#i think you all can tell by now that my take on launchpad is a merging of the 1987 and 2017 designs

[cityoftheangelllls]

Please 22 Winter in the Dark with Scrooge and Darkwing protecting Launchpad cause he deserves all the love 🧡

DAMN STRAIGHT HE DOES!!

Commissions info

[stil-lindigo]

hi! i'm currently taking a stab at a short comic for the first time and i was wondering — if you're willing to share — what goes into the “base” of your projects? your creative notes have been a HUGE help in pinpointing things i might want to outline in my own work before i actually start making the project, but i'm still incredibly curious about the initial work and planning that goes into the making of yours. love your art!

hello anon! first of all, congratulations on starting on a comic! I hope you find it very fulfilling, and a great learning experience. To answer this ask, I'm going to use bite of winter as the main example for my work process.

Text: More often than not, I start with the entire textual part of the comic finalised. This is kind of obvious, considering my comics are entirely built around it serving as a sort of narration substitute, but it stays true for comics that are just dialogue as well. Speech bubbles will always take up more space than you think. It's good to have all the dialogue finalised before you start so you can accommodate them in the thumbnailing process. --

Thumbnails: I make thumbnails for all my comics so that I can, at a glance, see if things are cohesive. I'll often spend a lot of time at this stage, since it's also the part where I wrack my brain for smart things I can do compositionally (sometimes I go into comics knowing what sort of smart things I want to do e.g the comparison between the open grave + the empty bed was the entire inspiration behind making shallow grave). Thumbnails are always quick and dirty for me. I know my own brain, so I always just do the bare minimum and know I'll be able to interpret it later. Here are the thumbnails I made for bite of winter.

note: the bright blue border on all the 'pages' is just to indicated where i should try to keep my panels.

it's extremely shitty but it's decipherable to me, and the whole point of thumbnail is that you're hopefully saving yourself time in the future by getting all this planning out now. --

3. Colour: Colour blocks are how I plan out how a comic's colour scheme should look as a cohesive package. Although I didn't used to do this for comics, I do it now ever since I wasted around 8 hours on patchwork canary just fiddling with the colours (ugh). I'll usually go into a project knowing what kind of tone I want to convey with it, which gives me a launchpad for what kind of colour scheme I'd like. For instance, RED, one of my best comics, only uses three colours (black, white and red) and that limited colour palette enhances the message behind it. I think it wouldn't be nearly as impactful if it was all standardly coloured - having that contrast pushes Red's impact as a significant character in the narrative by making her pop on the page.

In a similar vein, almost all of the sunset's emotional complexity gets expressed through its colour palette of red, blue and yellow.

Even though it might be more conventionally coloured with shading and whatnot, the choices behind making certain scenes darker/lighter and etc really sells the story more in my opinion.

These are the colour thumbnails I made for bite of winter. It's incredibly rough, but at a glance you can tell the comic doesn't have any particular page that is jarring or pulls you out of it.

As one more note: I'd advise doing all thumbnailing/colour-blocking at a much smaller size than the actual page is going to be. It keeps you from obsessing over fine details, and encourages you to just block in shapes and colours really quickly.

--

that's all from me for now. I hope this helped, and I wish you luck on your project. Pace yourself! Comics are more work than people ever say they are, and it's good to just take your time and enjoy the process.

[uncaaj]

Fanfic: Turnabout Union (DuckTales 2017 x Ace Attorney)

Inspired by THIS post by @ravenconspiracy and @georgiarose

READ NOW ON AO3!

“Ah, Mr. Crackwright,” said the secretary, tapping away at her dated computer. “They have you in Courtroom No. 4 today. I’ll call a bailiff to escort you.”

The lawyer in the blue suit nodded. “Thank you.” It suddenly dawned on ace attorney Fenton Crackwright how much this felt like the first time, despite it being the hundredth time.

Opening the door to Defendant Lobby No. 4, he saw the first defendant he ever saved, a poor unlucky sap by the name of Drake Butz.

Fenton straightened his magenta tie and waved, “Good morning, Drake,” he said in a warming voice.

His client was slumped over the firm leather sofa, head in his lap, hands gripping his shaggy hair. “What good is it, really? She isn’t here, and once again, I’m the guy they pin it on.”

Fenton shook his head and walked over to his lifelong friend. “It doesn’t help when you have a history of breaking and entering, however noble it is.” He held his hand out.

“You know he’s gonna bring that up, first chance he gets!” Drake whined, taking Fenton’s hand and letting the attorney hoist him to his feet.

“I’ve handled Donald Payne before,” said Fenton, brushing down the wrinkles in Drake’s purple jacket. “There’s not a claim he can make that the Court Record can’t refute.”

“Or that you can’t bluff your way out of,” Drake pointed out.

Fenton brushed his long hair back with a nervous chuckle. “Or that.”

He never intended saving his case at the last second and bluffing on everything to be his signature strategy, but Fenton Crackwright’s cases required the kind of tenacity and perseverance that only he was capable of.

Fenton set a hand on Drake’s shoulder. “You know I believe in you to the end.”

Drake straightened up and smiled. “Thanks, Fen.”

Fenton backed away from Drake as his attention wandered around the room. The mahogany furniture, plain walls decorated with stuffy landscapes, and two bailiffs standing at attention carried an aura of importance. This place could make or break a person, entirely at the hands of two lawyers passionately presenting their facts to sway the judge. 

“You know,” Fenton remarked, “I can’t help feeling some semblance of deja vu. It’s been such a long road to get here, with hurdles and detours, and grueling battles. Every murder is horrific, but somehow a murder case involving you almost feels normal.” Fenton turned around and flashed a nervous smile. “I hope you don’t think I’m minimizing your case.”

Drake shrugged. “I know my reputation precedes me. ‘When something smells’ and all that.”

“If you feel this is normal, Crackwright, I would suggest rising from your laurels.”

Fenton startled, sensing a ghost in the courthouse with a voice he hadn’t heard in months. He turned toward the lobby entrance and took a step back, eyes widening at the sight of what might as well have been a ghost. A tall lanky rooster in a magenta suit with a frilly cravat hanging from his neck walked gingerly inside, hands behind his back. His cold, tired face carried years its owner had not earned in the tradition of time, but had been burdened with through unfortunate circumstances.

“Fenton,” greeted Gyro Edgeloose.

Fenton cleared his throat, words sputtering in his bill. “Gyro! Y-you’re back!”

Drake’s bill dropped open. “Edgey?! Well, whaddaya know, the gang’s back together!”

“Wh-when did you get back into town?” said Fenton to his long-time rival.

The demon attorney looked away. “Last week.”

Fenton was knocked off his feet from shock. “And you never thought to tell me? Tell any of us?”

“I’m surprised Detective Launchpad didn’t shout it from the precinct steps,” Gyro remarked.

Fenton jumped up. “…you told Detective Launchpad first?!” His feet pulled him closer to Gyro as the words poured out of him. “Y-you disappeared for months! I could barely sleep most nights wondering if Edgeloose might turn up tomorrow!”

Drake shook his head and sat back at the bench. “I feel like I’m watching one of your mamá’s soap operas, Fentonino.”

 Gyro crossed his arms and looked away, embarrassed. “I’m sorry, but you had no need to worry so rashly. I was merely undertaking some self-discovery.”

“That’s not what someone says after they disappeared without a trace,” said Fenton, slipping into his pressing voice.

Gyro rolled his eyes. “You’re being ridiculous. Have you learned nothing since I’ve been gone?”

Fenton was tiring of this. “I would sooner ask you the same question! What self-discovery journey leaves you just as closed off as before?”

“And you are still as emotional and distracted as before!” Gyro exclaimed, “We’re on opposite sides of the law, Crackwright! We have to face each other in five minutes time!”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t still care about you!” yelled Fenton, pointer finger outstretched. “Why can’t you open up to me?!”

The world flashed negative for a split second then all Fenton saw was the rooster, his enemy turned fellow truth seeker that abandoned him. Fenton knew what was coming next. The warmth of the jewel around his neck told him so. It just never failed to catch him off guard, at his most vulnerable. The chains only he could see whipped past him and wrapped around Gyro. Fenton steeled himself as the last piece of the puzzle slammed into place.

The Psyche-Lock he had yet to crack. That was why.

Fenton rubbed the bridge of his nose. “You frustrate me, Gyro. We’ve known each other forever…we put the people behind both our demons behind bars…and yet you still remain closed off to me.”

Gyro rubbed his arm, looking away. “Then why don’t you? Get it over with and break me down like I know you want to?”

Fenton paused. He had never been more sure of what he needed to say than this moment. “Because I don’t have the evidence I need right now. In court and in life, it’s all we have to change minds. But I swear to you that whether you want it or not, I’ll be there for you. We’ll meet in these walls and outside until I have what I need to truly understand you. However long it takes.”

The air between the two lawyers hung there for a moment. Fenton much preferred this over flying by his seat in the courtroom. He didn’t need to grasp at straws, didn’t need to flounder above water to maintain his case. Here, with Gyro, the pressure was off and they could just be.

“You helped me find the truth,” Fenton said, “You can’t go through life alone anymore.”

Gyro adjusted his stance with a long, wet sigh. “Once again, you’ve saddled me with unnecessary feelings…feelings that I can’t deny or admit I dislike. Feelings that are against all I’ve been taught to believe. The truth isn’t human like we are.”

Fenton smiled and closed the gap dividing them. “That’s what’s beautiful about it, about us. Truth changes us.”

“You may be right, Fenton,” said Gyro, “How did you grow so much unlike me?”

“You rubbed off on me, Gyro,” said Fenton. “You changed me. Maybe I can return the favor someday.”

“Defendant!” 

The wood of the defendant lobby returned to view. Both lawyers blinked and turn to the source of the voice. 

“Court is about to begin,” barked the bailiff. “Please make your way inside the courtroom.”

Returning their gaze to each other, they realized how close their beaks were from meeting with a start. Fenton stepped backward with a nervous chuckle.

“Think about it, Gyro. It can start as simple as you’d like. With burgers, even.”

Gyro chuckled despite himself and returned the smile that continually served to humanize him. “I will consider your offer.” With that, the prosecutor took his leave.

“Good luck, Gyro!” Fenton called. “But not too much.”

Gyro chuckled as he opened the door. “Same to you.”

+++

“All rise!” echoed the bailiff’s voice. All voices quieted down and each member in attendance rose to their feet. “The Honorable Judge Scrooge McDuck presiding!”

A duck with sideburns emerged from a door placed high above the courtroom floor. The only sound bouncing around the hallowed walls was his footsteps, hidden by his flowing black robe. He took his seat and took hold of his gavel.

“Thank ye,” he said, “Be seated, everyone.” With the crack of his gavel, all in attendance returned to their seat, except for the two lawyers placed at either side of the foot of the judge’s pedestal

“Court is now in session for the trial of Mr. Drake Butz,” said the judge. “Mr. Edgeloose, I understand you were brought in at the last minute to replace Mr. Payne. Are you ready for what’s to come?”

