. You breathe in his smell, his pheromones are surely on high alert from your activity. When he rests his head against yours, you feel at peace.

You do plan on talking to Sherlock later about everything. But, for now, you can take pleasure in the simplicity of the harmonization of your heartbeats.

A/N: The title of this fic is taken from The Neighborhood’s Sweater Weather. There is an amazing violin version of this song by Joel Sunny. And anything violin makes me think of Sherlock.

A/N: Also, I know Ms. Hudson wasn't featured in Enola Holmes, but I love her as a character and I wanted to use her.

**Tag List**

@brattymum96 @ambinxe @avengersfan25 @kebabgirl67

@astheskycries @enchantedbytomandhenry @rebelangel1102

Let me know if you wanna be added (or removed) 😁

[t00nyah]

it's been more than a month since i teased those pics, and i finally finished! splat clans au idol designs!

if you're wondering: i drew squid sisters the last and they were....surprisingly difficult considering they're idols who i draw the most usually lol

this au is still very underdeveloped and i'm very open to your suggestions of names and such

you can find some info about the clans here and my first art post of this au here

callie(really want to call her something like kestrelsong but dunno) and marie(marigoldshine? cause firefly squid?) are very important cats - callie just being a very talented and social warrior and marie being the medicine cat

as you may have guess marie gets some sort of a sign about a long forgotten clan going the dark path in need (this being octarian clan stealing all the herbs) and the cat who's able to save their clan(this being three), that causes them to form a traveling group all together for the prophecy

well of course as usual marina(juniperpool? really want to name her after some herbs 'cause she was in a very good medicine cat in training and something that relates to her original name(pool is close to sea, right?...)) is a warrior of the said octarian clan who was brought to inkling clan by pearl(pebblespark?), a daughter of respected senior warriors, and is said to be just a very cool rogue friend of hers

marina is a very great help to her new clan due to her being a fast learner and a medicine cat apprentice in her past. she's very conviniently there when marie is away with some new prophecy, weirdly being too similar to the last one... (this prophecy is also fabricated this time. she made it up because it's still the same herbs problem, it has to be octarian clan...also where in the name of starclan are three and cuttlefish? ughhh probably shouldn't have let them go to the twolegs territories alone...)

and of course deep cats! ahem. i meant. deep cut!

honestly. let me ramble a bit but while the other designs were inspired by the in-game designs mostly, with deep cut i actually had something to use as a reference. shiver is referenced from some mako shark images i found and frye is obviously referenced from moray eels. they also were A BIG PAIN IN THE ASS with trying to make them look at least a little bit genetically accurate before i gave up. i tried my best to make it somewhat based off cat genetics(cause i'm a cat genetics nerd) but. yeah. deep cut. (no big man you were the best one bc i could literally just use your in-game design as a reference you were a bliss thank cod big man exists) also i really want to point out bc i really love how i made frye's side scar long and wiggly looking a little like an eel and shiver's scars are meant to look like shark's gills.

AHEM. me rambling about designs aside.

deep cut are the splatland clan elite:

shiver(sharpstar?) is the leader. she has the charisma and she can keep her cool...kind of.

frye(no, no idea fr) is the deputy. she's very good at organising the patrols even though you would probably argue that frye could be the one to organise something, trust me, she just knows her stuff very well.

and, of course, big man(i literally can't come up with something not including 'big' in it directly HELP sadfgargagaw) is the medicine cat. with his pacifism and not really wanting to fight attitude it's probably quite obvious!

and of course they still descent from cats who've been living there since the very begginings of the clan!

separate versions under the cut

[archandshri]

12 April ‘24 - [arch] Making a Comic in a Week, Disability and Burnout (all unrelated, of course!)

Hey Shri and folks!! LOVED seeing part three of the Lionheart Brothers cover. Stunning!! And awesome to see your process. Also cool to see what you’ve been looking at lately - I’ve just finished a rewatch of Firefly and the characters are still living in my brain a bit. 

Life is a bit relentless, huh. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy working on disability stuff - meal prepping, sorting silly government forms, all that sort of thing. Exhausting and super easy to burn out on - but also sets me up for the future in my personal life and for illustration! I want to discuss the balance of pushing and burnout this week with an excellent example - I tried foreshadowing to make a comic in a week. 

