#fixed some typos; share this version instead

[virtualgirladvance]

⚠️ Warning: Super gay thing ⚠️

You 🫵

[velvet-cupcake-games]

Made Marion: Small Patch and Holiday Devlog

Version 2.1 EA Release

We have released a small bugfix/update patch.  Here are the notes, which you can also find on Steam and Itch.io.

Uploaded the final version of Will's final CG (Spontaneous Ending). If you unlocked the in-progress version, you can see the final version in your Art Gallery in Extras.

Misc. typo fixes and editing pass over the Love Interest PoV Scenes.

Will's Sunjati name has been changed to Iyiola as we were informed that his previous Sunjati name was unintentionally funny/awkward for modern West African readers.

Altered "you can leave your hat on" joke/reference because due to sprite limitations he literally can't.

Small blocking issue solved: Will's route was blocked at the end of Sherwood Chapter 2 if you first asked about Layton. This has been fixed.

Made Marion Holiday Devlog

Our first patch was originally meant to expand Robin's love scenes to match the length of Will's (and the length that they will be from here on out), but a hard drive burp ate my writing and I'll have to redo it all. That'll show me not to forget to back up to Github.  Since I want to get going with John ASAP, Robin's updated love scenes will be released along with John's route.

I'm now outlining and idea boarding John's route. It's going to be quite the contrast from Will's, in which two young scions yearning to have control over their own destinies came together. In John's route we have the meeting of two responsible young people who were forced by circumstance to grow up before they were ready.

John is kind, protective, and can be stubborn in his own way. Despite technically being Robin's second, he's used to being the captain that steers the ship. So is Marion. When they meet, will she take it as an opportunity to let go and be protected for once, or will she challenge John's need to always act as the bulwark between the world's dangers and the people he loves?

Your choices will lead to different kinds of love and different kinds of struggles as you work toward the Challenge or Compromise Ending.

Art Team Priorities

Here's what our artists are up to:

Arrapso (Sprites, CGs) is creating some sprite models that are not wearing their trousers, for when I have sprites zoomed in during love scenes in which they're supposed to be naked. We still won't be showing anything below the waist, but some of our gents have some fairly high waists on their trousers and the visible belts were bugging me.

Lawrichai (cut-ins, lore intro) is concentrating on the animated lore intro. We've decided to make it a full animated movie instead of doing smaller animations in-engine, so Lawri has picked up Live2D and is animating away!  I'm excited to see what she puts together!

Here we have some cool, possible Fae Lord sketches for the intro:

Sandra (backgrounds, creatures, cut-in assist) has finished all the backgrounds I currently need, and with FIFTY BGs plus many variations, I'm doing my level best not to need any more! We only have one more creature to design (Lord Geoffrey's favorite hunting hound), so she has graciously agreed to help us with cut-ins so that Lawrichai can focus on the lore intro and love scene illustrations.

Happy Holidays!

We will be taking December off from updates, so I should have some nice John route news to share when we return mid-January, 2025.  I hope you all have a lovely holiday season, or if the holiday season is not lovely for you, that you persevere and are able to take time for yourself.

[manonamora-if]

April Check-In

HI! I AM NOT DEAD I PROMISE, ANON!

Just... Ugh... It's been a stressful end of the month. I have not kept up with the weekly devlogs at all, partly because I had little to share each week, but also IRL was just too much. Head seems out of the water for now. Though I will be MIA for the rest of the week.

Onto the usual index:

Recap of last month’s progress

IF Events in the Next Month

Plan for the next month

Still long post under the break. If you want a mini version, head on over to itch.io as usual!

March Progress

From last month, what did we do:

Complete my French Comp entry. ✅ Not only did I write it all in less than two weeks (and it was full of typo that was so embarrassing), I also managed to...

Complete my SpringThing entry. ✅ Because that's the same game but in English.

Play more games! ✅Obviously having finished playing the Smoochie Jam AND all the French Comp game (quite a few good ones, voting was so hard), but also the SeedComp! and the Revival Jam (maybe?). The harvest of games for this month was bountiful!

Finish the Code Ch5 ❌ of Harcourt and edit Ch6 ✅

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. ❌

Things, it turns out... No, really...

Yay! Still managed to make a decent chunk of stuff.

Let's start with the bummer: still haven't fixed the borked games. Yeah... I really should sit down at some point and get down to it. BUT I did get some feedback for the Egg-game, and got extra code to fix the container issue. So... I just need to get to it.

Still haven't worked on coding on Harcourt, though I finished my part of the edits of Chapter 6. The file, full of comments, is back on his desk which... Well. Herm. MelS's computer just 💥(not like fire everywhere, but sudden forever black screen), corrupting about half of his data... which included his progress on that chapter and the endings. We've been working on getting his data back (tbh this project is the least of his worries, more important stuff is still gone), so hopefully we can get him back to editing and writing by next month (best case scenario). YEAH...

But before that happened, I managed to finish Les lettres du Docteur Jeangille for the French Comp, at the last possible minute yet again. I had the idea for month, but didn't start working on it until I was truly done with Teatime with a Vampire. It still managed to write over 15k words in 18-19th century French style (and full of typo because, only two weeks...) in essentially 1 and 1/2 week. EPISTOLARY STYLE game :D

After that was done, I got to play the Smoochie Jam and the French Comp games (it's on the IFDB), and started with the SeedComp entries (it's hidden because I'm the organiser). Lots of fun little game, some very sweet and humorous, some VERY DARK, some suuuper hot, and some that required a bit of noggins.

And halfway through the month, I sneaked a mini-parser game for the Revival Jam. I wanted to try my hand out with the old-style Speed-IF jams, that ran all the way back at the start of the century, which were just 2h long. TWO HOURS! No preparation, just you starting to code and stopping after 2hs. I tried my hand at Inform but... didn't have time to learn a whole new program and make my mini puzzle work in time. So I switched back to Adventuron, and managed to make something... in just over 2hs... I ended up Reviving old versions of the EctoComp instead (3h limit). Still it was fun to try to make a parser game in such short amount of time. It's called FIA: The Vacuum Cleaner, it will take you maybe 5min to play. And... it was so fun I kind of want to make basic micro-parser in that little universe. Some sort of multi-episode series where you have a small puzzle in front of you to solve. Like an intro to parser type of thing. Maybe in different parser programs? We will see. I might end up popping up here and there as tiny little games.

When THAT was done, I went back to work on the English translation of Jeangille, cutting it so close for the SpringThing deadline I thought I would not make it (for real, my files were sent at 23:58! I honestly don't think this was my bestest translation. It probably would have needed a few more rounds of polish and maybe some beta-readers but... :/ the computer explosion happened in the middle of all this so. I guess it was enough... I hope it was enough... But yay! I made it! No bug! Probably just typos! I didn't manage to make the cool animation tho...

AND I updated my website to add all of these juicy thingies!

AND AND! I was interviewed by the Rosebush Magazine last week!

So that was my month. We did good, we did bad, we are exhausted.

What’s happening in April?

Oh wow, already April. WHAT DO WE HAVE HAPPENING? So much, we have so much happening.

First off, we have competitions looking for voters:

Vous pouvez lire le français ? Venez jouer et voter pour les entrées du Concours de FI Francophone ! La date limite est le 4 avril.

Also on the 4th of April, is the deadline to vote for the SeedComp! (@seedcomp-if) games! You can find the forms here. We really really need voters!

The Spring Thing just released a new harvest of games (including meee :P ), and will open voting in a bit less than 2 weeks. Come play!

Looking to create some games instead?

The next @neointeractives jam just opened for submission! Come participate in the Dialogue Jam!

Looking to attempt creating a parser that is easy enough for beginners? Come check the Text Adventure Literacy Jam! You need a tutorial and 5 puzzles to solve!

If you want a deadline to finish your project, maybe check out : Finish Your Project Jam 2024

And for lovers: Amare Games Festival 2024

On the shorter side, and in May: Narrative Design Awards 2024 (ranked), 🔥 Fuck Capitalism Jam 2024 🔥 (unranked)

Interested in other IF events?

April 1st is Source Code Amnesty. Come share the code of your creations! (I've added a bunch of mine on Github today)

You can now register to attend the 2024 Edition of the Narrascope! IRL or Virtual, there are a lot of great talks this year!

We had so far 10 actual entries for the Interactive Fiction Showcase 2024 ! If you made something in 2024, consider showcasing it there too!

Note: @neointeractives will have jams all year long. One a month/or so. And the next Planting Round of @seedcomp-if will start as soon as the results are dropped.

The PLANtm for April

I, erm... should take it easy this month. But also, actually finish stuff, because the more I start, the more I have to fix/finish and it's becoming A LOT...

Play more games: I haven't covered the Revival Jam yet (I'm getting on it!) and the SpringThing has just started. So I have a lot of new treaties just for me! (And also that 2nd Rank is so close I can taste it!).

Finish the Code of Ch5 of Harcourt and edit the Ending Chapter: the latter should be easy since it is pretty short. The former... I just need to bite my tong and get to it! It should probably take me a day to code those last passages...

Finish fixing The Roads Not Taken. Or An Eggcellent Preparation. Maybe the other parser too (it just needs a smidge of polish).

Complete the TALJ entry. The deadline is at the end of the month. I already have the basic structure. I need: a tutorial, commands to actually make the game work. And words. So many words. (Did I mention here I'm making a maze?)

I think that's good. I'm trying REALLY HARD not to tack on another Neo-Interactives entry (we're doing dialogues and I LOVE THOSE). But I WILL TRY MY BEST TO KEEP IT FOCUSED ON THE CURRENT PROJECTS!

~

The 2024 To-Do List:

LOL, I've only done the website! :D

The hopefully maybe easy to handle To-Do:

fix the bugs in EDOC + overall the French version to match (waiting for Adventuron to get the French language)

fix the bugs of TRNT + find a way to add the missing pieces (giving up on the translation)

fixing the interface of LPM and the popups + check animal interactions

figure out the One-Button JavaScrip/jQuery issue...

edit the loading screens of the completed tiny games to include the program/format logo at least.

The 'Need a Bunch of Content to update but it's planned!' To-Do:

Update my website (bunch new title - also I don't think the logo clicky thing work...) + redo my itch page

Finish TTATEH (MelS dependent - this year should be it - for real)

Finish Exquisite Cadaver (half-way mark by this summer - manif)

Finish P-Rix - Space Trucker (main path at least)

Update CRWL (it's been almost two years... I'm getting ashamed)

The Unlikely But it Would be Dope To-Do

Finish The Dinner as it was planned (and translate)

Finish In the Blink of an Eye as it was planned (and retranslate)

Finish The Rye in the Dark City

Fixing TTTT (at least fixing, maybe try adding some storylets)

And finally The 'It's impossible, but one can wish' TO-DO:

Remaster SPS IH (if I managed to start this after completing the rest... I'm going to eat a whole sheet cake).

Start the IFComp project (2025? Might end up being a ST?)

[chorusfm]

A Better Simple Streaming Music Sharing Page

When I debuted the “share music page” in 2019, it was really just something I wanted for myself. I wanted a better way to be able to share music in my newsletter so that people could easily find the albums on their preferred streaming platform. But over the past few years I’ve heard from so many people that have used the page to share music with their friends and family as well. I see thousands of songs and albums in the database. To see a small personal project grow to be used by others is the biggest compliment. As I wrote about last week, I’ve been working on improving my personal blog as a way to keep myself busy and away from doomscrolling. It’s been a fun nightly project to add some new features and start posting more photo and micro blogs when inspiration strikes. The first time I posted an update about something I was listening to I just knew I needed to find a way to combine my sharing project and my blog. So I did. I ended up re-writing the entire sharing backend so that it would work automatically in my blog anytime I share one of the links. It notices it’s a share link and it populates a cool little player under the post with links to all of the various streaming platforms: Clicking on one of the icons will take you to the song or album in the that streaming service. And as a bonus, clicking the album artwork will open up (if available) the YouTube song or playlist right there on the page to play immediately. The mini blog share widgets load in the background so they’ll never block the loading of the page, keeping everything nice and fast, and they use the same shared backend to pull information from so once a song or album has been loaded once, by any person, it should be incredibly fast on subsequent loads. I then took this new format and feature-set and applied it to the main share pages as well. They get an updated look, and get all the same fast loading features as the mini versions: The new pages also do a much better job of normalizing band and album names. So if you search for blink-182, or blink 182, or blink182, you’ll always get the same page. URLs also get better (and automatically) normalized. Searches with typos will run various checks to see if the system can find what it thinks you might mean and redirect you to the proper page before giving an error. And I even built myself a small admin backend so I can make edits to the pages as needed. For example, sometimes I’ll create a share page for a song before there’s a YouTube video up for it. Now I can add that later. Or if the system pulls a live version for an album, instead of the proper studio version, I can easily fix that: And, as a bonus (and something I will probably be looking to use in other ways on the website in the near future), because this is now effectively a WordPress plugin, I can natively in posts do this: That one is not an image. You can click the links to check out the (pretty damn good) album on any of those streaming platforms, or click the album artwork to listen to it right here on this page. This is one of my favorite new “features” I’ve built in a while and I’m excited to keep testing it out, fixing any bugs that come up, and finding new fun ways to integrate it on the website. Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you articles like this one. --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/features/articles/a-better-simple-streaming-music-sharing-page/

[puexii]

NYX POST!!!1!!1!1!!!!

