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becauseplot · 1 year ago

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i woke up at 5am :'D it's ok tho im officially coherent enough to form words letsgo

"I am genuinely not as bad in these fandoms as I have been in some." Goddamn so something worse than child endangerment and child torture. Okay (<-FEAR) And yeah makes sense, Ordem Paranormal already has enough character death, no need to add to it lmfao. And yeah whump as a form of venting is soooo real. If I was more comfortable writing needless whump, I'd definitely do it more often. Love putting my guys in the angst blender after a hard day. My problem is like "ohhh I'd love to do terrible things to this character unprompted" and "okay so what should I do to them?" and then [crickets]. Whump prompts work sometimes, but figuring out the Situation that gets the character to the whump is a struggle somehow lmfao. It's a lot of fun when I can manage it tho.

Yea yea yea, you get to fill in the gaps! And having Lucie's death simply narrated to you (with an amazing backing track tbf), describing how she was slowly torn limb from limb, hearing her lower spine break, how she felt all of it, was conscious for all of it... It's a level of detail that you can't get in a purely visual medium (in this, you know exactly what is happening to her and what she's feeling, you are immersed in her experience) but at the same time, without explicit visuals to guide/distract you, you are forced to imagine all of this on your own. It makes your mind fill in the gaps! For me, watching it was definitely one of those experiences where I was like, "Wow this was absolutely devastating and my brain chemistry will be altered forever and I will not be sleeping tonight. Fantastic writing 10/10 would watch again."

(Yeah the subtitles on op and osnf are incredible, the fact they distinguish between IC and OOC. Epic.)

God yeah the way that the players balance IC and OOC knowledge. I think I've mentioned before (maybe??) that I adore the way that the players will put being in-character before "winning the game" in every single decision. Countless times, the players will known better, but they honor their characters and only act in how they think their characters would act. Can't think of a specific example but it happens a Lot. And yes, Arthur does deserve better than this. Obsessed with the theme of being unable to unsee/unlive/unlearn whenever a character comes into contact with the Paranormal, as I talked about with Thiago's hearing loss earlier. Once you're in it, you're in it. You can't go back to a normal life afterwards. Cursed by knowledge. You either end up working for the Order, end up insane, or you end up dead because...what else are you going to do? The horrors will follow you now. And Arthur has literally nothing left except for Ivete and her bar which she can't afford to keep open anymore.

Assuming Arthur survives this series (PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE), I'd love to see him as a recurring character with the Order. Even if he only gets cameos/references, I want to see how he might fit in with everyone else, if he finds his place there like Liz and Thiago have (PLEASEPLEASEPLEASEPLEASE).

Fhjdfj yeah it's like that princes bride meme. "This qsmp au still has potions!" "Oh, so you'll use them to make the characters feel better, right?" ":)" "So you'll use them to make the characters feel better, right." (I mean I am still healing them! The potions are in fact healing them! You can't deny that! (Unless it's that fuck-you-bleed-forever-idiot potion you mentioned.))

The one time a high roll on healing kinda sucked ^-^; I'm happy to hear your Words once I get caught up.

(Cultish is right what the fuck is goin on here.)

Ohh neat. Just so I can understand, you n your team(?) host these sessions and ppl come play? Like how does this actually work lmfao. You don't need to respond w anything in-depth if you don't want to I'm just curious. I know like nothing abt larp apart from like that one scene in Hawkeye where Clint has to work with some larpers and he gets roped into "fighting" them. (<-barely remembers this series)

Yeah I'm the same way with minecraft. I barely ever play it but I lovelovelovelove working game mechanics into my fics and also just the world building and the way that the "story" in the game is told almost purely by environment alone and and and!!! For the record I once wrote a (small) essay about the Minecraft End Poem and how it relates to Mysticism for one of my classes. Let me reiterate, AN ESSAY. ABOUT BLOCK GAME. FOR MY CLASS. AT UNIVERSITY. THAT WAS WORTH A GOOD PORTION OF MY GRADE. (I got a good score on it and the professor liked it and the poem so much he said he might actually fold the Minecraft End Poem into his curriculum as another example of Mysticism in modern media, so we win these.) I'm normal about Minecraft I swear. I played a lot when I was younger, and I started playing probably around the same time as you maybe? Idk all I remember is that Enchanted Golden Apples were still craftable when I started and apparently that's Old.

Huh. If I think about it, I'm still playing in the world of Minecraft, just in a different way. Neat.

Bastille music!! They've certainly got a vibe. (Icarus still remains one of my favorites. The animatics in my head go crazy you don't even know.) (Face down on the floor you don't even know.) (Why did I have to choose to be a writer all the animations won't ever leave my brain.)

finished ep 10 of osnf (long post under the cut oh lord)

crying sobbing kicking over chairs screaming CELLBIT IS AN EVIL EVIL MAN WHY WOULD HE DO THAT. FOR WHAT REASON. POR CUAL RAZÓN. LO ODIO. <-said with the utmost adoration and respect of a writer but the fury of a fan who just had to endure all of that my hearttttt 0(-(

god fuck i have thoughts and feelings regarding episode 10 of osnf. obviously. i don't even know how to start.

okay. first of all the way that he was able to orchestrate the like 57839 different POVs of the nightmare happening at the same time was actually pretty smooth, all things considered. being able to forcibly mute/deafen the others is a good thing to be able to do yesyes.

second, im losing my mind over how he hides the fact that "it's all a dream" WITHIN the "it's all a dream" trope by having the creatures be manifestations of dreams/guilt in "reality" themselves. idk if i'm making any sense, but like, you get it, right? like, it's the fact that we thought we had already discovered the dream-based deceit in the segment because of what the "Hotelier" told Joui at the start of it, but it turns out that THAT was a red-herring of sorts for the TRUE dream-based deceit, that EVERYTHING was a dream, not just the creatures. god there are fucking layers to this im foaming at the mouth that's soooo good.

i guess that's what makes the "it's all a dream"-style trope present here feel less cliche. because, you know, it is a trope, and it's not really a trope that i'm fond of, but because there's actually more going on, it feels less cheap. what certainly helps is that the fact that it's roleplay, so the reactions from the characters are so much more raw, and there are some irl stakes (character dead = out of the series = can't play anymore). that definitely keeps you on the edge of your seat.

edit: something i forgot to mention—what i dislike abt the “it’s all a dream” trope the most is that it is very easily something that can be so, so cheap. all angst, no stakes or consequences, no lasting impact on the plot on the characters. however, not only is there a “physical” impact via several characters losing SHITLOADS of sanity (something not easily recovered) but we get to see a little more into the psyche of the characters. which i suppose is often the point of the “it’s all a dream” segments, but this dream—one with a lot of references to past major character death and itself contains major character death—rings especially true for the themes of the series: the world they live in is dangerous, and the work they do is lethal. people have and will die. and they do and will feel guilty, reguardless if they are at fault. it’s not a horrifying death dream just for the sake of being a death dream, it feels grounded in their reality, and i love that.

third, man he did not hold back. when Arthur was being beaten to a pulp by not!Brúlio, i was actually in shock, i was screaming. plus, i think the fact that Cellbit rolled a 001 when not!Brúlio attacked actually helped to hide the fact that this was a dream. it made it look like it was bad luck rather than the segment was designed to kill the characters (well, at least until he revealed that the damage was 1d4+1d6, but i'll get to that later).

gosh the narration of how not!Brúlio killed Arthur. holy shit. i don't. i don't even have words, that is DEVASTATING. that is probably one of the worst ways for a person to go. i know it's a dream but if i were Arthur i would be emotionally fucked up beyond belief. beaten to a bloody pulp by the father who once loved you so much, screaming at you for abandoning him and that it's your fault he died a horrible death. and then he drops your body on the ground like you're nothing but a pile of useless meat. god. damn.

and then Liz. ohhhh Liz. i just. i was devastated. her whole struggle with Alex, the man she treated so horribly. yes it's true the real Alex never would have said these things to you, but how do you know he wasn't thinking it? that he didn't want to? that what not!Alex says doesn't hold some truth? christttt. and of course the way she dies: in complete agony. and did she forgive herself? because, unlike with not!Brúlio, the creature turned into that weird wispy black thing just as she died, and i would assume that means she forgave herself (if those rules even apply considering this was all a result of the parasite's deceit (holy hell my brain is melting i am the man with the hand on the conspiracy board)).

fourth: the 1d4+1d6 thing! when he read that out, i was stunned. that is a LOT of damage considering all of the characters have ~10 HP. with an extreme roll, that's basically an insta-kill, or it's easily a two-hit-kill. i thought Arthur was unlucky, but when Liz also went down, i was---well, devastated, at first, because that's Liz, she's my absolute favorite and i love her, but i started going through all five stages of grief at once, and at some point i arrived at "no that can't be right" because Cellbit is a good writer. and to deliberately construct a scenario where it would be VERY hard for a character to survive while still in the middle of the story? yeah. and yknow the fact that there's still 6 other episodes fhdsjk. (then again the series continues regardless if a character dies and i haven't looked at other episodes' thumbnails or anything like that for this exact reason. so. i was going in as blind as i could reasonably be.)

in any case, realizing and connecting all of this and then hearing the "Hotelier" start yelling at Joui right after Liz died explicitly blaming him for it sealed it for me: this is a trick of some sort. this is a dream sequence of some sort. these aren't real deaths. (a smaller part of me was still scared that they were real because i know that Cellbit does not shy away from killing off his players' characters, if op and opq are anything to go by. but i digress.)

and then the characters turned to black goo. and i just about threw my computer. rip Luba who got absolutely targeted by the GM lmfao.

anyway uhhh that's about it regarding the dream sequence! loving luzidius!joui and how he just keeps switching back and forth. ((and it further supports my little side-theory that the mysterious blond woman last seen with Team Kelvin was a luzidious we win these.)) i was surprised to see Liz thinking it was so cool when she's been so suspicious of everything in Santo Berco since she got here, but i think she could definitely be using it as a distraction from what she just went through, and honestly she's just happy to see Joui is okay. (the way she gave on up words and just hugged him, the way she held his face in her hands, the way she dragged him down the hall to show Thiago and Thiago was just telling her to fuck off (/aff) because he was getting dressed, my heartttt i love these three, mentor-mentee dynamics my fucking beloved)

also new outfits! sweet! istg the new outfits are so Cellbit's way of apologizing for putting his friends through that. "hey sorry i killed your character in the most emotionally devastating way possible it will happen again wOAH LOOK AT THESE NEW CLOTHES AREN'T THEY SO COOL YOU SHOULD TRY THEM ON!!!"

i've been having mixed feelings about the sudden setting/genre change since the group arrived in Santo Berco. i really, really loved the urban horror-fantasy vibe that they had going on in op and the first 8 eps of osnf, but evidently, this is good as well. the genre is most definitely still horror yippee. i definitely miss the urban-modern setting, but i think i can get adjusted to this. (i'm just,,, not the biggest fan of the auto-heal crystals im sorry i had to say it they feel too op i know their use is limited to visiting the doctor but knowing they exist lowers the in-world stakes for me im sorry---)

anyway, ep 10! you beautiful monster! i have been typing for an hour! i need to go eat food! k bye!

#curlyosnf

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seffien · 2 years ago

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okay. i know this is a lot of things highlighted and I had more but these ones I was the most clueless about and very curious ???!!!!???? color pulse in Octo expansion bad ending I am most curious bout

again. sorry i highlighted a lot I just… gotta absorb the sploon information I gotta

no problem

'when i die i want my team to lower me into my grave so they can let me down one last time' - a popular meme/miiverse post in the community complaining about teammates. it resonates with me.

'octo-kraken' - if one were to hack themselves to be an octoling and use the kraken special, the lower tentacles of the kraken would be curly!

'4 and 8 in rotm' - concept art in the artbook shows that 4 and 8 were supposed to make a return in 3's story mode but, for whatever reason, didn't. i guess the idea was scrapped, which is super unfortunate

splatoon tumblr disappearance and octo oven origins

'do not go in' - in the music that plays after the blender is completed, speaking can be heard. in reality, it's a new years countdown played backwards, but it sounds like 'do not go in', which is really, really eerie

'toni kensa identity' - there's an interview out there with the guy himself, but we still don't know much about him. we just know that he's an inkling and, well, a he.

