#it looks fine on desktop but that's tumblr for ya

[atherix]

HI ITS THE ANON THAT POINTED OUT TUBBO BEING IMMUNE TO MIMICS!! IM BACK AND IM SO INSANE!!!! IM LITERALLY SHAKING YOU IN A SNOW GLOBE RN. Everything about this new chapter is so AAAAA I LOVE IT SM!! also also ive decided to reread the whole series so i could take notes on everything- ive been having a wonderful time <3Something horrible ive realized with the fact that Mimics can read anything’s mind is that they can change into the Warden (if the wardens are actually alive still). (1/4)

HELLO ANON GOOD ON YOU FOR FIGURING THAT OUT!! <3 What kind of snow globe? Is it one of those cool ones you get from a zoo? :D

Thank yoouuuu <3<3 JFJSKJKSK that is a long read :o I wish you luck jgfddkgkfd please ignore any plot holes I may have forgotten to fill in along the way <3

:) Hehehehe now that's an idea isn't it... so this just in I quickly pulled up minecraft to make sure Wardens don't aggro on each other (since they aggro on literally everything else) so :) I'm just sayin, if there's a Warden or even something that looks like a Warden.... (of course, there's no telling if the Mimics can fool a Warden, since the Warden uses scent :) ) But gods, yeah, they would be pretty fucked if a Mimic mimicked a Warden- something intelligent and able to make choices and not run off instinct alone? Rip-

Half Fae is Fae enough but yes, if he was full Fae the backlash would probably have been much worse/outright killed him since full Fae are 100% made of Fae magic and Scar actually has a flesh and blood body alongside his magic so <3 That isn't to say his body isn't made of magic at all though... mm :)

hahahaha oh yeah, the water.... :) the Void-fog was foreshadowed by the "heavy" shadows Mumbo kept losing his own shadows in so <3 The smell of mold and water and Sculk........ That was honestly more to emphasize how long this place has been here, and was a very subtle hint (that won't be understood the first read through) that they're approaching an Ancient City. So the fun thing there isn't that Mumbo really doubts Scar loves him. Mumbo's real doubt is that he deserves to be loved by Scar, which the Mimic kind of twisted and then Mumbo started thinking about it, but he's stronger than that and has Tubbo there to reaffirm it <3 Lmao Scar would tell Tubbo little things that added up to Tubbo <3 Tis why Tubbo so easily trusted Mumbo the very first time he met him- because Scar holds Mumbo in high regard, he MUST be trustworthy!! :D lmao-

It's alright, I am no stranger to posting/messaging at 3 AM <3

I LIVE FOR MIDNIGHT!SCAR AND TUBBO'S RELATIONSHIP it is just so hjfsdjkhgfdjk I adore them <3 The funny thing is that line has actually already been revealed on my tumblr haha I won't reveal it now tho :) I don't feel like it's MAJORLY impactful tbh, it doesn't feel plot-essential to me, but. Ya know. It's fine <3

fhjsdfhjkgksd thank you so much!!! I'm so glad you're enjoying it!! <3 Hhhjjhgh <3

So the word count thing! If you're following me and you see me pop up on your dash (on desktop, idk about phone), you can actually hit my icon on your dash. It'll bring up a pop-up of my blog and if you hit ask on that pop-up blog, rather than going directly to my blog, it'll remove the character limit! It's how I have anons who send me essays <3

[odinsblog]

i usually use the anon function bc im embarrassed to ask people things sjfjfjhs but I've never sent anything horrible to anyone!! I'm sorry you've had negative experiences with the anon function before, you don't deserve that at all!! sending love!

[re: this post]

Thank you. I genuinely appreciate you rn

People like you are literally the only reason why I don’t completely disable the anon feature, because I understand that sometimes people are shy, or they want to express themselves without taking shit. I actually dO get that

But alas, as with everything, there are those who abuse what really should be thought of as a nicety, or privilege—some people just abuse it

Very long rant, incoming

So here’s the thing, right? Sometimes when people are online, they act and behave in ways they wouldn’t dare to irl

I’m not the government. I don’t have a staff to edit my posts. I’m not anybody special. I’m just some dude on the internet who enjoys sharing my opinions and other things. If YOU don’t like or agree with my opinions or something else that I post, you are completely free to keep scrolling or to block me. That’s fine. But when anons begin demanding that I phrase things the way that they’re more comfortable with, then we got serious issues

And another thing: people need to not be so quick to assume malicious intent where none exists

For example, I have accidentally typed the number 500 in a post when I meant to type 50–now, in the specific post, it truly was a significant error. But an anon immediately jumped into the comments and self righteously accused me of lying to make a point, rather than saying to themselves, “Hm, maybe Odin just made a typo”

And my personal favorites

them: YOU’RE SPREADING MISINFORMATION AND DISINFORMATION !!!!

me: um, it was a fucking joke? do they have jokes where you come from?

Or,

me: posts a video of an alligator and some cranes, and adds a bit of whimsical commentary

them: WELL ACTUALLY, THAT IS PROBABLY PREDATORY BEHAVIOR AND I THINK YOU SHO-

me: no. goddamn, I can’t be fucking whimsical on a social media site? eat shit. stfu

And also,

them: well technically, it’s not really fascism

me: maybe not, but it’s fucking close enough. I’m not gonna wait for people to start getting marched into ovens and say, “now can we call it fascism??”

I have literally had all of these dumb, stupid ass conversations (almost verbatim) here on tumblrdotcom, and lemme tell ya, it’s frustrating af

And other times, when I author a post containing a hyperlink on desktop but then later edit it on mobile, sometimes the hyperlink doesn’t carry over to mobile and you’re left with a post that may say “source,” but is not clickable. It happens sometimes, and it’s not a big deal, right?? WRONG! Instead of sending an ask to ask me what happened to the link, I’ve had anons accuse me of “not crediting” a source

I’ve had people use anon to accuse me of cropping videos so that I could somehow “steal” credit from others, and I’m just like … What??? Who does that? Who has the time for all of that? Are you aware that sometimes people on the internet see something like a video or a photo from somewhere else (also uncredited from twitter, reddit, facebook, etc), and then just post it here on tumblr??

And no, I am not talking about reposting someone’s art or other works

Look, if YOU get your thrills from finding out who/where/when the very first instance of every single cat or dog video came from, that’s great! Do you. Knock yourself out. Have fun. But don’t try to shame others because we aren’t all humorless poindexters like you

If I post something from tiktok, the video generally tells you where to go to see it there. If it’s a tweet or from reddit, again, there are usually twitter or reddit handles in the tweet. And NO, I am not putting a link to every single tweet or reddit thread or facebook post — if that’s that important to you, then figure it out. It’s not hard, and in the year 2023 most adults should have the necessary skills to find an original tweet, if that’s something that’s important to you. I’m not doing it for you, not sorry

(SN: I’ll never forget when I took my first college English literature course, and at the end of the semester I was on the bubble for getting an A or an A+ in the class, and our final exam was a written essay that would decide my final grade. I didn’t quite score the A+ that I wanted, and when I looked over my essay, the professor wrote on it: “Odin, you are the quintessential college freshman, and your inquisitiveness has made this semester one of my most enjoyable.” And after class, I walked up to him and thanked him, and asked him what quintessential meant? He opened his mouth and was about to answer me, but then he smiled, wagged his finger at me and said, “you should learn to look things up.” He was one of my favorite professors (had a British accent, eyeglasses and reminded me of Giles from Buffy), but I’ve never forgotten that lesson. Some of you very obviously need to learn it too)

I’ve also made what are very obviously jokes online, only to have people accuse me of misrepresenting facts—and then I’m like, do I really need to explain the concept of what a joke is to you people??

Like, I could see if it was something racist, trans/homophobic, Islamophobic, antisemitic, etc, BUT I DON’T DO THAT

I think that some people need to be seen as, or have a desire to be known as a gatekeeper, and instead of using just a tiny bit of common sense, they try to make mountains out of molehills to elevate themselves in the eyes of their followers

The people who act this way are truly joyless human beings, and they probably suck all the fun out of parties and other events that people are forced to spend time with them

Maybe try socializing a bit more? Learn to read (online) cues. Don’t be so eager to accuse everyone of doing something wrong just so that YOU get to look like the good guy

And all of that’s without even addressing all of the straight up racist anons that I constantly receive

Like, do people even understand that we aren’t inside of each other’s heads? Sometimes we’re all dealing with life and other stuff. And just maybe people are busy trying to have just a tiny bit of fun, and then the mf fun police come along and try to ruin shit? Because I don’t use a word exactly the same way you do?? Or because of an obvious joke?? You guys who do this kind of shit really SUCK

I feel sorry for you

I almost can’t believe this is the piddling little shit that some people choose to be upset over

Please find some REAL things to be upset over

Try learning to use the feature that lets users (gasp) make a post of their very own! instead of fixating on one goddamn mutha fucking post that wasn’t worded to your liking

I am not here for the discourse with anyone with an internet connection and a keyboard

Please go touch some grass

[jasmine-tea-latte]

(Some of) My Favorite Zutara fics

Warning, looong post ahead!

Zutara Fanworks Appreciation Week snuck up on me, so sadly I haven’t had time to properly contribute anything. I’d love to participate next year or maybe even before then (I play by my own rules, folks!)

Still, though. I wanted to at the very least pay tribute to some of my all-time favorite Zutara fanfics that I’ve enjoyed and have inspired me over the years.

(Click here for my post on Self-Love Saturday, where I shamelessly promote my series The Phoenix and the Dragon and share a bit of backstory behind how it came to be in the first place.)

I’ve shipped Zutara ever since Fall 2006, and I have been fortunate to read so many excellent fanfics since then.

Some have made me laugh, others made me sob, others straight up made my heart burn like it was shot full of lightning:

So in honor of @zkfanworkweek​, below are 13 of my favorite Zutara fanfics, in no particular order:

~*~*~

Rated G(eneral)/T(een)

Engulfed by Luaburachid

Zuko finds himself engulfed by love.

A sweet one-shot of our favorite firebender discovering how deep his feelings are for a certain waterbender. It’s just pure fluff and always brings a smile to my face.

 we hold our hearts in silence by psychedelic_aya

Seventy years later, Korra tries to figure out Zuko and Katara.

Oh, this one is so bittersweet but oh so good. It alternates between flashbacks and Korra’s POV watching an older Zuko and Katara interact. Just… ugh. My heart.

 Day 6: Found by SooperSara

When Sokka comes up with an idea to get rid of Joo Dee, Katara finds herself in the Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se with a tea server she did not expect to meet.

I love a good Jasmine Dragon AU where Katara / the Gaang actually interacts with Zuko while he’s undercover as Lee from the tea shop instead of what happened in “The Guru.” This is so much fun to read, and my only complaint is that it’s not longer.

 Celestial by SooperSara

An unexpected dip into the koi pond at the North Pole brings Zuko in contact with the spirits and grants him insight to his destiny. A destiny he isn’t sure he wants.

Another by the talented SooperSara! Actually, you should check out all of her stuff. It’s all so good, and I absolutely adore this one. It’s pretty canon-compliant and the ending… oh, the ending makes me tearbend. Ma’am, I’m still weepy.

 this little fuse we lit made something in you by SecondStarOnTheLeft

There's a secret door in the wall of Katara's room. Things go a little further than planned, once she opens it.

What happens when Katara discovers a secret tunnel (secret, secret, secret tunnel, yeah!) that leads directly to the Fire Lord’s bedroom? Reading this fic is like settling down to drink a hot cup of Iroh’s tea – it’s soothing, sweet, and thoroughly warms the soul.  

 Dancing in the Dark by damagectrl

Post-Season 2 AU: While in Ba Sing Se, Katara and Toph hear a rumor about two tea servers in the lower tiers of Ba Sing Se and sneak away go to investigate only to have their suspicions confirmed. On her personal time, Katara tries to teach herself to dance and fails so badly, a masked man takes pity on her to try to help.

This is one most OGs will probably remember. It’s also one of the first ZK fics I ever read, back when I was a wee lil bb Zutarian! It was originally posted in Oct. 2006 and takes place between “Appa’s Lost Days” and “Lake Laogai.” One of my all-time favorite Bluetara AND Jasmine Dragon AUs. Heck, all of damagectrl’s works are fantastic reads, for that matter. I highly recommend checking them out, especially this classic.

 such selfish prayers by andromeda3116

Katara's ambition, so long set aside for the good of others, breaks free and sets fire to her soul. Or, Katara has a vision of her canon future, casts it aside, and becomes a world-changing politician instead.

There’s a reason why this fic is one of the highest rated on AO3, if not THE highest. It does right by Katara and gives her the ending she deserves. 10/10 would recommend.

 better than things dreamed of in the forest by catie_writes_things (SERIES)

As a child, Bumi knew: his mother was a waterbender, his father was an airbender, and he was a firebender. Something about these facts did not add up, but it would take him a long time to understand.

Hands down, one of the most heartbreaking fics / series I’ve ever read. The author describes this as the adultery fic for people who hate adultery fics, and it certainly packs an emotional punch in the gut. Personally, I’m not one for the “Zuko and Katara have an affair while she’s with Aang” fics in general, but this one examines the fallout caused by a single night of passion and all of the consequences that stem from it, especially how the ripple effect of their choices impacts everyone. Even though it breaks my heart all over again every time I reread it, I can’t recommend it highly enough. 

  ~*~*~

(More fics, several with high ratings, are listed below the cut)

Rated M(ature)/E(xplicit)

Moonlight and Sunshadow by GrapefruitTwostep

The dragon offered Katara a deal: protection for her family and tribe if she lived with it for a year and a day. And she said yes. Because what other way was there to save her people? But there was more to the dragon than Katara bargained for. An "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" retelling.

A fairy tale AU in which Zuko is cursed to live as a dragon and Katara is certainly no damsel in distress. You’ve probably heard some version of the original fairy tale before that this fic is inspired by, and it’s such a delight to read.

 The Blackfish and the Dragon by ama

Katara grew up in the Southern Water Tribe under the tutelage of Hama, the only waterbender ever to have escaped Fire Nation captivity. When Zuko arrives at the South Pole, seeking the Avatar, they are more than ready to defend him. Then one day, the Southern Water Tribe receives a petition for peace, and a proposal of marriage.