When I was in uni, it was easy to create cool stuff regularly - you’re constantly receiving prompts, doing activities, getting feedback etc. I still have access to these things, especially through my shared studio community, but it’s not as easy as it used to be. I miss creating finished books, in particular, so frequently. So! I challenged myself to make a comic in time for Something’s Fishy Zine Fair in Plymouth tomorrow, which was just over a week from when I started.

I had come up with the concept for the comic while travelling, written the script and done a couple of sketches. I often come up with concepts while travelling - I just don’t often follow through :P Here’s a couple of sketches I did on the journey.

I’ve been chatting to lots of people about what they enjoy about art - I’ve noticed that I tend to crave the end of the project and having the physical thing with high expectations of myself, which doesn’t lead to a very enjoyable process. Many people I’ve spoken to enjoy the ‘zone’, the focus of the project where you’re just figuring stuff out and not thinking about anything else. Bearing this in mind, I wanted to make the process as fun as possible - this comic is for fun and not for the purpose of having the thing at the end. 

I started with a few development sketches of the characters and the vibe. I used ink and my funky kakimori dip pen, plus some brushes. These mediums are hard to control, which makes them good for development for me - they don’t have to be good, this time is for gestural drawings and ideas generation. Some continued doodles in my sketchbook from some downtime :) Fish wouldn't leave my brain.

After a bit of character development, I began by adapting my script into pages - I read the script and try to feel the vibes on how I want to pace the comic, considering:

How much dialogue and plot do I want to put on one page?

Do I want it to be more text or image-heavy?

Do I want it to feel fast and snappy, or slow and dreamy?

Which parts of dialogue feel like a page-turner?

Are there any twists that should be separated from the rest of the scene by a page-turn?

Are there any moments that should sit next to each other on spreads?

You can see me changing some dialogue around, writing as I draw a bit. Also playing around with some weird looking fish?? With noses???

I got a bit stuck at this stage. I was scared my script wasn’t good enough. And worried about if I could even draw fish. After a couple of chats with art friends, and some rambling in my slides, I reminded myself that the lesson this time is fun!! Have fun goddamn it!! No point doing it if you’re not having fun. (it’s not like we make any money from riso printed zines anyway)

Screenshots from my slides - these things are wonderful for gathering inspiration and venting when you run into a problem with the project.

So I decided to just go for it. Not even thumbnail, but just take a scene and draw it. I asked a studio friend to choose a number, and I drew that scene.

Because of the chatty style of the comic, and how much dialogue there was gonna be, I knew there would have to be a LOT of panels. I decided to make it A4, and use a 8x6 grid. I’ll draw the images at A3, and than scale them down to A4 when it comes to printing.

left: A3 grid on the lightbox, for tracing over || Right: A4 grid with boxes of different sizes for me to reference while choosing the layout - this way I can see the final print size

First drafts of a couple of random pages from Moon Noodles.

The first day I drew several pages that I was really happy with! It gave me a lot more confidence in my script - seeing it come to life with the characters on the page - some pages even got some laughs which was nice. I would look at the page plan, script, and spend a few minutes thinking about the pacing and how I wanted the dialogue on the page, and the go straight in with the dip pen - with the awareness that it might be wrong. This process taught me an important lesson - you have to just do it. The thing is, if you do it and it’s bad, you just do it again but different. Repeat. Staring at that script thinking it wasn’t good enough wasn’t actually going to get anything done, be fun OR make nice stuff. You have to do the thing. Then you make it better.

The other thing I learnt from this process was to give it space. There was a day where I did one page, hated it and thought the pacing was off, and spent the next day trying to translate it into two pages. It didn’t work. I came back the next day and realised the first page I’d done was fine and just needed a couple of tweaks. Do the thing. Let it be.

Here’s a little picture of my setup.

(Sorry all of Printhaus for hoarding the light box and getting ink all over it :( love u)

Useful stuff!!!!

