#is this directly related to a fic I want to work on? yes XD

[druidofdarkness]

Been meaning to replay AV1 for several months now. I've finally sat down to do it. Hello, old friend, I have missed you.

(I installed it on my ffxiv machine and oh man, it is gorgeous. So smooth, so crisp. Is this computer absolutely overkill for the system requirements? Yes. Do I regret that? Not in the slightest.)

[moodymisty]

Hi ! Hope you're doing great and I hope you don't mind me sending a new request 😊

I was wondering if you could, maybe, write a second part for "Baby Fever Crosshair" where he tells the reader about it (with smut if possible)

Of course, if you don't want to, it's perfectly fine, no pressure. Have a great day/night ! ❤️

Part 1 (but can be self contained)

Author's Note: Ok, let's give this a shot! I hope you enjoy :3 I'm trying to work on making my nsfw fics less plotty, so here's like 90% smut lmao

'Happy ending' (as happy as Empire rule can be) AU where the Batch settles down on a nondescript planet. Is it Pabu? Maybe. Maybe not. Up to you. Doesn't really matter too much this is all smut anyways XD

Summary: Crosshair admits one night he wants a kid. You do too.

Relationships: Crosshair/Fem!Reader

Warnings: NSFW, Breeding kink, Pregnancy and such related things so Tokophobia warning, Creampies, PWP, Basically just cheap dirtiness

I want to have a kid.

It felt like only seconds ago Crosshair broken the silence of your small bedroom with those four words, making you stop in your tracks as you reached for the light switch.

It wasn't something you'd expected from him. Sure the two of you had been talking a bit about your future as of late, together, but the topic of kids hadn't really come up directly. It was never out of the question, however.

You also don't know why he chose to say it that way so out of the blue; Maybe he had been holding it in for awhile, and was sick of trying to wait for a perfect moment to finally breach the subject.

But why wait for a perfect moment, when you can just make one. You have all the time in the galaxy to do so now, with the Empire off your backs. The both of you can now actually consider making a family, instead of just fantasizing.

Crosshair's lips hungrily capture yours for what seems like the millionth time, feeling like they're going to bruise with the way he so roughly and hungrily kisses you. It's like he's desperate, wanting to nearly devour you. His breath comes out in harsh pants and mixes with your own, until it's almost the only thing you can hear.

You'd barely had the chance to mumble an enthusiastic yes to his proposal before he was on you, holding your hips and pulling them to his front like he'd been holding back the declaration for months. You could feel the outline of his cock against your thigh, already hard as he nearly started tearing your clothes off of you. You had to fight him with it, to get them off before he either abandoned them, or ruined them.

But with the way he'd thrown you onto the bed, you swear if it hadn't been less than two meters away from the damn thing, he might've just fucked you right where you'd been standing.

And with the way he's making your body feel, you know your knees would've buckled underneath your own body weight and send you to the floor, and him on top of you.

Your thighs are soaked; He's had his fingers last knuckle deep in your cunt for what feels like ages, and the lascivious sounds his hand makes as he presses the palm of his hand against your clit makes your face boil.

You've lost track of time, the room feels hot and stuffy and your thighs ache as your muscles tighten, but Crosshair pushes down on one knee to force them to stay apart. You've haven't had enough of him, but gods have you had enough of him tormenting you like this. Throwing your head back against the pillow you yell at him towards the ceiling, back arching upward as your body writhes underneath him. Your clit throbs, as your heels dig into the mattress.

"Gods, Crosshair- Just fuck me already!"

You don't want him to take his time; You want him to absolutely fuck your brains out, make it so you can't walk tomorrow and that his cum leaks down your thighs. That was the whole goal of this, after all. You want to feel this in the morning so that in some sort of odd way, you think there's a better chance.

He's naked from the waist up, his body glove rolled down to his hips. It'll one be one swift motion to take if all the way off, as his cock strains against the fabric. His lips pull away from yours, swollen and messy, his dark eyes looking right into yours. They're glossy; He's only got one thought in mind and it's the same as your own.

"I was gettin' there, Doll."

Your response is almost instant; Pulling your bottom lip from between your teeth just to do so.

"You don't get to spring yourself on me like that and then play the 'patience' card, Cross."

Your voice is strained but you hold your ground on it, except when you whimper as he finally moves his hands to the rolled edges of his body glove and removes it. He kicks it off, going somewhere off into the void around the room.

You can see the soft sheen of precum on the tip of his cock that aches for relief, until he grabs your hips and yanks you close. You gasp, and quickly Crosshair grinds his cock between your folds and against your clit, coating himself in all of the wetness he'd been pulling from you for what's felt like hours. Your cunt clenches around nothing just yearning for anything, now that his fingers are gone. It's such a primal want that has you trying to move closer to him, even if it's almost impossible to get anymore so.

Once the head of his cock teases and prods at your entrance for a moment, stretching just enough to make you moan before his grinding makes it slip upward and away. It only happens just once as the next time he quickly pushes his cock entirely into you, teeth gritting as he swears between them.

"Kriff, you're so warm..."

He wants to drag this out, but realistically he knows he probably won't be able to. And neither will you. Each and every time he opens his eyes he keeps imaging all those things that had been eating at his mind ever since this started plaguing him; Seeing you a swollen belly, knowing he's the reason. Sometimes he sees you on top of him, riding him on his lap as he grasps at your hips.

And it's going to happen, if it's the last thing he does. He's more than patient; and he'll keep fucking you and fucking you until it finally sticks.

"I can't wait to fill up this pussy of yours."

You can't wait either.

He puts your ankles on his shoulders, leaning down enough so that your knees try to press back against your own body. It makes it so he can drive his cock even deeper into you; So much so that it feels like he's going to hit your spine.

"Kriff," It's almost like he looses track of what he was going to say, or he got distracted for a moment. "Kriff you look so hot like this."

Your hands grasp and claw at anything within reach, but with nothing else to grasp onto there's little to keep you steady. It's hard to not let your eyes flutter closed and stay that way, looking up to see the way Crosshair's neck is tight and you can see the knot in his throat bob as he swallows.

He drives his cock deep into you, hips pressing against the back of your thighs and it's enough to bring you half way to cumming again. Your body was already so pliable and sensitive, his rough hands grasping at your body and slamming his hips into yours is enough to make you see white. It's not even as if Crosshair spent so long teasing you until you cried; There's just something in the air.

"You don't even have to say anything; I know you're begging for it."

You were moments ago and you are now; Your hands grip the blankets atop the bed and underneath you like you're going to tear right through them, holding on for all it's worth as Crosshair drives you into, and what feels like through, the mattress.

Your toes curl and knees bend, surely they'd have buckled by now if you were standing, teeth clamping down on your bottom lip so hard it feels like it's going to bleed. Or maybe it already is.

"Cross, s-slow down I'm gonna-"

You suddenly cum around him, gasping out in the hot air, Crosshair continuing to fuck you through it to the point that you swear you see white.

"Kriff, you're so tight-" His voice is wavering, hips barely able to keep and even pace as he fucks you. His nearly hisses those words out through clenched teeth, his hips slowing. It feels so hot in the bubble both of you exist in, Crosshair's hands grip you so tight that you'd probably be unable to get from their grip,even if you'd wanted.

That would be the absolute last thing you'd want; You're pretty sure you wouldn't care if a groundquake hit, as he pulls out barely a third of the way, slowly fucking you deeply as he finishes inside of you. You hear his groan and the myriad of swears under his breath, his hands loosening their grip. Instead of vices they drift along your skin now, brushing over the little dents he'd left.

Especially as he slows down, finally to a full stop as he attempts to catch his breath from the aftermath. He lets your legs fall off of his shoulders, falling to the mattress and bouncing once as they lay limp with the rest of your body. It's been a bit since he last kissed you, and he leans down to steal a single one as he pulls his cock slowly from you, and you feel the ache of your battered pussy even more than before.

Cum leaks out of you as it overflows, a feeling is odd, and but now. satisfying. You suddenly gasp however as Crosshair's touch suddenly returns, dragging two fingers up your cunt he catches any of it that leaked out and pushes it back in, listening to your whine as the motions tease your already battered and overstimulated nerves.

"Don't waste it."

You don't have too much say in that matter, but it's not as if he can't just fuck you all over again in a bit once your heart stops racing. Using one of his hands to support himself while the other touches his forehead, he leans away from your body a bit, looking down on you. You glance down at the way his lean stomach perfectly tapers to his hips and downward further, accentuated perfectly by the angle. You hope he knows how fucking good he looks sometimes.

Crosshair brushes a hand over the top of his head, unawares of your gawking. He still keeps his hair very short, but it's been growing a little bit longer as of late, enough to see some actual volume rather than the old GAR regulated, though for the 99's more like suggested, clone cut.

"Do you think they'd notice if we just, never moved from here tomorrow and didn't show up?"

You were supposed to meet up with the rest of the Batch tomorrow, but it's already so late and being honest, the both of you have other things on the mind. Crosshair looks down at you, his eyebrows raising slightly; But there's a look in his eyes that more than gives away that he's considering it.

Why not just make sure.

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[clanwarrior-tumbly]

Saw requests were open

How about a small fic/headcanons about reader successfully getting to say the password into the not stanley ending? Maybe last minute, right as narrator is about to yell suddenly he hears a very unfamilar desperate voice speak the code into the door which startles the man a bit,

And like, most i can say for anything to help more context wise is just "will it work? Will it not? Does player still end up in the ceiling? Does player now have the ability to talk after the next reset but fails? Wins? Does narrator finish his story? Does player absolutely break the game? Endless possibilities just choose what ya want to write most "/lh

-salt anon

Oh yes there are endless possibilities with this one XD Also I'll forever feel lowkey embarrassed that I genuinely believed I could use my mic-

Also this small fic became long ghsdhghs

.........

"And beyond all probability, he knew the passcode. He had seen it on his boss's computer just last week: Night-Shark-1-1-5. Was this the code to open the door? Would it still work? There was only one way to find out."

All was silent as you furrowed your eyebrows, wondering if it was possible to actually talk in this game. You didn't recall it asking you to test your mic input..which was strange considering upon several start-ups, it asked you to adjust random sliders that had no in-game effect.

Narrator added how Stanley was trained to "never speak up", but now worked up the courage to do so and thus expected you to do the same.

Quickly, you paused the game and double-checked the settings menu, but found nothing relating to audio input. Weird.

You resumed, approaching the receiver and clicking on it. Then you made an attempt: 

"Uh, Night-Shark...1-1-5?" 

Nothing happened. The receiver didn’t respond. 

Suddenly, Narrator cleared his throat and practically ordered Stanley to speak the code, pointing out where the receiver exactly was even though you had him standing as close to it as possible. His impatience and petulance were already showing.

You tried again without any hesitance, slower and clearer. “Night-Shark-1-1-5.”

And again..nothing.

"I'm sorry, is there a problem? You didn't mishear me, did you? Please speak the code into the receiver, otherwise we can’t get on with the story. This is a crucial step!”

You tensed as Narrator directly spoke to you, feeling the anxiety in your gut growing. It was there ever since he became aware that you existed and were the one behind all of Stanley’s decisions. He quickly got accustomed to it despite this mere revelation distorting the game’s rooms. His attempts to continue the story like normal only made things messier, as he wasn’t even supposed to be aware of you, the player.

Now you were stuck at this point in the boss’s office, unable to proceed further because he was asking for something impossible out of you. Something that proved you weren’t in total control over Stanley like he suspected. You couldn’t give him a voice.

Narrator, however, wasn’t understanding that. From his perspective, you were just standing there, disobeying him on purpose just like all those other times.

But how could you convince him you were genuinely trying? And you weren’t ignoring him on purpose?

Adjusting your headset, you set your mic input volume up to maximum and tried again. “Night-Shark-1-1-5."

Still, nothing happened. 

This seemed to be a cruel trick, and the Narrator’s patience had finally ran out. "Okay. Fine. You're not going to do it. But you know what? It's pretty humiliating to bring you this far only for you to-"

"Night-Shark-1-1-5!!" You suddenly spoke louder out of desperation, practically begging for the game and him to hear you.

And amazingly enough...it worked. 

The receiver beeped, its screen showing “Access Granted” in green letters. And the room rumbled to life as the secret entrance to the elevator opened.

Narrator ceased his rant, and you could hear him faintly gasp in shock, before attempting to continue his narration. “But with a great shout..Stanley....oh..who am I kidding? That wasn’t him. That was you! Hahaha!”

Hearing his soft laughter made you smile a bit. You made him happy! And he heard you, too!

