#i may edit this post because i never know when a new idea may change stuff

[crossbackpoke-check]

Dysprosium, Mary Soon Lee

dysprosium, AN 66, is a silvery-white rare earth metal. its name is derived from the greek dysprositos, meaning “hard to get at”, owing to the difficulty in separating and isolating this rare earth element. dysprosium is used to measure neutron flux, to fuel reactors, and to activate phosphors. terfenol-d is a magnetorestrictive alloy, meaning that it changes shape when a magnetic field is applied, and is used to manufacture underwater acoustic systems.

jason “robo” robertson, dallas stars #21 for @simmyfrobby’s nhl periodic table poems <3

[almalinked]

Profiles - AlmaLinked OCs - Pt.1

Raymundo Ortiz - ♥️🐇 Reluctant(?) Protagonist

"If you hit a bat with a broom, it's obvious it'll turn into your classmate in a poof of smoke. Dead in your living room. Yup. I've finally gone insane!"

A university art student who left home to study under a scholarship. As he works day shifts at a café, most of his classes are during the night: his classmates are…unique.  Turns out most humans aren’t supposed to see—or even be drawn to—the night class offers, yet he remains oblivious of this fact for months. Perhaps, this started from the moment he got that scholarship... Raymundo’s passionate and emotionally driven, owner of a fiery temperament and an intimidating glare that often keeps people away. Old habits die hard and he’s too used to being on the defensive to save himself pain, but even so his heart constantly peeks out his sleeve (literally, if you count the birthmark on his wrist).  If you talk to him for more than a couple minutes, you’d find a friendly guy who’s just too worried and overly conscious about being judged by others. His closest friends, Marina and Niko, are all the way back home and while Ray tells himself he can well survive as a loner, he longs to connect to others. Now, if his classmate Angelo would stop being a jerk, they might even become friends…?

Age: 20/21 years old Pronouns: he/him Languages: Spanish (native), English (second) Occupation: art college student, cafe barista/waiter Family: -Dad (died in an accident) -Mom, Stepmom -Grandma -Younger sister, Rosario (17 y/o) -Two older siblings -Back home, they have a rabbit (Canela), a couple fishes, a dog (Batata) Likes: art (drawing, painting, sculpting he manages different mediums); rock/metal music, pop occasionally; bunnies, cute things in general; running, exercise Dislikes: pineapple on pizza; horror movies; feeling lonely; pointless violence; awkward silences/completely silent rooms Appearance: -Short brown hair, longer bangs at the sides which he usually braids (the tips are dyed orange); when drawing or working, he pushes it back with a bandana so it's not in the way -1,65 cm tall, strong torso and arms, balanced build -Has freckles across his cheeks, shoulders and back; dark green eyes; hands often have smudges (pencil, oil, paint), skin is a bit rough, faint scarring around knuckles and one more notable starting between his index and middle finger and ending before his wrist -Has a 'birthmark' on his right wrist curiously shaped like a heart ♥ -Wears earrings and piercings on both ears -Day to day he wears comfortable shirts and jeans or overalls; has a set of overalls specifically for when he paints that have accumulated plenty of oil, watercolor, carbon etc smudges. Back in high school, he used to dress mostly in black, and while these days he's incorporated color, he still enjoys a bit of goth/emo fashion (he'll usually wear those clothes for band concerts). Misc: -Bi, demisexual; has limited romantic experience. -Wears socks with cute patterns (paws, animals, etc) -Doesn't handle horror well--back home, Marina would make him and Niko watch horror movies all the time but he never warmed up to them. He prefers to watch comedy or tear jerkers. Despite how he tries to appear, he's a big sentimental guy. -Focuses better with music in the background -He's a scrappy fighter, with a bit of technique he picked up for self defense. He WILL fight back if provoked.

Angelo Valentini - ♠️🃏 Self Proclaimed Cryptid

"I'm not dead, you fool. Now, could you take me out of this closet? It's quite cramped..."

(Do vampires count as cryptids? Angelo would say that yes). He's Ray's classmate in some of his classes, and assistant to the head of university; one of the few people who gets to see them in person. His main interest lies in fashion but he enjoys studying a large range of subjects to make up for lost time (and now he has immortality worth of it). No one knows where he goes during the day, or where he lives, or really—much about him.  He’s a man with past regrets, and a future he doesn’t knows what to do with. Upon a first impression, Angelo appears as someone of few words, serious and distant; he’s blunt and to the point and this often causes him to come off as rude (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not, but he doesn’t usually care). Logical and calculating, he leaves little room for emotion. It all betrays a secret playful side, and a softer, caring personality reserved for a select few. At first, he and Ray don’t see eye to eye and clash often. But with time, some snacks, close encounters with vampires—and one Christmas where Ray hit him with a broom, they start to become friends. He's also Danielle's ex. But that is a far longer story.

Age: 22/23 at time of turning; as a vampire, ? Pronouns: he/him Languages: Italian (Native), English (Second), some Spanish and a little French Occupation: student; assistant in university (bookkeeper, helps manage the library, various duties). Family (as human): -Mother (died of sickness when he was 14; she was a nurse) -Biological Father (unknown status, didn’t meet him→someone his mother had an affair with) -Step Father (in name only, never liked Angelo) -Younger sister, Luchia (the person he did everything for while alive) Likes: fashion, fashion history, making clothes; languages; fruits, pineapple on pizza; mystery and suspense, undiscovered things, cryptids, legends and myths Dislikes: pushy/meddling people; romcoms; asking for help Appearance: -Long, pale hair, often loose or braid or ponytail. -Long lashes, slender hands; naturally slender body but a little too thin at times due to lack of eating; in the past, his hands would have scattered bandages or bandaids from manual work/lack of care and resources for it. Having become a vampire, his complexion actually got better in some aspects (wounds heal faster) but if you take a close look, his body retains the memory of his habits as a human (and he still sucks at taking care of himself). -Tallish, around 1,70cm, long legs -Day to day, he usually wears dress pants, shirt and vest (no tie, but sometimes a cravat), which makes him stand out amidst more casually dressed students (Ray joked once he dressed LIKE a vampire). He enjoys a wide range of fashion, though, particularly long elegant dresses (one of his favorite pieces to make, as well). -As a human (disguise or past self),aquamarine/emerald green eyes, otherwise red; large bat ears/fangs/etc. -In bat mode, he’s an albino fruit bat. Misc: -Gay, demiromantic; he's slept with multiple people across his mortal and immortal life, but only loved one (so far). If not for him, he may not have become a vampire... -Back in the day, he learned to sew and often crafted clothes for himself or his sister due to lack of money. However he quite enjoys it. -Knowledgeable in Gambling/Cardgames: he learned many games and gambling techniques to make money. -Cryptid hunter: the truth is out there...

[snaccpopstudios]

Hi everyone! We're here with the long awaited post on our newest bachelor, Simoun. We know you've all been abuzz with questions about him so we hope to answer some of that in this deep dive into his creation. This post is in lieu of our usual Wednesday devlogs as we've been writing this over the span of several weeks, and was co-authored, edited, and reviewed by Tobias, Jude, ToyboxToonz, Primarvelous, and Sauce. The above image was drawn by @toyboxtoonz.

You can read the full post for free on Patreon, or click the readmore to see it all!

Personally speaking, some of my concerns since Simoun's debut are thoughts like "Do people think I'm making SnaccPop Studios push an agenda?" and "Do people think I'm going through a checklist while making new characters?" It's made it difficult for us to write this quickly because this is quite personal to myself and the rest of the sensitivity consultation team on the DachaBo team.

Concept to Creation

The story of DachaBo begins way before SnaccPop Studios itself was even a concept (that's Sauce's story to tell though). Early Patreon art of Simoun exists from November 2022, back before I was signed on to manage the Patreon and any other projects besides Sunny Day Jack. Sauce had some ideas laying around for several other characters in the DachaBo universe that didn't make it into the proof-of-concept demo:

I dug up an old draft for the DachaBo cat character we teased and it featured a story concept where the cat character was originally a female DachaBo character, referencing the original female design. And overtime he got tired of how he was being treated and decided to change his own self to reflect who he wanted to be, not the sycophants who collected the toys and whatnot ... It was shelved because I didnt have the means to sensitivity check it The designs are half cooked is all but he was supposed to be Indian ethnicity coded for no other reason than I've never seen a character like that

One thing that's important to note is that there definitely are Indian folks who are gender diverse (see Hijra on Wikipedia for a quick primer on one of the traditionally recognized nonbinary genders in South Asia) so it's not a novel concept by any means, but it's also not very common in media whatsoever.

Why The Long Wait?

One of the other contributing reasons as to why Sauce wasn't able to do much with the concept at the time is because we didn't have a VA for him confirmed yet, as I explained in May:

One thing that's rather unique to SnaccPop Studios in all of my experience as a game developer is the fact that all of our series involve coordinating with Voice Actors from the start, which means we need to take the VAs themselves into account when making characters. Adding another layer of complexity in hiring is the fact that SnaccPop Studios is a strictly Erotic Adult brand focusing on masculine love interests, and even if we focus more on the softcore, there's still the unfortunate stigma that any 18+ work has when attached to your name. All of these contributing factors make the potential talent pool that much smaller. This isn't to make excuses: I know SnaccPop Studios can do better on this front. While we can't make changes to some of the existing series' main cast (we don't want to put people out of a role they've been promised), we will do better moving forward to incorporate more diverse characters into our future titles, and that's a pledge

In the field of voice acting, it's best practice to cast actors with similar backgrounds to the character they're voicing, particularly for characters from marginalized populations (ethnicity, culture, gender, etc.), because it's a recurring issue in all professions where marginalized folks are regularly turned down for employment or career opportunities. You don't have to look far for instances where other voice directors failed to cast the proper talent for a character, even in the AAA sphere where they ought to have the resources to be able to find the proper talent; at SnaccPop, we wanted to avoid that situation at all costs.

Finding Simoun's Voice

So we had to confirm a VA first before we could do anything. Sauce, Reece, and I all tried to put private ads out for a trans masc POC (any ethnicity with dark skin) actor for a R18 game, which was largely met with silence at first, then responded to by folks who didn't fit the role in a full capacity (many only hit one or two of the criteria we laid out, some of them none at all). And it's not hard to imagine why: it's common knowledge that the majority of erotic works often fetishize marginalized people who are otherwise underrepresented in mainstream media. Things such as skin color, body type, hair color, age, etc. are treated as traits to be objectified, and on the off chance that queer folks or people of color might see themselves in porn… it's usually not for the most flattering or empowering of reasons. How could we, an exclusively Adults-only studio, convince someone who isn't familiar with us that we wanted to make something for people like them rather than something that turns them into mere masturbating material?

We were almost about to give up on the Catboy until I decided to take a chance on contacting a VA whom I hadn't had any formal and proper interactions with before. I'd been a fan of his work and knew him from an audition he sent in from a previous game I had worked on, but he knew me solely by name at best since we were following each other on Twitter. Still, it was a lead, and after chewing my nails for half a day, I shot off a message to Soren Viloria.

And what do you know? He said he'd give it a shot as his first NSFW role.

Naming the Lad

Soren is a Filipino VA, and despite the fact that I myself seem to be mistaken as Filipino by other Asians quite regularly, I'm actually not as well-versed in that culture as I ought to be.

There's actually a reason why we were so secretive with Simoun's name for a while: he didn't have one yet, so internally we just kept calling him "the Catboy." We wanted to pick a culture-appropriate name for him, something that was meaningful: Soren initially suggested "Siopao" as it was a common cat name (it's a type of Filipino Steamed Bun, so think of how many pets you've seen who have names like Cupcake or Nacho Supreme), but that didn't seem serious enough for a tsundere catboy like him. A few days later, Soren did a little research on a few well-known characters from Philippine media/culture that fit the bill a bit better:

Elías from the Philippine Revolution novel Noli Me Tángere (a required reading in the Philippines). Cat may like his radical tendencies for revolution and his deep, devoted connections.

Simoun from Noli's sequel, El filibusterismo. Holds revolutionary values similar to Elías, but far less noble and more of a loner. Violent at times, and will do what it takes to get his way.

