#gonna have to do some BIG work getting my queue up and running and whatnot

[foundfamilywhump]

whump intro!

i've been saying i'm gonna do this for literal years so it's probably high time i actually do that! so here it is - long time listener first time caller, i've been lurking in the whump community and participating in some discords and occasionally whump posting on main on my regular blog for some time now, and i've been wanting to get my official Whump BlogTM up and running for a while. if you keep waiting for the right time, though, the right time will simply never come! so here it is. i'm gav, he/they, i'm 25, and this will probably be a combination of fandom and original whump content. mostly reblogging for now, but i plan to post links to my fic when i post whump fic and hopefully will get some giffing powers at some point! i'm on ao3 at altschmerzes.

info about my likes/dislikes and some important blog maintenance notes under the cut!

tropes/concepts i like: whipping, emotional whump, long-term emotional/physical consequences of whump, ptsd, team/friend group dynamics, kidnapping, torture, injury hiding, exhaustion, manhandling, restraints, touch starvation, hidden past trauma reveals, characters being driven to a breakdown, just a good old fashioned beat-down. the list goes on and on, frankly XD. (nsfw/sexual assault-based whump will be present but carefully tagged)

tropes/concepts i'm not particularly into: extended long-term/permanent captivity, BBU and adjacent concepts, anything too wholly bleak/hopeless/based in ceaseless unending suffering. (i like... for lack of a better term Intense And Dark Whump but not if that's All There Is, y'know?)

for some housekeeping notes: i don't ascribe to 'whumper/whumpee/caretaker' as Static Permanent Character Archetypes, they are merely convenient shorthand that describe situational roles within a particular scenario. also, i'm aromantic and extremely romance repulsed. posts reblogged about romantic dynamics are going to be few and far between and if i make posts, they are going to be in a non-romantic context. i am not interested in romantic shipping in any way. this is additionally not a kink blog and the characters i am drawn towards are not attraction based. this is an extremely strong boundary for me - i am liberal with the block button, especially when people forcibly insert sexual or romantic motivation into my creative work.

[auiyoncesmind]

After Effects Text Effect Tutorial

A while back, an anon had sent me a request on how to do the fancy little text effects for a previous gifset I made, so that’s what I’m here to show you all today. Here, we’re going to be going from this:

to something like this:

What you will need:

Photoshop (I have CS5)

After Effects (I have CS6, though this tutorial should work with other versions; I will provide links on where to get AE somewhere down below)

Basic knowledge on how to make gifs in Photoshop

A folder or two for your gifs (I’ll explain why as you read on)

Your scene/shot already giffed in Photoshop

The font(s) you will be using for your gifs

Some time and patience (because this is most likely your first time doing this, and it may take a minute to get the hang of it)

As this tutorial is very lengthy, detailed, and image-heavy, I want to divide it into separate little parts:

Part 1 - Opening Your PSD in After Effects

Part 2 - Adjusting Your Timeline Panel in Preparation for Your Text

Part 3 - Typing and Animating Your Text

Part 4 - Rendering Your Composition for Photoshop

Part 5 - Saving Your Final Product

PART 1 - OPENING YOUR PSD IN AFTER EFFECTS

The first thing you’re going to want to do is make your gif however you want it. Since this is solely a tutorial that teaches you all the fancy text effects, I won’t be delving into a basic gif tutorial, though if you would like me to do one of those, or if you want me to direct you to some tutorials that helped me with my giffing, then I can definitely do that for you as well.

Here is what my gif looks like with my coloring and without any text on it:

However, we’re not going to do the whole “save for web and devices” thing just yet. Before we go into the tricky part, you wanna make sure you’re fine with the coloring that you want to use, and after that, we’re going to open After Effects. When you open up the application for the first time, it may end up looking something like this:

What you’re gonna want to do next is create a new composition. Go to Composition > New Composition to create a new canvas for your gif. A little menu will come up, asking you what size you would like the composition to be. You want your composition to be the same size as the gif itself. So make sure the box where it says Lock Aspect Ratio is unchecked, and type in the dimensions for your gif (the gif I’m using for this example is 268 x 200). For the frame rate, I keep it at 29.97 frames per second for the best results. Once you’re done with that, click OK.

Once you have your composition ready, you’re going to want to open the PSD in which your gif is made into After Effects. To do that, you will go to File > Import > File..., and it will ask you to select your PSD. You should see something like this once you’ve made your selection:

You want all your layers to be there when you make your edits in After Effects, so just click OK. Your PSD will then be located on the left side of the screen. Underneath that, you will see this big, blank space labeled Comp 1.

Your next step is to drag the PSD down to this blank area, and that is when you will see your PSD cover your composition that you previously made.

PART 2 - ADJUSTING YOUR TIMELINE PANEL IN PREPARATION FOR YOUR TEXT

One important thing before we actually get to the text part itself. When you load the PSD into After Effects, you’re going to see this little timeline panel towards the bottom of your screen. It’s similar to what you would see when you would do the whole “frames to layers” thing when you make a new gif in Photoshop. Here, you’re going to notice two things: 1) the gray time ruler (that long, gray bar with the yellow end points) is used to determine what is visible when you’re working on your gif, and 2) the short, light blue bar shows you your gif itself. However, usually when you load a new PSD into After Effects, you’re going to end up with a lot of unnecessary time that you won’t be needing.

Towards the very bottom is this little slider that allows you to get a better glimpse of the duration of the PSD you chose. Drag it far enough so you can see where your gif starts and ends. Once you’ve done that, you’re going to drag the gray ruler exactly where your gif ends.

Note: You don’t have to drag the smaller ruler on top of the bigger one; it’s gonna move on its own when you drag the bigger ruler to your end point.

Now you know exactly when the text for your gif is going to stop moving. Your primary goal is to showcase the entirety of the effect you would like to choose, and I will show you why that is in a minute.

PART 3 - TYPING AND ANIMATING YOUR TEXT

Here’s the fun part that you all have been waiting to see. Go to the panel towards the top and select your Horizonal Type Tool. You can choose any particular font you would like for your gif. For the purposes of this tutorial, I am going to use the font Questa Grande. Once you’ve selected your font, type your text over your PSD. You want your PSD to be centered over your PSD, so go to Window > Align, and you should see a little alignment box towards the right side of the screen. I placed mine in the same area with the Character and Paragraph tabs.

When your align tab is ready, click on these two center alignment options, and your text should be exactly in the center of your gif.

Note: You have to turn your Caps Lock off in order for this to work, as it will not only not center your text, but it will also cover your composition in one solid color.

As you will see in the timeline panel, the red bar represents your text layer. However, it is stretched out way past the point where your gif actually ends.

Align this red bar with the light blue bar as shown above. This will definitely come in handy when you are working on applying the effect itself and making it fit in your gif, which we will go into next.

The next step — and the for-real fun part — is where you choose the text effect you would like to apply to your gif. Over to the left side of the screen, you will see a tab that says Effects & Presets, and here contains a bunch of folders and whatnot filled with effects that come with After Effects itself. You’re going to want to click on the one that says *Animation Presets, and from there, you will click on the one that says Text.

At this point, you can experiment with different text effects and see which ones you like. I’m going to show you a couple of examples of how certain effects look, because depending on the one you would like to choose and how long your text might be, you may need to make a couple of adjustments. For instance, when I go under Animate In > Fade Up Characters, this is what my gif now looks like:

Notice how the animation was able to complete itself before it reaches the end of the gif. That’s what you want for your particular gif. If you’re able to get all of your text to fit like this, then you can skip to the rendering section, if you like. Now, in some cases, you may run into animations that may not be complete when you play the whole thing through. Let’s say I decide to go to Animate In > Twirl On Each Character instead. This is what it would look like when you leave the animation as is:

What’s happening here is that some of your text gets cut off towards the end, which more than likely means that you would have to change the time stretch for the effect you’re using. What do I mean by this? Well, try right-clicking either over the text on your gif or over the text layer in your composition panel (that big space where we dragged the PSD earlier) and go to Time > Time Stretch..., and you will get this little window that comes up.

You will have to change the percentage showing in the box where it says Stretch Factor in order to squeeze all of your text in at once. You can experiment as much as you want with this until you get your desired look. I’m gonna type in a stretch factor of 70 just to test it.

