#i didn’t say that under my post about this connection because back then cryptide was a patreon exclusive thing

[cody-paranatural]

OH MY GOD????????

[ur-favorite-queer-queen]

Magic

For Maribat March day 16 theme magic

Master List

“50 bucks says she is,” Dick walked in on Jason saying, “there is no way she’s with Demon Spawn otherwise.” 

“I agree with Jason, there’s no way she isn’t.” Tim agreed. 

“So how much are you betting Tim?” Babs questioned, getting ready to write it down. 

“20 bucks.” 

“What are you guys betting about?” Dick interrupted. 

“If Marinette is magic or not.” Steph responded.

“Why?” Dick asked. 

“Cause there is no way that she’s not magic if she is able to not only hang around Damian but date him!” Jason accused. 

“We really shouldn’t be betting on this sort of thing.” Dick tried, and failed, to reason. 

“Too late,” Duke spoke up, “30 bucks says she isn’t magic.” 

Dick sighed, “What has everyone else betted?” 

“I’m keeping track so I’m not betting.” Babs clarified, “Steph betted 20 bucks that she isn’t magic, Duke just betted 30 bucks that she also isn’t, Tim betted 20 bucks she is, Jason betted 50 bucks she is, and Cass and you haven’t betted yet.” 

Cass then signed, “I bet 20 bucks that she is magic, just not in the way we think.” Leave it to Cass to be that cryptid. 

“I’ll bet 10 bucks she isn’t, why not.” Dick finally gave up his internal struggle, yeah it wasn’t nice betting on his little brother’s girlfriend, but hey there was no way she was magic. 

- 

“I still can’t believe you’re magic.” Damian admitted. 

“Well technically I’m not magic. I just wield magical jewels that house tiny gods.” Marinette corrected. 

“Is there really a difference?” He asked, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him.

“Yes, yes there is.” She replied, cuddling closer and leaning into him. 

“Are you sure you parents are gone?” He questioned, Jagged and Penny claimed that they had business they needed to do but he wouldn’t put it past them to lie and spy on them. 

“Yes they trust me because I’m responsible. Plus it’s not like we’re doing anything wrong, just cuddling.” 

“YOU BETTER NOT BE DOING ANYTHING OTHER THAN CUDDLING!” Stompp shouted from the other room. If they had to guess, the other kwamis were stopping him from barging into the room they were currently in. 

“WE’RE NOT STOMPP! YOU CAN STOP BEING SO PROTECTIVE!” Marinette yelled back. 

“More like paranoid.” Damian muttered. 

“Like you can say that.” Marinette laughed. 

Damian tried to scowl but couldn’t help the smile that spread on his face. While she may not have believed it, she truly was magic. To him at least. 

“So does your family know yet?” She asked once she stopped laughing. 

“No, they have no clue.” 

“Really, we’ve been together for a year. Shouldn’t they know by now?” 

“They started a bet on whether you’re magic or not. If that counts.” 

“They did not!” She broke into another giggle fit. 

“They did.” He smiled at her as she grinned up at him. 

“Oh the chaos that will come from this.”

“Don’t let Plagg let hear you say that.” 

“You’re scared of what might happen if we ever teamed up.” 

“I am very scared.” 

“As you should be.” She looked like she was having a very serious internal battle as she tried not to laugh. 

“So are you still coming over this Saturday?” 

“Of course, I wouldn’t miss it.” 

-

Marinette enjoyed these dinners at Wayne manor. Dinner with her bio parents usually consisted of silence and conversations about the bakery or school. Dinner with her adopted parents consisted of Jagged doing or claiming he did something that Penny wouldn’t approve of then him getting scolded. Sometimes she would add in her own disappointed face. But dinners at Wayne manor were different. 

Because there were so many people there was so much going on at once. Different conversations somehow managed to flow smoothly and they managed to jump from topic to topic like lightning. Yet when something interesting was brought up they all managed to stop and listen before continuing their other conversations. 

They were all so different but they managed to get along so well (most of the time). In a way they reminded her of the kwami. While it was a weird comparison it made sense in her head. All the kwami were different, different personalities, opinions, and views of the world. But at the end of the day they were still a family. 

“Hey Pixie!” Jason called from across the table. 

She quickly swallowed her food and replied, “Yeah!” 

“Where’d your nose ring go? I haven’t seen you wear it in a while.” 

“Oh I stopped wearing it. The side effects were so annoying and I just didn’t see the point anymore.” 

“Wait what side effects?” Dick asked, “You weren’t allergic to the material or anything were you?” 

“No, but the magic part of it was tiring to try to keep under control.” Marinette was met with silence. She was very much aware of the chaos she was unleashing and she couldn’t wait. 

It was Cass that ended up breaking the silence, a small grin on her face, “Pay up.” 

“Wait, I betted that she was magic too!” Jason shouted. 

“Yeah, but Cass said she was magic not in the way we think. So technically she wins the bet.” Babs observed. 

“We really should stop betting.” Duke mused, pulling 30 bucks from his wallet and handing it to Cass. 

“Marinette, what do you mean that the magic became too tiring to keep under control?” Tim questioned. 

“And Damian did you know?” Steph butted in. 

“Yes I did know.” Damian answered. 

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Dick asked, placing a hand to his heart to show how betrayed he felt. 

“Because Stompp gave him the shovel talk once he found out.” Marinette giggled. 

“Stompp?” Duke repeated. 

“Yeah my kwami at the time. His miraculous is the nose ring I used to wear.” 

“Kwami? Miraculous?” Bruce finally decided to add into the conversation. 

“Oh yeah. This is gonna be a long explanation.” Marinette chuckled to herself, Damian let a small smile onto his face before replacing it with a scowl. 

“Wait, I wanna know about the shovel talk Damian got?” Jason interrupted. 

“Why is this Stompp called a kwami and why is your nose ring a miraculous and why is Stompp connected to it?” Tim voiced. 

“Okay how about I start at the beginning.” Marinette reasoned to the agreement of the family. 

“Which beginning?” Damian smirked, much to the confusion of his family. 

“I’ll start at the very beginning.” Marinette smirked back at him before launching into her story. Needless to say it was a long night. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Oh my god I’m so sorry I was late. If you didn’t see my post from yesterday I was supposed to post this yesterday but life kinda hit me with a train. Then burned down the hospital I was in and sent me to hell. Life hasn’t been to great. But here I am with the final part to this mini series. It’s no masterpiece but its something and I promised I would post today. Thank you for all of the support I’ve been getting! All of those who like, comment, and reblog, I’m thanking all of you. Honestly seeing that so many people like what I’m doing is one of the only motivation factors I’ve got going, so again thank you! Tagging all the people that commented on part 2 which you can find in my Master List. It will be Maribat March day 6 and 12. If you want me to link parts 1 and 2 ask me. I didn’t want to at first because I’m lazy but if you want me too I can.

@maribatmarch-2k21 @lunarwolfspn @myazael  @birdiesthings  @northernbluetongue @thecaptainthunder

[painted-crow]

Hey I hope this isn’t awkward but that post about your burned badger (lion?) secondary really hit home for me. I’m pretty sure I’ve had the same burned model in the past - I think I started off with a healthier badger/lion model (I can’t figure out which and am still figuring out my sorting anyway) and some external life stuff going on later, I’m really just pushing through and getting stuff done with all the delicacy of a brick. And same here with the emotional rollercoaster ... 1/2

And same here with the emotional rollercoaster of it between panic/apathy. And the burnout. And the ignoring physical pain. And I can see now how this was uh. Pretty unhealthy actually but it really was just so. effective especially given the circumstances and I kind of miss it in a way. It would be nice if I could get back a healthier version of whichever model it was. Anyway I love reading your blog you always have such insightful things to say thanks for reading this ramble <3 2/2

💙💙💙 :D

Not awkward! I'm glad that was useful for someone, rather than just being an angst dump on my part lol

Emergency secondary mode, Badger or Lion?

Links to previous posts:

- post describing my emergency secondary mode (cw for burnout stuff)

- the worst version of this post (cw for terrible memes)

So, after a lot of consideration and chatting with some lovely SHC people (looking at you @mooglesorts and you @magpie-of-a-birb), I've come to the tentative conclusion that I have a Lion secondary performance.

Which is not something I ever expected to say! I've long had a knee-jerk "aaaaa scary!" reaction to Lion secondary, but actually I think that's because I have this performance and I've had to use it in unsustainable ways.

I should probably put a trigger warning here for self harm through overwork... yeah.

So, I found this song:

(While it is a bop, it is also x2 trigger warning combo for self harm ahaha)

This song's primary is exploded Glory Hound Lion--that's not what's relatable about it to me tho. What I wanted my friends' opinion on was the secondary that's displayed here. Sounded familiar. So I brought it up on the SHC Discord server (which is out of beta, dm me for an invite link if you wanna join!).

I was thinking it might actually be the fully Burned "anything that works" secondary, but Magpie was like "no, that's a Lion sec with a Snake model" and I went "huh..."

...and then Moogle was like no that's a snakesec with an unhealthy Lion model, the masks aren't working so they're busting out Lion--and especially there's the focus on the character feeling powerful because they can hurt themself with it and keep going anyway

And I was like "oh shit that tracks more than I was expecting it to... whoops"

Badger hits different without unhealthy pressure

I do have and use a Badger secondary model, and I used to think my emergency secondary mode was just my Badger model taken to unhealthy extremes. But I don’t think so now.

First, because I actually think that my emergency mode is/was often a product of my exploded Badger primary model, which itself idealized Badger secondary.

I'm still picking through that thing's shrapnel and finding its influence in old memories and automatic reactions I still have and stuff like that--not to mention rooting it out of my system. Which is to say, now that I know what I'm looking for, I'm still discovering how far back this thing goes! Turns out I've been trying to whack this piñata for years, and it used to be so much worse.

The self-destructive "I'd rather run myself hard into the ground than fail" nature of my emergency mode makes a lot of sense in retrospect. When you tie your self-worth to achievement... well: the lyrics "I'll never lose / I'll never die" from the song seem less "I have achieved immortality!" and more "I basically equate failure with death." This song really straddles that edge of relatable but also obviously messed up. It's... something.

Second, my Badger secondary model is very different when it's not under pressure from the 'splodey primary model. I'm kind of having to figure out what it's like without that and it's weird. It seems to be a whole lot more chill and also I'm getting more Courtier than I'm used to?

Yeah, turns out if you dig out "you should help other people to justify your existence, but don't accept help back or it cancels it out" from your system (because damn, there's a system piece I didn't look at closely enough) it might have been holding up Courtier potential you haven't been using.

What's the difference?

I don't know who pointed this out first, I think I read it somewhere, but Badger secondary is very process focused and Lion secondary is very results focused. (Bet you this was from @wisteria-lodge. I'm not sure, though.)

Badger usually shows up as a few main things for me: mirroring, chipping away at big projects, picking up life maintenance and self care type tasks (especially when Bird secondary is burned), and caregiving/service stuff. It can also Burn on its own, which is its own brand of "motivation is a cryptid" exhaustion. None of this looks like Lion, so where does the confusion come in?

The only time my Badger model starts to look like Lion--and here the line really blurs with the performance--is when I've tried to get it to do tasks it's not really meant for. There are things I need Bird unburned in order to tackle (perhaps it's the presence of burned Birdsec that gets in the way? That injured confidence can be really debilitating) and I can't do them with just Badger.

I'm sure actual Badger secs know how to, say, learn Adobe Illustrator's unbelievably complicated controls while under deadline using Badger, but I have no clue. I powered through using probably the least efficient controls possible. (If you're using the nudge tool as a form of measurement, you're probably doing it wrong. I'm guessing.)

Needless to say, that's exhausting. I think there's some point in the project timeline where it stops being "well it's not efficient but at least I'm making progress!" and starts being fueled by raw stubborn determination and a little bit of spite. The contentment with the process goes out the window. I'm fighting my own perfectionism (and usually losing) because I just want this thing done.

Which, that's not necessarily a bad thing! Sometimes it's really useful to be able to go "screw it" and charge. It becomes a bad thing when you ignore all your other needs to do it, possibly because you've tied success and/or productivity to your self worth, and also you're still clutching your perfectionism and hissing "my precioussssss."

also:

It's not always obvious, but I sometimes use Lion secondary in ways not connected to the splodey Badger primary model.

(Occasionally it is obvious though... haha)

I do have this one story about realizing my younger brother might be in danger and charging off to find him, armed with a heavy wooden coat hanger against potential assailants. I went from Bird situational analysis to "this is the best weapon I can find on short notice" in like 30 seconds. In my defense, I was very sleep deprived at the time.

(It makes more sense in context.)

(Sort of.)

so.

I think the emergency secondary mode is a Lionsec performance.

This post took me like a month to write even after figuring it out. And then another few weeks collecting dust in my drafts, because how do you edit something like this

But I've been sitting on it for way too long and I'm tired of saying I should finish/post it, and tonight I'm feeling bored and a little impulsive... so, screw it--I'm calling this done.

(can you hear it? it's there... fighting my Birdsec/Badgersec model perfectionism again.)

(this time, I will listen.)

