#having so much fun with this challenge and i am amazed i am able to keep up

[sasanka-27]

suptober day 6 - full spread 🪽

[matrixbearer2024]

not a request but i just wanna get an idea that i absolutely MUST get out of my brain before it consumes my entire being. So, your “get off my screen series”. You know that trend where ppl put that one vox vid of his face on their tv and put like hus hat and/or body attached to the tv. Imagine vox somehow finds a way to do that and y/n just does this.

THATS IT LMAO ABSOLUTELY LOVE AND ADORE YOUR SERIES. ANYTIME I SEE IT’S UPDATED IT MAKES MY DAY<3

TikTok Trending, Posts and Memes

Vox x CollegeStudent!Reader

A/N: With how many ideas you guys have at this point I might just continue to write short scenarios for this AU with all the ideas you guys are giving me- it's absolutely amazing seeing what y'all come up with and I'm just living for it hahahaha! Thank you guys so much!

The week you had was... interesting to say the least.

Vox had challenged you to at least take up basic programming, claiming you were too impatient to learn.

So you, being the persistent and stubborn you-

Decided to prove him wrong.

Besides, it can't be that bad if he knows how to do it.

You wouldn't tell him because it'd probably make him butthurt-

But you were sure Vox was 1000% more impatient than you.

You took up computer science for extra credit, quickly learning the ins and outs of basic coding.

It was just a world of syntax and numbers but you definitely found it fun.

And useful too-

Especially when you wanted to explicitly screw with others.

Vox may or may not have slightly taught you how to hack.

But you weren't using it for anything bad!

Just to change the final grade of some asshole students so they'd have to repeat the class.

That's what they get for just randomly tripping you in the hall the other day.

Vox was slightly proud but also kind of concerned-

You'd definitely end up where he was at this rate.

Thankfully though, you decided not to do anything too crazy since.

Instead you've been messing around on your devices alongside the tech overlord.

From practicing how to send him encrypted messages-

To straight up just shitposting all over his monitors.

It's not so fun now is it Voxxy?

You would sometimes try to transfer him around to other devices that weren't your own to see if he could actually do anything.

Well, he could- but it only worked if he was directly connected to it.

Meaning he had to be plugged in.

How he was able to connect to all your devices wirelessly without limitation?

Neither of you had a clue.

You both first tested it on your best friend's phone, only for Vox to immediately go back to your computer and blow up your notifications.

"Nope nope nope nope, that's the last time I let you plug me into some random fucking phone-"

"What?? What happened??? And it's not random, it's (Friend Name)'s Phone."

"Dollface, you know Valentino right? The one I told you about?"

"The pornstar? What about?"

You didn't exactly like where this conversation was going.

You had an inkling where it would end and you were already cringing.

"Yeeaaaah, I've known him for quite some time so I would think I've seen nearly everything."

"Get to the point Vox-"

"And yet I am somehow utterly disgusted by your friend's search history."

"Yeah, uh... I'd rather you don't tell me."

"I figured. Though it makes me curious about what yours looks like."

That gave you pause, given how Vox had practically invaded your entire computer-

Hell, he even gave your files a new sorting system-

You were surprised he hadn't gone through your search history.

Of all the things you'd think that was what he'd ransack first.

"You haven't checked my search history yet?"

"Why would I? It's not like I'm trying to find your secret porn stash or something."

"Bruh, why would I even have that."

"Your friend had one, I just guessed."

"Touché."

You were a little touched that Vox cared about you enough not to really dig into your secrets.

Or well, the things you wanted to keep secret.

For a big bad overlord, he was kind of a sweetheart.

"Okay now I definitely wanna see what you've got hidden in there-"

"FUCK OFF YOU STUPID OLD PICTUREBOX-"

"YOU CAN'T STOP ME BITCH-"

You know what, you retracted your previous statement.

He's a fucking jerk.

Vox quickly dug through your search history while the tiny desktop companion in his likeness refused to give you control over the cursor.

You couldn't stop him even if you tried.

His phone blew up from notifications with you cursing at him or just calling him names.

He just laughed at your dismay and continued to dig through.

Okay- wow.

While he didn't initially expect it from you, Vox reckoned he probably should've.

Much like how people had celebrity crushes, he figured you would have your own.

It just so happened that it wasn't a celebrity and it was a fictional character instead.

He kind of felt like someone slapped him in the face actually, even if he didn't know why.

"Soooooo- (Favorite Character Name) huh?"

"Shaddup-"

"This? This is your type???"

"IT'S A FICTIONAL CRUSH GET OVER IT-"

While you were practically steaming from the ears in embarrassment, Vox was just laughing and dealing with his mixed feelings.

On one hand, he found your reactions absolutely entertaining and hilarious.

On the other hand, he didn't even know who or what this character was and he already disliked them.

Just a gut feeling.

He continued to tease you for it though, bringing up more cringe parts of your search history much to your chagrin.

It wasn't really anything bad that you couldn't take, it was just so embarrassing that you'd rather he didn't dig any of it up.

So in the heat of the moment, wanting to get Vox off your computer- you plugged it into the only other active device he wasn't connected.

Your TV.

It was nearly instant, he went from teasing and texting to you to a befuddled face on the larger screen.

But what was more surprising, was he could actually see you this time.

It wasn't filtered over with static like when he'd first met you.

The live feed even had audio, which was just entirely unexpected too.

Who knew, plug a TV demon into his specific medium and he could actually operate properly?

But that's how you guys ended up figuring out how to connect his digital presence to your TV.

By entire surprise and from just fucking around.

"Oh my god that worked-"

"(Y/N)? Holy hell! I can actually see you!"

"I did not think that would work-"

"Wow, are you really that short or is your TV just perched up that high?"

You just flipped him the bird and Vox laughed at you again.

Though, you couldn't help but smile because of it.

Well, at least now he could converse with you "properly" like he'd wanted to for a while.

Even if it did mean he'd need to take up your entire TV.

"Oh- OH WAIT- I've got an idea!"

Vox couldn't even question what you were doing before you ran out of the room and out of his sight.

So while waiting, he took a gander at the room you left him in.

It became abundantly clear that this was your living space too.

From the colors to the patterns, Vox smiled fondly as he recalled your old conversations where you would just tell him things about the things you liked.

Yeah, he could definitely see your touch in how the room was designed.

He raised an eyebrow when you giddily came back into the room with some colored paper, scissors and tape.

What-?

"Okay Doll, just what are you planning?"

"You'll see~!"

Your excitement kept him curious.

What were you drawing over there?

Weird timing for an arts and crafts project if you asked him.

It was only until you approached him and taped something to the screen did he actually grow confused.

He couldn't see what you did despite you doubling over in laughter.

What could've possibly been so funny that had you keeling from it?

By the time you could finally look at Vox without laughing your ass off, you used your phone to take a picture of how he looked.

Approaching the TV to show him just so he could see the photo as well.

Ah.

So that's what you found so funny.

You'd fashioned his outfit-

Poorly made but still recognizable-

Out of paper and taped it to the screen.

His hat on top and his suit dangling off the bottom.

Admittedly, it looked downright silly.

Especially with the proportions being so off thanks to the size of the TV screen.

"Haha, very funny (Y/N). Very funny."

"I'm making this shit my wallpaper, you look so goofy."

Vox just playfully rolled his eyes at you with a smile.

If that was seriously all it took to make you laugh?

He'd do it again no questions asked.

Taking a peek at his internal clock though, he held back his disappointment that he had to leave when you were on such an elated high.

"Sorry to cut this short doll, but I need to disconnect. I've got a meeting in a few minutes."

"Hm? Then go and do what you need to do, I can always just plug you back in later. Good luck!"

The overlord chuckled when you raised a hand to pat the screen, he couldn't feel it but he wished he did.

"I don't need luck, but... thanks. See you."

"See you."

And just like that the screen fizzled out and returned to the smart TV homepage.

You'd sent the picture to Vox through your chats and he replied with a TV emoticon.

You giggled, course he would do that.

At least he didn't take offense to what you did-

Despite your poor art skills-

Maybe he found it as entertaining as you did?

Whatever, you switched the wallpaper on your phone to the new photo you had of Vox and laughed.

His confused expression really sealed the deal with how silly the picture was.

But imagine your surprise come morning when you realized he didn't switch the wallpaper back to his trademark grin.

You sort of expected him to, especially given that he'd done so with all your past attempts to change your wallpaper.

The fact he left it alone made you smile.

And as the day began and Vox left you a morning greeting-

You just shot him one back and got up to prepare for the day.

You figured the day would be just fine.

Yeah, you guys would be just fine.

A/N: Ooough this was a long one but I had a lot of fun writing it! I'll post the masterlist afterwards when I grab all the links to the posts and I'll just be continuing the other interludes before I post the chapter with Reader's death. Either way, I hope you guys enjoyed this one!

[thebeast-dennis-etcetera]

Dance With Me

Prompt: You ask Gibbs to be your date to a friend’s wedding.

You’ve known Gibbs almost as long as Tony has and you two had grown to be very close friends and colleagues over the years but that still wasn’t enough to calm the anxiety pooling in your gut as you gathered up the courage to ask him to be your date to your friends wedding.

You didn’t want to show up alone and you also didn’t want to show up with one of the girls, knowing your friends would make fun of you for not being able to snag a man. McGee and Jimmy had their wives and you weren’t close enough with Torres to ask him, although you’re not sure you’d be able to handle his egocentric attitude anyways.

Going with a stranger just seemed tacky so Gibbs was your answer. You just needed to suck it up and ask him.

“Got that BOLO out yet Agent L/N?” you heard him ask you, pulling you out of your thoughts. You hadn’t realized you had been staring at him the entire time, your face getting hot in embarrassment.

“Uh, yes. Sorry Gibbs. It’s been sent to local authorities and agencies. He won’t get far.��

He just nodded and went back to typing on his computer, shaking his head in confusion.

————

It wasn’t until hours later once the whole team was gathered at a crime scene that you went through with it.

“Gibbs, can I talk to you for a second?” you asked , finishing up the photo snapping. McGee and Bishop were talking with a witness and Torres was getting information from the local authorities.

“Go for it L/N.”

“Um. A good friend of mine from high school is getting married this weekend and I just know all of my friends will give me so much shit if I don’t show up with a date and-

“Are you asking me to be your date to your friend’s wedding Y/N?”

You fumbled for words as he waited. “Uh, yeah. I guess I am.”

“Is there a dress code?”

You weren’t expecting that as his next question but didn’t challenge it.

“Just a suit. I’ll be wearing a dark blue cocktail dress.”

“What time?”

“Gotta be there by 5. It’s about a 40 minute drive from my house. Hoping to be out of there by 8ish.”

“I’ll pick you up at 4.”

You were at a loss for words at how fast and easily he agreed to everything and you thought you should say something but he was already walking away to join McGee and Bishop.

