#i'm doing this so i actually have a reason to finish them and upload

[alicepao13]

The disrespect this show gets on a daily basis, from the production to the network(s) to even the pirates who prefer to rip shows like *checks notes* Big Brother Canada (same group)...

I wouldn't be calling them out if I hadn't done this myself, by the way. People who have never ripped a damn thing can stay in their lane. I have earned my stripes, I'm not someone who wants to talk shit about those who do this, and I understand the process involved. The webrips are a different story, as they are uploaded by Amazon whenever. The HDTV rips should be uploaded on time, shortly after the network airs the show, and it's the same process as it always has been to rip them. Uploading HDTV rips after the webrips has no value whatsoever, unless someone cares that much about the promo, which of course CityTV doesn't care enough to upload themselves, proving once again what a shitty network they are.

Hudson and Rex has an international fanbase, it shouldn't be so difficult to be able to watch it as an international fan in 2024.

[dr-spectre]

Hello everyone, I got some announcements to share and some plans for the future of this blog now that the Grand Fest is over and the news drought begins.

(LONG POST AHEAD!!!!)

I think going forward I'm gonna change how I approach myself acting online and be less "OH MY GOD HOLY SHITENWIOEDISIWIEOE GUYYS!!!"

Because to be honest with you all... I've been feeling very self conscious about the way that I've been acting online and I feel like I gotta channel my passion for Splatoon in a much more healthy and less EXTREMEEEEE way.

I am aware that um.... people have blocked me... and you know, that's to be expected of course when you are online and you're slowly building a following. Still really stings, though, and I think it's due to the fact that sometimes I can be sorta- "This is what happened, and if you disagree with me, you're an idiot and you're wrong!!!!!" When I make posts. And I don't wanna do that, and I don't want to come off as a gatekeeping fan that thinks lower of other people who might not know my stances very well. I wanna educate people and present my stuff as more of "Hey guys, this is what I think actually happened in this event. Feel free to take a look! I think this is really cool and I wonder what you guys think of this perspective that i have?"

And sometimes I can be pretty loud mouthed and stuff and I have talked shit towards certain characters. I remember one time I made a post where I said "what the fuck is wrong with Marie?" And said some stuff... I probably rubbed a lot of people the wrong way with that post... and other posts. I'm so sorry if I have made some of you upset in the past or have said some awful things about your favourite characters in the series...

As you guys probably know, I am passionate about Hypno Callie and I have very strong stances and opinions on her. And that leads to me get a bit... out of control. Callie is my biggest comfort character and to see certain people try and push this vile and disgusting event that happened to her... that she was kidnapped by Octavio and the Octarians when she was alone, and that he brainwashed her and forcibly put the shades on her, or he tricked her and he removed her memories too...

and I try to see the same event in a completely different lens... I see it as more of Octavio manipulating her in a more subtle way and due to Callie's poor mental state and desperation, she heard him out. Octavio used the shades as a way to control her more easily but he doesnt have full direct control over her because her influence helped motivate the Octarians. Octavio still wanted Callie to be... well... Callie. Plus, Callie was more than willing to help the Octarians as well, as she thinks they are cute. I do have evidence to back it up as well as articles and definitions explaining how hypnosis actually works and its limitations.

But this perspective gets compromised and put into question in my head when people keep pushing and pushing and PUSHING the other thing. Then it feels like I have to yell and get mad.... I've seen it as recently as when Blushing Tide came out and I looked at the YouTube comment section on one of the uploads and I just kept seeing people say "oh it's like Tidal Rush but without the brainwashing" or some shit like that idk. I dont remember it well but i know I saw the word floating around. (Don't look at YouTube comment sections. You won't get anything of value from them.)

Anyways, I also wanna cut back on swearing too because sometimes I border on being a hazbin hotel character and I DO NOT want myself to get to that level LMAO!

So what shall I be doing now that Splatoon 3 is officially wrapped up? Well... I wanna do more creative projects and fun stuff like that. I got good reception from my haikus for the Grand Fest and I think doing more stuff like that sounds really really fun!!! And it might actually give me a reason to finish stuff as well lol...

Like I have a God damn Splatoon 2 hero mode finale rewrite that's nearly done and it's been sitting on my Google docs since JULY!!!! I have also made plans to do a fan sequel to the Squid Sisters Stories that takes place in between Splatoon 2 and 3 because that time frame for the Squid Sisters has been barely touched upon. I'm also doing a personal project where it's basically what I want to see out of a Splatoon 4 and I've been really enjoying making that. I dont know if I would ever share it but... it's something to do for me at least.

I also wanna involve myself in the community more, I received an ask where someone said (I forgot who asked I'm so sorry) if I could do a thing where I receive Splatoon OCs and critique them. That sounds really fun!!!

Maybe i can do photo mode competitions or showcases!!! Where I choose a theme (Callie, water, Splatsville, etc) and people submit their photos and I critique them and showcase them to everyone!!! Does that sound like something people would be interested in?! I would love to know as virtual photography is a hobby I love to partake in and I wanna encourage more people to try it!

There is also other stuff i can do like going over the Idols outfits and rating them, but I don't have the motivation to do that at the moment and I know it's not gonna be as in-depth as the one I did for Callie.

Anyhow, that's basically what I have so far. I think im gonna slow down on posting and I'm gonna chill out. Or at least I'll try to chill out.

I've just been feeling incredibly guilty and kinda... sad that I've been acting in a certain way for a while. And I really wanna change that. I dont like making people upset and I don't wanna be the kind of Splatoon fan that puts down others who don't even know any better and don't know who I am....

But enough being sad, I wanna focus on the present and make sure that my future on here is bright!!!

[kennarose1108]

My World (Negan Smith x Reader !DAUGHTER OF RICK!)

*SO I MADE THIS FOREVER AGO AND I WANTED TO FINISH IT AND UPLOAD IT... I HOPE Y'ALL ENJOY, PART 2 IS IN A LINK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY*

You had been with Negan and his group for the last ten months and you knew Negan wasn't the cleanest man on earth. You knew he was doing things... Horrific things to people but you try to turn a blind eye to it. Negan was the best thing that had happened to you since the apocalypse happened. You were alone up until Negan found you on the verge of starving to death.

And over the months your and Negan's relationship had blossomed into something unexpected. He was a lot older than you. You were twenty-six years old and Negan was forty-five... I mean hell he was older than your father would be... Your father...

You were in college when the apocalypse broke out and you prayed your family was okay. After a while, you finally made it back to your family's home to find it completely ransacked and everybody was missing. You went to the hospital where you heard your father was staying after his accident but you didn't even attempt to go inside as it was completely guarded by the dead.

But everything seemed to be okay now... You stayed out of Negan's business as much as you could but today was different. "I need you to go," Negan says. "Why? You have Simon and all your men why do you need me?" You ask while crossing your arms over your chest.

"We made a deal with these people but they're on the more dangerous side than most people we've dealt with. We need everybody." He explains and you sigh deeply. "I don't want to be involved with your 'business deals' Negan. You know how I feel about it." You say with a shrug. "And I don't believe these people willingly made a deal with you either." You say while raising your eyebrows and he chuckles slightly. "Alright, you got me there." He says while standing up from his seat. "These people killed a whole outpost of men for their supplies so we gave them an option of... We raid their shit and we let them live." He shrugs. "No harm, no foul." He says while grabbing your waist and pulling you closer to him. "I just want everybody there in case shit hits the fan. We need to defend ourselves." Negan explains.

"Mhm... What's the actual reason you want me to go? Because we both know I'm only good at killing the dead ones... Not the live ones." You say while squinting your eyes at him. He stares at you for a moment before sighing deeply with a smirk. "You see right through me every time.." He chuckles. "...You're going to be here all by yourself. I don't want you to be alone if something happens here. At least I know if you came with me I can protect you." He says while leaning his forehead against yours.

You clenched your jaw and slightly glared at him before groaning out a 'fine'. He smiled and placed a kiss on your forehead. "Let's get going then."

When you made it out to the trucks Negan ordered you to stay inside of the car until the gates were open. When you made it to the place called Alexandria you sat in the truck with one of Negan's men. You weren't paying attention entirely until the man dropped a heavy gun in your lap. You had no idea how to use it so it was clear it was given to you for threatening purposes. "It's safe now." The man says. You nodded and took a step out of the truck, the man following your steps on the other side.

You were looking down at the ground as you took a few steps. You finally looked up and looked at the people around the gate. There was a woman who looked hardcore and angry and a man who looked confused and kinda wimpy... Then your eyes landed on another man. Your eyes widened as your brain processed what you were seeing, hoping it wasn't another hallucination that you saw so much when you were dehydrated.

But you weren't dehydrated and this wasn't a hallucination. Your lips parted as a soft gasp escaped your lips. The gun you were holding onto fell from your hands and that's when you finally got the man's attention. Your body shook as he gave you a look of confusion into a look of disbelief, the same look you gave him. Tears threatened to spill from your eyes as your body shook from the feeling of adrenalin and pure shock coursing through your veins.

Negan looked at you and then at him, confused about what was going on, and that's when you let out a shaky breath, "Dad?" You mumble. "Oh my god.." He whispered. You let out a shaky chuckle as tears finally fell from your eyes. "DAD!" You yelled as you ran full force towards him. Your arms swung open and wrapped around his neck as his arms slung tightly around your body. Your legs shook as you were barely able to keep yourself upright... If it wasn't for his tight grip on you, you would've fallen to the floor. You cried into his shoulder and held onto him tightly before pulling away. "I thought you were dead." You managed to choke out.

Negan stared at you both in disbelief and horror. He also felt stupid for not putting two and two together since you both had the same last name. "Is Carl...?" He nodded. "He's alive." You sigh in relief as a smile appears on your face. "And mom?" You ask. He just stares at you. Your smile slowly fades as you cover your mouth with your hand in disbelief. You let out a shaky 'oh' as you pulled away.

Your father's eyes flicked from you to Negan before looking back at you. "You're with him?" He asks. You nod your head as you wipe a tear that fell from your eyes. "How 'bout you go around Alexandria and look for your brother? Me and your dad have some things to discuss." Negan says while getting behind you and grabbing your shoulders and giving Rick a teasing smile. "Yeah... Yeah, that's a good idea." Rick says while glaring at Negan. You walked away from Negan's grip and you walked around the streets, getting the occasional glare from some of the people that live in Alexandria which made you frown.

But as you walked your eyes fell on a boy walking down the steps from his porch. You squinted your eyes and tried to make out the face of the person. It was hard to tell at first since he had a patch over his eye but you’d recognized that face anywhere.

You smiled and yelled out his name. He looked around for a moment before turning in your direction, his eyes falling onto yours. You smiled as his face turned from confusion to disbelief. With adrenaline coursing through your veins you ran towards him full force. He did the same and you both met in between and practically collapsed into each other. You both kept each other on your feet as you hugged each other tightly. After a minute you pulled away and cupped his face, tears going down both of your faces. “You’ve grown so much.” You chuckle. “I thought you were dead,” Carl says with a slight gasp. “Can’t get rid of me that easily little brother.” You say with a chuckle. You look at the patch on his eye and you slightly frown. “What happened?” You ask your thumb lightly brushing against the edge of it.

“I was shot,” Carl explains. Your eyes widen and you laugh. “You were shot in the face and you survived?! Holy shit I wish Dad informed me how much of a badass you were before I found you.” He chuckles. His eyes then glance to the ground and his smile disappears, he seems to be lost in thought. His eyes flicked back up to you and he sighed. “I have to show you something,” Carl says while backing off and walking back towards the house he came out of.

You follow him into the house and up the stairs. Carl stops in front of a door that was off to the side and he slowly opens it. Your eyes travel to the inside of the room until you see a little girl in a crib. You take a few steps inside and slightly gasp. “Who’s this?” You ask while walking towards her. “That’s Judith. Our sister.” Your head snapped towards him and your eyes widen. “Is that how mom…” He didn’t say anything which was an answer in itself. You nodded and looked back at the little girl. You chuckle and lifted her out of the crib and held her against your body. “Oh my… You are gorgeous.” You say while admiring her little face. But the moment was ruined by the sound of doors slamming open and people talking loudly downstairs. “Hide her.” Carl orders. You quickly put Judith down and left the room with Carl, shutting the door right on time as Simon came running up the steps.

He eyed you and Carl and you both kept your composure. “Everything good up here?” He asks. “Yes. Everything’s fine.” You say with a slight smile. He glanced at the door next to you both and gave you another weird look. “What’s in there?” Simon asks while nodding to the door. “Nothing. The room is empty. Carl was giving me a tour of his home and he offered to let me stay in this room when they get it furnished.” You say with a stern tone of voice.

“Hm... You should talk to Negan about that.” You wanted to argue back and say you were a grown woman and didn’t need his permission but you decided it would be best to keep your mouth shut in this situation. “Come on Carl. Let’s go downstairs.” You say while putting your arm around Carl’s shoulders and pulling him forward, not keeping your eyes off Simon until you went past him. When you made it downstairs Carl was staring in horror at the people in his home taking pretty much everything. “They’re taking all of our medicine,” Carl says. “We hid them here because they said they’d only take half,” Carl says while pulling away from you. “Carl-“ “No!” Carl yelled while grabbing a gun and going after them. “Carl DON’T-!” But it was too late.

A gunshot rang through the air causing you to jump. You quickly ran into the room and luckily everyone was okay, but Carl had a gun to one of Negan’s men. “Put them back, or the next one goes in you.” Carl threatens. “Kid… What do you think happens next?” The man laughed. “Carl.” You managed to get yourself in between the gun and the man and you were trying to calm him down. “Get out of the way.” “Carl don’t.” You warned. “Move.” “If you don’t put the gun down the punishment will be-“ You stopped yourself as you saw your dad running into the room, you knew Negan wasn’t too far behind so you kept your mouth shut.