Unfortunately, this seemed to be the last straw for the game, as when you approached the elevator, the “narrative contradictions” have distorted it horribly to where you couldn’t enter it. You pouted. “Damn it..well, that was all for nothing.”

"Nonsense! We have both gained something from this, dear player!”

You jumped in your seat, realizing he actually heard what you said. This was shocking, and you were completely unsure of how to respond to him. But he didn’t seem too worried about his story literally falling apart when he was previously scrambling to salvage it. He seemed more excited to speak with you.

After an awkward pause, you spoke again as a test. “Um..hi, Narrator?”

“Yes! Yes! Hello, you! Must I say, you have a lovely voice.” He chuckled. “It’s been so long since I’ve heard somebody else speaking for once. Please, do not stop talking.”

“Oh uh..okay then.” His compliments flustered you, though you just sighed, deciding to give him what he wanted regardless of what consequences could follow. “I’m sorry if it seemed like I was ignoring you. This game doesn’t support mic inputs so I wasn’t sure if I could use the receiver.”

“...ah, is that why? Well, it’s a shame the developers never thought to consider that. I suppose it’d make this game less complicated, but...it gets so lonely sometimes, with me being the only one talking and Stanley just listening. No words, only actions. So for me to receive a verbal response from somebody on the outside is refreshing. It’s liberating!”

Hearing the overwhelming relief in his voice made you smile. Yet your heart also ached for him, knowing he’s probably been alone for years, aware of the cruel reality of being a video game character.

At least for now you could keep him company in his isolation.

“Now I know we’ve had our little..setbacks, but we can let bygones be bygones, right? You and me, deciding Stanley’s choices together! Endless possibilities await us! Who needs this dumb story anyway? I’d rather stay here awhile and get to know y-”

In the middle of his excited rambling, the screen abruptly cut to black and left you in an uncomfortable silence. 

You frowned a bit, disappointed that the game chose to rip this happiness from him. No loading bar appeared to indicate it was resetting, so you waited.

Then suddenly you found yourself in a peculiar place: above the ceiling of the two doors room. You were still controlling a character, floating over the game’s map, though the invisible borders didn’t let you go too far.

You looked down at Stanley, who stood in that room, completely unmoving. And you could hear Narrator’s muffled voice begging him to make a choice, pleading for him to do something instead of nothing in such a desperate tone--very much unlike his passive-aggressiveness from before.

“Narrator?”

“Huh? Oh, thank god. You’re still here, dear player.” The sadness in his voice didn’t waver a bit as he finally noticed you. “Please keep talking to me. The silence..it’s..it’s almost crushing me. I need to hear you..I need to talk to you. I know you people have an actual life to attend to but..please stay for a little while. At least until Stanley makes his choice.”

“I..I’m having trouble understanding you, but I don’t think he’ll be moving anytime soon.” You shook your head even though he couldn’t see it. “This game went too far down the rabbit hole to save. I broke it. I need to return to Stanley. I’m gonna have to restart-”

“No! I can’t go back to that! Not to the loneliness that has threatened to swallow me whole!” His desperation was growing, his voice becoming more choked up by the second. “I’ll forget you and Stanley are different and..a-and I simply can’t do that, dear player. What if the game doesn’t allow us to speak to each other again?! What if...i-if-?!”

“I’ll find a way around that, Narrator. I promise." You couldn’t guarantee that without worrying about breaking the game. You could always go down this same route again now that you knew how to get here, though it would end the same..and you refused to put Narrator through that kind of torture.

He’s a victim of this parable just as much as Stanley is. To you, his feelings were real, genuine.

How could you mess with him like that?

He was silent for some time, and you grew worried the game will just cut you off without warning again. “I’m sure there’s another route or ending where I can properly communicate with you. Maybe the game will be more stable or-”

“Don’t bother..”

“Huh?”

“It’s all pointless. Why am I clinging to you like some child? Am I truly that miserable?" He droned on and on with exhaustion. “I’m the one who brought this mess upon myself...because I was so enthralled with the idea of talking to a real person and trying to take you along for the ride. But that’s not possible. This game is not about either of us, it’s about Stanley. And we should play our parts the way we’re supposed to--with me speaking and you guiding him. That’s the way it’s always been..and the way it should be.”

Of course, you knew of Narrator’s pessimism. In many of his narrations it became clear as day and had you concerned for him. But this was on a whole different level; this was borderline nihilism.

You couldn’t change his mind. You couldn’t hug him and tell him it’s all going to be okay. But you could give him one last bit of happiness. You didn’t wanna restart this game on such a sour note.

“Maybe that’s true, but before we go back..is there anything else you’d like to know about me?”

“I don’t think it will matter, since I’ll forget about all of this in a few moments, but...perhaps your name? I see your gamer tag but I’d love to know your real one.”

“It’s [y/n].”

“[Y/n]..ah, that’s a wonderful name.” Narrator chuckled sadly. “Well [y/n], just know that whatever choice you decide to make next, I-”

But he didn’t get to finish as the game once again interrupted him, restarting and putting you back in control of Stanley.

Sighing, you wandered through the same rooms and hallways as usual, trying to decide your next course of action as you listened to the usual narrations.

Then you came across a slightly ajar door labeled “New Content”, and hummed with curiosity. ‘Is this a clue? Is he trying to show me something?’

There's only one way to find out.

Maybe you’ll get to chat with him again after all.

[heraldofcrow]

*kicks in the door in an attempt to make a dramatic entrance but just ends up stubbing my toe really bad*

CROWWWW!

I demand you tell me all about your ocs so that ours can have a tea party together *shakes fist menacingly*

BIM ARE YOU OKAY??

Heccin hell. That looked bad! Here take some shiny pills from my crow-collection!

—

Ok, yes now back the question, ahem! So, I don’t have a whole lot of OCs outside of my super secret original works, because I’m pretty sure I poured all my energy into developing weird, nameless NPCS in Soulsborne games in particular xD

I dunno, it’s addicting! But anyway, I do have some in “Christened in Blood” that will become/already are relevant, and even though they are mostly lore tie-ins, I did confirm with Katy and Fantomette that they “counted” as OCs 😅

I’ll be sharing about them in that case, and fair warning, some of these peeps are genuinely awful, so Emori and Hollise and the girls should absolutely feel free to kick their asses 🖤 (Fantomette, your OCs as well, hehe).

Ok um…where to start? Maybe with the Cainhurst OCs??

(Gonna cut for space because it gets long! Sincerest apologies ;-;).

—

Lord Dominic, father of Lady Maria

Alright, Cainhurst OCs it is! Here’s Dominic!

You know him already of course, since he insisted on being terrible right from the start of my fic, but believe it or not, he leaves more of an impact on the story than some of the others, so I can’t leave him out!

Basically he was the captain of the royal guard during the reign of Annalise’s mother, and before that he had been an executioner for the royal family. He and the queen were a pair of scheming devils that wanted to remake Cainhurst in a new image, which was essentially the Vileblood revolution. They rebelled against the old ways of the kingdom which basically glorified the Pthumerian rituals and traditions that were thought to bring about godhood.

Dominic and the Queen were like; Let’s cut out the middle man and just straight up use the blood to become more Pthumerian-like right away. That’s what they did, and when the queen took her throne, she kept Dominic by her side for defense.

In all truth, yes. He was an absolute bastard. He married a lesser noble from the Cainhurst-Hemwick bloodline, and fathered Maria and Bloody Crow/Luther. He was cruel and abusive towards his wife and children, usually by way of controlling everything they did. He wanted his wife to avoid “weakening” his children, and wanted Maria, his eldest, to be his trophy child successor. They were like tools to him in a grander political game, and needless to say, they all hated and feared him.

Hell, most people in the kingdom hated and feared him because he still acted as the queen’s executioner that would snuff out entire families if they rebelled or even spoke of treason. He was a terrifying, ruthless warrior and he truly believed everything he was doing was right. The only one that adored him was the queen, and he happily served her out of twisted admiration and loyalty. They were just heartless and Machiavellian enough for each other.

But to the majority, Dominic was fiery, proud, cold, zealous, bad-tempered, and stubborn. He was eloquent and manipulative as well, often intimidating to others due to his unpredictable nature.

Now, I won’t spoil much, but while Maria spent much of her life trying to erase Dominic’s memory and influence, Crow/Luther actually discovered another side to the man that changed how he saw him. Yes, he was still always an asshole, but weirdly enough, he had a very specific purpose for it. I actually enjoyed adding another layer to this character past just the abusive father figure.

PLEASE DO NOT INVITE HIM TO A TEA PARTY HE WILL KILL MULTIPLE PEOPLE LMAO

—

Lady Clarice, mother of Lady Maria

Oh wow! It’s Maria’s mom! Hope nothing bad happens to h—*COUGH*

Lady Clarice was a noble scion of a smaller family of Cainhurst aristocrats, and was pressured to marry Dominic, a high-born directly related to the queen, by her family in order to elevate their house. While she had grown up in Hemwick during its better days, she would eventually up and leave to live in the snowy, mountain-top castle across the great lake. This new life made her miserable, and her marriage with Dominic was loveless. She never actually understood why he had decided to wed her, especially when it seemed clear that his affections were turned towards the queen.

She did, however, love her children. Particularly Luther. Sadly, while she did cherish Maria, she often looked to her daughter as more of a “savior” instead of a child in need of love and care. Clarice tended to put more pressure on Maria to watch over her brother and defend them both against Dominic, because…well…Maria was strong. Maria was bolder and more confidant than her paranoid mother, and though there was love between them, there was possibly also resentment.

Clarice was, after all, just another lost child that was sold away by her family and forced into a life she did not want. She missed Hemwick, and the farms, the mills, the people. She missed her simple life and the friends she had made there…and after sinking into heavy depression, she made some critical mistakes that led to her downfall. The mark she left on Maria was life-altering, but unfortunately for Luther, his memories of her were only so extensive.

In her life she was known to be a docile, quiet woman with a love of flowers, astronomy, and old folktales/stories. She was also an artist and carried books full of colorful, floral scribbles wherever she went. Despite her cold life, there were many who loved her. Also one random fact, she was known for wearing the scents of lavender and rosemary on her clothes, which were both considered to be crude plants in Cainhurst, as they were usually associated with wandering plague doctors. However, Clarice had been surrounded by the scents in Hemwick and harbored them out of bittersweet nostalgia.

She’d enjoy the chill vibe of a good ol’ tea session I think!

—

Queen Claudia, mother of Annalise

Look, I’m not saying Annalise was some wonderful and pure person or anything, but compared to her mother, she was a saint. Claudia may be one of the most devious characters I have ever come up with for a fic, and when you combine her and Dominic, you have a very bad combo.

Claudia was the younger daughter of Queen Zofia (the name I gave to Annalise’s grandmother), and sister to Lady Evelyn, who I’ll talk about later. There was something very devilish about Claudia from the start, because she was basically one of the first people to get her hands on forbidden blood before the whole thing with the scholar even happened. She straight up consumed that blood smoothie, and then gave birth to her first child, Annalise. Fun fact! Annalise was born immortal, and Claudia discovered this when she saw Anna immediately regenerate from a wound when she was a young child.

After that, Claudia basically usurped her elder sister’s throne by claiming that she had more of a right to it because she was the one with the immortal heir. Evelyn’s children were not “special” by any means. And after spreading her “we’re going to produce an immortal line of rulers and give this divine life to our people” propaganda, Claudia won the favor of the kingdom’s citizens and nearly incited a rebellion when the former queen resisted the claim.

In the end, through extreme manipulation and theatrics, Claudia won and inherited the throne. She took a consort, raised her daughter to be the public golden child, and encouraged a more Bacchanalian culture in Cainhurst. She wanted her people to revel, feast, lust, and drink, and to become drunk on blood. It’s how she controlled them. Yes, this also is what gave Cainhurst a bad reputation and image for the rest of the world. They became known as drunken, careless nobles that craved bloodSport. Claudia relished in this.

She was a callous, dangerous, cutthroat, and manipulative queen. She wore many faces depending on her audience, and was a narcissistic, arrogant, and cruel person overall. She used people like pawns, including her own children, and did whatever it took to keep her line on the throne. That included side-lining her own sister, encouraging abuse towards her sister’s children, and keeping Dominic by her side, who she trusted completely and could unleash on anyone that opposed her. I don’t even want to get into what she did to Annalise because the fic will cover that and it might be a little too much for a simple OC post lmao. (Fantomette can confirm).

There had never really been a queen like her before, since most were benevolent and decent, but Claudia was just genuinely evil-hearted.

