#i didn't really proofread this

[typing-catastrophe]

could you write a stanford pines x reader headcanon where the reader is an artist and always draws him and draws in his journals when he isnt looking? maybe he talks to the reader about the drawings and they get really flustered i dunno!!! <3

oohhh! yeesss, that's a great idea! thank you anon ^^ hope this is okay, enjoy!

1.2k words --------------------------------------------------

Your little habit started out even before Stanford came back. Dipper saw you sketching in your notebook from time to time, and asked you to draw something for him in the journal. He handed it to you and pointed next to a text he'd written about some anomaly (maybe a Manotaur or the Pterodactyl). First you were unsure, how would you feel if someone randomly decided to draw in your sketchbook? But it actually seemed really fun, an you didn't want to disappoint Dipper. Also it was in the spirit of research and preserving observations. And honestly, what were the odds the mysterious author would ever show up again?

With that attitude you began, whenever you got the chance to, to doodle yours and the twins encounters with the countless strange phenomena in gravity falls into the journal.

Well, oops? Seemed like the universe decided that not long after you started doing so, it was the right time for the author to come back.

It wasn't a big deal really, Dipper kept the journal for most of the time and Ford told him that he liked the additions he made. You weren't sure if he only meant the notes Dipper added, or if he even knew that someone else drew the newly added creatures.

It didn't take long for you and Ford to get to know each other better and spend more time together. Literally everything about him was just so fascinating. From the way he talked about his dimensional travels, anomaly hunts and research, his interest in a shared hobby of yours (dd&md), to the way he held himself. And, even if you were a bit embarrassed to admit it, his looks.

You couldn't help it, he was captivating. So to no surprise, one day you found yourself sitting the shack's porch, looking over at Ford standing in the yard, working away at something that was too bulky for the basement. You didn't even realise what you were doing, until something startled you out of your thoughts and you looked down at your sketchbook, seeing a familiar figure on the open page.

And then it happened again, in the lab. He was explaining away, deeply invested in whatever topic he was rambling about, not really taking in his surroundings. You had started out just sketching his study, but somehow he turned out to be the main focus of it.

One evening you found yourself in the living room of the shack. Ford was sitting on the floor, which was almost entirely covered in graph paper. You had joined him while he prepared the next campaign session, the tv quietly proving some background noise. While he was franticly scribbling away sheet after sheet, you propped open your notebook and began sketching some of the characters that came to your mind. Ford's, Dipper's and your characters and some npcs you encountered on your travels. But looming over all of them, half hidden behind the dm-screen, the scheming face of the man before you took his shape.

The end of the evening was rather blurry, you remembered falling asleep on the floor and being carried to bed, half asleep in someone's arms.

"hmm thank you", is all you could mumble when you felt the soft pillow under your head.

"No problem, dear", you heard a deep voice chuckle.

-

When you thought about it the next morning, a smile crept unto your face and you kinda wished, you would've been more awake, so you could've enjoyed the moment properly.

The smiled was quickly wiped off though, when you realised that you must've left your sketchbook in the living room, given that Ford probably didn't bring it with him last night. You panicked and jumped out of bed, stumbling to the door when your gaze was caught by something. Your sketchbook, laying on your desk. You exhaled, glad it didn't lay around for anyone to see. You took it into your hands and opened it to the last page you were working on. But instead of the drawing from yesterday evening, only the one before that stared back at you. Confused, you turned the pages a few times, examined it, maybe someone ripped it out? No, no remnants of a torn out page....

Then, it dawned on you. You left your notebook in your room yesterday. You didn't plan on staying or even going to the living room. God knows how you ended up there, but it definitely was without your sketchbook. Which could only mean one thing...

In record time you were out the door, down the hall and in the living room. Right in time to take in the scenery of Ford staring down at his campaign notebook, opened to the page of your drawing.

"Ahh!! No no don't look!", you jumped forward and put your hands over the drawing. Ford furrowed his eyebrows, looking quite puzzled.

"This? Oh I already saw it last night after getting you to bed. It is incredible!"

Your cheeks heated up. "Oh" was all you could utter.

"It was also you who added the depictions of the twin's adventures, right?"

"Uhmm" You didn't keep your passion for drawing a secret, but you also didn't make a big deal out of it. And honestly, the way Ford was always so indulged in his own mind, you didn't think he was paying much attention to what you were doing. Now you felt a bit stupid for believing he wouldn't connect the - admittedly - obvious dots.

"They really are marvellous. And this?", he gestured to yesterdays page "Truly phenomenal!"

You didn't know what to say. You weren't even sure if you could say anything at all. All you felt was blood rushing to the tips of your ears and a flaming hot sensation in your cheeks.

"I- well uhm, thank you", you managed to stutter "I uh, I actually didn't mean to- uhm, use your campaign book. It was a mistake, I'm sorry."

"You've got to be joking! It's the perfect addition!" Ford exclaimed. "Do you mind if I keep it?"

"Oh", his enthusiasm caught you off guard. "I-, I guess not. Actually, that would mean a lot to me." you admitted sheepishly.

"Very well then! Thank you, dear." He looked at you with a fond expression.

You were about to retreat back to your room, turning around ready to leave, when Ford spoke up again, the smile apparent in his voice. "I also liked your artistic rendition of the twins adventures. Anything else you want to show me?" You froze.

Your heart started beating ridiculously fast. Did he knew? Did he notice you staring at him while drawing? Your thoughts started racing, but came to a sudden halt when he leaned down. His lips were almost touching your ear when he started to whisper.

"Maybe another time." And with that he walked by you, leaving you to yourself.

-------------------------------------------------- thank you for reading <3 reblogs are appreciated

a/n: if you want a second part with romance and/or where ford discovers the drawings of him, let me know! Have a nice day/night!

[lycheeloving]

ANOTHER MULTIVERSE FIC because I can't stop myself, apparently. An injustice!Superman one, this time. I imagine you were a small-time hero/vigilante in this one, so Superman knew (and liked) you before he turned bad, but you weren't super close, before.

-You wake up in an unfamiliar room, tied to a chair, not knowing how you got there. Kal doesn't ever let you leave the fortress. But you don't know how anyone else could have gotten in to take you here, wherever here is. Maybe it was Kal? But why would he do that?

-You spot a woman tied up in another chair next to you, it seems like she also just woke up. She reminds you of someone, but you can't remember who exactly... You want to ask her if she knows more about what's going on, when you realize you're both gagged. Shit. You can't even communicate with her!

-A man comes in, rambling something about how he's glad you're finally awake and about his plan finally taking shape. You feel like you should know this guy, but can't quite put a finger on it...

-Being unsure if you know who he is, as you're "not from here", he introduces himself. He's Lex Luthor.

-Wait. Lex Luthor? The Lex Luthor? The dead one, who was killed by Superman? Is this a prank? Because if so, it isn't funny at all. And quite dangerous for everyone involved.

-Luthor (if that is his real name) then focuses on the woman next to you. He addresses her as "Mrs. Lane".

-Lane as in Lois Lane? Like, Lois Lane from the Daily Planet? Clark Kent's, Superman's wife? Now you know something is extremely wrong. She's dead, too, and everyone knows not to mention her name unless they want to face Superman's wrath... You make a few muffled sounds beneath your gag, itching to ask about just what is going on here.

-Luthor says he's going to explain everything, don't be so impatient! He has a machine that can open portals to parallel universes, which is how he got you here. His plan includes kidnapping the person that is most important to Superman in his own universe (Lois Lane), the person most important to Superman in a second universe (You!) and then making the Supermen fight each other by threatening your lives. The only way to save you is if one Superman dies. This room is Superman proof, he can't hear or see anything that's happening in here, so they can't just swoop in and save you. After the fight, he's going to let the winning Superman enter this room, promising him that he can rescue Lois or you. Except not really, because he's going to try to kill the winner too, because that should be easier after he just fought another Superman, right? He hasn't opened a portal to let the Superman from your universe know about how he can save you, yet. He closed the portal he got you through immediately after kidnapping you, so he had more time to prepare everything. How he found you? Something about being able to detect kryptonian dna residue on you. And you were in Superman's fortress. Easy to combine that you must be important to him.

-That's... actually not a terrible plan! Sure, it might not work out exactly the way that Luthor is planning, but beating Superman with Superman is a great idea! Actually it'd be great if Luthor got a third one here. Two Supermen should definitely be able to defeat one Superman, right? Unfortunately you can't communicate any of this through your gag. Damn, you'd love to help him improve his plan...

-You wonder if he chose your universe completely randomly, or if he chose an evil Superman on purpose. You don't think he did, he didn't mention the regime with one word, and if it existed in this universe he wouldn't be working on this stupid plan. And Lois wouldn't be alive, probably.

-Before you can let your thoughts spiral even more, Luthor falls over. Huh? Is he unconscious? You spot Batman coming towards you. Ah. That explains that, then. Man, you haven't seen Batman in such a long time...

-"Are you two alright?" He quickly cuts through the ropes tying you to the chairs, freeing you. "Good thing you used your bat emergency-signal, Lois. I was able to get to you before Superman could fall for Luthor's trap." Wait, why would Lois contact Batman? Oh, right, sometimes you forget that he and Superman used to be friends, so obviously his wife would trust him too.

-He takes off both of your gags and then turns to you. "We figured out you're from a parallel universe, but don't worry, Nightwing is currently working on a way to get in contact with the Superman from your dimension, so-"

-"NO!", you scream, making Batman look at you in confusion. You quickly tell him to contact Nightwing, to make him stop trying to open a portal or god forbid, contact Kal!! Noticing the urgency in your voice, Batman quickly complies and lets Nightwing know to stop what he's doing, before asking you to elaborate. Phew! The last thing you need is an angry Superman wreaking havoc in a second universe.

-You start explaining to Batman about how your Superman started changing for the worse after Lois died (sparing the details, as she's kind of sitting right next to you), started to get darker, kill villains, everyone who did something bad, people who disagreed with him. Other heroes, even. People he used to be friends with. How everyone who didn't agree with him and join his regime, including you and Batman, had to go into hiding, trying to find a way to stop him. Clark, no KAL-EL found you at some point, but instead of killing you, he unexpectedly took you, basically imprisoned you. Kept you like a pet who's not smart enough to make their own decisions. (You never even knew he liked you like that at all, before that. Sure, he was always nice to you, but he had Lois!)

-Lois seems visibly shocked, whereas Batman just listens to you stoically. "All this to say, it's good to see you alive, Lois!" You smile weakly. She tries to smile back, but before she can respond, Batman cuts her off. "We should leave this place. I doubt it's very safe here. We should return to the Batcave, think of a plan." You spare one last glance at Luthor, who's still lying on the floor (Are we just going to leave him here? Huh. Ok.), then follow Batman outside.