Gyro cleared his throat and addressed the judge. “Nonetheless, I am happy to be back, and you can rest assured…” He looked toward Fenton, features hardened with determination. “The prosecution is ready, Your Honor.”

That look told Fenton everything he wanted and needed to know. His new adventure with his former rival was now under way, and he was prepared to face whatever it would bring. As long as Gyro Edgeloose was by his side, the path to truth was always clear.

“Very well,” said the judge. “Are you prepared, Mr. Crackwright?”

Fenton nodded. “The defense is ready, Your Honor.”

[writebackatya]

I feel like I’m the only one who wanted Negaduck to return not because I need closure on Drake and Launchpad finding out that their hero is now a villain but because I need all the snarky characters who never watched the OG Darkwing Duck to roast this egotistical tv star to oblivion

[Explosion happens; Negaduck walks out of the hole in the wall with two guns in his hands and points one directly at Gosalyn]

Negaduck: Where is Darkwing?

Gosalyn: Why should I tell you, you cheap copycat?

Negaduck: Copycat!? I am the ORIGINAL DARKWING DUCK!

Louie: Then why are you wearing an off-brand costume?

Lena: Yeah, I’m not even that big of a fan of Darkwing but I’m pretty sure his costume is purple or something

Gandra: Yeah and you can’t really call yourself the original if St. Canard has had their own Darkwing long before you showed up.

Negaduck: I AM THE ORIGINAL AND THIS IS NOT A OFF-BRAND COSTUME!!! I am Jim Starling!!

The Good Guys: …

Negaduck: …From the original Darkwing Duck show!!

Gosalyn: Dude. Literally none of us here were alive during the 60s.

Negaduck: IT WAS FROM THE 90s!!! And there wouldn’t be a Darkwing if it wasn’t for me!!

Gandra: Oh? He was solely your idea and you were part of the writing team?

Negaduck: …No! I played the part! And no one else can replace me!

Gosalyn: St. Canard says otherwise.

Negaduck: Well St. Canard will regret that decision once I take care of that amateur!

Lena: So are you supposed to be like the “evil” version of Darkwing Duck? That’s kinda lame…

Negaduck: What!?

Louie: No, I agree. Evil versions of characters are so lazy. “Ooh I’m like you except I’m wearing a different colored version of your costume.”

Gandra: All that’s missing is an evil moustache or a goatee.

Lena: So if you’re the “evil” version of Darkwing Duck is your name like…Lightwing Duck?

Negaduck: What!? No! That’s stupid!

Lena: Hey, you’re the one wearing yellow and red. Those aren’t really evil colors by the way

Gandra: Unless your whole schtick is stealing hamburgers.

Negaduck: My colors are chaotic and sorta the inverse of Darkwing’s!! For I am Negaduck!!

Louie: What? Was The Anti-Darkwing taken?

Negaduck: Okay! That’s it! I have had enough of everyone’s sass! For too long Jim Starling has been ignored by the world! But that ends today when I Negaduck will finally kill that cheap copy of Darkwing Du-

Gandra: {cuts his speech short by walking up to the duck and electrocuting him for a good 30 seconds}

Negaduck: {falls down to the ground unconscious}

Gosalyn: Well that was easy.

Gandra: I hate it when actors think they’re tough because they play a tough guy on TV.

Lena: So what should we rendezvous with the others?

Gosalyn: Yeah. I’ll let Darkwing and Gizmoduck know to get rid of this guy

Louie: {points to the body on the ground} Is he going to be okay?

[The group stares at the Jim Starling’s body till it twitches]

Gandra: He’s fine, let’s go.

[godfrey-the-chaos-duck]

Guys why can't I draw the ducks (or people)

Context: my friend and I had a really long phone call on Wednesday wherein we talked about all the stuff that must've happened off-screen in The 87 Cent Solution, and I wish I could make it into a comic that does it justice

Random Rambles under the cut for those who wanna know more (I explain all of it)

Scrooge had been working wayyy too hard all week and that's how he ended up sick. I've decided.

The morning the episode starts definitely opened with a near-exact mirror of the first scene in DT87's Scroogerello. Differences are: it's Dewey, not Huey, that goes to crack the egg on Scrooge's face to see if his fever's high enough to fry it (Beakley stops him) and it's Beakley, not the kids, who drags his stubborn feathered ass back to bed.

Now, one thing that always confused me about this ep is "WHY DIDN'T THEY CALL BEAKLEY??" And I know the logical answer for us is "Well if they'd called her we wouldn't have had an episode" and honestly that probably goes for a lot of the episodes but IN UNIVERSE there is no reason why they wouldn't call her

UNLESS she was like literally unreachable.

So together we came up with the idea that she was doing a two-day deep-clean of the mansion (an annual Beakley tradition) which she hyperfocuses on so hard that she legitimately forgets everyone else exists. She also has her airpods in (she listens to opera/death metal fusions, and that was my friend's idea. Nightwish is probably one of her faves) and so she cannot hear ANY of the ensuing chaos.

Right before she starts this 48-hour seclusion from reality, she declares that Duckworth is in charge of taking care of Scrooge. Now, this was a big old mistake-a-rooney from her because as we know, Duckworth doesn't much care for her and is loyal to Scrooge to a FAULT.

Scrooge stays in bed for just long enough that Beakley is out of earshot, and then immediately gets up and starts getting dressed.

As he pulls his jacket on, he locks eyes with Duckworth from across the room.

The pair make what shall henceforth be known as the "Fuck You, Beakley Agreement". Under the terms of this, Scrooge can now escape, and Duckworth won't tell. They even do this 🤐.

Scrooge does the thing you see in movies when a kid is grounded and has to sneak out for Plot Reasons (cause he's basically been grounded by Beakley), and ties his bedsheets together and makes a rope to go out the window.

His next step? Getting to work without a driver. Launchpad is off buying him a birthday card, as we see him (I assume mistakenly) think it's Scrooge's birthday in the episode. Luckily, for reasons of I Said So, he finds a pair of rollerskates belonging to Webby. He puts them on, straightens his top hat determinedly, and speeds off down the hill and into Duckburg.

Shortly afterwards, Huey and Webby go to check on Scrooge.

They quickly run into two problems.

He is not there.

Beakley is unavailable.

So the kids' first instinct is to call Launchpad, who isn't available EITHER cause he's shopping (for, again, THE ENTIRE WRONG DAY)

So instead, Huey calls Fenton - Gizmoduck can take them to the Bin and maybe even beat Scrooge there.

Cue a kick-ass chase sequence through Duckburg, which, in my mind, is set to "Holding Out For A Hero" and I can see it SO CLEARLY.

Now, Gizmoduck has speed, sure, but Scrooge is going, like, ALARMINGLY fast for a 150 year old man on quad skates, and what's more, he knows every inch of Duckburg (he was there when it was built) and so knows every shortcut there is.

It turns out Scrooge gets to the Bin first, and in order to stop, he ends up having to literally brace himself against the wall with both hands. As he comes away from the wall he slips. So the skates come off, and he runs down a corridor, where he scares the daylights out of a new secretary/intern.

He leans against the door to catch his breath, and demands coffee "blacker than my soul".

The secretary looks him over.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather have tea, sir? Perhaps with some honey and lemon?" they ask sweetly

"Are you questioning my judgement?" Scrooge snaps back, a fire in his eyes. The secretary runs off, realises they don't know where the drinks machine is, and runs the other way. She gets him six shots of espresso (Good Omens in-joke cause we both thought it'd be funny as hell) which he is juuuust about to down in one go when BAM! In comes Gizmoduck with the kids. Dewey takes the coffee, and takes a sip. He immediately hates it (it's super bitter - not his thing at all) and propmtly decides that Coffee Is The Worst. (It isn't, espresso was a bit of an ambitious first try).

There's a moment where everyone just stares at each other. The secretary backs away slowly.

Scrooge BOLTS down the hall. Huey and Webby follow him.

Then we get to the start of the episode, but the fun is just beginning!

Between the bit where it's revealed that Scrooge may have Gold Fever, and the bit where he does the live news report from his office, I think one night passed. Scrooge didn't sleep a bit, which explains why he looks like hell on wheels in the next shot.

Now, the bin was on total lockdown, so no-one was leaving that night. You know what that means...

(Webby voice) SLEEPOVER! Everyone sets up camp in the lobby. The boys raid the break room for couch cushions, Webby gets chairs and an old tarpaulin from a store closet to make the most majestic fort the world has ever seen, Gyro gets a hotplate to roast marshmallows over (a campfire was too risky) and Louie sets up a projector for a movie night. All in all, it's actually fairly cool, given the circumstances.

Then Act 2 happens and everything goes to Deepest of Shit.

Honestly really the whole thing is building on this piece I wrote that I have FINALLY got motivation and ideas to do more with!

Scrooge FINALLY agrees to get the fuck home, and it all sorta catches up with him as he leaves the Bin.

Beakley has noticed that things are quiet but does not yet know why.

However, she is about to find out.

The doorbell rings.

The kids are all talking over each other trying to explain everything. Launchpad is helping Scrooge walk up the steps to the house. Scrooge is wrapped up in a tartan blanket like a little Scottish burrito, his arms and legs like jelly, and his voice nearly completely gone.

He promptly passes out and falls into Beakley's arms. Beakley is Hella Confused, she thought Scrooge was in his room and Duckworth was looking after him. She glares at Duckworth, who floats away without a word.

Scrooge rests for a couple days, and then eventually he comes down as if about to apologise. But he does not. He stands awkwardly in the corner, like a child who opened their Christmas presents early.

Everyone else is currently discussing how to get back at Glomgold (they have by now figured out that he is somehow behind this)

Scrooge is like "what the hell have I missed"

The kids show him their plan to fake his death. Scrooge thinks it's crazy at first - but it's just crazy enough to work.

Beakley rings up one of her old S.H.U.S.H. contacts for Scrooge's disguise - this is gonna be good.

So they send invites to the "funeral" and ask that a report get done on Scrooge having passed. And then all THAT happens.

And then that's kinda the end I guess sorry for the long post.