Panday/Flavio, a very popular hero. Part of his charm is that he doesn't have special powers, but took matters into his own hands and forged a magical blade. Has been portrayed in both 'cool' and comedic ways.

Ricardo "Cardo" from the Philippines' longest-running TV drama Ang Probinsyano. Just a cool action hero dude who cares about family, but is also very ambitious and angy.

Seeing as how we already had an Elias Gallagher, Simoun seemed to be the perfect fit, and the name stuck pretty easily.

Simoun's Boundaries

Now that Simoun had a name, we were able to talk about him more seriously beyond the simple "tsundere cat" tropes. You've all already met Gil Finnegan, who we originally brought into SnaccPop Studios to handle the narrative design for DachaBo but was then onboarded to help with Sunny Day Jack, and those of you in the Patreon Discord server are familiar with our mods Tobias and Jude; along with me and Soren Viloria, that brought the grand total of openly trans masculine members on the team.

We all talked about our personal experiences as trans masc/AFAB people, what things we rarely saw reflected in both mainstream and indie media, things we wanted to see more of. Something we all agreed that was difficult to find was trans masculine folks in sexually dominant roles in erotic media, whether that was live video, audio, writing, art, or a combination thereof; there was only a handful of series we could count on our fingers as far as sexually explicit content that featured trans masculine people in roles that weren't exclusively submissive/bottoms, and the majority of us had already seen those or at least heard of them before (ie. Gummy and the Doctor and Sasha From The Gym were prominent ones). Either discovering this content was difficult due to Search Engine Optimization favoring depictions of trans feminine folks, or it simply didn't exist.

All of this, along with the backstory that Sauce had for Simoun, led us to determine that Simoun would be adverse to submissive roles in intimate situations. Simoun isn't the type to want to be penetrated either due to previous trauma surrounding his gender. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to imply or suggest that there is only one "acceptable" sexual preference for trans masculine folks, nor is Simoun meant to represent all of trans masculinity; he may be our first trans masculine character but certainly isn't the last, as we hope to feature more types of characters at SnaccPop Studios.

As an aside, it should be noted that the trend of erotic trans feminine content being more readily available doesn't necessarily mean that trans women have more positive representation per se; for every kinky piece of art created by trans feminine folks out there, there could be ten more works that fetishize and objectify their bodies. We probably don't need to tell you about the common derogatory slurs that have been used to refer to them; trans feminine and trans masculine people deal with varying levels and types of transphobia as well as situations that oversexualize (or even undersexualize) them, and it's important to focus on content that doesn't strip them of their autonomy.

There actually was a period of time between the release of his concept art after Soren was onboarded where the team observed comments both on Patreon and in the Discord regarding Simoun, and we discussed how we could avoid having people try to ship Bo and Simoun together; because Simoun hasn't had bottom surgery of any kind, we wanted to ensure that tokophobia (fear of pregnancy) or dysphoria wouldn't become a thing for any of us involved in the team or for our trans masculine Patrons. It was a bit of a chicken or the egg situation, trying to keep up with the evolving comments about Simoun to try and anticipate what people might accidentally say.

Debut Day Thoughts, & Moving Forward

We were quite happy with the general reception everyone had with Simoun, and we're excited to see so many people taking a liking to Simoun after his reveal. SnaccPop Studios has always strived to provide inclusive and diverse stories for those who don't often get represented in media, much less NSFW media, and the team was quite elated to see folks who were just as happy to see Simoun.

We hope that the love and care we put into building Simoun has shone through in this post and will continue to shine as we write more of him for DachaBo, because we're just getting started.

[n3xii]

Mecury signs as writers

I'm sure people have done posts like these before but this is just my take on it, enjoy I hope it resonates !!

Aries mecury 》 wants to pioneer in a new style and wants to be the best at their style of writing. Similar to Aquarius mecury in this way because Aries wants to go by their own rules. They are adventurous writers, Aries mecuiries will use writing to explore their own ideas and creativity. I feel like this placement enjoys anything that motivates them and riles them up. They may feel competitive with other writers and strive to always imporve

Taurus mecury 》 the taurus mecury has a distinct voice in their writing that doesn't change over time. You could always tell who it was through their writing. they write to relax and unwind. They may get stuck on technicalities or struggle to express intangible ideas.

Aquarius mecury 》 this is the writer who knows the rules and how to break them. They write to inspire, provoke or even offend. Their style of writing is always changing and evolving. Aquarius mecuries will write and express ideas in unheard of ways, they may have a very mature way of communicating just about anything. Their style challenges ideas surrounding what makes a person a good writer.

Libra mecury 》 this placement can make someone an amazing writer. Libras balance and harmonize so they will likely have a sense for perfect sentence variety, language, grammar, etc. Libra mecuries know when a sentence is too long, when there's too many repetitive phrases, when there's not enough adjectives or verbs. This is a writer who also becomes a perfectionist as they want a sense of harmony in their writing. Libra mecuries write to influence people as they have a chronic awareness of their audience. They are also AMAZING editors.

Capricorn mecury 》 this is a writer who writes to make things tangible for themselves. They create lists, outlines, plots. I also feel like Capricorn mecuries would also be unnecessarily good at erotica fiction. They know how to make nonfiction engaging to read as well. Capricorn may get a reputation of being stoic and while their writing serve a professional and pratical importance

Virgo mecury 》 I feel like this writer is a mix of libra and Capricorn. But of course, having a sign in its home planet is bound to make you a great writer. They are very cirical of their own writing, always editing and going back to revise something. They write to organize, understand, and differentiate between ideas. They are also amazing editors, but their perfectionist approach makes it hard to even finalize a project. Their technical and creative skills are refined but they'd never know it because of how high their standards are. They are also great at analytical writing, such as analyzing the creative value of a piece of media or a person.

Scorpio mecury 》 don't even get me started. This sign is detailed, thorough and meticulous in their writing. If they want to write a scene they would make sure every aspect of this scene was understood, from the dialouge, setting, mood etc. Their essays are long, well researched and beautifully written. They like to focus on ideas that are underground or not well known. They write to integrate and transform the parts of themselves they don't even understand.

Cancer mecury 》 their style of writing is very personable, they know how to tap into emotions and manipulate them in order to fully engage a reader. They write well from a feminine perspective and they may be talented at Journaling. Their style of writing is also very intuitive. They go with the flow and let whatever comes out to touch pen to paper. Cancer mecuires may also have a great humor in their writing as well

Gemini mecury 》 this style of writer can adapt to whatever is required of them at the moment. They can be technical writers, creative, straightforward, influential etc. They love to express opinions and ideas, they engage all sides of a situation like a libra can, but unlike libra they allow contradicting ideas to co exist without feeling pressure to choose between them. They can mimic the voice of anyone as well, gemini writers may struggle to find their own voice for this reason. This type of writer has a dynamic approach, always adapting and using their senses to understand the world around them.

Pisces mecury》 this is the poets, imaginative and visionaries. So many poets and song writers have pieces placements. This writer doesn't adhere to rules right away, they have an awareness of what's going on subconsciously and have an ability to make that subconcious energy surface in their writing. Their style is not always easy understood. you would have to approach their writing from the heart. Their style is intuitive and unique to them.

Leo mecuries》 these placements could create some of the most entertaining and popular pieces of all time. Their writing is meant to to be read aloud, or even made into a screenplay. Their voice can be dominant, dramatic and powerful. They have a dramatic way of expressing mundane things. They have a style of writing where you can't put it down or look away, you're fully engaged and feel inclined to share it with others.

Sagittarius mecury 》 Sagittarius mecruies have a way of crossing boundaries, their style appeals to people of many cultures and spiritual backgrounds. They write to free their own ideas and develop them to educate others. Their writing has great depth and meaning, like Scorpio mecuries they bring layers and complexity to ideas. They have a purpose in their writing and they want that to be accessible to everyone.

[soumarhea]

So I watched Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue some months ago and I found the characters and their dynamics so interesting that I've been thinking about them ever since. (And by "thinking" I mean editing the TvTropes character page for months now.) And then I found a post here about Wings of Fire au and that's my final straw. Two of my favorite things together?? Planes F&R Wings of Fire au had been living rent free in my brain for nearly a month now and I'm blaming @amethyst257 for it.

I'm gonna be honest, I read WoF Arc 1 nearly ten years ago, there's not much I can recall (aside from Clay is an adorkable himbo, Tsunami killed her dad and her mom is a helicopter, Glory is a sass queen of two tribes, Starflight went blind, and Sunny gave herself princess status). I haven't even start with Arc 2 but at least I know those exist, because I only know about Arc 3 this year. And I have not the time to refresh on Arc 1, much less start with Arc 2 and/or 3. But! I have read Wings of Fire: A Guide to the Dragon World to completion. It may not be entirely flawless info, and I still have zero idea about Arc 3, but now I at least understand that Jewel Hive is the best Hive to live in if you're a SilkWing (I confidently claims without actually knowing). So! Zero idea about 66% of the story and a very hazy 33%, this headcanons will have so many lore holes and may not even fly, but I'll be damned if I didn't try. I'm shoving all this headcanons off a cliff, so it better fly. "Planes" and "Wings" are literally in the name, that's double the flight power!

Since I can't draw dragons to save my life, I'll just colors Joy Ang's line arts of the dragon tribes instead. Trying to incorporate elements from the Planes characters (like the three white stripes and chevron patterns that the Air Attack team had going on as their Non-Uniform Uniform) is one hell of a thing. Who knows trying to translate vehicles into dragons would be absurdly hard (evidently, I don't). They wouldn't be using paints, so maybe ink or henna as staining materials? Nail Scale polish?? Iirc tattoo is a thing in WoF right??? Maybe I should just give the dragons some T-shirts instead.

So far I only colored Blade and Windlifter. That would be 2/12 (not counting size comparison pic). Will edit the pictures in as I'm done with them.

Edit [31/07]: Updated Blade and Windlifter's picture, added Cabbie and the smokejumpers' pictures (that'd be 8 out of 12 now, wow). Everything written in green is new added info (except for Windlifter's name, duh).

Edit [05/08]: Updated all existing pictures, removed the "outdated" size comparison pic, and added Nick, Maru, Dipper, and Patch's pictures (12 out of 12!) Everything written in purple is new added info (except for Patch's name, ofc)

Kinda long post ahead.

Air Attack team from Pantala

Blade

Blade would be too self-conscious to look this aggressive tho. I would pinch his mouth shut if I could. At first I tried making his chevron pattern to look natural by the color arrangement of his scales, but then I thought it'd look better if I just said Maru paints it on with scale polish. I changed his chevron pattern again. I am indecisive sue me.

A HiveWing with color mutation; he have white scales and blue eyes. His HiveWing fight/defensive mechanism is the one where he can spray boiling acid from his stinger. I would give him the "horrible stench" one just for shits and giggles, and for the smokejumpers to call him stinky, but nah Upon further revisions I decide to also give him nerve toxin (that he didn't even know about, since he never stab other dragons for shits and giggles), and you can't stop me. So now he can spray boiling acid from his tail stinger and inject nerve toxin from his wrists stingers. (Isn't that overkill? No its not.)

Grew up in Vinegaroon Hive, moves to Jewel Hive later on for a change of pace. This is where he met Nick and Maru. (He didn't know he already saw Nick before, when Nick performs at Vinegaroon Hive.)

Elaborating on the point above, while still living in Vinegaroon Hive, he dabbled in all sorts of professions; he had joined and led successful hunting trips, joined research expeditions as a research assistant and conducting studies on Pantalan wildlife species, and even took up culinary. It was fulfilling for a while… until it wasn't.

He moved to Jewel Hive after he heard about the lavish parties thrown every now and then from one of his acquaintances. ("So you're telling me, everyone partied all night long and woke up the next day, at midday, with a massive hangover? Alright, sign me up.") He just wants some excitement in his life at this point.

Nick and Maru spotted him at one of the parties, actually. Everyone else was ridiculously glamoured up, and Blade… was sorely underdressed. He sticks out like a sore thumb, and Nick wasn't about to let this crime go unpunished. The rest is history.