-As soon as you're out of the building, something rushes past you. "Lois! Are you ok? Did he hurt you?" Not something. Someone. You try not to flinch as he fusses over her, while she reassures him that she's fine multiple times.

-After he's convinced she's not hurt, he turns to you with a gentle smile. "Hello! So you're close to the Superman in another dimension, then?" As he takes a step towards you, you instinctively take a step back towards Batman. Clark frowns at him quizzically. It's funny, he almost looks like a confused puppy. You would smile if you didn't know that this is all a facade to distract from his god-like, destructive powers.

-"Turns out the other version of you is some kind of evil dictator." Well, leave it to Batman to get straight to the point. Clark opens and closes his mouth a few times, thinking about what to say. "Well, I can assure you that I'm not like the Superman you know. I promise you, I'm a good person! At least I try my best to be one. You don't have to be scared." His voice is getting increasingly gentle, trying to reassure you.

-"Oh yeah? That's exactly what the Superman from my dimension would have said, before..." You don't mention his wife's death, not wanting to anger him. "The same thing could happen to you. You might be nice now, but who knows what the future holds?" As you're saying this, you slowly move slightly behind Batman. Just in case. He should have some kryptonite on him, right?

-Superman just frowns harder, then turns to Lois. "We should go home." He picks her up and turns to Batman. "Contact me as soon as you have plans for... handling the other me." With that, he takes off.

-Batman ushers you into the Batmobile, where Nightwing (another ghost, to you) is already waiting. You keep turning to look at him during the drive to the Batcave, while Bruce explains the situation to him. If they notice your weird looks, they don't mention it.

-You allow yourself to feel some hope. Maybe you can contact your Bruce? Help him out! Send a few still good Supermen! Your head is spinning with ideas, and you're sure Batman can come up with even better ones. You can't help but smile, your nightmare might finally be over...

[toasted-buguette]

Into Your Own Hands

Summary: Ryis decides to pine from a distance in order to be a better wingman for March. The farmer has other ideas.

Ryis is many things: A son, a brother, a nephew, a pretty good woodworker if he were to say so himself. A friend, and he tried to be a good one. 

Ryis is also in love, although he would desperately like to not be. 

Mistria is, despite its constant activity, a very small town with a very close knit community. It’s one of the things that made him love it there, that and the quiet that let him hear birdsong with more clarity and variety. Everyone knew each other and everyone had some manner of bond that had existed for at least a year or two, so it made sense that the arrival of a new member of the community would spark interest in everyone. Ryis wasn’t exempt from this, after all the last time someone new came it was him, but he liked to think himself a little bit chiller about it than some others.

Chiller than March, he means.

March is, as much as he likes to hide it, a pretty good guy underneath all his bluster. He just doesn’t like change, when Ryis first moved in it took March a week to stop sulking and talk to him. It was only once Friday came along and Olric dragged his brother to the inn that he and Ryis actually got to have a conversation and that (Plus one or two of Hemlock’s drinks) was all it took to spark a friendship that would surely last a lifetime. Because besides being craftspeople and their mutual adoration of Mistria and its citizens, the quality Ryis and March shared in the highest quantity was their loyalty. 

Which is why Ryis can’t acknowledge his growing fondness for the new farmer. 

You see, after the earthquake a lot of things needed repairing and the citizens of Mistria needed a distraction, so a new face was just what the town needed. Ryis, on his part, was eager to welcome the new farmer into town, after all he knew better than anyone what it was like to be the new member of a well established community. Besides, he knew they would be working together on the myriad of reconstruction projects, so it was only natural that they get along outside of work. It helped that they were very easy to get along with. 

March, as is his wont, was not as receptive to this newcomer. No one was surprised when any conversation with him eventually led to him grumbling about the no good farmer who was only here for their own gain and totally wasn’t going to last the season. Ryis, at least, was surprised when these grumblings continued past the first week of the farmer being there. 

After all, the farmer went to very great lengths to talk to everyone frequently, March included, and usually once he got to know someone he mellowed out at least a little. But no, it seemed that March’s ire only grew with every attempt to make peace the farmer made. Ryis tried to reassure them that March would warm up to them eventually, (He had to, they were just too charming even for March to hate for long), but his reassurances could only go so far when March seemed to go out of his way to antagonize the farmer. It wasn’t until late spring that Ryis found out why March was being so… like that. 

For all his guardedness it only takes a couple drinks to get all of March’s walls to crumble like a termite infested fence, and once they did the blacksmith was the most open book in the world. There was no such thing as secrets with drunk March, so Ryis got a front row seat as March got to rambling about the farmer once more, and it instantly became plain as day that March’s blush that night was not caused by the beer. 

Ryis couldn’t remember a time March was ever so enthralled with someone. He sat there and listed out Ryis’ thoughts verbatim about how interesting and capable the farmer was, how helpful and hardworking, and Ryis realized two things simultaneously.

One: He was developing a crush on the farmer.

And Two: He could not, under any circumstances, let it continue to grow.

When was the last time March was so enamored with anyone? When had he ever been this animated when talking about something that wasn’t made of metal? March had always been a happy drunk but this was beyond anything that Ryis had ever seen from his friend and he wanted desperately for that happiness to continue.

So he resolved himself to try and help March realize the feelings he had while he was sober as well as pushing the farmer in his direction whenever possible. It was easy for Ryis to ignore his own feelings, at first, after all the farmer hadn’t been there long and was always running around going who knows where to do who knows what. Out of sight out of mind and all that, and when they were not out of mind Ryis could always find a project to take his mind off them for a little while. And when that failed to work he could always tell himself that once their novelty wore off so too would his unfortunate crush.

And then the general store was ready to be remodeled and all that flew out the window. 

Unlike with the bridge Ryis couldn’t do the whole thing alone in a single day, and aside from his uncle (Who he loved very dearly and wanted to enjoy his retirement as much as possible) the only person qualified to help was the farmer. So the two of them set to work and Ryis tried very hard not to think about how every time their hands touched when exchanging tools a shock would go up his arm and send his heart racing, or how every so often he’d look up from his work and see them so deeply focused that he fell just a little deeper in love. 

That, he thinks, is what finally broke the dam and now when he aims the farmer in March’s direction (Because he still does, because he loves March) it is accompanied by a horrible pang in his chest that he knows he’ll never be able to get rid of. 

‘It’s fine.’ He tells himself. He’ll make do with what he can get and he’ll blame the work on why he’s so flushed every time he joins the farmer on a project and when March can finally admit to himself that he doesn’t hate them Ryis will look on as two of his favorite people can freely admit their love for eachother and it will be because of him and maybe the ache in his chest will get a little easier to live with. 

The next time he sees the farmer, Ryis wants to hide in his scarf. They’re sweaty and out of breath and he can tell why when they hand him a stack of hardwood so big he wonders how they fit it all in their bag. They smile so wide when he accepts it and their face makes him want to melt. That doesn’t stop him from inviting them to the shop, of course. After all, it's hot and he can’t move all of that himself (he can) and wouldn’t they like to sit down and cool off for a second after all that work? Really it’s the least he could do after everything they’ve done for the town (for him). 

And now they’re alone in the shop and the wood is all put away and Ryis would talk about all the projects he has planned for it except the farmer makes it really hard for him to think and of course Landen is gone and can’t distract the farmer from him so they’re just watching him stammer with those intensely beautiful eyes of theirs and Ryis realizes a little too late that he said that last part out loud. 

Mortified, Ryis looks away and it takes him a minute before he can bear to take his eyes off the pile of sawdust they landed on and return them to the farmer. The sight that greets him when he does is not what he expected; The farmer is staring at him with a sort of half-smile and did they get closer? Their face is definitely closer to his than it was when he looked away. He bashfully tells them that he’s sorry and they should probably forget what he said and after a second they say that maybe they don’t want to. Maybe they gave him all that hardwood because to them his smile is the prettiest thing in the whole town. 

And every plan Ryis ever made to play matchmaker for March goes in the trash because hearing that makes his heart stop and when the farmer kisses him it is the most right anything has ever felt. And soon they’ll have to leave because it’s late and their chickens are still outside and then Ryis will have to grapple with the fact that he just kissed the person his best friend is in love with but for now none of that matters because after a season and a half of pining and pushing his feelings down it feels like he can finally breathe. 

And as the farmer leaves, trailing promises to see him soon behind them, Ryis revels in not having to dread their next meeting any more.

[seokmattchuus]

Prove It - Seok Matthew Drabble

A/n: Matthew drabble because I had a dream and I really need to get this out of my system :3 Also, might be renamed at a later date because I have no idea.

-

"I'm literally always taking care of you." He scoffed in disbelief. "Calling me 'oppa' wouldn't kill you."

"I'm older than you." You reminded him. "I think you keep forgetting that aspect."

"You had no problem calling me 'daddy'." He snicked, landing him a pillow to the face.

"It was just once." You muttered in defense. "And I was drunk."

"Keep telling yourself that." He rolled his eyes. "Besides, it wouldn't hurt to say it just once." He leaned in, his face right in front of yours. "I won't tell anyone." He said in a sing-song voice.

It was your turn to snicker now.

"Since you want it so bad," You paused, watching his expression turn expectant. "What do I get if I do it?"

His eyebrow twitched as the latter of your sentence came out.

"How about a bet, then?" He smiled as he climbed over you. "If you can keep quiet until I'm done with you, I'll drop it."

His arms were caging you in and you could feel his thigh pressing between your thighs in an attempt to open them.

"But if you can't." He smirked, his head dipping down so his lips were brushing lightly against yours. "You can't call me anything else."

His thigh had succeeded in passing your thighs and you let out a shaky breath at the contact. His eyes flicked towards yours and you saw the corner of his mouth curve into a smirk.

"Deal?"

It wasn't like you to give in so easily, even if you looked like you would.

"We have a deal." You mimicked his smirk as you toyed with the top button of his shirt. "But what do I get if I make it?" You tilted your head slightly as you freed the top button, working your way down.

He closed the gap between the two of you, his lips working gently against yours as he let out a shaky breath from your cold hands grazing his upper stomach.

"You're already losing." You smirk as you gave him your most innocent gaze. "So much for being an 'oppa'." You whispered the last part.

His thigh pressed firmly against you and you stiffened, but stayed quiet.

"It's a matter of pride at this point, baby." You smiled sweetly as you pulled his shirt down his shoulders, your fingers softly running over his arms in admiration. "If you want to be an oppa so bad," You paused as you licked your lips.

"Prove it."

[spite-of-the-grifter]

Look.

Ace Attorney fandom.

I know why people don't like Turnabout Bigtop. I am among the people who dislike Turnabout Bigtop.

But I GET why people like the case. I'm not going to be one of those annoying people who just blindly dump on it because I hate those mfs too.

