#i'm no professional though so maybe not all of this is right or accurate so yEAH

[astro-inthestars]

*spawns in your inbox* hello if you feel like it could you tell me tales and folklore and traditions from the philippines?

OOH OOH OOH i can do that for sure!! We've got some pretty funky tales around here! First thing that came to mind was the creepy monster folklore we have here though <333 One of the main things people might know about us!! (besides our amazing food <33)

Okay okay SO first up, over here there are things we call Aswang. It's basically like... a category almost, due to the amount of interpretations. It's the typical witch/ghost/demon around here! Sometimes it's seen as a beautiful woman, or a monstrous dog, or a elusive ghost with sharp nails and teeth!

Something that may or may not fall under this category, is one of my favorite folktale monster from over here: The Manananggal! Ohhhh this one is soooo messed up and I love it-

It's a creature that sometime appears like a normal woman, but transforms into a horrific creature, with huge bat wings, sharp teeth and nails, and a longgg tongue! Basically our equivalent of a vampire- BUT what makes this motherfucker special??? This bitch can DETACH its torso from its lower body, and flies into the night sky!! And it usually ain't pretty, with its stomach guts or bloody ripped torso flailing in the wind! Its main prey (or the target audience of this cautionary folktale) are pregnant women. Also!! Fun fact; its name, Manananggal, is from the root word "tangal" which means "remove" and with the prefix "ma" it makes the full word mean "remover" or "seperator," orrrr "one who seperates itself" quite literally in this case <3

Enough of the horrors though! Hmmm, let me tell you some traditions we have, though some may not be "official" traditions, and are just some habits we're taught throughout our life- So much so that I actually had a hard time trying to think of some 'traditions' due to thinking these are all normal... and not knowing if other countries actually did them so. . . aahaha- well anyway!

First most notable one is obviously our signs of respect, AKA the uses of the words 'po' and 'opo' and our (probably?) well-known sign of pagmamano! First of all, 'po' is a word used in sentences that indicate respect, like when you're talking to someone older than you, or someone with notable authority! Like "Excuse me po, can I use the restroom?" And with 'Opo,' it's just the "respectful" version of our "Yes" which is just 'Oo' (when you say "oo" to someone older than you or someone with authority, it's regarded as disrespect or that you treat this person casually or are very close and familiar) And pagmano? Well that's also a respectful gesture, like po and opo! But unlike the phrases, this one is a gesture, and is usually only used for older people! Usually elders, actually. The gesture is you taking the older person's hand and gentle placing their knuckles on your forehead, like this in the image!

And along with it you usually say "Mano po" or just any variation of a greeting!

Oh, here's something more "traditionally" a tradition,a nd one of my favorite ones... guess what??? Us Pinoys? We celebrate FOUR MONTHS of Christmas!!!! THAT'S RIGHT!! We celebrate that shit early <3 It's mostly because the Filipino are SUPER duper religious, but also... CHRISTMASSSSS!! We call them "Ber Months" because for us, as soon as September hits... well? That's already CHRISTMAS BABEY!! Christmas lights UP, trees READY, christmas songs BLASTING, parols SELLING- wait. hold on- DO YOU GUYS HAVE PAROLS???

I just looked it up and CHRISTMAS PAROLS ARE A UNIQUELY FILIPINO THING?? OKAY OKAY parols are basically christmas lanterns! THey're bright and colorful and AWESOME and stalls for them line the streets at Ber Months- HERE HERE LOOK!!!

These are what the big and bright ones look like!

And these are what the smaller and simpler ones look like! They're all made from bamboo sticks and japanese paper!! it's AWESOME!

Okay okay, this is probably wAyyYYY too long already but here's some honorable mentions: -Us Filipinos' daily meal ALWAYS include rice. Unless its snacks or dessert or appetizers, I guess- but every main meal, Breakfast, Lunch, and Supper, we have rice! We cook an "ulam" which is what is paired with the rice! It's like rice is the default, and whatever the food is will be eaten with the rice! Like, fried chicken is ulam! Then we eat it with rice! -We've got impeccable hospitality!!! Like, if ANY stranger comes into a Pinoy's home, they WILL offer to eat with them! No matter who! They'll always tell the guest "Kain po!" ("Come eat!") and usually the person would be modest and decline, but eat anyway! It's truly interesting how hardwired these things are... -Our modes of transportation are WAY different from American ones, I find!! Over here we've got Jeepneys, Tricycles, and Pedicabs! So i don't have to explain, here's what they look like:

Jeepneys, tricycles, and pedicabs respectively! Not much to say about the last two, but the jeepney seems REAL notable- They're from military jeeps, but longer and redesigned for transport. And yes, all jeeps have weird designs and briht colors, and most likely has anime on them. Don't ask, I don't know either. These are our main forms of transport over here!! But that doesn't mean we don't have the usual bus or taxi, of course! -Every region and town here has its own fiesta!! we've got SO many fiestas in this country!! and it all varies from region to region.. They usually span a week long or even a month!! Festivals here are typically held to honor patron saints or to display the region’s primary local harvest!

Well, anyway, that's all I've got a- ......what do you mean it's 1 am.

[noxtivagus]

i love talking w others ( apollo especially tonight ) but oh man i shld really sleep it is 3 am

[prettyboypistol]

TF2 Medic x M!Reader || Unreliable Nurse

[Hurt/Comfort] [Understanding Medic] [Period Accurate Homophobia/Xenophobia towards Gays/Germans] [Coworkers to Ambiguous] [GORE WARNING]

You were a mercenary. You were hired to kill people day in and out for the gratification of your superiors and you were not allowed to stop until the day your contract ended. Every morning should have been the same- wake up, gear up, shoot up.

So why the hell were you holding your Heavy's torso open with spreaders while your Medic bug around in his organs?! You were supposed to end lives, not mangle them back to life!

"Medic, why am I even here?" You grunt in disgust as Heavy's organs squish against your bare palm. They are disgustingly alive. Should intestines move like that on their own?!

"Well someone has to hold the ribcage open, and my hands are rather busy at the moment!" Medic responded cheerfully. He was right though; both of his hands were what you could only describe as groping Heavy's lungs and heart with a sadistically pleasures look in his eyes.

"Eugh, you look like you're getting off to this." You growled as Medic finally seemed satisfied with his curiosities. The lungs he had installed in Heavy were significantly bugger than your head- would the torso even close up?

"Nonsense, I am a professional- er, mostly." Medic chuckled to himself. He waved your hold away as he healed Heavy back up to his usual hulking self. Well, at least someone seemed happy about the surgery that wasn't an absolute psycho.

You had no idea why you helped Medic clean up after the surgery, you could have left at any time, yet you didn't. Maybe it was because you held a burning question on the tip of your tongue that begged to esca-

"Do you actually get off to like, gore and stuff?"

Shit.

Medic perked up, a quizzical look on his face as he flushed the blood into the storage bags. "Do I really give off that vibe?" He sounded rather genuine in his question too. Fuck, you felt like the world's biggest asshole.

"I mean, Scout seems to think so- plus uh, you do this thing with your face that kinda well-" you stumbled over your words as you swept up the bone fragments into the dustpan at your feet. Bending over, you finally finished your sentence. "I dunno, it just looks like you're some kinda sadist."

Medic shook his head as he placed the bloodbags into the fridge. His eyes flickered over where the Spy head used to be before the enemy Scout stole it back. He was a rather funny conversationalist.

"No, not a sadist in the regard. You all are perfectly safe from me!" Medic attempted to joke. You nodded and gave him a small laugh of acknowledgement.

"Well, I suppose I should tell Scout the good news. He's been spouting about how you've been trying to inject him with homosexual serum to see if you can turn him." You informed him. You and the team knew that Scout was spouting bullshit, but your curiosity to Medics reaction was what pulled you to tell him.

Medic slammed a fist down onto his vivisection table, his expression rather grimly stern.

"I've had it with that ungrateful little brat." He muttered. He looked to you, but when you nodded in understanding, he started to vent. "He's always getting himself into shit, then begging me to fix him back up!" Medic threw his hands up, mocking Scout's voice. "always 'Oh medic, heal me!' 'Oh medic! I broke my arm again!'" Medic growled as he slicked his hair back and sighed. "All while calling me a goddamn nazi when I prioritize Heavy!"

You let Medic rant. Clearly this had been on his mind and weighing on him, if the nervous pacing and dramatic gesturing was anything to go by. Yeah, you had heard Scout make a few jabs about the SS and war camps to Medic, but you never really had gotten involved before- it wasn't your business anyway and Medic could handle himself- so you thought.