————

The sound of your doorbell ringing almost had you jumping out of your skin. The last half hour, your mind was racing with questions. Was it a bad idea for to be taking your boss as a date to a wedding? What are you two going to talk about for 40 minutes on the drive? What if you make a fool of yourself?

Having no choice but to push all those thoughts to the back of your mind, you walked over and opened your door, seeing Gibbs standing there looking dashing as ever. He was dressed in a crisp suit, all black pieces except the navy blue pocket square and tie tied perfectly around his neck.

“Wow Gibbs. You look amazing,” you couldn’t help but blurt out.

“Ah, it’s just a suit,” he downplayed. You smiled and grabbed your clutch and keys before leaving.

The car ride wasn’t too bad, the both of you managing to make enough small talk in the traffic until you arrived at the place. Gibbs parked and you both walked into the cute little industrial style venue.

————

“We just wanna say thank you and enjoy the drinks, music and food!”

We all raised our glasses in cheers and drank. Almost immediately, everyone scattered. Some headed to the dance floor, others to the bar.

“You don’t seem like a champagne kind of guy. Why don’t we get a real drink?” you asked Gibbs. He gave you a look and you knew what he was getting at.

“We’re not gonna drink all night Gibbs. Just one. I’ll make sure we’re both good to drive by then.”

You got up and he followed you to the semi crowded bar. Looking at your options, you chose whiskey for Gibbs and a vodka soda for yourself. While waiting for your drinks, you noticed a man constantly glancing over at you. You weren’t in the mood to be flirted with, that was one of the reasons you brought a date.

Gibbs hadn’t noticed what was going on so when you intertwined your arm with his and leaned into his firm frame, he looked down at you with questioning eyes.

“Just keeping the vultures away,” you explained, grabbing your drinks once they were ready and giving Gibbs his. The two of you walked over to the little outside area that played the music from inside, softly out of speakers. The DJ went back and forth from slow and steady to fast upbeat rhythms but nothing had caught your attention so far.

“So why me Y/N?” Gibbs asked, taking a sip of his whiskey. You knew he was asking why you asked him to be your date instead of anyone else.

“You don’t believe you were my first option Gibbs?”

He let a small smirk appear and you couldn’t help but smirk back.

“More like only option,” he replied.

You looked at him with a tilted head, him staring right back at you, giving slight goosebumps. You wish you knew how to stare into people souls like Gibbs did. Every time he looked at you like that, you always had one of two thoughts. One was to spill all your secrets big or small and two was to just kiss him. Luckily, you’ve never resorted to either one of those.

“My only options really were you, Torres, or a random man online. I’ve known you for years and feel the most comfortable with you so it was a no brainer.”

Before he could say another word, your all time favorite slow song came on. Putting your drink down on the little table, you reached out your hand to Gibbs.

“I don’t dance,” he stated, taking another sip.

“C’mon Gibbs. Live a little. There’s no one around. They’re all inside. Just one dance.”

He stood there as you gave him your best puppy dog eyes until finally he finished his drink and set it down on the table. When he took your hand in his, you practically squealed in joy. You couldn’t believe you were about to dance with your brooding boss.

He showed off his secret dancing skills quickly as he pulled you in close, one hand wrapped around your waist and the other holding your hand up as his feet led you two in a slow paced sway.

The butterflies in your stomach fluttered as you focused on your feet, making sure you didn’t step on his toes. The close proximity between the two of you was suffocating but in a good way. You hadn’t felt like this since your first kiss with your ex-husband.

“Don’t look down,” Gibbs instructed softly. You decided to look at his tie instead but that quickly became a dumb idea as you let out a nervous laugh and defeatedly rested your forehead against his chest.

“I can feel your heart pounding. Are you nervous Y/N?”

You closed your eyes and took a breath.

“A little.”

You felt him release your hand and tilt your head up to look him in the eyes.

“Me too.”

This was it. This was the moment. The moment you thought about from time to time while working with him. Never in a million years had you ever thought it would actually come true. Your hands moved at their own accord and wrapped themselves around his neck, gently caressing the back of his head, his eyes occasionally glancing down at your lips.

“I’m glad you agreed to come to the wedding with me Gibbs. I honestly thought you’d say no.”

He chuckled and licked his lips, now causing you to glance at them.

“You really think I could say no to you?”

You could’ve been hallucinating but you swear he stepped closer to you, holding you just a little bit tighter. No words were spoken as he slowly dipped his head down and you met him halfway for a kiss that made your body numb. All the what if questions and the terrible scenarios you had created in your head just dissipated and in the moment it was just you and him.

When you pulled apart, his face was apprehensive as if almost expecting you to take off running but you did no such thing. Instead, you smiled and pulled him in for another kiss which he willingly reciprocated.

————

Parking on the street, he walked you into the lobby, into the elevator and down the halls to your apartment door.

“I had a great time Gibbs-

“You can call me Jethro when we’re alone,” he offered which made you smile.

I’ll see you at work tomorrow Jethro?”

He just nodded with kind eyes and waited till you were in your apartment before turning to leave. Going over the whole night in your head, you eventually came to a conclusion. He might not have said anything but there’s no way he didn’t feel something for you. He wouldn’t have kissed you like that otherwise.

Unlocking your door and opening it, you stepped out into the hallway.

“Jethro, wait.”

He stopped and turned to you.

“Do you want to come in for a little bit?”

He walked back over and stepped close enough that it wouldn’t have taken much to lean in for another kiss.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

His tone was almost teasing as you got lost in his icy blue eyes.

“I don’t know..what do you think?” you asked honestly, not sure how this would all work out.

“I think whatever you want to do, I won’t deny you it.”

A few seconds of thinking and you had your answer. Opening the door a little wider, Jethro stepped into your apartment.

Note: Ahh! The angst! I love it, sorry. 😝

[regal-bones]

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[justcallmecj]

Seeing Your Dragon Form: First Years

(I feel like this chapter of the series may be crappier than the previous ones. I'm slowly running out of ideas and have used up quite a bit of my writing energy recently. I've come to realize that writing for the First Year Squad is just harder for me because I'm used to the pure crackhead energy the fandom gives them, but I'm still going strong! Oh well, I really want to write, so here I am!)

^Original note from Quotev that I put prior to the chapter. As a sort of mini explanation for my mindset going into this one.

Ace

Ace wanted to look unimpressed and chill, but he was currently losing it, and you could tell.

When you finally settled down, he approached you with his hands behind his head, really trying to hit home the idea he wasn't fanboying over you right now.

You brought your head down to allow him to get a closer look as well as touch your horns and snout.

He was a lot gentler than you thought he'd be.

He carefully ran his hand up and down your snout, making you hum in the process.

He tried talking to you, getting frustrated when you'd only hum and growl, before those two working brain cells in his head worked and he figured out that you couldn't actually talk.

He doesn't know, for some reason, a part of his brain just assumed you'd be able to talk.

Despite the current situation, Ace's behavior didn't change. He still tried to tease you, coming up basically unsuccessful because that's just how it is between the two of you, didn't stop him though.

Once, when you weren't paying attention, he tried to climb onto your back, not expecting the reaction that you'd have.

When you realized, you rolled over, trapping him under you. Due to the size difference, he was completely stuck, despite how much effort he put into trying to push you off him. You made sure not to hurt him though, and you didn't.

He could practically hear you laughing, even if it just came out as draconic grumbles.

sigh "You really never change, huh? You big bully! Though honestly, what can I say? I'm the same way, and I wouldn't want you any other way."

Deuce

Deuce was certainly nervous.

No fear. His brazen, delinquent years prepared him to take on any challenge that may be thrown at him, but this was definitely different.

He was stunned for a decent while after you transformed. Just kinda standing there, frozen in place.

Pretty sure his brain fried for a moment.

When he finally came back to his sense, he tried to play it all off with compliments, but really, there was no tricking you, but you gave him the benefit of the doubt and ignored it.

He was the most interesting by your wings.

(If I remember correctly)One of the reasons he likes being on the Track Team/Magical Wheel(?Can't remember which), is feeling the wind rush past him when he picks up speed. Because of this, he really admired your wings, which could do the same thing but ten fold.

He really wanted to ask you to take him on a flight with you, but was too shy to ask out loud. Maybe one day he'll have the confidence.

He made sure to be extra careful around parts like your horns, tail and other parts that may be considered sensitive/vulnerable. He didn't want to risk being even a little to rough and hurting you. He'd never forgive himself if he hurt you. (He doesn't realize how tough dragon skin and scales are, just give him a while).

All in all, it was a pleasant experience for the both of you. He had fun getting to see a new side of you, and you got to have a breather in your dragon form with no worries about who's around you.

"This is truly amazing. I can't believe you're capable of something like this. You really make NRC much more fun than it would be if you weren't here."

Jack

His reaction was much different from the others.

You and him are pretty similar in more ways than some may think.

Both of you are non-human beings capable of turning into a natural animal form. Him a wolf, you a dragon.

He was calm, but astounded. He didn't think you'd be quite so big.

He gets bigger than a normal wolf when he uses his Unique Magic, but he always assumed that was because he's a bigger person himself. Maybe it's just natural for anyone capable of this ability.

He was cautious to approach, not fully aware of how conscious you are, taking his own wolf state into account.

You just sat down, tail resting on the forest floor, wings at rest, showing just how comfortable you were in the situation. That convinced him that nothing had changed except how you looked.

He sat next to you, showing the same peaceful signs. Tail resting and ears calm.

You came closer, laying your head down next to his side. He reached out a hand and gently stroked the top of your head.

You two just stayed there like that for a while. Peacefully enjoying each others calm presence, until he stopped petting you.

You had gotten so used to the feeling and were so close to falling asleep, him stopping upset you.

In retaliation, you picked up your head and placed it down in his lap. He panicked for a moment before freezing, not knowing quite what to do.

He soon recognized the affectionate action. It was one his younger sister and brother would do when they wanted affection without actually saying they wanted affection. A silent plea.

He placed his hand back on your head, petting you like he was not even a minute ago. Sometimes he'd move his hand and scratch behind your ear, which caused you to hum and delight.

"We really are more alike than I thought. Are you sure you're not just a dog in disguise?" You grumbled at the playful tease, making him laugh.

Epel

Epel actually reacted much differently than you expected.

The moment he saw your dragon form, he wasted no time in rushing over and didn't even attempt to hide his complete adoration.

He jump up and down, bouncing on the heel of his feet. He rushed around, taking in every detail about you that he could.

His attention to speech completely leaves his mind and his natural accent slips in until he's speaking with such a think accent it's sometimes hard to understand what he's saying.

This may very well be the most excited you've seen Epel act, other than when he's getting competitive.

When he was finally able to wrap his head around everything and calm down, his demeanor changed on the dime, much like his personality can.

He softly took hold of your snout and held if close to his chest with his arms holding onto the underside of your head, something he likes to do even when you're in your normal form. For him, it's a show of trust, one he knew you'd understand.

A soft hum found its way out of your throat. He giggled at the affection.