Thing about Bigtop isn't that it sucks. Thing isn't the weird grooming stuff (though that is a huge part of it). It's not that it could've been good.

It's that - in my personal OPINION - it could have been *great*.

I think it had the potential to be one of the best third cases in the trilogy. It had everything; a fun and goofy setting fit for a pretty dang goofy lawyer game - where the environment itself had jokes and quips and one-liners and mishaps and tomfoolery written all over it, it had the previous case introducing a very interesting and important plotline that gave background for one of the more well-loved characters while also introducing an equally fucked up and lovable new one who was a child forced into a shit childhood of naivete in a CIRCUS with another character who was very naive and childish - whose interactions could have been funny and cute and reflective of said shit from the previous case (seriously she becomes such an important character in the 4th case, WHY would they not include her in this one for some character development? How did they fuck up letting a CHILD explore a CIRCUS?? That would have made the interactions flow MUCH better).

They had a pretty good, sympathetic killer imo, a morally dubious victim, an asshole of a client (who was pretty flat admittedly in-game, but I like his weird, topsy-turvy reasoning for it in the anime. Also, I think Max being kinda a dick would have bode well for the themes of Farewell since most of his clients up to this point have been like...nice? Not nice, but sympathetic, but him having to defend someone who's innocent but a prick would have shown him that just because someone is an asshole, doesn't mean they deserve to suffer for it and that they have the potential to grow as people, which is almost a complete opposite of what Matt was. Ultimately, I would have loved the contrast of them as clients and I think it would have also served as character development for Phoenix, especially with his low-empathy tendencies).

They just didn't think that far ahead. They just didn't execute it well enough. They just decided to make three of the adult characters fight for the hand in marriage of a teenage girl. (Bat's part of the story was actually kinda good if he was just YOUNGER, I think him doing that for Regina would have been a stupid thing someone in the circus would do to impress their crush. Damn you Ace Attorney and your weird treatment of underage girls!!)

It just flopped and that's ok.

Even though it kinda sucked, it can still mean something to me.

Also I'm a Moe Curls apologist. I liked him, shut up.

[fiona-fififi]

...

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s4 episode 9 thoughts

this day had aspects which i did not care for, which is why i am hoping that the thrilling tale of mulder escaping a gulag will bring light and warmth to my heart.

author’s note, post episode: i need answers i need answers i need those slugs destroyed. this episode vastly improved my day and i remembered the simple joys of being alive, such as watching silly TV shows where the characters have an indescribable bond. truly a pleasure to be alive despite it all. scully and mulder, you have shown me such wisdom.

excellent moments for both scully and mulder in this one, which i treasure deeply, and also their together moments made my heart soar. genuinely a good ep!

let us gather to watch this tale!

we begin with a “previously on the x files”. i really hate that shot of mulder squished under that wire cage; it’s deeply unpleasant and i imagine so was the filming experience.

after that, we journey to a convalescent home in florida. now. the last time we went to a convalescent home, i have tried very purposefully for forget what went down. so my expectations here are low.

someone just waltzed in at night and is looking at the old people sleeping with a flashlight.... is this allowed? it probably shouldn't be. is she looking for someone in particular? 

she finds auntie janet and says it is time, he is waiting. now what does that mean?!?!

so she takes auntie janet out and there is some man that she’s in the car with?? he’s hooking auntie janet up to various chemicals. she says she’s tired of the pain and the doctor-y figure puts the green stuff into her. ah, i see what is going on here, as auntie janet hugs this woman and says she is her angel of mercy. 

so it looks like she died, but instead of just dying and that being it, there are oily slugs coming from her nose and mouth. which…. i mean, it’s better for them to come out in a controlled environment and after her passing, right? that seems ideal, all things considered. except for the fact that the oily slugs will now crawl into these people, so that’s a bummer.

HEY! the changed the text after the intro. “E PUR SI MUOVE” <- is that latin? hold on

i didn’t want to figure out what the whole phrase meant because that was part of the fun!! but in trying to figure out if “muove” was latin or italian or portuguese or something, i learned what the whole phrase meant and that it is significant for being uttered by galileo. darn! well, if i had to learn it before i wanted to, you shall too, i suppose. although i imagine if you read this blog, you’ve seen all this before. hmm.

we are in st. petersburg. FORMERLY LENINGRAD! but no longer at this point. someone is knocking at an old russian guy’s door. a young gentleman tells this old guy that “the cold war isn’t over” 

damn. still rings true in 2024. 

and also he gives the old guy an envelope. 

mulder is sleeping in a jail cell. he’s very tucked into that corner. it's adorable, in a certain way. someone is whispering to him. mystery other prisoner guy who can speak english said that he has been lying there for hours, and that the first time (referring to his alien injection) is “bad, very bad”

he calls this alien injection the “black cancer” that lives in the rock. this mystery man used to be a geologist! he was there when they found the fragments! woah... a rock guy... and look what they have done to him :(

okay, so this black cancer comes from the tunguska rock. got it. i am tracking the lore.

so at least hundreds of people have died here, and they seem to be searching for a cure to the black cancer after they inject it into their test subjects.

well! it is almost comforting that maybe both scully and mulder will die horrific early deaths, but at least together, right? because. the actual cancer that she probably has. and the weird creature in his veins now. they’ll have each other, i guess?

sighs. this is not providing me much comfort.

“i’m not gonna die. i have to live long enough to kill that man krycek” <- YAAAAAS i cheered!!!! his dogged determination has now been set to bloodlust mode!! hey, whatever keeps you alive!!!

mystery man sneaks mulder a shank he made over two weeks. that is a very dedicated thing to do, and even more profound to spend all that time and then give it to someone else. “it is wonderful- the persistence of life” damn…. bro has me thinking…. life really IS a gift, huh

back to the USA, where scully is tending to the mysteriously ill dr. sachs, who if you need a refresher, was the guy who was cutting into the mystery rock before he was mysteriously paralyzed. his blood looks a bit thickened (gag) and also there is something in there. EW!!! EW 

EW NASTY WORMS ATTACHED TO A GLAND IN HIM?!?!?!?!

no no no don’t care for that thank you!!!

in virginia, some people get on a bus, including an old man who is eating an apple. they are going to charlottesville. 

also there are some horses. the apple man snuck onto a farm with horses. IS IT GONNA BE THE WELL-GROOMED MAN’S FARM???

is it the russian guy??? well, he introduces himself as “vassily peskow” which seems to answer that question. 

(in googling this to make sure i spelled his name right, i saw that he has something to do with "the syndicate"- is that the official name of the group i have been referring to as the UN alien people for 3 seasons now?!)

he is speaking to the woman who we earlier saw give that stuff to auntie janet, but he has come to see her! her name is dr. charne-sayre, and while i know nothing about her besides her willingness to euthanize her aunt, she seems to have handled a strange old man showing up and touching her horses quite well, because personally i would be throwing hands.

OH!!! HE STARTS CHOKING HER?? the horses are neighing with fury. 

what… did i just see…

scully! at home!!! so pretty….

skinner is behind her!!! he is MAD! he has been trying to get ahold of her all day! well, she was busy??? cut a girl some slack???

he says she owes him some answers about this mystery pouch. he is maaaad! he has to testify tomorrow!! he harbored a known felon!!! ooo he’s gonna get in troubleeeee

she very calmly explains that the pouch has a rock with some sort of creature in it that she has been trying to figure out all day. she handled his anger quite, well all things considered. never forgetting to say “sir”.

but she doesn’t know where it was supposed to be going. HOWEVER…. skinner does! it was going to dr. charne-sayre!!! 

scully knows who this is!! because she is a nerd. said with heart eyes. dr. charne-sayre is a virologist, who has looked in on presidents and also is an authority on “variola viruses” which means something i’m sure, but it’s a mystery to me

OH! it means smallpox! she has been trying to get people to destroy the last remaining smallpox vials. 

(WAIT IS THAT A THING?? is humanity really keeping some smallpox in some bottles somewhere???? i need to look something up after this and the adjust my levels of panic for biowarfare accordingly.

GOOD NEWS! wikipedia says the last vials were finally destroyed in 2015! that feels like it took too long...

wait. just kidding. it highlighted an irrelevant part of the article. another page says they are still out there, the ones in atlanta and russia that scully refers to in the episode. i feel no relief after all.

the ones that WERE destroyed were 350+ vials of smallpox that had just been lost????? HOW DOES THAT HAPPEN???

damn. i need to go down a rabbit hole later that is going to teach me some unsettling things)

anyway, skinner breaks the news that dr. charne-sayre was killed, but blames it on a horse. and i saw what went down and it did not look like any hooves were involved, so idk how tf they came to that conclusion. a choking and hoof marks are not at all comparable??

back to da gulag. a guy kicks mulder and leads him out with a bunch of other men. i find myself wondering about all of the extras there that day, how the filming went. 

UH OH! krycek is up smoking with one of the bigwigs of the gulag!!!! what is he DOING??? the geologist prisoner who gave him the shank says mulder has one chance to kill him, and he pulls out his weapon. OMG HE’S RUNNING FOR IT!!! does he stand a chance?!?

that dude is absurdly fast bro. he gets two solid punches into krycek and steals a truck!!! where is he going!!!

horse vs truck race!!!! who will win??? i hope it’s the truck!!!

so he knocked krycek tf out and took him on the bed of the truck... that is hilarious

i hope all the other prisoners break out too :)

okay, the men on horses are shooting at mulder. krycek wakes up and is slamming the back of the truck. what i want to know is where mulder, who has a famously terrible sense of direction, is driving!!!

he’s trying to hit the brakes but it’s not really working!!! and krycek jumped off!!!! where does he think he’s gonna go 😭😭

no!!! mulder crashes the truck!!! ouch ouch ouch!!

well, instead of resolving that plot line, we jump to the well-groomed man (am i using his name right?) chatting with cancer man in the dark. cancer man bullies him for smoking, as if we don’t only know him as cigarette smoking man or cancer man, but well-groomed man is pissed at cancer man’s various failures!! and wouldn’t you be??

oh!! that person riding the horses- dr. charne-sayre- was well-groomed man’s personal physician! there’s some weird tension between these old men now that he needs the help of cancer man to figure out what went down

“were you sleeping with her?” csm asks, making us all uncomfortable. and well-groomed man doesn’t answer!!!!!!!! EW!!! nasty!!!! he put the mission at risk for his personal pleasure!

damn. hate when cancer man is right about things.

well, i guess they’re both flops at their job. that should unite them rather than pull them apart. 

cancer man asks well-groomed man (and that is definitely going to get confusing quick) to call off "the investigation", which he says he cannot do. but senator sorenson is an honorable man. do we believe him?

i do not. 

somehow, cancer man knows mulder was captured in tunguska and has escaped. i don’t know how this plays into their plan, but cancer man is smirking. suspicious... i hate his creepy smirk.

okay, back to russia. we see the truck that mulder crashed and a bunch of blood on the window, which are not auspicious signs. but no one is in there!!!! the men on horses are baffled!!!

krycek is in the woods, being surrounded by a bunch of people and speaking in russian, claiming to have escaped from the prison camp. they realize from his clothes he is lying about being a prisoner, but they believe that he was accused of spying and take him in?? i guess??

