#i said this in the discord a while ago so my friends already saw and validated this sgsggdg

[gaykeithbilance]

pidge would wear these ^

[ixiot-ghostrebel]

Click Me For Part 1!

𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬…

Warning! This Series Includes: Spoilers to Genshin Impact Lore & The Characters Might be OOC!

So. You had no idea where the heck you are (technically speaking), and you're talking to the Traveler and Venti. And Paimon. You've barely spent a day here, and things were already looking like they were becoming more and more like a source of lore material.

Which, you suppose, you kinda are. You just got a bombed dropped in your face about being Istaroth not even thirty minutes ago. And, the more you think about it, the more you wonder if your friends (you only have 3 others in your friend group—it was a reasonable assumption) are the rest of the Shining Shades of the Primordial One. You all probably were, if sagau fanfics taught you anything.

"Uh...Venti, who is this?" Paimon asks, her little floating-self hovering in mid-air. She had the classical hand to her chin as she thought, her head pushed forward as if to get a better look at you. "I don't think we ever met her before."

"Ah, allow me to introduce you to an old friend of mine!" Venti cheers, plastering on a smile. Damn, ain't this bard good at hiding his emotions. You wish you had that ability. "This is my friend, Y/N. They recently just arrived to Mondstadt, and they got curious about the Tree of Vanessa, so this humble bard just had to show the newcomer the legendary tree of where the fallen Lionfang Knight hero rests!"

The Traveler tilts their head at Venti, before looking over at you. You gulp, trying not to show how unnerved you were. You knew that the Traveler was pretty keen (in some things), so they no doubt picked up Venti's definition of "old friend."

How funny, because you probably know little to nothing about the bard next to you, smiling as bright as the sun as if the world needed extra brightness (like discord bright mode, honestly. It's giving you an eyesore staring at it).

"Oh, alright!" Paimon cheers, not even thinking about anything the bard just said. "So—where does your friend originate from?" She peers curiously at you, and you finally realize that Paimon must've caught on a similar definition to the Traveler. Except, you assume, the Traveler suspected you to be a god of some sort, while Paimon thinks you were a archon that was just visiting Mondstadt.

And it's only now you realized that you had no mora. And it's not like you tried to summon your Paimon Menu—Venti's fiasco of making you feel like an abnormal T-Rex got caught in the way before you could try it.

"I...uh..." You stutter out, coughing into your fist. God dang it, since when was it this hard to talk all of a sudden? You were doing so well before! "I originate...from Mondstadt, but I moved to Inazuma."

It was basically true. Enkanomiya was technically found in Inazuma near Watatsumi Island. And, according to Venti, if Istaroth was to be worshipped by the people of Mondstadt, you basically just moved nations so that you wouldn't go into slumber from the lack of such.

"Oh, that makes sense!" Paimon says, smiling with relief that you weren't an archon. The Traveler looks at you curiously, but you can tell there is some suspicion in their eyes. Clearly, they weren't buying your alibi just yet. "So, uh—is Venti giving you a tour around the place?"

"Yes," you immediately blurt out, which you kind of regret. "He uh—he saw me cluelessly looking around and—you know—uhm, kindly provided to be my tour guide around the Region of Mondstadt."

"Ehe, indeed I did!" Venti exclaims, puffing out his chest. Damn, was this guy good at bluffing. Share me your skills, You begged. You seriously need some acting lessons. "In fact, we were just about to be on our way to the Temple of A Thousand Winds!"

"Ooh, that's cool!" Paimon says happily. "If you'd like, we can show you the way there!" Venti gasps dramatically.

"Are you saying that I'd get us lost?" He pouts. "Come on, have some faith in this travelling bard!" Paimon and the Traveler give each other a quick look, clearly a little...doubtful, to say the least. Paimon turns around to face him.

"Yes," She says, crossing her arms with a deadpan. "Tone Deaf Bard, how exactly are we sure that you aren't getting Y/N lost? Wait a second—Paimon's got a better question! Did you had any alcohol?" You snort.

"Ehe, nope!" Venti smiles. "Surprising, isn't it? I didn't even have the time before I decided to help!"

"Yeah...Paimon doesn't believe you for some reason."

And that's how you managed to get the Traveler and Paimon to help you find the Temple of A Thousand Winds! Boy, you had no idea how the heck this happened, but at least you found it and the Traveler was here! (Assuming that Venti's theory is correct, and the Traveler has to have something to do with you being Istaroth somehow—)

"Holy cow...So this is what it looks like..." you mutter to yourself. You've only ever seen it as through a gaming computer, and even then, the images were still pixels. But this? This was a whole new level.

"Ehe, yep!" Venti cheers. "This is the Temple of A Thousand Winds for you!"

"Uhm, you mind if I take a look around?" You look at the others, waiting for a confirmation. Listen, Venti piqued your interests, and now you're curious to find the a broken statue of Istaroth or something around here.

"Sure, but be careful!" Paimon warns. "If you want, the Traveler and I can accompany you!"

"I have Venti." You point at the dude beside you. "Isn't he enough?"

"With how much Paimon knows of Tone-Deaf Bard, I doubt he'll help you." Paimon crosses her arms, a deadpan on her face. The Traveler chuckles, shaking their head in a fond way.

So, naturally, you all just stuck together, trying to find the one thing you came for—which Venti was trying to hint at which directions you need to go from the very beginning of the search, and of course—you catching absolutely none of them, for several hours.

"So uh, not to pry, Y/N, but what exactly are you looking for?" Paimon questions. Oh yeah—"not to pry" your backside. You sigh—there's no point in lying.

"I'm looking for a Statue of Istaroth," you explain. "I...I heard this place worshipped them and I got curious, so I wanted to see it for myself."

"Hm...Paimon's never seen a Statue of Istaroth from all the times we've been here." She looks over at the Traveler. "But sure, let us help!" Her eyes sparkle as she gets an idea. "Ooh, maybe there's some more hidden treasure around here! Come on, Traveler, let's go find the trea—uh, the Statue of Istaroth!"

You found it during the evening, but you could care less—your legs were dead tired just running around, avoiding monsters, avoiding whatever debris that was suddenly appearing, and standing around like a fish out of water. You need a break from this nuisance—you still weren't even sure yourself if you were indeed Istaroth!

"What kind of god is that?" Paimon wonders out loud. "Paimon's never seen a Statue of Seven look like that before!"

"That," Venti starts with a smile. "Is the Statue of Istaroth, the God of Time."

His voice echoes somehow, and despite the not-so cold atmosphere, you feel shivers crawling down your spine. Were you really Istaroth?

"Huh....Hey, Traveler! Since it looks like it's similar to a Statue of Seven, maybe you can try resonating it!" Paimon gasps. "Just think—what if you get some extra cool powers from it?!" Her galactic eyes sparkle.

The Traveler complies with a smile, reaching out to touch the Statue of Istaroth. You watch with bated breath, unsure of how to react in the current situation you were practically thrown into.

A huge blast of anemo explodes, filling the entire debris around you shaking off old dust as the anemo swirls around all of you. Venti was practically the only one who was smiling, and for once, you can read him like an open book—he was reminiscing as the familiar anemo energy continues to swirl and explode.

When it finally settles, you feel something wave through your chest—as if a breeze has somehow find a tunnel in straight through your entire body, sending small shivers throughout.

"Huh...so it did nothing?" Paimon's disappointment was evident on her face, just as much as the confusion. "That's strange...Paimon's never seen a Statue of Seven act like that."

Just as Venti open his mouth to speak, a loud, booming voice, awfully similar to your own, echoes.

"𝐆𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐨𝐦…𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬?"

Ghost Rebel Side Notes: IT'S DONE! I AM SO SORRY, THIS TOOK SO LONG! 😭💀 I APOLOGIZE ON BEHALF OF MY DEAD SELF.

I honestly have no idea where this series will lead to—I am practically writing this without a plot planned and that is not good :') However! Feel free to give me your ideas and/or thoughts about this series—perhaps I might even add them in 👀

Stay safe & healthy everyone!

✦ Check out The Ghost Rebel’s Blog Description & Info Page to See if Their Mailbox is Open! ✦

[germworms]

Etho's unexpected face reveal

A shortfic of Bdubs accidentally seeing Etho's face on call.

Wordcount: About 1400 words.

Pairing: Etho&Bdubs Platonically

RPF

---

"I'll see you guys later!"

As he stopped recording, he leaned back in his chair. Through his headset he could hear his friends chatting away, about some random topic. He heard snippets of redstone talk, and that made him zone out. He double checked to see if he had stopped recording, which he had.

"Bdubs!" Someone yelled into his ear, making him jump up.

"Argh! What!" He asked, he moved his mouse around to find whoever scared him, rubbing his eyes. "Oh, hello, Etho."

"You tired?" Etho asked, his avatar sneaking in front of him, up close. He was laughing a bit, his own voice an octave lower. A sign of tiredness from the canadian.

He yawned, "Not at all, I gotta edit my video tonight too."

"Awh, you need motivation?" Etho asked, punching him in the game, "I'll be your ear worm."

"Thanks, you are a sweetheart."

"Yeah, I'll go take a quick washroom break, be right back."

"...Washroom." He mumbled, "Crazy man." He couldn't help but smile, he never could stop smiling when talking to him.

Someone walked into the room, hovering above him while wrapping their arms around his shoulders, "I'm headed to bed, the girls are asleep."

He turned his head to kiss his wife, "I'll finish up my editing and join ya', honey."

She closed the door behind her, smiling before closing it all the way.

He turned in his chair, opening up discord to check when the next hermit meeting would be. He saw Etho in the voice channel and joined, knowing that Etho liked to listen to music through Mee6. A big picture of a room showed up suddenly, his heart dropped.

Should he tell him? How would he even tell him, he was pissing right now! No use in calling for him.

He should have turned a blind eye, gone out of the voice group, but he was a tad too nosey for his own good.

His friend for over a decade, his faceless friend who he had never met. An internet friend whom he had spent countless hours talking to.

They had talked about meeting up 5 years ago, and then again yearly since then, but then Covid spread around right as they finally started making realistic plans. Everything got cancelled and they stopped talking about it. Etho stayed in his apartment alone, and he had his family he needed to take care of.

So as he watched, silently, and listened to every sound, a door closing made him jump. Footsteps.

First comfortable black pants, then the bottom of a black hoodie, "Bdubs I'm back."

He felt his heart speed up, the anticipation, not even Beef knew about this. He felt guilty already, he had seen more than enough, "Etho!"

A face became visible on the screen, a head full of brownish blackish hair, quite skinny face, clean shaven. His eyes were tired, but nonetheless, he was handsome. He gulped, "Uh, uhm."

"What did you do, silly?" He heard minecraft sounds, forgetting all about the game. Etho was probably wondering why he was standing so still, listening to him through the game and not through discord.

He couldn't stop staring, he felt like a sinner. Like this was more embarrassing to admit than when his parents had walked in on him as a teen, than his first kiss with a girl and with that boy in elementary.

An embarrassed blush crept up on him, "Bdubs, are you okay?"

Ethos mouth moved while he talked, of course, but seeing a face to a voice he wasn't even supposed to see made him speechless. The way he said his name made his heart skip in a way he hadn't felt in a long time maybe because he could see every syllable from Etho now.

"I- uh, ugh, your-" He coughed, watching how confusion spread across Ethos face. He noticed how Ethos posture was quite poor, "You should check your posture."

"Oh, thank you."

There was a moment of silence, "Hold on."

"Bdubs!!!" Etho's camera was quickly turned off, "You! What! You should have told me!! I- I don't know what to say!"

"Well!" He started, "I mean! Your handsome! Pretty! I mean, you're very- what I mean- I'm sorry!" He stumbled over his words, not knowing how to react. "I'll turn- I'm gonna turn on my face cam!"

He turned it on, forgetting how his face was completely red in embarrassment, "Oh god." he noticed, "It's the lighting!"

He let his words die out. Should he hide away?

"Are you angry?" He asked in a small voice.

"Angry? I- I don't know... A bit, I guess. I trust you, of course, but this has become a big deal for me, my face. I mean, you were gonna see it one day, I wanted that time to be special." Etho said, his voice became weary. "Be happy I actually wore clothes."

"I wouldn't be un-happy so to say."

"You- You're something else, man!"

Bdubs eased up, "I know, baby."

Etho took a long breath, he could hear the gears turning in his head, not knowing what he was planning. Who knew what that man was thinking anyways.

"You get ONE time of facetime, okay?"

He hadn't expected a sudden meet and greet, "Really?"

"Just make a private call, I don't want any of the other hermits joining, Gem will be so mad at you by the way." Ethos voice quieted down.

All hope of a session of editing went out the window, as he pulled up his private chat on discord with Etho, the last message read, 'U up for mc?'

He clicked the call button, "I'm calling! Okay! It's happening!"

Etho chuckled once, "Well, you already saw my face, WITHOUT me knowing, stalker."

"I'm sorry, okay?"

The call was picked up, eyes staring directly at him, while his mind blanked out, "Uh- hi."

"You're so RED, man!" Etho laughed at him, his whole face full of laughter, a mix of nervousness and excitement.

"I am?" He felt his face, "Well, don't blame me! You're pretty handsome, not more than me, though." He lied, of course Etho would be good looking, he could feel it in his guts from the moment he met him. Beauty followed the soul.

"Don't sell yourself short... Literally." Etho began cracking up again, going off screen to laugh.

"Oh, FREAKING funny, huh! I can prove I'm 5'10!"

"Stand up for me, then." Etho said, showing back on screen to stare directly at him. Making him nervous.

He halted in his action to stand up, "I don't take commands from you! You should trust my words."

"Oh, so now you don't wanna do what I say? Sounds like someone isn't as tall as they say they are, hmm, Bdubs?"

His heart skipped a bit, "I- I uh, I am." His voice more quiet now.

"You okay?"

He had to look away, "Nothing! I'm fine! Can you uh, say my name again?" He spoke the last part quickly, too embarrassed to say it out loud.

Ethos face scrunched, "What?-" His voice high, but then he spoke, "Bdubs? BdoubleO? John? Which one?"

He coughed, "Uh! Thank you! That's all, I wanted you to look stupid! Okay, Ha! Yeah.." Hearing his name from Etho was always something he enjoyed, but from Etho AND his face was something else entirely. He was comfortable with his sexuality, of course. He had always been open to girls and boys, and he fell in love with his wife the first time they met.

When he met Etho, he started wondering how his life would be if he had married a man. A thought for the dreamers, a thought he wouldn't make a reality, because he loved his life. He loved his children, his wife, his job.