You both took a rest and talked. It may have been a one-sided conversation, but he didn't mind.

He rambled on and on to fill the silence, accompanied with the occasional scratch under the chin.

There was a moment where he got jealous about how much bigger you were than him normally, let alone now. But, he soon got over it after thinking about how it must have just been natural since you weren't human.

"As much as I think it's unfair you can do all these cool things about how you look while I'm stuck like this, I'm still really happy that you opened up to me. I know what it's like to not be content with how you look, but we can do our own thing together!"

Sebek

Now, normally, Sebek is really respectful towards you. A byproduct from how he treats Malleus and how similar the two of you are.

Throughout the school year, it's taken some work, but you've gotten him to truly see you as a friend, not just another fae.

But, things did change a little bit after seeing your dragon form.

He's never seen Malleus's, because Malleus sees no use in taking his dragon form most of the time, so he didn't quite know what he was expecting to see from you.

When he watched a massive, spike covered, ice coated dragon walked out of the mist that practically came out of now where, he was honestly a little scared.

He remembered a story Lilia had told him and Silver once. It was about how once, when Malleus was young, he changed forms after throwing a temper-tantrum. After that, Sebek just started associating the idea with anger.

But, his time as a guard(and your friend) allowed him to be more observant than some. He saw every cue that would tell your current mood. There was no anger, only a calm curiosity. A curiosity towards him.

The idea of you watching him with the intention to see how he'd react embarrassed him. He turned his head to hide the reddening of his cheeks, but he didn't realize the red had crept up his ears and right into your watchful gaze.

You made a sound, one he didn't recognize, but it sounded faintly like laughter.

You were laughing at him!!!

He stomped a foot and grumbled under his breath, only causing you make more of the laughing sounds.

After that whole fiasco, Sebek finally felt comfortable enough to let down his guard.

His sharp hearing allowed him to quickly pick up on the different meanings of certain sounds, enough to have a semi-coherent conversation. He made sure to keep his voice quieter than usual, only being able to guess how sensitive your hearing may be right now.

Eventually, the interaction between the two of you fell into a comfortable and familiar conversation, like nothing was different about this scenario than usual.

"I really should be finding Waka-sama right now, but as Silver has told me, I may need to lighten up. So, we'll stay here for a while longer." His voice got just a bit quieter, "Thank you for showing me this."

And then the original note I put on Quotev after the chapter-

(Well, I think this set actually came out a lot better than I initially though it would. These five weren't as hard to write for as they usually are once I actually started soooo- YAY!!)

You can see the mindset change, wow.

[searchingforakeythatdoesntexist]

DAY 14 - «On Thin Ice» Good Omens AU - Triptych Tribute for @blairamok  

Part 2/3: "Fallen Serpent" Crowley

Please, listen to this

Race

Life's a race

And I am gonna win

Yes, I am gonna win

And I'll light the fuse

And I'll never lose

And I choose to survive

Whatever it takes

You won't pull ahead

I'll keep up the pace

And I'll reveal my strength

To the whole human race

Yes, I am prepared

To stay alive

I won't forgive, the vengeance is mine

And I won't give in

Because I choose to thrive

Yeah, I'm gonna win!

Race

It's a race

And I'm gonna win!

Tomorrow, they will be together for the Grand Finale... See you there! ;-)

[Previous] [Next Day] [First Day]

Don't forget to 💕/ reblog ;-)

↓Come on, check the behind-the-scenes!↓

Personal challenge: a simple sketch each day

Goal: forcing me to keep things simple - inking, shading, just a few sashes of colour

Improvement pursued: to get the movement, the emotion, finding how to add depth, learning how to leave things barely finished

Max time allowed: 2 hours, as usual for my Daily Challenges.

Tribute Time, so I threw the timer away, lol :-p. As for my Fallen Angel Aziraphale (link), I spent more or less 3 hours on the lineart, plus 1h30 on the colouring/shading.

Crowley, as my « Fallen Serpent ».

“On Thin Ice”'s author Blairamok describes the Cantilevers figure as « one of the biggest fuck yous to physics », and so one of Crowley’s signature moves. As I was searching drawing references about this amazing figure, I found a lot of ways to perform it, all beautiful and impressive. I finally chose this particular one (I am sorry I don’t know the original performer’s name on the picture I used, but to me he seemed so powerful, yet relaxed and happy on the picture, so I couldn’t resist). Though I had to slightly re-adapt the figure to Crowley who is taller, thinner and maybe even more flexible (ssssnaky, duh).

I had so much fun re-thinking his clothes for my sketch. I used the scrumptious💕 black and red « Serpent » clothing that Blairamok created, and I added my own « signature move » : wings – or, well, feathers. As Crowley is THE Fallen Angel here, the feathers are slightly burnt, some of them almost torn apart. They cover his shoulder blades, then spread out as a unique short and damaged wing at the back of his right shoulder, go down on his right flank, then cross his back as they slightly go embracing his left hip. The Red Serpent Pattern is quite the same as Blair’s clothing, but it still continues on his leg and circles his right ankle like a leg shackle.

I am particularly proud of Crowley’s eye and expression. Remember? I dearly wanted Crowley sharing a glance with Aziraphale while he was doing his Cantilevers, and Aziraphale was supposed to glance back to him. I had to give up on this idea later – because the figure I chose for Aziraphale definitely couldn’t allow such a shared glance. (but wait for the third part of this triptyque, it will be posted tomorrow!)

So, my Crowley still has this ethereal, strangely happy, almost enthralled expression. It kind of represents my own interpretation of the Cantilevers figure : it’s a proof of complete trust, in yourself, in your skills, in your art and your environment. And I like to imagine that if Crowley is able to have such confidence in himself, then maybe he can and will trust his partner Aziraphale with quite the same strength.

Thanks for reading! See you tomorrow for the third part - our Ineffable Partners will be toghether, finally! (aaaand they will be not talking but whatever the acting will speak for them)

[Previous] [Next Day] [First Day]

Don't forget to 💕/ reblog ;-)

[nso-csi]

231117 Weverse live (eng sub)

Taemin says that it snowed for the first time this year in korea today and asked if his manager saw it. he says that the scarf was gifted by the brand itself and he was thanking the brand for this scarf. cr.

I'm going to the airport because I have a schedule in Thailand. Even tho I left early, there's a lot of traffic because people are getting off work. Today's also friday! I envy the people getting off work, treat yourselves well~ I woke up today and worked out and had a meeting regarding the concert and left for the airport. I've been pretty busy lately. cr.

I might sound full of myself, but rather than fixed variety shows, I want to do youtube content, like uploading song/dance covers. cr.

Taemin: I don't even know if they'll invite me over to variety shows however rather thanwanting to become a regular on variety shows, I want something that actually suits me? something like youtube content or sth relating to dance? cr.

Fans: You don't have any vacation? aren't you tired? Taemin: I don't think I have any vacation for this year, I've really been working hard (without rest) this year~ cr.

Taemin reading a comment: no holiday this year? I won't have holidays this year til the end of year. cr.

Taemin: can you all write how old you are? I am curious.. I am really curious.. because it seems like I'm the only one speaking in honorific?? no one apart from me speak formally?? Every one is younger but no one calls me oppa, everyone was like 'taemin-ah' but of course i know t's because the fans want to feel closer to me that's why they don't speak with honorifics cr.

Taemin: what's funny is everyone talks to me casually even those younger than me 6"6 no one even says oppa to me 6^6 I was joking you can talk to me casually~ some people get mischievous because I said so I was joking! cr.

Alcohol? it's been so long since i drank. When was the last time? I'm not drinking recently, maybe I lost interest. cr.

Taemin said it's been a while since he drink alcohol and said the last time he drank was during the live in Japan cr.

I'm so thankful that so many people did the guilty challenge with me. i was worried that they might feel embarrassed/scold me but everyone did show their abs, so i was very relieved. cr.

Fortunately there are a lot of people that recognize me as an artist. i'm determined to walk my own path. cr.

Everyone's asking me to take care of them, tbh i can't take care of myself. cr.

People who exercise regularly always show up. Like Minho is everywhere. He probably does ab workouts in his sleep and showers while flexing his abs and when he picks up stuff he picks them up in a squat position. I think it's really cool that people can exercise routinely like that. I would rather live without abs and be able to eat whatever i want. During the concert i should show you my abs~ 6v6 shooting content with minho hyung would be fun. there's two types of people who exercise: those who enjoy working out, and those who whine and complain. i'm the second type 6v6. cr.

Taemin: Minho hyung must work out even sleeping n even taking a shower 😆 he has such healthy hobbies so cool~ but shall we just have drinks? let's give up let's eat what we want this life~! there are 2 types of people one working out happily the other doing it whining i'm the latter cr.

I know how hard the SM staff works, so I don't want to talk bad about SM. But there are times when I don't understand the decisions made by (upper management). even if I were to have an ordinary job, I'd be bound to have some sort of complaints. cr.

Everyone is working hard to make something great. "Euisoo hyung make lots of money" I think our company's salary isn't that high. But everyone works with so much passion. It's a company where you make little money but you work a lot. and i know how hard our fans support us. Everyone always talks about how shinee/taemin fans are so amazing and beautiful! Some people enter the company and run away because the reality didn't match their expectations. So the people who stay behind work hard. The company is expanding but there's no money, so i don't understand how it's getting bigger LOL What I want to say is everyone is working hard, so please know that. There are people who work hard behind the scenes. That's right, raise the salary of our staffs! We have the deepest history among entertainment agencies in korea, so raise our salaries to match our reputation! 6v6 cr.

[pleaseeeimjustagirl]

♡Dear Diary♡

Heyyy girliesss I hope this past week was amazing for you and you accomplished alot of things<3333

♡Education♡

I start the summer semester this week and I am excited to get those credits so I can graduate right on time. The class definitely seems boring it is accounting but I decided to take what o feel is best for me. It is only three weeks so I’ll be able to push through thankfully<333

♡Mental♡

I took time this past week to push myself to get into a summer routine. I was kind of confused after the semester ended about how to get my life reorganized and fill my time with fun things and I figured it out. I have organized my week and schedule for the summer and I have 2 weeks’ worth of meet-ups and outings planned I’m super exciteddd<333

♡Physical♡

This week I noticed myself falling into bad habits that I used to do regarding food and diet and I had to call myself out and push myself to not fall back into restrictive eating and wanting to drop weight fast. I want to enjoy losing weight being able to eat what I want and doing enjoyable forms of exercise. I had to redirect my focus and I’m proud of myself for that. I restarted the pilates x weights challenge I was doing. I realized this week that I might not be into weightlifting as much as I thought I was and I didn’t want to force myself to continue to do it. But I realized I enjoyed weighted pilates I’m happy that I’m learning myself and bettering my relationship with food and movement. I will be dropping a blog post on how to improve your relationship with food and movement<3333

♡Hobbies♡

I started weighted pilates again this week and I am so happy I feel so great and happy. Exercise helps make us feel more confident and improves mental health not just physical health. I plan on going to a perfume-making class this week and I am so excitedddd. This summer I told myself I wanted to spend alone time with myself once a week on a solo date in the city. Forcing myself to go out alone is important so I can learn more about myself and the things I like. So im exciteddd and can’t wait to let you girlies know how these solo dates go<3333

Have an amazing week my lovessss and continue to affirm yourself, push yourself, and enjoy yourself you are right where you need to be in life right now and you should enjoy every bit of It love youuu girliesss<33333

[izicodes]

Learning C++ | Log #1

Friday 20th October 2023

I have been studying C++ for some time now, and I'm really happy with my progress. I really thought it was a super difficult programming language (I am jinxing it right now, aren't I?), but what I mean is that even the beginner stuff would be hard. But it's not!