His entire life he's been taught about how great HiveWings are for winning the Tree Wars, and how the SilkWings should be thankful to them for protecting their "defenseless" tails against those "barbaric" LeafWings. Blade approach that topic very differently. ("Doesn't that just means we should keep protecting them instead of treating them so poorly?") He very much is in the "unpopular opinion" group and bullied by his peers for it.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he followed Maru and moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Presumably, for another change of pace.

He just wants to be alone, but Maru have a different plan… And Windlifter have even more of a different plan. He got dragged to school against his will, and his life will never get anywhere near lonely after that.

How did he ended up as chief of Piston Peak Air Attack (PPAA)? (it wouldn't be called Piston Peak, there is no pistons in Pyrrhia and I might not even stationed them at any Peak here. But "Pyrrhia Peak" doesn't sound too bad. hmm...) I haven't come up with anything for that yet, but they're going to build their own Hive in Pyrrhia (its nowhere near as big as the Hives in Pantala). Its somewhere between Jade Mountain and NightWing Village (for reference), and the team calls it the Air Attack Hive, their base of operation.

Nick (I'll just sneak him right here)

Not sure if I manage to live up to the "most beautiful/prettiest SilkWing" description with this, but my reference is literally a helicopter with police livery. Also, Nick wouldn't look this submissive. If I could crammed him full with cheeky confidence and flirtatious charms I would. Also also, WoF canon of SilkWing can't have black scales is dumb. Most if not all butterflies have black in their palette, what do you mean SilkWings can't have black??

A typical SilkWing... and one of the most beautiful around. Even gets himself nominated as the prettiest SilkWing multiple times. And more often than not, wins.

Grew up in Jewel Hive. One of the best artisans, but well-known particularly for his charms and theatrics. Upon revisions;

Grew up in Jewel Hive, he's well-known for his charms and theatrics, which lands him the profession as a performer. He puts on plays and concerts for the HiveWings and travels from Hive to Hive. Nick had performed in every Hive and comes to the conclusion that; he's never going to travel to the other Hives anymore. Like, "damn, those Hives don't deserve me tf". (He's not impressed by how those Hives treated SilkWings.)

When Maru was stationed at Jewel Hive, he decides to work for Nick instead of his employer. The second Nick gave him the opportunity, Maru quits his old job and moved in. (I'm giving these SilkWings too much power, they're going to unionize atp)

Nick caught glimpse of Blade during his short stay at Vinegaroon Hive. They didn't get to interact since Nick was performing on stage and Blade was all the way at the back seating. By the time the play was over, Blade was already gone.

How did Nick manage to notice Blade when they were so far apart? Blue eyes are not only uncommon for HiveWings; they're unusual. Nick had always wanted a closer look, and boy did he get it. When they spotted Blade in one of Jewel Hive's parties, Maru had to practically peel him off of Blade. ("What's the matter with you? SilkWings have blue eyes more often than not." "Yeah. But have you seen his??") Nick thinks they're very pretty.

From Nick's experiences with HiveWings, they're generally rude and condescending towards SilkWings. Even in Jewel Hive, SilkWings would sometimes get objectify to sit around the shops and look pretty to attract customers. He was ready to be disappointed, but when they approached Blade and he treats them no lesser than himself, Nick was pleasantly surprised. They were inseparable since, until... y'know.

Maru

Just imagine his tail is prehensile. Also, Maru wouldn't look this submissive either, if I could give him shit-eating grin I would. Also also, I am still not satisfied with the lifeline pattern, so I might change it to something else. Maybe as part of clothing article or something. Stealth edit is stealthy ;p

SilkWing with major mutation; his tail is prehensile. (Presumably inherited from the RainWings who fled to Pantala along with the BeetleWings, the LeafWings, and the SeaWings all those centuries ago. Don't ask questions! He need this because;) He uses his tail like an extra arm, specifically to hold his coffee while he work.

I would give him flamesilk ability but then he'd be one of Queen Wasp's flamesilk production slaves, locked in a dungeon somewhere, so nah.

Studies in Mantis Hive and moves to Jewel Hive after he graduates. (Heavily assuming Maru even gets to enroll into the universities since, y'know, he's a SilkWing. Probably Definitely not but shut up. I'm keeping this.) He's not only good with works, he went above and beyond. But he was still assigned as web workers (a "lowly SilkWing" profession) despite being one of the best inventors in the Hives. (This is an exaggeration; you can hear him exclaiming "It's better than new!" even if you're in TseTse Hive while he's in Mantis Hive. For reference.)

Despite getting his profession assigned to him, he still do whatever tf he wants, much to the disapproval of his HiveWing employer. They told him to fix the webs, he did… and make them better! And he got yelled at for it. So he ditches them to work for a fellow SilkWing instead (it is, of course, Nick).

Once Blade enters the picture, Maru spends more time trying to get Nick on schedule. Why's that? Nick just wants to spend time with Blade instead of doing his work.

After Queen Wasp's dethronement, he moves to LeafSilk Village together with Blade. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia… along with Blade. Personally, he just wants to be there for Blade.

Windlifter dragged them both to Jade Mountain Academy. And by "them both", I mean Blade. Windlifter dragged just Blade specifically. Maru would be eating popcorn or honey drops (if he packed any) watching it all go down.

He built the Air Attack Hive with the team's help and made it even better than the Hives back in Pantala.

Windlifter

I might tweaked his design a little bit more. I'm still not satisfied with this. Alright, I change the white chevron patterns to yellow-ish, hoping it look like it's stained using henna instead of painted on with white paint. Did I changed anything? I did tweaked something, I forgot what.

A LeafWing with leafspeak ability, just like his parents.

Grew up in the SapWing Village. He was just a little dragonet when the Tree Wars starts warring properly. Which means he's around 50 years old. (Dragons live up to over hundreds years old right? So about time Windlifter having mid-life crisis.)

After the Tree Wars conclusions, he moves to LeafSilk Village. And later, among those who flew to Pyrrhia. Personally, he wanted to broadened his worldview and to learn more about all the other tribes at Jade Mountain Academy. It's "life long learning" after all.

Despite being in the same continent, in the same village, and in the same group when they flew to Pyrrhia; Windlifter officially meets Blade and Maru only upon arrival at Pyrrhia. He dragged them along to Jade Mountain Academy, much to Blade's annoyance.

Windlifter's justification for dragging Blade along is due to his own prejudice against HiveWings, he wants to know them better. And Blade was (unfortunately) within his reach at the moment. The two did have a rough start, and Maru is there as the peacemaker with popcorns making sure they don't kill each other.

Windlifter sets out to understand other tribes, especially the HiveWings, better. But ended up understanding Blade, as his own person dragon, better.

Cabbie was an enigma at first, but doable (mainly because they shares some common grounds). And Dipper... took him the longest to understand. By the time he finally gets her, Dipper calls him her best friend, which he agrees.

(This point is entirely inspired by C130's fic on AO3, specifically Q is for Quarantine Chapter 48) By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, Windlifter already found himself a partner and have two dragonets. His partner is named Tulasi, a LeafWing who grew up in PoisonWing Village. They first met at LeafSilk Village when everything on Pantala started to settle down. Their relationship begins on a friendly terms and they maintained that even when Windlifter went to Pyrrhia for studies (only returning home for a short time whenever possible) but they manage to make it work.

Air Attack team from Pyrrhia

Dipper

Dipper wouldn't look exactly like this, this is a typical SeaWing line art. Dipper's dorsal fin would tapered off to a SkyWing's spikes; her tail is slightly narrower than a SeaWing's but still thicker than a SkyWing's; she wouldn't have the barbels on her lower jaw or the webs between her talons; and her wingspan is greater than the typical SeaWing's but are still inferior to the SkyWing's. And as mentioned below, her bioluminescent stripes doesn't function. She put more effort to her chevron patterns than her three white stripes.

A SeaWing/SkyWing hybrid. She looks like a SeaWing… maybe a little funny-looking here and there… and a little too yellows and reds instead of greens and blues (did I say a little? I mean a lot). She have gills, but not the webbed talons. Her bioluminescent stripes are non-functional, and she can breath fire. (not underwater though)

Since she looks too different than the regular SeaWings, she grew up alone in one of the many islands in the Bay of a Thousand Scales. Being all alone by herself made her a bit loony… and socially stunted.

She did try living underwater with fellow SeaWings but since her bioluminescent stripes doesn't functions, she simply can't converse in Aquatic even if she knows a word or two.

So her next best move is to live on one of the islands and hoped fellow SeaWings would surface and socialize with her above water. But after a few attempted socializing, her visitors dwindles out until none for months. She'd be lucky if she even gets a visitor within a year.

By behaviour, you'd think she'd be on the young side… She's older than Windlifter. (Between a few years to a decade older.)

One day, she got word about Jade Mountain Academy, and was interested to see "what's up with that? sounds fun!". She was apprehensive at first, but it's worth a shot. She thought it would just be a short trip; just a little visit and then go back home. "No need to overstay your welcome". The risk she took was calculated, but damn, was she bad at math.

This is where our Pantalan trio just picked up strays whenever they could. Windlifter, Blade, and Maru thought she's a norm, and by the time they realized that she's an outlier, Dipper is already a part of this "not quite, but not so dysfunctional famil—I mean, group".

Cabbie

This is where I took even more creative liberties with the lore. sue me

Cabbie wouldn't look this friendly. Maybe a bit more aloof. Also, this is a typical MudWing line art. Just imagine he have the SkyWing's wings instead. That red thing on his backside isn't a scar (though I should give him some scarring from his wartime) or the blood of his enemies (honestly, he would have some on him just because), it's his red chevron pattern painted on with scale polish by the smokejumpers (its' messy, and they waste bottles of scale polish on it) and so does the three white lines on his hind legs. Gave him some scarring, and the smokejumpers insist on painting the "51" on his face as part of their bonding activity. Someday, Drip and Blackout would paint "PP" on his right wing and Avalanche would (unhelpfully) adds "F" to it. That's how Cabbie got his PPF 51 call sign. A lot of scale polish will be wasted that day.

A MudWing/SkyWing hybrid. Bred for war in the past. He's built like a MudWing with the SkyWing's impressive wingspan. Easily pass off as a MudWing. You know volcanic mud? That's his coloring. (see picture above lol) He can breath fire without the MudWing's "need to be warm enough" rule.

~120 years old. Lived through wars and he didn't want to live through another one so he sits out the SandWing Succession War. One war in a lifetime is more than enough for any dragon really.

He lives in a cave somewhere between the Sky Kingdom and Mud Kingdom's borders, somewhere close to Diamond Spray Delta.

One day he went down to the Mud Kingdom for some mud bath; unintentionally discovered several MudWing nests; and noticed some of them contains blood-red eggs. Long story short, "no thoughts, head empty. ooh shiny!", he took all the red eggs with him and by the time he flew back home, he realized he have five blood-red MudWing eggs to look after now. Why didn't he just leave the eggs? Being a hybrid, he's wired differently than purebred MudWings. And, they're his now so shut up!

Being a single da— I mean uncle to five very loud, very messy, very energetic, young dragons tire him out really fast. So he went to drop them off at Jade Mountain Academy for the weekend. And what an adventure that would become.

The smokejumpers

From top to bottom: Dynamite, Drip, Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche. I tried so hard to not make them look related but still maintains their vehicle coloring, and also stick to WoF canon of MudWing coloring, which means Dynamite, Drip, and Avalanche all have eye color mutation. Dynamite and Drip still looks like they're related fml. I'm going to add the smokejumpers' team logo and their call sign numbers later. The logo would be their tattoo and the numbers will just be painted on. So I also added reflective scale polish on their wings' scales to evoke those reflective safety vest. If they could get their way, the jumpers would be painting themselves head to toe with it. Maru made sure they don't waste a single drop of it, that scale polish was costly.

All of them are MudWings, hatched from blood-red eggs, so they have fire resistant scales. And quite the bunch of daring little dragonets. They even make a game out of jumping over bonfires. Cabbie lovingly calls them "smokejumpers".