[giddlygoat]

How do you think LP an DW comfort each other ? Your characterizations seems super accurate so I’m curious 👍

[i wrote this with dt17 drakepad in mind but i would be more than happy to write my thoughts on the classic duo as well!]

i just need to take this opportunity to say that considering launchpad’s comfort character is darkwing duck, drake is spoiling him rotten lol. but it’s a little more nuanced than that and i have SO many thoughts about this it’s actually ridiculous. 

like, drake on his own is so important to LP. he adores drake and wants nothing but to lift him up and remain by him, and while drake takes the title and the inspiration from the cartoon character, it’s obvious he’s actively forging his own personal version of darkwing. and launchpad not only knows this well but loves him all the more for it. 

that being said. 

drake knows how much he loves darkwing of the ‘91 cartoon. if there’s one thing they have in common, it’s a love for the goofy classic. so i think sometimes, when launchpad gets tied up in his anxiety or looks weary from exhaustion, drake does this bit where he Becomes the nineties cartoon and makes launchpad laugh. 

drake lets his theatre kid run loose and turns up the ego to 11, making sure to really get in the spirit of it. launchpad can ALWAYS tell when he’s about to do it before he does, too. the tiny changes in body language and mannerisms as he gets into character before he actually opens his mouth. it NEVER fails to make launchpad laugh. 

and it’s not big and elaborate, it’s just a good impersonation and some silly improv to entertain launchpad. maybe a ridiculous monologue on the coffee table or a heartfelt pep talk that tirelessly redirects to darkwing’s own amazingness to the point of incomprehensibility. though i like to think that he would revive the bit even during a serious conversation, if appropriate. anything to make LP smile. 

launchpad, on the other hand, is just. SO emotionally present. like, drake is struggling with something, having a tough day, festering in his worry. and launchpad always shows up with his signature hand on shoulder, because he knows that drake likes the physical reassurance. sometimes he plays up his own goofiness or says something dumb just to catch drake off guard enough to pull him back in the moment. 

most importantly, he listens. when drake needs to spill his emotions out somewhere, launchpad offers relief. he can relate to a lot of drake’s worries, too, so discussing them comes easy. he makes sure drake isn’t beating himself up, and smiles when drake relents and acknowledges that he is, and rubs his shoulder affectionately if drake starts to get worked up again. drake always burns up with shame at the thought of his self sufficient and responsible ass needing some reassurance every now and then, but launchpad shows him the strength in allowing oneself to be built up. 

he learns to take launchpad’s help, and accept help more often, and launchpad always smiles in that way that makes drake’s heart swell. also, drake loves physical contact. it’s a good thing launchpad loves to give hugs! 

this is so long already but i have so much freedom with this ask so i’m running with it. as an established and comfortable couple, i think their methods would remain basically the same but there’s a few things i’d like to sprinkle in. 

launchpad would take drake on aimless drives while he talks in the passenger seat. something about spilling your guts with your eyes glued emotionlessly on the road just hits different man 

drake’s cartoon DW bit now includes plenty of kisses! something about the way that launchpad always bubbles up laughing and grins like an idiot makes drake feel so warm and fuzzy. 

if one of them is feeling particularly awful, i think long, warm hugs is a go to. sometimes there’s not much to be said and a guy just needs to be held by his supportive bf. launchpad is used to being drake’s personal pillow by this point. 

when they’re both low energy, they definitely watch darkwing duck and fall asleep together. drake loves to wrap around LP’s giant arm and make it impossible for him to move LAWL 

on the occasions that drake has panic attacks, launchpad keeps himself close by for when drake is ready for a hug. drake focuses on launchpad’s soft reassurances and the petting hand on his head until he calms down again. 

when launchpad gets overstimulated he typically rocks and taps his feet quickly in an effort to excess nervous energy. drake offers his services in the form of combing hands through his hair, rubbing his hands or some other repetitive motion that launchpad can focus on to reorient himself and calm down. when he’s overwhelmed it often gets harder to articulate himself, and when he can’t talk drake does. he just talks about anything in a gentle voice and launchpad finds it soothing. 

also, i like to think that both LP and drake love weighted blankets, and it’s not uncommon for either to ask to be laid on. drake might get a few broken bones or crushed lungs but it’s totally worth it. LP however is like the equivalent of a big smooth rock and drake is simply a sunbathing lizard. do you see my vision !!

i think i could keep writing forever but i have to stop because i need to get ready for work lawl. thank you SO much for the ask though, and anon i really need you to know that it made me squeal and kick my feet and stim for like 5 minutes straight knowing that you appreciate my characterizations this much. EEEEE!!!! 

i hope this satisfies your curiosity for now! have an amazing day <3

[things-about-cars-in-posts]

favorite band/artist?

Sheesh. Complicated one.

You see, my music tastes are, to put it mildly, rather varied. I think it showed in my music recommendation post and the post that further explored one of those artists, but to further illustrate, my library includes:

Earth, Wind & Fire

New Kids On The Block's Jordan Knight's first solo single

Dubstep band Hadouken!’s Lana Del Rey cover

A mashup of Wham! and a fishing anime

A Japanese bilingual melodic punk rock band's two songs about bowling

80s remixes of Justin Bieber songs

A Japanese "punk ska and melodic hardcore band"'s cover of Scatman’s World

A 140+ song Beatles remix collection, featuring such gems as "Octopus's 3D Garden", "I Saw Her Yankin' There" and "Help!" (suspicious)

A eurobeat female duo of rotating Italian and British members’ Abracadabra-sampling track about falling in love with a banana

A remix of Azumanga Daioh’s Sata Andagi scene I retrieved from a porn site reupload

Moldovan folk punk band and folk musician duo’s collab about celebrating the reopening of a railroad

The soundtrack of Pictionary for the NES

A mashup of AVICII, Rick Astley and Chumbawumba

An 80s pop Linkin Park remix

Black Sabbath covers by The Cardigans (of Lovefool fame)

JT's solo debut

A Flock Of Seagulls (of I Ran (So Far Away) fame)

One (1) DJ Khaled song

A 2011 My Little Pony-themed song by then commentary youtuber

(And I beg each and every one of the people who read this list and thought "Okay that one cannot possibly be good" to hop in my askbox and allow me to prove them wrong.)

But let's go through bands and artists I've not posted about before.

Two Door Cinema Club Just out of statistics. I can prove I played I Can Talk over a hundred times and I can tell you any number under two hundred is underselling it. There is genuinely some problem with my brain that that intro slots into perfectly.

Oh also all the rest of their first album this comes from is this great too, and if you ask me what a perfect album sounds like I will tell you it's not that far off their second album.

OK Go Now, I like the music. Actually, I'd left my two guitars alone for years until an easy OK Go song made me think "Oh, maybe I can play this" and realize that rather than -as I had prior- just play the music I'd been taught I could actually teach myself to play the music I was listening to, which snowballed into playing more OK Go songs and then it expanded and now I have a ukulele, a bass, a third guitar I need to merge with that bass (it's complicated), a fourth "guitar" (it's complicated) on the way, a Casio calculator/synth (it's complicated), a melodica, a launchpad and a kazoo. Whoops. But really, all you need to be sold on OK Go is see two of their videos. One to find out what they're like (and you're already good on that front because you have visited the internet ever and have thus seen Here It Goes Again aka "The Treadmill Video" aka what when posted to YouTube upon its CEO begging them became the biggest video of all time) and another to find out that no the first one was not a one-off fluke. I am serious, go click that link, it takes you to a playlist of their videos and each one is crazier than the last. I mean they played a song with a car. A song. That has a guitar solo. With a car. Have you seen the name of this channel.

Ah, right, the name of this channel. I guess I have to say a thing about that car now. Uhhh this video was sponsored by Chevrolet to promote the Aveo which, despite being badged as a Chevrolet, like many of the more Europe-oriented Chevrolets was made by the automotive branch of Daewoo, brand General Motors picked up after the Daewoo conglomerate (then the second largest in South-Korea which may as well be called Samsungland) went bankrupt in '99 over almost $90B modern dollars in debt. Its founder Kim Woo-chong (because Lord knows the "woo" in Daewoo did not stand for "woo what a great car") earned a ten year sentence, but I feel they focused too much on the wrong guy. The REAL criminal is whoever penned Daewoo cars.

A good person doesn't do this on purpose.

Owl City I have too few of his songs, but I absolutely love how comically upbeat he is. He is so precious. If c: walked this Earth. I mean "Golf and alcohol don't mix and that's why I don't drink and drive / Because, good grief, I'd knock out my teeth and have to kiss my smile goodbye". Protect this man at all costs. Also one time I saw the Fireflies video after what must have been a good decade and you know when you feel near crying? I adored that song when I was a kid and I was right.

Liquido European one-hit wonders - and not even "people know them just for one song", not even "people don't know them and just know the song"; I found you can tell people the name of their hit and they won't know what you're talking about. But hum the riff and infallibly, invariably any single person in my country (and, in my limited experience, the rest of Europe) will go "Ooooooh, that one". And to be fair, those guys did stumble on one of the most memorable riffs in modern history.

Not saying this is a hidden gem of a band, I am sure some bigger music nerd would stamp a big fat "SEEN BEFORE" on all their stuff, beyond some enjoyable splashes of "I wonder how much of this is them leaning into it" cheese (yes, even more than that video) - but I've still got their whole discography including all the B-sides, because to me, so what? It's good music and I'll treat it like it. What's the point of praising "groundbreaking", "genre defining" works and then glossing over those inhabiting the ground they broke and making the genres they defined? When I eat bread I don't complain that it doesn't innovate or set itself apart from the rest of the genre, so as long as my music doesn't bore me why should those be problems there? I feel like people have a problem in general separating their enjoyment of a work from its artistic merit. I'm digressing.

The Beatles If you ask me "What's your favorite number of pant legs?" I'm not going to answer five because two would be cliché.

And now we get to the final answer, the real answer, in such a league of its own it deserves to be separated from the rest via a Read More.

I lied, this is under a Read More because it's an entire fucking dissertation. Your fault for asking.

Caparezza I've spent well over a decade of my life mulling over his lyrics to the point me and my ex-flatmate played this game where she told me a random word and I'd try to find it in his lyrics (e.g. the first word of your ask, "favorite", was used in the second verse of the sixteenth track of his sixth album, yes I am neurodivergent why do you ask), and still it happens that as I am going through my everyday life I happen to accrue some information and slam my forehead going "Oh my God THAT'S what he meant there". His songs are more layered, more deep, more thoughtful, more cutting, more witty, more clever than most prose you see around and still he manages to play with his words and rhymes with incredible dexterity.

Take his last record, Exuvia - actually, take the previous record Exuvia picks up from, Prisoner 709:

Its name not only introduces the theme of imprisonment, but also of dilemmas and juxtapositions, since the prisoner's number, 709, stands for the dilemma about the number of the record: it's the 7th in his discography as Caparezza, but the 9th if one also counts the two shit records he made under his previous name Mikimix (we don't talk about those). Its tracklist, indeed, while being as typical for him incredibly varied in topics (from religions to his affinity with Ludwig II of Bavaria to "I'm not [x], BUT-" types) is arranged as chapters of a journey through an imprisonment (The Crime, The Punishment, The Weight, The Psychologist, The Letter, The Visit, The Yard Time, The Torture, The Revolt, The Guard, The Infirmary, The Window, The Evasion, The Hiding) and associated to dilemmas - for instance, as the record is about his feeling imprisoned in his body and in his role, the first song -and first chapter, The Crime- is indeed Prosopagnosia (i.e. face blindness), a track about him no longer recognizing himself in the artistic reputation he built himself, with the dilemma being between "Michele", his name, and "Caparezza", his rap name. Oh, and if you also want a taste of the impressive wordplay, well, count the letters of those two names. Yep. Every single one of the 16 tracks is a dilemma is between a 7 letter word and a 9 letter word. Because of course it is.

So now, let's get to the last record, Exuvia.

Nah, the pop-up edition's cover fucks way harder.

That's more like it.