One of the best arranged marriage AUs I’ve come across. Iroh is crowned Fire Lord after defeating Ozai, and Katara must find some way to peacefully coexist with her hotheaded new husband as she also finds a place for herself in the Fire Nation.

 Confused by thispieceofwork

Zuko stood. "You told Aang you were confused. Are you confused because of me?" Katara was silent, arms crossed in front of her. "Don't make me answer that."

Starts during “The Ember Island Players” where Zuko overhears Aang and Katara’s private conversation on the balcony. This is another fic that will shatter your heart into a million pieces but it’s oh so worth it in the end.

 A Heated Exchange by Smediterranea (SERIES)

Katara had not considered herself to be someone who would have earth-shattering sex with a guy whose name she didn’t even know. But here she was, certain that she had never made a better decision in her life.

An AU two-part series of Katara getting familiar with a certain handsome guy who lives down the hall in her college dorm. It’s funny, cute, and cuddling while watching Planet Earth has never been hotter.

 Bonus day: Tea Shop by cincilin

"Hello and welcome to the Jasmine Dragon. Today's special is—" he cut himself of with a sharp intake of breath, at the same moment that Katara placed the voice and looked up.

'He has hair.' was her first thought. Then the rest of her brain caught up with her and she started to get up, sending Momo scrambling to hide under the table. Season 2 AU, during "The Guru."

I told y’all, I *LOVE* a good Jasmine Dragon AU fic, and this one-shot checks all the boxes: heart-to-heart conversations? Witty dialogue and banter? Bending match that turns into a makeout and something steamier? It’s got it all.

~*~*~

This was only going to be a list of maybe 5-7fic recs, but well… oops. I also kept the above list to completed works only, just because this post is already long enough.

Several of my other favorites that get honorable mention include:

Thinking Out Loud (WIP)

The Summit (WIP)

Sparrowkeet (Series)

Purr

The Nature of the Blue Spirit

Rhythm of the Rain

Fault Lines

Clarity

Seriously, there are just SO MANY good Zutara fics out there. I had to cut myself off from adding even more, because I could go on and on and on. Much like Admiral Zhao, I have no. self. control. 

I love you all, my fellow Zutarians ❤️💙💜 Mwah! Happy ZFAW! 

[viviskull]

((TUMBLR, PLEASE LEAVE MY DESKTOP REBLOG FEATURE ALONE))

[cloubleoh]

❝I’ve been a tad stressed at work recently, what with C’s people crawling all over us and the fact that M wants my balls for Christmas decorations.❞ ❝You’ve got to be the last person I’d imagine taking a break at a club.❞ ❝I believe the phrase is ‘there’s a first time for everything,’ 007.❞

[ri-ahhh]

van life

I wasn’t gonna post this because it’s just like an overload of unrealistic softness but now that we know that they’re selling the van I think now is the best time if I’m gonna do it lol.

Also I’m sorry I can’t make this shorter on your dash by putting a ‘keep reading’ break. Tumblr is shitty and permanently fucked on my desktop where it just won’t load the page once I’m logged in so I have to do everything through mobile🙄

6k

warnings: fluff, smut, kinda unedited

***

MJ sighs as warm morning sunlight kisses her skin through the passenger window of the tiny house van. She and Grayson had decided to have a beach day to themselves — the first one of summer — and she could’t be more excited. Nothing makes MJ Macias more content and at peace with her life than laying under the Pacific sun until her nose freckles and her skin takes on that healthy golden hue. Wrinkles are a risk she’s willing to take as long as she has a nice, long podcast, something to munch on, and, of course, a good view of her boyfriend in the surf.

That view of him rivals the one of the ocean in her opinion, which is just past his window as they cruise down the PCH on their way to Malibu. MJ wiggles her white-painted toes on the dashboard and smiles as she watches him sing along quietly (and off-key) to the Tame Impala song filling the cabin of the van. She loves his profile so much: the perfect slope of his nose; his full lips; the chunk of hair that swoops across his forehead.

She lifts their clasped hands from where they rest on her thigh with their fingers threaded together, and kisses the back of his wide palm.

“You’re so handsome, Bear,” MJ murmurs against his skin.

Grayson stops singing long enough to look over at her and smile brightly, his eyes hidden behind his black Louis Vuitton sunglasses. He pulls their hands towards himself so he can copy her kiss, only to her her own soft skin.

“My pretty Peach,” he returns with a squeeze to her palm, making MJ flush the color of her pet name. “Always so beautiful in the mornings.”

MJ hums and takes her turn returning their hands back to her lap, trailing her long nails up and down his muscular, veiny forearm. Apparently they’re equally as headass for each other today. “Just in the mornings?” she teases, tickling the sensitive patch of skin near the crook of his elbow.

She can’t see his eyes roll, but she imagines they do as his grin turns playful. “Of course not, but especially in the mornings. Your hair is in that cute braid and your skin is all silky soft and your eyes are extra green.” He takes his eyes off the road for a moment to appraise her looking exactly as he described. “And, you know, usually on the weekends you’d still be naked at this time. I like that part about mornings, too.”

“Oh, Lord,” she laughs with a shake of her head. “Grayson!”

She gasps his name and giggles harder as he completely catches her off guard by moving their hands right over his hardening cock. MJ squeezes him reflexively, and Grayson gives a little grunt as he shifts in his seat with a smirk.

“What?” he asks in mock defense, placing both hands back on the steering wheel. “I had to show you how much you affect me! I only have to think about you naked in our bed and it goes up.”

“That’s sweet,” MJ says, stroking his dick one more time before moving her hand further down his thigh, “but if you think I’m giving you road head in this car on this twisty road, you’re very mistaken.”

Grayson makes an obnoxious little whiny noise in defeat, pouting playfully and muttering dejectedly, “I knew we should have taken the Tesla.”

MJ raises an eyebrow. “Well, we wouldn’t have been able to bring your surfboard. Or be the first ones to christen the tiny house.”

“Oh, shit,” Gray says quietly, surprised. MJ smiles at the small victory of teasing him, her eyes diverting back to the beautiful scenery ahead of them as her mind wanders to all the things they can do in that makeshift bed.

“How about road hand, then, to start it off?”

She lets out a frustrated huff, his request interrupting her daydream. If there was ever a scenario where she didn't trust Grayson, it was one in which he was receiving any overt sexual pleasure whilst controlling a giant motor vehicle.

“Gray, I love you, but you’re pushing it.”

“Understood.”

***

It takes about half an hour for them to reach their destination, but MJ knows it was worth the drive as soon as they exit the car and she inhales the clean, salty air. They park at a little camping lot they had reserved a spot in for the day, the glittering ocean a mere few hundred feet away.

“Surf looks good,” MJ remarks, her hand shielding her eyes as she gazes out at the water. It always makes her a little nervous when Gray goes out in big swells, so the mild waves are a happy sight for her. “Nice and small; just how I like ‘em.”

Grayson looks out as well as he climbs on the roof of the van to retrieve the surfboard. “Funny, I happen to know for a fact you like ‘em long and wide,” he jokes. He just couldn’t help himself, apparently, his wide smile looking down at her from the top of the ladder a clear display of how proud of the stupid joke he is.

MJ watches the exposed muscles in his arms and shoulders ripple under his skin as he begins wrestling with the hooks and ties securing the board to the roof racks. The sight combined with his words and thoughts of what transpired earlier in the car makes her center pulse dangerously.

Needless to say, he’s successfully turned her on despite her best efforts.

“You’re insufferable, Dolan,” she says with a shake of her head. Her body feels heated from his innuendo and also the midmorning sun that is steadily raising the outside temperature. She pulls off the hoodie she had thrown on in the chilly early morning and steps into the back seat to haul out the cooler and beach bag.

“Yeah, but you love me,” his voice comes from right behind her. She turns around and yelps in surprise when she sees Grayson peeking his head upside down into the cab from the roof. He’s inches from her and is just dangling there like an overgrown monkey, which makes her fall back in the seat in a fit of giggles. He wags his brows at her playfully. “Ooh! Spider-Man kiss!”

MJ rolls her eyes good-naturedly and happily scoots over to clasp his cheeks in her hands, granting his wish by planting a sweet kiss to his lips. The scruff on his chin tickles her nose peculiarly, but she’s not mad at it. “Too much. I love you too much, you goof.”

Finally, with all their beach supplies in hand, they walk together towards the ocean. The private beach that they can access with their camp site is quiet and secluded. Best of all, it isn't clogged with tourists or people in general, which they both greatly prefer. Less people means they’re less likely to be bombarded by fangirls, or paparazzi, or any other unwanted distractions from what MJ hopes will be a perfect day.

As soon as the texture under her feet changes from firm concrete to sunken sand, MJ is stopping to remove her flip-flops so her toes can dig into the fine powder. This moment of first stepping on the beach is one of her favorite experiences, as minute and insignificant as it seems.

She looks up at Grayson, who glances back down at her questioningly. “Race ya,” she challenges suddenly, hauling ass to a perfect open spot on the wide expanse of beach. If there’s one thing she and her boyfriend have in common, it’s a highly competitive spirit.

“Cheater!” Grayson calls after her. He has the surfboard under one arm and the cooler slung over his shoulder, but everyone knows Grayson Dolan is the last person to turn down a competition. Which is why he does his best to catch up to her even with the obstacles in his arms holding him back.

The finish line is also only in MJ’s head, so she stops when she finds a spot she likes. She drops their bag and turns around with her arms raised like Rocky. Grayson isn’t very far behind her, being as in-shape as he is he’s reached her quickly, but he slows down earlier than he really needs to so he can take her in. Her breasts heave beneath a leopard print bikini top, loose hairs escape from her messy french braid, and her long legs glitter with the sand she had kicked up on her run.

She’s the most beautiful, dorky, amazing woman he’s ever seen and she is his.

MJ watches smugly as her boyfriend stalks over to her. “I wi—“

Grayson releases everything he’s carrying to the sand and grasps her face in both hands, pulling her in for a long, lingering kiss. MJ lets out a little squeak of surprise, but she melts into him half a second later. Nothing warms her soul more than his lips on hers, and she wraps her arms around his middle to bring them as close together as possible.

When he pulls back, Grayson stares at her with complete, obvious adoration. Ethan would have called him a simp if he were there, that’s how sappy his twin looks. Grayson can’t help himself, though; he is a simp for MJ, and, truthfully, he doesn’t give two shits who knows it as long as he makes her smile up at him like she is now, every day.

It’s why yesterday he had casually opened a new browser window, convincing himself he was just curiously window shopping on the ring section of Tiffany’s and the like… even after he got sucked into the customization tool on one website for nearly two hours.

Shaking his head and biting his lip through a grin, he traces the freckles on MJ’s cheek. “I want a rematch later.”

MJ squeezes him and smacks his ass playfully before releasing him and reaching into the bag for the big blanket. “You’re always such a sore loser,” she teases, unfolding the cloth and weighing it down with Grayson’s help. She digs through the bag again and hands him his wetsuit. “Go catch some waves. I have to catch up on this podcast by this really sexy guy and his twin brother.”

If there could be snapshots of the rest of the day, they would have been out of a picturesque rom-com. For a while, MJ rests on her tummy as she watches Grayson glide through the water, his deep voice simultaneously reverberating in her ears through her AirPods.

Eventually, when he’s done surfing — looking like a beach Adonis when he walks up the shore with the top half of his wetsuit folded down at his hips, surfboard under his arm and his wet abs glistening in the sun — he joins her on the blanket.

In the early afternoon MJ props herself up on her elbow, appraising his form with hungry, appreciative eyes as he tans on his back next to her. He has his hands pillowed behind his head, which causes his biceps to bulge and her thighs to clench. MJ is lost in him as she trails her finger over the features of his face — down his button nose, smoothing over his arched brows, across his rosy cheeks, against his pillowy lips. She smiles as he sighs contentedly and drops a peck to the tip of his nose before settling with her cheek on his chest. He smells like tanning oil and ocean and that clean, woody musk that MJ knows as him.

Later, they wade around in the sea between batches of sun bathing. At some points, he’s holding her waist-deep in the water with her legs wrapped around his middle and arms around his neck, lips connecting occasionally amidst easy conversation. Other times they have full-on water fights that have her squealing and him laughing as they splash each other back and forth.

It isn’t until the orange and pink hues of the sunset paint the sky that they’re brought back to the beach for good. Once they rinse off and have all of their things collected, they head back to the van.

MJ removes her bikini inside while Grayson reattaches the surfboard to the roof. She slips on her sweatshirt and a fresh pair of soft shorts just in time for him to carefully crack open the back door to make sure she’s decent.

Grayson smiles widely as he crawls in on the already made bed where she sits and is piling her damp hair into a messy bun. “So fucking beautiful,” he murmurs, giving her a lingering kiss while her hands are still mid-twist in her long hair.

A pleasant warmth swoops through her belly at his compliment; it had taken her a while to get accustomed to not only how often Grayson rains sweet praises like that down on her, but how sincerely he means them, too.

She hums into his mouth right before he pulls away. “I left your shorts there, baby,” she says, gesturing behind her with her head. Gray thanks her and she starts to dig through the cooler as he tugs his swimsuit down his inked legs, following them back up with the clean shorts.

They eat dinner with the back doors wide open, a perfect view of the sun setting below the ocean’s horizon right in front of them. A pleasant breeze floats around them in the van, cool and refreshing from being picked up right off the water. MJ nuzzles her cheek on Grayson’s bare shoulder, and he presses a kiss to the top of her head as she chews her last bite of tofu.

“Thank you for such a perfect day,” MJ says a minute later, gazing up at him while he takes a sip of La Croix. “Seriously, I can’t remember the last time I felt so…carefree. Loved. In love. Not that you don’t make me feel those things every day, but… y’know. Today was just great.”

Her hand reaches to caress his stubbly cheek, a soft smile at the corner of her full lips. “You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me, Gray.”

Grayson looks down at her silently, but his eyes say everything his lips don’t. He tucks his can and their empty tupperware back into the cooler, tossing the bag into one of the back seats behind them so it’s out of the way.

