#it's cause I have to upload it manually there

[no1ryomafan]

I hope whoever thought it was a good idea for AO3 to not allow on mobile the ability of bold and Italic text to be carried over from a copy n paste doc even when you FUCKING SELECT HTML AND NOT PLAIN TEXT a very pleasant “I hope you were kicked off the staff” and I’m only half joking.

[steakout-05]

this is officially the dumbest thing i ever made

[gender-euphowrya]

apps that randomly change the way they're used without any warnings for no good reason and end up being worse Fuck You

[fanaticsnail]

You Kissed the Clown? Part 8

Part 8 you guys! Here as promised, and only at just after midnight this time!

I've also uploaded everything to my Ao3, just in case you prefer that platform over the formatting here.

Word Count: 6,528

If you like my work, please leave a comment. I love hearing your thoughts about this series! ❤️

Part 7 back here.

You were cursed.

That was the only logical explanation that was presented before your mind as you sat beside the incapacitated swordsman who was now donning a gaping wound in his chest. You cradled one of his hands within your own as he slipped somewhere flittering between life and death.

You assumed you would’ve been nursing back Usopp to the land of the living, holding his hair back as he regurgitated in the bathroom due to his intoxication from last night’s over-consumption of alcohol. Staying well out of the way of the administrations of the head chef of Baratie as he placed fish skin over the weeping wound after performing a well-practiced stitch routine, you allowed soft tears to spill slightly from the corners of your eyes.

You paid no attention to the others in the room, focussing only on the steady rise and fall of the swordsman’s breath to note any inconsistencies or irregularities in their movements.

“He’s got one foot in each world right now, caught between life and death,” you finally brought your ears to focus in on the conversations taking place in your surrounds. Your orbs snapping to meet the eyes of the retired pirate Captain as he continued. His eyes softened slightly, still baring and air of authority.

“You have to find a way to keep him tethered to our world,” he continued, causing you to hang on his every word. “Talk to him, tell him stories, sing him sea shanties for all I care,” he added with a tone of authority, “he may not reply but he will know his crew are still with him.”

You all moved him into Nami’s quarters, the most well organised and least dangerous of the rooms; noting the many sharp objects in Zoro’s room and the volatile chemicals you use for maintaining and polishing antiquities.

“I’ll take first watch,” you notified the crew, “you all get some rest.”

There was no protestation with your crew, exhaustion overcoming them as the many drinks, sleepless night, manual labour – in Luffy’s case – and anxiety from the anticipation of the fight.

“Nami,” you added, “take my room. Less messy than Zoro’s and the majority of items in there already belong to you.”

She nodded, glancing one last time in sadness at the body of your fallen swordsman, before removing herself from the room. Once she closed the door behind her with a small click, you returned your gaze on Zoro as he lay unconscious atop the table.

“Mihawk,” you growled in a low tone, “you had to fight Mihawk?”

You walked around his body and snarled at him.

“Dracule fucking Mihawk,” you uttered again through clenched teeth. You reached for a chair and dragged it over to rest beside him, placing your hands on the vacant place beside his head.

“And here you are hanging shit on me for simply kissing a clown,” you angrily spat at him, “as you go so candidly up to pick a fight with one of the most fearsome warlords of the sea.”

You thumped your fist beside his head in anger as warm fresh tears threatened to spill again from your eyes.

“And you call me stupid,” you growled before allowing a soft whimper fall from your lips. You reached your arm down into the bag attached to your belt, finding a broad concealed flask and swiftly opened the tin lid. Taking a swig and feeling the burn to calm your nerves as you began your next tirade.

“You listen here, you stupid, stupid boy,” you threatened Zoro, “you are going to hear every word I am going to give to you, and you are going to hang on every syllable.”

You stared at the swordsman, focussing on his expressionless face as he began to steady in his unconsciousness.

“I am going to tell you everything,” you whispered into him, “and it is going to absolutely bore you so much, you will have no choice but to wake up just to get me to shut the fuck up.”

You slapped your back into the back of the chair, slumping down and taking another sip as you focussed on the events that just transpired, thinking if there would have been anything different you could’ve done to change this fate.

“Let’s start at the beginning,” you spat to him, making yourself comfortable as you began to relay your past, your present and your future to him while continuing to reflect of on the battle that occurred moments ago.

----------------------

You slept through the night relatively peacefully before being rudely shook awake by a heavily intoxicated Usopp as he spluttered over his words. You couldn’t comprehend anything he had to say as he continued actively shaking you. You caught a few words like, “fight,” “battle,” “warlord,” and “big ass sword,” before you managed to break yourself free of his grasp.

You shoved him off you, recoiling slightly at the smell of stale, day-old alcohol lingering on his breath. Sheets flung unceremoniously from your form, revealing your night-clothes to the crewman before you; you shoved his body through your door and slammed it in front of him. You rapidly peeled your clothes from your body, changing into a light dress and fastening your belt in place, you flung the door open to reveal Usopp attempting to stabilise himself against the wall before you.

“Get up, Usopp!” you barked at him, “fill me in, damn it. Annunciate your words!”

“Hawk-eye,” Usopp panted, clutching his chest, “Mi-hawk.”

Your eyes widened as you began to sprint past him towards the upper deck where you saw Zoro with his black bandana atop his brow, marching toward the make-shift dock of Baratie with Luffy behind him.

You widened your eyes as you clutched the rigging before hurdling your way towards your Captain and his First Mate, noticing the dark form of the swashbuckling warlord you knew to be Dracule Mihawk. You couldn’t make out what conversation they were engaging in, not quite understanding the entire situation Usopp neglected to relay to you. For all you currently understood, Zoro and Mihawk could simply be sharing tips on how to polish their blades more efficiently; but from their stance you assumed something more sinister was currently in play.

“Enough,” you heard Zoro utter, “let’s begin.”

Mihawk reached to the small clasp at the back of his neck and removed the chain from its place fixed at his scruff. He tossed the material to the side heeding it no mind as he unsheathed the smallest blade you had ever seen pass for a sword. The blade looked similar in style as one of your large scalpel tools you used to cut through leather in your antiquities.

“What the hell is that, I’m here for a sword fight,” Zoro uttered to him, insulted at the production of such a small weapon.

“I don’t hunt rabbits with a cannon,” Mihawk rebutted carelessly, unblinking in his hawk-like gaze.

“Dracule Mihawk,” you said with a small curtsey, bringing his intense eyes to rest on your form. You bowed your head in greeting with a sweet smile falling over your face.

“Ah,” he purred slightly, “the Artificer’s daughter,” he addressed you with a slight sinister smirk playing on the corners of his lips.

“It has been so very long since the last time I laid my sights on you, sweet thing,” he added.

A burning, fixed beam of sweltering fury bore into you at that moment; the source being from the green-haired swordsman at your side.

“You are fucking with me,” he uttered in a voice low enough for only you to hear with an upturned snarl. You chose to pay his words no mind as you took a step forward towards the warlord.

“It has been long indeed, my lord,” you addressed him, “and in absence, fondness blooms in its stead. Shall we to the bar and enjoy a glass or two of Sangiovese while we catch up on the years that has stolen away from us.”

He narrowed his eyes, not entertaining your words in the slightest.

“You flatter me, little mouse,” he quirked his brow at you, “your mother taught you well.”

Your sweet façade fell from your face at her mention before you collected it back again to your face. Mihawk studied your every movement like a hawk fixated on a helpless little hopping mouse caught in the clutches of a wolf-spider.

“I learnt only from the best, my lord,” you smiled, “what say we leave this place and take that drink now?”

“As tempted as I am, sweet thing,” he turned his gaze back to the green-haired swordsman as he watched this interaction with absolute disgust, “I am a little hung up with this rather insignificant rabbit at the present.”

“I’m no rabbit,” Zoro snarled darkly while unleashing two of his three swords.

“That remains to be seen,” Mihawk taunted.

You side stepped to remove yourself from the equation as the two sword wielders engaged in single combat. You could not bare to watch your friend in their inevitability to be cut down by Mihawk but stood strong yourself to hold firm your sights on the battle commencing.

----------------------

“-And that is how I came to be the oldest of fifteen children,” you concluded your incredibly drawn out tale. You snickered slightly, knowing the tale of how your parents fell in love and held onto it throughout the years would’ve bored Zoro so much he could cry.

“Now, shall we move onto something more juicy?” you snickered slightly, knowing he would absolutely not want you to continue your absolute mind-numbing experience of relaying insignificant events from your childhood.

“I have a confession,” you said, swigging from the brass flask once again, “and you’re going to kill me when you wake up.”

You leant in close to the tri-pierced ear of the unconscious swordsman, bringing your lips to the lobe as you closed your eyes and whispered without more than the breath it was required to speak the words.