Exuvia is the exoskeletal remains left behind by ecdysozoans after ecdysis, i.e. when creatures like insects and crustaceans develop a new exoskeleton and crawl out of their old one, as this record starts from his escaping from the anguish compounded through all his previous records and through a deep analysis of his past, his self, his surroundings, his fate, condensing it all and moving on to a new self, a new birth, a new shell. (Understand how I feel when people say the greatest rapper of all time is one whose greatest record is called "Damn" because the songs made him go "Damn" and whose biggest song is "Biggie Smalls' Juicy but this time about me".)

Well, in the second track of it, about running away from the dire situation of hatred, decay and persecution described in the first track, he says, and I paraphrase,

I give it all up, I'm dying, I retreat - Caporetto plus Waterloo Dripping and smelling like my head was in a station's toilet- oh.

introducing the desperation and hopelessness of military defeats and immediately following it up with an image whose comedic nature makes a contrast so stark as to surprise even him while still, being a reference to the military's hazing and bullying, latching back to the line before. While the prose I represent it with is deliberately poor, the concept behind the words is brilliant enough that it would be a good line if it didn't rhyme at all. And yet the original lines rhyme for twenty syllables. TWENTY.

Thing is, you can be as clever as you want, but the underlying music, you know, it can't be clever, it can just be good or bad. One would think. And yet the music is not just good but full of clever, witty samples and ideas that don't just reinforce the track's mood but tie the instrumental inextricably into the lyrics' themes, like Larsen (the track about his tinnitus, which he calls by audio feedback's technical name of Larsen effect) using high-pitched synths and emphasizing cymbals, Prisoner 709's title track being 79bpm (I wager 709bpm was a bit non-doable), House Credibility's instrumental featuring intercom buzz and cowbells reminiscent of cookware, or, well, everything in Exuvia's second single. See, that song is about the choice he faces between the story of Beethoven, who despite all his challenges kept devoting himself to music until the day he died, or that of Mark Hollis, lead of Talk Talk, who despite all the fame peaced out to focus on his private life - and the entire instrumental is devoted to that concept: the verses' reference Für Elise, the chorus Such A Shame, and the bridge I Believe In You; and when you tun into the background choirs you find they are rhythmically repeating "I don't know".

You start to get a clue why there's three years between his records.

So if his songs are so fucking good, why is he not famous? Well, he is! Except for his first album which no one really noticed (fairly so in my opinion - while I like a few songs I feel he really got going in his second one), the following records did really well for someone with such dense content: his third record has been certified gold! And all the others platinum. Some twice. Never since the first one did a record of his peak under 5 in the charts, and he's got 8 gold singles, 3 platinums and a double platinum. And don't get me started on the shows.

(That's me in the background!) Hell, he's even been on the cover of Billboard! So why've you never heard of him? Well, see the word next to Billboard.

Yep. The man, Michele Salvemini, is an Italian born and raised and, like any proper Italian, doesn't speak a whole lot of English, so pretty much all the English you'll hear in his music are the handful of English features, like Michael Franti, DMC (!) and Spandau Ballet's Tony Hadley, with which he made a song about Italy's emigration crisis.

Emigration that is also internal, from the underdeveloped, falling aparty and criminality-run south of Italy to where all the industries are, the richer and we-pretend-it's-not-criminality-run north. And since he's from Apulia, Italy's heel (his rap name in fact means "curly head" in Apulian dialect), he's made a song about its woes too, featuring the music of the tarantella, Apulia's traditional dance. (I don't know why y'all add an A in front. It's fucking "Puglia", y'all.) Here's an imperfect translation with a couple of helpful explainers to the asterisked terms over in the video's description.

It depresses me every time I think about it that all the English speakers I know will never be able to fully appreciate his lyrical brilliance. But oh well. At least y'all can appreciate the music... so fuck it, have that song whose music I yapped about so much. You'll hear the choirs in the background say "non so" (I don't know)... and a bunch more Italian words (translated here for those on desktop who want to follow along).

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question - if you liked this post, you might like those!

[puffyducks]

DCRC Week #3 (Part 2)

Aight y'all now it's time for Don Rosa's The Son of the Sun let's get it

Unlike the PKNA chapters we've read so far I actually HAVEN'T read this comic before so this will, in fact, be a true Live Puffy Reaction™

You're telling me THIS Scrooge actually pays his child nephews for their labor but DT17 Scrooge doesn't?? And he's supposed to be the nice one...

A philosopher's stone eh..... wonder how he got that....... I'm thinking about Fullmetal Alchemist sorry-

wait are they gonna kiss ewww

You can tell how much the boys love going on adventures from their reaction here, it really is the best of enrichment for them. Now hurry up and get in the plane. Also poor Donald getting smacked around when all he's done is just fucking stand there 💀

Why the fuck does the Junior Woodchuck guidebook have so much information about the Incan empire, to the point it even knows more than the guy at the museum that studied it? I mean I wasn't allowed to be a boy scout (on account of the fact that I'm a girl) so I'm lacking a frame of reference here. Maybe the actual boy scout handbook had like 200 pages dedicated to every major empire in pre-Columbian America idk.

Scrooge showing up like FUCK the natives just gimme my damn gold

WOOK OUT!!! HE'S GOT A GUuUuUUN!!!!!!

Man where's Launchpad when you need him 😭 not that his flying would be much better but y'know

What a silly and whimsical old fellow he is after holding a family of mostly children at gunpoint for multiple days! Look at him frolic around!!

Nevermind he just had all his joy and whimsy revoked sucks to suck

flat

Love how cute and happy the family looks in these panels (plus a bonus miserable Glomgold as a treat)

I REALLY need to read more of Rosa's works (which is to say that I have a giant copy of Life and Times that hasn't been cracked open yet because I've been waiting for the right opportunity to be able to actually sit down and go through it). I'm also taking this opportunity to plug Don Rosa's twitter account actually cause it's my favorite social media page ever. It's not even run by Rosa himself like he has a team that posts for him and they just upload pictures of him sleeping and eating breakfast and stuff, it's literally the best you guys.

[fantasticenthusiasttale]

Tuesday night fic!

This fic happens a little after the ep: "The 87 cent solution!"

Sorry but I don't remember if LP was in the funeral, so he wasn't.

Warning: blood and angst

Enjoy :)

《》《》《》

Since he left St. Canard to visit his family in Duckburg for some days, it was the first time Drake went for a walk in the city. He woke up early in the morning and came out of the mansion he grew up to find an old friend from high school in the square. They talked all the morining, lunched together and spent all the afternoon fishing along in the lake.

When he arrived at home, he knew the things aren't that good. He knew that Scrooge have the gold fever, but he throught that Beakley and the children can take care of him while he's out and Donald is in his job. To be honest, Drake doesn't know how Scrooge never had the gold fever before like, he was in the Golden Rush! How he never caught this sickness before?

What he wasn't ready to see, is his brother. Donald was passed out in the floor, with swollen eyes and some blood dripping out of the back of his head, forming a little puddle. He desperately tried to wake him up calling his name, but it doesn't worked. He ran screaming for Scrooge until he found him in the kitchen, talking with Beakley.

Scrooge and Beakley stopped the talking when Drake entered in the kitchen, breathless "SCROOGE!"

Scrooge tried to calm his nephew down while Beakley was taking a water glass to him "Lad, calm down and tell me what happened."

"No time! Don is bad! He's-- *breathe* he's fainted in the living room and-- *breathe* and he have blood in his head!"

"Oh my!" Scrooge, Beakley and Drake ran to see Donald in the living room exactly how Drake described.

"We have to take him to an hospital! Now!" Drake said.

"He is right Mr. Scrooge, the hurt is bad. I think I can fix it here but he needs to see a doctor fast, or..."

"Or what?" Drake doesn't like it.

"Nothing, Drake. You'll stay here to take care of the children while me, Beakley and Launchpad takes Donald to an hospital."

"No way! I'm coming with you! He's my brother and I'm worried about him!"

"I can put Donald in the car and stay here with the kids, Mr. Scrooge." Beakley tried to calm them.

Scrooge sighed. "Alright, then. Drake, calls Launchpad. He'll be here in one minute."

"I can drive, it will be faster. Let's go to my car!" Drake said while Beakley was carrying Donald with Scrooge in his heels, everybody worried about the fainted sailor.

———

Donald hurted himself so many times in his life that someday it would be too bad, now it really happened. In the hospital, the doctor said that a vein ruptured when he hited the head in the floor while passing out was the motive that Donald had to have a surgery in a rush to fix it up. He really could die if Drake hadn't noticed it.

Now, Scrooge and Drake are together waiting the surgery finish to know how Donald is.

"Hey, I see that you're better. You looks healthy." Drake broke the silence.

"Thanks, I really feel better. I found out what happened, it was only an enemy trying to make me looks crazy traveling in the time to steal me. I wasn't crazy in the end." Scrooge said like it's this the most normal thing in the world.

To Drake, this would be the most craziness he ever heard if he didn't knew with who he's talking. "Wow. Just another normal day in McDuck Mansion" he joked.

Scrooge laughed, and Drake continued "How you discovered that?"

Suddenly, Scrooge lost his smile. "It was a genius plan the children helped me to came up, I rested all day yesterday to feel good enough to do it. I... I faked my own death."

Drake laughed "Wow, that was really genius!"

Scrooge continued "The children told everyone that I couldn't resist the complications of the illness and had made all the funeral arrangements. The only one who wasn't told was... your brother."

"WHAT?!"

"The kids forgotten it! He worked all the week, we forgot that he didn't knew anything! Today was his day off, we thought that he already knew!"

"You can't be serious. This can't be true, no way."

"But it is! Donald was crying hard all the time in the funeral! As he was an actor when he was younger, we thought he was just pretending!"

"So that's why his eyes were swollen. How you dares?!"

"He fainted when he returned at the funeral and saw me alive and fine. You know what happened next." Scrooge stated sadly.

Drake couldn't believe. So long after their adventuries with Scrooge, his uncle still doesn't care for his brother's health. Ten years after the Spear of Selene goes wrong and he still thinks that they are indestructibles, that nothing can stop them. Donald didn't had a good health when he was younger because of the adventuries, and it isn't better after these ten years, on the contrary, it's even worse.

"How you doesn't noticed anything? How could you let this happen? You wasn't the one who raised us? You doesn't care about your nephew???"

"Of course I do! I just think I doesn't know who's him anymore, he's so different now."

"Of course! We raised the triplets together, but alone! I changed too! But there was no other way! We were trying hard to overcome the Spear of Selene and scared about how to raise these boys for too much time! And maybe we still are! That changed us!"

"I know. You two did a great job."

"Donald Duck's family?" A doctor said when she arrived at the waiting room. Drake and Scrooge got up at the same time, worried with the relative.

"Good evening, misters. The surgery was a success. His life is no longer in danger." Both of them let out big sighs "But you'll only can see him tomorrow." They thanked to her before she left.

Left alone by the doctor, the feeling of the guilt was around them, whispering in their ears. Drake was feeling guilty for thinking he should have stayed with his brother instead of spending all day with his old friend, despite the fact that he didn't know about the plan either. Scrooge was feeling guilty for thinking that he should have taken better care of his nephew, he should have sensed that something was wrong with him in the way he was crying. Despite of all of that theories, in the depth down, they just wanted one thing: a healthy, smiling Donald.