"I'm not a fucking nazi! I was sixteen and drafted as a Medic!"

You interrupted Medoc with a hand on his shoulder. He turned to look at you, shocked and clearly hurt in his brow.

"Yeah, I'll bust him up for that. Didn't know it was that bad, if I knew I woulda stepped in." You apologized- at least, this was your version of an apology. Medic took a calming inhale before he tried to return you a weak smile.

"I try not to let the words of the youth get to me too much. Hell, do you think he was alive for the war?" Medic laughed weakly.

"Isn't he about 25? Probably was born just on the outskirts of it." You mused. You were a few years older than Scout was, but Medic outmatched you with the streaks of grey in his hair. He shook his head softly with a muttering of "Ah, the blissful ignorance of the young."

"Well, if it's any consolation, I don't think you're a nazi nor do I think you're some weird psychosexual freak trying to turn us all into homos." You promise with a playful punch to Medic’s shoulder. "Besides, you can't turn what's already there, yeah?"

"You're-"

"Mhm, don't go telling anyone though, I could lose a job if that info came out."

You thought it was only for that you were open to Medic, since he was gracious enough to be honest with you.

"I thought I was the only one!" Ah, there was that excitedly happy chirp you were scaredly fond of.

Maybe being an impromptu nurse wasn't so bad after all.

[catsharky]

I've just discovered your Rolan x Tav comic.

It's SO neat and accurate, in matter of deign and details!

In case you don't mind, of course, I have some questions you maybe have answered before:

What software do you work with? What kind of pencils do you use? How do you manage to set so neat and clean results? Do you need many references for that or is just a gift you have? How many years have you been drawing to achieve those results?

I don't mind at all! And I don't believe I've answered any of these questions before, at least not since I started doing my comics.

For software I mainly use Clip Studio, though I do also use PaintTool Sai (v2) for certain things that I feel it does better. All of my Mass Effect comics are lined in Sai, for example because things like armour have a lot more inorganic shapes and require long, sweeping, unbroken lines, and I like the pen stabilization in Sai far better than CSP's for that sort of thing.

For how long I've been doing art, I've been at it basically nonstop since I was 9 (so 20 years now, jeez). I was in an art program throughout highschool, went to college for art/animation for 4 years, and I'll have been working professionally as an animator for 8 years in May! So there's a lot of practice there for sure.

And yeah, I use a ton of references. Usually a good chunk of the time I'll spend on something is just collecting or making the reference material I need for it.

I'm putting the rest under a read more because it's pretty long:

(Tumblr keeps eating my formatting so sorry if this is a little scuffed)

Because I'm normally working full time and doing this stuff in my free time after hours and on weekends, if I know I'm going to be drawing something a *lot*, I'll usually put together some kind of reference for myself in 3D so I can take some of the brainwork out of it and get more out of my evenings even when I'm feeling fried. It also means I put as little extra strain on my wrist as possible because I injured it a number of years back and it gets angry at me if I go for too many hours in a day.

But to give you an example, for Ember I have a Sculpt of her head that I can use to reference any angle I want, or to draw directly over top of for tricky angles. How I draw her isn't quite 1:1 to the model, but it gives me a base structure and landmarks I can build on top of.

My basic workflow is to take the angle I want, draw over it using the model as a guide (while picking and choosing where to stay true to it and where to say fuck it and do what I want), then I get rid of the 3D and do another pass, tweaking and redrawing anything I'm not totally happy until I'm satisfied with how it looks. I draw Ember with a slightly softer, more rounded face than the model has, for instance. Just because something looks right in 3D doesn't always mean it looks right once translated to 2D and I don't care if something is technically "correct" if it doesn't feel right or isn't conveying what I want it to properly.

I'm also always checking reference screenshots to make sure I'm in the right ballpark of how something should look. I actually have a wall of photos next to my desk and while I didn't put them up for that purpose, it has come in surprisingly handy for quickly checking face or hair details when needed. I also just have a big folder of screenshots and other saved reference material.

I don't have a problem noooo~ 😅

Additionally, if my art has a background these days, there is a 100% chance that's a 3D set I built in Blender because I hate drawing backgrounds, but I do like building them in 3D.

Here's two examples: the area around Astarion's bed, which I built out of some of the in-game assets like a lego set (this was a pain in the ass, it probably would have been faster to just build it from scratch based on screenshots 😩) and a closet I modelled for something that's still a WIP.

I'll get the angle I want, have Blender generate some linework from it and then grab a basic render of it to slap into CSP so I can draw the characters over top of it.

And as for brushes: the main brush I use in CSP is just the default 'Real G-Pen', with opacity effects turned off and these pressure settings: (I like to keep it simple, and I have a bit of a heavy hand so the altered pen pressure just helps me get a smoother taper). I change up the stabilizer settings depending on what I'm doing. Lower for things that need short, quick lines like hair and higher for most other things.

For Sai, I use a 9B pencil I found a number of years ago on Deviantart (I think?) and I wish I could link you to the original post I got the settings from, but Deviantart's search is... bad and I'm unable to find it again.

I hope that answered all your questions! If not, feel free to ask more!

[partyhorn]

Have u ever posted your comic or animation workflow anywhere? Im super curious on how you tackle the process, especially not using a drawing tablet. I know you have a very simple (and adorable) style so that probably helps in terms of workflow -- Im just curious about the steps you take.

Thank you! With both comics and animation my key thing is to not spend too much time on any particular thing, just draw loose and fast. Honestly the only downside to drawing with a mouse is that I can tell my arm has extremely specific muscle memory regarding it- if my mouse breaks and I get a new one I have to spend a good month or so just letting my hand get used to it again lol. Same with if my setup gets readjusted too much- right now my setup is my mouse on one of those padded mousepads, on top of 2 books, with my elbow resting on my 3DS case (I'll get an actual pillow or something for it eventually lol). But luckily thanks to this I suffer very minimal wrist pain 👍

(...Okay I started to go really in depth in my process here, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking. Putting it under a readmore just to save space lol)

With MFM in particular, I start by writing out the entire script for the next story arc, which really is just all of the dialogue and vague notes about any important actions. Then I do the paneling with very loose stick-figure like sketches of where the characters are and what they're doing. I prefer having very little planning when it comes to character poses and panel shapes, coming up with those on the fly makes things much more exciting and faster to make. But it's the opposite with dialogue... it needs to be 100% FINAL before I draw a single line lol.

That's part of my script for my most recent chapter, as well as what my extremely loose goofy thumbnail sketching is like. I write the script as one big thing and don't separate it into pages until I actually start drawing- then I go and color change it just to keep track of what dialogue goes on each page

After that, I go back and do the ACTUAL sketch, as well as the lettering (I don't believe this is how it's done professionally. I used to do lettering as the very last step in the process... but then found it hard to cram speech bubbles in the right places lmao.) After that is lineart, coloring, background flat colors, then shading/rendering for all of it. I do each step in batches, as in I sketch out ALL pages of a chapter before moving to lineart, I line ALL pages before starting coloring, etc. I find it way easier to be productive when it's broken up like that, though when I first started the comic I used to draw each page to completion before starting the next (but also, the comic's style was DRASTICALLY simpler back then haha)

(Unfortunately I merged some of the shading to the background flat colors so it's not entirely accurate... oops) FireAlpaca has a sand texture feature that I only found out about last year- adding that to the backgrounds makes them look 10x better with WAY less effort.

With animation, it depends on the project. For simple 5-10 second animation I make for fun, there's very little planning lol. I skip some steps in the process- I'll sketch out the keyframes (and maybe any difficult inbetweens if necessary), line those, then go straight into making linework inbetweens. I'm not a cleanup artist and have no experience in that, so I always find trying to line my rough animation makes everything jittery and wobbly. If I do it with a clean line from the start then I can avoid that and save a lot of time 👍

For my bigger projects (such as the Parvey cartoon and the MFM Kickstarter trailer), I do the whole animatic with final audio first and foremost, with the animatic being almost like the keyframes. I split them up into individual shots, .mp4 files anywhere between 1-30 seconds usually, and animate those one at a time. I'm a huge fan of free to use programs and try to use them as much as I possibly can, here's a list of the ones I use:

FireAlpaca- for the actual drawing part itself (storyboarding/animating/etc). FireAlpaca has a feature that lets you export every frame as it's own drawing, as well as an onion skin mode

Windows Movie Maker- for compiling all of those frames into video format, creating individual shots. If you upload all of your frames and set them to around 0.08 seconds, it equals about 12fps (I usually animate at 0.10 seconds/10fps, its a bit slower but looks nice)

Onlinesequencer.net- for making music. It's the place I've made all of my songs on, like the timeloop song, hyperworkaholic, and the background music for the MFM Kickstarter trailer.