“I am in love with Buggy the clown,” you spoke slowly, so he could catch on to every word that was relayed to him. You held your face close to his, focussing on the fact that this was the first time you had passed that information (willingly and knowingly) onto another person. The person in question being the first individual you had grown unwittingly closest to aboard the vessel. And the person likely to die in the next upcoming moments, to which’s limited time in the land of the living was spent pondering something as insignificant as a love confession from a crewman.

Pushing your body from the almost intimate proximity, you sat back in the chair again and almost pitied the swordman at his absolutely unwilling participation in hearing your confessional words. You reached for his limp right hand and laced your hand within his and gave it a small squeeze to comfort him.

“And if you continue to remain in this state,” you squeezed his hand again, this time more threatening and raising your voice to a regular speaking voice now, “I will actively do everything I can to seek him out, bring him into this room and desecrate your resting place with sounds so absolutely illicit, you would need to seek exorcism to rid your soul from the memories and images conjured to you every time you close your eyes.”

You laughed at your threatening words, knowing they were absolutely untrue in all shapes and sizes as the door began to swing wide. You looked over to your captain who had a forlorn expression adorning his face.

“Captain?” you asked him, semi-horrified that he may have caught the final words you uttered to the resting swordsman, “are you unable to sleep?”

“I just-,” he began, shrugging his shoulders forward slightly and avoiding eye contact, “I just wanted to-.”

He paused his words as they caught in his throat. You released Zoro’s right hand from your grasp and stood to walk over toward him. You maneuvered your head to retrieve his gaze from the floor, while placing your left hand on his shoulder.

“He will wake,” you said, finally catching his eyes, “I am sure of it.”

His eyes searched yours as his brows upturned, deepening his shaken and depressed expression.

“How can you be so sure?” he questioned you, his signature grin nowhere in sight.

“He has no choice, Captain,” you smiled broadly at him, patting his shoulder in comfort, “he has too much to achieve in this life to welcome the next so suddenly.

Luffy attempted to relieve you from watching over Zoro; but you absolutely disregarded those notions and was adamant in your refusal.

“Captain, with all due respect; each time I find myself away from you all, something far more sinister occurs. I refuse to be apart from Zoro in his recovery. I will not miss this,” you said firmly with a ferocity that had not graced your face for the entire time you had ventured.

Luffy sighed through his nose with a frown on his face. You watched as his jaw softened, indicating he had relented this battle with you.

“Go and get some rest, Captain,” you said again, “I will be here when he wakes up.”

And you were. You remained in these quarters, tinkering with the same piece Nami gave you to work on several days earlier. You endured your position while each member of the crew took turns in addressing Zoro; relaying information to him in stories from their individual travels. You listened as Nami read to him children’s stories before she went and picked a fight with your Captain.

You remained silent as Nami continued to lay insult into your Captain, flinching slightly at the disrespect she posed to him.

“I didn’t think he was going to lose,” Luffy said in absolute belief in his First Mate.

“you could’ve tried to change his mind-,” Nami began, only to be cut off by Luffy.

“I would never do that,” he said lowly.

“So you’d rather see him like this?” she gestured to his resting form, “he might die, Luffy.”

“And I’d do anything to save him. Anything,” he said with a small, tight-lipped smile coming to his face, “except stand in the way of his dream.”

You bit your lip at the words your captain disclosed, squeezing your eyes shut to make yourself as invisible as you could as your entire body seemingly quaked with emotion. Your Captain’s words sang to your soul; his innocence and absolute ignorance was a beautiful combination to your mind.

“We all have dreams, Luffy. But we outgrow them-,” Nami began, to be once again cut off by Luffy.

“Is that what you really think?” he asked her with a shrug, “don’t you have a dream?”

You finally opened your eyes to gaze on Nami before pulling your sights over to the rise and fall of Zoro’s breath.

“Yeah, for right now it’s to not have Zoro die in my bed,” she shouted, a small almost undetectable quiver slightly hidden in her voice.

“But isn’t there something that you want? Something more?” he said, his former grin returning to his face as his eyes beamed at her, “more than anything else in this world?”

Nami paused her words before quietly uttering: “not everyone gets to follow their dreams.”

She left the room without anymore words exchanged between the two of them, leaving the three of you alone once more in Nami’s bedroom.

Luffy turned to meet your eyes for a moment before resting on Zoro’s form, which continued to remain in their unmoving state.

“You have a dream, don’t you?” Luffy uttered quietly to you. You jumped slightly at the words, not thinking he was to engage with you so suddenly after the heated discussion with Nami. You paused before collecting yourself.

“I do,” you said in a low tone, standing again and making your way to stand at Zoro’s side.

“And what is that?” he prompted you, taking a small step towards you and halting to stand at your side, bringing your gaze to rest on Zoro.

“Call it an intermediate agenda,” you quirked your lip up slightly at the corner of your mouth, “several small plans to achieve a larger goal.”

Luffy laughed slightly at your response, nodding his head at your words; “care to disclose it with me?”

“My dream-,” you began, words halting slightly in your throat as you rifled your mind to seek the appropriate words, “is to be like my mother.”

“Oh?” he asked you in response, attempting to prompt you on.

You sighed with a warm fondness at her memory.

“She was kind,” you began, “and incredibly intelligent. She lead first with her heart, searching later for the appropriate means to achieve that end.”

You smiled, nodding while staring at the floor; “and she was loved by all who met her, most of all by my father.”

“And you wish to be like that?” he continued to prod, “to lead with your heart?”

“Not quite,” you smiled at him, bringing your eyes to meet with his, “she was also a tinkerer. She worked with harsh metals, precious gemstones and crafted some of the finest pieces known throughout all corners of the world. She was the one that crafted several pieces for-,”

Your words halted in your throat as you again gazed down to the fallen swordsman below, “-for Mihawk. I was more in my youth when I first met him. Young and stupid, as I like to call it.”

You chuckled slightly at the memory before shaking it from you to not lose your thoughts.

“That is my dream,” you held on tight to the words as they formed, “to become the greatest finery smith in the world; to create something worthy for the King of the Pirates.”

You nudged Luffy’s shoulder slightly with a warm smile before adding, “and I will make you the most beautiful piece, it will be the finest item in the entire collection. This I swear.”

Luffy grinned wide before placing his hand atop your shoulder.

You dwell in that moment together before he left you alone to be with the swordsman, watching over him as he slept.

You chose to not sleep through the night, willing yourself to remain awake at his side to not only be with him as he awoke; but to not miss any other stupid situation your crew dug themselves into. If you were being perfectly honest with yourself, you weren’t much better – smithing a weapon some nights ago that was intended to claim your life at its hand.

You witnessed the dawn rise, your crewmen coming in sporadically to check on Zoro. You noticed the blonde waiter was alongside them, who offered a mug of scorching hot coffee into your hands with a warm smile.

“You look as if you could need it, Miss,” he offered with a smirk playing at his lips.

“Are you saying I look a little worse for wear?” you toyed with him slightly, accepting the mug into your fingertips and cradling it slightly.

“Not at all,” he quickly added with a small widening of his eyes, now a slightly nervous smile adorning his face.

“I’m messing with you,” you reassured him with a small laugh before bringing the mug to your lips.

“That you are,” he confirmed with a slight nod, eyeline to the ground being caught off-guard by your confidence. His tongue darted out to dampen his lower lip, which you noticed his teeth began toying with a small silver-balled object between them. “A piercing? Interesting,” you thought to yourself.

He turned on his way, leaving you alone once more with the unconscious swordsman. You heard some commotion engaging above the deck, but your absolute stubborn reluctance to leave Zoro held to you like a tight leash to a firm, wooden post.

You remained behind; continuing to tinker with the circular, clock-compass item in your hands. You spent some time with it, placing it on the small space available to you next to Zoro’s unresponsive head as you turned several screws and aligned cogs upon its face. You resolved to not utilise the several desks near the window, as you were determined this time to not miss a single moment with your crew; especially at the side of the wounded swordsman who continuously found himself in dire situations, often engaging in battle.

You clicked a screw in a different direction, accidentally activating something within the face of the compass. It began ticking, something you did not account for; especially in its proximity to Zoro’s head. As a tinkerer; ticking usually meant one thing. That thing was a bomb.

You immediately sprung to your feet, cradling the small object in your hands and rushed over towards the window in an attempt to find an exit to cast the item into the sea. The ticking hastened its rhythm, prompting you to release several expletives from behind your lips as you attempted to shimmy the window open. The windows were thick, meaning you would need to return back to where Zoro was resting to retrieve your hammer to smash one open to throw it into the deep water ahead. As the ticking held a rapid beat, you flinched as you had no choice but to embrace your impending doom. However, it never occurred.