[csown]

Juan Felipe Campos

Founder/CEO @ NomadApp, Plug & Play Silicon Valley5y When I first moved to Silicon Valley, I started taking notes of the lessons learned from every encounter and mentor. I’ve come some way since moving; I graduated from 2 Silicon Valley accelerators, hit over $1MM in sales with one of my startups, became a mentor at the Google Launchpad Manos Accelerator and learned how to surround myself with great people.

I kept all these lessons on a notepad and will share them here for the first time.

These are the 23 lessons I learned from living in Silicon Valley for one year:

1. On becoming successful:

We are totally a result of our behaviors. Fall in love with behaviors that turn into positive results. Don’t just fall in love with the results. That goes for finances, fitness, health, and much more.

There is admiration, inspiration, and envy. Take your passive admiration and turn it into inspiration. Take your negative envy and turn it into inspiration. You’re so close to feeling a positive force, just anchor it to inspiration if you want to go anywhere.

Just become buddies with people that ALREADY go to the gym/wake up early/make good money. Don't try to convince your fat buddy to start going to the gym with you. It’s much harder to pull that off.

If you think people at the gym are vain and shallow... How can you ever hope to become like them? If you think millionaires are greedy and heartless, how can you ever hope to learn from and replicate their behaviors? You can't become what you resent.

“Whatever you think the world is withholding from you, you are withholding from the world.” - @EckhartTolle

What would the smarter, healthier version of yourself be doing right now? Why aren't you doing it?

Leaders don't have followers. Leaders create other leaders.

2. On advisors:

Most give opinions, not personal experience; and that’s ok, just be conscious of this. They haven’t necessarily done before what they’re telling you to do.

Be picky with your advisors, they are your coaches. You are the quarterback.

Most mentors will teach you how to be like them, the best ones will teach you how to be the best version of yourself.

Advisors should help you focus and take stuff out from your todo list, not just find more things to add on. Whenever they say “update your pitch deck”, ask “Okay, should I do that instead of developing my app?” Tasks need to be taken out in order for new ones to be brought in.

Be careful, most advisors advice the startup and not the entrepreneur. They will give you the right advice for your startup at the wrong time for your life. Work with people that will help you navigate your whole package (children, spouse, debt, etc.)

3. On fund raising:

Get to a point in your career where you can just call up your friends to fund your new idea.

You can’t build a bonfire with nothing but a match. You need lots of sticks and gasoline. Your teams represents the sticks. VC money should be the gasoline on your already working fire; make sure you don’t see VC money as the match or the sticks. It’s meant to amplify what already works.

Make sure you have real product-market fit, not product-VC fit. Nobody wants to be in a failed startup even if it raised funds. Make sure yours fits the market instead of just getting the quick VC check.

4. On the current VC landscape:

VC's don't play into the big bubble. They play into small bubbles like AI, ML, AR, VR, etc.

They invest in Twitter only because it looks good on their portfolio for the long term.

They make most of their money when the next VC invests, not when the company goes IPO or gets acquired. Those trophies are for the late stage VC investors, not the early stage guys.

Some investors literally invest in Patent portfolios just because it means that they can sue somebody if they want to. Everybody is suable by somebody else by the current rules.

5. On Silicon Valley:

There is no success border patrol in Silicon Valley. Show up! It’s yours too. These opportunities are not reserved for people better than you. They are reserved for those brave enough to demand their attention.

6. On product-market fit:

You almost can't be too niche. You can DEFINITELY be too broad. Most startups are too broad.

7. On humility:

The advantage you had yesterday, will be replaced by the trends of tomorrow. You don’t have to do anything wrong, but as long as your competitors catch the wave and do it RIGHT, you can lose out and fail.

You should get excited about the accomplishments of others, not intimidated. It means you can do it too.

8. On viral campaigns:

People only share things that make THEM look good; not things that make YOU look good.

One great piece of content can change your career! You control how often you go at bat with great content. If you're GOOD enough, put out content every single day. You will inevitably rise to the top. Think what would happen if a 14 year old girl with Beyonce's voice put out a Facebook Live video every day. Within a year she would be signed. You control how often people are exposed to you content. If you think you've got what it takes, PLAY THE DISTRIBUTION GAME. Have consistency on your side.

9. On social media engagement:

It's easy to treat people as a collective instead of as individuals when you are presented with opportunities at scale. Make the effort to thank every compliment, answer every tweet. People see it. It matters.

10. On self awareness:

Don't think other entrepreneurs don’t have bad times. You’re only seeing their highlight reel.

11. On time management:

Time is the only finite source. You can always get more of everything else, but not time. Your time is running out.

Entrepreneurs get help for resources that we can recover like money and human resources. Why don’t we get “accountants” or “coaches” for our only limited source in life? Figure this out. Get into an accelerator, get mentors, onboard advisors, etc. Whatever it is; fix it. This matters.

Compound interest also applies to work-life balance. If you work really hard at the beginning of your career and you just get more done and work harder, then there is a compound effect. The earlier you start, the more you get to enjoy the benefits of it.

12. On making perfect deals:

What you want should be the same thing that everyone else in that deal wants. Example: Don't enter your customers into a raffle to win an iPad as a reward to download your app. You want app downloads, your users want an iPad. This is not a good deal.

Make deals where you win no matter what happens. Even if you don’t win, fix your attitude so you still win. You always have to win. Everything is a dot in your story to success. You’re perfect in this moment; you’re just not finished yet.

13. On benefits to users:

Figure out how to have such good product/market fit that your clients are rewarded by getting MORE of your product and they LOVE it. You shouldn’t have to rely on external incentives.

Find out what your users want. Some can be incentivized with a verified badge or a free download. Understand your audience intimately; this will help you make better decisions.

14. On having too many features:

Most entrepreneurs want it ALL from day one. Platforms are crowded with buggy features. It’s hard to market an app that makes no money and has 0 fanatics on day one.

Key to success is focus: have the 1 or 2 things that your app does and your customers want; make them great and grow with your audience as you launch more features.

15. On perfection paralysis:

Perfection is overrated. Learn from Facebook and, “Move fast and break things.”

16. On being “right” about a trend:

You can't break out unless the platform itself is breaking out. Bet on the platform that's growing. When the tide rises, all boats rise with it.

17. On getting funded:

We always hear, "It's all about the team", and we think that it means the team has to be down to earth and likeable. It does not. It means the team has to show a proven record of success and commitment to the relentless pursuit of excellence. Nobody gets this badge overnight, it’s like being an athlete or a professional musician. People won’t see you have “it” unless you’ve been pruning yourself through years and years of discipline.

18. On networking:

We always hear: "It's not what you know, it's who you know." If you come from a humble background, you’ll take offence to this and think that you can’t know big people since you don’t have that built-in network. Get that chip off your shoulder. Build a network of people that you love being around and bring tons of value into your life.

19. On hiring:

Entrepreneurs hear, “The team is everything” and they think they have to go out and be really picky about who they hire. Instead, they should be worried about becoming the right people to work for. You can only attract all time greats if you're an all time great. It's not just about being picky. It's about being someone worth working for.

Don't hire your friends. Go waaaaay out of your way to hire the best in the world. You won't be able to recruit them until you're the best yourself.

When recruiting, you should pitch the talent, not them pitch you. If they are pitching you, then you're hiring the low hanging fruit. Work hard for your talent. Find yourself in a position where you are pitching every person you hire because you recognize that they could work anywhere else.

Hire quickly, fire quickly. The #1 greatest mistake any great founder makes is waiting too long to fire bad people.

Don't just hire people who are passionate about your goal; hire people who are actually good at what they do, too. You can't build a school by hiring only teachers. You need architects and engineers too. Your employees don't have to be passionate about your company for the same reasons you are as long as you both want the same result.

20. On building a personal brand:

Struggling to build a personal brand? Your problem is that you're too complex. Are you the witty brand, the strong motivational brand, the intellectual brand? You can't grow quickly when you're trying to be too many things. Just pick something and stick to it long enough for people to recognize you. If you have too many passions, STILL just pick one thing and then change to the next thing once you have an audience.

21. On learning from previous generations:

Your grandparents are theoretically better at social media than you are. They are the ones that invented the handshake, the ones that invented baking you a cake when your grandmother died, the ones that invented the baker's dozen, and asking you questions when you walked into the store. The internet and social media have made it easier and given you an excuse to be less human instead of amplifying and scaling your humanity. The more "Jetsons" that we become, the more the “Flinstones” will win.

Facebook audience research is something old people would have done. Testing the market. Oldest trick in the book. Don’t ignore it, ask people if they like your stuff.

Great founders are like great farmers, they look for 10% growth every week. They look for the boring things and not the things that get televised. For you, this means hard work, getting clients, billing, delivering a great product. Do this instead of focusing all your time on fund raising, getting rockstar advisors, growing your social media followers, etc.

22. On burning out:

I was told that you get burnt out from working too hard and what I found in my own experience is that burnout actually comes from failing and things not working. Momentum is really energizing; the lack of momentum is super draining. I find that I have infinite energy to work on things that are working, and almost none to work on things that I either find uninteresting or that are not working. So when you look at successful people and you wonder how they get so much done; it's really all about momentum. Momentum is really energizing, and lack of momentum is really not energizing.

23. On building a support system:

Be careful, you may think that you have a support system when in reality what you really have is people that hold you down. Those people don't want you to be better than them. It can even be your spouse. They are scared of losing you and losing who you are.

There are dozens of individuals who I wish I could thank for loving me into who I am today. This is my own lesson over the last year:

It’s easy to overlook the sacrifices and effort needed to bring you to where you are in life.

It’s a gift.

Show us all what you do with it.

[jadedstar2]

Some powerful quotes from the book, “The Body Keeps The Score”:

“…our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another.”

“As we now know, war is not the only calamity that leaves human lives in ruins…Each year about three million children in the United States are reported as victims of child abuse and neglect. One million of these cases are serious and credible enough to force local child protective services or the courts to take action. In other words, for every soldier who serves in a war zone abroad, there are ten children who are endangered in their own homes…It is very difficult for growing children to recover when the source of terror pain is not enemy combatants but their own caretakers.”

And, in referencing the Rorschach tests which were performed on several groups of traumatized peoples, it was discovered that trauma affects one’s ability to use imagination.

“ Imagination is absolutely critical to the quality of our lives. Our imagination enables us to leave our routine every day existence by fantasizing about travel, sex, falling in love, or having the last word - all the things that make life interesting.  Imagination gives us the opportunity to envision new possibilities - It is an essential launchpad for making our hopes come true. It fires our creativity, relieves our boredom, alleviates our pain, enhances our pleasure, and enriches our most intimate relationships…Without imagination there is no hope, no chance to envision a better future, no place to go, no goal to reach.”

In layman’s words, one cannot begin to think of what they WANT, (vs. NEED), because they are either still stuck in their past traumas, or they are CURRENTLY, STILL living in an unsafe environment that deprives them of the safety that is needed PRIOR to BEGINNING to heal their trauma.