Your father tried talking the same sense to Carl as Negan walked in. His eyes darted between the gun and you and he knew he had to intervene. Negan walked over to you both and stood next to you and got into Carl's line of sight. Negan chuckles. "Really kid?" He says with a smirk.

"You should go... Before you find out how dangerous we all are." Carl warns. You swallowed the lump in your throat and gave him a pleading look. "Well pardon me, young man, excuse the shit out of my goddamn French but... Did you just threaten me?" Negan asks. "Look I get threatening Davie here... But I can't have it, not him, not me-" "Carl just put it down-" "Don't be rude Rick we are having a conversation here." Your father and Negan argue back and forth. You continue to stare at Carl with pleading eyes as you knew if Carl pushed his limits or broke a rule no amount of begging would stop Negan... Not even for you. "Now boy... Where were we?" He asks.

"Oh yeah! Your giant man-sized balls. No threatening us. Listen I like you... I don't want to go hard proving a point here, especially in front of the lady here, and you don't want that. I said half your shit and half is what I say it is." Negan says in more of a more serious tone of voice. "I'm serious. Do you want me to prove how serious... Again?" Negan warns.

Carl stares at him then looks at you. You shook your head slightly and he sighed deeply. He moved his hand so the handle of the gun was facing you. Your trembling hands slowly grabbed the gun from his hands and held it to your side.

Negan turned to your father and started ranting to him and you grabbed Carl's shoulders. "What the hell is wrong with you?" You whisper to him. "They were taking our stuff," Carl argued. "You can always get that shit back! He'll kill you or someone else here and you can't get back." You hissed at him. "And you.." Negan turned to you both. You turned your head to him and saw him staring at you. He lifted his hand and wiggled his pointer and middle finger towards you telling you to give him the gun. You handed him the gun and he put it in his pocket.

"Rick go and get that stuff together for me will ya? And you... Come with me." He says while not moving his gaze from yours. You nodded and followed him out of the home. You followed him down the street and in between some houses. He then suddenly spun around and grabbed your arms softly. "I don't want you doing that shit again," Negan says sternly. "I knew he wasn't going to shoot me." You argued. Negan shook his head and sighed deeply. "I do not care. There is no damn reason for you to EVER stand in front of a gun. Ever." He says with a shake of his head. "Scared the hell out of me." He says while placing a kiss on your temple.

"I'm sorry.." You say with a frown. "Don't be sorry. I know you were trying to de-escalate the situation and I respect that... I just don't want you to get hurt." He says while cupping your face with his hands. "He's my brother. He wouldn't have hurt me." "I can't take that chance." He shakes his head. "I don't care if there's a 99% chance or a 0.01% chance. It's not an option." He says. “Understand?” He asks. You nodded and he smiled.

He kissed you on the cheek and pulled you in for a hug. You both stayed like that for a moment before Negan pulled away, giving you a tight squeeze before letting you move away from him. “Let’s go darlin’,” Negan says while lightly placing his hand on your lower back and leading you along.

You walked with Negan until you met up with your father and some of Negan’s men in front of a small bunker. The door to the bunker slowly opens to show a woman. “I… Figured you were coming.” She says nervously. “Show him where the guns are, Olivia.” Your father says. She nodded and you all walked inside. “You run the show in here?” Negan asks. “I just keep track of it all, the rations, the guns,” She explains. “Good. Smart. Don’t let me stop you. Arat, boys... Show ‘em the goods.” He smirks as everyone walks off. “Wait, wait, wait.” Negan stops your father.

“While they’re at it, I just want to point out to you that I’m not taking a scrap of your food. Slim pickin’s in here.” Negan says while pointing out the little to no food on the shelves. “And I can’t be the only one to notice that you got a fuckin’ fat lady in charge of keeping track of rations can I?” Negan says and you turn to him, “Negan.” You smack his arm and he puts his hands up. “Am I wrong?” He asks. “Yes. Don’t be an asshole.” You roll your eyes. He chuckles and slightly leans into Rick, “She keeps me on my toes.” Rick glares at him and he slightly leans back.

Negan looks at Rick, then at you, then at Rick again. “Y’know I just realized… We’re family now aren’t we?” You closed your eyes and cringed. “I mean… Should I call you dad or something?” Negan asks while slowly dragging his arm over your shoulder and pulling you close to his side.

Rick’s eyes flicked over to you and you swallowed another ball in your throat and you let out a deep sigh. “Right?” Negan asks. “Stop.” You whisper to him while giving him a pleading look. He wanted to keep going just to poke the bear some more but he didn’t want to continue if you were uncomfortable. He cared more for your feelings than his ego. “…Either way, you starve to death, I don’t get shit, so for now, you get to keep all the food. How ‘bout that?” Negan says, still keeping his arm around your shoulders.

Negan and Rick stare at each other for a few moments. A very awkward few moments. “What do you want me to say?” “I don’t know, Rick. How about a thank you.” Negan says while moving away from you and getting into your father’s face. “You think that might be in order? Or is that too much to ask?!” Negan yells. “Jesus stop!” You grab Negan’s arm and push him away from your father.

“Haven’t you done enough?” “All I’m asking for is a thank you.” You scoff. “I think we both know they have nothing to be thanking you for.” You shake your head at him before walking out of the bunker and down the streets of Alexandria. You stopped in front of Rick and Carl’s home and you sat on the steps, rethinking everything.

You placed your elbow on your knee and rested your forehead in your hand. You sat like that for a while before a familiar figure walked into your view. They stood there for a moment before slowly sitting next to you on the steps. “You angry with me?” He asks. You sigh and close your eyes. “What do you think?” You say with an annoyed tone of voice. “Why?” You turn to glare at him. “Why? Are you kidding me?” You say. “Is it because of Rick?” Negan asks. “Jesus no!” You yell. “…Well it doesn’t help.” You say while looking forward. “You know I don’t like being a part of this shit. I don’t like seeing this side of you... Especially since I know you did something bad to these people.” You say with your voice slightly cracking as tears filled in your eyes. You shake your head, not wanting to ask this question but you feel you have no choice.

“What did you do? I’m going to hear it from somebody so it might as well be from you.” He stares at you, he didn’t want you to find out. “I killed two of their people in front of them. One of them had a wife and she was sick. She witnessed it all… She didn’t make it.” Your mouth flew agape and your body tensed.

“Oh my god… And you expect a ‘thank you’ from these people!?” You stand on your feet and glare at him. “You say people are a resource and need to be protected but it’s all a lie!” You shout. “It’s not a lie.” He stands up to meet your level but instead, he just towers over you, making you feel inferior to him.

“People are a resource and need to be protected but rules need to be set and if they are broken there are punishments.” He argues. “And killing people in the answer?” You scoff. “You’re torturing these poor people and for what? Surviving?” “Killing off my men. That’s what.” He hisses while stepping forward and getting in your face. “Not like your men didn’t deserve it anyways. Most of them are criminals, rapists, or killers. But I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree does it?” You say while slowly looking at him up and down. Negan was seething, nobody spoke to him like this and he was getting pissed. “Watch your mouth.” “Or what? You’ll kill me?” You chuckled. “You don’t got the balls.” You hissed. It took all his might to not snap and lash out at you but he realized that it wouldn’t fix anything and you had every right to be angry.

But that doesn’t mean he won’t be any less angry with your words. “I have done everything for you. I have fought for you, I have killed for you, I put food in your belly and a roof over your head. I deserve goddamn respect.” He said in a low and threatening tone of voice. You shake your head. “I never asked you to save me.” You say, tears threatening to fall from your eyes.

“What did you expect me to do? Leave you there to die?” “You should’ve. It would’ve been easier for the both of us.” You snapped back. Negan leans back and stares at you in disbelief.

You didn’t mean what you said, you were thankful Negan saved your life. You remember the day he found you. You were in a gas station and you had been sitting there for about a day or two just waiting to die. Your face was pale and you were practically skin and bones. You were sitting in the backroom in the dark when you heard a roar of an engine and footsteps entering the building. You didn’t have the energy to get up and find them and your throat was too dry to call out for help, so you sat there until the door opened and the light of a flashlight crawled up your body and landed on your face. You cringed and looked away from the light. The person who was shining a light called a name and another pair of footsteps entered the room. That was when the person shining the light lowered it and you made eye contact with the man who walked in the room. “Holy shit... Are you alive?” He chuckled, getting closer to you.

His smile disappeared when he saw how sick you looked. He walked over to you and knelt at your level. “I’m Negan.” He says. You gave him a slightly confused look and Negan sighs. “Simon. Go get some water.” He orders while still staring down at you.

Simon quickly came back into the room with a water bottle and handed him the bottle. He opened it and he snaked his hand behind your neck and lifted you. You slightly groan as he pulls your head forward in front of the bottle. Your lips touched the bottle and slowly gulped down the water. If you weren’t so dehydrated there was a good chance you would’ve cried.

When you needed a break you moved your head back and leaned back against the wall. “Y/N.” You mumbled. “What?” Negan asks as you barely let out a whisper. “…My name is Y/N Grimes.” You say while shifting around. “How long have you been here?” Negan asks. “A couple of days…” You say before letting out a hoarse cough. Negan lifts the bottle back to your lips and you take a few more gulps. “Is there anyone else around here?” He asks. You shake your head, “No. I’ve been alone since the beginning of the apocalypse.” You explain. His eyes widen and he scoffs with a smirk. “No shit? Wow. Good for you for lasting so long.” He says with a wide smile.

“Yeah… It gets lonely though.” You say while lifting the corner of your lips to smile slightly. Negan stared at you for another minute before mumbling an ‘alright’ and closing the water bottle and handing it back to Simon. He stands up slightly and begins to put his hands under your knees and behind your back. “What… What are you doing?” You ask. “I’m going to take you back to my camp. We have a doctor and food and water..” He explains. “…Why? You don’t know me.” You ask. “People are a resource. They need to be protected… And you won't survive much longer if I leave you here.” He explains. You nodded and he continued to pick you up.

You groaned as your body ached. Your muscles were so tense from sitting there for so long that just a slight movement caused your whole body to ache in pain. “We’ll get you patched up... It’ll be okay.”

And here you are… Many months later arguing with the man who saved your life. He stared down at you and he clenched his jaw. You could see on his face he wasn’t angry anymore, he was hurt. You didn’t expect it to hurt him in all honesty because Negan has been told a lot worse than what you said. But it did hurt him... And he didn’t know what to do about it. He sighed and looked around for a moment. “Head over to the truck.. We’re going to be leaving in a few minutes.” Was the only thing he managed to get out. Without looking at you he walks down the steps of the porch and down the street.

You stifled a sob and wiped the tears that had fallen down your face. After you pulled yourself together you walked over to the truck and saw David in the face of a young girl. “Say please again, little girl.” He chuckles. The girl lets out a ‘please’ and he smirks. “Yeah. One more time.” He says while running his finger down her cheek.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” You yell out as you storm over to him. His head shoots towards you and you shove him away from the girl. “Who do you think you are?” David asks as he gets in your face. “Someone who will gladly put some fucker out of their misery.” You snapped back. “Now piss off.” You hissed. He glared at you and tried to walk away but you stopped him. You put our hand out, telling him to give you the item the girl wanted. He grumbled something under his breath and shoved the item in your hand. David walked away and you turned to the girl. “I’m sorry that happened…” You whisper as you handed her back the balloons. You squeezed her shoulder before walking off and following the truck.

“Get in the truck Y/N. Me and daddy dearest here gotta talk.” Negan says without looking at you. You glared at him and you were about to oblige his orders and get in the truck but you stopped yourself. You turned on your heel and walked over to your father and swung your arms over his shoulders. You both hugged each other tightly before Carl found his way under your arm and hugged you and your father as well.

When you finally pulled away you rested one hand on your father’s shoulder and the other on the side of Carl’s face. You gave them a soft smile as tears filled in all of your eyes. “I’ll be back. I promise.” You say in a low tone of voice as you run your thumb over Carl’s cheek to wipe away the tear that fell from his eye.

You give them another small smile before turning and walking away. Negan watched you closely as you walked past him, wiping your tears in the process. You sat in the van and stared down at the ground, trying not to cry anymore in the process. During the minutes of you sitting there, you looked over and saw Negan taunting your father. You balled your fists up and sighed in annoyance. You wanted to get out of the car and yell at Negan but you didn’t have the energy. You heard Negan chuckle as finally peeled himself away from your father and he got in the van next to you, Lucille in his hands. You looked down at your hands and furrowed your eyebrows. You didn’t want to even look at Negan... But you knew he was looking at you.

He made occasional glances at you in an obvious manner. He wanted your attention and in all honesty, he wanted you to feel slightly bad for what you said to him. But you never looked at him. Not even when you made it to the sanctuary and walked past him to get inside.

You ignored everybody and headed to your shared bedroom. When you finally made it to the bedroom that’s when you realized that the sun was setting and you sighed in relief. You were exhausted and you wanted nothing more than to fall into your bed and sleep the day away. You sat on the edge of the bed and buried your face in your hands. You sat for a while until you heard your bedroom door opening and closing. You glance up and saw Negan leaning against the doorframe and staring at you.

You wipe the tears that had fallen from your eyes and look to the side. Negan stares at you for a few more seconds before sighing and lightly smiling to himself, clearly thinking of a memory.

“Y’know… I remember the first time I saw you.” He says. “You were so frail and sick looking.” He says while slowly walking towards you. “I was worried if I touched you, you would shatter like a piece of glass.” He continues walking towards you. You look up at up and look at him through your hair. “But I knew you were a fighter. And even if I had left you there you would’ve fought yourself back to survival.” He says while kneeling in front of you. “Who would’ve thought you would fight yourself into my heart.” He says with a soft smile and gently tucking your hair behind your ear.

You look down at him with tears in your eyes and a frown on your face. “There’s no way I could’ve left you there because..” He sighs before continuing. “I fell in love with you the first time I saw you.” He says while resting his hand against your cheek and wiping the tears that had fallen.