The object opened, revealing the most beautifully crafted creation you had yet seen in your life. Two figures holding one another in an embrace enchanted you as they danced in a circular motion with one-another. A metallic melody ignited a memory from within you as you sighed out a small laugh in surprise. You focussed your sights on the dancing figures, noticing how they were painted and allowing a single tear to escape from your eyes.

“Mother,” you whimpered slightly before laughing at the music box, “Zoro, this was my Mother’s. This was hers.”

You rushed over to his side and placed the now truly identified music box beside Zoro’s shoulder.

“This melody,” you said to him, “she use to sing this to me – to us – when we were children.”

You hummed along to the tune before you placed the words as you could best recall them to the melody. You swayed yourself to the music while half-laughing alongside the lyrics, your entire being fully overcome with a mixture of many emotions.

Your thoughts were brought back into the present as you heard several splashes in the water, assuming someone decided to go for a cool plunge to shake their form from over consumption of alcohol. You almost laughed at the thought, before sitting down at Zoro’s side once more.

“Now,” you began, “how do I turn this off?”

You knew exactly how to shut off the music, now knowing that it was not only a clock, a compass and a music box – the additional cogs made sense within your mind at how it truly fit together. You just wanted to get one final rise from Zoro to see if he would get angry enough to join you back in your reality.

After several minutes of Zoro enduring your humming along to the tune, you decided to finally shut off the music with a small flick of the switch to end his suffering.

“If that wont wake you, I’m afraid nearly nothing will,” you uttered sadly, gripping Zoro’s hand again and squeezing it, “he needs you, Zoro. Come back to us, but especially come back to him,” you said again in a voice just above a whisper.

You barely noticed as your Captain returned to you, this time an unreadable expression falling over his features. His hair was slightly dishevelled, as if he had a bath recently; prompting you to quirk your head to the side.

“Captain?” you asked him, “something the matter?”

He walked over to the hanging bed Zoro was laying on and hoisted himself up to sit at his legs. He ignored your questions, choosing to smile at you before fixing his attention on the unconscious swordsman.

“Hey, Zoro,” Luffy began, “you sure missed a big fight.”

Your eyes widened at the knowledge that you had also missed the aforementioned fight. You indeed, as you concluded earlier yesterday, were continuing to remain cursed in your misdirected absence. You elected to not speak up, hoping your Captain would disclose any further information to both you and the First Mate.

“Those fishmen guys were tough,” he said with a small smile, “you would’ve loved it.”

You stifled a gasp, hoping Luffy would continue to bare his soul to Zoro as so you could be privy to his innermost thoughts also.

“And we all had a pretty great dinner, all of us sitting around and listening to Usopp’s stories,” he turned to look at you for a moment, “with the exception of your guardian who protested to be removed from your side.”

You hung your head, knowing how you argued with Luffy earlier to remain with Zoro to again not miss out on anything. He chuckled at your reaction slightly before again returning his gaze to Zoro’s, his eyes hardening.

“Only I kind of messed it up,” he added, staring ahead at the vacant wall in front of him, “and now I lost Nami. I lost the Grand Line Map.”

He held a large pause before speaking once more; “And maybe I will lose you too.”

“I didn’t know what to say before,” he continued on, “but I know what to say now, and it’s so simple.”

You felt almost as if your presence in this moment was an invasion of a greater connection between two friends, but opted to remain in the room for a moment longer.

Luffy closed his eyes and furrowed his brows in passionate resolve, before strongly uttering: “I need you, Zoro.”

“I need you,” Luffy continued, “to wake up.”

You too closed your eyes as you willed those words into fruition, holding strong your own resolve.

“Are you going to keep talking or let me get some sleep?” you heard the swordsman utter from beside you. Your eyes flittered open to reveal the moment Luffy leapt onto the wounded torso of Zoro, wincing yourself in empathy as you thought of his large wounds.

“Zoro!” your Captain shouted in glee with a loud laughter, “Zoro, you’re not dead!”

He pressed his entire body against Zoro and gleefully held him in a friendly embrace. You grit your teeth as you watched Zoro writhe in pain at the pressure from the body above him.

“Right now, I’m wishing I was,” he groaned out in pain. Luffy leapt off him to sit at his lefthand side, prompting you to rise from your feet and sit to his right.

“I had the strangest dream that Nami left,” Zoro uttered with his eyes held closed.

“She did,” Luffy confirmed with him, “it’s my fault.”

Zoro opened his eyes and gazed at the roof, brows creased in thought.

“No, you didn’t do anything wrong,” Zoro reassured him in a monotonous voice, “you acted like a Captain.”

“But our crew is falling apart,” Luffy said, shaking his head slightly

“No it’s not,” Zoro again added his reassurance to the Captain.

“I, Roronoa Zoro,” he began a vow in the presence of both you and your Captain, “vow to stand by your side.”

He turned his gaze to the best of his pained ability to meet the eyes of his Captain as he continued his vow.

“From now until the end,” he added, emotion displayed slightly on his face now, “until we find the One-Piece, or die trying.”

The faces of your Captain and his loyal knight joined together in smiling with determination.

“So bring on the Marines, or Pirates or Sea Beasts,” Zoro raised a closed fist and placed it against the heart of his Captain, “you’re my Captain, Luffy. And I’m your first mate.”

Luffy clasped his right arm over Zoro’s left enclosed fist against his heart and held it to seal their promise together. You smirked at their display of affection for one another, all the more determined to aid your Captain in his dream of acquiring the One-Piece.

“Zoro!” you heard Usopp’s voice call from the hallway as he hurried into the room, “I wasn’t worried for a second.”

“He’s,” Luffy thrust Zoro’s left hand into the air, “alive!”

Zoro groaned in pain as you held out your arms in defence, cringing at the pain Luffy inflicted upon his First-Mate.

Usopp began relaying moments you knew did not occur from your exposure to the variety of his tall-tales prior and chose to laugh at his fighting moves imitating the movements. Zoro also joined in laughter at Usopp’s boldness.

“So, what do we do now? Plot a course for the Grand Line?” Usopp suggested after halting his combat display of recollection.

“Nope,” Luffy shook his head, holding his lips in a firm line.

“But I thought we were going after the One-Piece?” Usopp added with a slightly puzzled tone.

“We are,” he began, looking to his three remaining members of the crew, “but we can’t do it without our whole crew.”

“First, we’re going after Nami,” Luffy said, placing his straw hat atop his head and adjusting the hanging toggles on the side for it to fit him comfortably.

You nodded your head to him, agreeing at chasing the orange-haired navigator and bringing her to join once more with your crew. Zoro turned his head to meet with your own.

“You really didn’t leave my side?” he uttered, furrowing his brows in confusion slightly.

“I didn’t want to miss anything,” you shrugged, “and it really turns out no matter what I do, I always seem to miss the action.”

“That’s a good thing, given the way you fight,” he laughed slightly, “going in mouth first and all.”

You groaned and flung your head back in agitation before joining him in his chuckling.

“Luffy,” you addressed your Captain, “do you think the chef you had in here earlier may be interested in preparing something for Zoro?”

Zoro looked as if you had just said he had achieved his dream of becoming the world’s greatest swordsman, a glimmer in his eyes at the mere mention of something to eat.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he said, “I’m definitely keen on getting some more of the meat we had earlier.”

You laughed at the notion before moving yourself to grasp Zoro’s right arm. Usopp trailed behind him, excited at the thought of eating at Baratie again.

“Do you have strength enough to stand?” you asked Zoro. He looked down at his torso and tested himself against the weight of his body, wincing at the pain.

“Lean your entire weight on me,” you uttered in a low tone, “I may be smaller in size than you, but I can take it.”

You had a slight aura of mischievousness, prompting him to chuckle at your comment.

“Keep it up, tinkerer,” he almost playfully warned you while placing his arm around your shoulder to enable you to lift him, “we really need to have a chat about your words.”

“Oh?” you said, hoisting him up to rest against you. He sighed out a low rumbly chuckle.

“I,” he paused, “heard everything.”

You halted your lifting, pausing at what exactly he was telling you.

“I’m not embarrassed about anything that I’ve said to you over these past few days,” you shrugged, pulling him to his feet to stand, the yellow and gold blanket falling from his legs to pool at the foot of the bed.

“You should be,” he jested before adding, “again with the clown? It’s always the clown with you.”

You laughed at his comment before leading him out of the door, down the hallway to his bedroom.

You searched the room for some attire to place over his chest, shielding his wound from the air, settling on a light blue and navy collared shirt. You wordlessly maneuvered the material over his right arm and over his shoulder before inching it down to keep his other arm moving as little as required to be brought into the other side. You reached your hands behind his neck and pulled the material up to rest on his shoulders, smoothing your hands over the creases before adjusting the material to comfortably cover his back.

“Thank you,” he murmured slightly, keeping his eyes on the ground.

“For what, Zoro?” you asked him, a tight-lipped warm smile coming to your face.