However, when you change the stretch factor of your text, then that red bar in the timeline panel is no longer aligned with the light blue bar that represents your PSD. If you leave it like this, then there is a chance that your text might cut off and disappear, leaving the remainder of your gif blank. So you’re going to drag that red bar back across and line it up with the light blue one so they’re together again. Now I’m ready to test the text out once again.

This time, the whole animation is able to play itself out so you can see all of your text appear in the gif. For some people, this particular stretch factor may be cutting it a little close, so if you want to lower it to, like, 60-65 or something like that, you can definitely feel free to do that, if you want.

Here’s that same gif, but instead, I use the Raining Characters In animation and set the stretch factor to 90:

Like I said, feel free to experiment with different effects, because there are a lot of text effects already in the application that you could use. If you somehow don’t find something that you want that’s already in After Effects, feel free to look around for more text effects online, apply them to your application, and then try and follow the steps I provided for you previously.

This is another optional step, but if you’re editing your text over a very bright background, you can change the text color from white to something else. In this gifset I made not too long ago, for example, I had changed the text in one of the gifs to a particular shade of blue. To do that, you would go to the Character tab (located in the same area where I put my Align tab) and change the Fill Color (that little white square next to the available fonts).

PART 4 - RENDERING YOUR COMPOSITION FOR PHOTOSHOP

Now you have your text, the animation you would like for your gif, and all that other good stuff, so now we’re going to save it so we can open it back up in Photoshop. Go to Composition > Add to Render Queue, and you will see this appear towards the bottom of the screen.

My screenshot shows multiple different compositions here for the purposes of this tutorial, though yours will only have just one since you’re starting out. There are two main areas we want to focus on changing here: the one that says Output Module, and the other one that says Output To. When you first add a composition to the render queue, the output module will be set to Lossless. Click on where it says Lossless, and this little window will come up.

The format is automatically set to AVI when you open it, but you want to change it to PNG Sequence. And for the channels section, just change that to RGB + Alpha, and then click OK.

Earlier in this tutorial, I said you would need a folder or two for your screencaps. I said this because when we changed the format to PNG Sequence, that means the gif we added the text effect to in After Effects will be saved as multiple PNG frames after it’s being rendered. In order to keep these frames organized, I personally like to make a folder for the PNG sequence to be saved in.

After making a new folder to save your frames, you’ll want to go to the Output To section and click where it says Comp 1_[#####].png. It will ask you to find the folder that you want to save the sequence in. Once you select that folder, click OK. Once everything looks okay, all you have to do is click Render, and your gif will be saved to that folder.

PART 5 - SAVING YOUR FINAL PRODUCT

You will now need to open up your PNG sequence in Photoshop in order to make it into a gif. To do this, go to File > Open, and find the folder where you placed all of your screencaps from After Effects.

Click on the first screencap within that folder, and then check the box where it says Image Sequence. That will ensure that all of the screencaps within that folder load in your Photoshop document. Once you do that, click Open.

Another dialogue box is going to come up, asking you what frame rate you would like to use. It should be set to 29.97 frames per second. If it is, click OK. If not, change it to 29.97 fps and then click OK. Now all of your frames are all together. Next, go to File > Save for Web and Devices..., make sure your file is under the file limit (3 MB) before changing the Looping Options (towards the bottom right of your dialogue box) to Forever, and click Save. I prefer to save this gif in a separate location from where you placed all of your PNG screencaps previously.

Then open the gif you just saved. You should see that all of the screencaps are set to a screen delay of 0.03 seconds in the frame animation panel. This delay makes the gif move too fast. For the best quality gifs, you want your screen delay to be set at a normal speed but also not too slow (e.g. 0.07). I set my screen delay at 0.05 seconds for all my gifs.

To do that, click this gray button on the top right of the frame animation panel and go to Select All, which will select all of your caps in the panel at once. Then click on the 0.03 on any of the caps you see, and then go to Other..., which will pull up another dialogue box asking you what set delay you want to choose. Then type 0.05 in the box and click OK. Lastly, go to File > Save for Web and Devices... once again, and click Save. To distinguish your final product from the faster gif you saved previously, just change the name (or, if you want, you can keep the same name, and then a dialogue box will come up asking you if you want to replace the gif or not; at this point, just click Replace, because you won’t be needing the faster gif anymore).

And that’s basically it for this tutorial. I know a lot of people aren’t too familiar with After Effects or much less even know how to use it, but since we’ve reached this point in the tutorial, I want to leave you with a couple of extra tips:

You may want to practice using text effects with smaller gifs. I say this because the file limit for gifs (3 MB) may be restricting for big gifs, especially those that are 540 px.

Going off the previous point, make sure that your gif doesn’t have too many frames in it to the point where it goes over the file limit.

The process for this tutorial is basically the same with edits or graphics, except you don’t have to really worry about the file size as much as you do with gifs, because the majority of your image will be still. However, it’s always important to check anyway in case something happens. If you end up with more frames in your edit/graphic than necessary with the text effect(s) applied to it, feel free to delete whatever you’re not going to be using once you get ready to save the final product.

I encourage you to experiment with different text effects and see what works. Not every text effect you look at will work out, depending on your personal preferences. I’m still kinda new to After Effects as well, so we’re all learning here lmfao.

When testing new effects, make sure you press the First Frame button in the Preview tab (it’s gonna be that one arrow pointing to the left towards a vertical line) so you’ll know that the animation will start at the very beginning of your gif. This is very important, because if you don’t do this, then the animation will start wherever your current time indicator (that yellow thing that goes back and forth in your composition panel) had stopped previously, and then you won’t be able to see the whole animation.

If you make a mistake at any point in testing out new effects, just go to Edit > Undo so you’ll know where you’re at.

Just practice using After Effects in general. You may end up finding something that I haven’t even come across yet. That’s totally fine. Not everyone is gonna understand it right away, so study it as much as you can.

For those wondering where specifically I got AE, I don’t remember the exact link (when I got it, I was looking for it on my old laptop, which malfunctioned before spring break this year, unfortunately), though it did take a lot of Google searching for the link to AE CS6, so if you do that and find a good link, feel free to share it so more people are aware. But for the sake of this post, here are a couple of links to posts where you can access a download link:

maxiresources downloads by @maxiresources​

How to Get After Effects by @alternatetutorials​

Adobe CC 2019 Suite by @yeahps​

Activating CC 2018 Programs on MAC (Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, etc.) by @kaeveeoh​ (this should work for PC as well)

Make sure all of the links work when you're looking for one to download After Effects. If the ones I provided don't help, I'm sure you can ask at least one person from @yeahps or any other popular Photoshop blog for some advice.

If you have any questions on any part of this tutorial, feel free to message me anytime you want. Other than that, if this tutorial has been helpful for you, please give it a like/reblog. It would be greatly appreciated.

[wetookanoath]

personal struggles, the fate of this and other blogs and apologies.

This year so far has been strange and not good for me and this blog. Some of you know my long history with hate in this fandom and while it’s always nice to hear your kind words, the hate I get is every day worse to the point I had to take off the anonymous option on this blog, my personal, the Library, the writing events and even the damn porn blog.

A few months ago I said I was gonna delete all blogs, and as promised I also deleted my twitter account, passed the instagram account to someone else (who hasn’t done anything with it yet), deleted other b*zzf*ed related blogs I ran, and left others I helped in.

I answered to every and all asks on this blog and the porn blog (most asks now on queue or drafts, waiting to be posted slowly to not spam), finished the event that didn’t went as good as it seemed and passed the administration of the Library to my personal account to never left it die down.

During this time, something happened in my personal life and I found myself in a very dark place I never thought I would go back to after it happened to me many years ago. But it did, and I had to dealt with it all over again, but this time there was a difference, this time I knew were to start and it helped me because I was able to ask for what I needed and get help.

I’m on meds again. I’m not proud of it and it... makes me angry that I’m ashamed to admit it. I’m making less money, lost a person, stopped writing, entered a rehab therapy for two weeks for depression (I didn’t tell anyone but my family, which won me a very long fight with my best friend and two of my best friends online), ended in the hospital last month. 

That long period I spent away from this blog, forgetting to answer replies I got e-mails for and the days of check-in and whatnot for the Exchange, god they were so good even with all that mess going on. I watched and read so many things, even if suffered not writing and other physical things. But I felt good, I really did. Which I think it’s why I was happy to get back here, just to find hate on my inbox yet again (from the same person as always, by the way. This woman really is the saddest person on the planet. Yes, it’s about you. I know you are reading this), and I really thought “why do I keep doing this to myself?”