“Look… You and I are not easy people to deal with. And together it’s even more difficult... But I wouldn’t change a thing.” He says while shaking his head, a soft smile on his lips. A small cry came out of my mouth and I close my eyes, "I-I didn't mean what I said... I didn't... I'm glad you found me I...* You say, your words stuttering a bit. "I know... I know baby..." Negan whispered while moving his hand up to wipe the tears off your cheeks.

"I just... I hate seeing this side of you, and knowing you're doing this to my family..." You say before taking a deep and shaky breath. "It hurts..." You mutter, just barely over a whisper. Negan frowns, "I know... But I have to be cruel to keep them in line." Negan says. You shake my head, "No... No, you don't." You say. Negan sighs, "Baby. Listen to me." Negan says while grabbing your cheeks between his hands, "I promise you... I won't hurt your family. I take my promises seriously and you know that." Negan says.

You nod and sniffle, "...Okay." I mumble. "Alright... Now come here...* Negan says while putting his arms out to you. You get off the bed and onto the floor in front of him and hug his torso tightly. He hugs you back tightly and lovingly. Negan would keep his promise... He wouldn't hurt your family, but everyone else in Alexandria was up for grabs... One thing Negan knew how to do...

Was how to manipulate.

PART 2

[ellisgirl]

Jude Jazza & Ellis Twilight — Villains Want to Embarrass Little Robin Story Event

Epilogue

I do not own any contents of Ikemen Villains. This story being uploaded in this blog belongs solely to CYBIRD. Please support them by downloading their games and buying their stories. Both English and Japanese are not my mother tongue languages, please keep in mind that there will be mistakes and added words for my own preferences. I translate for my personal entertainment and for my own practice only.

Kate: "Ellis's "request"... Is this okay with you? Are you sure?

Ellis: "Yeah. Date with Jude and Miss Kate on my day off."

Jude: “There's no such thing as a date with the three of us.”

Each with a gelato of a different colour in hand, we sit on the stairs and look out over the city of London.

Ellis: “I saw that Miss Kate seemed to be having a good time on her last mission, so I thought the three of us would be good together."

(Looks like fun..... Was it?)

I try to remember what happened a few days ago.

I was surprised by Mr. Jude's Queen’s English,

I was blown away by Ellis's outrageous act,

Sleeping in a bed with the three of us.….

(......Well, the last one shocked me the most anyway)

I can't say that it was fun, but it was certain that laughter came to mind more than fear.

(Once again, it's thanks to the two of them that we were able to finish the mission safely.)

Ellis: “Here, Miss Kate. I'll give you a bite of mine."

Kate: "Wow..... Actually, I was a little curious of your gelato’s flavour, thank you very much."

I lick the chocolate-coloured gelato with my words.

Kate: "!....so sweet and delicious"

Ellis: "Fufu... I'm glad."

Ellis: “Give me Jude's, too."

Without waiting for Mr. Jude's response, Ellis ate the light yellow food in a single bite.

Jude: "Tsk.... I'm telling you to stop eating without permission."

Ellis: "That's right, I'm sorry. But it was delicious, thank you for the meal."

Ellis is the same as always, even to Mr. Jude who seems to be in a bad mood.

After working together with several missions, I get the sense that....... The two of them do not get along well with each other, but it is natural that they have each other's backs.

(......Somehow, it's nice)

I was a little jealous, and when I was staring blankly at Jude's hand,

Ellis: "Miss Kate, do you want to eat Jude’s too?”

Kate: "What?"

When Ellis suddenly said that, my voice turned inside out.

Kate: "No, I was staring at him for a different reason.”

The tip of Mr. Jude's tongue scoops up the pear gelato.

(Ah... but it sure looks delicious.)

Jude: “…..Do you want it?”

Kate: "Eh, is it okay.......?"

I was puzzled when he offered it to me, but I put my lips to it and extended my tongue.

But just before the tip of the tongue touched, the gelato went away.

Kate: “…….?”

Jude: “.....Ha, your face."

Mr. Jude laughed at me who was stuck with my tongue out, and licked another mouthful of gelato.

Kate: "Hey, that's terrible.... Fiddle with my appetite….!”

Ellis: “All right, all right. ......Next time you can eat his like I do, Miss Kate."

Jude: “I told you not to do that. I'm going to beat you to a pulp.”

Ellis said as if he suddenly remembered while I quietly enjoying my own portion of lemon gelato.

Ellis: "Oh, that's right. What is Miss Kate's request?"

Kate: "Eh? Oh...”

Kate: “I'm fine with it because it was the two of you that kept me from being exposed."

Ellis: "But you did a lot of hard work, right?"

Ellis: "I want to fulfil your “request”."

Jude: “………”

Mr. Jude is looking towards the day after tomorrow, as if to say that this question and answer is meaningless.

Kate: "Well then......"

Kate: "Can you tell me how Ellis came to work at Jude's company?"

Ellis: "Is that a request for me? Or a request for Jude?"

Kate: "Both of you. This one is enough."

Jude: “It's a bunch of nonsense. You don't need that useless information.”

Kate: "Yes, it's fine."

Ellis: "Well... I wonder where to start."

Ellis: “When I first met Jude in London, he put me to sleep with his curse ability right after a few words.”

Kate: “Eh…..!?”

Ellis: "That was the first time Jude realised his ability, right?"

Jude: "I thought he was dead because he suddenly rolled to the ground."

Kate: "So, what happened...?"

Jude: "He woke up when I was smoking."

Kate: "Were you smoking next to someone you thought might be dead.....?"

Ellis: "At that time, I thought maybe he was the same as me, so I also showed my ability."

Kate: "...You mean that you restrained Mr. Jude's wrists...?"

(I don't know what to be scared of...)

Jude: "You don't need that part.”

Ellis: “So, since I didn't have a place to stay, he took me to his house.”

Kate: "Yeah... They say don't follow people you meet for the first time......"

Kate: "Or rather, Mr. Jude shouldn't bring someone you've met for the first time to your house...?"

Jude: “I don't need you to tell me how to manage my life.”

Ellis: "And, I signed the contract."

Kate: "I'm starting to feel like I'm listening to a bad scam experience...... With the way things are going, why did you sign.....?"

Ellis: “I don't have to worry about food, work, or a place to live. .....because he promised me."

Ellis: "I'm waiting for the time when Jude will be the happiest in his life."

Kate: "A promise that will be fulfilled at that time, you mean?"

Ellis: "Yes. He promises to fulfil my request when that time comes."

Kate: “Your request?”

Ellis smiled and avoided the answer.

Ellis: "But... It's hard to come. I wonder if Jude has always been unhappy."

Jude: "You're so noisy."

Kate: "What about Mr. Jude? Why did you decide to hire Ellis?"

Jude: “His physical ability and his curse are useful. He's definitely a bit of a nutcase."

Jude: "There's no way we're going to miss this precious labour force."

Kate: ".....Aiming for the body......?”

Jude: "Stop using creepy phrases."

(Mr. Jude wants to use Ellis conveniently, and Ellis wants Mr. Jude to grant his wish.)

They are by each other's side for each other's purposes...... I guess it's a contractual relationship.

(But...... I feel like that contract was finalised because it was these two people, not anyone else.)

Anyone else would surely have had a different outcome.

I think it's stronger than the bonds of friendship and love.

Ellis: "Well, next's Jude's turn."

Jude: “……..”

After thinking a little, Mr. Jude pointed at me,

Jude: "...From here”

His fingertip pointed across the main street.

Jude: "Run as fast as you can to the bookstore five blocks away and buy these."

On the paper that was given to me, there was a lot of the name of the book.

Kate: "Why do I need to run as fast as I can....?"

Jude: "It's boring when it's just an errand, isn't it?"

Jude: "....Will you keep your promise?"

(That's right......)

Kate: "I'm going......!”

I ate the rest of the gelato and ran through the city of London.

Ellis: ".....You don't have to run.”

Jude: "If you let her walk too long, she'll look back."

Ellis: "Four, five... seven? Who is it this time? Those who have a grudge against Jude again?"

Jude: "I don't know."

Jude: "Three minutes. Finish it before the princess comes back."

Ellis: “Give me two and a half minutes. You'll be thirsty, I'll have to buy you some water."

Jude: "Tsk..... If you do it, you should do four people."

Ellis: "Understood."

Without making any arrangements or exchanging eye contact, the two casually stepped into London’s thinly lit streets.

With the image of Kate coming home breathless.

Masterlist

Chapter 1 >> Chapter 2 >> Premium End >> Epilogue

[campbyler]

our chapters average at 27,000 words, the total fic length is already 3x the average novel length, and we lost one of the authors working on this fic. it must be so nice to only have to endure the wait for a chapter to be uploaded so that you can interact with it rather than being the one to actually write it.

im going to be cruel (no pun intended) to be kind: this is such an intense externalisation of blame. you are the ones in control of the fic length; the chapters could handle some heavy editing and it wouldnt make them any less wonderful (such as regarding the descriptions of mike and will's internal thoughts, not the action between the characters themselves). fic is free and its a gift to be able to read works that inspire our hearts and minds while we wait for the show, but then again, when at the stern of a juggernaut work such as this, one that will inevitably have many followers chomping at the bit on tumblr as well as ao3 (as you designed it to have!), you surely must be aware of something that only usually exists in professional marketing spaces involving customers + brand IP: the relationship between consumer and creator, and what they can give each other.

not 'owe each other' - nothing is owed, except perhaps basic human kindness. fans want your work, and its free, so we should be grateful; likewise, you want readers, feedback and clicks, and that should be free, too. but in order for this to work smoothly, there has to be fair give and take. i mean, if you wanted to monetize the fic i'm sure many people would pay to read it, but thats beside the point here.

what fans of this fic simply want is the same honesty and self-awareness from you that they might expect from any artist who has embarked on such am ambitious project. and this doesnt just mean transparency about potential uploading dates (which is already much appreciated by the majority!), or notifications about how hard it is to balance work and life (something most people on the planet struggle with). it means total honesty and hard answers. people like to know where they stand. plenty of writers (both professional and fan alike) abandon works for months, years at a time, and if the work is THAT good, people will always be thrilled to see a return. it's the mucking people about that is what destroys relationships - no matter how good your reasons are.

your fic is wonderful and very, very memorable. you could take a big, undefined hiatus and people would, im sure, return, including me. seeing you admit that you have been prioritizing this fic over your mental health does not inspire confidence either, or even comfort - do i want to read something that has caused the creator such harm?

i think everything about this process would be happier for everyone if you set boundaries that work for you and didn't place blame elsewhere. after all, as you said, it's just a fanfic. it doesnt matter if you don't finish it. it doesnt matter if it takes all the way to s5 for 10.2 to release. everyone would, though, appreciate you taking a stance and being consistent (and therefore fair) to both yourselves and the readers.

please feel free to not post this publicly or do as you wish with it.

hello! thank you for your feedback and for sharing it in a way that is both kind and respectful. you make many valid points that i agree with -- we are in control of the word counts and could stand to edit down more, and we do recognize where being transparent about the reasons behind the chapter delays might not inspire confidence or comfort. i do, however, think that isolating one response/chain of responses to a particular ask is a little unfair, so i'd like to provide additional context.

i do not think that it's fair to say that we haven't been honest, self-aware, or fair, because we have been incredibly transparent throughout the entire run of the fic (over a year) about our writing process. just last month suni said she hadn't been working on 10.2 at all because abby had been visiting her house, and readily took ownership of that fact. there was a 4-month wait between chapters 9.1 and 9.2, and i was very open about the fact that i simply needed a break for at least the first of those months because i didn't want to write it. we have continued to maintain several times that we are not abandoning the fic, even if it takes longer between chapters, and have tried to stay as active as possible on the blog because we know that seeing us interact with asks Does inspire confidence. if you just scroll down and see how we have answered other asks inquiring about the upload, we responded kindly and respectfully.

what you interpreted as externalization of blame in that one (1!) ask response was me trying to provide perspective to someone who clearly lacked it. we understand that people will be frustrated about chapter delays, especially if we keep pushing them back, and this is also something that we have received feedback about before and tried to implement; however, it is also a double-edged sword where if we don't give an estimated upload, people get upset, or we give an estimated upload that we think is completely reasonable for us to achieve and then hurdles get in the way, whether it's writer's block or work or time with friends. i absolutely get the frustration on the receiving end, but something i have learned from being in this fandom for two years is that a pretty big majority of those who are interacting with fanworks are not creating it themselves, hence why my response -- while snippy and annoyed, because i was matching the energy, and will not apologize for that -- was contextualizing the whys behind the chapter delay: the chapters are long, the fic is long, we are down one entire body from where we started. the intention was not to shuck blame off of ourselves, but i get that intentions don't always translate into effect, so it's understandable that it was received differently.

we don't always respond to things perfectly. when we have a million and one asks inquiring about the next upload, one stray one that comes off the wrong way is likely going to set us off, because we are people, and this is not a job. we have set a boundary by disabling anon, and again, i cannot stress enough how much i appreciate that you've come to us with this feedback off-anon and with respect and decency. i get where you are coming from and again, agree with a lot of your points.

the only other thing i want to make clear is that this fic, no matter how much attention its garnered, should not be treated as a creator/consumer relationship that mirrors anything where the exchange of money is involved. not only is it unfair to apply this standard to fanworks, where it is illegal to monetize such content, but the entire purpose of fanworks is to celebrate what you are a fan of together. when you apply expectations on either end -- i am a fan of this work, therefore, people should create timely content for it; i am creating this fanwork, therefore, people should interact with it -- defeats the entire nature of fan-created work as a whole. while we have continued to be vocally grateful for the love and support our fic has been shown, we both maintain that we would continue writing and continue uploading even if we were getting less than half of the amount of interaction that we do. it's nice to have interaction, but not necessary, because we what write and post is done because we love it, and it's shared so that we can look back on it, so our friends can enjoy it, and anyone else who might want to. we are, of course, excited to share that world with anyone who cares -- we created the blog and the promo because we wanted to share it -- but that does not mean that the relationship between us and our readers should have expectations. we are all creating and enjoying this work for free for the sake of love for the characters, as the star trek obsessed housewives of the 60s (and the law) have intended.

i feel like this response is a bit jumbled so i apologize if anything isn't clear or hard to understand. thank you again for your time!