“I dunno,” he said with a shrug, wincing slightly at the movement, “mothering me, for lack of a better word.”

You tilted your head at him before finding your place at his lefthand side and maneuvering his arm over your shoulders to hoist him up once more.

“Even the strongest of us need support sometimes,” you shrugged slightly, hoisting him up once more.

You brought him to the deck, as he leant on you for support in his movements. You sat him down close to the ship’s steps, just as Sanji made his way alongside Luffy to come aboard.

“Are you fine if I leave you here for a moment? I haven’t changed my clothes for the past few days and I’m in desperate need of doing so before we cast off,” you asked him.

“You do look a little worse for wear,” he jested, acknowledging the fact he was processing some of the words uttered around him in his unconsciousness.

You scrunched up your nose at him before dismissing yourself to your quarters.

Placing the newly discovered to be a music box atop your desk, you shed yourself of your clothes and began to ready yourself for a new voyage to collect Nami from what you assumed to be Fishman Island; a theme park commonly known as Arlong Park being the major port.

You rolled your shoulders, slight exhaustion overcoming your features; the toll of being awake for a multitude of days finally hitting you. You shook those thoughts away from yourself, knowing you were able to find sleep once you were cast off.

Searching your draws for some fresh clothes, you placed a light blouse on your upper body while you found a skirt to hoist over your hips to settle on your waist. You also found a pair of light under shorts and shimmied them up your body to settle below your skirt.

Once fastening your pouch of many mechanical tinkering tools on your waist, you made to search for your crew and seek instruction from your Captain as best to aid them as they set sail.

As you approached the deck, you noticed the ship had already embarked on their journey out to sea; leaving the beautiful restaurant-ship behind on the horizon as you embarked on your journey to collect Nami.

After looking around, you noticed none of the crew were above deck currently. Your brows were momentarily perplexed before you heard a flurry of raised agitated voices coming from the ships kitchen. You shrugged before making your way to the location of the elevated voices.

As you reached the kitchen, you almost clashed into the looming form of the injured swordsman as he exited the kitchen. He firmly clasped his left hand around your right wrist and spun you away from the door.

“You,” he grunted out, wincing slightly in pain as he maneuvered you away from the kitchen door, “are forbidden from entering that room until I otherwise command you, you hear me?”

Frowning in anger at his sudden orders, you whipped your wrist from his grasp and searched his aggravated expression for explanation.

You heard loud voices again from the kitchen, prompting you to turn your gaze from Zoro to the space the arguing voices were arising from.

“Don’t,” Zoro warned you, bringing your gaze back to his momentarily, “don’t go in there, I mean it.”

“You haven’t given me valid reason not to, swordsman,” you spat your rebuttal at him, still angry and confused by his sudden mood shift from earlier.

Zoro strung several expletives together, almost poetically as he again reached for your wrist and more gently clasped it this time.

“Control yourself this time,” he warned you in a low tone. Your anger shifted to puzzlement, your eyes flittering between his to find any hidden meaning behind them.

“Zoro,” you added before gently bringing your other hand to his and kindly unclasping his grip from your wrist this time, “I am always in control.”

He groaned slightly at your words before turning to follow the source of the noise.

Upon silently entering the kitchen, your eyes settled on the blonde chef who dutifully prepared you a coffee earlier in the day who alongside Usopp and Luffy seemed to be arguing with something loud atop the felt-lined hanging table attached to the rafters in the kitchen.

Something spherical: hues of blue, white and red seemed to be hopping slightly atop the table and hurl insults at the troop. You trailed your eyes over the form as it gruffly taunted your Captain with some kind of jest you couldn’t make out.

“You said you would cooperate,” Luffy warned the object as it halted its jumping and fixing it’s gaze on him.

“And I will, just as soon as I-,” he halted its speech as he turned again with a small jump, fixing his tourmaline eyes to rest on your form. All speech was removed from his thoughts as the very breath from within him was stolen away.

Your eyes met with his, your mouth became partially parted in shock at the sudden meeting of the current occupant of your fixation. His eyes flittered between your eyes and triangulating down to stop on your lips. You focussed on his gaze, noticing he seemed to be as bewitched by you as you had become by him somehow. You noticed a barely visible whimper hiss out shakily from his lips as he slowly blinked his eyes up to focus on your eyes once more.

Although initially incredibly frightened by the fact there was a severed head plopped unceremoniously atop the ships dining table, as soon as you noticed the figure the head belonged to, and the lack of gory blood and bits, you deduced this to be the detached head of the infamous clown captain, Buggy. You were entranced by the way he was looking over you with a combination of insatiable desire laced with desperate hunger, and the apprehension of a puppy being scolded for destroying a prized shoe while searching for forgiveness.

“Gee, if we knew all it took to shut him up was to bring her up here, we should’ve done it ages ago,” Usopp commented with a shrug. You snapped out of your moment, bringing your attention to focus on Usopp and shooting him with a slight disciplinary frown, scolding his words.

You brought your gaze back to focus on Buggy’s as he opened his mouth to speak again.

“I-,” he said in a serious tone for the first time, keeping his eyes locked on your own, “-will cooperate.”

Part 9

Tag List:

@thesadvampire @a-phan-of-youtube @multifandombtch @plan3t-plut0 @tiredemomama @tfamidoingwithmylife @bimboshaggy @plan3t-plut0 @vixnicknacks @tesha-i-guess

[marlynnofmany]

Friend-shaped

“She’ll want to pet it,” said a smug voice from the next room. “Humans will pet anything.”

“Even spiky things?” asked the skeptical voice that I recognized as Zhee. “I’ve never had a human want to pet me, and this thing is much worse.”

As curious as I was to see our newest cargo and judge for myself, I first had to finish setting out food for the animals in the next bay. I lugged in bags of dried pellets and fish jerky as the door slid shut behind me, cutting off the sound of Zhee insisting to the delivery person that there was no way under several suns that I would want to touch this new mystery animal. We’d see about that.

I stashed the pellets in the appropriate closet and pulled out a sheet of jerky for each of the three fangy monstrosities that twined around each other, trying to hypnotize me through the bars. I ignored the moving pattern of stripes that probably worked on prey from their world. Working quickly, I set the sheets down on the floor outside the cage, spaced as far apart as possible, then used a gravity wand to lift them through the bars without losing a finger. Left one, right, one, then the middle, to keep the beasties from all jumping on the same treat.

A chorus of happy growls and chewing noises filled the air. Success. I put away the gravity wand and reflected that I absolutely would have liked to scritch all three terrifying predators on the head, but I valued life and limb too much for that.

On to the next room! The doors opened and closed in quick succession. I passed other people loading and uploading various crates, but I only had eyes for the terrarium that looked like it was made of force fields instead of glass. Or maybe some room-temperature version of hard water, given that the person chatting with Zhee was a Waterwill. They had some pretty bizarre tech.

“Ah, here’s the human!” the Waterwill said happily, her voice burbly and vaguely female. “What do you think of your newest live cargo?” She extended what passed for an arm from her column-of-goo body. Beside her, Zhee spread purple pincher arms in a silent display of “ta-dah.”

Inside the tank I saw rocks, sand, a puddle of algae, and the ugliest little ball of snot and spikes that I had ever encountered. Protruding eyes struggled to focus on me like a wall-eyed Chihuahua that had rolled through the most unfortunate of trash piles.

“Wow,” I said, bending down for a closer look. “That’s an animal, all right.”

The Waterwill bobbed up and down. “And is it not, as you say, cutesy-wootsy?”

Zhee made various clicks and taps that were probably skepticism. I couldn’t blame him.

“Well,” I said, struggling for a tactful answer, “It sure is a little one. Looks a bit scared.”

“They always get twitchy when they’re moved around before egg-laying,” the Waterwill said with a dismissive wobble. “It’ll settle down when everybody stops walking by. It’s non-toxic. Maybe once it’s calm—”

The rest of her sentence was cut off by loud snarls from next door, carrying through the hall while both doors were open at the same time. It sounded like a brief squabble over fish jerky, no cause for alarm.

For me, anyway. The animal in the terrarium made a piercing squeak and tried to burrow under the rock, its spines growing visibly longer and flinging droplets of moisture as it trembled violently.

“Oh, that’s bad,” said the Waterwill, all cheer gone. “It could sour the eggs. Everybody be quiet! Move slowly!” She waved two armlets at the other people carrying boxes, who did as she asked.

Zhee was making a whistle that was probably a curse in his own language, or maybe someone else’s. “We’ll get blamed for egg troubles. Would dim light help? I’ll hit the controls.” He moved off on quiet bug legs.

“What else helps?” I asked. “Wait, there’s a manual for this, right?” Without waiting for a response, I unfolded a screen from my pocket and looked for the newest files. There it was. Easily searchable, too.