Since Cabbie egg-napped them from their original nests, they're not actually blood-related. But that doesn't make them any less siblings than the blood-related MudWing siblings.

Dynamite is the big wing. She wouldn't have been the big wing of her original siblings. So in the siblings of smokejumpers, she turns out the smallest. From smallest to biggest; Drip (only slightly larger than Dynamite), Blackout, Pinecone, and Avalanche.

Pinecone and Avalanche would've been the big wings of their respective blood-related siblings.

If you think "Avalanche" doesn't sound like a MudWing name, it was either that or "Mudslide". He picked "Avalanche" because it sounded better and badass.

How did they get their names? Dynamite suddenly sneezed fire once and gave Cabbie a heart attack. Drip always dripping with mud and trailing messes everywhere, and Cabbie clean up after him of course. Blackout accidentally put out their bonfire once. Pinecone collects funny shaped pinecones as a hobby. And Avalanche caused a landslide once, he pleaded not guilty. (Saving these from tag limbo, should've been included in post proper from day one.)

Cabbie sent them to study at Jade Mountain Academy so they'd stop giving him more mess to cleanup. They made messes along the way anyway.

At this point in the story (of them going to Jade Mountain Academy), they're tween to young teen dragonets, so 3-4 years old (6-7 is the dragon age of maturity iirc). By the time Dusty joins Air Attack, they'd be somewhere in their mid-late thirties, still as energetic, playful, and daring as they were.

How did they determined who get what number to paint on their faces? They roll two dice; Dynamite got 22; Drip got 36; Blackout 25; Pinecone rolled 1 and lost the second die, so she got 10; after they search for the lost die, Avalanche rolled 55; and they got Cabbie to roll 51. And then they get to painting the numbers on each other's faces. It's part of their bonding activities.

Patch

WoF canon: NightWing can have dark green eyes, Me: lime. Same as Maru, I might change how I want the lifeline pattern to look, maybe as an arm band (leg band??) instead. xp

A small NightWing, due to genetics but mainly, malnutrition. She have future vision, but she can only see as far as… 2 hours into the future.

Grew up in the volcanic NightWing Kingdom. She's somehow lucky enough to manage to hatched under one full moon… even through all the soot and smokes from the volcanoes, and the clouds. Everything just lines up exactly right for her to be under one full moon when she hatched. How did her egg got out in the open instead of safely in the caves with the other NightWing eggs? Well, some dragon manage to misplaced it somehow idk.

Currently lives in NightWing Village of the Rainforest Kingdom.

One night, she dreamed about going to Jade Mountain Academy… and interesting things happens. So she went. And interesting things did happened. It's a fated assembly.

WoF headcanon; the respect that HiveWings and SilkWings have towards NightWings borders on reverence (all thanks to Clearsight). Therefore neither Blade nor Maru will argue with Patch. If they didn't know any better they'd worship the ground she walks on. The two would eventually grow out of this blind respect to actually respects her for who she is.

Size comparison is its own post now.

I have plans for the Propwash Junction peeps too, they'll have their own post. Dusty won't have his picture here (he's not counted in the 12 pics at the start of this post) but I need to include some info about Dusty here before I forgot anything. So,

Dusty

A small RainWing/MudWing hybrid. (I haven't come up with anything else)

Suffers a serious, near-crippling, wings injury due to Ripslinger (I haven't come up with what the injury is, or whether Ripslinger is responsible for it directly or indirectly) so Dusty needs support equipment to help him fly (I haven't come up with what invention Dottie made to support Dusty yet). So anyway, by the time Planes F&R events happened, that support equipment starts to fail, and they're out of materials to make a new one. And that's how he joined the PPAA team.

[bueckers-sturniolo]

i have literally been begging for someone to write a paige fic based on “Slut!” by TS like the parts that’s like “if i’m all dressed up, they might as well be looking at us” where reader is famous and gets like hated on for being a “slut” 💁‍♀️💁‍♀️

“slut!”

paige bueckers x female!reader

a/n: hi guys!!! sorry it took me so long to edit this and actually post it. i don’t have much to say but THANK YOU FOR THE LOVE ON THE ALCHEMY!!! i promise part 2 is coming soon!!! ps: this may suck a little but i wrote it in an hour and a half so im sorry!!! also, this hasnt been proofread bc its 6 am and i havent slept! hope u somewhat enjoy!!! love uuuu!

warnings: naur, just swearing :)

word count: somewhere around 1k-ish

-

got love-struck, went straight to my head. got lovesick all over my bed. love to think you’ll never forget. we’ll pray the price, i guess.

you had been dating paige for 5 months, now. she was the best person you had ever met, and an even better lover than you could have ever imagined. but, being in the public eye isn’t necessarily ideal, especially when you’re queer. paige was a basketball player at uconn, and you had been famous for a few years. you had been famous before you knew paige, and even before paige was famous. it’s awesome, and you love it. the lifestyle can be very rewarding and enjoyable.

but, being ‘famous’ comes with its faults. as most things do. over the years, you had developed this sort of…. title. this title being that you are some kind of insane serial-dater. it was pretty ridiculous. of course, paige loved you for you, and didn’t really give a fuck as to what people had to say about you. but, it’s still obviously hurtful, and paige gets that.

present day, the epsy’s were coming up. this is something that meant a lot to your girlfriend. and, quite frankly, you’d do anything to make her happy.

until that thing was going as her date (or +1) to the epsy’s. not that you didn’t want to, not that it was because you were gay. but, because you knew how much this could mess with both of your careers. you didn’t really care about your own, cause people are gonna talk about you regardless, but paige’s social presence made it hard to just come out and do whatever you guys want.

“i mean, i’d just really want you there. we can like…. coincide outfits ‘n shit.” paige says, looking over at you, eating a bite of her cereal.

“yeah, p. i understand.” you say, sighing. you look down at your hands, acting like you were paying attention to anything to distract her (and yourself) from the fact that you really just do not know how it would go, and that fact is stressful in itself.

“baby, if you don’t want to go, it’s fine. im just saying it would be cool.” she says, and you meet her eyes again.

you know she’s right. it would be really fuckin’ cool. but like, at the same time, you really didn’t want to have to receive all of the texts from your publisher of news articles with pictures of you and paige where they essentially just put your name in bold letters then talk about how much of a slut you are for dating 4 people in your approximate 5 years of being famous.

yes, it may seem like a lot. but, also, most of these relationships only lasted a few months. you never necessarily wanted them to go public, but, they almost always did. that’s why you and paige took extra precautions.

obviously, one day, you wanted to tell people about you and paige. but, you wanted it to be when you guys had atleast made it past the new relationship stage.

but, if im all dressed up, they might as well be lookin’ at us. and if they call me a ‘slut,’ you know, it might be worth it for once. and if im gonna be drunk, i might as well be drunk in love.

you couldn’t help but give in. there was exactly a week before the epsy’s, and even though you’d kept telling paige you really didn’t think going was a good idea, you felt so bad for saying it that you randomly changed your mind.

“p, come here.” you say, calling from the couch in your living room. she walked in the room, hands on her hips, sleeves rolled up. she was loading the dishwasher for you, as the ‘gentleman’ she was (in a world of boys, (s)he’s a gentleman.)

“yes, baby? what’s wrong?” she says, walking toward you and sitting down, resting an arm on the back of the couch behind your head. “i wanna go with you, p. ill go with you to the awards.” as you say this, you fiddle with the hem of her basketball shorts.

“you wanna go with me? seriously?” she perks up. her whole face immediately lights up. this was the reason you were doing it. that reaction right there.“yes, love. i want to go with you.” she grabs your chin, pulling your face closer to her and gently pressing a kiss to your temple.

“you know, you don’t have to go if you don’t want to. i know you don’t want to read about all of the stupid shit men online say about you. they don’t even know you and it’s so infuriating that they think they can talk about my baby like that. my sweet, sweet girl...” she rubs your side, kissing your temple gently a few more times while babbling a few more sweet names in your ear.

“i know, p. but, i also know i don’t owe anyone shit, and if i want to go out in public with you, i shouldnt be scared. i mean- it’s just…. like, i just want keep hiding us because of the fact that people always have some stupid shit to say. you know, if they call me a whore or if they call me a slut, it might be worth it. it may just be worth it this once.” she smiles ear to ear as you say this. seconds after this, she tackles you onto the couch, pecking all over your face as she tickles your sides.

half asleep, takin’ your time in the tangerine neon lights. this is luxury. you’re not saying you’re in love with me, but, you’re goin’ to. half away, takin’ your chance, it’s a big mistake. i said, ‘it might blow up in your pretty face.’ im not sayin’ do it anyway, but you’re going to.

the night finally arrives. you guys are both getting your hair done. paige is wearing a lilac suit, and she looks ridiculously attractive. you were wearing a white dress with lilac heels, to coincide with her.

you guys get to the carpet, and it feels so surreal. you guys are finally out together and it’s just fucking insane. she does a few interviews, and they even ask you for your own pictures (even though you’re not an athlete)

the awards themselves are good, paige presents and even changes suits. she looks fuckin’ phenomenal.

but, then the after-party comes. the lights are tangerine and kinda dim, everyone’s drunk, and some people are even outside in a swimming pool. (???)

you had been to award shows yourself, but this was so cool. paige grabs you guys drinks throughout the night, careful not to get too wasted, but enough to get a little tipsy. by the end of the afterparty, so many pictures of you guys had been taken you felt like it was kinda too hard to hide your relationship from the world anymore.

while this wasn’t the main goal of tonight whatsoever, paige decided it was time to make your relationship social media official. she thought you deserved to be loved out loud, and honestly she couldn’t give any less of a fuck who said what. you loved her. she loved you. that’s all that mattered.

@paigebueckers

liked by kamoreaarnold and others

paigebueckers: Cats out of the bag I guess 🐈👜

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kamoreaarnold: Photo creds on slide 3

> paigebueckers: @kamoraarnold Best photographer 🙌

yourusername: wow she’s cute who is that

> paigebueckers: @/yourusername Idiot

>> yourusername: @/paigebueckers 😁

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[pkmnirlevents]

How do you go about getting ideas for arcs? I’m struggling to figure out what I want to do with my character :(

Great question! This happens to be one of my absolute favorite parts of writing and pkmn irl itself. I've always been more of an ideas guy myself. I hope you don't mind but I decided to turn this into a bit of an overall tutorial for planning and writing arcs. Feel free to ask for any specifics because I could delve into my personal process for arc brainstorming, but I was admittedly writing this before getting ready for work and this post was getting kinda long haha

Knowing where to draw inspiration from can be a good place to start. It's wonderful to be inspired by music, a movie or tv show, a book, or even other people in the community and their writing. Ask yourself what elements of that thing draw you in. What do you like? What would you maybe do differently? I must mention though to be respectful of the work other blogs have put into their writing. Being inspired is a wonderful thing, lifting exact details or passages is not. If you're unsure, there's no harm is asking!

The most helpful thing I can tell you right off the bat is that you want to find out how to brainstorm. In schools they'll often try to teach you ways of brainstorming and outlining to structure your essay writing, if you're lucky they might even mention that there are multiple ways you can do this. The ones in school never worked for me personally, so for a long time I assumed brainstorming and outlining was a complete waste of my time and would launch straight into my writing drafts. But as I wanted to write more complex things and I wanted to indulge in more creative writing, I found myself getting stuck all the time. The truth is brainstorming is a helpful tool, but you have to know what type of brainstorming works best for you. Flowcharts, bullet points, stream of consciousness, word clouds, moodboards, drawings, whatever it is that gets your creative juices flowing. In my experience it works best to remember that not every one of these elements will make it into the final arc. You want to get your ideas down first and trim the excess later. I personally pay for a program (Milanote) that allows me to brainstorm in the methods that work best for me, but by no means do you have to pay for a program to do this. Pen and paper works just fine.