Finished pages to refer to, plus more A3 paper underneath for future pages

Laptop with script

Dip pen, ink and water for keeping that little guy clean!

development sketches for relevant scenes

Page plan (you can see I have shortened it considerably since last time - now it's 20-24 pages and noted on scraps of paper so I can move them around if there's any changes of plan)

A4 sheet with boxes to show the sizes of the final print

also scissors??? i don't remember why they're here

But then monday morning came. I realised that if I wanted to get it all printed by friday, I needed to:

Plan and 12 pages on Monday, and 12 on tuesday

Get the final files for every one of the 24 pages by Thursday 

Print friday morning

Travel down to devon Friday afternoon

Fair Saturday

Not only is that basically impossible, but it would be very bad for my health, make for a rushed comic, and most importantly, not be fun. The thing is, I’ve made whole comics in a couple days before. I figured I could still do it. But that’s not actually a good thing - my skills and taste have increased, I'm aiming for bigger, more ambitious projects and yet I expect the timelines to stay the same? It doesn’t exactly work like that now, does it?

But I kept going anyway. 

Tuesday morning, I decide to get the cover put together so I can get the preorder post-out. I get pulled into an unexpected meeting, and then spend the rest of the day inking this thing and getting the files sorted. At this point, I know for sure It’s not possible to get this done. Thankfully my two Printhaus besties were in. They helped me drop it. I love this comic, it feels fun and joyous and I’ve enjoyed working on it - lets not rush it and end up with a bad product that will bother me. Let’s take time, explore it and really enjoy the process!!!

All is not lost for Something’s Fishy Zine Fair, though! Originally, I had planned to do a print of the Moon Noodles Cover for preorders only, but why not print that for Something’s Fishy?? Anyone who buys the print will also get a discount code for the pre-order :D (also here’s the pre-order link)

So here’s a few images of the Moon Noodles cover print and the process!! I hope to see some of you at Something’s Fishy. It’s a joy to visit Plym again :D

Sketch printed out at A3, and 2 of the layers. I scanned these in and edited them on photoshop to get the files ready to print.

Coming to terms with the fact that 1) I don’t have illustration superpowers even if my expectations are that high and 2) I’m disabled (yes it’s been years and it’s still hard to face) is really hard!! I need to spend most of my time when I’m well preparing for when I’m not AND fight the urge to work until I burn out, which I always lean towards because it’s nice escapism. 

The thing is that living, and not being too exhausted to move is much more important than a comic. And if I am gonna spend my functioning time making comics, they’re gonna have to be enjoyable to make. Otherwise your life slips away from you and you haven’t been really living it.

Hope that hasn’t got too deep for you. I think that stuff is important to face, especially since the creative life is so incredibly busy.

Thank you for reading this goddamn essay, I hope that it helped in some way! As usual, feel free to drop an ask if you have any questions. 

Chat soon :D Archie <3

[dontcallmebree]

Bri, heyyyy! ❤️ I hope you're doing well!

For the ask game: I’m gonna say you wouldn’t write a genderswap AU, a high sci-fi AU or an angels/demons AU?

Kay!!! You got it in one honestly. Or in three, rather. Choosing between these to write a snippet for is tough!

Alright, I think I'm going for the sci-fi AU via a Firefly AU. Does that count? 😂 (Never thought I'd write these two as Captain Reynolds & Kaylee but here we are...)

They’ve been flying for the better part of a year—one refuel, two jobs off the record, and a third gone sideways—when Bucky joins him in the cockpit after Sam sets them on a steady course.

Bucky slides into the empty pilot’s seat with sinuous grace, feet tucked up under his thighs and eyes glued to the cosmos beyond. Steve is struck by the sudden urge to avert his gaze.

“This why you spend all your time up here?” Bucky asks, head cocked towards the endless void staring back at them—dark, ominous, and free. “It’s pretty, if you’re into all that.”

“Into what exactly?” he hears himself ask, despite having decided to keep his mouth shut while Bucky talks his ear off.

Buck loves doing that, he’s learned, about some jig he’s cobbled together for their faulty engine, about the cute doctor they’d picked up on their last stop, about Steve’s grooming habits and why he needs a haircut. Nothing is off limits it seems.