[snazzy-suit]

LLoG Chapter 5.4 (Snippet) Hey! Creatures! Leave Them Kids Alone!

Hey, it’s been a while! Like, what, over a year since I last updated this arc? And this isn’t even a complete chapter, just a little sneak-peek at a potential scene in part four (I say potential, because part four has been re-written so many times I’ve lost count, so who knows if it’ll make the cut). 

But yeah, I thought it was about time I post something, even if it’s just a rough, unedited snippet.

Enjoy!

=

For context, Luigi and the Polterpup have made their way to the second floor of the house, and are searching for Gooigi and the final captured kid. This picks up at the moment Luigi and Pepper reunite after briefly becoming separated. 

===

Luigi quietly approaches Pepper, offering the latter a hushed reprimand for running off. His half-hearted scolding sputters out as he takes notice of what has captured the canine's attention. The pup is plopped before an innocuous, oak door. There aren’t any visible barriers, and the plumber doesn’t feel any malicious energy warning off potential intruders. While relieving, it doesn’t ease the trepidation settling in the plumber’s gut. He glances at the Polterpup; they don’t appear to be bothered by whatever lay on the other side of this door. Luigi cautiously grasps the handle, and when it offers no resistance, he opens the door.

The plumber isn’t sure what he expected to find on the other side—other than an angry ghost—but a cramped hall closet certainly wouldn’t have been his first guess. He is greeted by an assortment of coats, shoes, and—to his quiet amusement—a vacuum cleaner. Luigi quirks a brow at the bland discovery. Why did Pepper lead him to a closet? What was he supposed to find here?

Luigi reaches toward the wall of coats, intending to part them, when something suddenly lunges from the storage space’s depths.  

“Take this, evil ghost!"

Luigi narrowly avoids being brained by a swinging clothes iron. When his attacker misses, their forward momentum sends them crashing to the floor in a heap. Luigi hastily steps back, but pauses in his retreat as he takes in the ambusher’s appearance.

They’re a Doogan—an adolescent with russet fur and pale blue eyes. The patch of hair on their head is hidden by a baseball cap bearing a team mascot Luigi doesn’t recognize, presumably from the kid’s school.

Pepper curiously sniffs at the fallen teen. The Doogan scoots away with a startled yelp, swiping at the ghostly canine with their impromptu weapon. They gape in shock when the iron passes harmlessly through their target.  

“What the—? Why didn’t it work?! I thought ghosts couldn’t stand iron!"

“Iron, as in the metal,” Luigi corrects, somewhat amused, “not the tool you use to get wrinkles out of clothes. Also, iron isn’t as effective as folklore makes it out to be.”

“Oh." The teen frowns at his useless weapon. “I knew I should have tried to whittle a stake instead."

“...where are you getting your paranormal information from?"

“The cryptids page on the ‘seenthat’ forum. Those guys really seemed to know their stuff, so I, uh..." They trail off, looking up at the plumber with sudden recognition. “Holy crap you’re Luigi.” The teen smiles, laughing nervously. “Luigi’s in my house. I’m being rescued by one of the Mario Brothers. This is awesome."

Luigi can’t help but smile back, feeling partially relieved. The kid can’t be in too bad of shape if they’re able to feel star-struck, right?

“You must be Dane."

“Wha— Oh! Yeah, that’s me. Dane—Dane Pawper. Well, my parents named me Larry, so my full name is actually Larry Dane Pawper but who wants to go by Larry?" He blinks, suddenly looking embarrassed. “Sorry, I ramble when I’m nervous."

“No worries, I’m the same way." The plumber offers Dane his hand to help the teen up. They happily accept his offer, but grimace as they feel Luigi’s damp glove.  

“Hey, why are you all wet?” Dane asks, brow raised.

“I shower with my clothes on.”

That startles a laugh out of the teen, and Luigi is grateful they hadn’t been put-off by his flat tone. Sometimes his sense of humor comes off as a touch derisive, even if it’s not his intention.

“No, but seriously, what happened?” The teen glances up and down the hall, as if searching for the cause of Luigi’s saturated state. “Did one of our pipes burst again?” 

Luigi imperceptibly cringes, feeling a tad self-conscious.

“A Blooper ghost threw your pool at me.”

“Oh...” Dane rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, looking anywhere but at Luigi. “I’m sorry. I... this is my fault. All these ghosts are here because of me," he mumbles. “I’m the one that read from the book."

Luigi’s brows rise marginally. Dane was the summoner? That certainly explains why the strongest ghost targeted him.

“I don’t think it’s fair for you to take all the blame. From what Koojo told me, it was a group decision."

The Doogan’s eyes light up.

“You talked to Koojo? Is he okay? What about the others?"

“He’s fine, they all are," Luigi assures. “They’re outside waiting with a friend while my partners and I handle the rest of these ghosts."

Dane’s shoulders sag with relief.

“Thank the Stars," he sighs. Then, curiously, “Wait, partners? As in more than one? Is Mario here too?"

Luigi fights back a laugh. His brother was talented in many things, but for whatever reason, he seemed to flounder whenever he tried to wield the Poltergust.

“No, ghost hunting isn’t really his thing," he says mildly. “Pepper and Gooigi are my partners in crime tonight."

The teen perks, suddenly looking elated.  

“Dude! Same here!”

When Luigi gives him an odd look, Dane reaches into the pockets of his orange jacket and procures a pepper shaker and a pair of sunglasses with a large “G” printed on the arms. Luigi stares at the items with thinly veiled dismay.

“Good Grambi,” Luigi mumbles quietly. “The Boos back at the mansion would adore you.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Dare I ask why you have pepper in your pocket?”

“For protection,” the kid says like it’s obvious, “from demons!”  

The plumber takes a deep, composing breath.

“Remind me to make some book recommendations after we get out of here,” he says tiredly. “And to clarify, Pepper is my dog. Also, I said Gooigi, not the fashion brand.”

“Goo... igi...?” Dane repeats slowly. “Is that a portmanteau of ‘Goo’ and ‘Luigi’?”

Luigi offers a somewhat solemn nod.

“Uh... would this ‘Gooigi’ person happen to look like you if you were a lime-green fruit snack?”

“You’ve seen him?”

The teen suddenly looks embarrassed.

“Yeah... I, uh, kinda ran away... from him...?” His voice lilts as if asking a question. At Luigi’s blank stare, he hurries to elaborate. “I didn’t know he was a good guy!”

“You just said he looks like me.”

“Man, I don’t know! I didn’t really make the connection at the time!” Dane throws his hands up. “I just saw a walking Gummy Man wobbling around and freaked out! I thought they were one of the things the hooded dude summoned.”

A dozen questions pop into the plumber’s mind. The first to leave his mouth is, undoubtedly, the least imperative.

“...Gummy Man?"

“I’m not very creative."

Maybe not, but Luigi was definitely going to tease his partner about this later.

===

And there we have it! I know it’s not much, but I can’t include much in the way of action without spoiling things. This scene is one of the few that has remained fairly consistent through all the drafts, so I felt it was safe to share. Plus I enjoyed writing the dialogue. Honestly, that’s some of my favorite stuff to write. 

Now, as far as where I am in drafting this thing... well, fun fact: Part 4 ain’t the end of this. Part 4 became Part 5, and Part 5 went on into Part 6 (and I am begging the universe that it doesn’t try and get a Part 7). I’m pretty sure I’ve already said this before, but this arc has gone off the rails and I am struggling to get it under control. Currently, I am working on the first draft of Part 6. Weep for me. :’D 

[branwyn-says]

2020 fanfic review meme!

Thanks to @livenudebigfoot for tagging me and providing me with a legitimate excuse to reflect self-indulgently on my special interest: writing obsessive amounts of fic for Michael Emerson vehicles. What fic did I disgorge from my brain maw this year? This was the year I started writing for Person of Interest, the fandom that changed my life! I found a fannish community on the Subway discord and joined a whole bunch of exchanges, which I’d never done before. 

In February for chocolate_box, I wrote 7 stories:

The Life of the World to Come (Person of Interest, Reese/Finch): Canon compliant fix it in which Reese wakes up in a lakeside cabin about 6 weeks after he died. Unspecified magical bargains were involved.

Arctic Flower (POI, Grace/Jessica): An AU in which Jessica rushes to assist Grace when a cyclist knocks her down in the park, and their friendship enables her to leave Peter before it’s too late.

A Bird of Foreign Tongue (POI, Reese/Finch): A sequel to Arctic Flower in which Harold finds still-in-the-CIA Reese and offers him an escape route.

Objet d’Art (POI, Finch/Grace): During a coffee date early in their pre-canon relationship, Harold has a guilty conscience about all the secrets he’s hiding from Grace.

Kintsugi (POI, Finch/Grace): The longer sequel to Objet D’art. Grace gets sick. She doesn’t have health insurance. Harold panics and decides to take care of her himself.

Incentives (POI, Reese/Fusco): John’s in the trunk. 

Fixer-Upper (POI, Reese/Zoe Morgan): In every fandom, I write gender AUs. This one is Zoe Morgan taking always-a-girl!Reese under her wing.

Then in the spring, I wrote one story for the Hurt/Comfort Exchange and two for Exchange of Interest:

Line of Duty (POI, Reese/Fusco) 14k about Fusco making really self destructive life choices thanks to low self worth and unresolved trauma, while Reese is forced to stand back and wring his hands. And then, you know, exact a lot of vengeance. Harold has soup.

Number Every One (POI, Reese/Nathan): AU in which Nathan saves Jessica, and Reese comes asking questions.

Eden (POI, Reese/Jessica): A perfect, ordinary moment in John’s relationship with the one person who connects him to the world.

And then I wrote some stories for @livenudebigfoot because I enjoy making her happy.

An Indulgence (POI, Finch/Fusco): Fusco is having an emergency and Finch is there for him. My first foray into ABO and literally all they do is hug; is this my brand?

Bunnymoon (Lost, Ben Linus/John Locke): I acquired this whole new fandom/OTP without meaning to, and then I wrote 8000 words of animal shelter AU for it.

Shipoween was next, and I was very proud of the two stories I wrote because both of them are short and this is hard when you exhale novel-length plot outlines instead of carbon dioxide. Also they are both creepy and kinda experimental, like back in my Buffy days. It was also my first time pinch hitting for an exchange and I got a nice little buzz off pulling that off with one day to deadline.

a lucid dream (Lost, Ben Linus/John Locke): Ben is having a very bad dream, and it’s all his own fault.

One In the Eye (POI, Finch/Fusco): Harold’s a monster. Fusco’s a cryptid.

This was my first year doing a Big Bang exchange and the story I wrote for it is, in my own opinion, the best thing I have ever written.

Kingfishers (POI, Reese/Finch/Grace): An AU in which Harold didn’t introduce himself to Grace that day in the park. Years later, after Harold starts working with John, they receive her number. 

I wrote a popular Star Trek fic in 2019 and then went more than a year and a half without updating, two chapters before the end. I’m sorry, I’m a monster. Now there’s only one chapter left before the end. I’m shooting to get it finished by the end of January. I’m sorry I suck so much.

K’diwa: A Steamy Novel of Interspecies Romance (Star Trek AOS, Kirk/Spock) And then, after a swift crash course in participating in fics and exchanges, I took on managing the POI Advent 2020 Calendar. I needed to write a five-parter in order to plug holes in the posting schedule, and a Muppet crossover was born.

A Muppet Christmas Carol, Starring Harold Finch (Person of Interest, Muppets)

Takeaways from reflecting on your kick-ass writing, or kick-ass lack of writing, during a year more focused on survival than perhaps any other:

I’ll be 39 next month. I’ve been writing seriously since I was 15. I was a very good writer for a 15 year old, for a 19 year old, but I could never have dreamed of writing the way I do now. No amount of hard work, practice, reading, conferring with other writers, editing manuscripts, or thinking about craft could have made me the kind of writer it’s possible for me to be in my late 30s. Youthful geniuses are a myth. I’m really grateful my agent couldn’t sell my novel 10 years ago--when I finish the next one I will get to introduce myself to the world as the writer I am now.

Most surprising fic you wrote this year:

Oh, definitely Bunnymoon. I had no idea I would be writing fic for Lost at all, much less that I would be writing a mundane AU with comedy and my first E rated scene in years. It is entirely the fault of bigfoot, who infected me with the fandom in general and the animal shelter concept in specific.

How you’ve grown as a writer this year:

I’ve learned a lot about what not to say--when to trust the reader--and I have benefited hugely from thinking hard about formal structure. Every idea used to turn into a novel whether I wanted to or not, but revisiting high school English lessons about short story structure vs 3 act structure has changed my whole game.

What’s coming in 2021:

I would really like to write one more story in my Harold & Grace series, another story in the Jessica Lives AU, and I’ll def. sign up for HCEX and Shipoween. But also, this year I am writing a novel.  Tagging @theimprobable1, @liz-squids, @argylepiratewd, @sidewaystime

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #3- Robots in the Vents, Because It’s Not a Roberts Story if It Doesn’t Happen at Least Once

So, the duobots are having a hell of a day.

Shock, our resident obligate belly-sleeper and newly-single robot, laments the passing of his buddy, leaves a vial of innermost energon by his body- a practice that will be expanded upon later- then covers up any and all traces of their having worked with Prowl. These are the inside guys Prowl called after he flipped that table in issue #1.