When you are stuck in trauma/traumatizing situations, your brain literally is UNABLE to utilize imagination, to hope, to dream. How can anyone accomplish such a feat when they are hyper-focused on just getting their basic human needs met, or even trying to merely stay alive. It’s actually quite a simple and utterly non-complex notion.

PTSD is a physical wound. The brain is literally broken. It’s not just “poor mental health.” Only ignorant people are so blasé about the seriousness of the condition. And, from my experience anyways, the twisted fact is that it is CHOSEN ignorance. Usually because it is beneficial to them to dismiss it. But that’s another topic entirely.

The very sad truth is, oftentimes, one person is unable to hope or want simply because another person has forced their own WANTS to superimpose the other’s NEEDS. Hardly seems fair, right?

One way I have personally tried to describe the quoted paragraph above, (granted, this was prior to reading this book, so now it makes all the more sense to me), is this:

I am treading water. I’ve been treading water. For years. During storms, in the face of tidal waves, even in the short-lived periods of calm in between, I am always treading water. Trying to keep my head above the water. Trying to survive. I rarely found the time, let alone energy, to consider, “Which direction would I swim in if i was gifted with a long-enough duration of calm? Where would I even go? And what if I go in the wrong direction?” And even then, as I type this out for the first time, I recognize that my brain was still locked in survival mode, when I would try to see past the idea of endless treading. “What if I don’t go in the right direction” really meant “What if I use my last ounces of remaining stamina to head SOMEWHERE, and then I never find a shoreline? Then I’m dead anyways.”

There were never thoughts of, “when I get to shore…”

There were never thoughts like, “I can’t wait to finally reach my island destination and lay out in the sun.”

When people tell me I should start thinking about what I want to do next, now that I’ve “escaped”, my brain feels like it’s hitting a cement wall. What do you mean, what I want? I still don’t have enough money for food, I’m still waiting on disability, and even once I get it, it’s less than minimum wage, and I still have all these medical bills.”

Escaping life or death is often just a “leveling” up of sorts, and then it’s on to the next “level”, progressively getting harder, just like any video game, but also with a steady progression of growing fatigue and waning hope. And there are no magical Stamina potions here.

[bastillewolf]

Shinigami Eyes (II)

Pairing: Corpse Husband / Reader

Summary: After you distastefully kill Corpse in a game of Among Us, he wants you to make it up to him and invites you to come over for the week.

Notes: Thank you so much for the love on the previous chapter, I’ve never gotten this many notes before. I hope you enjoy, and maybe leave an ask if you want to? I can’t promise I have time to do them, but I’ll pick out a couple.

Also, I might rewrite this. I kinda rushed it because I wanted to finish it by tonight, but there will be a final and third chapter to this afterwards. Please do let me know what you think.

Tag list CLOSED!

Shinigami Eyes - Pt. II

5… 4… 3… 2… 1…

Impostor

You were teamed up with Sean.

Your fist violently slammed down on the desk. “Goddammit! I don’t want to be impostor anymore! This game has no compassion for my poor nerves.” It was the third time in a row now, and you were really craving to do normal tasks now without all the scheming. “Fuck it, I don’t care if they kill me. I’m just gonna do my thing without thinking about it.”

You decide to follow Toast for a bit to watch him do some task. You kill him in Laboratory. You vent back to Launchpad and take your time walking towards MedBay while the kill button restores. You meet up with Corpse, and follow him while pretending to do wires in the Y-hallway. You watched the green bar go up, and continued. Sabotaging and then fixing lights, you made sure your place with Corpse was settled. Then the body of Lily was reported.

As you expected, Corpse easily vouched for you as he’d seen you do a task. The round was skipped, though Rae was sussed for ‘chasing’ Sean, by his own words.

“Corpse, you’ve grown weak,” you muttered to chat.

You were in Greenhouse, and decided it would be best to kill him there and sabotage Reactor. “Sorry baby, but I can’t keep following you around.” You quickly set off Reactor and murdered him in front of the plants. “Your blood shall keep the plants hydrated.” You did an evil laugh. “Pretty sure that’s not how it works, though.”

You vented down to MedBay and as you walked out you met up with Rae. She’d be the vouch who would confirm you weren’t anywhere near Greenhouse. “I’ll just have to fix my own sabotage so they’ll never suspect me.” You helped her with the handprint, and noted Sykkuno and Felix being there. Sean sabotaged lights, you killed Sykkuno, and ran out to follow Lily into Laboratory. Felix reported the body.

“Holy shit,” Rae gasped. So far, five people had died. You only needed to kill one more person. “It was Felix!”

“Wait, what?” the man in question asked. “I was fixing Reactor!”

She mentioned that only you, Sykkuno, Felix and herself had been there and that you’d helped her do handprint. “Sykkuno must have fixed it, and then you killed him!”

Sean asked if you’d seen anything.

“No, the lights were out. I followed Rae into Laboratory after the scan.” Your voice didn’t tremble or raise, a tactic you’d taken up from the best lair in the group. Well, the one who was now dead. Oops. “I haven’t seen Felix this entire game, though.”

He was evidently at a loss for words, so the group was quick to vote for him.

Pewds was ejected.

Victory.

You thanked Sean for a good game who was laughing his ass off. “I can’t believe you did Corpse like that! Poor guy!”

“I deadass thought you were innocent,” Corpse replied, “I’m hurt.”

“Why do you still sound dark and menacing when you say something like that?!”

You agreed with Sean heartily, “He’s just salty I’ve bested him at his own game.”

“Hey now, no need to actually insult me.”

The group laughed. You decided to call it for the night, right before Corpse did the same.”

 ***

He was calling you again. “What is it this time, you salty?”

“Salty? Nah, never,” he said, but you weren’t convinced.

“Then why you calling?”

“What, I can’t call my friends after playing a nice round of Among Us?”

“Not when you lost the game and you call the person who you lost to. Kinda sus, dude.”

“Alright, maybe a little salty.” You smirked.

“Aw, you need me to make it up to you?”

He laughed. “What did you have in mind?”

A bunch of thoughts, most not rated PG-13, crossed your mind. You were suddenly starting to feel uncomfortable. This was probably just something innocent, which got twisted in your fucked-up mind. You shrugged, “Uh… I don’t know.”

“I got an idea.”

“What is it?”

“Come over this week. You said you needed a break, right?”

“That sounds more like you’re doing me a favour instead of me making it up to you.”

“I don’t have any friends. You’d be making it up to me by being the first physical person here in years. I usually don’t invite people over.”

“Wow, I’m flattered. So, you don’t consider me to be your friend after all?”

“You know that’s not what I meant,” he chuckled.

“Sure, sure. Tell me that again when my presence suddenly brightens your life making you not want to get rid of me, ever.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

 ***

You walk through the gates following a hoard of people, all the while still feeling drowsy from not getting any sleep during your flight. At least you didn’t have any turbulence and landed safely. Glancing around here and there with no result, you figured Corpse would be waiting outside, until you spotted a figure clad in black a little ends away by the escalator. You were glad you were still awake enough to have found him, because he appeared to silently linger halfway behind a fern.

At least, you hoped it was him. The only indications were his clothes, mask and dark hair. You saw him run a hand through it, and identified the chipped black nail polish and familiar rings. Oh yea, that was him alright.

He seemed to be paying more attention to the floor until he saw two feet appear in his line of sight. “Hey,” you awkwardly greeted. A bit taken a back, he replied, “Oh, wow. Hey.” A mask was covering the bottom of his face, but as far as you could see his eyes were a very dark shade.

“Wow?” you repeated. He chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “Yea, sorry. It’s a compliment.” You held your elbow out in a safe-distance gestured hello, but he shrugged you off. “You’re gonna be staying with me anyways.” Suddenly in a daze, you felt him wrap his arms around your waist and instantly hugged him back. His baggy sweater felt warm and soft to the touch, and strands of hair tickled your face. You very much tried to repress your smile and blush, but how could you? Hugging someone wasn’t supposed to feel this good. When he pulled back he reached down to take your suitcase from you. “I don’t own a car, is it okay if we take a cab?”

“Y-Yeah, of course,” you stuttered, “But it’s on me. Same with food and stuff.” “Don’t worry about it,” he chuckled. “No, you’re letting me stay with you and a hotel would’ve been a lot more expensive than this. It’s my treat.” “Yeah, we’ll see.” He gave you a look and even with the mask you could tell he was smirking underneath it.

It’s about half an hour drive to his apartment complex, and it’s rather nice. “All that YouTube money paying off, huh?” you asked in amusement. “You’d know,” he replied. You insisted on carrying your suitcase up the stairs yourself, which he silently shook his head at, until after a few flights he noticed you struggling and settled on carrying the thing in between the two of you. “How many clothes did you bring?” “Oh, it’s mostly filled with bricks I might need to throw at your head.” He laughed at that.

His apartment was simple, but cosy. “Home sweet home,” he said, almost sarcastically. You furrowed your brow at him. “I’m sure you could’ve had it a lot worse.” He reluctantly agreed.

He helped you set down your luggage in what appeared to be his bedroom, where the curtains were still closed and the black bedsheets fresh. He had a few pieces of fanart up on his wall, and some on his closet. You turned to him and gave him a look. “You’re not sleeping on the couch.”

He quickly shook his head, “You’re not sleeping there. If you won’t let me sleep on the couch I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“If you’re sleeping on the floor, I’m sleeping on the floor.”

“Yeah, we’ll see about that,” he murmured. “What?” “Nothing.”

He suggested playing video games as you were both too tired to do anything else. You’d landed quite late yet were still confused about what time it actually was. Flying is weird. You hopped onto his couch and grabbed a controller.

He sat down next to you, but suddenly seemed tenser than before.

“You okay? You can just go to sleep if you want to.”

He shook his head, “Nah, I don’t sleep a lot. It’s fine.”

You didn’t stop looking at him, though. He was still wearing that mask. “You don’t have to take it off, if you don’t want to. I understand if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“It’s not that, I just…” He took a deep breath. You hadn’t expected him to take it off then and there. You stared at him, your mouth slightly agape, controller barely held by your numb hands.

“Disappointed?”

It was as if he was expecting you to make a face or something, but you didn’t give him anything, except for a blatant “Nope” and an “Are we gonna play now or what?”

“You don’t have anything else to say?”

You shrugged, and looked him up and down again. “You’re kind of what I imagined you to be.”

“What’s that?”

“Handsome.”

Neither of you could stop smiling for the rest of the night.

You eventually forced him to sleep in his own bed, even going as far as to shove him into the room and keep your weight against the door so he couldn’t get out, so he eventually relented. “Inviting you here was a mistake.” “How come? All I’ve done so far is look after you!” “You’re a nightmare.”

You mostly stayed in for the week, which you didn’t mind at all. Being in such a closed-off environment with someone you got along with was nice. He attempted to get you to lift the weights in his room and succeeded for around fifteen minutes until you nearly dropped a dumbbell on your foot. You ordered take-out from his favourite restaurant, watched horror movies until you adapted to his sleeping schedule because you were too scared to close your eyes now, and even streamed a bit together with your friends.

“Wait, is Corpse with you?” Rae had asked.