Audacity- for editing audio/music. Also great for recording things directly from your desktop

DaVinci Resolve- for editing and putting together all of the shots into one big video. Can get kind of intensive on the computer during rendering, so watch out.

YouCut (app)- also for editing and compiling shots, I used this one a lot a couple years back but I'm not sure how well it holds up. Doesn't need much phone storage to download but needs a lot to render videos.

MS Paint (yes really)- for typing up text. FireAlpaca has a text option but I don't like it as much as Paint's.

...The only thing I genuinely can't do alone is voice acting. Luckily there's a big voice acting community on Twitter and they're all amazing to work with!

This got... way more in depth than I planned for it to be, so sorry if this is way more than what you were asking lol. But that's my general process when it comes to my art 👍

[racoonpookiedepartment]

My “Kinktober” day 3

Chris’s Accident (hands + uniform)

Chris Redfield was a soldier working for the BSAA, while he was an extremely strong soldier, he was also very angry almost all the time.

it was easy for him to quickly get frustrated, you were his assigned (Male) nurse and you saw him in every emotion there was

You've seen him when he was upset, when he was angry, when he was sad, when he was confused and mostly when he was in heat, you'd always know because of the puppy eyes he'd give you at certain positions

Besides that he would always make sly flirty comments about how he loved seeing you in your uniform and whenever you had to be handsy, he always complimented your hands. He would go on and on about how soft they were and how much he liked when you touched him.

Chris was very simple, for almost any problem he had, he would vent to you about things that upset him and even when he was angry. It was just being close friends with him. but to him it meant much more, you didn't realize it until you started to see how he was reacting recently.

he started to come in for the smallest of injuries, even coming just for "check up" you got the feeling that he did it on purpose because he knew you'd have to touch him all over to find his “injury”

he came in again for a small injury and you knew you were about to get a wild story from how he walked in, his face was already red with anger. He came into the room and closed the door behind him. You listened to him rant and you patch up some scrape he got, and after he was done you asked if he had anything else that needed to be checked. He had a bad fall and wanted you to check his thigh for a bruise.

as he stood up and you kneeled to unbuckled his pants, you glanced upwards and Chris looked away with red cheeks. you pulled down his pants and even as he was soft there was a large bulge in his boxers, you had to stay professional so you didn't comment on it

"ok this might sting" you warn, you gently rub up and down his left leg, he had no reaction. you switch over to the right side and he grunts when your hand passes over his right thigh

"fuck, be gentle would you?" he suggested,

"i did tell you it might sting" you reply, you grab some solution and take some of it into your hand

"this will be cold, but you'll feel better ok?" you warn, chris nods

"Just go slow ok?" he asks, you nod in agreement and slowly rub the sore spot on his thigh, you expected him to curse and maybe even grip onto something but, he reacted much differently. he grunted, but not the pain kind, the gratifying kind

"dont stop.. fuck" he muttered under his breath

"Feeling better already?" you ask sarcastically

"much...better" he replied breathily, you couldn't not notice but he was getting hard, you were inches away from his crotch afterall. he looked down when he noticed that you noticed his boner, he quickly put his hands over it and turned out of embarrassment

"s- sorry, i didn't mean to do that" he muttered

"its fine, not the first time that's happened" you reassured, he turned back when you said that though

"Wait really? who?" he asked, you didn't expect him to get possesive about that

"well, half the people that come through here" you reply, chris turned back around

"so.. you don't mind?" he asks

"not at all" you state, you realized you were still on your knees and changed your position

"can i ask you something then?" he questioned

"Sure, what is it?" you reply, you got seated in your chair and chris on the examining bed. a few seconds passed before he spoke again, he twiddled his fingers and took a breathe before asking

"am i.. am i the biggest?" he asked, the question caught you off guard you even choked on your drink

"I'm sorry, the biggest what?" you asked

"am i the biggest bulge you've seen?" he asked, you were thinking of how to professionally answer the question without losing your job

"Well, i can't accurately comment on your.. size, since it's only a bulge" you reply

"want to see it accurately then?" he asked with a smirk, unfortunately while on the clock you have to decline.

"i.. How about we finish helping your thigh, we can continue this conversation another time" you state firmly, Chris sighs in disappointment and stands back up. you go back to rubbing the cold solution on his thigh and him grunting at the feeling, this time you notice a wet spot growing at the height of the bulge and chris was shuddering slightly, you stopped rubbing on the solution and just looked up at chris, his eyes were wide shut like he was concentrating.

"Chris?" you called, you were thinking off a few reasons why he was shuddering and none of them were good.

"Hey.. why'd you stop?" he asked when he opened his eyes to see yours peering back his bulge jumped.

"Chris i can't continue the procedure like this- your sentence was cut off by him pleading

"no no, please don't stop, please" he begged

"i.. okay" you didn't have much to say, so you do as Chris asked and keep rubbing his thigh.

Chris's groaning got harsh and the wet spot only got worse, there was a rule that you were allowed to "take care" of a patient if their erection was in their way, so you did just that.

Chris threw his head back immediately when he felt your cold hands wrap around his thickness

"Fuck.. fu- ng FUCK" he groaned as he painted your face, you didnt expect him to shoot that hard from just rubbing his thigh.

"Sorry I didn't mean to… Cum on you like that" he apologized, you couldn't really respond with how his fluids were all over your face but you waved it off. You did open your mouth to speak but some of the fluids dropping into your mouth stopped from speaking

Chris took notice and smirked. He was getting softer but he was still dripping, you found yourself licking at every drop that would slip down to your lips and you couldn't stop

“Taste good?” chris asked with a smirk, you reluctantly nodded

“Open wide, you get the last drop” he stated, you opened up your mouth and Chris squeezed the last drop of cum out of his cock and it dripped onto your tongue. After you swallowed Chris smirked again

“We should do this more often” he offered

[hpowellsmith]

You mentioned that we can choose for things to go slower in relationships. I actually thought things were going pretty slowly already, but maybe I've missed stuff. I've been actively trying to get into FWB scenarios and keep getting rejected and/or nothing happens. Maybe I just don't have enough points with those characters? Or they don't want FWB? The latter would be weird for Denario though since I already chose the option that we were FWB before.

(this ask is referring to this post where I mentioned some of the different relationship dynamics/pacing for the Honor Bound romances)

This is interesting! Basically I made that note on the post because of a comment or two I had saying that it felt early to have early romantic talks with characters - but those talks are responsive to the PC showing they're interested in the characters, so if a PC wants to play it more slowly, the way to do it is to hold off the outward flirting.

But if people want to fast-play it a bit more, spoilers below:

Fiore and Savarel can get into relationships with an aromantic PC, but are not interested in a purely casual/no-strings relationship and want to build some sort of emotional bond. So far, that comes up in conversation with Savarel.

Raffi and Matia are into FWB and/or no-strings if the PC is (or more romantic relationships too): you can sleep with them in Chapter 3* as and keep things casual. That can continue for as long as the player wants, as they're happy with that kind of relationship. You can have some makeouts in Chapter 5 with Raffi or Matia too**. With Denario you can also sleep with them in Chapter 3***; you need to kiss him in Chapter 3 to open that up. At the moment there isn't a point where you can precisely define a Denario relationship because it's all a bit spontaneous-snatched-moments and Denario isn't really thinking any of it through.

Korzha will do FWB - or colleagues-with-benefits - but they don't go for anything non-professional early on in the game because they need to overcome some internal stuff around it first.

You may have been rejected/asked to wait by Fiore or Korzha, but that's not related to relationship types or points, it's just where they're at in this point of the game. Denario doesn't reject you unless you reject him via telling him that you argued against him getting help at the town meeting. Savarel also breaks things off if you do that (which as of March 10, I've tweaked to make clearer when making that choice). Later on, other things will come up that are dealbreakers for some characters even for casual relationships.

The conversations about aromantic and/or casual relationships are something I'm going to go over again, probably more than once, when I've got the full draft down to make sure I'm writing it in a way that matches my intentions and that there are multiple opportunities to have them. Similarly, the way aromantic relationships are framed in the game is very much in-progress, especially later in the game where there may be more trust/closeness in various ways that aren't necessarily romantic. At the moment the Denario kisses etc are behind a [Start Denario Romance] tag which I'm not totally happy with because it may not feel quite right for an aromantic PC... but I do want to tag those options with something to show "this is an option opening up something other than/in addition to friendship" and it's a bit hard to accurately summarise in such a small number of words.