As Shock tracks down the tracer Ore was supposed to be planting instead of being eaten by the quantum drive, he comes across that sparkeater that got mentioned last issue.

That is his brain.

Then he explodes.

Which brings us to the scene we left in issue #2. Sparkeater on board the Lost Light, which is full of sparks that probably would prefer not to get eaten.

Holy shit Cosmos is huge. I don’t remember him being that goddamn big.

Rodimus thinks that this whole sparkeater thing is really neat, and he’s happy to be a part of it, but he’s not so thrilled about the prospect of subjecting the others to this event, so he orders everyone to find a friend and go to their rooms until he and his select few sort this whole thing out. He doesn’t tell them about the sparkeater, because that’s some scary bullshit to throw out there less than a day into the trip.

Everyone files out, Swerve having forgotten about Tailgate, who’s having a minor wardrobe malfunction. Since he doesn’t have legs at present, he calls out to the one other guy he knows on the Lost Light.

Tailgate really knows how to pick ‘em.

Over with the dead body, everyone stands what is probably unadvisedly close to the scene of the crime and Ratchet performs a quick and dirty autopsy. The boys discuss the validity of Red Alert’s theory that this was caused by a sparkeater, with the mention of Rewind’s grainy footage making the creature seem like the Cybertronian equivalent of a cryptid. Probably less Fresno nightcrawler and more chupacabra. Ratchet tries to get everyone to focus for two goddamn seconds, when Trailbreaker picks up Shock’s brain module, knocking everyone right back off track again with the discussion of Rossum’s Trinity, the idea that the spark, brain module, and transformation cog are all interconnected, and damage to one can cause the others to shut down.

Ratchet’s had just about enough of this lot, but he gets through his examination.

This is the issue Alex Milne started drawing the insignias in himself as opposed to the previous practice of IDW having them put in in post.

Rodimus, however, wants to show off his new toys as it were, and asks Chromedome to take a gander. Chromedome wearily obliges, having Ratchet pop the brain back in Shock’s head so he can do his thing. Every other person on this fucking ship is a doctor, you see, and Chromedome is no exception- he’s a mnemosurgeon.

(Yes, my spellcheck DOES lose its mind every time I type that.)

Chromedome takes his terrifying pointy hands, jams them into the eye sockets of this corpse, and gets a brainfull of Shock’s final moments.

This is such a cool panel, and I went and ruined it for myself by realizing the upper left portion shouldn’t be visible, seeing as the brain is already outside Shock’s head, without any sort of cord connecting it to his body.

Back upstairs, folks are moving into their rooms for the surprise lockdown. Cyclonus is being a pal and is carrying Tailgate, because I’m pretty sure the little guy is just about the only person who’s talked to him in a non-hostile fashion in the last couple of months, and that really gets old after a while.

Those legs sure are something, Hoist. Is it just, like, a rule that a certain percentage of Transformers designs have to be at least somewhat unintentionally horny?

The two find a room, and then Cyclonus remembers that he’s not supposed to show things like empathy until later in the series, and drops Tailgate on the floor unceremoniously.

Meanwhile, over with Skids and Swerve, the pair’s found something truly wonderful- a fully-stocked bar. Swerve’s always wanted to run a bar, and this just might be his chance to chase his dreams.

Swerve is the punching bag for MTMTE, in case you couldn’t tell.

While Swerve is not-so-subtly crying for help, Skids is busy enacting another Roberts writing-staple- the robot in the vents. See, Skids has hit his bad boy phase; he doesn’t play by your daddy’s rules, so he’s gonna sneak out and do generally whatever pleases him, because he’s got a big honkin’ chunk of memories that just aren’t there anymore. Apparently that’s all he needs to go AWOL.

As Skids lifts himself up into the ceiling to fulfill his destiny as a vent-pest, he asks Swerve if he listens to music, which is met with a negatory. Odd, given his later characterization, but maybe he’s more into contemporary works.

The ass poking worked! Swerve is now the proud owner of one whole entire friend!

Back with the corpse crew, Chromedome’s finished his assessment of the body, and agrees that there’s a sparkeater amongst them. This is a huge fucking problem, to put it lightly, both in the sense of actual, physical danger, and the metaphysical space of the Lost Light itself.

Are we sure this thing didn’t just see this ship full of over 200 war veterans and say “that’s some good eatin’ right there” and snuck on board? Because if I were a horrific monster that was drawn to pain and emotional trauma, I’d absolutely consider the Lost Light a gold mine.

As Chromedome lays his head in Rewind’s lap, the others weigh their options. Sparkeaters go after the brightest sparks, then work their way down, so this thing is probably on the move as they speak. The thing’s eaten recently, the sparks haven’t completely digested, and that means they can’t just shoot it, because then it’ll explode, and we’ve had enough of that for one day.

Rodimus has everyone else go to hunt the thing down, while he and Drift hang out here in the basement. When Ultra Magnus questions this plan of attack, he’s brushed off, though Rodimus appears to imply that he thinks he’s got the brightest spark on the ship. Probably all that Matrix nonsense he went through.

Back upstairs, Animus gets shot with the irony gun and gets his soul vored.

This is what happens when you tell lies, kids. Your lemon-lime flavored soul gets eaten by the mecha-Krampus.

Whirl, who had locked the door to the habsuite, which is why Animus was out in the hall to begin with, realizes that something seriously messed up is happening, and does what he knows best, i.e. shooting first and asking questions probably never.

Good thing Trailbreaker is there to keep Whirl from exploding the entire ship, employing the help of his forcefield ability to contain the barrage.

In the resulting chaos, the sparkeater escapes, having triangulated its next meal, and it’s not Rodimus.

It’s this dweeb.

You can tell he’s in his office, because he’s got a landscape painting in there. Landscape paintings are pretty much the only decor allowed in doctors’ offices, I’m pretty sure it’s, like, a law or something.

Luckily, Rung decided to get threatened by a space-cryptid directly under a vent, so Skids can save his skinny little butt. Good job, Skids. Proud of you.

Back with Tailgate and Cyclonus, little dude’s just finished explaining his whole deal. He’s still trying to figure out what the hell happened during his dirt nap, so Cyclonus tries his best to fill him in on the several million year war. Keep in mind, Cyclonus wasn’t exactly there either, so his whole explanation probably isn’t the best. He wonders out loud which side Tailgate would have gravitated towards, had he been around for the massive mess the Autobots and Decepticons made.

Meanwhile, back in the GODDAMNED DUCTWORK, Rung and Skids are crawling as fast as they can to escape the sparkeater, though they can’t be that worried about it, seeing as Rung answers a phone call on his weird body-harness phone setup. Rodimus tells the two of them to head for the engine room, so that the sparkeater follows them down. Rung doesn’t seem too thrilled about this plan, but what’s he gonna do, argue with a potential space-pope?

Skids punches through a vent into the elevator shaft, then uses his grappling hook- which I want to say is never seen again after this issue- to lower them down in one of the most well-known crotch shots in the entire comic series.

Iconic.

They land on top of the elevator, and Skids yells at Brainstorm to punch the "E for Engine Room” button. The sparkeater bursts in through the ceiling, and Skids and Rung book it out of there, leaving Brainstorm to his inevitable demise.

Or not.

Rung and Skids have made it to the engine room, so now it’s time for the next portion of Rodimus’ plan, which is really only a small tweaking of what Rung was doing earlier- instead of being a moving target, he’ll be playing the role of stationary bait, as Rodimus holds him like a fucking crucifix made out of people, urging the sparkeater to come take a bite.

Up on the bridge, Perceptor gets ready to kick on the quantum engine, as per his captain’s request. Sure hope this plan works, because if they lose Rung, I don’t think they’ll ever find another therapist, thanks to the apparent ratio of 1:1/3 of the entire population of Cybertron.

The sparkeater lunges, Rodimus throws Rung off to the side, and he and the beast wrestle, Crocodile Dundee style. Perceptor initializes the jump, and, because they’re in the danger zone for the quantum engine, they get sucked in.

Rung seems a little miffed, but I’d say this is a win for Team Rodimus, even if those arms of his are toast. It’s cool though, he can get new ones.

Smashcut to Rodimus and his sick new arms, as he finishes explaining just what the hell happened to Magnus. Magnus isn’t quite as jazzed about the whole “used our therapist as a worm on a hook” thing as one would think, surprisingly, but Rodimus isn’t in the mood for a lecture. Off in the background, Tailgate’s getting his butt fixed, curtesy of Ratchet. Tailgate’s talking up a storm, regardless of Ratchet’s rather cool reception to the chatter.

Tailgate did some thinking while everyone was locked in their rooms, and he’s made a decision, based on his limited understanding of the Autobot/Decepticon war.

I guess Cyclonus forgot to mention the fact that there isn’t a single Decepticon on this ship for a reason.

[my-bugabooo]

youtuber!au + the obligatory drama

I just binge-read @lenoreofraven ‘s beauty guru!au and am obsessed so I present my take on the drama because I live for it wanted to write something!

So yeah, most if not all of the class has a youtube channel. They vary in category but they’re all pretty popular and not just in France. That being said, they all like to keep their personal lives pretty private. Whenever rumors circulate they more often than not just let them fizzle out (unless it’s something ‘bad’ in which case, yeah they’ll address it)

There’s a running joke floating around the internet about how all these really entertaining and actually super talented people apparently all go to the same school like “what do they put in their water have you seen all of them?!”  

When Adrien starts he’s a little intimidated because he may have been shut off from the world but he still had internet. He gets to class and finds all these big name personalities sitting around the room spitballing ideas and brainstorming and he freaks out a little on the inside because yeah, he may be a model and have connections but these people are famous through their own volition, you know?

He tries to hide how excited he is and doesn’t do the best job of it. Everyone finds it endearing though and very quickly take to him. Soon enough he’s pinballing back and forth between everyone’s channels, occasionally appearing for a few seconds (and even a couple minutes every now and then) in videos and another meme is created (the DuPont cryptid??!!)

But everything changes when Lila transfers to Francoise DuPont though (she’ll never admit that her sole reason for transferring was to join this one class). What was once very private personal lives became common knowledge because Lila didn’t care who she had to throw under the bus, she would get more views than all of them

She especially doesn’t like Alya because dueling beauty gurus and everything. Which, of course, means that she befriends her first. At first, it’s little things. Like Lila using a look Alya did a while back and not giving credit which people call her out for but Alya brushes it off. She eventually likes her enough that the two of them do a collab together (and then another, then another…) and Lila’s sub count shoots up since Alya has a lot more subs than she does. They never collab on Lila’s channel though.

Marinette is the one who starts to get a little suspicious because the more Lila’s sub count goes up, the less time she spends with Alya. Marinette watches as she goes from her to Nino, promising she’ll send a link to his channel to ‘a director she knows’. She stars in one of his shorts, takes the subs that roll in then she moves on to Max. She tells him that she knows these big name game creators in Silicon Valley or something and he soon puts her on his channel too.

Marinette, who’s been convinced by Adrien that it’s best not to engage, doesn’t say anything about it for a while. But then things sort of blow up.

Alya starts talking to Lila about this huge collab her and Marinette were talking about doing for the Halloween season. She tells her all about the first couple of looks she’s planning and next thing Alya knows Lila is uploading a video titled Halloween Preview! (A breakdown of future looks!)

Alya is fuming. She had her sketches done, planned, and bought new products for this specific occasion and Lila literally takes every single one of her ideas. In the heat of the moment she posts her sketches on twitter along with the caption ‘Me and @maridesigns have been planning Freak Week for literally months and then this happens?! At least I know how fake some people are now’

It only takes a minute or two to realize what she’s done and she quickly deletes the tweet but people have already seen it. Marinette, who was in the process of filming with Adrien and Nino, starts getting flooded with notifications. The three of them quickly investigate and find screenshots of Alya’s now deleted tweet along with one from Lila that says ‘People will really try to steal all of your hard work when they’re jealous huh’

No one in the friend group comments about it online but in class the next day it’s more than a little tense. Everybody is really supportive of each other and they had all heard about this thing Alya and Marinette were planning, even giving them ideas and their opinions and such during their separate outings together so they all know that Lila completely stole Alya’s looks.

Lila, being who she is, doesn’t pay attention or really care what anyone else is doing so she doesn’t know that they’ve all been helping with the brainstorming for Alya and Marinette’s Freak Week. She walks into class and immediately marches up to Alya and starts this rant about how betrayed she feels and how she can’t believe she’d do something like that and everyone is a little shocked by Chloe of all people bursting out with laughter halfway through Lila’s rant

“Puh-lease! I may not like Cesaire that much but I gotta give her some credit, those looks scream ‘the Alya brand’. Besides, I’m the one who helped her think of the Ladybug inspired look during Mendeleiev’s class last week.”

They all quickly come to the shocking realization that Lila had lied about almost everything that she’s told them since her transfer. By lunch they’ve all removed the videos on their channels that she was in, which is a good amount considering how insistent she had been on doing videos together, and the internet notices.