OMG!!! mulder was hiding under a ton of leaves while the men on horses looked for him!!! it was giving a real peeta in the 74th hunger games moment.

so, now we are where we started last episode, with scully swearing to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help her god. and she is reading her prepared statement. people are passing notes as she does so. and then they are rude as hell and cut her off. 

skinner is watching all of this go down, and as she tears into the culture of lawlessness, he does look like he kinda wants to die. but i think she’s serving. 

OMG!!!! they’re taking her to jail!!!! she said idgaf i am NOT giving up mulder’s secrets and that is a REAL ASF FRIEND!!! she’s in jail in her kickass outfit and omggggg what a queen… crossing her arms as she stares out the window…. i love her so deeply 

back to russia, where some guy finds mulder under a ton of leaves, and yells at him for breaking his truck. sorry!! it was an accident. he didn’t mean it :(

the woman he is with is gonna tend to him though, because mulder has that sad puppy dog thing going on. 

she knows some english!!! woah!!! this is convenient for plot reasons and also fuels my determination to keep learning another language so i can be the cool side character that saves the day at least once.

she says that they kill everybody for “the test”, and that her husband makes deliveries, so they spare their lives. but now, no truck…

mulder says we need to get tf out of here, the smallpox scar is tracking you. she says there is an alternative, and gestures to her son with no arms. i do not think this is a good alternative. and the husband comes back in with a knife!!! are we gonna have some hand to hand combat…….

krycek is sleeping by a fire, but then a bunch of people come and get him. one of them has a heated knife!!! are we in amputation mode…

oh. he sure is screaming as that knife is going in… yes, it appears we are in amputation mode

scully is in jail, reading the works of dr. charne-sayre, because she is studious even behind bars!!!! i love that about her. highlighter in hand as she ponders. 

skinner comes to see her! “you holding up?” “i’ve got plenty to read” awwww :( skinner cares about her :( big old softie :( and she is gonna read her way through jail :( she’s just so :(

she clarifies that this is NOT just about mulder!!!! this idiotic commission is wasting time asking about mulder and not about the pouch, the murder, the rock, or anything ACTUALLY RELEVANT at all!!! 

“it is my experience that lawyers ask the wrong questions only when they don’t want the right answer” DAMN what kind of lawyers has she dealt with…? probably plenty in her FBI time. but still. she has seen things.

“it is my natural inclination to believe they are acting in the best interest of the truth” aww… she wants to assume the best of these obviously very shady men

“but i am not inclined to follow my own judgement in this case” <- she said y’all are so god awful not even my natural optimism can salvage this (and i love her for knowing her limits)

skinner makes a remark about following mulder’s judgement instead and i can’t tell if he was trying to be hurtful or not…

back to dr. sachs, dealing with his rock induced injury. NO! the russian guy vassily is here! with a needle!!! what does he need that for??? go away!! i like that rock scientist!!

he’s getting this orange fluid in a syringe and he sticks it into dr. sachs and BLEH i cannot look…………. but the slugs!!! the oil slugs!!!!! 

NO!!! he takes the rock and unplugs the machines dr. sachs was on!!! HE CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS 💔

cancer man is explaining that vassily was in the KGB… “how could this be? how could the russians know we were working on our own inoculation?” asks well-groomed man, “six of us knew!” 

an anti-alien vaccine! this could be useful,,, maybe? idk.

cancer man is tasked with finding vassily… but he says someone might save him the trouble

cut to scully back in front of the fancy congress slash senator slash corrupt government people…. she has had time to think about the question she was asked.

and she says she cannot answer! she keeps listing off things she can answer instead, but not about this!

OH! MULDER APPEARS!!! “answer the question miss scully!” (mulder voice) “what is the question?”

YEAHHHHH THAT’S MY GUY!!!

HER REACTION TO HIS VOICE… the little orchestral flourish… his beat up face… his stupid smirk. wait i have to rewatch this. LOOK AT HER FACE WHEN SHE SEES HIM!!!

she says that the death of the doctor was connected to the death of the man in skinner’s apartment, and dr. charne-sayre FOR SURE knew information about the virus. and while i am happy for her triumphant moment, skinner walks in and whispers something to her….

dr. sachs has died under suspicious circumstances!!

this is obviously very important, but in the background you can see mulder say something to skinner, and he reacts as if deeply annoyed. lmaoooo we are soooooo back!!

the bigwigs on the council go to recess, and the absolute MILLISECOND that gavel is slammed, these two nerds JUMP UP to see each other, it’s so cute oh my goshhhh it is for sure making my list of favorite moments this season

AWWW AND THEY HUG AND HE SAYS “good to put my arms around you” OHHHHH MY GODDDD OH MY GOOOOD THE WAY HE’S LOOKING AT HER (and the remark about still having both arms she obviously doesn’t understand yet!!!!)

(screaming into my pillow for a solid 30 seconds before composing myself)

skinner jumps in and says “some other time” when she asks how he got back LMAOOO he has had ENOUGH

scully says please skinner let us go to florida for 15 hours please 🙏 it should be quick but if it isn’t please stall for us please sir…. and he’s all “girl just go and be fast about it” (sternly)

okay! so why florida? because that is where one of dr. charne-sayre’s patients at a convalescent home died of a mysterious virus! yes, as we saw in the very beginning!!!!

NO!! vassily is here!!! can he just wander in?? is that allowed? why are people coming and going from this convalescent home…? is there not a sign in process…?

he’s going for the meds. he pockets some meds and replaces them with a decoy. 

“may we come in ma’am?” mulder asks, shoving his way in <- LMAOOOO god that gag gets me every single time 

so they need to look at the elderly, and scully reports that this dude she just walked up to is dead. and he sees another one with the slugs!!!

these people are test subjects, he says!!! and they have to deal this building right now!!

no!!! vassily was laying in a bed and heard all of this!!! what is this mischievous fellow up to???

mulder says all of this can be traced to one man. and scully…. oh my gosh, the side profile, my heart…… 

IS KRYCEK WORKING WITH VASSILY?

scully and mulder go to visit the leader of the militia they busted krycek with at the beginning of last episode. scully looks so good i’m actually going to gnaw my own arm off holy fuck. that blue trench coat and grey suit combo is lethal.

so this criminal is denying finding krycek in a missile silo, and said krycek came to him. looking for help to make “devices”, and talking about this black cancer developed by the soviets, and used in the gulf war. so how did he get out of the silo....

OH! mulder asks where the other “device” (bomb) ended up, and when the militia leader says “i ate it”, he punches this guy in the stomach and puts him in a headlock. and then he says some very out of pocket things i am not going to repeat, but the point is: krycek took the bomb and put it in a storage garage somewhere in terma, north dakota. ah! the name of this episode is finally understandable!

“scully, get on the phone and get the license numbers for any two-ton trucks stolen in north dakota in the last six months, then call canadian border authorities and have them stop any vehicle fitting that description” (said while gazing into her eyes)

(this line killed me for some reason and i can’t even explain it… just such an odd series of commands out of context!)

“someone used krycek, then krycek used us; someone who didn’t want that rock in american hands” ah. so this whole thing has been a set up. you see, i was too busy thinking thoughts like “i hope he gets out of the gulag” and also “man, i hope scully doesn’t go to jail” and “look at how they hugged!” to put that together. sometimes i am a simple viewer making no conclusions about the grander plot at hand! sometimes i am surface level! i am multi-faceted!

vassily is gonna put the rock back in the ground under the guise of fertilizer for his tomatoes 

WOAH!!! agents in a helicopter :0 they look so good….

mulder is trying to scream over the loud noise of the helicopter doing its thing, which i imagine had to be an awful time to film. scully wisely just nods her head instead of attempting to communicate with words.

haha his hair is all messed up from the helicopter… hehehehe…

so he’s looking in the truck for any sort of rocks or bombs or whatnot. he sees some pipes… he is forming conclusions…

scully disembarks from the helicopter, and her hair is all messed up too (my heart!) as she climbs over a fence to get into this refinery. one thing about these two is they are gonna climb some fences!

vassily sees this going down and hides…… mulder is reaching into the pipe…. trying to grab the hidden rock… he is covered in oil!!!!

and it blowed up!!!!!!! 

no!!!! scully sees the explosion,,, and vassily sneaks up behind her and puts her in a chokehold!!! he grabs her gun!!! he says he will kill her but he doesn’t want to? and that his work is done. 

damn, now she’s gotta get a new gun……

she’s RUNNING to mulder who is soaked in oil and has barely escaped the explosion. she is picking him up and then… cutscene to more testimony stuff.

GIRL IS HE OKAY???

i love when they save each other <3 i love when they have to pick each other up and drag each other to safety <3 i love the panicked screaming of the other’s name <3 i love the fast and furious assessment to see if the other is okay <3 i just love these things <3

scully has evidence to present: linking a number of deaths to a biotoxin brought onto US soil! and the man who delivered it also died! and that guy was the man who krycek pushed off skinner’s balcony!

“alex krycek, who is missing and possibly deceased” oh i know better than to believe his ass is dead

the council is whispering… 

they laugh at the idea of extraterrestrials, and mulder also comes to the stand… what is he gonna do…

“why is this so hard to believe?” he asks. hey i know you’ve had a rough go of it man, and there is literally an alien slug in your body, but she was doing so well…

oh! he’s going on and on about how obvious it is that extraterrestrial life forms exist!! and you need to understand this or else you are denying crucial evidence!!!

ah, i see now why the opening text. just as galileo spoke of the earth rotating around the sun but was scorned, so mulder speaks of aliens and is met with disdain. and yet, the earth continues to spin, and the aliens continue to be in his bloodstream.

“this is not why we are here today” “then why ARE we here today?” okay parallels i see you!!!

they recess… and cancer man stands up in the back……..

back to russia, where vassily is returning home, insisting he is retired to someone in his room.

OH! IT’S KRYCEK! WHO IS ADDRESSED AS “COMRAD KRYCEK” bro… he is congratulating vassily on a great job 

and omg… he’s got a prosthetic arm… they really sawed his arm off…

back at DC (home) the senator is reading files and passing them to cancer man, who is tossing them in a bin??? presumably to burn??