While I spent a moment on that, the room dimmed and quieted into a soothing nighttime. The other crewmates grabbed the remaining crates, left, and shut the door. I heard someone say to leave oncoming boxes in the hallway for the moment.

“It’s still stressed,” the Waterwill said. “We should have brought another one to soothe it!”

“Hang on, I found the sound files,” I said. “Here’s the soothing one.” At the press of a button, a brief gurgle played, then cut off. “That’s it?”

The animal turned toward me, then back to the rock. No change.

I asked the Waterwill, “I don’t suppose you can make that sound?” When she hesitated, I tried myself. Hard to do without any water around to gargle, but I managed an awkward warble in the back of my throat.

The animal’s shivering stilled.

“Keep doing that!” the Waterwill said with an urgent wave.

I did, feeling silly. But the animal liked it. The trembling ended, and the spines started to retract. When I paused for breath, the creature held perfectly still, then when I started again, the spines continued shortening. After a few moments, it was a slimy ball of green with eyes that stuck out, and soon enough those finally closed. When they opened again, they weren’t bulging any more.

A head lifted from the goo, with a cute little face that chirped curiously.

“Aw, look at you,” I said to it. “All calm and happy.”

It oozed over towards me, moving much like Waterwills did, without any legs. It nuzzled a hatch that I hadn’t noticed in the side of the tank.

“You said it’s non-toxic, right?” I asked, not waiting for a response. I’d skimmed the manual. The hatch opened easily for me to stick my hand in and stroke the slimy little head. It purred like a babbling brook.

“Told you,” said a voice behind me.

Zhee hissed.

I turned to see him handing over credits with a displeased tilt to his antennae. “Did you just lose a bet?” I laughed.

Zhee threw his pincher arms into the air. “It was covered in spikes! No fair changing shape like that.”

“Well, if we’re going to be fair,” I said. “I would have sacrificed a hairbrush to pet it through the spikes, if it liked that kind of thing.”

“Of course you would,” Zhee muttered.

“Righto,” the Waterwill said as she stuck the credits into a wallet pouch that floated among her other miscellaneous bits. “I can see it’s in good care here. Guess I’ll be off.”

I gave the creature one last stroke, then eased my hand out and closed the hatch, waiting to make sure it stayed calm. When it settled back into goo, I stood and joined the other two in soft-footing our way to the door. “I’ll keep an eye on it,” I promised.

“And a hand,” Zhee grumbled.

“I’ve petted worse,” I told him.

“I’m sure you have,” he said. “And I don’t want to hear about it.”

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character of this book. More to come!

[f10werfae]

Handyman

Pairing: Husband!Henry x Pregnant!Reader

summary: fans on social media are absolutely in love with Henry and Y/n's relationship, and can’t ignore the fact that the woman is stunningly glowing !Fluff!

- Requests are open!

Likes, Comments and Re-blogs are appreciated♥️

Henry Cavill Masterlist💫

Full Masterlist ✨

Taglist Form⭐️

︵‿︵‿୨♡୧‿︵‿︵

We’re Building our baby’s Crib‼️

Uploaded: 10 minutes ago

Comments:

@/tokyodrifter129: Ok but who knew watching a man building a crib could be such a turn on?!

> @/Y/nCavill: Babe I was thinkin the exact same thing 😭 it’s like porn for me now

>> @bulkyhulk: OMG SHE IS SUCH A MOOD I CANT BELIEVE SHE REPLIED TO YOUR COMMENT

—

@/lizziedwire: Y/n is so cute with her baby bump🥺 The way her hand is just constantly touching on it and the way she smiles at her tummy just makes me wanna cry my eyes out. She’s so precious

> @/marvelledsire: let’s talk about her pregnancy glow though?? Like don’t get me wrong the woman was already stunning before, but even i’m findin her irresistible to look at

@/livingonntheflatearth: Did anyone notice in the video when Henry was reading the instruction manual to the crib, and his other hand was just rubbing Y/n's stomach mindlessly. I just know he positioned her rocking chair right there for that exact reason. But also I can’t blame her if she just wanted to watch him up close 🤪

—-

@/Cavillsfangirl00: Their nursery is so cutely decorated, all the pastel stuffies and toys on the shelves; DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE SUPERHERO BABY BOOKS THEY HAVE. I’m volunteering to be reincarnated as their baby

> @/leavemealonepls: Watching Henry in a vest top and shorts trying to build a crib, is something we didn’t know we needed. Thank you Y/n for posting this😭😭

—

@/Tacosandcheese: Henry leaning his head up like a kid to ask Y/n for a kiss as a reward gets me all giggly every time. Who knew a man needed a kiss after every hammer hit☠️

> @/clarkentwho: Y/n looks so done with him every time he put his head up for that😭 but did you see how she always ended up smiling into their kiss?! I’m sleeping on the highway tonight for real

—

@/369girlswannadrink: My favourite part of this video has to be when Henry accidentally dropped a bit of wood too loud and instantly turned around to Y/n, scared that he had “woken the weep chap”

> @/presidentofyourheart: Mine was when he finished the crib and him and Y/n started placing the mattress in it, you could see them both tearing up when they were hugging that dog stuffed toy they had😩

>> @/Saneiofanhere: How about when Y/n was sat eating baby sausages and every few seconds Henry would open his mouth and she’d try to aim one into it, then at one point she just got grouchy cause she ran out and he went and got her more. Sausage queen

—

@/noobmasterer: Y/n is absolutely stunning in her maternity dress, i’m actually in awe, what a goddess

> @/henrycavill: yeah imagine how I feel waking up to her everyday

—

@/beyoncesbackupdancer: Yall remember when they just revealed their pregnancy, AND HENRY CHANGED ALL HIS BIOS TO SAY “Future dad” This man is so extra i love it

> @/jellybaby: Can we blame him though? Mans has waited ages for a woman like her and waited even more for his own family. He deserves it sm!!

—-

@/Iminlove: I nearly cried when the baby kicked Y/n’s stomach in the video and Henry dropped everything to go to her side to soothe the baby, with gentle kisses and cuddles😭😭

—

@/princesspopper: No lie I saw them buying the crib in ikea, and Henry was complaining wondering why the baby couldn’t sleep with them☠️☠️ Y/n had to hit him up the head and remind him that he can’t squish the poor thing

> @/princesspopper: THEN Y/n hugged him but she couldn’t cause of her stomach so he went around and hugged her from behind. I’m jealous can you tell

—

@/britishenthusiast: Omg the plaster cast of Y/n's bump in the background is so fricking cute, I heard that Henry did it himself at home.

—

@/bringitonsatan: I hate how there’s still fans hating on this beautiful family, CANT YOU SEE THEYRE LITERAL PERFECTION

> @/emmalovescake: omg yeah i know right, you can clearly see how much love they have for each other just by their eyes, I can’t imagine what they’re going to be like when their baby is here

—

@/cheesytoes: Ok but Y/n ogling Henry while he’s building the crib is a mood, Henry ogling Y/n while she’s sorting out the toys is also a mood. I’m in love with them both

—

@/Y/ncavillstan1: I can’t wait for vids of Y/n with their baby and singing them to sleep😭 I need to see it.

> @angelfeeder: I know AND I CAN ALREADY SEE THE BABY IN RUGBY GEAR CUS OF HENRY OMG

—

@/Y/nCavill: @/HenryCavill you purposely put the bar of this crib too high, I can’t get out of it

> @/Henrycavill: I told you not to get in it pet, luckily it’s big enough for a feckn bear

>> @/Y/nCavill: Please baby i’m gonna piss myself, I just wanted to check if it was comfortable enough for our baby boo 🥺

>>> @/HenryCavill: Alright babs i’m coming up now

>>>> @/supermanreds: stop it. The cuteness is too much.

———-

Taglist Tags (Form is up there^^): @thereisa8ella @pandaxnienke @kimhtoo17 @beck07990 @vrittivsanghavi @dumb-fawkin-bitch @madebylilly

[solarsturniolo]

pls post an in depth tutorial on ur text messages bc when i try to they always turn green but im like nono i want blue

Of course!

Here’s an in-depth tutorial of how i do my text messages!

(Whether they’re green or blue isn’t really something i know how to control, i just know that mine come back blue when i text myself.)

1. Make your phone number a contact in your phone!

Obviously, you’ll want it to be the name of whoever you’re texting as well as their contact photo. In this instance, we will use Chris, just because he was the last one I used.

2. Go into your iMessage app and start a new conversation with your contact!

You can look it up by number or by name, i find it easier to do it by name!

3. Start texting!

The most fun part; coming up with an idea and playing both roles. I like to make certain changes to make them seem more realistic and to differentiate between the reader and whoever they’re talking to! For instance, i ALWAYS make Matt and Chris use lowercase format. Their messages NEVER start with an uppercase letter so that i can easily tell which messages to delete when i’m going through them. I also make Matt and Chris use the wrong versions of your/you’re and there/their/they’re sometimes since they have a history of being grammatically incorrect.