The class as a whole all just sit back and watch as people start pointing out how Lila has stolen looks before and how Alya had in fact teased one of the looks Lila had used in her video a couple of weeks back. They connect that to the fact that everyone in the group has removed videos featuring her but otherwise gone silent for the time being and start speculating on what’s going on behind the scenes. 

The drama channels have a field day.

[stillebesat]

The Interview (4/5)

Sanders Sides: Logan, Patton, Virgil, Roman Blurb: A normal day at StoryTime! Inc. takes an unexpected turn when Logan goes to investigate why his coworkers have made a bet using Crofters as the prize. Fic Type: General, Human!AU Warnings: None

To Catch Up: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 

Virgil froze like a deer in the headlights, barely appearing to breathe. “What?”

Logan raised an eyebrow, his smile becoming more amused. Had Virgil really expected him to say no--of course he had. 

“I said that you’re hired, Virgil.” He stood, carefully keeping the portfolio out of reach so the kid wouldn’t bolt. “Why don’t we head inside to work out the particulars?” Like informing Roman that he had once more overstepped. 

Hopefully this wouldn’t come back to bite him as hard as last time. 

“But.” Virgil shook his head, apparently rooted in place. “This wasn’t a rea inter--” He inhaled sharply, jabbing an accusing finger at Logan’s chest. “You said you weren’t Princey!” 

Logan pushed up his glasses with one finger, fighting a smile. “I said I wasn’t Roman.” He replied easily. “Not that I wasn’t a Prince.” Besides. His brother wasn’t the only one with hiring power in the building. 

Virgil frowned, rubbing his arms. “You’re a Prince? But how--records show--and if you’re not Roma--” He inhaled sharply, eyes growing wide. “Wait.” He took a step closer to Logan. “You’re telling me that you’re--” He dropped his voice, glancing furtively around the plaza. “Logan? Logan Prince?” 

The portfolio nearly slipped from his fingers at the mention of his name. That--that should be impossible! “How--?”  Logan breathed, ignoring the frantic pounding of his heart. 

He could count the number of people that knew his name in the company on one hand. To everyone else, even on official records, he was simply known as ‘Specs.’ 

The nickname didn’t help his cryptid status at all, but did keep everyone from lumping him and Roman together like they were one entity instead of two. It had finally allowed both of them to spread their figurative wings and take their own paths without feeling like they were in each other's shadows.

And now this...this outsider...knew his name?! HOW?!

 Virgil licked his lips, dropping the hand that had been outstretched for his portfolio. “Well...I did say I’ve followed Thomas from the beginning.” He shrugged, a bit of mischief glinting in his mismatched eyes. “I saw a photo of an early script of Princey’s.”

A script? Logan raised his eyebrows. A script--which script? He’d signed off as Specs on his collaborations with his brother for years. They couldn’t have slipped up over something as little as--

“Zooming in on the picture showed both your names on it, though it was hard to make out yours as its smudged with glitter and partially covered by Roman’s hand.” Virgil continued, staring at Logan as if he’d discovered Bigfoot. 

In a way he had. 

“Glitter?” Logan frowned. Roman hadn’t used glitter on screenplays since--oh. OH. “Are you meaning that four hundred page Sherlock inspired screenplay?” He asked, half turning to the building. 

Virgil nodded, drawing closer. “The one where Watson just freaking dies and a new less emotional sidekick takes place? Yes.” 

Logan chuckled, shaking his head. Of all the pieces that would expose him, it had to be that one. “I hadn’t realized he posted images of that.” He said, heading for the entrance, glancing over his shoulder to ensure Virgil was following. “We wrote it together one weekend while we were stranded at an airport.” 

Virgil whistled. “That’s--wow. Four hundred pages in two days? You two are crazy!”

“Bored more like.” They’d been between projects and driving each other mad, it had been something to keep the two of them equally entertained. “And it was written in three and a half days, plus the ten hour flight.” 

Again Virgil whistled, eyes wide. “Impressive.”

Logan shrugged. “Yah...well. That’s my--” he dropped his voice as he grabbed the door, noting the gaggle of people still hovering in the foyer, watching the two of them. “Twin for you.” He returned to speaking to his normal tones as if nothing had happened. “Once Roman gets inspired, it’s hard to get him to stop.” Another reason why it was difficult to keep people in his department. Few people could go as long or as hard as his brother could. 

Virgil stumbled a step, hesitating right outside the doorway. “Twin?” He echoed softly. “I had thought---I had a theory there were Two Princes at StoryTime!, but I didn’t think you two were---HOW has this not gotten out?!” 

Because they didn’t want to be known just as The Twins anymore. That’s why. 

Logan shrugged. “We don’t want it to. So it doesn’t.” Though now that Virgil had connected the dots-- “And I hope you won’t--”

Virgil rubbed his arms, shaking his head as he looked to the people in the lobby. “Dude, don’t worry. I can keep a secret.” 

That would remain to be seen, but Logan appreciated the sentiment. Though he would be more comfortable having this conversation without so many listening ears nearby. After all, he was already drawing them far too much attention because ‘Specs’ wasn’t supposed to be able to leave the building and Virgil was just standing there like a statu--

Maybe he’s a vampire and needs to be invited inside. 

Logan bit back a smile as Reese’s words echoed in his head. “Then come in, Virgil.” he said, holding the door open a little wider. “I promise we don’t bite. Roman’s more bark than anything.”  

Virgil hunched his shoulders, pushing his bangs over his eyes, before drawing in a steadying breath. “Okay.” He whispered, stepping over the threshold onto the marble tiles, looking around with cautious curiosity. 

“This way.” Logan said, ignoring Ellyn and Chris’s glances as he snagged a visitor’s pass from the front desk, tossing it to Virgil. “You’ll need to wear that until you’re coded into the system.”

“When will that be?” Virgil asked, slipping the pass over his head as Logan pressed the button for the elevator. 

He hummed, tapping the portfolio. That was a good question. “It would depend on when you can--”

“SPECS!” A voice boomed overhead from the floor above, echoing around the lobby. “THERE you are!” 

Well...that saved him the trouble of tracking his brother down. “What does he want now?” Logan asked under his breath as he turned towards the figure standing at the top of the steps. Roman could vanish at the worst possible times and turn up in the oddest of places like the air ducts above the cafeteria.

Virgil jerked. “Specs?” His eyes sparked, lighting up like Logan had just told him aliens existed. “Specs...of course!” He breathed as the elevator dinged, the doors sliding open. “It makes so much sense how you kept this--I’d wondered but--” Virgil frowned. “But I thought you never went outside!” 

Clever. Virgil was piecing things together much faster than ninety-eight percent of the company ever would. 

Logan flashed him a smile, putting a finger to his lips, aware of the guards and other associates standing nearby. He was liking this kid more and more every moment. “I usually don’t.” He said, dropping the smile as a man wearing a white jacket and red sash slid down the banister of the staircase like...well a Prince straight from a Disney movie, skidding to a stop in front of the two of them. 

“About time I found you!” His brother cried, barely glancing to Virgil, before laser focusing in on Logan.

“You have perfect timing as always, Roman.” Logan said, placing a hand on Virgil’s elbow, pulling him inside the elevator. “I was just heading back upstairs to find you.” 

Roman blinked. “Find me? What for?” He demanded, following the two of them inside, hitting the button for the ninth floor. “I’ve spent the last twenty minutes trying to track you down and now you want to find me?” He ran a hand through his hair. “Of course you do this to me two minutes before my next interview--”

“For Virgil right?” 

Roman gaped at him, eyes narrowing as the doors slid shut. “How did you--” 

Time to jump into the fire. “I just hired him for your department.” Logan said, gesturing to the third member of their little elevator party.

Roman froze, mouth half open, before his hands clenched. “You. WHAT?!” 

“I hired him--am I not speaking clearly today?” Logan asked looking to Virgil with a raised eyebrow. “You did the same thing when I told you you were hired too.” 

Virgil shook his head, crossing his arms, his hand rubbing the spot Logan had grabbed as Roman gave him the once over. “No. It’s just a statement that not many people will find believable...apparently.” 

“Oh no, it’s believable, if I allowed your interview to be scheduled in the first place, but Specs.” Roman growled, glaring at Logan. “We agreed you wouldn’t interfere--”

“With your hires.” He finished. “I know, but trust me, brother.” Logan said stressing the word as he held out Virgil’s portfolio. If he was right, and he normally was, Roman wouldn’t be mad at him for long. 

Roman froze, hand already outstretched, eyes flicking to Virgil and back. “He?”

“Knows we’re related, thanks to you.” 

“To me! I haven’t said a word--” Roman denied, taking the portfolio and flipping it open as he leaned against the wall.

“Virgil, care to explain?” 

“I…” Virgil flushed under their combined stares, setting his chin stubbornly. “The Sherlock screenplay. I noticed that Logan’s name wasn’t completely covered when you took the picture and dug around a bit--Do people here really not know you’re related?” 

They both shook their heads. “No.”

Virgil scoffed, gesturing between them. “But you two look exactly the same!” 

“Only a handful know.” Logan clarified, pointedly adjusting the frames of his glasses. 

It helped that they weren’t often seen together. Most of their meetups took place in the privacy of their offices.

“Like three people--Spec’s does great as Clark Kent--” Roman jerked his head up from the portfolio. “Don’t tell me you hired him because he’s blackmailing you!?” He demanded, jabbing a finger at Virgil.

Virgil flinched, but took a step forward, eyes blazing. “I wouldn’t do that, Princey.” He growled. 

I’m quite used to being the villain.

“Princey?” Roman repeated, his own eyes darkening. 

Virgil faltered, glancing to Logan. “I--I---uh.” 

Logan gave him a reassuring smile, nodding to Roman “Go on, Virgil. Speak your mind.” He wanted to see if the new hire would actually stand up to his brother as he’d stated outside. 

Virgil set his jaw, taking a breath, staring Roman down. “I’m here because you were willing to give me a chance, sir. No other motive. I want to work here on my own merit. Not through...through blackmail.” He practically spat the word. “My Two Princes theory was just that. A theory until Lo--Specs here confirmed it.” 

Logan winced as Roman side eyed him. Busted.

"Well…color me impressed that you got Dr. Roboto here to confirm anything, kid. Usually he's sealed tighter than a jar of Crofters." Roman snapped the portfolio shut as the elevator doors opened. "Don't count your eggs though. I'm not so easily swayed." 

Logan rolled his eyes. Ah Huh. Yah right. "Page twenty-eight." He said tapping the top of the portfolio as they stepped out onto the landing. "Then you'll understand one of the factors that lead to me hiring Virgil." 

Roman scoffed. "One image led you to hire him over my head? Are you addled?" 

"I would…agree." Virgil said slowly, glancing between the two as he moved down the hallway with them. "Compared to my other works, I don't see how that one-"

Logan glanced to Virgil as he pulled open a door with Roman Prince written in cursive on the glass. He would see soon enough. "I can assure you both that my cognitive function has been unaffected in my decision.” He gestured Virgil to step inside. “Your overall work is beyond noteworthy and while the one drawing is A factor for my decision to hire you, it is not The factor. Your work shows a much larger variety than any others I’ve seen.” 

“The thing weighs a ton, I would hope it would show some range.” Roman said, flipping through the various works much faster than Logan had. 

A pity. His brother wouldn't be able to see the intricacies of each piece doing that, though of course he had encouraged Roman to look at one particular page. 

“I wouldn’t think you’d mind the size, Roman. You are the one interviewing for ‘fresh blood’ are you not or was there another reason you were whining to me just last night about the lack of talent in your department?” 

His brother made a face, not looking up as he kicked the door shut. "A Prince does not whine! I merely bemoan the lack of talent the kids these days ha--WHAT!?" Roman shrieked, loud enough Logan was sure the entire building heard him as he stared dumbfounded at page twenty-eight.

Bingo. Logan smirked, adjusting his glasses as closed the blinds on the windows to keep curious eyes at bay. He could already imagine the bets that Remy would be putting down on why ‘The Prince’ had screamed this time.

Roman whirled to Virgil, practically shoving the picture into the kid’s startled face. "You drew this?!" 

Virgil blinked down at the Sallyized version of Jack Skellington before raising an eyebrow. "Yes?"

Roman's eyes lit up like a kid at Christmas as he set the portfolio down on his desk and pulled out his phone, swiping at the screen before he turned it to them both showing an online art account with the same exact drawing with the same stormcloud signature on the bottom. "You're telling me this is you? That you're--!"

"EmoKnightmare478?" Virgil ran his hand through his hair. “Yah. That's me, Princey, but how--why?" 

“YES!” Roman cried out, grabbing Logan’s his hands as he practically broke into a dance, waltzing them around the room before he switched to jumping up and down like an excited child at Christmas with Logan doing his best to just turn with his brother’s antics so he wouldn’t lose his hands. "YES YES YES YES YES YES!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT, LOGAROO!! YOU FOUND STORMCLOUD! HE APPLIED! HE WANTS TO WORK--!! LOGAN! AHHHHH!!!!" 

“Am I...missing something here?” Virgil asked, resting a hand on his artwork, safely keeping his distance from Roman’s prancing.