He cups her cheeks in both hands, wasting no more time in bringing their mouths together. MJ sighs and shifts so she’s that much closer to him, just as his tongue prods gently at her pliant lips to coax them open.

They make out like that, slow and deep, with the soundtrack of crashing waves wafting through the open doors. Gray lies her down and supports the back of her head with his forearm, his free hand swooping up and down her side before settling in the dramatic dip of her waist as he pulls away just barely.

Eyes closed, their breaths come heavy and mingle sweetly in the minute space between them. Grayson suddenly lets out a little incredulous huff, shaking his head and diving back in blindly to suck softly on her bottom lip. MJ lets out a little moan and digs her nails gently down his bare back, her eyes fluttering open.

“What?” she asks with a little smile of her own, nuzzling her nose against his in an Eskimo kiss.

Grayson’s hazel orbs meet her green ones, and the hand resting on her waist comes to cup her face once again so he can stroke the new freckles that litter her high cheekbone.

“I’m gonna marry you,” he answers, chuckling at her shocked little gasp. He hurries to clarify himself. “One day, when we’re ready. You’re my world, MJ. Maybe it’s selfish, or self aggrandizing, but hearing you say that makes it so obvious to me that you’re the only person I’d ever want to spend the rest of my life with. Because I feel the same about you. I only ever want to make you feel that way; nothing makes me happier.”

MJ is stunned into silence. Grayson isn’t exactly the most eloquent person, so somehow she reasons that his perfect delivery of such meaningful words means they’re truly heartfelt. Not that she would have doubted him either way, but their relationship has suddenly shifted even deeper in the matter of one day. One simple, amazing day.

She feels the prickle of tears behind her eyes, and bites her lip through a watery smile as she raises her hand to run her fingers through the back of his hair. No matter how happy she is, her instinct for dealing with any emotions is to deflect with humor. “Can’t wait ’til I pop out a few of your babies. From the sounds of it, you’ll be worshipping the ground I walk on.”

That hits him right in the baby fever, his dick hardening even more behind his shorts at the thought of her belly swollen with his child. Joking or not, she’s absolutely right.

“Fuck,” he whispers, grinning as he ducks his head to nibble her favorite spot just behind her jaw and right under her ear. “How many of my babies? Hm?”

“Mmm,” she sighs, scratching lightly at his scalp, considering the question seriously. “Four little Dolan babies, I think. Three boys and a little girl.”

“Yeah,” Grayson agrees easily, making his way across her jaw with soft little suckles. “But make that three girls and a little boy, and you've got a deal.”

MJ giggles and grabs his face so they’re staring each other in the eye again. “No actual baby-making until there’s a ring on this finger.” She wiggles the digits of her left hand, which Grayson grabs and kisses the back of with a smirk. If only she knew just how close that moment might be. “But we can always practice in the meantime.”

Grayson nods and hitches her leg up his hip as he ducks down for a surprisingly chaste kiss considering her invitation a second before. As much as he wants her, he has a need deep in his chest just to be close to her for the moment. To feel her hold him and nuzzle into the warm crook of his neck, sucking gently on that freckle there to make his head swim like after a nice glass of wine.

MJ is just as happy with that arrangement, and she lets her body be still and her breaths tickle the sensitive skin at his collarbone. The ocean breeze billowing through the open doors of the van is cool and salty and comforting.

“It’s crazy,” Grayson whispers after a few peaceful minutes, his fingers starting to trail up and down her covered back slowly. MJ pulls back a little so she can see his face. He isn't looking at her, but rather out the open van doors at the last moments of the sun setting behind the water. “I remember feeling exactly this way the first day we met, only now it’s…more. You felt right then, so right it was scary. And here we are. How did I know that you were my person as soon as you let me walk you back to that tent?”

MJ smiles and her belly swoops. She thinks back to that night, how scared she had been and how instantly — well, as he said — right Grayson had felt the minute they crossed paths.

“I did kind of seduce you,” she chuckles, lifting her head to nibble at the underside of his chin and reveling in the sensation of his deep chuckle vibrating against her lips. “Maybe you’re just under my Black Widow spell. Have I never let it slip I’m only after your money?”

Grayson laughs louder, squeezing her to his body tighter. “Nope. But that’s the MJ I remember falling head over heels for in a matter of hours. Smart and witty and sweet and so fucking pretty with her green eyes and bright smile.”

MJ stares up at him with stars in those emerald eyes he adores so much. He is unreal to both see and hear; his skin has turned olive and his hair has the crisp of the ocean still in it, and the fact that he can still pinpoint the little things he liked about her from so long ago…

“Do you love me?” she asks quietly. It’s so ridiculously unnecessary to ask, he tells her multiple times a day, every day.

“So much, Peach,” he murmurs back predictably, finally swooping down to capture her lips like she wanted earlier, tongues meshing instantly.

He tastes so familiar and sweet. She wants to devour him slowly, intimately, like she has a thousand times before.

“Close the doors?” MJ gasps after the simple swipe of his thumb over her nipple through her sweatshirt makes her thighs tremble and her hips grind onto his half-hard erection. Something about the heartwarming intimacy of the day has translated to her body being physically sensitive beyond belief.

Grayson nods and sits up, reaching for the switch of the fairy lights MJ had hung up a few weeks ago before slamming the doors shut on the nighttime scenery.

While he does as she asked, she scoots up to rest her head on a pillow and watches his bare, chiseled torso glow in the dim, sensual lights. Right as he turns around he catches her struggling to free herself from her hoodie.

“Let me do it, Peach. I wanna do it,” he breathes, dipping down to kiss her soundly before tugging upward on the hem of the soft fabric. MJ drops her head to the pillow to break the seal of their lips, lifting her arms up so he can pull the garment over her head.

Grayson flings it to the front of the van and brings their mouths together so quickly, like he simply can’t be away from her lips for longer than a second. His hands reach up and cup the pliable mounds of her breasts, which are several shades lighter than the rest of her chest. Clearly, he could care less, and MJ sighs softly as he massages them firmly, his calloused palms creating delicious friction on her hypersensitive nipples.

“Still the prettiest tits I’ve ever seen, too,” he smirks, making his way across her jaw. MJ smiles too, eyes closed in bliss as he kisses the familiar trail down her sternum. Predictably, his warm lips suction around the bud of her left breast, and she lets her mind wander through the pleasure to flash back on the first time he did this.

“We’re still kind of in a tent, too, y’know,” she gasps as he switches sides, letting out her first moan of the night when he scrapes his teeth against her. “Just…more bougie.”

Grayson hums, quickly getting lost in the feel of how soft her tits are and how much he loves the sensation of her hard nipples under his tongue. He drops his hips down so he can grind his full erection against her hot center, eliciting wanton gasps from both of them.

MJ groans again, the feminine sound literal music to his ears and the perfect reinforcement to keep going. She hooks her legs around his waist to hold his hips against her, thrusting up against him as he continues to bite and lick and suckle her breasts.

“Holy shit, Gray, right there… I’m gonna cum,” she whimpers, grasping at his hair to hold him down where he was sucking perfectly on her breast, and continues to grind roughly on his dick. Sure enough, a few seconds later she’s shuddering with the most intense orgasm she’s ever had without manual stimulation. Even from Grayson.

Grayson himself can hardly believe it; they have a great sex life, but he can’t remember the last time he had gotten her off just through some intense dry humping.

He isn’t going to question it, though, because it only means one thing: she’s as voracious for him tonight as he is for her. He growls when she starts to come down and surprises her with his mouth planting roughly back on hers. MJ kisses him back lazily as her mind clears some, smiling and fluttering her eyes open to meet his dark gaze when she feels his middle finger replace his tongue in her mouth. She closes her swollen, pouty lips around the digit and sucks, holding onto his hand and maintaining complete eye contact with him when he moans softly. She pulls his hand out of her mouth and pushes it into her shorts.

“Fuck,” he rasps, collecting her slippery cum against his finger, swirling it against his thumb before trailing his middle finger up to her clit. He soaks in her expression as her eyes roll back at the first contact, his favorite reaction she has to his touch. “Fuck, MJ. So fucking wet for me.”

MJ nods quickly, opening her eyes again to watch him watch her. “Lemme taste,” she whimpers.

She pulls his hand back up and doesn’t wait for permission or leave him time to process her demand as she sucks the slick moisture straight off his finger, the taste of herself gracing her tongue causing her pussy to gush even more. When his brain finally catches up, he’s immediately ripping his hand away from her with a harsh groan and hooking it around the back of her neck to kiss her deeply. His tongue plunders her mouth as he searches for traces of that sweet, earthy tang he knows oh-so well. MJ’s hands distractedly push at the waistband of his shorts, desperate for the feel of his dick in her hands.

“Please, baby,” she whines against his lips when they break for air, using the moment of clarity to tug more determinedly at his shorts. “Need you.”

“Need me where?” he teases, backing up so she can’t reach him as he pulls her own shorts down her long, newly tanned legs. Once he flings the scrap of fabric to join her sweater, he ducks down and swipes his tongue quickly over each of her nipples. “Here?”

MJ groans and shakes her head, her brain not operating at enough capacity to tease back, it’s so clouded with desire for him. “Gray…”

Grayson smirks and grabs one of her hands that are coasting down his back and attempting to pull him down against her. He cups her petite palm against his pulsing erection, sighing a little when her fingers wrap around him through his shorts instinctively. He drops his hand and brings it to her pussy, his fingertips dancing delicately against her swollen lower lips. His head swims at how wet she is and how the solid feel of him seems to have brought her mind back to earth, because as soon as he lets go of her hand she delves past his waistband to grip him directly.

“My dick, baby, you need my dick?” he asks softly, his voice a little high and his breath pitchy as she strokes him steadily now.

MJ moans and her pussy throbs simply at his words. She nods hastily. “Need it in me,” she manages, meeting his heated gaze as she gives him a firm squeeze. “Love your dick.”

“Yeah,” he sighs, his touch leaving her as he helps her in getting him completely naked, kicking his shorts off when they reach his ankles.

He takes a moment to gather himself and to slow down, trying to get himself back in that intimate headspace they were so deep in earlier, so that this doesn’t turn into just a hot, hard fuck. They love that, and it’s kind of their bread and butter in the bedroom. But he wants to hold her close and savor her body, to pass that loving energy between them in the most special, physical way.

MJ’s chest heaves as she watches Grayson hover above her, staring at her, and she parts her legs to welcome him back into her space. He looks like a fucking Greek god in the low light, his hair curly from the saltwater and sweat, his skin golden and his muscles bulging. She can’t possibly want him any more than in that moment.

“C’mere,” she whispers, reaching her arms out and making grabby hands at him. She can’t allow another second to go by without the sensation of his smooth skin against hers.

Grayson smiles sweetly at her, eyes sultry as he lowers himself at her request and presses their bodies together from chests to centers. She cups his cheeks and scratches her fingers against his scruff as they kiss slowly, deeply, desire building intensely once again as they grind together at the middle.

“Please, Grayson,” she finally says again.

All thoughts of any more teasing are out the door as Grayson obliges her. He dips his fingers in her pussy, testing her readiness and using her sweet juices to coat his dick.

MJ spreads her legs up and out, bent at the knees, and she throws her head back with a gasp as he enters her in a short thrust; a little more on the second, until he bottoms out with the third.

“Fuck me,” she whimpers, her hands pushing on the firm globes of his ass.

Grayson obeys with a groan, drawing his hips in and out steadily. “Wanna fuck you slow,” he says in her ear, thrusting all the way in and all the way out. The warm clutch of her perfect pussy is so intense at that tempo that he shudders and his eyes roll back. “Slow and deep, Peach.”

“Yes,” MJ agrees, her breaths coming in fast despite the maintained speed of his dick. He’s working her up so good, and she leans forward to bite into the junction of his neck and shoulder out of habit to keep her sounds muffled.

“Yes, baby,” she squeals quietly when her minute adjustment shifts the angle just right for him to hit her spot over and over. Her nails claw at his back, scraping over the work of art that is both his rippling muscles and the picture of the lions inked into them. “Oh my God, keep fucking me like that.. like that…”

The air confined in the van is warm and thick. Sweat drips from the ends of his hair, his hot breaths fan over her forehead, and his chain dangles enticingly across her face as he stares down at her all blissed out beneath him. Nothing turns him on more than her words of encouragement, which are usually muted due to the fact that his omnipresent twin brother lives across the hall. But now that they’re alone, in nature — just like the night they met — all filters are off. It makes him even more determined to get her to cum so hard she forgets any of those sweet praises she’s mumbling other than his name.

It’s already so, so good, but as soon as he gets on his knees just enough to gain more leverage to thrust even harder into her, that knot in MJ’s stomach starts growing in a fantastically unfamiliar way. Her eyes roll back and Grayson reaches a huge hand up to support her head against his shoulder, sensing how perfect the angle is for her and wanting to help her maintain it. She’s getting tighter and wetter around him, so much so that he has to grit his teeth and hiss to avoid having to pull out and stop.

“MJ,” he moans into her ear, tugging on her lobe with his teeth, an unspoken warning that he’s close. He’ll hold on as long as he can, but he absolutely needs to get her there first.

In the back of her mind, she comprehends his cue. But she’s so focused on reaching the bursting point of that expanding ball behind her belly, she can’t help but selfishly draw every ounce of pleasure she can from him. She thinks she knows what’s going to happen, and it will be a first-time experience for both of them.

It’s only going to take a few more deep, hard thrusts, and she’ll be there. Almost there…

“Gray!” she squeaks, squeezing a hand between their bodies to push against his abs, just in time for him to pull out and her to gush all over him and the blankets serving as makeshift sheets beneath them. It’s an indescribable release that washes over her, her own loud, shaky squeals of pleasure distant noises in the back of her head. She can only see colors behind her closed eyelids, greens and blues and lavenders sparkling in her mind’s eye like a mystical fog.

Grayson can’t believe what he’s seeing. His shocked and aroused groan sounds obnoxiously loud and foreign in his own ears; the fact that he doesn’t bust his nut right there on the blanket next to hers is a miracle. Instinctively, he reaches his fingers down to help her through it by rubbing her clit, huffing out an incredulous laugh when her thighs clamp instantly around his hand and a little more of her juices come out, soaking his hand. His name tumbles repeatedly out of her lips, just like he was aiming for and unwittingly exceeding his own expectations.