So, fair warning, you do NOT want this lady at a tea party lol. She’s probably the only Cainhurst noble besides Dominic that actually earned the “Vileblood” name xD

—

Lady Evelyn, aunt of Queen Annalise, mentor to Lady Maria

If Claudia was the “bad” sister, then Evelyn was the “good” sister. Even though she looks scarier, hehe. Yes, I did come up with this character because of the gun, but it just made sense to me that they would name the weapon after the commander of the beast-hunting knight’s calvary. In my eyes, the previous armies were not as well equipped for beast hunting because the plague hadn’t been very prevalent then. When it got worse, and after Evelyn had been cast aside in favor of her sister’s rule, she founded a new league of knights.

Evelyn was calm, rational, and intelligent. She carefully analyzed Gehrman from afar and the way in which he modified weapons before proceeding to imitate him and garner extra knowledge from Eastern weapon-smiths. She modified and commissioned the Evelyn pistol, the Chikage, the Reiterpallasch, and even the Rakuyo upon Maria’s request. Sometimes she made the weapons herself, sometimes she simply told the weapon-smiths how to design them, but every time she would end up with something brilliant.

Her knights loved her, and she was their strict, formal commander and trainer. She also taught Lady Maria how to fight, and how to adapt to using standard weapons instead of blood-blades. Maria’s dualistic skills began with Evelyn and continued with Gehrman, both of whom she admired.

Evelyn found that her focus on beast-hunting and leading her knights was the best way to avoid Claudia and the strife within their shared home. She did her best to not provoke her sister and remained silent even after the usurpation, but inevitably there was a deep resentment brewing. In secret, Evelyn prepared her son (Leo) to one day reclaim the throne. This quiet treason was the foundation for much of the tension between the descendants of both sisters.

Regardless, Evelyn’s plans were understandable, and while she may have been quite bitter and aloof, she at least loved her children, her knights, and her remaining family, often holding back her own desires for their sakes. It was her graceful daughter that led the knights during the time of Logarius’s attack, and Leo, who was very similar to his mother if only a bit more volatile, loyally fought in his mother’s name for many years of his life.

Evelyn would be very stern and formal at a tea party, so maybe not the most exciting person to invite, but she would be able to tell some great stories, and at least she’d hold back from fighting anyone lol.

—

Lord Theodore, brother of Queen Annalise

(It’s funny using this portrait because Fantomette has a whole different OC based off of it who is so sweet, but now I gotta share my totally different one kjsjs).

I don’t have a whole lot to say about this pompous loser, but basically, he was Annalise younger brother and was usually pretty satisfied to just do whatever his sister asked if he was able to live a luxurious, unbothered life in return.

As a child, he was a spoiled brat and endlessly bullied his cousins (Evelyn’s children) because uhh…he thought it was funny? I guess? Basically he took after his mother, but without the cunning and frightening intelligence. He was a somewhat decent captain of the guard after Dominic, but his battle skills were really not too impressive or anything. He usually just sent out his underlings to do most of the dirty work when he could.

Needless to say, he wasn’t exactly popular among his own soldiers for that, but he was quite popular with the kingdom’s people. He looked like some dreamy, romantic hero, and so they all put him on a pedestal for it. He loved the attention and praise from them, because…well, it was what fueled him to keep doing his job. He was a spoiled, smug individual, and just wanted to eat, drink, be merry, and enjoy long life, which he received from his sister’s blood.

He did have some mild resentment towards Annalise because as adults, she treated him as somewhat of a pawn or a public trophy to win her people’s affections, but her compensation for his work was usually so lavish that he just ignored his issues with Annalise. He didn’t consider them worth losing his luxuries.

He’d be an overly-proud and selfish person to have at a tea party, but hey, he’d be kinda fun to bully because there’s no way this guy can take what he dishes out sjhskkskj. He’s rude as hell to people he doesn’t like, but you could probably get him to cry if you insulted his hair xD

—

Ok, finally I’m away from Cainhurst, thank Kos. I do have more background characters developed, but they aren’t active enough in the story to mention, and again, they’re usually just family/lore tie-ins.

Anyway, let’s look at a couple more characters that actually influence the story in CIB.

—

Felix, The Hinterlands Scarecrow and predecessor to Eileen

Imagine Eileen but with a scarecrow cap, a creepy scarecrow mask, a blue-beaded bell charm, and slightly blue-splattered feathers with blue/gold thread subtly woven in. That was Felix, the Blue Crow, the Scarecrow, whatever you wanna call him. He came from the “Hinterlands” aka “totally-not-Tibet” where the first hunter-hunters came from.

In my canon, Eileen was born in “totally-not-Nepal” which is geographically, (and accurately so irl), right next to “totally-not-Tibet.” So, she and Felix crossed paths as youths and knew each other for years. Felix was the nephew to the first hunter of hunters, and had hoped to succeed her as the next to carry the mantle. However, his aunt skipped over him and chose another lad to carry the crow mantle for a few years. Yes, Felix was young at the time and therefore a bit immature. He was jealous of the successor, Brandon, for years, but wouldn’t ya know it, they finally met and Felix realized the bastard was actually pretty cool.

Fast forward a few years, Felix is Brandon’s soon-to-be successor, and the two are like…best friends. They were like Anakin and Obi-Wan in The Clone Wars fr. Absolute bros.

They even went to fight on the frontlines of a distant war together, and spent a lot of time hunting down crazed members of the League who were losing their minds. Obviously Brandon was the mercy-killer, but Felix learned how to become a dangerous warrior along the way.

Then BAM! Brandon goes whack in the head after some rough turns in the road and Felix has to be his mercy-killer in order to finally embrace his crow-mantle. What was once a young boy’s dream of glorious achievement was now a bitter and grim affair. Felix very reluctantly took down Brandon and became pretty withdrawn, cynical, and stoic afterwards. That’s when he found Eileen again and started training her.

Felix was a crow for a long time, and his reputation for having killed one of his own “kin” earned him the moniker of “The scarecrow among his own.” After all, what is a scarecrow if not the terror of even the ominous crows? Felix would kill one of his own if necessary. While he was highly emotive, wild, and strong-willed as a youth, older Felix was closed-off, disciplinarian, traditional, cold, and pessimistic. Only Eileen knew him for who he really was, and the two had an unspoken bond like a brother-sister pair. Felix discouraged any emotional ties, but yes, he did care for Eileen, and vice-versa.

Really, the only strife that arose between them was when Eileen’s apprentice became the Bloody Crow, because uhhh, you can imagine Felix’s PTSD with crow-hunters teetering on the edge of madness and all that. Heh.

Overall, Felix would be fine at a tea party, but he might be too strict or sharp-tongued, thereby killing the mood a bit. How dare anyone have fun and be relaxed in his presence 😒 (He’s actually a good guy tho, plz don’t judge him too hard </3)

—

Hugo, Logarius’s second-in-command.

I don’t know what it is with me and making awful characters, but I guess I need them for the plot lmao. Hugo is genuinely despicable, and honestly on the same level as Claudia/Dominic. At first, you might just think he’s a bully, but his undying loyalty to Logarius of all people suggests that he’s worse.

Hugo was originally the son of one of Gehrman’s hunting captains, and grew up in the hunter’s culture around Byrgenwerth. He was ambitious and aggressive as a hunter, usually overly-mutilating beasts, getting into fights with his peers, and causing trouble. Most suspected that he just had a violent home life, but nobody could really confirm what the problem was.

Nevertheless, Hugo hated humanity and found “the hunt” to be a way to unleash all his vicious loathing. He very loudly preached against the idea that beasts were human, and he didn’t believe that Pthumerians, Vilebloods, or any other humanoid type beings were human either. This is essentially what Logarius taught, and even though they all knew it was BS, they had to justify their actions somehow.

Hugo tortured and butchered countless people over the years when he followed Logarius into the Church and became an Executioner (Logarius’s right-hand man). Anyone with even the slightest signs of bestial infection were targets for Hugo, and there were rumors that he had cannibalistic tendencies when dispatching his victims because he “didn’t see their flesh as human flesh.” (Another lie to satisfy his lust for destruction of his fellow man of course). The other Executioners always helped cover up his crimes because they were scared of him too. Everyone knew that he was a perverse and disgusting individual.

So, yeah…do NOT, I REPEAT, DO NOT INVITE THIS SADISTIC BASTARD TO YOUR TEA PARTY PLEASE OMG. If you don’t hate him now, you will when I post the next few chapters because uhhh…uhh…uhhh….ANYWAY!

—

Johann and Pavel, the Yharnam Clockmaker

Alright, this one is a bit complicated because I know it’s two names here, but it’s only one character, and not in a Dr. Jekyll type of way. Basically this old guy, Johann, was a clockmaker in Yharnam and was one of the people to help design the Astral Clocktower itself.

Johann lived alone in his old age, but had what was likely schizophrenia and constantly hallucinated the presence of his long lost son, Pavel. Pavel had died as a child, but to Johann, he was his small, tag-a-long apprentice in the old clock-shop. During the years when Bloody Crow/Luther was in Yharnam, he befriended the grizzled clockmaker and formed somewhat of an odd friendship with him.

Luther was always coming in to commission him for pocket watches or water clocks….because Luther had a specific interest in collecting and learning how to craft the ornaments. He employed their designs in things like little smoke and powder bombs as well, and Johann was the go-to “parts guy.”

So, Johann spent many hours chatting away with Luther as they worked on these little trinkets, and the latter got used to seeing the aged man call out and speak to his deceased son like it was nothing. Just another sad story of Yharnam madness, eh?

You could invite this fellow to a tea party for sure. He’s nice, and just a bit eccentric is all. Yes, he talks to someone you can’t see, but there’s nothing wrong with that! Bloke deserves some free cake tbh.

—

Ok! I’m pretty sure those are the main OCs for CIB, and even though I developed the hell out of Vileblood Drifter Leo (He’s Evelyn’s son in this story), those two Research Hall doctor-hunters (Gladys and Ursula), and the previous crow-hunters, those are all either non-original characters already or characters that are only mentioned by name in the fic. I do plan to make a big post for my headcanons on the previous crow-hunters sometime, but they’re mostly for background lore purposes. I’m not sure if I’ll ever actually write all their stories.

In the mean time, this is gonna be one hell of a tea party…are you ready Bim?? XD

[sagemoderocklee]

SO I COULDNT FIND THE MSPAINT DRAWIGN THAT I WANTED TO SEND- BUT THIS IS THE CLOSEST I COULD FIND. i love RtS my god yes it was a great fuckin fic- ALSO I HAVE ONE QUESTION- the PEACOCK FEATHER, please I must asume you are aware of the queer history behind it yes? cuz if so YOOOOO it was such a nice suddle nod if you knew!! so fuckin clever bro

Expect me to comb through other fics youve got eventually too cuz this was a fuckin blast! [Also this is Kengi_Bengi from Ao3 if thats not clear, I would send another huge ass comment but on tumblr i can send low quality jpg's to express my emotions better so i chose the latter]

hi! thank you so much! this is such a delight! i did figure you were the same user from ao3! this image is hilarious and i am crying XD very glad you weren't joking about sending an image to express yourself because it's truly fantastic

and i am vaguely aware of the peacock feather's historical use by gay men but this was actually directly related to the fact that the peacock is India's national bird! i have a lot of worldbuilding stuff for wind country/suna and a very detailed map that is still in the works, but india is a big influence on this for a few reasons. also blue--again per my worldbuilding--is a sacred color in suna, so the peacock and other blue-feathered birds are used in motifs within Suna, and especially in the ornaments (though lee had his dyed to look like a sunset so kinda defeats the purpose of the blue but that's okay cause they don't like have to be blue)

but either way certainly a happy accident that it's history and cultural context has a variety of uses!

i hope the rest of my fics live up to the hype of RtS! i so look forward to more comments and mspaint images from you! <3

[chornayadrakoshig]

saw this fic writter tag on @oh-hush-its-perfect page and decided to join too :) I'm not tagging anyone directly but feel free to participate!