4. The most frustrating part is having to delete some messages.

Remember: you’re texting your own number. These messages have nowhere else to go except back to you! So you’ll have to go through and manually select which ones to delete to make the conversation make sense! (I have had to start over on SEVERAL of these because of one message that i deleted on the wrong side, so take the time to pay close attention to which messages you are deleting! I literally had to redo my example ones 💀)

5. Review and make sure it all looks good!

Usually if I have longer ones, i like to make sure there’s enough conversation to make two separate screenshots without too much layover in the second one. Too much layover can cause confusion and make the reader less interested in the conversation. One or two messages is okay, just so the reader remembers where they left off at, but i try to keep it at three MAX.

6. Screenshot!

I like to keep the time, wifi, and battery percentage out of mine, personally, but you don’t have to crop them if it’s not important to you!

7. Delete!

I always delete the conversation once i’m done with that particular prompt, so as to not confuse myself when i’m making a new one!

8. Format the post!

Once i have 8-10 really good ones, i set up my format on tumblr and upload the pictures. Make sure the conversations are in the right order and then do your tags and stuff and you’re done!

The process can be tedious, but its not super complicated! Have fun making texts!!

[latalpavolante]

Modern Komorebi Home

A home in the more modern part of Mt. Komorebi which combines contemporary architecture with Japanese inspired design and eco elements. It works well as a residential or a holiday rental for a single sim or a couple and offers space for skill building, relaxing and inviting friends over.

One Bedroom - 1.5 Bathrooms

Special Features: the side porch comes with a grill, a picnic table and a telescope; the balcony includes two loungers, three planters and a bonsai tree

Lot Type: Residential (probably would also work well as a Holiday Rental though)

Lot: 2-4-1 Wakabamori, 20x15, Wakaba, Mt. Komorebi

Lot Traits: Homey, Fast Internet

Price: § 60,284

Packs: SnowyEscape | DineOut | FitnessStuff | DesertLuxe

noCC

MoveObjectsOn cheat required

Playtested (There was one weird issue I couldn't completely solve, more info under the cut)

Available on the Sims 4 gallery!

Gallery ID: LaTalpaVolante

You can watch the speed build on my YouTube channel:

For some small tweaks TwistedMexi’s T.O.O.L. mod was used, but you don’t need the mod in your game for this to show up the way I built it.

Floorplan and more info under the cut!

Known issue: While I was playtesting, my sim sometimes couldn't wash any dishes in the kitchen sink. Any other interactions with the sink would work without problems though (like taking a glass of water or washing their hands). Deleting the lamp above the sink seems to be the easiest way to fix this. Alternatively, you'd just have to drag the dishes into the sink manually. Sorry for this inconvenice, everything else should work fine though.

(I know I could have swapped out the lamp right away before uploading the build, but the whole issue was somewhat confusing (as I sometimes got the sink to function without having to delete the lamp, so I wasn't sure what was actually causing the issue). I'm also trying to explain it in the video, but yeah, at some point I just gave up and left the lamp where it was... Sorry again...)

[sysboxes]

i have a question! how do you put the userboxes in your sp?? i didn't realize you could do that until i saw another anon mention it. ty in advance!

Hello!

In order to add images, you need to use the markdown feature. All you have to do is use this little markdown:


You copy or paste this or write it out, and edit it the alt text and the link.

I mentioned this in a reblog, but Discord isn't a proper image hosting site, which causes the images to show up blank or show up as blank eventually. I also mentioned a few ways to upload proper links.

You can host the image on a supported image hosting website OR you make a tumblr draft with all the userboxes you want to use [up to 30 images on desktop, 10 on mobile]. Then from there you copy the link from the image and paste it.

You can also use the tumblr links that are already on the blog!! Just make sure to change GIFV links to GIF or PNJ to PNG [done through the links or manually on SP]. any WEBP links can be changed to PNG or GIF dependent on what they originally show up as [such as a gif on the blog turning to WEBP or a still image doing the same].

[hananoami]

[05/12] Deepspace Trials Progression

I'm a day late to post my weekly Deepspace Trials Progression recap since it was late by the time I finished all my runs yesterday (a delayed maintenance happened), but overall this past Sunday was a very good prog day! ☆ Xavier : 3/3 - cleared stages 110 to 112; going on stage 113 ☆ Zayne : 3/3 - cleared stages 117 to 119; going on stage 120 ☆ Rafayel : 0/3 - currently stuck on stage 110 ☆ Open Orbit : currently stuck on stage 120

𝚇𝙰𝚅𝙸𝙴𝚁

Stage 110

FINALLY. AFTER WEEKS OF TRIAL AND ERROR AND INVESTING SO MANY RESOURCES INTO PROTOCORE FARMING! The game decided to bless me with 3-Emerald CRIT rate deltas. Sure, a couple of them weren't the most ideal substats but one of them was decent. I tapped one to +12 and two to +9 to replace 1-DMG to Weakened and 2-CRIT DMG protocores I was previously using. I also replaced a CRIT DMG with one I replaced for a CRIT rate. I also tapped that +9 CRIT DMG to +12 and a beta core to +12. Lots of upgrades and protocore shuffling were done, but that seem to give me damage I needed to clear the fight! I will upload my clear vod in another post and will update the link here.

Stage 111 + Stage 112

Stage 111 required 5-Emerald + 1-Sapphire. Apparently my highest level sapphire memroy for Xavier is lv 30 LOL... I don't want to upgrade it right now cause I'm saving upgrade resources for Xavier's Shimmering Moonlight banner, but it's fine. I was able to clear the stage without any trouble on auto battle. Stage 112's Protofield Stellactrum is the same as Stage 111 so I didn't swap out my team set up or make any changes to their protocores. It was a very close one but I was able to clear it via auto battle with 1 second left on the timer...

𝚉𝙰𝚈𝙽𝙴

Stage 117

This stage had no protofield stellactrum to match so I used highest leveled memories. I probably could have done this on auto with ease, but watching MC hold ALL of Zayne's stacks just made my soul die a little. A side note, I also leveled up Zayne's affinity here from 87 to 88!

Stage 118 + Stage 119

Stage 118 is a break crystal stage. It required 5-Ruby + 1-Violet. If you've been following me for a while then you probably know how much of a struggle my ruby build is for Zayne. So I opted ignore the Protofield Stellactrum and go off color. Having a perfect match for this type of combat stage doesn't matter since my goal is to break the 2 crystals, not defeat all of the wanderers. Stage 119 had the same stellactrum as 118, but I also ignored the colors again to just manually brute force it for the clear! No changes were made. The same team set up and protocores were used in this fight. We do 120 on Tuesday!!

𝚁𝙰𝙵𝙰𝚈𝙴𝙻

Stage 110

I'm still at a loss here... I tapped beta core to +12, swapped a +9 CRIT DMG with a different one with better substats. Didn't see any improvements from the last time. I'm thinking I need to find better delta cores, so that'll be my focus going into this week after I level up Xavier's new solar myth pairs.

𝙾𝙿𝙴𝙽 𝙾𝚁𝙱𝙸𝚃

Since my Rafayel Violet build is still lacking (as mentioned in his Directional Orbit: Fire - Stage 110 notes) I didn't bother trying any attempts for this.

[detailtilted]

hi! I'm sorry if you've talked about this before, but I've been wondering how you enhance the spn con videos. like, how does it work? cause your videos look amazing, especially in comparison to the previous footage!

Thank you so much for being interested enough to ask!

At a very high level, the visual enhancements to the original videos themselves are made by running an upscaling program and then manually adjusting color-related settings in my video editing software. Sometimes I also fix aspect ratios if the original videos are squished.

Below are way more details than you probably ever wanted. 😅 I’ll put my very long answer after a break...

Upscaling

The very first thing I do when I start a new video is to take all the video sources I can find, pick out the ones I think I'm most likely to want to use, and see if I can get them to upscale. This is actually one of the easiest parts of the whole process, at least in terms of the actual time that I myself have to put into it. The computer does most of the work.

The upscaling is done through a software program. I don't actually have any idea, but I imagine it might be a dumbed down version of the type of software that movie studios use when they create upscaled Blu-ray releases of older films. I know the obvious question is, “What’s the software program?” I’m a little scared to say it without some explanation first, because it has “AI” in the title. I know and understand (and agree with) why AI is such a hot button today. However, this is not generative AI where it generates a new work out of nothing, and it’s performing a function that a human could not reasonably do.

The way I understand it, it runs an algorithm to analyze all the frames in the video and figure out how it can remove some of the visual “noise” and also add missing details to some frames based on what it finds in other frames. It then updates every single frame in the video. The videos I’m currently working with have 30 frames per second. A 30-minute video would therefore have 54,000 frames. For a human to compare 54,000 frames and make all the tiny changes required to each one would be… impossible I think. So anyway, after that long preamble, the name of the software I’m using is “Topaz Video AI”.