He’s painfully hard as he leans over her again, kissing her through her mindless whimpers as she starts to slowly come-to, her damp thighs opening once again and allowing him to slip between them. Right where he belongs.

“MJ?” he whispers, stroking her brow softly and watching her face intently. “You okay?”

Eyes still closed and breasts heaving, MJ takes a second to respond, but she moans quietly and nods, puckering her lips in invitation for him to meet with his. He obliges, indulging her for a moment until he can’t wait anymore. “Where do you want me to cum?”

“Inside,” she breathes at once, reaching down to grasp him and bring him to her dripping pussy. Grayson flinches at her sudden grip on him and the overwhelming wetness against the sensitive head of his dick. “Come on, Bear. Want you to cum hard inside me.”

With a groan, he slides back inside her, and a few hard, sloppy thrusts later, he’s shooting deep in her pussy. He’s never cum so hard in his life, and he whines into her mouth with the timing of his spurts. She hums contentedly, obsessed with that feeling of warmth that comes with, well, his cum.

“So good,” he murmurs when he’s finally done, pulling out of her slowly. He grabs a spare towel and cleans up the liquid white that follows him dripping from her center. “That was incredible, MJ. You’re incredible.”

MJ shakes her head in agreement, clapping a hand to her forehead and giggling softly, her knees bent and swaying side to side. “I thought we had done everything to try to get that to happen. Turns out we just had to go back to the beginning.”

Grayson lies down next to her, turning her head with a gentle hand on her cheek so he can press their lips together. “I love you,” he says simply. “My pretty Peach.”

MJ grabs a blanket and tosses it over the both of them, brushing her nose against his once they’re cuddled together. “And I love my Gray Bear. Mine.”

“Yours,” he whispers in affirmation, tucking her head into the crook of his neck until they’re both lulled to sleep in their cozy little bougie tent.

[hometownrockstar]

the link in your bio doesn’t work btw :(

ya i know it doesnt work for some ppl works fine for me on desktop and my phone internet app and worked for me when i tried it on the tumblr app but that was a long time ago i dont use it, im pretty sure its a tumblr app problem tho idk how to fix it, and im sorry but...i dont want to make a carrd. ive been in the <a href=> gang for too long to know anything different. but i'll look into the whole pinned post business soon probably, heres a link to my about in this post just for you maybe it will work maybe it wont tumblr is just like that

[creatingchimera]

i think your recent comic has all the pages outta order? just thought i'd let ya know before anything

it looks fine to me-- tumblr does this sometimes where it fucks up the order on desktop. I'll hop on my laptop and fix it in a sec, thank u for telling me !

[tempural]

origins of tentaspy

Interview I conducted with Lakidaa (known as Engineer on the chan) about the origins of Tentaspy, and other old TF2chan stuff.  Interview conducted March 29th, 2020.  Content warning for discussions of Scout x Spy shipping (pre comics, no incest you sillies!) and racism on the chan.

If you were ever curious about where the Tentaspy meme came from, here ya go!  It’s also a nice lil documentation of some older fandom stuff, before it all moved to Tumblr (then combusted).

---

scumsuck: About Tentaspy.  I was on TF2chan in the pre-2009 days, and I recall it being part of a little mermaid AU?  With Scout as the little mermaid and Spy as Ursula?  Is my recollection true?

Lakidaa: Ah yes.  Yes!  I was Engineer [on TF2chan].  It was because we were on a kick of watching Disney movie songs in their native language & Beauty And The Beast is a French story.  

scumsuck: So Tentaspy started as a SpyScout thing, then it got into Teufort monster territory.

Lakidaa: Right.

scumsuck: When you say 'we were on a kick of watching disney', you mean you and other people on the chan?

Lakidaa: Yes! There was a steam chat we hung out in.

scumsuck: Do you remember who else was there on the disney movie thing?

Lakidaa: Uhhh me? Jones. Khorosho, the mod who was an Aussie, Dr.Tanner, oh! Yeah uhh Kilomonster.  Idk the exacts because it was 10 years ago.

scumsuck: The vagues are fine too!  10 years dang...

Lakidaa: A big problem was that the mod was Aussie and kinda oblivious to racism lmao.  It’s why I quit.

scumsuck: oh boy I remember a LOT of casual racism on the chan.  like the 'nickname' for demoman.

Lakidaa: Yyyyyeah. It’s why kilo bounced and why I eventually bounced.

scumsuck: bounced off the chan, or out the TF2 fandom in general?

Lakidaa: Both?  I was an actual administrator; I had full powers on the Chan itself.  And I got sick of Tanner’s racism and then Mog (that was her name)’s defense of it claiming the usual ‘oh we’re not Americans we do t Do that tee hee’ defending.  And it was the fandom.  This was before tumblr, really. I was doing LJrp at the time.  So if you weren’t posting on the chan there wasn’t really anywhere to get your fix.

scumsuck: I guess there were a lot of people sick of the racism back then, but the chan culture was too much.

Lakidaa: Yeah. We hadn’t realized that it didn’t have to be that way :V

scumsuck: I think I remember that the chan was made cuz everyone else on 4chan's /v/ was sick of the 'ironic' gay porn posting?

Lakidaa: Right.

scumsuck: So besides TF2chan , there wasn't the mass exodus to Tumblr yet.

Lakidaa: Because [LiveJournal] didn’t suck enough yet.

scumsuck: Curiously I don't remember that much of a TF2 community on LiveJournal.

Lakidaa: There wasn’t.

scumsuck: I remember ones for other shows like Metalocalypse and Venture Bros and so forth, but I guess TF2 never stuck on LJ.

Lakidaa: I was very LJ at the time.  Those shows were shows and like. I don’t think fandom had developed enough to take these characters which were, at the time, broad sketches, and do stuff with them.  All the meet-the videos weren’t out by then.

scumsuck: Now we can take vague-as-hell characters, like the ones from Overwatch, and mash em into something workable.  I wonder if the OW fandom could have thrived pre-tumblr.

Lakidaa: I don't think so. OW itself is the descendent of TF2’s character-based shooty.  I also admittedly have no fucking clue what’s up with the gator Sniper. (in reference to me asking if they knew the origins of Tentaspy's counterpart, the gator Sniper.) That was way later when I was in 40k

scumsuck: I love this stuff, and I'm trying to get together more memories of the chan and it's culture.   Do you remember Teratomarty?

Lakidaa: Yes!  And makani!  She famously did the administrator as a fan thing and got scooped by Valve.

scumsuck: Heck yeah!  Makani what a legend.  There were a lot of -isms and -phobias in TF2chan, as a part of the awful chan culture, but a lot of great art was made there too.

Lakidaa: Oh yeah.  I still have some documents too.

scumsuck: Oooh what sorts of documents?  I know the chan's been like... deleted and reformatted a couple times since I was on there so a lot was lost.

Lakidaa: Old fiction!

scumsuck: Do you recall who drew some of the first pieces of visual art for Tentaspy when it was created?  And who did the first fics?

Lakidaa: Me for fics lmao.  But for art I don’t remember.  There used to be a pictochat. (a site for multiple people to draw on the same canvas at once)

scumsuck: Do you still have your Tentaspy fics?

Lakidaa: Maybe!  I’m on phone and it’s all on the desktop lmao

scumsuck: They're important historical documents!

Lakidaa: Bro I read the post on tumblr about the 70s spirk fic in A&M University.

scumsuck: Ye Olde Yaoiz.  This stuff is honestly important!!!  I know I wouldn't have developed as an artist without all the slash I was reading back in my youth.

Lakidaa: Same.

scumsuck: Does Tentaspy predate 2010?

Lakidaa: I believe so.  Aha 2008 stuff.  I do have some [writing] that's Tentaspy, but it's chat; I'd have to find Jones and ask them if they're down

scumsuck: 12 years... Good timeframe though, that's when I was actively browsing the chan.

Lakidaa: It does have some nsfw on it which is double why I'm asking. This doesn't look like it's a chat chat tho it looks like our old DMs

scumsuck: Did Tentaspy originate as a NSFW concept from the getgo?

Lakidaa: For about 10 minutes it wasn't NSFW and was just us ragging about.

scumsuck: How do you feel about fanworks of tentaspy?  I'm working on a doujin of Tentaspy, and this is one of the reasons I wanted to contact whoever created the concept.  If I were to print comics of this concept you and your friends created, would they feel odd to you?

Lakidaa: Not really!  It's perfectly fine. It's a concept that's left my hands.  I'm not in TF2 anymore (Overwatch and 40k and my OCs honestly) so I'm like, 'at least someone's enjoying it'

scumsuck: Oh yeah, the fandom ghost that will never leave.

Lakidaa: yes :p

scumsuck: I haven't been into TF2 since like... 2009-2010, but I got back in the last couple years and have had a blast figuring out where the fandom went post-Tumblr.  I love this like.. metacontextual historical stuff

Lakidaa: Yeah! I'm glad someone's on it.

scumsuck: I think that's all I have to ask you for now, I'll wait and see if Jones responds!

Lakidaa: (._.)7

[ziracona]

THE OFFICIAL DBD STORE SELLS A HUNTRESS (and shirtless david) BODY PILLOW AND IM 👀👀👀👀👀👀👌👌👌👌

Keep ‘em comin’ lads

(Haha. I do gotta say tho Anon, if you want a body pillow for DbD, please consider getting a custom one instead. I think you’d actually like it much better! The rest was meant to be under a cut but tumblr is the dumbest shit site coding wise & I made this on mobile, which will not allow you to add read mores anymore. In past this has been no problem bc I can just save as a draft & edit + post on my laptop or edit the second I post & throw in a read-more but apparently now if you make a post on mobile you can never edit it in desktop again. : ) I love that. So fucking much! But this is going to be long now & I physically cannot fix that bc it also won’t let me swap it to html now it’s posted : ) : ) : ) fuck this site : ) —anyway! On a brighter note, here’s my pitch:

Okay! So to start.

First up. Let’s look at what the devs are offering you.

Here are the official body pillows. Now, these aren’t the worst pictures of Anna and David I’ve ever seen, but they’re not great. David’s in his default queue pose, I got no idea wtf Anna’s doing, and neither of them have interesting, good, or attractive poses, lighting, expressions, or detail. Considering this is decently funded company with multiple artists on staff and full body 3D adjustable rendered models of Anna & David on every computer there, it’s lazy as hell. It’s not even as good art as their official sketches or character renders or promo art. They know how to do the work:

They’re just being lazy.

Okay, though, but you really want a body pillow, so what to do? Well, maybe it’ll be cheap enough you don’t care about the quality too much. So, how much will this cost you? For me to ship to myself in the us with the cheapest shipping option, Anna would cost me $80.

Okay, so. That sucks. But you really want this and what else can you do? There’s nothing else to pick.

OH WAIT. Yes there is! So here’s some actually good news for ya 💪

If you want a custom body pillow, you have two options: 1, buy a custom pillow case and a pillow separately, or 2, buy a custom pillow with the image on the pillow print itself. Now, you can get the second option, but it is exponentially more expensive. I’ve seen maybe 60something-70 as the cheapest option for this, although I didn’t spend a ton of time looking. Still, if you want to go full hog, it’s possible. If you don’t mind a pillowcase/the cheaper option, though, (and many pillow cases are custom to the exact specified pillow size and aren’t really noticeable at all), it’s a good deal. For example: A body pillow can be bought at many stores for about 15 bucks. There is some variance in pricing for size, shape, and material, but here I’d like to add the official DbD site doesn’t even list dimensions for their body pillow, let alone material. So, for me to get what I want if I wanted this, I could buy a $15 pillow at a store, and then a pillowcase from a place that I could get it custom made & delivered, IE price + shipping is $30 from here https://www.etsy.com/listing/653983430/custom-21-x-60-zipper-body-pillowcase?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=custom+body+pillow&ref=sr_gallery-1-1&bes=1

So we’re at about $45 right now. (eBay offers cheaper custom pillowcase options but I didn’t want to try to vet sellers for quality & reliability making this post & this is a good price).

This leaves about $35 to commission an artist for something to put on the pillow case. Now, price for commission varies greatly from artist to artist, and full body is the most expensive base option for a single subject, but there’s definitely people offering really freaking incredible commissions at this price, and sometimes even lower. Even though their art should really be worth more than that. Unfortunately, we artists gotta eat. And a lot of the people who buy commissions are also young adults who gotta eat and don’t have a ton of cash. 🤷🏻‍♀️ So there’s a lot of people who’d be genuinely very happy to be paid for that commission even though it kinda sucks we be there. And if you want to commission someone more expensive, sure you’ll be spending more on the body pillow than DbD officials $80ish. But uh. Would you rather give the same devs who picked the most racist Claudette design they could put into the game for the most recent costume contest $80 for one of these:

Or

Spend $37 for a David of @eggchef ‘s lookin this kinda fine:

https://eggchef.tumblr.com/post/190185302972/david-and-jake-are-both-just-rich-kids-who-said

$40 for a full body Anna of @guud-night ‘s in the style they did this: https://guud-night.tumblr.com/post/185148722468/summer

Or $42 for a full body Anna like this one by @sleazy-art https://sleazy-art.tumblr.com/post/169548091038

or $70 for a full body of @guud-night ‘s in the style of this Anna seen here https://guud-night.tumblr.com/post/165476621798/the-huntress

The fan artists do better work—I mean think of how amazing a pillow could look if your heart cries for one. Vs the low-grade renders the devs be offering. They do so much better it’s like a “Look at your body pillow. Now look at the body pillow the devs told you not to worry about” meme it truly is. TBH, you could screenshot a DbD store screen with Anna or David, edit out the BG in photoshop, and already have a better 3D image than the official offering. 😂 And with an artist? 👌 Mmmmm. Anyway, haha. There was my in-depth pitch to buy from fans instead of official. I was just very motivated to *Robin Williams Genie voice* Illuminate the possibilities! I hope it may have given you inspiration for something even more beautiful than what you thought your heart desired :’-)

[feferipeixes]

Lucy Ann & the Lunch Bunch - Chapter 2

The year is 3512, and pro-nat ideologies are gaining a political foothold in the United States. It's not a safe time for preters, so Lucy Ann decides to lay low... by pretending to be a first grader.