My Ao3 if anyone is interested: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChornayaDrakoshig

1. How many fics do you have published on Ao3? 

70 currently posted; I'm moving to Ao3 from another website and there is one collection of oneshot translations that I haven't reposted yet + a few essays/character analysis works that are kinda in question, as well as some old things and original works (I'm still not 100% if I want to repost them or not, maybe I'll do some editing first)

2. What's your total word count on Ao3?

235,711 at the time of posting (9 feb 2024) - not a total word count ever published, but the other website I've used doesn't have stats like that (it's in pages and this stat is disabled since I've hidden everything into drafts there)

3. For which fandoms do you write?

mostly Code Lyoko; second largest is Harry Potter, but I doubt I'll write any more HP after finishing the current WIP crossover. I'm not going to say "never" but well...

besides that, I have a few one shots written for Miraculous Ladybug, Humans, Parked, Testament of Youth (yes, I was hardcore Colin Morgan fan okay? I watched most of the films/shows with him pre 2016 and even one theatre play recording)

and I have a lot of fandoms on my "want to write" list including one large fic activelly in planning/plotting stage 👀

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

tbh I barelly have any kudos on my Ao3 account because I'm reposting my works under original publication date so they are deep, deep in the tags. Also at the moment I'm writting/translating in russian only, and Ao3 isn't even in top 3 of popular fanfic websites for this language. But I picked it for reasons

so, originally posted top 5 were (unsurprisingly all HP):

Сломанный маховик (time-travel fix-it, marauders era, Sirius/OC - and that's the largest multichapter I've ever did)

Шесть шагов (Jily one shot)

Чем пахнет свобода? (Sirius-related one shot, OC mentioned but unspecified, related to 1st fic but can be read separately)

Крёстная (7ish years post main canon [not epilogue], Teddy Lupin and his OC godmother - again related to 1st fic but can be read separately)

Осеннее обострение (Jily oneshot)

and on Ao3 currently:

Сломанный маховик (yep again)

Снежный Ангел (Code Lyoko, that's a translation actually! William/Aelita)

Остаточное погружение (Miraculous Ladybug, one shot, darker take on the results of akumatization, focuses on Alya)

Маршмеллоу и овсяное печенье (Miraculous Ladybug, one shot, fluff, Alya/Nino)

Lyokober (Code Lyoko, one shot collection made for challenge, each fic is a different pairing - has both popular ships and rarepairs)

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to respond to everyone (especially now when I don't get a lot of them on the new platform)

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

ooooh I love angsty open endings :) I think one of my favourite is "Ритуал" (Code Lyoko, aftermath of main character(s) death, kinda apocalyptic AU)

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? 

that's the hardest question so far xD As I mentioned I like to breathe in the angst, so, eh, I think "Сломанный маховик"as it was time-travel fix-it?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not really? I got a few "this is a dumb idea" type of comments, but it was few and far between idk if it counts as hate comments.

But I got banned from one discord server and part of the reason was mentioning one ship I've written for. So...

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Not my thing really - tbh I rarelly read smut too (maybe like, 25% or less of things I read?). If we don't include translations, I have one original work that's kinda Prelude/PWP without Porn thing. And one one shot with rape/non-con. Most of the time, if the fic even touches that, I'm more "fading into darkness, no detailed description of body parts of poses, feelings-focused, T rating at most" type of smut writer.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've ever written?

I love crossovers but I've ever written (or, rather, I'm currently writting) only one. It's Code Lyoko & Harry Potter, where Harry's world is a virtual reality that Lyoko Warriors explore.

However, I like to go into inspired-by-fandom AUs that aren't really full crossovers, as they don't include characters or detailed worldbuilding from another fandom, but they are heavily inspired - I think I have multiple fics like that.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I had one fic stolen (I think one of my HP ones? honestly I don't remember at this point). Also had a few shorter original works reposted with minor edits and no links/credit on social media.

And, unrelated to writting - there was an art of my fan character (not made by me, I think I got it as art trade or gift?) that was recolored & reposted on instagram once.

12. Have you ever had a work translated?

No, but I translate a lot myself - currently out of 70 posted works 16 are translations! I mostly translate from english but there are 2 french-russian translations too.

13. Have you co-written a fic before?

Nope, but I helped to beta-read/edit a handfull of works before. Also worked on ideas/worldbuilding for original work together but I haven't wrote for it. Also co-translated a fic once!

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Odd/Aelita (Code Lyoko)

Sirius/Hermione (Harry Potter, a specific subset of time-travel fix-it fanfic but I occasionally read other stuff)

Raine/Eda (The owl house)

Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Eddie/Chrissy (Stranger Things)

15. What's a WIP you want to finish but probably never will? 

I had one WIP (not reposted currently and probably never will) that is canon retelling in format of poetry, kinda witty and satirical. I'm bad at poetry. And at satire. The original show is over 100 episodes long. I wrote 3 poems on this wave of inspiration and abandoned it. But I still think the idea is funny and it would be cool to finish it but I have all those other WIPs I'm a) more interested in now b) more likelly to finish

16. What are your writing strengths?

God I like descriptions. Maybe even too much. Also with book-based fandoms, I've often got comments that my writting gives the same vibe as the book writting, so I guess I tend to imitate the tone & writting style relativelly well?

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

I'm so bad in plotting long-form content it's not even funny. I tend to get one-liner ideas, about a setting, AU type, or a scene, but I struggle to come up with conflict, character development, events. I literally completed only 2 multichapter fics.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in a fic in another language?

I'm not a big fan of including whole dialogs in one language into a fic written in another. My go-to is 3 or less phrases per chapter, with translation in the notes. If I need to include larger dialogue, and the scene include character(s) that don't know the language, I write it in translation, maybe highlight it in italic or bold font, and sprinkle in mentions of what language are they speaking and that other character(s) don't understand what's going on.

Maybe I'm traumatised by reading "War and Peace" back in school but 1st tome has pages after pages that are almost all in french. The footnotes with translation take half of the page. It's not fun to read when you don't know the other language!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Merlin (this fic is an abandoned wip and currently isn't on my Ao3 but I plan to repost it for sentimantal reasons :) - written in 2011)

20. Favorite fic you've written?

I can't pick one they all are my babies 😭 but some of the favourites:

Гордое фарфоровое божество (Humans, poem, Astrid/Niska)

Вырви мне сердце (Parked, poem - and it has stunning podfic that makes me emotional every time I listen to it)

Крёстная (HP, Teddy Lupin and his OC godmother)

Снаружи (current WIP! Code Lyoko & Harry Potter crossover)

[neitherever-nornever-goodbye]

Number Five Fic Recs

I have spent days reading Five fics since season 2 aired, so I decided that I might as well start jotting them all down for anyone’s interested. It’s a long list, here we go xD

Completed

1.  Blood and Steel by @e-vasong, T, 6900 words

Diego gets shot. Five is evasive. There is a bit of an emotional reckoning, and neither of them are even vaguely equipped for it.

2.  Carry Him by ClaraCivry (Kat_Of_Dresden), not rated, 2422 words

`Five times Five's siblings carried him, took his weight.

Some hurt Five, some fluff, but mostly Hargreeves being worried and looking after him.

3.  Small Changes by calypso42, T, 3509 words

“I need to ask you something.” He set down the large stack of books he was carrying beside him. Klaus glanced at a few of the titles - Consciousness in the Brain - Memory & the Role of the Hippocampus - Soul vs. Matter: A Comprehensive Look at the Origins of Sentience - and grimaced.

“Are you… having an existential crisis, or something? Because I am possibly the worst person you could go to for that.”

...

When Five goes to Klaus to ask him something about his powers, Klaus doesn’t think much of it. At least, until he realizes that what he thought was simple curiosity was actually deeper than that, leading to a revelation about Five himself.

4.  Strike A Violent Pose by @ford-ye-fiji, T, 1268 words

And here he was, limping along with a twisted ankle, going to save his siblings from certain doom yet again.

5.  You are not alone by my_monster_are_real, T, 4259 words

Five doesn't like to be taken care of, but Allison doesn't care.

6.  They Could Care Less (as long as someone’ll bleed) by @ford-ye-fiji, M, 2835 words

Number Five is cornered once again by commission agents, but this time with his family.

-

Diego and Klaus learn something about their littlest-oldest brother.

7. Didn’t Give Me Time to Say Goodbye by rookflight, Gen, 1769 words

After dealing with the second apocalypse, Five takes time to think about everything that’s happened. Klaus seizes the opportunity for some quality sibling bonding.

8.  With Two Arms by karcheri, T, 3345 words

What it comes down to, really, is that Five had been too eager for results. Once it became clear to him that there was a connection between his powers and his energy level the obvious course of action, as he saw it, was to test this information. The hypothesis was this: higher energy levels = stronger powers and the easiest way to get more energy is to eat more. Pretty simple stuff. Too simple.

or Five times that Five starves himself and one time that he gets called out on it.

9.  Number Five The Monster Under The Bed by Kraeyola, T, 5460 words

It's easy to forget sometimes when you look at Five; small lanky body, little boy-scout shorts, and a perfectly pristine uniform. A smooth youthful face that's always wearing a too-serious expression for someone (supposedly) so young. Not that the siblings don't respect Five as an equal, it's just... well. It's hard to take him so seriously. Especially when he gets mad and makes such an adorable pouty face.

It's why they find it so difficult to deal with reconciling Five to the boy they (thought they) knew, to the boy they're seeing standing right in front of them. But you can't really blame them, can you?

After all, it's hard to believe things without witnessing them first hand.

There is a monster under the bed and it's in the shape of a thirteen-year-old boy.

10.  Nonlinear theory for dummies by Inkjade, Gen, 4786 words

After forty-five years of fighting, it's kind of hard to know how to stop.

11.  Vital Signs by aye_of_newt, M, 3524 words

Sometimes, it's difficult for Klaus to tell if someone is alive or dead.

When Five shows up, covered in blood after killing the Board, Klaus panics.

12.  Not with me by Claracivry (Kat_Of_Dresden) Gen, 5681 words

They never asked if any of that blood was his.

Five is bleeding, and he is also giving up.

AU to 2X07, with hurt Five because after all that boy has been through...

13.  Nothing’s Going on (and that’s the problem) by briegretful, T, 5231 words

(Directly after the season 2 ending, except everything's normal and everyone's still around) He did it. Five saved his family. They landed in 2019 and everything, somehow, worked out.

He's not sure how to deal with that.

or

Five struggles to deal with not having an apocalypse to stop, and his family tries to help him.

14.  A New Life by BirdInTheCave, T, 3884 words

Allison had convinced Ray to come back to 2019 with her and her family and after a month of being cooped up in the house with the other Hargreeves plus their own unconventional guests, Ray suggests they spend some time alone. He's still struggling to fully comprehend the new world he's stepped into but he's determined that with Allison at his side he can get used to anything. Allison can't find a reason to say no. She should have said no.

Luckily for her, Five will always be there for his family, now that he's back.

15. Side Effects May Vary by CivilBores, T, 6565 words

Allison crosses her arms. “Five,” she says firmly, “when was the last time you slept?”

“I don’t know,” Five says honestly. At Allison’s expression, he quickly adds, “But it doesn’t matter. I don’t know what it’ll take for all of you pea-brained idiots to realize that.”

“We may not be as intelligent as you, Five,” Allison says, “but at least all of us are smart enough to know how to take care of ourselves.”

OR

A week after the world is saved, Five convinces himself that he is still experiencing lingering side effects of paradox psychosis. His family has something to say about that.

16. The Walls Kept Tumbling Down by @ingu, T, 64888 words, 8 chapters

It started small.

There was a nagging ache in his chest, phantom pain from where the bullets had pierced his flesh, in the overwritten timeline that never will be.

(the one where rewinding time doesn't miraculously resolve mortal gunshot wounds)

17. Stay by maddienole, T, 6027 words

Five had saved his life once, many months ago. Maybe it was time for Klaus to return the favor.

18. Growing Pains by kakashi_mole, Not rated, 10520 words, Fiveya (personal fave, angst too much)

Number Five remembers his first kiss

Notes:    

Takes place after Season Two. A Five-centric fic. Some teenagers get growing pains, some don’t, but the last “cycles” of pain usually occur around age 13.

19. Another Cog in Murder Machine by @ford-ye-fiji​, T, 2463 words

Five finally gets the breakdown he deserves 

20. Sorrows Like Thunder Clouds by Emotionally_Detached (Yeah_Toast), T, 6953 words

He makes it. He time travels and makes it through another apocalypse.

He makes it, but his siblings don't.His siblings don't make it, except he's in his own childhood and they're still here, alive and thirteen and he can fix things.

He will fix things

On Going

1. “I’m Too Tired” by beastboy12, T, Chapters 2/?

A slight re-telling of the barn scene. Five manages to save his siblings, but at what cost?

In which the author takes a throw-away line in season 2 and runs with it.

2.  And We All Turn To Ash by @golden-redhead, Gen, Chapters 1/?

Seconds, not decades. 

The blue glow pulsed between his fingers and he pulled at the familiarity of the feeling, pulling until time and space bent under his touch, parting as he struggled to squeeze himself through just enough to jump and change the course of history. 

The energy, familiar but somehow different, courses through his body and then he moves, for a few precious seconds existing within the time and yet outside of it. 

-

a.k.a. Five is so, so close to getting them back home and making things right. And then he isn't.