HUH! so much for an honorable man.

okay, so much happened here. let me go in order of which thoughts are loudest.

first of all… did they know this was gonna be what they did with krycek from the start? just asking because i want to know if “needs to be fluent in russian” was on the casting call for that role or if they sprung it on him later. because that would be wild.

krycek, working with the soviets… huh. interesting implications.

second. the alien!! there is alien oil slug in krycek AND mulder now!!!! what is that going to do to them? are they gonna turn into living flash bangs like that one lady did in that one episode?? is it gonna slowly kill him? will be and scully slowly die together? i can’t imagine such a horrible thing….

third. their reunion…. damn it, it was so sweet. the way they INSTANTLY got to their feet when the recess was declared… the way he wrapped his arms around her…. oh man. oh man. and the smiles… the smiles……..

so far, s4 has not really been my jam. but this episode was really good and has given me hope that soon we shall be cooking with gas, in terms of both very juicy plot advancement and special agent bonding moments. i mean, come on, lifting him out of that explosion while he was covered in oil??! i cannot get enough of that!!!

is he going to hide that he has an alien slug in him?? is he going to be that guy in the zombie movie who acts like he didn’t get bit?? or is he going to be honest and tell her?? will she try to find a cure? wait, does he even know what happened?? because he was knocked out when all of that went down…

and what about scully’s mystery illness!!!! is she going to be okay?? are they going to be terrified for each other??

okay, okay, one thing at a time.

so, there’s an alien virus in a rock that landed on earth during the tunguska event, and the americans were working on a vaccine to protect against it. but somehow the russians knew about it, and that is likely due to krycek, who was a double agent on like three counts. they killed the leading expert on the virus in order to prevent a vaccine from being developed, and have previously used the virus in biowarfare (so i guess gulf war syndrome is alien slugs in this universe?). the guy that krycek threw off of skinner’s apartment was the one who was meant to receive the rock containing aliens, but was killed, and said virus rock was intercepted by the russians, who are having a sort of cold war 2.0 moment. over alien slug virus. which, if exposed to, will eventually kill you; why it killed dr. sachs and not all of the other men who were at the gulag is a mystery. and to try and protect the americans against this virus, the leading expert, dr. charne-sayre was testing on the elderly. and cancer man wants to cover up all of the evidence which scully and mulder have presented linking all of the deaths to the rock. 

okay. i think i got most of the lore down.

i want to know what happens next!!! but i am no fool!! i know we will be given random monster of the week episodes which are also excellent but tell me nothing about the plot!!! and now that we’re dealing with alien slugs, i’m wondering, what about the actual little green men? where do they come in? is this a third type of alien? because we have the little green men we’ve seen glimpses of, sometimes mixed with human DNA; we’ve got the aliens that were clones from that species with the poison blood and can only be killed with the needle to the neck; and then these alien slugs. and also a few other random non-central to the plot alien life forms, like the ones in firewalker and ice.

where is the common thread?? how can they tie all of these up?? would tying all of these mysteries up even be satisfying?? or is it better to let some things be a mystery?? did chris carter have plans for all of this overarching stuff, or was he making it up as he went?

so many questions! but for me, basking in the warmth of their hug is my highlight 

[astarlightmonbebe]

the shenanigans in wedding impossible are fun and all, but impossible to truly enjoy because i cannot forget the high stakes behind them. it was bad enough when the premise was simply a contract marriage to cover up one man's secret, but now we have 'let me seduce my brother's fiance-soon-to-be-wife' thrown into a mix. jihan's actions are harmless on the surface, sinister beneath it. for all he says he cares about his brother, ajeong is right when she says he's not a very good brother (i mean, you could argue the same for dohan, which i will get into in a minute), because what brother makes a move on his brother's woman? it doesn't matter if there's no feelings yet, or if the marriage is fake - they've barely begun and they're already getting caught. and jihan and ajeong getting caught leads to dohan and ajeong getting caught out too, and so it always comes back to dohan's secret, his reason for trying to escape. i think starting off the drama we already know that dohan ultimately won't be able to keep his sexuality a secret, that it will somehow be forced out into the open, but with each episode, the stakes surrounding that reveal get higher and higher. the higher it gets, the more the fall hurts. the higher the walls, the more violently they crumble.

and, objectively, none of the characters are entirely without blame or flaws in the situation. dohan asking ajeong to marry him without consideration of the cost it could have on her (he's asking her to move to ny, lie to her family and his, possibly stall her career or risk losing it entirely, etc). ajeong lying about her career to dohan and acting as if she's rich and all that. for close friends, they are sometimes careless with one another, but we can also see them remedying that, rebuilding the gaps, such as when ajeong sincerely accepts his offer, and dohan calling her to check in. jihan's a much more volatile character. his character can be understandable when you think that he wants dohan to have happiness because he somehow thinks of himself as responsible for their mom dying, but what's the point in fighting for something for dohan that dohan doesn't even want? dohan has made it clear he doesn't want the company, but jihan has it set on him inheriting it, on marrying him off. he's not much different from their grandfather in that respect, although at least their grandfather agreed to let dohan marry ajeong instead of trying to break them apart like jihan's doing now. jihan's pushy and overbearing; dohan, in contrast, is perhaps too laidback. he doesn't seem to understand jihan's ambition or his struggles in the power balance, and he also left his brother alone with the wolves for five years. it's hard to really analyze the brother's that much, because we don't get that many scenes of just the two of them and have barely any backstory on how their relationship was like growing up (did dohan look out for jihan? what does he know that jihan doesn't, and vice versa? how was dohan's position in the family (we understand jihan is bottom rung)? etc).

still, when it gets down to the bone, the biggest blowback is on dohan, because he'll end up losing the one thing he wanted to protect. ajeong entered the game as an outsider, and she'll leave like one (or eventually be welcomed back into the family as jihan's wife at this point), although there will probably be considerable affect possibly on her career or public image as an actress. jihan could lose a lot, more so in standing, which he cares about, and public image as well. dohan gets outed to his family, and probably the greater public depending on how much comes to light (that reporter seems like he'll be an issue). so really, jihan and ajeong are playing a game and forgetting dohan is in the middle. and that's going to be a problem.

[snowangeldotmp3]

umm hello barbiegloria nation 🫣

[biteghost]

State of Affairs: oh, it's not good. Bad, in fact!

listening music (lol)

Greetings, all! I apologize for not much communication, art or comics this month, but things were a bit out of my control! I'll cut right to the point: I had a big oopsie at the start of May, and the situation overall has not gotten much better since then.

Here's the scoop as plain as I can explain it: I dropped my external hard drive, and it no longer connected to my computer. My computer has a very tiny amount of memory (the OS capacity is less than 120GB), so I have used an external hard drive as the brain of my computer for years now. I have no back-ups either on another hard drive, older computer, or cloud service.

This external hard drive housed everything I have created and brought with me between computers since 2013. It stored all my art. All of it. My comic pages, my working files, my works-in-progress, my commission pieces, as well as gifts from friends and other artists. It had all the sessions of my at-home tabletop game 'Blueshift', which is a pretty big hit for me as I had only just finished the game. I didn't even have time to be happy the game was finished until I had to mourn a loss of it I had not anticipated.

I sent the hard drive to a data recovery company with good reviews. It had nearly 2TB of data on it, and I tried very hard not to get my hopes up that they'd be able to retrieve most of my data. Despite this, I still was disappointed by what they sent back.

To be blunt: they did not retrieve most of my data. In fact, I'd say in total they only recovered about 40%, if I am being generous. They were unable to recover any of my in-development projects (A Cure for Athanasia, Super Manifest: Steward Cycle, The Tenth, The Sword of Hours, etc), and unfortunately BACKLASH didn't make it out unscathed either. Old art files that I one day wanted to make Prints off have been lost, as well as small doodles and secret sketches which never made it online.

While reviewing the files that they managed to recover, I also noticed that whole chunks of BACKLASH's working page files have been lost or corrupted. This isn't a huge setback for the comic itself since all of BACKLASH is online to read. But it is hard and heartbreaking for me, because despite everything I did one day want to make a printed edition of BACKLASH. I wanted to hold my comic in my hands.

That dream is not impossible, but it is now much further away. I can recreate my old pages with what I currently have, but it will be a lot of extra work, and there is no getting around that.

Losing this much of my history, artistic journey, relationships and formative time as an artist has been really hard on me, emotionally and mentally. I'm very sad. It's hard to draw right now for myself. Commission work comes easily, since I am given a prompt to draw for someone else, but creative ideas are not flowing for me at the moment. My hands are frozen and dejected.

I am now waiting to get back the files that the data recovery people managed to retrieve for me (probably by tomorrow, they said), and I am looking into other places in order to get a second opinion of sorts. At this point there really is no harm in trying, and maybe a different operation might have better luck. Who knows? It may be grasping at straws, but at this point things can't get any worse than this.

When I get my data back I'll be able to finish up BACKLASH chapter 7. I want to finish it off - there are not very many pages left, and miraculously the few remaining pages are among the ones that were recovered! So that's good. I will be finishing up the chapter, and afterward BACKLASH will be taking a bit of a break. I don't know how long the hiatus will last, and I won't be making any kind of estimate. It'll take as long as I need until I feel I can put one foot in front of the other again. Maybe I'll work on something else for a while, maybe I won't draw anything. Who knows! I don't, haha.

Eventually I'll be okay, and I'll get back on the horse. Even in the midst of all this turmoil I really just want to be making comics ;_;

Until then, I just need some time. It's the only cure for this kind of problem, I think. So, I thank you for your patience, and I thank you for the love you've shown me, my work, and my characters. I couldn't be where I am and I couldn't have made all the work I have without your support and love. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!

I'll see you when I get back! Much love and many kisses, xoxo 💖💖💖

(cross-posted from patreon)

[anartificialsatellite]

What Suits You on AO3

Hetalia | Explicit | 10k | USJP

Contains: D/s dynamics, bondage, mild violence, impact play, degradation, ownership, tattoos, (consensual) forced intoxication, aftercare, dom Japan/sub America... I think that's all the warnings and/or delights depending on how you're looking at it.

Whether due to his larger than life personality, his position of immense global influence, or simply his volume, America always seemed to manage to dominate in any situation… With one big exception.

Sometimes real freedom comes from choosing to be bound.

America almost, almost lifted his hands to take it from him, but instead curled his fingers against his thighs and opened his mouth to drink from the glass as Japan held it. It was a lighter flavor than he normally favored from such things, more delicate and subtle, but that certainly seemed fitting alongside the company he’d chosen. It was difficult to focus on the whisky, though, when his heart was thundering so loud in his chest and ears. “Hakushu,” America said, as soon as Japan pulled the glass away. “The uh, the twelve year. I saw it on the shelf at the liquor store and I thought I remembered seeing it at your place, so I thought it must be good.” “Mm.” Japan didn’t say anything in response, instead taking another sip, but never let his gaze drop from America’s face. America couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or not. At times like these Japan was extremely stingy with any sort of verbal praise, but it was part of their whole… thing, so it was tough to tell whether he was withholding his approval or if it truly wasn’t there.