He loved Etho as much as he could too.

"You like when I say your name?"

As much as a friend could love him, perhaps he never saw them as only friends, but also not as lovers. His wife knew about Etho, how could she not? And she adored him as well. They would frequently put an Etho lets play in the background when making dinner, laughing at the commentary. His wife never had any problems with, what Cleo would call, his obsession.

"You do, you weirdo." Etho said, leaning back, "Can you say my name?"

"Etho." His eyes scanned the screen, the face for any reaction.

A smile spread across Ethos face, he scuffed, "Yeah, okay."

A small pause between them and then a strange question, "Should I buy a better webcam for you?"

"For me?"

"You're the only one who gets to see me, mind I add, maybe HD is better for you." Etho said with a slight smile in his tone, "Anything for you."

In their years together, Etho had picked up on his adorations for him, and he had never said anything about it. Slowly, after a long time, it became their normal.

"You should get some rest, Bdubs."

"I should."

His head was tilted while the two men stared at each other, Etho said in a low voice, "This is kinda nice."

"Yeah, it really is."

[mcytblr-archive]

Early MCYTblr Interviews: tack-tick

today's interviewee is tack-tick, a pioneer of the "phistin" ship and DSMP fan since before the first election! below is a transcript of the interview.

Q: What was your overall time in MCYTblr like?

A: I'd say my overall time in Mcytblr could be described as finding diamonds in the rough. This fandom is defined by finding your group, sticking to them and if you're smart not really looking beyond that. I did look beyond that and saw a lot of discourse and such. I had a good time with my friends but I did get negatively affected by the discourse at times. It was kind of a toxic shithole but by God mcytblr was our shithole lol

Q: Do you remember any specific discourse that affected you, or was it just the overall culture around you?

A: As a Technoblade main, it was the discourse surrounding his character that messed with me. At the time, I was mutuals (none in the phistin palace dw guys) with some people who hated his character. I, as an anxious teenager, was very worried it would cause drama if I unfollowed them and my dash became a lot of those long negative essays about how he was an awful person and yknow the drill. It was mainly my own fault and my dash became signfigantly better once I realized no one would be offended of I unfollowed, blocked a bunch of tags, started up my own discord server and focused more on writing fanfic instead of doomscrolling. A good lesson in curating your dash of anything else. (Btw those former mutuals are fine people, we just had radically different tastes in what we liked and disliked about the Dream SMP)

Q: You mentioned the "phistin palace"-- before we get into that, would you like to explain the "phistin" rarepair itself?

A: Now we are cooking! So, Phistin is the ship of Kristin and Philza. It's main focus was on the scraps of lore that we had about their relationship which was Kristin was the immortal goddess of Death and they couldn't really see each other often but loved each other very much. I'd say it's main appeal was being one of the few ships that was just really stable in the Dream SMP compared to the Karlnapity polycule and whatever youd call Quackbur. Fun fact, I can't find the post now but if i remember correctly me and tumblr user Demonadelem helped name the pair Phistin. Although, that was ages ago so I could be misremebering

Q: Was the ship entirely within the SMP, or was it just the general ship name for the real-life couple?

A: It was both. Since Kristin didn't really stream on the dream smp, a lot of her personality had to be based on what Phil said about her and her other streams. Basically, lore about the ship was pulled from the SMP but the dynamics and personality was from both. You could play around with the dynamic if you focused on Kristin being a goddess

Q: With that basic information laid out-- what was the "phistin palace"?

A: The Phistin Palace was a discord server I founded in August of 2022. Phistin was a ship that was basically a side thing I did in fandom because my main focus was Technoblade and emerald duo stuff. I think if you're a Technoblade fan you're legally obligated to be a Philza fan and vice versa. I don't make the rules. So Phistin was something I did when I wanted a break from Technoblade as a way to practice romantic shipping.

Then Technoblade passed away and I didn't want to do anything with his character for a while so I focused completely on Phistin. However, when I tried to find any fics they were either a background ship with only one line or Kristin was already dead from a tragic disease who's main symptoms were lying daintily in bed. While I was writing my own long form Phistin focused fic, Two Birds if anyone read it, I got a comment that complimented me for "giving her an actual charatcer" and maaaan that is a very low bar to be praised for. So, I started the palace as a way to find other Phistin fans who actually cared about them beyond Kristin being angst fodder for SBI.

Q: Do you have any fond memories in specific of the "Phistin Palace" discord server?

A: Oh so many. During the Syndicate finale, three of us all liveblogged and freaked the fuck out when Kristin showed up for the first time in a minecraft skin on the server. I made on of those AI chatbot things that was popular for a bit and the bot was supposed to be the Kristin character. I asked if she had a pet and she said she has a gecko named Tim. The entire server instantly decided they would die for Tim and he's now an emote. The general chat is also named Tim Time Fucker. A mermaid AU that was made that the majority of the server contributed a lot of lore to we named it the Communist Mermaid AU because the server collectively owns it now. Many good moments there

Q: Beyond the Phistin Palace, are there any large community events that you remember/took part in, or did you mostly stick to your friend group?

A: I remember The Penis SMP of course. I never really took part in large community events but I did watch them happen. I read the Passerine chapter where Tommy died becasue my dash flipped out when that dropped. I'd also try to watch Sad-ist animatics live when I could. At most, Id make a meme during a stream that would rack up a couple hundred notes or one thousand if I was lucky A thousand was like once or twice I think

Q: You mentioned that you were also a Technoblade fan before you became more focused on Phistin-- was your experience in that side of the fandom any different?

A: It certainly had more content than Phistin did lol. I was never really in any Technoblade discords or anything but back in the day it was focused on emerald duo and being funny. or angsty. Nowadays, it's way less lively unfortunately. It's not as bad as in 2022 but Technoblade fancontent seems to be less foucsed on the character and more on memorials/remembrance. At some point, you run out of things to say and not a lot of people wanted to stay in a fandom that just felt weighed down by it all. I did leave so things could perk up someday but I don't think that's likely

Q: We've talked about the fandom and how it responds to content-- let's talk about the content itself. What were some of your favorite moments from the Dream SMP as a whole?

A: The Red Festival Technoblade stream was the first one I ever watched live so that's a good one. The stream where L'manberg getting blown up at the end of The Manberg Arc is iconic for an underrated reason. I don't know how many people remember but Phil was highly speculated to be on the Dream SMP someday. On the day of that stream, he started on his hardcore world, then stopped his stream and did his dramatic switch surprise entrance to enter the Dream SMP for the first time. Also Technoblade escaping the anvil and then killing Quackity with a toothpick was great. I've never liked watching Twitch streams on my Ipad so most of my favorite moments come from YouTube

Q: Were you sad that Phistin wasn't a more popular ship, or did you enjoy the tight-knit community?

A: I was sad Kristin kept friggin dying, the poor woman lol. Sometimes I wish it was a bit more popular but the community was nice. The main issue is Phistin stuff started tanking hard on Ao3 in terms of numbers and tended to get misstagged quite a bit

Q: You've brought up a few times that Kristin was often fridged, disregarded, or replaced (on several notable occasions, by an actual Samsung fridge). How did you feel about it? Do you think there was any particular reason for it?

A: I mean, I really don't like it but I understand it. A lot of people loved that SBI angst but also wanted to write all the SBI. So the obvious solution is to kill off Kristin for free angst and keep all the SBI in the story. Passerine is a fic i respect a lot but it also kickstarted this trend to be honest. Kristin herself also didn't physically show up in the lore a lot so it was really tricky to write her. When I first wrote her, it was intimidating because I didn't have many fics to look at as good examples.

Was it shitty and a bit sexist? Yes but I don't think sexism was the only reason. Kristin's character was in a unique situation compared to the others. I have no problem with Kristin dying in a fic. The main issue is that often came with her personality being reduced to good mom and that's it. I'm not gonna call a bunch of probably first time writers evil sexists when I know what it's like to not know how to write her and being scared you'll get her completely wrong.

Q: Since it's come up, would you mind giving a quick rundown of what exactly the fanfic "Passerine" is? (As well as any memories you have relating to it!)

A: If i'm being honest, I only read the chapter where Tommy got murked. What I know from osmosis is it's an SBI royalty AU that had some kind of meta twist at the end and it was very sad. It also got a sad-ist animatic made out of it which jesus christ I'd give for that. I tried it but the writing style was too wordy for my liking. It's mainly important for Phistin history even though Kristin wasn't in it. No, The Fridge died in it but everyone just kinda assumed it was Kristin for long enough it got the ball rolling. Also I think Niki read it on a stream

Q: Before we wrap up, is there anything else you remember about MCYTblr/the DSMP that you'd like to talk about?

A: The DSMP sure was the minecraft server of all time that is defined as a server that was doomed from the start. Whoever makes a video essay on it is gonna have a hell of a job. 10/10 experience would not recommenced. Hello to the Phistin Palace if any of you read this :D

Mcytblr is getting more chill with shipping from what I've seen. Thank God, keeping making Philza Minecraft kiss those men and his wife.

Also SUBSCRIBE TO TECHNOBLADE

[34saveme34]

Unedited ass Bath for SMG3 fic moment

I literally didn't proof read this, read w caution <3

it's not really an entire story, just me thinking about a fun scenario bit so read w that in mind

bath for SMG3!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“I said I was sorry, okay??!” one could be heard yelling.

“I don’t care! GO! AWAY!” the other yelled back.

“Please! Let… let me help you”

SMG3, sighed. He knew, SMG4 had good intentions, he offered his help honestly. He knew this.

“I’ve had enough of that”

“Wh-! WHAT??” 

“I mean, your ‘help’ got my cafe infested with snails”

“Just more of a reason for me to help you!”

“What for?”

“Because we’re-”

“Friends? Oh… friends… Yeah, friends” 3 rolled his eyes “I’ve had enough of your friendship for a while now”

4 heartbroken, not knowing how to answer, took his leave. He couldn’t deal with this.

3 cleaned the cafe on his own, though it’s not like it was getting much traffic at this point. He was… once again stuck in the shadows.

He decided to close early, not like anyone would want to come in anyways. He went to his room, pondering to himself… What should he do now? What else is there for him? Or… will he be once again stuck in the shadows? Well… welcome back, shadows. At least you always take him back. Unconditionally

A few days have passed. 4 was still pissed but… He still could not look away. He didn’t see 3 leave his cafe for days. He didn’t see him open at all. He didn’t see him stream at all. He didn’t reply to the awesome memes he sent him on Discord. He didn’t even come to ask for useless shit that he would do sometimes for some reason. It was almost like he vanished. Nowhere to be found.

“No… no… I should stay calm” he talked to himself “It’s- It’s not like I already saw he was on the brink of breaking nooo! A little mental breakdown wouldn’t bring him down like that! Right… Right? SMG3 is built different… yea” he stared before himself before noticing Tari in the door way.

“Does this bloke always talk to himself?” Clench spoke, as he learned of the name of the hand a few days ago. It was… weird but not the weirdest thing in their universe. Tari glared at him before looking at 4, concern in her eyes.

“Hey… Want to check on SMG3 together? I can see you’re worried about him”

4 eyed the floor intensely. He didn’t realise how sensitive this situation made him. He wanted to cry.

“Yeah… we should…”

He got up, trying to collect himself together as they went to the cafe.

As they opened the door, 4 noted the cafe was as empty as it was their last fight. Their last fight… Why… Why… Why can’t he just help 3? Without causing him trouble. He couldn’t help it as he looked around. The tears felt comforting against his face, emotions pouring out. He missed when this place was filled.

“Hey, 4…” Tari put a hand on his shoulder “I get it but… you have to be strong… for 3”

4 took a deep breath. He really wanted to be strong for him. And do him right at least once, even if that’s the last thing he ever does. 

“For 3” 4 smiled at Tari, trying to show that he still had courage. He cared too much not to.

They went to the bookshelf at the back. At this point 4 knew exactly how to get 3 by heart. You couldn’t waste time when you wanted someone’s opinions on your meme afterall. He smiled lightly at the memory as both him and Tari stepped into the elevator. He just couldn’t let go of something so great. 

The elevator door opened, revealing the room as dark, only being illuminated by the elevator’s light. 3 didn’t seem to be anywhere.

“S..MG3?” Tari called out, though nervously “We.. want to help!... Whether you like it or not!” her threatening wasn’t too intimidating but at least she got her message across.

But 4 already where he was, eying his bed. He walked up to his bed, lightly putting his hand down on the shape he presumed as 3. The shape seemed to stir lightly at his touch, confirming that there’s one sad man underneath.

“I-... we’re worried about you, 3…” 4 spoke, trying to once again hold back tears. God damn it.

But there was no answer. Tari walked up beside 4.

“Please… 3… uh” Tari started to panic, not sure what else she could say that they didn’t say already “We’re… sorry if we… treated you badly… We do want to help”

“I… I know you hate when I say it” 4 chuckled, thinking about all the times 3 refused to give his pride up “But you said it once that… that we’re friends. You’re not escaping this easily… I know I’m not… always the best for you… which I should be but… I want to make up for it”

4 could see one tired eye peak out, unsure if it’s only red because of 3’s eyes being red, or if the possible exhaustion was adding to it.

“Get.. out”

“No” 4 said, firm. 

“Yeah! What he said!” Tari stood with 4 “We ARE your friends”

“I don’t want friends” 3 spoke weakly.

4 was feeling fed up, he was REALLY about to not have it.

“Well, too bad, dipshit! We’re here whether you like it or not!”

Tari wasn’t sure how to add to it. But Clench had ideas, although Tari told him not to butt in for this.

“Rotting in bed won’t fix your life”

Wow. Those words stung. 3 could feel it all too well, as if daggers were stabbed into his soul from every direction. 

“Well” he sat up angry “Maybe I don’t want to fix my life! Maybe I’ll rather rot, I’ll rather” he teared up “I rather stay in the shadows”

4 reached his boiling point. Without a word, he grabbed 3 by his collar and dragged him to his bathroom.

“ASSHOLE, WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING???!!” 3 screamed at him but 4 didn’t reply, just dragged him until he could throw him into the bathtub.

“It’s time for a bath” 4 growled. Tari was scared but she followed behind. Clench, while being a hand, still managed to look flabbergasted.

“WHAT?? SMG4 I’M- I’M IN MY CLOTHES- WHAT THE FUCK”

3 squirmed, so 4 got in the bath tub with him, holding him down. It was a bit awkward but whatever, 4 wasn’t thinking about that right now. 