Steve is surprised to find he doesn’t mind. Space is too quiet as is; it could use the endless ramblings of Bucky Barnes.

“Oh you know—” Bucky waves indistinctly at the pitch black windows dotted by the occasional floating debris—“all the sad, depressing art you keep down in the bay.”

Oh. He didn’t think anyone was going to mention those. No one likes talking about the war.

“You’re right,” he manages, after a while. “It is pretty.”

“Hmm.” Bucky props his chin up on one knee, marveling at the dreary view like he can see what Steve does: the beauty in the nothingness, no stars, no planets, no goddamn Alliance in sight. “Makes a guy wanna stay out here forever.”

“You could.”

Bucky looks at him like he’s really lost it this time. Not for the confession, a much too ugly truth, but for the simple fact that he’s saying it at all.

But Steve decided a long time ago that this was all there is. The metal hunk of a ship they call home is as close to freedom—to a real life worth living—as they can get, and he’s not giving it up for anything short of another war.

Bucky turns away like he can’t quite look Steve in the eye, face the reality of their very existence. He does, however, let slip a quiet, “I might.”

It almost doesn’t sound like a winless fight, for once. When Bucky says it, Steve can’t remember why a winless fight is even bad at all.

Kinda makes me wanna write a firefly au...

let's exchange asks for the prompt ask game!

[kulaiyin]

(thoughts on penacony 2.0 trailblaze mission!)

PENACONY!!! 😍

just a warning, this is gonna be mostly aimless rambling about the penacony map and story. this includes spoilers!

i'm blown away on the production quality of penacony, both in the real world and the dream world. the music, special effects, skyline, whimsy... they put so much into the penacony experience and i love it

golden hour is massive and even though i took a detour countless of times from firefly's tour (I'M SO SORRY FIREFLY) there are still places i haven't fully explored! it's a pure delight ♪(´▽｀) i really enjoyed how they introduced penacony gameplay mechanics so naturally in the story

penacony puzzles in general are so unique and a huge step up from past regions! my favorite one is the clockie puzzle. i actually find them hard but they reminds me of puzzle games i used to play and i like that challenge

penacony food looked so delicious... 🌈🍦🍨🍩🍟🍰 sorry firefly i picked the most expensive item hoping we could share it

i'm called "jay" so this image is funny... i saved this pic as "ME AND THE GFS" except i forgot the f in gf, so it's just "ME AND THE G'S"

also HOLY F they are gf... i really love how gay stelle and firefly are (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ) wlw win... i also appreciate how gay acheron is too. i know what u are... after all, i am an avid hi3rd fan--

i was very pleased with the whole "touring around with a cute girl eating french fries dipped in ice cream" vibes we got with firefly! it's very cute... especially while playing as stelle (❁´◡`❁)

firefly's story is very touching... "a dream you don't want to wake up from" seems to be a big theme that's being set up for penacony. i believe acheron at the very beginning also questioned us about our willingness to stay in a dream and risk things for ones we care about, and firefly's love and reason for staying in penacony bring this theme back

this line thoroughly shattered me. please protect firefly...

other characters who stood out to me:

acheron. she's less of a scary badass than i expected, and she's actually really cute?! (gap moe?!) but perhaps my initial impression of her upon seeing her splash art ("spines and bloodied clothing... she looks like bad news!") might be true after all... 😳

sparkle. she is so catty and snarky! i didn't expect so much venom to come out of her mouth. i like more characters like this who deliberately antagonize others

misha. I HAVE A BIG THEORY about him ┌( ´_ゝ` )┐

i think misha is related to mikhail. this is entirely due to the voice during the trippy dream-in-a-dream sequence sounding just like misha's in the CN voiceover, so i could be totally wrong. but misha is quite special as someone who can see clockie and is the one who guided the trailblazer to golden hour

"mikhail," whoever he is, is too prominent in the trailblaze mission to be something unrelated to the mystery of the watchmaker. so my theory is also that mikhail and/or misha is involved with the origin of the watchmaker...

i have more thoughts about the latter half of the story but i'll add to this post when it comes to me later, it's late! thanks for reading!