She was planning on just waiting for this to all blow over, but, well... some old habits die hard. Don Pines would be proud, if a bit exasperated. That dummy Alcor would be proud too but he really needs to chill so she's going to keep him happily out of the loop.

Chapter 2: First Grade Is (Not So) Boring (link to chapter 1)

Thanks to @toothpastecanyon​ for being the best beta reader!

(See the most updated version on AO3!)

This fic uses underlined text to indicate dialogue in sign language, but Tumblr doesn't show the underlines on mobile for some reason. Recommend viewing on desktop or just reading it on AO3 instead.

===

“Okay, it’s time for school, and -- oh stars, this is an absolute nightmare, I’m, I don’t know -”

Lucy Ann frowned at Alcor. “It’s going to be fine.”

“Of course it will! I trust you completely!” He giggled nervously, but the twitch in his face did not dissipate. “But if anything does happen, I got a phone so you can call me -- I know they’re called communicators now, so don’t call them phones in public, it’ll totally blow your cover and they’ll take you away forever -”

“Tyrone.”

“Actually, screw the phone number, you know my circle, and Lane has it stitched into her coat, but I really don’t want her cutting herself to activate it, so you should stay with her at all times and be ready to offer some yourself, I’m sure I’ve got a lancet around here somewhere -”

“Tyrone.”

“Wait, what am I saying, you’re a vampire, that won’t work -- maybe I have some spare candles I can throw in your bag for emergencies, stars above how do I not have spare candles littered around the house -”

“TYRONE!”

Alcor froze, and looked down at Lucy Ann, who had a big scowl on her face. “Y-yes?”

“Dude. You need to calm down. We talked about this.” She climbed onto a chair to get a bit closer to his eye level. “We’re going to elementary school, not Florida. I’ve got this.”

“Yeah, but just in case -”

“Nope. I’ve got this. You promised you wouldn’t intervene -- we had a deal.”

He tensed up for a moment, and then let out a long, fake exhale. “Okay. You’re right. Please, just be careful, alright?”

Lucy Ann sighed, but her expression softened. “I can do that. I’m not actually a six year old, remember?” She jumped off the chair, and stood next to Lane, who had remained silent through the entire conversation. “She’ll be perfectly safe with me around, and no one will suspect a thing.”

Alcor smiled. “I know. I trust you -- you’re a good friend.”

“Whoa, a bit sappy in the morning, are ya?” She elbowed Lane playfully, and then winced when she remembered that Lane couldn’t hear what they were saying.

Lane, for her part, didn’t react to being elbowed. She did notice Lucy Ann staring at her, and signed “We go?”

“Almost,” Lucy Ann responded.

She turned back to Alcor. “She’s ready to go.”

“Okay.” He picked up two backpacks and handed one of them to her. “I packed you both lunches -- I know that wasn’t part of the deal but I wanted to make sure you had something you could eat.”

Lucy Ann rolled her eyes, but then smiled and slipped on the backpack. “Thanks.”

He smiled, and gave the other backpack to Lane. “I want a full report of the day when you get home, alright?”

“Yeah, you too buddy. Don’t forget your end of the deal. You better have some good ‘being a human’ stories for me, or you won’t be hearing a word about how boring first grade is.”

His expression faltered, and Lucy Ann watched his mouth flap open and shut several times. He finally tilted his head and put on a saccharine smile. “Of course! We had a deal, and I definitely haven’t found any loopholes in it. Nope!” He clapped his hands together giddily. “Now, I’ve put a few notebooks in your backpack, just to make sure you have enough space to record your thoughts about the day -”

“Bye Tyrone!” Lucy Ann interrupted. She grabbed Lane’s hand and pulled her toward the door.

“Okay, be safe you two!” He called as they left. “I’m- yes, I’m okay Lane, don’t you worry about me! Uncle Tyrone is going to be fine, just try and have a good day for me, okay?”

Lucy Ann glanced at Lane. She was staring blankly at Alcor, who was most likely talking to her telepathically again. Lucy Ann wasn’t sure why Alcor always spoke out loud when he communicated with Lane like this -- perhaps it was for her sake, but it didn’t really help all that much when she couldn’t hear Lane’s side of the conversation.

They exited the house, and walked to the end of the driveway. Lucy Ann looked back at the house to see Alcor pressed up against the front door, watching them leave. She snickered at how ridiculous he looked -- a grown man clinging to a screen door as if he was trapped in it.

Definitely funnier than a 6000 year old vampire going to elementary school.

They clambered on the bus together and sat in the same seat as before. Lucy Ann stared out the window and tried to watch the houses go by, but it wasn’t relaxing her like it had the day before. Alcor’s hysteria had set her a little on edge -- what if this wouldn’t actually be as easy as she thought? She was, after all, hiding from the government. If she couldn’t even be sure of her own safety, how could she be sure of Lane’s?

She turned to Lane and signed, “Who is your teacher?”

“Parsnip,” she replied, spelling out the name instead of using a sign.

“I didn’t see you in class yesterday.”

“I was at the ASL class all day. Today it’s only one hour.”

Lucy Ann frowned. That was a bit of a problem -- being in different classes would make it harder for her to look after Lane. She’d have to see if she could attend the ASL class.

---

“Alright, class, how about this one? Can anyone tell me what four plus seven is?” Hands went up. “Yes, Jimmy!” Hands went down.

Excitement turned to caution. “It’s, uhhhh, it’s eleven!”

Mrs. Parsnip smiled with a level of honesty that Lucy Ann could barely fathom. “Very good!”

First grade was boring. First grade was really boring. Lucy Ann knew this would be the case -- she’d been a first grader many times before. It never really sank in, though, just how tedious and draining it would be to sit in a classroom all day being talked down to like she was a child.

But then again, that was the entire point. Someone looking like her but acting like an adult would immediately arouse suspicion. No, it was better for her to blend in, tone down, and tune out. She could wait this pro-nat regime out and come up smiling on the other side of it -- after all, time was something she had an awful lot of.

Still, her grip on her pencil tightened in irritation every time she was asked to sound out a three letter word. Every time she was asked to add two one-digit numbers. Every time she was asked to identify different shapes. She couldn’t help but be jealous of Lane, who was getting to learn a language while she was stuck trying not to scream every time someone misspelled their own name. She felt it wearing away at her patience, but she couldn’t snap because she needed to blend in, not only for herself now but also for Lane.

So far, it didn’t look like watching over Lane at school would be much of a problem. Not only were they in the same class, but their names were adjacent alphabetically, so they were sitting next to each other. On top of that, the classroom had pair desks, which meant that she and Lane would be as close as physically possible for most of the school day. The only real problem so far was that Lane had the ASL class in the morning...

There was a loud creak. Everyone turned to see the door to the classroom swing open, revealing Lane’s small figure in the frame.

“Hi,” Mrs. Parsnip signed at Lane. “It’s nice to see you. You can sit next to Lucy Ann.” She pointed at Lucy Ann rather than spelling out her name or using a sign.

Lane waved at Mrs. Parsnip, and stepped into the room, followed by a tall man wearing tiny spectacles. Lane sat down next to Lucy Ann, and the man walked to the front of the class to stand beside Mrs. Parsnip.

“Class, this is Mr. Avenel,” Mrs. Parsnip announced, and the man started signing as she spoke. “He’s going to be helping us out this year by repeating what I say in sign language. Say hi!”

A chorus of “hi” echoed through the room, and Lucy Ann rolled her eyes. Mrs. Parsnip smiled, and went back to her lesson.

“Here’s another one! Can anyone tell me what two plus two is?”

Several kids raised their hands, squealing excitedly in the hopes of being called on. Mrs. Parsnip put on a show of thinking over who to call on, which was probably supposed to be fun for the kids but it made Lucy Ann feel like time was slowing down.

She glanced at Lane, who gave her a little wave. It was good to see her again -- she was a little more nervous about being separated from her than she would ever admit to Alcor. But Lane seemed fine, and everything was okay, except for the fact that she was so goddamn bored.

“Maria, how about you?”

The girl to the right of Lucy Ann grinned, opened her mouth, and then faltered. “Um… uh… it’s… oh I know this…”

“FOUR!” Lucy Ann screamed internally, “IT’S FOUR! THIS IS THE EASIEST ONE IN THE BOOK AND WE DID IT YESTERDAY!”

“It’s um… three!”

Lucy Ann’s head hit the desk. “I’m going to burn the school to the ground,” she thought. She wondered how long she could just lie on her desk before Mrs. Parsnip noticed and told her to pay attention. Not long enough, she was sure.

She felt Lane’s hand slide into hers, and an odd sense of relief trickled into her mind. Surprised, Lucy Ann picked up her head and glanced at her again, and got the same blank-faced wave as before. She returned it after a moment, and turned back to the teacher.

For whatever reason, the rest of the lesson didn’t seem so bad.

---

Lucy Ann took a bite of her sandwich, and gagged on the -- yuck, what was that, tuna? She let it fall out of her mouth onto a napkin. Alcor promised her a lunch that she could eat, and this definitely wasn’t it, which meant...

Shit. She waved frantically at Lane before she could bite into the other sandwich. “I have your lunch!”

Lane blinked and put the sandwich down. Lucy Ann peeked under the top slice of bread and... yep. Lane would not have enjoyed eating that. She handed Lane her lunch and started eating her own.

Lunch was a much needed break from the tedium of the classroom. It was still pretty boring, but at least she didn’t have to pay attention to anything at lunch. She and Lane were sitting at a table by themselves, which was unsurprisingly the quietest table in the yard. The other students were busy arguing and laughing with food in their mouths, and when they finished their lunches, they got right up and ran around the playground. Meanwhile, when Lane and Lucy Ann finished their lunches, Lane just held Lucy Ann’s hand again and the two continued to sit at their table without speaking.

Lane seemed content to just stare ahead into the distance, so Lucy Ann rested her head on the table and zoned out. There was a lot to think about, but she’d already been thinking about it all morning, and all of last night. What did she usually do to entertain herself when she hid out at a school like this? If only she had someone to talk to...

Lane's grip on her hand tightened.

"You're not human, are you?"

Lucy Ann looked up. There were two boys standing by the table. The first was about Lucy Ann's height, thin with very short dirty-blond hair, and was wearing something between a scowl and a smirk. The other was a bit stockier in a way that was strange to see on someone so young, had shoulder-length brown hair, and looked more bemused than anything else.

She frowned. "What?"

The blond boy -- the speaker from before -- grumbled. "You're not human. You're a preter."

Well. Getting her cover blown on day two of elementary school was a bit earlier than she expected. But this was a kid. Maybe she could still salvage this. So she put on a sickly-sweet voice and fluttered her eyes. "What do you mean?"

"Come on, that's not going to work. I can tell you're not human. What are you?"

Lucy Ann faked a cough. "I don't know. I'm pretty human. That's what my parents say, anyway."

She felt a squeeze on her hand again, and turned to Lane, who had a slightly pained look on her face. She used her free hand to sign "Are you okay?"

Lane cringed, but then nodded. "Who is that?"

“I don’t know. I’ll tell him to leave.”

Lane shook her head. “I think we can trust him.”

“What? Why?” Lucy Ann said aloud, confusion written all over her face. She spun around and was met again with the boy’s unblinking stare. There was something off about it, now that she thought about it -- something she occasionally saw in that dork Alcor: age, where it surely didn’t belong, behind the eyes of a child.

Maybe her cover wasn’t blown after all.

“Alright, Einstein,” she responded, shifting back into her regular voice. “You got me. I’m a vampire. What do you want?”

The brown-haired boy boggled. “Wow, really?” He elbowed his friend. “You’re really good at this.”

“Yeah, I know.” The blond one grimaced, not taking his eyes off Lucy Ann. “What’s your name?”

Lucy Ann frowned. “Doesn’t matter. You can call me Lucy Ann, though. What about you?”

The blond kid coughed, his expression broken for the first time since he’d started talking to her. “It’s, uh…” He scratched his head, and Lucy Ann raised an eyebrow. “Derek. It’s Derek.”

The brown-haired boy raised his hand. “I’m Andy.”

“Great,” Lucy Ann said, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “Oh, and this is Lane.”

She quickly relayed their names to Lane in ASL, and Lane waved at them. Derek flinched.

“What is she doing here?” he stammered.

Lucy Ann stared at him. “What are you talking about? She’s a first grader, just like me and you.”

“N-no,” he replied, looking surprisingly ill-at-ease. “She’s got a, well, uh…” He trailed off, and then went back to scowling. “Nevermind. It’s nothing.”

She raised an eyebrow. Andy shrugged, mouthing something that looked like “you’ll get used to it.” Next to her, Lane still looked pained but was otherwise blank.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Lucy Ann signed at her. “Do you want to leave?”

Lane shook her head. “Tell you later.”

“Hey!” Derek waved his hand in Lucy Ann’s peripheral vision. “What are you doing?”

Lucy Ann fixed him with the most condescending glare she could muster. “Lane can’t hear you -- she’s deaf, so I’m telling her in sign language how much of a loser you are.”

He grumbled, and Andy smirked. “He’s not a loser, he just acts like one sometimes.” This just made Derek grumble even louder.

Lucy Ann rubbed her forehead. “Cool. Great. Now that we all know each other, what do you want?”

Derek slapped his palms onto the table and leaned forward in what was obviously an attempt at intimidation. “Tell me what you’re doing here.”

Lucy Ann, meanwhile, had to stop herself from giggling. “Whoops, looks like I have to tell you the whole story now! Guess what: I’m not actually six, I’m old and I’m pretending to be a kid because there are some meaaaan people out there who don’t like preters. Isn’t that sad?”

“You don’t need to talk down to me!”

Lucy Ann smirked. “Why not? You’re just a little kid.”

Derek looked mad enough that steam could have been coming out of his ears. “No, I’m-”

Andy put his hand on Derek’s shoulder, making the other boy flinch. “Hey, uh, someone’s gonna overhear us if you keep screaming like that. This isn’t really the kind of conversation we want people to overhear.”