“Those need a wash as well anyways” 4 gave 3 that stern look. 3 would usually fight back more but there was something about the way that 4 looked at him that made him hesitate.

“I didn’t want to say but… the smell was pretty bad when we came in” Tari commented “I’m not judging though! Eheh,, it’s just… bad either way you know?”

3 sighed, with his arms folded as 4 started to soak him with the showerhead he had. The warmth of it was weirdly comforting, although just as weird, considering he was fully clothed. 4’s look while not looking any less stern, at least he started looking a little less intimidating. While awkward, Tari found it quite interesting to watch the 2. She knew stuff was intense between them but she didn’t think it got this bad.

She looked at Clench, who seemingly also looked at her, Tari smiling as she thought of doing something. Clench went for 3’s head lightly.

4 looked at him confused. Tari gave him a thumbs up with her free hand.

“What SMG3 is thinking: Maybe this isn’t so bad… hey what is that about how you want to-” suddenly 3 swatted away Clench.

“That’s private”

“Sheesh, dude…”

“What is it?” Tari questioned Clench. 4 also looked curiously. He wondered what 3 wanted to do.

“It’s about how he wants to-”

3 grabbed Clench, not so gently at that.

“Ow ow ow ow ow ow- That hurts”

“Shut your yapper then”

Tari looked at him sad. Clench also gestured sadly but then slowly leaned towards Tari and whispered something to her that made her less sad.

4 was too busy to notice them interacting further as he now focused back on cleaning up 3, although with how it was going, he was getting soaked himself. He didn’t really care though. The times his eyes would meet 3’s, while they didn’t last long… It all felt very intimate. He didn’t exactly get why he was doing this but… He had enough. He reached for shampoo as well, going for 3’s hair, massaging his head.

3 seemed to calm down. 4 was the perfect mix of gentle and firm. He felt a little less gross… A little less angry… A little more inclined to… No. Not that. He couldn’t think of 4 like that.

Regardless he enjoyed it and it was sort of obvious. Especially with how he kind of leaned into it. 4 actually found it kind of sweet in a way. It was obvious enough that Tari saw it too. It was always so special when these 2 were in peace with each other. It always made her wonder what these 2 could be like if they weren’t ever enemies. It’s just part of her fantasies where she imagines a perfect world where they’re perfectly all friends with no problems… She really only thinks about it in hard times… Hard times that could’ve been better if they were to just not argue and get along… And these 2 were pretty much the epitome of that. 

4 rinsed off 3’s hair. 3 was practically motionless with how relaxed he got. Or maybe he just realised that fighting back wasn’t an option at this point. Or perhaps it was both.

Tari threw a towel to 4, who then used it to dry 3’s hair. 3 paid such attention to the way 4 was doing that… once again, a perfect blend of firm and gentle… with such seemingly calculated moves, holding him in place. He found himself looking at 4, and 4 looking at him. His face also read peace. He could get lost forever in those eyes… Their connection was like no one else’s… and 3 hated it so much, how true it was.

Tari coughed, catching both of their attention as they stopped staring at each other so intensely. Tari wasn’t ready to third wheel that hard. Though she wondered what would’ve happened if she didn’t alert them. 

4 got out of the tub, although at this point he was very much soaked himself too. It was like bathing an overly excited dog. Except it was a grown ass, stinky man who heavily refused at first. 

It seemed Tari thought of something as she left the room to do something else. Which left the 2 with each other. After 4 got up from holding 3 down, 3 got up too and took off his overalls, seemingly not really caring that 4 is there. Although he grew flustered when he noticed how 4 was staring at him. 4 realised how that must have looked to 3, now he was feeling embarrassed as well. Now we had 2 men, too embarrassed to look each other in the eyes. 4 thought for a bit, then decided to turn away from facing 3, even covering his face. Though it was interesting how it didn’t occur for him to leave. And that it didn’t occur for 3 to ask him to leave either. Instead, with how intense the air felt, 3 decided it was best to change fast. He was kind of glad now he kept some of his clothes in his bathroom, considering how he had been feeling too lazy to put away a lot of stuff, considering his state. He dressed up, feeling kind of renewed. 

“You can turn around, idiot” 3 chuckled.

4 looked. 3 had a simple white shirt and purplee shorts on. A different look, kind of a little too boring for someone like 3 but hey? Who cares, at least he didn’t need to look at him naked.

“What are you calling me an idiot for?”

“Force of habit”

4 thought for a bit.

“Fair enough”

The 2 left the bathroom, the air still felt a little weird with it only being the 2 of them there. They saw that Tari seemed to take out and 3’s bedding. She came back right then.

“Oh hey! I took your blanket and pillows out as they uhm… they need it I think” she scratched her neck.

“Oh! Thanks.. I guess” 3 still wasn’t sure how to feel. 

“You’re welcome, 3” Tari smiled warmly. It was weird. 3 felt weird. It was kind of forceful, but both of them were being so kind to him.

“And you’re not gonna thank me?” 4 looked at him, and then pointed at his own clothes, which were still very much soaked.

“What, you want me to give you clothes or something?”

4 stared at him, unsure what to reply.

“You can, if you want, 4” 3 looked away, seemingly blushing. 

“Oh- Uh, thanks! I’ll take the offer” 4 awkwardly went back to the bathroom, closing the door after himself. 

“Soooo…” Tari got close to him, with Clench speaking, she only had a grin on her face, knowing what he was about to say “You like him, don’t you?”

3 punched Clench into a different shape.

“No manners these days” Clench sobbed. 3 didn’t react further. 

“You’re being so mean, 3…” Tari sobbed, holding her hand. 

“Whatever” he grumbled.

4 came out of the bathroom after a bit, his outfit sort of mimicking 3’s with a black tee and purple shorts.

“So sorry, I think I’ll need to leave now, I have a Smash score to settle soon, I need to warm up!” Tari said as she went for the elevator. Now it was only 3 and 4. 

4 thought for a bit.

“Uh-”

“Don’t say anything” 3 didn’t look at him.

“But- 3…” 

“No, I… I think I already gave you enough”

“You, really? I think I helped you more”

“That’s..” 3 facepalmed “That’s not what I meant…”

“Then?”

“I’ve let you in… I was letting you stay… I think you should go… I have to… think about stuff”

“Oh, well…”

3 folded his arms, looking away from 4.

“I see don’t want me to stay… just… one more thing?”

“What?” 3 looked back at him, a bit annoyed, only to be pulled into a hug.

“Don’t make me do this again… It’s not fun worrying this much for you, alright?”

3 wasn’t sure how to react for a bit. It made him crazy. He hugged back. He didn’t remember having such prolonged physical contact for a while now, besides their guardian training sessions. 

4 let go of him, looking at him with a small hopeful smile.

“Can you promise me that?” his voice was sweet and small. 3 was going crazy. So so crazy.

“I’ll try, I guess… but only so you don’t do that again…” 3 looked away, not wanting to look so weak. 4 pat him on his shoulder. 

“Thanks, man… I hope to see you around. Take your time”

The 2 exchanged one more look, the sort of look that seemed to carry things that couldn’t be mentioned at this point. 

4 finally left. Now it was only 3 and his room and oh boy… his head was loud.

He laid down on his bare bed, with nothing on it then. It still managed to be comfortable. He laid on his back, staring at the ceiling.

It was worth it to see 4 look at him like that… Maybe he’ll let 4 do that more… Though he was unsure if 4 would be happy about that.

[prinnamon]

Hello! I saw your post about subtitling and fanworks other than fanart and fanfics and you mentioned being a subtitler yourself. If you’re okay with answering this could I ask how you started being a subtitler? (if that’s even how it works lol) I’m guessing it depends on what you’re subtitling but I’ve always super appreciated subtitles and the ppl that make them and think it would be fun to do

hope you have a nice day/night!

this ask sat in my inbox for a while because sadly my PC's power supply unit failed and made it less convenient for me to write lengthy posts. however! i'm back in the swing of things and im too excited to let it sit here any longer.

long post under the cut!

to start off, i wanna make it clear that what i do currently is write english-language subtitles for english-language content on YouTube! there is no translation involved. i'm not confident enough with any other languages to sub any other kind of content. so all the advice i can offer is gonna be related to my specific experience! (i'm learning that maybe i should have used the word "captions" instead of subtitles to eliminate confusion. you can tell i am an amateur and not a professional since i thought the words were largely interchangeable)

i started doing captions for fun several years ago as a fan of The Shrieking Wizard Co! that company/channel had an associated discord server, and there was a section for fans to submit captions for their videos using a service called Crowdscriber. i was not super good at it or familiar with any of the best practices at the time, but i could make out even overlapping voices pretty well and i had a lot of free time!

the SWC is no longer around as a company, but even before that i'd fallen off of doing captions for them since school started to eat up all my free hours again. recently, though, i picked the habit back up and started doing captions for a niche machinima series that a friend got me to watch! the first episode and a half already had captions, so i was dismayed when i realized the rest of the series lacked them. in a sort-of special feature video from a couple years back, the creator mentioned plans to enable community captions so fans could pitch in if they wanted! however, since then, YouTube has removed the community captions feature.* but the creator is still active and the series is still ongoing, and i figured i probably had the tools available to me to caption the episodes on my own. i reached out to ask if he'd like the help, and he said yes! so wahoo!

a lot of creators would probably be happy to accept volunteers to help them with captions. some larger creators may even be open to offering someone a paid job at it. the worst they can do is say no or not respond, so there's really no reason to be afraid of reaching out about subtitling one or more videos that mean a lot to you! sadly, this is not going to be as reliable for older stuff on abandoned channels. you may have the resources you need to subtitle something but no way to reach out to the creator so that your subtitle files can be uploaded and seen.

the first step of my process was to download all the episodes of the series that i wanted to caption! it's also fine to go one at a time if you lack the storage space, of course. i used VLC to download YouTube videos (check out this tutorial! it wasn't what i used at the time, but i think the one i did use is out of date and your odds with this one might be better!), but i know there are other reliable options out there.

YouTube's built-in caption/subtitle editor is pretty ass and not fun to work with! i find it frustratingly limiting. luckily, there are free programs which do it better. i've got decent experience editing videos, so the free version of the program DaVinci Resolve is my subtitle editor of choice since it feels very much the same as editing videos like i'm used to. i'd open it up and take some screenshots to show off the process, but my PC is currently not functioning. i will say that i found it pretty easy to muddle through after a couple basic "how to add subtitles in DaVinci Resolve" tutorials.

i still don't know if i'm the best person to give lessons on best practices for captioning, but here are some very basic guidelines i try to adhere to:

don't let captions take up more than two lines on screen at their standard size! three or more lines of captions cover a lot of what's happening on screen. there are times when it might be absolutely necessary because characters' lines are overlapping while other sounds are also occurring which are crucial to the viewer's understanding of the scene, and that's okay, but 3+ lines of captions should really be a rarity.

generally try to have one sentence on screen at a time! there are plenty of exceptions to this. for example, a character may utter several short sentences in a short amount of time (eg. "Yes. Okay. I understand.") which don't make sense to break up any further because the captions would be flashing on screen for such a short time, impeding readability. moreover, a character might say a sentence that needs to be broken up at a logical midpoint so it doesn't take up three or more lines on the screen.

preserve comedic and dramatic timing. sometimes the above rule must be sacrificed so that the punchline of a joke or the narrative twist of the knife is not revealed before it's supposed to be revealed.

sounds that characters acknowledge and react to, or which impact your understanding of the scene, should be represented with a caption. the audience probably needs to know about [distant gunfire] and [pained scream]. however, in a lot of cases, a sound is implied by what the audience can see or is unnecessary to their understanding of the scene. the audience probably does not need to be told that the door which they can see opening is making the sound that a door makes when it is opened. the audience can probably infer that the character who they can see walking is making audible footsteps. but then there are times when these sounds might be important because the characters comment on or react to them. it's situational. i say use your best judgment.

generally, above all, be courteous and remember that subtitles are a tool, and they're not something silly with. it's really not the place for jokes. it's more clear and useful when a gasp is captioned as [gasp] as opposed to [O_O] or [le terrified gasp]. it's more clear and useful to describe the sound of an airhorn as [airhorn] than to write [HOOONK!!!]. and please don't use captions for extensive easter eggs and inside jokes. like alt text, it's not a place to hide treats for people who click a secret button. it's an accessibility tool. (i'm pretty serious and passionate about this point, and i don't wanna see jokes about it in the reblogs or replies.)

if you can understand and transcribe what's being said, you Must do so accurately. this includes swear words. this includes slurs and disrespectful language and words and subject matters you're uncomfortable with. if you can't bear to type these things out, you're not the person who should be writing captions for this particular piece of media. if a hearing viewer can hear it, it must be captioned. deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers deserve to know exactly what is being said.

this page might be able to help you get started with some more specific professional guidelines! i disagree with some of these; for example, subtitling a foreign language as [speaking French] is really not ideal, because a hearing viewer who speaks French would be able to understand what was said, so you're giving the folks using the captions an incomplete experience. like i said above, if you can understand what's being said, transcribe it accurately.

YouTube accepts at least a few different file formats, including .sbv and .srt (if you're saving as an .srt from DaVinci Resolve, make sure to check ".srt Without Formatting"). proofread your work before sending it out/uploading it to catch surface errors! in fact, i recommend checking the captions in YouTube's subtitle editor by uploading them on a private video to see whether it throws up any errors at you or has any unintended formatting junk that you need to go back and eliminate.

i hope this was somewhat helpful and can maybe inspire you to go for it yourself! this mostly felt like me rambling about my personal experiences and opinions, haha. at the very least, if this didn't make any sense, maybe you can look at it and go "well if she's this incoherent and can still write captions/subtitles then certainly there's hope for me" lol. thanks for inviting me to talk about the thing i'm passionate about. it's a joy whenever someone asks me about this. i hope to get to do it as a job someday (though i'm not looking forward to when i inevitably have to caption somebody as [speaks Spanish] due to professional practices).

*i have heard from one or two folks that YouTube's now inviting viewers to contribute captions in a different way, by "providing corrections" to a video's auto-generated captions! even if this is true, i have to say it doesn't really excite me. in my opinion, trying to work around the automatic first pass is usually a worse experience than starting from scratch. the auto-generated timings tend to be really bad, usually not cutting naturally at the beginnings and ends of sentences, and that's ignoring the fact that auto-generated captions also censor swears and transcribe many things incorrectly. YouTube really should never have removed community captions. i hope they get brought back or replaced in a meaningful way

[kizzer55555]

Hacker Defense Strategy

….So I did a thing.