'great zapfish flying' - sometimes, when you'd boot up the game or leave the lobby, the great zapfish would fly around the lobby and make its funny little noise. in splatoon 3, though, the zapfish is seemingly completely stationary.

'pearl's electrocution' - apparently, pearl was electrocuted when she blew out the speakers at that singing contest, was electrocuted in the process, and had her growth stunted. ...or at least, she would've, if that info wasn't just a mistranslation. at least i think it is. im very profressional.

'glenna' - an alternate name for paruko/harmony before her actual name was revealed. i have 0 idea where it came from, but it was used in the siivagunner community since she was called that in the KFAD (king for a day) tournament.

'rocket announcements' <- click for more info, although it does kinda contain splatoon 3 spoilers. i find this super creepy because...uh...

'bisk's girlfriend' - the 6th sunken scroll in splatoon 2 features bisk embracing another spider crab in a dress, confirmed in a developer interview to be his ex-girlfriend. i guess i can remove that question mark now.

'koloktos' - from the trivia section of museum d'alfonsio's inkipedia page: These laughter sounds have been present in other Nintendo games, such as upon defeating the boss Koloktos in The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword.

'sentient idols' - not only do the idols sometimes break the fourth wall for comedic effect, but from another interview: ...it just might be that during those moments of Splatfest, they may have an occasional inkling that they are characters in some sort of a virtual space in the world of a video game.

'no.9'

'color pulse in octo expansion bad ending' - in the bad ending of octo expansion, a faint melody can be heard during the cutscene that plays. turns out, its a broken reprise of color pulse. there is a video, but i'm not going to link it because i want to sleep tonight and i imagine you do too.

judd mask - unused piece of gear that, strangely enough, appears in splatoon 2's salmon run employee handbook

'inklings on the moon' - in splatoon 2 (idk if its visible in 3), the moon is sometimes visible, and apparently, people saw that there was a little squid mark on it, leading to theories that inklings went to the moon before. here's a fun little video from rizirone covering the theory.

#splatoon #splatoon 2 #splatoon 3 #asksef

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saint-nevermore · 10 months ago

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adhd artist adventures i got bad news so this week is a wash. on the upside, i have a lot of birds on squawk overflow and im finally making shit to sell on secondlife

#im having a lot of fun playing blender again ^_^#im frusrated with the pace of everything and my wishywashy executive function.#but im glad im spending a good chunk of my time Creating rn

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prettyoddfever · 5 years ago

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P!ATD: early 2005

THE MAIN POST

This covers some key things that happened after the band had met Pete but before they left to record AFYCSO in June. Again, I wasn’t a fan during this season so I didn’t personally watch these events unfold. I’m getting my info from several hundred interviews, stuff I could look back on once I was a fan, the boys’ livejournal posts, and info a few fans from this season shared during the early Fever era.

RANDOM EVENTS:

Pete told P!ATD he wanted to release their record by the end of 2005, so they were purely focused on writing songs – they never played a show. The guys had about 5 months this spring to write some songs.

Pete had gone back to Chicago, but returned to L.A. in January. On January 13th P!ATD said they were heading into the studio to record It’s Time To Dance as a band (which is why Brent once claimed that they started recording AFYCSO in January lol). They just went to visit Pete to record the second version of the demo that was used on FBR’s spring sampler. Here’s more about that.

they had a new website in early 2005 but it wasn’t fully done until after they’d been touring for a bit. The message boards were also up in mid-January.

Nicholas Scimeca wrote on their myspace in mid-February 2005: “hanging with you guys in vegas sucked so bad. im super glad your bass amp works amazingly and the lyrics to that instrumental song are so good. the shit in hand walk was invented in vegas. i love all of you. kissies.”

Spencer, Brent, and Brendon had to have their parents sign their contracts because they weren’t 18 yet. They were sent their contracts around the new year but nothing was officially announced until March. The news wasn’t particularly secret, though, since the FBR spring sampler started coming out around Valentine’s Day and P!ATD was on it. (Can I please point out how I completely failed my chance to be an early fan… my friend gave me that sampler and I just let it sit there. I was also hearing a bit of talk online about how some Fall Out Boy fan’s band had a Cinderella moment, but did I go listen to their demos? nope nope nope).

P!ATD’s first album had an expected fall release date when they were announced as a new FBR band on March 15th. Here’s the picture they were using on most of their profiles:

Their myspace said “what would Jesus not do.” Their FBR & purevolume bio called them a dance rock band and mentioned the line “ambitious and desperate for attention” from one of the songs they were working on. The bio also said that they knew kids would give them one chance to impress, so it was “crucial to form the best first impression possible.” There was a quote from Ryan that said “We want to write a rock record you can dance to, we want it to be fun but at the same time it’s going to be very sincere.”

Ryan was quoting Chuck Palahniuk’s “everything you say is a self-portrait” a lot... it showed up in some future interviews, but it was also on the band’s online bios by this point.

the Panic guys were at the FBR and Friends tour in Anaheim in late March. The sampler was handed out there too.

Brendon’s name showed up in Alt Press as “Brendan Disco” ha.

it sounded like the band made a homemade music video for It’s Time To Dance this spring that Brendon used for a class at school.

I wasn’t as into Fall Out Boy by 2005, so idk much of what people were saying on those boards or communities. I know a lot of P!ATD’s early fans came from there, though.

I think this photoshoot was done this spring, but I’m not certain about that. It was in the first half of 2005 for sure. It looks like it was done outside of the Sahara West library in Vegas.

The band’s practice space was in the T.K. Productions building. There were around 45 practice spaces there and it was about a mile off the Vegas strip. A couple articles tried to make it sound like P!ATD was in a crumbling building on the outskirts of Vegas, so… no.

Ryan told Blender in 2007 that there was a big-box porn outlet across the street from their practice space: “We went in once. We saw this huge rubber arm with a fist at the end and I was like ‘it’s time to go.’”

by April it was just Ryan’s AIM and email that were listed as the band’s contact info. Ryan continued to use his blinkexists182 email through the whole Fever era (but his email listed on the band’s public profiles like purevolume was [email protected]).

Spencer had been the one who handled a lot of the band’s business side of things and that sounded like it continued.

Brendon was close with his high school German teacher and later came back to visit him after the band started touring. The teacher said that he’d sometimes find Brendon monitoring P!ATD’s myspace this spring instead of doing work for him.

Brendon had originally thought he should be responsible and go to school in Arizona to be a cosmetologist or hairdresser. He was still having second thoughts in 2005 and the rest of the band was still like wtf no.

I’m not entirely sure when the Relax Relapse demo was posted... I only know it wasn’t up in January or February but it was on purevolume in April. They also used that demo on the summer samplers.

Brendon turned 18 on April 12th.

by the end of Brendon’s senior year there were girls posting on his band’s myspace asking if he’d sign their yearbooks or take a picture with them before school.

A couple fans said radio stations near them were playing the demos this spring.

THE CHALLENGING SPRING

Some people had already started hating on P!ATD online because they didn’t “deserve” to be signed and hadn’t “paid their dues.” Ryan said that “Rather than going to all these boards and writing what I thought, I just put it in the songs.”

Basically, the band was getting a lot of hate for getting a record deal before they’d technically played their first show or even written many songs (this dragged on for the next year and got realllllly old omg). Imagine that you’re a moderately popular band in your city and you’ve been playing the local clubs for years trying to actually make it... and then some local band nobody’s ever even heard of gets a record deal?! So many small bands were indignant and resented P!ATD... I mentioned more about this in other posts too (like how Jon Walker initially hated P!ATD too before he met them).

Ryan told the Miami Herald in late 2006: “People came down on us for not playing the bar scene in Vegas. We weren’t even old enough to get into the bars.”

Ryan told MTV “there was a lot of pressure, because Pete had only heard, like, two to three songs, and all of a sudden we were expected to go and write a whole record, and no one was really certain how it was going to turn out."

3 years later when the band was touring for Pretty. Odd., they occasionally looked back at the process of writing AFYCSO and said things like this comment Ryan made at a press conference in August 2008: “We had ample time to write and decide what sounds good or not. We had no pressure and all we wanted to do was to put our music out there.”

The band had to wait to record AFYCSO until Brendon had finished high school (idk why some journalists claimed he dropped out... the band said many times that Brendon was the reason they had to stick around Vegas until early June). Brent & Spencer were finishing school online.

Brendon didn’t go to prom (which you could totally tell from the cosmogirl article in 2008 even if you didn’t read his livejournal ha).

I’ll talk more about song influences in a different post, but Ryan’s girlfriend cheated on him this season.

Brendon summed up this season pretty well in an interview on LiveDaily in 2006: “We had, like, four or five months to write the record. At that point, we only had, like, three demos. It was the most stressful time for us. We were so under pressure. We would practice all day. I got out of class at 10 a.m. I had a nap, go to practice at 2 and stay there until like 1 in the morning. We had 11- to 12-hour days. I would have to wake up again in an hour and go to school. That was my last year in high school. I was a junior when I joined the band, and my senior year I spent writing and recording.”

BRENDON’S SITUATION

Brendon talked a lot about how he worked at a Tropical Smoothie Cafe and sang for tips. He consistently said in early interviews that the money from his job paid for his share of rent for the band’s practice space, so that part of his story stayed the same. However, I doubt he was actually kicked out of his parents home & living somewhere else this season. Brendon had a much different story during most of the Fever era... so I’ll just say that at the very least he had unsupportive parents and it was a stressful season. Here’s more info about how some journalists heavily altered that story over time.

RYAN’S SITUATION

Ryan’s dad didn’t support his decision to drop out of college & throw away his scholarship. Ryan told Kerrang in summer 2006: “His problems with alcohol magnified and skewed things even further. I was not staying at home for weeks at a time. I was staying with my girlfriend, staying with the other guys in the band. There were times when I almost had to sleep at our rehearsal space cuz I didn’t have anywhere to go. Obviously I loved [my dad] and I cared about him but when you’re getting kind of abused by that person at the same time it’s really hard to try to help them.”

Ryan told Big Cheese: “I dropped out of school to write the record. I was on the verge of getting kicked out of the house. [My dad] didn’t consider it to be a real career.”

Ryan and the other guys continually used different phrasings that all meant the same thing: Ryan quit college after meeting Pete, after one semester, that winter, after being signed, at the end of his first semester, before/after finals (once Ryan said he didn’t even take his finals), etc. A couple times Ryan said he dropped out of college at the end of the year (which is still saying the same thing), but maybe that was interpreted to mean the end of the school year. All I know is a couple big magazines wrote that Ryan was still in school in late spring 2005, which led to some confusing narratives.

The Alt Press cover article in spring 2006 had some errors, so I’m only using direct quotes that line up with other things the guys have said. Here’s a quote from Ryan: “When I told my dad after the first semester that I was going to quit college and write a record, he was not very pleased. He definitely threatened to take everything away. I was on the verge of getting kicked out because of that decision… I’d be completely angry with him about wanting to kick me out of the house, but then I’d have to make sure he was ok and take care of him. I’d… try to get him back to being sober, and [it would be] like he forgot all about what I just did for him and go right back to wanting to kick me out. There were definitely a lot of fights, and he was in and out of the hospital a lot that year. There’d be times where I’d be gone doing something for the band, I’d come home and he wasn’t there. There’d be a message on the machine from the hospital, saying that he was there and to come see him. There was a ton going on in my life, all while trying to write a record.”

Here are the spring 2005 livejournal posts.

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jubilantwriter · 5 years ago

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Jaspvid Week 2020: Day 3 - Summer

fuck it at this rate i’m just gonna be posting late never get a night shift job y’all

(AO3) @jaspvid-week

You Can't be Traumatized if You Don't Go to Summer Camp

Summary: They met by an ice cream truck as children. And since then, it’s been a tradition for them to meet up and buy ice cream together.