Btw until Chapter 8 onwards, relationship scores are used to flavour interactions and occasionally branch things rather than blocking things off; there is some stuff with Denario which changes based on scores, and to be in a more serious relationship with Fiore (as opposed to lighter dating) you need a decent relationship score with Catarina by Chapter 9. But usually scores will affect things like how successful you are at persuading someone to do something plotty, asking for help, convincing them that someone they trusted before is up to no good, etc.

*To do this, you need to have signalled in some way that you're interested in them either before or during the Chapter 3 campfire scene

**To do this, you need to have signalled that you're into them before or during Chapter 5, though you don't have to have kissed or slept with them before that point

***To do this, you need to kiss him in Chapter 3 and progress things further from there

[cosmicjoke]

So what do you think Levi’s recovery during the three years have been like? I’ve always thought about this esp since Marley would probably been a bit iffy about tending to him straight away, and the fact he had internal bleeding, crushed leg, other burns (poor thing) + not to mention that he was pushing his body beyond his limit. Its pretty obvious that he needed medical attention asap

Man, I think it must have been pretty intense, and a very long recovery at that. Months, maybe even years for him to recover as much as he was able, and certainly, he won't ever be the same physically again. You don't go through that kind of physical trauma and ever fully recover. Don't forget Levi's blind in his right eye now as well, which probably really messed with his depth perception and his ability to gauge accurately what distance things are at and where they are spatially in relation to himself. A lot of physical therapy involved, probably having to learn to really walk again, having to learn to get around missing his index and middle fingers on his right hand, and clearly, since we see him needing a wheelchair, I imagine he's probably got a pretty severe limp when he does walk. I think the wheelchair is because he likely can't walk long distances anymore. Levi took a brutal, brutal beating. He probably experiences a good amount of physical pain still too.

Given the Marely' soldiers initial hostility at the end toward the Eldian's, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if they were reluctant and less than professional in giving Levi the medical care he needed. Though I imagine he must have gotten it eventually. Onyankopon and the others wouldn't have allowed Levi to be mistreated, I'm sure. But it was probably a struggle to get him the care he needed. I also imagine Levi probably needed to be hospitalized for a long time. Probably several weeks. He was dealing with serious, internal injuries. Internal bleeding is always really scary. I wouldn't be surprised if he had ruptured organs. I also imagine his leg was likely broken, meaning broken bones, on top of severe lacerations and puncture wounds, all of which had the potential to become infected. That on top of the wounds he suffered from the thunderspear explosion, which also had the potential to become infected. Given how Levi was running around in the battle, with debris and blood and dirt flying all around him, I wouldn't be surprised if his wounds did become infected at one point, which would have complicated his recovery all the more. Suffice it to say, Levi's recovery must have been brutal, and likely something he won't ever be completely done with. Like I said, he won't be the same physically again.

That reality is part of what makes how we see him at the end so astounding. He's still out there, helping others, not succumbing to self-pity or resentment, when he himself has personally lost so much, including the function of his body. He's an incredible human being. An example of what we should all strive to be.

[lunalillyhbhb]

Lea's home

Chapter 1

After college, I head over to my work place, Lea's home. Lea and I have been close friends since college began, and when she found out about my financial situation, she offered a job as a maid at her house. Of course, I accepted. I really needed the money, but that wasn't the only reason.

Stepping off the bus, I walk to her house, get buzzed in, and change into my work uniform, a regular maid outfit, a relatively tight fitting one at that, but no worries.

I get started in the usual routine, working my way from bottom to top, saving the best for the last: Lea's room. It's getting pretty late, but I am in no hurry. As I near her room, I hear a noise coming from within and lightly rap against the door. The sound immediately stops, and Lea open her door, looking tussled and out of breath. Hot. She looks at me worried, and clutches her chest.

"What's wrong? Is everything ok?" I ask, trying my best not to sound even the slightest bit turned on.

She looks around the corridor before pulling me inside her room and locking her door. Slightly panting, she says "My chest hurts, I'm not sure what that means but this isn't the first time this has happened! I don't know what to do, do I go to the doctor? You're a med student, could you take a look?"

Is today my lucky day? The situation I've dreamed about and fantasized forever is finally presenting itself to me, but what if it's too good to be true? Do I put my desires first or do I do my duty as a med student and look at this professionally?

What am I even thinking, duty first.

"Calm down, there's no need to get all flustered, I'll palpate around your chest, tell me if it hurts, ok?"

She nods, looking at me with her eager eyes.

I place my hand on her chest, doing my best to not react to the strong heartbeat I can feel with little effort. My hand rises in pulses, hitting her sternum strongly.

"No pain?" She nods, with her face slowly changing expressions.

"I can't feel your heartbeat properly (I lied), do you mind taking off your shirt-" and before I can finish my sentence, her shirt comes off in one swift motion. Her pretty pink lace bra comes into full view, perspiration slowly dripping off her chest, and I momentarily freeze, entranced by the view. She's breathing with a little more difficulty, but the most noticeable feature is her heart. It's so visible, I can see her breast quiver with every strong beat.

How I wish I could hold that beautiful organ, to feel it pump against my hand.

She looks at me, and clasps my hand, guiding it gently towards her chest, and places it firmly there. I close my eyes, my desires completely taking over my senses, wishing this moment would last forever. Her heart pushes against my hand with everything in its power, and I am completely under its control.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I remember my "duty" and do my best to coherently put together a sentence. "Your heart feels strong, and I can't feel any thrills or skips. I wish I had my stethoscope to hear more accurately though."

She looks at me, now the worry clearly replaced with amusement and a sense of animalistic desire in her eyes. Without removing my hand from her chest, she bends over and reaches for her drawer, where she pulls out a stethoscope, a beautiful Littman cardiology. I feel her heart skipping, and now I'm beginning to suspect maybe she's enjoying this attention her heart is getting.

She places the steth in my ears and the bell directly on the PMI, where her heartbeat is the loudest and most visible. Finally, I get to hear the beautiful sound of her heart. Ecstasy fills me, and a warm sensation builds at the base of my abdomen, and before I could stop myself, I ask her "are you enjoying this?"

Her eyes travel down to my chest, and with surprise I note that my own heart is beating wildly, being very visible under my maid's uniform.

"I am now" she says, and I realize this was all an act to get me into this situation, and I played right into it. This means, she's wanted me the same way I've wanted her.

Now there's no need to hold back.

I push her against the wall, her heart booming into the steth. She lets out a moan, her legs shaking beneath her.

"Is there any other symptom that's worrying you?" I ask, going along with this role playing.

"Yes doctor, this area has been very hard for a while now" she says, guiding my hand to her nipple. I slowly rub it, admiring the way her eyes light up with arousal.

Her heart now going a strong 160 bpm, dares me to make it go faster, and I oblige.

My fingers slowly trail down, with the look of absolute delight on her face, and reach her vulva. Her heart is now pounding

BU-BUMP BU-BUMP BU-BUMP BU-BUMP

And with every beat, I rub her, syncing it in the rythm of her heart.

She starts moaning loudly, and her legs gave way and spread widely.

"Oh you're so wet, and all this when I didn't even do anything."

She looks at me desperately, and says "Can I feel your heart? Please?"

I nod, and immediately her hands go up my chest, wildly grabbing it, as if trying to cage the absolute beast that threatens to escape its cage.

I immediately slip my fingers through her underwear, feeling the wetness dripping through, and rub faster with more intensity.

Her eyes rolls back, and with a final loud moan, she collapses in my arms, eyes fluttering close.

"How was it?" I ask her. She smiles, and slowly leans on my chest, listening to my heart beat gradually returning to normal. We stay there for a while, till our breaths settle down.

"I'm gonna take a quick shower, I'll seeya tomorrow!" she gives me a quick kiss, and walks away.

It takes a few seconds for me to register what just happened. I can't believe how lucky I am. I guess I'm now her personal maid and heart doctor, the best situation I could ask for.