First I should start at the beginning. My friend’s discord account was hacked today and the hacker messaged me. It was actually pretty convincing as at first I didn’t realize what was going I and was genuinely worried for them.

And by the time I received their message, it had already been 8 hours, so while waiting for a response I went over to a DPXDC discord server I shared with them. (Not the DPXDC discord server but a server, although I think we might be apart of that one too.) And the very first thing I saw was this.

….huh

*peeks over at the message again. Looking at the sender*

Huh

What a coincidence.

So naturally I ask the DPXDC server, tell them about the message, and check to see if this was the hacker or if perhaps I had gotten a message from my friend before they were hacked.

I check the DM with Eros again and I see this.

A link.

…..

suspicious.

I’m starting to think that this may not be my friend.

So what do I do? Report it? Ignore it? Ask for help? All of the above?

No, no I do not.

Now, you are going to need some context. You remember that shared discord server I was a part of? Well, when one greets a new person in a server we have the option to ‘wave’ and say hello to them as a sticker of a character appears. Sometimes it’s a peach, sometimes a dog, or a robot, or a bird. Well this one person in the server became obsessed with the peach. So much so that whenever someone got the peach sticker they would SCREAM peach and just start chanting it in the chat. And then naturally other people started doing so as well because no one in this server is normal (and I love it so much). There may have been a cult. And a channel dedicated to the peach cult. Not important. But basically! The peach became such an important part of this server and then we discovered that you can acess the wave stickers at will. And they ✨vibrate✨ So naturally we bombard any newcomer to the server with peaches. So I think this is a perfectly natural response to the hacker.

But do I stop at one?

Psshhh. Of course not.

Keep in mind that as this is going on, I am giving live updates to said discord server on how the conversation is going.

It went something like this.

Hacker: listen to me! Me: peach peach peach peach peach peach Hacker: this is very important! Me: peach peach peach peach peach peach Hacker: you are in danger! You must call this ID. Me: peach peach peach peach peach Hacker: ok, don’t forget to call them.

And after many peaches I think they just kinda gave up.

But do I stop there?!

No. No I do not.

I go back to the DPXDC server and start typing.

That’s right.

I got the entire discord server to DM this person and spam the peach. All 233 of us (or at least of who was online at the time).

It was glorious.

But DID I STOP THERE!?

Hah! No.

ROUND TWO!

I might have been having too much fun with this.

In the end, the real Eros managed to get a new account and I’m pretty sure the hacker got blocked (or they blocked us, not sure which) and currently Eros 2.0 is trying to rebuilt and save as much data as possible. They also found our response to the hacker hilarious.

Remember! Internet safety everybody! Don’t click on mysterious links and if someone says you might get banned, do research first before anything. A single report (even on accident) won’t ban you or trolls would have taken advantage of that a long time ago. And no personal information! Not even between friends! The reason Eros still has most of their personal info intact was mostly because they didn’t want anyone (even someone friendly) to have access to their writing prompts and stories. So they were very lucky.

[coldmori]

conclusion on impersonation situation:

edit, basic rundown of what happened:

today i saw a post that looked like it was mine but had no recolection of making at all, this made me spiral (i talk about why i sprialed in next indent) since there was another post from a few days ago that i also didnt remeber making that someone asked me about ("you said bluntmori was canon" ask)

clicking on the profile was confusing since the format was the exact same if you didnt look closely at some words so it took me a while to figure out what the fuck was actually happening, and by then i was already sprialing

after making a callout post and some good friends making several asks to them to stop impersonating someone on a discord server confessed that they had impersonated me as a joke (the joke being that they would say things so uncharacteristic to me that you'd know they're a fake account, but not meant to serve hate towards me or mock me in any way)

impersonation blog has been deleted

imperssionation blog was not an actual attempt to steal my identitiy, rather a really poorly executed joke

impersonator have me an apology on discord, which i thought was acceptable and genuine

i am okay mentally

i have been calming down for a bit, the identity crisis has been sorted

i now less paranoid about my memory now that i know another person had posted those and that my memory isnt slipping

some may ask about the memory issues:

i have shit memory but because its litteraly impossible to get diagnosed with anything these days by a medical perfessional i only have specualtion as to why (and i do not know my family history)

leading theory is adhd

ive been concerned with my memory since ive noticed a decline (or possibly just paranoia + stress i am not sure) and i felt very scared when i had seen a post that looked like it was from me but i did not remeber making, since i usually have vauge memory of all posts

and my anxiety is relived knowing that his person did not have malace or was not using my "fame" to redirect to any of their social medias ex: linking their own kofi/patreon/youtube channel/tumblr/etc.

dispite feeling better i still will need time

coldmori will be on hiatus for a small while and i will mainly be off the internet

dont harrass the impersonator

[pawseds]

I convinced our Delta Green game master to have a play-by-post (basically text roleplay) section in our game's server and uhhhhh maybe I've been having too much fun with it. Writing is faster than drawing comics, what can I say?

(Long ramble about writing stories below hehe oops)

While we're here! A bit about writing: I like writing! I've written for loger than I've drawn for (because school). I think I'm better at writing than drawing for that reason (I'm more confident at least). I've written short stories. I've written short stories about TTRPG things. I've also written a ~100k word novel by hand for 2 years. While writing it, I had 'writing class' (technically AS/A level Ennglish Language classes). It was the only class I had confidence in and high expectations for.

With those 2 combined, I burnt out pretty quick LOL. Specifically, I had a big perfectionism issue because of the high expectations I had from my teacher and especially myself -- it was the one thing I knew excelled at in school, so I better do it well! After I was done with the novel and A levels, I was supposed to edit the novel. It's been years and I haven't done it yet, and I wouldn't write non-assignment stories (except 2) until now. Writing became more nerverwracking than it was fun, so why would I?

To get back to the PBP thing: I've been in a campaign that was fully PBP. With my mindset being the way it is, hey! This is just one big writing exercise, so I ran along with that and had fun with it. I saw how some players would make their own PBP and essentially monologue/have a scene only with their PC. That was cool to see.

And now, my current Delta Green campaign (tagged 'Helvetia'). Hrothgar (guy in drawing) and his kids were ported over from a previous D&D campaign (the fully PBP one!), so the crew had a very well defined background already. Of course I get tons of drawing ideas for them, except I don't have the time to draw them all (compsci hard). But since the server has a PBP section, I had like 2 weeks to kill between session 0 and 1, and I was bursting with ideas... I made a lot of solo PBPs that were essentially short stories.

It didn't quite hit me until some time ago, but the PBPs actually made me enjoy writing again -- enjoy it a lot more, in fact! I think the format of Discord threads and messages removed most perfectionism tendencies I had. I just had to fire the story away, message by message. It didn't have to be amazing, and it was fun! (Also I really don't know how to shut up with them LOL)

I'll definitely be cleaning these PBPs up and posting them here as stories. Some of them are just silly, fun, slice-of-life character sketches. (These were the stories I wrote after my novel... and yes, they were about my other set of Delta Green characters LMAO) (and I've posted them here under pawsedswrite btw!) But some I see as legitamite short stories that I would edit more heavily and present as a short story. They were the kinds I could see myself writing on a document rather than on Discord.

Well, I lied. 'I would edit' is false. I have already edited one, because I spent like 5-6h writing this one PBP (oops) instead of writing the draft for my short story class/elective (oops 2). I joked to my two friends saying that I could just submit it as my assignment. Apparently, they both really liked it and said the dialogued slapped. So I did!

I procrastinated like hell on it though, because I was very nervous to go back into the PBP with an axe to edit it. Being in a writing class where nearly everyone else has been formally studying writing for some years kinda puts some pressure on ya!

Like the last assignment (which I'll post here after editing), I had a lot of worries. But the feedback and grade I got from my last assignment, the peer review I got from the current one, and also the support from those two friends (shoutout @katastrofish <3) made me feel more confident in myself. And also the fact that I had a lot of fun editing the PBP!

Uhhh this ramble was way longer than expected LMFAO if you've made it this far, damn, thanks for reading! If you also write or have similar experiences, feel free to share em. And have a good day!

(bonus POV editing)

[weaponizedhorse]

Very curious to see that write-up, having only seen illuminautii's own video on the matter from her perspective

Dude I completely forgot to reply to Nunya about this also so thank you so so much for sending this ask!

@beardedmrbean

And oh shit if all you saw was iiluminaughtiis video I am here to inform you that basically everything she said was a lie. Strap in it's gonna get CRAZY

basically iilluminaughtii brought this entire situation on herself by trying to "call out" legal eagles editors on Twitter for "stealing/ copying" her style? And the style was a highlight effect? And a ripped paper effect? Which legal eagle has been using for like literal years. Like this is literally the examples she gave on Twitter

And Illuminaughtii legit just flew too close to the sun cause a TON of crazy shit has come out about her since she made that tweet

But it turns out Illuminati used to be in a group channel called sad milk with a bunch of other YouTubers One of them was the click and one of them was wonderstruck TV and after all this shit went down with the group channel she paid people to dig through The Clicks old videos from 10 to 14 years ago where he was saying no no words because he was 17 and learning English (he's swedish) she posted in this discord about the click saying retarded 10 years ago and when someone said "it was 10 years ago irrelevant" she went on to say how "disgusted" she was with this person for "excusing" 10 fucking year old videos?? Blair said "that word was never okay to use and was never in my vocabulary" good for you?? And apparently Blair says retard/ed in private anyway

Then she made an alt Twitter and alt Reddit account and on the Reddit account she made up conspiracy theories about why sad milk broke up then replied with her iiluminaughtii reddit account debunking her own post?? and then on Twitter she tweeted to the click, to anybody he's coworkers, with like that he shares a podcast with anyone, who is even been on the podcast anyone who has any sort of affiliation with Click saying "oh do you know your friend said the n word Did you know your friend sent the f slur etc" And I mean it was non-stop the click said in his video that he remembers this account and thought it was some random troll but it was Blair the whole time.

Illuminati deleted the doobie Smurfs Reddit account after this was found out but the Twitter is still up so you can actually go through the doobie shmirtz Twitter and see all the unhinged fucking shit she did.

In her video about Click she said that he basically allowed a pedo to stay in his discord for months knowingly. And it turns out as soon as this guy said he was a pedo the mods kick him out while Click was asleep cause time zones. Illuminaughtii in discord messages said she was proud of Click for how he handled the situation

That's not even counting what she did to wonderstruck TV The worst of which is in her quote unquote response video about everything that happened on Twitter she put out his would-be suicide note. For what fucking reason I have no idea and then she revealed that she called the cops on him even though he said he had already calmed down and talked to his therapist? It's it's fucking insane

I very much encourage watching clicks video

[ikamigami]

Did you ever reach out to the VAs about what happened to you? Maybe nothing and no support happened for you because you didn't reach out to the VAs while Alex did.

I didn't.. I didn't want to bother them.. and seem like a creepy fan..

I just.. I don't know.. hmm.. you're most definitely right..

I didn't want to be accused of trying to stir some drama.. I was already.. I mean TS said that even VAs didn't like what I was doing - hinting that Sun might be suicidal cause I wasn't talking per se cause word suicide wasn't allowed on Discord.. even though VAs never said anything about it.. TS said that I was dragging everyone to discussions about Sun's mental state.. when I just was pointing out things that sounded either suspicious to me or that they may be a foreshadowing in episodes.. I also never tagged anyone or I tried to not mention any nicknames (or names) here on Tumblr.. so this was a lie..

I don't know if they contacted VAs or maybe M did that cause she knows them.. I don't know that..

I assumed that TS said that to cast a shade at me cause they never give any proof that VAs said that I'm causing problems or they don't like me or anything.. but people would believe TS anyway because they're a big name in this fandom and they're friends with M who's friends with VAs..

The worst thing is that TS said that under the post that someone made to defend me and in this post was stated that I was passively suicidal which is true.. so when I saw TS response to tsams confessions blog (mind you that TS blocked me already but they thought that I made that confession about myself).. I felt awful.. and I spiraled and my mental state worsened..

It never crossed my mind to try to reach out to VAs.. and later when that episode with Miku came out - "Sun has a child" - I thought that they made it because of me.. because of what they're friends were talking about me.. they probably didn't even know who they were referring to cause well.. I'm not that much popular in this fandom..

But I felt even more awful and my delusions were fuelled to the max that I just started to think that I caused some tragedy to Davis simply because.. I don't even know.. it was awful.. but it's okay now cause the episode I had ended and these thoughts don't bother me that much anymore..

I'm still wondering if VAs really see me as Miku.. but I don't know if I want to bother them and come off as a creepy fan.. it's not their problem but this was something amongst fans.. and I really didn't want and still don't want to come across as someone who is dragging everyone even VAs into this..

I just.. I don't know.. but you're probably right and thank you for this ask, dear anon. I really appreciate your concern but it's okay. It was months ago now so it doesn't even matter anymore.

Thank you so much for your concern though ^^

[madame-fear]

Hi Hun, I read your post about people in the HoTD fandom not interacting or you feel awkward. 🫂 I think there's huge trust issues in the fandom in general but you as a person are friends with one of the instigators of that huge drama with discord etc a while ago and people just don't feel comfortable around you. People talk and shit gets said. Your name amongst others has come up a lot on blocklists or who to avoid. Then you were posting a lot of stuff about the drama trying to be helpful and people saw it as something else. Then there was other drama concerning you and other person/people and your name was bandied about again, and not in a good light. There was talk of legal action because death threats and suicide baiting anons where sent to that person/people prior to the drama and your name was mentioned and your friends, hinting it was from you or them. It was all connected to the huge discord drama that started it all and you were posting about. That got sorted I believe. But I know it's died down but its left people feeling hugely uneasy especially on here and discord. People feel like you that people are being fake and talking about them behind their back. The problem is you are friends with those people that instigated the drama and acted like that, insulting and backstabbing. So rn on discord people are like madame-fear is complaining about feeling like that when she's friends with people who do exactly that. I don't know you properly but I don't know, you need to maybe rethink and understand people's feelings on this.

Hello anon! Yes, I remember all that drama and honestly, I know I can’t exactly show proof neither I would know how— but I have nothing to do with all the suicide baiting issues nor death threats. I already sorted it out, and I thought I was in good terms with the person there was issues with because I apologised if I had said something wrong and deleted a post about it, besides understanding a 100% how she felt emotionally.