In chronological order of oldest to newest, including dates

1. Random character in random doodle becomes oc with a story (inspirational)

Featuring Elliot and his sister (who still doesn't have a name and an actual design im happy with)

April 14, 2023

2. Figuring out Nyx's design, featuring AR glasses they were originally supposed to have

June 2, 2023

3. Clyde and Nyx friendship moment. I got possessed by the rendering demon while sketching and just started rendering it, the demon left before it was finished

June 13, 2023

4. Silly chess shenanigans. Was inspired by a stanley parable version of this meme (also ignore the typo on pieces i only noticed that today)

July 14, 2023

5. Nyx asking Ren to please stop backflipping, he kept exploding on impact and Nyx was tired of fixing him (based on that one time i put the ask thingy on my instagram story and that one guy kept saying do a backflip and i kept making Ren do the backflips, since he was the most likely one to do it. It ended after i made Nyx catch him before he landed on his last backflip)

July 15, 2023

6. Nyx and their completely valid argument getting obliterated after Elliot's declaration of bomb possession

September 14, 2023

7. Was gonna be a meme, but i never finished it and I forgot what the meme was

September 14, 2023

8. Nyx wearing shark slippers

October 2, 2023

9. Traditional sketches of Nyx where i was unable to draw their face consistently

November 12/13, 2023

9.5. Digital modifications of the previous drawings made to see what i was doing wrong

November 12, 2023

10. Nyx falls asleep while working on Ren. Hooonk mimimi

November 17, 2023

11. Comic where Clyde was gonna ask Nyx to help him with something, but he quickly changes his mind after finding out that Nyx somehow accidentally deleted the boot loader. Based on a true story (I accidentally deleted the boot loader)

November 18, 2023

12. That awkward moment when your roommate accidentally sleeps on your shoulder and you have no clue how a normal human reacts in this situation, so you wait for them to wake up instead, maybe you will still have energy for work the next morning

November 20, 2023

13. Nyx surprises Clyde after finding out it was his birthday

December 4, 2023

14. Random doodle where Nyx just goes :P

December 12, 2023

15. Meeting your online friend for the first time and your robot friend comes to what you are doing. Little does he know that your online friend comes from a sector that just despises robots

December 15, 2023

16. Nyx dragging Clyde after finding out that he doesn't know what that specific fun thing they mentioned even is, so now he must find out. Clyde doesn't like the he's being dragged right now since he's very off balance and he would very much rather be balanced

December 16, 2023

17. Rare moment of the peaceful Clyde suggesting violence, he would not do that actually (based on that one meme that was around for a bit)

December 17, 2023

18. I hate this drawing actually why did i share it

December 19, 2023

19. Nyx but gremlin, made this as a reference to use to make a similar shaped 3d model

December 22, 2023

19.5. how the 3d model came out, featuring Elliot (making Nyx's hair was hard hrghrgg)

also I screenshot this from a silly video i made, u can also find it on yt if u search my name its the only video on there

20. A sketch so messy you can barely see their face, it's a doodle of Nyx with goggles on their head

December 27, 2023

21. Nyx succumbs to violence after Ren proves his lack of self preservation once again and Nyx is tired, Elliot is also there and he approves the violence (based on that one meme)

February 16, 2024

22. Nyx is bored to death while sitting upside down on the couch and sees Clyde's houseplant, it seems to be well cared for (based on a scene in the short story I wrote about Nyx going to the forest)

April 27, 2024

And yuh that's all i have of Nyx until now :P (actually there might be some small doodles i have of them in my notepad but that's enough for now i think)

Was kinda tedious to get them all with the descriptions and stuff but eh I remembered to do it in the end

Realized I don't have a post dedicated for Nyx despite them being an important character in the story 💥

(they are included in the meme post but still)

So I have decided I must make a post for them, with all the drawings and doodles they are included in >:] (including the ones in the meme post)

All that's left is for me to remember to do that

[moose-mousse]

Frustrations

Following other developers, learners and makers are great. It facilitates learning and gives inspiration

But one thing that is often missing from people telling about how it is going, is the failures, frustrations and problems any developer will run into.

For this reason, two of my favorite maker youtube channels are Extractions&Ire (Chemistry) and Code Bullet (machine learning). Because these madlads are brave enough to not just show their process and result, but also their failures, mistakes and errors. And how they overcome them. Not always by learning (Sometimes making a dumb mistake is not really something you can learn from...)

It's good, because it's real.

Code tutorials and guides can give the impression that the normal process of development is "Open IDE, code, fix tiny typo error, compile, success". They don't do it out of malice, but out of a want to be concise. Which is fair.

So I also want to share when things do not go so well. I have programmed Atmel's AVR Chips for quite a while now. But I have done it mostly in microchip studio(former Atmel studio) and a bit in the arduino IDE. A job I am currently applying for, uses visual studio code. Which is fair enough. So to prepare for this specific job, and to acquire this quite good-to-have skill, I want to set that up for myself First things first, since I have not done this before, I cannot know if my code would have a weird error so I want to know everything else is working first. So I write a tiny program which simply have the microcontroller increase a number every 2 seconds and write it to my PC over UART. Takes 2 minutes.... I grab one of my Arduino Nano boards and a USB cable for it. And then... I cannot flash it... Its communication protocol have troubles.

I have seen this before. It is to do with the cables not being correct. If they are USB 2.0, very little magnetic noise can cause trouble. (And you cannot tell if a cable runs USB 2.0 or 3.0 by looking at it... because the universal serial bus is not universal... Insert grump rant here) I then spend an hour finding and trying different USB A to USB B-mini cables. Give up, notes down to buy (and MARK) some USB 3.0 versions for the future. I then grab a Arduino Uni instead, as they use USB B, which is much more resistant to noise... And then spend half an hour trying to find a the cable, as I do not have a lot of them, since... nearly nothing uses them. Finally find it, and yes, the program can now be flashed. So I packed all the cables I tested back in their places, after marking them so I will(hoefully) not have to do this again. Had to take several breaks feeling depressed and grumpy, and all in all, this adventure took 4-5 hours. And now I can START on this... And this is how work sometimes is. And that is ok. It is still... VERY frustrating ...

[tenshiharmonia]

I've been replaying Hollow Knight as of late, and there's an amusing anecdote that I wanted to share with you. You see, being French, I'm obviously playing the game in French. And while the French translation does a pretty good job at capturing the gravitas of the game, there's quite a bunch of errors and typos in the script. Now, I'm certainly not the one who's going to cast the first stone - although some of the mistakes are a little infortunate, like implying that the Traitor's child was a boy (to be fair, that one is probably due to the Grey Mourner's peculiar way of speaking) -, but there is one typo that I find particularly hilarious. You see, in the French version, Zote's weapon, Life Ender, is called "Portemort", which basically means "Deathbringer". So far so good, but where it becomes quite funny is that, in Zote's entry in the Hunter's Journal, it is misspelt as "Protemort", giving the humorous impression that the Hunter thinks so lowly of Zote, that he didn't even bother to get his weapon's name right. And honestly, it seems so fitting, that I'm actually wondering if it was indeed an unintentional typo, or a deliberate addition...

(By the way, I don't know if it's a problem exclusive to the French version, but the texts feel quite buggy sometimes. Like, I was trying to dreamnail the Godseeker to access Godhome for the first time, but the following cutscene was all mangled. Words were cut in half and most of her lines just flat out didn't appear. Half of the dialogue was reduced to completely blank screens. Then I tried to deliver a Delicate Flower to the White Lady, but instead of the normal dialogue, she replied with one of the Godseeker's dreamnail lines... Really, I don't know what the Godseeker has done, but she's truly messing up the fabric of reality. I hope there's a way to fix that up because it's quite frustrating...)

[todaydreambelieversfic]

Author Spotlight : InsightfulInsomniac Day 3

Author Spotlight : InsightfulInsomniac (@zigxzag-klaine​​)

How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

Um. I rarely ever revise before posting. I’ve maybe revised once or twice. Once I post it, I’ll read through it on AO3 and fix any accidental typos that I catch, but that’s it. I churn it out and post it often on the same day... so. That’s my style, and it’s a bit insane, but that’s me!

If you were to revise one of your older fics from start to finish, which would it be and why?

I think I’d like to revisit “A Tale of Two Toothbrushes.” I love it, and it’s a really sweet fic of mine, but I could see myself revising it a bit. I just think that’s I’ve grown in my writing since then, and I have a better grasp on the characters than I did at that moment. That being said, I still love it.

What do you look for in a beta?

I actually don’t have one... oops. However, my younger sister does read over every fanfic I write and lets me bounce ideas off of her when I have writer’s block, so she’s definitely my unofficial beta. What I’d look for is a genuine interest in the characters and storylines that they’re subjected to!

If you could write the sequel (or prequel) to any fic out there not written by yourself, which would you choose?

I’d choose to write the sequel of one of my favorite one shots of all time, “I Saw the Signs,” by Skivvysupreme. It’s about Burt realizing everything about the aftermath of 3x05 “The First Time,” and I’d love to continue that fic. I’ve written a little around my own take on that arc, but theirs is just so perfect that I’d love to continue it.

Do you take liberties with canon or are you very strict about your fic being canon compliant?

I am the definition of being strictly canon-compliant. That’s where I exist comfortably in my writing, and I’m always so impressed by people who can write beyond it! However, I genuinely love being confined to canon, because it allows for analysis and expansion of tangible concepts that exist in the Glee universe!

Talk about a review that made your day.

Oh wow, literally every review makes my day, but one that sticks out to me as of recently was from a lovely returning reader. They had noted at the beginning of their very long comment that they started reading and then decided to open up the comment window in another tab so they could comment as they went because they knew they’d forget everything they’d want to say. They then proceeded to point out their favorite lines and moments within the entire 7000 word story, and it made my day! I also love the reviews that say that my canon is now their canon, because I write a lot of future fics — knowing that I’ve stuck true to the characters even while continuing their lives according to my own universe is always such an encouraging compliment.

Do you ever get rude reviews and how do you deal with them?

I find that most of the community on AO3 is exceedingly sweet, so it’s very rare. That being said, I do occasionally get criticism, such as little notes like “I don’t understand this plot point” or “(character) probably wouldn’t say/think that because ____.” Most of the time, I’ll agree with or understand their criticism, and either fix the issue noted or explain why I made that creative choice, and then leave it at that. Sometimes, however, you just have to let it go. I’ve had a few suggestions or criticisms that I just didn’t agree with, so I didn’t respond to them! Again, most of the Glee community on Ao3 is so wonderful, so that’s extremely rare.

What advice do you have for people just starting to write?

Just go for it! Write those ideas that are swimming around in your head, even if they come out incomplete or in need of revision. Don’t ever think that your story is one that’s already been told — you will always offer a new perspective. Don’t be afraid to write what you love, even if it’s been done before. Just write, and if you’re ready to share it with people, take that leap of faith! It’ll be worth it in the end, and you always have room to grow.

Which fic do you most like to discuss with other people? Why?

I’m going to go with a series of mine instead of a singular fic — my dads!klaine series is SO fun to discuss because I adore seeing how people interpret my Klaine kids. They’re all original characters that I’ve created, and they’ve really cemented their individual places in my verse. I love that people get attached to my version Klaine’s kids and accept them as their canon, and I love that they care just as much about them as they do Kurt and Blaine (because I do too)!

What's one aspect of writing fic that gets you really excited?

I’ve talked about this a lot, but the opportunity to fill in and expand upon bits of canon that were either rushed or overlooked in the greater picture that was Glee. I love diving in deep to characters or small moments in time, and fanfic allows authors to do that on their own terms through their own interpretations. I really care about this show and its characters, and I try to show that through my fics.

***

Check out InsightfulInsomniac’s Fics

Missing Moments: The Wedding  -  Missing moments from 6x08 “The Wedding.” Basically everything we wanted to see that the show didn’t give us, from their decision to get married all the way to the quiet moments alone after the wedding is over.

A Tale of Two Toothbrushes  -  On Burt’s day off, he decides to do some spring cleaning. When he cleans Kurt’s bathroom, he discovers not one, but two toothbrushes. When he realizes why that is, he decides to make something to help Blaine feel more at home.

Caught Red-Handed  -  Kurt and Blaine are staying with Burt and Carole for the few days before they leave for their honeymoon. Being newlyweds is one thing, but being newlyweds two doors down from your in-laws is another. Kurt doesn’t seem to care, but Blaine cares a lot.

[jokerownsmysoul]

the extension of two souls shared around a tiny table

Summary: on a sunny spring morning you’re enjoying each other’s presence, your love is stronger than ever while your daughter is looking for Joker to spend some time with her daddy. You’re just… happy.

Pairings: Joker x Reader + biological daughter Content: soft, fluff

Warnings: nothing?? Only fluffy things

Word count: 4453

If you want, for a better atmosphere I was listening to this song.

A/N, just one thing: I got inspired by a dream I had two nights ago about Joker, I was afraid to write it because usually is Arthur having a family, I’ve never read this prompt with Joker. But still in my dream there was Joker, not Arthur, he came to me without me calling him and I didn’t want to change it by putting Arthur instead. I just wondered what Joker would do if he had a family and that’s what came out. It was a long shot to write it because I know that this fluffy version of Joker may not be supported by everyone but I run the risk, in any case I would understand it because each of us see him in his own way I didn’t know fluffy Joker hit me that much and I want to write a second part and a series dedicated to this family so badlyyyy I loved them and the connection between Joker and his daughter. and it makes me sad that he doesn’t have all of this :( This fic opened my heart in half and filled it with flowers and made them bloom and I hope you will appreciate it too.

Also… What are the chances of me finding this pic which shows two important elements I put in this fic, especially the green teddy bear, after I wrote it? I loved this coincidence and I like to think that this fic was just meant to be

A/N: english is not my first language so I apologize for any typos, I’m still learning.