And then weeks ago I finally realized why. And it’s because I like this show so much. I like the pictures and the stories, the chat group I’m in even if sometimes I feel like they don’t like me, and most important, in spite of all the hate we get here, I love the stories I write for this fandom, and my ship. I’ve never wrote this good, gotten the chance to improve and learn better english too.

I love the writer I am in this fandom and I have wrote so much these past few weeks, and all because I started to write shy*n again. 

So what do I do?

There are days when I forget this blog exists. It’s been so boring, this hiatus and how things have changed, the lack of content makes things dry and easier to forget. I just forget it exists, but then when I get in, it’s fun when there’s no hate. I find it entertaining to go into my blogs and tag everything properly, organize tag pages and make lists of films based on things, make edits, answer old asks I didn’t have time for before.

Since now that anonymous is off I don’t get any asks, I had have the chance to answer in depth so many things I had left behind before, it’s been fun. Like it used to be, January-July of 2018 came again to remind me of how things were before The Change. I enjoyed preparing this blog for my deperture, and I found myself not wanting to go.

My first thought after that revelation? “People is going to hate on me on anonymous for changing my mind”. Isn’t that fucking sad? That I have to condition everything I do so people won’t hate me on anonymous and say horrible things just because I complain bout things, then calm down and change my mind like any other normal person does on a daily basic... on my own, personal blog? 

So, so far, this is what will happen:

The blog reminds, since it’s also kind of an archive for this fandom with how much has been posted that I know it’s resourceful to people for all kinds of things.

Anonymous will perpeturally be off in all my blogs. The Library’s inbox will remain closed.

I’m still going to take my long periods of ignoring this blog, so I’m sorry if you sent me any qs and I don’t answer right away.

It will be on perpetual semi-hiatus, since I will come back once a week to answer things, tag stuff, stock the Library’s queue and the one on this blog.

About the updates, I’m just going to post things I would like to archive myself.

New fanfics/chapters of fics coming every Saturday until I’m done posting everything I wrote these weeks. I’m still writing, so I guess my day of the week to check replies, messages and asks will be on Saturday.

I don’t think I will be around for the new season, not the way I used to. I’m so gonna watch it, but no posts from me anymore. This is a big maybe, since I’m not sure of many things right now, especially with my health as fragile as it is right at the moment.

There’s, so far, 131 original posts on queue. These are: lists that were requested on this blog on such things like all episode Shane called Ryan ‘baby’, personal favorite shyan moments with links (I worked so much in this one, I ended up hating it), etc., edits from many things, included shoots found in old articles and so on, the ongoing ‘fave insta pics’ series of Ryan, Shane, TJ, Sara, Kelsey and the boys in other people’s instagrams, more favorite fanfic edits, and more buzzships edits. Also, a few headcanons, rec lists and solo recs.

Queue will post three posts a day, one original text, one reblog, one original edit. Texts are less than the edits, so when they are over, it will be two edits and one reblog. I will be stocking the queue during my weekly visit, so I don’t know if it will eventually run off original posts or not. 

Library reminds what it is, inbox closed until further notice.

Writing Events is over, though. I’m too tired for that. At least for a long break.

This really all depends on my health and how things are once the show is back. I miss the interaction a lot, so having lost the anonymous option it’s really a big bummer for me, and maybe to the people who did like to interact with me and the blog’s content in a positive way via this option. We’ll see.

And finally, I want to apologize not only for the long of this but for my negative reactions months ago. It was wrong, childish at times and out of character. I didn’t realize I was getting bad, and when I did it had already gotten worse. I can now look at all those desperate posts and see how bad I really was at keeping it together and how desperate I was to be okay. 

While I still believe I didn’t deserve the harassment I was getting, I should had never given onto it and answer back. I shouldn’t. It was not only bad for me, but to the people who followed/follows this blog and engaged into the negativity too. 

I caused that by acting exactly how the hateful people wanted me to, and instead of showing myself as the imperfect human being I am, all people saw was a crying girl asking to be appreciated and loved back. And the reality is that forcing those things to happen won’t make it any better, on the contrary, it makes it worse.

All those times I said, “why does people have to insult me for you to care about me?”, it was because I made it happen. I decided to posts those answers and reply to the hate, and it made people, worried by my answers and the tone of them (yeah, I was pretty suicidal and paranoid, I didn’t realize until recently), send their support. It made it look like that was the case, that I needed to be hurt for people to appreciate me.

But now, I don’t post those things. Had to shut down anonymous asks. And last week I got one ask, just one, of someone saying they love this blog. There was no reason for it, just someone who saw me online and send in their positivity. And it was the best thing in the world, those short words, the best ones.

So yes. My sincere and deepest apologies to everyone, involved or not, for having acted, well, toxic in the past months. Hopefully, it won’t happen again. Meds, no anon and semi-hiatus will make a difference, I hope. And things will be fine.

Thanks for the support, the kindness and the love. And thanks for reading this bible.

Love you,

Nina.

[ephrampettaline]

chatzy autumn fair log with @ephrampettaline, @freddiewatts, @ianncardero, @mayaparker, and @scarlettxruby

Maya walked through the autumn festival with Hermes still by her side. Aside from that first night at carnival, things had been pretty calm. Although she was still a little on edge. But she was determined to have fun, which explained why she was already two drinks in. She had just bought another one when she spotted a chalkboard sign for a hayride. "Oh shit," she glanced down at the husky at her side, "What do you say? Hayride time?"

Ephram watched as the couple behind him in line peeled away for some reason, conferring intensely between themselves as they left the hayride area; he caught sight of Maya waiting behind them, and said, "Oh, hey! Or should I say hay?" Ephram chortled, despite the fact that this joke didn't really translate well out loud.

Maya looked up at the sound of someone calling out to her. Or at least calling out in her general direction. It took her a second to register the joke. Her brow briefly furrowed. Hermes stood by her side, watching Ephram carefully. "Oh," she said, shaking her hand and taking a step forward, "Hay as in hayride. Sorry, I've caught up."

Ephram scratched his elbow, saying, "Aaaaaah, it was corny, I don't blame you. But at least you'll probly get on this trip, though, now that those folks moseyed off for whatever. Let's hope it ain't because they know somethang that we don't, eh?"

Maya shrugged. She didn't mind corny jokes. But he was right that the homophone pun hadn't come across immediately when spoken. She took a sip of her hot toddy and nodded. "Yeah, think I will," she agreed before adding, "Assuming they let dogs on." Glancing in the direction of the couple, she shrugged, "Nah, they were 'not fighting' about something else." She put heavy air quotes around not fighting. She hadn't been eavesdropping on purpose, but voices carried in the chilly fall air. It had been kind of hard not to.

Ephram himself had a bright pink travel mug of hazelnut hot chocolate -- pay one price and it would refill itself automatically so long as you were on the fairgrounds -- and he drank deeply from it, bound and determined to get his money's worth. "Of course they'll let dogs on! In this town? They'd find themselves slapped with a discrimination suit if they din't allow animals of any and all form."

Maya had to give him that. With so many familiars about, it would be hard to refuse animals on any ride. "True," she said, "Forgot it was Soapberry for a second there."

Ephram looked at her curiously at that statement. Historically, his asking Maya any questions about herself hadn't gone well, but ... things changed, right? So he ventured, "...you been ruminating on other places to be lately?"

The furrow in Maya's brow returned. "Have I what?" she asked, genuinely not understanding the question.

Ephram gestured vaguely with his cup. "I dunno, just ... you said you forgot it was Soapberry. In the middle of the Autumn Fair's a pretty hard place to forget you're in Soapberry, is all." Considering all the Soapberry-grade shenanigans going on everywhere they looked.

Maya shook her head. While she had been thinking about returning to New York or maybe just moving somewhere else entirely, she and Ephram were hardly close enough that she would mention that. "I just lived the first twenty four years of my life in places where pets were just pets," she explained, "I'm still not quite in the Soapberry state of mind."

Ephram nodded politely. "Ah, gotcha. It's different for me. I mean I lived thirty years in the Outworld not knowin' bout magical stuff but I sucked up all this Soapberry state of affairs like a sponge in a bucket. Funny how that works."