Two days ago, I stumbled upon a website called Saymor Academy, buried seven pages deep in Google. I decided to check out the CS107: C++ Programming course, and I'm so glad I did! I've been learning so much, and it's been a blast, especially since I'm taking the course along with my friend over on Discord teaching me C++ too.

Learning can be challenging, but it's also incredibly rewarding. Once I master the basics, I'll be able to create all sorts of amazing things. I can't wait!

In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the journey~! So if you're ever thinking about learning C++, I highly recommend checking out Saymor Academy. It's a great resource, and it's a lot of fun!

☆ What I learnt today...

History of C++

Syntax

Comments

Data types

Variables

User Input

⤷ ♡ my shop ○ my mini website ○ pinned ○ navigation ♡

[lilbabydilljr]

Bee[more]hyped!

Hi! Okay! So I’ve hidden details below, but if you just want the download link here you go.

Download (SFS)

Requires: UC, Easy Inventory Check

Alright, so a while back I found this lovely beehive conversion from Foresty, which was based on Untidyfan’s 3to2 conversion, which is in turn based on Gwenke’s functional beehive. What a way we’ve come! Believe (bee-lieve) it or not this is actually the object that got me interested in modding.

What I didn’t like about the original object was that it used 2 different objects as the honey, and the overload of effects. Lots of lag. So I’ve made a few tweaks!

The first 2 are cosmetic, I’ve moved the hive from the gardening section to Hobbies.../Misc, and the default texture is yellow, but the original green is still available. Bees are yellow, duh.

Sims now harvest honey directly into their inventory, which they can drink or stock the fridge with. This is a 4to2 conversion of the honey, which I thought was neat.

The hive now only displays the bee effects when open, or when a sim angers the bees. It produces a jar of honey every 18 hours, and Gatherer sims have a 50% chance of harvesting an extra jar each harvest. Lucky sims have about a 5% chance, and these can stack. A Lucky + Gatherer sim can harvest 2 extra jars, potentially.

Sims will autonomously harvest honey and occasionally inspect the beehive, please let me know if these values seem off to you I wasn’t super sure on them. Cowards will never harvest honey. Too many stingers!

The hive now builds nature enthusiasm when it’s used, and sims can harvest multiple jars at once. I’m not sure if there’s a limit to how much honey the hive can hold? I guess just keep an eye on it.

There’s two 2 new memories included as well. If you’re not comfortable with custom memories in your game please leave them out of your downloads folder, the hive seems to work just fine.

Caveats

Bee-cause of course there are. I might work some of these things out, but right now I’m done with this project.

My beehive and Foresty’s share the same GUID, and my jar of honey does as well. I’m not sure if that’s shared across all these hives or not. But you can’t have both in the game.

Children can not harvest honey, I didn’t feel like working on the animations.

Sims can’t drink the honey straight from their inventory, it must be placed first.

The animations and tool used to grab the honey are a bit off, but not enough that it actually bothers me right now.

Finally, the jar of honey itself.

As you can see the textures aren’t great? But I don’t know enough about objects to get it right. I’ll put this out there, if someone wants to help me fix this I’d be forever grateful.

I also wanted to edit the anger bees interaction, but I couldn’t get the chased by bees interaction to work? So I gave up. I do think there should be more ways for sims to die by flies anyway, but it’s not my ideal interaction.

Lastly, I wanted to convert the Honey Cake from 4, but food again proved challenging, and when I got to trying to do the coding so it requires a Honey in the fridge, it looked like a LUA script to me? So I backed off. Maybe one day. Not today.

You might be able to get away with not having the UC for this, but I think at the very least you’ll need BV. I can’t support any installations other than the UC though.

Anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you guys enjoy this as much as I am! It’s just a fun silly little thing, but our sims need bees right???

Credits/Thanks: Foresty, Untidyfan, Gwenke. Your original objects and coding are amazing, I hope I’m not stepping on any toes here! I did DM Foresty, but I figured since Gwenke’s code has been reused a couple times now I thought I’d be fine.

Edit: 04/30/23: Moved honey jar out of the catalogue. Whoops. Had it in there for testing.

Edit 05/08/23: Bees no longer accumulate inaccesible honey in the winter.

[sosoffete]

HOCUS POCUS 2: Thoughts🔮

It is new and original but it completely respects the first one. Every new element was brought in without fear but with great respect of first movie’s elements and vibes

The Sanderson Sisters are facing a new world and a new situation but they’re still the witches we knew. The actresses were phenomenal in taking this new challenge without missing a beat and without changing their characters’ nature

The music and the fun is just as strong and inviting as it is in the first one

The flashback to the day Winnie became a witch was a gem that gave depth and more meaning to literally everything: the sisters’s personal story and relationship but also the history of magic and witches and Book. It felt a lot like a gift. The young actresses that played the young witches did a great job, bringing in the young versions everything that makes the “old” ones peculiar and well, them

HANNAH FUCKING WADDINGHAM!!!!!! She came and she slayed. She had one scene, which is sad because she could have done a lot more if given the chance, but that still showed how much she can do even if she is given very little screen time. She fucking slayed the role and the scene. She played a witch before but still manages to reinvent the role and do something different, new, original and fucking brilliant! Every little detail, the tone of her voice, the hand gestures, the way she moves, the micro expressions on her face, the freaking look in her eyes!!!! I can’t even! And the fact that in such little time she played a very ample range of emotions and feelings, being able to make them distinct and recognisable. She was happy and she cared about this opportunity she had and it showed. Her scene was short but her role, the mother witch, is *huge* because she started it all and she made it matter. In simpler words she was phenomenal, I love her with all my heart, I’m extremely proud and happy for her because she deserves everything in the world and I am so grateful that she is now part of this iconic project that I love so incredibly much.

BILLY BUTCHERSON! nothing else to add tbh

I loved that the message was simple but very meaningful and it got across loud and clear

I loved everything but the scene where Sarah and Mary are gone and Winnie is left alone broke my heart. Bette Midler really performed some magic there, it felt like she reached inside of Winnie’s heart and gave it to us. Her timing, the tone of her voice, the words she spoke and the way she spoke them, the look in her eyes and the tears trembling but not falling, the final resignation to her fate because nothing mattered without her sisters. It was a masterpiece and yes I cried like a baby

Sequels are often disappointing but this one was definitely NOT. It was simply amazing, they did a great job on all levels. Casting, writing, concept, music, directing. Everything is perfect and I can’t wait to watch it again and again and again and make it a part of my pack of comfort movies. Beautiful, definitely the world’s and *my* favourite sisters ✨💜💚❤️✨

Ps: just like the end of the first movie could be an opening for a second one, I believe this end of the second could be an opening for a third movie. I choose to believe it’s a possibility

[sailoryooons]

In Every Life | Drabble | kth x pjm

☾ Pairing: Taehyung x Jimin

☾ Summary: Taehyung has lived thousands of lives. He has recognized his soulmate in every single one of them, a gift of his bloodline. Finally, he has crossed paths with his soulmate once again. 

☾ Word Count: 1,206

☾ Genre: Reincarnation, Soulmates, Implied Romance, Stranges to Something

☾ Rating: SFW 

☾ Warnings: Brief discussions of life and death and some saddness - mostly just talking about living multiple lives and loving someone in their multiple versions. Obscure hints at magic/unexplained ability to recognize soulmates in every life. 

☾ Published: January 1, 2024

☾ A/N: This is my first drabble for the 100 Drabble Challenge that @gimmethatagustd and I are doing together! I am so excited to be doing this and look forward to using this as a way to get myself writing at LEAST twice a week, and to explore AUs I normally wouldn’t get the time to do. This is also going to be a test of self-restraint and making myself write actual drabble-length things. Please make sure you check out Jai’s drabbles too - we are going to have so much fun!! Today's number generator provided number 70 for reincarnation!

☾ A/N 2: HAPPY NEW YEAR! What better way to ring in the New Year with a brief drabble about soulmates Vmin meeting each other for the first time in a new life! I hope everyone has an amazing 2024 - here is to more writing, more joy and more fun!

☾ Disclaimer: All members of BTS are faces and name claims for this story. This is entirely a work of fiction and by no means is meant to be a projection, judgment or representation of real-life people. Any scenarios or representations of the people and places mentioned in works are not representative of real-life scenarios.

Main Masterlist ☾ 100 Drabble Masterlist ☾ Ask ☾ 

Taehyung would know his soulmate in the dark. He would know them in the blinding light of morning, when the golden sun spills like yolk over the horizon, making it impossible to see. He would know them in the warm summer rain, carrying in on violent winds off the tropical coast, thunder echoing across the sky. He would know his soulmate if he were at the bottom of the ocean, too cold to feel and too dark to see. 

Recognizing his soulmate in every one of his lives is both a blessing and a curse. Taehyung has experienced the joy of knowing his other half every time he has been able to walk across the earth. He has laughed with them, smiled with them, and fallen in love with them, each and every time. 

But sometimes, it has brought inexplicable pain. Every once in a while, Taehyung loses them too early. He tastes the sourness of grief as he waits to reach the end of his current life before he starts the next one anew. Sometimes it’s Taehyung who leaves too early - gone in a snap or withering to illness. He might have some sort of magic in his blood, but he’s not impervious. 

The magic is a strange thing. His grandmother told him that it was gifted to their family by the gods when the first of their lineage saved the god from a hunter’s snare. Now, Taehyung is always able to remember a handful of things in every single one of his lives: that he has the gift to recognize his soulmate each time he begins a new life; that he is - according to grandma - blessed by the gods with this gift; he has had past lives and they are all as familiar to him as a recent dream; and that when he remembers these facts about himself differs each lifetime.

Sometimes Taehyung remembers these things when he is ten, overcome with emotion that he hasn’t quite learned the words for. Sometimes, Taehyung remembers when he’s twenty, stricken by the fact that he has the chance to find his other half in the world again. Sometimes, he doesn’t remember when he remembers, just that he does. 

In this life, Taehyung remembered everything about his special gift four years ago. Sometimes he feels lonely. In other lives, it’s taken a short amount of time to find his soulmate. They always come in different versions and at different times. He’s eager to meet every version, though. Loves every single one of them, every different face, gender, and shape. 