You were happy. On this day, while you were baking a cake, all you could think about was this.

You three were happy.

It was a sunny morning, all the windows of the apartment were open and its long curtains danced in the wind, creating vortices of fabrics that danced in the living room as if they were guests who had snuck into your home. Sometimes you looked up from the cake batter you were preparing to watch their dance, surprising yourself so enchanted that several times you’d even forgotten that you were baking a cake, that the oven, now hot, was waiting for you to bake it and that there was a physical world beyond the magical one you could see in the dance of these curtains.

There was just something in these curtains that you couldn’t explain. It wasn’t just curtains being moved by the wind, you saw something more poetic in that dance. You saw the beauty of life flowing before your eyes, you saw the freedom that could be found in the simple act of being led by someone, by something, like these curtains that were guided by the sunny air of a spring day.

Spring rarely visited this city. The days were often dark, the sun didn’t explode in all its light but it was always faded and covered by a blurry patina, the sky was continuously dyed gray and full of clouds even during the summer.

But the rare times when the sun took space between the clouds and its light exploded, it did so in such a way that no one could ignore its presence, it did in all its luminous power. The sunny spring days in Gotham were rare, but when they arose, they were breathtaking. Sometimes you thought that during these long dark periods the sun preserved its energies to use them all at once in one single day by coloring everything yellow. It wanted to be heard, it wanted to tell you that the sun existed and that it wasn’t gone.

These curtains dancing in the air showed all the beauty hidden in the world that not everyone could see, an entity hidden in everything around you, the natural reminder of the fact that in life not everything is lost and there is always hope for forgiveness.

These curtains were telling you that life was in all things animated and inanimate, it hid on the surface and you had to know how to see it. You saw the beauty of life looking at your freshly washed white silk curtains which smelled clean, dragged by the scented spring air which flooded the apartment with an electric floral smell, and if you had closed your eyes you could have seen a garden full of multicoloured flowers right inside your eyelids.

Joker was sitting on the table next to one of the living room windows and the wind coming in through the window made his strands of green hair dance here and there. The dance maded by these green hair moving in such a way reminded you of the same dance of fresh freshly cut grass which performs following the steps of the wind on spring days like this. Occasionally you looked at him and you were aware that his beauty confused you and distracted you much more than the curtains, no matter how beautiful they might be. Joker was your best distraction. He was looking at his book of jokes, the cigarette he was smoking and the pen took turns in his hand following a precise rhythm, he had a frustrated expression on his face which had appeared after the umpteenth time he had cancelled the punchline of a joke.

“Hard work day, love?” You asked as you watched the curtains dancing behind him, noticing his forehead creased and frowny eyebrows. Joker kept his gaze fixed on the book twirling a strand of hair around the fingers of his hand with which he wasn’t writing and playing with it thoughtfully. “I just can’t finish this joke, it’s harder than I thought.” You nodded by acknowledging the weariness in his face, smiling at yourself for the commitment he still put into his vocation despite everything had happened to him. You’d always admired how much perseverance, how much precision he put on his jokes. Joker was a meticulous man, and you were sorry that no one could see how dedicated he was to all the things he loved. In his jokes, in his job, in his family.

You and your little girl were his first priority. His breath and his whole existence were completely given to the two most important people in his life, you two, and every day he showed it to you with his permanent presence. “Is there anything I can do for you?” Joker looked up to you and met you. Your messy hair, your apron and flour stained face, your understanding look. He could read in your eyes the serenity of this moment and despite he was frustrated by the joke he couldn’t unravel he felt the same serenity as you did on this sunny morning, while the vanilla smell of the cake and the roaring laughter of your little girl from the bedroom filled the apartment. “Would you help me?”

A giggle slipped out of your lips as you wiped your hands on your apron. “Of course I would, you silly.” Joker smiled and put the pen on the table to hold the book with both hands while reciting the joke, but before he could even finish the sentence you were both interrupted by your little girl who had swooped into the living room trotting joyfully. “Who’s ready for cake?” she mumbled with a high-pitched voice and hopping for the too much enthusiasm which wouldn’t let her stand still, not even for a second.

“We’re all ready, aren’t we, mummy?“ he teased you by looking at you with a playful expression and his face wrapped in a smirk. You answered by turning to your little girl ignoring his playful look, but smiling at yourself and making sure Joker would have noticed it. “Of course we’re honey, but the cake isn’t ready yet.” Your little girl frowned for a few minutes enough to decide if this answer would suit her or not. She frowned in the same way as Joker did and a smile spontaneously appeared on your face. After a few minutes his thoughtful expression vanished, her forehead stretched out and she returned to have her face lit with happiness. “It’s fine. Wanna keep playing!”

He trotted to Joker, grabbing a flap of his sleeve in her tiny hand and waving it impatiently. “Daddy wanna play with me?” Joker smiled, stroked her back gently and before he could answer you turned to her. “Maybe later honey, dad is busy right now. I can play with you after I bake the cake in a few minutes.” Your little girl pouted and moved her head frenetically from both sides. “No, I want daddy!” She gave Joker a sulky, sad look waiting for an answer from him, hoping that he wouldn’t say the same thing by supporting your words and that he didn’t really have to work. Joker took one of the strands of her long brown hair held in two pigtails on both sides of her head and twisted it around the index finger, just as he was doing a little earlier with his own green hair in an enchanted expression.

“It’s okay, Y/N.” He said looking at you with a sympathetic gaze, then he turned to your little girl, an accomplice smile had framed his face as soon as their eyes met. “I would love to play with you, sweetie pie.” He laid the book on the table that he still held in his other hand while your little girl was jumping for happiness around him. “Yay! Yayy! I play with dad!” Shortly after she held his hand, it was so small compared to Joker’s big, strong one that it was completely hidden by his palm when he put his hand around her soft, plump one.

No matter how busy he was, he would never deny her to play together.

She suddenly became impatient to play with him and wanted to go straight to the bedroom where were kept all her toys. “Come on, let’s go!” With her short arm she pulled Joker’s one holding it by her hand and he let himself be dragged without resistance, but before they could disappear from your sight Joker looked at you amused shrugging, you smiled eloquently moving your head from side to side. “Look at these two…” You murmured to yourself smiling as you went back to handling the cake, knowing perfectly well that you could never sneak into them.

Joker had a special connection with your little girl that you never could build with her. She loved you both equally, but your little thing had a special bond with Joker and it was impossible not notice how much she doted on him. There was something when they were holding hands, when they were looking at each other and talking to each other that was impossible to explain in words. An accomplice born by itself without either of them went to look for it or tried to build, it existed by itself as an entity to which neither of them had ever managed to resist. You never had such a bond with her and you didn’t even try to have it, because the smile she had every time she stood beside him, which reminded so much his, and the loving look Joker had every time he looked at her, filled your heart with happiness and you were just grateful to be able to witness in the front row this particular bond that only the two of them had.

She was still dragging Joker to the bedroom where all his toys were kept in a large bench, a playful smile dressed Joker’s face while your little girl was more and more impatient and happy to play with him and only with a lot of self-control managed to stop jumping.

She stopped at the corner of the room, right next to the makeup dressing table that once belonged to Penny, where there was a small white metal children’s table set with a pink tablecloth hand embroidered by yourself some time ago and surrounded by four chairs.

“Would you like some tea daddy?” She looked at the tiny table on which a tea service was laid, then looked at Joker, another time at the small table and shortly afterwards looked once again at Joker with a hopeful expression and crossed her fingers in front of her face hoping that he would say yes, sure that he couldn’t notice her fingers crossed; Joker let a laugh slip from his lips at the sight of such naivety. “Of course I’d like to, sweetie pie!” A toothless smile lay on her lips and pointed out the empty chairs. “Where would you like to sit?”

Her attitude had completely changed; she had straightened her back, raised her chin upwards, the movements were more accurate and quiet; even the tone of her voice was no longer ringing as it had been until now but was calm and contained, while she was pretending to be a waitress who had to serve an important client who deserved only the best of the best; she had to fulfill his every wish, spoil him and treat him well. “Why don’t you choose for me? Where would you like me to sit?” She moved her head from both sides, moving her ponytails back and forth, making them bang on her squishy cheeks. “No, dad! The rule is you’re the guest, you have to choose!”

She laugh teasing him because he didn’t know the rules of the game and Joker smiled as he staring the chairs for a few seconds simulating an undecided expression. On a chair there was the green teddy bear gotten during one evening of the last summer, when you had gone to the amusement park. Joker had won at a points game and let her decide which teddy bear to take, she had chosen this teddy bear only because it had the same green color as her dad’s hair; right in the front chair was sitting the doll you gave her to cheer her up when months ago she had a flu which lasted more than a week and just didn’t want to leave and the other two chairs were empty. “I think I’m gonna sit next to Clowny”.

“Clowny! I was hoping you’d sit there because he’s green like you.” Joker giggled knowing and sat down right in the chair closest to the teddy bear; the chairs were for children and very small, and although Joker was a very skinny man he had to bend slightly to be comfortable. Your little girl giggled when she saw him sitting in this funny way, sat down in the last empty chair, took two cups from the tea service and put them in front of both; immediately afterwards she took the teapot and pretended to pour invisible tea into both cups with the same devotion and commitment as Joker did every time he devoted himself to his jokes. She put the tip of his tongue out of his mouth enough to lick his upper lip, a gesture she often made when she was getting involved in something that required her full attention, she had inherited it from you. As he watched her committed to pouring their tea, her tongue coming out as you did and frowning as Joker did, he smiled, seeing you both within her.

The love he felt for this little thing was the strongest feeling he had and would have felt in his whole life. She was literally the real proof that he had truly found the love and happiness he had longed for his whole life, that it had not been a daydream to meet you, that the nights you had made love, with your bodies lighting each other as if one were reflecting the light of the other, just like the sun does with the moon, really had existed, just as had existed the walks while you were holding hands, the first kisses you gave him by taking him by surprise and making him blush, every time you looked for his touch and didn’t think it was possible, and just like every single moment he lived with you which he held in his heart since he met you.

Every happy memory of him involved you, and this was a life for which he believed in the past not to be worthy of living, a life in which he was destined not to be loved. It was hard for him to accept your presence in his life during the first few months of your relationship because he was afraid that you might vanish at any moment. Let alone if he ever thought that in his life he would love another person as much as he loved you, and that you would both love him in the same deep, visceral, boundless way.

When your little girl poured tea into both of their cups she put the teapot gently in its place so as not to spoil it. She treated it with care as a precious gift, and indeed it was so. You couldn’t afford this tea service, but despite that, Joker was determined to give it to her. He saw it in a storefront across the street a few months before and it made him think of her; it was composed of four cups, each with its own saucer and teaspoon, a teapot and a sugar bowl. The tea service was completely white and covered with small blue flowers of various sizes, just the ones she liked in her favorite blue color. All the teaspoons have blue coloured extremities, on the teapot and the sugar bowl were represented two flowers of larger dimensions than the small flowers on the cups, on the saucers and on the edges there were blue and golden stripes running along the circumference of them.

He’d done everything he could to give it to her at Christmas, he’d saved up money for months and months making a lot of sacrifices, he had quitten smoking to save cigarette money and still every day he made small additional renunciations because he wanted to save as much money as possible and give her the gift he wished to be able to give her so much. The jump for joy she had made after unwrapping the gift were priceless and Joker was so happy to see her happy that you would have sworn that night you had seen his eyes wet with tears which he had held within him with all his strength; tears of joy and love.

“Daddy, you drink tea with sugar.” She asked though it was more a observation than a question, since remembering very well that he liked the sweetened tea she had already grabbed the teaspoon with her little tiny hand. “That’s true little thing, I like sweet tea and I’d like to some sugar.” Joker sat composed and let himself be served, your little girl smiled satisfied and took the sugar bowl of the same tea service, “how much?” She looked him in the eyes curious and impatient of an answer, biting her lip nervously, as if even putting sugar in his tea was an action to be performed perfectly, Joker didn’t let her wait any longer.

“Two teaspoons, thank you!” She glowed and proudly pretended to put two teaspoons of sugar in the cup, immediately after she put the same amount of sugar in her own and sitting more comfortably on the chair she took the cup with her left hand and raised her little finger like a upper-class woman, Joker imitated her and both drank a sip of tea looking into each other’s eyes. Your little girl had bright eyes of a heated happiness, the same green color of Joker’s eyes had extended in hers and Joker, looking into her eyes so much like his, could see himself inside her.

She was the most beautiful part of him. Thanks to her Joker was learning to love himself because into her he read all the beautiful things he had taught her, she was the confirmation that inside of him something good had always been and kept being there even after having made himself called Joker. Sometimes the weight his name carried frightened him but this fear instead of blocking him made him love her even more, to take care of her like no one had ever done with him. In the past his fear would have stopped him, but your little girl gave him the courage to turn over a new leaf and move on, look forward to a future that would only be of love and warmth.

She was the most beautiful part of him and she was the only one through whom he could see himself and recognize that he existed within her but also on his own. Your little girl taught him to love himself in the most spontaneous, light and carefree way he’ve ever felt.