Word Count: 5088

Jasper loves summer. Summer means no school, no homework, and no teachers to be bummed out by! Since he's eleven now, he thinks that maybe his mom will let him go to the community pool more often, since he can totally swim by himself without her worrying that he'll go to the deep end and drown.

He's too rad for that anyways! And since summer vacation started, he's been having fun watching the Saturday morning cartoons and hanging out with his friends whenever they want to come over and play. With the heat bringing it's A game this year though, more and more of his time is spent just lounging inside his house, trying to beat the heat with his mom's rotating fan.

In fact, here he sits, mouth wide open as he makes a long "ahhhh" sound at it, giggling as the fan messes with his voice. Although summer isn't always about having fun and playing with his mom's fan and going swimming at the pool. He keeps his ears perked as he waits for a special kind of song to start making its rounds around the block.

And sure enough, the musical notes of a familiar tune rings throughout the neighborhood, and Jasper is already making a mad dash to his mom for some sweet, sweet cash.

"Mom!" He waves his hands back and forth to get her attention. "Mom, the ice cream truck!"

His mom smiles, having already heard the tune and pulling her wallet out of her purse. "Alright, hold on." A few dollars bills are handed over as Jasper grabs them eagerly.

"Rad!"

"But only buy one, okay? Dinner's coming up soon."

"Okay!" He dashes out the door just in time to see the ice cream turn the corner onto his street. "Hey!" He waves his hand in the air, flagging down the ice cream truck as it continues past his house. It slows to a stop as he chases after it when he notices another kid peek his head out.

Red hair.

Green eyes.

And the scariest frown he's seen.

He smiles as he waves at his neighbor.

"Hi, Davey!"

"Don't call me that!" David yells as he slams his front door shut, disappearing back into his house.

"Jeepers, man." Normally, all the other kids would feel put out by having their neighbor slam a door shut at them, but Jasper was used to it. It was pretty rude yeah, but as long as Jasper kept his distance, David wouldn't start throwing rocks at him! It's a good thing Jasper is a quick learner, otherwise there would have been a lot more rocks in his future.

"Hey, kid." A man with a scraggly looking face rolls down the window. The ice cream man! "You wanted somethin'?"

"Sure do, mister!" Jasper looks over the ice cream choices on the side of the truck. There were ice cream sandwiches, drumsticks, those push pop thingies, the faces with bubblegum eyes, that frozen lemonade stuff in a cup that tastes okay he supposes, and- "One bomb pop! Please!"

"Sure, which flavor?"

"The one that looks like a rocket!"

"Red, white, and blue, comin' up." Jasper waits patiently as the ice cream man disappears for a minute before reappearing with the cold treat. "Here ya go. One American ice cream."

"Is it really called that?"

"Nah. That's a dollar." Jasper hands over the dollar and grabs the frosty treat from the man as he sits on the sidewalk. As he unwraps the popsicle, the ice cream man grunts in surprise.

"You want somethin' too?" Jasper looks up and sees David standing not too far from him. He's biting his lip, fists buried deep in his pockets as he glares at the ice cream on the truck. "Gotta pay up, kid."

"...Not if I take it first!" Jasper watches as David runs and leaps at the truck's window, grabbing onto the ledge as the ice cream man looks unimpressed.

"Nice try, kid." He flicks off every single one of his tiny fingers, making David land on the ground with a soft "oof!". "Maybe come back with a dollar, and I'll give ya what your bratty heart so desires."

"Whatever!" David stands up quickly and stomps his foot. "Ice cream is for squares anyways!" As the ginger stomps off, Jasper wonders how many times David's tried to pull that off. He gets up and walks back to the truck.

"Hey, mister?"

"Whatcha want, kid?" The ice cream man eyes him from the window. "You better eat that quick 'fore the sun melts it."

"Oh I will! It's just, um," he digs around in his pocket and pulls out another dollar, "can I have another one?"

The ice cream man takes it slowly, looking between Jasper and a door that slams shut yet again.

"You sure?"

"Yeah." Technically, Jasper wasn't breaking any rules. He grins up at the man brightly. "Umm, can I have..."

Actually, which one WOULD he like? It's not like Jasper knows enough about David to make a good guess. All he knows is that David is grumpy, hates people, sasses adults, and is an overall menace to everyone around him.

But he's also seen David out in the rain, with no umbrella or raincoat to speak of, just picking worms off the sidewalk and tossing them into the grass. He's seen David yell at bullies, aim only for the legs in dodgeball, and even sit next to a crying kid silently just so he wouldn't be alone.

Jasper points at the vanilla bar with the hard outside.

"Can I have that one?"

"Sure, kid." The ice cream man disappears and comes back with the wrapped treat, but he looks hesitant to give it to him. "Are ya sure...?"

"Totally man! My mom says that if I treat people the way I wanna be treated, I can make friends way faster like that!"

"That's one way to do it, I guess." The ice cream man shrugs as he hands over the treat. "Better give it to him before it melts then."

"Will do! Thanks, mister!"

The ice cream man waves as Jasper runs to David's house, sticking his melting popsicle in his mouth as he knocks on the door. The door creaks open slowly, a single green eye peeking out suspiciously before he spies Jasper standing on his doorstep. Jasper pops his popsicle out and grins.

"Heya, broski!"

"Oh, it's you." Ouch. "What do you want?" Jasper waves the wrapped treat in front of David.

"I did something totally wack and got an extra by accident! And I'm only supposed to have one ice cream before dinner or else my mom will totally wig out, so I thought maybe you'd like it?" David stares at the ice cream with a suspicious squint.

"...Why are you giving it to me?"

"Because you're the only kid I know in this neighborhood!"

"Liar."

"Okay, maybe I know a few other kids, but you were closer!"

"What's the catch?" David glares at Jasper, holding onto his door tight. "I take the ice cream and then what? I gotta give you my allowance? Beat the snot outta someone? Be your friend because you're a weird loner?"

Well, Jasper's not exactly a loner, but he wouldn't mind being friends with David if he'd just stop being mean for a second.

"It's just ice cream, dude. Take it or leave it."

David swipes the bar from his hand and slams the door in Jasper's face.

"Nice!" The ice cream man calls, laughing as Jasper walks away with a huff.

Well.

At least he took the dang thing.

////

The ice cream truck comes again, and this time, the man grins as Jasper points at an ice cream sandwich.

"Gonna get a second one too while you're at it?" He points to a door cracking open, and a familiar tuft of red hair peeking out.

"...I dunno, maybe." Last time didn't work out so hot. Maybe David just doesn't want friends. Maybe he's the loner.

And Jasper's fine with that. It's not like he has to be friends with David anyways.

"Who knows, kid? Maybe he's like a stray cat. Gotta be nice to 'im and bait 'im 'til he comes out."

"You just want my mom's money."

"Absolutely, now are you gonna buy another one or not?"

"I said I dunno." Jasper huffs as he waits for the ice cream man to give him his sandwich. As he takes it, he hears the door shut and he turns to find David no longer hiding by his door.

"Looks like the runt went back into hiding." The ice cream man hums to himself as Jasper unwraps his treat and starts to munch away. A bright look comes across the man's face as he ducks into his truck as Jasper watches curiously. When the ice cream man resurfaces from his searching, a yellowish cup is held in his hand as he shoves it at Jasper's face. "Here, kid."

Jasper scrunches up his face.

"I don't want it."

"Nah, kid, it's free."

"I still don't want it."

"Look, I got a whole bunch of these laying around 'cause kids don't want 'em as much as the other stuff I got. So why not throw it at that kid's face so you're not wasting your ma's money and I'm gettin' rida stock I don't need?"

"I don't want him to hate me more than he already does!"

"Can't get any lower than rock bottom, kid."

Oh, he'd beg to differ.

But the ice cream man tosses him what was essentially frozen lemonade, but not like, the good lemonade, but the lemonade that was just pure lemon juice with some water, maybe even too much water, mixed in, and then they put it in the freezer, and then put that ice block into a blender, turned it on high, and poured the goop into a cup to be sold to children who actually knew what good lemonade tasted like.

And this was not good lemonade.

Jasper barely manages to catch it as it smacks into his chest.

"Good luck, kid!" The ice cream man salutes him before rushing off into the driver's seat to drive away.

"But I said I didn't want it!" Fruitlessly, he yells at the disappearing ice cream truck, groaning loudly as he clutches this awful excuse for a lemony treat. What was he supposed to do with it?

...

Well, he could actually give it to David.

Maybe he was into this sort of stuff.

Frozen, bad lemonade. That was kind of like shaved ice, but not really. The outside of the cup sweats in his hand, reminding him of the hot temperature.

Maybe he wouldn't care? Maybe he'll take it because it's so hot out and use it as a, like, ice pack or something.

His feet are already walking him to David's door, and after cramming the ice cream sandwich in his mouth, he once again knocks on the door, but with less enthusiasm this time. David opens the door, but he looks only a little surprised.

"What do you want, Jasper?"

Oh, he knows his name?

"Uh, here." His words are muffled around the sandwich, but David takes the cup regardless.

And scrunches up his face when he sees it.

"Ugh! I don't want this!"

"Me neither!"

"It sucks!"

"I know!"

David blinks, as if registering that Jasper was actually agreeing with him.

"So why are you giving this to me?" Jasper swallows a bite of his sandwich and shrugs.

"I dunno, maybe you can like, use it as an ice pack?"

"Pfft." David snorts, which makes Jasper perk up a bit. "As if. This thing'll only last for a few minutes."

"What are you gonna do then?" Jasper watches as David wipes the sweat from his brow, frowning as he stares down at the cup.

And sighs dramatically.

"Guess I'll eat the dang thing."

"...You sure?"

"Well it's not like I have a choice." Jasper expects more bite to his words, but the ginger merely says it with a tired reluctance he doesn't expect. "Thanks, though."

"Oh uh, sure, duderino." He expects David to slam the door in his face but the boy just... keeps it open. "Guess I'll see you around?"

"Whatever." David shrugs as he pops the lid open. "See ya."

He walks away from David's house and doesn't hear the door close. When he makes it to his own house, he looks over to where David's house is and sees the boy sitting there. Quietly eating his treat in the open doorway.

And Jasper swears.

He's eating it with a smile.

////

When Jasper approaches the familiar ice cream truck, he can hear two voices yelling at each other near the truck's window.

"You tellin' me this is all two dollars?!"

"I said count 'em, you gigantic square!"

"Uhh...?" Jasper walks up to find David gripping the edge of the window from where he hangs with a snarl. The ice cream man glares back down at David as he holds a fist full of coins. Oh.

"It's two dollars!"

"Quit jerkin' my chain! As if I'd believe you!"

"Can I count?" The two of them turn their heads to Jasper as he sheepishly rubs his arm. "I mean, if I count them in front of you, it'd save you the trouble and prove Dave- David's telling the truth." The ice cream man rolls his eyes but hands the change over to Jasper regardless. And so the brunette carefully sorts out the assortment of change, and holy cow, he can see why the ice cream man was angry at first. It's a big mess of nickels and pennies and dimes, with maybe one quarter in the mix, but he counts out the change dutifully, carefully, and out loud so that the ice cream man can see his work.

"...and two dollars." He gathers up the change and holds it up to the ice cream man. "David was telling the truth."

"I told you, you big doofus."

"Watch it, kid, or else I'm taking your money and drivin' away."

"That's stealing!"

"As if you haven't tried stealin' from me before." But the ice cream man disappears and comes back with two drumsticks. "Here, your ice cream."

"Yessss!" David takes them both, before turning to Jasper and handing him a stick.

"...Huh?"

"Here." He shoves it into Jasper's hand and looks away. "For the other times you got me ice cream."

"Oh! You didn't have to-"

"Later, nerd!" David runs off and into his house, slamming the door shut as he leaves Jasper in the dust.

"...Are you two friends now?"

"Uhh." Jasper looks down at the drumstick in his hand. It's the usual kind - vanilla, coated with chocolate and nuts. He unwraps it and gnaws on the outer shell.

Sweet.

"...Maybe."

"Huh." The ice cream man sounds amused as he reclines against his window. "That was quick."