“No, I’m at Corpse’s. He’s sitting across from me so I can’t see his screen but we’re gonna have to share the Discord unless you want to hear an echo.”

“Ah, man! You got to see his face, too?” Sykkuno whined.

“Stop simping, Sykkuno. You get enough attention from him already.”

“Don’t worry, I still love you,” Corpse said.

“Huh?”

It was probably a good thing that you got teamed up again, because you could indeed start to see his hands shaking right as the word ‘impostor’ appeared on the screen. You reached over and stroked it with your thumb. He smiled gratefully back at you.

“Just please,” he pleaded later that day, “Sleep in the bed. If only for one night.”

“No. I’ve heard about and now seen your sleeping habits. If you take the couch you’re never going to get any sleep.” You made a real effort to show him how comfortable you were – even though your back had started to hurt already after the first night – by crawling underneath your blanket and rubbing your head into the soft pillow. He snorted.

Next thing, you feel yourself being lifted by an arm underneath your knees and one around your back. “Corpse! Put me the fuck down!” you shrieked. You knew he lifted weights, but how the hell did he still have the energy as an insomniac? He ungracefully dropped you onto the matrass and turned the lights off. “Good night.”

You quickly got hold of the back of his hoodie before he could leave and pulled. He fell down next to you with a low huff. “Fine, I’ll sleep in the bed. But only if you sleep here too.”

“I snore.”

“Don’t care.”

For some reason, there wasn’t any tension or awkwardness. You were comfortable, and the soft rhythm of his breathing seemed to soothe you. He called out your name, to see if you were still awake.

“Hm?”

“…Thanks for coming over.”

“Any time.”

This was how you would spend the rest of the nights, and whenever either of you woke up suddenly curled up around the other, you didn’t mention it or move away from it. It was the first time in years Corpse got a few nights of complete rest.

[moonbeam-dragon]

Positive Charge Part 5

Moonrise! This is going to have a few little skips in it. Once again, I'm short on time. To clarify, this story isn't about their developing relationship, so we can jump past that and nobody gets mad. I want to get to the juicy stuff. Also I re-arranged the time-line for my AU because DWD91 snd DT17 crossover.

"Thanks again, Launchpad," Drake said as his brushed off his shirt. "It means a lot that you're looking after Gosalyn while I'm out."

Launchpad waved his hand, grinning. "Aw, it's nothin', Drake, " the tall duck said. "Besides, I want to spend more time with her before I make the move."

Drake frowned a little. He didn't want Launchpad to move away. He'd been a huge help for years now. Since Gosalyn was nine, he'd had a part-time job with him and Scrooge McDuck. After the incident with F.O.W.L, he'd fully moved to St. Canard. But now he'd been back in Duckberg off and on because of his recent engagement. Darkwing was a soloist. But he found it lonely without him. It was going to get very lonely when he officially moved back to get married. Not that he'd say that, of course! "Ah, yes. Well, I should get going. It's almost time!" he said, excusing himself.

"Dad, wait!" Gosalyn called, running down the stairs. She held something in her hand, a small flower of some sorts. "I was talking to Honker about first date ideas and-"

"Gosalyn!" Drake warned, hands on his hips. "I told you it wasn't something you could tell people! This is a top secret mission."

Gosalyn's beak turned red and she shook her head. "Oh, no! It was for a uh- A writing project, that's it! Anyways, he said that daisies were a good flower to bring on a first date because they represent new love and blah blah blah. So here!"

Taking the small white flower, Drake asked, "Did you cut this from the Muddlefoots' garden?"

Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "You know you wouldn't get mad at me for that!"

Drake peered his eyes at his daughter before laughing. "Ha, you're right. Just don't make make a habit. Stealing isn't nice," he told her half-heartedly. He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. Yes, Gosalyn was fourteen now. But she was never too old for parental love.

"Goodbye. Have fun~" Gosalyn said in a teasing tone.

___

"He's going to ask what I've been doing the past fifteen years!" Megavolt exclaimed. "What am I supposed to say? I've been galabanting around the city fighting a short-ass vigilante?"

The rat turned to the other people in his apartment. He'd called over the Fearsome Four to help him. He had a lot of things to keep in order and a meeting with all them sure would help. They'd lodge everything into place.

Quackerjack hummed, tapping his chin. "So we're playing a backstop game! Well, let's start from the beginning!"

(Adam and Eve bought knowledge for the small price of a little sin~ If you get that, I love you!)

"Well I don't know much about the beginning," the rat admitted. "My childhood was probably-"

"I think he means when you ran away," Bushroot said, smiling at his boyfriend. "What have you already told him?"

"That I ran away because of issues. I was pretty vague. I think," Megavolt told them, scratching his head.

Liquidator shook his head. "That simply will not do! You'd best explain your memory issues," he advised.

"Ooh! Good point!" Quackerjack said, snapping. "Guess you can't say you fried your mind!"

"Say you got your head hit, Kit!" Mr. Banana Brain suggested.

Quackerjack nodded. "That's so cliche. But it works!"

Megavolt raised an eyebrow, "And how did I hit my head?"

"Uh- I dunno, a car accident?" Bushroot piped in.

"Yeah, okay, I can say that!" Megavolt noted. "But the police went looking for me. What happened then?"

"If you find it difficult to set up your back story in St. Canard? Consider re-locating somewhere else, such as Duckberg or Heron Cove?" Liquidator pitched.

Megavolt hummed. "Heron Cove? Not to far, but far enough they wouldn't fine me. So I ran there and was in an accident and forgot a bunch of stuff. I already told him I work as electrician. So I just moved there-"

"Just call it nostalgia," Quackerjack told him. "You missed it here is all! Or you recently remembered that you did!"

"Okay. Sure. I moved back to St. Canard for the ambience. Sound good?"

"Yep yep, Depp!" Mr. Banana Brain affirmed.

Megavolt nodded, smiling at his friends. "Thanks! I couldn't have come up with that on my own." He checked the time on one of his watches. "Aw, shit! You guys gotta get out!" The man waved his hands. "I need to get ready and you've got better crap to do!"

"Have fun! But not to much fun!" Quacjerjack called as he was pushed out.

From the hallway, Bushroot called, "Don't do anything illegal while out of costume!"

"And if you need an escape, give us a call. Operators are standing by!" Liquidator added as the door shut.

Elmo sighed, smiling. "Those dorks."

___

Drake stood outside the coffee shop, waiting fir Elmo. He twirled the daisy in his fingers gently. That was sweet of Gosalyn to do. He did wonder, thought: Why were Honker and Gosalyn talking about first dates? She'd said a school project. But that sounded fake. Could she be going on a datebwith Honker-

"Hey, Drake," a raspy voice cut through his thoughts. He looked up to see Elmo standing above him, grinning nervously. He looked a little more groomed. And he was wearing a tie. Huh. "Sorry I'm late."

Drake looked up at the clock by the window. He was ten minutes late. Knowing what he knew about Megavolt's memory, it was impressive he was here at all. "It's no biggie," Drake assured him. "I'm glad you made it." There was a best that Drake quickly filled with the motion of holding up the single daisy. "Uh, here," he said, blushing. This was ridiculous! Why had he agreed to play into this date thing? Why was he flirting with his arch enemy? Was this really the best approach? Who's idea was this??

Elmo blushed deeper, stuttering. "Oh, thanks. You didn't have to," he said.

Drake cleared his throat and put the flower into Elmo's shirt pocket. "Yes, well, I did," he said. That was a horrible comeback. Wait, it wasn't a comeback; it was a response. Well, it was a bad response. "Ahem, shall we?" Drake asked, opening the door for his date.

I'm going to leave it short. I'll add on in the next chapter. As usual, I hope you enjoyed. Like and comment. Please comment, I want to know your thoughts! Farewell, best of luck, avoid roasted cabbage, don’t eat earwax, and look on the bright side of life! Moonset!

[writebackatya]

12 and 25 for excerpt ask game?

12. Excerpt that has a particularly good characterization

I really love how the entire bathroom scene came out from I Think We’re Alone Now! but particularly this part

I love the exchange between Gandra and Della where Gandra tells her problem isn’t that simple to which Della assures her it can’t be that complicated. I really wanted to capture Della’s optimistic and supportive nature to contrast with Gandra’s cynical and private nature

I loved the growth Della went through in Season 2 and really loved how afterwards she became a very supportive character and honestly a bit wiser. I can just see her wanting to help a random woman she doesn’t know who may be in danger. After all, she made some stupid decisions in her past that she wouldn’t want anyone else go through.

Of course this is followed by the true best part of this entire scene

And yes. Nothing will ever be funnier to me than Della Duck singing Why Should I Worry while wasted out of her mind

25. Excerpt that I consider a favorite

Well this is always changing. But I’d say the entire arcade scene between Dewey and Gandra from Let’s All Go to the Movies! is a favorite of mine

I’m sorry Gandra, I just love pairing you up with well meaning idiots. You were just created to be the perfect snarky straight man in a conversation and I will always use that

I love the idea of Dewey and Gandra being paired up for an adventure because it makes sense but is also kind of a subversion as well as a deconstruction of both characters and who they normally get paired up with in my eyes

To Dewey, Gandra Dee is just another cool adult friend of the family. He’s used to teaming up with people like Launchpad, Della, and Kit who were automatically like “Hey this kid thinks I’m cool! Of course I can teach you how to be awesome like me!”

To Gandra, Dewey Duck just the stupid brother of her boyfriend’s friend who is like a preteen from that rich family. I think it’d take her time to adjust to Dewey’s energy

But I like this duo because typically I see Gandra’s science side expanded upon and not enough of her spy side. While Huey might look up to Gandra for her intelligence and scientific side, Dewey would look up to her for her badass spy stuff. And both sides of Gandra need to be appreciated

[godfrey-the-chaos-duck]

Okay okay okay HEAR ME OUT

This is really heckin random {especially for my first ever writing post} BUT HEAR ME THE FRICK OUT PLEASE.

****Minor S2 Spoilers****

Has anybody considered what happened in "The 87 Cent Solution" directly after the bit where Scrooge says "Okay, maybe I am a wee bit sick" (he sounds so defeated on that line OMG) and Huey says "But maybe you're not crazy" and the false page about Gold Fever starts falling out of the Junior Woodchuck Guidebook.

Here's my take on it, y'all can say what you think would happen. (Smol piece I wrote at like five in the morning, maybe not my best work... Oh well)

Scrooge McDuck stood on the edge of his... walkway, diving board thing (idk what it's actually called HELP), gazing down at his fortune. A golden glimmer sparkled in his red, bleary eyes. And all his family could do was stare; they'd tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn't have it. If he wanted to risk his life, that was his choice.

He was going to do it. It hadn't quite sunk in yet, but Scrooge was going to jump. As everyone else looked on in horror, Scrooge moved slightly, as if about to dive into his money for quite possibly the last time, and...

"Ah-choo! Atchoo! Aitchoo!" Scrooge sneezed loudly, and then he turned to face Huey, who had run up to him.

"Okay," the old duck admitted at last, "maybe I am a wee bit sick."

"But maybe you're not crazy..." Huey said, opening his Junior Woodchuck guidebook. The page on "Gold Fever" was falling out. It was a fake.