3. Tangled in The Hanging Tree by TiredPigeon (TwistedSkys), T, Chapters 2/?

The timeline is still messed up, obviously. There is still so much work to do, still so much to fix. His siblings have questions and concerns, and they want answers.

Five just wants his nose to stop bleeding.

(Post-season 2, but I have no plans to speculate on season 3, so consider this fluff.)

Five is tired, his family is starting to notice.

 Thats all for now!

@tomatojuicem apologies for making you wait ;)

Lmk if theres something wrong with the link Notes: All these fics posted after season 2 aired, but not neccessary related to season 2

[raisedbyfandomwolves]

TtQ. 😂😂 It's great, like a neverending happy surprise😁 [Omg, Yess!! Exactly!! Like WHY?!? THAT DIDN'T EVEN MAKE SENSE! And OMG, absolutely! Alex' behavior concerning anything related to Mon-El, whether directly at him or indirectly at poor Kara, was just absolute BS! AND THE WHOLE JEREMIAH THING MAKES ME WANNA PUNCH SOMEBODY EVERY SINGLE TIME!I mean, Kara was a hypocrite that episode too,but Alex was just full on horrible and the fact none bothered to apologize even indirectly is just SHIT]

Addition: And Yup, definitely no Sister goals there. Like, I can't imagine EVER telling a sibling/friend/anything sth like that or acting like that... Just, no. I Love the concept of their sistership, but moments like that make me want to burn it all and have Kara just leave the planet... TtQ. Ohh, so he could have been alive if he hadn't died on Daxam🤔😍 And uh, not exactly, at least not fully planned, but the idea of Mon&Bal-Seg seeing each other again despite thinking the other dead [TBC]

TBC: or just Bal-Seg with kid!Mon makes me all warm and fuzzy, so I am thinking of maybe writing sth just for fun and smiles🙈 I still have a bunch of other stuff including the angst fic's happy end, the Power Rangers AU, another One-Shot and a College/IceHockey!AU to finish first before I start yet another of the one-shot ideas on the list🤣🙈 TtQ/FQ: If Bal-Seg was around 150, how old (roughly) were Hal-Ed, the king and the Queen?🤔 (Btw, 8 messages🙈 I'm so sorry it got too long again🙈)

TtQ. Happy to be of service then. XD

[EVERYTHING about the Jeremiah incident infuriates me especially because it's the epitome of an Idiot Plot - the only reason the entire mess could happen was nearly everyone was a complete idiot and/or utter jackass and to make it worse, the only person whose brain was allowed to work - Mon-El - was painted as the VILLAIN for using said brain. I wanted to smack everyone except him to various degrees. =_= And same, that's just such a terrible thing to say in general and again, SHE NEVER APOLOGISED. In fact, Alex is almost allergic to saying sorry when I look back at all the major conflicts between them. I don't actually mind the sisterhood; what I DO mind is that the show NEVER addressed their relationship's more unhealthy elements all the way until the end and tended to 'favour' Alex over Kara in many ways.]

TtQ. Technically speaking, yes. And ugh, I'd love to read either or better yet both of those ideas (I know akane171 would LOVE that too) so DO IT! Push it to the front of the queue! Also, sorry, what college/ice hockey AU?

FQ. Hal-Ed was about 40-50 while the king and queen were about 70-80.

(It's okay, haha. I'm amazed the Tumblr secretary didn't erase any of them though.)

[jadethest0ne]

35! Go for it! ✨

Oh right, for this ask game! I had nearly forgotten about it XD

35. Ramble about any fic-related thing you want! 

If there was one fic-related thing I’d want to ramble about it’d be specifically being a comic artist, and the different things I experienced going from the Pokemon fandom to the RotTMNT fandom as a comic artist.

I spent 5 years creating a Pokemon comic called “Liberty”, based on a nuzlocke playthrough of Pokemon Soul Silver (basically pokemon on hard-mode with permadeath involved for those of you who don’t know what a nuzlocke is). Meanwhile, it’s been just over a year since my first foray into creating comics for the Rise fandom.

The Similarities

The Disparity between Fanart and Fanfiction

Being a comic artist is odd sometimes because I basically do both fanart and fanficiton at the same time. I can understand and vibe with what a lot of both fanartists and fanfiction writers go through and deal with. This is why I feel like I can answer a lot of these fanfiction questions despite a good chunk of my story-telling being visual.

I am also aware of the disparity between fanart often getting a lot more eyes and attention than fanfiction. Deciding to write a piece of fanfiction instead of draw it out in comic format is often a calculated choice on my part, because writing prose takes more energy from me and often gets less rewards via views and interaction from readers. But despite it taking more energy, it takes less overall time for me to write something out than draw the same story, so I often factor that in when deciding which medium to create a story in.

I feel bad that a lot of fanfiction writers don’t get the attention that they deserve because of this disparity, so may I remind readers to please please PLEASE support your fanfiction creators and interact with their work! It seriously means a lot to them! Even a little message or a reblog will do! The main similarity between these two fandoms is this disparity, and I think it’d be awesome if we could get the number of interactions between fanart/fancomics and fanfiction to be more equal.

The Differences

I’m more popular as a Rise artist?

So, as I said, I spent 5 years making a Pokemon comic and 1 year creating a bunch of Rise comics. And yet I think I got more (or at least the same number of) viewers on my Rise comics in that one year than on my Pokemon comics in 5 years. I certainly got a similar number of followers, despite the differences in time. One of the main reasons for this is likely due to the social media platforms I posted on. I posted “Liberty” on deviantart and on the Pokemon Nuzlocke forums, the latter being particularly niche. As for my Rise comics and artwork, I branched out to other sites including here on Tumblr, Instagram, AO3, and Twitter (though insta got fewer comics due to the image size restrictions). The number and popularity of the sites I posted Rise artwork to are more than deviantart and that is likely a big reason. The other reasons for my increase in popularity may be for some of the other differences...

There aren’t that many comic artists in the TMNT fandom

I could probably name only a handful of consistent comic creators in, not only the Rise fandom, but in the TMNT fandom. And I mean the long-running, over-arching story type of comic creators. There aren’t that many of us. There are tons of artists and fanfic writers out there, yes, but very few that combine the two.

Meanwhile the Pokemon community has TONS. Especially the nuzlocke community. Heck, the Pokemon nuzlocke community started and was named because of a popular comic detailing the events of the creator’s nuzlocke challenge playthrough of Pokemon Emerald. You get a little bit more lost in the crowd amongst so many other comic artists in the Pokemon community, but at the same time have more people to learn from and relate to in that way.

My involvement with the Fandoms has been different

There’s been a lot of collaboration and working together among creators within each respective fandom. I feel like personally, a lot of my collabs with Rise creators has been a lot more direct and more personal than the kind of things I did in the Pokemon fandom.

For example, in the Pokemon comic fandom, it was really common to cameo each others’ characters in your comic, or include each others’ comics or characters in memes. This wasn’t always a planned thing, though we would ask each other for permission. I joined a Pokemon comic discord, but most of my interactions there and on other platforms involved brainstorming help. Not only that, but sometimes the community was a bit more competitive as well. For instance the Nuzlocke Forums would hold an “extravaganza” every year where folks voted on various categories to vote for the best nuzlocke (I won “Best Pokemon” and “Most improved” in 2018 :3 ).

Meanwhile with the Rise fandom, I did more things like art trades, collaborative art pieces, and zine work. These were a lot more direct and planned out and involved a bit more trust and interaction with other artists. I also became close friends with the folks in the discords that I joined as part of a Rise server, beyond just “fellow creator”.

As a result, I found myself doing a lot more serious artwork and even created other fics for the Rise fandom beyond just my comics, while when it came to Pokemon I stuck mainly to my “Liberty” art/comics.

More eyes, less interaction and visa versa

Again, this could be mainly a differences in what social media I’m using, but a big difference I found between readers of my work is that I got A LOT more people commenting on my Pokemon comic than on my Rise comics. I may be getting more views on my TMNT comics, but boy did I get more interaction with my Pokemon comics. I would get at least 5 people leaving these in-depth analysis or guesses of what would happen on each page for my Pokemon comic, not to mention the dozens of other reactions I would get in the comments. And despite that comic being on hiatus for a year, I still get some comments on it!

So, unless I know the commenter personally, I feel a little less involved with my readership with my Rise comics than my Pokemon one. Which is a little sad. I do appreciate you all who appreciate my work, but I feel like I appreciate you from afar and can only go “awww” at the things y’all leave in the notes or on the anonymous asks I get, instead of being able to thank you more directly.

Rise readers are a bit less patient

I get lots more people asking me “when the next page is coming” on my Rise comics and fics much more often than on my Pokemon comic. This virtually never happened with my Pokemon comic. Granted, I was way more consistent with “Liberty” and it had a set schedule, whereas my Rise comics/fanfics never have. But still.

I really DO NOT like those kinds of asks/comments. Please do not ask me when the next one is coming out. It makes me feel stressed and ashamed and pressured, which can create negative feelings around my work and make me less likely to finish them. I get that you’re excited, and that’s cool. But literally no one likes those kinds of comments.

For perspective, “Liberty”, my Pokemon comic, has been on hiatus for nearly a year and I’ve gotten maybe two comments to that effect, and they were newer readers who weren’t around at the time that I announced my hiatus and the reasons thereof. My “Liberty” readers have been so patient with me (bless them), and I feel a real loyalty to that kind of readership. I don’t know when, yet, but I really want to get back to “Liberty” someday, not just for myself or that story that I lovingly crafted, but also for them.

Pokemon was a hobby, Rise is a passion

Likely due to the fact that I have made a lot of close friends within the Rise community, and the fact that it has helped me immensely through this really tough year, I feel so much closer with the Rise creator community. Pokemon was a thing that I did for fun as a side hobby. My TMNT related comics and art have pushed me so much further in my art, gotten me involved in various projects, gotten me into creating animations, holy heck was I sucked into this fandom in such a short amount of time, and I love it so much.

I have been a fan of Pokemon since I was a kid, and I never thought I’d find a piece of media that would capture my attention and adoration as much. I think at a point when I was shifting from the Pokemon to the Rise fandom I said something along the lines of “I feel like I’m cheating on Pokemon with Rise”/j but it’s kinda true, haha!

In the end, both fandoms and the people in them mean a lot to me, and I’ve grown a lot from them as an artist and a person. I will be forever grateful to the other creators, readers, artists, writers, friends, collaborators, etc in both.

Thank you all very much!

[antihero-writings]

Such Fragile Things

Fandom: Castlevania (I wrote it for the Netflix series, but it works for SOTN too!)

Summary: Dracula thought love was soft, and breakable...but what he feels holding his newborn son is anything but. || Some Dracula and and Adrian feels.

Character focus: Dracula

Notes: I also posted this on my Castlevania blog @symphonyofthewrite if you want to check it out there!! (Decided to repost it instead of reblogging it because I wanted to use different notes here XD)

Chapter 1: His Son's Life

Dracula did not read romance novels. He wasn’t really one for novels in general, especially written by humans. Science. Philosophy. Medicine. Not flights of fantasy.

But the humans have a word for this…and it isn’t quite scientific.

That word is ‘love.’

…But that can’t possibly cover it.

But ‘love’ was always a silly little notion. Love was flowers and candy. Love was sappy letters and maudlin advances. ‘Love’ was sensitive and easy to break. ‘Love’ was soft.

But this… this is anything but soft.

This is a thing that does the breaking. It is painful, and sharp in the way it pierces him so thoroughly. It is tethered so tightly around his heart, that if he tried to sever its bonds his heart would burn, and quite possibly break.

This is daggers and I’d die for you. This is a stake stabbed through the chest.

And that is not what he knows of love.

The the baby boy murmurs quiet nonsense beside his sleeping mother.

Vlad stands over the cradle—(a cradle his parents made out of metal, and cotton, and dedication)—the fabric soft against his fingers.

His mother. A human. Completely, and thoroughly. No turning necessary. He could have turned her…but that would have sullied the pink of her cheeks, the red of her lips, the blue of her eyes.

So many humans are out for blood without thirst involved. He needn’t corrupt one that didn’t experience such desires.

Just an ordinary human, who was either brave or very stupid… or maybe a bit of both to walk straight into the demon’s castle. Maybe she was just curious. …He hoped it wouldn’t kill her one day, like the cat who meant well.

His mother. Lisa. With golden hair, and certain shimmer to her words too.

His father. Dracula. A vampire. The vampire. The king of night and all its hordes. A scary story, full of blood and death and the moon was full that night.