Today, it happens.

Taehyung doesn’t go into every single one of his days hoping it will be the one. He’s learned after many lives that he has to treat each day the same, lest he fall into a constant cycle of disappointment when he doesn’t see the person he is hoping to find. He remembers one lifetime where it took him twenty years to find his other half. 

And he still loved them. 

But today. 

Today Taehyung goes to Seokjin’s coffee shop on Third Street like he does every Saturday morning. Winter rain mists down the street, car tires hissing on black pavement, and water flooding the storm drains. Taehyung ducks his head to keep his face away from the cold bite of the wind and rain, pulling his umbrella a little lower. 

Inside the coffee shop is warm, the smell hitting him immediately. He shivers and shakes off the rain, closing the umbrella and sticking it in the umbrella bin alongside others. He smiles when he sees a plastic yellow one covered in ducks. Cute. 

Seokjin waves at him over the counter. Taehyung lifts a hand before placing it back in the warmth of his pocket, forgoing ordering at the counter to walk to his favorite table in the back. It faces the park and even though it’s raining, he likes to watch the world go by. Seokjin always brings Taehyung his coffee, memorized from years of Taehyung haunting his little corner of the world.

Holiday music plays, and Taehyung is so wrapped up in humming and the routine of his morning that it takes him a second to recognize there’s a buzzing in his ears and a tingle in his spine. He stops for a moment, head snapping up as his eyes flicker from booth to booth, heart picking up speed. 

This is it, he thinks. Taehyung knows this feeling. Knows that it means today is the day. He squeezes his hands inside his coat pockets, slowly turning around to look over his shoulder at the booths he’s already passed. His eyes settle on one, and the world goes cotton-soft at the edges, fading to the background.

Taehyung’s soulmate is beautiful. His heart pounds harder as he stares, drinking in the soft brown hair hanging in the man’s eyes, the pouty lips as he reads a book held by dainty, soft hands, and the hoop earrings that catch the dim light of the cafe. Taehyung can barely breathe, eyes sweeping over a small, but fit frame. Round cheeks with a natural blush, and beautiful eyes that remind Taehyung of a siren - or perhaps some other temptress of old. 

His mouth goes dry. He feels everything all at once: the deep breath before skydiving, the first at the concert of his favorite band, the last second before the New Year. None of it sums up the feeling of rightness that settles into Taehyung’s bones. He swears the world sits just right on its axis now, as if it were off before.

Without thinking, he walks over to the table, chewing his lip. He isn’t sure what he’s going to do until he’s standing at the edge of the booth, staring and shaking and smiling. 

His soulmate looks up. For a moment, the man looks confused. Then, something like curiosity glitters in his warm, brown eyes. His mouth twitches upward in a smile, tentative but pleasant. He grips his book a little tighter, tilting his head as he drinks Taehyung in. 

“Hi,” Taehyung offers. A hundred lifetimes and he still never nails the greeting, too nervous. 

“Hi,” the stranger says back, smiling. “Do I know you? You look… familiar.”

Taehyung shakes his head. “No.” He gestures to the open seat. “Mind if I join you? Today is a good day for company.”

“Please, I enjoy new friends.”

Taehyung can’t help but smile, eyes crinkling at the corners as he sits, peeling his jacket off. His soulmate watches him, interest piqued as he shuts the book he was reading and sets it down on the table. Taehyung recognizes the novel.

“I love The Notebook,” Taehyung admits. “It’s a comfort book. And movie.”

The man’s grin grows. Taehyung warms from his fingertips to his toes, happiness spreading. “It’s my favorite,” the man admits. He sticks a small hand over the table between them, an offer. “I’m Jimin.”

Taehyung takes Jimin’s hands, watching as the spark catches in his eyes. Jimin doesn’t know what he is to Taehyung, but there’s something there. As though his soul recognizes Taehyung, somehow. 

“I’m Taehyung. I look forward to getting to know you, Jimin.” 

And so he does as he always has, in every life. 

[delululover]

I just love how the "Only Friends" team gave us so many spoilers but still managed to clown us and keep us in the dark.

I mean from the so many contents we got during the filming time we all had an idea in mind about each couple's dynamic

For instance I myself thought

TopMew are gonna be the sweet boyfriends going on dates, having fun, having healthy conversations when in reality they are barely talking, Top sees Mew mostly as a prize/challenge, Both are fighting for the power dominance in the relationship, they don't have any trust on eo, Mew is determined to do the "right thing" by offering his affection as a reward for quitting addiction which we all know never works. Their relationship in overall is a mess with just a "boyfriends" tag which is kind of blinding both them and the people around them from seeing how not good for eo they are

SandRay are gonna be the friends to lovera type of couples where one is totally sure about his feelings and the other ia clueless but refuses to let go of their "friendship" and acts like a possessive cat whenever someone tries to get with his "friend" (I may even be correct with this prediction)

BostonNick I thought will be the couple we will see the least of, won't have much plot to their relationship except sex and Boston will totally ignore Nick out of bed which (Idc if anyone disagrees) he is not, Boston is totally leading Nick on emotionally and we are seeing fair share of their scenes, infact if anything they are the creators of most of the drama in the series and their mess is probably gonna take the longest to solve. Definitely not a short running pair and has a lot of things going on in their "situationship" or whatever.

So as the episodes are coming out I am eventually realising that what we saw/the source of our assumptions were all based on the first few episodes. They gave nothing away and spoiled next to nothing. I am totally clueless about what is going to happen after episode 5.

And yeah don't say that "well your fault for thinking they will give everything away before the original episodes release" I am not saying that they will or they should. But the amount of "ongoing shoot" content we were getting I was a biiiit confident that I have figured out the show. Ik very arrogant of me but that's the thing the Western film industry is so secretive about their projects that it makes us think that getting some behind the scenes will be able to spoil the fun for us.

Anyways kudos to the team for this amazing marketing. They are literally keeping me on the edge of my seat.

Ps I am quite new in this bl fandom and ofts is the first show I have fully been invested in so that's why is amazes me. Most of you probably find this post stupid and old news. Please ignore if you do thanku.

[burberrycanary]

Hi there! I am about midway through reading your story Lost Vocabularies and it is amazing!! The whole series has been so lovely, I’m obsessed with the way you write! The way that you convey the boys complicated emotions and capture all the little nuances of their dynamic has me feral!! Beyond even them the way you inject so much personality into the locations is so good, I feel like I am there!! So thank you for writing this lovely story 💕 I was wondering if you happen to have a list of all the books that Bucky and Steve read? I have been looking up a lot of them and adding them to my to read list bc they sound so interesting lol! On that same note, how did you decide what books to mention? Are they all ones that you have read or did you do research to find ones you thought they would like?

I’ve been coming back and rereading this kind and wonderful comment in my inbox over the last few weeks when way too many massive, stressful, time-sensitive things were all happening at once. 💕 But since I have a little breather between crazy periods, I get to dive in here as a treat.

Lost Vocabularies involved a lot of research, which I hope isn’t apparent because I didn’t want there to be any noticeable difference between the parts of the story that are based on places I’d been, foods I’d tried and books I’d read personally—and what was created purely based on research. Fingers crossed that the seams don't show!

In this series, we see both Steve and Bucky use art to process—helping them understand themselves and connect to the world again. Bucky is drawn to stories while Steve as an artist is much more visual, but the underlying impulse is similar. In the same way that you learn a lot by glancing through someone’s bookshelves, what characters read is interesting to me, and revealing. This version of Bucky is a very private person so these books offer a glimpse into his inner life. And as the POV character we get to experience all these things alongside Steve.

I’m not much of a sci-fi or fantasy reader so some of Bucky’s picks were a real challenge for me. But I wanted these to be grounded in the characters and the storytelling functions, not based on my own taste and opinions, though of course those always bleed through. 

Steve’s Reading List

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Alice Neel: People Come First by Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, edited by Ann J. Abadie

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang

Bucky’s Reading List

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time by Richard Feynman

Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos by Steven H. Strogatz

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

I’ve included some notes and commentary on why I picked each of these works under the cut.

The Same River, Twice (The Man Is Still Left with His Hands)

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

Classic post-WWII dystopian sci-fi that focuses on society collapsing after a series of catastrophes that were unintentional but very much caused by people, which leads to a lot of the population becoming blind. Thematically this work engages with the loss of identity that people, both abled and disabled, face in the process of survival and a dark look at what happens after societies break down. How this applies to Bucky is obvious, but part of the argument of this post-Endgame series is that it applies to Steve, too. 

Also, there are huge mobile carnivorous plants. 

Fun fact: the opening of this novel is said to have been the inspiration for 28 Days Later!

Still Left with the River (The Paradox of Motion)

Alice Neel: People Come First by Kelly Baum and Randall Griffey

Alice Neel’s portraits are extraordinary, almost unnervingly vivid. In this story, Steve is familiar with her work as a fellow New York-based artist active in communist circles in the 1930s. She also worked for the WPA, producing wonderful street scenes that documented New York neighborhoods of the era. 

To be honest, I have so many questions about what Steve was up to in the late 1930s before his war mania of the 40s hits.

One of the core themes of this series is Steve struggling with what his body is for if it’s no longer for violence. Who is he if he’s not a soldier? What is his radically changed body if it’s not a weapon? How do you come home from the war?

In this regard, Steve and Bucky have all kinds of shared life experience.

So thematically I include Neel because of her startling gift for capturing personalities and bodies through a process of frank, earnest, truthful observation of the integrated completeness of body and self: this space that’s you. 

But a book of Alice Neel’s work with her sensitive portraits and fleshy frank nudes pulls him into flipping through page after page of these personalities and bodies, not idealized: seen.

Steve isn’t ready for that when he bumps into this big “impractical” art book in a holdover Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn, not when he’s still so shook up and adrift. But he will be.

There’s such empathy and radical humanism to her pieces. “People,” as she famously said, “come first.” I stand by the conclusion that Steve would love her work.

The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H. P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft was relatively unknown in his lifetime—he died in 1937—but his stories were published in popular fantasy pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories, which is where Bucky would have come across his work. The fact that Steve recognizes Lovecraft by name means that teenage Bucky must have talked about what he was reading and the pulp stories he liked with teenage Steve, which is adorable—“this Lovecraft fellow, Steve, you wouldn’t believe the stuff he comes up with.” And Steve was paying attention enough to remember two decades and change later without the benefit of his serum-enhanced memory, which hurts my heart a little in the best possible way. 

That’s how Steve all these years and decades later is able to wordlessly toss this collection of H. P. Lovecraft’s stories at Bucky on a hot hazy stumbled-upon beach in northern Florida and watch Bucky’s whole face light up. 

And of course Bucky would view Lovecraft as a great beach read 😂

But this is the basis for something I’ve written into this series: Bucky excitedly sharing things he finds interesting with Steve—wanting to tell Steve first, Steve most. And although Steve is quiet, stoical and very self-contained, he’s paying a whole hell of a lot of attention.