[p0rchc0ll4ps3]

it's time for jean himages (horse images). i want to trace and color some of these digitally but itll take three years so here's what i have for now. so im posting on this blog for the headcanons and bc they're not full art pieces yet

anyways these r just sketchbook doodles so theyre not the greatest anatomywise (bc i fix them in post (ie digitally)) but you know what i stare at them so much so here

jean rides his horse in the french style which involves Lightness (a way of like. communicating with your horse and making sure the horse's needs are met, i think) so he's. really gentle with his horse. he braids the horse's hair in dressage style so button braids on top and then plaited tail. it's a big black horse with a white blaze and white socks (yeah im a horsegirl too) (in my digitally lined version of that third image, i spent like an hour making sure all the tack was accurate to the riding style. this is just the initial sketch so it's not accurate here, so you're just going to have to pretend)

harry rides horse a mixture of western and english bc he always does everything his own way, and kim (and judit not pictured) rides english bc that's the standard rcm procedure for horse. also as part of the mounted cop uniform, they have to have riding helmets lol

i think harry's horse is a small chestnut mare with a blaze and stockings, and kim's is a little bigger dark bay. they're quarter horses / thoroughbreds mostly. tho tbh they're probably elysium / insulinde specific horsebreeds that i don't know about

kim hates doing horse bc the horse never listens to him. he's used to kineema! so he's too tight on the reins. but then he ends up liking the horse anyways

obviously a lot of these r not too canon to my headcanons bc there's a few ooc phrasings and some things aren't solidified to events that i want to write about but that's ok. i'm working on writing some kinda' post-Martinaise dynamics bw Jean, memory-loss Harry, and Kim as well as the others at the 41st, and I want a lot of 'Jean has to teach Kim how to ride horse' in there. coz i think it would be fun to write kim 'wow jean is competent??? and i have to take orders from him even though i fucking hate his guts???' kitsuragi lol. making kim not good at something for once and he hates it so much how tf do you stay professional when the horse keeps misbehaving and you can't control her

also im headcanoning that all the motor carriages in insulinde at least are the british way: driver on the right, passenger on the left. carriages / horses on the road on the left (bc the rcm patch is on your right shoulder, so when you pass people on the left they can see it (if you're doing it the "normal" way ie driving/walking on the right, people can't see your patch when you pass them (i know this from experience bc i put white tape on my trenchcoat rcm-style)))

transcript for my handwriting under cut

First Image: jean on horse in the top middle: It's not a motor carriage, Kitsuragi. Loosen up on the reins. kim on horse in the top middle: I know that, Officer.

kim in the car middle left: It's not a horse, Officer. You're driving too carefully.

jean in the doorway bottom middle: Hah! You're talking to the horse! Sucker! kim with the horse bottom middle: I was just putting on her bridle Vic!

Second Image: Jean to Kim bottom right: Maybe next time you'll actually pay attention when someone's trying to fucking share knowledge with you.

Third Image: Jean on left: Hurry it up back there Lieutenant, we don't have all fucking day. Harry in middle: He's got this, Jean! Jean: Don't Jean me. Harry: He'll be fine! Kim on right: If you had let me keep the Kineema, we'd be there by now.

[magnoliacharmed]

Michelangelo’s Billy Gunn

18+, Billy Gunn x Fem!Reader one shot

[Also available on Archive of Our Own!]

Word count: ~2.6k

Tags: Flirting, teasing, making out, handjobs, hair pulling, condomless sex)

Summary:

Billy Gunn pops his gum at you, chases you around an arena, then makes you beg for him.

"You sure do like to stare at me."

"Huh?"

Oops. You really were staring at Billy Gunn himself. His well sculpted frame towered over you as he obnoxiously chewed his gum. A small mischievous smile was plastered on his face. He could be so irritating! Sometimes you were sure that while the rest of his body matured his brain was still stuck at 16 years old.

"You're staring at me. I understand why, though." Billy raised his arm up to flex his bicep and smiled even wider at you. You rolled your eyes at him even though on the inside you burned with an embarrassing amount of desire for the man. You couldn't help but get a little mesmerized at him, especially when he ran around oiled up in the tiny shorts with his nickname sprawled across the back. Only he could make something as ridiculous as Mr. Ass work in his favor.

"Tell me Billy, are you really an ass man?"

More loud chewing. "Wouldn't you like to know? For you, I'm an anything man." His eyes sparkled with playfulness.

He'd stared at you quite a few times but had managed never to be caught. Your role as backstage interviewer gave him leeway to mess with you. He'd watch you fix your makeup or outfit then flirt with you right before the camera came on to get you flustered. It worked the first few times, something that pissed you off and turned you on. After that you steeled yourself against him. Unfortunately, or maybe very fortunately, that only made him want to try harder.

"Well, I'm no liar. I was staring at you. You're just the most handsome man in this entire arena. The whole city, even. The entire world! How could I not stare at you?" You leaned forward to squeeze his bicep. Your head fell back exaggeratedly in mock ecstasy. It was starting to get harder to pretend that you didn't want him to fuck your brains out. He on the other hand always made his desire for you well known.

"I've been thinking, you should change your name to Michelangelo's Billy Gunn. But Michelangelo's Mr. Ass would be much funnier..." You tapped at your chin in faux deep thought.

Billy gestured down to his crotch, thrusting forward to you slightly with the famous "suck it" gesture. Of course he was wearing those little shorts again! You felt like such a pervert every time you took a peek at him.

"That just wouldn't be accurate. My dick is way bigger than that sculpture's. Wanna see?" He pulled down his shorts the tiniest bit, a smattering of blonde hair decorating his tanned skin.

Yes!

"I could report you for all this, you know."

Billy's head tilted to the side innocently while he pulled the shorts back into place. "You wouldn't do that, would you?"

"Ugh, you're so annoying!" Your cheeks burned hot at his expression. He always looked like he was seconds away from pulling your dress up and taking you right there.

Billy laughed at you stomping away from him, your heels clicking loudly against the flooring.

---

A few hours later you stood by the craft table. Your mouth absently chewed at the end of a dried up carrot stick while you stared into space. What were you going to do about Billy? What could you do about him? Sure, you could shut down the flirtatious banter and remind him to be professional. Or you could continue on messing with each other, a constant feedback loop of innuendo and lustful glances.

"Still thinking about me, baby?"

Billy materialized in front of you. You'd been so lost in thought that the sound of the entirely too crunchy carrot blocked out the noise of his gum popping. He was due out in the ring soon. The shirt he was wearing earlier was now gone. His chest and torso gleamed under the arena lighting, oil rubbed into his skin with no spots missed (you ran your eyes up and down his body a few times, just to be extra super-duper sure). Your legs shifted underneath you at the sight. His eyes were covered by a tiny pair of circular sunglasses that didn't do much to hide his amused expression.

"You look like one of the three blind mice."

Billy laughed loudly at you in an over the top fashion, his hand resting on his stomach. You sure loved to poke fun of him, something he thought was endearing.

"One day I'm gonna fuck all of those little jokes out of you." Billy's voice came out rougher than he expected it to.

The neck of your dress was cut extra low tonight. The charm on the necklace you wore fell right where your cleavage met. It rested comfortably at the soft flesh. If he was bolder or had a few drinks in him he would've stuck his face right there between them to be surrounded by your warmth. He'd brush it off by motorboating you and shrugging nonchalantly after the fact. He restrained himself though. Billy knew that he'd soon be able to feel all of you and not just as part of a crass joke.

You cleared your throat at Billy's unwavering gaze.

"Excuse me, Mr. Ass? You sure are staring intently at me. I'd hate for the whole world to see how hard you are."

Your fingers slowly reached up to fix the neckline of the dress. You deliberately pulled and smoothed over the fabric covering your tits. You lingered while you pushed them up to readjust them, holding them up as an invitation. As soon as Billy began to speak, you let your hands fall down.

"Missed your chance! Nice to see you be the speechless one for a change."

He loved it when you teased back at him. Billy took a step forward and closed the gap between the both of you. His body radiated with wanting, his chest heaving at the thought of being inside you.

"When I come back out, you're gonna see just what you get from making me this hard."

He'd never sounded so… undone. So overcome. No more games. You'd finally made him snap. There was no way he was going to be able to keep his hands off you now. You watched him run his fingers through his blond, yellow-white hair. You got fidgety at the muscles rippling through his arms.

"I think you're on. I'll see you after the match!" You winked at him while picking up a shriveled up piece of celery. He left you standing there, his face more strained than you'd ever seen it.

---

The match was over faster than you thought it'd be. Billy had won with ease, despite not being able to focus, which put him in a great mood. Sweat furrowed on his brow and ran down his chest. The man was a living sculpture, carved and created just for you to stare at lewdly. He also happened to be approaching you rapidly while these thoughts picked at you. Your eyes widened at his determined stride towards you, a nervous smile popping on to your face. You bowed at him with a flourish.