—(Could he even be a father after all that killing? Was there a father behind all that bloodshed? Dare he even try to keep something alive, when these hands were constructed to kill?)—

And Adrian. Just born, already with one foot in each world. Half human. Half vampire. The stars dripped from the ceiling, and the sun spilled in through the window.

Would they hurt him for it?

Would this fact grant him safe passage into both worlds, or make him hated by both? Had he cursed this being to a life of not belonging? Or had he given him an opportunity no one else had; to belong to both?

Would being Dracula’s son make him a villain? Or would it make him a prince? Would the humans fear and hate him? Would the vampires bow to him?

Would being Lisa’s son make him a hero? Would the humans accept him as one of them? Would the vampires exile him as a half-breed, impure, no matter if his father had a castle, and a crown, and fangs all too ready to sink into their necks?

Barely noticeable now, he has golden hair like his mother, and fangs like his father.

…He wonders how this creature, so full of light, could come from the king of night.

Then Adrian starts crying.

The king of night is uh…not equipped for this. He’s never comforted a crying child before. He’s made more than a few cry in his time, but he’s never been on the other end…it seems the much more difficult side of things.

He has half—(okay, more than half)—a mind to wake Lisa for help. …But Lisa has done enough for today. Surely he can handle one crying baby.

Vlad is careful not to let his nails pierce the child’s skin as he scoops him up, cradling him in his arms.

Adrian is so small. It doesn’t feel like he’s made of thumping, pumping blood and bone. He feels as if he’s made of glass, and Dracula fears he’ll shatter in his hands.

Dracula has killed so many things in his life. He has killed humans, and animals and, yes, another vampire or two. But he doesn’t want to kill this one. He is so desperate to keep him alive he thinks he might die himself before he saw anything touch him.

Lisa stirs, and Vlad moves the child further away so as not to wake her. He sits in the chair in the corner of the room, by the basket full of toys he will soon play with, and the alphabet charts he will soon learn with.

Dracula did not read romance novels. But he had once heard a lullaby, and he wonders if he can remember the lyrics.

At the gentle song, slowly Adrian calms down in his father’s arms, and looks up at him with those golden eyes.

And Dracula wonders if the world was always this big.

Vampire’s eyes are usually so cold and dark. But he is only half dark, and his eyes are full of sunlight.

He looks up at his father, this dark thing, the killer, the monster king. The creature they said could never learn to love.

And Adrian smiles.

When Dracula returns that smile, it is not an evil sneer tugging at his lips. It is like his face breaks, pouring out all the joy inside him. He leans forward and rests his forehead gently upon Adrian’s.

“My boy.”

******

Notes: 

First of all, stay tuned, because I'm probably going to post another chapter of this!! (Fair warning, though, it's gonna be pretty different from this one tonally...though very much related, and feels-inducing!!)

Don't know if anyone will believe me, but this is actually the first Castlevania fic I ever wrote!! This was actually the precursor to “If These Walls Could Talk”!!

 I was playing with how to start the scene, and I started describing that "Castlevania was not a good place to raise a child" thing that starts off “If These Walls Could Talk”. Then the way I was describing it started sounding like I was personifying the Castle, and then I was like WAIT THAT'S A BETTER IDEA XD So I kinda got more interested in that idea, haha! (By the way, if any of the lines from this fic are also in If These Walls Can Talk too, now you know why XD I didn't intend for there to be any repeats though.) 

Then a little while later I got a really nice prompt asking me to write a diary-style fic about Drac and Lisa recounting Adrian's birth, and I was thinking this ^^ fic and its images would work really well for it, so I didn't post it after that because I thought I'd reconfigure it for the diary thing.

I loved the prompt, but diary-style implies first person...and first person is really tough for fanfiction, and even more so a character like Dracula. It's weird, I love going into characters internal monologue, and I love first person (at least I do as far as my original writing goes), but in fanfiction when I try to write first person it feels almost like "I don't have a right to say I know directly what they're thinking"??...but it's weird, cuz I pretty much already do that... Sorry, I'm rambling! I really hope I can still write that diary fic at some point, but at the moment I'm still struggling, haha.

I've been wanting to get better at editing faster, and posting more often. Lately I've been going through my old/unfinished fics and trying to polish them up and post them, even if they're not perfect in my eyes. So I decided to go back to this one and finish it up anyways! If I do the diary one I guess I'll just have to use other images!

[shy-magpie]

RQG 156

live blog under the cut

Heads up about half way through I realized I go a bit further into analysis on where Zolf & the Kobolds are mentally than some people might be comfortable with. Just as they trust us to back off if the episode gets to real, I am trusting you to close the tab if my little live blog is hitting you wrong. If it makes a difference I have years between me and the reason I relate to this stuff.

"In Memorium" they are trying to kill us Ah they lampshaded the speed intros Yes Alex it is rather Paris Right to Azu & Zolf. Oh he's jumping right in. And there's my first pause of the episode. No “better” isn't a magic finish line you pass then never find yourself in that place again. No, knowing that doesn't mean you don't wonder if your back at square one every time you realize You Are In A Bad Place and Not Handling it Well. Gosh Azu is good at this. Yeah learning to walk away is hard. Learning to ignore the part of yourself that says "and never come back for their sake" is harder. Symbolic much Alex (Zolf is too small for the room, Azu is too large) Yeah it would be easier to not blame Zolf for last episode if I related to him a bit less. Okay they are talking about Hamid and their concerns for him directly. Yeah Hamid's relationship with power & privilege is an arc; and without the Doylist level of trusting Bryn & Alex, I can see where even if you trust/like him you'd be worried about it. With the best of intentions people misuse power. Azu quoted Grizzop at Zolf. Didn't name him, wonder if Zolf is ever going ask directly about his replacement in canon or if its best left to fic. Its easy to dismiss one's own successes. Okay fair and OW, Zolf isn't up to talking about Sasha; which is the part of this I was most prepared for. Hell yeah! He is coming down but not going to be attempting to lead so as to relieve pressure on himself. Maybe if he can let Hamid step up without making a Kew Garden thing he'll see how much he's grown. Hopefully without that setting off a "Hamid does better without me" thing. Yeah intellectual knowledge and it feeling real on an emotional level are very different things. Alex, why does it matter what order they are in? ALEX? The necklace? The Heart of Aphrodite shaped necklace? Azu got a Sign from Aphrodite approving of her reaching out to Zolf as an act of love. Yes! Blue Black no take backs! Yeah those two (players) know exactly what they are doing: breaking my heart in the best ways and not skipping over the actual work those two (characters) need to put into their relationship with OOC "its all fine now"s. Ok that settles the timeline, Azu went up same night, the device isn't made yet. Yeah Zolf wouldn't, probably best to back off while things are tender while being present enough to assure he isn't planning on leaving. Seriously bless Azu, this has to be at least as hard on her as Helen but she is letting the boys have room to work it out for themselves instead of "trying to help". The last thing either of them need right now is pressure especially on this point. Aw the Kobolds teach Cel draconic. Oh smart kid, not only is it just logical for the Kobolds to work with Cel directly, it might help them get over the "looking to see if the boss approves of how you breathe" stage. Especially if he is clear about not being threatened by them having advantage over him in this area. Heck of a relief this isn't hitting my rank issues. Ooh all the Kobolds are amazing engineers, wonder if its a Kobold thing or if Skraak recruited people with similar interests. Nice rework of the "Kobolds build traps" thing from pathfinder. I genuinely love how instead of pitching the original description of Kobolds out the window, Alex has backwards engineered it. Reputation for traps isn't a dishonorable approach to fighting, its a sign of their skill. They aren't minions, their trauma is interacting with a cultural attitude about rank in weird ways. Oh Cel! Cel is amazing. Under Shoin's orders they: made Magic Steroids, did maintenance (more towards the end as Shoin wasn't taking care of things), built the place initially, sourced ingredients, other Kobolds built the Mechkraken. Damn Shoin, they can't even be proud of all they were able to do in adverse circumstances because he tainted it. If they weren't forced to do it and have it used for ill ends, building the kraken would be impressive. A lot of that sounds like difficult work. Hamid stuff: yeah it is from a place of fear; and they would be hypersensitive and need to try to "defend him" so he doesn't react. Terrified of his anger? Handle anything that even annoys him to cut it off at the pass. And being a good person who doesn't like scaring them, Hamid is going to over do the very "Mary Sunshine" routine that makes Zolf think he doesn't appreciate the gravity of the situation. You'd think Mr "do a grief later" would get that Hamid doesn't have to walk the halls wailing to be aware of the end of the world. Not that the kid can win, if he cried and threw up it would be proof he hasn't grown from season one. Hopefully by taking a back seat Zolf will have a chance to see Hamid's actions and realize being chipper & wholesome doesn't mean stupid. Oh Alex has thought this through, one of these days I'll quit being surprised he actually gets this stuff. Not being able to read the person whose emotions feel like life & death is a Bad Thing. Thank Alex for Skraak. Weird seeing this stuff from this side, of course learning to focus on my end instead of being preoccupied with what was going on in the heads of people who were on Hamid's end of it was rather the point. Perfect balance, Hamid gives them enough space to realize he isn’t going to explode, Skraak "translates" into something clear enough not to stress them out. Like when Zolf snapped at Skraak when he pledged to Hamid; might not be pretty but not knowing what The Powers That Be want? Very bad place. Rank and clear orders are very important when appeasing those who outrank you is everything. Cel has dealt with a lot of young and unsure apprentices!?! Yeah well Cel isn't in their chain of command and gears don't get offended if you have an opinion on the right way to configure them. Cel is great Azu & Hamid talking about Zolf! Helen is wonderful! I thought this was going to be drawn out and indirect, instead they are actually facing things head on and dealing with them. Aw these two are so good for each other. Azu would set aside her own emotions. Hot damn Azu, getting right to it! Hamid can be amazingly open about his self awareness and it surprises me every time. It fits him and is a very good thing, but going from answering "how are you?" with "the Kobolds are doing well" to "I never knew how to help him" without it being jarring made me do quite the double take. Guess I was expecting more deflection. Yeah well you two are redefining your boundaries, entire relationship, and rank in specific, while being the perhaps the only people with enough of the picture to figure out how to save the world. Working out the balance between conflicting views on that, when neither of you knows what the end will look like was never going to be smooth. Oh yes and none of you have directly addressed that half of Zolf's rank & dick measuring stuff is because he doesn't know if he even has a role if he isn't The Boss or The Healer.* Oh the grin in Alex's voice as he tells them there is something else before the brorb interview. Whisky tumblers for each? Quite a sigh there Ben News? Big news? While they were in the institute? They ought to sit down. Wilde get to it. Ah Azu & Hamid are holding hands. Poor kid with his prop. Letter? Ancient Rome? Sasha? Are all the fics coming true? Their founder "Askingus"!?! Oh Sasha, oh Zolf! Lydia! Oh the kids! She named the kids after the party. She even found her faith. A break? How the hell are we only half way through the episode. Also hell yeah Lydia deserves all the awards, that was an amazing letter. XD Ben! Oh Hamid, we reacted that way to the epilogue that way too. It really is okay, it was a good end. Yeah he could use a drink. Poor Zolf. Hamid gives Wilde a hug. "technically I think that makes Sasha my boss". XP be cryptic Alex, The RSB will have it figured out by Friday. Ok Zolf got to read the letter on his own. Azu lit 3 candles, because Helen wants me to cry. Hamid is at Zolf's door with a bottle and two glasses. Lydia this is a compliment to your skill. More direct than I expected from Hamid. Oh these two! Okay he is drunk enough to go there (angry at Zolf for leaving but he gets it). About time someone told Zolf directly he's grown. Aw Zolf puts him to bed. Thank you Alex! Ben! (okay fair, if any of Hamid was left he'd cuddle). Sorry Cel! Lydia wanted to break/heal our hearts more than she wanted the plot to move forward ;) Good plan: take the orb to the anti magic field, only those who have already talked to it can talk directly. Info control. Hive mind/telepathy directly addressed. Finally what Shoin eats is addressed. Ok Cel has some teeth on them. Hasn't fed it, is using the vibration to threaten to explode his brain, (no English doesn't have enough pronouns we are working on it)... Oh good point better feed it. Aw Zolf is possessive of the kitchen. Shoin is still Shoin. Cel is not happy about not being recognized. Nice to hear the boys working together. The Infection might block him from being directly aware of  being infected. Bullsh$% he backed himself up. Good point Zolf even if he does, they are separate lives, this instance can still fear death. Oh all the party have teeth, nice they don't have the "good guys have to be sweet & gentle with the baddies" thing Yeah Cel isn't stupid, the brorbs arm isn't a threat. Oh auto painting that will make the people theorizing on the bio side of how the Brorb works happy. A circulatory diagram, and am ocean of faces. Paints like a printer. A creepy charcoal sketch of London staring at the artist. *I swear on Rusty Tower if they let him hurt himself any worse because he thinks his new role is "a brick wall on wheels" I am joining the line to fight Ben in a Whetherspoons parking lot. Yes it would be in character but so would healing. There are other hills. Although seriously its been great having a character that shows so many of the aspects of depression that usually get left out. That Zolf is also a three dimensional character with a full personality beyond just "the one with mental health issues" while not making it look like those issues are tacked on or easy to handle? Stunning work.  