[angelus-scripturae]

Heyy! Could you do headcannons for the boys with a partner that is a very well known youtuber/streamer? Thank youuuu! <3 (also I'm Dyslexic so sorry for any spelling mistakes!)

Of course! I actually wanted to write something like this soon so thank you for giving me a reason to!

Also i’m dyslexic too i very heavily rely on autocorrect lol :))

ALSO IM SORRY ABOUT MY PROLONGED ABSENCE ONE OF THE PEOPLE HERE WHO HELPED LEFT SO IM TRYNA LEARN TO WRITE SMUT SO I CAN KEEP GOONG WITH IT AND NOW ONE OF MY IRL FRIENDS IS HERE (sorry mate) PLEASE BARE WITH MEZ

The Boys headcannons for an influencer!reader.

Pairings: EddieVR x Reader, juicyfruitsnacks x reader, joshdub x reader, sleepymully x reader, YourNarrator x reader.

Warnings: Bad language, mentions of guns/ robbery, shitty writing.

Eddie

I feel like you would be a paranormal investigation channel in this case

Or a channel that does scary short films/ skits

You upload your clips from streams and videos onto tiktok and other social media

One time when doing a “Worlds scariest tiktoks?” video, someone had sent in one of your videos for him to react to

He found it so scary that he reached out to you.

He asked for you to help him and the boys at some haunted places and you two just began to bond and become close.

One night he invited you out to ‘record’ with him and the boys but when you arrived, he was there with a hand made poster.

Almost like a promposal

At first, you started laughing out of confusion but when you realised it was serious you immediately said yes to dating him.

Fans had notice how close you two had gotten (even more than before) and started theorising.

Eventually, you told them after having a talk about where you wanted the relationship to go

Once everyone knew, the edits and posts talking about the two of you flooded in.

You both loved how sweet everyone was

Of course you both got hate from fans as does every internet-open relationship between two well loved people

However, all that matters is the two of you.

You help each other when the hate gets a bit extreme with love and breaks from socials

Eventually after a few years, Eddie takes you out to ‘record’ once again

However, when you get to the studio you were due to record at, there’s a small table with a candle in the middle

You turn around to ask Eddie what was going on, you saw him on one knee with a small, black, velvet box in hand

It seemed like a cheesy and cliché situation but as he asked you to marry him, you barely let him finish before saying yes.

Let’s just say fans went crazy finding this out

Narrator

You probably know what I’m gonna say

You’re a VR voice actor channel.

like the ones that troll people in vr with different voices

or just a normal va channel but we’re going with VR rn

He was recording with the boys when he started with his deep voice in a sort of fake-flirting situation

You gave it right back ofc

He was startled at first but then you set up a hole storyline and his fans loved it.

At the time, you hadn’t known who he was

but your comments did

they urged to to do more with him and so you reached out

you made more and more content together to the point the fans shipped you to the moon and back

you couldn’t deny your feelings for him any longer

so one day in a call with him you asked him out.

He said yes almost immediately

then backtracked and tried to act “cool” about it

that made you giggle

so you began dating and the fans could tell

Narrator became so much more bashful and touchy around you

especially in person

Although they new for sure when he proposed in a video where you all went to disney land and they loved it

so did you

You started crying

I feel like you were at the wishing well thing and you said something like

“i wish to marry my best friend” or smth as a joke

then you turned around and he was on one knee

The amount of edits with sappy songs in the background…

thousands

Juicy

You’re a streamer in this case

You were playing your favourite game on stream

it just so happened to be juicy’s favorite as well

Let’s say the boys were doing a “if you laugh you donate”

Juicy laughed and chose you to donate to

Then got hyped when he saw the game

Had to donate like $100

you got fucking hype at the money amount

You also sort of knew who he was so you freaked out that too

let’s time skip to after you ended stream

you checked your phone to find a twitter notif from him asking to record with you sometime

You obviously instantly accepted duh

so you did

you knew you liked him but never once thought he felt the same i mean it was just professional right?

WRONG

he was head over heels for you

always finding ways to be close to you or talk to you

Always trying to make you laugh

I mean always

makes him happy y’know

when he asked you out, he was half asleep on a discord call and just blurted it out

You said yes but had to remind him in the morning

He then got bummed out about not being able to say it extravagantly

accepted it none the less

Mully

You were dating wayyyy before you began youtube

Usually playing horror games or watching scary animations

However you weren’t very public

the fans only found you when you posted your engagement tweet. ikr

they went insane over it and bombarded you both with questions

“when’s the wedding?”

“how long have you been together?”

And the obvious jokes

a few people were upset you kept it from them but it’s your life innit lol

You can keep whatever you want from them

You even posted a vlog with him planning your wedding.

The fans had no clue when it was but waited semi-patiently

WENT INSANE when you dropped the date

on the day, you posted on insta with all the cute photos of you two kissing and having fun

but had a VERY cursed caption

he however posted cursed videos like you drunk after the reception or

any of the boys doing dumb shit

but had one of the sweetest captions you’ve ever seen

when the full video of the wedding dropped there were HUNDREDS of edits made

almost brought a tear to your eye :,(

Josh

G-mod

You met in G-mod

now I think i could stop it there but i’ll go into detail

you were kinda fuckin around and you were pretending to be a receptionist

when juicy and reekid came in doing their usual shenanigans trying to rob you

the audacity

You switched it onto them ofc

and it made amazing content so he asked for your discord

you didn’t talk for a few weeks before you got a video recommended to you saying

“Psycho receptionist pulled a gun on me!”

You watched it and soon realise it was what you had done

You sent him a message along the lines of

“Psycho? i though i was pretty tame.”

He then sent you a message apologising and offering to change the title

you then pointed out the fact you were joking and he went back to usual josh

Then asked you to join him and Eddie for a scary discord video

you agreed and had a blast

I mean of course you did with your effortless humour

through that you gained quite a large following on your main channels

you continued to record with josh but also focused on your own channels too

after about half a year he confessed to you

i’m the middle of recording a G-mid video

at first you thought it was a bit

when you realised it was serious you instantly agreed.

you let the relationship move quite slow

and the fans loved you both together when you became public on your one year anniversary (with a tweet)

though many people pressured you to tell them if you had plans for marriage

your answer was always the same

“we’ll see how it goes.”

Hi lovelies! sorry for such a long absence life is fucking me over recently and I’m hoping you’re not too mad for the absence

also thank yous for 75 followers <33333

[ancientgreekyuri]

Today marks three years of Dianthus existing! I made my first concept sketches for her on 11/20/23 💖 this also means it's been three years of Diathesterius! I sometimes use the date I uploaded Dia to toyhouse, the 21st, as the anniversary date just in case I'm late... but I managed to finish colouring this <3 I had actually wanted to do something for this earlier in the month, I even made some very elaborate plans for it... but it ended up not happening! Which is okay 💞 but I still wanted to draw a little wedding piece... so I did! I'll make something fancier when I have more time later on... 💝 I used my own handwriting here for authenticity, but at some point... I'd like to be able to rewrite in Greek for More authenticity <3 Uncropped version (and long rambling post) under the cut 💕 I get a little Vulnerable so don't read it if you're gonna be mean or else I'll like Get You or something

I've made posts in the past talking about why Theseus and Asterius mean so much to me, but I don't think I've made one on why Dianthus herself means so much to me.. so for her own third year anniversary, I'll do that here! before I begin...! the fruit in dia's hair here are from the strawberry tree, arbutus unedo. I associate the tree and its fruit with Theseus but... it's honestly been so long, I don't remember exactly why! Just that, for some reason, I imagine thathis childhood home had a tree of these fruit blossoming just outside his mother's room, and thus he has fond memories of it. Lady Dianthus... she who loves all things pink, actively hates celery, and still has a job at the library despite being so fogetful and clumsy... she who met Theseus and immediately became obsessed because it was the first interesting thing to happen to her- not a parent or someone she's close to, but herself! her first time feeling as if she had a true purpose. She who didn't understand Theseus' obsession with Asterius until meeting he Minotaur, and promptly decided "he's not scary? he's not scary at all! he's just a cow!" I've made sona and the likes before Dia of course, but she was the first in a long time who was truly meant to resemble me in all ways (except for the setting, of course...). I made her design simple so I would easily be able to redraw her, and gave her one of my favourite palettes pink and green and cream and gold. At first I really didn't expect to get that attached to her... I went months without drawing her after her initial creation. but the more I drew her the more I realized how much fun I was having with her...! It's funny looking back on it... originally I had a much more comedic idea for her story, and di not intend to ship her with Theseus in any serious way. It was going to be a completely one-sided love (with Dianthus taking the role of "crazed fangirl" - which she still is, in a way). I'm sure it isn't a surprise but it didn't take me long at all to start drawing ship art of them, creating artworks and writing of Theseus and Asterius was a self indulgent joy for me, so why not selfship art too? I ended up invested, of course. Using Dia I put a lot of my own feelings into a story; a sense of otherness, her loneliness, feeling lost and out of place. I had removed it later on because I felt uneasy with how vulnerable it was, but at one put I had placed one of the most traumatic events of my life into Dia's story- sometimes I think about adding it back, because I know giving her an oppurtunity to open up about it with her beloveds would be something beneficial to Me irl(!). But that's besides the point here... she's a stubborn girl, sweet but arrogant is my usual go-to descriptor for her; that's how I think of myself too, just based on what I've been told (I have a hard time thinking of myself as nice, though others always say so to me...). That may be part of why I tend to look for those features in (fictional!) lovers... something feels good to me about being able to butt heads due to this shared traits, but still coming together and making amends despite it. I do think it's a little funny that the sonas I've gotten the most attached to so far- Dianthus, and now Nerine- have some sort of theme of death with them. Dianthus is literally a ghost, and Nerine is metaphorically one (and maybe liteally, if I ever make up my mind...). Maybe that's just fitting for me, though... hmm... I'm not sure what else I want to say here... I think of Dianthus as "Me but in Hades Game / Ancient Greek context." Of course some events that happen in her life didn't happen to me, or, sometimes, I dramatize it (Dia's mother leaving her and her father to become the wife of a god was inspired by the fact that for the first few yers of my life, my parents were separated... but they always had a positive relationship with one another! Unlike Dia's parents), but she's become a big par

t of me all the same. Just as I am happy and hoping to spend many more years with Theseus and Asterius, I hope to spend many more years with her as well. i think that's all I'll write for now <3 if you read this thank you for being curious enough about me to be interested in all this 😭

btw, here's the first ever post of her... (yes thats my priv </3 i briefly unlocked it to search for this... don't try and follow me over there though it's crazy over there)

[subwaytostardew]

▽ Subway to Stardew - Emmet 8-Heart Event ▽

This plays after getting at least 8 hearts with Emmet and entering the Railroad between 9AM - 4PM on a Thursday after viewing his 7 heart event.

You recieve this letter when you reach 8 hearts with Emmet!

Commentary and progress under the readmore.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

I DID NOT REALIZE THAT THIS EVENT WOULD BE THAT LONG... I could have sworn it was around 14 minutes max! I was worried that the battle stuff went by too quickly! It's almost 30 minutes long! And that's with me clicking away faster! Emmet really meant it when he said he wanted to spend all the livelong day together...

I thought it was going to be roughly 18 minutes. NOPE. WOOPS. This what happens when you write possibly too much.

We are bad at making short events. Vanilla events are around 1-3 minutes long. A day in Stardew lasts 14 minutes and 10 seconds. I would not recommend trying to play this mod spoiler free on multiplayer because time does not freeze and you will die if you don't skip the events. I wouldn't want to shorten the events either... Cutting down their infodumps would just be wrong.

We had a few requests to have a battle event which made me 😅 because I personally couldn't imagine that going well (truth over ideals...). This event was partially made to shut that idea down. The whole tunnel scene is mostly me trying to write an in-story reason as to why there won't be a battle with the farmer against Ingo... Emmet is competitive! This is not just limited to battles but extends to being your best friend! Behind the scenes... I'm just too tired to write out more battles. I actually really dislike single battle format. I'm not making an Ingo battle event. You already have three games to battle him in. I refuse to make more battle events for the time being.

I say that but there's another half-finished double battle event between submas that I switched tracks from to work on Emmet's 8 heart event... I'll finish that eventually.

Anyways... the creation process did not go by quickly at all either. I sure do have a lot to say on that matter. I do all my coding in google docs (terrible, I know) and so far we have had to make 3 seperate documents becuase things start to break at around 40 pages. The document before Emmet's 8 heart event made it to 64 pages before I abandoned it for a new document.

The longest document we have is around 80 pages along. Which usually contain the draft scripts of multiple events. code documents however take up a lot more since it's basically a giant wall of text. So when Emmet's 8 heart event started to slow down the current code document (the third iteration). We had to give the event its own space.

Emmet's 8 heart event ended up being 36 pages long alone! Also if you didn't know, Stardew's event format doesn't allow for line breaks so I have been staring at a 36 page wall of text for weeks. I plan to upload a video compiling all the different options later because I feel like all of the "good" options for battle... don't quite make sense in the context of the rest of the story. The farmer is supposed to not be good at battle and lose because they got overwhelmed with information. As the one writing out all the battle options though, I can't bring myself to act like I'm bad at battling. The winning options are extra silly just to justify a loss and because I couldn't bring myself to lie about Wild Charge not being a guaranteed OHKO on Archeops either. Especially since Emmet brings out damage calculations in a few of the options.