I barely have time to post or reblog content in here, and much less I would use the little time I can have for myself on sending death threats to someone over a fandom. I suffered from things like this before on other fandoms and sites, and its not pretty at all. I would NEVER consider having such childish behaviour, and I wholeheartedly condemn anyone who does or did this, even if its someone I know.

You are right, however. I do understand how everyone feels because I feel just like that! It truly is a pity that the fandom has gone down this path. If I ever did or said anything wrong, or might have hurted/made anyone uncomfortable, please feel free to tell me and I will do my best to solve it. I seriously just want my name out of this because I have nothing to do with it, neither I want o be dragged to something unnecessarily.

[anmylica]

Something About December (Throw a Wrench in Your Plans)

Summary: Killian and Emma have been secretly dating for close to a year, only none of their friends know it. They’ve agreed to keep it a secret until they know it’s real, but what happens when Emma’s brother, David, starts to become suspicious? One thing is for sure, this Christmas will be one that none of them forget!

Inspiration for this fic: @xarandomdreamx and @kmomof4 encouraged me to write this fic (fondly referred to as the procrastination fic) based on a prompt in the CSMM Discord that said: “Christmas prompt: Emma and Killian have been dating about a year or so but they kept it secret because Killian is Emma’s brothers best friend. So Christmas comes around and they have to act like they haven’t been sleeping together so David won’t give Killian a black eye for Christmas.” My idea was based on the Buzzfeed article where someone wrote about how they knew two people were dating (“At a place I worked at about 25 years ago, my co-worker had dropped her screwdriver, and our boss picked it up and stuck it in her pocket. Later that day, my buddy said, 'She did not flinch or look away from what she was doing when his hand went to her pocket — his hand has been in that pocket before.” —u/CathyTheGreatsHorse). I also blame @everything-person and @teamhook for this fic, as they were the ones who either came up with the prompt or encouraged me to add another WIP. I’m debating adding a part 2, as I couldn’t work my other ideas into the narrative, but we’ll see!

This is my (surprise) gift to them, but also to the fandom as a whole. May your days be merry and bright!

The title is also from a Christina Perri song, in case you recognize it!

Read Here on AO3

Tagging List:

@kmomof4

@snowbellewells

@sotangledupinit

@tiganasummertreemertree

@zaharadessert

Let me know if you want to be added to the Tag List for future updates!

Read under the cut!

Something About December (Throw a Wrench in Your Plans)

David tried really, really hard not to disturb his sister before 9:30 in the morning on her days off (and let’s be honest, he tried not to disturb her before he had to on days she wasn’t off anyway), as Emma “Swan” Nolan wasn’t a morning person in any interpretation of the word. But his wife, and Emma’s best friend, Mary Margaret Nolan, wouldn’t hear of his excuses and forced him to brave his sister’s wrath and bring her her favorite leath jacket (that she had inconveniently left at his place last week and thus subsequently nagged him to death about delivering it to her). He rolled his eyes, but he liked to remain on his wife’s good side, so he reluctantly agreed to run it over to her early on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

He had just parked his truck, thankful that he didn’t have to work today himself, when he saw her door open. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘she’s already awake. I won’t have to slay the dragon today, after all. This makes this easier.’

He was just about to open his door when he saw his best friend and fellow sheriff’s deputy, Killian Jones, step out of Emma’s apartment. He stopped in his tracks, his hand on the handle of the door and poised to throw it open. He stared at the sight before him, turned his eyes briefly back to the dash to check the time, and then turned his eyes back to his best friend and his sister. He watched as Emma followed Killian out, wearing nothing but the button down shirt he could have sworn he saw Killian wearing yesterday while they worked their shift and a pair of socks. Killian turned and gave his sister a long, slow, lingering kiss. The kiss lasted so long it made David feel awkward, as if he were about to get a show he didn’t ever want to see. Finally (at last) Killian pulled away and left, getting into his vintage Shelby Mustang and waving as he did so. Emma waved back and stood staring in the doorway as he pulled out of sight. Once she couldn’t see him, she disappeared back into her appartment.

David stared at the closed door dumbfounded. What had he just witnessed? He hadn’t seen them together before this. He wouldn’t ever have said they would have been attracted to each other before this. (That was a lie; all the rest of his friends had commented numerous times before that you would get an explosion if you lit a match anywhere near them, but David refused to accept that as truth.) Did any of their friends know about this? Surely not. Mary Margaret couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, Ruby couldn’t hold back gossip this juicy (her words, not his), and, although discreet, Belle would have told Mary Margaret. David doubted that any of their other friends, though probably not Victor, would even care about this revelation. (Again, this was a lie. Liam, Victor, Graham, Eric, and Jefferson were all highly invested in the not-Killian-and-Emma ship.)

How long had they even been together, for that matter? Or were they even dating? David was going to break every single bone in Killian’s body if he were putting one over on his sister. The bro code had to be honored, in this case. There was no way Killian was getting out of the consequences.

David sat so long in his truck pondering this new revelation that he was startled to see that thirty minutes had passed. Deciding that this was plenty of time to wait, he got out of his truck and delivered his sister’s jacket, though he didn’t say a word about what he had seen. He needed more information than what he had to go on, at present. Surely there had to be another explanation? When Emma answered the door, he greeted her the same as he always did and presented her her red leather jacket.

Nope. Everything was just fine. He was not going to automatically assume they were boning just because of circumstantial evidence. He was going to wait for further proof.

“Dude, they’ve gotta be fucking,” Victor exclaimed later that evening. Their group of friends had all met at the Rabbit Hole for their traditional post-Thanksgiving get together. Some years they had it at one of their places, but no one had felt like staying in, so they all agreed to go to the best bar in Storybrooke.

“Who?” Demanded Liam, turning to look at who Victor was pointing at.

“Killian and Emma,” Victor replied. “Look at them! All cosy playing pool together.”

Belle frowned. “How does this indicate they’re together?”

“Look how close they are! I only get that close to girls I’m trying to persuade to go home with me.”

David examined the amount of space between his friend and his sister. They might have been closer than strictly necessary, but that was because another group was playing pool at the next table over and were on the same side as Killian and Emma. They weren’t any closer than anyone else.

“It doesn’t look that close to me,” Liam dismissed skeptically.

“No, not right now, but I swear just a second ago they were like this,” Victor insisted as he pressed as close as he could to Mary Margaret, who shrank back away from him instantly, making a face. “You don’t get that close unless you’re banging.”

Mary Margaret scoffed. “Must you be so disgusting?”

Ruby laughed and Graham grinned. DIsgusting and sleazy were Victor’s middle names.

Victor cast a roguish grin towards Mary Margaret. “It’s a talent,” he replied flippantly. “But I still stand by what I said.”

Liam’s brow furrowed as he contemplated the picture that Killian and Emma presented. “I haven’t seen him with anyone since Milah. He’s brought a few home for the night, but nothing serious.”

Belle nodded in agreement. “It’s been the same way for Emma. We all know how Neal turned out.”

Silence fell over the table as they all agreed, remembering how badly Neal and Milah, who were brother and sister, had screwed over their friends. Neither lived in Storybrooke anymore, and it was a good thing, as David was willing to bet that many of their friend-group would have had criminal records if they had stayed in town.

Victor nodded sagely. “Yes, well, be that as it may, they’re doing the dirty.”

Everyone rolled their eyes in response, but no one at the table deigned to reply.

“Who’s doing the dirty?” Elsa asked as she had just walked up, shrugging off her ice blue coat as Liam jumped up to help her.

“Killian and Emma!” Victor announced triumphantly.

Elsa rolled her eyes. “How on earth did you figure that?”

Victor pointed at them. “Behold!”

Elsa and the group turned to watch Killian and Emma again. Killian seemed to be mocking a guy’s stroking technique from the next pool table over while Emma had collapsed against the table in tears from laughing so hard. Killian was laughing at how much Emma was laughing, but this was nothing different from how they had acted in the past. Elsa turned back to Victor with one eyebrow raised as if to say, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’

“Oh yes,” Elsa replied as she sat on Liam’s lap, “they’re getting it on right as we speak.”

Victor huffed in frustration. “I’m telling you, they are!”

Graham pulled out his phone. “Let’s do some research,” he responded. “Let’s find out what the Internet says.” He ran a quick search on his phone. “First: do they make a lot of eye contact?”

Everyone turned to evaluate how much eye contact the two were making. Neither looked at the other very long.

“Alright, next: do they seem closer in general?” Graham continued. They group fell silent as they thought about it. David silently watched the others shrug, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if what he witnessed counted as closer, anyway. One by one, they all shook their heads.

Graham nodded his head. “Are they sharing lingering looks?”

They all looked up to see Killian checking out a brunette in a short mini skirt who was jumping up and down and Emma eyeing a guy at the bar.

Graham shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it. Do they communicate in a secret language?”

Mary Margaret was the one who answered that. “They’ve always communicated in a secret language.”

Liam nodded his head in agreement. “Ever since they were in school together. Even when he was with Milah and she was with Neal. That hasn’t changed.”

Everyone nodded. Victor mused, “Yeah, I can see that one.”

Graham turned his head back to his phone. “They become very protective of one another.”

Belle was the one who answered this. “They’ve always been protective of one another. Remember what happened with Neal?”

Everyone winced and David laughed. Neal had cheated on Emma back in high school with a girl named Tamara, and Killian had kicked his ass. This was right before Killian found out that Milah had gotten pregnant by an older man in the community, Robert Gold, and was planning on eloping with him (he was one of the richer men in town). Once Killian had found out, Emma was quick to take up for him in return. They’ve always been that way with each other. After thinking on it, David wondered if maybe that should have been a hint to him then that there was something between them.

Graham said the next item on the list. “You will see them together more and at odd times.”

Ruby shook her head. “That’s inconclusive since they both work such crazy schedules. And they’re always together or with us in a group.”

“They suddenly have more to say to each other,” Graham continued.

David and Liam shook their heads. “The last conversations we’ve had have been about the usual stuff. He hasn’t mentioned Emma at all,” Liam said. David agreed.

“She hasn’t mentioned him to me either,” Elsa replied and the other ladies agreed.

“They tease each other more or they choose their words more carefully.” Graham looked at everyone, but they shook their heads.

“They’re smiling and happy all the time.”

Mary Margaret tilted her head as she thought about this one. “Maybe? Emma does seem happier recently.”

“So does Killian, but he’s been talking about a lot of good happening at the station,” Liam added.

Graham nodded his head. “So that’s a possibility. What about avoiding each other?”

Everyone shook their heads. If they had started avoiding each other, none of their friend group had noticed. David wondered if the lack of mentioning the other recently counted as avoidance, but he kept silent.

“Alright, last one. Have they started touching more recently?”

Victor started vigorously nodding his head. “Dude I just saw Killian’s hands in Emma’s pockets and they were standing right beside each other!”

They all turned to look back at Killian and Emma. Neither was beside the other, and they were taking drinks out of their glasses. Everyone turned and looked at Victor in disbelief.

“Not right now, I mean earlier! When I decided they were getting lucky with each other!”

Elsa scoffed. “Oh, you decided. Suddenly it’s all becoming clear.”

Liam shook his head. “You can’t just decide these things Victor, we’ve been over this!”

Ruby rolled her eyes as Victor protested, “I’m telling you, it was real what I saw!”

Everyone picked up their glasses and took a drink with no one bothering to say anything in response to Victor’s whining. Emma and Killian were making their way over with newly refilled glasses.

“I have emerged victorious!” Killian announced to the table as he sat in his abandoned chair, Emma coming behind him rolling her eyes.

“He won by a scratch,” she corrected.

“That’s not all I win by a scratch, Swan,” Killian winked at her, causing Emma to roll her eyes.

“Well, win with that brunette over there by a scratch,” she threw back. “I’ve got to head out, I’ve got research to do for my next job. I’ll see everyone later?” Emma surveyed the table. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“Emma! Don’t forget that we’re doing Dirty Santa at our place on the 10th,” Mary Margaret added. “I meant to tell everyone, so I guess I’m telling all of you now.”

Emma nodded and waved at everyone, grabbing her jacket. David watched carefully to see when Killian left, still suspicious of their dating status. After about ten minutes, Killian said his goodbyes as well, citing an overtime shift he was picking up in the morning. David knew this to be true, so it didn’t seem too off for him, but he also wondered at how close in time Killian’s leaving was to Emma’s departure. There were a lot of signs that seemed to point to Killian and Emma being a thing.

David wondered what he should do next.

It turned out there wasn’t much he could do next to confirm what he suspected, as the flu began to go around the station and he had to start covering extra shifts. He and Killian began working overtime trying to fill in where they could, with Graham (who was the sheriff) filling in on the road with the rest of the deputies as needed. After almost two weeks of this, things finally slowed down to where they could resume their normal shift work. Killian and Emma hadn’t, as far as David knew, spent any time together outside of what they already did at work.

Emma also worked for the Storybrooke Sheriff’s Office, but as a detective who investigated murders or cold case files. Her schedule was a bit different from theirs, but every now and then, she had to fill in on shift work the same as everybody else. The recent flu endemic meant that she was pulling more road work than usual, and she was patrolling more with David. This was how he had known that Emma and Killian hadn’t seen each other much, as they were all pulling overtime. None of them were at home much, so there was no way for them to see each other outside of work, right? And David never saw them flirt while on the job, at least not recently. They had quit their ridiculous flirting-on-the-job stuff almost eight months ago.

It made David very happy that his best friend and sister finally saw fit to cease making everyone else so uncomfortable. It was very considerate of them, really.

On what Graham had sworn to them was their last shift of pulling double duty, Emma had collapsed into a desk in the bullpen. “If I have to arrest another drunken guy from The Rabbit Hole, I’m going to scream,” she announced.

David laughed. “At least we’ll have everyone else covering for us while we get some time off.”

“That’s the only good thing about this,” she agreed.

Their conversation was interrupted by Killian coming in bearing coffee and a box of donuts. He wordlessly handed David a cup, to which David muttered, “Thanks,” and set the box down. He proceeded to hand Emma her cup, which she took without a word of thanks, and she opened the box.

“There better be a bear claw in here,” she said as she pried open the top.

Killian chuckled. “Oh there is,” he laughed in return. “And one for me as well.” He handed her a napkin, which she took without any mention of gratitude, and handed one to David as well. David did express gratitude again, and they all dug into the donuts.

Killian and Emma joked around like always, but David was silent.

He couldn’t imagine not telling someone who wasn’t Mary Margaret thanks for something they had done for him, and he knew that his and Emma’s parents had instilled better manners than that. By this point, he was ninety percent sure that Victor Whale’s summation of events between Killian Jones and Emma Nolan was correct.