“This tea is delicious, my sweetie pie. You are the best cook.” Your little girl made a joyfull jump on the chair, making it move slightly. “What about mummy?” A toothless smile framed her face as Joker leaned slightly forward. “Mummy doesn’t cook as well as you, but don’t tell her.” He whispered to her and your little girl curled her nose in a knowing and happy smiling face, rose hastily from the chair and approached him putting her little hand on the back of his own. “Our little secret!” She murmured in his ear, imitating him by talking with a whisper of a voice. Joker smiled and popped a kiss on her cheek and while he was wrapping her little body around his right arm she swooped on him and hugged him putting her arms around his neck. Her face buried in his green hair tickled him, Joker squeezed her hard but gently enjoying the hug with his little thing who was the extension of his soul and who at this time smelled of raspberries and talcum powder.

“Daddy?” She babbled with her face still buried in his hair, feeling safe between the arms and the scent of her daddy, tightening his neck with such energy that she let him believe she would hardly melt from this embrace if not for a valid reason. “Yes, sweetie pie?” She moved away from him slightly enough to look him in the eye, but her body was still in the Joker’s arms.

“I love you very much dad” she caressed softly his green strands which rabbed his cheeks, “and also your green hair”. Joker had a watery look because, once again, the evidence of love your little girl gave him every day allowed him to see himself in a different light. A warmer and brighter light.

She loved him so much and therefore everything was not lost, there was still hope for him and he had not lived for nothing, for the very reason that he had managed to love and to be loved in his life, and the best part of him would have kept to exist through her memories and, perhaps, people would have forgiven him. Despite the emotional and grateful expression he tried to muffle, he giggled. Not a single day had passed in which your little girl did not tell him that she loved his green hair, actually several times she also asked you both the permission to dyed her own because “I want to be like dad”.

“I love you too. Very, very much.” Joker approached his face to give her an eskimo kiss and she chuckled. “You’re tickling me!” Then they giggled together and shortly after her face suddenly became clouded while a thought was taking place on her mind without warning. “Dad! We have no cookies for tea.” A worried expression replaced the funny one of just before, she had worked so hard to give him everything that she had forgotten one of the most essential things, tea cookies. Joker rubbed her back tightly with the hand with which he was still holding her to calm her down. “It’s okay, little thin-” she interrupted him, talking shortly after.

“It’s not okay, I want to get it right.” Joker comforted her further, smiling at himself in recognizing his own words in hers, to make her understand that everything was perfect as it was; shortly after the worry disappeared from her face so suddenly that Joker wondered if there had ever been. She smiled showing all his teeth in a toothless smile and jumped proudly. “I got an idea!” She ran out of the room full of adrenaline with the surprised look of Joker staring at her and shortly afterwards returned with a couple of candies in her hands and approaching Joker put them in his.

“We can eat these instead of cookies” she said, proud of the brilliant idea that had came to her. “Perfect, I love candies.” Joker unwrapped one candy for her and laid it in front of her face. “Open your mouth!” Your little girl waved her hands joyfully and opening her mouth grabbed the candy with her teeth, shortly after he unwrapped the other one and ate it too. As she chewed, she approached her little index finger on his face and traced the colored lines of make-up Joker had painted on his face the day before and which, somehow, still were visible even if a little bit faded and smudged. She began to speak with her mouth full, her look was clever and special understanding while she was tracing also the blue triangles.

“Can you paint me like that, later?” An amused smirk landed on Joker’s lips, he should have imagined this question from the way she had weighed her look on his make up while she was tracing it with her tiny index finger. Your little girl liked to paint and most of all loved it when Joker painted her face in his own way, and every time she asked him in such a pleading tone that it was impossible to say no, even for Joker. Actually, even though Joker had never said it out loud, every time they painted Joker’s make-up to one another, he probably had more fun than her.

“Of course, but first we have to eat and do our homework, little thing.” She nodded in an understanding expression as a good compromise and hugged him again tightly, it was her way of thanking him when she couldn’t do it with words. Then she surprised him laying her hand on his head and caressing his green hair in a comforting way, Joker smiled at the simplicity of this gesture. Your little girl reassured him all the time without even knowing it, she just did it because she felt it, she felt him. 

You came into the room shortly after, they were still wrapped in this hug and a smile spontaneously created itself on your face; you laid your shoulder on the door and stared at them for a few seconds before interrupting their game and, above all, their hug. “Hey you two, cake is ready”, you said a few minutes later, your little girl pulled away from the hug and moved her arm energetically towards you. “Mummy, come here! Hug! I wanna a big hug!” She didn’t have to tell you twice because you approached them literally a second later with your arms already opened.

All three of you were hugging, interconnected so strongly, tightly, that it would have been impossible to untie you three. The cake had just been baked and had flooded all the rooms with its aroma, the sun was still radiating his light into the apartment. Joker was wrapped in your warmth and buried between your bodies, which were equally buried in the same way, a tear had fallen down his face like a secret he could no longer hide, drawing a blue painted tear along his left cheek.

He had never thought that after all the hatred and carelessness he had felt on his skin, after all the evil and sins he had committed, he could live an ethereal thing like having a family, an apartment to share with two souls who completed himself and full of love, an apartment which at that time smelled of cake, vanilla and… home.

[muffinlance]

what would you say is the most important thing about writing, and are there any tips you'd be willing to share?

In the order I thought of them, which might or might not reflect their significance to me or you:

Write a fuck ton. And do it as close to daily as possible. You get better at this by doing it more, just like every other skill. Writing isn't any more magical than carpentry: show up, do it a lot, and you'll improve.

Writer's block is either you being lazy/scared to write and Ruin Everything or your subconscious telling you there's an Actual Problem with your story. Learn to differentiate the two. Writer's block in the form of "oh I haven't written forever because my ethereal muse won't inspire me" is generally the former; stop being an ass to yourself and sit down. BIC = Butt In Chair = one of the most common acronyms you'll find on writer's forums.

Critique Circle (no fanfic allowed, sorry)

The Absolute Write Water Cooler (no fanfic, and STAY THE HELL AWAY if you're not ready for serious publishing, these people talk real talk and that broke me for a bit as a newb who Wasn't Ready For This Level of Publishing Reality.)

Setting a timer to write was super useful for me when I was still trying to establish good habits. 45 minutes BIC, and no going off on that 30 minute research tangent doesn't count, no internet no research no distractions just WRITE.

I really really suck at the "no distractions, just write". System that works well for me when I need to kiddie lock myself to the chair: use phone for typing. Set it up just out of reach and use a Bluetooth keyboard. At this point I've typed like two novels using this method. Requires a good phone that doesn't crash when your Google doc gets too big though, RIP my last phone.

Google docs are your friend. Autosave and available everywhere.

I'm going to find and murder the person who decided Google docs should use some kind of neural network predictive shit for its spell check instead of comparing to an actual dictionary file. Beware REALLY BIZARRE typos slipping through. Turning on grammar check catches most of these. I will not murder the person who added that.

Backup copies of your stories. Regularly. For Serious Face writing, I typically have the main doc on GDrive, and download a .rft copy to my local hard drive any day I make sizable progress/edits. Title the file with the date (year-month-day, ie 2019-11-08, so that the files sort nicely by name), and a brief recap of what you changed. Ie: 2019-11-08 Story Title Here added ch 3 deleted wererabbits". Then if you are looking for the wererabbits scene because why did you delete that it was AWESOME, you know you just need to load up the doc before. Version control bitches, it's not just for Com Sci. I also backup my backups monthly to two different flash drives, because you can NEVER BE PARANOID ENOUGH.

Pay attention to what you like/dislike in other stories, especially things that grab you and make you want to read through the night (or make you go 'eh, this was fun to read, but not great'). Suss out WHY. Incorporate into your style appropriately.

Critique other people's stories, especially finished ones in your genre and word count. Pre-published works are a treasure trove of almost-there-but-not-quite that really helps you practice #10. Figure out how YOU would fix things, if it were your novel. Figure out three to four ways you could fix it. One suggestion can come off as imposing your opinion on the person you're betaing for, and is a no-no. A bulleted list is helping them brainstorm and they will love you and want to wed into your family. Critiquing helps the other writer a little, and helps you a fuck ton more. Crit. Lots. (As time allows, and generally when you have a work that needs critting back, because crit partners can and will disappear on you.)

Fuck fear, get your writing out there. At the very least you'll learn what not to do next time. This especially applies to the fun that is the querying process. Related note: that short story I just got published in a major mag? I sat on that for like year before I tried sending it anywhere because I had a nebulous fear of Not Being Good Enough. Fuck that shit, shove your terrible writing at people and let THEM decide if there's anything to love in it. Especially in fanfiction, where the stakes are so low, and it's generally not the well-written stories but the most compelling that get attention.

You'll probably never grow out of the "my writing is terrible" thing. I have literally never heard of an author who has. You just learn to deal with it better as you get more and more positive feedback (and the feedback WILL get more positive if you're conscientiously writing lots with the improvement of your craft in mind.) I know on an intellectual level that I'm writing at a pro level 'cause people have literally paid me pro-level monies for it, but I'm still Super Nervous anytime I start a new plot arc because What If This One Sucks.

Corollary: Sometimes you will inexplicably want to take your latest story to the bathtub and drown it even though there's nothing objectively wrong with it. Take a big step back and work on something else for awhile. You are going to do nothing but mangle your story until you are out of that mood.

Having multiple projects helps you to have a different Favorite Child so you can avoid murdering your other children and still be productive.

Find something outside of writing that is good stress relief + healthy, because This Is Stressful. If you're being serious about it, you're probably treating it like a part-time job. Jobs are stressful. Writing is no exception. Walking/jogging pairs well with general Think Time, I've found.

Think Time is real. Think Time is that thing where you aren't actively thinking of the story and then three days later you suddenly have the solution to that plot problem. As long as you're actively engaging with your craft, there is a part of your brain that will be working on things in the background for you. Thank you, semi-automated brain subprocesses!

Don't use Think Time as an excuse not to write, you lazy ass. Put a GERBIL in your outline and come back to it, go write the next scene.

My outlines include addressing myself directly, swearing at myself, and using the word GERBIL as a marker for things that need fixing. These are optional but enjoyable. (And also the reason none of my characters will ever have a GERBIL as a pet, because then I couldn't use it as an easy Ctrl+F keyword.)

My dinner is cold so this list is done.

[benisasoftboi]

Gushing time.

Rune Factory 4 Special arrived a day early, so my entire day has been consumed in nostalgia. The original Rune Factory 4 was the first video game I ever bought on release day - I remember saving up all my money and making my mum drive me to like three different shops trying to find one that had it. I was already a fan of the franchise - before then, Rune Factory 3 had been my favourite video game, across the board. Aside from a playthrough of the first game last year, I haven’t played a Rune Factory game in a long time, certainly not RF4. But just starting up the game and hearing the music again, it was like it was suddenly seven years ago. Running around Selphia and seeing all the characters again - I love JRPGs, have played a lot of them, and I can think of very few that have characters that have stuck with me this long. And the aesthetics - the best thing about the Rune Factory franchise has always been the aesthetics, the music, the scenic and character design, just the general world. It’s a beautifully whimsical balance of urban and fantasy, and it’s the only JRPG world I think I’ve ever come across that I would genuinely want to live in. Rune Factory may no longer be my favourite game franchise - but I don’t think there has ever been another series that has felt so much like home to me.

Here’s a very long selection of personal highlights from the art book (by which I mean photos of the art followed by my rambling opinions):

Yeah, see, here’s the thing - Rune Factory 1 is not a good game. I could write an entire essay on why it’s bad (I actually started and got pretty damn far before realising no one’s interested in my two thousand word review of a game that came out over a decade ago - the short version is ‘Misty Bloom-fucking-Cave’. Anyone who’s played RF1 knows exactly what I mean). Don’t get me wrong, it has good qualities - excellent boss fights, for one, and also, as with the rest of the franchise, it is aesthetically wonderful. But ultimately, it feels less like playing a video game, and more like playing a proof of concept for a game. Which I guess it kind of was - and I can’t hate it because we wouldn’t have the rest of the series without it.

But it literally ends with a dragon spewing plant breath on a tank to make a turnip grow out of the gun. ‘Profound’, my arse. 

It’s Raguna! The “master sowrdsman!” (that is not a typo on my part that is a direct quote from the ending of Rune Factory 1 this game’s script had so many issues-). And Mist! My favourite of the ‘canon’ love interests!

Best girl! When I was a kid, my favourite love interest in RF1 was Rosetta. As an adult, it is Tabatha. I don’t know what it is about her that I find so likeable (she’s as lacking in personality as any other RF1 character), but... idk, I just like her a lot.

Camus’s big ambition is to leave town like even once. He will never achieve it

Fun fact about Melody is that she’s extremely depressed, a fact that comes up once in an optional side quest and is never addressed again. It’s incredibly dark for an RF game

Fun fact about Lukas is that he sucks (he’s one of those ‘obsessed with talking about how hot all the girls are’ characters, an archetype that thankfully doesn’t show up again in these games). But also, interestingly enough, thanks to one of RF1′s many, many script errors, if you marry Rosetta (the girl Lukas is the most obsessed with), he’s supposed to express disappointment that he lost her to Raguna - but instead, he implies that he’s disappointed to have lost Raguna to her. The translators typoed their way into giving him a sexuality change. Which is honestly kind of amazing.

LOOK AT THIS SLIME THIS IS SUCH A COOL SLIME LITERALLY EVERY OTHER JPRG SLIME GO HOME DRAGON QUEST GET FUCKED (jk I like Dragon Quest a lot and its slimes are cool too). Wish you could see in-game that this is what they’re meant to be like.