“Roman’s been a fan of your account for the past couple of years.” Logan said simply, looking over his shoulder at their new hire. “He looks forward to seeing your bi-montly updates like one looks forward to opening presents at Christmas.”

Virgil went white, his other hand reaching to grab onto the desk as he swayed. “A Fan?” He squeaked. 

"OF COURSE!!” Roman finally freed Logan from his finger-numbing grip to fall down to his knees at Virgil’s feet, arms spread wide.  “Do you know how much I positively adore your twist on a Nightmare Before Christmas series, Emo Knightmare?” He asked eagerly. “Tell me. What would it take to commission you to draw the entire cast Sallyized for me? One large painting to hang there over my desk? Anything's on the table. Name your price." 

“I--I--” Virgil leaned back away from Roman’s onslaught, glancing to his portfolio on the desk. 

At this rate, Virgil would bolt because his brother was acting like a starstruck fangirl. Logan exhaled, grabbing Roman by the shoulder. “Roman, perhaps you should tone down the adoration and stop terrorizing your new hire?”

“He’s--He’s not--” Virgil drew in a shallow breath. 

Logan shook his head. “Well...even if he’s not, I shall assuage your fears anyway. You will still have your job even if you refuse, Virgil. Crofters forbid it doesn’t do Roman any harm to be told no every now and then.” He didn’t need him thinking that his twin wouldn’t hire him if he said no.

“Oh yes, your job isn’t ever in question with this, Stormcloud.” Roman said, slipping out from under Logan’s hand as he pushed to his feet and brushed off his pants. “Specs hired you and from what I’ve seen so far, I second it, but.” His eyes went wide and pleading as he clasped his hands together. “I will be very very very heartbroken and will be giving you super sad puppy dog eyes like this everytime you see me for the next--”

“Three hours?” Logan asked, adjusting his glasses as he pulled his brother back another step to give Virgil space to breathe.

Roman made a face. “I was gonna say a week, but probably.” 

Virgil swallowed, licking his lips. “You...really would…pay me? The Prince? Would...pay me?” 

“Of course! I said--” Roman turned to Logan. “Did I not say that, Lo? Any price. I said that!”

“You did indeed.” Logan nodded, though he could see how Virgil wouldn’t be certain. Despite his flamboyance, Roman was rather covert in buying from up and coming artists. He’d yet to hear any rumors of rumors from anyone that ‘The Prince’ had bought their work. He could see why there would be skepticism at the genuinity of Roman’s offer.

“Great! Here.” Roman took Virgil by the arm, pulling him to a seat at his desk. “Specs will draw up your contract for the position. Wages, hours, so on and so forth. I trust he was quite thorough in whatever interview he gave you right before you found me right? Right. But you and I.” He smiled conspiracaly, pulling up a chair. “Need to talk shop. Come on. Commission. How much?” 

Logan rolled his eyes, but sat behind Roman’s desk, his fingers already flying over the keyboard of his brother’s desktop to pull up the necessary forms to print out. “Of course, leave the boring paperwork to me.” 

“It’s what you’re good at Specs.” Roman waved vaguely in his direction, his full attention on Virgil. “Come on Virge, can I call you Virge? Name your price.” 

“I--I---Okay...uhmmm. Well…” Virgil rubbed the back of his head before dropping his hand to where Roman had touched him. “Were you actually wanting one large painting of everyone together or individual pieces that form a scene if placed side by side? 

Roman’s eyes lit up as he leaned forward. “I was thinking the former, but the latter intrigues me. What would be the difference?” 

“Well…” The corner of Virgil’s mouth twitched as he rested a hand on his portfolio. “You said name my price. Does it have to be just...monetary?” 

Logan shared a knowing look with his brother, identical smiles breaking out on both of their faces. 

Oh, their new hire was going to fit in rather well here if he was already thinking like that.

“No, no it does not.” Roman sat back placing his fingers together. “What were you thinking instead? A higher wage? A better position?”

Logan tensed. Why had Roman brought that up?! It was--

Virgil’s mismatched eyes darkened as he shook his head. “I told you, Princey, I’m not here because of blackmail or bribing. Personal commissions are and will always be considered separate from my job here. I won’t argue for things that I haven’t yet proven that I deserve.” 

That was--that was good. Logan slowly let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding, his fingers frozen on the keys. 

“Alright...but if your asking price doesn’t include money, power, or position.” Roman raised an eyebrow. “What then are you wanting me to pay in?”

Virgil visibly swallowed. “Well, I would charge per character of course, and for Jack.” He placed a trembling hand on his portfolio. “My price--” He licked his lips, but didn’t break eye contact. “My price would be that I can wear my hoodie to work.” 

Logan blinked. A...hoodie?

He again shared a look with Roman. It was an interesting choice, especially after his talk of not interfering with work, but then again, it was just an article of clothing. One that may put Virgil more at ease here than the ill fitting suit he currently wore. 

Logan returned his attention to the laptop. “You are aware that our dress code is--” 

“Business casual, yes.” Virgil said, pulling at the collar of his shirt, his fingers trailing down his tie. “And I can,” the corner of his mouth twitched in distaste. “follow that to a T, if this particular option doesn’t work for you, I promise. You just said--”

“Name any price.” Roman nodded, pulling out a pen and paper, quickly listing down a dozen characters from the movie. “For Jack.” He said circling the name and writing wear hoodie at work next to it. “I would allow the hoodie--but only at your desk. Any meetings, presentations, or red carpet events you’ll need to nix it.” 

Virgil let out a breath, relaxing as he gave them a large genuine smile. “Deal.”

To Be Continued Chapter 5

Taglist in Reblog

[pilferingapples]

TMA S2 Natter I guess!!

LORE LORE LORE LORE WHOOO

under the cut for massive major spoilers of course

- I’m really glad I’m binging this, it helps me remember things to have a big chunk of story and lots to pick up on all stacked together and reinforcing itself. I still have to check and double check the Fan Wiki for names here and there, when I hear someone I KNOW I recognize from earlier; I’ve inevitably run across some spoilers that way, thanks to the structure of the wiki, so I’m really glad I’m needing to do that less and less as the show goes on; I don’t think I had to check anything in the last ten episodes, thought I did still have to go to the wiki to get links to the Transcripts, because 

- I find the tunnel-echo effects make the dialogue pretty unparseable no matter how loud I have the show, unfortunately. I could understand Michael,and not much else. (I mean,I could understand Michael’s voice, the Spiral’s motives and all are fairly opaque to me still.) The voices and acting lend so much ambiance, I would have been happy to watch along on the YT vid with subtitles , but it doesn’t have subtitles? Frustrating, but I do  really appreciate there being transcripts! 

- Michael makes me really, really sad. He was just a kid who stayed out in the rain a second too late! It wasn’t even his idea! And he got Marked and he lost his whole damn life to this thing before he was even old enough to have a good grasp on what reality is in the normal swing of things. Poor kid. Poor Michael-that-should-have-been. (ETA so I don’t answer this multiple times: I’m aware Lightning-and-Tower Michael might not be Hallways and Hands Michael, but this is just name-association, really.  Also, there’s a growing horror in S2 in finding so many people who seemed to escape their encounters showing  up again in much worse shape in other Statements...)

- Thanks to Tumblr Osmosis , I’m  sure the Endgame OTP (at least so far) in Jon/Martin, and while I’m currently not a fan of that (though totally prepared to change my mind according to character/relationship development!) I am  delighted to be able to enjoy Jon and Basira’s relationship without worrying that her character is going to be suddenly smashed flat to make her The Love Interest. I love their weird uneasy alliance!  I hope she comes back but also hope she goes somewhere Far Away and lives Ordinarily Ever After. 

-on that note, Daisy Daisy Daisy bring back Daisy, I don’t usually get into cop characters but WEIRD CRYPTID FORCE COPS are apparently a potential weakness for me  (..also I know, I know  they are probably Hunt-aligned. I’ve already said I’m unfortunately Weak for The Hunt ).  

-I miss Actual!Sasha >:

- Tim is seriously the only person in this whole damn institute with any self preservation either supernatural or normal??  “Yeah you’re right I don’t like the boss who stalks me and keeps secrets about a situation which is directly about my own personal safety like I was the enemy and takes his trauma out on me directly while I’m recovering from,in this case , exactly the same trauma thanks “

Martin: Wow Tim you’re so selfish, how can you even think about fleeing our supernatural hellscape, why aren’t you more concerned with the guy who is very overtly considering you a potential enemy and crossing all boundaries in a way that, in any normal job, would right off be enough to get HR and maybe the cops involved?  WHY ARE YOU BEING SO UNREASONABLE, TIM??...Now excuse me while I run to my probable death with no preparation in defense of a guy who seems to go out of his way to hit my very obvious emotional weak points and considered me so useless  he thought I might be dead already, because unlike you I am making good decisions!!! LEEEROY JENKINNNSSSSS”

-honestly the apparent connection between why the Institute/Elias accepted Martin as sacrifice an employee and Martin’s emotional Everything is both screamingly apparent and worth an essay all on its own , that’s some Good Charactering

-I never trusted Elia-- Never Trust the Boss Of Shadowy Organization With Mysterious Backers, that’s my motto-- but HE KILLED THE INFODUMP SOURCE. HOW DARE. INSTANT LEAST FAVE.

- I KNEW LEITNER WAS A RESEARCHER I KNEW IT I KNEW IT, who has a vast occult library BUT never really figures in any accounts of actually DOING anything?? AN OCCULT NERD DOING RESEARCH.  (I say, well aware that *I* did not do my research as fully as I’d like here, to avoid spoilers, and thus may be forgetting a Big Thing he apparently did)

- I did NOT know he was still alive?? and totally didn’t see him working with Gertrude (it was actually Gert’s Occult Book Hunting that made me slap my head and go OH RIGHT about Leitner!) 

-I want to know more about Gertrude 

- The OH NO moment I had during Leitner’s description of obvious multiple entities working together to just wreck his shop!!  BAD, BAD, THE INJUSTICE LEAGUE OF AAAAAH IS BAD 

- also now I know for sure that the Web and the Stranger are enemies? this puts at least 2/3 Fear Entities that could, I am aware , pretty much have me as a pawn for a cheap ice-cream cone allied against the one  Entity that makes me absolutely go into Screaming Phobia Murder Mode, I don’t know if everyone’s feeling the same way or if this is just the show happening to find my particular keys like that 

-...listen Elias is THE WORRRRSSSST and I am sure The Institute is Not Good but if The Stranger existed and was A Thing like this then they wouldn’t have  to Play me to get my assistance on taking it out , every single episode about it makes me go Mad Raccoon in A Box ,  I want it gone, the enemy of the Stranger is my ...slightly less enemy 

-Jonnycakes Sims is the Avatar of the Human Trainwreck, but I did not realize until this episode that he does not drink coffee??  I’m torn between thinking he should and thinking all caffeine should be taken away from him forever. 

-Also, Dammit, Jonet, this “keeping info about supernatural horror schemes from my team For Their Own Good” nonsense?  BAD , you are not a Victorian patriarch and they are not your children, GIVE THEM A FIGHTING CHANCE YOU GOOBER, DID YOU EVER READ ONE GOTHIC NOVEL, IGNORANCE IS DEATH 

- ..HOW DID YOU DECIDE TO SMASH THE TABLE YOU. GOOBER PIE.   I take it back, definitely Jonny needs to drink all the more caffeine. 

--in conclusion, ELIAS TOOK MY LORE HOOKUP AND HE MUST PAY FOR HIS CRIMES. 

(Supplemental:P) 

I'm getting the impression, from responses to my earlier little post, that people don't? like Tim ?? and I am Afraid this means he is Something Horrible?? but he's fun and friendly and smart and reacting like a human with normal human self-preservation instincts + a touch of Heroic honestly?? why do people not like Tim, is he a secret Horror, NO DON'T ACTUALLY TELL ME but  D:  NERVOUS NOW

[diabolikmosquito]

Tag Game because I have no self-restraint

@the-mostdiabolik-of-lovers posted this one with permission for anyone to tag themselves so obviously I’m gonna take it and run. My asks are empty and I’ve been craving ask games and surveys lately, sue me. Putting it under a cut so I don’t clog anyone’s dash!