“Fine.” Derek took a comically deep breath, and then exhaled. “The point is, we’re not really first graders either. Well, I am. He’s not.”

Lucy Ann boggled. “Are you kidding? Is the whole school made up of preters pretending to be children?”

Andy chuckled -- a gruff, deep sound that definitely didn’t belong in a first grader’s mouth. “I think it’s just the three of us. And, uh. Her, I guess,” he added, pointing to Lane. “Is she…?”

“No, she’s human. Nothing weird about her at all.” Except that she’s the reincarnation of an extremely powerful demon’s twin sister.

Derek looked ready to cut in and yell at her, but he stopped himself, instead crossing his arms. Andy, for his part, just looked confused again. Lucy Ann stared at the two of them, so out of place against the backdrop of first graders running around the playground, throwing mud at each other and screaming about boo-boo’s. First Alcor, then Lane, now these two?

Hiding from the government was going to be a lot more interesting than planned.

She took a deep breath, and turned to Derek. "So. What's your deal, then?"

His face twitched, and he responded in a sickly-sweet voice. "What do you mean?"

Lucy Ann rolled her eyes. "Okay then. What about you?" She nodded in Andy's direction.

He stepped past Derek and took a seat next to Lucy Ann. “I’m old too. I’m 28.”

“That’s not old. That’s not even old for a human.”

“It’s old for a first grader. And I’m not human. Well, I’m not completely human. I’m half gnome.”

“Oh.” There was an awkward pause. “I didn’t know that was possible.”

“Thanks, neither did anyone else.”

Lucy Ann coughed. “Sorry, that was rude.”

Andy waved a hand dismissively. “Don’t worry, I’m used to it.” Lucy Ann frowned, but let him keep going. “Anyway, I’ve been physically growing up like a human, just at a much slower rate. If I’m lucky, I’ll look like a teenager by the time I’m 60.”

Lucy Ann patted his back. “At least you get to grow up eventually. I’m a lot older than 28 and I still look like this.”

Andy shrugged. There was a squeak, and Lucy Ann looked up to see Derek with tears in his eyes.

“That’s so sad!” he said, voice and body trembling. “You don’t get to grow up? I want to grow up so badly!”

Lucy Ann’s jaw dropped at the jarring change in his behavior. Maybe this kid really was a six year old after all. She beckoned for him to sit with them, and he obliged, resting his head on the table and flopping his arms around erratically.

“Hey, Derek, it’s alright,” she said slowly. “I’m fine. Andy’s fine too, right?” Andy nodded. “Lane is, well…”

She glanced at Lane, who was staring very intently at Derek. She seemed to notice Lucy Ann looking at her, as she absent-mindedly signed “I’m still okay” at her.

“Yeah, Lane’s good too. Everyone’s having a good time.”

“Yeah, I know,” Derek replied, sounding annoyed. He scowled and sat up straight, any trace of having been upset completely gone.

Lucy Ann did a double take. “Was that a joke? Were you joking just now? I need to know. What?”

“If we’re all done with feeling time over here,” he continued, as if she hadn’t said anything, “let’s real talk. The three-” (he nodded at Lane and shuddered slightly) “the four of us aren’t supposed to be here. We need to stick together. And you can’t tell anyone else about us. We might be safe for now in this middle-of-nowhere town but that could change at any time. You understand?”

“Hey, who’s talking down to who now?” she retorted. The corners of his mouth started to curl up into a smile. “I promise I won’t tell anyone. I’m literally a thousand times as old as you, I know how to keep a secret.”

Andy blanched. “Y-you’re HOW old?”

Derek ignored him, and stared into Lucy Ann’s eyes. There it was again -- that aged look that made her question how accurate her previous statement was. “Good.”

There was the sound of a bell ringing, and Mrs. Parsnip called out “Alright, kids! Recess is over, it’s time for class!”

Derek stood up, keeping eye contact with Lucy Ann. “We’ll see you tomorrow at lunch. Let’s go, Andy.” He turned away and started marching off.

Andy, still looking a little rattled, waved at her as he got up. “It was nice meeting you. I don’t know sign language, but tell Lane it was nice meeting her too, okay?”

Lucy Ann nodded, and she gave him a little wave back.

“Come on, Andy!” Derek’s voice came from the side of the building. Andy smiled and walked off after him.

“What just happened?” Lucy Ann signed at Lane.

“New friends,” Lane replied. Lucy Ann felt something flutter inside of her.

Friends, huh?

Maybe first grade wasn’t so boring after all.

---

The bus dropped them off at Alcor’s house. Lucy Ann could see him at the door, pressing his hands and face into the screen in anticipation of their return. She really hoped he hadn’t been standing there all day.

“Hi Lucy Ann,” he said when they got to the door.

Lucy Ann raised an eyebrow. “Hi Alcor.”

There was a long pause.

“Were you thinking of letting us in anytime soon?”

“Oh, of course, yeah!” He disentangled himself from the screen door (were those claw marks she could see left in the mesh?) and backed up a few steps. Lucy Ann and Lane went through the door, and Alcor immediately scooped the latter up into his arms.

“Lane!” he cried gleefully. “How was your day, sweetheart?”

Lucy Ann pretended to gag, but Alcor ignored her.

“That’s great! I’m so glad you’re okay -- not that I had any doubt about it!” he added, grinning at Lucy Ann. He put Lane down and headed into the kitchen. “I’ll get you two some snacks!”

“I can get my own snack,” Lucy Ann grumbled light-heartedly. She and Lane followed him into the next room and sat next to each other at the table.

Alcor paused, and threw Lucy Ann an embarrassed look. “Oh, wait, no, not because you look like a kid or anything! Sorry, I’m still kind of in ‘work mode’. No offense.” He started rifling through the cabinets.

“Does that mean you actually did it? You got a job?”

“Of course I did! Did you really think I’d have a problem playing human?” He turned around, mock betrayal on his face and a bowl of red liquorice in his hands. “I got a job as a waiter at the diner on Centre Avenue. They were short staffed and desperate for some additional hands.” He punctuated this with a cackle, and set the bowl on the table.

“Alright, I’ll just pretend that wasn’t ominous. At least you’ve got something to do during the day, now.”

His expression immediately fell, and he awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “Well, uh… I said I got a job. I didn’t say I kept it.” Lucy Ann just stared at him, and he seemed to get even more fidget-y. “Turns out they didn’t like it that I wanted to shake hands with everyone who ordered food, or that I’d threaten people who left bad tips with nightmares. Yeah, I got fired before noon.”

Lucy Ann burst out laughing. “Wow, seriously? You’re worse at people-ing than I remembered! Looks like old habits die hard!”

Out of nowhere, a thought struck her like a slap to the face, reminding her that Lane was still in the room and had no idea what the two of them were talking about. She turned around and saw Lane just staring at the bowl of candy Alcor had set on the table. Lucy Ann gave her a little wave, and she looked up, expressionless but clearly bored.

“Do you want that candy?” Lucy Ann signed.

“No, I want carrots,” Lane replied.

Alcor, as usual, did not seem to notice any of this. “Yeah, yeah, get it all out of your system now. I’ll get another job tomorrow, which I’ll definitely be awesome at, and then who’ll be laughing?”

“Still me,” Lucy Ann replied. “Hey, why do you keep giving Lane candy? She clearly doesn’t want it. She says she’d rather have carrots.”

Alcor stuck his tongue out, and swiped the candy off the table. “Alright, fine, Miss. Parent-of-the-Year.” He rifled around in the fridge and pulled out a bowl of carrots. “Speaking of which, it’s your turn to tell me about your day. How was school? Was there any trouble? Do I need to go down there and take care of anyone?”

“No, you paranoid dork, everything was fine! It was just school, don’t you remember what school was like? There was class, and then there was lunch, and then there was class again, and it was all extremely boring, and I was right there with Lane the whole time.” Except for the ASL class.

Alcor put the bowl of carrots in front of Lane, who hugged his arm in response. He smiled fondly at her, and didn’t look up when he responded to Lucy Ann. “That’s it? Nothing interesting happened at all?”

Lucy Ann thought about the two “kids” they’d met that day, and what Derek had said before leaving. He didn’t need to know about them just yet -- they weren’t a danger to Lane and she had promised not to tell anyone about them. “Nope,” she lied, lips pursed. “Not a single thing.”

Alcor looked up from Lane and smiled the same sweet, genuine smile at Lucy Ann. “That’s good. Thanks for keeping her safe.”

Lucy Ann folded her arms behind her head and leaned back in her chair. “Yeah, well, I told you I could handle it,” she gloated, a big confident grin on her face. “First grade is boring.”

(AO3 link)

[fatebreaking-a]

☀️

I like how this is literally indecipherable on desktop, so I had to go onto my phone (where it was still indecipherable) and then open it in safari to figure out which one this was.

☀ What’s your rp pet peeve?

It’s this one and not the other one right above it that also looks like a sun.

Emoticons, man.

Well, that was fun and all but- rp pet peeves. Stuff under the cut. Pour one out for the entire community, because I’m about to take a pound of flesh from everyone.

There’s a lot of stuff in here that boils down to just being a good writing partner and all that, trying to advance the action in a natural way, and so on… and I think a lot of it can boil down to either a lack of awareness or a lack of experience. People get better at writing by writing, so I find it hard to really be frustrated and stay frustrated by someone who falls into some of these pitfalls. So you’ll notice I don’t really target things that have to do with writing skill as much as I target ‘attitude’ and ‘conscientiousness’. There is a lot that bothers me though, so here’s a short list.

Criticizing the way other people have fun. This is a big one. What this boils down to is conversations about how “this ship isn’t realistic” or “your ideals on writing are dumb” or “you take writing too seriously/not seriously enough.” I’ve seen all of these. And I used to know someone on a forum-based RP site that would actively go out of her way to criticize that people would include a lot of introspection in scenes that were fast paced. For instance, using poetic language, or talking about how they’re feeling, what the situation was, “he felt like he was up against the tide, that his heart was being torn in two, a cut made deeper with every clash of their blades” - stuff like that. She hated it. And she made sure everyone knew that she did not approve of how much they were writing, because it was ‘not realistic’. And yes, there is definite merit to the claim that people do not have time to introspect about their entire lives and their relationship to their allies and enemies between sword swings... But so what. I don’t think it’s wrong to advocate for shorter, simpler posts with less descriptive text, and to manage in 200 words instead of 600. That’s great. Simplicity has value, being concise is great, ‘brevity is the soul of wit’, whatever. But the problem, the problem was that she would criticize others for writing in a way that they enjoyed. No one got on her case for writing less, but she was so grating on this point that eventually people just did not want to be around her.

It was something I’ve experienced even here. Finding the balance between “writing to improve your ability to write” and “writing just to have fun” are two separate matters. People forget that individuals exist from both camps, and I have known people (multiple) who say ‘this is important to me, I’m growing my skills using RP as a medium’ but fail to empathize and recognize that not everyone has the same viewpoint. Caring about things that make you feel something over technically good and well executed writing does not make you a problem.

And as a big follow up, I find that this is a big issue in life in general. I think that people often forget how much time it took them to learn a certain thing, recognize their own investment, or recognize the disparity between their own idea of ‘common knowledge’ vs actually common knowledge. When I joined the community, I did not know what private, selective, independent, mun, muse, or mutuals meant. For someone who’s brand new, these are terms that can be hard to decipher. And it’s the similar with ships - I think that people forget that not everyone who comes to RP is from a writing background. Some of them may just have enjoyed reading fanfiction, or may have enjoyed their favorite bot lane duo, or they have a main and their partner has a main and they like the aesthetic. So long as it’s not inherently problematic (incest, pedophilia), it’s cruel to degrade someone and call everything that doesn’t make perfect sense a ‘crackship’. Fanart also has a big role to play in this. Do I personally like Sona with Ka/yn, Yas, Sy/las, Jh/in, or Dra/ven? No, I don’t. I don’t, but equally, it’s not right for me to get in someone’s face for liking it. If you love MF/Sona because it’s a fuckin’ sick classic wombo combo bot lane... that’s cool, more power to you. I wish people would ease up and remember to just let people have their fun. There’s a Jh/in that follows me, who politely asked if I shipped it and I said no, and then there was no hard feelings at all. And that is ideal for me. Really.

T h e f t.

And being ultra conscious of it. I am in a very unfortunate circumstance that many of my Sona hcs are very similar to another blog in the space. I found that out by accident, and we reached similar (but also different!) conclusions. But now I am terribly terrified of ever speaking to them, because gods above I want to lift all my duplicates into the air, kiss them, and scream about them... but I don’t want anyone to feel anxious that I’m copying them. It’s also why until about a week ago, I only followed one other Sona blog ever - written by one of my very, very close friends. I never want people to feel like I’m stealing from them, but I also want my duplicates to feel comfortable on my blog! I want them to feel okay about reblogging art of their characters if they like it or talking to me about things... And I’ve put in a lot of effort to be very divergent with my portrayals, but I still ended up in this situation. I won’t name names ( and I really hope that no one bothers that other Sona, because she’s a genuine sweetheart and deserves love and appreciation ),  b ut... This is a big issue for me.

And it’s exacerbated by the fact that some people are lazy as fuck and actually just straight up steal ideas. It’s not ‘inspired by’, which I usually take care to do, giving proper credits or speaking about where I got information from or from whom or that it is on some level almost collaborative (because this is a collaborative space where we interact with each other, but that’s another topic). But I mean some people just recklessly steal and because we all have anxiety (TM), the line between coincidence, inspiration, and theft blurs. Understand that on some level, plagarism is an ethical dilemma, and I exist in the camp that says “hey man that’s cool come talk to me” - but I can exist in that camp because I insist on a very divergent interpretation that is almost ‘theft-proof’. I do not think any other Sona blog will ever have this combination of headcanons: “is a construct inspired by a house spirit, made up of one part crashed titan goddess, three parts demons, and each demon is represented by one of the strings of the instrument, which by the way shattered because bad reasons”. But if you’re not me, it’s hard to... stay loose about it.

And it’s hard to not get jealous.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE. Alright I wrote down a list when I actually got this ask, so let’s run off that. ( Yuki, you fuck, you’re not done? Fuck no I’m not done. ) These next ones are big for me.