[kerra-and-company]

51, 62, and 90 for Kerra? :3

Oooh sure, sounds great @mystery-salad! :D (Some PoF and Icebrood spoilers below in case anyone is avoiding those, as well as vague and not particularly graphic injury description in question 51!)

51. Have they ever been seriously injured?

I can feel Kerra side-eyeing me in my brain for saying these sounded great and then talking about her serious injuries xD but yes, most definitely, and quite a few times, in fact. The worst one was hands-down the time she actually died after being sliced with a giant flaming sword, with the two that tie for second place being the injury she sustained in my fic spiral (whacked in the side by a bear and a mild concussion on top of it) and that time she got shot very close to/basically IN the heart by a particular asshole imperator with a stolen bow. Injuries that Kerra herself wouldn't put on this list but that I, someone who has never been stabbed and thus perhaps has a lower threshold, definitely WOULD, include a decent-sized burn on her right leg from the Knight of Embers way back in the personal story and a poke directly through her forearm by a very persistent and angry Mordrem.

62. Fav type of music? Why?

Kerra enjoys music with multiple instruments and/or particularly excellent harmonies, which is a ridiculously broad description, I know, but her taste is pretty broad, too. Both of those bits are about what just...sounds pleasing to her ear, I guess is the best way to put it? Ones that hit emotional beats with the music. (No idea if that makes any sense, lmao, and if not I'm so sorry!) She also enjoys things with a bounce and inspirational lyrics; those ones keep her motivated and make her smile/laugh. She is not a fan of Metal-Legion-style music, for the record--too much banging for her, and the lyrics are hard to understand.

90. Any unusual/unique skills? (I.e, special powers compared to others)

Kerra's got her empathy! As in literal empathy, where she can feel what other people are feeling, and it extends to pretty much everyone, not just other sylvari. Let me go find the post where I broke down how it works, hold on...found it! But in case you want to read about it in detail here without jumping to another post, I copied and pasted the relevant portion under the cut :)

She feels the emotions like they’re her own, but at the same time, she can tell that they’re not and whose they actually are. (This can be something of a fine line.) She’s not sure where the ability comes from, aside from (most likely) the Dream, and as of the Icebrood Saga she’s had neither the time nor the motivation to figure that out, though she has a guess. Even without empath powers, she’d be good at reading people, so this moves that skill up a notch too. It also allows her to tell how many beings are in a room before she enters it (helpful for avoiding traps and makes it hard to fool her with illusions in some cases).

There are a few drawbacks. The main one is perhaps the most obvious: not all emotions are positive. She can shut out others’ emotions when she chooses*, but that’s a skill she has to learn, not one she innately possesses. It’s especially hard for her to maintain her “shields” when she herself is emotionally overwhelmed or distraught, which makes several already traumatic experiences worse. A secondary drawback is that her power frightens some people, mostly non-sylvari, who don’t like that she can, at least partially, see into their heads**. (It should be noted that she CANNOT read their minds, only sense emotions. People frightened of her usually don’t bother to learn the difference, and sometimes the emotions side is the more scary one to them anyway.)

As a bonus, a couple exceptions to the general ways her ability works:

Felix: The only being whose thoughts she can sense, through a blending of her soulbeast magic and empath powers.

Aurene***: Aurene is the hardest for Kerra to shut out emotionally because of the bond they share, to the point that at first she thinks it’s not possible. She  figures it out, though. She’d describe shutting out her emotions from Aurene as flipping off only a single switch on an electrical power box.

*She also can shut out specific people’s emotions or try to focus on the emotions of a single person, but that’s a lot more difficult and takes increased concentration.

**It is possible to “close your mind” in such a way that Kerra can’t read it at all, but it’s not particularly healthy long-term: most of the people Kerra can’t read easily are hiding their emotions from themselves, too.

***In one of the prompt fics I wrote, Kerra talks to Aurene in her head. This is only possible after Aurene’s “resurrection”, when the scion is able to speak on her own, and isn’t related to Kerra’s empath ability.

[chaoticspacefam]

2, 3, 4 and 22 for Saarai (from oc asks that reveal more than you think)?

asks from this game here: [x]. I will still take more if anybody wants to send any new ones, I don’t mind! The ask box is also still open so if you want to send in any asks not directly related to a meme you’re also welcome to do that and I’ll get to them whenever I can! :3 Previous answers can be found under “revealing oc asks meme” tag.

Thank you for the asks! These were super fun too! :D There were quite a few questions to this one so I’m gonna pop them under a cut so it doesn’t take up people’s entire dash, but here ya go! :D

2. Can they take care of a plant? What about a pet? What about a child?

Plants, yes, she’s had a few over the years, especially living on Rishi. Those ferns are pretty and she probably has several dotted around her quarters on Odessen to remind her of that time. She’s never really had a pet, but I imagine she could take care of one fairly well based on how good she is with children, it’s really not that much different except that animals can’t respond back when you talk to them so :’3

Yes, she’s very good with kids. She raised her son Ty as a single mother for most of his life and always made sure he had everything he could possibly need. She’s even excellent with other people’s children, in fact I headcanon that whenever someone loses a child on the Alliance base, the first place they look before they panic is Saarai’s office.

That’s probably where they are, and 99.9% of the time they’re right. Saarai loves kids and she just has a very calming and friendly presence when she’s around them and they can usually pick up that she’s a “safe” person to go to for help when they need it. She’s a pro at working around children so she can keep an eye on them without leaving them “unsupervised” as that’s kind of what she had to do when she was raising Ty on Rishi.  Lana has come into the office many a time to find the Alliances collective kids running amock and scribbling all over the important paperwork and what have you.

When questioned “why?” the only answer was “They’re helping! :’D”. Lana was less than amused at the time XD

3. Ask them to describe their love interest.

Oh boy, here we go. Saarai is the sappiest romantic ever known to the galaxy, she could go on for hours about how amazing they are, don’t set her off hahaha *smacks her with a rolled up newspaper* Briefly, Rai, okay? XD

SO she has 3 main LI’s across two separate verses/timelines so far, but here’s what she would say about all of them :3

In the Zephyrverse AU which is a separate timeline and not connected to Subterfugeverse canon as it’s based on an RP between myself and my friend! ^^

Sash (who belongs to my friend that afaik doesn’t have a tumblr account but I’ll link her deviantART: @ k-christine ): “I always thought she was cute, though I kind of annoyed her at first. We’ve been through a lot together and helped each other grow into better people. She’s everything, honestly, I can’t imagine a life without her, it wouldn’t be the same. She gets more beautiful every day, and I’m so proud to call her my wife.“

And for Subterfugeverse, of course, she has Lana and Koth:

Lana: “At the risk of sounding cheesy, it was “love at first sight”, and I’m talking about Lana, not me ;) I kid of course, we had a connection from day one. We’ve had our ups and downs but we always work them out in the end, we may not always agree but I know she just wants what’s best for me, and I try to do the same for her.”

Koth: “I’m gonna be honest, I felt threatened at first, and I didn’t like him much. But that was silly, once we actually got to talking I realised...we have a lot in common and he “gets” me in a way even Lana doesn’t, sometimes. He’s genuine, and dependable and I know I can count on him no matter what. He’ll back me up when I’m doing the right thing and he isn’t afraid to call me out when I’m being stupid, either. I really appreciate that.”

4. Do they look good in red?

She can at times look good in red, like her current light armour look, which is totally her canon “light armour” for the fic too (and I did not expect to love this outfit as much as I do let me tell you now):

But I think the key here is that the red is a supplementary colour. If she was to wear red as a “main” colour I think it would look less good because well...she is bright red - even her HAIR is red lol - and I think it would be a bit “much” to have her outfit all-red too :P

She has a much flashier armour design for post-SoR once the Alliance takes off that’s in a different (ie not red) colour scheme and I can’t wait to get her to that point in the game so I can show you guys because it looks SMOKIN’ 👀👀

22. Do they like being called pet names? Do they call other people pet names? What’s their go-to?

Yes, and yes! She’s a big fan of pet-names actually! For her, all her partners tend to just call her “Rai” which is of course a shortened form of her first name, though Koth will sometimes playfully call her Red or, if she’s been giving a lot of orders and being “bossy” a lot at the time, “Big Red”. (as a sort of inside-joke version of “yes boss” type of thing XD), Sash often calls her “love”, too, though that’s usually reserved for when they’re not at work. They both try to maintain a relative air of professionalism in front of other people whenever they can.

In terms of pet names she calls her partner(s), she’s not a huge fan of phrases like “babe” or “baby”, and “Sash” actually is a shortened form of her “full” name so there’s that. She also tends to use “akir” and “ki aki” for her (which are High Sith for “sweetheart” and “my love” respectively), as well as the Galactic Basic alternatives, quite often. (”akir” is Sash’s personal favourite and it always makes her smile ;3)

Koth and Lana both have short names that can’t really be shortened further or easily made into “pet” names, and I feel like Lana would loathe the more “cutesy” nicknames like “sweetheart”, so again she tends to stick to things like “dear” or “love” (or the High Sith alternatives) :D

[echo-inthevoid]

102- nesting instinct

Mmmm birds? I have no clue. Is Jon ok? I feel like I've been asking that a lot but I need him to be ok. Also I'm still broken up about Michael

A month!! Yikes. 

YES! Go off Jon!!

The others don't know? He's been gone for a month though? They probably would have thought that was weird right? Did Elias cover it up somehow?

"Overreacted"...i think bashing someones head in with a pipe is a bit more than an over reaction Elias...

Sjshjs GO OFF JON! 

What about Gerard? Why is Elias upset Jon knows about him? Oh ya when did we learn Gerard works for Gertrude? Or- did we know that before? What's happening? Ok so he did work for Gertrude. Why's Jon so nervous? Is it cause Elais got upset/excited? Jon just knew it? "Like a hunch"

"Melenie's on her way up here with a knife" QUEEEN! also the resignation in his voice lol, this has been happening all month huh. 

Ya it is a bit convenient that killing Elias kills everyone else but also it doesn't seem too inconceivable. Maybe try a light stabbing first and see how everyone fairs? 

XD Elias taking Melanies side about the police never wanting to investigate murders here.

Ya. He's manipulating everyone. 

Mmm idk. 

Jsjdjd how is it Jon's fault!??? He wasn't even here when you agreed to join and everyone kept telling you not to! INCLUDING JON???How the heck is it Jons fault????

She throw knife! 

(...ok but Melanie you really can't actually blame this on Jon... Like there is literally no conceivable way you being here is his fault.)

Statement! 

Ya that's a rough sort of person to try and deal with. 

Lonely?

Oh. Corruption?

Ya corruption. (Have I mentioned before my theory that the corruption also relates to like toxic people and relationships cause if I haven't yet I'm putting it here now.)

Oh is this Gertrude and Gerard?

Oh what? Jon can read other languages now? 

Ok only sometimes then? Maybe only for statements. 

Oh yikes. Bug wedding. 

Oh good jon got a new flat.

Yes talk to martin! 

Martin's just used to the tapes turning themselves on at this point. I wonder if that's something controlled subconsciously by Jon or controlled directly by beholding? Or some combination of the two?

My boys! They worry for eachother. 

Yikes. Jon can probably never use lotion again now huh. Mmmmmm

 ...i need fic about Jon during that month now. 

Martin doesn't like daisy. Which is fair tbh.

Jon is not social. 

Ya does anyone else in the institute know what's going on? Seems like no... Ok but everyone else can leave? I Wonder if it's worth trying to get other people who know about the super natural but aren't tied to Elias to help them? That could be useful? They might at least believe them? But also maybe then Elias would just tie everyone in the institute to him. I wonder why it's just the archives anyway?

Oh! Martin was worried Jon would be jealous that he's reading statements but Jon was just worried about Martin!! I think this is the first time Jon has been unabashedly worried for martin too, usually he's got some excuse or is all tsundere about it lol. 

"Unless the world ends. *nervous laughter*" martin I love you. 