Gender: Female Star sign: Taurus Current time: 8:15 PM, though it’ll prolly be later by the time I finish typing this all out. Favorite song artists: Don’t make me choose. A lot of my favorite music is instrumental OST’s, though an instrumental artist or two that I love are ones like Jami Sieber, Brambles, Otto A Totland, and Joep Beving. For non-instrumental.. there’s a lot. Ellise, SYML, Nico Collins, Frank Sinatra, and Bohnes are a few I’ve had in some playlists lately, but there’s way too many.  Favorite songs: This is harder than the last one and I am not obligated to answer it. (’: But if you’re someone who reads my samples or threads, you might find some of my favorite OST’s/mood musics that suit the post/hint at something hidden in there. Song stuck in your head: Again, these change so often daily it’s hard to pick one, but a handful include A Little Messed Up by june, Dance Monkey (the slowburn edit), and way more OST’s than are healthy. (Highlights for that include the original Medievil soundtrack, which for some reason reminds me of Castlevania at times.) Last movie you saw: Birds of Prey! I almost didn’t go due to not feeling great, so I’m glad I bucked up and saw it with some friends. Last thing I googled: If you ignore the numerous Castlevania-related things in the last 24 hours, then it’s “cat keeps sneezing.” If not, then it’s “castlevania vampire generals” because being totally frank, I didn’t even know the generals with no lines in the first two seasons had names until recently. Other blogs: I haven’t been on it in ages and actually forgot the password, but once I get on that I’ll get back to you. xD Do you get asks? Not really, but I stick around for the people who’re kind enough to take that interest! I keep all the ask/rp prompts tagged neatly in links on my profile so if someone new comes by one day and wants to interact, it’ll be easy for them to. Reason for your url: The original concept for Pepper was very much a mosquito-like cryptid created for a certain purpose, hence the mosquito. The diabolik part is because I originally joined Tumblr to find a community for Diabolik Lovers (due to some other writing sites being very.. standoffish if you don’t write canons/don’t exclusively write gay ships), but now it’s just all kinds of vampire hell. Once I actually get into some more vampy verses you can bet I’ll be writing/reblogging stuff from those as well! and yes I am looking for more recommendations in that vein (heh, puns) if anyone has some. Average amount of sleep: Erm.. 3-12 hours. During the week it’s about 3-5, and weekends is sometimes my “catch up” time where I still stay up quite late, but actually sleep in to let my body get some rest. Lucky number: It’s always been 9, and it tends to come up a lot in odd places so I might have to stick with it. Currently wearing: An old super comfy high school t-shirt and shorts, complete with a coat of long hair courtesy of my cat who was just laying on me. Dream job: Honestly? Still figuring that out. I’m going on a clinical psych track at the moment, but I’ve been doing a bit of soul-searching and testing to see if I’m actually strong enough for the therapist/clinician route I was originally after. I just don’t know if I’m strong enough just yet to settle into a job where I could very well have to help abusers in their early stages, something that I have no doubt will be upsetting to me personally. I’m a bit of an empath at times so it’d be excellent for the job, but I also feel I’d take it home with me which is dangerous. I don’t feel like I’m smart enough for psychology research on regular basis, though, so I have some thinking to do. Thankfully I’m still getting my bachelor’s so it’s not like I’m hard-pressed to immediately figure it out. On a lighter note, smol me was very much convinced I would be a marine biologist due to my love of the ocean and my skill in scuba diving, but that evaporated when research told me they travel nonstop and frequent travel makes me anxious Dream trips: I’ve been on a cruise a couple times and the experiences were honestly life-changing for one odd reason or another, be it how that time had me interact with my family and the things I got to see and experience. There’s a strange sense of freedom, even though you’re mostly confined to a boat. I’d love to visit Ireland and Germany since it’s where almost my entire family come from and often the landscape is beautiful, and since our culture’s kind of been watered down after a few generations living here I’d like to connect with that. Favorite foods: I have like 2-3 cups of tea in a day and keep exploring all kinds of new types, so that’d probably be it literally. Ones that I idealize in my head though wheeze would probably be things like steak, or scallops, or a specific kind of ice cream shaved ice thing I had once that legitimately made me tear up because it was so good.  Play any instruments? I tried to pick up the coronet in grade school since my dad played the trumpet and I thought it’d be fun, but I had some trouble memorizing the order of notes for songs, and it all kind of fell apart after an instructor dented up my instrument with a drumstick and tried to refuse to apologize/pay for it. (Yes, seriously, but that’s a story for another time. xD)

Of course I’ll pass the blessing and say anyone who wants to do this absolutely should, but I’m also gonna tag @sherbetcoloured , @natacular , @lachrymosestorm , and @l-e-w-d-y (provided they’d like to do it, of course)

[taehyungsgrowl]

ok but.. a short drabble with the title "break up with your girlfriend, i'm bored" in which michael is constantly flirting with and desperately trying for a boy a Hawthorne who claims he's already taken. Michael tries to find a way to show this boy that maybe girls aren't his only choice?

THIS IS MY JAM!!! Maybe Hawthorne Michael coming out of his shy™️ years? 

(Also I know we never saw any places like the one described in Hawthorne and the inspo comes from Cordelia’s greenhouse in Coven. Because who doesn’t wanna think about Michael making out with a cute boy surrounded by pretty plants?)

The boy would be struggling in his classes, on the brink of failing and Michael would notice. But Michael noticed everything about him; the way his laughter would fill up the dinning hall, the way he walked with such utter confidence, and the stupid way his eyes would light up at the mention of his girlfriend. 

Stupid witch. Michael knew it wasn’t her fault, but he fought hard against the jealousy he felt towards her. 

After Michael innocently offered to help the boy study; they found themselves in one of Hawthornes greenhouses. They were surrounded by herbs and flowers in a hot and condensed place. 

The boy crushed and mixed a plethora of ingredients as Michael watched with an amused look on his face. He could feel beads of sweat dancing down the back of his neck, his styled waves falling apart, sticking to his forehead. 

The potion combination started to bubble and steam. The boy looked at Michael with the kind of smile that made his heart skip a beat. 

“Look, Michael! It’s working!” 

“I told you you could do it,” Michael bumped his hip against the warlocks. 

His crush turned around to lean back against the table, his hands behind him, holding on to the edge. “Yeah.. well I wouldn’t have been able to without you.”

I wouldn’t have been able to without you.

The sentence lingers in Michael’s head, a deep blush forming on his already hot face. He’s standing face to face with the boy he can’t shake out of his mind. No matter how wrong it is. 

He’s got a girlfriend. He’s got a girlfriend. His thoughts scream at him. But Michael can smell him from the short space between them; and he smelled like toasted coconut and linens. He noticed the way the crinkles near his eyes matched the dimples that adorned his smile. Michael found it harder and harder to breathe. His neck tie felt too tight and he wanted nothing more than to crash his lip to the boys. 

And so he did. 

He felt the gasping of the boys lips as his connected. Closing his eyes, he tried to push down the dreaded fear of rejection bubbling in his tummy. And he kissed him. Soft plump, pink lips kissing the stunned warlock. The warlocks eyes fluttered shut, lips returning the action; if only for just a moment. 

He pulled away, his body pressing against the table. He felt confused, flustered, and guilty.

“Michael.. I - I have a girlfriend.” he didn’t know where to look. If he thought the room felt hot before, there was not way to describe what it felt like now. 

Michael tried to not let his face fall. He nodded, his tongue poking out to taste the boys taste that lingered on his lips. 

“I know, but.. but she doesn’t have to know.” he took a step closer. He could almost hear the boys heart beat racing, the heat bouncing between the both of them almost tangible. 

Michael was only a few inches taller than him; using that to his advantage, he ducked his head down, bumping his nose with the boys’. His hands were on either side of the boy, entrapping him between his body and the table. 

“C’mon,” he pouted, lips almost brushing his. 

“Did you not like my kiss? It sure seemed like you did.” Michael was acting like a brat and he knew it. 

“Y/N..” he whined, “don’t think about your girlfriend.” Michael kissed him again; only a peck this time. Short and oh, so sweet. 

Y/N would be lying if he said he never thought about Michael in that way. Too often, he would be distracted by the way Michael parted his hair or read a spell. He swore he was under Michael’s spell. 

Especially now. With the way Michael’s porcelain skin glowed with the light sheen of sweat the covered his skin. Or how his uniform contrasted against the greenery of leaves around them. 

The perfect summer nights dream. 

Here he was offering himself to him and he was finding it harder and harder to say no to him. 

he couldn’t say no. Not to Michael. 

Y/N kissed him. He grabbed Michael’s chiseled jaw, bringing him as close as he could. 

Michael smirked against the kiss, letting his body press into the Y/N. 

Soft grunts and moans left their mouths as the grinded their crotches into each other, hungry lips chasing one another. 

The sudden knock on the cloudy crystal door made them both jump away from the heated moment. 

Blushes spread across both their faces. “Michael? Y/N?” they heard their professors voice through the thick, hazy glass, “It’s curfew; get back to your dorms” he grumbled. 

They giggled, letting the tension melt from the room. 

Michael touched his lips, still feeling the electric current running through him. 

“I’ll see you in the morning.” he winked before heading back to his dorm, leaving the young warlock, dumbfounded and turned on. 

YEEE! This has been in my inbox for a few days and I just got the time to write it! Tagging a few that have enjoyed my shy!hawthorne!michael stuff :’)

also @1-800-bitchcraft I just saw your post about the Ariana Grande inspired fic names rijkflsgs sorry! 

Tagging:  @asstichrist @codyfernss @1-800-bitchcraft@daadddysprincesss@lovelylangdonx @theharvestgirloffire@sweetlangdon @americanhorrorstudies@ghostiesbedroom@queencocoakimmie @michael-langdon-appreciation@ritualmichael @cryptid-coalition @maso-xchrist @et-tu-bitch@eternal-langdon @yourkingcodyfern @missantichrist@flowersiren@cherryberryann @rocketgirl2410 @infernal-langdon @ms-mead@kissydevil @nana15774 @hplotrfan @grangerdang-r @wroteclassicaly

[adventuresloane]

Lup, Raven Queen, Barry, Ango and totally Ren. ;) maybe sloane also! For the HC meme❤️

(for this meme)

Kat this is……SO many oh my lord. I’m gonna put most of theseunder a cut!!!  You’re a doll tho thanksfor all the asks.

Lup:

A) What I think realistically: I love the idea that,contrary to popular belief, she’s the younger twin! When they were kids, Taakowould always be the one who had to get her out of the trouble she got herselfinto. Taako’s always been a bit more pragmatic, but Lup just couldn’t standdisrespect towards her or her brother and would always address it. She stood upto people and probably bit off more than she could chew a number of times,meaning Taako had to help her out of a tight spot.

B) What is fucking hilarious to me: Lup at one point had apretty major crisis in her life because she loves to cook for people anddesperately wanted to show her affection for Barry by cooking for him, but.This man has lived off late-night hot pockets out of his laboratory microwavefor years. He doesn’t have a palette. One time she overheard him call ketchupspicy and she just kind of stared at the wall for five minutes. She spent manyan evening slaving over recipe books to try to find SOMETHING decent that thisuncultured man would actually enjoy.

C) What is heart-crushing and awful but fun to inflict onfriends: She’s got…a number of lingering issues after her release from theumbrella. There’s a lot of talk about how she develops claustrophobia, andwhile I think that’s certainly true, I think another thing that leaves hershaken is the utter darkness inside the staff. Before she was able to get herpowers back to create fire, the darkness in there must have been absolute andchilling. Imagine how long she lay there entirely blind and unable to make outanything. I don’t think she can sleep with the lights off anymore. She alwaysat least leaves the hall light on outside the bedroom, but even that’s notenough much of the time, and she often plays with a little fireball in herhands until she can’t keep her eyes open anymore, so that she knows there’sstill light where she is.

D) What would never work with canon but the canon is shit soI believe it anyway: Griffin says that the Legato performance was the firsttime the rest of the IPRE crew realized that Barry and Lup were in love butcome the fuck on. These guys??? They’re so incredibly obvious and crazy foreach other. Even if they didn’t tell their family explicitly EVERYONE knew forYEARS.

Raven Queen

A) Every raven in Faerun is at her beck and call. The birdshave a bit of magic to them inherently and find it easy to slip from plane toplane. She’ll dispatch them to carry messages or keep an eye on things for herand report back. She VERY rarely comes to the mortal planes, but you can alwaystell when she’s on her way. Thousands of ravens circle together tightly in thesky, their iridescent wings shining, and from the almost blinding andotherworldly shimmer a portal forms through which she comes.

B) Has motherly instincts towards Kravitz but no concept ofwhat being a parent to a former mortal actually entails. At what age does onestop picking up mortal children? 35? Her idea of mother-son bonding is enactinga blood oath. She’s trying her best.

C) Kravitz became her “ward” of sorts when he begged andprayed to her for months on end to spare his sick mother and take his lifeinstead—he made a brave trade and she respected him for it, hence his positionas a reaper.

D) She grants Magnus a “limited” amount of extra time livinghappily with Julia in the afterlife but honestly do you think she’ll ever makethem stop living in that little cabin? Heck, do you really think she’s going tokeep their friends from leaving the sea of souls to visit them whenever???She’s willing to turn a blind eye to their little party for the rest ofeternity.

Barry

A) He is just……so visibly huggable tbh. You look at him andyou’re like, “That’s a man who’d be good to just hug for a little while. Chubbysoft belly. Just a teddy bear of a man.

B) The boy is a classic academic research scientist, whichis to say a damn mess. He’ll periodically crop his hair short but then won’tbother to get it cut again for months on end because he’s too busy, so it growsout all wild and looks a mess. He has one (1) mug he keeps on his desk and likenever washes because it’s always filled with coffee anyway. Shows up to work ina stained T-shirt because it’s not like anyone’s paying attention to him whenhe’s locked up in his lab all day anyway. Grody science man.

C) Next to Taako, he’s the one who takes the longest toforgive Lucretia, and I sort of think he never completely gets over what shedid. Unlike everyone else in the IPRE crew, he was deliberately isolated fromthe rest of his family AND HE WAS AWARE OF IT. That’s fucked up, and he learnedto hate Lucretia for awhile, and that’s not the kind of thing that can beerased as soon as Story & Song is over. He can barely look her in the eyefor awhile.