On that topic, all of the battle options play out accurately in a real double battle! I tested. Every. Single. Path. In Pokemon Showdown between the halves of Emmet's team.

I had nightmares of reliving this same battle over and over because that's all I did when I was awake. Make it stopppppp 😭

The lines about them practicing were references to me actually simulating everything in Showdown! Emmet's frustration is also based on how making this event took over my brain so now I struggle to comprehend how someone who doesn't know what to do in this battle would feel... Thank you Kade for helping me with that part ^^;;;

Your welcome =3

I actually enjoyed the Pokémon Showdown part - when it comes to Pokémon Battles, I have dabbled a little bit into the competitive side of things. Or at least the massive game of 4D Chess... trying to predict your opponent etc. Bait them into making a mistake, etc. There was a good time where we did nothing but Pokémon Battles for a night. And it was fun.

I am in no way good at competitive side of things - (I lose lot but that's okay.) especially in the double battle format. Single Battles I could do. (Though once again, I'm average at best) However I think the most memorable battle I ever had was back in Pokémon X and Y, where I managed to chip away and stall a Mega Aggron with a Umbreon.. And I think Umbreon was my last Pokémon but I kept using Moonlight to keep my health up. My kid self was super surprised and ecstatic that I beaten the odds... but whenever I do Pokémon Showdown I'm either testing battle stuff or making teams. I'm addicted to team compositions and doing a combination of different Pokémon even if it's not the competitive Meta....

I have the choices sorted into good/bad routes in my mind so in most of the routes, Emmet criticizes the player's decisions based on type advantage, STAB, and target. I was torn between the best and worst options for this recording but thanks to Kade's input, you get to see Durant ramming into Emmet instead of him getting mad at you for conducting Shadow Claw on Galvantula.

Battling Emmet as a first time trainer is not going to go well! Not only is he too competitive and he refuses to let you win (unlike Ingo), he pretty much sets you up for failiure. I'm sorry Emmet but Galvantula's stats are not intended for making her a physical attacker (emphasis on the Egg Move at what cost...).

Not to mention... Emmet is a Battle Facility Head. And you don't get to battle the Subway Bosses in the mainline games unless you have a somewhat decent team halfway through the game. Even still! They can both wipe the floor with you if you're not aware that they are using battle items...

Though I interpret Emmet not going easy on someone as him challenging them to push themselves and exceed expectations. Both Ingo and Emmet as characters encourage others in their own way, Ingo through words and Emmet I believe through his actions. Though he also can say some encouraging things.

Not the most encouraging if you compare their quotes pages... Customer service and communication isn't exactly his forte... But Emmet wants you to do your best and win against him! He likes seeing serious battlers like him! He just won't let you win unless if you push yourself to do your best. You'll have to. He doesn't really have the most beginner-friendly approach...

Considering you the Farmer, have no idea what a Pokémon even is. (You're practically learning everything from Ingo, Emmet, Elesa etc.) The fact you get challenged to a Battle because Emmet wants to share his interests with you - to have you better understand Pokémon.

He just struggles with the fact that, he is essentially challenging someone with no real battle experience and it's a Double Battle at that. Controlling two Pokémon at once?! Think about the effort it takes to command one Pokémon. We all seen the Anime and how trainers struggle to connect with their partners because they're new. They're just starting. They aren't going to be Battle Facility levels of skill.

Not to mention that Emmet is a little deprived in the valley and hasn't really battled any other new passengers in quite some time. At most, he battled Iris once when she came to visit, Ingo (who's Pokemon are optimized for countering/pissing him off), and himself (I had the mental image of him sitting in the field practicing for this event like an old man playing chess against himself in a park). He's a little too far gone to fully understand what a beginner would think in this situation other than mayyyybe it would take a moment to catch them up to speed. (I would know... I swear those option paths rewired my brain...)

After inputting all of their data into Showdown, I had actually forgotten that Galvantula and Durant are Emmet's Doubles Line team while Eelektross and Archeops are the Super Doubles Line team when deciding the matchups. (Been a while since they were in the Battle Subway huh...) Story-wise, I was thinking that Emmet should be with his ace and that he wouldn't really trust anyone else with Archeops since... he has higher support needs (depression bird 💔). Eelektross and Archeops are paired up because of Gastro Acid and Defeatist. I was thinking that Galvantula and Durant are a bit more beginner-friendly; they can take a loss a bit more easilly (a little less so in Galvantula's case... she's a hater). The farmer had already met Durant earlier in the 4-heart event so he'd volunteer to return the favor of fighting for you. Once you win his trust, he's more than happy to help. As for Galvantula... She's testing to see if she can trust her clingy child with you.

I'm excited to dive into the Pokémon NPC stories... Durant and Excadrill especially.

Durant was originally going to have Choice Scarf instead of Quick Claw to help narrow down the options. It was a pain reorganizing my notes and options all over again to lump not only move choices but turn order in mind. My notes were a mess.

Durant and Galvantula are a very luck-based combination so it was ultimately easier to write the different option paths with that in mind since Stardew's event format is verrrrrrrrrrrry linear. All of the options need to merge back into the same event (well... besides the option to refuse his friendship/battle which ends the event in the tunnel). Durant has lowered accuracy while Galvantula has higher critical hit ratios, I could write the battles based on their luck which is great because I wanted to force a loss.

I thought it would be a little too... reductive (it sure would reduce the amount of content >.>) and unrealistic for the player to impress Emmet with a victory on their first battle. Emmet sees this battle as a test on if you can follow his train of thought and be a good match for him because he's a little bit dependent on you for emotional regulation. He kind of expects you as his favorite passenger to have twin telepathy like Ingo since that's his standard operating procedure. You won't. Because you're not Ingo. You're just some weird farmer he got attached to. With the setup of a battle, I wanted this event to develop the farmer and Emmet's relationship to show that they aren't exactly perfect for each other (and Will say things that can be wrongly misinterpreted) but ultimately they will put in the effort to communicate and make things work. They won't have the best communication! But it's there.

While Ingo has a proper library confession, this event doubles as Emmet's "confession" of sorts. Emmet is already pretty openly affectionate by this point and I wanted to make it somewhat ambiguous as to whether or not his attachment to you is romantic or strictly platonic. To him, it doesn't really matter, but he does want you all to himself. He's not fond of sharing!

But... While Emmet's event may be more platonic in intent, you can still reject him. It's a lot harsher than Ingo's because refusing to even let him try to be a better friend for you is pretty harsh in itself. Ingo's is mostly the choice of whether or not you want to send him back to 6 hearts for more dialogue variety (it's really easy to miss dialogue when you try to max out their hearts as soon as possible! We're making lines for every day, season, and heart level.) Rejecting Emmet sends you back to 2 hearts and overrides his daily dialogue for the day with him asking if you're still friends, apologizing, and then getting too upset to say anything more.

Anyways!

From the start, I wanted Emmet to be like Nemona; awkward in their attachment, somewhat intimidating in their obsession/competitiveness, and thinks of the player as their savior from loneliness. He wants to be the best friend you have because you're the best friend he has. It's only fair. Best rival for life, favorite passenger, same thing.

The mountain pass events were actually made because Emmet's original schedule included him waiting around near the bushes there like Nemona stalking the player on their gym journey. NPCs actually can't path there so when he did, he was just deleted from the save!

I also stumbled across a bug back when I made the very first introduction event where a question loops unless if you pick a certain option. I kept that with Emmet forcing you to keep battling with him in mind as a slight reference to how Nemona doesn't let you say no to being her "best rival for life". This question also makes SMAPI hate you!

Gotta love Pokémon's false sense of 'Sure you have a choice. Your choice is always YES.'

There's probably a more fitting flower for Emmet outside of poppies. I just looked up every flower in Stardew (some of them aren't real...) and their meanings in flower language to come to the conclusion of poppies. The meanings in Emmet's event refer to the white poppy in particular. White. Rest. Oblivion. It fits. Good enough. It was a bit difficult to find more on the flower language of poppies in English (particularly the "Oblivion" part) so I resorted to Japanese sites for more information.

In English, the meaning of "Rest" seems to precede every other meaning. Poppies are used in death memorials. Emmet and the farmer did accidentally develop a shared theme of dying (overwork exhaustion, slimes, the mines, etc... Emmet can't get a break. I'm sorry.) but I wasn't sure if Kade was okay with the theme of death being emphasized. With that in mind, I was stunned when I that saw that her first battle map draft included a graveyard. The implication that Emmet picked flowers from a memorial site...

In my mind - the area is an old train stop in between the desert area and the forest/mountains that lead into Pelican Town. Also figured there would be an abandon farm - considering how Pelican Town is struggling it makes sense that potentially other places are not in best of shape either.

The graveyard is possibly dead relatives of whatever family or farmer made their life near the rails. Of course a lot of time has passed... So much so that nature has taken back what was theirs in the first place.

I always make up stories when having a location in mind and this area parallels with the tunnel Ingo takes you through to stargaze around 10 hearts. That area being an abandon coal mining operation.... Coal, Wood, etc. was used to powered steam trains so makes sense for there to be a source for it. I'm not the best when it comes to filling up Tiled Maps with decor - but I at least put down enough for Thylak to come in and make it more fitting for Stardew

The battlefield underwent quite a few revisions, one was having the battle area be more centered, and changing the old warehouse/worker area to be more like a train repair station with a water stop. I wanted it to feel like a place where Emmet goes to keep himself busy when he's told to take a break from working on the station.

Here's the final map! The battle area had to be shrunken down to fit in an event. More grass was added because I kept losing track of Joltik in the dirt. There's more flowers for Emmet to observe the quality of and pick tge best ones as gifts that he's too nervous to give the farmer until they wilt and dry. Poppies by the gravestones, of course!

I also did attempt to make a proper scrapbook sprite for when I eventually have Emmet give you his gift, but I never got around to implementing it properly since... I'm not familliar with adding custom items and its implementation changes in the 1.6 update.

Despite having access to the modding alpha, I've been procrastinating on migrating to 1.6 since HD Portraits isn't supported yet (I know... 1.6 releases in 3 weeks...).

WOO 1.6 WE ARE NO WHERE NEAR READY FOR ALL THE STUFF THAT POSSIBLY GOING TO BREAK. LOL.

Until next time! Thank you for reading!

[suzukiblu]

I always assumed Match started off more pale because he like. Wasn't finished cooking? Or more like he wasn't cooked 100 correctly.

Like, whenever I don't wanna cook I'll make these frozen pot pies, and you're supposed to let the pies defrost and slit the top while the oven preheats.

I've noticed when I don't defrost them or slit the top, the crust tends to stay a bit pale and a tiny bit... doughey? I guess?

So that's what I think happened between Superboy and Match. Superboy's pie got to defrost and cook, while Match's pie was left in the freezer while the oven preheated.

Like, I know that Match is supposed to be the "better" version of Superboy but like... I have a hard time believing The Agenda REALLY knew what they were doing

Ironically Match is supposed to have been the one who was completely "cooked", pretty sure he was actually MEANT to come out his "age". KON was supposed to be a grown-ass Superman but got busted out early. It's also at least implied that the only really "better" thing Match has going for him is that he got the full TTK/combat education uploads that Kon had interrupted, and they're actually evenly--you know, MATCHED, lol.

If I HAD to come up with a canonical reason for Match's original coloring changing, I'd either assume it was that he got zero sunlight in-development (which, considering iirc they built Match BEFORE it was canonically clear that Superboy was at least partially solar-powered is in fact a possibility), or it was an early symptom of the genetic flaw that led to his eventual Bizarrofication, which I once saw a fic assume the Agenda had purposefully built into him to keep him under their control. Like, they were giving him medication or hormones that kept the degradation from triggering, basically. Which I think is much smarter as an explanation than what canon did, which was, you know, just not explain it at all as far as I know. Like, obvi the Bizarrofication was just a stupid off-the-cuff idea somebody had like fifteen years later, not a planned thing that mattered or was interesting or logical, but that's how I'd probably explain it if I had to, hah.

Buuuuut I'm pretty sure the dude was originally just meant to be the sci-fi version of albino, just for whatever easy visual cheats to tell him and Kon apart reasons, and then somebody either lost the series bible or just decided to retcon that and stuff him in Kon's old T-shirt instead.

( god I STILL hate the T-shirt for BOTH of them, it's just such a stupidly OOC look that does not get TREATED as OOC. AND KON IS A PUNK, GDI, NOT A JOCK. )

[itsquakey]

Q&A Time!

I haven't done a Q&A in a while so let's bang out some asks from the askbox and answer them.

Without really saying much, things have kinda gotten better, but I am def in a hole right now from multiple pretty saddening things happening to me all within a month. I'm having a lot of issues drawing but I don't think it's burnout-more likely I'm just a sad lump. I'm sure I'll improve though once the year finishes us.

Kind of...I plan to make either a epilogue for Revenge of Pike Knight or an entirely different comic about his process of letting go but also forgiving himself for her actions. He never goes back to being sweet bandana waddle dee but she does manage to loosen up as time goes on.

Mago gets stripped of any and all power that the average doomer doesn't have. So yea. He's a little guy you could punt like a football.

It's honestly really hard to say what my favorite food is, as I am someone who struggles with food (I blame it on the fact I almost died of starvation as a toddler and it ruined my entire digestive system but who knows it could be crappy genetics too). However here are some foods I enjoy that people may like! (Recipe Links are in the names)

Banoffee Pie: I usually like it without the bananas though, they are too soft texture-wise for me so it's really more Toffee Pie. Just remember if you are making the toffee from scratch that it is basically like making a bomb and you HAVE to make sure timing is correct otherwise pressure will build and either you will die or your kitchen will get a nice brown coat of sugar-paint (Personal experience here).

Chocolate Souffle: I always have this for my birthday so it's a fond treat. It IS a souffle though, so it's very hard to make if you do not have the experience.