Given that Bucky is canonically a Tolkien fan, I think the imaginativeness and ranging scope of Lovecraft’s complex, often interconnected stories would appeal to him. And, thematically, Lovecraft is distinctive for the era for having characters psychologically fragment when confronting these vast inhuman others. 

“The Call of Cthulhu” opens with:

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far.

Steve and Bucky have each voyaged out a long way.

Trauma, in a way, is a form of terrible knowledge. You can heal but you can’t unknow things. 

Not Language but a Map (The Grammar of Sensation)

A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick

This is the first book in the series that we see Bucky pick for himself. And, wow, he picks a doozy with themes of multiple and unstable identities, invasive surveillance, manipulation, psychosis, and how individuals can get chewed up by larger systems, falling through the cracks of society. Dick was writing based on his own troubled experiences with southern California drug culture of the early 70s, but this work gets at much more fundamental darknesses that I think would speak to some of the horrors Bucky has gone through and won’t talk about, not even with Steve. 

Within the first few pages, we get this:

It was midday, in June of 1994. In California, in a tract area of cheap but durable plastic houses, long ago vacated by the straights. Jerry had at an earlier date sprayed metal paint over all the windows, though, to keep out the light; the illumination for the room came from a pole lamp into which he had screwed nothing but spot lamps, which shone day and night, so as to abolish time for him and his friends. He liked that; he liked to get rid of time. By doing that he could concentrate on important things without interruption.

The Beautiful Mysterious: The Extraordinary Gaze of William Eggleston, edited by Ann J. Abadie

Eggleston was an early pioneer in color photography and that fascination with color is very apparent in his work. I think this focus would grab Steve as an artist who doesn’t take seeing the full spectrum of color for granted. Even in the MCU’s thin action-film scripts, Steve comments on things that offend his aesthetic sensibilities even when that has absolutely no bearing on the situation at hand, from Stark Tower to Lang’s van.

Not even a world-ending crisis can keep Steve from going, wow, no, that’s ugly. I enjoyed running with that 😂

Steve’s view of Eggleston’s photographs shifts over the course of the series, reflecting what he’s feeling, from the fragmented and disconnected detachment—“isolated and off-kilter”— that he sees in them at the beginning that shifts to the passionate engagement in the world he finds in them later. 

Steve looks through the whole book of William Eggleston’s photographs again and at first the colors still roll over him like the shockwave of a distant explosion, all he can focus on. But gradually the subjects and compositions pull forward, too: monumentalized images of the everyday that at first seem neutral, the work of a detached observer. But the off-center framing of ordinary life is so deliberate as though everything might be important and where every detail deserves attention—that’s nothing like neutral. That’s not detached at all. You have to care a whole hell of a lot.

This mirrors the journey this post-Endgame Steve goes on. Because Steve Rogers should be a character who cares a whole hell of a lot, not what the MCU writers eventually reduced him to. And that’s what this fix-it is trying to fix. 

Lost Vocabularies that Might Express (The Memory of These Broken Impressions)

QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard Feynman

I love writing Bucky as a big fucking science nerd. His last night in New York and how does he want to spend the time? At a science fair with his best friend and a couple of pretty girls. So Bucky reading about quantum electrodynamics is delightful to me. The thing is, though, Bucky is a bright enough guy with a high school education. He’s not a genius—and the MCU is lousy with geniuses. But if Bucky wanted to learn a little more about all this quantum stuff he heard about in passing during some vague and very improbable sounding explanations, which by the way also allowed one of the few people still living who truly matters to him and the closest thing Bucky had left to family to fuck off to the past, well, Feynman’s QED isn’t a bad place to start in understanding some of this quantum stuff, at least. 

Feynman here is very much writing for a popular audience. His writing is conversational—the book is adapted from a set of lectures he gave—and his voice is witty, casual and surprisingly light, but at the same time Feynman is deeply invested in helping lay people understand quantum mechanics. The book opens with:

Alix Mautner was very curious about physics and often asked me to explain things to her. I would do all right, just as I do with a group of students at Caltech that come to me for an hour on Thursdays, but eventually I’d fail at what is to me the most interesting part: We would always get hung up on the crazy ideas of quantum mechanics. I told her I couldn’t explain these ideas in an hour or an evening—it would take a long time—but I promised her that someday I’d prepare a set of lectures on the subject.

I prepared some lectures, and I went to New Zealand to try them out—because New Zealand is far enough away that if they weren’t successful, it would be all right! Well, the people in New Zealand thought they were okay, so I guess they’re okay—at least for New Zealand! So here are the lectures I really prepared for Alix, but unfortunately I can’t tell them to her directly, now.

C’mon! Tell me Bucky Barnes would not be hooked by this opening. 

Thematically, and more seriously, the question of how could Steve do this? has two very different meanings. So far in this series Bucky isn’t ready to confront the harder version of that question which comes potentially with some very painful answers: how could Steve make that choice? Nope, he’s not ready for that. Instead, his brain unconsciously takes the easier way out: trying to understand quantum electrodynamics. 😂😭

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick

Bucky must have liked A Scanner Darkly, because he went for another Philip K. Dick novel. Today remembered mostly as the source material for Blade Runner, this bleak dystopian novel is set in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear war that destroys most life on Earth. The work has themes around empathy—who feels empathy and for what?—materialism and what really makes us human. 

I find it interesting how Sebastian Stan talks about The Winter Soldier in terms of someone who has undergone a process of total desensitization, which to varying degrees is deliberately part of the training of all soldiers. But rebuilding his core sense of empathy was one of the things Bucky chose to do as soon as he had any agency in that two-year period where he was on the run, which is remarkable. As a person who has been treated as though he wasn’t human and had his empathy forcibly stripped from him, I think Bucky would have a lot of complicated feelings about the enslaved androids who escape but are ruthlessly tracked down and killed. Some of these escaped androids are dangerous and do lack basic empathy—shown in the book by torturing and mutilating an animal—while other androids seem like ordinary people just trying to live their lives. 

I like that Bucky talks about the book with Steve later in the story, returning in my view to a very old habit of bookworm Bucky wanting to share what he’d been reading with Steve <333

“I need to find something to read next,” Bucky says after wrapping up his description of an imagined religion that involved plugging into a box to virtually suffer the existence of a man forever walking up a steep hill while struck by crashing stones. 

“Well, did the androids dream of electric sheep?” Steve asks.

“Who knows?” Bucky knocks into him gently as he takes the bowl Steve passes over. “They just wanted to be free. Though the free people just wanted to own stuff or plug into a box and suffer. So, you know, sort of a grim outlook. ”

“A little light, cheerful reading.”

“Hey, we live in a world where people write ‘Take back what’s yours’ in the streets and then smash up the windows. Dystopias don’t seem so far off the mark.”

Six Not-So-Easy Pieces: Einstein's Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time by Richard Feynman

Another case of Bucky sticking with an author he likes! To me, this implies that Bucky has already read Feynman’s Six Easy Pieces, which explains some of the foundational basics of physics for a very broad and non-technical audience. Six Not-So-Easy Pieces is also drawn from Feynman’s famous Lectures on Physics, focusing here on relativity and space-time, but this work assumes a greater knowledge of math, hence the name. But as a legendary sniper Bucky must have a strong aptitude for math and anyway I just leaned into making Bucky an all-around nerd, because Bucky Barnes, nerd who grew up hot, is delightful to me. 

Relativity, Symmetry, and Space-Time are all on point for a post-Endgame fix-it, which I think should count as a not-so-easy piece in its own right. 

Throughout the series, we see Bucky using physical copies when he reads fiction, more or less from unconscious nostalgia: connecting back to memories of his younger self who was an avid reader of pulp magazines and cheap paperbacks. Once Steve gets him going with that first quietly tossed-over gift, Bucky always carries around a sci-fi or fantasy book in this series despite the limited space in his backpack. And this familiarity wouldn’t just be from his pre-war life since I figure Bucky would have gone for the Armed Services Editions that were distributed for free to soldiers. Bucky likely traded with other soldiers once he finished a book if he couldn’t get a new ASE distribution: trading in his finished novel for a new one is Bucky unconsciously falling back into another old habit.

But for non-fiction, Bucky is absolutely here for the Modern Marvel of being able to carry around as many books as he likes on his phone. I figure Bucky would have used public libraries during certain stages of his recovery when he was homeless and migratory since they are a place to get information that is consistently available in cities; and a warm, quiet place you can go with a minimal number of security cameras. I headcanon a middle-aged librarian who has a few streaks of gray in her dark hair—and who reminds Bucky of someone but he has no idea who—explaining what e-books are to this tall, gaunt, soft-spoken homeless guy with an eye contact problem. And this person who isn’t the Asset anymore and isn’t Bucky Barnes yet has the out-of-nowhere thought: huh, whaddaya know. That’s pretty neat.

Nonlinear Dynamics And Chaos: With Applications To Physics, Biology, Chemistry, And Engineering by Steven H. Strogatz

Isolated systems tend to evolve towards a single equilibrium and these equilibrium points have been the focus of many-body research for centuries. But life is generally not that simple because most systems aren’t isolated. Often the dynamics of a system result from the product of multiple different interacting forces and objects in these systems can change between multiple different attractor wells over time. Or as Strogatz puts it:

As we’ve mentioned earlier, most nonlinear systems are impossible to solve analytically. Why are nonlinear systems so much harder to analyze than linear ones? The essential difference is that linear systems can be broken down into parts. Then each part can be solved separately and finally recombined to get the answer. This idea allows a fantastic simplification of complex problems, and underlies such methods as normal modes, Laplace transforms, superposition arguments, and Fourier analysis. In this sense, a linear system is precisely equal to the sum of its parts.

But many things in nature don’t act this way. Whenever parts of a system interfere, or cooperate, or compete, there are nonlinear interactions going on. Most of everyday life is nonlinear, and the principle of superposition fails spectacularly. 

You can think of nonlinear dynamics as situations in which the sum of the parts is insufficient to understand the whole. This connects to multiple themes in this story as Bucky and Steve try to understand themselves, their lives and each other. But here Bucky is also just continuing to live his best life as a nerd with a strong intuitive knack for math, a high school education, an internet connection and a growing collection of science e-books. Or as Bucky puts it:

“It’s nice, though, like this smart guy is just talking to you but doesn’t assume you’re dumb because of what you don’t know.”

It’s touched on only very lightly in the series so far, but Bucky has a lot of complex feelings about higher education that relate to class, indirectly to sexuality, and go back to the experience of being the son of upwardly mobile working-class immigrants who were very bought-in on a traditional take on the American Dream.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

I picked this partly because I thought the title would grab Bucky, who has been a stranger in a strange land several times over. Thematically this midcentury sci-fi novel focuses on challenging social norms through having the main character, a human who’d been raised by Martians on Mars, come back to Earth as an adult. A best-seller in its day that was controversial for its rejection of Christianity, monogamy and the nuclear family, the work is very tied to the looming cultural changes of the 60s and 70s. 