D) He does NOT have a mullet do not to my boy dirty likethis.

Angus

A) All this debate over Magnus or Taako or Lucretia orwhoever the fuck adopts Angus post-S&S? Screw that noise. It’s not like anyof the adult figures in his life AREN’T walking disasters as individuals—it’sonly together that they’re sort of capable of functioning. That’s why he haslike twenty parents and splits his time between like five different houses,inside each of which he has his own room and where he is welcome at all hoursof the day and night. That kid is living the dream.

B) Absolutely drops f-bombs on purpose knowing that it willscandalize the adults he talks to. This boy is a delight and has never doneanything wrong but he is NOT the innocent little one everyone thinks! Sneakyboy!

C) Gotta be honest, I don’t have the heart to actuallyimagine Angus having any suffering inflicted upon him, BUT I do like the ideaof Taako being lowkey terrified every time he goes off on his own/tries toconduct an investigation that has a chance of being dangerous. He tries not toshow it and definitely plays it cool when Angus comes back safe every time, buthe’s got so very few people he feels really connected to and he doesn’t want tolose one of them (again).

D) Controversial, but he remains a shrimpy nerdboy foreverand does not get to be buffer than Magnus sorry.

Ren

A) Hot take: she’s a soft butch. My evidence? I know a bunchof butches named Ren and also she just gives off those Lesbian Vibes. Butch Ren2k19.

B) She is…small. Just so short, even by the standards ofelves, which are on average smaller than humans. It might be partly because she’sa Drow, since I personally headcanon that they don’t grow quite as big, buteven then she’s just. A little creacher. She has to use a spoon to knock downthings from shelves that everyone else in the tavern can easily reach. Cassidyjokingly uses her head as an armrest.

C) Her family is definitely still around and definitely wereoutside of Refuge when the barrier was created around the town and they justhad no way whatsoever of contacting her. They aged while time didn’t touch her.

D) This is more in opposition to D&D lore than to theTAZ canon, but I personally don’t like to think that Ren ever faced anyprejudice for being a dark elf. The whole idea of the Drow being cursed and 99%of them being evil is, imo, very tired (not to mention racist), so I just don’twant that being a part of her story. I think maybe Underdark elves have a bitof a reputation in the surface realms for being kind of staid and dour, so inthat way Ren defies some conventions by being her bubbly self. But aside fromthat, she never had an issue with anyone thinking less of her or hating her forbeing a Drow.

And fuck it, I know I did Sloane already but I have gothbirb headcanons coming out of my ass so I’ll do her again.

A) Tbh I like to think that her alias is something she put alot of thought into and something she identifies really strongly with. Like,ravens are obviously just objectively cool and fit the goth aesthetic she’sgoing for, but also I think growing up in Goldcliff (which I picture as beingjust like the American Southwest) she had a lot of experience observing themand felt kind of a kinship with them (and probably fed them to get them tofollow her around tbh). In some folklore, ravens are considered shapeshifterson account of how the sun reflects off their wings and makes them look likethey’re changing shape. I think that by assuming the persona of the Raven, shebecomes something more than what she appears to be, and it’s a bit of escapismfor her. (Also, ravens are known to be family-oriented and mate for life sothat proves fitting later on…)

B) It kinda breaks my heart whenever people draw her (orhalf-elves in general) with shorter/smaller ears than full-blooded elves,because in my head hers are long and twitchy! She’s pretty good at hiding howshe feels and not giving away too much with her body language, so her ears don’tnecessarily move around a ton to express how she’s feeling, but they doinvoluntarily react to sound, e.g. perking up when she hears a sudden noise.Hurley finds this adorable and exploits it to no end—like snapping her fingersnext to one of Sloane’s ears and then the other to make them pique alternatelyuntil Sloane finally gets fed up.

C) This is kind of more of a headcanon for half-elves ingeneral, but I remember seeing a post awhile back that said something along thelines of “D&D cryptid: a half-elf with a good relationship with theirfamily.” It was funny, but it did get me thinking: what’s a good narrativejustification for this? One of the answers, I think, is that half-elves grow ata rate that must be completely bewildering for their elven parents. They reachmaturity at around 20, compared to a full-blooded elf becoming an adult ataround 100. There’s probably a lot of potential for friction there as elvenparents are unable to handle or understand their kids as they mature soquickly. Plus, most half-elves don’t outlive their elf parents, and knowing you’remore than likely going to bury your kid one day has got to be hard. I think allof this was sort of the situation for Sloane growing up, and it was the sourceof a lot of the isolation she felt as a child.

D) She has big biker energy and actually prefers motorcyclesto battlewagons and that’s the tea.

LAWD this was a lot. Hope you like them!!!

[roxaeri]

please tell me about your trash vamp tristan -candy pop anon

Alright buckle in coz I'mma tell y'all about my shitty vampire pretending to be a human pretending to be a shitty vamp. Tristan is the manifestation of a dumpster fire—and if there is a dumpster on fire it was most likely his doing.

((LONG POST IS LONG. I’MMA INFODUMP ABOUT MY SON.))

I believe I have a post or two that has dialogue from him, in which he’s not his usual self. He’s got some profound wisdom hidden in him somewhere, and some repressed sad from his life, usually buried down until he connects with literally anyone on a deeper level than: “Tris, why the fuck is there a skeleton in your cupboard?”

I'mma come back to Profound Wisdom and Repressed Sad later because let me first get y'all to the subject of Tristan’s cupboard skeleton.

Now, when I say trash vamp I mean that he’s not really a good guy. Like, he’s not evil, but he’s not good either. He’s a mess whose day job ((night job, considering he’s a nocturnal vamp)) is being a Certified Spook. It’s in his job description to cause just enough chaos that the supernatural is plausible in case anyone fucks up their cover, but still make it easy for the supernatural to be denied or debunked by humans. He maintains that stupidly specific balance.

Shitty Vamp = he’s got a lot of debilitating, stereotypical vampire traits that makes it super hard for him to do his job when the sun’s out

His cover is he’s a human from Ireland ((which is true, he was born in Ireland who knows how long ago)) but he’s pretending to be a stereotypical vampire from Romania ((half true due to him first being stationed in Romania due to his eldest adopted brother)).

So, technically he’s a supernatural government worker. But, again, he’s a fucking mess. There’s shit he’s repressed, or has been helped in repressing. There’s a lot of advantages to being adopted into a magic family. But there’s also a lot of disadvantages to being adopted into a magic family that descends from a hell realm.

So’s, he wasn’t raised with the best morals, and with some abstract-ish laws from a realm that birthed The Boogeyman and The Big Bad Wolf and Death’s Daughter and the Mother of Shadows. But he was also able to complete all requirements from two foreign governments and their realms to be able to have the job he does. So even if he doesn’t have the best morals—depending on your own standards, honestly—Tristan does adhere to local laws. Mostly.

Which brings us to Cupboard Skeleton aka F??? aka Frederick aka Tristan-doesn’t-remember-the-guys-name-other-than-it-starts-with-F-and-he-was-an-ass-in-life-so-Frederick-it-is

Frederick McCupboardSkeleton is the skeleton that someone—Tristan doesn’t remember if it was him or not—shoved into his cupboard in between all the cereal boxes and liquor bottles. He has slowly become a cursed skeleton since his death. Tristan’s a vampire, he doesn’t have the power or magic to banish an angry spirit or seal non-human bones to trap him. But he can contain him and keep an eye on him until he figures out who this guy was and why he (Tristan) was involved with his death (Tristan assumes). Thus he’s cursed and Tristan doesn’t keep him all in one piece.

So if ya spot Tristan anywhere outside his apartment or his eldest brother’s house, you can assume that there’s a skull in his bag and that it’s Frederick and you’d be goddamn right. They’re a pair until Tristan figures shit out OR Frederick enacts whatever revenge plot(s) he’s got stewing in his skull.

Tristan’s the one that’s usually shit on publicly and openly out of his brothers.

Ji’s the eldest and raised them all. He the one you truly have to look out for but no one’s gonna say shit to his face or even in his general direction. He’s That Guy. He’s old magic and hellfire. He’s got a reputation older than human civilization.

Isidore is biologically Ji’s little brother. Just basically runs Ji’s Estate, acts like an assistant, keeps tabs on Tristan whenever he’s home and will watch Frederick’s skull. Because he’s actually a witch that can deal with restless spirits. Not as intense as any of his brothers or his mother. The Calm One.

And the youngest is Luca. He’s a werewolf. No one truly knows if he was born that way or infected or born from infected parents. His origins are as unknown as Tristan’s. Luca was practically a baby when their mother brought him home. Just as traumatized and repressing just as much as his vamp brother. But Luca is Dealing with it, because he’s the Most Responsible of the four. Some-fuckin-how. (Izzy’s The Calm One, but don’t think he won’t go off the rails. You just won’t know until it’s too late.)

Luca works as head of personal security for the Song Siblings—who go between all the realms really. But they’re usually on Earth working with humans so he’s the closest to Tristan—also closest in age. Luca sees most of the shit Tristan ends up doing. He’s the first to point out Frederick’s bones to Tristan, actually.

But as much as he shit-talks Tristan’s bad habits—mainly mixing up the milk bottles and blood bottles and liquor bottles in his fridge when the vamp is having cereal in his presence because Luca can smell all the things—he does it out of concern. Tristan isn’t indestructible, and even as a vampire, the amount of alcohol and cigarettes he goes through a day has to be doing something to his body. Also the sugar in his favorite cereals can’t be mixing well with the blood Tristan actually has to consume to sustain himself. If sugar affects the being that blood came from, it’s probably doing even more shitty things to his brother. He’s the one that will fight you then and there if he catches you. (Ji causes paranoia because what the fuck is he up to and wHEN, and no one ever suspects Izzy until After the Fact.) ((You just can’t shit on Tristan just to shit on him.))

Tristan got fucked up by his birth family, and then by being raised in an environment where he only had one source of sustenance and it was heavily laced with things that are addictive to vampires. Addictive in ways it fucked him up even more. Namely magic, but There’s More. It’s a Big Concern for everyone who knows, because ya can’t exactly synthesize that shit. There’s More changes anyone who’s exposed to it long enough, and Tristan’s been eating it since he was a babby vamp. He doesn’t have much choice but to live off it and he absolutely hates it.

Tristan has that habit of trying to kill something inside him he can’t see or remember. He’s picked up the habit of eating junk food that’s almost pure sugar, smoking, drinking anything. He’s a fucking neon sign of reasons why preternatural mental health is A Thing they should be researching more. But also the poster boy of: We should be taking a vampire’s physical health more seriously than Just-Feed-Them-Blood.

But catch Tristan passing on some profound wisdom to school kids and anyone that reminds him of Luca. Partly because he feels like a shitty brother so here kid have some advice. Also because Ji won’t let Tristan suspend too much time with either of his kids, even with Ji’s son being 20-something now. Like, he gets it, and he’s not proud of it being that, but he’s not really changing because he has Luca and the Song Siblings. He has his friends in Louisiana. He’s buddies with Willy Shakes--

Now I’m spewing all this bullshit because a lot of it comes from a story I scrapped where Luca’s a teenager and Ji has the one kid and you meet the Song Siblings before they’re ever—Celebrities, I guess??

Because Tristan was worse. He was the brother you absolutely hated. There, you had the rest of the brothers who followed the law and then Tristan who was headed towards a Dead End. But when it came down to it, he was there for Luca. Because he was the only one there. Tristan risked himself for this baby werewolf and his friends.

And that’s where my tag in that one post comes in. Where it ties in with my dialogue posts.

It has to do with Tristan watching sad scared little witch Celia Song growing up confident-in-herself Song Seonmi.

Tristan has a habit of flirting with everything, mainly dating ghosts so far, so he has no fucking clue when she got under his skin. And as much as Luca tells him to back off his friend (and boss) he really can’t be mad that Tristan dropped The Worst of his habits to keep seeing her. Because the first time she walked out of his life completely was a disaster until Tristan figured out that she would keep disappearing before he ever reached her again so long as he was being a complete bastard. Because when she left she took her brother and his own with her. And he really didn’t want to go back to living on lockdown with Ji—or worse, with his mother in the hell-realm. Isolation does shit to you.

So the Tristan you see in the story is a better off vamp than the one from Alex and Celia’s story. That was. . . Bad. As in that story probably won’t ever see the light of day because I cried every time I sat down to write that Tristan. Like, maybe I’ll incorporate bits and pieces into other stories, and most of the TrisMi growth is written in their interactions. But I just can’t do it, yo. I love my trash vamp because there’s hope to him and just watching the change in him as he grows in the background of everyone else’s stories. I can’t write him being an Absolute Asshole.

What sealed the deal was when I wrote about Tristan losing control because of There’s More in his diet and Seonmi—still going by Celia at that point—does her damned best to try and snap him out of it. Like, my girl had hope in him and didn’t give up so I couldn’t either. Now here we are.