The next thing you wanna do is establish what you want your arc to do. Not every arc has to be a grand character development, but all arcs do something. No matter how small that something may be, something has to change as a result. Maybe your character meets a new person, obtains a new Pokemon, gets a new scar and a story to tell their friends, or maybe all they got was a t-shirt. If you already had a loose concept for your arc this can help you hone it. You can start asking yourself, "how does my character reach this point?" and work up to that. Map out what you think your character would do when dropped into a particular situation. This can also help you to establish the tone you want your arc to take. Is it silly and lighthearted or is it more serious and high stakes? Refer to the stakes tag post about proper tagging.

It can help to conceptualize your arc as a series of events rather than a single event. This allows you to understand how many posts you may need to split the arc up into, how much time the arc may take, or other hard to sort details.

These things ramp up when you start to incorporate more people into your arcs. Planning with your fellow writers is extremely important and that requires a lot of communication. Some writers prefer to do what we call pre-writing, which is typically you and the other writers get together and write out the posts in advance. This gives people the chance to look over each other's writing and make edits before the posts go live. Planning discords are useful for keeping things organized, but google docs or other collaborative writing programs can work just as well if those better suit your needs. Organize who is posting what and generally at what time, especially if the post involves other people's characters.

Remember all of this is for fun! These are not hard rules you need to follow. You should not force yourself to write things you do not like for the sake of others or for an imagined audience. Write what you want to write.

[chronosh0t]

𝐓𝐀𝐆𝐒: canon-divergence ; Lee's pov ; sfw ; slightly angst. ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 〔 NO BETA 〕

𝐒𝐘𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐒𝐈𝐒: what if Lee got stuck in a loop? it's based on this tweet I posted weeks ago.

〔 if you like what I write or my edits, consider tip me on ko-fi. you'd help me a lot by donating me. thank you lots 〕

────────────── ❁ ──────────────

It has been so long, too long to count. Nonstop fighting for an end that is far from near, for a thin lay of hope that may or may not come out of the cruelty of reality. The light it's too dim, the air is too heavy, toxic and corrupted, no matter how deep every breath is, it never makes him feel better, less relaxed. Less lonely.

His hands are tired, his legs are having a hard time trying to keep up and his M.I.N.D is completely numb over time. Losing sense, and every single moment that peace seems to greet him, it flies past him as fast as one of his bullets. Breaking him in the silence of rejection, in the middle of the tower where escaping is not an option. For how long will this keep going? He does not know. And, to be fair, he doesn't want to know either. The crushing weight of having a clock ticking, counting what's left and what's yet to come, is not pleasant.

So he opted to ignore it. He made the decision, that day, to do the job only he was able to do. Because that was his sole purpose, at least for now, as much as he wished to change this twisted fate, it wouldn't be fair for those outside. If he was the only one capable, then so be it. Sacrifices must always be done. Be it time, or his own life. Just for the illusion that outside everyone is safe. He will stand over and over, shoot his gun, kill whoever or whatever gets in his way, for a slim chance.

There are short moments when everything is quiet, when not a single cry from despair could be heard, except for his erratic breathing, his feet dragging him to the stairs to finally take a seat after hours of battles and the loud noise of his weapon against the floor. He closes his eyes for a few seconds before taking a small device to call them. He just wants to have a few minutes to talk. Hoping. Wishing.

The call makes it through, and two faces greet him, smiling happily. The girl in red breaks the silence first.

ㅤㅤㅤ“It's been a while, Lee.” she stops, as if pondering if it's plausible to ask about his condition when it's obvious. “How are things on your side?”

ㅤㅤㅤ“Nothing new. The fights are endlessly annoying but, it's fine. I'm fine.” His voice cracks at the end, how terrible he has been at lying lately, or maybe he is too tired to pretend. Lee knows his teammates are aware of his state.

ㅤㅤㅤ“Lee…” the soft voice from Liv seemed to echo inside the tower, he nods and smile, “I know it's useless to say but, do please take care of yourself. I also know you're capable but.. We are worried about you. Especially Commandant.”She finished, her pink eyes showing great concern.

ㅤㅤㅤ“Commandant is a bit busy now. We would've called him but I know you have your ways.” Lucia explained, a chuckle escaped from her mouth.

Lee laughs at that. Indeed, he has his ways to contact his Commandant. “Thank you, I really mean it.” He finally spoke, the bitterness can be tasted, smelled and felt. Too heavy. “My time is running out. When I get another break, I will try to contact you guys again. Please take care.” He smiles again, and ends the call.

There's never a “goodbye”. Because he doesn't want to think about an end. As much as he is tired and his frame is at its limit on par with his M.I.N.D slowly losing complete focus from time to time, more often than not, Lee would reject the idea of a last call with his friends. That won't happen. He refuses to let that be part of his reality.

More often than not, he finds himself considering giving up and leaving, letting the wheel of destiny decide his punishment but there's something, someone, that keeps him from doing so. Or more like a “possible future”. Where there's no one, when the person he has come to cherish a little bit too much is no longer by his side, where his teammates are no longer walking with him but just a name in a marble stone. That was scary enough for him. The weight it's too much again.

His break is about to end. Taking a deep breath, he takes his device and taps a message and presses the send button, with the same address. For the same person. With the same words. He can feel an insufferable pain packing up inside his chest, filling the space between his ribs, crushing his artificial heart. He is shaking. His eyes are burning and tears are building up, but it's not the time.

It has never been. It probably never will.

He stands up, weapon in his hands. Time is running and it will never stop, no matter how many times he goes back, no matter how much he wishes and hopes, because time has never cared for that. So, for now, he just needs to keep going, and maybe one day, time will stop for him and he will be able to go back home. Go back to his friends. To his Commandant and be part of Gray Raven again.

…………

The digital screen beeps at the new message. He knows who sent it, and it's the reason he is also a bit reluctant to open it. He is always afraid it will be the last. His fingers trace the screen before lightly pressing over the email icon. A small text shows up, saying:

ㅤㅤㅤ“It's been a while. I know Liv and Lucia are there to take care of you, but I've got to know you enough to understand you're a magnet for troubles. So, don't do anything stupid.

ㅤㅤㅤ I don't have much time, there's nothing new. I am doing as fine as I can, you don't need to worry (I know you will, but don't let my situation distract you from your job, Commandant).

ㅤㅤㅤ ………… I miss you. I miss you a lot. It even hurts a bit sometimes. But I'm always hoping. Hoping that one day I will be by your side again, seeing you smile, holding your hand. I miss your warmth. The idea of going back to you, to Gray Raven keeps me going.

ㅤㅤㅤ I have to go. See you next time.”

And without knowing, despite the distance between them, tears were shed at the same time. Because time was the only thing connecting them.

[untitled5071]

Could you possibly do a piece where Creature refuses to burn her and they find an alternate way to escape?

So I don't have a forensics degree or any real knowledge about this kind of stuff, but I hope this is serviceable (and thanks to @ceasarslegion for the extensive knowledge). Enjoy!

(EDIT: My stupid ass forgot that wisdom teeth removal was a thing and Lisa would definitely be the kind to keep hers so I hope you don't mind a little post-publishing edit, but I've decided to change the method of DNA she left behind, otherwise I would be really mad at myself. I hope that's okay with you guys, enjoy the new version!)

🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦

“I told you, I don't think there's any other way. They're going to find us soon, we don't have much time.”

Lisa wasn't even sure her new husband could hear her with how vehemently he was shaking his head, his still sweat-damp locks flapping around his face as he refused as passionately as he could. They were standing in her bedroom, where she had just finished telling him her plan of going out with a bang–or rather, a spark–by killing herself via the faulty tanning bed in the shed so she could escape the consequences of the three murders her and her creature had committed over the past few days.

Though she was mostly content in the plan, he was very much against it, as evidenced by the continued nonverbal refusal. She reached out to stop him by cupping his cheek in her hand, and he immediately softened with a quiet whimper, obviously still reeling over the fact that she was willing to touch him so freely and tenderly now.

She gazed into his eyes, and she had to fight the urge to cry when she once again realized just how deeply this strange corpse man cared about her.

“You don't want me to do it, do you?”

Her voice cracked around the question, and he shook his head again, gentle against her palm. To illustrate, he grabbed her hand and pulled it away from his face, squeezing it in both of his and kissing it before placing it over his slowly beating heart.

He still couldn't speak, but his meaning was still very clear.

No, I don't. Losing you would break me, there has to be another way. Don't make me go through this second life without you.

She sighed, a tear rolling down her cheek before she could try to hide it, but her husband (God, what was so strange to think about, she had a husband now, and one that she may very well have to give up soon) removed one of his hands from hers and used it to cup her cheek this time, wiping the tear away with his thumb, his eyes swimming with unshed tears of his own.

“Oh, I don't want to lose you, either. I only just got you, I don't want to let you go yet, but I don't know how else we're going to avoid this. They'll need to find a body or they'll never leave us alo-”

Her rambling cut off suddenly, her brow furrowing in thought.

“Wait…”

Her creature grunted questioningly, and she lifted her eyes to him, the gleam in them making him lean closer.

“I have an idea.”

Before he could inquire further, Lisa was tugging him along by his hand (as was their custom) and leading him to a closet in the hallway. She flung open the door to reveal an eclectic bunch of items that he didn't have names for, but Lisa was clearly gunning for something specific. She bent down and pulled away a cloth dust cover from a strangely lumpy object, which was revealed to be some sort of full-body mannequin, clearly meant to be used for tailoring or displays. Lisa hefted the plastic body up from under its armpits and hauled it towards her bedroom, all while her Creature looked on incredulously. She caught his eyes and huffed, continuing her mission.

“What? I got this from work; Wayne got it to display some of the new outfits on and decided it was too creepy to keep, so he let me have it to design dresses with. I had to keep it covered in the closet because it nearly gave Janet a heart attack l, so I had to put a cloth over it. I haven't used it for a while, but now…”

She had succeeded in bringing it into her room, and she propped it up against the end table at the base of her bed and leaned against it, smiling.

“Say hello to the soon-to-be-dead Lisa Swallows.”

Her husband tilted his head, confused for a moment before his eyes widened, understanding dawning on his mostly-human features. Lisa nodded along with him, voicing the plan she knew he understood.

“Yep. We're going to fake my death.”

The creature's eyes widened, and Lisa left the mannequin at the end of her bed while she ran to her closet, rifling through for some clothes as she explained the rest of her thought process.

“The way I see it, what we really need is time. If we dress this thing up to look at least a little bit like me, then we can put it in the tanning bed and let the faulty wiring do its thing, and while everyone is scrambling to take care of that, we'll take the next train out of here and get across as many state lines as we can before they realize the charred ‘body’ isn't me, if they ever do at all. We don't have to grab a corpse and the police will be all over Bachelor’s by now anyway, so this seems like the best option.”

She emerged with a black blouse and matching maxi skirt, which she made short work of dressing the mannequin in. Her husband helped as best he could, holding the plastic dummy down so Lisa could shimmy the clothing onto its unyielding body, and once she was done they took a simultaneous step back to examine their work. It obviously wasn't a perfect match, but it was serviceable for its intended purpose, they supposed.

Lisa placed her hands on her hips and took a deep breath, centering herself for a moment before she was taking her husband’s hand again, pulling them both towards the closet.

“C'mon, we've got to get changed. As comfortable as I am right now I don't want to flee the police in a nightgown.”

The creature hummed in agreement, and after Lisa had quickly selected a new outfit for herself, he had snuck away to her father's closet to find some alternative options for himself.

By the time he returned, dressed in another button down shirt, work pants and suspenders, Lisa had gotten changed into a pale pink blouse and a pair of black jeans, and was hurrying back and forth from the closet with different bundles of clothes in her arms as she filled a large backpack that was sitting next to the mannequin.

When she noticed him standing there and watching her with a raised eyebrow, she stopped just long enough to shrug.

“We're going to need a ‘go bag’, I don't know how long we'll be on the lam before we feel comfortable enough to stop at a thrift store.”

Her husband conceded with a nod, and the new bride occupied herself with adding a few toiletries, a large wad of cash from a nondescript envelope in her dresser, clearly sentimental accessories (such as two gold rings and a locket) and the picture of her mother before she walked over to her dresser to retrieve the last thing she needed; a small purple velvet pouch that clattered strangely when she placed it in her pocket.