Quiche: I love quiche, it's something that is eggy but also a pie and I can eat it any time of the day. I usually like just cheese in it but meats and some small greens are also good.

And finally- Zucchini Brownies (Or just walnut brownies): Which I actually haven't had in a while but man am I craving them. They sound weird but you can't taste the zucchini and it brings a nice dampness to the brownie.

When Powehi was little his sisters loved to tease him even though he would give little to no reaction. They seemed to have a decent relationship as children but I would not be surprised if Powehi doesn't really like his sisters a whole lot when he's an adult. They're still as annoying as before but now they act more like their father (a pet peeve of his). However they are still his sisters at the end of the day, so he puts up with them.

Since I don't know if I have the post up anymore- ANY FANART OR INTERPRETATIONS/INSPIRATION OF MY WORK IS OKAY. If it is fanart or is heavily based off my work all I need is name credit or an @/. If you @/ me, there's a very high likelihood I will see it and reblog it!

As someone who worked with various animals including tarantulas for a while- I love them. I love their fuzz and their little claws and paw pads and the fact they're chill (but at the same time very anxious) little dudes. I think they get a bad rap but they're nice.

If I remember correctly, the death of Meta Knight comic was originally artist trolling. Yes, I made the comic to purposefully get a reaction from you all and laugh evilly while you cried over his death. However that comic is the backbone of Nextgen and I'm glad I made it.

Yes, I will get to that art eventually. I'm just taking my time for reasons. I will/am also uploading art that is old but was never released on my account. Eventually once all the old art is posted new art will start up again.

Meta works his way up the ladder to become a Reaper. Not really spoilers but his design will be brought back soon. But yes, he can still see his friends with the help of Morpho. Also Galaxia shattered in the death comic, so she's long gone as well but returns to Meta in the afterlife at some point.

Dedede ain't dead yet! He's still kicking. Meta would have to meet him in the mortal realm as a little buggy.

Yes, however I highly doubt I will ever cover them in Nextgen, so it's up to fan interpretation at the end of the day.

Yes he does, he takes the form of a beetle much like Morpho takes the form of a butterfly in the mortal realm and gets to visit his friends when he can.

Apologies, but only my girlfriend can hug me : )

I imagine if the situation calls for it he does use his tongue. However he mainly chooses the sword and his fabric arms.

In Nextgen I like to imagine Kirby's copy abilities change as they grow up instead of someone upgrading them for him, hence why they look different when he uses copy abilities.

Powehi has always had some of Marx's powers and grew up with them normally. However as he gets older he begins to really not like them because it makes him different in a way others may be intimidated by.

In Nextgen Chilly and Magolor never got nor will get married. They're off again on again exes because it is way funnier that way and honestly aligns with the one manga more.

Magolor and Chilly met during the events of Star Allies, and their relationship/personalities are kinda based off that manga in a minor way.

Arthur showed up out of nowhere on Castle Dedede's entrance and ever since then Kirby has taken care of him.

In a surprising turn of events, no. The waddle dee from Kirby 64 in Nextgen is actually Bandana's/Pike's older brother who is the sole reason Bandana/Pike went down the path she did. The stories that were told about the adventure and the heroes his older brother worked with got her to be inspired enough to actually work alongside Dedede and later Kirby and the others.

Because that belt buckle is the last remaining piece of who he used to be. His robes are gone along with everything else but that buckle. He is now nude.

All Noddies are biologically and magically tied to the Dream Fountain which is the thing that gives them their dreams and tiredness. The only way Castella can have nightmares is if there's some kind of tampering with the Dream Fountain that effects it negatively.

I don't think canon Bandana would enjoy the fact I assassinated his character for some plot lmao. But for the sake of the funny just imagine them interacting like that one sonic and shadow clip from Sonic Adventure 2.

The cycle of matter only affects Dark and Light matter/ anything in between that. Matter like that usually will never see a reaper in their life because their souls almost never make it to the afterlife and instead are in a constant cycle of reincarnation, hence the name. Meta Knight was merely lucky enough to have Morpho break the rules for him just like how Necrodeus broke the rules for him when he was Gala and took his soul to the afterlife. Normally living things are taken by reapers to the afterlife when they die though. While non-matter characters like Dedede, Magolor, Marx, Pike, etc will be able to have a one way ticket to the afterlife, I'm keeping it vague for Kirby as not to spoil future ideas.

That's all for now! I'll be answering more asks in the future don't worry.

[kittehbiscuits]

Old art that I didn't post here for whatever reason or I didn't have Tumblr yet (if I did actually post some of these already, my bad.)

I am doing this on my laptop which as far as I know doesn't let me group images together so every image will be its full size; this is a long post!!

(NOT IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER!!!!!!!!)

Trigger warning: old art, blood, body horror, maggots, unfinished art, drug use, old art, gore, sandworms, corpses, nudity, self harm scars, etc.

MY FIRST DIGITAL DRAWING OF BEETLEJUICE this is when I knew the short hair wasn't going to work for me

^^I started a drawing of this weird au beej a long time ago and never finished it so I planned to post this sort of sequel after I finished it but as far as I'm aware I never posted it

I thought the shirt would be a funny thing for him to wear when he moves into the maitlaind's attic

First Bettyjuice drawing!

^^Featuring my ocs as Lydia and BJ

That one Ralsei image

^^ This one is in the tour's fanart binder!

Drew him with short hair for the (technically second) time

I forgot his beard. Inspired by the Haunting of Hill House (love that show)

I miss drawing his nail polish

^^art trade (design belongs to ohwowhumans)

^^Ok I probably have posted this one but it's my Donnie redesign and I think he needs more attention.

I think I drew this the night after seeing the final show

This one is also a celebration of the final performance

And this one

This is Beetlejuice from a really weird fucking dream I had (my mortician character was his coworker at a grocery store in the dream fun fact)

The premise was he caught her smoking weed in the back of the store and there was a big montage of them doing weed every day at work and then she said something that made him think she was gonna tell the boss and get him fired so he got a gun out but didn't end up shooting her and the dream ended (artstyle was vaguely south-park-esque??)

IT'S NOT LETTING ME UPLOAD ANYMORE WAHHHHHHHHH SCREW THIS.

[starsheild]

Alone

Notes: So this is actually an old fic of mine that I had posted on another site years ago that I happened to stumble across. It's one of my favorites, so uploading it here now.

It cut deep, even though there was no actual physical pain involved. There was nothing wrong with his spark. At least nothing wrong that First Aid would be able to detect with a scanner. He and Jazz had never bonded, had never allowed themselves that indulgence, no matter how much they had both craved the idea of that closeness.

Most of the crew had no idea how close the two of them had been. Had no idea of the small twinges that had run through Prowl every time he had seen members of the crew moving forward with their lives, at least as well as anyone could in the middle of a war, and being denied that same chance himself.

It was no external source that had stayed their actions and leashed their emotions and desires. It was internal, an agreement and understanding between the two of them. A precaution against a circumstance such as this.

Even though neither of them ever imagined this sort of scenario. One of them passing on during the course of the war they expected. Both of them dying before the end of the war was certainly not beyond the realm of probability. But neither of them had expected to survive their Prime.

And now Prowl found himself virtually alone. There was a new Prime. There was a new command staff. And he was alone. There were others left from his generation, this was true, but all of them had somehow blended seamlessly into the new command structure.

There was nothing for him to do, and what was even worse was the fact that no one was interested in trying to find something for him to do. All of his requests for some sort of work, for some sort of direction and purpose, had been denied. For medical reasons, they kept insisting. For his own good, the responses always read.

When Prowl had confronted First Aid about this the young medic had looked thoroughly appalled and, much to Prowl's sorrow and pity, apologetic. In fact, the young mech had been unable to meet his optics, looking at the floor, the wall, the empty berth, anywhere but a direction where he would meet the optics of the mech he was speaking to.

"I've tried Prowl. But I'm still young, and my word doesn't carry a lot of weight around here yet. And I'm, I'm no-" First Aid had choked there, and Prowl had been able to finish the sentence that the young medic could not. I'm no Ratchet. I'm no force of nature to bend all to my will, from the lowest recruit to the Prime himself.

"I keep telling them that you don't need the time. Don't want the time. To give you something to do. And they keep refusing me. I don't know why…"

Prowl had thanked him quietly and went on his way. He knew why, even if Frist Aid did not. He was not worth the effort. He was old, out of date and obviously damaged. There was no place for him in the new command staff, and there was no place for him among the common soldiers, for he had been an officer far to long for them to accept him among their ranks again. And there was no one with the time to spare to find something for him to do.

His fears confirmed, Prowl made his way back to his old office and set down at his terminal. Even when his position as Second in Command had been revoked no one had taken over his space. No one had needed or wanted the place where he had done so much work.

Prowl almost wished they had. Even if it was a place where he had spent countless joors stressed, overworked, under-fueled and on the verge of offlining from lack of recharge, the room had some good memories too.

There, on the far wall, was the dent he had never bothered to have fixed from one of the twins pranks backfiring. He never had been quite able to figure out what Sideswipe thought he was doing with those magnets, but it had been rather entertaining to come in that morning and find the mech suspended from the wall by his aft.

Feeling thoroughly vindictive and not at all responsible for getting the red mech out of the position he managed to find his way into, Prowl had left him there for the entire day. Sideswipe had not gotten down until his twin had shown up to rescue him later that evening. And even then the yellow Lamborghini had threatened to leave Sideswipe there to suffer from his own stupidity.

Jazz had laughed when Prowl had told him the story. The saboteur had been away on a mission when the red twin had made the attempt, and the light-sparked tale, related in Prowl dry brand of humor, had been what the mech had needed to relieve some stress.

It had not hurt that Jazz had fallen from his chair when Prowl had added in a little detail. Prowl had left Sideswipe hanging on the office wall all day on the mechs only day off that week.

"Cold mech! Cold! Guess' that's jus' incentive fer me ta make sure mah pranks gonna roll when I pull it."

A prank that would never happen now.

Venting softly, Prowl began to write what was probably the last official document he would ever submit as an Autobot.

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Cater Diamond - Dorm Uniform Vignette

"Say cheese ☆"

[Heartslabyul Dorm – Lounge]

Cater: Hey, all you Heartslabyul second and third years～! Come gather in front of Trey-kun～!!

Heartslabyul Student C: Yes, sir! All second years are present and accounted for.

Heartslabyul Student D: All third years are already here.

Trey: I'm sure you're all aware, but an Unbirthday Party will be upon us soon.

Heartslabyul Student A: Yay! An Unbirthday Party!

Heartslabyul Student B: There'll be the sweetest cake and the finest tea. And the croquet tournament!

Cater: Hey now, everyone simmer down～! Pay attention to Trey-kun!

Trey: Even though the adherence to the Queen of Hearts' laws have somewhat relaxed ever since that "incident"…

Trey: The Unbirthday Party is an important tradition to us here in Heartslabyul.

Cater: Let's make sure to prep everything good ahead of time so that we can all be happy and enjoy the party the day of.

Cater: If for some reason we throw a shoddy party…

Cater: Riddle-kun'll have all our heads～☆

Trey: Haha, so that's about the gist of it. Let's work together to get this Unbirthday Party underway.

Heartslabyul Students: Yes, sir, Vice Dorm Leader!

Cater: Mmkay, then I'll explain how the roles are divvied up.

Cater: All the firsties'll be doing the traditional "painting of the roses."

Cater: And you'll fix up the playing field and equipment to get ready for the traditional sport of croquet.

Trey: You second and third years we'll split into three groups. Team Trey will be making the food with me.

Trey: Since the Dorm Leader is pretty particular about how it all tastes, especially the cake, I chose the members of this team.

Cater: And Team Cater'll be setting up the tea venue with me.

Cater: Let's make sure the table setting'll be cute and photogenic, chaotic and edgy.

Trey: And finally, Team Riddle will be in charge of the overall budget and scheduling.

Cater: Though technically Trey-kun and me're both part of Team Riddle, too… Man.

Trey: Alright, let's all split off into our groups and begin our tasks.

Cater: 'Kay, everyone, lezgo～☆

[Heartslabyul Dorm – Tea Garden]

Cater: So, tomorrow's the Unbirthday party.

Cater: Let's all start setting up for it!

Heartslabyul Student A: Diamond-senpai, I brought the cutlery set, including all the knives and forks, from storage.

Cater: Thankies～ Let's snap a pic of all you hard-working second years! Say cheese ☆

[snap!]

Cater: And then gotta upload it to Magicam right away!

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #Silverware #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansBusyDay

Heartslabyul Student A: Uh… Wouldn't it be better to upload the pictures at the actual event…?

Heartslabyul Student B: Diamond-senpai, I brought the tea set.

Cater: Nice!! In that box we got a real authentic spout-less teapot.

[snap!]

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #ChaoticTeaSet #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansItsSomeonesBirthday

Heartslabyul Student C: Cater-senpai, I've finished washing the tablecloths. I'm ironing them now!

Cater: Good job! How many of those cloths did we have all together, again?

[snap!]

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #Tablecloth #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansHappyBirthdayWhoeverItIs

Heartslabyul Student A: …Hey, is Cater-senpai always like that? It's not that he's just a cheerful dude?

Heartslabyul Student B: Seriously, he hasn't even done any work, has he?

Heartslabyul Student C: Yeah. We gotta carry all the heavy stuff, and he's just playing on his phone...

Riddle: You lot. How are the preparations for the party faring?

Heartslabyul Student A: Ah, Rosehearts-ryōchō!

Heartslabyul Student B: Have you come to check in on our team?

Heartslabyul Student C: Well… It's kind of hard to say, but… Please take a look at what Cater-senpai is doing.

[snap!]

Cater: Maaarvellous!!

[snap!]

Cater: Exxxcellent!!

Heartslabyul Student A: We're supposed to be getting ready for the party, but it seems like he's already started. Is that really alright?