But he didn’t receive confirmation until the night of the Christmas for Friends party at his and Mary Margaret’s house that they did every year.

It was still very early in the evening, and not everyone had arrived at David and Mary Margaret’s place yet. Though Ruby, Graham, Victor, Emma, and Killian were there, several other couples had yet to arrive, including Killian’s brother and his girlfriend, Elsa. Emma was helping Mary Margaret with a few last minute details while Killian and David set up the drinks bar. Everyone was chatting lightly together, laughing, and enjoying the first gathering in a few days that they had gotten to arrange.

After placing the ice in the bucket, Killian took his phone out of his pocket to call his brother to find out how much longer it would be before they arrived, only to discover that it was dead.

“Bloody hell, I forgot to charge my phone before I came over here,” he cursed. David was just about to offer his phone to Killian to use, but his sister beat him to it.

“Here, use mine!” Emma handed it to Killian, who took it (again, without a thank you, David noticed) and stepped outside.

The conversation inside the loft continued as it always had, with everyone laughing and snacking before the rest of their friends arrived. Killian came back in after a moment.

“Liam says he and Elsa are about five minutes from here,” he announced once the door shut behind him. “He said to make sure his favorite cookies are ready to go, Mary Margaret.”

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes. “They’re right where I always put them.”

Emma laughed and kept stirring the homemade dip she had just gotten ready. Both of her hands were too messy to take her phone from Killian. David watched as Killian slipped her phone into her pocket without a word; David also noticed Emma’s distinct lack of reaction at Killian’s hand going into the front right pocket of her too-tight jeans.

He wasn’t going to say anything. He finally had the confirmation that there was something going on between them, and that was all he really needed. David glanced around at everyone else, but no one else seemed to have noticed anything. He was the only one who realized there was a romantic (or something like that) relationship between his sister and his best friend. Obviously they felt the need to keep it a secret, so he wouldn’t be the one to rat them out. Nope, he was the one who could keep secrets in his relationship. Had it been Mary Margaret, she’d have already announced it to the world. But he didn’t need to do that. They would tell the whole group when they were ready.

“You’re fucking my sister,” David said loud enough for everyone to hear. They all stopped and looked at him. Emma turned and gave him a strange look, and Killian looked up from the tray of cookies with what could only be described as a deer-in-the-headlights expression.

“What?” Victor asked. “Who’s fucking your sister?”

“Wait, what?” Ruby asked. “Is that really what he said?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what he said!” Victor replied.

“Pardon, mate?” Killian asked.

Victor looked at Killian. “Is he talking about you?” Killian looked back at Victor helplessly.

“You sorry son of a bitch. How dare you try to take advantage of Emma?” David continued, starting to feel really angry at the secrecy.

“Who’s taking advantage of me?” Emma asked indignantly.

Victor gave a leering look. “I’d have taken advantage if I could have gotten it,” he responded to her, earning a disgusted look from both Emma and Killian.

“It’s a good thing you never could have ‘gotten it,’” Killian snarled back.

“Hey, I’ve never made it a secret that I’d have gotten Emma in the sack if I could have,” Victor shot back.

“Are you sure you’re not on call at the hospital? Because you’re about to have to go there,” Killian retorted as he took a step closer to Whale and angled his body to be slightly in front of Emma’s.

“Oh, I think you’ll be the one there before me,” Victor responded, instinctively stepping forward at Killian’s challenging tone.

“Touch him and you’ll have more to deal with than him,” Emma responded to Killian being threatened.

“Killian Jones is about to have more to deal with if I have anything to say about it,” David cut in. “How long have you been screwing my sister?”

Killian looked back at David. “Mate, I have no idea what you’re-“

“I saw you at her house!” David cut him off. “You left at 7:30 in the morning for an overtime shift the Saturday after Thanksgiving! Emma is never up before 9 on weekends she’s off! And she opened the door wearing nothing but your shirt that you had worn the day before!”

Everyone’s heads had been turned to David, but once he commented on his sister’s state of dress, all eyes swerved to land on Killian, who was growing a bit red and had his jaw clenched.

“How do you know that?” Emma asked.

“I was there outside your apartment! Remember that I brought you your favorite red jacket back? I saw you kiss! I stayed out in my truck for thirty minutes after he left wondering what was going on, why neither of you had said anything!”

Emma and Killian fell silent, as the rest of their friends looked on in abject curiousity. David stared at them hard. No one said anything.

Belle, Will, Liam, and Elsa arrived, opening the door and letting themselves in without knocking. They had been friends for so long that they no longer felt the need to follow the standard niceties. They were all laughing amongst themselves, but that laughter quickly died upon their entering the room.

Each of the newcomers surveyed the loft. The atmosphere was tense and expectant. They slowly filed in, wondering what kind of minefield they were entering.

“Is everything alright?” Liam asked tentatively.

“Dude! You just missed it! David just accused your brother of doin’ a little bow chicka wow wow with his sister!” Victor enunciated his words by doing a lurid dance, making sure to gyrate his hips as he spoke. Ruby had to cover her mouth to muffle her laugh, and Graham had to look down at his feet. Mary Margaret rubbed her forehead in exasperation. David scowled at Victor.

Liam frowned. “He what?”

“Actually, we don’t really know what happened.” Mary Margaret shot a warning look at her husband. “David just made a baseless accusation.”

“What kind of baseless accusation?” Liam asked.

“He claimed that Emma and Killian are sleeping together,” Ruby said to fill him in.

“It’s not baseless! He put her phone in her front pocket!” David exclaimed. Everyone stared at David’s exclamation.

“Oh, yeah, that’s a hell of a sign, innit? Putting someone’s phone in their pocket is always how I determine how someone is doing the deed,” Will stated. Killian scoffed and shook his head, but before he or Emma could say anything, Belle piped up.

“No, I think David actually has a point, here. People don’t do that unless they’re very close.”

“I’m sure there’s a more reasonable explanation to that action. Maybe Emma told Killian to put it in her pocket?” Liam suggested.

David shook his head. “I was watching them. She didn’t say a word.”

Killian by this point had clenched his jaw and Emma could see the muscle twitching in his jaw (which, if she were being honest, was insanely attractive to her). She knew things were about to boil over very quickly, ruining their Christmas party, if something didn’t give soon. She crossed over to him and took his hand in hers. He looked at her for a long moment, and for that one moment the room faded away. Killian visibly calmed down with just that connection.

David watched their silent interaction, and in that instant he knew. Nothing he said or did would stop what was unfolding. No matter what else was said, his best friend and his sister were more serious than everyone was making it out to be. He took a deep breath and counted to ten, zoning out of the conversation continuing around him, Emma and Killian not being able to get a word in edgewise.

Perhaps this was why they hadn’t said anything yet? Perhaps they knew what would happen if everyone in their group of friends found out before they were ready to tell people?

“YOU GOTTA SEND ME DOWN A MISTRESS FOR CHRISTMAS! I WANT A WOMAN IN RED WITH A BOW IN MY BED!” Victor started half-singing, half-shouting in response to something David hadn’t heard from Will, who was laughing.

“The only bow around here is gonna be the one they have to tie your bandages with, Whale!” Killian shouted in return, though not nearly as loudly as Victor was wailing.

Victor paid him no mind as the girls all rolled their eyes or put their heads in their hands. “MISTRESS FOR CHRISTMAS! I CAN HEAR YOU COMING DOWN MY SMOKE STACK, YOU WANNA RIDE MY REINDEER AND RING MY JINGLE BELLS!” He resumed the suggestive dance around the loft.

“What are you, twelve?!” Emma sneered. “Grow up, Whale! This is why we haven’t told anyone yet!” She looked very upset, tears forming in her eyes, and David knew he had just fucked up majorly with her.

Victor didn’t stop his antics, carrying on butchering the song and everyone started to get irritated. David had finally had enough. He yelled as loud as he could, and everyone stopped.

“Victor, if you can’t comport yourself properly you need to leave,” he said. Then he turned to Emma and Killian. “How long has this been going on?”

“Almost nine months,” Killian answered.

“That long?!” Ruby exclaimed in disbelief, but she was quickly silenced with a look from David.

“Aye, that long. At first, it was so new and we wanted to see if it was something that would last, and then once it became apparent it would, we enjoyed not having to worry about all of this,” Killian waved his hand around to indicate the chaos that had taken off this night.

Emma looked at Killian, who looked back at her.

“We’ve both been interested in each other for longer than we care to admit. I hate that it took us this long to give us a chance,” she said.

“We alway said you two would be perfect together,” Belle responded, smiling gently.

“Yeah, we are,” Emma and Killian shared smiles.

“It’s crazy because I don’t think any of us realized a change in how you acted,” Elsa added, trying to make sure the conversation stayed on a more serious note. “We all probably suspected something at various points, but the two of you never really changed towards one another.”

Emma shrugged and Killian responded, “We just continued as we were. I guess when you’ve been in love for so long, nothing really changes in how you treat each other.”

David nodded and they all fell silent for a moment. Finally Will piped up, “I thought this was supposed to be a party? Have we finished with the Killian-and-Emma-sitting-in-a-tree nonsense, or are we going to carry on with that some more? Because I would really like to get to the gift-giving portion of our evening.“

Everyone started laughing and the serious atmosphere was broken. Everyone started mingling, separating into groups as they finally moved past the confrontation.

David moved closer to Emma and Killian, who had retreated and were standing quite close, having their own conversation. David hated to interrupt, but he felt he owed them an apology. He had this bad tendency to fly off the handle once his temper was lost, and he had definitely lost it today.

Something About December (Throw a Wrench in Your Plans)

David tried really, really hard not to disturb his sister before 9:30 in the morning on her days off (and let’s be honest, he tried not to disturb her before he had to on days she wasn’t off anyway), as Emma “Swan” Nolan wasn’t a morning person in any interpretation of the word. But his wife, and Emma’s best friend, Mary Margaret Nolan, wouldn’t hear of his excuses and forced him to brave his sister’s wrath and bring her her favorite leath jacket (that she had inconveniently left at his place last week and thus subsequently nagged him to death about delivering it to her). He rolled his eyes, but he liked to remain on his wife’s good side, so he reluctantly agreed to run it over to her early on the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

He had just parked his truck, thankful that he didn’t have to work today himself, when he saw her door open. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘she’s already awake. I won’t have to slay the dragon today, after all. This makes this easier.’

He was just about to open his door when he saw his best friend and fellow sheriff’s deputy, Killian Jones, step out of Emma’s apartment. He stopped in his tracks, his hand on the handle of the door and poised to throw it open. He stared at the sight before him, turned his eyes briefly back to the dash to check the time, and then turned his eyes back to his best friend and his sister. He watched as Emma followed Killian out, wearing nothing but the button down shirt he could have sworn he saw Killian wearing yesterday while they worked their shift and a pair of socks. Killian turned and gave his sister a long, slow, lingering kiss. The kiss lasted so long it made David feel awkward, as if he were about to get a show he didn’t ever want to see. Finally (at last) Killian pulled away and left, getting into his vintage Shelby Mustang and waving as he did so. Emma waved back and stood staring in the doorway as he pulled out of sight. Once she couldn’t see him, she disappeared back into her appartment.

David stared at the closed door dumbfounded. What had he just witnessed? He hadn’t seen them together before this. He wouldn’t ever have said they would have been attracted to each other before this. (That was a lie; all the rest of his friends had commented numerous times before that you would get an explosion if you lit a match anywhere near them, but David refused to accept that as truth.) Did any of their friends know about this? Surely not. Mary Margaret couldn’t keep a secret to save her life, Ruby couldn’t hold back gossip this juicy (her words, not his), and, although discreet, Belle would have told Mary Margaret. David doubted that any of their other friends, though probably not Victor, would even care about this revelation. (Again, this was a lie. Liam, Victor, Graham, Eric, and Jefferson were all highly invested in the not-Killian-and-Emma ship.)

How long had they even been together, for that matter? Or were they even dating? David was going to break every single bone in Killian’s body if he were putting one over on his sister. The bro code had to be honored, in this case. There was no way Killian was getting out of the consequences.

David sat so long in his truck pondering this new revelation that he was startled to see that thirty minutes had passed. Deciding that this was plenty of time to wait, he got out of his truck and delivered his sister’s jacket, though he didn’t say a word about what he had seen. He needed more information than what he had to go on, at present. Surely there had to be another explanation? When Emma answered the door, he greeted her the same as he always did and presented her her red leather jacket.

Nope. Everything was just fine. He was not going to automatically assume they were boning just because of circumstantial evidence. He was going to wait for further proof.

“Dude, they’ve gotta be fucking,” Victor exclaimed later that evening. Their group of friends had all met at the Rabbit Hole for their traditional post-Thanksgiving get together. Some years they had it at one of their places, but no one had felt like staying in, so they all agreed to go to the best bar in Storybrooke.

“Who?” Demanded Liam, turning to look at who Victor was pointing at.

“Killian and Emma,” Victor replied. “Look at them! All cosy playing pool together.”

Belle frowned. “How does this indicate they’re together?”

“Look how close they are! I only get that close to girls I’m trying to persuade to go home with me.”

David examined the amount of space between his friend and his sister. They might have been closer than strictly necessary, but that was because another group was playing pool at the next table over and were on the same side as Killian and Emma. They weren’t any closer than anyone else.

“It doesn’t look that close to me,” Liam dismissed skeptically.

“No, not right now, but I swear just a second ago they were like this,” Victor insisted as he pressed as close as he could to Mary Margaret, who shrank back away from him instantly, making a face. “You don’t get that close unless you’re banging.”

Mary Margaret scoffed. “Must you be so disgusting?”

Ruby laughed and Graham grinned. DIsgusting and sleazy were Victor’s middle names.

Victor cast a roguish grin towards Mary Margaret. “It’s a talent,” he replied flippantly. “But I still stand by what I said.”

Liam’s brow furrowed as he contemplated the picture that Killian and Emma presented. “I haven’t seen him with anyone since Milah. He’s brought a few home for the night, but nothing serious.”

Belle nodded in agreement. “It’s been the same way for Emma. We all know how Neal turned out.”

Silence fell over the table as they all agreed, remembering how badly Neal and Milah, who were brother and sister, had screwed over their friends. Neither lived in Storybrooke anymore, and it was a good thing, as David was willing to bet that many of their friend-group would have had criminal records if they had stayed in town.