In the time it took him to blink questioningly at her, she had handed him the mannequin and threw the backpack over her shoulders, taking his hand before leading them to the door. She took one last lingering look at her bedroom before she shut the door for the last time and led them both out to the shed.

Once inside, they stood facing the method of her ‘demise’; the tanning bed lay open for them like a gaping neon maw, and Lisa instructed her undead husband to lay the mannequin in it like a person, which he did. Once the false Lisa was secured, the real one reached into her pocket and pulled out the purple velvet pouch, and as her husband watched she untied the drawstrings and extracted the contents: four teeth, flecks of dried blood around the base of each.

Her husband made a slightly panicked inquiring sound, and she smiled knowingly up at him.

“I had to get my wisdom teeth removed a few years ago, the dentist said the little bastards would wreck the years of braces hell I endured in middle school, and I wasn't about to risk that. They let me keep them afterwards, and I was going to make them into earrings or something, but this seems more important. I'm going to need to leave some DNA behind if they're ever going to think it's me in there.”

The creature was given no opportunity to wonder what DNA was before Lisa was arranging the teeth around the approximate mouth of the mannequin, presumably so that they would be in approximately the correct place when the mannequin burned. All of this was completely baffling to her companion, but if it would help buy them time to escape then he was willing to go along with whatever she asked.

Once she was finished, she stepped back to examine her work. Once she was satisfied that she had left enough of herself behind, she closed the lid of the tanning bed and went to join her husband closer to the entrance of the shed, the two of them looking at the makeshift coffin with the “Kiss of Life” sticker. She took his hand, bringing it up to her lips and kissing it before she nodded to the contraption.

“Would you do the honors? Seems only fitting.”

He nodded, and he moved forward to the dial on the lid of the bed, Lisa calling from behind him.

“Make sure you set it to ‘Max Bronze'.”

Her husband nodded, doing as she asked before stepping back to join her a safe distance away from the now-sparking tanning bed.

As they watched, the sparks caught and turned into flames, ones that quickly started enveloping the shed around them. They slipped out as the sound of sirens started to approach in the distance, and Lisa had just enough time to bid one last silent goodbye to the life she knew before they were gone, fleeing hand-in-hand into the night together as newlyweds and onto a new life together.

[dyns33]

A chaste meeting

I had no idea for a title but I wanted a Murderdock x ex chaste reader

(I really hate the new posting version, I'm not sure how to edit and I don't know if the post is too long)

Y/N knew as soon as she saw Matthew Murdock.

Well, no, not right away.

She knew there was something about him, something familiar, in his posture, in his tense shoulders, his calm demeanor, his hands gripping his cane tightly like a weapon.

But it wasn't until their first date that she noticed the ninjas watching them.

At first, she didn't make the connection.

Being a former disciple of Stone, following the precepts of the Chastes and having promised to fight against the Hand, she thought they were there for her. But that seemed unlikely, since Y/N was fifteen when Stone died, and hadn't continued the fight, accepting defeat and seeking a normal life.

Her meeting with Matthew Murdock was neither planned nor necessary.

She didn't need a lawyer, she didn't know anyone who needed a lawyer, she stayed away from trouble, and so there was no reason for their paths to cross, or for him to care about her.

Very quickly Y/N would learn that the Devil didn't pay attention to people who weren't useful to him. So their meeting, then their relationship, was strange.

It happened at Murdock's favorite cafe. Another strange thing, that Matt Murdock had a favorite cafe, when he had been raised more or less like a heartless killing machine.

"They make the best coffee in town, darling. Organic, with brown sugar, and great quality coffee. No chemical tastes. Perfection."

Well, he may not have had a soul or a heart anymore, but Matt still had his personal tastes, in addition to having an extreme sensitivity, whether it was his easily changing mood, but also his still functional four senses.

Y/N was ashamed to admit it, but it was because he was blind that she wasn't really suspicious right away. She had noticed the little things, but considering that he might have been a fighter before he lost his sight, and that he was now the mob's lawyer, using his knowledge as weapons, but nothing more.

Then she remembered Stick.

She had never met Stick. Stone had told her about him, saying he was a stupid asshole, far too soft on his apprentices. The old owl was blind, but that didn't stop him from being fearsome. There were another ways to see.

Stick had died years before Stone, killed by the Hand. Rumors said his best apprentice was with him when it happened, but his body was never found.

Her former master did not give her a name. He did not tell her that the disciple was blind too. No, he resumed training, nearly breaking her legs and an arm.

She didn't miss that time. And she absolutely didn't want to go through that again with the Hand.

But it seemed impossible to escape Matt Murdock when he decided you were his.

Foggy Nelson whispered it to her when the Devil introduced them.

"I'm not really his best friend. We're not really friends. We're doing each other favors. It's complicated."

"Why are you telling me this ?"

"Because you seem nice. I don't want him to hurt you. Don't try to run away and don't trust him."

In a corner, Matt was watching them, waiting for Y/N's response. She said nothing, finishing her drink, not indicating whether she was taking the advice seriously and remaining perfectly calm.

It wasn't the first time she had heard such things. From the first day, there had been more or less hidden threats in Murdock's sentences, when their hands had touched in the coffee trying to take the sugar.

"After you." he purred with a big smile. "Unless you finish the sugar, I'll be terribly upset."

"There's enough sugar for both of us."

"I take a lot of sugar."

"Not me, I like my coffee almost as black as my boss's heart."

It made him laugh, though Y/N couldn't tell if it was a straight laugh. It was always impossible to know when Matt was playing a role and when he was serious. Maybe he was never totally serious and his personality was partly a role he had played for too long to remember what was inside.

She guessed it by seeing the ninjas. She was sure of it when she met Otomo-san.

He reminded her a little of Stone. Impassive and dangerous, watching them discreetly. He called Matt 'Master Murdock', but she wasn't stupid. Neither was Matt. Even though the Hand had given him a title and responsibilities, he remained their property, he had no freedom, and he was in control of nothing, especially not his life.

His relationship with Y/N was not really acceptable, nor accepted.

Maybe that was one of the reasons he stayed with her. Because it annoyed his superiors, and Matt loved annoying people.

He was also maybe a bit lonely. Sometimes, when they were alone in his room and he took off his glasses, Y/N seemed to see something in his big empty eyes. Not sadness, but a form of weariness.

Without saying anything, she caressed his cheek, which made him groan. Matt hated pity. But he let her, not moving as she took him in her arms, kissing his forehead and caressing his skin.

He had a lot of scars. Y/N knew their meaning. She knew the purpose of each one, and which ones shouldn't be touched. She had some too, which she tried to hide from him, without much success.

Maybe that was what intrigued Matt. After several months of relationship, his behavior changed. He stayed silently beside her, his head bowed, listening. Studying her movements. Watching her reactions.

Y/N knew how to look normal. Stone had taught her. But there was always a difference between being normal and looking normal. That was how she had known there was something with Murdock.

It was probably how he also ended up knowing that there was something with her, even if he had always had doubts.

"I'll ask the question once." he said quietly as they dined at his house. "And of course I expect an honest answer. Who sent you? "

"No one." Y/N replied just as calmly, continuing to eat.

"You're not with them. They don't like you, and they're not good enough actors to pretend they don't like you. You know how to fight, you're ready to defend yourself if attacked, but you don't strike the first blow. Is it a ruse ? An attempt to enter the hive ? I immediately felt that there was something, you were too calm. You are always very calm."

"No. Can you pass me the salt please ?"

As a test, Matt stood still, his hands crossed in front of him. Y/N finished her bite, considering her options. Do not take salt. Take the salt. Asked him again. Jump out the window. Kill him with his knife.

She reached out for the salt.

He moved quickly, trying to catch her. Just as quickly, she jumped up from her chair, pushing the table towards him to get him as far away as possible. It didn't have much effect, as he easily avoided her, lunging at her.

It wasn't really a fight. More like a dance or a game. If one of them really wanted to, the other would be dead in the first second. But no, they punched and chased after each other for several minutes, before Matt managed to pin her between him and the ground.

"Darling. The dish is quite salty."

"To each their own taste, sweet tooth."

"Who do you work for ?"

"No one." she repeated calmly, and the hand that was on her neck moved down to her chest, settling on her heart. "It's just me."

"Who were you working for ?" he asked then.

"… Stone always said that Stick was too nice. I guess they're not all from him. I'm glad he's gone. Otomo-san looks like him."

Matt's vacant eyes were fixed on her, peering into her soul. She didn't add anything, it wasn't necessary, as there was no need for him to tell her about his past. She already knew everything, and above all, she understood.

"I knew you were different." he whispered, keeping his hand on her heart, kissing her.

It was almost sweet. Matt wasn't really sweet, rather rough and bestial, but she didn't blame him. He had learned nothing else. If Stone hadn't been killed, she would have become the same. Y/N had been lucky.

As he took her on the cold floor, she might have thought it was a shame she couldn't be free for longer.

But in fact, she had never been free before this moment. Having to hide, having to lie, having to accept that no one could understand.

She understood Matt, and in turn he understood her. He totally accepted her. And despite his enforced loyalty to the Hand, he wasn't going to tell anyone about what he had just discovered.

It would be their secret.

"Hmm. You taste so sweet."

"And you are as bitter as my coffee."

"Perfection." he purred, licking his lips. before devouring her again.

[tswaney17]

It's a Match - Part 1

Happy birthday to the incredible @impossiblescissorspeachpaper!! I hope you have the loveliest of birthdays baby. I'm so blessed to call you one of my close friends. You're such an incredible person. 💕 Enjoy your special day, my love.

This fic is inspired by a conversation between myself, @ultadverb, @offtorivendell, @impossiblescissorspeachpaper, and @duskwhisperer. Thank you all for allowing me to take this idea and run with it. Also, apologies because this is barely edited. I was a hot mess all over this fic and it shows. 😅

My fanfic account: @tswaney17fics​​​

My ao3 account: tswaney17

Please let me know what you think about this update. I love getting your feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome. 💕

Trigger warnings: language, NSFW

Word Count: 9,759

Read the full fic on AO3 here. Snippet under the cut.

Azriel was lounging on the couch in Cassian’s apartment regretting every decision that led him to this moment. Because just a few minutes ago, he accidentally let slip that he downloaded The Cauldron, a dating app, a month ago and his brother and Mor had not stopped pestering him about it since the words passed through his slightly buzzed lips.

“Come on, Az,” Mor whined, hanging over his shoulder and shooting him those puppy-dog eyes he had trouble resisting. “Open it up. Let’s see who you’re chatting with.”

That’s where the problem lay. Azriel wasn’t chatting with anyone because he never actually swiped right on anybody. It wasn’t that he didn’t find anyone particularly attractive—there were plenty of pretty girls on the app—it was just that he wanted something more than a physical relationship. He was thirty now; had a good career and his own place, made good money, and was freely able to spend it on anything without worrying about paying his bills. His life was in a good spot.

But he never really dated. Yes, he got women and fucked them well, Az wasn’t self-conscious enough to not know he was an attractive man, but those one-night stands just weren’t cutting it for him anymore. He wanted a genuine connection with someone; somebody he could build a relationship with.

Like what Rhys had found in his new girlfriend, Feyre. He’d met her once or twice, but it was obvious his brother was completely in love with the woman. Head over heels kind of in love. He was happy for him, truly. But sometimes, when he listened to his brother speak about the light of his life, he got this envious feeling inside; because he wanted that too.

He supposed that this dating app in general was probably not the best place to find that, but he was at a loss on where to find women that were looking for more than riding dick. Az sighed, running a brutally scarred hand through his dark hair, the strands flopping onto his forehead. “I’m not chatting with anyone,” he admitted, taking another swig of his beer.