"Now, come on, Mister McDee, let's get you home," Launchpad suggested, helping Scrooge walk back to the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Beakley heard a knock on the oak front doors of McDuck Manor on that January afternoon. Polite as ever, she answered it.

Little did she know how much worse things had gotten in a matter of a few days.

She was greeted by the fervent clamouring of the kids, each giving their own overlapping account of the events of that day. Then the babble of talk fell silent as Launchpad McQuack, ever the klutz, took slow, careful steps up to the door. He appeared to be supporting someone, helping them walk, but there was no way of telling who, given that the figure was almost totally hidden by the heavy tartan blanket they were wearing over their head and shoulders like a hooded robe.

A shaky, ragged breath. The figure raised their head, arranging the blanket around their shoulders, and Beakley had to really try not to draw back in shock when she saw the tired, unhinged-looking face of Scrooge McDuck staring vaguely up at her. Scrooge hadn't been home in three days (none of them had, what with the Bin being placed on lockdown), and Beakley was more than a little worried about him.

"S-sir?" Beakley faltered, deciding to hold off on the firm talking-to she had been planning to give him for the moment, "Are you alright?!"

"Beakley..." Scrooge said, his voice barely a whisper; that cold had caught up to him quicker than he thought. But that one word was all he managed to get out before he stumbled across the threshold, collapsing into the housekeeper's arms. He hadn't quite fainted, but his legs had given out from under him as sheer exhaustion took over. Beakley immediately brought him to his room, laying him down in bed (where, truth be told, he should've been all along - why did he have to be so stubborn?) and placing a cool flannel on his forehead in hopes of bringing down his fever. Scrooge didn't have the energy to protest as he normally would; today had taken everything out of him, and it showed. He slowly let the sweet relief of slumber wash over him as he lay there shivering under his blanket in his magnificent four-poster bed.

"What on Earth happened?" Beakley asked the kids once they'd all headed to the living room, "He wasn't like this when he left." Huey looked to his brothers, and then to Webby. The three of them nodded; it was best that Huey take this one. He told Beakley and Duckworth everything; the apparent robbery that had taken place (albeit of only 87 measly cents), Scrooge's slow descent into a disturbing, dangerous madness, the faked Guidebook page, the plane crash - all of it.

"… and then I guess it just all caught up to him after that, because he let us bring him home," Huey finished, "I know it sounds kinda far-fetched, I wouldn't be surprised if you don't believe me."

"I've been working for Mr. McDuck since before you were even born," Beakley told him, "This is honestly one of the more reasonable stories I've heard." The kids all looked at each other; this definitely sounded fair, knowing their family.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That was all I managed to get done before the dreaded writer's block got me (oh noooo) but here are some other points!

After Scrooge had gotten the good night's sleep he desperately needed, as was said in the episode, the family put their heads together and figured out Glomgold's plan.

The fake funeral was DEFINITELY Louie's idea. Everyone else just ran with it. Beakley rang up one of her old S.H.U.S.H. contacts to help with Scrooge's disguise.

The reason Donald didn't know about any of this was that (my headcanon) when someone in the house gets sick (Scrooge in this case) Donald hides on the houseboat in the pool. It's probably just as well that this happened because if Donald had been there for that scene Glomgold dancing to All I Do Is Win, then it would've swiftly turned into Flintheart Glomgold's actual funeral!

Let me know what you guys think may have happened! I love hearing other people's ideas and headcanons.

[nari-nim]

yeosang as your boyfriend

nari note: kicking off the bf series with this king. who do you want to see next? creds for gif goes to @holy-yeosang​

Let’s be honest, you might have to make the first move with him

But it’s worth it because yeosang is actually such boyfriend material

He takes comfort in established familiarity and warm-heartedness, so likes taking things slow and understanding your personality more than anything

Shy boi at first even as y’all are dating

It can take a long time to reach the point he’s super comfortable. 

But please be patient with him because he really has super intense and strong feelings for you

Super playful and chaotic once he feels max comfortable around you!!

Type to be quiet around others but then rambles nonstop with you. Would be so funny too, he has so many hot takes he was holding in 

Can be unpredictable, but not in a bad way! 

More like he just stares at you in such a straight face until you get slightly worried, but he just feeds you three pocky sticks, kisses your lips as you are munching in confusion, and then leaves

Also please he’s so funny??? Like it’s not the type of humor like Wooyoung who just is so loud and makes everyone laugh, but the type where he makes such snarky or intellectual jabs at the situation/those around him

So it just ends up with the two of your snickering on the side

So many inside jokes

So much laughter, always 

Definitely the type to tease you as his form of flirting

Enjoys personal attention and lots of eye contact when talking about literally anything that comes to mind

Really likes just sitting with you somewhere cozy and talking about life for hours and hours on end

Once he’s comfortable, he’s actually so adorably expressive and unafraid to return PDA

While he may struggle with emotional expression at times, physical affection can stand in loving words for him

While not as touchy as San or Wooyoung, he isn’t afraid to have the two of you be in your own world

Sits close to you at any given opportunity and quietly takes care of you

Like offering you snacks first, moves your hair behind your ears, urges you to wrap you arms around his, gives you his jacket

He’s the type to love you quietly

Actions speak louder than words, and his actions are so incredibly thoughtful and attentive

For example, he may not be tripping over himself to tell you just how much he loves you 24/7 but he never fails to open soft drinks for you after the one time your nail broke in front of him when you tried to pry the metal tab open, he literally ignores the group chat but makes sure he bids you good morning and good night because he’s seen how happy they make you feel, etc

Ok but he is so kind even if he rarely voices it. You can absolutely count on him to be there for emotional and practical support whenever it’s needed.

Very trusting in the relationship

He is really understanding of you having friends/a life outside of him so he’s less likely to get jealous

Really rational in disagreements

Sometimes it can get hard to read his expressions, so it’s important you both learn to communicate a lot to keep the relationship healthy! He’s actually really good at voicing his thoughts and opinions well once he has the space to do so

Values reciprocation

Will do aegyo to make you blush or sway things in his favor. And then will proceed to hide his face immediately after

please he is Adorable

You’re his hype man. He will also then get super shy, but loves every single second of it. Secretly wants you to hype him up nonstop

I think he secretly really enjoys words of affirmation as his primary love language (receiving).

Compliments can be a little rare from him, so when he does compliment you, you know he really means it!! 

And he will roast you

Sometimes, he has his fun by occasionally starting some verbal sparring followed by intense making up. 

Like he’ll choose a topic and say something so wild about it just to see your expression. Pushes your buttons a little before either one of you has to shut the other up through a make out session or a bet

Just very trustworthy, loyal, loving and faithful as a whole uwu

NSFW after this

With that being said, he’s a switch

I don’t see power play being as big of deal for him tbh, he likes to go with the flow with what you both feel like during the moment

literally his preference to dom or sub may actually depend on you and the dynamic of the relationship

when he’s dom, he’s soft or hard depending on the mood as well

but ngl I’m leaning on that hard dom agenda

Sex with him can start out a bit vanilla at first

He’s so careful and wants you to be comfy :’)

But give it a few rounds and lots of communication, his kinky ass will take over

Takes a lot of joy in pleasing you, and can take this to an extreme where he just wants to watch you cum again and again and again from his touch

Um can be a bit of a sadist 

Type to ask you if it hurts while overstimulating you and says “good” when you moan in affirmation 

Secretly has a thing to see you cry 

Also really likes edging

He likes driving you so desperate to the point you’re begging him to let you cum

As you’re reaching and moaning for him he’ll say in a teasing tone “oh really, what do you want? You want my cock? Hm? Is that it?” 

Just to hear your pleady whines

That mocking tone will send shivers down anyone’s spine 

Oh My God you cannot tell me he won’t have a degradation kink (giving)

Also the type to be like “use your words” while he’s going down on you and then proceed to suck your clit extra hard, making you unable to form coherent sounds through your loud moans. It then becomes his excuse to edge you for yet another round because you didn’t use your words, did you?

Whew, anyways

Grab onto his biceps while he rails into you and notice how they flex underneath you as he starts pounding harder in response

Likes to show off his gains by pushing you up against a wall 

Also likes it when you top him

Likes hearing you really vocal, even though he’s more on the quieter side when he isn’t dirty talking

Usually just groans when hitting an extra sensitive spot or when you give a particularly good blowjob that day

Likes having you go down on him as foreplay, but prefers penetration as an end goal

Into the classic missionary and launchpad positions so he can see your expression clearly as he overstimulates/edges you

Likes seeing you look up at him through those teary eyes <3

But also very into doggy style

Likes fucking you into the sheets in general, so any position adjacent to that is on his favorites list

um his fingering game is so strong

In the mornings, likes slowly fucking you from behind while spooning you so he can also grab onto your tits or play with your clit

His end goal always is to make you feel so fucking good, it just manifests differently than service tops like Seonghwa or Yunho

Very private about your sex life and not into public sex at all

Possessive in that way. Only he can touch you like that, see you like that, hear your moans like that, etc

Likes hearing you confirm that 

“Only I can make you scream like this”

“Who fucks you this good, huh?”

“C’mon, say it louder.” 

Has one hell of a degradation kink (giving) me thinks

Likes it when you talk back, lowkey likes brat taming when he’s in a dom mood

But does like teasing you in public and keeping it like that until you both find a bedroom, gets off on the idea of you both having to hide your neediness in public

Very little people expect that from just seeing you both together in regular settings 

But little do they know despite the two of you innocently sitting together eating brunch with the team, leaving a few inches for jesus, y’all just had the freakiest sex before getting there. Like you’re literally shifting around in your seat as the soreness kicks in, and Yeosang is smirking ever so slightly at your discomfort

Will rest a heavy head on your upper thigh for a few seconds, brushing his pinky finger against your clothed clit through the thin fabric of your outfit, as he reaches for the bread basket 

Likes hearing that little gasp leaving your lips

Knows he’s leaving you very frustrated and will use that to his advantage later

The whole time, he has the most innocent, fair expression on his face

when he’s a sub tho?

similar vibes. wants you to feel good. 

Still wants to dirty talk, but it’s far more subservient now

one quick way to get him into subspace

if you push him far enough, then he’s so pouty and clingy and fucking cute

It’s so rare to see him like this but always such a treat

favorite positions is to have you ride him and he’ll play with your tits

or he’s still fucking you into the sheets but you are 100% in control

Just imagine him all whiny and teary as he fucks into you, begging you to let him cum as your clench your walls purposely around him, making him yelp as he tries to still his shaking thighs to wait for your signal

actually can be quite obedient as a sub

truly will do his best to be your good boy 

Anyways, aftercare is pretty good with him. He’s very caring and gentle and checks in a lot with you (he better, usually he fucks quite a few rounds out of you)

If he’s fucked out tho, make sure he is also taken care of! As a sub, he follows your orders so well so he’ll probably fall asleep so fast after intensely cumming for the nth time 

At the very least wipes you both down clean with a warm washcloth and kisses you to sleep

Likes spooning you at the end :’)

give him his cuddles </3

masterlist