Maya considered before replying, "Probably just depends on the person. I've never really been the soak it up like a sponge kind of person." She nodded towards the growing space between Ephram and the line in front of him. The next cart had been loaded up and trundled off, leaving Ephram at the front of the line.

Ephram obligingly moved up, wondering aloud, "Do they got more'n one cart? Or do we gotta wait until that one finishes its route and dumps them people off first? I mean I been on hayrides, but those times was always just the one cart. Small town style."

Maya wasn't sure if Ephram was really asking her or not. Hermes had followed them up and was now watching the crowd to their right. It seemed he had smelled them. "I've seen two different drivers, so they probably got two different carts," she offered, "Although it could've just been the other guy went on break."

Ruby had left the petting zoo with a pocketful of something small and fluffy. She thought it might be a chinchilla, but she wasn't sure. She was sure that it liked churros. Which she was currently feeding into the pocket of her hoodie as she moved towards the line for the hayride.

Hermes barked once in greeting. Maya's head whipped to see what he was barking at, almost spilling her drink as she did so. Every one of her muscles tensed, ready either to run or to fight. But then she spotted Ruby walking towards them. Relaxing, she smiled, "Hey Ruby."

Ephram lifted his pink cup at Ruby too in greeting. "Hey-ooo!"

Ruby looked up from feeding her pocket to wave at the others. She gave Hermes a pat on the head as she came over, offering the dog a piece of the churro if he wanted it. Her hoodie pouch wiggled, and Ruby gave it more food before it fell still again. "What kinda hayride they got goin'?" she asked, realizing there didn't seem to be many other waiting. "Not haunted is it?"

Maya tilted her head a little as she caught Ruby looking up from her pocket. Hermes wandered over, having long since decided that Ruby was a friend. He snapped up the offered churro. "I think just a regular one," Maya replied, "From what I heard tonight's more about cozy than spooky. Gotta let people calm down a little before the main event, you know?"

Ephram sipped at his hot chocolate. "Are they gonna turn it haunted after?"

Oh. Well, okay then. Don't really feel up to anythin' scary." Ruby fed a bit more churro to Hermes and to her pocket - apparently the churro kept slowly renewing itself - before frowning a bit. "What's the main event? And you think they will?" she asked as an addition to Ephram's question.

Maya found herself distracted again by Ruby's pocket. Her eyes narrowed a little, but she said nothing. Not yet at least. "Assuming you mean the main event tonight, it's a bonfire," she said instead and with a shrug she said, "And I think its shutting down for the night after that." She took another sip of her drink. Glancing down at Hermes, she mouthed, "What's she got in there?" Hermes just looked up at her, wearing a dog's smile. Maya shook her head, clearly the husky was easily bribed

Ephram hung back a little, watching Maya and her dog and Ruby and her pocket animal without much interest. He'd already spent an afternoon at the fair with Ciara and the other witch being distracted by Molly and the gitturns; it seemed like everybody was surrounding themselves with pets lately. Ephram pondered to himself if it was a feature of small-town osmosis, or some new stranger Soapberry thingamajiggy.

Freddie, having left Ollie chatting with Marita Cooper, caught sight of his husband across the fairground - big blond yeti-boys were hard to miss - and made his way over to the queue his sweetheart was standing in; smiling and chatting and glad-handing his way up through the waiting crowd until he came to a stop behind his darling and slipped his hands into Ephram's pockets. "Hello, love", he said, "What are we in line for?"

"So no, I guess, to properly answer your question," Maya said, "I think it's not supposed to be haunted after."

Ephram extended a leg to tap the sign with his toe, summarily having to hustle to lean forward and prevent it from falling over. "Whoops," he huffed, rubbing his nose in momentary contrition before bumping against Freddie. "Hayride, to answer your question. And a not-haunted hayride at that! You ever been on one?"

"Never in my life," Freddie said, "What do we do? If anything."

Ruby liked bonfires, and made a mental note to try and make it out. She was about to say something to Maya when her pocket gave a might wriggle and the little chinchilla leapt out and onto the ground, darting away and into the crowd. "Shit," Ruby said to herself, giving a hasty wave goodbye as she darted after it into the crowd.

Ephram handed Freddie his hot chocolate. "Hazelnut," he said by way of explanation, and then, "we sit in the cart, on a bunch of hay, while they drive us around. Hey, Maya -- d'you know if there's any special sights or anythang? On the ride?"

"Um, hi," Maya said, "And nah, you just sit and..." She weighed her next phrase before saying, "I mean, in high school we just made out so." She offered a shrug. As far as Ephram's question, she answered, "I only know what's on the sign." She turned her head as Ruby darted off. At least the small chinchilla, as far as she could tell, running off explained what Ruby'd had in her pocket.

Freddie took Ephram's cup and sipped his rather nice hot chocolate before wrinkling his nose at the lacklustre report on an activity apparently worth queuing up for. "We just sit in a pile of hay?" he asked, "Why? And where are they driving us?"

Ephram hummed. "Maybe you missed the 'making out' part of the explanation," he teased, before shaking his head. A public Soapberry event wasn't exactly Ephram's preferred place for making out, especially as the sheriff. "It's a thing to do! At fall fairs and whatnot." He looked around for one of the Carnival volunteers in their flashing green vests, hailing one and asking, "Anything special about this hayride? Afore we commit ourselves to it for twenty minutes."

Freddie pouted for a moment, knowing his husband well enough to know that he likely wasn't going to be doing any making out here amongst Soapberry's family fun contingent. "My arse is going to freeze off, isn't it?" he grumbled. "I'll need to glamour us a blanket."

Maya nodded as Freddie didn't acknowledge her greeting. She took another sip of her hot toddy. As Ephram asked if there was anything particularly special about this hayride, she listened, curious. The attendant grinned, "Of course there is. But if I tell you that'd ruin the surprise." Maya had to laugh at the over the top salesmanship of the attendant. "Alright, well that sells me," she said before climbing up on the cart with Hermes.

Ephram pointed at the attendant, looking at Freddie. "See? There's some specialness on the ride! Come on, there'll be blankets provided, I'm sure. It's a ride, not a trip to market to try and sell Pa's turnip crop." He thanked the attendant and shoved Freddie towards the cart. "You two've met, right? Maya this is Freddie, Freddie this is Maya. Just in case." Ephram grinned and settled down into the hay as well.

Freddie smiled, extending a hand to Maya, even as he laughed and playfully nudged Ephram back. "Maya," he said, "-hello, love. I'm sorry I didn't say hello sooner; it was just that your name had escaped me and I was hoping it would come back to me. How are you?"

Maya shook Freddie's hand, not entirely believing him. In her opinion, it seemed like a pretty flimsy excuse. But she wasn't about to make any indication she thought so. Instead she shrugged, "Can't complain. And you? Other than the not being overly excited about hayrides." She draped a blanket over herself and Hermes, making them comfortable as the cart started off.

Ephram tended to blanket tucking-in for Freddie and himself before taking his hot chocolate back. "This hayride's gonna change your mind on em, jes you wait and see!" he declared, despite having no evidence to back him up just yet.

"I'm wonderful," Freddie said with a warm grin. "I mean, I'd be more excited about the hayride if the making out like teenagers bit was still on the table," he teased, tickling Ephram a little as he settled into the hay beside him, "-but I'm up for anything, me. And it's a lovely night, so as long as I'm kept warm, " he paused, poking at Ephram, " - that bit's on you, sunshine - I think it might be fun."

Ephram moved closer to Freddie, wrapping an arm around his husband's shoulders. "One six-foot-two hot water bottle comin' up," he said, kissing Freddie's cheek.

Freddie grinned, leaning into the kiss. "Well, there," he said, "-now I'm already having fun."

Maya scratched behind Hermes' ears. She glanced behind them, having thought she heard rustle in the woods. But Hermes was calm and she didn't see anything. She brought her attention back. "At the very least, we should be able to see the stars out here," she said, casting her gaze upwards. The light pollution wasn't nearly as bad as New York, but even just the festival had drowned out some of them.

Ephram leaned back somewhat so he could properly stare up at the night sky. "Did you know that Soapberry has impermanent constellations?" he said. "Yeah! They show up like once every three months or somethang, a couple at a time." He lifted one arm to point, fingers describing a crescent shape. "The one right now looks like a wedge of orange. At least it does to me."

Freddie shot a little burst of fairy dust up into the sky over their heads, giving the impression of animating the constellation - the wedge of orange joining another collection of fruit to form a Carmen Miranda headdress for Cassiopeia. "Is this cheating?" he asked, "Or are we allowed to participate in the stargazing?"