"Congratulations. I'm glad I could motivate--"

Billy wordlessly picked you up and pressed himself into you. You wriggled around in his iron grip and kicked your legs under him. You felt his erection press against your thighs right where your dress ended. His lips were dangerously close to your neck. Being held so close by him made your panties flood. You got even wetter when he smacked your ass, then squeezed a cheek.

"I'll show you just how motivated I am."

You managed to escape him by pinching his shoulder roughly. He dropped you in shock, your heels clattering against the floor. His cock pressed against the stretched fabric of shorts in an obscene way. You tried your hardest to not return your gaze down to it every few seconds.

"You got my dress all messed up with your stupid oil." Little stains dotted your dress. Hopefully it'd be able to be dry cleaned. You really did like it and not just because it seemed to get Billy going.

"Come here," Billy whispered. The lust dripped off of him.

"Mm, I don't think I will." You stepped backwards away from him. His hand reached out to grab you again but you side stepped him. "What are you gonna do, chase me?"

Billy knew that you knew how much he liked to play silly games like this. Small steps backwards continued to move you away from him. Your tongue stuck out in jest before you turned around to run away around the arena.

With anyone else they would've let you run around like an idiot. Billy took off after you instead, much faster than you even after a match. Your heels didn't help your speed either. You wobbled in them with every turn around a corner. Your giggles echoed against the concrete walls while you did your best to not trip over giant wires from the surrounding A/V equipment. Confused expressions from the crew flashed in your vision by you every minute or so. Billy let out a growl to play up the big, scary monster he loved pretending to be.

Soon enough you reached the very back end of the arena. It was completely bare and barely lit, old lights flickering on and off disconcertingly. You turned on your heel after abruptly meeting the wall at the end of the hallway when Billy slowed down to a walk towards you.

"Looks like I won." Billy moved in to you again. You leaned back against the wall and watched him. He was practically jumping out of his skin with need. Your breathing was embarrassingly heavy. You couldn't tell if it was from the chase or from Billy's presence.

"Looks like you did, Billy. Are you going to claim your prize?"

Your back pushed even further against the cold wall as Billy leaned in to kiss you. His tongue swirled around yours eagerly, his hands running the length of your thighs. The kiss made your head swirl with anticipation. It was just the right amount of rough and passionate. Your hips involuntarily pushed into his lower half. With no thought in your mind besides "I need you,", you fiddled around to pull his shorts down and pull out his cock. You used his precome to slick him up, your hand wrapping around his girth with a steady grip. Billy groaned into your mouth at you dragging up the length of him.

His hand was in your hair with a forceful grip. He unlatched himself from your kiss while you continued to stroke to check your expression. Your mouth had fallen open with a lopsided, love-drunk sort of smile. You liked the way he smiled back at you, then closed his eyes when you stroked faster. The way he turned you by your hair to face the wall made you lose your handle on his cock with the movement. Huffing breaths at not being able to feel his hardness any more were dashed by his hands pulling down the front of your dress. Billy began to massage your tits so tenderly it caused you to twitch in confusion. Your moan was loud and strangled at the feeling of him pinching your nipple. He rolled the bud between his thumb and index finger with no plans of stopping any time soon.

"You want me, baby?"

"Yeeesss," The word dragged out of you. Your inner thighs squeezed against themselves, your clit begging for attention. Billy's words shot through you like lightning. He was still teasing you, just like the nuisance he was.

"Again. You want me?" His teeth nipped against your ear. You swore you could feel him smiling. How was he still able to mess with you like that? Bastard!

"Yes, Billy, fuck!"

"You don't know how long I've waited to hear you say that."

With one fluid motion, your dress was pulled up around your waist and your panties had fallen to the floor. Your cheek was pressed up against the wall, the coolness of it sending little shivers across your bare chest. Billy didn't bother to be gentle when he entered you with a long stroke. His hand gripped even tighter into your hair as he began to thrust with dragged out, deliberate movements. He wanted you to feel every inch of him, to feel like you were on the verge of collapsing every time his tip hit your g-spot.

Billy liked the way your muscles fluttered around him, the way you begged and pleaded for you to fuck you harder. He pulled your head up just slightly from the wall while your eyes rolled back in your head. His free hand rested on your stomach to pull you closer to him. Your legs threatened to give out at the sensation of being so thoroughly filled up by him.

He laughed at the way you squirmed around him. It wasn't cruel or mean, just extremely happy. Finally he got to be inside you after weeks of back and forth flirting. You (poorly) acted like you weren't that into him, which didn't fool either of you. As much as you attempted to be professional during your interviews or tried not to indulge in his crass humor he got you to fall for his frat boy charm. It wasn't long before you started to bite your lip when he passed by and laughed at his silly jokes. Now here you were blindly clawing at his thighs for release, mumbling and whimpering his name in pleasure.

You were so close. You thought you would pass out when his fingers started to rub against your clit.

"Harder!" Your voice was breathy. It was so cute how insatiable you were for him. His hips snapped roughly into you, each movement becoming more and more uncertain. The breathing between the two of you and sounds of him moving inside you bounced against the wall. You really hoped no one could hear you. Billy hoped everyone could.

"Now you know… that I wasn't just… playing around." His lips were back at your ear. "When I said I'd fuck you… I meant it."

You nodded lazily at his words, not able to move your head much. They registered somewhere in your mind amongst the deepening feeling of him in you. The hold of his fingers at the base of your scalp was beginning to hurt in the best way. You were so hot around him it made his dick throb. With every plunge of himself amongst your walls, Billy felt you gush out under him. Your wetness covered your thighs causing them to shine under the dull lighting. Billy removed his hand from your stomach to reach down and wipe up some of it onto his fingers. He continued to hold on your hair to bend his knees, angling himself to fuck up into you. His index and middle finger spread apart to see the trails your arousal made between them.

The two fingers made their way to your lips. You opened your mouth immediately to suck on them with delight. When you hummed around them, Billy couldn't take any more.

His come shot inside you with rapid, hot spurts. A groan much louder than his earlier one hitched out of his lungs. You clenched down on him, your body begging him not to pull out. He eventually did… as slowly as he possibly could. When you turned around you were elated at seeing Billy's hands on his hips in an attempt to catch his breath. He was lit perfectly under the buzzing fluorescents. The way his chest moved and his skin reflected under the less than ideal lighting caused your eyes to blink slowly at him in awe.

He really was a work of art.

[zhalfirin]

Hello there!

Every time i see one of your bound books, i just sit there with my jaw on the floor in awe. They look so stunning, everything is so cohesive, and your creativity amazes me every time 🥺💕

I'm about to fanbind my first work and I wanted to ask if you've got any tips or things you wish you'd have known earlier? Like, I know it's gonna be far from perfect and the process will probably be rather stressful for me (perpetually impatient perfectionist), but maybe you had a moment of "oh man this is so obvious, how could i go wrong there"?

I hope you're having a fantastic day, and I'm gonna admire your work a little more rn ✨😊

Hello and thank you so much. Reading your message definitely made my day <3

I'm very flattered you like my bindings and glad they feel cohesive. I'd love to say 'that's because I plan them so meticulously', but to be honest, I rarely know every detail of what I'll be doing for a bind when I start XD

Congratulations on the decision to jump down that rabbit hole!

Sadly, I can't really give hints on the purely self-taught approach, because I have indeed formal training and never had to find it all out by myself. There are great tutorials though and while some are really good and in depth from a professional perspective, they might be also difficult to follow for beginners when you still learn the terms for everything. Don't feel bad for starting with a tutorial you find easier to follow.

But still I can say, accept that you will make mistakes and there will be flaws. There will always be flaws or things you find you could improve on (at least in your eyes and even if no one else sees or cares for them). Don't be too hard on yourself when you make them. Take it as a lesson learned and a chance to improve.

Be as tidy and accurate in your work as you can. Your skill will improve and it will get easier to get the hinges right and corners neatly covered and all that.

Keep your work place clean (and a wet cloth and towel nearby to wipe your hands from glue frequently, that will help a lot with not getting stains on your book).

Don't be afraid to mark later covered parts of the book. Like, mark what side is front and what is up on the spine and on the case. Neither will be visible in the end and it really helps a lot. Still it happens that you case in upside down. So even with marking, double and triple check when you're about to do something that will be harder to correct later on. (Especially, make sure you gathered your sections correctly and all the pages are in the correct order and orientation before you sew!). Casing in upside down is annoying, but to be honest, it's not the end of the world and often an easier fix than the wrong order of pages or worse, a forgotten section!