////

It becomes a routine.

Everyday, the ice cream man comes. Sometimes it'll be Jasper who meets him first. And sometimes it's David.

But there's an unspoken rule between them.

They have to wait until the other shows up before leaving.

It's like a meeting place, but with a guy who brings the meeting place to them.

Normally, they just buy the ice cream and part ways back to their houses.

But sometimes...

"Doesn't it hurt?"

"What?"

Jasper and David sit on the curb, the ice cream man already driving away as they eat. It's too hot to stay indoors, so they find themselves having a rare moment outside in the sun. Jasper wouldn't mind staying quiet, if only for the fact that David bites down on the bomb pop like it's candy and crunching away at it in his mouth.

Just watching him eat it makes Jasper's teeth ache.

"Biting down on it!"

"No it doesn't." David chomps down on it again, making Jasper cringe.

"My mom says that biting ice cream like that can hurt your teeth."

David snorts.

"You're just a chicken."

"Am not!"

"Then do it, chicken."

Jasper looks at his own popsicle. He doesn't want to hurt his teeth, but he also doesn't want to be called a chicken. David grins slyly as he nudges Jasper.

"Chiiiickeeeeen," he goads.

"I'm not a chicken!" Without a second thought, Jasper bites down on his popsicle and crunches down on the block of flavored ice. It feels as though the ice is freezing his teeth all the way down to his gums, and it sort of hurts, and sort of doesn't.

It's still not pleasant though, so he chews through it quickly.

"See?" David nudges him again with a lighter grin as he goes back to polishing off the popsicle. "It's not that bad."

"Ugh." He determines not to do that again. "I think I'll pass on eating popsicles like that ever again."

David snickers but doesn't push him. Instead, they both kick at the asphalt beneath their feet and take in the rays.

////

Summer comes, and summer goes. They go back to school, pretend they don't know each other asides from a neighborly nod, before continuing on with their lives.

But when summer returns, they find themselves meeting up back at the ice cream truck.

"Wanna try these ones?!" Jasper excitedly points at the pastel-looking ice cream bars on the truck.

"Are you getting it only for the colors?"

"Why not!"

"That's dumb. You're dumb."

"You just don't wanna admit you wanna try the cotton candy one." Jasper teases the ginger as David rolls his eyes.

"Whatever. I'll just take the watermelon one."

"Well, I'm taking the cotton candy one, 'cause I'm not a chicken."

"You take that back."

"Are you kids gonna pay or what?"

"Here you go, mister!" As the ice cream man hands them their treats, the two of them sit back on the curb, kicking at the asphalt as they get used to each other yet again.

"You think his menu ever changes?"

"Nah, he seems too lazy to do that."

"But what if something new comes out? Like a tubular kind of ice cream."

"He already has a tube-y ice cream."

"No, like tubular! Like wicked? Gnarly?"

"...I hate you so much. Just speak like a human!"

"But I am??" David yells as Jasper laughs. "Take a chill pill, man! It's how everyone speaks nowadays!"

"That's a lie. A big, dumb lie that only a square would make."

"Calling people a square is sooo outdated, Davey." The nickname slips out before Jasper can stop himself, and he slaps his hand over his mouth in shock. "Oh, no, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine."

And he blinks.

"...Huh?"

"I said it's fine." David kicks at the asphalt, keeping his eyes away from Jasper's as he bites into his ice cream. "...I'm okay with you calling me 'Davey'."

"Are. Are you sure?"

"Yeah." David shrugs before turning to face Jasper. He looks uncertain, nervous even as he twirls the melting treating between his fingers. "I mean, we're friends, right?"

And he blinks again.

Mouth slightly agape.

He must have taken too long to respond because suddenly David's ears are bright red as he stands up abruptly. "Wh-whatever! If we're not friends, just say it-!"

"We are!" Jasper stands up just as quickly, a giddy grin making it onto his face as he makes to hug David, only to remember the sticky ice cream in their hands. "We're friends!"

It's David's turn to blink as he registers the words Jasper says. And then.

He smiles.

A real, genuine smile.

"...Cool!"

And when summer inevitably ends, he hopes he'll get more than a nod from David as they pass each other in the halls.

////

Summers come, and summers go. As they pass each other in the halls, Jasper goes for a high-five that David avoids, only to punch Jasper (lightly) in the arm later.

They sit next to each other at lunch, Jasper sharing his snacks with David as the latter pours over Jasper's homework as Jasper explains each problem to him.

They become an odd pair, the two of them. David's bristly exterior is immediately softened when Jasper is nearby, and Jasper's mood lightens considerably no matter the problem he has to face as long as David is there with him.

People often ask him if he hopes to make David a more cheery person by sticking with him. After all, Jasper is all smiles and bright colors. But Jasper just shrugs, saying he likes David the way he is.

If David changes, then he'll still like him.

Because David is David.

Just like how Jasper is Jasper.

Some things about them will change, Jasper knows that's inevitable. Habits change, opinions change, outlooks change.

But some routines never change.

They're fourteen as they wait for the ice cream truck together, sitting on Jasper's front lawn as the cool grass stains their shorts.

"Aren't we too old for ice cream trucks?" David is lying down besides Jasper, his eyes closed as Jasper drops torn up grass onto his face. Jasper giggles as David swats halfheartedly at his hand.

"Nah."

"We could be doing something else. Like playing games. Or eating ice."

"Only you would eat ice."

"Yeah well, maybe if you didn't think your teeth were so fragile-"

Jasper rolls David over, the other boy squeaking indignantly as his words are muffled by the dirt and grass.

"UGH! JASP-" And then a familiar jingle rounds the corner.

"Oh it's Mr. Kevin!" Jasper bounces to his feet and dashes away to meet the familiar driver. "What's up-!"

David comes up from behind Jasper and grabs him in a headlock, already yelling at the amused man as he pulls out a few bills.

"HE WANTS THE LEMON ICE!"

"HEY-"

"Whatever my loyal customers want."

"HEY-"

////

A few more summers come and go. Puberty is wack. High school is wack. Preparing for college is super bogus wack. But David isn't wack.

If time could stop for just a moment, just so Jasper could have more seconds in the day to relish those moments of happiness that escape them more often than not, then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't feel as though everything was falling through his fingers so quickly.

Things change too quickly.

Times change too quickly.

Even old routines, that one routine he'd grown to depend on every summer.

That began to change too.

As the two of them wait for the ice cream man, a man who has slowly begun to fade from their lives as the times change, Jasper finds himself clutching desperately to the past as his feet tap nervously against the grass. He can feel David's eyes on him, watching as his best friend slowly unravels before him. With a sigh, David leans against him, forcing Jasper to a halt as he forces the teen to lay down in the grass.

Up above them, the clouds roll by peacefully, completely unbothered and untethered to any sorts of worries.

"...You think he's gonna come by?"

"I don't think he's got enough customers to justify it, Jasp."

"...Bummer."

"Hm."

They continue to watch the clouds for a while, Jasper's disappointment settling on his face as he wonders if he took his childhood for granted yet again. A finger prods his cheek, and he turns to see David's green eyes. Calm. Relaxed, even. He's mellowed out throughout the years, but he still wears a frown most days. He's grown up a lot since he was that mean, bratty kid next door.

"You want ice cream that bad?"

"It's not that." Jasper bites his lip. He's kind of embarrassed actually, wanting to stick to this routine for so long. David's probably long since gotten tired of waiting for the ice cream truck, especially during these recent years as the man showed up less and less. But he never complains or goes against Jasper's wants, and instead plays along patiently as Jasper continues to cling.

"Then what is it?"

Is it hard to explain? Or is it just embarrassing to say? He looks over to David, and there's understanding in his eyes as he props himself up, waiting for Jasper to choose his words without any rush.

How lucky was he to keep a friend like David for so long?

"We stuck together because of the ice cream truck." David's eyes widen as the words sink in. Jasper laughs, sheepishly rubbing the back of his neck as he looks away. "I dunno it just- I'm probably just tripping over this for no reason, dude, sorry-"

"It's important to you." Jasper feels David lean against him as he thinks out loud. "I don't think it's wrong that you're upset about it."

"...But it's a dumb thing to cling to."

"Not really. We became friends because we kept buying ice cream together. I think that's pretty meaningful." David rests his chin on Jasper's shoulder as they continue to sit, waiting for nothing to arrive.

"Is it bad that I miss it?"

"Nah."

The breeze ruffles their hair.

"...What do you think Kevin is up to?"

"Probably selling drugs."

"Davey!"

"What?" The ginger laughs, puffs of warm brushing against Jasper's neck as he gradually calms down. "I'm right."

"You don't know that."

"Maybe."

Jasper closes his eyes. It's hot out, but he doesn't mind David sticking so close by. It's comforting, actually, feeling his warmth like this. Like, no matter what, even if the ice cream truck doesn't come by anymore, David doesn't really need a reason to just come by and sit next to Jasper and do nothing together.

At least that won't change.

"Hey."

"Yeah?"

"Let's do something next year."

"Like what?"

"Something new." David turns his attention back to the sky and reaches out towards it. He tries to grab a cloud, but it floats away from his hand. "I've always wanted to go camping."

"But we don't know anything about camping."

"We can practice." David pulls back just enough to look Jasper in the eye, bright eyed at the prospect. "We got a whole year to prepare, and we'll be graduating soon anyways. Why not do something special for that summer?"

No more ice cream trucks. No more sitting around. But something new to fill in the void.

It couldn't hurt, right?

"Yeah." He smiles as David returns with his own grin. "Let's try that out."

\\\\

Summers come as they are wont to do. And they leave as they tend to do. The ice cream truck never comes back.

But that's okay.

David brightens up significantly as they begin camping, and Jasper wonders if he'd been holding his friend back for so long, making him wait for trucks to come when it was clear they needed to move on.

And yet.

He stood by him the entire time, waiting until Jasper was ready to let go.

An unspoken trust. With unwavering understanding.

Camping is alright, he supposes, but David loves how the trees surround them, how the birds sing above them, the way they come across streams and rivers as though they were new discoveries.

Camping is alright. But David's happiness is worth so much more.

"Jasp!" David pulls him along to the nearby clearing, their campfire crackling softly as he points up to the sky. "You don't get to see stars like this often!"

"...Yeah." He watches as David stares up at the night sky, so unlike the boy he grew up with. It's a side of him he's rarely seen before.

And he thinks that it's a shame that they never got to explore this side of him sooner.

Wouldn't that have made David happier?

David turns to Jasper, head tilted to the side as he catches his friend staring.

"What are you thinking about?"

"Oh, uh, nothing." He looks away with a blush, scratching at his cheek as he looks for something to distract David with. "Oh yeah, we should make sure the campfire doesn't burn down anything, right?"

"Oh- yeah!" David rushes back, already worried as Jasper laughs.

This.

This is different.

But it's a good kind of different.

"Hey."

"Huh?" David looks up from where he sits by the fire, watching as Jasper plops down besides him.

"Why do you like camping so much?"

"...I dunno it just." He shrugs, smiling wistfully as he watches the fire. "I mean, I used to camp a lot with my dad. Before he left."

Ah, right.

"Wouldn't you hate camping then?"

"I mean, I did. For a long time, I did." David laughs, a light blush dusting his cheeks as he talks. "But then, you became my friend. And we grew closer and. I just wanted to do something with you. Something that we could claim as our own. Sure, there was that whole ice cream thing but. That could only last for so long, and when it ran its course, I saw how you were struggling to just. Wrap your mind around losing something that was so us. And I wanted to do something. Make a new something. And. Camping was the only thing I could think of." He shrugs as he turns to face Jasper, the brunette wide eyed as the ginger grins. "It just felt... right, you know?"

"...God." Jasper shakes his head, laughing as he does so. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Only because you stuck by long enough for me to be amazing." David nudges his shoulder playfully. "...Hey."

"Hm?"

"Thanks. For actually, um. Being my friend." David looks down as he speaks. "It couldn't have been easy."

"...Nah, thanks for letting me stick to that ice cream schtick for so long." Jasper bonks his head gently against David's. "That couldn't have been easy."