[la-galaxie-langblr]

So Much happening, lots of it good but So Much

[baelavelaryon]

House Maevret and Ithlinne Backstory

House Maevret is barely considered a noble house at all, most nobles consider them only a few rungs above laborers, and yet they have carved out a niche for themselves that has made them powerful in their own way. The Maevrets have cultivated as much arcane knowledge as any other house, and their abjuration magic is second to none. The noblewomen spend their days weaving cloth enchanted with their protection magic, and their robes are sometimes exchanged for gold but they primarily trade in favor.

Ithlinne was born to Shiadhal Maevret, a particularly powerful sorcerer who couldn't have been more disappointed in her first daughter. After mothering two sons, both who turned out to be talented despite their sex, she had high hopes for her youngest... hopes that were dashed when Ithlinne revealed that she had none of her family's natural inclination for magic.

By age ten, she had been put aside by her mother; Ithlinne wasn't a sorcerer, nor was she strong, quick, or particularly clever, she was devout in her rituals but Lolth showed her no particular favor. Truly there was nothing her mother hoped for more than a second, more promising daughter. Ithlinne took to hiding in the compound's library, studying history and anatomy, which was when she learned the interesting history of her father's house, House Freth.

Many years ago, House Freth had been destroyed, and returned only through striking strange deals with the Cult of the Dragon, a society dedicated to serving undead dragon masters. This was the first time Ithlinne learned of the concept of a lich, an idea that would fascinate her for many years to come.

Having learnt this history, she began doing the strangest thing, seeking out and speaking to her father. Ithlinne's father was one of the three sons of the matron Erelal Freth, and a wizard of middling skill, he began to teach his daughter his manner of channeling the weave. And so at sixteen, she began to learn a form of magic.

To say that she excelled with this new teaching would be an overstatement, Ithlinne was a slow learner and always would be, but when she had a true passion for something she would put her entire focus on it, wearing it down like a wave against a cliff. She learned basic conjuration, some evocation... and finally convinced her father to teach her the simplest necromancy he knew.

As she grew older, her true passions remained with the concept of undeath, but Ithlinne had a role to fulfill, and eventually knew enough through study to replicate the complex glyphs her mother could weave with her eyes shut since she was a child. She also took over leading their chapel in service to Lolth, which both pleased her mother and herself.

After all, there were no rules on what must happen to the bodies once they had been killed in Lolth's name. No one else seemed to notice if a few went missing to further her studies in the passing of the soul and reanimation of the flesh.

A few decades passed like that, as calm as Menzoberranzan could be. Until her mother gave birth to another daughter. Nimue was everything Ithlinne wasn't, a perfect magical prodigy to further the line, with a sparkling personality and an easy air to her that Ithlinne had never had.

It was in Ithlinne's ninetieth year, and Nimue's fifth that her mother started trying to kill her.

The assassins caught her in the bath, her mother had clearly told them what she knew of her schedule and abilities, and they had come well-prepared. One had stabbed her between the shoulders with a poisoned blade before she could react, striking the other with lightning.

She wanted to master the ability to animate dead before informing anyone, the last thing she wanted was another failing for her mother to add to her list. This secret was probably the only thing that saved her. Having killed the first assassin, she was able to raise him as a zombie and set him on the second who did not expect it at all, keeping them away from her as she took the antidote that she always kept in a locket around her neck.

With the assassins dealt with, Ithlinne was faced with the knowledge that her mother wouldn't stop until she had either proven herself as heir, or gotten her out of the way so that her favored child could rule. Ithlinne was no fool, she knew her best option would be to leave, allow her mother to believe that she had succumbed to her wounds.

Taking only her spellbook and the few items she could carry, she left the cold comfort of her home.

[w0lfinsheepscl0thing]

1898: Forgetting Their Shadows - Update

Since last May, I’ve been developing an 1899 fic, and I’m as excited about it as I was when I thought of it. However, I’ve been in a writing slump for almost a month and it’s been taking away all my confidence and motivation. But I’m not going to give up on the project till it’s done! I’m mainly active on Instagram, so after I posted some teasers I made for it back in October, mainly because I thought I would somehow finish it soon, I completely abandoned the idea of posting on here till it was done. But, of course, things didn’t go as planned. I really want to keep working on this fic, so, in hopes that it’ll help with motivation, I’ve decided to try and post updates for it here, even if they are small.

But first, I haven't really introduced this project properly! Settle in, because this is going to be a long one…

How I Started the Story

(Feel free to skip this or any of the points to get to the info you want; a lot is rambling!)

In April, 2023, I checked out 1899 and was immediately invested in Ángel (and Ramiro, of course. He just came later). I had no idea what I was getting into when I started the show, so I’ll have to admit, I didn’t think I’d like it at first, and it took till episode three to really get into it. If it wasn’t for Ángel, I might’ve not seen the whole thing through, which sounds crazy looking back on it now! I started to visualize Ángel and Ramiro’s backstory and where they came from while constantly hoping they’d get their own episode, so when I finished season one and found out it was canceled, I was very disappointed. Not only because they didn’t get an ending, but because now I wanted to know everyones’ endings. It was by this point I realized how stupid I was to think it wasn’t worth watching.

Also, at this time, I didn’t use Tumbler and assumed (from an Instagram only perspective) that the community for the show was dead. I also thought the people I loved and wanted to see more of weren’t appreciated among the few people still active in it. I really wanted to see the backstory behind Ramiro and Ángel, so I tried to write it myself. It was… terrible in the beginning. It was written in a script format, the chapters were only 300 words max, and a lot of it wasn’t realistic, but at least it was a start? Over time, though, I figured out I definitely wasn’t the only person who wanted to see more of them, and it evolved into not just those two people, but the entire story of 1899. I’m really glad it changed to that.

What Exactly Is This Story? What is it trying to accomplish?

I’m writing every backstory, then hopefully seasons 2 and 3, but also trying to make them as precise and accurate as possible. They include some of my own twists, as long as they aren’t contradicted by anything already confirmed, but the point is to make it everything the show was to be and more. I want it to have all of the detail and thought that Bo and Jantie put into it, even if it is painstaking to map out. I don’t want to give too much away yet, but just to clear something up (mainly for my own sake), this is my own take on the story and it’s different from other backstory/finishing the plot fics; I’m really trying to make it as different as I can!

So, Where Are You Now With It?

That’s complicated. I thought I had almost everything done for Volume One (Spain), but after getting through a rough draft of Chapter Six, I was gravely mistaken. I decided to take a step back and plan as much as I could, so once Volume one is out, I can almost immediately start on Volume Two, and so on and so forth. However, with so many puzzle pieces, it’s been tortuous to plan. Right now, I think the best option is for me to pick apart everything pre-simulation so I can understand everything that comes next. The main goal is for me to map out anything and everything, so I don’t change things later that ruin everything I already did, then (finally) finish Volume One.

This is going to be a while, but I want this to be as perfect as I can get it. At least it’ll be done this year, and I hope you're able to stick around for the journey :).

[tippenfunkaport]

Glowing Pains

While Glimmer is away on a space trip, Bow is left alone with the kids and a newly moonstone powered Princess Arrow causes a problem for her father and young Prince Glow

(3,397 Words)

Read on AO3

I want you to know that this fic is the entire reason I have never posted any art or bios of my Glimbow fankids, all because I wanted to preserve the tension of this short. I don't know why I am like this, but it's what I'm like.

Though now that this is posted, I will probably post fanart and more info about my fankids in the future.

(It says Chapter 2 but that's a collection of standalone stories about Prince Glow so you can just jump in here if you want.)

For the @glimbowweek prompt: Milestones

[lightlia]

Priority Needed - Wind Breaker Joker ff series

Part 1 

[more parts will be there soon]

“You know what would be cool?”

“Like what?”

Turning to face the front, “Jumping off this building right now.”

εїз

εїз Sunny High School εїз

“Hey, sis. My baby sister! You got some money on you right now? I really need some money to pay for something.” 

“No.”

“Oh, c’mon, Lily. I need some to get some movie tickets for my date.”

“With Jordan?”

“LILY, PLEASE. YOUR BROTHER REALLY NEEDS IT!”

“Call dad and get him to send money to you.”

Walking away from her brother, Dom, Lily walked to the bathroom to find Aria who told her to meet there. Lily, whose full name is Kang Nali and the younger sister of Dom Kang, had no idea why Aria wanted to meet her there because there were more locations to talk at. But whatever Aria thought to talk in secret then Lily had no objection to it.

“Hey, Aria. What do you want to talk about?” Lily asked out loud upon entering the bathroom but got her mouth covered up by Aria when she came rushing at her.

“Lower your volume. Shelly is in here and I don’t want her to know what we’re gonna talk about.”

“Mmpf mmpf mfpf?” Lily mumbled as Aria’s hand was still on her mouth which could be translated to Shelly’s in here?

“Shushhhh~~”

“Wait, I heard Lily’s voice. Lily, are you out there?” Shelly’s voice came from one of the bathroom stalls caused Aria and Lily to look at each other.

“I told you to keep it quiet when you walk in here, Lily.” Aria nagged Lily as the latter gave her a confused look before answering Shelly’s calling her.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Lily answered.

“Great, Lily. Don’t go anywhere. I need to tell you something.” Shelly responded back as the two girls outside heard her flushing down the toilet and hurrying from the inside. 

Shelly opened the door and got out with her bag in hand, stepping quickly to where Lily was standing and showed the latter what was on her phone. “You’ve gotta tell your dad what Dom has been getting on lately. I swear he doesn’t go training with all of us anymore, he goes somewhere else, skipping our routine practices.”

“Send those pictures to me; I’ll show dad about this to get more money to my bank account. Hehehe.” 

“You two are exactly the same.” Shelly uttered as she airdropped the pictures to Lily’s phone and messed her hair in the process. “Gotta go. I need to go bother someone real quick.”

She winked as Lily got what she meant and Shelly ran out of the bathroom with a smile on her face. Lily then turned back to Aria and saw that she was upset about something. “Hey, what’s wrong? You can tell me everything that bothers you.”

Aria sighed, chasing away all the bad energies surrounding her. “It’s just that Jay thinks of me as a random underclassman. Nothing more than that.”

“I’ll ask my brother what Jay thinks of you, Aria. I’m sure he wouldn’t think of you this way.”

“I tried everything to get his attention but his attention is always on the competition and Shelly. I don’t know why he wouldn’t pay attention to me even a little bit. I just want him to look at me like he looks at Shelly.” Aria cried into her arms and Lily had no other options but to console her; though she never understood the one-sided love, she felt the pain of Aria as she didn’t want her to lose herself for loving Jay when he didn’t even pay any attention to the girl at all.