A smile crept over Maya's face. She'd always like stargazing. A long time ago she used to do it with her parents from the top of Salem's lighthouse. The far away pinpricks of light reminded her that, in the grand scheme, she was small. "I think you can only cheat if there's competition involved," she replied.

Ephram crowed over Maya's comment. "I like that!" he declared. "That's a good definition. I wish I had an orange now, though. Good game, good game," Ephram said, slapping imaginary hands like it was the precursor to being handed post-match orange wedges by his little league coach.

Freddie leaned a little closer into the warmth of Ephram's body. "So what else has everyone been up today?" he asked, "Ollie and I have done rather a lot of wandering, but we haven't committed to too many activities yet."

Maya kept watching the sky pass. Partially because she enjoyed it and partially to avoid the third wheel feeling she was 95% sure she'd have if she focused inside the cart. She shrugged, "Some painting at the bakery, nothing terribly exciting." But thinking again that she heard something, she glanced behind herself into the dark woods. There was nothing. She must be hearing things. She wrapped her blanket a little tighter around herself before turning Ephram, waiting for his answer.

Ephram asked, "The bakery?" before scratching his chin in thought about what he wanted to report. "I wanted to get my face painted, but there was like an entire school fulla kids in front of me at the stall," he bemoaned his luck. "So I just did some bobbing for candy apples. I think they was candy apples. I wasn't allowed to keep the one I got!"

"Two questions, sweetheart," Freddie said with a smile, "First, what would you have had painted if you could, and second, why couldn't you keep your apple?" He turned to Maya then. "What bakery is that, love? Anything we'd know?"

"HEAD'S UP --" Iann yelled suddenly from above the slowly trundling hayride. He was half-clinging to a speeding broomstick, that was giving off sparks from the sweeping end. Iann and the broom crashed right into the hay, the cart tipping and rocking from the impact, hay tumbling everywhere. Not just that, but the sparks from the broom also caught on the dry hay, which easily and gleefully lit up as the magical cart slowed to a halt, sensing its demise. Iann went tumbling ass over tea kettle through the field, still trying to control the spasming broom.

Ephram yelped, "Jesus Christ!!" and immediately shoved Freddie, Maya, and her dog out of the stopped cart, grabbing a blanket to slap at the flames.

"Oh, sorry, I'm opening a bakery with Tuah," Maya explained. Having worked on it for months, it seemed like common knowledge to her. But of course she'd really only talked about it with friends. She was about to explain that she was working on a mural when her attention was grabbed by someone shouting. As Iann made impact, Maya barely managed to leap off before it tipped over. Hermes too jumped off. "Shit," she swore under her breath as the cart caught fire.

Iann threw himself on the wild broomstick, trying to stop it as he yelled to the other three. "It's - like - a - bucking - bronto - " No wait, that wasn't right. "Bronco! Broncoooo-oo-o- whoa whoaaaa broom whoa!!" Somehow, the broom didn't seem to obey Iann's instructions.

Freddie once he'd gotten his bearings again, sent a stream of fairy dust to surround the broomstick, glamouring it into a toothpick. "There we are," he said, smirking at his friend, "Try not to get a splinter, darling."

Ephram finished slapping out the flames with the help of a burst of silver-green magic that ate up all the oxygen around the flames, forcing them to snuff out with a resounding bang that rang in their ears for a few moments. "Dammit, Cardero!" he bawled at Iann. "Where the hell did you even get that thing?"

Maya watched as the broom tried to buck Iann off before Freddie turned it into a toothpick. "Jesus Iann, you okay?" she asked. She realized belatedly that she'd spilled her drink on herself while jumping off the cart. Luckily, there was going to be a bonfire later. She looked for Hermes, who came trotting up to her from the other side of the cart.

Iann was still laying on top of the broom when Freddie glamoured it, and so Iann could still feel the tiny thing magically bucking under him which ended up just sort of giving the impression that he was...well, humping a random rotten field potato. He shot Freddie a glare. Damn cheeky fairies. "Oh much better now, Didi!!" Rolling onto his back, Iann finally just gave up, and released the toothpick, which went zooming up into the night sky. "Okay see you bye." He looked over at Ephram, and the fiery mess he'd caused, and grinned. "There's a place giving broomstick rides for kids. I just sorta....amped up the juice on mine. Just a bit."

Ephram leaned over and slapped at Iann's hair with the singed blanket. "Goddamnit. You wrecked up the hayride cart! They're gonna take it outta your ass, these Carnival folks don't joke around with destroyin' their property."

Maya had to laugh. Of course, Iann had amped up a child's broomstick. She turned her attention though to the cart. It was indeed ruined. At least it was just hay, she supposed. Well, hay and wood.

"And how exactly did you manage that?" Freddie asked, caught somewhere between exasperation and fondness. "Do I even want to know?"

"I got this charm..." Iann started explaining to Freddie, giving Maya a nod to say he was okay. At least he thought he was. He reached up to catch the blanket that Ephram whapped him with, but then gulped hard, turning sweaty and pale immediately. "Oh. Shit. I think I dislocated my shoulder...fuck, shit, god-fucking-fuckity-dammit it, ow ow ow..." Iann rolled forward, gingerly holding his arm. "Okay, who's the lucky duck who gets to pull it right again?"

Ephram grunted, kneeling down next to Iann and reaching for his shoulder before pausing and looking up at Freddie. "Actually," he said, "probly Freddie should do it. Iffen you want your shoulder popped back in painless, that is."

"I got you," Maya said, "Give it here." She had put more than a few shoulders right in her day and now that she knew about her literally magic touch she could help with some of the pain too. She knelt and took hold of his arm. "Ready? On three. One...two," she popped it into place

Freddie would never stop wondering why so many witches eschew fairy healing for their own less-capable varieties, but to each their own. At least Iann's shoulder was fixed again.

Ephram sat back on the grass, secretly sort of pleased with this outcome. Iann deserved a little bit of discomfort for shenanigans. "Oh, shoot," he said as brightly-glowing green vests began to make their way out into the field. "Here come the volunteers. And it's a hayride, Cardero -- you best hope they don't got pitchforks."

Iann groaned and landed face down on the field when Maya popped his shoulder. "Ohhhhhhh god that feels good and awful at the same time," he said, voice full of dirt. He looked up when Ephram mentioned the green-vests, and gave a weak one-shouldered shrug, reaching out to be helped up. "You're the Sheriff - surely I'm in company that keeps the pitchfork crowd at bay, am I right?" Iann looked around, then looked at Freddie, stricken. "Where's Ollie?" His gaze slid towards the burned hay and side-turned cart.

Ephram grunted again, somewhat mollified that at least Iann showed concern for the possibility of Ollie having been hurt. "I reckon I might could tell em it was an accident," he started to say, before suddenly leaping up to his feet in shock, shouting, "My hot chocolate!!" and loping back to the burnt cart to locate his unending hot chocolate pouring out into a sticky puddle under a charred heap of hay.

Freddie followed Iann's gaze - and his train of thought - over to the decimated hay cart, and pulled a mock affronted and horrified face. "Excuse you," he said, "-but he's not bloody trapped in there! I'd have expired by now, if he had. He's having an apple cider with a mate of his. I'm to meet him later at the pumpkin contest."

"Doesn't it always?" Maya agreed. Having never experienced it, she didn't think about fairy healing. Just that Iann needed someone to pop his shoulder back in and she seemed like the best person at the time. "I've got like couple of ibuprofen worth of magic, but Ephram's right," she added. Her attention turned towards the approaching volunteers. Considering they were with the sheriff, it didn't worry her. "You do owe me a hot toddy though," she said as Ephram scooped up his hot chocolate, "I didn't spring for the self-fill upgrade."

Iann was ready to go diving into the hay to save Ollie, but was immediately distracted by the idea of Ollie having his own friends. Which Freddie had informed him of before; but honestly, every time it came up, it delighted Iann as if it was the first time hearing it. "What contest?" He looked over at the helpful volunteers, and pointed an accusing finger. "It exploded on its own! You guys should really make sure these things aren't hazardous, safety first. Think of the children - god, won't someone please think of the children." Iann tutted at the green-vests, before haughtily nodded at Maya and then Freddie. "I agree Freddie, we absolutely will not be directing our guests to the hay ride tomorrow night. Let's go now that our inspection's over."