Riddle: Rrrghh…

[Riddle stomps over]

Riddle: Cater!!

Cater: Riddle-kun…!?

Heartslabyul Student A: (Hehe… He's gonna get in trouble.)

Riddle: Cater, how is the venue setup faring?

Cater: Did you come to check up on us? That's so nice of you!! I gotta snap a pic with the oh-so-kind Dorm Leader.

[snap!]

Heartslabyul Student B: (Ehhhhhhh!!)

Heartslabyul Student C: (Cater-senpai, that's way too bold…!!)

Riddle: The placement of everything for the tea party is crucial. I've trusted you with this, so make sure to be absolutely thorough.

Riddle: Now, then… I shall go and see how Trey's group is getting along.

Cater: Okaaay. Say hi to Trey-kun for me ☆

Heartslabyul Student A: The Dorm Leader just… let that slacker off the hook… Why wasn't it off with his head?

Heartslabyul Student B: Tch, so even that strict Riddle-ryōchō gives favors to his friends.

Heartslabyul Student C: Uggh～ Makes me not wanna do anything～ It'd be great if this whole tea party play pretend thing went up in smoke…

Cater: Oh hey, that box you just brought over has the jam jar. That's super essential!

[snap!]

Cater: 'Kay, everyone. Let's keep it going and make this the best Unbirthday Party ever!

[Heartslabyul Dorm – Tea Garden]

―Day of the Unbirthday Party

Cater: Kaay, all the prep's complete.

Cater: Let's get this Unbirthday Party started!!!

Everyone: Hooray!!!!!

Deuce: Whew～ I finished eating my portion. Finally, I can dig into Clover-senpai's homemade cake.

Ace: Deuce, you sure have a big appetite. I'm already stuffed from having to eat all the first years' failed cakes.

Cater: Heeey! All you first years, you hyped up or what?

Deuce/Ace: Diamond-senpai. / Cater-senpai.

Cater: Ace-chan, is it your birthday today?

Ace: Me? No, my birthday's 9/23.

Cater: Oh, then maybe it's Deuce-chan's?

Deuce: Me? No, mine is 6/3.

Cater: And my birthday is 2/4. That's not day. That means～

Cater: A VERY MERRY UNBIRTHDAY TO YOU!!!

Ace: Ahh… Uhhh… Yeah, Happy Unbirthday…

Deuce: I-I really can't keep up with this energy. I have to raise my spirits some more, I guess.

Cater: Hey, c'mon, you guys gotta get more hyped～

Cater: I came all the way here to give thanks to the two guys who worked so hard behind the scenes to get this party going.

Cater: A ton of issues went down before the party got started, didn't it?

Ace: There was the incident with the hedgehogs we use for the croquet tournament escaping.

Deuce: And the flamingos ran away too.

Cater: On top of that there was also the incident with you first years snatching the cake making job from Trey-kun.

Cater: Which in turn brought about Riddle going berserk over the grotesque cake you all made.

Deuce: The cake incident was all Ace's fault.

Ace: Don't put it all on me. I was just trying to see if there were other options for the cake, is all.

Cater: Uh-huh. Let's just go over all the troubles that went on today with Trey-kun tonight…

Cater: And for now, just enjoy this tea party that we all put together!

Deuce/Ace: Sure.

Deuce: But yeah, anyway, this party really has a ton of weird rules.

Ace: Like, when I tried to pour some tea from the pot sitting in front of me, there was a dormouse inside…

Cater: Shhh. Part of the etiquette is to make sure the dormouse is sleeping.

Deuce: My teacup has a huge hole in the bottom of it.

???: Then you should just stack a bunch of cups and drink out of that～

Che’nya: Who says the large one has to be the pot and the small one has to be the cup, anyway?

Ace: Ack! There's a head floating in the air! Wait, you're…

Deuce: Che'nya! Is someone not from Heartslabyul allowed to be in here?

Cater: Heya, Che'nyan! Those pants are the bee's knees, as always!

Che’nya: I don't really like bees. If I'm gonna eat somethin', I'd rather it be a mouse～

Dormouse: !!!!???? Chu chu～～～～～☆○×△□! [Cat!]

Cater: Oh shoot! Che'nyan woke up the dormouse in the pot.

Ace: Ack! Hey! Stop jumping all over the table! Come onnn, you're messing everything up!

Deuce: Uhh, was one of the Unbirthday Party rules that we have to spread jam on the dormouse's nose if it wakes up!?

Cater: We can do the jam later, but for now, we need to catch that dormouse～～～～!!

Che’nya: I might be cat-like, but I'm still human. Obviously, I wouldn't eat a dormouse.

Che’nya: That's why, as soon as I grab a bite of the cake Trey made, I'm gonna split～

Che’nya: Dum dee dum～～～ ♪

Riddle: Well now, it's almost time. Go on, Vice Dorm Leader.

Cater: Everyone～ Eyes on Trey-kun!

Trey: With this, the Unbirthday party has come to a close!

Trey: Now that it's ended, it's time to clean up. Let's try to finish it up before the day ends.

Cater: First years'll clean the croquet field and throw away all the trash.

Cater: Second and third years'll wash all the dishes and take down the tea party venue decorations.

Riddle: We will continue to follow the Queen of Hearts' laws while cleaning up as well.

Riddle: The tea sets and croquet equipment in particular have a specific box and order they should be put away.

Riddle: Make absolute sure that you follow the rules to the letter! Understood?

Everyone: Yes, sir, Dorm Leader!!

Trey: Team Trey has finished washing the dishes and cutlery. We're handing it over here to Team Cater for proper storage.

Cater: Thankies, Trey-kun.

Cater: Alright, all you Team Cater folk～ Time to put it all away according to the rules ♡

Heartslabyul Student A: Cater-senpai, we have a problem! I can't find the memo on how to store the tea sets.

Heartslabyul Student B: Without it, we won't know which dish should go in which box…

Heartslabyul Student C: And now we don't even know if we have the right number of cutlery or linens, either…

Riddle: What did you say!? You may have lost some of Heartslabyul's most time-honored utensils…? Hrrrnnngh...

Heartslabyul Student B: Our sincerest apologies, Dorm Leader, this is completely our fault.

Heartslabyul Student C: But… Cater-senpai was in charge, and all he did was play around the whole prep time.

Deuce: Those guys…

Ace: Ugh, they're trying to shove all their own mistakes onto someone else.

Heartslabyul Student A: Cater-senpai, did you even do your duty properly?

Heartslabyul Student B: Cater-senpai, answer us!!

Heartslabyul Student C: Come on, say something!

Cater: …

[Heartslabyul Dorm – Tea Garden]

Heartslabyul Student A: This was our Unbirthday Party. And who was the one completely neglecting the proper management of all the tableware…?

Heartslabyul Student B: That was all your responsibility, Cater-senpai.

Cater: …

Cater: …You're right.

Heartslabyul Student C: Eh!?

Cater: That's my bad. Sorry to all my Team Cater folks too.

Cater: It was supposed to be celebration. That's why I wanted us to have fun without just ordering everyone around.

Cater: Guess I'm not really cut out to be a team leader. I really am sorry.

Ace: Cater-senpai…

Deuce: …

Cater: So I guess that was Cay-kun failing to follow through. So let's take a pic of this sad, sad moment!

[snap!]

Heartslabyul Students: HUUUUUUH～～～～～!?

Heartslabyul Student A: Are you seriously taking a selfie in this tense atmosphere!?

Heartslabyul Student B: And you're posting it online already!?

Deuce: Nothing can get through to him… He's way too far gone into his phone addiction…

Cater: I've uploaded my sincere feelings towards everyone to Magicam, so make sure to check it out ☆

Heartslabyul Student A: Rosehearts-ryōchō, isn't this a blatant violation of the Queen of Hearts' Laws!?

Heartslabyul Student B: Shouldn't it be off with Diamond-senpai's head already?

Riddle: …

Ace: Huh? Wait a moment.

Deuce: What's up, Ace?

Ace: Woah, check out Cater-senpai's Magicam!!

Deuce: Huh!? What's with you now? Is this dorm just filled with oddballs or something?

Ace: Listen to what I gotta say, first. Look at Cater-senpai's Magicam…

Ace: He's kept a complete record of all the preparations that went down for the party!!

Deuce: Eh? Like, not just stuff during the party, but the set-up portion too?

Deuce: Let me look through his account…

Cater: It's only a tea party until we have to clean up (>д<;) #NRC #Silverware #ChaoticTeaSet #Tablecloth

Ace: Click on the tags that start with that # sign.

Deuce: What tags? He basically has a # in front of every word.

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #Silverware #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansBusyDay

Deuce: Pictures of all the silverware being set up showed up!

Ace: And it's not just the cutlery.

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #ChaoticTeaSet #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansItsSomeonesBirthday

Cater: #DayBeforeUnbirthdayParty #Tablecloth #NRC #DayBeforeUnbirthdayMeansHappyBirthdayWhoeverItIs

Deuce: There's so many pictures on here, all ordered by the type of dish, from unboxing to the set up.

Ace: If we scroll through this account, I think we'll be able to check the type and number of utensils we have, as well as how it should be stored, yeah?

Cater: Ace-chan, that's a nice idea! You're my savior～☆

Cater: Hey, Heartslabyul!!

Heartslabyul Students: Yeaaah?

Cater: Can you all give me a hand?

Cater: Using your boy Cay-kun's account, confirm the amount and proper boxes of each cup and pot! Please!!

Deuce: Roger!

Ace: Now it's like a treasure hunt, this is getting kinda fun.

Heartslabyul Student A: Tch… Lucky break, Cater-senpai…

Ace: Cater-senpai, I've sorted through every silverware and paired them with the proper storage box.

Deuce: Diamond-senpai, I've finished sorting through the strange teapots as well.

Cater: Thank you, everyone～!

Cater: So all that's left is to put each thing in their proper case and we'll be done.

Cater: Now, leave everything else to me!

Cater: I'll use the Autonomous magic I just learned, and…

Cater: Here we go!

Ace: Woah! The cups and saucers started flying around!!

Deuce: And in a perfect line, too!!

Cater: All you little tableware, thanks for your hard work during our Unbirthday Party!

Cater: Time for you to go back home and have a good long rest.

Trey: Haha… That Cater. Practical magic used to be his weaker area.

Trey: He only shows his true strength when it's something that'll make his life a bit easier, huh.

Riddle: Seriously. He's a shrewd one.

Ace: Hey, hey, Dorm Leader, don't forget that I came in clutch to save Cater-senpai here.

Riddle: Uh-huh. Oh, Ace, how quickly you let yourself get carried away.

Ace: Eh? Like, not just stuff during the party, but the set-up portion too?

Trey: I'm pretty sure Cater had planned to upload everything to Magicam and make a list of all the utensils from the very beginning.

Riddle: He was able to take advantage of the situation and put to good use everyone else not in his group, as well.

Trey: And that's not all. Look at Cater's follower count.

Ace: Ah! It's gone up by more than 100 people! Must be because he got the rest of the dormmates not in his grade to follow him at once…

Deuce: Looks like he got you, Ace.

Trey: Hahah. He really is a shrewd one, yeah…

Cater: Oh hey, Ace-chaaaaan.

Cater: Take a picture for me of my magic in full swing! I want to upload it to Magicam later.

Cater: I'm gonna pump out some more magic. Here we go!

Requested by Anonymous.

[taiturner]

NEW YEARS CLEAN-UP 🎊

rules: unburden yourself from the abandoned WIPS collecting dust in your folder and share 5 gifs, then tag five people. (tagged by @yenvengerberg, thank you i feel like i can do something useful with these things now 💖)

tagging with no pressure of course: @wyllhalsin, @capinejghafa, @cardvngreenbriar, @seance, @ayoedebiris, @ughmerlin, @craintheodora, @lottiemilfews, @natscatorrcio (yeah miles i'm tagging you to be funny i know what you did with those psds)

these are all from projects that i have in a folder titled "on the bench" that i want to pretend i'll come back to, but.... some of these have been benched for so long and they're no longer fresh in my head so i fear they'll be abandoned forever. should also be mentioned that a lot of projects on the bench are literally just me making all the typography first and then losing inspo when i actually wanted to gif things.... usually by the time i do start, i change my mind about the type anyway. i also have so many abandoned gifs from other gifsets i've already posted but i'm not even sure where to begin searching so... here are some things!

one of the many gifs i already created for a prompt from @yellowjacketsoctober to put the show in a different genre. ironically, a prompt that i came up with for the event specifically to make this gifset but didn't even complete. i spent so many hours and so many days trying to gif this entire arc for these three with the intent to make it a heist drama set but after so long i realized i was just giffing exactly what happened in the show and it started to feel pointless. but at least here's a preview of something that i'll never finish. my trio of all time, can they commit more crimes together please! (should also be said that this folder is 44gb because i already saved all the caps + because these psds are so heavy... new years clean up for real)

i don't know what it is about lydia that makes it so hard for me to finish any set for her, but every time i try i seem to always lose the drive eventually (probably because twd in general just feels really uninteresting for me to blend, for some reason). from a 2022 spotify wrapped meme, i'm pretty sure i restarted this specific gifset so many different times, unhappy with the colors and the blends and the text and everything -- which is why there are two very different examples here. my girl of all time though i will finish something for her eventually (and maybe even this one, because this song is still so good for her).

one of the many gifs that were abandoned by my scream vi set for favorite slasher in october. when tumblr first changed the image upload limit to 30, i promised myself to never take advantage of that too much, but i severely underestimated how many moments i would want to include for this movie and i made so many other gifs for this set but ultimately cut them so i could try to tone it down - 18 gifs in this set still feels like a lot but i spent so much time on this set that it was hard to part with many more. anyway here's sam being the hottest final girl in the world and correct about everything.

i don't know how long this has been on the bench but it was definitely a project i started way before season 2 even aired. i think i just got stuck and wasn't sure where to go with it, but anyway her!

extra spoiler for @wyllhalsin but this was supposed to be a pride edit in june for one of my favorite lgbt characters of all time. this show's camera movements nearly makes it impossible to blend anything so i lost the drive, but i will come back for felix someday (and for coty, obviously this set was for him).