[365daysofsasuhina]

[ 365 Days of SasuHina || Day Three Hundred Forty-Three: Ice Cream] [ Uchiha Sasuke, Hyūga Hinata ] [ SasuHina ] [ Verse: A Light Amongst Shadows ] [ AO3 Link ]

“Hyūga.”

Gaze caught in a shop window, Hinata nearly doubles over as a voice suddenly sounds behind her, heart rate climbing in surprise. A rather ungraceful turn reveals it to be none other than Sasuke! “S...Sasuke-kun…?”

The Uchiha has - since the end of the war - become a slightly unintended friend. With how many bridges he burned (and admittedly many of them with reason), he wasn’t left with many people to socialize with. Not...that he’s been in much of a mood to socialize. But for some reason, the pair of them have just...ended up running into each other more often than not.

Not that Hinata has been opposed, per se. She just...didn’t expect it. Sasuke had barely spoken ten words to her before he’d left to seek power outside Konoha. And yet...part of her wonders if that’s the point. She’s one of the few people he hasn’t directly affected in any negative way.

...nor she in any way to him, either.

Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that - common friendships, odd parallels in their pasts they’ve been discovering...and their meshing social circles have meant it almost being impossible to go without running into one another for long.

And so, for whatever his reason may be, Sasuke has been extending a rather awkward, formal olive branch. Hinata, in the meantime, has had no real reason to reject it. Hence their budding but...rather undefined friendship as of late.

He’s still...adjusting, after all. And in some ways, so is she. The war has left its scars upon all of them...but few, she knows, more so than Sasuke. The situation involving his clan and the village - still a work in progress to be solved - immediately earned her sympathy. As someone from a ‘royal’ clan who has its share of troubled years past...she, more than most, can relate...even if not in exactly the same way.

Still, that’s not the current issue on the table.

He’s dressed in warmer clothes as per the season, given that it’s nearly the new year. And to her delight, he’s sporting the knit gloves and scarf she made him a few weeks past. And as is most usual, he’s without anyone else she knows. He tends to just...wander about on his own, for the most part...save for when the rest of team seven drags him out.

“...a-ano...was there something you, um...something you wanted, Sasuke-kun?”

“Was on my way to pick up lunch and saw you. Thought I’d say hi.”

“...oh!” She allows a small smile. “Well...hello! C-chilly day, isn’t it? Keeping, um...warm?”

“Yeah. That knitting of yours must be good.” He doesn’t admit that he rarely gets cold, anyway - his father used to tell stories about an Uchiha’s inner fire keeping them warm against any degree of dropping temperatures. Of course...he doesn’t know if that’s true, but it takes a fairly bad day to chill him. “Knitted anything else recently?”

“Yes, lots! I just finished a set for Hanabi, actually. And Naruto-kun said he’d like some. Orange, o-of course,” she lightly giggles.

Barely perceptible, Sasuke’s expression sours at the mention of the blond. “...keeping busy, then.”

“Yes, quite so. It, um...it’s relaxing, though. I like how repetitive it is. Lets me just sort of...zone out and go, you know?”

“Never had a hobby like that, so I wouldn’t know.”

“...oh! Well...it’s nice to have a little, um...change of pace. It lets me take my mind off of...everything else. Clan politics, or...missions. Maybe you could...find a pastime, Sasuke-kun.”

“Maybe. Mostly I just train when I want something to do, honestly.”

“That’s good, too!”

...they then reach a small impasse.

“W-well, um...I don’t want to keep you from your lunch,” Hinata then offers, smiling again. “But it was n-nice talking to you!”

“Have you eaten yet?”

The rather blunt question makes her pause. “Well, um...no. No, I haven’t. I was going to just make something at home, um…”

His expression remains carefully blank. “I won’t interrupt, then.”

“Did...did you want some company?”

A few months ago, Hinata would never dare ask a question so bold, not even of her best friend. To presume to be wanted wasn’t something she could really...do. But she’s done a vast amount of growing as of late, and...well, she’s tired of hesitation taking opportunities from her. Her years wasted chasing Naruto only to lose out taught her that much.

Sasuke, too, seems a bit taken aback by her forward response, dark brows lifting a smidge. “...sure,” is his reply once it sinks in. “If you don’t have anything else…?”

“Nope! I delivered a mission report earlier, and was just...w-wandering around before heading home.”

“...all right, then.” Well, his plans were to order out some yakiniku and take it home, but...well, he can’t really do that with a guest. Or, so he tells himself. Seems he’ll be sitting down to eat.

Hinata doesn’t object to the place, and they find a table off to one side of the restaurant. As their meat grills, they mostly pass the time with idle conversation.

“So, what was your mission?”

“Just a simple track and retrieve mission. Solo. A fraudulent jewelry maker was caught selling fake pieces to some n-noblewomen during that conference last week. He fled with the money and was heading to Iwa, but I c-caught up with him and dragged him back. It really wasn’t anything difficult, he w-wasn’t even a shinobi...he’d hired a few missing nin to help guard him but they were chūnin level at best. Probably oversold themselves to get in, and then were going to r-rob him after. Brought them in, too.”

“Must have earned you a fair bit.”

“Not too bad. In truth I have a good amount of savings...I don’t like to spend money. Even before I lost my inheritance I was frugal.”

The familiar topic makes him pause nonetheless. Hinata’s recounted the events leading to her loss of title - though mostly vaguely - before. “...good habit to have.”

“It drives my sister crazy.” Hinata cracks a small smile. “She’s...not so careful. Overall sure, but...she has many little splurges. Tries to get me to do the same. And when I don’t she b-buys me things herself.”

Before he can stop it, a small smile pulls at Sasuke’s lips. Were Itachi alive...he’d likely do the same. “I guess siblings always have to have some traits that are opposites.”

“True…”

Once their bellies are full, Sasuke pays the tab (much to Hinata’s annoyance (“It was me who invited you.” “I i-invited myself!”)) and they head back outside where a light snow has begun to fall.

“Ah…!”

“Looks like we’ll get a decent dusting,” Sasuke muses, watching it fall for a moment.

“...ne, Sasuke-kun?”

“Mm?”

“Would you l-like to get some ice cream?”

Eyes still skyward, his brow sharply furrows before looking to her as if she’s grown a second head. “...what?”

“Ice cream!”

“I...why would you want ice cream when it’s snowing? Aren’t you already cold?”

That earns a giggle. “What, like you don’t ever eat h-hot food when it’s hot?”

He just stares at her.

“I a-always have ice cream after yakiniku - it helps calm my tongue from the spices!”

“...you’re so strange.”

“It’s not that weird -”

“Yeah, it is.”

“W-well you don’t have to get any!”

“...I’ll get some sherbert. I don’t like sweet things, remember?”

“I know, but I just thought…” She trails off with a small shrug, hands in her coat pockets. “...a-and this time I can buy. Because I asked.”

Ah, so that’s what this is really about. Snorting in amusement, he doesn’t object a second time, just following as she beelines to the nearest shop. To his surprise, a few other people are in line, all who get incredulous looks from him. “...I can’t believe people think this is normal.”

“Shush,” she gently chides, stepping up to the counter. Her own order is a simple chocolate milkshake, which she struggles to consume through a straw with how thick it turns out. “Your turn!”

“...lime sherbert,” he eventually relents, receiving a small bowl of the stuff.

Seeing his gloved hands holding a frozen treat just makes him feel all the more ridiculous.

But Hinata happily works at her milkshake, so...he doesn’t complain. At least she’s happy, and she got to get him something, cheap though it was. Spooning the stuff into his mouth a small bit at a time, he aimlessly follows as she seems to wander back outside.

“Like it?”

“Sure.”

“See? It’s not so bad!”

“Now I’ll be cold on the outside and the inside.”

Mouth on her straw, her cheeks puff before lifting to counter, “I t-thought you said you were w-warm?” Was he lying about her knitting?

Giving her a glance with his uncovered eye, Sasuke snorts and ruffles her hair with a free hand, much to her dismay. “I’m joking. I can do that, you know.”

Huffing and puffing as she tries to tame her hair, she gives him a second pout. “...I-I know that. I just...didn’t want you to actually dislike it.”

“It’s fine, Hyūga. Stop worrying so much over a bit of ice cream.”

“You didn’t even g-get ice cream…”

“I told you, it’s too sweet…”

The pair fade down the street with their treats, gentle snowfall trailing in their wake.

                                                              .oOo.

     Random fluff is random. Not necessarily a sequel to anything in particular, since I write so many odds and ends in ALAS, anyway xD But I remembered having a piece where she made him some knitted stuff, so...wherever that was, consider this a followup, lol      Slowly but surely getting through things! Hopefully I'll have time tomorrow to reply to some comments. I'm now a whopping twenty days behind, BUT I'm feeling a bit better and less burnt out, so...here's hoping I'll plough through the rest and finish this baby up! Then it's fic vacation time for a while xD      Aaanyway, I'm gonna go get some sleep, since I finished a wee bit early for once lol -thanks for reading!

[novantinuum]

SU fic cover... process

I wanted to do a lil’ write up about my process making the cover art for Crack the Paragon, since this is absolutely the most involved piece of art I’ve ever produced. I’ve spent a month off and on working on this hummer, and at least 50 straight hours, so I’m honestly mega proud with how this came out! As an artist though, I personally find it very valuable seeing other people’s process, their messy WIPs and sketches, all of that... so that’s what I’m gonna do here.

____

So all of this started as a humble little work doodle.

...that got really out of control. Mind you, I totally forgot which way Pink Diamond’s gem faced, apparently. Whoops! Dumb mistakes.

But upon getting home I thought the overall composition of this was a pretty cool idea, so I decided to try and make something out of it.

And thus begins the absolute chaos...

I legit threw the actual sketch photo onto Clip Studio Paint and edited it so the sketch stood out more... and then picked up individual characters and moved them around/resized them as I saw fit. By this point, all of the characters are in their rightful places. (I’m still a derp on that diamond, though. RIP.

And then...

Oh god, the line art on this sucker pretty much killed me off. Line art alone took me a good 30 hours. The one thing I’m very glad I decided to do, however, was making Steven’s shield from transparent circles with the ellipse and fill tool. I don’t think I would’ve survived making a near perfect circle with the vector tools. Artists have limits, after all. XD

And we’re off to the races! I placated my need for color early on by doing flats as I finished each character. I drew all of the line art on one layer, but each character had a separate layer for flats. This made it far easier when I finally got around to shading. (The very last thing I did.) At this point I hadn’t figured out Connie’s sword yet, or Sapphire’s hair. Sapphire is probably the hardest Gem to draw for me. Steven’s shield is done though, which is nice.

There we go! Finally, the diamond’s oriented the right way! Bismuth’s hair is probably my favorite to draw- I love her hhhhhhh! ! !!!

Ah, and here’s where I decided to make things ten times more difficult for myself- by adding background details! I must say though, I’m still very happy with how Lapis’ wings came out here. I love drawing transparent elements, they’re some of my favorite. That’s why I always make Steven’s shield obviously transparent. 

All character line art/flats complete!! Finally said “what the hell” and just gave Steven diamond eyes like my heart told me too. This directly coincided with my decision to include that in the fic, lmao.

These Rose Quartz gems were really tricky and time consuming, geeze. I’m not so insane that I would draw every single one of them by hand, though- so I just drew three different angles and then copy/pasted them around. I did color them all individually, however. I have regrets, folks. My wrist burned that day. Still, I’m happy with the effect so I can’t really complain.

Line art for the background! Also, Sapphire has ice at her feet now. I really want to explore that ability of her more in the fic proper, like as a weapon...

A close up of some unfinished palanquin line art... I heavily referenced canon images, but yes, I drew the actual line art completely freehand. It was hell, but so worth it in the end. Big kudos to the background artists for this ep, honestly... the setting is so beautiful :OO

A close up of this background colored!

We’re almost done!! :DD Just the bottom of the background, and shading! I have bizarrely specific memories of listening to the ep of the SU podcast with Estelle while coloring the moon base scenery, oddly enough.

Aaaaand complete!! Along with the aforementioned bits, I also scattered some diamonds among the artwork.

For some fun random tidbits about how this artwork relates to my fic, both the moon base and palanquin settings have great importance to the overall arc. Jasper is there because I’m giving her the beginnings of a redemption arc. Ruby and Sapphire are separate for the time being, so no Garnet. (Although she is still together at the beginning of my fic- still haven’t quite reached that moment yet.) After he reforms, Steven’s eyes flare pink/with diamond pupils whenever he uses his Gem born ability.

And lastly, a rando detail about the expressions within this piece...

Lapis is glaring at Jasper, but Jasper is peering at Steven. That pretty much sums up both of their characters in this, ahahah.