"I put your shoulder back into your socket, I can take it out," Maya jokingly threatened as Iann referred to her as a child.

"The talent show," Freddie said before Iann was off on a tangent, distracting the poor volunteers from his own misadventures - and dragging Freddie right along into his mess. The fairy turned to the green-vests apologetically. "He gets a bit disoriented at night," he told them, "They call it sundowning. So don't mind him, yeah? We'll be recommending the entire carnival to our guests."

Ephram handed off his seared pink travel mug to Freddie, making imploring eyes-- "can you fix it, honey, please?" before nodding along with Freddie's swiftly-performed damage control, straightening and holding his arms out to herd the green-vests away from the little group. "It's fine, no harm done," Ephram said briskly. "Might wanna look into who gets their hands on those broomstick rides, though, huh?"

Iann looked innocent, if soil-stained, as Freddie and Ephram both did damage control with the politely confused (but quite used to seeing disasters and putting out fires - both literally and figuratively. Oh, the life of a volunteer) volunteers, who went to attend to the toppled hay cart. "I just realized that thing isn't actually drawn by anything," Iann murmured, noticing there was no horses attached, or tractor. He looked at Maya. "Who owes you a drink? I do, or Pettaline? Pettaline, right?" He nodded about the talent show, and then he had to ask, "Is Ollie in the talent show?"

Freddie took Ephram's mug and gave it a quick once-over - the replenishing magic was fae, so he didn't see any harm in applying a little dust of his own and glamouring it back to the way it had been before Iann Knieval had crash landed. "Here, love," he said, watching as it refilled itself, "Good as new."

"No," Freddie said, "-it's for pumpkins. People have made those horrifying pumpkinhead creatures from Return to Oz, and the talent show is for them. Ol and I are just going to watch."

Iann huffed on Freddie's behalf. "Just watch? They should've asked you and Ollie to be judges. You're esteemed members of Soapberry society and all that!"

Maya let them handle the green vests. It was usually better to let other people talk to authority. "Ephram didn't make me jump off my cart and spill three quarters of a hot toddy, soooooooo."

Ephram took his mug back with a pleased buzz, only to have it turn into a whine of protest. "I loved that pumpkinhead guy from Return to Oz!" he protested. "Him and the moose were the best. And no, Cardero, I don't owe nobody nothin' except maybe you a cuff in the head." He nodded enthusiastically at Maya's correction of Iann's willful misconception. "See?"

"Apparently we made the shortlist," Freddie said, shooting Iann a smirk, "-but Nutkin's a judge and he got us blackballed."

"Listen, I already got whapped by you in the head with a flea-infested horse blanket," Iann said as he started to distance himself from the burning ruined hayride. He glanced at Maya. "And okay then, hot toddy it is. If only to...make you stop saying 'hot toddy'. Sounds like we're in a ski lodge or something." Iann halted though as Freddie broke the news, staring in utter shock. "That fucking Bugle editor?! Oh Freddie...Freddie, that's my fault," Iann said it in a generous, magnanimous way, as if everyone didn't already know who's fault it was that Nutkin had its vendetta. "I should write a apology to that little peanut-brain..." A scathing, ranting, apology full of vitriol.

Freddie laughed, slipping his hand into Ephram's. "Oh, I think you've done enough, darling. Don't you?"

Maya laughed, "You know I have to keep saying it now, right?" She had no intention of following through or of really holding him to buy a drink. But it was kind of funny. She didn't know anything about this Nutkin, but evidentaly no one was a fan. "Sounds like you'd rather write him a strongly worded letter," she commented, "I know some strong words if you need them."

Ephram took his husband's hand, squeezing it and tugging Freddie in closer, not having forgotten his mandate to share the heat he tended to radiate in all seasons. "You watch yourself, Cardero," Ephram said, just a teensy bit nastily since he knew where he was heading with this comment: "Maya here's startin' a bakery with Tuah, so if you don't play nice with her you'll find another place you're blackballed from."

"I've written that little bugger plenty..." Which was precisely why Stonefruit Inn was in the semi-predicament it was in already. He cast Freddie another apologetic glance, pushing his hands into his pockets as they strolled out of the field, back towards where the food stalls were. "Ohhhh ah ahaha, yeah if I get blackballed from their bakery, it wouldn't be by Maya's doing. I haven't been performing very well on the ex front," Iann said with a wistful grin, and another half-shrug, not particularly minding Ephram's little jibe. It was genuine and inadvertently accurate, and for Iann that was what mattered. "But who knows. Maybe we'll be back on good terms by the time the place opens though, hm?"

Maya laughed again, "Yeah you probably got plenty on that one." Even with Tuah as her business partner and all her friends support her, she still felt nervous about the whole thing. "But, I think Tuah's too nice to ban anyone and I'm too interested in getting rich to not take anyone's money," she added. The first part was true and the second clearly a joke.

Ephram returned Iann's half-shrug, his spurt of meanness nullified by Iann's good-natured acceptance. Ephram couldn't stay poking at somebody -- even Iann -- in the face of such openness. "After the painting's done, I reckon?" he speculated, looking at Maya to say yay or nay on when the place was opening. He drank from his mug and remarked, "--that Nutkin feller's mighty hard to shut up. Although at least lately he's stopped referring to me as Typhoid Billy."

Iann grunted noncommittally about Tuah, pulling out his wallet when they got to the stall featuring all manner of cheery fall-related beverages. Some cold, some hot, all special in some way of course. "Well you're a married man now, it would be gauche or something, I guess," Iann said, squinting at the menu board. "Okay a hot toddy for you, and - what'd you have Pettaline? Hot chocolate? Spiked or not?"

Maya smiled and nodded, "Yes please."

"Oh, no, I'm fine -- mine's self-refilling." Ephram nursed it thoughtfully. "I reckon if Nutkin's stopped jabbin' at me it's got somethang to do with me bein' Sheriff now, not whether or not I'm married. The Bugle don't seem overly concerned with gauche."

Iann got himself a coffee - just normal, no funny business, Iann instructed the server - and handed Maya her hot toddy. "So what you're saying is..." Iann said, just as thoughtfully. "Is that if someone finds some reason for our esteemed Editor to be liable for...oh I don't know. Slander or libel or - oh! - harassment, then the Sheriff's Department can intervene on the injured citizen's behalf?" Because if there was anything better than skirting around the law, it was exploiting the law.

Maya took her new drink, still smiling, "Thank you." She took a sip, feeling immediately warmed by it. "Don't you have to like lawyer up for that?" she asked although she didn't really know. Plus things worked differently here in Soapberry anyway.

Ephram hemmed and hawwed a little bit before answering. "Well, yeah," he said, "but you'll have a hard time proving true ill intent. I mean it ain't harmed the Stonefruit any, the feud you'ns got going, and the Bugle's got free speech on their side. Even in Soapberry, some things still stand."

Iann blustered an imitation of Ephram, Kentucky accent and all, as he danced his arms op and down, frowning sternly, "Oh even - even in Soapberry, oh, hm, some things still stay-yand."  Really, he just sounded like Jeff Goldblum with a bad Kentucky accent.

Maya took a sip of her drink and chose to stay out of this one.

Ephram sipped his drink too, placidly; Freddie, after giving Iann a bit of a stern look, said, “And on that note, loves, I’d best see what Ollie’s up to. If I’m late and he misses the pumpkin judging I’m in for a bollocksing.” The fairy gave Ephram a kiss, lingering a little, before saying his goodbyes to Maya and Iann and setting off.

Ephram cleared his throat and turned to Maya. "So you're obviously handlin' the baking part," he said, "are you'ns gonna be havin' coffee and all that too?"

Maya nodded, "Yep, the whole works. We talked about maybe getting a liquor license too. Nothing better than late night cake and champagne." She couldn't help the almost secret smile that curved her lips as she thought of the last time she'd had cake and champagne.

Iann looked dismayed, giving a short wave of goodbye as he went after Freddie. "Freddie! C'mon man..." he pleaded, disappearing from the sight of Epham and Maya.

"Cain't argue with that," Ephram said, watching Iann bolt off after Freddie. "Well, that must be pretty exciting for you both! A new venture like that, especially with somebody. Not much fun starting new enterprises on your own."