MISREPRESENTING YOUR WANTS / YOURSELF

what does that mean, you ask me. It means this. It means pretending to be interested in ideas or interactions, even if you’re not interested. I do not ever want to be in the situation where I am happily chugging along, talking about a dynamic, and then find out that the other person isn’t as interested.

It’s fine to be mellow about it dude. I would rather know that you’re like... just okay on it all. I don’t want you to be polite and ‘spare my feelings’ and force yourself.

I want you to have fun. Have fun. God just have fun, you know? Please. There are a ton of interactions I’m “just okay” with, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I can be just okay with stuff and it’s fine. Not everything needs to click instantly but like...

Only showing interest to appeal to me or spare my feelings kinda sucks. It doesn’t last forever. It feels really bad. And eventually when things fall apart, it feels even worse. Like oh you really just did not care that much. Or you didn’t enjoy writing with me? Or what is it? See: jealousy/anxiety. Just be honest.

I think you especially have seen this with me, but I have a penchant for just being sincere and honest about how I feel about things. At least a little bit.

Don’t share things people tell you in confidence.

Fucking duh but it needs to be stated. Sometimes people gotta vent. It happens. And I get that ‘talking behind someone’s back’ is not great, but expressing frustration is a real thing that has real value. And then finding out that those things were shared. If I didn’t bring it up with them myself, I didn’t want them to know. Duh. I’m not talking to be catty but because I’m upset. S h i t. Some of the drama that I’ve seen happen from others doing this (and not to me, but in various cases) was entirely unavoidable. I’ve seen so many variants of this. It’s dumb dude. It’s dumb.

Hard vs Soft statements (Stating opinions as facts)

This is another one that gets me. I come from a world where we write, ‘Sona tries to’ and so on to others. Tumblr as a whole doesn’t seem to conceptually engage with the idea of ‘interrupting actions’ and accepting that interactions are a little malleable. And it in turn reflects how others speak about characters.

I never see, “I think Sona is”, I see “Sona is.” This is such a minor little thing, and I’ve come to accept that it’s part of the culture, but it can be terribly frustrating when others speak about your characters. I often say things like “I see Sona as” or “Because of xyz, Ori/anna would probably-” etc. But that isn’t something that I see here from some people. I know that I do this a lot less these days, in part because I have acclimated to the culture.

Incidentally, there are some joke versions of this that are also frustrating. People can really think they’re being funny, but end up just shutting you out of the conversation entirely when they say ‘No’. I might be a little too sensitive to this though, in that I often disengage from conversations because “it’s not really about my interpretation, so it’s better if I not say anything because it’s not relevant and doesn’t contribute.”

Really, I’m just a weenie baby, but I know when someone’s being rude vs when it’s just my own anxieties. I don’t expect everyone to have unshakable confidence, I also don’t expect that everyone be quivering in their boots. Some people can be really, really dismissive and it’s kind of not so great because it comes along with them otherwise being pretty neat.

Last one: Misrepresentation of data / using a ‘preponderance of evidence’ when there really isn’t that much.

How do I even put this.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

CONJECTURE IS NOT FACT.

Phew. Okay that’s done. That right there is a big problem (and in combination with the pet peeve before that, it gets worse.)

Something to understand is that sometimes there is no good reason to pipe up to correct someone. Often, people are having a visceral, gut reaction and it’s very emotional. Criticizing that ignores the intent (that they’re frustrated), so it’s often a good idea to let it be.

But that doesn’t stop me from seeing that facts are poorly stated or misrepresented. The community likes to talk about league so I see it in OOC posts, and I also see claims that are just wrong. They’re misstated, exaggerated, or phrased in such a way that you could accept them - except one fact check will prove otherwise. But again, why get in someone’s face when they’re frustrated?

But this leads to some people feeling ‘complicit acceptance’. Which is in itself another problem that I won’t get into.

I as a person tend to be pretty rigorous. If I see facts and I can check them with a quick google search, I often do - especially League. It’s so easy to check a champion’s win rate or popularity. Other people do not always exercise this rigor.

“Alright fuckface but that’s talking about league and not rp.”

Yeah okay you make a fair and valid point, except for the part where you missed bullet points 2-4. I’m more talking about the general attitude people have but let’s talk specifically more about RP.

There’s content. A lot of content. And most of it is really vague, because that’s how R I O T G A M E S does things. We still can’t get a straight answer on whether Sona’s adopted mom, Lestara, is alive or not. H u h?

And this often leads to us making connections and conclusions based on the limited data we have. We’re extrapolating, taking what we know and trying to figure out something new.

Except when we get a new data set, sometimes our extrapolations don’t work anymore.

Except we just spent three months world building around our guesses ( because that’s what they are)

Oops I’m divergent now.

That happens. A lot. My entire blog was evidence of that, where I made extreme guesses and then accidentally got validated as Demacia went full grimdark. But it even happened last year, when suddenly we gained new information! Mage registration! That’s a thing! And it changes how we perceive things.

And you may be thinking, ‘ok fine but what does that have to do with misrepresentation’ and it has this to do with it. People will make conclusions based on their own view, then solidify these conclusions as ‘fact’.

For example, I wrote a small article on how “magical sight was not a reasonable power to have” and then soon after, Mageseekers appeared. Oops. Oops.

And these extrapolations get treated as though they are really fact. The line between what is ‘real’ and what is ‘assumed’ blurs. The truth is this. Unless it’s directly and unambiguously stated, it’s basically not fact. “But we can conclude-” I know. And then we’ll get new information and that’ll change. Ideas in this fandom are like balloons, you need to tie them down with text evidence or they’ll just float away before you even know it. I can talk about how Sona is a literal genius level intellect all day, and tomorrow I can be proven wrong by one little shift or clarification in the lore. ‘Within months’ - okay how many months? Fifteen months? Three months? Unknown.

And this leads me to preponderance of ‘evidence’. This one is long because it bothers me a bunch.

‘Preponderance of evidence’ (quotes required) is basically the situation in which someone goes and tells me:

“Listen buddy, I have these seven pieces of evidence, so I can reasonably conclude that [x] is true.” And that’s solid conjecture and extrapolation and I accept that.

Except that maybe you seven pieces of evidence aren’t all solid pieces of evidence.

Oh.

Oh no.

And that’s happened. I have seen evidence pieces one, two, four, and six all be good. And pieces three, five, and seven are a stretch at best.

But because they have so many pieces of evidence, it’s hard to critique back. Because they still do have four good pieces of evidence!

But the strength of the conclusion increases with more accurate and valid data points, and if your data points aren’t-

And that’s the rub, basically. Sometimes I see people fit evidence to their conclusion without even realizing it. Some of the most intelligent, rigorous, and well-versed writers on this site I’ve seen do it.

And it sucks.

And it’s a peeve because here’s  the truth.

The truth after all this talk is this very important fact.

I don’t say anything about these things to people because I don’t want to ruin anyone’s fun or engagement.

People make mistakes and say many things because they are passionate about what they’re talking about. Often that’s the case. And harmless conjecture misunderstandings are not the end of the world because this is not academia.

except that one time I wrote a writeup on how Aphe/lios isn’t mute but whatever.

And so while I have said all these things and have a lot of these feelings, I also think there’s no point to saying most of them directly to the person that bugs me. What good will it do? To someone who is reacting with their emotions and just wants to get their frustration out, or is speaking passionately about something... Just let it go.

And so often I let it go, even if I disagree. I have an opinion, but I don’t go out and toss it back in your face. I just get mad quietly and grump about it.

And that’s why I end up being a very ‘stay in my lane’ person.

The end.

If you read all the way through this, I’ll give you a cookie tbh. Many cookies. This is almost 3000 words and 7 pages.

[devilmaycamera]

FAQ

So I get a lot of questions. And I also get the same questions a lot, so hopefully this helps some of y’all before sending something through, but also those too nervous to ask!

I’ll edit this post and reblog as more things come to mind or more things get asked regularly.

[Updated 3rd Nov ‘19] My work season has now picked up which severely limits my time, so it’s time to revise the FAQ! (Was previously unemployed, now busy 6 days a week.)

Requests

Do you take requests? I used to, but my schedule doesn’t allow for it any more. However if you are an artist looking for something specific, you are welcome to IM me and I’ll see if I can help you out. Just be aware I only get to take screenshots about once a month now and queue everything.

I requested [thing] before you closed requests, is it gone? Although slow-coming, former requests are still on my list to do except for if it was a vague or colossal request like ‘more of [character] please’ or ‘all the characters [detail]’

Can I have screenshots of [Thing]? I’ve probably already had at least three requests for it, so please check the appropriate tags to find it. Most likely what you’re after will either be in a character tag from this list, and/or the relevant scene from this list. I take great pride in my lists and tagging, please use them. I will ignore vague/ duplicate requests because my inbox is flooded with this.

Can you post more/less of [Character]? No. Deal with it. They’re all great and I’ll post what I want. >:3

Screenshot Use

Can I Repost/Reupload your pictures? To Tumblr? No. Please Reblog. If you want to only share one image of a set that I’ve posted together, send me an IM with the link to the post and let me know which image and I’ll post it for ya separately. :3 To any other website? Kind of yes, BUT please don’t crop the images. Cropping makes me sad. It’d be rad if you can refer back in case people wanna find more, tho! I have set up a Twitter that auto-posts when Tumblr does too if that helps.

I saw someone repost your screenshot on [Platform]- Saddly its inevitable. Technically there is nothing I can do about it as the game and its assets belong to Capcom and I don’t own exclusive rights to the use of its assets obviously. So please don’t message me about it. If you want to do something, just politely ask the reposter to credit me and that’s cool. I’d rather not stress about it. This is a hobby for me.

IMPORTANT NOTE THOUGH REGARDING ART: If you see an Artist’s work (including fanart) please let the artist know, as they do hold rights to their portrayals of things even in fan works, and they can formally issue a take down notice. DMCA Info: [Tumblr] [Instagram] [Facebook] [Twitter] [AO3] [Youtube/Google]

Can I get Higher Resolutions? I know Tumblr downscales pictures. If you want the 1080p for a desktop background, IM me the deets and I’ll pop it on Imgur for you when I can. Don’t expect it in a timely fashion though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Can I edit your pictures? Generally I’d prefer not (I am actually a photographer and a retoucher/editor, so hence the feelings about it.) But if you have a really cool idea, IM or flick me a question and I might be okay with it still! If it’s just like for a lil meme thing though, go for it. I enjoy a laugh. Send it to meh! 

Can I use your screenshots for my Avatar/Banner? Sure! I’ve love to see it, in fact so hmu so I can check it out! (In THIS context editing is okay.)

Can I use your screenshots for RP Icons? A’ight, so I have to address something here as an update: Yes, I’m still fine for my screenshots to be used for RP Icons. But please follow the same terms for icon use as on DMCRPC. For those who don’t know, DMCRPC it is a project I’ve undertaken with a friend to create a MASSIVE icon resource for the role-play community. This includes that coming up with the terms of icon use for it together.

I have chosen not to engage in RPC discourse on this blog, nor do I want drama about my friends or affiliations. My friends are my friends, and reasonable adults. Therefore the following must be said:

If you are inclined to gatekeep, moderate or censor other people’s fictional works because of ‘problematic’ themes/content by actively seeking people to try ‘correct’ them via harassment and, threats and hate: I have no interest in supporting you. Please don’t use my work. Anyone I find doing this I actively block from all my blogs. You don’t have to support ‘problematic’ content; just don’t send abuse and don’t be passive-aggressive to strangers.

[emmelfish]

Did somebody say 7 Year Hiatus?

Poker... is Joker... with a P. COINCIDENCE?

(shuffles nervously into internet light) Uh... hello.

Screenshot from the downtown outing idiotic Daniel invited his sister on which I foolishly let her accept. Thank goodness I’d installed the anti-jealousy mod otherwise this would have been a freaking bloodbath.

Wow, has it really been 7 years? It is I, Emmelfish, of oh-so-brief Sim storytelling back in the days of Livejournal. Way back then I started off a little Strangetown-based soap called We’re on a Road to Nowhere - I thoroughly enjoyed making it, but man, overall, it was NAHT GUD. Some of it I was really proud of, some of it I went massively off the rails with (I wanted to bring other ‘hoods into it when I went the Uberhood route but I had no idea how to plan that out, plus, some of the plotlines were massively problematic. My tendency to force Erin and Vidcund together being a prime example. Seriously, they have zero in common, and you can’t buy chemistry).

From back in the day. What was I thinking, that shit looks creepy and revenge-porny no matter which way you spin it. Plus ya gotta at least TRY to diversify the abundance of blond in Strangetown. Also let’s have a moment of silence for the in-game camera.

Anyway, I think my last entry in that saga was like... 2011? And many things changed then... the game crashed like every 5 minutes, a four year relationship ended, a new one began with my best friend of all time, we got married in 2013 (oh, he bought me The Sims 3 in 2012 btdubs and I dunno, it just kinda left me cold)... Fast forward to 2014 when the Ultimate Collection was released and I was all ‘holy SHIT I looooved The Sims 2 let’s get back on that horse I wanna make that University saga I always thought about’; we installed it onto my husband’s desktop computer, and then I copied over some of the CC I’d backed up onto an external hard drive, and I’m not even kidding, his PC imploded. We had it looked at, and the tech guys said they’d never seen anything like it ever before. It was destroyed. How does a game and CC that had worked fine on my laptop that should have been collecting its pension by my last posts of WOARTN (before shitting itself with crashes all the goddamn time) melt the inside of a far more powerful machine? The Sims works in mysterious ways. So that dream was over.

Hamfisted posebox usage was hamfisted on Lazlo’s wedding night in 2011. Pray for Erin’s liquid knee, weak as her liquid eyeliner.