[runwayrunway]

No. 5 - jetBlue 2: Electric Bluegaloo

I am writing this post on the 15th of June, 2023.

I was going to publish one post tomorrow. It was going to be about a completely unrelated airline from a different country. I wrote it already. I have several other posts written already, because I like writing them, and they make me excited. I had a partially written post on jetBlue. It was going to be finished soon and uploaded after that. Just one in a sea of many things people have painted onto their airplanes.

I did not plan to discuss jetBlue tomorrow. I did not plan to finish my jetBlue post today. But they have forced my hand by announcing an overhaul of their 20-year-old livery at the most inconvenient possible time for me specifically, and I suppose I'm someone who reviews airline liveries now so I'm not just going to not talk about it.

Okay, let’s see. What they’ve been doing has worked for them for two decades, so I am very curious what they...

(image: jetblue) 

Oh.

Huh. Not...sure what I expected. This is really taking a moment to sink in. 

Well, okay. My immediate thought is ‘neat, they finally extended it past the tail’. My second thought is ‘thank goodness they're finally moving past their Eurowhite phase’. My third thought is...

Obviously they don’t have an exclusive right to this shade of blue, but does...does Southwest know about this? You two are probably the two biggest players in the low-cost market on the East Coast, should you be...being nearly the exact same shade of blue? Like, the rest of the liveries are obviously very different, you wouldn’t confuse them even from a distance, and I'm pretty sure jetBlue's is slightly lighter, but it just feels, viscerally, like someone’s nose gear is being run over a little bit. 

Okay. No. We are forgetting about this. We literally just talked about not comparing beautiful blue girls to each other. They’re going to stall or soar on their own merits. Let’s take another look at N982JB “A Defining MoMint” (neé “One Mint, Two Mint, Blue Mint, You Mint”), who is patient zero for jetBlue’s new rebrand. 

(image: jetblue)

There she is in all her eyestraining glory. I mean, there’s bright and then there’s hard to look at. jetBlue has, for some reason, decided to unleash a migraine machine onto airports across America and beyond.

jetBlue? I know you're reading this. Can we talk, jetBlue? There are a billion shades of blue you could have picked from for the main body. 

(image: jetblue)

In fact, here are five of them from your own most recent tail design. And you chose the only one that is extremely painful to look at in large quantities. So, unfortunately, we’re taking off from the wrong runway. But let’s hear what you have to say for yourself, jetBlue. 

I can only imagine how badly tumblr is going to crunch this, so here’s a direct link to the PDF jetBlue put out explaining their design choices. 

Well, it’s definitely one of the bluest planes they’ve ever made. I think Blueprint might actually be bluer, but that’s a discussion for later. It’s a reasonably, maybe even unreasonably, blue plane, and I think we can all agree on that. 

They’ve made a lot of changes that seem almost like direct responses to my earlier complaints. Robin N. Hayes, CEO of jetBlue Airlines, are you in my head reading my mind? If you are, I think I at least deserve a couple of scale models for all the advice I’ve given you. Come on. I’ll even proofread your website for you.  

Sadly, I have yet to receive my rightly deserved 1:100 model of the jetBlue retrojet, but they’ve at least recognized that I’m correct about a lot of things. The all-white fuselage is boring and the tail designs need to be allowed to unfurl from their prison on the vertical stabilizer. I’m absolutely with them on that. I actually can’t say how I feel about this new ‘mint leaves’ tail pattern. I think that I don’t like it, but it’s very hard to tell because looking at this image for too long without my darkreader on genuinely hurts my eyes. I’m sure it’ll be fine in person, but I haven’t seen this livery in person. I’ve had all of a day to process this through my computer screen, and because of that I think I sort of really dislike it!

But I also can’t commit to that opinion because it’s been a day and a half and there’s so much we still don’t know. Well, I know that this is literally the worst shade of blue that there is, but my least favorite color is orange and I think there are plenty of decent looking orange planes out there. It’s not about the base color. It’s about what you do with it. And what will they do with it? It’s...not really clear. 

The thing about this launch is that if Robin N. Hayes, CEO of jetBlue Airlines, can read my mind, I can’t read his. All I have is this PDF and a couple paragraphs of copy that really raise more questions than they answer. I'm just going to paste the important bit here.

Aptly named A Defining MoMint, the first plane to sport our new livery (our first-ever Mint pattern, coming soon to all Mint planes) is an Airbus A321 with Mint—which rolls into service on 6/15/23. Look for refreshed versions of our existing patterns to make their runway debuts as the rest of the fleet is repaint-ready.

This leaves so many questions unanswered. Is this for all Mint planes? That's not an insignificant portion of the fleet. Are all the planes currently wearing the ribbon and streamer tails going to wear this exact design, or will there be multiple Mint liveries? Will the ribbon and streamer tails be retired completely? They're pretty new, that seems a bit premature to me. What about the non-Mint planes? I assume the implication is that they're going to get patterns that extend onto their main fuselages as well, but are they going to also be repainted now or will there be a gradual rollout where it'll only be Mint planes for the time being? What is even going on? Seriously, does Southwest know? How did nobody notice the two massive typos on the liveries page of your website when you updated it with this new information? Ya blue it!

This is sending me into a bit of a tailspin. This redesign is everything I should want. It's spitting in the face of the design principles that I hate so much I started this blog. It's addressing some of my complaints. But I just don't...like to look at it?

I think what's bothering me here, when my eyes adjust somewhat to the sheer piercing brightness of it, is the overwhelming amount of stuff happening. When I do focus in I can see things that I like. For example, the tail pattern seems to be almost spreading onto the main fuselage rather than being isolated on a tail with its own background color. Some things I just can't entirely process. Like the PDF says they're using a new font but I can't really tell the difference between it and the old one. I guess it doesn't matter that much.

Anyway, I'm not done complaining. On the old livery, the engines were a dark color which contrasted with the light fuselage. This is pretty common. That's for a good reason. It creates such a weird visual effect when the engines and the fuselage are the same color. When you look at them from the side they look like they're merging. Also, despite them mentioning that they made the text in the front bigger to make the livery look less rear-heavy, and the fact that it's worked to some extent, it hasn't worked nearly enough. It would really behoove them to add something else to the front.

(I'm just saying, jetBlue...if you want to be America's Fun Airline, I don't think any defunct airlines have a trademark on painting cute little faces on your airplanes. Just keep that in the back of your mind.)

I ultimately just can't reconcile my thoughts on this. I keep repeating myself and I can't seem to convince myself to like this even though I really, really want to find some way to decide that yes, this is good, actually. This is an improvement. I can't. I can't convince myself. Maybe if I chew on it a bit longer. Maybe when they show off new tail patterns they'll all look better than this. Maybe it's just the mint green that's throwing me off and it'll all be okay. Maybe I'll wake up and a perfectly designed new jetBlue livery will be standing by the side of my bed, and I won't even mind that geometry forbids every part of that scenario, and she'll be beautiful and I will remember what it felt like to first learn that jetBlue has a plane named Blue's On First. Maybe. But right now it's the 15th of June and I'm feeling an emotion I can only imagine myself sharing with cosmic horror protagonists who have stumbled on some horrible secret that destroys the foundation which until mere moments ago undergirded their entire concept of reality. I don't know how to reconcile any of this.

jetBlue...how could you blue this to me?

Provisional* Grade: D(on't Blue That)+

(provisional because I'm being very dramatic but as I've said this is brand new fresh off the livery printer, Mint condition if you will, and I've barely had any time to process it so I'll definitely revisit it at some point. But probably not soon. I'm just about jetBlued out at the moMint.)

[ominous-auburn-orbs]

This is a fic for the Adventure Time AU by @un-lucky1114

He hasn't uploaded anything about it yet, as he's still working on some things, but I highly recommend checking out his blog regardless! He's a brilliant artist and a good friend of mine, and this au is great too, so I'm very excited for when it becomes completely finished.

Also cast list:

Finn - Jax

Jake - Gangle

Rainicorn - Zooble

Princess Bubblegum - Ragatha

Marceline - Pomni

Ice King/Simon - Kinger

Betty - Caine

Anyway, onto the actual fic

Pomni and the Ice King sat on the edge of the 'mouth' of one of the main mountains in the Ice Kingdom. They had been silent for a while, with Ice King staring out into space while Pomni looked at the ground and kicked her feet. The sun had set not too long ago, so it was safe for her to be outside. Yet the stinging pain sensation felt like it was still there.

She loved the man, but it hurt to be around Ice King, especially since she knew him before the crown. Every so often, she studied his features, looking for signs of the Kinger she had once known. It was his body, but not his mind. It hardly was his body anymore, the crown having altered it enough that she struggled to hope that Kinger was even real anymore.

With a deep breath, she pushed those thoughts away. It was better to dwell on them when she was alone. For now, she should just try to enjoy this time with Ice King, even if she'd rather be with Kinger instead. That was when the king spoke up, startling Pomni.

"Princesses are beautiful, aren't they?" Something in his tone confused Pomni and made her brain come to a fierce halt for a few moments. His question wasn't rhetorical. Ice King was genuinely asking, as if he didn't know.

"Well, yeah, I'd say so." Her thoughts couldn't help but drift to Ragatha, the princess Ice King kidnapped the most for some reason. "Some of them are really beautiful... but, uh, why do you ask?"

"Oh, haha! I just wanted to be sure!" Ice King laughed, an innocent expression on his face that made Pomni smile, although her curiosity still wasn't abandoned. "It's just that I've heard all about princesses being beautiful, but none of them really feel beautiful."

Pomni arched an eyebrow, feeling her skin prickle in anticipation. She wasn't sure why, but what he was saying didn't feel normal. "What do you mean?" She corrected her tone to be lighter. "Are these princesses not good enough for you?"

"Oh no, no no no! They're great! They just..." His gaze drifted, trying to figure his problem out enough to put it into words, "aren't the right beautiful."

Pomni's hands tightened around the edge of the ice underneath her, waiting for Ice King to continue. When he didn't, she risked pushing him further. "Why aren't they the 'right' beautiful? What are you looking for?"

"Hmmm... well, I'm not sure. But I know there's something. All of these princesses are great, but none of them are really my type." Ice King sounded confused by his own words, unsure of what he even meant himself. However, it all felt true. He wanted something, someone, beautiful, and the princesses were beautiful, but it was never what he wanted.

Pomni thought over the last thing he said. His type.

When she was younger, about 1000 years ago, Kinger had often told her stories of his life before the Mushroom War. Of his studies. Of Caine. Caine Grof was his fiancé, a genius like him. He had talked of him often, how he intended to search every corner of the globe to find him again. However, his first priority was always Pomni's safety, so that mission had to be somewhat abandoned. Maybe there was a part of Kinger still fighting the crown, refusing to give up his quest to find his Caine again. He had often called Caine his 'beauty' as well.

Pomni sucked in a sharp breath. Kinger remembered. He was looking for someone who he knew was beautiful. Someone he thought was more beautiful than anything else. The fact that that was the only detail he could recall saddened Pomni, but it was still something. He remembered. That was why he spent so much time with her. It was Kinger sitting next to her. The gentle and brilliant man who had helped to raise her in a world that should've killed them both. If he remembered his pet name for Caine, maybe he remembered that too. Kinger had never listened when she'd told him to leave her alone in the past. What if he had the faint memories of protecting her? Did he still feel like he needed to?

"Is... there anything else you're looking for? Uh, what is your type?" Pomni knew that if she pushed it too far, he might forget again, so she was careful with her wording. She wanted to check if he remembered when she was younger, how he'd saved her life time and time again, but she would get nothing from it. Better to keep it simple, to be safe.

"What, are you gonna be my wingwoman, Pomni?" Ice King laughed, "I appreciate that, you know. To tell you the truth, it's all pretty fuzzy. Basically everything is. But, I do know I want something about teeth." Pomni stared, her widened eyes and desperate look begging Ice King to continue. "No one's seemed to have big enough teeth yet. Not even Dentist Princess!"

The vampire couldn't help but laugh. It was all she could do to keep from crying. It was so little, it was so vague, but they were memories. He was in there, still fighting the crown. One day, he might even win. "I'm sure the person of your dreams is out there somewhere, with perfect looks and the biggest teeth you've ever seen."

"Well, looks aren't everything, Pomni! Don't be so shallow. I bet they're really smart too, and almost as charming as me." Ice King shot Pomni a look of disappointment. "I expected better from you. You should really be more respectful."

Pomni burst out laughing, but quickly turned it into a cough when she saw Ice King's confusion. His face still softened, though. "Sorry, you're right. I know they'll have a great personality."

With a quiet sigh, she leaned her head on the king's shoulder. He jumped, not used to people enjoying his company that much. After a few moments, he affectionately, albeit awkwardly, ruffled Pomni's hair. "Very good."

The pair stared at the moon, basking in this moment of joy, even if they both felt a sharp pain in their chests. Ice King was used to these seemingly nonsensical aches, so he ignored it. Pomni knew the reason for hers, though. Kinger was still so desperate to find Caine, despite him very likely being dead by now. If that was his reason for kidnapping princesses, then it showed how much his desire to see Caine again had consumed him. As unlikely as it was, Pomni hoped that some freak accident had saved Caine. If she could be kept alive by being half demon and a vampire, and Kinger could be kept alive by the crown, surely it wouldn't be too much to ask for something to have saved Caine as well.

Pomni decided it was best to abandon all of those thoughts for now, at least until Ice King brought it up again. As she leaned into him more, she realised that it was suddenly a lot easier to pretend she was next to Kinger than it used to be.