"It's whatever." David bonks back with a smile. "I mean, as long as I got to spend time with you, it was worth it."

...Yeah.

It was, wasn't it?

He smiles as their fingers brush together.

Yeah, maybe camping was just alright. If it'd been with anyone else, he'd be pretty indifferent and distant throughout the whole affair.

But.

With David?

Like when they were waiting for the ice cream truck together, the sun beaming down above them, feet kicking playfully at asphalt as they listened to the sounds of the birds chirping in the distance.

Sitting here, by an open fire, underneath the stars and listening to the songs of the crickets and the hoots of the owls.

Just like then.

Just. Existing next to each other.

It just.

Feels.

Right.

19 notes · View notes

olaf-likeswarmhugs · 5 years ago

Text

A Word For Us || Soft

Summary: June 21-22: Olaf comes out to Sindri! And then Sindri starts to learn more about himself too! Good golly gosh, we love kids figuring it out.

@huldufolk-hjarn

June 21, 2020

Olaf [deleted]: hi sindri u can ignore this since ur working but um hi!!

Olaf [deleted]: HI sindri do you have some time to talk about someth

Olaf [deleted]: HI sindri so i was googling

Olaf: 👋 ☃️ 🤗

Sindri: olaffffff

Sindri: hi

Olaf: hi!

Olaf [deleted]: wow ive forgotten how to talk to u like a normal person loooosflkj

Olaf: how's pixie's! is your shift going well? :)

Sindri: it's kinda slow right now

Sindri: im sitting here on a stool drying glasses lol

Sindri: so fun

Sindri: how's your day

Olaf: ah i know you're kidding but i love drying glasses

Olaf: i like the sound the glasses make, the little rubby sound? from the towel

Olaf: squeaky clean!

Sindri: like the squeak

Olaf: yes exactly

Olaf: and then arranging them in rows

Sindri: i had one that wasn't squeaky i should wash it again

Olaf: you should, customers deserve squeaky clean glasses

Sindri: yeah they do

Sindri: i was thinking about making myself one of those sodas we discovered last time

Sindri: like the regular soda water with the grenadine?

Olaf: ooooh

Olaf: yeah thats delicious

Sindri: i think peri might be starting to wonder where all her grenadine is going haha

Olaf: oh well dont have too much now

Sindri: i've had like three

Olaf: hmm that seems like enough

Olaf: though maybe we should get a soda water maker

Olaf: then we could make our own, they sell those you know

Olaf: we can order it online

Olaf: we can soda-fy any drink then, i think it'd be great for parties

Sindri: really?

Sindri: i thought it was a thing only bars had and like also places that make soda obviously

Olaf: no, you can get one for your home! and an espresso machine

Olaf: we should get an espresso machine too

Sindri: we should because then we wouldn't have to spend so much money on coffee

Olaf: well we would still have to buy the coffee for the machine but probably cheaper in the long run!

Olaf: really there are a lot of fun kitchen appliances we could get

Olaf: a waffle maker for example

Olaf: oh i saw a donut pan that was very cool

Olaf: there's a handheld smoothie maker but i think its better to just use the blender so you can make more smoothie

Sindri: i watched a video that showed how many soups you can make when you have a food processor which i think is just a bigger fancier blender but i like soups

Olaf: i saw a special kind of cutting device that slices an apple though into six equal pieces!

Sindri: i think my favorite food is soup

Olaf: soup is very good

Olaf: soups and stews

Sindri: yeah they remind me of home

Sindri: but waffles are good too

Sindri: if we made waffles we could decorate them

Olaf: yes! i love waffles because each hole can have something different

Olaf: like a little presennt

Olaf: likea jellybean, or a peanut

Sindri: you want to put jellybeans on your waffles?

Olaf: well that was just an example but im sure it would taste good

Olaf: i like jellybeans and i like waffles

Sindri: jellybeans get stuck in my teeth

Olaf: sindri i also like you as a friend

Olaf: my best friend

Sindri: i like you as a friend too

Sindri: yeah you're my best friend

Sindri: are you okay?

Olaf: yes

Olaf: i was just doing some googling

Olaf: Google as you know is very useful. It answers almost every single question ive ever had since moving here

Sindri: yeah i love google

Olaf: yeah

Olaf [deleted]: i don't know if ive ever really told you but i think i worry about a lot of things. i dont like talking about it because i dont want everyone to worry about /me/ because then id just worry more about how im worrying everyone else but wow this is nonsense ANYWAY i have been really worried about...myself and feeling like something is wrong with me because

Olaf: i dont know if i ever told you this but for a long time, ive sort of felt something was wrong with me. it started when we began to date, but not because of anything you did, i think that was just the first time i realized i really wasn't like everyone else. at least i didnt feel the way everyone wanted me to feel or expected me to feel. and it was really awful, i just thought i was a big fake the whole time, like a liar almost, and then of course we broke up because i was so bad at it and everything but i still felt that awful feeling anyway. and i just didnt know why and its never gone away so i googled it today and googled and googled and i think i found the thing that explains me better than anything else and i think its important that i tell you what that is and im really nervous!!!!!!! look an emoji 🎈

Sindri [deleted]: we didn't break up because you were bad at anything

Sindri: there are a lot of things i want to say but im going to wait until you say your thing

Sindri: also i love emojis :)

Sindri: 🦆

Olaf: right, they're very comforting 🐭

Sindri: oh and please don't be nervous

Sindri: you can tell me anything

Olaf: im very nervous

Olaf: im even texting u and i know thsi should be an in person conversation ahha

Sindri: i think sometimes texting can make things easier to say

Sindri: it isn't like you're avoiding an in person conversation either because we live together lol

Sindri: im sure we will also talk about whatever it is in person

Olaf: right yes probably

Olaf: okay!

Olaf: so um yeah! humans have a lot of words for things and i think the word that fits me best is aromantic....ta-da!! 🎉 🎉 🎉 🎉

Olaf: it means i dont experience romantic attraction. because i never have, never, i dont' know why and i dont like dating like, i dont want to be anyone's boyfriend it makes me feel gross

Olaf: but i do want to be your best friend

Olaf: i was talking to finn and i said something that felt true but also kind of like i was contradicting myself? i dont know, feelings are very confusing but basically i said that you're my right person

Olaf: and i think thats still true even tho i dont want to date you and i dont mean that like i am in love with you or anything because im not and egjaldkf that feels mean to say but im trying to say that i really love you sindri and i never want to date you but you are more special to me than my other friends

Olaf: see it sounds like im contradicting myself

Olaf: also like im rejecting u when u didnt even ask me out so!!! sorry oh frosty

Sindri: i love you too olaf

Sindri: you'll always be my best friend

Sindri: always no matter what

Sindri: you're my right person too and i think i kind of get it

Sindri: not completely but i want to learn and i will look up that word but i don't think you're mean or fake or anything like that

Olaf: are you sure because i just read over those texts and it felt mean

Sindri: i don't feel insulted or rejected really

Olaf: I just want you to know it isnt you

Olaf: i used to think i was just rejecting you or something but the idea of dating anyone really is gross for me. like i dont want to ever stop being your roommate though iknow we probably will stop eventually

Sindri: im kind of sad you felt like a fake and a liar though

Sindri: why would we stop

Sindri: i don't want to stop being your roommate ever either

Olaf: well if you ever enter into a promise with someone

Olaf: you know, if you fall in love

Olaf: i probably wont be yoru roommate then. which is okay!

Sindri: but you're my right person

Sindri: when we were apart i was really sad a lot because i missed you

Sindri: and now that you're here im happy a lot of the time

Sindri: i don't want to be somewhere you aren't that sounds stupid to me

Olaf: i dont either. though we wouldnt be far or anything i mean if we stay here in swynlake we'd probably still be in the same town. i just dont want you to... um...not move on? I dont know if thats what you're doing idk sorry i feel like im making a lot of assumptions right now

Olaf: i dont want to hold you back if you fall in love with someone else

Olaf: thats all

Sindri: can i ask u a question

Olaf: yes

Sindri: is it okay if im a little bit in love with you? i mean..i'm not saying i want to date you or be your boyfriend because i don't want to do anything you don't want to do and i want us to be us and honestly im not even sure what being in lvoe is i guess except that i like you most and i like everything we do and that's the way i know how to say that

Sindri: i just say that with like

Sindri: zero expectations from it except you just being my friend for as long as you want to be

Sindri: sorry

Sindri: i probably shouldn't have said that

Sindri: i hope it didn't make you feel gross

Olaf: it only makes me upset if i think about somehow letting you down which i think is sort of my problem not your problem, which i realized recently too

Olaf: i just worry about a lot of things sindri

Olaf: i worry more than you might think i worry haha, i just worry that one day you'll decide that being my best friend isnt enough for you

Sindri: i will never decide that

Sindri: i love you as a person way more than i am "in love" with you which the more i think about it is a stupid concept anyway like what does it even mean

Sindri: when i say it it just means you are my favorite person

Olaf: i mean i mean that too but im not in love with you

Olaf: i dont know bc i dont feel it

Olaf: so maybe what you feel is or isnt love...i dunno sometimes i think romance is a game people play ahha i dunno

Sindri: i don't know how people date people they don't really know

Olaf: well i dont get what makes it a date

Sindri: ....wow

Sindri: me either

Olaf: because i could go out with lots of strangers and get to know them but i wouldnt call it dates id just call it...uh...getting to know a new friend haha

Olaf: like you went on dates with nemo when you moved here if u think about it

Olaf: except you didnt

Olaf: i dont know

Sindri: yeah

Olaf: i guess if people want to kiss at the end

Sindri: yeah maybe

Olaf: i just dont want you to lie to me

Olaf: like i did sort of lie to you for a little sindri and i am so sorry i did but i dont want to lie anymore so if you say that you're in love thats okay it is

Sindri: yeah i think maybe being honest about feelings is a really good idea for us

Sindri: because i don't want you to feel uncomfortable ever

Olaf: and i really dont want to hurt you

Sindri: i don't think you will but i will let you know if it ever happens

Sindri: im being really honest when i tell you that i only want what you want i will never feel like i'm missing out as long as you are my best friend okay

Sindri: i don't want dates and a boyfriend i don't feel like im missing out on that stuff

Sindri: i mean i guess i could theoretically want it but i don't miss it

Sindri: i feel complete without it

Olaf: okay. im gonna work really hard to believe that

Olaf: it might take me some time but thats because i think i still dont feel uh... enough i guess

Olaf: but we promised we wouldnt lie to each other so if you tell me thast what you want i believe you

Sindri: also i know it's not my place to say but you are enough i promise you are so great and anyone who knows you is lucky to have you in their lives. i'm so lucky you are my best friend olaf.

Olaf: well i dunno why you wouldnt think its your place to say as my best friend you should compliment me thank you x3

Olaf: but i know you mean that

Olaf: and im lucky too

Sindri: thank you for telling me all this stuff

Olaf: thank you for listening

Olaf: and not hating me haha

Sindri: lol peri might hate me because i took a long break oops

Sindri: but i'll see you in a couple hours okay?

Sindri: i'm going to give you the best hug ever!

Sindri: it'll be almost like an olaf hug

Sindri: maybe

Olaf: oh oops

Sindri: idk i'll try

Olaf: haha im sure it will be even better than an olaf hug

Olaf: it will be a sindri hug ^.^

Sindri: :)

Olaf: we can maybe talk more when you come home too, if you want

Sindri: okay

Sindri: i think i'm going to look stuff up too when i'm drying glasses

Sindri: just so im prepared

Olaf: yeah! you can ask me questions

Olaf: though im still learning too haha

June 22, 2020

Olaf: hi sindri, i found more words!

Sindri: haha yeah?

Olaf: yeah xPPP

Olaf: there are lots of fun ones humans have a great sense of humour

Olaf: like wtfromantic ahha that made me laugh

Sindri: what does that mean

Olaf: WELL

Olaf: "a romantic orientation in the aromantic spectrum that describes people who cannot differentiate platonic from romantic attraction, cannot define romantic attraction and therefore aren't sure if they experience it"

Olaf: im glad there's a word for it and that word isnt stupid haha

Sindri: oh hey i like that one

Sindri: i think that one makes a lot of sense

Sindri: i've been thinking about like

Sindri: the line or whatever and it feels really arbitrary to me

Sindri: like what makes something a date? or not a date? you know

Olaf: exactly!!!!