Victor nodded sagely. “Yes, well, be that as it may, they’re doing the dirty.”

Everyone rolled their eyes in response, but no one at the table deigned to reply.

“Who’s doing the dirty?” Elsa asked as she had just walked up, shrugging off her ice blue coat as Liam jumped up to help her.

“Killian and Emma!” Victor announced triumphantly.

Elsa rolled her eyes. “How on earth did you figure that?”

Victor pointed at them. “Behold!”

Elsa and the group turned to watch Killian and Emma again. Killian seemed to be mocking a guy’s stroking technique from the next pool table over while Emma had collapsed against the table in tears from laughing so hard. Killian was laughing at how much Emma was laughing, but this was nothing different from how they had acted in the past. Elsa turned back to Victor with one eyebrow raised as if to say, ‘Is that all you’ve got?’

“Oh yes,” Elsa replied as she sat on Liam’s lap, “they’re getting it on right as we speak.”

Victor huffed in frustration. “I’m telling you, they are!”

Graham pulled out his phone. “Let’s do some research,” he responded. “Let’s find out what the Internet says.” He ran a quick search on his phone. “First: do they make a lot of eye contact?”

Everyone turned to evaluate how much eye contact the two were making. Neither looked at the other very long.

“Alright, next: do they seem closer in general?” Graham continued. They group fell silent as they thought about it. David silently watched the others shrug, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t sure if what he witnessed counted as closer, anyway. One by one, they all shook their heads.

Graham nodded his head. “Are they sharing lingering looks?”

They all looked up to see Killian checking out a brunette in a short mini skirt who was jumping up and down and Emma eyeing a guy at the bar.

Graham shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it. Do they communicate in a secret language?”

Mary Margaret was the one who answered that. “They’ve always communicated in a secret language.”

Liam nodded his head in agreement. “Ever since they were in school together. Even when he was with Milah and she was with Neal. That hasn’t changed.”

Everyone nodded. Victor mused, “Yeah, I can see that one.”

Graham turned his head back to his phone. “They become very protective of one another.”

Belle was the one who answered this. “They’ve always been protective of one another. Remember what happened with Neal?”

Everyone winced and David laughed. Neal had cheated on Emma back in high school with a girl named Tamara, and Killian had kicked his ass. This was right before Killian found out that Milah had gotten pregnant by an older man in the community, Robert Gold, and was planning on eloping with him (he was one of the richer men in town). Once Killian had found out, Emma was quick to take up for him in return. They’ve always been that way with each other. After thinking on it, David wondered if maybe that should have been a hint to him then that there was something between them.

Graham said the next item on the list. “You will see them together more and at odd times.”

Ruby shook her head. “That’s inconclusive since they both work such crazy schedules. And they’re always together or with us in a group.”

“They suddenly have more to say to each other,” Graham continued.

David and Liam shook their heads. “The last conversations we’ve had have been about the usual stuff. He hasn’t mentioned Emma at all,” Liam said. David agreed.

“She hasn’t mentioned him to me either,” Elsa replied and the other ladies agreed.

“They tease each other more or they choose their words more carefully.” Graham looked at everyone, but they shook their heads.

“They’re smiling and happy all the time.”

Mary Margaret tilted her head as she thought about this one. “Maybe? Emma does seem happier recently.”

“So does Killian, but he’s been talking about a lot of good happening at the station,” Liam added.

Graham nodded his head. “So that’s a possibility. What about avoiding each other?”

Everyone shook their heads. If they had started avoiding each other, none of their friend group had noticed. David wondered if the lack of mentioning the other recently counted as avoidance, but he kept silent.

“Alright, last one. Have they started touching more recently?”

Victor started vigorously nodding his head. “Dude I just saw Killian’s hands in Emma’s pockets and they were standing right beside each other!”

They all turned to look back at Killian and Emma. Neither was beside the other, and they were taking drinks out of their glasses. Everyone turned and looked at Victor in disbelief.

“Not right now, I mean earlier! When I decided they were getting lucky with each other!”

Elsa scoffed. “Oh, you decided. Suddenly it’s all becoming clear.”

Liam shook his head. “You can’t just decide these things Victor, we’ve been over this!”

Ruby rolled her eyes as Victor protested, “I’m telling you, it was real what I saw!”

Everyone picked up their glasses and took a drink with no one bothering to say anything in response to Victor’s whining. Emma and Killian were making their way over with newly refilled glasses.

“I have emerged victorious!” Killian announced to the table as he sat in his abandoned chair, Emma coming behind him rolling her eyes.

“He won by a scratch,” she corrected.

“That’s not all I win by a scratch, Swan,” Killian winked at her, causing Emma to roll her eyes.

“Well, win with that brunette over there by a scratch,” she threw back. “I’ve got to head out, I’ve got research to do for my next job. I’ll see everyone later?” Emma surveyed the table. Everyone nodded their heads in agreement.

“Emma! Don’t forget that we’re doing Dirty Santa at our place on the 10th,” Mary Margaret added. “I meant to tell everyone, so I guess I’m telling all of you now.”

Emma nodded and waved at everyone, grabbing her jacket. David watched carefully to see when Killian left, still suspicious of their dating status. After about ten minutes, Killian said his goodbyes as well, citing an overtime shift he was picking up in the morning. David knew this to be true, so it didn’t seem too off for him, but he also wondered at how close in time Killian’s leaving was to Emma’s departure. There were a lot of signs that seemed to point to Killian and Emma being a thing.

David wondered what he should do next.

It turned out there wasn’t much he could do next to confirm what he suspected, as the flu began to go around the station and he had to start covering extra shifts. He and Killian began working overtime trying to fill in where they could, with Graham (who was the sheriff) filling in on the road with the rest of the deputies as needed. After almost two weeks of this, things finally slowed down to where they could resume their normal shift work. Killian and Emma hadn’t, as far as David knew, spent any time together outside of what they already did at work.

Emma also worked for the Storybrooke Sheriff’s Office, but as a detective who investigated murders or cold case files. Her schedule was a bit different from theirs, but every now and then, she had to fill in on shift work the same as everybody else. The recent flu endemic meant that she was pulling more road work than usual, and she was patrolling more with David. This was how he had known that Emma and Killian hadn’t seen each other much, as they were all pulling overtime. None of them were at home much, so there was no way for them to see each other outside of work, right? And David never saw them flirt while on the job, at least not recently. They had quit their ridiculous flirting-on-the-job stuff almost eight months ago.

It made David very happy that his best friend and sister finally saw fit to cease making everyone else so uncomfortable. It was very considerate of them, really.

On what Graham had sworn to them was their last shift of pulling double duty, Emma had collapsed into a desk in the bullpen. “If I have to arrest another drunken guy from The Rabbit Hole, I’m going to scream,” she announced.

David laughed. “At least we’ll have everyone else covering for us while we get some time off.”

“That’s the only good thing about this,” she agreed.

Their conversation was interrupted by Killian coming in bearing coffee and a box of donuts. He wordlessly handed David a cup, to which David muttered, “Thanks,” and set the box down. He proceeded to hand Emma her cup, which she took without a word of thanks, and she opened the box.

“There better be a bear claw in here,” she said as she pried open the top.

Killian chuckled. “Oh there is,” he laughed in return. “And one for me as well.” He handed her a napkin, which she took without any mention of gratitude, and handed one to David as well. David did express gratitude again, and they all dug into the donuts.

Killian and Emma joked around like always, but David was silent.

He couldn’t imagine not telling someone who wasn’t Mary Margaret thanks for something they had done for him, and he knew that his and Emma’s parents had instilled better manners than that. By this point, he was ninety percent sure that Victor Whale’s summation of events between Killian Jones and Emma Nolan was correct.

But he didn’t receive confirmation until the night of the Christmas for Friends party at his and Mary Margaret’s house that they did every year.

It was still very early in the evening, and not everyone had arrived at David and Mary Margaret’s place yet. Though Ruby, Graham, Victor, Emma, and Killian were there, several other couples had yet to arrive, including Killian’s brother and his girlfriend, Elsa. Emma was helping Mary Margaret with a few last minute details while Killian and David set up the drinks bar. Everyone was chatting lightly together, laughing, and enjoying the first gathering in a few days that they had gotten to arrange.

After placing the ice in the bucket, Killian took his phone out of his pocket to call his brother to find out how much longer it would be before they arrived, only to discover that it was dead.

“Bloody hell, I forgot to charge my phone before I came over here,” he cursed. David was just about to offer his phone to Killian to use, but his sister beat him to it.

“Here, use mine!” Emma handed it to Killian, who took it (again, without a thank you, David noticed) and stepped outside.

The conversation inside the loft continued as it always had, with everyone laughing and snacking before the rest of their friends arrived. Killian came back in after a moment.

“Liam says he and Elsa are about five minutes from here,” he announced once the door shut behind him. “He said to make sure his favorite cookies are ready to go, Mary Margaret.”

Mary Margaret rolled her eyes. “They’re right where I always put them.”

Emma laughed and kept stirring the homemade dip she had just gotten ready. Both of her hands were too messy to take her phone from Killian. David watched as Killian slipped her phone into her pocket without a word; David also noticed Emma’s distinct lack of reaction at Killian’s hand going into the front right pocket of her too-tight jeans.

He wasn’t going to say anything. He finally had the confirmation that there was something going on between them, and that was all he really needed. David glanced around at everyone else, but no one else seemed to have noticed anything. He was the only one who realized there was a romantic (or something like that) relationship between his sister and his best friend. Obviously they felt the need to keep it a secret, so he wouldn’t be the one to rat them out. Nope, he was the one who could keep secrets in his relationship. Had it been Mary Margaret, she’d have already announced it to the world. But he didn’t need to do that. They would tell the whole group when they were ready.

“You’re fucking my sister,” David said loud enough for everyone to hear. They all stopped and looked at him. Emma turned and gave him a strange look, and Killian looked up from the tray of cookies with what could only be described as a deer-in-the-headlights expression.

“What?” Victor asked. “Who’s fucking your sister?”

“Wait, what?” Ruby asked. “Is that really what he said?”

“Yes, that’s exactly what he said!” Victor replied.

“Pardon, mate?” Killian asked.

Victor looked at Killian. “Is he talking about you?” Killian looked back at Victor helplessly.

“You sorry son of a bitch. How dare you try to take advantage of Emma?” David continued, starting to feel really angry at the secrecy.

“Who’s taking advantage of me?” Emma asked indignantly.

Victor gave a leering look. “I’d have taken advantage if I could have gotten it,” he responded to her, earning a disgusted look from both Emma and Killian.

“It’s a good thing you never could have ‘gotten it,’” Killian snarled back.

“Hey, I’ve never made it a secret that I’d have gotten Emma in the sack if I could have,” Victor shot back.

“Are you sure you’re not on call at the hospital? Because you’re about to have to go there,” Killian retorted as he took a step closer to Whale and angled his body to be slightly in front of Emma’s.

“Oh, I think you’ll be the one there before me,” Victor responded, instinctively stepping forward at Killian’s challenging tone.

“Touch him and you’ll have more to deal with than him,” Emma responded to Killian being threatened.

“Killian Jones is about to have more to deal with if I have anything to say about it,” David cut in. “How long have you been screwing my sister?”

Killian looked back at David. “Mate, I have no idea what you’re-“

“I saw you at her house!” David cut him off. “You left at 7:30 in the morning for an overtime shift the Saturday after Thanksgiving! Emma is never up before 9 on weekends she’s off! And she opened the door wearing nothing but your shirt that you had worn the day before!”

Everyone’s heads had been turned to David, but once he commented on his sister’s state of dress, all eyes swerved to land on Killian, who was growing a bit red and had his jaw clenched.

“How do you know that?” Emma asked.

“I was there outside your apartment! Remember that I brought you your favorite red jacket back? I saw you kiss! I stayed out in my truck for thirty minutes after he left wondering what was going on, why neither of you had said anything!”

Emma and Killian fell silent, as the rest of their friends looked on in abject curiousity. David stared at them hard. No one said anything.

Belle, Will, Liam, and Elsa arrived, opening the door and letting themselves in without knocking. They had been friends for so long that they no longer felt the need to follow the standard niceties. They were all laughing amongst themselves, but that laughter quickly died upon their entering the room.

Each of the newcomers surveyed the loft. The atmosphere was tense and expectant. They slowly filed in, wondering what kind of minefield they were entering.

“Is everything alright?” Liam asked tentatively.

“Dude! You just missed it! David just accused your brother of doin’ a little bow chicka wow wow with his sister!” Victor enunciated his words by doing a lurid dance, making sure to gyrate his hips as he spoke. Ruby had to cover her mouth to muffle her laugh, and Graham had to look down at his feet. Mary Margaret rubbed her forehead in exasperation. David scowled at Victor.

Liam frowned. “He what?”

“Actually, we don’t really know what happened.” Mary Margaret shot a warning look at her husband. “David just made a baseless accusation.”

“What kind of baseless accusation?” Liam asked.

“He claimed that Emma and Killian are sleeping together,” Ruby said to fill him in.

“It’s not baseless! He put her phone in her front pocket!” David exclaimed. Everyone stared at David’s exclamation.

“Oh, yeah, that’s a hell of a sign, innit? Putting someone’s phone in their pocket is always how I determine how someone is doing the deed,” Will stated. Killian scoffed and shook his head, but before he or Emma could say anything, Belle piped up.

“No, I think David actually has a point, here. People don’t do that unless they’re very close.”

“I’m sure there’s a more reasonable explanation to that action. Maybe Emma told Killian to put it in her pocket?” Liam suggested.

David shook his head. “I was watching them. She didn’t say a word.”

Killian by this point had clenched his jaw and Emma could see the muscle twitching in his jaw (which, if she were being honest, was insanely attractive to her). She knew things were about to boil over very quickly, ruining their Christmas party, if something didn’t give soon. She crossed over to him and took his hand in hers. He looked at her for a long moment, and for that one moment the room faded away. Killian visibly calmed down with just that connection.

David watched their silent interaction, and in that instant he knew. Nothing he said or did would stop what was unfolding. No matter what else was said, his best friend and his sister were more serious than everyone was making it out to be. He took a deep breath and counted to ten, zoning out of the conversation continuing around him, Emma and Killian not being able to get a word in edgewise.

Perhaps this was why they hadn’t said anything yet? Perhaps they knew what would happen if everyone in their group of friends found out before they were ready to tell people?

“YOU GOTTA SEND ME DOWN A MISTRESS FOR CHRISTMAS! I WANT A WOMAN IN RED WITH A BOW IN MY BED!” Victor started half-singing, half-shouting in response to something David hadn’t heard from Will, who was laughing.