The novel’s critical reputation has been steadily in decline for decades, but I think Bucky would find it interesting since he grew up within the traditional early 20th-century culture this novel satirizes and challenges—mores that this story’s version of Bucky didn’t unquestioningly accept but didn’t openly challenge, either.

Having Bucky pick this novel reflects the themes for the last act of this story that focus more on Steve and Bucky's different experiences as closeted queer men growing up in a deeply homophobic society. These experiences continue to shape and impact them and yet are also a past these two are coming to terms with and growing beyond. 

Fun fact: this novel coined the word “grok.”

One Mighty and Irresistible Tide: The Epic Struggle Over American Immigration, 1924-1965 by Jia Lynn Yang

Of all the books featured in this series, One Mighty and Irresistible Tide is my top recommendation. This is an accessible, well-written history of a topic that haunts American history: immigration. The specific focus is the waves of legislation passed in the first half of the 20th century that tried—and often succeeded—in limiting who could legally immigrate based on the racial and ethnic hierarchies that equally haunt American history, right down to the foundation. 

In this series, I wanted to pick up the themes of social justice and immigration that were so vaguely and incoherently included in TFATWS. These themes are inherent in the Snap and Return plotline except that Disney does not want to touch any of these politics with a ten-foot pole. But I remain fascinated by trying to wrap my mind around what it would mean for half the population to vanish and then return five years later, catastrophically in both cases. It’s a huge, intricate, sticky, difficult world-building problem that’s inescapably political. 

Steve isn’t quite ready to dive into facing or helping to fix the problems of the post-Return world that his actions helped to create. But here we get to see Steve’s burned-out passion and conviction slowly rekindle as he reads about the complicated and often ugly history of American immigration—and he gets mad about it. Of course, he gets mad about it! This is my answer to the ludicrous idea that Steve Rogers could quietly sit out the second half of the twentieth century. 

At the same time, I can have compassion for Steve knowing he can’t keep going but not knowing how to help himself, only to be given the cursed monkey’s paw of time travel. And he fucks up. His actions have real and lasting consequences. But that doesn’t make the situation hopeless or mean Steve can’t try to repair the relationships he damaged or work to regain the trust he lost, assuming he’s lucky enough to be given another chance by people who love him but have been hurt by his choices.

One of the greatest challenges in writing this Endgame fix-it was accepting Endgame as the starting point of the story and trying to reconcile a character I love with the choices canon has him make. Over the course of these stories, the central point isn’t Steve coming back to Bucky. It’s Steve coming back to himself. Through a slow and painful struggle, Steve finds himself again—rediscovering his stubborn endurance, his compassion for others and his drive to set wrongs right. Steve stumbled, badly, but he gets back up. Because that’s who Steve Rogers is. 

And because of who Bucky Barnes is—his innate kindness, his warm-hearted generosity and his stubborn loyalty that isn’t blind but runs deep—that’s how these two characters come back to each other, after everything.

Deliberately, this series is the first hard-fought and hopeful glimmer in a long trudging process that can get so heavy to carry forward, day after day, but is shot through with moments of beauty and joy all the same. 

I can't go on; I'll go on.

In other words, to quote one of my favorite poets: what the living do.

[mechformers]

Ma Miles - Ch. 7

3.2k words

Bold letters are spoken in English by the Reader to Quaritch.

Thank you all so much for your absolutely amazing response and kind comments! I'm really so grateful. Each and every comment makes me so incredibly happy, so really; THANK YOU!!

This chapter has a few good bits to it, so extra points to those of you who can recognize the little reference, and to those who realize what Y/n just did in her mind :D

(I see that people are doing taglists and thought that it might be fun, so if you want to be tagged with the updated chapters, please leave your @ myusername in the comments)

Previous chapter | Masterpost | Chapter 8

“You are gentle with him,” You smile up at the demon as he looks down at you from where he has come to a stop beside you. 

“You say that as if you’re surprised, sweetcheeks,” He smirks back, crossing his arms over his chest. 

It’s been a little over two months since you surrendered to the sky people in search of your son. The man standing beside you the very demon you had heard about, yet, not. Every now and then, the cruel man you knew him to be shone through, but when he was with his unit, with your son and you - learning the Na’vi way - he became someone else. Someone genuine. The sign Eywa had shown you all those weeks ago still burned brightly in your mind every time he tried your patience, reminding you that the Great Mother had let this happen for a reason. 

“I am,” You reply honestly, holding his eyes when he looks into yours. 

Nodding thoughtfully, the demon uncrosses his arms, letting them hang by his side as he watches his unit try to follow Spider’s directions on how to ground hermit bud seeds into flour. You’ve been observing them all day, letting them show you what they’ve learned. You’re not surprised when they remember most of what Spider and you taught them, yet a form of pride blossoms inside of you. Looking up at the demon, you can see the same pride reflected on his own face. 

“Hey, old man!” Spider shouts from where he sits with his roller stone, “You’re losing this competition,”

The grin on your son’s face as he teases his - as he teases the demon is blinding. He’s been so happy the past few months, the insecurity he felt over not being Na’vi born, all but melting away as he helped teach the unit how to do the simplest of things. Spider laughed more, smiled more, took charge of teaching and protection without you saying anything. With his new confidence, you let him grow, only gently guiding him from the background whenever he would look back at you for help. 

“Over my dead body, kid,” The demon growls playfully before stomping over to his clumpy, roughly grounded flour. 

The last few weeks, the two of them had teased each other constantly, challenging each other in ridiculous games fit for children. They had both built a bond you wished you would have been able to give Spider from the beginning. Even though you knew that your son lacked nothing in his life, to see him interact with his… Closing your eyes, you take a deep breath before letting out a heavy sigh. When you open them again, the demon looks at you with something aching to genuine worry for you. Smiling at him, you shake your head, halting him on his way up from where he was sitting. 

Turning, you walk around the small makeshift classroom you’ve created over the past few weeks. It’s close to the small waterfall and a spreading of different fruit trees, as well as far off the path where the predators hunt. Above you, you can hear Hawnu calling for you. Your poor Ikran hasn’t left your side since you surrendered yourself, always sticking close by, yet out of sight whenever you were not close. Looking back at the others, you ensure that they’re busy before walking closer to a big enough clearing in the woods. Yipping back at Hawnu, you call to let him know it’s safe to land. It doesn’t take long before his big wings flap over your head and then, he’s finally standing before you once more. Smiling brightly up at him, you put your forehead to his when he bends down, greeting him warmly as you close your eyes. 

“I can’t take you flying, Hawnu,” You start, wrapping your arms around his head. 

Flapping his wings, he chirps at you and you immediately chuckle at him. Stepping back, you make tsaheylu with him. Immediately, you’re flooded with worry and loneliness. It breaks your heart that you’ve allowed him to feel this lonely, so far from his rookery and all that he knows. You’re conveying your regret the best you can, trying to explain to him what kind of situation you’re in when suddenly fear courses through your connection, and Hawnu shrieks, his wings widening threateningly. Turning around, you see the demon standing behind you, eyes wide and his lips parted. 

“Don’t hurt him,” You growl at the demon, standing before Hawnu protectively. 

“I won’t,” The demon replies immediately, his eyes meeting yours as he lifts his hands again. “Haw-nu, right?”

His pronunciation of Hawnu’s name is horrible and you’re unable to hide your nose wrinkling in distaste. Immediately, you feel bad. It’s not his fault for finding the Na’vi language difficult. He’s been learning for two months, and even after years, you still struggle with the English language. Sighing deeply, you reach your hand out for him to take. His surprise is as obvious as yours, but still, he moves forward almost immediately, slowly walking toward you.

“Eyes on me only,” You tell him when his eyes keep flickering from you to Hawnu and back again, making Hawnu breathe anxiously behind you. 

“Yes, ma’am,” He whispers, his tongue poking out to wet his lips as he meets your eyes. 

“Good,” You praise him as he comes within reach, his huge hand hovering above yours for only a few moments before he too gently lays it in yours.

Wrapping your fingers around his warm hand, you gently pull him closer and closer until he’s standing right before you. Hawnu snorts loudly, making the demon lift his head with uncertainty. With your free hand, you gently cup his face, slowly bending his head down until his sharp yellow eyes meet yours again. 

“Breathe,” You whisper, smiling up at him as you can feel his anxiousness through his clenched jaw. 

It takes too long for his pulse to calm down, however. The demon’s curiosity is so evident in his entire being, but he has respect for the Ikran, as he should. Holding eye contact, you bring your joint hand to your chest, taking a deep breath before slowly letting it out again. At first, the demon doesn’t understand. His eyes are wide, his breathing heavy as his jaw clenches harder, swallowing rapidly. You just keep breathing for him until finally, the demon matches his breaths to yours. Taking deep breaths, he slowly lets them out again until his body relaxes.

“He is Hawnu,” You eventually take the hand that rested on your chest and reach it out to hang in the air before Hawnu, waiting for him to step forward. 

It doesn’t take long at all. Through your connection, Hawnu already knows that the demon is more afraid of him than he is of the demon. With a huffed snort, Hawnu steps forward, pushing his muzzle against the demon’s open hand. A strained, huffed laugh comes from him as you watch their interaction closely. The demon is so fascinated, so excited in a way you haven’t seen since the very first time he laid eyes on Hawnu from the helicopter. 

“He’s gorgeous,” The demon drawls, his hand still placed on Hawnu’s muzzle, your Ikran enjoying the contact as he chirps happily. 

“Do you want to ride him?” You don’t know how the words found themselves in your mouth, don’t know if they’re your words or if it’s Hawnu’s wish, but the second you’ve asked the question, the two of them perk up. 

“I’d very much like that, ma’am” The demon’s ears point up with excitement as the corners of his lips lift hopefully. 

“Let your unit know so they do not hurt him,” You smile up at him, watching as his brows furrow immediately. 

“Iron sky, blue one actual,” The demon says, pressing the band around his neck. A second later, a voice replies in his earpiece, “I’m taking a banshee flying. Hold your fire,”

“Lyle,” He says a moment later, waiting for a reply. “Gonna take a ride on Haw-nu,”

Turning back to face you, his ears slowly turning up toward you again, his entire body apprehensive as he waits for you to guide him. Stepping up onto Hawnu’s back, you reach a hand out for the demon to take, helping him balance as he clumsily gets on behind you. Taking his arms, you wrap them around your waist before looking back at him with a grin. 

“Hold on tight,” You say just before Hawnu raises his huge wings, pushing you forcefully from the ground. 

The demon tightens his hold on you, plastering himself to your back, but all you care about is feeling the air blowing through your hair, feeling its pressure on your skin as Hawnu flies faster, his wings flapping loudly as his powerful thrusts shoot you through the air rapidly. You can’t help the happy calls from leaving your lips as you let go of Hawnu’s handle, spreading your arms in the wind. 