Lots more happened in life, e.g. in 2016 WE BIRTHED OUR FIRST FURCHILD heisthebestdogintheworld, 2017 we moved our tiny family of three from the north west of the UK (grey and drizzly) to Strangetown, cough, I mean, Arizona in the US (hot as balls, I’m never putting a Strangetown or Viper Canyon character in a sweater ever-a-fucking-gain unless it’s early morning and Sim January or February), with my job. Somewhere between my job getting hella stressful and randomly seeing an ad for all the Sims 2 games ever released on Mac (dat Super Collection doe) via the app store, I just remembered how much this silly, wonderful, crazy, complex game used to make me feel better if I was anxious or depressed. So what the heckers, I bought the thing. (Sadly it wasn’t free like Ultimate Collection, and it’s a shame they never released further SPs and EPs for Mac because the game looks freaking fab on it. Case in point.)

No photo editing or anything! Pretty colors! Haha, yep I actually had my fave OTP get together and let those crazy kids breed and everything when I was playing with Super Collection, one of the million times I had to restart it because it kept getting borked. This pic is peak Chloe, I die. ‘Why do you have to go into labor when I’m celebrating my promotion, you’re so selfish.’ Casual Seasons-themed ad on the TV.

I fell in love all over again. And then I discovered that the LJ community I loved back when had mostly moved to Tumblr and were still producing beautiful things with this beautiful game and it was like the best kind of comfort food, it was like coming home. 

Actually let’s take a moment to appreciate some more of the Mac magic.

Chloe’s grey hair turn-on really working itself hard right there 

Another potential elderly suitor right behind her. Lola has clearly had enough of her sister’s shit as per

#JustNannyThings

But trying to do everything I always did on my ancient Acer laptop was really hard on Mac (legitimately, @bunsim is a scholar and a saint for figuring out the monstrous file issues with Mac and putting that guide together). I checked my Origin account out of curiosity and no longer had Ultimate Collection in there for some reason, and even though I couldn’t play it, I said to EA’s chat, ‘What gives? I used to have that,’ and they promptly put it back into my account.

So I wanted to play it. Like, really bad. IT WAS RIGHT THERE.

Thus, I purchased a PC for the first time since the early noughties. (This may be the most reckless thing I’ve ever done and that makes me a Grade A nerd, and I’m okay with that.)

And now I want to read all your wonderful things and post hopefully wonderful things and I do hope you’ll have me.

So...

Hai Simblr!

[tinasresources]

☕ How to make gifs! Beginner Tutorial ☕

Hey guys, so by popular demand [and me actually becoming a little bit less lazy] I have decided to release my own version of a gif tutorial - this is just a step-by-step guide on how I personally make my gifs, feel free to ask me for clarification on any bit of this. 

This is very PICTURE HEAVY and for beginners either in giffing or Photoshop in general - everything is explained in detail, from absolute scratch.

Please LIKE/REBLOG to spread the resource and if you found this helpful!!

Things you will need:

Photoshop CS6 [or any with timeline should do]

Avidemux

FreeStudio Video to JPG Converter

A gif sharpening action [the one I’m using has been deleted :’( but any will do!]

We’ll be making the gif below:

STEP 1 - FOOTAGE

This is a very important step, please try and download the highest quality content - things like 1080p and 720p are the best quality but you can find things in HDTV quality which are also workable! I won’t recommend any sites in particular because quite frankly I don’t trust many sites myself, but PLEASE be sure to have a good anti-virus.

STEP 2 - CUT CLIPS

I am assuming at this point you have the video you want to work with and you are ready to go. This is the point where you open Avidemux [download linked above]. You have to cut the clips you want to use; this honestly helps so much and will be an absolute lifesaver so believe me it is not a waste of time. The start screen will look like this:

File > Open [and then select your video of course] and let it load. When it loads, find the bit you want to gif.

Place the marker where you want the clip to start, and press the A button. Either let it play or fast-forward, it doesn’t really matter, to the point where you want it to end.

BEFORE YOU SAVE THE VIDEO - Please remember to change the OUTPUT FORMAT from AVI muxer, which it will be pre-selected on, to MP4 muxer, as seen below.

Now you’ve done that, you are ready to save. Top left hand corner, you should see the little symbol highlighted - this will then lead you to save to whatever folder you are more comfortable in finding it again, Videos is always a good category - NAME IT SOMETHING RELEVANT [for example grant1 cause I’m giffing several scenes by grant gustin or if you are giffing a particular scene, something said in that scene, like ‘right back at ya’ or if it’s a particular scene, something like ‘shave’, ‘dance’ etc.

STEP 3 - SCREENCAPS

So, in order to create your gifs, you have to screencap your clips. I am actually going to link a tutorial already made of this programme HERE, and clarify only my settings, as seen below. Make sure you select EVERY FRAME when doing gifs, and make sure you set the location to somewhere on your desktop [if you’re doing more than one clip, having a subfolder on your desktop may be easier for keeping them together!] 

When you are done, go and sort your caps into subfolders [the caps that are going to be 1 gif, should go into a subfolder] Numbering these is probably the easiest way to do it. Try and keep in mind the size of the folder, and I wouldn’t recommend more than say 60 frames for each gif estimated depending on the size you are using.

STEP 4 - LET’S START GIFFING!

^^^ OK so you have capped your clips, and you have sorted them into subfolders [each subfolder being a gifs worth of caps] Open your Photoshop, and then FILE > SCRIPTS > LOAD MULTIPLE DICOM FILES.

Pick the subfolder from the place you saved it - and simply click OK. The above gif was titled ‘8′ in the folder. Wait until it loads, depending on the amount of frames and the size it can take a little while.

STEP 5 - TIMELINE 

[Ignore the little icon of Danielle Panabaker in the corner, it’s just the PSD I created that I will be using later to colour] Once the frames have loaded, your screen will look similar to this - Click on ‘CONVERT VIDEO TIMELINE’

This is how your screen will look! Press the little three squares in the bottom left hand side of the screen [highlighted yellow for you]

First thing you need to do in order to not forget - click on the above and switch it to ‘Forever’ otherwise your gif will be static after it runs fully once, which is useless for us as gif makers. Now let us proceed.

STEP 6 - FRAMES FROM LAYERS/DELAY

Above you will see highlighted the steps you need to follow - click on the icon highlighted and choose the option MAKE FRAMES FROM LAYERS.

You actually can’t see in the above but there will now be a bunch of frames on the bottom of your screen in your Timeline. Press on the highlighted icon once again and press SELECT ALL FRAMES [you can do this manually of course but sometimes this is actually easier].

Click on ANY of the arrows on any of the frames and you’ll see the above options coming up - click OTHER. I always set mine at 0.05 and this tends to be the correct setting :)

STEP 7 - CONVERT TO VIDEO TIMELINE

After having set your delay - press the highlighted icon and click CONVERT TO VIDEO TIMELINE.

STEP 8 - CROP/RESIZE

Now, you can do this step at any point really, but I have decided to do it here - when you become a bit more used to it you can do it closer to the beginning but it’s using the crop tool to make the gif your wanted shape. If you want a square, the top left hand should be changed from 2/3 to 1/1. UNCLICK THE DELETE CROPPED PIXELS OPTION until you feel confident enough that you won’t need to alter your cropping!

SIZE - Press Ctrl+Shift+i and that should bring up the above screen - edit to your liking [anything over 300px width will stretch unless it’s actually 540 or larger] I usually go for 245 for my gif packs, but if I’m making a gifset, the dimensions are 270 [for 2 gifs side by side]

STEP 9 - SHARPENING

In order to Sharpen [I would always recommend you do this btw] press SELECT>ALL LAYERS && FILTER>CONVERT FOR SMART FILTERS. The result can be seen below - this is what it looks like when you’ve done it correctly! :)

Go to your ACTIONS, and then select the action you have loaded into Photoshop [tutorial on loading actions into photoshop] and press the play button, all of which have been highlighted below. It will then look the way it does below [it needs to replicate layers etc so it will go from a single thing to a couple of frames/edited, that is normal!]

STEP 10 - APPLY YOUR PSD

What it says on the tin tbh - open your PSD and drag it onto the gif, you will be fine!

STEP 11 - SAVE YOUR GIF

You can either do what I do and use a shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Alt+S, or you can go to FILE>SAVE FOR WEB. Either way, you will come up to this screen - You need to do some things here:

Make sure the bottom left hand side, the gif is smaller than EITHER 2mb if it’s for a gif pack [or to be placed in text threads of any sort] OR 3mb if it’s for a gifset that is going to be placed in the image section of Tumblr rather than a text thread.

Make sure you change the ‘Once’ to ‘Forever’ YOU NEED TO DO THIS EVEN IF YOU DID IT BEFORE because it automatically switches back every time which is irritating but you gotta do it!

Click SAVE. Save to the folder of your choice.

ET VOILA!!

You have produced a gif - congrats love! It gets a hell of a lot easier with practice and you can always make an action of the way you make it which makes it a lot easier to make them and a lot faster!

[evans-heaven]

Text Thumbs~s.m.

Texting fluff for my lovelies 😘

~~~~~~~~

You: I’m at Domino’s, what do you want? Shawn: Huh? Y: Pizza, dummy. What pizza do you want?? S:Oh….. does it have to be Domino’s? Y:Considering that’s where I am right now…. yes lol S:But you know I hate Domino’s, babe!! Can you go to that family owned one a couple blocks down from the condo? Y: You mean the place that charges $60 for ONE large pizza? S: Looking aside from that, their Margarita Pizza is 👌👌👌 I swear I love it more than you 😉 Y: So, no pizza then? Got it. S: WAIT BABE I WAS KIDDING Y: Hurry up and chose, I’m next in line. And don’t suggest that family place again! S: Come on, remember when we had their pepperoni? You have to admit it was pretty good 👍 Y: I was able to COUNT the amount of pepperoni slices. You should never be able to count that. It’s criminal if you can. S: Okay, that’s a bit extreme, darling. Y: YOU’RE NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO SEE THE CHEESE!! S: 😂 Alright, babe. Screw the place down the street lmao Y: Glad you agree 😘 now back to the matter at hand, I was thinking a large Texas Barbeque? S: Was thinking the same 😊 Y: See, this is why we’re made for each other 😁 S: Aside from you making me ditch the best pizza place in Toronto, I must agree, love. Y: Best? You know what, I won’t even get into that 😑 S: I thought you were next in line? This convo is getting pretty long lmao Y: Are you complaining? S: Smack me through the phone if I was 👋 Y: Good, and the guy in front of me can’t decide between cheesy or cinnamon bread sticks 😥 S: That shouldn’t be a tough choice lmao, everyone loves the cinnamon ones 😍 Y: Exactly!!! Poor guy, probably has a wife at home who likes the cheesy ones, but he wants the cinnamon 😂 S: I know the feeling 😂😑 Y: stfu Y: I’m up!! One sec, babe. S: kk S: I love a little hot sauce on my pizza 

S: I love a little hot sauce, yes I do!! 

S: But hotsauce isn’t hot, without a little sardines, son!! 

S: It just taste like a pile of sticky too!

Y:….. 

S: Some protein for my pile of worms! 

Y: I’m gonna stop you right there…also are you saying you wanted sardines bc ew 

S: Lmao I was soloing!!! Don’t hate!! 

Y: Wtf was that Shawn 

S: A song from TMNT, I was watching it this morning 😂🐢 

Y: Why?? 

S: Nothing good was on. Also, everyone knows a bowl of cereal is nothing without some cartoons! 

Y: You’re such a kid sometimes 

S: You love it 😘

Y: I love you….which means I have to take your frequent episodes as well 😥😂 

S: Glad we’re on the same page then, love ❤

S: How long for the pizza BTW?

 Y: Around 20 minutes or less.

S: So it’s gonna be cold by the time I get home, or half eaten bc you and your bottomless pit couldn’t wait? 

Y: Hey, me and my bottomless pit resent that 😒 

S: You guys also know it true 😏 

Y: 😂 I’m bringing the pizza to you in the studio, goofball, and on my way there I’ll stop by the grocery store and pick up some chocolate covered strawberries and beer 😊 

S: All this does is tell me I’ll be getting cold pizza. 

Y: Well fine I’ll just take it straight home and satisfy my so called bottomless pit 😘 

S: BABE NO I WAS KIDDING AGAIN 

Y: Calm down Shawn lol I can’t have a picnic for one 😂 

S: Ah, so a picnic in the studio, eh? 

Y: Yep 😊 

S: You know my team is way greedier than you so they’ll want in on it 

Y: Not if we look them in the closet…. 

S: I like where this is going. I think I have to rope in my trunk, we can make it work! 

Y: It’s a plan!! 

S: But wait, babe? 

Y: Yeah? 

S: What’s this about? 

Y: What’s what about? 

S: A picnic? At 11:00 at night? 

Y: My hardworking boyfriend deserves to be spoiled ya know ❤ 

S: Ahhhhhh 😏 

S: How about you spoil me in more ways than one 😉 

Y: I’ll see what I can do 😘 

Y: Besides, it’s not like we haven’t christened the soundbooth before 😂 

S: What a night THAT was lmao 

Y: Pretty sure everyone knows about it too… I mean you left a few stains when you… Ya know 💦 

S: DON’T SPEAK OF IT THAT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!!! 

Y: YOU WERE CHOKING ME 

S: YOU ASKED ME TO!!! 

Y:…. 

Y: Fine whatever 😑 

S: So you admit it!! 

Y: I admit nothing. I just wanted to end all that caps typing because some old lady was looking at my when I was pounding my phone with my thumbs like a loon. 

S: 😏 

S: Like I pounded you in the soundbooth lol 

Y: stfu 

S: Is that your only come back?? 

Y: stfu 

Y: Jackass 

S: Weak 😂 

Y: 🖕🏻  

S: The one that was in you the most 😜 

Y: it’s bigger than your spring roll of a dick ain’t it 

S: Fucking ouch 😢 

Y: Not so weak now? 

Y: Hang on, the pizza is ready 

Y: AND DON’T SEND THAT STUPID ASS SONG AGAIN 

S: Fine. 

S: Wait that wasn’t 20 minutes lmao

Y: Back

S:On your way here?

Y: Yep, just need to stop by the store.

S: Alright, see you soon babe, I love you ❤️

Y: I love you too ❤️

S: Still say you should’ve gone down the street

Y: SHAWN

~~~~~~~~~

Hope you lovelies enjoyed :) I know my shit has been halfassed lately, but it’ll pick up soon, I promise!

Also, if this looks fucked up on desktop, blame mobile tumblr, Its a bitch.