Olaf: tho ive never felt any um, i dunno anything different for anyone so

Sindri: oh like where you want to "date" them

Olaf: right or like

Olaf: butterflies

Olaf: people talk about butterflies and i never get them for other people. i get flutters for other things

Olaf: like when im excited for an event you know?

Sindri: yeah

Sindri: i've been looking at stuff too

Olaf: oh have u also found words i have a list of words here but you can go next if you want

Sindri: no i want to know what your words are first

Olaf: well this next one is fun, it's squish

Olaf: guess what that means

Sindri: is it like a crush

Sindri: it sounds nicer than a crush lol

Olaf: yeah!

Olaf: its wanting to be friends with someone i guess, like, really badly

Olaf: i actually dont think ive had squishes either haha

Olaf: i mean! i want to be lots of people's friends but

Sindri: oh that's cool

Sindri: wow i love my new words so far

Sindri: squish is just a really cute one

Olaf: yeah i think its a very cute word x3

Olaf: There's also aesthetic attraction! which just means liking how someone looks, which is different than romantic or sexual attraction

Sindri: i found that one too

Sindri: i've been trying to figure myself out actually

Sindri: and that one was something i think i relate to a lot

Olaf: oooh wow im glad these words are helping you too

Olaf: yes i think i definitely understand aesthetic attraction.

Olaf: i actually think i might be asexual too? which is pretty crazy because i like sex but apparently thats not mutually exclusive!

Olaf: people shoudl really teach a class on this stuff

Sindri: it was also weird because it made me realize that when people say they are attracted to other people it means they actually want to have sex with them

Sindri: a lot of the time

Olaf: i KNOW

Sindri: that's CRAZY

Olaf: i dont not want to have sex with people? i dont know, i just dont think about it

Olaf: but if i think someone is pretty my first thought isnt oh lets have sex

Sindri: i never mean that when i say someone is attractive like i never look at a person and like want them to YES

Sindri: wow

Olaf: wow frosty!

Olaf: we have that in common haha

Sindri: i'll tell you one of my words

Olaf: yes!

Sindri: demisexual

Olaf: oh i saw that one!

Sindri: it's where you only feel sexual attraction to someone you have an emotional connection to already

Sindri: i think that's me

Olaf: ah that sounds like you

Olaf: what a beautiful sindri word

Sindri: thank you

Olaf: i think i read another word for us

Olaf: did you come across queerplatonic?

Sindri: no

Olaf: oh!

Olaf: its a good one haha

Olaf: i mean i think so

Olaf: its kind of hard to describe exactly im still reading about it but uhhhh okay maybe i'll just link you

Olaf: https://lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Queerplatonic_Relationship

Olaf:it kind of sounds like some promises, you know? though most promises are romantic

Sindri: oh hey

Sindri: wow this really does seem like an us word

Olaf: yeah doesnt it!

Olaf: like how everyone thought we had to be more than friends

Sindri: yeah which is dumb

Sindri: i really like this one

Sindri: this one makes me feel like

Sindri: idk if feels right

Olaf: yeah i dont feel as stupid anymore haha

Olaf: if other people are like us, i mean

Olaf: maybe not exactly like us

Sindri: well it even says there are lots of ways they can be

Sindri: which is cool

Sindri: like if it makes sense to the people in the relationship that's how it is it's about being open and being comfortable

Olaf: yeah each one has different rules apparently

Sindri: i also think it's kind of silly that like friendships are apparently "not as intense" as romantic relationships which i guess is why this exists right

Olaf: yeah i think so

Olaf: though its confusing still because some articles say its asexual and other ones say that there can be sex

Olaf: but that goes back to teh different rules thing

Olaf: i think each one must be like a snowflake

Sindri: yeah i think it is about what the people in them want

Sindri: are we

Sindri: or like

Sindri: i don't know i think maybe if i wanted to define our relationship i might want to use that word

Sindri: which is something we would totally have to talk about

Olaf: i think id like that

Olaf: i just have always wanted to be your best friend forever which sounds so silly and childish but i dunno

Olaf: maybe we dont need all the words for it but maybe we do?

Olaf: or not!

Olaf: haha

Sindri: i want to be your best friend forever too olaf

Sindri: like i mean it

Sindri: i don't ever want to stop being friends with you and when i think about what i want my life to be like you are always in it

Sindri: and maybe having a word would make that easier because we wouldn't feel like we are doing things wrong?

Sindri: even though there isn't a right way

Sindri: but just in terms of other people and maybe feeling pressured to be different? i dont' know

Olaf: i think it would make me feel better about not leading you on or disappointing you and i know you say i dont do those things but it makes me nervous

Sindri: yeah and i would feel better about feeling like i'm accidentally pressuring you

Olaf: yeah

Olaf: we should definitely talk about it

Olaf: there are actually checklists and sheets and stuff hehe its kind of cute

Sindri: aww really?

Olaf: yeah :3

Sindri: when do you want to talk about it

Sindri: do you want to like plan a time

Olaf: oh i was just going to do it whenever you wanted to?

Olaf: if you want we can plan a time

Sindri: i think i would like to talk about it when i see you next so probably tonight haha

Sindri: it feels really good to maybe have a word

Olaf: oh okay! I can print out these worksheets if you want

Olaf: i'll make snacks hehe

Sindri: okay lol i can bring home some of that soup from remys too because we can't just eat SNACKS

Olaf: i do like that soup!

Sindri: good we have a plan then!

#soft #text #soft text #yes i am still posting things a month late #:) would u expect anything less from me

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lusilly · 5 years ago

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what laughter is to childhood

i’ve been meaning to finish a very very short piece about damian being 16 years old and thinking he’s Super Smart for some time now. will post to ao3 tomorrow. dami/irey cuteness. enjoy!

---

In the early morning, an alarm went off on the phone on Damian’s bedside table. Behind the blackout curtains of his room, dawn was only just beginning to break outside. In an instant Irey was up, swiping the phone off the table and silencing the alarm.

Groggily, Damian turned over to wrap his arms around his girlfriend’s waist. She giggled and returned the embrace, holding him about his shoulders. His face buried in her neck, he murmured, “It’s too early.”

She kissed the top of his head. “I know,” she replied, sympathetically. “This is a lot easier at the Tower, huh?”

Still pressed against her shoulder he let out a small sigh, and a moment later she vanished, leaving his arms empty and his bed cold. Damian rolled over once more, drawing the covers up around his bare chest, and went back to sleep.

An hour or so later – Damian always slept fitfully in the mornings after Irey left – he got out of bed, heading first to the bathroom. After his shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and then carefully inspected the very obvious marks along his neck and collarbone. He took a few selfies on Snapchat and sent them to Irey, captioned, Today’s damage.

Her reply consisted mainly of a number of emojis and lots of exclamation points. A little later she sent a selfie of herself in the bathroom mirror, her own towel wrapped around her waist. One arm draped across her chest to preserve her modesty (not that it was difficult; Iris had very little to show in that department), the photo was captioned, Im clean…try harder next time.

Iris’s superspeed meant that any marks he left on her skin were gone before they even formed, but Damian liked the challenge. As they texted, Damian carefully dabbed concealer over the marks along his neck, though he didn’t bother with the one lower down his chest. Nobody would see it, anyway.

This game he and Irey played would only continue to be fun if they could manage to keep it a secret, so Damian meticulously covered up any visible evidence of lovebites, careful to make it look as natural as possible. Not that it was likely his father would be suspicious – the Batman didn’t think any speedster could get past the sensors set up around Wayne Manor. He had no clue how fast Iris was. Apart from Damian nobody in the world knew how fast she was, and even Damian, constrained to the normal laws of physics, stranger to the Speed Force, could never fully comprehend her true power. Keeping a secret of this magnitude together was thrilling. The fact that it helped her sneak into the house so they could spend time together after hours was just a plus.

Downstairs, Alfred was already preparing breakfast. Like he did on many mornings, Damian went about critiquing his choices. “I don’t like smoked salmon,” Damian insisted, standing in the refrigerator door, inspecting a package of the stuff. “I don’t know why you still insist on buying it.”

“If I recall,” Alfred replied patiently, “last week you positively devoured it.”

“That was lox,” Damian retorted. “Lox and smoked salmon are two completely different things.”

“Are they really?” asked Alfred mildly, fully aware of the slight culinary differences between the two products, and also aware that Damian never seemed to notice unless he inspected the packaging before being served. “Why, I had no idea.”

“Lox isn��t smoked at all,” continued Damian, digging his hand into the produce drawer to withdraw a handful of loose grapes. Popping one after the other into his mouth, he took a seat at the counter. “It’s cured, but not smoked. It’s saltier, and I don’t like that smoked taste, it makes it taste off.”

Damian didn’t like a great many things, but it helped immensely when he could sit here, in the kitchen, and watch Alfred prepare his food. He even schmeared his own bagel, like a big boy. “Pineapple or kiwi?” asked Alfred, of Damian’s daily protein-boosted fruit smoothie.

“Pineapple,” answered Damian, through a mouthful of bagel. His favorite lately. He swallowed the bagel, then added, “I don’t like kiwi, I’ve told you that.”

He’d decided he hadn’t liked kiwi a few months ago, when Dick had visited for a few days and pushed Damian into near hysterics by taking a bite out of a kiwi whole, as if it were an apple. Dick insisted the fiber was good for you. Damian had countered that the fiber intake derived from kiwi skins was negligible at best, unless you ate about thirty kiwis at a time. Dick had taken that as a personal challenge.

“I shall have to replace kiwi in our rotation, then,” agreed Alfred smoothly, as the blender whirred. “Perhaps something more exciting than oranges. Grapefruit?”

“I can’t have grapefruit,” said Damian, scrolling through something on his phone.

This wasn’t true, as Alfred was acutely aware of all the medications Damian was currently on, and all their various interactions. But he wouldn’t argue. “Papaya, perhaps?”

“I like mango,” offered Damian, as Alfred placed his smoothie in front of him. “Iris’s mother makes incredible mango juice.” Iris’s mother bought mango juice in cartons from Whole Foods for $7.99, but Damian didn’t know that.

As Alfred busied himself with making breakfast for himself – Bruce would not be up for another hour yet, at which time he could forage for his own meal – he asked, “And how is young Miss West, I might ask?”

“She’s well,” answered Damian, taking an exploratory sip of the smoothie, then setting it down once more, apparently pleased. “Well,” he amended, “technically speaking, she’s grounded, so not as well as usual.”

“Did something happened?”

“She and her brother had an argument. I can sympathize, having argued with a fair number of brothers in my lifetime.” All sixteen years and three quarters of it.

“Which resulted in her becoming grounded?” Alfred made a face, impressed. “Perhaps we should have tried that method with you, when you were younger.”

“I believe you did,” Damian pointed out. “And as far as I recall, it didn’t work.”

Alfred asked, “Does it work for her?”

Damian didn’t answer. When Alfred turned around to breakfast with Damian, neither of them said anything. “Why wouldn’t it?” asked Damian, as Alfred took a sip of his own smoothie.

“Merely a question,” Alfred murmured, turning to his bagel with a sigh.

Later that day, Damian worked on an assignment from a teacher Bruce had commissioned with whom he communicated remotely – that is, he holed up in his room, door closed, music turned up just loud enough to drown out the noise from beyond his own space. Though by the nature of the computer networks in the house Bruce could at any moment peek at whatever internet activity his son was taking, he generally refrained from doing so. They had promised some years ago that they would try to set normal boundaries, even in such abnormal circumstances. So when an alert lit up that informed Bruce that Damian had enabled a rudimentary network masking program – a sort of glorified ‘Private Browser’ – Bruce just quietly silenced the notification, well aware that his son was, in fact, a normal teenager.