Her brother was also a lovesick puppy as well; He, who had a crush on the twin sister of Minu, cried to Lily all the time about her ignoring him. He even went to sleep in her room because he said he wanted to get comfort from her. He’d been like this since they were kids, even their dad said nothing about it.

εїз Hallway εїз

“LILY!! MY BABY SISTER!! COME AND GIVE YOUR BROTHER A HUG!” Lily heard her brother yell out to her while she was on her way with Aria back to class but she guessed her brother came looking for her or something again this time. Lily watched her brother, Dom, running up to her and jumped to hug her as she couldn’t get away from him.

“LILY!! I want you to know that I always love you and I will always protect you from any harm coming your way. Trust me, my baby sister.” As Dom said that, he brushed his face with hers which to Lily who used to it already, seemed normal but to others, it looked like a creep.

Lily had to push her brother off so that everyone wouldn’t whisper so loud around them, “You gotta stop doing this when we’re in school. These people are whispering loudly among themselves.”

As she said that, Dom looked around the hallway and saw that everyone was looking at them and some had their phones up recording them like they were animals. He walked up to them and,

“Did you get good pictures of us together? Send them to me!” Dom exclaimed as he hopped around to look at others’ phones as Lily deadpanned at her brother’s excitement over their pictures being taken.

“I can’t believe we are twins.”

Minu stood next to Lily, agreeing with what she said. “People can really tell you two apart because even though you two are twins, they would know that you are you and Dom is Dom.”

“You’re just saying the same thing.”

“Right, but people from the outside wouldn’t know that you two are twins until they see you and him with your dad.”

Lily shrugged, “I rather have people not knowing me and Dom are twins than anything.”

“What happened? What’s wrong?” He asked.

“Those three idiots keep bugging me to ask Dom to let them into The Hummingbird Crew. I told them to talk with Dom themselves but they kept bugging me until I exploded on them last week.”

εїз Last week εїз

“Please, Lily. Tell your brother to let us in too. We’re also good at cycling as well. We can do what they are doing too.” One of the three kids in her class begged her after they found her walking home with Jordan from the usual hangout with him. And they had to stop her as she wanted to go home and sleep the entire day off but these three kids had to run up to her and almost knocked her to the other side when they couldn’t stop running to her.

“What do you want? Also, did you just stalk me so that you can come and tell me to talk to my brother?”

“Not that kind of stalking. We just happened to find you here and…”

“And what? Why don’t you go and talk with him alone and not get me involved in this? WHY ARE YOU BEING A COWARD AND NOT GO TO HIM YOURSELF? I’M FUCKING TIRED OF LISTENING TO YOU BEGGING ME ALL THE FUCKING TIME WHEN YOU SHOULD’VE USED ALL THOSE TIMES TO GO TALK TO DOM!!?!”

The three guys stepped away as Lily pushed them out of the way and Jordan almost jumped to bite them but she pulled him off and went home, being so angry about it.

εїз

“You’re going home alone again, Lily?” Dom asked her as he was waiting by his bike with his friends ready to go train. He wanted to see his baby sister get out of school so that he could go train with a relaxed mind. 

“Yeah. You go and train now after I told Dad about it?” She smirked as Dom’s face turned sour after being scolded by his dad through the phone during his break time.

He laid his hand on Lily’s shoulder, “You know you don’t have to tell Dad what I did or didn’t do, Lily.”

“But I got money out of this, anyway. So, no.”

“WHAT?!?”

“Anyway, I have to go now. See ya at home, big brother!” Lily made a big heart over her head and hopped off the school ground, walking the opposite way to somewhere.

“WAIT!! WHAT!! DID YOU JUST SAY YOU MAKE MONEY OUT OF SNITCHING TO DAD!? LILY!! KANG NALI!!”

“Dom, calm down.” Minu and June tried to calm the guy down and it seemed to be ineffective.

“CALM DOWN!? HOW AM I CALMING DOWN WHEN MY TWIN SISTER SNITCHED ON ME TO GET SOME MONEY?!? KANG NALI, YOU COME BACK HERE!”

She heard her brother yell out as she hopped around excitedly. With the money that her dad sent to her this afternoon, she had the opportunity to go somewhere and buy something for someone she liked. It was laughable to see that the daughter of a gang leader had a crush on someone that could be considered to be an enemy to the gang because he beat up her brother. 

And if Dom were to know about her crush on the person who had a fight with him, he wouldn’t stay still and would cause something between the two of them. It was only a matter of time until Dom would find out about his baby sister’s immense feeling for the underground fighter. 

Lily walked close to where she would see the guy and his team hanging around and as she turned the corner at the convenient store, she finally saw them, especially the guy that she had a huge crush on.

Joker of the Sabbath Team.

“Hey! Where have you been off this whole day?” Lily asked as she walked up to them, seeing that Wooin gave half of the money to Joker and the latter counted the money. She then walked closer to stand next to Joker who hadn’t noticed her yet.

“Oh, Lily. Didn’t see ya there, princess.” Wooin uttered as he gazed at Lily with the usual smile on his face, pulling a candy out from his pocket to give to her. She accepted it because the only thing that could actually connect her and Wooin together other than the adrenaline rush was candies. It was the thing that tied them to tolerate each other.

Wooin continued, “School's done for today?”

“Yeah, what about you guys? Done with your errands?”

This remark made Wooin smirked at Lily; it’s becoming clearer to him that she knew what he and his team were doing. It had become apparent for him to start getting really, really close to her so that he could get a job with her dad. 

He had a purpose and by engaging with the daughter of a gang leader would benefit him in the long term. He then had his arm around Lily’s shoulder, getting real close to her when she wasn’t really paying much attention to him but to only Joker. “So, your dad…Does he need any errand completed for him?”

“No, all the errands are being done by his gang. I don’t think he needs your help but thanks for asking, Wooin.”

“I’m going home.” Joker uttered as he turned back, not even looking or speaking to Lily once.

Lily saw this and became quite sad that he didn’t pay much attention to her. And while Lily was feeling sad about it, Wooin exclaimed to Joker, “Dude, we’re going to some barbecue and you decided to dip out?”

“I gotta make food for my younger brothers.”

Without saying anything else, he walked off to his house probably as Lily watched him walking away without saying anything to her. She felt all kinds of emotions right now and Wooin cursed under his breath but she didn’t really care about him; her crush wasn’t him, Joker was her crush.

“I’m going home too.” Lily uttered as she walked away from Wooin when he was quick to grab her wrist.

“Hold on, you’re not going home so fast.” He said, pulling the money out of his pocket. “We’re going to barbecue together.”

εїз Barbecue Restaurant εїз

“You want to get with Joker so bad, don’t you?” Wooin asked, sipping on his coke while his hands were busy with grilling the meat.

“How do you know?”

“Everyone knows among us, even Joker knows that himself.” 

Lily, after hearing that, accidentally swallowed water into the wrong hole which caused her to cough until she got a red face. “What?!”

“You thought he wouldn’t get the hint, didn’t you? The tall idiot sees and hears everything; it’s just that he doesn’t talk that much. He keeps a lot to himself so if he were to talk about you crushing on him, that would be just a dream.”

“Oh god…How am I going to face him now?”

Wooin chuckled, “Just let it go with the flow. Everything will be fine.”

“How would you know that?”

Without saying anything else, Wooin just smirked as he plopped a piece of meat into his mouth.

εїз Home; Dinner Time εїз

“Dad, listen to me. Lily didn’t mean what she said when she told you about me not training with the team. She’s obviously lying to get money out of you.” Dom tried to talk to their dad as they were having their dinner together after not having one for a very long time. Pulling all types of faces to convince their dad, Dom kinda gave up along the way because it looked like their dad was really paying much attention to the subject.

“Lily, you’re not having a second?” Their dad asked.

She shook her head, “No, I’m full. Thanks, Dad.” She then turned to face Dom and made a mocking expression, “Enjoy your dinner with Dad, big brother!” and hopped to her bedroom excitedly.

As Lily finally arrived at her bedroom, she immediately locked the door as she didn’t want Dom to come in and sleep in her room again this time. She had something to say to Joker and she didn’t want her brother to know about this or he might go and finish his business with Joker. After all, no brothers would want their sisters to date someone whom they had issues with. Especially guys like Joker who Dom tried to warn Lily a lot.

She grabbed her phone and immediately went to text Joker whom she was fortunate enough to get directly from. She wanted to know if he did know about her crushing on him. She needed to hear it from him instead and not from Wooin who could be saying anything because he wanted to tease her about this.

Hi! I’m not bothering you right now, am I?

Read 8:48pm

Yeah, Joker wasn’t the type to text someone back. He was more keen on talking instead of texting. She knew that but she didn’t want other ears to hear what she was going to say anyway.

Sorry, didn’t mean to bother you. Good night.

Uhh, stupid Lily! Why would you go and text him when you know he won’t answer back? Lily cursed herself as she put down her phone and slipped herself under the cover. She was shaken inside as the consequence of her action finally caught up to her. Why would she go and text Joker? What, trying to get him to tell her that he knows she was having a crush on him?

This was so stupid; why would you do that, Lily Kang?!!

[Insert phone’s ringtone here]

Lily turned to her side and picked the phone up and widened her eyes before getting up and clearing her throat. She swiped to answer and put the phone close to her ears.

“Hello, Joker.”

“Sorry, I was busy putting my brothers to sleep. What do you want to talk about?” His voice was very enticing; it could literally put her to sleep if he continued to talk like this on the phone with her. 

Then, she came back from reality and started speaking straight to the point as she knew Joker didn’t like it if someone wasted his time by not getting to the point. “Wooin told me that you knew that I like you more than friends.”

“Hmm..”

“Did you? I mean it’s cool that you know, y’know? It’s probably whatever, anyway. You probably don’t have the time to think about getting into a relationship with anyone right now. So, hahah.” Lily rambled on and Joker just kept listening to her talking when his mouth curved up into a smile at her rambling.

“So, uhh. What are you up to now?” She changed the subject as she felt embarrassed after rambling on about her crush on him. She could feel her cheeks burning up after indirectly confessing to him on the phone and whatnot. 

“I’d like to try going on a date with you.”

“Oohh, a date.. That’s what you're up to.” She smiled before the realization started to hit her. “Wait, a date with me?!?”

“Yeah, Wooin told me to get together with you so that I could learn a thing or two from you.”

“Wait, Wooin told you to do that?” That fucking asshole, I swear I will beat his ass when I see him. Lily thought to herself as she heard Joker respond.

“Not that it was an obligation to get with you. He just threw that sentence out just for fun and I picked it up and acted on it. Besides, you were trying so hard to get my attention.”