I just generally love the monster designs, they’re really charming

Rune Factory 2! The RF game with the most weirdly mundane protagonist name (Kyle. In the main four games of this franchise we’ve got Raguna, Micah, Lest, Frey... and Kyle). The two generations thing was actually very cool, but when they say ‘each chapter captures a different lifestyle’, what they really mean is ‘the first half is a weak Harvest Moon I’m sorry, STORY OF SEASONS game, and the second half is a pretty good Rune Factory game’  

lookit this little fuck

Yue Yue Yue! I love Yue so much, she’s great. She’s kind of like a much chiller version of Anna from Fire Emblem.

It’s really cool that we got to see grown up Cecilia (she was in RF1). I have this silly headcanon that if Kyle doesn’t marry Mana, Nicholas (her friend in 1) comes to visit Cecilia one day in the hazy-post game future, and meets Mana, and they get together. While Yue is my favourite, I do genuinely like Mana a lot, and I just want her to find love, I guess.  

Here’s original Barrett! There’s a reason he was popular enough to make a reappearance (well, aside from the whole grumpy pretty boy thing he’s got going on) - he was a great character in this game. His and Dorothy’s relationship is also definitely the most compelling of the rival romances. Bonus Max, who also has a little shout-out in RF4 (check the diary in what will become Dylas’s bedroom at the start of the game)

Ray is male, but apparently he was originally going to be a female character, as he has an unused portrait in a wedding dress. My friend and I agree that this makes him a Trans Icon

Monster designs remain excellent. Especially the goblins

Skipping over Frontier (and also Oceans later), as I never got to play it growing up due to not having a console, and still haven’t got around to it - might try this summer. Except I do need to point out that these guys should be memes. I don’t know in what way. But they should.  

Rune Factory 3! My first RF game. The transformation thing was very cool, even if it was basically useless outside the main story. My friend and I spent hours mucking about in the WiFi dungeon. I loved the desert settlement and all of the dungeon designs in general, and man, RF3 is just great. I hope it gets a remake one day.

Raven Raven Raven! I LOVE Raven (as do most). Her story with Micah is the first time I can remember getting genuinely invested in a video game romance. I’m so glad she cameos in RF4. I love her. She’s wonderful.

I have an odd fondness for Marian. When I was about twelve, I decided to do a playthrough where I deliberately romanced the least popular bachelorette. After poking around on forums, I determined that character to be Marian, and did a run with her. And... I actually came to really like her. I find her endearing. I get that people find her annoying and don’t like her... unethical medical practices, but doing that run has still made me a pretty protective of her. It’s been a long time since I played RF3, so maybe I’d change my mind if I replayed now, but currently, as far as I’m concerned,  Marian’s a good’un.

I think I also used to low key ship her with Collette lol 

Pia’s official art has always been super weird to me because it’s so not what her character is like in-game. She’s a ditzy airhead. This makes her look so serious

RAINBOW! Another character whose art makes them look way more serious than they actually are. Daria is great and would be a meme if this game was more popular. I think she’s also implied to be a relative of Margaret. 

I’ve always been super confused about what Kuruna’s skirt is meant to be. Is it fur? Is it part of her shirt? Is it even a skirt at all?

Check it out, it’s the guy everyone would ship Micah with if this game was more popular

I want Zaid to make a reappearance and interact with Doug. Pretty sure it’s canon that they’re from the same clan? Think it would be very interesting.

RF3 definitely had the coolest farm. Also, still love the desert settlement.

This is from Oceans, so I have no context, but it’s just so cool that I had to share

Rune Factory 4. Culmination of the series is right - when I was playing it for the first time, I remember being blown away by just how much it is a true love letter to the franchise. I have never come across another game series that so consistently grew and improved from entry to entry. RF4 was a perfect ending.

Not that I’m complaining about getting RF5. Quite the opposite.

But if it had been the end (as we all thought it was until about a year ago), well, like I say. Perfect. 

Well. Aside from soda can nipples. Can’t believe they didn’t fix those. Though in some ways, that would have made me sad too

Dolce has such a cool design, in both human and monster form. I’ve always kind of crack-shipped her with Margaret, for no real reason at all

Vishnal! I love Vishnal. Vishnal is pure as heck. Marrying him this time around.

Doug! My choice from last time around. Another character who looks more serious in his official art than he is in-game (well... most of the time)

And then there’s Dylas, who looks much happier here than he does most of the time. Kind of looks like he and Doug swapped bodies, actually. There’s a fanfic prompt for you.

Their ship name is Dyldo. I love them

Leon is nostalgic for me mostly because my friend and I used to get into a lot of arguments about whether or not he’s the hottest character in the game. She maintains that he is, because muscles. I maintain that muscles aren’t actually that attractive. It is a rift that divides us to this day

(He looks oddly... younger in this art though? Weird)

Sechs Empire is such an unfortunate name. Seriously. How rushed was RF1′s localisation team? All those script errors, and then this (the Sechs were the antagonists in the first game, and were only referenced in passing in the rest until RF4 - so it was a bit of a ‘sins of the father’ situation by then).

Seriously, try saying ‘Sechs Emperor’ out loud and tell me you can take this man seriously 

I??? Love??? Them???

I??? LOVE??? THEM???

Still confused as to why Kiel, Xiao Pai, Arthur and Margaret are on the cover now. Don’t get me wrong, I like them, but... Amber, Dylas, Dolce and Leon made way more sense? Even the Archival Cover makes more sense (Vishnal, Clorica, Forte), as those three are all kind of Lest/Frey’s servants (well, Forte for the whole town, but still). Of those first four, all but Arthur basically lift right out of the game with little-to-no impact on the story

NO HAT TABATHA NO HAT TABATHA

I’ve always really loved this Raven picture

And I am thankful for you <3

[butterflydm]

The Untamed | Chen Qing Ling | Mo Dao Zu Shi

Continue to Rewatch posts: Episode 1  | Index  

I am officially finished with all fifty episodes of the live-action drama version of Mo Dao Zu Shi and having finished it, I now immediately want to experience the story all over again. There were twists (some I accidentally spoiled myself over the course of my first viewing and others that stayed surprises) that will definitely affect the way I feel when rewatching, and I suspect the emotional character and relationship work will be even more impressive on a rewatch. …also, I’m gonna watch it on viki.com next time instead of the Tencent youtube channel, because I hear that viki has better (less awkward?) translations.

Non-spoilery summary: Chaotic bisexual disaster dies in the first five minutes of the show but then the story really begins when he gets resurrected years later. It’s a love story amidst a backdrop of magic and politics and family and mystery. The love story itself is one of my favorite kinds — between two people who share a similar moral foundation but express it in very different ways. The love story is… technically (?) subtext due to very real censorship concerns but, um. It’s more than emotionally satisfying. It’s epic and tender and funny and sweet and heartbreaking and ultimately rewarding. I feel emotionally healed by this story in ways that I really needed.

Vaguely spoilery warning: There is a flashback that literally lasts just about thirty episodes (this is not a typo). So, if you feel like that might be confusing or strange for your viewing experience, start at episode three. When you get to the part mentioned at the start of the other summary, go watch the first two episodes. I actually went back and rewatched the first two episodes about halfway through the flashback episodes and it was already a whole new experience at that point. I imagine it will be even more so when I rewatch again now having seen the whole show.

Spoilery glee under the read more (this is all specific to the live-action drama, as I haven’t read the original or watched the other version yet).

An Incomplete List of Things I Loved:

The love story, of course. I was very impressed with how honest and emotional and deep it was. The heartbreak we see Lan Zhan suffer during Wei Ying’s downward spiral and then his death brought me to tears on multiple occasions. But the story also made me smile and cover my mouth with my hands because I was giggling over how sweet it all was. It’s a love story with so many dimensions — a schoolboy crush, a growing admiration, deep fear and concern, heartbreak, and then the incredible softness and joy of getting back a love feared lost forever.

Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian. Wow. Honestly, he’s gonna end up on my list of favorite fictional characters ever, I feel like. Seeing his journey was heartbreaking and then heart-healing. Redemptive death is a subject that I am personally not as interested in exploring, so having this story begin at the death and then BRING HIM BACK to actually deal with everything that his choices created make it a very compelling story for me. And one that dealt with trauma and revenge and morality in complex ways.

Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji. What is this literal angel from the heavens we have been gifted with here. Just. He is. so wonderful. And he gets some great character development and I’m very impressed with the tiny expressions that say so much. Joking aside, he’s not perfect, and that’s part of why he’s such a great character. He has his public face that covers up his private feelings, and his public face is stone (one of the Jades of Lan) but he has so much intense emotion whirring around underneath. He’s incredibly controlled, which is both good and bad. He grows in reaction to adversity, and we also see how deeply his grief has marked him in the future. Lan Zhan after Wei Ying’s resurrection is so incredibly soft with Wei Ying pretty much at all times? He’s gotten the most amazing gift in the world, after all, and he is gonna fucking treasure it. And so much of his stoicism comes from having a difficult time finding the right words, not from any kind of arrogance on his part.

The family relationships, both good and bad. The brothers Lan. The three Jiangs. The Nie brothers. THE WEN SIBS (my heart, please take it). The destructive fallout that Jin Guangshan caused by being a cheating dickhole.

Going back to WWX for a moment (I Really Love Him) — specifically the exploration of trauma and how it has the potential to create horrible people and how to avoid that. Because there are a lot of similarities between WWX and several antagonists — all of whom put on a slightly different version of false face to distract from the complexities underneath. Xue Yang and Jin Guangyao aren’t born into privilege, they fight to become more than what they were born to be. The question of revenge and what we owe to the people who lift us up — another good example is not the main Wen villains but Wen Zhuliu, whose morality WWX directly confronts and challenges. When Wen Zhuliu says he kills in order to honor the promotion/trust given to him by the Wens, WWX points out that he’s sacrificing other people for his honor. And this is the biggest difference, of course, between WWX and the antagonists — WWX also ‘owes’ the Jiangs for taking him in, but he doesn’t murder innocent people for that, instead he does things like sacrificing his golden core. WWX has a sense of perspective, not taking fifty lives in exchange for a crushed finger like Xue Yang does. And he doesn’t murder other people to cover up his mistakes like Jin Guangyao does. One of the heartbreaking things about WWX after his time in the burial mounds is how clearly traumatized he is, yet how much he tries to cover up that trauma by playacting as the Wei Ying that he used to be. The smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes anymore. Flinching away from Nie Huaisang touching his shoulder. He’s damaged and only the people paying the most attention to his mental state (Jiang Yanli and Lan Zhan) really notice how bad it is but neither of them are able to do more than soothe him in the moment. It’s so painful to watch.

Wen Yuan | Lan Sizhui. All the junior disciples are darlings but omg his story touched me so much. Because one of the heartrending things that WWX is experiencing before he dies is that all his sacrifices for the Wen survivors appear to have come to nothing. He sees their dead bodies; hears their deaths being talked about with glee. For this child to have survived means his time as the Yiling Patriarch was NOT in vain. He wasn’t able to save most of them, but he (and Lan Zhan) saved this child, who we get to see as a nearly-grown young man and he is a sweetheart of a boy. Seeing him reconnect with Wen Ning and then WWX was… very emotional.

Complex morality in terms of what love means. This is a topic that is only briefly touched on verbally but resonates throughout the story, because, both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan do, at various points, see love as something that cages (though from opposing perspectives). The story of Lan Zhan’s mother, locked away by his father; Wei Ying worrying that love would be a yoke around his neck. This is something they both worry at and struggle over at various points. Is love a leash? Is it love to put your beloved in a cage, no matter how golden? How do you prevent your love from becoming a suffocating and controlling thing? Lan Zhan talks about this with his brother, Lan Xichen, describing his affection for Wei Ying in the only terms he ever saw as an example for love — that he wants to bring Wei Ying home and hide him away. That’s the struggle he goes through during the years of Wei Ying’s darkest emotional times. Lan Zhan can see that things are bad (though Wei Ying never admits it until after his resurrection, when they go back to the burial mounds and he says how hard those years were for him and the Wens) but he doesn’t have a toolkit to address the problem in a way that would be acceptable to Wei Ying. This is something Lan Zhan takes HUGE steps to overcome once Wei Ying is back. Like i mentioned above, he is So Soft. He has regrets and now this most painful regret is something he has the chance to address and fix. To make his love into a partnership instead of a cage (and they make such good partners!). In terms of this specific theme (and I don’t know how important it is in the book, relatively speaking), the temporary separation of the characters at the almost-end of the last episode really worked for me. Lan Xichen was shellshocked after what happened with Jin Guangyao, and there was a reaction shot of Lan Zhan looking at him that made me go “oh, yeah, he needs to take care of some things on the home front” and I think he also needed to prove to himself that he was capable of letting Wei Ying go, to prove to himself he’s not his father. Because his father abandoned all his sect responsibilities to seclude himself inside his… idea of love. So, in terms of the themes the show leaned on, I liked that separation with the promise of reunion. And then the last shot of the series, which brings that promise to life.

Overall, the story feels very compassionate. It wants you to love the majority of the characters and it sympathizes with the audience’s pain when those characters suffer. It rewards deeper thought. It rewards the viewer for caring about the characters, which is something I’ve really needed this year specifically, when it feels like so many shows have been punishing their audience for caring about the characters.

One last thing (there are tons of other amazing parts! But this is the last for right now): I have such a complicated love for Wei Ying in episode 32, specifically when he calls out the sect leaders on their hypocrisy in coveting his power while condemning him for creating it. Everything about his scene on the rooftop breaks my heart — he’s laughing and crying at the same time and he almost looks like a corpse himself, pale skin and purple lips. Everything about him screams that he’s on the knife’s edge of just fucking losing it over all the trauma he’s suffered and how lonely and scared he feels. It’s a stunning performance.