“Have you lost your goddamn mind, woman?” The demon shouts frantically over the noise of the wind, leaning forward to reach the handle you just let go of. 

“Relax your body,” You turn your head to look at him, his wide scared eyes making something bubble inside of you. Holding onto his arm still tightly wound around your waist, you grin at him. “Close our eyes and feel Eywa move through your body,”

Leaning your head back, you close your own eyes before letting go of the demon’s arm. To your surprise, he slowly lets go of the handle, his hand snapping back to hold onto your waist for a long while before shakily letting go of you. It’s touch and go for a long while before finally, you can feel the heat of his body behind you, his long arms outstretched as he huffs a chuckle of pride, his wide chest expanding against your back. 

Opening your eyes, you turn your back to look at him. The sunlight bathes him in a warm glow as Hawnu soars over the treetops, taking you further and further away from that wretched gray hole. He almost looked beautiful where he sat, arms outstretched, lips forming a sort of happy smile as he felt Hawnu’s movements and the wind against his body. Reaching out, you put a hand on his knee, watching as the demon’s eyes snap open before he loses balance. Grabbing onto you once more, he has you bent over as his long hand wraps firmly around Hawnu’s handle. 

“We must turn back,” You tell him, noting how his eyebrows furrow. “Eclipse is coming,”

The demon gives you a court nod, but he doesn’t let go of Hawnu’s handle or your waist. As you near the place you left from, you feel a kind of sadness overcome you. Hawnu slows his speed, prolonging the landing for as long as he can, but you know that you have to land if you were to reach Spider in time for the eclipse. It wasn’t that you didn’t trust him to take care of himself during the darkness but with the unit around him, bad things could happen if they panicked. Calling to Spider, you hear him reply from below the treetops. 

“Hold tight and lean back,” You turn your head to shout at the demon, crashing into his cheek. 

He nods at you although his face grows darker. You let hawnu know that he can land, asking him to be kind. You’re not surprised when Hawnu delivers his softest landing since Spider was a baby. Still, the demon all but folds you in two as his massive body collapses over yours when Hawnu’s movements come to a stop.

“Mom!” Spider comes rushing through the forest, the unit tightly behind him as they holler at their leader. “Hey, Hawnu,”

Spider runs right up to Hawnu, your Ikran greeting him with a series of chirps, pushing his massive face into Spider’s body, immediately receiving the cuddles he’s searching for. 

“So… Joined the mile-high club, boss?” Lyle smirks, the unit snickering behind him. 

“Shut your piehole, Corporal,” The demon growls as he finally leans back up, sliding off of Hawnu and landing with shaky legs. 

“Yes, Sir,” Lyle straightens, lifting his arm as he puts his hand on his forehead. 

Zoning them out, you lean back up. Taking a moment to pet Hawnu’s neck, you note how his happiness floods through your tsaheylu.  With a wide grin on your face, you silently thank him for letting you fly with the demon, thanking him for holding his no doubt heavy weight. 

“Let me help you down, darling,” The demon steps up to Hawnu, lifting his hand for you to take. 

Staring at it, you don’t know what this means for sky people, but to the Na’vi, this was a part of a courting ritual. Deciding that the demon doesn’t know, you take his offered hand before gently breaking tsaheylu with Hawnu. Turning, you gracefully slide off of his back, intending to land on your feet. Instead, the demon takes hold of your waist, gently lowering you to the ground. 

“Careful, sweetcheeks,” He winks before letting you go, turning back to his unit. “Alright, I reckon we’ll get some more training in before heading back.”

The unit hollers happily, smiles widening as they talk among themselves. They’re so obviously waiting for something and as you turn from Hawnu, you can see their eyes turned onto him, admiring his strong beauty. Of course, they want to ride him too, but right now, the eclipse is nearing and they need to be prepared to use their senses to navigate Pandora at night. 

“Maybe after Eclipse,” You offer them, their smiles only brightening as they bump their fists together. 

Huffing a chuckle to yourself you feel a form of fondness spread through you. They were like a group of teenagers at times, some more than others. Still, you couldn’t help but feel something for the tightly knit unit. Looking up, you see sharp yellow eyes staring back at you. The demon is wearing an expression you don’t recognize, his features soft, yet proud. Ruffling Spider’s hair, you head to the forest, hearing Hawnu lift off from the ground only seconds after Spider joins your side. 

With each passing day, the unit got a better handle on the things you taught them. Their jumping skills had improved enough that they always took the easier way down whenever the Samson dropped you off in the forest for a new day. Out of all of them, the demon had surprised you the most. Even though he still struggled with the Na’vi language, he took to everything else faster than any of the others. He asked questions, allowed himself room for error, never giving up on the task at hand, before trying again. You had come to think of him as a highly intelligent man, one who could have become someone great in another life. 

“Here,” The demon steps up to you, giving you four banshee of paradise seeds. 

Looking up at him with shock, you put the seeds aside as you step up to him, frantically patting him down, looking for any wounds but finding none. 

“Although I appreciate a pretty lady patting me down, I didn’t get caught,” The demon grins, his face all but dripping with pride as he sucks up your reaction. 

“How?” You gawk up at him, watching as he puts his large hands on his hips, a source of comfort to him. 

“Guess we got a pretty good teacher, sweetcheeks,” He drawls before reaching over to the seeds you dropped. Taking one, he lifts it to his mouth, chewing into it. Immediately, you can see his eyes widening at the taste, his gaze finding yours as he chews and swallows. 

Sitting down again, you look up at him, while he happily eats the seed, in disbelief. Of course, you knew that they took to things quickly, but to avoid the poisonous danger of a banshee of paradise. Most Na’vi trained for years to be able to avoid them, and here he was, with only a few hours of lecture, having watched you get to the seeds a handful of times, before going out on his own to get the seeds for you. 

There’s a heavy puff beside you and as you turn your head, you can see the demon having sat down beside you, the rest of the seeds in his hand. He looks at you hopefully, his big palm open as he offers you the seeds. 

“Awaiei, right?” He pronounces it perfectly and he knows it, the smug smile on his face not at all charming. 

“I think you are ready to become Ikran Makto,” You tell him, your voice filled with awe and bewilderment, yet pride over what they have achieved. 

“Well, I’ll be damned, sweetheart,” The smile on his face is almost unnerving where you sit, looking up at him. 

He looks every part the predator that he is, but when you take one of the offered seeds from his hand, hungrily digging into it, it changes into something else. Glancing at him sideways while you eat, he looks pleased, immediately offering you a new seed once you finished your first. By the time the Samson comes around to pick you up again, you’re full and content for what feels like the first time in years. 

Getting to his feet, Quaritch offers you his hand, his tail flicking wildly until you take it and let him help you up. He doesn’t let go of your hand until you’re beside Spider, only then does he turn his back to you. Walking toward his unit, you notice that the large hand that had been holding yours flexed once by his side before relaxing again. Your heart skips a beat when over his shoulder, sharp eyes meet yours. But just like a dream, it is gone in a moment, leaving the faintest of touches behind. 

“Come on, Mom,” Spider pulls your hand, the one still touched by heat from a hand much larger. 

You let yourself be pulled along by your son, getting to the pickup place just as the Samson comes to a stop above you. Spider gets onto your back, like every other day for the past few weeks, but this time around, something feels different when Quaritch lifts you up to wrap your legs around his waist. His touch feels like a brand around you and as the Samson turns back to the base once more, the feeling of his arm around you doesn’t leave. 

It’s still there, your companion through the night, as you lay awake. You needed to focus, needed to remember why you were here. With a new resolve, you joined your son in your nest, smiling gently at the way he softly snored, the days filled with so much excitement he always seemed to fall asleep the second his head hit the nest. Brushing a strand of his hair from his face, you lean forward, kissing his forehead. You would get him out of here, safe and sound.

Chapter 6 | Masterpost | Chapter 8

[zsakuva]

hello! i love your works a lot (andrew and zaros, especially). i'm a fledgling writer and i really am in love with how you flesh out the characters and the world building is absolutely insane. how do you do that exactly? any tips? please take me as an apprentice xd thank you and have a nice day! 🌸

Thank you!

I could talk for hours when it comes to world-building. It's something that's exciting, fun, yet challenging, and there have been plenty of times where I've lost myself to research and ideas.

The way to world-build is dependent on what the main goal is and how deep down the rabbit hole you want to jump. I, unfortunately, like to dive pretty deep because I want to mould the present time of the story to its past as seamlessly as possible. However, try not to let yourself wander too far or you'll get stuck (like I've done on countless occasions). It's great for the writer to have an arsenal of information, but the most critical detail is allowing the story to breathe.

OUR WORLD, MODERN TIMES

For characters in our world, it's much easier to focus on their backstory. I always build motivations through their personality and history; without them, characters become two-dimensional and boring.

I'll use Andrew as an example.

Andrew is the first-born son and an older twin. Due to how he was raised, this alone provides a blueprint that can shape his personality:

A sense of leadership by caring for his younger brother, coupled with more responsibility as the eldest and smartest son (according to his parents).

Setting an example that their parents accept.

But what happens when the younger twin resents being compared? What happens when he begins to rebel, and Andrew is stuck between wanting to console and comfort his younger brother, but also uphold the role of the dutiful first-born son that their parents desire?

There will be conflict in his decisions, and regrets that continue into his adult life. Asking 'what ifs' is an amazing way to flesh out scenarios with multiple outcomes!

And then, when his parents noticed how proficient he was in academia, pushed Andrew. In so doing, he was:

Forced to study, and found acceptance through excelling. This likely created his need for perfectionism that later bled into every aspect of his life. However, it also transformed into him feeling inadequate whenever he wasn't working which informs why he works so hard regardless of what he does.

Isolated for majority of his childhood and teenage years. This stunted him socially, and even though he was able to experience some because of his twin, the lack of bonding, long-lasting relationships, and the knowledge of working through hardships damaged his ability to do so in adulthood. Pair this with him attending classes for older students (who were likely envious of his intelligence), and that forms a distrust of befriending people older than him.

Andrew's beliefs are all informed by what he was taught, and his experiences. This is only a little of the world-building I've done with him, but I hope that gives you some inspiration on where to start with your own!

A WHOLE NEW WORLD

When it involves a world outside our own, it's more difficult (yet way more fun) to build. You have free reign because the world is your own! Go crazy with it!

Again, dependent on the characters you're writing, you can start with something that is intrinsically linked with them and expand from there. For Zaros, the location's history is especially important because of his status, who he's surrounded by, and the relationship he has with Earis. As a character who is knowledgeable about a plethora of things, that means he would use such information; and that also requires its existence in the world-building notes!

I won't give much more away as his series is still ongoing, but with any character, there will more often than not be a motivation behind what they do and say. You don't need to outline the events of every birthday and holiday and what not. It's the events in which conflict arises that impact and change a character to define who they are in the present moment.

This was longer than I expected, but I hope this helps with your writing! Good luck!