Then she heard a small chuckle coming from him and she swore she could float to the sky. Must be god’s gift to finally hear him chuckle, even if it was just a small one, it was enough to make her heart skip a beat. But, hey, did he just take a jab at her trying to get his attention all these times?

“Hey, I did that because I wanted you to notice me. Even this evening, I stood next to you but you didn’t notice me. Only Wooin noticed me and gave me candy.” She retorted as she heard him sigh through the phone.

“Sorry about that. I was thinking about my brothers so I wasn’t paying any attention to my surroundings.”

“So, uhh. When is your next fight? I want to come and support you.” She questioned, pulling a move that her brother taught her so many times and those many times, she ignored it because it sounded so stupid to her and now look at her, she used that technique to be with Joker all the time.

“It’s two days from now. If you wanna come, I’ll tell the guys in the front to let you in.”

“Great!! I want to. Just text me the location and I’ll be at your every fight!”

“Hmm…” He hummed and before the two of them hung up, Joker had one last thing to tell her. “Lily, let’s go on a date tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at your school if you want.”

Lily genuinely smiled and uttered calmly which put his heart on a treadmill. “Alright, I’ll text you my school’s location. See you tomorrow.”

“Alright, bye. Good night.”

She smiled widely at his words, “Good night.”

Bidding each other goodnight, Joker went to bed with a smile on his face for the first time in a long time while Lily was screaming in excitement under her blanket so loud that Dom ran to check on her.

“BABY SISTER!! WHAT HAPPENS?? IS SOMEONE INSIDE OF YOUR ROOM AND TRYING TO ATTACK YOU?”

Lily heard that outside of her room and then Dom shouted for someone to get a spare key from Dad’s room. “Get me the spare key; My baby sister is getting attacked!!” 

“STAY AWAY FROM MY ROOM!! I’M DOING OK AND THERE’S NO ONE IN HERE WITH ME!!”

“GET ME THE FUCKING KEY!!”

“STAY AWAY!!!!”

As on Joker’s side, he was still looking at his screen that showed Lily’s number. If it was one thing that got him to be able to smile even if it was just a small one, it was Lily and it was enough to get him to smile. For someone like him who was considered the freak and the money-chasing asshole, he never thought to have someone like him and bypass all of his negative traits. And for someone like Lily who was a level higher than him, he felt like he was blessed to have her like him. 

As for the date thing, of course, Wooin told him to get close to Lily and date her but Joker didn’t do that because he wanted something benefiting them. He really wanted to have a relationship and Lily was the one that he wanted to get with. Maybe he could try to learn how to read people’s moods from Lily.

“Date Lily and maybe you could get her to tell her brother that you want to have a talk with him.” Wooin uttered as he stood next to the tall guy, looking elsewhere.

“Her brother’s Dom?”

“Yeah and they’re twins. Everytime you look at Lily’s face, you would see her brother’s face too.”

Joker scoffed as he pushed his phone into his pocket, “Me dating her would be a real thing and not for our benefits. It’s mine.”

“Yeah, whatever you say, man. She’s gonna beat my ass when she sees me tomorrow or something. Aish, why would you say that I told you to get together with her?” 

Saying that, Wooin walked to step on one of the guys that ambushed them as Joker slightly smiled at the thought of him going to pick Lily up from school before he went on to fight some more. 

εїз

Walking down the hallway with her brother’s arm around her shoulders, Lily was feeling pumped up as she was excited for the later day. It was the usual scene for students to see upon seeing the twins walking down the hallway and being super close to one another; the one thing that was quite unusual for them to see was that Lily and Dom didn’t come to school together and walk down the hallway with their arms around their shoulders. That was the only unusual thing to see the Kangs being like this.

“What’re you gonna do if your score doesn’t reflect well on your report card?” Lily asked, looking at her phone while Dom turned upset about his report card last month.

“I don’t even want to know what I’m gonna do. My dream of making music would look dark to me.”

“You just gotta have Yuna around you all the time to encourage you to learn, brother. I’m not gonna help you all the time when you don’t even want my help.”

Dom groaned, “Yeah, but what can you say about my character? I don’t want to study so…”

“Then say goodbye to your music-making career.” She stuck her tongue out at Dom and walked into their classroom, taking a seat next to each other.

“Morning, Lily!! Did you get my Kakao this morning?” Shelly came into the classroom and shouted for Lily as she waved her hand at the latter.

Lily then winked, “Do you really wanna do this, Shelly? Would he get so embarrassed to not want to come to class?”

“LILY!!”

“Kidding… Ooh, Jay.” Lily had her hand out for Jay to drop something and Jay grumbled under his breath as he took his notebook from yesterday’s lesson and gave it to Lily.

εїз Break Time εїз

Lily got up as the bell rang across the school when her brother, Dom, asked her. “Where are you going? I thought we’re going to get something to eat with the team.”

“I’ll be back soon. I need to go somewhere.”

“Where… Lily?” Dom watched his sister walk out of the classroom, making a beeline for something.

“Where’s she going?” Minu walked to Dom’s chair, asking about Lily since they were both needed to complete an assignment with his older twin sister, Yuna.

“She wouldn’t tell me, dude. We’re just gonna have to wait for her at our usual spot.”

Lily walked down to find Aria as she had something to tell her since the last incident Aria had with Jay and Lily didn’t want Aria to feel sad that her crush on Jay wasn’t going as well as she wanted to. She needed to console the poor girl–

“Without any pain, you wouldn’t get the gain. You need to persist more. No pain, no gain.” Lily heard someone talking behind the wall to the stairs to another floor.

“Sure, I’ll keep fighting for the love I have for Jay.” Then she heard Aria’s voice so clearly and without a doubt, she ran to see Aria and saw that she was with this Owen guy who was infatuated with Shelly.

Upon seeing him, Lily groaned. “Uhh, it’s you.”

“You got a problem with me?”

“Very much indeed.”

“Well, that’s unfortunate because I don’t interact with those who aren’t in my field of interest.” Owen retorted and Lily took another jab at him.

“Neither do I but here we are.” Then Lily paid no more attention to Owen and grabbed Aria’s wrist, trying to pull her away from him. “Let’s go, Aria. You’re not gonna get any good from this guy.”

“You aren’t going anywhere with her. I still have something more with her.” Owen tried to stop Lily by grabbing Aria’s other wrist.

“With what? Encourage her to be persistent with her crushing on Jay or something else? Because I doubt you would have any good ideas.”

Owen scowled, “Did you just insult my intelligence?”

“When did I ever do that?”

“They look like they are fighting for Aria. Why is Aria in the middle of them arguing? Do you get what they are talking about?”

Lily and Aria heard the students’ talking about the scene in front of them but for Lily, she didn’t give a damn about it and continued on.

“You think by pushing this phrase No pain, No gain is gonna help her when clearly everyone could see the opposite of it.”

“There’s nothing wrong with giving her the motivation to get what she wants. I want Shelly and she wants Jay.”

“You sound like an obsessed freak. You gotta stop. This isn’t good for your mental health.”

He frowned, “Me? An obsessed freak?”

“Yes, do you need Shelly to say it to you for you to realize the reality? She loves someone else and not you. Geez, this idiot.” Lily spoke Korean in the last sentence because she was frustrated with this guy.

“Did you just call me an idiot in Korean?” Owen asked her as the sentence that she pronounced made sense to him.

“Oh, you do understand that? I thought you didn’t because it seemed to me that you don’t have the brain to realize the reality.”

“You!” 

“Let’s go, Aria. You don’t need to take his words into account. Everything this guy said was just rubbish.” Lily told Aria as she was finally able to pull her out of the situation and she didn’t notice the glare from Owen. 

This guy wouldn’t hold grudges but for this girl, Lily, he held grudges against her.

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After the bell finally rang as the signal for students to go home, the teacher teaching in the Hummingbird Crew’s (except Vinny) classroom still had a lot more to tell the students.

“Before you go home, I want you to fully focus on the group assignment that I put last week. Don’t forget that and the exam test will be here sooner than later so be paranoid about it.” 

After he said that, all the students groaned in their seats because when they wanted a free time to relax, the teacher had to tell them the bad news to drop that relaxing thought.

Then Dom turned to his sister with the puppy eyes he could garner, “Baby sister… Help me with the upcoming exam.”

Without looking at him, Lily denied. “No.”

“Oh, c’mon. I’ll pay you 150,000 won an hour.”

“200,000 won an hour.”

“That’s a deal.” Dom then grabbed his sister’s hand and shook it to seal the deal. 

That was also the usual sibling’s interaction, using money as a way to make a deal with the closest people. People started to get used to that already.

Then she suddenly stood up as the excitement of going out on a date with her crush bubbled up inside of her so Lily went out of the classroom in a hurry while her brother and her friends were shouting for her but she paid no heed to it and ran for the front gate.

Dom and his friends, on the other hand, went to the window and tried to find Lily among the students who got out of school and finally saw Lily rushing to the outside of the school gate with a huge smile on her face which got Dom to be curious about it. 

“What made her smile like that?”

Then Shelly went to the window, standing near him. “Maybe she finally got a boyfriend?”

“WHAT?!?”

“I mean it can be possible. Seeing how her smile stretches itself almost to her ears could mean several things and one of them is her boyfriend.”

“If my baby sister has a boyfriend, she would tell dad and me and not keep it a secret to herself, Shelly. I know my sister well.” Dom uttered as his eyes landed on Lily who unconsciously looked over to the window of her classroom and they both met eyes until Dom saw that his sister was sticking her tongue out at him.

“Why,,,she,,. This girl! I’m coming down to beat your ass, Lily!!” He shouted as soon as his hand unlatched the lock on the window and scared the hell out of the students who walked through the gate.

“Dom, no!” Shelly and Minu each grabbed Dom’s arms while Jay was ready with his book swinging at Dom.

It was like a miracle for Jay to join in with the shenanigans with the team so whenever Dom tried to stop Lily from doing anything, the gang was ready to stop him at all costs.

Lily went to the corner of the school as she saw a tall figure out of the normal height of all students there so she ran up to the guy that she always had her eyes on. The moment was very monumental for her so the fact that Joker picked her up from school to go on a date with him was like a dream come true for Lily. She had achieved one of her ultimate goals; now she has got to hide this thing from her brother especially because she didn’t think he would appreciate seeing his sister dating the enemy(?).

When she finally arrived at the place where Joker waited for her, it was behind a big tree at the corner of the school wall and this spot was the best to hide from her brother’s eagle eyes. Didn’t want him to see who she’s going with.

“Hi!” She exclaimed as the moment had finally arrived. “Shall we go now?”

Joker waved his hand, nodding and offering to hold Lily’s hand. “Sure. I found a place that would suit your taste.”

To be continued [if this goes well]