Tristan is as On Brand as I’ll ever be. Horrible Past, Trauma, Found Family, Walking Shitpost, Angst, and Hope. He don’t really know what he’s doing but he’s still going.

I mean yeah, I can get real deep about Tristan as a moment’s notice—i.e. this whole post because I’ve been in my feels tonight. Like, Tristan will do a bunch of shit to comfort himself. Dumpster fires. Speaking at preternatural schools (like cryptid academy I brainstormed with @ladymaliwan). Setting out food and drinks for Frederick’s skull because he feels awkward leaving none for the skull when he has his own.

Catch Tristan smokin cigs with the skull in a dumpster, both wearing sunglasses. Find trash vamp poppin out like Oscar the Grouch for advice. It’s not always good or profound, but he always got something. But also save him—because he’s sensitive to the sun as a ginger nocturnal vamp raised in a dark hell-realm, later an cold fog realm where a sun doesn’t really exist. Toss him in your trunk or a body bag to help him get home.

Dear lord, I can keep going and dump everything about him but this is long as it is. He’s one of my oldest characters. I created him before Isidore and Luca, but not too long after Ji and their mother—and Ji and their mom are fucking old. As in I’m finding scraps of paper where they’re mentioned. But it’s also telling that I’ve written Tristan on my blog more than any of my other OC’s for an original story.

[stars-in-bits]

In Which Ashley Unfriends Me On Everything!

So on twitter @slumberlands mentioned she wanted fanfiction of her characters...and since I’m a FUCKING goblin I did it. I’m sorry Ashley please I love you don’t unfollow me lol. Also if you do approve I have plans for other chapters so just a heads up this won’t be the last time possibly lol. Anyways enjoy this trainwreck!

              “I’m telling you Stella it was an angel, a violent, sexy angel” Stella sighs as she snips another section of the man’s hair ‘Lee you’re being ridiculous. First angels are not real, second you can’t fall for every guy you see. Especially not some random man who saves you from a mugging” Lee laughs “Told ya Stella it wasn’t a mugging, it COULD have been a mugging, but it wasn’t BECAUSE my angel saved me.” Stella looks up at the mirror, so Lee could see her glaring at him. “You know I don’t have my glasses, right? I can’t see you glaring.” She rolls her eyes going back to cutting his hair “No but you can feel it huh?” They both chuckle as she finishes up his cut. ‘There you go finished, though I really wished you let me cut your bangs.” She ruffles the long hair that covers his left eye. “At least I’m not blonde anymore” They both shiver at those dark times.

              Lee slides out the chair standing over Stella by a good foot. “How much Stel?” She shakes her head “Nah this one’s on me. Think of it as payback for dinner last week.” She says as Lee takes out his wallet “Stella I got to pay you something” She shakes her head again “Not a chance, besides you have to get back to work soon.’ They both look at the clock “Fuck you’re right” He roughly pulls out a crumpled 20 and shoves it in the tip jar on Stella’s station “Bye love you!” he shouts as he sprints out using his long legs to his advantage to exit the shop before he can hear Stella complain about the money.

              Once a safe distance away he slows down laughing to himself. He lazily walks the city streets looking at the buildings as he makes his way back to the tattoo shop. He stops looking at some bright roses outside a corner florist, they’re a nice contrast against the gray stormy atmosphere of the day. “Should probably get some for Stella as an apology for running out like that” he mutters playing with one of the petals “Maybe after work” he shrugs turning stepping off the curb behind him.

              It all happens at once Lee hears a honk a flash of light and somebody grabbing his arm hauling him off the street onto the sidewalk where he falls back right on his ass. “What the hell were you thinking?” a gruff voice almost barks at him as he tries to reorient himself. Lee looks up to see a shorter rather built looking blonde man, Lee looks him over something in his brain almost recognizing him but failing to make that last connection. “Let me repeat myself what in the actual fuck we’re you doing? Do you want to die?” the man stands scowling at him “Uh no s-sorry I just wasn’t paying attention.” Lee nervously chuckles “Wasn’t? Jesus fucking Christ you some kind of idiot?” the mystery man scoffs, Lee furrows his brows standing up “I didn’t ask for your help, it’s appreciated but seriously you don’t get to insult me just because you saved me” Lee brushes himself off catching eyes on a scrapped palm that he prays silently won’t heal and leave another scar. “Whatever man just be careful” the man turns and Lee watches as he heads into the florist shop and gets behind the counter putting on an apron. Lee snorts wondering how such an unpleasant man could work in such a pleasant looking place. He moves forward using the crosswalk this time turning the last corner and heading into work.

               “Lee you’re late” he hears almost immediately as soon as he walks in Tatiana, his boss, stands giving him a joking smirk. “Sorry Tatty almost died on the way here, so sorry if that inconveniences your day so much” he laughs “Just get on the phone so Sam can get back to work” Lee nods sliding behind the desk Sam getting up “Died huh? How this time?” She kind of chuckles Lee rolling his eyes at the sarcasm in her tone “I did, I wasn’t looking and almost got hit by a car. Some random guy pulled me off the street before I did.” Lee sits looking at the computer logging in and looking over the calendar. A certain entry catches his eye “Sam why the hell do you have something called Ronnie’s birthday saved for Friday?” Sam looks up from her station “What? Oh right, that’s my friend Ronnie’s birthday” Lee sighs “I got that but why is it in our work calendar?” Lee says exasperated as Sam laughs “Oh Ron’s brother sent me a text reminding me, so I just put it in.”

“Why didn’t you just put it in your phone calendar?” Tatty asks, Sam gives a quizzing look “You know I’m not sure” The eye roll between the two others in the shop is audible. “Relax you know you two should come, you can even bring Ellison, Tat” Tatty looks over at Lee “What day is it?” Lee looks back at the calendar “Uhhh Sunday” he calls back “No can do, that’s our date night.”

“What about you Lee might meet a cute someone to date? Come with me huh?”

“I’ll uh I’ll think about” Lee gives her a polite smile. She goes to say more but is cut off by a customer entering the shop. Lee helps them check in and directs them to Sam who can’t say more as she has to now focus on the girl who’s walked in. Lee turns back looking over the birthday saved in the calendar, he goes to delete it off the work calendar but finds himself hesitating. Something inside him says to write the information down. “Fuck it” he mutters under his breath he takes a post-it note writing down the details before clearing it out. He stares at the note before shoving it in his pocket trying to push it out of his mind for at least today.

               The rest of the day is pretty subpar Lee listening to whatever cryptid podcast he has downloaded to drown out the sound of the tattoo guns as he takes appointments or rather waits for people to come and try to make appointments. To be honest he’s probably spent more of the day playing Papa’s Freezeria more than taking appointments just as a way to make time pass faster. Lee peeks over at the clock seeing he has three minutes till the shop closes. He groans internally looking over at his freezeria where all progress will be lost very soon. Nevertheless, he closes the window and starts getting ready to go home when he hears the familiar sound of the door opening, a bell ringing through the shop. Lee groans looking up at the bitch who has the audacity to come in last minute almost literally.

              His heart stops seeing the rude blonde man from earlier who while he did save his life was still a royal dick. “Hey, I want to make an appointment” he walks up to the counter and Lee prays he just doesn’t recognize him. “Uh sure do you have an artist in mind?” Lee looks down more thankful now than ever that Stella didn’t cut his bangs. “I need someone who can do a big traditional piece.” He says looking at the art on the wall. “Then you’ll want Tatiana, we can set up a consult appointment on Friday at 3” Lee says looking at the calendar knowing there are earlier dates, but Friday is his day off, best way to minimize contact with this guy. “Yeah that should work” Lee lets out a sigh of relief “Ok and I’ll need a name and a number to contact.” The guy nods giving his number “And your name?” Lee peaks out from his hair curtain as the man stands seeming almost like he’s contemplating telling him his name. “Yeah, it’s Ben, Ben Williams”

[albatris]

hey

here's that aforementioned lengthy post

which I have returned to and edited at least six times to add new things and tweak bits

anyway

last year I messed around with this idea for kai’s backstory but was like “nah” and this week I randomly thought of it again and was like “holy shit why did I brush that off it's actually perfect"

anyway, kai’s backstory, and rambling,

and a serious fuckload of spoilers,

under the cut

man okay so when I originally messed round with this idea it was just for fun, and the idea was that at some stage or another, Kai got stuck in a time loop. like maybe they went into a cool abandoned house for like twenty minutes and came back out and a bunch of years had passed

and I messed around with this because in ATDAO there’s a stupid running joke that because Kai travels a lot and is this ridiculous charismatic person, they have a ton of weird connections in all sorts of places, and there’s this fuckin…… running joke in the team that you can strike up a conversation with any random stranger and they’ll have a weird Kai story, or they’ll know someone who knows someone who has a weird Kai story

and that Kai has some sort of urban legend cryptid status in a lot of places, because everyone knows Kai, but no one knows a goddamn thing about Kai. Kai just appears out of nowhere and no one knows where they came from or what they do or even their last name. they’re just this chaotic force of nature who rocks up one day and vanishes a week later

and if you add a time loop to the equation suddenly you’ve also got all these absurd immortal Kai rumours floating around. You’ve got people going “I swear I met this kid like ten years ago but they haven’t aged at all?? like I have photos of them??? they’re still a teenager??” and of course Kai would think it’s hilarious and would play it up every chance they get

the reason I was like “nah” was because Shara and Kai knew each other as kids, and if you add a time loop into that in any manner, it fucks up a whole lot of backstory

but I was thinking about it again and I’m going to make some compelling arguments for Time Loop Kai and most of them are not, in fact, fun things at all

so ok

so Kai has been out of contact with their family for ages, and I don’t think I ever explained the original reasoning for this, and I’m not going to now because it would make this post too long, but consider

you just drop off the face of the earth for like seven years. your family probably thinks you died or ditched them or hate them or whatever. all your younger siblings are now older than you. a lot of shit can change in that amount of time. how the fuck do you come back into that picture. like. you haven’t changed at all

(you come back into that picture very very easily and with a lot of crying but listen. fuck. Kai has been putting it off for like a year. it’s kind of an ordeal. they don’t know how anyone will react. they’re really scared about it. ok)

(and that’s absolutely something that gets tackled in the main plot. for sure)

(I’m actually really glad I can tie that in, it’s good, I'm happy with it)

Kai travels a lot and hardly ever stays in one place for more than a month, and the reasoning for this was always because they don’t like becoming attached to places or people because it's just.... super risky business, y’know.... they had a home and a really happy family growing up and then they just didn’t anymore, and that really really really shook them a lot

so it's not like they don’t care about anything or anyone, because they do, they go all sorts of places and make friends and keep in contact, but like. what's the point in planning for the future, what's the point in long term goals or close friendships, one day it's all just going to vanish again. one day you're just gonna wake up back in the real world and none of this will count for anything

so yah I guess Kai lives most of their life on some level just kinda. waiting for it to be over, expecting it to be over, one day it's just gonna click

which, of course, is kinda just whatever when ur just up and moving place ever other week and never sticking round long enough to put down roots or make close relationships

but when you have actual friends and you meet your family again and you start being Properly Happy and and you have things to lose and you start thinking, hey, what would a future look like, what would a future really look like

and how can you be the kind of selfish person who plans for a future and keeps friends and is happy, how can you be the kind of person who deep deep down wants to stay here, how do you justify that when you know that somewhere your Real Friends and your Real Family could still be just. wondering what the fuck happened to you

y'know, it's not fun,

but blah blah spoilers blah this is getting far too into Actual Character Arcs and Development that happens during the story itself

so anyway

and then

and THEN

not that I’ll probably bring it up in-story in any overly overhanded way, it would do an awful lot to explain Kai’s tendency of just………. saying the most nonsense cryptic shit and following it up with “haha you know how it is” and everyone being like dude…….. no….. what are you talking about ever

people brush it off as just Kai being Kai, y’know, Kai’s eccentric and makes weird jokes, whatever, but I mean

the world probably makes frighteningly little sense to Kai. Like for the others, the apocalypse more or less eased in. For Kai it would have been a jump from “yeah idk weird shit is happening and it’s becoming more frequent” in some sort of abstract sense, something that happens Other Places, straight to “the fabric of reality is coming undone under our feet and everything is fucked good luck everyone” overnight

to Kai there is probably no system at all, the world is just full of objectively horrifying nonsense with no rhyme or reason whatsoever

and I mean!!!! Kai probably has a really difficult time feeling like anything is real, and a really difficult time being certain that any of this is happening and they’re not just stuck somewhere losing years of reality without realising

which is terrible. like that’s actually just really terrible

but anyway, on a lighter note, consider:

- kai attempting to order food from fast food places and getting personally offended when they're like "we haven't had that item on our menu for five years"

- kai randomly slipping into speech with weird slang no one uses anymore

- did kai's van get stuck in the time loop with them or did it just sit there for god knows how many years and somehow still start when kai got out

- this van somehow still running even though it's ancient and wheezing and held together by duct tape is another running joke so the answer is of course it sat there for years and still works

- does kai have a valid drivers license though

- what was that application process like

- "listen, I'm 18 years old, I know my ID is from--no, wait, listen, I stopped existing in the linear flow of time, listen--"

thanks for coming to my ted talk and fuck time loops