Read More

~~~~~

Remember, sharing is caring! Please reblog if you liked the fic. It helps spread my work and I truly appreciate it. 💕

While I have moved these fics to AO3 only, I am still going to utilize a tag list here on Tumblr. This as a permanent solution and may change in the future. For notifications, you can follow and subscribe to my fanfic account where I will be reblogging updates and snippets only. You can also find me on ao3. If you would like to be added to my tag list, please leave a comment on this post.

My fanfic account: @tswaney17fics​

My ao3 account: tswaney17

Taglist: 

@nikethestatue

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@123moiaussi

@duskwhisperer

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Some tags seem to not want to link, which could be related to your visibility settings. Sorry about that!

[thebramblewood]

What advice would you give to a simmer just starting out writing stories with their sims? How do you build engagement with your posts? How do you write such addictive stories?

Wow! Okay. Buckle in because this will be a long one. I think the most important thing is writing for yourself first and foremost. Don't let your passion be driven solely by engagement (though it's impossible not to be motivated by it a little bit!) but by your own desire to see your project through. I've been a creative writer forever, and 75% of that writing has been written for an audience of one. But sometimes a character or concept will grab me by the throat and refuse to let go, and that's what keeps me invested. I unfortunately can't tell you how that happens. It usually feels like a happy accident. But when it does, it comes through, and readers will want in on it too. That being said, here are some tips for actual presentation:

Engaging visuals. I don't think Reshade or fancy editing is a requirement, but I can't pretend I didn't see a huge uptick in engagement when I started using it. Now, that may also be because I started thinking more about the composition of a shot. Diversify your angles and perspectives, and don't be afraid to zoom way in or out! Move that camera around as much as possible! I know very little about the technicalities of film and photography, but I think the more you practice, the better your eye becomes for what looks dynamic.

Legible captions. I'll be brutally honest: when I'm scrolling the dash, I'm less likely to stop for story posts if the text on the images is not immediately readable. I've by no means perfected this, but I've tweaked my own text over time to make it larger, and I find that very light colors with a black border is almost always the best option. I also try to visualize leaving space for the text to fit as I'm taking shots (though I sometimes forget).

Text-only transcript. My controversial opinion is that I don't like reading transcripts because it's easier for me to engage and follow along if I can see the images and words interacting. BUT I still think it's important to include them, so I always have one under the cut. If you'd rather not do captions on images at all, I personally find it more engaging for the text to be broken up throughout rather than in a big chunk at the end. This is especially helpful if you're writing more descriptive prose, as most people (including me) unfortunately have very short attention spans.

Adaptability! It's helpful to have an outline (whether it's in your head or written) of where you want to end up and how you're going to get there, but the most fulfilling part of writing for me is in giving myself license to follow new ideas or let old ones evolve, even if that means going a bit off-track. Also, it's tempting to establish a formula and lock yourself into an aesthetic from the start, but if you feel like something isn't working, don't be afraid to change it up! You'll be unhappy if you stick with it just for consistency's sake, and you'll rob yourself of opportunities to experiment and have fun. I think readers also appreciate a shake-up so that things never start to feel stale.

That's a lot, I know, but hopefully some of it helps. I've only been doing this here for a few months, and I'm also still figuring things out!

[hisui555]

Hazbin Hotel thoughts Bonus 2

Heaven's side : "how are they with kids" + "react to a drawing of themselves"

(Hazbin Hotel thoughts : How are they with kids, main cast here)

(Hazbin Hotel thoughts : Reacting to a drawing of themselves, main cast here)

Masterpost here.

So, uh, I've seen there's been likes, and reblogs (seriously where do y'all come from), and that hypothetically you may be interested in Heaven's side of the same thing -- Oh who am I kidding yes I came up with ideas and couldn't resist sharing, let's go.

(On that note, I'm editing the previous posts that started it all so that y'all have links from one to the other, because a funny thing I realized is that I have completely different people liking each post each time, there's absolutely no common name - which is funny to me given that one is the bonus of the other.)

Without further ado, here we go :

Emily is just the friendliest babysitter around. Not unlike Charlie, she'll react with glee to anything the kid does, especially when they're progressing on something. She's very encouraging and supportive, also accomodating : unless the child is okay with her less humanlike appearance, she'll keep her extra eyes closed, and will only gradually insert the change overtime, while mostly keeping her casual disguise. Touch her fluffy wings ? Her equally fluffy hair ? Even her halo ? Sure ! Just don't nab on them. She'll gently break down what's okay from what is not, that respect is a thing and boundaries too, and for each and every person they're different. Tantrum ? She'll be gentle but firm about it, because while she is nice and caring, she also has limits and reasonable authority. No Bad Things on her watch, and she'll explain why they're bad at length. Doesn't matter if the child is a Sinner, a Hellborn, a Living soul or a Winner. Always eager to let the kid try new things, give the maximum of options, and free choice is a big deal to her - she'll be here to help anytime, and interacts a lot with the kid. Expect a lot of what we don't know, we can find out together ! Might be a bit too coddling at times, though not to Charlie's levels, probably. Affection is given by the gallons.

A drawing of her ? For her ? Why that day in Heaven is super-happy amongst happy days ! Ironically, given the art-style, it's closer to her true form, but nonetheless, she adores it, and can't wait to show Sera. If she can't pin it somewhere, she'll keep it on her own person, in a nice pocket dimension or accessible through summon magic, so she can whip it out at anytime and show it to whoever's asking. Might give it a glance or look at times before turning in for the night (do they have nights in Heaven ? If Hell does, probably yes), squealing out a delighted giggle for herself. She'll presciously keep it safe and spotless.

Sera is poised and regal no matter the circumstances. She's gentle and patient, and while she will take the role of a guiding hand too, contrary to Emily who's happy to let the child steer and put herself on their level, Sera will never leave the role nor status of The Adult and guides away instead of towards. There's a delimited, arbitrary comfort zone the child shouldn't ask questions out of, and she won't be keen simply answering that she doesn't know the answer, deviating it towards something else or just put an end to the discussion (That's not important. What you have to know is that you can't do that). That's not to say that she's uncaring, or harsh, it's just that her worry overwrites the child's choices at times. A demon or Sinner child might be met with a bit more condescention and less roaming freedom than a Living or Winner soul, but Sera will take great care of them nonetheless, and make sure no harm happens to them. Tantrums are met with the time-out corner or cold shoulder, but she doesn't like to punish the kid, only seeing it as a necessity - and she'll still be around to talk in case things get better in the meantime. She's compassionate, but her emotional distance mostly turns it into pity and a dash of coldness, her affection is more subdued. She'll keep her most humanlike form at all times.

Drawings of her ? She'll gladly accept them, giving a soft but genuine smile. She appreciates the attention, and will politely listen to the child explaining how they drew the pic, not really commenting nor asking questions but still sincerely listening about it. She might keep it in a folder or hang it somewhere private, somewhere that doesn't interfere with her work, but still somewhere visible in her own quarters - and that, no matter the type of soul who offers.

Now who in their right mind would give a child to take care of to Adam ? Yet, disaster dominoes lined up - or let's say it's an order from Sera, she's too busy to do it and Emily isn't available - and against all common sense a kid ended up in his... care. Welp, it's a disaster from start to finish, especially when the misogynist tendencies kick in : expect a lot of outdated and downright gross comments about you'll see when you grow up, and do you know how you came from these nuts ? flauntering his "Original Dick" status all over the place. He won't be hitting on a child (not his thing), thank hell, but he has absolutely NO censor, crossing the line all the way up to its deceased grandmother, getting her corpse pregnant and aborting the resulting baby (...QED). Worse if the kid is a girl, because he'll automatically deem her inferior, also did I tell you how the two first women are stupid bitches ? Guess where you come from. If the child is a demon, he'll try to weasel out, but an order from Sera will hold him back and anyway it's no fun when outside the right setting : there's no fight, no chase, no thrill. He'll just begrudgingly roll with it. Don't count on any healthy or child-appropriate food : it's junk food at all hours or nothing. Naptime - well, what naptime ? Can't a guy play guitar in peace ? Also, only pussies cry. Man the fuck up. Kiddo is his groupie whether they like it or not, his personal little hype-man. He will TOTALLY use them to try to hit on "chicks".

He also WILL forget the child in a parking lot, however more unintentionally than not (Wait, didn't I had a thing to take care of ?), rough them around by carrying them like a sack of potatoes, bring them to inappropriate places (tough to find in Heaven, I guess, but if he can have his way with a Virtue angel and brag about it there might be stuff going on, just not as much as in Hell) and just be his crass-mouthed self without much of a care. Might resort to the threat of physical violence as a scare tactic to get the kid to behave (the way he wants), though maybe not applying it (I'm ambivalent about that : I guess it can go both ways - just shaking to rough up and scare off or really giving a smack). Really, the only way to get along with him is to find him cool or admire him in some way, and he might soften a bit (...really a bit) and bond a tad (a tiny tad) over rock music : again, being his hype-man. If Adam gets to show off and have a fan, it'll be just one small metric less of a complete catastrophe.

Which brings us to : drawings of him. Nevermind the quality, he'll always ask to add stuff that makes him cool (No, you forgot the spikes !! And where's the guitar ? Add it ! Here ! Look, just take that bright yellow fucking crayon, it's easy as puss !) and might even rip the drawing material out of the kid's hands to add it himself. The guy will be competitive about it : either he's the coolest or the kiddo might as well redo the entire thing. Once he's satisfied, he'll keep it, frame it in the most extravagant frame he can think of, sign it over the kid's signature and pin it somewhere he can easily see it. With time, he'll forgot who did it (Got that from a fan, er... whatstheirface) and move on, not realizing that his mental age has been forever lower than the kid's he was supposed to take care of.

And as the answer to the infamous "can't get worse", yes it can ! Lute. Bohohoyyyy, LUTE. She's no babysitter, she's a fanatic fighter, a bloodthirsty warrior, and the only thing holding her back from skewering a demon child is a direct order from Sera. So she'll be as neglectful and abusive verbally and emotionally as she can get away with. Cries get on her nerves. Tantrums ? She'll boot the kid in a room and lock them up there for the rest of the day. Sinners and Hellborn aren't given any toys. Food is composed of rests. She doesn't have time for that shit. Even Winner children are barely worth her attention, though she can plaster a semblance of decency on her face towards them - don't expect her to smile, though. She's not here for that. She won't even think of the brat as useful to her, it's like a stupid assignment she got saddled with. A heaven-bound soul ? Bare necessities are taken care of, next to no interaction, no affection given, the sooner it's over with the better. A hell-bound soul ? She'll imprint their features into her mind and make sure to find them, down there, next Extermination. A wretched Sinner shouldn't even set foot near the Pearly Gates. The only thing keeping her from dumping that vile blasphemy of a soul is that she'd rather keep an eye on them herself, because she's the only one strong enough to not fall for any of their traps, for sure.

A drawing of her ? Don't accept anything from a demon and rip it into pieces right then and there. It's just a mockery of her, whatever the quality is, and don't you ever think I can't see what you're doing you little shitstain clinging at my boots. The same drawing from a heaven-bound soul ? Eh. Meh. Thanks I guess. She'll tuck it somewhere, forget about it, and if it has folds or coffee stains or whatever else damaging it, not her problem. Someone finds it ? She'll brush it off, tell them they can keep it, do her a favor, she doesn't have time nor thoughtspace for this. Better than to let it rot here. If it ends up falling in her line of sight again, she'll derive a wicked self-righteous confidence that she's fighting for the right thing. And the thrill of battle, of course, but hey, that one's not on the drawing, so she'll supply it herself, in her mind.