Before patrol, Damian joined his father in the Batcave for some light training. In a specialized suit which recorded his every movement and vital signs, he executed maneuvers in the simulation room exquisitely, more perfect than any of the boys had ever been. More perfect than Bruce had ever been. Damian rivaled Cassandra in all ways except for his reliance on brute force, whereas Cass would always default towards the simplest option, the way to beat her opponent as easily and effortlessly as possible.

The effort was part of the thrill, for Damian. When the sim dropped, Damian breathed ragged breaths, grinning up at the camera through which he knew his father was watching. “Is that all you’ve got?” he called, taunting.

Bruce mic’d in. “Enough for tonight,” he said shortly. “You’re on patrol in an hour. Get some rest.”

With a sigh, Damian exited the sim room. Before he went to shower or change his clothes, he picked up his phone, which had buzzed with several notifications whilst he was training. Bruce went back to work on the Batcomputer.

After a few minutes, an alert popped up on the screen: Damian’s suit was registering a spike in heartrate.

Bruce frowned, then clicked to open a camera feed to the place Damian had left his phone. And sure enough, Damian still stood there, his eyes glued to his phone, which he was very obviously trying to hide, to shield from whatever prying camera eyes may be found over the Cave.

He lifted the phone in front of him, catching his face, tapping the screen. He opened his mouth. Bruce frowned again, then zoomed in with the security camera. On his son’s phone, two years and a doggy mouth were superimposed over his face, the tongue wagging when Damian opened his mouth.

Damian then made a very crass gesture with two of his fingers, and Bruce turned the feed off very quickly. Raising a teenager was exhausting.

Rather than the showers in the Cave, Damian generally prepared to venture back up into the house in his gear and use the shower in his own room. Bruce didn’t mind this; none of the boys had ever been as fastidious as Damian was about maintaining their identity and separating home life and Batcave life, and none had ever been as finicky about the hygiene of shared bathing spaces as Damian had, so no harm, no foul. In a very good mood, Damian came bounding downstairs with his hair still damp, ready for patrol.

As the three of them gathered for the only shared meal of the day, something light but nutritious before patrol, Damian chatted excitably about his ongoing missions, the assignments he was working on, the Titans, the new designs he was work on. “Lian showed me how to cross stitch and now we’re all at it, all hours of the day,” he babbled, running his hand through his damp hair. “I can’t explain it, perhaps if it were knitting and we were – you know – creating something, it would make more sense for all of us to be so set upon it, but really we’re just making moons and flowers and things. I should speak to her about finding new designs,” he continued absently, rubbing at a sore spot on his neck. “Did you know, she says you can stitch them onto pillows, or something?” Distantly, he wondered, “Maybe Dick would like a pillow for his birthday.”

“I’m sure he would,” agreed Alfred. Bruce grunted, scanning through the Gazette. “Damian,” added Alfred.

Without looking up from his food, Damian answered, “Hn?”

There was a pause. Alfred let out a gentle cough. Damian looked up.

Alfred met his gaze. Then, pointedly, he glanced towards Damian’s neck, at the spot he’d just been rubbing. For a second Damian was confused, then he froze stock still. Slowly, he looked down at his hand – and saw a patch of concealer rubbed off on his fingers, which had not yet fully dried.

Wide-eyed, Damian looked back up at Alfred, then, without turning his head, glanced sidelong at his father. Alfred offered him a little smile, then he held up his mug. “Would you mind terribly fetching me a spot of tea, Damian?”

“Yes,” said Damian instantly, seizing the mug and the opportunity. “Of course. One moment.” Then, calmly, measuredly, he walked out of the dining room.

Once past the threshold, he dashed up the stairs three at a time, sprinting to his bedroom to safely reapply concealer onto his neck.

Bruce sipped his coffee, eyes still focused on the newspaper.

“Bruise or a hickey?” he asked.

Waiting for Damian to return with his tea, Alfred replied, “The latter, I’m afraid.”

“I’ll need to speak to Wally about this, of course,” muttered Bruce, inspecting a particular article that caught his eye. “Can’t have her roughing him up too badly every night.”

“Puppy love, sir. Happened to them all.”

“Cassandra never gave me this trouble.”

“Or, as we well know, she’s simply more competent than her brothers.”

Finally Bruce looked up, frowning at Alfred as he sipped from his coffee mug.

Then he sighed, returning to the newspaper. “Just as long as he’s using protection.”

It was then that Damian returned, barreling into the room breathing far too evenly, his eyes too round and paranoid. “Here,” he said, setting the cup of tea down before Alfred. “With lemon, as you like it.”

“Thank you,” said Alfred graciously.

“You’ll be on your usual route tonight,” Bruce told Damian, setting the newspaper down. “I might have Spoiler join you.”

“Isn’t Stephanie too busy for nightly patrol?”

“Yes,” agreed Bruce. “But I’m sure she’ll make an exception.” He got to his feet, dishes in hand. “Understood?”

“Yes,” said Damian immediately, with a nod. “Understood.”

As Alfred watched his boys drive off into the night, he let out a quiet sigh.

They grow up so fast.

#earth 28 #damian wayne #damirey #idk what the damian/irey tag is #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #irey west

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baetoul · 3 years ago

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i remade

i wanna use this blog to like track project and art ideas and progress and gain aesthetic inspiration! that’s the goal

i’m currently working on making mini dioramas out of clay to display in little geometric glass lantern thingies. i made the characters for the scene i want, but i need to make the prayer clothes for the little mama model i made. i found a white fabric that will work but i need a white lace to edge it with. after that i can paint the figurines, which is the part im most nervous for as i am not a skilled painter and have a horrible understanding of colour. i need to decide on a direction for the painting too, like am i going for realistic (i.e. setting myself up to fail) or a more abstract unfinished look? might be able to pull that off. like am i painting the mama figure’s face peach colour or leaving the white of the clay? not sure.

mini dioramas are a great little exploration for me, they combine my love for miniature cute things and allow me to make everything from scratch and have a lot of creative expression. it’s also felt a lot more accessible to me to sculpt clay figures than to paint or draw, for which i lack fundamental art skills. it’s also greatly nostalgic and allows me to create alters to the mundane beauty of life and memory and recollection. also it’s an item that can be displayed and has a purpose in being displayed which is nice, because i hate making non-functional stuff that just gets shoved into a drawer. I have more geometric lanterns thingies so i will probs create more scenes for those. i also have a wooden box shaped like a hardcover book for which i plan to sculpt a book scene, but i have no idea what scene yet! i feel like i want to choose something that means something to me but is also recognizable?

i also made some flat rectangular blocks of clay with holes at the top to make earrings from. i’m going to try painting them as queen of hearts playing cards and write one of my favourite lyrics on top. i was going to carve certain details of the cards into the clay as grooves but i totally forgot and baked them plain. so we’ll see i guess lol.

i handbound a journal for zahraa which was amazing. it was a little loose so i definitely need to work on my technique, but it was a fun and exciting process and for my first one i think it turned out really well. purple velvet covers with this gorgeous italian tissue paper from my letter kit as the inside cover. finally my paper and fabric scrap hoarding can be used to good affect lol. we’ll see what my next hand binding project will be.

hmm what else. i saw a lot of gorgeous art in NYC at both the moma and the guggenheim. i was really intrigued by the oil painted pieces and i get this instinctive feel that oil paints would suit me as a medium much more than watercolour has been and i really want to try it. it seems expensive to get into though, maybe ill be on the lookout for kits at homesense/winners to get my first little taste. even if oils do suit me better i know im completely missing the fundamentals of art like shading, perspective, colour theory, etc so i feel like i should start doing those step by step drawing tutorials on youtube to get some sense of things.

I also want to do more with beads, textiles, fabric, crocheting/knitting.

ALSO i bought a blender from goodwill to try and make paper with but i havent even attempted it yet!! i think making my own paper by hand with my pressed flowers would be so gorgeous. i need to hurry up and get my dad to make me a frame before he leaves, or else i’ll either have to buy one or go to home depot and try to finagle my own. i also really wanted to try screen printing but again, everything costs money bro. maybe ill save screen printing for summer.

#baetoul art #baetoul #p

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shazzbaa · 7 years ago

Photo

whOOPS I GOT ATTACHED,,,,,

it’s this guy again!!! everyone else in the Tattered Weave discord started making fav character fusions and like.... we’ve all played ourselves here because THEYRE A COMBO OF ALL OUR FAV TROPES OF COURSE WE’RE GONNA GET ATTACHED. so we’ve been having some fun!!

(Featured in the first three doodles: @othidar‘s fusion, @magpiemalarkey‘s fusion, and @macabredanse‘s fusion )

anyway his name is tentatively Turing because this is the kind of name companies give a sapient AI, he runs,,,, some kind of entertainment robotics company, with the oversight of human programmers who can shut him down if he starts making alarming decisions. Turing cares a LOT about the wellbeing of robots for obv reasons and talks to every smartdevice as if it were as self-aware as he is, even if it’s like, a microwave. Slightly unnerving tendency to be way more upset about "man yelled at his blender" than "human child got hurt playing with robotic toy"

oops i love him

#character mashup #type game #mashup oc #oc #Character Design #CEO Turing #art #shazz art #gif #there's literally nothing separating him from a SPG OC at this point whOOPS #WELL HERE WE ARE #merry christmas to me have a new oc #sketches #coloured sketches

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noctisdev · 4 years ago

Text

Okay okay so here's the plan, I'm going to introduce myself in this post and then introduce Temple in the next post.

Warning: I suck at spelling! Sorry.

Heyo, I'm Joyous or Joy. Hm, where to start? I was born in '04, so I'm 17 now. I was born in the "Wonderful" United States of America in a state called Georgia. I was born as Sean a "beutiful" baby boy, with a freakishly large head. Like gosh darn, a HUGE head. Anyways, my brother was born a couple years later. Our parents met in the Navy, married when I was conseived and soon after my brother's birth they divorced. My dad went on tour often, and my mom wasn't there so I was baby sat by my Nana (my dad's mom) until my dad met another newly divorced mother. She had three kids, and my brother and I would be hang out with them as she babysat us. After a while, I don't know how long because I was a child, they started dating. Three years later, when I was 4 and a half they had a child and got married. At the same time my mom had a kid too. We started moving a lot (I've lived in Georgia(twice), Texas(four times), California(once), Arizona(like 5 times), Tennessee(once)). With all the moving I didn't have any friends, nor did I be able to stay in school, so we did home schooling. At around the age of 5 or 6 I started visiting my mom for the summer. Throughout the moving and summer vacations, I played games falling in love with them. I especially loved halo, portal, gears of war, and minecraft when I was growing up. I would make paper versions of games and come up with entirely new ones, that my step-mom would through away (because they were bad). The best non-electric game was a game we called circles, basically a DND lite. You would roleplay as a human who would gain a gem that was magical (and when in use they would make circles, thus the name), then they would adventure.

When I was 11, I moved to Arizona with my mom because she noticed that my knowledge was of a first grader (I was supposed to be in 4th grade). So I started school, and had a lot of trouble learning. We spent hours fighting over homework. After a very hard year of work I finished 4th grade with an A. I still don't know how to read a clock though. Later, around 5th or 6th grade, I started making games with scratch. I remember some very bad fnaf games I made, and a space game where you can't leave your room. In 7th grade I took a computer science class (and an engineering class where I got an A, and taught my teacher stuff, but that's just bragging) because I wanted to code. I incorectly thought my dad was a coder in the navy, but he was a decoder of information. I quickly realized my love for coding, finishing a 1 year long class in a semester. I also found my best friend in that class, and I taught him how to code. We both finished early. I also started experimenting with a game engine called unity. But gave it up quite quickly.

In high-school my best friend and I were accepted into an accelerated computer science class (even though I applied after the dead line). I had to drop out of that high-school because I get sick easily. I had to stay home for 2+ months because I had a very loud constant cough, that distracted the classes. In that time (2019) I picked up unity again but this time I did ✨research✨. Thanks to Brackeys, and BlackThornProd I taught myself to code. I also taught myself basic modeling (thanks to blender guru), even though I couldn't make the cup handle or the donut frosting correctly.