I know its easy to want it all at once, high end materials, perfect typesets, immaculate bindings (I know I do), but give yourself the time to develop the skills needed, otherwise it can be very frustrating and might not give the joy one hoped for.

And finally, don't be afraid to ask questions! I find that most people (myself included) are open and willing to help if they can. I find the Renegade discord server to be a great community for that. A lot of people of all levels of skill and experience share their resources and knowledge and try to help each other there. (Be warned though, the server has grown intimidatingly huge, but still people try to help you from typesetting questions to fix printer issues to explain grain direction and how to build a case at pretty much every time of the day and night.)

They are also just generally nice and fun people and it's up to you if you prefer to lurk and learn or want to chat too.

I hope this helps a bit. Have a wonderful day yourself ^^

[milllkaa]

tdim Actor AU

Sukesh looks like a black cat, but I can definitely feel the golden retriever vibe from him (and you can't change my mind >:p ). I mean, did you even see how cute he was pouted in that movie? He's a very sweet and quiet person, friendly, but afraid to impose himself. It's very exciting for him to get such an important role, also as a serial killer. Of course he took a professional approach, studied his character to accurately portray his character, and although everyone tells him he's doing a good job and great for the role, he himself doesn't feel very comfortable in the role of the "killer".

You're just projecting it onto yourself, you don't have to do that. Your job as an actor is to kill yourself in order to give space to your character. Remember, you are only a vessel for him, not a part of. You don't have to think "here I have to do this, there that". No, you need to feel out your character so much that instead of thoughts, there are actions right away. Yes, it's difficult and not everyone can do it, but I can see that you're trying, you're a good actor, Sukesh, you can do it.

Simon once told him, right at the beginning of filming. There was no way they could shoot that scene with the scythe, but after a short admonition from Simon, he made it. And he was very grateful.

That night Sukesh invited him for a drink and he said yes.

Simon looks like a golden retriever, but… I can't say he makes the same vibe. Every time I look at him, all I want to say is, "Dad". Dad's vibe. Right? He's also very sweet and friendly, but more… manly? I also like to think he's older than Sukesh. And doing this movie is clearly not his first, so he would be a moral support for Sukesh and Rabia, for whom this is their first starring role.

(I'm not sure about the age of the actors, so correct me if you know.)

But I think Simon would have been the oldest, he would have looked after the actors like a real father. They were all young and energetic and he was just doing his job. Certainly he was communicative and open, good at joking and lightening the atmosphere at the end of a hard day's work. The soul of the company, y'know? And although Sukesh was +- his age, with similar tastes and interests, in terms of acting he felt like his mentor, and he'd be lying if he said he was a drag. He had a lot of potential and Simon loved being the reason for his career successes. Very quickly they became friends.

I also really like Rabia (Erin), I mean, she looks the youngest not only in the game but also in life (not found information about her age, but let's pretend she is younger than Sukesh), and I like to think that even though Sukesh is older than her, he would be very nice and "on the same page" with her. For some reason, the whole crew tacitly protects her, they don't know what from, but she seems so sweet and fragile that everyone wants to protect her. She quickly became a favorite. And it's not just because of her looks, she's a really nice person in her own right. Often worried about nothing, rather clumsy.

Ah, maybe that's why you always have to keep an eye on her…

[makibeni]

Ch. 57- Home Is Where Your Heart Is

She looped the conversation in her head, over and over as though repeating it enough times would allow her to somehow change the outcome.

"I'm gonna go clean out my apartment a bit today, I think..."

She remembered the way Makima's face lit up, the woman was getting worse at hiding her excitement, or maybe less afraid to?

"Want me to come with?"

Her tone should have been a clue, desire shrouded in only the thinnest veil of propriety, a desperation practically oozing from her tongue, and yet...

"N-no, that's okay... I know you're busy with work s-so... I figured I'd just go by myself"

She didn't fully process the conversation until the words had already left her, and the momentary flicker of despondence washed across the woman's expression. She adjusted her mask, back to the professional smile she wore around strangers, as if she'd lost her own, or perhaps simply couldn't put one a more convincing lie. Kobeni saw the damage she'd done in an instant, of course, but by then it was too late. She wanted to speak up, reach a compromise or clear up some misunderstanding, but all she could do is look at her, and think of how hurt she looked in that moment, and nothing she could think to say felt right to speak.

The memory alone made her nauseous, the clinging aches in her abdomen as she meandered home. Was it still her home? That was another thought she hadn't spared in some time, if ever. It's where she lived, technically speaking anyway, she still paid rent for the place even if she hadn't slept there in a while, it's where some of her things were, what else is there to a home? She pondered distractions before chastising herself for not feeling more guilty over what she'd done to Makima, and the anxiety returned. She'd wandered back into familiar streets, enough so that the memories returned, feelings she was once so use to that now seemed like putting on someone else's skin.

"Hey Kobeni, long time no see!"

A voice wrestled her from her melancholic maundering, she turned to face it and saw Himeno approaching her with a jaunty stroll.

"How've you be- are you okay?"

Her face seemed to shift to genuine concern when she got close enough to lay eyes on the girl, to which Kobeni wondered just how bad she must have looked to prompt such a reaction.

"O-oh y-yeah... I'm fine just... you know..."

She gesticulated, presumably under the pretense that it would somehow bring clarity to the conversation as Himeno politely nodded along.

"Hmmm, I see, relationship issues..."

"I- wh- n-no it's... I mean..."

It took her a moment to process Himeno's words, and the woman seemed to have already reached her own conclusions before hearing out the girl's rebuke. She place a hand on Kobeni's shoulder before donning her serious face.

"Listen, I've been there, alright? I get it... I'm here for you"

She wrapped herself around the girl in an awkward, one sided hug, managing to alleviate some of her anxiety, though more through confusion than compassion.

"A-actually... I was on my way to clean out my apartment... I haven't been there in... a while so..."

She pushed the woman off her with a polite if half-hearted smile, trying to make her way past and back on her way.

"I'll come with!"

The suggestion, or perhaps it was more accurate to say declaration, was enough to reignite the simmering pot of angst inside the girl's stomach. If she was wracked with guilt over shutting down Makima then inviting someone else in her stead would surely be worse. She turned her head, reading herself to decline the woman when she felt a hand once again clasp her shoulder. Himeno pulled her along, roughly in the direction of the girl's apartment before she could utter another word.

With a resigned twist of the lock followed by a firm nudge with her elbow she opened the door to her apartment. The musty smell of absence filled her lungs as she readjusted, like walking into sunlight from a darkened room. The place was as she'd left it more or less, the last time she'd been here was to pick up some clothes for her stay, what was left behind were non-essentials, and the things Makima already had.

"Feels weird to be back home like this..."

She muttered to herself, and to quell the silence between the pair before Himeno had the chance to blurt something out.

"Weird you still call this place home, don't you basically live with her now?"

The girl thought about her words for a moment, pondering the significance she put on the word, and the way she purposely avoided saying Makima's name.

"Well... I own... well... my landlord owns... but I pay the rent for this place, you know?"

Himeno waved her hand, brushing aside the statement.

"Sure, sure, not what I mean though, like, this place is your place, but when you think 'I'm going home' you don't think about coming here these days, do you?"

Kobeni paused, trying to internalize her meaning even if she didn't quite understand the inference.

"How... how do you know... when somewhere's your home?"

Himeno twirled around a plastic bag, filling it with miscellaneous objects she assumed were trash while uttering an audible hum.

"...I guess, somewhere you feel safe? Where you can just be you and not have to put on a show, just being you is enough, make sense?"

Familiar thoughts crossed the girl's mind, not of a place but of a person. She'd never really felt safe being herself, she'd spent so long hiding she wondered if there even was a self to her, but if there was a real person hiding in the mound of tangled strings there's only one she'd feel safe around.

"Y-yeah... I think so..."

She stared off at something that wasn't there with a calm smile on her face, the first one Himeno had seen all day, and one she remarked one with a triumphant grin. The girl seemed to snap from her trance and turn to her.

"Hey... thanks..."

She turned to the door with a worried but determined look, steeling her resolve for whatever was to come.

"I think... I wanna go home..."

[kathxsoupp]

In Love With a Fever: Chapter 5

William Afton x law enforcement ! reader (fem)

HELLO HI I'M BACK FROM THE DEAD!!!!

Summary: Reader is a detective who was put on the missing children incident case, her person of interest is William and is currently investigating him.