Continue to Rewatch posts: Episode 1  | Index

[nona-gay-simus-main]

How To Collect and Organize Beta Reader Feedback

As some of you might know, I previously wrote a full draft of my currently untitled m/m romance novel and got through an almost full round of beta readers before I decided to scrap it and start again, nearly from scratch and with a different premise (It went from two timelines - first love/second chance to a single timeline - enemies to lovers).

Out of nowhere, I decided to start rereading and reorganizing my feedback in hopes to find something that would be useful to me in my current draft. Originally, I just planned to delete everything that wasn’t relevant, but a lot of it was really cute and funny, and I mean, I did write a full book - even if it wasn’t all that good - I at least deserve to keep my feedback from it.

Before I went on this endeavor, I foolishly believed that there’s no wrong way to collect beta feedback and boy, oh boy was I wrong! So I’m here to tell you the wrong ways and the right way. But first, let’s revise our terms:

What is a Beta Reader?

Beta readers are readers, who would be interested in picking your book off the shelf if it were already published. That means you should already have a pretty good idea of what is your genre and age category is. There’s no such thing as a ‘fiction book for everyone’. While certain books might have broader appeal, all books have a target audience. So figure out yours. 

The reason to know this from the start is two-fold. First, obviously to know how and where to market your book. Second, different genres come with different expectations and you really don’t want to piss off your core readership. You’re not going to be able to please everyone, and if you try, you’re likely to end up pleasing no one. So while it’s definitely a good idea to look for diversity in your beta readers, you should probably not be looking for genre diversity. 

I’m gonna let you in a little secret: for the longest time, I had no idea I was writing a romance novel. Part of it was that I really just hadn’t read a contemporary queer romance, so subconsciously thought that (contemporary) romance was for the straights only. But the bigger part was that my story just wasn’t well structured so I had no idea what the main conflict was supposed to be. And let’s just say... that didn’t exactly do me any favors when I was trying to get people interested in reading it. You can’t really amp others up about a project if you don’t know what the project is about.

Not only that, but I had a cp/beta reader who while wonderful, wasn’t a romance fan, so there were several points where I felt frustrated with their critique because I felt they simply didn’t like certain conventions of the genre. And that’s not their fault - we were just not a great match. Still appreciate working with them, but I know better now.

Where to find Beta readers?

You can find them anywhere. Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook groups, Discord servers and so on. Just look around. I assume you’re writing your story because you want to read something like it, and if you want to read it, someone else probably wants to read it too.

How to collect Beta feedback?

I normally use Google Docs or sometimes Word. Chapter by chapter is definitely best. It’s much less overwhelming to try to read 10 pages than 210.  Copy/Paste the chapter in a new document and send it to the beta, after warning them for any triggers or squicks that might apply. 

If you’re using Word, send the document over email. If you’re using Google Docs, share it with their email. Make sure to share it through email and not create links (like me), because it’s much safer that way. If you share it, only the person with the access to the email can see it, if you make a link, anyone with the link can see it. Again chances of plagiarism are minuscule, but still.

On Google Docs you want to give them Comment permission. That way they can make comments in the margins and any edits they make will show up like Track Changes on Word. If they are using Word and making edits, simply encourage them to turn on Track Changes. 

Encourage betas to make comments while reading, on everything that they liked, disliked, found confusing, or anything that made any impression at all. Even if’s just ‘lol’ or a keyboard smash. Sometimes those are the best comments to read!

But also keep in mind that not everyone will do that. That’s why I always have a questionnaire or do an interview with the beta. Questions tend to prompt people into organizing their thoughts a bit. Because I’m nice, I’ll share my questionnaire with you, (it is actually an adjusted version of @jennamoreci​‘s questionnaire from her beta readers video here:

1. What is your overall opinion of the chapter? 

2. What do you think of x character ? 

3. What is your favorite scene/part/line and why? (You can pick more than one.)

4. What is your least favorite scene/part/line and why? (You can pick more than one.) 

5. Are any parts confusing or unclear? 

6. Do you think there’s anything specific I need to improve or fix in the chapter, whether it’s the writing, the charters, plot, setting, etc.? 

7. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much did you enjoy the chapter? 

8. On a scale of 1 to 10, how eager are you to read the next chapter? 

9. On a scale of 1 to 10, how much are you enjoying the book so far (not applicable to chapter 1)?

10. Do you have any predictions? 

12. Do you have any other comments, thoughts, suggestions, or advice?

You can also add questions specific to the chapter, especially if you are already worried about a particular aspect of it. You should also ask their opinion on every character who shows up in the chapter.

I prefer to put this questionnaire at the end of the document I send to my beta reader, that way I’m sure they won’t be accidentally spoiling something with my questions and they can go over it right after reading instead of waiting for our schedules to match so we can have an interview. It’s a bit of a copy-pasting game, sure, but ultimately it takes no more than a couple of minutes. I would discourage you from having the questionnaire in the same document you are writing because it might end up messing with your word count, and lie to you that you’ve written more words than you actually have.

Afterward, if you need any clarifications on their answers, message the beta on their preferred platform - for me, that’s usually Discord, sometimes Twitter or Tumblr - to ask for clarifications. Sometimes you can also explain what you were going for, especially if the beta had a question, but don’t overdo it. You don’t want to seem argumentative. 

Oh, and be sure to thank your beta readers. Don’t forget they are giving up their time to help you for free. Nothing annoys me more from a beta reader perspective, then to not receive even a form thank you. 

How to Organize Beta Feedback?

So this is the big one. After you receive your beta feedback, address all the small things you can like typos and grammar right away (unless you’re already pretty sure you’ll be deleting/rewriting the scene) and mark stuff, that they’ve pointed out is badly phrased, etc. for later. Then delete irrelevant feedback, like one-word answers or ‘no opinion’. The feedback you disagree with might be unpleasant to read, but that doesn’t make it irrelevant. And if something makes you really mad, chances are it’s something you probably need to work on.

Then copy all the feedback - every comment and every answer, even if you disagree with them - into a separate document organized BY CHAPTER, not by beta name. This was the mistake I made. You’ll need this feedback when you move on to revision and you really don’t want to have a million tabs or documents open. Аlso it’s much easier to spot patterns if everything is in the same place. And if several people are saying the same thing, that’s probably something to pay attention to. 

Oh, don’t play around with fonts too much. I make everything the same font, but at first, I tried to make it really distinguished between what quote from the manuscript the beta was responding to and the beta’s own words, and honestly, you wrote your book, you know it pretty well. 99.9% of the time you can easily tell what they were responding to and what’s a quote from the book and what is the beta’s own words.

Good luck on your beta journey!

[in-arlathan]

The Scar

Time period: Elvhenan Characters: Solas, Mythal, Elvhen OC Chapters: 1/1, Length: 2,620 words Rating: Mature Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Summary: Driven by the desire the become one of the Evanuris, an elvhen mage summons a spirit of wisdom and tricks it into taking on a physical body to impress the all-mighty Mythal. Disgusted by what the mage had done, the All-Mother sides with the former spirit and helps him to free himself from his mistress's bindings, owning the name the mage has given to him: Solas.

A/N: This is an updated version of the fanfic I posted over @old-arlathan. Now with 50% less typos and more accurate terminology for the Elvhenan timeline. ;)

You can read this on AO3, too.

______

“He did not want a body. But she asked him to come.   He left a scar when he burned her off his face.”

– Cole

Her blood pooled around his feet, thick and dark as the night. He shuddered and stepped back, away from the dead woman who’s blood he’d spilled across the ancient marble floor. Her arms and legs lay twisted as if they belonged to a puppet rather than a living being. He dropped his hands and the spell faded away, leaving nothing behind but a gaping hole in his heart.

His mistress was dead and he had killed her.

“Well, that is that, I presume,” Mythal mused.

Sitting on her golden throne, the All-Mother had watched the fight in absolute silence. If she felt disgust or horror upon the murder, he could not tell. Her face was still, her breaths long and steady.

She is justice incarnate, he thought.

Is that why she had allowed him to kill his mistress? Because she thought it was just? He wanted to believe it so very badly. Maybe it would keep the darkness at bay that grew within him with every passing moment.

“Are you proud of yourself?” Mythal asked. Her voice was soft and candid. It was a gift he did not deserve.

“I… I don’t know,” he said, wiping away droplets of sweat that had gathered on his forehead. The fight had been much more exhausting than he had expected.

Slowly, the All-Mother rose from her throne and came towards him. Her rich green robes rustled softly as she descended from the dais, her steps echoing from the high stone walls of her Throne chamber.

“I remember the day she presented you before my court,” she said with her eyes fixed on the dead body on the floor in front of her. “She all but burst with pride while she told the tale of your summoning. A spirit of wisdom, eager to share his knowledge with The People, yet too kind to recognize an enemy on sight.”

He swallowed, hard. He, too, remember this tale. Remembered it all too well. It had become a part of his being, just like the body he inhabited.

“She learned everything she could from you,” Mythal continued, “and when you had finally shared all of your knowledge of the Beyond, she lured you into a body, binding you to the Waking World.”

Mythal lifted her hand ever so slightly. Still, he could feel the wave of energy flaring up around her as she drew power from the Beyond to cast her spell. Blazing fire erupted from the corpse, cloaking the body of his former mistress in flames. The air wavered and filled with the smell of burnt flesh.

Another wave of Mythal’s hand and the blood began flowing towards the tiny fissures in the marble floor and sank into the stone. He breathed a sigh a of relief as the dark fluid vanished.

They watched in silence as the flames consumed the dead woman’s body and when the fire finally died down, it was as if his mistress had never even existent. For a moment, they heard nothing but the song of birds and the sound of whispering leaves from the forest outside Mythal’s palace.

The All-Mother let out a sigh of regret. “I told her that her pride would be her undoing.” Her gaze turned to him. “Or should I say her Pride?”

A shiver worked its way down his spine. Until this day, his mistress had called him Pride, her Solas, for he was the embodiment of her strength, the manifestation of her will. For a while, he had liked that name, until he came to realize that he was but a means to an end. Now he wished the name belonged to someone else.

He raised a hand to touch the skin on his cheeks. Though he could not feel it, he knew the lines of his vallaslin by heart. His fingers traced the curved markings while he thought about the day when his mistress had presented him to Mythal and her courtiers. Back then, he was still trying to get used to his body and was too confused by the powerplay unfolding before his eyes to understand it. It was an irony, really, how little he had known about elvhen politics, even after spending years and years in friendly conversation with one of Elvhenan's most powerful mages.

“This spirit of wisdom possesses more knowledge than any other I have ever encountered,” his mistress had said to Mythal. “I devote him to you, All-Mother, as a sign of my loyalty to you, and grace him with your vallaslin.”

At that moment, Mythal had had no other choice but to accept her gift. She would have been seen as cruel or unkind by her courtiers if she hadn’t. So the All-Mother watched as his mistress ingrained the vallaslin in his skin with magic. The pain had been almost unbearable but he had been too proud to show his agony in front of the assembled elvhen. Instead, he had bitten his lips until they were bloody and kept silent.

Maybe some of his mistress’ pride had rubbed off on him when she’d help him take on a physical form.

So I truly am Solas, he thought bitterly.

“There is something you must tell me,” Mythal said. “How did she convince you to enter this realm?”

He blinked, taken by surprise. “How do you know she did not bind me like she claimed?”

A soft chuckle escaped Mythal’s lips.

“All elvhen were like you once, Solas, exisiting freely within the Beyond,” she explained. “Only those with the will to change their form were able to enter this world and manifest themselves in a physical body. Many ages ago, I, myself, was what you might call a spirit of justice, and when I saw the many wrongs that happened in the Waking World, I could not resist to enter it to set things right. That is why I know that no spirit can be bound into a body without its consent. Otherwise, it could never hold on to a physical form long enough to survive the journey to the Waking world.“

She looked him over. “But you are a person. You have a purpose. This means you came to this world by will, not by force. So tell me, what made you come here?”

He sighed. “I was curious. She had told me so much about this world and its wonders and I was … excited by her enthusiasm. I wanted to walk among The People and learn everything they had to offer so I could pass their wisdom on to other spirits. But when I’d taken my body, I …”

His voice trailed off.

“When you had taken your body, you found that you could not return to your spirit form,” Mythal said, finishing the sentence for him.

“Yes.”

The word tasted bitter in his mouth. He had never admitted his failure so openly before. The pain was simply too much to bear.

His desire to learn had made him foolish. He had been so eager to gain wisdom that he did not see the woman who had summoned him for what she really was. He’d simply assumed that she was a kindred spirit, a seeker of truth and knowledge, just like him. Learning from her had excited him and he had trusted her to guide him into his body. But then his friend used his trust to turn him into her pet to parade him around the rest of The People. Only then he realized the terrible mistake he’d made and he had regretted it ever since.

“You are not the first spirit to make this mistake and you won’t be the last,” Mythal said. “When taking on our physical form, we gain a stronger sense of self and a power that is beyond any spirit. It allows us to shape the world around us. But we also lose our ability to become one with the Fade. We can only dream of the world we have lost and try to make a difference in this one.”

Another moment of silence passed. “She should have told you about the consequences,” Mythal said. “But I wonder why you haven’t turned your back on her after her betrayal. She may have lured you into this world, but she never truly commanded you. Still, you called her mistress.”

“It was spiritual affinity that kept me by her side, though I never forgave her for luring me into taking a body,” he admitted. “I was perfectly happy as I was, back in the Beyond. But she was my friend and I thought I owed her for what she had given me.”

“I see,” Mythal said, her voice heavy with sadness. “I’m sorry.”