There are a variety of settings you can tweak, so I focus on upscaling one video source at a time because the same settings that work with one source may not work for a different source recorded with different equipment. I try different combinations of settings to small sections of the video until I find settings that seems to return noticeably improved results without adding any weird distortions. Sometimes I have to give up and proclaim the task impossible. If the video has too much noise and/or not enough good detail already there for it to work with, then it won’t upscale well. I get much, much better results with original video files than I do with files from YouTube. I think the videos were compressed when they were uploaded to YouTube and lost some of their quality.

If I find a setting that works, I tell the software to apply those settings to all of the videos from the source I'm currently working on and then leave my computer to crunch through them. That can take hours, and it makes my computer sound like it's preparing for liftoff, but it doesn’t require my involvement. I’ll often let it run overnight, then check it the next day to see if it came out ok. Sometimes I have to go back to the drawing board because I find parts of it didn’t come out well at all, but usually if the sample looked good then the full result also looks good.

Then I take my next video source (another set of videos recorded by a different person on different equipment) and repeat the process.

Color Corrections

This is all done in my video editing software. I’ve been using Adobe Premiere Pro. There’s free software out there that might be a better choice. I tried one early on and didn’t do very well with it, but I had no idea what I was doing. Video editing is new to me. So for me, the advantage of using a very popular software program was that there are tons of answers out there for just about every question I’ve ever thought to ask. Now that I have more experience, maybe I’ll give some of the free options another try. I have to decide whether or not to renew my current license at the end of the year and the price is pretty crazy, especially considering it's only for a limited period of time.

So… back to color corrections. My original attempts at this did not start out well. My first set of videos were the CHICON 2007 videos and those colors looked fine to me, so it never even occurred to me to adjust colors. When I moved on to Comic-Con 2008, I was confronted by a bunch of badly red-tinted and green-tinted videos and I thought, “Hmm, I wonder if this video editing software can do anything about that.”

And I tried. I drove myself absolutely mad. I’m not good with colors in general, I’d never worked with color adjustment settings before, and my eyes were going crazy trying to figure out if I was making things better or if I was just creating a new variety of bad. I put out a plea for opinions/advice here on Tumblr with some screen shots showing what I’d done so far, and sensitivehandsomeactionman came to my rescue. They took one of my screen shots and adjusted the colors in their own software to show me what could be achieved. And it looked amazing. Having that example to reference was a huge help. It was still a challenge for me, but I eventually got pretty close to what they did.

I’m not as good at it on my own, but I learned a lot through that process that I’ve been able to apply to my subsequent videos. I think every video I’ve worked with since then has had at least slightly wonky colors, so I've had a lot more practice. There are a bunch of complicated color-related settings in Adobe, but eventually I found the “Lumetri Color” panel which has a simpler set of set of controls consisting of a few sliders that let you adjust between two opposites until you find the right balance.

One slider is for Exposure and it basically changes the lighting from darker to lighter. Then there are two color-related sliders. One shifts between blue and orange and the other shifts between green and purple. I play around with those sliders until I think the colors look more natural, focusing mostly on their skin tone. Then if needed, I’ll adjust the Saturation slider a little to tone things down. For the most part, playing with those 4 sliders usually gets me something that I think looks decent.

Some videos are more difficult than others though, and I still consider this to be very much outside my wheelhouse. When I announce a new video on Tumblr, I usually display a comparison image of the original video versus the enhanced. Those help me see that the end result does in fact look at least a little better than the original. Sometimes after staring at the video for hours on end, I start to doubt.

If there are any wonky aspect ratios making the video look squished, that’s a really easy fix by just changing the scale percentages for that video in my video editing software.

All The Rest of the Work

All those things I just babbled about probably take up only 25% of the time I spend on each video. Less if the videos don't give me much trouble with upscaling or color adjusting. I could write another book about the rest of the process, but what I've already typed is probably overkill as it is so I'll try to be brief since this stuff isn't as much about the visuals anyway.

This is when I move on to the process of choosing which videos to display at which times and editing everything together into one (hopefully) cohesive video. I also try to choose the clearest audio that covers most of the panel. Audio changes are very noticeable, so I try to minimize them and use a single audio throughout the whole video as much as possible. Often the audio you’re hearing was from a different video than the one you’re seeing.

Once I have all the footage edited together, that’s when I start adding the subtitles and the extra content. These things are by far the most time-consuming part of the process, especially the subtitles.

I hope this answered your question. Thanks again for asking! If I didn't answer your question and if you want to risk having another book typed to you, let me know. 😅

[after-witch]

Hi, do you have an ao3 account?

yes

but I don't upload everything there 'cause if I don't write it in Google Docs (and even sometimes when I do???) the spacing is all weird when I try to put it on A03 and I have to manually fix it, and that's... a lot of time/energy lol

[lensman-arms-race]

TV-unit serials in the setting for my fics

(Link to my fics is in my pinned post.) I'm not setting out to create an AU; my fics are meant to be canon-compliant in the sense that 'DFB never says it can't happen this way'. I'm just having fun making up extra details that probably won't be covered in canon.

Most TVs have 4-digit serials, which are procedurally-generated. Serials below 4 digits are manually assigned.

1-digit serials:

0001: The Imperator (the term I use for the Matriarchs in my fics)

0002: The Titan

These would be rendered verbally as 'triple-zero-one' and 'triple-zero-two'. These two units very rarely need to reference their serials because of their status; everyone already knows who they are.

Serials 0003 to 0009 are currently unused.

2-digit serials:

Currently Polycephaly has the only 2-digit serial: 0010, rendered verbally as 'double-zero-ten'. Again, Polycephaly rarely has cause to refer to themself by serial. Being the only large unit in their faction makes them pretty distinctive.

Serials 0011 to 0099 are currently unused.

3-digit serials:

Currently not in use. Serials 0100 to 0999 are available and will likely be allocated for research/experimental purposes.

4-digit serials:

As used by standard TV-units.

While it is physically possible to build a TV shell, load a new software brain into it and power it on, this is not recommended and not done. A unit built in such a way would likely be forever a stimulus-response machine rather than developing full self-awareness or much of a personality, would likely have poor control over its screen powers, and would not necessarily even be loyal to its own faction.

Instead, units are 'born' as software in server farms called 'creches', where they start off as simple programs and gradually bootstrap themselves into self-awareness, moving onto simulated training until they're ready to be uploaded into actual hardware bodies. In this way, you end up with a unit with a proper theory of mind and personality, that's loyal to its faction.

(I am assuming the above is also true for Cameras and Speakers, but I haven't explored this in my fics. I think the TVs must take longer to create given that there are comparatively few of them, perhaps because they have all their screen and teleport powers to master before they can be allowed to let loose with a real body.)

The 4 digits are allocated as follows:

Corresponds to the creche (server farm) number.

Random digit.

Corresponds to the day of the month of activation (placed into a hardware body).

Corresponds to the server number within the creche.

Cygnus, for example, has the serial 5022 (rendered verbally as Fifty-Twenty-Two). This tells us they were generated in server 2 within creche 5, and were activated on a day ending in 2 (the 02nd, 12th or 22nd). The zero is just a random identifier to distinguish them from any other TVs that happened to be generated on the same day from the exact same server. (This has yet to happen in practice. It's rare for more than 1 TV to come into existence on the same day. Plus, most of the nascent softwares will simply error out of existence rather than become sentient.)

The Titan's chief engineer has the serial 1668 (Sixteen-Sixty-Eight), and the Titan themself had the serial 1791 (Seventeen-Ninety-One) when they were a normal pre-Titan unit. This tells us that both the Titan and its main engineer were generated in the same server farm (1), but on different servers.

(I've no idea what system the Cameras and Speakers use. I'm inclined to think the Cameras just have sequential serials because they're squares like that.)

The Imperator's (TV Matriarch's) two bodyguards have the serials 1153 and 1566, but they are a rare exception, as these aren't their original serials. There were 16 candidates for being remade into the Titan, and the two bodyguards were 2 such candidates. All the candidates had their serials expunged and new ones allocated, so that no-one (besides the chief engineer and the Titan themself) would know which candidate had become the Titan. The two bodyguards have hypothetical serials (as do the other 13 candidates that were considered for Titanhood).

Feel free to steal any parts of this you like for your own OCs/fics; I don't own the concept of allocating numbers.

[auberylis]

NEOMANAGER project updates

About half a year ago i made this post that is still making moderate rounds across Tumblr. I followed by not talking much about it since. That's because i've been silently working on it - and oh boy, does it sting - BUT! I have good news.