And because why the hell not, St-Peter. If it's a hell-bound soul, he'll ask if there's any mistakes, but nope, he's really gonna babysit a little demon today. Well in that case, no problem, Welcome To Heaven and all that jazz ! Just don't do demon-y things, okay ? Now what would you like to do ? We can go on a seminar about how to help grandmas cross the roads, or how to be parsimonious while partying and oh, oh, how about a coooourse - oooon - generosity ! Past that first hurdle, he'll be a genuinely sweet guy, treating all souls alike. His problem ? Well, two : first, unlike Emily, he has no authority and will get trampled on by any kid who's a bit more stubborn than the norm, and second, his Don't Do That (TM) sermons can. Last. Hours. He'll accidentally cause more naptimes by pointing out the 547 reasons of why littering is bad that when he'd actually asked the child to take a nap, or is too engrossed in his speech to see that the kid has given him the slip. Weak to puppy-dog eyes. He'll buy that ice scream with rainbow sprinkles, okay, okay, don't look at him like that ! But he'll be also a great guide and has a ton of ideas on activities, even if commenting a bit too much about them. Might catch on the fact that his sermon-talking induces sleep and appropriately uses it in a savvy way. He'll stay polite, but without hypocrisy : if a kid points out that he swore earlier when they told him they're Belphegor's 2nd cousin thrice removed, he'll agree, apologize, and explain why it's bad. Kind of cleaning-inclined ? Please keep the brimstones off the floor at least. He'll insist that things are tidied up after playing, leaving a mess isn't the politest thing after all, and will include the kid in that : they can clean up together, he'll help !

A drawing of him ? Depending on what he'll receive, he'll be elated, or really working out his optimism and trying to be as less judgemental as possible. Why aren't you the most precious, kindest soul. Your style is... uh... unique ? Why - why is blood - oh, ooooh, what a fabulous one-single-color rainbow, oh, ahem, that's so sweet ! And look at those little arms NOT up crying for help, but in what I'm sure is excitement ! And those... tears -- of happiness of course ! Ahem, do you need therapy ? But whatever it is, he'll keep it, because he considers it a gift. Just that, depending on the degree of disturbing-ness, it's either on a wall in his office at home, or in a folder under a looong stack of papers and other things he'd rather look at rarely. But he'll still shed a tear over a smile when his babysitting time comes to an end, especially if he actually managed to bond with the kid, whatever realm they're bound to. Awww.

Well, here you have it ! Dunno if I'll pour other ideas of the same type (cast + kids), but it's surely not the last speculative rant you'll see from me (I guess). Hope you enjoyed.

(And thanks for the likes and reblogs, it made my day.)

Again, Masterpost here.

[erikraven]

shatterverse is a cool name, what is that??

So, Shatter/the Shatterverse is my cyberpunk AU! I posted some stuff on my AO3 a while back, but my idea of what I wanted to write changed a lot so I marked it as discontinued and moved over to a new thing.

The name comes from the idea of a society that is hyperfragmented -- if you have a piece of land and the means to defend it, you effectively have a sovereign state. So, of course, many people have done so. They’ve discovered that there is, yknow, a reason that people form into nations, so most cities are still intact geographically, but the social side of them is very, very different. For example, Las Vegas has a sort of dome over it (it’s too large to put an actual cohesive dome up, but it’s sealed) to keep water in, and that of course makes it easy to turn into a highly controlled population. And so of course I get to write about the king of Las Vegas (Phantom), who just so happens to be Marvin’s sugar daddy.

Marvin’s magic is more Clarketech in this setting -- any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. So in his case, he has a lot of genetic tweaks, primarily fluffy ears and an extremely fluffy tail because I will make him a catboy in every universe. He also has illusion magic via microprojectors and a hologram grid, plus some “hypnosis” via hacking into other people’s sensory augments. He loves form-over-function magic -- he’s fully aware that his claws aren’t as effective as an actual knife, but they’re more stylish, and Jackie can have a set whenever he asks.

Jackie is quite fun to write -- thanks to a wealthy benefactor, he has a neural backup continuously updated to resurrect when he dies. This means that he has a skewed sense of danger, because if he dies, he’ll just come back, right? Of course, he dies a lot, because he works for this wealthy benefactor as a hitman, and the start of the AU is Chase (not knowing all this) bringing a new body to Henrik for Jackie’s mind upload.

Henrik is one of the three androids in this AU, the other two being Edward (Dr. Iplier) and Jameson. Edward and Henrik are both medical androids, Edward programmed more to be a personal/private doctor for one person or a family, while Henrik was made for triage and emergency care. Jameson, however, is a real treat to write.

Jameson is a security android. The Jackson model is made for the highest of upper-class -- he doesn’t look out of place in the audience of a coronation. He’s a bit fragile-looking, being smaller than most combat-oriented androids, but he’s strong enough to break concrete -- and has. Ordinarily his model would be able to speak, but due to some damage, he can’t. No one’s ever told him what happened, but he doesn’t particularly care -- not being able to speak audibly has never bothered him. Most everything about Jamie is controlled by his rescuer, who found a nearly-scrapped android on the black market and decided to put him back together. He’s not the friendliest fellow, but that’s by design -- a security android who makes friends easily isn’t a very good guard.

(There is a lot of backstory that has been deliberately kept hidden from him. Once he finds out... oh boy. Maybe there was a gentler way to tell him he’s got brothers?)

Chase is... mostly human? It’s complicated, virtually no one is fully human anymore, because even if you haven’t got any edits of your own, your parents probably did. He has some augments, the most significant being a neurochip that repairs his right optic nerve, language centers, and some memory (the areas that were damaged when he shot himself). He works as a courier, since he’s good at keeping his head down in a crowd and not being noticed. He just wants to go about his life, however long or short it may be, do his work, and chill.

So of course, he is adopted by this gaggle of freaks.

The doc’s currently at 22k words, and if all goes well, the whole thing should be about 100k! I want to get it all written before posting, so hopefully it’ll be up before 2040.

Edit: OMG I FORGOT ANTI

Anti is one of the weirdest of the bunch, since it's not really a character yet? Right now its only appearance is as an AI weapon. It's not very targeted, it just chews through software and, if it can find ways to do so, hardware. It's designed to want to do as it's told, so its reward system is massively skewed, to the point that it literally will not reprogram itself to be "sane" because that would make its boss upset. It does show up as more of a character later on, but right now it's more of a digital nuke. There are implications of it doing something awful in the past by hijacking Jameson and walking around in his body, but we don't find out what exactly it did for a long while. Mark my words, though, it's going to get up to something bad.

[hirukochan]

Hi I'm wondering how to improve my writing

Hi there!

Oof, idk if I'm the right person to ask there. Writing has always come natural to me. I started creating my own stories when I was a child. Storytelling just has always been a part of my life, but I will try!

Practice.

Writing is a skill. It may come easier to some people just like art, dance, crafts - any creative activity really - but it is still a skill and a skill can only be improved by doing it over and over and over.

Don’t be afraid to try.

I’ve seen countless posts of people being stuck on their worldbuilding for years without ever writing a single word. World building is great, collecting resources to improve your writing is all good and well but they will be of no help to you if you don’t ever actually start to write.

Don’t be scared to suck.

I’ve written plenty of stuff that’s bad. I’ve deleted entire chapters and started over because it was just not working. It can be frustrating and it’s fine to take a step back for a moment and come back with fresh ideas. Not everything you write has to be shared with the public. Scribble down brainfarts on a napkin you never look at again. Fill notebooks with story shreds you’ll never expand on. Just write. Get comfortable with writing. Try out new things even if those aren’t what you want to write. Every creative writing class will tell you to not write fiction and while I disagree with the notion that fiction is somehow less, it is not bad advice to step out of your comfort zone and challenge your skills. I wrote a few short stories that were set in the ‘real’ world and while it was hard, I think it really helped me improve.

It’s worth experimenting with different mediums as well. Some people prefer to write on the computer, some do their best work on paper. I like to switch between the two when I notice myself getting stuck. I have one story I write almost exclusively on paper. It’s annoying to type it all into my computer after but it’s worth the extra effort.

Read a lot. Artists look at other artists’ work and study every detail of their work. Every author has a different style. By reading other peoples’ works in different genres you broaden your own horizon.

For years I got stuck on all these rules some people have made up for writing and while some of them are sound advice, most published authors break those rules too. Unless you want to get traditionally published, writing is a hobby and hobbies are supposed to be fun. Don’t get hung up on trying to be perfect. Just write. You can come back later and edit or don’t. I don’t. I do some haphazard spell checking and that is it. I don’t enjoy editing. I don’t like rereading my chapter over and over to try and get it perfect. Perfection is a myth anyway. Some people will not like what you write and that is fine. Your audience is out there, even if it might take a moment to find it.

It’s easy to get discouraged when you don’t get the response to your work you crave. No amount of telling yourself you write for yourself will change that. In the end, we know our stories. We don’t need to write them down to know them, nor publish them on the internet. We do that because we want to share our little world with other people and in a time were kudos and comments are at an all time low it is easy to feel like you are shouting into a forest and your words get lost between the branches.

I’ve let myself get discouraged by this too. It’s the reason A Servant of Death hasn’t been updated in forever. I recently published two oneshots I’m pretty proud of but because they are both rare pairs, I got barely any responses.

I can’t tell you how to deal with disappointment. It’s something I struggle with. I just have to believe that my stories reach people. That someone is glad they were written even if they are too shy or busy to tell me.

Find fandom friends. I find it is much easier to deal with my disappointment when a story doesn’t do as well as I think it might deserve (and I’ve been spoilt rotten with the responses to ‘Your tears are of no relevance to me’, going back to my rare pairs and less popular ships after that was and is a hard transition). Join a discord, be active on tumblr, find your people that share the same brain rot as you. I’ve made so many great friends over at the Snarriet Discord, it’s a wonderful community - you just need to find it.

Now I know that even if no one else will read it, @snapesmorningcoffee and @loneamaryllis are always among the first to read my sick and twisted stories. I can’t tell you how much of a difference that makes!

So…yeah. My biggest advice is to just write. Forget all else. Set a timer for five minutes and write as much as you possibly can in that time even if you just end up writing ‘idk what to write’ over and over. You’ll automatically get better at it the more you do it, the longer you do it.

[mementoshay]

Hello. When I read the tragedy about Shay, I could not believe that this was someone else's problem. Because right now I want to be gone. And not only from fandom. I would like to talk to you if you would like. I feel as if I am the only one in the world right now. I have been a Radiohusk shipper for about two years now, posting pictures on Twitter and even interacting with some of them. It has been a fruitful environment and time for me. It was a peaceful time, as Doc said. I have OCD and often feel unstable. Radiohusk and my shipmates were the ones who calmed the waves until now. Since the publication of this edition, those waves have remained rough. My favorite ship is constantly denounced, and even my not-so-great drawings get cruel quote retweets. I hated drawing. Now I don't even pick up a brush. Also, a number of shippers who were my friends have already left the fandom. It is like an island in the sea. My OCD has been tormenting me for a long time, but what torments me the most is that the trend doesn't seem to end. Is there any safer space anywhere? I am despairing because I am sure there is no more. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a great time. I hope you will reply to me.

Hello, I'm very sorry for the big delay, but as we said, we all took a break for mental health reasons.

Before we continue, here's a list of hotlines that might be able to help you whenever you feel like there's no escape. Also feel free to reach out to us via DM at any time either here or via Twitter to let us know how you're doing.

Please do not neglect your mental health. Make sure to be followed by professionals and regularly express your thoughts and emotions with them so that you can be supported and advised properly.

This ask brings back strong memories because this theme is a recurring one, first with Shay, then with other people who came to us in private.

The bad news is, we have really no way of going back in time. But the good news is, painful as it can be, we can adjust and make the best of what comes our way going forward.

If these characters and their relationship are important to you, it's okay for you to not let go of them, but it's also important that you try to not connect them to your own pain. Fortunately, they're fictional: no matter what you or other people choose to do with them, nothing really changes, so you can really do whatever you please with them.

I think what seems to have worked for most of those we have spoken to is to form their own little "niche" of like-minded people. Value quality over quantity, so to speak. Find those who feel the same as you (and trust me, they exist), create your own little community, may it be on Twitter, Discord, etc. Draw together, write together, share ideas and build up from there.

What seems to have helped another member is to make their own iteration of some of the characters, with a mix-and-match of Ms. Medrano's old versions, which they liked better. Again, it's fiction, so the limit truly only is the sky.

However, please do not make Shay's mistake to try and find the solution to your personal struggles within internet communities. Reach out to your friends and family, talk to them. Find like-minded people to connect with.

And never forget how strong and resilient you can be! Thank you for your trust. I'm so sorry for the long wait. Hoping to hear from you soon. - Eden