“I do not deserve your sympathy,” he replied.

“And why is that?”

“Because I wish to burn the vallaslin off my face. Your vallaslin.” The words came out in a rush, like a tide that had been held back for far too long. He closed his eyes and pressed his hands against his face. He imagined the lines of the blood writing burning brightly on his skin, just like the fire Mythal had cast to get rid of his mistress’s body. “I want to take it away and leave all memory of what was behind.”

“Well, take it off then,” Mythal said with a soft smile. “No one is stopping you.”

It took him a moment to understand what she truly meant. And when the realization finally hit him, he blinked in surprise yet again. He lowered his hands to look at Mythal. “But it would be an insult to you!”, he insisted. “The People would see it as a great offense if I rejected your patronage.”

The All-Mother laughed. “It was your mistress who offended me by thinking it would impress me that she tricked a trusting spirit into taking a body. It was her who offended me in wanting my patronage, not for the good of The People, but to rise in rank and to become one of the Evanuris. That is why I tempted you to kill her, you know. To right her wrongs.”

She reached out to him and touched his cheek gently. “Others might think you denied yourself to me, but I know that is not true. I wish you to act on your own accords and honor me with your deeds. Thus, you could never offend me, Solas, even if you tried.”

The way she said his name made him shiver. It sounded so different from the way his mistress had said it. As if Mythal was proud of him, not for being a particularly powerful spirit, but for freeing himself at last.

“Go on, now”, she said and gifted him with an encouraging smile. “Take off the vallaslin and leave your past behind.”

“But I don’t know how,” he admitted. “Will you help me?”

“Oh, no.” Mythal shook her head slightly. “You are perfectly capable of removing the blood writing on your own. It is one of the few benefits of possessing a physical body: You may shape it to your will. But beware that you will be the first of your kind, for no other elvhen had felt the desire to take the vallaslin away. It will be a wonder to behold.”

He looked at her for a moment, baffled by her confidence in him. How could she be so sure about his power when he himself doubted it so much?

Before he knew it, she took his hand into her own and squeezed them. “Do it,” she urged. “I know you can.”

Encouraged by her words, he slowly, very slowly, allowed himself to believe in his own strengths.

She let go and he stretched out his hands before him. With every fiber of his body, he opened up to the energy of the Fade, allowing it to fill him up like wine poured into a golden goblet. Sparks of light spread from his fingertips across his palm, a flash of blue and green and white, mingled together.

He brought his hands up to his face and closed his eyes. In his mind, he pictured the fine lines of the vallaslin once more. He saw it burn, bright as day. Then he traced his fingers across his face, imagining the light from his hands spreading across his skin. He felt a soft tingle and then a sting on his forehead.

When he was done, he breathed a sigh of relief.

“Did I work?” he asked Mythal, and she beamed at him, proud like a mother.

“You left a scar,” she said softly, touching a small spot above his right eyebrow. “But yes, it worked.”

She was so close to him he could feel the warmth of her body, but he did not mind.

“I’d rather wear a scar on my face then any vallaslin,” he told her, “for I created it myself.”

“You will bring glory to The People,” she said. “I’m proud to call you kin.”

And then, the tears finally came.

He closed his arms around Mythal’s slender figure and buried his face against her shoulder. And while he wept, his body shaking, she remained silent and held him like a mother would.

After a while, he ran out of tears and became very still in her arms. A part of him waited for her to push him away, now that he had freed himself of his mistress’s influence completely. But instead, Mythal waited until he himself was ready to let go.

“What happens now?” he asked in a raspy voice.

“That is up to you. With your mistress gone, you are free to go wherever you please in the Waking world. Vir Dirthara might be a good place to start. I’m sure Ghil Dirthalen will be happy to offer you guidance.”

“I will consider it,” he said. “Thank you, All-Mother.”

“You may call me Mythal.”

He smiled for what felt like the first time in ages. “I could never do that.”

They looked at each other for a moment. A bond had built between them and they both knew it. Their spirits were joined for as long as they might live and they were united in thankfulness for this rare gift.

“I should leave,” he said at last. “I have taken enough of your time.”

Mythal sighed. “I’m afraid you have,” she said. “There are other matters to attend to. But I hope you will return soon, my friend, and tell me what you have learned while we were apart.”

“I will. I promise.”

And with that, he made his way to the door. When he had entered the throne room, he had been a spirit, bound by the will of another. Now he had become something different. He was scared of what awaited him outside these halls, afraid of the world and the future and his own powers, but he would find a way for himself.

“Oh, one more thing.”

Mythal spoke in a low voice but her words carried all the way to the throne room’s door without fading.

He turned around to face her once more, his hands clasped behind his back. “Yes, All-Mother?”

Mythal’s face lit up as their eyes met. She reminded him of the moon rising over a mountain ridge in a dark and stormy night. It was in that moment that she earned his undying devotion, his eternal love, and gratitude.

“Despite any regret or pain or guilt you might feel,” she said with a glimmer in her golden eyes, “you should be proud of yourself. Always.”

....

[psybomb]

On Government Funding

Because I’m a bit of a masochist, it seems. Got into a heated discussion the other day about various bits of the US Government, and I made the point that said government has no reason to be crying about funding. They have about a dozen different levers they can pull to increase funding, and taken together they’re MORE than enough to fund everything even the most Left candidate is currently floating as ideas.

My statement got called a bluff, and that I should prove it. Although I didn’t exactly present a dozen on the spot, I DID drop eight into the proverbial table. Going to drop them here as well, maybe someday by the magic of sharing the list will come to someone who can use it. Nothing below should be a surprise, basically none of it is of my own invention. I just farm for ideas, do the math, and present them.

Before the list itself starts, some background. The US Government tax model is transactional in nature. That is, money that changes hands while within the system generates revenue for the government. This in turn leads to twin philosophies on how to raise revenues. You either increase the amount of “mobile” money (thus increasing the number of times you get a cut), or access funds that were locked away and inaccessible.

Lever 1, Tax Static Wealth: Assess the net worth of every individual, and present a tax for worth over a certain amount. Candidate Elizabeth Warren is catching heat for this one, but it makes a lot of sense. The majority of the real wealth in the country is static, unmoving. It goes to a bank account and stays there to keep score and nothing else. The idea here is to access this locked wealth, either a one-time large hit or annual small ones. If you set the baseline amount at something like $10 million, you are effectively ignoring any money being used to actually live. At that point you have enough for yourself and your children (possibly your grandchildren) to live in comfort until the day you die without lifting a finger to work for another cent, ever.

As the goals go, this falls within “accessing locked away funds”. Probably the cleanest and easiest lever to pull with the lowest actual impact on standard of living, as long as you are careful about what’s counted (such as excluding active farmland).

Lever 2, Progressive Income Tax: Although this is in theory already in effect, much more can be done with it. Top rates have been at or over 90% in the past, and can return there. In some versions of this, the idea of a “billionaire” should not be able to reasonably exist, since personal gains over a certain point go almost entirely to the government for use elsewhere. The idea is also to exclude reinvested income, money that goes to opening plants, paying workers better, upgrading lines, etc.

This forces mobility and prevents the above hoarding that is currently taking place. It also greatly encourages companies to create better infrastructure as opposed to short-term shareholder profits, since those shareholders have way less reason to care about raw dollars after a certain point.

Lever 3, Charitable and Church organizations: I nicknamed this one the “Joel Osteen” tax. Take a good hard look at organizations like the Salvation Army or mega churches, which are currently tax-exempt on income due to it being donated. Take the difference between donated income and charitable outlays (not maintaining their church, actual actions taken feeding the poor, housing the homeless, healing the sick, etc) and remove it from tax-exempt status. Preferably, this comes with an amount ignored in order to allow small community churches to still exist. Also preferrably comes with a rate way higher than typical tax brackets.

This has several effects, besides accessing locked funds. It forces organizations that claim to be charitable to actually do charitable things instead of sponging off of people who are trying to do good. It also means that charitable giving write-offs end up doing actual goal actions.

Lever 4, Public Assistance Employer Tax: this one is simple enough. Apply an additional tax to medium and large companies according to how much public assistance cash their employees draw (things like SNAP or heavily subsidized health plans). Suggestions range from 25% to 110% (not a typo) of the amount being given to their employees. If the last one was Joel Osteen tax, this is the Walmart/Amazon one. It targets employers who profit pretty much directly off of the assistance the government has to pay their employees.

This is the first lever with potentially significant bottom-level consequences. It heavily encourages employers to keep full-time employees and pay them well (plus puts many more workers into ACA-mandated company health plans), but punishes those who can’t or prefer not to work 40 hours. It also means that most workers will only have one significant job, for good or ill. However, it again creates more asset mobility (in this case, by ensuring that workers are able to pay for goods and by offsetting what the government has to use to support the underpaid) and prevents a lot of wealth-hoarding when it comes at the expense of human misery.

Lever 5, Pursue those profiting off of public investments. Things like initial medical research, NASA-sourced materials (and even things like ergonomic seats), and the like. In essence, either make the use of these like a license, or fine windfall profits on such things. This will allow much more in the way of public research, and force price-setting to be more in the realm of reason. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is pushing this extremely hard, particularly in relation to pharmaceutical companies who are profiting off of research they themselves didn’t fund until the very last steps (if at all).

Same goals are in play. Free up cash to be more mobile on the bottom level (by both making better research available and allowing people to spend less on things they helped fund already) and prevent wealth-locking by those at the top. The problem is that this can sometimes discourage necessary public-private partnerships needed to utilize production capacity that the government does not natively have (such as actually making enough of a medicine for general sale)

Lever 6, Elimination of Unneeded Subsidies: here’s one that’s constantly floating around. The question, as usual, is determining exactly which subsidies are not needed. Me personally, the criteria are threefold. First, what percentage of the industry’s profits come as a subsidy result. Second, how important is what it is trying to encourage versus the outlays. Third, the cost of retraining affected people to similar industry that is not propped up. Yes, Coal, I’m talking about you specifically, but quite a few other pork issues can be done away with.

While this is not pure revenue like the above, it reduces waste and allows funds already being gathered to be used to better effect. The problem is that there are going to be losers on this one, lots of them.

Lever 7, Captive Consumer Regulation: this is phrased very carefully, and for good reason. In essence, certain industries have recently discovered that they can get away with highway robbery because their consumers do not have the option to walk away. This specifically refers to medical and higher education costs, but can also apply to things like bail bond companies. People who abuse a place that should be about public service for personal gain. The result has been prices increasing entirely out of proportion to costs, and significantly reduced end quality.

The goal, as usual, is to return liquidity to those forces into the system and keep those at the top for hoarding profits. In this case, fixing these systems also ends with vastly increased quality of life overall along with societal benefits. The problem, as usual, is in how to solve it. Lots of opinions I won’t get into here, the point is that none are being acted upon.

Lever 8, pursue Offshoring: This is not necessarily targeting call centers in India, I mean more in the way of tax havens and foreign incorporation. Companies that are gaining the benefits of being based in the US without paying back into the system, and people keeping their money offshore and out of circulation. I will not touch things like buying foreign steel, that is free market and not the place of this post to discuss.

The point, just like above, is to keep money in the system and moving in both directions. Use the Panama Papers (remember that?) as a checklist and get it all back within the borders. The problem is that this is the most difficult of these options to pursue, with the lowest bang for the buck. Also difficult to perform with our receding place on the world stage.

Now, I’m sure someone reading this will have issues with some of the above. No problem, more than happy to discuss them. The point is that the options exist, and heavily benefit the lowest and middle members of society. Powers in charge just do not have the will to do so for the most part, despite their being little negative impact except to those committing societal fouls already. Why is this? Various reasons, which I will discuss another time. The point is that they exist.

[haouintheworld]

Prologue & Epilogue

OOC: Dropping mun’s first fanfiction in a decade featuring Judai and Johan before and after the events of Bonds Beyond Time. 

Pairing: Spiritshipping

Edit: Typos are fixed and now there are links in the text if you want know about more about Johan’s nightmares dreams and the mysterious mask, go follow @itsashowtime​ to learn more!

___________

The former Osiris Red student had been traveling the globe alone for almost a year now and had fallen out of touch with most of his schoolmates. He texted occasionally with O'Brien and Jim, mainly because they both felt the need to look after Judai as if he was their youngest brother. Asuka checked in once and a while, providing updates on her and Manjyome's lives. Kenzan texted when he could to update Judai on how quiet life had gotten at the Academy. Edo had badgered Judai into downloading Snapchat and they kept up with each other's adventures through brief pictures. The last Judai heard from Edo was a couple videos of Ryou moving in with him a few weeks prior. They'd made Judai laugh especially when he heard Sho complaining in the background. Despite Judai leaving without really saying goodbye, Johan had never drifted away. It was like Judai and Johan hadn't separated. Johan ensured they texted and called each other regularly while he was at university. Judai loved hearing about Johan's path to getting a degree in the history of dueling with a focus on ancient Rome. Apparently, his university had a acquired a few artifacts from an old nameless kingdom. They consisted of some golden braces and a gold-platinum sword which eerily matched this old mask Johan's family had kept for generations. 

Johan didn't mind staying up till odd hours just to talk depending on what time zone Judai was in. Judai didn't care about keeping odd hours either, especially if Johan needed to talk after a nightmare or a bad day. He'd found himself keeping a clock of Oslo's time zone on his home screen and sending postcards to Johan when he remembered to. 

Regardless of the miles between them, the connection he had with Johan only grew. Judai admitted to himself he missed his best friend more than anyone else. He'd said multiple times that he wished Johan could travel with him.