"Well that I've got about seven dollars to my name, so it'd be a bit difficult," Maya replied. She was excited, but most days she was more nervous. And with everything that had been happening lately, she wasn't entirely sure she'd make it to opening day. But she just smiled and took a sip of her drink,

Ephram made a noncommittal sound, not really sure if Maya meant that as a joke or something more serious. "Thought of a name for the place?"

Maya shook her head, "We're still working on it." She took another sip of her drink. "How're things at the station?"

"Good, good. Just signed on a new Deputy, a Joey Voeman, you know him?" Ephram found it best to assume that people hadn't met, rather than the other way around.

Maya nodded, "Yeah, we've met. He seems like a good guy."

"Very good." Ephram opened his mouth to continue, but his phone buzzed, and he checked it, clucking his tongue. "Speaking of which," he said, "I'm gettin' called back to the station for a situation. It was good to see you, though! Send the Department a flyer or somethang when you open the bakery cafe. We're always on the lookout for new places to buy baked stuff from."

"Will do," Maya replied with a wave.

[spellcastersjudgement]

Jaden nd bastion for that domestic ask thing? >:3c

THE OTP YES i have so many feelings and everyone needs to hear me sob over the nerd baby and his superhero 

also that icon is the content i look for on this hellsite well done 

who is the big spoon/little spoon Jaden is the little spoon!! he prefers being the big spoon tbh he likes curling up against bastions fuckin ripped back but jaden always falls asleep first because he has to get this twelve hours or else he will be a grumpy boy but bastion?? bastion stays up all night drinking coffee and doing god knows what bc he’s the type of guy thats like ‘hey jaden im gonna go read a bit before i got to bed’ and then he fuckin stays up all night because he has no self control lmao so when it’s like 3am and he’s finally put down his book or finished dicking around on the computer he finally gets in bed and he doesnt want to wake up his husband (yes theyre married in my mind ok im love them) so he just lays down and pulls the human kuriboh to his chest and falls asleep 

what is their favorite non-sexual activity the standard answer is Card Games but besides dool masters they like to go on drives and look at stars and talk abt whatever. bastion is a chemical engineer and jaden’s his professional duelist trophy husband so they dont get to be together as much as they want bc jaden’s tournament schedule so when they’re together they gotta make it count u know so bastion will pick jaden up from the airport and they’ll just start driving out of the city talking about DM or what bastion’s been up to or whatever’s going through jaden’s mind (an enigma lmao) and then when there are no more streetlights to make it difficult to see the stars they’ll pull over and lay on the hood and cuddle and keep talking. it’s like 4am before they finally go home and since they’re going to sleep at the same time jaden finally gets his chance to be the big spoon 

who uses all the hot water in the morning getting jaden to shower is a fucking struggle he’s like a cat. living in the slifer dorm made him accustomed to being a generally gross person in general so he lives off dry shampoo and body spray so he doesn’t smell like hassleberry after a workout so that leaves bastion to take all of the water because he showers every morning after his run and insists on h is hair being perfect and well taken care of. like the guy has at least five different hair care products in the shower at all times while jaden, even though he’s dumb thick rich, buys that 3-in-1 crap he and syrus used to make stretch for a month back in college. jaden is also known to stick his kuriboh hair under the sink and shake it out like a dog because he is a gross boy that usually gets up about ten minutes before he has to leave so there’s no time for an actual shower and we’ve gotten away from the actual question but the tldr is bastion stands under the hot water he’s got one of those mirrors to shave in the shower while he’s doing his deep conditioning treatment and has a pore strip on his nose for beautiful ™ skin 

what they order from take out this one ties in a lot to my sageshipping BrOTP headcanons (on god there needs to be a brotp ask so i can scream to the world my love for bastion/alexis friendship) but the bit of background is that bastion and alexis would always order from this indian place that was open real late at night when they were in grad school together (no delivery at duel academy cause its an island u know) so it has a special place in his heart. jaden is a wimp when it comes to spice but since bastion loves it they order it anyway and the people that deliver the food know to make it wimpy baby spicy for jaden so he doesn’t end up sweating half his body weight up and crapping out lava four hours later 

what is the most trivial thing they fight over oh god they dont fight a lot because they love and appreciate each other’s eccentricities but if they’re going to fight its going to be over who’s doing the driving. they both love cars, bastion likes taking it apart and modifying them and whatnot and jaden likes the aesthetique (though his aesthetique is painting flames on a corolla jaden u lil shit smh) and they both like to go fast so when they go out they bitch abt who gets to drive. bastion tells jaden he doesnt appreciate the feel of the machine and jaden says bastion drives like a fucking old man so they end up settling the matter with rousing game of rock paper scissors 

who does most of the cleaning NEITHER OH MY GOD theyre both total slobs. bastion’s desk and home office is covered in his notebooks and duel monster cards, his walls covered with god knows what (formulas, dates, to-do lists, grocery lists) the guy just grabs the sharpie and starts writing because he’s afraid of forgetting something if he doesnt get it down right then. jaden lives in filth he has three day old bowls of cereal at his desk and uses used napkins as tissues he is certifiably NASTY. anyway they hire a housekeeper to make sure the entire house doesnt fall into disarray and she’s like their surrogate mother making sure they eat more than takeout and coffee and making sure the house smells nice. they call her Mama Cheryl (good middle aged mom name) and she’s the embarrassing mom at jadens local tournaments the kind that prints out huge pictures of his face and wears shirts with Neos on them and cheers for her boy v loudly. again we’re away from the question but i have a lot of headcanons abt this i’ll probs put in my dissertation lol 

what has a season pass in their DVR hmmm this is an interesting one…i like to think jaden loves crime shows because they’re heroes and he likes watching the good guys ™ win in the end. his favorite show is psych (which u all should watch its hilarious) but since that ended a while ago he’s been in to criminal minds and SVU because he likes watching the really diabolical criminals get caught. bastion never knew his mans was into such dark stuff until he opened the season pass thingy and got quite the heart attack because he thought jaden was all butterflies and flowers and funny stuff but bastion had to learn the duality of man the hard way. bastion doesn’t watch television that much but his guilty pleasure is vikings on the history channel and stuff on the discovery channel because he loves learning what a nerd 

who controls the netflix queue jaden is the one that likes to watch netflix the most but i wouldnt say he’s in control per se. they’re usually down for watching what each other likes but in the end jaden will sometimes end up superseding bastion because dammit bas we are not watching a documentary about the dead sea scrolls you dont even believe in god and bastions like fine youre cute we can watch Castle (even though thats not on netflix but i wish it were) 

who calls up the super/landlord when the heat’s not working jaden. jaden all the way. bastion brings up a a wikihow article about how to fix the hvac system and he’s like I CAN FIX THIS and jadens like ily babe but you work with chemicals not with this kind of thing ur gonna break it like the time u tried to fix the sink and fuckin clogged the shit out of it we are calling Cheryl and Cheryl’s like jaden im a housekeeper call someone who actually does this for a living. anyway while theyre waiting for the professionals to get there bastion tries to demonstrate he knows what he’s doing he is smort by writing the steps and shit on the wall and jadens like youre so cute but no dont touch the heating system. he has to distract his lil nerd by asking him about what deck he should use for his next tournament or what the probability of drawing three polymerizations on the first turn is and bastion loves talking about math so jaden keeps asking questions until the system is fixed (he doesnt remember much of bastions mathematical explanations but bastion looks so cute with his eyes all bright and shiny talking about statistics) 

who leaves their stuff around BOTH they are slobs. jadens a bit worse if we’re being honest because while bastion leaves his papers and cards around schmaden schmuki leaves his underwear and food and cups in the living room and is prone to stripping off his clothes for one reason or another and just laying on the couch watching ESPN with his goddamn pants on the floor and saying they were constricting his knees or some shit when bastion asks why he feels the need to be half naked all the time. bastion had his own room in college so he doesnt quite understand why jadens comfortable just answering the door with a trail of clothing behind him because most people that dont know him assume he’s been getting bizzay but nah he just be Like That

who remembers to buy the milk jaden do because he drinks milk in his coffee. bastion drinks it black so if theres no milk its like eh whatever but jaden is a mess without his caffeine and he hates how bitter and gross it is when theres no milk in it so even if jaden’s not the one going to the grocery store he’ll write it on the wall so bastion will remember it because his mans dont check his texts that often but anything on that wall he fuckin remembers and jaden doesnt understand why he be Like That 

who remembers anniversaries both! they are dumb thick in love with each other and they like to plan little things to do for the anniversary of their first date, when they made it official, their wedding, etc. jaden is much more extravagant and will do something like jump on the bed until bastion wakes up and then drag him out for breakfast and get atticus to sing a really off-key renditions of classic love songs and bastion blushes so hard and its so cute it should be criminal lmao. bastion will get jaden a cute little gift like one of those pictures where the artist takes a photo and paints it so they can hang it on their wall. or bastion will fine tune his duel disk or get him a new card for his deck. they are in big gay love and i love them so much 

thanks for this ask on god i just wrote 1800 words of tutorship feels i have a problem lol 