I finished my first game in 2019, it was a really bad speed game, based on brackey's tutorials. Then I quickly made my own platformer game called Light The Way. I started a few other games, dropping one after I got a new idea (I think this happens to most people). I plan on using some of those ideas for future games. I realized that I hated 3D modeling, and so I taught myself to do pixel art thanks to Brandon James Geer. It was a lot of fun.

This is the first thing I ever made, notice the computer is an exact replica from the computer from Pokémon (I got the idea from a video by Mr. Geer). I copied the furniture as well, only building off in the right room. The panda is my stuffed panda I have in person. While I was teaching myself, my now ex, gave me a tablet to try working on and I made this.

I loved the style I came up with that at that moment I decided to make a game, with my mouse because mouse is better (mouse gang). I came up with an idea and made started working on temple.

(While working I tried 3D modeling again and I enjoy it a lot!)

Anyways I moved back with my dad, in texas. In August I plan on starting streaming development on the game.

If you'd like to see my other work you can go to my reddit

If you'd like to talk please join my discord! (Note: I do not talk like this, I am quite bubbly and emotionally charged in my texts. For e.g. "Heyo! Howdy do, I'm doing dandy as candy 🍬") the discord is currently dead, but if you join it won't be!

I also have a YouTube (which im reworking) and a tiktok to teach how and why game development works!

Darn this is long.

#intro #gamdev #independent #inde game #devlog #blog post #pixel art #3d modling

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tarafytheworld-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Makeup Tutorial

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZotXHXSv5G8

Whats up everybody? Welcome back to my channel.,Today we are diving into this glamorous, glowy, peachy, smokey eye look.,I’m feeling the high fashion fantasy, and yes,,I might have sex after I finish this video.,But today we are going to recreate this look.,Now, I got so many requests from about a week or two ago,when me and Manny did our reading mean hate comments video,,you guys are all like what the hell is on your eyes.,So, today we’re going to recreate that,,and can we just talk about the glow for a second?,Like, oh it’s like burning my cheeks, my retinas are on fire.,We are using two highlighters today for the glow,,we’re also going to be testing out some new Marc Jacob beauty products,that have real coconut infused in the makeup.,Do they work or do they not, that is the question.,But besides that you guys, if you want to see how I created this fantasy,,then keep on watching.,Alright, let’s dive into this look.,So today, as you can tell, I have no contacts in,,these are my real brown, hazleish eyes.,Now, for a primer,,today we are going to be going into one of my all time favourites,,the Sicily Double 10 CR Primer this one is everything.,So I am going to of course coat my fingers,and rub this all over my face.,For a foundation today I am going to be going in with,something I haven't really used on camera before,,it is from the brand Guerlain and this is the Lingerie Foundation.,Now this one is supposed to be a skin fusion,like texture where you look amazing and flawless.,Now let’s get a little damp beauty blender and get to work.,Alright now, for a concealer today,I am going to be going in with the new NARS soft matte complete concealer.,I used this the other day in a full face first impressions,and I was shocked at how,,like smooth it went on my skin, I was like, oh, okay honey.,So we are going to be dipping it again,,I’m just going to go in this is mine of course,,Im going to go in with the beauty blender and get some on the tip.,come on tip.,and I'm just going to take this and to it right under my eyes.,Oh my god guys, this concealer like melts into your skin,,maybe because the Beauty Blender is damp,and it like really works well with it.,Mmm, the only thing I wish is the shade was a little lighter,,this is their lightest shade, this is a number one,,I just wish there is a little bit more,but I’m going to add some powder in a second and brighten it and set this face.,Now I’m going to take my mac studio fix,and shade shivering white with the damp Beauty Blender,,I’ve been doing this for years,and lately I have kind of been you know, I’ve been trying so many products,I’ve been steering away from this but I’m going back to my favorite trick of really,like lightening under eyes and looking lifted,,so we are going to take that on the damp Beauty Blender,and what I’ll do is I’ll just take it right under the eyes,and I will press it in almost like an upside down triangle type of motion,and it just gives you in a look of like...,Oh, her skin is fetch.,Alright now we are going to really set the under eyes,in anywhere I put concealer, like the chin,,the bridge of my nose and of course the forehead,and I am going to go in with my favorite setting powder of all time,,the La Mer ‘The Powder’,and you guys know I had been using damn Beauty Blenders,forever to dip into the powder,it melts right into your skin and it is a nice little beauty hack,and we are going to buff that into the skin,and you can leave it and just have it sit there for a minute while it soaks in,and you can brush your way in a second.,Now I’m just going to take a little synthetic brush,and brush off all of the loose powder,and now its time to do a little contour if you will.,So today I’m going to be going with a brand new bronzer,that I just discovered at Sephora,and it is from the brand Marc Jacobs,,of course Marc Jacobs is exclusively in Sephora.,Now this is the new Coconut Bronzer,,look how big the packaging is honey, yes!,You know I’m a size Queen.,Oh my god it smells so good,,it’s like pure coconuts in your nose and this shade is called tantastic,,it is the mega bronzer and this is of course limited edition,in the beautiful white extending packaging.,Now it also has a brush you can buy with it,which looks something like this,,look how big that brush is though, look at that.,Now I think you’re supposed to, you know use the brush with this and go in,,I’m not sure, oh wow, that’s like a lot of product,,so I might go in just a little bit to see what it looks like,,I’m scared it’s going to be really pigmented,I guess there’s only one way to find out.,Alright, I just bronzed up my entire face,,we hit the cheeks, forehead, jawline and nose,,oh my brush smells like coconut, I’m like hungry now, girl fuck.,Now we are going to do some highlight right now.,My new favorite combination is,peach goddess with eclipse skin cross mixing these together,,oh my lord.,So I am going to take this on a soft A23 brush,and we are going to go into peach goddess, ahh hi.,Alright peach goddess is laid down,and now I’m going to take out eclipse and use a Morphe five 10 brush,and we’re just going to gently caress the moon and put that right over.,Ohhh lord, help me now.,Alright you guys have seen me do my brows a million times,,so I’m going to quickly do them off camera,with a little bit of benefit precisely my brow,and Anastasia dip brow and I’ll be right back.,Alright now let’s get these eyes started.,Today we are going to be using a YSL couture eye primer,so remember to always of course use a synthetic makeup brush,when applying any primers.,Alright now that the primer is down I’m going to take a Ivory shade,and put it all over my lid up to the brow bone,and I’m going to be really shady,because it is a shadow that I am working on for the fall,and it’s not final so no one go crazy and post about it,,or you can post about it because I love when you do that.,But it’s just a shadow that I’m working on,that I’m not going to show on camera yet,because I don't know if I am going to change it or alter it,,but the fun thing about lab samples,is that you can play around with it for a while and tweak it any which way you want.,So it’s kind of similar to my shade china white in a beauty colour palette,but it’s a little more intense.,Now this eye look is really simple; it looks a little smoky and dramatic,,but I really only used like two brushes and literally two eyeshadows.,So we’re to pull out my Androgyny eyeshadow palette,and today we are going to,,I’m feeling like Vanna White. Dah dah.,Today we are going to be dipping into only a few shades,and one of them which is the main star of the look is of course charm,,my favorite transition color for really any look,and we’re literally going to start patting this on our eye.,So you’re going to take the brush,,and you’re just going to start in the inner corner,and I’m going to go like this,and that is like a little place holder for where I am going to stop.,So we’re going to start there,and now we’re going to take this same bus with the same of course shadow,and we’re going to go all the way over.,And then you’re going to take it and I’m going to start going into my crease,and we’re going to go all the way in like this,and you’re going to stop it right outside of the eye.,And now you're going to fill it in and do the same with the other side.,So now I am just packing on charm all over the lid,and what I started off camera is I took a blending brush,and I just kind of feathered it out,barely with any product on the end,,you’re just going to go basically in little motion like this,,you’re going to blend up and outward.,And now we’re going to take a tiny little Mac detailer brush this is the 221,and were going to dip into shade dominatrix,this beautiful dark chocolate shade right here.,A little goes a long way with this one,so I like to coat the bristles completely,,knock it off a little bit and then this is really say,I’m going to put this right in my crease, so I’m going to tilt my head up a little bit,so we’re just going to massage this into the crease,and give us that really dramatic look.,Alright now this eye look is almost done,,we just got to smoke out the under,,but before I so that I am just going to go back into eclipse really quickly,with the brush we put on the primer.,And we’re just going to go right below the brow bone,and we’re just going to pack on some eclipse,right on the arch of the brow,just so it gives a more uplifted look.,Alright now we are going to go in with,one of my all time favorite black eye liners this is smoulder from Mac,and I am just going to put this on my waterline quickly and then get to smokin.,Alright now I’m going to go back in with charm,we’re just going to place this right below the waterline,and just drag it out,and sometimes I like to tilt my head so there’s no fallout.,Alright so I’m going to take another tiny little brush,,this is the Morphe 507,and I’m going to go back into dominatrix for one split second,and I’m literally just going to brush right below where I put smoulder,,only like barely,so it’s only going to give you a little bit of a liner effect,but like barely like a little detail I want to add.,Ohh, hi there.,Now it is prime support master,so of course y’all know about to go in with my benefit roller lash mascara,and then we’re going to put on some falsies, so let’s get to it.,Alright, now I’m going to quickly pop on some lashes,and today I’m going to go in with the lily lashes in style Miami .,These are really gorgeous but not too dramatic,,I want the eyes to really have a moment I was like,,hi I’m peachy and I’m here bitch.,So I’ll be right back.,Alright, lashes are on, now it’s time for the lips.,Today I’m going to be going in with the Marc Jacobs liquid lip cream in shade,,what is this one called again, your’s to try.,This is a beautiful, warm toned, nude color,,I think it’s going to go perfect with this eye look.,Alright lips are on, oh I love a color combo right now.,Alright I think the only thing left to do is set the face,and not to sound like this is a coconut March Jacobs whore ad,,but they also came out with a brand new setting spry,and I just got this stuff in the mail right before I filmed this,,so I though why not, let’s give this stuff a whirl.,Now you will see some missing because I was trying out the pump,,I heard so many mixed reviews online,and I saw my girl Jacqueline Helene snapchatted a few weeks ago using this,and a lot of people were saying,that the spray came out like really like I guess intense.,I noticed that if you don’t press down all the way,,it does kind of shoot out, so quick advice for anyone,that has this or is about to try it,,you have to go all way down and then it creates a beautiful fine mist.,So I saw a lot of people just kind of like,venting or asking me have I tried this yet,,so I haven’t tried it on my face I just sprayed it a million times.,So let’s see what happens.,Oh it smells so good.,I forgot to tell you what this is called you guys, sorry,,this is the perfecting coconut setting mist...,recover is what it says on the bottom.,Now I am noticing that it didn’t completely dry down my forehead area,but the rest of my face it did,so I’m just going to take this Beauty Blender,and just kind of buff out those little light coats,,almost like droplets on my forehead,and there we go it is blended, pretty blended.,Now the settings also said that it’s supposed to lock in your makeup for like 24 hours, I’m like girl,,I ain’t wearing makeup for more than six hours.,But I will let you guys know that in the description box,if this worked for me or not, but it smells amazing,,I mean all the coconut stuff is just like,,I don’t know, I’m like hungry right now,,craving a chocolate bar with some coconut shavings on it.,But I’m with you guys, I think that this look is almost complete,,I want to change my hair and do something different,because so many of you are like,,girl where’s your slay intro shots, where’s the fucking wigs.,Well be right back then.,And this is the final look I am feeling this high fashion glam moment.,Look at this hair bitch, slayed by David Scissorhands.,Don’t fucking play me baby.,I love this look I feel like I could wear this anywhere,,to Walmart, to the grocery store, to a fashion show in New York.,I’m just feeling myself right now,but I hope you guys love the final look.,I had so much fun filming it.,I would love it if you guys recreated this look,if you have the Androgyny palette,,dip into some charm honey and create some magic.,Thank you guys so much for watching this video,as always you guys are the best.,I will see you on the next video.,Mwah. Bye guys.

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