WARNINGS: very graphic violence throughout the whole fic, eventual smut, slow burn, age-gap between reader and Will, manipulation, mutilation, broken bones, use of pet names, Will is obsessive, mentions of death, death and murder, there will be smut, a lot probably, I think, dub-con at some point maybe, fluff and angst, idk if I missed something just read with caution

Notes: NOT ENTIRELY LORE ACCURATE!!! This fic is also posted on my AO3, linked in my pinned post, I'm updating this fic every Monday and it's the first thing I have ever posted, so I hope you like it!

--MINORS DNI--

Chapter 5

He stood before his office window, thoughts racing through his mind. The satisfaction of his perfect plan slowly but surely working out made him feel like he was on top of the world. The clueless girl like an angel sent from heavens above right there for him to use. He promised himself he wasn’t actually going to fall in love with her or anything. He didn’t perceive her as that special. She was just there to cover for him. She was there for him to manipulate and shape into what he needed her to be, ‘so don’t fall too hard sweetheart. I’ll get rid of you in the end anyway.’

The clock finally struck 2:30 pm. You looked into the mirror once more, fixing your appearance and taking a deep breath. You were a little bit too nervous for a work-related meeting. If you could always be so professional about your job, why couldn’t you do the same right now? Working in law enforcement was always your dream job. True crime, mystery and even horror and paranormal stuff always intrigued you so much. That’s why you were so excited about being on this case.

You’ve known about Freddy’s for a while and about the diner that came before it. To be honest, you were still hoping you could maybe somehow get Afton to show you the robots, since you didn’t get the chance earlier. You wanted to know more about them. How they work, how they were built if there’s any stories behind them, etc. The animatronics were interesting to you, but you also found them a little bit creepy. That didn’t discourage you from wanting to find out more though, quite the opposite. Now you needed to focus on the task at hand.

You grabbed your bag and left your office. You walked out of the building and headed to the appointed place. The café wasn’t too far from where you worked. It was about fifteen minutes away, so you decided to just walk instead of driving. You got there a little earlier than you meant to. At least you had the time to find some place to sit and collect your thoughts.

Ten minutes later, he arrived. You looked up from your notebook and your heart skipped a beat when you saw him.

Why were you this nervous?

Breathe, (y/n). Breathe.

You stood up from your chair with a small polite smile and held your hand out to him.

“Good afternoon, Mr. Afton. Thank you again for taking the time to speak with me.” You greeted him. He took your hand in a handshake. “The pleasure is all mine, agent.” He said, returning your smile.

You couldn’t believe how quickly he got so comfortable around you; however, you didn’t exactly mind that. It was your intention to get him to trust you as much as possible. They tend to be the most talkative then. You both sat back down, and you opened your notebook to write down anything he says.

“So, how have you been since we last spoke?” you asked him. “I’ve been alright, but I have to say I’m still very concerned about the recent events.” he replied with a serious look on his face. “It feels so surreal to me, and it has left me feeling quite numb I have to admit.”

Your heart ached at his words. You knew he was also a grieving father and couldn’t imagine what it must be like to go through the pain all over again.

“Again, I am so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what that must be like.” “What was it you needed to talk to me about?” he said to change the subject.

You were now a little nervous to ask about his family. You didn’t want to make the situation worse than it already was, but you didn’t have a choice, really.

“I just needed to ask you a few more personal questions. I promise you it’s just routine work, we need any lead we can get so we can finally put a stop to this madness. Would you be comfortable with that?”

He smiled to himself. He didn’t think his act would be so good you’d believe every single word he said.

“Of course, miss (l/n). Go ahead.” He said with that same smile, leaning forward, hands on the table fingers intertwined.

You asked him some questions you had written down in your notebook. Everything went well, until you mentioned the co-owner of the pizzeria, Henry.

“Henry, huh?” he said. “I have to say Henry Emily is the nicest man I know. Cheerful all the time, always happy to help, but he’s been acting strange lately. You know, I don’t want to point fingers at anyone, and I genuinely don’t believe he could be a suspect here I just figured you should know.”  “What about his behavior do you consider as strange?” you asked with a furrowed brow. “Well… he’s secretive and startled easily, I guess. Every time I speak to him, he seems nervous Fidgeting with his hands, not his usual calm and friendly self, but that might just be this whole situation getting to him.”

Interesting. You made sure to note down what he told you and then closed your notebook.

“Alright, well that would be all from me today. Thank you again for meeting up with me today, Mr. Afton. Is there anything else you’d like to talk about?” He leaned forward in his chair closer to you. “I saw you looking for the animatronics the last time you visited my restaurant. Tell me, do those fascinate you?” he said with a small smirk. Your face went red. “Oh you did? I didn’t mean to stare, but yeah, I have to say those are very interesting. It’s a shame I didn’t get to get a look at them.” “You know, if you want, I will gladly take you to see them sometime. I can show you around too. Show you how they work, I can even let you see the blueprints, if you’d like.”

His offer shocked you. You didn’t expect him to be so eager to show you his work. Especially when you were literally a cop, a possible threat to him. The fact that he would voluntarily like to spend time with you showing you his restaurant gave you the slight feeling he really had nothing to hide, but you couldn’t jump to conclusions yet. And as much as you hated to admit, you really wanted to accept. You wanted to see the animatronics and spending time with him would be the cherry on top. You knew it would be so unprofessional. You knew it wasn’t right, but there was no way you could say no.

“Really?” you exclaimed a little louder than you meant to. “You know, I’d love to, but I don’t think it’s right you know. And besides, I wouldn’t want to be a bother to you.” You answered with an apologetic smile, but you prayed he would insist on his offer. “It wouldn’t be a bother at all, love. I was the one with the idea, wasn’t I? And as for the professionality of it,” he lowered his voice, “if you can keep a secret so can I.”

The nickname gave you butterflies. His attractiveness was a little too much for you. You hated it, but you were melting on the inside. You did your best to not make a huge deal out of it. He was a brit after all, and it most likely didn’t mean anything. You pushed your thoughts to the back of your head and leaned forward to get closer to him.

“My lips are sealed, sir.” You replied with your voice lowered, mimicking his, and with a smug little smile. He grinned. “It’s a deal then, agent. Tomorrow, after work, at 9:00?” You kept your smile. “Sounds perfect.”

[asyastudieskorean]

12.2.2023 — Our final test review materials are posted, and a test date is set—well, sort of—and that "sort of" is the topic of today's rant (because I have, frankly, not studied for days :)).

So long story short, the test date posted on Canvas (I am an online non-matriculating post-grad studying Korean) says "Dec. 7, Wednesday," but Dec. 7 is a Thursday. So, I assume, like much of the content I see on Canvas, is recycled or old.

Now I'm not saying that in itself is wrong or low-quality because a course often does not change much or at all from year to year or term to term. But, my lord, at the least the professor or whoever monitors the setup of these online courses can update the dates and anything that is no longer applicable. For instance, our final project was a book in Hangeul, but some modules referenced a previous year's project, making a vlog.

For the price I paid for this single online course, which, let's be honest, has pretty light coursework and equally light instructor involvement (I love 제 선생님 though), I'd expect the content to be up-to-date, accurate, and free of grammar and structure errors. Those are pretty basic things, right? But no, my guy or girl. No. I so often see grammar errors like a semi-colon instead of a colon or missing punctuation, extra spacing, incorrect bolding, etc. in the course content. There are also sometimes missing images that are important for notetaking or understanding the concepts being taught.

And you'd think the professor is actively looking at these weekly assignments and online content and making sure it's correct, but I literally have to send an email to get a solution or correct info, and even then it doesn't seem like a class-wide message is sent out for clarity.

I am really, really tempted to send an email with these concerns. It's such simple things that you'd expect to not be an issue because this is an adult, college setting where we are paying for a high-quality, professional education.

I don't know, maybe I'm being dramatic. Well, probably, yes. But the grammar errors, missing content here and there, and the out-of-date assignment info just make the course look unattended to and low-quality, like it's some free course I downloaded off some sketchy website, lmao.

Do other people see this in their online courses? Do you feel that the online courses you've taken are not as high-quality or involved as the in-person courses you've taken? I took online courses throughout my BA, and I never really saw this. My guess, I think, is that Korean courses are not that popular or taken at my uni, so the class sizes are small, and I assume that means less attention to the course and less frequent review of the content. That really shouldn't be the case, though.

Okay, end of rant. I'll be back in a day or two (or three) with test prep things.