[fatass-verified]

A lil update, mostly what I've been up to and future plans and whatnot

Oh well, how the turntables. Looks like I'm back, my phone is gone now, it turned off and won't turn on anymore so I'm using my old ass laptop again, I can't make any kind of posts or stories on instagram so I guess I'm gonna get back on here, I wanted to delete this one and make a new blog cuz I don't feel like going through the people I follow and weeding out people so my dash is good again but I also want my name so idk, maybe I'll start anew with a new identity and not even tell people this is my old blog lol idk we'll see, anyway idk if I can call this recovery, but basically I've stopped starving myself, and I'm trying my best not to binge eat anymore (and failing miserably, but at least my binges aren't that big so meh), but I've been wanting to get back on track and lose some weight since I'm literally almost back at my hw but I had very important exams these passed couple weeks so I've been eating enough to be studying aka too much cuz I can't get shit done unless I do it with a million other shit so I just blast music and text my friends and eat and keep drinking stuff the whole time whatever lol I'm rambling again, SO, I still got exams but I'm positive I can pull off the rest while starving I already finished the important ones so idrc about the rest, and I wanna start changing my relationship with food.

Me and food... It's a long story. Growing up not knowing whether this will be the last time you can afford this food you really like or food in general really while also not "owning" anything around you really fucks you up. I took my merry time trying to figure out why I'm like that with food and... I think that's why, I don't know if this will be the last apple I'm gonna eat, I didn't know that was the last bar of chocolate I was ever gonna have when I ate it and look, I haven't had another since ages cuz it's too expensive and rare to find in stores now, same goes for a lot of other stuff, not to mention that at home, nothing's really mine, I don't work cuz I just turned 18 five days ago so I couldn't work before and now we're in the middle of a pandemic AND an economic crisis so no way in hell I can find a job and I'm not even done with highschool let alone have any kind of degree or work experience... shit rambling again okay so what I was saying is that I don't make money, and my parents don't believe that I need allowance because they're buying me food so what do I need money for, which would be right if they saw that food as "mine", which they don't, I'm always getting shamed for eating the food even when they buy it for me, and when they do buy my favorite food I don't know if there'll be any left the next day cuz the could and probably will eat it, and then we don't have any more money left to buy more so I don't get any more... And yeah my logical brain tells me this is stupid, but that really IS the problem now that I've been thinking about it and working hard at noticing queues, when I know they don't like the food I have and want, I don't feel the urge to binge on it as much, and when I know I'll be able to buy more once I run out I also don't do it as much, add up to it that I'm expected to make sure I leave a bit for each one of them even if that means I can barely eat from the food they allegedly bought for ME and no one even considers me, and it's not just food it's everything but I'm not getting into this right now, like they'd buy food and make food for themselves and not give me any even when I'm around, and like deadass I'd wait for them for dinner multiple times so we eat together and they end up eating out together not only without me and without bringing me any, but also without telling me they're not gonna eat home when they know i'm waiting for them, so yes this has made me lose sense of safety around food I guess, and moving out to my grandma really helped with that actually, I'm glad I did that even tho my grandma is literally two steps away and I see them everyday and stuff it's still better than living there, it is a challenge to fast and exercise here but I'll make it work I'll figure it out.

Soo yeah now that I figured it out I feel it's easier for me to help myself, and I wanna relapse in starvation really really bad like y'all got no idea, and to be completely honest, I've only ever cut out one thing and it's sugary drinks, and I've done an amazing job at it I almost never have it anymore, and I really wanna add some stuff to the list, and I wanna start with my favorite, bread, which I've said is impossible my whole life cuz like 90% of my daily intake is bread, so it's gonna be tricky, but I really wanna cut it cold turkey like I did with liquid calories and animal products (okay the animal products one I can't take credit for it since it literally disgusts me now that I've done my research on the animal industry and veganism and whatnot) but I think this one is gonna be a bit more gradual, mainly cuz I don't want my grandma to notice much and I might slip up a couple times but I really wanna be able to say "oh I don't eat bread" one day, like not because of carbs and that bullshit but because I like it so much, and like liquid calories and bread... they're like essential to most people, so I guess people would be impressed knowing that I don't eat bread as much as it impresses them when I say "oh I don't drink x" or "oh yeah I never put sugar in my tea" or "oh yeah the only coffee I drink is black coffee"... weird ik lol, and I also wanna cut of fried food at some point, like I technically only eat fries when it comes to "fried food" but I wanna be able to cut it off as well, that would make me happy, a food that once used to have control over me doesn't even tempt me anymore... that's... that would be a dream come true. Hmmm what else, that's mainly it, I barely ever have chocolate or sweets anymore cuz of money so that's not a problem anymore so I'mma work on those first then I'll see what's next, maybe pasta? But then again I don't wanna be cutting out just carbs lol it's not intentional I just wanna cut off my favorite foods, okay maybe chips next, definitely chips next, even before the fries, I think I'mma do that starting now, we barely have chips but I really like it and have never had it without binging, sooo yeah I guess that's it. Anyway, this has been a long one, I'll definitely be posting more unless I decide to change my blog, soo yeah see y'all later

[askthefamous8]

Okay so... NEWS!

First off I’ve got some new accounts, @sleepyhenryy @sleepyhenry which is gonna be a personal/’main’ account for stuff that isn’t art. if I wanna show you guys some merch I got or talk about Thomas in general, I can post it there and keep my art/AU things here. I’d like to have the ask blog be a bit less cluttered, basically. OH and also!! I’ll be able to actually interact with people more, i.e. I’ll be able to ~like and ~reply to posts as the blog(owner), vs when it was just the ask blog I couldn’t really do that since it’s a side account. The url will be changed to just ‘sleepyhenry’ once the 24 hour URL saving thing expires Edit: done!

I’ve also got a Twitter account for the blog now, @AsktheFamous8. So if you’re mainly on Twitter or prefer that as a platform, you can follow that account and it’ll post art and updates and whatnot from here.

Speaking of that (handle), I’m also changing this blog’s URL from oh-theindignity to askthefamous8. The old URL will redirect to a deactivated page. I know that’s been my handle for two years and I’m still a little attached to it, as I’m sure others are as well but... I kinda associate it with my older art and who I was 1-2 years ago, and I also associate it with a lot of the negativity I’ve received. And also I mean- just being practical, ‘askthefamous8′ is more obvious in what the blog is while ‘oh-theindignity’ is not. It’s perfectly fine if anyone wants to keep calling me Indignity (as some of you have, and I don’t mind!), I like it as a nickname, but as a blog URL I’d rather change it. I hope everyone understands ❤ As for all the art I’ve made but didn’t post here between June and now, pro: there’s a lot to show you guys, con: there’s a lot to upload. Instead of trying to do it all at once I’ll just...queue it when I can, I think.

Aaaand I think that’s it for the most part. I do have a new banner in the works! I actually started it around May or June but shoved it away when I locked. I picked it back up in September and have been working on it here and there since then. I don’t wanna spoil the surprise with any revealing WIPs but I’m absolutely dying to show you guys, I can’t wait to put it up. I’m also gonna try to change the blog’s theme (code) a bit, specifically with the text, and tidy things up a little by going through some old posts, adding tags, etc... OH and I’ve got a few more surprises in store for you guys, including that ~big one from earlier this year, but also some pages for this blog that are gonna be pretty cool...  I’ve been to the bottom of coding hell and back with those so you know it’s gonna be sweet 👀

Bottom line: I’m getting back into the groove of running the blog and I’ve got some cool stuff in the works. And, of course, a disclaimer... I’m still in school and that does demand a lot of my time, so as much as I’d like to I can’t spend all my time working on this stuff. But! I’ll be working on it when I can and uploading art again and that’s what matters!