Judai shouldn't have been surprised with what happened in Venice. He traveled there following a lead about someone who'd stolen Ryou's Cyber End Dragon.

He'd just finished asking a batch of local workers if they had seen or heard of a mysterious masked stranger stealing Duel Monster cards. Then Johan called and after a few minutes of talking, Johan asked Judai to describe his surroundings. "Well if you'd just video call me, I could just show you." Judai pouted. "Judai, I told you my camera isn't working after I dropped it. Come on, I wanna hear about it." Johan dragged out the syllables in his name teasingly. Judai sighed, signalling that he agreed to humour his best friend. The giggle he heard from Johan made him smile involuntarily. "Well, I just walked out of a big library and behind me are two very tall columns with different statues on them... They both have wings?" Judai trailed off as his description of his surroundings turned into a question. Johan laughed, "You're the one who's there! And that big library is called the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana."   Judai smiled, he liked the sound of Johan's Italian. He noticed windy feedback on Johan's end. "Are you on your run or something?" Judai inquired, reminding himself how more than a few times they'd caught up while Johan was working out. "Yep, I called you right before I walked out of my place," Johan confirmed before adding, "now go on." Judai rolled his eyes, "There are plenty of tourists around and jeez these people like their fancy archways. I'll have to send you a picture." "Ha, please do. I love that there's all these religious details and then they just have four horses randomly on the centre arch." "I know, right?" Judai glanced up at them before asking, "Have you been here before?" "Not until today." Judai's brain didn't process that the source of Johan's voice had changed for a second. He'd opened his mouth to question his best friend and then his heart felt like it was going to burst out of his chest, his brain screaming at him to turn around. 

So he did.

And his heart soared.

"Johan."

"Judai." 

Closing the small distance between them, the two boys embraced each other. They both laughed joyfully, lost in their own little bubble. Judai even picked Johan up and twirled him around. They didn't realise the few kind looks they received from tourists and locals alike. Another couple was walking toward the water and looked knowingly at each other.

"What are you even- don't you have university or work?" Judai wondered, this was the last thing he'd expected to happen today. He was so thankful to see Johan in person instead of on a tiny screen! He was considerably taller than him now too! He held on to Johan's arms, not wanting to break their connection as if the bluenette would disappear. "I did this crazy thing called finishing a school year?" Johan teased before adding, "I was planning to come find you no matter where you were since I'd have the time. It's been too long and I... I really needed to see you." Judai smiled softly, he was so touched. He'd desperately missed having Johan by his side. As much as he appreciated Hane Kuriboh, his professor, Pharaoh, and the other duel spirits, Judai wanted to be with people that didn't exist on another plain of existence. Moreover, he missed getting lost in those emerald eyes. "I needed to see you too, Johan." Neither spoke for a beat, something unspoken shared between their souls. They were happy to just be in the moment with each other.  

Johan would've been the first to break the silence had not Ruby Carbuncle and Hane Kuriboh appeared angrily looking in the direction of a plaza. Swooping over their heads with a piercing metal screech, was a darkened version of Cyber End Dragon. Its tail running through the central part of the library Judai was just in. Everyone in the streets began screaming and sprinting in directions away from the dragon. Within seconds Judai and Johan had dropped their respective bags. They loaded and activated their duel disks in sync before calling out their ace monsters. "Let's go Elemental Hero Neos!" "Come on out, Rainbow Dragon!" The two monsters shimmered into existence, Judai tapped into the powers given to him by the Supreme King to materialise the monsters into real beings. 

Whoever was doing this had some serious power behind them.

Rainbow Dragon allowed Neos to fly near his head as the two sped towards Cyber End Dragon, their powers charging. However, before either could act, an unfamiliar pearly dragon appeared and rammed Rainbow Dragon into the ground in a flurry of stardust. The force sent Johan and Judai to the ground as Crystal Beasts and Elemental Heroes appeared around them.

"RAINBOW DRAGON!" Johan cried out. He pushed himself forcibly to his feet so he could run to his largest family member. Before he could sprint, Rainbow Dragon disappeared in a flash of light along with his respective card. The remaining dragons flew upwards and began circling the city. Neos barely had time to move out of danger's way and touched back down in the crater Rainbow Dragon was in.

"No... No. No! NO!" A chorus of denial sang from the Crystal Beasts and their Protector who fell to his knees. 

Amethyst Cat roared alongside with Topaz Tiger before lying around Johan. Ruby Carbuncle cried as she climbed into Johan’s arm and he cradled her. Emerald Tortoise settled himself next to Topaz before shrinking into his shell in an effort to hide his tears. Cobalt Eagle landed atop Emerald with a strained call. Sapphire Pegasus and Amber Mammoth flanked their family closely, both crestfallen. 

Judai watched the group mourn for a moment before moving to throw an arm around Johan. His best friend leaned into the touch and let his tears fall, his shoulders jerking. Judai had felt Rainbow Dragon disappear and couldn't sense him with any of his powers. He looked to his heroes and they shared looks of awe and disbelief. He could barely process what had just happened or how in the world something could defeat Rainbow Dragon that quickly. Where did the card go? Who was doing this and why?

A few minutes passed like this and Judai got the feeling there was more to Johan and his family's reaction. Something had been wrong as of late... Judai wondered if it related to the bad dreams Johan had that he hadn't even wanted to describe. Suddenly, Johan stood and turned, startling Judai and the duel spirits around them. "Sapphire. Cobalt. We're going up to get some answers. I’m not letting this happen again." His tone was firm as he made to mount Sapphire, Ruby hopping out of his arms and onto Sapphire's back. To Johan's shock Sapphire denied him, "You can't be reckless, we don't know what we're facing." "He's right," Amethyst chimed in, her voice painted with sadness, "we have to think about this." "We're not all being separated again." Amber added. Judai felt unknown guilt flood him at the idea of the Crystal Beasts being separated. Johan began to protest when Topaz growled back toward the sky. Everyone turned to witness a darkened Rainbow Dragon emerge from gathered clouds. A maniacal laugh echoed above. Emerald emerged, murmuring, "Judai Yuki..." His words carried more than a name. Emerald's tone and eyes asked Judai for an answer. For a hero.

Judai nodded and flashed a reassuring smile. “I'll bring Rainbow Dragon back! This guy won't know what hit him!”

Johan spun towards Judai, his face a conglomerate of incredulous, concerned anger.

“You're not going in there alone!”

Judai scoffed, rolling his eyes and taking a few backwards steps towards the chaos, “I won't be! I've got duel spirits too you know.”

“Judai! Whoever that is you can't duel them by yourself!”

“Watch me, Duel Academy prepared me for crises. Plus, if they're after rare spirits, you have to protect them and keep them away from the fight.” Judai motioned to the worried Crystal Beasts.

“Judai, I swear to- Fine! I'll use my Gem Knights then, that way their cards don't-”

"I CAN'T lose you again!" Judai implored and almost screamed, his eyes flashing gold. 

Johan looked taken aback, his eyes, red and glassy from crying, widened. Judai followed his impulse to close the distance between Johan and him. He took Johan's face in his hands and pressed their foreheads together. 

"Johan... You have to be safe, I can't duel, let alone think clearly at the thought of losing you, seeing you hurt like this..." Judai's eyes stared into Johan's emerald ones, willing him to understand.

Off in the distance, sounds of buildings crashing, dragon roars, and people screaming were heard. The two didn't have time to speak what their hearts yearned for.

Johan wrapped his arms around Judai's waist and squeezed him tight. They both shut their eyes for a beat.

“Go save Rainbow Dragon… and the world too while you're at it.” Johan relented, eliciting a chuckle from Judai.

“As you wish.” Judai joked, his eyes opening to see Johan's beautiful green eyes and a ghost of a smile. He was thankful to see those eyes.

“I'll wait for you here.” Johan loosened his grip so Judai could step away.

Judai smiled and made his “Gotcha” sign before sprinting towards the Piazza San Marco.

----

With a grin, Judai waved to Yusei as the latter started up his D-wheel and sped through a portal back to his time. Feeling the breeze pick up, Judai turned and observed his surroundings. He was back in Venice and the sun was setting, washing the buildings with shades of gold. His heart had settled after the intense duel with Paradox and once in a lifetime chance to tag duel with the King of Games. His smile wouldn't leave his face as he thought of all the incredible combos they pulled off to save their respective timelines. As Judai relived the duel, his thoughts were stolen by how Paradox had corrupted Rainbow Dragon also known as the reason Judai battled the villain in the first place. He pulled out his deck and flipped the top card. "It's good to see you, friend." Judai murmured to the card. He felt the dragon's gratitude channeled towards him before he heard what sounded like an ancient voice question him. "My protector, I am sure, is worried about both of us." The dragon ventured, echoing in his mind. At those words, Judai's heart started beating erratically and he clutched the cards in his hand tighter. Johan... With a quick movement, the cards were back in the deck box he kept clipped to his belt and Judai took off towards the place he'd last saw his best friend.

Gratefully, he admired how it seemed the destruction Paradox caused earlier disappeared because now he could appreciate the view. There weren’t many people lingering around. Judai wondered if anyone remembered how close they came to danger or if Time’s magic had interfered.

Either way, he could make out the silhouette of his best friend looking out over the water. Only Ruby sat on his shoulders now. Judai felt in his soul that he’d made this walk to Johan many times in this life and the one previous. He didn’t know very much about his past as the Supreme King besides the dreams he sometimes had. Once in a while, something might trigger a memory, but those moments were few and far between in this past year.

This was one of those moments. It was brief, but as the sunset shifted from golds to reds, Judai swore he saw Johan in glittering armour complete with a cape billowing in the wind.

As quick as it came, the illusion faded away as Ruby turned his way, alerting Johan of Judai’s return.

“What is it, Ruby?” Johan murmured, inclining his head towards her.

She chirped happily before disappearing to the plane duel spirits existed on. Judai assumed that’s where the other Crystal Beasts were along with his own duel spirits. He could hardly feel any of their presences, he wasn’t even sure Pharaoh was nearby?

They were purposefully leaving Judai alone with Johan.

Judai was good with that.

Johan turned to him, his eyes full of concern, doubt, hope, and something else Judai couldn’t decipher.

“Judai…”

Judai stopped an arm’s distance from Johan, trying his best to keep a straight face. Ultimately, he failed the second he reached back for his deck and pulled out Rainbow Dragon’s card. He smiled reassuringly and held it out for Johan.

“You did it!” Johan carefully took the card and held it to his heart. “I knew you would, but I was- we were all so worried, but when the buildings went back to normal I- How did you do it? What happened? I...I don’t know how to thank you.” Johan rushed through his words, his bright smile making Judai smile even bigger.

“It was no problem, I’d do anything for you!” Judai admitted happily as he watched Johan return the precious card to his deck. A dim rainbow halo emit briefly from the deck and the duelists knew things were back to normal.

They looked back at each other and laughed, pulling one another in for a victory hug. Johan’s arms wrapped around Judai’s neck while Judai’s went round Johan’s waist.

“You’re my best friend.” Johan said softly after a minute, making no move to end the embrace.

Judai responded by holding Johan a little tighter. His heartbeat pounded as something in his mind clicked into place. Judai couldn’t help but smile as he realised what he was about to do. This was something his heart and soul had known longer than his brain. Now, Judai wouldn’t let himself leave this spot without putting it into words.

“You’re mine…” Judai said finally, matching Johan’s tone. “Hey, I have an idea on how you could thank me.” He added playfully.

Johan pulled back and suspicion was etched on his face along with an unknowing smile. “What did you have in mind?”

Johan withdrew his arms from their hug only to have Judai take both of his hands into his. Judai loved seeing the blush which crept on Johan’s cheeks. Judai could feel his own cheeks burn at the what he was about to do.

“Just listen for a second, okay?” Judai asked.

Johan gave him a small nod. His emerald eyes were wide and his pupils dilated as he searched Judai’s face for a hint.

Taking a deep breath, Judai started, “I got to tag duel with Yugi Mutou and my new friend from the future Yusei against the jerk who stole Rainbow Dragon. It was incredible that we got to work together and meet up despite being from different times. Afterward we talked about how, somehow, we’d meet again because the friendship we made defies time.”

Johan reacted to everything Judai said and clearly had tons of questions from the way his jaw dropped. At the mention of defying time, Johan’s expression grew more serious, as if he was remembering something.

“And it’s just… such a cool thought that people can do that. No matter the adversity or what the world throws at us, people find their way back to each other.” Judai interlaced their fingers together at that and held his gaze on them.

“Johan, you’re… I’m sorry for yelling at you earlier, I realised in that moment… No I think I’ve known for a while that I… I’ve learned so much this past year being on my own. Most of all I learned how important you are to me. I care about everyone else from school too and our duel spirits. But you and I go through so much together and you’ve always been here for me even with continents and evil between us.”

Judai paused and looked back into Johan’s eyes, “I wish I had the words sooner and no matter what you say, I just hope you can let me stay in your life. I want to protect you and be by your side for as long as you’ll let me because... I’m in love with you. I have been a long time, so long that-”

“You don’t remember when you started?” Johan finished for Judai. The look on his face was one Judai will never forget because he knew that the love he felt for Johan was reflecting back at him. Their faces were a couple inches away.

Judai grinned, “Exactly...”

With that, they both leaned in and kissed each other tenderly. Johan disentangled one of his hands to cradle Judai’s face while Judai’s free hand found its way around Johan’s waist. They both smiled into their series of kisses, breathless and happy.

“I love you, Judai.”

“I love you too, Johan.”