Basically, the first stable version is nearing completion. I've been retuning MyArtGallery to work well with it, as well as integrating NoteBox (still in testing mode) - basically, deviantart and microtwitter, but yours and just for you. And i can confidently say that it sure uploads. I can roll out a gallery by clicking a few things here and pressing 'install', and then just post to it - how cool is that?

Scope out the cute new favicon! And if you press "manage" on one of your channels (you can have as many as you want) - it takes you to a dedicated editor for that type of the channel, where you can manage it, press "update", and it uploads your changes to neocities. Gallery and notebox are the only two for now, but i'm planning on a wiki-like thing and a bandcampoid eventually, just to give people a complete "fuck corporate web" basic toolkit Here's the revamped myartgallery manager!

The neomanager system needs a FUCK TON of quality-of-life improvements, and in some places the code is about to become spaghetti, even though i try my best to keep things clean and simple. But! I now can post to fucking neocities like it's deviantart! I think that's really cool.

Why is it cool? Because people will be able to spend more time on styling their pages and adding personal detail, rather than having to edit them each time they want to add another element of a common kind (blog post, artwork, ...). I myself run bare MyAG for my kandi museum, and i've been hesitating to upload more to it precisely cause i need to go and manually edit everything, instead of having actual fun. I've seen a few other MyAG users around and suspect they feel similar. Well, that's about to change!

People with existing MyAG instances will be able to have neomanager locate them, and manage them as if they were installed through neomanager. People who don't trust me and neomanager will be able to use MyAG (and any other neocities substructure i make) without neomanager, i keep the basic neocities-only rollout available by default. I couldn't care less about your data and am doing this in the name of chaos and liberation, but all security concerns are valid nowadays.

SO! Want to try the thing out? Send me a DM or reply to this post that you do! It's deep in beta, and i need people to make it do stupid shit and crash, so that i can fix that. I will finish some things up and start sending out the archive in a week or so. Any help will be appreciated (plus you get a fun 'ware).

[tinyspringtrap]

anyways I literally hate the ruin lore so much I ended up deciding to sketch out some practice designs for the AU in my head :^) (and Springtrap)

read more for fun au facts

-Glitchtrap is the result of Springtraps processor being scanned - Springtrap did in fact survive the Fazbear's Fright fire, but was rendered inactive by it until Aftons subconscious was uploaded and freed once more.

-Scraptrap is the mimic, who was trapped in the PS location and rendered inactive by the fire and heavily damaged

-Vanny is an actual threat, who murders kids in an attempt to build burntrap and make it a viable physical host for Afton (which fails)

-the patpats are possessed by various kids who were murdered and used as experiments before building burntrap. they are unaware of glitchtrap or of Vanessa being Vanny, and unwittingly tend to lead new kids into more danger.

-MXES is an advanced, self-learning and highly adaptable security system made by Henry to try and prevent anyone from getting into the PS location after his death. rather than being located where it can be reached, the main security console is located in the very centre of the PS location.

-Burntrap ends up being taken control of by the MXES due to his close proximity to the PS location as a means of defending the location further - this, however, ends up alerting Afton to MXES' presence and piquing his curiosity.

-Afton has Vanny attempt to breach MXES' security and gain its attention, allowing him to take control and merge with it while its distracted. this gives him even more power and enables him and Vanny to access the PS location easily.

-Vanny and Afton discover the mimic, and Afton decides they need to investigate it - tasking Vanny with repairing and refurbishing it, as well as investigating any abilities the strange endoskeleton has that could prove useful as a potential new body since burntrap wasn't proving useful as a potential vessel. In the meantime, he now has a different digital form and more ability to cause chaos and problems.

-the VANNI network is not an actual thing made by Fazbear ent, it was made by William and Vanny and is used to lure and trick people via the mimic once it's refurbished. it doesn't enable the wearer to walk through solid objects and only acts as a way to access information from Faz ent. servers without having to bypass any security manually. there are some AR aspects but mostly in the way of little notes which cannot be seen without it.

-Afton can switch between the original MXES form or his preferred one - though he only uses the original while the VANNI mask is being actively used to lure someone into the old and ruined pizzaplex.

-Gregory sneaks into the pizzaplex because he's concerned about Vanessa, who is his much older half-sister, and hasn't been acting normal for quite a while.

-Gregory is under aftons control, and the only reason he isn't dead is because Vanessa was given 2 options: Afton would kill him as Vanny, or she could agree to allow Afton to take residence in his brain instead of hers until a suitable replacement body is found.

[wildstar25]

terribly sorry to bother, but I've been loving your screenshots since I stumbled on your blog, and like 100% genuinely: how do you get them to look like that? Is it all done in game or is it some combo of mods & shaders? Cause every time I see a cool pose I'm just left wondering how you did it. Obviously I wouldn't ask you to make a massive tutorial just for me, but if there are any resources or general things you'd be willing to share, I'd be eternally grateful!

Hi there! Thank you for enjoying my gposes, and you're not a bother; my ask box is open to get asks after all haha

To answer your question: My gposes are not a product of the vanilla game alone. I'm slapping my explanations under a read more since it's a bit long:

Firstly, I am running reshade, an open source post-processing injector. It's a program that can (in the simplest terms) run various visual filters over a video game in real time. Most everyone I know made the jump from Gshade to reshade last year, so if you look up "reshade for ffxiv" you should be able to find a handful of tutorials. When it comes to finding presets, there are a lot of independent shader devs for ffxiv and generally a quick google search should bring you to a few. Most of the presets I use are outdated holdovers from the GShade days, and I don't know if they are available anymore; so unfortunately I can't recommend any directly, sorry!

In general, I lean towards shaders that enhance the overall brightness and vibrancy of the (imo muddy looking) default graphics. Arsay can quickly get over exposed by the in game 3 point lighting, so putting a shader that boosts the brightness overall really helps preventing that. I set up my lights in gpose at 2, put the character lighting to 100, pick a shader with a LUT that gives me the colours and brightness I want and thats usually enough. sometimes I'll hit the manual brightness in game and mess with that too. I often go into the preset of the shader and muck about with the Depth of field settings depending on what I want. An important note regarding the use of reshade: While reshade does not directly effect in game files or gameplay and it's technically not against TOS (as far as I have read), it is still highly encouraged that screenshots taken with shaders on do not have the ffxiv screenshot watermark visible. Reshade has it's own screenshot button that you can map to any key of your liking that will capture the game and the applied shaders without any watermarks. If you have an nvidia graphics card, I believe you should also have access to the geforce post-process correction tools, and could use that as well to enhance the game visuals. However, I am under the impression it's solely corrective settings (brightness/contrast, vibrancy, saturation, etc.) and you do not have the ability to adjust the depth of field setting, apply LUTs, mess with ambient occlusion, etc. Aka the more in depth rendering stuff that would make your graphic card fan go brrr. I've personally never tried the nvidia filter system so maybe that's incorrect information. Best to do independent research on that!

As well, on the occasion I will bring some screenshots into photoshop and do further, fine tuned, tonal corrections there. Generally this is only when I'm trying to achieve a look that I can't get in game and I try to keep it to a minimum. When I'm working on big photosets or comics, I'll end up doing more corrections just to make sure colours/tones/shading are consistent through out.

On to the second part of the question: the posing. I do all my posing with this tool. It is a tos crime, however it's client-side only and completely undetectable to other players. It gives you full access to character rigs and allows you to not only build your own poses, but export and import poses, outfits, props used by npcs or seen in cut scenes, and character data as well. Tons of people will upload pose files on the various mod archives for others to use, so even people who don't want to mess around with rigs can have fun with their characters. I personally love posing, and it's something I'm very comfortable doing since I have a background in 3D modelling and animation. I do believe in working smarter and not harder though, so what I tend to do is apply an in game animation cycle to my character in question that has a frame or key pose close enough to what I need, pause the animation, turn on posing, and start rotating bones. I never really looked up any tutorials myself tbh, I kinda just messed around with things and figured the tool out as I went along. That said, there are tutorials on youtube if you search for them. "Anamnesis ffxiv guide" or something along those lines should bring up good results.

Anam also gives you further camera control than what is available in game, allowing you to fine tune its position to the .001 degree. You can increase the FOV and zoom range past the typical amount. Bring your character and camera pretty much anywhere on the map too. And you can export your camera setting to use between gpose settings! It's a really great tool, though it has some quirks and can in specific instances crash your game (never change a character while fishing lol)

That's pretty much it! I know this wasn't really much of a guide, so sorry about that. Most of my gposes are a product of seeing a fuzzy image/concept in my head and messing around with various compositions, locations, lighting conditions, ect. until I bring that idea into clarity. It's hard to explain that process in ways beyond "fucking around and finding out (positive)" I suppose to anyone else reading this has specific references in mind, please pass them along to sailor-artemis ! I know being told "just google it lol" isn't super helpful but I really just tend to figure things out on my own ^^;