“The only bow around here is gonna be the one they have to tie your bandages with, Whale!” Killian shouted in return, though not nearly as loudly as Victor was wailing.

Victor paid him no mind as the girls all rolled their eyes or put their heads in their hands. “MISTRESS FOR CHRISTMAS! I CAN HEAR YOU COMING DOWN MY SMOKE STACK, YOU WANNA RIDE MY REINDEER AND RING MY JINGLE BELLS!” He resumed the suggestive dance around the loft.

“What are you, twelve?!” Emma sneered. “Grow up, Whale! This is why we haven’t told anyone yet!” She looked very upset, tears forming in her eyes, and David knew he had just fucked up majorly with her.

Victor didn’t stop his antics, carrying on butchering the song and everyone started to get irritated. David had finally had enough. He yelled as loud as he could, and everyone stopped.

“Victor, if you can’t comport yourself properly you need to leave,” he said. Then he turned to Emma and Killian. “How long has this been going on?”

“Almost nine months,” Killian answered.

“That long?!” Ruby exclaimed in disbelief, but she was quickly silenced with a look from David.

“Aye, that long. At first, it was so new and we wanted to see if it was something that would last, and then once it became apparent it would, we enjoyed not having to worry about all of this,” Killian waved his hand around to indicate the chaos that had taken off this night.

Emma looked at Killian, who looked back at her.

“We’ve both been interested in each other for longer than we care to admit. I hate that it took us this long to give us a chance,” she said.

“We alway said you two would be perfect together,” Belle responded, smiling gently.

“Yeah, we are,” Emma and Killian shared smiles.

“It’s crazy because I don’t think any of us realized a change in how you acted,” Elsa added, trying to make sure the conversation stayed on a more serious note. “We all probably suspected something at various points, but the two of you never really changed towards one another.”

Emma shrugged and Killian responded, “We just continued as we were. I guess when you’ve been in love for so long, nothing really changes in how you treat each other.”

David nodded and they all fell silent for a moment. Finally Will piped up, “I thought this was supposed to be a party? Have we finished with the Killian-and-Emma-sitting-in-a-tree nonsense, or are we going to carry on with that some more? Because I would really like to get to the gift-giving portion of our evening.“

Everyone started laughing and the serious atmosphere was broken.  Everyone started mingling again, separating into groups as they finally moved past the confrontation.  

David moved closer to Emma and Killian, who had retreated and were standing quite close, having their own conversation.  David hated to interrupt, but he felt he owed them an apology. He had this bad tendency to fly off the handle once his temper was lost, and he had definitely lost it today.

Emma and Killian paused in their conversation and eyed him warily.

“Come to berate us some more?” Killian sardonically asked.

David winced.  “I guess I deserve that one.”

Emma looked at him disbelievingly. “‘Guess?’”

David nodded placatingly.  “You’re right.  I do deserve it.  I’m sorry for saying it the way I did and getting the peanut gallery involved.  I didn’t mean to interrogate you like that.  I was just a little shocked that I was right.”

Killian looked at David and said, “So you had to accuse me of ‘fucking’ your sister?”

“I’m sorry!  I could have used better language.  Emma, you know my mouth sometimes speaks before it thinks.”

“Before you think, you mean” she retorted, crossing her arms.

David nodded.  “Can you forgive me?”

Emma sighed and looked at Killian, who gazed softly back at her.  “I guess we can,” she responded.

Killian wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him.  “It’s alright, mate.  Though I do intend to hold it over your head for a very long time,” he added to Emma’s answer.

David chuckled.  “I’d expect nothing less.”

The three of them smiled, turning to watch the others when they heard Will carry on about how many presents were under the tree, and that it was time to stop lollygagging around and get to the point of the evening.

They all began exchanging presents as Christina Perri sang, “Let all your memories hold you close no matter where you are.  You're not alone because the ones you love are never far If Christmas is in your heart,” on the radio that Mary Margaret had turned on moments before to play softly in the background.  

[adobodemon]

New Years Resolution Manifestation Rant Listicles

and yes I'll put it under Read More for all of our sakes. Happy New Year 2014 everbody!!

Prelude: Who I want to be

lemme be real for a sec. I am going to be turning a serious age this year. rhymes with flirty. I have had time to get grown but now it's time to get wise! It's time for me to get behind the wheel of my life again. I felt like I was behind it 4 years ago but We All Know What Happened. It Is Happening To All Us. Coming back home to my parents stunted my growth a little and also I feel it erode at my current friendships. I feel like I'm doing a good job of improving myself, but this year I need to improve my relationship to others. So yeah in short, less autopilot, more hangouts with friends, less overwork, more hobbies...

How will I go from Consoomer and Doomer to Improover and Dooer?

1. Be more consistent with what I want to practice - that goes for working out, digital art, other hobbies I may want to pick up... saw a Tiktok once saying that we need to pick up slow activities again bc clearly, the need to be instantly gratified has poisoned almost every aspect of our lives. InstaGrat also helps us be in autopilot a lot easier, we can't think, we can't breathe, we can't taste our food before swallowing it down. this year I'm going to change that by planting a lot of seeds that I may not see bloom for weeks, months, years even!

2. Approach people with curiosity - not the best communicator as I've said many different times on this blog. I always catch myself trying to make the conversation about myself and how I can relate to it instead of asking the other person more about themselves or what they think. I've seen enough thinkpieces on other sites recommend this that I might as well try it for myself and see how it works out.

3. Get off my damn phone - already made steps towards this! Tiktok and IG are gone from my phone, whenever I go into a huge timesink like Tumblr (sorry) or Discord I set it up so I get an annoying pop-up telling me all the other things I could be doing! (I will share this Shortcut w anyone who needs it, iPhone exclusive tho sorry)

4. Appreciate all the stuff I have - while I am nowhere need as bad as my mom who needs to go to Burlington and buy 3 whatchamacallits or else she has a nervous Boomer breakdown, I do admit I own and have access to a lot of things I take for granted, like books, games, tools like my iPad, PC, etc. I will fight against analysis paralysis, I will squeeze the life out of all that I own, I won't spend another day bored inside my head if I don't have to.

5. Collect. Organize. Do. - one of my oomfs indirectly changed my Youtube algorithm for the good and I've been getting a lot of videos from Improovtube. skimmed through a video that suggested a neat system for getting things done: Collect your thoughts and desires. Organize your tasks. Do the things that make it happen. and just like that every self improvement book I've read is useless. lol no but really it's crazy that that's all it boils down to. I will investigate more on this system but for now this seems like a good modus operandi.

Epilogue: Specific non-specific goals

Completing my year long art practice regimen

Reading more of my physical books and manga (and I get to see their spines when I finish :D)

Bigger boobs

Becoming a homeowner

Homoeroticism

Going to at least 5 group activities and meeting new people there

[the-ssoblr-awards]

Hi there Dorian/SSOblr Awards Admin!

This project came to my attention recently, and I hope you don't mind, but I just have a few things to say about it, and maybe a few questions to ask.

Firstly, I think that something like this was a lovely idea. Stemming from love for your community and the desire to raise its creators and members up so they might get the appreciation they so rightfully deserve; since without its members, a community has no soul. That being said, however, I think this particular project (or at least some elements of this project) should have stayed just that— an idea.

A public-based voting system for a community as big as this was in my opinion, quite frankly, a little bit unfair. What of the newer community members with smaller voices, who might feel unappreciated and unseen if they never made an appearance in any of the categories over the voting period? While some people may be perfectly content to observe from the sidelines, others may be having a hard time breaking through and be left feeling further ostracized after this. I say this primarily because I'm aware there is, or at least was, a private Discord community that was not open to everyone to join, meaning votes may have been a little skewed depending on the friend groups in that private community.

This may have been helped if each person nominated was only allowed to be nominated for one category— disallowing duplicates may have freed up space for other people's names in some categories (though I know each person is only allowed one winning spot, I think it would have been a good idea to only leave their names in their single most popular category for the final voting process). As Dorian is the primary admin of this project, or so I believe he is, I think it's especially unfair that his name appears in multiple categories— though I understand that this was done via community voting and not by an individual deciding who would end up where in the final votes, I still feel this is unfair.

I'm sorry to dump such a large paragraph on you, but unfortunately I'm not finished yet lol.

All of the previous being said, I think my biggest criticism is with the category 'What SSO oc stands out the most?' Well written characters deserve praise, this I think we can both agree on— but I don't think this was ever a fair category to include in a community driven poll, especially in a community centred around a game targeted towards a younger audience. I can't speak on behalf of the current community, but I know a few years ago there were a lot of younger people in the community and therefore would assume such is still the case— I saw people ranging in ages 13-17 were very common among some of the older community members. Those people who are younger might not have the story telling experience to create OCs that can stand up to some of the OCs and stories created by the more experienced community members, and they shouldn't be made to feel as if their characters are inferior to anyone else's in any way— at least certainly not publicly. And even among the older audience; I feel it's an unfair category since anyone's feelings can be hurt by such a category, and being made to feel their character is inferior to someone else's, especially if they're not already completely confident in what they share of their OC. The last thing I would want to see is the creativity centred around OCs in the community stifled due to what is essentially a 'popularity contest' category in this poll.

This being said, I don't think anyone is wrong for favouring some people's OCs over others. I just believe that that sort of thing should be kept private, and the opportunity to have 'The most stand-out OC' should never be given to any one community member. As I said before, this was supposed to be a celebration of everyone, not an opportunity to single out one person and their OC.

I'd like to reiterate that I know this event came from a place of love and appreciation for the community and I can completely appreciate it from that angle, and I'd like to thank you for taking the time to organise this event and to read through what I've had to say about it (and apologise once again for dumping so much on you). I'd also like to thank you in advance for what will hopefully be an open minded response, as I think it's fair to give observations and criticisms when regarding a public event, especially for the first of it's kind.

I hope you don't think this is an attack on you or what you tried to do, as I've certainly never intended it to come across as such. I just hope next time the awards or whatever you decide to do in the future rolls around, you take what I've had to say into consideration to make it even better! <3

I'm not the best with tone indicators as they're just a tiny bit before my time, but I hope these are okay: /g /nm /nh

Hi!

Let me start off by stating that I have no idea what Discord conversations you might be talking about. The only thing I can think of was me mentioning that I was happy for a lot of people in Jorvikpresident's discord who seemed to have been nominated, and that was after posting the final poll 6 hours ago, so I have no idea how that would skew the results.

It would have been my pleasure if enough people had been nominated that a person could only be nominated for one category. Unfortunately, since these smaller voices you're talking about didn't enter their own blog (Which was perfectly fine and I encourage), enter their friends' or enter other smaller blogs, as well as no larger blogs taking the time to look for them (Something I will definitely do next time), the space that would have been made for them wouldn't have been used and there would at best be three nominations per question, which also wouldn't be fair.

As for me being nominated, I actually took myself out of certain categories because I didn't agree with how I was being nominated. I still understand how someone might see it as unfair, and if this is echoed in the community I can certainly remove my nominations.

I do see where you're coming from with the OC question, and it wasn't in the initial lineup of categories, like "Most active member" it was suggested by other community members who added to the nominations. I believed this was a wanted category since it was suggested a few times, maybe I was wrong and I will apologize for that. I think the most important part to remember for the people who might be disappointed is that this in no way is a definitive list that determines anyone's worth but is just for fun and to give someone who sinks time and effort into their OC and who shows a willingness to share them (no matter their age or "skill level") some extra kindness, at least that was the intent, but if the community agrees that this is not a good category, it's easily removed.

I will definitely take this with me for next time, and I hope by then the air will be a little lighter in ssoblr and people will feel more comfortable with an unofficial, for fun vote specifically to give people that extra bit of love that I have seen in the tags when people discover they've been nominated. This was never meant to be serious, and hopefully, people will take the results with a grain of salt and even more people will be nominated for next time :)

/Dorian

[igaveyouamortentia]

Mhm. Where to begin the story.. So I have two accounts for the game, one's my main, the other one I created because I was afraid my main will get banned because of my laptop being shit and loading in, I kept getting time outs, maybe eventually a ban.

I could switch to pc so we're good.. I kept that other account in case I wanna play but don't want anyone to bother😄

Yesterday it was going shit, the game, so I told my friends I'm gonna go now maybe see them later or tomorrow. Then one of them texted me if I wanna continue watching Arcane, cuz we started it, the 3 of us, but for two days it's only me and him watching it on Discord. I didn't like it at first, but after 3 episodes I started enjoying it, I keep talking nonsense while we're watching it and yep. Making him laugh😄 (he's just a friend, and a minor so nothing between us) Then I just checked the game if anyone's online.. I saw that *He* was.. Alone too. So I told my friend in the middle of an episode that I have to go, I might come back later, so I left. Went on my alt account so my friend doesn't see that I left because of that 👀 and requested to join him. But he said he's leaving after the one he's in.. I thought he could at least let me say hi or talk a few minutes, but he really did leave.. So I was hurt.. I stayed quiet and just went back to my friend to watch Arcane. We had fun with that. Then.. My stupid ass apologized to him. I did.. And he said nothing happened, then I asked how is he, but he didn't reply even after 20 minutes so I said okay it's late I'm leaving, goodnight. No answer while I was up so I fell asleep. Then I read a very cold goodnight message in the morning, an hour later from what I left.. So that hit me harder.. I couldn't understand why he was doing that, cried now on the way to work..

Now I have to mention.. This is important 😄

I have another young friend, I just call him kid, he's better at the game than me, asked me a few days ago if I have an account he can borrow for competitive games. Hardly but I trusted him with it, just said not to text anyone or get me banned 😄

Yep. He was playing on it for 2 days now.. Getting my account a higher rank, maybe he was boosting his friend, and well my account 💅

Even when yesterday I went to sleep I saw that he was online on my account, but I didn't give any thought to it.

I thought of telling it to *him* when I wanted to join him, but since he didn't let me, I just didn't mention..

Now.. I logged in this morning on the mobile app.. And I saw that he was playing another game after he said he's not coming back etc. But also.. Left me a message.. While.. I was sleeping! So the person playing on my account... Wasn't ME 😂

But he said "you look busy, maybe next time then" bahaha

Maybe he wanted to join "me" or "I" was already in a game but damn 😂

How does it feel to be ignored.. Hmm.. So yep that was at 2 am.. Then he replied to my goodnight message so coldly.. Maybe because of that, and now I understand it all 😂